Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun answered questions from netizens in a Q&A session hosted by digi.ifeng.com. Many of the questions concerned the 4G edition of the Mi4. Leijun explained that the reason that the reason why the Mi4 that is out right now does not support 4G is not because they do not have the technology but that it is matter of releasing it at the right time. There have also been problems with the recently leaked black edition. Some say that there are problems with the paint peeling off. Lei Jun said that he was using the black edition and did not see any problems with the painting.
Xiaomi, which is still a pretty new company, has been made a lot of attempts on developing their products over the years. They even included NFC mode but due to very few users, it was scrapped. They have also implemented infrared mode which will hopefully receive a better response.
With the release of the Xiaomi Mi4, will Meizu’s next flagship phone follow?
Photos what appears to be the Meizu MX4’s display screen panel and its blueprint were recently leaked online. We can see some information about the MX4 in the blueprint. As the photo shows, the MX4’s front screen does not look that different from the MX3’s although the frame is a bit narrower. According to the blueprint, the MX4’s screen might be covered by an AF plate to help prevent fingerprints. Although the blueprint has a lot of measurements, because the photo does not cover the entire blueprint, we can only see that the phone’s frame is 2.2mm (each side is 1.1mm). No other measurements are shown.
Of course, whether or not this is actually the MX4’s blueprint remains to be seen. Even though it definitely has Meizu’s classic style, we cannot rule out the possibility that it is one of at least four new devices that Meizu plans to release this year.
Coolpad’s newest phone was recently revealed by Antutu. Its model number is Coolpad 9971. Based on the name, there is no doubt that it is part of the Daguan series.
The Coolpad 9971 does not have a display screen as big as the Daguan 4’s, measuring only 5.5 inches. However, it has greater resolution (2560 x 1440). It uses the Snapdragon 801 processor (2.5GHZ). It also has 3GB RAM and 5MP/13MP cameras. Its operating system is the Android 4.42. Overall, the screen and memory specs are excellent.
From the specs, everyone may think of the Daguan 5 which had its first snapshot leaked online a while ago. However, unlike the 9971, the Daguan 5 is supposed to use the NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor.
If both are the latest devices in the Daguan series, then there should be a gap between the dates they will be launched. We should find out when the 9971 is coming soon as the Daguan 5 is said to come out this September.
Huawei is currently working on their next device. We already know that the Huawei C199 and Huawei Honor H60 have already been listed in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s website, and it looks like the new Ascend Mate 3 will be launched this September.
A giant curtain was lifted over the smart phone market after the release of Samsung’s Galaxy Note series. Huawei has always wanted to compete with the Galaxy Note with their Mate series.
No official news on when the Galaxy Note 4 has been released but rumors say that it should come out in September. Huawei will also launch the Mate 3 in September hoping to crush the Note 4.
According to reports, the Huawei Mate 3 sports a 6-inch display screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and uses the HiSilicon Kirin 920 processor. Furthermore, three versions will be released at the same time, and should support the three big mobile operators in China.
It was recently announced that the next-gen phone of ZTE’s Red Bull series will use MTK’s newest processor, the MT6595 octa-core LTE SOC, replacing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips which were used in previous phones.
No other details were released so we can only guess that this phone is going to be the Red Bull 2 but they will probably change the name due to special reasons.
As of now, we cannot make any guesses about this phone but if it uses the MT6595, then it should probably have good performance. By using this chipset, ZTE hopes to sell this phone at the terminal market at around the 1K5-2K RMB market. The design of the next Red Bull phone should not hold back the power of the MTK6595. We will have to wait a while until they announce a release date.
On July 22, during the launch of the Xiaomi Mi4, Lei Jun announced the release of Xiaomi’s own armband, the Xiaomi MiBand. So, how is it？
Two kinds of armbands
Many companies take a different approach in releasing smart armbands. There are the 360 safety bands which needs access to the company’s official network just like a pocket-size telephone. It is the only device whose sole function is to point out the user’s location.
There is definitely a market for this. Even though the 360 is still undergoing beta testing, there are already hundreds of expensive copies in Taobao per week. This should definitely be useful for children and the elderly, especially those with dementia.
Another type of band is the accessory type, the kind that has to be connected to a cell phone by Blu Tooth. The MiBand is the second type.
How practical is the MiBand?
The MiBand is actually not that practical as it does not offer the functions that most users need and it’s the MiPhone’s apps that actually do the job. For example, the MiBand has a pacemaker feature which can only be accessed by downloading the pacemaker app on Xiaomi’s app store. Why not use the MiPhone as a pacemaker instead of spending money on an armband? The MiBand is really more an interesting digital toy than an actual tool.
However, regardless of how impractical it is, its sales are pretty good since it is more affordable than most armbands at 79 RMB (11.32 USD).
The potential of wearable electronic devices
As of now, most wearable devices are more of luxury items than actual tools with any practical use. However, it actually has potential uses in certain fields. Unfortunately, not a lot manufacturers see this yet. It could truly make a difference in fields such as medicine, education, engineering, outdoors, the military, etc. These industries are the future of wearable devices.
Woman’s phone brand, Sugar, announced that they will release a mini version of their 4G phone, the Sugar Macaron.
As the snapshot shows, the design of the Sugar Macaron Mini is still the same. It is available in pink, yellow, green, and many other colors. The metal mid-frame is made of many gemstones.
Obviously, the Sugar Macaron Mini would have weaker specs than the original. It sports a 4.7-inch display screen with a 720p resolution. It only has 1GB RAM and 16GB internal memory space. It still supports LTE internet but also supports TD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, and GSM. Its processor is still the MTK6582 which is used with the MT6290. It sports a 8mp front-facing Sony camera and its OS is customized from the Android 4.4.
As of now, no price has been revealed although it is unlikely to be cheap.
It was recently announced that MTK’s newest octa-core cell phone chip, the MT6595, may be implemented in Baidu’s smart phone. By integrating Deep Neutral Network technology (DNN) and heterogeneous computing technology, this phone may do what the image shows below (quick searching, etc.) making this a true explorer smart phone.
The most attractive thing about the Baidu explorer smart phone is that you can search on Baidu without an internet connection. This technology can do photo recognition. When you take a photo of an object in a store that you do not know anything about, you can quickly get information on it without connecting to the internet. This technology also allows voice and text recognition.
This phone uses MTK’s MT6595 octa-core chipset making it MTK’s most powerful chip yet offering excellent performance and low power consumption. It is no surprise Baidu decided to use this processor.
Here are the first photos of the upgraded version of the ELIFE S5.5, the ELIFE S5.5L.
Unlike the S5.5, the ELIFE S5.5L’s rear camera is not turgid. Its thickness was increased from 5.5mm to 5.75mm. The phone’s battery supply was also increased to 2450ma.
The ELIFE S5.5 now uses the Snapdragon 400 and supports 5 modes (including TD-LTE/ TD-SCDMA/WCDMA/GSM). Its screen, memory and camera specs are still the same. It sports a 5-inch Samsung Amoled display screen with 1080p, 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM, 5mp wide angle front camera, and 13mp Sony rear camera. Its operating system is the Android-based Amigo UI.
The ELIFE S5.5 may come out at the end of July or beginning of August.
When Newman released the ultra-slim octa-core K18, they said that they will later release a phone with a 6-inch display screen. Now, here comes their newest octa-core phone, the K6, which looks like a bigger version of the Dawei K18.
The back of the K6 follows a three-level design. Unlike the K18, the K6’s main camera is located on the left side of the phone. The rear cover of the white edition is champagne gold. There is also a black edition.
The K6 sports a 6-inch 1280 x 720 HD display screen which is Newman’s biggest yet. It runs on the 1.7GHz MT6592 octa-core processor. As for memory, it has 1GB RAM and 16GB ROM. It also sports a 4mp/13mp camera and is powered by a 3000ma battery. It also supports dual-SIM (WCDMA/GSM) and uses the Android 4.2 OS.
The Newman K6 will be first released overseas for 219 USD (1400 RMB) and it may be released in China later.
Imitations of famous cell phone brands are very common and the Xiaomi Redmi Note is no exception. Recently, a company called ZOOZ released a cell phone that carries an eerie resemblance to the Xiaomi Redmi Note called the ZOOZ S5.5.
The launch of Xiaomi’s Mi4 is a wake-up call to all the non-budget brands, Chinese smartphones at the moment are such good value they can give any company in the world a run for their money, you’re getting amazing technology at really low prices. Xiaomi are a powerhouse in the field too, selling over 26 million smartphones this year. They have a target to sell 60 million in 2014, so with the Mi4 they are on course to pull it off. The Mi3 is considered one of the best smartphones around in its category. The Mi4 is long-awaited and the specs have finally been announced, so to see what this new beast has to offer, let’s compare it with the other pretty awesome flagship killer, the OnePlus One. The choice is between David and Goliath, Oneplus have only been in business a short time and their phone is brilliant, but the production has let the side down, with them proving hopeless when it comes to meeting demand.
Display
The Mi4 has a 5 inch IPS display screen featuring 1920 x 1080 resolution, the OnePlus One has a larger display, 5.5 inches making the pixel count a little lower per inch for the OnePlus One. The Mi4 has 441 ppi and the OnePlus One has 401. Definitely a win for the Mi4 in the display department.
Performance
The Mi4, like the OnePlus One, boasts a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor, quad-core and one of the best processors available at the moment. The memory is also exactly the same, with both phones having 3GB RAM and being available with both 16GB and 64GB storage memory. It seems as far as the hardware goes there is little to choose between the two flagships. In fact these specs seem to be pretty much standard across all the high-end phones coming out of China at the moment. No bad thing at all, but we’re going to have to look a little more in depth to find significant performance differences between the phones.
Camera
The OnePlus One is slightly inferior in the camera stakes, although both it and the Mi4 share a 13MP rear camera, the Mi4 has an 8MP front shooter whereas the OnePlus One has a 5MP. The picture quality on the Mi4 is better but a 5MP front shooter such as that on the OnePlus is still a good feature, even if it doesn’t match the Mi4.
Battery
The battery is slightly better on the OnePlus One, it has a 3100mAh battery compared to the Mi4s 3080mAh, not a huge difference granted, but anything that counts towards making the phone last all day has got to be a plus.
Operating System/User Interface
Both phones run on Android, but the Mi4 round the MIUI V5 (with the V6 being released in August), the OnePlus runs the CyanogenMod 11S. Both phones offer a capable and customisable user interface that offers a lot. Mostly the choice here is down to personal preference rather than capability.
Verdict:
There isn’t a massive amount to choose between the phones, but the Mi4 is the better phone overall, having a superior display and front camera. Could the price be the decider? Well, the slightly better Mi4 is priced at $322 USD and the OnePlus priced at $299 USD. The thirty dollar difference isn’t enough to keep the race an even one, and your best bet is to go for the Mi4, it has the better specs and the price and at only slightly more expensive than the OnePlus, it just makes sense to get the better phone. I realise that there are a few die-hard OnePlus fans that want it for the design, which is great, and these people are probably going to buy it anyway but if you want the rational choice, get the Mi4.
The Kingsing W8 tablet has been announced,featuring an 8 inch 800 x 1280 resolution IPS LCD screen. The touch screen is 5 touch capacitive, recognising up to five touches at a time. It has a quad-core Intel Baytrail-T processor (1.8GHz) and Intel HD graphics. There are 2MP front and rear cameras, good enough for the budget market. In terms of memory, you get a reasonable 1GB of RAM, 16GB ROM, expandable via SDHC/SDXC. There are also stereo speakers.
WICO, which is known for its iPhone 6 clones, will try to take the ELIFE S5.5’s place as the slimmest cell phone there is with the upcoming WICO C1.
Official reports say that WICO C1 still sees design as their core selling point and will try to go for a very slim and “frameless” design. Indeed, the photo above shows that the frames are very narrow, however no precise measurements have been released. They are also not kidding about how slim the C1 is, measuring only 5.5mm thick. Despite the C1’s very slim body, many would be surprised to find out that this phone is powered by a 3050mAh battery! If all these reports are not mistaken, then it is the only Chinese cell phone to have such a battery-slimness ratio.
The WICO C1 has a bigger display screen than the WICO S3 measuring 5.5 inches. It has a 1280 x 720 resolution. It also sports a 8mp/13mp dual-camera. It is expected to use a processor from MTK.
Every year, Coolpad releases a new instalment of its flagship Daguan series. Last year’s Daguan phone received a good response from the market and it looks like Coolpad plans to repeat their success with this year’s instalment which will probably be named the Daguan 5. We recently received news that the latest Daguan phone will use the NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor and that it will be made of Kevlar. The new phone will be released later this year.
The Coolpad Daguan series are mainly aimed at the high-end market. Not only do they have powerful hardware but have many safety features. The NVIDIA Tegra K1 uses a 4+1 Cortex-A15 structure and will be integrated with the Keplar GPU. This chipset scored over 43000 in its Antutu benchmark test. In addition, the use of Kevlar will give it tougher wear resistance. No information has been released regarding its specifications or release date so stayed tuned.
Yesterday, ZTE held a launch event for the Blade Vec 4G and Grand SII LTE in Hong Kong. In addition to the aforementioned products, they also launched their Blu Ray armband, the ZTE Grand Band.
The Grand Port uses Blu Ray 4.0 connection and supports phones that use iOS or Android 4.3 and above. Not only could it tell the time but it can also measure and record your pulse. The wearer can also receive weekly health reports. Furthermore, the Grand Band is available in many different colors.
ZTE has not yet announced a price for the Grand Bund but might hit the Chinese market next month. As of now, they have not announced any plans for an overseas release.
Nibiru recently announced that they will release a red and light green version of the successful Nibiru Mars One (H1). The H1 is currently available in white, pink, and blue. Increasing the number of colors should attract many users who are concerned about aesthetics, especially women. These two versions are slated to hit stores on July 28 and will still be sold at 998 RMB (161.17 USD). Those who buy the red and green H1 before August 5 will received a free pair of Nibiru metal earphones.
Their specifications are still the same. They use the MT6592H octa-core processor, support dual-SIM 3G (TD+SCDMA and WCDMA), sport a 5-inch 1080p display screen, and a 5mp/13mp camera. They also have 2G RAM and 16GB internal memory space and are powered by a 2000mah battery. Their operating system is the Touch OS.
As 4G has been taking the smart phone industry by storm, AUX will soon join the fray with their upcoming 4G phones. One of them is a mid-end phone that will use a 4G processor from MediaTek.
As of now, no model number has been released but it is supposed to sport a 5.5-inch HD display screen with 1280 x 720 resolution. Its memory specifications are so-so with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory storage. It is also said to sport a 8mp camera and be thinner than previous phones.
These phones will be AUX’s debut on the 4G stage. They will use the 1.3GHz MT6582 quad-core processor and will include a LTE modem. It will support China Mobile 4G internet and will be compatible with TD-SCDMA and GSM internet. It can only support a single SIM card.
June had been a busy month for Huawei which not only released the China Telecom edition of the Huawei 3C but also the China Mobile and China Mobile version of the Honor 6 as well as the Huawei X1 customized edition. But it is not yet over as Huawei announced the other day that they will launch another device on July 30.
Huawei has not said much about their new device but did say that it will be a “work made out of sincerity,” which means that this device should have a high cost-performance ratio. Its specifications cannot be too great and the price cannot be too high.
It is still too early to come to conclusions based on what has been released so far but could this new device be the Honor Hol which was recently listed in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s website. This phone has average specifications. It uses the 1.3GHz MT6582 quad-core processor and sports a 5-inch HD display screen. It has 1GB+4GB memory and its OS is the Android 4.2. It supports TD-SCDMA internet.
Will Huawei sell this device at the 599RMB (96.67 USD) – 699RMB (112.81USD) price range?
A few days ago, a photo was leaked that showed the Antutu benchmark results of a mysterious new cell phone by Coolpad whose score surpassed the Mi4 with 44785. The phone’s model number appears to be 8xxx (the numbers are blurred). Sources say that this phone is none other than the Coolpad Dashen F2, and that it uses MediaTek’s newest 4G octa-core chipset, the MT6595, and supports dual-SIM card. No release date has been announced but it should come out very soon.
This phone uses the new Cool UI 5.7. The biggest change is that Coolpad removed the Level-2 user interface and that all the apps will be put in a Level-1 interface and they should be easier to manage now.
In addition, another photo was leaked featuring the benchmark test results of new phone. This time, it scored 31867 which is not as great as the last one but is still pretty good.
The other day, a new 4G TD-LTE cell phone from Coolpad received certification from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and was listed in its website. This phone’s model number is “Coolpad 8675-HD” which should be this new phone.
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