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We cannot stop talking about the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge all set to be unveiled on 21st February. The S7 frenzy is churning out rumours endlessly and here is the latest from the front.
A spec sheet put up on Weibo has revealed the expected pricing of the two smartphones. The 21 GB S7 is expected to be priced around $755 (close to Rs. 50,000), while the 32 GB S7 Edge will cost about $863 (close to Rs. 58,000). The 64 GB variant would cost about $85 (close to Rs.5,700) more than the price tag of the 32 GB variant. The spec sheet also reveals 12 MP main camera with f/1.7 lens, and 4 GB RAM for the two devices. We recently did a round-up of all the rumours of the S7 devices so far. Find out specs and other details of Samsung’s flagship smartphones on iGyaan and watch this space for the latest updates on S7 and S7 Edge.
CES 2016 has seen a number of high profile launches, and device confirmations already, and now jumping into the mix is the Chinese Smartphone maker, Oppo, which in its latest official communications has invited the media, and its partners to a launch event on the 28th of this month.
Keeping in mind how Oppo conducts its business, this press event could well see the Chinese company bring to the market its much awaited Oppo F1.
Teasing the media, and fanboys alike, the company tweeted,”Attention photography lovers! Something exciting is coming your way. Stay tuned.”
The phone is rumoured to come equipped with an above par 13 Megapixel snapper, with ‘Phase Detection Autofocus’ technology, and will be the camera centric F series phone that Oppo had previously talked about.
Sadly, there isn’t much clarity about the other specs of the phone, but an 8 Megapixel front camera, backed by 3GB of RAM, and a Snapdragon processor could be expected. On the upside the phone will sport a 5 inch display.
Not much has been spoken or revealed about Microsoft’s upcoming smartphone, Lumia 650. Indeed, the company has managed to keep a tight lid on the device. That is until now at least. The Lumia 650 handset has been spotted in a live photo that reveal design. The same source has also provided some information on specs.
The obvious design element that we first spot from the picture is the metal frame. The leaked specs of the Lumia 650 are underwhelming to say the least. The 5-inch 720p display device is likely to come bearing the Snapdragon 210 chipset clocking at 1.1GHz. A 2,000mAh battery pack in the 650 is small, especially when compared to the Lumia 640 (2,500mAh) and the Lumia 550 (2,100mAh).
From what the specs tell us, and this is yet unconfirmed, the Lumia 650 lacks in juice and power, and a pricing of under Rs. 10,000 (similar to the Lumia 550) will be needed for this device to tempt the masses.
Xiaomi has released a new teaser for Redmi 3 which confirms its global launch date. The phone will arrive next week on 12th January. The teaser was posted by the company on its official Weibo account.
It was further revealed that the device will have a 5-inch display and an all-metal body which sports a plaid design on the back. There is no word on any other specs of the device yet but speculations place it at 1.5GHz CPU with a resolution of 1280 × 720 for its 5-inch display.
The RAM is marked at 2 GB and the memory is at 16 GB. The cameras would have 13 MP for the main camera and 5 MP for the selfie camera. Furthermore, the device is expected to be powered by Android Lollipop 5.1. Watch this space for all other updates.
Once again, a OnePlus device is going to be made available in an invite-free way. On 8th of January, consumers can buy the OnePlus X limited edition Ceramic variant minus an invite. However it will be available only in selected locations.The phone will be available at some French Connection stores in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad between 7 to 9 PM. Additionally, there will be a 10% discount on the smartphone. The first 50 buyers would also get a gift bag that includes a voucher of Rs. 500 by the retailer.
Starting 9th January, OnePlus X Ceramic variant will exclusively be available on Amazon.in using invites. It’s currently priced at Rs. 22,999. More details can be found on the official OnePlus blog.
Specification
OnePlus X
Display
5-inch full HD AMOLED screen, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Following the release of the iPhone 6s series, the crowded corridors of internet have already been abuzz with news,and leaks of the next range of phones from the Cupertino based company. Some might call it pre-mature to make predictions about the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, which are not due until September this year, but fresh leaks surfacing on the Internet seem credible enough to be worth taken note of.
According to new leaked pictures of the the backlight screen for the iPhone 7 published by Taiwanese website Apple Club, there are clear suggestions of design changes in the upcoming iPhones. It had been previously claimed that the handset will win the race to dump the headphone socket, relying on the lightning port, or use wireless headphones to do its work. This new leak has only made these rumours grow stronger.
Side-by-side pictures comparing the leaked images with the one used in the Apple iPhone 6s also show flex cables located on the left side of the iPhone 7 backlight while the iPhone 6s backlight has it on the opposite side.
These moves will possibly help the new range of iPhones achieve between 6.0 mm and 6.5mm thinness, and a design that’s waterproof. The devices may also have a faster TSMC-built A10 chip and non-metallic casing with hidden antenna bands.
Back in September, we brought you news that Nextbit Robin – the first smartphone to offer cloud storage, which was started as a Kickstarter campaign, had begun pre-orders in India along with a bunch of other regions. The price of the phone is Rs. 26,000 ($399), which excludes shipping charges of Rs. 4,600 ($70).
Now, two months later word is that the startup will start shipping of the devices in February. Nextbit has announced that it will deliver the Robins to the first 1000 people who backed the project on February 16. The initial deliveries, however, will be of the GSM versions, while the CDMA models will ship later this year.
Nextbit Robin Midnight
Nextbit Robin is equipped with features sure to woo customers, the highlight of which is the cloud-based storage option. The phone promises no more storage woes by automatically backing up your data to the cloud, and therefore emptying the phone’s inherent storage.
Robin was initially put up as a Kickstarter project from where it received an immense response of $1,362,000 (about Rs. 8.9 crores) in terms of funding. The company’s goal had been no more than $500,000 or about Rs. 3.26 crores.
The specifications of Nexbit Robin include a 5.2 inch HD screen along with 1080×1920 p resolution. The plastic body of the phone has Qualcomm hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor on the inside. 3 GB RAM and 32 GB of in-built non-expandable storage are some of its other specs. The phone also boasts of a fingerprint sensor.
In terms of the two cameras, the phone packs a 13 MP for the main camera and a 5 MP for the front camera. The battery is marked at a 2,689 mAh, and it has a USB Type-C port. The operating system is Android 6.0 Marshmallow. There are two colour variants for the handset: Mint and Midnight.
Rumours of Xiaomi’s next flagship had been doing rounds on the internet for sometime now, and earlier today Xiaomi Co-Founder and Senior VP Liwan Jiang through a Weibo post put them to rest by confirming to the world the Chinese phone maker’s plans of launching the much anticipated Xiaomi Mi 5 in the coming months.
As revealed by Jiang himself, Xiaomi has already started mass production of its next flagship, Mi 5, and the phone will hit markets shortly after the Chinese Spring festival, which will be February the 8th this year.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 with the latest Snapdragon 820 processor is ready and in volume production. It will be released after the Spring Festival to have enough time for stocking up – Xiaomi Senior VP Liwan Jiang
Though no official word is out on the specifications of this much awaited device, but according to leaks, and the ever churning rumour mills of the Kingdom of Internet, the Mi 5 is slated to feature a 5.2-inch display with Quad HD resolution. 3GB or 4GB RAM, with a minimum of 32GB Internal storage. The camera on the device is expected to be a 16-megapixel at the back, and an equally impressive 13-megapixel snapper at the front.
This power hungry device is set to pack a battery of 3600 mAh with support for Quick Charge 3.0 technology. At the software end, the handset will run MIUI 7 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Letv made its presence felt at CES 2016 today in a big way. The internet and technology conglomerate unveiled the world’s thinnest TV. Yes, it’s Letv who has done it this time with a Max65 Blade that actually lives up to its name.
Because the 65-inch TV was designed to set a new record for slimness, it comes with a separate speaker rather than a built in one.
But just when you thought Letv had managed to inspire awe in those present at the event with the TV, the company pulled another surprise by bringing out the world’s first smartphone with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset. Yes, it is Letv again that has beat the likes of Samsung to become the first company to use the Snapdragon 820 SoC for its new smartphone, Le Max Pro.
Along with this powerful new chipset under the hood of the device, the Le Max Pro will be featuring ultrasonic fingerprint technology made possible by the chipset and it will also support WiFi ad. Letv has indeed managed to steal the spotlight at CES 2016 with these two announcement.
Another interesting point to note is that it was confirmed that Samsung would have the exclusivity of the new Snapdragon 820 chipset for the first quarter. So, seeing that Letv has managed to sneak in its own device sporting the new SoC first could mean that other companies ready to release their Snapdragon-powered flagships might not need to wait until April to do so.
Asus had announced the Zenfone Zoom at CES last year, and now a year after the announcement there is finally some news on its arrival in India. The phone was launched in Taiwan, the home to the company, last month, and was expected to be made available in the US next month.
Though it was supposed to arrive in India in Q3 2015, but clearly that did not happen. The latest update on this comes in an official statement by Asus,
“Scheduled to hit the Indian market later this month, the new addition to ASUS’ expanding smartphone range, the imaging-masterpiece will truly enable the users to ‘See The World Up Close’!”
The company claims to “reinvent smartphone photography” with Zoom which sports a 13 MP camera that has 10-element lens, 3X optical zoom, and optical image stabilization. The back of the smartphone is reminiscent of the Nokia Lumia 1020. In terms of specs, Zoom has a 5.5 inch, Corning Gorilla Glass display, 3,000 mAh battery and it runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop. There has been no mention of the Indian price of the phone yet, but in the US it is expected to be $399 (about Rs. 27,000).
India’s second largest telecom operator, Vodafone, has revealed plans to roll out 4G services in major cities including Delhi, and Mumbai by end of March, 2016. The Britain based operator, which has one of the widest network in terms of reach in an official statement communicated,”Vodafone has already launched its high speed 4G services in Kerala. The intensity of its roll-out will continue with major metros like Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Delhi to be launched by March 2016″
In a bid to showcase it’s superior customer service, it has already started to issue 4G ready SIM cards in Mumbai. Vodafone India Business Head Mumbai, Ishmeet Singh said,
“The company is fully geared up to launch 4G services in 1800 Mhz band in Mumbai very soon. We want our customers to be 4G-ready so that they can start experiencing the benefits of high-speed mobile Internet services as soon as they are launched commercially. Hence, this facility to upgrade to 4G-ready SIMs in advance”
Vodafone is also planning on home delivering 4G-ready SIMs to its premium high-value customers in Mumbai, and formal communication for it is already being sent out.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 is reportedly going to be unveiled on February 21st and be up for sale in the market by March. To the dismay of buyers, it won’t be launched at CES. It seems like a long wait before the S7 is up for grabs, but in the meantime, here is a round up of everything we know so far about the phone.
Variants
South Korea’s Electronic Times has reported that Samsung’s initial production would include 5 million Galaxy S7 handsets. The new flagship of the company would have two variants, a 5.2 inch Galaxy S7 and a Galaxy S7 Edge with a larger curved screen of 5.5 inches. The division between the two variants would include 3.3 million S7 phones and 1.6 million S7 Edge phones.
Samsung S7 Concept
Samsung is creating a buzz about its next rumoured smartphone, the Galaxy S7 Premium Edition. According to rumours, this phone will only be offered in South Korea and could feature a 4K display with a dual-lens camera module made by Sony. Reports suggest that the Exynos 8890 for the Galaxy S7 Special Edition will come with the Mali-T880 and 14 cores.
Display
Samsung Galaxy S7 is likely to arrive with a pressure sensitive display.Though Samsung is tight-lipped about its new smartphones, its silence hasn’t done much to keep speculations and rumours in check as Wall Street Journal reports that the display of S7 will be pressure sensitive. Looks like Samsung is all set follow in the footsteps of Apple which cannot stop talking about the 3-D Touch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
The S7 will have a 5.2 inch display while the S7 Edge will have a 5.5 inch curved display. The company is expected to incorporate 4K display in its flagship devices.
Bigger Battery
The phones will have larger batteries that would make them last longer than their predecessors. The S7 will come equipped with a 3,000 mAh battery while the S7 Edge will be marked at 3,600 mAh. The S6 and S6 Edge have 2,550 mAh and 2,600 mAh battery capacities respectively. While the S7 batteries are the best Samsung has offered so far in its flagship, they would not be user-replaceable. But you can still expect the S7 to charge wirelessly in 2 hours and S7 Edge in 2.2 hours. The Type C USB Port of the devices would ensure significantly faster charging.
Camera
BRITECELL is Samsung’s new camera technology that is expected to be part of the upcoming Galaxy S7. The technology will be showcased at CES and viewers will get a sneak peek into what they can expect from the flagship handset, at least on the camera front.
It has been speculated for a while that Samsung is looking to improve its camera quality rather than upgrade its pixels. So a 12 MP camera for the S7 series wouldn’t be all that surprising.
MicroSD Card Slot
The Galaxy S7 might come with a microSD slot for memory expansion and therefore improve on a feature that most people had a problem with in the previous installments of the Galaxy line-up.
Chipset
The Galaxy S7 will arrive in two variants – one powered by the new Snapdragon 820 chipset and the other being Exynos 8890. The Exynos 8890 has earned a record score of 100K in the AnTuTu benchmark test and has beat out competition from the likes of Huawei’s Kirin 950 SoC (79K points) and the Mate 8, which secured more than 94K points.
Dust and Water-Proof
Samsung Galaxy S7 flagship devices will be waterproof. They are also expected to arrive with an IP67 rating which makes them dustproof as well.
Design
The new smartphone might use magnesium alloy in the construction of its body. While, the Galaxy S6 uses an aluminum frame and a glass body, the S7 could be Samsung’s first full metal flagship device, ever. The reason for this is reportedly because the metal is lighter and more durable as compared to its glass-bodied devices, plus magnesium generates much less heat than aluminum, which is something the smartphone industry is definitely looking at as a feature in all their phones.
The flagships will not be entirely new smartphones but simply upgraded and improved versions of the S6 series, similar to what Apple has been doing with its iPhones.
There are also rumours of a retina scanner as well to be included in the smartphone. Watch this space for all the latest updates on the Samsung Galaxy S7 devices.
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note has been finally launched in India today with a price tag of Rs. 11,999. It will be up for customers to buy as part of a flash sale on Amazon.in on the 19th of January. The registrations for the device start today.
Lenovo also launched a Vibe K4 Note bundle with AntVR virtual reality headset priced at Rs. 13,299. This will be available for Rs. 12,499 for the first few flash sales, minus the VR headset. The headset will have to be bought separately at a price of Rs. 1,299, and its available in Tuxedo Black colour.
Coming back to Vibe K4 Note, the phone has a finger-print scanner and dual-front speakers with Dolby Atmos audio. The device is dual-SIM, has 4G LTE support and has a 5.5 inch display. On the camera front, it packs a 13 MP main camera and a 5 front camera. The K4 Note is powered by Android OS 5.1. Find other specs in the table below.
South Korean electronics giant, LG, has decided to launch two smartphones under its new K series. LG K10, and LG K7 will be displayed at CES 2016, in Las Vegas, and will replace the phones from its L series.
The phones, which as claimed by LG, are targeted towards users looking to create or view multimedia content, will come in two versions, LTE and 3g. The LTE baseband version of the K10 will house a 1.2 GHz/1.3 Ghz Quad core or 1.14GHz Octa Core process under the hood, while the 3g version will be powered by 1.3 Ghz processor. RAM amount will range between 1 and 2 GBs, while the internal storage will be either 8 or 16 GB. The device will be available in three colors -white, indigo, and gold.
The K10 will have a 5.3 inch , 720p display and will come with Android 5.1 Lollipop pre-installed. The LTE model will be equipped with a 13 MP rear camera, while the 3g version will have to do with an 8 MP shooter. Powering the K10 will be a 2300 mAh battery.
It’s younger sibling, the K7 will also come in two variants. The LTE variant will have a 1.1 GHz quad-core CPU, while the 3G iteration will sport a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. The back camera will either be 8 MP or 5 MP, while the RAM will be 1.5 GB or 1 GB, and the built-in storage 8 GB or 16 GB. It will also house a 5-inch 480 x 854 resolution display, and will be driven by a 2125 mAh battery. The color options available for the K7 will be ‘Titan’ hue which will only be available on the LTE version, while the 3G version will be offered in white, black, and gold.
LG has further revealed that both these phones will include the new 2.5D arc glass tech, and other major features aimed at photophiles such as Gesture Shot, and Gesture Shot Interval, will also be available with these phones. Also, both these phones will have LG’s new pebble glass displays, and will use a woven pattern at the back to prevent those expensive out of hand slips.
The wait now is to see how LG prices them at CES, 2016. These K series phones from the stables of LG, if priced right, backed by the decent under the hood specs, and a good firmware support might just prove to be a good options for consumers across the globe.
The latest update in the series of rumours regarding the Samsung Galaxy S7 flagship devices says the devices will be waterproof. They are also expected to arrive with an IP67 rating which makes them dustproof as well.
Additionally, they will also have larger batteries that would make them last longer than their predecessors. The S7 will come equipped with a 3,000 mAh battery while the S7 Edge will be marked at 3,600 mAh. The S6 and S6 Edge have 2,550 mAh and 2,600 mAh battery capacities respectively. While the S7 batteries are the best Samsung has offered so far in its flagship, they would not be user-replaceable. But you can still expect the S7 to charge wirelessly in 2 hours and S7 Edge in 2.2 hours.
The phones will also have a microSD card slot, a feature that was not present in the preceding S6 series. It has been speculated for a while that Samsung is looking to improve its camera quality rather than upgrade its pixels. So a 12 MP camera for the S7 series wouldn’t be all that surprising. Reportedly, the S7 phones will be unveiled on the 21st of February. Watch this space for all the latest updates.
The spec sheet also reveals 12 MP main camera with f/1.7 lens, and 4 GB RAM for the two devices. We recently did a round-up of all the rumours of the S7 devices so far. Find out specs and other details of Samsung’s flagship smartphones on iGyaan and watch this space for the latest updates on S7 and S7 Edge.
The phone will be available at some French Connection stores in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad between 7 to 9 PM. Additionally, there will be a 10% discount on the smartphone. The first 50 buyers would also get a gift bag that includes a voucher of Rs. 500 by the retailer.
