OnePlus Introduction

From zero to flagship killer in less than 6 months. That's the life story of OnePlus Tech - a big chunk of which went in explanation mode. First it was their relation to Oppo, then the reasons why their debut smartphone got delayed - over and over. Social media hype and an elaborate invite system sent demand soaring through the roof and it's only now that OnePlus finally looks capable of catching up on pre-orders. It's time too for the full review to take off.
If Oppo wasn't clue enough, the OnePlus One isn't exactly trying to hide its resemblance to the Oppo Find 7 pair, particularly the 7a. The One looks like a chip off the not-so-old block with similarities running more than skin-deep. For starters, the displays have the same size and resolution (Find 7a), there's 3GB of RAM, 5MP front cams and 13MP main camera with UHD video.

OnePlus One official photos

Aside from the shared DNA with Oppo's Find series, the OnePlus One promises a Nexus feel and performance while beating the Nexus price. If it sounds like we're drunk, you don't know the OnePlus One. It costs just $350/€300 for the 64 gig version and it comes with top notch hardware to match the ample storage. The flipside is it's still quite hard to get.
OnePlus wants you to Never Settle and the One resonates with that - it doesn't skimp on hardware to offer the very best money can buy. The screen is big, bright and high-res, the chipset is top-notch, the camera is capable and even offers cinematic DCI 4k video, the battery and storage sound more than adequate and, to top it off, it comes with pure Android on steroids in the shape of CyanogenMod 11s. The 3GB of RAM will be cheered by heavy multitaskers.

Key features

• 5.5" 16M-color 1080 x 1920px IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen of 401ppi
• Android OS 4.4.2 KitKat CyanogenMod 11s OS
• Quad-core 2.5GHz Krait 400 CPU, 3GB of RAM, Adreno 330 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset
• 13MP autofocus camera, dual-LED flash
• 2160p@30fps video, 2160p(DCI)@24fps, 1080@30fps, slow motion recording at 1080p@60fps and 720p@120fps
• Dual speakers (not stereo)
• 16GB and 64GB storage options
• 3,100mAh battery
• Active noise cancellation with a tri-mi setup
• Aggressive pricing
• Swappable back panels (including wooden ones)

Main disadvantages

• Limited availability, slow to meet pre-orders, invitation-based purchasing
• No headphones in the retail package
• No 60fps normal speed videos (60fps videos are all slowed down)
• No FM Radio
• No IR port
• Non-expandable storage (no microSD card slot)
• The dual speaker setup is mono only
• Sold exclusively online

So what are the downsides to an otherwise tempting package? For starters there's no FM Radio. Are we done? No. Okay. The OnePlus One is bulky and heavy to an extent that it can enter a fist fight with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. There's no such thing as one size fits all but OnePlus has gotten a little carried away - most people like a clear line drawn between phones and phablets.
Another issue is it's so hard to get, so you may have to pay extra to jump the queue. But with a little bit of patience and big hands you might really enjoy the OnePlus One. Opening the retail box of the OnePlus One will put a grin on your face - this device is cheap but doesn't look it, nor do the other box contents. And past the boot screen, a fast, streamlined interface awaits - one that's very close to what you'll find on a Nexus phone.
The screen is big and bright and fills the front from edge to edge pushing the bezels to the brink. And if you're still not sold, one look at the video settings will dispel any doubt - the UHD option is stuff only premium devices get these days.

OnePlus One live photos

But before we declare the OnePlus One the bargain of the year it will have more than a few points to prove. The next stop is the hardware checkup where we'll see what the One is made of, look closer at the screen and test the battery backup.

Source From: http://www.gsmarena.com

7:12 AM   by Unknown ·   0

Introduction ZTE Nubia Z9

Screen bezels are an inevitable imperfection of modern smartphones. That is unless you get the ZTE Nubia Z9, the phone that magics the side bezel away. This mobile David Blaine has flagship ambitions with a design - and price! - to match.
ZTE's designers employed optical effects to hide the bezel. The chamfered 2.5D glass bends the light from the screen in a way that makes the image appear wider than the actual screen itself. That's Arc Refractive Conduction or, simply, ARC.
It's more than vanity though, the non-bezel screen lets you touch the screen glass to perform gestures - a thing called FiT (Frame Interactive Technology). What makes this system special is it ignores unintended touches, while waiting for gestures. You can squeeze the phone to unlock it, swipe to switch between apps, swipe with two finger to adjust the volume. A new, tactile way of interacting with a smartphone we've only seen in crude prototypes before at trade fairs. That alone should count for something.

Key features

• Unique bezel-less design and a metal unibody
• Dual Sim
• 5.2" 1080p IPS LCD (424ppi) capacitive touchscreen
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 810: quad-core 2GHz Cortex-A57 & quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53, Adreno 430 GPU; 3GB of RAM, 4GB on the Exclusive version
• 16MP autofocus camera with OIS, LED flash, IMX234 Exmor RS sensor f/2.0 aperture, 2160p video recording, manual mode
• 8MP front-facing camera, IMX179 Exmor R sensor f/2.0 80° lens, 1080p video recording
• Android OS v5.0 Lollipop with Nubia UI 3.0
• 32GB of built-in storage, 64GB on Exclusive version
• Fingerprint reader (Exclusive version only)
• Cat. 6 LTE (300Mbps); Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.0; GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou (BDS); FM radio; NFC; microUSB port with USB On-The-Go
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, AK3861 Hi-Fi music chip
• 2,900mAh battery

Main disadvantages

• One of the heaviest phones we've handled in a while - 192g!
• Fairly thick too - 8.9mm
• And yet the battery capacity is nothing special
• No microSD card slot
• Current software is intendent solely for China

Besides the bezel disappearing act, the Nubia Z9 boasts a metal frame sandwiched between two panes of 2.5D glass, a fast chipset and an optically-stabilized 16MP Sony camera with 2160p video recording.
That's just what you get in the Classic edition, but there's a higher tier. The Exclusive edition brings a fingerprint sensor, goes from 3GB of RAM to 4GB and doubles the storage to 64GB. The fingerprint tech is called TiO - Three in One. ZTE certainly likes its abbreviations. The brand name gave that away a long time ago. TiO refers to the phone's ability to read your fingerprint when you are pressing one of the three buttons: Power, Volume Up and Down. Unfortunately, we only have the Classic edition so we won't get to give this one a try. Sigh!
But we can't wait to walk you through what the Classic edition has on offer.

Source From: http://www.gsmarena.com

7:08 AM   by Unknown ·   0

Introduction Xiaomi Mi 5

It's been a while since we met the last of the Mi kind. Even though the Xiaomi Mi 4 went on sale back in the summer of 2014, it succeeded in staying relevant for over 20 months and surpassed the lifespan of many competitors. Xiaomi surely took the time to make the Mi 5 worthy of its name. And Xiaomi Mi 5 sets the bar even higher!
The Mi 5 was the first Xiaomi phone to be unveiled under the massive spotlight of the world's biggest mobile expo - the MWC in Barcelona. And with its stunning looks and capable performance, the Mi 5 deserved nothing less.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 is instantly likeable - the new flagship comes with unbelievably thin bezels, a sharp profile, a curved back and a lightweight body - all adding to one of the most impressive exteriors a modern smartphones can hope for.
Then you learn that inside there is the latest Snapdragon 820 chipset, a new 16MP camera with 4-axis optical stabilization and yet no camera hump, generous storage options, rich connectivity options, and a beefy battery. How about that?

Key features

• 5.15" IPS LCD display of 1080p resolution; 428ppi; Corning Gorilla Glass 4
• Gorilla Glass 4 (32, 64GB) or ceramic (128GB) rear panel
• 32GB model with Snapdragon 820 chipset (2x 1.8 GHz and 2x 1.6GHz cores); 3GB RAM
• 64GB model with Snapdragon 820 chipset (2x 2.15 GHz and 2x 1.6GHz cores); 3GB RAM - the one we're reviewing
• 128GB model with Snapdragon 820 chipset (2x 2.15 GHz and 2x 1.6GHz cores); 4GB RAM
• 16MP f/2.0 main camera with phase detect autofocus, 4-axis optical image stabilization, dual-tone LED flash; 2160p video at 30fps;
• 4MP f/2.0 front-facing camera, 1080p video recording at 30fps
• Cat.12 4G LTE (600Mbps); Dual-SIM; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.2; NFC; GPS, GLONASS and Beidou; IR blaster
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow with MIUI 7
• 3,000 mAh non-removable battery, fast charging
• Attractive pricing

Main disadvantages

• Limited regional availability at this stage
• No microSD expansion
• Sealed battery
• No FM radio

Xiaomi has turned their backs on the removable battery and memory card slot long ago and it ensures the best MIUI experience by offering uncompromised unibody design and hiccup-free memory speeds. The latter is achieved by utilizing fast UFS 2.0 storage - the same type of storage that Samsung uses on the Galaxy S6 and S7.
The FM radio is what many people may miss, but Qualcomm stopped embedding FM hardware within its flagship chips for some time, so there is that.
Xiaomi will not be expanding the availability of the Mi 5 beyond its usual markets so availability will be scarce elsewhere and you would have to rely on grey imports to satisfy the demand. At least, the phone's price is an amazingly good deal to begin with. Oh, and if you want even more exclusivity, there is the Xiaomi Mi 5 Ceramic flavor with 128GB storage for you.

Source From: http://www.gsmarena.com

7:07 AM   by Unknown ·   0

Introduction Alcatel One Touch Hero

Alcatel found a new life with Android and has continuously improved its offerings over time. The One Touch Hero is one of the latest - a 6" phablet that throws down a price challenge to the Galaxy Note 3, with a rich feature set of its own.

Alcatel One Touch Hero official images

The Hero has captured the essence of the Note - a large, 1080p screen, a stylus to go with it and split-screen multitasking to boost productivity. The screen is actually bigger - 6 inches - and the bezels are impressively thin.
That said, Alcatel kept its feet on the ground and went for a Cortex-A7-based MediaTek chipset. The amount of inbuilt storage is economical but expandable and there's a dual-SIM version right out of the gate. This keeps the price in check and makes the phablet suitable for emerging markets (where the lack of LTE isn't a huge deal).

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support; Dual-band 3G with HSPA
• Optional dual-SIM
• 6" 16M-color 1080p IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen
• Capacitive stylus
• Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A7 CPU, 2 GB RAM, PowerVR SGX544 GPU, MediaTek MT6589 chipset
• Split-screen multi-tasking Dual display
• 13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, geo-tagging
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• 2 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
• 16GB (dual-SIM), 8GB (single-SIM)
• microSD card slot (single-SIM only)
• microUSB port
• Bluetooth v4.0
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Voice commands
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• Non-replaceable 3,400mAh Li-Ion battery
• Cool active accessories

Main disadvantages

• Capacitive stylus not as good as the Wacom solution
• 13MP camera not on par with other 13MP shooters
• Non-replaceable battery
• Midrange chipset
• Limited storage on the dual-SIM version
• No LTE

There's a place for the Alcatel One Touch Hero in established markets too - we're seeing a shift towards affordable, capable devices in the mobile world with devices like the Moto G and $200 tablets.

Alcatel One Touch Hero in our office

The One Touch Hero has the build quality wouldn't be out of place in the lineup of better known makers and Alcatel did well to avoid gimmicky tweaks. Where the company stepped outside the box is the attachable accessories, while split-screen multitasking and especially the stylus are right out of the Note rulebook.

Source From: http://www.gsmarena.com

7:05 AM   by Unknown ·   0

Introduction BlackBerry Leap

Many thought the days of BlackBerry were numbered yet the company is still here, pushing new phones. The Canadians might not be the leading smartphone manufacturer that it once was, but it's still got a loyal fanbase that the BlackBerry Leap comes to cater to.


You get a 5" HD display, dual-core processor, 2GB RAM, an 8MP shooter and a rich connectivity package - not the kind of specs to make a geek's pulse race, but adequate for the mid-range that the Leap is targeting. The design is instantly recognizable - square edges, plastic unibody and dotted rear panel with a huge BlackBerry logo. It's more of the classic kind, rather than modern or fresh, but that's a good thing to say for a business-oriented phone.

Key features

• 5" 720p LCD capacitive touchscreen, 294ppi
• Dual-core 1.5GHz Krait CPU, 2GB of RAM, Adreno 225 GPU; Snapdragon S4 Plus chipset
• 8MP autofocus camera, single-LED flash; HDR, Panorama
• 1080@30fps video recording
• 2MP front camera, 720p video recording
• 16GB of built-in storage, expandable via a microSD slot
• Cat. 3 LTE (100/50Mbps); Wi-Fi b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0; GPS with A-GPS; FM; microUSB
• 2,800mAh battery
• BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 with native Android app support (4.3 Jelly Bean API)

Main disadvantages

• BlackBerry OS 10 not quite as functional as major rivals
• Processor is decidedly underpowered
• Non-IPS screen
• No NFC
• Non-removable battery

The BlackBerry Leap is hardly a hero device set to lift the profile of the company - instead it's a workhorse that should bring in some extra sales and help keep the maker afloat until it figures out its next strategic move. And on paper it looks capable of handling the task.

BlackBerry Leap official pictures

Of course we shouldn't forget that competition in the mid-range has never been this fierce. What was once a land of underperforming handsets trying to replicate flagships designs with cheaper materials and often failing spectacularly now hosts a bunch of very solid smartphones that can cater to the needs of many a power user. The Leap needs to convince us it's got what it takes to compete there, offering enough standout features to attract attention and a well-balanced experience to make customers reach for their wallets.
Let's see how this one goes - we start with the unboxing and hardware inspection after the break.

Source From: http://www.gsmarena.com

7:03 AM   by Unknown ·   0

Introduction Lenovo Vibe Shot

The Vibe series often breathes fresh air into the stale smartphone design segment and the Lenovo Vibe Shot wants to serve double duty by trying to break into the difficult high-end smartphone photography market as well.
We still fondly remember the Vibe X2 design and while the Vibe Shot is different, we think we'll remember it for a while too. It features a metal strip on the back to hold the camera and all its friends, which makes it look more like a compact camera than a smartphone.
The camera is indeed the main focus of the feature sheet. It has a 16:9 BSI sensor with 16MP resolution and optical image stabilization. It's augmented by a triple-LED flash and laser autofocus. You get a couple of hardware controls too - a two-stage shutter key, an Auto/Pro mode switch, the volume rocker turns into a zoom control to boot.
The Vibe Shot design is based on the aluminum frame and glass sandwich that rules the Android high class, but the camera strip on the back really breaks up the monotony. We especially like the Carmine Red version, which paints the metal frame in sports car red.
Despite its premium design, this Lenovo is a mid-ranger at heart. Its 1080p screen and Snapdragon 615 chipset put it in the same mid-premium segment that the HTC One A9, Moto X Play and others occupy.

Lenovo Vibe Shot key features

• Aluminum frame with Gorilla Glass 3 on the front and back
• Dual-SIM dual-standby capability
• 5" 1080p IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 441ppi
• Octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU (4x 1.7GHz plus 4x 1.0GHz), 3GB of RAM, Adreno 405 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset
• 32GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot (up to 128GB)
• Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
• 16MP laser autofocus camera, triple-LED flash; HDR, Pro mode, Panorama
• 1080@30fps video
• 8MP front camera, 1080p video recording; wide selfie
• Cat. 4 LTE (150/50Mbps); dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, hotspot, Wi-Fi direct; Bluetooth 4.1 LE; GPS/GLONASS; microUSB
• 3,000mAh Li-Po battery capacity
• 3.5mm headphone jack, active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic

Main disadvantages

• No 4K video capture
• Midrange chipset in a pricy handset
• No fingerprint sensor
• No NFC

This mid-premium segment came to be mainly because people want a device that looks and feels premium, but the new features each year's flagships bring have become even more far-fetched. Will you ever use those features? Perhaps, perhaps not.
That's not to say the Lenovo Vibe Shot doesn't have premium features. The camera comes fully-loaded for photos (not so much for videos), the storage is fairly generous (the competition comes with 16GB as base or no microSD slot) and we were wowed by the screen as soon as we powered it on. It's just that the gimmicks are out (and some genuinely useful functionality along with them, unfortunately).

Lenovo Vibe Shot official images

Here's the deal with Lenovo phones - their popularity is quite regional. Either you've never seen one or they are quite popular where you live. Can this one spur a more global adoption? Or at least further raise the popularity of Lenovo handsets? Let's crack open the box and find out.

Source From: http://www.gsmarena.com

7:02 AM   by Unknown ·   0