CONTEST: How do you spend your weekends? #ASUS

For me, Saturday is my dating day with James. We will usually watch a movie, do some shopping or even staycations.

Two weeks ago, we had a staycation and for each staycation, I will bring a luggage and a bag over. Reason being that is because I have to bring my laptop with me if I don’t go home at night. I will need to access my blog or clear a lot of emails every night. I prefer to clear everything at one go using the computer than the phone.

I feel super thankful because ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360CA is super slim and light, so I can carry it around with me wherever I go. Time to kiss goodbye to my old and heavy 1.9kg laptop. My new found love is only 1.3kg in weight! Actually my old laptop isn’t that old but honestly, if I have to compare it to my new love, it felt that I had been using a dinosaur age laptop!





For the luggage wise, it is to pack all the clothes sponsorship in! Lots of OOTDs to take when I am at the hotel! Haha.

The first thing I will do when I check in, is to take endless of selfie. Since the check in timing is usually between 12pm – 2pm, it means that the sun is still bright and sunny. Natural lighting gives the best selfie!





After all these are done, James and I will head down to the pool. I am not a sun lover. Most of the time, I will go down to the pool to cool myself. But when the sun is blazing hot (like this time round), I will just bring the laptop to the poolside and work.

Before I show you more, let me take a selfie for the laptop. Haha.





By the way, the start up of the laptop is also SUPER DUPER fast. The laptop will start up within 5-7 seconds once you press the power button.

Once all the work are cleared, I will indulge in my drama again! Yes yes, at the pool side. The good thing about ASUS ZenBook Flip is that I can use it as a tablet to watch my dramas!

On the same evening, James and I both brought our laptop down to the bar and work. He was sipping away red wine while I drink my fruit juice. Thumbs up for the battery life as well. A full charge can last me the entire day/night! Hence, there isn’t a need to bring a huge bag out whenever I need to bring my laptop out anymore! I can totally keep the adaptor at home. Just so you know, the adaptor is as light as my phone!





Talk about work…. sometimes I get so distracted that I ended up watching shows than work. There are also times where I like to multitask so I will open up a lot of different programs to run and YouTube at the same time. For this, I would like to thank ASUS for the huge RAM space again! I hate it when my gadgets lag but I am quite sure my new ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360CA lived up to my expectations!!

Notice how I turned the laptop into a tablet this time round? It can even operate on tablet mode! This makes reading articles or blogs even more convenient. I am pretty certain my old laptop will spoil if I bend it this way. LOL.

Since it can be used as a tablet, the screen is touch-enabled! Editing photos on the laptop just got SO much easier!





As for my Sunday… I will usually spend it at home or occasionally, at a cafe. I will indulge in dramas after lunch on the laptop or even take a lot of product flatlays which will then be transferred to the laptop later to edit.

Tadahhhh! The end result of my flatlay last week! I have so so soooooo many flatlays to take and this is one of them.





Now, let me try some #flatlays with my new laptop in different angles. Do you believe me when I say it can do yoga? Haha.











I do find my weekends repetitive because life is also revolving around my work.





For this case, blog. How about you?

For full specifications of ASUS Zenbook Flip UX360CA, please visit https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ASUS-ZenBook-Flip-UX360CA/specifications/

On-going contest right now where you can win a ZenBook Flip yourself! Find out more here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ-kTa8AEQa/?taken-by=maybelinesim

CONTEST: ASUS #flipmyday ZenBook Flip

I am an early sleeper. I try to get back onto my bed by 10.30pm every night even if I am not sleepy yet because all I really want at the end of the day is a good rest.

What #flipmyday is being able to end my day on my bed watching dramas/ movies or reading a good novel/comics in bed. Even when I am really really tired after a long day, these are still what I have to do before I turn in. It is not a routine. It is what that keeps me happy and satisfied!

And during my weekends, as you can see from my Instagram, I am either out for exercise or staycations with the boyfriend.

You may think that staycation means enjoying life but I always bring all the sponsored/adverts products along with me for OOTD or product shot. The reason why I bring them along is because the room and environment are way nicer than my house :X Who doesn’t want a nice photo in Instagram right? Hehe.

Seems like my phone and blog plays a huge role in my daily life. However, apart from phone, the second most important necessities in my life would be the laptop. This is because I rely on it heavily for my blogging! Even when I travel out of Singapore, which occurs at least 3-4, times a year.

Truth be told, being a blogger has its perks as well as its challenges. Blogging for adverts & posts on the go while meeting these deadlines serves the ultimate challenge! The extensiveness of my blogging also means that I have to carry its around constantly. I had a couple of heavy laptops that brings back piercing memories of backaches!

Hence, I was extremely excited when ASUS broke the news to me that they have a laptop that can solve my issue with the regards to constant backaches and travels! That brings me to this ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360.

This sleek & exquisite-looking laptop is a ‘convertible’. Why so? It is because it allows you to flip a full 360-degree thus converting it from a laptop to touch screen pad!





If there is a laptop that is a yoga champion, this one got to be it! Just see how far back I can stretch the back of the screen to the bottom of the laptop!





Other than being extremely flexible, the 13.3 inch laptop is supported by FULL HD LED backlit display, topped with a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. If you are willing to go for the higher tier ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360, the resolution goes beyond to even support up to 3100 x 1800 pixels resolution! Watching dramas, movies & youtube videos are such an enjoyment with this laptop!

Touch screen laptops are highly convenient for people who are always on the go. Seconds are shed off unknowingly when you move your mouse cursor! I admit I can get rather impatient sometimes! I will choose a touch screen anytime to save that few seconds!

Not to mention that it makes me feel a notch more hi-tech among my peers when everything is moving towards touch screen nowadays!





One of the biggest selling point of this laptop apart from it weighing a mere 1.3kg, is the slimness!! It is only 13.9mm thin!!! That simply screams portability wherever I go & I do not risk growing bulging bicep muscles after carrying this laptop for a year!

And when my phone runs out of battery when I am on the go, I can use this laptop to #flipmyday YAYYY. More scrolling of Instagram, watching videos on the move!!

There are two USB ports, enough for attaching a mouse while charge my ASUS phone at the same time. If you are asking why not more USB ports with so much side space? It is simply because ASUS knows how to make smarter use of the remaining space! There are other ports such as a micro-HDMI, DCIN port and a built-in SD card reader! I would say most of the critical ports are present on this laptop.

Here’s me last weekend. I brought it out to events so that I can blog in-between events. Yes, I admit I live a hectic life so there are so many things, which I have to “settle” on the go.





Now for the heart of the laptop! The core M processer with 4GB of DDR3 system memory is more than sufficient for me to do those ME-time stuff like watching drama or blogging on the go.

Not to mention even gaming! J has taken the liberty to download a couple of games that takes up huge RAM space & I am impressed it did not lag the laptop a bit!





Not only did it #flipmyday, it saved my night too! I can work more during the day and rest earlier at night! Opps, I mean I can jump into bed earlier at night to enjoy my “rest”! Hehe.

If you are wondering what I meant by it #flipmyday, it means that it actually make my day!

Let me flip and show you some cool #LaptopYOGA moves!!





I did say it can even fold it all the way such that it becomes a tablet, didn’t I?

*Proof*





Like I said, I am always blogging on the GO. I have blogged some of the KEY highlights of this Laptop & now I going to have to GO!

This laptop is already available in Singapore in Icicle Gold and priced from $1,298.

For full specifications of ASUS Zenbook Flip UX360CA, please visit https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ASUS-ZenBook-Flip-UX360CA/specifications/

There is also an on-going contest right now where you can win a ZenBook Flip yourself! Find out more here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ-kTa8AEQa/?taken-by=maybelinesim

Review of ASUS ZenFone Max VS iPhone 6

So here’s the long awaited review for ASUS ZenFone Max!





To spice things up a little bit, we have decided to pit it against the ubiquitous Apple’s IPhone 6 since the latter is still gathering a substantial fan base!

For a start, I must say that I am intrigued by the whole Unique Selling Point behind the ASUS ZenFone Max as it has hit the sweet spot on every smartphone users’ main concern!

Yes! It is the Battery size!

Battery

Agreed that most of your smartphones shuts down before you do? Unless you are do not use social media platform nor send SMS/phone call regularly, if not I am sure the answer is a resounding YES! In fact, this is very much issue faced by Maybeline because of her heavy usage. She scrolls through her social media feeds ALOT. Literally every minute – unless she is at work!

So far, M has been using the phone for TWO weeks & I noticed a significant reduction on her reliance of  her portable charger as compared to when she is using her IPhone! The reason is because of ZenFone MAX’s 5000mAh battery that grants a generous standby time of 38.1 days (914 hours) vs IPhone 6’s 1810mAh battery that gives only a mere standby time of 10.4 days (250 hours) !





Now let’s compare the exterior!

Exterior & Attractiveness Level

Who do you think stands out the most judging from appearance?

I would think it is subjective. Nonetheless, I felt that ASUS designers have proven themselves to be really good in creating attractive- & luxurious- looking smartphones eg ZenFone Zoom. Similarly, I was very much attracted to the combination of metallic Champagne Gold(surrounding the sides of the ZenFone Max) against a glossy black screen. A tinge of exquisiteness is further added on with its Matt Faux Leather back cover, thus making the whole phone easily more outstanding that the IPhone 6 in my opinion!

Maybeline however, prefers the simple and clean look of iPhone 6.





Portability & Weight

Portability wise, it would be fairer to compare the iPhone 6 Plus against the ZenFone Max. However, both of us do not carry the iPhone 6 Plus for the sake of portability. Especially so for guys like me who carries my phone in my pocket most of the time. Hence, the limitation to my review not being able to compare with the IPhone 6 Plus.

Nonetheless, the Max weighs a reasonable 202g vs IPhone 6 at 129g.

Screen Size & Resolution

To make up for its additional weight, the Max has a whooping 5.5-inch, HD (1280 x 720) screen giving a comparable resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels (vs iPhone’s 750 x 1334 pixels).

Camera

Let’s see how it fare in another important aspect of a Smartphone: its Camera! I find this aspect to be as important as its battery because I find it a hassle to bring an additional camera out to take pictures. Even for ladies who carries a handbag, I believe they would rather use their smartphone’s camera than to bring one more item in their limited bag space!

For this aspect, the ASUS ZenFone Max wins hands down with their 13 Megapixel Back camera & 5 Megapixel front camera (vs iPhone 6’s 8 megapixels back camera & 1.2 Megapixel Front camera). With this, I could not only take a sharper selfie picture of myself but also a perfect portrait of Maybeline using the back camera! Also, lesser time spend on editing our pictures using Filter ><





Capacity & Price

The Internal Storage of ZenFone Max is only a mere 16GB but it makes up with a Micro SD Card slot which gives you the flexibility to expand its memory up to 64GB. In short, the Max can go up to 80GB of memory! Whereas for IPhone 6, everyone would know it comes with a rigid 16GB, 64GB or 128 GB memory space.

Let’s do an apple to apple comparison literally on the Pricing. If you were to max out the expandable memory of the ZenFone Max, the cost of the phone would be SDG $249. The closest to this comparison from the IPhone 6 would be the 64GB itself. However, I just checked the price of a used 64GB IPhone selling on Carousell & found it to easily command a premium of $600 & above (which is 3x more expensive than a NEW Max). A USED IPhone 6 is definitely so much more expensive, not to mention a totally new one!





Sim Card Slots

ZenFone Max (Dual Sim Card)

For those who travel overseas often example, my mum who travel back to Malaysia or would like to separate work & personal. She can always put in two Sim Card.

iPhone 6 (Single Sim Card)

iPhone for this case, only have a single sim card slot.





RAM

 We know that when it comes to computers, the bigger the ram, the faster the speed. ZenFone Max has 2048 MB RAM while iPhone 6 has 1024 MB RAM. That is double of the iPhone!! We swear we could feel the difference in speed while using both phones.

Stay tune for something really exciting coming up!!

For more information, please visit: https://www.asus.com/sg/Phone/ZenFone-Max-ZC550KL/ or follow them on their Facebook https://www.facebook.com/asus.sg/ for more updates!

Review: Unboxing ASUS ZenFone Max

James and I have got new power banks!! YAYYYYY.

You must be wondering, why are we so happy over power banks? And if it’s power bank, why are photos of ASUS phone uploaded?

Yes yes, we are not that silly. We know what we are doing. The new ASUS ZenFone Max works as a powerbank as well!! Yayyy. I don’t have to carry two heavy items in my bag anymore! As heavy as it sounds, ASUS ZenFone Max is a lot lighter than expected. I will do a more detailed review on it in my next entry. But the take away message for this post, other than unboxing the unit, is MAX can even charge other phones!!





For an unbeatable price of $249, I wasn’t expecting to find a cool set of earphones in it. Surprisingly, it did come with one, along with two pairs of earbuds, a cable, and a charger.





What I love about this MAX, other than being able to charge other phones and it’s unbeatable price, is the 5.5″ screen! Both of us had Osmium black unit!





It may be dull with just black but what if the sides are Rose Gold in colour? Doesn’t black and rose gold sounds like a good combination?

If you want my take on the phone, it looks sleek and classy. If I don’t know it’s actual retail price in Singapore, I would have thought that one would easily cost at least $500!!





If you are not amazed by how slim and beautiful Max is, then look at the back of the phone.

Although the back is not made of real leather, but gosh, the faux leather made the entire phone even more expensive!! For a price so affordable, let’s not whine about it being not leather. However, if you prefer it to be real, maybe you can look at ZenFone Zoom, which James had previously reviewed here: http://maybelinesim.sg/2016/03/04/unboxing-the-worlds-thinnest-optical-zoom-smartphone-asus-zenfone-zoom/





With a battery life so strong, I can bring this phone out for vacations when I want to pack light and not worry about it dying.

Please come back for a more detailed review of the phone soon 🙂

For more information, please visit: https://www.asus.com/sg/Phone/ZenFone-Max-ZC550KL/ or follow them on their Facebook https://www.facebook.com/asus.sg/ for more updates!

ASUS ZenFone Zoom’s Camera Review

This is my FINAL and the MOST important post for the ASUS ZenFone Zoom! This is because I will not only share but also do a comparison on its unique selling feature: the 13MP rear-facing camera with 10-element Hoya 3x zoom lenses and Optical Image stabilization to deliver that good DSLR-like images!

From a technical perspective, I must say it is pretty fascinating viewing how this “built-in” lenses work its magic on my lifestyle photos!

Why “built-in”? This is because you will never see the lenses leave its protective housing when you are doing a zoom in! If you take a deep stare into the lenses, you could actually see the lenses moving into place to give you up to 3x optical zoom!





Doesn’t the phone look great without any protruding lenses when you are zooming in!





The exquisite-looking back casing seats well with any branded daily necessities !





Before I proceed to share the images taken with the ZenFone Zoom, let me set a disclaimer: All photos shared below are raw which means they are neither edited nor filtered!

With that said, let me jump in to share how amazed I am with the quality of the images taken! In fact, AMAZED is an understatement!!

Despite the low light condition (taken during evening time approximately 5pm), notice how punchy the colours of the image is!

I attempted to take the same picture with my IPhone 6. In the end, the picture appeared too grainy and dark.





Now, let’s take a look at the quality of the images taken after zooming in!

Standing at almost the same distance away with 1x zoom-in!

I was expecting the picture to have a lower resolution, however, the resolution is not very much affected. In fact, the details are very much retained!





Even at 3X optical zoom by zooming in all the way (below), the object in focus maintain most of its level of sharpness and details (just see the details on my coat fabric)!





One minor yet noteworthy feature which makes photo-taking with the ZenFone Zoom a pleasant one is its quick focusing speed. Living in a fast pace society like Singapore, we like everything to be fast and efficient! Good thing that there is hardly any delay in the zooming in and out!





Moving on to the ZenFone Zoom’s Camera App, it is extremely well-designed with 18 shooting modes namely HDR, Beautification, Super Resolution, Depth of Field, Effect, Panaroma, Slow Motion and more. For those who enjoys exploring pictures in different perspective, the ZenFone Zoom is definitely a fine consideration for you as there isn’t any smartphone that offers this many shooting modes currently in the market!

Personally, one of the most useful mode is the ‘Smart Remove’ which remove any moving objects during the shoot! Imagine how this comes in handy when people try to photo-bomb you ! They almost 100% going to fail as the camera will detect them moving and delete their existence from the picture!

For the professional photographer, there is a quick toggle switch for ‘Manual‘ mode placed just next to the shutter button. This allow you to set your own setting instead of relying on the camera’s auto-intelligence.

In addition, there is another quick toggle switch for ‘Low Light(3M)‘ condition. Because of this, it took me less than 3 seconds to find the best setting to snap during the low light evening period! Should the natural light gets any dimmer, the powerful dual-LED flash would come in handy. However, the drawback is that this flash is useful only for short distances!

Comparison of a Digital Camera VS ASUS ZenFone ZOOM

Digital Camera:





ASUS ZenFone ZOOM





Asus has done a commendable job with the design and build of this phone, thus making it the ideal phone for any of your social function.

For the image quality, you would not expect it to be similar to that of a DSLR but it does deliver a decent level of detail, colour and resolution thus making it the best in the class for smartphone camera!




For more information, please visit: ASUS Website or follow them on their Facebook!

Clash of the Smartphone Titans : ASUS ZenFone Zoom VS iPhone 6 Plus

This post is written to satiate the interest of those who ponders upon the controversial topic of how the latest ASUS ZenFone Zoom fare against the Iphone 6 series. To be more fair, I have chose to compare the Zoom against the Iphone 6 Plus in consideration of their relatively similar size and dimension.

I will be sharing my perspective as a lifestyle blogger and how these two phones impact my daily life!

I am going to kick off this article with an important disclaimer (as usual) – Both ASUS or Apple did NOT pay me to praise nor slam any brands thus removing any forms of conflict of interest.

Firstly, let’s plunge straight into the topic which interest all the fellow Singaporean : Affordability. ASUS phones are best known for their affordability while not compromising on its built quality. On the other hand, Apple has consistently been commanding a premium for every single series of their IPhones.

This is proven simply by doing a quick comparison at Starhub on the Pricing of these two phones. You will be astounded to find out that the ASUS ZenFone Zoom easily cost a few hundreds lesser than an iPhone 6 Plus.

For the aspect on Design, iPhone’s back inarguably does look sleek and classy with its matt gold ‘sexyback’, but ASUS ZenFone Zoom does give IPhone a run for its money with its premium-looking genuine leather casing. However, I would give an additional point to ASUS for going the extra mile to make the back look like an exquisite digital camera! As a lifestyle blogger, it does generate a greater appeal and an instant head-turner when I am using it to snap pictures of my friends! So much so, they end up more curious about the phone than their own image after snapping!

Furthermore, I find the ZenFone Zoom’s leather casing more functional! Why do I say that? More than often, I hear the common complaint that the IPhone 6 is too ‘slippery’. In fact, I have lost count of the number of times my own IPhone 6 slip through my hands. The leather back gives a better grip hence saving you the worry of burning your pocket over replacing the expensive phone screen.

Now going into the Specification of the back camera! The Zoom’s back camera could perform even better than it looks. It’s like having a pocket-sized DSLR that grants you the picture perfect moment any time, any where!

Bet you never knew, but ASUS ZenFone Zoom is the world’s thinnest 3X optical zoom smartphone with 13MP PixelMaster Camera, 10-element lens, laser auto-focus and 5mm edge while iPhone 6 plus is only 8 MegaPixel. If you are impressed with the images delivered by your current iPhone6 Plus, wait till you see the ZOOM. I do have some lifestyle images to prove my point BUT let me save this for the next upcoming entry!





Let us now compare the Screen size. I would think both are comparable.

ASUS ZenFone Zoom: 5.5 inch with 1920 x 1080 Full HD Resolution

iPhone 6 plus: 5.5 inch with 1920 x 1080 16M colors

With display of the same size, which one will you go for, given that one can save your pocket from catching fire?





Following on is the Memory Space, Zoom comes with an internal memory of 64GB, Micro SD card slot up to 128GB supported and mDDR3 4GB RAM.

It is also widely known that iPhones are available in different storage size of 16/64/128 GB, no Micro SD card slot and 1 GB RAM DDR3. Thus, your phone memory capacity is fixed the moment you made a decision at the mobile store.

In terms of the flexibility of customizing your memory space, ASUS ZenFone Zoom won again. This feature is important for active mobile photographers like me who always run into memory space issues in a short span of a year or so. With the Zoom, I am assured that I could easily replace my current Micro SD card with a new one should the phone’s memory space run out!

For Dimensions, I prefer the iPhone’s thin and sleek body more. Reason being which I always keep my phone in my pocket, so the thinner and portable it is, the better for me.





I know Maybeline has mentioned this before, but one other drawback of the iPhone 6 when it comes to Charging the phone is that you will have to bring 2 cables out. 1 to charge the powerbank (at work) and 1 to charge iPhone whereas all the other brands such as ASUS uses the same cable head. 2 cables means 2 times hassle and 2 times probability of misplacing your cables!

In addition, you will also be surprised to know that the Zoom charges very fast because of its BoostMaster fast-charging! I could fully charge my phone from 0% in a matter of an hour! Hence, if I have to do a quick last minute charge, the Zoom can still do a decent level of battery life to last you for the time you are outside!





To end off this post, I shall do a sneak preview of a lifestyle photo taken with the Zenphone Zoom! See how clear the picture is to every single tiny details and pixels!





The ASUS Zenfone Zoom is just like a DSLR hidden within the cloak of a premium-looking smartphone!

In conclusion, even though the IPhone 6 Plus might triumph in the aspect of portability, the ASUS ZenFone Zoom does prove itself to be more attractive, functional and affordable!

Thus, I would pick the ZenFone Zoom as a more ideal choice between the two!

Somebody stole my ASUS ZenFone 2 6 inch Full HD!!

The phone was only with me for a month before it was gone…….





I can’t help but agree the HUGE ASS screen and DUAL SPEAKERS are really attractive. The screen itself is almost the size of my face and I need it for drama catch up every night because I am currently chasing after a new series of drama.





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No wonder my this culprit took it away from me.


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This person is none other than my dad. My dad is actually way older than he look. He goes for phones with bigger screen and LOUD ringtone so this phone suits both of the criterial. Best of all is… It was way cheaper than he thought!! He could have just get another one but he chose to take my happiness away from me 🙁

He uses them to surf YouTube and my dad is a YouTube-addict. He watches everything from pranks to music videos to drama on YouTube.





My dad drop his phone a few times a day, I feel more at ease knowing that ASUS ZenFone 2 6 inch is incorporated with Corning Gorilla Glass 4. Phew~

Now, if you need my review, click here.

For more information, please visit https://www.asus.com/Phone/ZenFone-2-Laser-ZE601KL/ or https://www.facebook.com/asus.sg/