Earlier today, smartphone startup OnePlus revealed new details about its upcoming — and eagerly awaited — flagship phone, the OnePlus 2. According to the company, the successor to the brilliant OnePlus One will be powered by an improved version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, which is said to run cooler than its predecessor. The OnePlus 2 will be powered by an improved version of the Snapdragon 810 CPU, which is said to run cooler than its predecessor. In case you haven’t heard, the first iteration of Qualcomm’s most powerful processor to date has faced a flurry of negative publicity since its …
Starmobile Knight Luxe, Up HD are brand’s top sellers
It’s not often that we get a peek at how major players are faring in the local tech scene, so it’s always a welcome sight to see a company like Starmobile drop some information about its current best sellers. According to the company, the Starmobile Knight Luxe and Up HD — both of which are fairly new releases, mind you — have become its most popular devices in 2015. In fact, Starmobile product development head Michael Chen says that both Android phones comprise more than a third of Starmobile’s smartphone sales from May to June of this year, even claiming …
NBA Live 16 unveiled at E3, promises better online play
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015, or simply E3 2015, is upon us, and one of the more interesting titles in EA’s lineup this year is the company’s upcoming basketball sim NBA Live 16. NBA Live 16 will bring a fresh batch of modes and new gameplay mechanics, as well as a new feature that allows you to scan your face into the game using your phone’s camera. The game will bring a fresh batch of modes, new gameplay mechanics that you haven’t seen before, including touch passing, dribble handoffs, and the ability to fight through screens, as well as a new face-scan …
P7,999 Firefly Mobile Allure 64 LTE phone is stacked
Cherry Mobile, MyPhone, and Torque may be the most popular homegrown smartphone brands right now, but newcomer Firefly Mobile is quickly making a name for itself as a company with attention-grabbing offerings like the Intense 64 LTE and Intense Mini, both of which promise speedy performance without burning a hole in your budget. Firefly Mobile’s latest release, the Allure 64 LTE, expands on that tradition by bringing upmarket features, such as a 5.5-inch IPS panel with curved-edge Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top, an aircraft-grade aluminum-magnesium alloy frame, and a 360-degree fingerprint sensor to the sub-P8,000 segment. Things look just …
Cherry Mobile has a new mid-range phone for under P10K
(UPDATE, June 19: According to Cherry Mobile, the Cosmos S2 is now available in Cherry Mobile kiosks and stores.) As if you didn’t know already, things are heating up in the local mobile space in 2015, largely because of competition from Chinese brands like Lenovo, Honor, and Oppo that are making a strong push in the mid-range market. Homegrown players MyPhone and Starmobile have already responded to this year’s wave of low-cost, high-performance smartphones from the Far East by releasing their own iterations of bargain blowers running the Android operating system. The Cherry Mobile Cosmos S2 checks many of the same …
Globe rolls out affordable hotspot service for SMEs
Hiring an IT guy to handle a commercial establishment’s complimentary WiFi service might not be something all entrepreneurs welcome for various reasons, which is why Globe Telecom has come up with a new service aimed squarely at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that makes it far simpler to turn any store, restaurant, bar, or any place where people wait, for that matter, into a hotspot. Globe’s WiFi Hub not only allows business owners to attract more customers, but also lets them make more money by charging patrons for WiFi passes. Globe’s myBusiness WiFi Hub not only allows establishments to attract more customers …
Boompods brings gadget accessories to PH via Lazada
Boompods has recently launched an extensive catalog of accessories in the Philippines that caters to a young, tech-savvy demographic that wants a dash of color in their gear. Boompods has also partnered with online retailer Lazada Philippines to sell its products locally, without the hassles of making purchases in a physical store. Among Boompods’ initial offerings are lighting cables, battery packs, battery cases for iPhones, and wireless headphones and speakers, including a waterproof speaker. Among the brand’s initial offerings are lighting and microUSB cables, external battery packs, battery cases for iPhones, wireless headphones, and wireless speakers, including a waterproof speaker …
LG G4 is official in PH, price starts at P31,990
Just a month after LG hosted multiple launch events to make its biggest tech announcement of the year, LG Philippines has taken the wraps off its flagship-phone contender for 2015. Say hello (again) to the LG G4. It’s a memorable device — and I mean that in the best way possible. Perhaps memorable enough to give its fiercest Korean rival (read: the Samsung Galaxy S6) a run for its money. If you haven’t read our primer about the G4, here’s what to expect from LG’s most advanced smartphone to date: a choice between plastic and leather back covers that can …
Starmobile Knight Luxe: A looker of a phone for P7,690
It appears MyPhone isn’t the only local brand with a budget phone that features an emphasis on design. Starmobile has also shown an eye for beauty, as manifested in the Knight Luxe and its 6.85mm-thick, all-metal frame with chamfered edges reminiscent of Samsung’s series of Galaxy A phones. Under the hood, you’re looking at an octa-core MediaTek processor paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage underneath a removable and textured back cover made of plastic. Other specs include 13- and 5-megapixel rear and selfie cameras, a 2,050mAh battery, and Android KitKat 4.4. The Starmobile Knight Luxe comes in a …
SKK Mobile says ‘size matters,’ outs 5.5-inch Aura
SKK Mobile is out to prove that size matters with its latest entry-level handset. The SKK Mobile Aura is an Android KitKat phone with a big, 5.5-inch IPS display and an even bigger appetite for pleasing design purists, no thanks in large part to a polycarbonate body that could easily be mistaken for a metal construction. The Aura’s resolution maxes out at 540 x 960 pixels, which is no surprise given its price point. The phone runs on a quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz and armed with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage that can be bolstered up to …
Report: PH Internet speed is second-worst in Asia
U.S. broadband-diagnostics firm Ookla (aka speedtest.net) has ranked the Philippines 176 out of 202 countries worldwide and second-last among Asian nations in its latest household download index, which compares global download speeds over a period of 30 days (between April 18, 2015 and May 17, 2015). As if we needed further proof that we’re getting the short end of the stick, the Philippines’ connection speed is listed as 3.64Mbps — a far cry from the global average of 23.3Mbps. Only Afghanistan’s median download speed of 2.52Mbps fared worse than the Philippines in Asia. To give you a better idea of …
MyPhone refreshes Infinity phone line for 2015
Homegrown tech company MyPhone has refreshed its line of Infinity smartphones, dropping three new Android KitKat models with decent specs and affordable price tags. Leading the way is the MyPhone Infinity 2, a mid-ranger that bears premium design elements, such as a metal back that curves softly around the sides, to go with an octa-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz. At the lower end of the spectrum are the MyPhone Infinity 2 Lite and Infinity LTE, which take aim at bargain hunters who want some of the features of the higher-end Infinity but don’t want to pay its full price. The …
Faceoff: ASUS Zenfone 2, Alcatel Flash Plus, Lenovo A7000, Meizu M1 Note, Honor 4x
Now that ASUS has at last revealed the local pricing for the Zenfone 2, it’s time to step back and take a deliberate look at the top phones in the value-for-money rankings. And what better way to do that than to lay out all the details around the Zenfone 2 and its competition in chart format. Here’s how the devices stack up against one another. (A quick side note: The phones listed here have all been announced in the Philippines and are either already available in stores or on track for release this month.) [frame src=”https://www.revu.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ASUS-Zenfone-2-Honor-4X-Lenovo-A7000-comparison-chart.jpg” target=”_self” width=”620″ height=”412″ alt=”Premium …
Review: Lenovo A7000
The mobile business is a ruthless one, known for leaving giants on their knees, desperate and willing to bend their principles to avoid the possibility of extinction. Just ask Nokia, BlackBerry, Sony, and HTC. And it has only grown more cutthroat with time. It’s no surprise, then, that more and more phone makers are thinking outside the box on how to market their products, often turning to e-commerce platforms to increase their profit margins and lower operating costs.
Lenovo A7000 to go on sale on Lazada PH May 21
Hands up if you’ve heard of the ASUS Zenfone 2, a strong candidate for smartphone of the year if value for money is of utmost importance? Yes, well, it’s about to face some serious challenge from a most likely source in the Far East. Meet the Lenovo A7000, a low-cost challenger in the mold of the Zenfone sequel, with its large HD display and rather beefy specifications, which includes LTE and a rear-mounted speaker that makes use of Dolby Atmos audio settings. The latter is a world first, according to Lenovo. Not that those settings make much of a difference …
Honor 6+, 4X, 4C now official in PH
Honor 6+ Perhaps inspired by Xiaomi’s success in some parts of the world, Huawei has turned its attention to online selling and has formed a sub-brand to tap into the e-commerce boom. And so here we are, talking about the Honor sub-brand, which debuted in the Philippines yesterday alongside a trio of Android smartphones aimed at the cash-strapped crowd. The Honor 4C, 4X, and 6+ all feature above-average specifications for their price points, echoing a trend we’ve seen across the mobile industry. The Honor 4C and 4X list mostly the same specs and functions, though the latter offers a bigger …
Oppo PH outs 3 new phones, hints at R7, R7 Plus
Chinese manufacturer Oppo is, understandably, taking aim at the low- to mid-end segments and has launched three new smartphones in the Philippines, bannered by the R1x, which has a distinctive design under a sapphire-glass rear panel. The 4.5-inch Neo 5 is a low-cost Android phone backed by a quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM, while the 4-inch Joy Plus offers milder specs for less money. But back to the Oppo R1x: As we’ve mentioned in a previous post, it fits a lot of power into a thin-and-light package, running Android KitKat 4.4 on an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor paired …
PH is first country to make Uber legal
In a statement released Monday, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) will later this week introduce a new category to the public-transport sector to include ride-sharing services, thereby legalizing Uber in the Philippines after more than a year of unregulated operations. It marks the first time the likes of Uber have been given the green light to operate on a national scale without any issues whatsoever. The announcement comes in the heels of months of collaboration between the department, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), and ride-sharing companies. Under the DOTC’s revised classification of public vehicles, Uber …
CloudFone unveils dual-OS, Android Lollipop tablets
Are two operating systems better than one? Local tech company CloudFone seems to think so, as it has just unveiled a pair of dual-OS tablets, alongside two other slates leveraging the Intel platform. The CloudPad Epic 7.1 and 8.9 can switch between Android KitKat 4.4 or Windows 8.1 pending a hardware reboot, while the CloudPad Epic 8.0 is a pure Windows tablet that comes with a Bluetooth keyboard. The CloudPad One 7.0, on the other hand, gets Android Lollipop 5.1 out of the box and timely over-the-air updates for the next two years, similar to devices under Google’s Android One initiative. …
How Globe-Disney team-up is different from Smart-Disney deal
Globe Telecom yesterday announced a multi-year partnership with The Walt Disney Company, which owns Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and multi-channel network Maker Studios, among many others, in an effort to bring more family-friendly content and experiences to a swelling user base of 44 million. Now, if you’re on Smart — and there’s a good chance you are given the carrier’s 56-million-strong subscribers — you may be thinking, “Haven’t I heard of this a few months ago?” Um, not really. Because what Globe is serving is the full-course meal of the Disney experience that’s objectively superior to its rival’s appetizer plate …