ZTE SPro Plus Smart Projector Doubles Up As A Powerful 8-inch Android Tablet

By

-

Feb 21, 2016

ZTE unveiled its brand new ZTE SPro Plus smart projector at MWC 2016. The SPro series has always been a niche product, but the company always managed to impress us with all the features on the device. Now, ZTE has updated the SPro lineup with the new SPro Plus and it’s much cooler, better looking and faster than before. In fact, we are quite surprised with the amount of features that the SPro Plus comes with, most of them being quite practical and handy for users.

The SPro Plus is bigger and faster than its predecessors. In fact, it also doubles up as a full-fledged tablet, featuring an 8.4-inch AMOLED display with 2560 x 1600 resolution. It’s pretty big, that’s for sure, but inside, you get the powerful Snapdragon series processors. There are two variants, one running on Snapdragon 801 and another on Snapdragon 625. You have Wi-Fi and LTE (with VoLTE support) variants as well. The SPro Plus smart projector also runs on the latest version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow platform.

As for the projector specs, the new SPro Plus comes with lasers instead of traditional LED bulbs for sharper and detailed projection. The laser unit does make a significant difference to its projection capability. At 500 Lumens, it’s twice as bright as the Spro 2. The device is built for the business environment, as it comes with a camera as well as JBL speakers for video conferencing as well.

The device features with a number of connectivity options like 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI, and USB Type 3.0. You can even control the projector via voice commands.

Now, considering these specs, you would be worried about SPro Plus’s battery life. But once again, ZTE has ensured that the device is top notch, as it comes with a large 12,100mAh battery on board which the company claims is good for about 6 hours of usage. This does make it a bit heavy, weighing around 1kg, but considering the features on board, this shouldn’t be a big issue.

It looks like ZTE has outdid itself with the SPro Plus smart projector, offering much more than a regular smart projector. There are so many features on board, that it can act as a tablet, projector, gaming console, conference machine, mobile cinema, tv streamer and even a computer. You just have to connect an appropriate accessory like a gamepad, keyboard, speaker or a mouse to enhance its functions. So, it’s much more than a projector, customized for today’s needs.

ZTE has only revealed that the SPro Plus will be available by Summer 2016. There’s still no word on the pricing, but we can expect more details pretty soon.

So, what do you think about the SPro Plus?

ZTE SPro Plus Conference

1 of 12

Huawei Matebook 2-in-1: All The Official Images

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 21, 2016

Huawei officially unveiled the Matebook 2-in-1 an hour ago and it’s everything that we expected. The notebook hybrid is targeted at business users and comes with a premium body and a detachable spill-proof keyboard. The tablet itself is super thin measuring just 6.9mm in thickness. You get the world’s first side mounted single-touch fingerprint sensor on the device as well.

We have detailed everything about the Matebook 2-in-1 in our previous article. You can check that out to know all about the new launch. Here we will be taking a look at the official images of the Matebook hybrid as well as its accessories like MatePen Stylus, Smart dock, ultra-thin charger and covers.

Considering the specs and the pricing, the Huawei Matebook hybrid will be competing with rivals such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and the iPad Pro. In fact, the design, as well as the overall concept seems to be similar to the Surface Pro and other hybrid laptops in the market. And Huawei’s take on the concept doesn’t look too bad either.

You can check out all the official images of the Matebook 2-in-1 from the gallery down below.

Huawei Matebook 2-in-1

1 of 9

Now that you have seen the official images, let us know what you think about the Matebook’s design.

Huawei Matebook Laptop Hybrid Official With Core M Processor, Stylus & Fingerprint ID

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 21, 2016

After nearly months of rumors and leaks about an upcoming 2 in 1 Notebook from Huawei, the company has officially taken the wraps off the device at MWC 2016. We were present at the Matebook launch and here are all the details that you need to know. Given that the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro 4 are the company’s two major competitors, whenever possible, we bring in both the devices for comparison.

The company has taken a similar route as Microsoft’s Surface laptop hybrids. So, you get a detachable tablet which is pretty sleek. The company also includes the keyboard inside the package, so you don’t have to purchase it separately. The tablet features a 100% Aluminum Unibody design which looks quite premium and refined. It’s pretty thin as well, measuring just 6.9mm in thickness. The tablet is lightweight as well, weighing just about 640 grams. This is way lighter than the iPad Pro (713g) or even the Surface Pro 4 (766g).

The company will make two colors available for the Matebook 2 in 1, one featuring a black colored panel with gray body and the other with a white panel and golden body. If you are looking for something even more colorful, you can choose between two rich colors (check out the image below) for the Huawei Matebook’s case.

Coming to the specs, the Huawei Matebook 2 in 1 will feature a 12-inch IPS LCD display with 2160 x 1440 pixel resolution. In comparison, both the iPad Pro (2732 x 2048) and Surface Pro (2736 x 1824) feature better resolutions. However, the Matebook bests these two devices when it comes to the screen-to-body ratio. Huawei’s new 2 in 1 boasts of an impressive 84% screen to body ratio, while the iPad Pro and Surface Pro 4 feature just 76% and 77% respectively.

The battery is not very big, probably because Huawei wanted to keep the tablet thin. It comes with a 4430mAh high-density battery which the company claims last 25% longer. Despite its small size, Huawei claims that the tablet should give about 10 hours of typical usage. To help with the charging needs, the company is offering an ultra weight portable charger with 12V/ 9V / 5V auto-adaptive charging. It can charge your smartphones as well.

Inside, you get the 6th Gen Intel Core M Processors. You can choose between the dual-core Core M3/ M5 / M7 processors clocked up to 3.1GHz. Further, there are different RAM and storage options. You can choose between 4GB and 8GB of RAM and storage SSD option from 128GB to 512GB. As for the OS, like predicted, the Matebook 2 in 1 hybrid will come with Windows 10 on board. You can choose between Windows 10 Home and Professional editions.

The Matebook hybrid comes with a side mounted fingerprint sensor as well. The company claims this is the world’s first single-touch side fingerprint sensor. You can use different fingers for different accounts too. The tablet features two speakers for stereo sound with Dolby noise reduction. You get noise cancelation headsets as well.

The provided keyboard is ergonomic as well as spill proof. Then, there’s the MatePen Stylus as well, which you can use to draw, or write on the tablet. Huawei adds that the stylus is ideal for drawing since it comes with 2048 levels of pressure. Since the notebook is aimed at business professionals, the MatepPen comes with a laser pointer and presentation clicker as well. It’s powered by a battery which gives up to a month of usage in just one hour of charging.

I know this has been a long article, but it covers basically everything about the device. Now, coming to the most important part of the event, i.e. the pricing. The Huawei Matebook 2 in 1 will start at $699 (799 Euros) for the Core M3 model with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD variant and will go up to $1599 (1799 Euros) for the Core M7 With 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD.

So this was all about the Matebook 2 in 1 from Huawei. What do you think?

In case, you are a bit more curious about the conference, here are some photos of the Matebook launch event live.

Matebook Launch Conference Live

1 of 22

TCL M2U Review: Android 4.4 Phone Which Is Still Pretty Good

By

Linus

-

Feb 21, 2016

The TCL M2U was released quite a while ago, let’s see how does it look today. Find out more in our full review.

Thanks to LightInTheBox for sending TCL M2U for a review.

TCL M2U: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OxoYVg1cWg[/embedyt]

TCL M2U Review: UNBOXING

The device comes with the USB cable, charging plug and some documentation.

TCL M2U Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

TCL M2U is not a small device as it has a 5.5” display, which has only 720p resolution but it is actually not bad.

It is not on par with the 1080p panels but the display is quite sharp and bright, and you can also adjust the colour temperature in the settings.

On the front we have an 8MP selfie shooter, some other usual stuff and the capacitive buttons, which, however, do not have a backlight.

The backplate is non-removable, it is made of plastic and here we have a 13MP camera with a single LED, and the rear-mounted speaker on the bottom.

The buttons are located on the right, they are clicky and tactile.

An interesting thing is that we have 3 slots for each SIM card and the microSD card. That’s actually really convenient as you can easily hot-swap all the cards and you can do it very easily by just simply pushing a little button on the flap.

On the top there is a headset jack and on the bottom you can find your micro USB port, and the mic.

Overall, the phone feels solid and it is well-constructed despite using mainly plastic materials in its design.

TCL M2U Review: UI

When it comes to the UI, we have TCL’s own take on Android but the phone is still rocking outdated 4.4 Kitkat version. A funny thing is that there is no software update feature in the settings menu and I couldn’t find any newer firmware on the Internet. On the other hand, the UI is running fast and fluid and I had just a few minor hiccups.

There is no app tray but there are plenty of customisation options and features. Just to name a few, you can shake the device to quickly re-arrange the icons, use and customise plenty of gesture controls, which are actually working fine; customise quick toggles and so on.

Overall, the UI is fast and responsive but the thing that the phone is still rocking Android 4.4 is kind of disappointing.

TCL M2U Review: BENCHMARKS

TCL M2U Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

TCL M2U rocks a quad-core MTK6752M chip with the clock speeds of up to 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

Surprisingly, Asphalt 8 runs absolutely fine even on the highest visual settings with just a few skipped frames. Also, the phone does not overheat to uncomfortable levels.

TCL M2U Review: MULTIMEDIA

The sound via earphones is not bad and the loudspeaker is actually pretty good for the price of the phone. It is pretty loud and it has a decent amount of depth in its sound.

TCL M2U Review: CAMERA

1 of 30

The image quality is not always impressive. While decent looking pictures are possible but most of the shots lack in detail and the noise levels are high.

1 of 11

The night shots don’t look spectacular either. The biggest concern is that most of the shots are affected by the purple tint and the level of detail is quite low.

The phone can shoot up to 720P videos and they look just mediocre.

As for selfies, the 8MP shooter will do the trick for social media but the image quality is not very good.

Download full resolution camera samples

TCL M2U 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.

TCL M2U Review: BATTERY LIFE

The phone has a generous 3500mAh battery, which is not user replaceable. The performance of the battery is very good. I could get over 5 or even 6 hours of screen-on time on light usage.

TCL M2U Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, here it is, TCL M2U. It was released quite a while ago but it still looks like a decent phone given the current price of under $120.

The phone is well-built, the dedicated slots for each SIM and microSD card are really convenient, user interface is fast, the performance and the battery life are great.

However, the image and video quality are not really impressive and the phone is still rocking the outdated Android 4.4 and there is almost zero chances of getting a software update.

All in all, TCL M2U is a decent phone for the price as it does most of the things well. However, make sure to take the shortcomings into consideration.

Buy TCL M2U from LightInTheBox

1byone 16000mAh Car Jump Starter Review

By

Linus

-

Feb 19, 2016

UNBOXING

The device comes in a really neat and high quality suitcase where all the items are packed neatly.

Inside of it you can find the battery, jump starter clips with a smart control, some documentation, a wall charger, car charger and a computer charging cable with different charging plugs. Finally, there is an EC5 adapter, so you can use the device as a power bank to power up some gadgets (e.g. air compressor).

The 1byone car jump starter is made sports a really awesome looking design and it feels very nice in the hand.

It is made of rubberised plastic and on the front side we have a little LCD display, which show the amount of juice left in the battery.

On the back there is a flashlight with 3 different flashing modes and it can be turned on by pressing and holding the power key, which is located on the right.

On the top we have output ports for the car jump starter cables and the USB port, which lets you charge any USB powered devices (with the included different power plugs to fit most of the laptops).

Also, there are two power input ports meaning that you can charge this device either with the supplied AC adapter or via any micro USB cable.

Finally, on the left there is another output port to charge your laptop.

Overall, the battery is very compact and lightweight considering the size of the cell inside and the overall feature set.

1byone Car Jump Starter Review: IS IT GOING TO JUMP START MY DEAD CAR’S BATTERY?

Allright, a lot of batteries can charge your phone or laptop, or any other device but is this device capable of jump starting an old car with a completely dead battery?

The thing is that the battery is completely dead that the car doesn’t even make any sound when I try to start it. That’s even worse situation that the last time I tried to start this vehicle.

Allright, so what you have to do is to connect the jump start cables to the car’s battery. However, I highly recommend you cleaning both terminals of the car’s battery with a dry cloth to make sure there is a good contact with jump starter cables.

The connecting part is pretty easy as you need to connect a positive red colour cable to the positive terminal of the car’s battery and a negative black colour cable to the negative terminal of the car’s battery. Then, you have to connect the cable to the jump starter and after that you have to press a start switch on the control with a little monitor and start your car within 30 seconds.

1byone Car Jump Starter Review: CONCLUSIONS

This little gadget is definitely working. Honestly, I’ve tested a previous model that I am still using till now like 20 times with this car and 2009 Honda Civic and only a few times it didn’t start the car from the first time.

A few complaints would be regarding the design, though. Yes, the build quality is great but that rubberised plastic is prone to fingerprints and it is quite easy to scratch.

All in all, I believe this gadget is really useful either for ones who have old car batteries or for those who just want to have a useful gadget in their toolbox that can come handy in emergency situations.

Buy 1byone car jump starter from Amazon US

Buy 1byone car jump starter from Amazon UK

A Great Gift Idea for under $15 – Multi-colour Light Bulb with Bluetooth Speaker

By

Linus

-

Feb 19, 2016

This is a segment of great gift ideas. This time around we have a multi-colour light bulb with a Bluetooth speaker that costs below $15.

BRELONG E27 12W Bluetooth Music Bulb Review: VIDEO

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-leFAgKgQA[/embedyt]

BRELONG E27 12W Bluetooth Music Bulb Review: UNBOXING

The device comes with some instruction manuals and a remote control, which has a pre-installed removable battery.

BRELONG E27 12W Bluetooth Music Bulb Review: DESIGN and BUILD

The lightbulb comes in E27 size, so make sure it fits the lamp you want to use it with.

It is well made and you simply can’t ask more at this price point.

BRELONG E27 12W Bluetooth Music Bulb Review: FEATURES and FUNCTIONALITY

The setup of the lightbulb is super easy. You just have to install it and use the remote control to change colours, adjust brightness levels or select different modes like flash, strobe, fade or smooth.

All the modes are working fine except for the strobe as it looks the same as the flash mode.

If you select a white colour, you can use the bulb as any other regular bulbs. Unfortunately, the bulb only has 12W of power output, which is not enough to illuminate a large room.

Another feature is the built-in Bluetooth speaker. While it will not knock your socks off, it is pretty good and the bulb is quite loud for the size. Just make sure not to listen to music at the highest volume settings as you will hear some distortions.

BRELONG E27 12W Bluetooth Music Bulb Review: CONCLUSIONS

The Breelong Bluetooth music bulb is a great gadget and it has a lot to offer for the price of under $15. While it is not perfect, it does most of the things right and you simply can’t ask more at this price tag.

Buy Breelong Bluetooth music bulb from Gearbest

Le Max Pro Rumored to Go On Sale On Feb 23 At 3699 Yuan ($567)

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 19, 2016

Its been more than a month since LeEco announced the world’s first Snapdragon 820 powered smartphone, Le Max Pro. However, until now, the company has not yet revealed when the phone will go on sale. We all have been waiting to hear the news, and the new teaser from the company did come as a relief to some extent. The new teaser is probably for the international launch of the Le Max PRo and the subsequent release of the device.

However, if you can’t wait for the official announcement, here’s some interesting rumor. Now, it is being said that the Le Max Pro could be made available for sale globally on February 23, a day before the Xiaomi Mi 5 officially launches.

The rumor comes via the famous leakster from China, Upleaks. Apparently, he had revealed a set of numbers on his weibo page yesterday: “223,120,036,991,000”. At that time, it didn’t make any sense. However, thanks to one weibo user, it looks like these numbers actually make a lot of sense.

So, these numbers could mean that the Le Max Pro will go on sale on 2/23 i.e. February 23 at 12:00 PM, for a price tag of 3699 Yuan ($567) and only 1000 limited units will be made available for sale on that day. While we are not entirely sure whether this will turn out to be true, since LeEco is yet to make these details official, it would actually make sense for LeEco to make the phone available for purchase a day before Mi 5 releases. It would then beat Xiaomi not only by becoming the first manufacturer to announce a SD820 device but also the first maker to release the device in the market.

The phone features powerful specs, including a 6.33-inch 2K display, 4GB RAM, 21MP rear camera, SD820, ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C and 3400mAh battery. For these specs, would you be ready to shell out $567?

Report: Xiaomi To Use It’s Own Processors In Smartphones By Second Half of 2016

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 19, 2016

Sometime mid last year, we heard rumors that Xiaomi was developing in-house chipsets to power some of its low-end smartphones. This topic has come to light a few times in the past few months, however, neither the company nor related parties were ready to comment. Now, a new report from Reuters throws some more light into the company plans for its in-house chipsets. The agency reports that one of the sources with direct knowledge of the matter has said that the company plans to release smartphones with its own chipsets by the second half of 2016.

Xiaomi has traditionally sourced chipsets for its smartphones from market leaders such as Qualcomm and Mediatek. The company even has a low-end smartphone with a Leadcore chipset. But, if this news turns out to be true, this would be the first time the company is venturing into the chipset market.

However, this move is not really surprising. Xiaomi seems to be simply following the footsteps of top end smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and Apple. These two, and even Huawei use in-house designed chipsets inside its smartphones.

As for Xiaomi, at the moment, the source reveals that the self-designed chipsets would most likely end up in the company’s mid-range and low-end devices. Its not known whether Xiaomi aims to completely rely on its own chipsets in the coming years, but at least we can expect to see models from the Redmi Note series to feature in-house designed processors.

Given that only three major companies, namely Apple, Samsung and Huawei have successfully managed to release smartphones with their self-designed processors, it would be interesting to see whether Xiaomi manages to become the fourth one on the list this year.

Second half of 2016 isn’t very far and if this report is correct, expect a lot more information about Xiaomi’s processor plans in the coming months. Stay tuned.

New Xiaomi Mi 5 Live Images Leaked, Shows Off Thin Bezels

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 19, 2016

Next week, Xiaomi will officially unveil the much anticipated Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship. Given the immense fan following of the company, it’s no surprise that there are multiple rumors and leaks about the device every single day.And today is no exception, as a couple of live images of the Xiaomi Mi 5 in action were leaked. We have already seen some of the renders of the device, but this will be the first time that we are seeing pictures of the device all booted up.

The device in the leaked image has a very striking resemblance to the one showed off in the earlier renders. Hence, it’s quite likely that the phone in today’s leaked images is the real deal. Like the one in the renders, even this phone comes with an oblong home button, which most probably harbors a fingerprint sensor.

In the first image, we can see that the phone is running on MIUI OS, and thanks to the dark wallpaper, we don’t notice any bezels. It looks like the company has done a good job with the design. However, in the second image, which shows off some of the specs of the phone in a white background, we can see some bezels on all the four corners of the device. They look pretty thin, and I am sure these borders won’t stand out as much in the black colored model.

We still don’t have a real life image of the back panel, but from the renders, the camera should be located on the top left corner. The second image also reveals some of the specs of the Xiaomi Mi 5, like 3GB RAM, and 64GB storage. The phone was running on MIUI 7 developer edition based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS.

From the specs point of view, the Xiaomi Mi 5 leaked today is probably the low-end variant. There should be at least another variant with 4GB of RAM. And if rumors are to be believed, then there’s the possibility of a 6GB RAM variant as well.

But for now, this seems to be our first glimpse of the Mi 5 in action. Let’s hope there are more images coming our way in the next few days.

UPDATE: Thanks to one of our reader @Der_Tweet_Baer on twitter, we now have another image of the Mi 5 with a silicon case. Check that out from down below.

Xiaomi, Huawei & ZTE To Release Payment Service Like Apple Pay, Says Analyst

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 18, 2016

Yesterday, Apple officially unveiled Apple Pay in China, which is one of the most important markets for the Cupertino giant. However, it looks like Apple may not be the only smartphone company in China to work on a mobile payment service. IHS Analyst Kevin Wang revealed late last night that Chinese tech giants like Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE etc are all planning to release their own payment service in the country.

So, Chinese users could soon be flooded with a number of options for paying at a store. Given their experience in the local market, they could very well provide features which are more convinient to its users. Could this be why Xiaomi decided to bring back NFC on the Mi 5 flagship?

Lei Jun, the CEO of Xiaomi, confirmed via a screenshot that the phone will come with NFC. Back in 2014, the company had said that there weren’t enough NFC users for them to include it inside its Xiaomi Mi 4 flagship. But looks like a feature like Xiaomi Pay can be a compelling reason for the company to incorporate NFC inside its latest flagship.

As of now, Xiaomi has not revealed anything about a possible feature like Xiaomi Pay. But let’s wait for the official announcement of the Mi 5, which is on February 24, for more details.

Stay tuned.

Vivo XPlay 5 Release Date Confirmed, Will Feature Innovative Tech

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 18, 2016

For the past few days, Vivo has been teasing the Vivo XPlay 5 flagship. The company confirmed the name yesterday and now, it has revealed the release date of the device as well. According to the latest teaser from the company, Vivo XPlay 5 release date is set for March 1, just after MWC 2016 concludes. Following the tradition of most Chinese smartphone releases, the XPlay 5 will also be launched at the famous Beijing Water Cube Center aka National Aquatics Center at 19:30 on the above-mentioned date.

We have been hearing a lot of powerful stuff about the upcoming Vivo XPlay 5 flagship. In fact, the company has said that the upcoming flagship will bring a lot of innovations and breakthroughs in its screen structure, materials, and other technology. Well, we can imagine what the company is hinting at from the innovative screen structure, as it has already kind of confirmed that the phone will feature dual curved screen display. Even in the software department, the phone will reportedly have a few innovations.

So, could Vivo finally unleash the beast this year? After nearly two years of waiting, the upcoming XPlay 5 flagship could satisfy our hunger for innovation and power. Other rumored specs of the device are also quite powerful. The phone is said to come with Snapdragon 820 quad-core chipset with a whopping 6GB of RAM. There are some other hard to believe rumors about the device like solar charging and a 31MP camera. In fact, you can read all about the leaked specs of the phone from this article.

Interestingly, noted analyst from China, Pan Jiutang had said back in January that the Vivo XPlay 5 flagship may come with 6GB of RAM. So, even if that’s going to be true, with SD820 on board, the phone will be super fast.

But apart from the Vivo XPlay 5 release date and dual edge screen, nothing else is confirmed about the device. We will have to wait and see what the company meant by saying that the phone had several innovative features.

Latest Xiaomi Mi 5 Rumor Suggests A 6GB RAM + 64GB Storage Version For 2499 Yuan ($383)

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 18, 2016

With the Xiaomi Mi 5 launch nearing, we are getting a lot of leaks and rumors about the upcoming device. Just yesterday, we saw two different leaks which revealed some of the specifications of the device. Now, the latest information from weibo reveals that Xiaomi Mi 5 may have a super high-end version, featuring a whopping 6GB of RAM. While we have heard rumors about Huawei P9 and Vivo XPlay5 featuring 6GB RAM, this is the first time someone is claiming that Xiaomi Mi 5 will have such a large RAM module.

According to the source, Xiaomi Mi 5 will feature a 5.2-inch FHD display with Snapdragon 820 clocked at 2.5GHz. While these two specs are already confirmed, the leakster further says that there will be two versions, one featuring 4GB of RAM and a high-end version with 6GB of RAM. What’s more, he adds that the pricing is going to be competitive, with the standard version (4GB RAM + 32GB storage) retailing at 1999 Yuan and the high-end version (6GB + 64GB) retailing at just 2499 Yuan ($383).

Come to think of it, Xiaomi’s recent teasers have been too focused on speed. The two teasers released till now have challenged fans to imagine how fast the Xiaomi Mi 5 is going to be. Considering these teasers, could this leak be true? Will we see 6GB RAM inside the Mi 5?

At this point, we can’t be sure. There’s no credibility to this information, so before getting too excited, we would advise you to take this leak with a pinch of salt.

Anyways, in the coming days, things will get clear. So, stay tuned to gizmochina for more details.

Leaked Xiaomi Mi 5 PPT Slides Were Fake, But Some Specs Were True

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 18, 2016

Yesterday, we saw a couple of leaks regarding the specifications of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship. The first one came via a leaked label from the phone’s packaging. But after a couple of hours, there was another leak, which showed us some slides from an alleged Mi 5 presentation. Looks like the second one was fake as one of the Xiaomi’s marketing executives revealed that these slides were fake via his official weibo account.

This is actually not that surprising given that some of the specs mentioned in those slides were too good to be true. For example, the Xiaomi Mi 5 was said to feature a massive 26MP camera with f/1.6 aperture and OIS.

But if you are thinking that all of those information was fake, analyst Pan Jiutang says otherwise. He revealed via his weibo account yesterday that some of the information mentioned in those slides were true. So, things like dual SIM card slots, NFC, a separate MicroSD card slot (not a hybrid one) and two Mi 5 variants could turn out to be true. Unfortunately, the analyst didn’t point out exactly which features were going to end up in the device, but there were a few believable slides in the leak, which we think could be right.

The slides said that the Xiaomi Mi 5 will come with Snapdragon 820 chip, with 3GB RAM + 32GB storage / 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variants. Both models had MicroSD expansion and there was a decent 2910mAh battery on board. The screen was supposed to be of 5.2-inches with FHD 1080p resolution. As for software, the phone is said to run on Android 6.0 with MIUI on top.

As you can see, except for the camera, most of the other details from the PPT are believable. At the back, we will probably find a modest 16MP camera with OIS. You can check out all the details leaked by yesterday’s leak from here.

Huawei Execs Almost Confirm Matebook Laptop Launch

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 18, 2016

A few days back, Huawei released a new teaser via its Weibo page in China, which hinted that the company was going to release its brand new Matebook Laptop Hybrid at MWC 2016. The teaser image showed a stylus and said that the upcoming product was targeted at the business customers. Given that these two were the main rumored highlights of the device (apart from its hybrid design), we assumed that Huawei was going to release its new Matebook laptop at the tech event in Barcelona.

But there was another possibility. The launch could have been for the long rumored Huawei P9 flagship. However, things have now become a lot clearer, thanks to the recent comments from two of the top executives from Huawei. Company CEO Yu Chengdong and VP of Huawei’s Consumer Business division have come forward to almost confirm that we will see a new laptop from the company at MWC.

Both the execs had something to comment about the PC industry. Company VP, Xu Qin Song said that although PC, tablet and smartphones have overalapping functions, they cannot be replaced. He further added that Huawei wants to continue to improve by releasing smart products which brings convinience to the users. This definitely hints that the company has something related to the industry in store for us. Later, even CEO Yu Chengdong joined saying that the PC industry needed new injection.

Considering the timing of these comments and the teaser released recently, we can be almost sure that Huawei will release its rumored Matebook laptop at MWC 2016. Unfortunately, the company is yet to comment on the specs or the pricing of a possible Huawei laptop, but we don’t expect it to be cheap.

We have compiled an article which sums up the possible specs of the Huawei Matebook laptop. Check that out for more details.

Get $15 Off the 1byone Multi-Functional Smart Portable Car Jump Starter

By

Linus

-

Feb 18, 2016

We have already reviewed a few multi-functional car jump starters made by 1byone and they worked perfectly. Make sure to check out the video reviews and scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the details of how to get a significant discount.

1byone Car Jump Starter Video Reviews:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3BdGWp3CNQ[/embedyt]

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

UNBOXING

The device comes in a compact luggage style case, which is made out of quality plastic material. Also, it is very light and portable.

Once you open it up, you can find all the contents, which are stored very neatly. In addition, the inner side of the case is covered by a soft foam material for a better protection of all the contents.

The star of the show is the battery, which is made out of rubberised plastic material. It is very compact considering that it has the capacity of 9000mAh.

It has 3 key features that include a power bank to charge any device, which can be charged via USB port, car jump starter and the flashlight.

The great thing about this battery is that it has a little screen on the front side, which shows the amount of juice left and some other info like the output of amps when charging a smartphone.

The backside of the power bank is where you can find a triple LED flash, which can serve either as a flashlight or SOS light for emergency situations. Three LED lights are bright enough to light up a dark area, but would not replace your Maglight.

On the top side you can find a port to connect jump start cable and it is covered by a flap. Also, there is a proprietary charging port, which is I think a bit of a let down since you have to carry a supplied charger and not your regular micro USB charger. On the other hand, you are getting both a wall and car charger with to make sure it is powered up all the time. But you may not even need these chargers at all and I will explain why a bit later in this review.

Last but not least you can charge your smartphone via USB port at the speed of over 2A.

On the left side there is a power key, which has a great tactile response.

All right, we have to check out the selling point of this device as the battery is said to be able to jump start your car even if the battery is completely dead.

The charging clips feel like a high quality material and would not break after a few times. In addition, the attached brick has a display to show you if you connected it to your car’s battery correctly or not.

IS IT REALLY ABLE TO JUMP START YOUR CAR?

The ability to jump start your car, which has a dead battery sounds amazing on paper… and a bit unrealistic if you consider how tiny the 1byone power bank is.

In order to make the test as fair as possible I tried to jump start my good ol’ 1993 Toyota Corolla since it has been left to die almost a year ago and it has quite a bit of rust and dust.

Literally, nobody has even touched it for about a year and I’m not even sure if I will able to wake it up from a death. Well, let’s call it a deep sleep and hope we can do something here.

Please watch the video to see how it works!

HOW IT WORKS

What we have to do here is to connect a red colour positive clamp to the positive terminal and the black clamp to the negative terminal of the car’s battery.

Then you have to connect the other end of the cable to the power bank and press a little start button on the adapter.

At this point, the jump starter has entered into the working stage for 30 seconds countdown and right now you have to go ahead and start your car.

It works!!! It is actually quite impressive that this tiny power bank can jump start a completely dead car’s battery in a matter of seconds. In addition, I’ve tested it a few more times on this car and on 2008 Honda Civic and it works as advertised.

CONCLUSIONS

So there you have it, a neat little gadget, which can easily jump start your car or charge any USB powered device on the go. The amazing thing is that if your car’s battery dies in the middle of nowhere, you don’t need to call your friend to help you out.

What is more, a great feature of this jump starter is that once you jump start your car, the vehicle’s battery fully recharges this power bank automatically in a matter of seconds. That’s why you don’t even need to bring any proprietary chargers.

In addition, this device has all kinds of security tricks like spark-proof technology and reverse polarity protection, so you won’t harm neither yourself nor the battery in any case.

Finally, the 1byone car jump starter is an amazing piece of hardware and I don’t see any shortcomings. Well, the micro USB charging port would have been a nice addition, but hey, you are getting both a wall and car chargers, and sometimes you don’t even need to bother about charging the power bank up at all.

All in all, you are getting a multi-functional, lightweight and portable solution that, in my opinion, is worth every penny.

A great thing that the 1byone has a great deal for this car jump starter at Amazon as you can easily get $15 off the regular $76.99 price with the coupon code 3OPOFOJY.

Deal summary:

Start Date: 2/17/2016 12:01 AM PST
End Date: 3/10/2016 11:59 PM PST

Coupon Code: 3OPOFOJY

Original price: $76.99
Discounted price: $61.99
You Save: $15.00

Buy 1byone Multi-Functional Smart Portable Car Jump Starter for $61.99 using a coupon code 3OPOFOJY

Vivo XPlay 5 Launch Confirmed, Will Feature Dual Curved Screen

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 17, 2016

Its been a long time since Vivo updated its XPlay lineup with a new device. But that’s going to change soon since the company has started releasing teasers for the same. Yesterday, we guessed that the upcoming Vivo device would be called as the Vivo XPlay 5. Now, the company has confirmed this name along with an important feature of the device.

Vivo has confirmed that the Vivo XPlay 5 will come with a borderless design. So, it looks like the flagship will come with dual curved screens. We should have actually guessed it from yesterday’s teaser itself. However at that time, we assumed the teaser showed off the top of the smartphone. But now, with the dual curved screen design confirmed, we can actually see that the teaser yesterday had already hinted about this feature.

7d890670-d520-11e5-ab25-796a6cedee54 — Vivo teasing the Dual Curved Screen Design

The dual curved screen panel would most likely be from Samsung since industry chain sources had earlier revealed that the South Korean giant had improved the production capacity of its panels and was ready to supply it to domestic manufacturers. It looks like Vivo could be the first company outside of Samsung to use this curved screen panel.

While dual curved screen display would be the selling point of the device, yesterday’s Vivo XPlay 5 specs leak revealed a lot many other interesting features. It is said that the phone will come with the fast Snapdragon 820 quad-core chipset along with 6GB of RAM. This would make it the first phone with such a large RAM memory. Other rumored specs include a 6-inch 2K display, 4000mAh battery and Hi-Fi audio.

Vivo is really taking things to the next level with its XPlay 5 flagship. So, it looks like two years of waiting might very well be worth it. This could also pave the way for other manufacturers to release dual curved screen flagships. We have already heard rumors about Xiaomi and Huawei developing curved screen devices and we could see them sometime this year.

Xiaomi Mi 5’s Second Teaser Video Is Out, And Its Fast!

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 17, 2016

From the previous teasers, it is certain that Xiaomi wants to portray the Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship as fast, real fast! We have already heard the tagline, “Beyond Imagination” which has been repeatedly used by the company to describe the device. Now, in the latest teaser video, Xiaomi shows Asia’s fastest speedcuber Jiayu Wang solve the Rubik’s cube.

The video shows Jiayu solving the Rubik’s cube in just 7.03 seconds. Now, that’s fast! You can check out the second Xiaomi Mi 5 teaser video from here.

The title of the video goes something like “Do you think what you think of fast is fast?” Well, solving the Rubik’s Cube in just 7 seconds is just sheer talent. What’s even more impressive is that he holds the Asian record for being the fastest speedcuber, solving it in just 5.81 seconds in 2014.

Now, this was the second teaser from the company, which showcased speed. In the first video, the company brought in the record holder, Xiaomi Lin Cen, who can skip rope 1096 times in just 3 minutes. Basically, with these teasers, Xiaomi wants to redefine the meaning of fast with its Xiaomi Mi 5 handset.

We know the Snapdragon 820 chipset is fast, thanks to the various benchmark results that crop up often. However, it looks like the company is trying to even higher our expectations in terms of the performance of the device. Well, after seeing these teasers, I’m pretty excited to see the device. With SD820 and 4GB RAM, the phone should be lightening fast.

What do you think?

Alleged Vivo XPlay5 Specs Leak Reveal A Whopping 6GB of RAM & Other Advanced Tech

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 17, 2016

Vivo released a new teaser earlier today, and our best guess is that we will soon meet the Vivo XPlay5 / XPlay 5S model. Its been almost two years since the company updated this lineup, the last model being the XPlay 3S and hence, there have been rumors about the release of its successor for the past few months. Now that the company has teased a new product launch, it should most likely be for the Vivo XPlay5.

Until today, we had very little idea about the specifications of the smartphone. However, a couple of hours back, the phone was spotted on the Baidu encyclopedia which gave out literally most of the Vivo XPlay5 specs. Right from the screen resolution, camera to battery capacity, the leak reveals them all.

So, the Vivo XPlay5 is expected to come with the latest quad-core Snapdragon 820 chipset. However, that’s not the highlight of the phone. Instead, the device could be the first smartphone to feature a whopping 6GB of RAM. That’s more than anything we have seen on a smartphone till now. The other specs manage to impress us even more. For example, The screen resolution is 2K and the battery is quite large as well with a capacity of 4000mAh.

The camera is said to be of 31MP with color temperature dual LED flash. But Qualcomm has specified that the Snapdragon 820 ISP supports only up to 25MP camera, which makes things interesting. Further, there are other features that are just too good to be true. For example. the page reveals that the XPlay5 will come with solar charging, with a panel located at the back which charges the lithium-ion battery inside. Also, it will be waterproof as well. There’s also some intelligent function that’s supposed to personalize consumer experience.

As you can see, these specs are just too good to be true. Agreed, we would love to see the Vivo XPlay5 to feature such powerful hardware and software functions, but to be real, it may be still too early for such tech to end up in a commercial smartphone. So, make sure that you take this news with a pinch of salt.

However, some of the specs might end up in the phone. For example, Pan Jiutang, an analyst from China had said in January that Vivo flagship could feature a large 6GB RAM module. But for things like solar charging and 31MP camera sensor, we might have to wait for a year or two at least, for them to end up in a smartphone.

As for the phone’s release, we can expect it in the coming few weeks, given that Vivo has started teasing the device.

So, what do you think? Which of these features do you think will end up on the Vivo XPlay5 flagship?

LeEco Releases Another Teaser, Could It Be For Le Max Pro’s Market Release?

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 17, 2016

LeEco managed to become the first smartphone manufacturer to announce a Snapdragon 820 powered smartphone. This was indeed a big feat for the company, since it entered the industry only a few months earlier. However, even after the phone’s announcement, the company didn’t reveal any details about Le Max Pro’s market release, which led to many questions. One of the most important question brought forward by fans was whether Xiaomi Mi 5 will beat Le Max Pro to a market release.

Looks like that won’t likely happen, as LeEco has just released a new teaser via its official Weibo page. The teaser gives us a date, Feb 22, which could hint an international release of the device. Further, we have another date on the teased image, Feb 24, which could be when the phone finally becomes available for sale. In case you remember, Feb 24 is the same day that Xiaomi Mi 5 launches, so LeEco might have purposely chosen this date for a market release of the Le Max Pro.

One things certain, by the start of March, we will have a number of Snapdragon 820 powered smartphones available for purchase. Le Max Pro, Samsung Galaxy S7 and Xiaomi Mi 5 might be some of the few devices powered by SD820 that we will see at the event.

RELATED: Le x820 Scores More Than 141K on AnTuTu

To recap, the Le Max Pro features a massive 6.33-inch 2K display with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. At the back, there will be a 21MP camera with OIS while up front, you will find a 4MP sensor. Other highlighted features of the device include Qualcomm’s Ultrasonic Fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C, VoLTE, and Dolby Atmos Audio.

As for the pricing, we still have no official word. But rumors suggest that the phone could be quite costly, retailing at somewhere around $535.

Xiaomi Drone Leaked Again, Rumored To Release At MWC 2016

By

Joel Joseph

-

Feb 16, 2016

We have been hearing some rumors about the possible release of a Xiaomi drone at MWC 2016. Considering drones are becoming quite popular among users in the last few months, this could be true, however, Xiaomi has not yet confirmed or even hinted about such a release till now.

Today, we have come across a new leaked photo of the long rumored Xiaomi drone. The image shows a four rotor powered UAV in black color. Further, the source states that the drone should be around 350mm long, which makes it quite big. At present, it is said that Xiaomi holds a number of patents for the drone like its remote control, flight control, image transmission, camera etc.

Considering Xiaomi’s tradition of entering an industry with low-cost products, it’s likely that this rumored Xiaomi drone is priced aggressively. There are a lot of established and upcoming players in the Chinese UAV market like DJI, Yuneec and pricing could be one area where Xiaomi may have an edge.

At this moment, we don’t have any more information about the device. However, a leaked patent document had revealed that the Xiaomi drone could be controlled via its Mi Band wearable. It could come with features such as ‘follow me’ to take various pictures as well as videos even when the user is in motion. As for the release, rumors say it could be as early as MWC 2016.

If Xiaomi manages to release its first drone at an aggressive price, would you consider buying it? What price do you think is ideal for a drone with the above-said features?