Xiaomi will tomorrow (August 3) release limited copies of the Mercury Silver variant of its latest Mi 6 flagship. From earlier disclosure, we know that the tech giant will only be making available 100 units of the Xiaomi Mi 6 Mercury Silver variant. Apart from being so limited, the Mi 6 Silver variant is turning out to be a memorabilia sort of, as it has been revealed that the new colour variant will come with some perks that would make a good one sitting in the archives.
One of the perks that would be packaged with the Xiaomi Mi 6 Mercury Silver edition is a personal letter signed by one of Xiaomi’s seven co-founders. The 100 units will apparently come with a letter each, randomly signed by one of the seven co-founders including CEO Lei Jun. The other co-founders are Lin Bin, Zhou Guangping, Liu De, Li Wanqiang, Huang Jiangji and Hong Feng. Also, the “lucky hundred” who successfully purchased the Mi 6 Mercury Silver edition will find an F-code inside each of their copy. Xiaomi’s F-code stands for Friends code and it’s aimed towards giving priority to important users who’ve greatly contributed to Xiaomi at first. Owners of the F-codes can directly buy Xiaomi Phones or other items from the official Mi home without ordering in advance. It can only help buy, can’t be used or exchanged for money. In this case, the F-codes will be valid for three years and since Xiaomi doesn’t ship directly out of China, you can’t use this from outside China.
Most importantly, you get the sleek, attractive and ultra-reflective Mi 6 Mercury Silver variant inside. Well, you know that already. But in case you still don’t know, the Silver variant will cost just 3,999 Yuan (~$592) which is 1000 Yuan higher than the Black variant. In addition, the Silver variant comes with 6GB of RAM and a robust 128GB storage.
Soon after confirming on a forthcoming unveil event of Aug. 19, ASUS has revealed through its official site that it will be holding a ZenFone 4 launch event on Aug. 17. The original launch invitation had revealed that the launch event would be held in Philippines. However, the official site states that the launch event will be held at the Taipei District, Taiwan.
The official site is now receiving registrations for the upcoming launch event in Taiwan. ASUS fans who are interested in attending the event can register between Aug. 3 to Aug. 6. The ZenFone 4 presentation will begin at 2:30 PM on Aug. 17. It appears that the ZenFone 4 will be unveiled to the world in Taiwan on Aug. 17 and it seems that there will be another ZenFone 4 unveil event in Philippines for the local audience on Aug. 19.
The teaser image available on the official site reveals that a South Korean actor named Gong Yoo is the brand ambassador for ZenFone in Asia-Pacific region. The actor can be seen holding a smartphone which is probably the ZenFone 4. The smartphone can be seen sporting dual rear cameras with rounded corner on its edges. The phone held by the actor does not seem to be the ZenFone 4 Pro flagship as one of its leaked photos has revealed that it features a “2x optical zoom” text in between the two rear cameras. It does not feature a camera bump which is available on the ZenFone 4 Max and ZenFone 4 Pro.
ZenFone smartphone fans are expecting that ASUS will be unveil all the rumored ZenFone 4 series phones on Aug. 17. However, there is no confirmation on whether the Aug. 17 event will be an exclusive launch event for ZenFone 4 or ASUS will showcase the entire ZenFone 4 series phones.
The rumor mill has revealed that ASUS ZenFone 4 series includes the ZenFone 4 Pro flagship, the ZenFone 4 with Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 630 chipset variants, another variant named ZenFone 4V and the selfie-focused ZenFone 4 Selfie. The following leaked photo contains the renders of the upcoming ZenFone 4 series phones.
Recently, there were reports that Xiaomi was going to release the second generation of its in-house Surge S2 chip, with its mass production said to commence in Q3 2017 and would power the Mi 6C and Mi 6S. There is now a fresh rumour that Xiaomi Mi 6C making the rounds that the Xiaomi Mi 6C would be released in the fourth quarter of the year.
The Xiaomi Mi 6C is said to feature a design which includes a double-sided 2.5D curved glass design which gives it a similar look to the Mi 6’s four curved edge design. The screen ratio of the device is said to be higher than that of the Mi 6 but the shape is said to look like the Mi 5. In addition, the Xiaomi Mi 6C is also revealed as coming with a dual camera setup at the rear with the configuration given as a 12MP Sony IMX386 main CMOS sensor and a 5MP depth of field secondary shooter.
As stated earlier, the Mi 6C is expected to be powered by the Surge S2 chip which could also end up being called Surge X1 chip. The processor is produced using the 16nmTSMC process and is configured as four Cortex-A73 and four Cortex-A53 cores in an octa-core arrangement. The large cores are capable of running at a clock frequency of 2.2GHz while the small cores have a maximum clock frequency of 1.8GHz. In addition, the chip includes a Mali G71MP8 GPU and supports UFS 2.1 flash memory and LPDDR4 RAM with the performance said to be in the same league with the Kirin 960 chip. Other features said to be on the Mi 6C include a 4GB RAM +64 GB storage version and another with 6GB RAM + 128GB storage and the price is tipped to be in the region of 1999 yuan and 2499 yuan respectively.
Samsung has a new wearable device in works which seems to be a hybrid of a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. The features of this mysterious wearable tech that have been revealed by Samsung hints that it is not the forthcoming Gear S4 smartwatch.
The information on this device has appeared through a survey email that Samsung has sent out through its SmartLab Plus program. Through the survey, Samsung is seeking ideas on the taglines that can be used to advertise its forthcoming product. In the survey email, Samsung has revealed that this new product offers some of the best features from Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch and Gear Fit 2 fitness band.
Samsung has further stated that the new wearable device appears like a smartwatch instead of an activity tracker. It will be arriving with a small-sized body and slimmer watch bands. The device will be equipped with user-replaceable bands which will allow customers to personalize its appeal.
It will be a water-resistant device that will let users wear it even while swimming. Some of the other features that will be available on this wearable device are activity tracking, active sports, weight management, calorie management and coaching. These features will not only appeal beginners but also fitness experts.
It will be coming with a revamped UI with enhanced widgets for glanceable information for viewing the progress of fitness goals. Smart inactivity alert is another feature of this mysterious smart device that will remind its users to be active when doing a sedentary job. Since the email is seeking opinions on taglines for this upcoming wearable tech, Samsung is also asking the recipients of the email to consider the taglines of its other smartwatches and fitness trackers.
The email does not contain any information on when Samsung will be releasing this new device. Samsung sells its smartwatches as Gear S products whereas its fitness trackers are sold as Gear Fit products. There is no confirmation on whether the new product will belong to any of these branding or it will be introduced under a new brand name.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ have been receiving overwhelming response since the time it was made available on pre-orders. A research conducted by Strategy Analytics has revealed that the Galaxy S8 duo have increased the average selling price (ASP) of Samsung smartphones in the second quarter of this year.
During Q2 2017, Samsung’s ASP on phones reached $235 which is the highest ever figure in the last three years. According to Strategy Analytics, it has happened solely because of the strong sales of Galaxy S8 and S8+. In 2016, the ASP of Samsung’s phones was $232 and it had fallen to $227 in the second half of 2016 when the South Korean company had abruptly suspended the production of the Galaxy Note 7 because of its faulty batteries. Samsung’s highest ever ASP on smartphones was in 2013 when it had reached $289. At that time, the company had sold flagships like Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3.
The research firm has also claimed that Samsung had sold 19.2 million units of Galaxy S8 duo in the second quarter of this year. It also revealed that the South Korean firm sold 93 million smartphones in the same quarter which is around 21 percent of the global market. Its budget phones have also been well-received by the consumers.
Samsung had disappointed its fans when it had to discontinue the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 phablet. However, by releasing Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ with stellar features, it managed to regain the trust of the consumers. Its ASP is expected to increase all the more in the remaining half of this year with the launch of the highly anticipated Galaxy Note 8.
At present, Samsung is sitting on the numero uno position in smartphone market across the world. However, the only country where it has been failing to achieve good sales is China which is also the largest smartphone market in the world. Currently, Samsung occupies the sixth spot in the Chinese smartphone market.
There are numerous popular smartphone brands like OPPO, Vivo, Huawei, and Xiaomi as well as lesser known brands in China that are selling smartphones with dual rear cameras. However, Samsung has not released a single phone that is enabled with dual rear cameras in China. Hence, rumors have revealed that the South Korean company will launch several dual camera phones in the near future. Some of the rumored dual rear camera phones that are expected to release in China are Galaxy J7 (2017) Chinese edition, Galaxy C7 (2017), Galaxy C10 and Galaxy Note 8.
Huawei was recently enmeshed in a controversy after the P10 was discovered to have some discrepancies in the flash memory on the units. While some had UFS 2.1 storage, some came with UFS 2.0 flash storage and yet some P10 units had eMMC 5.1 memory. Huawei CEO Richard Yu had to personally offer some clarifications on why the company had to do that. While the dust generated from that issue is finally dying down, another controversial issue, even weightier, is brewing up but Huawei seems poised to tackle it before it snowballs into something serious.
A recent rumour emerged in China that Huawei’s mobile phones were installed with a software that can monitor the device and collect personal data of the user without permission. Huawei promptly issued a response denying the existence of such software on its smartphones and described the rumours as malicious and is aimed at tainting its business reputation. Huawei also set up a team to work in conjunction with law enforcement to trace the origin of the rumour and has also indicated its intention to take up the matter legally against any company identified to have a hand in the origin of the rumour.
Most importantly, Huawei says it attaches great importance to user’s privacy and that it is focused on innovation and development of new products. It called on other OEMs to join hands with it to build a healthy business environment. Huawei recently announced its H1 2017 earnings and it showed the company is not only consolidating its grip on the number one spot in the domestic market, it is also making progress abroad and could catch up with Apple in the next few years. The rumour could be from one of Huawei’s competitors trying to sabotage the company but we’ll stick to what we know so far, as the source of the rumour is still unknown.
Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus were announced just about a week back but the device has got the teardown treatment courtesy of the guys at IT168. The Pro 7 Plus, as well as the Pro 7, comes with a sleek design that includes a primary display up front and a smaller secondary display at the back. Despite that and the presence of a large battery, the Pro 7 models featured a large battery and then had a thin body. These all make a tear down of interest because it affords us the opportunity to see how Meizu managed to cram so much into the device’s thin body.The dismantling began by unscrewing the two screws which are located on either side of the USB port. The screws are the same size as those on iPhones and most phones coming out now. After the removal of the screws, the device can then be opened into two, the front display and the motherboard. The motherboard is seen to have an L-shape instead of the usual PCB design. Obviously, this is due to the secondary display located on the left side at the rear.
The Pro 7 Plus features a large 3,500mAh battery with fast charging technology. There is also a Super AMOLED display at the main display up front, while the secondary display is an AMOLED display with a curved edge at the outer edge. The secondary display panel also means the battery is located at one edge with a flat and unusually long body. Despite cramming so much hardware inside the device, which includes a dual rear camera setup, the Meizu Pro 7 Plus is quite easy to tear down completely and looks like a well thought out device, no doubt. See more tear down photos of the device from below.
Meizu released the Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus last week. One special feature present in both phones is a secondary AMOLED display on the back. It is a first of its kind in terms of design and type of display used, but not the first phones to have a second display at the back.
A new leak has revealed that we may be getting another Meizu phone with a secondary display in the near future. The leak is a set of images of a phone said to be the Meizu X2; and unlike the Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus with rectangular secondary displays, this one has a circular display.
One of the images show the secondary screen showing the date and the other shows a charging icon. Although the authenticity of the images haven’t been confirmed yet as it kind of looks like a poor attempt at photoshop, but we can all agree this is an interesting take on dual displays.
There are circular AMOLED displays used for smartwatches and I am sure some display companies have units laying around. It won’t be a far-fetched idea for a phone manufacturing company to pick up some of those displays and use it in its phones.
Good rugged phones are usually expensive and they don’t have the best specifications out there. The Chinese company Blackview has produced quite a few rugged phones over the years and the BV8000 Pro is their latest model. It looks great and it has plenty of power but it costs about $260. Learn more in the full Blackview BV8000 Pro Review.
The phone ships with all the usual stuff and some extras include the USB OTG cable, a pair of earphones, a screen protector, micro USB to USB C adapter and a screw driver with some extra screws.
DESIGN and DISPLAY
It is obvious that the BV8000 Pro is a rugged phone since it is thick and heavy but I have to say this is one of the best-designed and well-built rugged smartphones I’ve tested so far.
The phone has the IP-68 rating meaning that it is water and dust resistant. Also, the rugged body assures that the phone will survive a few accidental drops.
What is awesome is that the ports are not covered by any flaps that usually become annoying.
We have a 5” 1080p display, which is sharp and vibrant and it is bright enough for both indoor and outdoor use. Also, it is covered with the Gorilla Glass 3 for scratch resistance.
Just above the display, we have an 8MP shooter for selfies. It is great that we have a multicolor and customizable LED notification light, and nicely backlit capacitive keys.
I have always loved sharp edges of the metal chassis and tactile metal buttons. There is a multifunctional key, which as of now, can be only used for SOS and PTT services.
You can customize the SOS details in the settings menu.
On the right, there is a one stage camera shutter key. There is also a side mounted fingerprint scanner that I found to be pretty accurate but not the fastest I’ve seen.
The backplate has a rubberized finish with some really nice-looking metal accents. You can access two SIM card slots and the microSD card slot by using a screw driver to remove a backplate. It is not the most convenient way of doing this but that is the tradeoff of IP68 rating.
As for optics, we are looking at a 16MP shooter that is coupled with a single LED flash.
The loudspeaker quality is just great and the volume output is very good.
HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
When it comes to hardware, the Blackview BV8000 Pro is one of the most powerful budget rugged phones out there. The phone ships with an octa-core MTK6757 chip (2.3GHz), 6GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage.
The gaming performance is just great. All the 3D games work without any issues even if you play them on the very highest graphics settings, which is impressive for a budget phone. Finally, I didn’t notice any overheating issues.
BENCHMARKS
USER INTERFACE
The phone ships with Android 7.0 out of the box but we have a heavily customized Blackview’s skin on top of it that changes the looks, removes the app tray and adds some extra features. For example, you can quickly launch the camera by pressing a power button twice. Also, you can change the colors of the notification LED light, use some gesture and motion controls that work pretty well or use one hand operation mode.
There is also a built-in toolbox that has some apps like a sound meter, compass, bubble level, pedometer or heart rate monitor. I can’t confirm the accuracy of these tools but I think they are quite accurate.
There are some other cool features and customization options to play with but what is the most important to me is the speed and fluidity of the user interface. I’ve installed a lot of apps on this phone and I’m yet to see it lag, thanks to 6GB of RAM.
IMAGE QUALITY
When it comes to the image quality, the Blackview phone is inconsistent. You can take some good-looking pictures but usually, the photos lack detail, sharpness and the dynamic range is usually off. Also, the colors reproduction is not always accurate.
The low-light camera performance is kind of poor, like on most of the phones in this price range.
Selfie images look soft and the level of detail is kind of low.
The 1080p video quality is just mediocre as there could be more detail in the footage.
The selfie videos are shot at only 480p resolution and the quality is kind of poor but still usable for video chats. However, I noticed that the sound is being recorded mostly to the left channel as it is louder than the right one.
CONNECTIVITY
I didn’t have any connectivity issues with this device as the call quality and signal reception are pretty good, and even the GPS lock speeds and accuracy were okay.
The phone has quite a few sensors including a gyroscope, so you will be able to use the device with VR headsets.
BATTERY LIFE
The Blackview BV8000 Pro ships with a built-in 4180mAh battery that performs just great. I could constantly get over 7 or 8 hours of screen-on time but your mileage may vary, depending on the usage.
Finally, the phone ships with the fast charger that can fully charge the battery in about 1.5 hours.
CONCLUSIONS
The Blackview BV8000 Pro is easily one of the best budget rugged and IP68-certtified smartphones out there. If you are okay with a mediocre camera performance, this phone can be easily recommended to buy since it looks great, it’s fast and fluid, it even handles 3d games well, and the battery life is great.
Obviously, there may be some cheaper options out there but I believe that the price of about $260 can be justified since you are getting a lot of horse power that assures a great all-around performance.
Giveaways are like the lottery. You are not sure if you are going to win but if you do not take part in them, you have zero chances of winning. That’s very smart, Linus.
The Xiaomi Mi Max 2 is one of the best-oversized budget phablets you can buy.
For the price of less than $300, you will get an all-metal device that just looks premium, a humongous 6.44” display, great all around performance, MIUI 8 with a ton of features, stereo speakers setup, and a killer battery life.
The OnePlus 5 has been getting steady updates since its launch. While some have brought new features, others have fixed bugs like the 911 reboot issue. A new update, OxygenOS 4.5.7 is rolling out already and brings a promised feature, optimizations and bug fixes.
The biggest addition in the new update is electronic image stabilization (EIS) for 4K recording. This feature was promised shortly after the release of the phone and they have kept to their words. The update also brings a new font OnePlus is calling Slate. You wil be able to switch between the default Roboto font and the new OnePlus Slate font.
Other additions include July’s security patch and the latest GMS package. WiFi connectivity has been optimized and there is also a battery optimization. Though it is unknown if that will solve the battery drain users are complaining about following the 911 reboot fix.
The Moto G5S and Moto G5S Plus have been officially released. To be honest this isn’t actually a launch as both devices are just listed on Motorola Germany’s official website and there wasn’t a special event.
The Moto G5S and Moto G5S Plus are both upgrades to the Moto G5 and G5 Plus released earlier this year and bumps the number of Motorola phones released in 2017 to ten.
Moto G5S
The Moto G5S brings a bigger 5.2-inch display with a 1080p resolution and a new metal unibody. It also features a brand new 16MP rear camera with a f/2.0 aperture and 8x digital zoom. Battery capacity has also been raised to 3000mAh.
The rest of the specs remain the same. There is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 430 mobile platform, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The front camera also stays at 5MP but now has its own LED flash and an aperture size of 2.0.
The fingerprint scanner sits underneath the home button and there is a micro USB port, an audio jack and a micro SD card slot. The Moto G5S also has Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi a/b/g/n, dual SIM support (nano only) and runs Android 7.1 Nougat.
Moto G5S Plus
The Moto G5S Plus improves on the G5 Plus in multiple areas. The screen is larger at 5.5-inches, dual 13MP rear cameras for depth of field effects, an 8MP front facing camera and a metal body.
The design is identical to that of the G5S save for the dual cameras but they both look way better than their predecessors.
The Snapdragon 625 processor is still there but this version has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Battery capacity is kept at 3000mAh. The front camera has its own LED flash, a f/2.0 aperture, a pro mode and a panorama mode. There is also a fingerprint scanner in front that supports payment.
The Moto G5S Plus has NFC, dual SIM support, dual band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS. There is Android Nougat 7.1 pre-installed and the phone has a water-repellent nano-coating like the G5S.
Optiemus Infracom today launched the BlackBerry KEYone Limited Edition Black in India. The company is one of those given a license to release smartphones under the BlackBerry name. A teaser hinting at the Canadian brand’s return to the Indian market was released last week and it has done so with a bang.
You may be wondering why the name is so long. Apart from the fact that this version is completely black unlike the International variant that is a mixture of silver and black, the specs are also different.
The BlackBerry KEYone Limited Edition Black features 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage instead of 3GB and 32GB ROM. It also has dual SIM support making it the second dual SIM Blackberry phone apart from the Indonesian-exclusive BlackBerry Aurora.
The rest of the specs are the same. You get a 4.5-inch touch screen display, Snapdragon 625 processor and 12MP rear camera. Front camera is 8MP and there is a front-mounted fingerprint scanner.
The device uses a hybrid dual-SIM configuration. So you either use two SIM cards or one SIM and a microSD card. There is dual band WiFi, NFC, FM Radio and a 3.5mm audio jack.
The BlackBerry KEYone may run Android 7.1.1 but it is one of the most secure android smartphones on earth. It comes with BlackBerry’s security apps like DTEK by BlackBerry, Password keeper and a number of BlackBerry Productivity apps.
The BlackBerry KEYone Limited Edition Black will be available on the 8th of August as an Amazon India Exclusive. It will sell for Rs. 39,990 (∼$624) but will come with a number of offers.
A new research finding published by Dr Web Research Institute has revealed that some Chinese smartphones are infected with the malware called Triada Trojan. According to the research finding, the Trojan malware comes pre-loaded on the phones. This finding is coming on the heel of the recent discovery by researchers at Google of the malware Lippizan which is capable of recording calls, capture photos and monitor other activity without root access permission.
The Triada Trojan is said to be among the most sophisticated strains of malware around because it has the ability to inject itself into Android parent process called Zygote. The parent process (Zygote) is active all through the phone’s uptime and this allows the Trojan malware to get access to the context of any application that is running at the time. Earlier this year, the Trojan malware was discovered to have adopted sandbox technology, specifically the open source sandbox DroidPlugin which enables it to evade detection much better.
The Chinese smartphones mentioned in the report include the LEAGOO M5 Plus, LEAGOO M8, Nomu S10 and Nomu S20. The research discovered that the core Android library “libandroid_runtime.so” on the models were injected with the Triada Trojan malware. All the models mentioned are interestingly cheap smartphones and some even cost less than $100. We can’t be certain about how this managed to happen but it will likely be connected with the ROM makers. It is suspected that the ROM makers, or someone else with access to the Android code used on these devices, could have added the malicious bits to the library before installing it on the devices. Nomu and LEAGOO have been notified of the anomaly but it is unlikely that they will push OTA updates on already shipped models. The malware issue may likely be corrected on the ROM that would be pre-loaded on upcoming models.
Huawei has released a video teaser that unveils the impending release of a Silver coloured variant of the Nova 2 Plus. The new colour variant is billed for release on August 3 and would come with a mirror finish that would be highly reflective.
The upcoming release brings a premium finish to a mid-range device, a feature that is almost a regular on flagship models. A number of the recently released flagship models had a silver variant among their lineup. The Sony Xperia XZ featured a silver variant and also the Mi 6 had a Mercury Silver variant which it revealed would be going on sale soon. This is no doubt, in a bid to offer customers more option to choose from, thereby outwitting competitors.
The Huawei Nova 2 Plus was released along with the Nova 2 about two months back and it features a metal body with a thin build which is just 6.9mm thick. With a mirror finish, we are not sure if this variant will have a glass covering or the metal will be coated in silver but the latter looks more feasible. The Nova 2 Plus comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p LTPS In-Cell display and is powered by an Octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 659 processor and a Mali-T830 MP2 GPU powers the graphics. The processor is backed by a 4GB RAM while there are two storage variants, one with 64GB storage and another with 128GB storage. The Nova 2 and Nova 2 Plus are initially available in five different colors namely, Rose Gold, Streamer Gold, Green, Aurora Blue, and Obsidian Black. Huawei also added a little bit of fun to the pack by making available four colorful protection cases. You can check out the video from here.
Samsung and Google had confirmed after the launch of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ that both the smartphones would be soon supporting Daydream VR. The Daydream VR support for these Samsung flagship phones were also promised by the U.S. carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon, but there was no confirmation on global availability of Daydream VR.
The ASUS ZenFone AR includes Snapdragon 821 chipset, 8 GB of RAM and 5.7-inch QHD display. It is the first smartphone in the world to support Daydream VR (Virtual Reality) and Tango AR (Augmented Reality). When Samsung had introduced the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones in March which came with Snapdragon 835, 4 GB of RAM and QHD+ resolution supporting larger screens that of ZenFone AR, the flagship specs of these phones suggested that they are also capable of supporting Daydream VR. However, it was surprising to see that Samsung did not include the feature on Galaxy S8 duo on launch or release. Fortunately, Google has now confirmed that the Daydream VR will be supported by Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+
The Gear VR platform is a collaborative effort between Samsung and Oculus for Samsung smartphones. The agreement between the two companies reportedly did not allow Samsung to reach an agreement with the search engine for making the Daydream VR available on Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones. The Daydream headset and controller are presently available with a discounted price of $59 against its usual price of $79. However, Samsung Gear VR is priced at $129.
At the Google I/O 2017 event in May, it was made official that the Daydream VR would be soon coming to Galaxy S8 duo. through a firmware update this summer. By making Daydream VR available for Galaxy S8 duo, the popularity of Google’s VR would increase all the more.
The above tweet from the official Google VR Twitter handle is another confirmation that Daydream-ready update would be soon coming to Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. The Huawei Mate 9 Pro and its Porsche Design edition, Motorola Moto Z, and ZTE Axon 7 are some of the other phones that will be soon getting the Daydream VR update.
As mentioned above, some of the U.S. carriers also confirmed on the arrival of Daydream VR. However, it was only when Google initiates the server-side support, Daydream VR can come to the Galaxy S8 duo. A simple way to confirm the arrival of Daydream VR is to clear the data of Google VR Service app. Doing so will enable Daydream VR on the S8 and S8+.
A leaked render of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8’s Midnight Black color variant has been leaked by well-known leakster, Evan Blass. Since the image has been leaked by a reliable leakster who has been accurately revealing leaked information of unannounced smartphones since several years, it seems that he has managed to reveal a legitimate render of the upcoming Samsung flagship.
In the previous week, another reliable leakster named Roland Quandt had revealed that the Galaxy Note 8 would be coming in three color choices such as Black, Orchid Grey and a new color edition of Deep Blue. it seems that the Black edition of the Galaxy Note 8 will be officially called Midnight Black. The render revealed by Blass does not reveal the backside of the Galaxy Note 8 Midnight Black.
As it can be seen that the Galaxy Note 8 would be arriving with a huge screen. It is likely that the Samsung will be adding the infinity Display screen that offers an aspect ratio of 18.5:9 on Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones. Rumors have revealed that the Galaxy Note 8 would be arriving with a 6.3-inch display that would be supporting a resolution of 2,160 x 4,428 pixels.
The display of the Galaxy Note 8 will be curved at its right and left edges that will be flanked with very slim bezels. The top bezel is expected to house an earpiece, an iris scanner and some other sensors that are available on the Galaxy S8+.
A few weeks ago, Blass had revealed that the Galaxy Note 8 will be officially mentioned as Galaxy Note8 by the company in all the promotional materials and the box package of the phablet. A couple of variants of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 have passed FCC certification.
The Snapdragon 835 edition of the Galaxy Note 8 is expected to be exclusively available in the U.S. whereas its Exynos 8895 edition is expected to be available in its international edition. Its dual rear cameras will include a 13-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens. It will come preloaded with Android 7.0 Nougat. It is expected to come with an improved S-Pen and a safe and efficient battery of 3,300mAh battery.
The ASUS ZenFone 4 series were teased on the official Facebook page by the company. Now, the Taiwanese firm has confirmed that these news phones will be unveiled on Aug. 19. However, the ZenFone 4 series were initially rumored to debut in May.
ASUS has already launched the ZenFone 4 Max and the other phones from the ZenFone 4 series include ZenFone 4, ZenFone 4 Pro, ZenFone 4 Selfie and ZenFone 4V. There is no confirmation on which smartphones will be unveiled on Aug. 19. However, at least some of the aforementioned smartphones will be unveiled on that day. The unveil event will be held at SMX Convention Center in Pasay, Philippines.
A leakster had recently revealed renders of the three ZenFone 4 series smartphones. The first phone in the above image seems to belong on ZenFone 4 Max. The other three smartphones could be ZenFone 4, ZenFone 4 Pro and ZenFone Selfie.
The ZenFone 4 Pro is rumored to be a flagship phone that has recently appeared in leaked images. It is expected to come with 5.7-inch AMOLED display that offers a QHD resolution of 1,440 x 2,560 pixels. It is driven by Snapdragon 835 chipset and 6 GB of RAM. It will be coming with a 21-megapixel dual rear camera. It is expected to come with a native storage of 64 GB. Well-known leakster Roland Quandt has recently revealed that Qualcomm and ASUS have together collaborated on testing 1 Gigabit LTE connectivity.
The GFXBench listing of ZenFone 4 Selfie has a 5.5-inch full HD display. It is expected to be powered by Snapdragon 625 or 626 chipset and 4 GB of RAM. Its native storage will be of 32 GB. Its rear camera will be of 12-megapixel whereas the front will be housing a 16-megapixel shooter. The ZenFone 4 is rumored to be available in two CPU editions like Snapdragon 630 and Snapdragon 660. Both the models are expected to feature dual rear cameras.
The ZenFone 4V is another rumored phone from the ZenFone 4 series. It is expected to be a Verizon exclusive variant and it has also received FCC certification in the recent past. It appears that the Taiwanese company will be also releasing it in Europe as it will be holding an unveil event on Sept. 21. It may come with same specs as the ZenFone 4.
Xiaomi Mi 5X was officially announced last week in China, along with the MIUI 9 and Mi AI speaker. But before then, it had been revealed that the new machine would go on sale on August 1 and pre-order was already being accepted. The Mi 5X indeed went up on its first sale (flash sale) at 10:00 today. The second flash sale will hold today as well by 14:00 and that isn’t expected to last long before all units are sold out. The Mi 5X is available in Black, Gold and Rose Gold colours and all three colours were made available for the flash sale. However, the Gold colour variant is already listed as sold out, meaning only the Black and Rose Gold colours is available for purchase. The device comes with a price tag of 1,499 Yuan ($220) which some argue is on the high side for a Snapdragon 625-powered device.
The Xiaomi Mi 5X features a 5.5-inch 1080p display and has 4GB RAM and 64GB storage onboard. Perhaps, the main highlight of the device is the dual cameras it packs at the rear which is said to be the same configuration with the flagship Mi 6, that is a 12MP main sensor paired with a 12MP telephoto lens. The official camera samples show the camera will be nearly as sharp as the Mi 6. The device also comes as the first Xiaomi device to run MIUI 9 ut-of-the-box and keeping the lights on is a 3,080mAh battery.
Fresh information suggests that the Meizu PRO 7 and PRO 7 Plus could be debuting first in France and Spain. The official Twitter accounts of Meizu France and Spain have already started teasing the Meizu PRO 7 and PRO 7 Plus. The teasers suggest that France and Spain are going to receive the 2017 Meizu flagship phones soon. The European markets are expected to receive the PRO 7 duo at a higher pricing.
Most of the flagship phones that have released this year are driven with Snapdragon 835 chipset. However, the Meizu PRO 7 and PRO 7 Plus are powered by the most powerful MediaTek chipset, the Helio X30. The Chinese company is brave enough to add a unique feature of a secondary display below its dual rear cameras. It may appear weird, but it certainly makes it different from other flagships.
Meizu PRO 7 duo will be first available for buying in China from Aug. 5. The Meizu PRO 7 and PRO 7 Plus registrations had reached 10,000 mark within 24 hours of launch. In China, the PRO 7 featuring 4 GB of RAM + 64 GB of storage with Helio P25 is available for around $430 and the advanced model driven with Helio X30 that features 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage is priced around $500. The Meizu PRO 7 can be bought in colors such as black, red and gold.
The Meizu PRO 7 Plus variant that has 6 GB of RAM and an internal storage of 64 GB is priced at $530. Its advanced model that has 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage is available for $604. Both the models are powered by Helio X30. It comes in color choices such as grey, silver, gold and black. Apart from China, France and Spain, the other countries that are confirmed to get the Meizu PRO 7 and Meizu PRO 7 Plus include Brunel, Cambodia, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine, and Vietnam. These phones are unlikely to release in the U.S. and the U.K.
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