ZTE’s Blade A series is an example of bang for buck, and its latest model, the Blade A3 keeps to that tradition. Announced a few hours ago, the new phone does pack some impressive features for just ¥799 (~$120).
The Blade A3 has a 5.5” HD 2.5D TFT display. ZTE is trying to keep the price low, so there is no protection on the display. A MediaTek MT6737T quad core processor clocked at 1.5GHz is under the plastic body. RAM is 3GB and built in storage is 32GB.
Like we have seen in a number of new mid-range phones like the Redmi Note 5A, the ZTE Blade A3 has a triple card slot. That way, you don’t need to sacrifice a SIM slot for a MicroSD card (128GB max.)
One of the selling points of the Blade A3 is its dual front facing cameras. One is a 5MP sensor and the other is a 2MP sensor. Both work together to capture portrait images. There is also a soft flash on the right for illumination. The rear camera is a 13MP sensor.
The Blade A3 rounds it up with a 4000mAh battery that should last a whole day seeing as the display maxes out at 720p. There is a micro USB port and 3.5mm audio jack. It has a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, but if you want, you can try out the Face Unlock feature which ZTE says is safe and fast.
A hands-on photo said to be that of the OnePlus 5T surfaced online recently but after all the publicity, it was discovered to be a photoshopped Vivo X20 with the OnePlus wallpaper on top. Now, another photo alleged to be that of the OnePlus 5T has appeared online but we still cannot verify if this one is real or fake.
The leaked photo has on display, the front view of the device while powered on. The front view indeed reveals a full-screen design with a high screen-to-body ratio. That is the major design attribute the device is expected to pack so, it won’t be surprising if this turns out to be yet another scam. OnePlus is yet to even confirm the existence of the OnePlus 5T.
That doesn’t mean the device isn’t likely in the works. The recent happenings like the discontinuation of OnePlus 5 sales on OnePlus’ official website suggest the company has got something up its sleeves. The OnePlus 5T is expected to feature a 6-inch display with 2160 x 1080 pixels resolution which means they would adopt an 18:9 aspect ratio. The flagship model is also expected to pack a Snapdragon 835 flagship processor like the OP5. The device is expected with a 8GB RAM + 128GB memory while there may likely be a 6GB RAM + 64GB storage variant. On the camera end, we expect a 20MP + 16MP dual camera setup at the rear while there will be a 20MP selfie camera at the front.
A new smartphone from Oppo has made its appearance on TENAA. Dubbed as Oppo A73, the smartphone is featuring a 6-inch display with bezel-less screen.
There are many smartphone out in the market with bezel-less smartphones, but most of them basically have thin bezels. However, the Oppo A73 seems to have a bezel-less screen, with a thin bezel on top and no bezels on either left or right side, or at bottom.
On the back side, there is a single camera sensor at the top left corner, along with an LED flash. There is also a fingerprint sensor in the top centre region, just above the Oppo branding.
The TENAA leak has also revealed the smartphone’s specifications. It is powered by an octa-core 2.5GHz processor, along with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. However, it is not yet known which chipset is powering this smartphone.
There is a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 16-megapixel front-facing camera. It is fueleld by a 3,115mAh battery. It seems that the phone will come with Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system out-of-the-box.
Oppo recently launched its Oppo F5 smartphone — the successor of Oppo F3, which comes with a 6-inch FHD+ display having aspect ratio of 18:9. The company is also all-set to launch Oppo R11S and R11S Plus smartphones on November 2.
Reportedly, Oppo is expecting huge demand for the R11S and R11S Plus, and has already prepared a stock of around 10 million units. The phone features a dual camera setup at the back and a 6.43-inch bezel-less display on the front with Full HD+ resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio.
Although there is no information available about the availability and pricing of Oppo A73 at this time, we expect the company to launch this smartphone soon as it has already passed TENAA.
Counterpoint’s newest smartphone market survey for India has revealed that because of the strong sales of smartphones and featurephones, handset shipments have crossed 84 million mark for the first time in India. Also, Samsung and Xiaomi account for 45 percent of smartphone market in India in Q3 2017.
According to Counterpoint’s market research for the third quarter of this year, Samsung has a market share of 23 percent. The South Korean company is closely followed by Xiaomi with a market share of 22 percent. In Q3 2016, Samsung and Xiaomi had respective market shares of 23 percent and 6 percent. Xiaomi’s strong performance in mid-range smartphone segment (Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000) has catapulted it to rival with Samsung in India.
Counterpoint Associate Director Tarun Pathak claims that Xiaomi accounts for three of the top 5 bestselling smartphones in the country. It appears that Xiaomi may soon dethrone Samsung to become the number smartphone brand in India. Vivo, OPPO and Lenovo are respectively placed on third, fourth and fifth positions on Counterpoint’s smartphone market research for Q3 2017.
This shows the dominance of Chinese smartphone brands in India. For the third consecutive quarter, their market share has remained more than 50 percent after they surpassed local brands in second half of previous year.
Reliance Jio that was commercially launched its 4G LTE network in September 2016 has not only significantly increased the mobile data consumption in India but also driven the demand for 4G enabled phones. It has been found that 97 percent of the smartphones shipped in Q3 2017 are LTE enabled devices. In a short span of less than a year, it has managed to add 100 million subscribers to its network and it is looking forward to adding another 100 million users with the launch of its LTE enabled JioPhone featurephone.
When it comes featurephone shipments, Samsung is leading the pack in Q3 2017 with a market share of 23 percent. ITEL, Micromax, HMD Global’s Nokia, and Lava make up the top five featurephone brands in India. The featurephone market has met with 22 percent (QoQ) with the arrival of handsets that are priced around Rs. 1,000 like the JioPhone and Nokia branded phones.
During the third quarter of 2017, the premium segment that includes smartphones costing more than Rs. 30,000 have met threefold growth (YoY) during Q3 2017. The market leaders in the premium segment are Apple, OnePlus and Samsung in the same quarter.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ have received good response from the critics and general users. However, one of the features of the Galaxy S8 duo that have been criticized heavily is the placement of fingerprint scanner. Since it is placed very close to the rear camera, many users end up smudging the lens every time they try to unlock their phone. To avoid such an issue on the Galaxy Note 8, Samsung has placed the LED flash unit and the heart rate monitor between the rear camera and fingerprint scanner. An industry insider from China has claimed that Samsung would be revamping the rear design of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus that are speculated to launch in Q1 2018.
The leakster has not elaborated on what changes will Samsung introduce on the backside of the Galaxy S9 duo. Speculations are rife that the S9 and S9+ will arrive with improved dual rear cameras than the one present on the Galaxy Note 8. Samsung may also want to re-arrange the position of the fingerprint reader on the Galaxy S9 duo.
The LG V30 has a horizontally stacked dual camera setup with a fingerprint scanner placed below well below it on its back panel. Samsung may also place the fingerprint a bit away from the dual camera system. The South Korean company may also reposition of the LED flash and heart rate sensor in a bid to give the 2018 Galaxy S series phones a different appeal.
A report from the previous month had claimed that the Galaxy S9’s rear camera will carry support for recording super slow-motion videos at 1,000 fps. Since the Galaxy S9 duo are speculated to arrive with such high-end camera features, it may not want to disturb the camera experience by placing the fingerprint scanner very close to it.
The Galaxy Note 9 that is slated to launch in Q3 2018 could be the first phone from Samsung to feature under-display fingerprint reader. Recent reports have revealed that the smartphone may feature a new 3D sensor on the frontside in order to deliver better facial recognition functionality.
Almost all the major smartphone manufacturing companies and even lesser known ones have released full screen design smartphones. In the previous month, Gionee had unveiled the Gionee M7 phone with FullView display. A new Gionee phone labelled as Gionee F6L with full screen design has been approved by Chinese certification site TENAA. The TENAA listing has only revealed its specifications, but its images are still under the wraps. It appears that the TENAA listing for Gionee F6L will be updated with its images later on.
The TENAA listing of Gionee F6L has revealed that it will be coming with a 5.7-inch IPS screen that will be supporting an HD+ resolution of 1440 x 720 pixels. This indicates that the handset will feature an elongated 18:9 display. The device measures 153.8 x 72.6 x 7.8mm and its weight is 141 grams.
It is driven by a 1.4 GHz processor. Speculations have it that it may be featuring a Snapdragon 430/435 chipset. It will be coming in RAM choices like 3 GB and 4 GB. It has an internal storage of 32 GB and is expected to feature a microSD card slot. It features a 2,970mAh battery.
For photography, Gionee has included a dual camera setup featuring a 13-megapixel sensor and a 2-megapixel sensor on the back panel of F6L phone. The frontside of the phone is equipped with an 8-megapixel camera. It will arrive preinstalled with Android 7.1.1 Nougat and is likely to come loaded with Gionee’s Amigo OS proprietary skin.
The specifications of the Gionee F6L suggests that it will be a budget phone. It will be available in color options like blue, gold and black.
The Gionee F205 is a yet to be unveiled budget phone from the Chinese manufacturer. Its specs are even lower than the F6L. The company is also rumored to be working on Gionee S11s that has recently appeared on TENAA and the Gionee S11 that has been spotted on GFXBench in the previous month. It appears that these phones may get unleashed before the end of 2017.
On Nov. 2, OPPO will be unleashing the OPPO R11s and OPPO R11s Plus smartphones. These phones will be arriving as improved editions of the OPPO R11 and R11 Plus that was launched in June this year. The OPPO R11s and R11s Plus were spotted on TENAA earlier in this month. However, their specs were not revealed. The OPPO R11s duo have appeared on TENAA once again to reveal their entire specifications and images.
The images that have surfaced through TENAA listing reveals that the OPPO R11s duo would be arriving with a metal unibody design that slight improvements in design compared to their original models. The backside of the R11s duo feature rear-mounted fingerprint scanner and dual cameras. These phones are also fitted with 18:9 full screen panels.
The OPPO R11s has a 6-inch display that carries support for full HD+ resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. Like the original R11 phone, the R11s is also fueled by Snapdragon 660 chipset along with a 3,120mAh battery. The smartphone includes 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. It measures 155.1 x 75.5 x 7.1mm and its weight is 153 grams.
The larger OPPO R11s is equipped with a 6.43-inch display and it also supports FHD+ resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. It is also driven by Snapdragon 660 chipset and it houses a 3,880mAh battery. The SoC is supported by 6 GB of RAM and it comes with an inbuilt storage of 64 GB. The dimensions of the OPPO R11s Plus are 164.8 x 80.2 x 7.3mm and it weighs 182 grams.
The OPPO R11s and R11s Plus are running on Android 7.1.1 Nougat OS. Both the phones will be equipped with AI driven 20-megapixel selfie camera that can beautify selfie shots by enhancing over 250 facial features by intelligently analyzing factors like age, gender, skin tone and more. The rear sides of the OPPO R11s and R11s Plus are equipped with 20-megapixel + 16-megapixel dual camera system. The OPPO R11s duo are expected to be available in color options like gold, black and red.
A well-known analyst from China has claimed that the Chinese manufacturer is expecting incredible sales of OPPO R11s and R11s Plus. Hence, the supply chain has reportedly has been asked by OPPO to prepare 10 million units of the R11s duo. Rumors have it that the OPPO R11s will be priced at 2,999 Yuan (~$451) and the larger R11s Plus will be costing 3,499 Yuan (~$526).
A buyer who has recently purchased the Google Pixel 2 smartphone from Verizon has that found that his box contains a cutout for earbuds even though it is not present inside it. Moreover, the booklet of the Pixel 2 that he has received states that earbuds are included in the box.
Lucas Everett has shared the images of Pixel 2 box package that he received on his Twitter account. By looking at the images form the booklet, it appears that Google had considered including a wired earphone with a USB-C connector along with inline controls. The design of the wired earbuds appears quite similar to the wireless Pixel Buds that are sold separately by Google.
My box also didn't include the headphone USB adapter and the store gave me one from another box. This is so weird.
Another thing that was not found in the box was a 3.5mm to USB-C adapter that is present inside all the Pixel 2 retail boxes. The probable reason behind it could be that the search engine giant may felt that there was no need to include the adapter since the package includes a pair of USB-C earbuds. When Lucas contacted Verizon, he was told that none of the other Pixel 2 box packages contain cutouts for earbuds and their booklets have no references for it. Google has confirmed that the box that Lucas received was an early package design meant for the U.S. market.
Samsung and Apple are providing premium earphones along with their flagship smartphones. It seems that Google had considered including premium earbuds in the box, but later on it was canceled. However, Google has not revealed the reason for canceling it. The Pixel Buds that are sold separately can be purchased with a pricing of $159.
Have you received your Pixel 2 / Pixel 2 XL smartphone with accommodations for the earbuds? Also, do you think that Google should have included wired / wireless earphones in the Pixel 2 / 2 XL box package? Let us know your thoughts by posting your comments below.
Since HMD Global has unveiled the Nokia 7 upper mid-range phone recently, Nokia fans are waiting for the arrival of the rumored Nokia 9 flagship phone. There are mixed rumors about the arrival of the smartphone. Some sources claim that it will be unveiled before the end of this year. However, there are other sources that claim that it will be unveiled during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 that is scheduled to take place next year in February. Upcoming Phones that is known for creating concept renders of forthcoming smartphones has also created a concept model of the unannounced Nokia 9 Edge phone. The design of the phone revealed through the new renders suggests that it is a better-looking version of Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
Featuring a 5.5-inch curved display panel and a full screen design, the Nokia 9 Edge boasts a sleek and premium appeal. The rear side of the phone is fitted with a pair of 16-megapixel sensors that are arranged vertically along with a dual-LED flash. An interesting feature that can be seen on the back panel of the Nokia 9 Edge is the presence of an infrared projector that is capable of mirroring the display of the phone.
The fingerprint scanner is also found on the backside of the concept phone. It is equipped with health sensors. For shooting selfies, it features an 8-megapixel selfie camera. There is no information about the chipset that drives the Nokia 9 concept phone. However, Upcoming Phones states that it will be coming in two models. The base model has 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage and the advanced model has 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.
HMD Global is rumored to be working on Nokia 9, but rumors suggest that the design of the phone may be based on Nokia 8 and it may arrive with super-slim bezels and a larger display. The Nokia 8 was released in the market in the previous month. Launching the Nokia 9 so early can negatively impact the sales of Nokia 8 phone.
Just like 18:9 displays, facial recognition is one of the features manufacturers are adding to phones this year. While the tech has gained popularity in the past few months, it’s worth mentioning that facial recognition has been found on smartphones for years.
The iPhone X may have made it popular but it has been available on Android debuting with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, though not as advanced and secure as that of the iPhone X.
Facial Recognition on Android
Setting up face unlock on Android back then was fairly simple. After accessing the menu under settings, you will be required to set up your face by positioning it within a dotted circle and the front facing camera would capture your facial details. To increase accuracy, you will be required to try it under different lighting conditions and under different conditions (glasses on/off, hat on etc).
There was a caveat though, Google knew it wasn’t secure enough, so you were asked to set up an alternative security lock. And now, most manufacturers don’t even bother to include the feature anymore, ever since fingerprint scanners have become mainstream.
On my OnePlus 3T, all you have is swipe, pattern, PIN, and password, in addition to fingerprint recognition. The Zoji Z6, which acts as my secondary phone, adds voice unlock along with the above mentioned security features.
Iris Recognition
But that wasn’t the end of face unlock. While it took a break, manufacturers branched into something else – Iris Recognition.
The first phone to come with an iris scanner was the Fujitsu ARROWS NX-F04G. It was released in 2015 and made use of an IR LED for illuminating the pattern of the iris, which according to research doesn’t change after the age of two years; and an IR camera for capturing the pattern.
The image is then stored in the database and used to compare against that of the person who wants to unlock the phone. At the end of 2015, Microsoft released the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, joining Fujitsu, as smartphones with Iris scanners.
Nearly a year later, Samsung joined the short list with the ill-fated Galaxy Note7. This year, Samsung launched the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and both of them have iris scanners. Samsung touted them as being airtight and you could even use it for payment, just the way you used the fingerprint scanner.
However, the guys at Chaos Computer Club (CCC), a European hacker association didn’t like the way Samsung bragged about its security and decided to disprove their claim. They were able to fool the scanner.
How they did it was actually pretty simple.
All they had to do was take a picture of the owner’s eye using a 200mm lens from 15 feet away. Then they had it printed out on paper and covered it with wet contact lens to imitate the curvature of real eyes. After pointing the phone towards it, it unlocked the device.
CCC in its official article says it will be even easier to unlock with the tons of high resolution selfies on the internet, so you might not need to even take a picture of the owner of the phone. Their suggestion is to use a PIN as it is more secure than biometric scanners.
Windows Hello Facial Recognition
Back to Facial Recognition. Microsoft announced Windows Hello the same year as the company announced the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, which is a windows 10 biometric technology system that includes the iris scanner on the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, the fingerprint reader on windows 10 laptops, and facial recognition on the Surface Book laptop and the Surface Pro 4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ3W2YABZzo
Both the surface book and laptop feature a near IR sensor that does the capturing and is more effective under varying light conditions.
So how does Windows Hello face recognition work?
Using an algorithm, the face is detected in the camera stream. Facial landmark points such as the nose, eyes, and mouth are located. The algorithm also ensures that the user is facing the device at an angle of ±15 degrees.
The algorithm then uses the landmarks as anchor points and takes several samples of the face to build a representation. The result is a histogram representing the light and dark differences around specific areas. So, the image of the user is actually never stored.
Microsoft says the representation of the user in front of the PC is then compared to the one enrolled. And before it accepts it as a match, it has to cross a certain machine-learned threshold. This threshold increases if there are multiple users enrolled on the device.
Microsoft measures the accuracy of its facial recognition in three ways:
1. False positive – also called false acception rate (FAR), this is the likelihood of a random person who gains physical access to your PC being recognized as you. This number should be as low as possible and for Windows Hello, it is less than 0.001 or 1/100,000 FAR.
2. True positive – this is the likelihood of you being correctly matched to your enrolled profile. This number should be high and Windows Hello scores 95% for a single enrolled user.
3. False negative – is the likelihood of you being denied access even though your profile is enrolled and Microsoft says it is 5% for a single enrolled user.
Windows Hello works pretty well judging from the tons of videos on the internet. It cant be fooled by a photograph, it won’t unlock if your face is partially covered and it unlocks fast in the dark thanks to the near IR sensor.
Apple Face ID
Apple joined the facial recognition train this year with its iPhone X. The iPhone X doesn’t have Touch ID due to its bezel-less design and Apple didn’t want to put it on the back of the phone like a number of Android manufacturers do. Instead, it came up with Face ID, a facial recognition system it claims is more secure than TouchID.
source: apple.com
Face ID captures your face with the aid of light projector and a bunch of sensors — Apple collectively refers to it as the TrueDepth Camera System.
source: apple.com
The process the TrueDepth system uses to capture a 3D map of your face is explained below:
1.The proximity sensor and ambient light sensor help to determine the amount of illumination needed for face recognition.
2.The flood illuminator produces IR light to illuminate your face. The IR light is not visible to the human eye and and works effectively in poorly illuminated or even bright areas (outdoors).
3. The dot projector produces tens of thousands dots of IR light to create a 3D map of your face.
4. The infrared camera captures images of the dot pattern and the IR light reflected back by your face.
The recognition process is similar to that of other biometric ones – compare the stored template against the presented pattern (verification image) and see if it is a match. The stored template and verification image won’t be the same since the capture conditions will always be different, so it uses a threshold to grant access.
The threshold score is said to be between 0 and 1. If the score is closer to 1 then it is the same face (or biometric) and if it is closer to 0, then it is not the same person.
Apple explains the step for verification:
1. IR images are sent from the camera to the phone’s neural engine to build a 3D map of the face.
2. The map is compared against the stored template.
3. The processor calculates if the verification and stored templates match based on a comparison score of the similarity between your images.
4. Phone unlocks if the comparison score is higher than a certain threshold value.
So what happens if your facial appearance changes, say you grow a beard, shave your moustache, or apply makeup?
Apple says that FaceID continually updates the stored model by occasionally saving images from successful login maps. So it kind of a continuous enrollment.
CAT may be known as a construction equipment manufacturer but it also makes smartphones and tablets. These devices are actually rugged and designed to survive tough conditions. Its latest smartphone is the CAT S41 and it packs some pretty impressive features.
CAT S41 Design
The octagonal design already gives it away as a super rugged phone. There are physical buttons beneath the display for navigation and the frame has a sort of caterpillar track design. Apart from the volume rocker and power button, there is also a programmable key that can be assigned to the torch, camera, Push to Talk, or SOS (Lone worker app).
CAT S41 Specs
The CAT S41 has a 5” FHD screen with Gorilla Glass 5 protection. This is a rugged device for those who work outdoors so the display works well with wet hands or gloves.
There is 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage and a Helio P20 SoC on board. A 13MP camera with PDAF and LED flash grace the back and an 8MP serves as the front facing camera. Both cameras work under water too. This should come in handy if your job requires to take a dive.
The highlight of the CAT S41 is the 5000mAh battery and its Battery Share which allows you to charge other devices. There is MediaTek’s Pump Express 2.0 for fast charging. You also get a micro USB slot, nano SIM slot (dual and single SIM variants), and a 3.5mm audio jack.
The CAT S41 is beyond IP68 certified as it can survive under 2m of water for up to 1 hour. It is MIL SPEC 810G certified and can survive drops of up to 1.8m on concrete. CAT also says it can survive thermal shocks and salt mist spray.
CAT S41 Price
The CAT S41 is priced at £399.00/$449 and is available for purchase on the offcial website, Amazon, eBay, B&H, and Home Depot.
Qualcomm is expected to launch its next-generation processor — Snapdragon 845 sooner than anticipated. As per the new reports, the company could launch the Snapdragon 845 chipset as early as in December this year.
An image of an event poster has been leaked which suggests that the company is holding an event named Snapdragon Technology Summit from December 4 to December 8, where it is expected to announce this next-generation processor.
While the specific date for the launch announcement is not known, reports suggest that the new processor could be announced on the very first day of the event. However, the company may not start the mass production for this chipset until the end of this year or in early 2018.
The Snapdragon 845 will be manufactured through 10nm Low Power Early (LPE) FinFET process. As per the rumours, it will have four ARM Cortex-A75 cores and four ARM Cortex-A53 cores. It will be paired with the Adreno 630 GPU for added graphical performance.
The Adreno 630 is expected to deliver significantly improved graphics performance compared to the Adreno 540. It is also expected to be optimized for AR, VR and XR. The processor is also speculated to arrive with updated Kryo cores.
On top of that, the upcoming chipset is also expected to feature the X20 connectivity modem which can provide downlink speeds of 1.2Gbps.
On the other hand, there are reports which suggest that Xiaomi Mi 7 will be the first device to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 process. Xiaomi is also said to be working with Qualcomm to optimize the chipset Snapdragon 845 v2 for Mi 7.
Meanwhile, there are reports suggesting that Qualcomm has already started working on Snapdragon 855 processor that is likely to power flagship smartphones in 2019. The SD 855 is said to be a 7nm chipset and will be manufactured by Taiwan-based TSMC. It is expected to get announced in late 2018.
ZTE has taken to Weibo to announce that the Blade A2 will be getting a successor tomorrow. The Blade A3 comes after the Blade A2S (Blade V7 Plus) released a few month ago, and is believed to be the ZTE A0616 seen on TENAA weeks ago.
ZTE seems to be going the route of Xiaomi with the Redmi 4A and one of its successor, the Redmi Note 5A. The ZTE A3 (or A0616) gets a bigger 5.5” display compared to the A2’s 5” screen but keeps the resolution at 720p. This is surprising since the A2S has a FHD display albeit a 5.2” one.
The processor is a 1.45GHz quad-core SoC with either 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM or 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM. There is a MicroSD card slot for up to an additional 128GB.
The highlights of the ZTE A0616 are the dual front facing cameras with flash (5MP + 2MP) and the 3,900mAh battery, a significant increase from the Blade A2’s 2500mAh capacity. Rear camera is still a 13MP sensor that now sits at the top left corner.
Huawei has moved from being a Chinese company to a global brand. Its smartphones are now officially available in several countries outside of Asia. This has pushed it into the top three major smartphone companies in the world.
At this year’s edition of Huawei’s eco-CONNECT Europe held in Berlin, the company announced that its mobile services ecosystem will be coming to Europe. It also announced a bunch of partnerships with content providers for the launch of the Huawei AppStore and Huawei Video Service next year.
The president of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, Walter Ji likened the decision to bring its mobile services into Europe as a sort of digital age Silk Road legacy. Below is his official statement:
“The Silk Road was significant for bringing prosperity to East and West. Huawei Consumer Business Group, the world’s number three smartphone vendor, already has several million users in China and Europe. With this strong customer base we are determined to extend the legacy of the Silk Road into the digital age. We will do this by growing the European market together with partners, collaborating on AI and content first as well as extending our global reach” said Walter Ji, President of Consumer Business Group, Huawei Western Europe.”
Huawei says the apps and games on its store have an average of 4.3 – 5 star ratings and they are vigorously tested before they are added to the store.
The video service on the other hand will feature local and global content and they will be ad-free. The service will be integrated with the Huawei Video Player app and will have various movie and TV series genres. Beginning in Q1 2018, all Honor and Huawei phones will come with the AppStore and Huawei Video Service.
Some of the app content providers Huawei has partnered with include MobiSystem, Skoobe, VizEat, APUS Group, NLL Apps, Sygic, Tribuna Digital, Vodafone Spain FOundation, BTC.com, Goodgame Studios etc. For videos it has partnered with Under The Milky Way and Spain’s ATRESMEDIA.
Huawei also announced it will add paid themes to the Themes Store in 2018. With over 160 million active users and 40 million downloads every month, local designers and brands will make money from selling their designs on the AppStore.
CHUWI SurBook IndieGoGo campaign had received tremendous response by the audience. Since the Chinese manufacturer managed to raise more 1 million dollars, the it is making a second attempt at IndieGoGo by creating a crowdfunding campaign for CoreBook 2-in-1 tablet.
The IndieGoGo campaign for CHUWI CoreBook is going to begin in mid-November. The company has confirmed that the device is powered by Core M3 7Y30 processor. It is the first device from the company to use the processor. With 6 GB of RAM onboard, the company aims to deliver smooth performance on CoreBook. It also includes 128 GB eMMC 5.1 storage.
The Corebook features a 13.3-inch full HD display with 2.5D glass on it. Since the company has used full lamination technology on CoreBook, the display of the device delivers impressive viewing experience and vibrant colors even under bright sunlight.
The company says that the 2-in-1 CoreBook is a tablet and also a notebook. The keyboard of the device can be folded to the backside of the device to use it as a tablet. Below the display is a fingerprint scanner.
Before starting the new IndieGoGo campaign for CoreBook, CHUWI is providing an opportunity to allow its fans to avail a huge discount on it by simply subscribing to their newsletter. During the IndieGoGo campaign for SurBook, it had provided 100 units at super early bird price. This time it will be offering 300 units for the upcoming CoreBook campaign on IndieGoGo at a heavily discounted price.
The Chinese manufacturer is also providing a big bonus through an ongoing giveaway that will be coming to an end on Nov. 10. Here is the link from CHUWI’s site that contains all the information about the crowdfunding campaign for CoreBook as well as its giveaway.
VKWorld S8 is now available for buying in the market. There are many smartphones with full screen design in the market, but the VKWorld S8 is the only one among them that houses a mammoth battery of 5,500mAh capacity. Since the display on the full screen phones occupy major portion of the front panel, their displays can break if the build quality of the phone is not good. VKWorld is not only providing an attractive full screen design on the S8, but also it has ensured that it has a very strong chassis.
Titanium is a stronger metal than aluminum and the Chinese manufacturer has used it as a frame on the VKWorld S8. With a titanium frame onboard, the S8 phone will remain well-protected from dents. In order to protect the display of the S8, VKWorld has applied a layer of tempered Corning Gorilla Glass 4 on it
Moreover, the company has also used tempered Gorilla Glass 4 on the back panel of the smartphone. Beneath the rear glass, the company has included a metal plate that reinforces the build of the phone and provides more resistance to the glass.
The company claims that the body of VKWorld S8 is so strong that it can be used for cracking walnuts. Here is a video that shows how strong the device is:
The retail price of VKWorld S8 is $229.99, but the phone is being made available with a price tag of just $169.99 during the pre-orders. At such a low price, the VKWorld S8 features a 5.99-inch IPS display from LG that carries support for FHD+ resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. It is powered by MediaTek MT6750T chipset and 4 GB of RAM. It has an internal storage of 64 GB. The rear-mounted dual cameras include 16-megapixel + 5-megapixel sensors. It has a selfie camera of 13-megapixel. Other features of the phone include Android Nougat OS and AAC speaker.
Earlier this week, Brooke Amelia Peterson who is a daughter of a former Apple engineer had uploaded a hands-on video of the Apple iPhone X on YouTube. The Cupertino-based company not only asked Brooke to take down the YouTube video, but also her father has been removed from job.
Brooke’s hands-on video had already gone viral before it was removed. Some may feel that firing of an engineer is a harsh move by Apple, but the video clip revealed some confidential information of the iPhone X. It also revealed some codenames of forthcoming products from the company through the Notes app. Also, the video contained some sensitive QR codes that are meant for internal purposes.
After the iPhone X hands-on video by Brooke was removed, she made a follow-up video. She claims that she was clueless about the fact that the video she had shot at Apple’s cafeteria violated the company’s rules. Brooke has also said that her father has taken the entire responsibility of giving her access to the iPhone X. Since she had no subscribers when she had added the video on YouTube, it seems that she may have shot the video just for fun.
In the past too, Apple had reportedly fired an Apple engineer when he had shown an iPad 3G for a few minutes to Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in 2010.
The pre-orders of the iPhone X have started on Oct. 27 in more than 55 countries across the globe. The entire stock of iPhone X was sold out in less than 10 minutes. The 64 iPhone X is priced at $999 and its 256 GB costs $1,149. The shipments of the pre-ordered units are expected to start from Nov. 3.
OnePlus 5 is no longer available for purchase and multiple sources have claimed that the company would be unveiling OnePlus 5T very soon as its enhanced version. Through recent tweets, the company seems to be teasing the features of the upcoming OP5T. OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has released a tweet to reveal what could be an upcoming feature of OnePlus 5T.
OLED helps us build thinner devices and better display experiences. Samsung's display technology is currently the best for Optic AMOLED. 👌
The above Twitter post by Lau has been retweeted by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei. In the above tweet, Lau can be seen praising Samsung’s AMOLED screen. Through the tweet, Lau could be trying to hint that OnePlus 5T may feature an AMOLED panel.
Samsung provides its OLED panels to multiple smartphone makers. It has even provided OLED panels for the previous handsets from OnePlus. The South Korean company has also supplied its OLED panels for Apple’s iPhone X. Since the rumor mill is speculating that OnePlus 5T would be coming with an 18:9 display, there is a possibility that the handset may feature a screen that is similar to the Galaxy S8.
A recently leaked hands-on image of the rumored OnePlus 5T shows that it has slimmer bezels around the display. It is expected to house a 6-inch Samsung OLED panel that carry support for FHD+ resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. OP5T could be the first phone from the company to feature a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner.
Pete Lau and Carl Pei have also recently shared camera samples that were shot using unnamed phone. It is likely that the OnePlus head honchos could be teasing the camera prowess of OnePlus 5T. It is rumored to house a 20-megapixel selfie snapper and rear-facing dual cameras featuring a pair of 20-megapixel sensors. It is likely to house a 3,450mAh battery. A leaked teaser of OnePlus 5T reveals that its launch event will be held on Nov. 16.
The unannounced Nokia 2 entry-level phone was recently found listed on B&H, a U.S. retailer site. Its press images and specifications have also been leaked through multiple sources in the recent past. However, the HMD Global has not confirmed on when it will be unveiling the Nokia 2 phone. The key specs of a Nokia phone with model number TA-1035 have also appeared on AnTuTu benchmarking site. The low-end specs of the TA-1035 indicates that it could be the Nokia 2 phone.
According to AnTuTu listing, the Nokia TA-1035 is preinstalled with Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The Snapdragon 212 chipset that features Adreno 304 powers the handset. The SoC is supported by 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage. For photography, it has 8-megapixel rear camera and a frontal shooter of 5-megapixel.
The screen carries support for HD resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. However, the exact size of the display has not been revealed through AnTuTu listing. It is speculated that it may feature 4.5-inch or 4.7-inch display as the Nokia 3 phone houses a 5-inch HD display.
Previous reports have revealed that the Nokia 2 would be housing a 4,000mAh battery. Its listing on B&H had revealed that the Nokia 2 would be priced at $99. Some reports have claimed that there will be another Nokia 2 variant driven by MediaTek chipset will be also made available.
Nokia 2’s appearance on B&H retailer site has revealed that it would be priced at $99 in the U.S. HMD Global has recently confirmed that it will be holding a launch event on Oct. 31 in India, but it is not confirmed whether the company will be unveiling Nokia 2 through it. HMD Global has recently launched the Nokia 2 phone in China. Since it is not available outside of China, there is a possibility that the Finnish firm may debut it at the upcoming launch event.
The BlackBerry KEYone is about six months old, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that TCL is already working on a successor. A user agent profile seen on TCL’s website has revealed details of the successor.
The phone’s official name is currently unknown but it’s model number is BBF100-1. This is similar to that of the KEYone which is BBB100-1. It will have a QWERTY keyboard, the same 1620 x 1080 screen resolution as its predecessor, and swap the Snapdragon 625 mobile platform for a Snapdragon 660.
The processor seems to be the main upgrade and it is nice to see TCL go for a more powerful chip and not the Snapdragon 626. Other specs that may get upgraded include the cameras and possibly battery. Features like RAM and storage may remain the same.
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