Meizu has produced quite a few smartphones this year and the M3 is one of the most affordable ones. Learn more in our full review.

Thanks to Gearbest for sending Meizu M3 for a review.

Meizu M3 Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_IR8Ck6QYY[/embedyt]

Meizu M3 Review: UNBOXING

In the box, you can find a wall charger, USB cable, SIM ejector pin and some paperwork.

Meizu M3 Review: SPECS

Meizu M3 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

Meizu M3 is a very compact phone due to its 5” display and it looks like a shrunk down Meizu M2 Note.

Speaking of the display, it sports just a 720p resolution but it still quite sharp and good display for a budget phone like this. The only complaint would be that it could be slightly brighter for outdoor use.

We have a 5MP shooter along with a notification LED light on the top.

On the bottom, there is just a physical home button and you can either physically press to take you home or just tap it and it acts as a back button. Unfortunately, the phone lacks a fingerprint scanner.

Although the device uses glossy plastic in its construction, the phone is well-built and it feels solid. In fact, it is really comfortable to hold it in the hand due to rounded corners on the back. We have a 13MP camera with f/2.2 aperture on the back coupled with a dual-tone dual LED flash.

The loudspeaker sits on the bottom and the sound quality is actually pretty good for the phone this cheap.

The buttons are on the right, they are clicky and tactile.

We have a hybrid SIM card slot, which can take either 2 SIM cards or a combo of 1 SIM and the microSD card.

Overall, the Meizu M3 is a well-constructed phone and it feels great in the hand.

Meizu M3 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Meizu M3 has some pretty decent specs for the price. My review unit sports an octa-core Mediatek 6750 chip with the clock speeds of 1.5GHz, 2 GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

The day-to-day performance of the UI is fast but the gaming performance is kind of a letdown. The phone lags quite a bit when playing Asphalt 8 even at the lowest graphics.

Meizu M3 Review: BENCHMARKS

Meizu M3 Review: USER INTERFACE

My Meizu M3 unit has FlyMe OS 5.1, which is built on top of Android 5.1. My review unit has a fully de-bloated ROM with multi-languages and Google Play services pre-installed.

If you are familiar with the FlyMe OS, you will feel right at home. There is no app tray but there are some neat features. For example, you can swipe down anywhere on the screen to open up the notification shade. If you swipe from the bottom, you will open up your recent apps and this is one of my favourite features.

We have a bunch of other features, plenty of customization options, various tweaks and settings to play with. Just to name a few, you can use choose from a variety of themes, use gesture controls, which work fine and so on.

Overall, the FlymeOS runs fast and fluid, I didn’t have a single hiccup on a daily basis.

Meizu M3 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

The 13MP camera is far from perfect but it can produce one of the better-looking images in a sub-$120 phone.

Most of the daylight shots will look good but one of the shortcomings is a poor dynamic range adjustment. Luckily, the HDR mode does a pretty good job solving this issue.

The low-light camera performance is okay for the phone this cheap but keep in mind that cheap phones usually don’t take great night shots.

The 1080p video looks pretty good and the footage is one of the best in class. See a video review for a video sample.

A 5MP selfie shooter can take some nice photos that will definitely do the trick for social media.

Meizu M3 Review: CONNECTIVITY

As for connectivity, you should not expect any issues with neither of the options that include wifi, Bluetooth, GPS or call quality.

Meizu M3 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The phone has an embedded 2870mAh battery that performs well. I could constantly get over 5 hours of SOT on a mixed use, which is a good result.

Meizu M3 Review: CONCLUSIONS

Meizu M3 is one of the better phones in this price range.

Sure, some may say that it lacks some common features like a fingerprint scanner and fast charging but the phone has a good display and great build quality.

Also, the device is fast on a daily basis, it has a good battery and one of the better cameras in its price range.

However, you have to keep in mind that the phone will struggle handling the 3D games and it lacks premium materials like metal in its build.

Overall, Meizu M3 is a great phone for the price of just $116 despite a few shortcomings.

The post Meizu M3 Review – A Great Cheap Smartphone! appeared first on Gizmochina.

We were really happy about the Xiaomi Redmi 3 and we even called it the best cheap phone at the time of our review and we suggest you checking it out. 

The device had a lot to offer for a very low price. It seems that Xiaomi wants to take cheap phones to a new level with the Redmi 3 Pro. We have all the great features of the Redmi 3 but the company added some significant upgrades to the device. Learn more in our Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro review.

Thanks to Giztop for providing us with the Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro for a review.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro VIDEO REVIEW:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u6xpKmhde0[/embedyt]

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaIUNQqlpxc[/embedyt]

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: UNBOXING

The packaging is the same as the one that came with the Redmi 3. The contents of the box include a power plug, USB cable, instruction manuals and SIM ejector pin.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: SPECS

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: DESIGN

As for design, nothing really changed except for the fact that Xiaomi added a fingerprint scanner on the back. It is very accurate and it works straight from the standby mode. 

Once I first picked the phone up I noticed that the build quality is slightly better than the Redmi 3.

There is no major difference but the buttons have a slightly better tactile feedback and there are absolutely no moving parts on the device (the Redmi 3’s back cover moved a little bit if pressed harder).

Other than that, we have the same button placement, the same ports, camera and it is the same phone in terms of the design as the Redmi 3 except for a fingerprint reader.

One thing is that the gold model looks much better to me than the silver model of the Redmi 3 we reviewed previously. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

A hardware department is where the Redmi 3 Pro has improved. Well, it uses the same octa-core Snapdragon 616 chip with the maximum clock speeds of 1.5GHz. However, now we are getting 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage via the microSD card slot. 

As expected, gaming performance is good. Asphalt 8 runs perfectly on medium graphics and there were just a few minor skipped frames on the highest graphics settings, so you may enjoy playing even the most demanding games on the Redmi 3 Pro.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: BENCHMARKS

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: UI

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro comes with MIUI 7.2, which is built on top of Android 5.1. Hopefully, Xiaomi updates this phone to Marshmallow soon.

The UI looks the same as on any other Xiaomi phone. As usual, there is no app tray and all apps sit on the home-screens.

If you are not yet familiar with the MIUI, it has tons of customization options, which include a wide choice of themes, wallpapers, fonts and so on. 

Also, you can highly customise the LED light, assign different tasks to capacitive buttons, do various tweaks and personalise the phone in a lot of different ways. 

All in all, MIUI 7.2 runs fast and fluid most of the times and I didn’t really have any hiccups or lags. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: MULTIMEDIA 

Watching full-HD content is a blast as videos in different formats play smoothly. The sound via earphones is pretty good with a loud volume output and clear sound for a budget device.  

As far as the loudspeaker, it is pretty good too. While it is definitely not the best but it has a reasonable amount of depth and it does not sound tinny like a lot of cheap phones. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: IMAGE QUALITY

The 13MP camera takes pictures very fast thanks to PDAF system.  Also, I see a slight improvement over the Redmi 3 and that is thanks to the updated software.

The camera has become more consistent with the daylight shots and it does not struggle with focusing. If you take pictures in good lighting, you can achieve some great results. The images are sharp and detailed almost every time you take a photo.

The only downsides are that sometimes there is a softer focus on the corners and the dynamic range was off in a few shots.

The indoor and low-light shots have less detail and more noise but they are still not bad for the phone this cheap if we compare the Redmi 3 Pro to other devices in this price range. 

The selfie camera is pretty good for social media needs.

Download a 1080p video sample

The video quality is good but not great. The level of detail is decent but there is some noise in the video, the footage could have more sharpness and the lack of OIS leads to a kind of shaky footage. Well, I believe it is too much to ask for OIS in a budget phone anyway. See a video review for a video sample. 

Download full resolution camera samples

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options work great. Call quality is okay and signal reception is excellent. Also, Wifi, GPS and Bluetooth are working fine. However, I was disappointed as the phone does not support 5GHz Wifi connection.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: BATTERY LIFE 

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro has a huge 4100mAh non-removable battery and it performs just like the regular Redmi 3. 

In short, battery life is fantastic. I could not squeeze the battery out in one day even on heavy usage that involved gaming, installing lots of apps, watching a lot of videos, taking pictures, browsing the web and so on. 

I was able to achieve over 7 hours of screen-on time with max. auto brightness setting of the screen. That means that you can achieve even more impressive results if you reduce the brightness or don’t use the phone that heavily like I did during my testing period. 

Finally, Xiaomi claims that the Redmi 3 Pro has a fast charging feature. However, it took me just over 3.5h to charge the phone with the original charger. That means that you would need to buy a fast charger separately to charge your phone fast. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: CONCLUSIONS

So here it is, the Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro, an upgraded model over the Redmi 3. 

It has preserved great looks of the Redmi 3 and it even sports a better build quality. Right now the phone feels more solid in the hand. Also, the addition of a fingerprint scanner, which is fast and accurate, is a great feature to have in a compact phone. 

You are not going to see a major difference in terms of UI or gaming performance with the additional 1GB of RAM or more storage space but these specs make the Redmi 3 Pro a more solid and future-proof phone.

The daylight image quality seems to have become more consistent  and that is thanks to software optimisation. However, don’t expect any stellar results in low-light scenarios.

Some may agree, some may not but if you asked me, I would have loved to see backlit capacitive buttons on the Pro model. Also, while the 720p display is pretty good, the 1080p panel would have better justified the Pro moniker. 

All in all, the Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro is a very solid device and it is very hard to beat it in this price range. It brought some welcome features and slight improvements over the Redmi 3 and it is highly recommended to buy if you are in the market of great affordable smartphones. 

The post Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review appeared first on Gizmochina.

Cubot has quite a few stylish yet affordable devices and S500 model is one of them. Learn more in a full review.

Cubot S500 Review: VIDEO

Cubot S500 Review: UNBOXING

Besides all the usual stuff you expect to come with any phone, Cubot S500 ships with some extras like a tempered glass screen protector and a nice plastic case.

Cubot S500 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

As soon as I picked the phone up, I really enjoyed the design and build quality of it. It uses a metal frame around the device and glass on the front and rear. Also, the phone sits very comfortably in the hand as the device sports a relatively small 5” display. 

Speaking of which, the panel only has 720p resolution but it still sharp enough, vibrant and bright.

Just above the display we have an 8MP selfie shooter and on the bottom there are 3 non-backlit capacitive buttons. Unfortunately, there is no notification LED found on the device. 

As for camera, we have a 13MP shooter with a single LED flash. Right below it there is fingerprint scanner. The setup of it was easy and while it is neither the fastest nor the most accurate scanner I’ve tested, it gets the job done. I would say it works 8/10 times. 

The buttons feel nice and they have a good tactile feedback. Right next to the power button we have a hybrid SIM card slot. You can either put two SIM cards in it or a combo of 1 SIM and the microSD card for storage expansion. 

Overall, the phone feels really nice in the hand and it is well built.

Cubot S500 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Cubot S500 has a quad-core MTK6735A chip clocked at 1.3GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. 

While the phone is definitely not a powerhouse in terms of sheer specs, it can handle 3D games really well. Asphalt 8 runs fine with just a few minor skipped frames on medium graphics settings.

Cubot S500 Review: BENCHMARKS

Cubot S500 Review: UI

The device ships with a near stock Android 5.1 build and the performance of it is buttery smooth. I didn’t have any stutter whatsoever and I can say that this phone is fast. 

We have some added features like gesture and motion controls. There are so many of them and I’m not sure if you are going to use them all. Anyway, they work great but some of them are useful only if the fingerprint security option is off.

Speaking of which, the fingerprint scanner can be used for other things too. For example, you can take pictures just by pressing a fingerprint reader and that’s pretty cool.

Overall, I’m really happy with the way the UI works. It is fast and fluid, and it preserves a stock Android look and feel. 

Cubot S500 Review: MULTIMEDIA

The loudspeaker quality is pretty good. Of course, it is not perfect as the sound is a bit tinny and lacks depth but this is what you get with the phone this cheap.

Cubot S500 Review: CAMERA

The camera can take some good looking daylight images with a reasonable amount of detail. Most of the shots look okay but some of the images came out slightly overexposed and have more noise than expected. 

The low-light camera performance is not that good. Some of the images tend to have a purple or red tint, quite a low amount of detail and more noise.

The video quality is not that bad. Sure, it could look sharper but the quality of footage is decent for the phone this cheap. See a video review for a video sample or download it here.

Cubot S500 Review: CONNECTIVITY

I didn’t have any connectivity issues. Call quality, Bluetooth, Wifi and GPS seem to be working fine. 

Cubot S500 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The phone has a 2700mAh battery, which performs well. I could constantly get around 4 hours of screen-on time with a mixed use of the device and auto-birghtness feature on. 

Cubot S500 Review: CONCLUSIONS

Cubot S500 is a really nice phone for the price of around $120. It is well crafted, compact and it uses some premium materials in the construction.

Also, the device has a nice looking display, very fast UI and you can even play some 3D games on it. If you add a good battery life and some extra features, it is a pretty good phone for the price.

However, you have to consider some shortcomings like a poor low-light camera performance, the lack of notification LED and the fact that the phone is a huge fingerprint magnet due to its glass back panel.

All in all, Cubot S500 is a good phone for the price despite a few shortcomings. 

The post Cubot S500 Review: Beautiful Yet Affordable appeared first on Gizmochina.

Blackview BV2000s: VIDEO REVIEW

Blackview BV2000s: UNBOXING

The phone comes with just a power plug and the USB cable.

Blackview BV2000s: DESIGN

The device is very compact as it has a 5” display and the phone is made of plastic. My review unit comes in white colour but it has a lot more other colour options.

On the front top there is a 2MP snapper along with other usual stuff. On the bottom you can find a physical home button and non-backlit capacitive keys.

On the back you can find an 8MP shooter with dual LED flash and the speaker grill.

The buttons are located on the right side and they have a great tactile feedback.

Under the hood, there is a removable 2400mAh battery, two SIM card slots and the microSD card slot.

Overall, the phone is well built and I have no complaints at all.

Blackview BV2000s in pictures:

1 of 23

Blackview BV2000s: DISPLAY

The Blackview BV2000s has a 5” 720p panel, which is pretty sharp, it has decent colour reproduction and it is a good display overall for such a cheap phone.

Blackview BV2000s: UI

The phone runs on Android 5.1 with the Blackview’s skin on top of it, which removes the app tray without any reason but it adds a lot of customisation options and other features for a budget phone.

You can customise the device using the dedicated theme store, change wallpapers, adjust launcher settings and so on.

1 of 6

As far as extra features go, you have some typical gesture and motion controls. They all work okay and gesture recognition is pretty accurate. However, I found them to be kind of slow to work.

When it comes to day-to-day performance, it is pretty good and I can see a significant improvement over the regular BV2000. The UI is running smoothly most of the times. There were just a few times when some stutter kicked in but there is nothing to be worried about.

Blackview BV2000s: BENCHMARKS

1 of 7

Blackview BV2000s: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The Blackview BV2000s is not going to be your next powerhouse device. It has an MTK6580 64bit Quad Core 1.3GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM and just 8GB of expandable storage.

The 3D gaming experience is actually no bad. I played Asphalt 8 for extensive period of time on medium graphics settings. I didn’t have lags and there were just a few skipped frames. Still, I would say that the Blackview BV2000s is a good performer for the phone this cheap.

Blackview BV2000: CAMERA and IMAGE QUALITY

As far as camera, the 8MP shooter does not impress. Even the daylight shots don’t look good. There is a low amount of details, there are some focusing issues and the images will not impress you.

The low-light shots…. They do not impress either as the images lack in every aspect you can imagine.

Same can be said with the 720p video quality.

Blackview BV2000: MULTIMEDIA

Consuming HD content is an okay experience as the playback is smooth. However, the sound that is coming out of the rear mounted speaker is kind of tinny. Well, this is what you should expect from such a cheap phone.

Blackview BV2000: CONNECTIVITY

As far as connectivity, everything is working fine as I had no issues with the Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth, call quality or signal reception.

Blackview BV2000s: BATTERY LIFE

1 of 2

When it comes to the battery life, it is pretty good. The 2400mAh unit can last you a full day and you will get around 4 hours of screen-on time on light usage.

Blackview BV2000s: CONCLUSIONS

The Blackview BV2000s is indeed a cheap phone and you can get it for less than $70. It has a decent design and good build quality, and a pretty good display for such a low price.

Also, the UI and even gaming performance is pretty good and I can see a noticeable upgrade over the previous BV2000 model.

However, the camera is kind of disappointment but this is what you get with the phones this cheap.

All in all, Blackview BV2000s is a pretty good offering for a very low price of just below $70. While it is not perfect as the camera does not impress but it does other things pretty much right and you simply cannot expect more for the price.

Buy Blackview BV2000s

The post Blackview BV2000s Review appeared first on Gizmochina.

Xiaomi has been on a roll as they released quite a few smartphones lately and we have a few really interesting devices here – the Redmi 3 and the Remi Note 3. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the battle of Xiaomies.

In case you missed it, check out full Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 review and Xiaomi Redmi 3 review.

Buy Xiaomi phones from Giztop

Subscribe to TechLineHD

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 VIDEO REVIEW:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMb_S2CCTu0[/embedyt]

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Comparison Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

When it comes to the looks, both phones carry the same design language but what is obvious is that the Redmi 3 is a lot smaller as it sports only a 5” 720p panel whereas the Note 3 has a 5.5” 1080p one.

Speaking of displays, it is evident that the Note 3 has a better panel mainly due to its sharpness as it simply has more pixels. The Redmi 3 also sports a good display but it has only 720p resolution. On the other hand, it is slightly brighter and the white colour does not look a bit yellowish as on the Note 3.

On the front top both smartphones have 5MP selfie shooters and the Note 3 has a notification LED here whereas the Redmi 3 has implemented it near the home button, which is, the same as other capacitive keys, not backlit.

The Redmi Note 3 has an edge here as its capacitive buttons have a nice backlight.

Both Xiaomies are made almost entirely of metal (except for the top and bottom parts for antennas). As far as optics, smartphones have 13MP shooters with PDAF but only the Note 3 has a dual tone dual LED flash as the Redmi 3 has a single LED.

Another advantage that the bigger Xiaomi phone has – a fingerprint scanner, which is a feature that has become important for many users. 

The buttons, which are located on the right on each phone feel nice and they are made of metal too. On the left we have a dual micro SIM card slot on the Redmi Note 3 but the Redmi 3’s one slot also doubles as a microSD card for storage expansion.

Besides the usual ports, it is really cool that Xiaomi adds the IR blaster in their budget phones lineup. The setup of it is pretty straightforward on each device and I was able to control my TV in a few minutes.  

Overall, both Xiaomies feel solid and they are well-constructed devices. The metal build adds that premium look and feel we don’t see on all budget phones and this is what you are getting with either Xiaomi handset. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Comparison Review: USER INTERFACE 

1 of 26

Xiaomi Redmi 3 comes with MIUI 7.1, which is built on top of Android 5.1 and the Note 3 has a very similar yet older Android 5.0 build. 

The user interface is identical on each phone, well, they run the same MIUI after all. But what about performance? Well, it is really comparable. However, the Note 3 is just slightly faster at times, e.g. it may take a split of a second longer to open up the settings menu or do some other basic stuff on the Redmi 3. On the other hand, this phone still runs on  a very early software build whereas the Note 3 has already received numerous software updates. 

If you are not yet familiar with the MIUI, it has tons of customisation options, which include a wide choice of themes, wallpapers, fonts and so on. You can select from a few pre-installed ones or simply go to the online theme store where you will find thousands of different themes to suit everyone’s taste. 

Also, you can highly customise the LED light, assign different tasks to capacitive buttons and so on. 

Finally, MIUI runs fast and fluid most of the times on each device. There were just a few minor hiccups but they are not even worth complaining about. Overall, I’m happy with the way the user interface works on a daily basis especially if you consider a feature set and customisation options it offers.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Comparison Review: BENCHMARKS

Xiaomi Redmi 3:

1 of 6

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3:

1 of 15

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Comparison Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Xiaomi Redmi 3 has a pretty good hardware as it sports an octa-core Snapdragon 616 chip with the clocks speeds of up to 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. 

The Redmi Note 3 is no slouch either. The lower-end model of the phone, which is my review unit, has an octa-core Mediatek Helio X10 chip with the clock speeds of 2.0GHz, 2GB of RAM and only 16GB of non-expandable storage. 

Both phones have enough processing power, so you can have enjoyable 3D gaming experience without any stutter or lag, well, if you do not max out the graphics settings. 

In addition, neither phone has overheating issues.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Comparison Review: CAMERA

If you want to download camera samples, check out full Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 review and Xiaomi Redmi 3 review.

As far as the image quality, I have made a separate camera comparison video, so you may want to check it out for more camera samples.  

The daylight photos taken with the Redmi Note 3 usually have more details, a little bit less noise and they tend to be slightly brighter. However, some of the images taken by both Xiaomies are comparable.

It is a similar story with indoor shots and here the Redmi Note 3 shines in one more aspect – dynamic range. The auto-mode does a better job equally exposing the main object and shadows of the scene. 

What is more, Redmi 3’s camera produced a lot more blurry shots, which led to quite terribly looking photos. 

Finally, the Redmi Note 3 has a wider FOV (field of view) meaning that you can fit more into the shot. 

As for night images, the Note 3 just blows the Redmi 3 out of the water. It produces images with much more details and less noise and the pictures just look much better overall.

The Redmi 3 also has a very annoying red tint in each night photo.

As for selfie shooter, the Redmi Note 3 is also better overall but the difference is not always significant. 

1080p video recording is a department where the Note 3 shines again. It’s footage is not flawless as it is also a budget phone but the device’s camera captures more details, the footage looks sharper and last but not least the sound quality is much better.

Overall, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is a clear winner in each and every aspect. Although some of the daylight images taken with the Redmi 3 can be comparable, its camera’s capabilities are much worse than the Note 3’s. Hopefully, we will see a few software updates to improve that. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Comparison Review: MULTIMEDIA

As for multimedia consumption, the Redmi Note 3 is better mainly due to a bigger and higher resolution display. However, other aspects like sound via earphones and the loudspeaker are very close in terms of the overall quality and it is hard to choose a winner. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Comparison Review: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options work great on each device. Call quality is okay and signal reception is excellent. Also, Wifi, GPS and Bluetooth are working fine. However, I was disappointed that the Redmi 3 does not support 5GHz Wifi connection, while the Note 3 has this feature.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Comparison Review: BATTERY LIFE

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 has a huge 4100mAh non-removable battery. However, its bigger brother is no slouch either as it sports a 4000mAh unit. That sounds comparable but the Redmi 3 has to power a smaller display with lesser resolution and thus it leads to a better battery life.

Xiaomi Redmi 3:

1 of 3

In fact, the power pack on the Redmi 3 is one of the best in class. I could not squeeze the battery out in one day even on heavy usage that involved gaming, installing lots of apps, watching a lot videos, taking pictures, browsing the web and so on. 

I was able to achieve over 7 hours of screen-on time with max. auto brightness setting of the screen. 

Redmi Note 3:

1 of 3

The Redmi Note 3 is not that good but it still performs well. I could get from 5 to 5.5h of SOT under exactly the same usage. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Comparison Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. Both smartphones are great choices in their respective price categories.

However, the Redmi Note 3 is a better device overall. It has a bigger and better display, better camera and some extras like a fingerprint scanner, and backlit capacitive buttons.

On the other hand, the Redmi 3 is for those who want a compact phone, a better battery life and a storage expansion option via the microSD card slot. Finally, the Redmi 3 costs less. It can be bought from the third-party resellers  for around $150 whereas the Remi Note 3 would cost you around $180. 

At the end of the day, if you want a better device and you don’t mind its size, take the Redmi Note 3. If you love compact cheap phones but you can’t find a good one, take the Redmi 3 but make sure to consider its flaws. 

Subscribe to TechLineHD

Buy Xiaomi phones from Giztop

The post Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 – The Battle of Xiaomies appeared first on Gizmochina.

This is a review of a phone that has been made by a company you have probably not heard of. It is any good? Learn more in the full Morefine Max1 review.

Subscribe to TechLineHD

Morefine Max1: VIDEO REVIEW

Morefine Max1: UNBOXING

As usual, let’s start by unboxing and see what’s inside. The contents of the packaging include a nice soft TPU case, two screen protectors, some instruction manuals, a charging plug and USB cable.

Morefine Max1: DESIGN and DISPLAY

I was initially surprised by the premium design and great build quality of the phone that is built by a rather unknown Chinese manufacturer.

Morefine Max1 has a metal frame going around the device along with metal buttons and the 5” display makes this device compact, and manageable with one hand.

Speaking of display, it is surprisingly good for a the phone that costs $120. It is bright, vivid and colour look vibrant. Also, it has excellent viewing angles.

Just above the screen there is a bright LED light, which has a few different colours but it is not customisable. As far as front firing optics, we have a modest 2MP shooter.

The chin of the phone is empty since Morefine Max1 has on-screen navigation buttons.

The glass back is a ridiculous fingerprint magnet but at least it helps with a grip. Here we have only 8MP camera with a single LED flash.

The buttons, which are very tactile, are located on the left but I never liked this idea on any phone. It could be just me but I am used to pressing keys on the right side and the buttons on the left are just not right.

The dual SIM card tray, where one slot also doubles as a microSD card slot is on the right.

As far as the loudspeaker, it is placed on the bottom where you can also find you micro USB charging port.

Finally, on the top there is just a headset jack.

Overall, the phone feels solid, it is well constructed and it does not feel cheap at all.

Morefine Max1: USER INTERFACE

As far as UI, we are looking at a nearly stock Android 5.1 build. Day-to-day performance is very smooth even with lots of apps running in the background and I didn’t have a single hiccup.

1 of 6

To be honest, there are not too many extra features to talk about. The only neat addition would be a conveniently placed notification shade button. It is not something new but it is a cool feature to have.

However, there are a few minor bugs that hopefully will be fixed with the future software updates.

Firstly, there is no way to see the battery status in percents except for going deep in settings menu. Secondly, the auto-brightness of the screen feature dims the display too much for my taste, so I had to turn this feature off.

Also, you cannot simply close all the apps that run in the background and you have to close them one by one.

Well, these are just minor issues and hopefully they will be fixed soon.

Morefine Max1: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The Morefine Max1 is not a powerhouse device as it has a quad-core MTK6735 chip with the clock speeds of just 1GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

While daily perforance is nice and smooth, playing Asphalt 8 on the highest graphics setting is laggy. However, once you reduce the graphics to medium, playing a game can be actually enjoyable with just a few skipped frames but with no major lag.

Lastly, the phone does not have any overheating issues.

Morefine Max1: MULTIMEDIA

When it comes to multimedia, the Morefine Max1 has a decent quality sound output via earphones but if you want to listen to some tunes via the loudspeaker, it will not impress you as any other phone in this price range. The sound is tinny and it lacks depth.

Morefine Max1: CAMERA

You can’t expect much from a phone this cheap that has only 8MP camera, right?

1 of 17

The daylight images look pretty okay but the level of details is not that impressive and there could be less noise in some images.

The indoor and low-light shots are actually not the worst I’ve seen and many of them are more than usable. However, some of the shots came out blurry and there is quite a low amount of details and lots of noise in each image.

1 of 2

As far as 2MP selfie shooter, it is not really impressive but it will do the trick for social media, just make sure to take selfies in good lighting.

720P video is like on most of similarly priced phones. Although, the footage is not terrible, it lacks in details and sharpness. See a video review for a video sample.

Download full resolution camera samples

Morefine Max1: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options work great. Call quality is okay and signal reception is excellent. Also, Wifi, GPS and Bluetooth are working fine.

Morefine Max1: BATTERY LIFE

1 of 3

The phone has a 2150mAh battery and it performs surprisingly well for its capacitiy. I could get over 4 hours of screen-on time while mixing heavy and light usage and using various screen brightness settings.

Morefine Max1: CONCLUSIONS

So there you have it, Morefine Max1, the phone that looks great, it is compact and it sports some premium materials in its construction.

Also, Morefine Max1 has a decent 720P screen, the UI is very fast but it has a few minor bugs that have to be fixed.

The camera is pretty mediocre but it is capable of producing okay looking images in daylight.

The battery life is surprisingly good and overall, Morefine Max1 is a decent phone for the price of around $120 despite a few shortcomings.

Buy Morefine Max1

The post Morefine Max1 Review – Beautiful Yet Affordable Smartphone appeared first on Gizmochina.

It seems that it hasn’t been long since Xiaomi released the Redmi Note 2 and a lot of us thought that it will lead the Note lineup for quite some time. This is what we are used to and this is what the company usually follows. However, Xiaomi decided to pleasantly surprise us by releasing the 3rd generation “budget Note” – the Redmi Note 3. Find out more in our full review.

Thanks to Giztop for sending Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 for a review. 

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: VIDEO

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: SPECS

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: UNBOXING

We see a slight change in terms of packaging. We have already got used to seeing the recycled paper boxes that come with Xiaomi phones but this time around the company made a better looking presentation.

The contents that come with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 include the charging brick, USB cable, documentation and a SIM ejector pin.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: DESIGN

It wouldn’t be a Note series if we had a small display. Well, it is not big either as 5.5″ panels have already become a standard. Still, you have to keep in mind that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is not the most compact phone.

I would say that the Redmi Note 3 has the most drastic design change in the series. It sports a great build quality and it uses all-metal unibody design, which I personally like. That means that gone are the days of a user-replacable battery and even the microSD card slot. It may be a deal breaker for some, especially for the power users.

On the bright side, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is the first Xiaomi’s phone ever to sport a fingerprint scanner, which is easy to setup, fast, accurate and works from a standby mode.

On the front we have a 5MP selfie snapper and a customisable LED light. On the bottom, there is a usual set of capacitive buttons, which also have a nice backlight.

When it comes to optics, we have a 13MP camera with dual tone dual LED flash and PDAF system.

The buttons, which are located on the right feel nice and they are made of metal too. On the left we have a dual micro SIM card slot.

1 of 2

Besides the usual ports, it is really cool that Xiaomi adds the IR blaster in their budget phones lineup. The setup of it is pretty straightforward and I was able to control my old LG TV in a few minutes.

 Overall, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 looks and feels like a premium handset. It is well constructed, it uses mainly metal in its body and no one would ever tell you this is a cheap phone. I have to say that I love the evolution of cheap devices and the current trend – premium look and feel for a low price.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3: DISPLAY

1 of 1

The 5.5” 1080p panel is brilliant to look at. It is sharp, vivid, it has good viewing angles and you can adjust the colour temperature within the display settings menu.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: UI

1 of 10

When it comes to the user interface, we have MIUI 7 out of the box, which is build on Android 5.0.2.

First of all, we are really happy to see a huge improvement over the MIUI 6 in terms of speed, performance, power and RAM management.

Everything is running smoothly with lots of apps running in the background, there are no major hiccups or lag. There have been a few times that apps loaded a bit longer but it hasn’t been much of an issue worth complaining about.

1 of 10

If you are not yet familiar with the MIUI, it has tons of customisation options, which include a wide choice of themes, wallpapers, fonts and so on. Also, you can customise the LED light, assign different tasks to capacitive buttons and so on.

All in all, I have to say that Xiaomi finally got the it right and although the Redmi Note 3 is not yet perfect but the overall user experience is mostly positive.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: BENCHMARKS

1 of 16

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

As far as hardware, the lower end model of the Redmi Note 3, which is our review unit, has an octa-core Mediatek Helio X10 chip with the clock speeds of up to 2.0GHz, 2GB of RAM and only 16GB of non-expandable storage.

This combo of hardware is absolutely enough to run the most graphically demanding tasks like gaming. The graphics don’t look that stunning like on the flagship phones but they still look great. Also, there are no hiccups whatsoever and this is a top-notch performance for a budget phone.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: MULTIMEDIA

When it comes to multimedia consumption, Xiaomi implemented a pretty good loudspeaker with a decent amount of depth. The quality of sound via earphones is decent too.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: CAMERA

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has a 13MP camera with PDAF and dual-tone dual LED flash.

The camera app is fast and easy to use and there are a few shooting modes and settings to play with.

I have to say that I spend a lot of time testing this camera. First of all, I’ve tested it with the V. 7.0.7.0 software, which is still the only one available to download via the OTA update (I live in the EU). The results came out pretty terrible and I couldn’t believe what I saw.

That’s why, I went to the MIUI forums and flashed the newest version (V. 7.0.16.0) of software manually and re-tested the camera. Keep in mind that the latest update is still not available via OTA for some unknown reasons, at least in the EU region.

These were my initial thoughts with the V.7.0.7.0 software:

“The picture quality kind of shocked me. In short, it is terrible and it is obvious that this is a software related issue as an older Redmi Note 2 has a much better camera.

Most of the daylight images have a soft focus in some parts or in the whole picture despite the fact that I held my hands as steady as possible. Also, there is a lot of noise and the camera doesn’t capture a lot of details. The good point is that camera’s woes end when it comes to the macro shots as the images look pretty good. Finally, you may get some decent looking images on some rare occasions.

Low-light shots do not impress either. Well, they are not the worst we’ve seen in this budget phones category but the level of details and brightness could be higher, and amount of noise could be lower”.

Image quality conclusions after V.7.0.16.0 software update:

1 of 15

The daylight images produced by the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 are pretty good and definitely one of the best in this price range of phones.

The images have a good amount of details, colours look natural most of the time and most of the shots will definitely look great.

However, the camera isn’t perfect since some of the images have softer focus on the corners or uneven focus within the image. Also, some of the shots are underexposed, especially if you are taking pictures during the cloudy day. A good thing is that the HDR mode does a pretty good job to solve this issue but you have turn this mode on manually. Finally, colours may look a bit oversaturated in some shots but I guess it’s okay since a lot of phones do that as the images look better for the majority of users.

1 of 22

The indoor shots look a bit worse but they are still pretty good for a phone of this price category. There is a bit more noise, less details but the most of the images still look good overall.

1 of 13

As far as the night shots, it would be unfair to expect much from a budget phone. The images turn out not bad at all. While the level of details is lower and the noise levels are higher than daylight pictures, the night photos shot by the Redmi Note 3 are definitely one of the best in class.

The embedded dual-tone dual LED flash is pretty powerful and it illuminates the scene with a natural looking light. Thus, you may get a pretty good image in low-light/pitch dark environment.

1 of 3

The front facing camera will do the trick for social media as most of the times you will get a pretty good looking image. However, softer focus issue may kick in from time to time.

When it comes to the video recording, it is mediocre as on most of the budget phones. However, if we compare it with other cheap devices, the Redmi Note 3 does a pretty good job overall. See the video review or download the original video camera sample from the link below.

All in all, while being not perfect, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has one of the best camera in this price range of phones.

NOTE: camera was tested with the both MIUI V7.0.7.0.LHNCNCJ (MIUI7) and the MIUI V7.0.16.0.LHNCNCJ (MIUI7) (not yet available via OTA, the ROM was flashed manually). The results have proven that there is a significant change in picture quality between these two updates. 90% of the images taken using the old software had some major focus issues. 

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options like Wifi, GPS and Bluetooth work absolutely fine. Also, the call quality and signal reception were great.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: BATTERY LIFE

1 of 6

The Redmi Note 3 has a 4000mAh battery and I have to say that it performs very well. I could get almost 5 hours of screen on time (hereinafter – SOT) even though I used the phone quite intensively. If you are a light user and you mainly do basic tasks, you may even get over 6 hours of SOT.

Finally, a great battery performance was confirmed by Geekbench 3 battery test as the phone managed to achieve over 10 hours of SOT with dim screen feature off (I accidentally turned the benchmark test off at 26% which adds 2 hours and 36 minutes of SOT).

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. For the price of just around $180, this is a really great phone for a lot of reasons, yet it is not perfect.

The Redmi Note 3 has a great design and all-metal build, and the phone definitely looks great. Also, the 5.5” display is nice to look at, the MIUI has been improved as the user interface performance is mostly fast and fluid.

Also, this budget phone can easily handle even the most graphically intensive games, all the connectivity options work great and the battery life is very good.

Furthermore, the camera is one of the better ones in this price range of phones.

However, you may get some images with softer focus if you do not hold your hands steady and the video quality could be slightly better.

All in all, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is definitely great and one of the best budget smartphones of the year for many reasons. Although it may may not be perfect but there is nothing significantly better on the market at the moment and this phone is one of your best bets in this price range.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 gallery:

1 of 40

The post Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review – The Best Budget Smartphone. Redefined appeared first on Gizmochina.

I wanted to share my thoughts about the just released Letv Le 1s, which is just an amazing smartphone for incredibly low price as it costs just $172 in China. I’m just amazed how much you get for such a low price. Naturally, the phone will cost a bit higher via the third-party resellers.

Letv Le 1s Preview VIDEO: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

It all start with a premium all-metal unibody symmetrical design and the Le 1s is just 7.5mm thick.

The new Le Superphone comes in gold and silver colour options and they both look stunning.

As far as the processing power, the Le 1s is powered by the octa-core Mediatek Helio X10 chip, which is clocked at 2.2Ghz and this chip has already proven to be quite a powerhouse. To make sure that the performance is buttery smooth there is 3GB of RAM on board and 32GB of storage for the base model.

Other key features include a high-end fingerprint scanner, 13MP camera on the back, which has a PDAF system, which helps achieving blazing fast auto-focus speeds of just 0.09s.

The Le 1s has a 5.5” 1080p panel which is said to be brighter than its predecessor. The display uses a floating glass technology and it has the bezel less design.

The phone also has the reversible USB Type-C port, which is slowly becoming a new standard but more importantly, Letv implemented a super fast charging speeds, which are said to give you 3 hours of talk time with just 5 minutes of charge the embedded 3000mAh battery.

All in all, the new Letv Le 1s shapes up to an amazing phone for the price and honestly, I can’t wait to make a full review of it.

It is just incredible what the Chinese companies are making at the moment and the Letv Le 1s is one of the best examples out there.

I hope to get the Le 1s for a review as quickly as possible but in the meantime you may want to check out the reviews of the previous generation Letv smartphones down below.

Please use the comment section below the video to tell me what you think.

The post Letv Le 1s Preview – The New Best Cheap Smartphone? (VIDEO) appeared first on Gizmochina.