It’s been almost three months since ASUS officially unveiled their latest generation of smartphones – the ASUS Zenfone 3. In less than two weeks it will officially launch in the Philippines, and if you’re one of those contemplating of buying, we have made this compilation to help you learn more about the device.
July has been an exciting batch of reviews for us. Not only we have smartphones like the upcoming ASUS Zenfone 3 and Sony Xperia X Performance, but we also have smartwatches like the Moto 360 2nd-gen, PS4 game like Mighty No. 9, and high-end graphics cards like the ASUS ROG Strix 1080 and Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080. Without further ado, here’s our Gadget Reviews Roundup for July 2016.
The Xperia XA is Sony’s most affordable offering from the new Xperia X family. It’s got the premium looks and feels and capable specs to along with it. There are limitations though like the lack of dual-SIM, inconsistent AF performance, and a small battery.
The Starmobile Play Click is your run-of-the-mill low budget smartphone. It’s got no bells and whistles but it’s an upgrade for those who are coming from the feature phone segment. If only a better TFT display was used, it could have a been perfect for those who are tight on budget.
O+ has been releasing plus-sized smartphones as part of their offerings — we’ve seen the Grande take off a few years back, and now they are back to release the second-generation Venti. Packed with a good camera, decent battery life, and big screen size enough for multimedia consumption, it does not disappoint for a casual user.
All things considered, it seems that the Sony Xperia X Performance is a hit and miss. While it’s is indeed at the top of the product line of Sony for 2016, we felt they somewhat skimped on the hardware considering the asking price. Frankly, we were actually hoping for at least 4GB of RAM and the 4K resolution just like the Z5 Premium.
The Galaxy On7 looks like a good entry-level smartphone for casual users who are looking for a nice build and design, large display, LTE connectivity with dual-SIM, and above average battery life. It’s a hard sell though considering its asking price of Php8,990, given its limited RAM and internal storage.
Cherry Mobile’s strategy with the Flash is clear – offer a smartphone with high-end specs like 5.5-inch Full HD display, 16MP camera, Android Marshmallow, and LTE connectivity, then price it like an entry-level device. That’s a good strategy as it doesn’t have a lot of competitor in this price range.
At the end of the day, the phone is still a Samsung running Android and that’s not bad, it’s actually a great thing. Why? Android is still preferred by most users and you get an iPhone-like build (and inspiration) for a fraction of the price. The Samsung Galaxy C5 is being sold by Widget City for Php17,990 for the 32GB variant and Php19,990 for 64GB (see listing here).
Smartwatches nowadays are starting to become more and more appealing. Not only they pack wireless features and fitness monitoring, they also exude that premium look by sporting the classic design and feel of regular watches. The Moto 360 (2nd-gen) was able to incorporate all of that, making it more appealing to tech savvy users as well as those who have a strong affinity to elegant timepieces.
Though we did not get perfect results for all the games we tested, a bit of tweaking of the video settings, perhaps changing the graphic settings a little below the maximum, the GTX 1080 has proven it can provide enough juice for a well-maintained, average PC to give you a near high-end gaming experience.
The Alcatel IDOL 4S is definitely a step up from the successor in terms of design and performance. It now has a touch of premium build thanks to its glass and metal combination, vivid and detailed 2K display, speedy Marshmallow UI and decent battery life.
The Zenfone 3 (ZE552KL), packing a larger screen, bigger battery and RAM, and double the internal storage, is the beefier of the two. However, it also commands a higher price tag. If that is an issue, this is where the Zenfone 3 (ZE520KL) comes in. Although toned down, most notably in the RAM, storage, and battery departments, it is more affordable, making it accessible to budget-constrained consumers without sacrificing a lot.
The Gear Fit2 indeed provides its users a handful of information on a daily basis. From showing your heart rate during the most intense part of your exercise, logging your jogging route, how many flights of stairs you climbed, and even down to logging how many cups of water and coffee you’ve consumed for the day/week.
In a world of 8MP front shooters, there’s one that stands out with a 16MP sensor on the front and it’s called the OPPO F1 Plus. Coupled with a great metal build, a good operating system, a nice AMOLED display, an insanely fast fingerprint scanner, and well-performing cameras on both sides, the selfie-centric smartphone from the Chinese tech giant is poised to stand out among those who love to take photos.
There’s no doubt — the GTX 1080 itself delivers an astonishing gaming experience suitable for anyone especially for those who really wants their frame-rates cranking up to a hundred. The Zotac GTX 1080 Amp! Extreme is more than what the Founders GTX 1080 offers. Do we recommend this card? Yes.
We think that saying Mighty No. 9 is the spiritual successor to the Mega Man franchise is too much. By having that on the subconscious of die-hard fans of the game, it simply sets the standards too high and gamers, then, expect a lot. Add to that Keiji Inafune being involved just raised the expectations further which the company, in general, failed to deliver.
Along with the Anti-Distracted Driving Act, the Speed Limiter Act proposed by Senator JV Ejerito was also enacted into law on July 16, 2016.
According to Senator Ejercito, the Speed Limiter Act, also known as the Republic Act No. 10916, mandates the “installation of speed limiter device to limit the top speed of vehicles through the employment of mechanical, electronic or communications system or the combination of these systems or similar devices capable of performing the same function.”
Serious penalties aside from fines and license suspension awaits violators. “Those who are found to have tampered the device as defined in the law will be meted out with imprisonment to last not less than six (6) months but not more than three (3) years.”
“I am very pleased with its enactment. I believe that it is long overdue especially with the number of accidents recorded in the past years because of speed driving,” Ejercito said.
ASUS Philippines, has announced that it will unveil the Zenfone 3 Laser and Zenfone 3 Max during the Zenvolution event on August 14.
The Zenfone 3 Laser and Zenfone 3 Max are the other two members of the company’s latest Zenfone 3 lineup, in addition to the Zenfone 3, Zenfone 3 Deluxe, and Zenfone 3 Ultra. Details have already been unveiled, the only thing that’s left missing is the price. We’ll know soon enough during the ASUS Zenvolution event two weeks from now.
ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser (ZC551KL) specs:
5.5-inch IPS LCD @ 1080 x 1920 pixels, 401ppi
1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa-core CPU
Adreno 505 GPU
4GB RAM
32GB internal storage
Expandable via microSD, up to 256GB (uses SIM2)
13MP Sony IMX214 sensor Laser AF rear camera w/ dual-tone LED flash
8MP front-facing camera
Dual SIM (Micro-SIM)
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11ac
Bluetooth 4.1
GPS w/ A-GPS, Glonass
3000mAh battery
Android 6.0 Marshmallow
149 x 76 x 8.05mm
150g
ASUS Zenfone 3 Max (ZC502TL) specs:
5.2-inch IPS LCD @ 1280 x 720 pixels, 282ppi
1.5GHz MediaTek MT6753T quad-core processor
Mali-T720 MP2 GPU
3GB RAM
32GB internal storage
Expandable via microSD (uses SIM2)
13MP autofocus rear camera w/ LED flash
5MP front-facing camera
Dual SIM (Micro-SIM)
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.1
GPS w/ A-GPS, Glonass
Fingerprint scanner
Android 6.0 Marshmallow
149.5 x 73.7 x 8.55 mm
148g
You can read our hands-on of the Zenfone 3 Laser here, and the Zenfone 3 Max here.
PLDT has annoucned that it has parternered with NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation, the largest telecommunications company in Japan, to boost its global network infrastructure using the 100Gbps connectivity.
The 100Gbps (gigabit-per-second) “ultra-bandwidth” connectivity will be powered by NTT Com’s Tier 1 Global IP backbone, which is expected to help PLDT carry large volumes of global IP traffic. It will also help the company handle traffic bursts and scale-up faster to accommodate subscriber demands.
“Higher speeds translate to faster data transmission and thus, improve efficiencies for PLDT and its customers,” said Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman and CEO of PLDT. “Coupled with PLDT’s initiatives to expand and upgrade its access and transport networks, this network infrastructure enhancement will definitely help PLDT improve internet services in the Philippines.”
“We believe the enhanced connectivity for PLDT will largely increase its capacity in handling the anticipated massive explosion of data driven by the rise of disruptive technologies such as Cloud, Big Data, IoT and video streaming,” said Mr. Hideaki Ozaki, President and CEO of NTT Com Asia Limited.
