Today’s teaser reveals something different than traditional company offerings. The image comes with the letters ‘AA’ on top and below it you can see a piggy bank with wings. This could mean a new financial product from the company or even additional features for its existing wallet service.
Other than this, we have no idea what it could mean. AA could be a brand new financial product, but its better that we wait for a day more to get further details.
Meanwhile, tomorrow is going to be an exciting day since we will see a number of new products from the company. Make sure you stay tuned to the website for updates.
Yesterday morning, Xiaomi revealed a new teaser on Weibo, hinting at another possible product announcement that will be made at its fifth anniversary celebration event on March 31 i.e. tomorrow. The teaser was not very clear, but had the words TZC on top along with a image of a device which looked like an electronic scale. Today, we have some more information about this said device.
China’s Ubuntu team revealed earlier today that the words TZC was probably hinting at the new smart electronic weighing scale from the company. The images reveal that the device can be connected to phones running Android 4.4 or higher and iOS 7 or higher. The electronic scale can display weights between 5KG to 150KG and will be manufactured by China Information Technology Co. Ltd.
Looks wise, the scale will be white in color with smooth round edges. We don’t see any button on the top, but there will be the Mi logo at the center. However, another image reveals that the weight will be indicated using the LED lights on top of the device. We can clearly see that the scale is showing 51.8 Kg in the image.
Finally, we can see that the Xiaomi electronic scale uses four 1.5V AA sized batteries at the back.
Now, you must be wondering what does TZC mean. Well, in one image we can see that the model number of the device is XMTZC01HM, which is probably why we saw those letters on top of the teaser.
So, what do you think about this new smart scale from Xiaomi?
About a week back, we introduced you to Ulefone Be Pure, a compact handset from the makers of the popular Ulefone Be Pro smartphone. The device boasted of stock Android UI which is loved by most Android fans.
Now, Ulefone Be Pure is available to purchase from leading retailers internationally from today i.e. 30-3-2015. What’s more the first 500 buyers will get a free 10400mAh Xiaomi Powerbank with the purchase.
The device sports a great design inspired from its elder brother, the Be Pro and features a fast MT6592 octa-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz. There’s 1GB of RAM onboard along with 8GB of internal storage.
Like we mentioned above, the Ulefone Be Pure is targeted at compact smartphone users, so it comes with a 720p 5-inch display. There will be a 13MP camera at the back, capable of capturing full HD 1080p videos and a 5MP shooter up front. The battery at the back will of 2000mAh capacity. As for software, the phone will run on Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box, but will soon be updated to stock Android 5.0 Lollipop.
The phone will be available in Blue and White colors for around $130 from leading online retailers from today. You can check out the list of retailers from the image given below.
So, what do you think about the phone and its price? Will you buy it?
Xiaomi was earlier rumored to release a super cheap 399 Yuan smartphone. However, later Lei Jun, the company CEO made it clear that the company had no plans for such a cheap device. While we were disappointed, we still came across multiple leaks about the so called cheap Xiaomi device. And today, we have more information about this handset.
Chinese Media reported earlier today that Xiaomi’s super cheap device will cost 499 Yuan instead of 399 Yuan unlike earlier predicted. The phone will feature an 8MP camera, with 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal store which will be further expandable. The same source also adds that the 499 Yuan smartphone could be released as early as April 8th.
The specs revealed today are in line with what we saw a few days back. The earlier report said that the phone will feature a 4.7-inch display with 720p resolution, a quad-core 1.6GHz LC1860 chipset using Cortex A7 cores and built on a 28nm manufacturing process. Finally, it said that the front camera will be of 2MP.
It looks like Lei Jun was not entirely true when he said Xiaomi won’t make 399 Yuan cheap smartphones. This leak once again highlights the possibility of a super cheap 499 Yuan device from Xiaomi.
What’s more, it actually makes sense for the company to expand its lineup downwards. The company recently revealed that it aims to sell over 100 million units this year. Since this is a very big figure, phones like this will definitely help them increase sales.
But even in this segment, the competition is going to be fierce. We have already seen two smartphone, one from China Mobile and another from Phicom which costs 399 Yuan. But they will probably be limited to the Chinese market. However, there could be other big names that are said to be interested in this price segment like Huawei, so we will have to wait and watch how market reacts to such a cheap device.
A few months back, we had revealed the possible specs of the upcoming Kirin 900 series processors. Now, our source has some information about the Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 815 chipset.
According to our source, the Snapdragon 815 will come with four Cortex A72 cores and four Cortex A53 cores on the big.LITTLE architecture. Unsurprisingly, it will feature the next generation Qualcomm Adreno GPU and will be manufactured using the new FinFet process. So, it could most likely use the 16nm FinFet. Our source also said that Qualcomm may tweak the cores to boost performance.
So, the upcoming Snapdragon 815 will be similar to the Snapdragon 620 which is already launched, but will be manufactured on a smaller node and will have all the features that you can expect from a top end Snapdragon 800 series chipset.
He also says that Qualcomm is delaying the launch of Snapdragon 815 mainly because the company doesn’t want to hurt the sales of the 810 powered smartphones in the market such as the HTC One M9 and the LG G Flex 2.
So what do you think about the new Snapdragon 815?
OnePlus is one of those companies, which managed to bring a lot of hype to the western world, which does not always happen with all the Chinese companies. After teasing the OnePlus One as the “Flagship Killer” for some time it got attention from many tech enthusiasts around the globe. However, it has been quite a while since the One was launched and right now we are into the OnePlus Two rumours mill.
It seems that the company is pretty confident about itself and it is ready to go toe to toe with the biggest players in the marker or even overcome them. This time around, the leaked features suggest that the device will have something interesting called a laser focus fingerprint identification embedded in the home button.
What is more, the front of the device will look similar to the Oppo Find 7, which does not surprise us as the OnePlus One looks very similar to the latter smartphone.
Also, there will be regular capacitive Android 5.0 buttons on the sides.
As far as availability goes, the device is said to come out in Q3 this year. What we hope is that the company will be more mature and get rid of the controversial marketing ideas. Also, we hope that OnePlus will have their production lines in tact and there will be no more invite system.
Furthermore, other rumours as well as the recent interviews with the top executives of the company suggest that the OnePlus Two will be more expensive. It is a natural consequence as the OnePlus One was the part of the marketing strategy to sell the device nearly at the cost. In addition, the device may not have neither the Micro SD nor removable battery, nor the wireless charging technology. Finally, the company is said to stick to the reliable Snapdragon chips (most likely 810) for the upcoming device.
As the rumour mill has already heated up, stay tuned for more news to come!
This time around the @upleaks has some news that the manufacture may have a regular HTC E9 in the pipeline. It is said to have a bit smaller screen, thus making it a more compact device.
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The device looks very similar to the just announced bigger brother. It will have the same colour options, which include white, black and grey. What is more, the device spots a typical HTC design language and looks very similar to the good ol’ HTC One M7 as far as the front goes. Although the device does not have a full metal body, but it still has a premium metal frame surrounding the smartphone.
The leaked pictures definitely look like the official press renders, so it may be that the company will launch this device very soon. Pricing and availability is not yet known, but we presume that it will first be available in the Chinese market at the affordable price tag.
There has been a lot of talk on the media about the possibly upcoming HTC One E9 Plus. That included the list of specs, alleged official pictures etc. This time around it seems that the HTC has silently launched the device as it just got listed on China official webpage!
The design clearly shows a classic HTC style with a metal frame around the device along with front firing Boom Sound speakers, which also sports the Dolby Surround technology. Honestly, the front of the device looks like the twin brother of the HTC One M7 to us. The dimensions are 156.5×76.5×7.49mm and it weighs 150g.
The 20MP Toshiba camera sensor (the same one as the on the HTC One M9) sticks out a bit to make the whole body of the device a bit thinner. What makes it look a bit better is the metal ring surrounding the lens.
And yes, HTC finally steps in to the 2k players game as the device spots a 5.5 inch 2k display (534 PPI) whether you actually need it or not. Well, you have to keep up with outer big players to make the spec heads happy.
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The device will come in black, white and grey colours. Still, each of the version will spot some gold elements.
What is more, the HTC One E9+ will have the themes engine, which was originally presented with the M9 device. However, it has an upgraded version of themes as the some of them will come in the Disney world characters included, which may be a great thing for Disney fans.
The rest of the specs show that this is another flagship device for 2015 by the company. That includes a MTK 64-bit chip (MT6795M) with eight cores clocked at 2.0GHz. Also, there are 2GB of Ram, 16 GB of expandable storage (up to 128GB via Micro SD cards), 2 SIM card slots with the 4G connectivity, the front facing 4MP Ultrapixel snapper, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS and all other standard connectivity options.
However, there are no pricing or availability details listed on the website. There are some talks in the previous leaks that the device could be priced at 2999 yuan. Still, the mere fact that the device is listed on the official webpage implies that it will become available to purchase very soon.
Blackview is one of those manufacturers that are producing more and more devices in the past months, so it got our attention. After reviewing their premium looking Blackview Omega and finding out that it is quite good offering for the price, we have decided to take a look at another device produced by the manufacturer.
VIDEO
INTRODUCTION
This time around we are looking at a very cheap (around $70-75 USD) device, which goes to the low-end category, but is designed for those who don’t want to spend a pretty penny, but still enjoy the Android experience.
Well, as far as specs go, we can clearly see that this is not the high-end device, but you can’t ask too much for the $70 phone. Despite these low-end specs, we will focus on the feature set and real life performance in this review.
UNBOXING
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The box is pretty simple, yet quite elegant and high quality for a budget device. One thing that surprised us was the “Designed in Italy” sign… We are not sure what it means exactly, but we will focus on the actual device.
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Blackview has already impressed us with the rich contents of the devices they ship and we have the same story here again. The device comes with a quick start guide in case you are not sure about some things. Also, there is a standard 1amp charger along with the Micro USB cable. Moreover, there is a pair of headphones and the USB OTG cable to connect an external storage device.
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What is more, Blackview Breeze comes in with a TPU gel case to protect your device from drops. A very nice addition by the manufacturer. The case seems to be made out of a decent quality materials, it is easy to install and remove it.
DESIGN
OFFICIAL PICTURES (Source: http://www.blackview.hk/blackview-breeze)
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REVIEW UNIT PICTURES
Is this OnePlus One Mini?
The first thing that comes to your mind is that the device looks very similar to the OnePlus One in terms of design and choice of materials. However, it is much smaller since it spots only 4.5 inch display in comparison to 5.5 inches.
On the back there is a camera sensor with dual LED (single tone) flash. Also, there is a Blackview logo and the speaker grill on the bottom.
On the right, there is a power key. It is made out of plastic. It is not bad, but we’ve seen some better ones with a greater tactile response.
On the top side, there is a micro USB charging port and the 3.5mm auxiliary input.
On the left, there are volume up/down keys.
The capacitive keys on the bottom work well, but they are not backlit.
The top side of the front spots the earpiece along with the front facing snapper.
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Removing back cover is quite easy using your nails. Under the hood, there are two SIM card slots (one regular, other micro SIM) and the microSD card slot for storage expansion.
The battery capacity is 2000mah.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Overall, the Blackview Breeze looks very similar to the OnePlus One and the materials used in its design are very similar. Also, the device seems to be quite well made, but it spots only plastic materials. However, you can’t get a metal frame for such low price. In addition, the phone is very compact and is easily manageable with one hand, which is becoming a rare thing these days. In the end, you are getting a nice compact smartphone with a decent built quality.
DISPLAY
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The display is quite low resolution (480ⅹ854), which does not reach HD quality. Still, it is decent looking with great viewing angles and colour reproduction. Moreover, it is bright enough, so you can see what’s on your screen even in direct sunlight. Also, the touchscreen responsiveness is great and I didn’t notice any issues. In the end, you are paying just over $70 and for this price, the display is very good.
UI, Functionality, Performance
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The device is running Android 4.4.2 Kitkat and the UI is clean, simple as it is almost stock Android with just a few added features by Blackview. Overall, scrolling through menus is smooth and responsive, I did not get any lags. Also, multitasking is decent as I had tons of apps running in the background, but could still do stuff without a lag.
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The Blackview Breeze comes in with some basic apps pre-installed like torch, calculator, calendar etc. All of these apps are running smoothly, open up and close fast.
This “Hi Apple” app lets you transfer the content from your iPhone to Blackview Breeze. Well, we don’t say that this device is better than the iPhone, but why not include this app?
The included FM radio is a nice addition for a $70 phone.
You can also find some gesture controls included. I don’t really use any of them in real life except one – tap to wake. This is a great functionality and works great all the time.
MULTIMEDIA
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The gallery app is very simple, but gets the job done. Scrolling through photos is fast and smooth. Also, zooming in or out works perfectly.
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The video player app is simple as well, but works very well. I tested the video playback on both 720p and 1080p. And… was surprised how good it was! Both videos played very smoothly and scrolling is lag-free. Honestly, I expected some lag from a $70 phone, but I was surprised that it gets the job done flawlessly.
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There is a basic music app. I tested out both internal and external output. The speaker on the back is not the best out there, but is good for the price. I can say the same about the quality via headphones.
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Browsing experience is also good. Scrolling, zooming in and out is great. Page loading times are good, too.
BENCHMARKS
I never care about benchmarks, but still, I know that some of the readers may be interested, so I ran the Blackview Breeze through the Antutu test.
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The Blackview Breeze scores a respectable 19410, which is pretty decent for a $70 smartphone.
GAMING
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Honestly, I did not expect anything from this device as far as gaming, but it turns out that even graphically intensive games like Asphalt 8 can be played on this device. Yes, the graphics levels are not on par with flagships, but still not that bad. I had some frames dropped and a few little lags, but overall, it exceeded my expectations and I’m happy about it. Of course, the device is not designed for gamers, but it will get the job done when you need to burn some time.
CAMERA
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Camera app is simple and easy to use. It has some basic settings you can adjust.
Picture Quality
We have to tell you that our review unit is a pre-production model, so picture quality may improve with the retail units. Anyway, we took the device for a spin for both outside and inside pictures to give you guys some impressions about the 8mp sensor abilities in this cheap device.
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We have to say that the picture quality is good for a $70 device as it captures a decent amount of details for the 8mp shooter. We may want to a bit better auto saturation levels adjustment, but it is not that bad. Also, the exposure tends to lock in (we mainly used tap to focus technique) on the darker side, so the pictures came out a bit darker. Still, the 8mp shooter gets the job done for a low-end smartphone very well.
Once you take the device inside, the shutter speed becomes significantly slower. Also, you have to make sure to stand still as the sensor is prone to the camera shake. Still, if you are holding the camera tight, you can produce some okay looking images, which spot the quality, which is clearly enough for social media (When was the last time you printed out the picture out of your smartphone?).
Finally, the device has a capable shooter and we haven’t seen anything better in the sub $70 price range.
BATTERY LIFE
Since we have a pre-production model, the device seems to be taking a bit too much of juice on the standby mode. Still, during our testing, we managed to go through the day, which consisted of using either 3G or Wifi all the time, watching Youtube, a bit of gaming and browsing the web. Not bad at all. What is more, the battery is user replaceable and the rear cover is easy to remove.
CONCLUSIONS
So there you have it, the “OnePlus One Mini” wannabe device, which is priced at amazingly low $70-75. For this price range you can’t have it all, but still everyone is looking for a decent device, which can fulfil your daily tasks. Honestly, we were a bit skeptical before making a review of it. However, the device proved itself to have very fluid day to day performance. It is even possible to play graphically intensive games (yes, there are a few frames dropped there and there, but not a deal breaker). What is more, you can enjoy watching Full-HD movies although the screen’s resolution is not HD. Still, the screen quality is decent and it provides quite accurate colour along with the good brightness levels and great viewing angles since it is a good old LCD panel. Moreover, the build of the device is a bit plasticky, but so is the original OnePlus One. Anyway, the Blackview Breeze is made out of quality plastic and feels sturdy. The only complaint is that the power on/off key could have a better tactile response. To fix that, you can use a tap to wake function more often, which is way better way of turning the display on. A very good thing is that the device is very compact and is more than manageable with one hand. Furthermore, the camera is good for a $70 device as it can capture a good amount of details. Yes, it struggles in the low light, but if you want to have a good low light performer, you may need to pay at least $200-300 more.
Finally, a decent battery life, 2 SIM card slots, one Micro SD card slot (which actually works with 64GB cards as well), the compact and sturdy design, decent camera and good performance, additional stuff that comes in the retail packaging is really a great value for $70 phone.
In case you got interested in the device, you can buy Blackview Breeze for as low as $67.99 from these RELIABLE resellers for the lowest prices:
Xiaomi is on roll this year. A few days back, we reported that the company is planning to launch a number of new products to celebrate its fifth anniversary. We have already seen three new teasers from the company till date and now, there’s another teaser which hints at a new smart product which will see the light of day on March 31.
It looks like the company will focus on smart home products this year. We have increasingly heard rumors about products such as a smart water purifier, a 55-inch smart TV, both of which will most likely be announced on Tuesday. Now, this particular teaser comes with the letters ‘TZC’ on top. While we have no clue what this means, the image below gives us an idea about the product.
Below, you can see a rectangular device with the numbers 0.1, 0.2 etc written on top and an arrow at the center. From the picture, it looks like the new product will be a smart electronic weighing scale. There are similar products in the market right now, and most come with Wi-Fi connectivity so that the information is easily available on multiple devices. The arrow at the center could be an indication of the target to maintain or reduce weight.
We are just two days away from the celebration event and hence, we don’t have to wait too long to see what Xiaomi has in store for us. With one day left, we expect another product to be teased tomorrow, taking the total to five new possible announcements on its fifth anniversary.
China’s LeTV is busy with a lot of things lately, especially with its rumored entry into the smartphone business. However, the company is also reportedly entering the smart bike industry and a few days back, it even confirmed this news with a new poster.
letv smart bike leaked
Now, we have the first look at the LeTV smart bike, thanks to a recent leak. Interestingly, the design looks a bit like the Baidu smart bike that we saw earlier. Of course, there are a few differences like the spokes and even the seat placement.
Baidu smart bike
LeTV is launching this new bike in partnership with a bicycle company and Leie. The company will invest 50%, Leie 10% and the unknown bicycle company the rest 40% into this new venture.
Unfortunately, apart from this image, we don’t have anything on the new LeTV smart bike. The company will launch the product as soon as April 2, so expect more details at the event. Also, it is said that the partners to the venture will be revealed on that day.
LeTV is also working on two smartphones at the moment, namely the LeTV X600 and the Snapdragon 810 powered bezelless LeTV X900. We expect both the phones to be unveiled next month itself.
Blackview is one of those manufacturers that are producing more and more devices in the past months, so it got our attention. After reviewing their premium looking Blackview Omega and finding out that it is quite good offering for the price, we have decided to take a look at another device produced by the manufacturer.
This time around we are looking at a very cheap (around $70-75 USD) device, which goes to the low-end category, but is designed for those who don’t want to spend a pretty penny, but still enjoy the Android experience.
Well, as far as specs go, we can clearly see that this is not the high-end device, but you can’t ask too much for the $70 phone. Despite these low-end specs, we will focus on the feature set and real life performance in our upcoming full review very soon.
UNBOXING
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The box is pretty simple, yet quite elegant and high quality for a budget device. One thing that surprised us was the “Designed in Italy” sign… We are not sure what it means exactly, but we will focus on the actual device.
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Blackview has already impressed us with the rich contents of the devices they ship and we have the same story here again. The device comes with a quick start guide in case you are not sure about some things. Also, there is a standard 1amp charger along with the Micro USB cable. Moreover, there is a pair of headphones and the USB OTG cable to connect an external storage device.
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What is more, Blackview Breeze comes in with a TPU gel case to protect your device from drops. A very nice addition by the manufacturer. The case seems to be made out of a decent quality materials, it is easy to install and remove it.
Is this OnePlus One Mini?
The first thing that comes to your mind is that the device looks very similar to the OnePlus One in terms of design and choice of materials. However, it is much smaller since it spots only 4.5 inch display in comparison to 5.5 inches.
On the back there is a camera sensor with dual LED (single tone) flash. Also, there is a Blackview logo and the speaker grill on the bottom.
On the right, there is a power key. It is made out of plastic. It is not bad, but we’ve seen some better ones with a greater tactile response.
On the top side, there is a micro USB charging port and the 3.5mm auxiliary input.
On the left, there are volume up/down keys.
The capacitive keys on the bottom work well, but they are not backlit.
The top side of the front spots the earpiece along with the front facing snapper.
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Removing back cover is quite easy using your nails. Under the hood, there are two SIM card slots (one regular, other micro SIM) and the microSD card slot for storage expansion.
The battery capacity is 2000mah.
FIRST IMPRESSION
Overall, the Blackview Breeze looks very similar to the OnePlus One and the materials used in its design are very similar. Also, the device seems to be quite well made, but it spots only plastic materials, but you can’t get a metal frame for such low price. In addition, the phone is very compact and is easily manageable with one hand, which is becoming a rare thing these days.
For the past few days, thanks to the numerous leaks, we have known that HTC will unveil another version of the upcoming HTC One E9 called as the HTC One E9 Plus. While we have already seen some images of the handset before launch, today, team Ubuntu who are well known for leaking upcoming phone released a set of pictures which look like the official press images of the HTC One E9 Plus.
From the pictures, we can see that the device shown by Upleaks yesterday is exactly the same as this. The phone will be relatively larger than the E9, which is rumored to be around 5-inches in size. The E9 Plus will sport a two tone color design with a beautiful gold colored metal frame. However, other than that the phone’s body will be made of plastic. You can see that the images explain each feature of the device, which unfortunately is in Chinese.
As for the specs, the HTC One E9 Plus will reportedly come with MT6795 octa-core processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. There will be a 5.5-inch display with 2K resolution. The rear camera will be of 20.7MP while the front shooter will be the same 4MP Ultrapixel sensor unit as the One M9. Sense 7 will be a big part of the phone’s software running on top of Android 5.0.2. So, expect features such as blinkfeed, new themes etc on the device like the flagship HTC One M9.
The pricing of the E9 Plus is said to be around 2999 Yuan ($482) while the One E9 is expected to retail between 2499 to 2699 Yuan.
Now the company has released another teaser. The image comes in a shade of yellow with the words, DDS. Now, here DDS could mean anything, but a quick search reveals DDS’s full form is most likely Data Distribution Service. This standard is used in smartphones and internet of things, so we could see some kind of IoT product on its fifth anniversary.
Below the words DDS, you can see an interesting thing. From what we can see, there’s a Play Button that’s being enlarged under a magnifying glass. Some even say that this could be the teaser for the large 55-inch smart TV that was expected to be announced on March 24. But, we can’t be sure of anything at the moment.
March 31 is just three days away, when we will hopefully get to know what the company meant by this teaser. Meanwhile, lets wait for more updates from Xiaomi as the company is sure to tease us with more products in the next couple of days.
Blackview Omega is finally available for sale. Hence, we decided to find out the cheapest way to purchase the device.
The new phone from Blackview is quite the looker. It sports Corning’s Gorilla Glass protection on both the back as well as the front. Moreover, there’s a colored metal frame which holds the device and adds to its beauty. The Omega is extremely well built and you won’t find many better looking phones than this in the market.
The Blackview Omega comes with the powerful MT6592 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. The phone is targeted at compact users and sports a 5-inch display with a beautiful full HD 1080p resolution. This translates into a pixel density of 440ppi which will make sure that all the images and videos on the display looks crystal clear.
The Omega also features a powerful camera. At the back, you will find an 18MP shooter with plenty of options such as beauty mode, while at the front, you get an 8MP camera sensor ideal for selfies. Other notable features include Hi-Fi speakers, HotKnot transfer tech, Quick Charge support and even smart gestures.
Now lets come to our main topic of the article, the cheapest price for Blackview Omega. Even though the device was launched just two days back, all major manufacturers have already listed it up for sale.
Some are offering the device for its retail price i.e. $199, while some charge a little premium as much as $20. But the cheapest price that we found was at Comebuy.com.
Instead of the regular $199, you can purchase the Blackview Omega for just $182.99 from this retailer for a limited period.
Comebuy is a well known retailer and is even the official store for buying the ZTE Blade S6. So, its good to see that the retailer is offering such a discount for buyers.
We don’t know how long will this discount last, so make sure you check out and purchase the device as soon as possible.
As the Chinese smartphone market becomes more and more hectic, the smartphone manufacturers as well as mobile carriers have a lot of headache to keep on getting decent profits. One of the ways to do that seems nothing more than lowering the price to the amazingly low price tags and the 399 Yuan phone seems to be a way to go for some of the companies.
The actual device we are talking about is the Fiji Dragons C520 low-end smartphone with the 4G support, which is the product made in cooperation with China Unicom to provide the users with the “national phone”.
As far as the specs go, we are looking at the low-end model. Still, for the amazingly low price tag, the specs are really decent! Fiji Dragons C520 uses a 4.5 inches 960 x 540 resolution screen. It is equipped with the 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor (yes, Snapdragon chip for this price!). Also, it has a built-in 512MB RAM and 4GB of ROM, but has Micro SD memory card slot. Moreover, it has the camera combo of 3mp/2mp. Also, it supports China Unicom 4G / 3G and GSM networks, supports dual SIM dual standby modes. The device runs Alibaba’s Aliyun OS 2.9.2 system.
We have to say that this is not the best specced device out there, but for the price point it is being offered, it is a pretty good deal. We are not really sure if this device hit the international waters as it has been made in cooperation with Chinese mobile carrier specifically for the Chinese market. Still, we have to wait and see since the device supports the same frequencies that work internationally.
Xiaomi just announced the new edition of their very popular, premium, but affordable Piston series earphones. The previous two generations of earphones very popular and sold over 10 million units in China itself and the countless number internationally via third party resellers. Despite the fact that Xiaomi has been working constantly on improving the sound quality and the overall design of their earphones, the price of it remains unchanged at the very low of just 99 Yuan.
The Piston “One More Design” earphones are said to fulfil the main needs of this category of accessory: design, sound quality and comfort. What is more, the new earphones continues the minimalistic design approach, but also has some innovative details like the use of the “sandwich” metal composite diaphragm, which is said to bring a more detailed treble sound.
In addition to this, the earphones spot a quality metal design, which gives that premium look and feel as well as durability.
As far as the wire of the earphones, it uses the same materials as the second generation unit as it spots the kevlar fiber material, which has anti pull and tangle-free features.
It is worth mentioning that the new Xiaomi Piston headset also uses a third-generation balance damping system, which is said to improve the overall clarity and quality of sound.
The third-generation Xiaomi Piston headset support the voice Mic and it is fully compatible Android, iPhone, iPod and other iOS devices. Let’s unbox it and see what we’ve got.
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The box itself is pretty simple, but elegant. It has some main specs written in Chinese.
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As it has become usual, the earphones come in a premium little box, where they are neatly stored along with the 3 different sizes of earbuds (XS, S and L).
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The Xiaomi One More Design earphones continue to impress with its built quality as it mostly spots metal or high quality plastic materials. What is more, the controller has the volume up/down buttons as well as the functional key. All of this is again packed in the metal clad shell.
Overall, we are quite happy about what we are seeing. Again, Xioami seems to have delivered as far as one of the best deals on the earphones market.
We will provide you some more info as soon as we fully test it and then give our opinion on the sound quality, so stay tuned.
Huawei recently announced its advanced Kirin 930 processor for 2015. This SoC uses a 16nm process which makes it much better than the 20nm process and 28nm process based chips in the market right now.
Although earlier it was rumored that the Huawei Kirin 930 chipset uses four Cortex A53 and four Cortex A57 cores, it was revealed recently that all the eight cores were ARM’s low power consuming Cortex A53. We were really surprised to hear that given that this would have made the SoC less powerful than other Cortex A57 based processors.
Finally, today, Huawei revealed why it decided to use eight Cortex A53 cores inside its flagship chipset.
According to the company, its new Kirin 930 processor is based on an enhanced version of the Cortex A53 cores. So, out of the eight cores in the SoC, four will be this Cortex A53e version which improves its performance to a great extent.
Traditional Cortex A53 cores run at 1.2GHz which is very low as compared to competitors. For example, the MT6752 octa-core SoC is clocked at 1.7GHz. So, in order to reach the same performance as these rival chipsets, the company had to increase the frequency to no less than 2.0 GHz.
It could have used the Cortex A57 processor which is almost 56% faster than A53. However, the company claims that A57 uses 256% more power than the A53, which would adversely affect the battery life. Moreover, Cortex A57 tends to heat faster, thereby increasing the temperature of the smartphone.
So, in order to avoid these problems, the company used the enahnced Cortex A53e cores on the chip. Of course, we still don’t think the performance will be at par with rival processors based on A57, however, for that you get efficiency and therefore additional battery life.
We have not yet seen the Mediapad X2 in action running this SoC, but according to leaked AnTuTu results, the processor manages to score above 44000 points on AnTuTu which is very impressive.
So, before we make our conclusions about the A53e powered Kirin 930, lets wait for an official review.
What do you think about the Kirin 930? Do you think the company was right in using Cortex A53 instead of A57 to make it more efficient and battery friendly?
Xiaomi is on a roll this year, with plenty of announcements already made in the first quarter of 2015 alone. Last year, the company had entered a brand new industry by announcing its new Air Purifier. Today, we have some new reports which claim that the company may expand into a new purifying business, this time by launching a Xiaomi Water Purifier.
Even before the release of the Xiaomi Air Purifier, the company had an account on Weibo with the name “Xiaomi Purifiers”. However, later the account disappeared. Now, a Chinese media website reports that the account may soon be enabled.
The same source also reports that the company will release the new Xiaomi Water Purifier as soon as this April for a price tag of 499 Yuan. It is also said that it will be a RO based purifier.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any other details of the device. But since Xiaomi revealed recently that it is interested in smart home products, it may have some unique features such as Wi-Fi, water quality indicator etc.
Xiaomi is yet to reveal any plans for such a product, so its best to wait for an official word from the company.
Yesterday, ZTE announced two new devices in its premium Nubia lineup, namely the ZTE Nubia Z9 Max phablet and the ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini. The Max features top of the line specs, which includes the fast Snapdragon 810 processor. Naturally, with high end specs, we expected a big score on AnTuTu and finally, we can officially confirm that we were not disappointed at all.
According to the image given above, the ZTE Nubia Z9 Max scores an amazing 56,892 points. This makes it one of the best smartphones in the market right now. We can also see the compact, ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini besides the Max, however, its score on AnTuTu is just average. Even with the octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor, the device managed to score only 28,501 points. This is pretty disappointing given that the 64-bit MT6752 is capable of getting up to 40,000 points!
The ZTE Z9 Max comes with a full HD 5.5-inch display with 3GB RAM and 16GB of expandable ROM. It supports 4G LTE network and runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with Nubia 5.8 UI on top. As for the Z9 Mini, it comes with a smaller 5-inch display with full HD resolution, 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM, expandable via MicroSD.
Both the phones feature Dual SIM Dual standby and 4G LTE. You also have the same 16MP + 8MP cameras on these devices along with a 2900 mAh battery.
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