Blackview A8 Costs Just $56, Features 8MP Cameras With LED Flash On Both Back & Front

By

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Mar 6, 2016

This year, there were a few Chinese companies at MWC 2016 held in Barcelona, Spain. We were present at the event and managed to get our hands on the latest budget smartphone from the Chinese company Blackview, namely the Blackview A8. The phone redefines budget smartphone since it costs just $56 (at MWC we were told that the price would be around $43, so we better wait for the final price quoted by retailers) and features pretty decent specs for its price. Now, here are a few more details about the device.

First of all, the Blackview A8 will go on sale soon. The company informs us that the first batch of A8 smartphones will start shipping by March 25, which is just a couple of weeks away. Looks wise, the phone feels well built and the company seems to have done a good job with the design.

As for the specs, the Blackview A8 features a quad-core MT6580A chipset clocked at 1.3GHz. In case you have been following the Chinese chip market, this isn’t the latest or the greatest chip in the budget segment, but its still pretty decent. Further, you get 1GB of RAM on board along with 8GB of internal storage which is further expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD.

There is a compact 5-inch IPS 720p display up front. The phone comes with 8MP cameras on both the back as well as front with LED flash. It supports dual SIM dual standby and sports a 2000mAh battery. Given its low-cost pricing, this is just a 3G smartphone. But the company seems to be working on a 4G version at a slightly higher price tag. As for software, the Blackview A8 runs on Android 5.1 out of the box. Color options include pearl white, champagne gold and violet black. Shipping starts by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, you can check out our hands-on with the Blackview A8 from here.

You can also check out the other Blackview smartphones on sale from below

Blackview Ultra Plus

Blackview BV2000S

Huawei P9 Rumored To Release In April, Date Still Unsure

By

Joel Joseph

-

Mar 6, 2016

We all were patiently waiting for the new Huawei flagship, the Huawei P9 which was supposed to release this month. But according to reports from China, Huawei officials revealed that the release of the new smartphone was postponed by about a month due to some technical difficulties. This meant that we now had no idea when the company would finalize the release date of the device. But thanks to a reassuring tweet from Evleaks, it looks like Huawei P9 could launch early next month.

According to the tweet, Evleaks revealed that the Huawei P9 will release on April 6 which is a Wednesday. However, a few hours after tweeting this, evleaks quoted another tweet saying that the release date could actually be April 5 instead of April 6.

Huawei P9 launches Wednesday, April 6th.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 6, 2016

He added that he may have messed up the calculations for the exact release date since he was only given the number of days until launch. Anyways, if true, we will be meeting the P9 flagship this April.

READ MORE: New Huawei P9 Renders Emerge

Specs-wise, the phone is supposed to come with powerful features. In fact, it is said that the P9 will come in four different variants, namely P9 standard edition, P9 Lite, P9 Premium and P9 Max.

Thanks to the numerous rumors that have been going around on the internet, we have some idea about the specs as well as the pricing of these four devices. The P9 standard edition is said to come with Kirin 950, the same chip that drives the Huawei Mate 8 while the P9 lite is supposed to come with a slower Snapdragon 650 chipset. The other two models will reportedly feature an enhanced version of the Kirin 950 chip, called as the Kirin 955.

As for the pricing, the P9 Max will be the costliest, and is said to retail at around $627, followed by P9 Premium edition at $565 approximately. The other two models, namely the P9 standard and P9 Lite will most likely retail at around $473 and $289 respectively. Other features common on all four models will be a fingerprint sensor as well as a dual camera setup.

Oneplus 3 Concept Images Leaked online, Could Feature Snapdragon 820 Chipset

By

Shine Wong

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Mar 6, 2016

OnePlus has been blazing away to glory after the success of its three devices in markets across many countries. Now, the company is the expected to launch the Oneplus 3 flagship this June. The OnePlus 3 is expected to launch “at the end of the second quarter,” said Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus, in an
exclusive interview given to CNET.

He also said the new phone will feature a “new design,” which implies a departure from the traditional design from its predecessor, the OnePlus 2 .

The leak suggests the phone would be utilising an enhanced Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, which will offer much faster multi-tasking capabilities and an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner.

OnePlus 3 concept looks very slim and comes with a large speaker grille on the top above the front camera. Renders also show that the OnePlus 3 gets USB Type-C and a power/lock slider button. It is rumored that the OnePlus will get a FullHD 5.5-inches screen, 4GB RAM, and a 20MP rear camera. Also, a dedicated camera button is seen at the edge.

New Huawei P9 Renders Emerge, Could Be A Different Model

By

Joel Joseph

-

Mar 4, 2016

Just a few hours back, we reported that Huawei officials have confirmed the existence of the Huawei P9 flagship but added that the phone’s launch was delayed by a month or two. Thanks to the various renders of the P9 that were leaked earlier, we have a pretty good idea of how the phone is going to end up looking. But now, a new set of renders of the P9 have been leaked online, which again confirms the same dual-camera setup seen on earlier leaks.

However, there are a few differences between this render and the ones leaked earlier. For example, both the renders confirm the dual camera setup, but the new one lacks the laser autofocus. Further, the placement of the dual tone LED flash at the bottom is also a bit different.

The phone in the new renders also features a rear placed fingerprint sensor, however, its circular instead of rectangular. In the front as well, there are a few changes. For example, if you look at the placement of the sensors besides the ear piece, its different than before. Nothing significant, but still noticeable.

New vs Old Render

Since the differences are minute, it’s possible that the two renders are of different models. It is said that the Huawei P9 will come in four different versions and hence, the new renders could be of a different phone in the series. Given the lack of laser autofocus, this could be a lesser priced model. However, at this moment, we can’t be sure of anything.

New vs Old Render

Specs wise, the Huawei P9 Lite is expected to come with Snapdragon 650 (same one found on Redmi Note 3 Pro) with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The Huawei P9 Standard edition will reportedly come with Kirin 950 chip with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage while the high-end P9 Premium will most likely feature Kirin 955 with 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM. The final model in the series is expected to be the large screen Huawei P9 Max sporting a 6-inch 2K display, Kirin 955, 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM.

Next Qualcomm Snapdragon Flagship Chip To Feature Kryo Cores Based On 10nm: Analyst

By

Joel Joseph

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Mar 4, 2016

After Snapdragon 810’s overheating issues, everyone were worried whether the next generation chip, the Snapdragon 820 would be plagued by the same problem. However, so far, Snapdragon 820 seems to be one of the best chipsets from the chipmaker till date and no issues about overheating have been reported yet.

This could be mainly because of the company’s decision to go back to custom cores. Four custom Kryo cores power the Snapdragon 820 and when it comes to performance, there are hardly any competitors who are as powerful as this chip.

Now, analyst Pan Jiutang from China has revealed a few details about the next-gen Snapdragon flagship chipset. While he doesn’t mention the name of the chipset, he did reveal the code, MSM8998. According to him, the next gen Qualcomm chip will continue to use Kryo cores and will be manufactured on the much more efficient 10nm process. The chip will also come with the new X16 LTE modem.

Along with this information, he further revealed that many of the flagships of 2016 will be based on Snapdragon 652 (MSM8976) chipset and not on the top-end Snapdragon 820. He adds that this is mainly because of the high cost of the latter and that Snapdragon 652 with its octa-core architecture is strong enough.

To recap, the Snapdragon 652 chipset is quite powerful, thanks to its four Cortex A72 cores. Further, the chipset is efficient with the other four cores based on Cortex A53. In the GPU department as well, the SD652 is quite powerful thanks to Qualcomm’s Adreno 510. Other features include X8 LTE with support for Cat. 7 (up to 300Mbps download), quad HD display support and Hexagon DSP.

OPPO Will Unveil The OPPO R9 Flagships In Beijing, Confirms Teaser

By

Joel Joseph

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Mar 3, 2016

For the past few weeks, we have been hearing a lot about the OPPO R9 and R9 Plus flagships. According to the advertisements from the company in China, we knew that the phone was going to launch on March 17. Now, OPPO has just further confirmed the event in Beijing via its official weibo page.

The company released a new teaser today revealing that they have an event on March 17 at the Beijing National Convention Center. Like all its teasers in the past few days, this particular one also comes with a large 9 in the center confirming that the event is for the launch of the OPPO R9.

The OPPO R9 along with its elder brother, the R9 Plus recently passed through the certification website TENAA revealing its design and specs. Both the devices have a similar design, with the R9 Plus featuring a larger form factor owing to its 6-inch display.

As for the specs, the OPPO R9 will come with an octa-core processor clocked at 1.95GHz, which could be the Helio X10. On the other hand, the OPPO R9 Plus features a 1.8GHz octa-core chip most likely the Snapdragon 652. Both feature 4GB RAM, but storage is 32GB on the R9 and 64GB on the R9 Plus. There’s a MicroSD card slot on both the devices, so you don’t have to worry about storage. A 16MP camera sensor adorns the back of both the devices. The R9 sports a 2850mAh battery while the R9 Plus features a 4120mAh battery. Finally, the R9 is slimmer with a 6.5mm body while the R9 Plus features a slightly thicker 7.4mm body.

Pricing and availability details have not been revealed yet but expect more information on the launch day, which is just a couple of weeks away.

Huawei Officials confirm Huawei P9 Flagship Exists, But Will Not Debut On March 9

By

Joel Joseph

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Mar 3, 2016

A couple of days back, we spotted a new teaser online which revealed that Huawei had kept an event in Berlin on March 9. The image in the teaser showed off a beer being poured into a glass, which made little sense at that time. However, now Huawei official has confirmed that the company doesn’t have an unveiling event on March 9 and that, the Huawei P9 flagship won’t be debuting so soon.

Chinese media adds that company officials have confirmed the existence of the device. They further said that the phone will indeed release in the coming months, however, the exact release date has not been set yet.

It is said that the release has been delayed due to some technical problems with the implementation of the dual camera setup at the back. Also, the phone won’t feature 6GB RAM or even a new Kirin 650 chipset. These technical issues seem to have forced the company to delay to announced for around a month. Previous rumors said that the phone will meet us sometime in March, but after this information, it looks like Huawei will stick to the traditional release period i.e. a year after the launch of the Huawei P8 to unveil its brand new Huawei P9 flagship.

From the information we have received so far, the Huawei P9 will come in four different versions. The Max version will be much larger than the others and feature a 6.2-inch 2K display, with Kirin 955 chip, 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM and 4000mAh battery. While the standard Huawei P9 version will reportedly come with a 5.2-inch display with 1080p resolution, 3GB RAM, and 3600mAh battery. The phone is said to feature a dual camera setup of 12MP each with Leica lens system. We don’t have details about the other two versions, except that they may be called as the P9 Lite and P9 Premium/ Pro.

Elephone P9000 vs P9000 Lite: Basic Comparison (VIDEO)

By

Joel Joseph

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Mar 3, 2016

A few months back, Elephone unveiled three new smartphones in its P series, namely the Elephone P9000, P9000 Lite and P9000 Edge. Like the name suggests, the Elephone P9000 Lite is a slightly low specced version of the P9000 which retails at a cheaper price tag.

Apart from the specs, even in the design department, both the above-mentioned devices have their own set of differences. Now, the company has detailed these differences in a new video on youtube. You can check that out from down below.

https://youtu.be/aTpx0b0PW8E

First of all, the Elephone P9000 is the better looking model than the other, featuring a CNC metal frame. The P9000 lite comes with a varnished plastic frame. The difference is clearly visible in both the models, thanks to the different frames. On the left side, both models feature MicroSD + SIM card slots along with a smart key. While, on the right, you get the power button and volume buttons. At the bottom, you have the speaker grill with USB Type-C ports. The back is similar, with sandstone black covers.

Coming to the differences in the specs, the P9000 sports a better camera module. It comes with a 13MP Sony IMX258 sensor at the back with dual tone flash and Laser Autofocus. On the other hand, the P9000 Lite features the OV13850 13MP sensor at the back along with dual tone flash.The front camera on the P9000 is 8MP while on the Lite, it is of 5MP. Another major difference is that the P9000 features NFC as well as fingerprint, while the Lite version doesn’t.

As for the similarities, both models feature Helio P10 octa-core processor with 4GB of RAM on board and 32GB internal storage.

So, have you bought the Elephone P9000 or P9000 Lite yet? How has been your experience with the phone so far?

Zeblaze Cosmo flash sale on Bangood

By

shanos

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Mar 3, 2016

Banggood are currently running a limited Zeblaze Cosmo flash sale.

The Zeblase Cosmo normally retails at $69.99 however between the 2nd – 3rd of March Banggood have 10 units of the Zeblaze Cosmo smart watch available at just $49.99

A second Zeblaze cosmo flashsale will also be run between the 4th – 8th of March, where 20 units of the Zeblaze Cosmo smart watch will be available at $59.99.

The Zeblaze Cosmo flash sale will be running between 3am -5pm (UTC+8) on the dates above, you will need to be quick as the numbers are very limited.

Zeblaze have been listening to the needs of smart watch users and have worked to overcome a lot of the problems that plagued earlier watches.

For this Zeblaze’s third smart watch they have improved almost every aspect of the watch, it is up to 60% more powerful than previous models ensuring that menu operation is super fast and the wait between applications loading is almost instant, they have also managed to reduce battery usage up to 30% this has been made possible thanks to their use of the latest Medieatek MT 2502c soc.

.

The striking design of the Zeblaze Cosmo smart watch is made up of the 316L grade aluminium chassis, which is not only strong but also light weight and provides the perfect mount for the 1.61″ IPS screen with a resolution of 256 x 320.

Speaking of the screen it is manufactured form 3D Arc glass to give viewing angles up to 160 degrees.

A metal crown can be found on the right hand side of the Cosmo, this is used as an additional control for the watches features.

The real leather strap helps to give the watch a really premium look and feel, Zeablaze have also looked at smaller details like the usage of stainless steel screws to prevent sweat based rusting that has affected some China based smartwatches in the past.

The Cosmo also supports a range of health monitoring functions, sedentary monitoring as well as being able to control several phone functions and provide users with a wide range of notification and alerts.

Please feel free to leave comments or questions below

Regards Shane

Original article posted on gadgetz.tv

Xiaomi Mi 5 Is Coming to India in April, Confirms Company

By

Shine Wong

-

Mar 3, 2016

Xiaomi’s VP, Hugo Barra, took off the lid over the company’s plans to bring their flagship, Mi 5 to India. To a thunderous applause of over 8000 fans at the Talkatora stadium, in Lucknow India, Barra revealed that Xiaomi had already gotten over 16 million registrations for the Mi 5 in China and that next, it plans to bring the flagship phone to Indian users in a month’s time.

Along with this, Hugo Barra also revealed the company’s plans to sell in the country the beautiful looking Mi Bluetooth Speakers for Rs 1999 and Mi Powerbank which can hold a charge of up to 20000mAh.

The Xiaomi Mi 5 upon launch in the country will be
available in three variants. The Mi 5 (32GB storage
and 3GB RAM) is priced at RMB 1999 (Approx Rs
21,000), the Mi 5 64GB variant is priced at RMB
2299 (Approx Rs 24,000) and the Mi 5 Pro with 128GB storage and 4GB RAM will be available for a price of RMB 2699 (Approx Rs 28,500).

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 With Snapdragon 650 Released In India, Priced at Rs. 9,999 ($148)

By

Shine Wong

-

Mar 3, 2016

As confirmed earlier, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is officially
launched in India today. It is the same Redmi Note 3 Pro that was launched in China in January this year. The Redmi Note 3, powered by the Helio X10 was first unveiled in November last year in China while the enhanced variant Redmi Note 3 Pro with Snapdragon 650 was launched later.

The phone packs a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, is powered by a Hexa-core Snapdragon 650 (Snapdragon 618 previously)
processor and runs on Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop) with MIUI 7
top. At the back, there is a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, LED flash and phase-detection auto-focus (PDAF),
resulting in a quick focus of just 0.1 seconds. Up front, you’ll find a 5-megapixel camera.

It’s the first smartphone to feature snapdragon 650 in the world. The chip beats Helio X10 and snapdragon 808 as mentioned by Xiaomi.

The Redmi Note 3 has a metal body, hybrid dual SIM support with 4G on both SIMs, fingerprint sensor at the back that can unlock the device in just 0.3 seconds. Inside, it packs a 4000mAh battery with fast charging support that lets you charge the battery up to 50% in just 1 hour.

The phone also features an IR blaster for controlling home appliances like TV, AC etc just like a remote controller. It
also announced a new app called as Mi Mover for transferring content from old smartphone to a new Mi Phone. At the event, Hugo Barra also mentioned that Mi 5 is coming to India on April.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Pro) specifications
5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD IPS display,
178-degree viewing angle
Hexa-Core Snapdragon 650 (4x 1.2GHz ARM A53 +
2 x 1.8 GHz ARM A72) 64-bit processor with
Adreno 510 GPU
2GB RAM with 16GB storage / 3GB RAM with 32GB
storage, expandable memory with microSD
MIUI 7 based on Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop)
Hybrid Dual SIM (micro + nano/microSD)
16MP rear camera with PDAF, dual-tone LED Flash,
f/2.0 aperture, 1080p video recording, 120fps slow-
motion
5MP front-facing camera, f/2.0 aperture, 1080p
video recording
Dimensions: 150x76x8.65 mm; Weight: 164g
Infrared sensor
4G LTE with VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac/b/g/n (2.4 /
5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, GPS + GLONASS
4000mAh (minimum) / 4050mAh (typical) battery
with fast charging

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 comes in Dark Grey, Silver
and Champagne Gold colors and is priced at Rs. 9,999 ($148)
for the 2GB RAM with 16GB storage version, while the
3GB RAM with 32GB storage variant costs Rs. 11,999 ($178).
It will be available starting from March 9th at 2PM in
the first flash sale on Mi.com and Amazon.in.

LeEco Le 2 Spotted In Leaked Pictures

By

Joel Joseph

-

Mar 3, 2016

Its almost a year since LeTV, now called as LeEco entered the smartphone market. And they have managed to build a solid brand image, both in China as well as India. Back in January, LeEco released the world’s first Snapdragon 820 smartphone, Le Max Pro, however, even now, the phone is not available to purchase for the regular public.

So, this brings the focus to another upcoming smartphone from the company, which could be launched in the coming months, namely the Le 2. This particular model is rumored to come with pretty great specs and now, we might have the first glimpse of the device.

As you can see, the phone is a bit different than the ones the company have released till now. The back is clean, a bit too clean which means this may not be a metal body smartphone. There are no visible antenna lines, which could hint that the body is made out of something else. If we had to guess, we would say ceramic material since there have been a couple of rumors going around about such a design on the new Le 2.

We can also see a fingerprint sensor at the back, along with a large camera sensor. The overall looks of the device isn’t very polished, which hints that this is probably a prototype device. Another interesting aspect is the presence of the old LeTV logo, instead of the new LeEco. So, take this leak with a pinch of salt.

As for the specs, earlier leaks have hinted that the Le 2 will feature Helio X20 deca-core processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB of ROM. It could have the same 21MP rear camera sensor and 4MP ultrapixel front shooter as the Le Max Pro, but nothing is confirmed for now.

LeEco has always been aggressive in its pricing. In fact, LeEco CEO Jia Yueting had earlier said that the company often resorts to negative profit to make their devices competitive. So, pricing should be affordable, somewhere around 1799 Yuan which comes to just $275.

Doogee T6 Review – Affordable Battery Monster

By

Linus

-

Mar 3, 2016

Today we have a cheap phone with a monster battery – Doogee T6. Find out more in our full review.

Buy Doogee T6

Doogee T6 VIDEO REVIEW:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLmP6Uaek0Q[/embedyt]

Doogee T6 Review: UNBOXING

The phone comes with instruction manuals, a charging brick, USB cable, USB OTG cable for external devices, a screen protector and a SIM ejector pin. Finally, you are getting a nice soft TPU case to protect your device.

Doogee T6 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

Doogee T6 is not a small device due its 5.5” display. Well, this size of the screen has already become a standard for most of us.

The panel itself is just 720p resolution but it not that bad. It is bright and the colours look natural.

The star of the show here is a large 6250mAh battery, which makes the phone heavier than usual as it weighs 230g.

On the front, we have a 5MP shooter and LED notification light along with the non-backlit capacitive buttons.

The backplate is made of plastic but it actually feels nice to the touch.

The camera has an 8MP sensor, which is capable of shooting 13MP images with dual LED flash. Also, we have the loudspeaker on the bottom.

The sides are also made of plastic and we have the buttons on the right, which have a good tactile feedback but they feel a bit cheap.

Overall, the phone is well built, it feels nice in the hand but you have to keep in mind that it is quite heavy and it does not sport any premium materials like metal or glass.

Doogee T6 Review: UI

Doogee T6 runs on Android 5.1 with the Doogee’s skin on top of it.

We have some redesigned icons and a bit of extra functionality like gesture and motions controls we’ve seen on numerous phones. The implementation of gestures is pretty good but I’ve seen faster response times on some other phones.

As for daily use, I don’t have major complaints. However, there is a significant delay once you press the home button and that it is kind of annoying.

Other than that, the performance of the UI is snappy and responsive.

Doogee T6 Review: BENCHMARKS

Doogee T6 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The phone is not a powerhouse as it sports a quad-core MTK6735 chip with the clock speeds of up to 1.0GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.

As you may have already guessed, the gaming experience is not really pleasant. There is a lot of lag and skipped frames even on medium graphics on Asphalt 8.

Doogee T6 Review: MULTIMEDIA

The loudspeaker quality is not bad but it is not impressive either. On the other hand, it is on par with most of the phones in this price range.

Doogee T6 Review: CAMERA

Doogee T6 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

As for image quality, the daylight pictures usually turn out to be pretty good as they have a decent amount of detail. However, the colours are not always accurate and there were quite a few blurry shots.

The low-light images do not impress. They lack in detail, there is a lot of noise. Also, the red tint ruins some of the pictures.

The selfie camera can take some okay looking images in good light but it is not a wide angle shooter.

As for video, it is just mediocre and the footage looks quite shaky. See the video review for a video sample.

Doogee T6 Review: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options that include Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS are working fine. Also, the signal reception is excellent and the call quality is good.

Doogee T6 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The phone sports a humongous 6250 mAh battery. Although it adds a bit of bulk and weight to the device, it performs well in real life.

I could get around 7 or even over 8 hours of screen-on time depending on the usage and that is a great result.

Doogee T6 Review: CONCLUSIONS

Doogee T6 costs around $130 and it does most of the things right.

It is not a flagship device due to its low-end specs but it was not made to be a flagship. The main highlight is the humungous battery and it delivers in real life.

Also, the phone has a decent screen, although it is only 720p; the design and build is good despite using mainly plastic and the camera can take decent daylight shots.

However, the phone lags while gaming, the home button is slow to respond and the low-light camera performance does not impress.

All in all, Doogee T6 is for those who look for a phone that has a very large battery and it does most of the things right. However, make sure to take the shortcomings into consideration.

Buy Doogee T6

Xiaomi, Meizu, OPPO & Vivo Are All Reportedly Working On Pressure Sensitive Displays

By

Joel Joseph

-

Mar 2, 2016

When compared to other parts of a smartphone, the display technology has seen less innovation. Agreed that we have seen dual edge curved screen displays on smartphones from Samsung and now Vivo, but it’s not something that will end up in every phone in the market. However, there was a certain feature which debuted last year, called as the pressure sensitive display which could end up in a lot of devices.

More and more manufacturers are slowly adopting this technology into their smartphones. There are already a handful of phones with this technology like the ZTE Axon Mini, iPhone 6S and even the Huawei Mate S. And now, this year, it looks like a lot of Chinese manufacturers will adopt pressure sensitive display in their smartphones.

According to an industry insider, many Chinese smartphone makers, like Xiaomi, Meizu, OPPO and Vivo are busy developing pressure sensitive displays for their smartphones. That’s not all, even HTC made Nexus 2016 is expected to feature this tech. Further, the insider adds that Google also plans to incorporate this feature as standard on Android.

This is not the first time we are hearing about Meizu’s plan for a pressure sensitive display. In fact, it is said that the MX6 flagship which will launch in a couple of months will sport this feature. Now, according to this insider, almost all major Chinese smartphone makers are going to be following this trend.

As mentioned before in my previous articles, we still haven’t seen smartphones take full advantage of pressure sensitive displays, mainly because of limited app availability. But hopefully, as more and more smartphones hit the market with this tech, we will see innovative and useful apps available on the play store.

OPPO R9 & R9 Plus Visits TENAA, Features Sleek Metal Body With Front Fingerprint

By

Joel Joseph

-

Mar 2, 2016

OPPO has confirmed that the OPPO R9 flagship will meet us on March 19 in China. Now the same phone, along with its larger brother has just hit TENAA which reveals a lot of things about the two upcoming devices.

First of all, design wise, the OPPO R9 and the R9 Plus are similar. Like the name suggests, the R9 Plus will be an enlarged version of the device, featuring a larger 6-inch display. There are some other differences between the two models, with the Plus variant featuring much better specs.

But before moving to the specs, one thing to mention about the design is the front facing fingerprint sensor. The phone features a clean back and comes with a fingerprint sensor integrated into the home button. Like its predecessors, the OPPO R9 is pretty thin, featuring a 6.5mm body. The R9 Plus will be a bit thicker, with a 7.4mm body, but nothing to complain here since it features a much larger battery as well.

Like mentioned above, both the models have a few differences in terms of specs. The OPP R8 comes with a 1.95GHz octa-core processor which could be the Helio X10. But we can’t be sure of that right now. On the other hand, the OPPO R9 Plus comes with a 1.8GHz octa-core chip, which is probably the Snapdragon 652. So, no SD820 as rumored before.

As for the display, the R9 sports a 5.5-inch 1080p screen while the R9 Plus comes with a larger 6-inch 1080p panel. Both models have 4GB RAM but the R9 has 32GB ROM while R9 Plus features 64GB ROM. Storages on both the models are expandable up to 128GB. The rear camera is the same, so both get 16MP sensor at the back. The R9 features a 2850mAh battery while the R9 Plus features a 4120mAh battery. Finally, both smartphones get dual SIM dual standby.

Now that we have know a lot about the two upcoming devices, all we can do is wait for OPPO to confirm these specs and reveal other details like pricing and availability.

So, what do you think? How much are you willing to pay for OPPO R9 and R9 Plus with these specs?

Huawei Has An Event On March 9 In Berlin, Could Be For Huawei P9 Flagship

By

Joel Joseph

-

Mar 2, 2016

Huawei is on a roll this year. After selling more than 109 million smartphones in 2016, the company plans to sell even more this year. In this regard, we have seen it expand into new markets like US and even unveil entirely new products like the Huawei Matebook laptop hybrid.

The newest flagship from the company is expected to be the rumored Huawei P9 and we might have a potential launch date for the device as Huawei has released a new teaser for an event in Berlin on March 9.

However, the company fails to mention what to expect from the March 9 event. The teaser comes with a picture of a beer being poured into a glass. We know its beer because the word “Beer” is written in the teaser. As you can see, it’s hard to say what the company is hinting with this teaser. But given that Huawei P9 is the one product that we have been hearing about a lot in the past few weeks, it could be for the new flagship’s launch.

Although it might be still early for the next generation version of the Huawei P8 flagship (P8 was launched back in April 2015), rumors claim that the company might pre-pone the launch to March. If that’s the case, then its most likely for the P9 launch.

Anyways, it’s still not clear whether the event is for Huawei P9. So, we better wait for some concrete information before getting too excited.

As for the P9 flagship, it is said that the phone will come in four different variants with Kirin 950/ 955 chipset under the hood. There will be a 5.2-inch display on board with FHD resolution, 3GB RAM, dual cameras and 3,600mAh battery.

Usually, Chinese companies tend to release their products first in China and then internationally. But as of now, we have received no news about such an event in the home country. Hence, let’s wait for Huawei to reveal more about this mystery March 9 event.

We Are Looking To Hire Smart Writers For GizmoChina

By

Joel Joseph

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Mar 2, 2016

UPDATE: We are also looking for Spanish and German writers for our website.

So, if you are passionate about tech, have knowledge of Chinese smartphones and are fluent in Either Eng / Spanish / German, you can apply via the form down below. Please mention your preferred language in the form.

Hello readers, as you all know, we have been growing consistently for the past few months. Considering the need to keep the website updated with the latest happenings in the Chinese tech industry, we are looking for a couple of writers to join our team.

Potential candidates need to have previous experience writing for a blog. It can be your own blog or someone else’s. The idea is that you need experience working with wordpress and you should know how to write well.

Another important requirement is the need for perfect English. We need someone who can write well in English, engage with the readers and have a passion for writing about technology.

Also, you need to have at least a couple of hours free every day. We don’t want writers who can’t commit a few hours in the day to write a couple of articles.

Another requirement is some basic knowledge about Chinese smartphones and companies. If you have never heard about companies like LeEco, Meizu or Doogee, you will find it hard to write for us.

If you tick these requirements, fill up this google form. We will soon contact ideal candidates for further discussion.

Regards,

Joel

Apply for the post of a writer at Gizmochina

Xiaomi Mi 4S First Day Sales Figures Are Out, And Its Impressive

By

Joel Joseph

-

Mar 2, 2016

Along with the Xiaomi Mi 5, its less powerful brother, the Xiaomi Mi 4S also went on sale yesterday. Despite being overshadowed by the Mi 5, this particular model, which is supposed to be an upgrade to the 2014 Xiaomi Mi 4 flagship, did pretty well in its first ever sale.

According to the data from Suning, a famous retailer in China, it sold over 110,000 units of the new Xiaomi Mi 4S in the first sale day of the device. The retailer is said to have sold 50,935 units via its online website. The retailer further added 64,853 units before the end of the day via its offline stores in the country.

Now considering that Suning wasn’t the only retailer selling the new Mi 4S, as Xiaomi’s official website was also selling the device, we can expect the total Mi 4S sales to be quite impressive for its first day. The total Mi 4S sales for the first day could have crossed 200K units as speculated by Chinese media, but Xiaomi is yet to release its sales figure for the Mi 4S.

The demand for the Xiaomi Mi 4S is not that surprising given that Xiaomi’s products are highly popular in the country. The phone features a compact 5-inch display with the hexa-core Snapdragon 808 under the hood, 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, further expandable via MicroSD. These are pretty impressive specs for a device that retails for just 1699 Yuan ($260).

Further, you have a 3260mAh battery with Quick Charge 2.0 on board with a 13MP camera at the back, and 5MP front shooter. There’s a fingerprint sensor at the back as well. So, overall the phone seems to be well balanced in terms of its specs and pricing which is why it’s turning out to be quite popular in the country.

So, are you surprised with these figures?

First Look At The Vivo XPlay 5 Flagship (Pictures)

By

Joel Joseph

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Mar 2, 2016

Yesterday, Vivo announced the Vivo XPlay 5 flagship which turned out to be the first 6GB RAM smartphone. The phone features pretty powerful specifications along with smart software to ensure the best performance. In the looks department as well, the phone is pretty impressive. It features a dual curved edge display, similar to the Galaxy S6 Edge in an all metal body that accounts for nearly 98% metal.

The body is made out of aluminum-magnesium alloy with a lot of processing on it like zirconium sanding, double c-cut edges, single crystal diamond mirror coating etc. The phone is pretty slim as well, featuring a 7.59mm body. There are two color options available namely champagne gold and rose gold.

As for the specs, the phone comes with a Super AMOLED 5.43-inch display with 2K resolution. Under the hood, there’s 4GB/ 6GB RAM options and SD652 / SD820 CPU depending on the variant. The Elite version features the much powerful SD820. For storage, you get 128GB which is more than enough for your everyday needs.

At the back, there’s a Sony IMX298 sensor with electronic OIS and dual tone flash. Front features an 8MP shooter. Despite its thin size, the company has managed to fit in a large 3600mAh battery with twin charging chips. Finally, there are Hi-Fi chips on both the variants to ensure that the audio output is top-notch.

There’s no doubt that this is a powerful handset. The standard XPlay 5 version starts at 3698 Yuan ($564) while the Elite version retails for 4288 Yuan which is close to $654.

You can check out the beautiful Vivo XPlay 5 in pictures down below. Some like its design, while some don’t. Which category do you fall in?

Xiaomi prepared millions of Mi 5 Units for its first batch of stock, still not sufficient

By

Joel Joseph

-

Mar 1, 2016

Yesterday, Xiaomi had its first flash sale for the Xiaomi Mi 5. No surprise that almost 16 million users registered for the first sale. The sale started exactly at 10 AM on March 1 and within a few minutes, the phone went out of stock. Naturally, many Xiaomi fans in China were disappointed to be left without a unit. We may think that the may not have made a lot of units available for sale yesterday, but Taiwan’s Economic Daily reported otherwise.

Although we have no official word on the total Xiaomi Mi 5 units sold in the first flash sale, Taiwanese media has some idea on the first batch of stock that the company prepared before releasing it. It is said that the company could have prepared around 4 million Xiaomi Mi 5 units for its first batch of stock. Out of these, a majority could have been offered for sale in the first flash sale, but we can’t be sure of the exact number.

Apparently, this was not enough, and hence, the company has asked the two foundries, namely Foxconn and Inventec to increase its production capacity to meet market demands. Comparing these figures to the initial registrations (around 16 million) for the sale, we guess it would take around April – May for all the pre-orders to be shipped.

So, despite the company’s efforts to stock up the Xiaomi Mi 5 in plenty before releasing it officially, it might still take some time for everyone who pre-orders the device to get hold of the flagship. As for international customers, this could only mean more waiting as the company will have to first satisfy the domestic demand before expanding to more regions like India, where the demand is once again expected to be quite high.