A new Huawei device under the Honor brand has appeared on the website if the Chinese telecoms regulatory agency TENAA where it has been certified. The device comes with the model number Honor DLI-AL10 and adorns a design that shows it is a mid-ranger.
This is coming on the heels of the launch of the Enjoy 7 Plus but there is hardly any chance this is the Enjoy 7 since it has the Honor branding. Specs wise, the Huawei smartphone sports a 5-inch TFT display with its resolution listed as 1080p x 720 pixels. The device comes with a dimension of 143.7 x 70.95 x 8.2mm and weighs just 143g. The slim build, only 8.2mm thick, could be connected to the rather small 2,920mAh battery which it packs. The device is expected to come in Gold, Pink and Silver colours.
Further, the device is equipped with a 1.4GHz Octa-core processor, backed by 3GB of RAM. There is also 32GB of storage on the device. The camera aspect is taken care of by a 13MP main camera at the rear and a 5MP front facing shooter. The Huawei device runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box and packs a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.
Last month, OPPO had unveiled the OPPO F3 Plus smartphone. Even though the rumor mill had predicted that the OPPO F3 would be unveiled at the same launch event, the Chinese firm delayed its launch. The company has officially confirmed to launch Oppo F3 on May 4. The rumor mill has revealed plenty of information of the smartphone such as specifications, features, pricing as well as leaked shots before its official launch.
OPPO F3 Specifications, Features
Rumors have revealed that the OPPO F3 is arriving with a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display that carries support for full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. It is flanked with Gorilla Glass 5. The MediaTek MT6750T chipset featuring a 1.9 GHz octa-core processor and Mali T860 is present under the hood of OPPO F3.
The OPPO F3 features 4 GB of RAM and its native storage is 64 GB. The external storage slot of the phone supports up to 128 GB of microSD card. The phone is preloaded with Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS that is modified with ColorOS 3.0. It features a fingerprint scanner embedded under the physical Home button.
Its rear camera is speculated to be of 13-megapixel and the front side will be coming with a dual camera setup of 16-megpaixel + 8-megapixel sensors. The selfie shooter will support 120-degree wide angle shooting. The size of its battery is 3,200mAh. Other specs include dual-SIM support, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, v4.1 Bluetooth, NFC and GPS. The phone measures 153.3 x 75.2 x 7.3 mm and its weight is 153 grams.
OPPO F3 Price
The OPPO F3 is speculated to sell with a price of Rs. 21,990 ($342) in India. It’s bigger sibling, the OPPO F3 Plus costs Rs. 30,990 ($483) in India. It is pegged to cost 16,990 peso ($393) in Philippines.
Previous rumors had stated that the Snapdragon 653 would be fueling the OPPO F3. However, the appearance of the OPPO CPH1609 phone which is said to be the alleged OPPO F3 on GFXBench and Geekbench benchmarks have revealed the presence of MediaTek MT6750T chipset inside the F3. On Geekbench, the smartphone has scored 763 and 2,793 points on single-core and multi-core test, respectively.
The Huawei Honor 6X is one of the cheapest dual camera smartphones available. The phone was unveiled at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in January. At the launch event of Honor 6X, Huawei had confirmed that the phone would be getting Android 7.0 Nougat and EMUI 5 by the second quarter of the year. The company has now successfully fulfilled its promise by beginning the rollout of Android 7.0 Nougat update with EMUI 5.0 starting from May 2.
Since the update rollout has started, it would be gradually coming to all the global users of Honor 6X by the end of this month. The EMUI 5.0 update is a major update over EMUI 4.1 as it carries design changes and new features. Its interface is mostly white and has lots of black and blue colors as well instead of the teal colors available in the previous version.
The EMUI 5.0 also brings along an improved interface for Camera app, a new app drawer, revamped notification bar and a new mode called “Eye comfort” that comforts the eyes by filtering the blue light emitted from the screen. App Twin is a new app on EMUI 5.0 that allows users to add launch two versions of the same app for accessing different accounts simultaneously.
The arrival of the update will show up as automatic notification on Honor 6X handsets. If the update does not appear automatically, users can navigate manually to Settings > About Phone > Check for Updates. Since the update can consume a lot of data, it is advisable to install the update using a stable Wi-Fi connection.
The unlocked Honor 6X is currently selling with a pricing of $249 in the U.S. which can be used only on GSM networks such as AT&T and T-Mobile. The phone was launched in China in October 2016. The phone is available in color choices such as Gray, Silver and Gold. In the previous month, Huawei had introduced two new color variants for Honor 6X that can be seen in the above image.
Samsung was expected to use a dual camera setup on the flagship Galaxy S8 and S8+ flagship but the tech giant ended up releasing the smartphones with a single main camera apiece. This left some fans disappointed considering that dual camera setup is one of the trendy add-ons presently both on flagship and even budget devices.
Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro
There is a rumour making the rounds right now on China’s Weibo that Samsung is planning to have its first dual camera-sporting smartphone and it isn’t the Galaxy Note 8 as speculated. A Weibo user has just hinted that the next Galaxy C-series smartphone would come with a dual camera setup. The post was accompanied by a sketch of a Samsung smartphone with a vertically inclined dual-lens camera.
We are not surprised this information is coming out of China since the Galaxy C-series smartphones are meant for the Chinese / Asian market. The C-series is not new to coming out with several innovations. The Galaxy C9 Pro was Samsung’s first smartphone with 6GB RAM onboard which is aimed to compete in a market where large RAM size is a driving force. So, it won’t be out of place if Samsung is adding dual cameras to the mix because that is another aspect of keen competition among smartphone makers in China.
The component cost of SamsungGalaxy S8 analyzed and released by IHS Markit last week surprised us with the highest costs among the high-end smartphones across the globe, way higher than that of iPhone 7 and others.
Yesterday afternoon, a new IHS Markit report with detailed breakdowns released by insider @Kevin Wang’s diary via his official Weibo account also confirmed this. Samsung Galaxy S8 topped number one with $307.5 for Bill of Materials (BOM) and manufacturing costs.
Analyst Pan Jiutang reposted and claimed that, among the over $300 BOM cost, the relatively expensive ones including display / touch screen, processor, memory, camera module, and battery are the ones among Samsung’s product portfolios, of which over $200 can be supplied by Samsung internally.
Pan speculated that Snapdragon 835 system in S8 costs over $60, and 64/128GB UFS flash memory near $24 and $34 respectively (which will be $21 and $40 for the capacity of eMMC); LPDDR4x DRAM, 4/6GB estimated at $20 and $35 respectively.
Chinese phones’ key components, however, are all subject to external supply except Huawei’s Kirin processors that can fulfill its own needs and Xiaomi’s processor just hitting the market.
It is therefore obviously that Chinese phones still have a long way to go if they are to surpass Samsung.
The Android 7.0 Nougat was officially launched in August last year. Since then, newer phones have been gradually receiving the latest Android version. These days many new smartphones also come preinstalled with Nougat. It was launched to replace the older Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS. Fresh Android distribution figures until May 2 have emerged that shows the latest numbers on the basis of all kinds of Android devices like smartphones or tablets that have accessed the Google Play Store in the past seven days.
The latest Android distribution reveals that Android 7.0 Nougat is now running on 6.6 percent Android devices whereas the newer 7.1 Nougat is running on 0.5 percent devices. In other words, 7.1 percent devices are running on Nougat. In the last month, Nougat 7.0 and 7.1 were respectively available on 4.5 percent and 0.4 percent (total 4.9 percent) Android devices. Compared to the stats of the previous month, 45 percent more Android devices are running on Nougat OS.
However, the number is still less compared to Android 6.0 Marshmallow that is running on 31.2 percent Android devices. Still, the Android 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop is leading the pack with a distribution figure of 32 percent. It seems that user base of Android 6.0 Marshmallow may surpass that of Lollipop by the time the next Android distribution figure arrives in the coming month.
The older Android 4.4 KitKat is running on 18.8 percent of Android smartphones and tablets. Behind it are the different versions of Android Jelly Bean such as 4.1.x, 4.2.x, 4.3 and 4.4 that are now running on 9.1 percent Android devices. The Android Ice Cream Sandwich versions like 4.0.3 and 4.0.4 were found on 0.8 percent devices and the Android Gingerbread editions like 2.3.3 – 2.3.7 are running on 1 percent of devices.
Any edition of Android that has a distribution figure of less than 0.1 percent are unavailable on the list. Hence, the other older Android versions such as Froyo, Éclair, Donut and Cupcake cannot be seen on the list. The original build had released in December 2016 and now Google is prepping of Android O. It is pegged to get unveiled at Google I/O 2017 this month and its final version may become available in third quarter of the year.
These days there are plenty of large-sized Android smartphones that come with huge displays. However, Jelly is a surprisingly different 4G smartphone that runs on Android 7.0 Nougat OS and features a small-sized screen of only 2.45 inches. The Kickstarter project for this Jelly phone has started from today
Unihertz, a company based in Shanghai is manufacturing the Jelly phone. It is a perfect that can be used an environment where using a large-sized smartphone is not convenient. Its claims that it is so small that it can easily fit even in a coin pocket. It comes in two models, the Jelly and the Jelly Pro.
The Jelly and Jelly Pro smartphones have a 2.45-inch TFT screen that offers a resolution of 240 x 432 pixels. They feature a quad-core processor under its hood that works at 1.1 GHz. However, the manufacturer of the processor for the Jelly phones have not been disclosed yet. Both phones are packed with 950 mAh battery
The Jelly and Jelly Pro phones are 4G LTE enabled handsets that support two nano SIM cards. It is good to see that these miniature smartphones are running on the latest version of Android. Their rear camera is of 8-megapixel and the front-facing shooter is of 2-megapixel.
What sets that the Jelly phone from Jelly Pro? The former is a base model that features 8 GB of storage of 1 GB of RAM. On the other side, the Jelly Pro has 2 GB of RAM and its native storage is 16 GB.
The Jelly phones are not designed to replace the smartphones of the users, but it can be used as a handy secondary phone. Readers who wish to back the Kickstarter project can head on to this link. Unihertz has pledged a revenue goal of $30,000 and at the time of writing it had nearly reached $94,000 with 1,152 backers onboard.
The Jelly and Jelly Pro are respectively priced at $69 and $85. Early birds can avail these phones with a respective discounted pricing of $59 and $75. The retail pricing of both phones will be $109 and $125 and will start shipping from August. The Jelly and Jelly Pro can be bought in three color choices such as Pearl White, Sky Blue and Space Black.
Huawei has always maintained its resolve to capture not only the high-end, flagship category but also the mid-range section with a couple of sleek mid-rangers like the Huawei Nova and Nova Plus which were unveiled last year both in Europe and China. Now, photos of two Huawei smartphones which are believed to be mid-rangers have appeared on TENAA, China’s Telecom regulatory agency.
The smartphones are believed to be the next generation models of the Nova and Nova Plus and are said to go by the names Huawei Nova 2 and Nova 2 Plus. The Nova 2 looks smaller in size, perhaps a 5.1-inch display but with a design different from the Nova in that there is no front physical home button. The device also has an entirely black coloured display.
Perhaps, the most outstanding feature noticed on the two phones that appeared on TENAA is the dual rear cameras which are situated in a horizontal plane on both devices. The Huawei Nova and Nova Plus only feature single lens shutters at the rear but if this is really the Nova 2 and Nova 2 Plus, we really should brace up for some spectacular design on the camera aspect. As a matter of fact, both devices have strikingly similar design are the rear which could make one of them be mistaken for the other.
The Nova 2 Plus, on the other hand, looks bigger with its screen size rumoured to stand at 5.5 inches with the display coloured in white. The Nova 2 and its Plus-size sibling are said to utilise a 16nm Hisilicon Kirin 660 processor and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor is visible at both smartphone’s rear. Other details of the device are not clear at the moment but we promise to bring you more on this as they unfold.
Meizu is a well-known Chinese manufacturer that loves saying that its phones are better than Xiaomi’s. The Meizu M5 Note is one of the company’s latest budget offerings that has a flagship-grade build quality, decent specs and a lot more. Learn more in our full review.
In the box, you get all the usual stuff that includes some paperwork, SIM ejector pin, USB cable and a fast charger.
DESIGN and DISPLAY
What I absolutely love about the M5 Note is a flagship-grade build quality.
Just look at it, the phone is made entirely of metal, a silver aluminum finish does not attract fingerprints and smudges quickly and the phone feels nice in the hand. I am so excited because I prefer metal phones over the glass-made ones.
The M5 Note has a 5.5” 1080p display that is just gorgeous to look at. It is sharp and vibrant but the sunlight legibility is just average.
We have a 5MP selfie camera and a notification LED light on the top and on the bottom, there is just a home button that can be either physically pressed or just tapped if you want to use it as a back key. Also, the home button doubles as a fingerprint scanner, which is very accurate but you have to wake the phone up first in order to use it.
As far as optics go, there a 13MP shooter coupled with a dual LED flash.
I love that the buttons are tactile and they do not rattle once pressed.
The sound via the headset jack is great. No distortions and great overall quality for a budget phone. The loudspeaker is also good. In fact, it is one of the better ones in this price range.
HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
When it comes to hardware, things don’t sound that great. Well, the Meizu M5 Note definitely has enough power for most of the daily tasks since it has 3GB of RAM and optional 16/32 or 64GB of expandable storage but the Mediatek Helio P10 chip can’t handle the most intensive tasks like gaming.
If you play games like Asphalt 8 on the highest graphics, you should expect a lot of stutters and quite a few skipped frames. You can fix this issue only if you switch the graphics setting to medium. Other games like Nova 3 run fine.
BENCHMARKS
USER INTERFACE
I have always loved the Flyme Os because of the way it looks it works. Sure, it would be nice to see the latest version of Google’s OS but the Android 6.0-based user interface is fast, there is no stutter or lag no matter what you do with it.
Also, there are some cool features like gesture and motion controls and they work perfectly. I just love those basic gestures that allow you to use the phone in one hand quite easily. You can also customize the phone by changing themes, wallpapers and so on. Finally, my international review unit comes with most of the languages, google play installed and there is no chinese bloatware.
CAMERAS
I like Meizu’s camera app because it is fast and responsive. However, there are a few things the company didn’t fix for a long time, e.g. the shooting modes and settings menus work only in portrait mode for some reason. You can select from a few shooting modes that include a manual mode or slow motion in 720p video mode.
IMAGE QUALITY
Meizu M5 Note takes one of the best pictures you can get on any sub-$150 phone. You will usually get photos that have plenty of detail and sharpness, and the colours will look nice. The dynamic range and white balance may be off in some of the shots but the HDR mode does a decent job bringing the detail back to the shadows (at the expense of a bit unnatural looking picture).
The low-light shots have qutie a bit of noise and grain but this is usually a case with all budget phones.
The 1080p video looks okay. Not very impressive in general but pretty good for a budget phone.
The selfies look pretty good except for the fact that the colours look a bit washed out.
The 1080p selfie video looks good but again, the colors are washed out. Finally, the sound recording quality is really good for a cheap phone.
When it comes to connectivity, the M5 Note remains solid. Call quality and signal reception are great, wifi and 4g speeds are good and the Bluetooth works fine. However, I found the GPS to be less accurate than flagship phones.
BATTERY LIFE
A 4000 mAh battery is one of my favourite features of the Meizu M5 note. Your results may vary but with my usage, I could constantly get over 5 hours of screen-on time with 2 SIM cards and quite a heavy usage of the phone.
If you need to recharge the battery, you can do it quickly in just over 1:30 h with the supplied fast charger.
CONCLUSIONS
The Meizu M5 Note is a very solid budget smartphone that delivers in a lot of ways. I absolutely love the design and build quality of it, the speed and feature set of the UI, the camera, and outstanding battery life.
My main complaints would be that the phone uses Helio P10 chip which is not designed for gamers. Also, the phone still runs on Android 6.0 and we still have a regular micro USB port for charging.
Other than that, Meizu M5 Note is a great offering for the price if you don’t mind those shortcomings.
Microsoft has launched the next Surface….Laptop. Not a Surface Book but a full fledged laptop. The Surface Laptop sports a 13.5-inch PixelSense display and is the first Microsoft device to run Windows 10 S.
Windows 10 S
Windows 10 S can best be described as Microsoft’s answer to Chrome OS. All apps that will run on Windows 10 S will be downloaded from the Windows Store. Microsoft says Windows 10 S is aimed at students, most especially those leaving high school for college. The Surface is the first device to ship with it but other manufacturers are expected to release devices running the new OS.
Surface Laptop Design
The Surface Laptop has a fabric Alcantara® covered keyboard that is backlit just like that of the Surface Pro 4 and also spill resistant. The display has a 3:2 aspect ratio and is “the thinnest LCD touch model ever created and put into a laptop” according to Panos Panay, Chief of Devices at Microsoft. Since it is a touch display, this means owners will be able to write on it with the Surface Pen.
The laptop has a clean design and that’s because you won’t see any speaker grilles or cutouts for the speakers. The speakers are positioned underneath the keyboard, so you should literally feel the sound beneath your fingers.
For ventilation, the Surface Laptop has integrated vapor chambers positioned at the back to keep it cool. The Surface Laptop comes in Platinum, Cobalt Blue, Burgundy, and Graphite Gold.
Faster than the i7 MacBook Pro, More battery life than any MacBook Air
Surface Laptop Specifications
The Surface laptop is powered by Intel’s latest Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Microsoft claims the battery life will last for 14½ hours due to the processors and also says it is faster than the i7 MacBook Pro. The Core i5 version will ship with 4GB/8GB of RAM, 128GB/256GB SSD, and Intel HD Graphics 620. The Core i7 version will have 8GB/16GB of RAM, 256GB/512GB SSD, and Intel Iris™ Plus Graphics 640.
There is one USB 3.0 port, one Mini DisplayPort, and an audio jack on the left, and a Surface Connect Port on the right. The laptop measures 308.1 mm x 223.27 mm x 14.48 mm and weighs 1.25kg. It also has support for the Surface Dial off-screen.
Surface Laptop Price
Preorders for the Surface Laptop will start today and will set you back $999 for the Core i5 version with 4GB RAM/128GB SSD. Shipping will begin on the 15th of June, so you should be able to get your shiny new laptop in time for school.
Xiaomi and OnePlus are the two companies that are known for releasing flagship smartphones with affordable pricing. Xiaomi recently released the Mi 6 flagship phone with powerful specifications. Given its cheap pricing and top-end specs, Mi 6 naturally is one of the major rivals for OnePlus 3T flagship phone of the previous year. Just a week ago, we had reported that OnePlus 3T is sitting in the numero uno spot in AnTuTu’s top 10 list of most popular smartphones for March 2017. The Xiaomi Mi 6 with its lethal Snapdragon 835 is stacked against the OnePlus 3T to find out the best flagship between the two with affordable pricing.
Xiaomi Mi 6 vs. OnePlus 3T: Design
The Xiaomi Mi 6 wears a splash proof full metallic chassis that measures 145.2 x 70.5 x 7.5mm and its weight is 168 grams. The Ceramic variant of Xiaomi Mi 6 weighs 182 grams. It is available in color variants like Ceramic Black, Black, Blue, and White. Xiaomi is speculated to make the Mi 6 available in 7 more colors in the near future. One of the most noticeable design change is that the company has axed the 3.5mm audio jack feature. Users can either use wireless headphones or USB Type-C enabled headphones to listen to music on Xiaomi Mi 6. The company also provides an adapter with Mi 6 that can be used by connect 3.5mm headphones to it.
The OnePlus 3T also bears a full metal design, but the body is not waterproof or dustproof. It measures 152.7 x 74.7 x 7.4mm and its weight is 158 grams. It is available in colors like Gunmetal, Soft Gold and Midnight Black.
Xiaomi Mi 6 vs. OnePlus 3T: Display
Xiaomi Mi 6 is not a phablet device as it features a 5.15-inch IPS LCD screen that produces full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. It delivers a screen-to-body ratio of 71.4 percent. Its ‘eye care’ feature presents a reduce glared mode that protects the eyes by decreasing the blue light from the screen. It offers a maximum brightness of 600-nits. The OnePlus 3T phablet has a 5.5-inch Optic AMOLED screen that boasts a higher screen-to-body ratio of 73.1 percent and consumes less power by
The OnePlus 3T phablet has a 5.5-inch Optic AMOLED screen that boasts a higher screen-to-body ratio of 73.1 percent and consumes less power by turning off the LED while displaying black color. It also carries support for full HD resolution. The max brightness offered by OnePlus 3T is 407-nits.
Xiaomi Mi 6 vs. OnePlus 3T: Specs
CPU
The Xiaomi Mi 6 is powered by Qualcomm’s most powerful mobile chipset, the Snapdragon 835. The new SoC is the successor of Snapdragon 821 and 820 chipsets that powered most flagship phones in the previous year. It includes four Kyro cores working at 1.9 GHz and another four cores running at 2.45 GHz along with Adreno 540. The recently launched Galaxy S8 duo are also powered by Snapdragon 835 chipset.
On the other hand, the OnePlus 3T is driven by Snapdragon 821 which is also a highly potent chipset that powers other smartphones like Google Pixel, Google Pixel XL, Mi Note 2, Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus and LG G6.
RAM and ROM
Both the smartphones are equipped with 6 GB of RAM. Even in the internal storage department, both phones provide users with two options such as 64 GB and 128 GB. A microSD card slot is absent on Mi 6 as well as OnePlus 3T.
Battery
The Xiaomi Mi 6 houses a 3,350 mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging feature through USB Type-C port. On the other hand, the OnePlus 3T has a slightly smaller 3,400 mAh battery that is coupled with the company’s Dash Charge rapid charging technology.
Xiaomi Mi 6 vs. OnePlus 3T: Software
The Xiaomi Mi 6 is running on Android 7.1.1 Nougat and MIUI 8.0 skin. The OnePlus 3T had launched with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but its users have already received Android 7.1.1 Nougat upgrade along with the latest version of OxygenOS skin.
Xiaomi Mi 6 vs. OnePlus 3T: Cameras
The USP of the Xiaomi Mi 6 is dual rear cameras which include a pair of 12-megapixel camera sensors. It comes with features like 4-axis OIS, PDAF and dual-LED flash. Its front-facing snapper is of 8-megapixel. The OnePlus 3T has a 16-megapixel rear camera that is enabled with features like OIS, PDAF and LED flash. Its selfie camera is of 16-megapixel.
Xiaomi Mi 6 vs. OnePlus 3T: Pricing & Availability
The Xiaomi Mi 6 that was unveiled on April 19 will start shipping to users from April 28 in China. There is no information on when will it be hitting the markets outside of China. The 64 GB Xiaomi MI 6 and its 128 GB variants are respectively priced at 2,499 Yuan ($362) and 2,899 Yuan ($420) in China.
The OnePlus 3T that was released in November 2016 is now available for purchase in various markets across the world. Its 64 GB model is priced at $439 whereas the 128 GB model can be availed for $479.
For the past couple of months, two Smartisan smartphones have made the rounds, first receiving 3C certificates, then appearing on TENAA and finally on AnTuTu benchmark. The devices were identified as OD103 and OD105 on TENAA. Also, Smartisan recently announced that they would be holding a launch event on May 9, 2017, in China. The device expected to launch has been identified as the Smartisan Nut Pro.
The Smartisan Nut Pro is said to pack a Snapdragon 626 processor backed by 4GB of RAM. The device may likely have two storage versions of 32GB and 64GB respectively. The Nut Pro possesses all the features of a decen mid-ranger including a 13MP rear camera as well as 4MP selfie shooter. There is also the Android 7.1.1 Nougat OS providing the interface.
While the specifications are not new, what’s new is that Smartisan may likely include some level of optimization on the device. The latest teaser poster shared by the company gives this impression. The poster talked about mobile phone chips coming in faster than 310% over the years but the phones don’t perform faster than 13%. While the poster is just meant as a countdown to the launch event, it could also contain some clue that Smartisan is planning to surprise us with some features other than those offered by the decent Snapdragon 626 chipset.
Already, booking for the Nut Pro has opened, where participants would need to deposit 500 Yuan to register. The device is set to ship on May 10 with its price likely set at 1,799 Yuan.
Samsung is rumoured to be working on a replacement phablet for the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 whose journey ended even before it began last year. The Galaxy Note 8 has been the subject of several rumours lately and as would be expected some creative geek has pieced the rumours and leaks together to come up with a video render of the device.
The YouTube video showcases the render of the Galaxy Note 7 captured from all angles and was created by Concept Creators. The Galaxy Note 8 is expected with a giant 6.4-inch display as well as dual cameras at the rear and these all came to life in the latest renders.
From the video, the Galaxy Note 8 would feature a bezel-less Infinity display just like the Galaxy S8. This is a Note, so there is a built-in S Pen stylus which pops out from the bottom and offers up to 4,096 different levels of pressure, same as on the defunct Note 7. The Galaxy Note is also shown to come with a dual-lens camera set up at the rear, with the cameras aligned in the vertical direction. Some would agree that the Galaxy Note 8 promises to be more interesting than the Galaxy S8. After all, the S8 didn’t feature a dual camera setup, to the disappointment of some.
One feature which is absent on the Note 8 render is a rear fingerprint sensor. Perhaps, Concept Creator is suggesting that the sensor would be embedded under the screen up front. Other biometric security features like facial recognition and iris scanning will likely find their way into the Galaxy Note 8. The Bixby button is still visible at the side of the device, meaning it is likely going to be on the Note 8.
While these all look exciting, the renders aren’t the real stuff so the Galaxy Note 8 design might be different. It won’t be bad if the Note 8 comes out this beautiful, though, but it might just be too soon to say. The Galaxy Note 8 is likely a couple of months away and before then, more stunning renders will surely emerge.
A leaked photo of a mysterious Meizu phone had surfaced yesterday. The right side of the image that contained information on the specs and pricing of the phone was blurred. The presence of a dual rear camera on it suggested that it could be the company’s forthcoming flagship phone, the Meizu Pro 7. Now, the same image has appeared once again and the information on its right side is quite clear and easily readable.
The leaked image suggests that the name of the phone is Meizu X2. The Meizu X2 is speculated to be a successor phone for Meizu X that was launched in November 2016. The display of the phone has thin bezels on its left and right sides. Even the top bezel that houses a selfie camera and the bottom bezel that reportedly features fingerprint reader enabled Home button are quite thin.
The top left corner of the phone features a horizontally arranged dual rear camera which is probably the USP of the phone. It seems to be coupled with a dual-tone LED flash. Hence, the Meizu X2 is speculated to be the first dual camera phone from the company. The Meizu branding is present just above the center of the rear panel. Around a month ago, the rumor mill had revealed alleged images of the first dual rear camera phone. In the below image, a phone that is placed at the center appears somewhat similar to the Meizu X2 phone.
The alleged Meizu X2 also carries information on the key specs of the phone. There is no information on the size of the screen, but the leaked details suggest that it is shielded with a 2.5D curved glass. Like the Meizu X, it may feature a 5.5-inch full HD screen. The phone has a MediaTek Helio X25 SoC under its hood and it features a 3,350 mAh battery that is coupled with 18W fast charger.
The rumored Meizu X2 will be arriving in three versions. There will be two 32 GB RAM variants featuring 3 GB RAM and 4 GB RAM options. These models will be respectively priced at 1,749 Yuan ($253) and 1,899 Yuan ($275). The highest configuration variant of Meizu X2 will be packed with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB storage. It will be costing 1,999 Yuan ($289).
Taiwanese smartphone giant HTC released a poster about two weeks back which points at a launch event scheduled for 15th of May. The poster discloses in clear terms that the device expected to be unveiled on that day belongs to the U series. The U-series device may be a surprise package after all, as a new AnTuTu benchmark records have shown an HTC U-series phone with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 chip is in the works.
The smartphone is listed as HTC U-3F and quite curiously, the specifications listed for the U-3F is the same as those of the HTC CBP which was seen on AnTuTu’s database around March. It is possible that both listings are for the same device. The most spectacular of the specs listed is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor which powers the device as well as the Adreno 540 GPU. Meaning that HTC is joining the elite league of phone makers with SD 835-powered devices at present.
The HTC U-3F is listed with a 2K display resolution, a 16MP selfie camera and a 12MP sensor at the rear. The device is also listed with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage. Furthermore, the HTC U-3F runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat out-of-the-box and earlier rumours tips the HTC U-series device to launch as HTC U11.
ZTE released the Axon 7s a few weeks ago but it doesn’t qualify as their flagship device for 2017. It’s not because it is powered by last year’s Snapdragon 821 but rather because it was released quietly, almost escaping our radar. So when we learnt a new ZTE phone was spotted on TENAA, we were excited but after taking a look at the specs of the ZTE A2018, we are left wondering what the company is playing at.
The ZTE A2018 (definitely not the final name) on first sight, looks a lot like the ZTE Axon 7s. They can even pass for the same device. The stereo speakers share have an identical design and the dual rear cameras and fingerprint scanner are positioned exactly the same. Both phones also have the same 2K OLED display. Where the ZTE A2018 differs is in its internals.
The A2018 is powered by an unspecified 2.15GHz quad-core processor. Some say it is the Snapdragon 820 but while it is unusual for ZTE to under-clock their processors, we want to believe it is the Snapdragon 821. It just doesn’t make any sense to release a phone with a Snapdragon 820 phone in 2017. There is 4GB of RAM paired with 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB of ROM with support for storage expansion.
Gionee announced the M6S Plus last week as a successor to the M6 and M6 Plus. For this new high mid-range device, Gionee has gone all out with the specs. From its monster 6000mAh battery, to the Snapdragon 653 SoC paired with 6GB of RAM, and all these sitting behind a 6-inch Samsung AMOLED display, you should expect this to be pricey too.
The Gionee M6S Plus is now on sale today in China and film star, Dakang Secretary is the brand ambassador for the phone. For ¥3499 (~$507), you can snag the 64GB variant on Jingdong. There is also a 256GB version but it is not available for purchase now though the price is listed as ¥4299 (~$623)
The Gionee M6S Plus does more than just pack impressive specs. The phone is also pretty secured with a dedicated fingerprint encryption chip with an EAL4+ certification. Gionee says the 6020mAh battery also supports QC 3.0 and will still retain over 80% of its capacity after a 700 charge cycle.
OnePlus is one company known for its cheap flagship, the latest of which are the OnePlus 3 and 3T. The company is rumoured to be planning on a new flagship with high-end specs and a cheap price which is believed to go by the name OnePlus 5.
Before now the company had not made any comment about the expected device but recently, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau seems to have confirmed that the company is working on something big. The supposed confirmation comes in a Weibo post where the CEO re-posted OnePlus phone’s Weibo post which talks about the company engaging in labour without rest in order to bring out a surprise. The CEO’s post encouraged them to continue, showing that the company may likely be working on a new smartphone which is likely the OnePlus 5.
Recently, renders and likely specs of the OnePlus 5 leaked thereby giving us an idea of what the device might likely come with. Among the rumored specs is a Snapdragon 835 processor as well as 8GB of RAM, 5.5-inch 2K display as well as a dual 16MP rear camera. With the increased level of production of the Snapdragon 835 chip, the OnePlus 5 is rumoured as launching either this month or next month. Already the device seems to have got radio approval in China.
The fresh leaks not only reveal the appearance of a live handset of Le X920, but also some of its key specs. The image of the front side of the phone shows that its selfie camera is enabled with a LED flash. On the rear side, it seems to sport a single rear camera enabled with laser autofocus above it and a LED flash below it. A fingerprint scanner can be seen below the rear camera module.
The third image shows a screenshot of the “About Phone” screen. The name of the device is mentioned as Le X920 and it is running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS overlaid with EUI 5.6. The phone is driven by Snapdragon 820 chipset that features a quad-core processor gunning at 2.15 GHz. Most of the recent flagship phones come with Snapdragon 835 or 821 chipset. Rumors of this Le X920 have been surfacing since December 2016. Hence, it seems to be a phone that is launching late because of the ongoing financial issues of the company.
Previous rumors have hinted that the Le X920 will be coming with a huge screen of 6.3 inches that will carry support for quad HD resolution of 1,440 x 2,560 pixels. The SoC of the phone is expected to be coupled with 4 GB of RAM. The native storage of the Le X920 is rumored as 64 GB.
Speculations have it that it includes a 22.5-megapixel Sony IMX318 Exmor RS sensor camera on its rear. Its selfie camera is speculated to be of 8-megapixel. It does not feature a 3.5mm audio jack which means the USB Type-C port is what users will depend on for charging and listening to music. Rumors have it that the Le X920 will be arriving with a 3,700 mAh battery.
The other two leaked photos shown above apparently shows that the company is ready with the Le X920 phone and also suggests that it is also ready with its stock. However, the phone has not appeared yet on China’s telecom certification body called TENAA. Speculations are rife that the Le X920 would be launching with a pricing of 1,388 Yuan ($201). In 2016, LeEco had launched Le Max that came with 6.3-inch screen. Its successor, the Le Max 2 came with 5.7-inch screen. Rumors have it that the Le X920 may arrive as Le Max 3.
Xiaomi has launched a new product under its crowdfunding platform and just as was teased, the product is one for the kids. It is a children bicycle manufactured by Riding (Xiamen) Technology Co., Ltd who also manufactured the Xiaomi Qicycle foldable electric bicycle launched last year.
This version is specifically developed for the kids, with a design that is child-friendly and safe. The Xiaomi Qicycle children bike uses an ergonometric design and is without sharp edges that could easily injure the children. The seat is also very soft and the body covered with a protective cover made from foam. The hand bar is designed with an anti-slip property to make braking easy.
The Qicycle Children bike comes in two forms, one is without pedals and then the other with pedals. The one without pedals is to aid the child during development to learn to walk independently on his or her own. When the child has come of age, the pedals can then be installed. Thus, the pedals are detachable. Also, the chain is well protected that it doesn’t come in contact with the child’s body part.
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