【um cassino-4 Jogabilidade】um cassino-4 Jogabilidade

um cassino-4 Jogabilidade

Huawei’s Honor sub-brand has been doing well. The company has successfully expanded to Europe, dished out some good devices and built a solid reputation. Now, the Honor 8 looks to continue in building up that reputation with its unique design, dual cameras and balanced specs. But how does it fare amidst the harsh competition?Honor 8: Design and BuildThe Honor 8’s continues the tradition of Huawei devices having very good build quality.聽It doesn鈥檛 feel too heavy (nor too light), the glass back gives the device a very premium feel, and the overall construction of the Honor 8 feels polished.The Honor 8鈥檚聽design聽features a full glass back, which shines in a specific way when it hits the sun. The shiny and flashy design definitely sticks out, especially when compared to the typical metal builds on most similarly priced devices. On the rear, we have the dual camera and fingerprint sensor button, which feels great.The power button and volume rockers are easy to reach on the right of the device, and the textured power button makes it fairly easy to identify. The buttons聽don鈥檛 rattle around in place and have a satisfying click, which is聽great after coming from the Redmi Note 2.There are a few problems with this design however. While the rear glass panel looks nice, it鈥檚 incredibly slippery. I never actually felt it was going to slip out of my hand, but it would repeatedly slide off of sloped surfaces聽and my bed, much to my chagrin.The glass build also brings about the age old issue of fingerprints and grime all over the device. While this is a non-issue on my white unit, the black and blue units especially seem to gather a lot of grime on their glass backs.I’ve yet to break my unit, but that’s probably due to the soft wood flooring in my room. If it were any harder material, this thing would be wrecked in no time. While I can’t entirely blame Honor for choosing a glass build, I do wish they would’ve included a case of sorts like Huawei does with their devices.Overall, it’s a very nice design, though it’s not incredibly practical. If you’ve used a Samsung S7 or S6 Edge, you’ll know how it is. The slipperiness of the device may take away from it, but the glass back is undeniably beautiful. Shame it doesn’t stay that way due to grime.Honor 8: DisplayThe Honor 8鈥檚 full HD IPS display is a quality panel, even including the fact that it鈥檚 not a QHD display. Colors are very lifelike, vibrant and natural while images are sharp and crisp. Viewing angles are also impressive, allowing the device to be viewed from even the most extreme angles.I also appreciate the device’s pre-installed blue light filter for the display. It’s a feature that should be a standard on every Android device, really. Here, it’s easily toggled from the drop down shortcut bar.sdrOn top of that, the display鈥檚 color temperature can be changed from the settings page, and it鈥檚 much more complex compared to the color temperature tool from earlier versions of Emotion UI. It鈥檚 quite a good display, though if you鈥檙e looking for a QHD display, this isn鈥檛 the device for you.Honor 8:聽SoftwareAh, here we are. Huawei鈥檚 version of Android, Emotion UI, has received plenty of flak for its flaws and problems and is pretty much infamous in the world of Android. So is it really all that bad? No, not really. Not great, but not bad.The main problem that many people have is that it鈥檚 drastically different from stock Android, mainly because it doesn鈥檛 adopt Google鈥檚 material design and has no app drawer. Instead, EmUI is similar to many other Chinese UIs where all applications are placed on the homescreen and need to be sorted manually. This isn鈥檛 really a problem as much as it is a matter of subjective taste.EmUI also comes with multiple software features. Google鈥檚 Now on Tap is available on the device, and its presence on the device is quite convenient. Also on board is Huawei鈥檚 own Knuckle Sense, which聽while improved from previous iterations, is still somewhat cumbersome when it comes to actual application. On the downside however, there鈥檚 plenty of bloatware on board for the international version. On top of Huawei鈥檚 own suite of applications, the device also comes with Google鈥檚 suite of applications AND some extra applications like the intrusive Clean Master. This is really unnecessary in my opinion. A list of the bloatware can be seen below.Clean MasterBooking.comDropboxShazamFacebookWPS OfficeAlso, while many of EmUI鈥檚 problems have been dealt with, there are still a few more kinks that need to be ironed out like the ever present power consumption reminder that tells you to kill background apps. There’s also the issue that you can’t see certain notifications due to the text blending in with the background in the notification panel.The settings menu holds many other functions. Aside from the prementioned color temperature tool, there鈥檚 also an option for a simple UI, a shortcut bar editor, the fingerprint sensor settings, motion controls and a bunch of other small enhancements.There are of course still a lot of problems. It鈥檚 an incredible hassle to reset default apps, some apps like Slack need to be adjusted in the settings menu before their notifications appear, the included icon packs are average, and the lack of any material design elements makes the overall UI feel out of place next to material apps.There’s also the issue of updates. Within the time I received the device, I received no updates whatsoever. I understand that Honor isn’t going to iron things out as quickly as a software based company like Xiaomi, but I’d like to see at least monthly updates become the norm.All in all, I didn鈥檛 really find EmUI as bad as people claim it is, though there鈥檚 still plenty of room for improvement. It鈥檚 no stock Android, but it鈥檚 still better than many of the skins you find on Chinese phones like Elephone鈥檚 ELE UI and Oppo鈥檚 Color OS.Honor 8:聽PerformanceThe Honor 8鈥檚 performance is quick and snappy. The device has no issues with any of your day to day activities. Snapping pictures, browsing the web and gaming were all handed very well, almost beating out other more expensive devices like the Galaxy S7.Memory management is good with 4GB of RAM. The Honor 8 could only keep up to 10 apps open at the same time before needing to restart them. It’s close to OnePlus 3 levels of memory management, which is very good.Gaming is another bag of worms. Generally, any game you’d want to play is more than playable on the device. However, once you start reaching games that demand a lot out of the GPU, they tend to stutter. Nowhere near unplayable, but it’s not up to the level of Snapdragon devices in GPU power.So performance wise, the Honor 8聽is good. There鈥檚 not much that the device can鈥檛 handle, and the things it struggles with are few and far between. While it鈥檚 not going to outspeed the iPhone 7, it鈥檚 more than fast enough to match up with its similarly priced brethren. If you’re a hardcore gamer however, this isn’t the best device for you.Honor 8: Battery LifeBattery life on the Honor 8 is good. On performance mode and average use, I managed to squeeze out a decent 6 hours of screen time, while balanced聽mode added an extra hour on top of that.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramIn terms of usage, you’ll definitely be able through your entire day before needing a recharge. You’ll definitely need to charge your phone by the end however. This thing isn’t going to last until the next day. In terms of battery settings, there’s an optimize option that cuts down on processes and reduces the power consumption of apps. Dig deeper and you’ll find an ROG display option that switches the resolution of the display to 1280×720 to increase battery life.There’s also an extreme power saving mode which can keep聽the thing running for nearly an hour on 7%, alongside the already established performance and balanced options. Overall, the battery life is good. Above the average device, but below the typical battery behemoth.Honor 8: AudioAudio quality is a rather problematic subject when it comes to Chinese Droids. One of the most common things for a company to cut corners on is sound quality. The Honor 8 is thankfully above average in sound quality, but only just.The bottom firing speaker on the Honor 8 isn’t the worst I’ve heard, but it’s not very good either. In terms of volume, it gets pretty loud and there’s no crackling which is great. Sound quality however is only decent with somewhat muddy bass and average clarity.The location of the speaker also hurts the device, with it being placed in a spot that is easily blocked by your hand in many situations. Despite all this, it’s still a fairly decent speaker, it’s just not the most enjoyable setup.The earpiece speaker is clear, though it doesn’t get very loud. It’s adequately loud for when you’re in slightly noisier environments, but it gets tough to hear when you’re in a very noisy environment, like a stadium or a bustling mall.Honor 8: CameraCamera quality is another issue with Chinese devices in general, though the issue is completely different compared to audio quality’s problem. Here, the main problem is companies like to stick to whatever buzzword is popular, and market it to consumers like something incredible. Then, they fail to deliver because of poor optimization and such.Camera quality on Huawei and Honor’s devices have been pretty consistent so far, and the Honor 8 is continuing that trend. With its dual 12MP rear cameras, it manages to shoot some pretty good pictures. It also falls into the same pitfalls as most Chinese droids, that being low light shooting.When there’s a good amount of light, pictures come out really, really well. Clarity is good, colours are spot on and there aren’t any overexposure problems that can be seen. Turn down the lights, and then you start seeing some issues.As usual, the noise really starts to creep in once you begin shooting in low light, though it’s not really all too bad for a phone of this price. The clarity of low light pictures is decent, if slightly below average, though that’s compared to the top dogs of the camera world.The front facing camera is actually quite good, and comes with your usual slew of software features like skin smoothening and filters. The images produced are more than good enough for posting on your social account.Video recording on the Honor 8 is limited to 1080p at 60fps, which doesn’t too bad, up until you realize there’s no OIS. While the quality of the footage is decent, it simply too shaky to be good. Which is a shame, because this camera really does have some good potential.The camera software is very good, with most options simple a swipe away from the shooting screen. Aside from the filters and the regular slew of camera options, there’s also a refocus mode, a food mode, a professional mode and an option to add a watermark to all your pictures. Shutter speed is quick and I never found it tough to actually snap a photo.So to sum it up, it takes great pictures in good lighting, average pictures in low light and video shooting is not fun due to the lack of OIS. I can also firmly say it’s better than the phones in its price range, and for comparisons sake I can say that it’s better than the OnePlus 3’s camera by a decent margin.Honor 8: Camera Gallery Honor 8: ConnectivityWhen it comes to connectivity, the Honor 8 has plenty of ground covered, though not all of it. The Honor 8 covers most, if not all of the important bands, meaning it should work just fine no matter where you are.For me in Malaysia, the device worked perfectly fine and I managed to get great speeds wherever I went, though聽you’ll definitely want to聽check with www.willmyphonework.net to make sure the device works with your carrier.The device has dual nano-sized sim card slots, though it’s a hybrid slot so one of those will probably be dedicated to a microSD card. Speaking of which, the Honor 8 will accept microSDs of up to 256GB.The Honor 8 supports dual-band 2.4/5.0GHz Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, with Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot capabilities. Bluetooth is v4.2, where interference issues with LTE networks should be fixed. Aside from that, there’s also NFC on board, which is good.The satellite receiver supports GPS, GLONASS, and Beidou, so the device should be able to detect your location pretty well. The Honor 8 utilizes a USB-C port over the typical microUSB, and when connected to a computer you’ll need to change connection types through the device’s notification shade.Another nice addition is the IR blaster, which will allow you to control certain electronic appliances like a remote controller. So it’s got just about everything covered right? Nope. Honor went ahead and decided that FM radio wasn’t a needed function, which is why it’s not here.Honor 8 Review: ConclusionThese days, competition is rife within the affordable flagship market. This segment, which used to be home to only a few companies, is now one of the most populated. Any device that wants to succeed needs to have something warrant purchasing it over another. Thankfully, the Honor 8 manages to this splendidly.The device’s objective cons are really few and far between. Most of the potential issues are simply a matter聽of subjective taste, like EmUI or the all glass design. The main problem with the device is its slippery build, which isn’t really much of a deal breaker.Honor 8: ProsGlass and metal construction is unique and looks good and helps it stand outBuild quality is goodCrisp, clear and colourful displayPerformance is snappy and quickFantastic connectivityAbove average audio qualityCamera is stellar in good lightingBattery life beats many devices in its price bracketEmUI isn’t a disaster.Honor 8: ConsThe glass build looks great, but smudges way too easilyGlass build is also quite slipperyThe GPU is weaker than similarly priced devicesNo FM radioCamera is only decent in low lightEmUI still needs more polishUpdates aren’t all too frequentSo overall, If you’re looking for the most powerful device for your money, this isn’t where you should be looking. There are other devices in this price bracket that offer more GPU performance, namely the Mi5s and the OnePlus 3聽(and more recently, the OnePlus 3T).PokerStars CasinoI received the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime and have had some time to play around with it. This is the first Redmi device to feature a processor on par with current midrange MediaTek devices even though its technically an entry-level chip from Qualcomm. The Snapdragon 625 (as seen on the Moto Z Play) benchmarks very high and should provide a great experience on the Redmi 4.Sure, the Snapdragon 625 still doesn’t benchmark as high as the Helio X20 in the Redmi Note 4 but it gets closer than ever. It also features 3GB of RAM and the usual 4100mAh battery, so there should be the usual great battery experience as well.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime SpecificationsProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 625Display5.0″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM3GBStorage32GBOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 with MIUI8Cameras16MP + 8MP CameraBattery4100mAhPhysical Properties156g, 141.3 x 69.6 x 8.9 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit. I’m currently testing the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime on Fido in Toronto.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Unboxing聽It comes in a rather plain white box, not dissimilar to the Xiaomi Mi5s or the Xiaomi Mi Note 2.It doesn’t come in a plastic sleeve like most other phones but it just has a screen protector on the front and the back which I took off.It comes with a plug and a MicroUSB 2.0 cable.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Hands OnI have the grey version and it looks very “Mi” like. I don鈥檛 know if聽my eyes are playing tricks on me, but from afar this phone doesn鈥檛 look like a very well-made metal device.If you remember the Bluboo XFire 2, that was a very well made metal device as well, but it didn鈥檛 have that precision and tolerances seen on HTC or Samsung devices. However, the closer you go, the more you realize that this is a very well made phone.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe bezels are polished metal and also have a very sleek polished metal chamfer around it. The machining is very precise, sure it might not be as pinpoiB么nus de dep贸sito zeront precise as an HTC device, but kill me now if it isn鈥檛 exquisitely made.After using both the Mi5s and the Mi Note 2, I struggle greatly to be objective. When you have the opportunity to pick up the Redmi 4 and either of the previous devices, you can immediately feel the difference between both devices. Yes, the Redmi 4 is metal and well made, but there is a subtle but present feeling that the Redmi 4 is slightly less well made, either to save money or to speed up the process.With that out in the open, I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality with which the Redmi 4 is built. Not many devices in this price range can boast such impressive build quality. The Ulefone Metal comes to mind but it also utilizes the aging MTK6753 processor and a rather average 3000mAh battery as well.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Additional DetailsThis is a comparison shot of the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime, the Xiaomi Mi5s, and the Xiaomi Mi Note 2, the curves on the Redmi 4 Prime are the least drastic. Beside the two more expensive phones, it does look less interesting than the Mi5s and the Mi Note 2 but it still looks very updated if placed directly beside the Redmi 3.So far use is quite smooth, sure the phone might not be as great an option for gaming compared to a phone with a Snapdragon 821, but then again this phone MSRPs for $130.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽First ImpressionsThe Redmi 4 has impressed me at great length. I haven鈥檛 been using this very long and am in the process of testing the phone, but the build quality has impressed me, the general speed and fluidity has impressed me, and the battery life has impressed me the most. I can鈥檛 tell if this Redmi 4 has typical Redmi battery life or better than usual battery life, as I was using this phone for about an hour and the battery percentage stayed at 23% the entire way through. If its not a glitch, this could potentially destroy the Redmi 3 in terms of battery life, and the Redmi 3 had insane battery life already.

I received the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime and have had some time to play around with it. This is the first Redmi device to feature a processor on par with current midrange MediaTek devices even though its technically an entry-level chip from Qualcomm. The Snapdragon 625 (as seen on the Moto Z Play) benchmarks very high and should provide a great experience on the Redmi 4.Sure, the Snapdragon 625 still doesn’t benchmark as high as the Helio X20 in the Redmi Note 4 but it gets closer than ever. It also features 3GB of RAM and the usual 4100mAh battery, so there should be the usual great battery experience as well.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime SpecificationsProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 625Display5.0″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM3GBStorage32GBOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 with MIUI8Cameras16MP + 8MP CameraBattery4100mAhPhysical Properties156g, 141.3 x 69.6 x 8.9 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit. I’m currently testing the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime on Fido in Toronto.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Unboxing聽It comes in a rather plain white box, not dissimilar to the Xiaomi Mi5s or the Xiaomi Mi Note 2.It doesn’t come in a plastic sleeve like most other phones but it just has a screen protector on the front and the back which I took off.It comes with a plug and a MicroUSB 2.0 cable.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Hands OnI have the grey version and it looks very “Mi” like. I don鈥檛 know if聽my eyes are playing tricks on me, but from afar this phone doesn鈥檛 look like a very well-made metal device.If you remember the Bluboo XFire 2, that was a very well made metal device as well, but it didn鈥檛 have that precision and tolerances seen on HTC or Samsung devices. However, the closer you go, the more you realize that this is a very well made phone.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe bezels are polished metal and also have a very sleek polished metal chamfer around it. The machining is very precise, sure it might not be as pinpoint precise as an HTC device, but kill me now if it isn鈥檛 exquisitely made.After using both the Mi5s and the Mi Note 2, I struggle greatly to be objective. When you have the opportunity to pick up the Redmi 4 and either of the previous devices, you can immediately feel the difference between both devices. Yes, the Redmi 4 is metal and well made, but there is a subtle but present feeling that the Redmi 4 is slightly less well made, either to save money or to speed up the process.With that out in the open, I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality with which the Redmi 4 is built. Not many devices in this price range can boast such impressive build quality. The Ulefone Metal comes to mind but it also utilizes the aging MTK6753 processor and a rather average 3000mAh battery as well.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Additional DetailsThis is a comparison shot of the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime, the Xiaomi Mi5s, and the Xiaomi Mi Note 2, the curves on the Redmi 4 Prime are the least drastic. Beside the two more expensive phones, it does look less interesting than the Mi5s and the Mi Note 2 but it still looks very updated if placed directly beside the Redmi 3.So far use is quite smooth, sure the phone might not be as great an option for gaming compared to a phone with a Snapdragon 821, but then again this phone MSRPs for $130.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽First ImpressionsThe Redmi 4 has impressed me at great length. I haven鈥檛 been using this very long and am in the process of testing the phone, but the build quality has impressed me, the general speed and fluidity has impressed me, and the battery life has impressed me the most. I can鈥檛 tell if this Redmi 4 has typical Redmi battery life or better than usual battery life, as I was using this phone for about an hour and the battery percentage stayed at 23% the entire way through. If its not a glitch, this could potentially destroy the Redmi 3 in terms of battery life, and the Redmi 3 had insane battery life already.MGCOOL are a new sub-brand from now-well-known Chinese manufacturer Elephone. Like we learnt a couple of days back, the MGCOOL wing will focus on accessories and gadgets, while Elephone take care of the smartphone business.Speaking of accessories, some of the most popular ones that everyone seems to have or want to buy these days are power banks. We recently had the chance to play with the MGCOOL Power Thunder 16000mAh power bank, a $50 gadget that’s been on sale for a bit.MGCOOL Power Thunder ReviewI’m myself a big user of power banks. In fact, it’s safe to say that I’m spoilt by them. There is, at all times, at least one fully charged power bank with me (when I’m commuting/heading out, that is). So far, I’ve been happy with a 13,000mAh Huawei and a 20,000mAh Xiaomi power bank… the 16,000mAh MGCOOL Power Thunder is the newest addition.It’s safe to say that the MGCOOL Power Thunder is the best-looking and feeling power bank I’ve used till date. That necessarily does not translate into practicality, because the eye candy is only the result of added material (and thus weight) that could otherwise have been avoided.The novelty factor does wear out in a while, which is something I’m sure everyone will agree with. After a little while, especially with gadgets like power banks and such, you do crave for practicality over eye candy and such. That said, what I do really like on the Power Thunder is the form factor. With dimensions of 153.1 x 65.5 x 23.3 mm, the Power Thunder is really easy to hold and put in the pocket. The textured rubber makes the gadget extremely grippy… and in the beginning, fun to hold.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe power bank weighs just about 300g.It was a bit of a mystery for me in the beginning because both, the box and the power bank itself read ‘6000mAh’, with the ‘1’ scratched off of both. I had to check with online stores to confirm it was in fact 16,000mAh — funny but definitely not something you want to be happening to a buyer.As for the charging and discharging capabilities of this one, it’s so far right on par with the 20,000mAh Xiaomi that I use. Given the capacity, it does take time to charge itself (I generally keep my power banks plugged overnight or more) but the power bank is pretty quick when it comes to charging other devices.The MGCOOL Power Thunder is apparently Qualcomm QC 3.0 certified. I can’t verify the authenticity of the that claim, but what I can tell you is that the charging speeds seem to be at par with other power banks with similar certification. As for numbers, the Power Thunder supports outputting current in the following ratings:鑱?V – 6V 3A, 6V – 9V 2A, 9V – 12V 1A. It’s convenient to have multiple ports on the power bank too. This one comes with a full USB 3.0 port, a micro USB and a USB Type-C port. Besides that, there’s a button you can press to find out the estimated battery left in the power bank. This is indicated by the four LEDs on the front.In a nutshell, I believe the MGCOOL Power Thunder is for those who really want their accessories to look great, albeit at a cost. At $50 it’s pricier than most similar power banks (from Chinese brands such as OnePlus, Xiaomi), but it’s the extra style on offer that the brand is looking to sell to buyers.MGCOOL are a new sub-brand from now-well-known Chinese manufacturer Elephone. Like we learnt a couple of days back, the MGCOOL wing will focus on accessories and gadgets, while Elephone take care of the smartphone business.Speaking of accessories, some of the most popular ones that everyone seems to have or want to buy these days are power banks. We recently had the chance to play with the MGCOOL Power Thunder 16000mAh power bank, a $50 gadget that’s been on sale for a bit.MGCOOL Power Thunder ReviewI’m myself a big user of power banks. In fact, it’s safe to say that I’m spoilt by them. There is, at all times, at least one fully charged power bank with me (when I’m commuting/heading out, that is). So far, I’ve been happy with a 13,000mAh Huawei and a 20,000mAh Xiaomi power bank… the 16,000mAh MGCOOL Power Thunder is the newest addition.It’s safe to say that the MGCOOL Power Thunder is the best-looking and feeling power bank I’ve used till date. That necessarily does not translate into practicality, because the eye candy is only the result of added material (and thus weight) that could otherwise have been avoided.The novelty factor does wear out in a while, which is something I’m sure everyone will agree with. After a little while, especially with gadgets like power banks and such, you do crave for practicality over eye candy and such. That said, what I do really like on the Power Thunder is the form factor. With dimensions of 153.1 x 65.5 x 23.3 mm, the Power Thunder is really easy to hold and put in the pocket. The textured rubber makes the gadget extremely grippy… and in the beginning, fun to hold.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe power bank weighs just about 300g.It was a bit of a mystery for me in the beginning because both, the box and the power bank itself read ‘6000mAh’, with the ‘1’ scratched off of both. I had to check with online stores to confirm it was in fact 16,000mAh — funny but definitely not something you want to be happening to a buyer.As for the charging and discharging capabilities of this one, it’s so far right on par with the 20,000mAh Xiaomi that I use. Given the capacity, it does take time to charge itself (I generally keep my power banks plugged overnight or more) but the power bank is pretty quick when it comes to charging other devices.The MGCOOL Power Thunder is apparently Qualcomm QC 3.0 certified. I can’t verify the authenticity of the that claim, but what I can tell you is that the charging speeds seem to be at par with other power banks with similar certification. As for numbers, the Power Thunder supports outputting current in the following ratings:鑱?V – 6V 3A, 6V – 9V 2A, 9V – 12V 1A. It’s convenient to have multiple ports on the power bank too. This one comes with a full USB 3.0 port, a micro USB and a USB Type-C port. Besides that, there’s a button you can press to find out the estimated battery left in the power bank. This is indicated by the four LEDs on the front.In a nutshell, I believe the MGCOOL Power Thunder is for those who really want their accessories to look great, albeit at a cost. At $50 it’s pricier than most similar power banks (from Chinese brands such as OnePlus, Xiaomi), but it’s the extra style on offer that the brand is looking to sell to buyers.The rhetoric you usually see when a mainstream publication reviews a Xiaomi phone is how astonishingly good it is considering the price. But here at GizChina, we specialize in devices like these, and prices like $300 isn鈥檛 any cause for applause.In fact, many in our audience balk at the thought of spending over $300 on a phone when devices like the Lenovo Z2 Plus and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 exist. However, I鈥檓 going to show you… nay, prove to you, that the Mi 5s is still a worthy contender for your hard earned dollar.Xiaomi Mi 5s Full ReviewOne step forward, one step back. Sure, the Mi 5s is a a rather uninteresting but expected upgrade to the Mi 5, but its still a great device. Xiaomi has predictably upgraded the processor from the Snapdragon 820 to the more power-efficient Snapdragon 821 and the newest camera sensor Sony has to offer.However, according to Xiaomi, an upgrade is a give and take. While they gave us a newer processor and a better sensor, they took away Gorilla Glass and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), both omissions that leave me puzzled. I don鈥檛 predict a wildly different experience compared to the Mi 5, however the new sensor and lack of OIS should prove interesting to the resulting camera quality. Let鈥檚 get in deep right away.“one step forward, one step back”Xiaomi Mi 5s SpecificationsProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 821Display5.15″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM4GBStorage64GB UFS 2.0Operating SystemAndroid 6.0 with MIUI8Cameras12MP UltraPixel + 4MP Ultrapixel CameraBattery3100mAhPhysical Properties145g, 145.6 x 70.3 x 8.3 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit. I used the Xiaomi Mi5s on Fido in Toronto.Xiaomi Mi 5s HardwareThe outward design of the Mi 5s remains unchanged, still being indistinguishable from the Xiaomi Mi 5, and that鈥檚 not a bad thing. Its matte metal body furnishes the phone with a premium feel while keeping it from sliding out of your palm. It is thin, small, and ergonomic, all important factors for an easy one handed experience, and is something I greatly appreciate.This trend of increasing device sizes gone on for too long and it鈥檚 time to tone them down to a more reasonable level. I find no issue using this device with one hand, even my relatively small hands. The curved back makes the phone feel quite a bit thinner than its 8.3mm thick frame.The bezels around the display are incredibly tiny but deceptive. While the actual bezel might be small, there is still a non functional black strip surrounding the display that is invisible while the screen is off but immediately visible once on.It鈥檚 glaringly obvious when using white apps like the Google Play Store and quite unsightly, but I will qualify that as a 鈥渇irst world device reviewer problem鈥 and something that most people will likely not notice. Below the screen are the three capacitive buttons (yes I鈥檓 still a fan of capacitive buttons) and underneath the center button is the famous ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. The Z2 Plus (my daily driver) pleased me to no end when I could unlock the device without actually having to depress the button itself, and the same thing applies here — no force required.The build quality, footprint, and feel are all top notch, but Xiaomi hasn鈥檛 done anything wild with the design (like the Mi Mix).“Predictably Great Build Quality”Xiaomi Mi 5s DisplayThe Xiaomi Mi 5s impresses with 鈥渙nly鈥 a 1080p display. Still though, that many pixels packed into a 5.15鈥 display works out to an impressive 428ppi. It might not be 2K or 4K, but the display is still plenty capable of showing off its chops. While colours are punchy and quite vivid for an LCD display, it still pales relatively to an AMOLED display.What really impressed me was the very high maximum brightness of 600 nits. The screen is easily viewable in direct, strong, sunlight and is capable of blinding you indoors. Minimum brightness is pleasantly low as well, the screen is light on the eyes even in pitch darkness, making this a great phone to use in bed (please don’t, it destroys your sleep cycle).Probably the biggest caveat is the lack of protective glass. Xiaomi for some reason decided it was a good idea to forego Gorilla Glass in exchange for a normal one and I for one am puzzled by that decision. That being said, definitely get a screen protector for the phone.Xiaomi Mi 5s AudioFor a phone aimed directly at the hearts of high end flagships, it doesn鈥檛 do very well in the audio department. While speaker quality is very loud to the point of hurting your ears, it doesn鈥檛 do quite as well with quality.When compared directly to an HTC 10, the audio is definitely less detailed and clear and bass is lacking as well. However, these speakers are still more than good enough for average use.Xiaomi Mi 5s BatteryI聽had high hopes for the battery life in the Mi 5s because of its decent 3200mAh battery and Xiaomi鈥檚 traditionally excellent battery optimization. Suffice it to say that I was pleasantly surprised and slightly disappointed at the same time.The lab results exceeded my expectations quite modestly with the phone holding out for 12 hours while web browsing and almost 13 and a half hours for video playback. If this translates directly into daily use, battery life could potentially outperform the聽Lenovo Z2 Plus. However, it does not.Real life battery use topped out at around 5 hours of screen on time, which is a great result mind you, but the lab results provide significantly better times. My real life use consisted of web browsing, news, and Reddit on an almost equal mix of WiFi and LTE. I also snapped a few photos as well and the phone was on its last legs (about 6% left) 16 hours after it was off the charger.Light and medium users will not be able to drain this phone in a day, while heavy users just might. There is quickcharge included that you can use to pump up the phones battery in a pinch.“Good Battery”Xiaomi Mi 5s SoftwareCall me crazy, but I鈥檓 still not a fan of MIUI. I used to hold to a rather neutral stance on the aesthetics of this device but after using the Redmi 3 and the Redmi Note 4, the cartoony look pushed me over the edge, and I am now firmly in the camp that dislikes what MIUI looks like.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramWe do have the latest MIUI8 installed over Android 6.0 Marshmallow and MIUI is still incredibly well optimized. General use is fluid, fast, and zippy, opening and closing apps is also incredibly fast most likely due to the new UFS 2.0 flash storage by Samsung.As with any other MIUI release, the latest iteration of MIUI8 is chock full of customizations and functions. There are a ton of articles, videos and guides about each and every function in MIUI8, so I won鈥檛 take the time to go into them. Suffice it to say that you鈥檒l definitely find something to your liking.I鈥檓 definitely a fan of this ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. Buttonless sensors are the way to go, and the fact that its not actually taking up additional space but sits underneath the home button is just a plus. It鈥檚 incredibly fast, faster than the Vernee Mars and also very accurate as well.Its a tad less accurate than my Lenovo Z2 Plus, but that鈥檚 taking into account the Z2 Plus鈥 learning function as it does get more accurate over time.Performance wise, the Mi 5s is more than capable of tackling even the most intense games on the Play Store as it only has to drive a 1080p resolution. It also obtains a sky-high Antutu score as well.Xiaomi Mi 5s ConnectivityThe international version of the Xiaomi Mi 5s comes with a myriad of network bands with both TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE. I was able to get 3G and LTE connectivity here in Toronto, Canada, but do check with www.willmyphonework.net to make sure this phone is actually compatible with your carrier.I ran speedtest and was able to obtain very good speeds. WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS all work well, and we do not find an IR blaster, found on a lot of Xiaomi phones otherwise. However, there is no microSD聽card slot which is what bothers me the most, as it makes it difficult to store large amounts of video on the phone without using up valuable storage space.Xiaomi Mi 5s CameraA聽mongst a community such as GizChina’s, it鈥檚 very obvious to all of us (readers included) that hardware is only half the story when it comes to picture quality. However, to the general population at large, the software side is generally invisible to consumers and companies take advantage of that, showing off the latest and greatest in megapixels, camera sensors, and 4k video.Xiaomi has done much the same, and have (wisely) chosen to use the newest Sony IMX378 sensor, the exact same sensor used in the Google Pixel.That鈥檚 generally enough for most people, same hardware, same quality right? Well, we know better, and Google has spent countless man hours building software around the IMX378 to squeeze out the best picture it can, and they did a great job. The Pixel can stand beside other camera giants without the need to bow out. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the Mi 5s. Yes, they created good software, but they did not do as good a job as Google did.In good lighting conditions, the Xiaomi Mi 5s easily holds its own against the best. Detail, colour reproduction and dynamic range are all wonderful. Sure, it might still be bested by the S7, iPhone 7 and Pixel, but the differences are slight.To the untrained eye, a side by side shot with all these phones will yield minor changes that are mostly imperceptible on its own. This is partly due to the new HDR+ mode. HDR modes usually take a few seconds after hitting the shutter button, forcing you to hold it in place for that duration. However, the Mi5s鈥 HDR+ mode is just as fast as non HDR mode so there鈥檚 no reason to turn it off.However, crank down the available lighting and you start seeing a difference. Low light situations show the marked difference between the Mi 5s and the Pixel. Same hardware, different software, vastly differing results.Where the Pixel takes great photos in low light, the Mi 5s tends to overexpose, resulting in blown out shots and a lot of noise. Thankfully there is a manual mode that allows you to manually set each setting for better pictures. The same can be said for the front camera. Great lighting great selfies, bad lighting bad selfies. The rear camera is capable of 4K recording, and footage is incredibly crisp, you can clearly see the minute cracks in the ground. However, it suffers from the same problem as it does photos, low light yields bad video.With all that said, do note that the above results are all compared to the best of the best, and when you compare to Chinese phones in general, the Mi 5s takes such great quality pictures and video that they blow away pretty much every Chinese manufacturer鈥檚 phone cameras (with the exception of a few manufacturers like Huawei and Vivo).The results of the camera test can be summed up in one sentence; Great lighting, great photos; bad lighting, bad photos.Xiaomi Mi5s聽Camera Gallery Xiaomi Mi5s VerdictThe road to becoming a top end flagship is a hard one, but becoming a top end flagship at a very low price? Well, that prospect seems all the more difficult. However, at the end of the day, the Xiaomi Mi 5s is very close. Think about every aspect of this device and you will realize that apart from the camera鈥檚 low light performance, the Mi5s does not lose to the best of the best.I鈥檝e taken MIUI out of the equation because whether or not you like MIUI is personal preference. There is a lot to love in this phone, but there are three things to be made aware of, and while all of them could be potential dealbreakers, I only see two as being significant enough to impact your decision to purchase this phone:The biggest one is the camera鈥檚 low light performance. It does not match up to the best and could be a potential dealbreaker.There is no MicroSD card slot. This is a potential dealbreaker for some.The speaker quality is average, I don鈥檛 see this as being a dealbreaker though.In my opinion, these compromises are completely worth it for the price you pay, which at this point is either $300 in China or around $350 outside due to reseller price increases. The Mi5s has gone down to $290 at one point, so keep your eyes peeled. The Mi5s is a worthy flagship competitor and will more than satisfy many people鈥檚 needs.I would like to thank Gearbest for sending out this review unit, and if you would like to buy one, you can do so here.“still a great flagship”Xiaomi Mi5s Video ReviewWhen the Mi Band first came out, many thought it was just something that Xiaomi put together to have their name out in the wearable market. As it turns out, the Mi Band series is now one of the most popular wearables on the market.The device proved that a properly functioning and fairly configurable wearable didn’t have to cost a bomb. This in turn encouraged smaller Chinese companies to try their hand at making smart bands and smart watches. Most results so far have been, to be very frank, abysmal. However, there is hope, as the Hesvit G1 suggests.The Chinese are great at producing low-cost hardware. However, the secret鑱絫o a truly great smart band is in the software. The band itself comprises extremely basic components, but it’s the algorithms and the battery-saving optimisations that make the gadget usable.The Hesvit G1, I daresay, is getting there. Very frankly it’s still a fair distance away from being a recommendation, but it does get a few bits right such as:Battery life (almost)DisplayPriceIP65 ratingMore importantly, the companion app is definitely not completely unusable. It’s nearly usable, and something that certainly will end up with a good result… more on this later.That said, there’s a few downsides to the Hesvit G1 as well, with the key ones being:No support for app notificationsNo gesture screen onIrritating to wear on the long runA so-so appWhile this might be a bit subjective, the Hesvit G1 was definitely a refreshing change from the run-of-the-mill MT2502-powered ‘smartwatches’.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramHesvit G1 PhotosPackaging Band Coming back, I managed to use the Hesvit G1 for a good week or so without taking it off (besides for charging once). I must admit the size of the band makes it a little suffocating to wear it all the time; the metal sensor on the rear (to gauge your skin temperature) definitely doesn’t help the case. I’m also not very sure of the whole point鑱給f the feature — skin temperature measurement.Sleep tracking on the G1 was a hit-or-miss. A couple of times it got it pretty much spot on, but mixed it up a few other times. Heartrate tracking is pretty much bang on with the Mi Band 2, which I thought was fairly accurate for the most part.There’s not much else that you can talk about for the G1. It would definitely be helpful if the band made better use of the provided real estate (on the screen). Options for better notification management, etc. would’ve definitely made the G1 more recommend-worthy, but sadly that’s not the case.Also, since it’s an LCD display (with pre-configured characters that can be displayed on the screen), there definitely won’t be a firmware update that will add notification management features to the band.Coming back to the companion app, it’s fine and all once it loads. However, each time you leave the app and come back to it, it needs to load right from the start — and this includes re-connecting to the Hesvit G1. Extremely frustrating, but pretty much the only gripe I had with the app.At $35, the Hesvit G1 is probably not the worst investment to make, but certainly far from the best.

When the Mi Band first came out, many thought it was just something that Xiaomi put together to have their name out in the wearable market. As it turns out, the Mi Band series is now one of the most popular wearables on the market.The device proved that a properly functioning and fairly configurable wearable didn’t have to cost a bomb. This in turn encouraged smaller Chinese companies to try their hand at making smart bands and smart watches. Most results so far have been, to be very frank, abysmal. However, there is hope, as the Hesvit G1 suggests.The Chinese are great at producing low-cost hardware. However, the secret鑱絫o a truly great smart band is in the software. The band itself comprises extremely basic components, but it’s the algorithms and the battery-saving optimisations that make the gadget usable.The Hesvit G1, I daresay, is getting there. Very frankly it’s still a fair distance away from being a recommendation, but it does get a few bits right such as:Battery life (almost)DisplayPriceIP65 ratingMore importantly, the companion app is definitely not completely unusable. It’s nearly usable, and something that certainly will end up with a good result… more on this later.That said, there’s a few downsides to the Hesvit G1 as well, with the key ones being:No support for app notificationsNo gesture screen onIrritating to wear on the long runA so-so appWhile this might be a bit subjective, the Hesvit G1 was definitely a refreshing change from the run-of-the-mill MT2502-powered ‘smartwatches’.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramHesvit G1 PhotosPackaging Band Coming back, I managed to use the Hesvit G1 for a good week or so without taking it off (besides for charging once). I must admit the size of the band makes it a little suffocating to wear it all the time; the metal sensor on the rear (to gauge your skin temperature) definitely doesn’t help the case. I’m also not very sure of the whole point鑱給f the feature — skin temperature measurement.Sleep tracking on the G1 was a hit-or-miss. A couple of times it got it pretty much spot on, but mixed it up a few other times. Heartrate tracking is pretty much bang on with the Mi Band 2, which I thought was fairly accurate for the most part.There’s not much else that you can talk about for the G1. It would definitely be helpful if the band made better use of the provided real estate (on the screen). Options for better notification management, etc. would’ve definitely made the G1 more recommend-worthy, but sadly that’s not the case.Also, since it’s an LCD display (with pre-configured characters that can be displayed on the screen), there definitely won’t be a firmware update that will add notification management features to the band.Coming back to the companion app, it’s fine and all once it loads. However, each time you leave the app and come back to it, it needs to load right from the start — and this includes re-connecting to the Hesvit G1. Extremely frustrating, but pretty much the only gripe I had with the app.At $35, the Hesvit G1 is probably not the worst investment to make, but certainly far from the best.As our Editor Yash pointed out in his review聽of the Z2 Plus, this is one of the best sub $300 phones we’ve had in our hands this year and聽he’s not wrong.聽It’s not every day a bargain basement price phone gets incredibly similar聽internals as a Samsung Galaxy S7. Even the Oneplus 3 starts at $400USD.Lenovo Z2 Plus Second OpinionWhen the phone was launched, I was arguably overhyped. The specs below looked extremely tempting, and the dearth of high end 5″ phones was getting to me.聽However, a spec sheet is far from adequate in one’s decision to purchase a phone and for that, reading the full review is your best bet. However, once you’re done that, come back here for a second opinion on this incredibly well specced phone.Lenovo Z2 Plus SpecificationsProcessorSnapdragon 820 Quad Core 2.0GHzDisplay5″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM4GBStorage64GBOperating SystemZUI based on Android 6.0 MarshmallowCameras13MP, f/2.0 PDAF Front Camera, 5MP f/2.0 Rear CameraBattery3500mAh, Qualcomm Quickcharge 3.0Physical Properties149g, 141 x 68.9 x 8.5 mmAbout this聽ArticleThis article is intended to be a second opinion, a companion piece to our official GizChina review. A review is defined as an evaluation of a product based on his or her experience as a user of said product. An experience is not 100% objective, and therefore neither is a review. Each reviewer will have a slightly聽different experience based on their preferences, daily usage patterns, and even location and each reviewer has different ideas on what makes a smartphone good. Maybe one reviewer will spot something another one didn’t. As I said before, Yash reviewed it, thought it was great, and so do I. Yet,聽there are a couple of things we disagree on. Read on to find out.I used the Zuk Z2 on Fido (Rogers) 4G/LTE in Toronto, Canada. The phone was running ZUI 2.3.042 ST during testing.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽HardwareFor a phone that I like so intensely, this phone is off to a pretty bad start. I’ve come to intensely dislike glass covered devices not because of their feel, but because of their inherent fragility. Less important but still annoying is the ease with which this device picks up smudges and oil, and is clearly visible on the black version of this device.Much like a small child, this phone is incredibly hard to keep clean. Obtaining the white model negates the oil/smudge problem to a great extent, but it wasn鈥檛 wise either, as it looks more like a cheap, plastic phone than the black version. At least no one will try to steal this from me.The phone is the perfect size for me. Having recently moved from the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (which is a great phone in its own right), my small hands are absolutely loving the size. I will admit that my penchant for small phones is probably more extreme than most, but a smaller device also means a smaller chance of the user dropping the phone as well.However, I will say that the squarishness of the frame does dig slightly into my hands somewhat having just moved from the Redmi Note 4 with it’s graceful, ergonomic curves, but it’s not too big of an issue.“a small but fragile phone”Elsewhere, the 5.0″ screen is nice to look at, but screen technology has advanced to the point that the difference between high end screens and low end screens is shrinking fast. The screen looks nice, but I find that it’s pretty difficult for any one screen to really take my breath away.Most phone manufacturers are now playing the spec game, cramming more and more pixels into the same area. Lenovo has refused to participate in this pixel war, and that is a decision I very much appreciate.The same goes for the audio. It’s very difficult for audio quality to blow me off my feet, and the Z2 Plus does not do that and is merely decent. The speakers are not front facing either and the speaker positioning does not help. But volume is definitely loud enough.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽BatteryYash mentioned in his review that the Z2 Plus has a good聽battery life, however,聽my battery standards are higher than most, so I disagree slightly.If you鈥檝e been following my reviews on YouTube and here on GizChina, you鈥檒l know that I鈥檓 absolutely neurotic about battery life. That is because I was spoiled by the very first Chinese device I owned, the THL5000 (5000mAh). From that moment on, I’ve made it a point to ensure that every single one of my daily drivers has a battery capacity above 4000mAh, the Mlais MX Base, Xiaomi Redmi 3, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.This Lenovo Z2 Plus is the very first device with a significantly smaller 3500mAh battery.“great battery, just short of amazing”For those of you looking for more nuggets of info, the 3500mAh battery was able to net me roughly the same amount of usage as my previous daily drivers, with the big difference of having almost no buffer at the end of the day.Where the Redmi Note 4/Redmi 3 could take me through a 16 hour day with 6 hours of screen on time with 25-30% left before bedtime, the Lenovo Z2 Plus fared worse. It managed a 16 hour day with 6 hours of screen on time, but with just 9% left (do keep in mind that 4% with the Z2 Plus is enough for a good hour or two of light use).Unless you鈥檙e an absolutely insane power user (which I very much doubt you are, I鈥檓 on the upper limits of insane already), this phone won鈥檛 present you an issue. On certain phones, I also perform a rather unrealistic test to gauge the upper limits of battery life, and that would be constant YouTube playback.On the Redmi devices, I could play back 8 hours of Youtube video (straight from the charger) and still have 10-15% left for the rest of the day. On the Lenovo Z2 Plus, I’m left with a much smaller buffer of 7%. Do with that what you will, but nobody (unless you’re me) can take issue with the battery life here.Quick Charge 3.0, I coupled it with my Quickcharge 3.0 charger and it charged plenty quick. I also sometimes wish for wireless charging, but that would be a nicety that I wouldn’t be willing to pay more for.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramLenovo Z2 Plus聽U-TouchI鈥檝e given the home button its special section here as I feel that the button warrants its own section. Unlike battery life, fingerprint accuracy is much less quantifiable. As someone who never locks their phone, I easily get tired of using fingerprint sensors due to their inaccuracy and slowness on a lot of phones. There are two exceptions to this; those being聽the UMi Super and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.And now there’s a third, the Z2 Plus.It’s incredibly fast and accurate, fighting neck and neck with the likes of the Pixel and Note 7 (if yours hasn’t exploded yet). I do have one minor complaint, you can only input 5 fingerprints instead of 10 on a lot of other devices, and I’m used to registering both thumbs and indexes, and then giving each family member a finger to unlock it as well, but I can’t do that here (as I have 4 other family members).In addition, building in gesture functionality into the home button is an absolute stroke of genius. Instead of closing the app I鈥檓 in to open another one or opening up the app tray, I just swipe left or right to switch between apps. The crowning achievement is the ability to customize actions for certain gestures, chief of them being long touch to sleep.I never use buttons anymore.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽SoftwarePlease note that any software issues mentioned in this section are only relevant if you purchase the Zuk Z2 from certain resellers, and you will not have these issues if you purchase a Lenovo Z2 Plus.My phone I obtained from Gearbest did NOT come with the stock Lenovo ROM but instead contained a custom ROM that did not have the security permissions manager nor did it come with the crucially important OTA update app. I had to manually flash the stock ROM onto the device to get the phone to update. This is not a problem everyone will face, but if your purchase your device from a certain set of resellers (known offenders include Oppomart, Spemall, and Gearbest), you have to manually flash the stock ROM onto your device.Sadly, Lenovo is not one of the companies content with shipping their devices with stock Android. On the bright side, the skin that it ships with is unobtrusive. Dubbed ZUI, it replaces the stock launcher and reskins the settings menu as well. The first thing I did was install Google Now Launcher on it.The Snapdragon 820 tears through every day use like a champ, and coupled with 4GB of RAM, nothing fazes this device at all. General use was fluid with no hiccups, waiting or the like. I was never able to use up all 4GB of RAM, only coming close to 3.5GB when opening multiple games. This phone rips through any game in the store like butter. I was able to play any and every game I desired, taxing or not.Update: I was able to install the official chinese ROM and it works very well, I had some problems with notifications but I was able to solve that. I installed the official Indian ROM and I like it a lot better. It comes with Google Now Launcher and Google Keyboard preinstalled as default apps. Battery life and speed is also much improved as well. However, notifications do not work and alarms do not work either, which is incredibly annoying and almost deal breaking, I’m trying to figure out a solution to this.EDIT (Nov 12 2016): User 10BaseTom in the comments section below brought to my attention a very useful post over on www.zukfans.eu detailing every single custom and official ROM available. I’m currently back on the latest official Chinese ROM, but if you are experienced/courageous enough, there are quite a few custom ROMs for you to try. The post can be found here.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽Software UpdatesProbably the biggest issue with the software I have are the OTA updates. If you purchase the Zuk Z2 (instead of the Lenovo Z2 Plus), OTA updates are blocked unless your IP address originates from China. This requires obtaining a VPN to tunnel into China (Hong Kong works too) to update every time an OTA is released. Is it easy to do? Yes, but it’s also incredibly annoying.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽CameraOne of the crowning features of this camera is the ability to shoot in 4K resolution at 30fps. Footage is definitely very good, but it does lack the clarity that is present in other 4k capable phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 7.The Z2 Plus is a capable photographer. In anyone’s hands, it takes nice photos easily in great lighting conditions. Move to low light and you’re going to have a harder time. However, the biggest potential dealbreaker here would be the lack of OIS.I have a relatively steady hand so taking pictures isn鈥檛 too much of a problem, but if you move slightly, the picture becomes blurry quite easily. Compare this to other Chinese phones in its price range, it takes great photos. Compare it to the S7 and the Pixel however, and it merely takes serviceable photos.Is there a significant gap between the Z2 Plus and the S7/iP7 in terms of photo quality? Objectively, yes. But the jump in picture quality is good to great instead of bad to good. Bottom LineFor many people, the primary factor in a phone purchase is price. Some won’t even consider paying $400 for a phone (like me), and even more won’t even entertain the thought of spending $700 on a top end flagship (ahem, looking at you, Pixel).The Galaxy S7 is fast, incredibly fast, but so is the Z2 Plus.聽However, the camera on the S7 is objectively better than what’s found on the Z2 Plus, and the S7’s software will be supported long after the Z2 Plus has been abandoned. But are those improvements (yes there are other improvements, but these are the big ones) worth the extra $500 odd dollars? If you think so, I completely respect that, but聽I personally couldn’t stomach it.A more apt comparison is the OnePlus 3 (review here), which costs a much more reasonable $400. Apart from a sigificant difference in software updates, the OnePlus 3 and the Z2 Plus for all intents and purposes trade blows quite evenly. Which phone will you pick? I’ll leave that decision up to you.In my opinion, this phone is so close to being perfect, with two objective flaws and a subjective one. Let’s start with the subjective; I hate glass covered phones because of their fragility, but Samsung’s top flagship does exactly that so glass聽covered devices聽must be in vogue.The first objective flaw in this device is the camera. No OIS and less than stellar low light performance hamper it somewhat. The second flaw is the software, but this only applies if you purchase a Zuk Z2. If you do, you will need to flash the stock ROM and then install a VPN to obtain OTA updates, a huge hassle, but definitely worth it due to it’s low price. If you get the Lenovo Z2 Plus from Amazon, then the software quirk doesn’t really apply to you at all.For $270, you get performance on the level of top end flagships and much better battery life than said flagships. If I’m complaining that I “only” have 14% left after 6 hours of screen on time, you know there’s something wrong with me, not the phone. The Z2 Plus flirts with perfection, and if you can look past the camera, it’s a great buy.Cubot’s Cheetah 2 is鑱絫he latest “flagship” from Chinese manufacturer based in Shenzhen, if you can call a MediaTek MT6753-powered flagship, that is. Yet the phone is not as bad as you might think, also considering how much it鑱絚osts鑱?around $150).With this in mind let’s have a deep look at the Cubot Cheetah 2, whose slogan is “Running like the cheetah, Noble like the cheetah”, whatever that means!Cubot Cheetah 2鑱絊pecificationsProcessorMediaTek MT6753 OctacoreDisplay5.5閳 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM3GBStorage32GBOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 MarshmallowCameras13MP (16MP interpolated) Rear, 8MP (13MP interpolated) Front CameraBattery3000mAhPhysical Properties193g, 153 x 75 x 8.5鑱絤mCubot Cheetah 2 PackagingPackaging is pretty straight forward like other Cubot phones; you find the phone accompanied by a thick silicon case which appears to be able to save your phone from almost any kind of fall. Luckily I haven’t had the honor of testing that yet. Inside the box you also find a 5V – 1A charger and a USB Type C cable.There are no instruction manuals or any kind paper crap, which is probably better鑱絝or the environment.Cubot Cheetah 2 ReviewDesign & BuildI’ve been positively surprised by the Cubot Cheetah 2’s design and build quality from鑱絘 device in this price range. Yes, it’s big, kind of fat and heavy, but if you can get over that, it’s a rather good-looking and sturdy-feeling phone phone.If I compare if to my current daily driver (which is a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3),鑱絠t feels a bit more premium. Iit has narrower bezels and although it’s mostly made of plastic, still feels more solid than the Note 3, probably due to the thick metal frame.On the negative side, as I mentioned earlier, the phone is really heavy. It鑱絯eighs 195 grams (personally measured) and that’s on the brink of being too much. It also feels a bit like the center of gravity is slightly at鑱絫he top of the phone, which makes it harder to handle. And I have big hands, can’t imagine how it’ll be for鑱絧eople with smaller ones.The Cubot Cheetah also has a removable back cover so you can swap batteries. Oh wait, no you can’t! I’m not hating on it for that though, I still prefer to swap SIM or microSD card this way instead of looking for the SIM removal tool, which is a pain鑱絜very time.The rear camera protrudes a bit from the back, so it’s prone to scratches if you aren’t using a case. On the front of the phone we find two capacitive buttons (non backlit) and a physical home button with a fingerprint scanner. The home button is a bit hard to press but it doesn’t feel cheap, same goes for the volume rocker and power ON/OFF button.DisplayThe display on the Cubot Cheetah 2 is pretty amazing, it’s really bright and clear. Colors appear to be accurate and it’s perfectly visible under direct sun light as well, unlike other smartphones I own.I’m not quite sure if it’s the display itself or the screen protector it comes with, but since that’s how you’ll get it in the box, then I must say this is one of the best screens I’ve seen on a smartphone, you sure won’t be disappointed.Hardware & PerformanceThe Cubot Cheetah 2 comes with a MediaTek MT6753鑱紺PU, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, as any smartphone in that price-range should. The octa-core CPU itself is a bit disappointing as it falls behind the more鑱絧owerful MediaTek Helio X10 (or Helio P10)鑱絯hich isn’t that much more expensive.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramDoes that interfere with the phone’s performance in any way though? Not really in daily use, in my opinion. I’m not a big smartphone gamer, I use my phone mostly for social media, Facebook, Twitter and other IM apps. I rarely ever play games and if I do it’s mostly light games, thus I don’t need a really powerful CPU/GPU for that kind of stuff.Overall the user experience is really smooth, apps open quickly and without any stutters, with 3GB of RAM multitasking is also not a problem, I can leave apps open in the background and find them鑱絠n the right place after a while. I’m very satisfied in this regard.If you care about the bare numbers, the phone scored 37553 on AnTuTu and 607 on GeekBench for single-core, 2424 for multi-core. 4G connectivity is really good, it supports band 20, which is really important over here in Europe, so I get LTE almost anywhere. Also call quality is above average and that’s not always granted with these cheaper phones.The GPS signal is rather strong, it gets a fix鑱絧retty fast and there’s a compass as well, which makes it work鑱絞reat with Google Maps and other navigational apps.The Cheetah 2 can accomodate one Micro SIM, one Nano SIM and a microSD card (up to 128GB). I would have preferred it had two Micro SIM slots but that’s a “me problem”.Battery life on the Cubot Cheetah 2 is “OK”, used to the 4000mAh on the Redmi Note 3, 3000mAh feel a bit tight but they’re still enough to get you through the day. What I think is a slightly bigger problem is the charging speed, it gets only up to 5V – 1A, which is relatively slow nowadays. Even if you use鑱絟igher wattage chargers, the phone still limits it to 5V – 1A, probably good for safety, not that much for saving time.The fingerprint scanner is accurate and I’d give it a ~95% success rate, I also like the fact that you don’t have to fully press the home button to unlock the phone, simply laying a finger on it will do the job.Cubot Cheetah 2 Camera & PhotosThe camera on the Cubot Cheetah 2 is better than what I expected. It produces sharp photos, and the white balance is on point. The camera app also loads quickly and shots don’t have any unusual delay. It appears as the camera software has been optimized up to a good level, which has usually been the case with most Cubot devices.The only real problem with the camera is lens鑱絝lare, while that might look good on some kind of artistic photos, it’s not something you want when you’re shooting group photos or whatever else. Sadly this can’t be fixed in software so you’ll have to live with that.Dynamic range is not amazing, but I wouldn’t expect it to be on a mid-range phone. The front facing camera is also alright and it’ll do the job.Either way, here you can have a look for yourself鑱絘t some photos I shot: Without HDR With HDR Panorama Mode Without HDR With HDR Cubot Cheetah 2 Gallery Cubot Cheetah 2 ReviewConclusionComing with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a $140+ price tag, the Cubot Cheetah 2 falls in the mid-range category鑱絯hich is now over-populated with dozens of fearless competitors. One of鑱絯hich is the Xiaomi Redmi 3, that packs a more powerful CPU, bigger battery and sells at around the same price.So, why should you buy this phone you may ask? I honestly don’t have a definitive answer but it doesn’t mean this phone is worthless. I would consider getting this phone for the amazing display (the Redmi Note 3 is far behind), a relatively good camera (also compared to the Note 3) and the presence of USB Type C, not yet available on most phones.There’s also the home fingerprint scanner “front vs rear” argument, but that’s up to personal choice. Although鑱絀 must say it really comes in handy when you place your phone on a desk/table and you can unlock it by simply laying a finger on it; a real time saver.

Cubot’s Cheetah 2 is鑱絫he latest “flagship” from Chinese manufacturer based in Shenzhen, if you can call a MediaTek MT6753-powered flagship, that is. Yet the phone is not as bad as you might think, also considering how much it鑱絚osts鑱?around $150).With this in mind let’s have a deep look at the Cubot Cheetah 2, whose slogan is “Running like the cheetah, Noble like the cheetah”, whatever that means!Cubot Cheetah 2鑱絊pecificationsProcessorMediaTek MT6753 OctacoreDisplay5.5閳 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM3GBStorage32GBOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 MarshmallowCameras13MP (16MP interpolated) Rear, 8MP (13MP interpolated) Front CameraBattery3000mAhPhysical Properties193g, 153 x 75 x 8.5鑱絤mCubot Cheetah 2 PackagingPackaging is pretty straight forward like other Cubot phones; you find the phone accompanied by a thick silicon case which appears to be able to save your phone from almost any kind of fall. Luckily I haven’t had the honor of testing that yet. Inside the box you also find a 5V – 1A charger and a USB Type C cable.There are no instruction manuals or any kind paper crap, which is probably better鑱絝or the environment.Cubot Cheetah 2 ReviewDesign & BuildI’ve been positively surprised by the Cubot Cheetah 2’s design and build quality from鑱絘 device in this price range. Yes, it’s big, kind of fat and heavy, but if you can get over that, it’s a rather good-looking and sturdy-feeling phone phone.If I compare if to my current daily driver (which is a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3),鑱絠t feels a bit more premium. Iit has narrower bezels and although it’s mostly made of plastic, still feels more solid than the Note 3, probably due to the thick metal frame.On the negative side, as I mentioned earlier, the phone is really heavy. It鑱絯eighs 195 grams (personally measured) and that’s on the brink of being too much. It also feels a bit like the center of gravity is slightly at鑱絫he top of the phone, which makes it harder to handle. And I have big hands, can’t imagine how it’ll be for鑱絧eople with smaller ones.The Cubot Cheetah also has a removable back cover so you can swap batteries. Oh wait, no you can’t! I’m not hating on it for that though, I still prefer to swap SIM or microSD card this way instead of looking for the SIM removal tool, which is a pain鑱絜very time.The rear camera protrudes a bit from the back, so it’s prone to scratches if you aren’t using a case. On the front of the phone we find two capacitive buttons (non backlit) and a physical home button with a fingerprint scanner. The home button is a bit hard to press but it doesn’t feel cheap, same goes for the volume rocker and power ON/OFF button.DisplayThe display on the Cubot Cheetah 2 is pretty amazing, it’s really bright and clear. Colors appear to be accurate and it’s perfectly visible under direct sun light as well, unlike other smartphones I own.I’m not quite sure if it’s the display itself or the screen protector it comes with, but since that’s how you’ll get it in the box, then I must say this is one of the best screens I’ve seen on a smartphone, you sure won’t be disappointed.Hardware & PerformanceThe Cubot Cheetah 2 comes with a MediaTek MT6753鑱紺PU, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, as any smartphone in that price-range should. The octa-core CPU itself is a bit disappointing as it falls behind the more鑱絧owerful MediaTek Helio X10 (or Helio P10)鑱絯hich isn’t that much more expensive.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramDoes that interfere with the phone’s performance in any way though? Not really in daily use, in my opinion. I’m not a big smartphone gamer, I use my phone mostly for social media, Facebook, Twitter and other IM apps. I rarely ever play games and if I do it’s mostly light games, thus I don’t need a really powerful CPU/GPU for that kind of stuff.Overall the user experience is really smooth, apps open quickly and without any stutters, with 3GB of RAM multitasking is also not a problem, I can leave apps open in the background and find them鑱絠n the right place after a while. I’m very satisfied in this regard.If you care about the bare numbers, the phone scored 37553 on AnTuTu and 607 on GeekBench for single-core, 2424 for multi-core. 4G connectivity is really good, it supports band 20, which is really important over here in Europe, so I get LTE almost anywhere. Also call quality is above average and that’s not always granted with these cheaper phones.The GPS signal is rather strong, it gets a fix鑱絧retty fast and there’s a compass as well, which makes it work鑱絞reat with Google Maps and other navigational apps.The Cheetah 2 can accomodate one Micro SIM, one Nano SIM and a microSD card (up to 128GB). I would have preferred it had two Micro SIM slots but that’s a “me problem”.Battery life on the Cubot Cheetah 2 is “OK”, used to the 4000mAh on the Redmi Note 3, 3000mAh feel a bit tight but they’re still enough to get you through the day. What I think is a slightly bigger problem is the charging speed, it gets only up to 5V – 1A, which is relatively slow nowadays. Even if you use鑱絟igher wattage chargers, the phone still limits it to 5V – 1A, probably good for safety, not that much for saving time.The fingerprint scanner is accurate and I’d give it a ~95% success rate, I also like the fact that you don’t have to fully press the home button to unlock the phone, simply laying a finger on it will do the job.Cubot Cheetah 2 Camera & PhotosThe camera on the Cubot Cheetah 2 is better than what I expected. It produces sharp photos, and the white balance is on point. The camera app also loads quickly and shots don’t have any unusual delay. It appears as the camera software has been optimized up to a good level, which has usually been the case with most Cubot devices.The only real problem with the camera is lens鑱絝lare, while that might look good on some kind of artistic photos, it’s not something you want when you’re shooting group photos or whatever else. Sadly this can’t be fixed in software so you’ll have to live with that.Dynamic range is not amazing, but I wouldn’t expect it to be on a mid-range phone. The front facing camera is also alright and it’ll do the job.Either way, here you can have a look for yourself鑱絘t some photos I shot: Without HDR With HDR Panorama Mode Without HDR With HDR Cubot Cheetah 2 Gallery Cubot Cheetah 2 ReviewConclusionComing with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a $140+ price tag, the Cubot Cheetah 2 falls in the mid-range category鑱絯hich is now over-populated with dozens of fearless competitors. One of鑱絯hich is the Xiaomi Redmi 3, that packs a more powerful CPU, bigger battery and sells at around the same price.So, why should you buy this phone you may ask? I honestly don’t have a definitive answer but it doesn’t mean this phone is worthless. I would consider getting this phone for the amazing display (the Redmi Note 3 is far behind), a relatively good camera (also compared to the Note 3) and the presence of USB Type C, not yet available on most phones.There’s also the home fingerprint scanner “front vs rear” argument, but that’s up to personal choice. Although鑱絀 must say it really comes in handy when you place your phone on a desk/table and you can unlock it by simply laying a finger on it; a real time saver.Our website focuses on all kinds of gadgets; phones, watches, tablets and sometimes even speakers or other toys. But most of these things have something in common, Chinese origin and some kind of mobile technology connection. There were few exceptions like the Xiaomi scales or robotic vacuum cleaners in the past, but today we are entering uncharted territory with reviewing purely a PC accessory. Let the Elephone EleEnter Game 2 keyboard review begin!Hardware and specificationsThe packaging is pretty plain. Except the large box protecting the keyboard itself , there is only a manual with some basic info about changing the modes, backlight etc鈥 Some extra keyboard legs or rubber feet would surely come in handy.It鈥檚 a good idea to mention right away that this is a mechanical keyboard so it鈥檚 way above the ordinary level of cheap or midrange membrane keyboards regarding the build and overall quality. The build is reflecting that fully and so is the 80$ price tag, which can be way too intimidating for many people looking for a affordable keyboard.Because the keyboards is mechanical the keys have a more distinctive and precise keystrokes than for example laptop ones with the scissor-switch mechanism, where you just gently touch the keys. Mechanical switches under the button covers look at the first sight just like the Cherry MX Blue original ones, but their manufacturer is one of the Chinese companies named TTC. Unfortunately I don鈥檛 have any Cherry product at home for direct comparison so I can鈥檛 say whether the switches are the same or if they have different characteristics. But according to the datasheet the switches should be very close to the original German ones. But with some Google Translate action i managed to datamine some relevant specifications of the switches.鈥he switches have a transparent cover with better backlight鈥ach switch has its own multicolor LED鈥ey travels 4,0 mm, actuation is registered at 2,2 mm 卤 0,5 mm鈥ctuation force needed is 60 卤 15 gf鈥ifetime of the switch is over 50 million strokesYou could say that the switches are really identical to the original with the only difference being the name. Similar to Cherry MX, the blue switches mainly destined for typing purposes and not for gaming, which slightly contradicts the Elephone claim about a 鈥淕aming keyboard鈥? But of course you can use it for playing games just fine (my Skyrim lvl 40 character says hello), but real gaming keyboards have different characteristics, but on the other hand not so great for typing. Pick your poison.The weight of the keyboard is 1.176 kg, which is pretty good considering the usage of quite thick aluminum material and mechanical switches. The dimensions are 470 x 210 x 40 mm.Design and practical useThe keyboard itself has the top part made out of aluminum and feels pretty good upon touching. The bottom cover is of course made out of plastic, no need for aluminum there. On the other hand aluminum keyboard legs would be much better than the hinged plastic ones. They don鈥檛 have the anti-slip rubber feet so the keyboard is slightly traveling on your desk when the keyboard legs are used.Fortunately there are two big rubber feet in the front which can partially compensate for that. And when you are not using the keyboard plastic legs there are two more rubber feet sections just behind them so the keyboard is then rock solid rooted in place. Personally i didn鈥檛 need to use the legs almost at all, the keyboard is high enough itself and even without the extra padding the typing is good. But of course it depends what are you used to. Each key is separated by a bigger gap than I鈥檓 used to and the keys are also a tiny bit smaller, but that鈥檚 a matter of minutes before you get used to it, it鈥檚 really not an issue.The key layout is a classical 鈥淚BM鈥 layout with the only difference being the smaller Enter key than usual. Rest of the stuff if fairly normal, long Shift keys on both sides, separated key blocks above the arrow keys and independent numerical block on the right side.The silver USB cable is quite unyielding, but it鈥檚 not as annoying as it would be with a mouse for example. And it鈥檚 braided so theoretically should offer some better longevite and resistance to wear and tear.The keys are of course made out of plastic with transparent symbols, which are individually backlit by the LED-equipped switch. Even when I turned the backlight off the symbols stayed visible and so the keyboard was still usable. But why would anyone turn the backlight off when it鈥檚 so great鈥?/p>Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramBacklightBacklight is one of the main selling points for this keyboard, at least according to Elephone logic. On the other hand I have to admit that the individual LED backlight for each key is amazing and the quality of the backlight as a whole is great. It鈥檚 consistent over the whole key and even illuminates the the gaps between the keys thanks to the transparent cover of the switch. But there are also available optional opaque key covers so the backlight is really restricted on the key dome.You can toy a lot with the backlight, there are plenty of modes, styles, colors and combinations for everybody . That doesn鈥檛 mean you have to set up a miniature disco parlor on your table though. You can choose just one color, tone down the backlight intensity or turn it off completely. It鈥檚 entirely up to you.The change of the backlight modes is done using several shortcuts using the FN key. In combination with the Insert key you can switch between effects like a Christmas tree, a sinusoid, a random blinking or a Knight Rider (this one is cool!). There are more of them of course and you can check them out in the video bellow. Using the keys PageUp and PageDown you can change the color layout or the color of the backlight. Using the arrows up and down you can cycle through the four-step intensity levels, the left and right arrows change the speed the chosen effect changes. Using the PrintScreen key you can turn the backlight completely.Then there are two other interesting features. The first are 鈥淕ame Modes鈥 using the combination FN and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in the top row with special symbols. These modes will backlight only the keys that are used in one of the five preset games or gaming genres (FPS, CF, COD, LOL and QQ race). The second and more interesting mode appears when you press the FN and Home key combination. This mode can customize the settings of the Game mode exactly to the player鈥檚 wishes.Except these changes the key FN is also used for the usual multimedia controls like Play, Pause, My Computer, Search, Player, etc. Shame these symbols are not backlit on the keys F1-F12 so not so visible. Using the multicolor LED you can get to 16 million color shades even though this number is only theoretical. The keyboard can only display correctly a few dozens of colors. For example pink is not very good (if you ever desired it).I must say that the backlight is really good and it has really grown on me. It鈥檚 homogenous, strong and the colors can be clearly seen even in direct sunlight, but it doesn鈥檛 blind you at night and it鈥檚 no problem to set the brightness lower.If you don鈥檛 want to customize the keys or backlight directly on the keyboard there is also a small Windows utility program provided by Elephone. It can do all the setup work plus you can create macros or link some multimedia shortcuts without the use of the FN key.Typing experienceFinally we are getting to the most important part- how is the typing experience with this keyboared Well, for someone who is used to typing on keyboard with a plastic membrane it will be quite a shock, because he will find the response just amazing. You will know exactly when and what key you pressed. Even though the higher stroke is not for everyone, especially for someone coming from the membrane keyboards you can get used to it very quickly and if you give it a chance you will discover a whole new world.You can only half-press the key, exactly 2,2 mm, and the actuation is registered. The needed stroke force is slightly higher but it just decreases the amount of mistakes one can make when typing, because you have to make some effort.The keys have the U shaped cover so pretty standard and it makes the keys easy to hit and they don鈥檛 wobble any more than any comparable competition.Ergonomy suffers a bit with the lower row of keys with the spacebar, because the edges are lined up directly against your fingers. It would be much better if at least the spacebar was more rounded and thus more user-friendly for the writing purposes.There are only two advantages of membrane keyboards compared to the mechanical ones. The first is a price, because shelling out $80+ for just a keyboard can scare many potential customers. The second thing is the noisines and I must say that Elephone EleEnter Game 2 is really a loud keyboard. It鈥檚 not because of the switches, those are decently quiet and just pleasantly clicking, but the impacts of the pressed keys into the body of the keyboard and the plastics of the switches themselves emits a pretty unpleasant amount of noise. You can surely get used, but it鈥檚 just not ideal and can get on your nerves quickly. On the other hand the key response is fantastic which makes Elephone EleEnter Game 2 a great companion for any writer rat like us at Gizchina.Summary and conclusionHuawei’s Honor sub-brand has been doing well. The company has successfully expanded to Europe, dished out some good devices and built a solid reputation. Now, the Honor 8 looks to continue in building up that reputation with its unique design, dual cameras and balanced specs. But how does it fare amidst the harsh competition?Honor 8: Design and BuildThe Honor 8’s continues the tradition of Huawei devices having very good build quality.聽It doesn鈥檛 feel too heavy (nor too light), the glass back gives the device a very premium feel, and the overall construction of the Honor 8 feels polished.The Honor 8鈥檚聽design聽features a full glass back, which shines in a specific way when it hits the sun. The shiny and flashy design definitely sticks out, especially when compared to the typical metal builds on most similarly priced devices. On the rear, we have the dual camera and fingerprint sensor button, which feels great.The power button and volume rockers are easy to reach on the right of the device, and the textured power button makes it fairly easy to identify. The buttons聽don鈥檛 rattle around in place and have a satisfying click, which is聽great after coming from the Redmi Note 2.There are a few problems with this design however. While the rear glass panel looks nice, it鈥檚 incredibly slippery. I never actually felt it was going to slip out of my hand, but it would repeatedly slide off of sloped surfaces聽and my bed, much to my chagrin.The glass build also brings about the age old issue of fingerprints and grime all over the device. While this is a non-issue on my white unit, the black and blue units especially seem to gather a lot of grime on their glass backs.I’ve yet to break my unit, but that’s probably due to the soft wood flooring in my room. If it were any harder material, this thing would be wrecked in no time. While I can’t entirely blame Honor for choosing a glass build, I do wish they would’ve included a case of sorts like Huawei does with their devices.Overall, it’s a very nice design, though it’s not incredibly practical. If you’ve used a Samsung S7 or S6 Edge, you’ll know how it is. The slipperiness of the device may take away from it, but the glass back is undeniably beautiful. Shame it doesn’t stay that way due to grime.Honor 8: DisplayThe Honor 8鈥檚 full HD IPS display is a quality panel, even including the fact that it鈥檚 not a QHD display. Colors are very lifelike, vibrant and natural while images are sharp and crisp. Viewing angles are also impressive, allowing the device to be viewed from even the most extreme angles.I also appreciate the device’s pre-installed blue light filter for the display. It’s a feature that should be a standard on every Android device, really. Here, it’s easily toggled from the drop down shortcut bar.sdrOn top of that, the display鈥檚 color temperature can be changed from the settings page, and it鈥檚 much more complex compared to the color temperature tool from earlier versions of Emotion UI. It鈥檚 quite a good display, though if you鈥檙e looking for a QHD display, this isn鈥檛 the device for you.Honor 8:聽SoftwareAh, here we are. Huawei鈥檚 version of Android, Emotion UI, has received plenty of flak for its flaws and problems and is pretty much infamous in the world of Android. So is it really all that bad? No, not really. Not great, but not bad.The main problem that many people have is that it鈥檚 drastically different from stock Android, mainly because it doesn鈥檛 adopt Google鈥檚 material design and has no app drawer. Instead, EmUI is similar to many other Chinese UIs where all applications are placed on the homescreen and need to be sorted manually. This isn鈥檛 really a problem as much as it is a matter of subjective taste.EmUI also comes with multiple software features. Google鈥檚 Now on Tap is available on the device, and its presence on the device is quite convenient. Also on board is Huawei鈥檚 own Knuckle Sense, which聽while improved from previous iterations, is still somewhat cumbersome when it comes to actual application. On the downside however, there鈥檚 plenty of bloatware on board for the international version. On top of Huawei鈥檚 own suite of applications, the device also comes with Google鈥檚 suite of applications AND some extra applications like the intrusive Clean Master. This is really unnecessary in my opinion. A list of the bloatware can be seen below.Clean MasterBooking.comDropboxShazamFacebookWPS OfficeAlso, while many of EmUI鈥檚 problems have been dealt with, there are still a few more kinks that need to be ironed out like the ever present power consumption reminder that tells you to kill background apps. There’s also the issue that you can’t see certain notifications due to the text blending in with the background in the notification panel.The settings menu holds many other functions. Aside from the prementioned color temperature tool, there鈥檚 also an option for a simple UI, a shortcut bar editor, the fingerprint sensor settings, motion controls and a bunch of other small enhancements.There are of course still a lot of problems. It鈥檚 an incredible hassle to reset default apps, some apps like Slack need to be adjusted in the settings menu before their notifications appear, the included icon packs are average, and the lack of any material design elements makes the overall UI feel out of place next to material apps.There’s also the issue of updates. Within the time I received the device, I received no updates whatsoever. I understand that Honor isn’t going to iron things out as quickly as a software based company like Xiaomi, but I’d like to see at least monthly updates become the norm.All in all, I didn鈥檛 really find EmUI as bad as people claim it is, though there鈥檚 still plenty of room for improvement. It鈥檚 no stock Android, but it鈥檚 still better than many of the skins you find on Chinese phones like Elephone鈥檚 ELE UI and Oppo鈥檚 Color OS.Honor 8:聽PerformanceThe Honor 8鈥檚 performance is quick and snappy. The device has no issues with any of your day to day activities. Snapping pictures, browsing the web and gaming were all handed very well, almost beating out other more expensive devices like the Galaxy S7.Memory management is good with 4GB of RAM. The Honor 8 could only keep up to 10 apps open at the same time before needing to restart them. It’s close to OnePlus 3 levels of memory management, which is very good.Gaming is another bag of worms. Generally, any game you’d want to play is more than playable on the device. However, once you start reaching games that demand a lot out of the GPU, they tend to stutter. Nowhere near unplayable, but it’s not up to the level of Snapdragon devices in GPU power.So performance wise, the Honor 8聽is good. There鈥檚 not much that the device can鈥檛 handle, and the things it struggles with are few and far between. While it鈥檚 not going to outspeed the iPhone 7, it鈥檚 more than fast enough to match up with its similarly priced brethren. If you’re a hardcore gamer however, this isn’t the best device for you.Honor 8: Battery LifeBattery life on the Honor 8 is good. On performance mode and average use, I managed to squeeze out a decent 6 hours of screen time, while balanced聽mode added an extra hour on top of that.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramIn terms of usage, you’ll definitely be able through your entire day before needing a recharge. You’ll definitely need to charge your phone by the end however. This thing isn’t going to last until the next day. In terms of battery settings, there’s an optimize option that cuts down on processes and reduces the power consumption of apps. Dig deeper and you’ll find an ROG display option that switches the resolution of the display to 1280×720 to increase battery life.There’s also an extreme power saving mode which can keep聽the thing running for nearly an hour on 7%, alongside the already established performance and balanced options. Overall, the battery life is good. Above the average device, but below the typical battery behemoth.Honor 8: AudioAudio quality is a rather problematic subject when it comes to Chinese Droids. One of the most common things for a company to cut corners on is sound quality. The Honor 8 is thankfully above average in sound quality, but only just.The bottom firing speaker on the Honor 8 isn’t the worst I’ve heard, but it’s not very good either. In terms of volume, it gets pretty loud and there’s no crackling which is great. Sound quality however is only decent with somewhat muddy bass and average clarity.The location of the speaker also hurts the device, with it being placed in a spot that is easily blocked by your hand in many situations. Despite all this, it’s still a fairly decent speaker, it’s just not the most enjoyable setup.The earpiece speaker is clear, though it doesn’t get very loud. It’s adequately loud for when you’re in slightly noisier environments, but it gets tough to hear when you’re in a very noisy environment, like a stadium or a bustling mall.Honor 8: CameraCamera quality is another issue with Chinese devices in general, though the issue is completely different compared to audio quality’s problem. Here, the main problem is companies like to stick to whatever buzzword is popular, and market it to consumers like something incredible. Then, they fail to deliver because of poor optimization and such.Camera quality on Huawei and Honor’s devices have been pretty consistent so far, and the Honor 8 is continuing that trend. With its dual 12MP rear cameras, it manages to shoot some pretty good pictures. It also falls into the same pitfalls as most Chinese droids, that being low light shooting.When there’s a good amount of light, pictures come out really, really well. Clarity is good, colours are spot on and there aren’t any overexposure problems that can be seen. Turn down the lights, and then you start seeing some issues.As usual, the noise really starts to creep in once you begin shooting in low light, though it’s not really all too bad for a phone of this price. The clarity of low light pictures is decent, if slightly below average, though that’s compared to the top dogs of the camera world.The front facing camera is actually quite good, and comes with your usual slew of software features like skin smoothening and filters. The images produced are more than good enough for posting on your social account.Video recording on the Honor 8 is limited to 1080p at 60fps, which doesn’t too bad, up until you realize there’s no OIS. While the quality of the footage is decent, it simply too shaky to be good. Which is a shame, because this camera really does have some good potential.The camera software is very good, with most options simple a swipe away from the shooting screen. Aside from the filters and the regular slew of camera options, there’s also a refocus mode, a food mode, a professional mode and an option to add a watermark to all your pictures. Shutter speed is quick and I never found it tough to actually snap a photo.So to sum it up, it takes great pictures in good lighting, average pictures in low light and video shooting is not fun due to the lack of OIS. I can also firmly say it’s better than the phones in its price range, and for comparisons sake I can say that it’s better than the OnePlus 3’s camera by a decent margin.Honor 8: Camera Gallery Honor 8: ConnectivityWhen it comes to connectivity, the Honor 8 has plenty of ground covered, though not all of it. The Honor 8 covers most, if not all of the important bands, meaning it should work just fine no matter where you are.For me in Malaysia, the device worked perfectly fine and I managed to get great speeds wherever I went, though聽you’ll definitely want to聽check with www.willmyphonework.net to make sure the device works with your carrier.The device has dual nano-sized sim card slots, though it’s a hybrid slot so one of those will probably be dedicated to a microSD card. Speaking of which, the Honor 8 will accept microSDs of up to 256GB.The Honor 8 supports dual-band 2.4/5.0GHz Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, with Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot capabilities. Bluetooth is v4.2, where interference issues with LTE networks should be fixed. Aside from that, there’s also NFC on board, which is good.The satellite receiver supports GPS, GLONASS, and Beidou, so the device should be able to detect your location pretty well. The Honor 8 utilizes a USB-C port over the typical microUSB, and when connected to a computer you’ll need to change connection types through the device’s notification shade.Another nice addition is the IR blaster, which will allow you to control certain electronic appliances like a remote controller. So it’s got just about everything covered right? Nope. Honor went ahead and decided that FM radio wasn’t a needed function, which is why it’s not here.Honor 8 Review: ConclusionThese days, competition is rife within the affordable flagship market. This segment, which used to be home to only a few companies, is now one of the most populated. Any device that wants to succeed needs to have something warrant purchasing it over another. Thankfully, the Honor 8 manages to this splendidly.The device’s objective cons are really few and far between. Most of the potential issues are simply a matter聽of subjective taste, like EmUI or the all glass design. The main problem with the device is its slippery build, which isn’t really much of a deal breaker.Honor 8: ProsGlass and metal construction is unique and looks good and helps it stand outBuild quality is goodCrisp, clear and colourful displayPerformance is snappy and quickFantastic connectivityAbove average audio qualityCamera is stellar in good lightingBattery life beats many devices in its price bracketEmUI isn’t a disaster.Honor 8: ConsThe glass build looks great, but smudges way too easilyGlass build is also quite slipperyThe GPU is weaker than similarly priced devicesNo FM radioCamera is only decent in low lightEmUI still needs more polishUpdates aren’t all too frequentSo overall, If you’re looking for the most powerful device for your money, this isn’t where you should be looking. There are other devices in this price bracket that offer more GPU performance, namely the Mi5s and the OnePlus 3聽(and more recently, the OnePlus 3T).Huawei’s Honor sub-brand has been doing well. The company has successfully expanded to Europe, dished out some good devices and built a solid reputation. Now, the Honor 8 looks to continue in building up that reputation with its unique design, dual cameras and balanced specs. But how does it fare amidst the harsh competition?Honor 8: Design and BuildThe Honor 8’s continues the tradition of Huawei devices having very good build quality.聽It doesn鈥檛 feel too heavy (nor too light), the glass back gives the device a very premium feel, and the overall construction of the Honor 8 feels polished.The Honor 8鈥檚聽design聽features a full glass back, which shines in a specific way when it hits the sun. The shiny and flashy design definitely sticks out, especially when compared to the typical metal builds on most similarly priced devices. On the rear, we have the dual camera and fingerprint sensor button, which feels great.The power button and volume rockers are easy to reach on the right of the device, and the textured power button makes it fairly easy to identify. The buttons聽don鈥檛 rattle around in place and have a satisfying click, which is聽great after coming from the Redmi Note 2.There are a few problems with this design however. While the rear glass panel looks nice, it鈥檚 incredibly slippery. I never actually felt it was going to slip out of my hand, but it would repeatedly slide off of sloped surfaces聽and my bed, much to my chagrin.The glass build also brings about the age old issue of fingerprints and grime all over the device. While this is a non-issue on my white unit, the black and blue units especially seem to gather a lot of grime on their glass backs.I’ve yet to break my unit, but that’s probably due to the soft wood flooring in my room. If it were any harder material, this thing would be wrecked in no time. While I can’t entirely blame Honor for choosing a glass build, I do wish they would’ve included a case of sorts like Huawei does with their devices.Overall, it’s a very nice design, though it’s not incredibly practical. If you’ve used a Samsung S7 or S6 Edge, you’ll know how it is. The slipperiness of the device may take away from it, but the glass back is undeniably beautiful. Shame it doesn’t stay that way due to grime.Honor 8: DisplayThe Honor 8鈥檚 full HD IPS display is a quality panel, even including the fact that it鈥檚 not a QHD display. Colors are very lifelike, vibrant and natural while images are sharp and crisp. Viewing angles are also impressive, allowing the device to be viewed from even the most extreme angles.I also appreciate the device’s pre-installed blue light filter for the display. It’s a feature that should be a standard on every Android device, really. Here, it’s easily toggled from the drop down shortcut bar.sdrOn top of that, the display鈥檚 color temperature can be changed from the settings page, and it鈥檚 much more complex compared to the color temperature tool from earlier versions of Emotion UI. It鈥檚 quite a good display, though if you鈥檙e looking for a QHD display, this isn鈥檛 the device for you.Honor 8:聽SoftwareAh, here we are. Huawei鈥檚 version of Android, Emotion UI, has received plenty of flak for its flaws and problems and is pretty much infamous in the world of Android. So is it really all that bad? No, not really. Not great, but not bad.The main problem that many people have is that it鈥檚 drastically different from stock Android, mainly because it doesn鈥檛 adopt Google鈥檚 material design and has no app drawer. Instead, EmUI is similar to many other Chinese UIs where all applications are placed on the homescreen and need to be sorted manually. This isn鈥檛 really a problem as much as it is a matter of subjective taste.EmUI also comes with multiple software features. Google鈥檚 Now on Tap is available on the device, and its presence on the device is quite convenient. Also on board is Huawei鈥檚 own Knuckle Sense, which聽while improved from previous iterations, is still somewhat cumbersome when it comes to actual application. On the downside however, there鈥檚 plenty of bloatware on board for the international version. On top of Huawei鈥檚 own suite of applications, the device also comes with Google鈥檚 suite of applications AND some extra applications like the intrusive Clean Master. This is really unnecessary in my opinion. A list of the bloatware can be seen below.Clean MasterBooking.comDropboxShazamFacebookWPS OfficeAlso, while many of EmUI鈥檚 problems have been dealt with, there are still a few more kinks that need to be ironed out like the ever present power consumption reminder that tells you to kill background apps. There’s also the issue that you can’t see certain notifications due to the text blending in with the background in the notification panel.The settings menu holds many other functions. Aside from the prementioned color temperature tool, there鈥檚 also an option for a simple UI, a shortcut bar editor, the fingerprint sensor settings, motion controls and a bunch of other small enhancements.There are of course still a lot of problems. It鈥檚 an incredible hassle to reset default apps, some apps like Slack need to be adjusted in the settings menu before their notifications appear, the included icon packs are average, and the lack of any material design elements makes the overall UI feel out of place next to material apps.There’s also the issue of updates. Within the time I received the device, I received no updates whatsoever. I understand that Honor isn’t going to iron things out as quickly as a software based company like Xiaomi, but I’d like to see at least monthly updates become the norm.All in all, I didn鈥檛 really find EmUI as bad as people claim it is, though there鈥檚 still plenty of room for improvement. It鈥檚 no stock Android, but it鈥檚 still better than many of the skins you find on Chinese phones like Elephone鈥檚 ELE UI and Oppo鈥檚 Color OS.Honor 8:聽PerformanceThe Honor 8鈥檚 performance is quick and snappy. The device has no issues with any of your day to day activities. Snapping pictures, browsing the web and gaming were all handed very well, almost beating out other more expensive devices like the Galaxy S7.Memory management is good with 4GB of RAM. The Honor 8 could only keep up to 10 apps open at the same time before needing to restart them. It’s close to OnePlus 3 levels of memory management, which is very good.Gaming is another bag of worms. Generally, any game you’d want to play is more than playable on the device. However, once you start reaching games that demand a lot out of the GPU, they tend to stutter. Nowhere near unplayable, but it’s not up to the level of Snapdragon devices in GPU power.So performance wise, the Honor 8聽is good. There鈥檚 not much that the device can鈥檛 handle, and the things it struggles with are few and far between. While it鈥檚 not going to outspeed the iPhone 7, it鈥檚 more than fast enough to match up with its similarly priced brethren. If you’re a hardcore gamer however, this isn’t the best device for you.Honor 8: Battery LifeBattery life on the Honor 8 is good. On performance mode and average use, I managed to squeeze out a decent 6 hours of screen time, while balanced聽mode added an extra hour on top of that.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramIn terms of usage, you’ll definitely be able through your entire day before needing a recharge. You’ll definitely need to charge your phone by the end however. This thing isn’t going to last until the next day. In terms of battery settings, there’s an optimize option that cuts down on processes and reduces the power consumption of apps. Dig deeper and you’ll find an ROG display option that switches the resolution of the display to 1280×720 to increase battery life.There’s also an extreme power saving mode which can keep聽the thing running for nearly an hour on 7%, alongside the already established performance and balanced options. Overall, the battery life is good. Above the average device, but below the typical battery behemoth.Honor 8: AudioAudio quality is a rather problematic subject when it comes to Chinese Droids. One of the most common things for a company to cut corners on is sound quality. The Honor 8 is thankfully above average in sound quality, but only just.The bottom firing speaker on the Honor 8 isn’t the worst I’ve heard, but it’s not very good either. In terms of volume, it gets pretty loud and there’s no crackling which is great. Sound quality however is only decent with somewhat muddy bass and average clarity.The location of the speaker also hurts the device, with it being placed in a spot that is easily blocked by your hand in many situations. Despite all this, it’s still a fairly decent speaker, it’s just not the most enjoyable setup.The earpiece speaker is clear, though it doesn’t get very loud. It’s adequately loud for when you’re in slightly noisier environments, but it gets tough to hear when you’re in a very noisy environment, like a stadium or a bustling mall.Honor 8: CameraCamera quality is another issue with Chinese devices in general, though the issue is completely different compared to audio quality’s problem. Here, the main problem is companies like to stick to whatever buzzword is popular, and market it to consumers like something incredible. Then, they fail to deliver because of poor optimization and such.Camera quality on Huawei and Honor’s devices have been pretty consistent so far, and the Honor 8 is continuing that trend. With its dual 12MP rear cameras, it manages to shoot some pretty good pictures. It also falls into the same pitfalls as most Chinese droids, that being low light shooting.When there’s a good amount of light, pictures come out really, really well. Clarity is good, colours are spot on and there aren’t any overexposure problems that can be seen. Turn down the lights, and then you start seeing some issues.As usual, the noise really starts to creep in once you begin shooting in low light, though it’s not really all too bad for a phone of this price. The clarity of low light pictures is decent, if slightly below average, though that’s compared to the top dogs of the camera world.The front facing camera is actually quite good, and comes with your usual slew of software features like skin smoothening and filters. The images produced are more than good enough for posting on your social account.Video recording on the Honor 8 is limited to 1080p at 60fps, which doesn’t too bad, up until you realize there’s no OIS. While the quality of the footage is decent, it simply too shaky to be good. Which is a shame, because this camera really does have some good potential.The camera software is very good, with most options simple a swipe away from the shooting screen. Aside from the filters and the regular slew of camera options, there’s also a refocus mode, a food mode, a professional mode and an option to add a watermark to all your pictures. Shutter speed is quick and I never found it tough to actually snap a photo.So to sum it up, it takes great pictures in good lighting, average pictures in low light and video shooting is not fun due to the lack of OIS. I can also firmly say it’s better than the phones in its price range, and for comparisons sake I can say that it’s better than the OnePlus 3’s camera by a decent margin.Honor 8: Camera Gallery Honor 8: ConnectivityWhen it comes to connectivity, the Honor 8 has plenty of ground covered, though not all of it. The Honor 8 covers most, if not all of the important bands, meaning it should work just fine no matter where you are.For me in Malaysia, the device worked perfectly fine and I managed to get great speeds wherever I went, though聽you’ll definitely want to聽check with www.willmyphonework.net to make sure the device works with your carrier.The device has dual nano-sized sim card slots, though it’s a hybrid slot so one of those will probably be dedicated to a microSD card. Speaking of which, the Honor 8 will accept microSDs of up to 256GB.The Honor 8 supports dual-band 2.4/5.0GHz Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, with Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot capabilities. Bluetooth is v4.2, where interference issues with LTE networks should be fixed. Aside from that, there’s also NFC on board, which is good.The satellite receiver supports GPS, GLONASS, and Beidou, so the device should be able to detect your location pretty well. The Honor 8 utilizes a USB-C port over the typical microUSB, and when connected to a computer you’ll need to change connection types through the device’s notification shade.Another nice addition is the IR blaster, which will allow you to control certain electronic appliances like a remote controller. So it’s got just about everything covered right? Nope. Honor went ahead and decided that FM radio wasn’t a needed function, which is why it’s not here.Honor 8 Review: ConclusionThese days, competition is rife within the affordable flagship market. This segment, which used to be home to only a few companies, is now one of the most populated. Any device that wants to succeed needs to have something warrant purchasing it over another. Thankfully, the Honor 8 manages to this splendidly.The device’s objective cons are really few and far between. Most of the potential issues are simply a matter聽of subjective taste, like EmUI or the all glass design. The main problem with the device is its slippery build, which isn’t really much of a deal breaker.Honor 8: ProsGlass and metal construction is unique and looks good and helps it stand outBuild quality is goodCrisp, clear and colourful displayPerformance is snappy and quickFantastic connectivityAbove average audio qualityCamera is stellar in good lightingBattery life beats many devices in its price bracketEmUI isn’t a disaster.Honor 8: ConsThe glass build looks great, but smudges way too easilyGlass build is also quite slipperyThe GPU is weaker than similarly priced devicesNo FM radioCamera is only decent in low lightEmUI still needs more polishUpdates aren’t all too frequentSo overall, If you’re looking for the most powerful device for your money, this isn’t where you should be looking. There are other devices in this price bracket that offer more GPU performance, namely the Mi5s and the OnePlus 3聽(and more recently, the OnePlus 3T).

I received the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime and have had some time to play around with it. This is the first Redmi device to feature a processor on par with current midrange MediaTek devices even though its technically an entry-level chip from Qualcomm. The Snapdragon 625 (as seen on the Moto Z Play) benchmarks very high and should provide a great experience on the Redmi 4.Sure, the Snapdragon 625 still doesn’t benchmark as high as the Helio X20 in the Redmi Note 4 but it gets closer than ever. It also features 3GB of RAM and the usual 4100mAh battery, so there should be the usual great battery experience as well.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime SpecificationsProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 625Display5.0″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM3GBStorage32GBOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 with MIUI8Cameras16MP + 8MP CameraBattery4100mAhPhysical Properties156g, 141.3 x 69.6 x 8.9 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit. I’m currently testing the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime on Fido in Toronto.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Unboxing聽It comes in a rather plain white box, not dissimilar to the Xiaomi Mi5s or the Xiaomi Mi Note 2.It doesn’t come in a plastic sleeve like most other phones but it just has a screen protector on the front and the back which I took off.It comes with a plug and a MicroUSB 2.0 cable.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Hands OnI have the grey version and it looks very “Mi” like. I don鈥檛 know if聽my eyes are playing tricks on me, but from afar this phone doesn鈥檛 look like a very well-made metal device.If you remember the Bluboo XFire 2, that was a very well made metal device as well, but it didn鈥檛 have that precision and tolerances seen on HTC or Samsung devices. However, the closer you go, the more you realize that this is a very well made phone.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe bezels are polished metal and also have a very sleek polished metal chamfer around it. The machining is very precise, sure it might not be as pinpoint precise as an HTC device, but kill me now if it isn鈥檛 exquisitely made.After using both the Mi5s and the Mi Note 2, I struggle greatly to be objective. When you have the opportunity to pick up the Redmi 4 and either of the previous devices, you can immediately feel the difference between both devices. Yes, the Redmi 4 is metal and well made, but there is a subtle but present feeling that the Redmi 4 is slightly less well made, either to save money or to speed up the process.With that out in the open, I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality with which the Redmi 4 is built. Not many devices in this price range can boast such impressive build quality. The Ulefone Metal comes to mind but it also utilizes the aging MTK6753 processor and a rather average 3000mAh battery as well.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Additional DetailsThis is a comparison shot of the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime, the Xiaomi Mi5s, and the Xiaomi Mi Note 2, the curves on the Redmi 4 Prime are the least drastic. Beside the two more expensive phones, it does look less interesting than the Mi5s and the Mi Note 2 but it still looks very updated if placed directly beside the Redmi 3.So far use is quite smooth, sure the phone might not be as great an option for gaming compared to a phone with a Snapdragon 821, but then again this phone MSRPs for $130.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽First ImpressionsThe Redmi 4 has impressed me at great length. I haven鈥檛 been using this very long and am in the process of testing the phone, but the build quality has impressed me, the general speed and fluidity has impressed me, and the battery life has impressed me the most. I can鈥檛 tell if this Redmi 4 has typical Redmi battery life or better than usual battery life, as I was using this phone for about an hour and the battery percentage stayed at 23% the entire way through. If its not a glitch, this could potentially destroy the Redmi 3 in terms of battery life, and the Redmi 3 had insane battery life already.I received the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime and have had some time to play around with it. This is the first Redmi device to feature a processor on par with current midrange MediaTek devices even though its technically an entry-level chip from Qualcomm. The Snapdragon 625 (as seen on the Moto Z Play) benchmarks very high and should provide a great experience on the Redmi 4.Sure, the Snapdragon 625 still doesn’t benchmark as high as the Helio X20 in the Redmi Note 4 but it gets closer than ever. It also features 3GB of RAM and the usual 4100mAh battery, so there should be the usual great battery experience as well.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime SpecificationsProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 625Display5.0″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM3GBStorage32GBOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 with MIUI8Cameras16MP + 8MP CameraBattery4100mAhPhysical Properties156g, 141.3 x 69.6 x 8.9 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit. I’m currently testing the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime on Fido in Toronto.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Unboxing聽It comes in a rather plain white box, not dissimilar to the Xiaomi Mi5s or the Xiaomi Mi Note 2.It doesn’t come in a plastic sleeve like most other phones but it just has a screen protector on the front and the back which I took off.It comes with a plug and a MicroUSB 2.0 cable.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Hands OnI have the grey version and it looks very “Mi” like. I don鈥檛 know if聽my eyes are playing tricks on me, but from afar this phone doesn鈥檛 look like a very well-made metal device.If you remember the Bluboo XFire 2, that was a very well made metal device as well, but it didn鈥檛 have that precision and tolerances seen on HTC or Samsung devices. However, the closer you go, the more you realize that this is a very well made phone.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe bezels are polished metal and also have a very sleek polished metal chamfer around it. The machining is very precise, sure it might not be as pinpoint precise as an HTC device, but kill me now if it isn鈥檛 exquisitely made.After using both the Mi5s and the Mi Note 2, I struggle greatly to be objective. When you have the opportunity to pick up the Redmi 4 and either of the previous devices, you can immediately feel the difference between both devices. Yes, the Redmi 4 is metal and well made, but there is a subtle but present feeling that the Redmi 4 is slightly less well made, either to save money or to speed up the process.With that out in the open, I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality with which the Redmi 4 is built. Not many devices in this price range can boast such impressive build quality. The Ulefone Metal comes to mind but it also utilizes the aging MTK6753 processor and a rather average 3000mAh battery as well.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽Additional DetailsThis is a comparison shot of the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime, the Xiaomi Mi5s, and the Xiaomi Mi Note 2, the curves on the Redmi 4 Prime are the least drastic. Beside the two more expensive phones, it does look less interesting than the Mi5s and the Mi Note 2 but it still looks very updated if placed directly beside the Redmi 3.So far use is quite smooth, sure the phone might not be as great an option for gaming compared to a phone with a Snapdragon 821, but then again this phone MSRPs for $130.Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime聽First ImpressionsThe Redmi 4 has impressed me at great length. I haven鈥檛 been using this very long and am in the process of testing the phone, but the build quality has impressed me, the general speed and fluidity has impressed me, and the battery life has impressed me the most. I can鈥檛 tell if this Redmi 4 has typical Redmi battery life or better than usual battery life, as I was using this phone for about an hour and the battery percentage stayed at 23% the entire way through. If its not a glitch, this could potentially destroy the Redmi 3 in terms of battery life, and the Redmi 3 had insane battery life already.

MGCOOL are a new sub-brand from now-well-known Chinese manufacturer Elephone. Like we learnt a couple of days back, the MGCOOL wing will focus on accessories and gadgets, while Elephone take care of the smartphone business.Speaking of accessories, some of the most popular ones that everyone seems to have or want to buy these days are power banks. We recently had the chance to play with the MGCOOL Power Thunder 16000mAh power bank, a $50 gadget that’s been on sale for a bit.MGCOOL Power Thunder ReviewI’m myself a big user of power banks. In fact, it’s safe to say that I’m spoilt by them. There is, at all times, at least one fully charged power bank with me (when I’m commuting/heading out, that is). So far, I’ve been happy with a 13,000mAh Huawei and a 20,000mAh Xiaomi power bank… the 16,000mAh MGCOOL Power Thunder is the newest addition.It’s safe to say that the MGCOOL Power Thunder is the best-looking and feeling power bank I’ve used till date. That necessarily does not translate into practicality, because the eye candy is only the result of added material (and thus weight) that could otherwise have been avoided.The novelty factor does wear out in a while, which is something I’m sure everyone will agree with. After a little while, especially with gadgets like power banks and such, you do crave for practicality over eye candy and such. That said, what I do really like on the Power Thunder is the form factor. With dimensions of 153.1 x 65.5 x 23.3 mm, the Power Thunder is really easy to hold and put in the pocket. The textured rubber makes the gadget extremely grippy… and in the beginning, fun to hold.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe power bank weighs just about 300g.It was a bit of a mystery for me in the beginning because both, the box and the power bank itself read ‘6000mAh’, with the ‘1’ scratched off of both. I had to check with online stores to confirm it was in fact 16,000mAh — funny but definitely not something you want to be happening to a buyer.As for the charging and discharging capabilities of this one, it’s so far right on par with the 20,000mAh Xiaomi that I use. Given the capacity, it does take time to charge itself (I generally keep my power banks plugged overnight or more) but the power bank is pretty quick when it comes to charging other devices.The MGCOOL Power Thunder is apparently Qualcomm QC 3.0 certified. I can’t verify the authenticity of the that claim, but what I can tell you is that the charging speeds seem to be at par with other power banks with similar certification. As for numbers, the Power Thunder supports outputting current in the following ratings:鑱?V – 6V 3A, 6V – 9V 2A, 9V – 12V 1A. It’s convenient to have multiple ports on the power bank too. This one comes with a full USB 3.0 port, a micro USB and a USB Type-C port. Besides that, there’s a button you can press to find out the estimated battery left in the power bank. This is indicated by the four LEDs on the front.In a nutshell, I believe the MGCOOL Power Thunder is for those who really want their accessories to look great, albeit at a cost. At $50 it’s pricier than most similar power banks (from Chinese brands such as OnePlus, Xiaomi), but it’s the extra style on offer that the brand is looking to sell to buyers.MGCOOL are a new sub-brand from now-well-known Chinese manufacturer Elephone. Like we learnt a couple of days back, the MGCOOL wing will focus on accessories and gadgets, while Elephone take care of the smartphone business.Speaking of accessories, some of the most popular ones that everyone seems to have or want to buy these days are power banks. We recently had the chance to play with the MGCOOL Power Thunder 16000mAh power bank, a $50 gadget that’s been on sale for a bit.MGCOOL Power Thunder ReviewI’m myself a big user of power banks. In fact, it’s safe to say that I’m spoilt by them. There is, at all times, at least one fully charged power bank with me (when I’m commuting/heading out, that is). So far, I’ve been happy with a 13,000mAh Huawei and a 20,000mAh Xiaomi power bank… the 16,000mAh MGCOOL Power Thunder is the newest addition.It’s safe to say that the MGCOOL Power Thunder is the best-looking and feeling power bank I’ve used till date. That necessarily does not translate into practicality, because the eye candy is only the result of added material (and thus weight) that could otherwise have been avoided.The novelty factor does wear out in a while, which is something I’m sure everyone will agree with. After a little while, especially with gadgets like power banks and such, you do crave for practicality over eye candy and such. That said, what I do really like on the Power Thunder is the form factor. With dimensions of 153.1 x 65.5 x 23.3 mm, the Power Thunder is really easy to hold and put in the pocket. The textured rubber makes the gadget extremely grippy… and in the beginning, fun to hold.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe power bank weighs just about 300g.It was a bit of a mystery for me in the beginning because both, the box and the power bank itself read ‘6000mAh’, with the ‘1’ scratched off of both. I had to check with online stores to confirm it was in fact 16,000mAh — funny but definitely not something you want to be happening to a buyer.As for the charging and discharging capabilities of this one, it’s so far right on par with the 20,000mAh Xiaomi that I use. Given the capacity, it does take time to charge itself (I generally keep my power banks plugged overnight or more) but the power bank is pretty quick when it comes to charging other devices.The MGCOOL Power Thunder is apparently Qualcomm QC 3.0 certified. I can’t verify the authenticity of the that claim, but what I can tell you is that the charging speeds seem to be at par with other power banks with similar certification. As for numbers, the Power Thunder supports outputting current in the following ratings:鑱?V – 6V 3A, 6V – 9V 2A, 9V – 12V 1A. It’s convenient to have multiple ports on the power bank too. This one comes with a full USB 3.0 port, a micro USB and a USB Type-C port. Besides that, there’s a button you can press to find out the estimated battery left in the power bank. This is indicated by the four LEDs on the front.In a nutshell, I believe the MGCOOL Power Thunder is for those who really want their accessories to look great, albeit at a cost. At $50 it’s pricier than most similar power banks (from Chinese brands such as OnePlus, Xiaomi), but it’s the extra style on offer that the brand is looking to sell to buyers.The rhetoric you usually see when a mainstream publication reviews a Xiaomi phone is how astonishingly good it is considering the price. But here at GizChina, we specialize in devices like these, and prices like $300 isn鈥檛 any cause for applause.In fact, many in our audience balk at the thought of spending over $300 on a phone when devices like the Lenovo Z2 Plus and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 exist. However, I鈥檓 going to show you… nay, prove to you, that the Mi 5s is still a worthy contender for your hard earned dollar.Xiaomi Mi 5s Full ReviewOne step forward, one step back. Sure, the Mi 5s is a a rather uninteresting but expected upgrade to the Mi 5, but its still a great device. Xiaomi has predictably upgraded the processor from the Snapdragon 820 to the more power-efficient Snapdragon 821 and the newest camera sensor Sony has to offer.However, according to Xiaomi, an upgrade is a give and take. While they gave us a newer processor and a better sensor, they took away Gorilla Glass and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), both omissions that leave me puzzled. I don鈥檛 predict a wildly different experience compared to the Mi 5, however the new sensor and lack of OIS should prove interesting to the resulting camera quality. Let鈥檚 get in deep right away.“one step forward, one step back”Xiaomi Mi 5s SpecificationsProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 821Display5.15″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM4GBStorage64GB UFS 2.0Operating SystemAndroid 6.0 with MIUI8Cameras12MP UltraPixel + 4MP Ultrapixel CameraBattery3100mAhPhysical Properties145g, 145.6 x 70.3 x 8.3 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit. I used the Xiaomi Mi5s on Fido in Toronto.Xiaomi Mi 5s HardwareThe outward design of the Mi 5s remains unchanged, still being indistinguishable from the Xiaomi Mi 5, and that鈥檚 not a bad thing. Its matte metal body furnishes the phone with a premium feel while keeping it from sliding out of your palm. It is thin, small, and ergonomic, all important factors for an easy one handed experience, and is something I greatly appreciate.This trend of increasing device sizes gone on for too long and it鈥檚 time to tone them down to a more reasonable level. I find no issue using this device with one hand, even my relatively small hands. The curved back makes the phone feel quite a bit thinner than its 8.3mm thick frame.The bezels around the display are incredibly tiny but deceptive. While the actual bezel might be small, there is still a non functional black strip surrounding the display that is invisible while the screen is off but immediately visible once on.It鈥檚 glaringly obvious when using white apps like the Google Play Store and quite unsightly, but I will qualify that as a 鈥渇irst world device reviewer problem鈥 and something that most people will likely not notice. Below the screen are the three capacitive buttons (yes I鈥檓 still a fan of capacitive buttons) and underneath the center button is the famous ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. The Z2 Plus (my daily driver) pleased me to no end when I could unlock the device without actually having to depress the button itself, and the same thing applies here — no force required.The build quality, footprint, and feel are all top notch, but Xiaomi hasn鈥檛 done anything wild with the design (like the Mi Mix).“Predictably Great Build Quality”Xiaomi Mi 5s DisplayThe Xiaomi Mi 5s impresses with 鈥渙nly鈥 a 1080p display. Still though, that many pixels packed into a 5.15鈥 display works out to an impressive 428ppi. It might not be 2K or 4K, but the display is still plenty capable of showing off its chops. While colours are punchy and quite vivid for an LCD display, it still pales relatively to an AMOLED display.What really impressed me was the very high maximum brightness of 600 nits. The screen is easily viewable in direct, strong, sunlight and is capable of blinding you indoors. Minimum brightness is pleasantly low as well, the screen is light on the eyes even in pitch darkness, making this a great phone to use in bed (please don’t, it destroys your sleep cycle).Probably the biggest caveat is the lack of protective glass. Xiaomi for some reason decided it was a good idea to forego Gorilla Glass in exchange for a normal one and I for one am puzzled by that decision. That being said, definitely get a screen protector for the phone.Xiaomi Mi 5s AudioFor a phone aimed directly at the hearts of high end flagships, it doesn鈥檛 do very well in the audio department. While speaker quality is very loud to the point of hurting your ears, it doesn鈥檛 do quite as well with quality.When compared directly to an HTC 10, the audio is definitely less detailed and clear and bass is lacking as well. However, these speakers are still more than good enough for average use.Xiaomi Mi 5s BatteryI聽had high hopes for the battery life in the Mi 5s because of its decent 3200mAh battery and Xiaomi鈥檚 traditionally excellent battery optimization. Suffice it to say that I was pleasantly surprised and slightly disappointed at the same time.The lab results exceeded my expectations quite modestly with the phone holding out for 12 hours while web browsing and almost 13 and a half hours for video playback. If this translates directly into daily use, battery life could potentially outperform the聽Lenovo Z2 Plus. However, it does not.Real life battery use topped out at around 5 hours of screen on time, which is a great result mind you, but the lab results provide significantly better times. My real life use consisted of web browsing, news, and Reddit on an almost equal mix of WiFi and LTE. I also snapped a few photos as well and the phone was on its last legs (about 6% left) 16 hours after it was off the charger.Light and medium users will not be able to drain this phone in a day, while heavy users just might. There is quickcharge included that you can use to pump up the phones battery in a pinch.“Good Battery”Xiaomi Mi 5s SoftwareCall me crazy, but I鈥檓 still not a fan of MIUI. I used to hold to a rather neutral stance on the aesthetics of this device but after using the Redmi 3 and the Redmi Note 4, the cartoony look pushed me over the edge, and I am now firmly in the camp that dislikes what MIUI looks like.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramWe do have the latest MIUI8 installed over Android 6.0 Marshmallow and MIUI is still incredibly well optimized. General use is fluid, fast, and zippy, opening and closing apps is also incredibly fast most likely due to the new UFS 2.0 flash storage by Samsung.As with any other MIUI release, the latest iteration of MIUI8 is chock full of customizations and functions. There are a ton of articles, videos and guides about each and every function in MIUI8, so I won鈥檛 take the time to go into them. Suffice it to say that you鈥檒l definitely find something to your liking.I鈥檓 definitely a fan of this ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. Buttonless sensors are the way to go, and the fact that its not actually taking up additional space but sits underneath the home button is just a plus. It鈥檚 incredibly fast, faster than the Vernee Mars and also very accurate as well.Its a tad less accurate than my Lenovo Z2 Plus, but that鈥檚 taking into account the Z2 Plus鈥 learning function as it does get more accurate over time.Performance wise, the Mi 5s is more than capable of tackling even the most intense games on the Play Store as it only has to drive a 1080p resolution. It also obtains a sky-high Antutu score as well.Xiaomi Mi 5s ConnectivityThe international version of the Xiaomi Mi 5s comes with a myriad of network bands with both TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE. I was able to get 3G and LTE connectivity here in Toronto, Canada, but do check with www.willmyphonework.net to make sure this phone is actually compatible with your carrier.I ran speedtest and was able to obtain very good speeds. WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS all work well, and we do not find an IR blaster, found on a lot of Xiaomi phones otherwise. However, there is no microSD聽card slot which is what bothers me the most, as it makes it difficult to store large amounts of video on the phone without using up valuable storage space.Xiaomi Mi 5s CameraA聽mongst a community such as GizChina’s, it鈥檚 very obvious to all of us (readers included) that hardware is only half the story when it comes to picture quality. However, to the general population at large, the software side is generally invisible to consumers and companies take advantage of that, showing off the latest and greatest in megapixels, camera sensors, and 4k video.Xiaomi has done much the same, and have (wisely) chosen to use the newest Sony IMX378 sensor, the exact same sensor used in the Google Pixel.That鈥檚 generally enough for most people, same hardware, same quality right? Well, we know better, and Google has spent countless man hours building software around the IMX378 to squeeze out the best picture it can, and they did a great job. The Pixel can stand beside other camera giants without the need to bow out. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the Mi 5s. Yes, they created good software, but they did not do as good a job as Google did.In good lighting conditions, the Xiaomi Mi 5s easily holds its own against the best. Detail, colour reproduction and dynamic range are all wonderful. Sure, it might still be bested by the S7, iPhone 7 and Pixel, but the differences are slight.To the untrained eye, a side by side shot with all these phones will yield minor changes that are mostly imperceptible on its own. This is partly due to the new HDR+ mode. HDR modes usually take a few seconds after hitting the shutter button, forcing you to hold it in place for that duration. However, the Mi5s鈥 HDR+ mode is just as fast as non HDR mode so there鈥檚 no reason to turn it off.However, crank down the available lighting and you start seeing a difference. Low light situations show the marked difference between the Mi 5s and the Pixel. Same hardware, different software, vastly differing results.Where the Pixel takes great photos in low light, the Mi 5s tends to overexpose, resulting in blown out shots and a lot of noise. Thankfully there is a manual mode that allows you to manually set each setting for better pictures. The same can be said for the front camera. Great lighting great selfies, bad lighting bad selfies. The rear camera is capable of 4K recording, and footage is incredibly crisp, you can clearly see the minute cracks in the ground. However, it suffers from the same problem as it does photos, low light yields bad video.With all that said, do note that the above results are all compared to the best of the best, and when you compare to Chinese phones in general, the Mi 5s takes such great quality pictures and video that they blow away pretty much every Chinese manufacturer鈥檚 phone cameras (with the exception of a few manufacturers like Huawei and Vivo).The results of the camera test can be summed up in one sentence; Great lighting, great photos; bad lighting, bad photos.Xiaomi Mi5s聽Camera Gallery Xiaomi Mi5s VerdictThe road to becoming a top end flagship is a hard one, but becoming a top end flagship at a very low price? Well, that prospect seems all the more difficult. However, at the end of the day, the Xiaomi Mi 5s is very close. Think about every aspect of this device and you will realize that apart from the camera鈥檚 low light performance, the Mi5s does not lose to the best of the best.I鈥檝e taken MIUI out of the equation because whether or not you like MIUI is personal preference. There is a lot to love in this phone, but there are three things to be made aware of, and while all of them could be potential dealbreakers, I only see two as being significant enough to impact your decision to purchase this phone:The biggest one is the camera鈥檚 low light performance. It does not match up to the best and could be a potential dealbreaker.There is no MicroSD card slot. This is a potential dealbreaker for some.The speaker quality is average, I don鈥檛 see this as being a dealbreaker though.In my opinion, these compromises are completely worth it for the price you pay, which at this point is either $300 in China or around $350 outside due to reseller price increases. The Mi5s has gone down to $290 at one point, so keep your eyes peeled. The Mi5s is a worthy flagship competitor and will more than satisfy many people鈥檚 needs.I would like to thank Gearbest for sending out this review unit, and if you would like to buy one, you can do so here.“still a great flagship”Xiaomi Mi5s Video ReviewWhen the Mi Band first came out, many thought it was just something that Xiaomi put together to have their name out in the wearable market. As it turns out, the Mi Band series is now one of the most popular wearables on the market.The device proved that a properly functioning and fairly configurable wearable didn’t have to cost a bomb. This in turn encouraged smaller Chinese companies to try their hand at making smart bands and smart watches. Most results so far have been, to be very frank, abysmal. However, there is hope, as the Hesvit G1 suggests.The Chinese are great at producing low-cost hardware. However, the secret鑱絫o a truly great smart band is in the software. The band itself comprises extremely basic components, but it’s the algorithms and the battery-saving optimisations that make the gadget usable.The Hesvit G1, I daresay, is getting there. Very frankly it’s still a fair distance away from being a recommendation, but it does get a few bits right such as:Battery life (almost)DisplayPriceIP65 ratingMore importantly, the companion app is definitely not completely unusable. It’s nearly usable, and something that certainly will end up with a good result… more on this later.That said, there’s a few downsides to the Hesvit G1 as well, with the key ones being:No support for app notificationsNo gesture screen onIrritating to wear on the long runA so-so appWhile this might be a bit subjective, the Hesvit G1 was definitely a refreshing change from the run-of-the-mill MT2502-powered ‘smartwatches’.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramHesvit G1 PhotosPackaging Band Coming back, I managed to use the Hesvit G1 for a good week or so without taking it off (besides for charging once). I must admit the size of the band makes it a little suffocating to wear it all the time; the metal sensor on the rear (to gauge your skin temperature) definitely doesn’t help the case. I’m also not very sure of the whole point鑱給f the feature — skin temperature measurement.Sleep tracking on the G1 was a hit-or-miss. A couple of times it got it pretty much spot on, but mixed it up a few other times. Heartrate tracking is pretty much bang on with the Mi Band 2, which I thought was fairly accurate for the most part.There’s not much else that you can talk about for the G1. It would definitely be helpful if the band made better use of the provided real estate (on the screen). Options for better notification management, etc. would’ve definitely made the G1 more recommend-worthy, but sadly that’s not the case.Also, since it’s an LCD display (with pre-configured characters that can be displayed on the screen), there definitely won’t be a firmware update that will add notification management features to the band.Coming back to the companion app, it’s fine and all once it loads. However, each time you leave the app and come back to it, it needs to load right from the start — and this includes re-connecting to the Hesvit G1. Extremely frustrating, but pretty much the only gripe I had with the app.At $35, the Hesvit G1 is probably not the worst investment to make, but certainly far from the best.

When the Mi Band first came out, many thought it was just something that Xiaomi put together to have their name out in the wearable market. As it turns out, the Mi Band series is now one of the most popular wearables on the market.The device proved that a properly functioning and fairly configurable wearable didn’t have to cost a bomb. This in turn encouraged smaller Chinese companies to try their hand at making smart bands and smart watches. Most results so far have been, to be very frank, abysmal. However, there is hope, as the Hesvit G1 suggests.The Chinese are great at producing low-cost hardware. However, the secret鑱絫o a truly great smart band is in the software. The band itself comprises extremely basic components, but it’s the algorithms and the battery-saving optimisations that make the gadget usable.The Hesvit G1, I daresay, is getting there. Very frankly it’s still a fair distance away from being a recommendation, but it does get a few bits right such as:Battery life (almost)DisplayPriceIP65 ratingMore importantly, the companion app is definitely not completely unusable. It’s nearly usable, and something that certainly will end up with a good result… more on this later.That said, there’s a few downsides to the Hesvit G1 as well, with the key ones being:No support for app notificationsNo gesture screen onIrritating to wear on the long runA so-so appWhile this might be a bit subjective, the Hesvit G1 was definitely a refreshing change from the run-of-the-mill MT2502-powered ‘smartwatches’.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramHesvit G1 PhotosPackaging Band Coming back, I managed to use the Hesvit G1 for a good week or so without taking it off (besides for charging once). I must admit the size of the band makes it a little suffocating to wear it all the time; the metal sensor on the rear (to gauge your skin temperature) definitely doesn’t help the case. I’m also not very sure of the whole point鑱給f the feature — skin temperature measurement.Sleep tracking on the G1 was a hit-or-miss. A couple of times it got it pretty much spot on, but mixed it up a few other times. Heartrate tracking is pretty much bang on with the Mi Band 2, which I thought was fairly accurate for the most part.There’s not much else that you can talk about for the G1. It would definitely be helpful if the band made better use of the provided real estate (on the screen). Options for better notification management, etc. would’ve definitely made the G1 more recommend-worthy, but sadly that’s not the case.Also, since it’s an LCD display (with pre-configured characters that can be displayed on the screen), there definitely won’t be a firmware update that will add notification management features to the band.Coming back to the companion app, it’s fine and all once it loads. However, each time you leave the app and come back to it, it needs to load right from the start — and this includes re-connecting to the Hesvit G1. Extremely frustrating, but pretty much the only gripe I had with the app.At $35, the Hesvit G1 is probably not the worst investment to make, but certainly far from the best.As our Editor Yash pointed out in his review聽of the Z2 Plus, this is one of the best sub $300 phones we’ve had in our hands this year and聽he’s not wrong.聽It’s not every day a bargain basement price phone gets incredibly similar聽internals as a Samsung Galaxy S7. Even the Oneplus 3 starts at $400USD.Lenovo Z2 Plus Second OpinionWhen the phone was launched, I was arguably overhyped. The specs below looked extremely tempting, and the dearth of high end 5″ phones was getting to me.聽However, a spec sheet is far from adequate in one’s decision to purchase a phone and for that, reading the full review is your best bet. However, once you’re done that, come back here for a second opinion on this incredibly well specced phone.Lenovo Z2 Plus SpecificationsProcessorSnapdragon 820 Quad Core 2.0GHzDisplay5″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM4GBStorage64GBOperating SystemZUI based on Android 6.0 MarshmallowCameras13MP, f/2.0 PDAF Front Camera, 5MP f/2.0 Rear CameraBattery3500mAh, Qualcomm Quickcharge 3.0Physical Properties149g, 141 x 68.9 x 8.5 mmAbout this聽ArticleThis article is intended to be a second opinion, a companion piece to our official GizChina review. A review is defined as an evaluation of a product based on his or her experience as a user of said product. An experience is not 100% objective, and therefore neither is a review. Each reviewer will have a slightly聽different experience based on their preferences, daily usage patterns, and even location and each reviewer has different ideas on what makes a smartphone good. Maybe one reviewer will spot something another one didn’t. As I said before, Yash reviewed it, thought it was great, and so do I. Yet,聽there are a couple of things we disagree on. Read on to find out.I used the Zuk Z2 on Fido (Rogers) 4G/LTE in Toronto, Canada. The phone was running ZUI 2.3.042 ST during testing.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽HardwareFor a phone that I like so intensely, this phone is off to a pretty bad start. I’ve come to intensely dislike glass covered devices not because of their feel, but because of their inherent fragility. Less important but still annoying is the ease with which this device picks up smudges and oil, and is clearly visible on the black version of this device.Much like a small child, this phone is incredibly hard to keep clean. Obtaining the white model negates the oil/smudge problem to a great extent, but it wasn鈥檛 wise either, as it looks more like a cheap, plastic phone than the black version. At least no one will try to steal this from me.The phone is the perfect size for me. Having recently moved from the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (which is a great phone in its own right), my small hands are absolutely loving the size. I will admit that my penchant for small phones is probably more extreme than most, but a smaller device also means a smaller chance of the user dropping the phone as well.However, I will say that the squarishness of the frame does dig slightly into my hands somewhat having just moved from the Redmi Note 4 with it’s graceful, ergonomic curves, but it’s not too big of an issue.“a small but fragile phone”Elsewhere, the 5.0″ screen is nice to look at, but screen technology has advanced to the point that the difference between high end screens and low end screens is shrinking fast. The screen looks nice, but I find that it’s pretty difficult for any one screen to really take my breath away.Most phone manufacturers are now playing the spec game, cramming more and more pixels into the same area. Lenovo has refused to participate in this pixel war, and that is a decision I very much appreciate.The same goes for the audio. It’s very difficult for audio quality to blow me off my feet, and the Z2 Plus does not do that and is merely decent. The speakers are not front facing either and the speaker positioning does not help. But volume is definitely loud enough.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽BatteryYash mentioned in his review that the Z2 Plus has a good聽battery life, however,聽my battery standards are higher than most, so I disagree slightly.If you鈥檝e been following my reviews on YouTube and here on GizChina, you鈥檒l know that I鈥檓 absolutely neurotic about battery life. That is because I was spoiled by the very first Chinese device I owned, the THL5000 (5000mAh). From that moment on, I’ve made it a point to ensure that every single one of my daily drivers has a battery capacity above 4000mAh, the Mlais MX Base, Xiaomi Redmi 3, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.This Lenovo Z2 Plus is the very first device with a significantly smaller 3500mAh battery.“great battery, just short of amazing”For those of you looking for more nuggets of info, the 3500mAh battery was able to net me roughly the same amount of usage as my previous daily drivers, with the big difference of having almost no buffer at the end of the day.Where the Redmi Note 4/Redmi 3 could take me through a 16 hour day with 6 hours of screen on time with 25-30% left before bedtime, the Lenovo Z2 Plus fared worse. It managed a 16 hour day with 6 hours of screen on time, but with just 9% left (do keep in mind that 4% with the Z2 Plus is enough for a good hour or two of light use).Unless you鈥檙e an absolutely insane power user (which I very much doubt you are, I鈥檓 on the upper limits of insane already), this phone won鈥檛 present you an issue. On certain phones, I also perform a rather unrealistic test to gauge the upper limits of battery life, and that would be constant YouTube playback.On the Redmi devices, I could play back 8 hours of Youtube video (straight from the charger) and still have 10-15% left for the rest of the day. On the Lenovo Z2 Plus, I’m left with a much smaller buffer of 7%. Do with that what you will, but nobody (unless you’re me) can take issue with the battery life here.Quick Charge 3.0, I coupled it with my Quickcharge 3.0 charger and it charged plenty quick. I also sometimes wish for wireless charging, but that would be a nicety that I wouldn’t be willing to pay more for.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramLenovo Z2 Plus聽U-TouchI鈥檝e given the home button its special section here as I feel that the button warrants its own section. Unlike battery life, fingerprint accuracy is much less quantifiable. As someone who never locks their phone, I easily get tired of using fingerprint sensors due to their inaccuracy and slowness on a lot of phones. There are two exceptions to this; those being聽the UMi Super and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.And now there’s a third, the Z2 Plus.It’s incredibly fast and accurate, fighting neck and neck with the likes of the Pixel and Note 7 (if yours hasn’t exploded yet). I do have one minor complaint, you can only input 5 fingerprints instead of 10 on a lot of other devices, and I’m used to registering both thumbs and indexes, and then giving each family member a finger to unlock it as well, but I can’t do that here (as I have 4 other family members).In addition, building in gesture functionality into the home button is an absolute stroke of genius. Instead of closing the app I鈥檓 in to open another one or opening up the app tray, I just swipe left or right to switch between apps. The crowning achievement is the ability to customize actions for certain gestures, chief of them being long touch to sleep.I never use buttons anymore.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽SoftwarePlease note that any software issues mentioned in this section are only relevant if you purchase the Zuk Z2 from certain resellers, and you will not have these issues if you purchase a Lenovo Z2 Plus.My phone I obtained from Gearbest did NOT come with the stock Lenovo ROM but instead contained a custom ROM that did not have the security permissions manager nor did it come with the crucially important OTA update app. I had to manually flash the stock ROM onto the device to get the phone to update. This is not a problem everyone will face, but if your purchase your device from a certain set of resellers (known offenders include Oppomart, Spemall, and Gearbest), you have to manually flash the stock ROM onto your device.Sadly, Lenovo is not one of the companies content with shipping their devices with stock Android. On the bright side, the skin that it ships with is unobtrusive. Dubbed ZUI, it replaces the stock launcher and reskins the settings menu as well. The first thing I did was install Google Now Launcher on it.The Snapdragon 820 tears through every day use like a champ, and coupled with 4GB of RAM, nothing fazes this device at all. General use was fluid with no hiccups, waiting or the like. I was never able to use up all 4GB of RAM, only coming close to 3.5GB when opening multiple games. This phone rips through any game in the store like butter. I was able to play any and every game I desired, taxing or not.Update: I was able to install the official chinese ROM and it works very well, I had some problems with notifications but I was able to solve that. I installed the official Indian ROM and I like it a lot better. It comes with Google Now Launcher and Google Keyboard preinstalled as default apps. Battery life and speed is also much improved as well. However, notifications do not work and alarms do not work either, which is incredibly annoying and almost deal breaking, I’m trying to figure out a solution to this.EDIT (Nov 12 2016): User 10BaseTom in the comments section below brought to my attention a very useful post over on www.zukfans.eu detailing every single custom and official ROM available. I’m currently back on the latest official Chinese ROM, but if you are experienced/courageous enough, there are quite a few custom ROMs for you to try. The post can be found here.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽Software UpdatesProbably the biggest issue with the software I have are the OTA updates. If you purchase the Zuk Z2 (instead of the Lenovo Z2 Plus), OTA updates are blocked unless your IP address originates from China. This requires obtaining a VPN to tunnel into China (Hong Kong works too) to update every time an OTA is released. Is it easy to do? Yes, but it’s also incredibly annoying.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽CameraOne of the crowning features of this camera is the ability to shoot in 4K resolution at 30fps. Footage is definitely very good, but it does lack the clarity that is present in other 4k capable phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 7.The Z2 Plus is a capable photographer. In anyone’s hands, it takes nice photos easily in great lighting conditions. Move to low light and you’re going to have a harder time. However, the biggest potential dealbreaker here would be the lack of OIS.I have a relatively steady hand so taking pictures isn鈥檛 too much of a problem, but if you move slightly, the picture becomes blurry quite easily. Compare this to other Chinese phones in its price range, it takes great photos. Compare it to the S7 and the Pixel however, and it merely takes serviceable photos.Is there a significant gap between the Z2 Plus and the S7/iP7 in terms of photo quality? Objectively, yes. But the jump in picture quality is good to great instead of bad to good. Bottom LineFor many people, the primary factor in a phone purchase is price. Some won’t even consider paying $400 for a phone (like me), and even more won’t even entertain the thought of spending $700 on a top end flagship (ahem, looking at you, Pixel).The Galaxy S7 is fast, incredibly fast, but so is the Z2 Plus.聽However, the camera on the S7 is objectively better than what’s found on the Z2 Plus, and the S7’s software will be supported long after the Z2 Plus has been abandoned. But are those improvements (yes there are other improvements, but these are the big ones) worth the extra $500 odd dollars? If you think so, I completely respect that, but聽I personally couldn’t stomach it.A more apt comparison is the OnePlus 3 (review here), which costs a much more reasonable $400. Apart from a sigificant difference in software updates, the OnePlus 3 and the Z2 Plus for all intents and purposes trade blows quite evenly. Which phone will you pick? I’ll leave that decision up to you.In my opinion, this phone is so close to being perfect, with two objective flaws and a subjective one. Let’s start with the subjective; I hate glass covered phones because of their fragility, but Samsung’s top flagship does exactly that so glass聽covered devices聽must be in vogue.The first objective flaw in this device is the camera. No OIS and less than stellar low light performance hamper it somewhat. The second flaw is the software, but this only applies if you purchase a Zuk Z2. If you do, you will need to flash the stock ROM and then install a VPN to obtain OTA updates, a huge hassle, but definitely worth it due to it’s low price. If you get the Lenovo Z2 Plus from Amazon, then the software quirk doesn’t really apply to you at all.For $270, you get performance on the level of top end flagships and much better battery life than said flagships. If I’m complaining that I “only” have 14% left after 6 hours of screen on time, you know there’s something wrong with me, not the phone. The Z2 Plus flirts with perfection, and if you can look past the camera, it’s a great buy.As our Editor Yash pointed out in his review聽of the Z2 Plus, this is one of the best sub $300 phones we’ve had in our hands this year and聽he’s not wrong.聽It’s not every day a bargain basement price phone gets incredibly similar聽internals as a Samsung Galaxy S7. Even the Oneplus 3 starts at $400USD.Lenovo Z2 Plus Second OpinionWhen the phone was launched, I was arguably overhyped. The specs below looked extremely tempting, and the dearth of high end 5″ phones was getting to me.聽However, a spec sheet is far from adequate in one’s decision to purchase a phone and for that, reading the full review is your best bet. However, once you’re done that, come back here for a second opinion on this incredibly well specced phone.Lenovo Z2 Plus SpecificationsProcessorSnapdragon 820 Quad Core 2.0GHzDisplay5″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM4GBStorage64GBOperating SystemZUI based on Android 6.0 MarshmallowCameras13MP, f/2.0 PDAF Front Camera, 5MP f/2.0 Rear CameraBattery3500mAh, Qualcomm Quickcharge 3.0Physical Properties149g, 141 x 68.9 x 8.5 mmAbout this聽ArticleThis article is intended to be a second opinion, a companion piece to our official GizChina review. A review is defined as an evaluation of a product based on his or her experience as a user of said product. An experience is not 100% objective, and therefore neither is a review. Each reviewer will have a slightly聽different experience based on their preferences, daily usage patterns, and even location and each reviewer has different ideas on what makes a smartphone good. Maybe one reviewer will spot something another one didn’t. As I said before, Yash reviewed it, thought it was great, and so do I. Yet,聽there are a couple of things we disagree on. Read on to find out.I used the Zuk Z2 on Fido (Rogers) 4G/LTE in Toronto, Canada. The phone was running ZUI 2.3.042 ST during testing.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽HardwareFor a phone that I like so intensely, this phone is off to a pretty bad start. I’ve come to intensely dislike glass covered devices not because of their feel, but because of their inherent fragility. Less important but still annoying is the ease with which this device picks up smudges and oil, and is clearly visible on the black version of this device.Much like a small child, this phone is incredibly hard to keep clean. Obtaining the white model negates the oil/smudge problem to a great extent, but it wasn鈥檛 wise either, as it looks more like a cheap, plastic phone than the black version. At least no one will try to steal this from me.The phone is the perfect size for me. Having recently moved from the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (which is a great phone in its own right), my small hands are absolutely loving the size. I will admit that my penchant for small phones is probably more extreme than most, but a smaller device also means a smaller chance of the user dropping the phone as well.However, I will say that the squarishness of the frame does dig slightly into my hands somewhat having just moved from the Redmi Note 4 with it’s graceful, ergonomic curves, but it’s not too big of an issue.“a small but fragile phone”Elsewhere, the 5.0″ screen is nice to look at, but screen technology has advanced to the point that the difference between high end screens and low end screens is shrinking fast. The screen looks nice, but I find that it’s pretty difficult for any one screen to really take my breath away.Most phone manufacturers are now playing the spec game, cramming more and more pixels into the same area. Lenovo has refused to participate in this pixel war, and that is a decision I very much appreciate.The same goes for the audio. It’s very difficult for audio quality to blow me off my feet, and the Z2 Plus does not do that and is merely decent. The speakers are not front facing either and the speaker positioning does not help. But volume is definitely loud enough.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽BatteryYash mentioned in his review that the Z2 Plus has a good聽battery life, however,聽my battery standards are higher than most, so I disagree slightly.If you鈥檝e been following my reviews on YouTube and here on GizChina, you鈥檒l know that I鈥檓 absolutely neurotic about battery life. That is because I was spoiled by the very first Chinese device I owned, the THL5000 (5000mAh). From that moment on, I’ve made it a point to ensure that every single one of my daily drivers has a battery capacity above 4000mAh, the Mlais MX Base, Xiaomi Redmi 3, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.This Lenovo Z2 Plus is the very first device with a significantly smaller 3500mAh battery.“great battery, just short of amazing”For those of you looking for more nuggets of info, the 3500mAh battery was able to net me roughly the same amount of usage as my previous daily drivers, with the big difference of having almost no buffer at the end of the day.Where the Redmi Note 4/Redmi 3 could take me through a 16 hour day with 6 hours of screen on time with 25-30% left before bedtime, the Lenovo Z2 Plus fared worse. It managed a 16 hour day with 6 hours of screen on time, but with just 9% left (do keep in mind that 4% with the Z2 Plus is enough for a good hour or two of light use).Unless you鈥檙e an absolutely insane power user (which I very much doubt you are, I鈥檓 on the upper limits of insane already), this phone won鈥檛 present you an issue. On certain phones, I also perform a rather unrealistic test to gauge the upper limits of battery life, and that would be constant YouTube playback.On the Redmi devices, I could play back 8 hours of Youtube video (straight from the charger) and still have 10-15% left for the rest of the day. On the Lenovo Z2 Plus, I’m left with a much smaller buffer of 7%. Do with that what you will, but nobody (unless you’re me) can take issue with the battery life here.Quick Charge 3.0, I coupled it with my Quickcharge 3.0 charger and it charged plenty quick. I also sometimes wish for wireless charging, but that would be a nicety that I wouldn’t be willing to pay more for.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramLenovo Z2 Plus聽U-TouchI鈥檝e given the home button its special section here as I feel that the button warrants its own section. Unlike battery life, fingerprint accuracy is much less quantifiable. As someone who never locks their phone, I easily get tired of using fingerprint sensors due to their inaccuracy and slowness on a lot of phones. There are two exceptions to this; those being聽the UMi Super and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.And now there’s a third, the Z2 Plus.It’s incredibly fast and accurate, fighting neck and neck with the likes of the Pixel and Note 7 (if yours hasn’t exploded yet). I do have one minor complaint, you can only input 5 fingerprints instead of 10 on a lot of other devices, and I’m used to registering both thumbs and indexes, and then giving each family member a finger to unlock it as well, but I can’t do that here (as I have 4 other family members).In addition, building in gesture functionality into the home button is an absolute stroke of genius. Instead of closing the app I鈥檓 in to open another one or opening up the app tray, I just swipe left or right to switch between apps. The crowning achievement is the ability to customize actions for certain gestures, chief of them being long touch to sleep.I never use buttons anymore.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽SoftwarePlease note that any software issues mentioned in this section are only relevant if you purchase the Zuk Z2 from certain resellers, and you will not have these issues if you purchase a Lenovo Z2 Plus.My phone I obtained from Gearbest did NOT come with the stock Lenovo ROM but instead contained a custom ROM that did not have the security permissions manager nor did it come with the crucially important OTA update app. I had to manually flash the stock ROM onto the device to get the phone to update. This is not a problem everyone will face, but if your purchase your device from a certain set of resellers (known offenders include Oppomart, Spemall, and Gearbest), you have to manually flash the stock ROM onto your device.Sadly, Lenovo is not one of the companies content with shipping their devices with stock Android. On the bright side, the skin that it ships with is unobtrusive. Dubbed ZUI, it replaces the stock launcher and reskins the settings menu as well. The first thing I did was install Google Now Launcher on it.The Snapdragon 820 tears through every day use like a champ, and coupled with 4GB of RAM, nothing fazes this device at all. General use was fluid with no hiccups, waiting or the like. I was never able to use up all 4GB of RAM, only coming close to 3.5GB when opening multiple games. This phone rips through any game in the store like butter. I was able to play any and every game I desired, taxing or not.Update: I was able to install the official chinese ROM and it works very well, I had some problems with notifications but I was able to solve that. I installed the official Indian ROM and I like it a lot better. It comes with Google Now Launcher and Google Keyboard preinstalled as default apps. Battery life and speed is also much improved as well. However, notifications do not work and alarms do not work either, which is incredibly annoying and almost deal breaking, I’m trying to figure out a solution to this.EDIT (Nov 12 2016): User 10BaseTom in the comments section below brought to my attention a very useful post over on www.zukfans.eu detailing every single custom and official ROM available. I’m currently back on the latest official Chinese ROM, but if you are experienced/courageous enough, there are quite a few custom ROMs for you to try. The post can be found here.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽Software UpdatesProbably the biggest issue with the software I have are the OTA updates. If you purchase the Zuk Z2 (instead of the Lenovo Z2 Plus), OTA updates are blocked unless your IP address originates from China. This requires obtaining a VPN to tunnel into China (Hong Kong works too) to update every time an OTA is released. Is it easy to do? Yes, but it’s also incredibly annoying.Lenovo Z2 Plus聽CameraOne of the crowning features of this camera is the ability to shoot in 4K resolution at 30fps. Footage is definitely very good, but it does lack the clarity that is present in other 4k capable phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 7.The Z2 Plus is a capable photographer. In anyone’s hands, it takes nice photos easily in great lighting conditions. Move to low light and you’re going to have a harder time. However, the biggest potential dealbreaker here would be the lack of OIS.I have a relatively steady hand so taking pictures isn鈥檛 too much of a problem, but if you move slightly, the picture becomes blurry quite easily. Compare this to other Chinese phones in its price range, it takes great photos. Compare it to the S7 and the Pixel however, and it merely takes serviceable photos.Is there a significant gap between the Z2 Plus and the S7/iP7 in terms of photo quality? Objectively, yes. But the jump in picture quality is good to great instead of bad to good. Bottom LineFor many people, the primary factor in a phone purchase is price. Some won’t even consider paying $400 for a phone (like me), and even more won’t even entertain the thought of spending $700 on a top end flagship (ahem, looking at you, Pixel).The Galaxy S7 is fast, incredibly fast, but so is the Z2 Plus.聽However, the camera on the S7 is objectively better than what’s found on the Z2 Plus, and the S7’s software will be supported long after the Z2 Plus has been abandoned. But are those improvements (yes there are other improvements, but these are the big ones) worth the extra $500 odd dollars? If you think so, I completely respect that, but聽I personally couldn’t stomach it.A more apt comparison is the OnePlus 3 (review here), which costs a much more reasonable $400. Apart from a sigificant difference in software updates, the OnePlus 3 and the Z2 Plus for all intents and purposes trade blows quite evenly. Which phone will you pick? I’ll leave that decision up to you.In my opinion, this phone is so close to being perfect, with two objective flaws and a subjective one. Let’s start with the subjective; I hate glass covered phones because of their fragility, but Samsung’s top flagship does exactly that so glass聽covered devices聽must be in vogue.The first objective flaw in this device is the camera. No OIS and less than stellar low light performance hamper it somewhat. The second flaw is the software, but this only applies if you purchase a Zuk Z2. If you do, you will need to flash the stock ROM and then install a VPN to obtain OTA updates, a huge hassle, but definitely worth it due to it’s low price. If you get the Lenovo Z2 Plus from Amazon, then the software quirk doesn’t really apply to you at all.For $270, you get performance on the level of top end flagships and much better battery life than said flagships. If I’m complaining that I “only” have 14% left after 6 hours of screen on time, you know there’s something wrong with me, not the phone. The Z2 Plus flirts with perfection, and if you can look past the camera, it’s a great buy.Vernee is a new smartphone brand that has made a name for itself fairly聽quickly in the ultra competitive mobile scene. Their first phone, the Vernee Thor, was and is still one of my favourite phones to hold in the hand and was priced extremely competitively. The Vernee Apollo Lite was the first device to use the Helio X20 processor and even then was priced fiercely as well.The Vernee Mars is this fledging company鈥檚 third phone, and this midrange phone is priced a lot less aggressively than the first two phones.Vernee Mars Full ReviewStarting at $200 during the presale period and rising to $250 after, this 5.5″ phone combines the midrange Helio P10 chip with 4GB of RAM for a respectable spec sheet. However, in a pure specs to price battle, it’s bigger brother (the Apollo Lite) handily beats the Mars and is trounced soundly by the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.However, it does have a few tricks up its sleeve. First of all, it has incredibly small bezels, fitting a 5.5″ phone in the footprint of a 5″ one… almost. This has the added benefit of making the phone look very sleek. It also has a side mounted fingerprint scanner that we are very interested to see how well it works.But are these tricks enough to make this a must buy? Continue reading to find out.“this phone faces stiff competition”聽Vernee Mars SpecificationsProcessorHelio P10 MTK6755 OctacoreDisplay5.5″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM4GBStorage32GB SSDOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 MarshmallowCameras13MP Rear, 5MP Front CameraBattery3000mAh with PumpExpressPhysical Properties149g, 73 x 151.6 x 7.6 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit. I used the Vernee Mars聽on Rogers in Toronto.Vernee Mars HardwareVernee has some pretty good industrial designers, or so it appears. The phone manages to catch the eye without the need for flashy design cues like a curved display. Made out of a single piece of aircraft grade aluminum, the Mars definitely looks and feels like a premium device, no question about it.It’s extremely compact for a 5.5″ phone, squeezing itself into the footprint of a large 5″ device. Bezels are such a thing of the past, and I applaud Vernee for shrinking them as much as possible.This stands in stark contrast to the new iPhones and the recently released Pixel devices, and they all have one thing in common — large bezels. The 1mm wide bezels flanking the left and right of the screen are almost invisible to the naked eye and completely invisible when the screen is off. You find the side mounted fingerprint sensor on the right edge.The back of the phone contains the camera, flash and the Vernee logo. The antenna bands look the exact same as the iPhone 7’s bands, but I really don’t think they copied the iPhone itself since both the Mars and the iPhone were released within days of each other. Even though the metal used is durable, it is very scratchable… so do be careful with it.“big phone in a small footprint”I’m quite pleased with the design, quality and size of this phone. If I were to ever move to a phone with a 5.5″ screen, one with minimal bezels is a must. The only downside to the build quality here is how easily scratches can be seen.Vernee Mars DisplayScreen display technology has advanced to a point where most phone displays — regardless of pricing — all present more or less the same quality with slight variations in maximum brightness, contrast, and colour.Unless you pay outrageous amounts for a top end AMOLED display, the difference between LCD displays are within a few percentage points of each other.Here we see Vernee installing a 5.5″ Full HD display in the phone and the screen itself is great. It presents rather saturated colours (for an LCD) and crisp text and pictures, making it a pleasure to look at. Max brightness tops out around 500 nits, it’s easy to see in direct sunlight. It’s protected by Gorilla Glass 3 so you don’t have to worry about scratches.I do recommend a case as the body design of the phone does not allow for protection for the聽front glass from drops at all.Vernee Mars Audio“decent volume, crisp quality”Speaker technology in smartphones is even more stagnated than smartphone displays. Even low quality speakers that lack clarity aren’t all that bad; and in my time as a device reviewer, I’ve only encountered two truly terrible speakers. Thankfully, the Vernee Mars is not one of them.Speaker volume is quite good, it isn’t as loud as the HTC 10, but it’s loud enough for most situations. Now what really surprised me was the speaker quality. It’s actually one of the better ones I’ve heard. There is very decent detail in the sound and audio is crisp even at maximum volume. Have a listen for yourself.Vernee Mars BatteryWith a standard 3000mAh battery, the Vernee Mars should post some decent results, but anyone hoping for something spectacular like Redmi devices should temper their expectations. I was able to get through a 16 hour day of medium use, meaning 4 hours of screen on time consisting of web browsing, Reddit, and news. I plugged it back in at 10pm with just 2% left, so there really is no buffer there.Try anything more and the phone most likely won’t be able to get you throughout a day. In the web browsing test, the Mars died after 7 hours of web browsing and got 8 hours of video playback. Decent results, but not up there with the best of the best.“decent but not great”Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramYou also get Mediatek’s PumpExpress which can charge the phone up to about 60% in an hour, quite useful for a phone without great battery life. This phone will be enough for light and medium users. Heavy users will need to charge at least once a day, but with PumpExpress, that shouldn’t be much of a problem.Vernee Mars SoftwareVernee is one of the few manufacturers that keeps the ROM as stock as possible, and I appreciate that. To those moving from MIUI or EMUI, you could make the argument that this phone is completely feature bare, which wouldn’t be a false statement.However, Vernee did add a few extra customization option,s such as display customizations and screen gestures. The latter somewhat rendered moot by an always on fingerprint sensor.There are also some customization options regarding notifications as well as quick settings. A side mounted fingerprint sensor is something that’s only been done a few times, with a few notable examples being Sony’s Xperia Z5 line and the Ulefone Future. The fingerprint sensor is incredibly accurate, but that is becoming less of a luxury聽and more of a basic feature of fingerprint sensors.“one of the fastest fingerprint sensors”The speed of the sensor is what has me puzzled, as it is the fastest fingerprint sensor I’ve seen, and at the same time pretty slow. To expand on that, when the phone is already turned on and you touch the sensor, it unlocks faster than any device I’ve seen so far, except maybe the Pixel. However, if you use the sensor to wake and unlock the device at the same time, it’s slower than regular sensors on flagships like the S7.It is my opinion that the sensor itself is incredibly fast, but the process of waking up the phone needs to be trimmed down to provide the same speedy response the sensor is capable of delivering.Another聽piece of advice when setting up the fingerprint scanner — make sure you scan the tip of your thumb or finger thoroughly, as unlocking the device while it is on a table will pretty much force you to use your fingertips exclusively.Yes, there’s only a Helio P10 MTK6755 processor in here, and no, you can’t tell the difference. This phone feels just as fast as my Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 and Lenovo Z2 Plus. This can largely be attributed to Vernee’s software optimization, as the Vernee Mars is the fastest Helio P10 device I’ve tested to date.With 4GB of RAM, it is capable of some fairly intense multitasking, being almost impossible to slow down during normal use. It can play almost any game on the play store very smoothly, there are some where you have to lower the graphical settings to play at a full framerate. The Antutu benchmark also yielded a very good score of 47,971.Vernee Mars ConnectivityOne of the downsides of the Vernee Mars is the lack of supported bands. There are only two WCDMA bands and four FDD-LTE bands, and those pretty much prevent this device from working in U.S. Altogether. However, if you are located somewhere else like Europe or Asia, you should be OK. Do check whether it works on your carrier though. I was able to get some very good 4G LTE speeds as well. The rest of the connectivity options all work very well, WiFi, bluetooth, GPS, no complaints here.Vernee Mars聽CameraIf I had to choose between a camera with good detail and bad colour or a camera with bad detail and good colour, I would rather go for the former, as would pretty much anyone. Colour can be fixed in post quite easily while refining detail is going to be much more difficult. The Vernee Mars fortunately has good detail but lacks聽colour. In other words, it takes pictures with some good detail, but the pictures tend to be washed out. You can fix that pretty easily in post, but a trick I learnt to fix this is to focus on something dark, so for example focusing on my dog’s black fur instead of the white, and the colours mostly come out saturated properly. Of course, you might not always be able to do that in every situation, so this is definitely a downside you have to be aware of.The front camera is only 5MP and so pictures do not contain as much detail as I would like but it is still passable for a low cost device. One pretty significant upside is the speed of the shutter, it is for all intents and purposes, instantaneous. Tapping the button to capture a shot results in a photo being taken of almost that exact moment.Video capture from the rear camera results in video with surprising detail and decent colours, the rear camera’s video quality is definitely a surprise. The front camera takes 720p video, so it’s聽nothing to write home about.Vernee Mars VerdictAs with almost all chinese phones, the weakest link is usually the camera, and the Vernee Mars is not an exception to this anecdotal rule. However, apart from the camera, Vernee has created an extremely compelling phone in the Vernee Mars, but they made one mistake; they priced it too high.To be honest, the price tag is not too far off compared to other Helio P10 phones from UMi and Ulefone, but with the release of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, a phone like the Vernee Mars (e.g. a helio P10 phone) suddenly became a lot less attractive.I find that this Vernee Mars is overall a very well made phone and apart from the camera, without any significant weakesses. Whether you like the side mounted fingerprint sensor is based on personal preference and the phone’s small footprint is just icing on the cake.“good but overpriced”The biggest issue I have with this phoine is the price, starting at $250, you’re paying a $70 premium (compared to the Redmi Note 4) for a slower processor and 2GB more RAM. Should you buy this? Probably not. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 is still a much better option. But if you’re bent on getting a phone from Vernee, the Apollo Lite聽is also a good choice. But if you do get the Vernee Mars, at least you can know that the rest of the phone is decent.I would like to thank Gearbest for sending out this review unit, and if you would like to buy one, you can do so here.Vernee Mars Video Review

Vernee is a new smartphone brand that has made a name for itself fairly聽quickly in the ultra competitive mobile scene. Their first phone, the Vernee Thor, was and is still one of my favourite phones to hold in the hand and was priced extremely competitively. The Vernee Apollo Lite was the first device to use the Helio X20 processor and even then was priced fiercely as well.The Vernee Mars is this fledging company鈥檚 third phone, and this midrange phone is priced a lot less aggressively than the first two phones.Vernee Mars Full ReviewStarting at $200 during the presale period and rising to $250 after, this 5.5″ phone combines the midrange Helio P10 chip with 4GB of RAM for a respectable spec sheet. However, in a pure specs to price battle, it’s bigger brother (the Apollo Lite) handily beats the Mars and is trounced soundly by the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.However, it does have a few tricks up its sleeve. First of all, it has incredibly small bezels, fitting a 5.5″ phone in the footprint of a 5″ one… almost. This has the added benefit of making the phone look very sleek. It also has a side mounted fingerprint scanner that we are very interested to see how well it works.But are these tricks enough to make this a must buy? Continue reading to find out.“this phone faces stiff competition”聽Vernee Mars SpecificationsProcessorHelio P10 MTK6755 OctacoreDisplay5.5″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM4GBStorage32GB SSDOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 MarshmallowCameras13MP Rear, 5MP Front CameraBattery3000mAh with PumpExpressPhysical Properties149g, 73 x 151.6 x 7.6 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit. I used the Vernee Mars聽on Rogers in Toronto.Vernee Mars HardwareVernee has some pretty good industrial designers, or so it appears. The phone manages to catch the eye without the need for flashy design cues like a curved display. Made out of a single piece of aircraft grade aluminum, the Mars definitely looks and feels like a premium device, no question about it.It’s extremely compact for a 5.5″ phone, squeezing itself into the footprint of a large 5″ device. Bezels are such a thing of the past, and I applaud Vernee for shrinking them as much as possible.This stands in stark contrast to the new iPhones and the recently released Pixel devices, and they all have one thing in common — large bezels. The 1mm wide bezels flanking the left and right of the screen are almost invisible to the naked eye and completely invisible when the screen is off. You find the side mounted fingerprint sensor on the right edge.The back of the phone contains the camera, flash and the Vernee logo. The antenna bands look the exact same as the iPhone 7’s bands, but I really don’t think they copied the iPhone itself since both the Mars and the iPhone were released within days of each other. Even though the metal used is durable, it is very scratchable… so do be careful with it.“big phone in a small footprint”I’m quite pleased with the design, quality and size of this phone. If I were to ever move to a phone with a 5.5″ screen, one with minimal bezels is a must. The only downside to the build quality here is how easily scratches can be seen.Vernee Mars DisplayScreen display technology has advanced to a point where most phone displays — regardless of pricing — all present more or less the same quality with slight variations in maximum brightness, contrast, and colour.Unless you pay outrageous amounts for a top end AMOLED display, the difference between LCD displays are within a few percentage points of each other.Here we see Vernee installing a 5.5″ Full HD display in the phone and the screen itself is great. It presents rather saturated colours (for an LCD) and crisp text and pictures, making it a pleasure to look at. Max brightness tops out around 500 nits, it’s easy to see in direct sunlight. It’s protected by Gorilla Glass 3 so you don’t have to worry about scratches.I do recommend a case as the body design of the phone does not allow for protection for the聽front glass from drops at all.Vernee Mars Audio“decent volume, crisp quality”Speaker technology in smartphones is even more stagnated than smartphone displays. Even low quality speakers that lack clarity aren’t all that bad; and in my time as a device reviewer, I’ve only encountered two truly terrible speakers. Thankfully, the Vernee Mars is not one of them.Speaker volume is quite good, it isn’t as loud as the HTC 10, but it’s loud enough for most situations. Now what really surprised me was the speaker quality. It’s actually one of the better ones I’ve heard. There is very decent detail in the sound and audio is crisp even at maximum volume. Have a listen for yourself.Vernee Mars BatteryWith a standard 3000mAh battery, the Vernee Mars should post some decent results, but anyone hoping for something spectacular like Redmi devices should temper their expectations. I was able to get through a 16 hour day of medium use, meaning 4 hours of screen on time consisting of web browsing, Reddit, and news. I plugged it back in at 10pm with just 2% left, so there really is no buffer there.Try anything more and the phone most likely won’t be able to get you throughout a day. In the web browsing test, the Mars died after 7 hours of web browsing and got 8 hours of video playback. Decent results, but not up there with the best of the best.“decent but not great”Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramYou also get Mediatek’s PumpExpress which can charge the phone up to about 60% in an hour, quite useful for a phone without great battery life. This phone will be enough for light and medium users. Heavy users will need to charge at least once a day, but with PumpExpress, that shouldn’t be much of a problem.Vernee Mars SoftwareVernee is one of the few manufacturers that keeps the ROM as stock as possible, and I appreciate that. To those moving from MIUI or EMUI, you could make the argument that this phone is completely feature bare, which wouldn’t be a false statement.However, Vernee did add a few extra customization option,s such as display customizations and screen gestures. The latter somewhat rendered moot by an always on fingerprint sensor.There are also some customization options regarding notifications as well as quick settings. A side mounted fingerprint sensor is something that’s only been done a few times, with a few notable examples being Sony’s Xperia Z5 line and the Ulefone Future. The fingerprint sensor is incredibly accurate, but that is becoming less of a luxury聽and more of a basic feature of fingerprint sensors.“one of the fastest fingerprint sensors”The speed of the sensor is what has me puzzled, as it is the fastest fingerprint sensor I’ve seen, and at the same time pretty slow. To expand on that, when the phone is already turned on and you touch the sensor, it unlocks faster than any device I’ve seen so far, except maybe the Pixel. However, if you use the sensor to wake and unlock the device at the same time, it’s slower than regular sensors on flagships like the S7.It is my opinion that the sensor itself is incredibly fast, but the process of waking up the phone needs to be trimmed down to provide the same speedy response the sensor is capable of delivering.Another聽piece of advice when setting up the fingerprint scanner — make sure you scan the tip of your thumb or finger thoroughly, as unlocking the device while it is on a table will pretty much force you to use your fingertips exclusively.Yes, there’s only a Helio P10 MTK6755 processor in here, and no, you can’t tell the difference. This phone feels just as fast as my Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 and Lenovo Z2 Plus. This can largely be attributed to Vernee’s software optimization, as the Vernee Mars is the fastest Helio P10 device I’ve tested to date.With 4GB of RAM, it is capable of some fairly intense multitasking, being almost impossible to slow down during normal use. It can play almost any game on the play store very smoothly, there are some where you have to lower the graphical settings to play at a full framerate. The Antutu benchmark also yielded a very good score of 47,971.Vernee Mars ConnectivityOne of the downsides of the Vernee Mars is the lack of supported bands. There are only two WCDMA bands and four FDD-LTE bands, and those pretty much prevent this device from working in U.S. Altogether. However, if you are located somewhere else like Europe or Asia, you should be OK. Do check whether it works on your carrier though. I was able to get some very good 4G LTE speeds as well. The rest of the connectivity options all work very well, WiFi, bluetooth, GPS, no complaints here.Vernee Mars聽CameraIf I had to choose between a camera with good detail and bad colour or a camera with bad detail and good colour, I would rather go for the former, as would pretty much anyone. Colour can be fixed in post quite easily while refining detail is going to be much more difficult. The Vernee Mars fortunately has good detail but lacks聽colour. In other words, it takes pictures with some good detail, but the pictures tend to be washed out. You can fix that pretty easily in post, but a trick I learnt to fix this is to focus on something dark, so for example focusing on my dog’s black fur instead of the white, and the colours mostly come out saturated properly. Of course, you might not always be able to do that in every situation, so this is definitely a downside you have to be aware of.The front camera is only 5MP and so pictures do not contain as much detail as I would like but it is still passable for a low cost device. One pretty significant upside is the speed of the shutter, it is for all intents and purposes, instantaneous. Tapping the button to capture a shot results in a photo being taken of almost that exact moment.Video capture from the rear camera results in video with surprising detail and decent colours, the rear camera’s video quality is definitely a surprise. The front camera takes 720p video, so it’s聽nothing to write home about.Vernee Mars VerdictAs with almost all chinese phones, the weakest link is usually the camera, and the Vernee Mars is not an exception to this anecdotal rule. However, apart from the camera, Vernee has created an extremely compelling phone in the Vernee Mars, but they made one mistake; they priced it too high.To be honest, the price tag is not too far off compared to other Helio P10 phones from UMi and Ulefone, but with the release of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, a phone like the Vernee Mars (e.g. a helio P10 phone) suddenly became a lot less attractive.I find that this Vernee Mars is overall a very well made phone and apart from the camera, without any significant weakesses. Whether you like the side mounted fingerprint sensor is based on personal preference and the phone’s small footprint is just icing on the cake.“good but overpriced”The biggest issue I have with this phoine is the price, starting at $250, you’re paying a $70 premium (compared to the Redmi Note 4) for a slower processor and 2GB more RAM. Should you buy this? Probably not. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 is still a much better option. But if you’re bent on getting a phone from Vernee, the Apollo Lite聽is also a good choice. But if you do get the Vernee Mars, at least you can know that the rest of the phone is decent.I would like to thank Gearbest for sending out this review unit, and if you would like to buy one, you can do so here.Vernee Mars Video ReviewKehan CubeCam camera is not officially categorized as an action camera but more specifically as a wearable camera. Thanks to the small dimensions you won鈥檛 almost even notice you are carrying it, but you have to be careful because it鈥檚 quite squishy and doesn鈥檛 meet any of the endurance or resistance standards or certifications.PACKAGINGTiny white box hints at the contents with the camera鈥檚 outline visible from the front. On one of the sides there are QR codes pointing to the control app download site, so information flow starts right away even before you open the box. Nothing else noteworthy so let鈥檚 open it and take a look inside.You will find are the following things inside the box:– Kehan CubeCam so the wearable camera itself– clasp– USB cable– manual– warranty certificateBecause there are no other accessories for the camera packaged (and probably there will not be any further in general] you have to get by just with the clasp and use it to attach the camera to your clothes or a bag for example. It鈥檚 a shame that the manufacturer didn鈥檛 make a similar clip with a stand mount or something. Specifications:Dimensions: 41 x 41 x 13mmAperture: f/2.5View angle: 120藲Weight: 24,5 gramsMemory: Micro-SD card up to 64 GB, Class 6 and higherBattery lifetime: 2,5 hoursVideo resolution: 1920 x 1080 (15 fps), 1280 x 720 (30 fps)Picture resolution: 1280 x 720, JPEGConnectivity: Micro-USB 2.0, WiFi 802.11b/g/nApplication: The Kehan App for iOS 8.0 and higher, Android 4.0 and higherDESIGN AND BUILDEven though the Kehan CubeCam camera鈥檚 design is not my cup of tea, there is nothing to complain about with the build quality. Both front and back sides are divided into two sections, smaller upper stripe has a rugged surface while the bigger bottom one has a smooth texture all over it. Overall the camera doesn鈥檛 look bad at all but because of the small dimensions it鈥檚 tricky to hold and control. The memory card slot is on the left side and on the opposite right side you can find two control buttons, power button doubling also as a Wi-Fi on/off switch and mode switch button below it. Above the buttons is a microphone hole and on the top edge there is shutter lined with two-colored LED. Bottom is reserved for the micro-USB port and the reset pinhole.The lens up front is embedded enough inside the main body to protect it against scratching so no complaints there either. CONTROLS AND FUNCTIONSUsing the camera is not hard at all, but I really do miss the display, at least a small one with some basic information would be handy. The display has been replaced here with the two-colored LED built in the shutter button but that just doesn鈥檛 cut it.Blue LED means the Wi-Fi connection is active while red means quite the opposite. If the LED slowly blinks then the camera is in a video mode and recording. Changing the mode (photo/video) is done by the side button with the letter M engraved.Besides the usual video capturing the camera is supposed to be able to make slow-motion clips. But unfortunately I wasn鈥檛 able to find where or how to turn this feature on. In the app you can just switch between 15 fps (FullHD) and 30 fps (HD) recording.THE APPLICATIONThe app is free-to-download and you can get by following the aforementioned QR code on the box. It offers four different ways how to connect your smartphone to it and one of the options even allows you to use it as a surveillance camera for your home. But unfortunately this feature is possible only with the Kehan CubeCam Plus version of the camera.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe Wi-Fi connection works fine so at least you can use your phone as a remote display eventually. In the app you can also set the desired resolution and sequential shooting. You can save your best shots in the app directly to your phone and share them to social media. According to the manufacturer it should be possible to use the camera for live streaming on Facebook or YouTube, but all my attempts failed so hard to say.PHOTO AND VIDEOFinally we are getting to the most important part of the review and that is camera鈥檚 output quality. But before I show you some samples and my opinion, let鈥檚 talk about what Kehan CubeCam should theoretically be able to do .The manufacturer says that the camera can shoot video in FullHD resolution which is true, but a video with 15 frames per second is useless and I can鈥檛 imagine any practical use for it except for marketing purposes. The HD capture with 30 fps is fine, but of course lower resolution means the clarity takes a hit. Output in general has quite some problems with focus and is full of noise, making it quite difficult to get a good video or picture. In low light it鈥檚 dark and in sunlight overexposed. The videos are stored on a memory card in .rec format which can be tricky to play with your usual video players. Possible workaround is to download the video to the phone directly using the app, because if you do that, the video is saved as a standard MP4 file. On the manufacturer鈥檚 website you can download a PC program for the .rec conversion, but my antivirus software flagged it as suspicious so I rather passed. The battery capacity is not listed anywhere but the manufacturer claims that 2.5 hours of continuous shooting should be possible. But in reality it鈥檚 more like 90 minutes during my testing.Unfortunately the app refused to recognize some of my recorded videos stored on the card so I can鈥檛 add them to the review. But I think you can get the idea about the output quality even from the few i salvaged.There is also a watermark automatically applied to all the photos, which can鈥檛 be turned off, at least for the time being. I hope the developers will get rid of it in the next update of the app.CONCLUSIONSo what鈥檚 the final word about the Kehan CubeCam ? The camera gives quite an inconsistent impression, the good build quality and nice design is dragged down by poor output results and fairly unfinished app. Not to mention the rare and troublesome format of the videos. Personally i struggle a bit to find a real niche usage for the camera, but it could come in handy for someone who needs to record something sometimes on-the-go, like policemen, medics or maybe students who want to record their lectures, where the quality of the footage is not as important. But still in my opinion smartphone is a better choice, even though not as compact and tiny.

Kehan CubeCam camera is not officially categorized as an action camera but more specifically as a wearable camera. Thanks to the small dimensions you won鈥檛 almost even notice you are carrying it, but you have to be careful because it鈥檚 quite squishy and doesn鈥檛 meet any of the endurance or resistance standards or certifications.PACKAGINGTiny white box hints at the contents with the camera鈥檚 outline visible from the front. On one of the sides there are QR codes pointing to the control app download site, so information flow starts right away even before you open the box. Nothing else noteworthy so let鈥檚 open it and take a look inside.You will find are the following things inside the box:– Kehan CubeCam so the wearable camera itself– clasp– USB cable– manual– warranty certificateBecause there are no other accessories for the camera packaged (and probably there will not be any further in general] you have to get by just with the clasp and use it to attach the camera to your clothes or a bag for example. It鈥檚 a shame that the manufacturer didn鈥檛 make a similar clip with a stand mount or something. Specifications:Dimensions: 41 x 41 x 13mmAperture: f/2.5View angle: 120藲Weight: 24,5 gramsMemory: Micro-SD card up to 64 GB, Class 6 and higherBattery lifetime: 2,5 hoursVideo resolution: 1920 x 1080 (15 fps), 1280 x 720 (30 fps)Picture resolution: 1280 x 720, JPEGConnectivity: Micro-USB 2.0, WiFi 802.11b/g/nApplication: The Kehan App for iOS 8.0 and higher, Android 4.0 and higherDESIGN AND BUILDEven though the Kehan CubeCam camera鈥檚 design is not my cup of tea, there is nothing to complain about with the build quality. Both front and back sides are divided into two sections, smaller upper stripe has a rugged surface while the bigger bottom one has a smooth texture all over it. Overall the camera doesn鈥檛 look bad at all but because of the small dimensions it鈥檚 tricky to hold and control. The memory card slot is on the left side and on the opposite right side you can find two control buttons, power button doubling also as a Wi-Fi on/off switch and mode switch button below it. Above the buttons is a microphone hole and on the top edge there is shutter lined with two-colored LED. Bottom is reserved for the micro-USB port and the reset pinhole.The lens up front is embedded enough inside the main body to protect it against scratching so no complaints there either. CONTROLS AND FUNCTIONSUsing the camera is not hard at all, but I really do miss the display, at least a small one with some basic information would be handy. The display has been replaced here with the two-colored LED built in the shutter button but that just doesn鈥檛 cut it.Blue LED means the Wi-Fi connection is active while red means quite the opposite. If the LED slowly blinks then the camera is in a video mode and recording. Changing the mode (photo/video) is done by the side button with the letter M engraved.Besides the usual video capturing the camera is supposed to be able to make slow-motion clips. But unfortunately I wasn鈥檛 able to find where or how to turn this feature on. In the app you can just switch between 15 fps (FullHD) and 30 fps (HD) recording.THE APPLICATIONThe app is free-to-download and you can get by following the aforementioned QR code on the box. It offers four different ways how to connect your smartphone to it and one of the options even allows you to use it as a surveillance camera for your home. But unfortunately this feature is possible only with the Kehan CubeCam Plus version of the camera.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe Wi-Fi connection works fine so at least you can use your phone as a remote display eventually. In the app you can also set the desired resolution and sequential shooting. You can save your best shots in the app directly to your phone and share them to social media. According to the manufacturer it should be possible to use the camera for live streaming on Facebook or YouTube, but all my attempts failed so hard to say.PHOTO AND VIDEOFinally we are getting to the most important part of the review and that is camera鈥檚 output quality. But before I show you some samples and my opinion, let鈥檚 talk about what Kehan CubeCam should theoretically be able to do .The manufacturer says that the camera can shoot video in FullHD resolution which is true, but a video with 15 frames per second is useless and I can鈥檛 imagine any practical use for it except for marketing purposes. The HD capture with 30 fps is fine, but of course lower resolution means the clarity takes a hit. Output in general has quite some problems with focus and is full of noise, making it quite difficult to get a good video or picture. In low light it鈥檚 dark and in sunlight overexposed. The videos are stored on a memory card in .rec format which can be tricky to play with your usual video players. Possible workaround is to download the video to the phone directly using the app, because if you do that, the video is saved as a standard MP4 file. On the manufacturer鈥檚 website you can download a PC program for the .rec conversion, but my antivirus software flagged it as suspicious so I rather passed. The battery capacity is not listed anywhere but the manufacturer claims that 2.5 hours of continuous shooting should be possible. But in reality it鈥檚 more like 90 minutes during my testing.Unfortunately the app refused to recognize some of my recorded videos stored on the card so I can鈥檛 add them to the review. But I think you can get the idea about the output quality even from the few i salvaged.There is also a watermark automatically applied to all the photos, which can鈥檛 be turned off, at least for the time being. I hope the developers will get rid of it in the next update of the app.CONCLUSIONSo what鈥檚 the final word about the Kehan CubeCam ? The camera gives quite an inconsistent impression, the good build quality and nice design is dragged down by poor output results and fairly unfinished app. Not to mention the rare and troublesome format of the videos. Personally i struggle a bit to find a real niche usage for the camera, but it could come in handy for someone who needs to record something sometimes on-the-go, like policemen, medics or maybe students who want to record their lectures, where the quality of the footage is not as important. But still in my opinion smartphone is a better choice, even though not as compact and tiny.Blackview E7 is a member of introductory segment of Chinese inexpensive phones, so how is it doing with price/performance ratio value ? Will we get some reasonable value for the price? Let鈥檚 have a look at what we鈥檝e found out.Specifications鈥 5,5- inch HD resolution display鈥 64-bit quad-core processor MediaTek MT6737 clocked at 1,3 GHz鈥 1 GB RAM鈥 16 GB ROM + microSD slot鈥 8 Mpx camera with AF, LED flash and f/2.2 aperture鈥 2 Mpx selfie camera鈥 dual SIM (2x micro SIM)鈥 Fingerprint sensor鈥 Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS鈥 4G LTE support鈥 2700 mAh battery鈥 Color variants: white, blue, black (our sample piece)鈥 Dimensions: 76,8 x 153,5 x 8,75 mm鈥 weight: 172 gPackagingInside the package there is a typical Chinese standard of accessories, meaning a charger, USB cable, headphones, manual and a protective screen film or case, so more than you can usually get even from the established brands. The screen film is already applied on the display by the manufacturer so you don鈥檛 have to struggle with clumsy application and unavoidable air bubbles by ourselves. I didn鈥檛 test the headphones because I don鈥檛 think they will beat my low-ends Vsonic anyway.Design and build – creaking plasticWhen I picked the phone up for the first time it didn鈥檛 feel so big and I had to assure myself in the specifications list that it really has a 5,5-inch display. Blackview E7 with its ordinary design is not so different from other budget devices, it almost feels like dummy and the designers could show a little more creativity with certain aspects.But I get it that for this price you can鈥檛 do too much. The body of the phone is fully made out of plastic, the front side is an exception because it鈥檚 covered with 2.5D glass. The battery is removable and some might consider it an advantage but I don鈥檛, because it makes the whole body way more fragile and it results in creaking, especially at the bottom edge.The placement of buttons and other elements didn鈥檛 cause any issues. The power button and volume control cradle are on the right side and both have a good response. On the top edge, there is a 3.5mm jack connector, which i think is a better placement than at the bottom. The left side is plain and at the chin there is a microUSB at the center surrounded by grilles.They both remind of speaker grilles but only one of them is working, unfortunately the one which shouldn麓t. The grille on the left is a speaker and you can easily cover it with your fingers while using the phone in landscape. On the right there is a microphone, which could get along with only one hole, judging by the look from the inside. So don鈥檛 be mistaken, Blackview E7 doesn鈥檛 have stereo speakers.The back has been left quite empty. At the top left corner there is a lens of 8 Mpx camera with a LED flash and underneath it there is fingerprint scanner, which I would personally rather have at the front. But again that鈥檚 just my preference. The front houses a 5,5-inch display with standard capacitative buttons below, but they are not backlit.I would expect that at some low-ends in 2012, but not today. Above the display there is a speaker for calls and a lens of the 2 Mpx selfie camera. Another crucial mistake is the absence of a LED flash for the front camera, but that鈥檚 common for the budget phones. Personally I don鈥檛 use it very often but for some people it鈥檚 a priority when choosing a phone.Under the back cover there is the removable battery, a microSD card slot and two microSIM card slots. Bonus points to Blackview for not using the hybrid slot so you can use two SIMs simultaneously with your SD card.All things considered Blackview E7 offers a decent build and design for a reasonable price. But the absence of a LED flash, general creakiness and non-backlit buttons are quite big downsides.Performance 鈥 great performance is (not) worth the waitThe performance of Blackview E7 is not good at all. The problem is not so much in the CPU and GPU, because Those two components have enough power to run several apps at once or run 3D games with reasonable fps. Despite that gaming and overall experience has been a huge letdown. Why? Well this smartphone has only 1GB RAM and that鈥檚 simply not enough these days.The apps keep crashing, loading times are insane and multitasking doesn麓t effectively exist. At the beginning I couldn鈥檛 play a song from Youtube, because every minute the app just crashed. Fortunately after some time these problem resolved itself, .but still when I played a game and switched to another app I had to start all over because the game restarted.When I installed OneDrive, set up the account and downloaded one document, this whole procedure took about 20 minutes because of waiting and apps crashing. With my HTC One A9 I could do it in 2 minutes, so the disparity is staggering.I don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 caused by optimization or just insufficient RAM but it is still the manufacturer麓s fault and such a device shouldn麓t be released on the market even for such an ultra low price. For a few more dollars you can get better optimized phones with more RAM.But not to only criticize the device, the games ran without lags (if messenger notifications didn鈥檛 pop up). The simpler ones like Alto鈥檚 Adventure were OK and more demanding ones like Asphalt 8 had lower fps (15-20) but they were still playable.The potential performance level of the device is solid but the poor optimizations and just 1GB RAM are just dragging it down. If you are a patient person and you have an old phone (5-6 years) then this will not be a problem for you, but that鈥檚 a big if.Display 鈥 please press harderAfter my experience with budget Doogee Y300 model , where the display was beautiful and sensitive I鈥檝e expected something similar or at least only slightly worse with Blackview E7. But to my surprise E7 reminded me more of an old time Nokia and my last phone Symbian -Nokia C6 with its terrible non-sensitive screen.For a moment, I thought they had used the old resistive technology.If you are coming from very sensitive display then this display will be a nightmare. I don鈥檛 mind the poor performance, I鈥檓 patient and I had slower phones in the past, but the sensitivity really annoyed me to the max. My experience can be summarized by the following : I wanted to switch from one song to another in the player.I started scrolling and accidentally tapped on another song. In another attempt I decided to use the search bar, but I had to tap the bar 4-5 times before the keyboard showed up. While I was typing I had to press the same key 3 times…madness And don鈥檛 get me even about the ,,sensitivity鈥 around the edges. You have to basically 鈥渂reak the glass鈥 to get the response.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramIf you are coming from a resistive display or a very old Android low-end (even my old HTC Evo 3D, top model of 2011, has a way more sensitive display), then it won鈥檛 surprise you, otherwise you are in for a joyride.The LCD panel itself has a HD resolution which is not so smooth at the 5,5-inch screen, but for the price tag it鈥檚 understandable. Also I鈥檓 not saying anything about the slightly dim questionable color saturation . The lowest brightness level might also be a little bit lower. Legibility in direct sunlight is also not the greatest but switching a song or typing a quick message with half of the brightness is possible.Camera 鈥 noise is all aroundI didn鈥檛 expect much from the camera and i was absolutely right. It鈥檚 just another cheap shooter, which just confirms that phones in this price category simply cannot make good pictures and camera is there only as necessary evil. The first thing, you notice in the pictures are overexposed spots or rather fields. The sensor simply doesn鈥檛 know how to work with light and so for example the sky is white. Another big minus are the colors 鈥 faded, dim and unconvincing. Interestingly enough you can see a lot of noise even in pictures taken in broad daylight. If you are planning to show the pictures on a bigger screen or on TV you will not be satisfied with the results. Only few phones have cameras that can take pictures in poor light and Blackview E7 is not one of them. You can just forget about taking pictures in low light altogether, the phone will not capture almost any light and be prepared for a big load of noise. There is also no chance of capturing moving objects. It might help to set the camera manually but there is no default app that would allow you to do that. The only thing, you can adjust is exposition. But there is one way how to improve the pictures 鈥 use HDR. And thanks to the insensitive display you have to press the shot button really hard so you probably won鈥檛 be making good pictures at first until you get fully used to it, the same goes for manual focus.Sound 鈥 tiny tin manSince we are in the low-end category, we don鈥檛 expect quality sound. In short the speaker does its job but nothing more. The sound is like from a tin can with a buzzing noise that can be heard even at high volume.The speaking position of it is also very unfortunate because you will always cover it with your hand when you are using the phone in landscape mode. And if you are a fan of quality bass sound, forget about it at all.The headphone output quality is slightly better, but again it鈥檚 a low-end category. But if I weren麓t using PlayerPro and its equalizer, the volume wouldn鈥檛 be enough for me. The sound is not very clear and the bass line is not there unless you make it louder in the equalizer manually. Using your own better headphones can of course improve the experience too, but don鈥檛 expect miracles.System 鈥 same old, same oldAs an OS, Blackview has decided to use the Android 6.0.1. Marshmallow so all good, things are more or less modern.You can find few interesting features in the settings, that will make your life easier. The first one is the well known Gesture Unlock featuring double tapping to wake or launching various apps using specific gestures.The manufacturer gets an extra point for the scheduled turning on and off feature. I don鈥檛 use it but for someone it鈥檚 a gift from the heavens, especially when not every brand offers it automatically.The last interesting feature i want to talk about are smart somatosensors. When you activate them in the settings you can using hand gestures for various controls like switching songs, gallery scrolling or unlocking the scren . And all that without touching the display!This technology is not perfect though and sometimes happens that you switch to a different picture or a song than you intended.I was a bit disappointed by the lack of an application dock, but you can change that with another launcher from Google Play easily. Fortunately the manufacturer didn鈥檛 pre-install a lot of bloatware at least.Another big issue is not working MTP connection for PC connection (tested on Windows 10). So you can鈥檛 download your files directly and you have to rely on the SD card, Bluetooth or the cloud. Transferring via PTP (only pictures) did work though. This is really a crucial fail and big problem in my eyes.Connectivity 鈥 pleasant surpriseI didn鈥檛 have any problems to make a call, I could hear the other side perfectly and vice versa. The Wi-Fi connection was also flawless, stable and pretty sensitive The Bluetooth was also fast and I used it a lot since I couldn鈥檛 get files into the phone using any other way.But I would like to commend the finger print sensor. For starters I was surprised to even find it here because not even quite many more expensive devices have it. The sensor is fast and precise and it can even unlock the display directly which not even Apple or Samsung models can. When you have the display turned off the unlocking takes some time (about 2 seconds), but if you wake it up first then it takes about 1 second.Although the speed can鈥檛 compete with HTC One A9 or iPhone SE it offers more than the competition in the same price range. If a finger print scanner is your priority then Blackview E7 is not going to disappoint.Battery life 鈥 unexpectedly longIf there is something I鈥檓 really pleased with, then it is battery life of Blackview E7 . The phone has an removable battery with a 2700 mAh capacity. I have to admit I鈥檓 not one of the real power users and my typical day consists of just some light browsing, some music and very little gaming.If your day is similar to mine then you can expect the battery life to be about 2 to 3 days. Of course if you are more demanding, expect everyday recharging.I did a small test too on my on, charged the phone to 100%., then I played a video loop for 3 hours on 20% brightness and 75% volume. Then I had a camera turned on for 30 minutes and I was taking pictures and another 30 minutes I left it on standby. Result? In the evening I was at 61%. Not badDon鈥檛 forget to buy a new charger though, the one included in the package has only 1A so it鈥檚 pretty slow. Even if Blackview E7 won鈥檛 be among phones with the longest battery life, for the price it offers a decent one.ConclusionI must admit I was a bit disappointed with Blackview E7, even considering the roughly $70 price tag. There are some serious flaws in the phone, mainly the underwhelming camera performance reminding me of 2010 or the insensitive display resembling a lot the older resistive technology when you had to push really hard. Sound quality is also not anything special and the same can be said about the creaky plastic build.

Blackview E7 is a member of introductory segment of Chinese inexpensive phones, so how is it doing with price/performance ratio value ? Will we get some reasonable value for the price? Let鈥檚 have a look at what we鈥檝e found out.Specifications鈥 5,5- inch HD resolution display鈥 64-bit quad-core processor MediaTek MT6737 clocked at 1,3 GHz鈥 1 GB RAM鈥 16 GB ROM + microSD slot鈥 8 Mpx camera with AF, LED flash and f/2.2 aperture鈥 2 Mpx selfie camera鈥 dual SIM (2x micro SIM)鈥 Fingerprint sensor鈥 Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS鈥 4G LTE support鈥 2700 mAh battery鈥 Color variants: white, blue, black (our sample piece)鈥 Dimensions: 76,8 x 153,5 x 8,75 mm鈥 weight: 172 gPackagingInside the package there is a typical Chinese standard of accessories, meaning a charger, USB cable, headphones, manual and a protective screen film or case, so more than you can usually get even from the established brands. The screen film is already applied on the display by the manufacturer so you don鈥檛 have to struggle with clumsy application and unavoidable air bubbles by ourselves. I didn鈥檛 test the headphones because I don鈥檛 think they will beat my low-ends Vsonic anyway.Design and build – creaking plasticWhen I picked the phone up for the first time it didn鈥檛 feel so big and I had to assure myself in the specifications list that it really has a 5,5-inch display. Blackview E7 with its ordinary design is not so different from other budget devices, it almost feels like dummy and the designers could show a little more creativity with certain aspects.But I get it that for this price you can鈥檛 do too much. The body of the phone is fully made out of plastic, the front side is an exception because it鈥檚 covered with 2.5D glass. The battery is removable and some might consider it an advantage but I don鈥檛, because it makes the whole body way more fragile and it results in creaking, especially at the bottom edge.The placement of buttons and other elements didn鈥檛 cause any issues. The power button and volume control cradle are on the right side and both have a good response. On the top edge, there is a 3.5mm jack connector, which i think is a better placement than at the bottom. The left side is plain and at the chin there is a microUSB at the center surrounded by grilles.They both remind of speaker grilles but only one of them is working, unfortunately the one which shouldn麓t. The grille on the left is a speaker and you can easily cover it with your fingers while using the phone in landscape. On the right there is a microphone, which could get along with only one hole, judging by the look from the inside. So don鈥檛 be mistaken, Blackview E7 doesn鈥檛 have stereo speakers.The back has been left quite empty. At the top left corner there is a lens of 8 Mpx camera with a LED flash and underneath it there is fingerprint scanner, which I would personally rather have at the front. But again that鈥檚 just my preference. The front houses a 5,5-inch display with standard capacitative buttons below, but they are not backlit.I would expect that at some low-ends in 2012, but not today. Above the display there is a speaker for calls and a lens of the 2 Mpx selfie camera. Another crucial mistake is the absence of a LED flash for the front camera, but that鈥檚 common for the budget phones. Personally I don鈥檛 use it very often but for some people it鈥檚 a priority when choosing a phone.Under the back cover there is the removable battery, a microSD card slot and two microSIM card slots. Bonus points to Blackview for not using the hybrid slot so you can use two SIMs simultaneously with your SD card.All things considered Blackview E7 offers a decent build and design for a reasonable price. But the absence of a LED flash, general creakiness and non-backlit buttons are quite big downsides.Performance 鈥 great performance is (not) worth the waitThe performance of Blackview E7 is not good at all. The problem is not so much in the CPU and GPU, because Those two components have enough power to run several apps at once or run 3D games with reasonable fps. Despite that gaming and overall experience has been a huge letdown. Why? Well this smartphone has only 1GB RAM and that鈥檚 simply not enough these days.The apps keep crashing, loading times are insane and multitasking doesn麓t effectively exist. At the beginning I couldn鈥檛 play a song from Youtube, because every minute the app just crashed. Fortunately after some time these problem resolved itself, .but still when I played a game and switched to another app I had to start all over because the game restarted.When I installed OneDrive, set up the account and downloaded one document, this whole procedure took about 20 minutes because of waiting and apps crashing. With my HTC One A9 I could do it in 2 minutes, so the disparity is staggering.I don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 caused by optimization or just insufficient RAM but it is still the manufacturer麓s fault and such a device shouldn麓t be released on the market even for such an ultra low price. For a few more dollars you can get better optimized phones with more RAM.But not to only criticize the device, the games ran without lags (if messenger notifications didn鈥檛 pop up). The simpler ones like Alto鈥檚 Adventure were OK and more demanding ones like Asphalt 8 had lower fps (15-20) but they were still playable.The potential performance level of the device is solid but the poor optimizations and just 1GB RAM are just dragging it down. If you are a patient person and you have an old phone (5-6 years) then this will not be a problem for you, but that鈥檚 a big if.Display 鈥 please press harderAfter my experience with budget Doogee Y300 model , where the display was beautiful and sensitive I鈥檝e expected something similar or at least only slightly worse with Blackview E7. But to my surprise E7 reminded me more of an old time Nokia and my last phone Symbian -Nokia C6 with its terrible non-sensitive screen.For a moment, I thought they had used the old resistive technology.If you are coming from very sensitive display then this display will be a nightmare. I don鈥檛 mind the poor performance, I鈥檓 patient and I had slower phones in the past, but the sensitivity really annoyed me to the max. My experience can be summarized by the following : I wanted to switch from one song to another in the player.I started scrolling and accidentally tapped on another song. In another attempt I decided to use the search bar, but I had to tap the bar 4-5 times before the keyboard showed up. While I was typing I had to press the same key 3 times…madness And don鈥檛 get me even about the ,,sensitivity鈥 around the edges. You have to basically 鈥渂reak the glass鈥 to get the response.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramIf you are coming from a resistive display or a very old Android low-end (even my old HTC Evo 3D, top model of 2011, has a way more sensitive display), then it won鈥檛 surprise you, otherwise you are in for a joyride.The LCD panel itself has a HD resolution which is not so smooth at the 5,5-inch screen, but for the price tag it鈥檚 understandable. Also I鈥檓 not saying anything about the slightly dim questionable color saturation . The lowest brightness level might also be a little bit lower. Legibility in direct sunlight is also not the greatest but switching a song or typing a quick message with half of the brightness is possible.Camera 鈥 noise is all aroundI didn鈥檛 expect much from the camera and i was absolutely right. It鈥檚 just another cheap shooter, which just confirms that phones in this price category simply cannot make good pictures and camera is there only as necessary evil. The first thing, you notice in the pictures are overexposed spots or rather fields. The sensor simply doesn鈥檛 know how to work with light and so for example the sky is white. Another big minus are the colors 鈥 faded, dim and unconvincing. Interestingly enough you can see a lot of noise even in pictures taken in broad daylight. If you are planning to show the pictures on a bigger screen or on TV you will not be satisfied with the results. Only few phones have cameras that can take pictures in poor light and Blackview E7 is not one of them. You can just forget about taking pictures in low light altogether, the phone will not capture almost any light and be prepared for a big load of noise. There is also no chance of capturing moving objects. It might help to set the camera manually but there is no default app that would allow you to do that. The only thing, you can adjust is exposition. But there is one way how to improve the pictures 鈥 use HDR. And thanks to the insensitive display you have to press the shot button really hard so you probably won鈥檛 be making good pictures at first until you get fully used to it, the same goes for manual focus.Sound 鈥 tiny tin manSince we are in the low-end category, we don鈥檛 expect quality sound. In short the speaker does its job but nothing more. The sound is like from a tin can with a buzzing noise that can be heard even at high volume.The speaking position of it is also very unfortunate because you will always cover it with your hand when you are using the phone in landscape mode. And if you are a fan of quality bass sound, forget about it at all.The headphone output quality is slightly better, but again it鈥檚 a low-end category. But if I weren麓t using PlayerPro and its equalizer, the volume wouldn鈥檛 be enough for me. The sound is not very clear and the bass line is not there unless you make it louder in the equalizer manually. Using your own better headphones can of course improve the experience too, but don鈥檛 expect miracles.System 鈥 same old, same oldAs an OS, Blackview has decided to use the Android 6.0.1. Marshmallow so all good, things are more or less modern.You can find few interesting features in the settings, that will make your life easier. The first one is the well known Gesture Unlock featuring double tapping to wake or launching various apps using specific gestures.The manufacturer gets an extra point for the scheduled turning on and off feature. I don鈥檛 use it but for someone it鈥檚 a gift from the heavens, especially when not every brand offers it automatically.The last interesting feature i want to talk about are smart somatosensors. When you activate them in the settings you can using hand gestures for various controls like switching songs, gallery scrolling or unlocking the scren . And all that without touching the display!This technology is not perfect though and sometimes happens that you switch to a different picture or a song than you intended.I was a bit disappointed by the lack of an application dock, but you can change that with another launcher from Google Play easily. Fortunately the manufacturer didn鈥檛 pre-install a lot of bloatware at least.Another big issue is not working MTP connection for PC connection (tested on Windows 10). So you can鈥檛 download your files directly and you have to rely on the SD card, Bluetooth or the cloud. Transferring via PTP (only pictures) did work though. This is really a crucial fail and big problem in my eyes.Connectivity 鈥 pleasant surpriseI didn鈥檛 have any problems to make a call, I could hear the other side perfectly and vice versa. The Wi-Fi connection was also flawless, stable and pretty sensitive The Bluetooth was also fast and I used it a lot since I couldn鈥檛 get files into the phone using any other way.But I would like to commend the finger print sensor. For starters I was surprised to even find it here because not even quite many more expensive devices have it. The sensor is fast and precise and it can even unlock the display directly which not even Apple or Samsung models can. When you have the display turned off the unlocking takes some time (about 2 seconds), but if you wake it up first then it takes about 1 second.Although the speed can鈥檛 compete with HTC One A9 or iPhone SE it offers more than the competition in the same price range. If a finger print scanner is your priority then Blackview E7 is not going to disappoint.Battery life 鈥 unexpectedly longIf there is something I鈥檓 really pleased with, then it is battery life of Blackview E7 . The phone has an removable battery with a 2700 mAh capacity. I have to admit I鈥檓 not one of the real power users and my typical day consists of just some light browsing, some music and very little gaming.If your day is similar to mine then you can expect the battery life to be about 2 to 3 days. Of course if you are more demanding, expect everyday recharging.I did a small test too on my on, charged the phone to 100%., then I played a video loop for 3 hours on 20% brightness and 75% volume. Then I had a camera turned on for 30 minutes and I was taking pictures and another 30 minutes I left it on standby. Result? In the evening I was at 61%. Not badDon鈥檛 forget to buy a new charger though, the one included in the package has only 1A so it鈥檚 pretty slow. Even if Blackview E7 won鈥檛 be among phones with the longest battery life, for the price it offers a decent one.ConclusionI must admit I was a bit disappointed with Blackview E7, even considering the roughly $70 price tag. There are some serious flaws in the phone, mainly the underwhelming camera performance reminding me of 2010 or the insensitive display resembling a lot the older resistive technology when you had to push really hard. Sound quality is also not anything special and the same can be said about the creaky plastic build.The Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 (shortened to the Xiaomi Air 12) is Xiaomi鈥檚 first shot at an ultrabook and they almost hit the bull鈥檚-eye. There is no shortage of Core M Ultrabooks or convertibles out there, with two notable examples being the incredibly popular 12鈥 MacBook or the considerably less popular Surface Pro 4. Both utilize the same Core M 6y30 processor found in the Xiaomi Air 12 but differ in other areas.However, both of those devices cost well over $1000 which is priced right out of the burgeoning market for affordable ultrabooks.Enter the ASUS UX305. Wait what? Isn鈥檛 this review about the Air 12? Yes it is, but even though the Xiaomi Air 12 is clearly aimed at Apple鈥檚 12鈥 MacBook, its stiffest competition comes not from the $1300 MacBook, but from the $650 ASUS Ultrabook.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 Full ReviewStarting at $500, the Xiaomi Air 12 boasts possibly the lowest聽MSRP price for an Ultrabook utilizing the Core M 6y30 processor. However, reseller prices rise up to around $580-600USD, making this much less of a deal. However, the Xiaomi Air 12 will go on sale during the November 11th event in China, bringing the price down much, much closer to the MSRP price in China.Xiaomi swung for the fences and almost hit a home run, hampered a little by a couple of things. Is this laptop worth your money? Read on to find out why this laptop is almost perfect.“Almost perfect”聽Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 SpecificationsProcessorIntel Core M 6y30 Dual CoreDisplay12.5″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM4GBStorage128GB SSDOperating SystemWindows 10Cameras720p WebcamBattery7.2V 5000mAh (3.6V 10,000mAh)Physical Properties1070g, 292 x 202 x 12.9 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit. I used the Xiaomi Air 12 Ultrabook with an unactivated version of English Windows 10.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 HardwareFlashy, LED lit gaming laptops are definitely not my jam. I prefer spartan, industrial, and sleek designs in my laptops, but the Xiaomi Air 12 seems to follow that mantra a little too much. The lack of the logo really draws the wrong kind of attention to the laptop, making people take notice of this logoless device.It really does resemble factory OEM laptops that are shown off at trade shows, ready for any brand to purchase a huge number of them and slap their own logo on said device.It鈥檚 incredibly portable, measuring about 12mm longer than the 12鈥 MacBook and a tad weightier because of the slightly larger screen. Even though the laptop is technically thinner than the MacBook at its thickest point, it feels bigger because it does not taper the same way the MacBook does, keeping the same thickness throughout.It鈥檚 made out of brushed aluminum and in terms of build quality, it challenges the best of the best with ease. You can open the lid with one hand and it opens to around 120 degrees, which is pretty limiting if confined in a small area like a plane.Once open, the 12.5鈥 screen and bezels can be seen. The bezels around the screen are small, not XPS13 infinity edge small, but MacBook small with the bottom bezel significantly larger than the side ones. The keyboard is backlit individually and the keys themselves have really good travel since the body doesn鈥檛 taper but the keys are a tad on the mushy side.It doesn鈥檛 have the crisp feedback I鈥檓 used to on a desktop keyboard but is more akin to the XPS13. However, it鈥檚 a much better typing experience compared to the 12鈥 MacBook though because there鈥檚 actual key travel. There is a certain attention to detail here, as the power button requires significantly more force to depress than the other keys. You find a full size HDMI port and headphone jack on one side and a full size USB 3.0 port as well as a USB-C port that is capable of charging, data transfer, and display output. The Notebook Air exhibits excellent build quality in a compact and portable body, but the lack of aesthetic does make this laptop look plain.“Top notch build quality”Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 DisplayLaptop screens are broaching the 2K resolution barrier more and more, with many laptops coming with 2K display options like the ASUS UX305 and the XPS 13. Others like the 12鈥 MacBook and the Yoga 2 Pro come with a high resolution screen as a default.However, we have a rather standard 1080p IPS display that recreates colours quite nicely. 1080p is still fairly聽sharp for a 12.5鈥 display that is used farther than 30cm (12鈥? away, and should help with the battery life. It goes to a maximum of 300cd/m2 which isn鈥檛 quite bright enough for use in direct sunlight, but it is bright enough to fight through indirect light.It is annoyingly reflective even though there is a laminated screen, so you do get reflections in certain situations. When you close the lid of the notebook, there is a tiny gap between the screen and the keyboard so it won鈥檛 get scratched either.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 AudioGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram“great volume, decent quality”The two downward firing AKG speakers produce some very decent volume that is no doubt aided by the rubber feet elevating the laptop above the surface, but place it on a bed and audio gets significantly muffled. The quality of the audio is very impressive as well, lots of bass, clear mids and highs as well.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 BatteryBattery life for me is make or break in smartphones which does make sense since its with me all the time. Battery life is still extremely important in notebooks, but because I鈥檓 usually not using it 24/7, I鈥檓 a little bit easier on it.That being said, the battery life here is not great at all. It gets around 6-7 hours of screen on time throughout the day consisting mostly of web browsing, some YouTube and typing out some blog posts and Word documents. Compare that to the XPS13 and the MacBook, both of those last almost twice as long as the Xiaomi Air 12 does.I did the web browsing test and it died after 6.5 hours while I could play back video for almost 8 hours. Charging is surprisingly fast, I could charge it about 50% in 40 minutes and 100% in about one and a half hours.One minor thing is that the charging cable colour is a very dirty white. I tried cleaning it off but it looks like that鈥檚 the colour of the cable, I guess to better hide any dirt that would get on the cable when on the lfoor. Battery life could definitely be better on this device, and only light and medium users can get through a day without charging.“average battery”Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 SoftwareSoftware is the biggest issue here. Because this device is intended for users in China, it comes with one of two Windows 10 options; first, is a single-language Chinese Windows 10 installation and the second, an unactivated version of English Windows.Unfortunately, you cannot reuse the Chinese Windows 10 key in a fresh install of English Windows 10 as they are not compatible.There are two solutions here. Either you purchase a license key for Windows or you learn Chinese. This is a huge disadvantage as it adds an extra $100 to the price of the laptop, effectively rendering it a cold deal. Unless you鈥檙e willing to follow the ways of seafaring rogues, you鈥檙e out of luck. That being said, unactivated Windows 10 doesn鈥檛 actually disable much functionality, just integration with your Microsoft account.Apart from the OS issues, the Core M 6y30 performs well. Its aim is to offer splendid day to day performance similar to that of say, a Core i5 and it succeeds in that regard. I didn鈥檛 see lag at all until I started some intense multitasking which included 12 tabs open in Chrome (including the Verge鈥檚 incredibly heavy front page), a document open and a video playing in the background.The 6y30 is also more than adequate for some light Photoshop and Premiere, I actually produced the entire GizChina review video on this laptop and I didn鈥檛 see much lag during editing. However, encoding the video took almost 5 times as long as my desktop, which took about 2.5 hours.Yes you can game, but you鈥檒l be stuck with mostly light gaming such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or League of Legends. As long as you鈥檙e willing to bump things down to low settings, you can get some decent framerates.The 128GB SSD is spacious or anemic depending on how you look at it, and after installing three games and Premiere, its definitely on the anemic side. It is quite fast (it is an M.2 SSD after all) and there is a second M2 slot for another SSD if you so desire.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 ConnectivityThis laptop doesn鈥檛 score very high in the connectivity area. There is a lone USB 3.0 port for regular connectivity and a USB-C port for data and charging as well. I had hoped for at least 2 full size USB ports since there is no taper in the body preventing another one from being slotted in, but no luck here. There is a full size HDMI port which does work when I plug it into the TV. It also works when plugging it into an HDMI to VGA adapter. Question for Gizchina readers, why are VGA/HDMI adapters so expensive? It should cost $5 at most.The biggest issue I have with the laptop is the lack of an SD card slot, as that is something that I would have thought was standard in every laptop.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 VerdictThe two biggest issues (or one and a half) I see are:the battery life which is only good for about 7 hours of use, andthe operating system.Apart from these, the Xiaomi Air 12 is a solid Ultrabook. It has a good build quality, very decent performance, and a pleasing screen and speaker.However, there鈥檚 nothing extraordinary about it as Core M devices are a dime a dozen. The Xiaomi Air 12 enters a crowded market with no real standout specifications except for the price. The after tax and shipping price of $580 is not that great a deal in the North American market.Why? The fault lies with the frequent sale prices on many notebooks. The ASUS UX305CA can be had for $599USD before tax, and a myriad of non Ultrabooks (think large, heavy, battery hogs) with Core i5 processors are regularly priced at $400 and below on sale.However, if you place both laptops side by side the UX305 looks quite ugly and dated beside the Xiaomi Air 12 due to its large bezels. Those of you with tight budgets probably don鈥檛 care too much about aesthetic anyway.All that said, this is going to become my daily driver going forward, and I enjoyed my time with the Xiaomi Air 12 immensely. Portability is key, and this ultrabook excels in that regard.I would like to thank Gearbest for sending out this review unit, and if you would like to buy one, you can do so here.“a great first laptop for xiaomi”Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 Video ReviewThe Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 (shortened to the Xiaomi Air 12) is Xiaomi鈥檚 first shot at an ultrabook and they almost hit the bull鈥檚-eye. There is no shortage of Core M Ultrabooks or convertibles out there, with two notable examples being the incredibly popular 12鈥 MacBook or the considerably less popular Surface Pro 4. Both utilize the same Core M 6y30 processor found in the Xiaomi Air 12 but differ in other areas.However, both of those devices cost well over $1000 which is priced right out of the burgeoning market for affordable ultrabooks.Enter the ASUS UX305. Wait what? Isn鈥檛 this review about the Air 12? Yes it is, but even though the Xiaomi Air 12 is clearly aimed at Apple鈥檚 12鈥 MacBook, its stiffest competition comes not from the $1300 MacBook, but from the $650 ASUS Ultrabook.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 Full ReviewStarting at $500, the Xiaomi Air 12 boasts possibly the lowest聽MSRP price for an Ultrabook utilizing the Core M 6y30 processor. However, reseller prices rise up to around $580-600USD, making this much less of a deal. However, the Xiaomi Air 12 will go on sale during the November 11th event in China, bringing the price down much, much closer to the MSRP price in China.Xiaomi swung for the fences and almost hit a home run, hampered a little by a couple of things. Is this laptop worth your money? Read on to find out why this laptop is almost perfect.“Almost perfect”聽Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 SpecificationsProcessorIntel Core M 6y30 Dual CoreDisplay12.5″ 1920 x 1080 px, IPS LCDRAM4GBStorage128GB SSDOperating SystemWindows 10Cameras720p WebcamBattery7.2V 5000mAh (3.6V 10,000mAh)Physical Properties1070g, 292 x 202 x 12.9 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit. I used the Xiaomi Air 12 Ultrabook with an unactivated version of English Windows 10.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 HardwareFlashy, LED lit gaming laptops are definitely not my jam. I prefer spartan, industrial, and sleek designs in my laptops, but the Xiaomi Air 12 seems to follow that mantra a little too much. The lack of the logo really draws the wrong kind of attention to the laptop, making people take notice of this logoless device.It really does resemble factory OEM laptops that are shown off at trade shows, ready for any brand to purchase a huge number of them and slap their own logo on said device.It鈥檚 incredibly portable, measuring about 12mm longer than the 12鈥 MacBook and a tad weightier because of the slightly larger screen. Even though the laptop is technically thinner than the MacBook at its thickest point, it feels bigger because it does not taper the same way the MacBook does, keeping the same thickness throughout.It鈥檚 made out of brushed aluminum and in terms of build quality, it challenges the best of the best with ease. You can open the lid with one hand and it opens to around 120 degrees, which is pretty limiting if confined in a small area like a plane.Once open, the 12.5鈥 screen and bezels can be seen. The bezels around the screen are small, not XPS13 infinity edge small, but MacBook small with the bottom bezel significantly larger than the side ones. The keyboard is backlit individually and the keys themselves have really good travel since the body doesn鈥檛 taper but the keys are a tad on the mushy side.It doesn鈥檛 have the crisp feedback I鈥檓 used to on a desktop keyboard but is more akin to the XPS13. However, it鈥檚 a much better typing experience compared to the 12鈥 MacBook though because there鈥檚 actual key travel. There is a certain attention to detail here, as the power button requires significantly more force to depress than the other keys. You find a full size HDMI port and headphone jack on one side and a full size USB 3.0 port as well as a USB-C port that is capable of charging, data transfer, and display output. The Notebook Air exhibits excellent build quality in a compact and portable body, but the lack of aesthetic does make this laptop look plain.“Top notch build quality”Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 DisplayLaptop screens are broaching the 2K resolution barrier more and more, with many laptops coming with 2K display options like the ASUS UX305 and the XPS 13. Others like the 12鈥 MacBook and the Yoga 2 Pro come with a high resolution screen as a default.However, we have a rather standard 1080p IPS display that recreates colours quite nicely. 1080p is still fairly聽sharp for a 12.5鈥 display that is used farther than 30cm (12鈥? away, and should help with the battery life. It goes to a maximum of 300cd/m2 which isn鈥檛 quite bright enough for use in direct sunlight, but it is bright enough to fight through indirect light.It is annoyingly reflective even though there is a laminated screen, so you do get reflections in certain situations. When you close the lid of the notebook, there is a tiny gap between the screen and the keyboard so it won鈥檛 get scratched either.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 AudioGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram“great volume, decent quality”The two downward firing AKG speakers produce some very decent volume that is no doubt aided by the rubber feet elevating the laptop above the surface, but place it on a bed and audio gets significantly muffled. The quality of the audio is very impressive as well, lots of bass, clear mids and highs as well.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 BatteryBattery life for me is make or break in smartphones which does make sense since its with me all the time. Battery life is still extremely important in notebooks, but because I鈥檓 usually not using it 24/7, I鈥檓 a little bit easier on it.That being said, the battery life here is not great at all. It gets around 6-7 hours of screen on time throughout the day consisting mostly of web browsing, some YouTube and typing out some blog posts and Word documents. Compare that to the XPS13 and the MacBook, both of those last almost twice as long as the Xiaomi Air 12 does.I did the web browsing test and it died after 6.5 hours while I could play back video for almost 8 hours. Charging is surprisingly fast, I could charge it about 50% in 40 minutes and 100% in about one and a half hours.One minor thing is that the charging cable colour is a very dirty white. I tried cleaning it off but it looks like that鈥檚 the colour of the cable, I guess to better hide any dirt that would get on the cable when on the lfoor. Battery life could definitely be better on this device, and only light and medium users can get through a day without charging.“average battery”Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 SoftwareSoftware is the biggest issue here. Because this device is intended for users in China, it comes with one of two Windows 10 options; first, is a single-language Chinese Windows 10 installation and the second, an unactivated version of English Windows.Unfortunately, you cannot reuse the Chinese Windows 10 key in a fresh install of English Windows 10 as they are not compatible.There are two solutions here. Either you purchase a license key for Windows or you learn Chinese. This is a huge disadvantage as it adds an extra $100 to the price of the laptop, effectively rendering it a cold deal. Unless you鈥檙e willing to follow the ways of seafaring rogues, you鈥檙e out of luck. That being said, unactivated Windows 10 doesn鈥檛 actually disable much functionality, just integration with your Microsoft account.Apart from the OS issues, the Core M 6y30 performs well. Its aim is to offer splendid day to day performance similar to that of say, a Core i5 and it succeeds in that regard. I didn鈥檛 see lag at all until I started some intense multitasking which included 12 tabs open in Chrome (including the Verge鈥檚 incredibly heavy front page), a document open and a video playing in the background.The 6y30 is also more than adequate for some light Photoshop and Premiere, I actually produced the entire GizChina review video on this laptop and I didn鈥檛 see much lag during editing. However, encoding the video took almost 5 times as long as my desktop, which took about 2.5 hours.Yes you can game, but you鈥檒l be stuck with mostly light gaming such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or League of Legends. As long as you鈥檙e willing to bump things down to low settings, you can get some decent framerates.The 128GB SSD is spacious or anemic depending on how you look at it, and after installing three games and Premiere, its definitely on the anemic side. It is quite fast (it is an M.2 SSD after all) and there is a second M2 slot for another SSD if you so desire.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 ConnectivityThis laptop doesn鈥檛 score very high in the connectivity area. There is a lone USB 3.0 port for regular connectivity and a USB-C port for data and charging as well. I had hoped for at least 2 full size USB ports since there is no taper in the body preventing another one from being slotted in, but no luck here. There is a full size HDMI port which does work when I plug it into the TV. It also works when plugging it into an HDMI to VGA adapter. Question for Gizchina readers, why are VGA/HDMI adapters so expensive? It should cost $5 at most.The biggest issue I have with the laptop is the lack of an SD card slot, as that is something that I would have thought was standard in every laptop.Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 VerdictThe two biggest issues (or one and a half) I see are:the battery life which is only good for about 7 hours of use, andthe operating system.Apart from these, the Xiaomi Air 12 is a solid Ultrabook. It has a good build quality, very decent performance, and a pleasing screen and speaker.However, there鈥檚 nothing extraordinary about it as Core M devices are a dime a dozen. The Xiaomi Air 12 enters a crowded market with no real standout specifications except for the price. The after tax and shipping price of $580 is not that great a deal in the North American market.Why? The fault lies with the frequent sale prices on many notebooks. The ASUS UX305CA can be had for $599USD before tax, and a myriad of non Ultrabooks (think large, heavy, battery hogs) with Core i5 processors are regularly priced at $400 and below on sale.However, if you place both laptops side by side the UX305 looks quite ugly and dated beside the Xiaomi Air 12 due to its large bezels. Those of you with tight budgets probably don鈥檛 care too much about aesthetic anyway.All that said, this is going to become my daily driver going forward, and I enjoyed my time with the Xiaomi Air 12 immensely. Portability is key, and this ultrabook excels in that regard.I would like to thank Gearbest for sending out this review unit, and if you would like to buy one, you can do so here.“a great first laptop for xiaomi”Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12 Video ReviewI鈥檝e never been a fanboy of any smartphone or laptop company as I review so many devices on a regular basis, but my relationship with Chuwi devices is as close as it gets. Ever since my first Chuwi device, the Chuwi Vi10, their products have been consistently good, and many of them great also.Chuwi Lapbook Air ReviewThis is without a doubt the finest laptop Chuwi has ever made, and they have created a perfectly balanced laptop that is sure to satisfy everybody looking at an Apollo Lake device. A metal chassis, abundance of ports, and a great screen is just half of what the Lapbook Air offers. However, it has a massive flaw, and that would be the price. The Lapbook Air commands a huge premium over the similarly performing Chuwi Lapbook 14.1 which admittedly doesn鈥檛 have as many accoutrements as this Air, but is good where it counts. Let鈥檚 see what Chuwi has done.Chuwi’s BestChuwi Lapbook Air SpecificationsProcessorIntel Apollo Lake N3450Display14.1″ 1920×1080 Glossy LCD DisplayRAM8GBStorage128GB SSDOperating SystemWindows 10Cameras5MP CameraBattery10,000mAhPhysical Dimensions32.92 x 22.05 x 2.05 cm, 1.74 kgBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Chuwi Lapbook Air HardwareThis Chuwi laptop is worthy of the 鈥淎ir鈥 moniker. With a body made of handsome, aircraft grade aluminum, the Air cuts a very nice figure. The chromed, chamfered edges shimmer prettily with the matte body providing a striking contrast (you can tell I鈥檓 gushing at this point).We are given an excellent array of ports, two full size USB ports, a headphone jack (rarer and rarer nowadays), microSD card slot, and a full size HDMI port. Full size HDMI ports on these ultraportable laptops have been life savers on many occasions (on my Xiaomi Air 12) and I salute Chuwi for including one here. If I were to complain about port selection, it would be the lack of a USB-C port (or a microUSB port). I wish companies like Chuwi would not only include these ports but use USB-C for charging instead of regular DC ports.Opening up the laptop, I鈥檓 greeted by black bezels around the screen. These black bezels are not exactly large or unsightly, but they aren鈥檛 tiny either. The Chuwi Lapbook 14.1 had very thin side bezels, why couldn鈥檛 the Chuwi Lapbook Air? Nevertheless, the bezels while not huge are not as small as they could be either.The keyboard here provides adequate travel and adequate feedback when depressed, I was able to type very easily on this laptop. Its backlit as well, but the backlighting is somewhat uneven, making it look slightly cheap. However, the backlighting does come in very useful in dark situations. I do have one complaint, and that would be the pressure required to depress the power button. It鈥檚 the exact same as the other keys, meaning that you will definitely press it by mistake, putting the computer to sleep. I would have much preferred a power key that required significantly more pressure to press than this did.The trackpad here is excellent, very accurate, multi-finger gestures are nice and smooth, it looks like Chinese manufacturers are quickly catching up to their bigger competitors in terms of multi-finger gesture software. Left and right clicks require quite a bit of effort to press, thus I usually rely on a light tap to activate the capacitive click instead of a physical one.The trackpad surface is also unnaturally sticky, to the point of interfering with an otherwise normal finger slide. Wiping it down with a cloth does wear down the surface coating somewhat.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramExquisiteChuwi Lapbook Air DisplayThe 14.1鈥 IPS LCD is glossy, which makes it a pleasure to look at. Colours popped out of the screen and colour saturation was more than satisfactory also. Text looked crisp from regular laptop viewing distances and viewing angles are similarly good. Maximum brightness isn鈥檛 great though, maxing out at 250 nits, not bright enough even in shade outdoors.Chuwi Lapbook Air AudioThe speakers are decidedly the weakest part of the laptop. Audio volume is adequate but not loud, and audio quality involves fairly average treble, below average bass, and less than crystal clear differentiation. Its definitely useable in every day life to watch movies or Youtube, but your phone most likely has better speakers than this for listening to music.Chuwi Lapbook Air BatteryBattery life on the laptop is fairly characteristic for Apollo Lake laptops, the typical 10,000mAh battery can power the laptop for about 6 hours of web browsing if using Chrome and about 8 hours using Microsoft Edge. Understandably, this is at lower brightness levels, turn the brightness up or play a game and battery life will take a nosedive. While this isn鈥檛 ideal battery life, its not out of the ordinary for laptops utilizing the Apollo Lake chipset.Average battery lifeChuwi Lapbook Air Software & PerformanceWe have activated Windows 10 on the laptop and this is installed on a 128GB eMMC. eMMC drives aren鈥檛 the fastest, and this Sandisk eMMC is not the fastest eMMC drive on the market today. I did see slight lag here and there that I didn’t otherwise see on a faster eMMC, but you can still do many聽 basic things with ease, web browsing in Chrome, email, word etc. I was able to do some photo editing and basic video editing on this laptop but its not recommended as video editing is slow. Gaming performance is also typical of Apollo Lake devices, it struggled with 720p DOTA2, outputting 25-30FPS. Civilization 6 at 1080p was reduced to 10-15FPS, basically a slideshow at this point. This is definitely not a gaming laptop but you can run some older and lighter games on this laptop, Stardew Valley runs beautifully. The laptop does get quite warm during gaming and benchmarks, but the internal temperatures never got high enough to throttle the processor.Chuwi Lapbook Air ConnectivityChuwi has installed a dual band WiFi chip inside the laptop which was able to provide some very fast internet speeds, I experienced no issues with speed or range during my testing at all, standing with the best laptops in terms of connectivity. Bluetooth works well with all my devices also.Chuwi Lapbook Air VerdictUnfortunately, I still have to give this Lapbook Air a solid 鈥渄on鈥檛 buy鈥? Even though Chuwi has slam dunked this Lapbook Air, making this pretty much the best Apollo Lake laptop available on the market today, the price is still too high. Selling for a rather exorbitant $379.99 USD, this laptop is not worth the money when a no sale Chuwi Lapbook 14.1鈥 costs $250 and a Jumper EZBook 3 Pro costs $240. Sure, these two latter laptops are worse than the Chuwi Lapbook Air, but not $100 worse. However, bring that price down to $300 or even $330 and the Lapbook Air turns into a solid buy. Buy the Chuwi Lapbook AirOnikuma is a company well known during the past few years for providing a decent range of gaming accessories – but where they trylly do a great job is on their gaming headsets segment (ok, their keyboards too). Recently I got the Onikuma K6 Gaming Headset for a small review and I can safely say that – given its current price at 27鈧?/a> it’s a solid device that offered some impressive performance coming out of its box!It comes with an aggressive look that most gamers will love, but the real question here is: how does it sound? Well here’s my opinion of the Onikuma K6 Gaming Headset after almost 10 days of using it!聽I really enjoyed the sturdyness of the Onikuma K6, as it proved to be quite decent in every day usage. It’s a rather large headphone, with a wide band on top – able to adjust for聽length by about an inch on either side. The ear cups don’t articulate to better hit the sides of your head straight on, but there’s about an inch of pleather-coated padding on both ear cups that removes the need for extra moving parts.Grab the Onikume K6 Gaming Headset from Amazon!One of my main concerns with this headset at first was its weight, as it seems (and feels huge), but in the end I had no issues at all wearing it for several hours聽continuously. The padding on the headband is also very soft, so your head will not ache, and moreover it’s聽just tight enough to not move around, removing the need for constant adjustments while you’re playing.One of the most impressive features of the device is – no doubt- its LED lighting on the outer part of the ear cups. When lit, it looks like a small turbine I guess and in the specific model it’s in red/black color. However when you plug in the USB port that comes with the standard cable of the headset and enable the mic,聽you get an accent that switches between red, green, blue, purple, yellow and teal- depending on which product you bought.It’s a great addition for anyone who wants their gaming gear to light up, and you can always unplug the USB-A cable to go dark.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe聽Onikuma K6 comes with an almost 2,7m long cable that splits at the bottom for USB and 3.5 mm, and there’s another splitter included in the box if you’re using the headset with your PC (which requires mic-in and audio-in).聽 As for consoles, you’ll only get the extra lighting if you plug in with USB, which in a lot of cases isn’t possible because you’re hooked up to your controller. For those of you using the first-generation Xbox One controllers, a separate聽Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter聽is needed for full functionality.聽Sound performanceI cannot complain about the sound quality, having spent only 26 Euros on this impressive headset. Obviously it’s no match to other higher quality PC Gaming headsets that cost 80-90-100+ Euros but still, it completely covered my needs. It’s great for listening to music, podcasts, some PC gaming and the bass is VERY good!聽There’s a quite thick padding around the cups that does a decent job of cutting out ambient sound around you, giving a nice immersive feeling while you’re in a game. Note that you can also cut-out the mic if you don’t want to talk, or don’t want others listening to you 馃槈What we didn’t likeAfter 10 days of heavy usage, there’s so few things that could have bothered me… in fact only one. I think that some times the headset had mic looping and those were the times that my friends at the Battlefielf Squad told me that they could hear my audio coming from across the mic – especially when the mic volume was turned to max.聽One solution was to put the mic a bit further from my face/mouth. I was then able to realise that it did a very good work, as its sensitivity was good enough to grab sounds even from 1-2 meters far.Onikuma K6 gaming headset: our verdictIf I were to choose a gaming headset based on its worth, then this would be on the first places of my list. If you’re an average user who likes to play typical PC games (NOT heavy duty), enjoys some impressive LED lighting then the聽Onikuma K6 will surely do the job for you.聽It comes with a really long cable, more that 8ft /2.5m long, and provides quite clear sound with some good bass and typical performance. I loved the padding and the size of the ear cups, as they stayed in place for long, with minimal weight on my ears. I think most of you out there will enjoy using it for several hours/day.Onikuma is a company well known during the past few years for providing a decent range of gaming accessories – but where they trylly do a great job is on their gaming headsets segment (ok, their keyboards too). Recently I got the Onikuma K6 Gaming Headset for a small review and I can safely say that – given its current price at 27鈧?/a> it’s a solid device that offered some impressive performance coming out of its box!It comes with an aggressive look that most gamers will love, but the real question here is: how does it sound? Well here’s my opinion of the Onikuma K6 Gaming Headset after almost 10 days of using it!聽I really enjoyed the sturdyness of the Onikuma K6, as it proved to be quite decent in every day usage. It’s a rather large headphone, with a wide band on top – able to adjust for聽length by about an inch on either side. The ear cups don’t articulate to better hit the sides of your head straight on, but there’s about an inch of pleather-coated padding on both ear cups that removes the need for extra moving parts.Grab the Onikume K6 Gaming Headset from Amazon!One of my main concerns with this headset at first was its weight, as it seems (and feels huge), but in the end I had no issues at all wearing it for several hours聽continuously. The padding on the headband is also very soft, so your head will not ache, and moreover it’s聽just tight enough to not move around, removing the need for constant adjustments while you’re playing.One of the most impressive features of the device is – no doubt- its LED lighting on the outer part of the ear cups. When lit, it looks like a small turbine I guess and in the specific model it’s in red/black color. However when you plug in the USB port that comes with the standard cable of the headset and enable the mic,聽you get an accent that switches between red, green, blue, purple, yellow and teal- depending on which product you bought.It’s a great addition for anyone who wants their gaming gear to light up, and you can always unplug the USB-A cable to go dark.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe聽Onikuma K6 comes with an almost 2,7m long cable that splits at the bottom for USB and 3.5 mm, and there’s another splitter included in the box if you’re using the headset with your PC (which requires mic-in and audio-in).聽 As for consoles, you’ll only get the extra lighting if you plug in with USB, which in a lot of cases isn’t possible because you’re hooked up to your controller. For those of you using the first-generation Xbox One controllers, a separate聽Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter聽is needed for full functionality.聽Sound performanceI cannot complain about the sound quality, having spent only 26 Euros on this impressive headset. Obviously it’s no match to other higher quality PC Gaming headsets that cost 80-90-100+ Euros but still, it completely covered my needs. It’s great for listening to music, podcasts, some PC gaming and the bass is VERY good!聽There’s a quite thick padding around the cups that does a decent job of cutting out ambient sound around you, giving a nice immersive feeling while you’re in a game. Note that you can also cut-out the mic if you don’t want to talk, or don’t want others listening to you 馃槈What we didn’t likeAfter 10 days of heavy usage, there’s so few things that could have bothered me… in fact only one. I think that some times the headset had mic looping and those were the times that my friends at the Battlefielf Squad told me that they could hear my audio coming from across the mic – especially when the mic volume was turned to max.聽One solution was to put the mic a bit further from my face/mouth. I was then able to realise that it did a very good work, as its sensitivity was good enough to grab sounds even from 1-2 meters far.Onikuma K6 gaming headset: our verdictIf I were to choose a gaming headset based on its worth, then this would be on the first places of my list. If you’re an average user who likes to play typical PC games (NOT heavy duty), enjoys some impressive LED lighting then the聽Onikuma K6 will surely do the job for you.聽It comes with a really long cable, more that 8ft /2.5m long, and provides quite clear sound with some good bass and typical performance. I loved the padding and the size of the ear cups, as they stayed in place for long, with minimal weight on my ears. I think most of you out there will enjoy using it for several hours/day.

It’s the era of dual camera, full-display, 18:9 smartphones guys and the Chinese industry is full of them, I’m sure you have figured it out by now. Leagoo is no stranger to us, we have been reviewing their smartphones for years now, but this specific model is one of their largest bets in the market. It’s called Leagoo S8 and obviously it’s being sold as a typical Galaxy S8 clone with a very affordable price, decent specs and a typical 18:9 full display design.It’s not a phone that made me lose my sleep over its performance, nor a device that I will remember for years to come. Leagoo however aims high with this model and I believe that it can give them the momentum they need in the low-end/mid-range segment of the market.聽At this point, you all know that this year鈥檚 fashion is the non-beveled screens. This trend, inaugurated by the LG G6 and Galaxy S8, has been unequally tracked among smartphone manufacturers. But in China, where this market is clearly booming, they have been delighted by the idea and have thrown themselves into it. Leagoo was one of the first to dive in and they recently launched their own “S8” model, packing聽a 5.7-inch with 18:9 aspect ratio, offering聽quite adequate performance, running on Android 7.0 Nougat, along with an MT6750T chipset, 3GB of RAM and quad cameras (two on each side). It’s available at an affordable price – when compared to its specs- and can easily become one decent alternative for all of you out there who wish to delve into the聽competitive market with out risking too much money. Let鈥檚 take a close look at its features and functions.Leagoo S8 – Technical specificationsDisplay: 5.72鈥 HD+ IPS, 1440 x 720 Pixels, 282ppiCPU: MT6750T Octa Core, Frequency: 1.5GHz28nm technologySystem:聽Android 7.0RAM + ROM:聽3GB RAM聽+聽32GB ROMCamera:聽8.0MP + 2.0MP front camera (OV8856)聽+聽13.0MP +2MP聽back camera (SONY:IMX258)Sensor:聽Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Gravity Sensor, Proximity SensorSIM Card: dual SIM dual standby. 1 Micro SIM card + 1 Nano SIM cardFeature:聽GPS, A-GPSCharger:聽 USB 5V/2.0ANetwork: 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz –聽3G: WCDMA 850/900/2100MHz –聽4G: FDD-LTE 800/850/900/2100/2600MHz TDD-LTE B40Leagoo S8 review:聽Design and general appearanceThe overall design of the phone is quite attractive. It comes with a dual-curved back panel that fits well on the metal framed with a CNC crafting. Thanks to them the device fits greatly into the hand and provides a comfortable grip. As it happens with most phones with “glossy” back, the device is a pure fingerprint “magnet”, attracting a lot of unnecessary smudges, so you may end up polishing it with… your clothes all day 馃檪If first impressions matter the most, then the Leagoo S8 made a… typical one. The device’s display is made by Sharp but… it seems yellowish if you look at it from certain angles. It’s size is 5.7-inches and it offers a typical HD+ resolution (1440 x 720 pixels) for the average user,聽but seems smaller even than a 5.2-inch. The main reason for this is the width of the screen that has remained unchanged, and only the length has increased. The advantage is that without sacrificing grip handling experience, the display area is now bigger, fitting for one hand operation.聽The contrast ratio is 1500:1, while the phone comes with a 282 ppi pixel density.Leagoo aims at the low-mid segment of the market with this phone, yet they still provided it with聽153.5 脳 70.7 脳 9.1 mm聽dimensions that lead to an impressive usability index. On the front there’s a dual selfie camera and 3 soft keys (no home button), on the back side, it has another dual camera setup, LED flash light and a quite snappy fingerprint sensor.聽It can unlock the phone in less than 0.1 second with almost 97% success rate. It can basically store up to 5 different fingerprints and can recognize them all from 360 degrees, something that鈥檚 a standard nowadays.聽I have to say it again: the colors of the display may seem rather washed, but the images are decent (given its low resolution for such a display size), with good viewing angles and a fully responsive panel if I may add. All in all it’s a decent display 鈥 the kind you’d expect from a smartphone on this price range.聽Leagoo S8 main featuresAndroid 7.0 Nougat聽OSFingerprint Id sensor lock with 360-degree readability4G/VoLTE network (LTE Cat 6 Protocol).Quad Camera. Dual Camera on both sides1440 x 720 HD+ displayFill display with just 1.8mm thin Bezel.5V2A Quick Charge (micro-USB connector)Hardware & PerformanceWhen it comes to hardware, the device comes equipped with a MediaTek MT6750T SoC, that specifically runs at 1.5 GHz (4 ARM Cortex-A53 cores), while 4 more of the same cores run at a lower speed (1GHz). The integrated graphics card (Mali T860MP) runs at 650MHz, but the total 3GB of RAM and the 32GB storage capacity combine to offer a decent performance for a phone that costs just 125,99$. Oh, you’ll be happy to know that the phone’s storage memory can be expanded by an additional microSD card to a further 128GB. According to my tests, the available RAM seems plenty聽enough for you to run all your day to day apps smoothly, and the gaming performance is decent if you play games like Asphalt 8 on medium graphics. Still, you should expect some skipped frames but no significant lag during app usage. One thing you might face however is some lags with the default launcher and the fluidity of the animations that Leagoo has chosen, meaning that it’s a software related issue. If you use another launcher however, the performance of the device is much smoother.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram To confirm our deductions, do have a look at the benchmark results of the device as they appear above, showing the Leagoo S8 scoring聽41865 points in AnTuTu.聽 The Leagoo S8 comes with聽dual-4G connectivity due to the chip that integrates a Cat. 6 LTE radio modem (FDD/TDD, DC-HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000, EDGE) with both 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth. On the modem side, the MT6750T covers the worldwide 4G spectrum and enables advanced 4G LTE Cat-6 (LTE FDD/TDD R11) features with 2x Carrier Aggregation, along with capability for VoLTE, ViLTE, VoWiFi, RCS Fast data transfers. One of its plus features is the performance of its GPS/A-GPS receiver,聽and this is where the device really shines. It can connect to more than 11-12 of the available satellites every time, offering impressive geo-location performance, while navigating with Google Maps, or checking in using Facebook and other apps.聽Leagoo S8 is a 4G/LTE smartphone with good performance when it comes to LTE networks, achieving average data speeds of 45-55Mbps that surely offer a decent feeling when you use it, along with great performance in everyday use. It has good GSM/WCDMA/LTE signal reception with flawless handovers and no dropped calls 鈥 during my tests that is.Camera performanceNo, nothing to see here guys. Despite what some of you might expect from a camera smartphone, its imaging features are really good for the amateur user or someone who likes taking photos for social media sharing at the most. Note however that the Leagoo S8 is the world鈥檚 first 18:9 full-screen quad-camera handset. This basically means that there are dual-camera sensors on the back as well as on the front. The back carries a 13+2MP camera with a Sony lens and an aperture of f/2.0. They are placed vertically in the upper middle part of the phone. The flashlight is above them, while the fingerprint scanner with a square shape is below them.not its best feature but it will do the jobIt鈥檚 relatively easy to capture decent photos in daylight conditions, panoramic images with a helpful assistant that shows the way to do it correctly and the same goes for video capture. However when the sun goes down problems appear, such as VERY low ISO, increased digital noise in photos and reduced framerate in videos.聽The autofocus feature works OK, it’s fast and can take a shot in just 0.1 seconds. The front 8+2MP OV dual-camera comes with 4P lens, f/2.0 aperture and its own soft-flash that can be useful in low-light conditions.聽All of the above however are typical for this type of phones, and the final verdict is that using the Leagoo S8 you will be able to capture decent photos in daylight conditions but not that impressive photos during low light conditions.The LED flash works OK in close ups or distances up to 70-80cm but it won鈥檛 do you any good if your subject is a bit further.聽Have a look at our photo samples by clicking on the image below:Battery consumptionThe battery of the device offers a capacity of 2950 mAh which is just adequate for one day of intensive usage. The claimed approximation of battery life is 8 hours of video play, 20 hours of continuous calling, 36 hours of regular use and… 10 days standby. Obviously these are the times that Leagoo provides, so we can opt not to believe them.聽During our tests, the Leagoo S8 managed to get almost 18 hours of usage, until its battery reached 1% and… was put to sleep. What’s interesting though is its charging speed, that can bring this beauty from 0% to 100% in approximately 39 minutes which is really good I guess if you’re in a hurry and want to get some “juice” as quickly as possible. We all have the 5V2A Quick Charge compatibility of the device to thank for this, ok?Conclusion 鈥 Our thoughtsnice design, affordable but… something is missingWell… I cannot say that I was impressed by what I saw from this beautiful device from Leagoo. On one hand you get a pretty impressive looking Galaxy S8 clone, with good quality build, decent storage and typical everyday performance but… on the other hand there are things that could disappoint you.聽Take the UI for example. Leagoo has used their own launcher, theme, animations, turn off displays, and it doesn’t seem as “fluid” as one would expect from a phone with 3GB of RAM and a decent SoC. Sometimes the small lags will annoy you if you’re an experienced user or if you try to open more than 8-9 apps simultaneously.The camera performance is typical for a Chinese smartphone in this price range, but the bokeh photos have room for improvement. The same goes for the HDR photos, Panorama shots and videos.Equipped with 3GB RAM, 32GB of storage, Android Nougat, but an average chipset from Mediatek (MTK6750T), Leagoo S8 could be (possibly) what every amateur user is looking for. No need to spend a small salary to buy an expensive flagship if you’re into a typical everyday use. This could be a good alternative if you ask me, but there are better devices out there聽 – at the same price range – definitely.It’s the era of dual camera, full-display, 18:9 smartphones guys and the Chinese industry is full of them, I’m sure you have figured it out by now. Leagoo is no stranger to us, we have been reviewing their smartphones for years now, but this specific model is one of their largest bets in the market. It’s called Leagoo S8 and obviously it’s being sold as a typical Galaxy S8 clone with a very affordable price, decent specs and a typical 18:9 full display design.It’s not a phone that made me lose my sleep over its performance, nor a device that I will remember for years to come. Leagoo however aims high with this model and I believe that it can give them the momentum they need in the low-end/mid-range segment of the market.聽At this point, you all know that this year鈥檚 fashion is the non-beveled screens. This trend, inaugurated by the LG G6 and Galaxy S8, has been unequally tracked among smartphone manufacturers. But in China, where this market is clearly booming, they have been delighted by the idea and have thrown themselves into it. Leagoo was one of the first to dive in and they recently launched their own “S8” model, packing聽a 5.7-inch with 18:9 aspect ratio, offering聽quite adequate performance, running on Android 7.0 Nougat, along with an MT6750T chipset, 3GB of RAM and quad cameras (two on each side). It’s available at an affordable price – when compared to its specs- and can easily become one decent alternative for all of you out there who wish to delve into the聽competitive market with out risking too much money. Let鈥檚 take a close look at its features and functions.Leagoo S8 – Technical specificationsDisplay: 5.72鈥 HD+ IPS, 1440 x 720 Pixels, 282ppiCPU: MT6750T Octa Core, Frequency: 1.5GHz28nm technologySystem:聽Android 7.0RAM + ROM:聽3GB RAM聽+聽32GB ROMCamera:聽8.0MP + 2.0MP front camera (OV8856)聽+聽13.0MP +2MP聽back camera (SONY:IMX258)Sensor:聽Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Gravity Sensor, Proximity SensorSIM Card: dual SIM dual standby. 1 Micro SIM card + 1 Nano SIM cardFeature:聽GPS, A-GPSCharger:聽 USB 5V/2.0ANetwork: 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz –聽3G: WCDMA 850/900/2100MHz –聽4G: FDD-LTE 800/850/900/2100/2600MHz TDD-LTE B40Leagoo S8 review:聽Design and general appearanceThe overall design of the phone is quite attractive. It comes with a dual-curved back panel that fits well on the metal framed with a CNC crafting. Thanks to them the device fits greatly into the hand and provides a comfortable grip. As it happens with most phones with “glossy” back, the device is a pure fingerprint “magnet”, attracting a lot of unnecessary smudges, so you may end up polishing it with… your clothes all day 馃檪If first impressions matter the most, then the Leagoo S8 made a… typical one. The device’s display is made by Sharp but… it seems yellowish if you look at it from certain angles. It’s size is 5.7-inches and it offers a typical HD+ resolution (1440 x 720 pixels) for the average user,聽but seems smaller even than a 5.2-inch. The main reason for this is the width of the screen that has remained unchanged, and only the length has increased. The advantage is that without sacrificing grip handling experience, the display area is now bigger, fitting for one hand operation.聽The contrast ratio is 1500:1, while the phone comes with a 282 ppi pixel density.Leagoo aims at the low-mid segment of the market with this phone, yet they still provided it with聽153.5 脳 70.7 脳 9.1 mm聽dimensions that lead to an impressive usability index. On the front there’s a dual selfie camera and 3 soft keys (no home button), on the back side, it has another dual camera setup, LED flash light and a quite snappy fingerprint sensor.聽It can unlock the phone in less than 0.1 second with almost 97% success rate. It can basically store up to 5 different fingerprints and can recognize them all from 360 degrees, something that鈥檚 a standard nowadays.聽I have to say it again: the colors of the display may seem rather washed, but the images are decent (given its low resolution for such a display size), with good viewing angles and a fully responsive panel if I may add. All in all it’s a decent display 鈥 the kind you’d expect from a smartphone on this price range.聽Leagoo S8 main featuresAndroid 7.0 Nougat聽OSFingerprint Id sensor lock with 360-degree readability4G/VoLTE network (LTE Cat 6 Protocol).Quad Camera. Dual Camera on both sides1440 x 720 HD+ displayFill display with just 1.8mm thin Bezel.5V2A Quick Charge (micro-USB connector)Hardware & PerformanceWhen it comes to hardware, the device comes equipped with a MediaTek MT6750T SoC, that specifically runs at 1.5 GHz (4 ARM Cortex-A53 cores), while 4 more of the same cores run at a lower speed (1GHz). The integrated graphics card (Mali T860MP) runs at 650MHz, but the total 3GB of RAM and the 32GB storage capacity combine to offer a decent performance for a phone that costs just 125,99$. Oh, you’ll be happy to know that the phone’s storage memory can be expanded by an additional microSD card to a further 128GB. According to my tests, the available RAM seems plenty聽enough for you to run all your day to day apps smoothly, and the gaming performance is decent if you play games like Asphalt 8 on medium graphics. Still, you should expect some skipped frames but no significant lag during app usage. One thing you might face however is some lags with the default launcher and the fluidity of the animations that Leagoo has chosen, meaning that it’s a software related issue. If you use another launcher however, the performance of the device is much smoother.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram To confirm our deductions, do have a look at the benchmark results of the device as they appear above, showing the Leagoo S8 scoring聽41865 points in AnTuTu.聽 The Leagoo S8 comes with聽dual-4G connectivity due to the chip that integrates a Cat. 6 LTE radio modem (FDD/TDD, DC-HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000, EDGE) with both 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth. On the modem side, the MT6750T covers the worldwide 4G spectrum and enables advanced 4G LTE Cat-6 (LTE FDD/TDD R11) features with 2x Carrier Aggregation, along with capability for VoLTE, ViLTE, VoWiFi, RCS Fast data transfers. One of its plus features is the performance of its GPS/A-GPS receiver,聽and this is where the device really shines. It can connect to more than 11-12 of the available satellites every time, offering impressive geo-location performance, while navigating with Google Maps, or checking in using Facebook and other apps.聽Leagoo S8 is a 4G/LTE smartphone with good performance when it comes to LTE networks, achieving average data speeds of 45-55Mbps that surely offer a decent feeling when you use it, along with great performance in everyday use. It has good GSM/WCDMA/LTE signal reception with flawless handovers and no dropped calls 鈥 during my tests that is.Camera performanceNo, nothing to see here guys. Despite what some of you might expect from a camera smartphone, its imaging features are really good for the amateur user or someone who likes taking photos for social media sharing at the most. Note however that the Leagoo S8 is the world鈥檚 first 18:9 full-screen quad-camera handset. This basically means that there are dual-camera sensors on the back as well as on the front. The back carries a 13+2MP camera with a Sony lens and an aperture of f/2.0. They are placed vertically in the upper middle part of the phone. The flashlight is above them, while the fingerprint scanner with a square shape is below them.not its best feature but it will do the jobIt鈥檚 relatively easy to capture decent photos in daylight conditions, panoramic images with a helpful assistant that shows the way to do it correctly and the same goes for video capture. However when the sun goes down problems appear, such as VERY low ISO, increased digital noise in photos and reduced framerate in videos.聽The autofocus feature works OK, it’s fast and can take a shot in just 0.1 seconds. The front 8+2MP OV dual-camera comes with 4P lens, f/2.0 aperture and its own soft-flash that can be useful in low-light conditions.聽All of the above however are typical for this type of phones, and the final verdict is that using the Leagoo S8 you will be able to capture decent photos in daylight conditions but not that impressive photos during low light conditions.The LED flash works OK in close ups or distances up to 70-80cm but it won鈥檛 do you any good if your subject is a bit further.聽Have a look at our photo samples by clicking on the image below:Battery consumptionThe battery of the device offers a capacity of 2950 mAh which is just adequate for one day of intensive usage. The claimed approximation of battery life is 8 hours of video play, 20 hours of continuous calling, 36 hours of regular use and… 10 days standby. Obviously these are the times that Leagoo provides, so we can opt not to believe them.聽During our tests, the Leagoo S8 managed to get almost 18 hours of usage, until its battery reached 1% and… was put to sleep. What’s interesting though is its charging speed, that can bring this beauty from 0% to 100% in approximately 39 minutes which is really good I guess if you’re in a hurry and want to get some “juice” as quickly as possible. We all have the 5V2A Quick Charge compatibility of the device to thank for this, ok?Conclusion 鈥 Our thoughtsnice design, affordable but… something is missingWell… I cannot say that I was impressed by what I saw from this beautiful device from Leagoo. On one hand you get a pretty impressive looking Galaxy S8 clone, with good quality build, decent storage and typical everyday performance but… on the other hand there are things that could disappoint you.聽Take the UI for example. Leagoo has used their own launcher, theme, animations, turn off displays, and it doesn’t seem as “fluid” as one would expect from a phone with 3GB of RAM and a decent SoC. Sometimes the small lags will annoy you if you’re an experienced user or if you try to open more than 8-9 apps simultaneously.The camera performance is typical for a Chinese smartphone in this price range, but the bokeh photos have room for improvement. The same goes for the HDR photos, Panorama shots and videos.Equipped with 3GB RAM, 32GB of storage, Android Nougat, but an average chipset from Mediatek (MTK6750T), Leagoo S8 could be (possibly) what every amateur user is looking for. No need to spend a small salary to buy an expensive flagship if you’re into a typical everyday use. This could be a good alternative if you ask me, but there are better devices out there聽 – at the same price range – definitely.

Energy has become one of our main needs these days, especially for those of us who are professionals or just like to use their tech gadgets all the time. The market nowadays is full of decent offers in terms of power banks, with battery capacities ranging from… a few hundreds mAh up to… 20.000+ mAh for those power hungry!PISEN is not a small company in this specific market segment, as they have become a smart聽technology provider with leading global sales to over 200 million customers. For more than ten years, Pisen, known for its stable performance and user-friendly designs, has provided satisfying products for customers from 35 countries and recently they were kind enough to send us their most powerful energy “machine” known as聽20000 mAh LCD Display Power Bank.Here’s how it did during our lengthy trials 馃槈PISEN 20000mAh LCD Display Power Bank – Technical SpecsModel: TS-D199Input: 5V==2AOutput 1: 5V==Smart 2AOutput 2: 5V==1ASize:161 x 83 x 63 mmWeight:475gCharging Time:11hours via 2A charger (charger is not included)You can download its official manual here. (PDF)ULTRA-LARGE CAPACITYIts main feature is the 20,000mAh capacity, that can provide enough charging power to fully charge one iPhone 7 for almost 7 times, a Galaxy S8 flagship for more than 4 times and the huge iPad Air 2 for 1.5 time.聽No doubt however that we’re talking about a heavy power bank that weighs a bit less than half a kilo (475 gr.) so it’s not something that you can easily carry on your pocket, or in a small purse. I use it in my back pack, that has an external USB port for direct charging my phone – when necessary- and this way it’s not causing any issues when travelling or walking in the city.DUAL USB OUTPUTThis is something that can surely make your day in case of… need. It comes with Dual USB Ports (2A+1A Output), that are able to detect your device intelligently and deliver the optimal charging (Up to 2A Max).聽This means that if your phone supports charging up to 1A/1.5A then the聽PISEN 20000mAh LCD Display Power Bank will regulate the current in order to charge the phone safely. If on the other hand there’s a device that can withstand up to 2A of charging, then you will get the full charging power of the device.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramLCD DIGITAL DISPLAYYepp, this is a feature I really enjoyed using. The PISEN 20000mAh LCD Display Power Bank comes with a pretty accurate LCD display, that聽shows you the remaining power in percentage – 1% accuracy minimum. It also shows which port you’re using at each time (OUT1 – OUT2) and it has a smart function that can annoy you, when it needs to be recharged.聽To activate the LCD display you just have to long press the power button for 2 seconds. Don’t worry about energy consumption, as the backlight goes out in 15 Seconds to save energy.easy to use display, with 1% accuracyCHARGE & DISCHARGE SWITCHSo how do we turn the juice on? Juts connect the power station with your device and power supply simultaneously with the micro USB cable provided (if your phone supports it) or your own cable (Lightning or USB Type-C). When you’re done, long press the power button for 2 seconds to switch the charging & discharging mode freely.聽That’s all, the charging procedure will begin 馃檪COOL UNDER PRESSUREThe battery pack uses exclusive technology developed by Pisen engineers to control its temperature when charging. If high temperatures are detected then it automatically modifies power output to reduce heat. It also has a security feature that can spot any short-circuits and cut-off charging procedure for protection.聽According to the manufacturer, the聽Pisen 20000mAh external battery charger provides over-charge, over-discharge, over-heat, over-voltage, over-current and short circuit protection. This means that in any given situation you will be protected if something might go wrong with a cable, an over-charge of your smartphone/tablet or just a mishap.Our opinionWith a starting price tag of just 28$ this massive 20000 mAh power bank from Pisen proved to be decent for its money’s worth, fulfilling completely all my charging needs for my smartphone, laptop and my wife’s phone as well, with one single charge.聽It takes quite sometime to charge it with a 2A charger (11 hours per average) but then you will be able to use it for several days with no issues. It offers impressive performance in everyday use, quite good quality build (with faux leather design) and you can find it available in two colors: white and black.You can buy the聽PISEN 20000mAh LCD Display Power Bank here.Energy has become one of our main needs these days, especially for those of us who are professionals or just like to use their tech gadgets all the time. The market nowadays is full of decent offers in terms of power banks, with battery capacities ranging from… a few hundreds mAh up to… 20.000+ mAh for those power hungry!PISEN is not a small company in this specific market segment, as they have become a smart聽technology provider with leading global sales to over 200 million customers. For more than ten years, Pisen, known for its stable performance and user-friendly designs, has provided satisfying products for customers from 35 countries and recently they were kind enough to send us their most powerful energy “machine” known as聽20000 mAh LCD Display Power Bank.Here’s how it did during our lengthy trials 馃槈PISEN 20000mAh LCD Display Power Bank – Technical SpecsModel: TS-D199Input: 5V==2AOutput 1: 5V==Smart 2AOutput 2: 5V==1ASize:161 x 83 x 63 mmWeight:475gCharging Time:11hours via 2A charger (charger is not included)You can download its official manual here. (PDF)ULTRA-LARGE CAPACITYIts main feature is the 20,000mAh capacity, that can provide enough charging power to fully charge one iPhone 7 for almost 7 times, a Galaxy S8 flagship for more than 4 times and the huge iPad Air 2 for 1.5 time.聽No doubt however that we’re talking about a heavy power bank that weighs a bit less than half a kilo (475 gr.) so it’s not something that you can easily carry on your pocket, or in a small purse. I use it in my back pack, that has an external USB port for direct charging my phone – when necessary- and this way it’s not causing any issues when travelling or walking in the city.DUAL USB OUTPUTThis is something that can surely make your day in case of… need. It comes with Dual USB Ports (2A+1A Output), that are able to detect your device intelligently and deliver the optimal charging (Up to 2A Max).聽This means that if your phone supports charging up to 1A/1.5A then the聽PISEN 20000mAh LCD Display Power Bank will regulate the current in order to charge the phone safely. If on the other hand there’s a device that can withstand up to 2A of charging, then you will get the full charging power of the device.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramLCD DIGITAL DISPLAYYepp, this is a feature I really enjoyed using. The PISEN 20000mAh LCD Display Power Bank comes with a pretty accurate LCD display, that聽shows you the remaining power in percentage – 1% accuracy minimum. It also shows which port you’re using at each time (OUT1 – OUT2) and it has a smart function that can annoy you, when it needs to be recharged.聽To activate the LCD display you just have to long press the power button for 2 seconds. Don’t worry about energy consumption, as the backlight goes out in 15 Seconds to save energy.easy to use display, with 1% accuracyCHARGE & DISCHARGE SWITCHSo how do we turn the juice on? Juts connect the power station with your device and power supply simultaneously with the micro USB cable provided (if your phone supports it) or your own cable (Lightning or USB Type-C). When you’re done, long press the power button for 2 seconds to switch the charging & discharging mode freely.聽That’s all, the charging procedure will begin 馃檪COOL UNDER PRESSUREThe battery pack uses exclusive technology developed by Pisen engineers to control its temperature when charging. If high temperatures are detected then it automatically modifies power output to reduce heat. It also has a security feature that can spot any short-circuits and cut-off charging procedure for protection.聽According to the manufacturer, the聽Pisen 20000mAh external battery charger provides over-charge, over-discharge, over-heat, over-voltage, over-current and short circuit protection. This means that in any given situation you will be protected if something might go wrong with a cable, an over-charge of your smartphone/tablet or just a mishap.Our opinionWith a starting price tag of just 28$ this massive 20000 mAh power bank from Pisen proved to be decent for its money’s worth, fulfilling completely all my charging needs for my smartphone, laptop and my wife’s phone as well, with one single charge.聽It takes quite sometime to charge it with a 2A charger (11 hours per average) but then you will be able to use it for several days with no issues. It offers impressive performance in everyday use, quite good quality build (with faux leather design) and you can find it available in two colors: white and black.You can buy the聽PISEN 20000mAh LCD Display Power Bank here.

Chinese companies are really coming up with interesting takes on tried and true technology. A true wireless pair of Bluetooth earbuds with replaceable batteries? Who woulda thunk?Syllable D9x ReviewI鈥檝e been following the Bluetooth earbud market very closely and while many companies are busy refining their true wireless Bluetooth technologies (like Jaybird with their new Runs), Syllable is busy innovating. As such, they鈥檝e come up with a rather ingenious yet simple way to overcome the battery life dilemma, replaceable batteries. That being said, Syllable鈥檚 innovation comes at the cost of refinement which does show in a couple of rough spots, nevertheless not enough to mar an excellent and truly innovative product.True InnovationSyllable D9x SpecificationsBluetoothHFP, HSP, A2DP, AVRCPAudio8mm DriverBattery Pack80mAhCigarette Charger400mAhBluetooth Range20 feet (6 meters)Product Dimensions5.50 x 1.50 x 2.50 cmPackage Dimensions13.50 x 9.00 x 5.50 cmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Syllable D9x HardwareAlthough I praised Syllable quite highly in the introduction, the first thing I see already irks me a little. The earbuds come in a carrying pouch that contains the earbuds, some accessories, and a cigarette lighter case with four batteries inside. I would have much preferred a single cigarette lighter case that was able to hold the batteries as well as the earbuds themselves. Nonetheless, the pouch and case are of decent quality and don鈥檛 disappoint.Snap the battery into the earbud and the earbud automatically powers on. The magnets are strong enough that you can attach the battery without even looking, leaving them in your ear. The left earbud is the main earbud, and the right one (slave) automatically pairs to the left when powered on, no need for shenanigans.My first instinct was to worry that the magnetic batteries would fall out if you bumped it, but these magnets are strong. Nothing short of yanking it out or a hard faceplant into concrete would completely disconnect the battery from the earbud, and even then, a faceplant might not be enough to disconnect them.However, there is a very annoying side effect, if you accidentally push them sideways, they won鈥檛 fall out completely but that will be enough to disconnect the earbud from power, causing your earbud to power down before powering back up when it sits properly in the slot again.Tolerances aren’t as tight as I would like them to be, you can see that the battery pack doesn’t slot perfectly into the magnetic holder, nonetheless it still works well.Strong MagnetsSyllable D9x Battery LifeBecause there are four magnetic batteries in total, its easy to get all day battery life with these earbuds. Yank the dead one out and put a new one in. Place the dead one in the case and it will charge, taking about 30-40 minutes to fully charge. You can charge the battery chips and charge the case at the same time (which takes about 2 hours to fully charge), so you could listen to music forever if you so desired. The battery case can charge each chip about three times before needing a charge.I was given information by a source who mentioned that the earbud itself had a very small battery inside that could keep operating for 10 seconds while you switched batteries, which would provide you seamless, infinite use. However, it seems like that source was wrong, these earbuds contain no batteries whatsoever, meaning that every time you change batteries, the earbuds will shut off and turn back on, definitely not a seamless experience. I hope that Syllable is able to address this issue in the future.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramSyllable D9x ConnectivityConnecting the earbuds to your phone is supremely easy, just snap a battery in to turn the earbud on, and look for the Syllable D9x in your bluetooth menu. If you want to pair these to a second device, you need to press and hold the single button on both earbuds to enter connection mode.I did experience a couple of dropped connections during playback, which would result in the audio cutting in and out. However, Syllable has wisely caused the audio to fade out if disconnected and to fade back in when connected. I have a love/hate relationship with this fade in/out feature. Its great for music, it doesn鈥檛 jar you out of a reverie, however its horrible for podcasts and movies (or anything with speech). Because the fade out/fade in transition takes about 1-2 seconds, you lose an extra 2 seconds of listening time compared to a headset with no fading, which results in a rather large gap where you have no idea what was being said.Bluetooth range is about 20 feet (6m) with no obstacles in the way, and about 10 feet (3m) if you have lots of walls and doors inbetween.The single physical clicky button serves multiple functions, long press for 5 seconds to turn it off, single tap to pause and play, and double tap to skip songs. If someone is calling you, one click receives the call, another click after that hangs up, and a double click rejects the call. It works well, however the click of the physical button when depressed can be fairly loud and annoying.Syllable D9x Audio QualityAudio quality here is average. Its slightly better than my previous Syllable D900 Mini true wireless earbuds, but they weren鈥檛 anything to write home about either. I would say that these earbuds match regular $25 earbuds in terms of treble output, beat them in terms of clarity, but fall behind with bass. They are definitely worse quality than the Airpods, Jaybird Runs, and the Bragi Dash also.In fact, they are outperformed by the older D900 Minis in terms of bass output also.That being said, the audio here is good enough for the regular person looking to make the transition to true wireless earbuds, as they won鈥檛 find exceptional sound, merely acceptable sound.Syllable D9x VerdictSyllable has made an excellent true wireless earbud. It has somewhat solved the battery issue that plagues many wireless earbuds, giving what is essentially around 8 hours of battery life with one caveat, swapping the batteries will require a few seconds of powering off and back on. Plugging the case into a USB outlet will provide you with essentially infinite battery life, something truly awesome. However, for true wireless earbuds, these things are not cheap. Starting at $80USD, you could buy lower end earbuds without replaceable batteries for as low as $15USD, a positive steal. The older versions of Syllable鈥檚 wireless earbuds such as the D900, D900s, and D900 Mini range from $30-$50, significantly cheaper than this while providing similar audio quality but poorer battery life.However, if you compare these to expensive options such as the Bragi Dash Pro, Jaybird Runs, and Apple Airpods, $80 is a small price to pay for a good pair of true wireless earbuds.Update, these earbuds are on sale for $60, and at that price I do truly recommend them. Link down below. Buy the Syllable D9xChinese companies are really coming up with interesting takes on tried and true technology. A true wireless pair of Bluetooth earbuds with replaceable batteries? Who woulda thunk?Syllable D9x ReviewI鈥檝e been following the Bluetooth earbud market very closely and while many companies are busy refining their true wireless Bluetooth technologies (like Jaybird with their new Runs), Syllable is busy innovating. As such, they鈥檝e come up with a rather ingenious yet simple way to overcome the battery life dilemma, replaceable batteries. That being said, Syllable鈥檚 innovation comes at the cost of refinement which does show in a couple of rough spots, nevertheless not enough to mar an excellent and truly innovative product.True InnovationSyllable D9x SpecificationsBluetoothHFP, HSP, A2DP, AVRCPAudio8mm DriverBattery Pack80mAhCigarette Charger400mAhBluetooth Range20 feet (6 meters)Product Dimensions5.50 x 1.50 x 2.50 cmPackage Dimensions13.50 x 9.00 x 5.50 cmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Syllable D9x HardwareAlthough I praised Syllable quite highly in the introduction, the first thing I see already irks me a little. The earbuds come in a carrying pouch that contains the earbuds, some accessories, and a cigarette lighter case with four batteries inside. I would have much preferred a single cigarette lighter case that was able to hold the batteries as well as the earbuds themselves. Nonetheless, the pouch and case are of decent quality and don鈥檛 disappoint.Snap the battery into the earbud and the earbud automatically powers on. The magnets are strong enough that you can attach the battery without even looking, leaving them in your ear. The left earbud is the main earbud, and the right one (slave) automatically pairs to the left when powered on, no need for shenanigans.My first instinct was to worry that the magnetic batteries would fall out if you bumped it, but these magnets are strong. Nothing short of yanking it out or a hard faceplant into concrete would completely disconnect the battery from the earbud, and even then, a faceplant might not be enough to disconnect them.However, there is a very annoying side effect, if you accidentally push them sideways, they won鈥檛 fall out completely but that will be enough to disconnect the earbud from power, causing your earbud to power down before powering back up when it sits properly in the slot again.Tolerances aren’t as tight as I would like them to be, you can see that the battery pack doesn’t slot perfectly into the magnetic holder, nonetheless it still works well.Strong MagnetsSyllable D9x Battery LifeBecause there are four magnetic batteries in total, its easy to get all day battery life with these earbuds. Yank the dead one out and put a new one in. Place the dead one in the case and it will charge, taking about 30-40 minutes to fully charge. You can charge the battery chips and charge the case at the same time (which takes about 2 hours to fully charge), so you could listen to music forever if you so desired. The battery case can charge each chip about three times before needing a charge.I was given information by a source who mentioned that the earbud itself had a very small battery inside that could keep operating for 10 seconds while you switched batteries, which would provide you seamless, infinite use. However, it seems like that source was wrong, these earbuds contain no batteries whatsoever, meaning that every time you change batteries, the earbuds will shut off and turn back on, definitely not a seamless experience. I hope that Syllable is able to address this issue in the future.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramSyllable D9x ConnectivityConnecting the earbuds to your phone is supremely easy, just snap a battery in to turn the earbud on, and look for the Syllable D9x in your bluetooth menu. If you want to pair these to a second device, you need to press and hold the single button on both earbuds to enter connection mode.I did experience a couple of dropped connections during playback, which would result in the audio cutting in and out. However, Syllable has wisely caused the audio to fade out if disconnected and to fade back in when connected. I have a love/hate relationship with this fade in/out feature. Its great for music, it doesn鈥檛 jar you out of a reverie, however its horrible for podcasts and movies (or anything with speech). Because the fade out/fade in transition takes about 1-2 seconds, you lose an extra 2 seconds of listening time compared to a headset with no fading, which results in a rather large gap where you have no idea what was being said.Bluetooth range is about 20 feet (6m) with no obstacles in the way, and about 10 feet (3m) if you have lots of walls and doors inbetween.The single physical clicky button serves multiple functions, long press for 5 seconds to turn it off, single tap to pause and play, and double tap to skip songs. If someone is calling you, one click receives the call, another click after that hangs up, and a double click rejects the call. It works well, however the click of the physical button when depressed can be fairly loud and annoying.Syllable D9x Audio QualityAudio quality here is average. Its slightly better than my previous Syllable D900 Mini true wireless earbuds, but they weren鈥檛 anything to write home about either. I would say that these earbuds match regular $25 earbuds in terms of treble output, beat them in terms of clarity, but fall behind with bass. They are definitely worse quality than the Airpods, Jaybird Runs, and the Bragi Dash also.In fact, they are outperformed by the older D900 Minis in terms of bass output also.That being said, the audio here is good enough for the regular person looking to make the transition to true wireless earbuds, as they won鈥檛 find exceptional sound, merely acceptable sound.Syllable D9x VerdictSyllable has made an excellent true wireless earbud. It has somewhat solved the battery issue that plagues many wireless earbuds, giving what is essentially around 8 hours of battery life with one caveat, swapping the batteries will require a few seconds of powering off and back on. Plugging the case into a USB outlet will provide you with essentially infinite battery life, something truly awesome. However, for true wireless earbuds, these things are not cheap. Starting at $80USD, you could buy lower end earbuds without replaceable batteries for as low as $15USD, a positive steal. The older versions of Syllable鈥檚 wireless earbuds such as the D900, D900s, and D900 Mini range from $30-$50, significantly cheaper than this while providing similar audio quality but poorer battery life.However, if you compare these to expensive options such as the Bragi Dash Pro, Jaybird Runs, and Apple Airpods, $80 is a small price to pay for a good pair of true wireless earbuds.Update, these earbuds are on sale for $60, and at that price I do truly recommend them. Link down below. Buy the Syllable D9x

Xiaomi hit an enormous success with the revolutionary Mi Mix last year, we can all admit it. The phone鈥檚 tri bezeless display took over the market in the year to come becoming the source, for a much needed refresh in a stagnant mobile design based on the iPhone 6 with double cameras. The phone had a great 6,4-inch screen with 91.3% screen-to-body ratio and a good looking body made from ceramic that really made it stand out, and that’s why Mi Mix won the IDEA Gold award for design and part of the success is French designer Philippe Starck.Xiaomi decided to sell the concept device primarily in China and most consumers had to resort to third-party options to get their hands on the Mi Mix, and that is only if the mobile had workable bands for their country. Its selling power was far from good for a phone that dominated the market with its design leading the way to Galaxy 8, LG G6, iPhone X, Essential PH-1 among others.Xiaomi took a second look on the project. It was the one that really made the company world known and the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 had a Phoenix rebirth. Out of the ashes a global phone appeared with 42 LTE bands (more than any other Xiaomi phone in the past) and with many alterations whose purpose was to make this gem acceptable to all. The size of the screen became smaller making the phone more compact and a real earpiece was added this time than the original piezoelectric one. Starck was the designer once again and a special limited edition has his name on the back.Xiaomi is a company that provides value-for-money products we can all agree on this as well. They might not be able to provide yet a 100% of the latest Samsung or Apple flagship advantages like water resistance for example, but they provide most of the gimmicks at a very affordable price (for a flagship model that is).The base variant with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage has a retail price of around $500 in China and other regions. That is half the price of the iPhone X and Galaxy Note 8, both mobiles designed over the original Mi Mix.“visual perfection combined with impeccable quality built”.Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 – Technical SpecificationsMIUI 9 – Android 7 Nougat5,99 inch full-HD (2160×1080) displayCorning Gorilla Glass 4Octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor6GB RAM/8GB RAM (ceramic model)64/128/256GB storage, no microSD supportFingerprint scanner12Mp Sony IMX386 rear camera with 18K gold detailing, four-axis OIS, 25um pixels, f/2.0, dual-LED flash5Mp front cameraDual-SIM dual-standby (2x nano)4G FDD-LTE UK bands B3/B7/B20Bluetooth 5.0GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeidouUSB-CUSB-C audio3400mAh battery151.8 x 75.5 x 7.7 mm185gUnboxing聽In the luxurious box, you get a back cover for the Mi Mix 2, a Type-C-to-3.5mm adapter, a 9V/2A charger that supports Quick Charge 3.0, a USB Type-C cable, a SIM eject tool, and documentation. There are no earphones following the trend that Xiaomi has set in their previous packages.Hardware聽The design of the Mi Mix passed over to this year’s model with a tri bezeless screen that dominates the user’s attention. Following last year’s recipe, this model is also designed by Philippe Starck and the result is stunning to say at least. It looks premium and is equal to the top priced flagships in build quality.Mi Mix had an enormous 6,44-inch 7:9 display. People loved it but not many wanted to carry around a tablet sized phone that didn鈥檛 fit in pockets. So the size shrunk to 5,99-inches in a body that resembles that of any typical smartphone with a 5,5-inch screen. It is shorter by 7mm, narrower by 6.4mm and 0.2 mm thinner. Making the phone thinner created a camera bump in the back. Two millimeters would not make a difference and we could hope for a bit larger battery but it didn’t happen. Smaller size and smaller battery however keeps the phone lighter at 185 grams 鈥 an improvement over the 211 gr of the Mi Mix 鈥 so weight possibly was a factor that had to be kept low to gain an even bigger acceptance.2.5D curved glass at the front and slightly rounded edges at the rear, are making the Mi Mix 2 feel more comfortable 蟼畏喂in the hand. The phone follows the 18:9 screen ratio trend thus a single hand usage leaves the top part inaccessible 鈥 Xiaomi has a software setup to use the phone single-handedly at least.The resolution is kept at FHD+ of 2160X1080 pixels (402 ppi ). It is not QHD quality (Xiaomi does not have a QHD phone yet) but it helps, by providing an even better battery life. It has 1500:1 contrast ratio and support for DCI-P3 colour gamut as well as features like Sunlight Display and Reading Mode. The colors are amazing and, the -highly experienced in IPS panels- Xiaomi, provides an amazing product, with crystal clear and bright depiction. You can adjust the color temperature and the brightness from the settings. During the night or under the bright sun the display was visible at all times without eye straining or need of shadowing – the viewing angles of the display are impressive too. Xiaomi produces reading glasses to filter out laptop and mobile blue light and an app is used in the phone to do so. The display has Gorilla Glass 4 for protection.Not all applications support the 18:9 ratio. Watching 16:9 videos in landscape mode gives black 鈥渂ezels鈥 to the left and right. You can go 鈥榝ull screen鈥 at the cost of cropping a bit of content from the top and bottom, a tradeoff you end up making while watching content in a non-native aspect ratio on any screen. The lower bezel holds, as before, the selfie camera – we will speak later on that. The top ultra-thin bezel has a small horizontal line that hides the conventional earpiece. Sound is as clear as it comes and it address the issue most had with the original smartphone. The proximity sensor is still “ultrasonic” and not infrared as in most smartphones. In the lower bezel we can find a notification led for incoming calls and other type of notifications.In the back panel the 18-carat gold decorative rim of the camera is placed in the top center and stays there where it can be admired. A dual-tone flash sits to the right of the camera module. The brand has laser printed 鈥淢ix designed by Xiaomi鈥 vertically in gold color on the back of the device, a small detail that surely boasts quality. Note that you have to search (hard) for the antenna bands, a pair is horizontally and discreetly placed on top and bottom frame.Ceramic is known to be much more scratch-resistant than glass but it’s a fingerprint magnet. An aerospace-grade 7000-series aluminium alloy is the material of the mid-frame between the top and the ceramic back panel that is curved on all four sides. The fingerprint scanner is located under the camera and is fast and reliable. The weight distribution is even on top and bottom.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe aluminum frame hosts the USB-C port that lies between a single speaker and a mic at the bottom. It also hosts the power key and the volume rocker at the right side and the SIM tray at the left. The tray holds two Nano-SIM slots, but note that 4G can be active on only one SIM at any given time.Xiaomi provides a 3.5mm jack and IR blaster to its other phones but you won鈥檛 find them here. An adapter for the 3.5mm jack is added at the main package box. The sound coming from the single speaker is loud, clear and crisp but still not at the same range with stereo set ups. This year鈥檚 Qualcomm power house, the 2.35GHz Snapdragon 835 comes with the phone, along with an Adreno 530 GPU and 6GB of RAM (there’s also an 8GB Ceramic Edition premium variant). Benchmark scores are top and in range of other 835 driven phones. It has three options of storage: 65, 128 and 256 GB of ROM. The overall combination is impeccable and has no problems to run any applications or games. The phone does not support SD cards to its SIM tray, so you’d better take this into account when you decide which storage variant to buy.聽The device has VoLTE, supports 42 bands, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac including MU-MIMO, GPS, GLONASS, OTG USB and the latest Bluetooth 5.0 technology. I can鈥檛 find any fault with the design and the hardware apart from the aforementioned mentioned selfie-cam. The overall impression is that of a very expensive premium 鈥 luxury phone, with exceptional performance at any given time.It comes in black and white along with a limited edition model that has a ceramic unibody design and 8GB/128GB memory combination. Last week a new limited edition was added to honour Philippe Starck.SoftwareMUI 9 is the latest version of Xiaomi鈥檚 founding product. It is based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat. Depending on the seller the mobile has the Chinese version or the Global one. The handset under review has the Chinese ROM. MIUI is heavily modified. It has everything a user might want and more. The chipset and the excessive 6GB RAM do a good work in making user experience lag free, so you can be sure that you won’t have any issues running the most demanding applications on your brand new Mix 2.Software features of the MIUI 9 include Dual Apps (the ability to run multiple instances of apps on the phone), Second Space (adding a second user/ profile with its own set of apps that is password-protected) and Quick Ball (a virtual ball used to trigger various apps/ actions like accessing the multitasking menu and home screen, and the ability to lock the screen or take a screenshot). A customisable one-handed mode exists along with support for a wide range of gestures. Nougat based actions like split-screen also exist in the package. MIUI is bloated but that is the nature of it. Flashing stock Android or Cyanogen is supported by the community and more ROMs appear as time passes by.聽聽Battery LifeLarge batteries and power-savvy Qualcomm SoCs is a Xiaomi recipe that worked extremely well this year 鈥 the original Mi Mix could stay on for two days with heavy use. The battery disappointingly is not the 4000mAh one found in Redmi Note 4 or the 4400mAh found in Mi Mix, since a smaller 3400mAh one is used. Combined with the Snapdragon 835 SoC, MIUI鈥檚 software and screen resolution it gives a day max for hard usage 鈥 I don鈥檛 get why they shrunk the battery… SoT is about 5h in video playback.聽Quick Charge is supported and the mobile goes from 0 to 100% in ~100 minutes – (and that was the only time the phone heated up). When you don’t have a charger near you, you can always switch to battery saver mode. Unfortunately wireless charging is missing, that’s true for all of Xiaomi’s smartphones and something that really upsets me as an avid smartphone user.CameraDual cameras were supposed to be the main trend this year, that is before Mi Mix arrived and the full screens became the new “must”. Mi Mix 2 has a single 12MP Sony IMX368 f/2.0 rear sensor -with Dual-LED flash- at the time when Mi 6 and Mi Note 3 (that use the same sensor) have a pair with a telephoto lens added for depth. The sensor does the same job as the primary one in both the other two phones but the bokeh effect is missing. It has a 4-axis OIS along with great daylight performance. In low light conditions Xiaomi was always lagging behind the other main brands and so their latest creation (Mi Mix 2) can not claim any medals here. In such situations, the HDR mode is more than helpful, trust me.The camera app has all MIUI standard features: HDR mode, Panorama, Manual, Beautify, Square mode and a variety of filters can be found in the apps menu. You can time your shots, voice trigger them using Audio mode, or use the Group-Selfie mode to have selfies captured automatically when a face is detected. The Straighten mode lets you align your shots perfectly, while the Tilt-Shift mode will let you blur parts of the shot. Finally, the Hand-Held Twilight (HHT) mode is designed to improve low-light photography by stitching together multiple shots. Video capture defaults to Full HD but can be altered to shoot 4K clips in 30 fps. OIS helps with reducing shakiness and the autofocus is fast but not instant. There is a slow-motion mode that can record at 120fps but it’s limited to 720p. The sound is mediocre as in most of this years Xiaomi鈥檚 handsets when in playback.聽The selfie cam is the phone鈥檚 “Achilles heel”. The sensor is a bad 5MP choice for the selfie lovers – quite far from being in the same level to the double 12/16MP sensors other brands use. It has an awkward placement, as we need to flip the phone upside-down to take a proper selfie. When talking with Skype, Viber or Duo, the camera is placed on the low right side and your opposite speaker views a chin-first face.Have a look at our Flickr album of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 and enjoy its photo samples by clicking below:Our OpinionXiaomi’s Mi Mix 2 is a continuation of a great design updated to be carried globally and by more people than ever. It is now the main product Xiaomi showcases to prove its anticipated position as a global player. It comes with a great price and in Xiaomi shops (Mi Stores) in several markets around the world.It clearly has not the same impact as the original model, I have to say. The design is a prime factor for companies if they want to survive next year with a profit. So it is more a hunt for what suits our needs better. Is Mi Mix 2 a winner here? Screen size and the classic earpiece improved the overall user experience. Camera needs some work in the software department and hopefully the third installment of the series will come with a different placement and lens for the selfie shooter. Battery is good but not great. The build quality is simply amazing. Software has everything without lagging or overheating.Xiaomi hit an enormous success with the revolutionary Mi Mix last year, we can all admit it. The phone鈥檚 tri bezeless display took over the market in the year to come becoming the source, for a much needed refresh in a stagnant mobile design based on the iPhone 6 with double cameras. The phone had a great 6,4-inch screen with 91.3% screen-to-body ratio and a good looking body made from ceramic that really made it stand out, and that’s why Mi Mix won the IDEA Gold award for design and part of the success is French designer Philippe Starck.Xiaomi decided to sell the concept device primarily in China and most consumers had to resort to third-party options to get their hands on the Mi Mix, and that is only if the mobile had workable bands for their country. Its selling power was far from good for a phone that dominated the market with its design leading the way to Galaxy 8, LG G6, iPhone X, Essential PH-1 among others.Xiaomi took a second look on the project. It was the one that really made the company world known and the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 had a Phoenix rebirth. Out of the ashes a global phone appeared with 42 LTE bands (more than any other Xiaomi phone in the past) and with many alterations whose purpose was to make this gem acceptable to all. The size of the screen became smaller making the phone more compact and a real earpiece was added this time than the original piezoelectric one. Starck was the designer once again and a special limited edition has his name on the back.Xiaomi is a company that provides value-for-money products we can all agree on this as well. They might not be able to provide yet a 100% of the latest Samsung or Apple flagship advantages like water resistance for example, but they provide most of the gimmicks at a very affordable price (for a flagship model that is).The base variant with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage has a retail price of around $500 in China and other regions. That is half the price of the iPhone X and Galaxy Note 8, both mobiles designed over the original Mi Mix.“visual perfection combined with impeccable quality built”.Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 – Technical SpecificationsMIUI 9 – Android 7 Nougat5,99 inch full-HD (2160×1080) displayCorning Gorilla Glass 4Octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor6GB RAM/8GB RAM (ceramic model)64/128/256GB storage, no microSD supportFingerprint scanner12Mp Sony IMX386 rear camera with 18K gold detailing, four-axis OIS, 25um pixels, f/2.0, dual-LED flash5Mp front cameraDual-SIM dual-standby (2x nano)4G FDD-LTE UK bands B3/B7/B20Bluetooth 5.0GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeidouUSB-CUSB-C audio3400mAh battery151.8 x 75.5 x 7.7 mm185gUnboxing聽In the luxurious box, you get a back cover for the Mi Mix 2, a Type-C-to-3.5mm adapter, a 9V/2A charger that supports Quick Charge 3.0, a USB Type-C cable, a SIM eject tool, and documentation. There are no earphones following the trend that Xiaomi has set in their previous packages.Hardware聽The design of the Mi Mix passed over to this year’s model with a tri bezeless screen that dominates the user’s attention. Following last year’s recipe, this model is also designed by Philippe Starck and the result is stunning to say at least. It looks premium and is equal to the top priced flagships in build quality.Mi Mix had an enormous 6,44-inch 7:9 display. People loved it but not many wanted to carry around a tablet sized phone that didn鈥檛 fit in pockets. So the size shrunk to 5,99-inches in a body that resembles that of any typical smartphone with a 5,5-inch screen. It is shorter by 7mm, narrower by 6.4mm and 0.2 mm thinner. Making the phone thinner created a camera bump in the back. Two millimeters would not make a difference and we could hope for a bit larger battery but it didn’t happen. Smaller size and smaller battery however keeps the phone lighter at 185 grams 鈥 an improvement over the 211 gr of the Mi Mix 鈥 so weight possibly was a factor that had to be kept low to gain an even bigger acceptance.2.5D curved glass at the front and slightly rounded edges at the rear, are making the Mi Mix 2 feel more comfortable 蟼畏喂in the hand. The phone follows the 18:9 screen ratio trend thus a single hand usage leaves the top part inaccessible 鈥 Xiaomi has a software setup to use the phone single-handedly at least.The resolution is kept at FHD+ of 2160X1080 pixels (402 ppi ). It is not QHD quality (Xiaomi does not have a QHD phone yet) but it helps, by providing an even better battery life. It has 1500:1 contrast ratio and support for DCI-P3 colour gamut as well as features like Sunlight Display and Reading Mode. The colors are amazing and, the -highly experienced in IPS panels- Xiaomi, provides an amazing product, with crystal clear and bright depiction. You can adjust the color temperature and the brightness from the settings. During the night or under the bright sun the display was visible at all times without eye straining or need of shadowing – the viewing angles of the display are impressive too. Xiaomi produces reading glasses to filter out laptop and mobile blue light and an app is used in the phone to do so. The display has Gorilla Glass 4 for protection.Not all applications support the 18:9 ratio. Watching 16:9 videos in landscape mode gives black 鈥渂ezels鈥 to the left and right. You can go 鈥榝ull screen鈥 at the cost of cropping a bit of content from the top and bottom, a tradeoff you end up making while watching content in a non-native aspect ratio on any screen. The lower bezel holds, as before, the selfie camera – we will speak later on that. The top ultra-thin bezel has a small horizontal line that hides the conventional earpiece. Sound is as clear as it comes and it address the issue most had with the original smartphone. The proximity sensor is still “ultrasonic” and not infrared as in most smartphones. In the lower bezel we can find a notification led for incoming calls and other type of notifications.In the back panel the 18-carat gold decorative rim of the camera is placed in the top center and stays there where it can be admired. A dual-tone flash sits to the right of the camera module. The brand has laser printed 鈥淢ix designed by Xiaomi鈥 vertically in gold color on the back of the device, a small detail that surely boasts quality. Note that you have to search (hard) for the antenna bands, a pair is horizontally and discreetly placed on top and bottom frame.Ceramic is known to be much more scratch-resistant than glass but it’s a fingerprint magnet. An aerospace-grade 7000-series aluminium alloy is the material of the mid-frame between the top and the ceramic back panel that is curved on all four sides. The fingerprint scanner is located under the camera and is fast and reliable. The weight distribution is even on top and bottom.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe aluminum frame hosts the USB-C port that lies between a single speaker and a mic at the bottom. It also hosts the power key and the volume rocker at the right side and the SIM tray at the left. The tray holds two Nano-SIM slots, but note that 4G can be active on only one SIM at any given time.Xiaomi provides a 3.5mm jack and IR blaster to its other phones but you won鈥檛 find them here. An adapter for the 3.5mm jack is added at the main package box. The sound coming from the single speaker is loud, clear and crisp but still not at the same range with stereo set ups. This year鈥檚 Qualcomm power house, the 2.35GHz Snapdragon 835 comes with the phone, along with an Adreno 530 GPU and 6GB of RAM (there’s also an 8GB Ceramic Edition premium variant). Benchmark scores are top and in range of other 835 driven phones. It has three options of storage: 65, 128 and 256 GB of ROM. The overall combination is impeccable and has no problems to run any applications or games. The phone does not support SD cards to its SIM tray, so you’d better take this into account when you decide which storage variant to buy.聽The device has VoLTE, supports 42 bands, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac including MU-MIMO, GPS, GLONASS, OTG USB and the latest Bluetooth 5.0 technology. I can鈥檛 find any fault with the design and the hardware apart from the aforementioned mentioned selfie-cam. The overall impression is that of a very expensive premium 鈥 luxury phone, with exceptional performance at any given time.It comes in black and white along with a limited edition model that has a ceramic unibody design and 8GB/128GB memory combination. Last week a new limited edition was added to honour Philippe Starck.SoftwareMUI 9 is the latest version of Xiaomi鈥檚 founding product. It is based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat. Depending on the seller the mobile has the Chinese version or the Global one. The handset under review has the Chinese ROM. MIUI is heavily modified. It has everything a user might want and more. The chipset and the excessive 6GB RAM do a good work in making user experience lag free, so you can be sure that you won’t have any issues running the most demanding applications on your brand new Mix 2.Software features of the MIUI 9 include Dual Apps (the ability to run multiple instances of apps on the phone), Second Space (adding a second user/ profile with its own set of apps that is password-protected) and Quick Ball (a virtual ball used to trigger various apps/ actions like accessing the multitasking menu and home screen, and the ability to lock the screen or take a screenshot). A customisable one-handed mode exists along with support for a wide range of gestures. Nougat based actions like split-screen also exist in the package. MIUI is bloated but that is the nature of it. Flashing stock Android or Cyanogen is supported by the community and more ROMs appear as time passes by.聽聽Battery LifeLarge batteries and power-savvy Qualcomm SoCs is a Xiaomi recipe that worked extremely well this year 鈥 the original Mi Mix could stay on for two days with heavy use. The battery disappointingly is not the 4000mAh one found in Redmi Note 4 or the 4400mAh found in Mi Mix, since a smaller 3400mAh one is used. Combined with the Snapdragon 835 SoC, MIUI鈥檚 software and screen resolution it gives a day max for hard usage 鈥 I don鈥檛 get why they shrunk the battery… SoT is about 5h in video playback.聽Quick Charge is supported and the mobile goes from 0 to 100% in ~100 minutes – (and that was the only time the phone heated up). When you don’t have a charger near you, you can always switch to battery saver mode. Unfortunately wireless charging is missing, that’s true for all of Xiaomi’s smartphones and something that really upsets me as an avid smartphone user.CameraDual cameras were supposed to be the main trend this year, that is before Mi Mix arrived and the full screens became the new “must”. Mi Mix 2 has a single 12MP Sony IMX368 f/2.0 rear sensor -with Dual-LED flash- at the time when Mi 6 and Mi Note 3 (that use the same sensor) have a pair with a telephoto lens added for depth. The sensor does the same job as the primary one in both the other two phones but the bokeh effect is missing. It has a 4-axis OIS along with great daylight performance. In low light conditions Xiaomi was always lagging behind the other main brands and so their latest creation (Mi Mix 2) can not claim any medals here. In such situations, the HDR mode is more than helpful, trust me.The camera app has all MIUI standard features: HDR mode, Panorama, Manual, Beautify, Square mode and a variety of filters can be found in the apps menu. You can time your shots, voice trigger them using Audio mode, or use the Group-Selfie mode to have selfies captured automatically when a face is detected. The Straighten mode lets you align your shots perfectly, while the Tilt-Shift mode will let you blur parts of the shot. Finally, the Hand-Held Twilight (HHT) mode is designed to improve low-light photography by stitching together multiple shots. Video capture defaults to Full HD but can be altered to shoot 4K clips in 30 fps. OIS helps with reducing shakiness and the autofocus is fast but not instant. There is a slow-motion mode that can record at 120fps but it’s limited to 720p. The sound is mediocre as in most of this years Xiaomi鈥檚 handsets when in playback.聽The selfie cam is the phone鈥檚 “Achilles heel”. The sensor is a bad 5MP choice for the selfie lovers – quite far from being in the same level to the double 12/16MP sensors other brands use. It has an awkward placement, as we need to flip the phone upside-down to take a proper selfie. When talking with Skype, Viber or Duo, the camera is placed on the low right side and your opposite speaker views a chin-first face.Have a look at our Flickr album of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 and enjoy its photo samples by clicking below:Our OpinionXiaomi’s Mi Mix 2 is a continuation of a great design updated to be carried globally and by more people than ever. It is now the main product Xiaomi showcases to prove its anticipated position as a global player. It comes with a great price and in Xiaomi shops (Mi Stores) in several markets around the world.It clearly has not the same impact as the original model, I have to say. The design is a prime factor for companies if they want to survive next year with a profit. So it is more a hunt for what suits our needs better. Is Mi Mix 2 a winner here? Screen size and the classic earpiece improved the overall user experience. Camera needs some work in the software department and hopefully the third installment of the series will come with a different placement and lens for the selfie shooter. Battery is good but not great. The build quality is simply amazing. Software has everything without lagging or overheating.Welcome to the era of full display clones guys! We have one more of them to show you today, but I think this one has more to say about its performance than others. Meet Blackview S8, a device that –聽as the name suggest is a Samsung S8 鈥渋nspired model鈥? If you don鈥檛 mind not having the real thing and are happy with just the reduced bezels and 18:9 display aspect ratio, then keep reading!Blackview promotes this model as one of the most impressive dual camera/full display smartphones, having serious expectations from its performance in the mid-range market and according to our initial impressions they could just have a decent proposal. With a well-built design and many great features, this budget-friendly smartphone is perfect for those who are looking for a new featured mobile with more demanding features and less price.So if you’re ready to go by its resemblance to the “original Galaxy S8” then you won’t have any problem spotting its awesome design, usability, the impressive built quality and obviously its “Infinity style” display, with 18:9 aspect ratio and good brightness during day time.Enough said let鈥檚 have a look at this Blackview S8 review.great galaxy s8 clone to the detailBlackview S8 鈥 Technical specificationsDisplay:聽5.7 inch, 1440 x 720 Pixel screenCPU: MTK6750T 1.5GHz Octa CoreSystem:聽Android 7.0RAM + ROM:聽4GB RAM聽+聽64GB ROMCamera:聽8.0MP ( SW 13.0MP ) + 0.3MP front cameras +聽13.0MP + 0.3MP聽back camerasSensor:聽Ambient Light Sensor, Gravity Sensor, Proximity SensorSIM Card:聽dual SIM dual standby. 1 Micro SIM card + 1 Nano SIM cardFeature:聽GPSBluetooth:聽4.0Network:聽2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz –聽3G: WCDMA 900/2100MHz –聽4G: FDD-LTE 800/900/1800/2100/2600MHzBlackview S8 review: Design and general appearanceI have to be honest, I loved the basic design of the Blackview S8 – and didn’t even pay attention to its similarity to the Galaxy S8 model.聽 Don’t get me wrong, it IS almost identical to the Samsung S8, but I chose not to pay attention to this detail.I liked the design of Blackview S8. It is elegant and if you’re interested to know more, you will be glad to know it’s available in black, blue and golden color versions. Its dimensions are 154 x 71.9 x 8.5 mm (LxWxH) and it weighs approximately 190 gr. This means it can provide a trully slim body and a good handling experience. I have to admit that one of the outstanding features of the Blackview S8 is surely its 5.7-inch full-view display with 1440 X 720 pixels resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio. It provides exceptional response times, along with Gorilla Glass 4 protection that can basically protect it from scratches, falls and accidental knocks.One of its unique selling points is the 18:9 full display, with really small bezels on top and bottom – that look really impressive, similar (NOT the same) to the ones the Galaxy S8 flagship has.聽The one that makes the difference is the top bezel which extends the display almost all the way to the top, leaving a rather small gap for the聽speaker and its dual selfie camera.The 18:9 aspect ratio allows for excellent grip, average single hand usage and impressive multimedia viewing – you can watch video clips and/or movies with no black borders at all – something you’ll really like I bet.聽The colors of the display may be rather washed, but the images are crisp, with good viewing angles and a fully responsive panel if I may add.聽All in all a decent display 鈥 especially for a smartphone on this price range.There’s no home button placed in front. Instead you will find three on display keys on the lower side of the display, that work as planned and allow for complete operation of the device.聽On the top of the screen, there are two selfie cameras, a speaker and a LED flash.Note that the back side of the device is made of glossy material just like the front panel which has a 2.5D glass on top and a metal frame placed between them. This means that it may look beautiful but it turns out to be a fingerprint magnet, leaving fingerprint marks all over the place.聽You can also find two cameras at the back side, a dual LED flash, as well as a fingerprint sensor for fast unlocking the phone.It can unlock the phone in less than 0.1 second with almost 98% success rate. It can basically store up to 5 different fingerprints and can recognize them all from 360 degrees, something that鈥檚 a standard nowadays.聽The card slot of S8 is located on the top edge of the handset, while there is an adapter with USB Type-C on the bottom edge. There is no 3.5 mm headphone jack but the Blackview company offers the USB to 3.5mm Jack output cable in the basic package of the device.Hardware & PerformanceIn terms of performance, the聽Blackview S8 comes with the MediaTek MTK6750 octa-core processor operating at a high frequency of 1.5 GHz. It packs聽4GB RAM and 64GB ROM, providing聽high-end gaming and multitasking a fast and smooth experience.聽I opened many apps, switched between them, watched videos, played a game (GT聽Racing聽2) and the performance is buttery smooth. Nothing felt sluggish, and there was no significant lag.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram Oh and if you鈥檙e into checking benchmark results, then you should know that the Blackview S8 scored 43073 points in AntuTu along with an exceptional GPS reception. I didn鈥檛 have any issues with GPS related apps since it uses most of the available satellites every time. It could be connected to more I guess, in order to offer even better results when scanning for our location. Moreover, the storage can be expandable up to 128 GB with the use of microSD card. For the graphics, it has the Mali-T860 MP2 GPU with a frequency of 520 MHz.聽The operating system of the Blackview S8 is Android 7.0 Nougat. It can also be upgraded to higher Android Oreo but the Chinese manufacturer hasn’t disclosed yet when (and if) this will happen. Rumors say that the update could arrive to the owners of the phone by the end of this year – it remains to be seen. Moreover, you can also find the attractive features such as ambient light sensor, gravity sensor, proximity sensor, and so on.If you want to know about its battery聽life, then you’ll be pleased to know it can offer up to 5 hours of active display, which translates to almost a full day’s usage. So, on normal usage (reading emails, watching videos, surfing the Web, listening to music), I can easily get a day of usage for each charge. For聽streaming聽videos at full brightness and volume, it can last for 6 hours. Depending on your usage, it will have no problem lasting for a full day.Blackview S8 review: Android software and UI performanceIf you like Samsung Galaxy clones, then you will surely gonna love the Blackview S8 in terms of UI and software. The device comes with its own UI (based on Android 7.0.1) which is surprisingly solid, fast and easy to use. Damn it’s much more stable and lag free than Samsung’s horrible UX interface, even with this average chipset and the same amount of RAM! So the theme is very similar to Samsung’s UX, with identical icons and some basic animations. Thankfully there is no bloatware but you will find some other unnecessary apps inside (that cannot be uninstalled). The device supports all the classic Nougat features and it also has several customization options like System Motion, Gestures control and the ability to lock apps with the fingerprint scanner which is common these days.Dual camera/Dual Selfie camera performanceIf you’re interested in the imaging features of the device, then you’ll be happy to know that it’s one of a few smartphones available in the market, that’s聽 equipped with quad-cameras 鈥 dual cameras on both front and back panels. The rear dual camera has a resolution of 13.0MP + 0.3MP and the front dual camera have a resolution of 8.0MP ( SW 13.0MP ) + 0.3MP. The sensors on both sides of the phone are Sony IMX258 with an apperture of F/2.0 and a wide angle lens. In addition, both the cameras have LED Flash, so you can capture the photos and videos even in low light conditions. It can take decent photos, but they are generally whitewashed. Even with HDR mode, the quality of the photos is not any better.聽Note that one camera is used for creating the bokeh effect and other will capture the image with quite good portrait photos and decent performance in low light conditions.聽Both cameras have independent vision processing unit, which enables background blurring in real time. It also allows you to choose where to focus (touch focus) and where to blur, with the ability to adjust the intensity of blurring, too.Have a look at some of our聽sample photos,聽taken from the dual camera of the Blackview S8. Just click the gallery below:Battery consumptionThe Blackview S8 is equipped with a 3180mAh battery but numbers don鈥檛 mean anything in this situation. The device comes with an energy efficient processor and generally it performs well, providing more than a full day鈥檚 usage with no problems and works great in cooperation with the Android Nougat interface in order to block access to battery “hungry” apps, reduce energy consumption when possible and all those little things that make our lives easier when using a smartphone.Note however that it supports quick charge with the Quick Charge 2.0 technology, meaning that with just one full charge, it can last for 24-30 hours even if you’re pushing it to its limits.Conclusion 鈥 Our opinionA Beautiful, budget galaxy s8 cloneI really enjoyed this small beauty from Blackview, I have to admit. It鈥檚 not featured as the super wow dual camera phone that everyone should buy, but as a budget Galaxy S8 clone with really impressive specs – given its current price tag of course which is just聽152,99$.The 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM variant I got for my tests, costs 152,99$ and 鈥 I believe that its fair price for what it offers. It’s really impressive when you hold it in your hands and use it, it packs a bright display with 18:9 aspect ratio, an average chipset and – strangely enough- a snappy UI that I loved in my everyday use.Although this may not seem to be a tech-related review, I really wanted to do it the first time I laid my eyes on this beauty of a gaming chair you’re about to see. It’s called Diablo X-Fighter and it’s probably one of the most luxurious and mean-looking furniture a PC gamer can buy for him/herself!The guys behind these chairs is domator24, a quite successful Polish company with a huge community of people wrapped around them, promoting their products with the best way possible: by using them like crazy!The Diablo X-Fighter is perhaps the flagship product of the company – out of the聽5 available designs聽in total:Diablo X-FighterDiablo X-GamerDiablo X-PlayerDiablo X-EyeDiablo X-OneThe X-Fighter is – hands down- their most impressive model according to my taste, a beautifully crafted gaming chair聽designed to fulfill the requirements of even the most demanding and eager gamers.Basic Package – Instruction manualThe X-Fighter gaming chair arrived in under 5 days from Poland in a massive package that weighed 23Kg. It was carefully packed, protecting its parts from the transport procedure and inside the large box there were all the necessary parts (along with clear instructions) on how to build it.Nothing serious there, if you have ever built an Ikea arm chair then you will be ready to go with this in under 15 minutes. It’s exceptionally well built, from stainless steel back, 5 toes with rollers and premium synthetic leather in dual colors (mine was black – white).Everyday use and level of comfortI have been using the Diablo X-Fighter gaming chair for almost a week now and I can say for sure that the difference in quality with other everyday office chairs is miles apart. This specific model assumes the design of a bucket seat and “engulfs” the user, making it practically impossible to bend your back, have aches in the waist, or near the spinal cord. It comes with a specially designed pillow (the one with the X-Fighter logo on it), that can be placed in any height you prefer, using the elastic bands it comes with.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramI really enjoyed the soundproof wheels of the chair. You can move it around but there is NO NOISE made when you move it, especially in a quite environment. They seem to be quite durable and I hope they prove to be. In this type of chairs the wheels are always the first thing that breaks, bends, stops to roll etc, but in this case they seem to be able to withstand a lot of pressure and cruel everyday usage.聽 One of the most important features of a chair of this type is the ability to adjust its height and the tilt of its back, and this is where the X-Fighter really shines. It comes with two levers placed below the bottom part.聽The first is typical: it adjusts the height using a hydraulic suspension enabling us to use it along with higher or lower desks. The second locks/unlocks the back side of the X-Fighter so that it can tilt back if you want to rest, or locks in an upfront position – in case you wish to play your favorite PC game for… several hours.聽Don’t think however, that its features end here. This gaming chair has also adjustable arm-stands: in height, orientation AND length, in order to accommodate any type of body figure: people with long/short arms, long/short hands etc.Obviously the design of this specific gaming chair is subjective. Some may like it, others may not. If you think that this is not what you prefer, you have 4 more design options (as we previously said) that could easily cover your needs. Our thoughtsWe have a winner here guys, there’s no doubt about it. The Diablo X-Fighter is perhaps one of the best high quality gaming chairs out there and surely a treat every avid PC gamer should give to himself this Christmas 馃檪聽It excels in quality, durability and – as you can see for yourselves- appearance. And as the Polish manufacturer says:The Diablo X-Fighter聽computer chair arouses respect. A truly devilish design makes it simply impossible not to stop in awe. Aggression, dynamics, comfort and user鈥檚 peace 鈥 all enchanted in one prototype.Totally agree. Well done聽domator24.

Although this may not seem to be a tech-related review, I really wanted to do it the first time I laid my eyes on this beauty of a gaming chair you’re about to see. It’s called Diablo X-Fighter and it’s probably one of the most luxurious and mean-looking furniture a PC gamer can buy for him/herself!The guys behind these chairs is domator24, a quite successful Polish company with a huge community of people wrapped around them, promoting their products with the best way possible: by using them like crazy!The Diablo X-Fighter is perhaps the flagship product of the company – out of the聽5 available designs聽in total:Diablo X-FighterDiablo X-GamerDiablo X-PlayerDiablo X-EyeDiablo X-OneThe X-Fighter is – hands down- their most impressive model according to my taste, a beautifully crafted gaming chair聽designed to fulfill the requirements of even the most demanding and eager gamers.Basic Package – Instruction manualThe X-Fighter gaming chair arrived in under 5 days from Poland in a massive package that weighed 23Kg. It was carefully packed, protecting its parts from the transport procedure and inside the large box there were all the necessary parts (along with clear instructions) on how to build it.Nothing serious there, if you have ever built an Ikea arm chair then you will be ready to go with this in under 15 minutes. It’s exceptionally well built, from stainless steel back, 5 toes with rollers and premium synthetic leather in dual colors (mine was black – white).Everyday use and level of comfortI have been using the Diablo X-Fighter gaming chair for almost a week now and I can say for sure that the difference in quality with other everyday office chairs is miles apart. This specific model assumes the design of a bucket seat and “engulfs” the user, making it practically impossible to bend your back, have aches in the waist, or near the spinal cord. It comes with a specially designed pillow (the one with the X-Fighter logo on it), that can be placed in any height you prefer, using the elastic bands it comes with.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramI really enjoyed the soundproof wheels of the chair. You can move it around but there is NO NOISE made when you move it, especially in a quite environment. They seem to be quite durable and I hope they prove to be. In this type of chairs the wheels are always the first thing that breaks, bends, stops to roll etc, but in this case they seem to be able to withstand a lot of pressure and cruel everyday usage.聽 One of the most important features of a chair of this type is the ability to adjust its height and the tilt of its back, and this is where the X-Fighter really shines. It comes with two levers placed below the bottom part.聽The first is typical: it adjusts the height using a hydraulic suspension enabling us to use it along with higher or lower desks. The second locks/unlocks the back side of the X-Fighter so that it can tilt back if you want to rest, or locks in an upfront position – in case you wish to play your favorite PC game for… several hours.聽Don’t think however, that its features end here. This gaming chair has also adjustable arm-stands: in height, orientation AND length, in order to accommodate any type of body figure: people with long/short arms, long/short hands etc.Obviously the design of this specific gaming chair is subjective. Some may like it, others may not. If you think that this is not what you prefer, you have 4 more design options (as we previously said) that could easily cover your needs. Our thoughtsWe have a winner here guys, there’s no doubt about it. The Diablo X-Fighter is perhaps one of the best high quality gaming chairs out there and surely a treat every avid PC gamer should give to himself this Christmas 馃檪聽It excels in quality, durability and – as you can see for yourselves- appearance. And as the Polish manufacturer says:The Diablo X-Fighter聽computer chair arouses respect. A truly devilish design makes it simply impossible not to stop in awe. Aggression, dynamics, comfort and user鈥檚 peace 鈥 all enchanted in one prototype.Totally agree. Well done聽domator24.For the past week, I’ve been using Huawei’s latest flagship phone as my daily driver, but the question is will I continue using it?Anyone who has been reading GizChina for some time will know that once I’ve fallen for a phone I just continue to use it no matter what else launches. Eventually, I do move to a new device, but that new phone needs to be something special to get me to switch.A few weeks ago Huawei sent over the flagship Mate 10 Pro for me to review, it’s a great phone with stunning photography features, amazing battery life and a quality look and feel, but is it all enough?Huawei Mate 10 Pro Review – DesignWe’re at the peak of phone design and while that might sound exciting it actually isn’t really. Don’t get me wrong, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro is a good looking phone and is made of some of the best materials around and to a standard other phone makers could only dream of, but it’s hardly a unique looking phone is it.Huawei has gone for a full-screen design, meaning you have more screen to enjoy and less of a chin. While we have a larger panel the whole phone actually measures in at around the same size as a standard 5.5-inch phone.Of course, that big screen means that the fingerprint scanner has had to move to the rear of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, but there’s still just enough room left below the screen to get a Huawei logo in so you don’t forget which brand phone you are using.In addition to the rear fingerprint scanner, the glossy rear of the phone is home to dual Leica cameras, LED flash and laser focus module. Those components are highlighted on the rear of the phone and sit on a slightly lighter colored band to the rest of the phone.The highly polished finish continues on to the metal frame of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro making up the smooth chassis where a power button, volume control, SIM tray, IR remote and USB Type C plug are all found. You keen-eyed readers will have noticed that I missed the 3.5mm headphone jack. Well, that’s because there isn’t one on the Mate 10 Pro. What you do get though are some of Huawei’s own Type C in-ear headphones (they’re rather good too!).Huawei has made sure that the Mate 10 Pro looks and feels premium while ensuring that the all screen phone is comfortable to hold, and they’ve succeeded, but be warned that the glossy finish is susceptible to attracting fingerprints and greasy marks, and the smooth finish means that losing your grip or your phone sliding off a table is more likely to happen. Within the first hour of owning the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, I’d already managed to lose grip and it also managed to slide off a table, luckily both times I was able to catch the phone before it hit the ground.Not that I would be all that concerned if the phone had hit the ground as I’m confident that the high-quality nature of the phone would ensure it survived. Using the Mate 10 Pro after using the OnePlus 5 as my personal phone for months is a revelation, the Huawei is leagues ahead in material and finish.Huawei Mate 10 Pro Review – HardwareHuawei has built a phone that looks and feels like a flagship, and the specs follow this trend.A 6-inch display in a phone measuring 154.2 x 74.5 x 7.9mm would have been a feat of magic this time last year, but with phone makers going for “full-display” (Huawei call it FullView Display) many smartphones are leveling up in screen size. Huawei has also pushed up the resolution with a 2160 x 1080 OLED display offering a pixel density of 402ppi.Using a phone with 18:9 display might not sound like much of an upgrade over a standard phone, but you just try to use a 2017 flagship for a few days then move back to your regular screen phone. Chances are that old phone will feel just that, old!Another nod to this phones flagship intentions is the Huawei Kirin 970 chipset. This is a self-developed octa-core CPU made up of鑱? x Cortex A73 2.36GHz + 4 x Cortex A53 1.8GHz cores. The GPU is a Mali-G72 MP12 GP. It’s all good stuff and ensures that Huawei’s Android 8.0 based EMUI runs buttery smooth in every situation.Speaking of EMUI, from my time using the phone I can say that Huawei has done a great job of creating a super stable ROM with some very nice features. The Mate 10 Pro comes with a ‘tips’ app that teaches you some of the neat gestures that EMUI supports, my favorite being a knuckle tap to capture a screenshot. EMUI also has a killer camera app, but I’ll tell you more about that below.While I’ve enjoyed EMUI I do find that sometimes I get a notification dot (on an app icon or in the settings) but I’m unsure as to what I’m being notified too.Again, only last year a sub 8mm phone with 4000mAh battery would be a pretty rare sight but Huawei has managed this with the Mate 10 Pro. The battery is enough to give the Mate 10 Pro a full 2 days of battery life on a single charge and thanks to the fast charge feature can be topped up in no time at all.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramWhile the battery life is very impressive I’m still not sure if this is due to the fact Huawei has made a great job of optimisation or if it has something to do with the data connection. Like all modern Android phones, the Mate 10 Pro is an LTE smartphone, but it also has the worst signal strength of any phone I have ever owned! Compared to any other phone I have tested the Mate 10 Pro is the only phone that has ever left me with no signal what-so-ever in areas where I usually have full bars. On the other hand, the WIFI signal is very good and while I’m not usually able to receive WIFI in my bedroom the Mate 10 Pro manages too just grab the backend of the signal.WIFI phone calls are supported on the Mate 10 Pro too, but I found the quality to be patchy when testing this out, but this could have been down to our office WIFI. Another feature that Huawei has built in is a WIFI assistant that is meant to be smart enough to help you switch between networks or even between WIFI and DATA on the fly. Due to the poor LTE (and 3G and 2G) performance of the Mate 10, I ended up turning this feature off.Beneath the dual Leica rear cameras is a fingerprint scanner. There’s not much to say about this other than it is fast and accurate.If you check out the photos of the Mate 10 Pro you’ll see that Huawei has added a built-in IR remote but there is no 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead, you have to use the USB Type C plug in the base along with the supplied USB Type C headphones. And for those of you wondering, audio is amazing!Other notable features include NFC, dual SIM support and options for either 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM or 6GB RAM + 128GB ROM.Huawei Mate 10 Pro Review – CameraIF you’re looking at the Huawei Mate 10 Pro as your next phone then the chances are you are drawn to this phone for the stunning camera specifications.Huawei has teamed up with Leica once again on the Mate 10 Pro with the main cameras being a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor with secondary 12-megapixel RGB sensor both with F1.6 apertures.Other phone brands might leave the camera specs there and call it good, but Huawei has taken the cameras to the next level with OIS, PDAF, Laser focus and Depth Auto Focus! The dual cameras will let you take native black and white photos (a feature I’ve played with very little) and also gives the phone 2 x optical zoom.The front camera is a fixed focus F2.0 8 megapixel sensor. I prefer the fact that the rear camera is the main focus of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, other phone makers have been adding better front sensors to their devices but I’ve found performance to be lacking. Huawei has got it the right way around with both the front and rear cameras offering great performance in all situations.In addition to the hardware, the Mate 10 Pro also has a feature-packed camera application that uses AI to assist you to take the perfect shot.In auto mode, the Mate 10 Pro will use its dedicated AI chip to determine what you’re about to shoot and adjust the settings to suit. Pointing the Mate 10 Pro at flowers means the camera app switches to a ‘nature’ setting and shows a small leaf icon. Point the camera at food and the setting switch automatically to food mode. Other modes include pet, person, text and night. If the app doesn’t recognize the subject no icon will show and you’ll be shooting in a regular auto mode.Text ModeYou can trick the AI, for example, a stuffed toy shows up as a pet, and photos of food will also get the food setting to show up. I’ve still not been able to get the pet setting to show when taking photos of my brother though, but I continue to try.Pet Modefood modeAs for performance, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro is the best camera phone I have ever used! The photos are simply stunning in all situations and the amount of detail the camera picks up is truly unbelievable. Check out some photos samples below.Huawei Mate 10 Pro Review – Photo Gallery Frost and moon I do like odd little cars Huawei Mate 10 Pro fireworks Evening shot on the Huawei Mate 10 Pro Lovely depth Nice detail Pink flowers 1989 Honda CRX Pumpkins at night no light Halloween candy What I love about the Huawei Mate 10 ProThe dual Leica camera, F1.6 aperture and clever camera AI are incredible!Battery life is a solid 2 days of heavy use.Audio is sublime.What I don’t like about the Huawei Mate 10 ProData connectivity is dreadful.Smart WIFI/Data switching isn’t all that smart.Odd notifications that don’t seem to notify me of anything.Huawei Mate 10 Pro Review – ConclusionHuawei has made a top of the line phone that boasts features that everyone will love and appreciate. The cameras are incredible and for the first time, I feel that a phone is getting to DSLR beating levels of performance. Battery life is surprisingly good too, although they did take out the 3.5mm headphone jack to get a larger battery in the phone.What is annoying though is the very poor data connectivity. While a strong WIFI signal is much appreciated, the fact that I’m more surprised to have a signal rather than not is a very bad sign. There are times I simply cannot use my phone, and while the camera, audio, and screen are stunning, a phone isn’t all that much use if you can’t call anyone or connect to the web.

We – here in Gizchina- love newcomers in the smartphone market, especially if they aim high and prove to be bold in their first tries in the sector. It seems that JESY (a new Chinese company) is one of these companies and their first rugged device that goes by the name JESY J9S could prove to be a powerful contender in this specific category of smartphones.We’re talking about a behemoth phone, equipped with a true “exoskeleton” that completely protects it from almost any type of danger: water, ice, (some) fire, drop tests, pressure, humidity, dust whatever you like! It’s one of a few rugged Android smartphones out there with both聽IP68 and MIL-STD-810G certification, meaning it’s practically indestructible.I’m sure most of you are aware of what the IP68 certification stands for, but what about this聽MIL-STE-810G standard? Have a look at what Wikipedia has to say about it:MIL-STD-810,聽Environmental Engineering Considerations and Laboratory Tests, is a聽United States Military Standard聽that emphasizes tailoring an equipment鈥檚 environmental design and test limits to the conditions that it will experience throughout its service life, and establishing chamber test methods that replicate the effects of environments on the equipment rather than imitating the environments themselves. Although prepared specifically for military applications, the standard is often used for commercial products as well.The standard鈥檚 guidance and聽test methods聽are intended to:define environmental stress sequences, durations, and levels of equipment life cycles;be used to develop analysis and test criteria tailored to the equipment and its environmental life cycle;valuate equipment鈥檚 performance when exposed to a life cycle of environmental stressesidentify deficiencies, shortcomings, and defects in equipment design, materials, manufacturing processes, packaging techniques, and maintenance methods; anddemonstrate compliance with contractual requirements.JESY J9S – Technical specificationsDisplay:聽5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 Pixel screenCPU: MTK6755 Octa Core 2.0GHzSystem:聽Android 7.0RAM + ROM:聽4GB RAM聽+聽64GB ROMCamera:聽8.0MP front camera +聽16.0MP聽back cameraSensor:聽Geomagnetic Sensor, Gravity Sensor, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor, Baroceptor, Humidity Sensor, Temperature SensorSIM Card:聽dual SIM dual standby. 1 Micro SIM card + 1 Micro SIM cardFeature:聽GPS, Glonass, BeidouBluetooth:聽4.0Network:聽2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz CDMA BC0/BC1 –聽3G: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz TD-SCDMA B34/B39 – 4G: FDD-LTE B1/B3/B7/B20 TDD-LTE B38/B39/B40/B41JESY J9S – Package contents1 脳 Phone1 脳 Built-in聽Battery1 脳 Waterproof Earphone1 脳 Screwdriver1 脳 USB Cable2 脳 Micro SIM Tray1 脳 Power AdapterJESY J9S review:聽Design and general appearanceI guess the photos talk better in these situations don’t you agree? We have a huge device in our hands guys, with a 5,5 inch display, and a poly-carbonate frame designed by German designers and corners that stick out (like small ears) able to absorb any falls of the device, protecting it perfectly. I tried it, Jesus I did. It was basically impossible to make it hurt, or create even the smaller bump on its frame.聽The case is completely rubberized and able to protect the J9S model, but it also ads some extra weight (and thickness) to its body figure. This leads to a rugged smartphone with a size of 167 mm x 85 mm x 17 mm and a weight of 291 gr.聽On the front we can spot a selfie camera and 3 software buttons, on the back side, there’s an impressive camera, LED flash light, and a fingerprint scanner placed exactly below the lens.聽The device comes with a really impressive 5,5 inch display with FHD resolution (1920x1080p) with decent luminosity during sunny days, along with 178 degrees of viewing angle. It has a whopping 400.93 PPI with multi touch capacitive ability, however, it comes equipped with a scratch 鈥搑esistant screen with Gorilla Glass cover in order to offer the best possible durability.聽On top of the device you will find a 3.5mm audio jack (fully protected) along with an IR sensor and NFC sensor under the back of the J9S model – pretty powerful specs for a newcomer in the rugged smartphones market.Hardware & PerformanceThis is an area where this phone performs above average – when compared to other similar smartphones. It comes with a MediaTek MT6755 octa-core processor,聽along with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD card up to 256GB. The available RAM is more than enough for you to run all your day to day apps very smoothly, and the gaming performance is almost excellent if you play games like Asphalt 8 on normal graphics. Still, you should expect some skipped frames thanks to the GPU but with no significant lag.I was quite pleased by the general performance of the JESY J9S model guys, I have to admit. It’s available RAM is ALWAYS above 2GB, no matter how many apps I may open and use. It offers decent multi-tasking with no significant impact on its everyday performance. To confirm our deductions, do have a look at the benchmark results of the device as they appear above, showing the JESY J9S scoring聽49619 points in AnTuTu.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram I had one issue with its GPS receiver, as the device had some hick-ups and disconnected 1-2 times at first, but then it seemed to pick up and offer very good performance using several applications such as Facebook check-in, Google Maps etc. It took 5-6 seconds initially to locate my position but after this, all Facebook check in’s were easy with no hassle.聽聽In any case it still offered good global positioning services, no complains at all. The JESY J9S聽is a 4G/LTE smartphone (4G: FDD-LTE B1/B3/B7/B20 TDD-LTE B38/B39/B40/B41聽) with good performance when it comes to LTE networks, achieving average data speeds of 60Mbps that surely offer a decent feeling when you use it, along with great performance in everyday use. It has good GSM/WCDMA/LTE signal reception with flawless handovers and no dropped calls 鈥 during my tests that is.JESY J9S review: Android software and UI performanceThe JESY J9S runs on Android 7.0 Nougat, however the company hasn’t disclosed yet when (and if) it will be updated to Android 7.1.2 or (one can hope) Android O. In any case, it runs on Nougat, with all the perks of Google’s previous operating system and – most importantly- the beauty of “vanilla” pure Android. I love this type of Chinese phones, those that come with no themes, no聽bloatware or other unnecessary apps inside. You can be sure that it supports all the classic Nougat features, but the UI is as simple as Google wanted it to be. You can easily understand that the combination of a pure Android with an affordable 8-core chipset and 4GB of RAM can be quite pleasing for almost any type of user.聽JESY J9S provides some special tools app for outdoor user, including Sound Meter, Compass, Flashlight, Bubble Level, Pic Hanging, Heart Rate, Pedometer, Height Measure, Pressure, Plumb Bob, Alarm etc. These are very convenient and useful in your outdoor adventures.聽So聽as long as you don鈥檛 choose to put any extra pressure on it with severe multi-tasking, more than 15-18 apps opened simultaneously (!) you can be sure that it will be there for you, providing acceptable performance.Camera performanceNothing much here, just another Chinese smartphone with a 16MP camera, offering decent specs, good photos/videos but… nothing impressive enough.聽The pictures taken from the phone don鈥檛 have high saturation but overall its decent for a couple of shots. It has the typical camera UI we find in most OEM models, along with typical features such as balance, video/image size settings, EIS on/off, number of shutter photos to shoot, white balance, ISO balance etc.GOOD PHOTOS and VIDEOS, adequate LOW LIGHT PERFORMANCEJESY says that the camera has OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) but… I don’t think it does (I don’t find any setting, nor do the videos look like they have this support). The EIS however works very good for videos as long as there’s decent lighting in the area. Don’t try it at home, during night time, you will be disappointing. There’s also a front facing selfie camera, offering 8MP of decent performance. It鈥檚 quite easy to capture decent photos in daylight conditions, panoramic images with a helpful assistant that shows the way to do it correctly and the same goes for video capture. However when the sun goes down problems appear, such as low ISO, increased digital noise in photos and reduced framerate in videos.聽All of the above however are typical for this type of phones, and the final verdict is that using the JESY J9S you will be able to capture decent photos in daylight conditions but not that impressive photos during low light conditions.The LED flash works OK in close ups, portraits or distances up to 1 meter but it won鈥檛 do you any good if your subject is a bit further.Battery consumptionThe JESY J9S is equipped with a HUGE 6150mAh battery that can provide really impressive stand by times, in cooperation with the Mediatek energy efficient processor. You can easily get a full day鈥檚 usage (28 hours) with no problems and perhaps a week-long standby time if you are able to be gentle with it, or use a power save feature.聽The battery went down to 11% power after 9 hours normal using from 49%. Note also that it:DOES support Qi wireless charging which is only found on some high-end smartphones.All in all we have a winner here, an impressive smartphone with decent standby times if you鈥檙e an average user (6 hours of active screen).Conclusion 鈥 So what about it?First of all, this is a rugged smartphone so it’s aimed at a specific segment of the market. This means that it should be judged in comparison to other relevant devices and in this area it really shines.聽It鈥檚 not only certified with IP68 and MIL-STD-810G standards but also brings a lot of tools including a protractor, compass, torch, loupe, ruler, plummet, gradienter etc.If you’re in the market for a rugged, solid 4GB RAM/64GB ROM, 16MP camera smartphone with Qi wireless charging, NFC, IR sensor and great build quality then the JESY J9S should definitely be among your top choices.We – here in Gizchina- love newcomers in the smartphone market, especially if they aim high and prove to be bold in their first tries in the sector. It seems that JESY (a new Chinese company) is one of these companies and their first rugged device that goes by the name JESY J9S could prove to be a powerful contender in this specific category of smartphones.We’re talking about a behemoth phone, equipped with a true “exoskeleton” that completely protects it from almost any type of danger: water, ice, (some) fire, drop tests, pressure, humidity, dust whatever you like! It’s one of a few rugged Android smartphones out there with both聽IP68 and MIL-STD-810G certification, meaning it’s practically indestructible.I’m sure most of you are aware of what the IP68 certification stands for, but what about this聽MIL-STE-810G standard? Have a look at what Wikipedia has to say about it:MIL-STD-810,聽Environmental Engineering Considerations and Laboratory Tests, is a聽United States Military Standard聽that emphasizes tailoring an equipment鈥檚 environmental design and test limits to the conditions that it will experience throughout its service life, and establishing chamber test methods that replicate the effects of environments on the equipment rather than imitating the environments themselves. Although prepared specifically for military applications, the standard is often used for commercial products as well.The standard鈥檚 guidance and聽test methods聽are intended to:define environmental stress sequences, durations, and levels of equipment life cycles;be used to develop analysis and test criteria tailored to the equipment and its environmental life cycle;valuate equipment鈥檚 performance when exposed to a life cycle of environmental stressesidentify deficiencies, shortcomings, and defects in equipment design, materials, manufacturing processes, packaging techniques, and maintenance methods; anddemonstrate compliance with contractual requirements.JESY J9S – Technical specificationsDisplay:聽5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 Pixel screenCPU: MTK6755 Octa Core 2.0GHzSystem:聽Android 7.0RAM + ROM:聽4GB RAM聽+聽64GB ROMCamera:聽8.0MP front camera +聽16.0MP聽back cameraSensor:聽Geomagnetic Sensor, Gravity Sensor, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor, Baroceptor, Humidity Sensor, Temperature SensorSIM Card:聽dual SIM dual standby. 1 Micro SIM card + 1 Micro SIM cardFeature:聽GPS, Glonass, BeidouBluetooth:聽4.0Network:聽2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz CDMA BC0/BC1 –聽3G: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz TD-SCDMA B34/B39 – 4G: FDD-LTE B1/B3/B7/B20 TDD-LTE B38/B39/B40/B41JESY J9S – Package contents1 脳 Phone1 脳 Built-in聽Battery1 脳 Waterproof Earphone1 脳 Screwdriver1 脳 USB Cable2 脳 Micro SIM Tray1 脳 Power AdapterJESY J9S review:聽Design and general appearanceI guess the photos talk better in these situations don’t you agree? We have a huge device in our hands guys, with a 5,5 inch display, and a poly-carbonate frame designed by German designers and corners that stick out (like small ears) able to absorb any falls of the device, protecting it perfectly. I tried it, Jesus I did. It was basically impossible to make it hurt, or create even the smaller bump on its frame.聽The case is completely rubberized and able to protect the J9S model, but it also ads some extra weight (and thickness) to its body figure. This leads to a rugged smartphone with a size of 167 mm x 85 mm x 17 mm and a weight of 291 gr.聽On the front we can spot a selfie camera and 3 software buttons, on the back side, there’s an impressive camera, LED flash light, and a fingerprint scanner placed exactly below the lens.聽The device comes with a really impressive 5,5 inch display with FHD resolution (1920x1080p) with decent luminosity during sunny days, along with 178 degrees of viewing angle. It has a whopping 400.93 PPI with multi touch capacitive ability, however, it comes equipped with a scratch 鈥搑esistant screen with Gorilla Glass cover in order to offer the best possible durability.聽On top of the device you will find a 3.5mm audio jack (fully protected) along with an IR sensor and NFC sensor under the back of the J9S model – pretty powerful specs for a newcomer in the rugged smartphones market.Hardware & PerformanceThis is an area where this phone performs above average – when compared to other similar smartphones. It comes with a MediaTek MT6755 octa-core processor,聽along with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD card up to 256GB. The available RAM is more than enough for you to run all your day to day apps very smoothly, and the gaming performance is almost excellent if you play games like Asphalt 8 on normal graphics. Still, you should expect some skipped frames thanks to the GPU but with no significant lag.I was quite pleased by the general performance of the JESY J9S model guys, I have to admit. It’s available RAM is ALWAYS above 2GB, no matter how many apps I may open and use. It offers decent multi-tasking with no significant impact on its everyday performance. To confirm our deductions, do have a look at the benchmark results of the device as they appear above, showing the JESY J9S scoring聽49619 points in AnTuTu.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram I had one issue with its GPS receiver, as the device had some hick-ups and disconnected 1-2 times at first, but then it seemed to pick up and offer very good performance using several applications such as Facebook check-in, Google Maps etc. It took 5-6 seconds initially to locate my position but after this, all Facebook check in’s were easy with no hassle.聽聽In any case it still offered good global positioning services, no complains at all. The JESY J9S聽is a 4G/LTE smartphone (4G: FDD-LTE B1/B3/B7/B20 TDD-LTE B38/B39/B40/B41聽) with good performance when it comes to LTE networks, achieving average data speeds of 60Mbps that surely offer a decent feeling when you use it, along with great performance in everyday use. It has good GSM/WCDMA/LTE signal reception with flawless handovers and no dropped calls 鈥 during my tests that is.JESY J9S review: Android software and UI performanceThe JESY J9S runs on Android 7.0 Nougat, however the company hasn’t disclosed yet when (and if) it will be updated to Android 7.1.2 or (one can hope) Android O. In any case, it runs on Nougat, with all the perks of Google’s previous operating system and – most importantly- the beauty of “vanilla” pure Android. I love this type of Chinese phones, those that come with no themes, no聽bloatware or other unnecessary apps inside. You can be sure that it supports all the classic Nougat features, but the UI is as simple as Google wanted it to be. You can easily understand that the combination of a pure Android with an affordable 8-core chipset and 4GB of RAM can be quite pleasing for almost any type of user.聽JESY J9S provides some special tools app for outdoor user, including Sound Meter, Compass, Flashlight, Bubble Level, Pic Hanging, Heart Rate, Pedometer, Height Measure, Pressure, Plumb Bob, Alarm etc. These are very convenient and useful in your outdoor adventures.聽So聽as long as you don鈥檛 choose to put any extra pressure on it with severe multi-tasking, more than 15-18 apps opened simultaneously (!) you can be sure that it will be there for you, providing acceptable performance.Camera performanceNothing much here, just another Chinese smartphone with a 16MP camera, offering decent specs, good photos/videos but… nothing impressive enough.聽The pictures taken from the phone don鈥檛 have high saturation but overall its decent for a couple of shots. It has the typical camera UI we find in most OEM models, along with typical features such as balance, video/image size settings, EIS on/off, number of shutter photos to shoot, white balance, ISO balance etc.GOOD PHOTOS and VIDEOS, adequate LOW LIGHT PERFORMANCEJESY says that the camera has OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) but… I don’t think it does (I don’t find any setting, nor do the videos look like they have this support). The EIS however works very good for videos as long as there’s decent lighting in the area. Don’t try it at home, during night time, you will be disappointing. There’s also a front facing selfie camera, offering 8MP of decent performance. It鈥檚 quite easy to capture decent photos in daylight conditions, panoramic images with a helpful assistant that shows the way to do it correctly and the same goes for video capture. However when the sun goes down problems appear, such as low ISO, increased digital noise in photos and reduced framerate in videos.聽All of the above however are typical for this type of phones, and the final verdict is that using the JESY J9S you will be able to capture decent photos in daylight conditions but not that impressive photos during low light conditions.The LED flash works OK in close ups, portraits or distances up to 1 meter but it won鈥檛 do you any good if your subject is a bit further.Battery consumptionThe JESY J9S is equipped with a HUGE 6150mAh battery that can provide really impressive stand by times, in cooperation with the Mediatek energy efficient processor. You can easily get a full day鈥檚 usage (28 hours) with no problems and perhaps a week-long standby time if you are able to be gentle with it, or use a power save feature.聽The battery went down to 11% power after 9 hours normal using from 49%. Note also that it:DOES support Qi wireless charging which is only found on some high-end smartphones.All in all we have a winner here, an impressive smartphone with decent standby times if you鈥檙e an average user (6 hours of active screen).Conclusion 鈥 So what about it?First of all, this is a rugged smartphone so it’s aimed at a specific segment of the market. This means that it should be judged in comparison to other relevant devices and in this area it really shines.聽It鈥檚 not only certified with IP68 and MIL-STD-810G standards but also brings a lot of tools including a protractor, compass, torch, loupe, ruler, plummet, gradienter etc.If you’re in the market for a rugged, solid 4GB RAM/64GB ROM, 16MP camera smartphone with Qi wireless charging, NFC, IR sensor and great build quality then the JESY J9S should definitely be among your top choices.

So over the past few weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to be using the flagship Huawei Mate 10 Pro as my daily driver. Ahead of my upcoming Huawei Mate 10 Pro review, I’ve decided to post a few photos shot on the dual Leica camera phone.If you’re lucky at specifications, there is a lot to love about the Huawei Mate 10 Pro even before getting on in your hands.Evening shot on the Huawei Mate 10 ProThis is a flagship phone that really pushes the boundaries of what a smartphone can and will do. Built-in AI capabilities is a headline feature, but there is also that 4000mAh battery, large, high-resolution display, Android 8.0 and of course those dual Leica lenses on the rear.Pink flowersFor this post I’m just going to focus on the camera features of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro by posting a few sample photos that I’ve taken during my time with the phone.Pumpkins at night no lightWith dual Leica lenses, F1.6 apertures and a hugely feature-packed camera application it’s hardly surprising that the Mate 10 Pro can take some astonishing photos, but what’s really exciting is the fact that most of these images were taken in the ‘auto’ setting, in other words, Huawei’s AI did the driving.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramLovely depthI’ll be updating you all with my Huawei Mate 10 Pro review in the coming days so please watch out for that as well as my review of the Vivo V7+ too.1989 Honda CRXHuawei Mate 10 Pro fireworksI do like odd little carsHalloween candyFrost and moonNice detailSo over the past few weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to be using the flagship Huawei Mate 10 Pro as my daily driver. Ahead of my upcoming Huawei Mate 10 Pro review, I’ve decided to post a few photos shot on the dual Leica camera phone.If you’re lucky at specifications, there is a lot to love about the Huawei Mate 10 Pro even before getting on in your hands.Evening shot on the Huawei Mate 10 ProThis is a flagship phone that really pushes the boundaries of what a smartphone can and will do. Built-in AI capabilities is a headline feature, but there is also that 4000mAh battery, large, high-resolution display, Android 8.0 and of course those dual Leica lenses on the rear.Pink flowersFor this post I’m just going to focus on the camera features of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro by posting a few sample photos that I’ve taken during my time with the phone.Pumpkins at night no lightWith dual Leica lenses, F1.6 apertures and a hugely feature-packed camera application it’s hardly surprising that the Mate 10 Pro can take some astonishing photos, but what’s really exciting is the fact that most of these images were taken in the ‘auto’ setting, in other words, Huawei’s AI did the driving.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramLovely depthI’ll be updating you all with my Huawei Mate 10 Pro review in the coming days so please watch out for that as well as my review of the Vivo V7+ too.1989 Honda CRXHuawei Mate 10 Pro fireworksI do like odd little carsHalloween candyFrost and moonNice detail

If bezelless phones weren’t a thing, the Xiaomi Mi Note 3 would be impressively compact. However, bezelless phones turn the Mi Note 3 into a rather unsightly affair just by virtue of comparison.Standing in the shadow of a MIX is never an easy thing, and couple that with the expectation of a flagship level processor in a Note phone, the Mi Note 3 is turning out to be one controversial beast indeed.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 ReviewXiaomi鈥檚 processor choices in many of their phones have been less than鈥 desirable, with many of their higher end devices utilizing the low powered Snapdragon 625 processors, and now the Mi Note 3 is following suit, taking a step down from a high end chip to a midrange one. I have no doubt that Xiaomi has crafted an excellent and refined device, but public perception (from enthusiasts at least) due to the processor stepdown has been rather biting. Let鈥檚 get into what Xiaomi got right and what they got wrong.A step down from the previous generationXiaomi Mi Note 3 SpecificationsProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 660 ProcessorDisplay5.5″ 1920×1080 IPS LCDRAM6GBStorage64 ROMOperating SystemAndroid 7.0 Nougat with MIUI8Cameras12MP, 5MP CameraBattery3500mAhPhysical Dimensions163g, 152.6 x 74 x 7.6 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 HardwareThe Mi Note 3 looks exactly like the Mi6, even down to the positions of the sensors, home buttons, and camera location. However, this means that both the Mi6 and the Mi Note 3 look fairly generic, with no standout features like bezelless displays or 18:9 aspect ratios. We have very slim side bezels and rather chunky top and bottom bezels that make the phone look and feel a little bit dated, considering the industry鈥檚 recent shift to a bezelless philosophy. We have generous curves on the back and a slim 8.3mm profile, the Mi Note 3 is easy to hold, even for an adamant 5 incher like myself.The back of the phone is glossy and a complete fingerprint magnet. Expect this phone to look pristine for all of 5 seconds before becoming a mess of fingerprints, but who am I kidding, we鈥檙e all going to be putting a case on this thing anyway.Xiaomi made no mention of water resistance and we are quite certain this phone is not water resistant either. The biggest complaint I鈥檝e heard is the removal of the headphone jack. It seems like everybody and their mother is taking this out, with Motorola and Apple leading the charge. To be honest, this does not affect me personally as I鈥檝e moved completely to Bluetooth headphones, but a physical jack would definitely be handy if (and when) I do forget the 3.5mm to USB-C dongle. We find a microSD card slot conspicuously missing.Solid & GenericXiaomi Mi Note 3 DisplayThe older Mi Note 2 utilized an AMOLED display with the controversial Pentile arrangement, but this time Xiaomi has transitioned the Mi Note 3 away from AMOLED back to regular old LCD. The LCD screen at first glance is merely average because of the pastel colour palette that MIUI generally adopts, however you start seeing how vibrant and colourful the screen can get when you peek at a colour video or photo. The resolution stays at 1080p instead moving up to 2K, and this is in my opinion the right decision, no need to take that small hit in battery life for more pixels that have a nigh imperceptible difference, focus instead on improving colour gamut and contrast. Maximum brightness tops out around 550 nits, more than enough for use in direct sunlight while the screen brightness dims to a barely visible level in a dark room. Touch response is excellent and we have Gorilla Glass 4 covering the screen also.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 AudioThe dual stereo speakers produce excellent sound volume, easily matching the Xiaomi Mi6 and the older Mi Note 2. Audio quality is also good, an almost imperceptible difference between the more expensive Mi6 and this Note 3. However, it does distort at max volume occasionally.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 BatteryI have pretty high hopes for battery life. While I fully expect the Snapdragon 660 to be less power efficient than the Snapdragon 625, it shouldn鈥檛 fall that far behind. I am pleased to say that battery life here is excellent. Not Redmi Note 4X levels of excellent, but good nonetheless. I was able to get 8 hours of screen on time easily over a 16 hour day with over 20% left. This was a varied mix of use cases, about two hours of YouTube, two hours of gaming, and the rest was web browsing, Reddit, and social media. I also played music through Bluetooth for two hours also. While this isn鈥檛 going to match what the Redmi Note 4X is getting, it鈥檚 a lot closer to the Xiaomi Mi5x/Mi A1, even heavy users will be able to get through a single day without problems. The phone is also QuickCharge 3.0 capable, and I could bring the battery to 70% within a single hour.Great battery lifeGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramXiaomi Mi Note 3 SoftwareMIUI is a known quantity to those of us who are Gizchina regulars. However, the Mi Note 3 comes with the latest MIUI9 within which comes a few new features, many of which promise to improve the MIUI experience. We all know that MIUI takes a very aggressive app management style, killing apps when you exit them or turn the screen off in order to improve battery life and free up RAM, an annoyance those of us who don鈥檛 need this kind of management. Xiaomi has implemented a new 鈥淒oze鈥 mode that hibernates apps instead of killing them when your screen is off for a long time, and it definitely works well, no longer requiring an app relaunch every time you turn the phone back on. You can also quick reply to notifications, something MIUI users have been pining for since Android Lollipop was released. Finally, MIUI has promises improved RAM optimization meaning that MIUI uses less RAM and it does deliver on that promise, cutting down RAM use fairly healthily, not that it will affect you on the Mi Note 3 since there are 6GB of RAM.General use is very smooth and very fast, whether I鈥檓 navigating through MIUI or using the Nova Launcher. I do detect very slight lag compared to the Xiaomi Mi6, but its imperceptible to those who have not used both. Opening and closing apps is also slightly slower than the Mi6, and this can be seen on video, the Mi Note 3 takes an additional microsecond to open the app. It feels about as fast opening apps as a brand new Snapdragon 821 phone like the Galaxy S7. Multitasking is obviously no problem with 6GB of RAM. Gaming for all intents and purposes is just as fast as the Xiaomi Mi6, with all the intense games playable at the highest settings.The fingerprint sensor on the front is blazing fast, bordering on instant. It matches the Xiaomi Mi6 and the Oneplus 5 in terms of speed and accuracy. There is also face unlock and while it does work, its slow enough that I don鈥檛 use it at all, I turn it off.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 ConnectivityI was able to get great reception anywhere I went, even down in Mexico on AT&T, getting 4G LTE everywhere, even a moderately remote construction site. Speeds are blazing fast, even faster than my Zuk Z2, giving me a whole new way to eat my data at unheard of speeds.With the removal of the headphone jack, Bluetooth better be good, and it is. I was able to connect to all my Bluetooth devices including a car stereo, two Bluetooth earbuds, a Bluetooth headphone, and a Bluetooth speaker. WiFi signal strength is excellent also. Navigating using the Mi Note 3 is excellent both in Canada and in Mexico.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 CameraSpecifications wise, the camera module here is rather packed for the now midrange Mi Note 3. It features the exact same setup as the Xiaomi Mi6, a 12MP 27mm wide angle lens and a narrower 12MP 52mm portrait lens, both of which support 4-axis OIS.The camera app is simple and standard across MIUI devices, with a few added features to support the dual lens; you can switch between the two lenses by switching zoom levels from 1x to 2x.So starting with the 27mm wide angle lens (or 1x zoom in the camera app), the camera captures great looking photos in good lighting conditions. The camera records great exposure and colour saturation, it鈥檚 definitely a little oversaturated, but that鈥檚 exactly how I like my photos. Detail levels in good lighting conditions are great also, no issues here.When you switch zoom levels to 2x, you switch over to the 52mm lens and to my eyes, photos in this mode are slightly sharper than what you get on the wide angles. The framing of the 52mm lens is also perfect for taking photos of people as opposed to landscapes.In low light, the 52mm lens (2x zoom) fills with noise a lot faster than the wide angle, which is actually quite capable of taking shots in low light. It balances noise reduction and detail quite well, giving you useable low light shots.You can turn on HDR and this boosts shadows significantly and even gets your photos even more saturated, even more to my liking!There is also portrait mode that adds Bokeh to the background, and it does it quite well, separating the subject from the background fairly well, but zooming in will show you the aberrations in the separation.The front facing camera is just about average, but it includes A.I enhanced software to beautify your face, smoothing out wrinkles, removing blemishes and making your face look more like a baby鈥檚 (albeit somewhat artificially). I turned it off as most of my selfies include a certain canine, but it does work fairly well in making your face as smooth as a silk.Moving on to video, the phone captures full 4K video and video detail is great, colour and contrast are both captured well. OIS does its job well in 4K, smoothing out some jitters that naturally arise from handheld shooting.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 Camera Gallery Xiaomi Mi Note 3 VerdictYou can look at the Mi Note 3 from two perspectives. First, it could be a midrange device with a great camera that peeks into flagship level territory with an almost imperceptible performance difference to the more expensive Mi6. Or, it was a flagship device hobbled by the use of the Snapdragon 660 and is now a midrange device with leftover flagship bits. Either way, you鈥檙e getting an amazing if somewhat bland device that is great in every aspect. But, and there鈥檚 always a but, the high $379USD starting price calls into question the value you are getting with the Mi Note 3, considering the slightly better Xiaomi Mi6 is cheaper than this. A slight upside to the Mi Note 3 are the grey market prices, which usually add a good $70 to such a new product, but in this case, a premium of between $30-40 is applied to those of us outside China.In a sentence, the Xiaomi Mi Note 3 is a great but overpriced piece of hardware. Buy the Xiaomi Mi Note 3If bezelless phones weren’t a thing, the Xiaomi Mi Note 3 would be impressively compact. However, bezelless phones turn the Mi Note 3 into a rather unsightly affair just by virtue of comparison.Standing in the shadow of a MIX is never an easy thing, and couple that with the expectation of a flagship level processor in a Note phone, the Mi Note 3 is turning out to be one controversial beast indeed.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 ReviewXiaomi鈥檚 processor choices in many of their phones have been less than鈥 desirable, with many of their higher end devices utilizing the low powered Snapdragon 625 processors, and now the Mi Note 3 is following suit, taking a step down from a high end chip to a midrange one. I have no doubt that Xiaomi has crafted an excellent and refined device, but public perception (from enthusiasts at least) due to the processor stepdown has been rather biting. Let鈥檚 get into what Xiaomi got right and what they got wrong.A step down from the previous generationXiaomi Mi Note 3 SpecificationsProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 660 ProcessorDisplay5.5″ 1920×1080 IPS LCDRAM6GBStorage64 ROMOperating SystemAndroid 7.0 Nougat with MIUI8Cameras12MP, 5MP CameraBattery3500mAhPhysical Dimensions163g, 152.6 x 74 x 7.6 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 HardwareThe Mi Note 3 looks exactly like the Mi6, even down to the positions of the sensors, home buttons, and camera location. However, this means that both the Mi6 and the Mi Note 3 look fairly generic, with no standout features like bezelless displays or 18:9 aspect ratios. We have very slim side bezels and rather chunky top and bottom bezels that make the phone look and feel a little bit dated, considering the industry鈥檚 recent shift to a bezelless philosophy. We have generous curves on the back and a slim 8.3mm profile, the Mi Note 3 is easy to hold, even for an adamant 5 incher like myself.The back of the phone is glossy and a complete fingerprint magnet. Expect this phone to look pristine for all of 5 seconds before becoming a mess of fingerprints, but who am I kidding, we鈥檙e all going to be putting a case on this thing anyway.Xiaomi made no mention of water resistance and we are quite certain this phone is not water resistant either. The biggest complaint I鈥檝e heard is the removal of the headphone jack. It seems like everybody and their mother is taking this out, with Motorola and Apple leading the charge. To be honest, this does not affect me personally as I鈥檝e moved completely to Bluetooth headphones, but a physical jack would definitely be handy if (and when) I do forget the 3.5mm to USB-C dongle. We find a microSD card slot conspicuously missing.Solid & GenericXiaomi Mi Note 3 DisplayThe older Mi Note 2 utilized an AMOLED display with the controversial Pentile arrangement, but this time Xiaomi has transitioned the Mi Note 3 away from AMOLED back to regular old LCD. The LCD screen at first glance is merely average because of the pastel colour palette that MIUI generally adopts, however you start seeing how vibrant and colourful the screen can get when you peek at a colour video or photo. The resolution stays at 1080p instead moving up to 2K, and this is in my opinion the right decision, no need to take that small hit in battery life for more pixels that have a nigh imperceptible difference, focus instead on improving colour gamut and contrast. Maximum brightness tops out around 550 nits, more than enough for use in direct sunlight while the screen brightness dims to a barely visible level in a dark room. Touch response is excellent and we have Gorilla Glass 4 covering the screen also.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 AudioThe dual stereo speakers produce excellent sound volume, easily matching the Xiaomi Mi6 and the older Mi Note 2. Audio quality is also good, an almost imperceptible difference between the more expensive Mi6 and this Note 3. However, it does distort at max volume occasionally.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 BatteryI have pretty high hopes for battery life. While I fully expect the Snapdragon 660 to be less power efficient than the Snapdragon 625, it shouldn鈥檛 fall that far behind. I am pleased to say that battery life here is excellent. Not Redmi Note 4X levels of excellent, but good nonetheless. I was able to get 8 hours of screen on time easily over a 16 hour day with over 20% left. This was a varied mix of use cases, about two hours of YouTube, two hours of gaming, and the rest was web browsing, Reddit, and social media. I also played music through Bluetooth for two hours also. While this isn鈥檛 going to match what the Redmi Note 4X is getting, it鈥檚 a lot closer to the Xiaomi Mi5x/Mi A1, even heavy users will be able to get through a single day without problems. The phone is also QuickCharge 3.0 capable, and I could bring the battery to 70% within a single hour.Great battery lifeGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramXiaomi Mi Note 3 SoftwareMIUI is a known quantity to those of us who are Gizchina regulars. However, the Mi Note 3 comes with the latest MIUI9 within which comes a few new features, many of which promise to improve the MIUI experience. We all know that MIUI takes a very aggressive app management style, killing apps when you exit them or turn the screen off in order to improve battery life and free up RAM, an annoyance those of us who don鈥檛 need this kind of management. Xiaomi has implemented a new 鈥淒oze鈥 mode that hibernates apps instead of killing them when your screen is off for a long time, and it definitely works well, no longer requiring an app relaunch every time you turn the phone back on. You can also quick reply to notifications, something MIUI users have been pining for since Android Lollipop was released. Finally, MIUI has promises improved RAM optimization meaning that MIUI uses less RAM and it does deliver on that promise, cutting down RAM use fairly healthily, not that it will affect you on the Mi Note 3 since there are 6GB of RAM.General use is very smooth and very fast, whether I鈥檓 navigating through MIUI or using the Nova Launcher. I do detect very slight lag compared to the Xiaomi Mi6, but its imperceptible to those who have not used both. Opening and closing apps is also slightly slower than the Mi6, and this can be seen on video, the Mi Note 3 takes an additional microsecond to open the app. It feels about as fast opening apps as a brand new Snapdragon 821 phone like the Galaxy S7. Multitasking is obviously no problem with 6GB of RAM. Gaming for all intents and purposes is just as fast as the Xiaomi Mi6, with all the intense games playable at the highest settings.The fingerprint sensor on the front is blazing fast, bordering on instant. It matches the Xiaomi Mi6 and the Oneplus 5 in terms of speed and accuracy. There is also face unlock and while it does work, its slow enough that I don鈥檛 use it at all, I turn it off.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 ConnectivityI was able to get great reception anywhere I went, even down in Mexico on AT&T, getting 4G LTE everywhere, even a moderately remote construction site. Speeds are blazing fast, even faster than my Zuk Z2, giving me a whole new way to eat my data at unheard of speeds.With the removal of the headphone jack, Bluetooth better be good, and it is. I was able to connect to all my Bluetooth devices including a car stereo, two Bluetooth earbuds, a Bluetooth headphone, and a Bluetooth speaker. WiFi signal strength is excellent also. Navigating using the Mi Note 3 is excellent both in Canada and in Mexico.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 CameraSpecifications wise, the camera module here is rather packed for the now midrange Mi Note 3. It features the exact same setup as the Xiaomi Mi6, a 12MP 27mm wide angle lens and a narrower 12MP 52mm portrait lens, both of which support 4-axis OIS.The camera app is simple and standard across MIUI devices, with a few added features to support the dual lens; you can switch between the two lenses by switching zoom levels from 1x to 2x.So starting with the 27mm wide angle lens (or 1x zoom in the camera app), the camera captures great looking photos in good lighting conditions. The camera records great exposure and colour saturation, it鈥檚 definitely a little oversaturated, but that鈥檚 exactly how I like my photos. Detail levels in good lighting conditions are great also, no issues here.When you switch zoom levels to 2x, you switch over to the 52mm lens and to my eyes, photos in this mode are slightly sharper than what you get on the wide angles. The framing of the 52mm lens is also perfect for taking photos of people as opposed to landscapes.In low light, the 52mm lens (2x zoom) fills with noise a lot faster than the wide angle, which is actually quite capable of taking shots in low light. It balances noise reduction and detail quite well, giving you useable low light shots.You can turn on HDR and this boosts shadows significantly and even gets your photos even more saturated, even more to my liking!There is also portrait mode that adds Bokeh to the background, and it does it quite well, separating the subject from the background fairly well, but zooming in will show you the aberrations in the separation.The front facing camera is just about average, but it includes A.I enhanced software to beautify your face, smoothing out wrinkles, removing blemishes and making your face look more like a baby鈥檚 (albeit somewhat artificially). I turned it off as most of my selfies include a certain canine, but it does work fairly well in making your face as smooth as a silk.Moving on to video, the phone captures full 4K video and video detail is great, colour and contrast are both captured well. OIS does its job well in 4K, smoothing out some jitters that naturally arise from handheld shooting.Xiaomi Mi Note 3 Camera Gallery Xiaomi Mi Note 3 VerdictYou can look at the Mi Note 3 from two perspectives. First, it could be a midrange device with a great camera that peeks into flagship level territory with an almost imperceptible performance difference to the more expensive Mi6. Or, it was a flagship device hobbled by the use of the Snapdragon 660 and is now a midrange device with leftover flagship bits. Either way, you鈥檙e getting an amazing if somewhat bland device that is great in every aspect. But, and there鈥檚 always a but, the high $379USD starting price calls into question the value you are getting with the Mi Note 3, considering the slightly better Xiaomi Mi6 is cheaper than this. A slight upside to the Mi Note 3 are the grey market prices, which usually add a good $70 to such a new product, but in this case, a premium of between $30-40 is applied to those of us outside China.In a sentence, the Xiaomi Mi Note 3 is a great but overpriced piece of hardware. Buy the Xiaomi Mi Note 3The Anker SoundCore Boost is Anker鈥檚 current top of the range speaker offering similar performance to speakers costing more than twice as much.You鈥檒l all be familiar with Anker and if not here鈥檚 a bit of a quick introduction. Anker are an accessory maker that specialises in products like power banks, in car chargers, action cameras and even Bluetooth speakers.The Anker SoundCore Boost sit鈥檚 at the top of the Anker speaker line-up and costs more than the SoundCore 2 which I reviewed back in September, but that extra money does go towards a better performing speaker that鈥檚 still significantly cheaper than what the competition is offering.Anker SoundCore Boost Review – DesignThe Anker SoundCore Boost is a larger speaker than the SoundCore 2, dimensions for the speaker are 6.2 x 19.3 x 6.5 cm which is just the right amount of space to build in a rechargeable battery that can give up to 12 hours of playback.A quality, rubberised plastic is used on the exterior of the speaker that feels great to the touch, adds grip and is touch wearing too.The mesh grill which covers the speaker units is stylishly wrapped around the edges of the curved body with a slender border breaking up the front and rear grill sections.Looking form the front of the speaker, there is a small tab on the left side which is actually used for opening up a small door where you can find a single standard USB out, 3.5mm headphone jack and micro USB plug.Both the 3.5mm headphone port and micro USB plug can be used for piping audio in to the SoundCore Boost 2, the micro USB is also there for charging the onboard battery. The standard USB plug can be used an an OTG power source too.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe sleek finish means there are no gaps in the build of the speaker which helps the SoundCore Boost to keep out water and moisture. Keep in mind that this is only an IPX5 splash proof rating so don鈥檛 go expecting to pump music in to the bottom of your swimming pool while on vacation.Across the top of the Anker SoundCore Boost are buttons for powering the speaker on , volume control, play and pause controls plus an 鈥楿P鈥 button which lets you boost the bass.Anker SoundCore Boost Review – FeaturesThe Soundcore Boost uses Bluetooth 4.2 for connecting wirelessly to your device and streaming music, but on top of that Anker has spec鈥檇 NFC allowing for an easy one touch set up between compatible devices.Bluetooth gives the SoundCore boost a 66ft range, more than enough for steaming music around a home or garden (depending on size) and with an audio output of 20w there鈥檚 enough speaker power to fill your space with your favourite tunes too.Audio specs including 2 x 10w drivers and 2 x passive subwoofers that deliver good quality audio. BassUp Technology is also included to instantly up the bass at the touch of a button.Anker SoundCore Boost Review – PerformanceAt around double the price of the Anker SoundCore 2 you would be expecting better audio performance, and that鈥檚 what you get. The boost in audio quality isn鈥檛 twice as good as the Anker SoundCore 2 and Bass is still on the weak side, but when compared to speakers with a similar performance you鈥檙e still getting a quality audio product at a fraction of the cost.Anker SoundCore Boost Review – ConclusionThe Anker SoundCore Boost is a high-quality speaker. It鈥檚 well made from very good materials and the fact that it is splash resistant will make it popular for outdoor events, parties and general good times.The Anker SoundCore Boost is Anker鈥檚 current top of the range speaker offering similar performance to speakers costing more than twice as much.You鈥檒l all be familiar with Anker and if not here鈥檚 a bit of a quick introduction. Anker are an accessory maker that specialises in products like power banks, in car chargers, action cameras and even Bluetooth speakers.The Anker SoundCore Boost sit鈥檚 at the top of the Anker speaker line-up and costs more than the SoundCore 2 which I reviewed back in September, but that extra money does go towards a better performing speaker that鈥檚 still significantly cheaper than what the competition is offering.Anker SoundCore Boost Review – DesignThe Anker SoundCore Boost is a larger speaker than the SoundCore 2, dimensions for the speaker are 6.2 x 19.3 x 6.5 cm which is just the right amount of space to build in a rechargeable battery that can give up to 12 hours of playback.A quality, rubberised plastic is used on the exterior of the speaker that feels great to the touch, adds grip and is touch wearing too.The mesh grill which covers the speaker units is stylishly wrapped around the edges of the curved body with a slender border breaking up the front and rear grill sections.Looking form the front of the speaker, there is a small tab on the left side which is actually used for opening up a small door where you can find a single standard USB out, 3.5mm headphone jack and micro USB plug.Both the 3.5mm headphone port and micro USB plug can be used for piping audio in to the SoundCore Boost 2, the micro USB is also there for charging the onboard battery. The standard USB plug can be used an an OTG power source too.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe sleek finish means there are no gaps in the build of the speaker which helps the SoundCore Boost to keep out water and moisture. Keep in mind that this is only an IPX5 splash proof rating so don鈥檛 go expecting to pump music in to the bottom of your swimming pool while on vacation.Across the top of the Anker SoundCore Boost are buttons for powering the speaker on , volume control, play and pause controls plus an 鈥楿P鈥 button which lets you boost the bass.Anker SoundCore Boost Review – FeaturesThe Soundcore Boost uses Bluetooth 4.2 for connecting wirelessly to your device and streaming music, but on top of that Anker has spec鈥檇 NFC allowing for an easy one touch set up between compatible devices.Bluetooth gives the SoundCore boost a 66ft range, more than enough for steaming music around a home or garden (depending on size) and with an audio output of 20w there鈥檚 enough speaker power to fill your space with your favourite tunes too.Audio specs including 2 x 10w drivers and 2 x passive subwoofers that deliver good quality audio. BassUp Technology is also included to instantly up the bass at the touch of a button.Anker SoundCore Boost Review – PerformanceAt around double the price of the Anker SoundCore 2 you would be expecting better audio performance, and that鈥檚 what you get. The boost in audio quality isn鈥檛 twice as good as the Anker SoundCore 2 and Bass is still on the weak side, but when compared to speakers with a similar performance you鈥檙e still getting a quality audio product at a fraction of the cost.Anker SoundCore Boost Review – ConclusionThe Anker SoundCore Boost is a high-quality speaker. It鈥檚 well made from very good materials and the fact that it is splash resistant will make it popular for outdoor events, parties and general good times.

My first 18:9 full display phone arrived today and I’m pretty chuffed that my first experience with such a phone comes in the form of the Vivo V7+.Vivo is becoming so well known that even my mother knows the brand! I have no idea how a lady in her 60’s knows about Vivo, but she does and it’s hardly surprising since Vivo has been visible in some of the biggest movies of the past few years and is the title sponsor of the 2018 Russian World Cup.Vivo V7+ Russia 2018 Title SponsorVivo V7+ UnboxingAs usual, Vivo has packaged their latest smartphone in s quality box which snuggly slots together. The front of the box shows the Vivo V7+’s FullView閳 18:9 display and highlights the 24-megapixel selfie photography features.Vivo is clearly marketing the V7+ as the perfect selfie phone, and along with the industry-leading鑱?4-megapixel front camera, the phone also boasts an LED flash up front and Face Beauty 7.0 to enhance skin tones and softness.Once you have slid the lid of the box off (be warned that it’s a tight fit) you’ll find the V7+ safely packed away in a clear envelope and sitting in a molded plastic tray. Under the tray is a small tool for removing the SIM tray from the left side of the handset.Lift the SIM tool accessory box out of the way (this box also contains a clear protective case for the V7+, we wish more phone makers would include a case like Vivo do) and you’ll find the rest of the included Vivo V7+ accessories.In my case, I received the UK, 3 pin plug, but depending on where the V7+ is bought a suitable charger will be included. Also included are a pair of Vivo in-ear earphones and a USB cable for charging the phone and transferring data.Vivo V7+ Hand On First ImpressionsAs I’ve only had the Vivo V7+ for a few hours it’s too early to give you full impressions of the phone and I鑱絟aven’t tried all the neat new photography features, but what I can comment on is the build, design and that 18:9 FullView閳 display.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramFirst off that display. The idea behind鑱紽ullView閳 is to offer a larger display in a small body and that’s exactly what Vivo has managed.The V7+ is only slightly wider than my OP5, yet the Vivo has a large 5.99-inch display with 18:9 aspect ratio compared to the OnePlus’ 5.5-inch panel.With an impressive 84.4% screen to body ratio, the Vivo V7+ is a seriously impressive thing to behold. Add that large display to slim 2.15mm bezels and you have a large screen phone that comfortably鑱絪its in your hand.Vivo uses onscreen buttons for navigating through the FunTouch OS 3.2 (based on Android 7.1) as the chin space on the phone is minimal, this also means that the fingerprint scanner has been moved to the rear of the handset and I’m happy to report this is your typical high-quality, and highly accurate unit on par with other Vivo phones. As this is the first impressions I won’t go into all the details here, but I will just mention that in addition to the fingerprint scanner you also have the option to use face recognition to unlock the Vivo V7+. I’ve been playing around with this feature and have found it to be fast and accurate.On the reverse side of the Vivo V7+ is a simple, elegant Vivo logo, fingerprint scanner and the main 16 megapixel rear camera. Yup, the front is a 24 megapixel sensor while the rear is a 16 megapixel model, however, it is capable of 64 megapixel shots when using the HD photo mode.Build quality is just as you would expect from a Vivo phone, which is to say that is top notch. There are few Android phones that I truly get excited about receiving for review, but there is just something special when it comes to Vivo, their attention to detail is second to none.For now, I’ll finish off this first impression with the specification highlights of the Vivo V7+ along with a gallery of photos of this new Vivo smartphone.My first 18:9 full display phone arrived today and I’m pretty chuffed that my first experience with such a phone comes in the form of the Vivo V7+.Vivo is becoming so well known that even my mother knows the brand! I have no idea how a lady in her 60’s knows about Vivo, but she does and it’s hardly surprising since Vivo has been visible in some of the biggest movies of the past few years and is the title sponsor of the 2018 Russian World Cup.Vivo V7+ Russia 2018 Title SponsorVivo V7+ UnboxingAs usual, Vivo has packaged their latest smartphone in s quality box which snuggly slots together. The front of the box shows the Vivo V7+’s FullView閳 18:9 display and highlights the 24-megapixel selfie photography features.Vivo is clearly marketing the V7+ as the perfect selfie phone, and along with the industry-leading鑱?4-megapixel front camera, the phone also boasts an LED flash up front and Face Beauty 7.0 to enhance skin tones and softness.Once you have slid the lid of the box off (be warned that it’s a tight fit) you’ll find the V7+ safely packed away in a clear envelope and sitting in a molded plastic tray. Under the tray is a small tool for removing the SIM tray from the left side of the handset.Lift the SIM tool accessory box out of the way (this box also contains a clear protective case for the V7+, we wish more phone makers would include a case like Vivo do) and you’ll find the rest of the included Vivo V7+ accessories.In my case, I received the UK, 3 pin plug, but depending on where the V7+ is bought a suitable charger will be included. Also included are a pair of Vivo in-ear earphones and a USB cable for charging the phone and transferring data.Vivo V7+ Hand On First ImpressionsAs I’ve only had the Vivo V7+ for a few hours it’s too early to give you full impressions of the phone and I鑱絟aven’t tried all the neat new photography features, but what I can comment on is the build, design and that 18:9 FullView閳 display.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramFirst off that display. The idea behind鑱紽ullView閳 is to offer a larger display in a small body and that’s exactly what Vivo has managed.The V7+ is only slightly wider than my OP5, yet the Vivo has a large 5.99-inch display with 18:9 aspect ratio compared to the OnePlus’ 5.5-inch panel.With an impressive 84.4% screen to body ratio, the Vivo V7+ is a seriously impressive thing to behold. Add that large display to slim 2.15mm bezels and you have a large screen phone that comfortably鑱絪its in your hand.Vivo uses onscreen buttons for navigating through the FunTouch OS 3.2 (based on Android 7.1) as the chin space on the phone is minimal, this also means that the fingerprint scanner has been moved to the rear of the handset and I’m happy to report this is your typical high-quality, and highly accurate unit on par with other Vivo phones. As this is the first impressions I won’t go into all the details here, but I will just mention that in addition to the fingerprint scanner you also have the option to use face recognition to unlock the Vivo V7+. I’ve been playing around with this feature and have found it to be fast and accurate.On the reverse side of the Vivo V7+ is a simple, elegant Vivo logo, fingerprint scanner and the main 16 megapixel rear camera. Yup, the front is a 24 megapixel sensor while the rear is a 16 megapixel model, however, it is capable of 64 megapixel shots when using the HD photo mode.Build quality is just as you would expect from a Vivo phone, which is to say that is top notch. There are few Android phones that I truly get excited about receiving for review, but there is just something special when it comes to Vivo, their attention to detail is second to none.For now, I’ll finish off this first impression with the specification highlights of the Vivo V7+ along with a gallery of photos of this new Vivo smartphone.

Xiaomi is a tech company with an amazing background. What started boldly in China 6 years ago as a software house, providing a heavily modified Android version called MIUI, has now evolved into a global tech giant. She is fourth in China and fifth globally in smartphone sales. Not committing to mobile hardware and software, Xiaomi produces all kinds of electronics from televisions to electric scooters. Where the company excels is communication skills. Xiaomi chooses to have a close relationship with the customer. A random user can ask for an improvement in one of the many official forums around the world, and will usually see it within a couple of weeks on his smartphone. 聽Smartphones are supported for 3, sometimes 4 years, not only with security updates but also with the latest version of MIUI. Xiaomi is proud for MIUI and supports its superiority over stock Android or any other custom skin. But Xioami wouldn’t be in the position it is today if it wasn’t for the will to cross the boundaries of what is acceptable and what is possible to make.聽On the other side some people are selective in their needs over an Android smartphone, as they do not want the heavily modified skins or versions that usually make the user experience lost in delays and unneeded actions. They want stock Android (which many companies provide in our days) but with the updates and security features the moment Google provides the. These users had a single option and that was a Google made phone. The problem is that with the years passing by, the cost of the once-inexpensive Nexus series was increased and reached Apple iPhone pricing in the new Pixels line, making their purchase impossible for most. This reason motivated Google back in 2014 to initiate Android One program by providing stock Android versions updated by them, in entry level smartphones. The project turned to be a disaster with few sales, so this year Google decided to move on with a huge step with middle-class handsets and in a global scale. What Google was looking for, was a partner with excellent hardware in reasonable prices.One reason why the Android One did not go well in India, one of the world’s largest markets and Google’s prime and strategic goal was the entry of the Xiaomi Redmi / Redmi Note series. They became instantly best-sellers grabbing a huge proportion of the market in the entry and budget categories. This success was probably what pushed Xiaomi to seek global recognition and fresh sales (pushed by enormous domestic antagonism from Huawei and Oppo/Vivo). For Xiaomi a simple solution was ahead, for many inconceivable. She sacrificed MIUI in order to work with Google, having the latter鈥檚 global experience, marketing and partners. Xiaomi on September 5th announced a smartphone on the Android One project, the Mi A1. This device is the first of the project (and officially by Xiaomi) available in Europe and 36 other countries. Google stated that“(Google) is bringing a unified and consistent hardware and software experience to the developing world”.We see the unique situation where TWO giants promote a mobile device worldwide and this combination has already created hype and taken the marked by surprise. Let’s see what Mi A1 really brings to the smartphone world and to the end user.Xiaomi Mi A1 – Technical SpecificationsDisplay: 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 Pixel LTPS FHD screen, 450nm brightness, 403PISOC: Snapdragon 625 2.0GHz Octa CoreSystem: Android OneMemory: 4GB RAM + 64GB ROMCamera: 5.0MP front camera, 12.0MP + 12.0MP back camerasSensors: Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, E-Compass, Gyroscope, Hall Sensor,Infrared Radiation, Proximity Sensor, Touch SensorSIM Card: dual SIM dual standby. Nano SIM + Nano SIMSatellite Guidance: GPS / GPS / GLONASS / BEIDOUBluetooth: 4.2Networks: 2G: GSM 850/900/1800 / 1900MHz – 3G: Band B1 / B2 / B5 / B8 – 4G: FDD-LTE B1 / B3 / B5 / B7Price and availabilityAt the cost of one third of a Google Pixel 2, Mi A1 enters global markets with a reasonable price around 230-300 USD, competing with Huawei’s P Lite / Honor series, Samsung’s Galaxy J series and devices from smaller manufacturers, taunting them with latest software right from the source. Google promotes heavily the device with its partners. Xiaomi gives full attention to the project, so the chance to see limited stock is very small.AppearanceThe mobile is a rebranded Mi 5X. The smartphone was the first camera-centric mobile in the entry class from Xiaomi. It has design touches from Apple’s iPhone 7 and OnePlus 5. Mi A1 is well made with very good quality, surpassing any other phone in the price era. The difference in design with Redmi Note 4 is obvious, with the Mi A1 overcoming the whole Redmi series in good looks. It is thin at 7.3 mm and lightweight at 165 grams.What’s the downside? In the year of bezel-less design, it has two big bezels at the top and bottom, strangely for the company that established the full screen hype this year with Mi Mix. It is curvy all over the body, allowing a good handle with one hand. It has a good feel too, not too heavy neither too light. The fingerprint censor is at the back panel at good position almost 2/5 of the panel鈥檚 length. At the bottom, it has a USB-C port, a speaker grill and a 3.5 mm audio jack.There is an IR blaster for remote handling your devices on top. It has three capacitive keys on the chin bezel, and two physical keys, power and volume on the side. On the left side is the SIM card tray. The double rear cameras have the same configuration as Mi 6 – a regular and a telephoto 鈥 and create a small hump at the back.Considering the cost and the category this mobile belongs to, it’s simply beautiful, that is, if you don鈥檛 mind the bezels. The black model, has a glossy front and a matte back. The display has a fingerprint coating and does a good job keeping the looks clean.Software – AndroidOne The main selling point of this device is Android One. The project was created originally to reduce the number of versions used worldwide creating huge security issues for Google. The search engine giant looked into the Apple practice for fully controlled limited versions. Secondly the project is a show off, an exhibition of how it should be an Android, skinless and bloatware free, mobile. Direct competition with Apple promoted the second part as the standard, with which these two companies compare software improvements and ability. The advantages of installing stock Android has not escaped the look of other companies. Nokia, Lenovo and Motorola provide devices with it as well. The difference is that Android One provides upgrades directly controlled from Google without any agreements between companies that contribute to update delays. Xiaomi itself provides a new version of MIUI at least 9 months after an official Android version launches, while giants such as HTC, LG and Samsung are following in the same time frame. Mi A1 will get Android Oreo by the end of the year, has regular upgrades, in time it will move on to Android P and we will probably see Android Q in the future!Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram At this point the smartphone has Android 7.1.2 Nougat on and the security upgrade of October 1st. With Nougat you get all the extras like two applications simultaneously in split-screen multitasking, in-line notification answers, application shortcuts and more, like opening the camera by double-tapping the power key. It is possible to make the notification menu appear by dragging your finger on the fingerprint censor just like Pixel. The Mi A1 has Google Assistant by default so it can be used for your everyday tasks. One of the advantages Android 7.1 Nougat is the Seamless Updates as it has been featured on Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL. This means that the Xiaomi Mi A1 has two partitions, one being used when the device is active, while the other is powered on whenever a new update is to be applied. New updates are downloaded and installed on the idle slot, while the active one keeps the phone on and functional. When the installation is complete, the device is restarted to the updated slot with the other slot inactive. The user has an uninterrupted upgrading experience with minimum downtime except a simple reboot. Since the user data partition is shared between the slots, all the applications downloaded along with user personal data remain available for use by any of the sockets.A / B partitions have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Having an extra partition, acts as a backup if the update is not properly done. If the device cannot boot to the updated partition within a few attempts, it will reboot to the other one and the user can continue to use the device while downloading the update from the beginning. An uninterrupted update experience also benefits users who no longer have to look at the Android’s Upgrading screen for a while, as they wait for the update to finish. On the other hand, the A / B partitions are basically two and the end user gets smaller storage space since a slot is reserved for the extra partition. This is not a problem with devices with large internal memory and I do not think the Mi A1 with the 64GB ROM has an issue here. The real issue is the switch to file encryption as they create various technical obstacles when it comes to develop ROM and kernels. Magisk still does not provide official support for Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL, but work is still in progress.Xiaomi has four mobile apps installed: Feedback, Mi Remote (control), File Manager and Camera. The Camera has many options 鈥 a Xiaomi app was chosen since Android One does not yet supports dual cameras. Compared to a Redmi Note 4X, a similar device with the same SoC, the speed of Mi A1 is visible and I can say it’s unique to the category.The sole disadvantage this smartphone has is stock Android itself. If you don鈥檛 like it, this phone is not for you. MIUI and other OS gimmicks are missing and I would really love to see some of them here.Performance – Comfortable, trouble-free multi-taskingThe device is the same Mi 5X we have seen, since its summer release, but radio app is missing. Mi A1 has absolutely no temperature issues, not even with 30 applications open or while charging. The battery life is simply excellent, it can take a day and a half with good use and has 5-6 hours SOT. I do not think another 3.080mAh battery device is doing so well and is something we have to thank Google鈥檚 optimization for. Fast charge is not in the package, no one knows why. Charging from 0% to 100% takes around an hour and forty five minutes. It is not fast but not slow either. The phone has a 10V sound amplifier even though it’s not targeting a media-centric audience. The result is a bit over average in quality but superb in volume, it is very loud (don鈥檛 use the maximum level for alarm!). The single speaker output is clear and the same result can be heard from Xiaomi Pistons 3 headphones. Calls are clear too, no issues with volume or hissing sounds. The signal reception is good too, used with two different networks for two weeks.The LTPS FHD panel is developed from Xiaomi鈥檚 LCD production line. The panel has good colors but not great and the resolution does not overwhelm with its media reproduction. During the day and with a good factory brightness (450nits) the display can be seen without the need to be shadowed. The display is one of the best going around for the price Mi A1 is valued for.Snapdragon 625 with stock Android is a treat for every user鈥檚 daily experience. Application to application transfers is comfortable 鈥 works with double taping the menu button too instantly. Multitasking is effortless. The 64GB internal storage is good for me but those who want more, they can use the second SIM place in the tray, optimized for microSDs cards up to 128GB. Using the Mi A1 for navigation or for maps is great, connection to satellites is fast and the processor keeps the mobile on for long trips and without high temperatures.Dual camera – good photos but software improvement is neededThe main feature of the Mi 5X is the dual camera. We are talking about the same camera which Xiaomi praised the whole summer. The company took the twin camera from Mi 6 and put it on the Mi 5X / Mi A1 lacking the small aperture. It has two 12MP sensors on the back: one is a wide-angle lens with 1.25-micron pixels and f / 2.2 aperture while the other is a 1.1-micron telephoto lens with f / 2.6 aperture that offers 2x optical zoom.The main camera offers pictures and realistic portraits in the day with good color and clarity. If you want good photos with minimal light the aperture surely does not help. I cannot say that I am satisfied either from the imaging software, it looks way worse from Mi 6 in night shots. Community has already ported Gcam application from Pixels. The results are astonishingly good when compared to the original images. I hope that both Xiaomi and Google will update the imaging software as soon as possible.The use of portrait mode in combination with the bokeh effect is good enough – it takes less than 2 meters and good lighting but has “noise” at the corners. Camera gives a watermark option with logo “Shot on Mi A1” seen in the bottom left corner of the images. Settings allow a lot of modes with 7 options for saturation, contrast, and sharpness. The camera is not stabilized (another difference from the more expensive Mi 6) and it needs a stable hand to take pictures or video.Video handles up to 4K with time lapse and slow motion extra options. The audio from the video is good but the lack of stabilization affects the final outcome.Front camera is an 8-megapixel snapper simple to use and with many special effects to play with. It provides filters and an option for group selfies. It is not anything special either but the phone is not selfie-centered either. If there’s ample light conditions then you can comfortably make video calls with Viber, Skype of Google Duo. Selfie mode has a gimmick that guesses age and sex.If you want to check all of our photos from the camera of Mi A1, click on the album below:Our impressionsThe Xiaomi Mi A1 aims basically towards the middle market segment with a good price and unique features. Simply said it has no opponent in hardware quality and build according to me.If you’re thinking for a reason not to buy it, then think no further that stock Android itself. In case you want more, Xiaomi’s Mi 5X and other devices can fill the gap, but not with the same UI speed or general snappy performance.Xiaomi is a tech company with an amazing background. What started boldly in China 6 years ago as a software house, providing a heavily modified Android version called MIUI, has now evolved into a global tech giant. She is fourth in China and fifth globally in smartphone sales. Not committing to mobile hardware and software, Xiaomi produces all kinds of electronics from televisions to electric scooters. Where the company excels is communication skills. Xiaomi chooses to have a close relationship with the customer. A random user can ask for an improvement in one of the many official forums around the world, and will usually see it within a couple of weeks on his smartphone. 聽Smartphones are supported for 3, sometimes 4 years, not only with security updates but also with the latest version of MIUI. Xiaomi is proud for MIUI and supports its superiority over stock Android or any other custom skin. But Xioami wouldn’t be in the position it is today if it wasn’t for the will to cross the boundaries of what is acceptable and what is possible to make.聽On the other side some people are selective in their needs over an Android smartphone, as they do not want the heavily modified skins or versions that usually make the user experience lost in delays and unneeded actions. They want stock Android (which many companies provide in our days) but with the updates and security features the moment Google provides the. These users had a single option and that was a Google made phone. The problem is that with the years passing by, the cost of the once-inexpensive Nexus series was increased and reached Apple iPhone pricing in the new Pixels line, making their purchase impossible for most. This reason motivated Google back in 2014 to initiate Android One program by providing stock Android versions updated by them, in entry level smartphones. The project turned to be a disaster with few sales, so this year Google decided to move on with a huge step with middle-class handsets and in a global scale. What Google was looking for, was a partner with excellent hardware in reasonable prices.One reason why the Android One did not go well in India, one of the world’s largest markets and Google’s prime and strategic goal was the entry of the Xiaomi Redmi / Redmi Note series. They became instantly best-sellers grabbing a huge proportion of the market in the entry and budget categories. This success was probably what pushed Xiaomi to seek global recognition and fresh sales (pushed by enormous domestic antagonism from Huawei and Oppo/Vivo). For Xiaomi a simple solution was ahead, for many inconceivable. She sacrificed MIUI in order to work with Google, having the latter鈥檚 global experience, marketing and partners. Xiaomi on September 5th announced a smartphone on the Android One project, the Mi A1. This device is the first of the project (and officially by Xiaomi) available in Europe and 36 other countries. Google stated that“(Google) is bringing a unified and consistent hardware and software experience to the developing world”.We see the unique situation where TWO giants promote a mobile device worldwide and this combination has already created hype and taken the marked by surprise. Let’s see what Mi A1 really brings to the smartphone world and to the end user.Xiaomi Mi A1 – Technical SpecificationsDisplay: 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 Pixel LTPS FHD screen, 450nm brightness, 403PISOC: Snapdragon 625 2.0GHz Octa CoreSystem: Android OneMemory: 4GB RAM + 64GB ROMCamera: 5.0MP front camera, 12.0MP + 12.0MP back camerasSensors: Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, E-Compass, Gyroscope, Hall Sensor,Infrared Radiation, Proximity Sensor, Touch SensorSIM Card: dual SIM dual standby. Nano SIM + Nano SIMSatellite Guidance: GPS / GPS / GLONASS / BEIDOUBluetooth: 4.2Networks: 2G: GSM 850/900/1800 / 1900MHz – 3G: Band B1 / B2 / B5 / B8 – 4G: FDD-LTE B1 / B3 / B5 / B7Price and availabilityAt the cost of one third of a Google Pixel 2, Mi A1 enters global markets with a reasonable price around 230-300 USD, competing with Huawei’s P Lite / Honor series, Samsung’s Galaxy J series and devices from smaller manufacturers, taunting them with latest software right from the source. Google promotes heavily the device with its partners. Xiaomi gives full attention to the project, so the chance to see limited stock is very small.AppearanceThe mobile is a rebranded Mi 5X. The smartphone was the first camera-centric mobile in the entry class from Xiaomi. It has design touches from Apple’s iPhone 7 and OnePlus 5. Mi A1 is well made with very good quality, surpassing any other phone in the price era. The difference in design with Redmi Note 4 is obvious, with the Mi A1 overcoming the whole Redmi series in good looks. It is thin at 7.3 mm and lightweight at 165 grams.What’s the downside? In the year of bezel-less design, it has two big bezels at the top and bottom, strangely for the company that established the full screen hype this year with Mi Mix. It is curvy all over the body, allowing a good handle with one hand. It has a good feel too, not too heavy neither too light. The fingerprint censor is at the back panel at good position almost 2/5 of the panel鈥檚 length. At the bottom, it has a USB-C port, a speaker grill and a 3.5 mm audio jack.There is an IR blaster for remote handling your devices on top. It has three capacitive keys on the chin bezel, and two physical keys, power and volume on the side. On the left side is the SIM card tray. The double rear cameras have the same configuration as Mi 6 – a regular and a telephoto 鈥 and create a small hump at the back.Considering the cost and the category this mobile belongs to, it’s simply beautiful, that is, if you don鈥檛 mind the bezels. The black model, has a glossy front and a matte back. The display has a fingerprint coating and does a good job keeping the looks clean.Software – AndroidOne The main selling point of this device is Android One. The project was created originally to reduce the number of versions used worldwide creating huge security issues for Google. The search engine giant looked into the Apple practice for fully controlled limited versions. Secondly the project is a show off, an exhibition of how it should be an Android, skinless and bloatware free, mobile. Direct competition with Apple promoted the second part as the standard, with which these two companies compare software improvements and ability. The advantages of installing stock Android has not escaped the look of other companies. Nokia, Lenovo and Motorola provide devices with it as well. The difference is that Android One provides upgrades directly controlled from Google without any agreements between companies that contribute to update delays. Xiaomi itself provides a new version of MIUI at least 9 months after an official Android version launches, while giants such as HTC, LG and Samsung are following in the same time frame. Mi A1 will get Android Oreo by the end of the year, has regular upgrades, in time it will move on to Android P and we will probably see Android Q in the future!Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram At this point the smartphone has Android 7.1.2 Nougat on and the security upgrade of October 1st. With Nougat you get all the extras like two applications simultaneously in split-screen multitasking, in-line notification answers, application shortcuts and more, like opening the camera by double-tapping the power key. It is possible to make the notification menu appear by dragging your finger on the fingerprint censor just like Pixel. The Mi A1 has Google Assistant by default so it can be used for your everyday tasks. One of the advantages Android 7.1 Nougat is the Seamless Updates as it has been featured on Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL. This means that the Xiaomi Mi A1 has two partitions, one being used when the device is active, while the other is powered on whenever a new update is to be applied. New updates are downloaded and installed on the idle slot, while the active one keeps the phone on and functional. When the installation is complete, the device is restarted to the updated slot with the other slot inactive. The user has an uninterrupted upgrading experience with minimum downtime except a simple reboot. Since the user data partition is shared between the slots, all the applications downloaded along with user personal data remain available for use by any of the sockets.A / B partitions have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Having an extra partition, acts as a backup if the update is not properly done. If the device cannot boot to the updated partition within a few attempts, it will reboot to the other one and the user can continue to use the device while downloading the update from the beginning. An uninterrupted update experience also benefits users who no longer have to look at the Android’s Upgrading screen for a while, as they wait for the update to finish. On the other hand, the A / B partitions are basically two and the end user gets smaller storage space since a slot is reserved for the extra partition. This is not a problem with devices with large internal memory and I do not think the Mi A1 with the 64GB ROM has an issue here. The real issue is the switch to file encryption as they create various technical obstacles when it comes to develop ROM and kernels. Magisk still does not provide official support for Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL, but work is still in progress.Xiaomi has four mobile apps installed: Feedback, Mi Remote (control), File Manager and Camera. The Camera has many options 鈥 a Xiaomi app was chosen since Android One does not yet supports dual cameras. Compared to a Redmi Note 4X, a similar device with the same SoC, the speed of Mi A1 is visible and I can say it’s unique to the category.The sole disadvantage this smartphone has is stock Android itself. If you don鈥檛 like it, this phone is not for you. MIUI and other OS gimmicks are missing and I would really love to see some of them here.Performance – Comfortable, trouble-free multi-taskingThe device is the same Mi 5X we have seen, since its summer release, but radio app is missing. Mi A1 has absolutely no temperature issues, not even with 30 applications open or while charging. The battery life is simply excellent, it can take a day and a half with good use and has 5-6 hours SOT. I do not think another 3.080mAh battery device is doing so well and is something we have to thank Google鈥檚 optimization for. Fast charge is not in the package, no one knows why. Charging from 0% to 100% takes around an hour and forty five minutes. It is not fast but not slow either. The phone has a 10V sound amplifier even though it’s not targeting a media-centric audience. The result is a bit over average in quality but superb in volume, it is very loud (don鈥檛 use the maximum level for alarm!). The single speaker output is clear and the same result can be heard from Xiaomi Pistons 3 headphones. Calls are clear too, no issues with volume or hissing sounds. The signal reception is good too, used with two different networks for two weeks.The LTPS FHD panel is developed from Xiaomi鈥檚 LCD production line. The panel has good colors but not great and the resolution does not overwhelm with its media reproduction. During the day and with a good factory brightness (450nits) the display can be seen without the need to be shadowed. The display is one of the best going around for the price Mi A1 is valued for.Snapdragon 625 with stock Android is a treat for every user鈥檚 daily experience. Application to application transfers is comfortable 鈥 works with double taping the menu button too instantly. Multitasking is effortless. The 64GB internal storage is good for me but those who want more, they can use the second SIM place in the tray, optimized for microSDs cards up to 128GB. Using the Mi A1 for navigation or for maps is great, connection to satellites is fast and the processor keeps the mobile on for long trips and without high temperatures.Dual camera – good photos but software improvement is neededThe main feature of the Mi 5X is the dual camera. We are talking about the same camera which Xiaomi praised the whole summer. The company took the twin camera from Mi 6 and put it on the Mi 5X / Mi A1 lacking the small aperture. It has two 12MP sensors on the back: one is a wide-angle lens with 1.25-micron pixels and f / 2.2 aperture while the other is a 1.1-micron telephoto lens with f / 2.6 aperture that offers 2x optical zoom.The main camera offers pictures and realistic portraits in the day with good color and clarity. If you want good photos with minimal light the aperture surely does not help. I cannot say that I am satisfied either from the imaging software, it looks way worse from Mi 6 in night shots. Community has already ported Gcam application from Pixels. The results are astonishingly good when compared to the original images. I hope that both Xiaomi and Google will update the imaging software as soon as possible.The use of portrait mode in combination with the bokeh effect is good enough – it takes less than 2 meters and good lighting but has “noise” at the corners. Camera gives a watermark option with logo “Shot on Mi A1” seen in the bottom left corner of the images. Settings allow a lot of modes with 7 options for saturation, contrast, and sharpness. The camera is not stabilized (another difference from the more expensive Mi 6) and it needs a stable hand to take pictures or video.Video handles up to 4K with time lapse and slow motion extra options. The audio from the video is good but the lack of stabilization affects the final outcome.Front camera is an 8-megapixel snapper simple to use and with many special effects to play with. It provides filters and an option for group selfies. It is not anything special either but the phone is not selfie-centered either. If there’s ample light conditions then you can comfortably make video calls with Viber, Skype of Google Duo. Selfie mode has a gimmick that guesses age and sex.If you want to check all of our photos from the camera of Mi A1, click on the album below:Our impressionsThe Xiaomi Mi A1 aims basically towards the middle market segment with a good price and unique features. Simply said it has no opponent in hardware quality and build according to me.If you’re thinking for a reason not to buy it, then think no further that stock Android itself. In case you want more, Xiaomi’s Mi 5X and other devices can fill the gap, but not with the same UI speed or general snappy performance.

Bezelless is the buzzword for this year. Be prepared to only see such phones in this coming year and more. The KIICAA Mix is a super budget phone that almost anyone with a credit card can purchase.However, being a budget phone that’s been around for a while, Leagoo鑱絚ouldn’t incorporate an 18:9 display on the device which we feel is a bit of a shame.Anyway, let’s talk about that and more in the Leagoo KIICAA Mix review right here.Build and designThe Leagoo KIICAA Mix is really well built for what it costs. At the time of writing, the smartphone can be availed from most Chinese e-commerce sites for around the $110 mark, which isn’t much by any stretch of the imagination.At its core, the KIICAA Mix is a rip-off of last year’s Xiaomi Mi MIX. But like mentioned previously, the phone doesn’t feature an 18:9 display.The shift to 18:9 displays is鑱絞oing to be obvious, which is something that buyers of this phone will miss. Why? Because companies have managed to shrink bezels. This left them with two options: make the phone smaller with the same 16:9 displays, or change the display aspect ratio altogether.Now, if phones with super-slim displays and 16:9 come out, they look rather odd because we’re used to holding slabs which are of a certain ratio. To fix that, companies moved to 18:9. Now content is going to be built for 18:9, buyers of phones with 16:9 are going to miss out on some.Anyway, coming back to the phone per se, looking at it as a budget phone standalone, it’s quite a good device with respect to build鑱絨uality.It comes with a body that’s not really squeaky and inspires a bit of confidence for what you’d have paid for it. The downside, there’s no battery that you can take out of the phone’s body. But is that a downside, really?One thing that might not find a lot of fans is the front camera placement. Like the original Mi Mix, the KIICAA Mix features a front camera on the chin of the phone.What this means is that鑱統ou will have to flip the phone around to use the camera. While that is okay, the real issue is with app compatibility — you are bound to encounter issues every now and then.The phone also doesn’t feature hardware capacitive buttons, which is again something you will miss having since it’s still a 16:9 display. More about this in the software section. PerformanceLet’s take a look at the key specifications of the smartphone:5.5-inch display 1920 x 1080p displayMT6750T processor3GB RAM32GB ROM13 MP front camera13 MP + 2 MP rear cameraFingerprint sensor3000mAh batteryAndroid 7.0According to specs provided on seller sites, the phone comes with a coat of Corning Gorilla Glass 4. Not sure how believable it is, but the phone does feel like something solid on the screen side.Moving on to performance,鑱組ediaTek’s鑱組T6750T handles tasks quite well. It is accompanied by 3GB of RAM which seems like a decent combo, and again something that you shouldn’t be too worried about after paying $110.Moving on to the battery, we are quite impressed by what’s on offer here. The phone manages to provide over 4 hours of screen on time on a single charge with 4G on all the time. While this isn’t groundbreaking by any standards (the OnePlus One of 2014 offered over 7 hours), it is something that again doesn’t allow you to complain.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramWorth noting is the kind of usage that was tested: social media, email, browsing, chat, and maps. Speaking of, we did have issues with the phone’s compass. It had a tough time deciding which direction it was headed, which caused issues during navigation. It still remains a mystery why a lot of makers skip adding a decent compass to save a couple of USD.We’re quite impressed with the display, after the shortcomings that come with the aspect ratio. The device is super usable even in sunlight and thus pretty much anytime outdoors. Word is that Leagoo tried fitting an AMOLED display which didn’t really work out, which is a shame (because that would’ve been awesome).Viewing angles are fairly good as well, and even using the phone on high brightness doesn’t affect the battery life a lot.Surprisingly, the Leagoo KIICAA Mix does NOT feature a 3.5mm jack. From all we can imagine, this is something they’ve done only to make it a talking point — budget phones are supposed to have 3.5mm jacks, at least at this point.Audio on the phone is doable, usable, manageable… yadda yadda. It’s nothing to write home about; in fact, many will probably miss having a good bass and loud enough audio. Maybe we’re being overly critical, but that’s that.Essentially, the software on the phone is pretty much vanilla. Leagoo has, however, tried some basic skinning on the phone which thankfully doesn’t hamper the performance too much. We’re not sure how updates will work on the device, but we’re hoping for the best. Leagoo calls this ‘OS’ Freeme OS.As mentioned in the design section, there’s no hardware back/recent apps buttons on the phone. There’s only one button that is the home button plus the fingerprint sensor area.What this means is that you’ll have to make do with on-screen navigation buttons, which is honestly a bit of an inconvenience on a 16:9 display now that we have more 18:9 phones on the market.Moving on to the fingerprint sensor, it’s blazing fast and super accurate. In fact, it’s already one of our favourites!CameraThe phone comes with a 13 MP + 2 MP rear camera, which is supposed to be something that gets talked about regarding the phone. In our experience, it’s quite a decent camera, but only if you know what to expect.Like most other budget phone cameras, the KIICAA Mix struggles in dark situations but is fairly decent during the daytime.Have a look at some samples right here to get a better idea. ConclusionThe Leagoo KIICAA Mix is a decent phone for what it costs. To expect it to rival the quality of Xiaomi (hardware- and software-wise) would be a foolish thing to do; like most other things about budget things, you need to know what to expect. Do not compare it to what it’s trying to replicate.That said, Leagoo can build on what they’ve already made by providing good software updates and thus build an audience for their forthcoming devices. We would love to see a bit of innovation thrown in the next time around.That’s it for now, feel free to leave comments down below if there’s anything you have in mind regarding the phone.Dodocool are a maker that gets talked about quite a lot here at鑱紾izChina. The company is best known for its handy yet affordable gadgetry that almost anyone with a credit card can purchase.You probably didn’t know this before, but Dodocool also do a HiFi music player. Interestingly, almost the entire HiFi music player space is owned by Chinese players, many of which are super niche. We’ve tried a bunch of them before, and while it’s hard to classify oneself as an audiophile, we’ll take a quick look over the Dodocool DA106, which is probably one of the most affordable players that can do 192kHz/24-bit audio playback.Learn more about it here.First things first — this is an extremely affordable piece of kit (selling at around the $40 mark), so you need to keep that in mind when making a judgement of the product. So let’s get started.First, let us quickly tell you all that it has under its sleeve. The DA106 can play high-res audio, can record good quality audio and also features FM radio. The addition of FM radio is super awkward (or rather, uncommon) because that usually doesn’t happen in items in this category.Moving on, the device has an on-board storage of 8GB, which is expandable via the microSD card slot that it features. You will most likely need to keep the slot engaged, because high-res lossless audio files can often take a lot of extra space compared to compressed MP3 files that we’ve grown used to. Speaking of, it will be a good idea to get a class 10 microSD card to give the device super-high access speeds, which might be required in many cases. Moving on to audio, we’d say you get what you pay for… which is almost always the case. The DA106 doesn’t feature any of the high-end audio chips that you see on higher-priced competitors; which means audio is quite good but it doesn’t blow your mind.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramWhile reviewing the DA106, we happened to chance upon the VE Monks+ earphones鑱絘nd thought they made a great combo. To put things into context, you can get both, the DA106 and the Monks+ for under $50, shipped to your doorstep anywhere in the world!What we realized with the Monks+ was that you really needed an above-average source to drive them well enough, and the DA106 does exactly that. In the end, they make a great combo… which is super light on the pocket.The audio that the DA106 produces isn’t bass-heavy at all. There’s a higher focus on the mids and highs, which to some might sound a bit shrill at times. It’s also extremely important to use high-quality music files, for the DA106 can make a compressed file sound like crap (which we think is a good thing).We also tested the DA106 with some high-impedance Xiaomi headphones, and the device drove them no problems without the need for an external amp.Like every other device that does decent to good audio (basically, every other DAP), the UI on this one is absolutely horrendous too. It will take you a lot of time and a bit of pain to get used to how things work on the DA106. Interestingly, it features a dial that you can use to navigate between list items and the native homepage UI.One super annoying this about the player is that you will need to first turn the screen on (by pressing the power button up top) to be able to navigate between music files or even change the volume. This is super elementary and something that should’ve definitely been taken care of.About other aspects of the player — build, battery, etc., we’re rather impressed. It’s interesting what you can get out of just $45 in this day and age. The DA106 has a great build, and a battery life that you will definitely want to have on other gadgets of yours. It charges via a micro USB port, so you can use your power banks et al to give it a juice top up.