Nubia Z11 Max Render Revealed, Amazing Screen To Body Ratio!

By

-

May 20, 2016

ZTE’s Nubia smartphone division recently unveiled a brand new device, the Nubia Z11 Mini. But considering the specs of the device, it was no flagship. Since Nubia is known to release premium devices, this meant that we could expect more smartphone launches soon and one possible candidate was the next generation model the Z9 Max released last year, called as the Nubia Z11 Max. This particular model has always featured a large screen, which means most compact phone lovers usually don’t consider it. But what if the bezels on the side as well as the top are reduced, will such consumers still neglect a large screen smartphone?

Well, Nubia’s executive has already confirmed that the Nubia Z11 Max is coming and along with this information, he revealed that the model will come with an impressive 83.27% screen to body ratio. It becomes necessary for large-screen models to reduce the bezel size in order to make it a bit more compact than the competition. The usual screen to body ratio ranges anywhere from 75% to 80%, but this is just amazing. We can see in the render that the company seems to have trimmed down the bezels on the top, making it quite thin. On the sides, we don’t see any visible bezels, but we hope there are no thick black borders ruining the near bezel-less design.

The phone has already passed through TENAA, revealing some important information about the phone’s specs. First of all, the phone sports a 6-inch 1080p display and comes with an octa-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz (most likely Snapdragon 652). There’s 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable ROM and a 16MP rear snapper with an 8MP one up front. Other features includes a large 4000mAh battery, Android 5.1 OS and 4G LTE support.

The phone is made out of a metal body and looks quite attractive as well. So, while the Nubia Z11 Max may not be a Xiaomi Mi Max killer in terms of pricing, but its size and specs could very well take on the Mi phablet.

What are your thoughts?

UHANS S1’s Beautiful Design Gets Compared With Galaxy S7, iPhone 6S & Huawei P9 (Pictures)

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 20, 2016

UHANS may not be as famous as UMi or Elephone, but the company has impressed us with its latest smartphone, the UHANS S1. The specs are much like any other mid-range smartphone that you would find in the market, however, the looks is where the company’s newest release, the S1 gets its edge. The use of simplistic design, 2.5D glass and visually pleasing colors seem to be what makes the phone look much more premium than its price.

The phone is already available for pre-sale via various retailers (like Antelife @ $139.99) and will start shipping very soon. In case you have been wondering how the phone looks in real life, here’s a great comparison released by the company. The UHANS S1 has been compared with the three popular flagships in the market right now, namely the Huawei P9, Samsung Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 6S. While specs wise, the phone is nowhere near these three devices, looks wise, it does a good job keeping up with them.

The UHANS S1 comes in a white body and rose gold metal frame, which along with the 2.5D glass design makes it look like a premium category device. The USB port and speakers are located at the bottom, the fingerprint sensor lies at the back and the overall design looks quite simple yet attractive. The phone is quite thin as well, coming with a 7.3mm body. Unlike the S7 and the iPhone 6S, the phone doesn’t have a bulging camera reveals the company. Well, you can check out all of these pictures below to see the overall design and finish of the device.

As for the specs, the UHANS S1 comes with the octa-core MT6753, with 3GB of RAM and 32GB ROM which is further expandable via MicroSD. There will be a 5-inch display with HD resolution. At the back, you get a Sony IMX214 camera, while up front, a 5MP shooter. The phone runs on Freeme OS 6.1 and comes with 4G LTE FDD-LTE Band 1/ 2/ 7/ 8/ 20 support.

Comparison down below.
UHANS

OPPO overtakes Xiaomi To Become the Fourth Largest Smartphone Vendor In Q1 2016

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 20, 2016

Gartner recently revealed its new report for Smartphone Sales to End Users in Q1 2016 and the report gives us some interesting insights about the market status worldwide. So, unlike some other reports which gives us the shipment numbers, this is the actual number of units sold to end customers, which should give us a better picture of the market standings.

There are a few changes in the top smartphone vendors in the first quarter of this year, and it is not surprising that three Chinese smartphone manufacturers have got into the top 5 list, clearly showing their dominance in the market. Huawei, Xiaomi and OPPO have made it to the list for first quarter, but what’s really surprising is that OPPO is now above Xiaomi in terms of smartphone sales worldwide.

According to the new report, OPPO now sits in the fourth position in terms to total smartphone sales in Q1 2016. The company sold 16,112,600 smartphones in the earlier quarter, which is comfortably higher than Xiaomi’s 15,048,000 units sold in the same time period. What’s really impressive is the company’s growth rate. Last year, in the same time period, OPPO had sold just 6,585,100 phones, which means this year it marked a growth of a staggering 144.6%! At a time, when smartphone vendors are struggling to increase sales and market share, this is a tremendous achievement.

On the other hand, Xiaomi’s growth has remained relatively stagnant. It managed to increase smartphone sales by just 2% as compared to the same quarter last year. This is the main reason why OPPO could overtake Xiaomi in the previous quarter.

The report also reveals that Huawei did pretty well in the first quarter of this year. With a market share of 8.3%, this Chinese giant is comfortably ahead of OPPO and Xiaomi. It sold 28,861,000 smartphones in the first quarter, which is much higher than what it sold in Q1 2015. The company is slowly reducing its gap with Apple and it looks like Huawei is on the path (although still a few years away) of reaching the top.

Interesting: Xiaomi CEO Takes Charge Of The Company’s Smartphone Supply

In case you remember, Huawei CEO, Richard Yu had revealed that the company aims to overtake both Apple and Samsung in the next five years, and if it manages to sustain such high growth, this doesn’t look so impossible now. But despite its growth at this level, there’s still a long way to go, since Samsung sold a good 81,186,900 units in the first quarter, which is nearly three times of what Huawei sold in the same period.

Another interesting piece of information revealed by the report is the increasing gap between Android and iOS. Android’s market share grew from 78.8% in Q1 2015 to 84.1% in Q1 2016. On the other hand, iOS lost its market share in the past one year, going down from 17.9% to 14.8%. Windows, Blackberry and other operating systems hardly get 1% share of the market all together. Clearly shows the dominance of Android, and Apple to a certain extent.

ASUS ZenFone 3 Real Phone Spotted In China

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 20, 2016

ASUS has already confirmed that it will launch its new ZenFone 3 smartphones at Computex, Taiwan starting May 30. The company seems to be launching three new smartphones in the series and we already have the three possible names for the same — ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe and ZenFone 3 Max. The company has already kind of confirmed the launch of the three handsets with its teaser video released a couple of days back. Now, it looks like one of these ZenFone models has been spotted in the wild in China.

The image isn’t very clear, which makes it hard for us to see what’s on the back panel. What we could make out was that the phone comes with rear placed volume buttons, just like its predecessor. The camera sensor along with some other tech is located on the top left corner. Another thing almost confirmed by this leak is that the phone will be made out of metal.

While this may not be so clear, what really helps us understand the design of the three ZenFone models is the basic renders of the devices that poped up on the internet. All the three smartphones seem to of different sizes, with the one that we saw in the above above probably the Max or Deluxe version with the largest form factor. The other two models come with a slightly different design, with the camera and the other sensor located near the center, above the physical home button. The speaker and USB ports are located at the bottom according to this render.

As mentioned above, the company had already released the first video teaser for the new ZenFone 3 series. You can check them out from below.

Meanwhile, the launch is just 10 days away. So stay tuned for more details in the next few days.

Xiaomi’s Drone Will Meet Us Next Week, Teaser Gives Us First Glimpse

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 19, 2016

We have been hearing about Xiaomi’s first drone for the past few months, but, until this month, the company didn’t confirm the existence of this new product. However, earlier in May, Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s CEO revealed that the new drone from the company was real and it would be announced by the end of this month. Just as promised, the company has now officially confirmed the release of the Xiaomi drone next week.

Xiaomi’s official Weibo account released a new poster on its page revealing that that the company’s first drone will debut on May 25 at 19:00. The teaser also gives us a first glimpse of what the new UAV will look like. It seems that the drone will come equipped with a ball shaped camera (could be rotating) at the bottom and four rotors on top. The image does make it look a bit large, but in reality the size could be smaller.

Unlike earlier rumors, recent reports have said that Xiaomi’s first drone is actually going to be an high-end one. The new drone is said to be able to capture 4K videos at 30 fps and come with other top-end features to rival products from companies like DJI. On the other hand, the cost is said to be kept competitive, around $600 which would less than half of what you would usually have to shell out for a powerful camera drone like DJI Phantom.

Since there’s still a few days for the launch, expect Xiaomi to reveal more interesting details about its drone. So, stay tuned!

ZUK Z2 Will Feature Exynos 8890! Another Power Flagship Coming Soon

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 19, 2016

Yesterday we reported that ZUK CEO, Chang Cheng revealed a new render of the upcoming ZUK Z2 smartphone. Considering that it is called simply as the Z2, we expected the phone to feature slightly toned down specs. However, it looks like the Z2 will be just as powerful as the Z2 Pro. Today, CEO revealed a very important feature of the device — the CPU inside and it’s none other than the powerful Exynos 8890 processor that powers devices like Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

He revealed this information in a very interesting way. On his Weibo account, the CEO posted that he spent a day with the Z2, and Exynos 8890 was good. Then, he mentioned Meizu’s Li Nan adding, “great minds think alike”. Well, Meizu has had a long-standing relationship with Samsung and its Exynos chipsets, which is probably why he tagged Li Nan. Further, if you look closely, this weibo post was made using the ZUK Z2 smartphone.

Now, we are wondering why would ZUK would release a new powerful flagship smartphone with Exynos 8890 when it already has a powerful Snapdragon 820 based ZUK Z2 Pro. In the renders, we saw that there were some differences in the camera of the ZUK Z2 as compared to the Z2 Pro and it looked as if the former had a less powerful rear camera module. But we can’t be sure of that yet. Rest of the design was almost identical to the Z2 Pro, including the rectangular physical home button and speaker grill and ports at the bottom.

Maybe, the ZUK Z2 is just another variant, giving users the option to choose between an Exynos powered processor and a Snapdragon-based one, with a few differences in specs. Unfortunately, we don’t have any more details about the Z2 at the moment. But the CEO had confirmed that the release will be in May, which means we don’t have to wait too long to get official details.

Le Max 2 Up For Grabs At Discount on LeTVMart ($30 Coupon Inside)

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 19, 2016

LeEco announced its flagship model in China last month with a whopping 6GB of RAM inside. The phone comes with powerful specs to take on competition like Samsung Galaxy S7 and HTC 10, at a much lesser price point. In fact, even at the premium price that you have to shell for Chinese smartphones, this particular smartphone turns out to be a compelling deal.

Letvmart has just provided us with a special coupon to further reduce the price of the Le Max 2 flagship smartphone. The phone is currently listed for sale (4GB RAM + 32GB ROM) at $399.99. With the coupon code: LMT30 the price goes down by $30 to $369. Now, this price includes express shipping as well as customs tax. So, you don’t have to shell out extra for your purchase. This turns out to be a pretty good deal, so if you are interested, do check out their listing on the website from here.

As for the specs, the Le Max 2 model listed here comes with the powerful Snapdragon 820 quad-core chipset with 4GB RAM and 32GB of UFS 2.0 internal storage. The screen is pretty large, a 5.7-inch panel with 2K resolution. At the back, the phone comes with a 21MP rear camera, while up front, you get an 8MP front facing shooter. And you get the advanced ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on board the device as well. The phone supports global LTE bands as well, so it should work in most regions. But do check out your 4G band before purchasing the device. Here are the supported bands: LTE-FDD: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/20/25/26, TDD-LTE:38/39/40/41.

The coupon code will be valid for the month of May.

Buy Le Max 2 Flagship (4GB RAM + 32GB ROM) at $369 [Use Coupon: LMT30]

Blackview A5 Review: A Pretty Good $45 Phone

By

Linus

-

May 19, 2016

Blackview has produced quite a few very cheap phones but the A5 model seems like the cheapest one on the market. You can get it for less than $45 and I will leave a link down below. This is Linus, learn more in the full review.

Buy Blackview A5

Blackview A5 Review: VIDEO

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sA6PmY6eIQ[/embedyt]

Blackview A5 Review: UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff and some extras include a pair of earphones and a soft TPU case.

Blackview A5 Review: SPECS and PERFORMANCE

Let’s start by the taking a look what kind of spec-sheet you are getting for such a low price. The Blackview A5 ships with a quad-core MTK6580 chip with the clock speeds of 1.3GHz, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage.

The gaming performance is actually not bad. Of course, the graphics don’t look spectacular but I didn’t have any lag or major hiccups when I played Asphalt 8 on the lowest graphics.

Blackview A5 Review: DESIGN, FEATURES, BATTERY LIFE

The phone is very well built considering its price. One of the highlights is a textured plastic back cover, which really looks nice.

You can easily remove the backplate and underneath it you will find a removable 2000mAh battery, two SIM card slots and the microSD card slot.

Speaking of the battery, it should give a full day of moderate use. I could get around 4 hours of screen-on time, which is a decent result.

We have a 5MP camera but you should not expect any stellar results from it as this is a $45 phone after all.

Still, you may get some okay looking images that can be shared on social media if you take pictures in good lighting conditions.

The loudspeaker is actually pretty good and it is probably the best we’ve heard on any phone this cheap.

The 4.5” display does not even sport an HD resolution. Still, it is pretty good panel for the price of the phone.

On the front we have a 2MP shooter, which is not really impressive but you may get an okay looking selfie in good lighting.

A few shortcomings would be that the capacitive buttons are not backlit and there is no LED notification light.

Blackview A5 Review: UI

We have a near-stock looking Android 6.0 out of the box and the performance of it is great.

Some notable features of the UI include a few gesture controls, which actually work fine.

What is the most important to us is that the user interface is smooth and fast. Sure, the phone will not be a multi-tasking machine but it is good for basic daily tasks.

Blackview A5 Review: CAMERA

We have a 5MP camera but you should not expect any stellar results from it as this is a $45 phone after all.

Still, you may get some okay looking images that can be shared on social media if you take pictures in good lighting conditions.

Blackview A5 Review: CONNECTIVITY

We didn’t have any major connectivity issues. The GPS lock speeds are good but the accuracy could be slightly better.

Blackview A5 Review: CONCLUSIONS

Blackview A5 is one of the cheapest phones you can buy and it is a great basic smartphone for the price.

We love the fact that it is well built, it is compact, it has tactile buttons and you can easily manage the phone in one hand.

Also, you are getting processing power that is enough for daily tasks and Android 6.0 is running smoothly. You can even play some 3D games on the phone but keep in mind that the display does not even have HD resolution.

In general, Blackview A5 is a low-end device but if you consider a price of just around $40, it is one of the best options currently available on the market.

Buy Blackview A5 from Tomtop

Giveaway: Win A Vernee Thor Smartphone From Gizmochina

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 19, 2016

Vernee’s first smartphone, the Vernee Thor is already up for purchase via various retailers. The phone came with decent specs and a good design at an affordable price point which meant thousands of customers decided to purchase this device.

Every now and then, we decide to giveaway popular smartphones to our readers and guess what, we are giving away a brand new Vernee Thor smartphone to one of our readers today. If you have participated in our giveaways of the past, entering it is easy. You just have to visit our facebook and twitter pages and share it to get a chance to win this new smartphone from Vernee.

We would like to thank Vernee Official for providing us with this unit of Thor smartphone for this giveaway.

As for the specs, the Vernee Thor comes with a 5-inch on-cell 720p display with MT6753 octa-core processor and 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM. There will be a 16GB eMMC 5.0 memory on board which will be further expandable. At the back, you get a 13MP camera while up front, you have a 5MP Shooter. Under the hood, the phone features a 2800mAh battery with 5V 2A quick charging support.

If you don’t want to wait for the giveaway, you can purchase the phone from OPPOMART for just $99.99. Use the COUPON Code: VENE20 and you will directly get $20 OFF the official price, which is just great.

Check out the gleam widget below to participate in this giveaway.

Vernee Thor Giveaway!

Meizu’s Curved Screen Smartphone Will Come With Flyme 6 OS, More Details Revealed

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 19, 2016

In the past few weeks, there have been a couple of instances where we have seen details about a new Meizu smartphone featuring a curved screen display. First, it was a set of not-so-clear pictures of the device and later, possible specs of the device which included the powerful Exynos 8890. However, the second leak was a bit too good to be believed, given that the source didn’t reveal any concrete proof for the same. Now, the insider who leaked this information has revealed a new screenshot image which shows Meizu’s CEO Huang Zhang confirming the existence of a curved screen Meizu smartphone.

So, what can we confirm from this screenshot revealed today?

First up, Meizu’s curved screen smartphone is real and in development. Second, the company won’t be calling it the Meizu Pro 6 Edge. Maybe Pro 7 or some other name that we don’t know yet, but definitely not ‘Edge’, at least according to the CEO. Finally, the third important piece of information that we can take away from this picture is that the company will most likely launch the new Flyme 6 OS with this smartphone. In the picture, CEO said that the Flyme 6 was being developed for this device. Hence, it is likely that the new version debuts with an important device like this later this year.

In case you are wondering about the launch date, we don’t have any concrete details about the same. The CEO didn’t mention a timeframe for the release of the new curved handset, but it shouldn’t be anytime soon, considering we saw three new smartphone launches as recent as last month. So, it is safe to assume that the launch could be sometime in the second half of 2016. Last year, Meizu released the Flyme 5 OS in September. If it is to continue the tradition, we can expect to see, both this curved screen phone and Fyme 6 around this time in 2016.

Pricing of the phone is said to be above 3000 Yuan which comes to around $460, which isn’t too bad for a curved screen smartphone. Since the phone is indeed in development, expect a lot more details in the coming days.

Meanwhile, you can read more about the earlier leaked specs of the phone from here.

Blitzwolf Fast Chargers (Qualcomm Certified) Review

By

Linus

-

May 19, 2016

It seems that manufacturers have not yet found a secret recipe for a long battery life on a smartphone. Some companies produce phones with huge batteries and that may be a solution but not everyone wants to carry a bulky device in a pocket on a daily basis. Thus, we have a quick charge feature that has become the latest trend in smartphone industry. Blitzwolf has produced quite a few fast chargers and we are going to take a look at 3 of them.

BlitzWolf® QC2.0+2.4A 30W Dual USB Fast Charger With Power3S and Quick Charge 2.0 Tech

When we unpacked all power plugs made by Blitzwolf, they all had one thing in common, which is an excellent build quality. This particular charger sports a glossy plastic finish but it has a special coating that does not attract fingerprints or smudges.

The charger has two ports. One port provides a fast charging feature (up to 2.4A) and it supports Power3s tech, which automatically detects a device you connected and charges it at the maximum speed. The charger has a maximum power output of 30w.

A second port supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0. This tech is capable of charging the supported devices at a 75% higher rate than conventional chargers.

Now you can get the BlitzWolf® QC2.0+2.4A 30W Dual USB Charger at the price of $8.99 (instead of $11.99) with a coupon code: bwqc20

Buy BlitzWolf® QC2.0+2.4A 30W Dual USB Fast Charger With Power3S and Quick Charge 2.0 Tech

BlitzWolf® QC3.0 18W USB Charger

As the name implies, this charger supports the latest Quick Charge 3.0 feature, which is 38% more efficient than the Quick Charge 2.0 tech. That means that you can charge the supported devices from 0% to 80% in around 35 mins.

The build quality of this charger is top-notch. We’ve used it for a couple of weeks and it seems that it will last for years.

We did not have any devices that support Quick Charge 3.0 at the time our review but the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge charged quicker than the original charger (which supports Samsung’s adaptive fast charging tech).

A great thing about the chargers that have Quick Charge 3.0 tech is that they also support the Quick Charge 2.0 feature. It it happens that your phone does not have neither of these charging technologies, the Blitzwolf charger will still charge your device fast using the Power3s fast charging tech.

Buy BlitzWolf® QC3.0 18W USB Charger

BlitzWolf® 5V 5.4A USB Type C BW-C3 Car Charger (27W)

The last charger we have in our review labs is designed for in-car use.

It has one USB input port, so you can insert any traditional USB cable. However, the star of the show here is the USB C plug, which is great if you have a device with this port and you always forget to bring the USB C cable with you.

The car charger is well built and it uses aluminum and plastic in the construction. It has a power output of 27w and the PowerS quick charge tech provides maximum charging speeds of 2.4A.

Get 30% off the retail price with a coupon code: BW-C3

Buy BlitzWolf® 5V 5.4A USB Type C BW-C3 Car Charger (27W) with a coupon code BW-C3 to get 30% off

CONCLUSIONS

We have been using the Blitzwolf chargers for a couple of weeks with all kinds of devices. So far all the chargers have been working fine, there are no overheating issues and most importantly, they charge the gadgets fast. The market is full of fast chargers and it may be hard to choose the right one but our test results suggest that the ones made by Blitzwolf are great bang for your buck.

CEO Reveals ZUK Z2 Render, New Model Coming This Month

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 18, 2016

Chinese companies seem to be impatient when it comes to launching new smartphones. Traditionally, companies used to wait for a few months at least to launch a new model, but now, every month we are seeing new product launches from the same manufacturer. Meizu unveiled three new phones in a single month, Huawei released two flagship series models in consecutive months and now Lenovo backed ZUK is all set to release their second smartphone this year, called simply as the ZUK Z2. The previous model which was released late April was called as the ZUK Z2 Pro, so considering the name, this should be a slightly toned down version of the flagship model. The 6GB + 128GB ROM variant of the Z2 Pro is available for sale, but there’s still no word on the 4GB + 64GB version. In fact, the company didn’t reveal any details about the pricing or availability of the second version at the time of the launch. Could ZUK rebrand this 4GB RAM model as the Z2? We aren’t sure, but read on for more details.

Design wise, there aren’t many changes. The new render reveals that the position of the camera module will be different than on the Z2 Pro. Instead of placing everything in the center, the company has positioned the camera sensor on the top left corner. Laser Autofocus seems to be absent on this device. Rest of the design, including the physical rectangular home button, speaker grill and USB port at the bottom and the buttons on the right seem to be exactly as the ZUK Z2 Pro model. In addition to this render, we also got reports that the phone will feature a 2.5D double glass design and will come with the company’s U-Touch fingerprint ID.

This ZUK Z2 model will be announced this month, confirmed the company CEO. While we are unsure of the specs of the device, expect them to be upper mid-range. This should also drive down its cost as compared to the Z2 Pro model which means consumers will have another great mid-range alternative at an affordable price point.

Meanwhile, check out ZUK Z2 Pro vs Le Max 2 vs Xiaomi Mi 5 in this comparison.

Vernee Thor Unboxing and First Impressions

By

Linus

-

May 18, 2016

We haven’t reviewed any phones made by Vernee and it will be interesting to see what kind of devices this company has to offer. Today we have a Vernee Thor in our unboxing labs. The phone costs around $120 and it has some decent specs.

Thanks to Oppomart for sending Vernee Thor for a review.

Coupon code for Vernee Thor at Oppomart: VENE20,$20 off.

Buy Vernee Thor at Oppomart with a coupon code VENE20 to get $20 off

Vernee Thor: UNBOXING

The phone comes with all the usual stuff. One thing worth mentioning is that the phone ships with a fast charger.

Vernee Thor: DESIGN

We are looking at quite a compact phone due to its 5″ 720p display, which is actually very nice to look at. It is quite sharp, vivid and it is a decent HD panel overall.

We have a 5MP selfie camera and non-backlit capacitive buttons. However, there is no LED notification light.

The phone is made of plastic but it does not feel cheap at all. In fact, it sports a soft “baby skin” coating and it makes the phone feel very nice in the hand. Also, rounded edges help with the grip and thus the phone is very comfortable to hold.

The phone sports a 13MP camera with a single LED flash. Just below the camera we can find a fingerprint scanner. We found this security option to be fast, accurate and it works straight from the standby mode.

On the bottom there is a loudspeaker.

The backplate can be removed and underneath it you can find 2 SIM card slots and the microSD card slot for storage expansion. A 2800mAh non-removable battery powers up the device.

The buttons feel nice and they are tactile.

The first impressions of the Vernee Thor have been good. The phone runs on near-stock looking Android 6.0 out of the box and have not had single hiccup so far. Also, we love the way it is built and how comfortably it sits in the hand. As usual, we need to spend some more time with the device to give you a complete and honest review of the device.

Buy Vernee Thor from Oppomart

Xiaomi Debuts Its 4K Mi Box At Google I/O, Coming To US

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 18, 2016

While Xiaomi is mainly known for its smartphones, the company has a wide variety of products under its belt, including Android boxes. Now, the company has just unveiled a brand new Android box called simply as the Mi Box at Google I/O. We had expected the new Android box launch at the event since the company’s global VP had already teased the coming of the product a couple of days back. Since the new Mi Box will be coming to US, it will be the first official product from the company in the region.

In case you are wondering, this isn’t the Mi Box 3 model that was announced last year. Instead, this is a new model and runs on Google’s Android TV platform. The Android box supports 4K UHD streaming and latest HDR standards. It comes with a bluetooth remote as well, which supports voice recognition. The box also gets support for Google cast which lets you mirror your Android or iOS device. Unfortunately, the company didn’t announce a release date or pricing for its new Mi Box. But the company did reveal that the new box will be available worldwide.

The specs of the new Mi Box 4K are as given below.

ARM Cortex-A53 Based quad-core CPU
Mali 450 GPU
2GB RAM
8GB ROM
Dolby Digital Plus
DTS Surround Sound
USB port
HDMI 2.0a
4K UHD Streaming

ZTE Axon 7 First Teaser Video Is Here, Expect Amazing Theatre Sound Experience

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 18, 2016

A few hours back, we reported that ZTE seems to have put in a lot of efforts on the sound quality output of the upcoming ZTE Axon 7 flagship smartphone. The company’s Mobile Devices CEO Adam Zeng even revealed that they invited a couple of music professors to test out their new flagship. Now, the company has sent us their first teaser video for the Axon 7 and guess what, it gives us a real life glimpse of the sound quality of the new smartphone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRA5n6CNmHA

From what we could hear, the phone managed to playback the piano piece very well. In fact, only by the end of the video we realised that the music is being played on the speakers of the new Axon 7 flagship. So, looks like the audio playback via the speakers is going to be amazing. But considering this is an official teaser clip, we would like to wait for our real life experience with the new smartphone to reserve our final judgements. This video also confirms that the phone will come with dual speakers located on the front. As per the earlier information, the Axon 7 is going to feature the audio DSP codec AK4961 from AKM

So, what else can we make out from this teaser video? At the end of the video, we can see the logo of VR, which is a clear indication that the Axon 7 can be used in a VR headset as well. ZTE’s CEO had earlier revealed its interest in the field of virtual reality and the company’s decision to use a top-end Sharp 2K panel was influenced by this feature. With Hi-Fi sound and high resolution display on board, VR experience should turn out to be pretty impressive on the new smartphone.

We have already spotted the Axon 7 on TENAA, revealing key specs like Snapdragon 820 and 4GB of RAM. You can read more about it from here.

Huawei Honor 8 Said To Come With Wireless Charging & Double Glass Design

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 18, 2016

Despite its late entry into the smartphone industry, Huawei has managed to get a good share of the market in the past few years. This has been mainly driven by the company’s own R&D division as well as promotion of its smartphones internationally. Recently, this Chinese giant announced two new smartphones in the market, namely the Huawei P9 which is the premium top-end series and then, the Huawei Honor V8 flagships which comes with a larger 2K display at an affordable price point.

But this isn’t the end of Huawei’s smartphone lineup this year, as it is said that the company will release the Honor 8 flagship later in 2016. Now, more details about the company’s upcoming device have been revealed by the analyst Pan Jiutang from China.

He reveals that the Honor V8 will come with wireless charging feature. This information comes at a time when there are reports that the 2017 iPhone models will feature contact-less wireless charging technology. Apple seems to be hiring specialists in this field which should indicate the company’s intention of implementing this technology in the future iPhone models.

The analyst also stressed that Huawei seems to be ahead of Apple in terms of implementing features. For example, the company first released the 3D Touch (Force Touch) enabled smartphone, the Huawei Mate S last year. Then we saw that the iPhone 6S models came with 3D Touch as well. This year, the company unveiled two new smartphone lineups with dual cameras, a feature which we expect to see on the new iPhone 7 series. And now, this rumoured wireless charging feature along with dual glass design could first be seen on the Honor 8 flagship before it debuts on the iPhone 8 models next year. Since the analyst has compared Honor 8’s tech to the recent rumours about iPhone’s contact-less charging, we could be seeing a similar feature on board the new device.

Of course, nothing is confirmed yet. Given that two new flagship models were announced in the last four weeks, we don’t expect the Honor 8 to be announced anytime soon. So, let’s wait for more concrete details to come up.

Finally! Android Based Nokia Smartphones Are Coming

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 18, 2016

I am sure that majority of the readers here, had one or even multiple Nokia branded smartphones in the past. This isn’t surprising since Nokia was once the king of the smartphone market. However, the last decade wasn’t too good for the company, with losses increasing and its decision to stick with Microsoft’s Windows platform leading to its ultimate demise. We’ve all dreamed about an Android based Nokia smartphone in the past, with Finnish company’s solid hardware and design and Google’s open source platform. While we haven’t really seen a real Nokia based Android smartphone in the past, this is soon going to change.

After the establishment of the new ‘Nokia Technologies’ company, we have heard multiple times that it wasn’t going to enter the smartphone market directly. There wasn’t much information in the past about its plans for this market, but now, things have become a lot clearer.

We are definitely going to see Nokia Android smartphones in the coming months.

Nokia Technologies revealed today that it has given exclusive global license to HMD Global, a startup company based out of its own home country of Finland. This means that HMD Global can now manufacture smartphones as well as tablets bearing the Nokia brand name. In return, Nokia Technologies gets royalty for using its name. The company also has conditionally agreed to acquire rights to use the Nokia name from Microsoft.

nokia concept image 1 — nokia android concept image

At the same time, Microsoft is selling its feature phone business to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn for $350 million. The deal is expected to close by the second half of 2016. And guess what, FIH and HMD Global have entered into a collaborative deal which gives full operational control of sales, marketing and distribution of Nokia branded smartphones globally.

So, it looks like finally things have come together to revive Nokia’s smartphone business. The company also confirms that Nokia smartphones and tablets will be based on Android, which is what we wanted from the start.

In case you are wondering, Nokia Technologies will have a seat on the board of HMD Global to ensure that the quality and reputation of Nokia’s name is maintained. Given that HMD Global is founded by ex-Nokia employees, we can expect great design on the upcoming Nokia branded smartphones. The company also confirmed that ex-Nokia executive and current head of Microsoft’s Mobile Division Business for Greater Asia, Middle East and Africa, Arto Nummela will be the CEO of HMD.

ASUS Zenfone 3 Model Pops Up On AnTuTu, Features Snapdragon 820 & 23MP Camera

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 18, 2016

ASUS has been relatively quiet when it comes to its flagship ZenFone series. While we first expected to meet the new handset as early as January this year, now, it is said that there should be at least three new models that are going to be announced in June at Computex in Taiwan. The event kicks off on May 31 and goes on till June 4 and ASUS has a tradition of unveiling interesting products at this event.

Asus Zenfone 3

So, what can we expect from the new ZenFone series?

We know that the new ZenFone 3 series won’t be coming with Intel chips this year, which opens up the possibility of Snapdragon series processors. Now, the first ZenFone 3 model seems to have been spotted on the benchmarking website, AnTuTu revealing key specs of the device. The model is called as the ASUS Z016D. The company is aiming the top-end segment with this device, using the new Snapdragon 820 chipset inside with Adreno 530 GPU. For memory, the phone comes with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. At the back, you get a massive 23MP rear camera sensor, while up front, there will be an 8MP shooter. The display size is unknown but the resolution will be FHD 1920 x 1080p. As for software, the phone will be running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow version.

ASUS Zenfone 3 AnTuTu

Along with the specs details, AnTuTu also revealed that the new ZenFone 3 model scores around 135,000 points on AnTuTu, which is a great. This puts the device in direct competition with other top-end flagships like Xiaomi Mi 5, Galaxy S7 and HTC 10.

The company has already confirmed the release of the new models at Computex 2016. You can check out the teaser video from down below.

No Moto X Models This Year, Welcome Moto Z Series!

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 18, 2016

According to the latest reports, Motorola is going to make some changes in the naming of its upcoming flagship smartphone lineup. Traditionally, the company has been selling its top-end models under the banner of Moto X series, but now, it is said that this Lenovo owned company is all set to change its name this year. Instead of calling the new smartphone as the Motorola Moto X, the company seems to be rooting for the name Moto Z series in 2016.

So, is it just a change in name or will we see a whole new design and features on the Moto Z series?

Well, at this moment, we don’t have sufficient information to answer this question. Design wise, there may be a few changes, but the basic theme of the new Moto Z series is going to be similar. It is said that Motorola is working on two flagship smartphones this year, code named Vertex and Vector Thin. The latter will be a much more premium smartphone, and could be called as the Moto Z Style. This would make Vertex, the Moto Z Play model.

The report also reveals that the company would gently change the names of the Verizon branded versions in US as well. So, the new Moto Z series will probably end up being called as the Moto Z Play Droid Edition. And the premium accessories that have been rumoured to be sold separately would be called as MotoMods.

These details are yet to be confirmed, but we will know more about it early next month. After releasing three new handsets in the Moto G series yesterday, the company will reportedly reveal the new series on June 9.

(source)

ZTE Axon 7 Will Come With Dual Speakers & Advanced Hi-Fi Audio Chip From AKM

By

Joel Joseph

-

May 17, 2016

ZTE Axon 7 smartphone is all set to be announced on May 26, which is just a week away. The company’s executives have already started to reveal a few details about the device, like a top-end Sharp screen with 2K resolution, and a brand new screw-less design. Now, the executives have revealed a new feature on the Axon 7 — advanced Hi-Fi sound quality with dual speakers.

ZTE had already hinted that audio was going to be the highlight of the upcoming Axon 7 in the invitations sent last week. The invites also came with a brief music clip with the theme “Theatre Sound and More”. So, there is no doubt that the company has put in a lot of efforts to improve the audio output on the device.

Now, ZTE’s Mobile Devices CEO, Adam Zeng reveals a few more details about the Axon 7. He said on Weibo that the company invited a team of conservatory professors to help and advise them in the development of the phone’s audio. In fact, ZTE’s Deputy Head of Strategy & Marketing, Dr Lv Qianhao recently posted a picture of two professors from the Xian Conservatory of Music. There’s no doubt that these two professors were given an early preview of Axon 7’s audio capability. Dr. Lv reveals that their comments have been positive so far.

New reports have even said that ZTE has opened a new lab to design the sound of mobile devices. The company’s own research in this field and with the use of AKM’s latest audio chipset technology, we can expect the Axon 7 to deliver a great audio experience. It is said that the phone will feature the 32 bit AK4961 advanced DSP Codec from AKM.

This new information definitely makes us want to check out the real audio performance of the Axon 7. For that we won’t have to wait too long. The phone will be officially announced on May 26 and soon we will get more details about its special features.

Meanwhile, you can check out the possible specs of the Axon 7 from here.