A new image of Huawei’s upcoming Mate 9 has been leaked online, revealing a different camera setup from what was previously leaked.
New LeakOld Leak
This new image shows a dual camera setup with a single piece of glass covering both lens. The phone’s LED flash is also circular unlike the first leaked image. Another difference is the lack of laser focus which was present on the previously leaked image. The only feature common to both images is the position of the fingerprint scanner.
The leak also says the Mate 9 may likely launch with Huawei’s Kirin 960 processor. The Kirin 960 is an octa-core chip that uses the big.LITTLE architecture which will be made up of 4 Cortex A-73 cores and 4 Cortex A-53 cores. The Kirin 960 will have LTE Cat. 12 and support CDMA networks, making it the second kirin chip other than the Kirin 650 to have full network support. Its GPU will be the latest Mali-G71.
Other details mentioned says the Mate 9 will feature a 6” 2K display, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of built-in storage. It is said to launch with EMUI 5.0 which is based on Android 7.0 Nougat.
OnePlus has released a video trailer teasing an upcoming release billed for August 25. The device, which would be outed on that day wasn’t revealed in the video but the image featured in the video teaser points to an earphone.
Already, OnePlus had before now hinted that they are cooking up a very special product which would be unveiled on August 25 but it’s not as if Oneplus doesn’t have an earphone to its name.
The short video trailer of just 28 seconds shows a spinning disk plate, with solid music playing at the background. The spinning disk somewhat looks like a headset with a loop running from the middle to the edge. There’s also the letters V2 imprinted on the disk, which all heightens speculations that the expected device might be a new earphone set.
Oneplus already has its Icons In-ear Earphones which is priced at 399 yuan and was launched last year and if we take into consideration the letters V2 on the disk, it is most likely the new product will be a second version or generation of the Icons In-ear Earphones.
Those are just speculations based on our thoughts anyway. We can factually get what the product is on August 25 when OnePlus officially unveils it. Till then, keep the dial at Gizmochina, we’ll keep you updated.
Meizu is still continuing with its flurry of smartphone release, and today saw the outing of the Meizu U10 and U20 with mid-budget price tags.
The Meizu U10 features a 5-inch IPS display and is powered by an octa-core processor which is complemented by 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage. There’s another version with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.
The Meizu U10 crams a 2760mAh battery under its hood and packs a 13MP rear camera unit with LED flash as well as a 5MP front-facing camera.
On the other hand, the Meizu U20 sports a 5.5-inch 1080p display with 2.5D curved glass cover and comes equipped with an octa-core processor as well which lets you run multiple apps on your phone seamlessly. There are also two versions in terms of memory, one with 2GB RAM alongside 16GB of internal storage and another with 3GB RAM with 32GB of internal storage.
The Meizu U20 also tag along a 13MP primary camera at its rear with LED flash and a 5MP selfie camera up front. In addition, the smartphone features a bigger 3,260mAh battery under its hood.
Both the Meizu U10 and U20 features 2.5D curved glass design on both the front and back sides and are both available in four color variants, white crescent, sky black, champagne Gold, and Rose Gold. The two Meizu smartphone models also come with fingerprint sensors that are enabled for fingerprint payment via Alipay and other payment platforms. The Meizu U10 and U20 equally come with entire network support, 4G inclusive. There is also support for Wi-Fi connectivity and 5G.
Talking about the price, the Meizu U20 version with 2GB RAM + 16GB of built-in storage costs 1099 yuan ($166), while the 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM version starts at 1299 yuan ($192). The U20 will go on sale from August 28 on Meizu stores and other online channels while it will become available on August 29 via Meizu Mall, Jingdong Mall, Lynx official flagship store, and Suning Tesco.
In addition, the Meizu U10 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM combo starts at 999 Yuan ($150) while the 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM version carries a price tag of 1199 yuan ($181). The Meizu U10 will go on sale starting September 18 and will be available via Meizu store and other online sales channels. The device will be available on Meizu Mall, Jingdong, Lynx, Suning Tesco and Meizu shops simultaneously on September 19.
UMi is one of the few Chinese companies who have managed to consistently release some interesting mid-range smartphones in the past few months. The UMi Super and the UMi Max, both are pretty good phones, but if you were hoping to find something more pleasant to the eyes, then the upcoming UMi smartphone should be something that could interest you.
We have got the first pictures of the unnamed UMi flagship. While the phone is not yet released, we can see that the company seems to have taken inspiration from the gorgeous Galaxy Note 7 for this phone’s design, with some even calling it the Note 7 Mini. What we know at the moment is that the phone will be smaller than the Galaxy Note 7. It will be made out of a single piece of aluminum, with a slim body. All the ports, including the USB and headphone jack seem to be located at the bottom.
The fingerprint sensor will be located up front, and will be oval in shape. To be honest, the phone in the pictures looks quite premium. Hopefully, we will be able to get more details about this UMi flagship in the next few days.
Elephone is known to make buzz in the market with some of its products, especially before launch. The Elephone S7 turned out to be one such smartphone, all thanks to its bezel-less display that we managed to see in some pictures earlier. If you had doubts about the authenticity of the pictures, here’s a video directly from Elephone revealing the Elephone S7 in action. This is a prototype device, but at least confirms the design on the device.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTiHPvMg0CA&feature=youtu.be
So, the Elephone S7 will indeed feature a bezel-less screen and it will have 2.5D curved glass on top as well. The phone also comes with incell technology to make sure that the display looks vibrant and bright. It will be a 5.5-inch 1080p panel and in the video, the phone’s display looks pretty good.
Blackview has one device that looks pretty nice on paper. We are talking about the R7 phone. It has some great specs and it costs below $190. Learn more in our full review.
32GB (expandable via microSD card slot up to 256GB)
Blackview R7 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY
When it comes to the design, the Blackview R7 is pretty comfortable to hold in the hand.
It uses metal chassis that does around the device. It’s hard to tell if the metal was used in the backplate but it has a primer coating (similar to the LG G5), which feels like plastic to me.
As far as camera, we have a 13MP Omnivision sensor coupled with a single LED flash. The fingerprint scanner is not the fastest I’ve seen but it unlocks your phone from the standby mode and it is pretty accurate.
The buttons, which sit on the right side, are made of metal too, they are tactile but the problem is that they rattle quite a bit(Maybe just because this is an engineering sample, the factory promise better quality on the first batch).
Same can be said about the hybrid dual SIM card slot.
We have a 5.5” 1080p display, which is covered with the Gorilla Glass 3. It is pretty sharp and vivid but I wish it had a higher brightness output for a better sunlight legibility. A front-facing camera has 8MP.
One of the disappointments of this device is that there is no notification LED light and the capacitive buttons are not backlit. It is strange that Blackview did not implement these features considering the price of the phone.
The loudspeaker quality is just mediocre as I would love to hear more depth and balance.
Blackview R7 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
One of the main selling points of this device is its powerful internals. The Blackview R7 ships with an octa-core MTK6755 Helio P10 chip, which has the max. clock speeds of 2.0GHz, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which can be further expanded via the microSD card slot.
These kind of specs sound impressive but in real life, the phone struggles handling some 3D games like Asphalt 8 on the highest graphics. On the other hand, changing the graphics to medium solves this issue and the phone handles the game with just a few skipped frames.
I’ve tested the phone with some other games like Nova 3 and the device handles it pretty well.
The phone gets a little warm but it does not alter the gaming performance.
Blackview R7 Review: BENCHMARKS
Blackview R7 Review: USER INTERFACE
The phone ships with the Android 6.0 but it has Blackview’s skin on top of it, which removes the app tray for some reason. Also, we have some redesigned icons and some other design touches.
There are a few features like gesture and motion controls that work pretty well but the phone could recognize gesture input faster.
So far I didn’t have any hiccups or lag and the phone performs well on the daily basis.
Blackview R7 Review: IMAGE QUALITY
The daylight image quality is pretty good for the category of the phone and the photos look quite sharp. A few shortcomings would be that the camera struggles adjusting the dynamic range in some of the shots. Also, the colors look too warm and some of the shots seem to have a slightly yellowish tint. In addition, there were a few close-up images that were not as sharp as I expected but other macro shots look great.
The low-light camera performance is not the worst I’ve seen but it has the shortcomings that are common to most of the phones in this price range – a low amount of detail and high level of noise. A worse thing is that there is a visible red tint if you take pictures close to the light source e.g. street light.
The video quality would be pretty good but there is a noticeable choppiness when panning the phone. See a video review for a video sample.
A selfie camera is pretty good and it will do the trick for social media if you take pictures in good lighting.
I didn’t have any connectivity issues. Even the GPS lock speeds were fast and the GPS was accurate.
Blackview R7 Review: BATTERY LIFE
The phone ships with the 3000mAh battery that performs pretty well for its capacity. You should expect just over 4 hours of screen-on time but the results may vary, depending on the usage.
When you need to recharge your battery, the phone supports quick charge tech. I was able to fully charge the phone in just over 1 hour and 20 mins. Keep in mind that the screen-on time was measured before connecting a phone to a charger (the phone simply died before I managed to take a screenshot).
Blackview R7 Review: CONCLUSIONS
The Blackview R7 aims to bring some great specs at the price of less than $190.
Well, it delivers in some ways. The phone is well-built and it sports a sharp display and the UI performs well. Also, the Blackview R7’s camera can take some good looking daylight images for the price, the phone has a decent battery life and a pretty accurate fingerprint scanner.
However, Helio P10 processor may sound impressive on paper but it can only handle games like Asphalt 8 on medium graphics. On the other hand, I’ve tested the phone mainly with the most demanding 3D games.
Other shortcomings would be that buttons and the SIM card tray rattle quite a bit and the phone does not have neither notification LED nor backlit capacitive buttons.
At the end of the day, the Blackview R7 still brings quite of lot of value to the table for the price. The phone definitely has more pros than cons but make sure to consider if the previously mentioned shortcomings are important to you or not(This unit is an engineering sample, the factory promise better quality for the first batch).
ZTE’s recent efforts have been to strengthen the audio on its smartphones and the ZTE Axon 7 made sure that the company’s flagship device featured top-notch audio support. For some, audio is just another feature in a smartphone, but for others, it is one of the most used as well as important features on their phone.
ZTE has now confirmed that we will meet another audio-centric smartphone at the famous IFA Berlin in 2016. The event will be held on September 1, the same day that Huawei unveils its brand new device. From the press release sent to us, it is confirmed that the phone will be a premium device, coming with superior audio quality.
“We’re delighted to be debuting our latest products to the world in Berlin,” says Adam Zeng, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices. “Our fan community played a huge role in the development of our new smartphones, delivering valuable input that helped inspire and motivate our team. The result is a suite of devices that pack cutting-edge, innovative features and the latest technology.”
The company claims that audio has been a shortcoming on many of the flagship smartphones in recent times and with their advanced research and development, ZTE’s recent phones like the Axon 7 aims to fill these special needs of customers.
Hopefully, we will get to hear more about this audio-centric ZTE smartphone in the coming days.
During this year’s CES show in Las Vegas, a company known as Faraday Future showed off a car called the FF ZERO1 which is a single seat electric concept car designed for the future. While we already know that the car would probably never be released commercially, the California based startup has been working on other vehicles which will probably see a release in the not too distant future.
Spotted Car
One of such vehicles was spotted in the open recently. The car which looks like the Tesla Model X is seen covered in a sort of camouflage car cover. The car in the photo appears not to have a rear exhaust pipe which means it is probably a full electric vehicle.
After teasing the phones for a few days, 360 Mobiles, formerly known as QiKu, today, released two brand new phones under its premium Q series lineup, namely the 360 Q5 and the 360 Q5 Plus. Like the name suggests, the Q5 Plus will be the larger model, coming with powerful specs like SD820 on board. On the other hand, the 360 Q5 comes with SD652 along with a bunch of other upper mid-range specifications.
Design wise, 360 didn’t see to make any significant changes as compared to its previous generation devices. The 360 Q5 and Q5 Plus comes with an all metal body with dual cameras at the back and 2.5D glass on top. The overall look of the device is premium and similar to the metal flagships available in the market today. At the bottom, you get a USB Type-C port along with speaker grills.
While the specs of both the devices are pretty good, the security features are something that sets it apart from other phones in the market. Before we take a look at what all security features are inside the device, let’s take a quick look at the specs of the 360 Q5 and the 360 Q5 Plus.
360 Q5 Specs
The 360 Q5 comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 octa-core chip inside with 4GB of RAM on board. While this may not be the best chip in the market right now, we have seen that it’s good enough for most needs. The phone features a 5.5-inch display with 1080p resolution, which has become the standard among flagships. Surprisingly, you have 128GB eMMC 5.1 storage as standard on the device.
At the back, the 360 Q5 comes with a 13MP dual camera setup. This will be an RGB + monochrome setup and can be used to take 3D videos as well. Up front, the phone features a 13MP camera with flash, which is good for selfies. Inside, there will be a 3200mAh battery with QC 3.0, good for a day’s usage.
360 Q5 Plus Specs
The 360 Q5 Plus comes with much better specifications. It features a larger 6-inch 1080p display and features Snapdragon 820 quad-core chip inside clocked at 2.15GHz. There will be two variants, 4GB RAM and 6GB RAM. Once again, you get 128GB storage as standard and in this model, it will be UFS 2.0. You have the same 13MP dual camera sensor setup at the back as the Q5 Plus. Even up front, you get a 13MP sensor with flash. The battery is much larger on the device, measuring 3700mAh.
Considering the specs of the Q5 Plus, this is indeed flagship worthy. You have SD820, a large 6-inch 1080p display, 6GB RAM and 128GB storage with dual cameras at the back, which is one of the best configurations in a smartphone in the market today.
Security Features
360 Mobiles have made sure that the two new models launched today are secured, all thanks to a dedicated hardware level security chip. This chip is reportedly military grade and is said to be unbreakable. The phone will have a special private space, independent from the normal storage wherein you can add third party apps as well and encrypt all data storage. In addition to that, the Q5 and Q5 Plus features call and text encryption to make sure that your data cannot be taken by hackers. There is also a feature which prohibits recording and it can even destroy recordings already taken. Further, the phone features a function which will photograph the thief who stole your phone. Also, if someone tries to force the data out of the device, the phone will automatically lock.
360 Q5 & Q5 Plus Price
The standard version of the 360 Q5 with 4GB RAM + 128GB storage retails at 1999 Yuan ($300) while the special edition (4GB + 128GB) retails at 2199 Yuan ($331).
The 360 Q5 Plus starts at 2599 Yuan ($391) for the 4GB + 128GB model and 2799 Yuan ($421) for the 6GB + 128GB version.
Gionee has released an upgraded version to last years Gionee S6 which is called the Gionee S6s where the s probably stands for selfie seeing as the phone is being marketed as a selfie-focused phone.
Design
The phone features a metal uni-body with a 2.5D curved display. The volume rocker and power button are placed on the right and it makes use of capacitive buttons which don’t appear to be back-lit. The rear has the camera, LED flash, fingerprint scanner, and Gionee logo stacked on each other. Towards the bottom, you have the manufacturer’s name sitting atop the speaker grille.
Specifications
The S6s has a 5.5 inches display like it’s sibling but has its resolution bumped up to 1080p and the AMOLED display dropped in favour of an IPS screen. The screen has a 2.5D curved edge with gorilla glass protection. The RAM and ROM remains the same at 3GB and 32GB respectively, with an option to increase storage to 128GB with a SD card.
The Gionee S6s is powered by a MT6753 processor clocked at 1.3GHz. It comes with Gionee’s own Amigo 3.2 OS based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, sports a rear positioned fingerprint scanner and has a 3150 mAh battery.
Camera
The S6s’ main camera is a 13 MP Sony IMX 258 with a f/2.0 aperture and a LED flash. The front is where the fun is. You get an 8MP camera with f/2.2 aperture and another LED flash, so you can take those selfies in poorly lit places. The phone comes with the usual selection of camera features such as Face Beauty, HDR, night mode, and panorama. You also get time lapse, slow motion, text recognition, GIF, and ultra pixel which allows you stitch multiple photos together into a detailed 120 megapixel photograph.
Almost a year after it’s release, OnePlus is breathing new life into the OnePlus X by announcing the release of Oxygen 3.1 Community Build which brings Android 6.0 Marshmallow to the smallest OnePlus phone.
While it may be a little late in coming as Google officially released Android 7.0 Nougat yesterday, the announcement might spur some folks who don’t want something big to pick up the device.
OnePlus community builds are similar to beta releases before the final and official release. As with all beta releases, there are always issues that haven’t been ironed out. OnePlus says users may experience issues like network stability in select regions, third party apps compatibility, and language localisation.
OS 3.1 will bring new features like new icon packs, a new wallpaper picker, new customisation for the alert slider, and changes to Shelf UX, apart from the default marshmallow ones. It will also come with new apps (OnePlus Music and OnePlus Gallery) and August’s security patch.
If you are interested in flashing the community build on your phone, you should check the instructions OnePlus has put together here.
Hydrogen OS 2.5 for OnePlus 3
The OnePlus X isn’t the only phone that will be getting a new update. A Canadian official has announced the upcoming release of Hydrogen OS 2.5 for the OnePlus 3.
If you remember, back when the OnePlus One was released, the company announced that there will be two operating systems for the phone. Hydrogen OS for the Chinese variant and Oxygen OS for the international version.
Xiaomi will start pushing updates that will usher in the MIUI 8 Stable version to about 200 million users worldwide. Smartphones running on MIUI 5, MIUI 6 and MIUI 7 stable version supports straight OTA (Over-The-Air) upgrade. Before now, Xiaomi had between June 1 and June 17 pushed MIUI 8 beta version and MIUI 8 Developer Edition to select users.
The MIUI 8 Stable version will be pushed in batches, first to 15 Xiaomi phone models and thereafter to all other Xiaomi models. The models the update will become available on include Xiaomi Mi 5, Mi Max, Redmi 4s, Mi Note, Redmi 2A, Redmi Note 2, Redmi Note 3, Mi 4 China Unicom version, Redmi 1S, Mi 2/2S, Mi 4i, Redmi Note 3G, Redmi Note 4G and some others.
The second batch of OTA updates that would bring the MIUI 8 Stable version to the Redmi Pro, Mi 4C, Redmi 3S and 3X, Redmi 2, Redmi 1S and other models.
Xiaomi announced the MIUI 8 in China back in May and had made the beta version available on some select Xiaomi smartphones since July. The MIUI 8 is reputed to be the richest MIUI interface till date, bringing in a comprehensive breakthrough in visual design and innovative features.
Some of the features include an easy to use and good looking design, dual user interface, running same application more than once, Mi Bus payment ( available on Mi 5), comprehensive calculator with currency calculator, more fonts for better mobile reading experience, easier short cuts, new photo album, fashionable lock screen, easier text editing, new power saving mode NFC payment security, and lots more.
Xiaomi’s latest Crowdfunding product turned out to be a Super Filter kettle and not the steam iron earlier thought. The new product was released today and is dubbed – Viomi super filter kettle L1 (UV germicidal Edition) starts at just 249 Yuan ($38). The water filter kettle is manufactured by Viomi, with Xiomi’s crowdfunding platform acting as sales channel.
The main selling point of the Viomi super filter kettle is the Ultra-violet (UV) disinfection which it is capable of, and the seven heavy multi-effect filters it comes with. The kettle measures 265 x 145.5 x 262 mm and has a water capacity of 1.5 litres. The kettle provides intelligent filters made of different materials imported from Germany and Korea which meets food grade hygiene standards.
The kettle isn’t an electric kettle but a water purifier using a network of filters and then ultra-violet light to purify the water. Boiling water is known to kill some bacteria but cannot kill all the germs as well as reduce the scale of impurities but the Viomi filter kettle provides filteration and UV sterilization. The kettle’s technology i reputed as having the capability of reducing water impurities more than chlorine and also to remove the smell, kill bacteria and purify the water.
The kettle uses low-power consuming UV lamp and there is a built-in phone-level high capacity lithium battery which can be recharged using a mobile phone, phone charger, and car charger via the filter kettle’s microUSB port. A full charge can be used for sterilization up to 40 times.
The filters can last six weeks and the Purolite sodium-ion-exchange resins inhibits the growth of bacteria inside the filter. In addition, the kettle has a 360 degree water inlet design which ensures all the water goes through the filter and a large double water flow designed in such a way that you just have to wait for just three (3) minutes for the water to be purified. Some nice gadget worth having, don’t you think so?
The Viomi super filter kettle L1 (UV germicidal Edition) is already available on Xiaomi’s crowdfunding websiteat 249 Yuan ($38). The gadget is expected to start shipping on October 4.
A report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed that the Redmi Note 3 launched by Xiaomi in India in March this year is the highest shipped smartphone for phone sold via the online channel in India. Now, the IDC report is not specific on a particular month but categorically gave the Redmi Note 3 the top position as the most shipped smartphone in the history of India’s online market in any given quarter.
Xiaomi has sold about 1.75 million units of the Redmi Note 3 in India in just five months of the smartphone’s release in the Indian market. The smartphone carried a budget price tag of Rs 9,999 in India boasting of mid-range specs such as 2GB RAM with 16GB of built-in storage, all-metal body, fingerprint sensors and a massive 4,050mAh battery. The Redmi Note 3 also became the first smartphone in India to feature Qualcomm’s powerful Snapdragon 650 chipset.
According to the IDC report, Xiaomi clocked record-breaking shipments of 880,000 units of the Redmi Note 3 online in the second quarter of 2016 which is almost twice the volume of the second highest shipped smartphone in the online channel in India.
Xiaomi started selling its smartphones in India in July 2014 and since then, the Chinese innovative start-up has shown a steady growth rate of 72% year-on-year from July 2016 to July 2016, with the Redmi Note 4 putting up a stellar performance thereby contributing to the majority of Xiaomi’s total shipments in Q2 2016.
We see new device releases almost every week or so and a lot of them are pretty good. However, a lot of readers in the comment section below our news/reviews articles suggest that some of the older smartphones are much better buying options than some newly released models. ZTE Nubia Z7 Max packs a specs sheet that may sound already dated but it is still very good, considering the fact that you can get it for as low as $116.99 from Everbuying.net using the COUPON CODE that you will find at the end of this article.
The Z7 Max sports a 5.5″ 1080p display with a pixel density of 403PPI, which is still good according to today’s standards.
Besides the cameras that can still take some decent daylight images, ZTE Nubia Z7 Max sports some great specs that include the Snapdragon 801 chip (2.5GHz), 2GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.
The only shortcoming is that the Snapdragon 801 chip uses an old 32-bit architecture but it can still handle even some of the most demanding 3D games. Also, there is a lot of processing power to handle most of the daily tasks.
Finally, the phone sports a 3100mAh battery to power the phone up.
The only shortcoming would be that the phone does not sport any premium materials like metal in its construction. Still, the Z7 Max is a well-built phone and it does not look or feel cheap by any means.
If you think that an older phone that still has some great specs is a better buying option, you can get the ZTE Nubia Z7 Max for for as low as $116.99 from Everbuying.net using the COUPON CODE: EBNUM6A.
Please let us know in the comment section down below what would you rather choose: a newly released cheap phone or an older device that still has some pretty good specs for the price.
In the past few months, OPPO has increased its market share by a considerable extent, all thanks to the efforts put in by its smartphone department. However, we know companies like to diversify its product portfolio and what better example than Xiaomi, who has products in lots of different segments. Now, OPPO’s Camera Phone account on Weibo has released a brand new teaser, and from the hashtags and the image on the teaser, it looks like the company is planning its entry into the UAV (drone) industry.
Well, we don’t think that OPPO is going to release its own drone, however, what it could do, is license the top-notch technology that it has developed for its phones. This is a possibility because the teaser comes with words like flash charging and we know that OPPO’s Super VOOC low voltage fast charging tech is one of the best in the world. No harm in using VOOC tech in drones right? After all, they also need regular charging and if the time as well as its life is improved with the help of Super VOOC fast charging, we could see much more powerful drones in the market soon.
In case you remember, OPPO also revealed its SmartSensor Image Stabilization tech back at MWC, which possibly could also be used inside products such as drones. And we can see that the drone in the teaser comes with a camera. Plus, given that OPPO’s Camera Phone account released this teaser, it’s possible that OPPO has licensed its technology to drone makers.
August 24 is the date given in the teaser, which is just a couple of days away. So, we expect more details, possibly the first such product launch on that day. Stay tuned for more details.
While we are still unsure whether the OPPO Find 9 is in the works, the latest news from China reveals that the OPPO Find 9 flagship could come with the brand new Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. This is the latest generation of Gorilla Glass display, which also makes it the best. The glass is strengthened to survive higher drops, making sure that your phone’s display stays intact in your day to day usage.
OPPO’s Find series have always been the top-end lineup from the company, and if the Find 9 is real and in the works, we couldn’t expect anything less than the Gorilla Glass 5 on top of its display. However, apart from this detail, the source did not reveal any other information about the device. News about the Find 9 is not readily available, and it’s been nearly 2.5 years since the company made a significant update in the lineup (Find 7 was released in FEB ’14 ). So, it remains to be seen whether OPPO scraped the lineup in favor of its relatively new OPPO R series flagships.
But we have to consider the fact that the specs of the OPPO R9 and even the R9 Plus would soon be outdated by the end of the second half of 2016. The past few months have been fruitful for OPPO, but if it has to continue the momentum, it would probably need better and powerful flagships in the coming months and what better way to make a mark in H2 2016 than with the OPPO Find 9 flagship!
If you are interested in the Find 9, read our previous coverage (mostly rumors) from down below.
Smartphone screens are one of the most important components of new-age handsets. If we jump up the screen size from 4-inches to 6.44-inches, there would still be a few options for customers and note that we are still talking about phones and not tablets. We all know the massive Xiaomi Mi Max with its 6.44-inch display and some of you may think, who would be crazy enough to buy this giant smartphone. Well, as we revealed before, turns out, quite a lot of people love the large screen size, and the sales of this relatively new phablet could have very well crossed the 1.5 million mark within two months of its launch.
There is no doubt that Samsung dominates the smartphone industry with its super popular Galaxy series. And the latest Galaxy Note 7 is one of the best phablets with an amazing display, probably the best in the market right now. However, the curved edge screen and the waterproofing technology does come at a cost, and if by chance, you happen to break the screen on the Note 7 (which should be less likely considering it comes with the new Gorilla Glass 5 panel), then you are left with two options, replace the screen on your device or just use the same money to buy a brand new Xiaomi Mi5 smartphone.
According to the folks over at PhoneArena, who had a chat with Samsung’s support, replacing the Note 7’s screen would be a costly affair, costing somewhere around $270 for the entire process. This does include the screen replacement, handling, shipping and other related charges. But it would surely make a dent in your pocket.
At this price, you would get a brand new Xiaomi Mi5, albeit the standard version. The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 820 chip, 3GB RAM, a 5.2-inch 1080p with Gorilla Glass 4 protection and comes with a decent camera as well.
Now, you would argue that if you were paying this much, you would rather replace the screen than buy the Mi5. I would have agreed, but think what happens if you drop your phone the second time. Buying an insurance would probably be the wiser choice, but even with that, you would be paying around $210 ($129 initially + $79 deductible) for the replacement (Samsung’s Protection Plus cover).
What are your thoughts?
NOTE: I love the Galaxy Note 7 and I know it’s one of the best phablets you can buy right now but after reading the replacement cost of its screen, I realized that you could actually buy a decent flagship for the same price. Hence, this article.
Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin otherwise known as IFA Berlin is one of the major tech events of the year. It is an event that allows exhibitors present their latest innovations and products to the general public.
Quite a number of manufacturers always host their own personal conference right before the official opening to launch a new device or announce a new technology, and Huawei seems to be doing the same this year. The company has sent out invites for an event on September 1 which sources say is for the launch of a new phone.
The company’s senior Vice President, Yu Chengdong has announced that the event will take place at the Velodrom in Berlin at 1630 hrs on September 1. Yu Chengdong, in his own words says that the new release will ”exceed expectations”. Are we surprised? Not really. The company has had an impressive year so far and has exceeded expectations already of so many people most especially folks in the US following the recent release of the Honor 8.
UPDATE (24/08/2016): The Redmi Note 3 (Mediatek Version) will get the MIUI 8 update. I got the update in the early hours of today and so far, everything seems fine. Just head to your updater app and check for the update.
Back in May when Xiaomi announced the new version of their MIUI ROM called MIUI 8 alongside the Mi Max, quite a number of people were excited about the new features it was going to come with.
Weeks later, the company started an open beta program for select devices and announced that the stable version should be released around August 16. Just before the date, they released another statement saying it has been pushed to August 23, which was followed by another statement saying end of August. But it seems the company has gotten their act together as they have confirmed that a stable version of MIUI 8 will start rolling out on August 23.
As with most updates, they usually roll out in batches starting with some devices first and others later. MIUI 8 is no different. The first set of devices to get the update on the first day are the Redmi 1S, Mi 2/2S, Mi 4i, Redmi Note 3G and Redmi Note 4G. Other phones such as the Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, Redmi 3, Redmi 3S/Prime, Redmi Note 2, Redmi Note 3 (Qualcomm version), Redmi Note 3 (Special Edition), Redmi Note Prime, Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi 5, Mi Note, and Mi Max (32GB model) will get the update later.
There’s one device that’s not on the list of phones getting MIUI 8. The Redmi Note 3 (Mediatek Version). I have no idea why Xiaomi left it out. It uses the same processor as the Redmi Note 2 which is getting the update by the way, so there’s no reason why it should not get updated.
Another thing about the MIUI 8 update is the android version. Xiaomi is known to push out newer versions of their ROM but not update the android version.
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