Author: Chris Eilers

The alleged Meizu m1 Note was released already in earlier this month. But the phablet has long been rumoured to get a smaller brother to variously expand its porfolio.

As mentioned before, the newest Meizu’s phone – called Meizu m1 Note Mini will be introduced in their official press conference on Jan 28th.

Over near one week for its event. You can wait for its official announcement, but in case it takes you too much time, our new can be a little helpfull for you.

Yesterday, there is spy pics which showed off a yellow body option. Therein, this phone might arrive with a 4.7″ screen. But now, contrary to this last news, it seems that the new Meizu m1 Note Mini will feature 5″ screen instead of previously leaked 4.7″. But expect for this unclear screen size, the rest of specs are the same as expected. More specifically, its phone will be supported 13MP/5MP camera for both sides, and LED Flash, too. As for its resolution, it highly likely m1 Note Mini will be reported a 720p though.

The Meizu m1 Note Mini is targeted to directly compete to the Xiaomi Redmi 2S. Therefore, its phone is surely predicted to be sold for just CNY 799 or roughly PHP 5800.

The most interesting thing about the M1 Mini could, however, be the OS (operation system) choice. According to the above pic, it appears that there are three different versions of the phone. One will be running Flyme OS, Meizu’s interpretation of Android. The second variant will employ YunOS, developed in part by Alibaba, and the last one will run Ubuntu.

If this news is realiable, very interesting that the m1 Note Mini will be the first affordable device which is sported the Ubuntu mobile platform (as previous rumour).

Updated Jan 27th

Tomorrow is the official event of Meizu, and now there is a leaked photo which is posted in Weibo of Meizu VP Li Nan. Therefore, this phone has a different color compared to previous Meizu devices. In this photo, you can find that this phone comes with a stylish pepper mint digital camera with the equally stylish little Meizu clearly in the frame too. And although we cannot know the specs of this phone, but we can see that this phone will have a single LED flash which is the same with the Meizu m1 Note.

Updated 28th Jan:

Here is a spy photo of The new smartphone could be dubbed the Meizu m1 note mini, or simply m1 mini and the GFXBench specs sheet that surfaced today lists a lot of hardware details but sadly no name.

Source: Twitter; Meizu News

Yesterday, there is a spy photo about our long-awaited HTC Hima (or HTC”M9″). This is not the first time having a leaked pic of its mystery phone. And i feel really excited and curious about its phone much. And although these frankly haven’t been officially announced yet, but they do look pretty believable.

Its phone is expected to introduce at MWC 2015. It might be a long time for us. This device appears incredibly similar to its latest generation – the HTC M8 therefore, its phone is alleged to be named as HTC M9 (as logically) but some rumours call it as HTC Hima. While our yesterday photo can’t show too much about its phone, this spy image can make us much more clearly. It is a comparison shot, therein, our mytery phone is in the left and old HTC’s generation – M8 is center.

Having a quick glance at this pic might make you think that the Hima highly seems a bit smaller than its sibling. We don’t know this is a real pic for sure or not. But we can easily realize that its expected phone has much obvious smaller bezels so if the screen size still keep the same at 5″, meaning the Hima could at least be narrower, if not a tad shorter.

Another thing is about the speaker grille underneath the screen has be different somewhat, compared to its last generations. Moreover  the front-facing flash shows a touch larger as well.

This leaked photo might be fake, meaning a concept rendering. It’s more necessary to see this phone in more reliable look, official design. But, wait, we need to stay tuned.

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The Oppo U3 is expected to introduce on Jan 14th after passing through TENAA certification a few weeks ago. But its phone is announced a little later than expected time. The U3 is predicted to come with 4x zoom lens and might be the world’s slimmest phone its outstanding feature. But unfortunately, no 4X optical zoom as rumored earlier and a fixed focal length lens is all you get in this device.

But except for this unlucky news, the Oppo U3 is still packed pretty respectable hardware. You can find interesting a 5.9″ display along with 1080p resolution, 64 bit Mediatek, MT6752 chipset with octa-core 1.7GHz Cortex-A53 processor. Its phone also comes with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage built-in, a reasonable 3,000 mAh battery which is supported a fast charging that takes you only 30 minutes for 75% battery.

Aside from the large display, the Oppo U3 is reported a 13MP main camera as well as 5MP camera in the opposite side. The main emphasize on the back uses a Sony IMX214 sensor with a 1/3.06″ diagonal and can pull off software tricks resulting in 50MP images. Very convinient when you attend to make billboard-sized prints, cuz the front-facing camera designs wide angle glass and an LED flash in attempt to be suitable for more flattering group selfies.

Its dimension is 156.8 x 81 x 8mm and a weight of 195g. Another addition, the Oppo U3 will arrive with LTE connectivity, embedded AK4961 audio chip. This phone also runs on Android Kitkat 4.4.4 out of the box.

Here is the leaked photo of a headphone is packed in U3, which we believed that its headphone is equiped with some audio friendly chip for better output. Its chip is surely the AK4961 audio chip which provides hifi audio output, meaning this phone is absolutely appeal much more music lovers.

Its phone is definitely a graceful phablet which is expected to sell well. But no official words for its released prices.

OPPO U3 Specs:

• 64-bit 1.7GHz Mediatek MT6752 octa-core processor
  2GB RAM + 16GB expandable internal memory
• 5.9-inch display with 1920 x 100p resolution
• 156.8 * 81 * 8, 195 grams (with battery)
• Supports 4G LTE/ 3G & GSM, Dual SIM Dual Standby
• Android 4.4.4 KitKat + Color OS 2.0.1
• 3000 mAh battery

The local brand – Cherry Mobile have just unveild their new phone, codenamed: Cherry Fuze S with full of specs and also its price.

Therefore, the Cherry Mobile Fuze S will come with a 5-inch FWVGA display, octa-core CPU, Android KitKat. Especially, its phone will be powered by a massive 4,000 mAh battery. So, it means that no need to worry about missing your important calls anymore. Thanks local brand for their trying, cuz it’s obviously an huge upgrade. As you probably know, one of the most outstanding weakness of octa-core smartphones is about battery capacity.

Its phone is prematurely released by their retailer, Cherry Angel with an super affordable price tag of PHP 4,499.

Cherry Mobile Fuze S specs:
5-inch FWVGA (854 x 480) IPS display, 196ppi
1.4GHz octa-core CPU
1GB RAM
8GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
8 megapixel rear camera w/ LED flash
VGA front camera
Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
3G HSPA+
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS, A-GPS
USB OTG
4,000mAh battery
Android 4.4 KitKat

Over a week for the press conference of Meizu, on Jan 28th and the Meizu m1 Note Mini is expected to to be officially unveiled in this event.

A few days ago, we gave you a spy pic of alleged Meizu m1 Note Mini in blue color. According to this pic, it seems that the Meizu m1 Note will be featured 5″ screen. And now, we have another leaked photo, therein shows off a yellow body option. But it highly looks like that this phone will come with a smaller screen size, about 4.7″ display, on par with the one found on the Xiaomi Redmi 2.

Apparently its new Meizu phone is long-awaited phone, cuz its phone can be powered by Abuntu. And look at the above photo which shows the rear panel of theMeizu m1 mini in a yellow colour, it’s easy to see that this phone arrives with just a single LED sim. And we know that it might be useless, but at least, it lets us know that our awaited phone will have the same plastic unibody design with its predecessor.

As listed before, its phone is predicted to come with a resolution of  1920 x 1080 FHD display, 2GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage or may be 64 BIT Mediatek processor. But we think that the 1080p resolution is much more suitable for 5″, therefore, with this smaller screen, 720p is the best we could hope for. And if Mezu have been able to keep the bezels down to a minimum then the Meizu m1 mini will be a much more compact budget phone than its siblings.

That’s all we know so far. Still, skepticism is healthy when it comes to leaks, so we’re keeping that handy. Pls keep touching our blog cuz we will update more.

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Althought Asus has just unveiled their new flagship – the Asus Zenfone 2 at CES 2015, and of course, its new phone paid much attention and difinitely a true flagship in 2015. But it takes time for this most awaited Asus phone. With a good influence from Asus and Intel brands, good configuration, good design as well as a suitable price, Asus Zenfone made good impression to users even before its official release.

In this time, we want to take you an overview of its predecessor – the Asus Zenfone 5. Needless to say, the Asus Zenfone 5 was available for a long time but its attraction can’t be denied. The Zenfone 5 stays between the Zenfone 4 and Zenfone 6. Therein, the diminutive ZenFone 4 is the smallest (4″), cheapest and least powerful of the three. In contrast, the Zenfone 6 has the best camera and fastest performance but equiped with too large screen (6″). Therefore, it seems that the Zenfone 5 is the most attractive device with a reasonable screen of 5 inch, good specs and affordable price tag.

Our option is the ZenFone 5 A501 version, with the official price tag from PHP 5,995 at pricepony.

Design:

Overall look and design of both three devices generally are the same, except for the screen size. With a medium 5-inch and moderate weight, slightly arched back side should make an impression thicker phone and a pleasant feel in holding. However, this phone has a longish body can be difficult in one hand usage.

The Zenfone 5 was created by a good material, so users don’t have the feeling as owning a cheap phone. Its screen is protected by toughened Gorilla Glass.

Its physical buttons is at the right side, easy to use but may be indistinguishable in low light condition due to be supported backlight. The back cover can be disassembled to reveal two MicroSIM slot and MicroSD memory card slot, but the battery can not be removable.

Camera:

The Asus’ PixelMaster Camera technology 8MP camera with LED flash with a wide speaker grille beneath that Intel Inside logo, which is clamed delivers professional quality photos. In opposite side, there is a 2MP front facing camera, proximity sensor, light sensor and notification LED above the screen.

The Low Light mode is really good, allowing a user to take photos in poor light conditions, though it works best when you steadyly fix its phone on a tripod. Turning on the flash for dim lighting conditions may actually be the best option. But its performance is not good as all these features sound. The electronic shutter is slow, so sometimes you’ll be missing the shot you want to take, especially if your subject is moving.

Zenfone 5 camera-comparison in low condition

Battery life

The Asus Zenfone 5 is powered by a poor 2,110mAh battery. But it’s quite good if you only use one SIM card in operation.  Asus has the power-saving feature – the Ultra-saving mode. But this feature has one big problem, its phone will automatically shut down network connectivity when the display is turned off. This means that background apps such as messaging ones or even your download (at this time) will not work properly when this power mode is selected.

Conclusion

The Asus Zenfone 5 paid much attention in 2014 and its phone deserved with this expectation. Its phone comes with a good design, high configuration compared to others in its price range. Although this phone still has some drawbacks, poor pin battery for an example. But overall, with the price tag of PHP 5,995, this phone now is definitely worth picking up.

There is a rumours of updated Android 5.0 Lollipop for all Zenfone 4,5,6 in the next April. Not sure about its news. But it’s desirable for waiting.

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HTC Hima, the awaited HTC phone was leaked last month. This phone even be shown on Antutu’s database and was rumoured to come in stand-alone event of HTC which is expected to be held in March. But as you know, most of leaks come from @upleaks, meaning that it’s not official announcement. But now, this upcoming smartphone, recognizably called HTC Hima has been light of day. Have a look at this leaked photo, you can find easily to see that this new phone is similar to its sibling – the HTC M8, except for the main camera on the back side.

Its phone was rumoured to come with a completely new 20.7 MP sensor which is absolutely different with most of previous HTC’s camera – the UltraPixel concept. A lot of criticizm about HTC’s camera due to punexpected good light performance and also lack of 4K video which is now available in a lot of high-end phones.

HTC don’t have a huge change in screen size, meaning they still keep 5″ screen along with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels in this upcoming handset, in contrast to most of flagship smartphone nowadays. And the HTC Hima reportedly is powered by Android 5.0.1 Lollipop, the latest Snapdragon 810, Sense 7.0, 13MP or UltraPixel selfie shooter. Besides that, its phone was unveiled to be powered by 2,840 mAh battery accompanied to 3GB of RAM.

No more words about its phone, but hope that this phone will come in expected launch date – in stand-alone event – in next March.

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Xiaomi has just unveiled two new phablets – the Xiaomi Mi Note and the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro. Especially the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro which we can call a true Beast. Its phone is packed top notch specs: Snapdragon 810, 2K display, 4GB of RAM, 515 pixel density as well as attractive design.

But it seems that Xiaomi wanna publicly show more. At least, we learn that a third device in Xiaomi’s high-end pipeline, allegedly called Xiaomi Mi Note Plus was leaked in Antutu’s database.

Its name – Mi Note Plus gives us an inspiration about a higher – quality in this device. But all information we wholly know are Snapdragon 810, Android 5.0 Lollipop, 8 core chip, Adreno 430 GPU, 2k 1440×2560 pixels screen, 13MP camera.

In general, the leaked specs are identical to the Mi Note Pro. We raised a question. So, what is its outstanding compared to Xiaomi Mi Note Pro. It seems that this phone is not rumoured Xiaomi Arch model with dual-curved edge, cuz it required more horizontal pixels than the regular QHD.

It’s now pure speculation. But Xiaomi planed to introduce or debut this phone, meaning that its news will be available soon.

For more Xiaomi Mi Note and Xiaomi Mi Note Pro info, we have a review for you.

2014 is an impressive year of Chinese-based smartphone vendors. Chinese brands represent six of top ten world’s largest company. Samsung is still on the Number One, next to Apple and Lenovo.

In 2014, the smartphone world experienced an increase of 25%in overall shipments, from 927,2 to 1166,9 units compared to 2013. Howerver, there’s a little change in the top three smartphone makers. Therein, Samsung still leaked the pack of 2014, but went through near 5% decrease, from 32.5% to 28% while competitors, like Apple, maintain or gain ground.

According to TrendForce’s prediction, top three leaders will still be Samsung, Apple and Lenovo but their market share percentage will have a slight fall of 1.4% by this time next year (2015) compared to 2014.

Apple shows their appeal when still retained second place years-over-years, which sits more firmly with just 0.2% lost year, thanks to new succesful flagships – the Apple iPhone 6 and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus.

The number three, Lenovo with total shipments in 2014 exceeded 90 million units and its annual growth exceled 100%. This company ranked first place among Chinese smartphone vendors and third worldwide with its 7.9% global market share. This result of Lenovo due to its acquisition of Motorola from Google in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Huawei Honor 6 introduced the Honor 6 model line in 2014, therefore wholly changed its strategy of utilizing smartphone chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek for its high-end devices. Huawei approximately shipped 70 million units and has 70% annual growth, makes this company rank number five in the 2014.

Followed by Huawei is amazing Xiaomi which are known with the best cost-performance products. Almost Xiaomi phones are inexpensive devices and needless to say Xiaomi handsets are really impressive and attractive. According to TrendForce, Xiaomi will be positioned higher in 2015 as well.

In the 2015, Samsung, Apple and Lenovo are predicted to hold onto their positions. But Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Huawei will overclass LG and move closer to Lenovo.

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Xiaomi has released the high-end flagship smartphone, the Mi Note and the Mi Note Pro. Both phones are targeted to different segment with other Xiaomi handsets. Last year, Xiaomi sold a bit over 61 million smartphones. And this year, Xiaomi has bigger plan. Therefore, Xiaomi is expected to ship from 13 to 15 million Mi Note in 2015, according to consulting firm KGI Investment Advisory. However, it isn’t yet clear whether or not KGI’s estimate contains both models of the phone. Its period is between the months of March and May. Its time is suitable for the launch date of this phone. The Mi Note will be available from this month in local market (China), while the Mi Note Pro is expected to go on sale in March.

As you apparently knew or not, the Mi Note and the Mi Note Pro come with too much high-quality features. The huge differences are resolution, chipset and RAM also. Therefore, the Mi Note features 1080p and is powered by Snapdragon 801 with 2.5GHz quad-core CPU and Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB of RAM. While the Mi Note Pro arrives with Snapdragon 810 as well as a resolution of 2560×1440 (QHD display), 515p, 4GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory by default.

About price, the 3GB variant, the Mi Note will be priced at 2299 Yuan (or 16,770), while the higher variant, the Mi Note Pro at the price of 3299 Yuan (or PHP 24K). What do you think about two listed phones? Do you think Xiaomi can ship 15 million units Mi Note in 2015?

The Asus Zenfone 2 was official introduced at CES on Jan 5th. After last two weeks, many Asus lovers asked us about this phone’s availability. Sounds great for Asus.

The Asus Zenfone 2 was the world’s first 4GB smartphone and its phone will be priced from 199 USD for the 2GB/16GB variant. With this price and all of its specs, we can be sure Asus will create a amazing rock concert ever.

More than 15 Million Users in the world use Zenfones already and its phone have gotten a lot of good feedback. So with this new phone, Asus definitely keeps shaking the market so far.

We are very interested to show you how the Asus Zenfone 2 Specs compare to other high-end smartphones of 2015 though. Its 2GB/16GB variant will be priced at 199 USD and no official words for 4GB version but we expect the 4GB RAM version to be around 300USD at Launch in March.

It’s truely interesting when compare the Asus Zenfone 2 to phones in the same price range, like OnePLus One, Xiaomi Mi4 and even the gradually more expensive Xiaomi Note. And the result is even much more enjoyable.

The Asus Zenfone 2 features a 5.5 inch display along with a Full HD 1080p resolution with a very good 403ppi pixel density. The display has a slight 3.3 mm bezel, giving ZenFone 2 a remarkable 72% screen-to-body ratio for a maximized viewing experience. Actually, its phone not as compact as the LG G3 for example. Moreover, its phone will be powered by a 64 Bit Quadcore Intel Atom Z3580 at 2.3 Ghz, which can easily hold its own against Snapdragon 805 and Exynos 7 Octa Cpu. If there are weaknesses, its more in the graphics department.

And the most outstanding feature to make it specially is the 4GB of RAM though. We showed you the Antutu Benchmark of 43809 scores. At this mark, the Asus Zenfone 2 can easily beat out the Sony Xperia Z3 and even Samsung Galaxy S5 – very trong performance! Even the 2GB version with the score of 40,926 (not too lower than the 4GB variant) and the price of 199 USD. I’m sure that this phone will be sell as the hot cake.

For the Camera department the Zenfone 2 sports 13MP/5MP for Main Shooter with f/2.0 and Selfie Cam respectively. All of its cameras are patented by Asus’s PixelMaster Technology. The quality of Asus’ s camera is tested for a long time ago and they even promises that its Zenphone 2 cameras will be much better than the Sony Xperia Z3. Here are some pics from the Asus Zenfone 2 and also the Galaxy Note 4 and we guess that you can easily see the huge between their quality. Even in low light condition, the Pixel Master Camera of the Asus Zenfone 2 performs really well due to 400% more light in the pictures.

Asus Zenfone 2 Camera Samples

Another plus is Dual Sim Support, which is a favorable for Asia market. In fact, you can find the same feature in Mi Note and Meizu m1 Note. For the battery, 3000 mAh battery is just “suitable capacity” for the Asus Zenfone 2, not really great for the 5.5″ FHD screen.

As you can see from our Asus Zenfone 2 Specs Comparison, the Asus Zenfone 2 with 5.5″ Full HD Screen, 64BIT Intel Atom CPU and up to 4GB RAM can definitely hold its own. Especially the 4GB RAM version makes the Zenfone 2 one of the top competitors in the 300USD price range for 2015. For 199USD the Asus Zenfone 2 might even be the best Android Smartphone for under 200 USD.

The Asus Zenfone 2 will come to selected markets in March 2015. We hope that its phone will come to Philippines in early Q2, as in April 2015. Its 2GB/16GB is reportedly sold at 199 USD (or nearly 8,900 PHP), we expected the price of 4GB/64GB variant will around 300 USD (or PHP 13,390).

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The most expected smartphone of Samsung, alleged called: the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge with dual-curved edge on both sides was leaked a few months ago. Therefore, its new phone will have much similarities in design with its close sibling – the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge. But apparently its new phone will be added many more updates compared to the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge in attempt to make the S6 Edge a little unique.

This phone is tipped to sport the model number SM-G925. It is definitely based on the two old Samsung phone – the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge. So, we will be calling it the Galaxy S6 Edge.

The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge was designed with a beautiful and innovative side panels. So, Samsung still utilize this successful on the new Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. Besides that, users will be able to access fastly Yahoo! news and financial information, S Health data, notifications, and night clock among others. More added interesting, Samsung update and offer new features at well, such as: Glance Lighting and color-coded favorite contacts. And much more convinient, many available apps will also be ready for downloading from the Samsung app store.

The most exciting feature of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge – dual curved edge will absolutely appeal to both left and right-hand users.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge will highly look like to be introduced around MWC this year.

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