THERE have been numerous leaks involving Samsung’s next flagship model, some of which seem more credible than others. Like this set of photos published on Weibo — China’s Twitter, if you may — that are said to be a Samsung Galaxy S8 unit in gold.
Buckle up, buying many gadgets and appliances may soon be taxed
THEY are not stopping with the vanity tax. After a controversial Philippine bill proposing to tax beauty and cosmetic products was filed January 11, here comes another plan that may end up being contentious, too.
Nintendo Switch: Your questions answered
NINTENDO just unveiled the Switch in its native Japan. It was met with oohs and aahs and hand claps from spectators, as expected, but it also armed critics with plenty of skepticism over whether it can truly make Nintendo relevant again in this generation.
Apple is PC industry’s biggest loser in 2016
THE latest report of market-research firm IDC did not surprise us; we had already expected the PC industry to shrink in 2016. Based on the data, worldwide shipments of traditional PCs — desktops, notebooks, and workstations combined — fell to 260 million units, down 5.7 percent from 2015. It was the fifth straight year that the industry shrank. And Apple took the biggest hit.
Leaked Nokia 8 flagship to feature Snapdragon 835 and 24MP camera?
AS we previously reported, Nokia is back… sort of. The Nokia 6 by Finnish company HMD Global, which won the rights to stamp the universally celebrated brand on both smart and basic phones, is the first Nokia to run Android. It’s also a midranger with an aggressive price tag (1,699 yuan, roughly $250 or P12,200) and an even more aggressive strategy for the Chinese market, where it will be exclusively available for online purchase.
Samsung might launch a foldable phone in Q3 2017 — because it can
WE’VE seen foldable mobile devices, but they’re all just concepts — stuff that look cool but may never see the light of day. Not in the near future. Maybe not ever. None of them have gone into production just yet. But that may change soon.
The affordable Cherry Mobile flagship you’ve been asking for is here
CHERRY Mobile has a new phone on the market — and it isn’t the dual-screen Taiji, which could unceremoniously launch this month or the next. The flavor of the week (or the next few weeks?) is the Cherry Mobile Cosmos Three (click for complete specs), a phone we played around with alongside the Defender and Taiji in mid-November. It’s currently rolling out to stores nationwide with a P9,999 price tag.
Water-resistant Samsung Galaxy A5, A7 2017 edition debut in PH
SAMSUNG Electronics Philippines has fired its opening salvo of the year, launching two of the three models that are part of the 2017 edition of the Galaxy A Series. The lineup has been listed on the tech giant’s global press site since early January.
ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom finally gets priced… in China
ASUS unveiled the ZenFone 3 Zoom last week at CES 2017, but gave no word on how much it will cost when it drops in stores next month. The consensus is that it could be pretty expensive because of the advanced dual-camera array strapped to its back. But now we know the price of the top-of-the-line Zoom variant (click for complete specs).
10 other interesting tech products on display at CES 2017
ANOTHER January, another CES done. And once again, this year’s edition of the biggest consumer-electronic show gave us a look at what’s out there in the world of technology and what’s about to come. 2017 is even memorable as CES celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Huawei Honor Magic is smarter than your smartphone
IT’S the final call at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. It’s been weird and at the same time brilliant. We’ve seen some memorable tech over the past week, and we’re very much looking forward to the day some of the products arrive in Philippine stores. Or maybe they won’t — because it’s totally plausible that most of the devices we’ve covered won’t make the trip to this side of the planet.
The iPhone is 10 years old and still has a trick that others can’t replicate
IT’S been 10 years since Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone. Yes, it has been that long. Today, the iPhone remains Apple’s most important product and its biggest cash cow, though it hasn’t been smooth-sailing for the Cupertino-based tech firm lately.
OPPO A39 is a smaller, cheaper F1s minus the selfie camera we love
THERE’S a new OPPO smartphone on the Philippine market, this time carrying a more affordable price tag than the one that came with the P12,990 ($262) OPPO F1s. In keeping with that comparison, we like to think of it as a smaller, cheaper version of the F1s sans a fingerprint sensor and the 16-megapixel front camera that made us do a double take.
Nokia 6, the first Nokia-Android mash-up, is here. Should you care?
THE cellphone pioneer from your childhood is back, albeit with a lot of help from a company you probably haven’t heard of. After months of speculation, the first true Android phone with the Nokia branding has surfaced.
Confirmed: Huawei Mate 9, Honor 6x now available in PH
WHAT do you know? Just when we were not looking at the Philippine market because of all the CES 2017-related news coming our way, Huawei has rolled two new smartphones to local stores, the Huawei Mate 9 (click for complete specs) and the Huawei GR5 2017, also known as the Honor 6x (click for full specs).
Laptop with 3 screens is the gaming rig we’ve always wanted
BEHOLD, the world’s first laptop with three (yes, three!) screens! This future case of technological wizardry comes courtesy of Razer — which, if you haven’t heard, is essentially the Apple of the PC gaming community.
3 new Xiaomi products we wish were on their way to the rest of the world
AND when we say “the rest of the world,” we meant outside Xiaomi’s native China. Because while we had initially thought that the company joining CES for the first time meant an announcement of a concrete roadmap for its entry to the U.S., it turned out that we had thought wrong.
Is this the Samsung Galaxy S8?
IT’S early in the new year, which means the internet is again rife with rumors about the possible design, specs, features, and whatnot of the next Samsung Galaxy flagship. We’ve heard quite an earful about how different (and how important) the Samsung Galaxy S8 would be compared to its predecessors, but so far we haven’t seen anything in the wild to confirm or support those claims. Until now.
BlackBerry with keyboard teased. Could this be the brand’s savior?
YOU have to give it to brands that just don’t give up no matter how many times they have been knocked down. Think Nokia. And this time, think BlackBerry. It seems that TCL, the Chinese electronics company that inked a deal with BlackBerry Limited to make smartphones under the BlackBerry brand, is hell-bent on reviving the once-iconic name.
SKK will sell you a Huawei P9 clone for super cheap
AFTER releasing an iPhone clone in the Philippines, SKK Mobile is at it again, this time coming out with a smartphone that apes the Huawei P9, intellectual property be damned.