Review : Samsung Galaxy Alpha

We got our hand the Samsung Galaxy Alpha display unit in our hand for a brief review. Since we only get to hold the phone for less than an hour, thus we came out with a brief and simple review for this one.

You can find the specification highlights below for your references:

• 4.7" Super AMOLED Display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• Octa-core Processor (Cortex A15 quad-Core 1.8Ghz +  Cortex A7 quad-core 1.3Ghz)
• Android 4.4(Kitkat)
• 12MP Rear camera and 2MP Front Facing Camera
• 2GB RAM, 32GB Internal storage expandable to 128GB with microSD
• Nano Sim
• Connectivity: 4G(LTE), 3G, WiFi-802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, Heart Rate
• A-GPS Support with GLONASS
• 1860mAh Battery Capacity

Design & Handling
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is the first Samsung Smartphones that was held by a piece of metal and with a metal frame at the edge, Samsung even enhance the toughness of the phone with a bold corner to withstand drops better as the corner usually have a higher chance to land on the ground first. The phone feels solid in your palm and its quite compact in size without compromising the specs like what Samsung did with its S5 mini, the size feels just right for single handed and reaching the corners is much easier as compared to those 5" device. We do find the edges of the metal frame is a little sharp but that is not a big deal since it is not sharp enough to put a cut on our hand.

However, the back of the phone comes with a piece of plastic cover with the dotted pattern that is similar to the Galaxy S5, but the dots appear to be finer as compared to the one in S5.

On top of the device, it holds a 3.5mm audio jack, volume rocker is located on the left while the power button is placed at the right and the bottom stays the microUSB port, the external speaker is also placed at the bottom just right next to the microUSB port. 

The speaker grill may seem small, but don't get fooled by this, it actually produces loud output and the sound quality is at the top notch.

At the back, the cover is removable and that is where you can slot in your nano SIM card or replacing the battery.

The phone is quite slim at just 6.7mm and weighted around 115grams which is very light despite its having a piece of metal in it.


Performance
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is powered by Exynos 5 Octa 5430 chipset that consist of Quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A15 and Quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 processor, we have tested the phone with the famous AnTuTu benchmark tools 5.1 and scored 49k mark which is remarkably high, according to the chart, the benchmark score of the Galaxy Alpha shown here is even a leap forward to the Galaxy S5 and Note 3.

Mated with the 2GB RAM, the Galaxy Alpha is capable of multitasking and high end gaming shouldn't be an issue as well. We are also surprised by the ability of heat dispersion for this phone, it is quite impressive as you won't feel the heat is concentrated in one spot, instead it gets warm with the entire phone which might be contributed by the metal frame which helps spreading the heats to the whole device. 

Battery wise, it came with a rather small removable 1860mAH battery which is quite small for today's Smartphone, we don't get to perform a full test on the battery life, but in our short test with running the AnTuTu once, Camera and with WiFi and screen awake all the time, the battery drains from 60% to 45% in just 1 hour, even though this measurement is not accurate but at least this helps to indicate how far the phone can go in a single charge if we actively using the phone. (Provided if the battery indicator is stable without sudden drain).

User Interface & Functionality
The device runs Android 4.4.4 Kitkat out of the box with latest TouchWiz UI, it also came with Easy Mode for easier handling for the elders by having simple user interface, bigger fonts and Icons for easy reading. 

Sliding between the home screen is silky smooth with no sign of lags at all. The home button also has a fingerprint scanner and the fingerprint scanner is able to support PayPal payment, and in other words you can also unlock your phone and with some data privacy setting with utilizing the fingerprint scanner as well. 


Camera 
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha came with a rather rare 12MP camera sensor at the back supported by a bright LED Flash and 2.1MP camera at the front. The camera performance was great for both of them, we tried this by taking some Macro Shots, low light shots and some outdoor shot. Due to time constraints we do not get to try more about the functions of the camera and all photos taken with Auto setting to reflect our daily point and shoot behavior.

Macro

Outdoor

Indoor Low light without flash

Extreme Low Light Without Flash

Extreme Low Light with Flash

The photos taken is pretty impressive and it is also capable of taking indoor shots under low light condition and shots taken with LED Flash does not wash off the original color of the picture as well. The Outdoor shot taken also show enough amount of detail without much visible noise on it, the color produced is also quite accurate which is close to reality. 

Conclusion
This time, Samsung finally start enhancing their devices with much better built quality due to the Smartphones market is getting more competitive, the overall handling and functions is good as it is, special thanks to the metal frame that helps to make the Galaxy Alpha feels more premium in hand but sadly the Samsung Galaxy Alpha does not come with water and dust protection this time or else this will make the phone become much more competitive in the arena of compact size Smartphone with touchscreen below 5 inch mark.

Honor 6 & Honor Tablet will be available for Pre-order in Malaysia

The long waited Huawei Honor 6 and Honor Tablet will be available for pre-order in Malaysia at 29th September 2014 from vmall and their Official store Vmall in Lelong.my. 

Just to recap the specs, the Honor 6 is a big leap ahead from the Honor 3C and the specs is even better than its current flagship Ascend P7, it packs a 5" Touchscreen by JDI shielded with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, homemade Kirin 920 Octa-Core 1.7Ghz chipset, 3GB RAM, 13MP 4th Generation Sony Camera Sensor assisted by dual LED Flash at the rear, 5MP Front facing camera that is capable of capturing groupfies, 4G LTE Cat 6 enabled network support, 3100mAH battery capacity and a 16GB Internal storage which is also expandable with microSD up to 64GB. You can also find out more information about the device from the launching of Honor 6 in Beijing here.

Other than the Honor 6 itself, Huawei also brought us another surprise, the Huawei Honor Tablet which is packed with mid-range hardware and will be sold at a low price tag as well.

Specifications wise, the Honor Tablet packed with 8" Touchscreen, Qualcomm Quad-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 5MP rear camera, VGA front camera, 3G connectivity support, 4800mAH battery capacity and a generous 16GB internal storage that is expandable with microSD up to 32GB. 

The Honor 6 is priced at 1999 Yuan during launching which is about RM1055 when converted to Ringgit Malaysia while the Honor Tablet is priced at 999 Yuan which is about RM530 in Ringgit Malaysia. The current grey importers are selling the Honor 6 at around RM1200. Such powerful device at RM1200 is a great deal, but what if Huawei is going to sell it at a much lower price in Malaysia? Stay tuned for more updates from us or you can subscribe to lelong newsletter for further updates.

Updates: The Huawei Honor 6 is now available for pre-order for only RM999 while the Honor Tablet will be open for booking at RM599 exclusively at Vmall and its Official Vmall store in Lelong.

Find out more about these Honor series from a click on shopping basket below.

Review : Jabra Step Wireless Stereo Earbuds

We just got our hand the Jabra Step Wireless headset recently and ready to give a short review on this sweet stereo wireless headset. With this pair of headset you get to enjoy stereo music and answering calls wirelessly without the need of taking your phone out of your pocket anymore. This Bluetooth headset is quite unique despite it is a Stereo headset with gel hook, customizable earbuds to suit with your ears, Microphone, music & call control and it is even dust and water resistant. 

The Jabra Step Wireless is housed with a glossy plastic and light in weight at just about 16 grams only. The indicator light and its microUSB port are placed at the Right ear piece while the left ones stays empty. There is also a 3 button control that does all the usual command like turning on/off, answer/reject calls, play/stop music, next/previous song and volume control. Regarding the battery performance of the headset, on paper the standby time of the headset last around 6 days and continuous music playing / talk time will last around 4 hours, when the battery is low, a beep notification will be played before the headset dies off.

On start-up, the headset does not require any installation and it is ready to go, just turn on Bluetooth of your mobile phone and switch on the Bluetooth headset then you're ready to pair up the headset and enjoy the music without hassle of tangled wires or stop you from listening to music/answering calls when you are a few feet(About 10 feets in our test) away from your Smartphone.

There is a removable gel hook on this headset which is quite soft and can be removed for those people who dislike having something hooked on their ears, but thanks to the soft & flexible gel hook paired with the lightweight of the headset makes hooking this headset on our ear lesser burden and painless even after an hour of wielding it and with some average gesture like a quick twist of your head does not loosen up the headset which is a good thing as it can grab on your ear without being feeling uncomfortable. But however, wielding the headset for the first time would require some practices as it gave you a weird feeling when you're stuffing the earbuds in to your ear and at the same time have to keep the gel hook stay behind your ears, but it wasn't a big deal here as some little practice would make things perfect.

Sound quality wise we did not perform any burn-in for the headset yet, so it might perform otherwise if it goes under a proper burn in process. However the sound quality was pretty satisfying to our ears, even though we are not a professional audiophile out there but at least we can tell the sound quality did impress us despite it does not seal tight in our ears like some other conventional earbuds do. The bass level is considered light and gentle due to the fact it was not sealed tight in our ear, however the bass was quite clean and comfortable without distortion, The treble level is on average without being too overwhelming that will hurt your ears after an hour of listening while the mid-range is considered on the high side for this headset which stands out when listening to vocals. The ability of noise isolation is slightly below average here as the headset does not stay really tight in your ear and anyway it does not seem like it was built for that purpose as well.

In conclusion, the headset is pretty comfortable to be attached on our ears and the gel hook keeps your worries away as it won't break unlike any conventional plastic hook that will break easilly especially when it is kept in your bags, sound quality was pretty decent and convenience is all you get with this headset as it gave you the ability to listen to music for hours and answering calls remotely. Lastly, the Bluetooth headset also came with dust and water resistant which is ready to be active such as having one in your ears while jogging, sounds good isn't it?

If you're interested with the Jabra Step Wireless headset, a click of Superbuy shopping basket below will bring you there.

Review : Trek Ai-Ball Wi-Fi Remote Camera

We just got our hand a sample unit of this Tiny Trek Ai-Ball wireless and its Cradle + Adaptors accessory kit on our hand recently, the camera itself was pretty small and light in weight at just 100 grams with CR2 battery. The package of I-Ball camera itself, you will find the remote camera with a CR2 battery attached to it, a key-chain to be attached to the camera and a simple step-by-step user manual.

The first impression of the camera is so light that you might even misunderstood this is a dummy unit but the built quality here isn't really convincing especially with the glossy plastic casing the camera looks a bit cheap, but at least they came with a CR2 battery from a reputable brand: Energizer. On paper this type of battery will lasts around 1 hour and 30 minutes which is quite costly despite the price of CR2 batteries is quite high and not easy to find in convenience store. Thus, pairing this up with its Cradle and adaptor accessory kit will be more reasonable and makes the camera in a more complete package because with the camera kit, you will get to run the camera by using the adaptor without the needs of the battery. The Cradle + Accessories kit is packed with a cradle, 1 meter USB extension cable, 1AC-USB power adaptor and a car-USB power adaptor.

Starting up this camera is pretty easy by just slotting in the battery or connecting it to the adaptor from the cradle + adaptor kit and switch them on, within 15 seconds you will find a new unsecured network available to be connected in your wireless network connection, no fancy installation is needed. Another good thing is that this camera can be connected by multiple devices at the same time without disruption of the connection or obvious drop in video frame rate, this makes connecting to the device is easy and convenient as long you're within the range. But sadly the wireless coverage is just somewhat around 15 meters of range only.

On paper this camera is capable of shooting 2MP photos and VGA video of 640x480 @ 30fps, The result of the video quality is a little bit noisy and the color captured is slightly less accurate. But anyway its just a Tiny little camera which wasn't made for capturing HD quality videos, so there is nothing much we can expect from something that small at this price.

One of the highlights of the remote camera is the ability to stream or record videos from a remote location even if you are on a long distance travel by setting up Infrastructure WAN mode, this function is quite useful despite you can still monitor with the camera even you are far away from your home, but we would highly recommend you to purchase the camera kit for the camera as the adaptor does not come with the Ai-ball camera itself while using CR2 battery will only last you 1 hour 30 minutes which is pointless if you're on a long distance travel.

Find out more about Trek Ai-Ball remote camera from a click on the shopping basket below

Superbuy is Turning 5! From 09-09-2014 to 12-09-2014 Don't miss out the Great Deals for our anniversary!

Superbuy is celebrating its 5th year anniversary at 9th September 2014 by having a few great deals such as Facebook bidding session in Superbuy Malaysia Facebook page.

 Superbuy Facebook Page BID ME 5

There will be few bidding session available in Superbuy Facebook Page for different product from 11am onward of 9th September 2014. 

Each of the session will have 1 item open for bidding for 60 minutes and bid will be extended if there is new bid received in the next 5 minutes after the first 60 minutes with a starting price of RM5, to participate you just have to bid your price by dropping a comment of your price for that particular post. 

As an example, if the starting price of the particular item is RM5 and your desired bid is RM30, you may just drop in a comment "RM30" in the comment box.

You may Find out more about our anniversary deal from HERE

BenQ Smartphone Review : T3 & F5 with LTE. Now available from Superbuy with Free Voucher

BenQ has just unveiled its Smartphone recently and now is on its way to our shelves and thanks god we got a unit from BenQ and we will take this opportunity to write a simple review of these models. Before we start with the review, you may take a closer look on the key highlights of these models first.

BenQ F5

• 5" Touchscreen HD IPS display at 1280x720
• Qualcomm 1.2Ghz quad-core Processor
• Android 4.4(Kitkat)
• 13MP Rear camera with 2MP Front Facing Camera
• 2GB RAM, 16GB Internal storage expandable to 64GB with microSD
• Micro Sim
• Connectivity: 4G(LTE), 3G, WiFi-802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
• A-GPS Support 
• 2520mAh Battery Capacity

BenQ T3

• 4.5" Touchscreen qHD display at 960 x 540
• Qualcomm 1.2Ghz quad-core Processor
• Android 4.4(Kitkat)
• 8MP Rear camera with 0.3MP Front Facing Camera
• 1GB RAM, 4GB Internal storage expandable to 64GB with microSD
• Micro Sim
• Connectivity: 4G(LTE), 3G, WiFi-802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
• A-GPS Support 
• 1900mAh Battery Capacity

In short both models came with LTE connectivity support and both of them also powered by the same quad-core Qualcomm Snapgdragon MSM8926 chipset that runs at 1.2Ghz with 4.4 Android KitKat out of the box.

The F5 is obviously the higher-end model as compared to the T3 by having a bigger 5" Touchscreen display with higher resolution of 1280x720, 13MP rear camera + 2MP front facing camera, 2GB RAM and 16GB internal Storage which is expandable with microSD card up to 64GB. The F5 even has NFC support that is absent in the T3.

Design

Both of the F5 and T3 came with a slim profile, rounded edge design and light in weight which is contributed by the plastic body. Other than that everything was kept pretty simple.

At the front, the T3 came with 3 virtual navigation button at the bottom, 0.3MP selfie camera at the top right next to the BenQ logo. Its body came with a silver chromed edge and the back cover is kept simple with a chrome on the 8MP camera lens that is paired with an LED Flash just right on top of the BenQ logo and the speaker grill is located at the bottom of the phone, the back cover somehow look familiar with the back cover of the Sony Xperia C.

On the left you will find the power button placed at the top and volume rocker stays at the right, while on top of the device you will find the 3.5mm audio jack for your favorite headset. For charging wise, the microUSB charging connector is placed right at the bottom of the device. The SIM and microSD card slot is hidden beneath the back cover.

The F5 is slightly different here, the BenQ logo is missing at the front with only 2MP selfie camera located at the top-right with earpiece grill in copper color while the 3 navigation key remains the same but the navigation key is not so visible when the backlit is off as compared with the T3. The chromed edge is also missing in the F5 and at the back the LED flash is placed below the 13MP camera lens which is located at the top like what we have seen with the Sony Xperia S, but however the speaker grill still stays at the bottom but this one has a different speaker grill design placed on the right. The back cover of F5 is less plain with red colored chromed(For black color unit) on the camera lens and red color loudspeaker cover is visible in the speaker grill.

The power button is missing on the left and it is totally empty on the left, while on the right side you will find the volume rocker and the power button has been relocated at the top along with the 3.5mm audio jack. For charging wise, just like the T3 it is visible right at the bottom of the device. The SIM and microSD card slot is also hidden traditionally beneath the back cover.

For the F5, we do not quite like the power button of the F5 being placed on top of the device especially for a Smartphone with 5" touchscreen display because it is quite difficult to lock/wake the screen with single handed since the 5" display Smartphones is about as big as the size of your palm which your finger could not reach most part of the phone easily. Thank god the smaller version T3 has its power button placed at the left side of the phone which is easily reachable with single handed plus the compact size does make handling the phone much easier.

*Note: all photos of T3 were taken by the F5 and photos of F5 was taken by the T3.

Performance

We have tested both of the devices with the infamous performance testing tools AnTuTu benchmark v5.0 on both of the devices, the benchmark score was quite good but not too far away from what you can expect from a Qualcomm MSM8926 chipset and in our test we get a good score around 17940 score rating for the F5 and 17770 for the T3, it seems like the advantage of 2GB RAM does not bring significant differences in the AnTuTu benchmark score, but however it will definitely help to make multitasking more enjoyable with the 2GB RAM considering apps is getting heavier in the future.

In terms of available RAM, both the T3 and F5 are having 1GB and 2GB RAM on paper, while in reality the total accessible RAM available for T3 will be somewhere around 866.5MB and F5 is around 1.87GB, on startup both of the devices will be occupying around 450MB RAM which already took slightly more than half of the available RAM for T3, thus if you are a heavy multitasking user the F5 will be a better choice for you in this case.

User Interface and functionality

Q Home UI in the T3 and F5 are light, simple and easy to use with a default 7 home screen page which is removable and sliding between the home screen has no visible lag at the moment. We also like the "New Comer" apps that was pre-installed in the phone and this saves you from searching for the new apps you have just installed in the device with a click on the apps will reveal your recently installed apps. Since BenQ is well known for its production in quality screen for monitors, they have also added a new function in these BenQ Smartphones to reduce the blue light of the display which BenQ claims it will help protecting your eyes from harmful blue light while viewing photos and reading articles, but in reality the reduction of blue light is not really visible, so you do not have to worry about the blue light affecting the display quality. Regarding its battery performance, both devices last around 2 days with average usage and 3 days for F5 on light usage.

Camera

Both the BenQ F5 and T3 came with pretty standard camera functions like HDR, Burst mode and Smile detection, but the main highlights of their camera function are the Ultra sensitivity mode that works like low-light mode of PixelMaster technology from Asus Zenfone, it combines light of the surrounding 4 pixels in to one pixel which helps greatly improving the lighting up to about 400%. In reality it shows significant improvement in brightness but in this mode the resolution will be reduced to 2MP for F5 and 1.5MP for the T3. According to the photo below, the low light shot does brighten up the environment, but noise is quite obvious here and detail of the object is unclear. But however this is still way better than taking a photo that is so dark until you can't tell what is in the picture as shown with the original shot below.

T3 under Auto Mode

T3 Under Ultra Sensitivity Mode

We have conducted low light test under 2 conditions, low light and extremely low light condition. From the test shown, under low light condition it seems like the Ultra Sensitivity mode in T3 does not bright up as much as the F5 does and the differences are quite significant, anyway it still did its job in brightening up the picture and we will say like 80% which helps to show the BenQ box and the miniature Pepsi can that sits beside it which the original shot could not even tell the miniature Pepsi can was there. 

F5 Auto Mode

F5 Ultra Sensitivity Mode

However, the F5 boost up much more light as compared to the T3 and makes the picture looks like taken under bright condition, the miniature Pepsi can is clearly visible as well but with quite some amount of noise with the photo.

T3 Auto Mode

T3 Ultra Sensitivity Mode

While in extreme low light condition, normal mode does not help at all, only very minimal trace of the box was captured which you cannot tell if that is a box or something was there. The Ultra Sensitivity mode in T3 only helps to brighten up the environment up to a point where you can tell there is a white box in the picture while the Ultra Sensitivity of F5 brighten up more to show the box with some detail and even the miniature Pepsi can is finally visible beside the BenQ box. But however the Auto mode in F5 in this condition seems like could not even capture any trace of the box at all.

F5 Auto mode

F5 Ultra Sensitivity Mode

This is something worth to praise for as most of the current Smartphone does not have this feature even thou you paid thousands Ringgit more for it. 

Macro Shot taken with F5

Macro Shot taken with T3

We have also taken some macro shot with normal lightning, the macro shot was good, detail was there and both of the camera are able to take close up shot at only about 5 cm distance between the camera lens but sometimes both of them are having some difficulty in focusing on the object you're looking for, but with a few try it will usually get you there. 

Conclusion
Both BenQ T3 and F5 stand out with the LTE connectivity which is hardly found in devices in price range within RM500-RM700, its lightweight body also made it a lesser burden to the pocket. The smooth Q Home UI gave us confident that the phone is capable to go for more and throwing in some good game in the device should not be a problem for the phone and imaging is good despite having the Ultra Sensitivity mode which makes low light shot never be a problem anymore. Other than that, the built in loudspeaker also has a clear and loud output that you may not easily miss a call even you are in a crowded environment. 

Last but not least, BenQ is having promotion in Superbuy by giving away Superbuy vouchers worth RM68 for every purchase of BenQ F5 or RM38 for BenQ T3. This promotion will end on 30th September 2014.

Buy one today and get Superbuy's voucher with a click on the shopping basket below