According to latest reports, Xiaomi is currently developing its own, independent processor. The company has already experimented with a Chinese chip maker for its super cheap Redmi 2A smartphone and taking account of its success, it is said that this Chinese startup is all set to release its first processor by early 2016.
The Redmi 2A which was launched back in April came with Leadcore’s LC1860C quad-core chipset. The performance of the chip was similar to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 but it costed the company way less. As a result, Xiaomi was able sell the device for only 499 Yuan! Naturally, this helped the company sell more than 5.1 million units of the device in the first three months alone.
It is said that Xiaomi wants to overcome the various drawbacks in its smartphones by launching its own chipset. The new Xiaomi processor will be used in low-end Redmi series phones. On the other hand, the high-end devices like the Xiaomi Mi 5 will continue to use Qualcomm’s flagship chipsets (Snapdragon 820?).
Xiaomi has also reportedly acquired the full range of ARM core licenses. Further, the company recently hired the former Qualcomm China President Wang Xiang, which should definitely help it achieve its goal.
Although the company is yet to announce anything officially, this could indeed turn out to be true. All major manufacturers are increasingly becoming independent when it comes to the use of processors. Samsung, Huawei, Apple are some of the company’s direct competitors who use their own chipsets inside their devices. Given that Xiaomi has a habit of making moves pretty quickly, this does seem possible.
Anyways, what do you think about such a move from Xiaomi? Is this best for the company to rely on its own processor for its low-end devices?
While the video is of just 18 seconds, it was enough for a basic walk-through of the new design of the device. Apart from a few changes, the overall design seems to be the continuation from the Mate 7 flagship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4NNQU35KZs
As for the specs, the Mate 8 is rumored to come with a 6-inch 2K display (490 ppi) along with Huawei’s latest Kirin 950 chipset. This new chip is expected to directly compete with the upcoming Snapdragon 820 processor from Qualcomm. Like tradition, Huawei is also said to offer two different versions of the Mate 8, one with 3GB RAM + 16GB of storage while the high-end model with 4GB RAM + 64GB of storage.
There will be a 20.7MP camera at the back, with a fingerprint scanner just below it. According to reviews, the fingerprint scanner on the Mate 7 was one of the best in the market at that time. So, it would be interesting to see if we find better tech on the new Mate 8. Up front, the phone is expected to come with an 8MP shooter, ideal for selfies. Finally, the battery is expected to be larger than the Mate 7. This would really be a great move since the current Mate flagship comes with a 4100mAh capacity battery and anything more than this should only increase the overall battery life of the phablet.
Unfortunately, the company hasn’t officially revealed anything about this upcoming Mate flagship. Also, the phone in the video may be a different device than the Mate 8. So, before making any more conclusions, lets wait for some concrete information about the upcoming flagship.
Just hours after we got glimpse of the first leaked screenshot of the MIUI 7 Beta version, the official Weibo account of MIUI revealed that it was going to announce something today. And a few hours back, the company confirmed a special MIUI 7 conference that is going to be held on August 13.
Yes, it looks like Xiaomi is going to release the new version of the MIUI 7 ROM that day. Its been a tradition for the company to announce new versions of its ROM in August and this time too, its sticking with the same tradition.
The 7 on the image comes with a lot of colors, hinting at the new look of the Xiaomi OS. Unfortunately, the leaked screenshot that we saw yesterday was of little help, with the only major difference in the image as compared to the current versions being the battery icon. Hopefully, when the real version is released, it will be much more different than the MIUI 6 that’s running on most Xiaomi phones right now.
Well, given that the conference is less than 15 days away, we hope to see more leaks and information about the upcoming OS. So, stay tuned for more details.
OnePlus has been doing well so far. The company just recently announced its new OnePlus 2 flagship and apart from a few criticisms, the phone has fared well among fans. In fact, within just 72 hours, the company had more than 1 million reservations for a OnePlus 2 invite.
We have been long hearing rumors about another smartphone from the company this year. And today Carl Pei reveals a few details about the upcoming handset. Carl, in an interview with the USA Today magazine revealed that OnePlus will indeed release another device this year, most likely before the end of 2015. He said that the launch will hopefully be somewhere around Christmas. That would be an ideal time to release a value for money handset since most customers are on a shopping spree in the holiday season.
He didn’t reveal whether the device was a OnePlus Mini version or a higher-end variant of the OnePlus 2, but from what he said about the phone, it looks like the phone’s going to be powerful.
“It may or may not be (higher spec’d than the OnePlus 2). When I saw the prototype for that phone I was like ‘holy s— that’s going to be my daily driver’ but then when the OnePlus 2 production version came out it’s also super nice, so its really hard to decide now what to use.”
Carl revealed that the company has an internal target to sell around 3-5 million OnePlus smartphones in 2015. He also responded to the criticisms about the OnePlus lacking NFC feature, by saying, “Very few people are using NFC, so we cut it. It’s as simple as that.”
Well, we hope that the upcoming OnePlus handset fixes a few drawbacks that we found on the OnePlus 2, like the lack of NFC & fast charge.
Anyways, what do you think about the upcoming device? Will be a high-end model or a lower-end OnePlus Mini model?
In the ever-increasing technology industry, smart watches are the most recent advancements in mobile technology, seconded by smart phones. These watches are best replacements for taking out your smart phone every time you get a notification. Instead, now you can just have a look at the watch to get a glimpse of notification so you can decide whether to respond to it urgently or not, among many other benefits.
OEMs all over the world have embraced the concept of smart watches and are already into the mass production of the goods since a year and a half. We have seen Samsung, Motorola, and more recently, Apple smart watch. But amongst all of these, what if you have a tight budget and still want to experience the features of a smart watch? Well, that’s where the OUKITEL A28 smart watch comes into the scene. This ~$60 smart watch assures that you get the basic features of a smart watch, and then some, at a price that is too good to miss out:
Build
The A28, having dimensions of 4.8 x 4.0 x 1.2 cm (or 1.89 x 1.57 x 0.47 inches), is a decent sized smart watch that would fit most people’s hands perfectly without looking too huge/small or tacky. Made out of stainless steel, it does a good job of giving a premium feel of metal sans the disadvantages a metal body comes along with. The real leather strap available is good on the hand, but there are no straps available of a different material. However, we can really not expect a budget smart watch to include/sell proprietary straps of different color.
Rating: The A28 offers a good combination of stainless steel and leather in a screen that is comfortable to wear, thus earning an 9/10 rating.
Display
A 1.54 inch 240 x 240 pixels IPS rectangular display on the A28 is more than enough for viewing all of the media and other stuff without blur or pixel view. Although we would have preferred AMOLED or Super AMOLED over IPS due to more vivid colors and a larger battery saving due to AMOLED not making use of back light for showing black color, IPS is good in itself with more natural colors.
Rating: Even though AMOLED on the A28 would have been better, IPS is still good, and does not fail to impress, getting a rating of 8/10.
Hardware
Housing a MediaTek MTK2502 chip within that would handle every task you throw at it since MTK chips are well-known for their better graphics handling and performance. However, whether the usual overheating problem of MTK chips bring along is unknown for now. Combine the MTK2502 with a 128MB RAM and you have a smart watch that could handle almost every app developed for smart watch at the moment. However, some heavy apps may or may not work. 32 MB of inbuilt storage is also enough for storing all the logs, cache and other data. Overall, the phone brings a good set of hardware to the table.
Rating: A28, again, does not compromise on the hardware for its small price, having a decent amount of power under the hood, getting a rating of 8.5/10.
Connectivity
The smart watch makes use of a combination of Bluetooth and QR code to pair and stay connected with the phone. All you have to do is scan the QR code displayed in the smart watch and scan the QR code with a QR code scanner in your Android/iPhone device (Yes! It supports both Android and iOS platforms), download the application shown on your smart phone screen, configure the device and you’re good to go. The range of the smart watch is good, working at distances up to 10 meters, which is enough for most cases in which your smart phone and smart watch are away from each other, such as when either of the device is charging.
Apart from Bluetooth, the watch also brings a bunch of sensors that are useful for health monitoring and other tasks: Pedometer, heart rate monitor, camera remote and music remote.
Rating: A decent set of connectivity features gets A28 8.5/10.
Battery
The watch incorporates a 250 mAh Lithium Polymer battery that is expected to give a standby time of around 100 hours, which will be more than enough to get through 2 days, and then some, when you consider actual usage of the watch rather than just keeping it on standby. Although this is on part with some of the competitor smart watches, it does not set a record, which is not what we were expecting either.
Rating: The battery life of this smart watch is 8/10.
Other Features
Besides the usual features present in a smart watch (such as playing music, attending calls, looking up notifications, etc), the watch still has some extra features thrown in, as mentioned earlier, let’s have a look at them:
-Find Phone: Locating the phone within the range of 10 meters by playing an audio file from the phone
-Sedentary Reminder: A cool feature which sets off an alarm to wake up and move if the wearer has been sitting in the same place for more than a specific period of time (since sitting at the same place for more than ~40 minutes is considered sedentary)
-Waterproof: Able to function even under the influence of water for most everyday cases.
-Sleep Monitor: Are you lacking the proper amount of sleep or are sleeping too long? In either case, sleep monitor will be an accurate way to, well, monitor your sleep.
The Verdict
Overall, considering what the smart watch has to offer, and at an excellent price of ~60$ (Some websites even offer it for a lesser price), the A28 is something you should buy if you are on a tight budget but still want a good set of features. But if you can spend more on buying a smart watch, then there are better options available.
Xiaomi is expected to announce its new version of its MIUI ROM pretty soon. In fact, according to the latest rumors, we could see the new MIUI 7 as soon as August 16. The company usually releases the new version on this date every year, which is why its likely that the new version will debut around this time.
Today, we have come across a leaked screenshot of the first beta version of the MIUI 7.0. The image doesn’t reveal any major differences between the current MIUI 6 and MIUI 7 version. The only visible change was the shift from the oval battery icon to a rectangular one. Even the theme wallpaper remains the same. If this is indeed a glimpse of the MIUI 7, then we will be disappointed for sure. However, given that the leak comes from Weibo, there’s a good chance that this isn’t the real deal.
When the company announced the MIUI 6 back in August 2014, there were so many changes, both visually and in features between the new version and the older MIUI 5.0 version. Xiaomi had made changes to almost every aspect of the UI in the new version. So, its unlikely that the MIUI 7 based on Android Lollipop will look so similar to the current MIUI 6 version.
MIUI 5 vs MIUI 6
Anyways, we will be keeping a close eye for leaks about the upcoming version, since the release date is coming near.
Motorola proved that giving customization options to customers is a neat idea for improving the overall consumer experience. Since then we have seen many phones like Moto X, Nubia Z9 Mini & Xiaomi Mi Note come with such wooden back cover options. Even the OnePlus Two comes with a bunch of style swap covers to make the phone even more personal.
A while back, Doogee had informed us that its latest flagship Doogee F3 was going to come with several back cover options. Now, the company has released a few images as well as details about these special edition models.
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The Doogee F3 will come in four different back cover versions, namely Bamboo, Ebony, and Glass. But in glass, there will be two more options, one white and another black, taking the total to four editions. The company also adds that these back covers are made in the same factory as Oneplus, so users can be assured of their quality. Moreover, even with the cover, the phone will be just 6.8mm thick, much thinner than most flagships in the market.
The Doogee F3 Bamboo and Ebony editions will go on pre-sale for a price tag of $169. That’s a pretty good deal considering you get MT6753 octa-core chip, 2GB RAM for F3 and 3GB for F3 Pro, Smart Voice gestures and a 5-inch display at this price tag. You can read more about the Doogee F3 from here.
The design is one of the most interesting features of the ATH-AL00. While from the front, the phone looks pretty normal, the back of the device is unique. The rear camera is located on the top left corner, but it looks like the camera unit is designed to pop out of its location. You can see that the camera and the flash lies in a small rectangular box, that stands out from the body. Unlike the OPPO N1 which had a motorized rotating camera unit, this one could be a manual flip camera.
You will also find a dedicated button on the right, probably for the camera. It is also said that the button could incorporate a fingerprint sensor, but we are not sure of that at the moment. Unfortunately, the TENAA listing said nothing about the camera or other spec details.
Actually, there are two versions on TENAA of this model, including an ATH-AL00H variant, which could be the higher-end version. Its almost a tradition by Huawei to release two different versions of a model this year, one standard and the other high-end. So, we could see the same treatment to this ATH-AL00H model.
Anyways, what do you think about its camera design?
Ever since companies saw the popularity of Moto 360, we have seen a number of circular smartwatches in the market. Even Chinese manufacturers have shown interest in releasing circular watches. Today, No.1 has just announced a new smartwatch in the market called as the No.1 Watch, and guess what, its going to be a circular watch.
No.1 claims that the new No.1 Watch is the first circular watch with a SIM card slot. This means, now you can make calls directly from the smartwatch. However, for many other functions, you will still have to rely on the companion smartphone.
The watch is made from a scratch resistant nano glass screen with a stainless steel case. You can connect to the companion smartphone with Fundo app, which also lets you record your health data, app notifications etc.
The new No.1 Watch comes with a number of standard functions. For example, you get a pedometer which can record the number of steps walked, calories and even reminds if you have been sitting at the same place for a long period. It also comes with a sleep monitor, which shows you how much quality sleep you got last night.
Other functions include remote viewfinder for your camera, anti-lost function, UV level detection, music sync and control. You can even wake up the smartwatch with a flick of a wrist.
As for the specs, the No.1 Watch comes with a 240 x 240 circular display, with MT6260 chip, 64MB RAM and 128MB ROM. You can expand this up to 16GB via MicroSD. For battery, you have a decent 380mAh capacity one inside, which should last you about a day.
Overall, the No.1 Watch looks like a decent offering with a lot of features. We still have no idea about its pricing or availability, but will keep you updated about the same in the coming days.
The company Ubro has released a new phone a few days back, the Ubro M1, which is the first smartphone around the globe which will be releasing BOM (Bill Of Material) which shows the total cost of all parts in the manufacturing industry. The purpose of BOM is to rise with technology by providing with a crystal clear data with regards to the cost of manufacturing hardware to the customers. But leaving BOM aside, is Ubro M1 a truly good phone worth your money? Let’s find out:
Build
Having the dimensions of 70 x 142 x 6.9 mm and a 5 inches screen fitted within, the phone offers a decent value of screen-to-body ratio, and tipping the scales at a decent 155g. Moderate, for the most part, but not bad by any means. As for the body aspects, there is nothing notable to mentioned as it features the mainstream 3 capacitive buttons for navigation, volume rockers and power key. The entire phone is made out of smooth plastic, with a dual glass on the back and a metal bezel on the sides which is made out of an aluminum alloy and is CNC machined that are present in many other premium phones. This metal bezel also allows for better holding of the phone overall. However, the glass back may cause it to be more prone to fingerprints.
Ubro m1 paid attention to the build quality of this phone, which earns it a 8.5/10 rating.
Display
The Ubro M1 houses a 5 inch 720 x 1280 pixels IPS screen, that brings it to an average of around ~295 ppi, which is, again mainstream for most smartphones out there. The phone does not disappoint as the images are crisp, vibrant and have a good amount of detail. The IPS screen, as usual, is one of the best ones out that offer excellent color reproduction, viewing angles, and having a higher range of brightness, meaning it can go from very high to very low. For protection, the ubro M1 also equips dual gorilla glass screen that allows some protection against drops and good protection against scratches on the screen.
Overall, the display is impressive, only led down by the 720p resolution. Thus, 7.5/10 is the score here.
Camera
The phone houses a 13 MP back camera that is capable of recording videos at full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution at 30 frames per second and a 5 MP front camera for taking selfies or video calling. Despite the fact that the hardware is good and the camera is certainly better, Ubro had the potential to do more with the camera since phones having a camera with 13 MP resolution can also record videos at 4K, which is 4 times as much clear and quality-rich as a normal full HD camera. Nevertheless, one cannot complain too much since the M1 is supposed to be a budget phone after all.
Overall, these features, and the ones following, certainly made Ubro m1‘s camera score a 9.5/10 rating: Continuous zoom, geotagging, panaroma, HDR, touch focus, face detection, 6 element lens and blue filter glass.
Hardware
Housing a MediaTek MT6735A chipset, which has four cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.3 GHz each, that is based on a 64-bit architecture. While 64-bit architecture is (arguably) better than its 32 bit counterparts, you can be sure of the phone to run MOST things you throw at it. Yes, MOST is the keyword here. While the 1.3 GHz processor is good, and combining it with 2 GB of RAM makes it sweeter, it still brings the infamous heat management problem of MediaTek chips that will not let you play for extended periods of time due to performance stuttering as a result of increased heat. However, a light session of fruit ninja or angry birds will certainly run as expect without any unwanted heat.
In terms of the GPU, you have a Mali T720 MP2 that has two cores clocked at 450 MHz each which is more than enough to run the graphic intensive tasks that your OS and other apps demand.
Overall, the hardware is pretty intense, and earns a sweet 8/10 rating.
Software
The software is a department where the Ubro M1 shines (brightly) without offering any disappointments. Loaded with the latest android 5.1 lollipop, plus maintaining Google’s stock android interface for the most part, the phone is guaranteed to work smoothly thanks to the optimization in the newest iteration of Android by Google.
Due to keeping it minimalistic and quick, Ubro m1 gets a rating of 8.5/10 in the software department.
Battery
The back of the phone houses a 2350 mAh battery that would at least get you through a day of medium usage.
The battery life of this phone, being average, earns a 7/10 rating.
Connectivity and Other Features:
Ubro m1 does not leave out on the connectivity as well, supporting various band and frequencies, and heck, even 4G LTE. Dual SIM cards with dual standby is also a plus, but for the most part is just a ‘may-or-may not-use’ addition. Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi+Hotspot are other mandatory additions in a smartphone present in this one too. However, despite being a unibody phone, this one supports microSD, microSDHC and microSDXC cards to expand memory upto 32 GB more, so that you can store more media, games and other apps in the phone. Although we miss NFC, but who makes use of it anyway?
The connectivity of this phone earns a rating of 9/10.
The Verdict
Ubro M1 is an impressive phone, and having a price of ~140$ makes it an even sweeter deal. It has its own set of flaws, such as a 720p display, a slightly smaller battery capacity and then some, but hey, which phone is flawless? If you look for a phone that performs excellent and has some extra features at a price that won’t cause a hole in your pocket, the search stops here.
You might have come across the term ‘quadcopter’ and might certainly know what it means. There are many DIY quadcopters available to make in different sizes and different types and there are even some available for sale. But how about I told you that the smallest quadcopter in the whole world is 1.18 inches wide? Yes! DHD D1 is the world’s smallest quadcopter, but is it worth the ~$25 price tag on it? Let’s find out:
Build
The DHD D1 is, for the most part, built out of plastic, with a little bit of metal thrown in here and there. But that does not matter as much as the durability. Though it is a wise choice to use plastic since it has a lighter density and will hence pick up flight much faster, using the same material on a quadcopter of this size will certainly cause a noticeable durability issue. Do not expect it to go further than your lawn without a breeze or two knocking it off course on the road, or worse, near the neighbor’s dog. But that obviously is not why it’s built. Since it’s designed for flight indoors, and there isn’t potentially something that would break the quadcopter after a fall from a medium height, we cannot really complain about anything here.
Hardware
Under the hood, the DHD D1 sports a decent 4-channel Mode 2 transmitter that can operate at a maximum range of 15 meters. The 2.4 GHz radio control ensures maximum control while doing the various movements and maneuvers such as 360 degree flips, flying left and right sideways and the usual four movements (forward, backward, left and right). Overall, the hardware is average, but you cannot expect a premium quadcopter motor to fit or even get optimized for such a small size.
Battery
While the transmitter requires AAA batteries which can be found at each and every hardware store, the 3.7 V 100 mAh rechargeable battery in the quadcopter takes some digging to get hands on. And while we would prefer a removable battery, it isn’t a big deal since most mini quadcopters do not have a removable battery anyways.
Features
The quadcopter and the remote control, despite being small in size, packs in some decent and useful features, some of which are an absolute delight while some which you may or may not make use of. These are:
-USB charging cable: Hence you can charge it via computers or USB power banks.
-Hand Throw: Using transmitter to set your quadcopter in flight is now old school. Just throw your quadcopter in the air lightly and you are good to go as it will come in flight automatically.
-Speed Control: Offering 3 modes of speed (slow, medium, and high), you can easily learn to control it if you are a newbie and then advance to higher speeds as you proceed.
The Verdict
Overall, the DHD D1 is a (very) small package of loads of fun in a price that isn’t too much. In fact, it is a great toy to give to the kids since it involves no harm as the propellers are made of plastic.
The smartphone industry, for the last 2 years, have been booming with devices that offer extreme ‘bang for the buck’ phones. Xiaomi is one name that is synonymous with such devices, and Meizu is another growing company that is getting increasingly popular for the same reason. Today, we put the ‘phablet’ phones of these companies in comparison to one another, the Xiaomi Redmi Note, and the Meizu m2 note.
Build
The curved polycarbonate on the Redmi note is similar to the one on the Meizu m2 note. What sets them apart is a bunch of different factors. With the Meizu m2 note, the different features are a physical home button and a non-removable back.
The Redmi note, on the other hand, offers the same 5.5 inches screen and the standard notification LED sans the physical home button and with the 3 capacitive home, back and menu buttons instead.
While both phones are good in terms of design, the build philosophy of the Meizu note seems, and is copied. While the curved polycarbonate on the side looks much like an iPhone 5c, the front looks a lot like the Samsung Galaxy S6 with a similar-looking home button. Not that it’s bad, but it just doesn’t seem…. original.
Winner: Xiaomi Redmi Note wins this one by a appropriate margin.
Display
While the Meizu m2 note sports a full HD IGZO touchscreen, the older Redmi note is still stuck with the 720p IPS LCD touchscreen. And while it isn’t a factor here since the Redmi note was released a year earlier, it still disappoints with the 720p display which gives a staggeringly low pixel density of 267 ppi while on the same screen size, the Meizu m2 note offers a rather impressive 403 ppi pixel density.
WINNER: Meizu m2 note takes the obvious lead here.
Hardware
Both phones can be considered as performance powerhouses with each phone sporting a MediaTek octa-core processor of different variety. The Redmi Note houses a MediaTek MT6592 chipset which has four Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.4 GHz and four Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz each.
Meizu m2 Note, on the other hand, has a MT6753 chipset that sports eight cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.3 GHz each. Plus, it is a 64-bit chipset which are (arguably) better than its 32-bit counterparts. In either case, both phones come to draw with the chipset. The 2 GB RAM on the Meizu m2 Note is however better than the 1 GB RAM on the Redmi Note.
Camera
Both phones have a 13 MP back camera that can shoot images and videos at full HD resolution and a 5 MP front camera for selfies and video calls but both are head-to-head with each other on this one as there are nearly no differences in either except for a few features here and there on the Meizu m2 Note such as a dual LED flash.
Meizu m2 Note:
Xiaomi Redmi Note:
Winner: Meizu m2 Note wins this round by a very narrow margin
Battery Life and Others:
There are many other features involved in Xiaomi Redmi Note and Meizu m2 note, but the ones worth mentioning is the newer 5.0 lollipop version of android involved in the Meizu m2 note, whereas the Xiaomi Redmi Note is still stuck with the older Kitkat version of android. However, the flyme OS of the m2 note has much more to learn whereas the MIUI on the Xiaomi Redmi Note is a very good OS, comparable and even better than the most popular OS skins out there such as HTC’s Sense UI.
Winner: Draw.
The Verdict:
Both the competitors have their own sets of pros and cons. But due to the fact that the Meizu m2 note is comparatively new, has new features and is priced nearly the same as Xiaomi Redmi Note, it wins the comparison. That being said, the Xiaomi Redmi Note is still a considerable phone. Buy any at a store, and you will walk out satisfied.
Blackview has just given out a few details about its upcoming flagship offering. The new Blackview smartphone is going to be the best device from the company till date, boasting high-end specs, enough to compete even with flagships from established makers.
The unnamed Blackview smartphone is said to come with a 5.5-inch 2K display. While we have seen a number of phones with such high resolution displays, it will be good to see a small Chinese manufacturer come up with such a powerful device. Under the hood, you will find MT6797 chipset, with enough power to handle any tasks that you throw at it. Also, the RAM is expected to be 4GB.
Camera department haven’t been the plus point of Chinese manufacturers, but that’s changing in the past few months. Even the new Blackview phone is expected to feature the powerful Sony IMX230 21MP sensor at the back. This will ensure that the pictures taken are comparable with other flagships in the market. Unfortunately, we have no clue about the front facing sensor at the moment.
Apart from these high-end specs, the new Blackview smartphone is also going to feature a unique fingerprint ID. Instead of the traditional home button integrated sensor or even a rear mounted one, the new flagship is reportedly using a unique display integrated fingerprint sensor. The company did not elaborate on the tech, but we hope to hear more about it soon.
Finally, the new Blackview flagship is going to release sometime in September. While there’s still a few weeks left before launch, we expect lot more details in the coming days. So, stay tuned.
Meanwhile, what do you think about the device till now? Could this be a flagship killer?
OnePlus has just revealed that over 1 million users have made reservations for an invite, which should be sent in batches in the coming days. The company unveiled the flagship killer a couple of days back and within just 72 hours, many users have shown interest in purchasing the new smartphone.
Its not surprising to see so much reservations for the OnePlus. At $329, you get a powerful smartphone with flagship specs in a neatly built body. Apart from a few drawbacks such as the lack of NFC or fast charging tech, the OnePlus 2 brings real value for the money you pay. Under the hood, you have Snapdragon 810 with 4GB RAM, fingerprint sensor, 3300mAh battery, 5.5-inch 1080p screen and the new Oxygen v2.0 OS based on Android Lollipop. If you can ignore the lack of the above mentioned tech like NFC or fast charge, the phone is really a good deal.
Unfortunately, like last year, the OnePlus 2 will only be available via invites. Which is probably why everyone is so keen to register themselves for an invite which will start rolling out soon. Of course, not all of these 1 million registrants are going to purchase the device. But even if a majority of them actually gets one, the company will be definitely happy. Not to mention that this number is going to increase in the coming days, since its just been 72 hours after launch.
HERE’s A QUICK SUMMARY OF OnePlus 2:
$329 for 16GB and $389 for 64GB.
Snapdragon 810 v2.1
3300mAh battery
Fingerprint sensor
OxygenOS v2.0
1080p 5,5″ screen with newer panel (401 ppi)
16/64GB ROM (No MicroSD)
4GB LPDDR4 RAM
13MP with OIS, 1.35 sensor size and fast laser focus (0.3sec focus time)
5MP front-facing camera
USB Type-C
Dual SIM
Dedicated Action Slider button
Styleswap Covers – 4 variants:Bamboo, Black Apricot, Rosewood, and Kevlar
Available from August 11th
It looks like Googles next Android OS M will check your operating system and give you warnings on start-up to advise if your operating system is deemed unsafe or if it has code running from an untrusted source.
Whilst this will probably appear on Nexus based Roms first, it is worth noting that with Android M google are really looking to up security levels.
The OS will probably display one of the following warning messages to let you know that there could be a problem with your operating system.
This warning lets you know that your device has a different operating system than the one that originally came on your device, depending on whether you changed the OS (If you aren’t sure, you probably didn’t), if you choose to instal a different Rom you can continue to use your device with that operating system.
If however you did not install the different OS you can still continue to use it but google advise that you may have a better experience with the original OS, they also advise that you can contact the device manufacturers support centre for help restoring to the original OS.
This warning lets you know that your device is in an “unlocked” state, meaning that your operating system can’t be checked to make sure that it’s safe to use.
Depending on whether you changed the OS (If you aren’t sure, you probably didn’t), if you choose to instal a different Rom you can continue to use your device with that operating system.
If you unlocked your boot loader you can continue to use your device, however, you acknowledge that your device may be exposed to security risks.
Google recommend that if you aren’t making changes to the OS regularly, to improve security you should lock the device by running fastboot lock.
This warning lets you know that the operating system on your device has been changed or corrupted and is not safe to use, the device may not work properly and could expose your data to corruption and security risks.
Depending on whether you changed the OS (If you aren’t sure, you probably didn’t), if you choose to instal a different Rom you can continue to use your device, however, you acknowledge that your device may be exposed to security risks.
If you did not change the OS you should not use the device in its current state, Google advise that you should contact the device manufacturers support centre for help restoring to the original OS.
If you choose to ignore the warning messages should go away on their own after about 10 seconds and your device will continue starting up, however if you still see the warning message, you can choose to continue starting up your device by pressing the power button once.
If you’re not comfortable continuing to use the device, you can turn it off by pressing and holding the power button until your device turns off. You can contact the device’s manufacturer for help restoring the original operating system.
What do you think, are you a constant Rom swapper? or do you prefer to stick with original manufacturer roms? is the added security that this may bring worth the annoyance at boot up? or will you be looking for a rom and boot loader for your phone that has been coded to work around this?
Personally I like to try out new roms fairly often and have been impressed with the way rom devs over at XDA have managed to work around Samsungs Knox to enable custom Roms with out flagging up on boot, lets see how they get on with this should it become mainstream with Android M.
Huawei officially announced the Huawei Maimang 4 in China, which features the same specifications as well as all metal body design as the Huawei G8. However, there’s one minor difference between these two devices: Processor. While the Huawei G8 came with the popular mid-range Snapdragon 615 chipset, the Maimang 4 will feature Snapdragon 616. But before you get too excited, I ll have to let you know that there’s hardly any difference between the two chips.
So, you get the same Cortex A53 cores, four clocked at 1.7GHz while the other four clocked at 1.2GHz. In case of Snapdragon 615, the the combination was of 4 x 1.7GHz + 4 x 1.0Ghz, so theres only a slight increase in the clock speed on the 616. Even the GPU is the same Adreno 405.
However, what’s different in this new Snapdragon 616 chip is the modem. Instead of the 4G LTE World Mode modem, the new chip comes with X5 LTE World Mode modem, which brings additional connectivity options. To be specific, the Snapdragon 616 supports LTE FDD, LTE TDD, WCDMA (3C-HSDPA, DC-HSUPA), CDMA1x, EV-DO, TD-SCDMA and GSM/EDGE. It supports Cat. 4 LTE speeds (up to 150MBps) with LTE Advanced 2x10MHz Carrier Aggregation (CA).
Rest of the specs are the same as Snapdragon 615. So, we can call the new Snapdragon 616 as a variant of the 615, rather than an entirely new chipset.
Other specs are more or less the same on the new Huawei device. So you get a full HD 1080p 5.5-inch display, 2GB + 16GB / 3GB + 32GB storage options, 13MP camera with OIS, 5MP front facing shooter, FPC’s Second generation Fingerprint Sensor, 3000mAh battery and Android 5.1 Lollipop version.
The pricing starts at 2099 Yuan for the 2GB + 16GB version, and goes up to 2499 for the 3GB + 32GB edition.
ZUK Z1 is all set to debut on August 11, next month. And since the past couple of weeks, we have got a number of new renders as well as specs info about the upcoming device. In fact, the Z1 recently hit TENAA revealing the overall design of the phone.
Now, two new pictures of the ZUK Z1 have surfaced online, giving us a closer look at the lower back region. These pictures are super clear and much better than the renders that were released by the CEO a few days back.
In the first image, you can clearly see the USB Type C 3.0 port at the bottom. Besides the port, there’s the speaker grill. And on the right, you can see the single microphone opening. Another important aspect revealed by this image is that beautiful metal frame that goes around the body. Finally, there’s the same ZUK branding on the lower back region as we saw in the previous images.
The second image shows us the SIM card tray that can be removed. It looks like the tray can hold two Micro SIMs. But doesn’t look like a MicroSD / SIM card combo tray.
Finally, the third image reveals the 4G LTE connectivity details of the device. So, the phone will support 4G LTE connectivity specifically the following bands: 1, 3, 7, 38, 39, 40 and 41 and both TD-LTE and FDD-LTE networks.
As for the specs, the company has confirmed 3GB of RAM, USB Type C 3.0 port, U-Touch Physical home button with fingerprint ID up front and 4000mAh + battery. What we are unsure about is the processor. ZUK could go with Snapdragon 808 like Motorola did with its recent Moto X Style. Also, we don’t know if there’s a MicroSD card slot on the device, but we sure hope so.
Well, the device is turning out to be a true flagship smartphone in terms of specs as well as design. This makes us all the more excited to see the handset in real, which should be sometime after the launch on August 11.
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