BATANGAS - The press got a chance to test drive Samsung's first smartphone with triple cameras, the Galaxy A7, during a media launch held here on Wednesday.
The Galaxy A7, which will retail for P17,990 starting Oct. 27, is still considered mid-tier despite having 3 cameras.
It can capture "unrestricted" wide-angle photos thanks to its 8MP 120° ultra wide lens. It also has a 24MP main camera and a third 5MP "depth" lens.
The Korean smartphone maker said the A7's 24 megapixel camera with f1.7 aperture ensures crisp photos in any lighting condition.
Like other mid-tier phones, the A7 also has AI features with automatic scene detection, AR emojis and built-in selfie filters on top of its 24 megapixel front camera.
The LIVE FOCUS function helps users achieve the Bokeh effect.
When it comes to design, it carries a 6.0 inch Full HD Super AMOLED Infinity Display, side fingerprint sensor and seamless curves.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA -- Chinese phone maker Honor attempts to push the boundaries of how much features can be crammed into a handset at the lowest price, without it feeling cheap.
It mostly succeeds with the P7,990 Honor 9 Lite, which the Huawei sub-brand debuted in official online stores in late May.
From the back, the Honor 9 Lite looks like the Huawei P20 Lite save for the horizontal placement of its dual cameras. On the front, it looks like the Mate 10 Pro from late 2017, with the small top and bottom bezels taking on the phone's hue.
The gradient finish of the glass back is not as shimmery as the P20 series, but is just as slippery. The glass and metal build felt too light, lacking the reassuring heft of the P20 Pro or the iPhone X, which is expected for its price point.
Where the Honor 9 Lite punches way above its price tag is the display. The 5.65 panel with an 18:9 aspect ratio is bright and text is sharp. It also lacks a notch and the glass curves subtly to the edges.
Save for the teal color accents, EMUI 8 on top of Android 8.0 Oreo felt the same as in Huawei phones. The Kirin 659 chip set felt faster than other phones in its price category. The Honor 9 Lite comes with 3 gigabytes of RAM and 32 gigabytes of internal storage.
The Honor 9 Lite has 4 cameras, 2 lenses each on its front and back, like the Nova 2i. While colors and details were generally pleasant, images tend to be dark, even in bright light.
Honor is banking on online buzz and a value-for-money proposition to market its phones in the Philippines and the Honor 9 Lite illustrates that strategy.
The company said the phone sold out on line after its local launch in May.
The Honor 9 Lite serves up near flagship quality in terms of looks and the display.
The compromises show in the camera and phones feel in the hand, but still feels like a bargain considering its P7,990 price.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA - It's understandable why Huawei did not unveil the P20 Lite at the same time as the P20 and P20 Pro in Paris last March. Without the camera brawn of the two, the Lite would seem like too much of a downgrade.
Taken on its own, however, the P20 Lite is a beautiful device with a surprisingly excellent display for its P15,990 price tag. Announced without fanfare, the P20 Lite goes on sale at the end of April along with the rest of the P20 series.
DESIGN AND HARDWARE
The P20 Lite does not stray too far from the P20 range. It has a notch at the top of the screen that's similar to the iPhone X. The glass back sets it apart from the polycarbonate shells of its competitors giving it a more premium feel.
The textured metal frame makes it easier to grip. Though at 145 grams, it feels too light, almost like a chocolate bar that can fly off the hands.
The glass back, which also houses the fingerprint sensor, is not curved as in the P20 Pro. Overall, the phone fells sturdy and well built.
The 5.84-inch 2280x1080 screen packs 432 pixels per inch, that's slightly higher than on the P20 and P20 Pro. The iPhone X has 458 pixels per inch.
It's in the screen where the P20 Lite feels nothing like a mid-ranger. It's bright, images are sharp and colors are vivid.
CAMERAS
The P20 Lite has two lenses on the back, one at 16 megapixels and the other at 2 megapixels. The front-facing camera also has 16 megapixels.
The cameras don't carry the Leica branding of the P20 and P20 Pro, but the P20 Lite's cameras produce rich colors and fine detail under good lighting conditions.
The P20 Lite struggles, however, when shooting against the light when subject can get washed out.
Huawei is touting a 'beauty algorithm' on the selfie camera that smoothens the skin and brightens the eyes and lips without sacrificing detail.
The P20 Lite also offers augmented reality or AR effects and backgrounds.
PERFORMANCE AND SOFTWARE
Even without the AI-centered Kirin 970, the P20 Lite had no hiccups running on the lesser Kirin 659, built in-house by Huawei.
The 3,000 mAh battery can get through a day. Huawei promises a 43-percent battery boost with just 30 minutes of charging with the supplied brick and USB C cable.
The phone runs Android 8.0 Oreo overlaid with Huawei's EMUI skin.
For better or for worse, it's the same EMUI as in Huawei's most recent devices though it's not as heavily customized compared to the EMUI of a few years back.
Huawei also gives users the option to hide the notch by blackening the space around it.
CONCLUSION
Huawei was right to hold off on announcing the P20 Lite until after the international media blitz of the P20 and P20 Pro.
By giving it its own launch, albeit quiet, the P20 Lite is a phone that gets appreciated on its own merits.
Its a handset that retains much of the design DNA of the far more expensive phones in the P20 series while offering a capable camera and an excellent display at a price that undercuts its rivals.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA - Chinese electronics giant Huawei serves up its Mate 10 with forward-looking tech in a glass body that's somewhat left behind by 2017 design trends.
The LCD screen is bright and pin sharp, especially when set to QHD instead of Full HD, the default setting out of the box.
While it looks physically bigger, images displayed on the Mate 10's 6-inch 16:9 screen seem bigger compared to similarly-sized 18:9 screens because most content, which come in 16:9, are not cropped.
The super-reflective back is a fingerprint magnet but the bundled case tames the sheen and gives the device a nice grip. A protective film is pre-installed on the screen, but it scratches easily.
The device is powered by Huawei's own Kirin 970 processor with built-in artificial intelligence, meaning the AI function is done on the device instead of on the cloud.
The two standout features are the dual Leica lens on the back, this time accentuated by a stripe, and the battery, which at 4,000 mAh can last up to 2 days in our initial test.
The cameras, which combine standard and monochrome images, produce rich colors and detail. The images are bright, sometimes more so than the scene itself.
The built-in AI also means the camera recognizes plants, pets, food and
buildings and adjusts the settings even before you press the shutter.
It's pretty accurate, although when I zoomed into the lettuce leaves in
my salad, it recognized it as as plant instead of food. See the leaf
icon in the lower right corner of the screenshot below.
The Mate 10 is available in stores at P32,990, or half the price of the
Apple iPhone X, and nearly P20,000 less than the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
There was literally no connection between me and Huawei's Nova 2i on our first night together.
Exhausted from touring Huawei's campus in Shenzhen, China's answer to Silicon Valley, I rolled into my hotel bed and attempted to charge it on my nightstand. The device still uses micro USB and all I had were Type C and lightning cables.
The next morning, a journalist colleague who juiced up her unit said she didn't miss using her P10 Plus, Huawei's pricey, photo-centric flagship. She was largely right.
The Nova 2i cuts corners but not big enough to take away from what matters most to average consumers -- a good screen, a good camera and a battery that lasts a full day on a single charge.
At P14,990, the Nova 2i becomes an even more attractive proposition for a mid-range phone with a near-bezel less design, undercutting the Vivo V7+ and slightly more expensive than LG's Q6, which has a smaller screen.
At nearly P50,000 for a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 or iPhone X, you can buy 3 Nova 2i phones in all colors (black, blue and gold) and still have P5,000 to spare. This phone won't vaporize your Christmas bonus.
The Nova 2i's biggest selling point is its nearly 6-inch screen, which Huawei calls FullView in FHD+. The panel occupies 83 percent of the device's front face, which looks like a Samsung Galaxy S8, minus the exaggerated curves on the side.
The display color leans towards the cool side. It's bright enough for web browsing and video streaming even at 50 percent brightness. It's not too far from the quality of the Mate 9, Huawei's late 2016 flagship.
It will be unfair to compare the Nova 2i's LCD panel with Samsung's quad HD AMOLED since they're 2 different technologies, but the Huawei panel can hold its own against the iPhone 7 Plus or 8 Plus, which is among the best LCD screens on a smartphone. It's much brighter than the LG G6.
The camera captures rich greens and reds, a Huawei signature, but the Nova 2i struggles with whites, which tends to get a bit washed out. If you're taking flat lay food shots make sure to crop out as much as of the white plates as you can.
The back camera uses a main 16 megapixel lens, while a second 2MP lens captures depth of field to create that portrait or "bokeh" effect. Like Apple's implementation, the phone will tell you how far you should be to effectively blur the background.
The front camera uses the same set up, except the main shooter has a 13MP lens. Huawei claims the front flash is smart enough to create soft lighting even in pitch black conditions.
Aimed squarely at selfie-takers, the Nova 2i has 18 "make up" filters pre-installed and allows gesture-activated selfies with a 2-second delay.
The build quality on the Nova 2i feels much more expensive than its price tag, with the glass front that curves gently into the aluminum chassis. Viewed from the side, it almost looks like a matte black iPhone. The "Aurora Blue" stands out in a sea black and gold metal mid-rangers.
The rear-mounted finger sensor rests where you would naturally place your index finger, unlike the clumsy implementation on Samsung's S8, S8+ and Note 8. The phone is a bit slippery though but a bundled clear case should add some grip.
We used the Nova 2i on a mundane work day, checking emails and browsing, a weekend out taking food snaps and streaming video, and on an overseas trip, taxing its battery with roaming and the 3,240 mAh battery got more through the entire day without needing a lunch hour top up.
The Nova 2i feels like the big screen phone that the Mate 9 should have been in terms of build and ergonomics and it looks like a smartphone from 2017.
I wish it had the P10 Plus pin-sharp screen, Leica dual cameras and the diamond-cut texture on the back that makes the phone stand out. Most importantly, if I were going to use the Nova 2i as my daily driver, I also wish it had Huawei's Super Charge.
But for its price, the Nova 2i gives you enough of that full-screen, photo-centric, all-day smartphone experience.
It also gives us a hint of what to expect from Huawei's Mate 10 series, which will be announced in Berlin this week. The Nova 2i, after all, was rumored to be the Mate 10 Lite. Imagine what the Mate 10 Pro would be like?
source: news.abs-cbn.com
