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Xiaomi Redmi 5 And Redmi 5 Plus Launched

Xiaomi has launched two new budget-oriented smartphones Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus at an event in China today.

The Redmi 5 is priced at CNY 799 (Rs 7,800 approx) for the 2GB RAM/16GB storage variant and CNY 899 (Rs 8,800 approx.) for the 3GBRAM/ 32GB storage variant and will be available in Black, Blue, Gold and Rose Gold colours. The Redmi 5 Plus is priced starting at CNY 999 (Rs. 9,800 approx.) for the 3GB RAM/32GB storage variant and CNY 1299 (Rs. 12,700 approx.) for the 4GB RAM/64GB storage option and will be available in the same colours as the Redmi 5.

Both the devices run Android 7.0 Nougat with Xiaomi’s custom MIUI 9 on top.

Xiaomi Redmi 5

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 has a 5.7-inch 1440 x 720 px display with an 18:9 aspect ratio.

Under the hood, the Redmi 5 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chipset, a 1.8GHz octa-core processor, Adreno 506 GPU, 2GB or 3GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage which will be expandable via microSD card. There is a fingerprint sensor placed at the back of the phone just below the camera.

Powering the device is a 3300 mAh battery which, Xioami claims has a standby time of up to 12 days. The battery is charged via a micro USB slot which means no fast charging. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack placed next to the charging port as well.

The Redmi 5 has a 12MP camera at the back with 1.25-micron pixel size. The camera records 1080P videos at 30fps. To the front of the device is a 5MP camera with Beautify 3.0, which is Xiaomi’s software for enhanced selfies.

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus

The bigger sibling of the two is the Redmi 5 Plus. It has a 5.99-inch display with a 2160 x 1080px resolution which again, translated to an 18:9 aspect ratio. Similar to the Redmi 5, its display also has rounded corners.

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 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.

Just like the Redmi 5, the Redmi 5 Plus has a 12MP primary camera and a 5MP secondary camera with beautify 3.0 software.

There is no word on the availability in the global market. But, considering the popularity of the Redmi series in India, it won’t be a stretch to assume that at least one of the devices will be launched in India sooner rather than later.

December 7, 2017
MediaTek And Qualcomm Announce Support For Android Go Oreo Edition

Google recently announced the Android Go Oreo edition. A new variant of Android 8.1 Oreo OS optimised for smartphones with 1GB of RAM or less. Two of the most prominent chipmakers in the smartphone industry, MediaTek and Qualcomm have now voiced their support for Android Go.

MediaTek, in a statement, said that it will be an SoC partner for bringing Android Go Oreo edition to smartphone makers and will offer support on Android devices with 512MB to 1GB of RAM.

MediaTek Inc. today announced that it is a System-on-Chip (SoC) partner for providing Google’s Android™ Oreo (Go edition) software to smartphone makers, and after a deep collaboration with Google, MediaTek’s MT6739, MT6737, and MT6580 SoCs, among others, now have board support packages available to run Android Oreo (Go edition).

Qualcomm has also announced that it will be working closely with Google to offer an optimised experience on smartphones with a memory of 1GB or less.

We are excited to implement Android Oreo (Go edition) within the Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform family as it will enable consumers around the world to experience a more robust operating system for lower cost smartphones.

This allows greater consumer flexibility as mobile users in emerging regions such as India, Southeast Asia and Africa gain access to a wider variety of Android smartphones with a more modern operating system.

Google has claimed that Android Go’s Oreo edition will be a variant of Android Oreo that a manufacturer can just set by ticking off a configuration flag. What this basically does is that it sets up the phone to use the “Go” versions of a handful of Google apps such as the main Google app, Google Assistant, Google Maps, Gmail, and others. Google claims that the smaller apps and slimmer OS can as much as halve the amount of storage that’s taken up by default on a new phone running default OS.

India is expected to be one of the first few countries to get Android Go Oreo edition thanks to its large budget smartphone segment.

December 7, 2017

Snapdragon 845: Everything You Need To Know

A majority of Android phones are powered by the chipsets made by Qualcomm. From phones priced at Rs 6999 running Snapdragon 212 to the Galaxy Note8 priced at Rs 67900 powered by the Snapdragon 835, smartphones in all price range run on a Qualcomm chipset, with some exceptions running MediaTek chipsets.

For 2018, the flagship phones will be powered by the new chip from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 845 which was announced two days ago during the Qualcomm Tech Summit.

The Snapdragon 845 has the new Kryo 385 CPU architecture and an upgraded Adreno 630 GPU. The chip is built on Samsung’s 10nm LPP FinFET, its second generation 10nm node that offers “10-percent higher performance or 15-percent lower power consumption compared to its first generation”. Similar to the previous generation, the Kryo 385 is built on Arm Cortex technology. Qualcomm claims that thanks to its customised off-the-shelf design from Arm, the chip promises up to a 25% performance upgrade compared with the last generation Snapdragon 835. The four performance cores clock up to 2.8 GHz and are paired with four energy efficient cores that can reach up to 1.7 GHz.

A lot of experts claim that what bezel-less design was to 2017 smartphones, AI and machine learning will be to 2018 smartphones. With Apple and Huawei already claiming a stake in the AI space with their new chipsets, a lot will be expected from the Snapdragon 845. In terms of performance, the Snapdragon 845 gets a 3X upgrade in AI tasks over the Snapdragon 835. This comes down to upgraded CPU and GPU performance but, the Snapdragon 845 also includes a third generation Vector DSP with HVX, called the Hexagon 685, which is optimised for AI and imaging workloads.

Specifications	Snapdragon 845	Snapdragon 835
CPU Core	Semi-custom ARM Cortex – Kryo 385	Semi-custom ARM Cortex – Kryo 280
CPU Configuration	4x 2.8GHz (Cortex-A75) 4x 1.7GHz (Cortex-A55)	4x 2.45GHz (Cortex-A73) 4x 1.9GHz (Cortex-A53)
GPU	Adreno 630	Adreno 540
Manufacturing Process	10nm LPP FinFET	10nm LPE FinFET
DSP	Hexagon 685 with HVX	Hexagon 682 with HVX

For multimedia, Qualcomm’s latest Spectra image signal processor has been rebuilt from scratch. The new Spectra 280 ISP introduces new video capture options, such as 720P at 480fps, 60 fps video recording at up to 16MP of resolution, and the ability to capture 64x more high-dynamic range colour information than before.

Qualcomm has also introduced a new security feature. It has added Security Processing Unit (SPU), a hardware isolated security subsystem inside the Snapdragon 845. This dedicated chip acts as a storage unit for any saved biometric information, such as fingerprint, face, or iris scans, and builds on Qualcomm’s existing security software.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ are expected to be the first of the many phones which will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. Xiaomi also announced that its new flagship, presumably Xiaomi Mi 7 will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset as well.

December 7, 2017

Next Huawei Phone Might Have A Triple-Lens 40MP Camera

New leaks on Twitter suggest that Huawei is working on a new smartphone which will pack a triple-lens 40MP Leica-branded camera. Several ads for a “Huawei PCE Series” phone were spotted online by mobile tipster Evan Blass.

Is the next Huawei P-series going to be an imaging powerhouse? A digital artist at one of the company's creative agencies added these "PCE Series" ads to their portfolio — claiming 40MP, 3 lens rear (5x hybrid zoom) + 24MP selfie, all Leica-co-developed. pic.twitter.com/t8w3VlL55L
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) December 6, 2017

Apparently, the source of the ads is a creative agency that works with Huawei. However, the ads have not been officially published and the agency already removed them from its portfolio.

The leaked advertisements reveal the specifications of what might be one of the most impressive and power packed smartphone cameras. The upcoming smartphone, according to the ad will have a triple lens rear-facing 40MP camera, 5X hybrid zooming (which uses a digital and optical zoom for better capturing far away objects) and a 24MP front-facing camera. The camera will also be co-engineered by Leica, the same company that co-engineered the cameras for the Huawei P10 and Huawei Mate 10.

Blass claims that the phone in question here is the follow up to the Huawei P10, tentatively named Huawei P11. 2016 is the year that saw a rise in dual-camera setups on smartphones, and 2018 might see the first ever smartphone with a triple-lens if the leaks are true for the Huawei P11.

December 7, 2017
LG V30+ To Be Launched In India On December 13th

LG’s second flagship of the year, the LG V30+ will be launched in India on the 13th of December. There is no word on the price of the phone yet.

The LG V30 has a 6 inch 2880 x 1440 px OLED FullVision display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. LG’s nearly edge-to-edge OLED display has HDR 10 format for a high level of colour contrast and the smartphone will be Daydream compatible.

A big omission from the V30 is the secondary display, which was a signature in the previous V series devices. Instead, LG has introduced a Floating Bar which displays shortcuts and can be disabled when not required.

The LG V30 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, a 2.4GHz octa-core processor, 4 GB RAM and 128GB onboard storage with up to 2TB of expandable storage via a microSD card. The V30 has an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance and MIL-STD 810G rating for durability.

The LG V30 is powered by a 3300mAh battery with wireless fast charging which supports 3.0 quick charge.

The smartphone runs Android 7.1.2 with LG’s UX 6.0+ on top which offers a few customisation options.

LG has partnered up with Bang & Olufsen this time around to deliver sound quality ideal for media consumption and the B&O logo appears on the rear of the smartphone just below the fingerprint scanner. Thanks to the partnership, the LG V30 incorporates a 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC powered by Bang & Olufsen with few sound presets like enhanced, detailed, bass and live. The smartphone also has support for Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) technology for high-resolution audio streaming.

Aside from the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner which also doubles as a home button, LG has introduced few new security features in the LG V30 such as facial and voice recognition. The voice recognition will even work along with the music playback.

The LG V30 features a dual-camera setup at the back. As LG had announced, this smartphone has the first ever inbuilt camera unit to feature a 16MP crystal clear lens made of glass with an f/1.6 aperture and another 13MP wide angle lens with an f/1.9 aperture. The camera has laser detection AF, optical image stabilisation and electronic image stabilisation. On the front side, the LG V30 sports a 5MP wide-angle camera with an aperture f/2.2.

December 6, 2017
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 845 Chipset

Qualcomm has announced the new flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 845 at it Qualcomm Tech Summit.

The Snapdragon 845 will be the successor to the popular Snapdragon 835 chipset which powered the majority of 2017 flagship phones, barring the likes from Huawei and some Samsung phones (that ship outside the US and South Korea). The Snapdragon 845 will likely be found in many high-end Android phones in 2018, though it is also expected to make its way to Windows 10 laptops as well.

Just like the Snapdragon 835, the Snapdragon 845 is also based on a 10nm manufacturing process albeit upgrades to performance and power efficiency. Qualcomm will pair the 845 with its latest X20 LTE modem, which provides gigabit connectivity on supported networks.

The Snapdragon 845 will definitely aim to compete with Apple’s A11 Bionic chipset since the Snapdragon 835 fell short against it in benchmark scores.

Similar to the partnership that led to Samsung having early access to Snapdragon 835 chipsets, the Snapdragon 845 chipset might be found in the Galaxy S9 and S9+ before any other phone. Even though, the LG G7 is expected to be launched at a similar time. Also, Xiaomi has announced its plan to use the Snapdragon 845 chipset in its next flagship, which could be the Mi 7.

The American chipmaker is hosting its tech summit right now where we will get to know more about the Snapdragon 845 chipset.

December 6, 2017
Jabra Elite 25e Launched In India At Rs. 3999

Jabra has launched new Bluetooth earbuds in India, the Jabra Elite 25e at a price of Rs. 3999. The Bluetooth earbuds are available on Amazon and offline retail outlets such as Croma.

Jabra claims that the earbuds have an 18-hour battery life. The Elite 25e are neckband-style wireless earbuds, which use Bluetooth 4.1 for connectivity.

Calum MacDougall, SVP at Jabra said:

The Jabra Elite 25e is engineered with the multi-tasking, on-the-go person in mind who values high-quality conversations and music while on the move. No product currently on the market delivers this level of battery life and experience for the Jabra Elite 25e’s price point.

Therefore, we believe this product, following in the footsteps of the hugely successful Jabra Elite Sport, is worthy of the name Elite

Jabra Elite 25e and its accessories

The Jabra Elite 25 weighs in at about 48 grams and are available in a Black colour variant only. Jabra claims that it has worked on the ear tips of the Elite 25e for a more secure and comfortable fit, with less audio leakage. There is a dedicated button to activate Google Assistant or Siri, depending on which smartphone you have connected the earbuds to.

The earbuds have an IP54 rating for sweat resistance, which means that you can use the earbuds for workouts or jogging. It also has a feature wherein it reads out incoming messages so that you don’t have to reach out for your phone everytime a notification comes through.

December 5, 2017
Honor Launches The Honor View10 At A Price Of 499 Euros

Huawei’s sub-brand, Honor has launched the Honor View10. The Honor View10 was first announced in China on the 28th of November and has now been globally launched. It is priced at 499 Euros and will go on sale in India from the 8th of January, 2018.

The Honor View10 has a 5.99-inch IPS LCD display with a 2160 x 1080 px resolution which translates to an 18:9 aspect ratio. The Honor View10 has minimal side bezels and thin top and bottom bezels.

Under the hood, the device has the Kirin 970 chipset with a Neural Processing Unit, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB onboard storage. The onboard storage can be expanded up to 256GB via microSD card. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom of the device along with a USB Type C port. The front of the device also has a home button which houses the fingerprint sensor.

The Honor View10 also has facial recognition which is becoming more prominent since the launch of the iPhone X. The facial recognition works similar to the Face ID on the iPhone X, the accuracy of which, will be extensively tested in the coming weeks.

Similar to the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, the Honor View10 also concentrates a lot on AI. For example, while on a call, AI will differentiate between the user’s voice and background noise to make sure the user’s voice is clearer. This is thanks to the presence of the Kirin 970 chipset which has a Neural Processing Unit on board.

The new chipset will also mean better battery life as Honor suggests that it is “50 times more efficient than an average CPU.” Huawei being telecommunications giant has introduced new features in the Kirin 970 such as the Cat 18 compatibility, which means it can reach download speeds up to 1.2GB per second. Also, the Kirin 970 can support 4G data on both sims at the same time. Kirin 970 is powered by an 8-core CPU and a new generation 12-core GPU. Built using a 10nm advanced process, the chipset packs 5.5 billion transistors, which is about 2.5 billion more than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835.

Because of its facial recognition technology, the Honor View10 also has iPhone X-like animojis, which Honor claims are much more accurate than iPhone X since it tracks the user’s tongue as well.

Powering the device is a 3750 mAh battery and supports 5V / 4.5A fast charging. Honor claims the phone will be 50% charged in 30 minutes thanks to Honor Super Charge technology.

The Honor View10 has a dual camera setup at the back and has a single camera at the front. The back of the devices houses a 16MP RGB sensor and a 20MP Monochrome sensor with both having an f/1.8 aperture. The primary camera setup records 4K videos at 30fps. At the front of the phone is a 13MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture.

December 5, 2017
Honor 7X Launched In India At A Price Of Rs. 12999

Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has launched the Honor 7X for India at a price of Rs. 12999. The device will on sale from the 7th of December via Amazon exclusively.

The Honor 7X has a 5.9 inch LTPS IPS LCD display with a 2160 x 1080 px display which translates into an 18:9 aspect ratio.

Under the hood, the Honor 7X has the HiSilicon Kirin 659 chipset, Mali-T830 MP2 GPU, 4GB of RAM and 64GB onboard storage. The onboard storage is expandable up to 256GB via microSD card. The device is powered by a 3340 mAh battery which charges via a micro USB slot. Since the device has thin bezels, the fingerprint sensor is placed at the back of the below the dual-camera setup.

The Honor 7X runs Android 7.0 Nougat with EMUI 6.0 on top which gives a user more options for customising their phones.

The smartphone has a dual camera setup at the back. One of the cameras is equipped with a 16MP sensor while the other one is a 2MP depth sensor. The camera setup at the back has PDAF and records 1080P videos at 30fps. On the front is an 8MP camera which also records 1080P videos.

Buy it here

Watch Our Unboxing –

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRoUtlwFgP8[/embedyt]

December 5, 2017
Google Launches Android Go Oreo Edition For Budget Smartphones

Google has launched a version of Android 8.0 Oreo which is best suited for Android phones with 1GB of RAM or less.

At the Google I/O event in May 2017, Google promised to launch a custom version of Android tailor-made for lower-end devices. On the 5th of December, Android Go (Oreo edition) was officially launched and made available to smartphone manufacturers and developers.

As Google said, the idea behind Android Go is to create a version of Android software which is designed to run better on phones with either 512MB or 1GB of RAM. In the world of OnePlus 5T with its 8GB of RAM or Galaxy Note8’s 6GB RAM, it is easy to forget that there are lower-end smartphones currently available in the market which have 1GB of RAM or less.

Recently, the Nokia 2 launched in India at a price of Rs. 6999 with 1GB of RAM and running Android 7.1 Nougat. Android Go’s launch means that HMD Global will be able to push out an Android 8.0 Oreo update for the Nokia 2 faster since the build is already optimised for phones with such specifications.

Nokia 2

Google has claimed that Android Go’s Oreo edition will be a variant of Android Oreo that a manufacturer can just set by ticking off a configuration flag. What this basically does is that it sets up the phone to use the “Go” versions of a handful of Google apps such as the main Google app, Google Assistant, Google Maps, Gmail, and others. Google claims that the smaller apps and slimmer OS can as much as halve the amount of storage that’s taken up by default on a new phone running default OS.

Google will also introduce a few other data saving features on Android Go. For example, in Chrome, everything will get run through a Google server that reduces file sizes before it gets delivered to the user’s phone. The new Datally app will also be pre-installed to keep a track of cellular data.

Considering India’s budget smartphone segment, it might be one of the first few countries to receive Android Go.

December 5, 2017
Google Assistant Is Coming To The JioPhone

Google has announced that the JioPhone will be the first feature phone which will have Google Assistant support.

JioPhone

The Indian market has over 500 million feature phones and Google plans to reach out to many of such feature phone owners through its AI assistant. It isn’t clear yet if JioPhone is the only feature phone in Google’s roadmap or is it the first of many.

JioPhone is a 4G feature phone that runs KaiOS, a custom operating system based on Firefox OS. The JioPhon, launched earlier this year is available for free (with a deposit) and even has its own voice assistant, HelloJio.

Google is bringing a customised version of the Google Assistant with Hindi voice support, that is adapted to the device’s 2.4-inch QVGA colour screen. While the interface will be much different than the one found on Android and iOS devices, the core functionalities of the Google Assitant are expected to be the same.

Google might end up working with Nokia well to bring Google Assistant to its line of feature phones as well but, that is not confirmed yet.

December 5, 2017
Android 8.1 Oreo To Start Seeding Today

Android released the developer preview of Android 8.1 Oreo on the 25th of October and has now announced that the official update will start seeding on the 5th of December. Google has kept its promise to release Android 8.1 to the public by the end of the year.

The Android 8.1 will roll out to the Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 6P, and Nexus 5X starting today.

The second developer preview was released last week, which included the much-awaited developer access to the Visual Core image processing chip inside the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL feature. Because of this access, camera app developers will be able to improve their apps to take full advantage of the hardware found on Google’s new smartphones.

The update also fixes the infamous hamburger and beer emoji found on the Google keyboard app. So, if a consumer was offended by the previous emojis, then they can breathe a sigh of relief.

With Android 8.1 Oreo out for Pixel and Nexus devices, it begs the question, where is the Android 8.0 Oreo update for other Android devices? So far, only a handful of devices from other OEMs have received an update to Android 8.0 Oreo update.

One of the main new updates in Android 8.1 Oreo is in its back-end processing. The new feature would automatically flag apps as “inactive” and deprioritise the generation of cache files for that app. The phone will only consider an app as “inactive” if it hasn’t been recently used in the foreground and the app package isn’t being used by another app package in the background.

December 5, 2017
Google Pixel 2 Prices Dropped To Rs. 39999 Starting December 7th

The Google Pixel 2 will be available at a price of Rs. 39999 from the 7th of December. Launched at a price of Rs. 61000 the Google pixel 2 is available at a discount of Rs. 11001, and starting December 7th buyers will get additional Rs. 10000 cash back for each Pixel 2 purchase. This offer is available during Flipkart’s big shopping days. Bringing the price of Google’s 2017 flagship down to Rs. 39999 for the 64 GB variant.

Unlike its bigger sibling, the Google Pixel 2 has strayed away from controversy thanks to its AMOLED display instead of the p-OLED display found on the Pixel 2 XL. The Pixel 2 at a price of Rs. 39999 is a great deal for someone looking to get a flagship device with optimised Android and quick updates for the next few years.

Following the design language of last year’s Pixel phones, the smartphone features a 5 inch 1920 x 1080 px OLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top for protection.

Under the hood, the device has typical 2017 flagship specifications. It has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, 2.4GHz octa core processor, Adreno 540, 4GB RAM and 64GB/128GB onboard storage.

The fingerprint sensor sits at the back of the device but, this time around the “glass window” is smaller. The two-tone colour of the phone is also reminiscent of the original Pixel from 2016. Google claims that the fingerprint sensor is the fastest on a smartphone. The Pixel 2 is water resistant as well.

Powering the device is a 2700 mAh battery and it runs Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. As is with with every Google phone, the new Pixel 2 will be first in line to receive Android P update in 2018.

Google has decided to go for a single camera setup similar to last year’s Pixel phones. The rear-facing camera is a 12.2 MP sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and 1.4 micron pixel size. On the front is an 8MP camera with an f/2.4 aperture. Google has introduced new features in the camera department like the addition of AR.

This year, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL use a technology called “dual-pixel” which divides every pixel into two. Google says Pixel 2 has greater high dynamic range, optical image stabilisation, and a portrait mode that doesn’t use a second camera but dual-sensor image technology. The Pixel 2 XL uses both OIS and EIS simultaneously for better clarity and stable images and videos. The portrait mode works on both rear and font facing cameras, just like the new iPhones.

December 5, 2017
Apple AirPods Sales Expected To Double In 2018

Multiple reports have claimed that the Apple AirPods dominate the truly wireless earbuds segment in the US. A new report from KGI Securities has claimed that AirPods will continue to experience an exponential growth. In 2018, Kuo believes that Apple will sell upwards of 28 million units, a figure which would effectively double AirPods sales year over year.

Apple doesn’t break out individualised sales figures for specific accessories, but estimates for 2017 sales are somewhere in the 13-14 million range.

We believe demand for AirPods has been strong, and note that the shipping time of the product on Apple’s official shopping website has shortened to 1-3 days, mainly thanks to an improved assembly process and increased capacity from Luxshare as the new assembler […]

We expect AirPods to remain one of the most popular Apple accessories in 2018, with shipments likely to rise 100% YoY to 26-28mn units next year.

Apple’s decision to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus last year was met with widespread scepticism as majority of smartphone users still use wired headphones and headphone makers had not yet entered the realm of lightning post or USB C headphones.

The AirPods was Apple’s solution to that and an indication that Apple is well and truly on its way to make a port-less iPhone. The ease of connecting the AirPods to your Apple devices proved decisive in its record sales in the past year, even though there are better sounding headphones at a cheaper price available in the market.

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.

December 5, 2017
Nokia 9 And Nokia 8 (2018) To Be Launched On 19th January

Nokia 9 is highly anticipated as the successor the Nokia 8, and it appears that the Nokia 9 could be launched as early as the 19th of January. A new report from China claims that the Nokia 9 and a new iteration of the Nokia 8, named Nokia 8 (2018) will be launched on the 19th of January. It is worth noting that HMD Global has not announced or hinted at any new launch as of now.

The report also claims that both the phones will be customised for the Chinese market hence, may come with special ROM where Google services may be replaced by local alternatives.

The leaked specifications of the Nokia 9 include 5.5-inch QHD display. Whether this display will have an 18:9 aspect ratio is yet to be seen but, considering the phone is launching in 2018 and will be a flagship device, the bezels might be shrunken and considerably thinner than the ones found on the Nokia 8.

Chances are that the Nokia 9 will be launched in two variants, one with 6GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage while the other version of the phone may have 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

The 64GB variant of the Nokia 9 may be priced at around CNY 3,699 (Rs 35,965 approx.) while the 128GB storage variant might be priced at CNY 4,199 (Rs 40,826 approx.).

The Nokia 8 (2018) is expected to be priced similar to the Nokia 8 which was launched in India back in September at a price of Rs 36999.

Both the Nokia 9 and Nokia 8 (2018) are expected to have dual cameras at the back and have IP67 rating for water and dust resistance.

While the Nokia 8 entered the Indian market a few weeks after its global launch, it will be interesting to see if HMD Global follows a similar pattern if and when the Nokia 9 and the Nokia 8 (2018) are launched.

December 5, 2017