Saturday, August 1, 2020

Gadget Reviews Roundup: July 2020

It’s the month of August and we still have plenty of gadgets to look forward to. But before that happens, why don’t we take a look at the reviews we’ve done last month. We have the 2020 Ford Ranger FX4, Huawei MateBook D14, OPPO Find X2 Pro Lamborghini Edition, Realme X3 SuperZoom, AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT, 2019 Honda PCX 150, and LIFAair LA350A Smart Air Purifier, to name a few. Check out our Gadget Reviews Roundup for the month of July.

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Nokia C2

Running on a vanilla Android 9.0 and offering better display and connectivity compared to its previous version, the Nokia C2 still has a place in the market. It is capable of handling your basic needs, such as watching and listening to online content, surfing the web, and checking on emails. On top of that, you get regular security patches and updates from Google. The smartphone is ideal for those who look for a budget-friendly smartphone for daily communication.

Huawei MateBook D14

The Huawei MateBook D14 is a very capable notebook for its price at PHP 42,990 for the Ryzen 7 3700U model. It’s better than the MateBook D15 (and slightly more expensive, by the way) and still offers exclusive features that will benefit Huawei mobile users.

Samsung Galaxy M31

The Samsung Galaxy M31 is no one-trick pony, as it provides a lot more than its huge battery. It also nets decent performance, is a very capable camera phone, and is a joy to actually use thanks to the great display and UI. Its price tag of PHP13,990 (6GB + 128GB) is certainly justified for everything it is, and users who put battery life above all other smartphone features won’t be disappointed. The Samsung Galaxy M31 definitely deserves the title of new mid-range battery king.

OPPO Find X2 Pro Lamborghini Edition

We’ve always found the OPPO Find X2 Pro to be a solid contender in the premium flagship market. It offers users impressive performance, amazing display, great camera quality, and good battery life – which are the most important aspects of a smartphone. While it did fetch a hefty price of PHP 65,990, it was easy to justify since it’s a no-compromise device. That being said, the Lamborghini Edition is more expensive, costing CNY 12,999 or around PHP 91,000.

Fujitsu Tablet LIFEBOOK U939X

For what it’s meant to be, the Fujitsu Tablet LIFEBOOK U939X is capable of doing its job, and it does it well. It’s ultra-portable thanks to its light and thin body, with a host of IO ports and wireless connectivity options. Logging onto the device is secured with various login methods, and we found it to be reliable despite putting the device through heavy workloads. Lastly, it has a long battery life that could last a whole workday.

realme X3 SuperZoom

Coming in at of PHP 24,990 for the 12GB+256GB configuration, the Realme X3 SuperZoom is packed with top-notch, flagship features and is a good value for the price. An 8GB+128GB option does exist, but unfortunately, it will not be available in the Philippines. Hey, at least we’ve got the better variant, right?

Infinix Hot 9 & Hot 9 Play

Compared to other smartphones in their price tags, these phones genuinely offer more than what you pay for. They’re not the best, but they are enough as casual all-around day-to-day smartphones with their big batteries, satisfactory performance, and good cameras.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i

The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i is a highly capable sub PHP 60K laptop that is ideal for those who are looking for a daily workhorse and a multimedia companion. Its Dolby Audio-powered speakers, 14-inch FHD+ display, latest 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, 512GB of SSD, dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX350 graphics card, and exclusive programs including the Microsoft Office Home and Student lifetime license made this laptop a good choice for those who need a faster device upgrade for school and work.

Xiaomi Redmi 9

The Redmi 9 is a great addition to Xiaomi’s lineup as it provides a fourth, honorary option to the Redmi Note 9 series. By providing users with all the basics they need for an essential but solid smartphone experience, it’s almost a no-brainer for Xiaomi fans looking to spend not more than PHP7,490. However, I think that’s exactly how much you should spend if you were getting a Redmi 9.

LIFAair LA350A Smart Air Purifier

The LIFEair LA350A is a convenient, easy to use, and effective air purifier for bedrooms and small offices. At PHP 15,000 SRP, it’s a bit pricey, but the health benefits make it worth it. There are other air purifiers in the market, some with a lower price tag, but if you’re looking for something in this price range, this device is worth considering.

AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT

The Ryzen 5 3600XT offers users an amazing gaming performance, while still being capable of handling productivity workloads. With its release, it’s difficult to recommend the Ryzen 5 3600X over its XT counterpart as AMD has priced them similarly. At PCHub, for example, the XT variant costs only PHP 600 more – which would be negligible considering the total system cost of building a new PC.

Huawei Y7 vs Vivo Y11: Budget smartphones under PHP 7K

The Vivo Y11 is a commendable budget device for having a nice display, a good selfie camera, and a big battery. However, the Huawei Y7 won in the end for having better rear cameras and larger memory configuration. The battery may be smaller, but 4,000mAh is still large in today’s standards. So, in terms of value, we recommend getting the Huawei Y7.

2020 Ford Ranger FX4

If you are interested in a vehicle that offers both practicality and comfort, you should check out the new Ford Ranger FX4. Although this truck doesn’t have everything a high-end Ford vehicle has like keyless entry, rearview cameras, and such, but considering its price, I don’t mind not having that extra stuff.

realme C11

For a phone that’s well designed, has great battery life and boasts a very capable processor, the realme C11 is a good choice for those who want a well balanced device that has decent gaming performance for a bargain price. The Realme C3 is priced at Php4,990 (2GB + 32GB) and is available in all official online store in Shopee.

Xiaomi Redmi 9A

We’re really liking MIUI 12 but you know it’s not enough reason to get the Redmi 9A. Now why you should buy this phone is because its affordable price justifies what it offers. Sure it doesn’t have a Type-C port like the Redmi 8A, but honestly most phones in this price really still pack MicroUSB ports and large batteries to keep you powered up the whole day.

ASUS VivoBook S14 (S433)

As a productivity and learning companion, the ASUS VivoBook S14 has proven to be more than capable of doing all the typical workload that day-to-day students and professionals use. The included NVIDIA MX 350 GPU is also capable of playing light and older games, as seen in the 3D Mark tests.

AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT

The Ryzen 7 3800XT offers huge improvements on multithreaded workload over the Ryzen 5 3600XT, offering up to 32% more performance in rendering tasks. That being said, users will not gain significantly more frames on games as most of our results show only up to 5% more FPS compared to the hexacore processor.