Xiaomi, the Chinese tech giant, recently unveiled the Mi 6 in China. The Xiaomi Mi 6 is the flagship offering from the company and comes with high-end specifications. The smartphone was initially launched in 64GB and 128GB storage variants, both of which came with 6GB of RAM. According to some recent reports, Xiaomi is now working on bringing a 4GB RAM variant which will be paired with 64GB of onboard storage. The new variant of the smartphone has been spotted on TENAA.
Apart from the lower amount of RAM, the new variant will have no changes over the initially launched Mi 6. It is being said that the 4GB RAM variant will be launched on November 11. It is also speculated that the price of the Mi 6 with 4GB RAM will be lower than the 6GB variant at around RMB 2,299 which roughly converts to Rs. 22,600.
As far as the specifications are concerned, the Xiaomi Mi 6 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC coupled with Adreno 540 GPU. The smartphone features a 5.15-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. All of this is backed by a 3,350mAh battery which also supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 for faster charging. The device runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with MIUI 8 layered on top of it out of the box.
On the optics front, the Xiaomi Mi 6 sports a 12-megapixel dual-camera setup at the back where one sensor has a wide-angle lens while the other has a telephoto lens. Up front, the phone comes with an 8-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video calling.
10.or, a new smartphone brand in India, recently launched the 10.or E in India. The 10.or, pronounced as Tenor, is focusing on delivering budget smartphones with a good amount of specifications and nearly stock Android experience. The 10.or E was their first smartphone launched in India for a starting price of Rs. 7,999. The phone offers a 5.5-inch full HD display at a budget. Here is our full review of the 10.or E and this may help you in making a choice for your next smartphone.
Specifications
The 10.or E is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 SoC coupled with the Adreno 505 GPU. The smartphone sports a 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. The phone is available in two variants, one with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage and another with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. The storage on the device is further expandable up to 128GB using a microSD card. Under the hood, there is a 4,000mAh battery powering up the device. The 10.or E runs on Android 7.1.2 Nougat out of the box.
On the optics front, the 10.or E features a 13-megapixel camera at the back with a LED flash. Up front, there is a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with a soft flash for better low light selfies.
Design
The 10.or E is made out of a polycarbonate body while it looks and feels more like metal. The phone weighs at around 150 grams. As for the placements, up front, there is the earpiece at the top surrounded by the front-facing camera, a LED flash and a coupled of sensors. At the rear, the phone sports a camera with a LED flash and an active Fingerprint scanner lies right below that. On the right, there is a power button and the volume rocker. On the left, there are two trays, one for two sim cards while the other accepts a microSD card.
Software
The 10.or E runs on Android 7.1.2 Nougat out of the box. The smartphone runs stock Android with almost no bloatware except the Amazon applications as the smartphone is an Amazon exclusive. The overall software experience was fluid and reminded us of the Nokia 6 which also comes with a similar stock Android experience. It was impressive to see that a budget smartphone like the 10.or E is running on the latest version of Android Nougat 7.1.2, while most budget smartphones come with 7.0. The company has also promised the Android Oreo update for the smartphone which adds up to the pros of the smartphone.
The 10.or E is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 SoC coupled with the Adreno 505 GPU. The unit which we reviewed had 3GB of RAM which helps in making the multitasking smoother. The smartphone delivered a smooth experience overall. As for gaming, the smartphone was able to run games like Subway Surfers and Temple Run 2 without any lag. However, heavy games like Injustice 2 and Asphalt 8 did tend to lag a bit which is acceptable considering the price of the smartphone.
AnTuTu
GeekBench 4
Camera
The 10.or E features a 13-megapixel rear camera with a LED flash. up front, there is a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with a selfie flash. The rear camera on the smartphone works pretty well in outdoor lighting conditions while it does tend to struggle a bit under the low lighting or indoor conditions. As far as the front camera is concerned, the shots taken in outdoor conditions were good while the indoor shots were just average.
Outdoor with HDR
Outdoor without HDR
Indoor
Battery
The 10.or E comes with a massive 4,000mAh battery. The battery was sufficient to get the device through a full day with minimal usage. However, with moderate or heavy usage, one would need to juice up the smartphone by the evening. With the Ambient display turned on, the battery life got shorter, which was expected due to the IPS LCD panel.
PC Mark
Verdict
The 10.or E is a new smartphone from a newly introduced company in India. The company is currently concentrating on delivering some good smartphones on a budget. The 10.or E is priced at RS. 7,999 for the 2GB +16GB variant while the 3GB + 32GB variant retails at Rs. 8,999. The smartphone consists of impressive specifications for its price point. The phone features a 5.5-inch full HD display which is not seen much in this price bracket. Also, the phone comes with stock Android which contributes in making the overall performance better. The cameras on the smartphone are just average which is acceptable as the phone offers good performance and is relatively cheap. The 10.or E does not compromise with the design. The device gives the look and feel of a metal back and comes with curved edges up front.
To sum up everything, anyone looking for a smartphone under Rs. 10,000, this one could make a great option. However, it is highly recommended to opt in for the 3GB + 32GB variant as it gives more room for media and can handle multitasking well. The 2GB + 16GB variant is also a good option if you are on a tight budget.
Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, has launched another budget-oriented smartphone in India, the Samsung Galaxy J2 (2017). The company expands its portfolio by adding another smartphone to the popular J-series. The smartphone shares a lot in common under the hood with the last year's J2. However, the user interface has been improved.
Specifications
As far as the specifications are concerned, the Samsung Galaxy J2 (2017) is powered by a quad-core Exynos chipset clocked at 1.3GHz. The smartphone features a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 540x960 pixels. The phone packs in 1GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage which is further expandable up to 128GB using a microSD card. The device is backed by a 2,000mAh removable battery. The dual-sim smartphone runs on the Android operating system.
On the optics front, the Galaxy J2 (2017) sports a 5-megapixel camera at the back with autofocus and a LED flash. Up front, the phone features a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video calling
As for the connectivity, the smartphone includes 4G, GPRS/EDGE, 3G, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, GLONASS and 3.5mm audio jack.
Price and Availability
The Samsung Galaxy J2 (2017) is now listed on the company's official website but there is no official price given yet. However, reports suggest that the new budget smartphone will be priced at around Rs. 7,390. The phone will be available in Metallic Gold and Absolute Black colour variants. The J2 (2017) should hit the shelves of the online as well as offline markets soon.
Apple recently took the wraps off the most-anticipated smartphone of the year, the iPhone X. The all-new iPhone X was appealing to most people because of its design and the new gorgeous OLED panel while others were disappointed as Apple ditched the TouchID in favour of the new FaceID. Most people still prefer using a fingerprint scanner as it is faster, secure and works in most scenarios. It was also being said that Apple skipped the TouchID as it could not embed it into the display due to lack of technology. However, now Apple will not work on embedding the TochID into the display and will focus on making the FaceID better.
iPhone X
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote in a note to investors, "We predict all-new 2H18F iPhone models will likely abandon fingerprint recognition. We believe this change will allow all new models to realise a competitive advantage via differentiation, on the back of an integrated user experience of full-screen design and TrueDepth Camera/ Facial recognition/ Face ID/ AR applications." This piece of note was shared by MacRumors.
As per an analyst at KGI Securities, Apple will not include the TouchID in any of its upcoming flagship smartphones. Apple is taking this bold move in order to have a competitive advantage over its rivals, as per Kuo. Samsung has also given a try to the facial recognition with its latest flagship smartphones which is not a perfect technology as it can be easily tricked. However, it is still unknown how the iPhone X will perform in the real world when it comes out in November.
According to Kuo, Apple smartphones that will launch next year will also have a full-screen design with no or minimal bezels. The company will keep up with their new design and make it better, while ditching the design which stood over for almost a decade.
Oppo, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, has launched another selfie-centric smartphone in Vietnam, calling it the Oppo F3 Lite. The smartphone shares a lot in common with the Oppo A57 launched somewhere in November last year. The highlights of the smartphone include the 16-megapixel front-facing camera.
As far as specifications are concerned, the Oppo F3 Lite features a 5.2-inch HD IPS LCD display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels. The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 SoC which is an octa-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz. The device packs in 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage which is further expandable up to 128GB using a microSD card. Under the hood, the F3 Lite comes with a 2,900mAh battery. The dual-sim smartphone runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with ColorOS 3.0 layered on top of it out of the box.
As for connectivity, the smartphone includes 4G LTE, GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth v4.1, Wi-Fi, GPS, micro USB and a 3.5mm audio jack.
On the optics front, the Oppo F3 Lite features a 13-megapixel camera at the back with f/2.2 aperture and a LED flash. Up front, the phone sports a 16-megapixel front-facing camera with an aperture of f/2.0.
The Oppo F3 Lite has been launched in Vietnam at a price of VND 54,90,000 which roughly converts to Rs. 15,700. The phone will go on sale soon in the country. The new smartphone might not make its way to other markets, as they already have the Oppo A57.
Just a week back Microsoft had announced that it had announced that its Microsoft Edge web browser will be soon available for both Android and iOS mobile operating systems. Apple iOS users were lucky enough to get the access to the beta build on the same day, however, Android users weren't. Today, the company has gone ahead and launched the preview build for the Android operating system.
Downloading the Microsoft Edge browser for Android isn't that easy as downloading an app from the Google Play Store. The user will have to visit a preview page on the company's official website. On the page, users will have to enter their e-mail addresses after which they might receive the download link. However, we do think it is just a matter of few hours before the app is uploaded to a third party website available to be side-loaded.
This app is extremely helpful for the people who use the browser on the PC as well due to the number of features being offered. The browser offers the users their favourites, reading list, new tab preferences, and reading view which will be synced between all the devices. Interestingly, users will also be able to send pages from their mobile devices to their PC's with just a single tap.
Currently, we aren't sure as to when the company will be making the Edge browser for Android and iOS public so we will just have to wait and see. We will keep you updated with the developments that will happen regarding the web browser.
As the festive day of lights arrives, more and more companies starting giving attractive and exciting offers to its customers. In order to celebrate the auspicious festival, iVoomi, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, has come up with some exciting offers. The company is announcing the 'Big Diwali Sale', where the iVoomi smartphones will be sold at a discounted price via the e-commerce website Flipkart. The sale will begin on October 14 and will go on until October 17.
Commenting on the same, Mr. Ashwin Bhandari, CEO, iVOOMi, India said, “Diwali is a very important festival in India and we are excited to be a part of the celebrations by offering some great discounts on our smartphones which are available on the Big Diwali Sale at Flipkart.”
“We are even targeting to sell 1 Lac units in the month of October and we are expecting to double up the sale of our smartphone during this period," he further added.
Me 3
As iVoomi India celebrates Diwali with its customers, the customers can now avail a special discount of up to 25% on its smartphones. To make the deal even more lucrative, the company offers free screen replacement on its newly launched flagship products Me3 & Me3S for up to 180 days. Apart from the discounts, the customers can also get an extra Rs. 200 supercash from MobiKwik on a purchase of any of the iVoomi smartphones.
Also, First in industry, iVoomi is offering onsite warranty for Tier – 3, 4 cities where the service centre is currently not available. The brand is focusing not only on sales but on after sales support as well.
As far as the offer pricing are concerned, here is a list of iVoomi smartphones with their new offer prices.
HMD Global recently unveiled their first flagship smartphone, the Nokia 8. Now the company is working on bringing out another smartphone rumoured to be the Nokia 9. The renders of the much-anticipated Nokia 9 have been leaked. The reports are coming from a renowned tipster Steve H., who is also known as OnLeaks via his twitter handle. The leaked images of the upcoming smartphone clearly show the front and back of the smartphone. As per the leaks, the smartphone will come with a dual-camera setup at the back in order to cope up with the competition.
As far as the design is concerned, the leaks clearly show that the upcoming Nokia 9 will flaunt a glass design which will add room for wireless-charging. Also, in the images, we cannot see any 3.5mm audio jack which might be a tip that the Nokia 9 will be another smartphone to come without a 3.5mm jack.
Meanwhile, previous reports suggest that the Nokia 9 is expected to feature a 5.5-inch QHD display. The smartphone might be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset. Rumours also suggest that the smartphone might come in two RAM variants, one with 6GB of RAM and the other with 8GB of RAM. As for the storage, there will be a 128GB variant of the smartphone. The device is tipped to get an IP68 certification which will make it dust and water resistant.
As far as the pricing is concerned, previous reports suggest that the price of the Nokia's upcoming flagship will start at EUR 750 (roughly Rs. 55,000).
Razer the company that is famous for making the gaming hardware and accessories has been rumoured to be developing a smartphone for some time now. The company also has been posting a lot of hints all over the social media. Today the company officially announced that it will be debuting its first smartphone on November 1 by putting up a teaser on its official website.
In the teaser that has been put up on the website, we can see a person holding a smartphone and written below is the biggest unveiling yet. The company back in January had purchased Nextbit the company behind the Robin smartphone. This was the first hint for the tech industry that the company might be developing a smartphone.
Recently CEO of Razer, Min-Liang Tan said that the company was working on a mobile device which they had plans to launch by the end of 2017. He also said that the device will be focused on gaming and entertainment. Last week Razer's mobile division head, Tom Moss tweeted out an image of him standing next to Tan who seems to have a prototype unit of the smartphone that the company is building in his pants pocket.
Currently, we only know that the company will be launching the device on November 1. Nothing else is currently known as to what specifications will the device have, or as to what will be its price or availability. However, we will keep you updated as to whatever we get to know about the device.
Reliance Jio recently launched the cheapest 4G feature phone which is effectively free for the customers. To counter Jio, Airtel today launched a new affordable 4G smartphone which has an effective price of just Rs. 1,399. Both the companies are trying to deliver the cheapest 4G phones.
Karbonn A40 Indian by Airtel
In case of the Airtel's new 4G smartphone, the phone is being manufactured by Karbonn. In order to get the new 4G smartphone from the comapny, one will need to make a down payment of Rs. 2,899. Once the purchase is done, the customer will need to make 36 continuous recharges of Rs. 169. After 18 months of purchase, the customer will be eligible to get a cash refund of Rs. 500. Later, after 36 months, the customer will again get a cash back of Rs. 100 making the total cash back at Rs. 1,500. Purchasing the device at Rs. 2,899 and getting Rs. 1,500 as cash back will make the price of the smartphone at Rs. 1,399.
On the other hand, JioPhone is being manufactured by LYF. The JioPhone comes at a down payment of Rs. 1,500. Unlike Airtel, Jio provides a full refund after 3 years of use. Also, users will need to make Rs. 149 recharge to make the full use of the feature phone.
However, the difference is, the Airtel's new 4G smartphone offers more functionality as it runs on Android 7.0 Nougat as compared to the JioPhone which runs on a custom operating system.
