Xiaomi has been aggressively expanding its reach internationally. This Monday, KT Corp. the second largest carrier in South Korea started the sale of Xiaomi smartphones. However, in just a matter of two days, the carrier has reportedly stopped the sale.
This was the first time a carrier started selling Xiaomi smartphones in the country. The sale was carried out by KT Corp. in partnership with Interpark Corp., an online website in the country. Although it’s unclear what’s the exact reason for the suspension of sales, uncited sources claim it was due to some “legal matters related to sales”.
Although the majority of smartphone sales in the country is dominated by the two domestic players, Samsung and LG, Chinese companies like Huawei have become quite popular.
This is not the first time we are hearing Xiaomi’s smartphone sales being suspended outside of China. Last year, Xiaomi was barred from selling any smartphones in India for a small period. The Chinese company reportedly infringed on Ericsson’s patents. But the company was soon allowed to sell Qualcomm’s Snapdragon-based smartphones in the country.
As Xiaomi eyes further expansion, it will have to overcome such obstacles for smooth operation.
Ever since LeTV officially announced the first Snapdragon 820 powered smartphone in the market, namely the Le Max Pro, we have been waiting for answers to two important questions. First, the pricing and second, the availability. Looks like we have got a rough answer to the first question as a Chinese website seems to know the pricing of the Le Max Pro, at least in China.
The website revealed that the Le Max Pro will be priced at 3500 Yuan in China, which comes to around $535. That definitely doesn’t come in the affordable category, but with high-end specs like Snapdragon 820 and Sense ID, we anyways expected it to be costly.
Apart from the first phone to feature Snapdragon 820 chip, the phone is also the first commercial device to come with Qualcomm’s Sense ID ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. This particular sensor is different from the traditional capacitive ones in the sense that it works even when it’s located under a sheet of metal, plastic, glass or any other material. Also, it’s relatively unaffected by things like dust and sweat, making it much more efficient.
Another important feature of the Le Max Pro is the support for the new generation Wi-Fi 802.11 ad standard. It adds a new frequency, 60GHz, in addition to 2.4GHz and 5GHz, which makes transfer speeds up to 4.6 Gbps possible.
Other specs of the device are also quite high-end. It comes with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 6.33-inch 2K display, 32GB / 64GB / 128GB of internal storage options, 21MP rear camera and 3400mAh battery with Quick Charge 2.0.
As you can see, the phone sports flagship level specs. Considering these specs, would you be willing to shell out $535 for the Le Max Pro?
We all have plenty of devices but they have the same problem as their batteries die too often. Sure, all the gadgets come with the wall chargers but multi-port charging solutions help you reduce the mess on your table and save space while travelling. Today we have Orico Portable 5-Port USB Wall Charger in our labs. Find out more in our the full review.
The device comes in a neat packaging and the contents include the power cord and instruction manuals.
The Orico 5-port charger is made entirely of quality matt plastic and it very well constructed.
We have 5 USB ports and each of them have an output of 5V/2.4A or 40W of power output combined.
On the opposite side there is a power input port.
Once you power this 5-port USB charger up, a nice little LED lights up.
We have tested each port thoroughly to make sure they are all able to deliver advertised power output. While we did not measure them with a dedicated measuring tool but we took an empirical average user’s approach.
The results suggest that the Orico portable 5-Port USB wall charger is indeed capable of charging devices fast and it can even outperform some standard power plugs that have been shipped with gadgets.
It is worth mentioning that this device also has some technologies inside of it like synchronous rectification (it dramatically reduce charger rectifier losses, improves efficiency and reduces the heat of the charger).
As usual, the charger also has smart control chipsets which automatically detect the device you connected to provide a maximum charging speed.
ORICO Portable 5-Port USB Wall Charger Review: CONCLUSIONS
ORICO portable 5-Port USB wall charger is a great solution for those who are looking to improve their cable management or lose the power plugs of their devices. Also, it is indeed a great little travel companion.
Our test results suggest that this charger can definitely deliver fast charging speeds. Also, we did not have any issues with it like overheating.
The only downside of it is that there are no silicone pads provided, which always come handy to prevent a device from sliding on the table.
Blackview released their Omega model quite a while ago and right now they have a “Pro” version of it. Find out more in our unboxing and first impressions article.
Blackview Omega Pro: UNBOXING
The Blackview Omega Pro comes in quite an elegant looking box and the contents include the micro USB cable, USB OTG cable if you want to connect some external devices to the phone, a charging brick, SIM ejector pin, a screen protector, some documentation and last but not least a pair of earphones.
Blackview Omega Pro: DESIGN
As far as design, we are looking at a glass and metal sandwich construction we’ve seen on a lot of phones. The glass covers both front and back, and it looks nice. However, it is a huge fingerprint magnet and all the smudges are make the phone look dirty very quickly on a black model.
Blackview Omega Pro is a compact phone as it sports only a 5″ display. Although we have already used to seeing a lot of devices with at least 5.5″ panels, I believe there is still a niche for compact phones.
Blackview Omega is surrounded by a metal frame, which is looks and feels high quality. The buttons feel nice and they have a great tactile feedback but they are located on the left side, which I personally hate. However, it is very subjective and some people may even prefer this kind of placement.
Blackview Omega Pro: FIRST IMPRESSIONS
My first impressions about this phone are kind of positive. It is well constructed, especially if we think of the price (less than $150). However, we have seen lots of well designed smartphones with a good build quality lately. Thus, it all comes to the day-to-day performance, battery life and a lot of other aspects that we care. We’ll spend a reasonable amount of time with this device to get all the questions answered. Stay tuned to Gizmochina.
Back in December, we saw a new Xiaomi device on TENAA, which looked like the upcoming Redmi 3. Like always, TENAA revealed most of the specifications of the device, including a 1.5GHz octa-core processor. However, at that time, we were confused about the chip inside, whether it was the Helio P10 MT6755 or the usual MT6753. But it looks like the Redmi 3 won’t feature either of them, as IHS analyst Kevin Wang has revealed that the phone will feature Snapdragon 616 chipset.
A few hours ago, Kevin quoted a post from the Xiaomi co-founder Lin Bin, stating that the Redmi 3 comes with Snapdragon 616 inside. The new Snapdragon 616 chip is the upgraded version of last year’s Snapdragon 615. The chip comes with the same octa-core Cortex A53 cores but the clock speed is increased from 1.5GHz/ 1.0GHz to 1.5Ghz/ 1.2GHz. GPU is still Adreno 405. What’s new is the baseband which is the latest X5 LTE modem.
If the company keeps the price as low as 699 Yuan ($106), then Redmi 3 with Snapdragon 616, 2GB RAM and a unique plaid design metal body will turn out to be a pretty good deal.
Looks like January is going to be an important month for Nubia. After rumors about a Jan 5 release of the Z11 turned out to be false, we were hoping that the company would release the device sometime soon. Yesterday, the company started sending out invitations for its January 18 event and we assumed it could be for the recently leaked Z11. But now, a few images of another handset have been leaked, most likely of the Nubia X8. So, we could see either of these devices at the event this month.
From the pictures, we can see that the Nubia X8 comes with an all metal body with a fingerprint sensor at the back. The leaked model actually reminds us of a phone that we had seen earlier. Remember, a few weeks back, we spotted an unknown Nubia model with fingerprint at a company event? Well, this looks like the larger model of that smartphone. Have a look at that leaked image from down below.
Today’s leaked phone looks large, which means it will most likely feature a gigantic 6.44-inch display like its predecessor, the Nubia X6. However, the resolution will reportedly be bumped up to 2K.
Another major highlight of the phone is going to the chipset inside. It is said that the phone will be coming with Snapdragon 820 quad-core SoC. And to support the high-end specs of the device, there will be a large 4500mAh battery on board.
The bezels of the phone look super thin and the screen to body ratio is also quite impressive. Looks like we are soon going to meet another beautiful Nubia flagship. Other details of the Nubia X8 is not known, but we will update you guys if anything more comes up.
Nubia has an official event on January 18, which means we will get to know very soon whether we meet the X8 or the Z11.
Meanwhile, you can check out more pictures of the beautiful Nubia X8 flagship from down below.
Xiaomi has a tradition of teasing its products a week or two before launch. However, for the Redmi 3 handset, the company decided to directly reveal the launch date as well as a couple of features of the device.
In a teaser released earlier today, Xiaomi confirmed that the Redmi 3 budget handset will be meeting us on January 12. We knew the release was around the corner given that the phone recently passed TENAA certification and was also spotted on the Chinese Radio Certification website. The teaser has confirmed that date, i.e. next Tuesday and also reveals that the phone will feature a 5-inch display.
Further, like the Redmi Note 3, the new Redmi 3 model will also come with an all metal body. But the back of the phone is quite unique, thanks to the plaid design. You can clearly see the rear shell design in the teaser.
As for the specs, back in December, the phone had hit TENAA, which revealed most of its specifications. The Redmi 3 model will reportedly come with a 5-inch HD 720p display with an octa-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz. While we are not quite sure of the chip inside, it could be either MT6753 or the new MT6755 Helio P10. Further, the phone comes with 2GB of RAM on board and 16GB of expandable internal storage.
The rear camera was of 13MP while up front, there was a 5MP selfie shooter. Like the Note 3, the phone is expected to come with a large battery, around 4000mAh. This would explain the 8.5mm thickness of the device. The phone supports 4G LTE networks with dual SIM dual standby. As for software, it should come with MIUI 7.1 based on Android 5.1 Lollipop OS.
Pricing is expected to be at 699 Yuan, which would make the device quite competitive. For more official details, we will have to wait for a few days more.
This year at CES 2016, we didn’t see any new release from ZTE’s subsidiary, Nubia smartphones. However, according to the latest information, Nubia does have a smartphone launch in plan and we will most likely meet the next generation Nubia Z11 flagship on January 18. In addition to this news, we have also spotted a few alleged pictures of the front panel of the handset, showing off its bezelless design in white color.
From the pictures leaked today, Nubia Z11 seems to continue with the design language of the previous generation Nubia Z9. We can’t see any borders, confirming the bezelless design, so it will most likely feature the company’s patented aRC (arc Refractive Conduction) technology. Also, in one of the images where the Z9 is directly compared with the Z11, we can see that the top and the bottom bezels have also been reduced, further increasing the phone’s screen to body ratio.
As for the specs, it is said that the ZTE Nubia Z11 will come with Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. The screen up front will most likely be from Sharp, much thinner than existing panels and will measure 5.2-inches diagonally. At the back, you can expect to see a 20.7MP rear camera while up front, a 13MP shooter. The phone should also come with a fingerprint sensor on board. As for the software, it should come with Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS right out of the box.
This would be the first smartphone from the company after SUNING invested in Nubia at the end of last year. Nubia is said to release the smartphone on January 18, which is just a couple of weeks away. So, we can expect a lot more information on the handset in the coming days.
The new year’s first promotional campaign has come from Ulefone, who offers a USD179.99 special price during the pre-sale of its super battery flagship Ulefone Power, USD30 down from the original price.
Ulefone Power was launched one week ago, featuring 6050mAh Sony li-polymer battery, which is said to support 75-day standby and 4-day light use on a 2-hour single charge from the 9V/2~3A quick charger. With OTG, the phone will also be able to charge other devices.
Other specs include MTK6753 octa-core 64-bit chipset, fingerprint scanner, 5.5-inch AUO 1080P LTPS display, 3GB RAM, Sony IMX214 13MP camera, infrared emitter, and shortcut camera starter.
Ulefone Power presale started from January 1 and will last until January 18, when the price will be increased to USD199.99, the normal price Ulefone really wants to sell the device for. The presale will possibly end before schedule if the 10,000 units in stock is sold out.
Ulefone will start shipping Ulefone Power in January 16 with Android 5.1 pre-installed and will upgrade the device to Android 6.0 in February.
Now that the Le Max Pro is official with Snapdragon 820, other smartphone manufacturers will be eagerly waiting to unveil their big flagship smartphones with this new Qualcomm chip. On top of that list is none other than the Xiaomi Mi 5, and today, an executive has confirmed that the Mi 5 will be featuring the Snapdragon 820.
Liwan Jiang, the co-founder and Senior VP of Xiaomi revealed via his official Weibo account that the Xiaomi Mi 5 will be equipped with Snapdragon 820. He also adds that the production of the flagship will ramp up now so that the device is in stock soon after the Chinese Spring Festival, which is in February. So, it looks like the Xiaomi Mi 5 will be available to purchase soon after the phone is released officially. Hence, the company probably won’t be facing any stocking problems post its release.
After Liwan made this post, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun quoted it and further added that he has been using the phone for some time. Earlier in an interview, Lei Jun had revealed that he had used the device and it was amazing. What’s even more interesting is that the post was made by an unknown Xiaomi device, which could be the Mi 5.
As for the specs, the phone will reportedly come with a 5.2-inch display with 4GB RAM, 16MP rear camera, 8MP front camera and a 3000mAh battery. Apart from Snapdragon 820 on board, rest of the specs are yet to be confirmed.
Since the phone has entered mass production, we can expect a lot more information in the coming days. So, stay tuned for more details.
Earlier today, LeTV officially announced the Le Max Pro flagship which is the first Snapdragon 820 powered smartphone in the world. The company revealed only some of the highlighted features of the device like Wi-Fi ad, and Qualcomm’s 3D Sense ID fingerprint sensor. The phone’s release date is not yet known, with the company adding that the release will happen sometime within the first half of 2016.
So, it’s likely that there will be a couple of other Snapdragon 820 powered smartphones that will make it to the market around the same time as Le Max Pro. Among them could be the Xiaomi flagship, Xiaomi Mi 5. The popular IHS analyst from China, Pan Jiutang has revealed via his Weibo account that Xiaomi Mi 5 along with the Vivo XPlay 5S featuring Snapdragon 820 will release by the end of February this year. This is in line with what we heard from Qualcomm Exec last year, that first batch of Snapdragon 820 phones will be available by Q1 2016. Other models featuring this new chip, like Le Max 2 will release later, sometime around May this year.
In another post, he also revealed that the Xiaomi Mi 5 most likely won’t feature Qualcomm’s Sense ID 3D fingerprint sensor. The company reportedly gave up on the sensor at the last minute. Instead, the phone will come with a traditional sensor. However, he adds that the company will probably release a model with Sense ID on board sometime in the second half of 2016. It could be the Mi Note 2, but it’s too early to say, so we better wait for some additional details.
Many readers were disappointed to see that Xiaomi Mi 5’s release was taking time. But given that the phone is expected to release by February end, it’s probably going to be one of the first Snapdragon 820 smartphones to be available in the market.
We have been hearing for months that LeTV will release the first Snapdragon 820 powered smartphone. And these rumors were bang on target as Qualcomm and LeTV announced the first Snapdragon 820 powered smartphone in the world, the LeTV Le Max Pro earlier today. We already know a lot about the device, thanks to the previous leaks, but now, we have some official details to add to it.
One thing to note here is that, despite the announcement this early, neither LeTV nor Qualcomm has revealed when the phone is going to be released. The only thing we know right now is that the phone will be available for purchase sometime in the first half of 2016. That’s a pretty vague time frame, so we will have to wait for more availability details.
Even in the specs department, there are many details that are yet to be announced. But what we know is that the phone will also be the first commercial handset to feature Qualcomm’s Ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensor called as Sense ID. Once again, the feature was rumored to debut with the Le Max Pro, so no surprises here. Qualcomm explains that the new Sense ID is much more reliable and secure than existing capacitive based fingerprint sensors. The main highlight of Sense ID is the use of an ultrasonic scanner to create extremely detailed 3D fingerprint maps. Plus, it works even under plastic, metal and other materials. This is why the sensor on the Le Max Pro works although it’s located under 400 micrometers of metal.
Another highlighted feature of the Le Max Pro is the support for the latest Wi-Fi 802.11 ad standard which is much faster than previous generations, since it adds a new frequency band, 60GHz. The phone is also officially confirmed to feature fast 4G LTE and Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0. From what we can see, the phone looks the same as its predecessor, the Le Max featuring an all metal body.
As for the other specs, we will probably get to know more at the CES event. According to rumors, the phone features a 6.3-inch 2K display with 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB storage, 21MP rear camera, and 3400mAh battery. AnTuTu performance is said to be impressive, scoring nearly 130K in the test.
Hopefully, we will get more information about the handset in the next couple of days. Stay tuned for more details.
If you are constantly thinking your phone’s battery dies too often, there is a phone that you have probably not heard of. This is the unboxing and first impressions video about the biggest battery phone in the world – Oukitel K10000.
I’ve reviewed a bunch of Oukitel phones in the past and I have to tell you that this is the most premium packaging the company has shipped their phone in so far.
Everything’s packed neatly and what you are getting in the packaging include the micro USB cable, USB OTG cable if you want to connect some external devices to the phone, a fast charging brick, SIM ejector pin, a screen protector, some documentation and last but not least a plastic phone case, which is always a nice addition to have.
Oukitel K10000: DESIGN and FIRST IMPRESSIONS
All right, the star of the show here is the phone, which has by far the largest battery capacity of whopping 10000mAh. Oukitel declares that the phone will last you 15 days of normal usage, which has never been achieved on any smartphone. Also, it features fast charge feature and thus you can fully charge the phone in 3.5h and you can even charge other phones with the included cable.
Naturally, this capacity makes the phone thick and heavy as its thickness measures at around 14mm and it weighs below 200g but I will tell the exact official dimensions in the full review.
My initial impressions about the Oukitel K10000 are that it is built like a tank and the craftsmanship is top-notch. It just feels that the phone would probably break the wall if you throw at it and not vice versa.
We have a 5.5” 720p display, 5MP selfie shooter, non-backlit capacitive keys and some other usual stuff on the front.
The back is made of metal and rubber materials, which look really nice. As far as optics, we are looking at the 8MP camera, which can take 13MP pictures.
The sides of the phone are made of metal and they definitely add a lot of premium look and feel.
As far as other specs go, they are not that impressive but hey, this is a battery centric device after all and it costs just around $200 and I will leave a product link down in the description.
We have a quad-core MTK6735 chip, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage and Android 5.1 is running the show.
All in all, I’ve played with the phone for a few days already and so far I’ve been impressed. I used only 7% of battery through the entire day, which is amazing.
Original K4000 vs forthcoming K4000 Pro, lets see what Oukitel have improved.
Oukitel are all set to release the new improved K4000 Pro, lets have a look at the specs of both phones and see what improvements Oukitel have managed to make to the new handset.
The new K4000 Pro will be seen by many as more of a K4000+ the newer handset sees some styling tweaks and some under the hood enhancements that should make the original K4000 even better.
So whats not been changed?
Both the original K4000 and the newer K4000 Pro feature 5-inch HD displays (1280 x 720p resolution) and are powered by 1ghz Quad-Core 64bit Cortex-A53 Mediatek MT6735P processors, these are not the most powerful CPU’s but should do an ok job for most everyday needs.
Ram and Rom configurations are the same between both handsets with 16GB ROM and 2GB RAM and both feature the same camera pairing of 8.0 mega pixel (13 Mega Pixel interpolated) rear facing camera and 2.0 Mega Pixel (5 Mega Pixel interpolated) front facing camera.
Like the original K4000 the newer K4000 Pro will come with Android Lollipop 5.1, with a confirmed upgrade path to Android Lollipop 6.0 on the K4000 Pro.
Given that both handsets share a lot of components in common, it would be a fairly safe bet that the original K4000 will also see the upgrade to 6.0
USB OTG functions like reverse charging will also make a return on the K4000 pro, when used with an OTG cable.
So whats changed?
The original OUKITEL K4000 featured a large removable 4000mAh battery, whilst the K4000 Pro sees an increased to 4600mAh whilst still remaining removable.
In order to make maximum use of the battery without making charge times to long, Oukitel have increased the original K4000 charging from 5V/1.0A to 5V/1.5A this is a 0.5A increase in charging power and should see both the K4000 Pro and the K4000 fully charged within 3-3.5 hours.
Oukitel have also improved network coverage on the K4000 Pro, both handsets support the following bands, 2G(GSM850/900/1800/1900MH) and 3G(WCDMA 900/2100MHz) 4G FDD LTE B1/3/7/20 (2100/1800/2600/800MHz). the newer K4000 Pro adds one more band: B8 (900MHz).
There have also been a few structural changes K4000 pro, the screen is now 1.1mm thick, making the glass more durable and up to three times stronger, the K4000 Pro also has an improved corner design to its 2.5D CNC ARC craft metal design, that should help the phone to further resist damage when dropped.
Another improvement to the phone comes in the styling department, the Oukitel K4000 Pro now has a crocodile leather textured back cover, this should hopefully make the phone comfortable in the hand whilst also helping to reduce the chances of dropping the phone.
As soon as a review sample finds its way to me, I will do a full handset review.
So what do you guys think? does the Oukitel K4000 Pro have enough extras for you? are you a K4000 owner? would you consider purchasing the new model for its improved battery? or will you wait for the K6000 Pro? or perhaps one of the other great phones that are due this year.
Hopefully Oukitel will continue the strong push they had at the end of 2015 and will start to bring out more 2016 phones with processing power to match their impressive batteries.
For now please leave comments and questions below.
When it comes to electric vehicles, there’s probably no other company that can match Tesla’s technology right now. However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be any new entries in this niche industry. The start-up car manufacturer, Faraday Future revealed its brand new concept electric sports car, the FFZERO1 yesterday. This is the first time we are hearing about such a car from the company, as it has managed to stay away from the limelight since it launched 18 months ago.
This California-based company is backed by the Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, who is also the founder of the media giant LeTV. The new model called the FFZERO1 features a 1,000 horsepower engine with maximum speeds of upwards of 200MPH (321KMPH). This concept car can accelerate from 0-60MPH in less than 3 seconds, thanks to its teardrop shape and aerodynamic tunnels which will ensure airflow into the engines to cool the batteries. Unfortunately, if you were hoping to see the car go into production, that’s probably not going to happen. The FFZERO1 is just an example to show what is possible.
However, the technology will end up in other vehicles manufactured by the company. The company is also focused on the interior experience which it says will feature ultra-modern room design and user-friendly interface. It aims to be the future of the automotive industry and for this, has a total of 550 employees working on its projects, many of whom have been poached from rivals such as Tesla and BMW.
Well, the concept car looks futuristic, but since it’s not going to be manufactured, we will have to wait and see how the company plans to impress us in the coming years. Also, it would be interesting to see how LeTV fits in the future of Faraday Future. LeTV recently announced that it will showcase its connected car ecosystem in partnership with Aston Martin at CES this year, and we can expect a similar partnership with Faraday Future.
You can read more about Faraday Future from their official website.
The company AUSDOM is headquartered in Shenzhen, and mainly deals with IP cameras, car electronics and a few headphones. The AUSDOM M05 is an over-ear headphone for about $40 USD, which can be connected both via Bluetooth and a 3.5mm jack.
Packaging and content
The packaging is a simple black box with the mapped headphones. On the back are the most important information.
Accessories include a storage bag, a quick start guide (in German), a USB to micro-USB for charging and a 3.5mm jack cable. Which means that this headset also supports wired audio playback, which is very rare to see in headphones in this price range.
Material and Design
The AUSDOM M05 act really high quality and are well crafted. Especially the bracket is very robust but still flexible. The bracket on the sides is made of plastic, which is slightly roughened. Thus, it is not only high quality but also really feels like that. Like us itself very well built, and feels very good either when wearing it or just holding it, or left around the neck.
The bracket on the top side has a carbon-look but is made of soft foam as well as the inside of the strap. The transitions are all handled properly, here we have nothing to complain about. The earpieces on the sides are also provided with a soft carbon coating.
Here is a short demonstration of how flexible the headphones really are.
Comfort
The padded earcups is very comfortable to wear. According AUSDOM supposed to be a kind of artificial protein leather, whatever that is. The bracket can be pulled out sufficiently so that should really find the headphones on each head a proper fit. A proper fit is very important for longer sessions when one is working on a computer or out on a run.
The headphones have exercise on a very good fit without much pressure on the ears. The soft reference of the ear cups feels fluffy and comfortable.
The ear is completely covered, thus ensuring a good shielding of ambient noise.
Technical specifications:
Bluetooth 4.0 EDR
Hands-Free
built-in microphone
aptX Protocol Support
20 hrs. Playback or talk time
250 Std.Standby
3.5 mm jack
Frequency range 20-20.000Hz)
Function Keys
On the left side you will find the microphone behind a lattice, the on / power button and the volume loud and soft key. In addition then still beside the 3.5mm jack input.
On the right side then the microUSB input for charging, the Pause / Play and skip track buttons.
The coupling takes place via Bluetooth simplistic about the hold the Power button. A female voice in English has a friendly then out.Otherwise, all the keys worked perfectly in our tests and had a good pressure point.
Microphone
The M05 has additionally an integrated microphone. The supports all devices that can be connected via Bluetooth. But rather below average but to use it, the quality of the microphone to call quite suitable. But it puts more emphasis on good mic for long Skype sessions etc. one should seek something else prefer.
The sound
But as always, the most important thing – How is the sound and they are good what?
The sound of the M05 AUSDOM we would rather describe as average.Overall, they are very bassy, where unfortunately the mids and highs to go a bit lost. Especially because of the missing middle is something missing the dynamism but for people who love good bass, you may appropriately. The rest would then have been a neat equalizer countermeasures. You can not use the example in wide Xiaomi Headphones keep up but the games in a different league and are also more expensive. Overall, however, probably better than the Bluedio Turbine headphones but slightly worse than the cheaper Leme B20.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Our conclusion for Ausdom M05 headset is somewhat ambivalent. One must not forget, of course, that we are talking about a nearly $40 USD headphones. Overall, we lack at the sound of the balance and the dynamics of actually otherwise quite nice headphones. Here are the bass then too dominant. The microphone is unfortunately also not so great but that the M05 are very well made, very light and have a good comfort even during long listening sessions.
Just as promised, Lenovo has officially taken the wraps of the Lenovo K4 Note flagship in India. This is the successor to the popular Lenovo K3 Note mid-ranger that was unveiled last year. The new model comes with a lot of upgrades, in specs and design, making it worthy of the slightly higher price tag of Rs.11,999 ($180).
The Lenovo K4 Note features a 5.5-inch FHD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution display with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 protection. So, there’s no 2K screen as previously rumored. This translates into a pixel density of 441 ppi with 178 degrees wide angle viewing. Instead of the MT6752 octa-core chip, the company has gone with the newer MT6753 chip from Mediatek clocked at 1.3GHz along with Mali T720 MP3 GPU. Further, you get 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM on board. As for the internal storage, you get 16GB which is further expandable via a MicroSD card slot.
The phone features a slightly curved design with a maximum thickness of 9.1mm. The overall body will be made out of metal and there will be a fingerprint sensor at the back. Also, you will find dual speakers right up front. The overall design seems to be inspired from the previously announced Vibe smartphones.
At the back, the Lenovo K4 Note comes with a 13MP f/2.2 aperture camera with dual LED flash and PDAF. Up front, you will find a 5MP shooter ideal for selfies. Lenovo has also upgraded the battery on the device, to a larger 3300mAh capacity one. This will reportedly be enough for up to 22 hours of talk time in a single charge.
Among the other notable features are the 1.5W speakers which support Dolby Atmos, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, 4G LTE with dual SIM support, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac etc.
One of the additional highlights of the new Lenovo K4 Note is the ‘TheaterMax’ technology which can convert any normal multimedia content into VR. The company has also launched a VR headset in partnership with ANT VR for the phone, which costs Rs. 1299 ($20). Registrations start today from 3 PM IST exclusively on Amazon.in. The first batch available for sale will be for the K4 Note with the VR Bundle that will cost you Rs. 12,499 ($187). Not at all a bad deal, considering that you get a powerful phone along with a VR headset at this price.
Both Xiaomi and Letv had a great year of 2015 as the companies released plenty of awesome phones. The Redmi Note 3 and the Le 1s are the latest offerings in the budget or in affordable midrange smartphone categories. Find out which device is better in a full comparison review.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: DESIGN
Both phones are quite huge due to their 5.5” displays but they both sit comfortably in the hand.
On the front top, both devices have 5MP shooters, a usual set of sensors and LED notification lights. The Xiaomi phone has an edge here as its LED light can be highly customised.
Both Letv and Xiaomi devices have nicely backlit capacitive keys, which also have exactly the same layout.
Both companies chose some premium materials designing their phones as both devices sport premium all-metal design except for the plastic top and bottom parts for antennas.
As far as optics, we are looking at 13MP shooters with PDAF but only the Redmi Note 3 has a dual tone dual LED flash. Right below the cameras you can find fingerprint scanners and both of them are equally easy to setup, fast, accurate and work straight from the standby mode.
The Redmi Note 3 has the speaker on the back whereas the Le 1s has implemented it on the bottom, where you can also find a mic and the USB Type-C port. However, the Xiaomi phone still uses the regular micro USB port.
The Le 1s is a slightly thinner phone as it measures at 7.5mm whereas the Redmi Note 3 measures at 8.7mm. The button placement is the same on both phones and the keys have a great tactile feedback.
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Both phones have dual SIM card slots, which are located on the left and both devices have 4G LTE support.
On the top both devices have a headset jack and the IR blaster.
Overall, both the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and the Letv Le 1s have great design, excellent build quality and premium choice of materials. However, the Le 1s is more attractive to me but it all comes to a personal taste.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: SPECS
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3:
Display
5.5″ 1080p (Full-HD)
Processor
Mediatek MT6795 Helio X10, 64-bit, octa-core (up to 2.0GHz)
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: DISPLAY
Both phones have 5.5” 1080p panels and they are great to look at. The displays are sharp, vibrant, have excellent viewing angles but both panels could be a little bit brighter and they have just average sunlight legibility.
The Redmi Note 3 has an edge as it has a bit brighter panel. Still, I would call it a tie as both phones have great displays.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: UI
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3:
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When it comes to the user interface of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 we have MIUI 7 out of the box, which is built on top of Android 5.0.
First of all, I am really happy to see a huge improvement over the MIUI 6 in terms of speed, performance, power and RAM management.
Everything is running smoothly with lots of apps running in the background, there are no major hiccups or lags. There have been a few times that apps loaded a bit longer but it hasn’t been much of an issue worth complaining about.
If you are not yet familiar with the MIUI, it has tons of customisation options, which include a wide choice of themes, wallpapers, fonts and so on. Also, you can customise the LED light, assign different tasks to capacitive buttons and so on.
All in all, I have to say that Xiaomi finally got the it right and although the Redmi Note 3 is not yet perfect but the overall user experience is mostly positive.
Letv Le 1s (unofficial International ROM. The device was tested with both official and unofficial ROMs and the conclusions are based on the official one):
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Official eUI 5 Letv ROM:
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As far as the Letv Le 1s, we have the eUI 5, which is also built on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop.
My review unit shipped with the unofficial international ROM, which has Google Play and multi-languages pre-installed, the Chinese apps removed but there are quite a few annoying apps that you can’t delete.
It is very easy to flash the original Chinese ROM back and if you want to see how it looks like, I will leave the links in the description of the previous Letv smartphones I’ve reviewed.
eUI is a highly customised version of Android and it usually runs smoothly without any hiccups or lags.
There are plenty of customisation options as it has become a standard on the Chinese phones.
Also, there are quite a few similarities with iOS, e.g. if you swipe from the top, you will open only the notification shade.
Pressing a left capacitive key triggers a window where you can access your recent apps or close them, quick settings menu, music player, shortcuts to some apps and so on.
All in all, LeUI is very fast and clean looking user interface with some great features and customisation options.
However, I’ve tried both official Chinese ROM (the only official version currently available) and this unofficial ROM. I have to say that you should stick with the official one.
The unofficial ROM is slower, it does not support OTA updates but most importantly it has some really annoying apps that you can’t simply delete like battery boosters, cleaners and so on, which simply slow your phone down.
All in all, the eUI is a bit faster user interface when it comes to daily performance. However, the difference is negligible. If I had to choose which UI I prefer for everyday use, I would probably pick the MIUI 7 as it has more customisation options, it is more user-friendly for international users and it has bigger international online community. However, this may change when Letv releases the official international ROM for its devices.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: BENCHMARKS
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3:
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Letv Le 1s:
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Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
Both smartphones have very similar specs as they have Mediatek Helio X10 chip, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of non-expandable storage. However, my review unit of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is a lower-end model, which is cheaper but it comes with only 2GB of RAM and 16GB of non-expandable storage.
The 3D games run absolutely fine on both phones. The graphics look good, there are no hiccups or lags and the performance is identical. Also, there are no overheating issues on neither phone.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: MULTIMEDIA
Consuming media is a great experience on each device and there are no issues watching full HD or 4K content.
As far as the sound via loudspeakers, both phones have good implementations for budget phones. However, the Redmi Note 3 has slightly clearer and less tinny sound than the Le 1s.
Once you plug in the earphones, the sound quality is comparable and it is pretty good. Again, the Redmi Note 3 excels here with the slightly louder volume output.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: CAMERA
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3:
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The camera app on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is fast and easy to use, and there are a few shooting modes and settings to play with.
Letv Le 1s:
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When it comes to the camera app of the Le 1s, we have the same app we’ve already seen on other Letv phones and it has a lot of inspiration from iOS. It is fast and responsive and it is very easy to use.
Also, both smartphones are equally fast when it comes to the capture speeds.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: IMAGE QUALITY
When it comes to the image quality, both cameras are capable of producing images with a decent amount of details in good lighting conditions. However, in one situation, the Redmi Note 3 captures more details while Le 1s manages to do it better in another shot. Still, I compared the images side by side on the 40” 4K monitor and the Le 1s tends to capture more details.
The colours tend to be a bit oversaturated on the Le 1s in some shots but in most of the images they look natural and similar to the colours reproduced by the Redmi Note 3’s camera.
As far as other aspects like contrast, dynamic range and so on, the images are pretty much comparable.
Most of the indoor shots are comparable in terms of the overall quality. However, Letv phone usually captures much better macro shots with more details and better sharpness.
When it comes to the night shots, the Redmi Note 3 is usually much better except for a few shots when it struggled with focusing. The images have more details and significantly less noise. However, the Le 1s has a more powerful LED flash for pitch dark environments.
The 5MP selfie snappers will definitely do the trick for social media but the Le 1s excels here as it has wider lens, meaning that you can fit more into the shot. On the other hand, the Redmi Note 3 has a better colour reproduction and higher quality sound recording for video chats.
As far as 1080p video quality, the Le 1s’s footage has more details. On the other hand, the sound recording quality is worse than the one found on the Redmi Note 3. Colour reproduction and auto-exposure is comparable on each phone.
Overall, both phones have one of the best cameras for the price but they are far from perfect. While the Xiaomi phone excel in one area, Letv phone is better in another. If you tend to take lots of daylight images, the Le 1s appears to be a better performer but the difference is not always significant. However, the night images shot by the Redmi Note 3 look much better. Finally, you have to consider how you usually use your phone’s camera before choosing either of this device.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: CONNECTIVITY
All the connectivity options like Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth and so on work fine on each device and I have no complaints.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: BATTERY LIFE
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The Redmi Note 3 has a 4000mAh battery and I have to say that it performs very well. I could get almost 5 hours of screen on time (hereinafter – SOT) even though I used the phone quite intensively. If you are a light user and you mainly do basic tasks, you may even get over 6 hours of SOT. Finally, a great battery performance was confirmed by Geekbench 3 battery test as the phone managed to achieve over 10 hours of SOT with dim screen feature off.
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The 3000mAh battery of the Letv Le 1s could perform better. I could get only around 3 hours of screen-on time (SOT) in real life conditions while using the phone mainly for daily tasks. The SOT time is a bit better in the Geekbench 3 battery test, where the phone was able to achieve over 5 hours of SOT with max. auto-brightness and dim screen features off.
A good thing is that the phone supports fast charging feature and you will love using it.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Letv Le 1s X500 Comparison Review: CONCLUSIONS
So there you have it, two of one the best budget smartphones of 2015 and of a huge part of 2016.
Both Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and Letv Le 1s have great all-metal design and good build quality, nice and sharp displays, and great overall performance.
While the cameras on each device are very good for the price, they both have their ins and outs. The Le 1s tends to take better images in one situation while the Redmi Note 3 excels in another. However, the difference is not always that significant.
One area where the Xiaomi phone is much better than the Le 1s is the battery life and that is thanks to a much larger capacity. On the other hand, the Le 1s comes with the quick charging feature which definitely comes handy once you have to charge the Letv phone more often.
At the end of the day, both smartphones are great choices for the money and you will make no mistake choosing either of them. However, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 seems like a better overall package, especially if you care about a great battery life, better low-light camera performance and more customisation options in the user interface.
Day before yesterday, Huawei released a new teaser which showed off a device with a slim design and a speaker on the side. Judging from the design, we expected it to be a new Huawei tablet probably the Honor X3 tablet. Now, a couple of renders of the new tablet have surfaced online, further adding to the possibility that Huawei will show off this device at CES 2016.
According to the source who leaked these images, the tablet will have the model number DR-A01L and will feature a slim body with the measurements, 240 × 173 × 7.4mm. The tab will reportedly come with a large 10.1-inch display with 16:10 aspect ratio. There are rear and front cameras and virtual keys as well. It’s also said that the tablet will feature a front mounted fingerprint sensor. Further, like you saw in the teaser image, these renders also come with four speakers, two on each side.
As for the specifications, it is said that the new tablet will feature Kirin 935 octa-core chip instead of the new Kirin 950. Other than this, we don’t have any other information about the specifications of the device.
The source further states that Huawei will not launch any D series, M-series and P series devices at CES 2016. So, this new tablet could be the center of attraction for Huawei at the event.
Well, the company will announce the device later today in Las Vegas, where we will get more details.
CES 2016 is almost upon us, which means we will get to see the greatest innovations from the industry all at one place. Every year, we see interesting gadgets including smartphones showcased at the event and this year too, we expect a lot many announcements at Las Vegas.
Since we are mainly focused on the Chinese smartphone industry, we have picked the top three manufacturers to look out for at CES 2016. I agree, there aren’t many Chinese smartphone makers at the event, but still, we have some major players out there ready to unveil their big guns.
So, let’s take a look at which Chinese smartphone makers are ready to impress us at Las Vegas this year.
1. LeTV
LeTV’s journey into the smartphone market is nothing less than extraordinary. The company which released its first smartphone last year has grown to compete with the likes of comparatively established players like Huawei and Xiaomi. And it looks like the company is beating them in their own game of low cost yet premium quality smartphones.
This will be the first time LeTV is participating at CES and it’s all set to unveil one of the most powerful smartphones from the company yet. Thanks to today’s teaser, it’s almost confirmed that the company will unveil a Snapdragon 820 smartphone tomorrow. The phone is most likely the Le Max Pro, about which we have been hearing for the past few weeks.
The recent AnTuTu benchmark listing of the device revealed that it posted more than 133,000 on AnTuTu app, thanks to its high-end specs powered by Snapdragon 820. Other specs like 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM, 21MP rear camera, 4MP ultra-pixel camera will probably make it one of the favorite smartphones at CES 2016.
So, it’s no surprise that LeTV stands right on top of the list this year. At last, we will see the Snapdragon 820 chip in action!
2. Huawei
As of late, when it comes to smartphones, no list is complete without Huawei. This Chinese tech company has established itself as a premium smartphone maker releasing so many devices in 2015 (and shipping more than 100 million). The company is expected to follow the trend in 2016 as well, and what better place to kick off things than CES 2016.
Well, Huawei has confirmed a new product launch at the event, but it’s yet to reveal the model name. But taking a look at the teaser, it’s probably going to be the next generation version of the Huawei Mediapad X2 tablet, namely the Honor X3. We already have the possible specs of the device, and it includes a 2K display. Not a flagship product, but it’s still worth checking out for phablet lovers. You can read more about it from our earlier coverage.
What’s kind of unconfirmed at the moment is the upcoming Huawei P9 flagship. If Huawei releases this new model, it will be the center of attraction for Huawei fans at the event. It is said that the phone will feature dual 13MP Sony cameras at the back, with a whopping 6GB RAM module. There’s a lot of other high-end tech that’s going to come with the device and you can read more about it from here. However, given that Huawei is yet to tease/ reveal anything about it’s ‘P’ series smartphone, we may have to wait a bit longer to meet this powerful flagship.
Finally, it’s confirmed that we will see the Huawei Mate 8 flagship at the event, with Kirin 950 on board.
3. ZTE
ZTE has slowly established its presence in the US market and hence it’s no surprise that we will see some exciting products from the company at the Las Vegas event. The company recently sent out a teaser for a event on January 5, which has a background of a silhouette of an unknown smartphone with the words, “Hello World, January 5 New Release”. This could either be for the launch of the Z11 flagship or the new website which the company purchased for a whopping $2 million or both.
We hope to see the Z11 flagship at CES 2016 since recent renders and rumors have shown the device as a pretty high-end smartphone. For specs, the phone is expected to feature Snapdragon 820 with 4GB RAM, 128GB storage, and 20.7MP camera. The renders reveal a bezelless design like its predecessor. So, the Z11 is a phone that we are all excited to meet. Unfortunately, the company hasn’t revealed any concrete details about the device or the launch period.
Still, even if ZTE doesn’t showcase the Nubia Z11 at CES 2016, we can expect to see some other product announcements at the event. So, we better keep an eye on this manufacturer.
There are other Chinese manufacturers like Lenovo and OPPO present at Las Vegas this week, so we can expect some great products in the coming days.
Let me know, which product are you most excited about this CES 2016.
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