Tag Archives: Corning Gorilla Glass

Samsung Galaxy A54 Review : Tech ARP Editor’s Choice!

Read our comprehensive review of the Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone, and find out why it won our Editor’s Choice Award!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Colour Options

The new Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone is available in three main colours with a glossy finish :

  • Awesome Graphite
  • Awesome Violet
  • Awesome Lime

Samsung also offers an Awesome White colour option in certain countries.

In the following video, I will show you the three main colour options, and give you a closer look at the Galaxy A54 in the Awesome Graphite, Awesome Violet and Awesome Lime colours. Do let us know which you prefer!

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with 8 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage, with the option to add a microSD card in the hybrid SIM tray. It is covered by a 2-year warranty, with the following launch prices:

  • 8 GB + 256 GB : RM1,899 / US$449.99 / £499 / A$697 / S$648

Here are online purchase options (we may get commission from your purchase) :

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Key Specifications

Here are the key specifications for the Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone:

Specifications Samsung Galaxy A54
Display 6.4-inch Super AMOLED
– 1080 x 2340 pixels (390 ppi)
– 60 Hz / 120 Hz refresh rate
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 5 (front + back)
Water Resistance IP67
OS One UI 5.1 (Android 13)
Platform Samsung Exynos 1380
CPU 4 x Arm Cortex-A78 cores (2.4 GHz)
4 x Arm Cortex-A55 cores (2.0 GHz)
GPU Arm Mali-G68 MP5
Memory 8 GB GB
Storage Options 256 GB
External Storage Hybrid microSD slot (up to 1 TB)
Front Camera 32 MP camera, f/2.2, 80˚ FOV
Main Cameras 50 MP wide angle camera, f/1.8
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
5 MP macro camera, f/2.4
Connectivity Up to 5G Sub6 FDD/TDD
Dual SIM (hybrid) capability
Wi-Fi : Wi-Fi 6 (dual-band)
Bluetooth : BT 5.3SB : USB 2.0 Type C
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic,  Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC Yes
Battery 5,000 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging 25 watt wired charging
Dimensions 76.7 mm wide
158.2 mm tall
8.2 mm thick
Weight 202 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : What’s Inside The Box?

The Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone comes in a thin white cardboard box. Once you remove everything, you should find these items inside the box:

  • Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone
  • One set of documents : Quick Start Guide, warranty card, Samsung Pay leaflet, Regional Lock Guide
  • Type C to Type C USB cable
  • SIM tray pin

That’s it! The package is pretty sparse. There is no USB charger, and no, it doesn’t come with a basic TPU bumper case either.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy A54 Key Features

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Key Features

Now, let us go through its key features, and show you why the Samsung Galaxy A54 is worthy of our Editor’s Choice Award!

Samsung Exynos 1380 5G Mobile Platform

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is built around the Samsung Exynos 1380 mobile SoC, which is fabricated with Samsung’s own 5 nm EUV process technology.

It comes with an Arm Mali-G68 MP5 GPU, and an NPU, as well as eight CPU cores arranged in two performance clusters:

  • 4 x Arm Cortex-A78 cores (2.4 GHz)
  • 4 x Arm Cortex-A55 cores (2.0 GHz)

The Samsung Exynos 1380 has an integrated 5G modem that supports Sub-6GHz and mmWave standards, as well as LTE Cat.18 uploads and downloads for current 4G networks.

It also supports Wi-Fi 802.11ax (2×2 MIMO) with triple-band capability, as well as Bluetooth 5.3. It supports the four main GPS networks – GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galile.

6.4-inch Super AMOLED Display

The Samsung Galaxy A54 boasts a large 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels.

This display defaults to a 60 Hz refresh rate, but supports a 120 Hz refresh rate that offers smoother graphics at the expense of higher power consumption.

Unlike higher-end smartphones like the new Galaxy S23 Ultra, the display does not dynamically changes its refresh rate. It either runs at 60 Hz or 120 Hz.

32 MP Front Camera

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with a high-resolution 32 MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture. Instead of hiding it in a discreet punch hole, it has a stainless steel ring.

This camera defaults to 8 MP by default, combining four pixels into one much larger pixel for better image quality and low-light performance.

This 32 MP camera is capable of recording 1080p video at 30 fps or 60 fps, as well as 4K video at 30 fps.

50 MP Main Camera

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with a triple camera system at the back that consists of:

  • a 50 MP main camera, with f/1.8 aperture,
  • a 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera, with f/2.2 aperture, and
  • a 5 MP macro camera, with f/2.4 aperture

The 50 MP camera is a “downgrade” in megapixels from the Galaxy A53’s 64 MP camera, but its image quality is better because it is built around the Sony IMX766 image sensor used in phones like the realme 9 Pro+ and Xiaomi 12.

The Sony IMX766 is a larger 1/1.56″ sensor, which offers a 25% larger pixel size of 1.0 µm (compared to 0.8 µm). The larger pixel size is important as it means each pixel can receive 25% more light, delivering better images, especially in low-light conditions.

In fact, that is why the Galaxy A54 defaults to the 12.5 MP resolution, combining four pixels into a much larger 2 µm “bucket” to collect more light. The 64 MP camera in last year’s Galaxy A53 also does the same thing, combining four pixels in one to deliver 16 MP photos.

This 50 MP camera supports PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), and its lens has a wide f/1.8 aperture for better light intake. If you like to record videos, you will be glad to know that it features VDIS (Video Digital Image Stabilisation) and improved OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) offering a wider OIS angle.

Corning Gorilla Glass 5

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is protected in the front and in the back by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. While this was introduced back in July 2016, it still offers considerable protection.

In lab tests, it can survive drops on hard, rough surface from a height of up to 1.2 metres. It also offers 2X better scratch protection compared to its competitors.

IP67 Dust + Water Resistance

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is IP67 rated against the ingress of dust and water. This means it can withstand being immersed in up to 1 metre of water for at least 30 minutes.

Hybrid SIM + micro SD Tray

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with a hybrid tray that supports up to two physical SIM cards, or a physical SIM card as well as a single micro SD card of up to 1 TB in capacity

Read more : EU Orders All Brands To Use USB-C, Including Apple!

USB Type C Port

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with the bidirectional Type C port, which is now the EU standard.

5,000 mAh Fast-Charging Battery

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with a large 5,000 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, which supports 25 watt fast wired charging. It does not support wireless charging, or reverse charging.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy A54 Battery + Charging

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Battery Life Comparison!

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with a 5,000 mAh battery, which is the same size as the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy S22 Ultra.

To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.

Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.

It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.

We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :

Not bad at all! The Samsung Galaxy A54 has a battery life of 12.5 hours with Adaptive refresh rate enabled, and almost 14 hours with the Standard refresh rate. That’s equal to the Galaxy S22 Ultra at the Standard refresh rate, and 16.7% better at the Adaptive refresh rate.

But let’s also compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the S23 Ultra, S22 Ultra and Z Flip 3 smartphones.

Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)

The Samsung Galaxy A54 lasted almost 14 hours with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz. But it isn’t quite as efficient as the new S23 Ultra, or even last year’s  S22 Ultra.

Work 3.0 S23 Ultra
(60 Hz)
S22 Ultra
(60 Hz)
Galaxy A54
(60 Hz)
Z Flip 3
(60 Hz)
Battery Capacity 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh
Battery Life 15 hrs 18 mins 14 hrs 15 mins 13 hrs 57 mins 8 hrs 11 mins
Utilisation
per min.
4.36 mAh 4.68 mAh 4.78 mAh 5.38 mAh

Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)

Will you look at that! The Samsung Galaxy A54 was about 13.6% more efficient than the S22 Ultra with the Adaptive refresh rate enabled, coming within 8% of the power efficiency of the S23 Ultra.

Based on what we see here, I definitely recommend turning on the Adaptive Refresh Rate on the Galaxy A54, unless you absolutely need the extra 1.5 hours of battery life.

Work 3.0 S23 Ultra
(120 Hz)
Galaxy A54
(120 Hz)
S22 Ultra
(120 Hz)
Z Flip 3
(120 Hz)
Battery Capacity 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh
Battery Life 13 hrs
0 mins
12 hrs 25 mins 10 hrs
38 mins
6 hrs
44 mins
Utilisation
per min.
5.13 mAh 5.52 mAh 6.27 mAh 6.53 mAh

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Battery Recharging Speed!

The Samsung Galaxy A54 supports up to 25 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.

So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones – something we believe most users will end up doing.

Work 3.0 S22 Ultra S23 Ultra Galaxy A54 Z Flip 3
Battery Capacity 3,300 mAh 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh
Charger Output 15 watts 15 watts 15 watts 15 watts
Battery Life 64.5 minutes 88.8 minutes 120.7 minutes 88.5 minutes
Recharging Speed
(per minute)
62.0 mAh 45.0 mAh 33.1 mAh 29.8 mAh

The Samsung Galaxy A54 fully recharges from 20% to 100% in just over 2 hours with the standard 15 watt Samsung charger. Oddly enough, this is significantly (36%) slower than the S23 Ultra.

I have no idea whether this was an intentional design decision to reduce the Galaxy A54’s thermal output while charging, or to further differentiate it from the much pricier Galaxy S23 Ultra.

In any case, the Galaxy A54 has a good battery life : recharging ratio of 7:1. As a rule of thumb, for every hour of battery life, you only need to recharge it for 8.5 minutes.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy A54 Performance

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Performance Summary

Built around the Samsung Exynos 1380, the Galaxy A54 smartphone has a very fast CPU, but a relatively weak GPU.

What that means is that it offers snappy performance for most part – web browsing, work applications, casual gaming, etc.

It only has trouble delivering high frame rates for graphics-intensive 3D games, and AI or 3D apps may take longer to process in comparison to flagship devices.

But that’s what you need to keep in mind – the Exynos 1380 is a mid-range mobile platform, not a flagship-class. And it is a fast one.

 

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy A54 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0 S23
Ultra
Galaxy
A54
S22
Ultra
S21
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Mobile Platform SD 8
Gen 2
Exynos
1380
SD 8
Gen 1
Exynos
2100
SD
750G
Performance Score 16408 13523 12860 12535 7874
Web Browsing 15680 10659 10442 10185 7021
Video Editing 7879 7363 7444 6336 5693
Writing 22257 17485 15471 15247 7454
Photo Editing 35533 28805 30177 37847 15812
Data Manipulation 12171 11443 9691 8310 6424

Will you look at that?! The Samsung Exynos 1380 that powers the Galaxy A54 actually beat Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 which powered the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

It was also just 17.5% slower than the latest flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile SoC that powers the new Galaxy S23 Ultra flagship smartphone!

Very impressive for a mid-range mobile SoC, especially handily beating the Galaxy S22 Ultra and Galaxy S21 Ultra, and coming in 72% faster than the Galaxy A52.

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy A54 using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark S23
Ultra
S22
Ultra
Z Flip
3
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A54
Device SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 1
SD
888
Exynos
990
Exynos
1380
Sling Shot Unlimited 16344 11094 9248 8026 6195
Wild Life Unlimited 14554 9106 3952 4504 2860
Wild Life
Extreme
Unlimited
3814 2220 1174 1387 799

This is where the Samsung Galaxy A54’s Exynos 1380 falls short – it is just not very good at gaming!

It was 23% to 42% slower than the Exynos 990, and 28% to 32% slower than the Snapdragon 888!

That does not mean it’s bad for gaming. It can certainly handle most games. It just won’t be able to deliver high frame rates in graphically-demanding 3D games like Genshin Impact, Black Desert Mobile, etc.

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy A54 using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu S23
Ultra
S22
Ultra
S21
Ultra
Galaxy
A54
Galaxy
A52
Device SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 1
Exynos
2100
Exynos
1380
SD
750G
AnTuTu Score 1212174 889167 624411 522411 341908
CPU 261886 203090 166290 153230 105098
GPU 538823 402617 258995 149596 88068
Memory 236163 146002 120805 86578 60642
UX 175302 137458 78321 133007 88100

According to the AnTuTu benchmark, the Samsung Galaxy A54 is about 53% faster than the Galaxy A52, and only 16% slower than the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

What’s important to note is that the Exynos 1380’s CPU is fast, coming within 8% of the Exynos 2100. However, it has a relatively weak GPU, and slower memory than the flagship-class mobile platforms in this comparison.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy A54 Camera Performance

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Camera Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A54’s 50 MP camera takes 12.5 MP photos by default, with a resolution of 4080 x 3060 pixels. Each JPEG photo using the High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) format, each photo is about 2.5 MB to 5 MB in size.

Without HEIF, the file sizes are much larger, so please remember to turn on the HEIF file format to save space.

  1. Open the Camera app
  2. Go to Settings > Advanced picture options
  3. Turn on High efficiency pictures.

As this photo sample shows, the 50 MP main camera of the Samsung Galaxy A54 offers a nice bokeh, thanks to its wide f/1.8 aperture.

However, that wide aperture presents a problem too – a narrow depth of field, as this sample photo of star anise shows.

If multiple objects are present at different distances from the camera, only some of them will remain in focus, while the others will be out-of-focus.

That makes for nice portraits, but if you do not tap on the area or subject you want to be in focus, the camera may auto-focus on the wrong area or subject, and you will end up with an out-of-focus shot.

As this shot of pineapples show, only a small area of the right edge of the pineapple on the left is in focus. That’s because I intentionally tapped on that part.

Otherwise, the camera would naturally focus on the nearest part of the pineapple (its centre, which is located to the far left of the photo) and this photo would look really out-of-focus.

In most cases, the colour reproduction is pretty accurate, even if it’s indoors.

But in some cases, you can end up with pretty dull-looking photos under artificial light.

You need to be careful with close-up shots though. This isn’t a macro camera, and so it has trouble focusing if the subject is too close.

The problem is – the Samsung camera app does not warn you if the 50 MP camera cannot focus properly on the subject. It may look like it is focused properly in the camera app, but when you open it up later, you will see that it’s completely out-of-focus.

I definitely recommend you tapping on the subject to “force” the camera app to visibly try to focus. If it fails, you know that you are much too close. It’s also a good habit to tap to focus anyway, as this 50 MP camera has a narrow depth-of-field.

There is no need to worry about the “loss” in resolution from 64 MP to 50 MP. In most cases, you probably won’t even realise that the camera defaults to just 12.5 MP!

Even at 12.5 MP, there is more than enough detail in the photos that the Galaxy A54’s 50MP camera delivers, even if you want to zoom in.

But that does not mean that its 50 MP sensor is pure marketing. You can use it to take 50 MP shots, but you will have to live with significantly larger file sizes.

The full 50 MP resolution isn’t needed for 90% of the photos that most people take, but it is useful for long-distance shots. The Samsung Galaxy A54 does not have a telephoto camera, so taking photos in 50 MP effectively gives you a 4X zoom capability.

For example, if you need to take a faraway shot of a bell tower, you can switch to 50 MP before taking the photo. Then you can zoom into the 50 MP photo you took and crop out a much closer looking shot of that bell tower without using software or digital zoom.

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Camera Performance Summary

I’m glad Samsung switched from the 64 MP camera to a 50 MP camera in the Galaxy A54. The “loss” in megapixels is more than made up by the larger and better Sony IMX766 image sensor, with 25% larger pixels.

This improved 50 MP main camera performed well in our tests, generally delivering good photos with accurate colours in most cases. It has a good level of detail, even at 12.5 MP.

The biggest problem I have with it is its minimum focus distance. The camera seems to work best with subjects that are at least 50 cm away, or so. If I get too close to the subject, the shot ends up out-of-focus, especially if I tried to let the camera auto-focus by itself.

This is not readily apparent in the camera app, so you need to tap to focus. That triggers the camera to seek a better focus. That’s when you can see whether it can really focus properly. Even then, I sometimes end up with out-of-focus shots, because I was simply too close to the subject.

For most people, this won’t a problem if you are taking the usual photos – people standing at a distance, landscapes and buildings at a distance, etc. Just keep this in mind if you are taking close shots of products or food, etc.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy A54 Summary + Award

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Summary + Award

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is proof that you don’t need to pay top dollar to get a great smartphone. For less than half the cost of a flagship smartphone, it offers most of the features that you need, in a well-protected device.

It comes with a large, excellent Super AMOLED display which supports 120 Hz refresh rate, and is protected on both front and rear by Gorilla Glass 5. It is also IP67-rated against the ingress of dust and water.

Built around the 5 nm Samsung Exynos 1380 mobile platform, the Galaxy A54 offers excellent performance in work apps, offering the equivalent performance as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

However, it falters when it comes to gaming. Its weaker Arm Mali-G68 MP5 GPU just cannot keep up with the better GPUs used in flagship-class smartphones. That doesn’t mean you can’t game on it. You can – it can certainly handle most games. It just won’t do as well as flagship-class smartphones in graphics-intensive games.

When it comes to photography, it comes with high-resolution 32 MP front camera, as well as a new 50 MP Sony IMX766 camera at the back, and an ultra-wide-angle camera, and a macro camera.

The 50 MP main camera is generally excellent, except under certain indoor lighting where the photos appear washed out. It also has trouble focusing at closer distances, which is probably why Samsung added the macro camera, which would normally be a waste of time for most users.

While I miss the telephoto camera which is a fixture in flagship smartphones, the 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera is arguably a better trade-off – most people would prefer to use it for landscape and group shots, rather than take long-distance shots with the telephoto camera.

The Galaxy A54 takes pretty good videos too, but there are some limitations :

  • it can support 30/60 fps @ 1080p, but only 30 fps for 4K video recording,
  • it is limited to 30 fps, regardless of resolution, when using its ultra-wide angle camera.
  • it can only support video image stabilisation at 30 fps, but not 60 fps

If you really love taking videos at 4K especially at 60 fps or higher, then these limitations will be a deal breaker. Video recording is where flagship devices like the Galaxy S23 Ultra shines.

But for many people, the Samsung Galaxy A54 offers an excellent combination of features and capabilities at a far lower cost. On top of that, you get two years of warranty, three years of Android updates, and four years of security updates.

For these reasons, we gladly award the Samsung Galaxy A54 our Editor’s Choice Award! Great work, Samsung!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Price + Availability

The Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone is available in three main colours with a glossy finish :

  • Awesome Graphite
  • Awesome Violet
  • Awesome Lime

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with 8 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage, with the option to add a microSD card in the hybrid SIM tray. It is covered by a 2-year warranty, with the following launch prices:

  • 8 GB + 256 GB : RM1,899 / US$449.99 / £499 / A$697 / S$648

Here are online purchase options (we may get commission from your purchase) :

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > First PageMobile | Tech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review : Tech ARP Editor’s Choice!

Read our comprehensive review of the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and find out why it won our Editor’s Choice Award!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Model + Colour Options

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes in four main colours – Phantom Black, Green, Lavender, and Cream.

Ahead of the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s official launch, we were given special access to all four main colours it will be offered through retail stores, including Samsung Experience Stores.

So I was able to record this video comparing the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone in all four colours. Take a look at all four colours, and let us know which you prefer!

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!

Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:

  • 256 GB : RM5,699 (about US$1,336 / £1,083 / A$1,888 / S$1,755)
  • 512 GB : RM6,199 (about US$1,453 / £1,179 / A$2,052 / S$1,910)
  • 1 TB : RM7,199 (about US$1,688 / £1,369 / A$2,388 / S$2,218)

Here are online purchase options for your convenience:

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Specifications Compared!

I created this table to compare the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s specifications to last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra!

Specifications Galaxy S23 Ultra Galaxy S22 Ultra
Display 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display
– 1440 x 3088 pixels (500 ppi)
– 120 Hz dynamic refresh rate (1~120 Hz)
– 1750 nits peak brightness
Protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Gorilla Glass Victus+
Water Resistance IP68
Platform Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU 1 x Cortex-X3 (3.36 GHz)
2 x Cortex-A715 (2.8 GHz)
2 x Cortex-A710 (2.8 GHz)
3 x Cortex-A510 (2.0 GHz)
1 x Cortex-X2 (3.0 GHz)
3 x Cortex-A710 (2.5 GHz)
4 x Cortex-A510 (1.8 GHz)
GPU Adreno 740 Adreno 730
Memory +
Storage
12 GB + 256 GB
12 GB + 512 GB
12 GB + 1 TB
8 GB + 128 GB
12 GB + 256 GB
12 GB + 512 GB
12 GB + 1 TB
External Storage NA
Front Camera 12 MP camera, f/2.2 40 MP camera, f/2.2
Main Cameras 200 MP Adaptive Pixel camera, f/1.7
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4
10 MP 10x zoom camera, f/4.9
108 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4
10 MP 10x zoom camera, f/4.9
Connectivity Wi-Fi : Wi-Fi 6E
Ultra-Wideband (UWB)
Bluetooth : BT 5.3
USB : USB Type C
Wi-Fi : Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth : BT 5.2
USB : USB Type C
S Pen Yes, 2.8 ms latency
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic, Light, Proximity
GPS GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass
NFC Yes
Battery 5,000 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging 45 watt wired charging
15 watt wireless charging
Wireless PowerShare
Dimensions 78.1 mm wide
163.4 mm tall
8.9 mm thick
77.9 mm wide
163.3 mm tall
8.9 mm thick
Weight 234 grams 229 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : What’s Inside The Box?

We got our hands on a golden sample of the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone at the official launch in Singapore. Let’s take a quick look at the box before we check out what’s inside!

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : What’s Inside The Box!

Once you fully unbox the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, this is what you will find inside:

  • the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone
  • a Quick Start Guide
  • a USB Type C to USB Type C data and charging cable
  • a SIM tray extraction pin

That’s it! While the Galaxy S23 Ultra supports 45 watt fast charging, it does not come with the charger. You will need to purchase it separately. Neither does it come with a TPU bumper case to tide you over until you get a better one.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Key Features

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Key Features

Now, let us go through its key features, and show you why the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is worthy of our Editor’s Choice Award!

Boosted Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Performance!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is powered by a specially-boosted variant of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile SoC, which features a quad-cluster architecture:

  • 1 x Arm Cortex-X3 core (3.36 GHz, instead of 3.2 GHz)
  • 2 x Arm Cortex-A715 cores (2.8 GHz)
  • 2 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.8 GHz)
  • 3 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (2.0 GHz)

The new processor feels very snappy, and appears to be more power efficient – the Galaxy S23 Ultra last longer than our Galaxy S22 Ultra on typical use.

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!

200 MP Main Camera

The biggest upgrade in the Galaxy S23 Ultra is its new Adaptive Pixel main camera, which is built around the 200 MP Samsung ISOCELL HP2 (S5KHP2) sensor, and features a slightly wider f/1.7 aperture.

This is a large 1/1.3-inch sensor with 200 million pixels, each of which is 0.6 μm in size. The Galaxy S23 Ultra camera can combine up to 16 pixels to form a single large pixel for much better low-light performance.

Video capabilities also got an upgrade, thanks to this new sensor. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can now record 8K videos at 30 frames per second, instead of just 24 fps previously.

It also boasts better Adaptive VDIS capability, and improved optical image stabilisation (OIS), delivering silky smooth videos by doubling the angle to ±3°, from the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s camera‘s ±1.5°.

Similar Telephoto + Wide-Angle Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra reuses the same 3X and 10X zoom cameras from the Galaxy S22 Ultra, right down to their Sony IMX754 sensors.

The ultra-wide angle camera gets a newer sensor – the Sony IMX564, which appears to be an incremental upgrade of the S22 Ultra’s IMX563.

12 MP Selfie Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra also features another camera upgrade in the front. Instead of a 40 MP sensor in the Galaxy S22 Ultra, it now features a new 12 MP camera, with the same f/2.2 aperture.

While this may seem to be a downgrade, it is actually an upgrade as the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 40 MP sensor defaults to 10 MP. On top of that, it features a Dual Pixel sensor for faster and more accurate auto-focus!

We tried using the front camera, and found that it was superior to the front camera of the Galaxy S22 Ultra. More of this later in our review.

Buttons

The only buttons on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra are all located on the right side – volume control buttons and a Power switch.

S Pen

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with the same S Pen as the Galaxy S22 Ultra. It too boasts a very quick 2.8 ms latency.

We tried swapping them and both S Pens appear to fit both devices. From what we can tell – they are physically and functionally similar, if not exactly the same.

USB Type C Port

At the bottom of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, you will find a SIM card tray, next to the USB port, as well as the S Pen in its slot.

The USB port is, of course, the new bidirectional Type C port, which is now the EU standard.

Read more : EU Orders All Brands To Use USB-C, Including Apple!

SIM Tray Without SD Card Slot

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra supports two physical SIM cards, as well as a single eSIM. The SIM tray is located at the bottom, next to the USB port.

Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is protected in the front and in the back by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

Gorilla Glass Victus 2 is not just tougher, it is also made from 22% pre-consumer recycled content!

Armoured Aluminium

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is also protected on all four sides by an Armoured Aluminium frame.

5,000 mAh Fast-Charging Battery

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with a large 5,000 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, which supports 45 watt fast wired charging, and 15 watt fast wireless charging.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Battery + Charging

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Battery Life Comparison!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with a 5,000 mAh battery, which is the same size as Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.

Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.

It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.

We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :

Will you look at that!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a battery life of 13 hours with Adaptive refresh rate enabled, and a whopping 15.3 hours with the Standard refresh rate – 24% and 7.5% better respectively than the S22 Ultra!

But let’s also compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the S21 Ultra and Z Flip 3 smartphones.

Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra really shines with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz. It used 7% less power per minute, which delivered 7% longer battery life than the S22 Ultra.

Work 3.0 S23 Ultra
(60 Hz)
S22 Ultra
(60 Hz)
Z Flip 3
(60 Hz)
S21 Ultra
(60 Hz)
Battery Capacity 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh 5,000 mAh
Battery Life 15 hrs 18 mins 14 hrs 15 mins 8 hrs 11 mins 11 hrs 22 mins
Utilisation
per min.
4.36 mAh 4.68 mAh 5.38 mAh 5.87 mAh

Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)

While the Galaxy S23 Ultra certainly used less power than the S22 Ultra, that advantage was greatly diminished with the Adaptive refresh rate enabled.

This is where we see the greatest improvement in the power efficiency of the S23 Ultra. Its display used 18% less power per minute, and delivered 22% (almost 1.5 hours) longer battery life than the S22 Ultra.

Work 3.0 S23 Ultra
(120 Hz)
S22 Ultra
(120 Hz)
S21 Ultra
(120 Hz)
Z Flip 3
(120 Hz)
Battery Capacity 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh
Battery Life 13 hrs 0 mins 10 hrs
38 mins
10 hrs
26 mins
6 hrs
44 mins
Utilisation
per min.
5.13 mAh 6.27 mAh 6.39 mAh 6.53 mAh

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Battery Recharging Speed!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.

So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones – something we believe most users will end up doing. But we used the 25 watt charger for the S21 Ultra, because it came with that charger.

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Battery Life + Charging Speed!

Work 3.0 S21 Ultra S22 Ultra S23 Ultra Z Flip 3
Battery Capacity 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh
Charger Output 25 watts 15 watts 15 watts 15 watts
Battery Life 64 minutes 64.5 minutes 88.8 minutes 88.5 minutes
Recharging Speed
(per minute)
62.5 mAh 62.0 mAh 45.0 mAh 29.8 mAh

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra fully recharges from 20% to 100% in just under 1.5 hours hour with the standard 15 watt Samsung charger. Oddly enough, this is significantly (38%) slower than the S22 Ultra.

It’s hard to know whether this was an intentional design decision to reduce the thermal output while charging, or to drive the adoption of the 45 watt chargers (sold separately).

Fortunately, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a significantly better battery life, which should offset the slower recharging speed. Frankly, I don’t see a real need to splurge on a new 45 watt fast charger.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Performance

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Performance Summary

Samsung has done it again – raised the performance bar yet again with the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy – a boosted variant of the fastest mobile SoC that exists for Android devices – it offers a tremendous boost in GPU performance, which should make gamers and mobile content creators happy.

The benchmark results amply demonstrates that you can count on the Galaxy S23 Ultra to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it.

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Performance Examined!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy S23 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0 S23 Ultra S22 Ultra S21 Ultra Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Mobile Platform SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 1
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
SD
750G
Performance Score 16408 12860 12535 10523 7874
Web Browsing 15680 10442 10185 8865 7021
Video Editing 7879 7444 6336 6232 5693
Writing 22257 15471 15247 11112 7454
Photo Editing 35533 30177 37847 30789 15812
Data Manipulation 12171 9691 8310 6825 6424

Will you look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is 27.5% faster than Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 from last year.

That’s a surprisingly significant boost in performance that people upgrading from the Galaxy S22 Ultra or the S21 Ultra will notice.

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy S23 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark S23 Ultra S22 Ultra Z Flip 3 Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
Note10+
Device SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 1
SD 888 Exynos
990
Exynos
9825
Sling Shot Unlimited 16344 11094 9248 8026 3327
Wild Life Unlimited 14554 9106 3952 4504 3288
Wild Life
Extreme
Unlimited
3814 2220 1174 1387 528

Look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was a head above the competition when it comes to gaming!

It was 47% to 72% faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and 77% to 468% faster than the Snapdragon 888!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is undoubtedly the gaming smartphone to beat!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy S23 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu S22
Ultra
S22
Ultra
S21
Ultra
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Device SD 8
Gen 2
SD 8
Gen 1
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
SD 750G
AnTuTu Score 1212174 889167 624411 522735 341908
CPU 261886 203090 166290 146783 105098
GPU 538823 402617 258995 215205 88068
Memory 236163 146002 120805 89376 60642
UX 175302 137458 78321 71371 88100

The AnTuTu benchmark confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is truly a performance beast in every way!

The new Galaxy S23 Ultra is 36% faster than the S22 Ultra, and a whopping 94% faster than the S21 Ultra!

Its CPU was 29% faster, and its GPU was 33% faster than the S22 Ultra. When compared against the S21 Ultra, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 57% faster CPU and 2X faster GPU.

Thanks to its improved cooling system, its temperature jumped by about 7°C. That is noticeable, but significantly lower than the 10°C we saw with the S22 Ultra.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Camera Performance

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Camera Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra boasts a super-high resolution 200 MP main camera, built around a new ISOCELL HP2 sensor.

This is a large 1/1.3-inch sensor with 200 million pixels, each of which is 0.6 μm in size. The Galaxy S23 Ultra camera can combine up to 16 pixels to form a single large pixel for much better low-light performance.

Video capabilities also got an upgrade, thanks to this new sensor. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can now record 8K videos at 30 frames per second, instead of just 24 fps previously.

It also boasts better Adaptive VDIS capability, and improved optical image stabilisation (OIS), delivering silky smooth videos by doubling the angle to ±3°, from the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s camera‘s ±1.5°.

Here are six shots I took in Singapore, using the 200 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera.

They are 4000 x 3000 pixels in size, with a JPEG file size of between 4 MB and 8 MB – it all depends on the amount of detail in the picture. To save space, I definitely recommend that you enable HEIF – the High Efficiency Image Format.

By default, the 200 MP camera takes 12 MP photos, combining sixteen pixels into one super-large pixel. Coupled with the improved lens and wider aperture, the final photos are not only much brighter, but have significantly lower noise.

Here are six night shots to show you just how bright the Galaxy S23 Ultra photos are, taken at night handheld without flash.

Here are six shots to show you the incredible amount of detail you can capture at just 12 MP. If you need greater detail, you can always increase the resolution to the full 200 MP, but frankly – these pictures should show you that you don’t really need to.

Of course, the 200 MP capability is not there for marketing purposes. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can truly take 200 MP photos, with a resolution of 16,320 pixels x 12,240 pixels, with each file at about 13-15 MB!

To demonstrate both the 200 MP capability and its ability to take bright photos at night, I took this 200 MP photo at Marina Bay Sands.

From that single photo, I could zoom in to make out individuals within the dome-shaped Apple Store hundreds of metres away – all unbeknownst that they were being captured on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra at night!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Camera Performance Summary

If you want the best cameras on a smartphone money can buy, you should definitely consider the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Don’t put too much stock into the 200 MP marketing spiel. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S23 is breaking new resolution groups with its 200 MP photography capability. But most of us will probably never use it, except in special circumstances.

What you are really getting is an awesome 12 MP camera with super-large pixels for really great noise-free images, and better low-light photos.

I am especially impressed with its low-light night photography capabilities. The photos I took in Singapore look like they were well-lit by moonlight. That was not the case at all, and it was all the more impressive because I took it handheld.

The photos turned out great – bright, sharp and with much less noise than I dared to hope! There is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has some of the best smartphone cameras I’ve tried this year.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Summary + Award

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Summary + Award

It is tough for Samsung to keep touting radical improvements in smartphone technology every year, so I was not surprised that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is an evolutionary upgrade of the excellent Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Samsung didn’t even bother to hide that, reusing the same design almost to the millimetre! It even reuses the same S Pen from last year. Its improvements are almost entirely internal or at least not readily visible to the user.

Its display, for example, is the “same” as the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s display on paper. But improvements in its design makes it a more efficient display, improving battery life.

Its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU and GPU are not only significantly faster than last year’s Gen 1 CPU and GPU, they are also more efficient, again improving battery life.

Even though it comes with the same battery capacity as the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the new Galaxy S23 Ultra boasts 22% longer battery life with its Adaptive Refresh mode enabled!

Samsung added a new 12 MP front camera, which offers better image quality at a higher resolution than the Galaxy S22 Ultra‘s 40 MP shooter that defaults to 10 MP).

But the killer feature this year is arguably the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s Adaptive Pixel main camera, which not only boasts a new 200 MP sensor but also improved lens, a slightly wider f/1.7 aperture, and better optical image stabilisation.

While its ability to take great photos in good light carries on from the Galaxy S22 Ultra‘s 108 MP Dual Pixel camera, where it really shines is in low-light, night photography. As my photo samples show, they are truly amazing.

If you really love photography, and especially like taking photos at night, or in low-light conditions, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will surely impress you.

Finally, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is tougher this year. It has the same Armor Aluminium frame, but is protected in the front and back by best-in-class Gorilla Victus 2 glass.

For these reasons, we gladly award the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra our Editor’s Choice Award! Great work, Samsung!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Price + Pre-Order Offer!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes in four main colours – Phantom Black, Green, Lavender, and Cream.

Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will be significantly more expensive than last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra!

Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:

  • 256 GB : RM5,699 (about US$1,336 / £1,083 / A$1,888 / S$1,755)
  • 512 GB : RM6,199 (about US$1,453 / £1,179 / A$2,052 / S$1,910)
  • 1 TB : RM7,199 (about US$1,688 / £1,369 / A$2,388 / S$2,218)

While the increased price may be disappointing, Samsung is offering some great pre-order offers:

  • you get a free upgrade to the next storage option!
  • if you buy from the Samsung Online Store, you get an RM400 e-Voucher
  • you get 30% off Samsung accessories, Samsung Care+, Galaxy tablets, Watch, and Buds earphones!
  • you get to save up to RM600 more when you trade in!

Here are online purchase options for your convenience:

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > First PageMobile | Tech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Bora Purple Is Coming Soon!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 will soon be available in the Bora Purple colour option! Here is what you need to know!

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Bora Purple : What You Need To Know!

Samsung is introducing a new colour option called Bora Purple for the Samsung Galaxy S22 – its baby flagship of the Galaxy S family!

Bora is Korean for purple, and Samsung chose to introduce this pastel colour to “evoke joy, spark creativity and embrace individuality”

6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Bora Purple comes with a large 6.1-inch display, with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel.

Its wide colour gamut of 100% DCI-P3, a peak brightness of 1300 nits, and a contrast ratio of 2 million:1 will guarantee the best possible image quality, whether indoors or outdoors.

Gamers will love its high dynamic refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, with a touch sampling rate of up to 240 Hz.

4nm Flagship Mobile Platform

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Bora Purple is built around the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC, which is fabricated on the latest 4nm Samsung process technology.

Together with a powerful Adreno 730 GPU, it has eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

  • a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
  • three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
  • four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.8 GHz.

Memory + Storage Options

Samsung will be offering just two memory and storage options :

  • 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage
  • 8 GB RAM + 256 GB storage

Cameras Galore!

As a Samsung flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22 comes with a smorgasbord of cameras!

In the front, it has a 10 MP camera, with a wide f/2.2 aperture.

In the back, it has a triple-camera system that consists of :

  • a 50 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 aperture,
  • a 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera, f/2.2 aperture, and
  • a 10 MP telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture

Built To Last

The Samsung Galaxy S22 has a tough Armor Aluminium frame, and is protected in the back and front by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.

On top of that, it is IP68-rated against dust and water ingress. That means it can withstand immersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.

Battery + Charging

The Samsung Galaxy S22 comes with a 3,700 mAh battery, which supports wired charging at up to 25 watts, and wireless charging at up to 15 watts.

It also supports Wireless PowerShare, allowing you to recharge other smartphones and wearables like the Galaxy Buds2.

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Bora Purple : Specifications

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S22 Bora Purple
Display 6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display
– 120 Hz dynamic refresh rate
– 240 Hz touch sampling (Game Mode)
– 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut
– 1300 nits peak brightness
– 2 million:1 contrast ratio
Protection Armor Aluminium + Gorilla Glass Victus+
Water Resistance IP68
OS One UI 4.1 (Android 12)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU 1 x Arm Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.5 GHz)
4 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (1.8 GHz)
GPU Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory +
Storage
8 GB RAM + 128 / 256 GB storage
External Storage NA
Front Camera 10 MP camera, f/2.2
Main Cameras 50 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4
Connectivity Wi-Fi : Up to Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth : BT 5.2
USB : USB Type C
S Pen No
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic,
Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC Yes
Battery 3,700 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging 25 watt wired charging
15 watt wireless charging
Wireless PowerShare
Dimensions 70.6 mm wide
146.0 mm tall
7.6 mm thick
Weight 168 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Bora Purple : Price + Availability

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Bora Purple will be available globally starting August 10, 2022.

We do not have a hands-on video of the Bora Purple, but here is our hands-on video of the earlier four colour options – Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, Green and Pink Gold.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Samsung did not reveal the price for the Galaxy S22 Bora Purple, but it should be priced the same as earlier colour options :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB : RM 3,499 (about US$836 / £617 / A$1,164 / S$1,122)
  • 8 GB + 256 GB : RM 3,699 (about US$884 / £652 / A$1,230 / S$1,186)

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > MobileTech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Review : Tech ARP Editor’s Choice!

Samsung recently sent us the new Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone, and here is our comprehensive review!

Find out why the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra won our Editor’s Choice Award!

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB : RM 5,099 (about US$1,219 / £899 / A$1,699 / S$1,629)
  • 12 GB + 256 GB : RM 5,499 (about US$1,314 / £969 / A$1,829 / S$1,759)
  • 12 GB + 512 GB : RM 5,899 (about US$1,409 / £1,039 / A$1,959 / S$1,889)

Here are some online pre-order options :

 

Unboxing Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : What’s Inside Its Box?

Samsung just combined their Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series into the Galaxy S22 Ultra – their latest flagship smartphone.

Not only does it adopt the blockier industrial design language of the Galaxy Note series, it also comes with the S Pen built-in!

Despite being the biggest model in the Galaxy S22 family, the S22 Ultra comes in a slim cardboard box. Here’s an interesting fact – the colour of the S on the box shows you the colour of the Galaxy S22 Ultra inside!

In this video, we take a quick look at the box, before showing you exactly what you will find inside!

Here is everything you will find inside the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s box :

  • Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone
  • Set of Galaxy S22 series documents
  • USB data and power cable (Type C to Type C)
  • SIM card tray extraction pin

Sadly, the Galaxy S22 Ultra does not come with a 45 watt charger in-the-box. You can reuse your old 15 watt charger, but you would be losing out on a key S22 Ultra feature.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Key Features

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Key Features

Now, let us go through its key features, and show you why the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is worthy of our Editor’s Choice Award!

6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a massive 6.8-inch display, with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel.

Its wide colour gamut of 100% DCI-P3, a peak brightness of 1750 nits, and a contrast ratio of 3 million:1 will guarantee the best possible image quality, whether indoors or outdoors.

Gamers will love its high dynamic refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, with a touch sampling rate of up to 240 Hz.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra offers two refresh rate options (Settings > Display > Motion smoothness) :

  • Adaptive : Get smoother animation and scrolling by automatically adjusting your screen refresh rate up to 120 Hz
  • Standard : Get longer battery life with a 60 Hz screen refresh rate

Last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra also has an Adaptive mode, which dynamically refreshes between 10 Hz and 120 Hz

The new Galaxy S22 Ultra improves on that, with an Adaptive mode that dynamically refreshes between 1 Hz and 120 Hz.

By default, the Galaxy S22 Ultra uses the Adaptive mode, for smoother graphics, but you can choose to switch to the Standard mode for longer battery.

4nm Flagship Mobile Platform

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is built around the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC, which is fabricated on the latest 4nm Samsung process technology.

Together with a powerful Adreno 730 GPU, it has eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

  • a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
  • three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
  • four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.8 GHz.

Memory + Storage Options

Samsung will be offering four memory and storage options, but not all of them are available globally :

  • 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage
  • 12 GB RAM + 256 GB storage
  • 12 GB RAM + 512 GB storage
  • 12 GB RAM + 1 TB storage

Cameras Galore!

As the premiere Samsung smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a smorgasbord of cameras!

In the front, it has a 40 MP camera, with a wide f/2.2 aperture, and the ability to combine pixels for better low-light performance.

In the back, it has a quad-camera system that consists of :

  • a 108 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 aperture
  • a 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera, f/2.2 aperture
  • a 10 MP telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture, and
  • a 10 MP periscope camera with 10X optical zoom, f/4.9

Ultra-Low Latency S Pen

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the only model in the Galaxy S22 family to come with the S Pen.

Just like the Galaxy Note series, it has a dedicated S Pen slot, so you will never have to worry about dropping the S Pen.

This is an improved S Pen, with ultra-low latency of just 2.8 ms – down from 9 ms in the previous generation. This gives it an instantaneous feel, just like writing an actual pen on paper.

Built To Last

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is protected in the back and front by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.

On top of that, it is IP68-rated against dust and water ingress. That means it can withstand immersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.

Battery + Charging

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a large 5,000 mAh battery, which offers a very long battery life.

On top of that, it can support wired charging at up to 45 watts, with wireless charging supported at up to 15 watts.

It also supports Wireless PowerShare, allowing you to recharge other smartphones and wearables like the Galaxy Buds2.

The only downside – Samsung is not providing the 45 watt charger in-the-box.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Battery + Charging

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Battery Life Comparison!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a larger 5,000 mAh battery, which is the same size as last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra.

To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.

Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.

It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.

We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :

Will you look at that!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has a battery life of 10.5 hours with Adaptive refresh rate enabled, and a whopping 14.25 hours with the Standard refresh rate!

But let’s compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the S21 Ultra and Z Flip 3 smartphones.

Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra really shines with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz.

The S22 Ultra used 20% less power per minute, which delivered 25% longer battery life than the S21 Ultra.

Work 3.0 S22 Ultra
(60 Hz)
Z Flip 3
(60 Hz)
S21 Ultra
(60 Hz)
Battery Capacity 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh 5,000 mAh
Battery Life 14 hrs
15 mins
8 hrs 11 mins 11 hrs 22 mins
Utilisation
per min.
4.68 mAh 5.38 mAh 5.87 mAh

Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)

While the Galaxy S22 Ultra certainly used less power than the S21 Ultra, that advantage was greatly diminished with the Adaptive refresh rate enabled.

The S22 Ultra used just 2% less power per minute, which delivered 2% (12 minutes) longer battery life than the S21 Ultra.

Work 3.0 S22 Ultra
(120 Hz)
S21 Ultra
(120 Hz)
Z Flip 3
(120 Hz)
Battery Capacity 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh
Battery Life 10 hrs
38 mins
10 hrs
26 mins
6 hrs
44 mins
Utilisation
per min.
6.27 mAh 6.39 mAh 6.53 mAh

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Battery Recharging Speed!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.

So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones – something we believe most users will end up doing.

But we used the 25 watt charger for the S21 Ultra, because it came with that charger.

Work 3.0 S21 Ultra S22 Ultra Z Flip 3
Battery Capacity 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh
Charger Output 25 watts 15 watts 15 watts
Battery Life 64 minutes 64.5 minutes 88.5 minutes
Recharging Speed
(per minute)
62.5 mAh 62.0 mAh 29.8 mAh

Interestingly, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra recharged as quickly with a standard 15 watt charger, as the S21 Ultra with its more powerful 25 watt charger!

In fact, the Galaxy S22 Ultra recharged itself twice as fast as the Galaxy Z Flip 3, even though they both used the same 15 watt charger!

This is really good news. It means that Galaxy S22 Ultra owners need not worry too much about its recharging speed with the older 15 watt chargers.

In fact, you don’t really need to splurge on a new 45 watt fast charger. The Galaxy S22 Ultra fully recharges from 20% to 100% in just over an hour with the standard 15 watt Samsung charger!

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Performance

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0 Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy
S21 Ultra
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Mobile Platform SD 888 SD 8
Gen 1
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
SD
750G
Performance Score 13317 12860 12535 10523 7874
Web Browsing 11637 10442 10185 8865 7021
Video Editing 7762 7444 6336 6232 5693
Writing 15316 15471 15247 11112 7454
Photo Editing 25357 30177 37847 30789 15812
Data Manipulation 11938 9691 8310 6825 6424

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Get 1 was surprisingly slightly slower than the Snapdragon 888 used by the Galaxy Z Flip 3, but the difference is just 5%, which means you won’t actually notice the difference.

For certainly, it will easily handle anything you throw at it, whether it’s just posting your latest Instagram pictures or editing a 4K video.

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
Note10+
Device SD 8
Gen 1
SD 888 Exynos
990
Exynos
9825
Sling Shot Unlimited 11094 9248 8026 3327
Wild Life Unlimited 9106 3952 4504 3288
Wild Life
Extreme
Unlimited
2220 1174 1387 528

Look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was a head above the competition when it comes to gaming!

It was 20% to 130% faster than the Snapdragon 888, and 38% to 102% faster than the Exynos 990!

For certain, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will crush any game you throw at it.

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu Galaxy
S22 Ultra
Galaxy
Z Flip 3
Galaxy
S21 Ultra
Note20
Ultra
Galaxy
A52
Device SD 8 Gen 1 SD
888
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
SD 750G
AnTuTu Score 889167 696767 624411 522735 341908
CPU 203090 206228 166290 146783 105098
GPU 402617 242573 258995 215205 88068
Memory 146002 133586 120805 89376 60642
UX 137458 114380 78321 71371 88100

The AnTuTu benchmark confirme that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is a veritable beast of a performer, beating even the very fast Galaxy Z Flip 3 by 28%, and the last-generation Galaxy S21 Ultra by 42!

Its GPU performance was, in particular, spectacular, delivering 66% better performance than the Galaxy Z Flip 3, and 55% better performance than the Galaxy S21 Ultra!

But note that its temperature jumped by over 10°C! At peak performance, the Galaxy S22 Ultra can get quite toasty!

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Performance Summary

The Galaxy S22 Ultra was meant to be the ultimate Samsung smartphone for 2022, and it does not disappoint.

Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – the fastest mobile SoC that exists for Android devices – it offers a tremendous boost in GPU performance, which should make gamers and mobile content creators happy.

The benchmark results amply demonstrates, you can count on the Galaxy S22 Ultra to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Performance

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Recording Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s super-high resolution 108 MP main camera can take up to 8K videos, if you want to. But in reality – most people are not going to bother with 8K video recording, at least for now.

Very few televisions and devices support 8K video playback, and even the S22 Ultra will downsample the 8K video when playing back on its 3K display.

1080p and 4K videos are what the Galaxy S22 Ultra does best, thanks to its support for 60 fps recording and combination of optical image stabilisation and advanced electronic image stabilisation.

1080p Video Sample : Concubine Lane @ Ipoh

This video sample was taken at the famous Concubine Lane in Ipoh, which is crowded and really great to test the camera out.

In this video sample, you can see just how smooth and stable the video is at 60 fps, even with so much shaking and jostling.

4K Video Sample : Concubine Lane @ Ipoh

When we switched to 4K, the video was remarkably stable, even while we walk through the crowd, and pan around Concubine Lane.

You should also note the lack of wind noise, which is fantastic. You won’t need to use a third-party microphone with a dead cat with this phone!

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Zoom Capability

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra also supports multiple zoom levels – up to 20X zoom at 1080p, and up to 10X zoom at 4K.

Its ultra-wide camera lets you record with a wider 0.6X zoom, while its 3X zoom and 10X zoom cameras allow for extended optical zoom capabilities.

1080p Zoom Demonstration

At 1080p, you can record videos from 0.6X zoom up to 20X zoom – which offers much wider range than competing smartphones.

The best image quality was seen at up to 10X zoom, while image stabilisation was best at up to 4X zoom, and still pretty good at 10X zoom.

While 20X zoom has pretty decent image quality, it is not as sharp as at 10X or lower zoom. Colours also appear more washed out at 20X.

4K Zoom Demonstration

You can record 4K videos from 0.6X zoom up to 10X zoom. – which is narrower than recording 1080p video.

For best image quality, limit your zoom up to 3X while recording 4K video. While image stabilisation was pretty good at 10X zoom, the image isn’t sharp and colours appear washed out.

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Recording Performance Summary

If you ignore the 8K hype, you will realise that the Galaxy S22 Ultra offers truly excellent 4K and 1080p video recording capabilities.

You should buy the Galaxy S22 Ultra for its advanced optical and electronic image stabilisation for super-stable recording on-the-move.

You should also buy the Galaxy S22 Ultra for its wide zoom range of 0.6X to 10X when recording 1080p videos, or 0.6X to 3X when recording 4K videos.

These are the critical video recording features that will give you greater flexibility and super stable videos, without the need to use a gimbal.

While not showcased in our videos, the Galaxy S22 Ultra also supports Audio Zoom, focusing the audio recording as you zoom into a scene. That can be really helpful in isolating audio from the subject from background noise.

These features are not new – they have been part of the Samsung Galaxy S and Note series for a few years now. Samsung just keeps improving them, which is why we keep using Galaxy S smartphones as our primary video recording device.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Capability

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra boasts a super-high resolution 108 MP main camera, built around the same ISOCELL HM3 sensor used in the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

However, this camera features improved AI optimisations. Thanks to the improved performance of its GPU and NPU, it now runs approximately 60 new AI models through its Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to optimise the final output.

Here are six shots I took around Ipoh Old Town, using the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera.

They are 4000 x 3000 pixels in size, with a JPEG file size of between 4 MB and 15 MB – it all depends on the amount of detail in the picture. To save space, I definitely recommend that you enable HEIF – the High Efficiency Image Format.

By default, the 108 MP camera takes 12 MP photos, combining nine pixels into one super-large 2.4 µm pixel. Coupled with the new AI models, the final photo is not only much brighter, but has significantly lower noise.

When you take shots at night, the Galaxy S22 Ultra combines images taken using both the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide camera. The 12 MP camera provides the rough details, while the fine details are provided by the 108 MP camera.

Here are four shots to show you the incredible amount of detail you can capture at just 12 MP. If you need greater detail, you can always increase the resolution to the full 108 MP, but frankly – these pictures should show you that you don’t really need to.

Its digital zoom has also been improved by the new AI models and the faster processor. For images taken above 30X digital zoom, the camera actually takes 10-20 shots at once, and processes them to improve the details in the final photo.

Finally, the Galaxy S22 Ultra features a new AI portrait model that uses two cameras to accurately differentiate the depth between the person and the background.

This is critical because the 108 MP camera has a very wide f/1.8 aperture, which makes for very narrow depth-of-field (DOF). If you do not accurately focus on the subject, you could end up with a blurry photo even though it looks sharp on the phone.

In these four shots, you can see just how narrow of depth of field you have to work with. This makes for better photos – you just need to make sure the subject is really in focus.

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Summary

If you want the best cameras on a smartphone money can buy, you should definitely consider the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Ignore the 108 MP marketing hoohah. What you are really getting is an awesome 12 MP camera with super-large pixels for really great noise-free images, and better low-light photos.

You may be wary about Samsung reusing the ISOCELL HM3 sensor from last year, but it has better photographic capabilities, thanks mostly to software and AI improvements.

For one thing, I noticed that it is now much better at accurately focusing on the subject, resulting in far fewer wrongly-focused shots.

It also does a better job of correcting for disparate lighting conditions, although some of you may find the photos oversaturated.

But there is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has some of the best smartphone cameras I’ve tried this year.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Summary + Award

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Summary + Award

It is really quite hard for flagship smartphones to really differentiate themselves from last year’s flagships, but Samsung somehow pulled it off with the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Most of the improvements may not be readily apparent to the user though.

Thanks to Samsung’s decision to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC, it has significantly better GPU and NPU performance.

Even its Dynamic AMOLED 2X display has been quietly improved. It is now 250 nits brighter and has a minimum refresh rate of just 1 Hz, allowing for better battery life.

If you don’t mind using the standard 60 Hz refresh rate, you will be pleasantly surprised by a 25% longer battery life than last year’s S21 Ultra!

Even its S Pen was upgraded. It may look like last year’s S Pen, but it has a much lower latency of just 2.8 ms – down from 9 ms in the previous generation.

Samsung reused the Galaxy S21 Ultra‘s excellent quad-camera system, but you may not know that it features improved AI optimisations. Powered by the much faster Snapdragon processor’s NPU, it now runs approximately 60 new AI models to optimise the final output.

This may not sound like much, but you will realise just how much has improved if you compare the videos and photos taken with the S22 Ultra against the S21 Ultra. Its AI optimisations have taken out most of the hard work of making sure that each picture comes out looking great, while its video stabilisation is truly best-in-class.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is not cheap, but if you want the best possible Android smartphone that is powerful and takes excellent photos and videos, this is as good as it gets!

On top of that, it boasts the best-in-class Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection on both front and rear aspects, and is IP68 dust- and water-resistant.

For these reasons, we gladly award the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra our Editor’s Choice Award! Great work, Samsung!

 

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Specifications

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Display 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display
– 120 Hz dynamic refresh rate
– 240 Hz touch sampling (Game Mode)
– 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut
– 1750 nits peak brightness
– 3 million:1 contrast ratio
Protection Gorilla Glass Victus+ (front and back)
Water Resistance IP68
OS One UI 4.1 (Android 12)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU 1 x Arm Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.5 GHz)
4 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (1.8 GHz)
GPU Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory +
Storage
8 GB + 128 GB
12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB / 1 TB
External Storage NA
Front Camera 40 MP camera, f/2.2
Main Cameras 108 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4
10 MP 10x zoom camera, f/4.9
Connectivity Wi-Fi : Up to Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth : BT 5.2
USB : USB Type C
S Pen Yes, 2.8 ms latency
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC Yes
Battery 5,000 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging 45 watt wired charging
15 watt wireless charging
Wireless PowerShare
Dimensions 77.9 mm wide
163.3 mm tall
8.9 mm thick
Weight 229 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB : RM 5,099 (about US$1,219 / £899 / A$1,699 / S$1,629)
  • 12 GB + 256 GB : RM 5,499 (about US$1,314 / £969 / A$1,829 / S$1,759)
  • 12 GB + 512 GB : RM 5,899 (about US$1,409 / £1,039 / A$1,959 / S$1,889)

Here are some online pre-order options :

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > First Page | MobileTech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Hands-On Experience!

Here is our hands-on look at the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet, its new low-latency S Pen and its Book Cover Keyboard!

Find out why this tablet will offer you a 2-in-1 laptop-like experience!

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra + S Pen : Hands-On Experience!

Samsung just sent us the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra – their largest and most powerful tablet, with a massive 14.6-inch Super AMOLED display!

As you will see in this video – this is a really large tablet, and it is pretty hefty too at 726 grams. But it is very solidly built, and weighs half as much as a typical laptop.

It also comes with a new full-size S Pen with an ultra-low latency of just 2.8 milliseconds.

The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra runs on the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform boasts a powerful Adreno 730 GPU as well as eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

  • a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
  • three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.4 GHz, and
  • four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.7 GHz.

Powering all that is a massive 11,200 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, with 45 watt fast charging capability!

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Book Cover Keyboard : Hands-On!

This year, Samsung included the really awesome Book Cover Keyboard with every Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet.

This cover not only provides really solid protection for the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, it also converts it into a 2-in-1 tablet with a kickstand!

In addition, the Book Cover Keyboard has a special S Pen cover that prevents your precious S Pen from falling and getting lost.

As I shared in my Galaxy Tab S7 Book Cover Keyboard review last year, this is a must-have accessory, and I’m really glad Samsung included it as part of the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra package.

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Specifications

Specifications Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
Display 14.6-inch Super AMOLED Display
– 60 Hz or 120 Hz refresh rate
Protection Gorilla Glass 5 (Front + Back)
OS One UI 4.1 (Android 12)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU 1 x Arm Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.4 GHz)
4 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (1.7 GHz)
GPU Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory +
Storage
Options
8 GB RAM + 128 GB
12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
16 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
External Storage microSD (up to 1TB)
Front Camera 12 MP main camera, f/2.2
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.4
Main Cameras 12 MP main camera, f/2.0
6 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
Connectivity Wi-Fi : Up to Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth : BT 5.2
USB : USB 3.2 Type C
S Pen Yes, 2.8 ms latency
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC No
Audio Quad speakers tuned by AKG
Battery 11,200 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging 45 watt wired charging
Dimensions 326.4 mm wide
208.6 mm tall
5.5 mm thick
Weight 726 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra in five RAM + storage capacity options globally :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB
  • 12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
  • 16 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB

But over here in Malaysia, it is available with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage for RM 5,899 (about US$1,387 / £1,063 / A$1,877 / S$1,892.

Here are some online pre-order options :

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Mobile | ComputerTech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Unboxing : What’s Inside?

Let’s unbox the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, and see what we find inside!

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Flagship Class Performance!

Samsung just launched the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra – their largest and most powerful tablet, with a massive 14.6-inch Super AMOLED display!

It runs on the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform, which boasts a powerful Adreno 730 GPU as well as eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

  • a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
  • three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.4 GHz, and
  • four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.7 GHz.

Powering all that is a massive 11,200 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, with 45 watt fast charging capability!

If you want the biggest and most powerful Android tablet, this is the ultimate choice!

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Unboxing : What’s Inside?

Samsung just sent us the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, which comes in a large and hefty box, with two security stickers.

Please check the label to make sure you have the right device, and that the two security stickers are intact.

Now, let’s take a look at the box, and see what we find inside!

Once you fully unbox it, this is what you will find inside the box :

  • Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet
  • Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra keyboard cover
  • Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra S Pen
  • Set of Galaxy Tab S8 documents
  • USB Type A to Type A data and power cable
  • microSD tray ejector pin

Unfortunately, the package does not include the 45 watt power adaptor, not even the standard 15 watt Samsung charger.

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Specifications

Specifications Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
Display 14.6-inch Super AMOLED Display
– 60 Hz or 120 Hz refresh rate
Protection Gorilla Glass 5 (Front + Back)
OS One UI 4.1 (Android 12)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU 1 x Arm Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.4 GHz)
4 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (1.7 GHz)
GPU Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory +
Storage
Options
8 GB RAM + 128 GB
12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
16 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
External Storage microSD (up to 1TB)
Front Camera 12 MP main camera, f/2.2
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.4
Main Cameras 12 MP main camera, f/2.0
6 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
Connectivity Wi-Fi : Up to Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth : BT 5.2
USB : USB 3.2 Type C
S Pen Yes, 2.8 ms latency
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC No
Audio Quad speakers tuned by AKG
Battery 11,200 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging 45 watt wired charging
Dimensions 326.4 mm wide
208.6 mm tall
5.5 mm thick
Weight 726 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Tab S8 Ultra in four RAM + storage capacity options globally :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB
  • 12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
  • 16 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB

But over here in Malaysia, it is available with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage for RM 5,899 (about US$1,387 / £1,063 / A$1,877 / S$1,892.

Here are some online pre-order options :

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Mobile | ComputerTech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Our Hands-On Experience!

Samsung sent us their latest Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone, and here is our hands-on experience!

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Our Hands-On Experience!

Samsung combined their Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series into the Galaxy S22 Ultra – their latest flagship smartphone.

Not only does it adopt the blockier industrial design language of the Galaxy Note series, it also comes with the S Pen built-in!

Here is our hands-on experience of the new Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone!

6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a massive 6.8-inch display, with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel.

Its wide colour gamut of 100% DCI-P3, a peak brightness of 1750 nits, and a contrast ratio of 3 million:1 will guarantee the best possible image quality, whether indoors or outdoors.

Gamers will love its high dynamic refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, with a touch sampling rate of up to 240 Hz.

4nm Flagship Mobile Platform

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is built around the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC, which is fabricated on the latest 4nm Samsung process technology.

Together with a powerful Adreno 730 GPU, it has eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

  • a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
  • three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
  • four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.8 GHz.

Memory + Storage Options

Samsung will be offering four memory and storage options, but not all of them are available globally :

  • 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage
  • 12 GB RAM + 256 GB storage
  • 12 GB RAM + 512 GB storage
  • 12 GB RAM + 1 TB storage

Cameras Galore!

As the premiere Samsung smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a smorgasbord of cameras!

In the front, it has a 40 MP camera, with a wide f/2.2 aperture, and the ability to combine pixels for better low-light performance.

In the back, it has a quad-camera system that consists of :

  • a 108 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 aperture
  • a 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera, f/2.2 aperture
  • a 10 MP telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture, and
  • a 10 MP periscope camera with 10X optical zoom, f/4.9

Ultra-Low Latency S Pen

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the only model in the Galaxy S22 family to come with the S Pen.

Just like the Galaxy Note series, it has a dedicated S Pen slot, so you will never have to worry about dropping the S Pen.

This is an improved S Pen, with ultra-low latency of just 2.8 ms – down from 9 ms in the previous generation. This gives it an instantaneous feel, just like writing an actual pen on paper.

Built To Last

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is protected in the back and front by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.

On top of that, it is IP68-rated against dust and water ingress. That means it can withstand immersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.

Battery + Charging

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a large 5,000 mAh battery, which offers a very long battery life.

On top of that, it can support wired charging at up to 45 watts, with wireless charging supported at up to 15 watts.

It also supports Wireless PowerShare, allowing you to recharge other smartphones and wearables like the Galaxy Buds2.

The only downside – Samsung is not providing the 45 watt charger in-the-box.

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Specifications

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Display 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display
– 120 Hz dynamic refresh rate
– 240 Hz touch sampling (Game Mode)
– 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut
– 1750 nits peak brightness
– 3 million:1 contrast ratio
Protection Gorilla Glass Victus+ (front and back)
Water Resistance IP68
OS One UI 4.1 (Android 12)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU 1 x Arm Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.5 GHz)
4 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (1.8 GHz)
GPU Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory +
Storage
8 GB + 128 GB
12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB / 1 TB
External Storage NA
Front Camera 40 MP camera, f/2.2
Main Cameras 108 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4
10 MP 10x zoom camera, f/4.9
Connectivity Wi-Fi : Up to Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth : BT 5.2
USB : USB Type C
S Pen Yes, 2.8 ms latency
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC Yes
Battery 5,000 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging 45 watt wired charging
15 watt wireless charging
Wireless PowerShare
Dimensions 77.9 mm wide
163.3 mm tall
8.9 mm thick
Weight 229 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB : RM 5,099 (about US$1,219 / £899 / A$1,699 / S$1,629)
  • 12 GB + 256 GB : RM 5,499 (about US$1,314 / £969 / A$1,829 / S$1,759)
  • 12 GB + 512 GB : RM 5,899 (about US$1,409 / £1,039 / A$1,959 / S$1,889)

Here are some online pre-order options :

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > MobileTech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 : What You Need To Know!

Samsung just launched their Galaxy S22 flagship smartphone, and here is everything you need to know!

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 : What You Need To Know!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 is the baby flagship of the Galaxy S family, and it comes at a great price point!

Take a look at its key features, and find out if this is the smartphone for you!

6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display

The Samsung Galaxy S22 comes with a large 6.1-inch display, with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel.

Its wide colour gamut of 100% DCI-P3, a peak brightness of 1300 nits, and a contrast ratio of 2 million:1 will guarantee the best possible image quality, whether indoors or outdoors.

Gamers will love its high dynamic refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, with a touch sampling rate of up to 240 Hz.

4nm Flagship Mobile Platform

The Samsung Galaxy S22 is built around the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC, which is fabricated on the latest 4nm Samsung process technology.

Together with a powerful Adreno 730 GPU, it has eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

  • a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
  • three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
  • four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.8 GHz.

Memory + Storage Options

Samsung will be offering just two memory and storage options :

  • 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage
  • 8 GB RAM + 256 GB storage

Cameras Galore!

As a Samsung flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22 comes with a smorgasbord of cameras!

In the front, it has a 10 MP camera, with a wide f/2.2 aperture.

In the back, it has a triple-camera system that consists of :

  • a 50 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 aperture,
  • a 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera, f/2.2 aperture, and
  • a 10 MP telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture

Built To Last

The Samsung Galaxy S22 has a tough Armor Aluminium frame, and is protected in the back and front by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.

On top of that, it is IP68-rated against dust and water ingress. That means it can withstand immersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.

Battery + Charging

The Samsung Galaxy S22 comes with a 3,700 mAh battery, which supports wired charging at up to 25 watts, and wireless charging at up to 15 watts.

It also supports Wireless PowerShare, allowing you to recharge other smartphones and wearables like the Galaxy Buds2.

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 : Specifications

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S22
Display 6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display
– 120 Hz dynamic refresh rate
– 240 Hz touch sampling (Game Mode)
– 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut
– 1300 nits peak brightness
– 2 million:1 contrast ratio
Protection Armor Aluminium + Gorilla Glass Victus+
Water Resistance IP68
OS One UI 4.1 (Android 12)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU 1 x Arm Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.5 GHz)
4 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (1.8 GHz)
GPU Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory +
Storage
8 GB RAM + 128 / 256 GB storage
External Storage NA
Front Camera 10 MP camera, f/2.2
Main Cameras 50 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4
Connectivity Wi-Fi : Up to Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth : BT 5.2
USB : USB Type C
S Pen No
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic,
Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC Yes
Battery 3,700 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging 25 watt wired charging
15 watt wireless charging
Wireless PowerShare
Dimensions 70.6 mm wide
146.0 mm tall
7.6 mm thick
Weight 168 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 in four colour options – Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, Green and Pink Gold.

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out the colours for ourselves.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in two variants, at these price points :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB : RM 3,499 (about US$836 / £617 / A$1,164 / S$1,122)
  • 8 GB + 256 GB : RM 3,699 (about US$884 / £652 / A$1,230 / S$1,186)

You can now pre-order the 8 GB + 256 GB model from 10 February until 3 March 2022, to receive these freebies!

  • Samsung eVoucher worth RM800
  • Galaxy S22 Silicone Cover with Strap worth RM 169
  • Galaxy Lucky Box (with wide strap) worth RM 79
  • Camera Filter Mount worth RM 169

Here are some online pre-order options : RM3,699 | RM3,699 | RM3,699 | RM3,699 | RM3,699

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > MobileTech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus : What You Need To Know!

Samsung just launched their Galaxy S22 Plus smartphone, and here is everything you need to know!

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus : What You Need To Know!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus is the latest iteration of the Samsung Galaxy S family, targeting photography enthusiasts.

Lacking the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s new S Pen, this is the Samsung flagship smartphone for those who don’t need it.

6.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus comes with a massive 6.6-inch display, with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel.

Its wide colour gamut of 100% DCI-P3, a peak brightness of 1750 nits, and a contrast ratio of 3 million:1 will guarantee the best possible image quality, whether indoors or outdoors.

Gamers will love its high dynamic refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, with a touch sampling rate of up to 240 Hz.

4nm Flagship Mobile Platform

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus is built around the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC, which is fabricated on the latest 4nm Samsung process technology.

Together with a powerful Adreno 730 GPU, it has eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

  • a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
  • three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
  • four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.8 GHz.

Memory + Storage Options

Samsung will be offering just two memory and storage options :

  • 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage
  • 8 GB RAM + 256 GB storage

Cameras Galore!

As a Samsung flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Plus comes with a smorgasbord of cameras!

In the front, it has a 10 MP camera, with a wide f/2.2 aperture.

In the back, it has a triple-camera system that consists of :

  • a 50 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 aperture,
  • a 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera, f/2.2 aperture, and
  • a 10 MP telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture

Built To Last

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus has a tough Armor Aluminium frame, and is protected in the back and front by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.

On top of that, it is IP68-rated against dust and water ingress. That means it can withstand immersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.

Battery + Charging

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus comes with a large 4,500 mAh battery, which offers a very long battery life.

On top of that, it can support wired charging at up to 45 watts, with wireless charging supported at up to 15 watts.

It also supports Wireless PowerShare, allowing you to recharge other smartphones and wearables like the Galaxy Buds2.

The only downside – Samsung is not providing the 45 watt charger in-the-box.

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus : Specifications

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus
Display 6.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display
– 120 Hz dynamic refresh rate
– 240 Hz touch sampling (Game Mode)
– 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut
– 1750 nits peak brightness
– 3 million:1 contrast ratio
Protection Armor Aluminium + Gorilla Glass Victus+
Water Resistance IP68
OS One UI 4.1 (Android 12)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU 1 x Arm Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.5 GHz)
4 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (1.8 GHz)
GPU Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory +
Storage
8 GB RAM + 128 / 256 GB storage
External Storage NA
Front Camera 10 MP camera, f/2.2
Main Cameras 50 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4
Connectivity Wi-Fi : Up to Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth : BT 5.2
USB : USB Type C
S Pen No
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC Yes
Battery 4,500 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging 45 watt wired charging
15 watt wireless charging
Wireless PowerShare
Dimensions 75.8 mm wide
157.4 mm tall
7.6 mm thick
Weight 196 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Plus in four colour options – Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, Green and Pink Gold.

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out the colours for ourselves.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in two variants, at these price points :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB : RM 4,099 (about US$979 / £722 / A$1,363 / S$1,315)
  • 8 GB + 256 GB : RM 4,299 (about US$1,027 / £758 / A$1,429 / S$1,379)

You can now pre-order the 8 GB + 256 GB model from 10 February until 3 March 2022, to receive these freebies!

  • Samsung eVoucher worth RM800
  • Galaxy S22 Plus Silicone Cover with Strap worth RM 169
  • Galaxy Lucky Box (with wide strap) worth RM 79
  • Camera Filter Mount worth RM 169

Here are some online pre-order options : RM4,299 | RM4,299 | RM4,299 | RM4,299 | RM4,299

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > MobileTech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 Review : Great For Students!

Parents are looking for great but affordable laptops for their kids, and the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 may just hit the sweet spot!

Take a look at my review of this MIL-STD-rated convertible laptop, and find out why it’s great for students!

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Fast + Tough

The 2021 Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W) is the world’s first Intel Evo platform-verified Chromebook, guaranteeing snappy performance out-of-the-box.

As an Intel Evo-verified laptop, it comes with an 11th Gen Intel Core processor with Intel Iris Xe Graphics, built-in Wi-Fi 6 and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, and is designed to wake up in less than a second!

Even though it is a convertible laptop, it is MIL-STD-810H rated for drops of up to 122 cm, and MIL-STD-810F rated against ingress of sand and dust!

So you now have a basic idea of why we think it’s great for students!

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Price + Availability

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is available in Malaysia with a retail price of RM3,799.

Here are some online purchase options in Malaysia :

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Specifications

Let’s start with the specifications of this review unit :

Specifications Acer Chromebook Spin 713
Model CP713-3W-503Z
Display 13.5-inch VertiView IPS touchscreen display
2256 x 1504 pixels, 220 ppi
Durability Corning Gorilla Glass
MIL-STD 810H
Operating System Google Chrome OS 94.0
Processor Intel Core i5-1135G7
Graphics Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Memory 8 GB LPDDR4X
Storage 256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Camera 720p HD webcam
Connectivity Intel® Wireless Wi-Fi 6 AX201
Bluetooth® 5.1
microSD Reader Yes
Ports 2 x USB Type C ports
1 x USB Type A port
1 x HDMI port
1 x 3.5 mm audio port
Sensors Accelerometer (G-sensor), Gyroscope
Audio Smart Amplifier with DTS
Stereo speakers
Battery 56 Whr Li-Ion battery
Up to 10 hours of battery life
Supports quick-charging
Dimensions 300.6 mm wide
235 mm deep
16.9 mm thick
Weight 1.37 kg

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Unboxing

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 comes in a brown cardboard box, with two labels on the side to confirm the model and specifications of the unit inside.

Please make sure the security seal is unbroken when you receive the box. Once you remove everything, this is what you will find inside :

  • one Acer Chromebook Spin 713 laptop
  • one 45 watt power adaptor with USB Type C cable
  • one localised power cord
  • one set of Setup Guide + Warranty booklet

Next Page > Chromebook Spin 713 Key Features

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Hands-On Experience!

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is a convertible laptop, with a 13.5-inch display with a resolution of 2256 x 1504 pixels.

The display can flip completely around, letting you use it in the laptop mode, tent mode or the tablet mode – very useful for presentations and collaboration in school.

As this is a Chromebook, it runs on Google Chrome OS, but otherwise, appears and works like any other laptop.

It is quite thin at just under 17 mm at its thickest point, and weighs only 1.37 kg. It will have no problem fitting into schoolbags.

13.5-inch Touchscreen Display

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a 13.5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2256 x 1504 pixels – much higher than most Chromebook laptops.

This is a touchscreen display, which is the main input method in tent and tablet modes. Even so, you will find it very useful in the laptop mode as well.

You will be glad to know that the display is protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass, so it is resistant to scratches.

720p Webcam

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a 720p webcam at the top of its display, with two microphones to pick up your voice.

It would be be nice if Acer included a 1080p webcam, but hey, even the Dell XPS 13 (9300) came with a 720p webcam!

Available Ports

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a range of useful ports. On the left side, you will find :

  • two of the latest USB Type C / Thunderbolt 4 ports!
  • a full-size HDMI port
  • a 3.5 mm audio port

On the right side, you will find a physical Volume control button, with a microSD card reader, a USB 3.0 Type A port and the Power button.

Speakers

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 has two downward-firing speakers on the underside (in laptop mode).

They are pretty loud and bright, and seem optimised for voice – which may appear to be what they are targeting.

But they will sound hollow and lack dynamism and bass, so music and movies are less enjoyable.

Keyboard + Touchpad

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a full-size keyboard, with a large touchpad.

The keys are backlit, which is fantastic in low-light conditions, and have decent key travel.

Next Page > Performance, Verdict + Award!

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Performance

Our Acer Chromebook Spin 713 laptop was powered by the Intel Core i5-1135G7, which is a 4-core, 8-thread processor that runs at up to 4.2 GHz.

It comes with integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and is paired with 8 GB of RAM and 256 of PCIe NVMe SSD storage.

Battery Life

The Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a 3-cell 56 Whr lithium-ion battery, that Acer says all last up to 10 hours.

To test its battery life, we set its display to 50% and ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test, until its battery capacity dropped to 20%, repeating several times.

Unfortunately, we could not get 10 hours – the best we could do was just under 7.5 hours. But please note that this is a stress test that involves non-stop running work applications.

In real life, you will likely see longer usage times. And it is certainly more than long enough for a full day at school!

Battery Recharging Speed

The Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a 45 watt fast charger, that Acer says will give you 4 hours of battery life in just under 30 minutes.

Look at that! It only took 1 hour 31.5 minutes to fully recharge the Chromebook Spin 713 from 20% to 100%!

That gives it a battery life : recharging ratio of almost 5:1. A general rule of thumb – for one hour of battery life, you will need to charge it for 12 minutes.

Work Performance : PCMark Work 3.0

As this laptop runs on Chrome OS, we can only compare it to mobile SoCs.

Its PCMark Work 3.0 score puts it firmly in between the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ and the Samsung Exynos 990.

In other words – this laptop is as fast as flagship mobile devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ and Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra.

Gaming Performance : 3DMark

As the Chromebook Spin 713 runs on Chrome OS, you can Android apps on it. Yes, that includes games that your kids are already playing on your Android phone. 😉

Its graphics performance is really good, coming in more than TWICE AS FAST as Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ and the Samsung Exynos 990.

In other words, you won’t have to worry about running any mobile games on this laptop. It will have no problem handling them.

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Verdict + Award

People often think of Chromebook laptops as cheap throwaway devices that you only resort to when you have “no other choice”.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 puts paid to that perception, offering a sleek convertible design with high-end features like :

  • Intel Evo and MIL-STD-810 certifications
  • 2K touch display with Gorilla Glass protection
  • Powerful Intel Core i5 processor with Intel Xe Graphics
  • Two USB Type C / Thunderbolt 4 ports

What you get is a truly versatile laptop with snappy work and gaming performance, with an excellent high-resolution display.

If you are a parent looking for a good and sturdy laptop that your child will have a hard time breaking, you really can’t go wrong with the Acer Chromebook Spin 713.

That’s why we have no qualms giving it our Reviewer’s Choice Award! Great job, Acer!

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Where To Buy?

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is available in Malaysia with a retail price of RM3,799.

Here are some online purchase options in Malaysia :

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > First Page | Computer | Tech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

2021 Acer Chromebook Laptops : What You Need To Know!

Acer introduced SIX new Chromebook models in 2021, offering a wide selection of affordable laptops with long battery life.

Here is what YOU need to know about the six new Acer Chromebook laptops!

 

2021 Acer Chromebook Laptops : What You Need To Know!

Acer introduced SIX new Chromebook models in 2021, in a variety of sizes and form factors with long battery life.

  • 14-inch Acer Chromebook 314
  • 17.3-inch Acer Chromebook 317
  • 14-inch Acer Chromebook 514
  • 14-inch Acer Chromebook Enterprise 514
  • 13.5-inch Acer Chromebook Spin 713
  • 13.5-inch Acer Chromebook Enterprise Spin 713

In this article, we are going to take a look at the six 2021 Acer Chromebook laptops, to see what they offer, and how they compare with each other!

2021 Acer Chromebook 314

Weighing only 1.5 kg, the 2021 Acer Chromebook 314 (CB314-2H/CB314-2HT) is an ultra-portable laptop designed for students.

Its 14-inch IPS display has a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, and optional touch controls. It supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, and comes with a 720p HDR webcam.

Powered by the MediaTek MT8183 octa-core processor, it can provide up to 15 hours of battery life.

2021 Acer Chromebook 317

The 2021 Acer Chromebook 317 (CB317-1H) is targeted at users who want a large display for multitasking and streaming content.

It has a large 17.3-inch display with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, and anti-glare coating. It also comes with a large keyboard (with optional backlighting) with a numeric keypad and a large touchpad.

There is also space for two full-sized upward-facing speakers to give you a more immersive audio experience.

The 2021 Chromebook 317 is built around the latest Intel Celeron processors with Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, and up to 10 hours of battery life.

2021 Acer Chromebook 514

The 2021 Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1W/CB514-1WT) is built around the 11th Gen Intel core processors, with up to 10 hours of battery life.

Thanks to its metal top cover and reinforced design, it is MIL-STD810H rated for military-grade durability. On top of that, its touchpad is protected against scratches and corrosion with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass.

It supports the latest Intel Wi-Fi 6 wireless connectivity, and comes with two full-function USB Type C ports with Thunderbolt 4, and a backlight keyboard with an optional embedded fingerprint reader.

2021 Acer Chromebook Enterprise 514

The 2021 Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1W/CB514-1WT) is built around the 11th Gen Intel core processors, and MIL-STD810H rated for military-grade durability. On top of that, its touchpad is protected against scratches and corrosion with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass.

It supports the latest Intel Wi-Fi 6 wireless connectivity, and comes with two full-function USB Type C ports with Thunderbolt 4, a HDMI port and a backlight keyboard with an optional embedded fingerprint reader.

It also features a Full HD MIPI webcam, and speakers powered by a Smart Amplifier, with support for DTS Audio.

Its Chrome Enterprise operating system features integrated manageability features to help your company cut costs, streamline operations and reduce security risks by letting you deploy, update and manage all your devices remotely.

2021 Acer Chromebook Spin 713

The 2021 Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W) is the world’s first Intel Evo platform-verified Chromebook.

It features a premium aluminium chassis that is MIL-STD 810H rated for military-grade durability, in a convertible form factor. Its 13.5-inch VertiView display has a resolution of 2256 x 1504, giving you 18% more vertical screen space.

Built around the 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, it only weighs 1.37 kg and is less than 17 mm thick. Its fast-chargeable battery lasts up to 10 hours, and can get 4 hours of battery life with a quick 30 minute charge!

 

2021 Acer Chromebook Enterprise Spin 713

The 2021 Acer Chromebook Enterprise Spin 713 (CP713-3W) is the world’s first Intel Evo platform-verified Chromebook with Chrome Enterprise manageability built-in.

It features a premium aluminium chassis that is MIL-STD 810H rated for military-grade durability, in a convertible form factor. Its 13.5-inch VertiView display has a resolution of 2256 x 1504, giving you 18% more vertical screen space.

Built around the 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, it only weighs 1.37 kg and is less than 17 mm thick. Its fast-chargeable battery lasts up to 10 hours, and can get 4 hours of battery life with a quick 30 minute charge!

 

2021 Acer Chromebook Laptops : Specs + Price Comparison

Here is a quick specifications + price overview of the 2021 Acer Chromebook laptops :

Specifications Chromebook 314 Chromebook 317 Chromebook 514
Enterprise 514
Chromebook Spin 713
Enterprise Spin 713
Type Laptop Convertible Laptop
Size 14-inch 17.3-inch 14-inch 13.5-inch
Display Resolution 1920 x 1080 2256 x 1504
Processor MediaTek MT8183 Intel Celeron 11th Gen Intel Core
Connectivity Wi-Fi 5 Wi-Fi 6
Battery Life 15 hours 10 hours
Weight 1.5 kg 2.4 kg 1.5 kg 1.37 kg
Starting Price USD 269.99
EUR 329
USD 379.99
EUR 399
USD 599.99
EUR 549
USD 699.99
EUR 769

 

2021 Acer Chromebook Laptops : Where To Buy?

Here are some online purchase options for the 2021 Acer Chromebook laptops (prices accurate as of 9 Nov 2021) :

United States

United Kingdom

Australia

Malaysia

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Computer | Business | Tech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Xiaomi Mi 11 : What You Need To Know!

Xiaomi just launched the Mi 11 – their latest flagship smartphone, boasting studio-grade cameras and top-of-the-line performance.

Here is what you need to know about the Xiaomi Mi 11 smartphone!

 

Xiaomi Mi 11 : What You Need To Know!

On 8 February 2021, Xiaomi launched the Mi 11 – their latest flagship smartphone, built around the latest Snapdragon 888 mobile platform.

Let’s start with their official launch presentation on the Mi 11 smartphone :

6.81-inch 120 Hz AMOLED Display

The Xiaomi Mi 11 has a large 6.81-inch AMOLED display, with a 120 Hz refresh rate and a 480 Hz sampling rate.

It has a resolution of 1440 x 3200 pixels, a maximum brightness of 1500 nits, and is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888

The Mi 11 is the first Xiaomi smartphone to feature the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 mobile SoC, fabricated on the 5 nm process.

It boasts eight CPU cores with a triple-tier architecture, consisting of :

  • 1 x Kryo 680 Prime core (based on ARM Cortex-X1) at up to 2.84 GHz
  • 3 x Kryo 680 Gold cores (based on ARM Cortex-A78) at up to 2.42 GHz
  • 4 x Kryo 680 Silver cores (based on ARM Cortex-A55) at up to 1.8 GHz

It also comes with an Adreno 660 GPU, Hexagon 780 DSP, Spectra 580 ISP and a built-in X60 5G/LTE modem.

RAM + Storage Options

The Xiaomi Mi 11 comes with 8 GB of LPDDR5 SDRAM memory running at 3200 MHz.

Xiaomi will offer 128 GB and 256 GB storage options, with no external storage expansion through a microSD card.

Cameras

In the front, the Xiaomi Mi 11 has a 20 MP selfie camera, with an f/2.2 aperture. In the back, it has a triple-camera system that consists of :

  • 108 MP main camera, f/1.85 aperture
  • 13 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.4 aperture
  • 5 MP macro camera, f/2.4 aperture

This triple-camera system is supported by a single LED flash.

 

Xiaomi Mi 11 : Specifications

Specifications Xiaomi Mi 11
Display 6.81-inch AMOLED display
– 1440 x 3200 pixels, 515 ppi
– 120 Hz refresh rate
– 480 Hz sampling rate
– HDR10+, DCI-P3 colour gamut
– 1500 nits max. brightness
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass Victus (front)
Operating System MIUI 12.5 (Android 11)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
Memory 8 GB LPDDR5-3200
Storage Options 128 GB / 256 GB (UFS 3.1)
External Storage None
Front Camera 20 MP selfie camera (f/2.2)
Rear
Cameras
108 MP Samsung HMX (f/1.85) main camera
13 MP (f/2.4) ultra-wide camera
5 MP (f/2.4) macro camera
Connectivity 5G / 4G / 3G / 2G
Wi-Fi : WiFi 6
Bluetooth : BT 5.2
USB : USB Type C
GPS Support GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
NFC Yes
IR Emitter Yes
Fingerprint Sensor In Display
Audio Dual speakers tuned by Harman Kardon
Battery 4,600 mAh
Charging 55 watt wired,
50 watt wireless
Width
Height
Thickness
74.6 mm
164.3 mm
8.06 mm
Weight 196 g

 

Xiaomi Mi 11 : Price + Availability

The Xiaomi Mi 11 will come in two variants, at these price points :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB : €749, approximately $903 / £657 / A$1172 / S$1203 / RM3688
  • 8 GB + 256 GB : €799, approximately $963 / £699 / A$1250 / S$1283 / RM3934

There will be two colour options – Horizon Blue (left) and Midnight Gray (right).

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Mobile Devices | Home

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Acer Swift, Aspire + TravelMate : December 2020 Models!

Acer just released new and updated Swift, Aspire and TravelMate laptops, just in time for Christmas 2020!

Take a look at the new slew of Acer Swift, Aspire and TravelMate laptops that you can buy now!

 

Acer Swift 3 : New December 2020 Model!

The Acer Swift 3 is a 14-inch laptop designed for the young, and comes in three colour options – Blue, Pink and Silver.

It has a 14-inch slim bezel IPS LED display with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, in a chassis that is just under 16 mm thick, and weighs just 1.2 kg.

Built around the new 11th Gen Intel Core processor, and Intel Iris Xe Graphics, it comes with up to 16 GB of onboard LPDDR4X memory, and 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage.

The new December 2020 Acer Swift 3 model has a rated battery life of 11 hours, and supports fast charging to give you 4 hours of video playback with a 30-minute charge.

In addition, the December 2020 model of Acer Swift 3 comes pre-installed with Microsoft Office Home & Student 2019.

 

Acer Swift 3X : New December 2020 Model!

The Acer Swift 3X is a 14-inch laptop designed for both games and creative apps, with its new Iris Xe Max discrete graphics.

It has a 14-inch slim bezel IPS LED display with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, in a chassis that is just under 18 mm thick, and weighs just 1.37 kg.

Built around the new 11th Gen Intel Core processor, and Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics, it comes with up to 16 GB of onboard LPDDR4X memory, and 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage.

The new December 2020 Acer Swift 3 model has a rated battery life of 17 hours, and supports fast charging to give you 4 hours of video playback with a 30-minute charge.

In addition, the Acer Swift 3X comes pre-installed with Microsoft Office Home & Student 2019.

 

Acer Swift 5 : New December 2020 Model!

The Acer Swift 5 is a 14-inch ultra-light Intel Evo-certified laptop, that is just under 15 mm thick, and weighs only 1.05 kg!

It has a 14-inch IPS LED touch display with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, and 100% sRGB colour gamut. This touch display is protected by Antimicrobial Gorilla Glass.

Built around the new 11th Gen Intel Core processor, and Intel Iris Xe Graphics, it comes with up to 16 GB of onboard LPDDR4X memory, and 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage.

The new December 2020 Acer Swift 5 model has a rated battery life of 15 hours, and supports fast charging to give you 4 hours of video playback with a 30-minute charge.

In addition, the December 2020 model of Acer Swift 5 comes pre-installed with Microsoft Office Home & Student 2019.

 

Acer Aspire 5 : New December 2020 Model!

The December 2020 Acer Aspire 5 comes in 14-inch or 15.6-inch display options, with an all-metal chassis.

The 14-inch Aspire 5 is 15.6 mm thick, and weighs 1.45 kg; while the 15.6-inch Aspire 5 is 17.9 mm thick and weighs just 1.65 kg.

Built around the new 11th Gen Intel Core processor, and Intel Iris Xe Graphics, they both with up to 16 GB of onboard LPDDR4X memory (upgradable to 20 GB), and 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage.

Acer also offers an NVIDIA GeForce MX350 discrete graphics option for both models.

Both 14-inch and 15-inch models have a rated battery life of 13 hours, and supports fast charging to give you 4 hours of video playback with a 30-minute charge.

In addition, they both come pre-installed with Microsoft Office Home & Student 2019.

 

Acer TravelMate P2 : New December 2020 Model!

The Acer TravelMate P2 is a rugged laptop designed for business executives, with handy business features and advanced connectivity options.

Built to comply with MIL-STD-810G standards, the Travelmate P2 has a spill-resistant keyboard, and shock-absorbent corners to survive bumps and drops.

It also comes with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 protection, a fingerprint reader and Windows Hello for secure authentication, to safeguard sensitive data while working away from the office.

Built around the new 11th Gen Intel Core processor, and Intel Iris Xe Graphics, it comes with up to 32 GB of onboard LPDDR4X memory, and 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage or a 1 TB hard disk drive.

The new December 2020 Acer TravelMate P2 model has a rated battery life of 13 hours, and supports fast charging to give you 4 hours of video playback with a 30-minute charge.

 

Acer Swift, Aspire + TravelMate (Dec 2020 Models) : Price + Availability

The December 2020 models are available with immediate effect at these RRP :

  • Acer Swift 3 : RM 3,299 (approximately US$813 / £611 / A$1,082 / S$1,086)
  • Acer Swift 3X : RM 3,799 (approximately US$935 / £704 / A$1,245 / S$1,250)
  • Acer Swift 5 : RM 3,999 (approximately US$985 / £741 / A$1,312 / S$1,316)
  • 14-inch Acer Aspire 5 : RM 2,799 (approximately US$689 / £519 / A$918 / S$921)
  • 15.6-inch Acer Aspire 5 : RM 2,899 (approximately US$714 / £537 / A$951 / S$954)
  • Acer TravelMate P2 : RM 2,699 (approximately US$665 / £500 / A$885 / S$888)

Here are some online purchase options :

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > ComputerHome

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Samsung Galaxy Note20 | Galaxy Note20 Ultra Video Leaked!

Just before the official launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note20 smartphones, an AT&T video leaked…

Take a look at the leaked video… and check out the key features and specifications of the Note20 and Note20 Ultra smartphones!

 

Samsung Galaxy Note20 | Galaxy Note20 Ultra Video Leaked!

This AT&T video of the Samsung Galaxy Note20 and Galaxy Note20 Ultra smartphones leaked ahead of the official launch, confirming earlier leaked information.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+

The US market will receive the super-fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ in their Galaxy Note20 / Note20 Ultra devices.

The Plus version offers a faster Prime core (3.1 GHz, instead of 2.84 GHz), and a 10% faster Adreno 650 GPU.

The Snapdragon 865+ also adds Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 capability, although it’s likely that Samsung may lock it at regular Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 for “consistency”.

Globally, we expect Samsung to use the Exynos 990 mobile SoC that powers the Galaxy S20 series.

Recommended : Samsung Exynos 990 Performance : How Fast Is It?

50X Space Zoom | 30X Space Zoom

Samsung is not going to use the Galaxy S20 Ultra‘s folded lens design, replacing 100X Space Zoom with :

  • Galaxy Note20 Ultra : 50X Space Zoom
  • Galaxy Note20 : 30X Space Zoom

Different Displays

The two models will come with different displays with different resolutions :

  • Galaxy Note20 Ultra : 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED (2K), curved edges
  • Galaxy Note20 : 6.7-inch Super AMOLED+ (FHD+), flat

But both displays will support 120 Hz refresh rates, and HDR10+ colour.

Colour Options

Samsung will offer three colour options per model :

  • Galaxy Note20 Ultra : Mystic Bronze, Mystic Black, Mystic White

  • Galaxy Note20 : Mystic Green, Mystic Gray, Mystic Bronze

Battery Capacities

The video also confirmed earlier leaked information that they will have different battery capacities :

  • Galaxy Note20 Ultra : 4,500 mAh
  • Galaxy Note20 : 4,300 mAh

They will both support wireless charging with reverse charging capability, of course.

 

Samsung Galaxy Note20 | Galaxy Note20 Ultra : Specifications

Specifications Galaxy Note 20 5G Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
Display 6.7-inch Infinity-O Display
Super AMOLED + Panel
6.9-inch Infinity-O Display
Dynamic AMOLED (LPTO) Panel
Display Features HDR10+, 120 Hz refresh rate
Display Resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels 1440 x 3040 pixels
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 7, IP68
Operating System One UI 2.0 (Android Q)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ / Samsung Exynos 990
Memory 8 GB LPDDR5 12 GB LPDDR5
Internal Storage 128 GB / 256 GB 256 GB / 512 GB
External Storage Hybrid MicroSD Slot (up to 512 GB)
Front Camera 40 MP camera
Main Cameras 12 MP main camera (f/1.8)
12 MP ultra-wide camera (f/2.2)
64 MP 30X Space Zoom camera (f/2.0)
108 MP main camera (f/1.8)
12 MP ultra-wide camera (f/2.2)
12 MP 50X Space Zoom camera (f/3.0)
Laser focus sensor
Connectivity Bluetooth 5.1
WiFi-AX
USB 2.0 Type C
Fingerprint Sensor 3D Sonic Max
Battery 4,300 mAh 5,000 mAh
Charging 25 W 45 W
Dimensions NA NA
Weight NA NA

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Mobile Devices | Home

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Dell Latitude 9510 : 15″ Ultralight With 30 Hr Battery Life!

The new Dell Latitude 9510 is an ultralight 15-inch laptop that boasts an incredible 30 hours of battery life, and comes in two form factors!

Find out why the Dell Latitude 9510 is one of the most intriguing Dell professional laptop this year!

Dell Latitude 9510 : Ultralight With 30 Hr Battery Life!

The Dell Latitude 9510 is the first in the Dell 9000 ultra-premium line, and is crafted from precision-cut aluminium, with diamond-cut edges and a hairline brushed finish.

Dell went to great lengths to make it incredibly thin and small, squeezing a 15-inch InfinityEdge display (100% sRGB) into a 14-inch form factor that weighs only 1.5 kg.

You can configure it to use the latest 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, with up to 16 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM, and a PCIe NVMe SSD with up to 1 TB of storage. Dell also offers a 6-cell battery that will give it over 30 hours of battery life!

It also boasts AI-based technologies that are designed to adapt to your work habits :

  • ExpressSign-in uses a proximity sensor to automatically wake up and log you in via its IR camera and Windows Hello, and locks the screen when you walk away.
  • ExpressResponse with Intel Adaptix Technology launches your frequently-used applications quicker, and improves overall application performance based on your user preference and machine learning.
  • ExpressCharge Boost lets you recharge the Latitude 9510 by 35% in just 15 minutes, while ExpressCharge gets you up to 80% in an hour.
  • Intelligent Audio lets you hear and be heard better on conference calls, by eliminating echoes and background noise, even if you are walking around.

Designed for the professional on-the-go, the Dell Latitude 9510 also comes with work-related features like :

  • Quad microphones, with top-firing speakers and a powerful amp to ensure clear conference calls
  • Intel Wi-Fi 6 with VOIP prioritisation for better network performance and call quality
  • Qualcomm 5G / LTE capability with eSIM and a SIM slot to keep you always-connected
  • A camera shutter option for the security-conscious

 

Dell Latitude 9510 : Specifications

The Dell Latitude 9510 is available in two form factors :

  • Laptop : non-touch display, 1.4 kg
  • 2-in-1 : touch display with Gorilla Glass 6 DX protection and active pen support, 1.5 kg
Specifications Latitude 9510 (Laptop) Latitude 9510 (2-in-1)
OS Options Windows 10 Professional
Windows 10 Home
Ubuntu
Windows 10 Professional
Windows 10 Home
Display Options 15-inch Full HD display
– 1920 x 1080 pixels
– 100% sRGB, 400 nits
15-inch Full HD display
– 1920 x 1080 pixels
– 100% sRGB, 400 nits

– 10 finger touch panel
– Corning Gorilla Glass 6 DX
Processor Options Up to Intel Core i7 vPro
Memory Options Up to 16 GB LPDDR3-2133
Graphics Intel UHD Graphics
Storage Options PCIe NVMe SSD (M.2 Class 35) – Up to 1 TB
PCIe NVMe SED SSD (M.2 Class 35) – Up to 256 GB
Multimedia Mechanical Privacy Shutter
IR Camera + Proximity Sensor
4 x Top-Firing Speakers
4 x Noise Cancelling Microphones
Connectivity Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 2×2 + Bluetooth 5.1
Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 (LTE)
Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 (5G)
Ports 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A (PowerShare)
2 x Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type C)
1 x HDMI 2.0
1 x external uSIM tray (optional)
1 x microSD 4.0 card reader
1 x SmartCard reader (optional)
Sensors Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Accelerometer, Ambient Light
Battery Options 4-Cell, 52 WHr ExpressCharge
6-Cell, 88 WHr ExpressCharge
4-Cell, 52 WHr Long Life Cycle
Charging Options 65 W USB Type C Adapter
90 W USB Type C Adapter
Dimensions 340.2 mm wide
215.8 mm deep
8.23 ~ 13.99 mm thick
Weight Starting from 1.4 kg Starting from 1.5 kg

 

Dell Latitude 9510 Price + Availability

The Dell Latitude 9510 has a starting price of US$1,899 (about £1,502 / A$2,718 / S$2,642 / RM 8,094), with global availability from 26 March, 2020 onwards.

Its arrival in Malaysia was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic but is available starting 7 July 2020, with a starting price of RM 7,926 (about US1,856 / £1,475 / A$2,673 / S$2,585).

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Computer | EnterpriseHome

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Here Is The New Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 Smartwatch!

Here is everything you need to know about the new Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 smartwatch – the four models, features, and specifications!

 

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 is a new active lifestyle smartwatch. Available in two sizes, it comes with a slew of healthcare and activity monitoring features. Let’s check out what’s new…

Four Different Designs

To cater to different lifestyles, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 comes in two sizes – 44 mm and 40 mm, and in two styles :

  • lightweight aluminium, with a casual Fluoroelastomer (FKM) band
  • premium solid stainless steel, with a leather strap

They can be further personalised with a range of stylish straps and watch face options.

Match Your Outfit!

You can now customise your Galaxy Watch Active2 face to your outfit of the day, using the My Style colour extraction algorithm.

Simply use the Galaxy Wearable app to take a photo of your outfit, and choose from five different colour patterns to change to a matching watch face!

Digital Touch Bezel

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 features a digital touch bezel. Directly turn the digital bezel on the curved display edge in either directions!

Your Wellness Compansion

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 is designed to provide actionable insights into your health.

It automatically tracks seven types of workouts – running, walking, cycling, swimming, rowing, elliptical and dynamic, with more than 30 other workouts you can manually track.

It can also track your real-time stress levels through Samsung Health, and better analyse your sleep patterns at night.

Stay Connected!

Designed for a connected lifestyle, the Galaxy Watch Active2 keeps you connected on-the-go.

You can access social media content, and even video clips from your wrist. And if you are travelling, it supports real-time voice and text translations in over 16 languages!

[adrotate group=”2″]

Through Samsung’s partnership with Spotify, you can now enjoy listening to music and podcasts on-the-go using your Samsung account!

Galaxy Synergy

You can use its Watch Camera Controller app to remotely control your Samsung smartphone’s camera – to take photos, record videos, switch between camera lenses and so on.

And you can use the Wireless PowerShare capability of Samsung smartphones like the Note10, S10+, S10 and S10e to wirelessly recharge your smartwatch!

 

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 Specifications

Specifications

Galaxy Watch Active2
(44 mm)

Galaxy Watch Active2
(40 mm)

Display

1.4-inch (34 mm) Super AMOLED
– 360 x 360 pixels

1.2-inch (30 mm) Super AMOLED
– 360 x 360 pixels

Display Protection

Corning Gorilla Glass DX+

Durability

5ATM + IP68
MIL-STD-810G

Operating System

Tizen

System Platform

Samsung Exynos 9110

Processor

2 x ARM Cortex-A53 cores @ 1.15 GHz

Graphics Processor

ARM Mali-T720MP1

Memory

4 GB RAM

Storage

768 MB flash storage

Connectivity

WiFi : 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 5.0 + NFC

GPS

GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou

Sensor

Heart Rate (8 photodiodes)
Electrocardiogram (ECG)
Accelerometer (up to 32G of force)
Gyroscope
Barometer
Ambient Light

Battery

340 mAh

247 mAh

Charging

WPC-based wireless charging

Strap

20 mm interchangable straps

Dimensions

44 mm x 44 mm x 10.9 mm

40 mm x 40 mm x 10.9 mm

Weight

30 g (Aluminium)
42 g (Stainless Steel)

26 g (Aluminium)
37 g (Stainless Steel)

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Mobile Devices | Home

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


The 2019 Acer Swift 7 Ultra-Light Laptop Preview!

Acer just unveiled a new ultra-light, ultra-thin laptop – the 2019 Acer Swift 7!

Here is everything you need to know about the new Swift 7, including its price and key features!

 

The 2019 Acer Swift 7 Ultra-Light Laptop Revealed!

Let’s start with the launch briefing by Jeffrey Lai, Senior Product Manager of Acer Malaysia.

 

The 2019 Acer Swift 7 Ultra-Light Laptop

Designed with a minimalist concept, the 2019 Acer Swift 7 boasts clean, sleek lines with an ultra-thin and ultra-light finless design.

It is now 60% smaller than the average 14-inch laptop, and weighs just 890 g! Even so, it packs enough battery power to last up to 12 hours of non-stop use.

Thanks to its super-thin bezels, it has a 14-inch Full HD display with an impressive 92% screen-to-body ratio. This touch display boasts a wide colour gamut of 100% sRGB / 72% NTSC, and is protected by Gorilla Glass 6.

The new Swift 7 is powered by an 8th Gen Intel Core processor with 8 GB RAM and an NVMe PCIe SSD. And it comes with two USB Type C Gen 2 ports, and Gigabit WiFi with 2×2 MIMO technology.

It has a push-to-open camera that is hidden just above the keyboard, with a power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor. To ensure durability, its touchpad is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

Recommended : The 2019 Acer Predator Triton 900 Gaming Monster Preview!

 

The 2019 Acer Swift 7 Price + Availability

Acer is offering two 2019 Swift 7 models with immediate effect at these official prices :

  • 2019 Acer Swift 7 (Core i5) : RM 5,999 / ~$1,448 / ~£1,139 / ~€1,274
  • 2019 Acer Swift 7 (Core i7) : RM 7,599 / ~$1,834 / ~£1,443 / ~€1,613

They will both come with a leather protective sleeve, and a USB Type C hub with USB Type A and HDMI ports.

Recommended : The 2019 Acer Predator + Nitro Gaming Laptops Revealed!

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Computers | Home

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Xiaomi Mi 9T Price List + Special Offer In Malaysia Revealed!

Excited about the new Xiaomi Mi 9T smartphone? Here is the official Mi 9T price list… and the 1-day-only special offer for Malaysia!

 

The Xiaomi Mi 9T Smartphone

The Xiaomi Mi 9T, also known as the Redmi K20, boasts a pop-up front camera and a 48 MP triple camera system at the back!

Recommended : Xiaomi Mi 9T (Redmi K20) – Everything You Need To Know!

 

Xiaomi Mi 9T Colour Options

Xiaomi is offering the Mi 9T (MY) in three colour options – Carbon Black, Glacier Blue and Flame Red.

The Glacier Blue and Flame Red colour options have a dynamic holographic design, while the Carbon Black option has a textured carbon fibre design.

The back cover is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, which is rated to survive 1.6-meter drops on hard, rough surfaces up to 80% of the time.

Recommended : The Xiaomi Mi 9 In-Depth Review – 48MP Flagship FTW!

 

Xiaomi Mi 9T Price + Availability!

Here is the official Xiaomi Mi 9T price list :

  • 6 GB + 64 GB : RM 1,199 / ~US$289 / ~£228 / ~€256
  • 6 GB + 128 GB : RM 1,399 / ~US$337 / ~£266 / ~€299

The 64 GB model will start selling on 25 June 2019, with pre-booking beginning immediately.

The 128 GB model will only be available from 29 June 2019 onwards.

 

Xiaomi Mi 9T Launch Offer!

At 10 AM on 25 June 2019, Xiaomi will sell the 64 GB model at a special price of RM 1,099 / ~US$265 / ~£209 / ~€235

To take advantage of this special offer, you need to PRE-BOOK your unit NOW. Do NOT wait until 10 AM on 25 June, as units are limited!

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Mobile Devices | Home

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


The Acer Swift 7 2018 – World’s Thinnest 4G LTE Laptop Revealed!

The annual Acer Day is back! In addition to many great offers, Acer Malaysia also launched the Acer Swift 7 2018 – the world’s thinnest 4G LTE laptop! Check it out!

 

The Acer Swift 7 2018 – World’s Thinnest 4G LTE Laptop Revealed!

The Acer Swift 7 2018 is the world’s thinnest 4G LTE laptop at just 8.98 mm. Powered by a 7th Gen Intel Core processor with 8 GB of LPDDR3 memory, the Swift 7 2018 also comes with a 256 GB PCle SSD, and up to 10 hours of battery life.

2018

It boasts a 14-inch Full HD IPS display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and narrow bezels, and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. Its HD webcam in the front supports HDR and 720p video recording. But arguably the most important feature it comes with is its built-in 4G LTE connectivity that will allow you to get connected and work on-the-road.

The Swift 7 2018 users also enjoy better security with ease thanks to the fingerprint reader and Windows Hello login capability. Further enhancing the security feature is the enterprise-grade Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to keep your critical workplace data secured.

 

Acer Swift 7 2018 Price + Availability

In conjunction with Acer Day 2018, Acer is offering a variety of offers and discounts.

2018

Customers who purchase the Acer Swift 7 2018 will also get a protective sleeve, a USB Type C to HDMI adapter and USB Type A adapter in the box!

The Acer Swift 7 2018 is priced at RM 6,399 / ~US$ 1,599 and is available for purchase immediately at all Acer Official Online Stores and authorized resellers nationwide.

Suggested Reading

[adrotate group=”2″]

Go Back To > Computer Hardware + Systems | Home

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

The Complete Huawei Watch 2 Product Briefing

Right after The Huawei P10 Plus, P10 & P10 Lite Product Briefing, we were also briefed on the new Huawei Watch 2. Huawei will be offering two different models – the Huawei Watch 2 (available in Bluetooth-only, or 4G-capable versions), and the Huawei Watch 2 Classic.

Like the new Huawei P10 family, the new Huawei smartwatches will be offered in a multitude of colour options. Let’s check out the full Huawei Watch 2 product briefing, and get their full specifications!

 

The Complete Huawei Watch 2 Product Briefing

In this video, Justin Zhang, Huawei’s Senior Director of Smartphone Product Line Marketing in Shanghai, briefed us on the Huawei Watch 2’s key features.

Here are some key points :

[adrotate banner=”4″]
  • All three models feature a ceramic bezel, with a dual crown design.
  • The watch faces of all three models are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass.
  • All three models run on Android Wear 2.0 and are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100.
  • The 4G-capable model supports a single nano SIM / eSIM, and has a built-in speaker and noise-cancelling microphone.
  • All three models are IP68-rated for dust and water-resistance.
  • All three models have GPS navigation capability built-in (GPS + GLONASS).
  • The 4G model will be available in the Dynamic Orange and Carbon Black colours.
  • The Bluetooth model will be available in the Carbon Black and Concrete Grey colours.
  • The Classic model will be available only in the Titanium Grey colour.

 

The Huawei Watch 2 Specifications

SpecificationsHuawei Watch 2
(Bluetooth Only)
Huawei Watch 2
(Mobile Capable)
Huawei Watch 2 Classic
Display1.2" AMOLED
- 390 x 390 pixels, 326 ppi
- Gorilla Glass protection
1.2" AMOLED
- 390 x 390 pixels, 326 ppi
- Gorilla Glass protection
1.2" AMOLED
- 390 x 390 pixels, 326 ppi
- Gorilla Glass protection
Operating SystemAndroid Wear 2.0Android Wear 2.0Android Wear 2.0
Smartphone CompatibilityAndroid 4.3 onwards
Apple iOS 8.2 onwards
Android 4.3 onwards
Apple iOS 8.2 onwards
Android 4.3 onwards
Apple iOS 8.2 onwards
PlatformQualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 (MSM8909W)Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 (MSM8909W)Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 (MSM8909W)
Processor4 x ARM Cortex-A7 (1.1 GHz)4 x ARM Cortex-A7 (1.1 GHz)4 x ARM Cortex-A7 (1.1 GHz)
Graphics ProcessorQualcomm Adreno 304Qualcomm Adreno 304Qualcomm Adreno 304
Memory768 MB LPDDR3 SDRAM (400 MHz)768 MB LPDDR3 SDRAM (400 MHz)768 MB LPDDR3 SDRAM (400 MHz)
Storage4 GB internal flash storage
- 2.3 GB free space
4 GB internal flash storage
- 2.3 GB free space
4 GB internal flash storage
- 2.3 GB free space
ConnectivityWiFi : 802.11b/g/n (2.4 GHz)
Bluetooth : v4.1, BLE+BR / EDR
4G : GSM / WCDMA / TDS / CMDA2000 / LTE
WiFi : 802.11b/g/n (2.4 GHz)
Bluetooth : v4.1, BLE+BR / EDR
WiFi : 802.11b/g/n (2.4 GHz)
Bluetooth : v4.1, BLE+BR / EDR
SIM CapabilityNoneNoneSupports one nano SIM card or eSIM
GPSYes, GPS and GLONASSYes, GPS and GLONASSYes, GPS and GLONASS
NFCYesYesYes
Watch Case MaterialMixed plasticsMixed plastics316L stainless steel + plastics
Dust & Water ResistanceIP68IP68IP68
SensorsAccelerometer, Gyroscope, Barometer, Heart rate sensor (PPG), Capacitance sensor, Ambient light sensor, Geomagnetic sensorAccelerometer, Gyroscope, Barometer, Heart rate sensor (PPG), Capacitance sensor, Ambient light sensor, Geomagnetic sensorAccelerometer, Gyroscope, Barometer, Heart rate sensor (PPG), Capacitance sensor, Ambient light sensor, Geomagnetic sensor
Battery420 mAh lithium-ion battery
- 2 day battery life (typical)
- 10 hours in training mode (GPS + real-time heart rate monitoring)
420 mAh lithium-ion battery
- 2 day battery life (typical)
- 10 hours in training mode (GPS + real-time heart rate monitoring)
420 mAh lithium-ion battery
- 2 day battery life (typical)
- 10 hours in training mode (GPS + real-time heart rate monitoring)
Watch Lug Width20 mm20 mm22 mm
Watch StrapChangeable sport strap
- 20 mm width, 140-210 mm in length
Changeable sport strap
- 20 mm width, 140-210 mm in length
Changeable leather strap
- 22 mm width, 140-210 mm in length
Dimensions48.9 mm x 45 mm x 12.6 mm48.9 mm x 45 mm x 12.6 mm48.9 mm x 45 mm x 12.6 mm
Weight (without band)40 g42 g47 g
Available ColoursCarbon Black, Concrete GreyDynamic Orange, Carbon BlackTitanium Grey

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

The OPPO F1s Selfie Expert Smartphone Review

OPPO is a fast-rising Chinese smartphone brand. In fact, it became the no. 1 smartphone brand in China when it surpassed Huawei, Apple and Xiaomi in June 2016 with a 22.9% market share. How did they accomplished that in the cutthroat smartphone business?

Their latest smartphone from their Selfie Expert series – the OPPO F1s (Amazon), may reveal the secret to their success. Let’s take a look…

 

Selfie Expert Series

Unlike most smartphones, the OPPO Selfie Expert series emphasize the performance of the front camera – the selfie camera.

Smartphones from the OPPO Selfie Expert series feature a higher resolution camera in the front, with a fast lens and flash support. They also feature the OPPO Beautify software, which automatically corrects for blemishes and uneven skin tones.

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) comes with a 16 MP front camera with f/2.0 lens, screen flash and OPPO Beautify 4.0 software.

 

OPPO F1s Specifications

SpecificationsOPPO F1s
Model NumberOPPO A1601
Display5.5" IPS display - 720 x 1280 pixels
Display ProtectionCorning Gorilla Glass 4 (with 2.5D curved edge)
Operating SystemAndroid 5.1 Lollipop with ColorOS 3.0
System PlatformMediaTek MT6750
Processor4 x ARM Cortex-A53 (1.5 GHz)
4 x ARM Cortex-A53 (1.0 GHz)
Graphics ProcessorARM Mali-T860 MP2
Memory3 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM
Storage32 GB internal flash memory
microSD card slot (up to 128 GB)
Selfie Camera16 MP sensor with screen flash
- 1/3.1" sensor size with f/2.0 lens
Main Camera13 MP sensor with LED flash
- 1/3 inch sensor with PDAF and f/2.2 lens
ConnectivityGSM : 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 Hz
Network : 2G / 3G / 4G
WiFi : 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth : v4.0, A2DP
USB : microUSB 2.0
SIM SupportDual nano SIM slots with dual standby capability
SensorsAccelerometer, compass, light, proximity
Fingerprint SensorYes, with multi-finger support
- registers fingerprints in 0.22 s
GPSYes, A-GPS
NFCNo
Battery3,075 mAh lithium polymer battery (non-removable)
Dimensions76 mm wide x 154.5 mm high x 7.38 mm thick
Weight160 g
Available ColoursGold / Rose Gold
Recommended Retail Price (at launch)RM 1,198 / ~US$ 299

 

Unboxing The OPPO F1s Smartphone

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) comes in a white cardboard box with a printed sleeve. Let’s take a look inside and see what’s included in the package.

Inside the box, you will find the following items : [adrotate banner=”4″]
  • OPPO F1s smartphone (with pre-applied screen protector)
  • OPPO F1s Quick Start Guide and Warranty Guide
  • Clear TPU case for the OPPO F1s
  • Pair of white earphones
  • Micro USB 2.0 cable
  • OPPO 10 W quick charger
  • SIM ejector tool

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) smartphone comes with a very practical package. The clear TPU case may not be fancy, but it allows you to quickly protect the OPPO F1s out-of-the-box until you find a nicer case.

The same goes for the basic earphones. They will do the job until you get a nicer set.

Next Page >  The OPPO F1s, Cameras, Fingerprint Sensor, SIM & microSD Card Tray

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

The OPPO F1s Smartphone

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) is a 5.5″ smartphone but with a width of just 76 mm, fits well in our Asian-sized hands. It is slim, but not delicately so. With a weight of 160 g, it has a heft to it that imparts a solid feel.

The Volume buttons are located on the left, with the Power button and the SIM / microSD card tray on the right. The earphone port is located at the bottom, with the micro USB port.

 

Cameras

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) boasts the highest resolution sensor for any front camera in the market – 16 MP. Even top-of-the-line smartphones only come with a 5 MP front camera (e.g. HTC 10, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge). The front 16 MP camera has a fast f/2.0 lens and is supported by screen flash and the OPPO Beautify 4.0 software.

The rear camera is no slouch though, with a 13 MP sensor and f/2.2 lens. It is supported by an LED flash. OPPO also used a larger 1/3.06″ sensor with larger pictures to increase light sensitivity and reduce noise.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Fingerprint Sensor

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) boasts a fast fingerprint sensor built into the Home button. The sensor is a mere 0.1 mm thick, and it can detect your fingerprint in just 0.22 seconds.

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) uses a self-learning algorithm that helps it improve its accuracy over time. You can even set it to activate up to 5 frequently-used apps or features (like the camera)!

 

SIM & microSD Card Tray

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) comes with dual SIM, dual standby capability. It also supports a microSD card, allowing for additional storage of up to 128 GB.

Fortunately, the OPPO F1s (Amazon) is spacious enough to fit both nano SIM cards, together with a single microSD card. All three cards fit on the same tray.

Next Page > Setting Up The OPPO F1s, It’s Alive!, Available Memory & Storage

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

Setting Up The OPPO F1s

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop, which should be familiar to many Android users. It is very easy to setup. If you are setting it up as a new device, it should take you only 5 minutes to finish the setup process.

The fingerprint feature is not part of the setup process though. You will need to manually activate it in Settings after setting up the F1s.

 

It’s Alive!

The 5.5″ IPS display is bright and sharp, with a resolution of 720 x 1280. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 4, but it comes with a pre-applied screen protector for additional protection.

Even though it has a large 5.5″ display, it fits the hand quite well, thanks to the narrow bezel. However, single-handed operation is still a stretch.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Available Memory & Storage

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) comes with 3 GB of memory. This is great, because the Android 5.1 operating system and background apps take up about 1.5 GB of memory. This leaves you with just over 1.5 GB of free memory to use.

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) also comes with 32 GB of internal flash storage – generous at this price point. It is expandable via a microSD card (up to 128 GB). Out of the box, the OPPO F1s has 23.69 GB of free space for you to use, excluding the system files and pre-installed apps.

Next Page > Camera Performance – Photos & Video

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

Camera Performance – Photos

We are preparing a selfie comparison, but in the meantime, let’s take a look at the performance of the rear camera. The OPPO F1s (Amazon) has a 13 MP camera at the back, with a f/2.2 lens and an LED flash. The photos have a maximum resolution of 4160 x 3120 in the 4:3 format. The photos are about 4-5 MB in size.

The rear camera of the OPPO F1s (Amazon) takes pretty good photos, with accurate colours and relatively low noise. There is visible noise only when the photos are blown up to full resolution, and they are mostly visible in dark areas.

 

Camera Performance – Video Recording

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) is capable of recording 1080p and 720p videos. However, it does not seem to support optical or electronic image stabilization. Check out the two sample videos we took.

The lack of image stabilization is pretty obvious, so you should try to use a tripod or monopod where possible. However, the OPPO F1s (Amazon) has good control of the exposure (only the bright backgrounds were overblown), and surprisingly good audio recording quality.

Next Page > OPPO F1s Work Performance, Battery Life & Recharging Performance

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

Work Performance – PCMark

We tested the OPPO F1s’ performance using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

OPPO F1s Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro honor 5C honor 5X
Work Performance Score
(Average)
3884 5785 5357 3898
Web Browsing 3688 5132 5643 3756
Video Playback 3789 4138 4487 4325
Writing 4141 6286 5944 4370
Photo Editing 3933 8388 5469 3250

The octa-core MediaTek MT6750 processor powering the OPPO F1s (Amazon) appears to be roughly equivalent in work performance to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor powering the honor 5X smartphone.

 

Battery Life – PCMark

We then tested the OPPO F1s’ battery performance using PCMark. It basically ran the PCMark work tests until its battery capacity dropped to 20%.

While the MediaTek MT6750 may not be a very fast processor, it is certainly very power-efficient. The OPPO F1s packs a 3,075 mAh battery – about the same as the HTC 10, but lasts more than twice as long!

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) definitely has very good battery life. Remember, it lasted 13 continuous hours on this stress test. In real life, we have no problem using it for a full day lasting 16-18 hours. Even when we play games on it, it lasts more than 8 hours on one charge.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Battery Recharging Performance

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) comes with a 10 W fast charger. It takes about 135 minutes (2 hours 15 minutes) to recharge its battery from 15% to 100%. That’s a battery life : recharging ratio of 6:1 – very impressive!

It actually recharged to 90% in just 87 minutes (1 hour 27 minutes). Getting from 15% to 50% only took 35 minutes. Not bad at all. Even a short charge will give you plenty of juice to power through the next few hours.

Next Page > OPPO F1s Overall & Gaming Performance, Verdict & Award

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

Overall Performance

AnTuTu is a nice benchmark for testing various performance aspects of Android devices.

OPPO F1s Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro honor 5C honor 5X
TOTAL SCORE 41486 68184 53417 36983
3D SCORE 4868 18360 9842 2446
– 3D (Marooned) 3188 10739 5795 1492
– 3D (Garden) 1679 7621 4047 954
UX SCORE 17640 23464 19297 16269
– UX Data Secure 4885 5356 5577 4673
– UX Data Process 2542 3235 2706 2438
– UX Strategy Games 2829 5601 4109 2698
– UX Image Process 3885 6240 3144 2599
– UX I/O Performance 3499 3022 3761 3861
CPU SCORE 14336 19872 19254 14031
– CPU Mathematics 3142 5953 4198 2968
– CPU Common Use 4805 4830 5947 4696
– CPU Multi-Core 6389 9089 9109 6367
RAM 4643 6488 5024 4237

The OPPO F1s (Amazon) put in a decent performance in AnTuTu, coming in between the honor 5C and the honor 5X in 3D and UX performance. It was just a little faster than the honor 5X in CPU and RAM performance.

 

Gaming Performance – 3DMark

We tested the OPPO F1s’ gaming performance using 3DMark, using the Ice Storm Unlimited test.

OPPO F1s Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro honor 5C honor 5X
Gaming Score 7666 16989 11560 5543
Graphics 7511 21800 11067 5046
Physics 8265 9585 13698 8460
Graphics Test 1 49.4 fps 120.7 fps 63.4 fps 27.5 fps
Graphics Test 2 24.4 fps 78.0 fps 38.8 fps 18.3 fps
Physics Test 26.2 fps 30.4 fps 43.5 fps 26.9 fps

In 3D performance, the OPPO F1s (Amazon) did quite well, coming in between the honor 5C and the honor 5X.

 

Our Verdict & Award

If you are wondering how the heck did OPPO beat the likes of Huawei and Xiaomi in the ferocious Chinese market, you can just look at the design choices in the OPPO F1s smartphone. OPPO focused solely on the basic necessities to keep costs low, and only spent money where it would make a real difference.

For example, the OPPO F1s (Amazon) comes with a large and sharp IPS display protected by Gorilla Glass 4, but kept the resolution to 720 x 1280. It may not compare favourably against higher resolution displays in the market, the difference in resolution wouldn’t make a real difference to the user.

A lower resolution display also allows for better graphics performance, while reducing power consumption. That allowed the OPPO F1s (Amazon) to deliver much faster 2D and 3D graphics performance than the honor 5X, which uses an equivalent processor. Yet, it boasts 50% better battery life than the honor 5X, even though they both also have the same battery capacity.

OPPO chose to focus instead on the high resolution selfie camera in the front, extra RAM and flash storage. The selfie camera is the OPPO F1s’ killer feature, after all. Anyone who wants the best selfie camera in a smartphone will know that this is what OPPO excels in. So it pays to spend money on the front camera.

[adrotate banner=”4″]

The extra RAM, on the other hand, gives it a real performance advantage over equivalent smartphones with 2 GB of RAM. The extra flash storage more than doubles the available storage for the user, and looks great when a potential buyer compares the OPPO F1s (Amazon) against competitors in the same price range (usually with just 16 GB of storage).

Even the accessories show the same focus on the necessities over bling. The OPPO F1s (Amazon) comes with a pair of earphones and a clear TPU case. Really the only accessories that you will likely use.

We only note two issues of concern. The first is OPPO’s continued use of the 1.5 year old Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system. Other smartphone brands have long moved to Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and are now in the process of switching to Android 7.0 Nougat.

We also wonder why the OPPO F1s (Amazon) does not even support electronic image stabilization. That is usually available when optical image stabilization is not built-in, because the cost to implement it is negligible. Perhaps they were focusing on the performance of the front selfie camera.

Overall, the OPPO F1s (Amazon) is a sleek, well-made smartphone with features that really matter. At this price point, it won’t have many competitors that can offer 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of flash storage. And no one else will offer a 16 MP front camera for the ultimate selfies. So if selfies are your “thing”, the OPPO F1s is really your only choice in this price point.

For those reasons, we think the OPPO F1s (Amazon) deserves the Tech ARP Reviewer’s Choice Award. Congratulations, OPPO!

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL) Smartphone Review

The ASUS ZenFone 2 family of smartphones and phablets was notable for its use of Intel Atom processors, as well as their ambidextrous design. While the Intel Atom processors were powerful, they guzzled power and had trouble gaining traction in the smartphone market.

Hence, it comes as no surprise when ASUS revealed in Computex 2016 that the new ZenFone 3 series would be powered by Qualcomm processors instead. That decision probably contributed to Intel’s decision to quit the smartphone market for good.

You may have already seen our sneak peek of the new ASUS ZenFone 3 models at Computex 2016. Today, we are going to take a look at the ASUS ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL) smartphone!

 

ASUS ZenFone 3 Specifications Comparison

Here is how the ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) compares against the other two ZenFone 3 models :

SpecificationsZenFone 3 Deluxe (ZS570KL)‏ZenFone 3 Ultra (ZU680KL)ZenFone 3 ‏(ZE552KL)‏
Display5.7" Super AMOLED
(1920 x 1080 pixels, 386 ppi)
79% screen-to-body ratio
3,000,000 : 1
contrast ratio
ASUS TruVivid technology
Bluelight Filter
6.8" IPS display
full-screen lamination
(1920 x 1080 pixels, 324 ppi)
79% screen-to-body ratio
178˚wide-viewing angle
ASUS TruVivid technology
Bluelight Filter
5.5" Super IPS+ display
(1920 x 1080 pixels, 401 ppi)
500 nits brightness
77.3% screen-to-body ratio
2.1mm slim bezel
ProtectionCorning Gorilla Glass 4Corning Gorilla Glass 42.5D contoured Corning Gorilla Glass
Operating SystemAndroid 6.0 Marshmallow
ASUS ZenUI 3.0
Android 6.0 Marshmallow
ASUS ZenUI 3.0
Android 6.0 Marshmallow
ASUS ZenUI 3.0
SoC PlatformQualcomm Snapdragon 820
(MSM8996)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 652
(MSM8976)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
(MSM8953)
ProcessorQuad-core Kyro (2.15 GHz)4 x ARM Cortex-A72 (1.8 GHz)
4 x ARM Cortex-A53 (1.4 GHz)
4 x ARM Cortex-A53 (2.0 GHz)
4 x ARM Cortex-A53 (1.4 GHz)
Graphics ProcessorQualcomm Adreno 530 (624 MHz)Qualcomm Adreno 510Qualcomm Adreno 506
MemoryUp to 6 GBUp to 4 GB LPDDR3Up to 4 GB LPDDR3
StorageUp to 128 GB (UFS 2.0) internal flash storage
microSD slot (Supports up to 2 TB)
Up to 128 GB internal flash storage
microSD slot (Supports up to 2 TB)
Up to 64 GB internal flash storage
microSD slot (Supports up to 2 TB)
Front Camera8 MP, f/2.0 aperture
85˚ wide-viewing angle, Auto Focus
8 MP, f/2.0 aperture
85˚ wide-viewing angle, Auto Focus
8 MP, f/2.0 aperture, Fixed Focus
Rear Camera23 MP Sony IMX318 sensor
0.03 second TriTech auto-focus
6P Largan f/2.0 aperture lens
4 Stop OIS (Optical Image Stabilization)
3-Axis EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization)
Dual-LED real tone flash
Sapphire lens protection
23 MP Sony IMX318 sensor
0.03 second TriTech auto-focus
6P Largan f/2.0 aperture lens
32 second long exposure
4 Stop OIS (Optical Image Stabilization)
3-Axis EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization)
Dual-LED real tone flash
16 MP Sony IMX298 sensor
0.03 second TriTech auto-focus
6P Largan f/2.0 aperture lens
32 second long exposure
4 Stop OIS (Optical Image Stabilization)
3-Axis EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization)
Dual-LED real tone flash
Sapphire lens protection
ConnectivityFDD Band 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 8 / 12 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 26 / 28 / 29 / 30
LTE Cat. 13 (600 Mbps / 150 Mbps)
UMTS:
Band: 1/2/4/5/6/8/19
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
USB 3.0 Type-C, BT4.2 + A2DP + EDR
GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS/BDSS
FDD Band 1 / 3 / 5 / 7 / 8 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 26 / 28
LTE Cat. 6 (300 Mbps / 50 Mbps)
UMTS: B1/B2/B5/B6/B8/B19
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
USB 2.0 Type-C, BT4.2 + A2DP + EDR
GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS/BDSS
FDD Band 1 / 2 / 3 / 5 / 7 / 8 / 20
LTE Cat. 6 (300 Mbps / 50 Mbps)
UMTS: B1/B2/B5/B8
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900
Wi-Fi 802.11ac/USB 2.0 Type-C
BT4.2/GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS/BDSS
Dual SIM capabilityDual SIM Dual StandbyDual SIM Dual StandbyDual SIM Dual Standby
SensorsAccelerator / E-Compass / Gyroscope / Proximity sensor / Hall sensor / Ambient light sensor / RGB sensor / IR sensorAccelerator / E-Compass / Gyroscope / Proximity sensor / Hall sensor / Ambient light sensor / RGB sensor / IR sensorAccelerator / E-Compass / Gyroscope / Proximity sensor / Hall sensor / Ambient light sensor / RGB sensor / IR sensor
Fingerprint SensorYes, rear mounted below camera bumpYes, integrated with Home buttonYes, rear mounted below camera bump
Audio Capability5 magnet speaker
ASUS SonicMaster 3.0
Dual 5 magnet speakers
ASUS SonicMaster 3.0
FM Radio
5 magnet speaker
ASUS SonicMaster 3.0
Battery3000 mAh4600 mAh
Talk time: 34 hrs (3G)
Wi-Fi browsing (14.5 hrs)
Video Playback (12.5 hrs)
3000 mAh
Fast Charging18 W (9V, 2A) Adapter
Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology
BoostMaster Fast Charging : 60% battery capacity in 39 minutes
18 W (9V, 2A) Adapter
Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology
BoostMaster Fast Charging : 60% battery capacity in 45 minutes
10 W (5V, 2A) Adapter
Size156.4 mm tall x 77.4 mm wide x 4.2 ~ 7.5 mm thick186.4 mm tall x 93.9 mm wide x 6.8 mm thick152.59 mm tall x 77.38 mm wide x 7.69 mm thick
Weight170 g233 g155 g
Available ColoursMetal finish:
Glacier Silver
Titanium Gray
Shimmer Gold
Metal finish:
Glacier Silver
Titanium Gray
Metallic Pink
Glass finish:
Sapphire Black
Moonlight White
Shimmer Gold
Aqua Blue

 

Unboxing The ASUS ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL)

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) comes in a classy slate-coloured cardboard box. Wanna see what’s inside? We reveal it all in this video!

[adrotate banner=”4″]

Inside the box, you will find the following items :

  • One ASUS ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL) smartphone
  • One pair of ASUS earphones, with four spare earbuds
  • One set of ASUS ZenFone 3 User Guide and warranty card
  • One 10W ASUS quick charger
  • One Type C USB cable
  • One SIM tray ejector pin
  • One set of three serial number and IMEI stickers

ASUS is marketing the ZenFone 3 as the more affordable mainstream variant, and the bundled accessories reflect that.

Next Page > Key Features Of The ZenFone 3, Setting Up The ZenFone 3

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL) Smartphone

With a 5.5″ display, the ASUS ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL) is the smallest model in the family. However, because all three ZenFone 3 models have the same Full HD resolution of 1080 x 1920, the its display boasts the highest pixel density of 401 ppi. The much larger ZenFone 3 Ultra (ZE680KL), for example, has a pixel density of only 324 ppi.

The ZenFone 3 (Amazon) has a very premium feel, thanks to its use of 2.5D contoured Corning Gorilla Glass that seamlessly fits the metal frame carved out of aerospace-grade aluminium alloy. It has a nice heft at 155 g / 5.5 oz – not too light, and not too heavy.

Unlike the ZenFone 3 Ultra, the ZenFone 3 (Amazon) uses a more conventional design – the Volume buttons are placed on the right side, with the Power button. The SIM card tray is placed on the left side. So this is no longer the ambidextrous design that ASUS ZenFones are known for.

The ZenFone 3 also features an improved 5-magnet speaker with Hi-Res Audio support. Not only does it deliver higher fidelity audio, it is now 20% louder with 42% less distortion.

 

Hybrid SIM & Fingerprint Sensor

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) has Dual SIM, Dual Standby capability, with both SIMs supporting 4G. The SIM card tray is located along the left edge, and supports two nano SIM cards. The second SIM card tray is a hybrid SIM tray, which allows you to install a microSD card instead. In other words, it supports either a second nano SIM card, or a microSD card, but not both at the same time.

Unlike the ZenFone 3 Ultra, the ZenFone 3 (Amazon) uses a fingerprint sensor that is located at the back, just under the main camera. This is an all-aspect fingerprint sensor that unlocks the smartphone in just 0.2 seconds. It can also be programmed to activate specific apps (like the camera) with different fingers.

 

PixelMaster 3.0 Cameras

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) sports a decent 8 MP front camera with f/2.0 lens for selfies. While not as good as the 16 MP front camera of the OPPO F1s “Selfie Expert” smartphone, it has a higher resolution than the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, and is capable of recording 1080p videos. The only downside? It doesn’t support screen flash.

The killer feature of the ZenFone 3 (Amazon) is the much improved PixelMaster 3.0 camera at the back. It features a 16 MP Sony IMX298 sensor with new features like fast hybrid autofocus and 3-axis electronic image stabilization.

[adrotate banner=”4″]

ASUS paired it with f/2.0 Largan lens with 4-axis, 4-stop optical image stabilization, and a second-generation laser auto-focus sensor.

What all that means is you can capture very high resolution photos and videos in poorly-lit conditions. Any blurring that occurs due to hand shakes and wobbles will be greatly reduced or eliminated.

Focusing is also much faster, thanks to the new laser sensor that accurately detects the range of objects in low light at up to 1.5 m away.

In addition to 1080p videos, the PixelMaster 3.0 camera can also shoot 4K videos. To top it off, it encodes the 4K videos using HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) to keep the file size small while maintaining a high level of image quality.

Finally, the ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) does not have any noticeable limit on how long you can record videos, or how large their file sizes are. We have recorded videos of over 120 minutes in length, and over 11 GB in size. Most smartphones have a 4 GB limit, even if they do not have a time limit.

 

Setting Up The ZenFone 3

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, which should be familiar to many Android users. It is very easy to setup. If you are setting it up as a new device, it should take you only 5 minutes to finish the setup process.

If there’s one thing we dislike, it’s the additional apps that the ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) automatically downloads, even if you skip the “free apps” offer at the end of the setup process. Our sample downloaded Need For Speed : No Limit, SimCity, Lazada, Beauty Plus, iReader and Google Slides.

Next Page > Ergonomics, Available Memory & Storage, PixelMaster 3.0 Camera Performance

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Ergonomics

When you power it up for the first time, you will be struck by how beautiful its display is. This may not be a QHD display like those on the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) or the HTC 10 (Amazon), but you won’t be able to tell the difference. The Super IPS+ display also offers a boost in brightness (up to 500 nits), which is especially useful outdoors in bright sunlight.

The smaller form factor means it is an easier fit for most hands. The ZenFone 3 (Amazon) is also much lighter than its big brother, the ZenFone 3 Ultra – so holding it in one hand is not a problem at all. That said, the Gorilla Glass back makes it just as slippery to grip as the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon).

 

Available Memory & Storage

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) comes with either 3 GB or 4 GB of LPDDR3 memory. Our review sample came with 4 GB of memory. Only 3.5 GB was usable, of which 1.1 GB was used by the Android operating system and background apps. This left 2.4 GB of free memory for us to use. That’s more than enough memory to run multiple memory-guzzling apps simultaneously.

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) also comes with a generous amount of internal storage – 64 GB. Out of the box, just under 52 GB was available for use. That should be plenty enough for most users, but is expandable via a microSD card (up to 2 TB). It also comes with 100 GB of free Google Drive storage for 2 years.

 

Camera Performance – Photos

The resolution of the new PixelMaster 3.0 camera is very good. The full 16 MP resolution is attained with the 4:3 aspect ratio. Each picture has a resolution of 4656 x 3492 and a file size of 3.5-5 MB.

Here are six high-resolution samples for you to check out. Click on them to load the full-sized photos, which you can also download to examine.

The Sony Exmor-RS IMX298 is a really good sensor. The colours are vivid but not unnaturally so. However, the highlights are blown out. This was not so much of a problem with the IMX318 sensor used in the ZenFone 3 Ultra.

Next Page > PixelMaster 3.0 Camera 1080p & 4K Video Recording Performance

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Camera Performance – Video Recording

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) is capable of recording 1080p and 4K videos, with both 4-axis optical and 3-axis electronic image stabilisation enabled. To test its video recording capabilities, we recorded a street market and a koi pond in daylight, and a night dance as well. They were all recorded in both 1080p and 4K resolutions. Check them out!

The videos show how helpful the advanced optical and electronic image stabilisation is in the ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon). While it may not be quite as smooth as an actual gimbal like the DJI Osmo Mobile, it is a great improvement on what we saw with the previous-generation ASUS smartphones, like the ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser.

The amount of detail captured, especially in the 4K videos, is amazing. However, you can also see how the highlights are blown out. This is especially noticeable in the bright background of the Piano and Night Dance videos.

Next Page > Work Performance, Battery Life, Battery Recharging Performance

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Work Performance – PCMark

We tested the ZenFone 3’s performance using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

ASUS ZenFone 3 ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra HTC 10 honor 8
Work Performance Score
(Average)
6405 6313 6105 6350
Web Browsing 8045 6257 5782 8073
Video Playback 3469 4287 3321 4396
Writing 7316 7166 7463 6231
Photo Editing 8246 8262 9694 7352

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor powering the ZenFone 3 (Amazon) did very well in this test, besting the ZenFone 3 Ultra (Snapdragon 652), the HTC 10 (Snapdragon 820) and the honor 8 (Kirin 950).

 

Battery Life – PCMark

We then tested the ZenFone 3’s battery performance using PCMark. It basically ran the PCMark work tests until its battery capacity dropped to 20%.

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) only comes with a 3,000 mAh battery, but it lasted almost 12 hours in this test! This is 22 minutes longer than the battery life of its big brother, the ZenFone 3 Ultra, which boasts a 53% larger 4,600 mAh battery. This is excellent battery life.

 

Battery Recharging Performance

The ASUS ZenFone 3 comes with a 10 W fast charger. Take a look at how fast it recharges the 3,000 mAh battery.

It took us 99 minutes (1 hour 39 minutes) to recharge the ZenFone 3 (Amazon) from 19% to 100%. That’s a battery life : recharging ratio of 7:1 – very impressive!

As the charger does not support any fancy fast charging technologies like Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, the charging profile is a relatively flat curve. It showed slightly faster charging up to the 70% charge level, before tapering off a little.

Next Page > Overall & 3D Performance, Our Verdict & Award

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Overall Performance

AnTuTu is a nice benchmark for testing various performance aspects of Android devices.

ASUS ZenFone 3 ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra HTC 10 honor 8
TOTAL SCORE 62761 76096 113813 90737
3D SCORE 13022 18816 50700 17706
– 3D (Marooned) 7906 10861 34778 9829
– 3D (Garden) 5116 7952 15922 7877
UX SCORE 23789 26794 30890 34550
– UX Data Secure 5847 5077 6319 7338
– UX Data Process 3109 4198 3379 5513
– UX Strategy Games 4254 7503 5433 9745
– UX Image Process 7443 6879 9521 5017
– UX I/O Performance 3136 3137 6238 6937
CPU SCORE 20342 23689 21915 32255
– CPU Mathematics 4226 6950 8494 10483
– CPU Common Use 6593 6311 5931 8543
– CPU Multi-Core 9523 10428 7490 13229
RAM 5608 6797 10308 6226

The ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) is not going to win any gaming awards. It was fast in 2D graphics and CPU processing, but performed poorly in the 3D tests. It was far slower than top-of-the-line smartphones like the HTC 10, and even some mid-range smartphones like the Kirin 950-powered honor 8.

 

Gaming Performance – 3DMark

We tested the ZenFone 3’s gaming performance using 3DMark, using the Ice Storm Unlimited test.

ASUS ZenFone 3 ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra HTC 10 honor 8
Gaming Score 13956 17719 23171 18659
Graphics 13484 21124 27512 19993
Physics 15903 11328 14925 15127
Graphics Test 1 80.5 fps 115.2 fps 136.6 fps 122.5 fps
Graphics Test 2 46.1 fps 76.3 fps 106.4 fps 67.4 fps
Physics Test 50.5 fps 36.0 fps 47.4 fps 48.0 fps

The Qualcomm Adreno 506 GPU in the ZenFone 3 (Amazon) is no 3D powerhouse and it shows. It was half as fast as the HTC 10 (Adreno 530), 36% slower than the ZenFone 3 Ultra (Adreno 510), and 33% slower than the honor 8 (ARM Mali-T880).

 

Our Verdict

The ZenFone 3 smartphone family represents a concerted effort by ASUS to break into the premium smartphone market. The ASUS ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL) model itself represents the tip of the spear. After all, it is the most affordable variant in the family.

Now, we must point out that this is not the best smartphone for 3D gaming. The ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) is very fast at 2D games, and work applications, but it falters in 3D gaming performance. But if you do not intend to play 3D games on it, this is a very good smartphone for everything else.

It has a really good front and back cameras. Yes, the highlights are overblown (can ASUS fix this in a firmware update please?), but the optical and electronic image stabilisation has been greatly improved. The resulting pictures and videos are quite amazing. They are sharp, and the colours vivid.

[adrotate banner=”4″]

The ZenFone 3 (Amazon) also supports 4K video recording, in addition to 1080p recording. And some of you might like to know that it can record videos of indefinite length and file size. No more 30 minute limit. No more 4 GB limit. Just awesome for recording events like your child’s football game or a friend’s wedding!

You will also love the long battery life and the short recharge time – something you will appreciate if you are always on-the-go and have little access to a power point. The same goes for its large memory and storage capacity. With 4 GB of memory, and 64 GB of flash storage, you will find it hard to run out of both.

And last but not, the ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) is a work of art. It exudes luxury with the 2.5D curved glass on both sides melding into the solid metal frame. That is a luxury that comes with a price premium – one that many will feel well worth it.

We are so impressed with the ASUS ZenFone 3 (Amazon) that we feel it deserves no less than our Reviewer’s Choice Award. Congratulations, ASUS!

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Sony Xperia XZ & Xperia X Compact Smartphones Revealed

Sony Mobile just revealed two new additions to their X smartphone series – the Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact. They also revealed an exclusive pre-order campaign with 11street, from today until October 4. Check out the full details below!

 

The Sony Xperia XZ & Xperia X Compact Revealed

Andrew Cheong, Country Director (Malaysia) at Sony Mobile kicked off the launch event with a keynote speech on the two new Sony X series smartphone.

Then Lawrence Lim, Business Manager of Sony Mobile Malaysia, covered the key features of the Sony Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact smartphones.

 

Sony Xperia XZ & Xperia X Compact Specifications

SpecificationsSony Xperia XZSony Xperia X Compact
Display5.2" TriLuminos display
- 1080 x 1920 pixels
4.6" TriLuminos display
- 720 x 1280 pixels
ProtectionCorning Gorilla Glass with 2.5D curved edge
Capless water- and dust-resistance (IP65/IP68)
Corning Gorilla Glass with 2.5D curved edge
Operating SystemAndroid 6.0.1 MarshmallowAndroid 6.0.1 Marshmallow
System PlatformQualcomm Snapdragon 820Qualcomm Snapdragon 650
Processor4 x Qualcomm Kyro (2.2 GHz)2 x ARM Cortex-A72 (1.8 GHz)
4 x ARM Cortex-A53 (1.8 GHz)
Graphics ProcessorQualcomm Adreno 530Qualcomm Adreno 510
Memory3 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM3 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM
Storage64 GB internal flash storage
microSD slot (shared with second SIM slot) - up to 256 GB
32 GB internal flash storage
microSD slot (up to 256 GB)
Front Camera13 MP Sony Exmor RS sensor with f/2.0 lens
5-axis stabilization
1080p video recording capability
5 MP Sony Exmor R sensor with f/2.4 lens
Rear Camera23 MP Sony Exmor RS sensor with LED flash
Triple image sensors - image sensor, laser AF sensor, RGBC-IR sensor
Predictive Hybrid Autofocus capability
5-axis stabilization
4K video recording capability
23 MP Sony Exmor RS sensor with LED flash
Triple image sensors - image sensor, laser AF sensor, RGBC-IR sensor
Predictive Hybrid Autofocus capability
5-axis stabilization
4K video recording capability
Network4G : LTE Cat 9 (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 26, 28, 29, 32, 38, 39, 40, 41)
3G : UMTS HSPA+
WiFi : 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz
4G : LTE Cat 6
3G : UMTS HSPA+
WiFi : 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz
ConnectivityGPS + GLONASS
WiFi Miracast, Google Cast
Bluetooth 4.2
NFC, DLNA
GPS + GLONASS
WiFi Miracast, Google Cast
Bluetooth 4.1
NFC, DLNA
SIM CapabilityDual SIM, Dual Standby
Hybrid SIM (nano SIM x 2, or nano SIM + microSD)
Single nano SIM
Audio CapabilityHigh Resolution Audio capability
Front Surround Sound
Stereo Audio Recording
High Resolution Audio capability
Front Surround Sound
Stereo Audio Recording
Fingerprint SensorYes, on Power buttonNo
Battery2,900 mAh lithium-ion battery
Qnovo Adaptive Charging with Quick Charge 3.0 support
2,700 mAh lithium-ion battery
Qnovo Adaptive Charging with Quick Charge support
Dimensions72 mm wide x 146 mm tall x 8.1 mm thick65 mm wide x 129 mm tall x 9.5 mm thick
Weight161 g135 g
Available ColoursForest Blue, Mineral Black, PlatinumMist Blue, Universe Black, White
Launch PriceRM 2,699 / ~US$ 675RM 1,999 / ~US$ 499

 

Availability & Offers

The Sony Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact smartphones will be available for sale in Malaysia beginning 7 October at Sony Mobile Stores, Sony Centres, and authorised dealers. The Xperia XZ will be available in the Dual SIM variant (Hybrid SIM slot) and the Xperia X Compact will be available in the Single SIM variant.

[adrotate banner=”4″]

All Xperia XZ users will gain access to exclusive content in the Xperia Lounge (including 12 movie downloads), Qoo10 15% discount coupon and 20% off storewide on Zalora. In addition, users can also obtain a code via Xperia Lounge to stand a chance to win a brand new wardrobe from Zalora.

In addition, those who pre-order on 11street during the exclusive pre-order period will receive complimentary gifts worth RM 600 (~US$ 150) such as the Sony Bluetooth Headset, screen protector for Curve Display, back casing and an OTG 3.0 64GB Type C Connector.

Furthermore, 11street customers who participate in a lucky draw will stand a chance to bring home a Cristiano Ronaldo Signed and Framed Real Madrid 2015-2016 jersey worth RM 3,000.

Next Page > The Key Features of the Sony Xperia XZ & Xperia X Compact Smartphones

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

Improved Camera Technology

Sony’s first flagship of the X series, Xperia XZ, and premium Xperia X Compact bring new and improved camera technology to give the best pictures from Xperia yet. Maximising Sony’s acclaimed image sensor, two additional assisting sensors have been added to make Sony’s triple image sensing technology. This allows you to capture beautiful images in motion with true to life colours in virtually any condition.

The technology includes Sony’s original Exmor RS for mobile image sensor which provides a powerful blend of high quality image and autofocus (AF) speed combined with Predictive Hybrid AF to intelligently predict and track subjects in motion for blur-free results.

Added to this is the Laser AF sensor with distance sensing technology which captures beautiful blur-free photos in challenging low light conditions. And what’s more, you will enjoy superb true to life colours thanks to the RGBC-IR[i] sensor with colour sensing technology which accurately adjusts the white balance based on the light source in the environment.

The 23MP main camera not only gives you clear shots, but also super-fast start-up going from standby to capture in 0.6seconds[ii] at the touch of a dedicated shutter release button. Advanced features have been added for those who want more flexibility with manual settings to further enhance the shooting experience and creative possibilities, such as shutter speed and focus controls.

With videos being ever more popular for capturing and sharing unique moments on social media, both models bring significant advancements in the evolution of image stabilisation, cultivated in Sony’s Handycam camcorders, with Sony’s SteadyShot with Intelligent Active Mode to enable superb video recording. Now with 5-axis stabilization, you can shoot smoother videos[iii] even when walking or capturing extreme close-ups[iv].

Xperia XZ provides a 13MP front camera for the selfie perfectionist, with its super high sensitivity as high as ISO6400 and 24mm wide angle lens it will make the best of your pose even in low-light and group selfies. Xperia XZ also offers the highest quality recording in 4k so you get sharp, crisp footage that is full of detail.

[i] RGBC-IR stands for Red, green, blue, clear and infrared

[ii] Based in internal protocol defined by Sony Mobile Communications

[iii] 5-axis stabilisation feature is only available in Full HD video resolution

[iv] 5-axis stabilisation is activated only when the camera recognises macro video. Other situations will be recorded as 3-axis(pitch/yaw/roll) only

 

Premium design

With its stunning loop surface design, the 5.2” glass display and metal back of the Xperia XZ become one, to provide a perfect fit and beautiful feel in the hand. The loop surface is inspired by a monolithic form, whilst ALKALEIDO metal with high brightness and high purity provides shine and a feeling of depth which both enhance its premium design.

[adrotate banner=”4″]

Xperia XZ is available in a brand new blue colour inspired by the beauty of nature – Forest Blue – along with stylish classics, Mineral Black and Platinum.

Adding a popular Sony form factor to the X series, the Xperia X Compact packs mighty technology into its small frame. Its 4.6” screen and loop surface design make it extra comfortable to hold and is ideal for an operation with just one hand. Xperia X Compact’s premium design can be clearly seen via its high-gloss finish and solid feel. It also follows our new signature blue colour expression with a Mist Blue colour hue together with timeless Universe Black and Stylish White.

Sony’s expertise in functional design is carried through to the Xperia XZ with a water resistant[i] design to take the worry out of a little splash of water. In addition, the fingerprint sensor power button[ii] on Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact is intuitively placed on the side of the phone, so you’re able to pick up and securely unlock in a single movement and adds to the comfortable fit in the hand.

 

Intelligent Features

We’ve incorporated intelligent features into our smartphones so that they can assist you to make your daily life more convenient, more efficient, and more enjoyable. Both models feature new Battery Care[i] complemented by Qnovo adaptive charging which work in harmony to keep your battery healthy and make the lifespan last up to twice as long[ii].

Qnovo adaptive charging monitors and adjusts the charging current to avoid damage for battery longevity whilst Battery Care controls the charging based on learned habits and avoids excess charging by pausing charge at 90% and only completes the charging just before it’s needed.

Xperia Tips also recognises user habits to provide personalised tips and recommendations, helping you optimise your own personal user experience while Smart Cleaner automatically maximises performance by cleaning the cache from certain apps based on learning their usage so optimal performance is achieved at all times.

[i] Battery Care not available in all markets

[ii] Qnovo adaptive charging is featured on all X series models. 2x battery lifespan refers to Xperia X and Xperia X Performance with Qnovo enabled when compared to Xperia Z2. During laboratory battery capacity retention cycle testing conducted by Sony Mobile Communications and Qnovo Incorporated, the battery cell used in Xperia Z2 achieved a lifespan up to 2 times longer with Qnovo. The result may vary depending on conditions and environment.

 

Accessories

Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact each have a range of matching optional Style Covers in corresponding colours including Style Cover Touch (SCTF10/20) which lets you access your favourite smartphone widgets through a smart window without needing to open the case.

For easy video viewing, Style Cover Stand (SCSF10/20) has an auto on/off function with adjustable viewing angle. Each model will be supplied with the new USB Type-C charger for easy charging.

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

The HTC 10 Smartphone Review – Power Of 10 Revealed!

The HTC 10 is one of the most anticipated smartphones of 2016. With the tagline “Power of 10“, the HTC 10 was designed to be the best smartphone HTC ever made. A smartphone that is truly a perfect 10/10 in their eyes. Let’s find out how true that really is!

Let’s start by checking out the full specifications.

SpecificationsHTC 10
Display5.2" Super LCD 5 display
- 1440 x 2560 resolution (564 ppi)
- curved-edge Gorilla Glass 3 protection
Operating SystemAndroid 6 with HTC Sense
System PlatformQualcomm Snapdragon 820
Processor4 x Qualcomm Kyro cores (2.2 GHz)
Graphics ProcessorQualcomm Adreno 530 GPU
Memory4 GB LPDDR4 memory
Storage32 GB internal flash memory
microSD slot, supports card capacities up to 2 TB
Front Camera5 MP BSI sensor (1.34 µm pixel)
- f/1.8 aperture, 23 mm focal length
- Optical image stabilisation (OIS)
- 1080p video recording
Rear Camera12 MP HTC UltraPixel 2 sensor (1.55 µm pixel)
- f/1.8 aperture, 26 mm focal length
- Optical image stabilisation (OIS)
- Dual-tone LED flash
- 4K video recording with Hi-Res Audio
AudioHTC BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition with Dolby Audio 4
- Hi-Res Audio certified with Hi-Red Audio earphones
- Three microphones with noise cancellation
Network2G : 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
3G : 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
4G LTE : FDD Band 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 20, 28, 32; TDD Band 38, 40, 31
- Supports Cat 9 LTE : 450 / 50 Mbps
SIM CapabilitySingle nano SIM slot
Fingerprint SensorYes, integrated with Home button
Other SensorsAmbient light, proximity, motion, compass, gyro, magnetic
GPSGPS + GLONASS + Beidou (Europe & Asia)
ConnectivityWiFi : 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
Bluetooth : Bluetooth 4.2
USB : USB 3.1 Type C
Earphone : 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
Others : NFC, DisplayPort, DLNA, Miracast, Google Cast, AirPlay, HTC Connect
Battery3,000 mAh lithium ion battery
- Talk time on 3G/4G : Up to 27 hours
- Standby time on 3G/4G : Up to 19 days
- Quick Charge 3.0 allows up to 50% charge in 30 minutes
Size71.9 mm wide
145.9 mm tall
3.0 to 9.0 mm thick
Weight161 grams
Available ColoursCarbon Grey / Topaz Gold

The HTC 10 comes in two colour options – Carbon Grey or Topaz Gold. Our review sample is the Carbon Grey version. Let’s check it out!

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Unboxing The HTC 10

The HTC 10 smartphone comes in a unique flat white box with rounded corners. It comes shrink-wrapped with a security sticker on one side. Let’s check out what’s inside!

Inside, you will find the following items :
  • One HTC 10 smartphone
  • One set of HTC Hi-Res Audio-certified earphones, with two sets of replacement earbuds
  • One 15 W HTC quick charger with one Type C USB cable
  • One set of nano SIM guide, warranty & user licence agreement, safety & regulatory guide
  • One set of four labels
  • One HTC SIM card slot extractor

Next Page > The HTC 10 Smartphone, Cameras, Fingerprint Sensor

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

The HTC 10 Smartphone

The HTC 10 has a large 5.2″ Super LCD 5 display with a resolution of 1440 x 2560. The display is protected by a 2.5D curved-edge Gorilla Glass 3 cover. This is a peculiar choice since similar premium-grade smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge use the much tougher and scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 4.

The full metal chassis is a beauty to behold. Its chamfered edges give it a really futuristic look that feels great in the hand. The matte finish looks great and is easy to maintain, since it’s highly resistant to fingerprint smudges. Take a look for yourself in this hands-on video :

Eschewing the dual SIM, dual standby trend, HTC chose to support only a single nano SIM card. You will find the nano SIM card slot on the right side, just above the Volume control and power button. The card slot on the left is for the microSD slot, that supports microSD cards of up to 2 TB in capacity.

Despite its slim profile, the HTC 10 is actually 9 mm at its thickest. That’s perfectly fine with us since it makes for better handling, and the placement of the earphone port at the top. It also allowed for the inclusion of a large 3,000 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery.

We are very glad to note that the HTC 10 supports the new Type C USB 3.1 connector. That is not only bidirectional, it allows for faster data transfers. We also like the HTC BoomSound HiFi Edition speakers used in the HTC 10, that uses a separate tweeter and woofer design.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Cameras

The HTC 10 has a 5 MP front camera with f/1.8 lens. It uses a BSI sensor with large 1.34 µm pixels, and is capable of 1080p video recording. To top it off, it even supports optical image stabilisation (OIS)!

For more serious photography, the HTC 10 boasts a 12 MP HTC UltraPixel 2 camera with f/1.8 lens at the back. It uses a BSI sensor with even larger 1.55 µm pixels, supported by a dual-tone LED flash. It also supports optical image stabilisation (OIS), and is capable of 4K video recording with Hi-Res Audio.

We will take a look at its photographic and video recording capabilities later in the review!

 

Fingerprint Sensor

The HTC 10 smartphone comes with fingerprint sensor discreetly integrated into the Home button. It takes 16 presses to register a fingerprint, but once registered, it is very fast and accurate in detecting the fingerprint, irrespective of the aspect.

The HTC 10 fingerprint sensor also serves as a quick login method. Just touch it with a registered finger to instantly unlock the smartphone. This is unlike the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, which requires you to press the Home or Power button before the fingerprint sensor is activated.

Next Page > Setting Up The HTC 10, It’s Alive!, Available Memory & Storage

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Setting Up The HTC 10 Smartphone

Amazingly, it took the HTC 10 almost 5 minutes to boot up for the first time. It took more than a minute to start-up and then it started optimising its pre-loaded apps for almost 4 minutes. Even at the end of the setup process, it took another 14 seconds to actually finish the process.

Overall, this is probably the longest setup process we have ever encountered in an Android device. In fact, it took longer to setup than the Wise Pad W7 Windows 10 phablet we reviewed recently. Overall, you will need about 15 minutes to setup the HTC 10 smartphone.

 

It’s Alive!

You will forget about the long setup time once it starts up. The Super LCD 5 display is super sharp and bright. It is not as vivid as the Super AMOLED display of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, but this is only apparent if you compare them side-by-side. The shadow effect at the top and bottom of the Home screen is partly to blame, making the display look less bright.

The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, with a 2.5D curved edge. Thanks to the oleophobic coating on its Gorilla Glass 3 cover, and the matte finish on the metal chassis, the HTC 10 is almost smudge-proof and is therefore very easy to maintain.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Available Memory & Storage

The HTC 10 comes with 4 GB of LPDDR4 memory. That may seem like overkill, but the Android 6.0.1 operating system and HTC pre-loaded apps take up about 1.3 GB of memory. This leaves you with about 2.4 GB of free memory to use.

The HTC 10 also comes with 32 GB of internal flash storage. This is expandable via a microSD card (up to 2 TB). Fresh out of the box, the HTC 10 has 23.11 GB of free space for you to use, excluding 8.89 GB used by the system files and apps.

Next Page > Camera Performance – Photos & Video Recording

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Camera Performance – Photos

The HTC 10‘s UltraPixel 2 camera has a fast f/1.8 lens, which allows it to take good photos in low-light conditions. The photos have a maximum resolution of 4000 x 3000 in the 4:3 format. The photos are about 4 MB in size.

The HTC UltraPixel 2 camera produces photos with good detail resolution and low noise. You can see that detail resolution most noticeably in the texture of the grapefruits and winter melon. Its low noise capability is also very evident in the shadows and the picture of the signs that were taken in low-light.

The only problem we noted was the over-exposure of bright areas. You can see that in the pictures of the elevator and the apples. HTC needs to work on the control of the UltraPixel 2’s exposure.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Camera Performance – Video Recording

The HTC 10 smartphone is capable of recording 4K UHD videos, as well as 1080p videos. Other than the resolution difference, the HTC 10 supports optical image stabilisation (OIS) and Hi-Res Audio recording in both modes. However, the HTC 10 does not support electronic image stabilisation (EIS).

To test and compare the image and audio quality of the 4K and 1080p videos recorded by the HTC 10 smartphone, we took two examples of two scenes – the street market, and Mr. Yang I-Deun’s piano performances. Check them out!

The HTC 10‘s image quality in both 1080p and 4K resolution was very good, and the image stabilisation was decent. We noted the same overexposure problem with bright areas, like the lit floor underneath Mr. Yang I-Deun’s piano.

What impressed us the most though was the richness of the Hi-Res Audio recording. It literally made the recorded videos much better than even those recorded by the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. If you purchase the HTC 10, you must definitely enable the Hi-Res Audio option when you record videos.

The only possible downside with the HTC 10‘s videos is that they packed it as a MKV (Matroska Multimedia Container) file. That is not a problem for most users, but it is a big problem for Mac users. You will need a third-party player like VLC player to play it… and a third-party video editor to edit it, because QuickTime Player and iMovie simply won’t read them.

Next Page > Work Performance, Battery Life & Recharging Performance

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Work Performance – PCMark

We tested the HTC 10‘s performance using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

HTC 10 Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro honor 5C Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
Work Performance Score
(Average)
6105 5785 5357 4892
Web Browsing 5782 5132 5643 6908
Video Playback 3321 4138 4487 3218
Writing 7463 6286 5944 4629
Photo Editing 9694 8388 5469 5563

The HTC 10 really hit the ball out of the park in work performance. It was the fastest smartphone in this comparison, beating the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro, and the honor 5C. It was especially good at the Writing and Photo Editing tests, but did rather poorly in Video Playback.

 

Battery Life – PCMark

We then tested the HTC 10’s battery performance using PCMark. It basically ran the PCMark work tests until its battery capacity dropped to 20%.

Sadly, all that performance sucks up a lot of juice, and it shows. The HTC 10 packs a 3,000 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, but it barely lasts more than 5.5 hours. That is half the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and honor 5C smartphones, and less than half that of the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro, with its 5,000 mAh battery.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Battery Recharging Performance

The good news is the HTC 10 features the Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 capability, courtesy of its Snapdragon 820 SoC. When used with a Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 compatible charger or power bank, it allows the HTC 10 to recharge up to 50% of its battery in just 30 minutes. We check that out with its 15 W quick charger.

Our test showed that the HTC 10 will recharge from 20% to 100% in just 81.5 minutes (1 hour, 21 minutes and 34 seconds)! That is an amazing performance, especially since the battery temperature only peaked at 42°C.

Next Page > Overall & Gaming Performance, Our Verdict & Award

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Overall Performance

AnTuTu is a nice benchmark for testing various performance aspects of Android devices.

HTC 10 Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro honor 5C Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
TOTAL SCORE 113813 68184 53417 131246
3D SCORE 50700 18360 9842 40824
– 3D (Marooned) 34778 10739 5795 23336
– 3D (Garden) 15922 7621 4047 17488
UX SCORE 30890 23464 19297 42765
– UX Data Secure 6319 5356 5577 8169
– UX Data Process 3379 3235 2706 5966
– UX Strategy Games 5433 5601 4109 10745
– UX Image Process 9521 6240 3144 13878
– UX I/O Performance 6238 3022 3761 4007
CPU SCORE 21915 19872 19254 37882
– CPU Mathematics 8494 5953 4198 11831
– CPU Common Use 5931 4830 5947 10875
– CPU Multi-Core 7490 9089 9109 15176
RAM 10308 6488 5024 9775

The HTC 10 did well in AnTuTu, coming in only 13.3% slower than the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, and is roughly twice as fast as the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro and honor 5C smartphones.

It was particularly strong in the 3D test, particularly the Marooned test, in which it best the Galaxy S7 edge by 50%, and was 3X faster than the Galaxy A9 Pro, and an astounding 6X faster than the honor 5C.

 

Gaming Performance – 3DMark

We tested the HTC 10’s gaming performance using 3DMark, using the Ice Storm Unlimited test.

HTC 10 Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro honor 5C Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
Gaming Score 23171 16989 11560 28650
Graphics 27514 21800 11067 33685
Physics 14925 9585 13698 18810
Graphics Test 1 136.6 fps 120.7 fps 63.4 fps 162.9 fps
Graphics Test 2 106.4 fps 78.0 fps 38.8 fps 133.1 fps
Physics Test 47.4 fps 30.4 fps 43.5 fps 59.7 fps

The HTC 10 is fast in 3DMark, thanks to the fast Qualcomm Adreno 530 GPU. It was just 19% slower than the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, which features the faster ARM Mali-T880 GPU. The HTC 10 will definitely have no trouble handling any 3D game in the market, even at the full screen resolution of 1440 x 2560.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Our Verdict & Award

The HTC 10 may not be quite the perfect 10 smartphone that HTC hoped it would be, but it comes pretty darn close. It has a really bright and sharp 5.2″ display, with a sleek full-metal chassis. All that is powered by the really fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 with 4 GB of LPDDR4 memory and 32 GB of internal flash memory.

It can handle anything and everything you throw at it and then some. Our benchmarks show that it is the fastest smartphone in our arsenal for work applications, and second-best to the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge in 3D games.

The HTC 10 smartphone also boasts a really good 12 MP UltraPixel 2 main camera. It’s called UltraPixel for a good reason – it uses a sensor with really large pixels. The results are quite impressive – high detail resolution and low noise. The only downside – it has trouble controlling overexposure.

The overexposure problem extended to its video recording performance. But we have to point out that this is one of the few smartphones to record 4K videos without any time limit. What will really blow you away though is the richness of the audio recorded by its video. Thanks to its support of Hi-Res Audio, the recorded audio is truly a head above the competition.

If there is a major flaw with the HTC 10, it would be its relatively short battery life. If you are an avid Pokemon hunter, or take a lot of videos, you would do well to pack a power bank. The good news though is that the HTC 10 recharges extremely fast. You can recharge it from 20% to 100% in just over 81 minutes!

Overall, this is a great come-back effort by HTC, and one worthy of our Reviewer’s Choice Award. Congratulations, HTC!

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!


Samsung Unveils New Galaxy Note7 Phablet

2 August 2016Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. continues to drive the smartphone market with the Galaxy Note7 by building on the company’s category-defining leadership with innovative features that set a new standard for large-screen devices. With refined craftsmanship, premium materials and a unique, symmetrical edge design, the Galaxy Note7 features:

  • A water resistant body and S Pen (IP68)*
  • Top-of-the-line security that combines Samsung Knox with biometric authentication including a new iris scanning feature
  • Immersive entertainment features with HDR video streaming capabilities.

The Galaxy Note7 strikes a balance between work and play, enabling people to achieve more than what they thought possible on a smartphone.

“The Galaxy Note7 combines productivity and entertainment, with strong security features. Powering a robust ecosystem, it is the ideal device for those who want to achieve more in life,” said DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics. “Life moves faster than ever now so we created the Galaxy Note7 to help users get things done more easily wherever, whenever.”

 

Galaxy Note7 S Pen: Quickly and Easily Bring Ideas to Life

The enhanced Galaxy Note7 S Pen is more than just a writing tool – it is the gateway to getting more done efficiently and accurately. Users can bring ideas to life the moment inspiration strikes without unlocking the screen by using Screen off memo and simply pinning the memo to the Always On Display. The S Pen also gives users the ability to easily create and share GIF animations with Smart Select.

In addition, the new Air Command functions, including Magnify and Translate, enable users to zoom in on the screen or convert languages with a simple hover of the S Pen. It is even easier to access the best of the S Pen’s creative abilities with Samsung Notes, a new unified app allowing users to jot down handwritten notes, draw, or edit memos from one location.

The new S Pen writes with ease and precision. The smaller 0.7mm tip and improved pressure sensitivity provides a real pen-like experience. With the peace of mind that IP68 water resistant provides, the Galaxy Note7 S Pen lets users jot down their thoughts without interruption, even when the screen gets wet.

 

Advanced Security: Now in the Blink of an Eye

Samsung understands the importance of keeping content on users’ phone protected. Coupled with Samsung Knox, an industry-leading security platform, the Galaxy Note7 provides heightened security and privacy, with highly advanced biometric authentication, including fingerprint scanner and iris scanning technology. The Galaxy Note7 offers more authentication options that can be used interchangeably depending on how people use their phones, wherever they are, or whatever they are doing.

The Galaxy Note7 instills a new level of user confidence with Secure Folder, a separated folder that adds an extra layer of authentication to keep private and personal information safe. The iris recognition technology will also be used to authenticate secure purchases that are made on Samsung Pay**. The Galaxy Note7 will also support Samsung Pass, bringing authentication such as iris scanning and fingerprint recognition to more apps and services.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Best-in-Class Entertainment

The phone is one of the most important screens in a user’s life because it’s with them all of the time. The Galaxy Note7 features a gorgeous, curved 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED screen delivering a bold and immersive picture on a smartphone. It is ready to stream HDR video, enabling a cinema-like experience including brighter colors and a deeper black, which ensure users get the full experience that the filmmaker intended. The Galaxy Note7 also features Game Pack, available through Google Play, including top game titles, an easier redemption process and new user benefits.

By pairing the Galaxy Note7 with the new Gear VR powered by Oculus, users can experience premium virtual reality almost anywhere. Galaxy Note7’s incredible Super AMOLED screen and powerful processor delivers an ultra-immersive experience. The vast and ever growing library of apps, photos, games and more puts, users in the center of the action. Whether it’s next level gaming or journeying to places users have never been before, there’s always something new to discover.

For people who live to create, tell stories and transport people to entirely new worlds, the Galaxy Note7 can be used with the new high-resolution (3840 x 1920) Gear 360 camera, to capture, edit and share 360-degree images videos on the go. These memories can then be shared with friends via platforms including YouTube 360 and Facebook, and can be relived with the ultra-immersive Gear VR.

 

Galaxy Foundation with Refined Craftsmanship

With Galaxy Note7, Samsung continues to defy boundaries of engineering to perfect the user experience through innovative design. Every edge, surface and detail of the device’s design has been refined to provide a comfortable grip, easier one-handed operation, and durability with Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Although the Galaxy Note7 features a large-screen, the unique front-to-back symmetrical dual-edge curve remains balanced and light with the sleek feel users have come to love from the Galaxy series. The curved screen lets the Galaxy Note7 add the powerful Edge Panel for one-tap user access to applications, news and functions.

The Galaxy Note7 is equipped with the advanced camera that was introduced on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge The dual-pixel sensor technology, wide aperture and fast auto focus, work together to create sharp and beautiful photos even in low-light environments.

In addition to 64GB of internal memory, the Galaxy Note7 offers expandable storage and microSD support up to 256GB. The Galaxy Note7 is equipped with a 3,500mAh battery, easy Power Management UX through Smart Manager, and charges quickly using the new USB-C port. Recharge the Galaxy Note7 wherever wireless charging is available.

A new line of accessories will be available to complement the Galaxy Note7, including the new S View Standing Cover, a light and portable cover that can be used to prop the device at a 60-degree angle for easy viewing of content, as well as an IP68 water resistant Backpack for on-the-go charging.

 

Creating a Phone+ Ecosystem of Connected Experiences

The Galaxy Note7 is more than just a smartphone; it’s a connection point to Samsung’s ecosystem of devices, software and services. Users can monitor their fitness activities on the Gear Fit2 or Gear IconX and track their data through S Health 5.0.** In addition to accurate and robust fitness tracking and measurement, the new S Health enables users to stay connected to family and friends by sharing fitness updates or competing in friendly challenges with one another.

With the Galaxy Note7, consumers can use the iris scanner to access value-added Samsung services like Samsung Pay** for quick and easy mobile payments.

The Smart Switch feature has been enhanced further with Samsung Cloud, which supports a seamless device experience by providing continuous backup and easy transfer of content including data, apps, settings and layouts between devices. Galaxy Note7 users will be able to use up to 15GB of free space to store and restore information on Samsung Cloud.**

The Galaxy Note7, available in Gold Platinum, Silver Titanium and Black Onyx, will arrive on Malaysian shores starting 19th August 2016 and will retail at RM3,199. To be the first to own the revolutionary Galaxy Note7, get ready for the online pre-order commencing from 8th to 10th August 2016 where only 4,000 units will be available for order! Stay tuned for more updates on the great deals extended exclusively for this pre-order only.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Samsung Galaxy Note7 Product Specifications

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

HTC 10 Smartphone Hands-On Preview

HTC Malaysia just launched the HTC 10 smartphone, promising that perfection in their latest creation. They will certainly be counting on the HTC 10 to overcome incredible challenges from the multitude of Chinese smartphone brands. Let’s take a closer look…

 

HTC 10 Hands-On Preview

During the launch of the HTC 10 smartphone, we had some hands-on time with the HTC 10. Check it out!

Here is a summary of the HTC 10’s key features :
  • 5.2″ Super LCD 5 display with a resolution of 1440 x 2560
  • Curved-edge Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection for the display
  • Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC with Adreno 530 GPU
  • 4 GB memory + 32 GB internal flash storage + microSD upgrade (up to 2 TB)
  • Runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow
  • Supports Cat 9 LTE, with download speeds of up to 450 Mbps, upload speeds of up to 50 Mbps
  • World’s first front camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS)
  • Front camera has 5 MP sensor with f/1.8 lens and OIS
  • Rear camera has 12 MP sensor with f/1.8 lens, OIS, dual-tone LED flash and laser auto-focus
  • Records 4K video with stereo 24-bit Hi-Res audio recording
  • Certified for Hi-Res Audio with built-in headphone amplifier and BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition speakers
  • Comes with Hi-Res Audio earphones bundled
  • Fast fingerprint sensor that unlocks in 0.2 seconds
  • Supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 – charge 50% in 30 minutes
  • Comes with the new USB 3.1 Type C connector
[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

HTC 10 Smartphone Specifications

SpecificationsHTC 10
Display5.2" Super LCD 5 display
- 1440 x 2560 resolution (564 ppi)
- curved-edge Gorilla Glass 3 protection
Operating SystemAndroid 6 with HTC Sense
System PlatformQualcomm Snapdragon 820
Processor4 x Qualcomm Kyro cores (2.2 GHz)
Graphics ProcessorQualcomm Adreno 530 GPU
Memory4 GB LPDDR4 memory
Storage32 GB internal flash memory
microSD slot, supports card capacities up to 2 TB
Front Camera5 MP BSI sensor (1.34 µm pixel)
- f/1.8 aperture, 23 mm focal length
- Optical image stabilisation (OIS)
- 1080p video recording
Rear Camera12 MP HTC UltraPixel 2 sensor (1.55 µm pixel)
- f/1.8 aperture, 26 mm focal length
- Optical image stabilisation (OIS)
- Dual-tone LED flash
- 4K video recording with Hi-Res Audio
AudioHTC BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition with Dolby Audio 4
- Hi-Res Audio certified with Hi-Red Audio earphones
- Three microphones with noise cancellation
Network2G : 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
3G : 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
4G LTE : FDD Band 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 20, 28, 32; TDD Band 38, 40, 31
- Supports Cat 9 LTE : 450 / 50 Mbps
SIM CapabilitySingle nano SIM slot
Fingerprint SensorYes, integrated with Home button
Other SensorsAmbient light, proximity, motion, compass, gyro, magnetic
GPSGPS + GLONASS + Beidou (Europe & Asia)
ConnectivityWiFi : 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
Bluetooth : Bluetooth 4.2
USB : USB 3.1 Type C
Earphone : 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
Others : NFC, DisplayPort, DLNA, Miracast, Google Cast, AirPlay, HTC Connect
Battery3,000 mAh lithium ion battery
- Talk time on 3G/4G : Up to 27 hours
- Standby time on 3G/4G : Up to 19 days
- Quick Charge 3.0 allows up to 50% charge in 30 minutes
Size71.9 mm wide
145.9 mm tall
3.0 to 9.0 mm thick
Weight161 grams
Available ColoursCarbon Grey / Topaz Gold

 

HTC 10 Lowest Prices (Amazon)


 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
[adrotate banner=”5″]

LEAGOO Shark 1 Hands-On Preview

On April 27th, 2016, LEAGOO revealed the LEAGOO Shark 1 [Amazon] smartphone. It boasts a large 6″ full HD display and a metal chassis, and an astounding 6,300 mAh battery. It comes to no surprise that LEAGOO claims that the Shark 1 will last 2 days of heavy use, or 3.5 days of normal use.

The LEAGOO Shark 1 [Amazon] is no lame duck either. It’s powered by a quad-core MediaTek processor and comes with 3 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. Check out its specifications :

SpecificationsLEAGOO Shark 1 Smartphone
Display6" LG LTPS full HD display
1080 x 1920 resolution (368 ppi)
Corning Gorilla Glass protection with 2.5D curved edge
PlatformMediaTek MT6753
Processor8 x ARM Cortex-A53 processors (1.3 GHz)
Graphics ProcessorARM Mali-T720
Memory3 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM
Storage16 GB internal flash storage
microSD card slot (supports up to 128 GB)
Operating SystemLEAGOO OS 1.2 on Android 5.1
Front Camera5 MP sensor
Rear Camera13 Sony BSI-2 sensor with f/2.0 wide-angle lens and dual-tone LED flash
SIM CapabilityTwo microSIM slots
Dual SIM, dual standby capability
Connectivity4G LTE
Bluetooth 4.0
microUSB 2.0 port
GPS SupportYes
Fingerprint SensorYes, 0.39 s recognition speed, 508 ppi resolution
Available ColoursElegant Black / Modern Gold / Satin Silver

You can get more details about the LEAGOO Shark 1 in our launch coverage, where LEAGOO explains its key features. You can also check out Zul Ariffin’s testimonial about using his own LEAGOO Shark 1 smartphone.

[adrotate banner=”5″]

 

Shark 1 Hands-On Preview

After the LEAGOO Shark 1 launch event with Malaysian celebrity Zul Ariffin, we had the opportunity to record our own LEAGOO Shark 1 hands-on preview. Check it out below. We hope you enjoy it!

Here is the video transcript :

Here are LEAGOO Shark 1’s key features…

From the frontal aspect, it looks like the honor 5X we reviewed recently.

The fingerprint sensor in the rear aspect looks similar to the Huawei Mate 8.

Now, let’s take a closer look…

On the left side, you will find the dual SIM + microSD card slot.

The Gorilla Glass cover has a 2.5D curved edge all around.

The micro USB port is located at the bottom, together with a mic port.

There are no dedicated capacitive touch buttons in the front.

On the right side, you will find the Power button and a rocker switch for Volume.

Its specifications claim an LED flash for the front camera but it’s probably a typo. The LED flash is really for the rear 13 MP camera.

LEAGOO emphasised that the Shark 1’s rear camera uses a Sony BSI-2 sensor.

The fingerprint sensor has an activation speed of 0.39 seconds. And it allows you to unlock the LEAGOO Shark 1 with a quick touch.

The speaker vents are located at the bottom of the back.

The earphone port is located at the top, together with a second mic port.

The LEAGOO Shark 1 is powered by the 1.3 GHz MediaTek MTK6753 processor, which has eight Cortex-A53 cores and the Mali-T720 GPU.

The LEAGOO Shark 1 comes with Android 5.1 installed, and 3 GB of RAM with 2.1 GB free to use. And 16 GB of internal storage, of which 11.59 GB is free to use. Its microSD card slot allows you to add up to 128 GB of additional storage.

Its killer feature is really its 6,300 mAh Li-Po battery.

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participate in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donate to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!

ASUS ZenFone Max Offers 38 Days Of Standby Time!

ASUS today officially announced the availability of the ASUS ZenFone Max (ZC550KL) smartphone. Touting a 38-day standby time thanks to its massive 5,000 mAh battery, the ZenFone Max can even double as a power bank, charging your other mobile devices on-the-go! Take a look at its key features…

 

ASUS ZenFone Max Key Features

5000mAh battery holds charge for 38 days

ZenFone Max’s sleek frame secretes a monster battery — a 5000mAh cell custom-crafted from lithium-polymer to pack the maximum energy into the minimum space!

 

Your go-everywhere power bank

Long-lasting 5000mAh battery that smarts charge other devices! Just connect your gadget to turn ZenFone Max into an instant power bank for juicing up on the go!

 

13MP clarity with ultra-fast laser auto-focus

PixelMaster camera with f/2.0-aperture lens that captures stunning, hi-resolution photos with zero shutter lag. The ultra-fast laser auto-focus feature greatly reduces blurring and enhances image stabilization, and industry-leading Low Light mode employs pixel-merging technology to capture up to 400% brighter photos at night or in low-light scenes – without flash!

 

Look sharp, travel smooth

Surrounded by a striking metal-effect bezel that’s as stylish to behold as it is smooth to touch, so you’ll look sharp as it slips smoothly into your pocket or purse.

With the look and feel of embossed leather, ZenFone Max is finished to be as beautiful as it is powerful!

 

[adrotate banner=”4″]Maximum productivity and multimedia entertainment

Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, ample power for your daily tasks and activities. Featuring LTE Category 4 for download speeds up to 150Mbps!

 

Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4 – Stunningly strong, gorilla strong

Offers twice (2x) drop-damage resistance of its predecessor, a 2.5x increase in retained strength and 85% less likely to break in daily use — making it stronger than ever before!

 

A simpler, smarter, more personalized ZenUI experience

Enjoy the freedom, connection, and expression of ASUS ZenUI, the sublime interface that makes everything easier, safer and more enjoyable than never before.

 

ASUS ZenFone Max Specifications

SpecificationsASUS ZenFone Max (ZC550KL)
PlatformAndroid 5.0 Lollipop with ASUS ZenUI
Color OptionsBlack / White
Dimensions77.5 x 156 x 10.55 ~ mm (WxDxH)
Weight202 g (with battery)
CPUQualcomm MSM8916 QuadCore 1.2GHz
GPUAdreno 306
Memory2 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM
Storage16GB eMMC Flash
5GB free lifetime ASUS WebStorage
Memory SlotMicroSD card (up to 64 GB)
ConnectivityWLAN 802.11 b/g/n
Micro USB (support OTG)
Bluetooth V4.0+EDR +A2DP
Dual Micro SIM card
SIM1 Support2G/3G/4G
SIM2 Support2G/3G
Dual SIM Dual Stand By
Wi-Fi direct
Network StandardsWCDMA/TD-SCDMA/FDD-LTE
Dual SIM Dual Stand By
SIM1 Support2G/3G/4G
SIM2 Support2G/3G
NavigationGPS, GLONASS, AGPS & BDS
Display5.5inches, HD 1280x720,IPS
Scratch Resistant Corning® Glass with anti-fingerprint coating, Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4, Supports GloveTouch input, 450nits brightness, ASUS TrueVivid Full Screen Lamination technology, 178˚ viewing angle
Battery5000 mAh Li-Polymer (non-removable)
Standby Time914 hours
Talk Time37.63 hours
CameraFront Camera
- 5 Mega-Pixel
- f/2.0 Aperture
- Zero Shutter Lag
- Back Light (HDR) mode with ASUS PixelEnhancing Technology
- Low Light mode
- Real Time Beautification
- Night mode
- Selfie mode
- HDR mode

Rear Camera
- 13 Mega-Pixel
- 0.03 second laser auto-focus
- LED Flash
- f/2.0 Aperture
- dual-color Real Tone flash
- Zero Shutter Lag
- Back Light (HDR) mode
- Low Light mode
- Manual Mode for DSLR-like camera settings
- Real Time Beautification
- Night mode
- Depth of field
- Selfie mode
- Panorama mode
- Rear 0.03 second laser auto-focus
SensorsAccelerator / E-Compass / Proximity / Ambient Light Sensor / Hall Sensor
AccessoriesAdapter Type + Plug
USB sync Cable
3.5mm Wired Headset with Mic
OTG Cable

 

ASUS ZenFone Max Price & Availability

The ASUS ZenFone Max is priced at RM 899 (~US$ 209), and available with immediate effect from ASUS dealers and online stores. Check out the following prices :