A couple of weeks ago, Xiaomi’s Mijia crowdfunding platform launched the Planet Cup, a ceramic tea cup with a planet-shaped wooden handle. This week, Mijia’s new product, the Haoyue Bone China Dish Set is the missing piece of the puzzle in Xiaomi’s quest to conquer your kitchen.
The Haoyue Bone China Dish Set includes 4pcs of rice bowls and 4pcs of flat plates. The rice bowl has a diameter of 121 mm, a height of 45mm, and weighs 45g, while the flat plate has a diameter of 213mm, is 23mm deep and weighs 355g.
The Haoyue Bone China Dish Set is available in plain white or plain white with gold rims. The plain white set is priced at ¥119 (~$18) while the set with gold rims will sell for ¥159 (~$23). The dish set is expected to start shipping out to backers by 6th of June.
In the tech industry, it is common to see company executives and directors moving over from one company to the other in pursuit of a better offer an improved pay package. But when the officer cross carpeting is the Chief operations officer and president, then it is usually a surprising move. That is the case with reports which started out as rumours that former TCL global COO and president of the company’s China region, Yang Zhe has left the company and moved over to fellow smartphone maker Meizu Technology Co.
Yang joins Meizu as part of the sweeping organisational restructuring which had seen the company shared into three divisions – Meizu, Charm Blue and Flyme divisions. Yang will function as senior VP in charge of high-end smartphones which falls under the Meizu division. Under this scenario, Yang Zhe will work closely with Jack Wang who oversees the entire operations and president of the division Bai Yongxiaong.
Yang Zhe joined TCL around December 2015 as global COO and president in China. Before then, he has had stints in Samsung from where he departed in October 2012 to join Huawei. After that, Huawei’s mobile phone brand style saw significant changes. On September 4, 2014, Huawei launched its flagship smartphone Mate7 in Germany with the idea of a “jazz life”. Industry watchers commented that Huawei transformed from a “technical nerd” to a “young artist” with that stylistic change.
Yang would leave Huawei at the end of October 2015 and by December 2015 he was at TCL. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to turn around the fortunes of TCL before his exit. So, he comes to Meizu with a rich chest in marketing which runs across Novartis, Motorola, Apple, Lexmark (Lexmark), Samsung, RIM and other companies. Meizu did not release an official statement but they confirmed it when an enquiry was made. Mr Yang himself also confirmed the latest move via his Weibo account.
Last year a Lenovo-backed company released a ZUK Z2 – a phone that had a great design and killers specs. Right now you can get this phone for just about $180 and it seems to be one of the best phones for the price since it has a Snapdragon 820 chip, 4GB of RAM and a lot more! Learn more in our ZUK Z2 review after 1 year.
As far as design goes, it has changed quite a bit if we compare it to the ZUK Z1.
Now we have a rather compact phone, which uses a very high quality and sturdy metal frame around the device. I love the fact that all the buttons and a dual SIM card tray are on the right and all other stuff is on the bottom. Thus, other sides of the phone look clean.
The sound quality from the loudspeaker is pretty good but nothing we haven’t heard from similarly priced phones.
Also, we have Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and rear. A great thing is that the phone has some sort of anti-fingerprint coating and it does its job very well.
We have a 5” 1080p display, which is nice and sharp but it could be slightly brighter for a better sunlight legibility.
An 8MP shooter is here for selfies along with a notification LED light on the top.
On the bottom, we have just one physical home button but it has tons of features. First of all, you can physically press it and it takes you home. Also, you can tap it and it acts as a back button or swipe it from left to right if you e.g. want to access your recent apps. Also, the button is highly customizable and you can assign different tasks. I have to say that this is one of the best home button implementations I’ve ever seen.
Last but not least we have a fingerprint scanner, which is accurate and it reads a fingerprint straight from the standby mode.
On the back, we have a 13MP shooter with f/2.2 aperture and a single LED flash.
Overall, the phone is well-built, it feels nice in the hand and it sports some flagship-worthy materials in the construction.
ZUK Z2 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
ZUK Z2 still sports some flagship-grade specs. It has a Snapdragon 820 chip, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage without the microSD card slot.
As you may have guessed, the phone can handle anything you throw at it without a sweat. All the games ran almost perfectly on the highest graphics. However, the phone does quite warm on the top portion of the device but there are no overheating warnings or anything that could impair the performance.
ZUK Z2 Review: USER INTERFACE
When it comes to the user interface, there are two different versions. The one I reviewed like 8 months ago shipped with the Chinese ROM that had quite a bit of bloatware and no Google services. The one I have ships with the fully de-bloated ZUI rom, that is built on top of Android 6.0.
First of all, I love that the UI looks clean and it is fast and fluid. Also, there are some extra features and customization options. Besides the ability to do a lot of stuff just by swiping on the home button, you can swipe from the bottom to open up quick settings toggles, which are highly customizable too.
It would be great to have the Android 7 on this ROM but honestly, I really love it and so far it looks a lot better than the Chinese ROM.
ZUK Z2 Review: CAMERA
When it comes to the camera, we have a few shooting modes but there is no manual mode to take a full control of the images you take. Also, there are some basic settings to play with. In addition, the phone can take pictures very fast, which is probably the most important aspect for most users. Finally, the device triggers HDR mode automatically.
ZUK Z2 Review: IMAGE QUALITY
ZUK Z2 can take some nice looking daylight images with a good amount of detail, accurate looking colors and sharpness.
The camera starts struggling in lower-lit situations as the images have quite a lot of noise and less detail. Still, you can get some usable images out of this phone.
The 4k video looks really good for a $180 phone. However, the footage could have less noise and compression, and the green color of the grass looks oversaturated. See a video review for a video sample.
An 8MP selfie snapper can take some decent looking selfies for social media needs.
Overall, ZUK Z2 does not have a perfect camera but it is definitely one of the better cameras in a $300 phone.
ZUK Z2 Review: CONNECTIVITY
GPS test (indoors)
I didn’t have any connectivity issues with the phone as the signal reception was good and the call quality was decent. Also, the Wifi worked fine and the GPS was accurate.
ZUK Z2 Review: BATTERY LIFE
The ZUK Z2 ships with 3500mAh built-in battery and it performs great.
I could constantly get over 5 hours of screen-on time on a mixed use, which involved using the camera, browsing the web, a bit of gaming and so on.
The phone ships with a fast charger and I was able to fully charge the phone in 1 hour and 30 mins.
ZUK Z2 Review: CONCLUSIONS
So, there you have it, ZUK Z2 after the buzz. With the recent price drops, I honestly believe that this is one of the best phones you can buy. Sure, it has a few shortcomings to consider but given the fact that it has really powerful internals, great and compact design, the ZUK Z2 is a fantastic offering for about $180.
These past week must have been pretty hectic for those working for either Huawei or its sub-brand Honor. Both companies scheduled today for the launch of a bunch of new products. While Honor announced the Honor 6A, the Honor Router X1 and Router X1 Plus, the Play Pad 2, and the A2 Smartband earlier today in China, Huawei unveiled the MateBook D, MateBook E, and MateBook X in Berlin a couple of hours ago.
MateBook E
The MateBook E is the real successor to last year’s model. It is the competitor to Microsoft’s Surface Pro and Samsung’s Galaxy Book. The 2-in-1 race just got hotter.
The MateBook E is just 6.9mm thick and has a 12-inch 2K touch-screen display with a 160° viewing angle. There are two versions: one with a 7th Gen Intel Core M3-7Y30 processor and the other will have a Core i5-7Y54 processor. Both will have Intel’s HD Graphics 615. Memory configuration is either 4GB or 8GB, and SSD storage starts at 128GB and maxes out at 512GB.
The MateBook E has a new Folio keyboard with backlight and a hinge design that can be adjusted steplessly up to 160°. Huawei has partnered with Dolby to provide the new Matebook with custom-designed speakers. Dubbed Dolby Audio Premium, Huawei says you should expect cinema-level audio quality when in use.
The MateBook E has a 33.7Wh battery (4430mAh battery) that should last for up to 9 hours when watching a movie. For security, the matebook has a fingerprint scanner with a security chip on the side.
There is no pricing detail yet but the MateBook E will be available in titanium grey and champagne gold. The matebook will come with a keyboard but you can pick up the MatePen which has support for 2048 levels of pressure or throw in a bluetooth mouse
If you are trying to get into shape this summer and you want a fitness tracker that doesn’t break the bank, you should take a look at the new Honor A2 Smartband.
The Honor A2 is the successor to the Honor A1 released last year. Unlike the A1 that lacks a display, the Honor A2 has a 0.96-inches OLED display. The rest of the design has been kept the same way as that of the A1, though you should note that the new smartband is only available with rubber straps and in only four colors.
The Honor A2 boasts a couple of interesting features. It has a continuous heart rate monitor that is able to differentiate when you are performing a variety of exercises. There is a calorie counter that keeps track of calories burnt, and a pedometer that counts your steps and that can even tell when you are cycling.
The Honor A2 has a sedentary reminder, a sleep monitor, and will also provide notification alerts. There is also a find-my-phone feature for those moments when you can’t remember where you dropped your device.
Xiaomi isn’t new to USB Type-C smartphones, but it definitely is new to the scene of USB Type-C earphones. The company unveiled its first ever USB Type-C earphones this week and it is said to be the ideal companion to the Xiaomi Mi 6. The new flagship from the company ditches the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack, which means you have to use USB Type-C headphones to listen to music on the device.
The Mi USB Type-C earphones boast of active noise cancellation making sure that you can listen to your music even in noisy environments. However, the company was quick to reveal that not all smartphones with USB Type-C connectors will support these headphones. So, which phones are compatible then?
Disclaimer on the Mi Type-C headphones page
Xiaomi reveals that the Xiaomi Mi 5, Mi 5S, Mi 5S Plus, Mi Mix, Mi Note 2 and Mi 6 are the officially supported smartphones for this earphone. If you have issues using it on these devices, make sure to update the phone to the latest MIUI stable version. Even Mi 4C, Mi 4S supports this Type-C headphone but some functions like the call button and active noise cancellation may not work.
It is clearly mentioned that the new Xiaomi headphone is not compatible with Xiaomi Mi 5C and the Redmi Pro models. As for the Type-C phones from other brands, there’s no guarantee that all features like Active Noise Cancellation would work.
Further, Chinese analyst, Sun Changxu warns that the Xiaomi Type-C headphones would only work with integrated audio Type-C smartphones like the Xiaomi Mi 6. If you try it with other types of USB-C phones, you could damage the earphone or worse, could crash the smartphone.
So make sure you give due consideration to the model that you are going to use with these headphones before you purchase it.
In the past couple of weeks, we have given away lots of new products on Gizmochina, and keeping up with the momentum, we are here yet again to give away a brand new tablet for our readers. Chuwi has provided us with the large screen Chuwi Hi10 tablet to give away to one of our readers, which means you have yet another chance to get hold of the tablet.
The Chuwi Hi10 plus is a large screen tablet, featuring a 10.8-inch 1920×1080 pixel display. Inside, the tablet comes with the 1.44GHz Intel Z8350 quad-core 64-bit processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. To support its large screen size, the Chuwi Hi10 plus tablet also comes with an 8400mAh battery, which should easily give you more than a day’s battery life. You can get this powerful tablet at just $199 on Aliexpress and lower price on 2017 Chuwi Fans Days promotion.
Like always, we are going to organize this giveaway via the gleam widget. One random winner will be selected in a week’s time and will be given the new Chuwi Hi10 Plus tablet.
Xiaomi has launched another smart home product, this time a detachable socket for the home’s a home air conditioning system. The socket comes with a smart gateway as well as infrared remote control and a radio network. The socket can detect the temperature in the home and automatically switch on the AC if the room temperature becomes too high. The socket also connects to an app and allows users to check the state of the air conditioning and read the operating power of the air conditioning. The total power consumption can also be monitored via the app.
The Mi Home air conditioning partner actually looks like an ordinary socket with a round design. It comes in white mixed with black and a portable size which can easily fit into your pocket. The smart socket also comes with a safe design. In addition, the Smart socket is designed to withstand a temperature as high as 750 ℃ due to its high-grade outer material said to be flame retardant. The smart socket is also able to protect the AC from overload. The design also includes a child-protection door which ensures children stay safe even when they touch the socket. It also has a maximum power rating of 4000W, 16A and can be used in different regions safely.
The Mi air-conditioning partner can remotely display the state of air conditioning and control, and it can link with other Mi home smart gadgets such as humidity sensor and others. Mi home air-conditioning partner is already up on sales which started on May 23. The device is priced at 169 Yuan ($24) and would be available on Xiaomi mall, Jingdong, Mi home, Xiaomi’s official flagship store on Lynx.
Xiaomi has broken several records through the online sales of Redmi 3, Redmi 4, Redmi Note 3 and Redmi Note 4 smartphones and their variants in India. On May 20, the Chinese firm generated a massive revenue of Rs. 5 crore (~$775K) within 12 hours through the offline sales of various Xiaomi devices in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
The offline sale was conducted at the Xiaomi’s first Mi Home store in India located at Phoenix City, Bengaluru. Over 10,000 Mi fans from 10 different states arrived at the Mi Store to be a part of this milestone achievement of the company.
Xiaomi could generate such a huge revenue through the sales of various Xiaomi devices such as Redmi 4, Redmi 4A, Redmi Note 4, Mi VR Play, Mi Air Purifier 2, Mi Router 3C and Mi Band 2. No other smartphone company has managed to achieve such a milestone in the country. The Chinese firm revealed that the Redmi 4 and Redmi 4A accounted for major sales among other Xiaomi products.
Manu Jain, the Vice President and Managing Director of Xiaomi said,” It was an extremely emotional day for all of us at the opening of our first Mi Home store. I am humbled by the unprecedented outpouring of love from all our Mi Fans who started lining up from 8 AM in the morning. I had a fun filled day with spending time with our fans, billing at the counters for our customers, entertaining people standing in queue and answering multiple queries at Mi Home. Never did I imagine that with every passing hour we were quietly creating history in the Indian retail market.”
Xiaomi has previously said that it will be opening 100 Mi Home stores across the country including major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. With the launch of these offline stores, Xiaomi aims to increase the offline sales of its devices. An additional zone will be available in select Mi Home stores for experiencing more Xiaomi devices.
After becoming part of the “Make in India” program of the Indian Government, the Chinese firm launched its second manufacturing unit in the country at Andhra Pradesh. The factory that has been launched in partnership with Foxconn will make it possible for the company to manufacture 95 percent of smartphones that will be sold in the country. The company claims that the new plant is capable of producing one phone per second.
A recent survey carried out by IDC revealed that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 was the most shipped smartphone in the first quarter of this year. With a market share of 29.3, Xiaomi now stands as the number one smartphone brand in the online market in India.
The Honor Play Pad 2 wears a new design. Even though its still a budget tablet, Huawei has done away with the plastic body. The tablet now features a sandblasted aluminium body with rounded corners. Its not the thinnest tablet in the market but Huawei is proud of its 7.95mm thickness.
The larger variant has its ports (audio and charging port) positioned on the left if you hold it in landscape mode, and the speaker grille at the bottom. For the 8-inch version, the charging port is at the bottom when held in portrait mode and the audio jack sits at the top.
Honor Play Pad 2 Specs
The 8-inch version has a 1280 x 800 HD display, 2GB/3GB of RAM and 16GB/32GB of ROM. You can pick up a microSD card slot of up to 128GB if you wish. There is a Snapdragon 425 processor on board and a 4800mAh battery.
The 8-inch Honor Play 2 is a budget tablet so don’t expect stellar pictures from its 5MP rear camera and its 2MP front facing camera. It runs EMUI 5.1 based on Android 7.0 Nougat and weighs 350g.
The 9.6-inch variant packs exactly the same specifications as the 8-inch version, even down to the battery capacity. So unless you need the larger screen, you are better off with the 8-inch version. The tablets also have a special kids mode with its own app store and parental control features.
Huawei’s Honor is on a roll today. After having launched the Honor 6A, it has followed it up with something for the home. The Honor Router X1 and X1 Plus are Honor’s way of getting a place in your house.
The Honor X1 has a neat cube design that cleverly hides all the ports at the back. Those who love to keep their wires hidden will appreciate this. The Honor Router X1 and X1 Plus both have one uplink port, two ethernet ports, a 12V power jack, and a reset button. There is also a LED light up front.
The main differences between both routers is that the X1 only supports 2.4GHz and peaks at 300Mbps while the X1 Plus supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, 802.11ac MU-MIMO, and peaks at 1167Mbps.
Three months after the launch of the Meizu M5s, Meizu has today launched another smartphone in its mid-range M-series. The Meizu M5c is touted as specially designed for its international fans and rightly so, it is perhaps the first time Meizu is first announcing its new smartphone outside its usual Chinese launch channels (We have to check up our records if this is true). The M5c was announced by the Chinese company via its Twitter account.
Design & Features
The Meizu M5c features a design which is consistent with Meizu’s design language. It bears slight resemblance with the M5s except for the positioning of the fused antenna band at the rear. While the antenna band on the M5c is at the top and bottom edges, that of the M5s is not. Another thing is that the M5c features a stylishly curved body with well-chamfered edges. The body of the M5c isn’t made from metal but it features polycarbonate unibody touted to have been specially crafted using ultra-high precision CNC techniques. The mid-ranger comes with an 8.3mm body, weighing only 135g.
Meizu M5c Specifications
On te specs angle, the M5c sports a 5-inch HD (1280 x 720p) display with a contrast ratio of 1000:1 and a maximum brightness of 400 nit. The minimum brightness is 5.5 nit and the display also comes with ‘sophisticated GFF full-lamination technology’. The phone is powered by a 64-bit Quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz and believed to be a MeidaTek SoC. The graphic aspect is taken care of by a Mali-T720 GPU which should allow for a seamless graphic experience.
The Meizu M5c also features 2GB of RAM and 16GB of native storage which is expandable up to 128GB. Providing the interface is Meizu’s Flyme 6 UI and it comes with the company’s One Mind artificial intelligence which learns your usage pattern and helps allocate memory to your applications based on your usage in order to deliver the best experience. The smartphone also packs a generous 3,000mAh non-removable battery, features support for band 20 4G connectivity which is absent on most of Meizu’s previous models.
On the camera end, the Meizu M5c features an 8MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, 4-element lens and ISP technology. The device also features a 5MP selfie shooter.The cameras support ArtSoft beautification algorithm.
Meizu M5c Pricing & Availability
The Meizu M5c will be available in five cool colors namely; Black, Gold, Blue, Red and Pink. The price and availability date of the smartphone weren’t announced but it is a mid-range series and so, is expected to come with a cheap price tag.
Xiaomi Mi 6 flagship phone has been selling in the home country of China since a few weeks. In its first flash sale, the Xiaomi Mi 6 units were sold out in a few seconds. Today at 10 AM in China, the Xiaomi Mi 6 Ceramic Edition went on sale through its official site with a pricing of 2,999 Yuan ($435). Like the standard edition, the special edition ceramic model also sold out quickly.
The Xiaomi Mi 6 Ceramic Edition is now listed as out of stock on the official website of the company. When Xiaomi Mi 6 was made available for purchase in China, the company only made available only the regular Black color variant with glass-clad rear. However, the Ceramic Edition was listed for purchase for the first time today.
It is not known as to when will Xiaomi Mi 6 Ceramic Edition go on sale next time. If Xiaomi is not facing any production problems, the Ceramic variant may become available on sale soon. The Ceramic Edition not only features a premium ceramic back panel but also it has gold rims of 18-kart around the rear-facing twin cameras. The Ceramic Edition has the same internal specs as the regular model.
The Xiaomi Mi 6 Ceramic Edition has a 5.15-inch screen that produces a full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. It is driven by Snapdragon 835 and 6GB of RAM. The native storage of the phone is 128 GB. There is no microSD card slot on the device.
Its dual camera module includes a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens coupled with a12-megapixel telephoto lens that provides 2x lossless zoom. The front-facing camera of the Mi 6 is 8-megapixel. It also features a front-facing fingerprint reader. It is packed with a 3,350mAh with fast charge support.
In a recent interview, Wang Xiang, the Vice President of Xiaomi confirmed that the company will not be launching its Mi 6 flagship phone in regions like the U.S, Europe and India. Buying it through Chinese reseller will require customers to pay more in the form of shipping and import taxes. Also, the Xiaomi Mi 6 purchased through Chinese reseller will not support all the 4G LTE networks in the U.S.
Today is a big day for Huawei and Honor as they have a number of product launches scheduled. Kicking off the launch is the mid-range Honor 6A. The Honor 6A brings a number of new features, keeps some from the Honor 5A, and ditches a few too.
Honor 6A Design
Huawei has changed a number of things in the Honor 6A. The single-piece plastic back plate for example has been replaced with a metal one, although the part where the antennas sit are made out of plastic. The camera housing has been redesigned and is now a circle just like the LED flash and fingerprint scanner. The front hasn’t seen much of a change though. The bezels are still thick even though the phone uses on-screen navigational buttons.
The Honor 6A is bound to weigh more than its predecessor due to the larger battery and metal back plate, but in terms of size, it is no different from the Honor 5A.
Honor 6A Specs
The Honor 6A retains the 5-inch HD display as its predecessor but comes in two memory configurations: there is a 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM model and a 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM model. Both versions are powered by the Snapdragon 430 processor which supports more LTE bands than Huawei’s Kirin 65x series.
The rear camera is a 13MP Sony IMX278 sensor with a LED flash, and up in front is a 5MP sensor. Last year’s model had a front flash but Huawei decided to leave it out this time. However, one new addition is the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. It also runs Android 7.1 Nougat with Huawei’s EMUI 5.1 overlay.
The battery has also been bumped to 3020mAh from 2200mAh. Although the Snapdragon 430 does support Quick Charge 3.0, Huawei ships the phone with a 5V/1A charger.
Huawei released its mid-range Nova and Nova Plus last year with a cool design, decent specs and pocket-friendly price tag. One year on, Huawei is set to release a second-gen smartphone in the series known as Nova 2. The Huawei Nova 2 has been a visitor along with the Nova 2 Plus on TENAA and a poster hinting at a possible May 26 launch appeared online recently. The Huawei Nova 2 has now appeared on GFXBench database revealing its specs.
According to the GFXBench listing, the Nova 2 features a 5-inch display with 1920 x 1080p resolution. The device is equipped with a 2.3GHz Octa-core processor which is likely the Hisilicon Kirin 658 processor backed by 4GB of RAM and there is 64GB of storage onboard. As usual, GFXBench data isn’t always correct and on this one, there seems to be a mistake on the camera sensors. The HuaweiNova 2 had earlier been revealed to come with a dual camera setup comprised of a 12MP wide angle sensor + an 8MP telephoto lens. The front camera features a 20MP sensor and the device runs Android 7.0 Nougat.
The Nova 2 is expected to be launched on May 26 along with the Nova 2 Plus. We’re not sure if the Nova 2 Plus will be launched along with it but since they both appeared on TENAA, then that’s just possible.
360 Mobiles had a big day today as the company announced the successor to the 360 N5 model that was released just a few months back. The new model, called the 360 N5S, comes with pretty good upgrades as compared to the earlier generation model. The company seems to have given priority to the design and the front camera in this new version, which makes it a great overall mid-ranger.
360 N5S Design
360 Mobiles continued with the same design language in the past few generations, which is why it was necessary for a quick overhaul in the design department of the new entrant. The 360 N5S ditches the traditional all-metal body in favor of 2.5D curved glass. So, you have 2.5D glass on both the front as well as the back with an aluminum alloy frame to keep things sturdy. Note that the back of the N5S has a mirror line finish which makes it look a lot like the Honor 8. The phone comes in Blue as well as Black colors and there’s a good chance that you might confuse the N5S with the Honor 8, especially its blue color edition. The fingerprint also lies on the back of the phone.
Dimensions: 153.5 x 76.9 x 8mm
Weight: 170 grams
So, the phone is similar to the dimensions of its previous generation model but with a thinner 8mm body. However, the phone’s weight has increased significantly, as it weighs 170 grams, much higher than the metal clad 360 N5′ 156-gram weight.
The buttons also have a textured pattern to make sure that you can easily find it.
360 N5S Specs
360 N5 was a pretty powerful mid-ranger. The company has made a smart decision to keep most of the basic hardware intact, which means the 360 N5S specs include the same Snapdragon 653 octa-core chip, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage and MicroSD expansion slot that support up to 128GB. There’s a standard 5.5-inch 1080p panel on board.
Now note that for some reason, probably to keep the weight and thickness lower, the 360 N5S comes with a smaller, 3730mAh battery on board. The previous generation model had a 4000mAh battery, so cutting down the battery capacity, even by a small figure isn’t something that we would have liked to see. However, the company claims that you still get 1.5 days of usage from the device. Further, the phone supports 9V / 2A fast charging, which should give you about 45% charge in 30 minutes. That’s pretty good.
360 N5S Camera
The front camera has received the biggest upgrade, now featuring a dual camera setup. The front setup is a combination of a 13MP CMOS Samsung sensor with f/2.0 aperture and a 2MP secondary sensor with f/2.4 aperture. The secondary sensor is responsible for additional depth of field data to ensure you can capture good looking selfies with background blur. The presence of PDAF (0.1s focus) on the front camera setup should further ensure a clear and focused shot.
Coming to the rear camera, the 360 N5S comes with a standard 13MP f/2.0 sensor. It’s same rear sensor as the N5 model. So, the setup supports 4K as well as 1080p videos.
360 N5S Software
On the software side, the 360 N5S comes with 360 OS 2.0 UI which is based on Android 7.1 Nougat. The company seems to be focused on making the UI as clutter free and simple as possible. So, the new OS omits unwanted apps and brings features such as split screen multi-tasking (with transform / drag drop), multiple apps (open 2 copies of the same app) etc.
The phone comes with a notification light as well. Now, you’ll see a Nubia-like red circle on the phone’s home button, which is also a breathing notification light.
360 N5S Price & Availability
The phone will go on sale on June 2 on the official i360Mall in China for 1699 Yuan ($247). There seems to be just one memory version 6GB RAM + 64GB ROM and two color options: blue and black.
Xiaomi Mi Max 2 is all set for an official launch on May 25. It specifications have already been leaked by the rumor mill and it has also appeared on GFXBench. The original Mi Max from May 2016 came with a massive 4,850mAh battery. Rumors have been claiming that the Mi Max 2 would be coming with a 5,000mAh battery. However, according to a Chinese leakster, Kumamoto, Xiaomi will be increasing the battery capacity by 500mAh on the Mi Max 2.
As it can be seen in the above Weibo post by Kumamoto, the Mi Max 2 will be coming with a 5,349mAh battery from Yan Wanda. He also claims that the phablet would be powered by Snapdragon 626 chipset. The mammoth battery and the energy chipset onboard will allow the Mi Max 2 to deliver stellar battery performance.
The original Mi Max came in Standard and High (or Prime) variants. The Standard model came with Snapdragon 650 chip, 3 GB RAM and 32 GB / 64 GB storage options. The Prime model came with Snapdragon 652 SoC, 4 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. The upcoming Mi Max 2 is also speculated to arrive in Standard and High models.
The Standard edition of Mi Max 2 is speculated to arrive with Snapdragon 626 chipset, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB storage. The High model is rumored to be fueled by the newly launched Snapdragon 660 SoC, 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB storage.
Leaked information has revealed that the 12-megapxiel Sony IMX378 camera sensor that is present on flagship phones like Google Pixel and Xiaomi Mi 5S will be present on the rear side of the Mi Max 2. It is speculated to come with a 5-megapixel frontal shooter. The original Mi Max came with 16-megapixel rear snapper and a 5-megapixel selfie shooter.
Xiaomi is also expected to include a USB Type-C port on Mi Max 2. Like the original Mi Max, the successor phone will continue to feature 6.44-inch full HD display. The phablet would be running on Android 7.1 Nougat flavored with MIUI 8.
The Nubia Z17 may just be the phone to give the Xiaomi Mi 6 a run for its money. A video teaser by Ni Fei, the company’s General Manager, hints at the Z17 featuring a pressure sensitive display.
A pressure sensitive display allows you to perform functions akin to right-clicking on a PC. By applying the right amount of pressure on an app’s icon, additional functions are displayed. As you can see from the screenshots, pushing down on the calendar app, will show you the weather for the day, and an option to add new event without you having to open the app. Another example shown is when you long press the clock icon and you get presented with a sub-menu that includes a timer or stopwatch.
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Basically, the pressure sensitive display saves you additional taps by providing you access to functions you wouldn’t usually have access to if you don’t launch the app. The Xiaomi Mi 5s (128GB version only) launched with a pressure sensitive display but for reasons best known to Xiaomi, the Mi 6 doesn’t come with one.
The last example of the pressure sensitive display is for the settings app which lets you jump straight to the update page. This is where we see the second teaser. The Nubia Z17 in the video is running Nubia UI 5.0.
A mysterious Samsung smartphone with model number of SM-G9298 had recently received certification from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) at the end of the previous week. The smartphone has also received approval form Wi-Fi Alliance. Rumors had hinted that it may be a dual screen flip phone from the company.
By looking at the leaked image, it can be understood that the phone does not feature any sensor above the screen. Hence, it seems to be a flip phone. Speculations suggest that it could be a successor of the SM-W2017 flip phone from Samsung that was launched last year.
The predecessor of SM-W2017 had a model number of SM-W2016. Hence, the successor of SM-W2017 should have SM-W2018 model number. However, the model number of the leaked phone suggests that it could be a different product. Other rumors hint that it could be the first foldable smartphone from Samsung that is dubbed as Galaxy X by the rumor mill.
It has been found that the flip phone shown in the leaked image is driven by Snapdragon 821 chipset and it carries support for wireless charging. The WFA certification of the phone revealed that it is running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS. These older specs indicate that it may not be the Galaxy X which is expected to come with flagship specifications.
Samsung had released a flip phone with a model number of SM-G9198 in 2015. It was powered by Snapdragon 808 chipset which was the next best SoC in 2015 after the Snapdragon 810 that powered most flagship phones in that year. Its predecessor SM-G9098 was launched in 2014. However, in 2016, Samsung did not launch a successor for SM-G9198.
Samsung SM-G9198
The new SM-G9298 will mostly likely roll out as a successor of SM-G9198. Since SM-G9198 was launched in August 2015, the SM-G9298 is speculated to release in the Q3 2017. The SM-G9198 was the first phone from Samsung to be powered by Snapdragon 808 chipset. The SM-G9298 could be the first smartphone from the company to be fueled by Snapdragon 821, the next best chipset after Snapdragon 835. Since the device has been certified by FCC in the U.S., it seems that the South Korean company is prepping up a new flip phone for its U.S. fans.
Just last week, Sony released the Xperia XZ Premium flagship in China with a premium design as well as premium price pegged at 5699 Yuan (~$827). The Xperia XZ Premium featured a Snapdragon 835 chip, 4K display, a Sony IMX400 camera, among others.
Barely five days after that launch event, a new leak has emerged of the specs of three Sony smartphones in the Xperia family. The smartphones go by the names Sony Xperia XZ1, Xpera XZ1 Compact and Xperia X1 adnd the three are said to be scheduled for release on September 1 at the 2017 IFA Berlin. Since Sony released the Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra at MWC 2017, the rumors may just have some credibility.
Specs wise, the Sony Xperia XZ1 is the top of the pack with 5.2-inch 1080p display and is powered by a Snapdragon 835 processor. The processor is backed by 4GB of RAM and there is a 3000mAh battery onbaord. On the other hand, the Xperia XZ1 Compact is listed with a compact build, sporting a 4.6-inch display with just an HD resolution (1280 x 720p). Surprisingl, the deviceis listed as packinga Snapdragon 835 chip as well as 4GB of RAm and a 2800 Mah battery. This doesn’t look like one device we’ll be meeting soon.
Finally, the third model dubbed Sony Xpera X1 has the listing of a mid-ranger, with a Snapdragon 660 chipset onboard. The Xperia X1 is also listed with a 5-inch Full HD display as well as a 4GB RAM and 2800mAh battery. All three models are said to use Sony’s new generation of camera technology.
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