Meizu announced its Pro 5 flagship last month with the powerful Exynos 7420 octa-core chip on board. With this chip inside, the phone manages to score more than 70K easily, which is why many of us are interested to see how well the Pro 5 flagship manages to dissipate heat.
Snapdragon 810 has a very bad reputation of overheating, despite being a powerful flagship chipset. On the other hand, the 14nm based Exynos 7420 seems to tackle the problem of overheating quite well. So, some folks over at China decided to perform a heating test on the new Meizu Pro 5 under certain circumstances to see how whether it managed to keep the heat levels under control.
TEST I
In the first test, the Meizu Pro 5 was made to run the AnTuTu benchmark test for about 5 minutes. The test takes care of a number of areas like processing power, GPU etc, which should technically heat up the device. It’s like playing a high-end game for about 5 minutes on the device. After the first five minutes of the test, wherein the phone managed to score about 76K points, the maximum temperature at the front was39.5degreeCelsius. At the back, the maximum temperature was just 37.3 degreesCelsius with an average of about 35.8 degrees. The phone managed to keep the temperature under 40 degrees which is quite impressive. Not bad for a flagship with such raw power underneath!
TEST II
In the second test, the phone was made to run a full HD 1080p video for 10 long minutes. After the video playback, the temperatures of both the back and the front were measured. The temperature up front was just 34.6 degrees with the average being 32.4 degrees. As for the back of the device, the maximum temperature was just 34.2 degrees with the average being 33.5 degrees.
Both the tests show that Meizu has done a great job controlling heat on its Pro 5 flagship. This does prove that high-end performance is possible without overheating the device to unacceptable levels.
It seems that a lot of Chinese manufacturers are trying to solve a weak battery life issue by simply producing the phones with enormous size of the batteries. Cubot is no exception here as they have the H1 in their portfolio. But is it any good? Does a large battery alone make the phone a good device to use?
Thanks to Pandawill for supplying us with the Cubot H1 for a review.
The phone comes with a charging plug, USB cable, documentation and a screen protector.
Cubot H1 Review: DESIGN
The Cubot H1 is not the smallest phone as it comes with 5.5” display but this is what we need to deal with when it comes to most of the phones nowadays. Nevertheless, the phone sits comfortably in the hand.
On the top we have sensor lights, earpiece and an 8MP shooter, which is interpolated from 5MP sensor, a non-customisable LED light, which flashes in two colours, and on the bottom there are 3 capacitive keys, which have a really bright backlight that is visible outdoors.
The backplate is made of textured plastic material and here we have the 13MP camera, which is again a result of interpolation from 8MP sensor. Also there is an LED flash.
On the bottom we have just a speaker grill.
You can remove the back cover and underneath it you can find one full size SIM card slot with the 4G support, a micro SIM card slot for GSM networks and the microSD card slot for storage expansion. The star of the show, however, is a huge removable 5200Ah battery and I will talk about it a bit later.
The phone measures at 9.2mm thick due to its large battery. The frame is made of plastic but the sides I believe are metal. Still, they feel plasticky to me.
On the left we have a volume rocker and on the right there is power key.
On the top there is a headset jack, micro USB port and the IR blaster.
Overall, the phone does not really impress when it comes to design. It uses mainly plastic all over the phone and it feels kind of cheap. A good thing is that the build quality is really good.
Cubot H1 Review: DISPLAY
The Cubot H1 comes with 5.5” 720P display, which is slightly curved on the sides to give that 2.5D glass effect. It is an okay panel for a budget phone as it is quite a sharp with decent colour reproduction but we’ve seen better ones.
A disappointing thing is that my review unit came with one dead pixel on the left corner.
Cubot H1 Review: UI
The phone runs on Android 5.1 with a light Cubot’s skin on top of it. It is almost a stock Android build but Cubot removed the app tray and changed the design of the icons.
There is no extra functionality like gestures or any customisation options on this phone. Well, let’s say that Cubot went with the “You keep it simple, you keep it fast” philosophy as the UI is running really smoothly all the time even with many apps running in the background.
The only software bug I found is that the backlight under the capacitive keys does not turn off when talking on the phone.
Overall, I’m happy with the fast and smooth UI performance but keep in mind that you are not getting any extra features we usually see on other phones.
Cubot H1 Review: BENCHMARKS
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Cubot H1 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
The Cubot H1 has a quad-core 64-bit MTK6735P chip, which is clocked at 1GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.
The specs are not really impressive but given the 720P panel the phone manages to handle 3D games quite well. The graphics do not look stunning, there are some skipped frames but gaming experience can be still enjoyable.
Also, I didn’t notice any severe overheating issues.
Cubot H1 Review: MULTIMEDIA
The Full-HD video playback is smooth and the loudspeaker quality not bad but nothing impressive either. It could be louder but a good thing is that it does not make crackling noises as it is common to some budget phones. However, the sound is tinny and it doesn’t not have much depth in it.
The sound via earphones is nothing to be impressed about but it is not a disaster either.
Cubot H1 Review: CAMERA
We have a stock Mediatek camera app we’ve seen on lots of phones lately and the Cubot H1 is no exception.
Cubot H1 Review: IMAGE QUALITY
The image quality is not really impressive. Well, you may get some decent looking daylight images and some macro shots in good lighting conditions but these pictures will be a hit or miss. Also, the colour reproduction is not always accurate and the dynamic range is usually off.
When it comes to the low-light shots, they do not impress at all. Usually, there is a noticeable purple tint in each picture. If the object is more illuminated, the purple tint disappears but as expected, the level of details is low and there is plenty of noise.
I took a selfie in the low light. Well, it can serve for Facebook just fine…
I had no issues with any of the connectivity options like wifi, Bluetooth and even GPS was fast to lock and pretty accurate to use for navigation. The call quality is also good.
Cubot H1 Review: BATTERY LIFE
The 5200Ah battery sounds really impressive given the 720P 5.5” panel and I can say it delivers in real life. I could get almost 7 hours and once I got 8 hours of screen-on time on moderate use with the wifi or 4G always on and the auto-brightness setting on. Also, the standby times are very good as the Cubot H1 takes only around 3% of power overnight. In addition, you are getting a fast charge feature on top of that and you can even charge other devices.
Cubot H1 Review: CONCLUSIONS
So here it is, the Cubot H1, the phone that it is designed with a great battery life in mind and it delivers in reality. It may have not the best but a decent screen, a fast UI and even okay gaming performance.
However, the phone’s camera does not impress, UI is just bare bones as it does not have any extra features. Also, the device looks and feels kind of cheap. Yes, it is well made, it does not make any crackling noises when pressed but the choice of plastic is what makes the Cubot H1 look plain and cheap.
If you are looking for the phone that does most of the day to day tasks right and has a killer battery life with a fast charge feature and ability to charge other gadgets, this phone can be for you. However, you have to consider the mentioned shortcomings and decide if they are a deal breaker to you or not and is it worth the price as currently you can get the Cubot H1 for as low as $130 unlocked.
From the number of rugged smartphones released by No.1 this year alone, it looks like the company is trying to specialize in this niche industry. The company’s previous releases like the No.1 X1 and the X2 have been rugged, with a large touchscreen up front. However, this time company has come up with yet another rugged phone, the No.1 A9. As you might have guessed from the different naming scheme, this particular device caters to a whole new segment, those who would like to have a physical keypad on the phone.
Yes, No.1 A9 brings rugged features to a phone with physical keypad. So, its dustproof, waterproof and even shock proof to a certain extent. This means you don’t have to worry about damaging the device in day to day rough usage. It can take a few hits. Plus all the ports are covered, meaning it can be immersed in water as well.
The phone is targeted at travelers and adventure freaks who are exposed to a harsh environment. The A9 comes with a small 2.4-inch display, with a keypad down below. It brings the old memories of a physical keypad smartphone. The phone is quite thick, measuring nearly 28mm, but you will be happy to hear that it comes with a large 4800mAh battery on board. So, its basically a powerbank as well, an ideal companion for your smartphones and other gadgets during a long trip.
The company boasts that the No.1 A9 sports excellent signal quality. You can use two SIM cards at a time as it supports dual SIM dual standby. Another highlighted feature of the device is that it can play FM radio without headphones. Finally, it features a powerful flash light as well, which can come in handy at night.
As you can see, this is not your everyday smartphone. Instead, its a niche product, ideal for trekkers, adventure enthusiasts and others who like to travel a lot. Its a basic smartphone that you can carry around wherever you want. The lack of Wi-Fi or GPS support is definitely a let down, but this phone will probably be your secondary device, which makes these drawbacks acceptable.
Naturally, being a basic smartphone, you can expect it to be pretty cheap. In fact, according to the latest information, the phone could be priced at just $45. That’s pretty cheap for a rugged smartphone.
So, what do you think about the No.1 A9? Anyone interested in this super cheap rugged phone?
Whilst Apple are launching OS X El Capitan today, other companies are also holding launch events, one such company is Rollei.
Rollei have today launched their another cool accessory the ePano Selfie, a panoramic head that can be attached to the Rollei Selfie Stick, or placed on a table using the fold out legs to capture sunning 360 degree panoramic shots.
I have used something similar before using a Bubblepod (this is basically a posh wind-up egg timer with a rubber jaw to hold a phone), to be honest the results were not amazing, the wind up motor and manual triggering created more problems than solutions.
Hopefully with the onboard battery powered motor (rated for 3 hours of continual use or 5 hours in standby), will give the ePano Selfie a distinct advantage, due to smooth rotation and the ability to trigger the ePano Selfie from 5 meters with the included IR remote, thus avoiding added vibration and camera blur at the start of the panoramic image.
It is my hope that the ePano Selfie will provide better results than the Bubblepod, I was provided with a Bubblepod by Rightmove (A property portal), to provide 360 panoramic images for houses that were coming to market.
Unfortunately due to the poor build quality of the Bubblepod and also the high failure to properly stitch the panorama via the Bubblepod App, I gave up and went back to standard photos, this was a real shame as the market needs to move forward and interactivity to me is something that people are looking for, my fingers are crossed that the ePano Selfie might be a tool that can get it right.
The ePano Selfie would also make a great addition to your selfie stick, or on the table at a celebration, capturing everyone in an image that can be shared and remembered forever.
Hopefully Rollei will provide a sample for me to try out.
Check out the full press release is below and be sure to leave comments and questions.
London, 30th September: Iconic German camera brand Rollei has put its unique twist on the selfie with the launch of its latest accessory, the ePano Selfie, which provides 360 degree panoramic shots.
Compatible with both smartphones and Actioncams, the Rollei ePano Selfie is an attachable panorama head that can either be fixed to a selfie stick or, using its fold out legs, be used as a rotating table stand. The accessory has adjustable speeds ranging from 2 to 5 rotations per minute. It also comes with an infrared remote control with a range of up to 5m to ensure users can perfectly capture every moment from all angles.
Due to its lightweight and compact design the Rollei ePano Selfie is perfect for travelling or taking to concerts to record your favourite bands. It has a long battery life, lasting up to 3 hours when continuously working or up to 5 hours on standby.
Jeremy Rother, UK Sales Manager at Rollei says: “The Rollei Selfie Stick is one of our best performing products so we wanted to build on this range by providing users new and unique ways to create movies and still images. At Rollei we are dedicated to producing high quality products to suit all photography needs, and we believe the ePano Selfie will appeal to both amateur and professional photographers.”
The Rollei ePano Selfie can be used with smartphones operating on iOS 5 or higher, Android 2.3.6 or higher as well as being equipped with Bluetooth 3.0 and 4.0.
The Rollei ePano Selfie will be available from mid-October and cost 54,99 €
Product Specifications
Weight 100g
Max load 500g
Rotation speed 2-5 r/min
Battery 3 hours continuous working
Battery 5 hours standby
LeTV has really surprised us all with its three new LeTV One series smartphones. The phones were well built, came with good specs and were priced aggressively, which is why it sold so well in the Chinese market. But just nearly six months after the first release of the LeTV phones, the next generation model, the LeTV Max 2 has leaked out. The Max is the top-end model in the Le 1 series, so we can expect some pretty crazy specs on board.
In fact, according to the latest leak, the specs are indeed crazy high-end. The LeTV Max 2 will reportedly come with Snapdragon 820 on board. But that isn’t the highlight, rather, the 6GB RAM (yes, we said 6GB) is probably its USP. The phone will most likely use the latest Samsung 1.5Gb x 4 RAM modules (total 6GB RAM) in the new device. For display, you can expect a 5.7-inch screen with 2K Quad HD resolution.
Finally, the top-end LeTV Max 2 is said to come with Sony’s new IMX300 sensor with 23MP. Other camera specs include f/2.0 aperture, fast focus (0.1 seconds) and 4K video support at 24fps. Also, the Max 2 is expected to feature double sided glass design in a slim body. As for the launch date, the leak says that you can expect it before the end of this year.
So, it looks like LeTV Max 2 will be a super high-end device. But like always, we will advise you to take this news with a pinch of salt. Lets see if we come across some concrete information in the coming days.
The company has kept the overall design and features pretty simple for its customers. For example, the Bluboo Xfire doesn’t have any capacitive buttons. Instead, the phone relies on the on-screen buttons of the UI. Despite being a budget device, the phone features screen to body ratio of 77% which is quite good.
Also, the phone comes with dual Silicon mic, which should reduce background noise to a great extent. As for the speakers, it is said that the Xfire will feature box speakers from AAC technologies.
Those who love pure Android looks will like the fact that the company has kept the UI relatively untouched. So, you should get a near stock Android 5.1 experience. Also, under the hood, the phone features a 2700mAh battery, which coupled with the 5-inch display and the efficient MT6735 should deliver more than a day’s battery life. Not bad for a cheap device. Even the rear 8MP OV camera is expected to be good, according to the recent samples.
Overall, it looks like the Bluboo Xfire will be a great phone in the budget segment. We wait to get our hands on the device for a full review once its launched.
Even though the OnePlus 2 is still not readily available for purchase to the customers, rumors about the new model, namely OnePlus X have already started to come. OnePlus CEO, Carl Pei had confirmed earlier that the company would release another device before the end of the year. Now, our factory sources reveal a few more details about this upcoming OnePlus X.
First of all, OnePlus is said to have redesigned the new OnePlus X to make it a bit more beautiful in appearance. To be honest, not everyone liked the new OnePlus 2’s design. However, the renders that we have seen of the OnePlus X with the dual cameras do look promising. Its a lot more premium looking than the current OnePlus 2. Also it comes with a fingerprint sensor at the back. While we are not sure whether the above renders will be used as the final design, our sources confirm that the upcoming OnePlus X will feature a new design.
Another thing revealed by our sources is that the phone will feature a 5-inch display. Also, under the hood, the OnePlus X will come with Snapdragon 801 chipset. Yes, it looks like the company is planning to put this year old flagship chipset inside its new device, which is exactly what ZUK did with its first smartphone. This should help the company cut down the costs and price it aggressively for the budget mid-range market. As for the pricing, earlier rumors indicate it should be around $249.
Finally, we may see the OnePlus X as soon as next month, i.e. October. This once again coincides with the information leaked earlier. So, we may really see the device launch pretty soon.
This news comes from credible factory sources, so its likely that all they will turn out to be true. Hopefully, in the coming days, we will get more information about the new OnePlus X. So, stay tuned for more details.
I know I know, this review comes out too late as the Meizu has already released the Pro 5…. Better than never, I guess.
I’ve had the Meizu MX5 for a month already and used it interchangeably with other phones. During this period of time I received like 5 software updates that improved a lot of things and this review is based on the latest and greatest UI version from Meizu.
So there you have it, affordable yet stylish all-metal Meizu MX5. It has a great design and outstanding build quality except for those a bit wobbling buttons.
The phone has a well implemented UI, which gets better and better with constant software updates, great performance, quite an impressive camera, great battery life and a fantastic fingerprint scanner.
That doesn’t mean the phone excellent, though. The display is good but the viewing angles are not excellent due to a small reflection, which leads to a bit washed out colours if you look from an extreme angle. But… I’m being bloody picky here.
Also, the lack of microSD card slot makes the 16GB model obsolete for heavy users and I honestly don’t understand why manufacturers keep producing devices with such a low amount of storage. Just give us a microSD card slot! Of course, you can opt in for a 32GB or even 64GB models.
All in all, for under $350 unlocked you are getting a great device. While it is not perfect but it is definitely a great buy for the price despite a few shortcomings.
We don’t usually think much when we need to replace our broken light bulb as we just go to the store and pick one up. Well, you can do that but if you want to a little bit more style to your home, you may want to check out a cool piece of tech – a smart LED light bulb with the Bluetooth speaker. We have just reviewed on, so you can decide if this is a thing you need for your home.
1byone Smart LED Bulb with Bluetooth Speaker Review: VIDEO
1byone Smart LED Bulb with Bluetooth Speaker Review: UNBOXING AND SETUP
All you are getting in the packaging is the bulb itself and some documentation.
This highly customisable LED bulb is made of glass and plastic and the overall construction looks solid.
The installation is super easy as you just have to replace your regular light bulb. Keep in mind that this bulb is 8cm wide and 14cm long, so it may not fit some lampshades.
The only way to control this 1byone LED bulb is using the Android or iOS app and you can download it by simply scanning the QR code.
1byone Smart LED Bulb with Bluetooth Speaker Review: FUNCTIONALITY
All right, I have already installed the app and connected the smart LED bulb to my phone, which was very easy.
The app itself is very simple to use. It has the integrated music player, which is okay but some sort of equaliser settings would have been nice. All you can do here is to play/pause or change tracks.
The next thing the app allows is to control the colour tone and the brightness of the bulb. A very cool thing is that you can just set it to auto and the bulb will start blinking randomly to the music rhythm you play. What I can say is that it really looks dope!
Also, you can take a full manual control and choose between 16 million color variations. Well, if you can really differentiate so many colours, of course. Also, you can adjust the brightness or just select warm or cold white.
If you want just to listen to music, you can turn the light off and vice versa.
A cool feature is that you can set a timer to turn the lights off and it works well.
A few complaints about the app would be that it has a few poor English translations and sometimes it happens that you can’t scroll through the music track normally. Well, this is version 1.0 of the app and hopefully this can be fixed and we may have a more polished app overall.
1byone Smart LED Bulb with Bluetooth Speaker Review: SOUND QUALITY
The sound quality is actually pretty good for the size of the speaker and considering the fact that this is the LED light bulb after all. However, you may hear a few crackling noises at the highest volume setting when playing songs, which have a lot of bass. This is not an issue though as it happened with just a few songs I played.
The volume output is quite impressive as this light bulb can easily fill the largest room.
1byone Smart LED Bulb with Bluetooth Speaker Review: CONCLUSIONS
So there you have it, the 1byone smart LED bulb with the Bluetooth speaker. This may not be the cheapest light bulb for $47 but you are getting much more than your regular LED light bulb.
You can either use it as a regular LED bulb, take full manual control of the colour tone or brightness, or just let the light do everything automatically to the rhythm of the music you play.
A loud and quality Bluetooth speaker will definitely impress your friends especially if you play it with the auto lights-on mode. That is my favourite feature, by the way. Also, the bulb takes only 6W of power if you care about that.
However, the app could be a little bit more polished and the music player can have some more features. The thing that sometimes you can’t scroll back and forth in the same track can be annoying but hopefully this is something that can be fixed via future software update.
Still, for the price $47 it is a great offering considering the overall package you are getting and a few disadvantages are far from a deal breaker. If you believe this is a gadget you need, you can grab it from the Amazon US or Amazon UK websites from the links below.
The official digital poster of Ramos declares “Great vision on a huge screen? Or the feeling of comfort? MOS1 MAX is quite different.” The poster suggests that the smartphone will have both a large screen and a long battery life. Meanwhile, the digital poster obviously implies that the smart phone will have a screen larger than 6-inches on a slim and comfortable design.The company’s earlier teasers had hinted at a slim body, but we still don’t know how slim the company is aiming. Anything below 8mm with 6000mAh+ battery would be impressive, but we have a feeling that it could be a tad slimmer.
6 inch + screen, 6000mAh + battery, there is no doubt that this will be a giant screen smartphone. The device will meet with you in October, which is just a few days away.
A few hours back, we spotted the Huawei Honor 5X with the model number KIW-AL10 on TENAA. However, the certification website did not mention the specifications of the device. Now, according to a weibo screenshot image, the same model has just hit AnTuTu revealing its full specifications.
The Honor 5X model will reportedly come with Snapdragon 615 octa-core chip under the hood with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage on board. There will be Adreno 405 GPU. The display will be of 5.5-inches with Full HD 1920 x 1080p resolution. At the back, the phone will come with a 13MP camera while up front, you can expect a 5MP shooter. As for software, the leaked image shows that the Honor 5X will run on Android 5.1.12 Lollipop OS.
While these specs are quite good for a mid-range flagship, in the AnTuTu benchmark, the phone only managed to score 20K points. That’s extremely disappointing with these specs, but we expect the official benchmarks to be much higher than this figure.
According to the TENAA listing, the phone came with an all metal design, much like the Mate 7. You also have a similar fingerprint recognition sensor at the back. There should be at least a gold colored variant when the phone is launched. Its also confirmed that the phone will support full network connectivity in China.
You can expect a launch sometime in October 2015, since the previous generation model, Huawei 4X debuted at the same time last year.
Last year, iNew came up with the iNew V3 smartphone which was an instant hit among customers, due to its slim design and value for money specifications. Now, the same Chinese company is back in the market with a new smartphone, called as the iNew L3. As you can see from the pictures down below, the new model does take a few design pointers from its previous generations but builds upon their design to create a much more premium and unique look.
The design of the iNew L3 is a lot different than the recent smartphones that have hit the market. Its rectangular, edgy yet beautiful at the same time. The phone is made up of metal and glass and comes with a specially design round power button like the Xperia series, making the overall design all the more elegant. You would either love the new design or hate it completely. But I personally feel iNew has done a great job with the design. There’s Corning Gorilla Glass at the back making it scratch resistant. What’s more, the phone measures just 7.1mm in thickness with no protruding components, making it truly a well designed package.
Under the hood, the iNew L3 features the power efficient MT6735 quad-core 64-bit chip which is enough for your daily usage. This coupled with Mali-T720 and 2GB of RAM should deliver decent performance. As for storage, you get 16GB of expandable memory on board. The front features a 5-inch 1280 x 720p OGS display with 70% NTSC High color saturation. With these specs, the display should be quite vibrant.
The company has even focused on the camera department of the new L3. It comes with the Sony IMX214 13MP Camera with F/2.0 aperture and 6P lens. This setup is enough to take good images with the phone, provided the company has optimized the camera software. As for the front camera, there’s a 5MP shooter.
If you are a big fan of IR ports on a smartphone, then you would be happy to hear that the iNew L3 comes with this port. You can use the IR blaster to control up to 2853 appliances at your home. Under the hood, you get a 2150mAh battery, which to be honest is a bit small compared to competitors. However, with fast charge and power efficient MT6735 chip, you can expect the phone to run for about a day easily. As for the software, the phone runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop. It comes with dual SIM dual standby. The supported 4G LTE networks include: FDD_LTE 800/ 900/ 1800/ 2100/ 2600MHz.
Finally, the iNew L3 is water repellent as well. Yes, it comes with the nano-coating from the British P2i company which makes sure that the phone is protected against water, oil and other liquids.
As you can see, the iNew L3 is really a balanced smartphone. You get decent specs, a unique design and 4G LTE at a reasonable price tag. So, what do you think about this device?
Huawei announced the Honor 4X mid-range smartphone back in October 2014. Now, it looks like the company is all set to release its successor, the Huawei Honor 5X in the coming weeks. The phone was recently spotted on TENAA, the Chinese certification website and the listing revealed a few details about the device.
As you can see from the image, the Huawei Honor 5X comes with a three stage rear design, similar to what we saw in the company’s previous releases like the Mate 7 and the Huawei P8. The camera at the back is slightly protruding (you can see that in one of the side view pictures) and comes with a dual LED flash as well. It looks like Huawei is really set to intensify the competition in the 1000 Yuan (appox. $157) market with this phone, as it comes with a fingerprint sensor as well.
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Unfortunately, we don’t have much idea about the specifications of the device. But going with the current specs on 1000 Yuan smartphones, we can expect a 5.5-inch FHD 1080p display with Snapdragon 615 or MT6753 on board. There should be 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. As for the rear camera, we can expect a 13MP shooter like most phones in this price range.
What will really differentiate the Huawei Honor 5X from the crowd will be its fingerprint sensor and the all metal design. The phone looks premium in built and hence, Huawei might find quite a number of takers for this device if priced correctly.
Since the phone has hit TENAA, expect more information about the new Honor 5X pretty soon.
In 2014, China became the number one economic power with one of its major areas of development in the mobile gaming sector. The numbers from the first half of 2015 are stark and telling. China’s gaming market showed a total transaction revenue of 60.51 billion Yuan, which equates to $9.73 billion US. This is a marked increase over the same period of the previous year of 21.9%.
A huge part of the gaming market in China is mobile gaming with mobile gaming users reaching 366 million and transaction mobile revenue of 20.93 billion Yuan. Clearly, mobile gaming has become an essential part of the daily lives of mobile users in China.
The trend toward mobile gaming and away from console gaming that is seen in all other regions of the world is on steroids in China. This is due in part to the fact that the gaming consoles like Xbox One, Nintendo, and PlayStation were not sold within the country until recently. Another reason mobile gaming is such a huge industry in China compared to console gaming is the penetration of mobile devices as well as the improvement of certain infrastructure for 3G and 4G networks. Finally, the popularity of social platforms has led to the rapid growth of the mobile online gaming market.
Mobile and social features, especially related to gaming, are expected to continue to play an increasing role, following the rapid development of mobile internet. As a result, China’s mobile gaming market will attract more users with social platforms being the most popular. Furthermore, most mobile users will be utilizing Google’s Android operating system over Apple’s iOS.
The Android distribution accounted for 62% of sales in the mobile game market, while iOS was only 28%. One of the main reasons for this difference is the affordability of many Android platform phones over that of the higher priced iPhone. The types of games that users are installing on these phones fall into three general categories. In 2013, research by TalkingData showed the first category with the largest percent, casual games, making up 54% of all games installed. The second category is one of the fastest growing genres, card/poker and casino games, and it made up 24% of all games installed. The final category encompassed all other games at 22% of all games installed.
Casual Games
Casual games have been leading the way because they are typically the types of games that first time gamers entering into the mobile market choose to install. The reasons are simple; casual games are usually very accessible with low learning curves and a simple game design that make them easy to learn and play. These are the games that are adopted most rapidly, especially those with a social platform component.
Many of the top mobile games played in China are those that are also popular internationally like Angry Birds and Temple Run. Recognizing the revenue potential in publishing these mobile games, Tencent, the Chinese social-networking giant, makes gaming possible through their hugely popular WeChat app. Within the app users can play a military shooter game called CrossFire as well as a fantasy RPG called League of Legends. These have been two of the top free-to-play games attracting more and more paid users of other Tencent games and apps and thus increasing the revenue to Tencent per user.
Card/Poker and Casino Games
One of the most popular card games in China is similar to the card game War. Its digital version is called Happy Landlord Battle and is a consistent favourite among Chinese players. For those who have not heard of War, the game involves each player trying to either draw or put out a hand that is larger than the hand(s) of their opponents. The rules of Landlord Battle are a bit different, but the game has a similar concept that is adapted for the mobile platform. This is just one of the Tencent games mentioned above that is free, but has in-app purchases that create the increased paid user base that has made Tencent a global leader.
Other popular games in this genre are poker and casino games, which are usually provided by online casinos that are hosted outside of China. One of the largest and most popular providers worldwide of these games is PokerStars, a brand that until recently was exclusive to poker. In fact, as a provider of online poker it has gained an outstanding reputation amongst card players of amateur and professional status alike. The brand has committed to taking the gaming experience of players to even new heights. The site already offered the best of poker gaming options for players like numerous poker events, tournaments, and a wide selection of popular poker games like Texas Hold’em, Omaha, 2-7 Single Draw, and many more.
Building upon the high regard from both gaming industry experts and among online players, the company expanded its once exclusive poker offerings to casino games so players could play poker and casino games conveniently in one place. This was accomplished with the introduction of the Poker Stars casino games. The company followed up this expansion with the introduction of a mobile app to allow certain poker games and casino games to be played on both iOS and Android devices. With this innovation, players were no longer restricted to playing only at their desktop computers.
While Tencent and the Amaya Gaming Group have a strong grasp on the trends in gaming and they are responding, adapting, and evolving as the market demands, other companies are also recognizing the potential that exists in the worldwide mobile gaming market, particularly in China. Alibaba is an E-commerce giant that recently set up a mobile gaming platform in China, understanding the revenue potential in being a platform operator for game developers. Rather than making their own games, Alibaba provides the platform upon which developers can publish their games.
Another company tapping into the Chinese mobile market is Sungy Mobile. In 2014 they announced they would partner with game developers inside and outside of China, but instead of just focusing on just overseas markets the company would expand its GO Series Launcher and other related apps back into China. The majority of Sungy Mobile users have traditionally been in Western countries, but the company like the others mentioned above has recognized mobile gaming in China as the most lucrative Internet businesses. Nexon is another company expanding into China’s mobile gaming market, having already launched their mobile strategy game called “Dominations.” In addition, the gaming company is launching more and more mobile games with more diverse genres in order to expand its presence in China and Asia at large.
All of these examples of companies expanding into the mobile gaming market illustrate the rise in mobile gaming, which is especially evident in China. The country accounts for over half of the global mobile game market with expectations of continued growth. Game developers, game publishers, and platform providers are all looking for opportunities to tap into the burgeoning red-hot market for mobile gaming. Though the opportunities are worldwide, nowhere are they more abundant than in Asia.
In the past few years, we have seen smartphone with powerful processors, larger RAM modules and better cameras in the market. However, one thing that kind of remained unchanged was the battery department. But even that changed this year as we have seen so many smartphones with large batteries launch from different manufacturers.
Earlier if you had to look for a big battery smartphone, you would have only a handful of options. But now, there are more than a dozen options available, that too many of them at a budget price tag. As a result, we decided to pick out the best among these options as of September 2015. So, if you are looking for a smartphone that will last you a few days at least, make sure you check out this article thoroughly.
So, lets take a look at the best smartphones with large batteries on a budget. The list starts from the cheapest big battery phone, (3500mAh+) to the costliest one.
1. OUKITEL K4000: [4000mAh]
If you are in search for one of the cheapest smartphones with a large battery, your search ends with OUKITEL K4000. The company has really outdone itself with its latest offering, priced at just 119.99. At this price, you get a large 4000mAh battery with the decent 64-bit MT6735 quad-core chipset on board. Like most smartphones that retail under $150, the OUKITEL K4000 comes 2GB RAM + 16GB of expandable storage. The 5.5-inch display with 2.5D glass is definitely an added plus.
Let me remind you, camera won’t be that impressive, since its interpolated 13MP, but still you should be able to take decent shots. Finally, for software you get the latest Android 5.1 Lollipop OS on board.
OUKITEL K4000
BATTERY
4000mAh
DISPLAY
5.5-inch 2.5D Glass 1280 x 720p
PROCESSOR
MT6735 quad-core 1.0GHz
MEMORY
2GB + 16GB (MicroSD: YES)
CAMERA
13MP REAR + 5MP FRONT
CONNECTIVITY
FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600MHz
SIM CARD
Dual SIM Dual Standby
SOFTWARE
Android 5.1 Lollipop
FEATURES
TOUGH SCREEN
PRICE
119.99
BATTERY LIFE:Up to 2 days with moderate usage
WHO SHOULD BUY THIS: Anyone who’s looking for a super cheap smartphone with a large battery for their day to day usage.
Cubot is a known name in the local Chinese smartphone industry, thanks to its numerous affordable smartphone offerings. The company recently released the new Cubot H1 for the large battery lovers which comes with a 5200mAh capacity battery on board. This is enough for more than a couple of day’s usage. Plus, the efficient 64-bit MT6735 chipset should deliver good performance without taking a toll on battery. Other specs are more or less the same as the OUKITEL K4000. However, what really differentiates this model is that it supports fast charge. Which means, you don’t have to wait for 5-7 hours to get it charged to 100%. You can check out the full tech specs of the Cubot H1 from down below.
CUBOT H1
BATTERY
5200mAh (Fast Charge)
DISPLAY
5.5-inch 1280 x 720p
PROCESSOR
MT6735 quad-core 1.0GHz
MEMORY
2GB + 16GB (MicroSD: YES)
CAMERA
13MP REAR + 5MP FRONT
CONNECTIVITY
FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600MHz
SIM CARD
Dual SIM Dual Standby
SOFTWARE
Android 5.1 Lollipop
FEATURES
Fast charge
PRICE
129.99
BATTERY LIFE:More than 2 days with moderate usage
WHO SHOULD BUY THIS: Anyone who is looking for a phone with 5000mAh+ battery with fast charge.
Bluboo X550 is yet another smartphone with a large battery that measures 5300mAh. As you can see, its slightly larger than Cubot H1’s 5200mAh but rest of the specs are identical. So, you have the same MT6735 quad-core 64-bit chip on board with interpolated cameras and Android 5.1 Lollipop. So, basically the choice between Cubot H1 and Bluboo X550 depends on the looks as well as the small 100mAh battery capacity difference.
Bluboo X550
BATTERY
5300mAh
DISPLAY
5.5-inch 1280 x 720p
PROCESSOR
MT6735 quad-core 1.0GHz
MEMORY
2GB + 16GB (MicroSD: YES)
CAMERA
13MP REAR + 5MP FRONT
CONNECTIVITY
FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600MHz
SIM CARD
Dual SIM Dual Standby
SOFTWARE
Android 5.1 Lollipop
FEATURES
–
PRICE
138.99
BATTERY LIFE:More than 2 days with moderate usage.
WHO SHOULD BUY THIS: Well, with fast charge, the Cubot H1 is naturally the better choice. But then you get a slightly larger 5300mAh battery on this device. Plus you get another option to choose at a similar price tag, which is why I included this in the list.
The Doogee HOMTOM HT6 is yet another great option at just $139.99. The phone comes with the largest battery in the list, 6250mAh which makes it a great buy for people who are looking for a phone that can last long.
While specs wise, the HOMTOM HT6 is almost identical to the above mentioned devices, what really sets this phone apart from competitors is the inclusion of the 5.5-inch Gorilla Glass display and fast charge. This makes it a practical and durable smartphone, which is affordable at the same time. The company claims that you can get up to 75% of charge in just over half an hour, which is quite impressive.
Check out the full tech specs down below.
HOMTOM HT6
BATTERY
6250mAh (Fast Charge)
DISPLAY
5.5-inch 1280 x 720p (Gorilla Glass)
PROCESSOR
MT6735 quad-core 1.0GHz
MEMORY
2GB + 16GB (MicroSD: YES)
CAMERA
13MP REAR + 5MP FRONT
CONNECTIVITY
FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600MHz
SIM CARD
Dual SIM Dual Standby
SOFTWARE
Android 5.1 Lollipop
FEATURES
fast charge + gorilla glass
PRICE
139.99
BATTERY LIFE:Well over 3 days with moderate usage.
WHO SHOULD BUY THIS: The HOMTOM HT6 is the best option for those who are looking for a phone that will really really last long.
All the above listed smartphones came with MT6735 quad-core chip on board. While the chip is enough for your everyday usage, if you are looking for something a bit more powerful, then you should check out the UMi eMax. Well, since this phone is a few months old, you must already know most of its details. The phones comes with a full HD MT6752 octa-core chip that powers most affordable mid-range phones in the market right now. Another plus is the full HD 1080p 5.5-inch display on the device. That’s higher than the 720p screens on the above listed phones. Even the camera should be better than the previous devices. But since UMi eMax is focused on an overall balanced specs profile, you have a slightly smaller 3780mAh battery on board. Still, that’s enough to last you for more than a day!
Another possible drawback is the Android 4.4 Kitkat that comes out of the box, unlike that above phones which run on the latest Android 5.1. However, UMi has promised the Lollipop update and according to the latest information, its coming real soon.
UMi eMax
BATTERY
3780mAh
DISPLAY
5.5-inch IPS 1920 x 1080p
PROCESSOR
MT6752 octa-core 1.7GHz
MEMORY
2GB + 16GB (MicroSD: YES)
CAMERA
13MP REAR + 5MP FRONT
CONNECTIVITY
FDD-LTE 1800/2100/2600
SIM CARD
Dual SIM Dual Standby
SOFTWARE
Android 4.4 (Upgradable to Lollipop)
PRICE
149.85
BATTERY LIFE: More than a day
WHO SHOULD BUY THIS: Anyone looking for an affordable FHD octa-core smartphone with a large battery.
While we are still waiting for the Snapdragon 820 powered Elephone P9000, the current model, the Elephone P8000 still packs a punch as compared to its competitors. The phone comes with a 4000mAh battery supported by flagship level specs. I mean, you get MT6753 octa-core chip under the hood, with 3GB RAM + 32GB of expandable ROM making it a value for money package. There’s even a fingerprint sensor on board, which makes it a unique offering in this list. You get everything that you wish for in a flagship, plus a large battery in the Elephone P8000.
ELEPHONE P8000
BATTERY
4000mAh
DISPLAY
5.5-inch IPS 1920 x 1080p
PROCESSOR
MT6753 octa-core 1.5GHz
MEMORY
3GB + 16GB (MicroSD: YES)
CAMERA
13MP REAR + 5MP FRONT
CONNECTIVITY
FDD-LTE 800/1800/2600
SIM CARD
Dual SIM Dual Standby
SOFTWARE
Android 5.1 Lollipop
FEATURES
FINGERPRINT ID
PRICE
175.88
BATTERY LIFE: More than a day
WHO SHOULD BUY THIS: Anyone who’s looking for a flagship smartphone with a large battery
The INNOS D6000 made the headlines earlier this year, packing in the largest smartphone battery at that time. It comes with a massive 6000mAh battery on board which is enough for more than two days of usage. But the highlight of the phone isn’t restricted to its battery. The D6000 offers one of the best specs in a sub $250 smartphone. It features Snapdragon 615 octa-core chip with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. There’s a 5.2-inch FHD display. At the back, you get a powerful 16MP OV camera and up front, theres a 5MP OV camera as well. For software the phone features Android 5.0 Lollipop OS. If you have $250 to spare and are looking for a large battery smartphone, this is the one to buy.
Innos D6000
BATTERY
6000mAh
DISPLAY
5.2-inch 1920 x 1080p (Gorilla Glass)
PROCESSOR
Snapdragon 615 octa-core 1.5GHz
MEMORY
3GB + 32GB (MicroSD: YES)
CAMERA
16MP OV REAR + 5MP OV FRONT
CONNECTIVITY
FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600MHz
SIM CARD
Dual SIM Dual Standby
SOFTWARE
Android 5.0 Lollipop
FEATURES
–
PRICE
249.99 233.99 (Limited Time)
BATTERY LIFE: More than two days
WHO SHOULD BUY THIS: Anyone who’s looking for a large battery smartphone with flagship level specs and a great camera, should go for this beast.
So that’s the end of the list. I hope that I covered all great smartphones with large batteries in this list. If you have any questions about these devices or have anything to add, do let me know in the comments sections down below.
We know our readers love large battery smartphones. Cubot recently unveiled its large battery phone, the Cubot H1 with a massive 5200mAh battery last month. With such a large battery on board, the phone can also be used as a power bank. In fact, we have extensively covered the features of this device in our previous article. You can check that out for more details.
For a limited period, the Cubot H1 is being sold for just $129. Usually, the same phone retails for more than $140, so we thought this might turn out to be a good deal for our readers.
The phone looks good, performs well and the battery will easily last for a couple of days. A great package for the price.
Elephone have today sent of promotional video of both the Elephone M1 & M2 Business handsets.
The phones will be on Pre sale in October, full prices have not yet been made official but they have told me that they will be holding flash sales for both handsets.
The flash sale pricing will be $119.99 for the Elephone M1 Business phone and $149.99 for the Elephone M2 Business phone.
Check out the videos below and let me know what you think of the new Elephone M1 and M2 Business handsets, the pricing on the flash sales looks really competitive and if they improvements in build on the Elephone Trunk are indicative of Elephones newer handsets, we could well be seeing the return to form of the brand.
It was announced on an official Weibo micro blog that Ramos will be launching a new device called Mos1 MAX as their first smartphone. The micro blog stated that Ramos has achieved packing a large and long life battery inside a very slim device. Remember, Ramos Mos1 which was announced back in July? The phone came with a 3050mAh battery and this seems to be a Max version of the flagship.
A new leak also conspicuously revealed a battery capacity of 6xxxmAh, suggesting that the device will be equipped with at least 6000mAh large-capacity battery. The figures indicating the capacity on the back of the battery are redacted, but one can see the they begin with 6 and that the manufacturer is BYD. In addition, there are other users’ leaks suggesting that the MOS 1 MAX’s battery has a nominal voltage 3.85V and peak voltage 4.4V. Previously, another Chinese brand – Innos Yi Luo has launched a 6000mAh battery on their D6000 smartphone. It was the world’s largest battery capacity in a mobile phone at that time. It is not yet known whether Ramos has gone beyond this.
The Mos1 MAX is expected to resemble the iPhone 6 in shape but with a slim 7.6mm overall thickness. The screen also might be extra-large with a possible size of 6 inches. The device is expected to be available in stores in October.
The speaker comes in a plain box and the contents include the documentation, AUX and Micro USB cables, and the QR code card to quickly download the proprietary app.
Ovevo Z1 Bluetooth Speaker Review: DESIGN
When it comes to design, this is a one very tiny speaker that is very compact. Despite its small footprint, it has a lamp with a full range RGB LED light but I will get back to it a bit later.
The lampshade part is made of some kind of frosted plastic and it feels nice. The top part sports a stainless steel touch control pad.
The bottom part is made of quality matt plastic and one side there is a mic for handsfree calling and on the other there is a micro USB port along with the AUX input for non-bluetooth devices.
The bottom part is where you can find most of the controls, which include play/pause, skip tracks and volume up/down buttons. Also, there is a Bluetooth LED light and the whole bottom part has a nice rubber material, so the speaker stays firmly on the surface you put it on.
Overall, the built quality is really good.
Ovevo Z1 Bluetooth Speaker Review: FEATURES
PLEASE SEE A VIDEO REVIEW FOR THE WALKTHROUGH OF THE FEATURES OF THE APP
The Ovevo Z1 Bluetooth speaker can be controlled using the controls on the bottom of the device or using the touch pad on top of the speaker. However, if you want to take a full manual control, I suggest you downloading the app, which unleashes a lot of extra features.
First of all, you can control the brightness setting, turn on/off the light and once you enter the colour light mode you can choose from tons of different colours. Also, you can choose from other effects like flashing, pulsing, candle and rainbow.
Other features include the music player and the speaker will flash to the rhythm of the music you play. Also, you can use different timers to turn on and off the light or music automatically, or use the Ovevo Z1 speaker as an alarm clock.
PLEASE SEE A VIDEO REVIEW FOR THE WALKTHROUGH OF THE FEATURES OF THE APP
Ovevo Z1 Bluetooth Speaker Review: SOUND QUALITY
Allright, as far as the sound quality, it is really good for the size of the speaker. It may not replace a party boombox but you will be surprised how loud it can play. Also, it produces a really good amount of bass. I even suggest you reducing the bass on your phone’s equaliser setting as the speaker starts moving on the table that it may sound that it makes some crackling noises at the but it’s not true. It is just a one powerful tiny speaker. Well, I heard some cracking noises when playing certain songs but it was at the highest volume setting and bass along with the treble pumped up.
Ovevo Z1 Bluetooth Speaker Review: CONCLUSIONS
The Ovevo Z1 Bluetooth speaker is a one tiny yet powerful speaker that sounds great for its size and it has a full range RGB LED that can be controlled either using the touchpad on the speaker or via the app. However, the touchpad functionality was a little of a disappointment. You can’t actually understand how it works. For instance, it changes the colours once you tap it but sometimes the light just turns off automatically or changes the colour immediately. A positive thing is that controlling the lamp via the app doesn’t have these issues.
I could get around 4.5-5 hours of playback time, which is not really impressive but I guess it’s okay considering how tiny the speaker is. However, the playback time reduces to around 3 hours if you keep the light on all the time.
The device costs $25 and I believe it is reasonable considering the whole package you are getting. If you want a compact yet good sounding speaker with a customisable LED light and some more features like different light modes, alarm clock and so on, the Ovevo Z1 may be for you. If you need something that it is more powerful but does not have the extra features, there are also some other good options (e.g. Xiaomi Aluminum Bluetooth speaker) in this price range out there.
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