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Key Specs Of Qualcomm Latest Snapdragon 835 Chip Leaked

Qualcomm officially announced its next generation flagship processor dubbed Snapdragon 835 a couple of days back. The company left off short of announcing the parameters of the new processor but did reveal that it uses Samsung’s 10nm FinFet technology and would make its debut in smartphones in the first half of next year 2017.

snapdragon 835

Details have now emerged that the Snapdragon 835 chipset is actually spotting the model number MSM 8998 which we first spotted on an import listing on Zauba sometime back. Just that the chip was rumored then as Snapdragon 830. The key specs of the latest Snapdragon chip was also leaked recently and is revealed to use an upgraded version of the 64 autonomous Kyro 200 architecture with four large and four small octa-core design. The frequency is not yet known.

 

In addition, the Snapdragon 835 is listed as using the new Adreno 540 GPU which would likely give it a superior graphics performance. The chip also integrates LTE X16 baseband and supports LTE Cat.16. The processor is said to offer a blazing download speed of up to 1Gbps. The SD 835 chipset also supports four-channel LPDDR4X-1866 memory as well as UFS2.1 flash memory.

qualcomm

Apart from the Snapdragon 835, the leaked photo also reveals the specifications of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor built on Samsung 14nm FinFet LPP manufacturing process and having a maximum clock speed of 2.2GHz. The Snapdragon 660 processor also integrates Adreno 512 GPU. The chip also uses X10 baseband that supports two channel LPDDR4X-1866 memory, as well as UFS 2.1 flash memory.

Read More: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC Announced: 10nm FinFet Process & Quick Charge 4.0

The Snapdragon 835 chipset would enter production in the first quarter of 2017 and its first production is projected to be on the Samsung Galaxy S8 flagship which would be unveiled at next year’s MWC. On the other hand, the Snapdragon 660 chip would enter into production in the second quarter of 2017.

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Images of Huawei P10’s Front Screen Panel Leak

Huawei is expected to release the P10 flagship next year but that has not stopped rumor mongers and tipsters from revealing some of the innovative features of the device. The Huawei P10 is likely Huawei’s next big thing after the Huawei Mate 9 and its variants so we expect some new features on the device.

huawei p10 screen

Earlier leaked renders of the device had pointed at the existence of a dual rear camera setup on the P10. A fresh set of images said to be those of the front screen panel of the P10 have also leaked and it reveals a couple of key features. The two images show display panel from both the internal and external aspects.

huawei p10

The leaked images reveal the device sporting a front fingerprint sensor embedded in the home button. The home button itself looks like a virtual button and according to the source, the device would likely feature the same ultrasonic fingerprint recognition technology found on Xiaomi Mi 5S. The home button design is oblong shaped just like the Mi 5S’. This isn’t the first time the existence of a front underglass ultrasonic fingerprint technology is cropping up, the P10 had earlier been rumored as likely featuring the innovative technology.

Read More: Huawei P10 Renders Leak Revealing Dual Camera Set up & More

The Huawei P10 has been revealed by benchmark data to feature a 5.5-inch Quad HD display, powered by the Kirin 960 chip clocked at 2.3GHz and supported by either a 4GB RAM on one version and 6GB of RAM on another.The device is also likely to have a 256GB of internal storage on the high-end variant. The device will come running Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box among other features. There is also NFC and fast charging support on the P10.

 

New Image Shows ZUK Edge in Black With Thin Bezels

The ZUK Edge was seen on Antutu earlier today, giving us more than a glimpse into what it’ll feature when it launches. We have also seen a couple of pictures showing the white version of the phone with slightly thinner bezels than we are used to seeing on phones.

ZUK Edge Black

A new image leaked online confirms that the ZUK Edge will also come in black. If you remember, the first leaked detail of the phone was an image of the pack in white and black. Although the new picture is not a close-up one of the phone, but we can tell that the bezels will appear thinner on it compared to the white unit.

The ZUK Edge is already shaping up to be a nice device. It sports a 5.5-inch Full HD display, a Snapdragon 821 SoC, 6GB of RAM,  64GB of storage and runs Android Nougat. It is also expected to be affordable just like the ZUK Z2 when it was announced.

READ MORE: ZUK Z2 NowUp for 1149 Yuan ($169) – Cheapest SD 820 Phone

Huawei Closes in on Apple With Less Than 3% Gap in Q3 2016 Market Share

Huawei‘s projection for the year is looking very realistic by the day, as the company has posted a rather improved result in its performance during the third quarter of this year, Gartner reports.

huawei-store logo

According to the report by research firm Gartner, the China-based tech giant still maintained its third position in the global smartphone sales ranking for the third quarter 2016. Apart from that, Huawei grabbed a large slice of the market share for Q3 2016 thereby closing in on Apple who still sits at the second position. However, Apple’s lead over Huawei has shrunk a great deal according to the report, with the difference in market share coming down to less than 3%. This is attributed to Huawei making in-roads into the high-end smartphone sales, spurred by model such as Honor which was a hot sell in top-end markets.

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OPPO, another Chinese brand owned by BBK Electronics, also posted a very strong result during the third quarter. The company followed closely behind Huawei at number four in Gartner’s global ranking for the quarter under review. OPPO is closely followed by BBK Communication Equipment, another subsidiary of BBK Electronics.

Related: GFXBench Benchmark Test Reveals Huawei P10 Specs

Korean giant Samsung maintained its overall lead in global smartphone market share ranking for the third quarter but recorded a 14.2% loss in global market share when compared to the same period last year. Gartner posits that this was the worse ever posting by the company. The loss may be unconnected with the company’s botched Galaxy Note 7 which was predicted to amass a huge loss due to its withdrawal from the market over battery explosion related issues.

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Gizmochina Giveaway – Win A Free MGCOOL Band 2

mgcool band 2

Gizmochina along with MGCOOL official is conducting 3 units MGCOOL Band 2 as Giveaway to gift to 3 of our lucky readers. Like always, you just have to follow the steps mentioned on the Gleam widget to get a chance to win this amazing smartphone.

mgcool band 2

MGCOOL Band 2, the wearable we presented some time ago is here and at a very competitive price too, only $18.99 on Gearbest. Here is the main features of MGCOOL Band 2:

  • Bluetooth version: Bluetooth 4.0
  • Waterproof: Yes
  • IP rating: IPX7
  • Bluetooth calling: Phone call reminder
  • Messaging: Message reminder
  • Health tracker: Heart rate monitor,Sleep monitor
  • Remote control function: Remote Camera,Remote music
  • Notification: Yes
  • Notification type: Facebook,G-mail
  • Other function: Alarm

Just follow the steps mentioned in the Gleam widget to participate in the giveaway. Good luck!

Gizmochina Giveaway – Win a Free MGCOOL Band 2

Update: Please sure you have visited MGCOOL official Facebook page, and Liked it. We will pick winner from who liked MGCOOL’s Facebook page. Thanks for your understanding.

Update 2: The 3 winners are picked today, they are Edmond L, Jorge P and Claudiu E. Congratulation!

Gionee Curved Screen Phone with Leather Back and Dual Cameras Leak

This year major top Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and Huawei released curved screen phones. But it seems we will be getting another curved screen phone from a top manufacturer as images of a Gionee phone with a curved display have surfaced online.

The first thing you will notice about the phone is its weird design. It’s like Gionee is trying to settle for a luxury phone similar to what you will get from Vertu or 8848. The display size and type is unknown but it appears to be larger than 5.5-inches and that is excluding the huge black bands at the top and bottom of the screen.

gionee-curved-scrreen-2

The bezels have a groove-like design and run all the way to the back like they are cut from one single piece of metal. The top bezel houses the front facing camera on the right and the sensor on the left. The lower bezel on the other hand is where the fingerprint scanner/home button lies.

READ MORE: Gionee Releases Selfie Focused S6s in India for 17,999 Rupees

Rumored OnePlus 3T Pricing Info Reveals It’ll Be Cheaper In China

The OnePlus 3T was unveiled last week, sporting improved specs and a higher price tag which starts at $439. However, that price will not apply to all regions. If you remember, the OnePlus 3 was priced at $399 in the US but sold for £399 in the UK.

OnePlus 3T Pricing and Availability

The pricing for the OnePlus 3T has been released and they are as follows:

United Kingdom

OnePlus 3T 64GB Version = £399

OnePlus 3T 128GB Version = £439

Europe

OnePlus 3T 64GB Version = €439

OnePlus 3T 128GB Version = €479

United States

OnePlus 3T 64GB Version = $439

OnePlus 3T 128GB Version = $479

OnePlus 3T China Price

The OP3T is expected to sell for way lesser in China. Although its price has not been made official but an insider says the 64GB version will sell for ¥2799 ($406) and the 128GB version will be priced at ¥3299 ($478) which is roughly the same as that of the US. There is, however, a possibility that the price may be brought down to ¥3199 ($464).

The phone will be available in the United States starting tomorrow and in Europe on the 28th of this month.

It is important to mention that not only will the pricing be different but the bands will also vary according to regions. So if you are thinking of buying from a different region because it is cheaper, you may have to consider this factor unless you do not care about the bands supported.

READ MORE: Droid Battle: OnePlus 3T Versus Google Pixel

Nokia’s New Phone Will Likely Debut in China

Nokia has already confirmed its plan to get back into smartphone manufacturing next year. The company is collaborating with Finnish company, HMD Global, which is made up of ex-Nokia executives; and Chinese manufacturer, Foxconn. The three of them will handle separate roles that will lead to the re-emergence of the brand.

While the only phone we have heard about is the Nokia D1C which sports mid-range specs, a source says the company is working on a flagship phone that will first launch in China.

Nokia Android Phone

The phone is said to come in two sizes: 5.2-inches and 5.5-inches, which will use a 2K AMOLED display. It will sport Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chip, run Android Nougat, and have an IP68 rating which means you should be able to dunk it in water with a maximum depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes.

READ MORE: Real Renders of Nokia Smartphone With Metal Body Leaked

Meizu Could Release the Mystery Meizu X Flagship with Helio P20 on November 30

A few hours ago, Meizu officially confirmed that it will hold a launch event on November 30. While the company failed to give out a specific device name, media started to speculate that we could meet the rumored Meizu M5 Note at the event. But it looks like, Meizu could release a mystery device at the Nov. 30 event, most likely called as the Meizu X.

meizu x

Recently, a couple of images showing off the box of the Meizu X popped up on the social networking website Weibo, revealing the name of the device. The leakster further said that this particular model will be announced on November 30.

meizu

Further, a screenshot has also popped up online, which shows Meizu’s VP, Li Nan kind of confirming the name of the upcoming device — Meizu X, adding that more details will be announced tomorrow.

Given that this will be a new product lineup, we can expect some great specs on board. The tagline “Make Helio Great Again” on the invite confirms that the phone will be using a new Helio chipset and there are two possible options, the Helio P20 and the Helio X30. It’s too early for Helio X30 to release in the market, which means, the Meizu X should most likely feature Helio P20 chipset.

To recap, the Helio P20 features 8 x Cortex A53 cores clocked up to 2.3GHz with Mali-T880MP2 GPU and Cat.6 LTE support with dual-carrier aggregation. Performance wise, don’t expect too much improvement, but efficiency should be better since it is built on 16nm process as compared to Helio x20’s 20nm manufacturing node.

 

Huawei Mate 9 Completely Bent After Impact But Screen Remained Unbroken

At 5.9 inches, the Huawei Mate 9‘s screen is highly susceptible to several kinds of accidents that might cause it to break. That is perhaps why the Chinese tech giant offered users free accidental screen replacement for 3 months after purchase.

mate-9-pro-bent-weibo-post

However, a recent scenario shows us another dimension of the Mate 9 display we thought was fragile. It happened that a Mate 9 owner accidentally got his priced possession slammed by a door at home and the device got some disfiguring. Curiously, the disfigurement didn’t come in form of a broken display screen but an entirely bent device.

mate-9-pro-bent-03

The Mate 9 is housed in a metal fuselage which protects the internals but it didn’t protect it in this instance, perhaps due to the level of the impact. The force was so much that the entire device was completely bent at the point of impact, including the panels. Despite that, the display screen remained intact, unbroken but bent as if it is a flexible display. You might want to think this is one of Huawei’s concept device with flexible display if you’re not told.

Huawei mate 9

It is not known if the device continued working or even powered on after the bend.

mate-9-pro-bent-01

 

Meizu Sends out Press Invite For New Launch Event, Meizu M5 Note?

Meizu has sent out invitations to a new press conference holding on November 30 at the Beijing Performing Arts Center in China. The press invite didn’t specifically indicate the launch of a particular phone model but contained the caption “Make Helio Great Again”, a term that suggests a new model equipped with a Mediatek Helio chip is on the way.

meizu news conference

Meizu’s current line of smartphones are basically MediaTek powered with exception of the Exynos 7420 sporting Meizu Pro 5, so it becomes confusing why the company chose this caption. Again, the caption may indicate the coming of the M5 Note which had featured in several leaks of late. The device first appeared on GeekBench before it was spotted on China’s 3C website, thereafter it appeared on AnTuTu Benchmark.

Read More: Meizu M5 Note Spotted on GeekBench, Also Gets 3C Certification

It is instructive to note that the Meizu M5 Note packs a MediaTek Helio P10 (MT6755M) chipset, according to the benchmark data. Further, the device features a 1080 pixels resolution on the display which may likely be 5.5 inches in size (cannot be less than the M5’s 5.2-inch display). The device is also listed as coming along with the Mali-T860 GPU, supported by 3GB of RAM as well as 32GB of internal storage. The device is also listed as running Android Marshmallow 6.0 out-of-the-box. The M5 Note isn’t programmed to disappoint on the camera end, sporting 13MP rear camera as well as a 5MP front-facing camera for selfies.

 

Lenovo ZUK Edge Visits AnTuTu: Scores Over 160,000 With Snapdragon 821

Lenovo’s ZUK seems to be working on a new smartphone, the Lenovo ZUK Edge, as revealed by the company CEO last week. First, we saw a new ZUK device, most likely the Edge on TENAA, now it looks like the phone has passed through the benchmarking website, AnTuTu, revealing its major specs.

zuk edge specs

The Lenovo ZUK Edge (Z2151) will come with the Snapdragon 821 chipset clocked at 2.35GHz with 6GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The screen size is unknown but the resolution will be 1920 x 1080p. At the back, there will be a 13MP camera while up front, there will be an 8MP shooter. Another interesting feature revealed by AnTuTu is that the phone will be running Android 7 Nougat. Other possible specs of the device, as revealed by previous reports, are a 5.5-inch display and 3000mAh battery. All this translates into a score of above 160K on AnTuTu, which is great!

zuk edge antutu

Despite the name ZUK Edge, the phone most likely won’t be bezel-less. However, to justify this name, the device is said to feature super thin bezels and we already got a glimpse of the design via a leaked image last week.

ZUK Edge

Reports suggest that the ZUK Edge will launch via JD.com in China in three variants 4GB + 32GB (2999 Yuan ~ $435), 4GB + 64GB (3299 Yuan ~$478) and 6GB + 128GB (3699 Yun ~$536)

 

Vernee Apollo Finally Launching This Month: First MTK VR Flagship

We first heard about the Vernee Apollo flagship earlier this year, but news about the phone died down in the past few months. However, Vernee has finally announced that the Vernee Apollo flagship will be unveiled this month and it will go on sale from December.

vernee apollo 01

We already know a lot about the Apollo, but here’s a recap of the specs of the device. The flagship will feature MediaTek’s Helio X25 deca-core chipset clocked at 2.5GHz with Mali-T880 GPU. We are still unsure of the RAM inside, but a 6GB RAM option at launch. There should be 64GB of eMMC storage on board as well.

RELATED: Vernee Apollo with Helio X25 will threaten Xiaomi Redmi Pro

The Vernee Apollo is being called as the first Mediatek VR flagship, mainly because it will come with a high resolution of 2560x1440px (2K) with 541 ppi pixel density, making it ideal for using in VR headsets. This could also mean that Vernee may release a VR headset of its own soon, but we are not quite sure about it. As for the rear camera, the phone should come with a 20MP Sony IMX230 sensor.

vernee-apollo-flagship

The exact price of the Vernee Apollo is still not known, but the company is known for pricing its devices reasonably, so we can expect the same with its upcoming release. Earlier, it was said that the phone would go on sale for around $399, but we are waiting for official confirmation from the company.

Stay tuned for more updates on the Apollo flagship.

Zenoplige ZEN BOX Z2 Android TV Box Review – Great Value for Money

The market of TV boxes is pretty crowded and it may be hard to choose one that is the best for you. I came across the Zen Box Z2 TV box that costs just above $80 but it has some powerful internals and a lot of features for the price. Learn more in the full review.

VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aclrqC5y1s[/embedyt]

UNBOXING

20161116_124326 20161116_124529 20161116_124627

The TV box ships with the HDMI cable, some paperwork, a power plug and a nice remote control.

DESIGN and FEATURES

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The Zen Box sports quite a classic TV box design and it is made of plastic. The top sports glossy finish, which is prone to fingerprints and scratches quite easily.

We have a bunch of connectivity options that include 4 USB ports, HDMI input, Ethernet, AV, SPDIF and microSD card slot.

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On the bottom, there are silicone pads to prevent the box from sliding.

FUNCTIONALITY, USER INTERFACE AND PERFORMANCE

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This TV box (like most of the TV boxes out there) is meant to convert the non-smart TV to a smart one.

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The Zen Box Z2 runs on Android 6.0 out of the box with a custom skin on top of it. You can navigate through the menus either using the remote control or connect a Bluetooth keyboard like I did. That really helps to navigate or type faster.

The very first thing I noticed about this device is the speed. Honestly, my Samsung 4K TV’s user interface is a little slower, which is annoying.

It may be due to the fact that this TV box sports some pretty good internals like Amlogic S912 chip with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.

Within the user interface, you can adjust a lot of different settings to make sure you get the most of this device.

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Also, there are many pre-installed apps. Most of them are tailored for the multimedia consumption. You can watch movies, listen to music and so on.

The 4K video playback is smooth once I played a few files from the microSD card and the USB flash drive (make sure to use the fast memory cards for smooth playback).

What is more interesting is that you can download any apps you want from the Play Store. I’ve tested a few games like Asphalt 8 on the highest graphics and the playback was smooth. It is quite impressive considering that the TV box is connected to the 4K TV and it has to push so many pixels. Learn more about the user interface in our video review.

CONCLUSIONS

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The Zen Box Z2 is a great all-around TV box that performs great whether it would be just scrolling through the menus, typing or playing demanding 3D games.

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Also, it has quite a few ports that give you a ton of flexibility.

The only complaint would be that the top of the device sports a glossy plastic finish, which attracts dust, fingerprints and it is prone to scratches.

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Finally, the Zen Box Z2 may not be the only TV box out there but our test results suggest that it is a good, feature-rich and powerful device.

Huawei Mate 9 Pro Gets Dismantled in Teardown Treatment

The Huawei Mate 9 is a 5.9” device with a Full HD resolution but it has a smaller sized sibling with a curved 5.5-inch 2K OLED display called the Mate 9 Pro that has been released exclusively for China.

Huawei Mate 9 Pro

The Mate 9 Pro is not only different in terms of the screen, it is also the other Huawei phone (alongside the Mate 9 Porsche Design) to have its fingerprint scanner located in front. That single design change makes the phone look like it is a Samsung phone. Other differences the Mate 9 Pro has from the original Mate 9 are also in the design. The antenna lines are more visible and the LED flash and laser focus module now flank the dual-cameras at the top and bottom and not on the sides. The Mate 9 also sports just one speaker grille instead of two as the second speaker grille has been replaced by the 3.5mm jack.

READ MORE: Huawei P10 Renders Leak  Revealing Dual Cameras and More

You Might Soon Be Able To Purchase A White Xiaomi Mi MIX

The Xiaomi Mi MIX is a ”concept phone” that you can buy. It is a bezel-less 6.4” phone with a Sharp display that fits in your palms like you are holding a 5.5-inch phone. It is a beautiful phone that will turn heads every single time but its only available in black or so it seems as leaked photos of a white Xiaomi Mi MIX have surfaced online.

Xiaomi Mi MIX

The white unit is no different from the black. It should have the same RAM and storage as the black version unless they decide to make it a 6GB RAM exclusive. There is still a Snapdragon 821 chip, a 16MP rear camera, a 5MP front facing shooter, and a 4400mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0.

mi-mix-white-03 mi-mix-white-02

mimix-white-05

The white ceramic will also break the same way as the black and like most white phones from Chinese manufacturers, that ugly black line that runs across the edges of the display are visible. Apart from the above mentioned downsides, everything else should be fine and it should still turn heads.

READ MORE: Xiaomi Cashes in on Pollution Problem, Releases ¥69 ($10) Airwear Mask

LeEco X820 Max 2 Super Unbrick Guide

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LeEco Max 2, might be the best buy for the money you spend as for just above 200$ you get a Snapdragon 820 power house under a 5.7″ 2K screen in a very well crafted metal unibody. 4GB Ram is more than enough for all of us. LeEco’s bootloaders are easy to unlock and being a popular phone there are many developers who are developing or porting custom roms. Here we open the door to custom rom world. To be able to flash a custom rom ( or even a stock rom, we will do it in this guide) we need a custom recovery first and that custom recovery is Twrp mostly. These things are not so hard on paper if you are an experienced user. You just need to read carefully all the steps and use right files of course. What if something goes wrong ? You can end up with a hard bricked phone in your hands that can’t boot anymore, no sign of life. Why ? Because you messed up your phones boot partitions or its partition table. That failure can only be fixed if you have service rom of your model. I mentioned in my Xiaomi unbrick guide, for some models these roms are very easy to find, all “fastboot” roms for Qualcomm Xiaomi models are also service roms with all necessary key files to unbrick in them. For phones like LeEco Snapdragon models that service roms leak after a couple of months. Today we will learn how to unbrick/rescue our dead LeEco Max 2 X820’s that we finally have service rom in our hands.

Files to download :

  1. Max 2 Service Rom (don’t unzip)
  2. Flash Software
  3. Qualcomm Drivers

We won’t be using Qfil Qualcomm flasher this time, we will use a program called “FlashOne1.9”, I don’t know the developer of this software but a very big thanks to him that it makes flashing much easier than Qfil, it still uses inbuilt Qfil of course but with less clicks and easier GUI.

STEP 1:

This rescue operation is not only for hard bricked Max 2’s, you can use this method to return of a stock “unlocked” developer rom too, your phone is booting but stuck at the logo or for any situation that you want to fix. Thanks to LeEco we can open our service/EDL port very easily with a key combination (even dead brick). Just press volume + and volume – buttons together while powering up, phone will get into EDL mode. After that step 1 is to install our Qualcomm QDLoader 9008 driver, it’s a signed driver so no need to disable driver signature of Windows OS. Just double click driver package,

driver

Choose WWAN or ETHERNET in this window, it’s not important which one to select, and finish the installation. You should see your Qualcomm QDLoader 9008/EDL (emergency download) port after under “ports” tab in your device manager. It is COM27 in my example.

edl_9008-port

STEP 2:

Unzip FlashOne 1.9 file that you have downloaded anywhere you want and double click the “main.exe” inside the folder. First, choose  “Qualcomm – flash dead phone” from the drop down menu next to “Flash type”.

flashone-qualcomm

Then click “Refresh button” next to “Select Device”, your 9008 port will show up.

port

Next, we will browse for our Qfil/service rom by clicking “Select File” and choose the rom file you have downloaded before, no need to unzip it, the flasher will do it.

rom

After everything is set up under “Settings” we are ready to click “Flash” button.

unzip

After you click flash button, FlashOne will start to unzip the rom, this will take minimum 10 minutes or more depending on your PC’s power, so you are free to go and make a coffee in between, or your cup of Earl Grey if you are a tea guy like me 🙂

flashing2

After decompressing is done, the actual flash procedure will start.

error

If you get an error like this, just put your phone into EDL mode again by pressing both volume buttons and power buttons (hear the USB unplug and plugged sound), then click the flash button again, choose “not to unzip” the rom file this time because it’s already done.

flash_finish

Done! Wait for about 10-15 seconds after you see this message, if your x820 won’t power itself and reboot, do as the message — long press power button to reboot it manually.

Your Max 2 will boot with a developer version of EUI, with an unlocked bootloader.

STEP 3:

storage

After your phone boots, you will see that its storage is abnormally 9.71 GB, to fix this just factory reset your phone choosing the option “Format Virtual SD card”. The File system will be restored to normal values.

STEP 4: (Optional)

fastboot

“Official TWRP 3.0.2-0 for LeEco Max 2 x820” — Download this custom recovery and Snoop05’s “adb setup“. Install adb and fastboot to your system if you haven’t done it before, choosing “Yes” in every step including “install device drivers” too.

Put your Max 2 into fastboot mode while pressing volume “-“ and powering up.

Unzip twrp to any folder you want, go to that folder, right click holding down “Shift” key on your keyboard and choose “Open command window here“.

Type :

fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.0.2-0-x2.img  (copy from here and paste to command window > right click > paste )

twrp

And press enter. Reboot your phone into recovery while pressing volume “+” button and long pressing power button till it reboots. You will see TWRP screen, thick “Never show this screen during boot again” and “Swipe to Allow Modifications”.

That’s all folks. You are ready to flash any stock or custom rom to your LeEco Max 2 now. Here is the latest 5.8.019S (Stable) official rom, it’s multilanguage and Google preinstalled.

See you in the next guide.

 

Xiaomi Mi Mix Put Through Drop Tests

The Xiaomi Mi Mix has been on sale for about two weeks now and those who were able to snag a unit during the extremely short flash sales have started receiving their phones.

The Xiaomi Mix is a fragile phone and this is due to its lack of bezels on three sides and its ceramic body. So you have to be very careful if you own one as chances of it surviving a drop is very slim. So at what height does the Mi Mix crack? YouTuber, JerryRigEverything has decided to find out for us in his drop test.

Xiaomi Mi Mix

First he mentions that in his durability test of the phone, the Mi Mix’ ceramic body is pretty strong, scoring almost 8 on the scale of hardness. The first drop test is from a height of 6 inches and the Mix survives without a scratch. The second drop test cranks it up to 1 foot and it still doesn’t shatter even though the fall causes it to bounce off the concrete and flip over.

The straw height that breaks the Mix’s back is 2 feet and to be honest it may have survived the fall if it had landed face flat and not on the top right corner. The fall chips out the ceramic and leaves two cracks that run  across the whole length of the display.

READ MORE: Xiaomi Mi Band 2 Update Will Add Support for Chinese Font

Knock Off Apple Airpods Go on Sale Before Originals

Apple eventually removed the earphone jack from their new phones and in typical Apple fashion, they announced a pair of expensive wireless in-ear earphones called Airpods that you can purchase for your phone.

Airpods

While we don’t want to start on how ridiculous the Airpods look, we’d rather talk about the availability. The Apple Airpods are not yet on sale, if you check the Apple store it is listed as unavailable. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get your hands on it, that is if you are comfortable buying knock offs.

airpods

Chinese online mall Taobao has a pair of Airpods look alike made by a manufacturer called Dacom that are priced between ¥125-¥299 (~$18-$43) which is way cheaper than the ¥1095 ($159) Apple is asking for.

READ MORE: OnePlus Unveils Bullets V2 Earphones with Better Optimized Audio

Huawei Silently Releases Mate 9 Lite: Sports Dual Cameras Too!

I do not remember who started the trend of releasing a smaller version of a flagship phone but my earliest memories of that trend comes from Samsung. Their flagships like the Galaxy S3, S4, and S5 all have mini variants which are not only smaller but have watered-down specs. Huawei does the same thing too but uses the word ”Lite”, and in what can be regarded as little or no fanfare at all, they have released the Huawei Mate 9 Lite.

Mate 9 Lite Mate 9 Lite

The Mate 9 Lite is the Mate 9 for those on a budget. It has a metal build and a 5.5” 2.5D screen like the Mate 9 Porsche Design and Mate 9 Pro but lacks a 2K resolution, instead it settles for 1080p. There is a Kirin 655 chip under the hood paired with either 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM or 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM.

Huawei has also retained the dual camera setup on the rear. However it is a 12MP + 2MP combo that doesn’t have Leica’s branding. The 12MP sensor has 1.25nm pixels and  PDAF. It does the bulk of the work while the 2MP sensor captures depth information. There is an 8MP shooter in front for selfies.

Mate 9 Lite Mate 9 Lite

The Huawei Mate 9 Lite has a fingerprint scanner on the rear, a 3340mAh battery, runs Android Marshmallow out of the box and doesn’t even get EMUI 5.0. While it is too early to say, the chances of it being upgraded to Nougat are slim but might get EMUI 5.0 though. I guess toning down the software is also part of the ”lite” definition.

Mate 9 Lite

READ MORE: Huawei Mate 9 Scores Over 132000 on Antutu