Happy new year, everyone! We hope that all of you had a wonderful 2016. As we bid farewell to last year’s tech, let’s take a look at all the gadgets we reviewed the previous month. Here’s our Gadget Reviews Roundup for December 2016.
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Infinix Hot S Pro
In the end of the day, the Infinix Hot S Pro is going to be a smartphone one would appreciate thanks to its refreshing UI and balanced performance. It’s also pocketable than most smartphones today due to its smaller than usual display. At just Php6,990, the Hot S makes itself an easy choice for budget consumers who wants a better performing smartphone for everyday use.
Zotac GTX 1050 Mini
While it may not be the best option when running today’s games, the GTX 1050 is still a noteworthy competitor due to its low price point and low power consumption. However, spending around $30 more could get you the GTX 1050Ti which is better thanks to its higher VRAM and more CUDA cores, allowing texture files to load easily.
Vivo V5
Vivo has ticked some important characteristics with the V5 and we can say this might just attract the targeted group as it strikes a good balance between power, features, and price. Apart from its optics, the V5 also has capable internals to be able to keep up with the demands of today’s users.
Samsung Gear S3 Frontier
Samsung has a top-notch smartwatch in the form of the Gear S3. It has an attractive look, premium build, great performance, loads of features and long battery. The Tizen OS is also worth commending although we hope that more apps will be built for it in the future.
Zotac GTX 1050Ti Mini
For most gamers on a budget or first-time builders, the Nvidia GTX1050Ti is a great option for a pascal-based upgrade that would bring around 3x overall better performance over the GTX750Ti as well as consuming as minimal power consumption as possible.
Google Pixel
Simple yet elegant; raw yet powerful. This is what the Google Pixel represents. If the iPhone is a great product that came out from the harmonious union between the hardware and software, Google has made the same achievement with the Pixel. Nice, simple design, the powerful hardware under the hood, great camera, and overall experience.
JBL Clip 2
The JBL Clip 2 is a worthy successor of the Clip. With the improved design and waterproofing alone, it’s already more attractive than the first gen. Although, the bass, like before, is still wanting due to the small driver and lack of dedicated woofer. For its size, we can’t expect so much.
Cherry Mobile Iris
If you look at the Cherry Mobile Iris’s specs, it’s far from impressive and won’t appeal to heavy users. However, it’s also one of the most interesting entry-level smartphones in the market thanks to its iris scanner. We actually enjoyed using it as it is accurate and responsive. Finally, we now have a smartphone for the masses with this kind of biometric feature.
Cherry Mobile FB100
If only the FB100 has something more than just the Facebook button to differentiate it from the usual crowd of budget Androids, it’ll be an interesting device to play and use. Although, the lack of software integration just makes it an ordinary smartphone with low specifications to meet a certain price.
O+ Compact Pro
The O+ Compact Pro, at best, is a decent mid-ranger with a good display, decent performance, and 700MHz LTE for those who want to take advantage of faster mobile data. The professional camera performance, on the other hand, feels more like a marketing ploy as it doesn’t exhibit anything special when it comes to imaging. On the bright side, it doesn’t ask a lot at Php11,395. O+ USA is also throwing in a 64GB SanDisk microSD card and a JBL T300A headphones.
Lenovo Yoga Book (Windows)
The Yoga Book is a very interesting and unique device. It works as a tablet, a laptop and functions as a pen tablet thanks to the integrated Wacom technology. The nice form factor, slim and lightweight profile encourages you to bring it along instead of your usual laptop. It can handle most of the casual and moderate tasks and with its long battery life, it’s also a good content consumption device.
OnePlus 3T
Software-wise, there’s nothing to worry about as the dev community of OnePlus is very much alive and supportive but when it comes to hardware, it’ll be tough since the phone is not officially available in the country. The device is more suited for those who needs a phone to support their hunger for power and speed within the Android realm, but for casual users, it could be mixed-bag.
Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
The Redmi 4 Prime could be the best phone you can have for now. It offers amazing performance, superb battery life, and quality design for a fraction of its main rivals. Although, the battle for official availability could be an issue and it’s no joke to have it repaired with no formal local support.
Alcatel Shine Lite
It’s clear that Alcatel has managed to squeeze itself inside the crowded sub-Php10K segment with the Shine Lite. It is equipped with nice features like LTE, Dragontrail Glass, fingerprint scanner, and Android Marshmallow. However, most of its efforts are placed on the premium build which might shun users who prioritize performance over aesthetics after considering the price.
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Motorola Moto Z
