tech Archives - Gizmochina

GC Daily: Samsung offers Free Screen replacements; Redmi launches 100-inch TV, Hearing Aid with subtitles

Joel Joseph — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 05:10:15 +0000

Last weekend started off with Samsung extending its display replacement program to the Galaxy S21 and S22 models in India.

Source: Samsung Community

Over the past few months, we have been hearing frequent cases of green lines on Super AMOLED displays on Samsung flagships. It was not just Samsung though, even OnePlus flagships were affected by this issue, which is why even OnePlus was offering free replacements for affected screens last year.

Initially, the one-time screen replacement program was limited to the Samsung Galaxy S20 and Note 20 series. But as newer Samsung smartphones have also started facing the same issue, Samsung has now extended the program to cover the Galaxy S21 and S22 series too.

But there’s a catch, you have to book an appointment for the free replacements at a Samsung Service Center by April 30th, 2024 in India. If you miss this deadline, you might end up having to pay for repairs yourself.

Source: Huawei Teardown Video SS

As we revealed in our own hands-on video, the Huawei Pura 70 comes with one of the fanciest cameras in the market, that features a large 1-inch sensor with a retractable lens.

There are two major benefits of a retractable camera design.

Even though the lens is so large, since it goes inside, it is protected from unwanted scratches.
Huawei can install a really large camera sensor in a compact space without the camera module poking out of the phone like an external accessory.

The retraction mechanism uses stepper motors and is also IP68 dustproof and waterproof certified. It’s a first for mass-produced phones to feature such an innovative camera design.

The Chinese audio brand iFlytek has released an interesting AI powered hearing aid that offers real time subtitles of the conversations happening around you, right on your smartphone.

The hearing aid comes in a special variant called the StarFire Edition, which utilizes real-time voice-to-text conversion, displaying conversations on a smartphone app, ensuring important information is never missed.

This could be a game changer for people with partial hearing loss. More details on the device are in our story here.

Are you wondering how the new Kirin 9010 stacks up against the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 model?

We decided to compare the two flagship chips based on the data we got from our hands on and external sources. According to benchmark comparisons, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 seems to be overpowering the Huawei’s Kirin 9010 in most departments. However, we would want to test the device for a longer period to decide whether there’s any difference in real life performance.

If you want to see how these two chips compare in benchmarks, more details are in our comparison story here.

DEAL ALERT: Grab the TECLAST T50HD 11-inch Tablet at a £60 Discount on Amazon

Xiaomi has a new 100-inch Redmi Max TV in China and brings upgrades as compared to the previous generation model. If you remember, when the TV was launched in 2020, it was an instant hit among customers, selling over 1660 units in a single day.

That’s pretty impressive given how each unit is over $1200.

The 2025 edition comes with a refresh rate of 144Hz and support for variable refresh rate (VRR) technology. The TV also comes with 120 Hz MEMC motion compensation. Notably, there’s a competitive mode that pushes the refresh rate to an even higher 240Hz.

More details can be found in our launch story.

GC Daily: Huawei’s New Pura Smartphone Lineup, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Satellite Connectivity & More

Joel Joseph — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 05:07:00 +0000

Yesterday, Huawei made a big move for its smartphone strategy. The company rebranded its 12 year old Huawei P series lineup as the Huawei Pura. The name, pronounced “piu rua”, signifies purity and beauty in Spanish.

The company had been working towards this rebranding for the past 6 years, and had applied for the trademark back in 2019.

The Pura series could feature four new devices with the unique triangular camera design that we’ve been seeing for the past few days.

Huawei Pura 70
Huawei Pura 70 Pro
Huawei Pura 70 Pro+
Huawei Pura 70 Ultra

The Ultra version is speculated to be the successor to the P series’ Art Edition, boasting the same configuration as the Pro+ model but with an enhanced design.

As for the launch, rumors say we could see the devices launch as soon as April 18. But no official word yet.

If you want to know more about the Huawei Pura series and what to expect from the lineup, we have a special story on the same.

Do you guys remember the HMD Fusion concept that we saw back at MWC 2024? Well, during the announcement, the company didn’t reveal much about the concept, except that it was similar to the concept of modules, aka attachments for your smartphone, that’ll add more features to the device.

Now, HMD is hyping things up via social media posts in Australia, Benelux, and France. The company shared a graphic of a smartphone with add-ons in it.

The text on the bottom right shows a “Coming Soon” tagline, hinting that the company may soon debut its first Fusion phones in these regions.

JBL has launched new smart glasses in China, likely based on its Soundgear Frames platform. The new glasses, translated “Yinyue Fan,“ come with a transparent design and feature a custom linear track-type driver unit for clear sound quality. You can listen to music, take calls, and get up to 8 hours of usage time with these glasses. The best part, the glasses automatically turn on when you put them on.

Remember the Huawei Matebook X Pro 2024 laptop with the Core Ultra 9 series chip that I mentioned a few days ago? It boasted of being the lightest Core Ultra 9 laptop on the market, weighing less than 1kg.

US lawmakers, particularly Republican officials, are reportedly not happy with this achievement. They have criticized the Biden government for allowing Huawei access to chips made by an American chip maker, Intel.

Micron 1-Beta DRAM Mass Production starts in Q4 2022, Here are the Details

Leo Wong De Quan — Sun, 12 Jun 2022 15:25:01 +0000

Micron Technology is a US-based multinational semiconductor company that has operations in Japan and Taiwan for its chipmaking business. And as both Nikkei Asia and ITHome report, the tech giant will start mass-producing advanced DRAM memory chips at its Japanese Hiroshima plant in Q4 this year.

ITHome reports that on a press media visit to Micron’s A3 chip manufacturing factory, Micron‘s Taiwanese division director, Lu Donghui announced that the A3 factory will be introducing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment in the second half of the year, to prepare early for the mass production of 1-gamma DRAM that is due to launch in 2024.

And as for 1-Beta DRAM Mass Production, it is reported that 1-Beta DRAM will be initially manufactured in Japan, and then the production will switch over to the Taiwanese plant later. For context, the current 1-Alpha DRAM is manufactured in the Taiwanese plant.

And the report by ITHome seems to be valid, as another news outlet, Nikkei Asia has reached out to Chief Business Officer at Micron, Sumit Sadana, regarding the news of 1-Beta DRAM production.

Nikkei Asia quotes Sadana that the company will start mass-producing advanced DRAM memory chips at its Hiroshima plant by the end of the year, which falls in Q4 2022.

The company is coordinating with the Japanese government and business partners, such as equipment makers, to start producing them in Japan as well, Sadana said in an interview. He did not reveal the size of the investment in the Hiroshima plant but said manufacturing such chips generally requires new equipment and clean rooms.

Micron is expected to determine the scale of its investment based on government subsidies and other factors.

DRAM is used for temporary data storage in a wide variety of electronics, including smartphones and servers. And for Micron’s naming scheme, the company had already mass-produced its 1X, 1Y, 1Z and 1-alpha DRAM. The 1Xnm process is equivalent to 16-19nm, 1Ynm is equivalent to 14-16nm, and the 1Znm process is equivalent to 12-14nm. According to industry sources, the latest 1-alpha, 1-beta and 1-gamma may be equivalent to 14-12nm, 12-10nm and 10nm respectively

Micron has announced in 2021 plans to invest $150 billion in memory manufacturing and research and development worldwide over the next decade. With the company laying out plans for 1-beta production, industry watchers are looking to see where it will manufacture the next-generation 1-gamma DRAM, which is targeted for mass production in 2024.

RELATED:

(Via 1, Via 2)

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DDR3 Soon To Be Phased Out in 2022, Following Samsung and SK Hynix Plans to Cease Production

Leo Wong De Quan — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 10:30:24 +0000

As the electronic devices of today keep getting more technologically advanced year by year, as consumers, we demand more memory and faster speeds for smoother operations across a wide variety of applications. DRAM memory has become an essential electronic component in keeping our devices running smoothly and fast, and there are a lot of RAM options in the market from the latest DDR5 memory to the cheapest DDR3 memory.

Source: Samsung

However, DDR3 seems to be showing its age in the market, as the technology initially launched in 2007 turns 15 years old today in 2022. With that context in mind, several of the world’s largest DRAM suppliers such as Samsung and SK Hynix have come out to announce that the industry is looking to discontinue the production of DDR3 due to dwindling market demands, and higher demands for its DDR4 and DDR5 options instead.

Source: Samsung

According to Digitimes, Samsung has already notified its customers that the company will keep taking orders on DDR3 RAM until the end of 2022 and fulfil these orders by the end of 2023. Popular 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB DDR3 memory options are expected to have production ceased by the end of 2022.

SK Hynix is also reportedly looking forward to phasing out DDR3 SDRAM production, though it is unclear when the company will cease to supply them. The report from Digitimes, also notes that citing industry sources, DRAM maker Micron, on the other hand, has no plans to cease production of DDR3 RAM at the time of publishing.

Although most electronic devices of today have already transitioned over DDR4 or DDR5 memory for DRAM, there is still a relatively large quantity of inexpensive devices like routers that still use DDR3 memory. In addition, older 2nd hand or refurbished early 2010s laptops that are still in circulation in the market still need DDR3 memory for repairs and replacements.

Redmi WiFi Router Source: Xiaomi

The discontinuation of production could spell a price hike for the inexpensive electronic devices, as manufacturers will now be using the more expensive DDR4 option instead, and that cost of production in the end would be given back to the consumer. On the bright side, technology is finally saying goodbye to the slower DDR3 memory, and providing a faster user experience for all by transitioning to DDR4 and DDR5 in the future.

RELATED:

(Via)

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New tech breakthrough will let you 3D print OLED displays at home

Sean — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 13:11:14 +0000

A new breakthrough has given us a glimpse of the future of repairs. This new tech would even allow you to replace your broken display by making an OLED screen yourself.

According to an Engadget report, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers have developed what they believe is the first fully 3D printed flexible OLED display. In other words, you might not have to rely on major display makers like BOE or Samsung to manufacture a replacement panel to fix your electronic devices. Talking about the process, the breakthrough involves the combination of two methods of 3D printing to print the six layers needed for a functional display.

The University team used extrusion printing to make the electrodes, encapsulation, insulation and interconnects, with active layers being spray painted at room temperature. Notably, previous attempts from others had ran into issues with light uniformity (consistency across the whole panel) or relied on techniques beyond 3D printing to assemble the components. But, the researchers at Minnesota Twin Cities managed to build a prototype, which is just 1.5 inch wide and uses 64 pixels.

Meaning, this technology is still quite far from being viable since any practical use would require a much higher pixel count. The people behind this technology are also working on making the display brighter while also adapting the technology for use at homes. Unfortunately, the brand used a custom 3D printer that costs as much as a Tesla Model S. So, we don’t expect this breakthrough to make it to your homes within the next couple of years.

Alibaba fined $2.75 billion in China for violating anti-monopoly rules

Jeet — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 05:27:14 +0000

Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd, the tech giant in China, has been slapped with a record 18 billion yuan, approximately $2.75 billion, after a probe related to anti-monopoly found that the company abused its dominant market position for years.

The State Administration for Market Regulation in China said that it had determined that Alibaba, which is listed in New York and Hong Kong, had been “abusing market dominance” since 2015 by preventing its merchants from using other online e-commerce platforms.

Alibaba

This practice violates China’s antimonopoly law by hindering the free circulation of goods and infringing on the business interests of merchants, the regulator added. Apart from the highest-ever antitrust penalty globally, the company has been asked to make “thorough rectifications” to strengthen internal compliance and protect consumer rights.

The fine imposed on the Chinese tech giant accounts for about 4 percent of Alibaba’s domestic revenues in 2019, reports Reuters. It comes amid a crackdown on technology conglomerates and indicates China’s antitrust enforcement on internet platforms has entered a new era.

Alibaba came under intense scrutiny in its home country after the company’s billionaire founder Jack Ma’s stinging public criticism of the country’s regulatory system in October last year. A month later, authorities scuttled a planned $37 billion IPO by Ant Group, Alibaba’s internet finance arm, which was set to be the world’s biggest ever.

In December last year, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced its antitrust probe into the company. After this record fine, Ant Group still needs to agree to a regulatory-driven revamp that could significantly cut its valuations and rein in some of its freewheeling businesses.

Chinese investors are shifting from India to Indonesia due to new regulations

Jeet — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 06:52:18 +0000

India is making it harder for Chinese investors to invest money in its companies after the rising tensions at the India-China border. With India closing doors to Chinese venture capital firms, they are now shifting focus towards Indonesia.

The report adds that funds like Shunwei Capital from the founders of Xiaomi and BAce Capital backed by the Ant Group are now pivoting from India to Indonesia. Shunwei Capital, which runs funds worth $3 billion, is planning to close more deals in Indonesia and said that it is not making new investments in India for now.

Instead of making new investments in India, the fund says that it will focus on managing its existing portfolio of companies. On the other hand, the FT report adds that BAce Capital is also making the move but will not be much active as the market is less developed.

Chinese investors have powered India’s tech boom, investing heavily in some of the leading startups, including fin-tech platform Paytm, food delivery service provider Zomato, and the ed-tech giant Byju’s.

However, earlier this year, the Indian government revealed new rules targeted towards Chinese investors over concerns of opportunistic takeovers, which has now led to investors cutting off funding.

EDITOR’S PICK: Realme Ace with Snapdragon 875 chipset and superfast charging in works, reveals leak

Apart from that, the Indian government has been banning Chinese applications in the country for months now, citing national security issues but without offering any proof of such claims. So far, India has banned more than 170 Chinese apps, including Aliexpres, PUBG Mobile, CamScanner, etc.

With investors facing several issues with the regulations in India, other startups in Southeast Asia will get benefits. Indonesia is ranked fourth in the world in terms of population and the country already has a few billion-dollar companies.

At a time when new startups and trying to raise millions of dollars for growth, several prominent companies and investors are now shifting focus towards Indonesia, including the likes of Google and Facebook. Just to put that into perspective, a report revealed that investments in Southeast Asia in H1 2020 grew by 55 percent compared to last year.

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Buy Your Tech Favorites at Lowered Prices from AliExpress

Vinay Patel — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 05:31:16 +0000

While tech buffs spend a lot of money on their favorite tech products, cost-conscious gadget lovers refrain themselves from buying these high-end devices due to the steep price tags they usually carry.

To make the best tech products available to those on a tight budget, AliExpress has launched the Shop Smart, Live Smarter promotion sale. As part of its latest promo, the Alibaba Group-owned online retail service is giving you a chance to get your tech greedy hand on your favorite tech products at unbeatable prices.

The activity page features the OnePlus Official Store, wherein you can get multiple variants of the OnePlus 7, and OnePlus 7 Pro at lowered prices. Aside from that, the official store features a slew of accessories carrying noteworthy discounts.

For example, the OnePlus Type-C Bullets 2T Earphones is currently available under the Accessory section for $24.95. You can take advantage of a €1,84 (about $2) OFF Coupon if you are a new user and save money before placing your order. Likewise, you can get $1 off on orders over $89.

Much to the delight of brand-conscious buyers, the promotion page is crammed with top-notch products from leading manufacturers including Delux, Baseus, FIMI, AnyCubic, AUN, and Deli. More importantly, you can buy these top-branded products at lowered prices.

For example, the FIMI X8 SE Camera Drone would normally set you a pretty penny on both online, as well as offline stores but you can now buy it for a lowered price of only $478.79 from AliExpress. Aside from getting this 24 percent discount, you can use a New User Coupon for an extra $2 off at the time of checking out.

The concluding category called More To Love feature products that have carefully been divided into multiple sub-categories including Mobile Phone Accessories, Electronics, Computer & Office, Office & School Supplies, and Mobile Phones. You can grab noteworthy discounts on all items included under each sub-category.

You can follow this link to visit the activity page and avail the discounts on your favorite tech products before the promo comes to an end.

AliExpress Shop Smart, Live Smarter

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Stylus + Plectrum + Touchscreen + Music: We Revisit Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic in today’s tech throwback

Joel Joseph — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 14:35:38 +0000

In today’s throwback tech Thursday, we go back to 2008, the year when we saw the launch of the extremely popular Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. For a company that was obsessed with keypad phones, the 5800 XpressMusic came in as a pleasant surprise. It wasn’t the first-ever touch screen phone from the brand but it most likely is its first popular one. The phone was so popular that it sold 8M units in its first year alone! In fact, in India, it broke the record for the most sales by selling 58,000 units sold within three weeks of its launch. Given its popularity, there’s a very good chance that you’ve used the 5800 at some point in your life.

Why was the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic so popular?

First, it was the early days of the iPhone, and touchscreens were slowly gaining popularity. Second, it was a touch screen smartphone from Nokia which was a very popular brand back then.

The phone came from the XpressMusic family and music was a big deal back then (for that matter, even now!). The phone came with a compact design and weighed just 109 grams. There were three colors available: Blue, Black, and Red.

source: Wikipedia

The biggest highlight of the new device was its sharp 3.2-inch touchscreen panel. You could use your finger, a stylus that neatly slid in its dedicated slot after use, and even a plectrum which the Finnish company added inside the box. Also, the phone was paired with a decent quality headset out of the box. And with a 3.5mm jack, the 5800 XpressMusic was indeed a treat for music lovers from Nokia.

Other specs of the phone include 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, a 3.2MP Zeiss optics camera with dual-LED flash, BL 2.0 with A2DP, stereo speakers (yay), and MicroUSB 2.0. The 5800 wasn’t exactly a high-end device, but Symbian S60 OS did well in keeping the users interested. What’s great was that the company kept improving its software over time through regular updates.

But 5800 XpressMusic wasn’t without issues

One of the biggest drawbacks of the device was its touch sensitivity. The display on the 5800 featured resistive touch, which meant you had to press really hard to register touches. It was no way near as good as an iPhone phone which featured a capacitive touch screen. As for the OS, Symbian S60 touch was decent but again, it couldn’t compete with iPhone’s UI which was made for touch right from the ground up.

Also, unlike in some markets like India where the pricing was competitive, in the US it was closely priced as the iPhone 3G. It retailed for nearly $400 and at the same price, you could get an iPhone 3G unlocked at that time.

Nevertheless, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a phone that’ll probably be remembered as the company’s first touchscreen phone used by the masses. It’ll have a special place for people who used it as their first-ever touch screen device!

Check out some of our previous Throwback Tech Thursday articles below!

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Throwback Tech Thursday: We Revisit the Best Selling BlackBerry Curve Series

Joel Joseph — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 18:26:10 +0000

Before Android & iPhones were popular, there were only a handful of players that were dominating the phone industry. One among them was the Canadian smartphone maker, BlackBerry. While its phones are non-existent today, just as the original Nokia brand that vanished from the market, back in the 2000s, BB phones were really popular. In fact so popular that BlackBerry’s Curve models outsold the iPhone back in 2009. For Q1 2009 in the US, BlackBerry had three models in the top 5 best selling phones list, with the other two being the iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile G1 aka HTC Dream (this was the first ever Android phone and we have a special throwback here). It’s rather funny to see how things have changed now. Android smartphones and iPhones dominate the smartphone market, while BlackBerry is nowhere to be seen.

Source: Flickr Marvin Kuo

BlackBerry Curve reached out to a really large set of users with its competitive pricing and a full-sized QWERTY keyboard. In fact, the BlackBerry 8320, which was quite a popular model in the series was the smallest and the lightest BlackBerry phone to feature a full-sized QWERTY keyboard back then. The keyboard was really cool, which made every BlackBerry phone a texter’s dream! The BB 8320 came with support for instant messengers like Gtalk, Yahoo, Windows Live, & AOL which kept its users ahead in their social game. Not to mention, BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) was a really big hit back in the late 2000s. Being exclusive to BlackBerry phones, BBM users seemed to have a different social circle altogether!

Source: Flickr Enrique Dans

The phone came with Blackberry’s iconic trackball navigation which made browsing through the UI a breeze. It had Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth 2.0. Wi-Fi, in particular, wasn’t a common feature among BlackBerry phones, so the 8320 stood out. Further, the phone came with a 2MP rear camera. It wasn’t a good camera but then BlackBerry was never a fan of adding cameras to its smartphones. So to see even a 2MP sensor on the back of a BlackBerry phone was a big deal back then.

Other features of the device included a 3.5mm headphone jack, MicroSD slot, GSM/ Edge support (yes, no 3G despite iPhone featuring it!), and an inbuilt MP3 and MP4 player.

Editor’s Pick: Throwback Tech Thursday: Engaging the Legendary Nokia N-Gage!

The BlackBerry Curve 83XX series didn’t have a fancy processor, an amazing camera or even 3G. But the 8300 series models featured a full-sized QWERTY keyboard, a compact lightweight design (which didn’t bother you when you talked on the phone for hours), and a solid messenger client which kept you ahead in your social game.

Later versions of the Curve replaced the Trackball with an optical Trackpad (Source: Wikipedia)

Later models in the BlackBerry Curve series saw a shift from the traditional trackball to an optical trackpad. For example, the Blackberry 8530, which was yet another popular model in the series, featured an optical trackpad. It continued with the QWERTY keyboard design as its predecessors along with a 2MP camera. Even the battery life was as terrible as the older models.

By 2011, BlackBerry decided it was time to introduce full touch screen models in the Curve series. So the Curve 9380 finally ditched the QWERTY keyboard for a 3.2″ display with 360×480 pixels. After experimenting with touch, there were a couple of QWERTY models in the Curve series like the BB Curve 9320. But after that, the Curve series pretty much came to an end.

So did you ever use any of the BlackBerry Curve series models? How was your experience?

ALSO READ: Throwback Tech Thursday: Revisiting the Iconic Moto Razr V3, the Phone That Made You Look Cool!

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Huawei Ban will be ‘Incredibly Damaging’ for ARM, says co-founder Hermann Hauser

Joel Joseph — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 04:27:36 +0000

Huawei’s US ban will be ‘incredibly damaging’ for ARM says the company co-founder Hermann Hauser. This comment comes at a time when the British ARM is banned from supplying chip designs to the Chinese telecommunications giant.

Back in May, Huawei was added to US’s entity list which meant it was practically banned from trading with US companies. This also meant that the Chinese giant couldn’t use any technology with components sourced from the US. Since ARM’s chip designs contain origin US technology, it could no longer keep supplying its chip designs which are essential for Huawei’s smartphone and server businesses.

Since US technology is a part of a majority of international companies as well, Huawei’s relationship with even non-US companies is also at risk. However, it’s not just the Chinese companies who are threatened by this trade ban. A number of non-US companies are also increasingly worried about this trade ban.

Editor’s Pick: Samsung executive gets arrested over Biotech fraud case in South Korea

The US has not been able to give out credible evidence against Huawei, apart from allegations that it is being used by the Chinese government for spying. Since this trade ban came into effect without any strong evidence, international companies are worried about the same happening to them. This is why Hermann says that customers would want to limit technology originated from the US in order to avoid a situation similar to Huawei. This includes products from ARM.

‘It really is quite damaging for Huawei in the short term, and longterm it’s going to be incredibly damaging for Arm and Google and the American industry,’ said Hermann while talking to the Mail.

‘Every single supplier in the world will start thinking of how to reduce the threat of their production being terminated by an American president. All the discussions I have with companies in Europe at the moment are about them going through their intellectual property portfolio and designing American intellectual property out, which is terribly sad and destructive.’

It’s clear that this ban doesn’t just affect Chinese companies. Its long term effects will be felt by companies across the globe.

UP NEXT: Huawei Claims Its Production Is Still in Full Force

(Via)

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Huawei confirms No Contact With Apple for 5G Chips

Joel Joseph — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 14:12:01 +0000

In the past few days, there were a lot of rumors about Huawei talking to Apple for supplying 5G chips. To fuel this rumor, Huawei executive went on to say that it was open to selling chips to the Cupertino giant. However, the company has finally taken an official stand. Earlier today, at Huawei’s Analyst Summit 2019, the company dismissed this rumor.

Huawei’s 5G chip is called Balong 5000

During a Q&A session at the event, Huawei was asked whether there was any credibility to the rumor about Huawei supplying 5G chips for next-gen iPhone. And this was Huawei’s official reply.

“We have no change in our chipset strategy, and no communication with Apple on 5G modems.”

So now we know for sure that Huawei hasn’t been in talks with the iPhone maker.

RELATED: Samsung Galaxy S10 5G receives complaints after launch in South Korea last week

Well, it did make sense why some people would think Huawei was the ideal company to supply Apple with 5G chips. The Cupertino giant and Qualcomm haven’t been in the best of terms recently. In fact, their latest lawsuit kicked off earlier this week. Intel would have been the next logical supplier, but the company seems to be a bit behind in schedule in its 5G chip. That leaves Samsung and Huawei. We are not quite sure how well Samsung can handle its 5G chip mass production. So, Huawei was the next logical option.

OnePlus’s 5G smartphone is based on Qualcomm’s modem

But with Huawei out of the picture, Intel or Samsung could come to Apple’s rescue. Unfortunately, Apple is yet to comment on this matter.

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Qualcomm Could Re-open Negotiations with NXP, says a Senior Analyst

Andrew — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 12:35:15 +0000

Popular US-based mobile chip maker Qualcomm could still reconsider a move to buy NXP after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s statement at the G20 Summit that the matter could be revisited, suggests an analyst for TrendForce based out of Taipei. Qualcomm gave up all hopes for the deal recently when China blocked the move amidst escalating tensions between the US-China Trade war back in July this year. The saga started back in October 2016 when Qualcomm made a successful $38 billion bid for the semiconductor maker. However, in the months that followed, unforeseen issues such as shareholder backing arose prolonging the deal to be completed successfully. In July 2018, the deal finally fell apart when China disapproved the deal. Since Qualcomm has significant ties with Chinese OEMs, the chip maker had no choice but to agree with China’s decision.

Qualcomm chip with logo

Now, Yao, senior analyst at TrendForce says that Qualcomm could be forced to reconsider the move even after backing out because of unimpressive mobile chip sales this year. Most big smartphone markets like the US, China, and India are almost fully saturated and the world number one chip maker will be forced to look into new avenues for the coming decade. Unlike smartphones, the automotive chip industry has a huge amount of untapped potential. With NXP being the biggest supplier to the industry, Qualcomm could be forced to reopen the deal amidst a grim outlook for the mobile chip industry in the coming months.

A recent study by Allied Market Research forecasted the autonomous vehicle industry could grow to US$54.23 billion by 2019 and potentially to US$556.67 billion by 2026 with a 40 percent compound annual growth rate. On the other hand, the global smartphone shipments shrunk by 6 percent Y-o-Y in the Q3, 2018.

(Via)

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Nubia α is a Concept Smartphone that comes with a Flexible screen in a Smartband like design

Joel Joseph — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 10:01:53 +0000

Nubia has always been great at designing products and their smartphones have always featured an elegant and beautiful design. But at IFA 2018 this year, Nubia is looking to take things to the next level. The Chinese company has just revealed a teaser of its new concept product called as the Nubia α.

On first glance, you could mistake the Nubia α as a smart band. I did it too, but taking a closer look at the product as well as the teaser video, you’d start to realise that it’s much more than that. The α is essentially a smartphone! Yes, despite its wearable like appearance, the Nubia α is equipped with all the key features of a smartphone and most of them were revealed in the teaser video itself.

The basic design of the device is like a smart band, featuring a metal strap that holds its flexible display in place. The Nubia α is meant to be worn on your wrist, bringing all the important features of a smartphone inside a super compact body. In appearance, the body is a bit bulkier than your regular smart bands, and that’s acceptable given that it likely houses many of the components of your everyday smartphone. There are two buttons on board, one on the right and another one on the left side, placed symmetrically. You’ll find a camera on top, which looks large when compared to its compact body. We can see a microphone opening as well, just besides the camera, which means it should support calls right from the device itself, without the need for any supporting accessories.

The main highlight of the α is going to be its touchscreen flexible display. We don’t have any specs yet, but the overall design looks quite pleasing in the video.

The teaser video reveals quite a lot of important features too, like music playback, pedometer, sleep tracking, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, find my phone app, some kind of payments platform and even heart rate sensing. We can also see contacts and call menu which confirms that the Nubia α can make and receive calls.

The UI is English and even the teaser video has English subtitles. This should be a good hint that the Nubia α could get a global release. Right now, all the company has revealed is that it will showcase this concept smartphone at IFA. Hopefully, we’ll get more details very soon. Stay tuned!

You can check out the teaser video from here (Miaopai).

The post Nubia α is a Concept Smartphone that comes with a Flexible screen in a Smartband like design appeared first on Gizmochina.

Doogee S55 Review – Quite A Good Rugged Phone With Some Flaws

Linus — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 12:45:02 +0000

The Chinese phone maker Doogee seems to be producing more and more rugged phones. The S50 is a pretty good device that I recently reviewed but today I wanted to show you guys a bit cheaper slimmed down version of it – the S55. It offers great specs, rugged body and a huge battery for the price of just about $150.

VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUnM86FjEBM[/embedyt]

UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff and some extras include a screen protector.

DESIGN

Once you pick the phone up, it’s obvious this is a rugged phone since it is larger, thicker and heavier than your usual smartphone.

That is because Doogee S55 has the IP-68 rating meaning that it is water and dust resistant. Also, the rugged body assures that the phone will survive a few accidental drops. Unlike some other budget rugged phones, there are flaps that cover the ports to avoid water damage.

Unlike on the Doogee S50, the headset jack flap is easier to open.

The overall build quality is solid as the phone is built to last. Despite a huge footprint, it’s quite comfortable to hold the phone in the hand. Also, the device is relatively thin considering a huge battery inside.

Battery lasts for a long time, just like on the Doogee S50. You can get up to 18 hours of screen on time under light usage but if you use the phone more intensively, you should expect to get about 11 hours of SOT. It takes over 3 hours to fully charge the phone with the supplied charger which is a pretty good result considering the size of the battery.

I found the 18:9 display to be quite nice and sharp despite the fact it’s only HD+. Also, the sunlight legibility is above average.

Other features include a dual-camera system on the back, nice and tactile buttons and a fingerprint scanner that is quite accurate but there display could light up faster. On the front, there is a single camera system as opposed to dual selfie cameras found on the Doogee S50.

Removing and inserting the side-mounted SIM card tray is quite easy. You just need to open up the flap and use a sim ejector pin to remove it.

I’m a bit disappointed that the capacitive buttons are not backlit and there is no LED notification light. Lastly, the loudspeaker quality is not really good. The sound is tinny and flat just like on the Doogee S50.

HARDWARE

As far as hardware goes, the S55 ships with a pretty nice looking list of specs, considering the price. The gaming performance is good considering this is a budget rugged phone. You should be able to play most of the games without significant lag but obviously, there will be some skipped frames and stutter in some titles.

USER INTERFACE

As opposed to Doogee S50, the S55 ships with the Android 8 out of the box. The user interface preserves stock look but there are some design changes and added features like gesture and motion controls that actually work quite well. After using the phone for nearly 3 weeks, I can assure it is fast and smooth most of the time.

IMAGE QUALITY

The overall image quality is not really good. There could definitely be more detail and the colors are usually washed out. Low light pictures do not look great either. Same can be said about selfies and the portrait shots that have artificial background blur effect.

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

1080p video quality is mediocre as the footage comes out very shaky.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLUj7YNrGlc[/embedyt]

Selfie video can be recorded only in 480p, which is really frustrating. On the other hand, the quality of the footage is quite decent.

CONNECTIVITY

As for connectivity, the Doogee S55 is pretty good. Call quality is decent, there were no issues with signal reception and GPS is accurate while using for navigation.

There is also a gyroscope sensor on board so you can watch 360 content or play VR games with this phone.

CONCLUSIONS

The Doogee S55 is quite a decent budget rugged phone but it definitely has a few flaws to consider.

The main shortcoming is poor image quality. You should also know that the capacitive buttons are not backlit, there is no LED notificaitpn light and the loudspekaer quality is not great.

On the other hand, you get a nice-looking water and dust resistant phone that is well-built and it can take a beating, the Doogee S55 is quite a fast device on the daily basis and you can even play some 3D games on it. Finally, the battery life has been great thanks to a huge 5500mAh power bank.

At the end of the day, if you are looking for a budget rugged phone, the Doogee S55 might be a good option to check out if you don’t mind a few shortcomings.

Buy Doogee S55

The post Doogee S55 Review – Quite A Good Rugged Phone With Some Flaws appeared first on Gizmochina.

Study shows China’s 5G technology spending since 2015 surpassed that of the US by $24 billion

Jed John Ikoba — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 12:50:53 +0000

The next big thing in the tech industry is expected to be 5G technology. The race is on between China and the U.S on who will be the first to roll out the technology and from the look of things, China has the upper hand. A study published by Deloitte has shown that China’s spending on 5G technology development in recent years far outweighs the US spending by a whopping $24 billion.

This has created a wide gap between both giants which will be difficult for the U.S to match. 5G refers to the next-generation mobile internet technology which has the potential to enable people to download films and stream high bandwidth video for technologies such as virtual reality. Apart from consumer applications, the technology will come in useful in connecting infrastructure in cities and in the adoption of driverless cars. A recent report by IHS Markit projects that 5G will power $12.3 trillion of global economic output by 2035.

Back to the report by Deloitte, China is tracked to have built 350,000 new cell sites, while the U.S. has built fewer than 30,000 since 2015 till now. The Chinese government-back effort involves billions of dollars in 5G-related spendings. The report noted that “China and other countries may be creating a 5G tsunami, making it near impossible to catch up”. To play catch up, the U.S will need to spend 2.67 times the amount that China does in order to generate an equivalent amount of wireless network capacity. Perhaps, Washington’s realization that catching up with China would be impossible was partly responsible for the recent campaign against the use of ZTE and Huawei’s infrastructural technology by U.S companies. Who knows?

(via)

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Xiaomi Files For Hong Kong IPO, Expected To Raise At Least $10 Billion

Joel Joseph — Thu, 03 May 2018 04:24:35 +0000

After months of speculations and rumours, Xiaomi has finally filed for an IPO in Hong Kong. This marks a big win for the city of Hong Kong which has been trying to lure in tech companies to list in its stock exchange in recent times. In this regard, the city had made a few changes to its rules to allow for companies with multiple classes of shares to raise equity and this change seems to have paid off. It’s also an important milestone for Xiaomi as it opens its doors for public investors.

Xiaomi Mi Store India

The IPO filings doesn’t mention the number of shares or the price per share but it is said that Xiaomi could be looking to raise at least $10 billion in its IPO. This should value the company at around $100 billion and it will likely be the biggest tech IPO of 2018. In its filings, the company has revealed that 30% of the money raised would be used to develop its AI and IoT ecosystem, 30% would be used for R&D, and another 30% for global expansion. The remaining 10% would be used as working capital. Co-founders Lei Jun and Lin Bin will retain control of the company after the IPO through a special class of shares.

After a disappointing 2016, Xiaomi was quick to climb up the smartphone rankings ladder. In fact, yesterday’s Strategy Analytics report revealed that Xiaomi has climbed up to the fourth ranking in terms of global smartphone shipments, beating OPPO in Q1 2018. Sales in 2017 rose to 114.6 billion yuan, while the operating profit tripled to 12.2 billion yuan. The company posted a net loss of 43.9 billion yuan during this period but that was mainly because of pre-IPO preparations like issuing preferred shares to investors, making share based compensations and so on.

Xiaomi’s IPO comes at a time when the global smartphone shipments are shrinking. Even the Chinese market has slowed down significantly. Despite this, the company has still managed to demonstrate great skill in steadily increasing its sales and revenue through changes in its offline strategy and global expansion. So, we know that the company can quickly adapt to the ever changing needs of the smartphone market.

Now that the company has filed for an IPO, expect a lot more details about its financials and operations in the coming months.

(Via)

The post Xiaomi Files For Hong Kong IPO, Expected To Raise At Least $10 Billion appeared first on Gizmochina.

Huawei Mate 10 and the Mate 10 Pro Review After 1.5 Months! Still Amazing!

Linus — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 22:01:07 +0000

Huawei unveiled the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro in Munich back in October and I’ve been using those phones ever since. These are one of the best-looking phones on the market and they offer bleeding edge specs and much more. Learn more in our Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro review after using those phones for more than 1.5 months.

Buy Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro

VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZMg-M4hYCA[/embedyt]

DESIGN, DISPLAY, BATTERY LIFE

Both Mates look just gorgeous as they use a quality metal frame and glass on the front and rear. The phones look really nice in the hand despite their huge footprint. I didn’t drop either of the phones, so they both still look as new.

They Mate 10 has a smaller 5.9” 2k resolution LCD display that has a traditional 16:9 aspect ratio, meaning that it is wider but it is a bit shorter than the Mate 10 Pro.

The latter phone has a larger 6” AMOLED display with 18:9 aspect ratio but it has only 1080p resolution. In practice, I found both displays to be plenty sharp for everyday use but I prefer the AMOLED panel on the Mate 10 Pro.

I found both fingerprint scanners to be very fast and accurate. The Mate 10 has one on the front while the Mate 10 Pro has it on the back.

Both phones have 4000mAh batteries that have been performing really well. With my usage, I could get over 6 hours of screen-on time but keep in mind that I usually install a ton of apps and use the phone quite intensively.

The supplied charger fully charges the phone in just about 1h and 10 mins, which is one of the best results out there.

The Mate 10 has a microSD card slot whereas the Mate 10 Pro lacks this feature. Also, it does not have the headset jack like a regular Mate 10 but it has more storage and RAM memory (6GB/ 128GB vs 4GB/64GB). Both phones have the same powerful Kirin 970 chipset.

Another area where the Mate 10 Pro excels over the Mate 10 is the IP67 certification for water and dust resistance.

The stereo speaker setup is very good and it might be one of the best in the business.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

When it comes to hardware, the Mate 10 has a brand new Hisilicon Kirin 970 chipset that is coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The Mate 10 Pro ships with the same chipset, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which is, however, not expandable.

The new Mate 10 phones sport the first Huawei chipset with a neural processing unit or AI component of the processor, which learns how you use the phone and helps the device adapt to assure the best user experience. For example, the AI chip detects what kind of picture you take to apply the best image settings and it did a pretty good job during my unscientific test. Also, it helps apply the right amount of blurring effect in the portrait mode.

Obviously, the AI component does a lot more than helping you take better pictures. Most importantly, it learns every single day to assure the best user experience. For example, it learns how you use the phone to make it faster by allocating the resources to the specific task. So far, Microsoft has updated its Translator app to make use of the AI chipset to speed up the translation process. When reading a book, the NPU will remind users to enable Eye Comfort mode (Huawei’s blue light filter). Or, when taking a picture of a business card, the NPU will offer to scan the details into your phone book. These are just a few examples of how AI processor works in practice.

If you don’t really care about artificial intelligence, you can be rest assured that the Mate 10 will handle absolutely everything you throw at it. I played a lot of different games on the very highest settings and the phone just flies. A flagship-grade performance.

Finally, what impressed me the most was that the phone stayed cold to the touch even after 40 mins of gaming.

USER INTERFACE

The Mate 10 ships with Android 8 out of the box but it has the EMUI skin built on top of it. Some people may love it, some may hate it mainly because of it’s a bit cartoonish look. The first thing you may want to do is bring back the app drawer feature, which is built into the UI.

I personally like it since there are plenty of features and customization options to make the phone look your own. You can choose from a variety of themes, wallpapers and so on. There are also pretty cool transition effects and other customization options.

You can choose from quite a few smart assistance features that I don’t really like using, to be honest. If you plan to use those gestures, they work fine. What is the most important thing about this phone is that it is blazing fast, fluid and responsive. Huawei claims that the phone will not show any signs of slowing down even after 18 months of using it. I can’t confirm that but the Mate 10 is indeed a very fast phone on the daily basis.

EMUI Desktop Experience

Please see our video review for a better idea of how the EMUI desktop feature works.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZMg-M4hYCA[/embedyt]

Just like the Mate 10 Pro, the Mate 10 has the EMUI desktop feature that is just awesome. You simply connect your phone using the HDMI port to any display, without the need to buy a dock station.

There is the desktop mode that converts your phone into a basic laptop. You can edit your documents, browse the web, access all the files from the phone and so on. Obviously, you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard and the mouse for an even better experience but if you don’t have one, you can use a built it trackpad directly from the phone that I found to be pretty intuitive to use. You can also switch to the phone mode, which basically mirrors phone’s display. You can even play 3D games without any input lag, which is pretty awesome. Overall, I really like the EMUI Desktop feature. It works straight out of the box, no need for a docking station, no additional software.

CAMERAS

Both phones have identical cameras. A 12-megapixel RGB camera is paired with a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor here, and both lenses feature apertures of up to f/1.6.

The camera takes pictures really fast. There are quite a few shooting modes. My favorites include 2x optical zoom to make the best out of that secondary sensor. This mode is really useful and I enjoyed using it while I was exploring Munich. The pictures look pretty good as you don’t lose detail like using digital zoom.

The daylight images look really good considering the fact that the phone still runs on an early software build. There is a good amount of detail, sharpness and the dynamic range adjustment is quite impressive. The only downside is that some of the pictures are underexposed but that can be easily fixed in post.

The low-light camera performance is quite impressive too. Sure, there is a bit more noise and less detail but in general, the results are great. Pictures taken using a portrait mode usually look quite good but I noticed some artifacts going on in a few shots. There is also a monochrome mode that I’m not a huge fan of but the pictures look really nice and detailed.

Selfies taken using the 8MP camera are detailed and will definitely do the trick for social media needs.

4k video looks pretty good too as the footage is sharp and detailed. However, the OIS does not work in the 4k mode, meaning that the video may look a bit shaky. 720p slow-motion video is not the best I’ve seen but it’s definitely usable. 1080p selfie video looks great too as there is plenty of detail. Finally, I really like the sound recording quality.

CONNECTIVITY

Connectivity-wise, the Mate 10 and the Mate 10 Pro are just excellent. The call quality and signal reception are great, Wifi and mobile network speeds are really fast, Bluetooth and NFC work fine. Also, the GPS is very accurate. Finally, the phones have a bunch of sensors, just like any other flagship in the market.

CONCLUSIONS

After using both Mate 10 and the Mate 10 Pro for more than 1.5 months, I still believe they are one of the best phones on the market right now.

The devices simply look beautiful, the phones are well-made, the displays are sharp, a powerful processor assures excellent overall performance and a dedicated AI chipset will learn on the daily basis to assure the best user experience. Also, the cameras take one of the best pictures and the battery life is great.

A few things that bother me about the Huawei Mate 10 are that there is no wireless charging, the water, and dust resistance rating could be higher and there should also be a 128GB model available for all the regions, just like on the Mate 10 Pro.

Obviously, there are some caveats to consider about the Mate 10 Pro like the lack of the 3.5mm headset jack that less and less phone have. Also, there is no wireless charging, no microSD card slot, and no 2k resolution display.Other than that, the Mate 10 and the Mate 10 Pro are legit flagship phones that have a ton of premium features and so far, they are one of my favorite phones of 2017, despite a few shortcomings.

BUY Mate 10 Pro (US)

Buy Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro (International)

Buy Mate 10 (US)

Buy Mate 10 (International-Amazon)

Buy Mate 10 Pro (International-Amazon)

The post Huawei Mate 10 and the Mate 10 Pro Review After 1.5 Months! Still Amazing! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 Review – The Bezel-less BEAUTY with a few Flaws

Linus — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 21:59:50 +0000

We all know that there is a trend of the full-screen smartphones today. The Xiaomi Mi Mix was one of the first mainstream phones to offer near bezel-less design and the Mi Mix 2 is a successor to it. It indeed looks beautiful, it has top-shelf specs and more. Learn more in the full Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 review.

Just before we start, the phone costs about $550 at Gearbest.com but you will find a generous discount code at the end of this review.

Buy Xiaomi Mi Mix 2

VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH1bQnJwkoE[/embedyt]

UNBOXING

The phone ships with a standard set of accessories.

Some extras include a 3.5mm headset jack adapter and a high-quality case that looks nice and fits the phone nice and snug.

DESIGN and DISPLAY

There is no doubt that the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 is one of the most beautiful phones out there. The star of the show is a sharp, bright and vibrant 5.99” LCD display. It has 1080p+ resolution, 18:9 aspect ratio and it is covered with the Gorilla Glass 4.

The ceramic back looks really nice in practice and it is curved on each side for aesthetics and a better grip. If you add a premium aluminum frame and responsive buttons, you definitely feel that you hold a true flagship phone.

It’s obvious that the Mi Mix 2 can be complete smudge fest if you don’t clean it, just like most of the glass-made phones. But the thing that annoys me the most is that the device is very slippery. Yes, it sounds like a cliche but it is much more slippery than other glass-made phones I’ve tested in recent memory.

When it comes to optics, we are looking a tradition camera setup that has one 12MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture lens and 4-axis OIS.

Here is a minute of a few little but important features: the fingerprint scanner is one of the best out there, selfies can be taken using a 5MP snapper and there is a nice LED notification light. Keep in mind that selfie camera is implemented on the bottom right corner, so you would need to hold the phone upside down to take portrait selfies.

However, there is no microSD card slot and no headset jack but the supplied adapter assures a very good sound quality.

There is a pretty good sound system too that is provided by a stereo speakers setup.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The Xiaomi Mix 2 is no slouch when it comes to hardware as it ships with top-shelf components that include a Snapdragon 835 chip, 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

You can also opt in for a more expensive model that has 8GB of RAM and whopping 256GB of internal storage.

As expected, the phone can handle 3D games without any issues. However, there is one serious software bug that prevents you from installing games that take a lot of storage space. You simply get an error message every time you try to download and install a game from the Play Store. I know this can be fixed somehow but this is what you will get out of the box. That’s really frustrating and hopefully, it will be fixed with a software update soon.

BENCHMARKS

USER INTERFACE

If you are familiar with Xiaomi phones, you will feel right at home since the device ships with the MIUI 8.5 that is built on top of Android 7.1.

My phone shipped with the original Chinese ROM, meaning that you would need to install Google Services yourself which takes about a minute to do that. However, you still need to deal with some bloatware apps. Also, an error message pops up every time I open up the Gmail app, which is annoying. We have all the same features and customization options Xiaomi phones have been famous for. You can tweak the phone in a variety of different ways, adjust a ton of settings and change the looks.

Most importantly, I can assure that the phone is fast and responsive even after installing a lot of apps.

CAMERAS

The camera app can take pictures quite fast. There a few shooting modes including a pro mode that allows you to adjust some image settings. There is also a slow-motion video mode.

The overall image quality is quite good but I expected better results from the phone this expensive. Obviously, you can take some good-looking daylight pictures but some of them could have more detail. Also, I got a few shots that were out of focus.

The low-light camera performance is okay but again, I expected better results from a $500 phone.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KDB7vwttZU[/embedyt]

The 4k video looks quite good and 4-axis OIS does the job reducing the shakiness. However, I found that there are some video artifacts, continuous auto-focus is not always reliable and sound recording quality could be a lot better.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mW-FhO7koQ[/embedyt]

1080p selfie video looks great. Just bear in mind that awkward selfie camera position.

Download full resolution camera samples

CONNECTIVITY

When it comes to connectivity, I can assure that the call quality has improved a lot over the original Mi Mix. Also, signal reception is great, Wifi works fine and the phone has Bluetooth 5 and NFC connectivity options. The GPS works exceptionally well. Finally, the phone has a bunch of sensors, just like any other flagship in the market.

BATTERY LIFE

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 ships with a 3400mAh battery that performs really well considering the size of the display. The max. SOT time I was able to reach was over 8 hours, which is quite impressive. If you use the phone more intensively, you should expect to achieve about 5-6 hours of SOT every day.

Finally, the supplied charger fully charges the phone in just over 1 hour and 20 mins thanks to Quick Charge 3.0 technology.

CONCLUSIONS

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 is probably the most beautiful phone the company has ever made and it sure has a lot of flagship-grade qualities for a lower price than the mainstream flagships. Also, I love the Mix 2 for its display, the overall build quality, great performance and good battery life.

However, there are quite a few shortcomings. There is no microSD card slot, no headset jack and the phone is not water-resistant. There are also a few bugs in the UI that perhaps will be fixed with the future software updates. What | also expect from Xiaomi’s software team is to improve the overall image quality.

At the end of the day, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 still offers a lot of true flagship features for a lower price tag but please consider a few shortcomings before making a buying decision.

You can now get the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 with a generous discount code ($50 OFF the retail price). COUPON: MIMX2K

BUY Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 with a COUPON: MIMX2K

The post Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 Review – The Bezel-less BEAUTY with a few Flaws appeared first on Gizmochina.

The Best Budget Bezel Less Smartphone 2017? Elephone S8 Review!

Linus — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 15:54:13 +0000

If you follow the trend of the budget Chinese phones, you know that manufacturers just love that full-screen design. Honestly, I don’t mind that because phones just look great. The Elephone S8 is one of the most powerful full-screen phones for less than $240. Learn more in the full Elephone S8 review.

Buy Elephone S8 with a COUPON CODE: PTBRELES8

VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ByrtQkuPMs[/embedyt]

UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff, no extras included.

DESIGN and DISPLAY

The 6” 2k resolution display is just gorgeous and probably the best I’ve seen on a budget all-screen design phone. It’s really sharp and it’s a great panel overall. Obviously, the tradeoff is that the phone is quite huge.

A nice glass back, a sturdy aluminum frame and precise buttons add quite a lot of a premium look and feel, and it’s just nice to hold the phone in the hand despite its huge footprint. One thing that bothers me is a hybrid SIM card tray that rattles just a bit.

There is a beefy 21MP camera and 8MP shooter for selfies that is implemented on the bottom right corner.

Now a few features as quickly as possible: there is no headset jack, which is a shame for a budget phone. The device uses USB C port, there is no LED notification light, the fingerprint scanner is fast and reliable but the display could light up a bit faster.

The loudspeaker quality is not the best but it’s significantly better than on other budget full-screen phones I’ve tested.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The Elephone S8 stands out from the crowd of budget full-screen phones because it’s a more powerful phone. The device has a deca-core Helio X25 chipset with the max. clock speeds of 2.5GHz, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which is not expandable for some reason.

Even though all the specs sound impressive, I found that the phone stutters in some 3D games on the highest graphics settings. I can’t say that the phone lags but there are quite a few skipped frames. The phone gets quite warm but it does not overheat.

BENCHMARKS

USER INTERFACE

Where the phone does not stutter or lag, is the user interface that is based on Android 7.1. Well, there are some weird translations like a whitelist. Also, the blue light filter is called a night light and you cannot adjust the intensity of it.

Other features like gesture controls work just fine if you plan to use them. My most favorite part is that Elephone preserved that stock Android look and feel and the phone is really fast, no matter what you do with it.

CAMERAS

The camera department is where the Elephone is also better than other full display budget phones I’ve reviewed. Obviously, the pictures are not perfect as some of them lack sharpness, the colors look washed out and so on but in general, the daylight image quality is decent considering the price of the phone.

The night images are not that good but again, the quality is a bit better than I expected.

Selfies could look sharper but I think that will look pretty good on social media.

What is frustrating with all these full-screen phones is that they can shoot videos only in 480p. Still, the videos come out quite usable for social media or video chats. Obviously, you need to hold the phone upside down both when shooting videos or taking selfies.

Another con is that the phone uses HEVC format for videos, meaning that you need to convert it before you can use it. I know that’s easy to do but it is an extra step for a budget phone owner.

The quality of the video is pretty good but the footage could look sharper and have more detail. The sound recording quality is actually pretty good for a budget phone.

Download full resolution camera samples

CONNECTIVITY

The call quality is not bad but it could be better. I didn’t have issues with other connectivity options like wifi, Bluetooth or GPS. The phone has 13 sensors including a gyroscope, so you are all set if you want to use the device with VR headsets.

BATTERY LIFE

The phone rocks a huge 4000mAh battery that allows you to use the phone for an entire day or more. I could get about 6 or even 7 hours of screen on time even with quite a few apps installed and social media accounts that usually sync in the background.

It takes just over 1.5 hours to fully charge the phone with the supplied charger.

CONCLUSIONS

The Elephone S8 is the best budget full-screen phone I’ve tested so far. I just love its sharp 6” display, the overall build quality, the speed and fluidity, a great battery life and surprisingly decent cameras.

Obviously, you should consider the fact that the phone lacks a headset jack, there is no LED notification light, no NFC, no microSD card slot and the front camera shoots video only at 480p resolution.

If you can live with these shortcomings, the Elephone S8 is definitely one of the best full-screen phones on a budget.

Buy Elephone S8 with a COUPON CODE: PTBRELES8

The post The Best Budget Bezel Less Smartphone 2017? Elephone S8 Review! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro Review After 36 hours!

Linus — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 16:45:50 +0000

The reason why I didn’t make my initial hands-on video of the new Huawei Mate series phone is that I wanted to spend just a little bit more time with the device. Obviously, I prefer the Mate 10 Pro that has a larger display and more power. Learn more in our Huawei Mate 10 Pro review after using the phone for 36 hours!

Huawei phones at Gearbest

VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbPAzml9q7Y[/embedyt]

DESIGN and DISPLAY

If I was just a mainstream consumer, the key selling point for me would be the design of the Mate 10 Pro. It combines metal and glass and a 6” 1080p display with very thin bezels. The panel itself is just gorgeous despite the fact that it does not have 2k resolution. The phone just looks and feels premium and it sits nicely in the hand despite its huge footprint.

The new accent stripe looks really nice in practice. There is an upgraded camera setup too. A 12-megapixel RGB camera is paired with a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor here, and both lenses feature apertures of up to f/1.6.

CAMERAS

That camera takes really good pictures in daylight but keep in mind that the device runs on the pre-release software. In fact, I have an advanced release review unit meaning that both the device and software may differ when it is made available to consumers. There are manual, 2x optical zoom and portrait modes that take pretty good pictures but more on the image quality in the full review. The 4k video looks quite sharp and detailed.

Full resolution camera samples

FEATURES

The new Mate 10 phones sport the first Huawei chipset with a neural processing unit or AI component of the processor, which learns how you use the phone and helps the DEVICE adapt to assure the best user experie3nce. For example, the AI chip detects what kind of picture you take to apply the best image settings. Also, it helps apply the right amount of blurring effect in the portrait mode.

Obviously, the AI component does a lot more than helping you take better pictures. For example, it learns how you use the phone to make it faster by allocating the resources to the specific task. So far, Microsoft has updated its Translator app to make use of the AI chipset to speed up the translation process. I will cover the AI capabilities of this phone in detail in my full review.

Now a few features in a nutshell: the Mate 10 Pro is water and dust resistant thanks to IP67 certification but it lacks the headset jack, so you would need to use a supplied adapter for traditional headphones.

I found the fingerprint scanner to be blazing fast and accurate. A beefy 4000mAh battery will easily get you through the day or more. There is a fast charging tech on board that charges the battery up to 58% in 30 mins. However, the phone does not have wireless charging.

HARDWARE

As for hardware, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro is one of the most powerful phones you can get. The phone ships with an octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 970 chipset, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which is not expandable.

The phone is really fast and responsive but obviously, I haven’t installed many apps like I always do and I have to spend a little more time with the device.

The Mate 10 Pro ships with Android 8 out of the box but it has the EMUI skin built on top of it. As usual to Huawei phones, there are plenty of features and customization options to make the phone look your own.

The Mate 10 Pro will cost €799, which puts the phone in the flagship price category. It will be released in Europe, the US and some other markets.

Overall, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro shapes up to be quite an impressive all-around device. It packs great hardware including a dedicated AI chip, a compelling dual-camera setup and much more that I will cover in our full review.

Huawei phones at Gearbest

The post Huawei Mate 10 Pro Review After 36 hours! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Cubot Magic Review

Linus — Fri, 04 Aug 2017 19:42:52 +0000

Cubot is one of the Chinese phone makers that usually produces phones that offer a lot of value for the price. Magic is their latest budget model that offers dual cameras and nice design for less than $100. Learn more in the full Cubot Magic review.

Buy Cubot Magic

VIDEO REVIEW

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

UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff and some extras include a soft TPU case

DESIGN and DISPLAY

Let’s be clear, Cubot Magic imitates the design of the Honor Magic but it uses cheaper materials to reduce the cost of the device.

The phone is made entirely of plastic and it does lack premium materials but the build quality is good. The design highlight is that this phone is curved on each side, which really looks nice in practice.

We have a 5” 720p display, which may not be the sharpest out there but I think it is really good for a cheap phone. The capacitive buttons are not backlit but we have a pulsing notification light and LED flash for night selfies that can be taken with a 5MP front facing camera.

The backplate is a fingerprint magnet as it is made of glossy plastic. Another highlight of this cheap phone is a dual camera setup.

We have one 13MP shooter and another 2MP sensor.

The loudspeaker is not the best but it is okay for such a cheap phone.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

When it comes to hardware, Cubot Magic is yet another budget phone with decent specs for the price. The phone ships with the MTK6737 chip, 16GB of expandable storage and 3GB of RAM.

The gaming performance is okay but you should expect for some skipped frames even if you play games like Asphalt 8 on medium graphics settings.

BENCHMARKS

USER INTERFACE

I love when manufacturers keep stock Android UI on these cheap phones and the Cubot Magic is no exception as it runs on Android 7 out of the box. Some extra features include a few gesture controls that I didn’t really use because, for some weird reason, they are in Spanish. Anyway, the phone is fast and fluid on the daily basis and that is the most important thing to me when it comes to budget phones.

IMAGE QUALITY

As for image quality, that dual-camera setup can take some decent-looking photos with the shallow depth of field effect. Obviously, you can’t compare the quality with some more expensive handsets but I’m quite impressed with the results from the $90 phone.

As for regular photos, you can’t expect much from any super cheap phones but you can still take some pretty good-looking pictures that are usable for social media.

However, the quality decreases quite dramatically in lower-lit situations.

The selfie image quality is not so great and the front-firing flash does not really help in low-light.

The 1080p video quality does not impress like on most of the cheap phones. The 1080p selfie video does not look impressive either but it is usable for social media or video chats.

CONNECTIVITY

When it comes to connectivity, the phone does everything quite well. The GPS lock speeds are fast and it is surprisingly accurate when used for navigation. The phone has only a few sensors and there is no gyroscope.

On a positive note, I like the fact that you don’t need to remove the battery to access two SIM cards slots and the microSD card slot.

BATTERY LIFE

The 2600mAh battery performs quite well considering its size but you should not expect any stellar results. I was able to achieve just about 4.5h of screen-on time but your mileage may vary.

CONCLUSIONS

Cubot Magic is yet cheap another phone from China that offers quite a lot of value for the price. Its main selling point is design as the phone is curved on each side.

In general, it is a decent option for such a low amount of money but it would have been great if it had some premium materials used in the construction. Well, all of these budget phones have some tradeoffs and this is what you have to expect when you spend less than $100 for a phone.

Buy Cubot Magic

Xiaomi Mid-Year Sale

The post Cubot Magic Review appeared first on Gizmochina.

Vernee Thor E Review – Unique Smartphone for just $99!

Linus — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 21:20:46 +0000

Vernee is known for its budget phones and the Thor E is one of their latest models. It offers some cool features like a black and white display that saves power, a huge 5200mAh battery and a lot more for less than $120. In fact, you can sometimes get the phone for as low as $99, which makes it a bargain. Learn more in the full Vernee Thor E review.

Thanks to Gearbest for sending the Vernee Thor E for a review.

VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw0XlaaTqIU[/embedyt]

UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff that includes a fast charger.

DESIGN and DISPLAY

As far as design goes, the Vernee Thor E does not look exceptional by any means but it is well built, it uses a metal chassis, buttons and metal backplate, which is, however, prone to fingerprints like most of the glossy black surfaces.

What is surprising is that the phone is very light and thin considering its beefy 5200mAh battery. In fact, the Thor E measures at just 8.2mm of thickness.

Also, the phone is compact due to its 5” 720p display, which is definitely not the sharpest out there but it gets the job done for a cheap phone.

We have an interpolated 5MP selfie shooter and LED notification light but the capacitive keys are not backlit. However, you have an option to switch to on-screen keys and customize them.

One of the key selling points is a physical button that turns on the E-Ink power saving mode that switches a display to a monochrome mode and turns off some power hungry features. I think this is a really cool idea we haven’t seen on other cheap phones. More on this feature in the battery life section.

As for optics, we are looking at a 13MP interpolated camera that is coupled with a single LED flash. A fingerprint scanner is easily one of the best you can find on any cheap phone. It also unlocks the phone straight from the standby mode.

The loudspeaker quality is kind of poor and there are definitely some better cheap phones in this department.

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

As for hardware, the Vernee Thor E has decent specs for the price that includes an octa-core MTK6753 CPU, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

The phone handles 3D gaming very well. I was surprised that Asphalt 8 ran with no lag or stutter even on highest graphics, with just a few skipped frames.

BENCHMARKS

UI

I love that the phone ships with the stock Android 7 with just a few added features like gesture and motion controls that work quite well.

Also, I like that the phone is very fast on the daily basis even after installing quite a few apps.

IMAGE QUALITY

The 13MP camera can take some decent looking images in good light but since we are talking about $120 phone, they are not ideal. The main issue that I found is that the colors look a bit washed out in some of the shots and there could definitely be more detail.

When it comes to the low-light shots, they look quite terrible. Also, the selfie pictures simply look bad.

Also, the selfie pictures simply look bad.

As for the video, it is just mediocre. Same can be said about the selfie video.

CONNECTIVITY

As for connectivity, I didn’t have any issues with this phone. Wifi, GPS, and Bluetooth works fine and call quality is decent.

BATTERY LIFE

Battery life is just amazing. I kept switching from a regular to the E-ink mode and honestly, I could get like 5 days of regular use of this phone or over 10 hours of screen on time thanks to a large 5200mAh battery that can be recharged in about 1.5h thanks to the supplied fast charger.

CONCLUSIONS

Vernee Thor E is a surprisingly good cheap smartphone that has a few features that make it stand out from the crowd.

The E-ink display feature is just awesome and it saves a lot of power. If you combine it with a huge battery, you will be able to use the phone for quite a bit of time.

Also, I like the form factor, even though the Vernee Thor E is kind of plain looking. Moreover, the phone is fast and it can even handle some 3D games quite well.

However, the cameras remain the weakest point of this device but if you don’t use the phone for taking lots of images in poor lighting, the Vernee Thor E is a pretty solid phone the price.

Buy Vernee Thor E

The post Vernee Thor E Review – Unique Smartphone for just $99! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Gigaset Me Review – Designed in Germany and Premium for $140!

Linus — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 12:44:04 +0000

Gigaset is not the first manufacturer name that comes to your mind when you think of buying a new smartphone but I came across a beautiful and powerful Gigaset ME device. It was designed in Germany, it’s an official partner Munchen Bayern football club and the phone costs just $140. In fact, the Gigaset ME used to cost over $500 when it was just released, which was simply too much. Learn more in the full review.

Buy Gigaset Me

Gigaset Me Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a4f3ie9s90[/embedyt]

Gigaset Me Review: UNBOXING

The phone comes in a premium packaging and inside of it, you can find the all the usual stuff. Some extras include a pair of earphones that actually sound pretty good.

Gigaset Me Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

Honestly, the Gigaset Me looks and feels like a much more expensive phone. It uses a high-quality stainless steel chassis, tactile metal buttons and a sheet of Gorilla Glass 3 on the front and rear.

The phone is compact due to it’s 5” 1080p display, which is sharp and vibrant. Just above the display we have an 8MP camera and a notification LED light.

I don’t like the fact that there are only the on-screen navigation keys but at least you can change the position of the buttons.

The back looks really nice but obviously, it is a huge fingerprint magnet as most of the glass surfaces, and the phone is quite slippery.

Besides the beefy 16MP camera, dual tone dual-LED flash, you can find some other sensors since the phone has quite a few fitness-oriented features.

You can track your heart rate, check the UV level using a dedicated sensor if you need to, track your steps with the built-in pedometer and once you finish your workout, control devices like TVs with the help of the IR blaster.

The fingerprint scanner is very accurate and it unlocks the phone straight from the standby mode. However, sometimes the display lights up slower than expected.

The phone is being advertised for the good sound but I would rate the loudspeaker quality as above average. Also, you will usually end up covering it up if you hold the phone in the landscape mode. The sound via the headset jack is great and I have no complaints here.

Gigaset Me Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Since the Gigaset ME was released quite while ago, it sports a little outdated but still pretty good specs that include an octa-core Snapdragon 810 chip, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.

The Snapdragon 810 chip was used in the last year’s flagships for a reason. The phone can handle anything you throw at it without any issues. There is no stutter or skipped frames once you play the most demanding 3D games. Finally, the phone gets quite warm when gaming but it does not overheat.

Gigaset Me Review: BENCHMARKS

Gigaset Me Review: USER INTERFACE

The phone runs on the outdated Android 5.1 with the Gigaset’s skin on top it.

There are not too many features to talk about except for the fact that there are some redesigned icons and the app tray has been removed for some reason.

Most importantly, the UI runs fast and I didn’t have any stutter even after installing quite a few apps.

Gigaset Me Review: IMAGE QUALITY

IT IS HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED TO DOWNLOAD FULL RESOLUTION CAMERA SAMPLES TO SEE THE ACTUAL IMAGE QUALITY. THE PICTURES UPLOADED ON THE WEBSITE ARE 50% SMALLER IN RESOLUTION.

When it comes to the image quality, the Gigaset Me is definitely one of the best $150 camera phones you can buy. The images come out sharp, detailed and the color reproduction is accurate even though I took all the daylight pictures during the cloudy and foggy day.

The night photos don’t look that great but you will still be to take some usable images. Obviously, the pictures looks quite grainy buy my biggest complaint is a visible purple tint in most of the shots.

The selfies look kind of mediocre. All the images I took have quite a soft focus.

The phone can shoot videos at the resolution of 2k or 1080p. Either way, the quality of footage is just mediocre. My biggest complaint is a very poor sound recording quality.

Download full resolution camera samples

Gigaset Me Review: CONNECTIVITY

The phone ships with the hybrid SIM card tray where you can either put 2 nano SIM cards or a combo of 1 SIM and the microSD card.

I didn’t have any connectivity issues with this phone except for the fact that the sound quality from the earpiece is kind of mediocre.

Gigaset Me Review: BATTERY LIFE

The 3000mAh battery performs great. It will easily get you through the day and that translates to about 5 hours of screen-on time on a mixed use.

Also, the phone supports the Quick Charge 2.0 and you can fully charge the phone in about 1h 30 mins.

Gigaset Me Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the Gigaset ME, the phone you’ve probably never considered buying.

Obviously, it was simply too expensive at the time of the release but for the current price of just $150, I think that it is a pretty good deal.

The phone looks and feels expensive, the display is pretty sharp and vibrant and the Gigaset Me has the specs that can still handle even the most demanding tasks like 3D games.

The camera can take some really nice and sharp pictures in daylight but it struggles in lower-lit situations. Also, the sound quality in the video recording mode is just horrible.

If you decide to buy this phone, you will probably be stuck with the Android 5.1. On the other hand, the day-to-day performance of the UI is good.

Still, the Gigaset ME is definitely worth $140 as it is a solid and nice-looking phone if you don’t mind the previously mentioned shortcomings and the fact that it will attract all the fingerprints and smudges once you use it.

Buy Gigaset Me

The post Gigaset Me Review – Designed in Germany and Premium for $140! appeared first on Gizmochina.

The Best Cheap Gimbal for Action Cameras? Zhiyun Rider-M Review

Linus — Sat, 24 Dec 2016 11:23:18 +0000

Action cameras are great. They are very compact, easy to use and they can produce a high-quality footage. Also, my YI 4K action camera gives me the convenience of infinite focus and wide angle lens, just like a GoPro or any other high-end sports camera.

However, the handheld footage is usually shaky and wobbly but one of the best and the most mobile solutions is a gimbal if you don’t want to carry your bulky tripod everywhere you go. I just came across the Zhiyun Rider-M, which fits most of the action cameras and it is just a fantastic little device… and it’s pretty affordable. Learn more in our full review.

Visit the Official website

Zhiyun Rider-M Gimbal Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaEJQFHZ57E[/embedyt]

Zhiyun Rider-M Gimbal Review: UNBOXING

The device ships with all the stuff you need to start shooting videos. Some notable accessories include a high-quality selfie stick that is made out mostly of metal. Also, there are two sets of batteries, a charger, a really nice carrying pouch, video output and charging cables for GoPro cameras and the GoPro accessory adapter, so you can attach the gimbal to almost anything you want.

Zhiyun Rider-M Gimbal Review: DESIGN, FEATURES and FUNCTIONALITY

The first thing you are going to notice is the build quality. The gimbal is made entirely of metal and it doesn’t seem to break anytime soon.

We have some standard ports as the microUSB, GoPro charging and the video output port. The 1/4 screw mount allows you to attach the gimbal to all sorts of accessories. If you attach it to the tripod like I did, you will get some very smooth shoots.

What I love about the Zhiyun Rider-M is that it is very easy to use right off the bat. All you have to do is to put your camera into the bracket, tighten up the screws, turn it on and you are good to go. We have just two control buttons. The power and the mode button.

The default mode is called the pan follow mode and I used it most of the time.

I have to tell you that the footage looks just stunning. I was simply walking normally and didn’t try to hold my hands steadily at all but the footage looks very smooth. Also, the gimbal is very responsive and even if you move it too quickly, you will still have smooth and slow panning or tilting motion. One mistake that I made was holding the selfie stick completely vertically. That’s why one of the axis of the gimbal was caught by the wide angle lens of my YI 4k camera in a few shots. If you don’t make this mistake, you will be able to shoot some awesome-looking videos.

If you press the mode button once, the gimbal will enter the locking mode, which is great for the smooth pan or tilt shots if you want to film a particular object. This mode works great with both landscape and product shots.

If you press the mode button twice, you will enter the pan and pitch following mode, where the gimbal moves towards the direction you point the camera to. This mode works pretty well too. Even if you move the gimbal quickly, you will get a smooth shot since all the axes move slowly. The last mode is the selfie mode and it is triggered by pressing the mode button 3 times. A cool feature is that you can simply point the gimbal to the direction you want and hold it for 1 second and the Rider M locks that angle automatically.

Another great feature is that you can control the gimbal using your phone via the Bluetooth. Obviously, you can also switch from one mode to another but you can also control the gimbal manually to get that perfect shot.

Zhiyun Rider-M Gimbal Review: BATTERY LIFE

When it comes to the battery life, it’s just fantastic. You can always track the amount of juice left using the app but I have to tell you the batteries last forever and I wasn’t able to kill them in like 5 days. If you need to recharge them, the supplied charger fully recharges the batteries in about 2 hours.

Zhiyun Rider-M Gimbal Review: CONCLUSIONS

In my opinion, the Zhiyun Rider-M is a really great gimbal that has been working absolutely fine so far.

The shots it allows you to take look very smooth even if you don’t hold the gimbal steadily and simply walk normally. Also, the device doesn’t feel cheap at all since it is made entirely of metal.

The last things I wanted to mention again is a great battery life, the ability to control the gimbal using your phone and the ease of use of this device. You just take it out of the box and start shooting.

All in all, I can definitely recommend the Zhiyun Rider-M if you want to step your action camera video game up. I will be using this gimbal in some of my future reviews and I will update the description of this video if something goes wrong with this device. For now, I love the way it works and I think it’s well worth the price of $250.

Buy Zhiyun Rider-M

The post The Best Cheap Gimbal for Action Cameras? Zhiyun Rider-M Review appeared first on Gizmochina.

Smallest Smartphone in the World! Vphone S8 Review

Linus — Sun, 18 Dec 2016 09:07:45 +0000

Once we think of smartphones these days, we think of some big and bulky devices with huge displays. Some of those phones can’t even fit into the pocket. Meet the Vphone S8, the smallest smartphone in the world. Is this $28 little device worth your attention? Stay tuned to find out.

VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Xm8HkfAa4[/embedyt]

UNBOXING

The device ships with the USB cable, a strap and some paperwork.

DESIGN AND FEATURES

Honestly, this thing doesn’t even look like a smartphone and it reminds me of a smartwatch… without a strap.

We have a 1.54” display, which does not sport the highest resolution but it is pretty good for a $28 device.

The phone takes 1 SIM card and 1 microSD card for storage expansion as the internal storage is just 128MB.

We have just a power button and non-backlit capacitive keys to control the device.

On the back, there is a heart rate monitor, which measures your heart rate pretty accurately. Not sure why I thought I needed to put it on my wrist as it works with the fingertip too.

USER INTERFACE

As for user interface, you have your basic phone features. You can call someone, write messages and so on.

The call quality is not very impressive but you can definitely make a clear conversation.

There are also some basic apps like calculator, calendar, stopwatch etc. Besides the heart rate monitor, you can track your fitness routines using the built-in pedometer, which is pretty accurate or use sedentary reminder to reminds you to move a little.

You can also connect the Vphone S8 to your phone using the FundoWear app to track your fitness routines in detail, receive most of the notifications, use this little device as a remote dialer or as a remote controller for your main phone’s camera.

BATTERY LIFE

As for battery life, the Vphone S8 will get you through the day if you use it quite intensively. You may get a few days out of it if you are a light user.

CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the smallest smartphone in the world, that costs just $28.

It’s definitely not the smartest smartphone out there but it’s definitely fun to use it. Also, it comes with all the basic phone and fitness tracker features, and a simple user interface that does not lag.

The phone may come handy if you just need to use another SIM card for calls.

At the end of the day, the Vphone S8 is not something I really need for everyday use but it’s definitely a fun little device that works quite well and it is actually very cheap for what it has to offer.

Buy Vphone S8 from Gearbest

USE THE COUPON Code: VPHS8 FOR Vphone S8 !

Phones at GearBest 13% OFF Coupon: GBMBP

The post Smallest Smartphone in the World! Vphone S8 Review appeared first on Gizmochina.

Cubot Max Review – A Solid $114 Phablet

Linus — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 20:03:00 +0000

It seems that there has been a wave of super-sized smartphones from China and Cubot Max is one of them. It sports a 6” display, it has decent specs but it costs just $114. Learn more in our a full review.

Thanks t0 Efox-shop for sending Cubot Max for a review.

Cubot Max Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGaM-gMQ4RE[/embedyt]

Cubot Max Review: UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff and some extras include a high-quality soft TPU case.

Cubot Max Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

The very first thing you are going to notice about this phone is that it is really huge due to its 6” display. It has only 720p resolution but it is surprisingly sharp and nice panel.

We don’t have backlit capacitive buttons but there is a notification LED light, which is a nice addition for a cheap phone like this.

The phone is made of plastic and we have a textured vinyl-like finish on the back. I can’t say that the phone looks or feels premium but it is well made.

The buttons feel nice and tactile.

The loudspeaker sits on the bottom and it is okay but as usual to the cheap phones, the sound is flat.

As for camera, we have a 13MP shooter with a single LED flash.

The backplate can be easily removed to access a 4100mAh battery, two SIM card slots and the microSD card slot.

Cubot Max Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The Cubot Max sports some pretty good specs for the price. The phone ships with an octa-core MTK6753A chip, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

The gaming performance is okay. You should be able to run most of the 2D games and 3D games on the medium graphics but you have to expect quite a bit of stutter on the highest graphics.

Cubot Max Review: BENCHMARKS

Cubot Max Review: USER INTERFACE

The Android 6.0-based user interface will give you a pretty much stock Android experience but there are some added features like a bunch of gesture and motion controls that work pretty well.

I didn’t have any major lags or hiccups even after installing quite a few apps and I believe this is the most important thing for a cheap phone.

Cubot Max Review: IMAGE QUALITY

As for image quality, the camera can take some okay-looking photos in daylight. However, most of the shots look overexposed, the dynamic range and white balance adjustment are poor and so on. Well, this is what you usually get from a cheap phone and the results get a lot worse in low-light situations.

As for selfie shooter, it will do the trick for social media but the quality of pictures is just mediocre.

The 1080p video is mediocre-looking too. See a video review for a video sample.

Cubot Max Review: CONNECTIVITY

I didn’t have any connectivity issues and even the GPS lock speeds and accuracy were okay.

Cubot Max Review: BATTERY LIFE

The 4100mAh battery performs pretty well on the daily basis. I got a full day or even 2 days of moderate usage out of this phone, which is a good result considering a large display.

Cubot Max Review: CONCLUSIONS

Cubot Max is yet another cheap Chinese phone that offers a large 6” screen and some decent specs for the price.

After using it for quite a bit of time, we have to say that a large screen is pretty fun for multimedia consumption. Also, the phone did not lag and it was fast on the daily basis.

As usual to the cheap phones, you should not expect any stellar results from the camera. Also, the phone does not sport any premium materials like metal or glass and it lacks backlit capacitive buttons but it gets most of the basics right. If you add a great battery life, the Cubot Max is a decent offering for the price of just $114.

Buy Cubot Max

The post Cubot Max Review – A Solid $114 Phablet appeared first on Gizmochina.

Huawei Nova Plus Review: A Premium Midranger?

Linus — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 19:15:03 +0000

Huawei released quite a few devices this year and the Nova Plus is one of them. It is a premium midrange smartphone that has great looks, good camera but it costs around 430 EUR. Learn more in our full review.

Huawei Nova Plus Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBac1b41JX0[/embedyt]

Huawei Nova Plus Review: UNBOXING

In the box, you are getting all the usual stuff that includes a charging brick, USB C cable, SIM ejector pin, a pair of earphones and some paperwork that my review did not come with.

Huawei Nova Plus Review: SPECS

Display	5.5″ 1080 x 1920 pixels, LCD (~403 ppi pixel density)
Processor and GPU	Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625, octa-core, 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53, Adreno 506
RAM	3GB
Camera	8MP Front/16MP Back, OIS
Connectivity	Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, dual-SIM.
Battery	3.340 mAh (non-removable)
Dimensions	151.8 x 75.7 x 7.3 mm / 160g
OS	EMUI 4.1 (Android 6.0)
Storage	32GB (expandable via the microSD up to 256GB)

Huawei Nova Plus Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

The phone has a 5.5” 1080p display, which uses the LCD technology and it is pretty sharp and vibrant. Also, it is bright enough to ensure a good sunlight legibility.

The Nova Plus sports a familiar premium design we’ve seen from Huawei. It’s made out of metal, except for those plastic top and bottom parts for antennas.

Also, the phone has nice and tactile metal buttons.

While the device is not the smallest around, it is pretty comfortable to hold in the hand.

The loudspeaker sits on the bottom and the quality of sound is pretty good even if we compare it with some flagship smartphones.

We have a 16MP camera with f/2.0 aperture, OIS, and dual-led flash. A great thing that the camera can finally shoot 4k videos.

The Huawei phones have been usually great when it comes to fingerprint sensors and the Nova Plus is no exception. Also, the scanner serves as a little touchpad. My favorite features include the ability to open up the notification shade or scroll through the pictures in the gallery.

As far as selfie camera goes, we have an 8MP shooter, which sits next to the notification LED light.

We have on-screen navigation buttons and you can switch the positions of them.

Huawei Nova Plus Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

As far as specs, we are looking at the upper-midrange phone. The Nova Plus ships with an octa-core Snapdragon 625 chip with the clock speeds of 2.0GHz, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.

The gaming performance has been good but I’ve noticed a few skipped frames when playing Asphalt 8 on the highest graphics.

A great thing is that the phone does not have any overheating issues.

Huawei Nova Plus Review: BENCHMARKS

Huawei Nova Plus Review: USER INTERFACE

The Nova Plus ships with the EMUI 4.1, which is built on top of Android 6.0.If you have used any other Huawei phone, the user interface will look exactly the same. There is no app tray, the icons look a bit cartoonish but there are quite a few added features and customization options.

Just to name a few, you can adjust the display settings, customize the navigation bar, use your knuckle to take a screenshot, easily turn on/off a convenient one-hand operation mode or use the floating dock to quickly navigate through the menus.

There are plenty of other features, settings and tweaks, so can make the phone look your own.

Most importantly, the UI performs fine on the daily basis, the phone is very fast and I didn’t have a single hiccup in 3 weeks.

Huawei Nova Plus Review: CAMERA

The camera app is easy to use and you can quickly switch from one mode to another. Also, there are some basic settings to play with.

Huawei Nova Plus Review: IMAGE QUALITY

When it comes to the image quality, the 16MP camera can produce some great pictures that are sharp, have lots of detail and look natural as far as color reproduction goes. Also, I’m glad how the camera handles dynamic range in some tricky situations.

As far as the low-light performance, you can also take some good-looking photos. In most cases, the camera’s software does a great job with noise reduction and there is a decent amount of detail. However, there were a few shots that had a reddish tint and there was quite a bit of noise.

The 4K video quality is great but the stabilization could work a little bit better. Besides that, the footage is sharp, detailed and the continuous auto-focus feature works very well.

The 1080p footage also looks good. There is less detail if we compare it to 4k but the OIS works better. See the video review for video samples.

An 8MP selfie shooter can take some well-detailed and nice looking selfies. Also, the phone can finally shoot selfie videos at 1080p.

Download full resolution camera samples

Huawei Nova Plus Review: CONNECTIVITY

The phone comes with a hybrid dual-SIM card tray, which can take either 2 SIMs or 1 SIM and the microSD card.

The call quality, signal reception, GPS, Wifi and all other connectivity options work just fine.

Huawei Nova Plus Review: BATTERY LIFE

The Huawei Nova Plus ships with 3340 mAh battery, which performs great. Even though I used the phone quite intensively, I needed to re-recharge it every two days.

That translates to over 5 hours of screen-on time, which is a great result.

Huawei Nova Plus Review: CONCLUSIONS

The Huawei Nova Plus is a solid premium midrange device.

It has a great build quality, nice and sharp display, the user interface that is fast and has tons of features and great overall performance.

Also, both cameras produce nice looking images in various lighting conditions and the battery life is great.

However, the main question is if the Nova Plus is worth the price of 430 EUR. I would say no since you can get some phones that have flagship-grade specs at this price point.

On the other hand, the Huawei Nova Plus is still a very solid phone even at this price point since it is very fast and it does not have any major shortcomings… if you do not need all the sheer power that faster processors can provide.

The Huawei Nova Plus smartphone will be available to buy in over 50 countries starting from October, although the exact date is yet to be set.

The post Huawei Nova Plus Review: A Premium Midranger? appeared first on Gizmochina.

iNew U9 Plus Review – A $100 Phablet

Linus — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 18:11:40 +0000

iNew has a phone that costs $110, it has a 6” HD display and decent specs. Stay tuned to find out if this phone is any good in our full review.

Buy iNew U9 Plus

iNew U9 Plus Review: VIDEO

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV-H-l7ynQU[/embedyt]

iNew U9 Plus Review: UNBOXING

The phone comes with all the usual stuff and some extras include a pair of earphones, a screen protector and a hard plastic case.

iNew U9 Plus Review: SPECS

Display	6″ 720p (HD)
Processor	Mediatek 6735, quad-core (up to 1.3GHz)
RAM	2GB
Camera	5MP Front/13MP Back
Connectivity	Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, dual-SIM.
Battery	3.000 mAh (removable)
Dimensions	16.30 x 8.30 x 1.10 cm / 6.42 x 3.27 x 0.43 inches
OS	Android 5.1
Storage	16GB (expandable via microSD card slot up to 64GB)

iNew U9 Plus Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

When it comes to the design, the U9 Plus is obviously a huge phone due to it’s 6” display.

Speaking of the display, it has only 720p resolution but it is still quite sharp for a phone that costs just above $100.

As far as the overall build quality, the phone is well-made but I have to admit that the phone feels a bit plasticky and cheap since it uses only plastic in its construction.

We have a 5MP selfie shooter. Unfortunately, there is no LED notification light and the capacitive buttons are not backlit.

There is a 13MP camera coupled with a single LED flash. On the bottom, we have a loudspeaker, which is not very good but it is not bad for the price of the phone.

The backplate can be easily removed and underneath it you can find a replaceable 3000mAh battery, 2 SIM card slots and the microSD card slot.

The buttons sit on the right side and they are tactile. However, they are made of plastic and feel a bit cheap.

iNew U9 Plus Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The phone has a quad-core MTK6735 with the max. clock speeds of 1.3GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

The gaming performance is pretty good. I played Asphalt 8 on medium graphics and there were no lags. Also, the phone does not overheat.

iNew U9 Plus Review: BENCHMARKS

iNew U9 Plus Review: USER INTERFACE

The phone ships with the already outdated Android 5.1 and iNew’s skin on top of it. There is no app tray but there are quite a few fancy widgets and customization options.

Also, there are some gesture and motion controls but the phone is kind of slow to react to some of the gestures.

The user interface could have been nice but there are some pre-installed apps and even some apps that are designed for Chinese market.

Most importantly, the animations and transitions once you simply scroll through the different menus are slow. Thus, the whole user experience is not as good as I expected. This is something iNew should take a look at to fix this issue with the future software updates.

iNew U9 Plus Review: IMAGE QUALITY

The 13MP camera does not impress. Even the daylight images lack detail and sharpness. Also, the dynamic range adjustment is poor in most of the shots. Finally, the color reproduction is not always consistent.

The low-light shots do not impress either as there is a low amount of detail and quite a bit of noise.

The video quality is okay for the phone this cheap but don’t expect any great results.

A 5MP front-facing camera is not good either as most of the shots have a soft focus.

iNew U9 Plus Review: CONNECTIVITY

I didn’t have any connectivity issues. Even the GPS was very fast to find the position and pretty accurate to use.

iNew U9 Plus Review: BATTERY LIFE

The 3000mAh battery does not look impressive on paper but it performs pretty well considering its low capacity and a large display.

I could get around 5 hours of screen-on time on time but your results may vary, depending on the usage.

iNew U9 Plus Review: CONCLUSIONS

The iNew U9 Plus is a phone that aims to bring a huge 6” display and decent specs for a low price.

It succeeds in a couple of ways. It has a pretty sharp display that is great for multimedia consumption or gaming. Speaking of the 3D games, the phone handles them pretty well if don’t set the graphics on the maximum settings.

Also, the phone has a pretty good battery life considering its low capacity.

On the other hand, the phone has a decent build quality but it looks kind of cheap due to the fact that it uses plastic in its construction.

Also, I was disappointed that the transitions and animations in the user interface are slow, both cameras do not impress, there is no LED notification light and the capacitive buttons are not backlit.

In conclusion, the iNew U9 Plus could have been a nice phone but it has some shortcomings that you have to consider before buying it. Some of the cons hopefully will be fixed with the future software updates but at the moment, you would have to live with them.

Buy iNew U9 Plus

The post iNew U9 Plus Review – A $100 Phablet appeared first on Gizmochina.

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review

Linus — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 07:21:19 +0000

Xiaomi has been on the roll as they have released quite a few devices lately. The Redmi Pro is a phone that costs around $250 via the third party resellers, it has pretty good specs but most importantly, the device has dual camera setup. Learn more in our full review.

Thanks to Oppomart for sending Xiaomi Redmi Pro for a review.

Buy Xiaomi Redmi Pro

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-N8pvWGQmA[/embedyt]

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: UNBOXING

The phone ships in a usual Xiaomi box and inside of it you can find a charger, some paperwork, SIM ejector pin and USB-C cable.

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: SPECS

Display	5.5″ 1080p (Full-HD)
Processor	Mediatek MTK6797 (Helio X20), 64-bit, deca-core (up to 2.1GHz)
RAM	3GB
Camera	Dual 13 MP + 5MP, f/2.0, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash / 5MP front camera
Connectivity	Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, dual-SIM.
Battery	4.050 mAh (non-removable)
Dimensions	151.5 x 76.2 x 8.2 mm / 174g
OS	MIUI 8 (Android 6.0)
Storage	32GB (expandable via microSD card slot up to 256GB)

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

Let me be honest with you, this phone is the most premium Redmi device I’ve ever seen. It’s made entirely of metal (even top and bottom parts are made of metal). I really love the brushed aluminum look. Even though the Redmi Pro may look a bit glossy, it does not attract fingerprints so easily.

We have nice and tactile buttons and I absolutely love the build quality of this phone.

One of the key selling points of this device is of course, its dual camera setup, which is supposed to give you a hardware-based shallow depth of field effect. The main camera has 13MP, f/2.0 aperture and PDAF. The secondary camera has 5MP.

Also, the cameras are accompanied with a dual-tone dual led flash. More on the camera features a bit later in this review.

The Redmi Pro sports a 5.5” 1080p display. In fact, this is the first Redmi phone to have the Amoled panel, which is sharp and vibrant. However, the colors may look a bit oversaturated but I’m okay with that. The sunlight legibility is not the best I’ve seen but it is pretty good and I don’t have many complaints in this regard.

As far as selfie shooter, we have a 5MP camera. Right next to it, there is a highly customizable notification LED light.

It’s nice to see backlit capacitive buttons, which can be also customized in a lot of different ways. The fingerprint scanner is embedded in a physical home button. It is fast and very accurate but it does not work straight from the standby mode meaning that you have to wake your phone up first.

The loudspeaker quality is pretty good. Sure, it is not perfect but it is definitely one of the best in this price range of phones.

One little extra feature that has started disappearing from a lot of phones is the IR blaster to control devices like TVs.

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

I have a standard edition of the Redmi Pro, which has a deca-core Mediatek Helio X20 chip with the max. clock speeds of 2.1GHz, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which is also expandable via the microSD card slot.

If you are willing to pay extra, you can get a few model variations and the best one sports a Helio X25 chip with 4GB of RAM and whopping 128GB of storage.

The gaming performance is pretty good yet not ideal. You can enjoy most of the 3D games without any issues but there were a few skipped frames and a bit of stutter while playing Asphalt 8 on the highest graphics. Of course, changing graphics to medium solves this issue.

A great thing is that the phone does not have any overheating issues.

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: BENCHMARKS

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: USER INTERFACE

When it comes to user interface, my Redmi Pro has just been updated to MIUI 8, which is built on top of Android 6.0. There are some cool new features and design touches that differ MIUI 8 from the MIUI 7.

If you swipe down, you will open up a redesigned quick settings menu. There is no separate notification shade like it used to be. Also, the multitasking menu now has a 3D look to give you a better idea of what apps are running in the background.

A great thing is that Xiaomi finally re-organized their settings menu and you now can find everything quicker. One of the new features includes the “second space”. You can move apps, files and other information between the “first space” and the “second space” and you can easily switch between these spaces. As Xiaomi claims, this feature is like having 2 phones with different files and settings. Another new feature is the “quick ball”, which is simply a small bubble that has a few customizable shortcuts. However, I’ve never been a huge fan of any floating screens on the display.

We have some other features, customization options, various tweaks and settings Xiaomi phones are famous for. Just to name a few, you can select from a variety of themes, wallpapers, fonts and so on. Also, you can customize the LED light, assign different tasks to capacitive buttons and so on.

Finally, the MIUI 8 runs fast and fluid and I didn’t have any hiccups or lag.

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: CAMERA

Please watch our video review to better understand how dual-camera setup works:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKS7wDoTG0g[/embedyt]

When it comes to the cameras, let’s start by the most interesting part. The dual-camera mode, which is called stereo mode, is simply activated by clicking a small camera button. Here you can play with the aperture number by going all the way to f/5.6 or go down to a super bright f/0.95. Also, you can change the focus area after you take the picture and apply different effects.

If you spend a little bit of time with the camera, you can get some nice photos. Of course, not all pictures will look natural but can definitely achieve some nice results. A very cool thing is that you can also adjust the aperture number during the video recording to get that shallow depth of field effect.

If you tend to take regular photos more often, the auto-mode allows you to do that pretty fast thanks to the baked-in PDAF system. The camera takes some pretty good images in daylight. The pictures tend to have a good amount of detail and sharpness. Also, the colors look natural. However, a few of the shots have a softer focus on the corners but we have to consider that the phone runs on an early software build. The biggest complaint would be the dynamic range adjustment but the HDR mode does a pretty good job.

The macro shots have a good amount of detail and they look sharp most of the time.

As for indoor photos, you can get some good looking images too. Sure, they will look grainier but the camera does an okay job with noise reduction.

The low-light camera performance is good for the price of the phone but I hope to see some improvements with the future software updates. There is quite a bit of noise and there could be more detail. Also, I noticed that there is a slight red tint if you take pictures close to the light source, e.g. street lamps.

The dual tone LED flash does a pretty good job illuminating the scene in almost pitch dark environments but the flash is a bit too warm for my taste.

Panorama photos look quite terrible due to very low-resolution. On the other hand, the auto-stitching is pretty good.

The phone can shoot videos in Full-HD. The video quality is just above average I would say. The footage could look sharper and have more detail. On the other hand, I’m happy with the way CAF works. You can also shoot slow-motion videos in 720p and the quality is not the best but it is pretty good. See the video review for video samples.

A 5MP selfie camera is able to capture some usable pictures for social media but it does not impress. Most of the images look noisy and grainy, and there is a ton of noise. The situation gets even worse in low-light.

As for selfie video, the quality of the footage is mediocre. See the video review for video samples.

Overall, the Redmi Pro has a pretty solid camera setup for the price of the phone and you can definitely get some great looking images. It is not perfect though but we may see some improvements with the future software updates.

Download full resolution camera samples

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: CONNECTIVITY

As far as connectivity, I didn’t have any issues with Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS or other options.

The phone comes with a dual-SIM card tray, which can take either 2 SIMs or 1 SIM and the microSD card.

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: BATTERY LIFE

The phone ships with the with a huge 4050mAh battery that performs very well. I could get over 6.5 hours of screen-on time on a mixed use which is a very good result.

The phone supports a fast charging feature but it does not come with the fast charger, which is a bummer. This section will be updated with the screenshots of the battery use later (currently, we are re-testing the phone’s battery life with the just released MIUI 8).

Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review: CONCLUSIONS

The Xiaomi Redmi Pro is a solid device for the price of around $250.

First of all, it just looks beautiful and the build quality is top-notch. Also, we have a sharp and vibrant display, user interface that has tons of features and a pretty good overall performance.

Also, the dual camera setup is what makes the Redmi Pro standout. Finally, the battery performance is just fantastic.

On the other hand, you have to know that the phone’s camera could be better in video recording and the selfie camera produces images that have quite a bit of noise.

Other complaints would be that the fingerprint scanner does not work straight from the standby mode and you should expect a few skipped frames when playing some 3D games on the highest graphics settings.

Other than that, the Xiaomi Redmi Pro is a great all-around device. Sure, it is not perfect but knowing the fact that Xiaomi usually fixes a lot of things with its software updates, the Redmi Pro is a good phone to buy for less than $250.

Buy Xiaomi Redmi Pro

The post Xiaomi Redmi Pro Review appeared first on Gizmochina.

Puridea Projector Review – The Best Mini Wireless Projector?

Linus — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 18:11:01 +0000

A standard projector is a neat device that we are all of aware of. However, wireless projectors are way more convenient and the one made by Puridea is the smallest mobile projector I’ve ever seen. Learn more in our full review.

Puridea Wireless Projector Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4TwsAFWPvk[/embedyt]

Puridea Wireless Projector Review: UNBOXING

The projector comes with a tiny and lightweight IR remote control, a little metal-made tripod that can be easily attached to the projector, a power plug, USB cable and some paperwork.

Puridea Wireless Projector Review: DESIGN and FEATURES

The main selling point of this projector is its size. As I said, this is the tinniest projector I’ve ever seen. You can easily put it in your pocket and it is super lightweight.

The device has a microSD card slot, so you can play movies directly from the card. Also, you can charge the projector via the regular micro USB port, so you can use it with a power bank too, in case the projector runs out of juice.There is a headset jack for connecting external speaker and you may use it, because the internal one is silent and the quality of sound is far from the best. Lastly, there is the IR trasmitter.

On one side we have a focusing knob and on the other, there are quite a few control buttons, which are pretty much self-explanatory.

Overall, the projector is well-built and it does not seem to break anytime soon.

Puridea Wireless Projector Review: FUNCTIONALITY

Once you turn on the device, the LED light indicates how much juice is left in the battery.

The user interface is very simple and easy to use. Firstly, I recommend you to check if there is a firmware update in the settings menu, where you can also adjust some other basic settings.

You can select from a variety of streaming modes. I’ve tested the projector with my OnePlus 3, MacBook Pro, Windows laptop and iPad and it works just fine.

Basically, you can project everything you want on the projector. I mostly used it for streaming videos stored locally on my phone or from Youtube and it worked fine. You can also play some games but keep in mind that there may be a slight delay on the projected screen if you play graphically demanding games.

As far as the image quality goes, the projected image has the size of around 38” and the resolution of 854×480. Also, the brightness of the bulb reaches only 50 lumens but you have to keep in mind the size of the device.

Even though the specs are not so impressive but the video quality is pretty good. Sure, it would have been nice to have a brighter image but again, this is one of the smallest projectors out there and it is bright enough when used in dim environments.

The projector has a built-in ventilator, which is pretty silent and you can barely hear it.

Puridea Wireless Projector Review: BATTERY LIFE

The Puridea projector lives up the official claim and I could get around 2 hours of usage out of it. Again, you can charge it and use it at the same time with a power bank.

Puridea Wireless Projector Review: CONCLUSIONS

The Puridea wireless projector is a great mobile projector and all the features have been working fine so far.

Sure, it would have been nice to have a higher resolution and brighter image but hey, this is a super mobile and tiny device and the image quality and overall feature set are great.

The price of $250 may sound a little steep but the projector works fine and it does not have any flaws that could be a deal breaker.

Buy Puridea wireless projector from Amazon US

Buy Puridea wireless projector from Amazon UK

The post Puridea Projector Review – The Best Mini Wireless Projector? appeared first on Gizmochina.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: The Best Smartphone Ever?

Linus — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 00:02:49 +0000

Last year we finally saw Samsung doing the right thing with its design. The company made the phones that look premium and expensive. This year we have the upgraded Galaxies and the S7 Edge is one of them. Will it once again be one of the best smartphones on the market?

This review is brought to you by TechLineHD.

Subscribe to TechLineHD Youtube Channel

VIDEO REVIEW:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEfBGXWe5zg[/embedyt]

Samsung Galaxy S7 Review:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKx1VmuOl_c[/embedyt]

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

When it comes to the design, we are looking at the device that has a gorgeous 5.5” 2K display. We all know that Samsung have had one of the best screens on the market and the S7 Edge is no exception. The panel that is covered by the Gorilla Glass 5, is sharp, vibrant, bright and definitely on of the best on any smartphone.

You will be able to see this great screen even under water as the Galaxy S7 edge is IP68-certified, meaning that it can be used for 30 mins up to 1.5m under water. Also, it can survive a little bit of dust, too. I would say that is a huge advantage over the majority of the competition.

We have a really cool innovation – always-on display and this feature is really neat. Basically, what it does, it shows the clock, calendar and some useful stuff, and this feature uses a very low amount of energy. To be honest, it took me a few days to get used to it as I wanted to turn the display off manually but I really love this feature.

As the name implies, the display has edges on both sides and it adds a lot of character to the design. Sometimes it even makes an impression that the display is bezel-less.

Of course, there is a functional part of those edges. For example, you can create shortcuts to some tasks, quickly access contacts, news, apps and so on.

If you swipe your finger along the edge screen while the display is off, you’ll get some other useful info too.

On the front, we have a 5MP selfie shooter, notification LED and other usual stuff. On the bottom, there is a classic Samsung’s button layout – nicely backlit capacitive keys and the physical home button, which also doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

Speaking of which, it is very fast and accurate but I am disappointed that it does not work straight from the standby mode, meaning that you should press the home or power key first.

The back is made of another sheet of Gorilla Glass 5 and the edges of it are also slightly curved. I gotta tell you that those curves make a huge difference in terms of comfort and ergonomics while holding the phone in the hand.

The camera has 12MP, which sounds like a downgrade but we have all sorts of tech going on here. It has a dual-pixel tech to assure crazy fast auto-focus and believe me, it is the fastest I’ve seen. Also, the camera has OIS, PDAF and a whopping very bright f/1.7 aperture.

Next to the camera we have the LED flash and a heart rate monitor to help you track your exercise routines.

The power button, which is on the right along with volume keys, which are on the left, are very clicky and responsive.

On the bottom, we have the regular ports, the loudspeaker, and neither of them are covered by flaps despite waterproof properties of the phone.

On the top, there is a secondary mic and the nano SIM and microSD card tray. Yes, Samsung finally brought a cheap storage expansion option and you can add up to 200GB of local storage.

It is quite an interesting choice that we don’t have the IR blaster anymore. Well, I’ve never used it anyway but it was cool knowing it was there on the Galaxy S6.

Overall, the phone looks amazing and I love the design ot it. It screams premium and it sits comfortably in the hand despite being a device with 5.5”display. However, keep in mind that the glass back attracts fingerprints and smudges very quickly.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: UI

See the video review for the UI performance.

When it comes to the UI, we have Samsung’s Touchwiz, which is built on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

If you’ve used a Samsung device before, you will feel pretty familiar with the user interface. Most importantly, everything is running smoothly most of the times and I didn’t have any lags.

We have a bit cartoonish looking icons, a lot of quick settings toggles and what has become usual to the South-Korean manufacturer, quite a lot of features and customisation options.

Just to name a few, you can quickly launch the camera by double clicking the home button. Also, you can trigger one handed operation if click the home button three times.

There is pop-up window mode or split-screen feature for those who can’t live without multitasking.

There are some other features too. Some of them may sound gimmicky, while others are even called experimental.

Finally, you can customise your Galaxy device with a variety of different themes, wallpapers and so on.

All in all, the Touchwiz UI runs fast and fluid and I had a pleasant overall experience. However, it uses around 8GB of internal storage, which is too much I would say.

Also, the RAM management is not yet perfect. Seriously, this is 4GB RAM phone and there is only 1.2GB of RAM free after killing all the background tasks? Hopefully, this is what Samsung is going to fix with the software update soon.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: BENCHMARKS

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has a few hardware modifications but you can be rest assured that either model will have bleeding edge specifications.

My review unit is the EU model and it sports a home-brewed octa-core Exynos 8890 chip with the clock speeds of up to 2.6GHz, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.

See the video review for gaming performance.

If you are wondering what this combo of specs is capable of, all 3D games just fly. There is no stutter or any skipped frames, the graphics look awesome and the games load amazingly fast.

In addition, there is a dedicated Game Tools app that provides some convenient features like the ability to turn off alerts during the game or record the gameplay.

Also, the phone does not heat up at all even after extensive periods of gaming and that is thanks to the Volcano API and liquid-cooling system.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: MULTIMEDIA

When it comes to multimedia consumption, the sound quality via earphones is near excellent and the volume output is loud. However, the external speaker could be slightly louder and it sounds a little bit muffled. I believe that may be due to its waterproof properties.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: CAMERA

CHECK OUT IN-DEPTH CAMERA VIDEO REVIEW:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQz47PXFxFk[/embedyt]

Once you fire up the camera app, you will be blown away by the blazing fast auto-focus speeds in any light.

What we have here is typical Samsung, which brings quite a few settings and shooting modes, and you can even download more modes if you wish.

One thing I was really disappointed by is that the sensor uses a native 4:3 aspect ratio, meaning that the images will not be full screen if you shoot at the maximum resolution.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: IMAGE QUALITY

When it comes to the actual image quality, it is definitely on of the best in class. The daylight pictures look sharp, have lots of detail, the colour look natural and other aspects like dynamic range and exposure and handled well.

It is a similar story with indoor and macro shots as the camera manages to capture a great amount of detail despite worse lighting conditions.

The low-light camera performance is fantastic. It not only focuses very fast but also manages to produce great looking photos. Naturally, there is less detail but the level of it is still very good. Also, the noise levels are kept to minimum. The only shortcoming is that the auto post-processing leads to a slight yellow tint in some of the pictures.

The front facing camera takes very good selfies even in low light and that is thanks to the bright aperture.

Both 1080p and 4K videos look stunning. The footage is sharp and very detailed, the OIS does its job very well and the videos are one of the best I’ve seen.

See video review for video samples or see in-depth camera review.

Download original camera samples

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options that include Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS are working fine. Also, the signal reception is excellent and the call quality is good.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: BATTERY

The S7 Edge has a 3600mAh battery and I was curious how it performs with the always-on display.

I gotta tell you that I was quite impressed with the results. I could get over 5 hours of screen-on time while taking lots of pictures, shooting a lot 4k videos, gaming, browsing the web and so on.

If you need to top up the battery, the phone charges up really fast and that is thanks to the fast charging feature. Also, there is an embedded wireless charging feature that helps cut a few wires.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. This is the best Samsung phone ever and definitely on of the best on the market.

The design is really flashy, the curved screen with the always-on display feature is fantastic, the UI is running fast and the phone has one of the best specs currently available that can handle even the most demanding tasks without a sweat or overheating.

Also, the S7 Edge has awesome camera, a great battery life and yeah, this thing is fully waterproof.

On the other hand, the glass backplate is a huge fingerprint magnet, the UI takes a lot of storage space and uses lots of RAM, and the current state of software does not support Android 6.0’s adaptable storage. Also, the camera sensor has a native 4:3 aspect ratio and oh boy, this phone is expensive. It costs around $800 and perhaps not everyone is going to buy it.

All in all, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is a fantastic phone and it will be one of the best devices out there for months ahead despite having a few shortcomings. Just remember, premium phone comes at a premium price.

This review is brought to you by TechLineHD.

Subscribe to TechLineHD Youtube Channel

Buy Samsung Galaxy S7 from Amazon

Galaxy S7 Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1Ujsx02

Buy Galaxy S7 edge from Amazon

The post Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review: The Best Smartphone Ever? appeared first on Gizmochina.

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Other Stories in Tech

Micron 1-Beta DRAM Mass Production starts in Q4 2022, Here are the Details

DDR3 Soon To Be Phased Out in 2022, Following Samsung and SK Hynix Plans to Cease Production

New tech breakthrough will let you 3D print OLED displays at home

Alibaba fined $2.75 billion in China for violating anti-monopoly rules

Chinese investors are shifting from India to Indonesia due to new regulations

UP NEXT: Moto G 5G with a 6.7-inch display, Snapdragon 750G, 5,000mAh battery, and 48MP quad cameras launched in India

Buy Your Tech Favorites at Lowered Prices from AliExpress

Stylus + Plectrum + Touchscreen + Music: We Revisit Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic in today’s tech throwback

Why was the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic so popular?

But 5800 XpressMusic wasn’t without issues

Throwback Tech Thursday: We Revisit the Best Selling BlackBerry Curve Series

ALSO READ: Throwback Tech Thursday: Revisiting the Iconic Moto Razr V3, the Phone That Made You Look Cool!

Huawei Ban will be ‘Incredibly Damaging’ for ARM, says co-founder Hermann Hauser

Editor’s Pick: Samsung executive gets arrested over Biotech fraud case in South Korea

UP NEXT: Huawei Claims Its Production Is Still in Full Force

Huawei confirms No Contact With Apple for 5G Chips

Qualcomm Could Re-open Negotiations with NXP, says a Senior Analyst

Nubia α is a Concept Smartphone that comes with a Flexible screen in a Smartband like design

Doogee S55 Review – Quite A Good Rugged Phone With Some Flaws

VIDEO REVIEW

UNBOXING

DESIGN

HARDWARE

USER INTERFACE

IMAGE QUALITY

CONNECTIVITY

CONCLUSIONS

Study shows China’s 5G technology spending since 2015 surpassed that of the US by $24 billion

Xiaomi Files For Hong Kong IPO, Expected To Raise At Least $10 Billion

Huawei Mate 10 and the Mate 10 Pro Review After 1.5 Months! Still Amazing!

VIDEO REVIEW

DESIGN, DISPLAY, BATTERY LIFE

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

USER INTERFACE

EMUI Desktop Experience

CAMERAS

CONNECTIVITY

CONCLUSIONS

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 Review – The Bezel-less BEAUTY with a few Flaws

VIDEO REVIEW

UNBOXING

DESIGN and DISPLAY

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

BENCHMARKS

USER INTERFACE

CAMERAS

CONNECTIVITY

BATTERY LIFE

CONCLUSIONS

The Best Budget Bezel Less Smartphone 2017? Elephone S8 Review!

VIDEO REVIEW

UNBOXING

DESIGN and DISPLAY

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

BENCHMARKS

USER INTERFACE

CAMERAS

CONNECTIVITY

BATTERY LIFE

CONCLUSIONS

Huawei Mate 10 Pro Review After 36 hours!

VIDEO REVIEW

DESIGN and DISPLAY

CAMERAS

FEATURES

HARDWARE

Cubot Magic Review

VIDEO REVIEW

UNBOXING

DESIGN and DISPLAY

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

BENCHMARKS

USER INTERFACE