We have been hearing a lot about the upcoming Le 2 smartphone, which is expected to come in two variants, one with the powerful Snapdragon 820 and the other with the mid-range Helio X20. Recent rumors have shed very little light on the phone’s camera, but now, a new leaked image claims that the Le 2 will come with a dual camera setup.
Although we have seen dual camera setup on a few devices in the past couple of years, the trend seemed to have gone out of fashion last year. But this year, for some reason, companies are looking to bring back dual rear camera setup and two noted Chinese manufacturers, namely Huawei and now LeEco are expected to release phones with such a setup soon. In fact, the Le 2 could debut as soon as the end of this month.
The image reportedly comes from supply chain sources. Along with the dual cameras, the phone also come with dual nano SIM card slots and a new vibration motor. Also, we can see what looks like a USB Type-C port besides the camera setup.
We have already seen the new images of the LeEco Le 2 with the new logo, and they are quite different than the other smartphones from the company till date. The phone reportedly features a double sided glass design, instead of a metal body. The fingerprint sensor is located at the back, and there’s the company’s new LE logo as well. However, the camera on the phone seems to be a traditional one, so it remains to be seen whether any of the variants of the Le 2 ends up with a dual camera setup.
According to the previous Le 2 specs leak, the phone will come with Snapdragon 820 chipset with a 5.7-inch 2K display, 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage. At the back, there will be a traditional 21MP rear camera while up front, it features an 8MP shooter. The Le 2 Pro supports dual card dual standby with Quick Charging, USB Type-C, IR port, 3100mAh battery and an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.
Last year we finally saw Samsung doing the right thing with its design. The company made the phones that look premium and expensive. This year we have the upgraded Galaxies and the S7 Edge is one of them. Will it once again be one of the best smartphones on the market?
When it comes to the design, we are looking at the device that has a gorgeous 5.5” 2K display. We all know that Samsung have had one of the best screens on the market and the S7 Edge is no exception. The panel that is covered by the Gorilla Glass 5, is sharp, vibrant, bright and definitely on of the best on any smartphone.
You will be able to see this great screen even under water as the Galaxy S7 edge is IP68-certified, meaning that it can be used for 30 mins up to 1.5m under water. Also, it can survive a little bit of dust, too. I would say that is a huge advantage over the majority of the competition.
We have a really cool innovation – always-on display and this feature is really neat. Basically, what it does, it shows the clock, calendar and some useful stuff, and this feature uses a very low amount of energy. To be honest, it took me a few days to get used to it as I wanted to turn the display off manually but I really love this feature.
As the name implies, the display has edges on both sides and it adds a lot of character to the design. Sometimes it even makes an impression that the display is bezel-less.
Of course, there is a functional part of those edges. For example, you can create shortcuts to some tasks, quickly access contacts, news, apps and so on.
If you swipe your finger along the edge screen while the display is off, you’ll get some other useful info too.
On the front, we have a 5MP selfie shooter, notification LED and other usual stuff. On the bottom, there is a classic Samsung’s button layout – nicely backlit capacitive keys and the physical home button, which also doubles as a fingerprint scanner.
Speaking of which, it is very fast and accurate but I am disappointed that it does not work straight from the standby mode, meaning that you should press the home or power key first.
The back is made of another sheet of Gorilla Glass 5 and the edges of it are also slightly curved. I gotta tell you that those curves make a huge difference in terms of comfort and ergonomics while holding the phone in the hand.
The camera has 12MP, which sounds like a downgrade but we have all sorts of tech going on here. It has a dual-pixel tech to assure crazy fast auto-focus and believe me, it is the fastest I’ve seen. Also, the camera has OIS, PDAF and a whopping very bright f/1.7 aperture.
Next to the camera we have the LED flash and a heart rate monitor to help you track your exercise routines.
The power button, which is on the right along with volume keys, which are on the left, are very clicky and responsive.
On the bottom, we have the regular ports, the loudspeaker, and neither of them are covered by flaps despite waterproof properties of the phone.
On the top, there is a secondary mic and the nano SIM and microSD card tray. Yes, Samsung finally brought a cheap storage expansion option and you can add up to 200GB of local storage.
It is quite an interesting choice that we don’t have the IR blaster anymore. Well, I’ve never used it anyway but it was cool knowing it was there on the Galaxy S6.
Overall, the phone looks amazing and I love the design ot it. It screams premium and it sits comfortably in the hand despite being a device with 5.5”display. However, keep in mind that the glass back attracts fingerprints and smudges very quickly.
When it comes to the UI, we have Samsung’s Touchwiz, which is built on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
If you’ve used a Samsung device before, you will feel pretty familiar with the user interface. Most importantly, everything is running smoothly most of the times and I didn’t have any lags.
We have a bit cartoonish looking icons, a lot of quick settings toggles and what has become usual to the South-Korean manufacturer, quite a lot of features and customisation options.
Just to name a few, you can quickly launch the camera by double clicking the home button. Also, you can trigger one handed operation if click the home button three times.
There is pop-up window mode or split-screen feature for those who can’t live without multitasking.
There are some other features too. Some of them may sound gimmicky, while others are even called experimental.
Finally, you can customise your Galaxy device with a variety of different themes, wallpapers and so on.
All in all, the Touchwiz UI runs fast and fluid and I had a pleasant overall experience. However, it uses around 8GB of internal storage, which is too much I would say.
Also, the RAM management is not yet perfect. Seriously, this is 4GB RAM phone and there is only 1.2GB of RAM free after killing all the background tasks? Hopefully, this is what Samsung is going to fix with the software update soon.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: BENCHMARKS
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has a few hardware modifications but you can be rest assured that either model will have bleeding edge specifications.
My review unit is the EU model and it sports a home-brewed octa-core Exynos 8890 chip with the clock speeds of up to 2.6GHz, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.
If you are wondering what this combo of specs is capable of, all 3D games just fly. There is no stutter or any skipped frames, the graphics look awesome and the games load amazingly fast.
In addition, there is a dedicated Game Tools app that provides some convenient features like the ability to turn off alerts during the game or record the gameplay.
Also, the phone does not heat up at all even after extensive periods of gaming and that is thanks to the Volcano API and liquid-cooling system.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: MULTIMEDIA
When it comes to multimedia consumption, the sound quality via earphones is near excellent and the volume output is loud. However, the external speaker could be slightly louder and it sounds a little bit muffled. I believe that may be due to its waterproof properties.
Once you fire up the camera app, you will be blown away by the blazing fast auto-focus speeds in any light.
What we have here is typical Samsung, which brings quite a few settings and shooting modes, and you can even download more modes if you wish.
One thing I was really disappointed by is that the sensor uses a native 4:3 aspect ratio, meaning that the images will not be full screen if you shoot at the maximum resolution.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: IMAGE QUALITY
When it comes to the actual image quality, it is definitely on of the best in class. The daylight pictures look sharp, have lots of detail, the colour look natural and other aspects like dynamic range and exposure and handled well.
It is a similar story with indoor and macro shots as the camera manages to capture a great amount of detail despite worse lighting conditions.
The low-light camera performance is fantastic. It not only focuses very fast but also manages to produce great looking photos. Naturally, there is less detail but the level of it is still very good. Also, the noise levels are kept to minimum. The only shortcoming is that the auto post-processing leads to a slight yellow tint in some of the pictures.
The front facing camera takes very good selfies even in low light and that is thanks to the bright aperture.
Both 1080p and 4K videos look stunning. The footage is sharp and very detailed, the OIS does its job very well and the videos are one of the best I’ve seen.
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.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: BATTERY
The S7 Edge has a 3600mAh battery and I was curious how it performs with the always-on display.
I gotta tell you that I was quite impressed with the results. I could get over 5 hours of screen-on time while taking lots of pictures, shooting a lot 4k videos, gaming, browsing the web and so on.
If you need to top up the battery, the phone charges up really fast and that is thanks to the fast charging feature. Also, there is an embedded wireless charging feature that helps cut a few wires.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: CONCLUSIONS
So, there you have it, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. This is the best Samsung phone ever and definitely on of the best on the market.
The design is really flashy, the curved screen with the always-on display feature is fantastic, the UI is running fast and the phone has one of the best specs currently available that can handle even the most demanding tasks without a sweat or overheating.
Also, the S7 Edge has awesome camera, a great battery life and yeah, this thing is fully waterproof.
On the other hand, the glass backplate is a huge fingerprint magnet, the UI takes a lot of storage space and uses lots of RAM, and the current state of software does not support Android 6.0’s adaptable storage. Also, the camera sensor has a native 4:3 aspect ratio and oh boy, this phone is expensive. It costs around $800 and perhaps not everyone is going to buy it.
All in all, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is a fantastic phone and it will be one of the best devices out there for months ahead despite having a few shortcomings. Just remember, premium phone comes at a premium price.
We came across these multi-colour LED strips. We liked them, because they are cheap and high quality. Learn more in our review.
As a matter of fact, Gearbest currently has these strips on sale. You can get it for just above $10 and you will find all the links down below the review article.
What you are getting in the packaging include two rolls of LED strips, 5M each. You can use them separately or connect, so you will have 10m in total.
Also, you are getting an RGB control box along with the remote control, which has a pre-installed removable battery.
To power the LED strips up, you have to connect the RGB control box to the LED strip. Then you have to connect it to the power cord, which is sold separately. Gearbest were kind enough to supply me with the affordable power cord and I will leave a link down below.
In fact, you can also order another remote control (in case you loose the included one), which is very cheap.
The LED strips have the adhesive, which allows you to stick it anywhere including outdoors as these LED strips are waterproof too.
Everything else is pretty much self-explanatory.
The remote control allows you to change colours, adjust the brightness or select different lighting modes.
I’ve used these LED strips for a week and everything is working fine. All in all, I can tell you that it is a pretty good deal. For $10 you are getting two rolls of LED strips and a remote control.
Leagoo is a known brand in the Chinese smartphone market for its low cost smartphones. We have seen many smartphones from the company offering good specs for a fraction of the cost as compared to other players. Now, the company is back in the game with a brand new smartphone, namely the Leagoo Alfa 2. It’s not a powerful phone, rather it’s targeted at those users who are looking for a decent Android experience at a budget price tag.
The Leagoo Alfa 2 will come with the quad-core MT6580A processor based on Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.3GHz with 1GB of RAM on board and 16GB of internal storage. The memory can be further expanded up to 32GB via MicroSD. The phone features a decent 5-inch display with 720p resolution which translates into pixel density of 294 ppi. One of the highlights of the device is the 2.5D glass up front, which gives it a premium curved look.
At the back, the Leagoo Alfa 2 comes with a 13MP Sony camera with AutoFocus f/2.2 aperture and dual LED flash. Up front, you will find a 5MP fast focus shooter with front flash and 71 degrees wide angle lens for your selfies. The phone comes with a 2600mAh removeable battery fitted inside a 7.5mm body. Connectivity features include 3G, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS. As for software, the Alfa 2 comes with Android 5.1 with Leagoo OS 1.1 on top. Other features include support for 12 smart gestures, double click to wake, Beauty camera, back touch etc.
The Leagoo Alfa 2 will come in four different colors namely Dark Grey, White, Pink and Gold. We still don’t know the official pricing or availability details of the device but will keep you updated on the same in the coming days. So stay tuned!
As we known, the high-end flagship LEAGOO Shark 1 is coming.
OPPO has been teasing the features of its upcoming OPPO R9 flagship for the past few weeks. We already know that the phone will come with a metal body with matte finish and a screen with super narrow bezels. Now the latest teaser from OPPO reveals that the upcoming flagship will feature a fast fingerprint sensor.
The company revealed via a couple of teasers that the R9 will come with a front facing fingerprint sensor that unlocks within 0.2 seconds. So, you will be able to start using the phone almost instantly you touch the front facing home button integrated with fingerprint sensor.
Apart from revealing that the sensor unlocks the phone instantly, the company also hinted that its ideal for making mobile payments. Now, OPPO doesn’t have its own payment service like Apple, Samsung or even Huawei (the company recently unveiled the Huawei Pay). Could we see an OPPO Pay mobile payment service launch alongside the R9? There have been reports about Chinese companies planning to release such a service, and Huawei was the first one to jump into the mobile payment market. But we are not entirely sure whether OPPO will enter the payment market as well.
In one of its teasers, we can see that the R9’s fingerprint looks a lot like the oval sensor from Meizu. Some manufacturers, like Xiaomi for example, have used an oblong shaped sensor probably to differentiate itself from other manufacturers. But OPPO seems to be taking the usual approach to fingerprint ID, instead of a different design.
Although OPPO isn’t officially confirming any other device apart from the OPPO R9, we are almost sure that we will meet a larger sibling, namely the OPPO R9 Plus at the event. Instead of an octa-core chip which is likely the Helio X10 inside the OPPO R9, the Plus variant will reportedly come with Snapdragon 652 and a larger 4000mAh battery as well. Other specs will be the same like 16MP rear and front cameras, and 4GB RAM.
Pricing was never the strong point of OPPO devices, and it said that the phone could retail for as much as 2999 Yuan which comes to $460. The R9 Plus could be even more costlier, retailing for 3499 Yuan ($537).
So, we have been hearing about the slowdown of the Chinese smartphone market. There have been reports about layoffs among startup smartphone manufacturers like OnePlus and now, Dakele announced yesterday that the company has gone bankrupt. The founder of the company, Ding Xiuhong made the announcement via a weibo post yesterday surprising many fans.
In case you remember, Dakele became famous among Chinese clone smartphone lovers as they had made an amazing iPhone 6 clone called as the Dakele 3. But unlike other clone devices, this particular smartphone came with powerful specs, attracting the likes of many. Further, the phone was priced at just $240 in China, which made it a pretty good deal.
Dakele has always focused on affordable smartphones, with marketing helping it find new customers. But with increased competition from both top and low-end players, it became hard for the company to survive. From the founder’s statement, it looks like the financial backing for the company recently dried out, which ultimately led to Dakele’s closure.
Small time smartphone manufacturers are always at risk of closure, especially if they are focused solely in the local market. Chinese smartphone industry is highly saturated at the moment, with even big players like Xiaomi struggling to reach its goals. Last year, Xiaomi aimed to sell more than 80 million smartphones, but ended up selling only about 70 million. This shows that the slowdown is affecting even large players, and in such an environment, it’s really hard for the small time players, whose only source of business is smartphones, to survive.
Apart from the company’s financial problems, there have been reports about many component suppliers filing bankruptcy in China. Component makers are the heart of any smartphone manufacturer, so if they fail to deliver, the company fails to launch its products. Remember how an earthquake in Taiwan which damaged a display supplier’s factory resulted in the scrapping of the upcoming Meizu Pro 5 Mini handset?
The demise of Dakele is a strong indicator of how small time Chinese smartphone makers are struggling in the country. After Dakele, there could be other small smartphone players as well who could file for bankruptcy or may even be taken over in 2016.
In the past couple of days, we have seen some information about a new variant of the Redmi 3 budget smartphone that was announced in January this year. While at that time we had no clue about the name or even the features of the new handset, recent reports from China have thrown some light about the device’s specs.
First of all, according to the latest information, it is being said that the new Redmi 3 variant will be called as the Redmi 3S. This name is possible since the updated version of the Redmi 1 was called as the 1S. As for the specs, most of the hardware is expected to be the same as the Redmi 3, however, the new Redmi 3S will most likely bring a fingerprint sensor to the device.
As for the pricing, the Redmi 3S is rumored to retail at a price tag of 799 Yuan which comes to around $122. So, you will have to shell out around $15 more than the usual pricing for the addition of a fingerprint scanner. Finally, you can expect to meet the Redmi 3S on April 6 which will be the company’s sixth anniversary. Lot’s of new products are expected to be launched on that day and the Redmi 3S could be one of them.
Thanks to yesterday’s TENAA listing, we know that the Xiaomi Redmi 3S will look exactly the same as the previous version, featuring a 4000mAh battery inside its 8.5mm body. The phone will also continue with the all metal design as the Redmi 3.
As for the specs, if it’s the same as the Redmi 3, you can expect Snapdragon 616 on board with 2GB of RAM, 13MP rear camera with PDAF, 5MP front shooter, dual SIM dual standby and a 5-inch 720p display. A possible upgrade on the Redmi 3S could be the screen resolution (bump it up to 1080p), but we are not yet sure of that.
There’s also a rumor going around that Xiaomi will release the Redmi 3A, as an upgrade to the Redmi 2A budget device. Pricing is expected to be cheap, around 599 Yuan which is less than $100.
For the past couple of days, we have been hearing about two upcoming smartphones from QiKu. Thanks to AnTuTu listing, we have seen two new QiKu smartphones, one powered by Snapdragon 820 and another powered by Helio X20. Now, it looks like one of these smartphones will meet us on March 21 as the company has started revealing teasers for the launch of its QiKu F4 smartphone.
The company has changed its account name on Weibo to 360 mobile and looks like, the new smartphone is also going to get a new name. From the teasers, we can see that the phone will be called as the F4. The latest teaser reveals that the phone will be sleek and stylish and will be comfortable to hold. Since the company started teasing the new device only recently, we can expect more information in the coming days to the launch.
According to the previous AnTuTu listing, two new QiKu phones are in development. The high-end version, code-named QiKu 1509-A02 will come with the powerful quad-core Snapdragon 820 under the hood with 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. The screen size is unknown, but it will feature a 1080p FHD display. At the back, we can expect a dual camera setup, with two 13MP sensors. Finally, for software, the phone is running on Android 6.0.1.
As for the second QiKu device, code-named QiKu 1503_M02, it will feature slightly lower specs. The phone comes with the deca-core MT6797 Helio X20 under the hood with 3GB of RAM and 32GB ROM. The display size is once again unknown but the resolution is 1080p. The rear camera will be of 13MP while up front, you will find a 5MP front facing shooter. This particular device is also running on the latest version of Android Marshmallow OS.
We could see one of these two devices or even both of them at the scheduled QiKu event in Beijing on March 17. Stay tuned for more details.
We all know that Huawei is all ready to announce it flagship P9 at the event in London on 6th of april. As the news came before, this device will use dual rear cameras. Also, the company had announced a partnership with Leica to boost its camera performance and we may see something exciting in the optics department of the device.
Today evening, three of Huawei executives on the microblogging site (weibo) posted the same line, “later, 9 Lai” (translated). Obviously, this is implied in the upcoming Huawei P9, and “Lai” word is probably hinting at “Leica.”
Specs-wise, the phone is supposed to come with powerful features. In fact, it is said that the P9 will come in four different variants, namely P9 standard edition, P9 Lite, P9 Premium and P9 Max as per the recent rumor. All the details about the different variants of the P9 can be found here.
Now that the Xiaomi Mi 5 and it’s less popular sibling, the Mi 4S are announced, it’s time to focus on the other upcoming smartphones from the company. Yesterday, we reported that we spotted four new models, probably from the Redmi series on the 3C certification website with the following model numbers: 2015810, 2015817, 2015818, and 2015819. At that time, we said that there was a good chance that these models could of the Redmi 4, or variants of the existing Redmi 3.
Thanks to the TENAA listing of two of these models, namely the 2015810 and 2015817, we can be sure that at least these two are variants of the Redmi 3. TENAA reveals that 2015817 model comes with an 8.5mm body and 3000mAh battery, while the 2015810 model features a larger 4000mAh battery inside a same sized body. Both feature 5-inch displays. Considering these specs, its almost confirmed that they are some kind of variants of the existing Redmi 3 which also features similar specs. So, what could these new variants bring to the table?
The Redmi 3 was already a great budget device, but it lacked one common feature that is usually found in most mid-range and flagship smartphones in the market today — Fingerprint sensor. And now, we might have the first glimpse of the Redmi 3 with Fingerprint ID.
So, from this image, it looks like the new variants add a fingerprint sensor to the Redmi 3. We don’t know whether there are any new additions, but the company will probably reveal them in the coming days.
So, what do you think? Will Xiaomi price the Redmi 3 with fingerprint ID at just 699 Yuan ($107)? Or will it retail at a higher price tag?
Xiaomi Mi 4C was released last year as the Chinese variant of the Mi 4i. But the Mi 4C featured much better specs as compared to the latter, making it a pretty good mid-range smartphone. While the phone used to retail for more than $250 on various third party sellers, now OPPOMART is selling the Xiaomi Mi 4C smartphone at just $189.99. Considering the specs that the phone features, the Mi 4C is actually a pretty powerful smartphone and at this price, it’s a good deal.
To recap, the Xiaomi Mi 4C comes with a compact 5-inch Sharp/ JDI display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. Under the hood, the phone comes with the capable Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor. This particular chipset powered many flagships of 2015, so its powerful enough for your day to day needs.
So, for $189.99 you get the 2GB RAM variant. If you are looking to buy the 3GB variant, you will have to shell out $50 more. There’s 16GB / 32GB / 64GB storage options available. At the back, the phone features a 13MP sensor with dual tone flash while up front, you get a 5MP front shooter. The Mi 4C supports 4G LTE networks and should support most European networks. The supported LTE bands include 1800 / 2100 / 2600.
Inside, you get a 3000mAh battery, which is decent considering the phone comes with a small 5-inch display. It supports dual SIM dual standby and measures 7.8mm in thickness. The phone runs on MIUI 7.
Overall, the Xiaomi Mi 4C is an all around mid-ranger and for $189.99, this is not a bad deal at all. There are two color options available, white and black and both the versions seem to be in stock right now. You can check out more details from the link given below.
With the advancement of mobile phone camera technology, home video cameras (camcorders) have pretty much become a thing of the past.
These days we all have a device in our pockets that is capable of capturing video almost instantly, but whilst we can all record videos on our phones it is not always the case that the video will look great.
The big differences between amateur looking recordings and more professional ones has a lot to do with how steady the recorder can be held.
For big professional video cameras a weighted and balanced rig is used, this ensures the camera is not affected by every small movement of the operator.
Some newer phones such as the Xiaomi Mi5 come with 4 Axis optical image stabilization, a system that compensates for user motion to give a much smother less jumpy recording.
The Gizcam Redfox has been designed to work with mobile phones and action cams to give you the steady recording that can make your videos look great.
Gizcam Redfox is available in 2 variants for Smartphones And Action Cameras
The mobile phone version of the Gizcam Redfox weighs in at around 430 grams, whilst the action cam version comes in at just under 100 grams less at 338 grams).
Part of that weight is made up of a 3,000mAh battery, that has enough juice to run the Gizcam Redfox for around 10 hours, the Redfox can also function as a power bank to keep your phone or action camera charged up.
Gizcam Redfox features three different modes
Pan following mode-
Locks tilt and roll axes – The camera pans to follow the handles direction.
Locking mode –
Pan – Roll – Tilt are all lockable
Pan and tilt following mode
Locks the roll axis the camera follows the pan and tilt motion of the handle.
Degrees of movement
Construction
The Gizcam Redfox is made from light weight aluminium
Gizcam Redfox smartphone compatibility list, the following phones are confirmed working by the manufacturer, but it should also work with the vast majority of android phones available.
iPhone 5s
iPhone 6s
iPhone 6s Plus
And is currently on sale at just $220.99 available from Amazon here
Gizcam Redfox action camera is confirmed to work with the following action cams, but it is likely that it will also work with many other similarly styled action cams available from china.
And is currently on sale at just $230.99 available from Amazon here
So what do you think? are you looking to make great movies or home videos? can you see the benefits of the Gizcam Redfox? I am hoping to receive one soon to do a full product review.
Not a day goes by without news about the upcoming OPPO R9 and the R9 Plus smartphones. Earlier, we reported that the upcoming OPPO smartphones could be quite costly in China, and now, the larger model in the lineup, namely the OPPO R9 Plus has been spotted on the benchmarking website AnTuTu. Thanks to the listing, we can once again confirm the specs of the device. Earlier, TENAA listing had revealed the internals of the device.
The model number as given by AnTuTu is R9 Plustm A, which indicates that this is the larger and more powerful variant. The listing further confirms that the OPPO R9 Plus will come with Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 octa-core chip. While this chip isn’t as powerful as SD820, it’s still powerful enough to drive a flagship smartphone. Further, the Adreno 510 GPU will ensure that the phone’s graphics performance is up to the mark.
Other features are just as revealed by TENAA. So, there is 4GB of RAM on board along with 64GB of internal storage. While AnTuTu doesn’t reveal the display size, TENAA confirmed a 6-inch 1080p screen on the device. Another interesting information revealed by the listing is the camera up front. As you can see in the listing, the R9 Plus will feature a 16MP front-facing shooter, which should capture great selfies. The rear camera will also be the same 16MP sensor.
While these look like pretty decent specs for a 6-inch phablet, what we are really concerned about is the software on board. Android 5.1.1 on a 2016 flagship? We don’t think so. OPPO may not be so frequent with their Android updates, but we hope that the retail version of the OPPO R9 Plus ships with the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow on board.
With these specs, the phone managed to score about 70K on AnTuTu, which is pretty decent. But it’s still below the deca-core Helio X20 which gets around 85K.
Now, coming to the pricing, a recent leak said that the phone could be priced at around 3499 Yuan which is a lot for such a device. It comes to around $537. That’s way more than the official $354 (2699 Yuan) price of the Xiaomi Mi 5 Pro.
Cubot has released quite a few new devices lately and Note S is one of them. It is a very cheap (below $80) phone that actually has pretty good specs and design for the price. Find out more in our unboxing and first impressions article.
Cubot Note S comes with the USB cable, charging plug and instruction manuals.
Also, Cubot included a nice soft TPU case to protect your device.
Cubot Note S: DESIGN and FIRST IMPRESSIONS
When we first took the phone out of the box, we immediately noticed its plasticky build. The frame, that is going around the device imitates plastic and it makes the phone look cheap.
Well, it is a cheap device after all and the build quality is not bad at all for such a low price.
On the front we have a 2MP camera with other usual stuff.
On the bottom there are 3 capacitive buttons, which do not have a backlight.
The backplate is made of plastic and it is easy to remove it. Under the hood you can find a removable large 4150mAh battery, two SIM card slots and the microSD card slot. The phone supports dual-SIM dual standby mode (2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz; 3G: WCDMA 900/1900/2100MHz). Unfortunately, there is no 4G support.
As for optics, we have an 8Mp shooter with a single LED. On the bottom, there is just a speaker grill.
All the buttons are on the right and they have a good tactile feedback although they feel cheap.
On the top we have a headset jack and the micro USB port.
Overall, the phone does not sport any premium materials but it is actually well built considering a low price of it.
The 5.5″ display has only 720p resolution but it is nice to look at it it gets very bright at the maximum brightness settings.
Also, the UI seems to be working very fast so far.
However, we need to spend more time with the device to test all the features of it. Stay tuned to Gizmochina for a full review.
Google updated their Android Distribution Data for the month of March. The latest Android v6.0(Marshmallow) has some how managed to crawl past 2%, although it is growing, but not as expected.
According to the data Android v6.0(Marshmallow) is now running on 2.3% active Android devices. Interestingly, the level of distribution has doubled up from the February’s figure of 1.2%.
Finally, Android Lollipop v5.X’s market has managed to top the chart after 16 months of its initial release. Android Lollipop holds total share of around 36.1%(Android 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop running on 16.9% and 19.2% respectively). While, the devices running Android KitKat v4.4 have dropped down to 34.3% this month from 35.5% last month.
The Android 4.1.x – 4.3 (Jelly Bean) has now combined share of 22.3% compared to 23.9% last month and Android ICS v4.0.x has around 2.3% with 0.2% decrease from last month’s data.
Honeycomb has no place in the list, Android Gingerbread v2.3.3-2.3.3 and Android Froyo v2.2 has distribution shares around 2.6% and 0.1% respectively.
It is worth mentioning that Android 6.0 version market share is surely going to level up as numerous OEM’s releasing Android 6.0 updates. But, Google will be demonstrating Android 7.0 at Google I/O developer conference, which is expected to happen soon. With this, some manufacturers may not follow v6.0, which is not a good practice.
QiKu will release a number of handset this year and we have already seen one of the possible devices, thanks to an early AnTuTu listing. Now, another device from the company, this time featuring mid-range specs was spotted on the AnTuTu app, revealing much of the specs and performance of the device.
The new QiKu device with the model number QK1503-M02 comes with less powerful specs than the QK1509-A02 model that was spotted on the same benchmarking app yesterday. The new model will feature MT6797 Helio X20 deca-core chipset inside with Mali-T880 GPU. Like yesterday’s model, this one too will come with a 1920 x 1080p display but the screen size is not known.
There will be 3GB of RAM on board along with 32GB of internal storage. As for the camera, instead of a dual camera 13MP setup at the back, you will find a single 13MP sensor on the device. Up front, there will be a 5MP shooter. As for software, the phone runs on the new Android 6.0 Marshmallow version.
MT6797 hasn’t really impressed us with its initial performance figures, despite featuring 10 cores inside. Even this particular model is said to score only about 80K on AnTuTu which is quite low. In comparison, the Snapdragon 820 powered QiKu device could score about 125K in the same test. In fact, Xiaomi Mi 5 with similar specs was able to break the 130K mark on the benchmarking app which means even the QiKu device with similar specs has some room for improvement.
Since both these models have visited AnTuTu benchmark, we can expect to get more information about them in the coming days. QiKu had launched its three smartphones back in August. So, if the company is to follow the same release period, then there’s still a few months left for the new phones to launch.
OPPO R9 and its elder sibling, the OPPO R9 Plus are all set to launch on March 17. However, the company is not waiting for the launch day to reveal some of the features of the device. For example, yesterday, we saw that the OPPO R9 will come with thin bezels and thin black borders around the display.
Now, OPPO has revealed a portion of the back of the upcoming R9 flagship, and it confirms the design seen in the earlier TENAA listing. The company adds that the phone will come with a slim metal body that fits in your palm perfectly. Despite being made out of metal, the phone seems to be featuring a non-glossy texture. So, this matte texture could help provide a better grip to the user holding the device.
Apart from the back and the front, we also got an idea about the possible pricing of both the R9 and the R9 Plus yesterday evening. Thanks to a local OPPO store, it looks like the OPPO R9 will be priced at 2999 Yuan ($460) while the OPPO R9 Plus will retail for 3499 Yuan ($537).
For this price, the OPPO R9 will reportedly offer you a 5.5-inch 1080p display, octa-core chipset with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. At the back, you will get a 16MP camera and a 2850mAh battery with the company’s trademark VOOC fast charging tech. We still don’t know whether the Super VOOC fast charge technology which was showcased at MWC 2016 will make it to the device.
As for the OPPO R9 Plus, the phone will be larger than the R9 featuring a 6-inch display with an octa-core chipset as well, but it’s the Snapdragon 652. Remember what the analyst had said a few days back? Many flagships this year would be using the Snapdragon 652 due to its lower cost. It seems like OPPO is following this trend. Other specs include 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, 16MP camera, VOOC fast charge and a large 4120mAh battery.
Why I like a front fingerprint scanner? The answer is simple. Because it’s in the ideal position where my thumb would naturally rest!
2. Metal unibody design & quality build
Despite having a better camera and a bigger battery, the UMi TOUCH looks more svelte than before. That’s partly because UMi TOUCH has implanted the golden ratio R criterion curve from iPhone 6s and the seamless metal unibody design from Xiaomi note 3.
The combination of iPhone 6s and Xiaomi Note3, UMi TOUCH is an exceptionally good-looking phone, and it comes in 3 very nice colors too.
3. The battery’s massive – 4,000mAh
Not only is the battery much bigger than the one in the UMi IRON PRO – it’s a 4,000 mAh model.
The bigger battery plus the various optimization that Android Marshmallow brings – the UMi TOUCH ships with Marshmallow 6. – means the UMi TOUCH should have exceptional battery life compared with its predecessors and rival devices.
4. You Get A Great Sony Exmor Camera
The UMI Touch has 13 M-pixel camera with quality Sony’s Exmor R IMX328 sensor, support Panorama mode/ live 3D mode/ Gif mode / motion track mode.
While its frontal camera is a 5 M-pixel Hynix Hi553 with a flashing for better selfies.
5. Dual SIM dual standby, MicroSD support up to 128GB
For those of us who like to shoot full-res photos, make home movies and install as many apps as we like, no amount of built-in storage is ever enough, so UMi TOUCH makes us very happy because it gives us 128 GB of extra storage.
For those who like to have two SIM cards, one for private and one for business, UMi TOUCH does not let us down because it gives us two slots for two different SIM cards!
6. Android 6.0 the latest from Google
UMi TOUCH comes with Android 6.0 right out of the box. This is not it as the phone supports up to 5 different customs ROMs which is just as easy as one tap installation via ROOTJOY, a pc manager tool for all UMi smart phone developed by UMi.
7. Decent Price at $179.99
UMi TOUCH is arriving at the global market on 20 March. You can make a pre-order on a new smartphone in silver or dark grey color already with a nice extra – free delivery. The UMI Touch will be priced in retail just at USD 179.
Overall UMi TOUCH is a value for money smartphone as it comes with Octa-core CPU, 3GB RAM, 4000mAh big battery, premium metal unibody, ideal front fingerprint scanner, 128GB expandable memory, Sony camera and the latest Android 6.0. Not a bad device, for $179!
Just after announcing its flagship Mi 5 and mid-range Mi 4s, the company seems to be working on a new phone. Four new models 2015810,2015817,2015818 and 2,015,819 were spotted on the 3C certification website recently. They could be variants of the same phone.
These models are found using charger MDY-08-EF, output specifications for the 5V / 2A. Given that the charger is just 5V 2A which is generally used by the budget Redmi lineup, there’s a good chance that these phones might be associated with the Redmi series. The Mi series now comes standard with fast charge support.
However, the Redmi Note series has been updated three times within a few months. The company’s last device in the series was the Redmi Note 3 Pro which was launched back in January with snapdragon 650 processor. So, it’s likely that this could be an updated model of the low-budget Redmi 3. But we are not quite sure of anything at the moment. Redmi 3 was also announced just a couple of months back. So, will Xiaomi release an update so soon?
We will have to wait and watch. Stay tuned for more details.
A few weeks back, Apple launched its Apple Pay mobile payment service in China, which is one of its important markets outside of US. Now, joining the club, Huawei has announced its own mobile payment service in China called as the Huawei Pay. At an event today, Bank of China and Huawei signed an official cooperation agreement for the same.
This news is not really surprising, given that, after Apple Pay was launched in the country, there was a new report that said that most Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE etc were planning to release a payment service of their own. So, it looks like Huawei will be the first one to release such a service this year. The company could soon be followed by other smartphone makers in the country.
It actually makes sense for the company to release a mobile payment service like Huawei Pay in China. The company is doing well in the smartphone market, selling over 109 million units last year alone. This year, the company plans to sell even more devices, with a major focus outside of China. Despite the increased focus internationally, Huawei sold around 58% of smartphones in China alone. Also, considering the growing number of users who rely on their smartphones for payments, this is actually a great move for consumers as it will make paying for goods and services easier than before.
However, at this point, Huawei is yet to reveal any specific details about the Huawei Pay service. Bank of China currently seems to be the only partner, but we can expect more tie-ups soon.
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At the back, the Leagoo Alfa 2 comes with a 13MP Sony camera with AutoFocus f/2.2 aperture and dual LED flash. Up front, you will find a 5MP fast focus shooter with front flash and 71 degrees wide angle lens for your selfies. The phone comes with a 2600mAh removeable battery fitted inside a 7.5mm body. Connectivity features include 3G, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS. As for software, the Alfa 2 comes with Android 5.1 with Leagoo OS 1.1 on top. Other features include support for 12 smart gestures, double click to wake, Beauty camera, back touch etc.
With the advancement of mobile phone camera technology, home video cameras (camcorders) have pretty much become a thing of the past.
