Nokia 6 Unboxing & Hands-on Images

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Jan 8, 2017

HMD Global released the Nokia 6 earlier today in what could be termed as a silent launch. There were no posters teasing the launch and up till this moment the official Twitter accounts of HMD Global and Nokia have no mention of the new phone.

That aside, quite a number of us are disappointed about the fact that the Nokia 6 gets shipped with a Snapdragon 430 processor instead of the Snapdragon 652/625 or even the more recent Snapdragon 653 SoC. While it does have a generous amount of RAM and storage, sporting any of the other processors mentioned above would have justified its ¥1699 (~$245) price tag. But the question is how well does the Snapdragon 430 perform?

The Snapdragon 430 is an 8-core A-53 processor built using the 28nm process and clocked at 1.4GHz with an Adreno 505 GPU. The processor supports OpenGL Es 3.1+ and has full network support. It is present in phones like the Xiaomi Redmi 3S and the Lenovo K6 which were released last year.

The Geekbench results for the Snapdragon 430 processor in the has the processor scoring 630 points in the single-test and and 2742 points in the multi-core test. For graphics performance, the Adreno 505 GPU achieves a score of 7.1 in GFXBench’s Manhattan off-screen test score.

Nokia 6 is Official: 4GB RAM, Snapdragon 430, and ¥1699 (~$245) Price

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Jan 8, 2017

Nokia just took the wraps off it’s first smartphone and it is called the Nokia 6. It appears it wasn’t a codename after all.

The Nokia 6 is made from a singe piece of aluminium. It sports a 5.5-inch Full HD display and comes with Android 7.0 out of the box.

There is a Snapdragon 430 processor under the hood, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. The rear camera is a 16MP sensor with LED flash; and for selfies, there is an 8MP shooter up front. There is LTE and dual SIM support and Nokia has thrown in a 3000mAh battery.

The Nokia 6 also sports dual speakers that pump out sound from all directions making ”you feel like you are inside the action”. There is also a front-mounted fingerprint scanner in front that doubles as the home button. Flanking the fingerprint scanner on each side are the back and recent apps capacitive keys. However, from the video below it does look like they are backlit.

The volume rocker and power button are positioned on the right hand side and the SIM tray is on the left.

Package Box of Upcoming ”Nokia 6” Phone Leaked: 5.5-Inch Display, Snapdragon SoC

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Jan 8, 2017

Nokia’s new phones are probably the most anticipated phones of 2017. Leaks have been pouring in non-stop about the new devices said to be about 6 or 7 in total. Today, what we have is a leaked image of the package box of one of the upcoming phones codenamed Nokia 6 and which appears to be a flagship device.

While the specs are in Chinese which hints that this model will probably hit China first, it isn’t difficult to make out the key specs.

First, if you take a look at the top left corner, you will see ”Nokia 6” written there which means that this should probably be the 6th Nokia phone coming out later this year.

The Nokia 6 phone will be launching with Android 7.0 Nougat, so you need not worry about updates. It will support 4G LTE have 4GB of RAM and have 64GB of built-in storage which can be expanded via a MicroSD card slot. The primary camera is a 16MP shooter and there is an 8MP camera in front.

The display of the Nokia 6 is a 5.5-inches 1080p screen and the processor is an unspecified Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. The Nokia 6 phone will also come with Dolby ATMOS.

Sony’s New Bravia TV is Designed Like a Desk Photo Frame

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Jan 8, 2017

Bravia (Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture) is a subsidiary of Sony that is associated with high definition TVs although once in a while they also work with the mobile phone division to make those crisp Xperia displays we love. At this year’s edition of CES they unveiled a new OLED TV whose design stands out.

While flat screen TV’s can either hang on your wall via a wall bracket or sit on your TV console table via a base that props it up, the Bravia A1E can’t do any of that. What it does is sit on it’s screen and rests on a sort of kickstand. To get a clear picture of what I mean think of a desk photo frame; that’s how this bad boy rolls.

The kickstand of the Bravia A1E isn’t just propping it up, it is also where the TV’s processor and other components are stored. Since the stand is ”hidden” behind the display, it provides the illusion of a display just standing on it’s own.

The way it stands is not the only thing that is special about this new TV, it has an edge-to-edge display which means there are no speakers around the TV (and behind it). So instead of making a separate sound bar like the Xiaomi Mi TV 4, the Bravia A1E churns out sounds from the screen itself, a technology Sony calls Acoustic Surface. This way, the sound literally hits you in the face.

The display actually contains four actuators, two on the left side and another two on the right. The actuators need to be supplemented with a woofer and Sony has installed one into the kickstand. If you touch the display while watching a movie you can actually feel it vibrate, but surprisingly it doesn’t cause jitters on the screen.

Huawei Records 42% Growth in Sales in 2016

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Jan 7, 2017

Huawei Consumer Business Group made public its expected annual performance figures for 2016. Sales revenue of 178 billion RMB was predicted, 42% up from that of 2015 and was able to ship 139 million units, an increase of 29% from the previous year.

The company has plans of surpassing that figure this year. According to Huawei CGB CEO, Richard Yu, ”In 2017, we (Huawei) will strengthen our supply chain, channels, R&D, services and any other areas required to streamline our operations, improve the efficiency of our decision-making and implementation, drive our internationalization strategy and proactively develop future capacity.”

Huawei achieved a number of breakthroughs in 2016. It’s customized version of android, EMUI is now more refined and deeply integrated with the company’s Kirin processors. Their phones also have better camera performance, thanks in part to their collaboration with Leica on the Huawei P9 and the Huawei Mate 9 models. Both companies have founded a joint research lab called Max Berek Innovation Lab that will focus on development and innovation in areas relating to optical systems, imaging algorithms, and virtual and augmented realities.

Their focus on artificial intelligence has also paid off as the Huawei Mate 9 will be the first phone to ship with Amazon’s AI assistant, Alexa pre-loaded.

The Huawei P9 and Mate 9 are the manufacturer’s only phones to have surpassed 10 million sales even after the latter suffered supply shortages due to the high demand. Their Honor sub-brand is not doing badly at all. The top of the line right now is the Honor Magic released towards the end of last year, and the dual-camera Honor 6X has received its US launch hoping to surpass the Honor 5X. The Honor 8 has also gotten positive reviews all over, standing as one of the major contenders to the OnePlus 3.

Vernee Mars Focuses on Aesthetics to Stand Out

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Jan 7, 2017

Most readers will agree that most phones in the last few years share several design similarities. Some manufacturers are not even ashamed of copying another phone’s design down to the last screw. The only difference is usually in the specifications, user interface, and price.

Vernee is one company that feels the attitude towards design should change. The company foresees a time when customers will suffer from what is called aesthetic fatigue caused by seeing the same design over and over again. It believes manufacturers who are not investing in design should do so as concentration on only specifications and pricing will negatively affect the development of the industry. Vernee is not just preaching and not practicing. It’s new phone, the Vernee Mars is a testament to its focus on design.

Vernee Mars

Vernee has worked hard on the design of the so that it stands out from the phones currently in the market. The front of the Mars sports a symmetric design and is fitted with a 2.5D display with rounded corners and sides. There is no physical buttons in front neither will you see the company’s brand name plastered on it. The company says a combination of Gel Suspension Technology and the ultra thin 1mm bezel allows the Mars to achieve a screen-to-body ratio of 81%. It’s fingerprint scanner is also on the side, which is sort of a rare thing to see on a Chinese phone.

For the back cover and frame, a 6000 series aircraft grade aluminium alloy that has undergone a total of 18 processes was used. Nano-injection molding and anodizing coloring process gives the cover a firm hold over the phone. The Vernee Mars is just 7.2mm thick, the surface has been treated with fine zircon (No. 220) and the sides are rounded allowing for a comfortable handling experience.

ZTE Reported to Be Cutting 5% of Its Global Workforce

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Jan 7, 2017

Report has it that ZTE Telecommunications Equipment Company is planning a layoff that will see up to 5% or 3000 employees of its global workforce lose their jobs. The news comes from Reuters who were informed by sources close to the company.

ZTE

While there are so many reasons to the layoff, it can be attributed to ZTE’s plans to restructure its operations and organizational structure after a poor financial year which can be partly blamed on the trade restrictions imposed by US Commerce department. An unnamed source has also said ZTE is using this as an opportunity to lay off employees who have applied for jobs at rival companies like Huawei.

Managers have already been briefed and the exercise is expected to be completed by the end of March. Majority of the layoffs will be concentrated in China (20% of employees there) where it has been losing market share for several quarters now.

LG’s New W7 “Wallpaper” OLED TV Is Just 2.57mm Thin & Sticks to the wall via Magnets

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Jan 6, 2017

LG is taking television to the next level by bringing in a technology we ordinarily would have thought is for the future. As they say, the future is now, and the Korean tech giant is proving that with the unveiling of its latest Smart OLED TV dubbed LG W7 “wallpaper” OLED television at CES 2017.

Yes, the new LG television is as thin as a wallpaper, literally! It has a thickness of just 2.57mm on one of its model which is 65-inch in size. The other models comes in 77 inches in size. Despite the thin build, the W7 is a full 4K HDR TV with no backlight but with the latest high-end picture quality.

Another awesome feature of the LG W7 OLED TV is that it can be attached directly to a wall using magnetic brackets, thus no traditional wall mount is needed. The SmartTV also comes with a huge companion sound bar that is attached with a thin-but-wide 82-inch ribbon cable. The sound bar sits behind the TV screen and it features Dolby Atmos sound. At the back of the sound bar, lies all the HDMI ports and connectivity ports for the W7. The LG W7 OLED TV uses a modular design which means the motherboard is positioned separate from the panel, a design which made the thin build possible.

The LG W7 OLED TV isn’t just a demo or a concept on display, but is a product which is set to hit the market later this year. LG is yet to announce the price tag, though, but we don’t expect it to come cheap.

YI 4K+ Action Camera Unveiled at CES 2017: 4K @ 60 fps Video Recording

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Jan 6, 2017

Chinese camera maker YI only has a few products to its name, the YI 4K Action Camera, YI 4K Action Camera 2 and a few more, but the company has garnered an enviable reputation for quality. Its cameras are even touted as the Go Pro killer and the company became solid that it didn’t need the Xiaomi brand attached to its name any more. Right now, the company has added another feather to its record, as it announced the YI 4K+ Action Camera today at CES 2017.

The YI 4K+ Action camera is reputed as the world’s first camera capable of capturing 4K video at 60 frames per second and it is said to be double of what the action-packed Go Pro Hero 5 Black is capable of shooting. That is not only where the YI Action cam comes first, but also in the aspect of the processor it packs. The YI 4K+ Action Camera is also the first to feature an Ambarella H2 System-on-Chip processor which offers a maximum bit rate of 120Mbps.

The Action camera is also touted to feature electronic image stabilization (EIS), live streaming capability, well filtered audio output in outdoors and also support for Virtual Reality (VR). The Smart camera also come with USB 3.0 and USB Type-C interface and other features.

It’s amazing that despite the well-packed features, the YI 4K+ Action Camera and the previous gen 4K Action camera all have the same size and design. The company left off short of announcing the price of the Action cam and availability details. But as usual, it should be available in China sometime soon.

Xiaomi Mi Note 2 Gets Three New Colors: Pink, Green & Purple

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Buy Xiaomi Redmi 4a from Lightinthebox.com

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Jan 6, 2017

Xiaomi finally held the much touted CES 2017 news conference where it launched three new products. A white pearl version of the Mi Mix, the Xiaomi Mi TV 4, and the Xiaomi Router HD were all unveiled by the company. Xiaomi also displayed a variety of new color variants for the Mi Note 2 which was hitherto available only in black and silver colors.

From the exhibition, the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 can be spotted adorning pink, green and purple coating on its body. It wasn’t disclosed if the new color versions were just for exhibition purpose or if they would indeed go on sale in the near future. But there seem to be no difference in the specifications of this new color versions and the ones that were initially released.

If ever the Mi Note 2 would come in pink, green or purple colors, it is likely to drop in China only. The company didn’t say anything about whether the trio of products released would be available outside of China anytime soon. You can take a tour of the Mi Note 2 images from down below.

Get A Beautiful and Affordable Xiaomi Redmi 4A for $100

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Linus

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Jan 6, 2017

Xiaomi’s Redmi smartphones have been one of the most successful budget devices out there. The Redmi 4a is one of the latest offerings and it costs just $100 at lightinthebox.com but it has a premium design and great specs.

As most of the manufacturers, the Xiaomi started using a lot of premium materials designing their phones. The Redmi 4A sports a metal housing (except for the plastic top and bottom parts for antennas).

One of they key selling points of this device is its 5″ 720p display, which makes the phone very compact and easily manageable by one hand.

The Xiaomi Redmi 4a is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 425 chip that is clocked at 1.4GHz. Also, the device has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, which is, as usual to the Redmi series phones, expandable via the microSD card slot.

Some other specs worth mentioning are a 13MP camera on the back and a 5MP shooter on the front. The device runs on the Android 6.0 with the MIUI 8 on top of it. Finally, a beefy 3120mAh battery should keep the lights on for a long period of time considering the fact that the phone has a small 5″ 720p display.

You can now get the Xiaomi Redmi 4a for a $100, which is a great price for the phone that has so much to offer.

OPPO Find 9 Project Exists, Launching in H1 2017 Says Rumor

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Jan 6, 2017

The elusive OPPO Find 9 project seems to still be in the works according to a recent rumor making the round. Just when we thought OPPO wasn’t going to release the Find 9 flagship anytime soon, the device popped up again with a company executive credited to have hinted that the Find 9 would be released within the first half of 2017.

This isn’t the first time we are getting rumors about the OPPO Find 9 launch. Since the release of the OPPO Find 7 in 2014, fans have been expectant of another true flagship from OPPO but over two years down the line, nothing is yet to materialize. All we keep getting are rumors upon rumors, despite the fact that OPPO has been actively releasing smartphones since then. But then no true flagship device has come out from the Chinese company since the Find 7.

The news of the Find 9 launching in the first half of 2017 was said to have been disclosed by a provincial executive at a recent OPPO shopping guide forum. Details about the location of the forum or the name of the company executive weren’t disclosed.

The OPPO Find 9 is rumored to come with a 5.5-inch dual edge AMOLED display with QHD resolution. The device is also rumored to sport a Snapdragon 835 chip as well as a whopping 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. There may be two versions, with one packing a Snapdragon 653 chip and 4GB + 64GB storage. There are also rumors that the device will not run the Color OS but rather, will come preloaded with a new AI system called Find OS which would be tailored to users’ needs. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, hoping this year will indeed be the year of the Find 9.

(source)

Xiaomi Mi 6 Benchmark Score Leaks, So Fast & Furious!

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Jan 6, 2017

There have been rumors that the duo of Samsung‘s Galaxy S8 flagship and the Xiaomi Mi 6 would be the first devices to use the Qualcomm latest flagship Snapdragon 835 chip onboard. Recently, it has even been repeatedly rumored that the Mi 6 would end up making it as the first device both on the domestic scene and globally, that would be powered by the powerful chip.

Now, to further lend credence to this assertion, what is said to be the benchmark score for the Xiaomi Mi 6 has surfaced online and the score is fiery, to say the least. Although, the benchmark data isn’t coming directly officially from AnTuTu but it is said to be the AnTuTu benchmark score the Mi 6 ran on testing. The data showed the Mi 6 pulled a score above 210,000 points, specifically 210,329 points. If actually this is true, it means the Mi 6 will indeed feature the Snapdragon 835 chip onboard.

At present, no smartphone around had recorded a score in that region when they were benchmarked. The most powerful device of them all, the iPhone 7 Plus with the Apple A10 chip inside only achieved a score of 18,300 points when it was benchmarked. The OnePlus 3T which was released recently sporting the Snapdragon 821 chip scored only 16,300 points when it passed through benchmark test.

The Xiaomi Mi 6 is tipped to launch sometime n February, just a month away and really, we would like to see this fire power in real life action.

(source)

Meizu Smartphones Get Massive Price Cut Ahead of Chinese Spring Festival

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Jan 6, 2017

Chinese Spring Festival is drawing closer and as a result, many smartphone manufacturers have kickstarted their promotional sales during which period there is usually a huge reduction in prices. Meizu has joined the fray today, as the company has announced its New Year deals with a reduction of up to 300 yuan and even 400 yuan in some cases, applicable to some of its smartphones.

From the announcement, Meizu smartphones which fall among the price reduction include; the Meizu MX6 which got a 200 yuan slash in its price, coming down to 1599 Yuan. The Meizu U10 also got 200 yuan off its price and is now available for just 799 yuan. The Meizu U20 wasn’t left out as it too got 200 yuan off its official price tag and is now up for grab for 899 yuan. The Meizu Metal which was released in 2015 also got a 300-yuan slash in its price, bringing down the price to 699 yuan.

In addition, the highest reduction in price was slammed on the Meizu Metal Gift Box version which had a 400 yuan reduction in its price. The device is also available now for 699 yuan. Considering the designs and initial rice tag of these smartphones, we’d say it is a fair and attractive reduction which should get many buyers interested.

Sales are currently on going and already some color variants of the Meizu smartphones on offer are out of stock.

(via)

Code Names For Three HTC Phones Hitting the Market Soon Leaked

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Jan 5, 2017

Over the next three months, Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC is expected to unveil three smartphones. Already, a teased poster had reveal a launch event for an HTC U-series device has been scheduled for January 12.

While we are yet to know the right names the devices would launch with, popular tipster and ROM developer @LlabTooFer has leaked the code-names by which the three upcoming HTC smartphones are known. According to a tweet he posted on Twitter, the three devices are code-named HTC Alpine, HTC Ocean Note and HTC E66 which he gave as the HTC One X10.

Earlier leaks have give the HTC Ocean Note as the HTC U Ultra that would be launched on January 12. The top of the pack is likely the HTC Alpine which is identified as the next gen flagship – HTC 11. The HTC One X10 was recently featured in a leaked render and is now identified with the code-name HTC E66.

HTC is going to release devices with following codenames: HTC Alpine, HTC Ocean Note and HTC E66 (HTC X10)…

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) January 5, 2017

The HTC U Ultra is rumored to have a 6-inch display and will be available in Black, White and Blue. The phablet will not carry a 3.5mm earphone jack but will use the Type-C USB port. On the other hand, the HTC One X10 is said to feature a 5.5-inch screen. Under the hood is the MediaTek MT6755 SoC with an octa-core 1.9GHz CPU, and the Mali T860 GPU. The rear camera weighs in at 16.3MP with a front facing 7.9MP snapper. Finally, 2017 flagship-type specs are expected for the HTC 11. That means a 5.5-inch screen with a 1440 x 2560 resolution and perhaps the recently unveiled Snapdragon 835 chipset will power the phone.

(source)

Xiaomi Mi Mix Pearl White Edition In Pictures: Premium & Elegant

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