Umi Hammer S Review

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Oct 19, 2015

It is obvious that the Chinese smartphone market is crowded with lots of cheap devices and a lot of small companies that include Umi. They have produced quite a lot of devices already but the last reviewed phone (Umi Iron) had quite a few bugs, which was a let down (they may have been fixed by now as much time has passed). This time around we are looking at another budget phone – Umi Hammer S. Is it any good? This is what we are going to find out.

Umi Hammer S Review: VIDEO

Umi Hammer S Review: SPECS

Display	5.5″ 720P (HD)
Processor	MTK6735, Quad Core, 1GHz
RAM	2GB
Camera	2MP Front/13MP
Connectivity	Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+; FDD-LTE B1/B3/B7/B20
Battery	3.200 mAh (removable)
Dimensions	154.2 x 77.4 x 8.5mm / 200g
OS	Android 5.1
Storage	16GB (expandable via microSD card slot up to 64GB)

Umi Hammer S Review: UNBOXING

The phone comes with usual stuff you can expect and that includes a charging brick, some documentation and last but not least the USB Type-C cable.

Umi Hammer S Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

When it comes to the design of the phone, we are looking at the combo of metal chassis, all-glass front and a soft plastic back and it sits comfortably in the hand due to rounded corners on the back.

The Umi Hammer S comes with 5.5” 720P display, which is okay to look at indoors but it has quite a poor sunlight visibility, which is common to most of the budget phones.

A 2MP snapper, earpiece and the sensor light are on the top and 3 non-backlit capacitive buttons are on the bottom.

On the back we have a 13MP shooter with dual LED flash and right underneath it there is a fingerprint scanner.

Under the hood there is a removable 3200mAh battery, two SIM card slots and the microSD card slot.

On the right we have very clicky and responsive volume rocker and the power button.

The speaker grill is on the bottom, which sits next to the USB Type-C port.

On the top we have a headset jack and the IR blaster.

Overall, I kind of like the design and choice of materials. The build quality is great too. The Umi Hammer S is nothing you haven’t seen as far as exterior goes but there are a lot worse looking phones, in my opinion.

Umi Hammer S Review: UI

The phone runs on Android 5.1 Lolipop and you are getting a pretty much stock Android experience.

Umi changed the design of some icons and added a bit of extra functionality like gesture controls. Some of them work great while other not so great. Well, the only feature I use on all the devices is the “double click to wake”.

Although the fingerprint scanner is not the fastest I’ve seen, I am satisfied with how the it works but the setup process is a bit slower and the interface is different than other China phones I’ve tested.

All in all, the UI performance is smooth most of the times and this is what you usually get when the phone is running near stock Android build.

Umi Hammer S Review: BENCHMARKS

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Umi Hammer S Review: PERFORMANCE

Umi Hammer S has a MTK6735 chip, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. This is a combo we’ve seen on a lot of Chinese phones lately but not all of them are well optimised.

Playing 3D games is possible but there is quite a lot of stutter and skipped frames, and graphics don’t look impressive.

Umi Hammer S Review: MULTIMEDIA

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The multimedia consumption experience is on par with other similarly priced China phones. You are getting a tinny sounding loudspeaker and the sound via earphones is okay but nothing spectacular.

Umi Hammer S Review: CAMERA

The 13MP camera on the back is sometimes capable of producing okay looking images that can be used for social media. However, usually images have a poor colour reproduction, the dynamic range and exposure are usually off and some photos come out a bit blurry meaning that the shooter is having a hard time focusing.

The night images do not impress either. There is just so much noise, the level of details is poor but most importantly there is a red tint in some pictures.

img_20151016_175918 — It’s me, tired. As usual.

The 2MP selfie snapper will do the trick for social media if you tend taking selfies with plenty of light.

As far as video recording, the footage lacks in many aspects but this is what you have to expect in this price range of phones (see the sample in the video review). And yeah, the sound quality is just terrible.

Download full-res camera samples

Umi Hammer S Review: CONNECTIVITY

As far as connectivity options go, Umi Hammer S has the 4G LTE support and the call quality is decent. Other options that include wifi and Bluetooth work fine and while GPS is not the fastest to get a position lock, it gets the job done while navigating in the streets.

Umi Hammer S Review: BATTERY LIFE

The phone comes with 3200mAh removable battery, which performed really good in Geekbench 3 battery test. The Umi Hammer S managed to achieve almost 10 hours of screen-on time with the dim feature off. That’s really impressive. For example, I remember that the Letv Le 1 Pro could barely get over 4 hours.

In real life you may not achieve the same results but the phone will definitely get you through the day and more depending on how you are going to use the device.

Umi Hammer S Review: CONCLUSIONS

So here it is, the Umi Hammer S. For the price of just over $130 you are getting a decently designed phone, which has a good build quality.

Also, Umi Hammer S has almost stock Android build and it is running smoothly most of the times.

In addition, the battery life is really good and some extra functionality like a fingerprint scanner and USB Type-C are great features for the price.

However, the processing power is not really capable of providing a decent gaming experience, the camera does not impress and the display is of a mediocre quality.

All in all, Umi Hammer S is another China phone that has its ins and outs that you have to consider before buying. It is not a bad choice for the price and in the areas that the phone is lacking it is hard to find a similarly priced phone that would be significantly better… But you may find something similar.

Buy Umi Hammer S

The Super Thin Xiaomi Mi TV 3 Is official with a stunning 60-inch 4K Panel from LG

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 19, 2015

Xiaomi has been teasing its upcoming Xiaomi Mi TV 3 for the past few days via its social media channels. Now the device has been finally made official. The specs and design of the new Mi TV 3 scream quality but the pricing turns out to quite agressive, making it a competitive product in the Chinese market. Xiaomi has always been one of the manufacturers which provide best value for money and the Mi TV 3 does look like a great product.

First of all, the company has used LG’s 60-inch true 4K display to make sure that it delivers one of the best visual experience. When it comes to its Mi TV range, Xiaomi has always focused on reducing its thickness. The new Mi TV 3 too is quite thin, measuring just 11.6mm at its thinnest point. That’s pretty impressive for a 60-inch TV. Well, in case you are wondering how thin it looks in real life, you can check out the picture of Lei Jun posing with the Mi TV 3. See, its really thin! So, looks wise, you are going to be impressed. It comes with a full aluminum frame with diamond patterns and double color anodized body.

The Mi TV features the MStar 6A928 4K TV processor with 8GB of storage inside. The company has upgraded the four speakers with 2.5-inch drivers. You get all these features for a price tag of just 4999 Yuan ($786)! Unfortunately, we still don’t know when Xiaomi will make the Mi TV 3 available to users in China.
And in case you are wondering, we still haven’t heard any plans from the company to release its Mi TV lineup outside its domestic market.
Meanwhile, you can check out the images of the Mi TV 3 from the gallery down below.

Mi TV 3

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Huawei Mate 8 Flagship With Kirin 950 Chip To Enter Production Stage

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 19, 2015

Huawei’s CEO Yu Chengdong had earlier hinted that the company will release its Mate 8 flagship smartphone before the end of the year. This was just a few weeks after the company unveiled the Huawei Mate S smartphone with Force Touch. Now, the latest news from China states that the Huawei Mate 8 will reportedly enter production stage. It is said that Foxconn has received the Mate 8 smartphone for mass production.

This further confirms that we will see the Mate 8 pretty soon. Since Chengdong had said that the release should be before the end of the year, we can expect it sometime in December i.e. a few months after the Mate S debuted. It should be much more powerful as well, as it is said that the phone will come with the next generation version of Huawei’s Kirin chipset, namely the Kirin 950.

The Kirin 950 is expected to be much powerful than existing offerings in the market right now. Even Chengdong had said earlier that the chip is faster than MTK and Qualcomm chips. But, how powerful is it exactly? Well, the chip was spotted on Geekbench in August and it managed to beat the current leader, the Exynos 7420 pretty easily. The Kirin 950 reportedly scored 1909 in single-core and 6096 in multi-core test. That’s way higher than the powerful Exynos 7420 in both the test (1486 & 4970 respectively). So, we are all excited to see the performance of the chip in real life.

According to rumors, the Kirin 950 will come with quad-Cortex A53 and quad Cortex A72 cores with Mali-T880 GPU. Other specs include Tensilica Hi-Fi DSP, dual ISP, i7 co-processor and Cat. 10 LTE support.

You can expect the Mate 8 to be a high-end device, with a 6-inch force touch display, a large battery, 21MP camera and an all metal body.

UMI Fair Unboxing and First Impressions

By

Linus

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Oct 18, 2015

It happened so that I have two UMI smartphones at the moment – Hammer S and Fair. I have already done the first impressions video about of the former one and this time around I wanted to share my initial thoughts about the UMI Fair – a cheap smartphone that has a fingerprint scanner.

We wanted to say thanks to Coolicool.com for providing us with UMI Fair for a review.

Umi Fair Unboxing: Video

My first impressions about UMI Fair is that it has a great design and good build quality for such a cheap phone. It definitely feels good in the hand and the phone is manageable in one hand due to its 5″ display.

Also, I love the metal chassis going around the device and a soft plastic back, which both give a nice feel to the touch.

As far as UI goes, so far it seems it is running smoothly but I haven’t even installed any apps on the device.

When it comes to the fingerprint scanner, which is supposed to be a star of the show here (UMI wants us to believe so), it does not seem to be working fine. As you may have seen in the video, it is not accurate enough and even the setup process is annoying. Well, I will give my final thoughts on that when the full review is ready as I have already started using the phone as my daily driver.

So here it is, the UMI Fair. If you have any questions about the device, please let me know in the comment section.

UMI Fair in pictures:

Buy UMI Fair from Coolicool

OnePlus X Photos Leaked Online, Comes With 2.5D Glass Back

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 18, 2015

OnePlus has an event on October 27, where it will most likely unveil its budget offering, the OnePlus X. We have already seen the device on TENAA, but now, real images of the device have been leaked online.

According to the picture leaked earlier today, the upcoming OnePlus X handset comes in white and black colors. From the image, it looks like the phone will feature 2.5D glass at the back.

As for the specs, the phone should come with a customized version of Snapdragon 801 chipset clocked at 2GHz on board with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable internal storage. There should be a 5.5-inch display with FHD 1080p resolution. At the back, you can expect a 13MP Sony camera while up front, there should be a 5MP shooter. As for the battery, it should be somewhere around 2450mAh capacity.

As you can see, these specs put the phone somewhere in the upper mid-range category. But the pricing should be under $249. For the first time, OnePlus is aiming for the slim phone tag with this device as the phone will reportedly be just 6.9mm thick according to the recent TENAA listing.

Anyways, we are still a few days away from the launch. So, we could hear more about the device in the coming days. Stay tuned for more updates.

UMi Fair + VOIX Earphones Giveaway! (UMi Giveaway Month)

By

Frank Tu

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Oct 18, 2015

UMi, continuing with the Giveaways of September, announced the giveaway for this week, and it’s the UMi Fair! The first Smartphone under $100 to have a Fingerprint reader and a 2.5D 720P screen. Wait, there’s more, UMi is also giving away a pair of VOIX Earphones! So, two winners to be chosen.

The UMi Fair is a very impressive device, being priced only under $100, the features it offers are just amazing. A Fingerprint Reader, a 2.5D 720P 5-inch display, powered by the MediaTek MTK6735. A Quad-core processor clocked at 1Ghz, and 1GB of RAM and 8GB internal storage to go with it. The cameras are also decent at 13MP on the back and 2MP on the front for those selfies. Runs on the almost latest version of Android, Android 5.1 Lollipop.

Coming to the VOIX Earphones, quite possibly you wouldn’t have even heard of the VOIX brand. It’s a small startup of UMi, to capture the audiophile market alongside the smartphones’, and these earphones are their first product to come off the production line, being priced only $20, they are quite impressive for what they are. Very nicely built, and very good sounding. If anything these headphones are better than what most other audio-first companies are offering. So, these headphones are attracting many audio enthusiasts and a lot of other people who are looking for an affordable pair of earphones that thwy can just throw in their backpack for a hiking trip.

Here’s your chance to win them for free! Click on the link below to enter and win the UMi Fair and also the VOIX Earphones! All the rules are present on the link, and anyone can enter to win. A winner will be chosen at the end of the week, for the UMi Fair, and a second winner will be chosen at the same tine for the VOIX Earphones.

UMI Halloween Giveaway_ UMI Fair
UMI Halloween Giveaway_ UMI Fair

Umi Hammer S Unboxing and First Impressions

By

Linus

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Oct 17, 2015

I’ve been using the Umi Hammer S for around a week already but the final review is still a few days away, so I decided to give you guys my impressions about the device. This is a different kind of video that I am used to making but I hope you enjoy my live unboxing.

Umi Hammer S Unboxing and First Impressions: VIDEO

The phone comes with 5.5″ display, which makes the whole device quite huge but it sits comfortably in the hand due to rounded corners on the back.

Umi Hammer S has a metal chassis going around the device and it adds a bit of a premium touch.

Overall, the device is well made and I have some good first impressions as far as design goes.

As far as UI, we have an Android 5.1 with a light UMI skin on top of it. It is pretty much stock Android experience with some extra features like gesture controls we’ve seen on a lot of phones from China lately.

All in all, I don’t have major complaints about the phone after using it for some time. Still, I will give my final thoughts in a full review, which is coming very soon, so please stay tuned.

Buy Umi Hammer S

ZUK Z1 International Version To Get Cyanogen OS 13 Based On Android 6.0

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 16, 2015

ZUK’s co-founder Chenyu had revealed a few days back that the domestic version of the ZUK Z1 running on ZUI will be upgraded to Android 6.0 Marshmallow by March 2016. He added that the company had already started on the adaptation work of the new Android version to the device.

However, this presented another question. Will the ZUK Z1 International version too be upgraded to Android 6.0? At that time, we weren’t sure of this, but according to the latest news, the international variant will also be upgraded to Android 6.0. This particular version runs on the Cyanogen OS 12.1 based on Android 5.1.1. It is said that Cyanogen is working on the Android 6.0 based Cyanogen OS 13 and ZUK Z1 International version will be one of the first devices to get the update.

Unfortunately, at this moment, there’s very little information regarding the Cyanogen OS 13 update. But given that the Chinese variant of the device is supposed to get the update sometime after February, you can expect the same release time frame for the international variant as well.

We will keep you guys updated if more information comes up in the next few weeks.

Huawei Confirms Android 6.0 Marshmallow Update For a Bunch of Models

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 16, 2015

Although the probable list of models which are going to get Android 6.0 Marshmallow update from most manufacturers was leaked earlier, we need actual confirmation from each company to be sure of that information. Now, Huawei has just announced the models which will be getting the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update and there’s most of the recent models in the list.

The list of models that are confirmed to receive Android 6.0 in China are as follows: Huawei P8, Mate 7, Mate S, P8 youth edition, P8 Max, Maimang 4 (domestic variant of G8), G7 Plus and G7. In the honor series, Honor 7,7i, 6 Plus, 6, X2, 4X, and Play 4C will be upgraded to Android 6.0.

As you can see, there’s a lot of phones that are eligible for the latest Android update. The work on the adaptation of the new OS for the listed phones will begin in November.

We still don’t know whether the above listed phones are the only ones that will receive Android 6.0 in the coming months. Also, these are the models confirmed in China. There may be a few changes in the list when it comes out internationally.
So are you happy with the list? Is your phone supported?

UMi iRon Pro, an upcoming smartphone that has Three Very Unique Security Features

By

Frank Tu

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Oct 16, 2015

The UMI IRON PRO will be the successor to the UMI IRON.
The design seems to be nearly the same. But the PRO will have USB TYPE C and also a fingerprint scanner on the rearside. And it will of course still have the notification LED on the front.

It appears that the UMi Iron Pro will look physically similar to the current Iron, but will get a single piece rear panel. The current Iron has a metal main body with plastic at the top and bottom, the Pro has a single piece. At this stage we don’t know what material it will be, but being a ‘Pro’ we hope for alloy at least.

Also on the rear we see the same camera and dual LED locations, but now there is the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner too. The UMi Iron Pro will also feature an eye scanner running of the front camera. A 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 display is the same spec as the original, and we see the LED notification bar at the bottom of the phone has been retained. The final details we know at this stage of development are a USB Type C 2.0, 3GB RAM and Mediatek MT6753 chipset.

Overall the specs are similar to the original UMi Iron, but that chipset choice seems odd and a little misleading. The octacore MT6753 is not a high-end processor, and has a low power GPU which isn’t suitable for hardcore gaming. It’s fine for standard phones but not something a ‘Pro’ level device, for that we would like to see a Helio X10 at the very least, a P10 or X20 would have suited too.

We suppose it all boils down to price, but we feel tat UMi Iron 2 might be a more suitable name, and the UMi Iron Pro should pack a little more punch. What are your thoughts?

Source:xiaomitoday

Lenovo Vibe P1 Delivers 3 Hours Of Talktime In Just 5 Minutes Of Charging

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 16, 2015

OPPO’s revolutionary VOOC fast charging technology has received a lot of praises in the past few years. It was one of the first companies to popularize the concept of 2 hours of talktime with just 5 minutes of charging. However, now it looks like Lenovo has taken things to new level by claiming that its Lenovo Vibe P1 with a large battery can give up to 3 hours of talktime in just 5 minutes of charging.

The Vibe P1 features a large 5000mAh high-density Lithium polymer battery on board which reportedly can last for three days in a single charge. Along with this large battery, the company has incorporated a new fast charging technology on the device, called as Rocket Charge. This particular tech allows the phone to charge at an impressive 24W (5V/7V/9V/12V @ 2A), taking things to the next level. As a result, within just 5 minutes of charging, users can expect up to 3 hours of talktime.

Of course, now we may say that these are just claims made by the company, and actual performance may differ. However, to dismiss these doubts, Lenovo has certified this claim, by TÜV Rheinland. This German company is known to provide technical, safety and other certification services to other companies.

Earlier today, Lenovo’s Global Mobile Business President, Chen Xudong posted this picture on his Weibo page. The certificate states that under test conditions, the Lenovo Vibe P1 satisfies the claim that it delivers up to 3 hours of talktime in 5 minutes of charging.

As for the other specs, the Lenovo Vibe P1 features 5-5-inch 1080p display, Snapdragon 615, 2GB / 3GB and 16GB / 32GB expandable storage options, 13MP rear and 5MP front cameras. As for the pricing, the 2GB variant costs $320 while the 3GB one costs around $346.

Huawei’s Matebook Laptop could be made by BYD Electronic

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 15, 2015

Yesterday, we came across a patent filing by Huawei for the trademark “Matebook” which was most likely for a new notebook computer from the company. The description of the trademark hinted that the Chinese smartphone manufacturer was going to enter the PC industry soon.

Now, a new post from one of the insiders of the industry has revealed that the Huawei Matebook laptop will most likely be made by BYD Electronics. This Shenzen based smartphone component manufacturer has made phones for companies like Nokia and Motorola. On the other hand, its confirmed that the Taiwanese ODM Inventec will design and manufacture laptops for Xiaomi.

So it looks like next year, we will have several new entrants in the PC industry starting with Xiaomi and Huawei. Xiaomi laptops are expected to start shipping sometime in the first half of 2016. However, we still have no idea about the release time frame of the Huawei Matebook laptop. Considering Xiaomi’s entry into the industry, the release should be around the same time as its rival. But for more information, it looks like, we will have to wait for a few more weeks at least.

InWatch Run Sports SmartWatch Running On Alibaba’s YunOS Announced

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 15, 2015

Alibaba announced its YunOS for wearables and at the event, revealed the new InWatch Run, which will be one of the first smartwatches to feature this new OS. The smartwatch with a round face will be targeted at sports enthusiasts, especially those who like to run marathons. The watch is equipped with enough sensors like geomagnetic sensor, heart rate sensor, altimeter and barometer to provide accurate information to the user.

The InWatch Run can record calories burnt, speed, and distance traveled during your run. The new OS helps the device to upload real-time data (in around 30 seconds). It even supports GPS real time positioning, so that you can import maps and routes directly on to the smartwatch.

The company is marketing its heart rate sensor as one of its highlights. It features a high precision heart rate monitor with low error rate to make sure that the user is always aware of his heart rate. There are three different modes, Casual Running mode, coach mode and game mode which you can choose depending upon the situation.

Looks wise, the InWatch Run comes in a sporty appearance. There will be a number of colors available, including black, white, red and blue. While all variants come with the basic design, the color you choose will be highlighted on the circumference of the watch face and the insides of the silicone strap.

As for the specs, the InWatch Run comes with a 400 x 400 resolution 1.4-inch AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass protection. Under the hood, there will be a MT6627 quad-core chip with 512MB RAM and 4GB of storage. The watch supports 3G networks as well and comes with a 240mAh lithium polymer battery. The company claims that this battery is enough for over 100 hours of standby time. In the run mode, you can expect the watch to last for up to 48 hours while in the game mode, it can run for up to 10 hours.

The InWatch Run will be available for purchase after October 18 for a price tag of 1599 Yuan ($251). This puts the device in direct competition with other smartwatches like

Patent Filing Reveals Plans For Huawei MateBook Laptop

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 15, 2015

We almost know for sure that Xiaomi has a laptop in the making and we will most likely see it sometime in the first quarter of 2016. But it looks like Xiaomi may not be the only smartphone manufacturer interested in the PC industry as a new patent filing from Huawei reveals that the company may have some plans to enter the industry in the coming years.

It was recently found that Huawei has applied for the Class 9 patent of the name “Matebook” at the Chinese trademark agency. From the trademark description, it looks like the MateBook will be a laptop computer. The description states that the device will be a portable computer with a keyboard. So, the naming as well as the description hints that the Matebook could be a laptop/ notebook brand from Huawei.

If the Matebook is indeed a laptop, we would be interested to see the specifications of the device. Unlike Xiaomi, Huawei has always insisted that their focus is on the high-end market, so could this new brand target Macbook and Surface lineup. If so, will Huawei use its own Kirin chipset inside?

There are a lot of questions that pop up when a brand like Huawei plans to enter a new industry. But at this moment, apart from this trademark application, we have no other information. So, lets wait for some more details in the coming months.

Meanwhile, let us know if Huawei Matebook laptop sounds like a good idea to you.

OPPO R7S Can Last For 13 Hours Continuously, Will Come In New Colors

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 14, 2015

OPPO R7S is shaping out to be a powerful handset. The device is confirmed to feature 4GB of RAM, which should essentially leave out any worries about multi-tasking performance. Now, a new teaser reveals that the phone will have impressive battery life.

The R7S can reportedly run for almost 13 hours continuously according to the teaser. The official weibo page of OPPO said that while 9 hours of usage is good, the company wanted to offer something better to its fans, which is why the OPPO R7S will have 13 hours of continuous battery life. That’s pretty impressive given that the phone will come with around 3070mAh capacity battery. Such battery life coupled with OPPO’s VOOC fast charging technology should definitely make the overall package attractive.

The most recent leak about the device claims that the phone will come in more than gold and silver variants. In addition to these colors, the phone is also said to come in bright colors like purple, yellow and pink. This makes things interesting as the OPPO R7S is supposed to come in an all metal unibody design. So, we will have to see whether these variants too come with the same metal body.

The R7S is said to come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, a 5.5-inch full HD 1080p AMOLED display, a 13-megapixel rear camera, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, and Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

The company is expected to release the device on October 20, which is less than a week away. So stay tuned.

Meanwhile, you can also check out the leaked images of the metal back panel of the OPPO R7S down below.

Cubot will show off new phones at 2015 Asia World Expo in Hong Kong

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 14, 2015

Cubot has established itself as a major player in the Chinese smartphone manufacturing industry with its recent releases. Now, the company is all set to reveal some new 4G and 3G devices at the 2015 Asia World Expo that will go on for four days in Hong Kong.

Cubot will be present at the booth 5G30 in Hall 5 and 7 where it will showcase its devices. The company will focus on expanding its smartphones to areas like EU, U.S, RUSSIA ,MIDDLE EAST ,ASIA, AFRICA. The company has a lot of interesting phones in its current lineup like the Cubot H1 and the Cubot x16. We would be interested to see X16 in particular since it is expected to be just 6.2mm thick in a beautiful scratch proof body.

Well, we can expect to see more smartphones from the company in the next few days, so stay tuned for more information.

ZTE Mighty 3C Goes Official With Entry Level Specs & 499 Yuan ($78) Pricetag

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 14, 2015

ZTE has just announced a new entry level smartphone in China called as the ZTE Mighty 3C. The phone is priced at just 499 Yuan ($78) and is targeted at first time smartphone users.

Like mentioned above, the phone comes with just basic specifications. It features a 5-inch display with 854 x 480 pixel resolution. Under the hood, there’s a quad-core Snapdragon 210 chipset with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. At the back, you will find a 5MP camera while up front, there’s a 2MP shooter. The phone will run on a customized version of Nubia UI based on Android 5.1. As for the battery, its actually pretty large at 2500mAh for a phone in this segment. It should easily last you an entire day.

However, the body is quite thick, measuring 9.45mm in thickness. It weighs 170 grams which is on the higher side as well. The phone will come in two basic colors, black and white . Considering the specs, the phone will directly compete with Redmi 2A. However, 2A comes with a slightly better 720p resolution display and a better 8MP camera. On the other hand, the ZTE Mighty 3C features a larger 2500mAh battery and better looks. The Neovision 5.0 camera software is also a plus point of the 3C.

So which on would you pick? ZTE Mighty 3C or the Xiaomi Redmi 2A?

ZUK Z1 confirmed to receive Android 6.0 Marshmallow update by March 2016

By

Joel Joseph

-

Oct 14, 2015

ZUK co-founder Chenyu has just announced via his Weibo page that the company has started on the development of Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for ZUK Z1. At present, the update is being adopted for the domestic version of the device. However, since the domestic version will receive the update next year, we also expect the international version to get the update sometime in 2016.

The domestic version of ZUK Z1 features the company’s own ZUI operating system based on Android. On the other hand, the international variant comes with CyanogenOS on board. The company had already started on the Marshmallow update since Google announced it. However, Chenyu adds that there is still a lot of work to be done which will likely be completed by the Chinese New Year in February. So, domestic ZUK Z1 users can expect the Marshmallow update sometime in March 2016.

Unfortunately, we have still no official information about the Marshmallow update time frame for the international ZUK Z1 variant.

Round Meizu Smartwatch Leaked In Pictures, Launch On Oct 21?

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 13, 2015

Its been a long time since we have heard anything about a Meizu smartwatch. The only time the plans for such a device surfaced online was back in February. But since then, we haven’t got any news of a wearable from the company. Now, new images have come up online which shows that the Meizu smartwatch is almost finalized. It is said that the watch was spotted on a booth at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair.

The watch will reportedly be released alongside the upcoming Meizu Blue Charm Metal smartphone. The phone is all set to release on October 21 next week, so we will most likely see the Meizu smartwatch launch at that event. It is said that the watch won’t be running Android Wear. While the source fails to mention which OS will be running on the device, it could be AliOS optimized for wearables. Also, the device is said to be waterproof and dust proof and will come with a range of health based monitoring.

The company has not yet revealed any teasers or details about a new smartwatch. But if Meizu will release a smartwatch next week, expect more details in the coming days.

You can check out more pictures of the watch from down below.

Its Almost Confirmed! OnePlus X Will Debut On October 29

By

Joel Joseph

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Oct 13, 2015

For the past couple of months, we have repeatedly said that OnePlus will release a new smartphone called as the OnePlus X in October. Since then we have come across some rumors as well as renders of the device. But now, its almost confirmed that we will see the new OnePlus X smartphone on October 29.

Earlier today, OnePlus released an event teaser for its October 29 event. The interesting part is that the teaser comes with a big X in the center, kind of confirming that this will be for the OnePlus X launch. This will be a big event for the company as the event will be held worldwide in six major cities: Beijing, London, New York, San Francisco, New Delhi and Jakarta at 16:30PM on October 29.

According to our sources, the OnePlus X will come with Snapdragon 801 on board (although recent rumors have said we will see MT6795 Helio X10 chip inside) with 2GB RAM and 16GB of storage. There will be a 5.5-inch screen with 1080p resolution. The pricing is said to be around $249, given the mid-range specs.

We have already seen a couple of pictures of a possible OnePlus handset that could be the new X. You can check that out from our previous article. Also, recently the phone was spotted on Amazon India website (listing is removed now).

Overall, the OnePlus X looks like a budget device which everyone would love. Hopefully, we will be able to get more information about the device before the launch.

So stay tuned.

Umi Hammer S Review: VIDEO

Umi Hammer S Review: SPECS

Display

5.5″ 720P (HD)

Processor

MTK6735, Quad Core, 1GHz

RAM

2GB

Camera

2MP Front/13MP

Connectivity

Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+; FDD-LTE B1/B3/B7/B20

Battery

3.200 mAh (removable)

Dimensions

154.2 x 77.4 x 8.5mm / 200g

OS

Android 5.1

Storage

16GB (expandable via microSD card slot up to 64GB)

Umi Hammer S Review: UNBOXING

The phone comes with usual stuff you can expect and that includes a charging brick, some documentation and last but not least the USB Type-C cable.

Umi Hammer S Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

When it comes to the design of the phone, we are looking at the combo of metal chassis, all-glass front and a soft plastic back and it sits comfortably in the hand due to rounded corners on the back.

The Umi Hammer S comes with 5.5” 720P display, which is okay to look at indoors but it has quite a poor sunlight visibility, which is common to most of the budget phones.

A 2MP snapper, earpiece and the sensor light are on the top and 3 non-backlit capacitive buttons are on the bottom.

On the back we have a 13MP shooter with dual LED flash and right underneath it there is a fingerprint scanner.

Under the hood there is a removable 3200mAh battery, two SIM card slots and the microSD card slot.

On the right we have very clicky and responsive volume rocker and the power button.

The speaker grill is on the bottom, which sits next to the USB Type-C port.

On the top we have a headset jack and the IR blaster.

Overall, I kind of like the design and choice of materials. The build quality is great too. The Umi Hammer S is nothing you haven’t seen as far as exterior goes but there are a lot worse looking phones, in my opinion.

Umi Hammer S Review: UI

The phone runs on Android 5.1 Lolipop and you are getting a pretty much stock Android experience.

Umi changed the design of some icons and added a bit of extra functionality like gesture controls. Some of them work great while other not so great. Well, the only feature I use on all the devices is the “double click to wake”.

Although the fingerprint scanner is not the fastest I’ve seen, I am satisfied with how the it works but the setup process is a bit slower and the interface is different than other China phones I’ve tested.

All in all, the UI performance is smooth most of the times and this is what you usually get when the phone is running near stock Android build.

Umi Hammer S Review: BENCHMARKS

Umi Hammer S Review: PERFORMANCE

Umi Hammer S has a MTK6735 chip, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. This is a combo we’ve seen on a lot of Chinese phones lately but not all of them are well optimised.

Playing 3D games is possible but there is quite a lot of stutter and skipped frames, and graphics don’t look impressive.

Umi Hammer S Review: MULTIMEDIA

The multimedia consumption experience is on par with other similarly priced China phones. You are getting a tinny sounding loudspeaker and the sound via earphones is okay but nothing spectacular.

Umi Hammer S Review: CAMERA

The night images do not impress either. There is just so much noise, the level of details is poor but most importantly there is a red tint in some pictures.

The 2MP selfie snapper will do the trick for social media if you tend taking selfies with plenty of light.

As far as video recording, the footage lacks in many aspects but this is what you have to expect in this price range of phones (see the sample in the video review). And yeah, the sound quality is just terrible.

Umi Hammer S Review: CONNECTIVITY

As far as connectivity options go, Umi Hammer S has the 4G LTE support and the call quality is decent. Other options that include wifi and Bluetooth work fine and while GPS is not the fastest to get a position lock, it gets the job done while navigating in the streets.

Umi Hammer S Review: BATTERY LIFE

In real life you may not achieve the same results but the phone will definitely get you through the day and more depending on how you are going to use the device.

Umi Hammer S Review: CONCLUSIONS

So here it is, the Umi Hammer S. For the price of just over $130 you are getting a decently designed phone, which has a good build quality.

Also, Umi Hammer S has almost stock Android build and it is running smoothly most of the times.

In addition, the battery life is really good and some extra functionality like a fingerprint scanner and USB Type-C are great features for the price.

However, the processing power is not really capable of providing a decent gaming experience, the camera does not impress and the display is of a mediocre quality.

It happened so that I have two UMI smartphones at the moment – Hammer S and Fair. I have already done the first impressions video about of the former one and this time around I wanted to share my initial thoughts about the UMI Fair – a cheap smartphone that has a fingerprint scanner.

We wanted to say thanks to Coolicool.com for providing us with UMI Fair for a review.

Umi Fair Unboxing: Video

UMI Fair in pictures:

I’ve been using the Umi Hammer S for around a week already but the final review is still a few days away, so I decided to give you guys my impressions about the device. This is a different kind of video that I am used to making but I hope you enjoy my live unboxing.

Umi Hammer S Unboxing and First Impressions: VIDEO

The phone comes with 5.5″ display, which makes the whole device quite huge but it sits comfortably in the hand due to rounded corners on the back.

Umi Hammer S has a metal chassis going around the device and it adds a bit of a premium touch.

Overall, the device is well made and I have some good first impressions as far as design goes.

As far as UI, we have an Android 5.1 with a light UMI skin on top of it. It is pretty much stock Android experience with some extra features like gesture controls we’ve seen on a lot of phones from China lately.

All in all, I don’t have major complaints about the phone after using it for some time. Still, I will give my final thoughts in a full review, which is coming very soon, so please stay tuned.