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7 reasons we do not like the ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe

In Phones by Alora Uy Guerrero1 Comment

HEN it was announced in August that the ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe ZS570KL variant (click for complete specs) will retail at P34,995 (roughly $700) in the Philippines, we were dismayed by the pricing. After all, when the device was unveiled at Computex 2016 in May, the company said it would go on sale for $499 (about P25,000). Four months later, now that it’s finally here and we’ve used the smartphone for almost two weeks, we still feel the same way. Here’s why we think it’s not good value for money.

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YAAO 6000 Plus smartphone has a 10,900mAh battery

In Phones by Ramon LopezLeave a Comment

little over a week ago, we featured 10 locally available smartphones with batteries above 4,000mAh. Battery-wise, the most impressive unit we wrote about was the recently announced Cherry Mobile Flare S5 Power, which carries a tablet-grade 6,050mAh cell and provides two days of continued use (or more, if you’re being prudent about what you do with the device).

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Vivo V5 now official in PH, takes on OPPO’s F1s

In Phones by Alora Uy GuerreroLeave a Comment

EMEMBER that selfie phone Vivo launched in India about a week ago? The one with the 20-megapixel front camera? Well, it’s finally official in the Philippines, with the release slated for November 26, 2016. And with a P12,990 suggested retail price, it seems to be gunning for the similarly priced OPPO F1s’ place in the local market.

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The Cherry Mobile Defender is built for tough love

In Phones by Ramon LopezLeave a Comment

HE Cherry Mobile Defender (click for complete specs) is the company’s first truly rugged smartphone featuring a metal frame and rubberized plastic bumpers. The battery is fixed into the assembly, and all ports are covered with rubber flaps to seal the body. It doesn’t look off-kilter to us — which is not what we expected when we first heard about it. (The list of fairly attractive rugged phones gets thin after Samsung’s Galaxy Active series.)

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Apple iPhone 7 Plus review: King of big phones

In Phones by Ramon Lopez1 Comment

T’S New iPhone Day in the Philippines! Apple’s Plus-sized iPhone has historically been one of the best phones money can buy, and now it’s back for another encore. And if you’re still on the fence about whether the iPhone 7 Plus is the right smartphone for the job, you’ve come to the right place — as long as you can afford it.

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OPPO F1s review: Beyond selfies

In Phones by Ramon LopezLeave a Comment

ODAY, OPPO Philippines is launching a limited gray version of the OPPO F1s (click for complete specs) to coincide with the company’s official announcement of Alden Richards as an endorser. Almost three months after its gold and rose-gold variants were first released on the local market for P13,990, is the smartphone — now costing P12,990 — still worth considering? Read on.

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Cherry Mobile Flare 5 review: incremental improvements

In Phones by Ramon Lopez6 Comments

HERRY Mobile, the leading mobile brand in the Philippines, unveiled six new Flare smartphones last month. Devices, it hopes, will carry the Flare label past the “5 million phones sold” mark in 2016. Much of that burden falls on the Cherry Mobile Flare 5, the cheapest of the bunch. Priced at P5,499 — a tad higher than the Flare 4 (pictured in the background above) that cost P4,999 at launch — it falls into the company’s most profitable demographic whose tastes are often ultimately swayed by price.