Motorola recently launched the Moto Z4 and fans of the brand are eager to see other models that are supposed to be part of the Z4 series. Sadly, we won’t be seeing any other iteration of the Moto Z4. Motorola has confirmed on Twitter that the Z4 is the only Moto Z device that will be available this year.
Hi Raffi. We will not be announcing additional moto z devices this year.
The company was responding to a fan who wanted to know if the Z4 Force will be coming. The brand then tweeted that there won’t be an additional Moto Z devices this year. Thus, the Z4 Force or Z4 Play won’t be coming. Quite sad. Last year’s model had the Z3 Play but no Z3 Force. The Z2 Force from 2017 was the last model launched.
Since this is coming from Motorola US, it is possible the Z4 Play will be launched in other markets but not in the US. That is just a wild guess, though. One thing we can pick from this is that Motorola is treading carefully now, apparently in order to get effective sales. It seems to be sticking to the low-end and mid-range markets, ditching the high-end market, at least for now. Market data shows the company isn’t doing too badly after emerging from a turbulent financial downturn.
At the recent Computex 2019, Intel announced a number of products but one that stood out is the 10nm CPUs nicknamed Ice Lake. The processor features the Sunnycove microarchitecture and is ready to ship immediately.
The 10th generation processors come with a number of big changes from its predecessors, one of which is big architectural improvements. The new processor is the biggest update Intel has made in its processors since 2015. There is also a brand new integrated GPU (Gen 11 graphics).
The fact sheet provided shows major improvements in power efficiency as well, for those who are more concerned about the battery. The specs show up to 16-hour battery life laptops can be expected in the next wave which potentially makes all-day computing very much a possibility. The chipset also comes with WiFi6 and 5G, making the next wave of notebooks and ultrabooks that would utilize the processor to hold lots of promises.
Xiaomi‘s partner Oclean has officially revealed via its Weibo page that the Oclean X will be released next week. The electric toothbrush is touted to be the first in the world to have a touchscreen.
As to what exactly the touchscreen display does, the real pictures of the device also appeared online showing that the display is actually a Mi Band 3-styled wearable without the rubber straps. The design of the toothbrush includes a housing for the device. Also, the retail box and user manual of the electric toothbrush also appeared online revealing some details.
The manual shows that the Oclean X will have a maximum vibrating speed of up to 40,000 rpm. It will also have 32 levels of intensity which can be adjusted during brushing. This is pretty impressive because, on current models like the Oclean Air, you only get two levels of intensity. The sonic toothbrush also supports monitoring of the brushing pattern of blind areas in the mouth. The touchscreen also displays brushing information and oral health information without the need for a mobile app.
The device will be cheaper than its contemporaries like the Philip HX9954/52 with a frequency of 31,000 beats per minute and costs 2,199 yuan. Even at that, you’ll need the mobile phone app and Bluetooth connectivity to be able to brush the blind areas. Thus, the touchscreen display gives this model an edge.
Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ last week appeared in a Cardinal Red colour that is a brighter shade than the Burgundy Red we saw the Galaxy S9/S9+ in. The new colour variant is now listed on a Swiss retailer’s website with a price tag of CHF899 ($895/€803). The listing also reveals that this new version will be only available with 128GB storage.
Apart from the new paint job, the hardware will remain the same as other color variants of this smartphone. In addition, the Galaxy S10+ will also be hitting stores in Cardinal Red, and the variant was also spotted on Samsung Switzerland website as part of a cashback offer. According to the schedule, successful orders for both models will ship next month (June).
Announcing a new color variant of its flagships is now a tradition Samsung has adopted for a while now. It is a smart marketing move and a good way to reinvigorate interest in the phones. We expect the variant to roll out soon in select markets.
Latest research data released by market research firm IDC shows that Apple continues its dominance of the wearable market. However, the gap continues to shrink as Samsung and Huawei rapidly mount pressure on the US giant with impressive shipments.
According to the report, Samsung and Huawei have boosted their figures by a significantly higher degree than Apple during Q1, 2019 in the wearable market. Embattled Chinese giant Huawei dominated the industry in terms of growth and was able to triple its sales and thus, double its market share compared to Q1 2018. Huawei recorded a massive growth of 282.2%, shipping an estimated 5 million units of wearable devices globally. On the other and, Apple shipped 12.8 million and Xiaomi 6.6 million units. Samsung shipped an estimated 4.3 million units and Fitbit completed the top 5 with a total shipment of 2.9 million wearables.
All five wearable device manufacturers recorded year-on-year growth, shipping a grand total of 49.6 million unit shipments, which is up 55.2% from the same period last year. Fitbit reported the lowest surge of the top five vendors which is 35.7%, while Apple’s growth rate was 49.5%.
Apple Inc has seen a decline in its market share in smartphones as well, especially in markets like China and India. Where Huawei has toppled it from the second spot, while Samsung still retains the number one spot with the lead getting narrow by the day.
According to a statement by Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers; “The elimination of headphone jacks and the increased usage of smart assistants both inside and outside the home have been driving factors in the growth of ear-worn wearables.” He added, “Looking ahead, this will become an increasingly important category as a major platform and device makers use ear-worn devices as an on-ramp to entice consumers into an ecosystem of wearable devices that complement the smartphone but also offer the ability to leave the phone behind when necessary.”
It is now confirmed. The much-anticipated Xiaomi Mi 9T that would hit some market soon is indeed the Redmi K20 by another name. A couple of leaked retail boxes for the Mi 9T has confirmed this. While one of the images was spotted on China’s Weibo, the second image was shared by a tech reviewer from Dubai. this suggests the device will be sold in Dubai and perhaps UAE as the Mi 9T just the same way as in Russia, Thailand and some other countries.
The retail box has the render of the device with the inscription “Mi 9T” and without any doubt, the render is the same as that of the Redmi K20 series. The retail box also shows the device will come in a Carbon Black variant and will have 6GB RAM and 64GB storage, perhaps on the base variant.
The removable screen guard that Xiaomi phones usually ship with gives the key specs to include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor. The device also has a 6.39-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with an in-screen fingerprint sensor. There is a 48MP AI triple camera at the rear and a 20MP pop-up selfie shooter. The Mi 9T also crams a 4000mAh battery under its hood and ships with an 18W fast charger.
As the saying goes, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. The Redmi K20 and K20 Pro are awesome models. So, the Mi 9T wouldn’t likely disappoint except if Xiaomi slaps an exorbitant price on the phone. We expect Xiaomi to officially launch the device pretty soon.
Personally, Meizu latest phones represent what I consider as the ideal bezel-less design even though the company hasn’t succeeded in trimming of the bezels entirely. The new Meizu 16Xs comes with yet a near bezel-less display that doesn’t distort the display’s symmetry with a notch, punch-hole or such like. You also won’t have to grapple with a pop-up selfie camera or a slider as the device retains the top bezel just wide enough to house the selfie camera. The ultra-thin bezels give the device a 90.29% screen to body ratio.
The rear design is also similar to the Meizu 16S. However, the device packs a triple rear camera setup, making it the first Meizu phone with such prowess. The third sensor is a wide-angle camera.
The phone uses a USB-C port and equally retains the 3.5mm audio jack as well as dual SIM slots. The phone also comes with Meizu’s mTouch screen fingerprint with 0.2 seconds unlock and support for fingerprint enabled payments for WeChat and Alipay.
The Snapdragon 675-powered phone comes in four official color options; Jade White, Black, and two special colors, Coral Orange, inspired by the Living Coral color, which was selected as Pantone’s Color of the Year 2019, and Atlantis Blue.Check out more pictures of the Meizu 16XS in the gallery below.
US memory chip maker Micron Technology has officially issued a statement announcing the suspension of supply of its memory chips to Huawei. This is in compliance with the trade ban imposed on the Chinese company by the US government.
In the statement, Micron pointed out that as a US company with global business, Micron respects and abides by all laws and regulations of the United States and the countries in which it operates, and has suspended supply to Huawei to comply with US government regulations. In addition, Micron also sent a letter requesting that the major module manufacturers cooperate, noting that it is not allowed to directly or indirectly supply related modules such as memory cards or solid-state drives using Micron memory chips to Huawei and its related companies.
However, the ban seems to hurt Micron more than Huawei. According to Micron’s financial report, as of the first half of 2019, 13% of the company’s revenue came from Huawei. On the other hand, data from Bloomberg listed the top 10 semiconductor suppliers for Huawei to be Foxconn, BYD, TSMC, OuFeiguang, FIH Mobile, Flextronics, SK Hynix, Broadcom, Qualcomm and Universe. There is only one memory chip manufacturer, that is SK Hynix, ranked seventh. In other words, Huawei has other options apart from Micron.
The new Redmi K20 and K20 Pro flagship phones came with a pop-up mechanism for the selfie camera which afforded Xiaomi the leverage to remove all forms of screen notch from the design template. With such mechanical features, there are usually fears bothering on its durability. Xiaomi did tout the camera mechanism to have a service life of up to 300,000 pop-ups. That is a long time, you know, which may even be longer than the phone’s life cycle. The tech giant has also shared more details of the mechanism, apparently to fully convince those in doubt.
The Redmi K20 series pop-up selfie camera features a mid-frame integrated rail design that uses a spiral stepper motor to lift and lower the camera. It can be popped up in 0.8s and has 6 custom lift sounds. The front lens cover is made of sapphire, which is wear-resistant and scratch-resistant, which can provide stronger protection for multiple pop-ups.
How the spiral stepper motor works
From the K20 and K20 Pro Pro teardown diagrams, it can be seen that in order to solve the conflict between the front camera and the bezel-less full screen, it uses an electric telescopic structure, and the most critical component to achieve this design is a spiral stepper motor.
The working principle of the spiral stepping motor is similar to our daily screwing action: the screw can be screwed down clockwise, and the screw can be unscrewed in the counterclockwise direction.
The reason why the spiral stepping motor is used to realize the lifting operation, instead of the straight-through method, is mainly because the spiral stepping motor is easier to control and the long-term operation is more stable.
Drop protection
In order to prevent the user from accidentally dropping during use and inflict damage on the camera, the K20 and K20 Pro use the mechanism plus software to protect the pop-up camera. It will quickly retract the front camera after the drop occurs, and the inside has a spring device for protection.
The K20 and K20 Pro have a built-in three-axis gyroscope to detect their own falling motion, the sensor inside the phone will do an extremely precise detection action and cause the camera to retract. The entire process will be completed within 100ms.
Press protection
At the same time, in order to avoid the physical damage caused by the user pressing the camera when it is raised, the K20 and K20 Pro are internally protected by spring devices, and equipped with a dual magnet + hall calibration chip to sense the displacement of the camera action.
The hall calibration chip is a magnetic field sensor fabricated using the hall effect and can be used to detect the strength of the magnetic field. The reason why the two magnets are used is to allow the hall calibration chip to detect a sufficiently strong magnetic field strength.
When the lift camera moves up and down, it will drive the two magnets to move. The Hall calibration chip will record the magnetic field strength corresponding to each position of the two magnets during the lifting process of the camera. When the user presses the camera, the position of the two magnets changes to cause a change in the strength of the magnetic field.
Finally, the Hall calibration chip detects the user’s action of pressing the camera by the change of the magnetic field strength, thereby triggering the automatic retraction of the camera. The middle frame integrated guide rail design ensures the camera is stable.
Despite the complaints from the global market, Meizu keeps going ahead to release innovative handsets with high value for money. The latest one is the Meizu 16Xs, one of the most amazing devices in terms of quality-price ratio sold for less than $250. But this device is not the only one which comes with a very attractive price tag and, if you are looking for a phone in its price range, you currently have a lot of choices. Two of the other top choices are the new Redmi K20 and the toned down version of the Mi 9 known as the Mi 9 SE. These two handsets are among the most wanted midrange ones: does Meizu 16Xs represent an even more valid choice? This comparison will clear your ideas about it.
Meizu 16Xs vs Xiaomi Redmi K20 vs Xiaomi Mi 9
Meizu 16Xs
Xiaomi Redmi K20
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT
152 x 74.4 x 8.3 mm, 165 grams
156.7 x 74.3 x 8.8 mm, 191 grams
147.5 x 70.5 x 7.5 mm, 155 grams
DISPLAY
6.2 inches, 1080 x 2232p (Full HD+), 403 ppi, Super AMOLED
6.39 inches, 1080 x 2340p (Full HD+), 403 ppi, AMOLED
5.97 inches, 1080 x 2340 pixels, 432 ppi, 19.5:9 ratio, Super AMOLED
Triple 48 + 8 + 5 MP f/1.7 and f/2.2 and f/1.9
16 MP f/2.2 front camera
Triple 48 + 13 + 8 MP f/1.8 and f/2.4 and f/2.4
20 MP f/2.2 front camera
Triple 48 + 13 + 8 MP f/1.8, f/2.4 and f/2.4
20 MP f/2.0 front camera
BATTERY
4000 mAh, fast charging 24W
4000 mAh, fast charging 18W
3070 mAh, Fast Charging 18W
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Dual SIM slot
Dual SIM slot
Dual SIM slot
Design
Until now, Meizu never came up with a device sporting a pop-up camera, but it still opted for notch-less devices in the high-end segment. Meizu 16Xs follows the same bandwagon: it does not have a notch, but you should not worry so much about bezels as it still comes with a very high screen-to-body ratio. But Meizu 16Xs is not the one I love. In my personal opinion, the best one is definitely Redmi K20 with its liquid finish on the rear side and its innovative pop-up camera. Xiaomi Mi 9 SE comes with a traditional waterdrop design, so it is nothing impressive compared with its opponents. But it is the most compact device of the trio.
Display
Thanks to the HDR technology and their great Super AMOLED panels, Xiaomi Mi 9 SE and Redmi K20 should be the devices which should bring the highest display quality, thanks to very accurate colors. Unfortunately, they are way inferior to flagship displays, but they still provide very nice performances. Meizu 16Xs should be less accurate when it comes to color reproduction, but it still comes with a premium screen. In each case, you get a fast in-display fingerprint reader.
Specs & Software
If speed is your priority, go for the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE without thinking twice. It is powered by a better processor: the Snapdragon 730 that can be defined as an important upgrade of the Snapdragon 710. And it is paired with 8 GB of RAM and up to 256 GB of internal storage. It has a better GPU as well as a better CPU than both the Snapdragon 675 and the Snapdragon 712 found on the Meizu 16Xs and the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE. As you could imagine, the second place goes to the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE, but it is inferior to the Redmi K20 for both its lower-end processor and memory configurations. Android 9 Pie is installed out of the box.
Camera
Besides its amazing hardware side, the Redmi K20 also delivers the best camera department. Its rear setup is composed of a 48 MP main sensor, a telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom and a 13 MP ultrawide lens. It is able to record 4K videos at 30 fps and 1080p super slow motion videos at 960 fps. Further, it even has a pretty nice 20 MP selfie camera. Xiaomi Mi 9 SE is almost at the same level and you will hardly notice the differences in photo quality, while Meizu 16Xs should be noticeably inferior. However, we still did not test this one, so you have to wait for our final verdict if you want a definitive opinion.
Battery
The weakest point of the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE is the battery: just 3070 mAh for a 2019 high-end device is disappointing. That is not the same with the Redmi K20 and Meizu 16Xs as both come with a great 4000 mAh battery which lasts a full day.
Price
Meizu 16Xs starts from €220/$245, Redmi K20 carries a €260/$290 price tag, and Xiaomi Mi 9 SE starts from €300/$335. The winner of the comparison is the Redmi K20 due to its bigger battery, awesome cameras, and perfect hardware department.
On Chinese e-commerce website Taobao, a seller was spotted who offers Mi 9 owners the option to bump up the battery to a maximum capacity of 9900mAh. This isn’t a modular setup like Motorola’s Moto Mods. Instead, the seller will have to install a large capacity battery with the minimum size on offer being 6500mAh on the Xiaomi flagship.
The seller also hints that after the battery swap which is called Magic change, the weight of the mobile phone will be increased by 60g. Also, the thickness of the phone will shore up by 3.4mm, but it does not affect any function and wireless charging still functions as normal.
The Mi 9 comes with a 3300mAH battery which some consider as disappointing. But such an offer is only fit to explore when the battery is already in its dying stages. As at the time of reporting, no buyer has made a review of the product although some Mi 9 users are cautiously placing orders. For one, the battery swap will void the warranty that covers the Mi 9. Also, you get no safety guarantee about the large capacity battery that would be installed. In addition, the Mi 9 comes with 27W fast charge support and 20W wireless flash charge which is the fastest wireless charging output on a smartphone. So, even though the original battery isn’t too big, it won’t take long to recharge the cell. Moreover, the large battery will make the phone become bulky and heavier.
Even with such considerations, some users won’t mind bumping up their Mi 9 battery to such huge capacity that promises extended usage time. Would you consider upgrading your battery if you find this kind of opportunity in your region? Tell us what you think in the comments section.
Huawei recently announced an upgrade to the custom EMUI ROM. The EMUI version 9.1 brings along several new features. The tech giant also listed a total of 49 models that would get the update. As with all versions of EMUI, the stable ROM is yet to roll out. However, the public beta for select models is currently ongoing and this means the stable version will roll out soon. The company recently rolled out the public beta for the first batch of models which had the Huawei Mate 20 series and other models.
Huawei has now announced the second batch of models that can join the public beta program. The list is made up of just 14 models with the Mate 10 series leading the pack. The models include Huawei Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro, Mate 10 Porsche Design, Mate RS Porsche Design, P20, P20 Pro, Nova 3, Nova 3i, Maimang 7, Enjoy 9 Plus, Honor 10, Honor V10, Honor Play, and Honor 8X. The Chinese tech giant also reeled out some models that will soon get the EMUI 9.1 public beta version. The models are Huawei Mate 9, Mate 9 Pro, Mate 9 Porsche Design, P10, P10 Plus, Nova 4, Nova 4e, Nova 2s, Honor 9 and Honor V9. The beta program is open to those who sign up for it. If you are an enrollee, you’ll need to be running the latest EMUI 9.0 version for your model before you’ll be able to get this upgrade. Also, you’ll need to ensure there is at least 6GB of storage space on the phone so as to avoid the risk of the upgrade failing.
Huawei’s EMUI 9.1 adopts a minimalist design, thanks to Android 9.0’s deep customization optimization. This version also brings improvements in wallpapers, themes and icons. There are also several improvements to the overall user apps which makes it easier to use the UI. There are also improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) features covering various aspects such as health, office, entertainment, travel and more.
In terms of health, EMUI 9.1 allows users to connect their smartphones with the treadmill using NFC. This enables data from the treadmill to be synchronised with the smartphone using the Huawei Sports Health app. While the treadmill is in use, the user can obtain key motion data such as distance, duration, pace, and calories in real time. It can also link equipment such as watches and accessories to provide users with accurate and comprehensive indoor running data and sports guidance. After the Huawei Sports Health App binds devices and social apps, you can synchronize data and refresh the step list.
Huawei has been pursuing the synergy of mobile and PC office systems and has developed the Huawei Share “One Touch” feature. With a single touch, the phone and Huawei MateBook can establish a connection and quickly transfer pictures, videos and documents. It is reported that it takes only 1 minute to transfer 500 photos and 35 seconds to transfer 1GB video. It also allows users to extract the text on the picture and share on the clipboard.
In addition, EMUI 9.1 also implements “AR measurement”, which not only measures the line segment and area but also measures the volume with one click. What’s more interesting is that when the family and friends are in the same box, “Huawei AR measurement” can also measure the heights of all members of the family at one time.
In terms of smart travel, EMUI 9.1 has more depth integration between mobile phones and cars. Huawei has already reached an agreement with BMW and other car manufacturers to launch the mobile phone key function. Without a physical car key, the mobile phone can complete a series of operations such as driving the car, starting the car engine, locking the car, etc., which is very convenient. Huawei mobile phone keys follow the CCC 1.0 standard of the Car Connectivity Consortium. The key and algorithm logic is stored in the hardware chip, which will not be accessed and copied by third-party programs, effectively protecting the safe use of mobile phone keys. Even when the phone is out of battery power, the phone key function can continue to be used after the phone is powered off. At this point, it can be used up to 15 times in 24 hours. If the mobile phone is lost, you can easily log into the website of the car manufacturer or change the mobile phone to log in and change the lock code.
EMUI 9.1 also comes with an upgrade to the new GPU Turbo graphics acceleration technology. The feature adds support for 51 domestic games in addition to the already supported 60 domestic games, bringing a low-power full-frame gaming experience.
Furthermore, EMUI 9.1 brings improvements to Huawei’s voice assistant as well as smart dual 4G SIM card switching, automatically switching SIM cards based on the one with the best internet coverage. At the same time, you can also set the traffic for each SIM card. After the setting, there will be a smart reminder of data usage so that the data limit will not be exceeded.
Whenever I think of Xiaomi, I usually associate them with almost every tech product under the sun. There are barely any market that Xiaomi hasn’t dipped their toes in, and when there is, it’s just a matter of time. The Chinese giant’s have never really been big on cinema headsets, but that’s changing now. Say hello to the Mi 3D Cinema Headset, a home theater system that sits on your head.
The Xiaomi Mi 3D Cinema Headset has dual 2.54-inch 1080p screens, both with a color gamut of 95% NTSC. They support full 3D visual effects and have a diagonal field of view of 63°. This is apparently equivalent to watching a 954-inch display from 20 meters away. Apparently the screens can work independently from each other, though I’ve no idea why one would want that. Plus, there’s also full 3D support, which is great.
Despite how the thing looks, it is NOT a VR headset. The headset works via screen casting, meaning that it needs to work in tandem with a different device for playback. Thankfully, the Mi 3D Cinema Headset supports all devices that run either iOS, Android, Windows or Mac OS. In terms of specs, the headset has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, as well as a battery that can last for 3 hours of media playback.
Now, this is all fine and dandy, but what’s the cost? The Xiaomi Mi 3D Cinema Headset will set you back at a pretty 1299 yuan, or about $188. This may seem steep, but when compared to similar products like the Cinego at $499, it’s a bargain. This isn’t exactly a populated market, and Xiaomi clearly wants to set a standard here. Whether they’ll succeed or not remains to be seen.
Huawei’s Honor brand has unveiled its latest smartphones – the Honor 20 and the Honor 20 Pro in its home market, China. The flagship models were first launched last week at an event in London. The launch event gave us the opportunity to get an in-depth knowledge of the specifications and features of both smartphones. Here’s a brief recap, as well as the pricing and availability details for the Chinese market.
Honor 20 and Honor 20 Pro Specs
The Honor 20 models both have a punch hole display like that of the Honor View 20. They both equally pack the same 6.26-inch All-View Display with the punch-hole housing a 32MP camera in both phones.
The models are powered by the Hisilicon Kirin 980 flagship chipset. In China, the Honor 20 and Honor 20 Pro are both available in 8GB+128GB and 8GB+256GB memory options.
The camera aspect is where the Honor 20 series excel. The Honor 20 Pro packs a quad-camera setup comprising a 16MP f/2.2 super-wide angle camera, a 48MP main Sony IMX586 camera with an f/1.4 aperture. The f/1.4 aperture is the largest on a mobile phone. Finally, there is an 8MP f/2.4 Telephoto camera and a 2MP f/2.4 Macro camera. Both the 48MP primary sensor and 8MP telephoto lens have 4-axis OIS. There is also a laser autofocus module for superfast focusing. The Honor 20 Pro also supports up to 30x digital zoom.
On the other hand, the Honor 20 has almost similar configuration except that the 48MP camera has an f/1.8 aperture. Also, the 8MP f/2.4 Telephoto camera is swapped for a 2MP dept of field sensor.
Honor 20 & Honor 20 Pro: Prices and Availability
The Honor 20 Pro landed Europe with a starting price tag of €599 while the Honor 20 price starts at €499. However, in China, the devices come with much lower price tags. As for their prices, the Honor 20 8GB+128GB variant is priced at 2699 yuan ($390) while the 8GB+256GB version comes in at 2999 yuan ($434). On the other hand, the Honor 20 Pro 8GB+128GB model is priced at 3,199 yuan ($462) and the 8GB+256GB version costs 3499 yuan ($506). Considering that these are 8GB RAM phones, coupled with the sleek design and powerful hardware, the prices are just spot-on.
The Honor 20 is expected to go on sale at 10:08 AM UTC+8 on June 1. While the Honor 20 Pro sale will commence at 0:00 on June 18. The models will be sold simultaneously on VMall, Huawei official mall, Jingdong, Tmall, Suning Tesco, Honor official website.
While we’ve been hearing a lot from Huawei lately, their sub-brand Honor has been relatively quiet. We saw them launch the Honor 20 and Honor 20 Pro earlier this month, but other than that they’ve been silent. That is, of course, until earlier today, where the company made a big announcement. An announcement that puts the Honor 20’s to shame. Behold, the Honor Rubik’s Cube Bluetooth Speaker is now official.
We joke, but this still seems like a pretty nifty little bluetooth speaker. For starters, it’s quite the cheap little piece at just 99 yuan, or $15. It features 3W full range sound, and it supports Bluetooth 4.2. We’d like to have seen Bluetooth 5.0, but it’s fine for the price. It also has a 660mAh battery, which can apparently last for 4 hours of music playback.
The Honor Rubik’s Cube Bluetooth speaker measures in at 54 x 54 x 55mm and weighs about 120g. It has a woven lanyard, which means you can hang it just about anywhere. The little thing also only comes in one colour option, that being the cheerful raspberry red you can see in the pictures. The power button lets you turn it on, pair the device, answer calls, and even pair your Cube with another Cube.
It’s nothing special, but it’s a cheap and cheerful little speaker with an adorable design. It’s already available for purchase over at Jingdong Mall. While I’m personally not all to interested in having a small bluetooth speaker like this, I can definitely see the appeal. You could just easily toss it into a bag to take anywhere, since it’s so small and cute.
Xiaomi‘s Mi Band is one of its most popular products to date with the affordable, durable and features-filled Mi Band 2 contributing to the popularity. The Band 2 got a fitting upgrade last year, giving birth to the Band 3. This year, Xiaomi is expected to launch the Mi Band 4 and going by last year’s Band 3 launch, the wearable device should have been released by now. While we await official word on the Mi Band 4, a couple of leaks have appeared online suggesting some of the upgrades that would accompany the device.
A couple of leaked photos of a device said to be the Mi Band 4 has appeared online showing the design and reaffirming the presence of coloured display onboard the Band 4. The design of the device could easily be passed for the Mi Band 3 except for the coloured display.
Earlier leaks, however, show that the Band 4 will have some design changes from the previous iteration. One of such features is an upgrade of the battery capacity which is bumped up from a 110mAh cell to a 135mAh cell. Also, you won’t need to dismantle the device from the housing when it is to be charged. This promises to be an impressive improvement considering the previous models have a charging system that requires a dismantle before it can be charged.
Recently, the Mi Band 4 was reported to have received Bluetooth certification. The device is confirmed to arrive in two models with model numbers XMSH08HM and XMSH07HM. One of the models will come with NFC just like the Mi Band 3. Both models will, however, have support for Bluetooth 5.0 protocol. The appearance of the Band 4 on NCC’s website gave us our first official look at the design and it is no different from this leaked model.
We await official words from Xiaomi about the Band 4. We’ll keep you posted when something new drops.
The next big thing in the smartphone industry after 5G is no doubt foldable phones. TCL showed us back in February some prototypes of the foldable models it was working on and promised to go commercial a foldable model. The Chinese company has now hinted that it would start production of the flexible OLED panels that would be on the phone.
The company reportedly acquired LTPS equipment from Japan and South Korea for its plant in Wuhan, China, the production of AMOLED panels is expected to commence in Q4 2019. The production will be done through its display division called Huaxing Optoelectronics. The flexible OLED panels will also likely be shipped to other OEMs.
TCL is confident its display division Huaxing can attain double-digit growth both in annual sales and profit. The LTPS-LCD production for Q1 2019 reached $27.2 million, ranking third in the world among companies with a single plant. The tech giant also disclosed that it has reached an agreement with some top-class phone manufacturers for flexible OLED orders.
TCL’s flexible OLED panels may likely also feature on smart TV and not just on smartphones. Recall that Huawei is said to be working on its own smart TV. The report has it that Huaxing will produce the 65-inch panels for the Huawei TV, while the 55-inch model would be manufactured by BOE.
Taiwan-based ASUS had held a launch event in Spain earlier this month to unleash the ZenFone 6 flagship phone. Apart from interesting flagship specs, the USP of the phone is that it is equipped with a unique pop-up camera. India’s Flipkart e-commerce site has a landing page for the smartphone which indicates that it will be launching soon in the country. According to Tech Radar, an anonymous source has revealed to it that the smartphone claim that it may go official in India on June 16. However, the Taiwanese firm is yet to confirm the launch date of ZenFone 6 for India.
The landing page of the smartphone on Flipkart has revealed plenty of information on its specs and features. It states that the phone is equipped with 6.4-inch NanoEdge Display and it is powered by Snapdragon 855 mobile platform. It features a flip camera system with the popular Sony IMX586 48-megapixel sensor. The 5,000mAh battery packed inside the phone carries support for Quick Charge 4.0.
Assisting the f/1.79 aperture 48-megapixel sensor inside the pop-up camera setup includes is a secondary 13-megapixel lens with 125-degree field of view. The camera module also includes laser autofocus and dual-LED flash. Since there is no front camera on the device, the rear cameras can flip up to capturing topnotch selfie shots. Some of the photography features that are available on the ZenFone 6 are Portrait Mode, Pro Mode, Super Night Scene Mode, 4K video shooting at 60 fps with EIS, up to 480fps slow-motion video recording and time-lapse. A fingerprint sensor is also available on the rear side of the device.
The marvelous full HD+ notch-less display of the ZenFone 6 is protected by Gorilla Glass 6. It carries support for HDR10 and DCI-P3 color gamut. The handset offers a screen-to-body ratio of 92 percent. The SD855 chip on the device will be assisted by 8 GB of RAM. It will come with an inbuilt storage of 256 GB. A lower variant featuring 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage could be also available in India. The ZenUI 6 based Android 9 Pie OS that offers near stock UI experience will come preloaded on the device.
In Europe, the two storage variants of the ASUS ZenFone 6 are respectively priced at 499 euros (~$556) and 599 euros (~$668). Last year, the ZenFone 5Z had rivaled with the OnePlus 6 phone in India. It is expected the upcoming ZenFone 6 will take on the recently released OnePlus 7 Pro smartphone.
Meizu has announced on its Weibo page, the launch of a new variant for the Meizu Note 9 and it is a Starlight Blue colour variant. The Meizu Note 9 was first launched in March this year and even though the device was listed to come with a Blue variant, it wasn’t made available until now. The model retains the pricing of other variants and starts at 1398 yuan ($202) for the 4GB+64GB storage variant. The 4GB+128GB version and 6GB+64GB version are both on sale for 1598 yuan ($231).
The Meizu Note 9 features a 6.2-inch IPS LCD display with a waterdrop-style notch. It adopts the 19.5:9 aspect ratio with a screen ratio of 89.23%. The display has a full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2244 pixels. The device comes with 4GB/6GB of RAM with 64 GB/128 GB storage options which can’t be expanded.
There is a big 4000Ah battery onboard with support for 18W mCharge rapid charging technology. Meizu even included an 18w charger in the retail box. The phone runs Android 9 Pie OS customized with the latest Flyme 7.2 UI. The device comes with some customizations which makes it suitable for hardcore gaming such as Hyper Gaming, which focuses on optimizing the frame rate and power consumption of the game. There is also Game mode 3.0 which reduces the interference of notifications, calls and other information on the screen while playing games.
The Meizu Note 9 is fitted with a dual camera setup arranged vertically at the rear. It includes a modified 48-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL Bright GM1 sensor as its primary lens and a depth sensor of 5-megapixel. The Note 9 comes with support night scene photography and offers features like handheld night scene mode and tripod mode. At the front, there is a 20MP sensor housed on the waterdrop notch. The other features of the Meizu Note 9 include rear-mounted fingerprint reader, face recognition 3.0 for unlocking in dim conditions, 4G VoLTE, dual-SIM support, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, USB-C and 3.5mm audio jack.
OPPO N1 announced in 2013 was touted as the world’s first rotating camera smartphone. It didn’t feature a selfie snapper, but a rotating camera module with dual LED flash that could be used for capturing selfies as well as regular shots as rear camera. It appears that the OPPO could be soon launching a new smartphone with a rotating camera setup since a new patent design has been approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The patent design shows that the smartphone is fitted with a display with ultrathin bezels. It features a dual camera setup on its rear. At the top side of the device, there is a semi-circular module that is assisted by three gears. It includes a camera sensor for shooting selfies. The gears help in bringing the camera sensor above the display.
The implementation of the rotating camera is similar to the ASUS ZenFone 6. While the patent filings don’t mention it, the camera module could be equipped with some sensors including an LED flash. The Chinese firm had filed the patent in October 2018 with UPSTO and it was approved on May 28.
The OPPO Find X flagship phone from last year came with a slider assembly that include the front and rear cameras. The Snapdragon 855 chipset powered OPPO Reno phone that was unveiled recently came with a unique “Shark Fin” shaped pop-up camera module. There is no confirmation on when the company will be a new phone with a rotating camera module. Probably, a new flagship smartphone arriving next year could be equipped with a rotating camera module.
What do you think about the new OPPO smartphone design? Share us your views by posting your comments below.
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