Chuwi is never missing any chance to press its fans with some exciting tablets and large display devices. The company recently unveiled a new mid-range tablet – HiPad Air to replicate the success of the high-end HiPad Pro tablet. Carrying a metal-clad design, the new tablet features a powerful Unisoc Tiger T618 SoC to handle power-hungry tasks. Chuwi HiPad Air is among the top contender for the best value tablets available just for $169.
Chuwi used the same build as the HiPad Pro, but the new HiPad Air used the high-precision CNC cutting process to create a full metal body weighing 480g. Its 10.3-inch display is sufficient to work on the go while offering maximum convenience. However, the Chuwi has used a zirconium sand process to build a durable back painted with sky-grey color.
Chuwi HiPad Air is powered with 12nm Unisoc Tiger T618 SoC coupled with Cortex A75 and A55 cores combination. It is bundled with 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. The new HiPad Air is more power-efficient and follows better temperature control thanks to the new SoC. The Mali G52 3EE GPU can easily handle graphics-intensive tasks.
It runs on Android 11 OS with all its features and the new data protection policies. The powerful hardware and advanced AI algorithm improve user productivity. However, the new Android 11 features including dynamic media controls, a built-in screen recorder, notification settings, improved dark mode, and enhanced notifications are part and the parcel.
Chuwi HiPad Air is a great value for money at $169 while offering Unisoc Tiger T618 SoC< a 7000 mAh battery, 10.3-inch FHD, and runs Android 11. You can know more about the CHuwi HiPad Air by heading to the official website.
Amazfit GTR 3 Pro Smartwatch, the latest addition to the Amazfit GTR series is now available at a discounted price of $243.99 only as a part of the launch deal at AliExpress. This is a limited-time offer.
Launched on 14 October, this premium smartwatch features a classic design combined with an Ultra HD AMOLED display and a light and thin aluminum body. Marketed as the next-level fitness partner this smartwatch comes with 150+ built-in sports modes, 8 sports smart recognition, Peak Beats™ Motion Algorithm, and 5 satellite navigation systems.
Key Features:
1.45” Ultra HD AMOLED display
24hr Health management system
ZEPP OS and app support
Classic navigation crown
12-day battery life
Bio Tracker ™ PPG 3.0 Biometric sensor
150 plus sports mode
Smart sports recognition (8 sports)
Built-in Alexa and Voice assistant
Music storage and playback
Bluetooth phone calls
Launched on 14 October, you can now buy Amazfit GTR 3 Pro smartwatch at a discounted price of $243.99 only at AliExpress. This price is applicable to both Black and Brown straps. This is a limited-time launch offer. So place your order asap.
Please note that the above price is region-specific and the final price may vary according to your shipping region, warehouse, and regional taxes.
For more information on such exciting deals and offers check out ourdeals hub.
* Please Note: When you buy something using the links in our articles, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you.
Although realme has unveiled realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12, the brand is yet to roll out the Android 11-based realme UI 2.0 to eligible devices. The latest smartphone to receive the last year’s Android update is the then-popular realme 3 Pro.
The realme 3 Pro was one of the hottest phones of its time. Unlike its biggest competitor (Redmi Note 7 Pro), it is eligible for two Android updates and has now finally started receiving the second one in the form of realme UI 2.0 (Android 11).
According to the official announcement post on realme Community, the new system update for realme 3 Pro arrives with firmware version RMX1851EX_11.F.05, In order to get this build, users should be on firmware version RMX1851EX_11.F.04.
The smartphone got access to realme UI 2.0 Early Access (beta) in July. So that means it took the brand three months to deliver the stable update.
As mentioned in the beginning, Android 11 is the second and the last major software update for realme 3 Pro. The device debuted with ColorOS 6.x based on Android 9.0 Pie and was updated to Android 10-based realme UI prior to the fresh update.
Having said that, the handset should continue receiving security updates for a while.
Realme just released its new model, the Realme GT Neo2. The brand’s last major release was the Realme GT Master series, which was released around the end of July. So the new model comes just a couple of months after the GT Master series. The reason why Realme is able to confidently update its product library so quickly is because of its increasing sales figures in the global market. It continues to be the fastest-growing phone brand in the world in 2021.
The Realme GT series has become one of the top-selling phone series in the last season due to its high value for money. And the new GT Neo2 is another attractive option that still continues the GT series’ credo.
Judging from the features, it looks like the new model isn’t going to give competitors a chance to breathe. This time, the Realme GT Neo2 focuses on gaming performance. It’s powered by the Snapdragon 870 platform, which is also the most commended flagship chipset for Android this year especially since Snapdragon 888 models often faced thermal issues.
So is the GT Neo2 going to maintain the brand’s attacking position in the market? Let’s find out.
Realme Neo GT2 Unboxing
First, let’s unbox the device and talk about its design. The GT Neo2 continues to apply Realme’s classic packaging, and we can see the main selling points of the phone at the back, including a 870 processor, 120Hz E4 AMOLED display, 65W superfast charging, and the brand-new cooling solution. And the most intriguing selling point is definitely the new cooling solution. We are very curious to see if it can help the chipset achieve an even better performance output.
We will come to this very soon in this review.
Once you open the box, we can see the phone is on the upper layout. And below the phone, there is an attached phone case and the 66W charging suit.
Realme Neo GT2 Review: Design & Display
Well, looking back to the phone, we have to say that Realme always gives us surprises over colors. This time, apart from the Blue and black variants, Realme offers an extremely visually appealing color, which is none but the Neo green variant in our hands. The contrast rear design between fluorescent green and black looks so realme-style. The green area adapts AG-glass processing, and it feels so smooth that the glass cover reminds us of a silky texture.
Even the bulging camera module has a consistent color finish. Over to the right side, the dark glossy bar with the brand logo makes this design stand out and brings a balance to the fancy green color shade. No doubt, the green version will become the favorite of many users. But if you prefer a simple and low-profile design, we still recommend the Black or Blue variant since they look more elegant.
The front face of the phone uses a 6.62-inch 120Hz AMOLED display with a hole punched at the left upper corner, which looks no different from the brand’s previous models. However, this display is probably the best display that you can have in this price range.
The Full-HD+ display is made of a Samsung E4 panel with a peak local brightness at 1300 nits. While playing HDR Content, it has a well-tuned color presentation and decent contrast.
And unlike those edge-curved displays, the flat panel on the GT Neo 2 looks more comfortable with a better presentation of edge content. In addition, on this 120Hz display, all the operations and animations feel very smooth similar to those of premium models.
Compared to its predecessor, the Realme GT Neo2 has upgraded its battery capacity up to 5000mAh, which makes long hours of gaming very easy. But at the same time, the larger battery will increase the thickness and weight of the phone to some extent. The GT Neo 2 is 8.6mm thick and weighs 199.8g, which is still acceptable for most gamers when considering the 5000mAh battery.
And coupled with Realme’s 65W fast-charging efficiency, the large battery could still be easily charged to 100% in just 37 mins. Note that fast charging can also be used while gaming, which is definitely good news for those long hours of gaming.
Realme Neo GT2 Review: Performance & Gaming
As for performance, since the phone is powered by the flagship-grade Snapdragon 870 chipset, we no longer need to mention how powerful the processor can be.
Just check the benchmark results we got here. They are almost the best results that we’ve got among all Snapdragon 870 platforms.
Now, let’s move on to its actual gaming performance. In PUBG Mobile, the GT Neo 2 could give us an extremely stable gaming experience at 60fps frame rate, which is one of the best results that we tested this game under HDR graphics.
Then, in the stressful Genshin Impact under the highest graphics settings, it surprisingly got an excellent average frame rate at 58.23fps. But here, please note that in some complicated scenes, the running state got a bit fluctuated. But thanks to the powerful thermal design, when it came to some less stressful scenes, the phone pulled the performance up again and maintained a smooth experience.
Then, we subject it to another heavy game, Nimian Legend. Under 1080P resolution with top graphic settings, the phone proved itself again with the frame rate result of 53.30fps. We continuously played the three games for a total of 1 and a half hours, but impressively, the phone didn’t really heat up much.
Well, at least it was not like other gaming models, as the max surface temperature only reached around 46℃. With such a powerful performance output, such a cooling effect is very rare on the models powered by the Snapdragon 870.
Although it’s not strictly a gaming phone, the GT Neo2’s gaming performance is close to or even exceeds what other gaming phones can do. More importantly, during all the tests under the aggressive GT mode, the phone didn’t let thermal issues become a limitation of the stable performance output.
Realme Neo GT2 Review: Cameras
On this phone, we also want to talk about its camera performance. The Neo 2 comes with a 64MP main camera, an 8MP wide-angle camera, and another 2MP macro lens.
Main Camera
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Let’s start with the main camera. From the samples, we found that the image tone of the main camera looks brilliant, and sometimes it even could be a bit over-saturated when shooting vivid subjects. And sometimes the image could be overexposed when meeting high-contrast scenarios and lost detail in extremely bright parts. Apart from these things, the image looks pretty awesome, thanks to its rich detail and life-like colors. And it also has good performance in night shooting. Under low light conditions, most images are clean with a good dynamic range. But under extremely low light conditions, the images are not so good at capturing dark details.
Wide Angle Camera
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As for the wide-angle camera, the images have a pretty good white balance and close color presentation with the main camera. But the purple fringing issue is a bit serious, especially at the corners.
Under general night scenes, the images look good but under extreme low light scenes, the samples have no surprises despite improvements in overall brightness.
So obviously the image quality of the wide-angle lens still needs to be optimized.
Macro Camera
Well, the macro lens only comes with 2MP resolution. So the images shot on this lens are not really impressive. For shooting close subjects, we prefer to use the main camera, which has much better color and details.
Street Mode
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In addition, we found that Realme has added the Street mode to the GT Neo2, which used to be an exclusive shooting mode for the GT Master series. The images shot in this mode have really strong styles and more dramatic filters for options. And it also supports quick open by double-pressing a volume button when the screen is off, which is really useful in street photography.
Realme Neo GT2 Review: Battery Life
In our test about its battery life, the result shows that the 5000mAh battery can support a slightly longer usage time than those models featuring 4000 or 4500mAh batteries. Coupled with the 37 minutes of full charge efficiency, there’s no need to worry about power while playing games for a long time.
So the Realme GT Neo 2 no doubt is another flagship killer for the brand.
We talked about its impressive design, excellent display quality, powerful performance, amazing power solution, revolutionary cooling system, and so on. It has almost all the important features to be a real flagship killer. If you don’t care much about the phone’s cameras, the GT Neo 2 will not let you down at this price point.
In 2020, the Oujia group (OPLUS) introduced an integrated eCommerce platform called Huantai Mall in China. It is a one-stop destination in the country to buy OPPO, OnePlus, and realme products. Just a year later, the online store has been now renamed OPPO Mall.
According to a report by ITHome, OPPO recently updated the Huantai Mall app for Android. The latest release not only bumps up the version to 3.0.2, but also changes the name of the application and its icon.
The official online store of OPPO, OnePlus, realme in China is now called OPPO Mall instead of Huantia Mall. It also gets a simple icon with OPPO logo. Additionally, the app now comes with a redesigned homepage.
OPPO is yet to issue an official statement regarding the rebranding of Huantai Mall. Also, it’s worth noting that the application is still listed with its old name on Apple App Store.
Both OPPO and OnePlus are undergoing changes ever since the two brands announced their merger. They have even confirmed to use a unified mobile operating system from next year.
Hence, we think that the new branding for their eCommerce store is part of the merger plan. As OnePlus is now said to be a sub-brand of OPPO, it makes sense for the online store to carry the parent company’s name.
What are your thoughts on the rebranding of Huantai Mall? Drop your thoughts in the comment section below.
Xiaomi today announced that it has crossed the 10 million landmark in terms of sales of its Mi Home (Mijia) Rice Cooker series products.
The company has launched several smart kitchen appliances including Mijia Smart Rice Cooker, Mijia Pressure 1H Rice Cooker 1S, Mijia Smart Rice Cooker Micro Pressure Edition, Mijia Smart 1H Rice Cooker, Mijia Rice Cooker C1, Mijia Smart Electric Pressure Cooker, Mijia Smart Electric Pressure Cooker, etc.
The portfolio doesn’t end there as Xiaomi has been expanding it further, indicating the huge success the brand is enjoying in the massive Chinese smart home market.
The most recent addition to the series is the Mijia Smart Rice Cooker Micro-compression 3L that was launched this September. It adopts a pure white shape and has a display atop to supply all the information one can need. It even comes with NFC support and can be connected to a smart home framework. The cooker sells at a retail price of 499 Yuan (~$77).
Xiaomi has continued to see steady growth in China’s smart home market thanks to its high-quality, value for money offerings, and is thus seemingly investing more into it than ever before. The company’s most recent launches include the Mijia Robot Vacuum Mop Pro, Smoke Stove Set S1, Refrigerator Cross Four-Door Exclusive Edition, and the Smart Laser Rangefinder, and they’re all a testament to Xiaomi’s will to expand.
Nokia feature phones have been touted to be near indestructible, however, a new drop test has revealed that these phones might have a new rival in this regard. The Nokia 3310 has just faced off against the Apple iPhone 13 Pro and the results might surprise you.
The odd drop test comparison between these two devices arrives from a tech YouTube channel called TechRax. In the video, he has the Cupertino based giant’s latest flagship go against a class Nokia device that is known to be very durable. While the results might already seem clear to you, with Nokia obviously winning easily, this was surprisingly not the case. We can see the Nokia 3310 going first in the drop test in a spiral stair case.
During its turn, the phone hit the railing and quite literally broke down into various pieces. Although, the 3310 didn’t shatter necessarily, just got took apart into various LEGO like pieces due to the sheer force of the long drop. On the other hand, the iPhone 13 Pro was dropped not once, not twice, but an impressive three times. In the first drop, the rear glass panel of the iPhone was cracked but the front panel remained relatively unscathed.
In other words, the ceramic shield actually came in quite handy. However, the second drop finally cracked the display on the bottom right corner while the rear panel shattered further. But this is still quite the result considering the second drop had the device fall even further down the spiral stair case. The third and final drop had surprisingly no impact on the device either, with just a few more cracks showing up in the front.
Apart from this the device seemed more or less normal with no visible issues in performance or any issues with the camera. Unfortunately, the fate of the Nokia 3310 wasn’t revealed, although, we can assume it survived since despite its body breaking apart, the old feature phones usually broke apart in falls and a simple assembly of the keyboard, battery, and back panel usually made the phone good as new. But regardless, Apple has clearly pulled out all the stops to have its latest iPhone 13 flagship.
After announcing iQOO Z5 smartphone last month, the Vivo sub-brand is now all set to launch a new variant of the same on 20th October in China, dubbed as iQOO Z5x. Ahead of the official launch, the company is teasing the upcoming phone’s specs and features.
In the latest teaser image shared by iQOO, it has been confirmed that the iQOO Z5x smartphone will be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 900 chipset.
The MediaTek Dimensity 900 is manufactured using a 6nm process and packs two Cortex-A78 power cores clocked at 2.4GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores at 2GHz for efficiency. It is bundled with an ARM Mali-G68 graphics processor.
Previous leaks related to the smartphone have revealed that it will feature a 6.58-inch TFT screen with a punch-hole notch at the top-center of the display. The screen, which will offer a Full HD+ screen resolution, will also support a high refresh rate.
Based on the reports, the smartphone will be available in two memory variants — 6GB RAM with 128GB internal storage and 12GB RAM with 256GB internal storage. It also features a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for added security.
In the camera department, the device is said to have a dual-camera setup on the back consisting of a 50-megapixel primary sensor and a 2-megapixel secondary sensor. On the front side, it will have an 8-megapixel snapper for taking selfies and video calling.
We expect the phone to be running the Android 11 operating system out-of-the-box. It reportedly measures 163.95 x 75.30 x 8.5mm and weighs 169 grams. The device is confirmed to be powered by a 5,000mAh battery and is likely to have 44W fast charging support. The iQOO Z5x will be made available in two color options — Black and Orange.
Augmented Reality (AR) products developer and electronics manufacturer, TCL Electronics has released the first binocular full-color MicroLED AR glasses with a few impressive features. The Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition is a holographic, light waveguide pair of AR glasses developed wholly in-house by the company. The design takes into consideration the thin, light, and high bright color display as the first model in the industry to offer a binocular full-color MicroLED holographic waveguide.
The development of the Thunderbird Smart Glasses has taken much of three years as noted by the company. The team developed light wave coupling analysis and optimization algorithms that are at play with the innovative new AR glasses. The development reflects a balance in efficiency, dispersion, and producibility for commercial purposes.
The high refractive index glass wafers helped to significantly reduce the critical angle of total reflection for enhanced viewing in AR. The lightweight nature of the new AR glasses could be linked to the development of optimal single-layer waveguide architecture.
The array of the functionality of the Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition includes basic information prompt, photo sharing, intelligent control, translation, linkage functions, and potential real-world navigation as well as some other exciting functions. These functions imply that the new AR glasses will be a worthy addition to a user’s connected tech ecosystem, with several possibilities.
The product is however not expected to be out within the next year and there is no information yet about the pricing of the product. We expect more details about the potential release date, price, and global availability information for the Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition.
Google had officially uploaded the Android 12 source code to AOSP last week. The update may not have been rolled out for the Pixels, or any other device for that matter, in the stable form, but the custom ROM community is already working hard on making Android 12 accessible to all.
We previously highlighted how the Redmi K20 Pro became one of the first devices to bag an Android 12 ROM. The device is now joined by the entirety of the Exynos S10 lineup (via: XDA Developers).
XDA Recognized Developer Ivan_Meler has released an early build of LineageOS 19.0 based on Android 12 for the Galaxy S10, S10+, and S10E. The ROM appears to be fairly stable for an initial release with all of the hardware working properly including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, fingerprint, audio, and cameras. Magisk can be flashed as well.
However, VoLTE and VoWiFi are broken on the build, coupled with a lot of LineageOS-specific features missing. This should be fixed with updates though.
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Android 12
The ROM also comes with full Material You support, thanks to the inclusion of the monet engine, meaning app backgrounds of at least the Google apps will be dynamically switching colors based on the current wallpaper.
Interested in flashing the Android 12-based Lineage OS 19.0 ROM on your Samsung Galaxy S10 series device? Just head over to this thread wherein you will find the download link along with all of the flashing instructions. Of course, you will need an unlocked bootloader to install ROMs along with a recovery like TWRP. Links for all of that are present in the thread itself.
Popular social networking platform LinkedIn has announced plans to wind down its operations in China due to what it terms as a challenging environment. The platform has had to undertake a strong censorship process in compliance with current Chinese regulations. This has impacted its core mandate as a platform open to an array of users of different political and religious leanings. In a statement released on Thursday, October 14, the Seattle-headquartered company announced it was shutting down its professional networking service in China by the turn of the year. It expressed its difficulties in navigating the increasingly challenging operating environment amidst greater compliance requirements.
LinkedIn is not the first social networking platform to encounter serious challenges in China. Twitter and Facebook had been blocked from the country. LinkedIn has also stated that it will offer a new app for the Chinese market solely focused on job postings. This would seem a watered-down version of the original LinkedIn platform, as the new app will not have social networking functionalities such as sharing of posts and commenting. It remains to be seen how the Chinese audience will receive the new app and how successful it could be.
The trajectory of the development of Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has been proximately linked to the freedom of sharing and commenting on posts among users to engender robust discussions. This has been the case both in the United States and other jurisdictions where LinkedIn has been very successful as a key economic growth driver.
The decision by LinkedIn brings to the end of the chapter of its foray into the Chinese space in 2014. It began with a localized service that was to be pliant to government regulations. It agreed to censor posts made by users in China in line with extant Chinese laws, which was a strong departure from the stance of other American internet companies. It was an experiment that was primed for an underwhelming performance even from the outset.
Since then, LinkedIn had struggled to stay relevant in the country due to its adherence to the censorship requirements. Now it seems the bubble has burst, hence the decision to wind down its China service. It had also endured some stern rebukes from Chinese regulators for failing to control political content on the platform.
Huawei Technologies is calling on the information and communications global technology industry to cooperate for the development of the next generation of 5G networking technologies.
Hu Houkun, rotating chairman of Huawei recently stated that “5G has provided a considerable upgrade in mobile experiences for consumers, and it’s already starting to empower different industries around the globe. Progress was much faster than we expected, especially in terms of subscriber base, network coverage, and the sheer number of 5G terminals on the market.” The senior official made the statement during the Chinese tech giant’s 12th annual Global Mobile Broadband Forum earlier this week.
Notably, the call for cooperation arrives after 5G networking has seen five years of commercial deployment. As of right now, there are currently 176 commercial 5G networks around the globe that offer services to more than 500 million customers. Furthermore, the average download speeds of the latest generation of networking is roughly 10 times faster than 4G network, which has had a positive impacts in various fields.
At the moment, the enterprise market already has over 10,000 projects that are exploring B2B applications of 5G. This includes the manufacturing, mining, and ports businesses that have passed the trials, which are fields Huawei has recently been shifting its focus towards. Hu further added that “Right now more than half of these 10,000 5G to B (5G to business) projects are in China. We have a huge number of use cases already, but we need to build more sustainable business cases.”
Chinese handset maker vivo is all set to debut a new lineup of smartphones called vivo T series. One of the models in the lineup recently appeared on JD. Now, a leaker reveals a few details about the first two models in the new series.
According to Digital Chat Station, vivo will be launching two devices in the vivo T series initially. These handsets will be called vivo T1 and vivo T1x respectively. The latter will be a cheaper variant of the former.
As per him, the vivo T1 series will be available in the following memory configurations and color options.
vivo T1
Memory Configurations
8GB + 128GB
8GB + 256GB
12GB + 256GB
Colors
Black
Electric Light Blue
vivo T1x
Memory Configurations
6GB + 128GB
8GB + 128GB
8GB + 256GB
Colors
Iridescent
Starry Night
Sea Salt
Unfortunately, the tipster did not expose anything else other than the above-mentioned details. But since the devices are rumored to launch ahead of Double Eleven (singles’ day) shopping festival, we expect vivo to start teasing the phone very soon.
Going by the previous reports, the vivo T series will succeed the now discontinued vivo Z series. It will be targeted at male youth who crave performance. These smartphones are said to cost around ¥2,000-¥2,500.
Renowned PDA manufacturer Palm has had a turbulent past since its purchase by PC giant HP in 2010. The ownership of the company had changed hands in 2014 from HP to TCL. It had also experienced a period of seeming inactivity after the release of its Palm phone that was a mixed bag of success. The company has now provided some teasers about its unveiling of a pair of AirPods-like earbuds that will be a good match for the Palm Phone, which is reputed as one of the world’s smallest Android phones.
The Palm Phone although a very compact Android device had a few significantly visible drawbacks like a very poor battery setup, an underwhelming camera, as well as challenges in the overall use of the very small screen of the device. It has been about two years since Palm unveiled the Palm Phone and the company has now risen from the lull to announce the birthing of the Palm earbuds. The announcement was via a tweet and some images on the Palm Twitter handle.
A blurred image indicated the outline of the earbuds shows the contour and the elongated stems alongside other visible features. Although Palm had not provided many details on the new device, we expect it to be true wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC) functionality. These are some of the irreducible minimum standards that could help restore some attention to the company. We await more details about the new Palm earbuds as we inch closer to the official announcement date. More teasers will also possibly come from Palm on the new device.
Xiaomi recently released a completely different phone than what they have ever released before: the Xiaomi Civi. This phone is aimed at the female market, but as a guy, even I am very much interested in this phone. After using it for a week, I have some things to share with you.
Xiaomi CIVI Review: Stand out design
If you’ve seen Xiaomi’s promo video, you know how cute and good-looking the pink back covers of the Xiaomi Civi are this time. They have added a fluffy texture to the pink glass back panel. It looks quite pretty under the light. And this design won’t just appeal to female users but even guys like me would appreciate this back cover.
And because of the curved screen and the narrower width of the body, it feels better in your hand. The upper and lower metal frames are recessed to make the phone more refined. But the charging port isn’t centered and this makes me uncomfortable. The lens is made smaller, and this lens design is a bit like a smaller version of the Mi 10T series. The best part is that Civi is only 6g heavier than the XIAOMI 11 Lite 5G NE, but the battery has been increased to 4500mAh. Who doesn’t like a phone that is only 166g but can be used all day without charging?
I know I do!
While such a light phone is easy to use, its back cover is like a layer of flour and is really, really slippery. Plus, the center frame is very narrow and doesn’t provide enough friction. So if you use it for a long time, the full weight of the phone presses down on your little finger, so it’s not really easy to hold much like a heavy phone. Of course, if you like to use a case, you won’t have this problem.
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Overall, the Xiaomi Civi is a mid-range phone, but it looks and feels like a flagship device.
Xiaomi CIVI Review: Better Display
I carefully compared the official specs of the Civi’s screen and found little change on paper between it and the XIAOMI 11 Lite 5G NE. The Civi’s refresh rate has become 120Hz, and the peak brightness is a little higher too. However, after a week of use, the screen’s difference between the two is actually quite large. For example, from a straight screen to a curved screen, the bezels have become narrower. In particular, the lower bezel is narrower than Xiaomi’s own flagship phone, the Mi 11 Ultra. And it uses an under-screen fingerprint instead of a side fingerprint scanner.
The Xiaomi 11 Lite NE’s screen uses RGB Delta Pixels, which resulted in a very poor screen clarity problem that was solved on the Civi. After changing the supplier of the screen to Diamond-like pixels, the clarity is no different from that of Samsung’s screen. However, the problem of rainbow lines on the screen is a bit more serious than the 11 Lite NE. All in all, the Xiaomi Civi’s screen is in the upper-middle class, much better than the XIAOMI 11 Lite 5G NE.
Xiaomi CIVI Review: Selfie & Rear Cameras
Because it is a phone specifically designed for female users, before we talk about the rear lens for taking pictures, I want to talk about the front camera first. This time, Civi is finally using a new 32MP lens that can auto-focus instead of a traditional 20MP front lens without autofocus.
Because young Asian female users generally like to retouch their selfies, Xiaomi is also introducing a new beauty mode algorithm that will make your selfies look more natural even in beauty mode. Compared to the beauty mode of Xiaomi 11 Lite NE, the biggest change is that the skin has become smoother, with less noise, and at the same time the skin pores are not completely eliminated. This makes it look better than the previous beauty mode.
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flash light on
Beauty mode on
Beauty mode off
When we turn off the beauty mode, with the superb front lens, it can still take selfies with more details and less noise. Although the HDR effect is weaker than the Lite NE, the advantage is that the hair will not turn purple. For the self-portrait effect, Xiaomi Civi really spares no effort. It has two flash lights tucked on either side of the front lens. The area around the screen can also turn white to light up your face. The flash + screen fill light effect is excellent, and the face skin tone is more natural, the details become more, even the HDR effect has become stronger. But if you wear glasses, the reflection from the lights can be a problem.
And with the addition of autofocus on the front, you no longer need to worry about losing focus due to the close shooting distance. You can really use your phone as a mirror to check your makeup.
The main rear camera uses the same sensor as the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE, and the ultra-wide lens is also 8 MP. But the macro lens is not as good as the telephoto macro lens on the 11 Lite NE.
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Xiaomi CIVI Macro (2)
The performance of the main camera in the daytime is relatively close between the two phones. The main difference is the color tuning for food. When the AI recognizes the subject as food, Civi’s colors are more intense and the contrast is higher. The difference in other scenes is almost negligible. When the sky is dark, although both perform very well in most scenes with more lights, when the lighting goes down and the Xiaomi Civi in auto mode reveals its problems. The highlights can’t be controlled, while 11 Lite NE doesn’t have this problem. The good thing is that Civi’s night mode is well optimized, not only can the highlights be controlled, but the colors can also be reproduced. For example, the red light sign is definitely not the rosy red of the 11 Lite NE, but closer to the positive red as seen on the Civi sample.
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The ultra-wide lens on both phones is also very similar. Xiaomi Civi still has the problem of partial overexposure in low light, and the purple edge problem is not optimized. Sometimes the purple edge effect is worse on the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE, while sometimes it’s worse on the Xiaomi Civi. But this ultra-wide lens is also average, and it performs well as long as there’s enough light.
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Xiaomi CIVI Macro (2)
As for the macro lens, it is an ordinary macro lens. Both the closest focusing distance and image quality are worse than 11 Lite NE’s telephoto macro lens.
The main difference between Xiaomi Civi’s video recording capabilities and the 11 Lite NE is still the color, which is more intense on the Civi most of the time. As for noise, dynamic range, stabilization, etc., there is still no visible difference with 11 Lite NE.
Xiaomi CIVI Review: Performance and Gaming
The chip is still Snapdragon 778G with LPDDR 4X and UFS 2.2, and the Benchmark score is almost the same as the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE.
The phone scores 510,000 on AnTuTu, 2400 on 3Dmark, 780 on Geekbench 5 single-core, and nearly 3000 on its multi-core test. This chip’s gaming performance is also very clear to everyone. Because they feature Snapdragon 778G, PUBG can only be run in the Ultra frame rate under HDR Graphics. It offers stable performance at 40FPS without problems.
Genshin Impact started out at 50 FPS, but was soon locked at 30 FPS. Finally, it didn’t even stabilize at 30 FPS, averaging at 24.8 FPS which is not very good. But if you compare it to the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE, you’ll find that the Xiaomi Civi is actually performing quite well. The Xiaomi 11 Lite NE not only struggled to achieve a frame rate above 30 fps, but it also lagged a lot. When you think about it, the fact that the phone is light and thin makes it impossible to dissipate heat very well. Xiaomi probably didn’t intend this phone for playing any big games, and that’s exactly what we could confirm.
Xiaomi CIVI Review: Battery Life
This time the Xiaomi Civi’s box is also very simple, it has no charger and no charging cable. Of course, if Xiaomi’s charger is not inside the box, it will definitely come with a separate charger. Much like the provided charger, the phone supports up to 55w of charging power. It takes ten minutes to charge to 27%, half an hour to charge to 77%, and 45 minutes to 100%.
Will the 4500mAh battery last longer than the 11 Lite NE?
Half an hour of 1080P online video consumed 4%, Tiktok consumed 5%. Ten minutes of PUBG dropped the charge by 3%, and 20 minutes Genshin Impact by 8%. Basically it’s the same battery life score as the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE.
So the Xiaomi Civi is a beefed-up version of the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE, with an upgraded look and a more powerful screen and front-facing camera. The fact that the Xiaomi Civi is selling well in China shows that many people still like a nice and thin phone, provided it doesn’t have too many flaws.
Earlier this week, Xiaomi had officially announced the MIJIA Robot Vacuum Mop Pro, which had been launched for crowdfunding. Now, the company has officially released the new robot vacuum cleaner and is available on sale on major Chinese e-retailers.
The MIJIA Robot Vacuum Mop Pro is the first vacuum cleaner from the company to offer dry mopping. Furthermore, the device is also capable of self cleanings its mop via its charging compartment. This charging station features an LCD touch display as well. The mop on the new vacuum cleaner is design to run at 40 degree Celsius to rfmove mold, any odor, or other forms of bacteria.
Under the hood, a LiDAR sensor guides the automated robot and is equipped with 8 ToF sensors to avoid any collisions and obstacles in its way. It also offers a maximum suction power for 3000 Pa along with four cleaning modes as well. Notably, the vacuum cleaner features a square like head design over a conventional circular design that will help it clean corners and edges.
The device supports MIJIA control app and XiaoAI voice assistant. It is currently priced at 2,999 Yuan (roughly 466 US Dollars) and will be available for purchase starting from 20th October 2021. So for those interested you can find this product on major e-retail website like JD.com.
Nothing is allegedly working on its own phone now following the success of its ear (1) earbuds and is planning on releasing it as early as 2022. A power bank that will go by the name of ‘power (1)’ is also in the works, as per a report.
The startup recently partnered with Qualcomm Technologies and if the news of an upcoming smartphone is indeed true, then it is likely that Qualcomm is lending a helping hand in the matter. The phone will thus likely sport a Snapdragon processor.
The report by Mukul Sharma (via: 91Mobiles) further reveals that a Nothing-branded power bank may launch before the phone. The power (1) power bank could debut in the coming weeks or maybe at the end of the year.
Details are slim regarding either of the two products, so any known specifications and the like are out of the question for now. Regardless, Nothing’s upcoming products should pick design cues from the existing ear (1) and may hence sport similar simple and minimalistic looks, transparent design even.
Nothing ear (1) TWS earbuds
Hopefully, we will be seeing teasers and getting more info as we inch closer to a launch of the alleged products.
Back in February, Nothing had acquired Andy Rubin’s Essential company – the folks behind the Essential Phone that debuted back in 2017. The Nothing phone along with sporting a Snapdragon processor, may thus, also benefit from a technological transfer from Essential. After all, both companies share an interest in offering products with minimal designs and no-frills experiences.
As for the name of the smartphone, well, we are hoping that it will be called the Nothing hand (1), although that admittedly does sound a bit too cheesy and Nothing may just call it the phone (1).
Redmi is expected to launch new smartphones in China in the coming days. These devices have started appearing on certification websites. At the same time, two of the brand’s executives also officially tease the arrival of the latest handsets.
Smartphone companies in China have begun to release new phones for the upcoming ‘Double Eleven’ (singles’ day) shopping festival in the country. Hence, it’s not surprising to learn that Redmi will be also debuting certain new products.
The hintsby Wang Teng Thomas (Product Director – Redmi) and Lu Weibing (General Manager – Redmi), the upcoming Redmi devices could belong to the Redmi Note series.
There’s a high chance for these handsets to go official as Redmi Note 11 series. In fact, specifications of the two models in the lineup, namely Redmi Note 11 and Redmi Note 11 Pro leaked a few hours back.
These phones could be also accompanied by Redmi K40S. The new Redmi K40 variant is said to be a rebranded Xiaomi 11T. Hence, its main highlights will be 120W fast charging, Dolby Vision display, and three Android updates.
Whatever these smartphones turn out to be, we expect to learn more about them before their official announcement in the next few days.
What are your thoughts on the upcoming Redmi phones for China? Do let us know in the comment section below.
Apple has added Chinese electronic components producer BOE Technology to its list of suppliers for the latest iPhone’s display, providing a major boost to Beijing’s tech ambitions and adding pressure on Samsung – the current go-to display supplier for Apple.
The Beijing-based display maker has already been supplying a small number of OLED panels for the 6.1-inch non-Pro iPhone 13 model since September but is now expected to increase the shipments soon, if the final verification process that will mostly focus on the durability of the screens is gotten over with, Nikkei Asia reports.
Apple iPhone 13
This supply from BOE was limited to repaired and refurbished iPhones but Apple now seems keen on expanding it to new iPhones as well, although only the more affordable models will be getting it for now.
“It is in the process of final testing, but based on the results of earlier samples, BOE should have no problem passing the tests,” an executive-level source with direct knowledge of the matter told Nikkei Asia. “The foundation of the collaboration between Apple and BOE is based on their previous project on the iPhone 12, and both Apple and BOE want this to happen soon.”
BOE will initially be splitting orders with Samsung for the 6.1-inch display iPhone 13, making up about 20% of the units. However, the company aims to raise that figure to 40% under the most optimistic scenario.
The BOE OLED displays for the iPhone 13 are being manufactured at Mian Yang complex in Sichuan Province where the company is already producing the same for Huawei, Honor, Xiaomi, and Vivo.
BOE’s breakthrough will add to the pressure on LG Display and Samsung Display, especially the latter, which has dominated the supply of OLEDs for iPhones since 2017. A third manufacturer under Apple will grant the company greater bargaining power over its South Korean suppliers.
BOE already makes LCD displays for the Apple iPad but has been trying for years to break into iPhone’s supply chain with limited success. But that is beginning to change now.
Sony is joining hands with Meizu for its flagship smartphone in China. The company will now include Meizu apps and services on the Xperia 1 III flagship handset to better appeal to the Chinese market.
According to an official announcement from the Japanese tech giant, both firms are entering into a strategic partnership earlier today (15th October 2021). The collaboration will have the former offer the latter’s services and applications on its Xperia 1 III flagship smartphone in China. This would include the device arriving with pre installed apps or allopw users to download several apps from Meizu’s Flyme Android skin on the Xperia 1 III and newer devices in the region.
In other words, Chinese users of the new Sony Xperia smartphone can now download the Flyme app store along with services related to news, email, and weather. Although, users need the system update that was apparently pushed out to devices back in October. As per the official announcement, “During the strategic cooperation period, Sony and Meizu will further explore more Flyme functions and application cooperation possibilities on different products.”
The partnership would help devices from the Japanese company seem more appealing in the Chinese market, which is usually harder to enter for non China based brands. Although, Meizu is not exactly a major player in the region either. So it remains to be seen if Sony actually benefits from this partnership in any noticeable way in the arriving months.
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