Category: Review

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL hands-on, first impressions

Kevin Bruce Francisco Leave a comment

Officially launched earlier today, Microsoft‘s Lumia 640 XL is a dual-SIM phablet with a 5.7-inch display size. We had a quick time with it during the event and here are our first impressions.

Note: We apologize in advance for the low-light photos. The event was held inside a bar/club and we had to make do with the lighting conditions. Good thing this specific color glows under black light!

The 640 XL’s display spans 5.7 inches diagonally. At the bottom we have the usual capacitive buttons with Back, Home, and Search functions. The screen is reinforced with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 for added protection against scratches and cracks.

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At the right side is where the volume rocker and power/lock screen button is positioned. With the latter placed almost at the middle of the side panel, it felt more natural and easy to press using the thumb. Controlling the volume, however, required us to reposition our hand to reach it.

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Up top is where a lonely audio jack is situated. It is favored more on the left edge so you can easily plug your headphones using your left hand. Why? Because the button placements of the volume and power are more inclined for right hand usage, leaving your left hand free to grab your pair of cans.

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Centered down below is the micro-USB port for charging or transferring files.

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The back is made of the same material seen in other Lumia devices with its polycarbonate cover that acts like a shell and houses the internals of the 640 XL. There are different colors available ranging from white, cyan, black, and neon orange.

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A closer look at the back panel and we see Microsoft’s branding next to an almost-cross-design comprising of the Zeiss marking, rear camera, single LED flash, and speaker grille. Its shooter boasts a 13-megapixel sensor with Carl Zeiss optics — meaning the device pays special attention to imaging.

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Popping the hard plastic panel off, we were greeted by its 3000mAh removable battery.

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Beside the battery you will find the dual-SIM slots. We previously reported of an LTE variant seen on Avant-Abenson’s page, but what Microsoft launched today was only the 3G variant with the 4G model slated for a later release. In addition, the microSD slot also requires to remove the back panel in order to access it.

Holding and navigating it on one hand is possible since our thumb could still reach the Back capacitive button (which is the farthest our thumb could press). It’s also got some heft to it but not much, and not to the point that it becomes cumbersome. Finally, its 9-millimeter thick profile, for us, is just right and makes it easy to pick up the device lying flat on the table.

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The Lumia 640 XL currently runs on Windows 8.1 system which is readily waiting for a Windows 10 update when it becomes available. It is powered by a Snapdragon 400 CPU with four cores and is teamed up with just 1GB RAM and 8GB intenal storage. For additional storage the company is also throwing in 15GB of OneDrive cloud storage into the package.

There are debates as to whether Lumia devices need better processors with people saying more power is better, while some say they’re actually happy with the performance of other Lumias even with just 512MB of RAM. Well, we had some time to fiddle around with it, giving us the chance to go deeper into its menu, open a series of apps, multitask, and so far everything went smoothly. It’s still unsure how well it could handle tasks when more programs are installed in it, but for our first impressions it did pretty well.

It will be available starting May 1, 2015 with an SRP of Php11,990. As mentioned earlier, there will also be a dual 4G variant coming and it will arrive this June so stay tuned for updates regarding that.

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL 3G Dual-SIM specs:
5.7-inch HD IPS display, 259ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8226) quad-core CPU
1GB RAM
8GB internal storage
up to 128GB via microSD
13 megapixel AF rear camera w/ LED flash
5 megapixel front camera
Dual-SIM (micro), Dual-Standby
3G HSPA+
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
NFC
Bluetooth 4.0
DLNA, Miracast
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
3,000mAh battery
Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim (upgradable to Windows 10)
157.9 x 81.5 x 9.0 mm
171 g
White, Cyan, Black, Orange

The post Microsoft Lumia 640 XL hands-on, first impressions appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL hands-on, first impressions

Kevin Bruce Francisco Leave a comment

Officially launched earlier today, Microsoft‘s Lumia 640 XL is a dual-SIM phablet with a 5.7-inch display size. We had a quick time with it during the event and here are our first impressions.

Note: We apologize in advance for the low-light photos. The event was held inside a bar/club and we had to make do with the lighting conditions. Good thing this specific color glows under black light!

The 640 XL’s display spans 5.7 inches diagonally. At the bottom we have the usual capacitive buttons with Back, Home, and Search functions. The screen is reinforced with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 for added protection against scratches and cracks.

microsoft-lumia-640-xl-4

At the right side is where the volume rocker and power/lock screen button is positioned. With the latter placed almost at the middle of the side panel, it felt more natural and easy to press using the thumb. Controlling the volume, however, required us to reposition our hand to reach it.

microsoft-lumia-640-xl-6

Up top is where a lonely audio jack is situated. It is favored more on the left edge so you can easily plug your headphones using your left hand. Why? Because the button placements of the volume and power are more inclined for right hand usage, leaving your left hand free to grab your pair of cans.

microsoft-lumia-640-xl-5

Centered down below is the micro-USB port for charging or transferring files.

microsoft-lumia-640-xl-2

The back is made of the same material seen in other Lumia devices with its polycarbonate cover that acts like a shell and houses the internals of the 640 XL. There are different colors available ranging from white, cyan, black, and neon orange.

microsoft-lumia-640-xl-3

A closer look at the back panel and we see Microsoft’s branding next to an almost-cross-design comprising of the Zeiss marking, rear camera, single LED flash, and speaker grille. Its shooter boasts a 13-megapixel sensor with Carl Zeiss optics — meaning the device pays special attention to imaging.

microsoft-lumia-640-xl-7

Popping the hard plastic panel off, we were greeted by its 3000mAh removable battery.

microsoft-lumia-640-xl-8

Beside the battery you will find the dual-SIM slots. We previously reported of an LTE variant seen on Avant-Abenson’s page, but what Microsoft launched today was only the 3G variant with the 4G model slated for a later release. In addition, the microSD slot also requires to remove the back panel in order to access it.

Holding and navigating it on one hand is possible since our thumb could still reach the Back capacitive button (which is the farthest our thumb could press). It’s also got some heft to it but not much, and not to the point that it becomes cumbersome. Finally, its 9-millimeter thick profile, for us, is just right and makes it easy to pick up the device lying flat on the table.

microsoft-lumia-640-xl-1

The Lumia 640 XL currently runs on Windows 8.1 system which is readily waiting for a Windows 10 update when it becomes available. It is powered by a Snapdragon 400 CPU with four cores and is teamed up with just 1GB RAM and 8GB intenal storage. For additional storage the company is also throwing in 15GB of OneDrive cloud storage into the package.

There are debates as to whether Lumia devices need better processors with people saying more power is better, while some say they’re actually happy with the performance of other Lumias even with just 512MB of RAM. Well, we had some time to fiddle around with it, giving us the chance to go deeper into its menu, open a series of apps, multitask, and so far everything went smoothly. It’s still unsure how well it could handle tasks when more programs are installed in it, but for our first impressions it did pretty well.

It will be available starting May 1, 2015 with an SRP of Php11,990. As mentioned earlier, there will also be a dual 4G variant coming and it will arrive this June so stay tuned for updates regarding that.

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL 3G Dual-SIM specs:
5.7-inch HD IPS display, 259ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8226) quad-core CPU
1GB RAM
8GB internal storage
up to 128GB via microSD
13 megapixel AF rear camera w/ LED flash
5 megapixel front camera
Dual-SIM (micro), Dual-Standby
3G HSPA+
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
NFC
Bluetooth 4.0
DLNA, Miracast
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
3,000mAh battery
Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim (upgradable to Windows 10)
157.9 x 81.5 x 9.0 mm
171 g
White, Cyan, Black, Orange

The post Microsoft Lumia 640 XL hands-on, first impressions appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

The Order: 1886 Review

Kevin Bruce Francisco Leave a comment

The Order: 1886 is a third-person shooter game launched early this year by Ready at Dawn (makers of God of War). Is the game something that will cater to a lot of players or will it be like an acquired taste? Read on and find out in this review.

Plot

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The story takes place in an alternate 19th century London nearing the end of the Victorian times. The environment is full of steampunk goodness like Zeppelins, clothes/gears from the Industrial Revolution era, and old school guns that spew out electricity and grenades.

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Your character, Sir Galahad, is a knight that supposedly originated  from sir Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table — dedicated to fight the evil that haunts humanity. 1886 is the year when they find themselves plagued by werewolves (also known as Lycans). These half-breeds are on the prowl for fresh meat and it’s up to The Order to stop them.

Graphics

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Just within the first 15 minutes of gameplay we could already tell that the developers behind this game poured a good amount of time and effort in making the graphics seamless.

As we’ve mentioned, the setting is made to look like 19th century London and they nailed it in terms of the overall feel. The atmosphere that they built really puts you in a time-travelling machine to the Victorian era thanks to small details like the distant steam coming out of machines, melancholic gray skies, pointed tips of structures, and carefully-crafted interior.

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After the cinematic cutaways we often found our character idle and waiting for commands since we couldn’t draw the line when the cutaways are done and the gameplay begins due to its flawless graphics.

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Facial expressions are also top-notch — they capture the emotions of the characters according to each scenario in the story. What we’re trying to say here is that this game is a testament to what Sony’s PS4 can produce when partnered with serious developers in terms of graphics.

Gameplay

The game is fixed on a third-person setup with a cover-and-shoot kind of chemistry going on. It’s the same type of gameplay used in games like Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist or Gears of War so if you’ve already played those titles then learning curve is easily quite steep. Running, vaulting, and shimmying across walls are some of what Sir Galahad can perform.

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Here is Sir Galahad inspecting a smoking pipe.

In addition, it also has the Inspect element during gameplay that lets you look at certain items in different angles using your joystick — and satisfactorily feels nothing short of how you’d look at an object in real life.

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Serbian American inventor Nikola Tesla also makes an appearance in the game just like Leonardo Da Vinci did for Assassin’s Creed II.

The entire game is full of cut-scenes. It basically is a combination of running, killing, and yes — cut-scenes. From what we could tell by finishing the game the team wanted the player to feel a movie-like experience (hence the letterbox throughout) with the aim of really being a part of it.

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The game also makes use of QTEs (quick-time events) during cut-scenes. We admit that it prompted us more than other games did, and my brother (who is also a big time gamer) found them overly-used. Personally, though, I enjoyed it since it still made me feel part of the game even though it was only a cut-scene.

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What we found as a big-time bummer is the lack of interaction with the otherwise intricate environment. Unlike other games that you can break tables or have elements moving around when you run past them, The Order: 1886 employs static objects that you just bump along the way.

This is the case for most of the items in the game but except for guns and ammo that you pick up, you can only interact with letters and photos placed conveniently on surfaces that you can read and look at. It wasn’t particularly fun.

Conclusion

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The Order: 1886 certainly has the elements of a great game, although maybe not enough to satisfy a wide range of gamers. The game is story-driven, which means there are no chances of free-roaming, definitely not the open world type of game, and gives more of a movie-like experience rather than a grind-and-strengthen-your-character kind of approach.

Setting aside its eye-popping graphics it might be something that at first, seem lacking, but will later on turn out to be enjoyable as soon as you realize what it’s gunning for.

If you just want a plain but fun shooter game that you can just play and relax to and not think of strategies or what mission you should do next, then this game could be right up your alley. Otherwise, you might be finding yourself asking more from the game.

What we liked about it:

  • Astounding graphics/details/textures
  • Facial expressions make the characters life-like
  • Easy to enjoy cover-and-shoot gameplay

What we didn’t like:

  • All you could interact with (in the environment) are papers
  • Story is somewhat weak and common

The post The Order: 1886 Review appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

AurumOne Hotel Makati

Eric Leave a comment

A few weeks aho I received an invitation to try AurumOne, one of the newer hotels within Makati City.

And coming from a late nightflight from Palawan, I foind it a perfect time for me to try the hotel.

AurumOne is located along the intersection of Evangelista and Del Pilar Street. It is actually very near the Pasay City boundary.

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The hotel is quite near from the airport. From Terminal 4, my taxi fare was no more than P100. And this was even before the P10 fare reduction for taxi was implemented.

I was given a suite room with one big bed. The room is quite big and veey spacious. Toilet and bath is squeaky clean. It also has a complimentary WiFi for your Internet browsing needs, flat screen cable TV telephone and a workdesk with lampshade.

All checked in guests can avail of free breakfast at the 8th floor. And one of the thing I like about aurumOne? It is just beside FamilyMart. This means you can just go to the ground level for your late night snacks.

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Its location is not a problem too. It is just a few blocks away from EDSA and just a jeepney ride away from Buendia LRT station.

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AurumOne is also very near Mall of Asia Victory Liner bus terminal and Glorietta mall.

For booking inquiries log on to http://www.aurumOne.com

Sennheiser Urbanite Headphones Review

Kevin Bruce Francisco Leave a comment

Sennheiser has been one of the top headphone manufacturers mainly due to the impeccable performance of most of their products; not just in the sound department, but also in terms of build and comfort they provide. What we have in our hands right now is the Sennheiser Urbanite that banks on the promise of providing your ears total comfort. See if the company was able to deliver and back up its claims in this review.

Design and Construction

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The Urbanite’s disposition is of the on-ear one (also called supra-aural) which basically goes on top of your ears. There is also an over-ear counterpart by Sennheiser that goes by the model name Urbanite XL —  It’s almost the same as the Urbanite but with bigger earcups that cover your entire ears. We will be releasing a separate review for that, but for now let’s concentrate on this smaller, more compact variant.

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These pair of cans posses a simple, yet very eye-catching design. A combination of stitched cloth, aluminum arms, and plastic ear cups with matte finish altogether look desirable and feel premium to the hands.

The entire device is light at 260 grams. It has a lightweight headband which allows it to bend and flex easily, while aluminum-made arms act as frames for the sliders wherein you can adjust the earcups vertically.

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It has stainless steel hinges that ensure durability and fold for a more compact size when carrying the headphones around. The earcups are reinforced with what feels like memory foam pads and wrapped with micro-fibers which should be more than comfortable when place on the ears. We’ll get to comfort factor in just a bit.

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The detachable cable possesses an in-line mic with navigation controls. We tried it on an iPhone 5 and maximized its use for adjusting volume, answering calls, and changing tracks on our playlist. During calls, we clearly heard the voice on the other side of the line, and same was the case when we’re the one talking — thanks to its microphone with omni-directional pickup.

Audio Quality

As a standard operating procedure, we let its drivers stretch for a bit by playing continuous music on it for hours. After which we were ready to assess its sound quality.

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We’ve had some minor gripes with the previous Sennheiser headphones that we reviewed in terms of weak mids and highs, but this was not the case with the Urbanite. As soon as we placed it over our heads and hit the play button our ears were treated with rich, full sound that stayed consistent throughout the tracks.

It’s got powerful bass, but not too powerful as to leave out the other elements. Mids were also clear and soothing, with highs keeping itself from getting overly bright. Basically, what we experienced was balanced sound and that’s what Sennheiser is gunning for in this specific series.

This may not be good news for everyone, as some people prefer snappy treble levels while some are just pure bassheads. I personally used to be a bass-lover but after I realized how fun listening to a balanced sound was, it quickly won me over. So for those that are looking for the same sound as I am and want your music with no elements being left out, the Urbanite will surely appeal to you.

Comfort Factor

Before we talk about its comfort factor, check out this Urbanite commercial that Sennheiser released to show how serious they are in providing a comfortable feel while using the headphones.

After having watched that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put the Urbanite on my ears since I couldn’t get the image of the talking German earcup massaging the giant ear out of my head. Joking aside, once you put them on you will feel it seal the ears nicely and you wouldn’t need to rearrange them to find the correct spot against your ears. Sennheiser did an impressive job engineering these comfortable cups to position themselves securely in one go.

We kept it on for about 3 hours straight (playing games, sound-tripping, and watching videos) and we could say that we could wear it for another 3 hours more. Comfort factor, on top of sound quality is definitely the name of the game for the Urbanite.

Conclusion

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So what do you get for almost Php12K? For one, you get a stylish pair of headphones that demand some quick glances from people as you walk the streets with its design. Build quality is also top-notch as we were confident enough to put serious amount of stress on its headband during our time with it. Sound quality is balanced all around with lows, mids, and highs unified, and comfort factor? We believe the German guy said (and showed) enough.

Yes, it has a pretty steep price, but the experience we’ve mentioned makes us believe it’s appropriately justified. If we were to nitpick we would say that its overall balance of sound may not appeal to all music-lovers and also, its 1.2-meter tangle-free cable could be longer for desktop use as well.

Sennheiser Urbanite specs:
Design: Supra-aural, closed back
Transducers: Dynamic
Frequency response: 16Hz – 22kHz
Impedance: 18 ohms
Sound Pressure Level (SPL): 118dB
Volume control: Smart in-line remote
Microphone type: In-line microphone with omni-directional pickup
Connectivity: 3.5mm L-shaped plug
Cable length: 1.2 meters
Weight: 260 grams
Accessories: Soft pouch
Price: Php11,900

What we liked about it:

  • Balanced sound
  • Super comfortable earcups
  • Simple yet attractive design
  • Premium build
  • Tangle-free cable

What we didn’t like:

  • Balanced sound reproduction might only appeal to specific individuals
  • Cable length could be longer to use for desktop

The post Sennheiser Urbanite Headphones Review appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.