Last month, Xiaomi joined the small circle of phone manufacturers with in-house chips with the Surge S1 octa-core processor. The launch of the chip saw the number of Chinese phone manufacturers with its own SoC rise to two. However, rumor has it that Meizu might be the third musketeer.

It is said that Meizu is working with American company, Texas Instruments to develop its own chip. Texas Instruments itself is no longer involved in the business of mobile chip manufacturing. In September 2012, the company announced it was shutting down production of its OMAP processors designed for smartphones and tablets. Nevertheless, it still has vast experience in the field of chip design, and how to solve stability and heat management issues.

Meizu has not confirmed the news yet though but it may face some challenges ahead. It is said that part of the reasons why Texas Instruments withdrew from the mobile chip race was due to its inability to develop baseband technology that rivaled that of its competitors. Meizu will need to find a way to scale that hurdle though.

READ MORE: Meizu Might Be Working on Optical Fingerprint Technology Like Apple

Some are of the opinion that Meizu doesn’t need to develop its own chip seeing as it has settled with Qualcomm. But with the issues Mediatek is currently facing with the Helio X30′ production, it might have a good reason to do so.

(Source)

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Xiaomi has added a robot vacuum cleaner to its range of smart home products. Over the past few weeks we reported that the company was working on a vacuum cleaner and a couple of hours ago, it was officially unveiled. The Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner comes a week after Xiaomi launched the Viomi Water Filter Kettle.

Technical Details

The vacuum cleaner uses a low-noise brush-less fan supplied by Japanese firm, NIDEC. The fan has a maximum pressure of 1800Pa which provides greater suction power when dealing with tough dirt.

Xiaomi’s Mi Robot Vacuum uses 3 dedicated processors: a quad-core processor from Allwinner, a STMicroelectronics ARM processor, and a Texas Instruments LDS image processor. The trio helps the vacuum cleaner receive data in real time from the 12 sensors (LDS, ultrasonic radar sensor, wall sensor and cliff sensor etc.). The Laser Distance Sensors provide a 360-degrees scanning (1800 times/second) similar to what you will find on a self-driving car.

The 5200mAh Li-ion built-in battery supplied by LG and Panasonic ensures that you get 2.5 hour cleaning time from a single charge.

Cleaning Details

The Mi Robot Vacuum will work with the Mi Home App. Owners will be able to set cleaning schedules, modify cleaning modes, and monitor cleaning process in real-time. You will be able to program it to clean the house right after you leave the house or before your arrival in case you are bringing home guests and you left a pet at home.

The main brush automatically adjusts its height to create a tight seal with the floor. There are also side brushes that extend to reach between gaps. While the vacuum cleaner works it maintains a precise 1 cm distance from the wall, so be rest assured that your beautiful vacuum cleaner won’t be getting any scratches.

RELATED: Comparison Video of Mi Robot Vacuum and iRobot 800

The Mi Robot Vacuum seems to be only available in white. We have no problem with that but a black unit will be appreciated. The company also launched a virtual wall that creates an invisible barrier that the vacuum cleaner can’t go beyond. It will retail for 39 yuan ($6). So you can pick up a  bunch of these and add it to the Mi Robot’s 1699 Yuan ($254) price.

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       According to Xiaomi, the most obvious change in the 5000mAh Xiaomi Mi Power Bank is its weight and thickness. It is lighter and slimmer. This power bank uses a battery cell provided by ATL which is also one of Apple’s suppliers. It also uses a solution made by the famous Texas Instruments. 

The 16000mAh and 10400mAh power banks are 350g and 250g, respectively. Both of them use the 18650 battery cell. The 5000mAh power bank uses a polymer battery cell, is only 9.9mm thick, and only weighs 156g. You can easily carry it around in your shirt pocket.

The Xiaomi Power Bank 5000mAh version’s model number is NDY-02-AM. As for voltage, it has 3.7V. According to Xiaomi, its input is 2.0A, while its output is 2.1A. In other words, it should only take 3.5 hours to fully charge this device with a 5V/2A charger and cable.

Its design is similar to Xiaomi’s other power banks. The power switch is located on one end of the device’s curved body, along with the 4XLED light and USB charging port. The outer cover is made of an aluminum alloy.

You can separate the front and back covers by unscrewing the right bolts there. Now, we can look at the motherboard and battery cell.

What everyone is most concerned about is what solution Xiaomi used for this device. We found some information on the battery cell and its PCBA.

The 5000mAh Xiaomi Mi Power Bank still uses the ABOV 97F1204SMBN.

It also uses the TI BQ24195 which enables the power bank to charge at 2A.

The battery cell used comes from ATL and has 18.1Wh. Its model number is H994406L.

I charged the Power Bank using a 5V 2A charger. The input was 5.25V (2.2A), and the charging speed is pretty good.

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