Samsung’s smartwatches are known to run a wearable version of its Tizen OS and have the prefix “Gear” in their name. That may be changing with its next smartwatch.
About Gear S4 (probably called Galaxy Watch) Based on Android Wear, 470mAh battery, PLP package, it is expected to have new UX interaction and blood pressure measurement.
According to China-based leaker – Ice Universe (@UniverseIce on Twitter), the Gear S4 may launch as the Galaxy Watch and will be based on Android Wear or Wear OS as it is now known. He also revealed some few specifications about the watch.
Gear S3 successor may launch as Galaxy Watch
The Galaxy Watch will come with a 470mAh battery. This is 90mAh bigger than that of the Gear S3 Classic and Gear S3 Frontier. Samsung will also use PLP (Panel Level Package) process for the manufacturing. This makes the processor slimmer and also saves cost. The watch will also have a new UX interaction and be able to measure blood pressure.
Expanding the portfolio of devices in its A-series, Oppo has announced a new smartphone — Oppo A5. Prior to this, the company had launched Oppo A1 and Oppo A3 smartphones.
The smartphone, which recently received TENAA certificate in China, has now been listed on the company’s official website in India. From the listing, it seems that the Oppo A5 will be available for purchase from 13th July.
Oppo A5 features a 6.2-inch HD+ FullView display with 2.5D curved glass, 19:9 aspect ratio. Keeping the trend in mind, the company has also offered a notch on top of the display. Under the hood, it is powered by Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz along with Adreno 506 GPU.
The phone packs 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage along with support for microSD card that enables users to further expand the device’s storage capacity up to 256GB. Coming to the optics, the smartphone features a dual camera setup at the back, consisting of a 13-megapixel primary sensor and a 2-megapixel secondary sensor.
On the front side, the device comes equipped with an 8-megapixel snapper with f/2.2 aperture for taking selfies and video calling. The front-facing camera also comes with AI beautify features that intelligently recognizes 296 facial features.
As the smartphone doesn’t come with a fingerprint sensor, we are expecting that the phone has support for Face Unlock feature. Connectivity options on the device include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS, and USB OTG.
The smartphone runs on ColorOS 5.1 out of the box, which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo operating system. The device is fuelled by a 4,230mAh battery that claims to offer 14 hours of video playback and 11 hours of gaming.
The Oppo A5 has been priced at 1,500 Yuan, which roughly converts to $226. It will be available for purchase in China from 13th July in two color options — Blue and Pink. There’s no information available regarding the phone’s availability in other markets.
Gaming smartphones are gradually turning into a trend that will soon have the major players in the smartphone industry onboard. If our memory serves us right, the Razer phone was the first model to be unveiled with a build and specs tailored for extreme gaming. Xiaomi’backed Black Shark joined the party earlier this year and then Taiwanese phone maker ASUS joined the bandwagon with its “Republic of Gamers” (ROG) branded gaming phone which was launched earlier this year.
During the launch of the Zenfone 5Z, ASUS made some disclosures concerning its plans to launch the ROG phone in India. ASUS CEO Jerry Shen is reported to have hinted that flagship gaming machine will be launched in the third quarter in India. He also added that the phone will be priced higher than the Zenfone 5Z that is also a flagship phone. The Zenfone 5Z’s price starts at Rs 29,999 ($436) which is super cheap compared to the OnePlus 6. The CEO also added that the key to the ROG phone’s success is the 8GB RAM and 512GB storage it packs which is better than some PC.
We should add also that the ASUS ROG gaming smartphone offers several features such as the custom Optiflex which is the company’s technology that speeds up the phone. The smartphone equally packs an expansive 6-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2,160 x 1,080pixels. The device is powered by a 2.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor. The high CPU clock speed is in order to provide a “seamless” gaming experience. The phone gets its power from a 4,000 mAh and also supports Quick Charge 4.0 with the capability to charge the device from 0-66 percent in 30 minutes. There is also a featured tagged HyperCharge that prevents the device from heating during charging. ASUS also adopted some design features to make gaming easier like placing the USB port for charging on the side of the smartphone to make it easier to plug and play while using the smartphone. The features go on and one. You can read more from our launch article from here. The device is expected to be priced around Rs 50,000 ($727) in India.
Huawei is working on a new 2-in-1 wearable device — Huawei Talkband B5, which is the successor of the Huawei Talkband B3 that was launched about two years ago. Now, the press render of the device has leaked online through Evan Blass, showing us what the device will look like.
From the leaked image, it seems that this is a 2-in-1 device that can be used as a fitness tracker as well as a single-ear Bluetooth headset. When attached to the wristband, it can be used as a fitness tracker, but when detached, it becomes a single-ear Bluetooth headset which can be used to take calls.
The design language of the upcoming wearable device from China-based Huawei is similar to its predecessor, with some minor changes. It appears that the device will be offered in two color options — Gold and Silver with the option to have a leather strap or a metal band. The earpiece part of the device will come in black color, regardless of the color variant.
While we now know that the device will look like, there is no information available about the device’s specifications. From the leaked image, it’s pretty clear that the Talkband B5 will come with an elongated touchscreen, which is probably an OLED display. It supports Bluetooth connectivity and also shows various notifications.
The Talkband B3 had 128KB RAM, 16MB of external storage and 512KB internal storage. It packs 91mAh battery that the company claimed could deliver a maximum of 6 hours of talk time. Just like the Talkband B3, the Talkband B5 is also expected to be compatible with both Android as well as the iOS operating system.
At this time, it is not known when the company is planning to officially launch the Huawei Talkband B5 but we are expecting the device to launch soon, within a month or two.
HMD Global had launched the Nokia X6 as the first Nokia smartphone with notched display design in May this year. Rumors have been claiming that the Finnish firm will be expanding the X series by launching more phones with notched display design. Recent leaks have revealed that Nokia 5.1 Plus (aka Nokia X5) is next notched phone from the firm. A leaked photo of the promo poster of the smartphone has appeared on Baidu forum. The leakster who has revealed the image claims that the Nokia X5 will be launching on July 11 along with its pricing. He has also claimed that Nokia smartphones Snapdragon 710 and Snapdragon 845 are also slated to debut in the coming months.
According to the leakster, the Nokia X5 will be announced on July 11. Its 32 GB and 64 GB storage models are expected to be respectively priced at 799 Yuan (~$120) and 999 Yuan (~$150). It seems that the Nokia X5 will be arriving in China with an attractive price tag. However, the Finnish firm is known for launching its smartphones with costlier pricing outside of China.
The TENAA listing of the smartphone has revealed that it will be coming with a 5.86-inch HD+ resolution display that will offer 19:9 aspect ratio. A 2.0 GHz octa-core processor is expected to be present under the hood of the phone. It is expected to arrive in RAM options such as 3 GB, 4 GB and 6 GB and storage options like 32 GB and 64 GB.
It will be featuring a 13-megapixel primary sensor in its dual camera setup. For selfies, it has a frontal shooter of 8-megapixel. It will be powered by 3,000mAh battery. The Android 8.1 Oreo OS will be preinstalled on the phone. The other features of the phone include microSD card slot, a rear-mounted fingerprint reader and color options like blue, blue and white.
Coming back to leaked information that has appeared on Baidu, the leakster claims that the SD710 and SD845 Nokia phones are also slated to debut in the third quarter of the year. Rumors have it that the Nokia X7 is another X-series phone from the company. There is a possibility that Nokia X7 could be the upcoming Snapdragon 710 powered smartphone from the firm.
As far as the Snapdragon 845 powered Nokia flagship is concerned, it is speculated to arrive with exciting features such as in-display fingerprint scanner and topnotch cameras. It is speculated to debut as Nokia A1 Plus.
As the race for a slice of the smartphone market intensifies, phone makers are looking at different markets that can best help them sell more phones. Xiaomi as now unveiled the latest Mi 8 flagship in Hong Kong. The product went on sale earlier today with a high level of interest as shown in the picture slash shared by Senior VP, Wang Xiang. Despite the hot weather, fans trooped in to have a peek at the leek device and perhaps, pick up theirs. The high traffic was witnessed in the two Mi home stores in Hong Kong.
The Mi 8 is made available in 6GB + 64GB and 6GB + 128GB versions. The 6GB + 64GB version is priced at HK$3,399 (~$433 based on current exchange rate) while the 6GB + 128GB version will sell for HK$3,699 (~$471). Considering the specs and build quality of the Mi 8, you’ll agree this is an amazing price. If the OnePlus 6 is a flagship killer, the Mi 8 killed the OP6 with its pricing and even design (some will argue about this.
As a reminder, the Xiaomi Mi 8 offers users a 6.21-inch Super AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution of 2248 x 1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 18.7:9. The device equally features a glass back panel on top a 7000-series aluminium frame. A Snapdragon 845 chipset powers the flagship while it gets its interface from the Android Oreo-based MIUI 10. The device also dazzles in the camera sensors it packs, dual rear cameras and you get to refill it’s 3400mAh battery with the Quick Charge 4+ fast charging technology. Other amazing features onboard the affordable flagship include dual-frequency GPS, dual-SIM support, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, and 3.5mm audio jack. We still expect the device to be rolled out in more markets globally at any moment.
There’s no doubt that Qualcomm is the king of mobile processors and the company has managed to penetrate all the three major segments in the market: high-end, mid-range, low-end. Mediatek has been giving tough competition to the US based chip maker in the budget and mid-range markets but even in these two segments, the company has managed to gain ground in recent times, all thanks to its efficient set of processors from the 600 and 400 series. However, sometimes it could be hard keeping a track of where each processor stands in the series. So, this article aims to improve your understanding of the processor that goes inside your smartphones, specifically ones from the Qualcomm Snapdragon series.
It was necessary to write this article because Qualcomm’s Snapdragon series naming isn’t as straightforward as you might think. For example, the newly announced Snapdragon 632 isn’t really better than the Snapdragon 630 (apart from its custom CPU cores advantage) that was announced way back in May 2017. Logically, considering the naming scheme, we would immediately assume that the SD632 is the better chipset but that’s not really the case. Similarly, the Snapdragon 450 chipset that was announced back in June 2017 is very similar to Snapdragon 625, despite being from a low-end 400 series.
Specifically, we will be taking a look at six processors for mid-range smartphones from Qualcomm, namely the Snapdragon 660, Snapdragon 636, Snapdragon 632, Snapdragon 630, Snapdragon 625, and also the Snapdragon 450.
We can divide these processors into further two sections for ease of understanding: Upper mid-range and mid-range.
Upper mid-range has two main chipsets: Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 636. I know many would argue that there’s the Snapdragon 710 chipset too, but with 10nm manufacturing node and custom Kryo 360 cores that are based on Cortex A75, we can no longer call it a mid-range chipset. At best, we could say it’s a premium mid-ranger but with such high-end specs, it’s more close to the 800 series flagships than the 600 series chipsets.
Coming back to the 600 series chipsets, in the mid-range segment, we can include four SoCs, namely, Snapdragon 630, Snapdragon 632, Snapdragon 625, and Snapdragon 450. Again, many could argue that the 450 is from the low-end series and doesn’t really deserve to be called as a mid-range processor. But for reasons mentioned below, I feel that the 450 is better placed in the mid-range segment rather than the budget series.
Now that we have placed these processors in their respective subsections, let’s take a look at each section in detail. First, let’s take a look at the upper mid-range processors.
Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 636 are two of the most powerful processors in the 600 series from Qualcomm. These 2017 processors are unique in the sense that they have custom cores, a first in the 600 series. Specifically, the Snapdragon 660 that was announced back in May 2017 was the first 600 series chip to use custom Kryo cores. Snapdragon 636 joined the lineup later in October. Given that they were going to power the best mid-rangers in the market, it made sense why Qualcomm would use custom cores in these two chipsets. However, this year, in June, Qualcomm made another entry in the lineup with the Snapdragon 632 and surprisingly, even this new chipset boasted eight custom kryo cores. Why surprising? Because, despite its 632 name, this particular chip is going to power the cheaper mid-rangers of 2018 and is better put as an upgrade to the Snapdragon 625 instead of the SD630. We’ll talk about these processors in detail in the next section but now, let’s come back to the two power packed processors of 600 series, the SD660 and SD636.
Snapdragon 660 & 636:
Snapdragon 660 and 636 are really very close brothers. From their names, many would assume that the SD632 or SD630 are closer to SD636 than SD660. But it’s the opposite case here. In fact, this is another example why Qualcomm needs to better their naming strategy. Personally, I would have called SD636 more like SD646 or something closer to SD660.
There are only four minor differences between the Snapdragon 660 vs Snapdragon 636.
Clock speed of Kryo 260G performance clusters (2.2GHz vs 1.8GHz)
GPU: Adreno 512 vs Adreno 509
LPDDR4 @ 1866MHz vs LPDDR4 @ 1333MHz
Display Support: QHD vs FHD+ (18:9) | External Support: 4K vs 1080p
Apart from these, the two processors share the same specs. So, both feature the same semi-custom Kryo 260 cores in a 4+4 cluster. There are 4 x Kryo Gold cores and 4 x Kryo Silver cores based on Cortex A73 and Cortex A53 respectively. Only the performance cores are clocked at different frequencies (2.2GHz vs 1.8GHz). It might also be worth mentioning that these two are manufactured on the 14nm LPP process, but then, all of the SoC’s considered in this article are based on 14nm manufacturing node.
There’s difference in the GPU as well. The Snapdragon 660 features the more powerful Adreno 512 vs 509 on the SD636. I couldn’t find a lot of details about the Adreno 509, but we know that it’s based on 14nm process like the 512 (and unlike the Adreno 510 which was based on 28nm). Despite being placed below the 510 in naming, in terms of performance, the Adreno 509 could be better. It’s also going to be more efficient. But Adreno 512 is definitely the better GPU of the two, with a appox. clock speed of 800MHz, with around 240 GFlops.
Another difference is the support for dual channel LPDDR4@1866MHz vs LPDDR4@1333MHz on SD660 vs SD636. However, both support RAM up to 8GB and eMMC as well as UFS storage.
Coming to the similarities, the core specs are the same for both the chips. So apart from the same Kryo 260 cores inside, you get the same X12 LTE modem with Cat. 13/ 12 support (150Mbps uplink | 600Mbps downlink ) and 3 x 20MHz CA. There’s the Hexagon 680 DSP, Qualcomm’s Spectra 160 ISP with ClearSight technology, 24MP single camera support and 16MP dual camera support. The chip supports video capture and playback at up to 4K UHD @ 30fps resolution. Both the chips support Quick Charge 4.0 and machine learning frameworks like Tensorflow, caffe via Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine.
In short, you can call the Snapdragon 636 as the efficient (lite) version of the Snapdragon 660!
Snapdragon 630:
Notice how I skipped SD632? It’s better suited with SD625 and SD450! Snapdragon 630 has most of the bells and whistles of Snapdragon 636 but it’s much slower because of its octa-core Cortex A53 cores. You really miss out on the A73 based performance cores here but it’s good for efficiency. So, if Snapdragon 636 was the lite version of SD660, then SD630 is kind of the lite and efficient version of the SD636.
SD630 features eight Cortex A53 cores with 4 x A53 @ 2.2GHz and 4 x A53 @ 1.8GHz. So, performance is just average but Adreno 508 is pretty decent and offers up to 30% graphics and enhanced gaming performance as compared to Adreno 506 inside the SD626. Apart from the significant decrease in CPU performance, rest of the specs are quite similar to the above two SoCs.
So the Snapdragon 630 supports Qualcomm’s Neural processing engine, X12 LTE with Cat. 13/ 12 downlink / uplink, 24MP single camera with Spectra 160 ISP (ClearSight tech), LPDDR4 @ 1333MHz with up to 8GB RAM support and eMMC / UFS storage support, 4K UHD capture and playback, and up to FHD+ display.
Note that dual camera support on the SD630 goes down to dual 13MP setup instead of dual 16MP on SD660 and SD636.
What makes SD630 closer to SD636 than SD632 or 625 is that it comes with support for Qualcomm’s Neural Processing Engine (for AI). Plus, you have Quick Charge 4.0 support too!
It is worth mentioning that SD660, SD636, and SD630 are the only three SoCs in the 600/400 series to support AI via NPE and Quick Charge 4.0. In terms of connectivity, these three support BL 5.0, and USB 3.1.
SD660
SD636
SD630
RELEASE:
May 2017
Oct. 2017
May 2017
Process
14nm
14nm
14nm
CPU
4 x KryoG 260 @2.2GHz +4 x KryoS 260 @1.8GHz
4 x KryoG 260 @1.8GHz +4 x KryoS 260 @1.8GHz
4 x A53 @ 2.2GHz + 4 x A53 @ 1.8GHz
GPU
Adreno 512
Adreno 509
Adreno 508
MODEM
X12 LTE (Cat. 13 = 150Mbps Uplink / Cat. 12 = 600Mbps Downlink) + 3 x 20MHz CA
X12 LTE (Cat. 13 = 150Mbps Uplink / Cat. 12 = 600Mbps Downlink) + 3 x 20MHz CA
X12 LTE (Cat. 13 = 150Mbps Uplink / Cat. 12 = 600Mbps Downlink) + 3 x 20MHz CA
DSP
Hexagon 680
Hexagon 680
Hexagon 642
CAMERA
24MP Single | 16MP Dual | Spectra 160
24MP Single | 16MP Dual | Spectra 160
24MP Single | 13MP Dual | Spectra 160
VIDEO
4K UHD @ 30fps encode and decode
4K UHD @ 30fps encode and decode
4K UHD @ 30fps encode and decode
DISPLAY
QHD
FHD+
FHD+
CONNECTIVITY
BL 5.0, USB 3.1, QC 4.0
BL 5.0, USB 3.1, QC 4.0
BL 5.0, USB 3.1, QC 4.0
Snapdragon 632, Snapdragon 625, & Snapdragon 450:
Snapdragon 632 is really the star of the lower mid-range series. Qualcomm’s strategy was pretty simple: It took Snapdragon 625 and boosted its CPU performance with custom Kryo cores. That’s it! Everything else is the same!
SD632
So the SD632 has 4 x Kryo 250 Gold performance (A73) cores at 1.8GHz and 4 x Kryo 250 Silver efficient (A53) at 1.8GHz instead of the 8 x Cortex A53 @ 2.0GHz cores on the SD625. Rest of the specs are exactly the same, including the Adreno 506 GPU. I have not really considered SD626 in this article because this particular chip hasn’t managed to get a lot of support from market players. Most companies are still opting for SD625 over 626 and the difference isn’t really significant.
We can actually bring Snapdragon 450 too in this comparison! The SD450 is basically a lower clocked version of the Snapdragon 625, with 8 x Cortex A53 cores at 1.8GHz instead of 2.0GHz. Another difference would be in video encoding and decoding resolutions. So, SD632, SD625 can encode and decode videos at 4K UHD @ 30 fps while the SD450 can only do it in FHD+ @ 60fps.
Now coming to their similarities in specs, SD632 vs SD625 vs SD450 have the following common features.
Adreno 506 GPU (clock speeds may differ)
Hexagon 546 DSP
24MP single cam | 13MP dual cam support
FHD+ Display support
X9 LTE Cat 13/ 7 (150Mbps uplink | 300Mbps downlink), 2 x 20MHz CA
Quick Charge 3.0
USB 3.0
In terms of Bluetooth connectivity, Snapdragon 632 did get an upgrade to the new 5.0 version. The SD625 and 450 chips support BL 4.1+ LE.
So, in this section, SD632 is the best chip, and SD625 could be called as the lite version of SD632 and SD450 as the lite version of SD625.
X9 LTE (Cat. 13 = 150Mbps Uplink / Cat. 7 = 300Mbps Downlink) + 2 x 20MHz CA
X9 LTE (Cat. 13 = 150Mbps Uplink / Cat. 7 = 300Mbps Downlink) + 2 x 20MHz CA
X9 LTE (Cat. 13 = 150Mbps Uplink / Cat. 7 = 300Mbps Downlink) + 2 x 20MHz CA
DSP
Hexagon 546
Hexagon 546
Hexagon 546
CAMERA
24MP Single | 13MP Dual
24MP Single | 13MP Dual
24MP Single | 13MP Dual
VIDEO
4K UHD @ 30fps encode and decode
4K UHD @ 30fps encode and decode
FHD+ @ 60fps encode and decode
DISPLAY
FHD+
FHD
FHD
CONNECTIVITY
BL 5.0, USB 3.0, QC 3.0
BL 4.1+, USB 3.0, QC 3.0
BL 4.1+, USB 3.0, QC 3.0
This article was not meant to be exhaustive. I may not have considered each and every minute differences between these chipsets but organising Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors based on their specifications instead of their names was essential. As you might have realised now, SD632 and SD450 are way more similar than what you might have thought before and Snapdragon 630 is quite closer to SD636 than SD625.
I personally believe its very important to understand the processors that power your smartphones and this article was meant to be a rough guideline of where each Snapdragon mid-range SoC stands in the entire lineup.
Please let me know your thoughts on this article as well as the Snapdragon chip lineup.
Flexible smartphones have been in works but we are yet to see a commercially available foldable smartphone in the market. Currently, a couple of smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung, Huawei and Motorola are working on such smartphones.
Now, it seems that LG is also planning to enter the game of manufacturing foldable smartphone. The company has filed for a patent for a smartphone that shows the device’s body with flexible display. The patent was originally filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office in late-2017 and is described as a “mobile terminal”, which is a technical description for smartphones.
The device shown in the patent looks like a large version of a regular smartphone that would fold vertically. It will have a hinge mechanism that moves apart as the device folds, aiming to prevent damage to the display. It is said that the phone would be held shut by magnets and that the display would turn on automatically when the hinge is open.
According to the patent, the foldable smartphone will come with two mics, dual loudspeakers, and dual antennas. One camera will be placed on the outside of the closed display so that the users can take photos of the display while it is closed.
Currently, the company has not described how the user is intended to interact with such a device. It seems that the manufacturers are seeing the foldable smartphones as the next big thing and want to get on this trend as soon as they can.
If the reports are to be believed, then Samsung is planning to launch its foldable smartphone in January 2019 during the Consumer Electronics Show, ahead of the Galaxy S10 launch at Mobile World Congress. On the other hand, China-based Huawei is also gearing up to launch its foldable smartphone next year.
A new press release from Samsung states that it has partnered with ARM for breaking the 3 GHz clock speeds mark through its upcoming mobile chipsets. Starting from next year, Samsung will be gearing up to launch 7nm and 5nm SoCs that will power its future smartphones.
The production of the 7nm LPP (Low Power Plus) is slated to begin in the second half of this year. Also, the development of Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) lithography process is expected to be ready by the first of the coming year. This will allow Samsung to manufacturer 5nm SoCs that will be not only smaller but also more power efficient than the 7nm SoC.
The 10nm A75 CPU offers a clocking speed of 2.8 GHz. According to ARM, the smaller 7nm A76 CPU will be faster than the A75 as it will be offering a clocking speed of 3 GHz. Also, it will consume 40 percent less power. Since it has been dubbed as “laptop-class,” there is a possibility to see it under the hood of more powerful devices other than smartphones.
The currently available SoCs for mobile devices are good enough for providing consumes with all the performance that they require. However, the upcoming 7nm and 5mm SoCs can will be able to deliver to better AI and machine learning.
Only 64-bit kernel-level code will be available on the Cortex A76, but it will carry support for 32-bit app. Hence, phones powered it are unlikely to suffer from compatibility issues. The processor is expected to be coupled with Mali G76 graphics. The Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus arriving in 2019 could be the first 7nnm SoC driven smartphones.
Vivo NEX has been an important model right from when it was announced, due to the innovative features it packs. The device comes with an innovative pop-up camera, in-display fingerprint sensor, a near bezel-less display and other leading features. Lately, Vivo added a Ruby Red variant to the colour options on offer. The Vivo NEX Ruby Red version is here captured in these pictures showcasing its exotic design.
The red colour variant is indeed looking like a precious ruby, radiating like a jewel. The body which is made of glass is coated using the microcrystalline technology. This is achieved by combining glass crystals on the surface of the panel so that light and shadow can change with the change of viewing angle. This creates a radiant visual effect which makes the device look like a piece of art.
The rear-mounted fingerprint sensor is also coated in a layer of Ruby Red in the same colour as the body but the single coating makes it look a little lighter than the other parts. The Ruby Red colour also extends to the sides, including the volume and other buttons at the sides.
The colour variant is available for the Snapdragon 710 version as well as the flagship Snapdragon 845 version. The Vivo NEX ruby Red version is already available to buy online via several channels including Vivo’s official website, Vivo official flagship store on Jingdong, Sunning.
Since the Honor Note 10’s existence has been confirmed by Honor’s President Zhao Ming, the rumor mill is now actively working on spilling leaked its photos and specs. Fresh photos of the Honor Note 10 smartphone has appeared on Weibo today. The appearance of the rear panel of the Note 10 suggests that it will be sporting a premium design.
The new images of the Honor Note 10 reveals that it will be arriving with a glass panel that seems to be curved towards the edges. There is a possibility that the back panel of the phone could be made out of ceramic. It is equipped with a metallic frame.
Most of the Honor phones that have launched so far either have vertical or horizontal arrangement for the dual rear cameras at their top-left corner. However, the Note 10 seems to be sporting a vertical dual camera setup at the center of the upper portion of the back panel. An LED flash and a fingerprint scanner are also placed under the dual camera setup.
The reason why this phone is being called Honor Note 10 is that it has the name “Ravel” mentioned on the back. A recent report had revealed that the Note 10 could be codenamed as Ravel. Before the launch of the Huawei P20 Lite smartphone, its leaked images had carried the “Shirley” name on its rear.
Unfortunately, the new leak has no images to reveal the front design of the phone. Some rumors have claimed that the Note 10’s massive screen may feature a notch, but there is no information available to confirm on its front design.
The Note 10 could be fueled by the Kirin 970 as it expected to arrive as a flagship phone. It is very likely to arrive with GPU Turbo that boosts the performance of GPU by 60 percent. The leakster who has shared the above images of the Note 10 on Weibo claims that its arrival is likely to coincide with the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 9 that is slated to go official on Aug. 9.
What do you think about the rear design of the Honor Note 10? Let us know your views by posting your comments below..
In April this year, Samsung grabbed the top spot in terms of smartphone sales figures globally. But now, according to the latest report, Apple has regained the pole position with its recent offering, Apple iPhone 8 being the global top selling smartphone for the month of May 2018.
However, there is no huge difference between the sales figure of iPhone 8 and Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, which grabbed the second spot with thin margin. But the data suggests a big jump for the iPhone 8 given that the phone was at fifth position in April 2018.
While the iPhone 8 and Galaxy S9 Plus are placed first and second, respectively, the iPhone X from Apple stayed at the third spot, grabbing around 2.3 percent market share. Another big change is the Samsung Galaxy S9, which went down from second spot in April to sixth spot in May with 2.1 percent market share.
According to the report, Apple managed to regain the top spot in the global bestselling smartphone list because of the strong promotions running up to the football World Cup, accelerating sales in Europe. However, Samsung registered a slightly weak month-over-month sales in Europe.
In the fourth spot, there’s Xiaomi Redmi 5A with 2.2 percent market share and iPhone 8 Plus is at fifth place with 2.1 percent market place. The list also includes Huawei P20 Lite, Vivo X21, Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus/Redmi Note 5 and Oppo A83 at seventh, eigth, ninth, and tenth position, respectively.
The report says that Xiaomi gained momentum in its home market and also continues its good performance in India. It has good penetration in the mid-to-affordable premium market in China. It is also expanding its presence in India, focusing on offline lines, which increased from 30% in April to 35% in May 2018 in India.
For Huawei, which keeps on growing in its home market and India, saw good performance from P20/Lite series. Huawei’s P20 series combined share (2.6%) was amongst the top sellers, but only the P20 Lite breaks into the Top 10 list.
A few months ago, OPPO had launched the MediaTek Helio P60 powered OPPO A3 smartphone in China. According to a reliable tipster, the Oppo A3s is an upcoming smartphone the company. It specs are similar to the OPPO A5 that is expected to debut soon in China. It is speculated that the same smartphone will be made available as OPPO A3s outside of the home country.
OPPO A3s Specifications and Features
Leaked information has revealed that the Oppo A3s will be coming with a 6.2-inch IPS LCD screen that will offer HD+ resolution of 720 x 1520 pixels. Since the display of the phone produces an aspect ratio of 19:9, it will be equipped with a notched screen.
The Snapdragon 450 SoC that features a 1.8 GHz octa-core processor is likely to drive the A3s smartphone. As of this writing, there is no information on the RAM and storage capacity of the smartphone. It will be arriving with ColorOS 5.1 based Android 8.1 Oreo. The handset features a dedicated slot for adding a microSD card.
The rear panel of the OPPO A3s of will be featuring f/2.2 aperture 13-megapixel + f/2.4 aperture 2-megpixel dual camera setup. On the frontside of the phone is an 8-megapixel camera with f/2.2 aperture. The handset is packed with a 4,230mh battery. Its dimensions are 156.2 x 75.6 x 8.2mm and it weighs 168 grams. The Oppo A3s will be available in color choices like Purple and Red. The launch date of the A3s is under the wraps.
As mentioned above, the OPPO A3s is quite similar to the rumored OPPO A5 in terms of specs. The A5 has 64 GB of storage and 4 GB of RAM. Probably, the A3s may feature the same storage capacity and RAM. It is likely that the A3s may go official after the A5 arrives in China.
Xiaomi has just released a promotional video to teaser the arrival of the upcoming Mi Max smartphone. Its appearance has been already leaked through the images that were present on its TENAA listing. Some of the other leaked images of the phone have also revealed its design. Today, freshly leaked hands-on photos of the Mi Max 3 have appeared on Weibo, the microblogging site from China. The newly images have confirmed the camera and some other specs of the phone.
In the below image, the Mi Max 3 can be seen with be with a gargantuan display. The plastic film placed on the handset reveals that it houses a 6.9-inch screen. It will be a notch-less phone that will carry support for an 18:9 aspect ratio.
The TENAA listing of the phone had revealed that one of the dual camera sensors lying on the back of the phone is of 12-megapixel. It did not reveal the configuration of the secondary camera sensor. The leaked image reveals that the Mi Max 3 will be featuring a 12-megapixel + 5-megapixel dual camera setup. The primary sensor will have a pixel size of 1.4micron. The alleged leaked firmware files that had surfaced earlier this year had revealed that it could be featuring the Sony IMX363 as the primary sensor. It is the very same camera sensor that is available on the Xiaomi MI 8 and Mi MIX 2S.
The plastic film placed on the Mi Max 3’s screen also shows that it will be coming with 5,500mAh battery that will carry support for fast charging. The other image only confirms the arrival of the vertical dual camera on the back panel of the Mi Max 3. A fingerprint scanner is also placed on the backside of the phone.
Through the TENAA listing of the Mi Max 3, it was confirmed that the smartphone is fueled by 1.8 GHz octa-core processor. The leakster who has revealed the above photos has said that the Snapdragon 636 is present under the hood of the phone. Even though multiple leaks have pointed to SD636 as the driving force for the phablet, some rumors have claimed that its 128 GB storage + 6 GB RAM edition variant will be powered by Snapdragon 710. This model is speculated to be dubbed as Mi Max 3 Pro.
The other rumored specs of the Mi Max 3 include 8-megapixel front-facing camera and Android 8.1 Oreo skinned with the latest version of MIUI. It is speculated to carry a price tag of 1,699 Yuan (~$255).
The Chinese government has stated that the U.S. is opening fire towards the world with their menaces regarding new commercial tariffs. New tariffs from the U.S. for $34 billion of Chinese goods will come into force starting from tomorrow. China will reply to this with its own fees which could come into force even before due to the time zone.
A few days ago, the U.S. President Donald Trump said that if Beijing will rebel to U.S. fees with further retaliation, he will be ready to set further tariffs which may hit up to $450 billion of Chinese products. Beijing said it will never fire the first shot and this means that the latest Chinese tariffs are just an answer to the ones set by the U.S. But if the U.S. will set $50 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese technologies and intellectual properties, Beijing will be ready to retaliate.
According to Beijing, China is not seeking a trade war, as long as the U.S. stops opening fire on the entire world with its extra duties aimed to enhance the U.S. economy and discourage exports. Consumers from the U.S. should not be affected by the new duties, but Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE would be.
Last month, Xiaomi had introduced the Redmi 6 series in China. The Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A were launch together while the Redmi 6 Pro was unveiled later in the same month. Xiaomi had been using Snapdragon chipsets for its Redmi phones since the past few years, but after a long time it has used MediaTek SoCs on Redmi 6 and 6A smartphones. Fresh information reveals that the MediaTek SoC powered Redmi 6 and 6A phones may debut in India in September.
Since 2014, Xiaomi has been launching Snapdragon powered smartphones in India. The reason behind it is that Ericsson had filed a case in 2014 which prevented Xiaomi from launching phones fueled by MediaTek SoCs in India. The companies involved in the legal battle have settled the issue which Xiaomi is allowed to launch phones with MediaTek chipsets in India.
The Redmi 5 smartphone was launched in India in March while the modest Redmi 5A was introduced in November last year. Hence, the Chinese manufacturer is unlikely to launch Redmi 6 and 6A phones early in India. According to 91Mobiles, these budget-friendly smartphones may get announced in September. As of this writing, there is no information available on the Indian arrival of Redmi 6 Pro.
The Redmi 6 and 6A phones feature 5.45-inch IPS LCD display that produces 18:9 aspect ratio and HD+ resolution of 720 x 1440 pixels. The Redmi 6 is powered by Helio P22 whereas the 6A phone has Helio A22. The Redmi 6 smartphone has 2 GB of RAM and an internal storage of 16 GB. On the other side, the Redmi 6 comes in two models such as 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of inbuilt storage and 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of native storage.
The Redmi 6 has 12-megapixel + 5-megapixel dual camera setup on its back and a 5-megapxiel selfie camera. The Redmi 6A features a 13-megapixel rear camera and a front snapper of 5-megapixel. Both the phones are driven by 3,000mAh batteries. The Redmi 6 duo are running on MIUI 9 flavored Android 8.1 Oreo OS.
There is no information on the pricing of Redmi 6 and 6A phones for India. In China, the Redmi 6A is available for 599 Yuan (~$90) whereas the 32 GB and 64 GB variants of Redmi 6 are respectively priced at 799 Yuan (~$120) and 999 Yuan (~$150).
Ever since TCL acquired BlackBerry, it has never really launched a true flagship smartphone. The first one should be BlackBerry Ghost alongside its Pro variant, and the last year, there have been a consistent amount of rumors and leaks about it. Today Evan Blass, one of the most famous and reliable leaksters, has revealed new juicy details about the upcoming device which, unlike the latest BB phone KeyONE, will not sport a physical QWERTY keyboard. According to Evan Blass, Ghost will be a flagship-class device with a large 4000 mAh battery.
It is the biggest capacity you can actually find on a flagship and it is a big added value which may attract people to get a unit. Note that it would even be the biggest capacity ever seen on a BB phone. Given that BlackBerry Ghost will probably feature a Snapdragon SoC by Qualcomm, we also expect to see a great efficiency and a low energy consumption. Sadly, these are the only details revealed by Evan Blass today, but the official announcement of the device is expected to come soon, so we will not have to wait so much to know everything about it.
From what the latest reports suggested, BlackBerry Ghost will be the first BB phone to have a display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. So, it is likely to have narrow bezels. According to a leaked render it will sport a metal frame with a volume keys and a power key on the right side, while on the bottom front part of the front panel there will be the company branding. This phone is expected to have a much better camera over its predecessors. Indeed, there should be a dual camera setup on the rear side which will be able to shoot detailed photos even in low-light conditions, and it may also support optical zoom.
When Xiaomi launched the Mi A1 last year, the company never expected the level of interest the device would elicit. But it turned fans loved the idea of having a Mi phone running stock Android. The Mi A1 was Xiaomi’s first Android One phone. The company is expected to launch the Mi A2 any moment from now. The device is expected to have the same design and specification as the Mi A2 except that it would run Android Oreo.
A recently leaked “About phone” page coupled with its NCC listing had shown the Mi A2 is already around the corner. The “about phone” page confirms that the device will run on Android 8.1 which should be under the Android One program. A sample photo shot by the device has now been spotted online. The picture was shared by a user on the MIUI community in Spain and from the photograph’s EXIF data, it could be seen that the nice photo was indeed shot by the Xiaomi Mi A2.
Since the device has the same configuration with the Mi 6X, it is no surprise that camera sample is of awesome quality. The device packs a 20MP + 12MP rear camera with AI capabilities while at the front is a 20MP selfie shooter. This aspect might see some changes considering the Redmi Note 5 camera configuration is different from that of India’s Redmi Note 5 Pro. However, the Mi A2 will have a 5.99-inch display, 3101mAh battery and should be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor. Since this is the same SoC on the Mi A1, we might see something else onboard, perhaps the Snapdragon 710 chipset.
Honor is the Huawei’s subsidiary brand that makes pretty good and affordable phones that usually offer great specs and nice design. The Honor Play is one of the first phones to feature the turbo GPU for excellent gaming and all-around performance. Obviously, his phone has a ton of other premium features we need to talk about, that’s why you need to stay tuned to the full Honor Play review.
The phone ships with all the usual items and some extras include a soft TPU case.
DESIGN and DISPLAY
The notch display is one of the highlights of the phone and it is a great, sharp and a large panel. Sunlight legibility is not the best but it’s decent.
The phone feels very premium in the hand because its all metal construction and the build quality is excellent. One of the drawbacks of the matte black color is that it attracts fingerprints very quickly and it’s really hard to clean them but I guess that’s the shortcoming you can live with.
The AI camera is another highlight of this device as it uses two sensors but as usual, I will talk about image quality a bit later in this review. There is a beefy 16MP selfie shooter that sits next to the notification LED light.
Other features you need to know: the fingerprint scanner is very accurate and blazing fast, and the phone has face unlock feature that is also pretty good. There is also a hybrid dual-SIM card tray, a headset jack that provides good sound quality and quite good loudspeaker. Here is an audio sample.
HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
The Honor Play has a powerful Kirin 970 CPU that is accompanied by the new turbo GPU.
The phone is advertised to give you 4D gaming experience but I can’t tell the difference between this and other phones. What I can tell you is that the overall gaming performance is just excellent. I played quite a few 3D games on the highest graphics settings and the phone just flies through everything. Even the Pubg on the highest graphics works absolutely fine. Flagship grade performance.
USER INTERFACE
The phone ships with the EMUI 8.2 which is based on Android 8.1.
In general, the Honor Play looks and feels like a Huawei phone in terms of user interface. Since I have a Chinese model, my phone shipped without Google Services pre-installed and there were plenty of bloatware apps. A good thing is that it takes just a minute to install Google Services and all the bloatware apps can be removed.
Just like any Huawei phone, there are plenty of features and customization options to choose from. There are many display settings, smart features, you can choose between different navigation ways and so on. In general, the phone feels very fast and smooth all the time, very good overall performance.
IMAGE QUALITY
The overall image quality is very good. The pictures are sharp and vibrant, and there is plenty of detail. Every time you take a picture, the AI recognizes the scene and applies the best image settings.
I found the AI to do a pretty good job but usually, the pictures come out with a high-contrast and colors that are a bit too punchy. On the other hand, the images tend to have a wow factor which is a must for social media.
Portrait or wide-aperture pictures look quite nice too as the object is nicely separated from the background with just minimal artifacts.
Selfies usually come out nice and sharp and portrait mode does a decent job with the bokeh effect.
Low-light is where I expected a better performance out of this phone. I can’t say the images look bad but I expected pictures to have less noise and more detail.
4K video quality is pretty good. The only complaint is that there is no image stabilization, so the footage is a bit shaky.
1080p selfie video looks great as the footage has plenty of detail. Also, the sound recording quality is quite decent.
CONNECTIVITY
In terms of connectivity, the Honor Play is excellent. Call quality and signal reception have been great, GPS is very accurate and other connectivity options work fine. There are quite a few sensors including a gyroscope.
BATTERY LIFE
Battery life has been great. My record screen-on time was about 10 hours and my usage involved taking a lot of pictures, using the phone for social media and a bit of gaming.
Also, it takes just about 1,5h to fully charge the phone with the supplied fast charger.
CONCLUSIONS
Overall, the Honor Play shapes up to be a solid phone that has a lot of premium features for the price of about $370.
Low-light image quality could be better but other than that, you get a premium-looking phone with a nice display, excellent day-to-day and gaming performance, solid cameras and good battery life.
I’m not going to assert this is the only phone you need to buy but the Honor Play is a very solid option that has quite a few flagship features for the price. Therefore, I can definitely suggest you check it out.
HMD Global seems to be readying the launch of two new Nokia smartphones. Two unknown devices have just been certified by the Russian EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission) and they carry the model numbers TA-1119 and TA-1087. Most of the times when devices get certified means that their launch is not so far. So, we can prepare to see new HMD Global smartphones to be announced. Unfortunately, the EEC did not disclose any info about the specs of the new devices, so we do not have any idea about which kind of smartphones we are talking about. But we expect new info to surface in the coming weeks.
At the moment, according to the latest rumors, HMD Global is developing the Nokia 9 which is expected to be the best HMD flagship of 2018. Among the rumored specs there is the most powerful SoC by Qualcomm: the octa-core Snapdragon 845 running at a max frequency of 2.8 GHz. Further, the upcoming flagship is expected to arrive with an in-display fingerprint scanner such as the latest Vivo flagships. This means that the screen-to-body ratio will be very high, unlike most Nokia devices released in the last year. The Nokia 9 should also sport a better camera setup than the actual flagships with Carl Zeiss lens and more than one sensor on the rear side.
Above, you can see the listings showing TA-1119 and TA-1087 model numbers which have been filed yesterday 4th July 2018 at 19:13 PM local time. In the meantime, HMD Global has been busy launching the banana phone 8110 in Europe with a price tag of €89. The company has also announced that it is looking forward to adding the support to WhatsApp to this phone (in case you do not know, it is a feature phone, a re-visitation of the iconic 8110 launched in 1996), even though it does not have Android but it runs KaiOS, a fork of Firefox OS.
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