Samsung's Care+ protection plan can't be added to the Galaxy Note20 post-purchase

It seems like a permanent change this time

Samsung's flagships have never been cheap, but even base prices are now eclipsing the four-figure mark. It's no surprise, then, that customers often opt for the company's Care+ protection plan for a few dollars a month. Unfortunately, Note20 buyers are finding that they're unable to add Care+ after they've purchased the phone.

As background, Care+, formerly known as Premium Care, is an extended coverage service that Samsung offers for $11.99/month on the Note20 family.

Read More

Samsung's Care+ protection plan can't be added to the Galaxy Note20 post-purchase was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

from Android Police – Android news, reviews, apps, games, phones, tablets https://ift.tt/3gUaJaG

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2 officially arrives on September 18 for $2,000

Samsung unveiled a plethora of devices at its Unpacked event last month, the most notable of which — other than the Note 20 Ultra — was the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Unfortunately, Samsung omitted two crucial details: the release date and price. Now we know. At a smaller scale ‘Unpacked Part 2,’ the company revealed its latest and greatest folding phone will be available on September 18 for a cool $1,999.99. That’s just 20 bucks more than the original Fold launched at, so it’s nice to see there isn’t too much of a price hike this time around — although one…

This story continues at The Next Web

Or just read more coverage about: Samsung

from The Next Web https://ift.tt/32GmHQ0

Sabbat Vooplay Shadow TWS Review - A great audio companion for under PHP 3K?

Today, we are reviewing the Sabbat Vooplay Shadow TWS earphones, a pair of stylish wireless headphones for just PHP 2,990.

Sabbat Vooplay Shadow TWS earphones

The Sabbat Vooplay Shadow is set to be available in the Philippines starting mid-August of 2020. For the price, it seems to be aiming to be a pair of great-sounding wireless open buds with a premium design and a massive soundstage for less.

Unboxing/Accessories

The sleek packaging with a matte finish

The Sabbat Vooplay Shadow came in with a nice looking package with a sleeve in gray and white and a premium feeling box inside with a minimalist design and matte finish. Going by the name, the color we got for review is the black Shadow one.

What you get inside the box

Inside you get the TWS earphones inside its charging case, a short USB-A to USB-C charging cord, a carrying case, and some paperwork.

Build Quality/Design

The charging case a leather finish with LED indicators inside

Let's start with the charging case first since it is you'll interact with this before the earphones themselves. The case has an elliptical shape and it seems to have a leather-feeling finish which adds to its premium appeal.

Premium appeal!

It feels solid in the hand as well and has a locking magnet that is pretty strong. I find it a lot tougher to open than most of the charging cases I've tried before.

It has a USB-C port behind

It also has the Sabbat name engraved on top, a USB-C port at the back for charging, and a Qi Wireless charging at the bottom. The funny thing is that the LED indicators for charging are found inside the case which means you need to open it to check if it is charging.

It has a half in-ear design for both sides

Now, the pair of Vooplay Shadow earphones are made out of polycarbonate plastic. It has an open ear design similar to the heads of the 1st Gen Apple Airpods. There is no information about its exact water and dust resistance though.

The matte finish of each earphone is prone to fingerprints and smudges though. Both earphones have two magnetic charging contacts each.

Due to its design, there are no silicone ear tips to personalize the fit but if you can use the Airpods with no problem then this will provide a similar fit experience.

Just do not clean items with matte finish with alcohol to prevent paint chipping.

Comfort/Isolation

The Vooplay Shadow offers good sound isolation

The Sabbat Vooplay Shadow's design could be hit or miss in terms of fit. I did not have trouble maintaining it in my ear but my sister did. The left earpiece kept falling for her. I did try to use it while moving, on a treadmill, and while shaking my head and it did not fall for me.

Sound isolation is reasonable despite its kinda open design. While using it, environmental noise is greatly reduced but not completely blocked.

There's no ANC to help in blocking outside noise further.

Battery

It has Qi Wireless Charging as well

Sabbat says that it can last 6 hours of continuous play. But, our experience, it more or less lasted for around 7 - 8 hours max. I finished 2 seasons of Suits on Netflix on 50 percent volume.

Strong battery performance!

The charging case adds an additional 390mAh of battery which adds 4 additional full charges or a total of 40 hours battery life.

Charging via USB-C took around 1 hour and 30 minutes. It has Qi Wireless Charging so if you have a device with reverse wireless charging that could be a great combo especially if you have an active lifestyle.

Features

Connecting is fairly easy. It is immediately detected by my realme 3 Pro and since then connecting it is as easy as taking it out of the case. There's also an included instruction for the first time pairing as well if you need it.

Here are the built-in functions via the single button control on each earpiece:

R/L short press for Power On/Play/Pause/Answer/Hang Up

R/L long press for 2 seconds for Wake Up Siri/Reject Call

R/L long press for 4 seconds for Power Off

R double click for Next Song, click three times for Volume Up

L double click for Previous Song, click three times for Volume Down

It also has a microphone on each side with CVC 8.0 Noise-Cancelling solution for clearer calls, Bluetooth 5.0 with QCC 3020 chip which supports A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, HSP, aptX, and ACC coders.

Audio

The Sabbat Vooplay Shadow has a 14.2mm Biology Fibre Driver which delivers amazing audio quality, especially at this price point. Even without playing around an EQ, I am fairly satisfied with the balance it has out of the box. It has deep bass, clear tones, great treble, and a wide sound stage.

Crisp, clear, and balanced tunes!

If your phone supports Qualcomm aptX, you'll be able to enjoy a low-bit rate audio transmission with low latency for a more consistent and better-sounding playback.

I am a hip-hop/RNB type of guys so I lean more on deeper bass but this delivers enough of it without swallowing up the mids and highs. It is a great all-rounder in terms of music.

Watching YouTube videos and Netflix, the stereo experience greatly enhances the immersion while watching. You can hear the dialogs clearly while the sound effects such as explosions and gunshots are booming.

Pros - Fast and easy pairing, stable connection via Bluetooth 5.0, premium and sleek design, great battery life, amazing audio quality, Qi Wireless Charging

Cons - Hit-or-miss fitting, No ANC, No external LED indicator when charging the case

Sabbat Vooplay Shadow Specs

Driver: 14.2mm Biology Fibre Driver

Frequency response: 20-20000Hz

Impedance: 32 Ohms 

Sensitivity: 101+/-3db@1k, 1mw

Microphone: Microphone w/ CVC 8.0 Noise Canceling 

Battery: 390mAh (case) w/ Qi wireless charging

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0 (QCC 3020 chip), supports A2DP/AVRCP/HFP/HSP, aptX, ACC

Others: USB-C, Colors: Cereal, Lynn, Reef, Shadow, Glacier, Moss

Price: PHP 2,990

Verdict

At just PHP 2,990, the Sabbat Vooplay Shadow is one of the best and more affordable TWS earphones in the market. It has a premium-looking design and feel, great audio quality, and long battery life.

This TWS gets a well-deserved recommendation from us.

Build/Design - 4.25

Comfort/Isolation - 3.75

Battery Life - 4.5

Features - 4.5

Sound - 4.75

Average - 4.35/5

from GIZGUIDE | Your Gadget Coach https://ift.tt/34W5Ds0

Lenovo announces three new laptops for its Holiday Consumer Lineup

Lenovo announced three new laptops for its Holiday Consumer Lineup. These are the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i, Yoga 9i, and Legion Slim 7i.

Lenovo announces three new laptops for its Holiday Consumer Lineup

Lenovo Yoga 9i and Yoga Slim 9i

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

Both ultra-slim Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i laptop and the 14-inch 2-in-1 convertible Yoga 9i are designed to provide portability, style, and performance for those who work on-the-go.

The Yoga Slim 9i has up to 4K 3840 x 2160 touchscreen IPS VESA DisplayHDR 400 with up to 90 percent DCI-P3 color spectrum, 500 nits of brightness, and Dolby Vision support. The Yoga 9i has up to a 14-inch 4K UHD IPS VESA DisplayHDR400 or a 15.6-inch 4K IPS VESA DisplayHDR400.

Lenovo Yoga 9i

Both are fitted with Intel's next-gen Core processors with graphics powered by Intel X architecture. There's also a 15-inch variant of the Yoga 9i with up to a 10th Gen Intel Core i9 HK-Series mobile processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650Ti Max-Q GPU. For the Yoga 9i, you get up to 16GB DDR4 memory and up to 2TB PCIe SSD storage. For the 15-inch variant, you also get a discrete GPU and two Thunderbolt 3 ports.

For additional flair, both the Yoga 9i and 14-inch Yoga 9i has an authentic black leather cover bonded with an aerospace-grade, aluminum chassis for durability. Both devices also come with Dolby Atmos Speaker System delivered through dual-front facing speakers on the Yoga Slim 9i and an improved Rotating Sound Bar for the Yoga 9i.

Some of the smart feature Yoga Slim 9i is the Smart Sense Keyboard that allows the auto-adjusts your keyboard's backlight based on ambient light, an electrical shutter switch that cuts the power to the built-in IR camera for peace of mind. The Yoga 9i has a TrueBlock Privacy Shutter for webcam privacy protection. Both also have auto-upscaling video capability 4K from 1080p through machine learning called Super Resolution 2.0.

The Yoga Slim 9i has a 63.5WHr with up to 20 hours of battery life. IUt also has Rapid Charge Express that can get you 4 hours of local video playback after charging for 15 minutes. It also has three full-functional Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports. Both also have Bluetooth 5.1 and WiFi 6 as well.

Lenovo Legion Slim 7i

Lenovo Legion Slim 7i

The Lenovo Legion Slim 7i has a 15-inch up to 4K IPS VESA DisplayHDR400 screen with 100 percent Adobe RGB coverage, up to 144Hz refresh rate, and 600 nits of brightness. It has up to a 10th Gen Intel Core i9 HK-series processor, up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 with Max-Q Design GPU, up to 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 RAM, and up to 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD.

The TrueStrike keyboard has a second transition switches for a deeper key travel feel. It is a full-sized gaming keyboard with 100 percent anti-ghosting, a dedicated number pad, a full-sized arrow keys, and a large glass trackpad.

Pricing and availability are yet to be announced. We can expect to be revealed during the release date.

What do you guys think?

from GIZGUIDE | Your Gadget Coach https://ift.tt/2YVS6ge

TECNO Spark Go 2020 with 2GB RAM and Android 10 (Go edition) OS announced

TECNO recently launched its newest entry-level offering—the Spark Go 2020.

TECNO Spark Go 2020

TECNO Spark Go 2020 specs and highlights

As the name suggests, the Spark Go is an Android 10 (Go edition)-powered handset. Android Go phones require fewer resources than traditional Android OS and it has lightweight apps making it the ideal operating system for smartphones with basic hardware. 

Aqua Blue

Despite the entry-level tag, the handset features a 3D curved gradient back design with gradient Ice Jadeite and Aqua Blue colors and patterns as well as a modern-looking camera hump.

In front, the handset uses a 6.52-inch 20:9 HD+ display with a notch housing the 8MP selfie shooter.

Under the hood, it runs with the 12nm MediaTek Helio A20 quad-core processor with up to 1.8GHz clock speed and PowerVR GE8300 GPU.

It is paired with 2GB RAM, 32GB expandable storage, a dedicated MicroSD slot up to 256GB, and 5,000mAh big battery capacity.

The handset also features a 13MP + depth dual-cam with an LED flash as well as a fingerprint reader at the back.

Of course, the device has WiFi, 4G LTE (Cat 6), Bluetooth, GPS, and dual SIM slots.

India price with direct to PHP conversion (no taxes and duties yet):

TECNO Spark Go 2020 - INR 6,499 (around PHP 4.3K)

In India, the device is priced at INR 6,499 or around PHP 4.3K. There's no info regarding its international availability yet.

Source: GSMArena 

from GIZGUIDE | Your Gadget Coach https://ift.tt/32KlBms