Xiaomi Mido Found on GeekBench Sporting 2GB RAM and Snapdragon 625

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Aug 27, 2016

Xiaomi refreshed the Redmi Note line on Thursday with the launch of the Redmi Note 4. Some of us expected the company to launch the Redmi 4 alongside it, but that didn’t happen.

However, an unknown source found a phone on Geekbench with the code name Xiaomi Mido that is suspected to be the Redmi 4. The Xiaomi Mido is powered by a Snapdragon 625 processor clocked at 2.0 GHz, runs Android 6.0.1 and has 2GB of RAM.

The site shows two single core and multi-core tests whose results were uploaded on August 24 but at different times. The first test which was uploaded at 2:56 AM shows the phone scoring 806 on the single-core test and 3763 on the multi-core test. The second test which was a bit later at 9:25 AM shows the phone achieving a single-core score of 842 points and 3608 points for the multi-core test.

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LeEco Le 2s Pro Scores High on Antutu and Confirms Snapdragon 821 Processor

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Habeeb Onawole

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Aug 27, 2016

The LeEco Le 2s Pro is one of the most anticipated phones to be launched next month apart from the iPhone 7. There is still no official date as to the exact date but rumours say it will either be on the 6th or 7th. We however got a leak of the phone’s Antutu score.

The leak which was posted on Weibo shows the LeEco Le 2s Pro scoring a massive 157,897 points on the benchmarking test confirming the presence of Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 821 system-on-chip.

Other previous leaks says the phone will feature a 5.5” full HD display, a 16 MP main camera, 8 MP front shooter, and come with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with the company’s EUI overlay.

There are also speculations that the phone will come in multiple RAM + ROM variants. A base version with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of built-in storage and a higher variant with possibly 6GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB of storage.

This week, a fresh set of images of the phone were leaked online showing a brushed metal design, 4GB of RAM, and the MSM8996 chip which is better known as the SD 820. If we are getting leaks of both processors, it is possible the variants may be launching with different chips as well.

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Upcoming Elephone R9 In Pictures: JDI Display, Sapphire Blue Color Option & More

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Joel Joseph

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Aug 26, 2016

Elephone has slowly started revealing details about its Elephone R9 flagship smartphone. The company today released a few set of images of the upcoming device as well as confirmed a few features.

The Elephone R9, like the name suggests will be inspired from the OPPO R9. Given that the R9’s design has been very well received by customers in China and internationally, there’s no surprise that Elephone decided to use a similar design on its next phone.

The Elephone R9 will come with an all metal body with CNC one stamping technology. This would ensure the curves are smooth and the phone looks premium. As you can see in the images, the phone comes with a front facing fingerprint sensor, which uses a glass cover. Overall, the design looks pretty good. Further, Elephone revealed that the phone will come with JDI full lamination in-cell display, which ensures that the panel is super thin and the touch is good.

I particularly liked the Sapphire Blue model, looks pretty unique.

You can check out more images of the Elephone R9 from below.

Ulefone Smartphones On Sale At Gearbest: Bezel-less Ulefone Future Available at $209.99

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Joel Joseph

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Aug 26, 2016

Ulefone Future was the company’s first bezel-less smartphone and it turned out to be a surprisingly decent smartphone. We have already reviewed the device and you can check that out from here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuP9jGbF-_8

The official price tag of the Ulefone Future is $239.99 but during the next 7 days, Gearbest is going to offer the device for $209.99. This is a pretty good price if you are looking for a decent bezel-less phone.

The Ulefone Future comes with a CNC metal unibody design with a 5.5-inch 1080p bezel-less display. Inside, it features Helio P10 2GHz chip with 4GB RAM. At the back, the phone has a 16MP Samsung sensor while on the side, you have a fingerprint sensor. Earlier, the phone did have some supply issues but looks like that’s solved now.

Apart from the Future, the company’s Ulefone Metal is also up at a discounted price of $109.99. This includes freebies such as a tempered glass and a flip case. To recap, the Metal comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p display, and 32GB storage. Other phones up fro discount include Ulefone Vienna at $139.99 and Ulefone Power at $143.99.

You can check out the promotions for Ulefone devices on Gearbest from below.

Check out Ulefone Sale At Gearbest

UMi Max vs Meizu M3 Note: Video Comparison

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Joel Joseph

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Aug 26, 2016

UMi has been promoting its brand new UMi Max smartphone for the past few days and the company has made sure to highlight some of the phone’s top features such as a 4000mAh battery. In the latest move, the company has pitted the UMi Max vs MEizu M3 Note in a video comparison to show the performance of both the handsets. In case you remember, both these models run on Helio P10 chipset inside and come with pretty good specs for its price.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG41zY4Yvk8&feature=youtu.be

The video comparison between UMi Max vs Meizu M3 Note will be in six different performance categories: Boot up speed, fingerprint unlock speed, AnTuTu sub scores, Geekbench scores, Speedtest network speed and Application launch speed. You can check out the comparison in the video above.

The UMi Max comes with a 13MP rear camera, f/2.0 lens and PDAF. Up front, it features a 5MP shooter. Also, inside, you have a large 4000mAh battery to keep the phone running for more than a day.

You can pre-order the UMi Max from the links below or try your luck at the company’s giveaway from here.

Find it at Gearbest: http://bit.ly/UMiMaxGB

Banggood: http://bit.ly/UMiMAXBG

Meizu Max Leaked In Real Images For the First Time

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Joel Joseph

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Aug 26, 2016

Back in April, Meizu unveiled three new devices in a span of 15 days in three different conferences. Now, the company seems to be following a similar strategy as Meizu has a new event scheduled for September 5, where we will most likely meet the Meizu Max (or Meizu M3 Max). This will make it the third smartphone launch (fourth launch in reality since there were two phones announced in the new U series — U10 and U20) within a month, after the launch of Meizu M3E on August 10.

The latest leak, now, gives us the first possible glimpse of the Meizu Max. This is the first time we are seeing the upcoming handset in real life. The phone does look big, which is in line with the rumors that have been going around. The Meizu Max, like the name suggest, is probably going to be a phablet, coming with a large display around 6-inches. The company’s invites came with the business class Nokia E71 handset, which hinted that the handset would be ideal for business users as well.

There’s not much difference in design as seen in these alleged images as compared to the Meizu M3E that was announced earlier in August. The back is plain, conforming with Meizu’s recent design language. Nothing out of the ordinary. So, it looks like the Meizu Max (or M3 Max) will be an enlarged version of the M3E model. Of course, there is a possibility that the design on the Max could be different. But considering that Meizu has been lazy with its design, using almost the same design language on all its recent phones, this probably is what the Max will look like.

As for the pricing, we can expect the Max to retail around 1799 Yuan ($270).

In case you are wondering, this is what the Meizu M3E looks like.

Huawei P10 Could Feature Front Facing Fingerprint, A First For Huawei

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Joel Joseph

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Aug 26, 2016

Unlike other Chinese smartphone companies, Huawei is constantly looking to differentiate its devices in the market. It is one of the first mainstream companies to adopt dual camera design on multiple smartphone series in 2016. And to a considerable extent, its smartphone like the Huawei P9 and the Honor 8 have managed to get our attention.

Although the company released three major phones this year — the Huawei P9, Honor 8 and the Honor V8 — among other mid-rangers, there’s still a couple of powerful phones left in the lineup. One of these phones we’ll meet in September, probably the Mate S2, with the Mate 9 slated for late 2016 release.

Weibo Post Saying That the P10 will feature Front Fingerprint ID

However, rumors about the Huawei P10 smartphone have already started to come in. The latest rumor from Weibo reveals that the Huawei P10 will feature a front facing fingerprint sensor. If true, this would make the first major Huawei phone to feature a front-facing fingerprint sensor, as the company has been using a rear-mounted fingerprint design on all its recent smartphones. If you remember, another rumor had revealed the front fingerprint sensor design a couple of months ago.

If the sensor is up front, it also means that the phone will probably have a physical home button on the front as well. It would be interesting to see what home button design would Huawei use on the device.

Since this is a Weibo leak, we can’t be sure of its authenticity. So, make sure you take it with a pinch of salt. Only after we see a few renders or real images of the Huawei P10, will we be more certain of this claim.

Xiaomi Releasing a Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner Soon? Pictures surface online

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Jed John Ikoba

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Aug 26, 2016

Xiaomi will soon add a new Robotic home sweeper to its rich line up of smart home products, which already boasts of intelligent and innovative products. Pictures of the paper box casing of the said Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner have surfaced online and it shows what the robotic gadget looks like.

The Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner is said to feature a smart function that lets home owners plan the cleaning path of the robot, a feature only available in few high-end Robot vacuum cleaners. The device is likely to feature a laser function which makes the device follow the sweeping plan. Apart from being able to follow a cleaning plan, the Robot vacuum product is said to also have the ability to scan the cleaning area and can automatically return to the path it had followed.

Also, a screenshot showing what looks like the Robot’s user interface or supporting app was spotted and it reveals the charging details, as well as the areas the Mi Robot Vacuum cleaner has covered in its cleaning duties. The screenshot also shows cleaning time, remaining battery power and room size.

The details about the product are still sketchy but no doubt this is a high-end product targeted at the iRobots flagship product which is already available. Robots don’t come cheap, so we expect the smart Mi Robot vacuum cleaner to be priced around 3,000 yuan or maybe more.

Meizu Max to cost 1799 Yuan ($270)?

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Joel Joseph

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Aug 26, 2016

Meizu has a new smartphone launching on September 5 but at this moment, the company has revealed nothing about the product. There have been reports that Meizu is all set to announce the Meizu Max smartphone on that day and it most likely will be a new phablet from the company.

While we may not be sure of the identity of the product launched on September 5, we may have some idea about the pricing. Recently, when users asked the question “What product will Meizu release on September 5” to Meizu’s voice assistant found on its Blue Charm devices, it answered 1799. This could be Meizu’s way of hinting the price of its upcoming device.

If this turns out to be the real pricing, the Meizu Max would directly compete with the likes of Xiaomi Mi Max and ZTE Nubia Z11 Max.

Stay tuned to gizmochina for more details.

Xiaomi Mi Note 2 Renders Leaked: Curved Screen, Dual Cam, SD 821 Chipset

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Jed John Ikoba

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Aug 25, 2016

Xiaomi’s expected Mi Note 2 flagship smartphone is again featured in a new leaked image renders detailing the spectacular features the device is tagging along. The render images were leaked courtesy popular tipster @kjuma.

The renders show the Mi Note 2 will feature a dual curved display screen and the display size stands at 5.5 inches with two likely editions, one having a 1080p resolution display while the other one will have a 2k display resolution.

Apart from the image renders, Xiaomi’s official photo advertising the amazing specs the expected Mi Note 2 will feature also surfaced online recently. The official photo contains details like the device featuring a 5.5-inch OLED curved screen, all-metal body, and dual cameras at the rear. The details also include that the Xiaomi Note 2 will be powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 821 processor alongside 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

The flagship Xiaomi Mi Note 2 was tipped to pop in the month of August but August is almost over and we are not getting any information about a possible launch event yet. It is possible then that the Mi Note 2’s release date might creep into September. No words yet on the expected price tag as well. But there have been lots of information revealed by earlier rumors about the Mi Note 2. Check them out from here.

MIUI 8 vs MIUI 7 : Interface & Design Changes Compared (Pictures)

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Jed John Ikoba

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Aug 25, 2016

Xiaomi started to push updates to the latest and much anticipated MIUI 8 Stable version to over 200 million Xiaomi smartphone models around the globe. Models like the Mi Max standard 3GB, Mi 4S, Mi Note, Mi 4 China Unicom version as well as the Telecom 3G versions and many others have already received the update. Now, it’s time to check MIUI 8 vs MIUI 7 differences.

Most of the Xiaomi models, before the latest OTA update push, were running on MIUI 7.5 stable ROM. But the MIUI 8 brings in many new features when compared to the MIUI 7 and one of the very noticeable features is the user interface. MIUI 8 Stable version bring a more beautiful interface design in addition to having Xiaomi’s Lanting font and bringing in several features like mobile avatar, SMS fraud detection, and some other new features.

Xiaomi’s MIUI official website posted a comparison chart between MIUI 7 and MIUI 8’s graphics interface and the differences though mild but is noticeable. The difference in the interface design range from desktop settings, dial-up interface, notes, weather, notification bar, advanced Calculator app, tape recorders and system updates.

Apart from the added features, the MIUI 8 vs MIUI 7 design differences in the interface may not look enticing enough to want to upgrade and there might be some out there who prefer holding on to their MIUI 7. So, between MIUI 7 and MIUI 8 which do you prefer? Meanwhile, you can check out more photos of the MIUI 7 and MIUI 8 interface designs.

Vernee Mars Pops Up In More Pictures, This Time In Champagne Gold

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Joel Joseph

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Aug 25, 2016

Although Vernee entered the smartphone market only a few months ago, the company has managed to make a good name for itself, all thanks to its value for money smartphones and regular support. We are still waiting for the release of the Vernee Apollo, which is the company’s flagship smartphone for 2016, but there’s another model, the Vernee Mars that is going to be announced soon.

We had already revealed the unique antenna design on the Vernee Mars a few days back, and now we have additional pictures of the same. However, this time, we can see that the phone is in Champagne Gold color, thereby confirming the two color options that most likely will be announced for the device at launch — Silver and Gold.

While there are a couple of models like the Meizu Pro 6 that feature these unique arc antenna lines (and the iPhone likely will also feature a similar antenna design), it is good to see Vernee Mars adopt such a design. It may not be a revolutionary feature, but it still sets it apart from the numerous monotonous designs on metal phones that we have seen in the past few months.

The pictures also reveal that the body will get 3D polishing treatment on the edges, and the antenna band seems to well integrated into the body. The back texture is going to be smooth, and the overall design looks quite good. See the remaining images from down below.

So, do you like Vernee Mar’s design?

More coverage down below.

Vernee Mars Real Photos Emerge: Super Thin Bezels, Premium Body

Vernee to launch Vernee Mars in November with 6GB RAM!

Elephone S7 Back Cover Comes with Liquid Color Design, Launching in September

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Joel Joseph

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Aug 25, 2016

Elephone S7 is turning out to be an interesting flagship smartphone and unlike the Elephone P9000 Edge, it looks like the S7 will be unveiled soon enough. The day before yesterday, Elephone teased the bezel-less display on the Elephone S7 model, and the screen looked pretty good. Though it was just a prototype, it showed that the design is real and almost finalized.

Now, it’s time to take a look at the back cover of the Elephone S7, and turns out, it is quite interesting as well. In this age of metal, where most of the flagship phones that you’ll find feature a metal body, Elephone has decided to use a glass back. In the new teaser revealed by the company, we can see that the phone will come with a special pattern, which changes with the angle you look at it. The company is calling this the changing liquid color design. The radian design of the S7’s back also looks a bit translucent from the side. Further, today the company confirmed that the front as well as the back will feature 2.5D glass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKsHuk98ZGY&feature=youtu.be

To be honest, the Elephone S7 looks quite interesting and given the company’s tradition of pricing its handsets aggressively, we hope that the price is competitive at launch. And yes, you don’t have to wait for too long to get more information about this handset as Elephone confirms today that the Elephone S7 will be sold in September.

You can read more about the company and the Elephone S7 from this link.

OnePlus Unveils Bullets V2 Earphones with Better Optimised Audio

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Aug 25, 2016

OnePlus has unveiled a YouTube video on its Twitter handle announcing its latest earphones tagged OnePlus Bullets V2 earphones. The video is just over a minute long and it gives insight of how the earphones will look as well as the features it comes with. OnePlus had released a video trailer a few days back teasing a August 25 launch for a new product which we had thought could be the second generation Icon In-ear earphones but turns out this one is the next gen OnePlus Bullets earphones.

The OnePlus Bullets V2 earphones weigh just 2 grams and has silicon earbuds which is available in various sizes, all inside the box. OnePlus claims that this second-gen Bullets earphones are better optimized for reproducing sound. An inline remote and mic, along with music controls and a toggle to answer calls are also present. The earphones also feature a 1.25 meters flat cable wires which connect it to the smartphone via the 3.5mm audio jack.

The Bullets V2 earphones will be available in Black Mix and White Remix colors and the price seems to have been set at $19.95 on OnePlus’ official website, even though the earphones are not available yet.

You can check out the Bullets V2 introduction video from down below.

Xiaomi MIUI 8 Update Is Already Out! Which Android Version Are You Stuck On?

By

Joel Joseph

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Aug 25, 2016

After a really long wait of a few months (MIUI 8 was announced back in May), Xiaomi finally started rolling out the MIUI 8 Stable update from August 23. We are definitely happy to get the new update, which brings lots of visual changes (mostly good) along with new features. In case you want to check ou the features of the Xiaomi’s MIUI 8 update, just read this article.

So, how’s the update so far? Is everything working smooth?

One question that we all have is what Android version is running on the Xiaomi models updated with MIUI 8. There are a few models which are scheduled to get the MIUI version based on Android M soon (Redmi Note 3 users read this article if you haven’t already). However, most of the models, especially the old ones are stuck on Android Lollipop or even Kitkat!

So, I just wanted to check out what Android version is your Xiaomi model running after the MIUI 8 update. I know there are a few old models like the Redmi Note 4G who are surprisingly still on Android 4.4.4 Kitkat.

You can vote the version on your phone (running MIUI 8) in the poll given below.

Top 20 Smartphone Manufacturers in China H1 2016

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Aug 25, 2016

A statistical agency, Beijing Sino Statistical Agency, has released its own results for market sales of major phone manufacturers in China. The stats which is separated into 3, viz.: offline, online, and a combination of both, covers data from 20 different companies for the first half of the year.

Online Sales

Xiaomi will surely be happy with this seeing as they have reportedly discredited IDC’s report. Xiaomi sold over 17 million smartphones via its online channels, which is over 1 million more than that of Huawei’s 15,815,807 devices. The interesting thing about the online sales is that the sum of the sales of the 3rd (LeEco), 4th (Apple), and 5th (Meizu) companies is not even as much as Huawei’s sales.

Samsung comes in 7th place with 1.8 million devices, OPPO comes in at number 9 with 975,272 devices and OnePlus takes the 15th spot with just 147,664.

Offline Sales

The streets is where the tide of battle changes. OPPO takes the first spot with a whooping 28 million devices and is followed closely by Huawei with 27,963,915 devices. Vivo comes in at number 3 with 24,813,503 devices, Apple is next with 22.5 million iPhones sold which is nearly double that of Samsung who takes the 5th spot with 11,742,057 phones.

Xiaomi takes a hard beat and manages to remain in the top 10 by clinching the 9th position with 6.2 million devices but forfeiting the 6th, 7th, and 8th spots to Gionee, Meizu, and Coolpad respectively.

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Two Android-Based Nokia Smartphones Spotted on GeekBench

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Aug 25, 2016

It is getting more and more certain that Nokia will start rolling out its Nokia branded Android phones under the new partnership arrangement with Helsinki-based HMD Global Oy. A Nokia Exec had also hinted earlier on that the Nokia Android phones may likely pop in the fourth quarter (Q4) of this year.

Well, we just might see that happen soon as two new Nokia smartphones running on Android operating system has appeared on Benchmark website Geekbench revealing some of the specs which isn’t in any way similar to the few rumored specs we had gotten before now.

The Nokia smartphones bore the model names, Nokia 5320 and Nokia RM-1490. Nokia 5320 is listed as sporting a 2.27GHz quad-core processor with 2GB RAM. The clocking frequency of the Nokia 5320 resembles that of a high-end chipset but the small RAM size is a turn off. Perhaps it is possible to ramp up the RAM size in the coming days since this is just a prototype. The Nokia 5320 is also listed to run on Android 4.4.4 operating system which is quite weird.

On the other hand, the Nokia RM-1490 is listed as featuring a single core AMD A8-5545M chipset clocked at a miserable 500MHz. The RM-1490 also clutches a 2GB RAM as the Nokia 5320. The Android phone is listed to run on an even older Android 4.2.2 operating system.

This is all the details we have for now, that is as bad as it can get. The leaked Benchmark data ended up confusing us the more instead of throwing more light on the expected Nokia Android smartphones. We hope more leaks detailing the Nokia branded Android phones emerge soon. Like always, we’ll keep you posted here on Gizmochina whenever that happens.

(Via)

Android 6.0 Beta Testing for Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon to Begin Soon

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Aug 25, 2016

Folks who own the Redmi Note 3 (Snapdragon and Mediatek) that have updated to MIUI 8 must have noticed that the android version is still stuck on Lollipop. It’s actually sad, knowing that one of the best selling Redmi phones is still running lollipop when Android 7.0 Nougat has already been released.

MIUI’s operations manager @RanGer posted on Weibo that Android 6.0 Marshmallow is being developed for the Snapdragon version of the Redmi Note 3. He mentioned that beta testing was supposed to begin yesterday but due to some problems that have not been ironed out, the beta program has been postponed. There is no news yet on the new date, so if you are eager to start testing, you might want to exercise a little bit of patience.

In the mean time, you can keep yourself busy by trying out the new features of MIUI 8.

Related: Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Official

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iPhone 7 May Have 256GB Version and Even a New Name

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Aug 25, 2016

Back when the first iPhone was launched, 16GB was a lot of storage, but in the last 2 years, fans of the Cupertino-based company have complained about the company still launching 16GB phones which just doesn’t cut it anymore. If the rumours are to be believed, the iPhone 7s (sevens) will come with 32GB storage on the base models.

However, it seems the company is raising the maximum storage available on an iPhone. An image of a leaked assembly sheet posted by twitter account, @the_malignant shows that there will be a 256GB version of the iPhone 7.

The spec sheet shows that the 256GB NAND chips will be supplied by Toshiba and confirms that there will be 32GB and 128GB versions (no 64GB) which will be supplied by an unnamed manufacturer.

While @the_malignant has leaked details for other phones that did turn out to be true, there is still no evidence that the assembly sheet is for Apple. Experts say the PCB format does follow Apple’s guidance, but it is also similar to that of other Foxconn clients.

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Debuts: Official Photos

By

Jed John Ikoba

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Aug 24, 2016

Xiaomi officially unveiled the “thousand yuan flagship” Redmi Note 4 today at a news conference in China and the images reveal a very beautifully designed device with large display screen. Xiaomi also re-categorized the Redmi series into three namely; Redmi, Redmi Note and Redmi Pro series.

The Redmi Note 4 features a slim all-metal body design available in silver, gray and gold color variants. Despite cramming a massive 4,100mAh battery, the Redmi Note 4 still looks flat .

The display sports a 2.5D arc glass covering and the body is said to feature nine CNC diamond cutting on the body. The design keeps the rear camera, LED flash, USB port and fingerprint sensor, all in the same symmetrical centre line.

The antenna bands are visible on the top edge and the bottom edge of the back cover of the device. There are also capacitive buttons for volume control and the power up button on the right side of the device.

The 13MP main camera at the rear comes with 5P lens, f/2.0 aperture, color temperature flash, PDAF and HDR, all geared towards bringing out crisp, clear photos that become difficult to tell if they were shot by a mobile camera.

The 5MP front facing is not to be left out, as it features a f/2.0 alongside Beauty 2.0, and facial recognition.

The beautiful speaker grills, common in Xiaomi smartphones, lies just at the bottom edge of the device, bordering the USB port on both sides and yes, the Redmi Note 4 comes with a 3.5mm audio jack situated at the opposite end. For an 899 Yuan ($135) smartphone, the design is dope, Xiaomi got it right once again!