Snapdragon 800-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab PRO 8.4 launches for P18,990

Galaxy Note PRO 12.2 for P36,990…

Are 8-inch tablets your thing? If so, check this one out from Samsung. It’s their new Galaxy Tab PRO 8.4 — an 8.4-inch tablet powered by the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor — that was launched yesterday in the Philippines.

The Galaxy Tab PRO 8.4 sports a 2560x1600 (WQXGA) high-resolution display that is just so crystal-clear. In fact, it is one of the tablets that sport a pixel density of 359ppi. Underneath, the Tab PRO 8.4 packs a 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage along with a microSD card slot that can hold another 64GB, WiFi 802.11ac, an 8-megapixel autofocus main camera, a 2-megapixel front shooter, and a 4800mAh battery. It runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat.

Samsung Galaxy Tab PRO 8.4 Specifications and Features
8.4-inch 2560x1600 (WQXGA) Super Clear LCD display
2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor
2GB RAM
16GB internal storage
8-megapixel autofocus camera
2-megapixel front-facing camera
1080p full HD recording @ 60fps
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.0
USB 2
GPS
GLONASS
4800mAh battery
Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS

In addition to the Tab PRO 8.4, the bigger Galaxy Note PRO 12.2 tablet had also made its way to the Philippines. It is the first (as far as I know) 12-inch tablet by the Korean manufacturer, almost on the laptop/ultra-portables territory. It boasts of a 12.2-inch Super Clear LCD display of the same resolution, hence at a lower density of 247ppi, 3GB of RAM, dual-band WiFi ac, microUSB 3, and a huge 9500mAh battery.

Just like the Tab PRO 8.4, it runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat, has the same set of 8-megapixel main and  2-megapixel front-facing cameras, and 16GB of storage with microSD slot. It does, however, run on a different chipset, the Exynos 5420 with an octa-core processor.

Samsung Galaxy Note PRO 12.2 Specifications and Features
12.2-inch 2560x1600 (WQXGA) Super Clear LCD display
1.9GHz Quad + 1.3GHz Quad Exynos 5420 processor
3GB RAM
16GB internal storage
8-megapixel autofocus camera
2-megapixel front-facing camera
1080p full HD recording @ 60fps
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.0
USB 3
GPS
GLONASS
9500mAh battery
Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS

Samsung:

The Samsung Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO (12.2) come equipped with a variety of productivity tools to help users to manage both their personal and professional lives.

Multi Window enables users to split the screen up into four different windows and an innovative, Virtual Keyboard provides them with enough space to type comfortably, leveraging haptic feedback to produce a more realistic typing experience.

The Samsung S Pen included with the Galaxy NotePRO delivers a more responsive, productive and overall efficient tablet experience with access to features such as Action Memo, Scrapbook, Screen Write and S Finder. In addition, Pen Window enables users to simply draw a window of any size on the screen, and instantly access unique in-application features such as YouTube or a calculator.

Users can easily access and control their home or office PC directly through their Galaxy NotePRO or TabPRO with Remote PC in order to seamlessly edit and save files remotely.

The Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO also come pre-loaded with Cisco WebEx Meetings platform, the industry’s leading web conferencing solution that provides users with an easy way to meet with anyone, anywhere. And now for the first time on Android tablets, users can share anything on their screen as well as starting a WebEx meeting from contact list.Samsung e-Meeting provides collaboration capabilities by giving users the ability to share content during a meeting without having to access a central server or network.

The Samsung Galaxy Note PRO 12.2 is now available at retail stores for P36,990 while the Galaxy Tab PRO 8.4 will be available in the coming weeks at the price of P18,990.

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Coca-Cola brings Spotify to the Philippines (updated)

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article stated that Spotify Premium costs P129 a month. We got that information from Spotify’s website, but we were told that it is apparently just a placeholder. The pricing for Spotify Premium hasn’t been announced as of yet. We regret the error.

After years of waiting, Spotify is finally expanding into the Philippines today by letting people preview the service thru a partnership with Coca-Cola. That brings the Sweden-based company’s music streaming service to a total of 56 countries globally.

In the country, Spotify will have two plans for its users: a free plan that lets you stream an unlimited amount of music with audio ads inserted every few songs or so, and a premium account that gets rid of the ads in addition to allowing you to download and store music offline.

Spotify’s first foray in Asia began with their launch in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. The company has around 24 million monthly active users, 6 million of those are paying users. They currently have more than 20 million songs in their catalogue and that number are continuing to grow by 20,000 every day. They have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and more.

To get a Spotify invite, click here.

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The first Android phone by Nokia, the Nokia X, goes on sale in the Philippines

Fifteen days. That’s the number of days Nokia took to bring their first ever Android smartphone in the Philippines from the global announcement. You read that right, the Nokia X is now available in the country!

You may be wondering, what’s Nokia X? It is technically the first smartphone by the Finnish company to run on Android — Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean to be exact. It has a heavily customized skin which is a mix of the tiles from their Lumia line of Windows Phone handsets as well as the fast lane taken from their Asha devices. On some places it even looks like the N9.

The Nokia X comes with their suite of HERE mapping applications such as HERE Drive which offers turn-by-turn navigations with voice guidance in English and Tagalog (among others), some Microsoft services like Outlook, OneDrive (previously SkyDrive), and Skype.

As you may have already guessed, the Nokia X doesn’t come with any Google services or applications. So you wouldn’t be able to download apps from the Play Store out-of-the-box. I say out-of-the-box because you can put Google apps on the Nokia X if you want to (may void warranty, do at your own risk).

Specs? It has a 4-inch WVGA (800x480) LCD screen, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage which you can expand by using a microSD card up to 32GB, a 3-megapixel camera, a 1500mAh battery, and your usual connectivity options such as 3G and Wi-Fi. The Nokia X is a dual-SIM phone, so you can use your Globe and Smart SIM cards at the same time.

The Nokia X is already available for a couple of days already and it retails for P5,990. The price is not that bad considering you know you’d get a smartphone from a brand known for providing excellent build quality and support. It is available in green, red, black, and white.

I’ll be coming up with a review of the Nokia X next week.

Disclosure: Nokia gave us a unit of Nokia X.

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