Nokia that relaunched itself into the smartphone business in the previous month has been sued by Blackberry for infringing its patents. The legal suit against cover products and services from Nokia that use AT&T and T-Mobile LTE networks in the U.S.
On Tuesday, BlackBerry filed a lawsuit against the Finnish company in federal court in Willington, Delaware. The lawsuit states that products such as Flexi Multiradio base stations, radio network controllers and Liquid Radio software that belong to Nokia has infringed 11 patents from BlackBerry.
The Canadian firm has accused Nokia for letting major carriers in the U.S. such as AT&T and T-Mobile to using its patents without seeking license. It has further added that when the Finnish company applied for some of it new inventions it used the patents from BlackBerry.
In 2011, Rockstar Consortium group that also included BlackBerry had acquired Nortel’s IP for $4.5 billion dollars. The company ended up receiving patents for aforementioned products and services through the acquisition. Interestingly, Nokia had also made an attempt to acquire Nortel’s IP in 2009, but the deal did not come through since the latter filed for bankruptcy.
As of this writing, there is no confirmation on how much the Canadian firm is seeking from Nokia as licensing royalties. The lawsuit states that, “BlackBerry seeks to obtain recompense for Nokia’s unauthorized use of BlackBerry’s patented technology.” The publication has further stated that since BlackBerry has not gained anything from its smartphone sales, John Chen, BlackBerry CEO is looking for new ways to generate revenue through BlackBerry’s technology.
One of the BlackBerry patent technologies that Nokia has been sued for is the use of 3GPP without seeking permission. The company does not intend to prevent its usage and it only seeks damages from the Finnish firm for not complying. BlackBerry has also stated that it According to CNET, “We’re aware of the complaint, will study the claims made and take whatever steps are necessary to defend our rights.”
Apple has Siri voice assistant on its iPhones. The Google Assistant was introduced on Google Pixel smartphones. Microsoft smartphones have Cortana onboard and Amazon’s voice assistant is called Alexa. Also, Samsung is heavily pegged to launch Bixby voice assistant on Galaxy S8. Fresh information has revealed that Huawei, the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world is all set to rival the existing AI assistants by introducing its own digital assistants.
According to Bloomberg, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is currently developing its own voice assistant and it has over 100 engineers working on it. The report states that Huawei’s digital assistant would be aimed towards domestic audience as it will carry support for Chinese languages.
Huawei smartphones that will be sold outside of China will include AI services from Google and Amazon. As of this writing, none of the existing Chinese smartphone manufacturers have its own voice assistant. Hence, Huawei smartphones that will come its own AI service will be stand out from devices from the oversaturated Chinese smartphone market where Google services are blocked and Amazon’s Alexa does not support Chinese language.
Google Assistant comes preloaded only on Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. It Is also available on Android Wear 2.0 smartwatches and Google Home. Google is rumored to introduce Google Assistant on third-party devices by making it available pre-installed.
Google has been struggling to re-launch its services in China and if the world’s third largest smartphone maker launches its own AI service, Google’s plans will be further affected. According to IDC, Samsung and Apple are currently leading the global smartphone market and Huawei is placed on the third spot. Richard Yu, the consumer head of Huawei has said that the company aims to grab the first spot by 2021.
Unlike Apple and Samsung, Huawei smartphones are not sold through popular carriers of the U.S. such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint. Huawei is also expected to increase its market share in the U.S. market by partnering with major carriers.
Xiaomi has added another product to its crowdfunding platform’s kitty and just as we deduced from the earlier teaser, the gadget is a Sunglasses which carries the Turok Steinhardt branding. The Xiaomi Turok Steinhardt sunglasses is a polarized sunglasses which comes with a no border design and filters ultraviolet light completely. The glasses weighs only 18g.
The Turok Steinhardt sunglasses was produced using nylon polarizing material similar to the one used on space masks worn by astronauts such that its isolates UV rays and other harmful rays in the universe from hitting our eyes. It also removes glares, scattered lights, reduces fatigue and gives a clearer vision.
The Nylon polarization material it uses is said to be one of the lightweight lens materials around with a density of around 1.02g and an excellent ant-impact property. The material does not break or fragment easily under impact to a reasonable degree but that will depend on the intensity of the impact. It also comes with a stylish frame design.
The Turok Steinhardt sunglasses is open for funding via Mi home and comes with a price of just 199 Yuan ($29). The frame is available in gun color while the lens come in gray, gold and blue color options.
Lenovo is all set to announce Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus on Feb. 26. The Moto G5 Plus was spotted on Krtonix, a retailer from Spain ahead of the upcoming launch event. The listing is no longer accessible, but some Redditors have managed to grab its images and specs that were revealed by the Spanish retailer.
Moto G5 Plus Specifications
Moto G5 Plus features a 5.2-inch screen that produces a full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels that is flanked with Gorilla Glass 3. It is powered by Snapdragon 625 SoC that is packed with a 2.0 GHz octa-core processor and 2 GB of RAM. It may feature a 4 GB RAM variant. The native storage of the smartphone is 64 GB and it also includes an external storage slot that supports up to 128 GB of microSD card.
Apart from the dual autofocus 12-megapixel camera, it has a front-facing shooter of 5-megapixel. The fingerprint scanner is present under the physical Home button at the front. It is loaded with Android 7.0 Nougat OS and also includes a NFC chip. It is packed with a 3,000 mAh battery. Earlier rumors have stated that the Moto G5 Plus edition that will head to Brazil will include DTV receiver feature.
Moto G5 Plus Images
Here are some more images revealed by tipster @krispitech:
The Moto G5 is the smaller sibling of G5 Plus that includes a 5-inch full HD display. It has a 1.4 GHz Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor and 2 GB of RAM under its hood. Its internal storage is 32 GB and it also features a microSD card slot.
The 13-megapixel rear shooter of Moto G5 is equipped with phase detection autofocus. Its front-facing camera is of 5-megapixel. Like Moto G5 Plus, it is also equipped with a fingerprint scanner embedded under the Home button. It will be also arriving with Android 7.0 Nougat pre-installed. It includes a 2,800 mAh battery.
The Moto G5 and G5 Plus smartphones appear similar in design and are packed with chassis that are equipped with water-repellent coating. Both phones come in color choices like Lunar Gray and Fine Gold.
Moto G5 Images
Both smartphones come with TurboPower charger that adds up to 6 hours of battery life by charging them for only 15 minutes. Other common features include double nano-SIM slots, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, v4.2 Bluetooth, 4G VoLTE, and exclusive Moto Experience through the Moto app. The pricing of both Motorola phones is under the wraps, but these details are poised to get announced at the Feb. 26 launch event.
Xiaomi has announced today that the MIUI 8 has got an upgrade to MIUI 8.2 and that it has pushed the stable ROM of the MIUI 8.2 to Xiaomi smartphones. The upgrade brings a new desktop intelligence assistance by large data analysis in order to provide users with more intelligent services. There is also a new system sound and some new ringtones, as well as automatic task management and other functions. In addition, there is a change of the notification bar in the new version’s interface.
The new Smart Desktop Assistance feature enables users to quickly setup several features like e-book reading progress, traffic usage etc. Apart from the Smart Desktop Assistance, the MIUI 8.2 also comes with a new Security Centre and there are other noticeable changes like notification bar design, sound effects like camera focus, screenshots, charging, lock screen etc.
According to the information, the MIUI 8.2 will be pushed immediately using OTA online upgrade. There is also the option of upgrading manually at the MIUI Forum. A total of 24 Xiaomi phones would get the upgrade in the first instance, making this the largest single OTA upgrade in Xiaomi’s history. The phones include Xiaomi Mi 2, Mi 2S, Xiaomi Mi 3, Mi 3 Unicom version, Mi 4, Xiaomi Mi Note, Redmi Note, and lots more. Subsequent OTA push would integrate more Xiaomi models.
Also, the MIUI 8.2 will be available for international users to upgrade and the first batch of phones supported include Xiaomi Max, Xiaomi 4i, Xiaomi Mi 4, Xiaomi Mi 3, Mi Note, Redmi Note 4G, while more models will be supported subsequently. The MIUI 8 is Xiaomi’s latest interface which was released last year. Already, more than 2 million users representing 60% of users have upgraded to MIUI 8.
Meizu went official with its mid-range M5S today and the smartphone is touted as coming out to take on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 which just received a makeover recently. Both smartphones are mid-rangers and have a slight resemblance to each other in their designs. Even the specifications of both the Meizu M5S and Redmi Note 4 tend to overlap but we’ll draw a comparison between the two smartphones to see where they differ.
In the aspect of design, the Meizu M5S and XiaomiRedmi Note 4 both feature premium, sleek designs but while the Meizu M5S comes with a 5.2-inch display with HD resolution and a 282 ppi, the Redmi Note 4 sports a 5.5-inch display with full HD resolution and 401 ppi. One distinct feature on the two smartphones is the absence of a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor on the M5S. Instead, the smartphone uses Meizu’s mBack fingerprint technology.
Both smartphones feature a fused antenna band design which is located at the top and bottom edges. The camera and flash are centrally located with the flash sitting under the rear camera in both smartphones. There are capacitive buttons on the side as well as a physical home button up front which performs dual role on Meizu M5S.
Processor & Memory
The Meizu M5S is powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor clocked at 1.3GHz with Mali T-720 GPU and supplemented by 3GB of RAM on all versions while the Redmi Note 4 packs a MediaTek MT6757 (Helio X20) chip which is a deca-core chip and is clocked at 2.1GHz with the Mali-T880 MP4 GPU. The M5S has two storage versions of 16GB and 32GB while the Redmi Note 4 has 16GB of storage on the standard version and 64GB of storage on the higher model. Xiaomi recently released a version of the Redmi Note 4 which comes with a Snapdragon 652 chipset in India and that is sort of an edge for those who love to see Qualcomm chips in their smartphones.
Camera & Battery
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 packs a 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF and dual-tone LED flash while up front is a 5MP camera. The M5S on the other hand equally packs a 13MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture and LED flash as well as a 5MP front-facing camera.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 squarely thumps the Meizu M5s on the aspect of the battery they both pack. WHile the Redmi Note 4 packs a 4000mAh battery, the M5S crams a 3,000mAh battery under its hood. Meizu made up for that by including an 18W fast fast charging technology inside the M5S. Both smartphones come with dual SIM card / dual standby support and feature connectivity options like Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot and lots more. The M5S runs on Flyme 5 while the Redmi Note 4 boots MIUI 8, both based on Android Marshmallow.
On a final note, we must add that both the Meizu M5S and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 come with ultra-cheap price tags that don’t justify the premium looking design and rich specs lineup they feature.
I know, you are surprised. We are just as surprised as you are, if not more. The Lenovo ZUK Edge is barely 2 months old and we are already getting leaks of not the ZUK Edge II but the ZUK Edge II Special Edition.
Yesterday we reported the first leak of the ZUK Edge II Special Edition and mentioned the similarity to the recently announced Redmi Note 4X Hatsune Miku Limited Edition. The latter’s theme is also based on a vocaloid called Luo Tianyi. Today we get first look at what the phone is reported to look like.
ZUK Edge II Special Edition Doubles It Up
Yes this is the ZUK Edge II and Lenovo literally doubles it up. The leaked images shows the phone will launch with dual rear cameras and a dual-curved display. The camera design is similar to that of the ZUK Edge which looks like a disc. They are housed separately and almost extend to the middle of the phone. There is a laser focus module below the camera setup and a LED flash sitting a good distance above.
While we were quite disappointed that the ZUK Edge didn’t feature a curved display, they seem to want to give it to us in full measure now. The display is curved on both sides but so also is the top and lower part of the rear plate.
The display size is unknown but the bezels are thin. Chances are that the display might be about 5.7 inches – 5.9 inches. To account for the large display, the power button and volume rocker have been brought lower to allow your fingers reach them easily.
The color variants of the ZUK Edge II Special Edition shown are blue, white and black. There is no news of a release date and Lenovo/ZUK have not confirmed the existence of the device yet. One thing I have come to realize is that nothing is certain. There is no news as to how the sales of the ZUK Edge is fairing. If they decide to release a successor so soon and stop production of the ZUK Edge, who can fault them?
In the previous month, Huawei had reportedly released a timetable that revealed that it plans for rolling out the Android 7.0 Nougat update for its smartphones like Huawei P9, Huawei P9 Plus, Huawei Mate 8 and so on. Fresh information suggest that software update rollout is well on track to be available for smartphones by this month and March.
The Chinese smartphone manufacturer has officially confirmed on Facebook that it is currently testing the beta version of Nougat update for Huawei Honor 5c (GT3) in Ukraine. The public beta testing is only available for 20 users and the update rollout that began on Feb. 13 will continue until Feb. 24.
The beta version has been released to Honor 5C users so that Huawei can fix all the bugs. Alexandr Ivanyk, a local Huawei coordinator has said that the all software issues will be fixed within a span of two weeks. Hence, the Huawei Android 7.0 Nougat update with Emotion UI 5.0 for Honor 5C is expected to be available by next month.
A Russian tech site has further revealed that Huawei will also begin the rollout of Nougat update for Huawei GR5 2017 (Honor 6X), Huawei Nova and Huawei P9. Huawei has officially begun the rollout of the Android 7.0 Nougat update from Feb. 11. The update is expected to be available for all the owner Honor 8 users by the end of this month.
The timetable of software update that was revealed in the previous month stated that Huawei Mate 8, Huawei P9, Huawei P9 Plus, Honor V8, Honor 8 and Huawei Nova are all slated to get the update in the first quarter of 2017. In the second quarter, the update is expected to be available for other devices like Huawei G9 Plus, Honor Note 8 and M3 tablet are expected to get the software update in the second quarter of this year.
Meizu officially unveiled its budget M5S smartphone today and already we’ve got a large cache of hands-on images of the device right here. The Meizu M5S happens to be Meizu’s first smartphone for the year and it really doesn’t disappoint in the design aspect and even on the specs table.
The Meizu M5S adopts almost similar design language to those of its previous gen models. The device adorns an all-metal body with CNC finish, giving the device a sleek look that some make you forget this meant to be a mid-budget smartphone. Added to a premium design, the M5S has got up to four different paint jobs. It comes in champagne gold, rose gold, moonlight silver and start gray color variants.
Added to the great colors, the device also has a lightweight body build, coming in at 143g. The display is a 5.2-inch display with HD resolution (720 pixels). There is a 2.5D curved glass b top the screen. Meizu M5S packs a decent octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor. The processor is supplemented by 3GB of RAM and feature a 16GB as well as 32GB storage versions.
If the front view of the Meizu M5S looks pretty, the back takes it a notch higher with a more beautiful design styling. The rear camera lens is said to have an oleophobic coating on the rear camera lens. There is no fingerprint sensor mounted at the rear instead, the M5S features Meizu’s mTouch fingerprint sensor embedded on the home button up front. Other features you get on the cheap smartphone include 4G VoLTE, dual SIM / dual standby, and lots more.
Providing the interface on the sleek smartphone is Meizu’s Flyme 6 OS with One Mind AI but what is perhaps the most standout feature on the M5S is the 18W fast charging technology it packs. The M5S packs a modest battery and in order to keep the smartphone running 24/7, Meizu has included a fast charge technology on the budget smartphone.
Despite these flagship grade features and design, the Meizu M5S comes with a cheap price tag of 799 yuan ($117) for the 3GB + 16GB version and then 999 Yuan ($145) for the 3GB + 32GB version. The device will go on sale on February 20 but registration for the smartphone is already on. You can check out more hands-on images of the Meizu M5S from down below.
Aside the Meizu M5S released today, Meizu also announced a new bluetooth speaker. The new bluetooth speaker which has a round design is priced at ¥169 (~$25).
The Meizu bluetooth speaker has a tilted circular base so that it directs the sound at you when placed on a flat surface. It weighs 170 grams and measures 108 x 108 x 55 mm. The body is made of brushed aluminium and the speaker unit has a 45mm diameter. Meizu says the speaker features MAXX Audio enhancement technology from Grammy Award winning Israeli company, Waves.
The speaker comes with a built-in 1800mAh battery that should last for up to 8 hours on a single charge at maximum volume and up to 15 hours of continuous playback when volume is at 50%. Charging time is estimated to take 4 hours. You can attach the speaker to your bag via a lanyard cable that comes with it.
The Meizu Bluetooth Speaker has Dynamic Range Compression (DRC) and can be paired to your device via Bluetooth 4.2 or via the 3.5mm aux port.
The Meizu Bluetooth Speaker is available in Moon White and Deep Space Gray. It will go on sale on the 17th of February at 10:00 am on Meizu’s official website. It will also be available on Lynx and JD Mall on the 20th of February. If you purchase the speaker together with the Meizu M5S, you get ¥20 (~$3) off.
LG’s new flagship is set to launch exactly eleven days from now. Not very far off but that is not stopping more details from coming out. New details have emerged about the battery capacity of the LG G6.
A Korean Media announced yesterday that the LG G6 will ship with a battery larger than 3200mAh, citing an unnamed senior official as their source. The battery is expected to last about 12 hours on a single charge if all you do is web browsing. However, a real life test will be needed to confirm this claim.
The image above is a comparison of the battery capacities of LG’s G Series since inception. Last year’s LG G5 shipped with a 2800mAh battery but it also had a smaller 5.3-inch QHD display. Considering the fact that the LG G6 will have a 5.7-inch display with a 2880 x 1440 resolution, a battery larger than 3000mAh sounds alright.
The exact capacity of the battery is assumed to be between 3200mAh and 3300mAh. If it were higher than 3300mAh, the official could have simply said so. Like previously reported, the LG G6′ battery will not be user-removable but the phone will have water and dust resistance.
Barely few days after the Xiaomi Mi 6 was rumored to have a flat 5.2-inch 1080p TFT LCD display as against the curved AMOLED that was being expected, a fresh rumor has emerged about the Mi 6. Also emerging from the same source is the rumor that the Mi 6 won’t have an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.
Weibo user @Mocha Socialist Workers who leaked the first news of a lack of curved AMOLED display on the Mi 6, also added some more details of the expected flagship. The leakster has rumored that the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner which Xiaomi first featured on the Mi 5S would be missing on the Mi 6. Instead, Xiaomi would patronize one of the local manufacturers of fingerprint technology. The ultrasonic technology featured on the Mi 5S was manufactured by US company Qualcomm.
The tipster also revealed that the Mi 6 would be available in April. He also assured that the Mi 6 would pack Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 chip just as expected. It is very likely then, that the Mi 6 would be released sometime in March if it will actually go on sale in April.
The Xiaomi Mi MIX was one of the highlight of 2016. It amassed much praise back in China and abroad and it is only fitting that such a phone deserves a successor.It appears Xiaomi is already working on it.
CEO, Lei Jun took to his Weibo page to release some details about the successor which will be called the Xiaomi Mi MIX II. First, he mentioned that the designer of the Mi MIX, Frenchman, Philippe Starck will be returning to design the new device.
According to Lei Jun, the both of them have met and gone over the design of the Mi MIX II to see how both sides can bring his innovative design into reality. The company is said to be aiming for a phone with a screen that covers the entire front of the phone and that doesn’t have any physical buttons.
The dream of making a phone whose screen covers the front is said to be shared by Apple too. An analyst, Sun Changxu claims that an iPhone 8 prototype (he probably saw) has a screen that nearly covers the front. The home button has been removed and the bezel on the chin and forehead are about 8mm in width. He also says the phone lacks any sort of physical button on the entire body.
If Xiaomi is able to achieve the design their aiming for, the Mi MIX II will be the first Chinese phone to not have a physical button.
Meizu released a brand new smartphone today, the Meizu M5S. Thanks to the numerous leaks in the past few days, we already knew a lot about the phone, especially regarding its fast charging capabilities.
Meizu M5S will take on its Xiaomi Redmi counterparts with its super fast 18W charging. While the Redmi smartphones like the Redmi 4 boast of large 4000mAh+ batteries inside, the Meizu M5S comes with a decent 3000mAh capacity battery inside. So, fast charging will definitely be one of the highlights of the phone. The company claims that the phone can charge up to 56% in just 30 minutes.
Looks wise, the Meizu M5S continues the same design philosophy as its previous generation models, coming in an all metal body with CNC finish and four color options viz. champagne gold, rose gold, moonlight silver, and star gray. The phone features a 5.2-inch compact display with 720p resolution and 2.5D curved glass on top. It’s a pretty lightweight phone, weighing just 143 grams with 148.2 x 72.5 x 8.4mm body.
Inside, the Meizu M5S comes with a decent octa-core MT6753 processor (eight-core Cortex A53 architecture). there seems to be just one RAM version viz. 3GB but there are two storage versions, 16GB and 32GB, which are further expandable up to 128GB via MicroSD. At the back, the phone features a 13MP camera with an oleophobic coating on the lens, 5P lens, PDAF, dual LED flash and f/2.2 aperture. Up front, there is a 5MP f/2.0 shooter with beauty algorithm for flawless selfies.
Other features of the Meizu M5S include VoLTE, dual SIM dual standby, mTouch fingerprint sensor embedded into the home button, and Flyme 6 OS with One Mind AI.
The phone goes on sale on February 20 for 799 Yuan (16GB) ~$117 and 999 Yuan (32GB) ~ $145. The registrations for the Feb 20 sale have already begun.
ZTE’s Axon lineup has been quite successful as these phones bring a lot of value for the price. Back in September of 2016, I was at IFA Berlin when the Axon 7 mini was launched but I managed to get the phone for the review just now. I think it’s a pretty solid phone for the price but if you want to learn more, check out our full review.
The phone ships with all the usual stuff and some extras include a soft TPU case and a pair of earphones.
DESIGN and DISPLAY
If you have ever held the ZTE Axon 7 in your hand, you will notice that the mini version looks almost exactly the same with just a few minor differences.
It has the same premium look and feel thanks to the all-metal design and tactile metal buttons. Also, the Axon 7 mini has dual front-facing speakers that are just fantastic and they are easily the best in this price range.
If you plug in the earphones, things get even better. The built-in Hi-Fi audio chip delivers a crisp, clear and rich sound, and there are no distortions at the highest volume settings, just like on the loudspeaker.
Obviously, the mini is a bit smaller than the Axon 7 due to its 5.2” 1080p Amoled display, which is sharp and vibrant both for indoor and outdoor use and it is covered with the Gorilla Glass 4.
Just above the display, we have an 8MP selfie shooter and a multi-color LED notification light.
On the bottom, you can find customizable on-screen navigation keys.
When it comes to optics, there is a 16MP camera with f/1.9 aperture and a single LED flash. The fingerprint scanner is fast, accurate and it unlocks the phone straight from the standby mode.
HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
The ZTE Axon 7 mini is midrange phone as it has an octa-core Snapdragon 617 chip, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.
These specs don’t look impressive at all but in reality, I have no complaints with the phone’s performance. It handles even the most demanding 3D games without any issues, with just a few skipped frames but I can’t really complain about that.
USER INTERFACE
When it comes to user interface, the phone runs on the MiFavor 4.0, which is built on top of Android 6.0.
As usual to the ZTE phones, there is no app tray and there are quite a few design touches. I mean the icons look kind of cartoonish to me. Also, you can customize the phone in a lot of different ways. Just to name a few, you can select from different themes, use the Mi Pop button or tweak the display settings.
You can also play with different motion and gesture controls or use the fingerprint scanner to open up apps or take pictures. Even though I’m not a huge fan of the redesigned iconsand I don’t really use all those extra features, I have no complaints with the phone’s daily performance.
CAMERA
The built-in camera app allows you to take pictures quite fast. Also, you can select from a few shooting modes like a pro mode if you want to adjust the image settings manually.
IMAGE QUALITY
IT IS HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED TO DOWNLOAD FULL RESOLUTION CAMERA SAMPLES TO SEE THE ACTUAL IMAGE QUALITY. THE PICTURES UPLOADED ON THE WEBSITE ARE 50% SMALLER IN RESOLUTION.
I could only test the camera on the cloudy day and we may see a bit better results under better lighting conditions. In general, the image quality is decent but I expected to see a bit more detail and sharpness. Also, some shots came out underexposed, meaning that the auto dynamic range adjustment is mediocre.
The night images look okay but not really impressive. As usual, the level of detail is much lower and there is quite a bit of noise.
The 1080p video looks pretty good but there could be more detail and the auto-focus is jumping quite a lot.
The selfies could look a bit sharper but they will do the trick for social media.
When it comes to connectivity, the phone supports 4G and it can take either 2 SIM cards or a combo of 1 SIM and the microSD card.
I’ve used the Axon 7 mini in various locations to thoroughly test all the connectivity options. The phone performed well all the time whether I needed to make a call or use the GPS to find my way home.
BATTERY LIFE
2705 mAh battery will usually get you through the day if you are a moderate user. I was able to get about 4-5 hours of SOT when using the phone mainly for social media, web browsing, a bit of gaming and taking some pictures.
The supplied charger can fully charge the phone in about 1h and 15 mins, thanks to the Quick Charge tech.
CONCLUSIONS
The ZTE Axon 7 mini may not be the most powerful smartphone for the price of about $300 if you only care about the sheer specs but it is a pretty solid midrange smartphone nevertheless.
It is definitely a looker thanks to the excellent all-metal build, the Amoled display is really sharp and vibrant and the Hi-Fi audio quality is one of the best you can find on any phone. Also, the front-facing speakers simply blow any other phone out of the water in this price category.
Even though the specs may not impress you, the phone performs well when it comes to daily performance and even gaming.
However, the camera can definitely take good pictures for the price of the phone but I would love to see more detail in some of the shots. Also, there is no 4k video recording. Finally, the MiFavor UI may not be for everyone’s taste due to a bit cartoonish look.
Other than that, the ZTE Axon 7 mini is a pretty solid mid-ranger. Even though it is not the most powerful phone on paper (if you are a specshead), it performs great in real life and most importantly, it has Hi-Fi audio setup that is not only the best in class but also one of the best on any phone.
It is almost certain now that Huawei will be taking the wraps off the much-touted P10 flagship this month. Already, what could be taken as an official teaser announcing the coming of the Huawei P10 at MWC 2017 in Barcelona has been outed by the company. Also, the company has sent press invite for the launch of a couple of smartphones on February 21.
Ahead of the P10’s launch, the device has appeared n benchmarking outfit – Geekbench’s database and the appearance reveal not just the key specs of the flagship P-series smartphone but also the capabilities of the gadget. The device appears as Huawei VTR-L09 but is said to be the P10 and it is listed as running Android 7.0 Nougat. The device is also listed with an Octa-core 1.84GHz chipset which is the Kirin 960 SoC.
The Huawei P10 is listed to have achieved a single core test score of 1884 points while on the multi-core test, it scored 5964 points. The test score is somewhat on the low side especially in the multi-core test, perhaps due to the underclocked 1.8GHz Kirin 960 in use. Even the Kirin 955 chip onboard the Huawei P9 performed better with a Geekbench score of 6415 points. The P10 is expected to powered by an Hisilicon Kirin 960 chipset with an octa-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz, as well as a Mali G71 GPU powering the graphics. The device will sport a 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display and have two memory variants of which the lower 4GB RAM version is listed on Geekbench. There is said to be a version of the P10 with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Also, the Huawei P10 is said to have a higher variant, the Huawei P10 Plus which was recently leaked as packing a 5.5-inch display as well as 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The monstrous RAM size may be inaccurate, though.
Xiaomi has teased the launch of its 62nd crowdfunded product and the product is likely a blue eye protective glasses. This launch is coming on the heels of the recent launch of the Xiaomi Smart Ukelele and children smart wristwatch.
Xiaomi first teased the launch yesterday, the post teasing the launch talked about the damage UV rays does to the eyes and further hinted that the product comes with harmful ray filters. The date for the launch is set for February 16 at 10am via Xiaomi mall.
Further teasers by Xiaomi show the expected eye protective glasses was produced using military grade materials and that ensures the device won’t break even under strong impact. Using a photo of a man wearing a military helmet further shows the strength and durability of the device. The protective glasses also protect against harmful rays. The full details of the upcoming product would be unleashed tomorrow, so we’ll wait for that.
In the end what will bring new surprises? We will wait and see.
In a bid to maintain its stronghold on the mid-range and low-end smartphone market, Qualcomm isn’t only setting its eyes on flagship chips but also on mid-range and low-level chips. The company is now rumored to be working on a couple of new chipsets identified as Snapdragon 630 and Snapdragon 635 SoCs.
Both the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 and Snapdragon 635 chips are said to be enhanced versions of the highly efficient Snapdragon 625 chipset which Xiaomi recently announced would feature on its Redmi Note 4X smartphone. The SD 625 is known to have very efficient power management and heat reduction such that battery life is extended. Thus, the Snapdragon 630 and Snapdragon 635 are expected to have such features and even more.
According to the leak, both mid-range chips would use eight Cortex-A53 cores in an octa-core arrangement. Some would have preferred the superior Cortex-A73 cores but then, it’s just a rumor until Qualcomm goes official with it. We don’t have further details of both rumored SoCs but since they are upgrades of the SD 625, we expect them to come with features such as support for LPDDR3 memory, LTE Cat. 7 baseband and a clock frequency of 2.0 – 2.2GHz as well as the Adreno 506 GPU or higher. The SD 625 came with these features, so an upgraded version would pack a more strengthened lineup.
In addition, Qualcomm is also said to be working on a Snapdragon 660 chip which would be manufactured using Samsung 14nm LPP process and have an octa-core arrangement which may be a combination of the Cortex-A73 and A53 cores. The SD 660 is said to come with the Adreno 512 GPU and support dual-channel LPDDR4X-1866 memory, UFS 2.1 storage, up to 24MP camera, LTE Cat. 10 and three carrier aggregation. The rumor added that OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi will feature the chip in their upcoming smartphones. The Snapdragon 660 is expected to be available in September.
We reported earlier on that there are rumors that Nokia has plans to release three new budget smartphones at MWC 2017 in addition to the Nokia 8 flagship that has kept the rumor mills active for a while now. The smartphones were said to be Nokia 5, Nokia 3 and the classic Nokia 3310 feature phone.
The leak, however, failed to give details of the Nokia 3 features except that it would be an entry level smartphone running Android 7.0 Nougat and having a price tag around 149 Euro. Other details were sketchy but some have been revealed right now. According to the latest leak, the Nokia 3 will come with a 5.2 / 5.3-inch display with an HD resolution (1280 x 720 pixel). The entry-level phone is said to be powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 chipset and that will be backed by 2GB of RAM. There is also 16GB of storage space on the device which will also run Android Nougat, as stated earlier on. The graphics is taken care of by an Adreno 308 GPU while on the camera end, the Nokia 3 packs a 13MP rear camera as well as a 5MP front-facing camera.
We expect the smartphone to drop at MWC 2017 in Barcelona as earlier rumored. Already, Nokia has a launch event lined up for on February 26 and hopefully we’ll get to meet a couple of beautiful looking Nokia smartphones.
Huawei is preparing for the launch of its next flagship, the Huawei P10. Scheduled to be announced on the 26th of February at Barcelona, the company has been posting teasers of what to expect.
Yesterday, the official Huawei Mobile Twitter account posted a short video hinting at the possible colors the Huawei P10 will launch in. A follow up tweet says the colors of the phone were “inspired by the bold colors on the New York streets during the fashion week”. Judging from the colors in the video, the Huawei P10 should be available in blue, aquatic green, and gold.
Last month, a Weibo user @ichangezone had posted images of the possible color variants of the Huawei Mate 10. Comparing those images with Huawei’s teaser now confirms his leak was genuine.
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