Recently, a rumour surfaced that Samsung was working on a new Exynos 7872 processor built on a 14nm FinFET process. The Exynos 7-series chip is said to come with a good number of improvements, top of which is entire network support in China. In a related vein, Meizu and Samsung were reported to have held a conference in China but the details of the discussions at the event were kept from the media.
Now, a Weibo user has shared a document which suggests that Meizu will be releasing a smartphone soon which would be powered by the Exynos 7872 chip. The user shared a document showing the specs lineup of an upcoming Meizu smartphone whose name is still sketchy as of now.
Apart from the Exynos 7872 chip, the Meizu smartphone is listed with a 5.5-inch FHD display, mCharge and surprisingly with the unique 4-LED flash which Meizu introduced on the E2. That must have fueled the speculation that the smartphone would likely be called Meizu E2S. Other details include VoLTE support, a 3400mAh battery, 3GB and 4GB RAM variants, 32GB and 64GB LPDDR4 storage models, Wi-Fi support, a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP selfie shooter, among others.
The previous leak gives the details of the Exynos 7872 to include, an hexa-core 14nm FinFet manufacturing process with four cortex-A53 cores for power efficiency and two cortex-A73 cores for performance. For its GPU, a Mali-T830 MP2 is said to feature and that is also on the list. It also comes with a fully-integrated modem for improved network support and lots more.
We don’t know when the said smartphone will be launched but a recent poster suggests Meizu will unveil the E2 Transformer Edition soon. Perhaps, we may also get to see a new Exynos-powered Meizu machine soon. Name? Meizu E2S, maybe.
If you do not reside in China, you most likely are not familiar with the mobile game called King of Glory. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Made by Tencent games, King of Glory belongs to the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre. It is very similar to League of Legends, another MOBA game made by Tencent but which is more popular in the West.
Come Friday, the 19th of May, Apple will be releasing a King of Glory Special Edition iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The back of the phones will be engraved with the King of Glory logo and characters from the game. The phones will also have matching live wallpapers and customized retail boxes.
AnTuTu has once again released it top 10 best cost effective smartphones for the month of April 2017. The list is composed of smartphone models (Chinese brand) which provide the best value for your money and comes with an affordable price tag. In clear terms, the formula used in compiling the list is the price ratio of the model which is calculated by its processor’s AnTuTu benchmark average score divided by the current price on Jingdong and the brand’s official sales channel. The data were collected from April 1 to April 31st and the model’s sales were all over 1000 units.
The ranking for April 2017 sees a major change from that of the previous month as many models which were on the list in March have been toppled by new entrants. However, the ZUK Z2 (4GB 64GB) still continues to top the chart at the least for the third straight consecutive month. Sadly, the ZUK Z2 will be the last of the ZUK smartphones we’ll be seeing but for a Snapdragon 820-powered smartphone, the Z2’s continues to offer great value for its price which is very much affordable at 1299 Yuan ($188).
AnTuTu Top 10 April
The second spot is occupied by a new entrant, the Coolpad Cool 1 Dual (3GB + 32GB) which is one of the products of the collaboration between LeEco and Coolpad. The Cool 1 is closely followed in the third position by the Coolpad Cool 1C (3GB+32GB) which is different from the Cool 1 Dual just in the dual camera which the Cool 1 dual packs. Both Coolpad smartphones feature the Snapdragon 652 chip and are priced at 899 Yuan (~$130).
AnTuTu Top 10 March
LeEco, known for cheap flagships retains a couple of places on the chart, with the LeEco Le 2 Jazz Edition at the fourth spot and the Le Pro 3 at the fifth. Lenovo’s ZUK Z2 Pro and the ZUK Edge were the sixth and seventh-most cost effective smartphones in China for April 2017. This no surprise due to the fact that Lenovo recently slashed the prices of the ZUK models. After all, the line is going to be shut down completely and would subsequently fall under the Moto brand name.
It may surprise you to know that the Xiaomi Mi 6 which just went on sale towards the end of April made it up the chart at number nine. Xiaomi’s first dual camera phone, the Redmi Pro also appears on the chart at number 8. The list is completed by the Mi 5S Plus which sits at number 10 to completes the top 10 chart. Notice the high numbers of dual camera phones on the chart? Perhaps, that is a reflection of the growing trend.
The Redmi Note 4X was launched back in February as a Snapdragon variant of the original Redmi Note 4. That was what we thought until Xiaomi released the high-end version with the same Helio X20 processor we thought it ditched. Originally released in champagne gold, matte black, platinum silver, cherry powder, and a Hatsune Miku Edition with a teal paint, Xiaomi is set to add one more color variant tomorrow.
A teaser image on the official Weibo page for Xiaomi redmi phones has disclosed that the Redmi Note 4X will be getting a new red variant tomorrow. The post is referring to it as a Jingdong special edition, so this may likely not be available on other platforms.
Details about the phone are still unknown. We don’t know if it will be limited to certain memory variants or if it will be sold for a higher price. We will have to wait till tomorrow to get answers to these questions.
Huawei has added a new phone to its Y Series. Just yesterday, the Chinese manufacturer launched the Y3 2017, today it has followed it up with the Huawei Y7. The new phone is the third in the Y series released this year.
The Huawei Y7 sports a 5.5-inch HD screen with 2.5D glass, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in storage, and a Snapdragon 435 processor. It runs EMUI 5.1 based on Android 7.0 and has a 4000mAh battery that should last a whole day. The rear of the phone is made from metal that has been sandblasted to give it a nice feel when held in the hands.
The Huawei Y7 packs a 12MP 1.25μm pixel sensor for the rear camera and an 8MP sensor up front for selfies. There is also a microSD slot that accepts up to 128GB cards. For connectivity, there is Bluetooth 4.1, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, and a micro USB port.
In its bid to grab a share of the market from Qualcomm, MediaTek is said to be working on a number of processors which are mostly mid-range chips. MediaTek gets most of its patronage from OEM in the budget and mid-range category as the company is nearly absent in the flagship category. Earlier on, the company was revealed to be working on an Helio P23 chip. The company is now said to also be working on an Helio P30 chip which would soon hit the market.
Media reports from Taiwan, MediaTek’s base, hints that the chip maker is planning to quickly push a god number of its chip into the market in order to continue to enjoy a good patronage and curtail the rise of the mid-range Snapdragon 630 and 660 chip announced by Qualcomm recently. The reports also quoted MediaTek’s chairman Xie Qingjiang as stating recently that the company would soon launch the P30 chip. The Helio P30 is said to be built on the 12nm TSMC manufacturing process. It is an octa-core processor composed of four Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5GHz. The processor is expected to support LPDDR4 memory standard and UFS 2.0 flash memory and up to 25MP camera sensor.
Furthermore, the MediaTek Helio P30 will come with support for Cat. 10 LTE band with a downlink rate of up to 600Mbps. There are rumors that the first OEM that would feature the Helio P30 is Meizu. This rumor is further buttressed by the supposed Meizu product schedule that leaked earlier this year. The schedule lists Meizu as launching the MX7 in September this year with an Helio P30 chip. The P30 is also said to have a unit price lower than that of the SD 630/ 660.
With the arrival of HTC U Ultra powered by Snapdragon 821 chipset and HTC U Play, the Taiwanese company introduced the new HTC U series of smartphones. The arrival of the new HTC U series probably marks the death of HTC One line of phones. Today, HTC finally announced its 2017 flagship smartphone, the HTC U 11.
HTC U 11 Design
The HTC U 11 sports the Liquid Surface design that was introduced on HTC U Ultra. The flagship phone features 3D glass on its front and rear sides and it sports a slightly curved appeal. The phone comes in a glossy texture and will be available in color choices like Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Black, Ice White, Amazing Silver and Solar Red.
Each color variant appears in different colored tints depending on the way the phone is held. For example, the Amazing Silver appears silver-blue and silver-purple from different angles. HTC confirmed that the U 11 is an IP67 certified waterproof phone. It measures 153.9 x 75.9 x 7.9mm and its weight is 169 grams.
The USP of the HTC U 11 is that it comes with a pressure-sensitive metallic frame (four pressure gauges respectively on left and right sides) that is equipped with the new Edge Sense feature. Squeezing the frame lets users launch various functions on the phone.
There is no 3.5mm audio jack on the phone. The bottom features a USB Type-C port. HTC will be shipping an adapter with the phone so that users can connect their 3.5mm headphones to the USB Type-C port of HTC U 11. The company is also providing a new set of HTC U Sonic headphones enabled with active noise cancellation feature with the phone. The Home button of the phones houses the fingerprint scanner. The HTC U 11 also features BoomSound tweeter (on top) and woofer (on bottom) for natural and amazing audio experience.
HTC U 11 Specifications
The HTC U 11 has a 5.5-inch Super LCD 5 screen that offers a quad-resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels and a traditional aspect ratio of 16:9. It is driven by Snapdragon 835 chipset.
HTC will be releasing 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB storage variant in the U.S. whereas international markets will be getting another variant that has 6 GB RAM and 128 storage. It features a microSD slot that can also function as a SIM slot. The single-SIM edition supports 1 Gbps 4G LTE. The HTC U11 is packed with Quick Charge 3.0 enabled 3,000mAh battery. For perfect sound recording experience, the phone comes with four microphones.
It is preloaded with Android 7.1 Nougat and latest edition of Sense UI. At start it will only carry support for Google Assistant, but Alexa assistant will be also added within 30 days of launching in the U.S., the U.K and Germany. The Taiwanese firm is also offering its own HTC Sense Companion assistant for HTC U 11 users. The Chinese users will be getting Baidu Duer as a secondary voice assistant.
The Edge Sense feature allows the user to access various apps only be squeezing the sides of the phone. For instance, squeezing will allow users to open the camera app and another squeeze will snap a photo. Squeezing on the lockscreen will launch the Google Assistant. Users can customize what tasks can be carried out through short and long short squeezes. The sensors can also be configured for better feedback through user’s grip.
HTC U 11 Camera
The 12-megapixel UltraPixel 3 camera of HTC U 11 with a score of 90 is the highest rated DxOMark camera on a smartphone. It features f/1.7 aperture, OIS, 1.4-micron pixel size, 4K video shooting, slow motion videos of 1080p at 120 fps, and a dual-LED flash. There is a 16-megapixel f/2.0 aperture Ultrapixel camera on the front that is capable of shooting full HD videos.
HTC U 11 will be arriving in Asian markets on May 18. It would be landing in the U.K. in the next month with a pricing of £649 ($849). The unlocked Europe model is priced at €750 ($829).
In the U.S., it will be available exclusively through Sprint and unlocked versions will come through AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon which can be pre-ordered for $649 through HTC.com and Amazon.com. Sprint, HTC, Amazon are taking pre-orders from today.
Sprint is providing HTC U 11 with monthly payments of $29 for 24 months with no down payment. It is also providing two free Amazon Echo Dots for customers who pre-orders the HTC U 11. Sprint will start shipping from June 9 whereas the unlocked phones will begin shipping in June.
In one of the biggest scandals of 2017, it was found that Huawei randomly used either eMMC or UFS 2.1 flash chips inside its new Huawei P10 flagship smartphone. Given that everyone expected the P10 to feature the best specs, including UFS 2.1 inside all of the P10 models sold worldwide, this scandal came as a surprise.
Initially, Huawei played the blame game, but later on, the company did apologize to its customers. Despite the apologies, the customers weren’t happy to be given a slower and older flash chipset inside their brand new and pricey Huawei phones. The company’s CEO and Director, Richard Yu has come out to explain the situation multiple times in the past and even in today’s Huawei Mobile Open Day held in Shenzhen, China (the first such event), Richard Yu tried to explain the situation to the media.
At the event, he tried to open about Huawei’s supply struggle and even talked about the Huawei P10 flash scandal. He explained that the price difference between the eMMC memory chips and UFS 2.1 chips is very small. The company’s decision to go with older chips for some models was not in order to save money but to keep a steady supply of shipments and timely delivery of orders. He added that the company’s aim was not to deceive customers and if not for UFS 2.1 supply issues, Huawei would have used the same chip inside all the units.
He further said that Huawei has reflected on this issue and understands that the real consumers should be given importance and have to listen to their voice and understand their ideas.
Basically, the issue boils down to whether Huawei is justified using an older flash chipset inside its 2017 flagship just because of supply issues. What do you think Huawei should have done to tackle the supply problem?
Would you have bought the Huawei P10 if Huawei had clearly mentioned that some of their units had an older eMMC flash chip inside?
Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones are now available for purchase in various markets of the world. On Tuesday, the South Korean company confirmed that it has sold 5 million units of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones globally.
The impressive thing about this sales report that it has not been even one month since the market release of Galaxy S8 duo and the company has managed to achieve such a marvelous result. It was made available for purchase in South Korea, the United States, and Canada beginning from April 21.
A week later it arrived in other markets such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus are currently available in 120 markets. There is no information available on the individual sales result of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.
It was previously reported that the Galaxy S8 duo pre-orders have crossed 1 million units in South Korea. Samsung is yet to launch the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones in China. A recent research report has revealed that Samsung has a market share of 3.1 percent in China. Since it is losing out to rivaling brands like Huawei, OPPO and Vivo that are leading the Chinese markets, Samsung is expected to gain market share by the launch of Galaxy S8 duo by the end of this month in China.
Samsung is reportedly partnering with Chinese content providers so that it can be made available on Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones. Moreover, the South Korean will be introducing Chinese edition of Bixby AI on Galaxy S8 duo. On April 30, Samsung had introduced the Bixby assistant in the home country. English edition of Bixby is expected to roll out in respective countries during the spring.
In the previous month, Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with KGI Securities, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ that features huge “Infinity Screen” has met with overwhelming market response. Kuo estimates that Samsung will ship 50 to 55 million units of Galaxy S8 duo in the fiscal 2017. Previously, he had made a conservative prediction Samsung would be shipping 40 to 45 million units of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 due to the unfriendly positioning of fingerprint scanner on these phones.
Xiaomi’s MIJIA brand has launched two new products under the smart home products lineup. One of the products is a Smart pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera which is ideal for surveilance. The other product is a LED ceiling lamp jointly built by Xiaomi and Philips.
Xiaomi MIJIA Smart PTZ Camera
The Xiaomi Mijia smart PTZ camera is a security camera ideal for use at home which comes with a design that allows it rotate 360 degrees. The pan-tilt-zoom camera is capable of remote directional and zoom control. While in most cases te PTZ controls are sold separately from the camera, the MIJIA PTZ cam offers both the camera and controls at a ridiculously cheap 199 Yuan price (~$28). It is capable of surveilling all corners in a room.
The camera comes with a dual-axis rotational head design which can move freely up and down as well as sideways in order to cover all part of the home. It comes in white only and offers a 360-degree viewing range with a single viewing angle of 115 degrees. There is a memory card slot but it is hidden from view due to the design.
The Mi home smart PTZ camera will go on sale from 10.00 hours today, May 16 on Xiaomi mall, Mi mall Xiaomi official flagship store on Lynx, Jingdong and Suning, all at the same time.
The ceiling lamp is also a smart home product as it comes with the perceptive function which regulates its brightness according to the illumination of the room, the season, time and other conditions. The light automatically adjusts its color temperature to the appropriate state that won’t be too bright or dull. It also comes with a remote control with which the light can be switched on and off as well as regulated. In addition, the light can also be connected to the traditional wall switch despite having a remote control. The remote control is also smart, as it can monitor the temperature and humidity of the room which would enable the user optimise the lighting system. The Smart ceiling lamp can also be controlled using the mobile app and the colors can be changed as well to suit the season and time of the day.
The Xiaomi Philip Smart Ceiling Lamp carries a price tag of 349 Yuan (~$50) while the remote control is sold separately for 79 Yuan. The light product will be on sale from 10 AM today in China on Mi Mall only.
Three years ago, Samsung was ruling the Chinese smartphone market. Now it has been pushed down to 10th position in smartphone brands ranking in China. LG Electronics is holding a market share of only 1 percent in the country. The reason behind it is that in the recent past a lot of Chinese smartphone manufacturers have flourished and gained popularity in short span of time. Moreover, the Chinese government has been providing better support to local companies. Also, the Chinese phones are available with cheaper pricing compared to smartphones from Samsung and LG. Fresh reports reveal that both the South Korean companies are gearing up to regain their popularity in China.
China is the largest smartphone market in the world and it constitutes 30 percent of the worldwide market. In future too, the Chinese market will continue to expand. The smartphone OEMs that do not excel in Chinese markets cannot become a global leader. However, the local brands are using various strategies to make sure that their brands have more influence in the country. A recent research on the global smartphone market revealed that the foreign companies are rapidly losing market share in China in the first quarter.
Samsung is consistently losing market share in China. In 2015, it had a market share of 7.6 percent. It declined to 4.9 percent in 2016 and now it has a market share of 3.1 percent in the country. LG Electronics has a market share of 0.045 percent in the first quarter. Apple has a current market share of 7.7 percent, but its sales have declined by 15 percent in the first quarter.
On other side, the local brands are ruling in China. Huawei is on number 1 spot with a market share of 18.9 percent in the first quarter. It is closely followed by OPPO that has a market share of 18.7. Vivo is on number 3 with a 16.8 percent market share. These three brands are working on strengthening their leads as they have surpassed globally popular brands like Apple and Samsung.
Samsung and LG Electronics have both devised their strategies to win more Chinese customers. A Samsung representative has said that the company will be launching the Samsung Galaxy S8 in the country by the end of this month. Its Bixby voice assistant will support Chinese language. It will be establishing partnership with content providers in the country so that the Galaxy phones can provide Chinese customers with more services.
Since China is a huge country, it is difficult task for companies to build offline distribution networks. Hence, LG G6 Electronics will work on online distribution networks in China to regain its popularity.
This year is turning out already as a busy year for the smartphone industry in terms of new phone releases. We have seen so many brands hosting launch events already and from the look of things, that isn’t going to dwindle anytime soon. Huawei has been busy since the beginning of the year with the P9, Honor V9, Honor 8 Lite and the budget Y3 2017 launched yesterday, in their kitty already. The Chinese giant has now fixed another launch event for May 23 in China.
Huawei yesterday shared a new poster on the Honor official Weibo account as well as on the official Honor website in China which is actually an announcement of the event. The poster is that of a young man who seems to happily be at two locations at the same time. While the upper half of his body is a stadium, the lower half is in the classroom. We can’t say for sure what this means but maybe we are looking at a product that would be useful indoors and outdoors during sports time.
Apart from that, the product is teased as one for the youth and even though the Weibo post talked about a mobile phone coming, there seems to be a combination of four different products. The four different products may likely be a mobile phone, a wearable, router and perhaps, a tablet. We are not so certain about the actual products, though, but we’ll get to find out on May 23 which is not too far away.
India is a very good market of mid-range smartphones and Xiaomi knows it very well as it has sold millions of Redmi Note 3, Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime smartphones and it has already met with amazing sales result with the recently launched Redmi Note 4 and Redmi 4A smartphones. It seems that Meizu also wants to take advantage of India’s mid-range market as it has now launched the Meizu M5 smartphone in the country through Tata Cliq.
Meizu M5 had launched in China in November last year and now it is available in India with a pricing of Rs. 10,499. It has been made available exclusively through Tata Cliq and it comes in two color choices such as Blue or Champagne Gold.
In China, the Meizu M5 was made available in two models. China received a base model featuring 2 GB RAM and 16 GB inbuilt storage and the other model with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of native storage. In India, only the 3 GB + 32 GB model is available.
The Meizu M5 has a 5.2-inch screen that produces a resolution of 720 x 1,280 pixels and the display features a 2.5D curved glass on top. The M5 is powered by MediaTek MT6750 SoC. It features a hybrid SIM slot that supports dual SIM cards at a time or one SIM card and microSD card.
A 13-megapixel camera is sitting on the rear side of Meizu M5 and it has a selfie snapper of 5-meagapixel. The front facing Home button houses a fingerprint reader that unlocks the device in 0.2 seconds. It is running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS that is customized with Flyme OS from Meizu. It is packed with a 3,070mAh battery and it offers connectivity features such as 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, GPS, and v4.0 Bluetooth. Its dimensions are 147.28 x 72.8 x 8.8 mm and its weight is 138 grams.
According to the South Asia Marketing Head of Meizu, Leon Zhang, the Meizu M5 has received overwhelming response in China because of which the company decided to release it in India in a short period of time after launching it in China.
The Moto C line was a surprise to us when we first learned of its existence as we have always believed the Moto E series was the low end of the spectrum for Motorola phones. Turns out nothing is set in stone. Lenovo silently released the Moto C and Moto C Plus today, and both phones truly cover the essentials.
Moto C and Moto C Plus Design
Just as leaks have shown, Motorola (Lenovo) is going with more or less the same design for all its phones this year. The Moto C and Moto C Plus feature a polycarbonate micro-textured back. The design for the camera housing on the rear is the same as that of the Moto Z but the camera setup is different. You have two small circles sitting inside the larger circle, one holds the sensor and the other holds the LED flash.
Below the camera setup is the Moto batwing logo and further down is a line of circles which we believe serves as a cut-out for the speaker. The power button and volume rocker are on the left and there is an audio jack at the top, an essential for a budget device. Surprisingly, the charging port is also at the top but on the far left of the audio jack (positions are switched on the C Plus).
The front of the phone is no different from what we have seen on other budget phones. There are capacitive buttons at the bottom which do not seem to be back-lit and at the top sits the front camera, earpiece, and selfie light.
Moto C and Moto C Plus Specs
The Moto C has a 5-inch display, 1GB RAM, and 8GB of storage. It is powered by an unspecified quad-core processor. There is a 5MP camera with flash on the rear and a 2MP sensor up front with a selfie light. Motorola says the 2350mAh battery should be sufficient for use.
The Moto C is available in two models: there is a 3G only model and there is also a 4G version.
The Moto C Plus is mentioned as sporting a “larger display”. The RAM is still 1GB but the storage is doubled to 16GB. It also has dual SIM slots and a MicroSD card slot. The rear camera is an 8MP shooter with flash that Motorola says performs well under low-light conditions. The front camera is still a 2MP sensor with a dedicated selfie light.
The Moto C Plus packs a 4000mAh battery expected to last up to 30 hours on a single charge.
Moto C and Moto C Plus Pricing and Availability
Both phones will be available this Spring in Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The Moto C and Moto C Plus will come in Metallic Cherry, Pearl White, Fine Gold, and Starry Black.
The 3G Moto C will sell for €89 (~$98) and the 4G variant will be priced at €99 (~$109). The Moto C Plus will be priced at €119 (~$131).
Watermarks on pictures started becoming a popular add-on in most high-end smartphones and the trend is now creeping into this year’s flagships. The images of the Xiaomi Mi 6 contains a watermark with the inscription “Shot on Mi 6”. So too, some other models come with watermarks usually placed on the at the bottom corner of the photo.
Huawei has now announced that this feature would be available on the Huawei Honor 8 and Honor V8. According to the announcement, the company would begin pushing new firmware version via OTA which would make the function available on the duo. The Honor V8 was announced in May last year with an expansive display and a well-studded specs lineup. The Honor 8 made its own entry around July last year with a compact but large size and an equally impressive specs. The watermark may likely be at the lower left edge of the smartphones as Honor 8 and Honor V8 respectively. The feature may likely be available for the V9 and Honor 9 expected to launch this year.
The Honor V8 comes with a large 5.7-inch 2K display with a standard version as well which features 1080p resolution. The phone reportedly features a professional eye protection technology for the screen. The device packs a Kirin 950 octa-core chipset with i5 co-processor, 4GB of RAM and 32GB / 64GB of expandable storage. The battery will be of 3500mAh capacity and supports 9V 2A fast charging technology and lots more. On the camera end, the Honor V8 comes with dual 12MP cameras at the back with an 8MP sensor for selfies.
The Honor 8, on the other hand, sports a 5.2-inch with Full HD resolution. It packs the same Kirin 950 chip as the Honor V8, with three different memory combinations of 3GB RAM + 32GB, 4GB RAM + 32GB and 4GB RAM + 64GB. There is a 3000mAh battery (9V2A fast charging) on board, which has become the standard among mid-range phones. The Honor 8 also packs a dual 12MP rear camera.
The HTC U 11 is scheduled to launch tomorrow but just ahead of the launch a video which can be best said to be a hands-on/first impressions video has been leaked online.
The video leaves nothing to the imagination. All the color variants are present and we get to see the Edge Sense feature used multiple times.
From the video we can see the HTC U 11 will be available in blue, red, black, white and turquoise blue. The colors look really nice especially the blue one but they are reflective. Too reflective that they become distracting. The back is bare save for the 12MP rear camera flanked on the left by a LED flash and HTC’s logo.
The front doesn’t look bad but we think the top and bottom bezels could have been made smaller. There is a fingerprint scanner sitting on the chin and android navigation buttons on opposite sides. The top bezel houses the front 16MP camera on the right and the earpiece in the middle. The bottom of the phone is where the USB Type-C port sits. There is a single slit for the speaker on the right and a pair of microphones too.
We also get to see how HTC’s new Edge Sense technology works. There is a settings that lets you configure the squeeze force level. This is useful for situations where your phone is in your pocket or bag and you don’t want it setting of itself.
Edge Sense can be used for activating Google Assistant, as a dedicated shutter button or shortcut button that opens the camera even when the phone is locked.
The HTC U 11 just like the HTC U Ultra doesn’t have an audio jack but HTC will ship the phone with a 3.5mm to type-C adapter.
The Mi 6 is Xiaomi’s latest flagship and seems to be getting all the attention but the Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus haven’t been forgotten. Last week, Xiaomi announced it was going to release an Android Nougat Beta update for the Mi 5s, Mi 5s Plus, Mi MIX, and Mi Note 2 starting today.
As at the time of writing, the update is said to be available already for the Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus. The update is a closed beta, so it isn’t available to everyone.
The update brings the MIUI 8 version number to 7.5.15 and comes in at 1.4GB. The change-log only states that the Android version has been updated to Nougat. Update for the Mi Note 2 and Mi MIX shouldn’t be far off too.
Xiaomi announced a new TV at CES 2017. The Mi TV 4 is a modular TV with its display panel separated from the motherboard and sound system. The smart TV will be officially launched in China on the 18th of May and Xiaomi just released a new teaser for it.
The teaser focuses on the thickness of the display panel which is just 4.98mm at its thinnest point (and 38.9mm at its thickest). The Mi TV 4 has a frameless display that is propped up on transparent stands. The display connects to the sound bar via a single cable allowing you keep that clean wiring system you’ve always wanted.
If you live in the US and are looking to get hold of some cool gadgets, including new smartphones, check out the new deals page for US Warehouse. Gearbest is offering a lot of products from different categories up for sale on the page exclusive to US customers. Note that most of these products ship directly from the US warehouse, so the shipping will be super quick. So, you no longer have to wait for 10-20 days just for the products to reach your destination.
Some of the interesting products up for sale on the page include the Xiaomi Redmi 4 for $153 (silver) and up to $199 for other colors like golden. The Redmi Note 4 with Helio X20 is also up for grabs at $209 (Blue). Note that the prices of the products change according to the warehouse location as well as the colors you select. Only a few selected colors are available at the price you see on the deals page.
There are other products up for grabs as well, like 3D printers under $200, mechanical keyboards and smartwatches under $50 and a lot more. There’s a separate tablet section in the page as well, offering tablets like the Chuwi Hi13 convertible, Cube Mix Plus 2 etc directly to the US customers.
So, if you are living in the US and are looking to buy some cool gadgets, check out the deals page from here.
There are quite a few budget smartwatch offerings out there and we just came across the K88H model that has quite a few features for the price of just about $41. Learn more in our full review. You will also find a coupon code at the end of the article.
UNBOXING
The watch ships with the magnetic USB charger and some paperwork.
DESIGN AND DISPLAY
When it comes to the design, the watch is surprisingly well-made considering its low price.
In fact, the watch is made almost entirely of metal and it uses a stainless-steel band, which makes the watch look more expensive than it is.
As far as comfort, the watch is pretty comfortable to wear on the daily basis, which does not happen with all cheap watches.
The watch can work independently or connected to your phone via the Bluetooth.
As for the display, it is not the sharpest out there but it is readable both indoors and outdoors.
You can select from a few watch faces or you can download a few more using the app. However, the watch has only 128MB of internal memory, so you can really download much stuff.
FEATURES, USER INTERFACE
You can navigate through the menus using the touchscreen or the side button. The watch runs on the custom-made UI, which has quite a few features and settings to play with. Just to name a few, you can use the watch as a dialer or read SMS messages, control your phone’s camera, receive notifications from Facebook, Whatsapp etc.
Both pedometer and heart rate monitor sensors are pretty accurate as I compared the results with the Xiaomi Mi Band 2.
The watch has all other standard features as a sedentary reminder, alarm clock etc. There is also a Siri integration that works with the iOS devices. One of the cool features that work great is the lift to wake. It is really convenient in practice.
THE APP
You can also sync your fitness data with the FundoWear app, which is also used for other cheap China smartwatches. Within the app, you can check your steps counter, sleep and heart rate patterns, adjust a few settings and so on.
BATTERY LIFE
As for battery life, I could get just 2 days out of this watch, which is just an average result.
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