Last Month: 10 Hottest Stories in October

We review last month’s stories and pick the top ones that made the biggest impact to our readers. We track these stories by the number of shares, retweets and total traffic. The month of October are mostly all about phones.

Last month’s top stories was dominated by ZTE with their botched up sale and the rest are mostly about smartphones.

ZTE Grand X2 L Sale. ZTE made a lot of noise when it announced a super-sale of the ZTE Grand X2 L, dropping the price to just Php1,999 from over Php11,000. While the smartphone has been around since 2013, the price drop got a lot of people lining up as ZTE says they have enough stocks. Over 45,000 views on that announcement alone.

Complete List of Smartphones Getting Android 5.0 Lollipop. With the formal announcement of Android 5.0, smartphone users are now eager to have their devices updated to Lollipop. Here’s our updated list so far.

Top 10 Smartphones Above Php15,000. As prices of flagship smartphones start to drop, Filipinos are becoming more and more price-sensitive. We published a round-up of potentially good handsets in the Php15k and above range here.

Top Smartphones under Php10,000. If budget is a concern, then we also published a separate article on how much your Php10,000 can go. The list we posted here in actually pretty interesting.

Chaos ensues over ZTE Sale. It wasn’t a surprise when we got reports form many customers and readers that the ZTE sale went awry. Lack of organization, manpower and low inventory were the main culprits. What is puzzling is that the distributor, MSI-ECS, has been known to do huge but well-organized warehouse sale every year. They sent out an apology later but the fiasco was already all over the news.

Memory Matters: All the Smartphones with 2GB of RAM. With quad-core processors and octa-cores becoming the norm for most smartphones, the focus of consumers has shifted to internal memory. As per request by our readers, we published the affordable smartphones with 2GB of RAM here.

Smartphones Under Php5,000. This price category used to be the territory of feature phones. Now Android and Windows Phones have invaded their competitive segment in the battle for bigger marketshare.

LTE Smartphones under Php10,000. Despite the erratic signal and limited LTE coverage, LTE remains to be one of the biggest factors consumers consider when purchasing a smartphone.

OpenSignal Compares LTE of Globe and Smart. That perpetual question on who has the fastest LTE network is supposedly answered in this report by OpenSignal. We still question the methodology and parameters but, aside from Ookla and Akamai, OpenSignal seems to be one of the very few who has a large-enough data set to make the intelligent guesstimate.

No New iPods. Our hopes of a new iPod have been crushed in the latest announcement of Apple. No new iPod Touch, no Nano and they even removed the iPod Classic. What is surprising is that Apple’s response to slow sales is phasing out an iconic product instead of innovating it. Have they totally given up on the iPod? According to Tim Cook, they no longer have the parts.

The post Last Month: 10 Hottest Stories in October appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Last Month: 10 Hottest Stories in October

We review last month’s stories and pick the top ones that made the biggest impact to our readers. We track these stories by the number of shares, retweets and total traffic. The month of October are mostly all about phones.

Last month’s top stories was dominated by ZTE with their botched up sale and the rest are mostly about smartphones.

ZTE Grand X2 L Sale. ZTE made a lot of noise when it announced a super-sale of the ZTE Grand X2 L, dropping the price to just Php1,999 from over Php11,000. While the smartphone has been around since 2013, the price drop got a lot of people lining up as ZTE says they have enough stocks. Over 45,000 views on that announcement alone.

Complete List of Smartphones Getting Android 5.0 Lollipop. With the formal announcement of Android 5.0, smartphone users are now eager to have their devices updated to Lollipop. Here’s our updated list so far.

Top 10 Smartphones Above Php15,000. As prices of flagship smartphones start to drop, Filipinos are becoming more and more price-sensitive. We published a round-up of potentially good handsets in the Php15k and above range here.

Top Smartphones under Php10,000. If budget is a concern, then we also published a separate article on how much your Php10,000 can go. The list we posted here in actually pretty interesting.

Chaos ensues over ZTE Sale. It wasn’t a surprise when we got reports form many customers and readers that the ZTE sale went awry. Lack of organization, manpower and low inventory were the main culprits. What is puzzling is that the distributor, MSI-ECS, has been known to do huge but well-organized warehouse sale every year. They sent out an apology later but the fiasco was already all over the news.

Memory Matters: All the Smartphones with 2GB of RAM. With quad-core processors and octa-cores becoming the norm for most smartphones, the focus of consumers has shifted to internal memory. As per request by our readers, we published the affordable smartphones with 2GB of RAM here.

Smartphones Under Php5,000. This price category used to be the territory of feature phones. Now Android and Windows Phones have invaded their competitive segment in the battle for bigger marketshare.

LTE Smartphones under Php10,000. Despite the erratic signal and limited LTE coverage, LTE remains to be one of the biggest factors consumers consider when purchasing a smartphone.

OpenSignal Compares LTE of Globe and Smart. That perpetual question on who has the fastest LTE network is supposedly answered in this report by OpenSignal. We still question the methodology and parameters but, aside from Ookla and Akamai, OpenSignal seems to be one of the very few who has a large-enough data set to make the intelligent guesstimate.

No New iPods. Our hopes of a new iPod have been crushed in the latest announcement of Apple. No new iPod Touch, no Nano and they even removed the iPod Classic. What is surprising is that Apple’s response to slow sales is phasing out an iconic product instead of innovating it. Have they totally given up on the iPod? According to Tim Cook, they no longer have the parts.

The post Last Month: 10 Hottest Stories in October appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Last Month: 10 Hottest Stories in October

We review last month’s stories and pick the top ones that made the biggest impact to our readers. We track these stories by the number of shares, retweets and total traffic. The month of October are mostly all about phones.

Last month’s top stories was dominated by ZTE with their botched up sale and the rest are mostly about smartphones.

ZTE Grand X2 L Sale. ZTE made a lot of noise when it announced a super-sale of the ZTE Grand X2 L, dropping the price to just Php1,999 from over Php11,000. While the smartphone has been around since 2013, the price drop got a lot of people lining up as ZTE says they have enough stocks. Over 45,000 views on that announcement alone.

Complete List of Smartphones Getting Android 5.0 Lollipop. With the formal announcement of Android 5.0, smartphone users are now eager to have their devices updated to Lollipop. Here’s our updated list so far.

Top 10 Smartphones Above Php15,000. As prices of flagship smartphones start to drop, Filipinos are becoming more and more price-sensitive. We published a round-up of potentially good handsets in the Php15k and above range here.

Top Smartphones under Php10,000. If budget is a concern, then we also published a separate article on how much your Php10,000 can go. The list we posted here in actually pretty interesting.

Chaos ensues over ZTE Sale. It wasn’t a surprise when we got reports form many customers and readers that the ZTE sale went awry. Lack of organization, manpower and low inventory were the main culprits. What is puzzling is that the distributor, MSI-ECS, has been known to do huge but well-organized warehouse sale every year. They sent out an apology later but the fiasco was already all over the news.

Memory Matters: All the Smartphones with 2GB of RAM. With quad-core processors and octa-cores becoming the norm for most smartphones, the focus of consumers has shifted to internal memory. As per request by our readers, we published the affordable smartphones with 2GB of RAM here.

Smartphones Under Php5,000. This price category used to be the territory of feature phones. Now Android and Windows Phones have invaded their competitive segment in the battle for bigger marketshare.

LTE Smartphones under Php10,000. Despite the erratic signal and limited LTE coverage, LTE remains to be one of the biggest factors consumers consider when purchasing a smartphone.

OpenSignal Compares LTE of Globe and Smart. That perpetual question on who has the fastest LTE network is supposedly answered in this report by OpenSignal. We still question the methodology and parameters but, aside from Ookla and Akamai, OpenSignal seems to be one of the very few who has a large-enough data set to make the intelligent guesstimate.

No New iPods. Our hopes of a new iPod have been crushed in the latest announcement of Apple. No new iPod Touch, no Nano and they even removed the iPod Classic. What is surprising is that Apple’s response to slow sales is phasing out an iconic product instead of innovating it. Have they totally given up on the iPod? According to Tim Cook, they no longer have the parts.

The post Last Month: 10 Hottest Stories in October appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Lenovo overtakes Xiaomi as world’s third largest

A few days ago, Xiaomi was reported as the third largest handset maker in the world but it looks like the victory was short-lived as Lenovo has finalized its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, leaping ahead of its rival and now claiming the third spot.

Xiaomi’s market share for Q3 of 2014 was at 5.3%, ranking below Samsung and Apple but above Lenovo which is at 5.2%. However, after 24 hours, Lenovo catapulted itself in third place when it completed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility on October 30 with a new market share of 7.4%.

As for the other top handset manufacturers, Samsung still leads at 23.8% market share, followed by Apple at 12.0%. But considering Xiaomi’s year-over-year growth rate, let’s see if Lenovo/Motorola can maintain its position.

via: PhoneArena, IDC, Fortune

The post Lenovo overtakes Xiaomi as world’s third largest appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

October Gadget Reviews Roundup 2014

And just like that we’re done with the month of October and along with it are awesome gadgets we’ve fully reviewed like the ASUS Transformer Book T100T, Acer Liquid E700, LG G Watch, and a number DIY PC components if you’re building a rig. So if you’re still working on your Holiday shopping or wish list, then take a look at our Gadget Reviews Roundup for October 2014.

Full Review:

AMD A10-7850K Review

By and large the AMD A10-7850K was able to deliver a pretty decent performance both in CPU-related tasks and in gaming, but it’s on the latter where AMD’s current flagship APU really shines thanks to the hardware/software tweaks, particularly HSA, that the chipmaker has implemented on their processor.

ASUS Strix GeForce GTX 750 Ti OC Edition

With everything taken into consideration, we can definitely say that the ASUS Strix GTX 750 Ti 2GD5 OC is a decent option for users who are in the market for a good mid-range video card that can spit out 30fps even on high settings.

BlackBerry Z3

The BlackBerry Z3 is a very capable device with a nice build, good performance, intuitive OS, great battery life, and an affordable price tag. However, it is still going to have a hard time positioning itself in a market that is dominated by affordable Android and Windows Phone devices.

Acer Liquid E700

Dual-SIM handsets are slowly becoming a standard for the masses, but rarely do we see phones released in the country that take on three sim cards in a single phone. At Php10,990, a sophisticated design combined with great hardware, a huge battery, and a stunning display –not to mention the support for three sim cards — can definitely make this phone stand out to power users in the corporate sector, as these people are mostly the ones who hold up to three phones to be able to accommodate clients each day.

ASUS Transformer Book T100T

We concluded in our review of the T100 that it is a game changer. With the T100T, ASUS takes it up a notch by putting in more muscle under the hood and improving its aesthetics. Some things remain unchanged though like the cramped trackpad and the lack of keyboard backlight but for a productivity device starting at under Php25K, the ASUS Transformer Book T100T is still one of the best hybrid netbooks you can buy.

ASUS RoG Swift PG278Q Gaming Monitor

The Swift PG278Q hits all the right notes when it comes down to the things that really matters for immersive gaming experience. It’s got a crisp 27-inch display with a WQHD native resolution (a combination you don’t typically see, but works really great), thin bezels and fast refresh rate and response time that tops at 144Hz and 1ms respectively.

Philips NX5 Mini System

The Philips NX5 is perfect for small to medium get-togethers and the likes. Its mesmerizing light show partnered with the ability to play with your music will surely make your house parties a hit. Basically, it’s one entertaining tower of speakers. Sound quality is great – bass is powerful while mids and highs are crisp and soulful, but don’t mistake this as a DJ’s equipment since this is far from what a professional one would use for gigs.

LG G Watch

A smartwatch is still a mere accessory for our smartphone. If you don’t have one, you’re not left behind. But if you do, you’re a member of early adopters experiencing the next big thing in mobile accessory. The LG G Watch is a viable candidate to give you a feel of that constantly-connected lifestyle in today’s fast-paced world. It may not turn heads for design, but it will definitely have the attention of curious consumers.

Intel Core i7-4790 (Haswell Refresh)

The Intel Core i7-4790 is the best locked processor that the chipmaker currently has to offer. The increase in core and turbo frequencies may seem nominal on paper, but should be a welcome addition nonetheless considering that it’s priced the same ($312 Boxed / $303 Tray) as the processor it replaced. It’s also loaded with all the latest and greatest optimizations, tweaks and technologies from Intel which should come in handy for added boost in performance and stability.

Nokia Lumia 530 Dual SIM

The Lumia 530 is not here to wow consumers with its specs but it’s here to give interested buyers a chance to get a very capable smartphone with a good build and Windows Phone 8.1 OS without breaking the bank. Yes, it is still worth considering in a market that is dominated by affordable Androids, however, its biggest challenge are other WP 8.1-powered smartphones that offer better specs for almost the same price.

G.Skill RipjawsX F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM

Other than the possible clearance issue due to its 40mm-tall heat spreader, we didn’t have any other gripe about the G.Skill Ripjaws X memory modules. It’s got a well-built design, it offers decent performance out of the box, and one can easily bump up the speeds a bit should they feel the need to do so.

Quick Review:

RedFox WizPad Lite

After the cumbersome encounter with the internal memory, the RedFox WizPad Lite is still an okay portable Windows 8.1 PC for Php9,990. One must just know how to allocate their memory usage properly and buy a microSD card.

JBL Synchros E30

For the price of Php3,690, I think the JBL Synchros E30 is worth a look at because it’s compact, stylish and bassy (it’s also available in different colors). However, if you need highs & comfort, you may have to look somewhere else, but for the most part, the JBL Synchros E30 will do.

Popcorn Hour A-410

Overall, we had fun using the Popcorn Hour as our media buddy for a few days. It was convenient to use, has an array of connectivity options, and produces eye-candy images. Our gripe, only, is that it comes at Php13,500 which is pretty steep for many people. It throws in a free Wi-Fi dongle worth Php1,500 but it could still be considered as an investment for casual users. If you’re an avid collector of multimedia files and have some budget to spare, the Popcorn Hour A-410 is a good buy.

The post October Gadget Reviews Roundup 2014 appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.