Xiaomi’s Vice President of International, Hugo Barra has announced his exit from the company. When Mr Barra left Google a little less than four years ago to join the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, his move generated a lot of positive buzz for Xiaomi which was then referred to as the Apple of China.
Three and a half years down the line and he believes he has had enough. The announcement which was made on his Facebook page also explains the reason for his exit.
What I’ve realized is that the last few years of living in such a singular environment have taken a huge toll on my life and started affecting my health. My friends, what I consider to be my home, and my life are back in Silicon Valley, which is also much closer to my family. Seeing how much I’ve left behind these past few years, it is clear to me that the time has come to return.
The Brazilian’s tenure at the company has seen it expand from a Chinese company into a global brand with footprints in more than 20 countries including India where it announced it made $1 Billion in revenue in 2016. Another of the company’s major achievement last year was its partnership with Google on the Android TV powered Mi Box 3.
While the list of features Apple is rumored to be adding on the iPhone 8 keeps growing, there is another list of features that would likely be missing on the next generation Apple smartphone whenever it debuts later this year. The latest rumor has it that the iPhone 8 would not feature a home button up front.
KGI Security analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, released a research report which contained details of plans by Apple to remove the physical home button on the iPhone 8. The analyst further hinted that there would be a thumb-print sensor embedded in the screen instead.
Before this recent disclosure, it had earlier been rumored that the next gen iPhone would come with a bezel-less, edge-to-edge screen design which would make the presence of a physical home button impossible. This has been known before now but the analyst went further to give details of how the new home button will look like.
Also, recall that Apple shifted to an underglass touch ID on the iPhone 7 but according to Kuo, Apple’s current “under glass” capacitive fingerprint recognition tech won’t cut it if the phone has the full-screen, button-free design. Instead, the ID reader will need to shift to an “under panel” setup, which would require optical ID tech. In this case, the optical sensors will need to be compatible with flexible OLED panels.
In addition, there might also be facial tracking sensor to verify users’ faces as a way of identification. This rumored feature is said to likely replace the fingerprint ID technology that was supposed to sit on the home button. But the analyst did not leave out the possibility that both technologies could be used on the device.
Whatever it is going to be, the iPhone 8 is still a long way from going official, so we’ll definitely get more details on this.
A new ZTE smartphone with model number ZTE BA602 has been found listed on TENAA’s website. TENAA is a telecommunication certification body from China. The ZTE Blade V8 Pro and Project CSX (Hawkeye), a mobile device that is completely crowdsource were showcased at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2017 earlier this month and with the appearance of ZTE BA602 phone, it seems that the company is already working on its third device.
The TENAA listing of ZTE BA602 has revealed that it will be a budget-friendly smartphone. It features a 5.5-inch display that reportedly offers a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. It is powered by a 1.25 GHz quad-core processor, but the name of its manufacturer is not known.
The ZTE BA602 is listed with three RAM variants like 1 GB, 2 GB and 3 GB that respectively features storage choices like 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB. It is packed with an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera whereas its front-facing shooter is of 2-megapixel. It is expected to come preinstalled with Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS. It includes a 3,000 mAh battery.
As far as dimensions are concerned, the ZTE BA602 measures 153 x 77 x 8.6 mm and the photos of the device revealed through TENAA indicates that it will be arriving with a plastic chassis. Its weight is mentioned as 168 grams. The device seems to feature a fingerprint reader on its back panel.
Since it has been spotted on TENAA, the unnamed ZTE smartphone is likely to release in China. It is expected to be available in multiple colors such as Quicksand Gold, Galaxy Silver, Phantom Gray, Quiet Blue and Black. As of this writing, there is no confirmation on its availability outside the U.S. and the information on its pricing is also unavailable. The recently announced ZTE Blade V8 Pro is available in the U.S. with a price tag of $229.
Samsung has officially announced that the two kinds of batteries from two different manufacturers caused the Galaxy Note 7 to explode.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 that was launched in August 2016 had met with record pre-orders and sales. Since the Galaxy Note 7 explosion issues started coming up from various places from the world, Samsung began the first recall of the phablet in September.
The recall was carried out because of the potentially faulty batteries and possession of the device could prove fatal to the users Hence, the company had to discontinue Note 7 completely by October as it could not resolve the issue. It is estimated that the recall cost of the Galaxy Note 7 will be $5.3 billion.
Within three months of announcing the recall, Samsung announced that 96 percent users across the world had returned their Galaxy Note 7 phones. To ensure a smooth recall process, Samsung had sent messages and emails to Note 7 owners.
It also collaborated with its carrier partners to release a software update that would disable the charging abilities of the phablet. The Galaxy Note 7 is also banned on airplanes by the Department of Transportation (DOT). In order to assist its customers in a convenient recall, Samsung employees were also sent to airports to collect Note 7 from users.
To rebuild trust in Samsung and to ensure customers’ safety on future products, the company wanted to identify the exact reason behind the Galaxy Note 7 explosions. Earlier today, Samsung had held a press conference to reveal the reason. It took nearly a month for the company to find the root cause after initiating the global recall.
Samsung built an exclusive testing lab equipped with 700 researchers, 200,000 devices and 30,000 batteries to find out what caused Galaxy Note 7 to explode. This was done to test various features of the device such as wireless charging, normal charging, water resistance, USB-C charger, iris scanner, and third party apps.
Samsung also collaborated with three independent entities such as UI, Exponent and TUVRheinland to assess other aspects such as the hardware and software of Note 7 and manufacturing process, logistics and handling.
Faulty Batteries Caused the Issue
Findings from investigations done by Samsung and independent research teams revealed that both the batteries from different manufacturers that were used in Note 7 had flaws. Negative electrode deflections were the problem with the Battery A that came from the first manufacturer whereas the Battery B from second manufacturer was marred with abnormal ultrasonic welding burrs in its positive electrode. It shows that the industry’s growing desire to release thinner smartphones with longer battery life has impacted the manufacturing processes of batteries.
A new Battery Advisory Group has been formed by Samsung with specialized consultants and experts from different universities. An 8 point safety check system has been created to check the quality of batteries. It includes various kinds of tests for durability, visual inspection, x-ray examination, disassembling, leakage, voltage, charging and discharging and a 5-day testing in real-world environments.
By revealing the root cause of Galaxy Note 7 explosions, Samsung aims to build better smartphones by following improved safety standards.
Early last week, the US Federal Trade Commission took chip maker, Qualcomm to court. The reason being that Qualcomm has been engaging in unfair patent licensing practices.
A few days after that, Apple decided to file a separate lawsuit against Qualcomm, saying that it was being charged excessive royalties for using basic cellular standards developed by Qualcomm years ago.
You might think that is where it ends for Qualcomm but there is more. Before the FTC lawsuit and Apple filing its own suit, Qualcomm was under investigation by the South Korean Federal Trade Commission for its unfair business practices. Unfair business practices in this case is actually Qualcomm forcing phone manufacturers to pay high amounts in royalties for patents which is practically the same reason Apple and the US FTC is suing them.
Apple was contacted by the Korean authorities during the investigation and cooperated with them. Qualcomm probably enraged at this decided to withhold almost $1 Billion in rebates “as retaliation for responding truthfully to law enforcement agencies investigating them” as the result of the investigation led to Qualcomm being fined $853 million.
Apple is asking for $1B as compensation for Qualcomm’s unfair actions.
Below is Apple’s official statement on the matter:
For many years Qualcomm has unfairly insisted on charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with. The more Apple innovates with unique features such as TouchID, advanced displays, and cameras, to name just a few, the more money Qualcomm collects for no reason and the more expensive it becomes for Apple to fund these innovations.
Qualcomm built its business on older, legacy, standards but reinforces its dominance through exclusionary tactics and excessive royalties. Despite being just one of over a dozen companies who contributed to basic cellular standards, Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined.
To protect this business scheme Qualcomm has taken increasingly radical steps, most recently withholding nearly $1B in payments from Apple as retaliation for responding truthfully to law enforcement agencies investigating them. Apple believes deeply in innovation and we have always been willing to pay fair and reasonable rates for patents we use. We are extremely disappointed in the way Qualcomm is conducting its business with us and unfortunately after years of disagreement over what constitutes a fair and reasonable royalty we have no choice left but to turn to the courts.
Qualcomm is not quiet on the whole matter as the company’s General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Don Rosenberg said in a statement that “while it is reviewing the complaint in detail, it s quite clear that Apple’s claims are baseless”. He goes on to say that Apple has downplayed the importance and value of the technology Qualcomm has invented and also accuses them of encouraging regulatory attacks on Qualcomm’s business in various jurisdictions around the world.
There have been rumors of HTC releasing a smartwatch for a while now. Back in September, we saw leaked images of a smartwatch by the Taiwanese company. While the news back then mentioned HTC likely shelving the project, it seems we might be getting it on our wrists soon.
More images of the smartwatch codenamed “Halfbeak” have been leaked online. The watch appears to be a collaboration between HTC and Under Armour, an American sports clothing and accessories company.The new images which were posted on Weibo do not necessarily reveal new info but are just a way of fueling the hype.
The smartwatch has a round display with a 360 x 360 resolution and a shiny bezel around it. There is a red and a white triangle on the bezel that points to two hardware buttons on the watch The underside is where you have the heart rate scanner and charging connector pins. The rubber straps are actually black on the outside but has a red inner band with a grate-like design. The band is probably where Under Armour comes in.
HTC’s Halfbeak is seen to be running Android Wear 1.3. Android Wear 2.0 is set for a an early February launch, so if HTC unveils Halfbeak during MWC 2017 or later, it should be running the new version.
Following the launch of the really expensive luxury smartphone, the Gionee M2017 a few days before the end of 2016, Gionee has started 2017 with lower priced devices. Right on the heels of the Gionee Steele 2 is a new phone called the Gionee F5L which passed through TENAA recently.
The Gionee F5L is a 5.3-inch device with a 720p display. It is equipped with a 1.5GHz octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. Its rear camera is a 13MP sensor and the selfie camera is an 8MP shooter.
The Gionee F5L just like the very expensive M2017 and the mid-range Steel 2 ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Gionee’s Amigo UI overlay. It packs a 4000mAh battery weighs 162g and measures 150 x 74.5 x 7.7 mm.
The specs of the F5L definitely screams mid-range but the pricing might not. Seeing as it has a larger RAM than the Steel 2 which is currently priced at ¥1299 (~$190), the Gionee F5L will most likely be priced around $200 to $250.
Since it has already been certified by TENAA, the phone should launch anytime soon. And when it does, you will be able to choose from either white or gold color options.
Xiaomi recently announced via its MIUI official Weibo page that the MIUI would soon bring a new screen recording feature which would be available at the end of February when the stable version of the feature would debut. The post did reveal that the feature has been on test on some devices like the Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi 5 and Xiaomi Mi Note.
Two videos demonstrating the latest feature has appeared on MIUI forum showing how it works. From the video, it can be gathered that the feature allows users to freely select the resolution size, picture quality, the numbers of frames, display touch points, as well as the ability to show or hide the physical buttons, and so on. Also, the feature allows the user to set the screen mode to vertical or horizontal when recording something playing on the screen. There is also the option of selecting an automatic mode as well.
Another cool thing about the recording feature is that it doesn’t affect or obstruct the smooth operation of other features on the phone. As stated, the Xiaomi Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi 5 and Mi Note will get the feature first, while other Xiaomi smartphones running MIUI will join the fray later on. Here are the links to the demo videos in case you want to check them out.
Huawei started the year with the launch of the Honor 6X in the US. While the 6X is actually a phone released in 2016, this new device spotted on TENAA can be said to be one of their new devices for 2017.
The phone with model number “WAS-AL00” looks like a Honor 8 but lacks the dual rear cameras and laser focus module, and has a square-shaped fingerprint scanner. The corners of the device are rounded and you have Huawei’s logo sitting close to the bottom and on the lower bezel in front.
The specs on TENAA says the device will have a 5.2-inch 1080p display, a Kirin processor clocked at 2.1GHz, 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage. It will also have a 12MP rear camera and an 8MP shooter in front. Under the hood is a 2900mAh battery while the OS is Android Nougat 7.0 with Huawei’s EMUI 5.0 overlay.
The Moto Z can be said to be the first smartphone that got the modularity thing correctly although with some shortcomings such as the high price of the Moto Mods. The phone will be getting a new model this year and while we don’t know anything yet about it’s design we already know a few specs thanks to a Geekbench listing.
A device with model name “motorola XT1650” presumed to be the Moto Z (2017) was benchmarked in the early hours of today. Seeing as it is sporting a msm8998 a.k.a. Snapdragon 835, chances are that it is Motorola’s (Lenovo) flagship for the year.
The device is running the latest version of android (Android 7.1.1) and has a Qualcomm 8-core chip clocked at 1.9GHz. There is also 4GB of RAM on board. It appears Motorola is not joining the 6GB bandwagon this year. How that will help them in the face of several 6GB RAM phones remains unknown.
The test scores for the Moto Z (2017) are quite impressive. In the single-core test, it scores 1930 points and goes on to score a total of 6207 points in the multi-core test. Both scores are higher than what we saw on the Essential FIH-PM1 weeks ago.
AliExpress is one of the biggest shopping sites in the world. You can find a large percentage of the things you are looking for there ranging from electronics to clothes to shoes to furniture and to car parts. To sum it up, if China makes what you are looking for, AliExpress has it.
However, even though AliExpress is quite popular, some folks have never shopped on the site, probably because they are scared of losing their money or they don’t know how things work on the site. You have noting to fear as shopping on AliExpress is safe and secure. I will provide a guide below on how to shop on AliExpress without any worries.
What You Need to Shop on AliExpress
An AliExpress account
AliExpress App
An accepted payment option (MasterCard, Visa, Maestro, Western Union, QIWI)
First thing to do is to create an account on AliExpress. You can do this on the AliExpress website here or download the app and sign up there. Once you are done, you can sign in and start shopping.
I will advise that you use the AliExpress app as you get better prices on it. Yes, shopping via the app is cheaper than shopping on the main site as there is usually a difference in price from even if it is just a few cents.
One you login on the app, you can go ahead and add other things you will need such as your shipping address and your preference. The latter is so that the AliExpress app only shows recommendations of things you like. So if you are interested in furniture (home decor) and car parts, the app recommends products related to only those two.
Making Your First Purchase
Now, it is time to make your first purchase. Let’s say you want to buy a new Android TV Box, we can narrow it down as that search query is still pretty vague, we can search for Xiaomi Mi Box instead. Once the results are shown, you can go on to customize the search results to make the search easier. By pressing the filter tab you can select a price range for the product you want or if you want items that ship for free. Once you are done apply your changes and your search results should be different. You can also customize how the results are presented: from highest price to lowest or vice-versa; based on the number of orders sold; or seller’s ratings.
Select one of the search results and you’ll get presented with a brief description of the item. Scroll down and you can see a full description, user feedback, store info and even a way to contact the seller in case you have any questions about the product that have not been properly clarified in the description.
How to Know A Good Seller From A Bad One
Spotting a good seller is not difficult. First, their user reviews usually contain images of the product. It is not a criteria but stores that have them are better. Second, when you scroll down to check the store, their feedback rating, feedback count and follower count are usually pretty high. You can tap on the feedback rating to see a full breakdown of the score.
Some stores don’t have a high feedback count and follower count probably because they sell small items like phone cases, tempered glass and the likes which usually don’t have high orders like phones. Since these items are usually priced under $5, you can take the risk and purchase from them. All you have to do is check their feedback rating. Once it is above 80%, they are good.
Secret Tip: You can even ask the seller if he can offer you a discount. If he agrees to do that, all you have to do is try and purchase the item but when you are asked to enter payment details, cancel the purchase. The order moves to a section called “Orders awaiting payment”. The seller can adjust the price from there and you can go ahead to complete the purchase later.
You can proceed to add the item to your cart or buy straight away if it is what you are looking for. Do note that the store with the highest number of orders is not usually the one with the best price. The key is patience. Keep checking and you will find a seller that offers the same item for a lower price and still has good reviews.
Another thing you should take advantage of is coupons. AliExpress offers coupons on certain stores if you spend a certain amount. If what you are buying meets the criteria for a coupon, the coupon’s value will be deducted from your final balance.
Coupons are different from seller discount. A seller’s discount is applied automatically but you have to get the coupon yourself.
The image below is an example. If you are buying something worth $79, you can save $7 by grabbing the $3 coupon and combining it with the seller discount of $4 which you qualify for if your order is up to $79.
Once you get to checkout, double check that your address and phone number are correct. Select “Pay Now” and you will be asked to enter your card details. Once payment has been accepted, your order moves to a new tab: “Payment Awaiting Confirmation”. Confirmation doesn’t take more than 24 hours before moving to Orders Awaiting Shipment. Once your order has been shipped, you will get a notification. Shipped orders will be classified under the “Goods Awaiting Confirmation” tab. All these tabs can be accessed when you swipe from the left side of the screen and select “My Account”.
Depending on the shipment method used, your order should arrive between 10 to 60 days. A tracking number will be provided for you though and you can also communicate with the seller between the period of payment (in case you want to change something about the order before it is shipped) and after your order arrives.
AliExpress Disputes
AliExpress is not a perfect site but it takes customer satisfaction really seriously. If there is an issue with your order such as it being wrong or partially damaged or not arriving at all, you can open a dispute. When you open a dispute, you can decide to request for a full or partial refund.
Some sellers might tell you to message them privately if there is an issue and they will resolve it for you. You can decide to settle for that and not open a dispute.
AliExpress strives to make sure only original and quality items are listed on the site, so if you get a fake or substandard item, endeavor to leave an honest feedback so that other buyers can steer clear of the seller.
Chinese innovative startup OnePlus launched a faster and more capable variant of its OnePlus 3 flagship dubbed OnePlus 3T two months ago. The OnePlus 3T comes with a faster processor as well as a more capable front-facing camera. Meanwhile, the rear camera is the same 16MP sensor with OIS, EIS, and 4K video output as found on the OnePlus except the EIS which is a new addition. That camera has now been put to test in a recent photo shoot organized by Qualcomm in China. The Photo shoot captures various scenery at night and really, the output is just amazing.
The device features a Snapdragon 821 chipset which is said to be 10% faster than the Snapdragon 820 chipset on the OnePlus 3. No doubt, the more powerful chipset would give the OnePlus 3T a more efficient camera even though it features the same rear camera sensor. Apart from the sensor, the device is also revealed to feature a Qualcomm Spectra image signal processor (ISP) which co-ordinates stuff like autofocus, exposure, and white balance for the camera. This is perhaps, the main feature the photo shoot is meant to project.
Interestingly, the images were captured at night and despite that, they still come clean, without any image noise.The images are crisp clear and quite stunning for images shot by a smartphone. For those who still want to see more shots of the Oneplus 3T’s camera, the images will be on exhibition between January 19 and February 27 at a photography exhibition event in China. Meanwhile, you can check out more stunning shots from the shutter of OnePlus 3T’s camera from down below.
Barely a month after Lenovo took the wraps off its Tango-enabled Pahb2 Pro, the company has launched the smartphone in India. The Lenovo Phab2 Pro is now available in the US, Europe, China, and India. In India, the AR smartphone will be available exclusively on Flipkart and carries a price tag of 29,990 Rupees (around $440) which is way cheaper than the price it went up for in China.
The Phab2 Pro comes in as the world’s first use of Google’s Tango technology in a consumer device. It features a 6.4-inch IPS display with 2K (QHD) resolution. The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor which is backed by 4GB of RAM as well as 64GB of internal storage. There is also a large 4050mAh battery onboard the device which has support for fast charging.
On the camera end which is the main highlight on the smartphone, the Project Tango-enabled Lenovo Phab2 Pro sports a 16MP main camera at the rear, as well as Tango motion detection and position sensors. There is also a rear fingerprint sensor just under the cameras. Up front, the Phab2 Pro features an ample 8MP front-facing camera for selfies. The device also comes with a Dolby Audio Capture 5.1 with Dolby Atmos audio system onboard.
Meizu launched the Meizu M5 around November last year in China and they added the M5 Note to the series in December. The Meizu M5s is also expected any moment from now but that isn’t the news. The latest news regarding the two Meizu smartphones is that they may soon be available in other countries outside of China.
The M5 and M5 Note were spotted recently on Postel in Indonesia which is the country’s telecoms regulator just like US FCC and China’s TENAA. The listing on the Indonesian regulatory agency’s website showed the device has been certified and that seems to have been done yesterday. However, there is no other information as to when the devices will be launched in Indonesia or any other country and the price the device will carry. Suffice it to say that the M5 Note starts at 899 yuan ($130), while the M5 starts at 699 yuan (around $100) in China and those prices may not hold water, considering the costs of shipping, tax, and other stuff will have to be included in the mix.
It is worthy of note that the international version of the Meizu M5 will launch running on Android-based FlymeOS as against the YunOS which the Chinese edition featured.
Recently, an unknown tablet device popped up on GFXBench with some spectacular specs lineup that looks too good to be true. It has now emerged that the unknown tablet could be a Nokia tablet.
Nokia Tablet Concept
The tablet was displayed to have an 18.4-inch touchscreen display with a whopping 2k resolution and is said to support at least 5 finger gestures. The screen size is coming as a bit of a surprise because at 18.4 inches, it is no longer a tablet but more of a laptop screen size. However, we’ll quickly acknowledge the fact that GFXBench’s screen size is not always accurate. It is possible the tablet has an 8.4-inch display.
The Nokia tablet is also listed as running Android 7.0 Nougat as well as being powered by an octa-core Qualcomm chip with a frequency of 2.2GHz said to be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip. The processor is backed by 4GB of RAM and there is 64GB of internal storage. The camera is given as 12MP sensors both at the front and rear cameras. There is also support for WiFi, 4G LTE, NFC, GPS and many other features.
We don’t know for sure how true this is but Nokia is expected to release a Snapdragon 835-powered flagship smartphone at MWC 2017. The tablet could be among the gadgets that would be launched that day.
Xiaomi Mi Mix was released last year with some innovative features which includes its near bezel-less wide screen with a high screen-to-body ratio. The design of the smartphone was also revolutionary with the smartphone getting featured on Times magazine because of its beautiful design.
It has now been revealed by Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun that the Mi Mix also won several awards since its release both on the domestic scene and internationally because of its exceptional design which took the idea of concept phone to an all new level. Some of the awards were as recent as during the CES 2017. Lei Jun revealed this via a Weibo post meant to thank fans for their support. The poster attached to the post contained a list of media houses which awarded the Mi Mix some recognition and it includes names like PCPOP.com, Tech Advisor, IT168.com and several others. You can check it out from down below.
Some of the awards comes with titles such as Annual Innovative Products, Annual Product Innovation Awards, Innovative Mobile Phone of the Year, Best Industrial Design Mobile Phone, Yearly Design Mobile Phone, Annual Innovative Product, Annual Mobile Phone of the Year, Best Of CES 2017, Annual Mediocrity Design terminator, the best innovative mobile phone design etc. Basically, they are all related to the innovative design and other innovative features the Concept Mi Mix came with.
Huawei has joined the league of smartphone makers rumored to have a launch at MWC 2017 at hand, with the flagship Huawei P10 expected to drop during the tech event. Before now, we had seen a couple of renders of the said P10 revealing the design. One feature that stood out and had featured in rumors, is that the P10 would use the same Leica co-engineered dual-lens camera setup as its predecessor. That rumor seems to be gaining ground as we have got a couple of leaked images of the P10’s internal components said to have been grabbed from the production factory.
The Huawei P10 internals were posted on Slashleaks yesterday and from the photos, we can see that there is a home button hole up front, so we might get a front fingerprint sensor on the device. Another feature evident in the leaked photos is the presence of dual cameras at the rear.
There are also rumors that in addition to the P10 which is expected to have a 5.2-inch 1080 display with 3100mAh battery, there will also be a P10 Plus which will feature a 5.5-inch curved display with 2K resolution. The P10 Plus is also said to have a bigger 3650mAh battery under its hood. Both versions are expected with the Kirin 960 chipset, with talks of a slightly upgraded Kirin 965 version persisting. The flagship will come equipped with a new dual-aperture f/2.0 Leica camera with support for two optical zooms and OIS. The global version is expected to come pre-loaded with Amazon’s Alexa Voice assistant (just like in the Mate 9) and Google services.
Also, it is worthy of note that the Huawei P10 is said to come with a new technology which involves adding a second screen through which users can see the phone’s signal, battery power and time without having to light up the primary display or home screen.
More rumors about Xiaomi‘s next generation Mi 6 flagship are still coming out, and for now, they are the only thing we can hold on to for information regarding the device mainly because Xiaomi is yet to release an official teaser in that regard. The latest rumor making the rounds is that the Xiaomi Mi 6 would be released in mid-March. The smartphone is also rumored to enter trial production next month.
Further, earlier rumors from China had suggested that the Mi 6 would have two versions in the aspect of processor. Before now, we had gotten rumors that the device will be the first Snapdragon 835-powered Chinese brand smartphone but now, it is said that there will be a second version with a MediaTek Helio X30 chip crammed inside. This is a rumor that we cannot confirm, because it is not the practice of Xiaomi to use a MediaTek chip on its flagship Mi series. Only the Redmi series had the tradition of featuring both Snapdragon and MTK chipsets.
Apart from the chip model, both the SD 835 and Helio X30-powered versions as rumored, also have certain marked features that differentiate them from one another, according to the leaked info. Some of the rumored features include that the Snapdragon 835-powered Mi 6 version would have two memory versions both using OLED panels and having 2K resolution. There is a 6GB +256GB version as well as a 4GB + 128GB version. On the other hand, the Helio X30-powered version comes in a 4GB + 64GB memory version. The base price of 1,999 yuan ($291) is also rumored to still be intact, while the higher versions are rumored with 2,499 yuan ($363) and 2,999 yuan ($436) price tags respectively.
Also, the Mi 6 flagship is still rumored to use the underglass ultrasonic scanner that made its debut on the Mi 5S and run Android 7.0 Nougat. In addition, the Mi 6 flagship is said to have an upgrade in its camera to a 12MP Sony IMX362 sensor. The display is also said to have two versions; one is a straight or flat screen display, while the other is a curved display but both having different prices.
The reason behind Galaxy Note 7 explosions will be officially revealed by Samsung through a press conference that will be held on Jan. 23 at 10 am KST in Seoul. It will be live streamed on Samsung’s website.
The Galaxy Note 7 flagship smartphone from Samsung was officially unveiled at the beginning of August 2016. Even before it reached more markets, news about overheating and explosions started surfacing. Samsung carried out its first Galaxy Note 7 recall in September 2016.
Samsung tried to fix the issue by relaunching the Note 7 in October. However, the Galaxy Note 7 units continued to explode. Hence, the South Korean company had to permanently discontinue the phablet in the same month. Samsung and its carrier partners have been sending out software updates that prevents the device from charging again. Such an attempt was done to compel Note 7 users to return their handsets.
Samsung has investigated into the issue, but the actual reason that has caused Galaxy Note 7 units to explode has never been announced. After carrying out comprehensive investigations for several months, not only by Samsung but also by independent organizations on Note 7 incidents, the findings will be revealed through the upcoming press conference on Jan. 23.
Investors want the South Korean company to reveal a convincing reason for the Note 7 debacle before the alleged unveil of Galaxy S8 smartphones in April. In its statement, Samsung has also said that it will announce new measures that it has implemented in response to the incidents. Rumor are rife that the defective batteries may have caused the Note 7 explosion incidents.
After the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, the rumor mill started claiming that Samsung will discontinue the Note series. However, a recent report from South Korea has revealed that Samsung will not give up on the highly popular Galaxy Note brand. Hence, a Note 8 is speculated to release later this year.
LG has recently confirmed that it will be present at the next month’s MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2017 event. Rumors are rife that LG will unveil the LG G6 flagship smartphone at the event. Now, fresh LG G6 renders have surfaced that shows the flagship placed inside a case.
The image suggests that much of the front side of the LG G6 is occupied by its unusually tall display. Rumors have it that the LG G6 has a 5.7-inch screen that is expected to carry support for Quad HD+ resolution of 1,440 x 2,880 pixels. It offers an aspect ratio of 18:9 and a pixel density of 564 ppi. The LG logo can be seen on its chin like its predecessor.
The side view of the smartphone suggests that the phone will be sporting a very thin form factor. There is no visible bump on the dual camera system. The fingerprint sensor is placed below the dual camera module. Hence, the rear view of the device is quite similar to LG G5. The G6 logo sits at the bottom side of the rear panel.
A teaser video has revealed that its next flagship will be an ideal smartphone as it will come with features such as a wonderful camera, a large screen for multi-tasking, and a waterproof chassis.
Speculations are rife that the Snapdragon 835 SoC coupled with 4 GB of RAM will be powering the LG G6. The South Korean company has also revealed the battery of its next flagship will not overheat even when the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees.
LG has confirmed in the recent past that it won’t be using a modular design on its upcoming flagship. Hence, the LG G6 will be coming with a metallic chassis. The LG G5 came with a removable battery, but its successor is expected to feature a non-removable battery that is pegged to carry support for wireless charging.
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