Rolls-Royce reveals new Ghost Extended

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars announces new Ghost Extended, offering the indulgence of enhanced rear seating space with no compromise to Ghost’s driving dynamics. Ghost Extended is the product of an exhaustive process of consultation with a new generation of Rolls-Royce clients, with intriguing interest in this model seen across the country.

This global, highly dynamic group of entrepreneurs expressed a desire for a chauffeur-driven business tool for the week that can transform into a serenely comfortable and dynamic self-driven saloon at the weekend. Ghost Extended is the response. First customer deliveries will be made in the first quarter of 2021.

“New Ghost is the result of in-depth dialogue with Rolls-Royce’s diverse and global customer base. Many of them asked the marque to create a motor car that provides the indulgence of enhanced rear space with no compromise to driving dynamics. Ghost Extended answers this customer demand by creating a product with duality of purpose that augments both business and lifestyle requirements,” said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Design

Ghost Extended offers 170mm more space than Ghost, providing more rear legroom than any four-seat sedan. Customer centricity has informed every step of the development process. A key learning was that Ghost Extended customers wanted no compromise to Ghost’s pure, minimalist design. The marque’s designers worked to cloak the extra length by only extending the rear door and body around the rear door apertures, preserving the lines of the car.

Technology

A suite of enhancements to the rear of the cabin reflects Ghost Extended’s flexibility. For the first time, a reclining Serenity Seat can be specified, offering a new dimension of rear-seat comfort akin to a business jet cabin environment.

The rear cabin also provides the perfect environment to transition from business to leisure. To enhance this, a Champagne fridge is provided between the rear seats and has been developed with exacting attention to the needs of the Rolls-Royce client. To achieve this, the marque’s engineers consulted with a Master Sommelier.

They learned that the optimum serving temperatures of non-vintage Champagne is around six degrees centigrade and vintage Champagnes is around 11 degrees centigrade. To that end, the refrigerator operates two cooling modes, chilling to six degrees and 11 degrees.

Technology without obtrusion

Ghost is the most technologically advanced Rolls-Royce ever created. For Ghost Extended’s entrepreneurial customers, access to WiFi, and cutting-edge infotainment systems is essential for use during the business day. However, technological functions have been deployed with care to reflect customer demand for a serene environment, free from unnecessary distractions.

The commitment to delivering a pure, detoxifying space extends to the air within the cabin. To deliver this, Ghost is equipped with a new Micro-Environment Purification System (MEPS). This technology enhances existing air filtration systems through software and hardware.

Highly sensitive Impurity Detection Sensors detect ambient air quality, automatically activating fresh air intakes into Recirculation Mode. If unacceptable levels of airborne contaminants are detected, the air is passed through a nanofleece filter that is capable of removing nearly all ultra-fine particles within the cabin in less than two minutes.

A suite of technologies enhances the driving experience in urban and country settings. This includes laser headlights with more than 600m of illuminated range and key safety enhancements including vision assist with day and night-time wildlife and pedestrian warning; alertness assistant; a four-camera system with panoramic view, all round-visibility, and helicopter view; active cruise control; collision warning; cross-traffic warning; lane departure and lane change warning.

An industry-leading 7×3 high definition head-up display and self-park ensure absolute effortlessness whatever the driving conditions.

All-aluminium spaceframe and new V12 engine

Ghost Extended is built on the Architecture of Luxury, Rolls-Royce’s proprietary all-aluminum spaceframe that underpins every new Rolls-Royce model. The marque’s hallmark Magic Carpet Ride is delivered by a new Planar Suspension System, the result of more than 10 years’ exhaustive testing and refinement by specialist engineers.

Featuring continuously variable, electronically controlled shock absorbers, self-leveling high-volume air strut assemblies, and a world-first upper wishbone damper; this technology has never been previously applied to a production motor car. Ghost Extended also benefits from all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering for the first time.

Power is provided by a 6.75-liter twin-turbocharged V12 engine developed exclusively for Ghost. It produces 571PS and 850Nm of torque. The requirement for silence when traveling is answered through 100kg of acoustic damping materials incorporated into the chassis, bodywork, and tires, it delivers exhilarating performance without disturbing the serenity within.

Simplicity Through Complexity

The pursuit of design simplicity requires highly complex engineering and craft techniques. For example, sophisticated interior and bodywork forms are only achievable through advanced 3D printing technologies. This is the first time this technology has been combined with Rolls-Royce’s traditional craft and engineering capabilities.

For Ghost Extended, beam-melted metal components are welded to the body-in-white, while parts made by multi-jet fusion and selective laser sintering are individually fitted at the Home of Rolls-Royce.

More traditional craft is given contemporary expression through the introduction of two new wood finishes, developed especially for Ghost. Obsidian Ayous is inspired by the rich palette of colors found in igneous rocks, while Dark Amber has veins of fine aluminum particles running through the wood.

Both are available in open-pore finish, allowing the tactility of the material to fully express itself.

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realme 6i Review: A budget gaming phone with quick charging USB-C

During our time with the realme C3, it’s been established that the company is serious in offering a sub-PhP 6K phone that can deliver uninterrupted gaming performances. With its gaming-focused processor and a massive battery, it pretty much got the bases covered except for one small issue — its long charging time due to its micro-USB implementation.

realme

CHECK OUT: realme 6i Unboxing and Hands-on

Now that the realme 6i has been officially launched in the Philippines, it still boasts of its gaming capabilities, multiple-camera setup, and ample battery capacity but now promises a faster charging time. This is our realme 6i review.

Design

Back panels that sport a reflective shine have become quite popular for smartphones and it’s the same case for this phone’s plastic back. While the more affordable C3 comes with a pattern that mimics the sun’s rays, the 6i opts for straight vertical lines that sort of move around depending on how the light hits it.

Additionally, it has a matte finish which is easily a plus for me since it doesn’t attract fingerprints easily.

Housing a 6.5-inch HD+ IPS display, it has a resolution of 1600 x 720 with a waterdrop notch which we’ve seen on previous realme phones. On the right, we have a solo button for both lock and power while the volume buttons sit on the left side of the phone.

Turn it around and we see four cameras slightly protruding off the surface and, just to the right of it, the fingerprint scanner. Its SIM tray can house two SIM cards plus it has an additional microSD slot to add to its storage.

Down below, we pleasantly find a USB Type-C for charging, 3.5mm audio jack towards the left, and speakers on the right. The realme 6i comes in two colors: White Milk and Green Tea — obviously, this one here is the Green Tea variant.

Software

Running on Android 10 with realme’s UI, the interface is simple and similar to Android’s native look so the experience is very straightforward.

Just like with the C3, swiping down on the home screen will take you to your notifications and settings.  Icons are fully customizable with the ability to change from round to square and even adjust their transparency. The original icons can also be customized with your own photos or icons.

Animations and transitions are smooth and navigating through the phone is effortless. Additionally, there’s support for Dark Mode, dynamic wallpapers, native screen recording with internal and external audio, and tap to lock.

Camera

The realme 6i’s quad-camera system consists of a 48-megapixel main sensor, 8-megapixel ultra-wide, 2-megapixel macro, and another 2-megapixel sensor for portrait photography. This is one more camera added to the C3 to be able to capture better scenery using a wide-angle lens.

After a couple of days of shooting what was around our condominium’s compound, I’d say the cameras work together to be able to capture a wide variety of subjects.

For casual snaps, I used its main camera. When I needed to bring out more details on a small subject, its macro shooter comes in handy. For landscapes, nothing beats a wide-angle lens. And finally, if I want a bit of bokeh effect on my shots, the depth-sensing camera is always available.

Images produced by its main camera have good details in them. HDR works well when there are light and dark areas in your shot and its Chroma Boost pulls out extra vibrance for your photos.

For close-ups, its macro sensor is able to produce sharp photos with noticeable details. As for its depth-sensing camera, it was a hit-and-miss especially when it comes to tracing out the hair of the subject you’re shooting. Sometimes the photo comes out decent, but other times you see a bad trace when separating hair from the background.

Meanwhile, its wide-angle mode is probably my favorite among its different shooting modes. Capturing landscapes is simply more interesting when you have a wide-angle lens.

Situated in the display’s notch is a 16-megapixel front camera. Again, it comes with software features to tweak unwanted elements. The app can make your skin smoother, have your face shape slimmer — the whole AI beautification thing, basically. Some might be keen on using it but like other beautification effects, it doesn’t look too natural when you go overboard with the filters.

Performance

Internally, the realme 6i houses a MediaTek Helio G80 octa-core CPU paired with up to 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage. With this combination, daily usage for the 6i has been a smooth sailing affair. Browsing through social media pages and reading articles also benefit from its tall display since more lines can fit the screen.

After taking photos using its quad-camera setup, importing and editing them in apps like Adobe Lightroom or Google Snapseed were easily handled by the phone.

Gaming

We also ran popular titles on the 6i to test its gaming capabilities. Kicking things off with Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, our gameplay was uninterrupted and graphics were rendered from the get-go until after a couple of online matches. The fast-paced racing game Asphalt 9: Legends ran smoothly with minimal to no hiccups. There were some slight lags once in a while but not noticeable enough to affect the outcome of the match. PUBG Mobile, on the other hand, was also handled like a boss.

We also ran other games like Pokémon Go and TapTap Music to test its accuracy for location via GPS and touch response, respectively. After a few hours of playing, we’re confident to say the phone is able to accurately pinpoint our location and touch response was on point.

When we were using the realme C3 for its review, we found that it can handle resource-heavy games with no interruptions as long as you have no other heavy apps running in the background. Whenever this happened, the phone would be lagging and touch inputs are delayed. This is not the case for the realme 6i at all. Even with multiple games running, jumping from one game to another provided a smooth experience thanks to its G80 CPU.

One thing we noticed, though, was that the phone gets warm with prolonged gaming. This is nothing new for a smartphone and temperature doesn’t really go too high. Although you’ll definitely feel it get warm.

Battery

As for the battery department, it’s got a large 5000mAh capacity that also supports reverse charging. We played games on it non-stop and it was able to stay on from around 7AM until past 5PM where it hit more than 10 hours of continuous gaming between Asphalt 9, Mobile Legends, and Pokémon Go.

As mentioned earlier, it now rocks a USB-C port with support for 18-watt charging to lessen the time it takes to fully charge the device. From 0-100%, it took one hour and 52 minutes as compared to the realme C3’s 3-hour charging time via micro-USB.

Creature Feature

In our reviews, The Modern Creatures aims to find that one special feature of a device that makes it worth having — something that gives the product a slight edge from among its peers. For the realme 6i, it would be the implementation of USB-C.

It’s not new that smartphone brands today are offering powerful performances for an affordable price. Of course, they have to cut corners to be able to lower the price and most of the time, charging time suffers since many in this price range only offer micro-USB connectivity to power and charge their device.

With the realme 6i’s USB-C, charging time has been sped up significantly. While there may always be the convenience of power banks, a faster charging time simply translates to the ability to focus more on other tasks at hand.

Conclusion

Overall, the realme 6i is a very strong contender in the sub-PhP 10K smartphone category. It’s got a straightforward UI, a capable array of cameras, powerful gaming performance, and a battery life that lasts long and charges faster than its peers. Probably the least element that we like about it is its design which is a bit simple for us. But then again, the designer of this phone has that simplistic trademark that he maintains.

The two variants for the 6i starts at PhP 7,990 with 3GB RAM plus 64GB of internal storage. The other model, which has 4GB RAM and 128GB of storage, is priced at PhP 9,990. Plus, to celebrate its launch, realme is having an introductory flash sale on May 15 and May 20 for both variants as well as the realme fitness Band. The 3GB/64GB variant will have a special discounted price of PhP 7,940 while the 4GB/128GB variant will be at PhP 9,490. Both phones will be available through realme’s official shop on Lazada.

At the end of the day, the realme 6i s a well-balanced phone with very little trade-offs. And with its really competitive price points, I’d say that realme has come up with a gaming phone that’s hard to resist.

You may also check out our video version of this review:

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