(Update: Price Revealed) Xiaomi Mi Headphones Coming to Malaysia on 8th April

[Update 2] The price of the Mi Headphones have been revealed. It will retail at RM319.

[Update] The Mi Headphones will officially be available on Xiaomi’s Mi Fan Festival in Malaysia on 8th April.

Remember the Xiaomi Mi Headphones that was unveiled back in January? Xiaomi Malaysia has announced that it will be coming to our shores very soon. On top of that, the company is also offering a lucky fan the chance to receive it earlier than everyone else, provided the individual can do a professional review.

The Mi Headphones is a rather unique audio device in the sense that it can be both an over-the-ear and on-ear headphones. This is accomplished with interchangeable ear covers. While this may not seem like a groundbreaking feature, it should make the Mi Headphones more appealing to a wider range of audience who prefer either on-ear or over-the-ear headphones.

Other specifications of the Mi Headphones include a 50mm beryllium diaphragm speakers – which Xiaomi claims are 25% bigger than other headphones, a semi-open acoustic structure, and a low impedance of 32Ω, which makes it suitable for mobile use. Appearance-wise, it does look rather premium, especially when it only retails at 499 Chinese yuan (about RM295) in China.

Unfortunately, the retail price and availability of the Xiaomi Mi Headphones have not been revealed yet. [Update] The Mi Headphones will be available as part of Xiaomi’s Mi Fan Festival next week, though its retail price is yet to be announced. [Update 2] The Mi Headphones will retail at RM319.

In any case, if you think you can convince Xiaomi Malaysia to give you the opportunity to review the headphones, you can do so at its Facebook post here.

(Source: Facebook (Xiaomi Malaysia))

Gigabyte Takes Top Spot For Motherboard Vendors; ASUS Drops To Second Place

Gigabyte is now the leading motherboard vendor after it shipped about 4.8 million units in the first quarter of 2015; previously leader ASUS followed closely with around 4.5 million units shipped. Despite this, the dour outlook for the PC market has affected both manufacturers, and neither is expected to hit their sales targets for the year.

Gigabyte has little to celebrate, even if it has managed to surpass ASUS as the top motherboard manufacturer. Both the top two companies are aiming to hit nine million units shipped by the end of the first half of the year; a goal that analysts now say is unlikely to happen. The 20 million annual shipment target is also similarly looking less likely of happening.

Third and fourth placed manufacturers MSI and ASRock are also feeling the pinch as each is only expecting to ship around 3.2 million motherboards during the first half of 2015. MSI has since shifted its focus to gaming laptops, while ASRock is concentrating on developing products for the IPC server market.

The PC market as a whole is expected to contract for the next few years, and there is little sign of the industry picking up before the turn of the next decade. IDC projects that the Malaysian PC market is projected to decline by 1.3-percent this year, with the downward trend continuing until 2019.

[Source: Tweaktown]

Microsoft Malaysia To Launch New Smartphones on 14 April: Might Include Lumia 640 XL, Lumia 640 and Lumia 430

Even though Microsoft Malaysia has just released several new Microsoft Lumia smartphones into the market for the past few months including Lumia 532 and Lumia 535, it seems there will be more coming soon. The company earlier today has revealed via a media invite that it will be launching yet another new Lumia for our market on 14 April.

Judging from the image used on the invite, we believe that the said device will be Lumia 640 XL. It is really hard to recognized at first since Lumia smartphones looked rather similar to each in general but the location of the speaker and front facing camera on the image that Microsoft Malaysia used seemed to reveal its identify.

Not to forget, the device has also made it through SIRIM’s certification recently which means it is technically ready to be released in Malaysia at any given time. The device was first announced at MWC 2015 last month alongside the Lumia 640 and Microsoft Universal Wireless Keyboard.

At the same time, we believe that Lumia 640 XL might not be the only new smartphones to be launched in Malaysia on 14 April. This is because we spotted two more new Lumia registered under Microsoft Malaysia’s name and its distribution partners (Avaxx, ECS AStar and Zitron) for the past few days: namely the Lumia 640 (RM-1075) and Lumia 430 (RM-1099).

As mentioned previously, the early information we received from sources at MWC 2015 last month has suggested that the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL might be priced at between RM 599 to RM 899. For Lumia 430, the original global launch announcement stated that it will cost USD 70 (around RM 257) – so, we expect that the Malaysian pricing will not be far off.

All in all, let’s see what Microsoft Malaysia has to unveil on 14 April. For the meantime, don’t forget to check out our initial hands-on experience with Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL.

OPPO R1X COMING TO MALAYSIA: EXPERIENCE IT YOURSELF AT OPPO MALAYSIA’S TURN OVER TOUR

Last month, we have discussed briefly about OPPO R1x which is technically the international variant of OPPO R1C that was released in China earlier this year. As it turns out, the smartphone will be released in Malaysia soon and consumers are actually able to experience it first hand at the upcoming OPPO Malaysia’s Turn Over Tour.

According to the info we received from OPPO Malaysia, the device will be made available in the market by end of April although the company has yet to reveal the exact release date and pricing for the device. Nevertheless, this initial info pretty much conforms to the newsthat we reported last month.

Meanwhile, existing OPPO smartphones such as N3, R5, Find 7 and many more will be featured at the tour as well alongside R1x. Utilizing a double decker mobile truck, the tour will also be filled with games, giveaways, celebrity performances, and chances to win OPPO smartphones.

The first stop of Oppo Malaysia Turn Over Tour will be taking place in Berjaya Times Square of Kuala Lumpur on 11 and 12 April before making its way to AEON Bukit Tinggi in Klang on 25 and 26 April. For more details, head on to fb.com/MalaysiaOppo.

[Source: Oppo Malaysia]