Tag Archives: Gorilla Glass 4

Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus : Our Hands-On Preview!

Samsung just introduced the Galaxy S21 Plus, a new flagship smartphone with an iconic new design!

Find out if the new Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus is the smartphone you have been waiting for!

 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus : Our Hands-On Preview!

With a 6.7-inch display and a large battery, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus is designed for marathon gamers and binge-watchers.

Its edge-to-edge Dynamic AMOLED 2X display has a Full HD+ resolution, with an adaptive 120 Hz refresh rate.

 

New Flagship Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 in the US, South Korea and China, and the new Samsung Exynos 2100 in other countries.

They are both flagship mobile SoCs, and here is a quick comparison of their key specifications :

Specifications Samsung
Exynos 2100
Qualcomm
Snapdragon 888
Fab Process 5 nm EUV
Processor 1 x Cortex-X1 (2.9 GHz)
3 x Cortex-A78 (2.8 GHz)
4 x Cortex-A55 (2.2 GHz)
1 x Cortex-X1 (2.84 GHz)
3 x Cortex-A78 (2.4 GHz)
4 x Cortex-A55 (1.8 GHz)
GPU Arm Mali-G78 Qualcomm Adreno 660
AI Processor Triple-Core NPU Hexagon 780
Memory Support LPDDR5 LPDDR5
Storage Support UFS 3.1 / UFS 2.1 UFS 3.1
Connectivity 5G (sub-6GHz / mmWave)
4G LTE (1024 QAM)
3G WCDMA
2G GSM / CDMA

Front + Rear Cameras

The Galaxy S21 Plus comes with a 10 MP Dual Pixel front camera, with an f/2.2 aperture. The Dual Pixel capability allows for faster auto-focus.

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

  • a 12 MP Dual Pixel main camera, with an f/1.8 aperture
  • a 12 MP ultra-wide camera, with an f/2.2 aperture
  • a 64 MP telephoto camera, with an f/2.0 aperture, 1.1X optical zoom and 3X hybrid optic zoom.

This is basically the the same camera setup as the Galaxy S20, without the DepthVision camera.

Most of the improvements are in its camera software :

  • Improved 8K Snap, that lets you capture clear images from your 8K video footage
  • Super Steady video now supports 60 fps video recording
  • Single Take lets you capture a variety of still and video formats with a single tap.
    It is now enhanced with new pro-style settings like Highlight Video and Dynamic Slow-Mo
  • New Director’s View that lets you see, switch and select the best shot… LIVE!
  • Improved Space Zoom with new Zoom Lock capability

Samsung SmartThings Find

Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus supports the new SmartThings Find capability, which lets you quickly and easily locate compatible Galaxy devices, even when they are offline.

You can also locate non-connected devices using Samsung’s new Galaxy SmartTag Bluetooth locater. Simply attach it to your keys, bag or pet, and use SmartThings Find to locate them!

Protection

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus is IP68-rated against dust and water, allowing you to immerse it in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water, for up to 30 minutes.

Its display is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus against scratches in the front.

Battery + Charging

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus comes with a large 4,800 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, and it supports 18 watt wireless charging, as well as 25 watt wired charging.

But here’s the bad news – the Galaxy S21 Plus does NOT come with a charger in the box. It only ships with a USB-C to USB-C cable.

 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus : Specifications

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S21+
Model SM-G996
Display Size 6.7-inch Flat
Display Panel Dynamic AMOLED 2X
Display Resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels
Pixel Density 394 ppi
Display Features 48~120 Hz refresh rate
1300 nits
Protection IP68, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
Operating System One UI 3.1 (Android 11)
Platform Samsung Exynos 2100, or
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
Memory 8 GB LPDDR5
Storage Options 256 GB
External Storage None
Front Camera 10 MP Dual Pixel (f/2.2)
Rear
Cameras
12 MP Dual Pixel (f/1.8) main camera
12 MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera
64 MP (f/2.0) telephoto camera
– 1.1X optical zoom, 3X hybrid zoom
Connectivity 5G / 4G / 3G / 2G
Wi-Fi : WiFi-AC
Bluetooth : BT 5.0
USB : USB 3.2 Type C
GPS Support GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Ultra Wideband Yes
NFC / MST Yes
S Pen Support No
Fingerprint Sensor In Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro,
Geomagnetic, Hall sensor,
Proximity, Ambient Light
Audio Dual stereo speakers tuned by AKG
Battery 4,800 mAh
Charging 25 watt wired,
18 watt wireless
Width
Height
Thickness
75.6 mm
161.5 mm
7.8 mm
Weight 200 g

 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus : Colour Options

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus comes in three colour options – Phantom Silver, Phantom Black and a new signature colour, Phantom Violet.

 

Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus : Launch Price List

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus comes in two variants globally, with these prices :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB : US$999.99 / £949 / A$1549
  • 8 GB + 256 GB : US$1049.99 / £999 / A$1649 / S$1498 / RM4299

Here are some online purchase / pre-order options :

 

Recommended Reading

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Dell XPS 13 2018 (9370) Preview – Ultra-Light Powerhouse

Dell revealed their brand-new Dell XPS 13 2018 ultra-light laptop at CES 2018. We managed to get our hands on it… for a short time. Let us share with you our hands-on preview, as well as the key features, specifications and pictures of the Dell XPS 13 2018!

 

The Dell XPS 13 2018 (9370) @ CES 2018

Dell revealed their Dell XPS 13 2018 ultra-light laptop at CES 2018. It introduces a new alpine white glass fibre weave material. This new material took a dedicated Dell team more than 11,500 hours and 50 trials to get right.

 

The changes are not just skin-deep. The Dell XPS 13 2018 (Amazon | Lazada) is powered by the 8th Generation Intel Core processor, and boasts up to a 1 TB SSD. It is also the first laptop in the world to feature the GORE thermal insulation – the same silica aerogel used on the Mars Rover and Stardust Probe.

 

The Dell XPS 13 2018 (9370) Up Close

At an exclusive Dell experiential session, we were given some time to try out the Dell XPS 13 2018 (Amazon | Lazada). Here is our hands-on preview!

Let’s take a look at its key features in details :

Next-Generation InfinityEdge Display

The Dell XPS 13 2018 (Amazon | Lazada) introduces the next-generation InfinityEdge IPS display, with 400-nits brightness, a 23% thinner border and an 80.7% screen-to-body ratio. The optional 4K UHD display even boasts 100% sRGB colour gamut.

Smaller, Thinner, Lighter But More Powerful

The Dell XPS 13 2018 (Amazon | Lazada) is 24% smaller by volume, than the previous XPS 13. It is also 3.4 mm thinner and lighter at just 1.21 kg (2.67 pounds).

Yet, it offers even more performance with the latest 8th Generation Intel Core quad-core processor, with a faster UHD Graphics 620 graphics processor.

New Woven Glass Fiber

The Rose Gold version of the Dell XPS 13 2018 (Amazon | Lazada) introduces an alpine white woven glass fibre palm rest. The woven crystalline silica fibre is not just strong and light, it feels like silk and better dissipates heat.

Strong & Light

The XPS 13 2018 (Amazon | Lazada) is cut from a single block of aluminium, with a carbon fibre / woven glass fibre palm rest, for maximum strength with minimal weight. The display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 4, making it twice as resistant to damage.

Aerospace-Inspired Thermal Design

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The Dell XPS 13 2018 (Amazon | Lazada) boasts a new cooler with two heat pipes and two fans, increasing its cooling capacity while allowing for a thinner form factor. It is also the first to use GORE thermal insulation to channel heat from the CPU and GPU to the heat pipes, and away from the chassis.

Windows Hello

You can either use the built-in infra-red camera to recognise your face, or the optional fingerprint reader, to log in using Windows Hello.

Far-Field Cortana

Thanks to four built-in microphones, Microsoft Cortana and Waves-enabled speech technology, the XPS 13 2018 (Amazon | Lazada) responds to your voice from 14 feet (4 meters) away.

Next Page > Dell XPS 13 2018 Specifications, Price & Availability

 

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Dell XPS 13 2018 (9370) Specifications

SpecificationsDell XPS 13 2018
ModelXPS 13 9370
Design OptionsCNC-machined aluminium in platinum silver with carbon fibre composite palm rest in black

CNC-machined aluminium in rose gold with alpine white woven glass fibre palm rest, with titanium oxide UV- and stain-resistant coating
Operating System OptionsMicrosoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
Ubuntu 16.04 (no support for fingerprint reader, Waves MaxxAudio and Cortana)
Processor OptionsIntel Core i7-8550U (8 MB cache, up to 4.0 GHz)
Intel Core i5-8250U (6 MB cache, up to 3.4 GHz)
Memory Options16 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM (2133 MHz, dual channel)
8 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM (1866 MHz, dual channel)
4 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM (1866 MHz, dual channel)
Graphics ProcessorIntel UHD Graphics 620
Display Options13.3" UltraSharp 4K InfinityEdge display
- 3840 x 2160 pixels, 100% sRGB
- 400 nits, 1500:1 contrast ratio
- 178°wide viewing angle, anti-reflective coating

13.3" UltraSharp FHD InfinityEdge touch display
- 1920 x 1080 pixels, 72% sRGB
- 400 nits, 1500:1 contrast ratio
- 178°wide viewing angle, anti-reflective coating
Display ProtectionEdge-to-edge Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Storage Options1 TB PCIe SSD
512 GB PCIe SSD
256 GB PCIe SSD
128 GB SATA SSD
Keyboard & TouchpadFull size, backlit chiclet keyboard; 1.3mm travel
Precision touchpad, seamless glass integrated button
Wireless Connectivity OptionsIntel 8265 802.11ac (2x2) + BT 4.1
Killer 1435 802.11ac (2x2) + BT 4.1
Ports & Slots2 x Thunderbolt 3 with PowerShare, DC-In and DisplayPort
1 x USB-C 3.1 with PowerShare, DC-In & DisplayPort
microSD card reader
3.5" earphone port
Noble lock slot
Fingerprint SensorOptional Windows Hello-compliant fingerprint reader in Power button
Optical Drive OptionsNo internal drive
Only external options
AudioStereo speakers (1 W x 2) with Waves MaxxAudio Pro
WebcamWidescreen 720p webcam with 4-array digital microphones
Windows Hello-compliant infra-red camera
Far-Field Cortana capable
Battery52 WHr battery (non-replaceable)
AC Adapter45 W AC adapter
Docking OptionsDell Dock (130 W)
Dell Thunderbolt Dock (180 W)
DimensionsHeight : 0.3-0.46 inches / 7.8 -11.6 mm
Width : 11.9 inches / 302 mm
Depth : 7.8 inches / 199 mm
WeightStarting weight : 2.67 lbs / 1.21 kg
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Dell XPS 13 2018 (9370) Price & Availability

The new Dell XPS 13 2018 (Amazon | Lazada) is available globally, with starting price of US$ 999.99, or at Dell.com.my with a starting price of RM 5,999.

Dell will also be offering a Ubuntu-based XPS 13 Developer Edition with Linux preloaded in selected countries. It will have a starting price of US$ 949.99 / ~RM 3,895.

Here are some purchase links for select Dell XPS 13 2018 configurations :

* This model is not officially available in Malaysia at Dell.com.my.

 

More Dell XPS 13 2018 (9370) Pictures

Next Page > The Dell XPS 13 2018 (9370) CES 2018 Announcement

 

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The Dell XPS 13 2018 (9370) CES 2018 Announcement

by Frank Azor, VP and GM, XPS, Alienware and Dell Gaming

Technology has become an expression of style for those who use it – though fashion can be fickle. One thing we do know is elegance never goes out of style.

First unveiled at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, the XPS 13 immediately enhanced the legacy of XPS as the world’s most celebrated laptop and winner of more product awards than any other line in Dell’s history, most recently named a CES 2018 Innovation Award Honoree.

And how did it garner this latest honor? Vision and a lot of hard work.

In reimagining the XPS 13, Dell took inspiration from the realm of fashion, where rose gold remains a trending color and white accents have been growing in popularity, seen everywhere from watch bands to sneakers.

However when turning our XPS white, we strived to achieve elegance and invested more than a dozen people, 11,520 hours and 50 trials to create a new system that was as stunning inside and out. The Dell design team didn’t want to simply paint a system white – they wanted to use authentic materials and make sure the system looked as beautiful on day 1000 as it does on day 1.

With the desire to give its white palm rest a weaved appearance, the team considered different materials beyond the color limits of traditional carbon fiber. The solution? An innovative new crystalline silica material with the white color literally woven in, like a fabric, in nine composite layers. Dell is the first to use this woven glass fiber in a laptop.

Complementing the new rose gold aluminum shell of the XPS 13, the alpine white glass fiber weave is elegant to the eye and silky to the touch. Durable as it is beautiful, atop its soft-textured lattice is titanium oxide for a pearlescent sheen and UV and stain-resistant coating to prevent yellowing or staining over time.

In fact, if you get a pen mark or other stain on the white interior you can just wipe it off. And with a heat resistance superior to metal, woven glass fiber also stays cooler to facilitate longer performance.

Interesting fact: The glass fibers in one palm rest, if laid end to end, would extend for 117,500 miles, nearly enough to stretch halfway from Earth to the moon. Now that’s one giant leap.

We not only worked to create the most beautiful laptop on the market, but extended that design ethos to its matching white power cords and USB-A/USB-C adapter. And moving from style, to lifestyle, we invested in sustainable recycled ocean plastics and bamboo packaging so you can purchase with confidence knowing that Dell is doing its part to help the planet.

Besides its head-turning exterior, the all-new XPS 13 is better by every measure. Now even more portable as the smallest 13-inch laptop on the planet, its stunning InfinityEdge display fits this 13-inch laptop in an 11-inch frame. It’s a full 30% (3.4mm) thinner as well as lighter, starting at just 2.7 pounds, making the XPS 13 the ultimate in mobility and durability.

Running Windows 10 and powered by the latest Intel 8th Generation Quad Core processor, XPS 13 delivers superior mobile performance with fast booting SSDs up to 1TB. You can also expect the longest battery life of any 13-inch laptop, with almost 20 hours on FHD, up to 11 on UHD (Mobile Mark 14).

While we made the system smaller and lighter, we were able to increase the performance by 2x, over the original XPS 13 launched in 2015, and maintain the world’s most powerful 13-inch laptop in its class. So how did we do that? We have the most innovative performance and thermal engineering at Dell.

We developed Dell Power Manager to let you customize your balance of battery life, charging, thermals and acoustics and Dynamic Power Mode that intuitively delivers maximum power as needed, for such tasks as video rendering applications and advanced spreadsheets, while intelligently monitoring and managing system temperatures.

 

This means the XPS 13 has sustained high performance while competitors performance declines with continued use, making the XPS 13 the most powerful 13-inch in its class (Tested by Principled Technologies in December 2017 using the Cinebench CPU (multi-core test)).

As for thermal engineering, XPS 13 is the world’s first laptop built with GORE™ Thermal Insulation, the same silica aerogels that have been used in high tech science and extreme engineering environments to diffuse and dissipate heat, such as insulation on the Mars Rovers and Hyper Velocity Particle capture in the Stardust Probe. This material directs heat out of the device, keeping your system cool while it works hard.

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Now with a higher resolution display, incorporating 2.5 million more pixels with 4K Ultra HD compared to the previous QHD+, the 100% sRGB display on the XPS 13 gives you great, saturated and accurate color, whether for graphic professionals or watching your favorite Netflix show. In fact, Dell knows people today use their PCs to stream content, so the XPS 13 also delivers an unparalleled immersive cinematic experience with richer colors and details, crisper and stronger audio, and reduced buffering, so you really can watch Netflix and chill.

Activated by voice, touch or facial recognition, access to the new XPS 13 comes through a triad of biometric doorways. Log in with a look or a touch with the infrared camera and optional fingerprint reader in the power button for Windows Hello, or talk to your device from across the room, with four integrated digital microphones and Microsoft’s Cortana voice recognition capabilities.

The new XPS 13 is available globally beginning today on Dell.com, Microsoft.com and at your local Microsoft Store, starting at $999.99. Dell is also offering a Ubuntu-based developer edition with Linux preloaded starting at $949.99 beginning today on Dell.com in the US and Europe as well.

I can confidently say the new XPS 13 is the most stunning system we have ever created with the perfect blend of elegance and performance.

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The Evolution Of The Samsung Galaxy S8 Smartphone

Samsung has done it again – creating a smartphone with features that make people go oooh and ahhh. Two of them actually. But they didn’t start from scratch. The new Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones had their genesis in their two highly-acclaimed predecessors – the Galaxy S7 edge and the Galaxy S6 edge. Let’s take a look at the evolution of the Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone!

 

The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge

The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge is famous for being the first smartphone to feature a display that curved at the two edges. But it also marked Samsung’s first foray into an all metal-and-glass design with a non-removable battery. It had an aluminium unibody chassis with Gorilla Glass 4 protection on both front and back aspects.

You may not recall it, but it was also the first Samsung smartphone to support wireless charging and Samsung Pay. Needless to say, the Galaxy S6 edge was very sexy, and impressed us greatly. The only things we didn’t like about it – the lack of a microSD slot, and the bottom location of the 3.5 mm audio port.

 

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge

The popularity of the Galaxy S6 edge ensured that Samsung would retain the curved edge display for the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.  They also retained the magnificent Quad HD Super AMOLED display. Why fix something that’s not broken?

Samsung fixed the biggest gripe users had with the Galaxy S6 edge, restoring the microSD slot in the form of a Hybrid SIM tray. They also renewed their emphasis on the main camera by using a new 12 MP Dual Pixel camera with f/1.7 lens. It was arguably the best smartphone camera of 2016.

But what the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge is probably best known for is its IP68 design. It is the first non-ruggerdised smartphone to be IP68 dust- and water-resistant all the time. That means you can immerse it in water without prior preparation, and it does not look like a brick!

What we didn’t really fancy – the limited internal storage (it had just 32 GB of storage initially), and the 5 MP front camera, which was so 2015.

 

The Samsung Galaxy S8

Samsung built upon their highly-successful Galaxy S7 edge to create the new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. It maintained the same curved screen and IP68 protection, albeit with a higher resolution WQHD+ display and Gorilla Glass 5 protection.

The removal of the edge moniker suggests that Samsung has decided to only use the trademark curved AMOLED displays in their Galaxy S family going forward. Samsung also removed the Home button completely, creating an incredible Infinity Display.

Samsung maintained the same highly-acclaimed 12 MP Dual Pixel camera from the Galaxy S7 edge, but gave the front camera a new 8 MP sensor with autofocus capability. The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ also boast the iris scanner that was first introduced with the Galaxy Note7.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones have a dedicated button that activates the new Bixby artificial intelligence assistant. They can also be connected to the Samsung DeX dock, which provides you with a desktop-like computing experience.

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The Evolution Of The Samsung Galaxy S8

To better illustrate the evolution of the Samsung Galaxy S8, we prepared this detailed specification comparison of the new Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones, with their predecessors.

SpecificationsSamsung Galaxy S8+Samsung Galaxy S8Samsung Galaxy S7 edgeSamsung Galaxy S6 edge
Display6.2" Super AMOLED dual-edge display
- 1440 x 2960 pixels (529 ppi)
5.8" Super AMOLED dual-edge display
- 1440 x 2960 pixels (570 ppi)
5.5" Super AMOLED dual-edge display
- 1440 x 2560 pixels (534 ppi)
5.1" Super AMOLED dual-edge display
- 1440 x 2560 pixels (577 ppi)
ProtectionCorning Gorilla Glass 5 (front & back panels)Corning Gorilla Glass 5 (front & back panels)Corning Gorilla Glass 4 (front & back panels)
Operating System (At Launch)Android 7.0 NougatAndroid 7.0 NougatAndroid 6.0 MarshmallowAndroid 5.0 Lollipop
System PlatformSamsung Exynos 8895
or
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
Samsung Exynos 8895
or
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa
or
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820
Samsung Exynos 7420
Memory4 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM4 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM4 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM3 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM
Storage Options64 GB internal flash storage
One microSD slot (shared with SIM 2) - supports up to 256 GB
64 GB internal flash storage
One microSD slot (shared with SIM 2) - supports up to 256 GB
32 GB / 64 GB internal flash storage
One microSD slot (shared with SIM 2) - supports up to 200 GB
32 GB / 64 GB / 128 GB internal flash storage
No microSD slot
Front Camera8 MP sensor with f/1.7 lens8 MP sensor with f/1.7 lens5 MP sensor with f/1.7 lens5 MP sensor with f/1.9 lens
Rear Camera12 MP Sony / Samsung (1.4 µm) sensor with f/1.7 lens, optical image stabilisation (OIS) and LED flash12 MP Sony / Samsung (1.4 µm) sensor with f/1.7 lens, optical image stabilisation (OIS) and LED flash12 MP Sony / Samsung (1.4 µm) sensor with f/1.7 lens, optical image stabilisation (OIS) and LED flash16 MP Sony / Samsung sensor (1.1 µm) with f/1.9 lens, optical image stabilisation (OIS) and LED flash
Dual SIM capabilityHybrid dual SIM (dual active capability)
- SIM 2 + microSD shared slot
Hybrid dual SIM (dual active capability)
- SIM 2 + microSD shared slot
Hybrid dual SIM (dual standby capability)
- SIM 2 + microSD shared slot
None, single SIM only
ConnectivityNetwork : LTE Cat. 16 (1 Gbps / 150 Mbps)
WiFi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz), MIMO (2 x 2)
Bluetooth : Version 5.0 LE, ANT+
Others : USB 3.1, NFC, GPS
Network : LTE Cat. 16 (1 Gbps / 150 Mbps)
WiFi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz), MIMO (2 x 2)
Bluetooth : Version 5.0 LE, ANT+
Others : USB 3.1, NFC, GPS
Network : LTE Cat. 8 (450 / 50 Mbps)
WiFi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz), MIMO (2 x 2)
Bluetooth : Version 4.2 LE, ANT+
Others : USB 2.0, NFC, GPS
Network : LTE Cat. 6 (300 / 50 Mbps)
WiFi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz), MIMO (2 x 2)
Bluetooth : Version 4.1 LE, ANT+
Others : USB 2.0, NFC, IR Remote, GPS
Fingerprint SensorYes, Rear MountedYes, Rear MountedYes, Home ButtonYes, Home Button
Iris ScannerYesYesNoNo
Other SensorsAccelerometer, Proximity, RGB Light, Geo-magnetic, Gyro, Barometer, Hall, HRMAccelerometer, Proximity, RGB Light, Geo-magnetic, Gyro, Barometer, Hall, HRMAccelerometer, Proximity, RGB Light, Geo-magnetic, Gyro, Barometer, Hall, HRMAccelerometer, Proximity, RGB Light, Geo-magnetic, Gyro, Barometer, Hall, HRM
Water & Dust ResistanceIP68IP68IP68None
Battery3,500 mAh lithium-ion battery (non-removable)
- fast charging capability (wired & wireless)
- wireless charging (WPC and PMA)
3,000 mAh lithium-ion battery (non-removable)
- fast charging capability (wired & wireless)
- wireless charging (WPC and PMA)
3,600 mAh lithium-ion battery (non-removable)
- fast charging capability (wired & wireless)
- wireless charging (Qi and PMA)
2,600 mAh lithium-ion battery (non-removable)
- fast charging capability (wired only)
- wireless charging (Qi and PMA)
Dimensions159.5 mm tall
73.4 mm wide
8.1 mm thick
148.9 mm tall
68.1 mm wide
8.0 mm thick
150.9 mm tall
72.6 mm wide
7.7 mm thick
142.1 mm tall
70.1 mm wide
7.0 mm thick
Weight173 g152 g157 g132 g
Colour OptionsMidnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver, Coral Blue, Maple GoldMidnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver, Coral Blue, Maple GoldBlack Onyx, Silver Titanium, Gold PlatinumWhite Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Green Emerald

 

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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

 

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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.

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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

 

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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.

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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

 

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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

 

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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.

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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

 

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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.

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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!

 

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The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge Smartphone Review

We hope you enjoyed our extensive coverage of the new Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon), from the preview, our first opportunity to try it out with the Gear VR and the smashing launch with Korean superstar, Lee Kwang-soo. But nothing beats having the real thing at hand, and today, we will share with you our comprehensive review of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge smartphone!

 

Unboxing The Galaxy S7 edge

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) comes in a very classy black cardboard box, with the storage capacity and colour printed on a gold-coloured label on the upper right corner. In this video, we open up the Galaxy S7 edge box and take a look inside.

Inside, you will find the following items :
  • One Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) smartphone
  • One Samsung 15 W adaptive fast charging travel charger
  • One micro-USB to USB 2.0 cable
  • One USB OTG adaptor
  • One pair of Samsung earphones with spare set of earbuds
  • One SIM card slot extractor
  • One Quick Start Guide (in English and Mandarin)
  • One set of Warranty Cards & Regional Lock Guide
  • One OTG adaptor manual (in English and Mandarin)
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Specification Comparison

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) comes in two variants – the SM-G935 (US) variant powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor, and the SM-G935F/FD (Worldwide / SEA) variant powered by the Samsung Exynos 8890 octa-core processor. Let’s compare their specifications with their predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge.

SpecificationsSamsung Galaxy S7 edge (Qualcomm Variant)Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos Variant)Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
Display5.5" Super AMOLED dual-edge display
- 1440 x 2560 pixels (534 ppi)
5.1" Super AMOLED dual-edge display
- 1440 x 2560 pixels (577 ppi)
ProtectionCorning Gorilla Glass 4 (front & back panels)
Operating System (At Launch)Android 6.0 MarshmallowAndroid 5.0 Lollipop
System PlatformQualcomm Snapdragon 820 (MSM8996)
- 2.15 GHz ARM Kyro x 2
- 1.59 GHz ARM Kyro x 2
- Qualcomm Adreno 530 GPU
Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa
- 2.3 GHz Samsung Mongoose x 4
- 1.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A53 x 4
- ARM Mali T880 GPU
Samsung Exynos 7420
- 2.1 GHz ARM Cortex-A57 x 4
- 1.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A53 x 4
- ARM Mali T760 GPU
Memory4 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM3 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM
Storage Options32 GB / 64 GB internal flash storage
One microSD slot (shared with SIM 2) - supports up to 200 GB
32 GB / 64 GB / 128 GB internal flash storage
No microSD slot
Front Camera5 MP sensor with f/1.7 lens5 MP sensor with f/1.9 lens
Rear Camera12 MP Sony / Samsung (1.4 µm) sensor with f/1.7 lens, optical image stabilisation (OIS) and LED flash16 MP Sony / Samsung sensor (1.1 µm) with f/1.9 lens, optical image stabilisation (OIS) and LED flash
Dual SIM capabilityHybrid dual SIM (dual active capability)
- SIM 2 + microSD shared slot
Hybrid dual SIM (dual standby capability)
- SIM 2 + microSD shared slot
None, single SIM only
ConnectivityNetwork : LTE Cat. 12/13 (600 / 150 Mbps)
WiFi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz), MIMO (2 x 2)
Bluetooth : Version 4.1 LE, ANT+
Others : USB 2.0, NFC, GPS
Network : LTE Cat. 8 (450 / 50 Mbps)
WiFi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz), MIMO (2 x 2)
Bluetooth : Version 4.2 LE, ANT+
Others : USB 2.0, NFC, GPS
Network : LTE Cat. 6 (300 / 50 Mbps)
WiFi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz), MIMO (2 x 2)
Bluetooth : Version 4.1 LE, ANT+
Others : USB 2.0, NFC, IR Remote, GPS
SensorsAccelerometer, Proximity, RGB Light, Geo-magnetic, Gyro, Fingerprint, Barometer, Hall, HRM
Water & Dust ResistanceIP68None
Battery3,600 mAh lithium-ion battery (non-removable)
- fast charging capability (wired & wireless)
- wireless charging (Qi and PMA)
2,600 mAh lithium-ion battery (non-removable)
- fast charging capability (wired only)
- wireless charging (Qi and PMA)
Dimensions150.9 mm tall
72.6 mm wide
7.7 mm thick
142.1 mm tall
70.1 mm wide
7.0 mm thick
Weight157 g132 g
Colour OptionsBlack Onyx, Silver Titanium, Gold PlatinumWhite Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Green Emerald

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge model we have is the South East Asian model – SM-G935FD. Like the SM-G935F (Worldwide) model, it is powered by the Samsung Exynos 8890. The difference is the FD model has a hybrid dual SIM slot, instead of a dedicated microSD slot in the F model. Now, let’s take a closer look!

Next Page > Video Primer, Double Curves, Hybrid SIM Slot

 

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The Galaxy S7 edge Key Features

Before we go into the details of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon)‘s key features, here is a primer video that gives you a quick tour of those features. Take a look :

 

Double Curves

Superficially, the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) looks very similar to the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon). The Galaxy S7 edge is taller and slightly wider, and has double-curved edges. Its double curved edges actually allows for a slightly more comfortable grip

.Just like its predecessor, it has the Volume buttons on the left, a Power button on the right and a Home button which doubles as a fingerprint sensor. The fingerprint sensor is more accurate and works faster than the Galaxy S6 edge‘s fingerprint sensor.

 

Hybrid SIM Slot

The SIM and microSD card slot is located at the top, but the earphone port is located at the bottom, near the USB 2.0 and microphone ports. This is due to extremely slim profile of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon).

This is the South East Asian model (SM-G935FD), so it has a hybrid SIM slot, instead of the standard microSD slot. The hybrid SIM slot can be used to install a second SIM card (SIM 2), or a microSD card.

This gives you some flexibility – you can choose to use either a second SIM card, or a microSD card. However, you can’t use both at the same time. This has led to some disgruntlement although practically everyone agrees that Samsung made the right decision in bringing back the microSD slot which supports microSD cards of up to 200 GB in size.

 

Faster Cameras

Samsung improved the front camera, giving the Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) a faster f/1.7 lens for better low-light performance. The rear camera also comes with f/1.7 lens, but drops the 16 MP sensor for a 12 MP sensor with Dual Pixel autofocus technology. That doesn’t mean the sensor is capable of delivering twice as many pixels of resolution though.

Dual Pixel technology is actually an autofocus technology that uses the dual photodiodes in every pixel on the image sensor for phase-detection autofocus. This allows for faster and more accurate focusing, because it uses many more autofocus pixels, instead of just a few dedicated pixels (usually less than 5% of the total).

Samsung uses either a Sony IMX260 sensor, or their own Samsung S5KL1 ISOCELL sensor in their Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) smartphones. Our model came with the Samsung S5KL1 sensor. Both are virtually identical in performance – 12 MP of resolution with Dual Pixel autofocus technology and 1.4 μm pixels – 25% larger than their predecessors. This means much lower noise levels, and better image quality overall.

The new 12 MP rear camera still has a bump, but it is far less pronounced than the 1.7 mm tall camera bump on the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon). Earlier leaks claim that it is 0.8 mm, but in reality, it’s just 0.46 mm. That’s virtually imperceptible if you lay it on a flat table, and only noticeable if you slide your finger over it.

Next Page > Water Resistance, Liquid Cooling, Bigger Battery, Faster Charging

 

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Water Resistance

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) is IP68-rated for dust- and water-resistance. Best of all, you don’t even have to prepare it in any way before you dunk it into water! For more information how how Samsung achieved this feat, take a look at our Samsung Galaxy S7 IP68 Engineering Explained.

Officially, the Galaxy S7 edge can withstand complete immersion in water up to 1.5 m in depth, for up to 30 minutes. That means you can take it for jogs in the rain, reading in the shower or soaking in bath. Heck, you can even take it for a swim!

There are some caveats though. The IP68 rating applies to a specific set of test conditions : 15-35 °C, 86-106 kPa, 1.5 metre, 30 minutes. Even so, water may enter and damage the Galaxy S7 edge if it is exposed to “water moving with force“, like running water from a tap or waterfall, or ocean waves.

In other words, this is not a waterproof phone like the Kenxinda ruggerdised smartphones. It is IP68 water-resistant, so you need to be gentle with it. You can read more about this in our article – Samsung Galaxy S7 IP68 Engineering Explained.

 

Liquid Cooling

One of the biggest complaints about the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon) was how hot it gets during heavy use. This is particularly pronounced when it is used to record videos.

Samsung mitigates this issue in the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) using a “liquid cooling system” to keep its internal components cool. Samsung was not forthcoming with the details, but ifixit tore it down to reveal the liquid cooling system as a small, thin copper heat pipe.

A heat pipe is used to very efficiently remove heat from a hot surface on one end, and conduct it to a colder surface on the other end. It does this using a working fluid (like water) that turns into vapour on the hot end, and condenses at the cold end.

The Galaxy S7 edge’s heat pipe can be seen to run across the 4 GB Hynix LPDDR4 (which lays over the Snapdragon 820 / Exynos 8890 processor), and 32 GB Samsung MLC flash chip, as well as several other chips before terminating on the back cover.

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Bigger Battery, Faster Charging

Samsung also corrected another major complaint by Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon) users – battery life. The Galaxy S6 edge only came with a 2,600 mAh battery. Samsung gave the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) a large 3,600 mAh battery1,000 mAh or 38.5% more than its predecessor!

How much more battery life can we expect from this larger battery? We tested it using PCMark and lo behold, the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) lasted almost 11 hours! That is almost double the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon), which lasts just over 6 hours on the same test.

Officially, the Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) will fully recharge its battery (from 0% to 100%) in just 115 minutes. In our test, it took us just 86 minutes and 46 seconds to recharge the Galaxy S7 edge from 19% to 100%. If you look at the graph, you can see that its recharging performance is linear up to the 90% mark, then it tapers off. For maximum charging speed, you can charge from 19% to 90% in just under 64 minutes!

This battery recharging performance is thanks to the 15 W fast charging capability that both Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and Galaxy S6 edge support. The new Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) improves on that by adding fast wireless charging! This allows you to recharge its battery wirelessly in just 155 minutes.

Next Page > Initial Setup, It’s Alive!, Improved Edge

 

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Initial Setup

When you power up the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) for the first time, it will take about 23 seconds to boot up. If you set it up as a fresh device, it will take no more than 5 minutes to complete the initial setup. Check out our video on the initial setup process, and a quick look at some of its software features.

 

It’s Alive!

The moment the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) starts running, you will immediately be very impressed with its bright, sharp and vivid display. That’s the beauty of its Super AMOLED display that is unmatched by IPS LCD panels. The front Gorilla Glass 4 cover has an oleophobic coating, which makes for easy swiping and a cleaner display. The back lacks the oleophobic coating for a better grip. However, this means it’s very easily smudged.

You will also notice that the Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) grips better than the Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon). Even though it’s a 5.5″ smartphone, it feels no different from the Galaxy S6 edge. This is because it’s just slightly (2.5 mm) wider but 8.8 mm taller. At 15 cm tall, it may protrude out of your pocket, especially if you are wearing jeans.

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Improved Edge

Although many Samsung fans love the dual curved edges for aesthetic reasons, Samsung put considerable effort into making the edge screen even more functional than it was with the Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon). Let’s take a look!

The first swipe takes you to the Apps edge. Here you get quick access to your 10 most frequently used apps. Samsung already pre-populated 8 of them, but you can swap them or add two more from the list of apps in your Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon).

Swiping again takes you to the Tasks edge. This is where you can create shortcuts to perform your favourite tasks, like composing an image or start a stopwatch.

The third swipe will bring you to the People edge screen. This is the default screen in the Galaxy S6 edge. Here, you can add up to 5 favourite contacts, so you can quickly call or message them.

The final swipe will take you to Yahoo! News. Of course, you can swap that out (or even any of the previous Edge panels) for new Edge panels that you can download online. As of April 2016, there are 15 free and paid Edge panels to choose from.

Next Page > Memory & Storage, Camera Options

 

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Available Memory & Storage

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) comes with 4 GB of LPDDR4 memory. This is great news because the Galaxy S7 edge has quite a lot of bloat. In fact, you only have 1.7 GB of free memory to use. Compare that to the ASUS ZenFone Zoom (Amazon), which also has 4 GB of RAM but 2.2 GB of free memory to use. That’s a difference of 500 MB.

The Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) also comes with 32 GB of internal flash memory. Once you deduct 7.8 GB for the Android 6.0 operating system and apps, you have 24.2 GB of free space left to use. That is pretty decent actually, allowing you to store about 5,000 photos, or record 180 minutes of 1080p video or 60 minutes of 4K video.

In some countries, a 64 GB internal storage option is also available. However, the 32 GB model is likely to be the far more popular model because the Galaxy S7 edge comes with a microSD slot that allows you to top up storage by 200 GB via a microSD card.

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Camera Options

Both the front and rear cameras use a 4:3 ratio for maximum resolution, with small crop sizes available in the settings menu. The main camera can record videos in full 4K resolution, albeit only with electronic video stabilisation, HDR, tracking AF and video effects turned off. For those features to be enabled, you must record at resolutions of 2560 x 1440 (QHD) or lower.

Surprisingly, the front 5 MP camera can also record video with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 (QHD). with electronic image stabilisation disabled. If you want EIS enabled, you need to drop it down to 19×0 x 1080. Both front and rear cameras support additional functions via the Mode button, like a Pro mode, a Wide Selfie mode, Selective focus, Panorama, etc.

Next Page > Camera Performance, Video Recording Performance

 

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Camera Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge‘s killer feature is its improved rear camera. Its faster f/1.7 lens allows for better low-light performance, which is obvious from the indoor photos we took. It also performed well, even when the weather was overcast. Its Dual Pixel technology also allowed for faster and more accurate focusing.

We have no complaints about the Samsung S5KL1 ISOCELL sensor in this Galaxy S7 edge model. We did note that it sometimes have white balance issues (the Dala horse picture above has a yellowish tinge), but nothing a quick photo edit can’t fix.

Below, you will see examples of how much detail resolution the Samsung S5KL1 ISOCELL sensor is capable of. Note the detail on the wall, and the texture of the fabric petals, as well as the intricate patterns on the bubblegum balls below.

The pictures of the fruits above show that the colours are bright and vivid. There is no doubt hat if you are into mobile photography, the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) has arguably the best smartphone camera in the market right now.

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Video Recording Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) is capable of recording 4K UHD videos as well as 1080p videos. Other than the resolution difference, it can only record 4K UHD videos with optical image stabilisation. When set to record 1080p videos, it supports electronic image stabilisation as well as optical image stabilisation.

To test and compare both stabilisation capabilities, we recorded two examples in both 1080p and 4K modes. The first set are of Mr. Yang I-Deun’s piano performances, while the second set are of ice skaters.


The optical and electronic image stabilisation worked like a charm, reducing or even eliminating handshake and vibration. Even at 4K, the amount of shaking was very minimal. The image quality was superb and there was reasonably good control of the exposure. Only the bright background in the piano performance set was overexposed. The audio recording was also good – clear, with reasonably good background noise control. This is definitely our favourite smartphone to record videos.

Next Page > Work Performance, Overall Performance, Gaming Performance

 

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Work Performance : PCMark

We tested the Galaxy S7 edge‘s performance using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

 

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge ASUS ZenFone Zoom Samsung
Galaxy S6 edge
Work Performance Score
(Average)
4892 5829 5078
Web Browsing 6908 5751 6788
Video Playback 3218 4536 3091
Writing 4629 5270 5918
Photo Editing 5563 8400 5357

Surprisingly, the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) was not so hot in PCMark. It was slightly faster than its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon) in Web Browsing, Video Playback and Photo Editing, but it was significantly slower in Writing. In fact, it was much slower than the Intel Atom-powered ASUS ZenFone Zoom (Amazon) we reviewed recently, in all but web browsing.

 

Overall Performance : AnTuTu Benchmark

AnTuTu is a nice benchmark for testing various performance aspects of Android devices.

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge ASUS ZenFone Zoom Samsung
Galaxy S6 edge
TOTAL SCORE 131246 65914 75222
3D SCORE 40824 16839 20579
– 3D (Garden) 17488 6976 8104
– 3D (Marooned) 23336 9863 12475
UX SCORE 42765 21371 24065
– UX Data Secure 8169 5896 5507
– UX Data Process 5966 4353 4392
– UX Strategy Games 10745 4118 6948
– UX Image Process 13878 2926 3413
– UX I/O Performance 4007 4078 3805
CPU SCORE 37882 23110 25402
– CPU Mathematics 11831 5196 7823
– CPU Common Use 10875 8699 7585
– CPU Multi-Core 15176 9215 9994
RAM 9775 4594 5176

There is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) is a gaming king. It was practically twice as fast as its predecessor, the Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon) in 3D performance and user experience (UX) scores! It was also much faster in CPU and memory performance.

 

Gaming Performance : 3DMark

We tested the Galaxy S7 edge’s gaming performance using 3DMark, using the Ice Storm Unlimited test.

Samsung
Galaxy S7 edge
ASUS
ZenFone Zoom
Samsung
Galaxy S6 edge
Gaming Score 28650 21372 21166
Graphics 33685 21748 23298
Physics 18810 20152 16031
Graphics Test 1 162.9 fps 112.6 fps 120.6 fps
Graphics Test 2 133.1 fps 81.5 fps 87.3 fps
Physics Test 59.7 fps 64.0 fps 50.9 fps

There is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) is an astoundingly fast smartphone for 3D games. It proved to be 35% faster than its predecessor, the Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon), which is itself a very fast smartphone for games. The Galaxy S7 edge will take any 3D game thrown at it and then some.

Next Page > Our Verdict & Award

 

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Our Verdict On The Galaxy S7 edge

Superficially, the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) looks like an evolutionary upgrade of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge. Like its predecessor, it is a work of art – a beautiful combination of glass and metal. It sports the characteristic curved edges in the front, which is now complemented by slightly curved edges in the back.

Users of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon) though will be familiar with the downsides of the curved edges – accidental triggering of the touchscreen when you hold the Galaxy S7 edge. Samsung appears to have improved this but it will still occur. The curved edges also prevent the use of the popular tempered glass screen protectors, with TPE screen protectors being your only choice. Of course, the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) is protected on both front and back by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 4, so you can probably do without screen protectors.

The Galaxy S7 edge‘s Super AMOLED display is sharp, brilliant and vivid with a pixel density of 534 ppi. Even though it is no different from the slightly smaller Super AMOLED display used in the Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon), it remains the best smartphone display in the market. Even though this is a 5.5″ smartphone, it doesn’t feel that large. This is because it is taller, and only a little wider. It fits our hands very well although single-handed use is quite a stretch.

Even though the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge swapped a 16 MP sensor for a lower-resolution 12 MP sensor, it has a much better rear camera. Due to the larger pixels and a faster f/1.7 lens, it has better low-light performance. The new sensor also supports Dual Pixel technology, allowing for faster and more accurate auto-focus performance. This is arguably the best smartphone camera in the market today.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge‘s killer feature is probably its IP68 rating for dust- and water-resistance. You can dunk it into water without any preparations – it will survive depths of up to 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes. However, it is not waterproof. You have to be careful about subjecting it to water under pressure. We have a more detailed article on its IP68 certification in our article, Samsung Galaxy S7 IP68 Engineering Explained.

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Another feature that was warmly welcomed was the reintroduction of the microSD slot. That was a misstep in the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (Amazon) and the Samsung Galaxy Note5 (Amazon). The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) introduced it in the form of a hybrid SIM slot, allowing you to either use a microSD card or a second SIM card, but not both at the same time. This is not as convenient as a dedicated second SIM slot and a dedicated microSD slot, but it beats having a single SIM card slot with no microSD slot.

We are also glad to report that Samsung corrected another weakness in the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge – its short battery life. The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) comes with a large 3,600 mAh battery – 1,000 mAh (38.5%) extra capacity over its predecessor. That allowed it to last almost 11 hours of non-stop heavy use in our stress test!

There is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (Amazon) is the best smartphone Samsung has ever made. They took the best features of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge, corrected its weaknesses and added dust- and water-resistance. What’s not to like? We love it so much, we are awarding it our coveted Editor’s Choice Award! Congratulations, Samsung!

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ASUS ZenFone Zoom (ZX551ML) Review Rev. 2.0

When we covered the launch of the ASUS ZenFone Zoom, everyone clamoured to review it. It was literally the ultimate ZenFone smartphone – with its powerful Intel Atom processor, 4 GB of RAM, 128 GB of internal storage and a 13 MP camera with 3X optical zoom, laser auto-focus and optical image stabilisation!

Unfortunately, initial stocks were limited so ASUS sent us the 5.5″ smartphone model (ZE550KL) and the 6″ phablet model (ZE601KL) of their  ZenFone 2 Laser series instead. We are ecstatic to report that ASUS recently passed us a special edition of the ASUS ZenFone Zoom (ZX551ML). So we present to you our definitive review of the ASUS ZenFone Zoom (ZX551ML) smartphone!

Updated @ 2016-05-09 : Added additional information to various sections, and expanding in particular, the section on its photographic capabilities.

 

ASUS ZenFone Zoom Specifications

SpecificationsASUS ZenFone Zoom (ZX551ML)
Operating SystemAndroid 5.0 (Lollipop) with ASUS ZenUI 2.0
Display5.5" IPS touchscreen
1080 x 1920 pixels (403 ppi pixel density)
Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection
ProcessorQuad-core Intel Atom Z3590 (2.5 GHz)
Graphics ProcessorPowerVR Rogue G6430 (640 MHz)
Memory4 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM
Storage128 GB eMCP flash memory
microSD card slot (up to 128 GB)
5 GB lifetime ASUS WebStorage
Front Camera5 MP sensor with f/2.0 wide-angle lens
Rear Camera13 MP Panasonic SmartFSI MN34130 sensor
Hoya 28-84 mm f/2.7-4.8 lens (10-element periscope design)
3X optical zoom + 4X digital zoom
4 stops Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS)
Dual-LED, dual-tone flash
Laser auto-focus system (0.03 seconds focusing, up to 50 cm)
Network Speed4G LTE Cat4+ : 50 / 250 Mbps
3G HSPA+ : 5.76 / 42 Mbps
SIM SupportSingle micro SIM card
ConnectivityWiFi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth v4.0 + EDR
NFC, micro-USB 2.0
GPSGPS / GLONASS / QZSS / SBAS / BDS
Battery3000 mAh lithium polymer (non-removable)
Fingerprint SensorNo
Other SensorsAccelerator, E-Compass, Gyroscope, Proximity, Ambient Light, Hall sensor
Dimensions78.8 mm wide x 158.9 mm tall x 11.95 mm thick
3.10" wide x 6.26" tall x 0.47" thick
Weight185 g / 6.53 oz (with battery)
Available ColoursPure Black / Ceramic White

 

Unboxing The ZenFone Zoom

Our ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] came in a special edition box set, so it’s much larger than what you would see in a retail store. When you open up the box, you will find a welcome note printed on heavy cardboard. Very classy. Underneath, you will find the actual ASUS ZenFone Zoom box, a box of Zencredible Photocards and a Zenny figurine nestled in foam cutouts.

[adrotate banner=”4″]When you unpack everything, you should find the following items :
  • One ASUS ZenFone Zoom (ZX551ML) smartphone wrapped in plastic
  • One ASUS ZenFone Zoom leather strap
  • One 18W ASUS fast charger with power plug adapter and micro-USB cable
  • One set of Zencredible Photocards – the ASUS’ version of Cards Against Humanity (Special Edition box set only)
  • One Zenny figurine (Special Edition box set only)
  • One pair of ASUS ZenEar earphones with four spare earbuds
  • One set of User Manual, Warranty Card and strip of 3 IMEI stickers

Note that the Special Edition box only come with two extra items – the Zenny figurine and the Zencredible Photocards.

In the next page, we are going to take a close look at the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Amazon] and set it up!

Next Page > The ZenFone Zoom, Premium Finish, Fast Charger

 

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The ASUS ZenFone Zoom (ZX551ML)

In this video, we will show you how to quickly unwrap the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] – just slide it out! And we will give you a quick tour of its key features :


The ASUS ZenFone 2 series is notable for their ambidextrous design. However, the ZenFone Zoom abandons it due to the periscopic lens arrangement, and its focus on photography. Instead of a central alignment, all of the ZenFone Zoom’s physical buttons are on the right side. There are not buttons on the left side.

First, you have the Volume rocker switch, which doubles as Zoom buttons. To zoom in, press the T (Telescopic) button. To zoom out, press the W (Wide) button. Right next to them is Power button. On the far end, you will find the Record Video button (small circular button with a red dot) and a dedicated Shutter button. Like on a digital camera, you can half-press the Shutter button to focus on an object before taking the shot.

The earphone port is located at the top, together with a microphone port. There is a second microphone port located at the bottom, next to the micro-USB port. Note the groove which allows you to remove the back cover, and the single speaker grille next to it.

At the lower left corner is a strap hole. It allows you to attach the leather strap, so you can loop it around your wrist. This will prevent the ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] from hitting the ground should it slip out of your hand.

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Premium Finish

At first sight, you can tell that the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] is a bespoke device. It has a certain heft that imparts confidence in its build, with a beautiful anodised aluminium frame that terminates in a brilliant ring around the Gorilla Glass-protected display.

The frame is carved from a single block of aerospace-grade aluminium alloy and then polished, sand-blasted and anodised – in an elaborate 201-step process. ASUS certainly spared no expense in this model.

To give it the ultimate feel of luxury, the back cover uses the finest (literally) ox leather. Only 38% of the hide with the thinnest and toughest cut is used. It is then finished with traditional Italian tailoring. The leather cover not only feels great, it gives you a better grip.

 

Fast Charger

The ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] comes with a fast charger that delivers up to 18 W of power (2 amps of current at 9 V). You can recharge the ZenFone Zoom with any other charger, even use a micro-USB connected to a computer’s USB port. However, you won’t be able to charge as fast as you would with this fast charger (see our test results).

It is made up of two parts – the AC/DC converter, and a power plug that varies according to region. This modular design allows ASUS to manufacture the same fast charger for the entire world, and adapt them to local requirements using the modular plug heads.

Next Page > Inside The ZenFone Zoom, Mono Speaker & ZenEar, Setting Up The ZenFone Zoom

 

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Inside The ZenFone Zoom

Now, let’s take a look INSIDE the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price]. We will show you how to carefully remove the premium leather back cover to gain access to the SIM slot and the microSD card slot. Unlike other ZenFone 2 models, the 3,000 mAh battery is not user-removable.

The ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] uses the Intel XMM 7262 modem which has dual SIM, dual standby capability. However, ASUS only chose to include a single micro SIM card slot, so if you must have dual SIM capability, you are out of luck.

There is also a microSD card slot which allows for an additional 128 GB of storage. It may seem superfluous since the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] comes with 128 GB of internal flash storage. But if you are going on an extended trip, 256 GB of storage can buy you peace of mind.

 

Mono Speaker & ZenEar

Interestingly, the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] comes with a single speaker. However, ASUS appears to have put in quite a lot of work into this speaker.

ASUS engineers used a 5-magnet construction with a metal voice coil, which delivers a much higher volume with lower bass distortion. They also added a dedicated sound chamber for maximum audio expansion.

For the best audio experience, ASUS even threw in a pair of ASUS ZenEar earphones. They have a frequency response of 20-20,000 Hz with a maximum power output of 107 dB/mW. They also come with four spare earbuds.

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Setting Up The ZenFone Zoom

This video will show you the initial setup process. It will take you no more than 5 minutes to set up the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] as a new device.

Once you finish setting it up and it loads the home screen, you will be amazed at how bright and sharp the IPS display is. The display is protected by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 4. This makes it twice as hard to break in a drop, compared to Gorilla Glass 3 used in the flagship ZenFone 2 model. Gorilla Glass 4 has, so far, been limited to higher-end smartphones and phablets like the Samsung Galaxy Note5.

Next Page > Available Memory &  Storage, Camera Capabilities & Options

 

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Available Memory & Storage

The ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] comes with 4 GB of LPDDR3 memory, which is fantastic because it has quite a bit more bloat than the 5.5″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE550KL) and the 6″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE601KL) we reviewed earlier. Even so, you have at least 2.2 GB of free memory to use – more than what many smartphones (like the honor 5X) come with!

Out of the box, the ZenFone Zoom comes with 128 GB of internal flash storage. Once you deduct about 16.5 GB for the Android 5.0 operating system and 1.1 GB for the ASUS apps, you still have a whooping 111 GB of free space left to use!

That’s more than enough to store 30,000 pictures or 670 minutes of 1080p video. It is unlikely you will find the need to add additional storage space using a microSD card.

 

Camera Capabilities

The raison d’etre for the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] is its special 13 MP PixelMaster 2.0 camera, which boasts a 3X optical zoom capability. While optical zoom is not a new capability in smartphones, it is exceedingly rare… especially without a telescopic mechanism.

In this regard, ASUS has achieved an amazing feat – delivering optical zoom capability without a protruding or telescoping lens. The ZenFone Zoom looks, works and feels like a smartphone. And they did this using an ingenious periscopic lens design created by HOYA.

The 10-element periscopic lens arrangement with dual high-precision stepper motors allow the ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] to deliver a focal length range of 28 mm to 84 mm. This 3X optical zoom can be further extended digitally for a total zoom length of 12X. This design has some drawbacks though.

Even at its widest, it isn’t very fast with an aperture of just f/2.7. Top smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Note5 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge sport much larger apertures of f/1.9 to f/1.7. When you zoom out all the way to 84 mm, the lens stops down to f/4.8. To compensate for the lower light input, the 13 MP camera is optically-stabilised for up to 4 stops.

Fortunately, ASUS chose to use the Panasonic SmartFSI MN34130 sensor in the ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price]. Now, this is hardly the best 13 MP sensor they could have used (say, the Sony IMX214 or IMX 258), but it is way better than the dismal Toshiba T4K37 sensor used in the other ZenFone 2 models.

To round up the rear camera’s photographic capability, ASUS also threw in a laser auto-focusing system and a dual-tone LED flash. The laser focusing system is designed to accurately measure distance for close-up photography, while the dual-tone LED flash produces flash photographs with more realistic skin tones.

If you are into selfies though, the ZenFone Zoom only offers a 5 MP sensor with no flash, but the wide-angle lens is fast at f/2.0.

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Camera Options

Both the front and rear cameras use a 4:3 ratio for maximum resolution, with small crop sizes available in the settings menu. The main camera can record videos in full 1080p resolution, albeit only with electronic video stabilisation turned off.

The main camera also comes with a bunch of built-in software features like a HDR mode and a low light option that extends the camera’s ability to capture poorly-lit scenes by combining light from multiple pixels. You can also apply some filters or convert your pictures into GIF animation.

Next Page > Camera Performance – Image Quality & Laser Focusing

 

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Camera Performance – Image Quality

The ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] uses the Panasonic SmartFSI MN34130 sensor, instead of the Toshiba T4K37 sensor used in the rest of the ASUS ZenFone 2 series. The pictures were distinctly superior all around.

Take the example of the elevator and the signboards. If you blow them up to 100%, the edges are no longer blurred with noise, with only some noticeable noise in the darker areas. Even those are greatly improved over the photos taken by the 5.5″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE550KL) and the 6″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE601KL) we reviewed earlier.

The following photos of the bubblegum balls and assorted fruits show how much better the ZenFone Zoom is at taking photos. The photos are not just much sharper (when blown up to 100%), they show a much better control of the exposure.

Generally, this camera performs best in well-lit scenes. Its zoom lens is not the very fast when wide (f/2.7 at 28 mm) and quite slow (f/4.8) when fully zoomed to 84 mm. In dim or pooly-lit scenes, you need to rely on its 4-stop OIS to reduce handshake.

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Laser Focusing Performance

The ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] borrows the laser auto-focusing system from the 5.5″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE550KL) smartphone and the 6″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE601KL) phablet.

It uses a laser diode to shoot laser beams at near objects to instantly determine their distances. This allows for faster and more accurate focusing than can be achieved using contrast detection or phase detection auto-focusing techniques. We tested its laser focusing capabilities using a neat little app that ships with the ZenFone Zoom – a laser ruler.

The laser focusing system is especially useful in low or poor lighting conditions. However, the laser diode has a low power output, for safety reasons.  You can only use it to measure distances of up to 50 cm. Anything beyond that won’t return a reading.

As you can surmise by now, 50 cm is also the range for the ZenFone Zoom’s laser auto-focusing feature. If it fails to detect any object in range, it will fall back to the original contrast detection auto-focus method. Even with the range limitation, it’s very useful if your subject is in range… especially if there are subjects nearby that may interfere with the auto-focus.

Next Page > Camera Performance – Zoom & Video Recording

 

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Camera Performance – Zoom

You might be wondering – just how useful is the 3X optical zoom? Take a look at these comparison photos we took of various sceneries :

The 3X optical zoom really makes A LOT of difference. It allows you to reach out and take photos from a distance, even past the shoulders of people standing in front of you.

Of course, you can do digital zoom on all smartphones, but optical zoom offers the best image quality. The optical zoom also extends the total zoom capability of the ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] to a whooping 12X – 3 times further than what you can accomplish with only digital zoom.

You may also be wondering if the 3X optical zoom will allow you to deliver better bokeh in portrait shorts. Sadly, at maximum zoom, the aperture is only f/4.8. So there is a significant depth of field and poor background separation.

While portraits and indoor shots may not be its cup of tea, the ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] works great with scenery and architectural shots, where there is plenty of light and the depth of field is useful.

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Camera Performance – Video Recording

The ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] is capable of recording 1080p videos, albeit without any electronic image stabilisation. The good news is it supports optical image stabilisation, which works better than electronic image stabilisation.

The ZenFone Zoom’s optical zoom also comes in handy, giving you much greater flexibility and creativity when you record videos. Check out these three examples. The first is of chickens at a pet farm, the second of a gamelan (traditional Malay music) band, and finally, a piano performance by Mr. Yang I-Deun.

Thanks to the Panasonic SmartFSI sensor, the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] is much better at controlling the exposure of the bright areas. They were only a little overexposed.

In the piano scene, it seemed to have some trouble focusing on Mr. Yang as we zoomed in. This was not seen in the first two videos which were brightly lit outdoor scenes, so it is probably a problem only in dim conditions. We hope ASUS will look into correcting this in the next firmware update.

Next Page > Work Performance, Battery Life, Battery Recharging Speed

 

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Work Performance : PCMark

We tested the ZenFone Zoom’s performance using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

 

ASUS ZenFone Zoom honor 5X Samsung Galaxy S6
Work Performance Score
(Average)
5829 3898 5078
Web Browsing 5751 3756 6788
Video Playback 4536 4325 3091
Writing 5270 4085 5918
Photo Editing 8400 2614 5357

The honor 5X (Lowest Price) may use the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor, but it is clearly no match for the quad-core Intel Atom Z3590 processor. The Snapdragon 616 has four A53 cores running at 1.65 GHz, with another four A53 cores running at 1.11 GHz. The Intel Atom Z3590, on the other hand, has four cores running at 2.5 GHz.

The ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] also beat the Samsung Galaxy S6, which is itself a very fast smartphone. It was particularly fast in photo editing and video playback.

 

Battery Life : PCMark

We then tested the ZenFone Zoom’s battery performance using PCMark. It basically ran the PCMark work tests until its battery capacity dropped to 20%.

Now we can see the Intel Atom Z3590’s processing power comes at the expense of battery life. The ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] uses the same 3,000 mAh lithium polymer battery as all other ASUS ZenFone 2 models, but only lasts just over 6.5 hours.

In comparison, the 6″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE601KL) lasted just under 8 hours, while the 5.5″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE550KL) lasted over 12 hours on the same test. The honor 5X (Lowest Price), which uses a similar 3,000 mAh battery, lasted 8.5 hours. With such a short battery life, you will want to pack a power bank if you are going on a long trip.

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Battery Recharging Speed

Like the 6″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE601KL), the ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] comes with Fast Charging capability, and a corresponding 18 W fast charger. Then we tested to see how fast it recharges from 20% to 100%.

As the chart shows, the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] recharged from 20% to 100% in just 86 minutes (1 hour 26 minutes). It actually hit 90% in just 61 minutes (1 hour 1 minute). In other words, the ZenFone Zoom recharges its battery about 32% faster than the 6″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE601KL) [Lowest Price] and 2.4X faster than the 5.5″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE550KL).

This is really amazing performance. From our logs, we can see that it recharged the first 20% in just 9 minutes. So if you are short on power, even a short recharge can give you a significant boost in battery life.

Next Page > Overall Performance, Gaming Performance, Our Verdict & Award

 

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Overall Performance : AnTuTu Benchmark

AnTuTu is a nice benchmark for testing various performance aspects of Android devices.

ASUS
ZenFone Zoom
honor 5X Samsung
Galaxy S6
TOTAL SCORE 65914 36983 75222
3D SCORE 16839 2446 20579
– 3D (Garden) 6976 1492 8104
– 3D (Marooned) 9863 954 12475
UX SCORE 21371 16269 24065
– UX Data Secure 5896 4673 5507
– UX Data Process 4353 2438 4392
– UX Strategy Games 4118 2698 6948
– UX Image Process 2926 2599 3413
– UX I/O Performance 4078 3861 3805
CPU SCORE 23110 14031 25402
– CPU Mathematics 5196 2968 7823
– CPU Common Use 8699 4696 7585
– CPU Multi-Core 9215 6367 9994
RAM 4594 4237 5176

The Intel Atom Z3590 with its PowerVR G6430 graphics processor is definitely very fast. It was faster than the honor 5X (Lowest Price) in all aspects of this benchmark, even though the honor 5X was powered by an octa-core Snapdragon processor. The ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] is just a little slower than the Samsung Galaxy S6.

 

Gaming Performance : 3DMark

We tested the ZenFone Zoom’s gaming performance using 3DMark, using the Ice Storm Unlimited test.

ASUS
ZenFone Zoom
honor 5X Samsung
Galaxy S6
Gaming Score 21372 7879 21166
Graphics 21748 7695 23298
Physics 20152 8597 16031
Graphics Test 1 112.6 fps 39.6 fps 120.6 fps
Graphics Test 2 81.5 fps 28.9 fps 87.3 fps
Physics Test 64.0 fps 27.3 fps 50.9 fps

The Intel Atom Z3590 really showed its mettle in this test. While the PowerVR G6430 graphics processor held up well against the Galaxy S6’s Mali-T760 graphics processor, the Intel Atom Z3590 delivered much better physics processing capability than the Galaxy S6’s octa-core Exynos 7420 processor.

 

Our Verdict

When we first saw the ASUS ZenFone Zoom, we knew we had to review it. It is a remarkable combination of innovation and art. With its ox leather back, it looks like an ultra-premium version of the ASUS ZenFone 2 smartphones that came out in the past year or so.

Its killer feature is, no doubt, its 13 MP main camera with its unique and innovative periscopic lens design. This allows the ZenFone Zoom to deliver 3X optical zoom without a protruding or telescopic lens. It is capable of optical focal lengths of 28-84 mm while remaining a svelte smartphone no thicker than 12 mm. Amazing!

ASUS also threw in every photographic technology they had in their bag – laser auto-focus, dual-tone LED flash, and 4-stop optical image stabilisation (OIS). They even swapped out the dismal Toshiba T4K37 sensor for a much better Panasonic SmartFSI sensor. The result – the best photographic experience in the entire ASUS ZenFone 2 family.

The ZenFone Zoom’s image quality is significantly better than its ZenFone 2 brethren. Even its videos were much better – less grainy with better exposure control. The 3X optical zoom was very helpful in many situations, giving us greater reach and creative options. You will also appreciate the ZenFone Zoom’s 4-stop optical image stabilisation. It effectively cancels out your hand tremors, helping to deliver sharper images and videos.

While the Panasonic SmartFSI is a superior sensor, it is hardly the best sensor ASUS could have used. In a way, the ZenFone Zoom could have been better. It could have been the best camera smartphone in the market if ASUS paired it with top-of-the-line image sensor like the Sony IMX260 used in the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.

Intel may be languishing in the smartphone market but there is no doubt that their Atom processors are fast. The Intel Atom Z3590 used in the ZenFone Zoom is a quad-core processor. But backed by the PowerVR Rogue G6430 graphics processor, it trashed the octa-core Snapdragon 616 processor used in the honor 5X (Lowest Price) while coming close in performance to, or even beating in some aspects, the octa-core Exynos 7420 processor used in the Samsung Galaxy S6.

Of course, all that processing power comes at a price – battery life. The ZenFone Zoom could only lasted 6.5 hours in our battery stress test (from 100% down to 20%). The 6″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE601KL) and the 5.5″ ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE550KL), in comparison, lasted just under 8 hours and over 12 hours respectively.

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The good news is the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] comes with fast charging capability. How fast? It recharges from 20% to 100% in under 1.5 hours! Even a quick 9 minute charge will give you a 20% boost in battery capacity. This is the best fast charging performance we have seen in the ZenFone 2 family.

The ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] is the ultimate smartphone of the ZenFone 2 family. It has the most powerful Intel Atom processor ever used in a smartphone, backed with 4 GB of RAM and a whooping 128 GB of internal storage. And it comes with a 13 MP camera with a 3X optical zoom, 4-stop image stabilisation, dual-tone LED flash and laser auto-focus. All in a sleek 5.5 smartphone form factor, wrapped in posh leather.

From what we understand, this is likely to be the last Intel Atom-powered smartphone to come out of the Intel-ASUS partnership. Of course, we hope that is just a rumour and the partnership will continue. But if it doesn’t, and you must have the best Intel Atom-powered smartphone ever made, the ASUS ZenFone Zoom is it.

We like it so much, we think the ASUS ZenFone Zoom [Lowest Price] deserves nothing less than our Reviewer’s Choice Award! Congratulations, ASUS!

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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 :