OPPO’s R9s is scheduled to launch on October 19 and it’ll be the first phone to feature Sony’s new IMX398 camera.
A new leak has revealed that the phone will also have a new antenna design allowing it to achieve an ultra-thin body made of 98.8% metal with a thickness of just 6.58mm.
The leak also adds that the screen of the OPPO R9s will be covered with Gorilla Glass 5 which hopefully someone is going to put to test just like they did with the Galaxy Note 7.
Other details mentioned include a Snapdragon 625 processor, a 3010mAh battery, VOOC fast charging, and an IMX398 camera with a large aperture of f/1.7 protected with sapphire glass.
In addition to that is the mention of OPPO launching a roaming service similar to what Samsung offers with their S Roaming service and Xiaomi’s Mi SIM and Mi Roaming which lets you access the internet without a SIM card.
We’ve had tons of leaks regarding the Mi Note 2 which covered renders, release dates, and even news of it being cancelled. Recent rumours say the launch is now scheduled for November, but there is still no confirmed image of the Xiaomi Mi Note 2.
A new picture (more like a render) was released online recently of a phone said to be the Mi Note 2. The image which is of the rear of the phone shows the dual cameras positioned differently from previous leaks. In this image the cameras are positioned in the middle and stacked vertically in a single housing. You also have the LED flash flanking it on the right.
Another thing is the way the body of the phone curves to meet the screen in front hinting at the Note 2 having a dual curved display, but we have also seen some Chinese manufacturers ape that design and not use a curved screen.
Seems it’s a season of opinion polls for Chinese innovative tech company Xiaomi. In addition to the on-going poll as regards the Mi logo which was absent on the front screen of the Mi 5S and 5S Plus, Xiaomi is sampling opinions about its fans’ take on the 4-inch Xiaomi phone which leaked some time back.
In case you forgot, a 4-inch Xiaomi phone thought to be a smaller version of the Mi 5S made an appearance on Weibo a few weeks back, before the launch of the Mi 5S. No tangible details were leaked alongside the render of the device except that the phone will feature NFC and will support Xiaomi Mi Pay, which was announced about a month back. Now Xiaomi’s spokesman has taken to his official Weibo account to find out from fans what they think about a 4-inch Xiaomi phone. No doubt the company is thinking about the idea of a 4-incher under its kitty but they have tied the fact whether the phone gets out to the outcome of the polls, according to the statement by the spokesman. Already the result is still too close to call even though majority of respondents so far prefer a big display device instead.
The only device expected from Xiaomi this year is perhaps the Mi Note 2 according to the company’s CEO Lei Jun. The Xiaomi CEO also disclosed that he is personally monitoring the design of the Mi Note 2 and that the device will come out with lots of surprises. But from this recent poll, coupled with the earlier leaked render of the 4-inch phone identified as Xiaomi Small, it is likely that the Mi Note 2 isn’t going to be the only surprise we should be expecting from the innovative company. We may be seeing a Xiaomi smartphone with a 4-inch display as well. For the avoidance of doubt, Xiaomi’s current smallest displays are those of the Redmi 1 and Redmi 2 which come in at 4.7 inches.
Of course, you can hop into the Weibo poll and get your opinion to count on this one.
October 18 is a big day for Huawei’s online sub-brand, Honor. The company is having a press conference in Xi’an where it is expected to unveil the new Honor 6X. However, it appears the phone is not the only product going to launch as they have released a teaser image of what appears to be a smartwatch.
The image which is of the face of a clock with the 12 hour markings has S1 written on it. We presume that will be the name of the watch. The Honor S1. There is a nice ring to it. The poster also has a Chinese text which loosely translates to ”See Changes”.
We don’t know know any other thing about the watch except we expect it to have a round face and be waterproof based on the image. And of course be cheaper since this is the Honor brand we are talking about.
This is not Honor’s first wearable. There is the Honor Band Z1 which is also known as the Honor Band Zero released last year.
Xiaomi Mi Band 2 is possibly one of the best cheap fitness bands available in the market right now. I personally have been using the wearable for the past two months and it does everything it claims to, pretty well. You can set alarms, count the number of steps taken and calories burnt, measure your heart rate as well as check out the time and do much more, all in one device at a cheap price.
These are just some of the features of the Mi Band 2 and it looks like there could be more features added to the device. The CEO of Huami, the company which manufactures the wearable, recently asked users whether they would like to see new features like skipping (Jump Rope). However, he failed to say which wearable he was talking about. It could be either the newly released Amazfit smartwatch or even the Mi Band 2, as both are capable of getting such a new feature via an OTA update.
So, what do you think? Which feature would you like to see on your Xiaomi wearable?
The camera which weighs just 100g is shaped like a cube measuring 5cm on all sides. The camera sits on a base that can be propped up to increase its height or lowered to flush with the body. The base can also be used to attach the cameras to walls and ceilings.
Specifications
The camera has a 1/2.7” CMOS sensor that records in full HD with support for 8x digital zoom. It also features night vision enhancement technology allowing it to pick up objects up to 9 meters away. The camera sports an IR-Cut dual filters which keeps out disturbing infrared light out of the sensor during the day.
Little Square has a 110° wide-angle lens that can record time-lapse videos. There is also a built-in motion and sound detector. As a part of Xiaomi’s smart home product, it can pair with the smoke and CO detector in the home alerting the owner of the house via a dedicated sound.
There is a 5V 1A port that powers the camera, and if you happen to have a power bank, you can hook it up to the camera which should provide about 12 hours of power.
The camera supports up to 64GB of expandable storage via a SD card slot and has a full sized USB 2.0 port on the back.
Need Little Square to have a wider viewing angle? That is not an issue as you can stack two units on top of each other via the magnetic base to give you a 180° super-wide viewing angle.
The camera is compatible with phones running Android 4.0 and above and iOS 7.0 and above. The crowdfunding page says shipments are expected to begin on the 22nd of November, so if you are interested, you can head to the crowdfunding page here and pledge your own $15.
One major selling point of OPPO’s highly successful R9 smartphone was the fast charging technology that the company launched the device with. The OPPO R9S which is expected to launch on October 19 has now been identified to have as its own main selling point, its rear camera technology.
Just recently, it was revealed that the R9S would feature Sony IMX398 sensors at its rear camera and that seem not to be all the camera would carry. It has now been revealed via OPPO’s official Weibo page that the R9S’ rear camera would also feature dual-core focus in addition to having Sony IMX398 sensor. What this means is that the device’s camera would have a great focus as well as high chip rate, and when combined with a powerful sensor, what users can only get is a powerful camera capable of delivering stunning pictures.
The Dual-core auto focus technology is said to be way superior to the phase detection auto focus system that is common in most high-end smartphones. The focus is more accurate and faster and this comes very handy in capturing shots in the dark or at night. It is at night, shooting moving objects or during fast shooting situations that the advantage of the dual-core focus can be well felt. It is predicted that this technology would become the standard on most mobile phones in no distant time and already OPPO is blazing the trail.
The recently launched Xiaomi Mi 5S and 5S Plus were unveiled without the customary Mi logo at the front which used to be the trademark of Xiaomi. The phones only had the rear Mi logo situated at the bottom of the device. However, a recent survey conducted by Xiaomi seems to suggest that the company may be tinkering about making that permanent but before they do that, they are sampling the opinions of fans.
The survey apparently became necessary because perhaps lots of complaints had so far trailed the removal of the logo that used to be on the front. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun even weighed in on the matter and enjoined fans to hop into the Mi community forum and vote in the opinion poll.
So far, though, uncertainty has been the word. The poll have seen divergent views with respondents on Weibo toeing a direction different from that of those on the Mi forum. Most of the respondents on Weibo think it doesn’t matter whether the Mi Logo is there up front or not (Weibo pool results down below). On the other hand, a larger percentage of the respondents (57.05% so far) on the Mi Community forum think the Mi logo should remain at the front(Results up above).
The opinion poll is still open for voting and you can as well join in the fray and give your opinion.
For the past few days, we have been reporting about the shortage in stock of the OnePlus 3 flagship. The company seems to be having a hard time keeping up with the demand for its brand new device, and users are reporting delivery times exceed four to five weeks! Given that this phone has been in the market since June, such late delivery period is simply unacceptable.
However, the company seems to be working on a solution to this problem. According to one of our supply chain sources, OnePlus is actually going to stop the production of the current OnePlus 3 flagship. He reveals that this move is necessary to make way for a new model, probably going to be called as the OnePlus 3S (or maybe the OnePlus 3 Plus, we are not sure at the moment). Further, he adds that gray version is already out of stock and only the gold version is available right now.
So, why would the company release a new model when the OnePlus 3 is still one of the best value for money phones in the market? Well, he says that the company plans to change the CPU inside, most likely use the newer and faster Snapdragon 821. Further, another reason for releasing a new model could be to shift from AMOLED to LCD panels, as AMOLED supply shortage seems to be one of the big reasons why OnePlus 3 is unable to keep up the production in tune to the demand.
OnePlus CEO had earlier said that the company wants to focus on just one smartphone this year. But given the supply shortage, it’s possible that the company releases the new OnePlus 3S model and scraps the old one, to make sure that the demand is met timely.
We are not 100% sure about this information, but since it comes from a trusted supply chain source, it’s likely that this information is true. Unfortunately, our source didn’t reveal when the company plans to release this new handset. We will try to get more details soon. Till then, stay tuned to gizmochina for more updates.
It seems the curse of the exploding phones has spread to Apple. A man who reportedly bought a new iPhone 7 was injured shortly afterwards while he was recording a video with it. According to the man, the phone reportedly disintegrated sending glass flying across his face and causing one of his fingers on his right hand to swell.
While the case of the iPhone 7 is not as rampant as that of Samsung’s Note 7 replacements (up to 5 in just a week), this is just as important because the safety of consumers is paramount.
The man was said to have called Apple’s after sales support who then told him they were not authorised to handle such a case but proceeded to forward the complaint to the headquarters. The man didn’t state where he bought the phone from, however the case is currently under investigation.
Barely two weeks after the Huawei Honor 6X hit TENAA for the second time revealing the render of the device, Huawei has started sending out press renders for the launch of the mid-range device. According to the poster, the Honor 6X would be unveiled on October 18 which is just close by.
We have already gotten a great deal of the specs of the device from its appearance on TENAA, spotted twice. According to the TENAA listing, the Huawei Honor 6X sports a 5.5-inch 1080pixel display and is powered by a Kirin 650 chipset along with 3GB of RAM. The device also features 32GB of internal storage and crams a 3340mAh battery under its hood. The main highlight of the Honor 6X should be the dual cameras at the rear the device is coming with comprising a 12MP primary sensor and a 2MP secondary camera. The device also features an 8MP front-facing camera for selfie snapshots.
In addition, the Huawei Honor 6X is said to come with support for all network operators in China and in terms of the price tag, the device is said to come in very cheap.
After temporarily stopping the production of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, it looks like the company is keen to turn its focus on other devices. Earlier today, Samsung’s Chinese Galaxy account on Weibo revealed a new teaser, “the next big thing is coming”. While the teaser does not reveal the identity of the upcoming smartphone, it looks like Samsung could be hinting the release of the rumored Galaxy C9 smartphone soon.
The teaser also tells us a bit about the device “seamless, with great accuracy.” And then there’s a glimpse of the back of the device with curved corners. Considering the timing of the launch, as well as the words “the next big thing is coming”, it’s likely that the upcoming device is none other than the Galaxy C9 phablet.
We have been hearing about this particular smartphone, which is probably Chinese exclusive, for the past few weeks. The phone is said to come with a massive 6-inch 1080p display with Snapdragon 652 octa-core chipset inside. What makes this phone interesting is the 6GB of RAM inside, as revealed by the recent Geekbench listing. Other expected features of the device include 16MP cameras on the front as well as the back and Android 6 out of the box.
Considering the issue with the Galaxy Note 7 and the lack of a 6GB RAM phone from the company yet, the Galaxy C9 will be an important smartphone for the company. At 6-inches, it a bit bigger than the Note 7 and specs wise, with Snapdragon 652 inside, it is not nearly as powerful as the Note 7, however, the company could potentially market the C9 as a cheaper alternative to the Note 7. I personally wouldn’t mind having an S Pen with this 6-inch phablet.
No official release dates are out yet, but expect more details soon.
An image of a certificate issued by China Compulsory Certification reveals the details of the upcoming Meizu flagship, the Pro 6S. The certificate which mentions Meizu Technology Co. Ltd as the applicant and manufacturer also lists the factory handling the production as Langfang Ultrafine Communications Technology Co., Ltd.
The certificate includes a phone with model number M570Q-S. Since the Pro 6’s model number is M570Q, this new device is most probably the Meizu Pro 6S.
The certificate also shows the charge supported by the phone: there’s 5V 2A, 8V 3A, and 12V 2A. This means the Pro 6S will also support Meizu’s mCharge 3.0 (24W) technology.
The Meizu Pro 6S is expected to launch later this month with a Mediatek Helio P20 chip clocked at 2.3GHz, a Mali T880MP2 GPU, and a 5.2 inches display.
After an amazing first half of 2016, Samsung seems to be in a lot of trouble recently. The flagship device of the second half of 2016, the Galaxy Note 7 has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons and with the company recalling nearly 2.5 million Note 7 units for replacing a faulty battery, we would have thought the worst is over.
However, recently, reports about even replacement Galaxy Note 7 units exploding have surfaced online, which makes this issue even more serious. As a result, the Korean news agency, Yonhap reports that Samsung has temporarily halted the production of the Galaxy Note 7 units. This comes just after US and Australian carriers decided to stop selling replacement Note 7 units to its customers.
Samsung had said in a previous statement that the Note 7 explosions were caused by faulty batteries supplied by the company’s battery subsidiary. However, now that even the replacement units are said to be exploding, it looks like halting the production as well as sales of the Note 7 units is the best decision for the company right now.
If you are using a Note 7 in the US, carriers like Verizon and AT&T are offering different models and even refunds if you want to turn in your Samsung flagship.
Looks like the best option for the company right now is to kill off the Note 7 and limit its reputation damage. What it could do is focus on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 flagship and make sure it’s not affected by this issue. Further, the company could even prepone the release of the Note 8 flagship next year. But at this moment, we will have to wait and watch how the company tackles this difficult situation.
Qualcomm’s next generation Snapdragon 830 chipset has been in the news quite frequently lately, with recent rumors alleging that Samsung would manufacture the chip on Qualcomm’s behalf. Seems, though the chip has gone up into production because it has been listed on India’s import/export tracking website, Zauba with model number MSM8998.
The Zauba listing for the Snapdragon 830 showed the device, listed as MSM8998, made several entries into India from September 12 to October 6 with a total of 80 units delivered to the Asian country, apparently for testing. The devices were listed to have originated from the US.
Zauba is notorious for sparing very little detail about the shipments but this one is generous enough to give us the idea that the prototype device with which the chip ships features 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM as well as 64GB of built-in storage. The value of each chip and prototype device shipped into India by Qualcomm was put at 102,641 Rupees (around $1,541).
Earlier rumors had speculated that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 processor will use the 10nm FinFET processand Kyro 200 architecture, sporting an Adreno 540 GPU, X16 baseband which is allegedly capable of download speed of up to 980Mbps and has LPDDR4X memory and 4K × 2K / 60fps video recording, dual lifting performance and functionality. There are also rumors that the next gen chip may not be called Snapdragon 830 but SD 835 instead and would feature first onboard some versions of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Edge billed for release in February 2017.
Huawei had unveiled the Nova and Nova Plus range of smartphones at IFA Berlin 2016 with both models boasting of mid-range specs. Also both smartphones were billed to enter into the market globally this October but before that will happen, Huawei has now launched a 4GB RAM version of the Huawei Nova (CAZ-AL10) yesterday in China.
The Huawei Nova earlier released comes in silver, gray or gold color variants, adorning a beautiful design and just like the Nova Plus, was launched with just 3GB RAM onboard. The launch of a 4GB RAM variant, even before the device hits store shelves could be seen as a major tweaking to give the mid-range device more competitiveness. Apart from the RAM upgrade, the new version of the Huawei Nova (CAZ-AL10) now comes with support for LTE-A carrier aggregation on supported Chinese carriers, having the ability to deliver download speed of up to 300Mbps. In addition, the device comes in white and black color variants only which clearly distinguishes it from the 3GB RAM version. The device is already up for purchase in China.
To recall, the Huawei Nova sports a 5-inch IPS display with 1080 pixel resolution and is powered by an Octa-core 2GHz Snapdragon 625 processor, with 32GB of built-in storage which can be expanded further than that via microSD up to 128GB. There’s also a beautifully designed 12MP main camera at the rear with LED flash and f/2.2 aperture, and an 8MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture up front.
Furthermore, the Huawei Nova runs on Huawei’s custom Emotion UI 4.1 (EMUI 4.1) based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow bringing along several of Huawei’s UI features, like slow-motion modes, light painting, time-lapse. Huawei also updated the night display feature that filters blue light from the screen. There is also a 3,020mAh battery inside the device which Huawei claims drains so slowly that it can last for two days of consistent usage. Added to all these include a fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C data transfer and charging port, Cat 6 LTE radio, dual-SIM slots etc.
Last week wasn’t as busy as usual, mainly because of the National Day holidays in China. Still there were a few interesting articles that we reported during the period, with the major focus on upcoming phones like Xiaomi Mi Note 2 and OPPO R9S. Google was busy the previous week, all thanks to the two new Pixel phone launches. There was a story on the Mate 9 as well. Sharp also made the headlines past week, all thanks to its 1000 ppi display and the Corner R concept bezel-less phone.
In case you missed out on the hot stories from last week, they are given below. We also reviewed a few interesting products, including the Xiaomi Yeelight strip. Note that the top reviews are posted after the top news articles.
Just a few weeks after the launch of the Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus, pictures of a new Xiaomi phone have leaked online. The new phone which features an all-metal black body is said to be a new Redmi phone, though some say it might be the Xiaomi Mi 5c.
The front of the phone is fitted with a 2.5D glass and appears to feature the same fingerprint groove as the Mi 5s which means it may come with an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner.
The back has a dual tone black coating with the top part that houses the camera, LED flash, and the antenna; and the lower part, having a darker shade of black compared to the rest of the body. .The camera is placed at the top left corner of the phone beside the flash. The phone keeps the power button and volume rocker on the left like all the new Xiaomi phones.
One of the images leaked includes the about phone section of the phone. There’s 3GB of RAM on board, 64GB of storage, and an octa-core processor clocked at 2.2GHz. It’s also running Android Marshmallow 6.0 based on MIUI 8. The funny thing about the image is the security patch which is dated December 2015 which is pretty old. The page also lists that the phone supports VoLTE.
The images were posted on Weibo by a user whose account name translates to @jumping cute tiger with an accompanying text saying it’s a new Redmi phone with a Mediatek Helio P20 chip and 3GB of RAM priced like the Mi 5s.
The base version of the Xiaomi Mi 5s starts at 1999 Yuan ($300) and features a Snapdragon 821 processor. No one will pick a phone with a Helio P20 phone over a Snapdragon 821 phone selling at the same price. So we want to believe that price is just a wild guess.
According to analyst, Pan Jiutang, he thinks since the OnePlus 3 is running out of stock due to low supply of AMOLED displays, buyers should rather wait for a new phone called the OnePlus 3S. It appears the OnePlus 3S will have a LCD display and hence wouldn’t suffer from supply issues.
While the info hasn’t been confirmed yet, we can’t rule out the possibility of that happening as a shortage will cause buyers to consider other options.
Another source, Liuzuo Hu, had earlier reported on the release of a phone called the OnePlus 3S but the question is if the only change coming to the phone is the change in display. OnePlus may decide to also include the new Snapdragon 821 processor and retain all the other features.
Until OnePlus confirms this, please take this with a grain of salt.
The Huawei Mate 9 is one of the most anticipated phones from Huawei before the year runs out and for several weeks now we’ve been getting tons of leaks. Today is no different, as new details of the flagship emerge.
The main detail consumers want to know about is the dual camera setup on the Mate 9. A previous leak revealed that the phone will feature 20MP dual cameras supplied by Leica, but the latest leak says it will be a 20MP and 12MP combo. This means that it’s either the official poster leaked online in the article is a fake or this new detail isn’t true as well. The info which was posted on Weibo also mentions that the front shooter will be an 8 megapixel sensor.
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