Each year when it gets close to Singapore’s National Day (August 9), I would pick five Singapore gadgets from local brands to highlight in our weekly roundup. I won’t be doing one this year. Because the choices feel less than inspiring.

Most Singapore consumer tech brands source their products directly from China, made to order according to their requirements. Secretlab is probably a rare exception with its own R&D and patents. Meanwhile, the more notable Singapore tech brands, such as Grab and Sea, aren’t in consumer tech, while Razer, despite its Singaporean roots, is not often seen as a homegrown Singapore company.

The last consumer tech firm I would consider truly homegrown is Creative Technology, which became a giant in the PC industry, thanks to the success of its Sound Blaster audio card. Worth billions in its heyday during the 1990s, Creative is now a shell of its former self. It still makes decent audio products — I’m currently testing its latest XF1 desktop speakers — but faces stiff competition in this field. As for its sound cards, I’m not sure if there’s still a market for it, despite the company recently launching a new version.

While there’s plenty of innovation coming out from Singapore, they are likely to come from one of the many R&D centres set up here by multinational companies. Like Dell, which develops its monitors and PC peripherals at its Singapore Design Centre. So if you’re a Singaporean with a new idea for a consumer tech product, regardless whether you have the resources to fund it or perhaps you’re doing it via crowdfunding, chances are you’re still heading to China because that’s where the manufacturing is.

In short, there won’t be another Creative Technology, which started out as a PC shop here, and produced its first sound cards in Singapore. That environment doesn’t exist anymore. The Singapore now is more like a incubator for startups — from all over the world — that are into fintech, AI, and foodtech like lab-grown meat. Happy 61st National Day, Singapore.

This week, we tested Shark’s new vacuum cleaner, Samsung’s shorter and wider foldable, and an OLED monitor from Asus.

The Shark PowerClean 360 is a slim but powerful vacuum cleaner that should be on your shortlist. Simply because it’s super-light at just 1.2kg — and it also has an auto-empty dock — while still offering strong suction power. It’s also very good at cleaning under furniture, thanks to its bendable wand.

Shark PowerClean 360

Samsung has added a shorter, wider foldable that’s designed more for media consumption. With an outer screen that’s sized perfectly for short-form content, and an inner display that’s still large enough for multi-tasking (and with an aspect ratio that minimises black bars in videos), the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 is definitely a more mainstream-friendly foldable.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQDMGR offers colour-accurate images that are great for content creators as well as the resolution and refresh rate desired by gamers. Its proximity sensor also helps to prevent OLED burn-in, and saves energy. Like most OLED monitors, text clarity isn’t as good as an LCD monitor, which could be a deal-breaker if you’re mostly using it for documents and browsing.

Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27

While testing the LG C6 last month, I was torn between the OLED TV’s excellent picture quality and the bloated webOS software that came with it. In fact, I have never heard so much grumbling from my family members over an LG TV before. In the end, I still gave it a “Can Buy” rating — it didn’t feel fair to penalise the TV hardware over the software and user experience — but I also advised potential buyers to use the TV with an Apple TV 4K.

In fact, I also bought an Apple TV 4K for my old LG C1, which had felt increasingly sluggish in recent months. I couldn’t tell if it’s the age of the TV (going on 5 years now) or the updated webOS that’s the culprit. But it was worth it for the clean and responsive user interface, especially since I got it before the recent price hike.

In any case, several YouTube reviewers that I follow for audio-visual products have also raised the issue of ads and the poor user experience on LG TVs recently. Here’s one of them showing users how to disable those dastardly ads. And the ads are even more sneaky than I thought.

But it gets worse.

Last week, Gamer Nexus dropped a bombshell about LG monitors silently installing adware like McAfee pop-ups on Windows PCs via its monitor utility, which installs itself when you update the monitor’s drivers. This didn’t just affect new models, but older ones, including some bought several years ago, were also doing it. Apparently, it has been happening for some time now. Well, the resulting backlash was so serious that Microsoft had to step in to tell LG to disable the offending monitor app.

But the damage has been done. Given how competitive the PC monitor market is, I would think any consumer who has done their homework would easily find out about this. Not to mention that LG displays are often used by other brands like Dell and Asus. Now I can’t think of that many reasons to get an LG monitor over a Dell, for example, if both have a similar panel.

After this adware incident, I’d say that most tech-savvy users who follow the industry will have heard of LG’s bad behaviour. These are the folks who will probably be giving product recommendations for friends and family. Personally, I will be combing through every LG product with a fine needle from now on.

This week, we tested Xiaomi’s latest affordable fitness tracker, a lightweight and nimble gaming mouse from Logitech, and an Asus Wi-Fi 7 router that’s value for money.

The Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro now comes in a nice ceramic version, but the standard aluminium one is pretty good, too. You get a GPS fitness tracker that can last up to 14 days. Even with heavy use, it’s good for about a week. The screen is slightly brighter on the latest model, along with improved heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking.

Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro

The Logitech G304 X Superlight reuses the shape of the older G304 gaming mouse, but shaves 40g from the weight. Its Hero 44K sensor offers up to 8,000Hz polling rate, and the addition of Lightsync RGB lighting. Battery life, though, takes a substantial dip to 130 hours, down from 250 hours.

Logitech G304 X Superlight

Most home users don’t have devices capable of using the bandwidth from a 10Gbps broadband fibre plan. Which means that the Asus TUF Gaming BE9400, which caps out with four 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports, is good enough. More importantly, it’s relatively affordable at S$349 for a Wi-Fi 7 router that has most of the features you’d want, including security software and parental controls that don’t require a subscription.

Asus TUF Gaming BE9400

I had the privilege to get my hands on the latest Samsung Galaxy foldables at an exclusive preview event before last night’s official reveal. To no one’s surprise, Samsung showed off a new, more pocketable foldable. Dubbed the Galaxy Z Fold 8, it sports a shorter 5.5-inch cover screen, which unfolds to a 7.6-inch main screen.

Samsung says this new passport-like form factor lets users move easily from quick interactions on the cover screen to the main display, and is “designed around the way people naturally consume content”. In other words, it’s the Z Fold that Samsung thinks the average user, who’s more into consuming content, and not too fussed about being able to use Excel on their phones, should buy.

Compared with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which is what Samsung has renamed the Galaxy foldable that we have seen over the years, the newcomer is also slightly cheaper (by S$300), though its S$2,498 starting price remains far from affordable. It also only has two rear cameras compared with three for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which retains the same screens (8-inch main and 6.5-inch cover) as its predecessor.

My first impression: Samsung didn’t miss a beat when it comes to the hardware. The new foldables are about as thin as it gets, and still accommodate a USB-C port. The crease is practically invisible when looking at the screen straight-on. They are also easier to unfold than last year’s models. Samsung even managed to increase the battery capacity this time, though competing foldables from Chinese brands still offer larger batteries.

But when it came to the software and user experience, I think Samsung, Google and other foldable manufacturers have hit a wall. There wasn’t anything particularly new that stood out. Sure, all the foldables made use of their form factors to make multi-tasking a breeze, to let users take the best selfies using the better rear cameras and the cover screen to help align and frame subjects. Yes, there are even more agentic AI-powered experiences integrated into these phones.

At the end of the day, despite a new foldable that offers an aspect ratio for modern content consumption — the cover screen looks the right size for short-form content — while the main display feels like existing ebook readers, I can’t say there’s anything really compelling about the new models. Instead, I’m looking forward to see what Apple will bring to the foldable scene.

It’s no secret that Apple is preparing to launch its first-ever foldable in September. In fact, it’s rumoured to have a similar 5.5-inch screen as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 when closed, but Apple’s version supposedly unfolds to a 7.8-inch display. I’m sure Apple will nail the hardware with a thin but durable design, a near-invisible crease and more. But will Apple have new ideas or introduce new user experiences that the other manufacturers have yet to explore?

I sure hope so, because I think the hardware part is mostly solved. You can maybe eke out incremental improvements, but short of breakthroughs in materials science, there isn’t much left to improve. I can’t be the only one who feels that way, that we’re all just waiting for Apple to make that perfect tweak that will be copied by everyone and be in every foldable next year.

This week, we tried a new ultra-portable from Lenovo that impressed with its performance and portability, watched a lot of TV on TCL’s glorious SQD Mini-LED TV, and charged everything we could think of using Belkin’s new handy GaN chargers.

If you’re looking for a capable and lightweight laptop, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Ultra Aura Edition fits the bill. It weighs less than a kilogram, and is so thin that it cannot accommodate a USB-A port. It’s powerful, too, and sports Intel’s latest Core Ultra 3 processors, along with a battery that will easily last you the entire day.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Ultra Aura Edition

Despite all the hype around RGB Mini-LED TVs, TCL was confident enough about its Super Quantum Dot tech to put it in its flagship TV this year. The C8L is the step-down model that offers many of the same flagship features, but at a lower price. It’s still a premium Mini-LED TV, even though it’s cheaper than a mid-range OLED TV.

TCL C8L

The Belkin BoostCharge Pro 3-Port GaN charger comes in two versions: 70W and 100W. Both versions use a flat 2-pin plug by default, but offers an interchangeable UK 3-pin plug tip. They have the same three ports (2x USB-C and one USB-A), though the 70W model is small, and fits in the pocket. Besides the difference in output, the 70W version is also cheaper (S$79), and is probably good enough for most folks.

Belkin BoostCharge Pro

I popped by the inaugural StereoNET Asia Hi-Fi & AV Expo 2026 last weekend, where JBL was showing off its latest high-end speakers, the Summit Everest. It’s the biggest version in the Summit series, and also part of JBL’s legendary high-end Project series speakers, of which there were only four previously: Hartsfield, Paragon, Everest, and K2.

The Summit range are named after mountains. Aside from the huge Summit Everest, there’s Summit K2, Summit Makalu, Summit Pumori, and Summit Ama. Each speakers share a bunch of technology, including patented compression and dynamic drivers, HDI Sonoglass Horns, Hybrid Carbon Cellulose Composite Cone (HC4), and more.

But all these things sound like technobabble to me, since I don’t follow the audio tech as much as audiophiles. That said, I got a chance to listen to the Summit Everest speakers at JBL’s booth at the expo, and the sound was certainly impressive.

From the bassy rumbles of Geoff' Castelucci’s Sound of Silence, to the vocals of Holly Cole’s Take Me Home, the Summit Everest delivered. But I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure if I liked what I was hearing — especially for Take Me Home. The overall audio was a little flat for me, I was expecting a more encompassing sound.

But then again, audio is very subjective — one man’s meat could be another’s earworm (to paraphrase the proverb). That said, the speakers really shone for me when techno-track The Future is Unknown by Adriatique & Delhia de France came on. The deep and powerful bass, clear vocals, and overall volume really showcased the power of the Summit Everest.

So I guess the question is, are these speakers really worth the S$199,000 price tag? I don’t think I have the right ears to make the call. But for high-network individuals for which this pair of speakers are chump change, and want something they can treat their ears for, this is probably it.

This week, we tried two new Nintendo Switch games that revive long-dormant franchises, and heard a bunch of music on the Marshall Stockwell III, which is the first new iteration in seven years.

A new game in the series in a decade, Rhythm Heaven Groove tells quirky stories through its rhythmic gameplay and its deliberately basic and seemingly hand-drawn 2D graphics. There are over 80 minigames in the Solo game mode, while its four-player multiplayer co-op mode has over 30 minigames. Overall, it’s a solid game that’s fun and charming.

Rhythm Heaven Groove

Made for the Nintendo Switch 2, the new Starfox is fun but short. This on-rails flying simulator has just seven missions in its campaign, though there’s plenty of replayability if you’re aiming all the medals. The visuals look great with unique environments. And it also supports the Switch 2’s mouse mode if you want a bit more control.

Starfox (2026)

The Marshall Stockwell III is the first refresh of this portable Bluetooth speaker in seven years. Unsurprisingly, there are lots of changes, notably battery life has doubled to over 40 hours, while water and dust resistance has been upgraded from IPX4 to IP55. The multi-directional 360-degree sound works great. The design, though, is mostly the same, but the new model has a few more buttons, including a customisable button that feels under-used at this point.

Marshall Stockwell III

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Note: This post may seem like a personal rant instead of the latest tech happenings in Singapore. Feel free to skip.

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