Alongside with the upcoming iPhone 5S, rumors of Apple’s “budget” iPhone have been around for months with leaks to support its existence.
As the rumors suggest, the cheaper iPhone will be made with plastic and will come in a wide range of colors, just like the 5th Gen iPod Touch except for the materials used. Based on the recent leak that came from a mutual friend of a guy in China that works with Foxconn, the back shell of it will feature a camera, an LED flash and a microphone with an iPhone branding at the bottom. Looks familar, right?
With all the rumors suggesting that a cheaper iPhone is at work, Apple seems to be “adjusting” to the call of market share with Samsung but they still denied its existence.
This is not the first time Apple shifted their products in order to keep up with other manufacturers. iPad Mini is Apple’s answer to Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
Aside from the Asha 501, another member of the Asha family was also released in the Philippines: Nokia Asha 210.
As announced on Facebook by Nokia Philippines, the Asha 210 Dual SIM is now available in select Nokia stores in black, yellow, and cyan. The white and magenta color option is to follow.
Nokia Asha 210 specifications:
Dual-SIM, Dual standby
2.4″ QVGA 65K-color TFT display (320×240), 167ppi
64MB internal storage, 32MB of RAM
Expandable up to 32GB via microSD
2MP fixed-focus camera
QCIF (176 x 144) video recording at 10fps
GPRS/EDGE
WiFi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
FM radio tuner
Li-Ion 1,200mAh battery
Series 40 Asha OS
Dimensions: 111.5 x 60 x 11.8 mm
Weight: 97.3 g
Nokia Asha 210 has a suggested retail price of Php3,390.
The Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 11S was announced earlier this year, and it’s not your ordinary day notebook. The Yoga packs an Intel Core i5 CPU with 8GB RAM, Windows 8 and an 11-inch touchscreen that pushes all the way back at 360 degrees, but is it anything special? Is it worth a look at? Read on our full review to find out.
“That’s one eye-catching laptop” people would tell me.
Design and Construction
I’m going to put this frankly; be it a health practice, a stress reliever or a laptop, the Yoga is beautiful. Our unit is covered in semi-rubbery orange & black all around, and while a lot of people might consider this too flashy, I didn’t. In fact, the Yoga would succeed very well if it stood in a room full of laptops with plain & boring designs.
Just like laptops like the Macbook, this device stands on its own identity.
With the laptop closed, everything is clean and simple. There’s a Lenovo logo on the top left part, and on the bottom are the rubber stoppers along with some labels – that includes the Windows 8 sticker found awkwardly in the middle.
Pop the laptop open and you’ll find the keyboard, the trackpad and some labels again, all surrounded by a material that looks like brushed aluminum but actually feels like texturized rubber. We don’t know what Lenovo has done here, but we really like it. Dirt & fingerprints are nowhere to be found, and besides, it feels good to rest your palm on it.
Now let’s push things a little further – literally. When the back of your display is folded to touch the bottom part of your laptop – the Yoga turns into a heavyweight tablet.
Not only is the Yoga sexy, but it’s also flexible.
In this form factor, the button placements finally make sense. The power button that was once on the front side of the laptop is now on top. In addition to that, the once inverted volume rocker found on the left part of the laptop now works the way it should (up pushes the volume higher, down lowers the volume).
[From the tablet form factor's perspective,] a USB 3.0 port, the 3.5mm audio jack, the volume rocker and the mini HDMI port is found on the left side, while on the right side you can find the port for charging, a USB 2.0 port and a rotation lock button. The speakers are found on both left & right sides of the laptop.
On the top left part is the power button, while on the bottom you’ll find the vents and the metallic hinge system that works amazingly well; it is not flimsy in any case and it feels solid.
And of course, up front you’ll find the touchscreen that lies on top of the Windows 8 Start button… which is another story.
Display
As you’d expect, the Yoga 11S packs an 11.6-inch display. It runs on a resolution of 1366 x 768 which produces a pixel density of 135ppi. The result? Not so astonishing, but not so bad either.
Texts and other details could be sharper, and this specific screen resolution is getting boring on laptops. On the bright side, colors look great and vibrant, and outdoor visibility is quite good.
The touchscreen was great too, as it was responsive all around the system and we didn’t have any problems with it.
Keyboard & Trackpad
If you’re not that into touchscreens, especially on Windows 8, then here is the keyboard and the trackpad.
The keys are chiclet, and they’re easy to press for the most part. When you’re in tablet mode, you’ll be having your fingers resting on the keyboard too, but there’s no need to worry as they’re very soft and friendly to the touch.
If there’s one major complaint that we have about it, it’s the lack of backlit keys. Typing in the dark won’t be a good experience for anyone, so keep that in mind.
The trackpad is smooth and accurate on this machine, although there might be times where it is quite jumpy. Gestures, for the most part, work well – however it is not capable of some specific ones such as pinch to zoom.
Apps & Multimedia
Lenovo bundled Windows 8 with a lot of apps here – Kindle, AccuWeather, Merriam-Webster and etc. (seen below). I’m not one of the people who would actually use these apps, but I’m pretty sure a lot of people would appreciate the package.
Apart from these, Lenovo has some more add-ons like SugarSync & Filmon Television. All of these needs a connection to the internet, but when we did try it out, it worked perfectly; FilmOn TV streaming is easily one of our favorites, while Motion Control, however, is something that we didn’t find ourselves using as much.
Watching movies & playing music with the Yoga is an absolute joy. There weren’t slow downs and bad viewing angles to be found with video, and music volume and quality was also sufficiently loud and clean with no hissing or whatsoever.
Performance & Battery Life
Running on a 3rd generation Intel Core i5 CPU & 8GB RAM, we didn’t find any lags or slow downs with the Yoga. There were some bugs here and there, but none of which caused a big problem (browsing with Chrome and etc. needs improvement).
The Yoga 11S lasts for a sharp 5 hours on our battery test. We looped a video on 50% brightness and 50% audio, and it managed to drain an exact 20% every hour. It’s not the 6-hours that Lenovo promised, but it’s still close enough and that isn’t bad at all.
Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 11S specs:
11.6-inch 1366 x 768 IPS display
1.5GHz Intel Core i5-3339Y CPU
Intel HD Graphics 4000
8GB RAM
128/256/512GB SSD
720p HD webcam
WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0
micro HDMI port
1x USB 3.0 port
1x USB 2.0 port
1x SD card slot
29.8 x 20.4 x 1.7 cm (dimensions)
1,387g (weight) Php44,995
*Core i3 / i7, Silver colored & 4GB RAM versions are also available at different prices
Conclusion
Having to depart with the Lenovo Yoga 11S, I felt somewhat attached. The Core i5 CPU, the 8GB RAM, the display or the design might be major plot elements that have led to this conclusion, but the real story here is the form factor.
I have handled touchscreen laptops before, and even the Microsoft Surface RT, but the Yoga just speaks out. As an ordinary laptop, the idea of having a device that could push all the way back just to hide the keyboard and the trackpad is amusing.
However, on the flip side, we’re pretty convinced as well that the Yoga is having an identity crisis – the button placements are convoluted, and the Yoga isn’t the most beautiful thing either on tablet mode.
Windows 8 still can’t live on itself without a dedicated keyboard and a trackpad, and we think Lenovo did the right thing in going through this path.
All-in-all, the Ideapad Yoga 11S has the makings of an outstanding laptop-tablet hybrid, and it’s one of the best buys out there if you can live without a 1080p HD display or a backlit keyboard.
It came out of nowhere, and after months of waiting — it’s finally out. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3 is the company’s next flagship phone, and it features a combination of all the things that you would actually look for in a phone.
Earlier this morning, the company’s CEPNATSOC (Chief Executive in Product Design, Naming and All Things Samsung Of Course), Samson Sung, was asked in an interview on why they would release such a product. Here is his reply:
“We already have a lot of great products out in the market already – and yet, people are complaining; why can’t we just produce a device that had it all? And so we made the Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3.”
Originally, the display of the device should have been at 8-inches, however they thought of adding the Mini moniker to it, so they had to make it the same size as the Mega 6.3 instead – 6.3-inches.
In addition to that insanely small form factor, Samsung puts the sensor found on the S4 Zoom and adds it to the device, calling it larger than life. Also, as inspired by the S4 Active, the phone is waterproof and dustproof.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3 will come in Exynos Quad, Exynos Octa, Snapdragon 600, 800 & Tegra 4 variants – which will be released in different time frames for your convenience. When they were asked on which ones will receive software updates faster, all they said was “it will arrive someday”.
A part of the interview as well, Sung also mentioned that they didn’t want to keep it all for the Galaxy S5; they wanted to produce as much S4 devices so that everyone will have an S4. This is the most perfect strategy ever since customers will now be extremely satisfied, and this is expected to save the company from its falling shares of stocks and slowing down S4 sales.
The Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3 will be available this month for a price of Php39,990 (not to be confused with the Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Note that is in the works – will be released next month).
Editor’s Note: Just in case it was not clear, this is a satire.
The Xperia Tablet Z has the rare position of being the only Android tablet that can slug it out even if it’s in the middle of a downpour. That’s because they designed it as a unique selling proposition. Check out our full review of the Sony Xperia Tablet Z after the break.
The Xperia Tablet Z follows the same design path as the Xperia Z smartphone that came before it. The goal was to make a very slim tablet that can resist the elements, has a simple yet every elegant design in a standard form factor.
Design and Construction.
The Xpaeria Tablet Z is perhaps the bext-looking and sexiest tablet we’ve ever seen in its category. It rivals even the slim metallic design of the iPad Mini. In fact, it is even thinner than the iPad Mini.
It’s short of impressive how Sony was able to fit all that powerful hardware inside a 6.9mm thin body . That in itself is already a huge feat.
The body is a combination of tempered glass, a rubbery matte polycarbonate shell and soft trimmings. The flat polygonal shape is slightly accented by soft rounded edges (not as sharp as the edges of the Xperia Z).
The ports are all hidden inside flip-covered compartments along the side – the large, silver power button and volume rockers is found on the left side along with the 3.5mm audio jack tucked in by a flip cover; the micro USB port is on the bottom end, flushed near the left side with the micro-SD card slot on the other end both of which are also protected by flip covers. Just beside the micro SD slot is another empty port which is probably for the LTE micro-SIM card (although our WiFi-only model has that portioned covered with an empty plastic card).
There are two speaker grills, each one positioned on the bottom end of the left and right side of the device. At the back is the 8MP rear camera and the entire back surface has that smooth and rubbery feel to it. The IR blaster is neatly hidden on the top end of the device.
Despite the ultra-thin body, the tablet still feels very solid and very well built. The extra attention to detail is evident. The net weight of the tablet itself is surprisingly very light for its size, factor that made it compelling to bring around instead of the 7-inch Nexus 7 that used to tag along.
Display.
The Tablet Z packs a full HD 1080p TFT display. It is pretty much the standard resolution for flagship tablets nowadays.
The display is very crisp and clear, colors are well-saturated and picture quality is impressive all in all. We were hoping for more brightness when cranked up to the highest settings but the display could only give so much. This is probably because Sony was optimizing for better battery considering TFT displays are more power-hungry compared to IPS or AMOLED displays.
The TFT display also struggled when used in the outdoors since it’s a bit more reflective. Nevertheless, we found the clarity, excellent picture quality and contrast provided by the BRAVIA Engine makes up for its shortcomings.
Since the tablet is so thin, Sony had to make the left and right bezel a little wider than usual to accommodate more area for the palm when holding the device with both hands (and avoid unnecessary touch gestures on the screen).
OS, Apps and UI.
The tablet comes with Android 4.1 Jellybean and a custom UI designed by Sony to focus on the multimedia features of the device. Even the remote control for the IR blaster is permanently docked on the navigation for quick access.
Sony included a lot of its native apps for media playback. We loved the Walkman-inspired design of media players for music and movies. The media files are automatically added into the player, sorted and even identified so it can pull more data like covers and descriptions. Too bad the video player can’t play a lot of file formats so we still had to use VLC in some instances.
With hundreds of thousands of apps available via Google Play Store, you’ll have access to almost any kind of games, productivity apps and tools at your disposal to maximize the use of the tablet. If you don’t like the UI, there are dozens of options to select from and replace the native one.
Multimedia and Camera.
Sony’s focus on multimedia is something we appreciate the most with the Tablet Z. The custom-made media player has a lot of features to make the experience more enjoyable.
The large full HD screen is a good replacement to watching hi-def movies away from the laptop and into the tablet. We only have the 16GB model but we’re able to use a 32GB microSD card for additional storage.
The pair of speakers on both sides of the tablet also produces really good sound quality, has more than enough volume and a little bit of bass. In some instances, one might accidentally cover the speakers with the palm of the hands when holding them in an upright position (only when you’re holding it with both hands at the lower end of the screen).
The rear camera is flushed on the left side of the tablet so framing is slightly skewed to that end. Picture quality is very good in the outdoors and wel-lit environments but can get a bit grainy once you shoot indoors or under low-light conditions.
Here are some samples of photos we took using the rear camera.
Here are additional videos we recorded with the 8MP rear camera.
There’s a built-in image stabilization for photos and videos, just in case you’re the shaky type.
Performance and Benchmarks.
The Tablet Z worked flawlessly during the entire time we’ve been using it for the past couple of weeks. It’s pretty stable, snappy and responsive. The quad-core Snapdragon S4 Krait coupled with 2GB of RAM can pretty much chew any task or app we throw at it, and with ease.
Our 3 standard benchmarks indicated the same. With Quadrant Standard, the device scored 7,408 and for Antutu Benchmark, it’s 20,380. The score for NenaMark 2 is an impressive 60.0fps and considering this is a full HD display, that’s a pretty good result.
Connectivity and Battery Life.
While there are LTE models of the Xperia Tablet Z, these units cannot make or accept calls. Instead, you’re left with data connectivity and with luck, even including SMS (via a 3rd-party messaging app) but that’s to be expected from a lot of LTE-capable tablets anyway.
What you’ll get in addition to WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 is NFC which has limited use for now. What we found more useful actually is the built-in IR blaster as we can use it as a remote control for our Sony HD TV (many other TV brands are also supported).
For battery life, we were expecting the Tablet Z to match the standard 10 hours of movie playback by most other flagship tablets around. The unit has a 6,000mAh battery rating and was able to last for about 9 hours when running a full HD movie in a loop at 50% brightness and 0% volume.
It’s actually a pretty decent battery performance considering the resolution of the screen, type of display and most importantly, the thinness of the device. The 1 hours below expectation is tolerable considering the weight and thinness of the tablet (2.5mm thinner and 157 grams lighter than the iPad 4).
Conclusion.
While we can still consider Sony as playing catch-up in the tablet market (only its 3rd-gen), the Xperia Tablet Z has, in most cases, achieved a feat that help it leap over many other tablets in the market.
Its got a great set of hardware, a very thin and sexy design, a capable OS and it’s even water-resistant to boot. The only shortcoming we can point out is the use of TFT display which we’ve already overlooked because of the full HD 1080p resolution.
In terms of design and craftsmanship, Sony has a clear winner with the Xperia Tablet Z. If only they could price it competitively.
* As of this writing, the Xperia Tablet Z is not yet officially released in the Philippines so gray market prices is still high, starting at Php27,500 for the 16GB WiFi model.
Sony Xperia Tablet Z SGP311 specs:
10.1-inch full HD display @ 1920×1128 pixels, 240ppi
Mobile Bravia Engine 2
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 APQ8064+MDM9215M 1.5GHz quad-core processor
Adreno 320 graphics
2GB RAM
16GB/32GB internal storage
NFC
HSPA+/LTE 100Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
up to 32GB via microSD card
8.1-megapixel Exmor R camera
Stereo FM radio with RDS
GPS with aGPS, GLONASS
Li-Ion 6,000mAh battery
Android 4.1.2 Jellybean
266 x 172 x 6.9 mm (dimensions)
495 grams or 1.09 lb (weight)
What we liked about it:
* Simple yet sexy design
* Super thin and light form factor
* Great performance
* Good camera quality
* Good sound quality
* Water and dust resistant
