OnePlus 3 Review – A Mature, Almost Perfect OnePlus

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Jun 29, 2016

OnePlus drew a lot of attention once they released the OnePlus One and then the OnePlus 2. This year, the company released the third-generation model, which is more mature, has great specs and great price. Learn more in our full review.

Thanks to Oppomart for sending OnePlus 3 for a review.

OnePlus 3 Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT1Hy-Pn9RM[/embedyt] [embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z0gSo5-t_Y[/embedyt]

OnePlus 3 Review: UNBOXING

As usual to the OnePlus, the phone comes in a nice and high-quality box, where all the items are packed neatly. The contents include quite a bit of paperwork, “Never Settle” sticker, SIM ejector pin, USB C cable and last but not least a fast charger, which is called Dash. More on that later on.

OnePlus 3 Review: SPECS

Display	5.5″ 1080 x 1920 pixels Amoled (~401 ppi pixel density)
Processor and GPU	Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820, Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo, Adreno 530 GPU
RAM	6GB
Camera	8MP Front/16MP Back, OIS
Connectivity	Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, dual-SIM.
Battery	3.000 mAh (non-removable)
Dimensions	152.7 x 74.7 x 7.4 mm / 158g
OS	OxygenOS 3.1.2 (Android 6.0.1)
Storage	64GB (not expandable)

OnePlus 3 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

Some people would say that the OnePlus 3 has quite a few design elements borrowed from HTC or Huawei.

Nevertheless, the phone looks and feels gorgeous. A combination of all-metal design, perfect build quality and tactile buttons make this phone look like a true flagship.

Speaking of the buttons, we have a 3-position customizable notification slider, which seems like a little thing but it is really nice in practice.

We have a dual nano SIM card tray to make traveling more convenient.

On the bottom, we have a loudspeaker, which sits next to the USB C port. The sound quality of it is good but not the best. A great thing is that the loudspeaker is loud but it is placed on the left side, so you may end up covering it up quite often.

We have an 8MP selfie camera and a highly customizable notification LED light on the top.

The capacitive buttons have a nice backlight and they are highly customizable too. If you don’t like them, you can switch to the on-screen navigation buttons anytime. Right in the middle we have a home button, which doubles as a fingerprint scanner and it is one of the fastest and most reliable scanners I’ve tested.

As far as display, we have a 5.5” 1080p Amoled panel. There have been some talks about the screen quality due to the Pentile pixel arrangement technology but I have to tell you that the display looks great and you don’t need to worry about that. Well, it is not on par with e.g. Samsung Galaxy S7 edge but it is plenty sharp, crisp and it has a decent sunlight legibility.

We have a 16MP camera with OIS and f/2.0 aperture coupled with a single LED flash.

Overall, the OnePlus 3 is nothing short of a true flagship phone in terms of the choice of materials and build quality.

OnePlus 3 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

When it comes to the sheer power, OnePlus 3 is no slouch either. It comes with a Snapdragon 820 chip, 6GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage, which is, however, not expandable.

As you may have guessed, the phone handles all the 3D games at the highest graphics settings without any issues.

Also, 6GB of RAM assure that multitasking is a breeze and you can easily switch from one app to another.

OnePlus 3 Review: BENCHMARKS

OnePlus 3 Review: USER INTERFACE

We’ve come to the user interface part and this is where OnePlus 3 brings a perfect blend of stock Android 6.0 and some added features. The device runs on the home-brewed Oxygen OS, which brings a ton of customization options.

We’ve already mentioned the ability to customize the LED notification light and capacitive buttons. Other features that I love are the dark mode, which looks gorgeous on the Amoled panel. Also, you can change the accent colors, use some basic gesture controls that work great and do some other things to customize the phone.

However, the most important thing about the UI is the speed. The phone is very fast on a daily use and I absolutely enjoyed using it.

OnePlus 3 Review: CAMERA

The phone can take pictures very fast in daylight and slightly slower in dim situations. We have a pretty simple and easy to use camera app. There is a manual mode among other modes to let you take a full control of the pictures you take.

OnePlus 3 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

OnePlus 3 can take some great looking daylight images with a good amount of detail and natural looking colors. However, you may get some images with softer focus on the corners but I’m just being picky here.

The low-light camera is not as good as there is quite a bit of noise and less detail in the images. Still, the low-light camera performance is one of the best in class of sub-$400 phones.

The video quality is great too. The 4k footage looks sharp and there is plenty of detail. The 1080p video has less detail but in this mode, the OIS kicks in to reduce the shakiness and it does its job pretty well. See a video review for a video sample.

An 8MP selfie shooter is very good too and you will be able to take some detailed selfies in good lighting.

Overall, OnePlus 3 has a great if not the best camera in its class. Sure, it cannot rival the competition from Samsung but hey, this phone is a lot cheaper.

OnePlus 3 Review: CONNECTIVITY

I am happy with all the connectivity options as I didn’t have any issues. Call quality is great with both SIM cards, signal reception is excellent, Wifi and GPS work absolutely fine.

OnePlus 3 Review: BATTERY LIFE

Some people are a bit disappointed that the device has just 3000mAh battery but I have to tell you that it performs great.

On a light use, I could get over 5 hours of screen-on time (SOT). However, the SOT time reduces to around 4 hours if I use the phone more intensively.

In case you need to recharge your battery, a Dash charge tech comes handy. The supplied charger can fully charge the phone in just over 1 hour and that it one of the best results I have ever achieved on any phone.

OnePlus 3 Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the third generation OnePlus. This is a device the OnePlus have aimed to create for quite a while and they finally did it.

We have a premium all-metal phone that is thin and sits nicely in the hand, bleeding-edge specifications that include 6GB of RAM and stellar all-around performance.

Also, the OnePlus 3 will not disappoint you once you want to take a picture or shoot a video and you have plenty of customization options, which are baked in at the first glance stock looking Android 6.0.

If you consider some other great features like a Dash charge, notification slider and one of the best fingerprint scanners on the market, the OnePlus 3 is one of the best smartphones you can get at this price point. All in all, OnePlus 3 is a very easy buying recommendation.

Buy Oneplus 3 at Oppomart, $20 Off by Coupon Code: OP320F

ASUS ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe & ZenFone 3 Ultra To Go On Sale From July

By

Joel Joseph

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Jun 29, 2016

ASUS updated the popular ZenFone lineup back at Computex last month. There were three models in the new lineup, namely the ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe and ZenFone 3 Ultra, all targeted at different categories of users. Although these three models were announced back then, the company failed to give out a release schedule for these devices. But now, after a month, it looks like we may have a date, thanks to a Taiwanese retailer.

ePrice website has just revealed that the above three ZenFone models from ASUS will go on sale from July 12 in Taiwan. Unfortunately, we still don’t have an international release date, but we can be sure that the global release should be a few weeks after this date.

ASUS has already revealed the prices for these three handsets. The ZenFone 3 starts at $249, while the ZenFone 3 Deluxe and ZenFone 3 Ultra are much costlier, priced at $499 and $479 respectively. Metal lovers are definitely going to love the design on the three handsets as they are super slim and come with a solid metal body. The ZenFone 3 and the Deluxe models feature fingerprint sensor at the back while the Zenfone 3 Ultra comes with a sensor right up front, mainly because of its monstrous size.

To recap, the ZenFone 3 comes with Snapdragon 625 chip inside with 3GB / 4GB RAM and 32GB / 64GB storage options. The phone features a 5.5-inch 1080p display. On the other hand, the ZenFone 3 Ultra comes with a large 6.8-inch FHD display with Snapdragon 625 inside and 4GB + 64GB memory combination. Finally, the ZenFone 3 Deluxe comes with a 5.7-inch FHD display with Snapdragon 820 chip and 6GB + 64GB memory. You can read all about these three smartphones from our launch coverage here.

(source)

LeEco Unveils Top-End Le Max 2 With 6GB RAM & 128GB storage

By

Joel Joseph

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Jun 29, 2016

Le Max 2 is a pretty powerful flagship, coming with Snapdragon 820 inside with a maximum memory configuration of 6GB RAM and 64GB of storage. However, there are flagships in the market today like the ZUK Z2 Pro, Axon 7 and even the recently released Nubia Z11 that feature 6GB + 128GB ROM configuration. Well, it looks like LeEco didn’t want to lag behind these manufacturers as the company has officially unveiled the top-end version of the Le Max 2 model that features 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage. This puts the device right on top of the market, as you won’t find any other smartphone with such powerful specs.

While the rest of the specs of the Le Max 2 remains the same as the previously released variants, the company also announced a new color for the device today — Force Gold. It is said that the company consulted with color psychology experts and tech experts to come up with this special Force Gold color. Along with the Le Max 2, the Le 2 and the Le 2 Pro models are going to get this new color option.

So, now, there are three variants of the Le Max 2: 4GB + 32GB (2099 Yuan ~ $315), 6GB + 64GB (2499 Yuan ~ $375) and 6GB + 128GB (2799 Yuan ~ $421)

In case you are interested in this model, the Le Max 2 128GB version is already listed on OPPOMART for pre-order at $499. The retailer seems to have slashed the price for the other two variants by $80. Now, the Le Max 2 4GB + 32GB version is available at $319 while the 6GB + 64GB version is available at $449.

LeEco Launches EUI 5.8, Rolling Out From June 30

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Jun 29, 2016

LeEco, formerly known as LeTV, launched the second generation of its smartphones (LeEco Le 2, Le 2 Pro, and Le Max 2) back in April alongside a new version of its OS, EUI 5.8, which is based on Android Marshmallow. The final version of the OS is ready and LeEco will start pushing the update to devices starting tomorrow i.e. June 30.

EUI 5.8 will be sporting a lot of new features such as an immersive VR interface, remote assistance, app lock, international roaming, a wallet app etc. LeEco says that it listened to the customers and the new EUI 5.8 version comes with more than 340 new features and it has applied for 482 patents with respect to the new OS.

So, finally, users will be able to upgrade from EUI 5.6 to 5.8 in the coming days.

Do you own a LeEco (or LeTV) phone? Do let us know when the update hits your phone and your favourite new features.

ZTE Nubia Z11 Up For Pre-order On OPPOMART

By

Joel Joseph

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Jun 29, 2016

ZTE announced its flagship smartphone for 2016, the ZTE Nubia Z11 yesterday. The phone comes with top-end specs, but what makes this device really special is the bezel-less display on board. Last year, the Nubia Z9 came with a bezel-less screen and the company continued the tradition by using a second generation bezel-less panel on the new Nubia Z11. The phone also gets the new FiT (Fringe Interactive Tech) which enables gestures on the edge, to open, switch apps and even adjust the brightness of the display. It’s overall a pretty cool experience.

Now, OPPOMART has listed the Nubia Z11 flagship up for pre-order on its website. The official price tag of the device in China is around $376 and like expected, you will have to pay a premium price for ordering the device internationally. You can pre-order the phone on OPPOMART for $499. This is for the 4GB + 64GB ROM model, which is more than $100 mark up on the original price. While this is quite costly, it is one of the surest ways of getting hold of this device outside of China. The 6GB RAM version is also available, but you will have to shell out $200 more. You can choose between three colors — silver, gold and gray.

To recap, the Nubia Z11 comes with Snapdragon 820 chip inside with 4GB RAM + 64GB storage / 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variants. It is one of the most compact 5.5-inch smartphones in the market today measuring 151.8 x 72.3 x 7.5mm in dimensions and weighing just 162 grams. At the back, you get a powerful Sony IMX 298 16MP camera with OIS and EIS along with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF and the company’s NeoVision 6.0 technology. Up front, you have an 8MP shooter. Finally, inside, you get a 3000mAh battery that along with NeoPower battery saving tech helps you get more than a day’s battery life.

Check out more details from the link below.

Pre-order Nubia Z11 Flagship From OPPOMART

Xiaomi Inc. Expected to Go Public in 2025

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Jun 29, 2016

Xiaomi Inc. was founded in April 2010 and has grown from being called the ”Apple of China” to become one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers. Xiaomi which has included a smart bike and scooter, a rice cooker, TVs, air purifiers, smart bulbs, and even a body scale in its manufacturing portfolio, is expected to go public in 2025.

Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s founder, mentioned during a tech expo on Tuesday that after the company was formed in 2010, he knew it would need at least 15 years to hold an initial public offering (IPO), which puts the date at 2025.

The company has suffered a recent drop in market share as it has now been bumped out of the top 5 by two other Chinese manufacturers, Oppo and Vivo which are actually owned by the same parent company (BBK Electronics).

Xiaomi which mainly used an online only sales model has started putting up brick and mortar shops in places like Beijing and plans to have five to six stores in major cities.

The company is also looking to expand to North America and Europe after having added Brazil and India to their list of offices. Xiaomi is expected to launch a set-top box running Android TV in the US later this year.

OnePlus 3 Might Be Getting 2 New Colours : Red and Green

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Jun 29, 2016

The OnePlus 3 is the rave of the moment. Its launch has reinforced the fact that High End Low Price (HELP) phones are here to stay.

The OP3 is available in only one colour for now i.e. graphite grey, and a soft gold version expected in July. Although, news reaching us today says the phone might be getting two more colour variants viz.: red and green. Don’t worry there’s no rose gold (we are tired of that colour already).

According to the source,the red version, which looks awesome by the way and matches with the red and white charging cable, was spotted on the OnePlus website but was later taken down. While we do not know the reason for its removal, we do hope the phone sees the light of day.

The green version on the other hand which looks more like teal is pretty attractive as well and will get heads turning when you pull it out of your pocket. Both pictures show that the phones will retain the black bands on the back and the black bezels in front.

If OnePlus decides not to release these new colours, we’ll just have to make do with the protective cases which comes in bamboo, karbon, rosewood, black apricot, and the much loved sandstone.

The OnePlus 3 has a 5.5” FHD optic AMOLED screen, a snapdragon 820 SoC, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of built-in storage, a fingerprint scanner, NFC, and a 3000mAh battery with DASH Charge just for $399.

ZTE Axon 7 Now Up For Pre-order in Europe via Amazon

By

Joel Joseph

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Jun 29, 2016

ZTE unveiled the brand new ZTE Axon 7 flagship a few weeks back in China. However, unlike some Chinese companies who are limited to China and nearby markets, ZTE is preparing to expand its market reach to more mature markets of Europe this year. As a result, the newly announced ZTE Axon 7 smartphone is now available for pre-order in Europe via Amazon starting today (links are given at the end of the article). So, European customers can finally get hold of the 4GB RAM version of the handset (no 6GB RAM version for now).

It took around a month for the flagship to enter the European market, since the device was announced on May 26 in China. The phone will be available for pre-order on Amazon in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK for a price tag of 449 Euros. The company also informs us that the phone will be available for purchase via GrosBill (online) and offline at Media Markt and Phone House in the coming months.

ZTE Axon 7 is powerful flagship coming with Snapdragon 820 chipset inside and 4GB RAM with 64GB internal storage. The phone comes with a 2K 5.5-inch display with 2.5D glass and Corning’s Gorilla Glass 4 protection. Under the hood, the device has a 3250mAh with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging tech. At the back, the Axon 7 features a 20MP /1.8 aperture camera with OIS and EIS, while up front, the phone has an 8MP f/2.2 88-degree wide angle shooter.

One of the highlights of the new Axon 7 flagship is Hi-Fi audio on board along with dual speakers and Dolby Atmos surround sound. The company has particularly focused on the audio quality of the smartphone, making it an attractive option for audio lovers. As for software, the phone comes with Android M OS. At the back, you get a fingerprint sensor as well.

Preorder now on Amazon:

Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B01HFYMUAG

Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B01HG7DL0A

Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01HG0UFEM

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HGBVGPS

France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B01HGO5UWA

Huawei Honor 8 launch event confirmed on July 11 in Shanghai

By

Joel Joseph

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Jun 28, 2016

We have been hearing about the upcoming Honor 8 flagship for the past few weeks. In fact, the company even started teasing the handset a few days back, without revealing an exact release date for the device. However, now, thanks to one of the executives of the Huawei, we know that the Honor 8 will be unveiled on July 11 in China.

Huawei Honor’s President of Business, Zhao George revealed a new launch teaser for the Honor 8 a couple of hours back. This teaser confirms that the new flagship smartphone will be unveiled on July 11 at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in China at 6.30PM. So, looks like the previous rumors about a July 5 unveiling were false.

What this teaser also confirms is that the Honor 8 will come with dual cameras. We can clearly see the two circles that the company has been using for teasing its dual camera flagships, and it is present for this poster well. We can be almost sure that this setup will be similar to the Honor V8 flagship and without Leica’s certification.

As for the specs, the Honor 8 should come with the Kirin 950 octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM inside. The screen should be compact measuring 5.2-inches with 1080p resolution. Also, the phone should come with Android 6.0 inside with a 2900mAh battery, NFC and a fingerprint sensor located at the back. The device has already passed through the TENAA certification website, so you can check out the images as well as the specs of the device from here.

MIUI 7.5 Stable China ROM Rolling Out Today, Comes With Some MIUI 8 Features

By

Joel Joseph

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Jun 28, 2016

Xiaomi will release the MIUI 7.5 China Stable ROM today. While we all are waiting for the new MIUI 8 stable update, the 7.5 ROM is also an important update since it comes with a few features that will be inside the v8.0. So, if you wanted to try out a couple of features early, upgrading your phone to MIUI 7.5 China Stable ROM would be a good idea. You can either wait for the OTA update or download and flash the ROM package on to your Xiaomi smartphone.

So, the new MIUI 7.5 brings some new features onto your smartphone like shortcut menus, Mi Lanting system font, app protection, card design for notification messages, redesigned weather app, major optimizations for cleaner app, wallpaper carousel etc.

The update will be rolled out in two batches. The first ones to get the MIUI 7.5 Update include Mi Max 32GB / 64GB / 128GB versions and Xiaomi Mi5. The next batch will get the update starting around July 4 and includes Redmi 3, Redmi Note Prime etc. The entire list of supported devices in both the batches are given as below.

First Set Of Devices getting MIUI 7.5 China stable build are:
Mi Max 64GB/128GB, Mi Max 32GB, Mi 5, Mi 4S, Mi Note Pro, Mi Note, Mi 4c, Mi 4i, Mi 4, Mi 3, Mi 2/2S, Mi Pad 2, Mi Pad 1, Redmi Note 4G (Single SIM) , Redmi 1S

Second Set Of Devices Who Will Get MIUI 7.5 China stable build later (around July 4th)
Redmi 3S/3x, Redmi 3, Redmi Note Prime (4G, Dual SIM), Redmi Note 3 MTK, Redmi Note 3 Qualcomm, Redmi Note 2, Redmi 2A, Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, Redmi 1

If you are too excited to get the new update, then head over to this link. You’ll find all details to download and flash the MIUI 7.5 ROM for your model.

Meanwhile, MIUI 8 will start rolling out sometime in August.

Huawei won’t release the Mate 9 In September, Reveals Company Manager

By

Joel Joseph

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Jun 28, 2016

Huawei started sending out invites for the September 1 event a few days back and everyone started speculating that the phone released at that event should be the Huawei Mate 9 flagship. However, according to the company’s usually release schedule Mate 9 should be released only by the end of the year and this is exactly what one of the managers within the company confirmed today.

mate 9 wont launch in september

Huawei’s Mobile Product line manager, Bruce Lee revealed today that Mate 8 was listed only by December last year and hence, Mate 9 will not be released so early. This brings us to the question, what to expect from the event in September? Like last year, Huawei could unveil the brand new Huawei Mate S2 flagship at the event, that should precede the launch of the Mate 9. In fact, we actually may have seen the Mate S2 model, as recently a variant of the Mate 8 flagship with advanced Force Touch features was spotted on TENAA. It came with the same specs as the Mate 8 as well as the design.

However, it would make even more sense for Huawei to upgrade the specs on the Mate S2. For example, the company could debut the new Kirin 960 chipset in the new smartphone which is rumored to come with ARM’s Artemis cores (next gen of Cortex A72) in combination with low-power Cortex A53 cores. Further, the GPU should be upgraded to improve graphics performance of the chipset. Other possible features of the Kirin 960 include Cat. 12 LTE, CDMA support, and 16nm manufacturing node.

In case you remember, last years Mate S was water resistant. We hope that this year the company carries forward this feature to the new Mate S2 version. While the S2 should most likely feature a dual camera setup, we are still not sure whether they would be 20MP Leica certified setup, which the Mate 9 is expected to feature. With upgraded specs, the Mate S2 can still be a powerful competitor to the upcoming iPhone 7 Plus and Galaxy Note 7 models.

Bezel-less Nubia Z11 Official With SD820, 6GB RAM & Powerful Camera

By

Joel Joseph

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Jun 28, 2016

Last year, when Nubia unveiled the Nubia Z9 flagship, it was a big deal since we hardly had any true bezel-less phones in the market. Fast forward to 2016, and we have seen a few new phones with no bezels, so it may not be as big of a deal as it was last year. However, Nubia is here to show us its take on the bezel-less flagship for the second year by unveiling the brand new Nubia Z11 flagship in China. The company made this flagship official in an event today in Beijing, China.

The phone is powerful as well as beautiful. Thanks to its bezel-less display, the Nubia Z11 has managed to reduce its dimensions and its screen covers 81% of the body. So, the Z11 is one of the most compact 5.5-inch smartphones in the market today. Its dimensions are: 151.8 x 72.3 x 7.5mm and the phone weighs 162 grams. The phone gets a metal body with 2.5D glass on both sides. The body goes through nano-injection molding and precision CNC finish to ensure that the overall built turns out to be premium.

As for the specs, the Nubia Z11 comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p bezel-less negative LCD display with 500 nit brightness, wide viewing angles and anti-reflective screen. Further, the display comes with the new generation of FiT technology. First seen on the Nubia Z9 last year, the FiT edge touch technology adds various functions to the edge of the smartphone. So for things like starting or switching between applications, adjusting screen brightness or clearing up background apps, various edge-based gestures come to the rescue.

Inside, the Nubia Z11 comes with the mighty Snapdragon 820 chipset clocked at 2.15GHz. Nubia seems to have worked together with Qualcomm to implement the TruSignal technology on the chip inside its new flagship. To give you some numbers, the TurSignal tech reportedly optimizes phone antenna to reduce call drops by 30%, increase data speeds by 40%, and reduce power consumption due to connections by 20%. You get two memory variants, 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage. You can further expand this storage up to 200GB via MicroSD. Further, the phone supports dual SIM dual standby with 4G+ and VoLTE. The fingerprint sensor is located at the back and unlocks in just 0.1s.

At the back, the Nubia Z11 comes with a 16MP camera (Sony IMX298) with 6P lens, Blue glass IR filter, f/2.0 aperture, OIS, PDAF and the company’s NeoVision 6.0 tech. Up front, the phone features an 8MP sensor with f/2.4 aperture and 80 degrees wide angle lens.

As for the software, the phone runs on Android 6.0.1 out of the box with Nubia UI 4.0 on top. The battery will be of 3000mAh which although, sounds small, will reportedly provide up to 1.37 days of heavy usage and 2.17 days of average usage. The company says this is possible because of its NeoPower technology. The battery supports fast charging at 9V 2A.

C0ming to the pricing, the standard version of the Nubia Z11 with 4GB RAM + 64GB storage starts at 2499 Yuan ($376) while the top-end version with 6GB RAM + 128GB ROM retails for 3499 Yuan ($526). The phone is up for booking and will go on sale on July 6 at 10:00 AM. There will also be a C. Ronaldo special edition of the Nubia Z11, however, the company is yet to reveal pricing and release details about this version.

Vivo X7 Spotted on GFXBench After Leaving TENAA

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Jun 28, 2016

Benchmarking website, GFXBench, is the next stop for the Vivo X7 after leaving the certification office. The website gives us more information about the phone’s specifications and confirms the ones already known.

The Vivo X7 has a 5.2″ FHD screen, a Snapdragon 652 processor clocked at 1.8GHz, an Adreno 510 GPU, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of built-in storage, and a front camera with a higher pixel than the rear: 16MP and 13MP respectively. Well, it is a strategy taken from the books of OPPO, whose OPPO R9 features a similar setup.

The sad thing is the fact that the Vivo X7 is going to launch with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. With Android N almost upon us, it is disappointing that a premium mid-range phone such as this will launch with Lollipop when sub $100 phones are launching with Marshmallow.

Meizu Vs Qualcomm: Meizu Wants To Settle But Only At A Reasonable Price

By

Habeeb Onawole

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Jun 28, 2016

Following Qualcomm’s 520 million Yuan suit against Meizu, the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Meizu, Li Nan, says he agrees intellectual property use should be paid for and his company is going to do so but disagrees on them wanting an unequal treatment. While admitting that Meizu indeed used Qualcomm patents, he mentioned that the use of the patents still hasn’t broken any Chinese law.

Mr. Nan says, all his company wants is a fair platform to negotiate the payments and eventually pay the royalties to Qualcomm. Qualcomm will have none of that as it feels that Chinese manufacturers are getting a huge discount compared to manufacturers from other countries.

The San-Francisco chip maker believes that Meizu’s refusal to pay presents an unequal relationship between Qualcomm and other manufacturers as it makes it appear that the chip maker is having difficulties collecting royalties from license partners. Mr. Nan, however disagrees with the statement.

Whichever way it goes, Meizu definitely wants the case settled out of court.

What do you think? Should this case be settled out of the court?

Huawei Honor 8 Passes TENAA: Design & Specs Revealed

By

Joel Joseph

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Jun 28, 2016

Huawei has been teasing the upcoming Honor 8 smartphone as one of the best-looking phone in its class. In fact, in the recent teaser for the device, Huawei calls the Honor 8 “Beauty out of the ordinary”. Up till now, we didn’t have any real renders of the device, but now, the phone has passed through the TENAA certification website, which reveals most of the specs as well as the design of the handset.

First of all, as predicted, the Honor 8 will use a double glass design with a metal frame. To be honest, in the images, the phone doesn’t look anything out of the ordinary, but we will have to reserve our judgment till we see the device in real life. It’s going to be compact and thin, and the basic design seems to be a continuation of its previous generation models. You can also see a round fingerprint sensor at the back along with the dual camera setup.

As for the specs, the Huawei Honor 8 will come with a 5.2-inch 1080p display. Under the hood, the phone features a 2.3GHz processor, which should be the octa-core Kirin 950 chip. There will be multiple variants of the phone, as spotted a few hours back (FRD-TL100, FRD-DL00, FRD-AL100, FRD-AL10) and these variants will differ in network connectivity support (a couple of these support all networks in China) as well as storage. There will be 3GB RAM + 32GB, 4GB + 32GB and 4GB + 64GB storage variants. The phone will come with Android 6 pre-installed and dual card dual standby support with an infrared port as well.

As for the camera, it should be the same as the Honor V8. So the upcoming Honor 8 will feature 12MP dual cameras at the back and a single 8MP sensor up front. The dimensions are: 145.5 × 71.0 × 7.45 mm and the weight: 153 grams.

The Honor 8 should be positioned right below the Honor V8 flagship series. So, the pricing of the base model (3GB + 32GB) is expected to start at 1999 Yuan ($306).

The phone should be unveiled sometime early July.

Huawei Sends Invites For September 1 event before IFA 2016, Is it For Mate 9?

By

Joel Joseph

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Jun 27, 2016

IFA 2016 which will be held in Berlin starts from September 2 and ends on September 7. This means that there is still a few months left for the event. However, that didn’t stop Huawei from sending out invites for a launch event, just a day before the IFA.

IFA has always been an important event for Huawei since for the past few years, we have been meeting the new Mate series flagships at the event. The company announced the Mate 7 in September IFA 2014, and last year, we saw a new flagship, the Mate S at IFA 2015. So, this year, we can expect to see a brand new Mate smartphone at IFA 2016. However, considering that last year, the Mate S was announced at this event and the Mate 8 was released only a couple of months later, we wonder whether that will be the case this year as well.

Huawei could unveil the successor to the Mate S, and there are some things which support this possibility. An upgraded Mate S, which could be called as the Mate S2 may debut with Huawei’s new version of Force Touch which is said to come with more functions. But we also have to take into account that Huawei Mate S wasn’t really a big success for the company. So, it’s still doubtful whether this Chinese giant will update the lineup this year.

Another possibility is that, instead of waiting till the very end of 2016, Huawei could unleash its big guns, the Huawei Mate 9 at this event. This would be an ideal time for the launch, since then, the phone can take on the Galaxy Note 7 (another phablet flagship launching in Aug this year) and the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus which should be announced a few weeks later.

Anyway, it’s too early to speculate on the device that will meet us at the event. So, let’s wait for more details in the coming weeks.

(via)

LeEco Flagship Spotted With Dual Cameras In A New Leak

By

Joel Joseph

-

Jun 27, 2016

We have been hearing rumors about a dual camera smartphone from LeEco. While the company is yet to acknowledge the existence of such a device, recently a new smartphone with LeEco’s logo at the back was spotted. Well, what we saw in the picture was just a rear shell, but it did reveal a lot of things about the device.

From the image, it looks like LeEco is working on a dual camera flagship model. We can clearly see the new LeEco logo at the back, which gave away its identity. Further, the dual camera placement is actually quite interesting, since the company seems to have placed the cameras and the flash to slightly resemble a human face. Further, just below this setup is an opening which should be for the fingerprint sensor. LeEco likes fingerprint sensors at the back of the phone, hence, this design is in line with the company’s design philosophy. From the image, the back shell seems to be made out of metal.

Another highlight of the new LeEco smartphone is the position of the antenna lines. As you can see in the image, the white antenna lines are placed on the top and the bottom. Now isn’t this a bit too familiar? Yes, it is! This is the same antenna design used by Meizu Pro 6 and considering the renders we have seen recently, even the iPhone 7 is expected to use this same design.

Specs wise, we have very limited information, however, there have been reports about a powerful flagship from LeEco as soon as tomorrow! The specs are said to be top-notch including Snapdragon 821 chip, 8GB RAM, and dual cameras. While we are not sure whether LeEco will unveil this beast at tomorrow’s MWC Shanghai event, if that doesn’t happen, then the phone should be released sometime later this year.

OPPO R9S Said To Release Later This Year With A Thin Metal Body And Super VOOC

By

Joel Joseph

-

Jun 27, 2016

OPPO R9 is doing very well for the company, selling over 7 million units of the device in a few months of launch. However, it looks like this best selling model will soon see a successor, as Taiwanese media reports indicate that OPPO is preparing to launch the OPPO R9S which should succeed the R9 later this year.

It is said that Qualcomm has bagged the rights to supply processors for the OPPO R9S model. The chipmaker is said to start shipping the chipset in August this year, which means the official launch of the new model is just a few months away. The company is also said to continue with the same design philosophy that worked wonders with the R9, i.e. a thin metal body design. However, since Qualcomm has reportedly got the chipset rights for the R9S, it would be interesting to see which chip is used inside this new device.

OPPO R9 Plus came with Snapdragon 652, but it was a larger and a costlier version of the R9. With the OPPO R9S, the company could either upgrade the chip to SD652 or maybe use a newer chip like the Snapdragon 625. Also, if the rumored OPPO Find 9 is not releasing anytime soon, then OPPO may even upgrade the chip to Snapdragon 821 inside this R9S. This is possible because the phone will have to take on powerful models like the Mi Note 2, LeEco flagship, Mate 9 etc in the second half of the year.

Another interesting feature said to end up on the OPPO R9S is the fast charging technology. It looks like OPPO could use the Super VOOC fast charging tech that charges a 2500mAh battery in 15 minutes inside its new device. If that’s the case, charging a phone won’t be an issue anymore.

There are rumors about OPPO releasing a dual camera phone, but the setup would ideally end up in a top-end flagship lineup like the OPPO Find 9.

Stay tuned for more details.

ZUK Z2 Review – Beautiful and Fast

By

Linus

-

Jun 27, 2016

Last year ZUK, which is a Lenovo-backed company, released a rather compelling Z1 model. This year, we have the Z2, a phone, which costs just above $300 but it has some killer specs. Learn more in our full review.

Thanks to Oppomart for sending ZUK Z2 for a review

Get $30 OFF with a COUPON CODE: ZUKZ230

Buy ZUK Z2 at Oppomart, $30 Off with Coupon Code

ZUK Z2 Review: VIDEO

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2-AikyR2Dg[/embedyt] [embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd7UQ01JLXs[/embedyt]

ZUK Z2 Review: UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff that includes the USB C cable, a fast charger, SIM ejector pin and some paperwork.

ZUK Z2 Review: SPECS

Display	5″ 1080 x 1920 pixels (~441 ppi pixel density)
Processor and GPU	Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820, Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo, Adreno 530 GPU
RAM	4GB
Camera	8MP Front/13MP Back
Connectivity	Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, dual-SIM.
Battery	3.500 mAh (non-removable)
Dimensions	141.7 x 68.9 x 8.5 mm / 149g
OS	ZUI 1.9 (Android 6.0)
Storage	64GB (not expandable)

ZUK Z2 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

As far as design goes, it has changed quite a bit if we compare it to the ZUK Z1.

Now we have a rather compact phone, which uses a very high quality and sturdy metal frame around the device. I love the fact that all the buttons and a dual SIM card tray are on the right and all other stuff is on the bottom. Thus, other sides of the phone look clean.

The sound quality from the loudspeaker is pretty good but nothing we haven’t heard from similarly priced phones.

Also, we have Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and rear. A great thing is that the phone has some sort of anti-fingerprint coating and it does its job very well.

We have a 5” 1080p display, which is nice and sharp but it could be slightly brighter for a better sunlight legibility.

An 8MP shooter is here for selfies along with a notification LED light on the top.

On the bottom, we have just one physical home button but it has tons of features. First of all, you can physically press it and it takes you home. Also, you can tap it and it acts as a back button or swipe it from left to right if you e.g. want to access your recent apps. Also, the button is highly customizable and you can assign different tasks. I have to say that this is one of the best home button implementations I’ve ever seen.

Last but not least we have a fingerprint scanner, which is accurate and it reads a fingerprint straight from the standby mode.

On the back, we have a 13MP shooter with f/2.2 aperture and a single LED flash.

Overall, the phone is well-built, it feels nice in the hand and it sports some flagship-worthy materials in the construction.

ZUK Z2 Review: HARDWARE, PERFORMANCE, BENCHMARKS

ZUK Z2 sports some flagship-grade specs. It has a Snapdragon 820 chip, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage without the microSD card slot.

As you may have guessed, the phone can handle anything you throw at it without a sweat. All the games ran almost perfectly on the highest graphics. However, the phone does quite warm on the top portion of the device but there are no overheating warnings or anything that could impair the performance.

ZUK Z2 Review: USER INTERFACE

As for UI, our Chinese review unit ships with a highly customized ZUI, which is built on top of Android 6.0. As it has become usual to the Chinese implementations of Android, there is no app tray, the icons are redesigned and there are tons of features, tweaks and customization options.

Just to name a few, you can swipe from the bottom to open up quick settings toggles, which are highly customizable. Also, you can select from a variety of fonts, skins or use the integrated fitness tracking app, which I found to be pretty accurate at least when it comes to counting steps.

Most importantly, the user interface runs fast and fluid and the only shortcoming is that the phone ships without Google services pre-installed but it took me just a few minutes to install it manually. Keep in mind that resellers usually install Google services and multi-languages for you, so you don’t need to deal with that yourself.

ZUK Z2 Review: CAMERA

When it comes to the camera, we have a few shooting modes but there is no manual mode to take a full control of the images you take. Also, there are some basic settings to play with. In addition, the phone can take pictures very fast, which is probably the most important aspect for most users. Finally, the device triggers HDR mode automatically.

ZUK Z2 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

ZUK Z2 can take some nice looking daylight images with a good amount of detail, accurate looking colors and sharpness.

The camera starts struggling in lower-lit situations as the images have quite a lot of noise and less detail. Still, you can get some usable images out of this phone.

The 4k video looks really good for a $300 phone. However, the footage could have less noise and compression, and the green color of the grass looks oversaturated. See a video review for a video sample.

An 8MP selfie snapper can take some decent looking selfies for social media needs.

Overall, ZUK Z2 does not have a perfect camera but it is definitely one of the better cameras in a $300 phone.

ZUK Z2 Review: CONNECTIVITY

I didn’t have any connectivity issues with the phone as the signal reception was good and the call quality was decent. Also, the Wifi worked fine and the GPS was accurate.

ZUK Z2 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The ZUK Z2 ships with 3500mAh built-in battery and it performs great.

I could constantly get over 5 hours of screen-on time on a mixed use, which involved using camera, browsing the web, a bit of gaming and so on.

The phone ships with a fast charger and I was able to fully charge the phone in 1 hour and 30 mins.

ZUK Z2 Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, ZUK Z2. The device costs just over $300 and this is actually one of the best deals at the moment.

The phone sports a familiar but nice looking design with excellent build quality and the device is very compact due to its 5” display.

Also, this phone is very powerful and it can easily handle all the latest games. In addition, the UI runs fast, the phone has 64GB of storage as standard and the camera is pretty good.

However, the display brightness could be higher to assure a better sunlight legibility. Also, the low-light camera performance could be better.

All in all, ZUK Z2 is a great phone. In fact, it is definitely one of the best offerings for the price and it does not have any major shortcomings that could be a deal-breaker.

Buy ZUK Z2 at Oppomart, $30 Off with Coupon Code

CHUWI HiBook GiveAway: Win A Brand New Tablet From Gizmochina

By

Joel Joseph

-

Jun 27, 2016

Here at Gizmochina we love to giveaway new products to our readers. And when manufacturers join the party, its even better!

Today, we have yet another giveaway on our website and this time, we are giving away a tablet! Yes, we are going to giveaway a brand new CHUWI HiBook tablet with keyboard to one of the lucky winners. CHUWI is one of the famous Chinese tablet makers, and the company’s Hibook brand is popular among customers because of its high-end specs and premium design. If you have never heard of this brand, chances are, you are new to the Chinese market.

The Chuwi Hibook 10.1 inch comes with Windows 10 OS and Intel Cherry Trail Z8300 64bit Quad Core 1.44GHz chip inside. There is 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM, 10.1-inch IPS Screen with connectivity features that include Bluetooth 4.0 and Type-C. Its a pretty good large screen tablet that can be yours for free. Just follow the steps on the gleam widget to participate in the giveaway.

Before we move on to the gleam widget, we would like to thank Chuwi for providing a unit for giving away to one of our readers.

All the best!

NOTE:

You should also leave a comment on the official CHUWI Facebook page (link given in the widget). It can be anything from why you like this brand, your feedback to your thoughts about this tablet.
You also can win free Chuwi Hibook, if you guess the Euro Cup 2016 France at official site, here is the link: Guess Euro Cup

CHUWI HiBook Giveaway

OnePlus 3 Review: VIDEO REVIEW

OnePlus 3 Review: UNBOXING

OnePlus 3 Review: SPECS

Display

5.5″ 1080 x 1920 pixels Amoled (~401 ppi pixel density)

Processor and GPU

Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820, Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo, Adreno 530 GPU

RAM

6GB

Camera

8MP Front/16MP Back, OIS

Connectivity

Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, dual-SIM.

Battery

3.000 mAh (non-removable)

Dimensions

152.7 x 74.7 x 7.4 mm / 158g

OS

OxygenOS 3.1.2 (Android 6.0.1)

Storage

64GB (not expandable)

OnePlus 3 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

OnePlus 3 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

OnePlus 3 Review: BENCHMARKS

OnePlus 3 Review: USER INTERFACE

OnePlus 3 Review: CAMERA

OnePlus 3 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

OnePlus 3 Review: CONNECTIVITY

OnePlus 3 Review: BATTERY LIFE

OnePlus 3 Review: CONCLUSIONS

Get $30 OFF with a COUPON CODE: ZUKZ230

ZUK Z2 Review: VIDEO

ZUK Z2 Review: UNBOXING

ZUK Z2 Review: SPECS

Display

5″ 1080 x 1920 pixels (~441 ppi pixel density)

Processor and GPU

Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820, Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo, Adreno 530 GPU

RAM

4GB

Camera

8MP Front/13MP Back

Connectivity

Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, dual-SIM.

Battery

3.500 mAh (non-removable)

Dimensions

141.7 x 68.9 x 8.5 mm / 149g

OS

ZUI 1.9 (Android 6.0)

Storage

64GB (not expandable)

ZUK Z2 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

ZUK Z2 Review: HARDWARE, PERFORMANCE, BENCHMARKS

ZUK Z2 Review: USER INTERFACE

ZUK Z2 Review: CAMERA

ZUK Z2 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

ZUK Z2 Review: CONNECTIVITY

ZUK Z2 Review: BATTERY LIFE

ZUK Z2 Review: CONCLUSIONS