In an event yesterday, a first of its kind in the Industry, LeEco, announced four products from four different segments. The company launched Mobile Phones, VR Headset, Televisions and a Car. LeEco announced Le 2, Le2 Pro and Le Max 2 at a very pocket-friendly price of 1099 yuan, 1399 yuan, and 2099 yuan, respectively.
As the press conference drew to the end, Feng Xing, President of Mobile Business at LeEco, said that at the time of joining the company in 2014 he wanted to take the mobile business from scratch to 3 Million handset sales within the first year. Within first seven months itself, they were able to sell 4 Million handsets.
Feng Xing said with at the current pace and the recent developments at LeEco, the overall mobile phone sales will soon exceed 10 million units, and this year’s goal is 15 million units sale.
He mentioned that, after seeing the performance of sales of Le 1S, channel partners trust has been strengthened and they feel that the second generation phones will sell like hot cakes. China Unicom itself sees a case of selling 6 million phones instead of 3 Million.
As per the last release yesterday, within 3 hours of the launch event 4 million people had registered for the second generation superphone’s first sale.
It is also reported that the 1st sale of the 3 recently released superphones will be held at 10:00am on April 26. However, the company is planning to sell only 1 Million phones in this sale, which means only 1 out of 4 people who registered for the sale will be lucky enough to get the device.
April has been the month of the Chinese flagships. We have seen so many powerful devices in the past 21 days that it has become hard to keep a track of all the smartphones announced recently. Now, add ZUK Z2 Pro to the list as the company calls it the true flagship smartphone of this year. Why this sudden claim? Well, the phone comes with so many powerful features that it can claim to be the ‘first’ in a lot of things. For example, the phone is reportedly the first on to use a “true 3D mirror body design”. There are a bunch of other firsts, but more about that later.
First up, the phone’s design is unique because of its 3D mirror design. The 3D glass body comes with an arch design. The frame in the middle has gone through 10 processors and 260 steps to ensure durability. Further, it uses a roll cage design for addition protection.
Coming to the screen, the ZUK Z2 Pro will limit the black borders to mere 0.05mm, which is pretty impressive. There will be a Super AMOLED 5.2-inch display with 1080p resolution. Like the Le Max 2, the screen has a maximum brightness of 500 nits and minimum brightness of 1 nit.
Like mentioned above, the phone can boast of a lot of firsts, and among them being the first one to come with 10 different professional sensors. Wondering which are these 10 sensors? Here’s the list: gravity sensor, 3-axis gyroscope, three-axis magnetic sensor, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, heart rate, blood oxygen sensor, a pressure sensor, ultraviolet sensors, and Hall effect sensor. With the help of the company’s health app, you should be able to keep a thorough check on your body.
Under the hood, the ZUK Z2 Pro comes with the powerful Snapdragon 820. But there’s more, the company claims that this is the first phone to utilize 100% performance from the chipset. Still doubtful? Well, the company has released the AnTuTu score of the device and it gets a good 144,939 on the benchmarking test. One of the best we have seen till date.
But SD820 isn’t just the pick of the hardware. The Z2 Pro comes with a 6GB RAM version as well, joining the likes of Le Max 2 and Vivo XPlay 5 Premium. You get a large 128GB ROM on this version, making sure you never have to worry about storage. There’s another version, 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM, i.e. for those, who want to save a few hundred bucks.
Coming to the camera, there’s serious technology being used inside the Z2 Pro. The phone comes with both OIS and EIS, so dual image stabilization. There is a 13MP rear camera sensor with f/1.8 aperture, 1.34 micron pixel size and pixel isolation technology support. The rear cam supports 4K video recording. As for the front camera, you get an 8MP 1.4 micron sensor with f/2.0 and support for heartrate check. Yes, this is not a mistake, as the ZUK Z2 Pro is probably the first smartphone that can identify your heart rate using the front camera. So, next time you are with a girl for a selfie, make sure you turn this feature off, or else, she’ll know you are nervous.
Now, moving on to the fingerprint sensor, the Z2 Pro claims to be the first fingerprint-enabled phone to work with wet hands. The company has used a self-learning algorithm to ensure that recognition improves with time. You can unlock the device in just 0.1 seconds. As for the connectivity features, the phone supports USB Type-C 3.1, QC 3.0, full netcom 3.0 standard, 4G+ VoLTE, and international roaming. The phone will run on the new ZUK 2.0 system with iCloud which can backup all your data for safe restore at a later time.
Inside, you have a 3100mAh capacity battery with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 support.
Now, coming to the most interesting part of the device, the pricing. ZUK Z1 was an affordable device and the company has priced the Z2 Pro on the same lines. The 6GB + 128GB ROM variant will go on sale for just 2699 Yuan ($416). Registrations start on April 22 from 10 AM in China. No word on the pricing of the 4GB + 64GB ROM version yet.
So, what do you think about the phone? Will you pick the Le Max 2 or the ZUK Z2 Pro?
Blackview has been known to produce a lot of very cheap phones and the A8 is no exception. The device costs just around $50 but is it any good? Learn more in our unboxing and first impressions article.
Blackview A8: UNBOXING
The phones comes with a standard packaging and besides all the usual stuff there are some extras like the pair of earphones and a flip-style case.
Blackview A8: DESIGN and FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The device has a quad-core MTK6580A chip (1.3GHz), 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage (with a microSD card slot), 5.0″ 720p Screen, 8MP/2MP cameras on the back and front, respectively; a 2000mAh removable battery. It sounds like a pretty decent sheet of specs for a phone this cheap.
I have to tell you that I was initially impressed with the design and build quality of the Blackview A8. I’ve reviewed a bunch of very cheap phones but the A8 definitely shapes up to be one of the best.
The phone feels sturdy and well-made. We have an 8MP camera on the back and the plastic backplate itself is removable.
Under the hood we have two SIM card slots, a microSD card slot and a removable 2000mAh battery.
We have a 2MP selfie snapper and non-backlit capacitive buttons on the front. However, there is no LED notification light.
The metal CNC frame adds some premium look and feel to the device. The buttons have a decent tactile feedback but they are made of plastic.
Overall, the first impressions are positive. The phone has a build quality of a $100 phone, it sits comfortably in the hand so far the UI has been running smoothly. As usual, we need to spend some more time with the device to give you a full and honest review.
Although Xiaomi has a lot of products in the market, mainly smartphones targeted at different user segments, the company is yet to release a true phablet. Looks like that’s going to change soon as the company has confirmed that the Xiaomi Max is going to be the first large screen smartphone from the company. The closest thing to a phablet till now was the Xiaomi Mi Note, so this should come as good news to all phablet lovers.
Now, Xiaomi has just revealed more details about the Xiaomi Max. The official weibo account of the smartphone revealed that the Max won’t come with the traditional Mi logo on the front. So, it looks like the company is trying to differentiate the Max from the other Mi series smartphones. The Redmi series doesn’t have this Mi logo up front, so it’s no surprise that the Max is also not going to come with the logo on top of the display.
Another interesting feature revealed by the company is the size of the screen. Xiaomi released a long image (added at the end of the post) wherein it showcased the screen sizes of its products in the increasing order of size. Naturally, with the Xiaomi Max still not released, there was a large gap between the Xiaomi Mi Note and the Xiaomi Mi tab. Although it was obvious that the Max was going to feature a display upwards of 5.7-inches, the company just confirmed this today. Also, it looks like the phone could feature a 6-inch+ display, which would be in line with recent rumors which state that the phone comes with a 6.4-inch screen.
Remember the render we had seen yesterday? That didn’t have the Mi logo on top and still looked like an enlarged version of the Mi 5. You can read more about that from here.
Moving on, latest news suggests that the phone will come with Snapdragon 820, 6.4-inch display, fingerprint ID and full network support. You can expect the Max to launch sometime in May for a price tag of around 3000 Yuan ($463). Stay tuned for more details.
If you are looking for a flagship smartphone for the cheap, now might be a good time to take a look at the Xiaomi Mi 4 flagship. Agreed, the phone is now 2 years old, but it still has a pretty good hardware to act as your daily driver. And when you can get the phone for just $129, you may feel that this turns out to be a better deal than the numerous other budget handsets out there in the market right now.
It’s possible that you might have forgotten the specs inside the Xiaomi Mi 4. So, here’s a recap on the hardware. The phone comes with the Snapdragon 801 chipset that currently powers the OnePlus X smartphone clocked at 2.5GHz. Despite being old, this was one of the best chipsets from Qualcomm at that time and still packs enough punch to get through your everyday needs. There will be 2GB of RAM on board along with 16GB of internal storage.
The Mi 4 comes with a beautiful 5-inch JDI Full HD 1080p display which translates into a pixel density of 445 ppi. Even the camera on the device is good, featuring a 13MP rear camera sensor from Sony and an 8MP front facing shooter. Under the hood, the phone comes with a decent 3080mAh battery which should easily last an entire day with the compact display and efficient processor.
The phone supports 4G LTE networks (LTE-FDD: 1800/2100MHz (B1/B3)). In case, you are wondering, there are a few drawbacks of the device, like the absence of a MicroSD card slot and only single SIM support. But if you want a cheap flagship and can ignore these two drawbacks, then the Mi 4 can turn out to be a good option for you.
LeEco announced three new devices in its second generation smartphone lineup and without any doubt, the Le Max 2 is the flagship model in the series. This puts it in direct competition with the numerous other Chinese flagships in the market today, like the Xiaomi Mi 5,Huawei P9 and even the recently announced Meizu Pro 6. Today, we decided to compare the hardware of these four smartphones to see which one has an edge over the other. So, without wasting any more time, let’s take a look at the Le Max 2 vs Xiaomi Mi 5 vs Huawei P9 vs Meizu Pro 6 comparison.
We will be essentially comparing the hardware of the four devices in question.
SCREEN:
The Le Max 2 has entered the phablet category by featuring a large 5.7-inch 2K display. On the other hand, the other three handsets have a compact screen with 1080p resolution. The Pro 6 and Huawei P9 both feature 5.2-inch displays while the Mi 5 comes with an even smaller 5.15-inch screen.
If you are looking for something compact, the above three devices should be perfect. But if you want something large, look no further than the Le Max 2 and its 2K screen.
SPECS:
So, for CPU, there’s no doubt that Le Max 2 and Mi 5 rule the market with Snapdragon 820 under the hood. On the other hand, the Pro 6 comes with the Helio X25 chipset that isn’t too bad, while the Huawei P9 comes with its own Kirin 955 chipset. The last two chipsets manage a score of about 95K on AnTuTu.
As for the memory, the Le Max 2 comes in three versions, 4GB RAM + 32GB / 64GB storages and 6GB RAM + 64GB storage. The Mi 5 comes in three variants as well, 3GB + 32GB, 3GB + 64GB and 4GB + 128GB. The Huawei P9 flagship has two versions, 3GB + 32GB and 4GB + 64GB. Finally, the Pro 6 comes in 4GB RAM + 32GB / 64GB versions.
As for the camera, the Le Max 2 comes with a 21MP Sony IMX230 sensor with OIS and PDAF. Up front, you get an 8MP shooter. Even the Pro 6 features a 21MP sensor with PDAF and Laser Autofocus. The highlight of the phone is the 10 LED ring flash at the back. Up front, you get a 5MP shooter. On the other hand, the Mi 5 comes with a 16MP rear shooter with 4-axis stabilization and PDAF. Up front, it comes with a 4MP Ultrapixel camera.
The Huawei P9 probably has the best camera of the lot, thanks to the dual 12MP sensors with Leica setup. We have seen some samples which were good and the performance of the phone especially in low light should be impressive. On the front, you have an 8MP selfie camera.
Another important feature of the phone is the battery. The Le Max 2 is the one with the largest battery, but not by a big margin. It comes with a 3100mAh capacity battery with Quick Charge 3.0. On the other hand, the Mi 5 and the Huawei P9 both have 3000mAh batteries with fast charging. What’s really disappointing is the battery inside the Pro 6, which is just 2560mAh. Agreed that it features a 1080p screen, but we would have definitely loved a bigger battery inside.
The Le Max 2, despite having a slightly larger battery, the battery life should be the same as others or even less, thanks to its larger 5.7-inch screen and 2K resolution.
Other features are pretty much similar such as VoLTE support, fingerprint sensor (although Le Max 2 has an ultrasonic sensor), thin bezels etc.
PRICING:
Apart from the Huawei P9, all the three other phones are affordable flagships. The P9 starts at 2988 Yuan ($461) for the 3GB + 32GB version and goes up till 3688 Yuan ($569) for the 4GB RAM + 64GB version.
The 4GB RAM + 64GB storage version of the Le Max 2 costs just 2299 Yuan ($355) while the top-end 6GB RAM + 64GB storage costs just 2499 Yuan ($386) which is one of the best deals we have seen in the market.
Mi 5 starts at 1999 Yuan for the 3GB + 32GB version ($308) and goes up to 2699 Yuan ($417) for the 4GB + 128GB version. Finally, the Meizu Pro 6 starts at 2499 Yuan ($386) for the 4GB + 32GB version and goes up to 2799 Yuan ($432) for the 4GB + 64GB varaint.
The Le Max 2 announced today seems like a powerful package at a wonderful price. Getting 6GB RAM for just $386 is just amazing.
UMi seems to be doing well with its new smartphones. The UMi Touch was a pretty good mid-range device, with powerful features and a large battery that gave it an edge over others. Now, the company has announced a toned down version, called the UMi Touch X which aims to satisfy the needs of the budget large battery lovers.
The UMi Touch X brings the same metallic design of the Touch, featuring up to 95% CNC Cut aluminum metal. It features smooth curves to make sure that the phone fits well in hand. This design particularly comes in handy because of the large battery inside. The Touch X comes with a 4000mAh battery which could increase the weight, but the overall 8.5mm thin body and curved design help in the ergonomics.
Another highlighted feature of the UMi Touch X is the FHD display. Yes, the phone sports a 5.5-inch FHD 1080p panel with 2.5D arch corning gorilla glass 3 for the best viewing experience in the segment. At the back, the phone comes with an 8MP Sony IMX 219 camera sensor, which the company claims is better than most 13MP cameras. Plus, given that the sensor has been in the market for quite some time, it’s easier for the company to optimize the software for the maximum performance.
Another highlighted feature of the Touch X is the Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS on board. It’s good to see the new OS inside the device when there are still companies releasing Android lollipop powered flagships this time of the year. Other features of the phone include MT6735A quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB ROM, 4G LTE support and dual SIM dual standby.
The UMi Touch X goes on sale for a special pre-order price of $119.99 from April 21. After the pre-sale period, the price will go back to $129.99.
It’s been exactly one year since the Chinese media giant LeEco (formerly known as LeTV) entered the smartphone market. But during this time, the company has managed to get the attention of millions of fans, both in China and worldwide, thanks to its revolutionary smartphones. Last year, the company entered the industry with three great devices in the Le 1 series. Now, it’s time for a new generation of products, namely the Le 2 series. And guess what, once again, LeEco has surprised us all by announcing three powerful smartphones in the new Le lineup, namely the Le 2, Le 2 Pro and the flagship Le Max 2. Want to know more about these products? Read on!
First of all, looks wise, these three phones look identical. They come with a metal body and a fingerprint sensor at the back. So, no real surprises here. However, the company is using its borderless ID 3.0 design which makes these three phones look like they feature a bezel-less display.
Another important selling point for these three models is the absence of a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Apparently, LeEco believes this is the direction to go, with USB Type-C and their own CDLA (continuous digital lossless audio) standard reportedly delivering better audio output than a traditional headphone jack.
Rest of the specs are a bit different on each of the device, so here are all the details.
Le 2
Le 2 will be the least powerful smartphone in the series and will be the direct successor to the Le 1S model that was announced in the second half of last year. The phone comes with much better hardware and looks than the previous generation making it a true successor.
The phone comes with the Helio X20 chipset under the hood, that powers some mid-range flagships in the market. This is actually a pretty good upgrade from last year’s Le 1S which featured Helio X10. There will be 3GB of RAM on board and 32GB of internal storage. This will be eMMC 5.1 storage standard. With these specs on board, LeEco claims that the phone manages to score a good 97,336 point on AnTuTu, which is pretty impressive.
As for the display, the phone comes with a 5.5 in-cell display 1080p display. The brightness of the screen can reportedly go up to 500 nits and come down to as low as 1 nit. As for the camera, you get a 16MP sensor at the back, with PDAF and f/2.0 aperture. The setup can reportedly focus in just 0.09 seconds. This is good upgrade from the 13MP sensor on the Le 1S. The front camera is also better, now featuring an 8MP sensor. Other features of the phone include a 3000mAh battery with fast charge, EUI with Android 6.0, VOLTE and 4G LTE support.
Le 2 Pro
Le 2 Pro is a slightly upgraded version of the Le 2, featuring the new Helio X25 chipset clocked at 2.5GHz. Yes, it’s really surprising to see this inside the new LeEco device since Meizu had said that it would be exclusive to the Pro 6 for a few months. The phone features 4GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC 5.1 storage that helps it reach 103,322 on the AnTuTu benchmark. At the back, you get a powerful 21MP Sony IMX230 sensor while up front, there’s the same 8MP shooter. The display remains the same, a 5.5-inch panel with 1080p resolution. Other features include USB TYpe-C, VoLTE and 3000mAh battery.
Le Max 2
Moving to the pick of the announcements today, the Le Max 2 is a real powerhouse featuring the Snapdragon 820 chipset clocked at 2.15GHz. What’s more, you get a massive 6GB RAM module inside with 64GB of UFS 2.0 storage. That’s some pretty powerful stuff. The display is larger, measuring 5.7-inches with 2K resolution. This makes it quite ready for VR headsets. With these specs on board, it’s not surprising that the phone managed to score 143,408 on AnTuTu. At the back, the phone comes with a 21MP camera with OIS, 6P lens and f/2.0 aperture. Up front, you get the same 8MP shooter. The Le Max 2 also features the new Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor from Qualcomm. Other features include dual band Wi-F0, VoLTE, full network support (works in over 200 countries) and 3100mAh battery with QC 3.0.
Pricing is yet to be revealed, but we will update the article with more details soon.
So what do you think about these three smartphones?
UPDATE: Pricing revealed!
Le 2RMB1099 ($170),
Le 2 ProRMB1499 ($232),
Le Max 24GB RAM RMB2099 ($324)/
6GB RAM RMB 2499 ($386)
* Update: Le 2, Le 2 Pro, Le Max 2 are available for pre-order at Oppomart now, please click here.
Huawei has been busy this year, announcing quite a number of products including the new Huawei P9 as well as the brand new Huawei Matebook laptop. We also know that the company has an event for the launch of the mid-range Honor 5C smartphone later this month. Now, it looks like, there’s even more.
Huawei’s Honor division has just teased a new handset, called as the Honor V8. We have been hearing rumors that the new Honor 8 flagship was going to be announced pretty soon, and looks like this the company may have decided to change the name. From the teaser, it is confirmed that the Honor V8 will meet us on May 10. But there’s more.
Huawei also reveals that the Honor V8 will come with dual cameras. Remember the teaser for the P9, with two circles. Now, the company is using the same graphic for revealing the dual camera setup, making it the third such smartphone from the company this year. The first two being the Huawei P9 and the P9 Plus.
We are not entirely sure whether we would see the same 12MP rear camera setup on the V8 as the Huawei P9 series. According to rumors, the setup should be the same, but the V8 will not come with Leica’s certification. So, for now, it should be exclusive to the P9 series.
Other rumored specs of the Huawei V8 include Kirin 950 chipset, 4GB of RAM and a fingerprint sensor. These are some powerful hardware and almost comparable to the P9 series. So, we will have to wait and see how Huawei manages to differentiate between the two series.
Blackview is all set to announce its new rugged smartphone, namely the Blackview BV6000. This will be the successor to the popular BV5000 phone released last year. Apart from all the outdoor-centric features of the device, the company has also upgraded the specs to ensure that you get good performance out of the smartphone.
Now, the company has showcased the Blackview BV6000 in a new 3D video. The video focuses on the design and the features of the device, so make sure you check that out.
Moving on, the BV6000 will come with the MT6755 Helio P10 octa-core processor with Mali T860 GPU. There will be 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage under the hood. Plus, you get the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS out of the box. As you can see, the specs are mid-range which is a big upgrade from last year’s BV5000.
The phone sports a 4.7-inch compact 720p display with third generation Corning Gorilla Glass. You can even operate the device with the gloves on. It features a large 4500mAh battery to keep you running throughout the day and more. At the back, there is a 13MP OV camera with f/2.0 aperture while up front, you will find a 5MP OV5670 sensor with 85 degrees wide angle lens.
Other features of the Blackview BV6000 include GPS + GLONASS, IP68 protection (waterproof, dust proof, shock proof), Wi-Fi, compass, atmospheric pressure sensor, NFC, gyroscope, SOS button and double clock wakeup.
The phone will be available for sale in May 2016 for less than $200. You can choose between three colors, Army Green, Sunshine Yellow, and Violet Black. Read more from the company website.
Meanwhile, the company was also present at the Hong Kong Electronics Event, wherein it showcased its products. Check out the pictures from below. Also, you can get the super cheap Blackview A5 budget smartphone for just $44 from here.
We have been hearing a lot about the Ulefone Future smartphone, thanks to the numerous teasers and leaks about the phone. But if you thought that the Future was just a marketing strategy from the company, then you were wrong. Ulefone today announced the brand new Ulefone Future flagship and it’s everything that we expected it to be.
One of the highlights of the phone is going to be the bezel-less display on board, one of the first local Chinese companies to actually release such a device. This does set the phone apart from the numerous other offerings in the market available right now.
Apart from the amazing bezel-less screen, the phone also boasts of a side mounted fingerprint sensor. For many, this might just be the ideal position, located just beside the power button on the right. These two features make the Future an important flagship smartphone in the market right now. But the other specs are equally impressive.
Under the hood, the phone comes with the Helio P10 octa-core chip clocked at 2GHz. There will be 4GB of RAM on board and 32GB of internal storage. At the back, Ulefone Future sports a 16MP Samsung S5K3P3 sensor with PDAF and dual tone flash. As for the bezel-less display, it will be a 5.5-inch panel with 1080p resolution.
Ulefone reveals that the 3000mAh battery on board might be mediocre but it has made sure that the battery will charge quickly thanks to support for 9V/ 2A~3A charging. At this speed, the battery can reportedly charge up completely in just an hour. Other features of the device include Android 6.0, 4G LTE with Cat 6 support, gyro sensor for VR support and USB Type-C port.
Given the flagship status, the Ulefone Future comes with a body made out of a whole piece of magnesium alloy ingot by CNC cutting. The measurements of the phone are as follows: 151.5 x 73.5 x 8.6mm. It will weigh a good 185 grams.
The phone will go on sale for an undisclosed price tag from next week. There will be two colors namely gray and gold. You can read more about the phone from the official company website. Also, check out more pictures from below.
UHANS is a relatively new company among the numerous Chinese smartphone makers in the market. But the company does have a few unique phones under its belt. The UHANS U100 and U200 weren’t the most successful devices from the company, but they weren’t bad either. Now, the company is back with a new device, this time, much more powerful and better looking than before.
The UHANS S1 is the newest device from the company and the phone will soon go into pre-sale. The company seems to have taken a simplistic approach to its design, which isn’t too bad. The phone looks good with 2.5D glass on both front as well as the back, and features a thin profile with a body measuring just 7.3mm. The USB and speakers are located at the bottom, with power and volume buttons placed on the left. The company is offering two color options. Black with gray frame and pure white with a rose gold frame.
As for the specs, it will be a mid-ranger featuring the tried and tested MT6753 octa-core 64-bit chipset under the hood. There will be 3GB of RAM on board and 32GB storage expandable up to 64GB. As for the display, you will find a 5-inch oncell panel with 720p HD resolution. The camera at the back is of 13MP Sony IMX214 while up front, there will be a 5MP shooter with Fotonation tech. The phone features a fingerprint sensor as well, and it will be located at the back.
UHANS has decided to use Freeme OS 6.1 inside the S1, which is a popular OS in China. The phone supports 4G LTE FDD-LTE Band 1/ 2/ 7/ 8/ 20. The overall device seems like a good package. The company informs us that the UHANS S1 will go on pre-sale from tomorrow for $139.99.
LeECo is all set to announce its latest device in its popular Le family called as the Le 2. This will be the second generation model in the lineup, with the first batch of phones being announced almost a year before. We have a lot of expectations with the upcoming Le 2, and it looks like there will be multiple versions of the phone.
According to a recent benchmark listing of the Le X820 model, the phone will come with the powerful Snapdragon 820 chipset under the hood with a massive 6GB of RAM inside. In case you remember, only the Vivo XPlay 5 Premium Edition can boast of such specs, and this particular model could soon join the ranks of flagships with ultra powerful hardware. We aren’t sure whether this would end up being called as the Le 2, instead something like the Le Max 2 or the Le 2 Pro would be much more ideal.
What’s more, the Le X820 comes with a 5.5-inch 2K display on board to make sure you have the top features in almost all departments. At the back, the phone will have a 21MP sensor which can record 4K videos while up front, there will be a standard 8MP shooter. Other features include 64GB of internal storage and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OS.
We know tomorrow we will see the Le 2 smartphone, thanks to the numerous teasers and leaks about the device. So, what about this particular device?
Well, it’s unlikely that the company would announce both the Le 2 and the this particular device in the same conference. If that was the case, we should have seen hints about this power house. So, we probably have to wait for a few weeks more to see this flagship finally being announced.
ZTE’s Nubia division has just announced its newest smartphone, the ZTE Nubia Z11 Mini, aimed at compact smartphone lovers. The company is particularly focusing on the compact size of the device, in this market which is flooded with phones that come with screen sizes upwards of 5.2-inches.
When we look at the specs of the Z11 Mini, they aren’t powerful. But then, Mini series was never supposed to be a flagship smartphone. In fact, if the company had continued with the tradition, it would have unveiled two more smartphones in the series today, namely the Nubia Z11 Max and the Nubia Z11 flagship. But, surprisingly, this event was just for the Z11 Mini.
The Nubia Z11 Mini takes its design cues from its predecessor to some extent. It comes with a metal body and the trademark Nubia circular button just below the display. There will be a fingerprint sensor located at the back of the device. Despite its ‘Mini’ tagline, the phone looks quite premium.
Coming to the specs, the Nubia Z11 Mini features the Snapdragon 617 chipset under the hood with octa-core architecture. There will be Adreno 405 graphics inside with 3GB of RAM and an ample 64GB of storage, further expandable via MicroSD.
Nubia series smartphones are known for their cameras, and the Z11 Mini tries to keep up the repuation with a Sony IMX298 16MP sensor at the back with PDAF. Up front, you will find an 8MP shooter ideal for selfies. The company has updated its Neovision software and now, there are new features such as 3D Noise reduction and Clone camera.
Given its small size, Nubia decided to use a 2800mAh non-removable battery inside. Other features of the phone include dual band Wi-Fi, DTS sound, dual SIM support, VoLTE, 8mm body and 138 grams weight. Unfortunately, the phone comes with Android 5.1.1 out of the box with Nubia 3.9 on top. Kind of surprising that it doesn’t come with Marshmallow, but the company will probably update the OS in the coming months.
The Nubia Z11 Mini will come in black, white and gold colors and will go on sale for a decent 1499 Yuan ($232) price tag in China. Registrations have already started and the phone goes on sale on April 25. The company is also offering a special wooden back cover for the device, which you can see in some of the pictures above.
For now, no word on the Nubia Z11 or Z11 Max, but we expect a launch in the coming months.
So, what do you think? For $232, does Nubia Z11 attract your attention?
Meizu is one of those Chinese manufacturers which releases one of the hottest budget devices of the year and it seems that the Meizu M3 Note is no exception. It has great looks, decent specs and it does not cost a fortune. Learn more in our unboxing and first impressions article.
The phone comes with the USB charger, SIM ejector pin and some documentation.
Meizu M3 Note: DESIGN and FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Once I first picked the phone up it was obvious that the device looks the iPhone 6s Plus. It is made of metal (except for the top and bottom parts for antennas) and the build quality is top-notch.
We have a 5.5″ 1080p display and the first impressions about it are nothing but positive. It is sharp and crisp but it is a great panel overall.
We have a 5MP shooter along with a notification LED on the top.
On the bottom there is only a physical home button, which has a lot of features. First, it doubles as a fingerprint scanner and it is easy to setup, fast and accurate. However, it does not work straight from the standby mode, meaning that you have to wake the screen up with a click of a home or power button.
A really cool feature that I love about most of the Meizu phones is that the home button supports a simple tap function, e.g. you can simply tap it and it acts as a back button.
As for optics, we have a 13MP shooter with f/2.2 aperture and PDAF. Just below the camera you can find a dual-tone dual LED flash.
The phone’s thickness measures at 8.2mm but in the hand it actually feels a bit slimmer. We have the buttons on the right, which have a good tactile feedback and neither of them rattle or wobble.
Meizu decided to stick with the regular micro USB port.
Overall, my first impressions are positive. I really like the design and great build quality, the display is nice to look at the UI seems to be performing fast.
Stay tuned to Gizmochina for a full review as we need more time testing out all the features like camera, gaming performance, battery life and so on.
Although we know that benchmark tests only tell part of the story, we still rely on them for our initial impressions about the device. This is why manufacturers tend to make sure that their phones do well in such tests, to ensure that the phone meets a certain level of customer expectations. Recently, Vernee released a hands-on video of the Vernee Thor. The video also showed the phone’s first AnTuTu benchmark test and the scores are pretty good.
According to the video released, Vernee Thor scores a good 38,347 in the AnTuTu benchmark test, which is the highest we have seen among other MT6753 powered smartphones. Given that there are numerous phones in the market with this MTK chipset, it looks like Vernee has done a good job optimizing its performance. Of course, as compared to other phones, this isn’t much, 38K+ on a $100 device is definitely impressive.
The phone is already in the pre-sale stage and is currently available at $119.99. On some websites, the price is even lower, at $99.99 which is a steal for the specs you get. For example, you can get Vernee Thor on OPPOMART for $99.99, just use coupon: VENE20. The buy link is at the end of this article.
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.
The phone’s pre-sale period will end soon and orders will start shipping by the end of this month. Check out the company’s official website for more details. Or buy the Thor for just $99.99 from OPPOMART using the coupon code: VENE20.
Now that the Snapdragon 820 chipset is powering all major smartphones of 2016, our attention is slowly turning towards the next generation version of the chipset, which will be most likely called as Snapdragon 828 or Snapdragon 830. Now, more details about the Snapdragon 830, 828 and 823 have surfaced online.
Since we have detailed information about the three chipsets, here’s everything summarized below.
Snapdragon 823:
According to today’s leak, the Snapdragon 823 will be the first one to meet us among the three chips. It will be announced in the second quarter of 2016.
Qualcomm will reportedly continue to use 14nm LPP process to manufacture Snapdragon 823. It was supposed to be called as the Snapdragon 821, but it will now be known as Snapdragon 823. There will be four Kyro 100 cores inside which are most likely clocked at faster speeds. The chip will continue to use Adreno 530 GPU, but it should feature some upgrades as well. It will come with the X12 LTE baseband with Cat. 12/ 13 LTE support. Other features mentioned in the leak include QC 3.0 support and 600Mbps maximum download speeds.
Given the timing of the announcement of the chip, this should be the one that should end up in new generation Android flagships debuting later this year. So, we will probably find it inside the Galaxy Note 6 model.
Snapdragon 828:
Next up is the Snapdragon 828 which will be manufactured using the next generation 10nm FF process. The chip will use Kryo 200 cores but we are not quite sure whether it will continue with the quad-core architecture. Moving on, there will be Adreno 519 GPU inside with X12 LTE and Cat. 12/ 13 LTE support. The GPU is lower than the other two chips, and even Snapdragon 820. But it will support 4K x 2K video recording at 60 fps and LPDDR4X memory.
The chip will reportedly be announced only in the fourth quarter of 2016. So, there’s still time for more details.
Snapdragon 830:
Coming to the flagship Snapdragon 830 chip, it will feature Kryo 200 cores and will be manufactured on the 10nm FF process. No details on the core architecture inside, but the GPU will be upgraded to Adreno 540. Also, it will feature a new baseband X16 model and will support maximum download speeds up to 980 Mbps. Other features include 4K x 2K video recording at 60 fps and LPDDR4X support.
Like the Snapdragon 828, the new Snapdragon 830 is set to be announced in the Q4 2016. So, expect flagships of 2017 to be powered by this chip.
So, that was it. The table below gives out some more details about these three chips. Check that out. Also, like always, we are not entirely sure of this leak, so better take this leaked table with a pinch of salt.
Le 2 will meet us on April 20, which is just a couple of days away. We know that the phone will be good, thanks to the numerous leaks that have been making rounds on the internet for the past few year. But will it be revolutionary? After seeing the new teaser from the Jia Yueting, we probably think so.
The new teaser from the CEO himself reveals a phone broken into pieces and we can clearly see the headphone connector reaching out towards the device. The 3.5mm jack seems to be broken and besides it, we can see a USB Type-C port, which could be a good indication that the Le 2 will abandon the traditional headphone jack in favor of a USB Type-C based headphones.
Also, the words on top of the image say, “USB Type-C Era, How To Open Up A New Generation Of Audio Revolution?”. Apart from the image, CEO also said that it is time to get rid of something. So, everything seems to reveal that the upcoming LeEco flagship might be the first one to abandon the 3.5mm headphone jack. Well, if Apple iPhone 7 was going to get rid of this slot, LeEco made sure that it won’t be the first.
Yesterday, the real Le 2 was allegedly leaked, which also showed that the traditional slot was missing.
As for other specs, the Le 2 is expected to come with a borderless design (Borderless technology 3.0) with a 5.5-inch 1080p display. Under the hood, there will be the Helio X20 chipset clocked at 2.3GHz and 3GB of RAM. The phone will feature a 16MP camera at the back and an 8MP front facing shooter. It is said that the base variant starts at 32GB storage.
April has surprisingly turned out to be an important month for Meizu, with the company all set to release its third smartphone within a month. Earlier, we had seen the Meizu M3 Note mid-ranger, followed by the Meizu Pro 6 flagship model. Now, the company is all set to announce the Meizu M3 budget handset, taking the total to three smartphone launches in a month.
If you are an avid fan of the company, you would know that Meizu likes to keep things interesting, sending out unique products in the invites for its events. Remember the time where Meizu had sent in a Nokia smartphone inside its invite for a Blue Charm phone event? Well, now, the latest teasers for the Meizu M3 launch feature two interesting products — a gameboy and a Braun Alarm Clock.
Nothing special about these two products, except that they are made out of plastic. So, it’s possible that the new Meizu M3 also comes with a plastic body. During the early launch days of Meizu Blue Charm series, the company had sent out the polycarbonate back covers of the iPhone 5C to hint the upcoming phone’s material. So, we can expect the same thing from this new invite. Also, both Gameboy and Braun Alarm clock are considered to be simple yet practical products, so the M3 could also come with a simple plastic design.
As for the specs, the Meizu M3 is expected to come with Snapdragon 616 processor with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The screen is of 5-inches with 720p resolution. At the back, there is a 13MP camera while up front, you will find a 5MP front shooter. Finally, the phone is said to run on Android 5.1 based on Flyme 5.1.3.0. Other rumored features include an 8.3mm body, 130 grams weight, 2800mAh battery and five different color options — white, blue, gray, pink and gold.
Expect more features of the device via teasers in the coming days.
Huawei announced the P9 and the P9 Plus smartphone a few week back. The phones cost a lot, much higher than traditional Chinese flagships, but in its defence, it comes with a few extraordinary features to kind of justify the price. While the camera and the looks of the phone might be better than average, when it comes to the battery life, the P9 just got a 3000mAh capacity battery on board. That’s just average according to today’s standard. But thanks to GSMArena’s thorough battery life testing, we got to know that it’s not so bad.
According to the Huawei P9 battery review of GSMArena, the phone got an endurance rating of 75 hours which is pretty decent. Now, this figure is definitely an upgrade from the Huawei P8, which only got a rating of 64 hours. Further, the review said that the battery life was balanced, with the standard and ultra-saving modes adding a few more precious hours to the device.
If you want the numbers, then the Huawei P9 battery gives 3G talk time of around 14:53 hours, with web browsing for just over 9 hours and video playback for a good 8:46 hours. Not the best we have seen on a flagship smartphone, but still pretty good. The compact screen size and the 1080p resolution does help in keeping the phone running throughout the day.
To recap, the Huawei P9 features a 5.2-inch display with 1080p resolution. Under the hood, the phone features the new and improved Kirin 955 chipset with 3GB / 4GB RAM and 32GB / 64GB storage. At the back, there will be a dual 12MP camera setup powered by Leica, while up front, you will find an 8MP selfie shooter. Other features include a non-removable 3000mAh battery with fast charge, NFC, USB Type-C and fingerprint sensor located at the back.
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