vivo sub-brand iQOO today has officially opened pre-orders for its new iQOO Z9 mid-range smartphone series for the Malaysian market. Consisting of two variants, users get to pick between the higher specced vanilla model, or the more affordable Z9x 5G. To start things off, we have the iQOO Z9 5G. This particular variant is equipped with a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with FHD resolution and 144Hz refresh rate. Also onboard is an under-screen fingerprint sensor, stereo speakers, Android 14 via OriginOS 4, and IP64 water/dust resistance. On the inside, the phone is equipped with a Snapdragon 7 Gen ..read more

  AirAsia has introduced a new unlimited travel pass called the ASEAN Explorer Pass. It succeeds the Unlimited ASEAN Pass that was introduced last month, which was only made available for purchase for a limited time. The new pass is offered at the same price as its predecessor, but adds domestic travel options, which come with a big caveat. The ASEAN Explorer Pass is an annual pass that lets its users travel an unlimited amount of times within the validity period between Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. A new addition is ..read more

Gigabyte may have confirmed the designation of AMD’s next-generation Ryzen desktop CPUs. The processor will officially be known as the Ryzen 9000 Series, bypassing and leaving the 8000 designation to the laptop series. “GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, released the latest AGESA 1.1.7.0 beta bios for the coming AMD Ryzen 9000 series processors boot-up support on GIGABYTE AM5 X670, B650, A620 motherboards, and for present Ryzen 7000 and 8000 series processors as well.” (Image source: Gigabyte.) AMD’s Ryzen 9000 Series ..read more

Last week, Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, claimed in a paywalled post on X, previously Twitter, that the 12.9-inch iPad Air will be using mini-LED displays. These were supposedly leftovers from the larger iPad Pro models, as some of them will be making use of OLED display tech instead. More recently, Young has backtracked on the claim, stating that the larger iPad Air will be using LCD screens after all. MacRumors cites the new paywalled post which says that the mini-LED iPad Air is not happening “due to the panel’s high cost”. As a result, the choice between the two siz ..read more

Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) has appointed five new board members, comprising senior leaders from the telecommunications and technology industry. The move follows the share subscription agreements (SSAs) signed between DNB, Minister of Finance Incorporated, and five Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) on 1 December 2023. The five will join two other incumbent members, treasury secretary general Datuk Johan Mahmood Merican and digital ministry deputy secretary general Ma Sivanesan Marimuthu, on DNB’s board. The state-owned company noted that appointments for the new members are effective 24 April 20 ..read more

The vivo X100 series was first revealed in its home market of China in November last year, and making their way to our shores earlier in January. But it looks like the series is getting a mid-generation upgrade, in the form of the vivo X100s, complete with its own Pro and Ultra variants. And these may be getting their own unveiling as soon as next month. GSMArena reports that the vivo X100s family will be moving away from the curved screens and back of the X100 in favour of a flatter design overall. That being said, the report notes that the curves are not completely gone, as the rear glass p ..read more

Earlier this month, Sennheiser launched the Momentum Sport wireless earbuds in the US, but it seems that it also quietly dropped the product into the Malaysian market. Aside from just being audio gear, they also act as a workout accessory with built-in health sensors. Firstly, the Momentum Sport features 10mm dynamic drivers in each bud with support for Bluetooth 5.2 for connections. For noisy environments, the earbuds support adaptive active noise cancellation and the company also says that there is a “sports mode” that offers more clarity and powerful bass, but it did not provide any detail ..read more

iQOO has officially launched the mid-range Z9 series in China, launching a total of three models. As expected, the vanilla model has specs that differ from the Indian model we saw last month with the entire lineup sporting Qualcomm chipsets. The standard model Z9 as well as the higher-end Turbo feature 6.78-inch 1.5K AMOLED displays with a 144Hz refresh rate and a whopping peak brightness of 4,500 nits. All three phones come with an IP64 dust and water resistance rating but only the two top models get an under-display fingerprint sensor while the more affordable Z9x is fitted with a side-moun ..read more

Last week saw the renders of the HMD Pulse and it Pro variant making their way online via serial leakster @OnLeaks. The series has since made their official debut, revealing that there is a third member of the family in the form of a Plus model. Despite the three different designations though, there are more similarities between them – down to the way they look – than differences. To start, all three models of the HMD Pulse series come with a 6.65-inch HD+ screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, and a Unisoc T606 chipset. RAM and storage is where these devices really get distinct, as the base model ..read more

Qualcomm is officially letting the cat out of the bag with its new desktop-grade Snapdragon X Series. Just as the rumours hinted, the new series comprises the X Elite and X Plus. Starting with the Snapdragon X Elite, the lineup is the chipmaker’s highest-end model, comprising three SKUs. the X1E-78-100, X1E-80-100, and X1E-84-100. All three models sport 12 Oryon CPU cores, with a total cache of 42MB. (Image source: Qualcomm.) The top-tier Snapdragon X Elite SKU, the X1E-84-100, has a maximum multithreaded frequency of 3.8GHz, and a dual core boost of 4.2GHz. The other two, the X1E-80-100 and ..read more