Hey, Tech-Savy people!!

The LG G4 has officially arrived in SG as of 30 May 2015 and you can get one at M1, Singtel, StarHub if you've previously register your interest with the respective telcos. Otherwise, you might have to try your luck at authorised LG Mobile retailers.

Source: hardwarezone

Since the LG G4 was revealed 1 month ago, many were able to "See the Great. Feel the Great." However, there's only a handful of people around the globe to #TRYTHEGREAT and I wasn't fortunate enough to be part of the lucky few. Hope I have better luck next time!

Anyway, let me go through the TOP 3 Unique Selling Point (USP) that you need to know before you go queuing at the telcos.

1) It is all about the CAMERA!

The LG G4 packs a punch with a F/1.8 lens, Colour Spectrum Laser sensor, OIS 2.0, Manual mode and can even shoot in RAW format. I wouldn't say it can totally replace a camera, but its lightweight and convenience can very factors that will swoop you over from buying DSLRs.

and like many photographers say,
"The best camera is the one you always have with you."

2) Genuine Leather Back Cover

Rather than following the trend of having a aluminum unibody, LG has found its identity by going for leather as one of the options for its back covers. Leather itself, is a very durable and premium material that highlights one's character when it ages through time.

Through my purchase of the Mi 4i, I noticed some of the good practices of an online store and of course some of the standard hiccups, but I would like to point them out as more of a compliment to Xiaomi's efforts.

Prior to the setup of the Xiaomi SG online store, consumers can only get Xiaomi products through resellers via e.g Qoo10.sg or personally import from China through other means; the downside to such arrangements doesn't assure the authenticity of the products and will normally result in a higher selling price which may sometimes defeat the notion of getting Xiaomi at an affordable price. Even when the online store was up and running, there still isn't much of a compelling reason for me to buy from the site because of the limited range of products that was offered to SG. However, it was the global premiere #MiLaunch2015 that had me set sights on the Mi 4i and I purchased it last week the moment it was available in SG.

Account Creation

Setting up an account can be the most dreadful thing that shoppers can go through whenever they come across a new platform, but Xiaomi has simplified the steps and only needed minimum information. From the above image, it is very easy to get an account and proceed with the shopping spree~ To shorten the process and avoid any unwanted disappointment, I made the necessary preparations by simply creating an account, updating all the possible fields that is needed in the settings portion and logging in way before the actual launch time.



Adding to Shopping Cart
At 12 pm of the launch, the site was slightly flooded with traffic and it only loaded after a few constant refreshes with the "Buy Now" still grayed out. When it was finally available, I was kinda disappointed not to see the full selection of colour choices that was advertised and the worst feeling gotta be seeing that the "Grey" option was already SOLD OUT. What's left was only the "White" option and I was almost ready to give up on the phone.



For a moment, I thought that it could be an error and tried to access it through my phone, but I guessed Xiaomi rectify their mistake by totally removing the "Grey" option and replacing with a few different bundles instead.



Minutes after, I got over it and moved on to the "Next" step. I didn't buy any of the bundles or any accessories as I have already added the ones I needed beforehand, but I guess this is useful to present another opportunity to sell their products.



The amazing part was actually an ID is tagged to every item that is added to the cart and that gives you 2 hours to checkout before the ID expires. Upon checkout, consumers get a 12 hours period to make payment before it is probably cancelled and goes back to the inventory (Try at the potential risk of getting blacklisted)? Overall, I think this system prevents Xiaomi from facing out-of-stock situation after completing payment and that deserves some credit!



Once all the Item ID have been given out, new purchase requests will automatically enter their "Queuing system" where a lightbox will show a looping animation of being in the queue. Basically the wait will continue until the product is being SOLD-OUT and the system will notify everyone in the queue about it.



Before Checkout of Shopping Cart
Xiaomi will recommend Great deals based on items in the cart that have on-going promotion.


Payment & Post-Purchase

Basically, this 2 stages don't really matter as payment is pretty standard through credit cards or Paypal and post-purchase is just to keep a copy of the receipt in the email.


Delivery
Xiaomi promises to deliver normally within 5 days and 7-8 days maximum. For me, I got my items within 4 and I'm a happy customer!

Total Damage
Since this is the my first purchase on Xiaomi SG online store, I made full use of the free delivery for purchases over $50 and bought all the products that I wanted all along for a total of $344.98!!!

Disclaimer: This review is based off the Mi 4i launch and does not take into account of any other Xiaomi events / launches.

In the year 2014, I was excelling as a Marketing Executive at SEED Institute and everyday was an opportunity for me to improve on my processes for greater efficiency and effectiveness, but that was when Quarter-Life Crisis hits......

"Is my work going to be more of a Job or Career?"

After much thought, I think not many of us may be that fortunate to have our Work and Passion aligned, but am I working towards my "Passion in Life"? For the past 26 years, I have been living a comfortable life, without me to really question myself what is "Passion". So I wrote a list of my interests and started narrowing them down to a handful, but it seems like I couldn't do much even if I managed to rank them into my top 3.

Early this year 2015, I have made the decision to leave SEED despite leading a great corporate life and took a leap of faith to pursue after my passion even though all my family and friends pointed out that I should only leave after securing a job offer or once I have any concrete plans of my future.

That being said, it has been roughly 2 whole months of soul searching since the day I left and I have encountered more obstacles than I could imagine. So, I would like to share how I felt at different stages and hope that it will be of benefit to you at present or in the near future.

--> Parting with SEED

Professionalism to the test

This should be something that is in-built in us and it will be a clear mirror that reflects how one views their work. While serving my notice period, I didn't have the mindset of "Why should I care? it does not matter coz I am leaving soon!", but rather performing at my best everyday thinking that "I have so much more to do and I am running out of time!" Even on the very last day, I was so busy that I had to even stay back after work just to send out email to thank everyone for the pleasant journey and memories in SEED.

Importance of Memories & Friends

Memories be it good or bad, those are what I take away when I leave SEED and that shall always be kept hidden in my mind. However, I started to miss my friends as though we are losing each other day by day and we wouldn't know when we will meet afterwards. So there were the farewell lunches with a couple of my colleagues that I have previously worked with and I appreciate the effort to check with me about my plans for the future.

Planning for a Bright Future

Since I have narrowed down my interests to a handful, everyday was about planning something for each of them and I will execute them all once I get all the time I needed. For example, 'I like photography and I should explore it by spending a day on the streets even though I am not comfortable with it'. The thought of being able to do the things I wanted, just makes me happy and smile ear to ear!

--> In Search for Passion

Pamper Myself with an Overseas Trip 

After a year's worth of work, I deserve to take a breather and this was a part business part leisure ShenZhen trip to broaden my mind and may be start up a small business, but I didn't get to see any potential and it turned out to be a full leisure for me. To read up on the FUN of ShenZhen trip, click --> HERE!

Who need alarms?

The greatest joy of being unemployed is to wake up naturally without the need of an alarm clock, but that also turn into a disaster as I wake up later by the day, sleeping more than I need every single day. I'm guessing that it is a placebo effect as I tell myself that I haven't sleep enough and I couldn't get out of it as my bed is just too comfortable. This has to change back to the way they were while I was at SEED!!

Putting in more effort to meetup with friends

In my heart and mind, I told myself that I have to cherish my close friends and also try to reconnect with friends from different stages of my life by linking up with one friend or a group every week, but then I ended up going out more often than when I was holding a job and I was taking away time allocated to chase after my passion. So I've been cutting down on that and focused more of blogging to let them know what I'm doing. I shall continue to have more meetup once I have everything going!

Time slipping away

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time" - Bertrand Russell
Some days are productive and some days not. Facebook, YouTube, Online Shopping and Gaming are the activities that can sap away my time when I sit in front of the computer. So most of time, I have to almost work in solitude and silence to get things done; slowly gaining the momentum back.

Anyway, Thanks for the support by reading this, that is all for this blogpost and I shall share my discoveries once everything starts to settle!