How Much Can You Earn By Driving Minimally on GrabCar?

Ever since ride sharing apps made their debuts in recent years, one of the important questions that have been playing on Malaysians’ minds is: just how much can you earn by doing this as a part-time job?

With the cost of living rising faster than our salaries can keep up, many Malaysians are seriously considering taking up a second job; even the Malaysian government encourages us to do so. By far, the most appealing and flexible second job available would be to drive for a ride-sharing app such as Grab (formerly known as MyTeksi).

The benefits of driving with ride-sharing apps like GrabCar are immediately obvious. You can drive whenever you want based on your main work schedule, provided you fulfill the minimum amount of rides that would give you a bonus incentive on top of the amount of rides you gave.

Driver incentives have previously been a trade secret, only known among drivers who may not be allowed to divulge such details, but Grab has finally revealed quite a bit of information with its latest recruitment drive.

For example, with GrabCar the bonus incentive is given based on four tiers. The higher the number of rides you make per day, the higher the bonus incentive tier you are entitled to, unlocking higher bonuses per ride.

This bonus incentive comes in the form of an increased minimum fare for all rides, but is only applicable for rides completed within set periods of time during the course of the day. Grab calls these times Bonus Hours, because any jobs you complete during this time entitles you to the bonus incentive (minimum fare guarantee). Bonus Hours usually include rush hours during the morning and evening, as well as Friday and Saturday nights.

For example, the Tier 4 bonus incentive (the lowest tier) increases the minimum fare you receive to RM16 (instead of RM7) if you surpass RM20 in total ride fares for the day during Bonus Hours. This means that all rides you make during Bonus Hours will earn you a minimum of RM16 per ride, allowing you to earn more than double the amount than when driving outside Bonus Hours.

The table above better illustrates the driver incentive tiers. Note that some days have a different fare target than others. Once you hit the fare target, you unlock the bonus incentive. Of course, the higher the fare target you hit for that day, the higher the bonus incentive tier you are entitled to.

Grab also claims that by driving just two hours a day (or 14 hours a week), you can earn a minimum of RM1,792 in guaranteed gross income per month. Of course, there is a small Grab commission that’s applicable to the base fares made (not the bonus incentive), and the gross income does not include the amount you spend on petrol (though that just means you potentially can earn more if you drive a hybrid car!)

In addition, there are also ways you can maximise your earning potential while driving as little as necessary. For example, if you accept a job in your morning commute to or from work, it saves you from taking time out of your daily routine to accept jobs.

On top of that, driving at strategic times where there will be a high number of jobs available is also highly encouraged. These times usually fall within Bonus Hours, making it a win-win situation for drivers: there are more available jobs, and you earn more for each job you take.

Finally, there are also limited time incentives that give you a one-time bonus. There are referral bonuses that can earn you up to RM175 per successful referral for Grab, plus a chance of winning a brand new Nissan Almera if they sign up within March 2016.

Occasionally you may be presented with the opportunity to drive cool cars such as theseStar Wars themed GrabCars!

Interested to sign up for Grab? You can always register online via this link, where you will be required to upload the necessary documentation (NRIC, valid driving license, cover note for insurance and profile photo) and, upon successful registration, attend a quick driver briefing.

Alternatively, you can also attend the Grab Express Sign-Up Day happening this Sunday, 13 March 2016, at Bukit Damansara Community Centre from 10am to 6pm. Those who sign up on this day will receive a RM50 signing bonus, while staff on-ground will also be there to assist you with any queries.

If any additional information is needed, they can be found at www.grab.co.

Disclosure: This article was sponsored by Grab.

Gigabyte P35X v5 Review: Great Things Come In Small Packages

When it comes to choosing the right gaming laptop, gamers and PC enthusiasts often face a common dilemma: whether or not to sacrifice mobility for high-end performance. Most of the time – for users who travel a lot – a notebook’s weight becomes the most important factor. Bulky and heavy laptops are usually not an option.

Cue Gigabyte and its brand new gaming laptop called the P35X v5. This slim, 15.6-inch gaming laptop comes with several neat features that may be beneficial for gamers who are often on the go. Be warned, however: this laptop isn’t friendly to the wallet at all. It’s priced from RM8,999 up to over RM10,000 for the premium edition, which I will be reviewing. Let’s take a closer look at Gigabyte’s latest offering.

Specifications

Disclaimer: Our review unit is the “premium edition” model, which comes with a 4K display. The version available for the Malaysian market is the Full HD model, with a choice of either a GTX 970M or GTX 980M GPUs.

Design

Gigabyte is unanimously known throughout the PC industry for being one of the best computer hardware manufacturers in the world. There is a growing number of users who would associate the same brand as a premium laptop maker

Design-wise, the P35X v5 follows previous Gigabyte laptop models, employing a minimalist look that may be mistaken for a “normal” laptop, except for the occasional flashes of orange around the chassis. The P35X v5 features a unibody frame that is (according to Gigabyte) made out of a single piece of metal. Of course, there are plastic bits and pieces embedded around the gaming laptop as well.

Out of the box, the P35X v5 feels solid and surprisingly light. In fact, it’s the lightest 15-inch gaming laptop I’ve ever encountered. When compared against a similar-sized laptop like the Illegear Z5, the weight difference is very noticeable.

The minimalistic feel continues within the laptop. The keyboard keys are printed in white, and has a white backlight with only two levels of brightness. It’s almost like a generic laptop keyboard, except with highlighted WASD keys. It’s also the kind of design that one would find in a laptop priced significantly lower than the P35X v5.

Despite being a 15.6-inch gaming laptop, the P35X v5 comes with plenty of I/O ports, which is rare to see in a laptop of such design and size. Located on the left of the gaming laptop are the microphone and headphone jacks, two USB 3.0 ports as well as an Ethernet port. Meanwhile, you’ll find a USB Type-C, VGA, HDMI, USB 3.0 and AC charging port on the right side.

Personally, I found the whole design rather underwhelming for a high-end gaming laptop, though it must be said that there are a handful of gamers and PC enthusiasts who prefer this kind of toned-down, less exuberant design.

Performance

Fortunately, graphics performance is where the P35X v5 shines. This comes as no surprise really, considering the fact that the gaming laptop comes with a powerful dedicated graphics card. The NVIDIA GTX 980M inside the gaming laptop was put to test using 3DMark’s Fire Strike series of tests. The final results can be considered as outstanding. Not a lot of gaming laptops can achieve such high test scores when running Fire Strike.

However, PCMark 8 benchmarks tell a different story. When benchmarking using the software, the P35X v5 surprisingly struggles when running Home, Work and Creative Conventional tests, only managing to score 2,831, 2,752 and 3,143 respectively. Even therecently reviewed MSI GS70 had better PCMark 8 scores compared to Gigabyte’s newest gaming laptop.

One of the more impressive features of the Gigabyte P35X v5 would be the included Samsung SM951 NVMe M.2 SSD. Using the M.2 standard means that the SM951 SSD has higher read and write speeds compared to a traditional SSD. To be more specific, when transferring a 1GB (1.07374 GB) file, the sequential read and write speeds were recorded at an eye watering 2,195MB/s and 1,268 MB/s respectively.

The 1TB HGST Travelstar HDD however, isn’t as powerful; but one wouldn’t expect much from a standard HDD anyway. The read and write speeds of the HDD when transferring a 1GB file is 133.2MB/s and 126.3MB/s respectively. Despite this, a 1TB HDD coupled with a fast and efficient M.2 NVMe SSD is still relatively a good combination.

Unsurprisingly, 1080p gaming was a breeze for the P35X v5 – this is a really expensive gaming laptop. Every single game tested on the gaming laptop produced frame rates above 30fps. Impressive, yes, but 1080p gaming isn’t what this laptop was made for.

Fortunately, 4K gaming on the P35X v5 is somewhat possible. It must be said that to achieve acceptable frame rates in 4K, one has to opt for medium to high settings instead. Ultra settings often produce unplayable frame rates. Speaking of which, don’t bother running Crysis 3 on 4K with the P35X v5, you’d be hard-pressed to know that the highest achievable frame rate was 21fps.

Battery Life

Despite being a gaming laptop, the P35X v5 is equipped with an efficient battery. The on-board battery managed to power the laptop for about 3 hours when running the PCMark 8 Home Conventional battery test. Meanwhile, when benchmarking using the Sky Diver Demo loop, the laptop lasted for about 1 hour 16 minutes.

For a gaming laptop, this is quite impressive. When compared against the recently reviewed MSI GS70, the battery life on the P35X v5 surpasses it by quite a distance. It’s also worth mentioning that the battery on the P35X v5 is built in, which means that it cannot be easily removed and replaced.

User Experience

The pièce de résistance of the P35X v5 is undeniably the IPS 4K display. The P35X v5 gaming laptop comes in two variations, one with an IPS 4K display and another with a full HD display. Looking at the laptop’s display when watching a 4K video was breathtaking. The amount of detail shown on the display was unlike anything I’ve ever seen on a laptop before.

The same however, cannot be said about the keyboard. The backlighting on the P35X v5 keyboard is single coloured (white) with two brightness level adjustment. Ironically, the keyboard’s backlighting can barely be seen in a well-lit room. In addition to that, the key travel of the gaming laptop’s keyboard is very shallow, which makes typing very unsatisfactory. It doesn’t help, either, that Gigabyte chose to put the arrow keys so close together with the alphanumeric numpad section of the keyboard.

While gaming and running benchmarks on the P35X v5, I noticed that when the laptop’s GPU temperature reaches 75 degrees Celcius, the fan noise became noticeably loud. Interestingly, the maximum temperature of the dGPU was recorded at 75 degrees Celcius, which may indicate an efficient, but noisy cooling solution. Despite this, the heat output may prove to be an issue when gaming for long hours. Certain parts of the keyboard became increasingly warm up to a point where it was a distraction at times.

Finally, the P35X v5 – our review unit, at least – has some issues with manufacturing and software problems. For one, when plugging in a headphone or an earphone, I noticed a faint but noticeable buzzing sound, which may be caused by electrical interference between the on-board sound card and other electronics inside the P35X v5.Besides that, the P35X v5 crashed multiple times when running benchmarks using 3DMark. However, this issue did not occur when benchmarking games.

Competition

Finding a like-for-like competitor for the Gigabyte P35X v5 is not easy. However, we can instead look for an alternative for the P35X v5 based on three factors: performance, form factor and display.

Performance-wise, the GTX 980M that comes with the P35X v5 can be found in plenty of high-end gaming laptop nowadays. A good gaming laptop that fits this category would be the Alienware 15 R2. Priced at RM8,899, not only does the Alienware 15 R2 come with a GTX 980M, it can also be equipped with a 4K display – for an additional RM700. One thing that makes the P35X v5 more favourable compared to the Alienware would be the weight. At 3.2Kg, the Alienware 15 R2 is significantly heavier compared to the 2.4Kg P35X v5.

When it comes to form factor, there aren’t many slim 15-inch gaming laptop being manufactured these days. But, if price isn’t an issue, then the 14-inch QHD+ Razer Blade (2015) would be the best competitor to the P35X v5 in terms of mobility. Arguably one of the slimmest gaming laptops around, the New Razer Blade is packed with a GTX 970M GPU, a QHD+ display and weighs merely 2.03Kg, making it a good, but pricier substitute to the P35X v5.

Actually, there is a very interesting alternative for the P35X v5 in terms of display: the Lenovo Y50-70 UHD gaming laptop. Though not as powerful as the P35X v5, the Lenovo Y50-70 does, however, boast a 4K IPS display just like the P35X v5 (though of a lesser quality). But, being equipped with a mid-range GTX 960M means smooth 4K gaming on the Lenovo Y50-70 is hardly achievable. That said, not only does it weigh about the same as the P35X v5, it is also priced significantly cheaper – approximately RM3,700 less than the Gigabyte.

Conclusion

Gigabyte’s attempt at making a 4K gaming laptop with the P35X v5 is somewhat short of being perfect. If it wasn’t for the uncomfortable keyboard, slight hardware issues, and somewhat bland design choices, the P35X v5 would definitely be ranked arguably the best 15.6-inch gaming laptop in the market.

However, where the P35X v5 excels at is at being what it is intended to be: a powerful, no frills premium gaming laptop. It barely broke a sweat at anything we threw its way, and every game we played on it on Full HD was flawless.

Unfortunately, the 4K variant of the P35X v5 will not be officially coming to Malaysia. That could be a blessing, as the Full HD variant – priced at RM8,999 in Malaysia – is arguably the better choice. When one puts into consideration the fact that it has pretty much the same hardware specifications, it’s pretty hard to turn down.

In all, Gigabyte has achieved quite a feat with the lightweight P35X v5 gaming laptop that is packed with powerful hardware along with a beautiful 4K IPS display. Hands down, this would be our choice of laptop…if money is not an issue.

Hands On With The Sony Alpha 6300 Camera And G Master Series Lenses

While the global announcement was made a few weeks earlier, Sony made a big splash at the CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show 2016 where it showcased the Alpha 6300mirrorless interchangeable compact camera and three of the latest G Master lenses. Given the A6300’s exciting features, it was only natural we spent some time with the new camera and its lenses.

Sony Alpha 6300

The Sony Alpha 6300 is a mirrorless interchangeable compact camera that uses an APS-C sensor instead of a full-frame sensor. Apart from taking amazing shots, the camera also has DSLR-like features to make the camera even more fun and practical to use.

The build quality of the Sony A6300 camera is really sturdy. You can easily tell from Sony’s choice of using magnesium alloy for the chassis and leather for the camera grip that this camera is designed and built to last. The combination of the two materials really makes the camera feel premium and comfortable to hold. Plus, even after using it for an extended period of time, the camera doesn’t have the slightest amount of heat.

All of the buttons on the Sony A6300 camera are spaced out just nicely and they are all comfortably within my thumb’s reach. I have rather big thumbs but each button press and dial scroll registers properly and comfortably.

Performance wise, the autofocus speed is noticeably fast. Of course, we can’t tell if it really does lock in 0.05 seconds, but each half press on the shutter button was almost instantly followed with an autofocus beep and the appearance of the AF tracking points on the electronic viewfinder.

With 425 PDAF points across the sensor, the sight of tiny green squares blinking around as I moved the camera is a thoroughly satisfying sight. The only gripe I had with the AF tracking points was that because the 3-inch LCD display is not touch-enabled, there is no ability to lock focus on a specific point or subject in the frame.

On the other hand, the camera is outstanding when it comes to taking shots quickly in both single, and continuous shooting drive modes. And while we weren’t able to test it, the A6300’s video recording ability is also theoretically impressive, with up to 100Mbps 4K recording and 120fps 1080p video for slow-motion playback.

Oddly during the event, we were not allowed to take any sample images and videos with the Alpha 6300. That being said, based on the short hands on session we had with the camera, the Sony Alpha 6300 performs well and lives up to the company’s claim. To find out how it performs in real life, that will have to wait for a full product review.

Sony G Master Lens

Apart from the Alpha 6300 camera, Sony also launched three new G Master lenses – the SEL2470GSM, SEL85F14GM and the SEL70200GM. In addition, the company has also introduced two new teleconverters, which are 1.4x and 2.0x respectively.

These are the lenses’ specifications:

• SEL2470GSM (24-70mm f/2.8)
• SEL85F14GM (85mm f/1.4)
• SEL70200GM (70-200mm)

For the hands on session with the G Master lenses, we were only given the SEL2470GSM and SEL85F14GM. That’s because the SEL70200GM will only be available later in the year.

SEL2470GSM

When I unboxed the 24-70mm lens, I was surprised by how big the lens is given its focal length. Compared to the kit 24-70mm lens I was using with a A7R II at the time, the G Master’s lens may be a little hefty and hard to handle at times – especially when it’s mounted on compact cameras like the A7R II or the Alpha 6300 itself – but the fixed F2.8 aperture across the focal range means this lens is worth its heft.

These lens do not have in-lens image stabilisation, which means that while it won’t be an issue with cameras with built-in stabilisation like the A7 series, it may not be a great experience using it with the A6300 which does not offer any form of stabilisation. The lenses does not have gyros in them, but they pack larger glass elements to accommodate high-resolution cameras like the A7 series cameras.

I, for one, would trade size and weight for the quality of an image, though it is understandable that others would not feel the same.

SEL85F14GM

The 85mm lens is superb for portrait photography as it is able to capture amazing colours, proper sharpness and amazing bokeh that appeared very natural. Shots taken produces proper contrast and it makes the subject “pop” with its shallow depth of field.

We were told that the Sony Alpha 6300 camera and the G Master lenses will be making its official Malaysian debut somewhere between late March and early April. As of this writing, no pricing information has been disclosed yet.