Xiaomi’s Latest Teaser Hints At The Redmi S2 or Mi MIX 2S Arriving In France And Italy

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May 19, 2018

Xiaomi is gearing up for the official announcement of its entry into new markets in Europe. French and Italy (offline) are two of the new markets and a new teaser hints at a new device coming to both countries.

The teaser image which was posted on Twitter yesterday shows a phone covered in white. However, you can make out the shape of the phone’s rear cameras and its fingerprint scanner. The image has a caption asking fans to guess what device it is.

Can you guess what it is? Next stops…#XiaomiFrance #Xiaomitalia pic.twitter.com/qoFULY6COt

— Xiaomi #48MPforEveryone (@xiaomi) May 18, 2018

Looking at the design, there are two Xiaomi devices that have that design and they are the Redmi S2 and Xiaomi Mi MIX 2s. The Mi 6X has the same camera design and fingerprint placement but is curvier, which is why we have not included it.

We won’t be surprised if it is the Mi MIX 2S. The Mi MIX 2 is sold on the Xiaomi Italy online store already, so the Mi MIX 2s will be this year’s flagship for the country.

Xiaomi may also surprise us and launch both the Redmi S2 and Mi MIX 2s in both countries. Both phones belong to different categories, so it won’t be an odd decision.

Xiaomi will unveil the new phone in Milan on May 24 at 5:00 pm local time. It will open its first Mi Store in France on May 22.

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OPPO R15 Nebula Special Edition Launches For ¥3199

By

Habeeb Onawole

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May 19, 2018

OPPO released a teaser earlier this week that hinted at a new variant of the OPPO R15. The new variant has now launched as the OPPO R15 Nebula Special Edition.

The OPPO R15 Nebula Special Edition has a blue-pink-purple color gradient design. The design was a joint work between Egyptian industrial designer Karim Rashid, and the OPPO design team. The phone even has the designer’s signature engraved on the back.

It appears the new trend for Chinese manufacturers is to hire a high-profile designer to work on their phones. Xiaomi, for example, worked with French designer Philippe Starck, for the Mi MIX series.

The OPPO R15 Nebula Special Design maintains the glass back design of the regular variant but the color gradient design gives the phone a mesmerizing appearance when tilted under light.

The specs remain the same as that of the regular OPPO R15. It has a 6.28-inch Super-V display with a 2280 x 1080 aspect ratio. The notch at the top gives it a 19:9 aspect ratio. The processor is the Helio P60 and it is paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

The OPPO R15 Nebula Special Edition has a 20MP front-facing camera with face unlock and AI features. There are dual cameras on its rear in a 16MP + 5MP configuration.

The phone runs ColorOS 5.0 based on Android 8.1 Oreo, has dual SIM support (nano only) and packs a 3450mAh battery with support for VOOC fast charge.

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Counterpoint Research: Redmi 5A Was The World’s 3rd Best Selling Smartphone In March 2018

By

Habeeb Onawole

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May 19, 2018

Counterpoint Research, the global technology industry analysis firm, has released its monthly market pulse for the month of March.

Taking the top spot is none other than Apple’s iPhone X. The notch king (not pioneer) grabbed 3.5% of the market share in March. Following in a not-so-close second is the iPhone 8 Plus with 2.3% market share.

Counterpoint Research Monthly Market Pulse March 2018 — Xiaomi Redmi 5A was the world’s best selling smartphone in March 2018

In what can be termed a surprise is Xiaomi’s Redmi 5A grabbing the third spot with 1.8%. It was not only the third best-selling smartphone in the world in March but the best selling Android smartphone.

The Redmi 5A was released in November 2017 as a successor to the popular Redmi 4A. However, the 5A launched with practically the same specs as the 4A and some slight changes in design.

OPPO’s A83 mid-ranger also makes the top 5 list with a 1.8% market share leaving Samsung’s Galaxy S9 to claim the fifth spot. The Galaxy S9+ is 6th and is followed by the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8.

Samsung shows up again, this time at the 9th position with its Galaxy J7 Pro while Apple ends the top 10 list with the iPhone 6.

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Huawei P20 Pro Ain’t Easy To Repair According To A New Teardown Video

By

Michele Ingelido

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May 19, 2018

Huawei P20 Pro is one of the best flagship smartphones of 2018 and currently the best camera phone you can get. Although its performance is impressive, its build quality seems to be exactly the opposite. The known YouTuber JerryRigEverything recently made the new flagship undergo a thorough endurance test, and results were disappointing. The handset is far from being a solid and resistant phone, both its glass back and the display are not even covered by the Corning Gorilla Glass protection and, indeed, the display cracked during the bend test.

Now, he made a complete teardown of the phone in order to show us its internal components and to discover if, at least, it is easy to repair when broken. In order to separate the backplate from the rest of the phone, JerryRigEverything had to heat the rear side. Then, he used a metal pry tool in order to remove the adhesive for water-resistance (Huawei P20 Pro has IP67 certification). According to him, it is not easy to remove the backplate, and he also suggested not to go so deep with the metal pry tool as you may encounter a fragile ribbon cable next to the adhesive, near the triple camera setup.

After removing the backplate, he had to unplug a small sensor placed between two cameras from the motherboard, this way he was able to completely separate the back cover from the rest of the handset. Jerry has also shown that there is a huge amount of adhesive around the battery with no pull tabs, so it will be hard and dangerous for you to repair the device if you are not an expert. You can watch the teardown in the video above, while you can click here if you want to know more about the endurance test.

Huawei Y5 Prime (2018) Unveiled Via Official Site Listing, Likely To Feature SD430

By

Michele Ingelido

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May 19, 2018

Right after Honor Play 7, the first ranking Chinese giant in the smartphones market has quietly unveiled a new budget phone: Huawei Y5 Prime (2018). Its specs sheet is similar to Honor Play 7, so Huawei should launch it around the $100 price range, at least in China. The handset has just been listed on the official website of the company, on which we can see all its specs and features. It will be available in two variants: DRA-L02 and DRA-L22. They will differ for the dual SIM slot which will only be present on the latter. Further, the DRA-L22 variant will feature a dedicated micro SD slot, so you will be able to use both the SIM slots and the micro SD at the same time.

Huawei Y5 Prime (2018) measures 146.5 x 70.9 x 8.3 mm and it has a weight of just 142 grams. It comes with a 5.45-inch display which boasts an 18:9 aspect ratio and an HD+ resolution with 720 x 1440 pixels. Under the hood, there is an unnamed quad-core SoC with a max clock frequency of 1.5 GHz. Given its specs, we guess it will be Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 430. This is way better than Honor Play 7 featuring a quad-core MediaTek MT6739. Alongside the chipset, there are 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. On the rear side, there is a single main camera with a resolution of 13 MP, while on the front side there is a 5 MP snapper.

The selfie camera will also support Face Unlock, just like most of Huawei devices, but it will be available only after an OTA update. Huawei Y5 Prime (2018) is powered by Android 8.1 Oreo customized with EMUI 8.1. It has a battery with a capacity of 3020 mAh and the Power Saving 6.0 technology which will provide up to 62 hours of music playback and up to 13 hours of video playback. The handset will be available in Black, Blue, and Gold, but its price and availability are still unknown.

(Source, Via)

Galaxy J4 Specs, Hands-On Video, Renders, Specs and Price Leaked

By

Habeeb Onawole

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May 19, 2018

The Galaxy J4 has not yet been officially announced. When it does, there will be nothing we wouldn’t know seeing as a hands-on video, the specs, and the price has just been leaked.

The Galaxy J4 is a lower mid-range phone that will come with a 5.5-inch 1280 x 720 display. The screen is Super AMOLED so it should be sharper than what is found on other phones in this category.

It is powered by an Exynos 7570 processor clocked at 1.4GHz and it is paired with 2GB and 16GB of expandable storage. The Galaxy J4 has a single 13MP f/1.9 rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera with its own LED flash.

It runs Android 8.0 Oreo with Samsung Experience 9.0 and has a removable 3,000mAh battery. There is a 3.5mm audio jack and a micro USB port at the bottom. The phone has dual SIM slots (micro) and a microSD card slot (256GB)

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8OD8jNC88U[/embedyt]

It will come in black, purple, and lavender. Its dimensions are 151.7 × 72.2 × 8.1mm and it weighs 175g. It will sell for 4799 UAH (~$184).

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Video Shows Xiaomi Mi 8′ In-Display Fingerprint Scanner In Action

By

Habeeb Onawole

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May 19, 2018

There are unconfirmed reports Xiaomi will launch the Mi 7 flagship this month. There have also been leaks of a special 8th-anniversary edition model called the Mi 8.

The retail box and front panel for this anniversary model already leaked a few days ago. Now, a video has surfaced online showing the phone’s in-display fingerprint scanner in action.

The 3-second long video tries not to give much away about the design of the phone. So the only thing we see in the video is the middle part of the screen. We have no idea what the top and bottom look like.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2W9rghBfTM[/embedyt]

The scanner seems to be embedded in the lower third of the display and seems to require a bit of pressure before unlocking. It is also not as fast as the current scanners on devices.

There is no confirmation of the video’s authenticity, so we’ll advise you take it with a pinch of salt.

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Huawei P20 Lite To Launch In Malaysia As The Huawei Nova 3e On May 25

By

Habeeb Onawole

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May 19, 2018

The Huawei P20 Lite was the first of the P20 series to go on sale even before it was officially released. However, it first launched officially in China but as the Nova 3e. Now it is heading to Malaysia under the same name.

The Huawei Nova 3e will launch in Malaysia on May 25 and will have a price of RM 1,399 (~$352). The phone will be available in all Huawei Experience Stores around the country.

The Huawei Nova 3e has a 5.8-inch screen with a 2280 x 1080 display. There is a notch at the top that houses a 24MP selfie camera and the earpiece.

It has a Kirin 659 processor paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB of storage. It also has dual 16MP+2MP cameras on the rear and a fingerprint scanner. It runs EMUI 8 based on Android 8 Oreo and has a 3,000mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging.

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Check out Epic Clearance Sale at Gearbest!

By

Linus

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May 19, 2018

Gearbest is one of the most popular websites if you are interested in gadgets and other electronics. The website now has plenty of tech products on sale, so you can save a lot of money.

Epic Gearbest Clearance Sale!

Besides the coupon codes that give you $5 or eve $20 off depending on the amount you spend on the website, there are plenty of great gadget deals – from phones, to laptops, to outdoor tech.

These are just a few examples where you can save money but if you want to check out all the deals currently available, hit the link down below.

Epic Gearbest Clearance Sale!

OnePlus 6 vs Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S: Which One Would You Pick?

By

Michele Ingelido

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May 19, 2018

Alongside Huawei P20 Pro, the new OnePlus 6 and Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S are among the best and most interesting Chinese flagships of 2018. The latter two are the less expensive devices, and they offer premium specs even though they cost hundreds of dollars less than the competition. As they feature very similar specs, if you want to get an affordable Chinese flagship it may be very hard to choose among these two devices. This is exactly why we made this OnePlus 6 vs Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S comparison.

Now, let’s see together which is the real king of Chinese smartphones in the affordable segment.

OnePlus 6 vs Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S

	OnePlus 6	Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S
DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT	155.7 x 75.4 x 7.8 mm, 177 g	150.9 x 74.9 x 8.1 mm, 191 g
DISPLAY	6.28 inches, 1080 x 2280p (Full HD+), 19:9 ratio, Optic AMOLED	5.99 inches, 1080 x 2160p (Full HD+), 18:9 ratio, IPS LCD
PROCESSOR	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, octa-core 2.8 GHz	Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, octa-core 2.8 GHz
MEMORY	6 GB RAM, 64 GB – 8 GB RAM, 128 GB – 8 GB RAM, 256 GB	6 GB RAM, 64 GB – 6 GB RAM, 128 GB – 8 GB RAM, 256 GB
SOFTWARE	Android 8.1 Oreo, Oxygen OS	Android 8.0 Oreo, MIUI 9.5
CONNECTIVITY	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS
CAMERA	Dual 16 + 20 MP, f/1.7 + f/1.7, OIS 16 MP f/2.0 front camera	Dual 12 + 12 MP, f/1.8 + f/2,4, OIS 5 MP, f/2.0
BATTERY	3300 mAh, fast charging 5V / 4A (Dash Charge)	3400 mAh, fast charging (Quick Charge 3.0) 9V / 2A
ADDITIONAL FEATURES	Dual SIM slot	Dual SIM slot

Despite the big efforts from OnePlus at improving the design of its flagship, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S still convinces us more in terms of aesthetics. It features a ceramic back and a tri-bezel-less front panel that, even without a notch, boasts an incredibly high screen-to-body ratio. On the other hand, OnePlus 6 seems to have a better display thanks to its Optic AMOLED technology, DCI-P3, and sRGB standards. We will not say much about the performance as they have the same top-end hardware side, so both are super fast and you likely would not notice any difference in daily use. We will have to test the camera thoroughly to define which is the best camera phone between OnePlus 6 and Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, as on the paper both the cameras are outstanding. We did test out the Mi Mix 2S’ camera with the P20 Pro and it wasn’t too far behind. Check out the video below.

For the first time in OnePlus’ history, the dual camera setup features OIS (OP5 and 5T skipped on this feature) and a very bright aperture (f/1.7) on the two sensors. Same is for the Mi Mix 2S which manages to shoot photos with a stunning level of detail and records well-stabilized video (up to 4K). According to DxOMark, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S is in the top 10 best camera phones. Batteries are similar as well but only the software optimizations will show us which device will have the best battery life. Unfortunately, both the handsets do not feature a micro SD slot, so if you need a lot of storage to save 4K videos go for the 256 GB configuration.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S’ listing price in China is about $527/€447 for the base variant, while OnePlus 6 starts from $503/€519 globally. As the OnePlus 6 didn’t bring a lot of innovations this year, I would pick the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S for its design, camera quality and MIUI.

What would be your pick?

OnePlus 6 vs Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S: PRO and CONS

OnePlus 6

PRO

Great hardware
Splashproof
Good cameras
Advanced display
Competitive Price
Availability

CONS

Unoriginal Design
No micro SD

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S

PRO

Original design
Powerful camera
Monster performance
Competitive price

CONS

No card slot

Honor 10 Swiftly Sold Out During Its First Sale in Europe

By

Jed John Ikoba

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May 18, 2018

Huawei‘s flagship Honor 10 was first announced in China a couple of weeks back before the tech giant rolled out the device for Europe and India a few days back. It has now emerged that the Honor 10 turned out to be a highly popular model in Europe. The launch day sales of the Honor flagship is said to have seen the stock exhausted in no distant time.

The Honor 10 reportedly sold out in just six hours in Spain while the Phantom Blue Honor 10 sold out within the day in France. The exact number of units sold during the flash sale wasn’t disclosed but Huawei shared that up to 80,000 European social media subscribers have taken advantage of a €30 discount coupon.

This isn’t really coming out as a surprise considering the rich specs line up the Honor 10 packs, not to talk about the affordable price tag and its glittering premium design. Recall that the Honor 10 was launched adorning an impressive glass chassis that has the ability to show different colours when it is viewed from different angles. It is equipped with a notched display that offers a large screen space. Some of the other attractive features of the Honor 10 include improved AI 2.0, Kirin 970 chipset, 6 GB RAM, 128 GB storage, AI-driven dual cameras, a powerful selfie shooter, NFC, front fingerprint scanner and more. The device is equally reasonably priced in Europe at €400 for the base variant.

(source)

Last hours to get an awesome Xiaomi Redmi S2 for a FLASH SALE price!

By

Linus

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May 18, 2018

The Xiaomi Redmi S2 is the latest budget offering by the Chinese tech giant and it is currently on a flash sale at Gearbest. We think it brings a ton of value to the table for the current price of just about $155.

The phone is made of metal and it sports great build quality. The key specs include a 5.99″ HD display with 18:9 aspect ratio, Snapdragon 625 chipset, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (+microSD card slot) and a huge 3080mAh battery.

In addition, the Xiaomi Redmi S2 has a powerful dual-camera setup on the back and a beefy 16MP selfie shooter on the front.

Additionally, the phone comes in a few color options including gray, gold and rose gold (pink). Overall, we think the Xiaomi Redmi S2 brings a ton of value to the table for the current price of just about $155. Knowing the quality of Xiaomi phones, we can easily recommend it if you are looking for a good budget phone.

Buy Xiaomi Redmi S2

Honor Play 7 Goes Official with Full Screen Design, 599 Yuan (~$93) Pricing

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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May 18, 2018

After launching smartphones like Honor 7X, Honor 7A and Honor 7C in the Honor 7 series, Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has introduced Honor 7 (2018) smartphone. It is a low-end smartphone that is packed with modest specs. The handset comes with a very affordable price tag of 599 Yuan (~$93).

Honor Play 7 Specifications and Features

The Honor Play 7 that measures 146.5 x 70.9 x 8.3mm and weighs 142 grams sports a minimalist full screen design. Its three color variants include black, blue and gold.

It features a 5.45-inch IPS LCD display that offers an aspect ratio of 18:9. The screen produces HD+ resolution of 720 x 1440 pixels. The Honor Play 7 features an eye protection mode that filters the blue light emitted by the screen.

The MediaTek MT6739 chipset that includes 1.5 GHz quad-core processor is present under the hood of the phone. The handset comes in only one variant that includes 2 GB of RAM and an internal storage of 16 GB. The handset features a dedicated slot for adding a microSD card. It is preinstalled with the latest Android 8.1 Oreo and the latest edition of EMUI which brings along some features like F2FS file system, three-finger screenshot functionality and double-tap to wake up screen. It comes with a smart feature that allows the phone to automatically adjust the volume of the phone according to the surroundings of the user.

For photography, the Honor Play 7 provides its user with a rear camera of 13-megapixel with f/2.0 aperture. The camera module looks like a dual camera setup, but it only features a camera sitting besides its dual-tone LED flash. It is equipped with features like beauty mode, PDAF and full HD video shooting.

The frontside of the Honor Play 7 is fitted with 5-megapixel selfie camera that comes with features like beauty mode, soft-light LED flash with 0 to 6 brightness level and support for automatic and manual adjustment mode.

The connectivity features available on the Honor Play 7 include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, microUSB 2.0 and 3.5mm audio jack. The Honor 7 receives power from 3,020mAh battery that comes with intelligent power-saving feature offers a standby time of 9 days. It supports 5V/1A charging.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Release Date Could be Set in July

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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May 18, 2018

Earlier in this week, Samsung has recently confirmed that the sales of Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ have surpassed 1 million units mark. The South Korean company is expecting that Galaxy S9 sales would outdo the Galaxy S8 duo from last year. However, the sales of Galaxy S9 and S9+ suggest that their sales are lagging slightly. Fresh information reveals that because of this reason Samsung is planning to launch the Galaxy Note 9 as early as late July this year.

Last year, Samsung had debut the Galaxy Note 8 towards the end of August. If the new information is correct, the South Korean company is planning to debut the Note 9 one month earlier than the predecessor model. Furthermore, the Note 9 is expected to arrive in the market by mid-August. It is now believed that the move to launch the Note 8’s successor this year will allow it to capture market’s attention well ahead of the 2018 iPhones that are likely to debut in September this year.

It is also speculated that the Galaxy S10 that is rumored to arrive with advanced features 3D facial recognition and under-display fingerprint scanner may debut in January 2019. By launching the S10 as the 10^th anniversary device at the very start of the coming year, Samsung could be hoping to achieve maximized sales throughout the year.

The launch of the Samsung’s first foldable phone is also drawing near. Rumors have it that the South Korean company may use the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 platform to debut it. The arrival of its foldable phone may affect the sales of the S10. Hence, the company be having a strategy to ensure that the sales of the S10 are not affected.

Samsung is yet to confirm on the early arrive of Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S10. However, if the Note 9 is really going to launch by late July, the company confirm on its arrival by the end of the coming month. As far as the launch of S10 is concerned, the exact timeframe of its debut could be known by the end of this year.

(source|via)

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 Gets Another Price Cut In India, Now Costs Rs. 29,999 ($441)

By

Jeet

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May 18, 2018

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2, the smartphone which had received a price cut of Rs. 3,000 earlier this year in January. Now, the company has announced yet another permanent price cut for the smartphone, which brings the phone’s effective pricing to Rs. 29,999 (approximately $441).

The new pricing after the price drop is applicable on Xiaomi‘s online store Mi.com, Mi Home, as well as its retail partners, including online marketplace Flipkart. The Mi MIX 2 was first launched in India back in October last year at a price of Rs. 35,999 (approx. $530).

The Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 features a 5.99-inch Full-HD+ display with screen resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels and aspect ratio of 18:9. Under the hood, the device is powered by Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 835 processor, with Adreno 540 GPU and 8GB RAM.

The phone packs 128GB internal storage. Coming to the optics part, the phone comes with a 12-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX386 sensor, 1.25μm pixel size, f/2.0 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, 4-axis OIS, and 4K video recording. On the front side, there’s a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with facial recognition and 1080p video recording.

Connectivity options on the device include 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band (2×2 MU-MIMO ), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, NFC, and USB Type-C. Running on MIUI based on Android Nougat, the phone is powered by a 3,400mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging support.

Recently, the company launched the successor of the Mi Mix 2, dubbed as Mi MIX 2S, which comes with the same 5.99-inch Full-HD+ display, but with the latest Snapdragon 845 processor and the same 3,400mAh battery. However, the Mi MIX 2S is unlikely to get launched in India.

Two BlackBerry Phones Powered By Snapdragon 660 Seen On Geekbench

By

Habeeb Onawole

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May 18, 2018

Two new Blackberry devices have been seen on Geekbench. One is listed as the BlackBerry BBE100-2 while the other is just “BlackBerry”. Some sources say they are two variants of the BlackBerry KEY² but the model number of the former doesn’t match those of the KEY² we have seen.

The KEY² on TENAA has model number BBF100-4, the ones seen on the Bluetooth certification site are BBF100-1, BBF100-2, and BBF100-6, and the one that got WiFi certified has model number BBF100-6.

The BlackBerry BBE100-2 runs Android 8.1 Oreo. it is powered by the Snapdragon 660 mobile platform and has 4GB of RAM. Its benchmark scores are 1335 and 4948 respectively.

The second device is also powered by the Snapdragon 660, runs Android 8.1 too, but has 6GB of RAM. Surprisingly, its scores are slightly lower at 1291 and 4838 for the single-core and multi-core test respectively.

The BlackBerry KEY² has been reported to come with the Snapdragon 660 processor, so it is understandable why some think both these devices are different RAM variants of the KEY².

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Google Is Working On A Standalone AR Headset

By

Habeeb Onawole

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May 18, 2018

With AR Core gaining popularity, Google’s focus seems to have shifted from VR to AR. According to fresh reports, Google is working on a standalone AR headset which may take on Microsoft’s Hololens.

Google’s standalone AR headset is internally referred to as Google A65 and will be powered by a custom-chip from Qualcomm. The chipset is said to be one of the new QSC series made by Qualcomm for Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The exact chipset has not been confirmed since development is still at an early stage. However, there are two main ones in consideration at the moment.

There is the Qualcomm QSC603 which is a quad-core ARM SoC with two Kryo 300 Gold cores and two Kryo 300 Silver cores clocked at 1.6GHz and 1.7GHz respectively. Its GPU is the Adreno 615 and it has support for Tensorflow and Android Neural Networks API.

There is also the QSC605 which has eight cores in a 2+6 configuration. The two cores are Kryo 300 Gold cores clocked at 2.5GHz and there are six Kryo 300 Silver cores clocked at 1.7GHz.

Google is reported to be working together with Taiwanese manufacturer, Quanta, on the AR headset. For those who don’t know, Quanta made the Pixel C for Google. It is also making a headset for another company called Meta but which will be tethered to a PC. Above is a render of the Meta headset.

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Nokia 7 Plus OTA Update Brings Dual 4G VoLTE Support In India

By

Jeet

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May 18, 2018

Last month, HMD Global launched a range of smartphones in the Indian market, including Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 8 Sirocco and Nokia 6 (2018). The Nokia 7 Plus has now received a new over-the-air (OTA) update, which brings the dual VoLTE support to the smartphone.

Till now, the Nokia 7 Plus supported 4G VoLTE in SIM 1 but the SIM 2 was limited to 3G connectivity. With this new update, both SIM 1 and SIM 2 slots will support 4G VoLTE connectivity. The update comes with the version number V2.22A and also brings other changes such as user interface enhancements, improved system stability, and the latest May 2018 Android security patch.

During the launch of the smartphone, Nokia had also promised that it will roll out an update which will enable Face Unlock feature of the Nokia 7 Plus. However, the Face Unlock feature has not yet been enabled on the smartphone.

The Nokia 7 has also been named among the few eligible devices that will receive the recently announced Android P Developer Preview 2. Users who are interested to test out the new Android P Beta can sign up for the Developer Preview 2 OTA update on Nokia’s website here.

Not many smartphones support dual 4G VoLTE connectivity. However, there are a few devices available in India that supports such feature, including the Honor View 10, Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1, and the recently launched Oppo smartphone Realme 1.

The Nokia 7 Plus features a 6-inch Full-HD+ IPS LCD display with screen resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels and 18:9 aspect ratio. The phone is powered by Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 660 processor, along with 4GB RAM. It packs 64GB of onboard storage that is expandable up to 256GB using a microSD card.

The smartphone comes with a dual camera setup on the back consisting of a 12-megapixel primary sensor and a 13-megapixel secondary sensor. It supports 2x optical zoom and is accompanied by a dual-tone LED flash and Zeiss optics. On the front side, the smartphone sports a 16-megapixel fixed focus camera with f/2.0 aperture and Zeiss optics.

Connectivity options on the device include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, NFC, USB Type-C (2.0), and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Running on Android 8.1 Oreo operating system out-of-the-box, the smartphone packs a 3,800mAh battery.

The ASUS Zenfone 5 Has Really Great Cameras According To DxOMark

By

Habeeb Onawole

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May 18, 2018

The ASUS Zenfone 5 looks like an Android version of the iPhone X which may be a good thing or bad thing depending on the individual. Looking past the design, camera tests by DxOMark have revealed the phone actually has very impressive cameras.

The ASUS Zenfone 5 is a mid-range phone powered by the Snapdragon 636 processor. It has dual rear cameras – a 12MP 1.4µm f/1.8 primary sensor and an 8MP 1.12µm f/2.0 secondary camera. The performance of both cameras combined is flagship-level.

DxOMark has given the phone an overall score of 90 points. It is said to perform excellently when taking still photos in all scenarios and even gets an above average performance in low-light conditions.

Its photo score is 93 points which is an average of its scores in areas such as Exposure and Contrast (92), Color (86), Autofocus (98) and more.

Video performance isn’t very great as the Zenfone 5 scored 86 points. Autofocus is still its strongest point here but it doesn’t do very well in capturing fine detail and textures.

Nevertheless, the ASUS Zenfone 5 seems to be a great choice if you are looking for a mid-range device with great cameras. DxOMark doesn’t have test results of other mid-range phones like the Nokia 7 Plus or Mi 6X, so we can’t say how their cameras compare to that of the Zenfone 5.

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Samsung Outs Invitation For May 21 Event in India, Galaxy J6 Expected

By

Jed John Ikoba

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May 18, 2018

Samsung has sent out an invitation for a launch event which could take place in India on May 21. The invitation did not specify the model that would be launched but from the look of things, it is a smartphone with the trendy full-screen design.

Rumours have been rife about two Galaxy phones that have similar designs, talking about the Galaxy A6 and Galaxy J6. Samsung has already unveiled the Galaxy A6 (2018) and Galaxy A6+ (2018) for other markets but not in India. It is likely that the Galaxy A6 duo will be launched. There are also speculations that the Galaxy J6 models will be unveiled on that date. The Galaxy J6 also presents with an infinity display which seems to mirror the flagship Galaxy S9 duo. They are expected to cost between INR 20,000 and INR 25,000.

Both the Galaxy A6 and J6 models are expected to be “Made in India” as the country is considering raising import duties on smartphones in order to encourage companies to manufacture locally. The Galaxy J6 (2018) official images were also leaked recently showing us what the device looks like.

(via)