Author: Vipul Vij

OnePlus 6 Launches in India May 18th Staring Rs. 39999

Update: The source story has been taken down as OnePlus has claimed that this information is false.

OnePlus has been dropping a few helpful hints in the puzzle that is the OnePlus 6. The company recently confirmed its partnership with Avengers: Infinity War which could mean a special edition OnePlus 6 will launch as well. The one thing we are not certain about so far is the date of launch. There have been a lot of rumours about a possible late-April launch which would make sense, since the Avengers: Infinity War releases on April 27th worldwide. However, a new report has claimed the OnePlus 6 won’t launch in India until mid-May.

OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition

According to the report, the 6 will launch on the 18th of May in India at a starting price of Rs 39999. This contradicts a previous leak which claimed it will start at Rs 34999 in India. There will also be a special edition called the OnePlus 6 Premium, which will have 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, and is expected to be priced between Rs 44,999 – 48,999. The special edition Avengers OnePlus 6 might be available in just the 256GB storage variant. It is worth noting that OnePlus has so far, not teased a 256GB storage variant for the OnePlus 6.

The OnePlus 6, so far, seems like a sizeable upgrade over the OnePlus 5/5T. In the latest tweet by OnePlus’ official account, the company has seemingly confirmed that it will be water resistant. There are also rumours the OnePlus 6 will have an all-glass design which means the company could also introduce wireless charging. This is another feature that a lot of consumers have asked for but, so far, OnePlus has maintained that its DashCharge technology is superior to the current wireless charging technology.

The smartphone has also been confirmed to be an Amazon exclusive smartphone in India, like its predecessors. In an advertisement being shown at Cinemas in India, the last slide reveals that the 6 will be an Amazon-exclusive smartphone. However, like it did with the OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T, the 6 will also, eventually, make its way to offline stores as OnePlus is now trying to capture a market that strays away from shopping online.

The launch of the OnePlus 6 seems nigh, and the anticipation around the smartphone is increasing by the day. If priced similar to the OnePlus 5T, the OnePlus 6 could be a great flagship smartphone for 2018. Stay tuned for more updates.

April 20, 2018
Moto E5 Plus And Moto E5 Play Launched

Lenovo-owned Motorola has launched the fifth iteration of its highly successful Moto E series of smartphones. Leading up to the launch, it appeared that the company would only launch the Moto G series but, the Moto E5 Plus and E5 Play have been launched at an event in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Moto E5 Plus

The Moto E5 Plus is the premium offering between the two Moto E series smartphones launched today. The E5 Plus runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 chipset with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of built-in storage which is expandable up to 128GB via microSD card.

The E5 Plus has a 6 inch IPS LCD display with a 1440 x 720 px resolution which translates into an 18:9 aspect ratio. It also has the Moto Display for at-a-glance info and quick replies to notifications. The Moto E5 Plus has a massive 5000 mAh battery which will charge via a micro USB port. The smartphone will come bundled with a 15W TurboPower charger which is capable of pushing up to 6 hours worth of charge into the battery in just 15 minutes.

To the back of the smartphone is a 12MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture which records 1080P videos at 30fps. To the front is an 8MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture which would also record 1080P videos.

Moto E5 Play

The Moto E5 Play reverts to the archaic 16:9 aspect ratio and probably will be the most affordable of the five smartphones launched by Motorola. The Moto E5 Play runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425/427 chipset along with 2GB RAM and 16GB of onboard storage which will be expandable up to 128GB via microSD card.

The Moto E5 Play has a 5.2 inch IPS LCD display with a 1280 x 720 px resolution. It also has the Moto Display for at-a-glance info and quick replies to notifications. The Moto E5 Play is powered by a 2800 mAh battery which, for a 5.2 inch HD display should suffice, in theory. The battery will be charged via a micro USB slot and the 3.5mm headphone jack is also present.

To the back of the smartphone is a 8MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture which records 1080P videos at 30fps. To the front is an 5MP camera along with a front-facing LED flash.

April 19, 2018
Honor 10 With A Notch Display And AI Powered Dual Cameras Launched

Huawei’s sub-brand, Honor has launched its first flagship smartphone for 2018, the Honor 10. Much of what the Honor 10 has to offer was already leaked long before its launch. But, at least it is all official now and we have the official pricing of the smartphone as well. The Honor 10 will be available in two variants in China. The 6GB RAM/64GB storage will retail for CNY 2599 (Rs 27,200 approx.) and the 6GB RAM/128GB storage will be priced at CNY 2999 (Rs 31,400 approx.).

Two striking features of the smartphone are all about its design and the look. The first thing you notice about the smartphone is the notch on the display, which resembles the Huawei P20 series of smartphones. Unlike the iPhone X which has a lot of tech stuffed into that notch, the Honor 10 just houses a camera, earpiece and the necessary sensors.

Another exciting aspect of the Honor 10 is the colour variant. The smartphone has a dual-tone colour of blue and pink and in the images at least, looks pretty fantastic. The fingerprint reader like expected is not embedded inside the display, instead, it is an invisible ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that can also detect a wet finger. It is also front-facing since it is housed inside the chin of the smartphone.

Honor also claims that the Honor 10’s dual-camera setup has a lot of AI capabilities. The company is betting big on the device’s AI capabilities, which Honor is calling “AI 2.0.” According to Honor, AI 2.0 can detect dynamic pictures more accurately. The phone’s AI 2.0 can also process Prisma-like image effects twice as fast as the iPhone X.

The Honor 10 looks like an impressive smartphone with its top of the line specifications and a few interesting features. Whether this smartphone will hit the Indian shores is a completely different question since as of now, there are no details of that happening.

April 19, 2018
Facebook Could Soon Design Its Own Chipsets

It might be an understatement to say that Facebook has had a tumultuous month and a half. Ever since the Cambridge Analatyica data breach controversy broke out, Facebook has been under the cosh for its lackadaisical data privacy guidelines. However, not all is gloomy for the social media giant as the company seeks to build its own chipset designing team.

According to a job listing on its corporate website, Facebook is looking to hire a manager to build an:

End-to-end SoC/ASIC, firmware and driver development organization.

The listing indicates that the process of building this team is still in its early stages. Interestingly, Facebook AI researcher Yann LeCun tweeted about some of the job postings as well.

Interested in designing ASIC & FPGA for AI?
Design engineer positions are available at Facebook in Menlo Park.

I used to be a chip designer many moons ago: my engineering diploma was in Electrical… https://t.co/D4l9kLpIlV

— Yann LeCun (@ylecun) April 18, 2018

Facebook, just like a lot of other tech giants, appears to have taken this step to, in the future, reduce the cost of production and also have greater control over the final product. As Apple has proven time and again, optimisation of software and hardware can do wonders for a product.

The social media company has joined a long list of companies moving away from outsourcing chipmaking tasks. According to a few people close to the matter, Facebook is building a team to design its own semiconductors to lower their dependence on chipmakers such as Intel Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. Apple started making its own chipsets in 2010 and now uses them across many of its major product lines like iPhones, iPads etc. Google as well, has developed its own artificial intelligence chip.

Facebook has long been rumoured to be working on a bunch of smart speakers. The company will also launch the Oculus Go, a standalone VR headset which will run on a Qualcomm chipset. Building a team to design its own chipsets could be for the future of its hardware business.

April 19, 2018
Apple iPhones In 2018 Will Start At US$ 550 And Include Dual SIM Variants

We are mid-way through the iPhone cycle and about 5 months away from the next iteration of Apple iPhones. So far, there have been a lot of conflicting reports about the 2018 iPhone lineup, especially when it comes to what all variants Apple will launch. A second generation iPhone X seems likely, along with an iPhone X Plus. There are also reports of an iPhone X like iPhone with an LCD display. Now, a new note to investors by Ming-Chi Kuo has revealed the pricing details of the upcoming iPhones in 2018.

2018 Apple iPhone lineup

Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities is a trusted source for iPhones in particular and his new note has revealed a few interesting details. According to Kuo, the 2018 lineup of Apple iPhones will start at a price of US$ 550. This is about a hundred and fifty dollars cheaper than the 2017 iPhone lineup wherein the iPhone 8 retails at a price of US$ 699 for the base model. Kuo believes that the 6.1 inch LCD model of the 2018 iPhone will be launched in September and will start at a price of US$ 550. The single SIM model could retail for anything between US$ 550 and US$ 650, while the dual-SIM model would sell for between US$ 650 and US$ 750.

In his note, Ming-Chi Kuo explains that the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone could be available in two models, one with a single SIM and another with dual SIM dual standby. If true, this will be the first time ever that Apple will launch an iPhone with a dual SIM setup. He has also said that the 6.5 inch iPhone X Plus model will also have a dual-SIM variant while the 5.8 inch iPhone will only have a single SIM variant. He believes that a dual-SIM model could “help increase market share in China and commercial markets.”

Kuo has also predicted that Apple could sell between 100 million and 120 million units between Q3 2018 and Q3 2019.

April 19, 2018
Huawei P20, P20 Pro To Launch In India On April 24th

Three weeks after the global launch of the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro, the company is now all set to launch them in India. A few days ago, Huawei India’s Twitter account teased a possible launch of the new smartphones and now, the company has sent out press invites for an event. The invite does not explicitly mentions the P20 smartphones but, has the tagline, “See Mooore.” This is the same promotional tagline that was used during the global launch of the Huawei P20 series.

The pricing of the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro will be key for the Indian market. The Huawei P20 retails for a starting price of 649 Euros (Rs 52800 approx.) and the P20 Pro is priced at 899 Euros (Rs 73000 approx.). Huawei’s sub brand Honor has been very competitive with its pricing in India especially with the Honor 9 Lite, 7X and View10. Hence, it is fair to assume that the price of the Huawei P20 and Huawei P20 Pro won’t be a direct conversion of their European prices.

The Huawei P20 Pro is definitely the bigger star of the two smartphones. It is the first-ever smartphone with a triple-camera setup on the back and offers a great build quality with an all-glass design. The Huawei P20 Pro has the same build quality and design albeit, a smaller display and a dual-camera setup on the back. Both the smartphones also sport a notch which houses the front camera, earpiece and the necessary sensors. Huawei, however, has included an option to hide the notch via software but, that also means that you lose a bit of screen real estate.

In the coming days, another highly anticipated flagship device will launch as well, the OnePlus 6. This time around, it could be priced higher than its predecessors and could cross the Rs 40000 mark for the first time in India. If so, it will be more comparable to the Huawei P20 which is also expected to be priced around Rs 45000.

How the Indian consumers perceive the P20 and P20 will largely depend on the pricing of the two devices. If priced competitively, the two phones have enough features to make a mark in the Indian smartphone market.

April 19, 2018
OnePlus 6 Avengers Edition Launch Confirmed By OnePlus

The OnePlus 6 will follow in the footsteps of its predecessors in more than one way. There are rumours that just like the OnePlus 5 had a significant price hike from the OnePlus 3/3T, the OnePlus 6 will also be a bit pricier than the OnePlus 5. Now, the company has confirmed that it has tied up with Avengers: Infinity War for a special OnePlus 6 Avengers: Infinity War edition, just like the OnePlus 5T was launched in a Star Wars Special Edition variant a few days after its official launch.

OnePlus 5T Star Wars Edition

In a media note, OnePlus said:

The collaboration marks a step towards strengthening our association with Disney India. In December 2017, OnePlus and Disney partnered to launch OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition, which was well received by fans across both communities.

It is worth noting that the release date for Avengers: Infinity War is 27th April. This means that the OnePlus 6 could launch before, or on the same day as the Marvel film. The company did not hint towards a launch date in the media note. However, considering the social media activity of OnePlus, the company could soon hint at a release date as well.

If the Star Wars Edition of the OnePlus 5T is anything to go by, we could see a very different Avengers Edition of the OnePlus 6 compared to the regular OnePlus 6. It is expected to have the movie branding on the smartphone along with a different colour variant as well. The specifications of the OnePlus 6 Avengers: Infinity War Edition will be the same as the regular OnePlus 6. However, the Avengers Edition might only launch in the 256GB storage variant, since the OnePlus 5T Star Wars edition was only launched in the 8GB RAM/128GB storage variant.

OnePlus 6 Leaked Images

The OnePlus 6 is shaping up to be quite an upgrade over the OnePlus 5/5T with its new “notch” design and water resistance. The pricing, as usual, will be key to the success of the OnePlus 6 in countries like India.

April 19, 2018
Honor 10 Leaked In Stunning Twilight Colour Along With Other Colour Variants

Huawei’s sub-brand, Honor launched has launched three very strong smartphones in India in the last few months. The Honor 7X, Honor View10 and the Honor 9 Lite have been very well received for the price-to-performance ratio in India and continue to do well in the Indian market. The company is preparing to launch another smartphone, the Honor 10 on the 19th of April in China. In new leaked renders of the upcoming smartphone, the different colour variants of the Honor 10 have been revealed.

While it has already been leaked that the Honor 10 will have an all-glass design, these new colour variants make the device look even better. The most interesting of the three colours is the Twilight colour that we first saw on the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro. The Twilight colour on the smartphone shifts between blue and pink under different lighting and a viewing angle. The other two colour variants of the Honor 10 will be Black and Teal. Even the Teal colour variant is something that you do not see on a lot of smartphones.

The Honor 10 will also follow an industry trend that not a lot of people are a fan of, the notch. The upcoming smartphone will have a notch very similar to the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro which will house the earpiece, necessary sensors and the front-facing camera. Apart from the horizontally placed dual-camera setup, the Honor 10 resembles the Huawei P20 Pro.

The Honor 10 is expected to have a 5.8 inch IPS LCD display with a 2280 x 1080 px resolution. This translates into a 19:9 aspect ratio which is important in this case. Like the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro, the Honor 10 might also have an option to hide the notch via software. This means that the screen real estate on either side of the notch will be lost.

Under the hood, the smartphone will run on the HiSilicon Kirin 970 chipset with a neural processing engine. This is the same chipset found on the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro. On the back of the smartphone will be a dual-camera setup with an LED flash. The notch on the front will house a 20MP front-facing camera.

The Honor 10 could be a China-exclusive smartphone and may never make its way to India. However, with the Honor View10 a few months old, the Honor 10 could be a perfect upgrade with a better design at a similar price. Stay tuned to iGyaan for the latest updates from the launch event.

April 18, 2018
Moto G6 Plus Live Images Reveal 18:9 Aspect Ratio And Front Facing Fingerprint Sensor

On April 19th, Lenovo-owned Motorola will unveil the next iteration of its highly successful budget lineup, the Moto G6 series. This time around, there are rumours that Motorola will launch three smartphones, the Moto G6, G6 Play and Moto G6 Plus. It appears that the whole G series of smartphones will see an overhaul in design and build quality. Now, live images of the Moto G6 and Moto G6 Plus have leaked, a day before their official unveiling at an event in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The leaked images also confirm that from the front, there will be no difference between the Moto G6 and G6 Plus. Despite the 18:9 aspect ratio, Motorola has kept the fingerprint sensor on the front of the devices. This means that the screen-to-body ratio of the two smartphones will take a hit but, the trade-off seems fair as a front-facing fingerprint sensor is more convenient than a rear facing one. The front-facing camera will also be accompanied by an LED flash on both the smartphones.

Benchmark scores of the Moto G6 Plus were already leaked, which reveal that the G6 Plus will run on the Snapdragon 630 chipset. Although according to the Geekbench listing the G6 Plus will run on the Snapdragon 660 chipset, the actual low benchmark scores point towards a 630 chipset. The Nokia 7 Plus, which runs on the Snapdragon 660 chipset scores 1640 points on a single core and 5827 points on multi-core performance. Whereas the Moto G6 Plus has scored 866 points on a single core and 4123 points on a multicore performance. The Moto G6 Plus scores are more comparable to the Moto X4 which runs on the Snapdragon 630.

The Moto G6 and G6 Plus along with the G6 Play will soon launch in India as well. If priced competitively, the Moto G6 series would compete with the likes of the Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro in India. The launch of the Moto G6 series of smartphones is just a day away and all the details about the three smartphones will be revealed soon.

April 18, 2018
Nike Made 3D Printed Shoes That Can Be Customised To Perfection

Nike has just introduced a very significant product in the timeline of “shoes.” The American shoemaker has unveiled the first-ever 3D printed shoes, the Nike Flyprint. It is the first 3D-printed textile upper in performance footwear. What this basically means is that the entire shoe is not 3D printed, in fact, it is the upper material that is not woven or mass produced, it is 3D printed.

The Nike Flyprint are produced through solid deposit modeling (SDM), a process whereby a TPU filament is unwound from a coil, melted and laid down in layers. While the process of 3D printing objects is not new, it is Nike’s implementation in this case that is interesting. According to Nike, the Flyprint method allows designers to translate athlete data into new textile geometries. In a nutshell, this means that all the data of an athlete that can be collected is used to customised accordingly for that athlete to ensure even better performance, from the shoes at least.

Interestingly, the first step in making the Nike Flywear is collecting the data of the particular athlete. Once all the tangible data is collated using computational design tools, it is then studied thoroughly to affirm the ideal composition of the material that will be used. The fascinating aspect of this process is the uniqueness of every resulting product. We all know that athletes wear customised shoes but, with Nike Flywear, that customisation happens down to the last thread used in the upper of every shoe.

One interesting benefit of 3D textiles over traditional 2D fabrics is the increased dynamism by adding an interconnection beyond a warp and weft. For example, whereas in a knit or woven textile there is frictional resistance between the interlaced yarns, in a printed textile, due to its fused intersections, there is greater potential for precision-tuned containment. This also results in lighter and more breathable uppers than any other previous Nike textile.

As evident from the process and result of the Nike Flywear, these are tailor-made for athletes. Nike has announced that the Nike Flywear was created for Eluid Kipchoge, a Kenyan long-distance runner.

April 18, 2018
New Amazon Internet Browser For Android Weighs 2MB

Amazon has just released a new browser for Android users in India. The new browser, named ‘Internet’ is specifically designed for to consume much less data than usual browsers. Apparently, the Amazon Internet browser also provides a very private user experience as it does not ask for any permissions to collect private data. The app is available to download via Google Play Store and is compatible with Android devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop and above. However, we were not able to install the app on our Redmi Note 5 Pro running Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

Just like any other browser, the Internet browser app from Amazon Internet has basic features like fullscreen reading mode. The homepage layout is also very similar to other browsers like Chrome with tabs for trending news and most visited pages. Just like the incognito mode on Chrome, there is a private mode to let users hide browsing history from their devices.

Amazon Internet is not the first ‘lite’ app by Amazon for the Indian audience. The company recently launched the lite version of its highly popular reading app, Kindle. The Kindle Lite, just like Internet, weighs less than 2MB in size and offers a basic e-book reading experience. The app is specifically designed for devices with a slower internet connection and for areas with unstable data connectivity.

A full-fledged browser that hardly takes up any space is ideal for people with entry-level smartphones. While many of us are used to 4GB RAM and minimum of 64GB onboard storage, there are consumers with entry-level Android smartphones with 8GB of onboard storage. This means that apps like Internet, Messenger Lite etc can help these users get a good user experience without their smartphones running out of space constantly.

April 18, 2018
Xiaomi Mi 6X Will Be A Colourful Version Of Redmi Note 5 Pro

The Xiaomi Mi 6X is expected to succeed the Mi A1 in India as the Mi A2 or Mi A1 (2018). But, before its launch in India, the Mi 6X will be launched at an event in China on the 25th of April. The Mi 6X is launching a couple of months in advance as the Mi 5X was launched on the 26th of July in 2017. Recently, Xiaomi released an official teaser of the Mi 6X revealing the design of the smartphone. Now, a new teaser video of the Mi 6X reveals the different colour variants the device will be available in.

From the teasers released by Xiaomi so far, it is quite evident that the Mi 6X will resemble the Redmi Note 5 Pro. The smartphone will have a vertically placed dual-camera setup on the back with the LED flash placed between the two sensors. It is quite possible for the Mi 6X to have the same cameras as the Redmi Note 5 Pro considering the similar price point of the two devices. This time around, it looks like the Mi 6X will be available in a red colour variant from the offset.

In 2017, Xiaomi launched a red colour variant of the Mi A1 a few months after the Mi A1 was launched in India. With the Xiaomi Mi 6X, the company will introduce a few colourful variants which is a great move by the company. The Mi 6X will be available in Red, Gold, Rose Gold, Black and Blue colour variants. How many of these will make their way to the Indian shores is yet to be seen.

According to a recent TENAA listing, the Xiaomi Mi 6X has a 5.99 inch IPS LCD 2160 x 1080 px display with 18:9 aspect ratio. Under the hood, the device has a 2.2 GHz Octa-core chipset, which could be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 626/660 chipset. Additionally, the device has either 4/6GB RAM with 64/128GB onboard storage.

The device has a dual 20MP and a 12MP sensor. However, the exact implementation of this dual camera setup is yet to be known. For the front-facing camera, the smartphone uses a 20MP sensor, like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro. Additionally, the front-facing camera is likely to support Face Unlock. The smartphone will be powered by a 2910 mAh battery and support Fast Charging as well.

The Mi 6X, if launched in India as the Mi A1 successor, could be priced very similar to the Redmi Note 5 Pro. The Redmi Note 5 Pro is still one of the best budget smartphones in India and the only caveat is the flash sale system. It will be interesting to see if consumers in India would pick a better chipset on the Redmi Note 5 Pro or stock OS on the Mi A2.

April 18, 2018
AI Was Used To Make Barack Obama Deliver This Announcement

When Google launched the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL back in October 2017, the company talked a lot about Artificial Intelligence. Google said that the integration of AI and machine learning within a smartphone is the future and it might as well be right. Artificial Intelligence has grown leaps and bounds over the past few years and is now readily available in most smartphones in the form of a digital assistant like Siri or Alexa. Jordan Peele, the famous Oscar-winning comedian and filmmaker decided to do give us a glimpse of what advancements in AI can produce in the near future.

In a video of Barrack Obama talking about everything from Black Panther to Donal Trump, Jordan Peele delivers a telling PSA about the future of fake news. The “fake video” was made by Peele’s production company using two tools, Adobe After Effects and the AI face-swapping tool FakeApp. Considering the technology used in this video is still in nascent stage, the authenticity of it is really hard to judge.

Since the dawn of social media, we have been plagued with fake news. There have been multiple reports of bots spreading a certain fake news or agenda across the internet by making it go viral. While a photoshopped image or fake tweet can still be recognised by people with a keen eye or an open mind, a carefully doctored video using AI can be harder to spot. Adobe, the creator of Photoshop, is already working on an audio editing software called VoCo. It is like Photoshop, but for words, wherein users can generate new words using a speaker’s recorded voice. This can be a groundbreaking addition to the already prominent fake news industry.

The process of making fake videos, which was a complicated job in the past, can soon become a hobby of a teenager with a computer. All of that will be possible because of the advancements in AI. As is with any form of technology, AI, if used maliciously, can create a lot of trouble especially when doctored videos can go viral in the blink of an eye.

As Peele says in the end, we need to be more vigilante and trust news outlets when it comes to important topics. Fake news is easy to spread, but, it won’t be of any use if we are careful enough to not believe and share everything we read on the internet. While scientists work on tools to spot fake AI videos, let’s make sure that we question every provocative video on the internet and find a credible source before we hit the share button.

April 18, 2018
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Now Available Via Open Sale

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 was launched on the 14th of February as the successor to Xiaomi’s most successful smartphone in India, the Redmi Note 4. Before the launch, a lot of new upgrades were anticipated for the Redmi Note 5 but, that did not happen. Apart from that, another aspect of the Redmi Note 5 that has been criticised its flash sales. However, Xiaomi has now fixed that, at least for the Redmi Note 5. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 is available via open sale on Flipkart and mi.com.

The Redmi Note 5 Pro, which was launched along with the Redmi Note 5 is still only available to buy via flash sales. The Redmi Note 5 Pro is the first smartphone to run on the Snapdragon 636 chipset and is arguably the most famous budget smartphone in India. In our review of the Redmi Note 5 Pro, we iterate that this should have been the successor to the Redmi Note 4 and not the Redmi Note 5. It will be interesting to note the rise in popularity of the Redmi Note 5 Pro once Xiaomi ends the flash sales and makes it available via open sales just like the Redmi Note 5.

Redmi Note 5 Pro

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5: The Unlikely Successor

It has a 5.99-inch display with a 2160 x 1080px resolution which translates to an 18:9 aspect ratio. This is one of the biggest changes in the Redmi Note series. Xiaomi has departed from the archaic 16:9 aspect ratio and moved on to the modern design and kept up with the industry trends.

Under the hood, the Redmi 5 Plus has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, 2.0GHz octa-core processor, Adreno 506 GPU, 3GB or 4GB of RAM, and 32GB or 64GB of onboard storage which will be expandable via microSD card. The fingerprint sensor sits at the back of the device which has become a Redmi signature irrespective of thin or thick bezels.

The Redmi Note 5 Plus is powered by a massive 4000 mAh battery which, according to Xiaomi, has a standby time of up to 17 days. The device has a micro USB port for charging and data syncing along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. One industry trend that Xiaomi avoided was the removal of the headphone jack despite omitting it in its premium Mi Mix 2. The device has a 12MP primary camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 5MP secondary camera with beautify 3.0 software.

One of the main reasons why Xiaomi is doing this is the lack of sales. The fact that the Redmi Note 5 is now readily available could persuade a few consumers to not wait for the Redmi Note 5 Pro and instead buy the Redmi Note 5. It will be interesting to see if Xiaomi makes its two hot sellers, the Redmi Note 5 Pro and Mi TV 4 also available on open sales in the coming weeks. For the Redmi Note 5 Pro, it might be even more crucial after Asus launches the Zenfone Max Pro on April 23rd. The Zenfone Max Pro will also run on the Snapdragon 636 chipset and will, in all probability, available in open sale from the beginning.

April 18, 2018
Apple iPhone X Accounts For 35% Profit Made By Smartphones in 2017

2017 was a great year for smartphone enthusiasts. We saw thin bezels and tall displays become a norm and new smartphone designs like the iPhone X with a notch. However, that innovation in smartphones did not translate into desired sales as global mobile profits decreased by 1% year-on-year in Q4 of 2017. For Apple, though, it was not a gloomy year by any means. The Apple iPhone X alone generated 35% of the total mobile industry profit as Apple grew by 1% year-on-year in Q4 of 2017.

Galaxy S8

According to the latest report by Counterpoint Research, Apple remained the most profitable premium smartphone brand, capturing about 86% of the total handset market profits.

Apple grew 1 percent (YoY) even with the iPhone X being available for only two months in Q4 2017. The iPhone X alone generated 21 percent of total industry revenue and 35 percent of total industry profits during the quarter.

The share of iPhone X is likely to grow as it advances further into its life-cycle. Additionally, the longer shelf life of all iPhones ensured that Apple still has eight out of top 10 smartphones, including its three-year-old models, generating the most profits compared to current competing smartphones from other OEMs

Interestingly, the iPhone X generated 5 times more profit than the combined profits of over 600 Android smartphone makers during the fourth quarter of 2017. Thanks to a host of budget smartphones on offer by Chinese OEMs, their cumulative profits crossed US$ 1.3 billion during Q4 2017. Interestingly, the average selling price of their smartphones increased year-on-year.

These figures tell a curious tale about the iPhone X, which was heavily criticised for its price and design at the time of its launch. However, with time, the design of the iPhone X has set an industry wide trend and the price tag has not stopped it from being the most successful smartphone of 2017. Sales of the iPhone X are expected to increase further when the next generation of iPhones is launched later in 2018. The price of the iPhone X will go down and potential iPhone buyers will go for the iPhone X as the design of 2018 iPhones is expected to be similar to the iPhone X.

April 18, 2018