OPPO Reno shows off all its colors in these official renders

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Apr 1, 2019

There is still over a week before the OPPO Reno launches. Reservations are already live for those who are interested in grabbing a unit. If you are still not sold yet on the phone, maybe these official renders will do the job.

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These renders show the OPPO Reno in all the color variants it will be available in. There is Nebula Purple, Fog Se Green, Mist Powder, and Night Black. This version has dual rear cameras too but it is a different design from the renders from last week which has an inclined selfie camera.

We are not sure which version of the OPPO Reno this is since the phone itself comes in at least three variants – one with a Snapdragon 855 processor, another with a Snapdragon 710 processor and a third with an Helio P70 processor.

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While the rear design differs on all the renders we have seen till date, one common feature is they all do not have a notch or punch hole. The bezels have been shaved off completely on all sides save for the chin.

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Xiaomi Mi 9 SE Brown Bear Limited Edition launched for 2,499 Yuan (~$372)

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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Apr 1, 2019

Xiaomi has partnered with LINE FRIENDS, a global character brand to introduce Xiaomi Mi 9 SE Brown Bear Limited Edition smartphone. The sales of the special edition phone will begin on April 9 in China.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 SE Brown Bear Limited Edition handset that features a logo of brown bear’s face on its rear comes in a special box package. It includes a 10,000mah limited edition power bank worth 99 Yuan (~$15), a protective shell brown bear making different poses all over it, a collection certificate and some stickers.

The entire suit carries a price tag of 2,499 Yuan (~$372). Xiaomi Mall will begin its sales from April 9. The smartphone runs on a modified version of MIUI 10 that is customized with Brown Bear elements. The Chinese manufacturer also announced 20-inch Sally Mi suitcase limited edition in partnership with LINE FRIENDS with a price tag of 399 Yuan (~$60).

Xiaomi Mi 9 SE Specifications

The Xiaomi Mi 9 SE was announced alongside Xiaomi Mi 9 and Mi 9 Explorer Edition flagship phones in February. The Mi 9 SE comes with a 5.97-inch Super AMOLED display that produces full HD+ resolution and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The Gorilla Glass 5 panel protects the display.

The Android 9 Pie OS customized with MIUI 10 skin comes preloaded on the device. It is the first ever smartphone to be fueled by the Snapdragon 712 SoC that includes 2.3GHz octa-core processor and Adreno 616 graphics. The 64 GB and 128 GB storage editions of the phone include 6 GB of RAM. It lacks support for a microSD card slot.

Read More: New Xiaomi patent shows a smartphone with dual front cameras at the bottom

The rear shell of the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE has a triple camera unit with 48-megapixel primary sensor, 13-megapixel ultra wide-angle lens, and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens. A 20-megapixel selfie snapper is also available on the device. There is no 3.5mm audio jack on the device. Like the other Mi 9 series phones, it also features an under-display fingerprint reader. The 3,070mAh battery present inside the Mi 9 SE supports 18W fast charging. The regular model of the smartphone comes in color options such as Violet, Blue, and Gray. Its 64 GB and 128 GB storage variants are available with respective price tags of $1,999 (~$298) and $2,299 (~$342) in the home market.

OnePlus’ WarpTen Charger is the special product for April Fool’s Day

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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Apr 1, 2019

Last year, OnePlus had celebrated the April Fools Day by teasing PieCoin digital currency. This year the Chinese manufacturer has a new trick for this year’s April Fools Day. Through Weibo, OnePlus has teased a special product called WarpTen. It can be not only used for charging the phone, but its users can gain full energy by having it.

Yesterday, OnePlus had also claimed that it will be holding an online conference on April 1 to announce the WarpTen product. It is inspired from the 30W Warp Charge rapid charging technology that was made available with the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition smartphone last year.

In the video shown above, people who are tired and down on energy can be seen removing the WarpTen from their bags. The sweet chocolate with 33 percent super high cocoa button content can instantly bring new energy in the individuals. Moreover, it also charges their OnePlus smartphones wirelessly. The company had even claimed that it will be giving away 10 WarpTen through its Jingdong flagship store. OnePlus had described it has light and silky eatable handmade from European raw materials.

Coming soon. pic.twitter.com/U6kTjYlAIV

— OnePlus India (@OnePlus_IN) March 29, 2019

In India too, OnePlus ran a teaser of OnePlus car on March 29 to troll its fans. The teaser stated that the sports car that looks like the McLaren P1 hyper car will be announced soon. Coming back to WarpTen, it reminds of the Dash Energy Drink that the company had teased in 2017 for trolling its fans on April Fool’s Day. The energy drink was supposed to be a limited edition.

New Xiaomi patent shows a smartphone with dual front cameras at the bottom

By

Jeet

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Apr 1, 2019

Smartphone manufacturers are currently in the race of offering a device with the highest screen-to-body ratio. Apart from minimizing the bezels, companies are now coming up with solutions like notched display and pop-up mechanism for housing the camera.

Now, a parent of Xiaomi’s smartphone has been published online, which shows that the company will house the dual front-facing camera sensors inside a notch that’s placed at the bottom of the display.

This is not the first time Xiaomi is experimenting with the placement of the front-facing camera sensor. The Xiaomi Mi MIX smartphone, which was claimed to be a bezel-less phone, also housed the selfie camera at the bottom. However, it was not placed inside a notch, which is the case with this patent.

With such design changes, one question that arises is the usage of the phone. Having camera sensors at the bottom changes the composition of the selfies or video calling and the users will have to hold the device a bit higher than usual for it to look more natural.

Another patent shows two front-facing cameras at the bottom of the front panel but instead of having both sensors together in the middle, each sensor is placed at each corner at the bottom, inside the notch.

Coming to the back panel, it remains the same in both designs, featuring a dual rear camera setup with camera sensors stacked vertically in the top-left corner. It’s not yet clear if the phone will be a part of Xiaomi, Redmi, or Poco lineup.

While this unique design will make Xiaomi’s smartphone stand out from the crowd, it’s highly unlikely we’ll see a smartphone with such design anytime soon. Many times the patents are just for the experiment and not all the devices that get patented makes it to the commercial stage.

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Buy Cubot Max 2 4G Phablet For A Lowered Price Of Just $149.99 On Gearbest

By

Vinay Patel

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Apr 1, 2019

Cubot released the hotly-anticipated 4G phablet dubbed the Max 2 earlier this month. The Chinese Android smartphones manufacturer has teamed-up with Gearbest to launch a new promotion, wherein Gearbest users can get their hands on the Max 2 phablet at a lowered price.

Dubbed as Cubot Max 4G Phablet Deals $149.99, the new promo offers a noteworthy 27 percent off on the Cubot-branded phablet that would normally set you back a pretty penny on both online as well as offline stores. Thanks to the aforesaid discount, you can buy it for a reduced price of only $149.99.

This is a significant 27 percent drop in the device’s original asking price of $205.67. Aside from snapping up the aforesaid discount, new users are eligible for receiving an extra $3 off for spending $50. This is a limited offer which will be valid only for the first 4000 orders daily.

An absolute steal at this price, the Cubot Max 2 boasts an impressive array of features. You can check out what the 4G phablet has to offer in terms of features below:

6.8 inch IPS display with 1136 x 640 pixels resolution
MTK6762M 2.0GHz, Octa-Core processor
4GB RAM, 64GB ROM (expandable up to 256GB)
12.0MP,2.0MP rear-mounted cameras
8.0MP front shooter
Android 9 Pie OS
5000mAh built-in Li-ion non-removable battery

You can head straight to this link in order to check out the full specifications and avail the discount which will be valid for the twilight and black color versions of the phablet. With only 97 pieces of the twilight and 99 pieces of the black color versions remaining, the promo is slated to end on April 7th.

Get 27% Off On Cubot Max 2 4G Phablet

Oppo Reno reservations begin ahead of April 10 launch

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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Apr 1, 2019

OPPO has started receiving the reservations of the OPPO Reno series ahead of the April 10 launch event. The reservations are being carried out by multiple online retailers in China such as OPPO’s official online store, Jingdong Mall, Tmall, Suning and more. The OPPO Reno series are also available for reservations through offline channels.

Those who participate in the reservations until April 18 will be able to take advantage of OPPO’s trade-in activities and can also benefit from 500 Yuan (~$75) discount. Those participate in the pre-orders between April 19 and April 21 will be provided with a one-year screen breaking insurance worth 129 Yuan (~$19).

Recent reports have revealed plenty of information on the OPPO Reno series. It will be arriving in three models such as Snapdragon 710 CPU variant, Snapdragon 855 CPU model with support for only 4G networks and Snapdragon 855 edition with 5G support. One of the major attractions of the OPPO Reno (SD855 models) is that it is equipped with support 10x hybrid zoom. The smartphone will come equipped with a triple camera setup with 48-megapixel primary sensor, 13-megapixel telephoto lens and 8-megapixel wide-angle lens with a focal length of 16mm. The main sensor and telephoto lenses are expected to arrive with support OIS.

The OPPO Reno will be arriving with a notch-less display and a unique triangle-shaped module featuring the front-facing 16-megapixel lens and an LED flash. The screen of the OPPO Reno will be embedded with an in-screen fingerprint reader. The SD710 model will be packed with 3,680mAh battery whereas the SD855 variant is expected to include a 4,065mAh battery. The Reno series will carry support for VOOC 3.0 fast charging.

As it can be seen in the above poster, the OPPO Reno will be arriving in four color choices such as fog sea green, black night mist, pink mist and nebula purple. The pricing of the OPPO Reno series are currently under the wraps. Recent reports have also revealed that the Chinese manufacturer will be releasing the Reno series outside of China soon.

Buy iRobot Roomba 529 Intelligent Sweeping Robot For Just $199.99 On Gearbest

By

Vinay Patel

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Apr 1, 2019

We usually end up spending a lot of money on devices that keep our surrounding clean and tidy all the time. While most of these home cleaning products aren’t easy on the pocketbook, Gearbest is offering a feature-laden sweeping robot at a considerably lowered price.

iRobot Roomba 529 Intelligent Sweeping Robot

Designed to simplify the arduous process of cleaning, the iRobot Roomba 529 adopts a one-button cleaning function that eliminates back-breaking steps. Despite its simplistic operation, the device delivers a powerful suction of 1200pa.

Moreover, the iRobot Roomba 529 Intelligent Sweeping Robot uses the classic three-stage sweep, roll, and suction cleaning system in a bid to clear up the corner dust, absorb garbage, and other particles all at once.
While the aforesaid functions completely justify the steep $222.99 price tag, the iRobot Roomba 529 Intelligent Sweeping Robot usually carry, Gearbest users can now get the highly efficient device for a considerably reduced price of only $199.99.

Aside from taking advantage of this 10 percent discount, new users can avail an extra PayPal discount, wherein they can get an extra $3 off for spending $50. This is a limited offer which will be valid only for the first 4000 orders daily.

You can head straight to this link in order to check out the full specifications and grab the aforesaid discount. With just 100 pieces remaining, the promo is slated to end in eleven days.

Get 10% Off On iRobot Roomba 529 Intelligent Sweeping Robot

Huawei could have offered thinner chin on P30 but that would have affected user experience

By

Jeet

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Apr 1, 2019

Huawei recently took the wraps off the company’s new flagship smartphones — Huawei P30 and P30 Pro. Both smartphones come with an improved design and an advanced camera setup for better photography.

As for the design, the Huawei P30 now comes with a thinner chin compared to its predecessor as well as thinner than the P30 Pro model as well. Now, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business says that the company could have offered a smaller thin.

He says that while it was possible for Huawei to offer even thinner chin on the P30’s front panel but decided against it as the thinner chin would have adversely affected the user experience. He explains that it there’s no border at the bottom, the screen gets inadvertently pressed each time a user slides from the bottom.

Yu Chengdong further adds that it’s more important to focus on minimizing the side bezels instead of focusing on reducing the bottom chin and implies that that is the company’s focus at this time.

As for the specifications, the Huawei P30 comes with a 6.1-inch FHD+ OLED DCI-P3 HDR display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Under the hood, it is powered by the company’s own Kirin 980 chipset with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

The phone also has support for storage expansion using Huawei’s NM Card. The P30 comes with a triple-camera setup — 40MP wide-angle + 16MP ultra wide-angle + 8MP telephoto lens, along with dual-LED flash.

On the front side, it comes with a 32MP snapper for taking selfies and video calling. The phone runs Android 9 Pie-based EMUI 9.1 and is powered by a 3,650mAh battery with support for 22.5W fast charging.

Buy Links: Get Huawei P30 on Giztop, Banggood, GeekBuying

(Source)

Xiaomi’s first car partnership comes in the way of a customized Bestune T77 SUV

By

Jeet

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Apr 1, 2019

Xiaomi is no longer just a smartphone company and has been working on launching a wide range of products from smart home to durables. Now, the company took to Weibo to announce its biggest product so far, which will make its debut on 3rd April.

The company has announced that it has partnered with Bestune — a first for the company to launch a customized car — Bestune T77 SUV. The SUV car model’s pricing starts at 89,800 Yuan, which roughly converts to $13,391.

Xiaomi Bestune T-77 SUV

While the company has announced its partnership with the Bestune for a customized car, it is not yet known what kind of customization it will undergo to be a part of this Redmi brand. To know, we’ll have to wait a couple of days more.

The car measures 4525 x 1845 x 1615 mm and has a wheelbase of 2700 mm and weighs at around 1455 kg. It comes equipped with a 1.2L turbocharged engine and 6-speed MT gearbox. It offers maximum horsepower of 143Ps and maximum power of 105kW and maximum torque of 204Nm.

The Bestune T-77 comes in six different models and the top model is priced at 134,000 Yuan which roughly converts to $19,981. As said, to know how the car is customized for the Redmi brand, we’ll have to wait for the launch event. However, it’s sure that it’ll be the most expensive product under the Redmi brand.

The car was first introduced at the Beijing Auto Show in April last year as the Bestern T-Concept and the production model was announced at the Guangzhou Auto Show in November last year. It is also the first vehicle marketed by FAW under a new international name “Bestune” instead of “Besturn”.

Lenovo foldable phone patent reveals a hinge design similar to the Surface Book’s

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Mar 31, 2019

Lenovo has been one of the first companies that were rumoured to be working on a foldable device. We are no longer in doubt as to whether the company is actually working on one, considering that is the growing trend in the industry. The company has also showcased its foldable device concept consecutively at Tech World 2016 and 2017. A recent patent filing has now given us an idea of the design the company is planning to use.

The patent was submitted at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in September 2018 and is presently listed on the outfit’s website. The sketches describing the product bears some similarities to those of the Microsoft Surface Book which had a hinge design. It uses an inward folding design just like the Galaxy Fold and has two hinges connecting the two displays.

The hinge design throws up the possibility that the patent isn’t likely for a smartphone but a tablet. This is because including two hinges on a phone may make it look bulky. The design may be for a laptop, though, since that is the company’s major division presently. It is also possible the company has perfected a design style that would keep the device as thin as possible even when folded.

(source)

Transsion holdings known for the Tecno and Infinix brands, applies for listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Mar 31, 2019

The name Transsion Holdings may not ring a bell to many but from an obscure start-up, the company has grown to become one of the leading brands in several regions, especially in Africa. In fact, the company is dubbed as Africa’s Mobil Phone King. In case you are still wondering, Transsion Holdings is the parent company of the Tecno, Infinix, iTel and Spice brands. The company is now eyeing further expansion in other markets and is seeking investors to back its plans. The Chinese start-up has reportedly applied for listing on The Shanghai Stock Exchange. The information shows that the sponsor of the company is CITIC Securities.

Transsion Holdings was established in Shenzhen in 2013 with a registered capital of 720 million yuan. Its main market is on the African continent and Nigeria is perhaps its largest single market on the continent. The company has also made inroads into India in recent times. Available data shows that in 2017, the company exported 129 million mobile phones, with sales exceeding 20 billion yuan, accounting for 45.9% of the market share in Africa. The Tecno brand is the most popular among its brands and that popularity is hinged on the affordable pricing and the powerful camera offered on the model, especially recent offerings. We should add that bigger Chinese brands like OPPO, Xiaomi, Vivo etc, are eyeing the Africa market known for its sheer size. Thus, Transsion’s bid to secure more funds for further expansion is a good idea.

(source)

XIaomi will test-run a “Blind Buy” plan this Mi Fan festival and it sounds like fun

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Mar 31, 2019

The Mi Fan festival 2019 is around the corner. The event is regarded as an annual user feedback event by Xiaomi and the month of April when it is celebrated coincides with the period when Xiaomi opened shop (April 6, 2010). This year, Xiaomi had already disclosed that it would launch 20 products that would be available to buy during the festival which will run from April 1 to April 12. The company has again disclosed that it would debut a new plan known as “Blind Buy” plan.

This was revealed by Xiaomi’s general manager Gao Ziguang who also stated that the plan will be officially unveiled during the event Xiaomi has scheduled to hold on April 1. The Xiaomi exec made reference to Lei Jun’s statement way back in 2017 where he hinted that the company is striving to develop products that buyers would be willing to buy even when they are blindfolded. So, the company would literally blindfold selected participants who would then pick a product and guess what it is. Each participant will be eligible to make three guesses. A correct guess would qualify the winner to get that product at a discounted price. The discount rate would be determined by the speed with which the winner makes payment for the product.

We’ll have to wait to get more details of the plan and as stated, that would be revealed on April 1.

(source)

Xiaomi explains why the Redmi Note 7 series did not have on-screen fingerprint sensor

By

Jed John Ikoba

-

Mar 31, 2019

Redmi’s Vp Lu Weibin on Sunday sought the opinions of fans on Weibo about the feature they would like to see get improved on the Redmi Note 7 series. Surprisingly, most of the comments were specific about one thing, and that is the lack of an on-screen fingerprint sensor on the device.

Lu Weibing then responded, stating reasons why we may not see on-screen fingerprint sensors on the Redmi models any time soon. The reason is that the device uses an LCD display and under-screen sensors can only be included on AMOLED screens. He also explained that due to the thin build of the model, it was not feasible to put a side-mounted fingerprint sensor since the surface area would be small and so, the failure rate could be high.

Thus, the rear-mounted sensor may likely stick around for some time. That is, of course, until on-screen fingerprint technology for LCD displays are developed. Perhaps, Redmi may decide to use AMOLED panels on its high-end models. That may also lead to the inclusion of on-screen fingerprint sensors. XIaomi is said to be working on a Snapdragon 855-powered Redmi flagship and of course, that wouldn’t be using an LCD screen.

Buy Links: Get Redmi Note 7 on GearBest, Banggood, Giztop, Geekbuying, GearVita

Get Redmi Note 7 Pro on Giztop, GearBest, Banggood, Geekbuying

(source)

Samsung releases the second update in two weeks for the Galaxy S8 ushering improved camera stability

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Mar 31, 2019

The Galaxy S8 may have gotten two successors but that has stopped Samsung from pushing regular updates to its 2017 flagship model. The Korean giant has just rolled out a fresh update for the global version of the Galaxy S8 with the model number SM-G950F).

The official changelog shows that the update brings improvement in the phone’s camera stability and a ‘security patch update’. The security patch isn’t strictly the March security patch as that has already been made available earlier this month, precisely on March 18. That makes this update the second one the company would be pushing to the Galaxy S8 with a space of two weeks. The OTA may take a while before reaching all users so if you are yet to receive the update on your S8, expect it to hit soon.

Samsung Galaxy S8 was updated to Android 9.0 Pie only last month. That may explain the frequent updates. The update brings onboard the new, fully redesigned One UI custom overlay, making the S8 look and feel almost like an S10 in terms of the software. The Galaxy S8 launched with Android Nougat and last year, it got the Oreo update. This is the second major update for the model and likely the final. Samsung will now likely deliver only security patches for another year before resting the device from any form of updates.

(source, via)

Snapdragon 855-powered Galaxy Tab S5 found in Galaxy Fold’s code

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Mar 31, 2019

Samsung has already released three new tablets this year – there is the gorgeous and impressively thin Galaxy Tab S5e, the Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019), and the 8” Galaxy Tab A (2019) with S Pen. However, none of these are flagship tablets which isn’t surprising. The Galaxy Tab S5 is expected to be the flagship tablet for 2019 and it seems it will come with the Snapdragon 855 like the Galaxy S10 series.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e LTE Tablet — Galaxy Tab S5e

In the past, the Galaxy Tab S flagship tablets usually have an older flagship processor different from the one in the flagship Galaxy S/Note series smartphones released in the same year. For example, the Galaxy Tab S4 released last year is powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor and not the Snapdragon 845 found in the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note9.

This year’s Galaxy Tab S5 will most likely come with the Snapdragon 855 based on findings carried out by XDA-Developers. The evidence was found in the defconfig file of the Galaxy Fold. The file contains a list of Samsung devices powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855.

The list includes the Galaxy S10 series, the Galaxy Fold, a 5G modem for Verizon and a device which is listed as D2Q which is believed to be the Galaxy Note 10. Alongside all these devices is another listed as GTS5L. This is believed to be the Galaxy Tab S5 as its predecessors – the Galaxy Tab S3 and Galaxy Tab S4 have the codenames GTS3L and GTS4L respectively.

Seeing as the defconfig file is for all Samsung Snapdragon 855 devices, then the Galaxy Tab S5 will come with the chipset too. The other specs are unknown and that isn’t surprising as there is still about 6 months before it launches. That is if Samsung follows the Tab S4’s release date.

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Huawei edges Lenovo to lead BrandZ’s Top 50 Chinese brand ranking

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Mar 31, 2019

Popular brand building platform BrandZ has released its top 50 ranking of the most valuable brands from China which are competing on the global scene. The report shows a 15% increase YoY on the brand power index of Chinese brands. The report shows Huawei recorded the strongest performance in the overseas market in the past two years and that the company’s brand value (Brand Power) increased by 22% compared to 2018. With a score of 1862 points, Huawei toppled Lenovo which had 164 points lesser than Huawei and which was last year’s overall best brand.

Regarding the performance of Huawei, BrandZ stated that Huawei is the number one brand in terms of brand power this year due to its successes in the domestic and overseas markets. Huawei leads both in terms of brands and products. Basically, Huawei’s dominance in several markets outside China is undisputable especially compared to other Chinese phone brands.

The list also contains several smartphone brands, though, which is an indication that the Chinese smartphone companies are soaring on the international scene. There is Xiaomi in number 4 which is a good thing for the company and then, OnePlus at number 9. OnePlus is popular outside China even more than Xiaomi but this ranking could be a pointer to the rising profile of the Mi brand. OPPO also made it into the top 20 brands, sitting at number 19.

However, the top ten brands include Alibaba, Xiaomi, ByteDance, Hisense, Haier, Air China, OnePlus, and Anker. Other top technology brands are: DJI (13th), TCL (18th), OPPO (19th), Tencent (20th), Vivo (27th), Honor (28th), Gree (No. 29), ZTE (No. 30), Netease (No. 32), UnionPay (No. 33), Meizu (No. 36), Jingdong (No. 40), BYD (No. 44), and Midea (No. 49).

(source)

Unboxing pictures reveal the Xiaomi Mi 9 Transparent Edition comes with a 27W fast charger

By

Habeeb Onawole

-

Mar 31, 2019

The Xiaomi Mi 9 Transparent Edition can be called the successor to last year’s Mi 8 Explorer Edition. Just like the Mi 8 EE, the Mi 9 Transparent Edition has a see-through glass back that shows the “internals” of the phone. The phone which went on sale this month is already shipping to owners. Below are unboxing photos which of the phone and it has an important surprise.

When the Mi 9 launched, a review by Gsmarena revealed the phone ships with an 18W charger and not a 27W charger which the phone supports. If you want the 27W charger, you will have to purchase the 20W wireless charger bundle which includes the 27W charger and the 20W wireless charging pad.

For the Mi 9 Transparent Edition, unboxing photos shared by ITHome shows the phone ships with the 27W charger, so you don’t need to spend extra to get it. However, you still have to buy the 20W wireless charger separately. The 27W charger supports 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/2.25A, and 20V/1.35A power ratings.

[envira-gallery id=”243792″]

Apart from the difference in design, the Mi 9 Transparent Edition has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It also has an 8GB RAM + 256GB version which won’t be available for purchase until April. Another major difference is the primary camera. The 48MP sensor on the Mi 9 Transparent Edition has an f/1.47 aperture while the regular Mi 9’s 48MP sensor has an f/1.8 aperture. The rest of the specs are the same.

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AT&T achieves over 1Gbps data speed with its 5G network, the first U.S. carrier to do so

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Mar 31, 2019

US carrier AT&T has launched its real 5G service in 12 markets and it can be accessed only by invitation. The 5G service requires the use of the Netgear Nighthawk 5G mobile hotspot that was launched a couple of months back. The speed of the 5G network was initially slightly faster than those achieved by the fake 5G network known as 5G evolution. However, AT&T on Saturday announced that it has been able to achieve a 5G mobile speed that surpasses 1Gbps. This makes the company the first U.S. carrier ever to achieve such.

The is a milestone for the company which is the country’s second-largest wireless provider, behind Verizon. AT&T says a two-hour HD movie can be downloaded in 20 seconds at that speed. Isn’t that just amazing? Just this last December, AT&T’s 5G service had a download speed of 194.88Mbps, which is about one fifth as fast as the 1Gbps speed that the service recently was clocked at. At that time, the carrier’s 5G Evolution service, which is actually enhanced 4G LTE, had a download speed of 187.44Mbps. But an upgrade to its 5G network allowed AT&T to use a four-carrier aggregation of 100MHz carriers to increase the data capacity of its network, thus allowing it to reach faster speeds.

Speaking on this monumental achievement, Igal Elbaz, SVP Wireless Technology, AT&T stated; “Today, we were the first carrier in the U.S. to reach mobile 5G speeds surpassing 1 gigabit per second. We reached this milestone on our live 5G network in multiple cities using a commercial device, the NETGEAR Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot…this is all part of our plan. We will continue to test and roll out the latest 5G technologies to our customers and they will continue to be the first to experience the latest and greatest versions of 5G.”

(source)

Samsung Galaxy A30 now available to buy in the US with a 30-day warranty

By

Jed John Ikoba

-

Mar 31, 2019

Samsung announced the Galaxy A30 last month, just days after the flagship Galaxy S10 series was unveiled. The Galaxy A30 was launched alongside the Galaxy A50. The A30 is now available to buy in the US from the popular retailer, Newegg. This is not an official listing as Samsung won’t be launching the models in the US. In fact, the US isn’t one of the target markets for the affordable Galaxy A series. However, Newegg offers buyers a 30-day warranty which means buyers can return the product within that period if they are not satisfied with the smartphone.

The Samsung Galaxy A30 is unlocked but won’t work on all US mobile operators. Specifically, the phone is compatible with GSM/LTE carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile (including their prepaid brands), but not with CDMA/LTE carriers like Verizon and Sprint. As for the pricing, Newegg offers the A30 for $229.99 which is an attractive price tag for such a device. The device is also available on Amazon but with no warranty. You can also snag the sleek model on eBay for a slightly cheaper price tag.

The Galaxy A30 features an Infinity-U 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. It also features the same 3D Glasstic design as the A50. The Exynos 7904 powers it and you get 3GB or 4GB of RAM paired with 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. A MicroSD card slot will allow you to add extra storage. It has a 16MP f/1.7 primary camera on the back that is paired with a 5MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle lens. The selfie camera is a 16MP f/2.2 sensor. There is a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner along with support for Face Unlock. The device also crams an impressive 4,000mAh battery with support for fast charging under its hood.

(via)

Nintendo is reportedly working on a gaming phone that can be linked with Switch

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Mar 31, 2019

Nintendo may have got plans in the works to do what Sony failed to do. As a gaming giant, Sony was unable to transform its successes with the PlayStation to success with its smartphone division even with the rising profile of mobile gaming phones. Rather, Sony’s smartphone division continues to decline. Nintendo is said to be considering an entry into the gaming phone market. A render said to be that of the gaming giant’s first gaming phone was also shared but we believed that is fake.

The company’s plans in this regard are still unclear but it is said that it is considering hosting an exclusive IP for mobile games. The company is also considering making it possible to link the Nintendo Switch with phones among others. It could also harness its vast catalogue of games to give it an edge.

The number of mobile gaming phone brands in the market is gradually increasing by the day. Presently, there is the Razer phone, Xiaomi Black Sharp brand, ASUS ROG phone, Nubia’s Red Magic brand and of late Vivo’s iQOO. All the brands, except Razer, has a long span experience in manufacturing smartphones before venturing into gaming phones. With no pedigree in phone manufacture whatsoever, it is left to be seen how Nintendo aims to break into the market.

(source)