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Leaked Nokia 7 Plus Renders Reveal Thin Bezels And An Impressive Design

HMD Global launched the Nokia 7 in China on 20th October. While many expected the company to launch the smartphone in India as well, that did not happen. After a successful stint in China, HMD Global is preparing to launch a ‘Plus’ variant of the Nokia 7 at MWC 2018. The Nokia 7 Plus is expected to have a much better design and an upgraded chipset.

New renders of the Nokia 7 Plus have been leaked and reveals an impressive new design. The bezels are significantly thinner than the Nokia 7 and the glossy back panel has a golden hue around the camera and fingerprint sensor rims. This design language is similar to the Nokia 6 (2018) design and it looks like HMD Global will implement this in future Nokia devices as well.

It is also expected to have an all-glass design with an aluminium frame. If so, HMD Global could introduce wireless charging support although, it feels like the company might keep that feature for a marquee phone like the Nokia 8 Sirocco or Nokia 9. Recently, a few promotional images of the Nokia 7 Plus were leaked which revealed a few details about the upcoming smartphone.

It is fair to say that the Nokia 7 Plus could be the first Nokia smartphone with an 18:9 aspect ratio and possibly, wireless charging.

Nokia 7 Plus Rumour Round-Up:

The Nokia 7 Plus will have a 6 inch display with an 18:9 aspect ratio hence, the “Plus” moniker. The fingerprint sensor will be placed on the back, just like the Nokia 7 although, the device had a 16:9 aspect ratio and thick bezels.

Under the hood, the Nokia 7 Plus is expected to have the Snapdragon 660 chipset. According to a benchmark listing, the Nokia 7 Plus will have 4GB of RAM. Expect 64GB of onboard storage which will be expandable via a microSD card. The Nokia 7 Plus will also run Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box.

Nokia 7 Plus Promotional Images

The Nokia 7 Plus will have a 12MP wide-angle lens along with a 13MP telephoto lens. The front of the smartphone is expected to house a 16MP camera with no LED flash. The primary camera setup will also have a Nokia Pro mode along with the Bothie feature.

The Nokia 7 Plus is expected to be launched at MWC 2018. However, HMD Global could launch the smartphone in China first and then announce its global availability at MWC.

February 7, 2018
Apple Releases CPU Throttling Fix In iOS 11.3 Beta 2

Back in December 2017, Apple invoked a collective ‘gasp’ around the world. Following many conspiracy theories around why older iPhones get slower, Apple came out to clear the air. It accepted that it does indeed make older iPhones slower. However, the reasons the company gave were nowhere the near the conclusions that came out of some mindboggling theories.

Apple said that with time, iPhone batteries become weak, hence, it slows down the CPU speed in order to elongate the battery life. After the backlash, Tim Cook conceded that Apple would soon release a feature wherein users would have the option of choosing. A user can choose whether to slow down their iPhone or let it run normally and risk shutdowns.

In the latest Beta build of iOS 11.3, Apple has released the feature. The new feature is contained within a new “Battery Health” menu. The page has two fields: Maximum Capacity, which shows what percentage of the original charge the battery can still hold; and Peak Performance Capacity, which tells users if their phone’s performance is being throttled due to the battery.

As of now, there aren’t any options to change anything on the menu. For context, Maximum Capacity should be at 100% for new phones, and it should fall down to around 80% after about two years of normal usage. As the battery health decreases, the option will read differently.

For example, the Peak Performance Capability will read differently once the battery has aged:

[blockquote right=”pull-right”]This iPhone has experienced an unexpected shutdown because the battery was unable to deliver the necessary peak power. Performance management has been applied to help prevent this from happening again.[/blockquote]

Ever since Apple accepted to slowing down older iPhones, consumers and national governments have reacted. Apple has been sued by multiple consumers. One such lawsuit was filed by Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas, the suit claims that Apple’s deliberate effort to throttle CPU performance on the iPhone amounts to “breach of contract.” It also notes that Apple’s behaviour lowers the resale value of existing iPhones and underhandedly coerces iPhone owners to upgrade to newer models.

The feature to disable CPU throttling is expected to make its way to iOS 11.3 stable build soon.

February 7, 2018
Moto Z2 Force Owners Complain That The Shattershield Coating Is Peeling Off

The Moto Z2 Force was launched in July as the next iteration in Moto’s ‘Z’ lineup. With a shattershield coating on top, the company claimed that the display won’t crack after a few drops. However, thanks to the plastic coating, the device is prone to minor scratches that can increase a lot in the long run.

It appears that the plastic coating comes with its own set of issues. Moto Z2 Force users have complained that the shattershield plastic coating has started peel off from their devices. People have posted images of their Moto Z2 Force to demonstrate the extent of the problem. In some cases, the issue seems minimal but, there are images where the plastic coating is dangling from the display.

Don't bother with this, the z2 force has SERIOUS PEELING ISSUES with the shattershield, I've had mine for less than 4 months and it looks like a 2 year old phone. The jbl sound boost speaker Moto mod is already blown and battery is atrocious

— gryphon darklighter (@astang99) January 26, 2018

Most of the times, the peeling off starts from around the fingerprint sensor and front camera. Also, unlike the Moto Z Force, Motorola did not intend to have a removable plastic coating. This means that fixing the issue yourself will not help. While some users have been able to get a replacement device from Motorola, others have been told that display issue is not covered.

Moto Z2 Force Overview

The Moto Z2 Force has a 5.5 inch shattershield display with a 2560 x 1440 px resolution.

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Under the hood, the device has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. The storage is expandable up to 256GB via a microSD card. The fingerprint sensor is placed on the front of the smartphone as it retains the size and design of a ‘Moto Z’ device. This is done to maintain compatibility with Moto Mods.

The Moto Z2 Force has a dual 12MP f/2.0 camera setup on the back. One of them has an RGB sensor while the other one has a monochrome sensor. On the front of the smartphone is a 5MP camera with a dual-tone LED flash.

February 7, 2018
Leaked: Benchmarks Of Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S Running on Snapdragon 845

At MWC 2018, Xiaomi is expected to make a few announcements. While there are reports that the Mi Mix 2S is expected to be announced before the mobile congress, Xiaomi has not hinted at any launch event as of now. This means that if the Mi Mix 2S is indeed real, MWC 2018 could be the platform where it is launched. The Mi Mix 2S could also be the first or one of the first few devices to run on Snapdragon 845 chipset.

A new leaked image apparently reveals the benchmark scores of a Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S running on Snapdragon 845 chipset. If true, this device blows the competition out of the park with its benchmark scores. For starters, the latest version of Antutu is used for the test. The alleged Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S on the same app gets a whopping score of 270,461. To put things into perspective, a Huawei Mate 10 Pro running on the Kirin 970 chipset scores around 218,000 on the same version of this app.

An interesting bit to notice here is the notification panel. Usually, the clock on top is on the right but, in the screenshot, the clock is placed on the left. This looks very similar to the iPhone X which has a notch on the top. On the iPhone X, the information on top is distributed in the two corners while the middle is filled via software while taking a screenshot.

Mi Mix 2s Render

At the end of the day, there are no guarantees that this is a credible image. It is very easy to doctor benchmark results like this. Hence, we suggest that you take this leak with a grain of scepticism.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S

An earlier render of the Mi Mix 2s showing a notch on the display looked a photoshopped iPhone X photo. Recently though, a new render has emerged which reveals a design worthy of a new variant.

Mi Mix 2s Early Renders

The image shows evenly trimmed bezels all around the display. The Mi Mix 2 had a small chin which housed the front-facing camera. The front facing camera here is placed in the top right corner. It is fitted awkwardly which results in a weird notch on the top right corner. Although this looks like a design prototype that would’ve been buried in the back burner, the design does look like new and different.

February 6, 2018
Only 1% Android Smartphones Are Running Android 8 Oreo

Back in August 2017, Google officially launched Android 8.0 Oreo. In September, iOS 11 started seeding to compatible iPhones. According to a recent market share data, it was revealed that Android 8 Oreo is present in about 1% of Android devices. In late-January, it was revealed that iOS 11 is present in about 65% iPhones. This margin is enormous and Android OEMs need to address it.

Android and iOS are the two most popular mobile operating systems in the world. WindowsPhone OS came to the fore but, slowly faded into oblivion. Top smartphone makers like Samsung, LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, OnePlus use Android OS to power their devices. Although it seems unfair to compare the adoption rate of Android and iOS since Android’s market is very fragmented.

According to the latest data, Android 7 Nougat is the most popular version of Android right now. Nougat is now at 28.5% of the pie, while Marshmallow dropped to 28.1%, from 28.6%. Android 8 Oreo has now reached 1% of smartphones while Android 5 Lollipop is present in 24.6% smartphones.

You may also like: Why Are New Android Phones Launching With Old Android OS?

On the contrary, the App Store Distribution page says that 65% of active devices are running iOS 11, followed by 28% running iOS 10, and 7% running earlier versions. This will further change as Apple prepares to roll out an iOS 11 version that will let users switch off CPU throttling.

Apple iPhone SE Running iOS 11

It is okay for old smartphones to run on older Android versions but, even in 2018, there are smartphones being launched running Android 7 Nougat. Google’s Android One resurgence shows that the company wants more people to adopt to the latest OS and not wait for other OEMs to make a skin based on the latest Android OS and then push it out to consumers. Whether the Android One project will be a success is yet to be seen and how the adoption rate will change for Android 8.0 Oreo.

[poll id=49]

February 6, 2018
Bose Launches Truly Wireless Earbuds SoundSport Free In India For Rs. 18990

The trend of truly wireless earbuds has started to catch on. Since the launch of the Apple AirPods in 2016, a lot of companies have tried their hands in the truly wireless earbuds space. Now, Bose, one of the most popular sound accessories maker in the world, has launched the SoundSport Free in India. The truly wireless earbuds are priced at Rs. 18990 and will be sold via Amazon and Bose.com. The earbuds are available in two colours, Black and Midnight Blue/Citron.

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The SoundSport Free weight 14 grams each and come with a carrying case that also acts as a charger. The battery life is about 5 hours of music playback with an additional 10 hours with the included charging case. Since the earbuds are targeted at people who are into fitness and sports, the earbuds are IPX4 rated sweat and weather resistant. A worry with truly wireless earbuds is the ease with which you can lose them. With the Bose SoundSport Free, you can track your lost earbuds with the Bose Connect app’s ‘Find My Buds’ feature.

In this ever-growing market of wireless earbuds, a lot of companies have launched their iterations. Apple’s AirPods still remain the dominant figure in the market with an almost 85% market share in the truly wireless earbuds industry. Following Apple’s footsteps, a lot of big companies like Samsung and recently, Sony released their versions of the truly wireless earbuds and prolific headphone makers like B&O have also entered the premium earbuds market. A report by Gartner revealed that the sales of truly wireless earbuds will hit the 150 million sales mark in 2017.

Bose SoundLink Micro Bluetooth Speaker

Along with the earbuds, the company has also launched the SoundLink Micro. It is a Bluetooth speaker and is priced at Rs. 8990. Just like the SoundSport Free, the SounLink Micro will go on sale on the 7th of February via Amazon and Bose.com. The speaker will be available in Black, Midnight Blue and Bright Orange colours.

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The SoundLink Micro weighs in at 290 grams and is also IPX7 rated for water resistance. and weighs just 290 grams. The SoundLink Micro has a custom transducer and miniature dual-passive radiators. Bose claims that the speaker is capable of delivering much more powerful sound than what you would expect from a system of this size.

The company also claims that the speaker has a battery life of 6 hours. Since the speaker is of a small size, there is an option of connecting two such speakers via the Bose SoundLink application. In the “Party Mode,” multiple SoundLink Micros or other SoundLink speakers via the Bose SoundLink application.

February 6, 2018
HTC U11+ Launched In India At Rs. 56,990

The HTC U11+ has finally been launched in India at a price of Rs. 56990 and will go on sale via Flipkart on the 7th of February.

Google recently completed the deal which it saw the smartphone division of HTC being transferred to Google. This also meant a non-exclusive access to various HTC patents. While many thought that this deal would mean the end of HTC’s smartphone business, that is not the case. After the deal was announced in September, the company launched the HTC U11+ and U11 Life.

At the time of its launch, the HTC U11+ represented a much-needed design shift for HTC smartphones. Although the HTC U11 was a breath of fresh air, it still looked like a dated flagship device due to its thick bezels. The HTC U11+ has thin bezels around the display, and an 18:9 aspect ratio. The device also has a similar build quality to the HTC U11, something that was highly appreciated in the earlier flagship.

At a price of Rs. 56990, the HTC U11+ competes with the likes of the Galaxy S8 which also has a great design and flagship specs. However, the Galaxy S9 and S9+ are expected to make their way to the Indian market in March. The new Samsung flagship devices will have the 2018 flagship chipset Exynos 9810 in India.

HTC U11+ Specifications

The HTC U11+ has a new 6-inch IPS LCD display with a 2880 x 1440 px resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top of the display and at the back. The tall display means the bezels on the HTC U11+ are thinner than the ones found on the HTC U11.

Similar to the HTC U11, HTC U11+ has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, an octa-core processor, and Adreno 540 GPU. The HTC u11+ further has 6GB of RAM and 128GB onboard storage which can be further expanded up to 2TB via a hybrid microSD card slot. The HTC U11+ is IP68 rated water and dust resistant and due to the thin bezels, the fingerprint sensor is now placed below the rear-mounted camera.

The smartphone is powered by a 3930 mAh battery with QuickCharge 3.0. The HTC U11+ runs Android 8.0 Oreo with HTC’s Sense UI on top.

The Edge Sense feature from the HTC U11 retains its place albeit new features and customisability. With AI gaining more prominence, HTC has provided both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa to give people the flexibility and choose which AI assistant they prefer. You can assign a light squeeze to access Google Assistant, and a hard squeeze to access the Amazon Alexa and vice versa.

Edge Sense is now a remappable feature and can perform specific tasks depending on which app you’re in. If you have the YouTube app, you can remap the squeeze to take you to the subscriptions window or if you are in Google Maps, you squeeze to zoom in or zoom out. HTC has also added a new radial menu which can be accessed with a squeeze. It is a round shaped menu which customises on the basis of your usage.

HTC U11+

The HTC U11+ has a 12.2MP rear-mounted camera with an f/1.7 aperture with optical image stabilisation and electronic image stabilisation. The camera can record 4K videos at 30fps and slo-mo 1080P videos at 120fps. On the front of the phone is an 8MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture and fixed focus. The front-facing camera can record 1080P videos at 30fps.

The HTC U11+ is certainly one of the best-looking devices right now, especially with the translucent design. However, it will only be available Ceramic Black and Amazing Silver in India. But, in 2018, does it hold up with other flagship phones and especially the upcoming devices like the Galaxy S9? Only time will tell.

You can buy the HTC U11+ here

February 6, 2018
OnePlus Co-Founder Carl Pei Confirms There Is No OnePlus X2

OnePlus has been known to refresh its smartphone lineup rather swiftly. It launched the OnePlus 3T a few months after the launch of the OnePlus 3 and followed the same strategy with the OnePlus 5 and 5T. One smartphone that has not seen a successor yet is the OnePlus. The OnePlus X was OnePlus’ ultra-affordable device that was launched in September 2015. Even though it had a premium build and good enough specifications, the device failed to make an impact in the market.

A new rumour claimed that the company was working on a successor to the OnePlus X, the OnePlus X2. While the information that was leaked appeared plausible, the company has come out and said that there will be OnePlus X2.

https://twitter.com/getpeid/status/960790393913671680

The Rumour

While this pretty much confirms that the OnePlus X2 was barely a thing of someone’s imagination, it could be a good device if it were true. According to the rumour, the OnePlus X2 would have reverted to the 5.5 inch display with a 1920 x 1080 px resolution.

It goes on to claim that due to the surplus of Snapdragon 835 chipsets, the company will use these chipsets for the OnePlus X2. Although that could have been the case, OnePlus recently announced its best ever year by revenue. This means that the company sold a lot of OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T which were powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835.

The price of the smartphone was predicted to be in the region of US$ 250 (Rs. 16,000 approx.). At such a price with the Snapdragon 835 chipset and a build quality similar to the predecessor, this device would have been a mid-range killer.

February 6, 2018
Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus Receives iPhone X-Like Gesture Navigation Support

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus was launched in December 2017 in China. Over the past few weeks, there have been reports that the device will be launched in India as well. While many expect Xiaomi to launch the Redmi Note 5 in India on the 14th of February, it won’t come as a surprise if the Redmi 5 Plus is launched instead.

The Redmi 5 Plus has a tall display and thin bezels all around. This means that so far, there were on-screen navigation buttons but, Xiaomi appears to be pushing a new update to the device. In the new update, the Redmi 5 Plus gets iPhone X-like navigation gestures which means that the on-screen buttons will no longer take up precious screen space. OnePlus has also introduced gestures for the OnePlus 5T in a new beta build.

Xiaomi had already introduced these gestures in the Mi Mix 2 but, it was a beta version update. It is unclear as of now, whether these gestures arrive via a stable or a beta update. The gestures resemble the iPhone X a lot.

For example, in order to reach the home screen, the user has to swipe up from the bottom of the screen while swiping from the bottom to the top and pausing for a second brings up your recent apps. Other gestures include swiping from the left or right of the screen to the middle to take the user to the previous page.

Over the years, Android’s take on navigation within the OS has been different from that of iOS. While Android phones have had three navigation buttons, iOS has had a physical home button which solved multiple purposes like multitasking, invoking Siri and other gestures like swiping from the left or right of the screen to the middle to take the user to the previous page. So, when Apple introduced these gestures in the iPhone X, the transition was a lot smoother thanks to the presence of gestures in the past iPhones.

Android, on the other hand, has used the three buttons, the home, back and multitasking button for every little navigation within the OS. These have either been software buttons or physical buttons, with nowadays OEMs offering the choice of both the navigation systems. When Android does shift to only gestures, the transition for users might not be as natural and organic as it was for iOS users.

It will be interesting to see when Xiaomi starts rolling out these gestures to more devices in a stable build. So far, this seems like a China-exclusive feature.

February 6, 2018
Apple iPhone X Bug Won’t Let Users Pick Up Incoming Calls

Launched in September 2017, the iPhone X has become the most successful premium smartphone in India. It sold more units than the budget-friendly OnePlus 5T and even the Samsung Galaxy Note8. This happened despite the iPhone X being the priciest iPhone ever. Just like every other new iPhone, the iPhone X runs iOS 11 which had had its issues so far.

Rumoured iPhone X Plus

A new bug is being reported by iPhone X users where they can’t pick up incoming calls. What happens is that the ringtone starts playing but, the screen stays off for several seconds. This means that users are not able to perform the simplest of tasks on a smartphone that costs so much of money. Users tried resetting their devices but, to no avail.

Apple has conceded that it is looking into the matter. Apple is expected to fix this issue and a new iOS update will be rolled out sooner rather than later. Something similar to the controversy-ridden Google Pixel 2 XL as well. After the Android 8.1 Oreo update, many users were not able to pick up incoming calls because the screen would remain off for several seconds.

Every phone, every feature phones light up the display during an incoming call. To face such a trivial issue after paying so much of money for a smartphone is shocking. Although this doesn’t measure to the number of complaints against the Pixel 2 devices, Apple has to take care of this swiftly. In the last couple of months, Apple has come under scrutiny for deliberately slowing down older iPhones.

Google Pixel 2 XL

Tim Cook has since then, come out and said that a future iOS update will let users choose between wearing down their battery or slowing down their iPhone.

February 6, 2018
Samsung Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+ Leaked In Lilac Purple Colour

Samsung will launch the new Galaxy S9 and S9+ at MWC 2018 on the 25th of February. Hands down two of the most anticipated smartphones of 2018, the Galaxy S9 and S9+ will be Samsung’s early year flagships until the Galaxy Note9 is launched in August/September. While there is hardly anything left to the imagination of a consumer, a new leak has revealed that the two new smartphones will arrive in a fascinating new colour variant.

Samsung Galaxy S9+ Lilac Purple

In new leaked renders of the Galaxy S9 and S9+, we can see the Lilac Purple colour variants. In the times when OEMs are launching ‘limited edition’ red colour variants of their popular smartphones, Samsung’s move to launch a different colour is refreshing. The Lilac Purple will surely stand out from the ocean of black, rose gold and gold smartphones currently prevalent in the smartphone market.

A new leak claims that the Sony IMX345 will be used on the Galaxy S9+. The same can be expected for the Galaxy S9. On the bigger sibling, there will be a combination of a 12MP camera with an f/1.4 aperture and the other will be a 12MP camera with an f/2.5 aperture. We already know that the Galaxy S9 will have a 12MP camera with an f/1.5 aperture.

Rumour Roundup:

The Galaxy S9 will have a 5.8 inch Super AMOLED display while the Galaxy S9+ will have a 6.2 inch display. Both the devices will have a 2960 x 1440 px resolution.

Press Renders

Similar to its predecessor, the Galaxy S9 will have a single 12MP SuperSpeed Dual Pixel camera. This time around, however, the camera will have an f/1.5 aperture and record super slow motion videos at 480fps. The Samsung Galaxy S9+ will become the second phone from Samsung to feature a dual-camera setup on the back after the Galaxy Note8. The Galaxy S9+ will have a 12MP camera with an f/1.4 aperture along with another 12MP camera with an f/2.5 aperture

Case Leaks Of Galaxy S9+

Owing to the launch of the Samsung flagship phones, a lot of companies have restrained from making significant announcements. It was recently revealed that Xiaomi could skip the Mi 7 launch at MWC as well, similar to what Huawei and HTC will do. The Galaxy S9 will be priced at Rs. 69000 in India.

February 6, 2018
HTC U12 With 5G Support Showcased In Taiwan

HTC is expected to launch the HTC U12, its next flagship Android smartphone right after MWC. While not a lot is known about the smartphone as of now, the device might have been shown off at a 5G event held by a local carrier in Taiwan. The Taiwanese tech giant has not acknowledged that the smartphone in question is indeed the HTC U12.

HTC U12 Render

A famous tipster on Twitter has conceded that apparently, the device that was shown off could be the HTC U12. The images from the event do hold up with the rest of rumours of the HTC U12. According to recent leaks, the HTC U12 will have thin bezels and an 18:9 aspect ratio, similar to what the device in question has.

Apparently this lightly obfuscated handset on display at a 5G industry event is none other than HTC Imagine, aka "U12," aka the company's next flagship. https://t.co/f89KjGjEyX
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 5, 2018

At the event, HTC conceded that the particular handset is capable of delivering download speeds of 809.58 Mbps, close to 1Gbps. This means that it could be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset.

HTC U12 Specifications

Some rumours claim that the HTC U12 will have a 4K resolution display.

The Snapdragon 845 will power the new flagship. Like a lot of flagship devices in 2018, the HTC U12 will have 6GB of RAM and expandable onboard storage. The fingerprint sensor will be placed on the back of the phone as Clear ID seems unlikely to feature this soon in an HTC device.

HTC U11+

The device will also have Edge Sense, a feature that allows users to launch an app or action by squeezing the frame of the device. The Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL had the feature as well which could only launch the Goog Assistant. HTC, however, allows for a lot of customisations pertaining to the use of Edge Sense.

The HTC U11 EYEs had a dual-camera setup on the front as well as Face Unlock. The HTC U12 is expected to have a better implementation of that along with a dual-camera setup on the back.

After the deal with Google, a lot of people speculated that the HTC U11 would be the last smartphone from the HTC brand. However, in its subsequent statement, Google hinted that HTC would continue launching smartphones. Since then, HTC has launched more than a couple of smartphones, the latest being the HTC U11 EYEs.

February 5, 2018
Sony Xperia L2 Launched In India At Rs. 19990

Sony has launched a new mid-range smartphone in India. The Sony Xperia L2 is priced at Rs. 19990 and will go on sale from the 5th of February on all major online and offline retailers. The Xperia L2 was announced at CES 2018 held in January. After making its way to the US market, Sony has launched it in the Indian market.

At a price of Rs. 19990, the Xperia L2 enters the highly competitive mid-range price segment in India. Smartphones like the Moto X4 and Xiaomi Mi Max 2 are priced similarly to the Xperia L2. Even at a price of under Rs. 15000, there are fan favourites like the Honor 7X and Xiaomi Mi A1 that are still going strong.

Xiaomi has already announced that it will be launching a new mid-range smartphone in India on the 14th of February. While many speculate it will be the Redmi 5, there are high chances that the Redmi Note 5 could be launched. This means that the Sony Xperia L2 has tough competition from smartphones in the same price segment as well as slightly less priced phones.

Sony Xperia L2: Specifications

The Sony Xperia L2 branches out from the now defunct Xperia E series. It features the similar ‘loop surface’ design of old Xperia smartphones.

The Xperia L2 has a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with a 1280 x 720 px resolution.

Under the hood, the smartphone has the MediaTek MT6737T chipset, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage which is expandable up to 256GB via a microSD card. The fingerprint sensor has now been moved to the back of the phone and is placed centrally, right below the camera. This is different to what the previous Xperia devices have had. Sony has launched a lot of smartphones with the fingerprint sensor housed inside the home button.

Powering the smartphone is a 3300 mAh battery with Qnovo Adaptive Charging technology, Stamina mode and fast charging support. In a move similar to Samsung’s, the Xperia L2 will run Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box. This is disappointing for a smartphone launching in February 2018 and even more so, because Sony has already launched smartphones running Android 8 Oreo.

The Sony Xperia L2 has a 13MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture on the back. To the front of the device is an 8MP camera with an f/2.4 aperture equipped with a 120º FOV wide-angle lens.

February 5, 2018
Leaked: Nokia 7 Plus Will Be The First Nokia Device With 18:9 Display

A few days ago, news of the Nokia 7 Plus came about. At the beginning, it appeared that it would be an incremental upgrade to the Nokia 7. Apart from the Nokia 7 Plus, the company is expected to launch the Nokia 8 Sirocco Edition, Nokia 1 and a concept phone with a Penta-lens.

A new leak has revealed the design of the Nokia 7 Plus which is expected to be launched at MWC 2018. The Nokia 7 Plus might be the first device from the company to feature an 18:9 aspect ratio. The image also reveals a few key details about the camera on the Nokia 7 Plus. The camera will offer 2x zoom thanks to a wide-angle 12MP and telephoto 13MP lens. Similar to the Nokia 8, the device will also have the “Bothie” feature.

Nokia 7 Plus Expectations

The Nokia 7 was launched barely three months ago. To expect a completely overhauled 7 Plus might be a bit foolish. Also, “Plus” variants launched after the regular variants usually just feature minor upgrades. The Nokia 7 plus will also feature a dual-tone design thanks to a few gilded bits and pieces like the fingerprint scanner ring, the dual-camera casing and the Nokia logo on the back.

The Nokia 7 has a 5.2 inch IPS LCD display with a 1920 x 1080 px resolution. The Nokia 7 Plus will have a 6 inch display with an 18:9 aspect ratio hence, the “Plus” moniker. The fingerprint sensor will be placed on the back, just like the Nokia 7 although, the device had a 16:9 aspect ratio and thick bezels.

Nokia 7

The Nokia 7 Plus will have a 12MP wide-angle lens along with a 13MP telephoto lens. The front of the smartphone is expected to house a 16MP camera with no LED flash. The primary camera setup will also have a Nokia Pro mode along with the Bothie feature.

The Nokia 7 Plus is expected to be launched at MWC 2018. However, HMD Global could launch the smartphone in China first and then announce its global availability at MWC.

February 5, 2018
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S Launch Imminent As Mi Mix 2 Receives Price Cut

Xiaomi is expected to make a few announcements at the upcoming MWC 2018. Apart from smartphones, the company could also announce the new Surge S2 chipset as well. That chipset is rumoured to power the Xiaomi Mi 6X. However, the marquee announcement was expected to be that of the Xiaomi Mi 7. That fell off the rails a bit and it appears that the Mi Mix 2S could be launched before the Mi 7.

The Mi Mix 2S launch seems more imminent now after the Mi Mix 2 has received a price cut of CNY 800 in China. The Ceramic variant of the Mi MIX 2 is now available at a price of CNY 3899 instead of its regular price of CNY 4699. This could be a possible hint at the launch of the Mi Mix 2S and that the device will be launched in 8GB RAm variant only.

There are rumours that the Mi Mix 2S will be launched before MWC 2018 and will be the first device to be powered by the Snapdragon 845.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S

So far, there has barely been any chatter about a possible Mi Mix 2 refresh. The Mi Mix 2 was launched back in September and Xiaomi doesn’t really launch new variants of flagship devices like OnePlus does. So, a possible Mi Mix 2s launch seems improbable. However, that hasn’t stopped people to post renders of the phone.

An earlier render of the Mi Mix 2s showing a notch on the display looked a photoshopped iPhone X photo. Recently though, a new render has emerged which reveals a design worthy of a new variant.

Mi Mix 2s Early Renders

The image shows evenly trimmed bezels all around the display. The Mi Mix 2 had a small chin which housed the front-facing camera. The front facing camera here is placed in the top right corner. It is fitted awkwardly which results in a weird notch on the top right corner. Although this looks like a design prototype that would’ve been buried in the back burner, the design does look like new and different.

We could see the launch the Mi Mix 2S happening in the coming weeks especially since MWC will begin on the 26th of February.

February 5, 2018