During these times, it is important to practice proper hygiene. Building good hygiene is crucial in maintaining well-being. Plus, these practices ward off unwanted viruses and bacteria that can wreak havoc on one’s health.

So, what are the few hygiene tips that you can practice anywhere? Tech companies are sharing a few of these tips that you can apply in your home, when traveling, or when at work. Here are the companies and their advice on how to practice proper hygiene.

OPPO

OPPO just shared some pointers on how to properly disinfect your mobile devices. Your mobile device is one of the most touched objects on the planet, and they can harbor various viruses and bacteria. So, it is crucial that you clean and disinfect your device. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to sanitize your phone once in a while.

Realme

Realme also shared some tips on how to avoid catching the dreaded Coronavirus. Some of the tips they shared can be applied even if there’s no pandemic spreading around. After all, these practices should be common. These include sanitizing the home once in a while, observing proper handwashing methods, and not touching the eyes, nose, and mouth — especially after touching a dirty object.

Practicing good hygiene goes a long way in ensuring good health and wellbeing. Most of the tips shared by these companies can also be applied anywhere at any time of the year. However, these practices are more important than ever, especially as the cases of people with COVID-19 disease keeps rising every day.

SEE ALSO:

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How to disinfect your tech

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 PhoneSoap Go: A portable device that will sanitize your smartphone

As general rules, the CDC or The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed these to help with preventing the spread of COVID-19:

• Stay home when sick
• Cover coughs and sneezes
• Frequently wash hands with soap and water
• Clean frequently touched surfaces

Singapore will be the first country in Asia to launch its latest flagship Huawei P40 Series. The series consists of three phones — the P40, P40 Pro, and P40 Pro+. The P40 Pro+ isn’t coming until June but the other two are ready to hit stores starting April 4, 2020.

The focus of the P40 series, much like the rest of the P-series phones, is photography. As such, all P40 phones are equipped with the 50MP f/1.9 RYYB Ultra Vision Wide lens — the largest sensor on a smartphone camera in the market today.

But the setup for each one is different.

Huawei also has a brand new focusing tech. They say the P40 series phones have eight focus points per pixel. This makes it easier for the phone to quickly focus on the subject even if it’s moving.

The optical zoom that was one of the main highlights of the P30 series is still here with optical zoom differing from each phone. The P40 has up to 3x zoom, the P40 Pro up to 5x, and the P40 Pro+ up to 10x.

Visionary Performance

Powering all phones is the company’s proprietary Kirin 990 5G processor. Other carry over features that have been improved are as follows:

• In-display fingerprint sensor — Now 30 percent larger and is supposed to be faster with new unlock patterns to choose from.
• 40W wireless charging — The wireless charger doesn’t come with the device but this should be one of the fastest wireless charging tech available right now.
• Face unlock — Again supposed to be faster and now with an IR sensor on the pro models

The Huawei P40 series is still running Android 10 with EMUI 10 on top. If you’ve been following the news at all, Huawei is in a bit of a pickle against the US government, as such they are going all in on Huawei Mobile Services or HMS.

If you’re worried about the app situation, the AppGallery is slowly but surely adding apps that most of us use. The company is also working on AppSearch inside AppGallery to bring more apps to Huawei phones.

There are also a new transport and ride-hailing apps on the AppGallery. Huawei partnered with taxi operator ComfortDelGro and ride-hailing companies such as TADA and RYDE to provide users with convenient transport services.

Curved on all sides,

Huawei has also kept its curved displays. Even doubling down on it by adding curves at the top and bottom. We’re still unsure how that helps in day-to-day use, but it’s there and hey, it looks good.

The P40 and P40 Pro are still made with glass but now with a matte finish. However, for the P40 Pro+, the company opted to go with ceramic just to mix things up. Here’s everything else that’s different.

Pricing and availability

The Huawei P40 and P40 Pro will be available in Silver Frost, Deep Sea Blue, and Blush Gold. Customers who will buy either of the two will get exclusive Prestige Care services:

• One year door-to-door repair pick-up and delivery service
• Two-year warranty coverage
• Three months screen insurance, terms and conditions apply

Pre-order period for the P40 series is from March 27 to April 3 and the phones, as mentioned earlier, will hit stores on April 4, 2020.

The Huawei P40 will retail for SG$ 1,048. Pre-order freebies are worth a total of SG$ 296: Huawei Freebuds 3 and a Smart View case. Meanwhile, the Huawei P40 Pro will retail for SG$  1,448 with pre-order freebies worth  a total of SG$ 562: Huawei Watch GT 2 Elite Edition, Huawei SuperCharge 27W wireless charger, Huawei SuperCharge wireless car charger, and a Smart View Flip cover.

Interested buyers can pre-order from the following official channels:

Telco operators:

• M1
• Singtel
• Starhub

Consumer electronic stores:

• Best Denki
• Challenger
• COURTS
• Harvey Norman
• Sprintcass

Huawei official online stores:

• Lazada
• Shopee

Watch our Hands-On video.

OPPO has been dominating the budget and midrange space in Asia for many years now, but in the eyes of the rest of the world, the brand is a newcomer. The Chinese company, however, has a track record of innovation, years of R&D, countless experiments awaiting recognition.

Taking center stage is a smartphone that’s so good and so refined, that it can seriously compete with the best 2020 has to offer. The Find X2 Pro is the culmination of everything OPPO has been working on for as long as we can remember.

Luxurious finish

First things first, we need to talk about design. I mean, how can you not? With its bright orange faux leather finish and gold accents, it reminds me of those classic Hermes boxes.

People who prefer subdued colors might like the black ceramic option better, but I love how bold and different this orange finish is.

Just please don’t put the bundled jelly case on, the Find X2 Pro deserves better. Even the midrange OPPO Reno 2 came bundled with a faux leather case. Not only did it protect the phone, it also made it feel more sturdy and premium.

The OPPO Reno 2 came with a faux leather case

Speaking of the Reno series, I miss its original symmetrical design. When the first Reno phones came out, I praised OPPO for finally having found a design language they can call their own. It was refreshing to see after several years of seeing iPhone clones from the company.

While the Find X2 doesn’t look like an iPhone anymore, the design still feels a bit unoriginal. It reminds me of Huawei’s P series that also came in leather finishes.

It also doesn’t have that same wow factor the original Find X had when it came out. That phone had a beautiful curved edge-to-edge display and hidden cameras that popped up when prompted. Having said that, while that phone was stunning I remember thinking that it also felt fragile and gimmicky — like an unfinished product.

The Find X2 Pro is the complete opposite. So while its looks can easily get lost in a sea of Android phones, it’s built great. and feels solid. And its size? Its size is just right.

It feels great in the hands as it’s not hefty like the previous Reno models. It’s something you will enjoy holding and using on a daily basis.

That said, I’d take something solid and refined over being blinded by a wow factor that easily fades away.

Oh and before I forget, the Find X2 Pro is finally water and dust resistant — rated IP68. You still shouldn’t submerge it in liquid especially with the faux leather finish, but in case it happens you’ll know your phone has that extra layer of protection.

Top of the line display and performance

The smartphone display is the one object we look at and interact with the most. That’s why it was important for OPPO to put its best display ever on the Find X2 series.

Watching Our Planet on Netflix almost feels too real especially with HDR video enhancement. Colors pop and — more importantly — are accurate.

Outdoors the phone can hold its own. Reading pages and articles for extended periods of time is enjoyable even when the sun is out and bright.

Mobile gamers would also enjoy playing their favorites on the Find X2 Pro as it’s powered by Qualcomm’s top of the line processor, the Snapdragon 865. Its display boasts of a 120Hz refresh rate — once a feature only found in gaming smartphones. On top of that is 240Hz sampling rate, which might come in handy when you want the phone to register your taps faster than your opponents.

OPPO is proud of its curved displays similar to what we’ve seen on Samsung phones for many years and more recently on OnePlus devices. While I agree that it’s sexy, I’ve come to prefer flat displays as they are more practical — and everyone on the GadgetMatch team agrees.

Improved user experience

On the Find X2 Pro, OPPO added a new ColorOS feature called Smart Sidebar. By swiping from the edge of the screen, you can access shortcuts so you can launch apps faster.

App icons are also no longer the hodgepodge that they used to be. Overall experience is now more refined, and less iPhone-clone like.

One of the most underrated smartphone features for me is good haptics. OPPO is not highlighting it, and I could understand why, but it’s worth mentioning that the overall experience of using the Find X2 Pro is a lot better because of it.

First class cameras

One department OPPO has spent a lot of time on over the last few years is its camera technology. We were there when OPPO first launched its 5x optical zoom at MWC 2017, and 10x lossless zoom at MWC 2019. And if you ask me, all that hard work has paid off.

This year they partnered with Sony to customize the image sensor on the device. It has 100% focusable pixels — meaning, every pixel on the sensor can be used for autofocus. While not significantly faster than top phones in the market, the speed comes in handy when photographing moving subjects.

The new sensor also improves OPPO’s already impressive low light performance that we’ve seen on the previous Reno models. In scenarios where there’s barely any light source, Ultra Night Mode 3.0 does a great job in exposing subjects, especially when you use its built-in tripod mode.

Here are some shots we took around New York City before the lockdown.

The phone has two other cameras — an ultra wide angle lens and a 6x optical telephoto lens. The ultra wide angle lens produces less distortion as compared to previous OPPO phones that had the same feature, but it’s not as wide as the one found on Samsung’s Galaxy S20+.

Here are some sample photos taken with the ultra wide angle lens of the Find X2 Pro.

The rectangular periscopic camera delivers 10X hybrid zoom. OPPO says the photos it takes is as close to those taken with 6x optical zoom. Here are some sample photos.

Here are some comparison shots versus the Samsung Galaxy S20+. The Find X2 Pro has a shallower depth of field.

The Find X2 Pro does a better job at HDR — exposing more of the shadowy areas. Aside from that, the phones did an excellent job although results vary. Which phone did better would depend on personal preference. You can check out the whole camera shootout here.

For any brand to be taken seriously, it has to have an excellent camera and the Find X2 Pro — just like the Reno phones that came before it — delivers. It even recently topped DxOMark smartphone camera rankings, tying Xiaomi’s Mi 10 Pro.

Selfie game strong

Selfies get a dedicated section in this review. Let’s not forget back in the day, when OPPO was still establishing itself in more markets in Asia, the company dubbed itself the selfie expert.

Its F series were some of the most popular phones because of it. Today, OPPO no longer uses that as a marketing strategy but that doesn’t mean it’s abandoned its selfie game entirely.

On the Find X2 series, the beauty algorithm has been updated to make skin tones more real. When amped up all the way, you can still end up looking like a cringey porcelain doll. With the right settings, it’s able to remove blemishes and add makeup if you want to without completely erasing your pores.

Fastest fast charging technology

Another aspect OPPO has been working on for years is its fast charging technology called VOOC. Its latest iteration is now called SuperVOOC 2.0. It’s the fastest charging technology in the industry to date.

The bundled SuperVOOC 2.0 charger can fully juice up the Find X2 Pro’s 4620 mAh battery in just 38 minutes. The 3-4 sets of circuit training that I do takes longer than that.

If you’re worried that it’s too fast and therefore not safe, the Find X2 Pro actually comes with a customized battery safety monitoring chip. It doesn’t just monitor the battery status during charging, but also tracks whether the battery is damaged over time.

In addition, OPPO’s VOOC technology has always offered five levels of security protection from the power adapter, wire, and in the handset itself. In the years that we’ve been testing OPPO phones, not once have we encountered problems related to charging, so this claim is something we can vouch for.

Is the OPPO Find X2 Pro your GadgetMatch?

Whether the OPPO Find X2 Pro is for you is not an easy question to answer. I’m not gonna mince words — the Find X2 Pro is expensive. In some markets, its starting price is higher than that of the Samsung Galaxy S20+.

Can it command a high price tag? Yes, and no.

The Find X2 Pro delivered in every aspect, especially in those that are most important to us. Just by holding the phone, you can tell that OPPO spent a lot of time refining the product. The Find X2 Pro has one of the best spec sheets found on smartphones this year as well.

With its expensive price tag, what OPPO is saying is that the Find X2 Pro deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as the latest iPhone or Galaxy. But those willing to spend a lot of money for an iPhone or a Galaxy are paying to own an Apple or Samsung phone. That’s a level of brand prestige that OPPO is aiming to one day achieve.

Bluntly put, a better strategy would be to undercut its competitors with slightly lower pricing. This way users have a compelling incentive to try the brand because if you ask me, the Find X2 Pro is a phone that deserves to be in this league.

WATCH: OPPO Find X2 Pro Unboxing and Review