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.
We all know that the Xiaomi produces all sorts of gadgets and the earphones the company makes are definitely one of the best for the price. The Hybrid IV earphones that are one of the best for the price and right now you can get them for $11.99 from lightinthebox.com.
As far as the design goes, the Hybrid IV earphones are made almost entirely of metal and they just scream premium. Also, there are controls like volume up/down, play/pause and the microphone for a hands-free calling.
Most of the cable is made of tangle free material and at the end of it, you can find a 3.5mm headset connector.
As far as the sound quality, I’m pretty sure you will be blown away by it. To be honest, I’ve tested at least 5 different $25 earphones made by Sony, Phillips, JVC and so on and I can say that the Xiaomi Hybrid IVise miles ahead. The sound is crisper, it has a lot more rich tones and depth in it. Also, I’m impressed with the amount of bass and the volume output they can produce.
When Android co-founder Andy Rubins hinted that his company- Essential will be launching its first smartphone, hopes were high that the device would be a spectacular one. Indeed, when the Essential Phone 1 was announced in May, the design and specs looked promising. But two months after the announcement, the phone is yet to go up on sale. Instead, the company seems to have been dogged by one controversy or the other.
One aspect of the design which has generated discussions is the cutout for the selfie camera which encroaches into the display at the top. We have now got the first screenshot of the Essential phone’s interface showing the status bar and the notification bar which will be by the side of the cutout. What catches our attention the most, is the tall status bar which is said to be 160 pixels long. The length is due to the selfie camera encroachment which has to be made up for since it cuts into the display. The aspect ratio of the device doesn’t make the length of the staus bar look so obvious on the display, anyway.
The screenshot doesn’t look too beautiful but the design, especially the home button looks similar to the Google Pixel design. The not-so-inspiring look of the user interface may not be unconnected with why the Head of UX at Essential threw in the towel recently. The last couple of weeks have seen a number of high profile departures from Essential as well, so it may not be connected. We really can’t make a sound judgement if the UI will be nice or awful until the device is officially launched and we get to see and navigate through the interface live. The device will likely be made available for sale very soon and we are certain it still has interesting potentials, like its own new virtual assistant.
A few weeks ago, BlackBerry opened an official account on Chinese social media platform Weibo, signifying its return to China. Now it is set to launch its first product and judging from the teaser poster, its none other than the BlackBerry KEYOne.
The KEYOne was released back in February at MWC 2017 and is already on sale in different markets such as the US and the UK. The smartphone’s selling point is its physical keyboard, a rare feature in smartphones these days.
The KEYOne has a 4.5-inch 1620 x 1080 display and a QWERTY keyboard that also doubles as a large track-pad. There is a fingerprint scanner underneath the space button.
It has a Snapdragon 625 processor paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The KEYOne has a microSD card slot, so that 32GB can get up to an additional 2TB of space. Battery capacity is 3505mAh and supports Quick Charge 3.0.
The rear camera is a 12MP Sony IMX378 with dual-tone flash and there is an 8MP front facing camera. There is is NFC, a USB Type-C 3.1 port, and an earphone jack at the top. It also runs Android 7.1 Nougat.
It is unknown if BlackBerry will release it in China with a different configuration like other manufacturers do with their flagships.
The price for the BlackBerry KEYOne in China is still a secret but if the configuration remains the same as above, it may get a lesser price tag compared to the $549 internatioal price. Reason is because the KEYOne is made by TCL, a Chinese smartphone company which is currently one of those licensed to release phones under the BlackBerry name.
The KEYOne is also expected to launch in India tomorrow.
OnePlus 5 was discovered to have got a bug which caused the device to reboot when an emergency 911 call is placed in the US or 999 call in the UK. This prompted OnePlus to push OTA updates which fixed the software issue which they fingered to be a modem memory issue affecting some devices and causing the crash. A similar bug was also reported to have affected a couple of other Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Sony Xperia Z3, and LG G3.
After the bug has been fixed, a new issue seems to have popped up on some OnePlus 5 models. In particular, some users have aired their complaints on the OnePlus official forum of excessive battery drain, especially when the device is left powered on and in standby mode overnight. The issue seems to affect Indian users of the OP5 and the advice OnePlus officially has for them is that those having a Reliance Jio LTE SIM card in the second slot should turn it off as it requires quality LTE signal otherwise, the phone keeps searching for signal and this drain the battery. Reliance Jio is a 4G-only network which was rolled out in India only September last year.
We can’t follow up on the thread anymore to know if users still complain of the issue because the thread seems to have been deleted. This is perhaps to stem further escalation of an issue the company thinks is a non-issue, considering the fix they suggested.
The Vivo X9S was launched early this month as a successor to last year’s Vivo X9. The phone has a new design (read thinner body) and upgraded internals, and comes in rose gold, gold, and matte black. However, Vivo announced a new blue variant today.
The new Vitality Blue variant looks nearly identical to the Vivo X9 NBA Edition released early this year. The front panel is black, the antenna lines are white, and the back plate is blue. The only thing missing on the X9S is the NBA emblem.
The new color variant will be available for purchase starting August 1, same day as the Flame Red Nubia Z17. Vivo is keeping the price at ¥2698 (∼$400) just like the other color variants. The phone will be available on Vivo’s official website with the option for a free engraving.
The Vivo X9S has a 5.5-inch Full HD display, 4GB of RAM and is powered by the Snapdragon 652. Storage is limited to 64GB without the option for expansion.
The Vivo X9S may not look very different from the X9 but Vivo deserves praise for making it thinner and increasing the battery capacity to 3320mAh from 3050mAh. That is unusual as a thinner body usually means a smaller battery or sometimes the same capacity.
Chinese tech giant Huawei has shared a teaser on Twitter which backs earlier reports that the company is working on an AI-related product. The artificial intelligence (AI) product is tipped to be unveiled at IFA Berlin 2017 and even though the teaser never gave an idea of what the product may likely be, we got you covered.
Earlier reports reveal Huawei is working on an AI application processor that combines CPU (central processing unit), GPU (graphics processing unit) and AI (artificial intelligence) functions. Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu had disclosed this plan during the 2017 China Internet Conference held recently in Beijing. The new teaser further adds weight to Richard Yu’s disclosure as it clearly states that “AI is more than just a voice assistant” which could be taken that the AI product Huawei is expected to unveil does more than just rivalling Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant and the recently launched Xiaomi Mi AI speaker.
Companies are looking to Artificial Intelligence in their bid to outpace their competitors. Huawei has a goal targeted at overtaking Apple in smartphone sales and they seem to be exploring different strategies to grow their revenue. Recently, Huawei revealed its earnings for the first half of the year and really, the figures are encouraging. Huawei is hoping to consolidate on its growing business but we still don’t see how AI would help it do that.
The Moto G5S Plus has been getting a lot of attention lately, making us wonder if its launch is around the corner. Leakster @Evleaks has released renders of the smartphone showing the three colors it will arrive in.
From the image, it is plain to see the Moto G5S will come in rose gold, grey, and silver. The silver and rose gold variants have white front panels while the gray settles for a low-profile black.
The Moto G5S Plus now wears a full-metal jacket on the back along with dual cameras. There is also an antenna line that runs beneath the secondary microphone. To be honest, this is a much better looking phone than the Moto G5 Plus and we hope it feels good in the hand too.
Samsung has officially confirmed by releasing a media invitation that it will be launching a new flip phone in collaboration with China Mobile on Aug. 3 starting at 4 PM local time. The exact name of the smartphone is not known, but by looking at the image of the flip phone in the media invitation, it can be understood that Samsung will be debuting the SM-G9298 flip phone that had first appeared on TENAA. According to a Chinese leakster, this flip phone will be launched as Samsung Beyond the world8. Sounds like a weird name!
The official name of the smartphone will be revealed on Aug. 3. The leakster has claimed this phone is not the SM-W2018 flip phone that is expected to come with flagship specs like Snapdragon 835, 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. The leakster has revealed an image to confirm SM-G9298 and SM-W2018 are two different smartphones. In the below image, the SM-W2018 can be seen kept wrapped at a shopfront alongside an image of its predecessor phone, the SM-W2017.
A couple of live photos of SM-G9298 have appeared just before its official. It is the same smartphone that had appeared in leaked render some time ago. According to the TENNA listing of SM-G9298, it will feature an outer S-AMOLED display of 4.2 inches that will support full HD resolution. One of the live images of the phone suggests that this screen will support Always-on Display feature. The inner screen of this phone will be of 4.2 inches and it will also support full HD resolution.
The SM-G9298 will be powered by Snapdragon 821 chipset and 4 GB of RAM. The internal storage of this flip phone will be 64 GB. It will also feature a microSD card slot.Its rear facing camera will be of 12-megapixel and its front-facing shooter will be of 5-megapixel. The fingerprint scanner of the phone is placed below the rear camera.
It will be running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS. It will be coming with a 2,300mAh battery. It measures 127.7 x 61.4 x 15.87 and its weigh is 234 grams. Since it is launched by Samsung in partnership with China Mobile, it goes without saying that China will surely receive it. however, there is no confirmation on other markets that will be receiving the SM-G9298 flip phone. The SM-G9289 is said to be successor of the SM-9198 flip phone from 2015 that powered with Snapdragon 808 chipset.
Qualcomm announced its latest Snapdragon 835 chipset earlier this year and the flagship processor made its debut on the Samsung Galaxy S8 in April and the Xiaomi Mi 6, Nubia Z17, OnePlus 5 and the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. The SD 835 chip is built on the 10nm process and is said to be 27% better in performance when compared to the Snapdragon 820 chip. Also, it uses about 40% lesser power, so the new processor is better with performance and battery usage. Despite these and many more features, the SD 835 chip is yet to be featured in so many flagship models even as the smartphone releases for the year is reaching its peak.
Industry analyst, Pan Jiutang has come out to reveal why the flagship chip is yet to be used on a large number of smartphones. According to the analyst, the 10nm processor is more expensive than the SD 820 and is even 3-5 times the price of the Snapdragon 600 series. From the look of things, the lack of a flurry of SD 835 smartphones isn’t due to the slow production process as was earlier thought but the cost of the processor.
By this time last year, the Snapdragon 820 processor has seen a good number of patrons but presently, among the Chinese OEMs only the Xiaomi Mi 6, Nubia Z17 and OnePlus 5 feature the processor. The Snapdragon 835 was produced by Samsung’s foundry and the cost of the Galaxy S8 wouldn’t pose any problem for Samsung to make its profit. But its profitability for Chinese manufacturers who don’t have the leverage of fixing a very high price tag on their models, using this processor may pose a problem in terms of profits, in the long run. Except Qualcomm drops the cost of the chip, which we don’t know presently, the processor might end up not being used on a lot of devices before the release of the next-gen SD 845 next year.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
