The Nokia 8 is no doubt the next phone to come from HMD Global. Not a week has gone by without at least an article on it. With a rumored July release, we get to see the Nokia 8 in its full glory thanks to Evan Blass (@evleaks).
Earlier today, he had first posted an image of the rear camera setup, confirming it will indeed have dual cameras and Carl Zeiss optics. That image was followed by another one that showed the Nokia 8 in full.
The Nokia 8 can be best described as a Nokia 6 with dual cameras. The design is too similar that we wonder if the design team was just lazy. This is a flagship device and it wouldn’t be too much to see it have thinner bezels or a more premium look.
The Nokia 8 doesn’t have a curved display neither does it have a glass back. This is aluminium and since the design is like that of the Nokia 6, we expect it to have the same strength. According to JerryRigEverything, the Nokia 6 might be the strongest phone of 2017. So here is hoping the Nokia 8 delivers on strength and durability.
The Nokia 6 is ridiculously cheap on Amazon right now: https://t.co/gQMnGrdHqU (This might be the strongest phone of 2017)
— JerryRigEverything (@ZacksJerryRig) July 1, 2017
The Nokia 8 in the leaked image is blue. The camera setup is covered by a single piece of glass. The dual sensors are lined up vertically which is nice as we are tired of seeing the iPhone 7 Plus’ design. The word “ZEISS” is written below the second sensor followed by what appears to be a laser focus module and then the LED flash below it.
At the top of the camera housing is a single microphone hole and below the housing is the Nokia logo. Move to the bottom and there is some text that let’s you know it is designed by HMD Global Oy and manufactured in China.
An interesting info you shouldn’t miss is the model number which is TA-1012 and not TA-1004. This is interesting as previous reports had said the Nokia 8 and not the Nokia 9′ model number is TA-1004.
Now the big question is if this is another variant of the Nokia 8, probably with a different memory configuration, or is this the original model number of the device? We will let you know when we confirm.
Up front, we have a physical home button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner. At the top, there is the front facing camera on the left and Nokia’s logo on the right. It is hard to ignore the really thick bezels on this phone.
The Nokia 8 will be powered by a Snapdragon 835 processor paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It is expected to launch at the end of the month with a price tag of €598 (~$686/¥4652) in Europe.
Last week, Sharp’s General Manager of mobile phone business unit in China posted a photo of the manufacturer’s yet-to-be released bezel-less smartphone. Apart from the device itself sharing similarities to the Essential PH-1, the entire image is also strikingly similar to the very first image of the Essential phone released to the public. A new image of the phone has surfaced and it wears an entirely different look.
Posted by the Vice President of Foxconn Technology Group, Luo Zhongsheng, the image shows several units of the phone undergoing testing in the factory.
Unlike the first image which has a nearly bezel design and looks like the Essential PH-1, the new device has moderately-sized bezels. The top bezel is significantly smaller than what you will find on most phones. The thickness can even be compared to that of the Samsung Galaxy S8.
The side bezels are okay but we are concerned about the lower bezel. From the image, we can see Sharp is using on-screen buttons but there is a thick black bar at the base which is part of the screen. That is a waste of space and defeats the purpose of the on-screen buttons. If it is going to be there permanently, why then is the lower bezel that thick?
Xiaomi has a reputation of developing products either alone or in partnership with other companies, which meets various kinds of needs. The latest Smart lighting product which would be unveiled tomorrow is one of such product. The light is a night lamp with would come with a motion sensor, meaning it only comes on when motion is detected.
The light is meant to take care of movement at nights to use the bathroom which is a usual practice by the elderly. In order not to disturb the sleep of others who are already sleeping, this product is being introduced. The light night is known as Mi Induction Night Lamp and as the name implies, it uses induction current. It uses photosensitive with human infrared dual induction technology to come on when motion is detected. The light comes with a simple design and is white. The is a hoot with which it can be hung on the wall or ceiling. In addition, it has a 120 ° wide-angle sensing range and a sensing distance of up to 5-7 meters. The brightness is adjustable and the light stays on for 15 seconds after which it goes off if no motion is detected.
This morning we learnt that Meizu will be launching its flagship, the Pro7, on July 26. New info from tech analyst, Kevin Wang says Xiaomi also has an event on that same day. Although he didn’t specify the device launching, sources say it is the Xiaomi Mi 5X.
The Mi 5X is the latest Xiaomi device in the news. The new smartphone is the same one that is supposed to take on Vivo and OPPO with its photography centered specs. Initially thought to launch under a new sub-brand called Lanmi (Blue Rice) and as the Lanmi X1, it appears things have taken a different turn.
The Xiaomi Mi 5X will feature dual rear cameras said to be a combination of a Sony IMX386 sensor and a Samsung S5K3M3 CMOS sensor. It will also have a 16MP front facing camera. A leaked poster says it will have a 5.5-inch display,Snapdragon 625 processor, and 4GB of RAM. Price tag is set at ¥1999 (~$295).
There is also mention of a high-end model with a Snapdragon 660, 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. If the base version is priced at almost $300, we should expect at most a $350 price on the high-end model and that is not too far from the price of the Mi 6.
Things haven’t really gone well for Mediatek this year. Its high-end Helio X30 chip will just be arriving this month in the Meizu Pro 7, months after its official release.
The late arrival of the Helio X30 isn’t the only issue Mediatek has to deal with. Even in the other categories, it has lost its customers to Qualcomm. The Snapdragon 400 and 600 series are now the go-to chips for entry level and mid-range phones.
The cumulative effect is a drop in gross margin, dropping to as low as 35% from almost 50%. However, the chip maker still remains number 2 in the list of top IC suppliers this year.
Market sources say Mediatek is planning a comeback with the release of the Helio X30 and some new chips built using TSMC’s 12nm process technology. The 12nm chips are expected to bring Mediatek a highly competitive performance/cost advantage.
There are no other details about the new chips but we know the upcoming Helio P23 isn’t one of them as early leaks say its a 16nm chip. The launch of the new chip may help the company regain lost customers such as OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi.
A buyer who has done his homework would know that Kaby Lake Core M convertibles are probably your best bet for a reasonably priced performance tablet. Atom chips simply lack the punch for smooth multi-tasking on a day to day basis, which is where Core M series fill in the performance void. In fact, recent MacBooks have Core M3 chipsets inside. So, it’s good to see Chinese manufacturers such as Cube have models like the Cube Mix Plus powered by the new generation Core M3 chip that offers great performance at a reasonable price tag.
I managed to get hold of the Cube Mix Plus recently and for the past few days have been playing around with the device to see how it performs in real life situations. Read on to find out how the tablet performs in our Cube Mix Plus review.
Before I move on to the review, I would like to thank Gearbest for sending in this tablet. You can get hold of the Cube Mix Plus at just $375 (after discount) by using the $35 coupon exclusive for our readers: CuBe26. Purchase it from here.
Cube Mix Plus Review: Design
The Cube Mix Plus has a familiar design since it looks exactly like the old Cube i7 Book convertible. The company probably decided to save cost using the same design as the older model, upgrading just the internals to ensure that the specifications are up to date according to current market trends. Nevertheless, the Cube Mix Plus looks quite premium with its all metal body and two tone design. The tablet comes in silver at the back and a white front. To be honest, the white makes the front bezels look quite big but I feel the size of the bezels are enough to comfortably place your thumbs around to sides while holding the tablet.
Don’t even think about using the tablet with one hand. The tablet itself weighs 715 grams and with the keyboard connected, the total weight goes up to 1.37 kg. The large size, as well as the weight, makes it hard to hold the tablet for long periods of time. You would rather be comfortable placing it on a stand or docking it on the keyboard if you are planning to use for a few hours at a stretch.
Coming to the buttons, the Cube Mix Plus has four buttons in total, three on top — power button, volume button (both are physical buttons in metal), a reset bios button and finally there’s a capacitive windows button right up front, just below the display. The buttons are clicky and are of good quality. However, the power button response is not that great, an issue which I have seen in many other tablets. It’s not a deal breaker, but when you click the power button, the screen lights up after a delay. It might take a few tries to get used to this delay, but you can live with it.
All the ports are located on the left side of the tablet and the speakers are on the right. The ports are conveniently labeled at the back. Connectivity ports include 3.5mm headphone jack, MicroSD card slot, USB Type-C, USB 3.0, and DC 12V charging port. Note that the tablet ships with a connector for the USB 3.0 port because the one on the tablet is a non-standard one.
To be honest, the speakers on the side sucks. The volume of the speakers are extremely low and it’s nearly unusable when watching a movie.
At the bottom, you’ll find the magnets for docking into the keyboard. The process is smooth and quick and I’ll talk more about it in the keyboard section of the review below.
Cube Mix Plus Keyboard
The keyboard for the tablet comes as a separate accessory that will set you back an additional $50. It’s heavy, most likely to keep the weight of the tablet on top balanced, but unfortunately, it does not have a battery, so docking the tablet won’t boost its battery life.
I got the deep blue color for the keyboard as I didn’t like white version. Well, you won’t be seeing the blue much, since the top is anyway black and only the bottom of the keyboard gets the rich blue shade.
Despite its heavy profile, the keyboard is quite compact and fits well with the overall tablet convertible design. Docking the tablet is easy, all you have to do is line up the slots at the bottom of the tablet and the magnets will finish the job for you. Once docked, the tablet remains sturdy and the design instills confidence in the overall setup.
The keys on the keyboard are clicky and responsive. It’s a bit noisier than what I would have preferred but you get used to it. Note that the keys are not backlit, so you’ll find it hard to work at night.
Although the company skipped on brightness control buttons on the keyboard, there’s a dedicated touchpad enable/disable button along with a notification light to indicate its status. This is handy especially if you are like me who prefers a mouse over touchpad in such convertibles.
Coming to the touchpad, the lag is minimal and the response is good. The size maybe a bit small, but for me, the position was not ideal as I often used to hit the touchpad accidentally while typing a document. Now you know why I prefer a mouse over touchpad on such convertibles. In such a situation, the touchpad disable button comes in real handy.
Windows 10 gestures on the touch pad work fine. I found no major issues with scrolling, multitasking by using two finger / three finger gestures and it does make your life a hell lot easier when you are going through different documents at one go.
Note that you can also dock the tablet in the opposite direction — a mode which is often referred to as the presentation mode. So, the keyboard is still attached to the tablet, but with the display facing the other side. It is ideal for showing presentations to a limited number of people.
Cube Mix Plus Display
The Cube Mix Plus has one of the better displays among affordable tablets. The viewing angles are excellent and the colors are rich and crisp. The screen is not made for outdoors as it’s a bit reflective and your eyes will definitely give you a sharp feedback within minutes of use outdoors. Also, the screen is not fully laminated, which means there’s a gap in the panel.
The resolution is great and everything on the screen looks crisp and clear. The touch is fine and I didn’t face any issues while scrolling through documents or websites. Reading on the tablet is also a pleasure since you can keep the brightness at just around 25% most of the time and it’s still bright enough for your everyday indoor usage.
You do get a scratch guard pre-installed on the tablet (be careful while removing the plastic on top as you might remove the scratch guard as well in the process) but it’s just basic protection. Within a few days of usage, my scratch guard already had a few scratches to boast about.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get hold of a Wacom stylus to try out on the Mix Plus.
Cube Mix Plus Performance
I won’t focus much on the technical specifications of the tablet in this Cube Mix Plus Review, since that’s easily available on stores like Gearbest. Instead, I ‘ll try to focus on the real life performance of the tablet to see how it handles browsing, video playback, and gaming.
First, let’s take a look at few of the benchmarks.
On Geekbench, the Cube Mix Plus performs well. The scores are quite close to previous generation Core M3 Macbook models, which goes on to show you’ll be able to work with apps with ease.
Here are all the benchmark scores of the convertible. These scores show that the tablet is a mid-range performer and even with just 4GB of RAM inside, it does well in most benchmarks.
Multitasking on the Cube Mix Plus is easy. You can quickly switch to tablet mode once undocked from the keyboard and it’s easy to work with multiple apps at a time. Most apps load quickly and you won’t notice any visible lags in its performance.
Core M3 also manages to handle 4K video playback well. I could easily stream 4K videos on YouTube without any visible lag. Even playback right on the tablet is smooth.
Coming to the browsing performance, you can open 10-12 tabs and switch between them quickly. I didn’t experience any lag in switching between these tabs and I don’t think you’ll find any issues with things like browsing or paint on this Core M3 powered convertible.
If you are going to primarily use the tablet convertible for editing word / excel files, note that you’ll be able to work with ease. You get a licensed copy of Windows 10 on the tablet, but the Office 365 suite is free for just one month. Post that, you’ll have to purchase a license to create or edit documents on the tablet.
As for the connectivity performance, I found the Wi-Fi connection to be great, with the tablet managing a solid connection for great streaming, browsing experience. To be honest, you shouldn’t have any issues with the Wi-Fi performance of the tablet.
Thermal throttling is not an issue on the Cube Mix Plus. But do note that the tablet gets hot on its left side pretty quickly when you are working on heavy apps. On my tablet, the temperature still hasn’t reached a level where I couldn’t hold it, but I sure felt the heat while playing a few games and running the benchmark applications.
I am not a big gamer, so I couldn’t install a lot of games on the Cube Mix Plus. Games like CS Global Offensive works well in standard settings with graphics set low in the advanced video options. The frame rate is good in these games and you can easily play them as you would on a desktop. But things get a bit choppy when it comes to games like Battlefield and Fallout 4, even in low settings. I personally don’t think such convertibles are good for gaming, but if you ever want to try out a few games, note that the Core M3 will do the job for you.
Once docked, the Cube Mix Plus is a full fledged laptop. So, you can easily connect an external HDD to play / store documents and videos. Things like video calling is also a breeze since you have two cameras — one on the front and another one at the back. Note that these are not wide angle cameras and hence you look a bit zoomed in, which doesn’t look good when you are talking to someone on Skype. Also, the camera is a bit grainy, but that’s not surprising since such convertibles are not known for their stellar camera quality. Still, it’s usable in everyday situations including for making video calls.
Cube Mix Plus Battery
Intel’s Core M chipset is tailor made for convertibles with limited battery and the Cube Mix Plus does manage to capitalize on this lower power consumption to some extent. However, don’t expect to get anything over 5 hours on the tablet. The lack of battery on the keyboard is a bit of a disappointment, so all you can do is watch a couple of movies or work for around 4-5 hours continuously at a stretch. The standby time is pretty good, so if you retire for the day at 50%, you’ll be greeted by the tablet with around the same charge the next day.
Charging the tablet with its 12V DC charger took around 2.5-3 hours to go from near zero to 100%. I tried charging the Cube Mix Plus with my OnePlus 3T’s Type-C charger without any success, so I’m not sure whether you can charge the tablet via its USB-C port.
Cube Mix Plus Conclusion
With Core M3 inside a premium metal body, the Cube Mix Plus comes with most of the features that you would want in a powerful tablet. The convertible design is great, the screen is better than many competitors in the segment and the tablet manages to breeze through most apps that you throw at it with ease. There are a few short comings as well, like the reflective screen, unusable speakers, and average cameras. But if you can ignore these small things, the Cube Mix Plus can definitely be your everyday laptop convertible. I personally have been using it for the past couple of weeks and so far, I’m pretty happy with this tablet convertible.
You can get the Cube Mix Plus at $375 using the coupon: CuBe26 at Gearbest right now.
Gionee launched the S10 back in May as its new flagship device. Packing four cameras, a Helio P25 processor and a beautiful aluminium body that comes in four colors, the S10 is truly one of Gionee’s finest.
The S10 was launched in gold, black, indigo blue, and primrose green but only the first two colors were available for purchase. Today, the blue and green variants are now available to buy for the same ¥2599 ($384) price tag.
The S10 has a 5.5-inch 1080p display, 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The front cameras are a 20MP + 8MP combo with it’s own LED flash and the rear cameras are a 20MP sensor and an 8MP sensor.
Battery capacity is 3450mAh and there is Amigo 4.0 based on Android Nougat running out of the box. Gionee also bundles the phone with its own AI assistant.
Don’t let the Gionee logo on the back fool you. It doesn’t double as a fingerprint scanner even though it would look better there. Instead, the biometric scanner sits below the display underneath the home button.
The new colors are available on JD.com alongside the black and gold variants.
Since 2015, Xiaomi has released numerous smart home products as the demand for such devices have been growing rapidly. It seems that the company will be soon introducing a new full inverter air conditioner.
At the end of June, an air conditioner with model number KFR-35GW / 01ZM was spotted receiving 3C certification in China. It is manufactured by Sichuan Changhong Electronic Technology Co. Ltd and it was also found that the product be launching as full inverter air conditioner by Xiaomi.
Insiders from Sichuan Changhong foundry has revealed that Xiaomi’s air conditioner is ready and there will be multiple models of Xiaomi’s air conditioning products. Xiaomi has been working on air conditioning product since the past the three years and it seems that its arrival is finally drawing near.
It has been by the insiders that Xiaomi’s full inverter air conditioner is arriving soon and it is expected to be at least $500 cheaper than similar products from other brands. Such an aggressive pricing will compel users to buy the first air conditioner from Xiaomi.
In 2015, Xiaomi had teamed up with Midea, a private Chinese firm that specializes in electronic consumer goods, to manufacture a smart AC unit. However, the co-operation between the two companies drew ire from Gree’s president Dong Mingzhu. She commented on the collaboration between Xiaomi and Midea as “two swindlers working together make it into a fraud group.”
The i-Youth Smart Air Conditioner that was the product launched by Xiaomi and Midea was met with lukewarm response from the consumers. Industry watchers feel that since Xiaomi does not have its own AC manufacturing factory, it won’t be easy for Xiaomi to gain good market share in short time.
However, the low-priced air conditioner from the company will cause a price war with other brands. The specifications of the Xiaomi full inverter air conditioner have not surfaced yet. At present, Gree and Midea are the two leading air-conditioning brands in China followed by Haier. The market share of Xiaomi is 7 percent in the air conditioning market.
The Galaxy Note 8 has been in the news a lot lately, with the focus being on launch date. Samsung’s CEO has decided to clear the air regarding when the new flagship will hit the market.
Speaking at an interview in Taiwan during the weekend, the CEO, DJ Koh said plans are underway to release the Galaxy Note 8 in August. He then said availability will be in two phases. The US, UK and Samsung’s home country will get the phone first in September while the rest of the world gets it in October.
Samsung is aiming for an early release so that sales do not coincide with that of the new iPhones.
The new Galaxy Note 8 will be the direct successor to the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 which had to be recalled. This was due to issues with its battery which caused it to burst into flames and made it dangerous to use.
Samsung later re-launched the phone has a refurbished version this month, calling it the Galaxy FE. It is currently available in South Korea and may launch globally later. The phone now comes with a smaller battery, a Snapdragon 821 processor and Samsung’s new assistant called Bixby.
Meizu has already revealed that the much anticipated Pro 7 will be launched on July 26. The tech company has also released another poster revealing that it would be launching another product alongside the Pro 7. The product is named Meizu Flow which is a headset and it is teased with the powerful slogan “Feel nothing Hear everything”.
The details as regards the features of the headset is unknown but as we told you earlier on, the Meizu Flow is expected to be a high-end headphone and the slogan for this teaser suggests that much. The headset may have popped up online in a recent leak, though, and is said to have a design which looks similar to AKG’s high-end product – K3003. The poster also contains the inscription – “Meizu PRO headphones” which could be an indication that it would be releasing more than one headphone.
We can’t say if the headphone will be offered as part of the Pro 7 package at a reduced price but the accessory will be unveiled at the same event with the Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus as revealed on the Meizu crowdfunding platform’s Weibo account. Whether it is an in-ear, on the ear or Bluetooth headset, we’ll wait some more to find out about that but Meizu’s business background means it has the ability to manufacture quality headsets capable of giving out a powerful and much more immersive sound. However, don’t expect this one to come with a cheap price tag.
Xiaomi Mi 6 was introduced in China on April 19 and the company had confirmed that it would be coming four colors. However, at the beginning, only the black variant of Xiaomi Mi 6 was available for purchase. The white edition of Xiaomi Mi 6 was made available on July 14 and it sold very quickly. Few weeks after its launch, its Ceramic Edition was made available briefly. The other color variants of the Mi 6 would be going on sale tomorrow in the home country of China.
The four colors like Bright Black, Bright White, Bright Blue and Ceramic Black of the Xiaomi Mi 6 will be available for buying from July 18. The above poster does not provide any information on the timing of the availability of the Mi 6 color variants. It only states that these models will be priced at 2,499 Yuan (~$369).
Since white variant was exhausted within few seconds after its launch on July 14, it seems that the other variants will be sold out quickly. Xiaomi has not given any information on the number of units of each color variants of Mi 6 that will be available for buying tomorrow.
Xiaomi Mi 6 is available with a screen size of 5.15 inches that supports full HD resolution. It is fueled by Snapdragon 835 and 6 GB of RAM. It comes in storage models like 64 GB and 128 GB. It has a 12-megapixel dual rear camera system and an 8-megapixel frontal camera. The 3,350mAh battery is enabled with Quick Charge 3.0 support.
HMD Global reintroduced Nokia this year by launching phones like Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3. And, it also launched a revamped version of the old Nokia 3310 entry-level phone. After releasing the Nokia 3310 (2017), the company came to know that there is great potential for feature phones. Hence, the company has launched two new entry level phones, the Nokia 105 and Nokia 130 that run on Nokia S30+ platform. These smartphones had appeared on TENNA few weeks ago.
Nokia 150 Specs, Features, Pricing
Nokia 105 has a 1.8-inch color display and it comes in single SIM and dual SIM versions. It comes loaded with games like Snake Xenzia and try and purchase games such as Doodle Jump and Crossy Road. It supports 2G network and it includes a 800mAh capacity battery that offers a continuous talk time of 15 hours and a standby time of up to one month. As far as storage is concerned, the Nokia 105 allows users up to 500 SMS and up to 2,000 contacts. It does not feature a camera. It also features FM Radio and microUSB 2.0.
Nokia 105 features a polycarbonate chassis and tactile island keymat. It measures 112. x 49.5 x 14.4 mm and its weight is 73 grams. The Nokia 105 single SIM is priced at $14.5 and its dual-SIM model is priced at $15. It is available in color choices like Black, White and Blue.
Nokia 130 also features a 1.8-inch color screen. It comes with an internal storage of 32 GB and also features a microSD card slot. It is also loaded with games like Snake Xenzia along with 5 try and purchase games from Gameloft. Its 1020mAh battery can support up to 11.5 hours of video playback and 44.5 hour of continuous playing of FM Radio. It also features Bluetooth connectivity and supports wireless Bluetooth headsets and it also includes a LED flash light. It is equipped with a camera on its rear panel.
Nokia 130 measures 111.5 x 48.4 x 14.2 mm and it comes in colors like Red, Grey and Black. The single SIM and dual SIM Nokia 130 is available with an average worldwide pricing of $21.5.
HMD Global CEO Arto Nummela commented on Nokia 105 and 130 by saying that “With more than 4 billion people remaining offline[ix] and unable to benefit from the social and economic development opportunities of the internet, simply getting connected by voice and text is still such an important step for many people around the world. More than 400 million feature phones were sold globally in 2016[x]. We cannot underestimate the need and benefit of being connected and we are dedicated to delivering devices that can enable many people around the world to expand their horizon.”
One of the most recent rumours about the Meizu Pro 7 is that the Pro 7 Plus will come with Samsung’s Exynos 8895 processor while the Pro 7 will have an Helio X30 chip only. The rumour doesn’t in anyway remove the possibility of the Helio X30 chip having more or similar fire power as Samsung’s latest flagship chip but then, the Exynos 8895 benchmark is already known and it is powerful! That made the rumour sound interesting.
That notwithstanding, the rumour may not have any credibility in it as a Meizu staff has bluntly denied the existence of such configuration on the Pro 7 or Pro 7 Plus. The Meizu staff has taken down the post, by the way, so we couldn’t get a translated screenshot for you but he categorically stated that there is no Exynos 8895 on the Pro 7. The staff hinted that the Pro 7 project had commenced even before the Exynos 8895 chip or the Samsung Galaxy S8 was introduced and the R&D stage could even pre-date that of the Galaxy S8.
It is likely the rumour originated from the internet, particularly from Weibo as you can see from the screenshot above and not from Meizu. Perhaps, the rumours would sound less interesting if the Helio X30 chip has appeared on several benchmarks so we could know how capable it is as a flagship chip. But then, Meizu has released official posters for the launch of the Pro 7 on July 26. We expect some benchmark data to leak before then. Even if it doesn’t, we’ll serve you a detailed review of the device here on Gizmochina as soon as we get our hands on it after the launch.
We had brought you the news that Xiaomi’s smallest Mi TV had received 3C certification a couple of days back. Well, the Chinese tech giant has released a poster that is meant to tease the launch of the new TV billed to take place tomorrow (July 18). The poster doesn’t explicitly state that the TV will be small or even the exact size of the TV but from the teasers, we can understand how its size will be.
The poster contains questions like if the bedroom is too small that there is no space for a TV or if the rental TV was too heavy to move. These no doubt means the TV will be smaller than previous Xiaomi releases. The poster also hinted at a lower cost for upcoming TV which s believed to be a 32-inch version of the Mi TV 4A.
Apart from the size which is expected to be around 32 inches, the Xiaomi TV is expected to come with the same features as the models that are already in the market, talking about the Xiaomi Mi TV 4A which is only available in 43-inch, 49-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch models. The TV will be making its debut on Xiaomi Mall by 10 AM tomorrow. We’ll have to wait till then for the price but it is speculated to be around 1,499 Yuan.
In the past month, plenty of information on the Meizu PRO 7 and PRO 7 Plus smartphones have surfaced. Recently, the senior vice-president of Meizu, Jeffery Yuan had updated his Weibo profile with an image of PRO 7. This indicated that the Meizu PRO 7 may launch on the rumored date of July 26. Finally, the Chinese has confirmed on the unveil event that will be happening on the same date.
The Meizu PRO 7 is now confirmed to debut on July 26 through a launch event that will be held at the headquarters of the company in Zhuhai, China. The event will begin at 7:30 PM local time. Here is the Weibo post from the company that declares the official launch of Meizu PRO 7:
The word “window” in the above Weibo post probably refers to the secondary screen that is present on the rear side of the Meizu PRO 7 duo. This secondary screen can be used for seeing notifications. It can also function as a viewfinder for camera. It can be also used for playing games. Meizu. The 2-inch screen will also work in black and white mode and it will be usable even when the phone is turned off.
Yesterday, some images of the leaked invitations of a box with a dummy unit of the Meizu PRO 7 had surfaced. One of the images of the dummy unit of the PRO 7 contains a secondary screen with the information on the launch date and venue mentioned on it.
The Meizu PRO 7 and PRO 7 Plus are speculated to respectively feature 5.2-inch FHD and 5.7-inch QHD screens that will probably support Quad HD resolution. Previous rumors had hinted that the Exynos 8895 chipset would be powering the smartphone, but fresh details suggest that all the variants of the Meizu PRO & and PRO 7 Plus will be driven by the MediaTek Helio X30 chipset that includes a ten-core processor. Both the smartphones will be equipped with a 12-megapixel dual rear camera setup. It is speculated to include Sony IMX386 and IMX286 sensors.
Following are the speculated RAM and storage variants along with their respective pricing of the both the phones:
A leaked poster of the Xiaomi 5X that had surfaced recently gave out some information on its specifications. A clearer image of the poster has surfaced today. Also, fresh leaks suggest that the Xiaomi 5X would be coming in standard and high variants.
It seems that the poster is only talking about the key specs of the standard edition of the Xiaomi 5X. It would be powered by Snapdragon 625 chipset and 4 GB of RAM. A display of 5.5 inches that probably supports full HD resolution would be present on the Xiaomi 5X.
Fresh information suggests that the high edition of Xiaomi 5X would be driven by Snapdragon 660 chipset and 6 GB of RAM. This model will be providing a native storage of 64 GB. The poster reveals that it would be priced at 1,999 Yuan (~$294).
A leaked photo of the alleged Xiaomi 5X that had appeared in the past week revealed that it would be coming with dual rear cameras. New leaks state that it will be graced a 12-megapixel dual camera system that will be featuring a Sony IMX386 sensor and a Samsung S5k3m3 sensor. For shooting selfies, it would be arriving with a 16-megapixel snapper. It would be preloaded with Android 7.1.1 Nougat overlaid with MIUI 9.
It is likely that the standard edition of the Xiaomi 5X would be also coming with same front and rear cameras. There is no confirmation on whether the high version of Xiaomi 5X will sport the same 5.5-inch display or it will feature a larger one. The Xiaomi 5X is rumored to come with a front-mounted fingerprint reader. The pricing of the high variant of the smartphone is not known.
Xiaomi is yet to confirm on the existence of the Xiaomi 5X, but newer information suggests that it would be debuting on July 26 which is less than ten days away. Interestingly, Meizu is confirmed to launch the Meizu PRO 7 and PRO 7 Plus on the same date.
Xiaomi is known for its Mi series high-end phones and Redmi series mid-range phones. These phones are mainly sold online. The Xiaomi 5X is rumored to be the first smartphone from the speculated new sub-brand from the company. Reports claim that the phones under the new sub-brand will be sold offline to rival with brands like OPPO and Vivo.
Samsung‘s latest Galaxy S8 sales first showed prospects when the flagship went up for sale a couple of months back but along the line, sales have reportedly declined. Couple with the fact that Apple’s 2017 iPhone 8 flagship is just by the wings and may be launched soon, Samsung is said to be planning for a quick release of the Galaxy Note 8 around September.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is the next model in the stylus laden Galaxy Note series that is as old as the Galaxy S-series. A couple of renders of the Galaxy Note 8 leaked recently, basically giving us an idea of what the device may look like. The renders resemble earlier ones we have seen before now and that tends to seal the idea that the Note 8 will utilise a design similar to the Galaxy S8. The leaked renders show the Galaxy Note 8 will have the same infinity display with a near-bezel-less front just like the Galaxy S8. The device will only have slight bezels at the top and bottom but the sides will be curved.Sadly, the renders only show the front view of the Galaxy Note 8 so we still haven’t got a view of the rear. However, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is said to come with dual cameras at the rear which consists of two 12MP sensors with Optical Image Stabilization. There will also a rear fingerprint sensor and as usual a Stylus pen.
As far as the specs go, the Galaxy Note 8 is also detailed in the leak to pack a 6.2-inch display and will be powered by a Snapdragon 835 chip on some models and an Exynos 8895 chip on some others. The device will also feature 6GB RAM version as the standard model and a higher 8GB RAM version that would be available in China. The price is expected to go as high as 7,000 Yuan (~$1030).
For those who don’t know, Ivvi used to be a sub-brand of smartphone company Coolpad. Last year, LeEco became the largest shareholder at Coolpad, but we do not know if it was responsible for selling off 80% of Ivvi’s stake in December 2016 to SuperD, a display technology company in China. This year has seen the release of the Ivvi K5 and the Ivvi V3. The former has a glasses-free 3D display and may be getting a successor soon.
A sketch of a new phone said to be a 2nd-gen 3D smartphone was leaked online last week. There were reports earlier this year that the company would launch new products with glasses-free 3D display and it appears the image points to one of them.
Apart from the phone having a 3D display, it will also have dual rear cameras and a likely front-mounted fingerprint scanner. The overall design of the phone is different as the sketch shows a phone that is curvier than your average smartphone. The display is also curved at the edges just like the LG G6.
It is not known if this is the final design but the phone looks like it will be a bit wide based on its unusual shape. Another info from the leaked image is the writing at the bottom right corner which says “Ivvi V Series”. This means it will belong in the same series as the V3 released last month.
Split-screen multitasking was already available for years before Google made it a default feature in Android Nougat. Samsung was one of the early pioneers and called it Multi-Window. Now that it is a stock android feature, some manufacturers are yet to implement it and a prime example is Xiaomi’s MIUI.
The feature will just be hitting devices via the MIUI 9 update scheduled to launch next month. Better late than never, right? Xiaomi decided to explain why it took so long to implement split-screen in MIUI.
First reason stated is the length of time it took discussing the new feature and how it will affect usage. They also had to figure out how to implement it across the various Xiaomi phones which are running different versions of android.
Another issue they had to deal with was the redesign of the recent task menu to accommodate the split-screen feature. Doing that escalated some previous issues that were already present within the recent apps menu.
Now that everything seems to be sorted out, we should expect the feature to be available on the first stable roll-out of MIUI 9.
Entering split-screen mode in MIUI 9 is simple. Once you are in the recent apps menu, tap the icon at the top left corner and you will be able to drag apps to each vertical half of the screen
Some advanced features that are present include double tapping the split windows to change the position of the apps or double tapping the recent apps button to switch to the previous app.
Exiting is easy as well. You can drag any of the apps till it completely takes the whole screen or use the exit split-screen button when you are in the recent apps menu.
Xiaomi is speculated to soon introduce a new sub-brand. Rumors had speculated that Xiaomi X1 could be the name of first smartphone under this sub-brand. However, a leaked poster that has surfaced from China has revealed that indicates that Xiaomi would be soon launching a phone called Xiaomi 5X. Speculations indicate that first phone under Xiaomi’s new sub-brand will be this Xiaomi 5X phone, and not Xiaomi X1.
The leakster had already appeared in the previous week. However, only the part showing its pricing was revealed. The poster reveals that the Xiaomi 5X would be coming with a 5.5-inch display that will probably support full HD resolution. The Snapdragon 625 chipset will be powering the phone along with 4GB of RAM.
As it can be seen that the Xiaomi has struck a deal with popular Chinese celebrity, Kris Wu for promoting the Xiaomi 5X. It seems Wu has ended his previous contract with Huawei Honor and is now with Xiaomi to probably advertise the new sub-brand from Xiaomi.
The Xiaomi 5X is expected to feature a thin metallic body and it is expected to arrive in color choices like gold and black. In the leaked poster, the Xiaomi Mi 5X phone that can be seen near the face of the Chinese celebrity features dual rear cameras that carries support for 5x optical zoom.
A leaked photo of a mysterious Xiaomi phone that surfaced in the previous week. The handset sports dual rear cameras coupled with a dual-tone dual-LED flash on its left. Its antenna bands seem to be placed on the upper and lower edges of the back panel. It seems that this image belongs to the Xiaomi 5X. Since the fingerprint reader is not placed on the backside of the phone, it appears that it will be equipped with frontal fingerprint reader.
The Xiaomi 5X is priced at 1,999 Yuan (~$296). The Chinese firm is known for launching smartphones in multiple storage variants. Hence, it is likely that this pricing could probably belong to the lowest configuration model of Xiaomi 5X.
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