It’s finally October, meaning it’s time to take a look at the gadgets we reviewed last month. We have the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo, Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro, Samsung Galaxy Note10/10+, ASUS ROG Phone II, ROG Mothership, and Huawei Mate 30 Pro, to name a few. Check out our Gadget Reviews Roundup for the month of September.
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it has an immersive screen, an upper mid-range chipset, large RAM and storage, and the main feature – the triple flipping cameras. And for all of that, Samsung is charging a quite hefty PHP 34,990 price tag. That’s almost flagship territory. It would have been easier to accept it had features like faster storage type, wireless charging, stereo speakers, an IP rating, or a 3.5mm audio port.
Just like the with our experience with the K20 Pro, we were satisfied with the Mi 9T Pro’s design, performance, display, cameras, and battery. It’s even better now since it has a Global ROM with Google Play services, is officially available in the Philippines, so there’s a local warranty, is now available in four colors, and still affordable.
Vivo is off to a good start with their first S series entry in the Philippines. The Vivo S1 is suitable for those who want a good-looking mid-ranger with a large AMOLED screen, RAM and storage capacity, and battery. It’s not the best out there in this price range, but if you’re looking for a reliable entertainment daily driver for PHP 14,999, this phone can give you that experience.
For PHP 3,999 the Cherry Mobile Flare S8 is pretty much a good deal given that you have a large screen size, RAM, and storage capacity. The overall performance is not bad, as well, but you’ll also notice that there will be input delays when multitasking or just merely navigating throughout the device.
The Redmi Note 8 Pro offers an overall robust smartphone with great camera hardware and a modest IPS display. The device’s chipset might be rather controversial, but it does offer smooth and lag-free performance, combined with 6GB of RAM and two storage options.
With its starting price tag of PHP60,990, it can get easy to dismiss this phone as way too overpriced. But, think about it this way — The S10+ starts at PHP55,990. For just PHP5,000, you may be losing an additional front camera and a headphone jack. But almost everything else gets a boost, like the bigger screen, better chipset, more RAM, more storage, better cameras, a bigger battery, and an S-Pen that’s there if you need it.
The Galaxy Note 10 comes in a standard 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage and it will set you back at PHP 53,990. That’s a PHP 7,000 difference from the base Note 10+. So what are you missing? Slightly smaller screen size and lower resolution, smaller RAM and battery capacity, no microSD card support, and no TOF 3D camera. Are you missing out a lot? Not really.
For PHP 15,990, the OPPO A9 2020 is a good mid-range device that has a large display, decent performance, large RAM and storage, good cameras, and long battery life. This device is a good attempt of competing in this price range especially if it goes toe-to-toe with the VIVO S1. Your only problem here is that with this price range, this phone entered a dangerous weight class because Xiaomi’s Mi 9T Pro and Huawei’s Nova 5T are just sitting there at PHP 18,990 and both of them already have flagship-level performances.
The A50s is solid mid-ranger with a bright display, modest battery life, the latest One UI, and better camera hardware. The chipset benchmarks gave us mixed results, and there were a couple of frame drops during gaming, but apart from that, we think it’s a decent upgrade from the A50. Samsung has the A50s priced at PHP 18,990, which is just a couple of thousand pesos more than its predecessor.
ASUS has outdone themselves this time. The ROG Phone II is way better than its predecessor in almost every aspect and can deliver its promise to provide the best mobile gaming experience possible by injecting new features and accessories. The only question left to answer is the price. The first ROG Phone started at a steep PHP 49,995. It could be higher, or we can be lucky it’ll be lower.
The ROG Mothership may not be for everyone, given its PHP 399,995 price tag. But if you’re a creator and a gamer and looking for a very powerful semi-portable gaming computer to invest in, then this is one of the machines we can recommend. It has the top-of-the-line graphics, but it is also paired with the latest processor and crazy-large RAM capacity.
The HP Omen 15 2019 is, without a doubt, a powerful laptop, but like other devices, it has its flaws. It has a great display configuration, above-average gaming performance, and slim form factor. The only significant issues that I had here is that it has heating problems while its battery life is subpar. But overall, the gaming laptop is one heck of a performer and worthy upgrade if you have an older Omen.
The Lenovo Yoga S730 is an excellent laptop with a premium yet compact build, an immersive display, and has enough horsepower to run most of our productivity tasks and entertainment. We like the inclusion of three USB-C ports with support for DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 and PD charging, but Lenovo didn’t include an adapter in the package considering the price.
The ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo is undoubtedly impressive. As mentioned, it’s not that common to see a laptop that’s equipped with two screens and have programs run on both of them. The hardware included is decent, and ASUS also gives users more than enough RAM to go to town and multi-task however they want. This device is definitely meant for creators and streamers who are into games.
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Can it Game?
Comparison
Looking at the tally, the Huawei Nova 5T leads the comparison, followed closely by the Reno. Trailing behind is the Galaxy A70. But since we’re looking at which phone has the most value, the Nova 5T definitely wins for offering flagship features at the lowest price.
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