OnePlus 5T has arrived as an improved version of the OnePlus 5 smartphone that was launched in June this year. Vikas Aggarwal who is the General Manager with OnePlus India has confirmed that the OnePlus 5 will be discontinued once it is sold out.
During a recent interview with an Indian publication, Aggarwal said that the last batch of OnePlus 3T was sold out during the recent shopping season of Diwali in October. The smartphone was then discontinued. The same can be expected for the OnePlus 5. He added that once the OnePlus 5 is sold out, the company would be selling only one smartphone – the OnePlus 5T.
According to Aggarwal, the OnePlus 5T cannot be dubbed as a whole new smartphone. Instead, it is a variant of the OnePlus 5 that has arrived with a larger display, enhanced cameras along with improved overall experience.
OnePlus has been competing with premium smartphones from other brands through its flagship killer phones. Aggarwal has said that the OnePlus 5T is capable of rivaling with existing flagship phones in the market. Since it is an extension of its current product line, the company decided to launch the OnePlus 5T with the same pricing as OnePlus 5.
As far as OnePlus mid-range phones are concerned, the executive made it clear that the company has no plans to launch it as it is focusing on the premium smartphone market. A recent IDC survey has revealed that the popularity of OnePlus has surpassed major brands like Samsung and Apple in the premium smartphone segment in India.
The 64 GB and 128 GB OnePlus 5T models are respectively priced at Rs. 32,999 (~$507) and Rs. 37,999 (~$584) in India. Amazon India is the exclusive online seller of the OnePlus 5T. Today at 4:30 PM, it will be running a flash sale for the smartphone exclusively for it Prime members. The actual sales of the OnePlus 5T will begin on Nov. 28.
A mysterious Sony smartphone with model number Sony H4133 has appeared on GFXBench benchmarking site. It reminds us of another unreleased Sony phone with similar model number of Sony H4233 that had surfaced on the same benchmarking platform in September. Since these smartphones carry similar specs, the newly surfaced Sony H4133 could be a lower end edition of the Sony H4233 smartphone.
The Sony H4133 has a 5.2-inch display that supports full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The presence of Adreno 508 graphics indicates that the smartphone is powered by the Snapdragon 630 chipset. It is the same chipset that is found under the hood of other phones like Motorola Moto X4, Nokia 7 and HTC U11 Life. The SoC is aided by 3 GB of RAM and it has an internal storage of 32 GB.
The back camera of Sony H4133 is of 21-megapixel and it carries support for 4K video shooting. Its frontside could be sporting an 8-megapixel snapper. The smartphone comes preloaded with Android 8.0 Oreo.
The above snapshots show that the UAProf of the Sony 4133 also reveals that it features a FHD display and it is loaded with Android 8.0 Oreo. The device also carries support for Bluetooth.
The Sony H4233 smartphone that was spotted two months ago features 6-inch FHD display and it is also powered by Snapdragon 630. It has 4 GB of RAM and a native storage of 64 GB. It is also running on Android 8.0 Oreo and features a 21-megapixel rear camera and a 16-megapixel front-facing camera.
The model numbers of the Sony smartphones that released this year had “G” in their model number. Hence, the Sony H4133 phone could be arriving next year as it has “H” in its model number. The Sony H4233 and H4133 mid-range smartphones may get unveiled during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) event in 2018.
Does the model number SM-G888N0 ring any bell? For those who don’t remember, it is the model number for Samsung’s up-coming foldable smartphone – the Galaxy X.
The Galaxy X is not expected to launch until next year but a support page has showed up on the official Samsung Korea site. The page doesn’t include any specs but the fact that it is live is a another confirmation of the phone’s existence.
The Samsung Galaxy SM-G888N0 got Wi-Fi and Bluetooth certified months ago, but we still know next to nothing about its specs. However, the design is expected be the same hinge design like the ZTE Axon M, but with more of a flip-phone form factor than a book.
The core specs like the display size and processor are unknown. Will it be powered by the Snapdragon 845/Exynos 9810 that will power next year’s flagships or will it use this year’s top processors? The possibility of using this year’s chipsets is high seeing as the phone is expected to launch before the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+.
360 Mobiles is expected to either launch its new phone, the N6 Pro tomorrow or to announce a launch date. According to the CEO, the phone will pack impressive specs and a competitive price.
Most of the phone’s specs are still unknown but one key feature it will have is a full-screen 18:9 display, thanks to the images seen on TENAA. The good news is that we may not have to wait till it launches to find out some of its other key specs.
Popular leaker @MochaRQ took to Weibo to reveal some details of the device. The specs were gotten from a poster announcing the brand’s 2nd anniversary celebration. To mark the event, the poster lists certain 360 phones that will be discounted and also includes a few specifications of an unnamed phone. This phone is believed to be the 360 N6 Pro.
The N6 Pro according to the poster will have a Snapdragon 660 and a 4,000mAh battery. There is also a ¥2999 (~$452) price tag mentioned which is surprising since one of the brands selling points is the low price tag it slaps on its devices.
The image does look genuine and the specs are not unusual, so this is likely what we’ll see when it eventually launches.
Barely seven months after Xiaomi made its official debut in Russia, Counterpoint research has revealed that the Chinese tech company is now the fifth largest smartphone brand in Russia. The Mi brand achieved this feat in the third quarter (Q3) 2017 according to the latest research finding by Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service.
In a statement made available to the press, Counterpoint’s Associate Director, Tarun Pathak disclosed that Xiaomi grew by 325 percent YoY and was the fastest growing smartphone brand in Russia in both online as well as offline sales. Counterpoint also revealed that smartphone shipments in Russia grew by 7 percent annually and 38 percent sequentially during Q3 2017. The growth of the handset market in Russia during the third quarter is fingered to have been driven by aggressive marketing campaigns by new Chinese brands and subsequent price cuts from all the leading retail chains as a response to the high consumer spending precipitated by the new academic year and a ‘back-to-school’ season.
Xiaomi and Apple emerged as the leading smartphone brands in online sales during the quarter. Online sales channel also saw an increase from 12% to 15% YoY in Russia. Overall, Samsung led the smartphone push with market shares of 20 percent and 29 percent respectively during Q3 2017. Other global brands, including Samsung, raked in almost 58 percent of the smartphone market, closely followed by Chinese brands with 32 percent market share. Xiaomi with a growth of 325 percent, Bright and Quick (177 percent) and Huawei (140 percent) were the fastest growing Chinese brands YoY. Local Russian brands also grew in the quarter as well.
No doubt, results such as this and the strong outing in India would spur Xiaomi to venture more and more into other regions where fans are anxiously waiting to get their products directly.
5G is the next big thing in the telecommunications world and all the big players from infrastructure builders, to component and consumer product manufacturers to network operators are already laying out plans and even executing them all ready for the new network standard.
What is 5G?
Before explaining what 5G is, a short history class on network standards is necessary.
The first network standard or first generation wireless telephone technology referred to as 1G was introduced in 1981. It was later replaced by the 2G standard in 1992 which brought digital encryption, SMS, and data services.
3G was announced in 1998 but didn’t become commercial until 2001. It brought services like faster mobile internet access, video calls, and mobile TV. It was then followed by 4G in 2008 which later became mainstream in 2011/2012. 4G brought along mobile ultra-broadband access.
If you look at the dates, you will see that there is approximately 10 years between each mobile generation. 5G has been announced already and is expected to go mainstream by 2020/2021. It will operate on a much wider frequency than previous network standards and allow more devices to be connected to the internet.
There is no 5G standard yet but the GSMA has penned down 8 criteria that a network should meet to qualify to be referred to as 5G:
One to 10Gbps connections to end points in the field
One millisecond end-to-end round trip delay (low latency)
1000x bandwidth per unit area
10 to 100x number of connected devices
(Perception of) 99.999 percent availability
(Perception of) 100 percent coverage
90 percent reduction in network energy usage
Up to ten-year battery life for low power, machine-type devices
5G Applications
Industries
While 4G and 3G have focused on devices with high data rates, 5G will address machine-to-machine communication. The deployment of 5G is expected to play a huge part in the next industrial revolution.
Factories of the future are expected to get smarter. Industries will be able to move from wired to wireless connections, thereby reducing cost of installations and flexibility of production processes.
Currently, the way machines used in factories are programmed doesn’t allow for much flexibility due to the use of wired networks. If you wanted to change a production process, it would require a lot of work, time and money.
In a case where several individual machines have to be re-programmed at a go, the total data required is large even though the update for each machine is small, and with wired connections, it is considerably slow.
With the use of 5G, it will be easier to update as the communication between machines is wireless and not wired and the latency is much more lower. Machines can be re-programmed on the go while being moved physically, thereby reducing production downtime.
Image Credit: Intel
Autonomous Driving
Self-driving cars are already getting popular and will continue to increase in number in the coming years. These cars need data to communicate and current LTE speeds are not fast enough. Therein comes 5G.
According to Rob Topol, the GM of Intel’s 5G business and technology, 5G wireless networking will be like “oxygen” for self-driving vehicles.
Sensors built into the cars will be able to transfer and receive data at speeds up to gigabits per second using 5G modems built by manufacturers such as Intel. That way important data such as weather reports and road conditions can be sent to the cars as quickly as possible. The advantage this brings is fewer accidents overall.
Virtual Reality
The key advantage of 5G is its low latency (network delay). This will come in handy for areas like Virtual Reality gaming, where latency can affect the outcome of a game. There is also the speed 5G brings to the table, allowing data to reach consumers faster.
E-health
Healthcare is one of the areas that will benefit most from 5G. Medical devices will become part of the Internet of Things (IoT) or rather, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), containing sensors that can receive and send data.
The advantage this brings is that patients will not need to physically check-in with doctors as diagnosis and treatment can be done remotely. This will help reduce the cost of healthcare especially for those who live far away.
Another advantage is that the connected medical devices which feed doctors with data about the patient can help with predictive analytics, resulting in early diagnoses.
The Internet of Medical Things is also expected to generate lots of revenue an create jobs for those in the manufacture of health wearables and health-monitoring devices.
However, these benefits will still need to be regulated by health bodies and agencies.
5G’s For The Mobile World
The big players for the mobile world is Qualcomm and Intel. Yes, Intel is back in the modem race as it announced its first 5G New Radio modem, the XMM 8060 a few days ago. Although this comes months after Qualcomm announced its own X50 modem, Intel may have snatched up a big customer in Apple.
Apple and Qualcomm are currently slugging it out in courts, so it comes as no surprise that it may want to switch to Intel for its modems.
Qualcomm on the other hand as lots of clients – its modems are used in most smartphones even those powered by other chipsets. There is also its partnership with Microsoft for the Windows 10 ARM PCs.
We are expecting the first Windows 10 ARM PCs to arrive this year. They will not only have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 SoC but also its X16 LTE modem for connectivity. For the second gen PCs, expect them to come with the X50 5G modem.
Apart from super fast connectivity for mobile phones, another service 5G will bring is hologram video calls at least for Korean Telecom. Sadly, this is not Star Wars style hologram video calls as a display is still required but its different from current video calls.
China’s largest online giant, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (Alibaba) is making moves to equally become a giant offline. As part of its efforts to do so, it announced that it will acquire a stake in Sun Art Retail Group, owners of hypermarkets Auchan and RT-Mart.
Sun Art is market leader in the offline grocery market with an 8.2% market share according to Kantar Worldpanel.
The deal will actually be carried out by Alibaba’s subsidiary, Taobao China Holding. Taobao will form an alliance with Auchan Retail S.A. and Reuntex Group. It will invest HK$ 22.4 billion (~$22.9 billion) in return for a 36.16% stake (from Reuntex) in the business. The acquisition will see Taobao become the second largest shareholder in Sun Art after Auchan (36.18%) while Reuntex will have a 4.67% stake.
Alibaba will use the acquisition as a chance to tap into China’s $500 billion food retail market and increase its foothold in the offline market. In recent years, it has started to invest in physical stores. So far, it has spent up to $9.3 billion since 2015.
After launching the Vivo V7 in Indonesia and China, the company has now launched the smartphone in the Indian market at a launch event in New Delhi. Vivo V7 is the watered-down version of the previously launched Vivo V7 Plus.
Just like the V7 Plus, this one too follows Vivo’s vision of focusing on selfie camera. The mid-range smartphone has a lot of similarities with its bigger sibling V7 Plus — from the design of the phone to the specifications.
The smartphone features with a 5.7-inch FullView display with a screen resolution of 1440 x 720 pixels, having an aspect ratio of 18:9 and a 2.5D Curved Glass. It boasts 83.6 percent screen-to-body ratio. On the other hand, the V7 Plus features a 6-inch display panel.
Under the hood, the phone is powered by a 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 octa-core processor, backed by 4GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. There is also a microSD card slot, allowing users to further expand storage capacity up to 256GB on the device.
Apart from display, the only major difference between the V7 and the V7 Plus is storage and RAM, with the Vivo V7 Plus having 6GB RAM and 64GB internal storage.
On the optics front, the smartphone features a 16-emgapixel f/2.0 rear camera with phase detection autofocus (PDAF) and a single LED flash. However, the highlight of the device is the front-facing camera, which comes with a 24-megapixel lens.
The camera also supports Portrait Mode and Live Photos, similar to Vivo V7 Plus. It has the ability to shoot 64-megapixel Ultra HD images by stitching multiple images. The selfie camera comes with Smart Beauty 7.0 and also has “VivoFace Access” technology that enables users to unlock the device through facial recognition.
Connectivity options on the device include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 and GPS. There is also a fingerprint sensor for added protection. The smartphone It runs FunTouch OS 3.2 which is based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system. It is powered by a 3,000mAh battery but there is no support for fast charging.
In India, the Vivo V7 will be available in Matte Black and Champagne Gold colours, at a price of Rs. 18,990 (~$292). It is currently up for pre-order exclusively via Flipkart and will go on sale from November 24.
Honor V10 is scheduled to get unveiled on Nov. 28 through a launch event in Beijing, China. A Huawei phone with model number BND-AL00 has appeared on TENAA. It is speculated that this smartphone could be the upcoming Honor V10 flagship.
According to TENAA listing, the BND-AL00 is driven by Kirin 970 chipset. The official teaser of the Honor V10 hints that AI powered Kirin 970 will be powering it. Hence, the BND-AL00 could be the Honor V10 smartphone.
The images of the smartphone that have surfaced on TENAA shows it has rear-mounted fingerprint scanner and a full screen design. The images also suggest that the rumored Honor V10 may house a metallic chassis.
The alleged Honor V10 features a 5.99-inch display that supports FHD+ resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. The Kirin 970 SoC will be accompanied by 6 GB of RAM. It is expected to be available in two storage models like 64 GB and 128 GB.
For shooting selfies, it will be featuring a selfie camera of 13-megapixel. The backside of the Honor V10 will be housing dual camera sensors of 16-megapixel and 20-megapixel. It includes a 3,750mAh battery that will be coupled with 22.5W SuperCharge. The V10 will be running on Android 8.0 Oreo and may feature same EMUI 8.0 skin found on Mate 10 series phones.
Rumors have suggested that the Honor V10 would be coming with a starting price of 2,999 Yuan (~$450). After Nov. 28 launch in China, the Honor V10 will be also showcased in London on Dec. 5.
Internet speed is about going ballistic as Qualcomm, ZTE and China Mobile have announced on Friday, the successful test run of what they claim is the world’s first end-to-end 5G New Radio system. The new Radio system allows data to run at multi-gigabit per second speeds (>1 Gbps) with a latency of under 4ms. Compared to the 20ms latency that is the standard for current LTE networks, the difference is just out of this world.
The new 5G technology is based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards. The 3GPP group is comprised of telecommunications companies that set the standards for 3G, 4G networks and now 5G networks and equipment. As a result of the 5G technology being built on the 3GPP standards, we can expect the development of commercial products that meet the 3GPP specification anytime soon.
The test employed ZTE’s 5G New Radio pre-commercial base station, Qualcomm’s 5G sub 6GHz New Radio prototype, and the data was transmitted over the 3.5 GHz band utilizing 100 MHz of bandwidth. The trial was conducted at China Mobile’s 5G Joint Innovation Center. The three partners intend to showcase this achievement at the China Mobile Global Partner Conference on November 23.
Xiaomi Mi A1 is the most popular budget phone from Xiaomi so far, it has mid-level specs and original Android OS. The Mi A1 features a 5.5″ 1080p display and a Snapdragon 625 octa-core SoC along with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and a 3080mAh battery. In addition, it is equipped with a dual rear camera system comprised of two 12MP Sony IMX323 sensors and a front-facing camera with a 5MP sensor. It also has a fingerprint sensor in the back and comes with Google’s Android 7.1.2 operating system which will soon be updated to Android Oreo.
Xaiomi Mi A1 Main Features:
Display: 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 Pixel LTPS FHD screen, 450nit brightness, 403 PPI
CPU: Snapdragon 625 2.0GHz Octa Core
System: Android One
RAM + ROM:4GB RAM + 64GB ROM
Camera: 5.0MP front camera + 12.0MP + 12.0MP back cameras
OnePlus finally unveiled the much-anticipated OnePlus 5T in a ceremony in New York on November 16, just about 4 days back. We couldn’t hope for any better from the Chinese company. The OnePlus 5T was indeed a slight upgrade of the OP 5 which was still some months old on the market and before anything else, we thing OnePlus got it right this time around. On the internals, there isn’t much difference except on the rear camera where OnePlus dished the secondary telephoto lens in favour of a wide-angle sensor in a bid to improve the rear camera’s picture quality.
The OnePlus 5T saw most of its changes in the display design where OnePlus made the wise decision of shifting to the trending full-view display design which has become very popular since the Galaxy S8 was released. The OP 5T is also sleeker and larger (taller) than the OP 5 and the large display does promise a better user experience. The device is just as thin as the OP5, though a bit taller to accommodate for the larger 18:9 6-inch FHD+ AMOLED display at the front. It’s really a marginal difference, though, as the company managed to seriously minimize the bezels at the top and bottom of the OnePlus 5 in the 5T, resulting in a flagship that’s more in line with other 2017 flagship devices from the likes of Samsung and Google.
The OnePlus 5T prides itself with having an 80.5% screen-to-body ratio, with minimally curved corners (the radius of curvature is smaller than what’s found on devices like the Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S8, for example). Users are now able to choose from sRGB, Adaptive Mode, DCI-P3 and the Default color profile, while still being able to customize color temperature and access night mode for blue light filtering, and reading mode for additional contrast on a sepia color palette. There is also a Sunlight Display mode for better outdoor visibility. We should be looking at a better display than the OP 5 especially as we are told the jelly scrolling issue on the OnePlus 5 display isn’t present on the 5T.
The OP 5T also packs a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor as a result of the high screen-to-body ratio. We bring you some hands-on photos of the newly launch smartphone courtesy of CNET. Check out more of the photos from below.
Earlier this year, China-based smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi expanded its presence in Europe by launching its products in Spain. Now, the company has listed more smartphones under its Redmi series on its Amazon Spain online store.
The company has now added Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Redmi Note 5A Prime, Redmi Note 5A, Redmi 4X and the Redmi 4A smartphones. Earlier this month, the company had released Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 and Mi A1 smartphones.
The Redmi Note 4 smartphone is available in two storage options — 32GB and 64GB, for a starting price of €170. The Redmi Note 5A Prime costs €160, while the standard version — Redmi Note 5A is priced at €130.
Then, there is Redmi 4X, which costs around €149, while the cheapest of them all is Redmi 4A which starts at a price of €100. It is also available in two variants — 16GB and 32GB of internal storage.
While the Mi A1 and Mi MIX 2 were made available a few days ago, the Android One smartphone, i.e. Mi A1, is currently out of stock. There is no information when the device will be back in stock. Along with that, Redmi Note 5A and Redmi 4A are also listed as “Temporarily Out of Stock”.
Xiaomi has set an ambitious goal for smartphone shipments for this year and continues its giant strides towards the same goal in the global market. Recently, the company claimed to have sold a record 9.2 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2017 in India. This was achieved due to the huge success recorded in the Diwali festive sales.
IDC also ranked Xiaomi as the number 1 smartphone brand in India, along with Samsung which has been dominating the market. OPPO, Lenovo and Vivo also fall behind Xiaomi once again in the pecking order.
In a bid to expand its market out of China, the company opened the world’s first Mi Store in Russia that would run for 24 hours, all seven days of the week. Xiaomi had made its entry into the Russian market back in April with the launch of three of its smartphones – Mi Mix, Mi Note 2 and Redmi 4x.
HMD Global’s entry-level smartphone, Nokia 2, which was announced last month, will soon be available in the US. It is currently up for pre-order at online retailers Amazon, B&H, and Best Buy. The smartphone has been priced at $99.
In the US, the Nokia 2 will be available as an unlocked unit, but it is only compatible with GSM-based carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile and will not work on Sprint or Verizon.
While the device is up for pre-order, none of the retailers have mentioned the release date. So, we are not sure when the device will be shipped to those who decide to pre-order.
Earlier, the Nokia 2 smartphone went up for sale in Russia and South Africa. Interestingly, it is yet to go up for sale in India where the smartphone’s announcement took place.
One of the highlight of the smartphone is its battery. It comes with a massive 4,100mAh battery which the company claims can provide two days of battery life on a single charge.
The smartphone features a 5-inch HD LTPS display with screen resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and Gorilla Glass 3 on top. Under the hood, it is powered by Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 212 processor, along with just 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. There is also a microSD card slot, allowing users to expand storage capacity on the device.
There is an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The company has included “Bothie” feature that allows users to use both front and rear cameras simultaneously.
It comes with IP52 certifications, meaning that the smartphone is splash proof. Connectivity features on the device include Dual SIM, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, and GPS / GLONASS.
The phone runs stock version of Android 7.0 Nougat operating system out-of-the-box, and comes with Google Assistant. The company says that this is the first smartphone in this price segment to feature Google Assistant. Nokia has also promised to soon update the device with the latest Android 8.0 Oreo.
The move to full-screen displays means phones with front-mounted fingerprint scanners have to push them to the back or ditch them entirely like the iPhone X. However, that doesn’t have to be the case.
Images of a new full-screen phone has surfaced online but this is different from others as it has a front-mounted fingerprint scanner.
The display has the same 18:9 aspect ratio we have come to see in so many flagships. But even with the smaller lower bezel which has been reduced to billboards for the manufacturer’s name in some other phones, this one manages to squeeze in a physical home button/fingerprint scanner. The top bezel holds a front camera, sensor and earpiece.
The back of the phone is equally interesting. It has dual cameras which are raised, and employs the U-antenna design. While the name on the back reads “Aurora”, some sources say it is the Huawei P11 Plus. Some have also said it is Huawei the Nova 3.
There is no proof that it is any of the two devices mentioned above, so we advice you take it with a pinch of salt.
Apart from the dual cameras and front fingerprint scanner, the phone has a USB-C port and a 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom. There is also what appears to be an IR blaster at the top alongside a secondary microphone.
OnePlus has kept to its promise of updating the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T to Android 8.0 Oreo before the end of the year. In a forum post today, OnePlus announced that the official OTA update has started rolling out to the two devices.
The update which comes as an OxygenOS 5.0 not only brings Android Oreo but some additional features. Below are the key changes that comes with the OTA.
System
Update to Android O (8.0)
Added Parallel Apps
Added Picture in Picture
Added Auto-fill
Added Smart text selection
New Quick Settings design
Updated security patch to September
Launcher
Added notification dots
New app folder design
Now able to upload photos directly to Shot on OnePlus
Based on screenshots from those who have updated, the OTA also includes September’s security patch which is disappointing seeing as some devices are already receiving November’s security patch. There is also no confirmation if the update fixes the KRACK Wi-Fi vulnerability.
While OnePlus has already announced that Android Oreo will be the last major update for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T, it will still receive security updates and possibly, bug fixes.
The update makes OnePlus the second manufacturer to release Android Oreo for its devices. The update is incremental and should start arriving on most devices in a few days.
Apple joined the smart speaker race with the Siri-powered HomePod. The HomePod which was unveiled in June might be a smart speaker first but its selling point is its Hi-Fi audio.
Initially billed to arrive in December in time for the holidays, Apple has announced that it needs ”a little more time” before the HomePod will arrive. So if you already had plans to show off your speaker to your cousins this holiday, sorry to burst your bubble.
Below is the official statement from Apple:
“We can’t wait for people to experience HomePod, Apple’s breakthrough wireless speaker for the home, but we need a little more time before it’s ready for our customers,”
Apple says they’ll start shipping the speaker in the US, UK, and Australia in early 2018.
The speaker will sell for $349 and will compete with other AI powered-speakers like the Google Home Max which also offers impressive audio performance, costs $399 (12-month YouTube Music subscription inclusive) and will also be available in December. There is also the Amazon Echo series and the Cortana-powered Harman Kardon Invoke.
Are you a lover of flip-phones? Then rejoice as the Samsung W2018 has gotten a launch date. The date was revealed on Twitter by a user named @MMDJ_ known for his Samsung related tweets.
According to his post, the Samsung W2018 will be launched in Xiamen, China on December 1. Accompanying the tweet is an official poster that includes the W-series for the past 10 years and celebrity guests invited to the launch which also doubles as a charity event.
For the past 10 years, Samsung has always used the launch of its W-series phone as a platform to raise funds for charity. A follow up post by @MMDDJ_ includes a mash up photo that shows various charity acts and photos from previous years.
The Samsung W2018 will be its most powerful flip phone ever made. Aside its dual 4.2” FHD displays, the phone will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 mobile platform. It will also have 6GB of RAM and 128GB of built-in storage.
Although the Samsung W2018 won’t sport dual rear cameras, rumor has it that it will be the first smartphone to have a camera with a F/1.5 aperture. The rear camera is said to be a 12MP sensor and a 5MP front-facing camera is available for selfies.
From the leaked images provided last week, the phone is shown to have its fingerprint scanner on the back just like the other Samsung flagships released this year. However, @MMDDJ_ says it will also have an iris scanner.
The Samsung W2018 will also come with Bixby and have a dedicated button for it. Samsung is expected to launch the Chinese variant of its AI assistant this month ahead of the W2018’s release.
Last month, a 360 Mobiles smartphone with a full-screen display was seen on TENAA. The phone with model number 1713-A01 packs an 18:9 display of unknown size and also has a rear fingerprint scanner. It appears the phone will launch as the N6 Pro and may likely be announced next week.
As you already know by now, Weibo usually reveals the device type used in making a post. 360 Mobiles CEO Zhou Hongyi took to the micro-blogging site to respond to a post in which he was tagged in.
The post in question shows schematics of a full-screen phone which the person is asking if is the 360 full-screen flagship. The CEO’s response doesn’t acknowledge the schematics as that of the phone, but he does mention that there will be an announcement next week Tuesday (21st of November).
Some sources say that the phone may be launched that day while others say it may be the launch date that will be revealed. But whichever one it is, it sure will relate to the upcoming smartphone.
The other interesting part of the response is that the device used in posting the reply is revealed as the N6 Pro. At the moment, the phone manufacturer has no device in the market that goes by that name. Its latest device is the 360 Mobile Vizza, so the only plausible explanation is that the N6 Pro is the full-screen device set to launch soon.
Recent leaks have revealed that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy A5 (2018) and Galaxy A7 (2018) smartphones have respective model numbers of SM-A530F and SM-A730F. The arrival of these smartphones seems to be approaching fast as both the model numbers have been granted certification by Wi-Fi Alliance.
The Wi-Fi certification of the SM-A530F and SM-A730F have revealed that the both the smartphones will carry support for Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/ac and will arrive preinstalled with Android 7.1.1 Nougat. This is an indication that these phones are unlikely to deliver Android Oreo out of the box experience.
Samsung is known for providing some of the best features from Galaxy S devices on Galaxy A series smartphones. However, the Galaxy A phones are launched with older versions of Android OS.
For instance, the Galaxy A (2017) smartphones such as Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 that were introduced in January this year came preloaded with Android Marshmallow. These phones were later on updated to Android Nougat.
Samsung is expected to use the same strategy on the upcoming Galaxy A5 (2018) and Galaxy A7 (2018) phones. These phones are likely to arrive Nougat OS preinstalled and may receive Oreo update by the middle of next year.
Read More: Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime (2017) Key Specs Leaked on GFXBench
Rumors have revealed that the Galaxy A5 (2018) and Galaxy A7 (2018) will come with Infinity Display full screen design like Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8. These phones are rumored to feature dual front cameras and a dedicated button for accessing Bixby. Previous reports have revealed that both the smartphones will be powered by Exynos 7885 chipset.
The 2018 editions of Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 have already received FCC certification. These phones have also received Bluetooth SIG certification. Since these phones have already bagged all the necessary certifications, it seems that the 2018 Galaxy A5 and A7 may launch either in the next month or early in January 2018.
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