Author: Chris Eilers

Asus Zenfone 2 – we all know that the phone honestly a true-flagship with beastly specs and cheap price tag as well. Many of us are waiting the phone and eager to get the phone. While waiting for the amazing phone in Phi, let have a quick look of its image quality to deeply understand about the device.

Asus Zenfone 2 features 13MP camera in the back equipped with BSI sensor with high sensitivity, combined with five lens elements Largan Lens, green glass with a large aperture F / 2.0 Wide FOV 75. On the other hand, the 5MP selfie camera is significantly impressed with BSI sensor, wide angle lens and aperture to 85 degrees F/ 2.0, supporting users to take sharp selfie photos and clear video chat.

Besides, Asus Zenfone 2 also reports dual-LED Real Tone flash in order to take the most natural and beautiful pics even indoor.

In terms of photography department, the camera of Zenfone 2 supported by high technologies including Super HDR PixelMaster for improving light balance. Asus has an innovative technological, namely pixel-Enchancing will increase brightness in shaded area ups to 400% brightness and better contrast. In addition to, Super HDR makes you have the same photos as what your eyes directly see.

With Super Resolution mode, Asus Zenfone 2 can also capture and combine four 13MP photos together to form the most obvious single pic. No matter where you’re shooting the photos, Zenfone 2 will bring you specific shots, less interference (noise) and resolution equivalent to 52MP.

Zopo is now a first Chinese smartphone brand and it looks like the company is trying to pay attention in the fierce Western market. More specifically, they showed up their device in the MWC 2015 in Barcelona. The Zopo TOUCH ZP530 had a good beginning in the exhibition, fortunately from both domestic and on-broad users as well as attention of the mainstream media over the world. It seems that the company ambitiously wanna speed up the strategy by releasing a new product, namely ZP532—3G and octa-core version of TOUCH on March 20. The new product will firstly launch in the company website well.

The Zopo TOUCH ZP530 took many inspiration from the high-end Apple iPhone 6. And it seemingly the new Zopo device is pretty similar to its sibling, in both design and specs. Therefore, the phone still equips a 2.5D curved glass screen, metal buttons/frame and IML fashion texture cover, 5.0”HD IPS screen with ON CELL technology, along with 8.0MP/5.0MP primary and secondary camera, respectively.

The only difference between the phone with its predecessor is the ZP532 carries octa-core 1.4 GHz CPU, and only supports 2G / 3G network. The ZP 530 packed MT6732 1.5 GHz Quad-Core and support 4G connectivity also.

The phones have much copied design from the Apple iPhone 6, apparently. But they don’t have the sophisticated all-metal design as the back shell as the iPhone 6, it was replaced by textured plastic material. So, it’s not totally true to call it a clone.

According to the ZOPO, they said that “the recent product was launched, mainly to provide more abundant product types for users’ choose in exploration of overseas 4G market, so as to realize the balanced development of overseas markets, also speed up the internationalization pace of ZOPO brand”.

In conclusion: We can see many Apple iPhone clones in the market now. We think that for new brand, creating a product which is very similar, replica or “totally copied” famous device is a marketing strategy in order to pay much attention from users or mainstream media. We can take some examples, Dakele 3, Ulefone Dare N1, Lenovo Sisley we previously reported. Not sure about the companies’ strategies will work well or not. The interesting battle is ahead, let wait for which company can make the magic and stay tuned for more updates.

Do you still remember about 399 Yuan LTE enable Xiaomi device which was showed off in TENAA at the end of last year? Unfortunately, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun confirmed in is Weibo account that creating that phone is impossible action due to the quality constraints at such a price tag. Naturally, we were disappointed about the announcement well.

However, we have good news for you. We’ll have the chance to get our hands a 399 Yuan price (64USD), of course, it’s not Xiaomi handset but from a Chinese smartphone manufacturer – China Unicom. So, although we may not see a Xiaomi device at this price range, at least we get such a device at a super-affordable price tag.

Needless to note that, China Unicom will partner with a maker from Shenzen, one of China’s largest cities and leading manufacturing hub. The company probably have much potential advantage in the near future.

The specific features are a pretty impressive, of course in the price range. The phone is announced to feature 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage (Which possibly can be expandable), a 720p display (expectantly features 5-inches) and a 64-bit CPU, not official words for which chipset. The phone is on the way to be completely finished (the final stages) and expected to debut the market before the end of this month.

It’s definitely a big positive movement in entry-level market to bring smart features. However, packing the modest  specs of 64bit, we hope that the rest of the phone will be good enough.

In conclusion: No matter which company is, it’s good to see a smartphone with 64 bit CPU  at PHP 2876 are ready to hit the shelves. However, for the time being, don’t expect such low cost phones to make it to the global markets.

Along with introducing Asus Zenfone 2 In Taiwan, Asus made us surprised about their two new camera accessories in attempt to enhance image quality in low light situation.

Back to the official launch, to no huge surprise, Asus launched their Asus Zenfone 2 in domestic market with a super impressive price tag, even the powerful full gigabyte 4GB version. The unexpected part comes from two new camera accessories which never ever seen before, including Asus Zenflash and Flash Xenon.

The first one is Asus Zenflash (or Xenon Flash), as the name suggested, the device is a necessary flash dongle for Zenfones. This tiny device can honestly be connected to other ASUS smartphones via the USB OTG but not sure for other non-Asus devices. The phone can have a 400x stronger (at least in paper) than smaller LED flashes that we can find in mostly smartphones in the market today.

Nextly, it’s about LolliFlash, another Flash accessory that be packed to the phone via the headphone jack. This circular LED light reports yellow, blue, and red filters for a more significant effect. This is a glowing includes two LEDs flash, using its own battery power, not via OTG cable as ZenFlash. The device can help users capture photos with fancy lighting. However, you will have to light up before the shooting.

It seems that Asus are planing to lead the market by implementing into some amazing accessories, such as: Asus Zenflash, LolliFlash, View Flip Cover or ZenPower Bank. We guess that all of them will make you an interesting experience thanks to Asus’s great idea.

For specifically, the View Flip Cover for the  5.5-inch and 5-inch ZenFone 2 models will be available for 699 yuan ($112 or PHP 5039). The ZenPower Bank was announced in different capacities: 9600mAh and a maximum of 25600mAh capacity. While we know that the 9600mAh version will be sold at 499 yuan ($71 or PHP 3597), we have no idea about breathtaking 25600mAh yet. Besides, we have no information how much or when the ZenFlash and Lolliflash will be available, too.

Source: Eprice (Chinese)

The Sony Xperia Z4, someway, is really mysterious phone due to there are still no official sings or announcement of Sony’s Xperia Z4 flagship, even an exact launch date. In our previous report, we saw leaked images of the phone compared to the Sony Xperia Z3 and it showed off not many differences between them.

And now, we have some other press renders of the phone. The renders were leaked by the Twitter account of OnLeaks, namely Steve Hemmerstoffer who manages the French blog Nowhereelse.fr. Therein, OnLeaks previously gave us some first imagination about HTC One M9, LG G4 and now, the next turns come to the Sony Xperia Z4. Needless to say, some previous leaks are pretty accurate, so we can count on the source this time. He also said that the leaked pics this time might be the official design. But the accuracy of these Xperia Z4 images remain to be seen. Anyway, no matter what, from the press leaked pics, honestly, the alleged Xperia Z4 seemingly have taken many inspiration of design from its siblings, especially in Sony Xperia Z3.

Specifically, the next generation of Sony Xperia Z3 will follow the familiar OmniBalance design language. A port next to the microUSB on the bottom of the smartphone is the biggest mystery in the unannounced Xperia Z4. With the 3.5mm audio jack sitting on top of the device, we are yet to find out what purpose will the element follow.

Sony Xperia Z4 has been shaking the market with a fistful of salts. The phone is rumored to ship Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC, 5.2” QHD display, 20.7MP camera, Android Lollipop and of course waterproofing.

Having a glimpse at the device, we find that in the back of renders lack of markings, so it looks like they probably not be finished. Besides, according to the source, there will be some changes in the final one.

Source: nowhereelse.fr

Today Microsoft announced that their Window 10 will be launching in 190 countries and 111 languages in this summer. Although the company didn’t reveal any information about accurate date but at least, we know that the Window 10 will come someday this year. The new OS will be a free upgrade program for Window 7, 8 as well as 8.1 users when it’s available.

Besides, they also confirmed that some partners, including Lenovo and Tencent offer “upgrade services” at service centers in order to give their users the latest OS. More interestingly, they also mention that Microsoft will chose a selected group of Xiaomi Mi 4 users in attempt to test out the technical review. Therefore, it means that Xiaomi Mi 4 users can try to download the latest Window OS in the device and give Microsoft a feedback after that for further improvements.

“Through a new program with Xiaomi, one of the top smartphone distributors in the world, a select group of Xiaomi Mi 4 power users will be invited to help test Windows 10 and contribute to its future release later this year. These power users will have the opportunity to download the Windows 10 Technical Preview – installing it and providing their feedback to Microsoft.”

That’s really a new interesting news for Xiaomi which almost their products to be traditionally packed Android OS. Might be, it’s now too earlier to tell could Xiaomi’s device will possibly feature Window 10 or not, but if Xiaomi will team up with Microsoft in their upcoming phones or upgrade handsets, meaning there will have two different OS versions for our options. But it is the first good step and we will wait for some updates.

According to Windows Blog, Xiaomi replied the news as following statement: “this is an experimental program entirely led by Microsoft, and we are happy that Mi fans with Mi 4 devices in China will be able to participate and provide feedback.”

So will Xiaomi sell a Windows Phone smartphone in the future? Do you really love hearing that news?

Updated: Here are some live images of a Mi 4 unit running the Windows 10 Technical Preview, from a Twitter account.

Source: Weibo, Twitter

Huawei is doing their work well at the time. Huawei is previously a popular name, but until last MWC the brand is becoming more and more famous thanks to the most stylish and traditional-watch-looking Android wear device to date – Huawei Watch. After that, we heard that the company will team up with Google for creating their next Google Nexus 2015.

The Huawei’s Kirin 930 16nm is really powerful though which even smaller than Snapdragon 810 chip. But recently, we have started hearing that some upcoming Huawei phone will be powered by much stronger performance – Huawei’s Kirin 940 or Huawei’s Kirin 950. Sounds great ever.

Besides, the Ascend series of smartphones made the Huawei brand got prestigious record for battery life and an interesting set of features, namely a fingerprint sensor on the back.

The Huawei Mate 7 phablet was released last year which equipped with 6″ FHD display paired with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and ppi of 368. Many good feedback from critics and users for the phone so far and it looks like its mini version is surfacing online in order to re-create the success. Today on Weibo, we got a glimpse of what could be that phone.

As you can see from the above pic, the alleged Huawei Mate 7 compact version is on the left, compared to Huawei G7 is on the right. In the phone, we don’t see Huawei logo, obviously unbranded and unmarked, due to probably a pre-production. Unfortunately, the left device doesn’t demonstrate a touch sensitive area on the back which reports a built-in ‘invisible’ fingerprint sensor that can find out in its original variant. It highly appears that we will see nowhere for that unique feature in the alleged mini version.

In addition, the leaked image shows us a 4.7″ screen size which is not unusual for “compact” handset. Anyway, the phone is seemingly very mysterious, especially we have no idea for price as well as release date and verified authenticity photos. But, that’s a fistful of salt. So, pls stay tuned for more updates.

Source: Weibo

The Xiaomi Mi Note was launched earlier this year with premium metal chassis and be protected by Gorilla Glass 3 on both sides panel. The phone is definitely a beast with sophisticated and good-looking. But if you wanna something new and unique, we have good news for you, due to Bamboo Xiaomi Mi Note was introduced today in China.

The bamboo Xiaomi Mi Note was pooped up the smartphone industrial market today. The wave started from a post of Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun in his official Weibo account which officially introduced the bamboo-clad Xiaomi MiNote today. Compared to the original device, the handset has a 2.5D curved glass, the same metal frame surrounding, same specs but comes with a natural bamboo back cover in the back.

Remaining the same specs, meaning the Bamboo handset will feature a 5.7 inch Full HD display, with a resolution of 1902 x 1080 pixels and the device is powered by a quad core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor.

Moreover, the phone will pack 3GB of RAM, 16GB/64GB of internal storage, two options for us which can expandable via a microSD card slot for extra storage. The phone is equipped with a 4 megapixel secondary shooter and a 13 megapixel primary camera as well as a sufficient 3000 mAh battery. In addition to, there are also WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE connectivity. More interestingly, covering by a bamboo case means that it actually reduces 5 gram of weight in total.

According to Lei Jun, the phone will on sale next Tuesday in China for a price tag of 2,299 yuan (roughly PHP 16518 in recent currency rate). Unfortunately, Lei Jun did not reveal any other details regarding the internal specifications so we think that they will keep the same specs as the domestic market.

Related: Xiaomi Mi Note Pro in comparision: New BEAST! GeekBench: Xiaomi Mi Note Plus arrives with Snapdragon 810 and 4GB RAM

Source: Weibo

Back in January, Xiaomi shook the market with two newest high-end Xiaomi Mi Note and Xiaomi Mi Note Pro. The Xiaomi Mi Note run on Snapdragon 801 while Xiaomi packs more powerful Snapdragon 810 in Xiaomi Mi Note Pro.

Now, we have good news for you, therefore, we might see the Xiaomi Mi Note Plus soon. This is not the first time we heard about the new phone. A couple of days after official launch of two premium smartphones, we saw a document which popped up in Antutu Benchmark, revealing identical specs as the Mi Note Pro model.

Yesterday, on Geekbench, a new luxury Xiaomi Note handset was surfaced, in which reveal some key specs and the specific scores of the device. The alleged Xiaomi Mi Note Plus is reportedly equipped with some similar specs as Xiaomi Mi Note Pro: Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor as well as 4GB of RAM. The device run on the Android 5.0.2 Lollipop version. Interestingly, from the rumored name, we can guess that the new device could be the top end variant in the company’s Note lineup.

The Xiaomi Mi Note Plus scored at a single-core test of 1235 points and 4039 in the multi-core test. The score is very close to the recent announced HTC One M9 of 1282 and 3929 at single and multi-test, respectively. However, even the top Xiaomi device, Samsung Galaxy S6 easily beats out these two, thanks to the powerful Exynos 7420 64-bit octa-core chipset underneath. Besides, the Samsung Galaxy S6 get an super impressive 1501 marks in the single-core test and 5417 in the multi-score test which definitely proves its strong performance.

In other hands, a couple of days ago, according to the official Weibo account of Lin Bin – Xiaomi’s co-founder and president, he said that the company was planing to introduce new device of the Mi Note today. The tagline in the image is “Bamboo in the chest”, meaning confidence in Chinese.

What do you think about Xiaomi Mi Note Plus? Do you think the phone will be available?

Stay tuned for more information.

It appears that IUNI has a new device in their portfolio. The IUNI U3 Mini was introduced at MWC and paid much attention. And now, the alleged IUNI U3 get certified by TENAA for network approval which report some similar specs as their bigger version – the IUNI U3.

Getting through TENAA means that the phone will come soon. According to TENAA specs, the rumored IUNI U3 will equip with a 5.15-inch panel along with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. The phone measures a dimension of 139 x 70.5 x 9.5mm pair with a sufficient 2900 mAh battery as well as 2GB RAM, 32GB on-board memory which unfortunately is not expandable. Its weight is 158,3 gram. For photography department, the device will report 13 MP main camera and also a good 8 MP front-facing shooter. In addition to, the U3 will be powered by 801 running a 2.3Ghz and also run on Android 4.4.4 based IUNI OS. Besides, the phone has other initial specs, such as: GSM,TD-SCDMA,TD-LTE,LTE FDD,WCDMA. The phone will be available in black, white and green colors.

Although, the price of the device has been unveiled yet, but we guess that its price tag will be at the cost as low as 1400 Yuan in China or can be converted to 10+ Philippines pesos.

Source: TENAA

It seems that Samsung was right to avoid using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 SoC in their nearly introduced Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge flagship. The below image shows that Snapdragon 810 chip might lead to overheating problem.

According to a Dutch site, Tweakers, they showed us a pic in which there are some high-end flagship smartphones, such as: Apple iPhone 6 Plus, HTC One M9, HTC One M8, LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4. All of them were tried on running the benchmark GFXBench, and the final result is so surprising, the latest HTC One M9 is really hot, stands out in the test. While other comparable devices run between 37.8 and 42.2°C, the HTC One M9 surface heating up to a scorching 55.4°C, although earlier claims that the heating trouble had been fixed.

So, what is the main reason? It’s about Snapdragon 810? The new HTC One M9 even reported 15 higher degrees than its predecessor – HTC One M8 which features less powerful Snapdragon 801.

In addition to, after the above news started making the rounds, HTC Communications Manager Jeff Gordon posted in his Twitter the following statement:

From his statement, we can understand that he said the HTC One M9 has yet to be officially released, the tested model is running pre-release software. It means that we can expect a better final device and therefore,they probably fix the problem of overheating after improving or updating.

Note: We should be noted that “this was a stress test” on a handset running non-final software. In the Benchmark test, the HTC One M9 is obviously warmer than competing smartphones, but a lot of improvement can come about from now. But, anyway, from the mentioned test, we can know that the latest Snapdragon 810 can cause overheating in the device.

Source: Tweakers

We heard a bunch of salt about the Xiaomi Mi 5 for a long time ago, even before the official launch of high-end Xiaomi Mi Note and Xiaomi Mi Note Pro. We even thought that the phone will come on the CES 2015 event is definitely Xiaomi Mi 5 due to many current rumors at that time. And now it seems that the phone attends to shake the market once more time.

The previous leak said that the handset will come with 5.5″ display, Snapdragon 805 SoC (or the latest Snapdragon 810), both processors are 64-bit chipsets and at least 3GB of RAM as well as supporting 4G LTE connectivity, a QHD display. Some one even believe that the phone will be packed 4GB of RAM.

But, from the pic below, it seems that the phone would be running on the less powerful Snapdragon 801 processor as well as only 2GB of RAM. In addition to, the Mi 5 is speculated to shipped with only 5.1mm of thickness and it honestly takes many inspiration from Apple iPhone 6 Plus. The above leaked pic also shows us that the Xiaomi’s logo will come on the top left corner of the handset. The Xiaomi Mi 5 seems be slimmer than its sibling, the Xiaomi Mi4.

Learning from the typical one-year product cycle of Xiaomi’s flagship devices, the Xiaomi Mi5 was expected to release in July this year. But after launch date on 15th Jan 2015 of the Xiaomi Mi Note and Xiaomi Mi Note Pro, it highly appears that July is off the picture for Xiaomi Mi5. The launch time will not really close from now, but at least, according to the Chinese tech company, there would still be a Xiaomi Mi5 in the end. The phone will most likely roll out toward the fourth quarter of the year, speculatively before the Holidays and capitalize on the Christmas shopping vacation worldwide.

In conclusion: It seems that the new Xiaomi Mi5 will be launched in this year and will be shipped with not really good specs as previously expected. The phone might be reported with less powerful Snapdragon 801 processor as well as only 2GB of RAM. But, we are not really sure about all of them. So, stay tuned and we’ll dig more.