NVIDIA has launched the new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti in India and will be available worldwide from the 2nd of November. The starting price of the GPU is Rs 39000 in India.
The GeForce GTX 1070 Ti is packed with 2,432 cores and 8 GB of memory running at 8Gbps for a total bandwidth of 256 GB/s. It delivers double the performance of the famous GeForce GTX 970.
The base clock speed of the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti is 1607 MHz. The typical Boost Clock speed is 1683 MHz. The Boost Clock speed is based on the average GeForce GTX 1070 Ti card running a wide variety of games and applications. Note that the actual Boost Clock will vary from game-to-game depending on actual system conditions. GeForce GTX 1070 Ti’s memory speed is 8 Gbps data rate. The GeForce GTX 1070 Ti reference board measures 10.5” in length. Display outputs include one HDMI, one DVI and three DisplayPort connectors. One 8-pin PCIe power connector is required for operation.
GeForce GTX 1070 Ti-based graphics cards will begin shipping November 2 from the NVIDIA GeForce Partner Network, including ASUS, Colorful, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, MSI, Palit, PNY and Zotac.
Dell has launched a new laptop in its XPS lineup, the Dell XPS 15 in India at a premium starting price of Rs 115,000.
The Dell XPS 15 has a 15.6 inch display with thin bezels and a 1920 x 1080 px resolution. The keyboard is backlit and has a fingerprint sensor for secure login. The laptop has a builti-n 56Whr or 97Whr battery and retails with a 130W AC adapter for charging. Under the latop can be customised in a lot of ways. The cheapest variant has the 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core Processor (6M cache, up to 3.8 GHz), 8GB DDR4-2400MHz RAM, and 256GB PCIe Solid State Drive. To handle the graphics, this variant has the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 with 4GB GDDR5. The laptop runs Windows 10 Home edition and the higher the price of the variant, the version of the Windows 10 changes. For video calling, the laptop comes equipped with a Widescreen HD (720p) webcam with dual array digital microphones.
The laptop starts at a price of Rs 1,15,000 and goes up to Rs 1,43,990. The laptop can be bought from the official website of Dell India.
Motorola has launched two premium priced phones, the Moto Z 2018 and a special Kingsman edition Moto Z in China. The special edition Moto Z Kingsman is priced at a whopping CNY 999 (US $1500). The Moto X 2018 and Moto X Kingsman are really just the Moto Z2 Force with a different name. Except for the price of the Kingsman edition and a few extra accessories in the box, nothing is different.
The Moto Z 2018 and the Moto Z Kingsman have the same specifications. Both the phones have a 5.5 inch ShatterShield display with a 2560 x 1440 px resolution. Powering the device is a 2730 mAh battery and runs a stock version of Android 7.1 Nougat. Under the hood, the smartphone has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, Octa-core (4×2.35 GHz Kryo & 4×1.9 GHz Kryo) processor, 4GB RAM, and 64GB onboard storage which is expandable up to 256GB via microSD card. The fingerprint sensor is housed inside the home button which is placed below the display.
The Moto Z 2018 Kingsman Edition has a few extra accessories in the box. The special package contains a VIP card, a TurboPower battery mod, a wireless charging mod, a USB Type-C to 3.5mm adapter, a leather flip case, a 45th anniversary notepad, a pair of USB Type-C Hi-Fi headphones, and (surprise!) a warranty card. The special edition smartphone is only going to be offered in black.
Both variants of the Moto Z 2018 have a dual camera setup with dual 12MP sensors with an f/2.0 aperture. One camera shoots in monochrome, and the other shoots in colour, similar to what we saw on Huawei devices and recent Nubia M2. The smartphones also have laser AF, phase detection but no mention of optical image stabilisation. Similar to Apple’s portrait mode, the dual-lends setup has allowed Moto to implement a depth-of-field effect on the Moto Z 2018.
The phones have entered the Chinese market but, it still seems highly improbable that the flagship Moto Z2 Force or the Moto Z 2018 will hit the Indian market as the company shied away from launching the Force variant in Indian in 2016.
Xiaomi has enjoyed a successful festive period in India and managed to sell over 4 million handsets. Now, Xiaomi is gearing up to launch a new selfie camera centric smartphone in India on the 2nd of November at an event in Delhi.
Brace yourself, the best selfie smartphone is coming soon! A brand new series ?
The above image reveals that Xiaomi is planning to launch a new series of smartphones in India which will presumably focus on the selfie camera. The phone in question here could be the Xiaomi Ni Note 3 which was launched in China on the 11th of September and features a portrait mode for the front camera.
The Xiaomi Mi Note 3 has a 5.5 inch 1920 x 1080 px IPS LCD display with a pixel density of 403ppi and a 94.4 percent NTSC colour gamut. The smartphone is powered by a 3,500 mAh battery with QuickCharge 3.0 through USB TYpe C port and runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat with Xiaomi’s custom MIUI 9 on top. Xiaomi has boasted about the phone’s ‘Adaptable AI Beautify’ feature, which the Chinese smartphone maker claims is a result of over half a year’s R&D. The feature uses AI-based algorithms to beautify selfies and has a different algorithm for men and women. Under the hood, the Xiaomi Mi Note 3 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset, 6GB RAM, and 64GB or 128GB onboard storage options. The onboard storage can not be expanded. The fingerprint sensor is placed under the glass at the front device, just below the display.
Unlike the Mi Mix 2, the Mi Note 3 features a dual-camera setup at the back. One of the cameras has a 12MP wide angle lens with an f/1.8 aperture while the other 12MP camera has a telephoto lens with an f/2.6 apertureThe primary 12MP camera has a wide angle lens and an f/1.8 aperture. On the front is a 16MP camera with AI capabilities to produce selfies personalised to the user’s face after studying the bone structure and lighting around the face.
The price is yet to be revealed and considering Xiaomi’s competitive pricing strategies so far, the Mi Note 3 could be priced between Rs 24000 to Rs 26000.
OPPO has announced that the new OPPO R11S will be launched on the 2nd of November at an event in China. Even before the announcement was made, there were several renders leaked which revealed a design shift from the OPPO R11 launched earlier in 2017. What’s interesting though, is that the new press renders resemble another speculated device, the OnePlus 5T.
In the images above, you can see what the OPPO R11S might look like from all the angles. You can’t help but notice the similarities between the R11S and the OnePlus 5T here with the aspect ratio, screen size, and camera and fingerprint placement.
This however, should not come as a surprise as the OnePlus 5 looked identical to the OPPO R11 with the same dimensions, camera placement and finish of the phone. It is worth noting that OPPO is the parent organisation of OnePlus.
The launch of the OPPO R11S could signal a trickle down effect and the OnePlus 5T with a much awaited 18:9 aspect ratio and thin bezels could see the light of day in the coming weeks. The OPPO R11S is expected to have a 6-inch display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and 2160 x 1080 px resolution. Under the hood, the smartphone is expected to have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset, 4GB RAM and 63GB onboard storage. The OnePlus 5T is expected to have the same hardware as the OnePlus 5 and also the same camera specifications.
The OnePlus 5T is expected to be launched on the 20th of November while the R11S is confirmed for a 2nd of November launch.
Google launched the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL on the 4th of October at a launch event at the Google HQ. Google talked about the integration of software, hardware and AI in their new range of products. One nifty feature that combines the three is the ‘Now Playing’ feature. When activated, it uses the always listening microphones of the Pixel 2 smartphones to detect a song in the background and display the name and artist of the song on the lock screen. In the notification window, it then displays links to buy or stream the song. The differentiating factor from Shazam here is that the phone doesn’t need to be connected to the internet for this feature to work. The music-identification feature uses an offline library of “tens of thousands” of songs to identify tracks.
This feature will come in handy more than you think. If you are always reaching into your pocket and struggling to open Shazam just in time for it to catch the song and show a result, this feature can be priceless. One catch though, is that what if you want to listen to a song that was played a while ago at the restaurant and now you’re in the car and you can’t recall the name of that particular song?
That’s where Now Playing History comes in, and if you are planning to buy a Pixel 2 device and music-identification is something you frequently do or need, this could be a must-have app for you. As the name suggests, Now Playing History essentially lets you view a list of songs that your Pixel 2 has been listening to. Not only does it display the exact time at which the song was recognised but it also lets you play the song via Google Play Music, YouTube, or Spotify (not yet available in India) once you click on each song. As handy as it is, the app however, is not free.
Another day, another OnePlus 5T rumour. The speculated ‘T’ iteration of the successful OnePlus 5 has been in the news for various leaks and renders. Now, it appears that the OnePlus 5T might be launched somewhere between the 11th of November and 20th of November and will indeed have a display with an 18:9 aspect ratio.
I take this back. Just heard from someone I consider reliable that they are indeed working on an 18:9 model for end of November release. https://t.co/8pc7Z51Xli
Just like the OnePlus 3T, the OnePlus 5T is expected to be an incremental update rather than a drastic new upgrade in terms of hardware. The 5T is expected to have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset as it is the current flagship chipset. The dual cameras at the back are also expected to be the same as found on the OnePlus 5. The OnePlus 5T will have a 6 inch AMOLED display with a 2160 x 1080 x resolution which translates to an 18:9 aspect ratio.
The smartphone is expected to run Android 7.1.1 Nougat with OnePlus’ Oxygen OS on top. The 2017 flagship will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset with a combination of either 6GB RAM and 64GB of storage or a whopping 8GB RAM and 128 of storage which can not be expanded. The OnePlus 5T is also expected feature dual cameras on the back, one of the main cameras is a 20 MP sensor with an f/2.6 aperture, while the other is a 16 MP camera with an aperture of F/1.7 . The secondary telephoto lens is used for 2X lossless optical zoom and a ‘portrait mode’ for blurred background images.
Co-founder of OnePlus, Carl Pei recently held a poll on Twitter:
The overwhelming response in favour of the headphone jack should at least guarantee that the OnePlus 5T if launched, will have the beloved 3.5mm headphone jack.
There have been some hints which can be interpreted into a new phone launch. OnePlus has the habit of stopping the production of its current device to accommodate the launch and manage the supple of its upciming smartphone. Keeping that in mind, it has been noted that the OnePlus 5 has been out of stock in a lot of markets for over a month now and there is no word from the company about its availability.
If the launch date turns out to be true, OnePlus might be sending out press invites soon and that should definitely shed more light on whether the OnePlus 5T is true or just a hoax like the Ultra Pixel.
OnePlus 5T rumours are picking up pace and it appears that a Chinese website is prepared for the imminent launch already. Oppomart, a Chinese e-commerce website has listed the OnePlus 5T for pre-orders and the specifications match the latest rumours about the highly speculated device from OnePlus.
When the OnePlus 3T was launched with a newer chipset, a lot of OnePlus 3 owners were upset as the 3T was launched less than 6 months after the OnePlus 3 was launched. OnePlus responded to the backlash and said that the OnePlus 3T was an anomaly and a ‘T’ device won’t be launched again. The OnePlus 5T has been leaked in promotional images and renders and it appears that the new phone will finally see much thinner bezels with a similar looking back panel with the addition of a fingerprint sensor.
Just like the OnePlus 3T, the OnePlus 5T is expected to be an incremental update rather than a drastic new upgrade in terms of hardware. The 5T is expected to have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset as it is the current flagship chipset. The dual cameras at the back are also expected to be the same as found on the OnePlus 5.
The OnePlus 5T is expected to be launched some time in November, similar to when the OnePlus 3T was launched. As is with every leak or rumour, we advice you to take this leaked image with a pinch of scepticism until there is a concrete statement from the company about its plans of launching the OnePlus 5T.
Xiaomi has launched three new products in India. A new 10000 mAh power bank, Mi VR Play 2 and Mi Noise Cancelling Earphones (Type-C) and will be available via mi.com.
The Mi VR Play 2 is priced at Rs 1299 and at first glance its hard to tell if you’re looking at the Mi VR Play 2 or the Google Daydream. Apart from a new design, the Mi VR Play 2 is also lighter than its predecessor. The exterior has been covered with soft fabric, which the company claims provides greater comfort.
The Mi Noise Canceling Earphones (Type-C) are only compatible with the Mi 5 and Mi Mix 2 smartphones. The earphones feature active noise cancellation between 50 – 2000Hz, enough to cut out ambient noise above 25dB. Xiaomi uses MEMS microphones in each earpiece to detect ambient noise and counterbalance it by using opposing frequencies. The earphones are acoustically tuned by Grammy award-winning tuner Luca Bignardi. The Mi Noise Cancelling Earphones are Hi-Res Audio certified, and use patented hybrid dual dynamic and balanced armature drivers to deliver a balanced sound. The earphones are priced at Rs 2999.
The next upgraded product is the Mi Power Bank Pro with a 10000 mAh capacity. It supports two-way fast charging, taking just 3.5 hours to be fully charged. If you own a smartphone that supports quick charging, you can expect your phone to be charged in under 2 hours. A Type-C adapter comes bundled with the power bank and because of it, the Mi Power Bank Pro can be used to charge smartphones, tablets, notebooks, and other mobile devices. The Mi Power Bank Pro is priced at Rs 1599 and is 42% thinner than its predecessor.
Lenovo-owned Motorola is set to launch the much awaited Moto X4 in India on the 13th of November in India. So far, we only know the global price of the smartphone and it is speculated that the device will be launched in the 20-25K price bracket. A user on Twitter tweeted to Motorola with a picture of what looks like the retail package of the Motorola X4 with the price mentioned as Rs 23999.
The Moto X4 has a 5.2 inch 1920 x 1080 px IPS LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass on top for protection. The smartphone runs stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat and is powered by a 3,000 mAh battery with TurboCharge capabilities. Motorola recently announced that the Moto X4 will receive an update to Android 8.0 Oreo by the end of the year. The company claims that the 15 mins of charge can give up to 6 hours of talk time. The Moto X4 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630, 2.2 GHz octa-core processor and Adreno 508 GPU, along with 3GB RAM and 32GB onboard storage which can be expanded up to 2TB via microSD card. The phone has an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance.
The new smartphone will also feature Alexa, the Amazon AI voice assistant. This isn’t the first time that Alexa has made its way onto a smartphone, the Huawei Mate 9 was the first smartphone to feature the voice assistant. Since then, we have also seen Alexa make its way to the HTC U11.The 4 in Moto X4 signifies that the new smartphone will be able to share the sound with up to 4 devices, thanks to the presence of Bluetooth 5.0.
The Moto X4 has a dual-camera setup at the back. The main camera is a 12MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture, and the 8MP secondary camera with an f/2.2 aperture is equipped with a wide-angle lens. The dual-cameras allow users to have depth effect shots, bokeh effect shots, ultra-wide angle shots, and selective focus shots. On the front of the device is a 16MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture and an LED flash. The cameras record 4K videos at 30 FPS.
The official price of the Moto X4 will be unveiled when the phone is launched on the 13th of November but, this looks like a legitimate image of the retail package.
Sony has launched a new mirrorless camera, the Sony A7R III at an event in China.
The Sony A7R III is based around the same 42.2MP full-frame image sensor as in the earlier A7R II. What’s different is that the A7R III is paired with a reworked imaging pipeline that should allow for a 15-stop dynamic range at lower sensitivities. Sony claims that is the “highest picture quality of any camera we’ve ever made.” Despite its high megapixel count, the A7R III is fast with a continuous shooting speed of up to 10fps with full AF/AE tracking which this is twice as fast as the 5fps on the A7R II. The new A7R III also features new technologies like a gapless on-chip lens design and anti-reflective sensor coating to achieve better low-light performance and wider dynamic range. The A7R III features an ISO range of 100-32000 which is expandable to 50-102,400. The camera also has a 5-axis optical image stabiliser that provides 5.5 stops of compensation.
The new A7R III has a new feature called the Pixel Shift Multi Shooting Mode. When activated, the camera captures 4 separate photos shifted by 1 pixel each to capture 169.2 megapixels of data. These are then composited in Sony’s new Imaging Edge software to create a single photo to achieve a higher resolution and colour accuracy. On the back of the camera is an 3-inch OLED viewfinder with 3.186 million dots.
The A7R III captures 4K footage using the full width of the sensor, and packs the Super 35 oversampling mode. Like the Sony A9, you can also shoot at 120fps at full HD, but the A7R III also adds S-Log 3 and support for the hybrid log gamma HDR standard.
The Sony A7R III will be availble in November at a starting price of US $3200.
All seems to be very well at the Samsung Mobile HQ’s after a very successful 2017. Samsung started the year with the highly successful Galaxy S8 smartphones and resurrected the Note series with the Galaxy Note8 which received record pre-orders in the US and South Korean market. 2017 succeeded the debacle of the global recalling of the Galaxy Note 7 due to serious battery issues. To overcome that psychological block and show how far Samsung’s new Note device has come, Samsung Spain decided to give away 200 Galaxy Note8 devices to unsuspecting passengers of a flight going from Madrid to A Coruna.
In the video, you can see passengers baffled in the beginning, but, when they realised that they are actually getting a US $1000 phone for free, that confusion quickly changed to joy. The boxes were accompanied by a written message in Spanish. It translated to: “A year ago we asked you to turn it off, we welcome you today on board.” This was in reference to the Galaxy Note7 and its highly publicised battery issue. Due to such an extraordinary security concern from a phone, almost everywhere in the world airlines first banned the phone from the check-in baggage and then later banned it altogether.
The global recall of the Galaxy Note7 was a huge blow to Samsung, not just from a financial point of view but, also the company’s image. All was redeemed with the Galaxy Note8 when it was launched in August in 2017 and received rave reviews from critics and consumers alike. This gesture from Samsung goes a long way in proving that no matter how successful its new phones will be, the company will do anything to get over the disaster that was the Galaxy Note7.
HTC has been in the news for the better part of 2017 despite not having the best of financial years. Even though the HTC U11 was highly praised for its camera and overall performance, the company still managed to rake in the lowest profit in the past few years. Now, it looks like HTC is going to take another swing at the smartphone market with what looks like a flagship phone. For weeks, the mid-ranger HTC U11 Life and flagship phone U11 Plus have been leaked in certification and benchmark websites. Taking to Twitter, HTC has teased a phone launch on the 2nd of November and it might be the flagship phone U11 Plus that we get to see.
In the teaser above, you can see a single camera setup and a rear mounted fingerprint sensor. The HTC U11 had a fingerprint sensor housed inside in the home button, this was possible because of the thick bezels around the display. Changing the position of the fingerpint sensor to the back might indicate that the upcoming device could have thin bezels and hence, the fingerprint sensor is placed at the back of the phone. It is worth noting however, that the last time HTC used a rear mounted fingerprint sensor was in 2013′ One Max, and that phone had bezels.
HTC U11 Plus
All of this however, is speculation and HTC might just end up launching the HTC U11 Life. Reports suggested that both the HTC U11 Life and Plus variant will be launched and it might be the case as HTC would rather flaunt the flagship phone in a teaser than both the phones.
There isn’t much known about the U11 Plus yet. The device is expected have a 5.99-inch 2880 x 1440 px display translating to an 18:9 aspect ratio. The phone will have minimal bezels and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. Like the HTC U11, the Plus variant of the phone will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset. The HTC U11 Plus is expected to come in two variants – one with 4GBR RAM/64GB storage and second variant which will be a top end version will come with 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage.
The smartphone is expected to have a 12MP rear-mounted camera. On the front, the U11 Plus is expected to have an 8MP sensor. HTC will not jump the dual-camera bandwagon just yet and continue with a single camera at the back just like the U11 (as is visible in the teaser). The U11 Plus is also expected to be IP68 certified water and dust resistant. It is also said to support Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 and also include the HTC U11 Active Edge feature.
The phone(s) will be launched on the 2nd of November where its global availability and price will be officially revealed.
Sony Xperia XZ1 was launched in India on the 25th of September at a price of Rs 44990. The highlights of the phone are that the phone runs Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box and the 3D scanning camera. Sony has claimed that the Xperia XZ1 is the first smartphone featuring real-time 3D capture.
Google has been battling with Amazon in the smart speaker space since launching the Google Home. Google Home was the only smart speaker made by Google until 4th of October when it launched a new variant of the smart speaker, the Google Home Mini. It is speculated that the Google Home Mini was launched to compete with the inexpensive Amazon Echo Dot and had the same price as well (US $49). Amazon recently launched the Echo Show, which is a smart speaker with a touchscreen display and it appears that Google is working on a touchscreen smart speaker as well, as found by Android Police.
Amazon Echo Show
This seems to corroborate with a report from TechCrunch in September which suggested that Google was working on a table top smart screen device codenamed ‘Manhattan’ which would compete with the Amazon Echo Show. A deep study into the the APK of 7.14.15 beta version of the Google app found references to multiple on-display features such as notifications, YouTube video playback, photo galleries, Google Maps with business listings and more. The code throughout the app references “Quartz” that operates using voice commands.
The reference to Quartz can be found in many strings
The reference of Quartz suggests that Google intends it for kitchen use as the study of the app points to a screen that can be used to display recipes and timers. The weather function referenced in Quartz offers 32 different dedicated icons showing everything from a sunny day to blizzards and hurricanes.
The new smart speaker will display cooking recipes
Google has an array of smart home devices ranging from smart speakers to wireless streaming devices like the ChromeCast. Coming up with a touchscreen smart speaker to compete with the Echo Show makes sense for Google and make full use of its AI and software integration. Also, the “Quartz” will play YouTube videos, unlike the Echo Show.
The Google smart speaker will play YouTube videos unlike the Echo Show
