The phone comes in a sturdy box containing the phone, walkie talkie ariel, rear battery cover removal tool, usb cable (this has a standard micro usb connector but is longer to clear the rugged casing), a 3200mAH Li-ion battery and a 2pin Euro style charger block.
Having put the battery in and fired up the phone I was greeted with a stockAndroid 4.2.2 Ui, the screen is actually set back a little inside the protective casing to help protect it from damage from drops etc, it takes a few minutes of use to get used to the fact that you are not directly touching as you would with a OGS style screen, but soon becomes second nature.
The screen itself is a 4″ 480 x 800 WVGA IPS unit capable of 5 point touch, the brightness is not bad and can be seen in bright sunlight, the viewing angles are also very good.
Whilst the screen resolutions may be lower that we now expect on midrange and above phones, its worth remembering that this is a rugged phone that needs to not only survive impacts, dust and water but have a long enough battery life to keep you going and possibly even save your life one day, lower resolution screens use substantially less power than HD, FHD and 2K screens.
As mentioned above the phone runs stock Android Ver 4.2.2 which gives it a very clean interface and makes good use of the Mediatek MTK6582 processor.
The phone also includes some really nice goodies that you won’t find on flagship style devices, these are toys that the more intrepid amongst you will find very useful.
The sensor box App for example contains things like a temperature sensor giving ambient temperatures in both Celsius and fahrenheit, sound sensor giving external decibel readings, this would be very useful if you are working on site and noise levels have to be kept within certain parameters, but also fun if like me you enjoy loud car stereos and would like to see who really does have the loudest system!, pressure sensor providing a reading in mBars this along with other apps available from the app store can be used to properly calculate elevation.
The magnetic sensor is also able to show details of magnetic fields (and helps to align the phone to North for digital mapping).
But the killer feature of the DG1 is the PTT transceiver, once you screw in the walkie talkie ariel and launch the PTT app you have access to a high powered 1W phone based walkie talkie capable of operating between 400-470mhz in the UHF 70cm bands, the range is around 3-5km dependant on obstructions.
If you are out and about in the wilderness or working on sites where there is very little or even no telephone signal the addition of the Walkie talkie feature is something that will make your life easier and could also save your bacon.
The rear camera is a 5mp unit and whilst not giving the best quality compared to some of the 13mp units seen on other phones, it is more than capable of capturing a special moment whilst your out and about in places that you would not normally be able to take your standard flagship phones.
It is worth noting that if you are out in direct sunlight, playing with the camera settings a little before taking a shot is very much worth doing in order to get the best possible picture (switching from auto white balance and selecting sunlight for scene will give much deeper colours).
The front facing camera is ok for selfies but again this is not a phone that you would be carrying to replace a proper camera, be it a DSLR or true point and click.
Speaking of going places where you would not normally take a phone or camera, the phone has an IP rating of 68, the 6 means that it is totally dust tight and the 8 means that it is protected against prolonged effects of immersion under pressure, this is a phone that you can take pretty much any where without fear of damage.
When you compare this to the Galaxy S5 which has an IP rating of 67 (the 7 means that it is protected against temporary immersion) you will see that this phone offers a go anywhere solution.
The battery life is not bad and has lasted over a day and a half without charging so far.
The phone features various hardware buttons, to the right of the phone are standard volume up and down keys as well as a dedicated camera key
The left of the phone has the PTT button as well as a dedicated S.O.S button that can be setup on the phone to give one touch access to local emergency services, there is also a dedicate reset button.
The top of the phone houses the power button as well as the lift up flap providing access to screw the provided walkie talkie ariel in to the DG1.
At the bottom you will finds the micro USB connector as well as 3.5mm headphone jack.
Having given the phone a thorough test, it feels very well built and considering the choice not to use a 64bit processor the OS runs very well and has great GPS.
If you need a go anywhere phone you could do a lot worse than the DG1.
According to recent reports, we may see two Nexus devices this year, one made from Huawei and another one from LG. It looks like one of the Nexus devices just made an entry in the AnTuTu benchmarking site, blowing everyone’s mind with a score of more than 85000!
If you remember, the Samsung Exynos 7420 chipset is currently on top of AnTuTu with 65000+ points. However, with a score of over 85,000 this Nexus device beats Samsung’s chip by over 20,000 points.
This brings us to the big question, what exactly is running inside this Nexus device? Well, AntuTu 5 doesn’t reveal much about the specs inside the device, but the phone probably will come with the new Snapdragon 820 chip from Qualcomm. While the score is still too good to be true, considering Qualcomm’s desperate need for a comeback with 820, the company could have boosted its performance to a whole new level.
What we do know is that the phone will be called as the Nexus 5 (2015) model, which probably means that LG is not sticking with the incremental naming policy. Also, this may also give us a clue about the screen size, as you can expect it to be around 5-inches (5.2-inch would be just perfect). The Nexus 6 came with a monstrous 5.9-inch display, but it was too big to handle. So, this could actually be a good move. The resolution is surprisingly just FHD, which would be a downgrade from the QHD display on the Nexus 6.
Anyways, if the performance of Snapdragon 820 is really this good, we would like to know whether it overheats like the current generation 810. But we hope Qualcomm will have learnt its lesson by now.
Usually, Google announces its Nexus devices in fourth quarter of the year and we expect the company to continue the tradition this year too. By then, there could be a couple of Snapdragon 820 powered smartphones like Xiaomi Mi5 in the market. So, things could get interesting pretty soon!
ZUK will be simultaneously launching two versions of the Z1, A global version for international markets and a second model for mainland China.
The mainland China variant will come with a custom interfaced Rom, currently being developed in house by ZUK.
The Global variant will come with an officially supported version of Cyanogen.
Back in March of this year, there were various unconfirmed reports that Cyanogen CEO Curt McMahon had held meetings with ZUK executives in China, given the latest news about the official development of CM for the Z1 it would appear that the news of the meetings was based on fact, as they say there is no smoke without fire.
The fact that ZUK have chosen to partner with CM is understandable, given the way international users tend to interact with their phones, often preferring a more stock feel to their Android OS.
For those of you not familiar with Cyanogen (those of you that know and love CM feel free to skip this paragraph), CM is based of off the open source version of Android provided by Google, the CM team have taken the basics and improved and tweaked the OS to provide more functionality and refined the interface further.
Versions (ports) of CM are available for many phones, the modding community are able to contribute fixes and mods to the system, often meaning that devices can be made to run smoother and more efficiently and with greatly improved stability than if they were running an OS such as Touchwiz with its heavy CPU overheads.
Last year saw CM officially enter the China phone market in collaboration with ONE+, a launch that sent ripples through the industry and made many people outside of China sit up and take notice of the new emerging China phone industry.
The collaboration with ONE+ was fruitful and provided the new phone with an OS that many were envious of, unfortunately the relationship did not last, with ONE+ deciding to launch their own Rom variants, we are unsure exactly why they did this, perhaps it was due to the undisclosed negotiations with ZUK and the forthcoming launch of the Z1 featuring CM.
My source at ZUK has confirmed that the differences between the mainland China and Global versions of the Z1 will not be hardware based and that should China based users wish to try out the CM Rom on their handsets they will be able to do so by simply flashing the Global Rom to their handsets.
Although many China based handsets are available to buy internationally through re-sellers, only a small number of companies have truly branched out in to the international market place, of those that have most have stuck to launching in India.
ZUK are in a better position than most to launch their phones internationally, whilst others have been fearful of launching internationally, due to various patent issues and licensing agreements, ZUK’s parent company Lenovo’s purchase of Motorola, has given them access to a huge library of mobile based patents.
The Library of patents should be more than enough to ensure that they are not hit with issues and if they are should be able to negotiate cross licensing agreements.
ZUK have confirmed that they intend to really push the brand internationally and hope that it will quickly become an acknowledged player in the world phone market.
While Huawei announces it major flagships like the Huawei P8 with a lot of fanfare, earlier today, the company released its new Huawei M2 tablet in a conference at Beijing International Art Academy. The device is the next generation model of the Mediapad M1 tablet which was announced back in 2014. However, the company has incorporated a lot of new changes in terms of its design, specs as well as sound quality.
The Huawei M2 tablet is made out of 99.5% metal body. So, all metal lovers will definitely dig the new design. Moreover, the metal bezels on the side are slim, making the display stand out when the screen is off. But when you turn on the display, you can see black borders on the sides of the display. The overall body looks quite solid and measure just 7.8mm in thickness. This makes it a pretty slim tablet. The company also claims that the M2 comes with dual antenna design, which ensures good signal quality at all times.
Coming to the actual specs, the Huawei M2 tablet features the company’s current Kirin 930 octa-core chipset with Cortex A53e cores. There will be 3GB of RAM on board, which is more than enough to multitask. Further, you get 16GB and 64Gb internal storage options along with an 8MP rear + 5MP front facing camera. The 8-inch display will sport a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels.
If you compare these specs with the old M1 tablet, its a huge upgrade. Huawei Mediapad M1 just had 1GB of RAM and a crappy 5MP camera. So, the new M2 improves greatly on the old generation model. However, it features the same 4800mAh battery as found on the M1.
As for the software, the Huawei M2 tablet runs on EMUI 3.0 based on Android 5.0 lollipop version. The UI comes with nifty features such as split screen multitasking, magazine view etc.
One of the highlights of the new tablet are its speakers. The company has incorporated dual 1W speakers (13mm x 18mm) in particularly large sound chamber design boosting the overall sound output. The company claims that these speakers make sure that both the sound output and the bass are loud. Also, inside, you have the Harmon Kardon Clari-Fi sound technology, the same one which we saw on the HTC One M8 flagship. This tech reportedly restores the original rich quality of compressed audio files.
As for the pricing, the Huawei M2 Tablet 16GB Wi-Fi only version will be up for grabs after July 16 for 1588 Yuan. If you want the 64GB Wi-Fi version, you will have to shell out 1888 Yuan. The LTE model starts at 1888 Yuan (16GB) and goes up to 2288 Yuan (64GB).
So, what do you think about this new Huawei M2 tablet? Any takers?
The 5.5” multitouch Z1 will feature a 64 bit Snapdragon processor (SOC TBC) and come with 3gb of ram, it will come with a choice of three rom configurations 16/32/64gb
The phone will also come with support for USB 3.1 Type-C connections giving it superior data transfer rates (up to 5Gbps vs 480Mb for USB 2.0),
those of you with newer MacBooks will really feel the benefits when connected to the Z1
Another advantage of the connector is that it supports charging up to 3A, allowing the ZUK Z1 to charge must faster than phones using standard 1A connections.
The USB type-c connector is also reversible,allowing it to be connected either way around, similar to the connector found on iPhones, making it faster to connect to your charger especially in lower light situations.
As previously mentioned the ZUK Z1 will support the full world spectrum, giving access to 7 modes and 18 network frequencies for 2G/3G/4G networks.
Everyone knows Meizu, a Chinese manufacturer, which makes affordable, yet great smartphones but it does not have a market share like Xiaomi or Huawei neither in its homeland not internationally. Still, this smartphone maker produces some really great phones and this time around we are looking at the Meizu M2 Note.
UNBOXING
The box is quite a nice looking and all the items are packed neatly. The contents include the instruction manuals, charging plug (2A), USB cable and a fancy SIM ejector pin with Flyme logo on it.
Meizu M2 Note Unboxing: DESIGN
This time I want to talk about design starting from the back side of the device. The reason may be clear for the majority of users but if you still don’t know why, the Meizu M2 Note has a very similar design to the iPhone 5C.
Other than that the back is made out of glossy unibody plastic material and it naturally attract fingerprints and smudges. However, since my review unit is in white colour, they are not that visible.
On the back side you can find 13MP camera with dual tone dual LED flash and the Meizu logo on the bottom side.
Flipping the device to the front side we can see a great looking 5.5″ display and a physical home button.
My first impressions are that the device feels very comfortably in the hand and it very well made. Honestly, the first thing that came to my mind when I took it out of the box was that I could not believe that this phone does not even cost $200.
Also, the UI performance is very smooth and it is just a pleasure to use this device. Also, I have already taken quite a lot of pictures and the Meizu M2 Note shapes up to be one of the best budget camera phones I’ve tested so far.
Overall, I believe this device can be definitely one of the best budget smartphones of the year, so please stay tuned to our full review as I will spend some quality time with the device testing each feature I possibly can.
We wanted to say thank you for our official partner Giztop for sending this review unit.
We all know that 802.11ac Wi-Fi is almost three times as fast as other standards. So, naturally, all the recent Wi-Fi routers that have made it to the market come with this standard. Even the Xiaomi’s Mi Wi-Fi router supports 802.11 ac dual band standard and given the extremely cheap price tag, this particular router is now the most shipped Wi-Fi ac router in the world.
Earlier today, Tang Mu, the lead of the Xiaomi Smart Wi-Fi router division revealed that the Xiaomi Mini router is now leads the Wi-fi ac standard router shipments, even beating routers from competitors like Netgear, TPLink and Linksys. With the huge volume of router shipments, he also said that Xiaomi has helped increase the share of AC routers in China.
While the Wi-Fi ac standard has been found in flagships since 2014, many routers still don’t support it. As a result, customers are often stuck with slower standards such as ‘N’ which suffer from lower coverage areas as well as slower transfer speeds. Also, the Wi-Fi N routers usually operate on 2.5GHz band as opposed to the less crowded 5GHz band. So, you are sure to benefit from Wi-Fi AC routers, if you live in a crowded area.
Considering that Xiaomi Wi-Fi router isn’t the company’s main product, this is definitely a great achievement. In case you are interested, the Xiaomi Mini router with Wi-Fi ac support is currently available for $34.
But these devices were from the Nubia division and there are a couple of ZTE’s own lineups like the ZTE Blade series as well as the Grand S series. It looks like one of these series will get a new flagship model on July 21.
Yes, we have received an invite from the company for a new flagship launch even which will be held on July 21. The invite further says that in addition to high-end specs, the new flagship will focus on its design as well as battery life. The company reportedly will incorporate a large high-density battery enough to last for about 50 hours.
Unfortunately at this moment, we are not quite sure which is this new flagship model. At this time of the year, the company usually launches the Nubia Z series smartphones but all the Z series models are already released. Moreover, both the Grand S and Blade series have got a new flagship model earlier this year. So, it would most likely be from the ZTE Star series. The latest flagship in the lineup (Star 2) was launched last year in December. Hence, its possible that the new flagship, the ZTE Star 3 will meet us on July 21.
Anyways, we will be keeping a close eye on the company for more updates. Yesterday, we reported that the company sold over 26 million smartphones in the first half of 2015 and aims to sell about 60 million by the end. So, its not surprising to see that the company is adding yet another flagship in its portfolio, which could boost its sales.
So, what do you think is this mystery flagship phone? Do you think its the Star 3 or do you have any other guesses?
If it was a year back, sometime before April 2014, nobody would have ever heard of the name OnePlus. In fact, at that time if someone told you that OnePlus was the name of a manufacturer, there was a very good chance that you would have laughed at the name. Now, fast forward 1 year and OnePlus is the name that represents true value for money.
Before 2014, if you had to purchase a high end device (3GB RAM), you would have had to shell out no less than $500. This was a time when even Xiaomi was just opening up, expanding its lineup with cheaper and better models. And it was precisely at this point when OnePlus made the debut with its OnePlus One flagship. The specs represented a high-end flagship while the pricing was that of a mid-range. In every sense, the “One” was a flagship killer.
So, its no surprise that everyone is so fond of the company. All of us are excited to see what kind of features will be present on the new OnePlus Two flagship and the company has done a pretty good job of keeping us fans satisfied with timely teasers and updates.
In fact, we already know a lot about the OnePlus Two flagship. Probably more than most other smartphones that haven’t been released. And since a majority of these info comes directly from the company, we can be sure that they will end up on the new generation flagship.
Anyways, since we already know a lot about the OnePlus Two, I thought it would be best to put them all together in one place. So, down below are the 10 important things we already know about the OnePlus Two flagship.
1. CPU:
OnePlus recently confirmed that the new OnePlus flagship will come with Snapdragon 810 v2.1 (third generation) chipset. I am sure many would be disappointed with this decision, considering the overheating problem associated with the chip, but the company has promised that the new version of the chipset will be cooler than ever (probably a bit underclocked too, at least thats what we think). So, at this moment we are hoping that the promise is fulfilled.
We are not sure if we will see the same 5.5-inch 1080p display on the OnePlus Two, however, what we know is that the overall size of the handset will be smaller than the OnePlus One. So, those who complained that the device couldn’t fit comfortably in their hands, now have something to cheer about.
4. BATTERY:
One of the important features of a smartphone these days, the battery is reportedly bigger on the new handset. The company confirms that OnePlus Two will come with a 3300mAh greater than the 3100mAh capacity on the ‘One’.
5. Fingerprint Sensor:
One of the new features on the OnePlus Two will be the physical Fingerprint Sensor. The move isn’t surprising, given that all major flagships come with fingeprint recognition these days. The company also notes that this will be one of the fastest fingerprint sensors on a smartphone (even faster than touch ID).
6. USB Type-C:
Another welcome addition to the OnePlus Two is the new USB Type-C port. The LeTV series came with these reversible and more powerful ports and its no surprise to see them end up on the next-gen flagship. However, we don’t know whether it will be USB 2.0, 3.0 or even 3.1 like the ZUK Z1.
7. ROM:
Instead of the CyanogenMod ROM that came with the OnePlus One, the company will be debuting with the OnePlus Two its own Oxygen OS (HydrogenOS in China). This is a forked version of the AOSP ROM and is reportedly tailor made to work smoothly with Snapdragon v2.1.
8. Three Different Versions For Different Regions:
The company has confirmed three different versions of the OnePlus Two, each aimed at a specific region namely China, North America and Europe/ Asia. OnePlus has also confirmed the supported bands and they are as follow:
US
GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz
WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/8
FDD-LTE: Bands: 1/2/4/5/7/8/12/17
Europe
GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz
WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/5/8
FDD-LTE: Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20
9. Swappable Back Covers:
OnePlus Two will come with at least five different swap covers which will be available at launch. We expect the popular ones like Bamboo and other wooden covers to be available for the new device.
10. Price:
Finally, OnePlus CEO has confirmed that the OnePlus Two will be priced below $450. While its still slightly higher than the original OnePlus One model, given the upgraded specs, if the price is indeed below $450, the phone still offers more value for money.
FYI, the invite system will be back for the OnePlus Two also. But the company has promised that it will be better than before.
As you can see, we know a lot about the upcoming OnePlus Two flagship. But there’s still a lot of question marks in areas like storage (whether expandable), camera, screen resolution and even build quality (which will most likely be metal!).
We expect more information directly from the company in the company before the official launch on July 27, so stay tuned.
You must have heard of the Chinese company called Ramos, who is a well known tablet manufacturer. But a few weeks back, we got news that the company has decided to release a brand new smartphone called as the Mos1. This would also make it the company’s first smartphone.
Now, the Ramos Mos1 is finally official and most of the details are in line with what we have been hearing for the past few days. First of all, since this is the company’s first smartphone, it has paid special care in the phone’s design. The Ramos Mos1 reportedly comes with five sided crystal cutting design along with 2.D glass on both the sides. If you remember, even the recent Vivo X5Pro had 2.5D glass on both sides.
To further improve the body, the company has used 6063 aluminum alloy material, which is reportedly tough and corrosion resistant. The body is quite slim too, measuring just 6.6mm in thickness. Finally, to make things even better, the bezels have been slimmed down. The phone comes with pretty narrow 1.9mm bezels on the sides, improving the overall look.
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As for the specs, its quite good. The phone comes with Snapdragon 615 octa-core 64-bit chip under the hood. While we would have preferred something more powerful like Snapdragon 808, even 615 is fine as long as it doesn’t overheat. Other specs include 2GB RAM, 32GB of internal storage, 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front facing one. As for the software, the phone comes with MOUI 1.0 based on Android 5.0. The phone also comes with Hi-Fi Audio chip.
Unfortunately, unlike earlier rumors which suggested that the phone will have a massive 4850mAh battery, the Ramos Mos1 actually comes with just a 3050mAh capacity battery. But the battery life should be good since it will be made by BYD, which is a well known manufacturer of automobile rechargeable batteries. Further, the phone supports Qualcomm Fast Charge 2.0, which should definitely speed up the charging time.
You can check out the official video down below.
The phone will be available from August 10 via JD.com. The initial reservations start on July 31 for 1999 Yuan ($322). Ramos is also reportedly working on a Mos1 Max version with a 6-inch display and 6000mAh battery.
Its just been a couple of weeks since Huawei released its Honor 7 flagship in the market. However, it looks like the company is readying a new bunch of devices for launch pretty soon. As three new Huawei devices were recently spotted on the Chinese National Radio Certification website.
Unfortunately, we don’t have much details about these three handsets, except for their model numbers: ATH-AL00, RIO-AL00 and CRR-AL00. However, it is said that the first one i.e. ATH-AL00 is from the Huawei Honor family. So, if we had to guess, Honor 7 Plus would be one possible product in the series. The phone will most likely come with a CNC body. As for the CRR-AL00, the phone will come with dual SIM dual standby and will feature GSM / CDMA2000 / TD-LTE / FDD-LTE network support.
Although we expect to see Kirin 950 inside upcoming Huawei handsets, it is said that the company will most likely stick with Kirin 930 series chips for the upcoming handsets. This would increase the number of handsets running the chipset. But it would also delay the launch of the flagship Kirin 950 chip.
Anyways, if one of these models is really the Honor 7 Plus, we don’t think the company will wait too long to release the handset.
So, do you have any guesses for the rest two models? Huawei D8 perhaps?
Ulefone has made a lot of hype about their recent smartphones and one of them was the Be Touch – the device, which has a similar look to the iPhone 6 Plus. It seems to be a pretty good offering overall but it has some flaws like a just 720p resolution display and low capacity battery. In case you missed our review of the first generation Ulefone Be Touch, make sure to check it out.
Ulefone is apparently listening to its customers and has released a new and improved model – Be Touch 2. The company has not only addressed most of the shortcomings but it has also made it possible to buy the smartphone for as low as $179.99.
The design is very familiar and you are right if you say that it looks like an iPhone 6 Plus. Indeed, it has a metal frame around the sides of the device, which always gives that premium look and feel. In addition, the Ulefone has implemented a 5.5″1080p display as the 720p panel on the previous model sound a bit outdated.
One of the highlights on Ulefone Be Touch 2 is a fingerprint scanner and it has been implemented in the home button at the front side of the device. Given the fact that this feature worked fine on a previous model, there is no doubt that it will work on the Be Touch 2 fine as well.
The Ulefone Be Touch is powered by the 64-bit MTK6752 chip, which is clocked at 1.7GHz. In addition to this, there are 3GB of RAM, which makes it quite a powerhouse in this price category of smartphones.
On the key aspects of any smartphone is a battery and Ulefone again makes an improvement in this department by implementing a high quality Sony made 3050mAh unit, which also supports quick charge technology. This juice pack is said to last you up to 340 hours in standby mode.
Finally, the device comes with the Android 5.0 Lolipop out of the box meaning that you are getting one of the latest and greatest from Google for a reasonable price.
We have personally reviewed two LeTV smartphones including the LeTV One and both the devices have managed to exceed our expectations. The stellar built quality, fluid UI and the powerful specs makes the new LeTV One smartphone one of the best devices in its price range. Despite being a new comer, LeTV surprised us all with their beautiful and solid offerings.
Now, Giztop has started offering the LeTV One for a discounted price of just $269.99. Yes, you can finally buy this powerful device for less than the usual retail price, thanks to an exclusive coupon for gizmochina readers.
All you have to do is use the coupon, GIZLE30 and you will directly get $30 OFF the retail price. This turns out to be a great deal, especially since you don’t have to pay for shipping. Moreover, there’s no custom, VAT Tax that you must pay extra, making the deal all the more sweet.
As for the specs, the phone features Helio X10 octa-core MT6795 64-bit chipset clocked at 2.2GHz, 3GB RAM and a 5.5-inch full HD 1080p display. There is a 13MP camera at the back capable of capturing pretty good pictures. In fact, you can check out our detailed review of the device to see the device in action.
Although ZTE still doesn’t make the top five manufacturers list, the company has been increasingly devoting its resources in selling more smartphones every year. At the start of the year, the company reported that it smartphone shipments grew by over 50 percent in 2014, which was a great achievement considering that the global smartphone growth rate was just 20 percent. Now, one of the company officials has revealed a few details about the company’s shipments in the first half of 2015.
We already know the smartphone shipments in the first half of a number of companies. Xiaomi sold over 34.7 million phones while Huawei managed to ship about 50 million units. Now, ZTE reports that it shipped about 26 million smartphones in the first half of the year. The total shipments of smartphones, tablets and smart home products were about 46 million.
Out of the 26 million, high-end products accounted for about 39 percent of the shipments. This doesn’t come as a surprise given that the company has always focused on increasing the sales of its high-end products. Instead of competing in the low-end to mid-range market, where margins are too low, ZTE aims to sell more high-end smartphones, which costs $250 and up.
The company has its focus on international markets like US, since the domestic market is currently dominated by the likes of Xiaomi and Huawei. The company reported that its smartphone shipments in US market grew by 41 percent in the first half.
The company had reportedly planned to sell around 80 million smartphones earlier this year. However, at present, it aims to ship around 60 million units. Even that would be hard considering that major manufacturers usually unleash their best phones in the second half of the year. New flagships like Xiaomi Mi5, Meizu MX5 Pro and Huawei Mate 8 would give ZTE a hard time selling these many units.
Still, the company has managed to impress us with its growth in the past couple of years. So, we better wait and watch whether ZTE achieves its goal of selling 60 million phones before the end of the year.
Zeaplus has been known for its affordable smartwatches and some other smartphone accessories for some time. We have already reviewed a few of them and the impressions are that the company can definitely offer a great bang for the buck for some its products.
Still, the Zeaplus M7 is their entry into the smartphone market and we can’t wait to see if their product is worth your attention or not. At the first glance, it has a plain looking but decent design but more importantly it carries a great list of specs for the price of $169.
NOTHING OUT OF ORDINARY, USUAL STUFF YOU WOULD EXPECT TO GET WITH A BUDGET SMARTPHONE
A quite typical packaging for nowadays budget devices – a plain cardboard box most likely made out of recycled materials.
The contents include a screen protector, USB charging brick, USB cable and instruction manuals. I can’t say that the accessories scream high quality, but they don’t look like they going to brake after a month either.
In addition, I received a flip cover case, which is a pretty neat thing if you want to protect your device. Also, it provides some additional functionality to your device like the ability to see the clock and some notifications via the cutout portion of the screen. I am not a huge fan of flip cases in general but it may be a neat feature for some users. Keep in mind that this case does not come included in the standard packaging and it is sold separately.
Zeaplus M7 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY
A decent 5.5″ display. the overall design is plain looking and has one minor flaw
First of all, Zeaplus M7 is not a small device as it spots a 5.5″ 1080p display, which is actually quite good. It is a bright and vivid LCD panel and it looks good both indoors and outdoors. In addition, the screen has a slight curve on each side to provide a 2.5D glass effect.
On the top of the device there is a 5MP front facing camera, earpiece and a proximity sensor. One more thing that is a actually a welcome feature is the front facing LED flash for those night selfie lovers.
On the bottom side there are 3 capacitive keys, which also have a nice backlight and it is visible even outdoors. The middle home button also serves as a pulsing notification light.
The back is made out of textured plastic material. On the top side there is a 13MP Sony camera with a single LED flash. Just below the snapper there is a finger print scanner. The placement seemed weird at the beginning but right now I think it is pretty good since the phone has quite a huge footprint so it is easy to reach it with your index finger.
The fingerprint scanner itself works fine. I mean it is not as precise as the one on the iPhone but it gets the job done most of the times. Also, the setup is very easy as you need to scan the finger of your choice several times. Moreover, you can register up to 5 fingerprints.
On the bottom there is a single speaker grill.
I’ve noticed is that the textured plastic back is wobbling a bit and even making wobbling sounds. I’m not a huge fan of it since does not imply the highest build quality. I contacted Zeaplus and they said that this may be just my review unit. Hopefully, it is true.
The sides of the Zeaplus M7 are surrounded by a metal frame and it looks identical to the Elephone G7 I reviewed a few weeks ago. It is sturdy enough and gives a bit of a premium look and feel.
On the left you can find a volume rocker and on the right side there is a power key. Both buttons have a great tactile feedback.
On the top side there is a micro USB charging port along with the headset jack and on the bottom there is a mic.
The back plate is removable and under the hood you can find two SIM card slots (one regular size and another microSIM card size), microSD card slot up to 64GB and a removable 3800Ah battery.
Overall the design is kind of plain looking and it would not attract the attention of many people. On the other hand, this device was not build with a design in mind.
The glass front and the metal sides along with the metal buttons of the device feel high quality but the back plate is ruining a lot of things here. Firstly, the textured plastic feels a bit cheap but the biggest complaint is that it is making some wobbling noises when pressed meaning that it does not sit tight enough. I was told that it may be only my review unit but this is my experience.
Zeaplus M7 Review: UI
almost stock looking ui, which is built on top of android 5.0. it works fine most of the time
The Zeaplus M7 runs almost stock looking Android 5.0 Lolipop. Overall, all the apps are opening and closing fast, scrolling through menus is also usually fast but sometimes I encountered with some lags there and there when there were many apps running in the background. All in all, it seems that the UI still needs some polishing to become completely lag-free.
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There are some features we have already seen on many Chinese devices like gesture controls and pulsing notification light. I’ve tested them all and they work fine most of the times. In addition, there are many languages installed, so international users should feel like at home when using a device.
Zeaplus M7 Review: BENCHMARKS
a respectable performer. if you care about synthetic benchmarks…
The Zeaplus M7 is not a killer benchmark performer on Antutu but it is no slouch either. It managed to score a respectable 41k+ score, which is on par with the last year’s flagship devices. Considering that this device costs below $170, the score is pretty good.
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The device scores 783 at single-core benchmark and 3033 at multi-core.
Zeaplus M7 Review: PERFORMANCE
a lot of sheer power that needs some more software OPTIMISATION
As usual, I don’t care about benchmarks and I strongly believe that a real life performance is a much more important factor to look at. To support that I’ve tested the Zeaplus smartphone with a few graphically intensive games like Asphalt 8 and Nova 3. The performance is not bad but not perfect either. The graphics look okay but the are some skipped frames and even little lags at some points. Nothing to be a deal breaker as you can still enjoy 3D games but I’ve seen some better performing devices at his price point.
Zeaplus M7 Review: MULTIMEDIA
OVERALl, MULTIMEDIA CONSUMPTION EXPERIENCE IS GREAT BUT YOU MAY WANT TO DOWNLOAD A THIRD PARTY VIDEO AND MUSIC PLAYER APPS TO HAVE MORE FUNCTIONALITY
Multimedia consumption is great overall. Firstly, the stock music player is easy to use but more importantly the loudspeaker is not bad at all for the price of this device. Being a bloody picky I would add a bit more depth to the sound quality but overall I am more than glad to listen to music via loudspeaker. In addition, it does not get muffled that easily with your fingers.
Other multimedia options like 1080p video works just fine. As usual, I suggest you downloading a third party video player to get some more functionality though. As far as Internet browsing experience, I have no complaints.
Zeaplus M7 Review: CAMERA
Camera application is a stock Mediatek app with some basic settings and a few shooting modes to play with. The camera is able to take max. 13MP pictures and shoot 1080p videos.
Zeaplus M7 Review: IMAGE QUALITY
A DECENT PERFORMER IN THE DAYLIGHT BUT COULD IMPROVE IN THE LOW LIGHT. ALSO, YOU CAN’T WIN THE SELFIE GAME WITH ITS 5MP FRONT CAMERA
The daylight pictures are quite good. The detail level is usually decent, colours look natural but as usual for budget devices, the camera struggles with the dynamic range quite often.
Once you take camera indoors you can still shoot some decent looking images. Obviously, you may lose some details compared to daylight images.
The night shots have much more noise, the level of details is significantly lower. Also, the camera software does not brighten up the pictures as some other devices do. Finally, the shutter speed is much slower and you have to keep your hand steady to avoid blurriness.
A 5MP selfie camera could be definitely better. Well, you can take some usable selfies for social media but If you need to frame some more people, the shooter simply cannot focus all of them as the corners of the image are blurry.
In addition, there is a front facing LED flash for taking selfies at night. However, the results are quite terrible as it is simply too weak to illuminate the scene.
Overall, the camera is a decent performer in daylight but struggles in a low light. In addition, the selfie camera disappointed me in a way that it cannot focus properly. Anyway, you can’t really find anything significantly better in this price range.
The 1080p video is just mediocre. The level of details could be better, the auto-exposure and dynamic range is not consistent and the footage looks a bit dull overall. Honestly, performs similarly to other smartphones in this price range.
I have no major complaints about any of connectivity options. Call quality is not the best but good enough. In addition, I had normal 4G speeds on this device. Also, Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS work just fine.
Zeaplus M7 Review: BATTERY LIFE
good but not great
The 3800mAh battery sounds promising on paper but it could be better in real life. Well, it is not bad as it may get you through the day on average use or even heavy use if you won’t be playing games.
UPDATE:THE BATTERY SEEMS TO BE WORKING BETTER AFTER FULL 5TH CHARGE/DISCHARGE CYCLE. THE ZEAPLUS M7 CAN ACHIEVE MORE THAN 5 HOURS SCREEN-ON TIME WITH AUTOMATIC-BRIGHTNESS SETUP.PLEASE SEE THE GEEKBENCH RESULTS BELOW (test was completed using auto-brightness setting and dim display feature disabled on the benchmark app).
Zeaplus M7 Review: CONCLUSIONS
another budget phablet/finger print scanner combo from china. a decent device that does most of the things right but can still unleash some more power with a better OPTIMISED software
The Zeaplus M7 is a decent but not perfect device. Firstly, the overall design is just plain looking but the back cover could be definitely better. The thing that it is making some wobbling noises when pressed can be irritating for some. Well, I was told that it does not happen on all units. Anyway, it is not that bad and it is far from the deal breaker.
In addition, I was happy with a vibrant display, which I actually stared at a lot of times under direct sunlight. Moreover, the overall performance is good but I have had several lags in the UI (they went away after restarting the device) and in 3D gaming. It is nothing significant but with the specs this device has you do not want to see that. It leads me to believe that Zeaplus M7 needs a few software updates to optimise the work of hardware.
The camera is an decent performer overall. It takes some nice looking pictures outdoors when there is plenty of light but struggles in the low light. In addition, the selfie snapper was a bit of a disappointment when I wanted to frame some more people into the shot.
Finally, the Zeaplus M7 is a decent device overall. For the price of $169 you are getting a device with a huge vibrant screen, finger print scanner, a powerful package of specs, removable battery and more. It is not an ideal device or a smartphone that attracts attention of a lot of people due to its design but it is not a bad smartphone either.
We wanted to say thank you for Zeaplus for sending this device for a review.
Xiaomi has just sent out invites for its special event to be held on July 16. While the teaser image fails to explain what to expect from the company, it could be for the Xiaomi Mi5 flagship. Earlier reports have said that the phone could be unveiled sometime in September, but the company could have brought the date ahead to July.
Xiaomi aims to sell around 100 million smartphones by the end of this year. However, according to the recent report, the company managed to sell only about 34.7 million in the first half of 2015. Which is why it won’t be surprising if we see a major smartphone release like the Mi5 at the event.
Another possibility is the rumored launch of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 mid-range flagship. This would make much more sense given that Mi5 is expected to come with Snapdragon 820 and theres still time for the chip to hit the market.
Anyways, we will keep a close eye on the company in the coming days. So stay tuned.
OnePlus will announce the OnePlus Two flagship at the end of this month. The company has been teasing various features of the device for the past couple of weeks and hence, we have a fair idea about its specs. Today, we got a little more information about the specs of the device.
The OnePlus Two is expected to come with a slightly larger battery, a 3300mAh capacity one instead of just 3100mAh. The OnePlus One had a pretty great battery life, so we hope that with increased capacity, the new flagship too features stellar usage times. The phone is confirmed to come with the Snapdragon 810 v2.1 chipset along with LPDDR4 RAM.
Also, there will be a USB Type-C port on board, but we are still not sure whether it will be USB 3.0 like the the ZUK Z1. At the back, expect a 16MP OIS camera, a slight upgrade than the previous generation along with a fingerprint sensor just below the unit. OnePlus claims that the fingerprint recognition will be faster than Apple’s Touch ID. As for the display, expect a 5.5-inch screen with 2K resolution.
Apparently, OnePlus Two Is Under This OnePlus One
We also know that the phone will most likely come with an all metal built and it will be priced under $450. It will be smaller than the current generation ‘One’ despite the increased battery capacity. There are also rumors about a standard version, which should be much cheaper. This version should come with slightly lower specs like 3GB RAM and 1080p display.
We hope to get more information soon, so stay tuned!
ZOPO has informed us that they will be present at the MWC (Mobile World Congress) event that will be held at Shanghai on July 15 this year. A number of well renowned companies will be present including ones like ZTE, China Mobile, Huawei, LeTV, Nokia, SK Telecom, Alcatel-Lucent and Shanghai Bell. So, it will be interesting to see what ZOPO has in store for its fans at the event this year.
We have seen a number of good looking devices like ZOPO ZP530 from the company in the past few months. But now, its time for the company to extend its portfolio of products to wearables as well. ZOPO has been teasing about a new wearable via their Facebook page in the past few days and we will most likely see the device in action at the event.
The company’s event is titled ‘Enjoy Intelligence’. So, it looks like the event will be focused on user friendly products.
Also, the company’s new flagship smartphone, the ZOPO Speed 7, which will also be the first model in the new lineup is expected to be showcased at MWC this year.
So, we could a couple of interesting devices from the company at MWC in Shanghai. Let’s hope that ZOPO continues with its aggressive pricing policy for the new products as well.
ZTE’s Nubia division is known for its beautiful smartphones. We have already seen the bezelless Nubia Z9 along with the good looking Nubia Z9 Max and Mini phones. Now, the company has announced another beautiful device, this time in Europe called as the Nubia My Prague. The device takes some design inspiration from Apple’s iPhone and is super thin too. Overall, the metal built, sleek body and the gold + white color combination makes the device look extremely premium.
While we personally didn’t get a review unit of Nubia My Prague, it looks like one of the Czech bloggers managed to preview the device in a video. The phone looks extremely well built and the UI too was responsive and quick in the video.
You can check out the device in action from the video down below. Unfortunately, its not in English, but still you get to know a lot about the device by just watching the video.
Cyanogen has just hired two important industry veterans in a bid to help it compete with competitors like Google. Earlier this year, the company CEO Kirt McMaster has expressed his desire to create a pure Android OS without any influence of Google. It looks like the company has made some important hires to achieve its long term goals.
The first hire is from Amazon, Stephen Lawler who was previously the Engineering leader at the company. Now, he will join Cyanogen Inc. as the Senior Vice President of Engineering. The second hire is Karthick Iyer who will now act as the Vice President of Global System. Before joining the company, Iyer was working as the Qualcomm Android Engineering lead.
Both these individuals bring years of valuable experience to the company. Lawler worked for almost 15 years at Microsoft at various top levels positions in departments like Bing Maps, Bing Mobile, MSN etc. On the other hand, Iyer has over 18 years of experience working at Qualcomm. He has experience leading a team who worked on Android solutions at the chipset level.
“Our focus continues to be evolving the Android platform and driving innovation in mobile computing,” said Kirt McMaster, Co-founder and CEO of Cyanogen Inc. “Signals, services and systems are at the heart of building an evolved computing platform. Both Lawler and Iyer respectively are world class leaders in these areas, each having scaled some of the most successful computing and services platforms. Lawler brings a wealth of technical leadership in mobile, mapping, location, search, and cloud services. Iyer has deep expertise in end-to-end Android development. Both understand how to optimally scale engineering organizations.”
Cyanogen is making a lot of moves lately and has even signed a deal with Microsoft. With such valuable hires, we can expect to hear more about the company pretty soon.
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When you compare this to the Galaxy S5 which has an IP rating of 67 (the 7 means that it is protected against temporary immersion) you will see that this phone offers a go anywhere solution.
sible,allowing it to be connected either way around, similar to the connector found on iPhones, making it faster to connect to your charger especially in lower light situations.
