OnePlus co-founder, Carl Pei just announced the company’s first brand ambassador, and it’s none other than Bollywood Legend, Amitabh Bachchan. Amitabh Bachchan is not just a Bollywood star but a global star and seems to be a great choice for the company.
The announcement was made about an hour ago by Carl Pei via his twitter account but was already tweeted by the superstar himself in the early hours of today. Mr Bachchan will be the face of OnePlus India, so chances are that you may be seeing his face appear in OnePlus ads henceforth.
Fresh information coming from South Korea suggests that the Galaxy S8 was secretly showcased to select few during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 that was held between Feb. 26 to March 2. However, the official launch date of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ is March 29. With the official launch drawing closer, the rumor mill has been revealing lot of information on Samsung’s upcoming flagship. A fresh batch of photos allegedly coming from a case making company have surfaced.
A Korean publication has revealed that Samsung had built a temporary makeshift demonstration room to showcase a prototype of the Galaxy S8 to the local media outlets at the Hotel Porta Fira. The venue is located very close to the venue where MWC 2017 was held.
Only those who had received special invitation were able to see the Galaxy S8 before its upcoming official launch. There was only a temporary wall to prevent others from viewing the flagship. Samsung partners who received could get the glimpse of the Galaxy S8 stated that it was “very impressive.” However, they did not reveal any details on the specification and features of the S8.
Also, no leaked photos have surfaced from the secret event. However, a case maker has reportedly reveal fresh and good quality images of the flagship phone. From the images it cannot be confirmed whether the handset shown is Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+. However, some of the images carry “For Galaxy S8” text at the top whereas one image that shows the rear side of the phone carries “For Galaxy S8+” text.
The images suggest that the front is mainly occupied by the dual-edge curved screen with narrow bezels at the top and bottom. The display shows the presence of an on-screen Home button.
The image that seems to show the rear side of Galaxy S8 Plus features the LED flash, main camera and fingerprint reader. Speculations have it that it could also function as a physical Home button. The other images show all the four sides of the Galaxy S8. Both phones are expected to be available for pre-orders from April 10 and their shipments are likely to begin on April 21.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 was the first phone to launch with a ceramic body. While it did look nice, Xiaomi couldn’t meet up with demand because of the difficulty in production and had to revert back to using metal and glass. We thought Xiaomi had ditched the material since we didn’t see it on the Xiaomi Mi 5S and Xiaomi Mi 5S Plus, but to our amazement, it resurfaced in the Xiaomi Mi MIX and not without the same production problems.
It seems we might finally see the end of the production issues plaguing the use of ceramic. According to a Weibo post by industry analyst, Pan Jiutang, he says that leading ceramic manufacturer Changying Precision has announced a joint investment of ¥8.7 billion in the expansion and development of the production process. The investment is said to be due to the popularity of the Mi 5 and Mi MIX which have helped promote the new material.
Postulations that Apple‘s “next big thing”, the iPhone 8 would feature an OLED display is gathering more weight. Popular Japanese news agency Nikkie has joined its voice in forecasting that the iPhone 8 would come with a 5.8-inch OLED screen. Nikkie claims, in a fresh report, that the next generation Apple flagship would have the biggest display of the three models Apple is expected to release this year.
Apart from the iPhone 8, Apple is said to also have in the works a 4.7-inch iPhone 7s as well as an iPhone 7s Plus with a 5.5-inch display. While the iPhone 8 is said to used an OLED screen, both the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus are expected to feature displays made of LCD panels. Nikkie also postulates that the increased screen size on the iPhone 8 will have an effect on the final unit price of the flagship phone. Presently, the iPhone 7 is priced around $700 but that could go up to around $1000, if recent rumors are anything to go by.
It is worthy of note that Nikkie’s recent forecast seems to align with that of KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that the iPhone 8 would feature a 5.8-inch display. Kuo also hinted that the iPhone 8 would feature a one in town front-facing camera which is capable of producing 3D selfies. The selfie camera would also provide face recognition to unlock the smartphone and also very the owner’s identity. The Apple analyst also said the face recognition is meant to replace the Touch ID which Apple featured on the iPhone 7 but latest rumors say the iPhone 8 would feature the in-display fingerprint sensor which was unveiled recently at MWC 2017 by Chinese company Goodix.
The iPhone 8 is a special anniversary edition to mark 10 years of the iPhone’s existence and would likely pack lots of innovative features and new technologies. We won’t be surprised to see more coming out as the days roll by.
Last year, Vivo released the Xplay 5 Elite as the first 6GB RAM smartphone in the world. Just before the year ran out, we saw other manufacturers including Samsung, Huawei, OnePlus, and Xiaomi release their own smartphones with 6GB RAM. Now the race is on for 8GB RAM smartphones. The big question is do we really need such a large RAM on our smartphones? A Huawei executive doesn’t think we do.
The Huawei executive took to his Weibo page (@HW Lao Shi) to express his opinion on phones with large RAMs. According to him, 4GB of RAM is enough for a phone to run smoothly. He says tests have shown that Huawei phones with 4GB of RAM (paired with the Kirin 960) perform better over time compared to the competition with 6GB of RAM. The key, is actually in the optimization of the operating system and he cites an example with how iOS doesn’t need a large RAM to run smoothly.
He goes on to say that the competition between manufacturers to release phones with the largest RAM can be likened to the nuclear arms race between USA and USSR during the Cold War.
The days of exploding smartphones seem far from over and the latest victim is a student in North China Conservancy and Hydropower University whose Samsung Galaxy S7 exploded right on her bed today. This is coming just days after a Samsung Galaxy S7 was reported to have exploded in a car cup holder.
The incident occurred in the female dormitory of the university while the students were still sleeping. According to the source who happens to be a roommate of the victim, the Galaxy S7 in question was bought in September last year, less than half a year ago. It wasn’t stated, though, if the phone was charging when the incident happened. The explosion which seems to have emanated from the battery left the beddings in flame and charred.
Already, Samsung’s customer service department in China has been informed and the incident is under investigation to ascertain the circumstance surrounding the blast and the likely cause. But it is apt that we are reminded to always keep our smartphones far from our sleeping area, perhaps on a nightstand, whenever we are going to bed. You can check out more images of the charred Galaxy S7 from down below.
Xiaomi smart home Weibo official page has published a series of posters meant to publicize its next launch event as well as the expected product. Xiaomi is renowned not just as a smartphone maker but as a brand whose tentacles spread into other smart home categories. The fact is that most of the non-smartphone products are manufactured by subsidiary brands with Xiaomi providing the platform and financing coming in through crowdfunding.
In this case, what we can gather from the posters and the accompanying teasers is that the 67th Smart home product is likely a Coffee making machine and would be unveiled on March 7. Launching a Coffee maker at this point is no doubt a smart move, considering the rapid growth rate of consumption of coffee drink. According to an analytical report, coffee saw retail volume sales of 3% to reach 65,000 tons in 2016. This was mainly due to a rising consumer interest in the coffee culture in China in 2016, leading to a rise in coffee consumption.
The Xiaomi Coffee machine would, thus, come in handy in helping owners brew quality coffees right in their homes. Small coffee shops and cafés in retail may also find the Coffee machine useful in meeting up with spiraling demands, especially among young consumers.
The Smart home product would be launched on March 7 at 10.00am.
A leakster had revealed in January that Google is allegedly testing on few prototypes of cheaper “Pixel 2B” smartphone that would release alongside or sometime after Pixel 2’s release. However, Google’s Senior Vice President for Hardware, Rick Osterloh had confirmed in the previous week that Google will not be releasing a budget-friendly Pixel smartphone. The original leakster is now back with newer information that reveals that the search engine is indeed working on a budget phone, but it won’t be releasing with Google Pixel branding.
In a recent interview Osterloh said that Pixel 2 would continue to “stay premium” and he added that there will no cheaper variant of Pixel smartphone. The search engine would let other manufacturers to release lower priced smartphones.
The tipster that spilled beans on the alleged “Pixel 2B” claimed that the same team that is working on Pixel 2 is also building a budget smartphone that will be targeted towards developing markets. He has speculated that it may be an Android One smartphone.
As he had said in January, he maintains that the mysterious budget phone is built alongside Pixel 2. It will be sold outside the U.S. If Google is really working on a budget phone with lower hardware specs, it seems that Osterloh was being careful with his words.
As far as Google’s upcoming smartphones with alleged Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 monikers are concerned, both phones are slated to release in October this year. These smartphones are expected to arrive with IP68 certified chassis.
Previous rumors have stated that the search engine giant is testing Pixel 2 with custom chipset and SoCs from other brands. However, speculations are rife that it would be running on Snapdragon 835. The Pixel 2 is also pegged to come with an improved camera that may support advanced dim light photography. Compared to the original Pixel smartphone that came with a pricing of $649, its successor is rumored to be $50 costlier.
The rumor mill has revealed several leaked photos of Samsung Galaxy S8 in the past few months. Now, a new video clip showcases the alleged Galaxy S8. The device in the video appears to the upcoming Samsung flagship smartphone that have been spotted in the leaked photos.
The video clip by Slashleaks lasts only for 5 seconds, but it does reveal the front and rear sides of the alleged S8. It appears quite sleek with the back featuring the LED flash, camera and fingerprint reader. There is no physical Home button on the front.
The black colored variant Galaxy S8 that can be seen in the video seems to be a under production unit as it carries a label with texts like CONFIDENTIAL (Unauthorized use prohibited), No photo allowed, Not For Sale, and Do not leak info. The rear also contains logos for Samsung and Galaxy S8.
The Galaxy S8 is expected to come with a huge dual-edge curved display of 5.8 inches. However, the device shown in the video is not turned on. Hence, nothing much can be understood about the display from the short 5-seconds video except. Rumors have it that the recently trademarked “Infinity Display” moniker by Samsung will be the name given to display that will come on Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus (aka Galaxy S8+). The larger sibling is expected to feature 6.2-inch dual-edge curved screen.
The Galaxy S8 with model number of SM-G950U was recently spotted on Geekbench benchmarking platform running on Android 7.1 Nougat, 1.9 GHz Snapdragon 835 and 4 GB of RAM. It is expected to feature 3,000 mAh battery. Its single-core and multi-core are 1916 and 6011.
The S8+ was also spotted on Geekbench running on same software, chipset and RAM. It is pegged to come with 3,500 mAh battery. It scored 1929 on single-core test and 6084 on multi-core test.
Despite the fact that the demand for wearables have been consistently dropping, International Data Corporation’s (IDC) survey for the last quarter of 2016 has revealed Fitbit is leading the market share of the wearables industry. Xiaomi is on the second spot followed by Apple on the third.
In Q4 2015, Fitbit had a market share of 29 percent as it shipped 8.4 million unit. However, in Q4 2016, its market share decreased to 19.2 percent as it shipped fewer devices (6.5 million). Fitbit has been mainly concentrating on selling its devices in the U.S., a market that has huge number of wearables from well-known and lesser known brands.
Xiaomi shipped 2.6 million wearables and had a market share of 9.1 percent in Q4 2015. However, in Q4 2016, it increased its shipments to 5.2 million and gained a market share of 15.2 percent. It has only increased its shipments, but also has been selling its wearables at attractive low prices. Even though the market share of Xiaomi is increasing at a faster pace, its wearables are mainly famous in China as it has not done much to popularize its wearables in international markets.
Apple that holds the third sport as it had shipped 4.1 million units in Q4 2015 and it held a market share of 14.2 percent. By Q4 2016, it decreased its slightly increased its shipment to 4.6 million. However, its market share dropped to 13.6 percent. The Q4 2016 has been Apple’s best quarter ever when it comes to market share in wearables market as it released a low-priced version of Apple Watch 2 with GPS.
Garmin came fourth with a shipment of 2.1 million wearables and a market share of 6.2 percent in Q4 2016. In the same quarter in 2015, it shipped 2.2 million units and had reached a higher market share of 7.6 percent. Samsung is on the fifth position in the wearables market. In Q4 2016, it shipped 1.9 million wearables whereas in Q4 2015, it shipped 1.4 million units. As far its market share is concerned, it had a market share of 4.7 percent in Q4 2015, but it increased to 5.6 percent in Q4 2016.
The wearables market is transforming as the basic devices that came with lesser features like tracking footsteps are now coming with multiple health and fitness tracking features such as heart rate monitor, sleep tracking and so on. The first-generation smartwatches came with basic fitness tracking capabilities. However, newer models are not only aimed towards providing health and fitness features, but also function as standalone devices as they support LTE connectivity.
At present, the competition is not very fierce among companies in the wearables market even though vendors are releasing products with numerous features. The Q4 2016 results suggest that Xiaomi is fast gaining the market share and it may dethrone Fitbit to gain the number one spot. Fitbit that acquired Pebble for $23 million is expected to release a health-centric smartwatch later this year to retain its numero uno spot. Withings brand of health-centric smart devices has been rebranded as Nokia devices. The Finnish company too is expected to take on wearables market leaders in this year.
Xiaomi releases at least one product every week via their Mijia crowdfunded platform. It is important to mention that a number of these products are released by other companies that have a partnership with Xiaomi. Sometimes it is hard keeping track of all these products and we tend to miss out on some. This post contains our favorite ones released over the past couple of months and some we didn’t cover but still think are pretty cool.
Xiaomi Mijia Partners
Populele
The Populele is Xiaomi’s take on the musical instrument called a Ukelulele. The Populele is not just a musical instrument but a smart one at that. It has a companion app that teaches a novice how to play the Populele and become good at it in just five minutes. The Populele itself has in-laid LEDs that light up when a key on the app is pushed. The Populele costs just ¥399 (~$58) and will ship at the end of March.
Smart Rear-view Mirror
Most modern cars now come with a parking assistance system that is a combination of a camera that captures what is behind you and a display that shows what the camera sees. The live-feed can either be displayed on a monitor embedded in the dashboard or in the rear view mirror. This product belongs to the second category. However, it does more than just help you to park. There is forward collision warning, lane departure warning, and preceding vehicle starting. The Xiaomi smart rear view mirror is available for ¥999 (~$145).
Xiaomi Selfie Stick/Tripod
This is one of my favorite Xiaomi products. This is a selfie stick and tripod in one device. It’s not the first of its kind as Huawei launched something similar earlier this year.
Selfie sticks are not as popular as they were a few years ago but we will all agree that quite a large number of people are now into video content creation. You do not need an expensive camera rig to begin making your own videos as a phone with a good camera will do the job, but you can improve the quality of your videos if you own a tripod and not have to deal with stabilization issues. I like to think of this as a tripod that doubles as a selfie stick and not the other way round. For just about $13, you can have this 2-in-1 product.
Turok Steinhardt Sunglasses
Xiaomi is not new to glasses as this is their second one in a span of two months. They announced the Roidmi Glasses with anti-UV protection back in January and now they have followed it up with the Turok Steinhardt Sunglasses that also filters out ultraviolet rays. The difference is in the looks. While the Roidmi has a formal appearance, the Turok Steinhardt is for casual or semi-formal occasions. So it doesn’t hurt to own a pair of both.
A few days ago, it ws reported that LeEco India had laid off a large percentage of its staff. The lay off was interpreted as a sign that the company would soon be leaving one of the major smartphone markets in Asia. The company has however issued a statement saying otherwise.
Although the Chinese manufacturer didn’t dispute the layoff, but it says it has no plans to leave as “India is one of the most strategic markets for LeEco”. It even added that it is preparing for the launch of its next generation TV in the country.
A company representative also revealed to Reuters that there are 80 employees at the moment, down from about 350 at the end of last year.
LeEco’s woes started when the content of a memo written by CEO, Jia Yueting was made public. The memo warned of an impending cash crunch caused by a rapid expansion at an “unprecedented rate”.
A former employee who also spoke to Reuters said he had resigned after six months because the letter left him discouraged. The unnamed ex-employee said “I joined the company in mid 2016, and there were a lot of promised projects in the pipeline. The projects were all stalled and that got me worried”.
If LeEco isn’t going anywhere, it is still evident that it has scaled back on its operations massively. The small team on ground is probably just for the sake of product releases like its smart TVs, bluetooth speakers, and headphones.
Xiaomi has already announced that it will be releasing a follow up version to its popular concept phone from last year, the Xiaomi Mi MIX. The new device is currently called the Mi MIX 2 and will see French designer, Philippe Starck return as lead industrial designer.
Today, we have gotten info on some new features the phone may come with. According to the source, Xiaomi is expected to switch up the screen to a curved AMOLED display that covers up to 93% of the front of the device. The original Mi MIX has a 6.4-inch LCD screen that covers just 91.3% of the front part. If the new screen will cover a larger area, that means the bezel will be thinner.
The source also says the Mi MIX 2 will still retain the ceramic body design and and bone conduction audio technology. We also get a clarification on the fingerprint scanner which will now be in front. Previous report had said it will be embedded underneath the display itself but according to the source, the scanner will be positioned just below the display.
The battle line is drawn, but this is no Shuai jiao contest, neither is it your favorite Wrestlemania or Boxing bout. Instead, this a comparison of the speed of the fast charging technologies featured on the smartphones of the top five global smartphone companies. In case you’ve forgotten, Samsung, Apple, Huawei, OPPO and Vivo occupy the top 5 spots in terms of mobile phone shipments globally for 2016. While Samsung, Apple and Huawei had built formidable reputations for themselves over the years, OPPO rode on the back of its VOOC fast charge technology on the OPPO R9 to help shore up its sales, the result of which is still being felt today. Fellow Chinese co-traveller Vivo also has fast charging technologies which is one of its main selling points.
So, the fast charging feature onboard the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro, Huawei Mate 9, OPPO R9 Plus and Vivo X9 Plus are put to test, all at the same time and the same battery level (0%) to determine which one actually charges faster. To set the records straight, the Galaxy C9 Pro, Mate 9, R9 Plus and X9 Plus, all have 4,000mAh battery capacity, while the iPhone 7 Plus comes with a 2910mAh battery. We must also point out that the iPhone 7 Plus doesn’t come with fast charging support but then, it is one of the top selling and most expensive smartphones so it squares up against the others.
After 5 minutes of charge (results pictured above), OPPO R9S Plus was able to attain 8% battery capacity while the Huawei Mate 9 got 10%, the highest level of the lot. The Apple iPhone 7 Plus was just at 4%, the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro at 7% and the Vivo X9 Plus surprisingly was at 9%.
In 30 minutes (results pictured above), the Huawei Mate 9 with its innovative fast charging technology was well ahead at 56%, the R9 Plus and Vivo X9 Plus was trailing at 49% apiece, the Galaxy C9 Pro at 36% and finally the iPhone 7 Plus was only at 19%.
In 60 minutes (results pictured above), the Mate 9 and R9 Plus were both at 89% while the X9 Plus had gotten to 86%. The Samsung galaxy C9 Pro was trailing at 68% and then the iPhone 7 Plus at 38%. Obviously, Apple iPhones don’t come with fast charge support and that really has no effect on sales, but it sure would have made a lot of difference to add that to their selling points.
At 90 minutes (results pictured above), only the Huawei Mate 9 had attained full 100% charge, an applaudable feat. The OPPO R9 Plus was very close by at 98% of charge, the Vivo X9 Plus was also at 98% while the Galaxy C9 Pro was at 95%. The iPhone 7 Plus was still lagging behind at 57% even when it had a smaller battery capacity.
The test allowed the charge time to extend to 150 minutes and in that time as shown above, the Mate 9 and R9 Plus had stopped charging. The Vivo X9 Plus and Galaxy C9 Pro had also reached 100% in 150 minutes, while the Phone 7 Plus was only at 69%.
The test had to be stretched to 190 minutes (pictured above), that is 3 hours and 10 minutes before the iPhone 7 Plus charged up to 100%. That is quite slow, but with an efficient Apple A10 chip onboard, the battery isn’t expected to drain as fast as the others.
From the graph based on the fast charge test results, the Huawei Mate 9 with the steepest curve has the most efficient fast charge technology. This is followed by the OPPO R9 Plus and its VOOC fast charge technology. OPPO and Vivo are from the same parent company, so it is no surprise that the Vivo X9 Plus has almost similar charge pattern. The Galaxy C9 Pro followed closely and finally the iPhone 7 Plus came quite a distance behind the quartet.
The original Yotaphone was released in 2013 as the first smartphone in the world with 2 screens. It had a 4.3-inch 720p primary display and a second always-on 4.3-inch grayscale screen on the back. It was followed by a second generation model that had a larger 5.0-inch 1080p screen on one side and a second 4.7-inch grayscale screen on the other hand.
The Yotaphone 2 was supposed to be followed by a cheaper version called the Yotaphone 2C but that didn’t happen. They also had to cancel a North American release of the Yotaphone 2 in 2015. Just before the end of 2015, the Russian company announced that it was partnering with ZTE to release the Yotaphone 3 in Q1 2016. Up until this moment, the device hasn’t been released.
Most folks would have already given up on the device, but a response on the official Instagram page says the Yotaphone 3 is still in development. No details of the upcoming product were revealed but if fans of the brand have to wait this long, we believe it should be worth the wait.
AnTuTu’s top 10 list of best-performing smartphones in various categories have been released and it covers smartphone brands from around the world and the domestic Chinese brand. The chart is based on the average performance of the smartphones in benchmark tests and the list contains a few new entrants but on the whole several others retain their position. Benchmark test performance is predicated mostly on the processor the smartphone packs and in this case, the Snapdragon 821 continues to dominate.
Of course, there are no major surprises as we are yet to see a chipset which squares up to the Apple A10 chip. Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 chip and Samsung’s Exynos 8895 would likely trump the Apple flagship chip but they are yet to find their way into smartphones, at least not anyone in the market.
On the overall performance, the Apple iPhone 7 Plus powered by the A10 chip maintain its top position for several months running now. It is closely followed by the iPhone 7 which has a slightly lower clock speed on its chip than the 7 Plus. The iPhone 7 Plus also happens to be Apple’s most powerful smartphone at present. At the number 3 position is the Snapdragon 821-powered OnePlus 3T and at number four is the SD 821-powered LeEco Le Pro 3. Smartisan released the Hammer M1L late last year with a Snapdragon 821 chip inside and it occupies the fifth spot.
The 6th to 10th position is occupied by Lenovo ZUK Edge, OnePlus 3, Xiaomi Mi 5S Plus, Mi 5S and Mi Note 2 in that order. It is worthy of note that all five smartphones are powered by the Snapdragon 821 but with different clock frequency, hence the varying AnTuTu benchmark score. On the whole, only the Apple iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 7 use a different chipset other than Snapdragon 821 processor.
All eight smartphones are Chinese brands and so occupy the top eight spot in the top 10 domestic brands category. The remaining two slots are occupied by the Xiaomi Mi 5 and Vivo Xplay 6 respectively. Both the Mi 5 and XPlay 6 are powered by the Snapdragon 820 chipset. As a parting shot, it is noticed that none of Samsung’s smartphones made it up the ladder into the top 10 and that is a curious scenario. Do you know why? Drop it off in the comment section if you do.
Xiaomi launched its Meter Walkie Talkie yesterday with a cheap price tag and some features, top of which is an 8-day standby time. Here are some hands-on images of the Xiaomi Walkie Talkie captured from different angles.
As stated, the walkie talkie offers up to 8 days of standby time but that comes down to 17 hours of consistent use. There is also an FM Radio on the walkie talkie. The walkie-talkie is suitable for two-way communication in urban centres, in the wild and several locations and works fine within a range of 10km apart and also has GPS functionality. It has a UHF frequency range of 403-470MHz, and VHF frequency range of 136-174MHz and automatically filter out noise and interference signals while in use.
The antenna is detachable, sitting at the top end of the device, side-by-side with the volume nob. Just under the display are some set of buttons which includes the frequency selector and other functions. It features a USB type charging port, so the regular Android phone charger should be able to charge the gadget. In all, the design is minimalistic but then, it is just a walkie-talkie, not a smartphone.
The Xiaomi WalkieTalkie comes in white and black color options. It will go on sale on March 3 via Xiaomi Mall, Xiaomi home, Jingdong, Lynx and Suning, all at the same time (0.00 hour) with a cheap price tag of 249 Yuan ($36). You can check out more images of the walkie talkie from down below.
Huawei announced its unique smartphone, the Huawei Honor Magic back in December 2016. This was a pretty different flagship from the numerous offerings available in the market, mainly because of its smart personalized features to enhance the overall user experience.
Naturally, the company showcased its innovative device at CES 2017 and the same was up for display at MWC 2017 as well. We got a chance to play around with this unique handset and here are our Huawei Honor Magic Hands on images and impressions.
The Huawei Honor Magic comes with a unique design that is curved on all the eight sides. So, the phone is curved both on the front as well as the back, boasting of perfect symmetry in design. This helps in making the grip more comfortable and with the premium 3D glass used on the device, the Honor Magic felt great in our hands.
While the phone looks great from the outside, what’s really the highlight of the Huawei Honor Magic is its software personalizations. There are a lot of interesting features embedded right into the device to offer a much better UI experience. For example, there’s a DeepThink feature that will reveal relevant data based on the information on the webpage. All you have to do is long-press the home button to activate this feature. Then there’s the Facecode Intelligent Recognition which recognizes your face to reveal messages on screen. Only those faces pre-registered on the device will be able to view the messages.
Another interesting feature is the WiseScreen Sensor Magic Intelligent sensor which uses the front infrared sensor as well as the sensors inbuilt into the device to unlock and activate the screen if it recognizes you as the person picking up the phone.
Along with the impressive software features, the Huawei Honor Magic comes with pretty decent specs as well. The phone boasts of a 5.09-inch display with 2K resolution. The phone is powered by Kirin 950 chipset under the hood and comes with a home button up front that accepts multiple gestures. The rear camera on the phone is pretty good, featuring dual 12MP sensors with f/2.2, 1.4um pixels and 6P lens with dual tone flash. Up front, there is an 8MP f/2.0 selfie shooter. Full Honor Magic specs here.
As for connectivity, the Huawei Honor Magic comes with standard USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack as well as SIM card slot at the bottom of the phone. The power button and volume buttons are all located on the right while the left side is clean.
Check out the Huawei Honor Magic Hands on images from below:
There are unconfirmed reports from South Korea that Samsung has started mass producing the Galaxy S8 units in its factory in Vietnam as it hopes to sell more than 10 million units of the smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S8 is Samsung’s next big thing which it hopes to use to get over the loss accrued from the discontinuation and recall of the Galaxy Note 7. The company is ensuring it dots its Is and crosses its Ts in order to deliver a phenomenal smartphone which would take the market by storm.
The report on South Korea’s Naver Publication says Samsung intends to produce 4.7 million Galaxy S8 series smartphones in March and another 7.8 million units in April. This combines for a total of 12.5 million units which would be available in the first month of availability of the Galaxy S8. Reason being that Samsung aims to put it up for sales immediately after the March 29th announcement event.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 comes in two variants, one having a 5.8-inch display and another known as Galaxy S8+ with a larger 6.2-inch display. Both versions will be powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 chipset. Even though Samsung is intent on aggressively marketing the next-gen flagship, it hasn’t officially revealed the figures it hoped to produce or when sales would commence. This latest report could just be mere speculations but then, you never can tell, it may just be accurate. The Galaxy S8 would drop on March 29.
Although Lenovo’s Yoga laptop series is much more popular among customers, the new Lenovo Miix 320 is actually a worthy convertible made for people on a budget. Before we move on to its specs, note that the convertible is available for just $200, which is great given that this comes from a notable brand like Lenovo.
Despite its affordable pricing, the Lenovo Miix 320 comes with amazing built quality. The tablet snaps onto the keyboard dock pretty firmly thanks to its magnetic connectors. The display is pretty decent and comes with a 10.1-inch 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution screen. While the viewing angles are not great, the overall display quality is pretty good. It’s a basic convertible that offers decent productivity for people who are always on the go. The fact that the tablet weighs just 550 grams by itself and 1.02 kg with the keyboard dock makes it travel-friendly. Further, the 10-hour battery life will make sure that the Lenovo Miix 320 runs almost an entire day.
Coming to the specs, the Lenovo Miix 320 features an Intel Atom X5 processor with Intel HD graphics. The Atom processor does not instill much confidence in its processing ability, but for the company’s targeted user base — freelancers, travelers, and the ‘meeting marathoner’, this specs sheet should be enough. There’s 4GB of RAM and 128GB of eMMC memory along with dual-band Wi-Fi with optional LTE connectivity (costs more). At the back, there is a 5MP camera while up front, there is a 2MP sensor. Other features include Windows 10 with Windows Continuum support along with support for Active Pen as well.
The Lenovo Miix 320 will go on sale around April 2017 for a price tag of $199 (with keyboard dock for the non-LTE model).
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