Huawei’s HiSilicon chip making division has come a long way in the past few years. From being a tiny chip manufacturer, the company now has big plans to compete with existing rivals such as Mediatek and Qualcomm. In this regard, the company seems to be taking big moves.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 supported Cat. 9 LTE networks which was much better than the Cat. 7 and 6 bands supported by other rival chipsets. Huawei’s Kirin 930 and 940 chipsets supported Cat. 6 and Cat. 7 band respectively, which meant it was slightly below Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 in terms of connectivity.
However, according to a report from China Mobile, it looks like Huawei’s Hisilicon Kirin 950 chipset will support Cat. 10 LTE networks which will be much faster than Cat. 9. This will put Kirin chipsets at par with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon series as even the Snapdragon 820 chip is expected to support this high speed network. Other chipsets which support Cat. 10 include Intel’s XMM 7360 and Samsung’s Exynos 333 modem.
We don’t see a Mediatek chipset in the report which supports Cat. 10, but that doesn’t rule out the possibility of a Mediatek chip supporting this high speed network band in the future.
A few days back, Huawei confirmed that it would be releasing the Honor 7 flagship on June 30. Thanks to the numerous leaks, we already know a lot about the upcoming handset, and it looks like pretty powerful device.
Meizu MX5 01
However, it looks like June 30 won’t just be the launch day for Honor 7, as latest rumors suggests Meizu is preparing the launch of a powerful machine on the same day. Given that its almost time to see the next generation model of the Meizu MX4, we feel that this smartphone could be the MX5 flagship.
Meizu MX5 02
So, it looks like June 30 is going to be a pretty interesting day. According to the TENAA listing, the MX5 features an octa-core 2.3GHz chipset with 3GB RAM and a 5.5-inch full HD 1080p display. There will be a 20MP camera at the back along with a 3MP front facing shooter. The battery is expected to be around 3150mAh.
Honor 7
As for the Honor 7, the phone is expected to come with an octa-core chipset with a 5-inch 1080p display, 13MP OIS camera and 3280mAh battery. There will be two different versions, the standard one sporting 3GB RAM and 16GB of storage while the top-end premium version coming with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage.
Interestingly, the leaks have shown that both the devices, Honor 7 and Meizu MX5 will come with a fingerprint sensor.
We expect to see a lot more information on both these devices before the companies officially launch them. So, stay tuned.
Its been a while since Xiaomi announced a new smartphone in the market. As a result, in the coming months, expect around two to three new phone launches. One should be the Redmi Note successor, which we have already seen in a leak yesterday. And the other two could be the rumored Xiaomi Mi5 and the Mi5 Plus.
Its already time to see the successor to the company current, Xiaomi Mi4 flagship, but it looks like Snapdragon 810 issues have forced the company to delay the release. Logically, both the phones should have featured Snapdragon 810 which is the flagship SoC for the year, but given the severe heating issues associated with the chip, it seems unlikely that it will end up in both of them.
However, consumers are eagerly waiting for the next Mi device and Xiaomi may eventually succumb to market pressure. So, a Snapdragon 810 powered Mi5 is even possible. Snapdragon 820 will still take a few months to enter mass production, and it doesn’t make sense for this Chinese giant to wait until that happens. So, instead of both featuring Snapdragon 820, only the Mi5 Plus, which could be announced at the end of the year, may feature this chipset. It may even be the first smartphone to come with this latest Qualcomm SoC.
If this is the case, then you can expect the specs to be something like this.
Xiaomi Mi5:5.2-inch 2K display with Snapdragon 810, 4GB RAM, and 16MP camera. Priced at around 1999 Yuan.
Xiaomi Mi5 Plus: 6-inch 2K display with Snapdragon 820 and 4GB RAM. Priced at around 2499 Yuan.
So, unlike earlier rumors it looks like we may not see Snapdragon 820 on both the handsets. The Mi5 will probably feature current generation Snapdragon chipset (810 or 808?). Given that the launch should be soon, lets wait and watch, whether Xiaomi takes the risk of putting Snapdragon 810 inside its latest flagship Mi5.
If you have been following our website, you would have come across a number of posts about the upcoming Zeaplus M7 flagship smartphone. The device came with impressive specs and a simple yet beautiful design which makes it an attractive offering. The company has priced the device at just $199, but during the flash sale, which is on June 18, you can purchase the device for just $149! You can check out more details about the sale from our previous article.
We were lucky enough to get our hands on this flagship device. So, here’s our initial impression of this MT6752 powered smartphone.
From the design point of view, the Zeaplus M7 is worthy of its flagship title. The device is well built and you won’t find any loose parts, unlike other cheap chinese handsets. The phone feels solid and even the buttons are tactile and responsive.
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On top of the phone lies the USB as well as the headphone jack.The power button is on the right and the volume control keys on the left. There’s nothing at the bottom. Coming to the back, its made of plastic but its not that slippery and provides good grip. There’s a camera unit on top of the rear cover and below it you will find the fingerprint sensor. At the bottom of the cover, there’s the Zeaplus logo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3uWab5pR4E
We had the time to try out a few features, and naturally, we started off with the fingerprint sensor at the back. You can save up to five different fingerprints for unlocking the device. Saving can take around 10-15 seconds, but unlocking the device is pretty fast. The accuracy of the sensor was also good.
The Zeaplus M7 comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop version right out of the box. The phone had Google apps preinstalled and the UI was stock Android, which we always prefer.
As for the camera, our initial impression was quite good. The photos came out clear and bright. Even when zoomed it, the photo maintained a great level of detail, which is quite good for an affordable flagship. We couldn’t test out the night camera performance, but we will cover that in our review soon.
We also had the time to try out a few covers for the device. You can get a flip leather cover for the smartphone which looks pretty good. It looks similar to the LG G3 Circle cover and when its closed, the clock app will light up in the opening up front.
You can also get a regular skin case for the device, made from soft TPU material.
Overall, it looks like Zeaplus has delivered on its promise with the new Zeaplus M7 flagship. It looks solid, performs very well (gaming was smooth and lag free) and the fingerprint sensor is definitely an added advantage.
Huawei is going to all lengths to generate buzz in the market about its upcoming Honor 7 flagship. The company already confirmed the launch of the device on June 30, via a teaser poster. The same image even confirmed the presence of a fingerprint sensor on the device.
Now, Huawei has just uploaded a teaser video of the Honor 7 which gives us a glimpse of the device. Of course, you can’t clearly see the handset, but we can still figure out a couple of things about the phone from the video.
First of all, it looks like the Huawei Honor 7 will feature an all metal design, just like we saw on TENAA. In fact, it looks like the phone will take some design pointers from its elder brother, the Huawei P8 which was launched back in April. The overall metal body looks sleek and well built. Even the display seems to come close to the sides.
Overall, from this video, it looks like the phone will sport the same design that we saw on the images from TENAA. As for the specs, it is said that the phone will feature Kirin 935 chip octa-core 64-bit with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage (high-end version) or 3GB RAM and 16GB storage (standard version). The camera will be of 13MP with OIS and there will be a 5-inch full HD panel up front. The battery is expected to be of 3280mAh capacity.
It looks like we will see some more teasers from the company until the launch of the device on June 30.
Meanwhile, you can check out the video from below.
Huawei announced the Huawei P8 Max back in April, alongside the flagship P8. Like its name suggests, the phone is a larger variant of the P8 with better specs and a much higher price tag. At the time of launch itself, the company specified that the phone is targeted at business users.
To recap, the phone comes with a large 6.8-inch 1080p Full HD display which should definitely come in handy while reading and editing documents. Even the screen is big enough to fulfill your entertainment needs. Under the hood, the phone sports the 2.2GHz octa-core Kirin 930 processor with 3GB of RAM.
The rear camera will be of 13MP while up front, there will be a 5MP shooter. The company has smartly included a large 4360mAh battery to support its phablet sized display. As for software, the phone will run on the new Android 5.0 lollipop version. Pricing is expected to be around 3588 Yuan, which puts it in direct competition with flagships from market leaders such as Apple and Samsung.
You can check out the unboxing pictures from down below courtesy of Sina Tech.
According to our sources, Doogee is going to aggressively expand in the coming few months with a number of interesting releases such as the Valencia2 Y100 Pro, F3 and the Doogee S6000.
Today, we have received information that the company has decided to increase the RAM on the S6000 to 2GB, now making it the perfect smartphone for tech addicts. RAM was the only major drawback of the device, since in this fast paced age, 1GB RAM often lacks the punch to support multi-tasking. As a result, we feel this is a very smart decision.
What’s even more interesting is that the company is not going to increase the price tag. So, the Doogee S6000 will retail for the same $139 as promised, which makes the phone a killer deal in this crowded mid-range market.
Rest of the specs are pretty good for its price range. The S6000 sports the MT6735 quad-core chipset clocked at 1.5Ghz with 16GB of internal memory. There will be a 5.5-inch 720p display up front, which is quite the standard among mid-range devices these days.
One of the highlights of the device will be its support for fast charging technology. So, with the Mediatek Pump Express tech, you can charge the device up to 75 percent in under 30 minutes. Of course, even 3A charging may take some time to fully charge the monster 6000mAh battery on board,. But it also means that a quick charge can get you around a day’s usage.
Under heavy usage conditions, the 6000mAh battery should give you about two day’s worth battery life. But if you are a moderate user, you can get up to 5 days of usage on a single charge from this device!
As for the other specs, there will be a f/2.0 aperture 8MP camera at the back with dual tone flash and a 5MP front facing shooter. The phone will run on the latest Android 5.1 Lollipop version.
Coming to the looks, you won’t be disappointed in this area for sure. It takes inspiration from one of the best looking handsets in the market, the Xiaomi Mi Note and sports 2.5D glass on the front and 3D GLONASS glass at the back. So, the Doogee S6000 is a pretty good looking handset.
You can expect to get the device sometime around August this year for just $139.99. Pretty good deal, right?
DOOGEE S6000 FEATURES OVERVIEW:
Main Specs:
Thickness: 9mm
1280*720p HD display, 2.5D screen,5.5-inch
Screen body ratio: 80%
8 MP f/2.0 rear camera w/ dual-tone flash
5 MP selfie cam
Android 5.1 Lollipop
2GBRAM+16GB ROM
6000mAh monster battery: 2 days of heavy use/ 5 days of normal use/40 days of standby
Huawei has always announced major events officially via its Weibo account. Earlier today, the company revealed a new poster which confirms that the Honor 7 flagship is coming on June 30.
The picture shows the number seven written inside a fingerprint. Below, this we see the date, 30th June, which means that the Honor 7 is coming exactly 15 days later. The image of the fingerprint also confirms the recent leaks which said that the phone will feature a rear placed fingerprint recognition.
The company is yet to confirm other features of the device, but it is said that the phone will be powered by the new Kirin 935 octa-core 64-bit chipset. There will be a 13MP camera at the back with OIS and a large 3280mAh battery. As for the display, expect a 5-inch full HD panel up front.
Rumors indicate that there will be two different versions of the device, namely the standard version and the top-end version. The standard version will come with 3GB RAM and 16GB of storage while the top-end version will feature 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage. This move won’t be surprising given that recently, the company has started a tradition of offering two different versions of a flagship model.
Well, since the date is finally official, all we have to do is to wait and watch whether the Honor 7 turns out to be as impressive as the recent leaks have predicted.
We have already seen the specifications of the Zeaplus M7 flagship and it turned out to be pretty impressive. The company was offering the device under $200 which made it all the more attractive.
However, in order to promote the launch of the Zeaplus M7, the company will be keeping a flash sale on June 18, which is the day the phone will be available for purchase for a limited period. On 18th, the company will give away a few discount codes for buying the handset at just $149! Yes, in the initial flash sale period, the company will be giving users a hefty discount of over $50.
The company will release these discount codes on its FACEBOOK and TWITTER pages, so make sure you follow these accounts and keep a check on the pages on 18th. This is definitely one of the best deals in the market at the moment, especially considering the specs of the device.
To recap, the M7 comes with a powerful MT6752 octa-core chipset with 3GB RAM and 16GB ROM. There will be a fingerprint sensor on board, along with a massive 5.5-inch full HD panel. For camera, there will be a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front shooter. Finally, it will feature a large 3800mAh removable battery and will run on Android 5.0.
Ulefone is one of the Chinese manufacturers, which wants to draw some attention by producing some similarly designed devices we have already seen before. I am talking about the Be Touch. Is this the best cheap iPhone 6 Plus alternative?
a plain packaging with a set of standard accessories
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The device comes in a plain box, which has some basic information like specifications printed on it.
The packaging contents include the stuff you would it expect to come with most of the smartphones.
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The contents include the charging brick along with USB cable, instruction manuals, screen protector and a pair of very cheap headphones, which sound quite terrible.
DESIGN
a great looking iphone 6 plus wannabe device with a decent build quality
The star of the show is the Ulefone Be Touch smartphone, which looks very similar to the iPhone 6 Plus from the front side.
On the bottom side there are non-backlit capacitive keys along with a home button, which also has a fingerprint scanner. I will get back to this interesting feature very soon.
The top side features a 5MP front facing camera with the LED flash, earpiece and proximity sensor. However, there is no notification LED on this device.
The back side is where the Ulefone Be Touch looks different than the iPhone 6 Plus. It has a plastic removable back cover, 13MP Sony IMX214 camera along with the single tone dual LED flash and the Ulefone logo.
Removing the back cover is quite easy, but you may need a credit card as it sits very tight. Under the hood there is a 2550 mAh removable battery, 2 SIM card slots and the microSD card slot up to 64GB.
The device spots a high quality metal frame, which gives that premium look and feel.
The volume rocker and the power key are also made out of metal, but they are on the left side of the device. I don’t care about the volume buttons, but the power on/off switch should be always on the right side. I will never understand why some manufacturers do that. It is just so uncomfortable for me.
On the top side you can find a headset jack and the micro USB charging port.
On the bottom there is a speaker grill along with the microphone.
All design pictures in a gallery:
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Overall design and build quality impressions
Allright, so for the price of just over $200, the overall built quality is great. A metal chassis and the quality plastic back cover seem to look good and feel great in the hand. However, you have to keep in mind that this is 5.5″ device, which basically falls into the phablet category. It may may be not that unusual for many users, but I found it a bit hard to reach all the corners of the screen with fingers. The thing is that the device is tall and has huge top and bottom bezels, which make it difficult to handle the device with one hand. Well, it may be the price if you want to mimic the iPhone 6 Plus, I guess.
DISPLAY
pretty good 5.5″ display
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The device carries a 5.5” 720p display, which is actually pretty good. It has some natural looking colours, great viewing angles, decent brightness and good outdoors visibility.
UI and PERFORMANCE
Android 5.0 lolipop is running smoothly and it is a pleasure to use the device overall. The fingerprint scanner is the highlight of the show.
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The Ulefone Be Touch runs almost stock looking Android 5.0 Lolipop OS. My experience is that everything is running smoothly and I have no complaints scrolling through menus or opening different apps. The UI has some basic settings you can adjust and it is worth mentioning that the device supports tons of languages out of the box.
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One of the key features Ulefone is very proud of is the fingerprint scanner, which is embedded in the home button. First, you have to set it up by tapping the finger of your choice several times until the scanner recognises all the prints of your finger. Worth mentioning is that you can register up to 5 fingers, which gives you some flexibility. Also, it works with humans only as it could not register my cat’s pads.
In addition, you have to set up the security password if something goes wrong with the scanner or you cut your finger off.
The fingerprint scanner works pretty good. It is not that accurate as the one on the iPhone, but gets the job done. For the $200 price category, you can’t expect more.
The device also features some gesture controls we have already seen on tens of devices. They work well, but, however, if you use the fingerprint scanner as an unlock method, these controls are pretty much useless as you need to unlock the device first.
PERFORMANCE
the device performs well both in synthetic benchmarks and in real-life demanding tasks
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The device carries a Mediatek 6752 64-bit chip inside along with 3GB of RAM. That’s a lot of sheer power and the smartphone manages to perform well in synthetic benchmarks. Antutu benchmark score is over 38.000, which is not bad at all.
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The demanding tasks like gaming are handled pretty good and I didn’t have any issues even with the most graphically intensive games. Well, the graphics don’t look that good as on the high-end smartphones, but there are no lags or skipped frames. In addition, the device gets a bit hot, but does not overheat too much to make it uncomfortable to hold.
MULTIMEDIA
multimedia experience is great, but it is disrupted by the lack of decent stock media players and below average speaker quality
The 1080p video playback is smooth and I had no issues with playing or scrolling the video back and forth. However, you may want to download the third-party video player as the installed one is just very basic.
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As far as the music playback goes, the device comes with a stock Android music app, which is running smoothly. The sound quality of the speaker is not that good. It is loud enough to hear it, but not really pleasant to your ears as it lacks in lows, mids and highs. Please watch the video review to hear the audio test.
CAMERA
The implementation of sony imx214 sensor is good only in daylight, but STRUGGLES badly in low light scenarios
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The Ulefone Be Touch comes with a basic camera app, which has a few settings to play with a couple of different shooting modes. The shutter speed is not the fastest I’ve seen, but it is okay for the price tag of this device.
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The gallery app is also very basic, but it is very fast, responsive and it is a pleasure to use it.
PICTURE QUALITY
Please note that the pictures have been resized to optimise the browsing experience.
The 13MP Sony IMX214 sensor on this device can capture some decent looking daylight images. They are far from ideal as it could be a bit sharper, but you cannot expect more from this relatively cheap device.
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Once you take the device indoors, you can still capture some okay looking images. In addition, if you hold the device steady, the macro shots can come out pretty good looking.
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When the sun goes down, the struggles start. The shutter speed becomes significantly slower and the pictures look grainy, washed out and do not have much details in it. Well, it did not surprise me as I have never seen a budget device with a good low-light camera performance.
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The night shots are actually completely useless in auto-mode I’ve tested. Literally, it’s better to remember what you saw that taking a picture at night.
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The dual LED flash helps illuminating the scene a little. The pictures don’t look excellent, but are usable for social media needs. However, the LED is weak and helps only with close-up shots.
Selfie Camera
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The 5MP selfie camera is just average, but should be enough for your Facebook status update.
The cool thing is that the front facing snapper has an LED to make night selfies possible. However, it is weak and and the pictures turn out to be terrible in comparison to the vivo Xshot, which also has the front facing LED.
VIDEO QUALITY
Check out the video review to see the video sample.
The video quality is below average. First of all, the footage is very shaky as there is no image stabilisation whatsoever. Also, the movements look choppy and the video looks washed out overall. It can suffice for the social media, but not for the movie making.
CONNECTIVITY
Overall good connectivity is ruined by slow gps lock speed
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The call quality is good and I have no complaints about it. Other connectivity options like bluetooth and wifi are good. However, the GPS signal is not that good as it can take around a minute to lock the position. That’s way below standard and it may be really inconvenient.
BATTERY
low capacity 2550mah battery life could be much better
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The removable 2550mAh battery does not look good on paper and it performs poorly in real life scenarios. It can get you though the day only if you are a light user as the maximum screen on time is just around 3 hours if you are only doing easy tasks.
CONCLUSIONS
ulefone be touch is a great cheap iphone 6 plus alternative despite a few shortcomings
Ulefone Be Touch is a device, which is built to mimic the looks of the iPhone 6 Plus. It is definitely not on par with the top-notch Apple device, but it does carry a significantly lower price tag.
The built quality is great as the metal and plastic construction looks great and it does not feel cheap. Also, the screen is good and the finger print scanner is actually a nice feature to have for a device that costs just over $200.
Good raw specs are performing great in real life and even the most demanding tasks are being handled well.
However, the camera, battery performance and slow GPS lock speeds are the biggest woes of this smartphone. All these departments are not terrible, but could be a lot better.
All in all, it is not a bad device for the price, but you have to consider some shortcomings according to your personal preferences before you make a purchase.
Oneplus has confirmed that the Oneplus Two is coming soon. In this regard, the company has started a number of online contests such as ‘PhotoMania 2015’ and ‘Your OnePlus Story’. While leaks have suggested a lot of things about the upcoming OnePlus Two flagship, Chinese Media revealed a few details about the phone earlier today.
The website reveals that OnePlus will keep a conference next month, i.e. July where it will unveil the new generation flagship. The source further adds that the company will continue with the low cost pricing with the new model, which will feature high-end specs.
Some of the possible specs include Snapdragon 810 with 3GB RAM, 13MP camera and 5.5-inch 1080p display, all for a price tag of just 1999 Yuan ($322). The source also says that there could be another smartphone launch before the end of the year with more powerful specs..
Unfortunately, the company has revealed very little about the upcoming OnePlus Two, so for now, we can’t be sure whether there will be two launches from the company this year. Anyways, stay tuned for more details.
Earlier this month, Meizu unveiled its latest smartphone in the Blue Charm lineup, the Meizu M2 Note. However, from the leaks that we are seeing in the past few days, it looks like the company will announce the successor to the Meizu M1 too pretty soon.
We have already come across several pictures showing off the rear cover of the new generation Meizu M2. Today, we have spotted the M2 smartphone in a benchmark test, which reveals almost everything about the phone’s specifications.
The benchmark result reveals that the phone will come with MT6735 quad-core 64-bit processor. In a previous report, we had seen that this chipset performed better than Snapdragon 410, however, it should be a bit slower than MT6732. Also, the chip uses Mali-T720 GPU instead of a much more powerful Mali-T760 (found on the M1). But for the slightly lower performance, this chip boasts of full network connectivity, supporting even CDMA networks.
Other specs include a 5-inch 720p display, instead of 1280x 768 pixel resolution display on the Meizu M1. There will be 2GB of RAM on board along with 13MP rear camera and 5MP front facing shooter.
Overall, apart from the full network connectivity and 2GB, the Meizu M2 doesn’t have much to be called as a successor. The company could offer the phone for the same price tag (699 Yuan), or even at a cheaper price, like it did with the Meizu M2 Note. But as of now, we have not received any official information from the company.
Anyways, since the leaks are coming in fast, we expect a launch pretty soon. So, stay tuned.
San Francisco, June 12, 2015 — The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, today announced that Allwinner Technology, Datto, LINBIT, and Nutanixare joining the organization.
Commodity hardware, low-power processors, virtualization and a reliable operating system like Linux are in high demand as companies embrace cloud, web-scale computing and high-performance computing. Major growth in trends such as mobile, edge and networked computing create ongoing challenges for collecting, storing, protecting and analyzing ever-escalating levels of data. However, Linux, running on devices, desktops, servers, clouds and modern supercomputers, is always evolving. For example, today’s new members are driving changes in hyperconverged data centers, chip design, disaster recovery and data replication.
“Allwinner is joining the Linux Foundation to support Linux and to improve what we see as two important open source software development capabilities: collaboration and compliance,” said Jack Lee, Chief Marketing Officer, Allwinner Technology. “These two concepts are critical yet difficult to master for new Linux community entrants like ourselves.”
“Linux evolves much more rapidly than any other OS and diversifies faster,” said Amanda McPherson, Chief Marketing Officer at The Linux Foundation. “No other operating system has jumped to new platforms, new workloads, and new architectures so quickly. As a result, we continually add new members who are are advancing new features and functionality at a very rapid clip. This keeps Linux vibrant and flexible enough for a wide variety of platforms, applications and computing environments.”
About Allwinner Technology
Allwinner Technology, founded in 2007 in Zhuhai, China, is a leading fabless semiconductor design company. The company designs integrated circuits and turnkey solutions for connected mobile electronics, home entertainment, video security, and IoT devices. Allwinner’s products have been used by multi-national brands and ODMs worldwide in applications like consumer tablet PCs, industrial and retail tablet PCs, OTT set-up boxes, IP cameras, smart digital appliances, Linux development boards, home gateways, robotics, Wi-Fi speakers, gaming consoles, automotive ADAS systems, and more.
About The Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux and collaborative software development. Founded in 2000, the organization sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and promotes, protects and advances the Linux operating system and collaborative software development by marshaling the resources of its members and the open source community. The Linux Foundation provides a neutral forum for collaboration and education by hosting Collaborative Projects, Linux conferences, including LinuxCon and generating original research and content that advances the understanding of Linux and collaborative software development. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.
Coolpad’s sub-brand Ivvi is known for making super slim phones. In fact, a few months back, the company’s Ivvi K1 Mini bagged the title of the thinnest smartphone in the market measuring just 4.7mm, even slimmer than Vivo X5Max. Now, the company has just announced another slim phone its its lineup, called as the Little i.
This particular device is aimed at the young generation with a slim body and colorful appearance. In fact, if you look closely, it does take some design inspiration from the iPhone 6 at the front. There is 2.5D glass on top of the display and the back features metal. Even with all this, the phone measures just 4.9mm, joining the super slim smartphone club which only a handful of phones can boast of.
Unfortunately, if you expected this to be a mid-range / high-end phone, you are about to be disappointed. The phone features a modest Snapdragon 410 chipset with 2GB RAM, 16GB of storage and a 5-inch 720p AMOLED display. As you can see, these are just entry level specs. Other features include 8MP rear and 5MP front cameras, 1950mAh battery and Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS.
You get three color options, namely gold, silver and black. The phone is currently listed on JD.com for a price tag of 1999 Yuan for the standard edition and 2199 Yuan for the special edition.
We have been hearing a lot about the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 since the past few months. In fact, a series of leaks have even revealed a few alleged pictures of the handset, in an all metal design.
Earlier today, Chinese media reported that a new smartphone has hit the Chinese Quality Certification Center. And it looks like the phone could the new Redmi Note 2.
While the listing doesn’t reveal the true identity of the device, the timing as well as a few other info hints that it could be the next generation Redmi model. The phone supports TD-LTE 4G networks and is built in a Foxconn production plant in Langfang, China. It was earlier reported that the phone is already ready for mass production and the timing of this 3C Quality certification kind of hints that this could be the upcoming Redmi Note 2.
Of course, this information is based on speculation and hence, take it with a pinch of salt. As for the specs, earlier rumors have said that the phone will come with MT6795 octa-core 64-bit chip with 3GB RAM and 3100 mAh battery. To be honest, these specs look too high-end for a Redmi model, so its best to wait for something more conclusive. Meanwhile, you can expect to see the Redmi Note 2 officially by July this year.
UPDATE 12/06/2015 I have just received and installed an OTA update and the brightness seems to have improved significantly, I will check it out tomorrow day time to see if it is full brightness for outdoors viewing and let you all know.
It has been just over a week now since I received my Gold Elephone P7000 and I have been using it as my daily driver, to give you all a real world review, if you have not already done so, you can check out my unboxing video via the link below.
The phone has a nice weight to it, not too heavy that it is a burden but not too light that it feels cheap, the gold colour is a nice almost matt finish that is pleasant to the eye and gives a stylish premium feel to the phone rather than being over the top and ‘blingey’
On the front of the phone you will find the home button that features Harlequin lighting (more about this later in the review), proximity sensor, ear piece and 5mp front facing camera.
The top of the chassis has a micro USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack.
The bottom of the chassis has a small hole for the microphone and left and right holes drilled for speakers, with the rear case removed there is a small table that says 3D sound, whilst gaming the sound was very clear and has a decent amount of volume.
The rear of the phone is where you will find the fingerprint scanner, as well as the 13mp Sony camera and LED flash, the left side of the chassis has the volume rocker, whilst the right hand side has the power button.
When it comes to holding the phone I can pretty much reach all 4 corners one handed, but for users with smaller hands this won’t be so easy, however two handed operation is also very comfortable, making the 5.5” screen an option that you will love if you are coming from a smaller screen size (my daily runner is a galaxy S5 but I now find myself looking at its 5.1” screen and seeing a phone that seems too small), gaming and web browsing are very enjoyable at 5.5″ much more so than my S5.
Initially after unboxing and having a quick play with the phone, I ran in to a problem 🙁 I tried to update the phone OTA as it showed new software was waiting, unfortunately the update did not work and an error message was given to say that wireless updates had been disabled.
After a little bit of searching and a message to Elephone things were back on track, the version of firmware that shipped on my phone was not compatible with OTA upgrades and I had to download and install a newer firmware via flash tools.
Before I updated the OS the first application that I fired up was AnTuTu v5.7.1 the phone gave a respectable score of 42628, something that improved with the software tweaks that Elephone released in the newest Rom, giving a score of 44963! a nice improvement putting the phone ahead of phones costing a fair chunk of change more.
Once installed it was time to have a quick play with the phone, my first impressions, it was very responsive and the screen very clear with no signs of light bleed through that has been a problem on other China phones.
I then set about installing apps and games, this was made al lot easier as the google play store comes pre-installed.
The Ui is pretty much stock android 5.0 and is nice and quick, transitions are smooth and apps launch quickly.
Elephone are really backing the development of custom roms for the P7000 and currently have a version of Vibe UI 2.5 available
something that should really help to get more devs on board and give users a great choice.
I have yet to install and try the Vibe rom but it does look very nice and apart from lack of capacitive key illumination and finger print unlock (and a few bugs here and there) is fully working including a full brightness levels for the screen (this is great news as it means that Elephone should be able to get full brightness on their rom as well).
The fingerprint unlock (something that I never use on my S5 due to the inaccurate and annoying swipe motion required) works great and is as accurate as my wives iPhone 6, it allows up to 5 fingerprints to be registered (something I would suggest is to set up left and right fingerprint unlock so that you can get in to it whilst holding the phone in either hand).
Off screen gestures are also useful, double tap to unlock is a personal favourite, as is drawing letters on screen to access functions such as camera and emails etc (my iPhone friends are more than a bit jealous of this).
Gps is very strong with initial lock on mine taking under 5 seconds whilst outside (found 19 of 22 satellites), I use Gps with maps a lot for work and it is very accurate and I would say faster than the S5, it is great to see that Mediatek have finally got GPS sorted in their latest soc’s
Another nice feature is the Harlequin lighting option for the home button, this can be customised to flash in a variety of colours dependant on the application that has a notification coming in.
The camera on the P7000 is a Sony IMX214 unit and preforms really well, with fast and accurate focus lock.
Colour rendition is not bad and the pictures are sharp and detailed, hopefully with new firmware releases this will continue to improve, the camera on the phone has proven pedigree in other handsets and can produce great results.
Low light images are not bad either with decent illumination from the bright rear mounted LED ensuring graining is kept to a minimum.
I decided to give the P7000 a thrash at a couple of graphically intensive games that throw a lot of pixels at the screen and really punish weaker phones.
Real Racing 3 (a game that runs ok but not great on my galaxy S5), with great graphics and high levels of detail the game runs very smoothly and looks stunning, I need to play through a little further to get some quicker cars to see how the frame rates hold up, but for now I must say that the phone has impressed me on this one.
Asphalt 8 Airborne also runs really well making my S5 look very slow in comparison, gameplay is fast and smooth with no slow down or hesitation at all even when lots of cars are on screen.
If you want a phone to game, on the P7000 can handle anything that you can currently throw at it.
Battery life on the P7000 is really good, easily lasting a day with moderate to heavy usage.
My opinion of the phone is that it is well built and comes with a great specification for the price, the fact that Elephone include a flip case, tempered glass screen etc in the box is a really nice treat and will save you having to make the decision to save money or protect your phone (should save more than a few screens as well), something that I have done in the past to my detriment.
If your looking for a phone that packs a real punch in the performance stakes, without costing the earth, you could do a lot worse than the P7000
Head to Giztop & purchase one today for just $215 with fast delivery & 2 years warranty. Giztop Elephone-p7000
Elephone P7000 made a lot of buzz in the market with its high-end specs and decent pricing. The company made the device available for pre-order a few days back and naturally, a lot of users decided to try their luck with this new Elephone device.
Usually, you will have to shell out around $230 for the device, which is still good considering the 64-bit octa-core MT6752 chip inside as well as 3GB of RAM. However, we have got a coupon from Gearbest which will reduce its price to just $209.99. That’s directly $20 OFF the retail price which we feel makes it a great deal.
This looks like the cheapest price at which you can get this device! Of course, those who got the Ele code (which we gave away a few days earlier) were lucky enough to bag the device for a much cheaper price ($159), but at present, $209.99 seems to be the cheapest price for the handset.
Just use the coupon: 4GPhones and you will get $20 OFF. You can check out more details from the buy now link.
The phone seems to be a lower mid-range offering, but the company is trying to attract customers with its unique design. The Doogee Nova Y100X comes with a rear placed volume button, which means the sides are totally clean. The power button lies on top of the phone, which although isn’t the most comfortable placement, its good enough because of the phone’s compact form factor.
As you can see in the picture, the rear placed volume keys are not like the LG G2, instead its on the right hand side. There’s seems to be some ergonomics involved in this placement decision, since from the image, you would be able to control those keys with ease even when you are holding the device with one hand.
The body seems to be quite thin with a slight curve, which should once again provide a nice grip. It is also said that the back will be coated with a special anti-fingerprint oil, to avoid any stains or scratches at the back.
As for the front, the phone will feature slim 1mm bezels. Further, the touch panel will be electroplated with black ink to create a bezelless effect. As a result, the touch panel and the borders will integrate smoothly, which will give a bezelless look when the phone is locked.
We are still not clear about the specs, but the Doogee Nova Y100X will sport a 5-inch 720p IPS OGS display with 2.5D Glass and Corning Gorilla Glass. The phone will be available in black and white colors sometime in June. Other details will be revealed in the coming days.
The Nova Y100X definitely looks like an interesting offering. The design seems to be its selling point, and we hope the company prices it aggressively like its recent models.
Meizu officially unveiled the Meizu M2 Note smartphone back on June 2nd. However, it looks like the company may have another smartphone in the works in the same lineup.
A recent leak revealed a plastic back cover of an upcoming smartphone, featuring a single LED flash and a round camera unit. The back surface is glossy plastic similar to the texture seen on earlier released Blue Charm devices.
Back in May, we had spotted a device with the model name Meizu M2 Note on GFXBench. However, one interesting information revealed by the benchmarking site was that the device featured a 4.6-inch full HD display. The M2 Note that was announced earlier last week came with a larger 5.5-inch screen which meant that this could be a different device. In fact, it may be the same device of which the pictures have been leaked today.
According to the listing, the phone came with a MT6753 octa-core 64-bit chip along with 2GB RAM and 32GB of storage. There was a 13MP rear camera along with an 8MP front facing shooter. As for the software, the phone ran Android 5.1 Lollipop version.
So, this model could sit comfortably between the M2 Note and the Meizu M1. It could be priced somewhere around 599 Yuan, but this is just a guess and its still not confirmed as of now.
If there is indeed a new Blue Charm device in development, we expect more information pretty soon.
If latest rumors are to be believed, then Huawei is preparing to launch not one, but three new Honor smartphones later this month. Alongside the new Honor 7 flagship, it is said that two new devices namely Huawei Honor Note 4C Sport and Note 4C Play will be announced at the event on June 24.
Alleged Honor Note Image
While there is very little information about these two new Honor Note handsets, it is said that these devices will feature Huawei’s own Kirin 938 chipset (specs unknown) along with a large 6.2-inch display. Another highlight of the devices will be its premium brushed metal finish as well as a rear placed fingerprint sensor.
We had recently seen a new leaked handset in picture, that kind of fits the description. It is also said that the this could be one of the first handsets designed by Nokia designers after they were hired by Huawei.
As for the Honor 7 flagship, we already have a thorough idea as to what to expect from the device. There is said to be two different version of the flagship, one standard edition and the other high-end edition. The standard edition will come with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, while the high-end edition bumps up the memory to 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Other specs are expected to be more or less the same, so the phone will feature Kirin 935 chipset, 13MP rear camera and an all metal design. It is even being reported that the phone will feature the company’s own Kirin OS.
The Honor 7 standard edition will reportedly retail for 1999 Yuan ($320) while the high-end edition is expected to cost 2499 Yuan ($402). Expect a lot more information in the coming days, since all the three handsets will most likely debut at the company’s event on June 24.
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