Apple iPhone 8

Malaysia Apple iPhone 8.

Model

 iPhone 8 4.7-inch display                                      iPhone 8 Plus 5.5-inch display

Apple’s latest iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are officially available for pre-order in Malaysia. If you order your unit today, it could be in your hands as early as next Friday, 20 October 2017. At the stroke of midnight, several telcos and authorised retailers have commenced online pre-order with the choice of free delivery or self-pickup at your preferred location.
When it comes to price, the iPhone 8 is the most expensive yet. This is to be expected since it now has a minimum of 64GB of storage but this time, it costs even more than buying one off the shelf in Singapore.

iPhone 8 official retail price in Malaysia

Based on the listings by Apple authorised reseller Switch and Machines, below is the official iPhone 8 price list for Malaysia.

iPhone 8 64GB – RM3,649
iPhone 8 256GB – RM4,399
iPhone 8 Plus 64GB – RM4,149
iPhone 8 Plus 256GB – RM4,899

iPhone 8 is an updated iPhone 7 with glass

Beginning with the iPhone 3GS, Apple has always introduced an all-new model every 2 years. In a tick-tock cycle, each iPhone gets an incremental update model before it gets a full refresh the following year.
When most people are expecting a brand new design for the iPhone 7, it retained the same looks of its now 3-year old iPhone 6. The only major difference is a dual-camera bump on the iPhone 7 Plus and a new paint job.
Today, Apple has announced the iPhone 8 and although it is a whole new number, it still looks like an iPhone 6 but with more glass just to support a new form of charging. That’s four years in a row with the same design. So what’s really new? Read on to find out.

The fundamentals haven’t changed since the iPhone 6. You get the standard iPhone 8 with a 4.7” 1334×750 IPS screen and the bigger iPhone 8 Plus that pushes Full HD resolution at 5.5”. Both support 3D Touch and you still get the same non-mechanical Touch ID button below the screen. On top of that, the iPhone 8 gets True Tone display where it adjusts the screen’s white balance according to your ambient light. If you have a casing on, it is almost impossible to distinguish the iPhone 8 from the previous 3 models.

In order to support wireless charging, the backs are made of durable glass with an oleophobic coating that’s put together with a 7000 series aluminium frame. Everything else looks familiar including the same camera bump design as the iPhone 7 family. Because of this new glass back, you no longer see the curve antenna bands running across the top and bottom of the phone.
With the change of materials, the iPhone 8/8 Plus is slightly taller and wider by 0.1-0.2 of a millimetre, and both are heavier since there’s more glass than aluminium. Love it or hate it, the Rose Gold colour is gone. The iPhone 8 now comes only in three shades – Silver, Space Grey and Gold.
In terms of power, the iPhone 8 is up to mark with the iPhone X with the latest hexa-core A11 Bionic chip with machine learning capabilities. In terms of battery, Apple reckons it is the same battery life as last year’s iPhones.

In the imaging department, the pixel count remains unchanged at 12MP but Apple uses newer sensors which claims to have “deeper pixels”. Like the iPhone 7, OIS is standard across the range and you have a f/1.8 aperture lens for its main camera. On the iPhone 8 Plus, the secondary telephoto lens still retains the same f/2.8 aperture.

You do get the new Portrait mode with added Lighting effects (Beta) which is also found on the iPhone X. This gives your portrait shots studio-quality lighting in 5 different styles. With the new hardware, the iPhone 8 can now shoot 4K videos up to 60fps and 1080p slow-mo at 240fps. For selfies, it retains the same 7MP f/2.2 FaceTime HD camera with assisted Retina Flash.

The biggest brand new feature for the iPhone 8 is wireless charging using the popular Qi wireless standard. On top of that, it also supports fast charging on cable, which is definitely useful on a larger phone like the iPhone 8 Plus. The latest iPhones do get Bluetooth 5.0 which is better for newer wireless music devices.

Wrapping things up is the latest iOS 11 which brings smooth AR experience with ARKit. Once it is rolled out globally, iOS devices will be the largest AR platform in the world. The iPhone 8 is still IP67 dust and water resistant, and its dual-stereo speakers are now 25% louder than before.

For the new iPhone 8, storage now comes in either 64GB and 256GB which is double of its previous minimum storage offering. As a result, you’ll have to fork out slightly more money this time round. In Singapore, the iPhone 8 starts from S$1,148 (about RM3,584) while the iPhone 8 Plus is going from $1,308 (about RM4,083). Pre-order starts this Friday at first wave countries and it will be available on 22 September 2017. So far there’s no news on Malaysian availability but we expect it to reach our shores within the next month or so.

Of course, if you’re looking for something groundbreaking, there’s the iPhone X. You can tell that Apple has spent more time on that model than the incremental iPhone 8. For that effort, be prepared to fork out a lot of dough to enjoy that 5.8″ edge to edge screen experience. The iPhone X is priced from US$999 which is at least RM4,300 and it’s going on sale in Singapore from S$1,648 (about RM5,146). You can learn more about the iPhone X.

Xiaomi’s new flagship Mi 6 is official. Here are the details

This is it! Xiaomi‘s brand new flagship smartphone is now official. It’s called the Xiaomi Mi 6 and it has pretty much all the specifications you need in a flagship smartphone.

At its core, the Mi 6 is powered by Qualcomm’s 10nm Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor. For even more oomph, Xiaomi has paired it with 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM and up to 128GB of internal storage. With all this horsepower, Xiaomi says that their brand new smartphone annihilates every other Android flagship out there when it comes to AnTuTu’s benchmark, clocking in a score of 184,292, as well as GFXBench, beating even the iPhone 7 with 63fps.

 

In front, you’ll get a 5.15-inch Full HD display that’s very reminiscent of last year’s Mi 5. Xiaomi has advanced their display technology further so this screen can go up to 600 nits in brightness. Further, it can reduce its brightness down to just 1 nit for night viewing. There’s also a front-mounted fingerprint scanner that’s embedded under the glass. This means you don’t get a physical home button which may disappoint people who prefer a more tactile response. Keeping the lights on is a 3,350 mAh battery.

Besides that, the new Mi 6 also comes with a fancy new glass and metal design that minimises on the sharp edges you would find on the Mi 5. There also appears to be a new colour scheme that paints the Mi 6 in an honor 8-like blue with gold metal trims.

The glossy metal frame around the phone is more scratch resistant than stainless steel while the glass around the back of the phone has a 4-edge 3D design that’s similar to HTC’s U Ultra. There will also be a special Silver Edition mirror finish Mi 6 that’s reminiscent of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium.

 

This new body also sports some level of water resistance, though Xiaomi has not mentioned any IP rating. Xiaomi does say that they’ve sealed the insides of their phone and lined the SIM tray with rubber. They say it’s splash proof, but that’s about it — you won’t be submerging this handset and expecting it to survive.

At the back, you’ll also see a brand new dual-camera setup that still sits flush to the back of the smartphone, eliminating any unsightly camera bumps. The cameras themselves are 12-megapixel shooters.

One of them is a telephoto lens (for 2X lossless zoom) while the other is a wide-angled one. With this dual-lens setup, Xiaomi has also included a portrait mode feature that blurs out the background and separates your subject.

It even gives you the ability to add watermarks much like Huawei’s Leica watermarks. Xiaomi has also included 4-axis optical image stabilisation for steadier shots and reduction in handshake blur.

Other features include stereo speakers and NFC which can be used for payments. One big feature was omitted though…the 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Xiaomi Mi 6 will come in two variants. The entry level model with 64GB of internal storage will be priced at RMB2,499 (around RM1,599) while the higher-end model with 128GB of internal storage will be priced at RMB2,899 (around RM1,855). For those who want a little more pizzazz, Xiaomi’s Mi 6 also comes in a special Ceramic Edition (6GB RAM, 128GB storage) and will be priced at RMB2,999 (around RM1,919)

Apple refreshes the iPhone SE with 32GB and 128GB storage

16GB isn’t enough these days and Apple has revised its iPhone SE with more storage than before. Similar to its current iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 lineup, the iPhone SE is now available with 32GB and 128GB of storage.


In terms of price, both new storage option retains the similar price tag of its previous offering. Basically, you’re getting twice the storage for the same launch price.

iPhone SE
16GB32GB – RM1,949
iPhone SE
64GB128GB – RM2,449

If you’re interested, it will be available on the online Apple Store starting this Friday, 24 March at 11:01PM Malaysian time.

This looks like the main reason why the iPhone SE 16GB was getting a price cut. Since last week, the base model iPhone SE with 16GB is going for only RM1,699 while the 64GB version is now going for RM2,199. If you’re looking for a bigger phone, the iPhone 6 32GB has also arrived on our shores with a RM1,999 price tag.