The Ulefone Paris is a new 5-inch smartphone that features exceptional quality, both internally and externally, note that a great amount of care has been put in how the phone looks, with rounded corners, almost imperceptible side bezels and a small capacitive button which is ring shaped and lights at night or in low light conditions and is is accompanied on both sides by two other tcapicitive buttons which act as the menu and back buttons.
The whole body of the phone is made of high quality metal and curved screen which is of 5 inches (2.5D) and Full HD resolution with Gorilla Glass 3 on top for protection. Furthermore smartphone weight is extremely low, at only 125 grams, while the thickness remains in the 8 mm range.
On paper, the specs are impressive as well, with the 64-bit MTK6753 chipset, which has eight Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.3 GHz, 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 16 GB of internal storage.
It runs on the latest Android 5.1 Lollipop with a minimalist custom interface and sports a 13.2-MP camera on the back with a 5-MP camera on the front with custom Camera software, that makes the images pop even more.
There are many other interesting features of this smartphone, such as improved sound system, 4G high-capacity battery, etc.
We are we are looking at a completely awesome phone in every way, but unfortunately for the impatient, it is still for sale, and those interested in the phone have to wait to get it.
Although they say that beauty is inside, it is inevitable that if a fixture of this type did not catch your eye, do not buy this … The manufacturers know what they are doing and therefore increasingly strive to create more beautiful wearables, sexy and elegant , leaving behind the first design concept born with the SmartWatch; pretty ugly and bulky.
The No.1 S3 SmartWatch could pass for a traditional watch with three color combinations, strap and black dial, brown strap and golden sphere or white and silver belt area To my taste, brown street would win, but as for taste Nothing is written applaud the fact that there are several options to choose from.
Its main round dial is made of stainless steel , while the strap is leather. In addition, the screen is covered by a type of tempered glass to prevent unwanted scratches or cracks.
Specs of the S3 No.1 SmartWatch
Display: IPS with resolution 240 x 240 pixels
External Memory: supports up to 16 GB memory card
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0, GSM network 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (micro SIM)
Supported audio format: MP3
Supported video: MP4
Compatibility: Android and iOS
Waterproof: Yes
Dimensions: 52 x 41 x 12 mm
Weight: 49 grams
Package Contents: 1 x No.1 S3 SmartWatch, 1 x 350 mAh battery, 1 x Charger, 1 x Manual in English
Main functions: dial or answer calls, phonebook, call log, and control the camera remotely music, anti-loss alarm, monitoring of physical activity (pedometer), cardiac sensor, sleep monitoring, sedentary reminder alarms , sound recorder, calendar, calculator
A phone on your wrist … now reality
Wearables were initially born to solve the problem of taking a look at our smartphone without removing the pocket, which is especially essential if you work at a place where you can not be tinkering with your mobile and yet we like to be attentive to notifications.
If you want a SmartWatch it will very well function in this respect, the No.1 S3 SmartWatch is the best you’ll find in the market and to take it on your wrist, is like carrying your phone.
It is the first circular SIM card bearing smart watch, allowing you to enter your address book and make and receive calls as well as other functions that also carry on our smartphone, and use basic apps like calculator or the recorder, check the calendar receive notices have scheduled alarms and remotely control the camera and music player.
In addition, concentrating on the fact that, with the option of sending and receiving calls, the No.1 SmartWatch S3 boasts a stereo system and a noise reduction for the quality of the calls is optimal .
The term “hands-free” applies perfectly to this watch because it does not have to press anything to turn it on, simply move the arm and the watch will detect the movement and turn on the display.
It also monitors your heart!
Besides always staying connected with our world, the No.1 S3 SmartWatch also can measure our physical activity thanks to the included pedometer calculates distance, calories and speed. Yes, we know this smartwatches do all the time, even most simple and inexpensive smartbands do this, but if you really want this control over your physical activity and not just to show off to your friends, we recommend you look into the wearable’s heart rate sensor
Until recently it was wildly discussed and luckily for us we now see the confirmation in the latest releases. The No.1 SmartWatch S3 is no exception and has this interesting and practical sensor.
We especially stress the battery life, which the manufacturer promises 36 hours of autonomy in standby , which would lead us to charge the smartwatch every two days depending on the heavy or moderate usage. Nevertheless, although it still seems insufficient, it is a good figure compared to the duration of similar devices.
If you have an IOS device, you may run into a few bumps…
Although the manufacturer announces compatibility with iOS and Android, it is important to know that the, support iOS is not 100% compatable. If you use an iOS smartphone, you can not receive any notifications, read messages or control the camera remotely. Which will drive iOS users away from choosing this smartwatch/phone.
A really big obstacle for all iOS users who can’t afford or like the Apple Watch.
Price and Availability
The No.1 S3 SmartWatch will stay the list of our favorite wearables. Really nice outside and a powerful beast inside and with many features, it’s also priced very competitively as well.
With the launch of the XK Alien X250, a newest RC quadcopter, lots of RC quad hobbyists still know little about it. As a matter of fact, there are some shocking features hiding behind this quad. Next, please follow my steps to reveal the features.
Air Pressure Needle
One of the awesome secrets is that XK Alien X250 contains high precision air pressure needle to fix height. Air pressure needle is able to feel the air pressure and then to adjust the height of the flight, which is good to reduce electricity consumption and ensure the safety of flight. Moreover, the quad provides colorful and bright LED and Fail Safe Function. When your quad is out of control, the LED will flash and then the quad will land in automatic way. There are six axis on the quad, largely improving the stability and the ability to resist strong wind.
Key To Roll
In addition, XK Alien X250 is equipped with One Key To Roll. This feature is rather suitable for beginners because it is very easy to control during flying. And its control distance is more than 300m. It not only adopts 2.4GHz communication technology but also is compatible with FUTABA S-FHSS, bring you a stunning flying experience, and it has no interference by other transmitter.
Battery Features
Furthermore, XK Alien X250 includes a high discharge rate lipo battery. Its battery is 3.7V 800mAh high 20C lipo, which can support the flight for 8-12 minutes. To your amazement, the quad has low voltage alarm function, which is a considerate design. When the quad is under low voltage status, all LED will flash to remind you, guaranteeing a safe flying for you.
Camera
What is worth mentioning is that the package doesn’t include camera. However, you can hang micro 5.8G FPV camera on the quad, so that you can make use of it to take picture and video. All in all, XK Alien X250 is really high performance and worth purchasing. After revealing the secrets of it, can you see that the quad is waving at you?
In the past few months, we have seen a couple of big battery smartphones from the emerging Chinese smartphone maker, VKWorld. The company reportedly has some good smartphones in store for customers in the coming weeks, one of those being the VKWorld VK700 Pro. The VK700 was a decent phone with good looks and super cheap sub $80 price tag. The company has now announced the upgraded version to this device, called as the VKWorld VK700 Pro.
The new model comes with a number of upgrades to set it apart from the old version. It looks like the company has focused on the looks, using Corning’s 3D curved glass on top of its 5.5-inch display. This setup is usually found only on premium smartphones, so it will be good to see it on a mid-range device. As for the other features, the VK700 Pro will come with a CNC frame with space grade aluminum alloy body, once again giving it a premium feel.
Apart from focusing on improving the overall design, VKWorld also has reportedly worked on durability. It is said that the phone will come with a tough body, strong enough to drive in nails on a wooden block, break walnuts etc. It looks like the company is trying to compete with the strong UMI Hammer smartphone with its new release.
Other known specs include a 13MP camera at the back and a 5MP front facing shooter. Unfortunately, rest of the specs are still unknown. But considering the placement of the VK700 model, expect the new model to compete in the mid-range segment.
The smartphone, we are talking about the Lenovo ZUK Z1’s International version, the 5.5-inch phablet with an IPS FHD Display with 1500:1 contrast levels and 401 pixels per inch.
On the spec sheet, we have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 which is a quad-core CPU with 3GB RAM and Adreno 330. The 801 is based on the 64-bit architecture and will take advantage of Android Lollipop’s new ART Runtime.
The phone also boasts a 13-MP camera on the back with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), which puts it in a category very few phones to have the feature, from Lenovo. The front is equipped with an 8-MP camera for crisp selfies.
Other feature of the ZUK Z1 include 64-GB internal storage, USB Type-C connector, Bluetooth 4.1 LE (Low Energy), 4G connectivity for both the sims which are nano Sim size.
The main attraction of the phone is the HUGE 4,100-mAh battery which allows the phone to last more than one day on a single charge. Even with the large battery, the phone only weighs in at 180 grams.
One of the other things is the phone’s design itself. The ZUK Z1 resembles the iPhone in a lot of ways, as you can see from the pictures above. That is a good thing, making the phone familiar and wasy to handle. The Z1 has thin bezels, with chrome finishing on all the edges. The Z1 is available in white or Dark grey color options.
Zopo has just revealed a limited edition smartphone at a central fnac store in Barcelona. The ZOPO Speed 7 GP model phone is designed to be a Collector’s piece by featuring Jorge Lorenzo’s signature and his official racing number “99” logo on the back cover. Jorge Lorenzo is a two-time MotoGP World Champion and the brand ambassador of Zopo.
What fans were expecting was a Zopo device fitted with a Helio X20 processor but the Speed 7 GP comes with MT6753 processor from MediaTek. It has been reported that the exclusive Jorge Lorenzo limited edition smartphone ZOPO Speed 7 GP will be available for sale soon.
The Speed 7 GP contains a 64-bit octa-core CPU with a 3 GB that supposedly resembles the performance of the Spanish professional motorcycle road racer. To capture great moments in high resolution pictures, the 13.2 megapixels rear camera is made with a five piece lens. Then images will be stretched on 5.5 inch 1920 by 1080 resolution Full HD display. A 3000mAh battery is also indicated to be packed in the smart phone to support 33 hours of playing music or 300 hours of standby time. The luxurious limited edition Speed 7 GP also comes with specially designed earphones and a USB cable with the charger inside the motor race themed packing box.
Today sees the Vowney official specs released, there will be two versions a light and high end variant.
The differences between the high end and lite handsets will be the screens and the Ram/ Rom configurations.
The Lite handset comes with a 5.5″ 1080P (1920*1080) display, 3GB RAM, 16GB ROM
whilst the High End handset comes with a 5.5″ 2K（2560*1440) negative liquid crystal display for lower power consumption and improved response times, 4GB RAM and 32GB ROM
The other Elephone Vowney official specs confirm that both phones are identical in everything else, both include a 4000mAh battery with 2.5 hour quick charge (a real improvement over the P8000 andP7000 charge times).
The phones will come with a 21MP Sony Exmor RS IMX230 rear camera with 192 phase-detection auto focus (with focus times of just 0.15 seconds) and support for 120fps slow motion video and real time 4K HDR recording at 30fps.
The rear camera has a dual tone flash, which should improve white balance and give a better tone to portraits etc.
The front facing camera is an 8mp unit for capturing a half decent selfie.
The phones have micro SD expandable memory slots (up to 128GB) giving the Lite version up to 144GB maximum whilst the high end version has a maximum storage of 160GB and the
The handsets are running the new Mediatek Helio X10 (MT6795) Soc with 4 x A57 and 4x A53 with a GX6650 GPU, I expect that Antutu scores over 50,000 will be possible.
With all the advances that Mediatek have made on GPS on their previous 64bit processors, I can’t see any problems arising on the Vowney GPS, which features support for GPS/Glonass/Beidou.
Cellular coverage is good the Vowney supports 2G,3G and 4G on the following Bands:
GSM:BAND2 BAND3 BAND5 BAND8
WCDMA:BAND1 BAND8
FDD-LTE:BAND1 BAND3 BAND7 BAND20
TDD-LTE:BAND40
Wifi:5G
Lets hope that the release is imminent and that the phone lives up to the (long time coming) hype.
Xiaomi has once again confirmed via a new teaser that the Xiaomi Mi4C flagship will be announced on September 23. The phone is expected to come in two variants, one with 2GB RAM and 16GB of storage, while the other with 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage. Both the versions will be powered by the flagship Snapdragon 808 chipset. However, it looks like the Xiaomi Mi4C might have another storage variant as well.
According to Sun Peng, MIUI Senior Engineer, we may see a 64GB variant of the Xiaomi Mi4C in the coming weeks. He hinted that a 64GB version was possible via his official Weibo page earlier today. This is actually welcome news for users who always crave for more storage. Given the fact that the Mi4C won’t be coming with a MicroSD card slot, it becomes necessary to provide enough internal storage to store all your apps and data. So, a 64GB version at a slightly increased price isn’t a bad idea.
According to a report earlier today, the 32GB variant of the Mi4C could be priced around 1499 Yuan. Now, if this is the case, then we can expect the 64GB variant to be around 100-150 yuan higher. So, the retail price should be around 1599 Yuan which comes to $250 USD. That’s not at all a bad deal, considering the flagship Snapdragon 808 powers the device.
As for the other specs, expect it to be more or less the same as the Xiaomi Mi4i international edition. At the back, there will be a 13MP camera and a 5MP shooter at the front. The battery is expected to be higher than 3000mAh. As for the software, the Mi4C should run on the new Android 5.1.1 based MIUI 7 OS. There’s rumors about an infrared port as well.
We are not quite sure whether Xiaomi will announce the 64GB version along with the 16GB & 32GB variants. But since the event is just a few days away, lets wait and see whether we get to see this high-end storage version at the September 22 event.
Do you think companies should compulsorily announce 64GB internal storage variants for phones without SD card slots?
On the day the iPhone 6S was announced, Futuremark – the Finland based benchmarking company – generated a comparative report from two years of 3,000,000 bench mark results from 3DMark, the company’s benchmarking tool for multiple platforms. The report illustrated a chart of data gathered from September 2013 until August 2015.
Back in late 2013, the best apple phone was the iPhone 5S and the best Android phone was the SONY Xperia Z Ultra. The chart showed that Android phones were beating Apple phones by roughly 2000 points or around 20%. As the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge + takes the lead in August 2015, Apple was competing by only presenting the iPhone 6 Plus. However, the Android technology has advanced three times from the Nexus to the S6 and the difference in performance score has got wider. Similarly, the Apple iPads are falling behind Android tablets like the NVIDIA Shield tablet. It looks Android technology will continue to beat Apple devices despite the 3DMark popularity pick up in recent times.
In the Android manufacturer comparison, Samsung has shown an almost one third share of 3DMark results. However, Samsung has shown a decline in 2015 as smaller brands account for almost a quarter of the results this year.
You can check out rest of the detailed infographic down below.
Just yesterday we came across the leaked back panel of an upcoming LeTV model. Now, we have spotted yet another LeTV smartphone with the model number X500. This particular model, most likely called as the LeTV 1S will be the upgraded version of the LeTV One that was announced back in April. As a result, the company might replace the old one with the X500, keeping a similar price tag to attract customers.
The specifications are said to be quite similar to the LeTV One. According to the AnTuTu benchmark listing, the phone will run on the octa-core Mediatek Helio X10 chipset. In case you remember, this is the same chip that powers the super cheap Xiaomi Redmi 2. There will be 3GB of RAM on board along with 32GB of storage. As for the display, you can expect the same 5.5-inch 1080p FHD panel on this new device. At the back, there will be a 13MP camera while up front, expect a 5MP shooter. For software, the phone is said to run on the Android 5.0.1 Lollipop platform with the company’s own skin on top.
The listing shows that the phone managed to score about 45,000 on AnTuTu. Unfortunately, we still have no idea about the pricing of the LeTV X500 1S. If the company wishes to price it around the 999 Yuan mark (to compete with the Redmi Note 2), then the only upgrade we can expect is the fingerprint sensor. Also, you may see the memory cut down to 2GB. This coupled with the beautiful built quality will give it an edge over competitors.
original LeTV One
Another possibility is that the company could upgrade a few more things along with fingerprint ID and price it at 1499 Yuan. Following the launch, LeTV can reduce the pricetag of the original ‘One’ to 999 Yuan. So, the company essentially will have a cheaper option to compete with the Redmi Note 2 as well as a better specced version to compete with the likes of the Xiaomi Mi4C that’s coming on September 22.
Anyways, we will have to wait and see what LeTV plans to do with the new LeTV 1S X500 in the coming weeks.
Ever since Xiaomi announced the Xiaomi Mi4i mid-range flagship in India, the users in China have been eagerly waiting for its domestic version. We have been hearing a lot about this particular device in the past couple of months. Thanks to the TENAA listing, we even know the core specifications of the device.
Earlier today, Xiaomi posted a new teaser on their official Weibo page, which confirms that the Xiaomi Mi4C will be announced on September 22. The company is calling it the “Little Prince”, which is kind of apt, given that the phone will feature quite impressive specs. We have not yet seen the next generation Xiaomi Mi5 model till now and we don’t expect to see it at least till the end of 2015. As a result, the Mi4C could be considered as an affordable flagship model that can succeed the Xiaomi Mi4.
One of the biggest changes between the Xiaomi Mi4i international version and the domestic version, Mi4C is the processor under the hood. The company is reportedly going with the flagship range Snapdragon 808 64-bit hexa-core chip on the Mi4C as compared to the less snappier Snapdragon 615 chip on the Mi4i. Apart from the powerful processor, the Mi4C is expected to come in two variants, 2GB RAM + 16GB of storgae, and 3GB RAM + 32GB of storage. Like the international version, the domestic version too will feature a 5-inch display with 1080p FHD resolution. At the back, there will be a 13MP camera while up front, you will get a 5MP front facing shooter. Under the hood, you can expect a 3000mAh + battery. As for software, the Mi4C should definitely come with the new MIUI 7 based on Android 5.1.1. There are also rumors about an infrared port on the device.
As you can see, the specs are flagship worthy and are enough to succeed the previous generation Mi4. As for the pricing, the phone is expected to retail at 1499 Yuan ($235) for the top-end 3GB + 32GB storage version.
So, what do you think? Is Xiaomi looking to succeed Mi4, with the brand new Mi4C flagship?
16GB (expandable via microSD card slot up to 64GB)
Elephone P8000 Review: UNBOXING
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The phone comes in quite a huge box and the contents include a power plug, which has a quick charge feature, USB cable, a screen protector and some documentation.
Elephone P8000 Review: DESIGN
Once you take the phone out of the box, the first thing you will notice is that the phone is big due to its 5.5” display. Also, it is quite a thick device at more than 9mm due to its huge battery, which has the capacity of 4165mAh. It also adds some extra weight and you can definitely feel it in your hand but it’s not an issue for me.
On the top side you can find a 5MP shooter, earpiece and a sensor light.
On the bottom there are 3 capacitive keys. The home button also has a notification LED with a nice pulsing effect but my review unit comes from the early batch and the phone does not have the LED.
The back plate is made of plastic and it sports a faux carbon fibre finish. A 13MP camera with a single LED flash is here for photography and right below it you can find a fingerprint scanner.
On the bottom there is a speaker grill.
The Elephone P8000 sports a metal band, which is going around the device and it adds a bit of a premium look and feel.
On the right side you there is a power key along with the volume rocker and they have a great tactile response.
On the top there is a headset jack and the bottom is the place of the micro USB port and the mic.
Under the hood you can find a non-removable 4165mAh battery, a microSD card slot and two micro SIM card slots. The first one has the 4G LTE support.
Overall, the phone has a good built quality and the choice of materials. For the price of just below $170, it is a solid looking phone.
Elephone P8000 Review: DISPLAY
The 5.5” display on the Elephone P8000 is sharp, has good viewing angles but the colours look on a colder side and sunlight visibility could be a little better. Still, it is a decent panel overall.
Elephone P8000 Review: USER INTERFACE
The Elephone P8000 runs on Android 5.1 with the Elephone’s skin on top of it. You are getting a pretty much stock Android experience with a little bit of customisation done by Elephone. Interestingly enough, they removed the app tray and all the apps sit on the home screens. It’s not a huge problem as you can easily install a third party launcher to fix that.
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The phone does not have a lot of extra functionality but Elephone added some personalisation options like a theme engine. You can’t find a lot of themes to choose from but it is a nice touch for a budget device.
It is strange that there are no gesture controls, which were present on the Elephone P7000 but the company added some other little features. If you swipe down anywhere on the screen, it brings the search menu. However, you need to tap the address line to open up the keyboard.
If you swipe down, it brings a little menu, which is mainly designed for a quick customisation of the UI.
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The phone also comes with a fingerprint scanner, which is easy to setup. It is placed on the back, which may sound weird but you can get used to it after a few days. At first, the fingerprint security was not very accurate but after a few software updates it improved. Well, it is definitely not the most accurate implementation but it is on par with other budget phones. A bad thing is that the scanner does not work right from the standby mode.
Overall, the UI is very fast and responsive and we need to say thanks to almost stock Android build.
Elephone P8000 Review: BENCHMARKS
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Elephone P8000 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMACE
The Elephone P8000 comes with an octa-core MTK6753 CPU, which is clocked at 1.3GHz, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.
All the specs lead to a great day to day performance. However, some more intensive tasks like gaming are good but not great. You may still enjoy playing 3D games but keep in mind that you will face occasional stutter and some skipped frames. A good thing is that the phone does not heat up too much.
Elephone P8000 Review: MULTIMEDIA
Watching HD movies on a 5.5” screen is great and the playback is smooth. The phone comes with a stock Android music player app and the sound that comes out of the loudspeaker is pretty good. It is nothing exceptional as the sound lacks depth and the volume output could be louder but we are talking about a budget device here.
The sound via earphones is decent but the volume output is pretty low.
Elephone P8000 Review: CAMERA
As the majority of the budget Chinese phones, the Elephone P8000 comes with a stock Mediatek camera app.
Elephone P8000 Review: IMAGE QUALITY
The 13MP camera on the back is capable of producing some decent looking daylight images but camera is inconsistent as some of the shots may look out of focus or at least with soft corners. Also, the dynamic range adjustment is usually off.
Images taken indoors require a steady hand. If you manage to hold your hand steady you may produce some decent looking photos, but sometimes images come out blurry.
In low-light conditions camera struggles to capture details and there is plenty of noise.
Overall, you can capture some decent looking daylight images but photos taken indoors are a hit or miss, and the low-light shots do not impress.
The video quality is mediocre as on the majority of budget devices. The footage looks dull and there is a visible lack of details. Also, there is no continuous auto-focus. See the video review for a video sample.
Elephone P8000 Review: CONNECTIVITY
I don’t have any complaints about connectivity options as the call quality along with the signal reception are good, Bluetooth and wifi are also working fine. GPS is fast to get a position lock but it could be a tad more accurate and it is not on par with the phones, powered by Snapdragon chips.
Elephone P8000 Review: BATTERY LIFE
The 4165mAh battery sounds amazing on paper and I can say it delivers in real life. I was able to get over 5 hours of screen-on time even if I took a lot of pictures and played some games. If you are a light user, you may get 6 or even 7 hours of screen on time, which is not bad for a budget phone.
Elephone P8000 Review: CONCLUSIONS
The Elephone P8000 is a budget phone that costs just $170 and it has a great build quality, decent screen, good specs and fast day to day performance.
Also, you may get some good looking daylight images with its camera but not all the time. Other key features include an okay working fingerprint scanner, a good battery, dual SIM card slots with the 4G LTE support.
A few downsides would be that the phone is huge and heavy, the black borders around the screen don’t look cool at all and the UI lacks some extra features like gesture controls.
Other than that, the Elephone P8000 is a decent offering for the money.
Officially launched on the 27th of July the ZTE Axon Elite is on currently on pre sale until the 23rd of September.
Whilst I wait to get my hands on a review sample, lets take a look at the specs and see how it holds up against the current competition.
Screen wise the phone features a 5.5-inch IPS & OGS Full HD displayThe screen is covered by Corning Gorilla glass and has a 2.5D finish.
The processor on board is the much talked about (normally for the wrong reasons) Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994 v2.1 Soc clocked at 2ghz and an Adreno 430 Gpu.
Qualcomm have spent a considerable amount of time and effort to reduce the overheating issues that plagued earlier versions of the chip and it has now reached a point where throttling should be kept to a minimum, the 810 is still very much a flagship Soc, currently outperforming all but the latest Samsung Exynox chips.
The phone comes with 3GB of Ram and 32GB Rom, storage is expandable via Micro SD (up to 128Gb)
In a similar fashion to previous phones from HTC the ZTE Axon features dual rear cameras, the main camera is a 13mp Sony IMX214 unit whilst the second camera is a 2mp OV unit with variable aperture (f1.0 – f8.0) the rear of the phone features a dual LED flash setup, the front facing camera unit is an 8mp unit.
The advantage of the dual rear cameras is the ability to add depth to images in post processing, the out of focus areas can be changed at will, giving you the ability to adjust Bokeh or as ZTE call it Super Aperture to your own requirements and make subjects really stand out from their backgrounds.
Build quality looks really good, the body is made from an aerospace grade aluminium magnesium alloy, which ZTE claim provides 80% increase in strength and 30% reduction in weight over standard aluminium.
Design wise the rear of the phone features an interesting leatherette finish at the top and a cool looking triangular design X design between the rear cameras.
The back of the phone is curved so should help to make the 5.5″ phablet a little easier to hold.
Audio is sorted out by an AKM AK4961 processor providing industry leading levels of performance of THD+N (-99dB) and 110dB dynamic range from the newly developed 32-bit advanced audio DAC and cap-less class G headphone amplifier.
According to Qualcomm’s presentation, the first set of quad-core Snapdragon 820 chipset powered smartphones will only be available by Q1 2016. This means that if the Mi5 is using Snapdragon 820, we may only see it sometime early 2016. Xiaomi Mi5 and Samsung Galaxy S7 are expected to be the first phones based on the new Qualcomm chip.
In the past eight months, we have seen plenty of releases from Xiaomi, from high-end Mi Note lineup to the super cheap, Redmi Note 2. However, we have not yet seen the successor to the Xiaomi Mi4 model, which should have been announced last month. Although we expected Xiaomi Mi 5 to debut before the end of this year, if the company decides to use the Snapdragon 820 chipset, it most likely will, then we may have to wait at least till Q1 for the phone’s availability.
Snapdragon 820 is designed for user experience innovation with a heterogeneous design delivering high performance with optimized power consumption. The processor is composed of a new X12 LTE modem, a quad core 64-bit CPU with 2.2GHz clock speed. Next generation Adreno GPU with Adreno Display Processor and Adreno Video processor are also housed in the Snapdragon 820. Over all the processor boasts a 40% performance boost while power consumption is reduced by 30%.
Today, Qualcomm has also announced the Quick Charge 3.0 followed by two processors the Snapdragon 430 and 617. These processors are intended to deliver high performance in next generation devices with an affordable price. Both processors are also going to support the brand new Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology which is able to accomplish four times faster charging speed than conventional charging technologies.
Snapdragon 617 will be the first to roll out of the factory on devices to be launched by the end of 2015. It integrates X8 LTE functions and supports high speed connections of 300 Mbps during download. However, the Snapdragon 430 is expected to be launched on devices in 2016. It is expected to be composed of X6 LTE with Cat 4 downlink speed of 150 Mbps.
It is now a trend for mobile devices to get smarter and larger. Users are interacting a lot with their devices and the devices consume battery power very fast. Charging has come to be one of the main activities in using today’s mobile devices. That is where Qualcomm comes to the rescue with a technology to charge devices with a reportedly four times faster speed.
The Quick Charge 3.0 is an improved version of its predecessor Quick Charge 2.0. Qualcomm claims that this new charging technology has an 80% faster charging speed than a normal charging apparatus delivered with a mobile device. Associated with the charging speed is an embedded algorithmic technology called Intelligent Negotiation for Optimum Voltage or INOV for devices to determine their own voltage demand. The Quick charge 3.0 also features a finer charging voltage selection in 200mV resolution ranging between 3.6 to 20 volts with a USB Type-C connection. Quick Charge 3.0 can charge a device from 0% to 80% in just 35 minutes!
The San Diego-based chip maker Qualcomm is promising to launch the Quick Charge 3.0 with one of their newest Snapdragon processors. Soon the long periods of time required for device charging will be history as users get used to this charging technology, meaning more time for interacting with your device while it is free from cords and plugs.
Guess what, Snapdragon 820, 620, 618, 617, and 430 support Quick Charge 3.0. This means many of the smartphones that we see next year would feature this fast charging tech.
Other sites have been speaking about the Elephone P9000 recently and providing specifications and images, based on an online retailers page, it would appear that the specs (Helio X20) and photos posted were in fact wrong.
I have today received official confirmation that the forthcoming Elephone P9000 will come in 3 variants all three will feature the Helio P10 MT6755 octa-core CPU as opposed to the Helio X20.
The MT6755 or Helio P10 boasts a big.LITTLE architecture built of ARM A53 cores running at a max speed of 2.0Ghz.
The SoC comes with a more powerful Mali T860 GPU and will support Cat 6 LTE and up to 21 mega-pixel camera sensors.
Something that will finally put some of the haters to rest is the differences between the three variants, for a while now people have been taking shots at Elephone for making phones with large black boarders hiding or disguising the screen bezels on their handsets.
Of the three variants one is finally going to be borderless (P9000 borderless), one will come with thin bezels (P9000 lite thin bezel) and the last one is made of (P9000C surprised low price )
Hopefully pricing wise the Elephone P9000 will follow the companies normal strategy, pack in lots of features but keep the prices low, this could finally make for an affordable bezelless handset!
The pictures below show the designs, one is particularly distinctive, featuring 45 degree corners and what appear to be 2.5d front and rear glass panels with polygon shaped home button, camera and flash surrounds, the other two designs look really good but we will have to wait until the phone is seen in the flesh before making any firm decisions.
It will be interesting to find out what else will be included on the P9000, hopefully they will increase the camera resolution to 16mp+ and include OIS and or laser focusing along with 3gb+ of ram and 32gb or more of rom.
What do you think of the fact the Elephone P9000 will come in 3 variants will you be going for the borderless, lite or surprised low price version?
Meizu CEO Bai Yongxiang had earlier said that the company has decided to use a maximum resolution of of 1080p on its upcoming smartphones. This meant that the Meizu Pro 5 flagship that will debut next week on September 23 will also come with a 1080p display. We have already seen a lot of leaks, renders and bechmark results of the Pro 5 handset, however, we still weren’t quite sure about the phone’s display size.
Now CEO Bai has just made things a lot more clear, by saying that the upcoming flagship will come with a 5.7-inch display with 1080p resolution. According to him, anything more than 4.7-inches will not be comfortable to hold. As a result, it becomes necessary to add optimizations to improve user experience. Meizu Pro 5’s 5.7-inch display size will be ideal with the mBack physical home button at the bottom of the display. The company’s mBack button can reportedly understand how hard the user presses the button. A simple touch will take you one step back, while a harder press will take you to the home.
Now that the display size is also confirmed, we kind of know what to expect from the new Pro 5 flagship. The flagship is expected to come in two variants, one powered by the Exynos 7420 and the lower end variant powered by Helio X20 deca-core chip. There will be 3GB/ 4GB RAM options with 32GB / 64Gb of storage. As for the camera, you can expect a 21MP sensor at the back and a 5MP shooter up front. As for the software, the phone is expected to feature Android 5.1 Lollipop OS based on the new Flyme 5.0 UI. Flyme’s Chief Architect had already released a few screenshots of the new OS, which you can check out from this link here.
The Meizu Pro 5 flagship is expected to be one of the costliest handset from the company till date, with the pricing rumored to be above 3000 Yuan. But the phone is definitely turning out to be impressive. So, it would be interesting to see whether customers are willing to shell out such an amount for a Meizu device.
Back when Huawei announced its Honor 4C mid-range smartphone, the device came with good specs but with just 8GB of storage. This was quite disappointing as in this age, 8GB is often not enough for majority of users. So, it was welcome news when Huawei teased last week that Honor 4C was going to get a storage upgrade.
Well, when the company said that it was going to upgrade the storage to 16GB, we expected the pricetag to be around 50 Yuan more. However, surprisingly, Huawei has decided to offer additional storage for no extra cost. Yes, the Honor 4C with 16GB of storage will be available for the same price tag as before i.e. 799 Yuan.
We think its a great move from the company, keeping the same price as before. Now, the Honor 4C adds brings more value for your money. However, we are sure existing users of the 4C won’t be too happy with this news. They got just 8GB at 799 Yuan.
As for the other specs, the Honor 4C comes with a 5-inch 720p display, with 2GB of RAM and kirin 620 octa-core chipset under hood. There’s a 13MP camera at the back and a 5MP shooter up front. Finally, there’s 2550 mAh battery at the back.
So what do you think about Huawei’s decision to offer double the storage at the same price?
After announcing the three powerful smartphones back in April, LeTV’s smartphone department has been quite for the past few months. But last week, the company announced a premium version of its 6-inch LeTV Max version, with gold and pink color options and sapphire glass display. This particular version goes on sale today for an expensive price tag of 5888 Yuan.
LeTV Hong Kong had teased a new smartphone with Snapdragon 820 under the hood via its official Facebook page some weeks back. Unfortunately, till now the company has not revealed any more details. However, earlier today, we came across a new leak which claims to be the back panel of the upcoming second generation LeTV handset.
This is a much different design from the earlier generation models. The camera is located in the top right corner along with the LED flash and the microphone opening. Like we saw in the LeTV Max, the fingerprint sensor is at the center of the back panel. What’s even more interesting is that the panel doesn’t look like metal. From the pictures, it looks like plastic, so it could be a double glass design. Often companies that don’t use metal on their flagships go with double glass design. But it would be disappointing if LeTV uses such a double glass body, as the LeTV models were particularly known for their beautiful metal body design.
While the company is yet to officially confirm the existence of a second generation model, the earlier teaser from LeTV Hong Kong could hint that the new model will be powered by Snapdragon 820 chipset. And if this is the case, we would like to see the new Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 on the handset that can charge from 0-80% in just 35 minutes.
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Anyways, as always, we would advise you to take this news with a pinch of salt. We are not yet sure whether this is the actual rear panel of an upcoming LeTV model. So, lets wait for some more concrete information, before getting too disappointed.
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