The competition in the low-end market is fierce. There are plenty of alternatives, all offering similar specs with a similar price tag. In the fight for low end market share, companies have to often operate on very low margins which affects their profitability. So, it won’t be surprising if some companies move away from this extremely competitive segment.
It looks like Huawei is going to focus on the high-end market this year as the company vice president Shao Yang recently said that Huawei aims to sell 100 million smartphones in 2015, up from 75 million shipped last year. He also added in a conference call that that the company’s high end lineup such as the Honor 6 and the Huawei P7 smartphone sales increased from 18% to 30% last year.
As a result, the company is not going to release low end smartphones in the market from now on. This is also to avoid the fierce competition in the market led by manufacturers like Xiaomi and Meizu. So, instead of competing in the low end segment, Huawei plans to release more $300+ smartphones in the market.
The company CEO Yu Chengdong said that not many smartphone manufacturers are doing well in the market except for ones like Samsung and Apple. Also, an IDC analysts recently said that Huawei has managed to make a mark in the mid-range segment thanks to value for money phones like the Honor 6 Plus. So, it makes sense why the company is going for the high end segment.
CEO Yu Chengdong also said that the company plans to grow organically rather than through acquisitions in the short term. But he did not entirely rule out a possibility of acquiring a competitor in the long run.
So, what do you think? Is it smart for Huawei to focus on the high end market?
A few days back we saw the ZTE Blade S6 which comes an iPhone like design at an affordable price tag. Today, new reports indicate that the Chinese giant is all set to announce the domestic version of this device rebranded as the ZTE Q7 on February 5 2015.
According to officials there will be some changes in this new phone. First of all, the camera will be much better than the ZTE Blade S6. The said phone will come with a 13MP Sony camera which can take pictures up to 36MP in size. There will be a lot of camera specific features too. Secondly, the ZTE Q7 will unfortunately come with an older version of Android, i.e. Android 4.4 KitKat instead of the Android 5.0 Lollipop that comes with the international edition ZTE Blade S6. Other features are expected to be more or less the same on both the devices.
This is not the first time we are hearing about ZTE Q7. About two months back, the same device had passed TENAA which revealed most of the specs of the device. The ZTE Q7 is expected to come with the same Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor as the S6 along with 2GB and 16GB internal storage. The earlier leak said that the phone will support all major connectivity options like TD-LTE, LTE-FDD, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, and GSM.
The pricing of the international ZTE Blade S6 was $250, however we are not quite sure whether the domestic pricing will be around the same figure. Anyways, we are just three days away from the official unveiling, so lets wait for more details.
Huawei’s upcoming Huawei P8 flagship was recently leaked with most of its specs on weibo. The source said that the company would incorporate the latest Kirin 930 processor based on a 16nm process, which will be the first such SoC in the market.
Just a day after this leak, we have spotted a new Huawei device on Geekbench browser benchmark which reveals quite capable hardware. The device has a model number ML100-UL00 and could be the Huawei P8.
The benchmark reveals an octa-core 1.5Ghz processor based on the 64-bit architecture. The phone comes with 3GB of RAM onboard and runs on the latest Android 5.0.2 Lollipop operating system.
We still don’t know whether this is the new Kirin 930 processor. The benchmark scores of this new device is much higher than the existing Kirin 620, so it can’t be from this range. On the other hand, the performance is quite close to Kirin 925 that’s currently powering the Huawei Ascend Mate 7. The single core score of the 925 (899 points) is slightly better than the SoC used in this device (875), however the multi-core score on this device (3541 points) is much better than Mate 7.
Huawei P8 is said to come with a dual glass body (front+back) with a zirconia ceramic unibody design. It will be around 6mm thin and will feature a 2600 mAh battery.
We still don’t know whether this is the new Kirin 930 based on the 16mm process, but we expect more details soon as rumors say Huawei will announce the flagship on 15 April in London this year.
Xiaomi has been investing and developing a lot of new products recently. We have seen the Xiaomi Air purifier, TV box and even a game controller in the past few weeks alone. Now, a new report has cropped up online which says that the company is all set to enter into a new venture, Xiaomi DRONES.
Yes, the latest rumors indicate that the company is investing an undisclosed amount in a new UAV team which will be called as Flymi. This is not a subsidiary of the company, but the company will receive profits for the first product that Flymi will launch in the market. However, after that it is said that Xiaomi will only get the stock in the drone company.
The very first prototype released by the new Flymi team was said to be too similar to DJI’s Phantom drone. As a result, they could not release it in the market. Now the company is said to be developing a brand new drone in the market. It is still not known when this drone will be available for sale, but we hope its before the end of this year.
Xiaomi has not yet officially announced anything about this investment, so we can’t confirm it right now. But if this is indeed true, it won’t be long before the company reveals some details.
So what do you think about this investment? Do you feel Xiaomi drones is a good idea?
Huawei is no stranger to metal smartphones as we have already seen the beautiful Huawei Ascend P7 as well as the large screen phablet, Huawei Ascend Mate 7.
However, both of them are flagship devices and not many want or are willing spend more than $400 on a smartphone. So, last year we saw Huawei announce a device called as the Huawei C199 metal smartphone aimed at the Chinese market. While the name isn’t pretty, the device boasted of a metal back as well as decent specifications for around $320.
Now, the company has announced the upgraded version of this smartphone in China, called as the Huawei C199S. The device retains the metal back design from its predecessor but upgrades on some of the features to make it a slightly more attractive offering.
Huawei C199S comes with the same 7.6mm thin profile with a metal back along with a 5.5-inch 720p display. However, the differentiating feature of this device is the new color option. We have seen that gold is often preferred by customers these days and seeing this demand, Huawei C199S comes in a gold color option as well.
The tech specs are more or less the same, except for the processor which got a much needed upgrade. The previous C199 model came with a Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz, however this new model features a more powerful 1.5Ghz 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 615 (MSM8928) SoC. This should definitely improve the overall performance of the device.
Like mentioned above the others specs remain the same. So, you get a 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM onboard, along with a 3000 mAh capacity battery. There is a 13MP camera at the back while a 5MP shooter lies on the front. The device runs on Android 4.4 KitKat OS along with the company’s own Emotion EMUI 3.0 skin on top. As for connectivity, the phone supports 4G/ 3G / 2G networks along with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Unfortunately, with the slight increase in the specs, the company has also increased the price tag of the device. The earlier model, i.e. the Huawei C1999 was available for $325 in the market, however the new model’s price will go as much as 2299 yuan which comes to around $367 in USD.
At this price, you have some Chinese flagship options which offer much better specs, so it would be interesting to see how this phone performs in the domestic market.
For the past few months, we have been regularly hearing about a large screen tablet from Apple. The device was expected to debut last year itself alongside the iPad Air 2 but it is said that due to production issues, the company had to delay its launch.
Today, we are once again seeing a new leak about the said device and contrary to the recent rumors which named the tablet as the Apple iPad Pro, this particular image of the large screen Apple tablet is named as the iPad Plus. So, could Apple be using the same naming scheme for its large screen tablet as the iPhone 6 Plus? Well, we don’t know that for sure, but it won’t be surprising if it comes to be true.
The same Weibo source also reveals that the upcoming tablet will feature a 12.9-inch 2K display. It will be extremely thin and light too. It is said that the iPad Plus will feature a 7mm thin profile, which is quite thin for a tablet of this size and will weigh less than 700 grams. As for battery, the company will reportedly increase the capacity to 11000mAh which will be almost 150% increase as compared to the current iPad Air 2. It is also said that the device can use third party protective keyboard cases.
The source further revealed that the company will most likely scrap the existing iPad Mini 3 in favor of iPad Mini 4 and will continue selling the old iPad Mini 2 version. Also, Apple plans to bring three different iPhone screen sizes in the market, which hints at a possible 4-inch iPhone’s entry into the market.
Remember that the news is not official and hence, we can’t really confirm anything at the moment. So, make sure that you take this leak with a pinch of salt.
Check back on us in the coming weeks for more updates.
According to the latest reports, the recently announced Meizu Blue Charm will ship with a smaller battery of 2500 mAh. During the announcement, the company had said that the phone will come with a 2610 mAh battery pack.
The company said that due to quality control measures, it had to change the battery supplier in its latest smartphone. Meizu decided to go with a new supplier to increase the battery size on its Blue Charm smartphone, however the battery supplier failed to provide quality control measures in the long run, after which the company decided to go with a smaller battery. So, the Meizu M1 battery will be reduced to 2500mAh in all the units that will be shipped. The company has even changed the specifications on its official website to notify the change.
The overall specifications of the phone makes Meizu’s smartphone one of the best value for money budget phones in the market. The company made sure that its nearest competitor in the price segment, the Xiaomi Redmi 2 is inferior to its phone in almost every aspect. Meizu’s Blue Charm specs are better and even the overall design of the phone is better than the Redmi 2. Even with this change, the Blue Charm will still have a bigger battery than the Xiaomi’s 2200 mAh.
The overall specifications of the phone are pretty high end for its price class. The 699 Yuan Meizu M1 comes with a 64-bit quad-core MT6732 processor along with 1GB RAM and 8GB of expandable memory. There is a 5-inch display up front which sports a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels. There will be a 13MP rear camera and with this change, a 2500 mAh battery. The phone will support high speed 4G LTE networks and will come in a number of color options.
With this slight change in the battery capacity, users might be worried that the battery life of the phone could be affected. However, Meizu has assured that after OS optimizations, the Meizu Blue Charm will offer the same kind of battery life as it did with the 2610 mAh battery.
Anyways, we still haven’t got the device for testing, so once this revised model hits the stores, we’ll have a better idea how long this 2500 mAh Meizu M1 battery will power the device.
The Weibo account @Ubuntu团队 used to leak the latest information of Meizu, and they just posted a image to show Huawei P8’s specs,price and launch date.
It says Huawei P8 will have zirconium oxide porcelain uni-body design with double sided glass probably with gorilla glass 3 protection. Moreover, it will be quite thin too, much thinner than the iPhone 6 models at just 6mm. The company will incorporate the same dual camera setup that’s currently found on the Huawei Honor 6 Plus along with an additional biometric fingerprint sensor.
However, even this amazing design is not going to be highlight of the Huawei P8 flagship as the leak says that the company will put in a powerful Kirin 930 processor which will use the 16nm process. If this does turns out to be true, Kirin 930 will become the first SoC in the market to use this process. The latest Snapdragon 810 or even Apple’s A8 processors all use the 20nm process.
The battery is said to be 2600 which frankly will be quite small considering today’s high end standards. The same source reveals that the device will be unveiled at a special event in London on 15 April this year for a price tag of 2999 Yuan which comes to around $480. This would be a great price if the upcoming Huawei P8 flagship does feature the above specs.
We are sure, there will more such leaks in the coming few weeks, so stay tuned to the website for latest updates.
Doogee’s compact smartphone, the Doogee F1 Turbo Mini is finally available for purchase. The device features a compact and slim form factor with decent specifications, which makes it an ideal smartphone as your daily driver.
The phone comes with 64-bit Mediatek MT6732 quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz with 1GB ROM and 8GB internal memory which can be further expanded up to 64GB. At the front, there is a qHD 960 x 540 pixel resolution 4.5-inch display. For camera, you have a 8MP rear shooter and a 5MP front shooter.
Despite its budget placement, the device is quite slim and well designed. At 112 grams, its quite light too.
However, the highlight of the device is the 4G LTE support over a wide range of frequencies at a very cheap price. Doogee F1 turbo mini will support FDD-LTE Band 1/3/7/20（B1:2100，B3:1800，B7:2600，B20:800MHz）
WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz & GSM850/900/1800/1900MHz, which means almost every country is supported. This allows for a maximum download speed of 150Mbps and uplink of 50MBPS.
Like all Doogee devices, the phone comes with a number of smart software features such as Smart gestures, Wake Gesture, 3 finger fast screenshot, APP blocking, Guest account, Ultra effective power saving mode, Hotknot and PIP mode.
All these features are available for an impressive price tag of $116. This turns out to be a great deal considering 64-bit MT6732 and 4G LTE network support.
If you are looking for a decent performing mid-range tablet, take a look at the new Telecase X98 Air. It comes with a lot of features such as a powerful processor, large screen and the choice of dual OS. Yes, the X98 Air allows you to choose between Android 4.4 KitKat OS and a genuine edition of Windows 8.1 at the same time. Just choose what you would like when you boot the device at the start.
While the dual OS function is probably the highlight of the device, the tablet’s large screen display and powerful Intel processor makes things even more attractive. The Telecase X98 Air tablet comes with the Intel Baytrail -T Z3736F quad-core processor clocked at 2.16GHz along with 2GB RAM onboard. This is more than enough for running any game or apps on the device either for work or for your entertainment. Further, it comes with a 32GB eMMC memory which can be further expanded via SD card slot.
The tablet is quite large and sports a 9.7 inch 2048*1536 Retina IPS capacitive touch screen. This large screen will always come in handy while editing documents or watching movies. Further, an 8500 mAh battery makes sure that the tablet runs for up to 10 hours on a single charge.
You can make and receive 2G/ 3G calls on the device. Other connectivity features include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HDMI, and 2G:GSM850/900/1800/1900MHz; 3G:WCDMA2100MHz.
Overall, the new Telecast X98 Air comes out as a great tablet for its $219.99 price tag. The device is currently in stock at Geekbuying and ships in 2-7 days.
Earlier, Lei Jun had said that Xiaomi will release a few more back covers for its flagship device, the Xiaomi Mi4. Finally, the day has arrived and we get to take a look at the five different Xiaomi Mi4 wood back covers in pictures.
This is not the first time, we are seeing such a design, but nevertheless, all the five covers looks awesome. There are actually six such covers that will be available in the market, out of which five of them are shown in the pictures below.
All the five Xiaomi Mi4 wood back covers are pretty smooth and come with a solid shade that replicated the design of different types of wood. Also, they are coated with a protective layer to make it last longer. The five wood finish covers shown in the pictures are as follows: black apricot wood, bamboo Bangkok, walnut, white oak and rosewood.
As you can see, all the five look pretty good and we are sure at 69 Yuan i.e. at $11, fans will be more than happy to swap the standard covers with these beautiful ones!
Earlier this month, we saw Huawei’s device roadmap for 2015. However, in the list, there were no Windows smartphones. Finally today, Huawei’s Chief Marketing Officer, Shao Yang confirmed that Huawei has no plans for a Windows 10 device.
So, users who would have liked to see a Huawei Windows 10 device will definitely be disappointed with this news.The main reason for not developing a Windows Phone device is the lack of customization options.
According to Shao Yang, Microsoft’s OS doesn’t allow a lot of changes to its UI which makes it hard to differentiate between any two phones running the platform. They all look similar and there’s no way to make Huawei’s Windows phone devices unique. As a result, the company decided not to release a Windows 10 smartphone this year.
However, he did say that the company may look into developing a Windows tablet. Surface has been quite popular in US and a device like that from Huawei too could give a chance for the company to make a mark in the tablet industry. But he added that if the company does release a W10 device, it would most probably run dual OS, running W10 and Android platform together.
Yang didn’t give a time frame of such a possibility, but if Huawei develops such a device, expect a launch only by the year end or maybe even next year.
Just recently the Chinese Network Communications agency TENNA has updated the information on the specs of the new Xiaomi Redmi Note, so it is now clear how the device will stand in the crowd of other Androids in the market.
From the published data we can see the majority of the specs of the upcoming device by Xiaomi. This time around the device will come in a variety of colours, which will include black, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. That is a lot of colours. Well, we think it may be another device “For the Colorful”.
If we continue with the actual specs, the device is equipped with a 1.2GHz quad-core processor (it should be Snapdragon 410). It will also boast a 5.5 inches 720p display, will have a 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage (it is not clear yet if it will be expandable via Micro SD card slot). What is more, camera parameters have not yet been specified, but it should be around 5mp/13mp camera combo on both sides. In addition, the device will be running a MIUI 6 based on the Android 4.4.4.
Moreover, there will be two different versions of the Xiaomi Redmi Note one having 1GB of Ram and priced at 799 yuan. Another version should spot all the same specs, but have 2GB of Ram and the price may be 899 or 999 Yuan.
Last but not least, the device will have 2 SIM card slot, which will work in dual stand-by mode and have the 4G connectivity.
We recently wrote about the No.1 X2 rugged smartphone which brought in a lot of features on to a rugged device for the first time. Now, the phone is available to pre-order for $199.
The No.1 X2 is the successor to the No.1 X1 rugged smartphone. It solves some of the key drawbacks of the earlier model and brings in features such as a large screen and 4G LTE connecitivity without losing its hardcore protective features.
The device comes with a large scratch resistant 5.5-inch display with 1280 x 720p resolution. This is actually impressive for a phone that’s marketed as rugged. The display size and resolution are in line with other smartphones found in the market.
Further, No.1 has upgraded the processor from a Mediatek MT6582 to a Snapdragon 410 SoC. This along with 1GB RAM makes sure that the phone runs smoothly without any issues. Further, the phone supports 4G LTE networks (GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz FDD-LTE 800/1800/2100/2600MHz ) which is a rare feature in rugged smartphones.
For software, it comes with Android 4.4 KitKat OS. Finally, you have a very large 4500 mAh battery inside, which will make sure that the device runs for more than a day easily on a single charge.
No.1 has made the phone super durable as a result, the device looks pretty solid and it will be very hard to damage it. In fact, the company claims that the device is waterproof (IP68 certified), dust proof, freeze proof, shock proof, pressure proof and even scratch proof making sure that you can carry it around wherever you like irrespective of the environment or the surrounding.
To be honest, $199 is be a bit on the costlier side, however, the device does offer protection from any known damage. This makes it a very unique offering in the market and we are sure there may be some buyers who will be interested in purchasing the device.
Meditatek is the second largest smartphone chip maker in the world and over the past few years, the chip maker has managed to build a strong reputation in the budget and the mid-range market.
Last year, we heard that the company will announce a new octa-core chipset in the market, the successor to the MT6752 64-bit chip. Today, Mediatek has officially unveiled the processor.
The MT6753 processor is a 64-bit chip with eight cores based on ARM’s Cortex A53 architecture and clocked at 1.5GHz, which is slightly lower than the MT6752’s 1.5GHz. As a result, the SoC will be powerful enough to take on anything that’s thrown at it. MT6753 will also support Open GL ES 3.0 and Open CL 1.2 APIs of Mali-T720 graphics processor which will give excellent gaming and graphics performance.
The chip will support full HD 1920 x 1080p display at 60fps and will be able to support H.264 1080p video playback at 30fps and the latest H.265 1080p playback at 30fps with low power consumption. Further, for camera it can support up to 16MP sensor, with features such as Picture in Picture (PIP).
While these features are pretty impressive, the highlight of the Mediatek MT6753 processor is its full network connectivity support, making it a true global chipset. The processor will support TD-LTE, FDD-LTE cat. 4 networks with up to 150Mbps down and uplink. It will also support DC HSPA+, TD-SCDMA and Edge networks along with CDMA2000 1x / EVDO Rev. A radio frequencies. The company claims that its extended radio support will make it easier to access data in roaming. Other important supported functions include Miracast, Dual Band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy standard.
Mediatek has said that smartphones equipped with the new MT6753 chipset will release by the end of Q2 2015.
Meizu MX4 Pro is without doubt one of the best smartphones in the market. But as compared to other flagship devices, like the Xiaomi Mi4 or the OnePlus One, the MX4 Pro comes out very costly.
However, we recently spotted a deal on Gearbest which will get you almost $180 OFF the regular $570 price of the device.
We tried out their coupon on GearBest and it works just fine. So, if you were planning to buy a new flagship device, make sure you check out this deal.
As we were just writing in one of our previous reviews, the companies both around the world and China take a lot of inspiration from the Cupertino, California based company. Some of them take that just an inspiration and “borrow” this and that, but other companies, however, think that copying the whole thing is a way to go for their business strategy. We are talking about one of the iPhone 6 clones here – Dakele 3 (or Big Cola 3). We’ve heard that it is quite good, but is it true? Is another clone from the far east worth your attention? Let’s find out in our review of the Dakele 3.
Specs
Display
5″ Full HD (441ppi), covered by a layer of sapphire glass
As we can see from the specs sheet, the device is really hi-end offering. The powerful chip, 3 GB of Ram, a powerful combination of cameras, sapphire screen layer and full aluminium/titanium casing makes it really interesting device, which is definitely worth the attention.
The package contents include the phone itself, SIM removal tool, charger with the Micro USB cable and some instruction manuals. Headphones, however, are not included. Well, we are not too sad about it since usually the stock headphones included in the box do not have the best sound quality anyway.
The charger does not seem like the copy of Apple’s charger. For us, it reminds a bit more of the HTC charger design. Anyway, who cares about charger’s design.
100-240V power adapter supports a wide voltage and has an output of 5V1.5A, which is a bit lower at the nowadays standard of 5V 2A, but still faster than the iPhone 6’s 5V 1A charging speed.
Here is the device itself. Does it look familiar?
Since the Dakele Big Cola 3 has a bigger screen of 5 inch, it makes the device bigger than the iPhone 6.
The device (bottom device) spots the same home button design. However, it only takes you home as there is no fingerprint scanner inside.
What is more, there are two more capacitive buttons next to the home button. They light up as soon as you use them.
After flipping the device upside down we can see the difference in colours. The Dakele 3 spots a bit darker colour design. It may have something to do with a different shell technology. The iPhone uses aluminium alloy whereas the Dakele 3 uses aluminium/magnesium alloy.
The camera along with the LED flash light seems to be placed at the same spot. Also, there is a Dakele logo on the back. What is more, there are two stripes at the top and bottom, which should help receiving a signal. They are thinner than the ones on the iPhone 6 and look better in our opinion. Moreover, the Dakele spots a back speaker in contrary to the iPhone, which has its speaker setup on the bottom of the device.
Since the Dakele 3 is a bit thicker, it does not have a protruding camera.
Here we can see two slots for either dual SIM or SIM/Micro SD (up to 128 GB) combo.
On another side of the device we can see a very similar placement of volume rockers. They have a good tactile response, but in general a bit of the lower quality than the iPhone. What is more, the Dakele 3 lacks volume with button as the iPhone has. Anyway, we do not really see the point of having it as we consider it being a heritage button of Apple devices.
On the bottom you can see a Micro USB charging port, mic and 3.5 mm headphone jack. The difference with the iPhone seems obvious when it comes to a speaker as the iPhone has it on the bottom of the device and Dakele 3 has it on the back.
There is nothing on the top side of each of the devices.
Overall, the device is really very similar to the iPhone 6 with a few minor differences.
User Interface
The Dakele 3 comes with a Coke Kele UI 15.01, which is still in beta stage, but it is functioning without issues.
The UI looks to be a bit of a mashup of the iOS and the MIUI as the icons and the whole design language has a lot of inspiration from later user interfaces.
Once we said that the UI is still in Beta, you can see that some of apps look very basic. Indeed, they are subject to upgrades in the future.
You can check the rest of the UI pictures in the gallery below.
Overall, the UI is pretty good looking and very smooth. We did not see any hiccups or lags doing daily tasks, which we really liked.
Performance
The Dakele 3 spots a Octa-core MediaTek MT6752 processor, which is clocked at 1.7 GHz (64-bit) along with the 3 GB of Ram. Also, the Mali-T760 GPU helps handling the graphics.
Here is the full list of specs of the Dakele 3.
We ran through some benchmarking tests to see how it performs. We can see that the device performs quite good and it is on par with the last year’s flagships. Considering the low price tag, it is a good achievement.
Besides benchmarks, we did not have any issues with the daily use, which included scrolling through menu, playing games, surfing the web, watching videos and youtube and taking pictures or recording videos.
Camera
Dakele 3 uses 13mp Sony IMX214 camera sensor with a F / 2.0 aperture, 1.4um single pixel. Also, it supports 60FPS 1080P video recording. Let’s take a look at he camera UI first.
As you can see, the camera UI is pretty basic and similar to the one found on the iPhone 6. There are camera / video recording buttons, picture preview, camera switch, flash on/off, camera filters and some other basic functionality.
Actually, we are more interested in the image quality. How do you think it performed? Let’s see in the pictures below.
The daylight shots turned out to be pretty good. The 13 mp shooter provides plenty of detail, the colour reproduction is natural. Also, the sharpness and the white balance levels are very decent.
The night shots are also pretty good. They may not be as good as the iPhone 6, but still amazing for the 1499 Yuan spruce tag. The pictures have much more noise in comparison to the daylight shots, but we have seen much worse performance even from some flagship devices.
Overall, the camera on the Dakele 3 seems to be a great all-around performer. With the future software updates we can expect to have one of the better shooters around since the IMX214 and f / 2.0 aperture looks like flagship camera specs on paper.
Battery Life
The device has a 2500mAh battery inside. It is not really juicy according to today’s standards, but we should say that it performed really well. Thus, we could easily each the end of the day without the need to look for a electricity socket or power bank. Our test included some surfing the web, gaming, taking quite a lot of pictures, texting and calling.
Final Words
Well, you may think that the Dakele 3 is just another Chinese clone of the iPhone 6. Well, you may be right in some certain aspects. First, it was design to depict the beloved shape, look and feel of the Apple’s flagship. Second, it really looks and feels very similar, if not the same with the iPhone 6. On the other hand, there are some differences, which we really enjoyed. It begins with the a bigger 5 inch screen, which is covered by the sapphire glass. Honestly, we did not try to scratch it with knives or keys on purpose, but we didn’t save the device either. The screen is still not scratched and we can assure you that you would not need to bother about any crappy screen protectors, which usually distort the view of the screen or make it reflective. What is more, we loved the metal built of the Dakele 3. Also, the stripes on the back are much narrow than the iPhone 6, which makes it look elegant and sleek. Moreover, the dual SIM or SIM/Micro SD card combo is definitely an advantage of this device. Also, we loved the battery and the performance of the 13mp camera. Finally, the price tag is probably what attracts us most. With the cost of just 1499 Yuan in China, the Dakele 3 smartphone may be even better choice than the iPhone 6.
So there you have it, two similar, yet different devices. One is priced very high, another much lower. What would you choose? Let us know in the social poll or the comment section below.
OnePlus One is known for its high end specs at a very low price point. However, there are a lot of other features of the phone that’s attractive. For example, the cyanogen mod OS that it comes with is one of the most popular custom ROMs in the market. Also, the Sandstone Black rear panel is one of its kind and offers a premium look to this affordable phone. Even this is swappable with a number of options like a Bamboo finish, wood finish and so on.
However, it looks like the company may have another back cover in the making for the OnePlus One. The official weibo page of the company today released a teaser image showing off a periodic table with the words, Never Settle written on top. The company has asked its fans to check back tomorrow at exact 10 a.m to know what this teaser means.
Ofcourse, fans and readers won’t wait that long without making speculations. And the most logical conclusion is a new back cover from the company. Yes, it may announce a new OnePlus One metal back cover for its flagship device tomorrow. It could be a premium cover made from some of the materials in the periodic table which could be why the company featured it in the teaser.
However, we are not quite sure about anything at the moment, so lets wait and watch what OnePlus has in store for us tomorrow.
So, what do you think this teaser means? A new OnePlus One metal back cover or is it something else? Feel free to tell us what you think in the comments section below.
We have been hearing rumors about about the ZTE Blade S6 for some time now and the company has finally made the phone official revealing the ZTE Blade S6 specs and price.
The company is not just targeting its home market with this device, in fact, its plans to go global, reaching out to international markets through the reseller Aliexpress.
The ZTE Blade S6 is the perfect blend of high end specs and affordable price tag. The phone sports a 5-inch 1280 x 720p display with InCell technology which ideal for this kind of size. Inside, it features a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor (MSM8939) with 2GB DDR3 RAM and 16GB eMMC memory.
To keep the price low, ZTE went with a plastic body with the measurements, 144 x 70.7 x 7.7mm. So, its not as thick as some other devices in the market. However, the device feel like its well built and its smooth finish gives it a iPhone 6 like look. Further, you have two color options namely silver and matte pink.
At the back, there is a Sony IMX214 13MP camera and up front, there is a 5MP shooter. Other special features include Hi-Fi sound, dual SIM card slots (both nano SIMS), expandable storage, and 4G LTE connectivity (supported bands are given below). Finally, there is a 2400 mAh battery at the back.
For software, the device comes with the latest Android 5.0 operating system which should run smoothly with the 64-bit processor. ZTE has its own MiFavor UI on top of this OS, which brings additional features such as Smart Sense, making things easier for the user.
Overall, the Blade S6 turns out to be a great offering for $240. It will be available for sale via comebuy’s store on Aliexpress and will ship from warehouses located in Germany and China.
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We would not say anything new that a lot of manufacturers get some inspiration from the Western counterparts in the mobile industry. One of them is probably the most popular – the iPhone. Some companies take just an inspiration, which include a bit of design elements, some make similar software implementations etc. Others, however, think that taking the whole package of the design is okay. It seems to be the case this time as the company Blackview has decided to make a device, which is extremely similar to the iPhone 6 at least as far as design goes. Did it make it good? Let’s find out in our review of the Blackview Ultra A6.
Specs
Display
4.7″ 1280×720 TFT LCD
Processor
MTK6582 Quad Core, 1.3GHz
RAM
1GB
Camera
2MP Front/8MP Back (Interpolation 5MP Front / 13MP Back)
As you may see from the specs sheet, the device cannot keep up toe to toe with todays flagship devices. Still, for a much lower price point than its counterparts (only $110), it has a great package to offer.
Besides these sheer specs, the device is made out of plastic (not like iPhone 6 is made out of aluminium), has a rear-touch panel, and pure Android experience without any heavy skins sometimes seen on other manufacturers’ devices.
Design
Since the Blackview Ultra A6 is an iPhone 6 clone, just a smaller version of it, we took some pictures to show clear similarities (Blackview Ultra A6 is on the left (smaller device) and the iPhone 6 is on the right (bigger device). As you can see, they look almost identical since the design with rounded edges is the same, as well as the speaker and the home button.
The back of the device is again very similar to the one of the iPhone 6. However, the Blackview Ultra A6 is made out of plastic, not aluminium. Still, the Blackview device feels very solid and well made.
On the right side of the device you can find a comfortably placed power on/off switch.
On the left side there are volume up and down rockers. Same as the power button, they have a great response and feedback.
The back cover is removable. The device spots dual SIM card slots as well as the Micro SD slot for storage expansion (up to 32GB).
The battery, which has the capacity of 2200 mAh, is removable, which is always a good thing.
On the bottom, there is a charging port, mono speaker and 3.5mm headphone jack.
Display
The device has a 4.7″ 1280×720 TFT LCD display. Let’s see how it looks like in reality.
The colours are vivid. Also, the sharpness and contrast are very good. We were quite impressed by this panel since it was hard to distinguish, which one is better – the Blackview Ultra A6 or the iPhone 6. All in all, this device has a really good display and it is pleasant to look at it.
User Interface
The Android experience is pretty basic since it is almost a stock OS.
The device comes with a Google Play Store preinstalled, so you do not need to worry about flashing it manually.
What is more, the device supports the gesture controls. For example, if you draw a letter C, it will bring the dialler app. All these gesture controls work pretty good and we did not have any issues.
What is even more interesting is the fact that you can choose a iOS like skin in theme options, which definitely looks like the original iOS version. It is pretty good idea especially considering the fact that the Blackview Ultra A6 is a clone device.
Performance
As have been already introduced, the device does not have a top-notch specs as the leading smartphones in the industry. Still, the package here can handle many tasks including gaming.
We have tried playing the Asphalt 8, which is a graphic intensive game. We did not have any issues. The experience was without any lags or hiccups, which is really impressive. Also, the game looked great on the display of the device.
Besides gaming, we did not have any issues with the daily use, which included scrolling through menu, playing games, surfing the web, watching videos and youtube and taking pictures or recording videos.
Camera
The device has a 8mp shooter. However, due to some software tricks, it can produce images up to 13mp (interpolation method). We took some samples to show you how it performs.
Overall, we think that the picture quality is pretty good. Daylight shots have plenty of detail, exposure and white balance is okay. What is more, indoors shots are pretty good too. They have a bit more noise, but still, it is acceptable.
Battery Life
We did not run any particular tests to measure the battery life, but what we can say is that the device should last you a full day for an average user. It is not not the battery around, but still, pretty reasonable for the price you are paying.
Final Words
With the bunch of iPhone clones out there it may become difficult to choose the one you want. The Blackview Ultra A6 may be the one you are looking for since it has a very low price tag (under $110), has a solid built quality (even though the device is made out of plastic material, it still feels great in the hand). What is more, we liked a great display, which had nice colours and great sharpness. Moreover, the performance did not let us down since the device did not have any issues even with the graphic intensive gaming tasks. Finally, the battery life is quite good too as it will take you through the whole day of usage.
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