Tag: Apple

In its latest event, Microsoft has introduced some new devices and technologies. Among them was the Surface Studio. Whether by incident or not, it bears some resemblance to Aplle’s iMac. So, let’s have a Surface Studio vs iMac showdown today, in different aspects!

1. Screen

Firstly, for this Surface Studio vs iMac comparison, we will use the 27-inch 5K iMac, as it s considered to be the direct competitor to Surface Studio. Overall, the screen is the big selling point for both of these devices. The iMac has a 27-inch screen with 5120 x 2880 resolution, meaning 217 pixels per inch (ppi). Meanwhile, the Microsoft device has resolution 4500 x 3000 for a 28-inch screen, which equals 192 ppi. As we can see, iMac has the better ppi, but we can hardly see the difference when putting those two next to each other.

As for the color accuracy, we will have to wait for real life results, to see which one is the winner in this regard. In general, they are quite similar. Both have support for sRGB and DCI-P3 color profiles, which promises great color illustration, and can be changed quite easily. Of course, or movie or photo production work, a $5000 monitor will blow these two out of the water by a large margin. However, for normal use, these two will be more than sufficient. For this first category, Surface Studio and iMac are more or less similar.

2. Design

Microsoft has made an effort to highlight the design choices for Surface Studio. The Microsoft device is very flexible, compared to Apple’s iMac. While the base of Surface Studio is thicker than the iMac, overall Surface Studio is thinner – 12mm throughout. Also, the iMac is only at a fixed height and only tilts a little, the Studio’s hinge allows you to turn it into a drawing tablet. In Microsoft’s words, it is a “zero-gravity hinge”, as it is very easy to transform, with almost no effort. In this regard, the Studio has the edge over the iMac.

3. Performance

The high-end specs for Studio device include a desktop core i7, 32GB RAM,  hybrid 2TB SSD/HDD, and GTX 980M. The 980M is a little bit disappointing, because even laptops now have better graphics card. However, the iMac is not really better. Its max specs are basically the same, with iMac using the AMD’s M395X. The AMD card is easily outclassed by the 980M in many benchmarks. Performance wise, this round also goes to Microsoft’s Surface Studio again. However, that might change if Apple decids to beef up the specs for the iMac in its event soon.

4. Input devices

For iMac, we have a keyboard and a mouse. As fancy as they are, they are still not something very unique. Studio, on the other hand, comes with some handy input devices. There is the standard wireless keyboard and mouse, as expected. The Studio’s screen is also touch-sensitive, and Microsoft also includes a touch pen and a haptic-feedback Dial to go with it. The surface Pen and Dial are highlighted quite a lot in Microsoft’s presentation. The pen promises to be like the Surface Book pen, with zero latency. If all of those are true, the Microsoft device wins this round of Surface Studio vs iMac.

5. Price

Here is the last, but can be the most important aspect to consider: price. The base model of Studio costs $3000, while that of iMac is only $1800. For the high-end version, Surface Studio price is $4200, while  maxed iMac price is $3400. The gap is very big for the starting price, but gets smaller for the high-end, and for that segment, the upgraded graphics card justifies the price difference. Overall, in this category, an iMac is a more viable option foe most people. If you want the upgraded graphics, then the price of the maxed Studio is justified.

Surface Studio vs iMac: Can Microsoft top Apple?

For the most part, in this Surface Studio vs iMac battle, the Microsoft device is better than the Apple device in theory. However, the price of Studio may be a little too high for most people. What do you think is the winner in this contest?

iPhone 7 Plus with Apple A10 chip set is now the strongest smartphones on Antutu list. So, why is this chipset is so powerful like that? Let’s have a look at our post!

Apple A10 chip: equivalent to Intel Skylake

If you remember, Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are the two smartphones standing in the two first positions of Antutu list. So, what makes these phones so powerful like this? The answer is Apple A10 chip set. This SoC had defeated all the flagship chipsets from the other brands like SND 821, Helio X25, or Kirin 955. With this SoC, iPhone 7 (Plus) surpassed all the high-end phones in the market and even the average PCs. A10 is considered to be equivalent to Intel’s Skylake, which means it is even better than Intel x86 cores.

So, the reason why this Apple A10 chip set is so strong like this is Hurricane cores and Zephyr cores. While Zephyr cores do the energy efficient jobs,  Hurricane cores take responsibility for all the heavy tasks. Compared to the Twister cores in A9 chipset, Hurricanes provides 35% better performance. Zephyr cores are more battery saving. The main point here is the size of the cores. Hurricane cores size are 4.18 mm2 which are twice as big as the size of most flagship CUPs. The smaller Zephyr cores sizes are similar to Cortex A53’s.

In this case, the sizes of both these cores play important roles in deciding the power and cost. With this power, Apple A10 chip can be used to replace the Intel chipset on MacBook Air with low speed. This chipset is the right move off Apple. Instead of cutting the cost and optimizing, this US company chose to invest in the performance of this chipset.

Apple A10 chip set: can it be beaten?

Apple A10 chip set is now the strongest SoC in the chipset smartphone market. This SoC helped iPhone 7 Plus to take the first spot on Antutu list. This phone even beat LeEco Le Pro 3 with SND 821 and 6GB RAM. So, can this A10 Fusion chipset be beaten? Will the newest Kirin 960 from Huawei and the upcoming SND 830 win over this Apple chipset? Well, we’ll have the answer when these chipsets are released. For now, Apple A10 chip is still the best. If you want to know more about the smartphone chipsets in the market, as well as the flagships with those chips, just keep following our page.

The 32GB storage version of the Apple iPhone 7 is still a good choice for those who don’t need a huge storage. However, from recent tests, the 32GB iPhone 7 is 8 slower than the other versions. Anyway, don’t worry!

The 32GB iPhone 7 is 8 times slower than the others.

Apple iPhone 7 was launched in early September, with three storage options: 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB. This is the first time Apple gets rid of the small 16GB version. For those who don’t have high saving demand, the smallest 32GB version is a suitable choice. However, from recent tests, the 32GB iPhone 7 is 8 times slower than the other versions in terms of transferring data.

As mentioned, the 32GB iPhone 7 got a slower writing and reading speed than that of the 128GB and 256GB versions. However, only the slow write speed brings some limitations for this 32GB version. That said, the read speed on the 32GB iPhone 7 gets the same performance with that of the 128GB and 256GB ones. Thankfully, the read speed is a more important aspect on smartphones. It decides how fast the phone gets up or how many time an app is launched. 

Besides, the 32GB version’s write speed isn’t a big disadvantage. The necessary speed for recording 4K videos (the task requiring highest bandwidth on a smartphone) is about 30MBps. Meanwhile, the average write speed on the 32GB iPhone 7 is 100MBps. This speed is 8 times slower than that of the 128GB and 256GB versions, however, clearly it is big enough to help the phone run smoothly. Besides, the 32GB iPhone 7 got 60MBps of transferring data speed, which is lower than that of other versions. Nonetheless, that speed also higher than the world’s transfer speed (40MBps).

How to get a suitable version of the Apple iPhone 7

Anyway, the bigger storage still brings some advantages for users. If you want to store numerous videos or images, a 128GB version of the iPhone 7 is a better option. Especially, with the 256GB version, there is no need to worry about erasing anything. Of course, these versions come with quite different prices: $649 (32GB), $749 (128GB), and $849 (256GB) So, in case you want to buy an Apple iPhone 7, consider your demand before choosing the suitable version to save your money.

If you have the intention of purchasing Apple charging devices on Amazon,  please be alert! They have recently said 90% of Apple chargers on Amazon are fake.

Mobile Star – the supplier of fake Apple chargers

According to Apple, the devices which are being sold on Amazon are not the genuine Apple products. They bought those charging components themselves to check the authenticity of those. After careful inspections, the company has come to the conclusion that 90% of their charging accessories on Amazon are counterfeit. Apple decided to publicize the information to all customers in order to warn them.

To explain for this issue, Amazon told Apple that the fake devices were supplied by the third party called Mobile Star. This is a New Jersey company, which was claimed to be the culprit in the whole counterfeit goods. Apple is filing a lawsuit against this company. According to Apple, the inauthenticity might cause acute consequences to users’ health. They pose a significant risk of overheating, fire, and electrical shock.

Back to China in 2013, there were some incidents reported which related to iPhone and iPad users were getting shock. Especially a 23-year-old women was killed when she answered a call on her iPhone 5. After such scandals, Apple proceeded to exchange all bad quality chargers and cables to high quality ones produced by themselves.

Apple chargers: be a smart consumer!

Apple is worrying that some of their customers might buy such counterfeit devices on Amazon. That’s the reason why they want to warn everybody so as to help them not to waste money and avoid health problems. It is always far better when buying any electrical devices from their manufactures. In case you are going to buy an Apple charging accessories, you should purchase it at Apple’s store or authentic shops to avoid the problems. (Source)

So far, there are three explosions of iPhones recorded worldwide. The number is now added one after another iPhone 7 explosion to be reported in China

iPhone 7 explosion: first case in China

Nowadays, smartphones have played an integral part in our life. However, a new problem recently arisen has been making consumers quite concerned and nervous. I bet we are all aware of the continuous explosions of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 reported in many countries. Following up the accident, other phone makers are also afraid to see their handsets in the same situation. And very recently, the biggest rivals to Note 7 – mighty Apple iPhone 7 was also reported to have exploded in Zhengzhou, China.

According to RIA Novosti, this is the first time iPhone 7 explosion happened in China. The iPhone 7 suddenly blew up while a man was trying to shoot a video. The explosion made the phone split into two pieces. Unluckily, the owner was injured on the face and hands. It is reported that the incident occurred last week. After that, Chinese press posted share the story over the Internet. In response to the unwanted incident, Apple’s representative in China also reported the situation back to the head office.

Until now, representative of Apple in China has yet to make any announcement about the problem and solution. Therefore, we don’t know the reason of the explosion and how Apple will deal with the incident. However, such breaking news somehow will affect the reputation of the company. We are hoping for the best and that not more unit will catch the same fire.

iPhone 7 explosion: lesson for other smartphone makers

Before this iPhone 7 explosion in China, there are three other iPhone explosion were reported worldwide. So, after many explosions had happened, phone makers, as well as electric device manufacturers have to be more cautious about the safety of the battery and other engines of the phones. (Source)

Galaxy Note 7 is a haunting for many users for a while. After the Note 7 scandal, it seems that Samsung users are finding the alternative smartphones. From the recent report, about 5-7 million Samsung users to switch to iPhone 7 this year. 

Samsung users to switch to iPhone 7 : Is is real?

The report comes from KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo – a famous Apple analysis. Accordingly, there could be about 5-7 million Samsung users will switch to iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus this year. Anyway, this is just a forecast. After Note 7 discontinuation, the most consideration of many people is: Which is the best alternative smartphone for Samsung users? If you look at the current smartphone market, there are some big phones that you should consider.

As we mentioned above, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are good alternative products for Note 7 users (or Samsung users in general). Apple is always the biggest rival of Samsung. That’s why iPhone 7 series come with premium features which can compete with the Galaxy Note 7. Especially, the iPhone 7 Plus could be the better options for Samsung users when it comes with a new dual camera – the ideal choice for photo lovers; and a powerful A10 chipset which brings smoothly performance.

However, if Samsung users still love using Android Os, LG V20 or Google Pixel smartphones are also good options. Both these smartphones come with the latest Android Os (Android 7.0) and powerful processors, which are good alternations of the Galaxy Note 7. However, Google Pixel and LG V20 still can’t compete with the Note 7 from Samsung in terms of the design.

Samsung users to switch to iPhone 7 : Samsung solutions

It is difficult to know if all Samsung users will switch to iPhone 7 this year. However, there could be a number of Samsung fans are finding alternative products. Of course. Samsung totally knows its current problem. The giant Korea brand is finding the solution. So, stay tuned to see what will Samsung bring users in the upcoming time. More importantly, do you think the forecast is completely correct? In another word, will many Samsung users switch to iPhone 7 this year?

Samsung has just officially put an end to Note 7 due to the non-fixable explosion incident. It obviously caused a huge financial loss to the Korean firm. But beyond that, the halt of Note 7 is even benefiting its rival – Apple –  considerably

Note 7 death: The consequences

The first recall of Note 7 has already made the Korean brand lose at least 5 billion USD. However, that number doesn’t stop there. After units of Note 7 replacement exploded, the brand decided to end up the production of Note 7. That shutdown has cost the brand a huge sum of money, reportedly more than 17 billion USD, according to analysists. Although the brand can totally afford that loss, it will be a big challenge for Samsung to win back customer trust, as well as to continue “fighting” against Apple in the smartphone industry.

Note 7 death does not only damage Samsung’s financial status. It also indirectly helps increase the sales of iPhone 7! Brian White – Drexel Hamilton analyst, has estimated that around 57% to 80% of expected Note 7 sales (which is from 10 million to 14 million) will now belong to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. In other words, around 8 million more iPhone units will be purchased.

He also shared that even if there were no Note 7 death, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus would be still the best sellers in many markets, including China. White has conducted market researches with 30 retailers in Shenzhen, China and noticed that Apple iPhone is now the front runner in terms of sales.

Note 7 death: Samsung defeats itself

Back when Samsung announced that they would skip Note 6 and launch Note 7 instead, there were speculations that this is a marketing strategy of Samsung to compete with Apple iPhone 7. Now it looks like Samsung has defeated itself before entering the battle. Currently, the brand is about to launch a new product called Samsung Galaxy C9. Let’s wait and see whether this product could rebuild the reputation of Samsung or not.

Since being launched in early September, the iPhone 7 Plus becomes a hot topic on the internet. This phone comes with stronger internal assets and many innovative features. Anyway, this newest Apple phone isn’t a perfect device. Let’s take a look at iPhone 7 Plus overview to see 4 limitations of this phone. 

iPhone 7 Plus overview : biggest limitations

First, from many user feedbacks, iPhone 7 Plus has a bulky body, which is one of the biggest limitations of this phone. As you know, iPhone 7 Plus measures at 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm. These are big sizes for a smartphone nowadays. However, despite a big body, iPhone 7 Plus has a low screen size. It comes with 67.7% screen-to-body ratio, which is lower than that of Galaxy S7 Edge (76.1%) and Google Pixel Xl (71.2%). So, iPhone 7 Plus don’t have an expert design.

Second, if you are using iPhone 7 Plus or you have a chance to hold this phone in hands, you’ll recognise a limitation of this phone. Unlike flagships from Samsung, iPhone 7 Plus is quite difficult to keep in your hand. One of the reason is from the bulky body as mentioned. Third, to be the latest iPhone generation, iPhone 7 Plus still gets a quite small battery capacity. It comes with just a 2900 mAH cell.

Fourth, the camera is also a limitation of iPhone 7 Plus. Although this phone is one of the top camera smartphones in the world, it is still not really good as many people expect. As you know, the phone comes with a dual camera on the back, including a telephoto lens and a wide-angle lens. However, the telephone lens works less often than the wide-angle lens. That’s a big loss for the iPhone 7 Plus camera because the telephone lens sports many interesting features.

iPhone 7 Plus price

However, you must accept that there are alway some limitations on a flagship smartphone. Apple iPhone 7 Plus is not an exception. In case you are going to skip these limitations and bring this phone home, here is iPhone 7 Plus price. It comes at $769 for 32GB storage version, $869 (for 128GB), and $969 (for 256GB). If you are interested in this phone, just keep following our page.

Apple A10 is now one of the best chipsets in the market. Now, it seems that the company is working A10X SoC. This chipset will even come with better performance than its predecessor. 

Apple A10 successor: better and stronger A10X

Last month, Apple released their new flagship – iPhone 7 Plus. This phone with Apple A10 Fusion chipset immediately defeated OnePlus 3, as well as many SND 821 phones, to be the King on Antutu best performance phone list. With this chart, we can see that how powerful Apple A10 chipset is. Now, Apple is reported to be working on a product powered by A10X. This phone will be the first Apple 10-nanometer SoC.

Apple A10 Fusion comes with TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) 16nm technology. Meanwhile, the chipset A10X will be smaller with 10-nm technology of TSMC. With this chipset, Apple will be able to reduce their cost in manufacturing A10X. Besides, manufacturing yields of the company will increase. It’s common that yields of big chipsets are usually less than yields of smaller SoCs.

A10X is not only economical but also very powerful. You can see how strong Apple A10 is, this new SoC is even more than that. It is said that A10X will perform better by 18% than 16-nm chipset. In addition, this chipset is power-saving. Compared to the 16nm chip, the 10nm SoC consumes less energy by 40%. Moreover, there will be more graphic cores which will make the quality of photos and videos better.

Apple A10X:

Apple A10 is already a beast. Now, its successor- A10X- is gonna be more than that. Whichever device owns this chipset will have incredible strengths. It is expected that A10X will be used in the next generation of iPad, as well as iPhone. If you want to know more about Apple chipset, as well as Apple products, just keep following our page. We’ll continue to update.

In the past few months, Samsung is having the tough times. This Korean giant has involved in many explosions, from Note 7 to washing machine. Because of those unfortunate incidents, Samsung sales is now out of top 5 in the Chinese market.

Samsung sales: out of top 5 in China

Back in 2013, Samsung is the King smartphone brand in China. This Korean company took the 17.3% market shares in the most populated country in the world. Samsung brand was always one of the top choices for many users, from mid-rangers to high-end flagships. It had been the Samsung prime time until Xiaomi took the spotlight. Xiaomi just had 5% of market shares in 2013. However, this number had increased to 12.5% in the next year. At the same time, Samsung market shares decreased by 6%. In the result of this loss, Samsung fell back at the 2nd position.

Everything was getting harder and harder for Samsung in the next couple of years. The Korean brand had to compete with Xiaomi in the budget segment, Huawei in the mid-range price group, and Apple in the high-end category. Samsung also had to challenge with other Chinese smartphones that offer strong specs at more affordable price. What will be will be! Samsung sales is now out of the top 5 biggest smartphone brands in China. The latest top 5 in the list are Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, and Apple.

This September, Samsung released their long-awaited flagship- Galaxy Note 7 with all premium specs. For such a long time, it was expected to bring the company back to the top 5 phone brands in China. However, things didn’t happen as planned. Note 7 exploded – with multiple units got reported around the world. It was so widespread that Samsung had to recall their handsets in every market, except for China. To explain for this, Samsung claimed that the Note 7 batteries produced for Chinese market have been certified safe. However, even one “safe” unit got caught exploded. This totally lost Chinese people’s faith in the brand. Many even said that they would exchange Samsung devices to Apple’s or Huawei’s.

Samsung sales: continues to drop

After these incidents, Samsung sales will continue to fall in this market. The company could lose their position in one of the largest phone markets in the world. Not to mention that it might be even harder for this Korean brand to gain back the trust of Chinese users. Can Samsung turn the table and get back their position? Just wait and see!

Everybody seems to only pay attention to the battle between Apple and Samsung but don’t know that the battle of Apple vs Oppo is also very tough! According to latest reports, Oppo has surpassed Apple in terms of sale value in India!

Apple vs Oppo: The battle in India

India – the second most populous country in the world – is one of the most profitable and appealing market for smartphone manufacturers. Oppo and Apple are of course no exceptions. August was quite a successful month for these two brands as both of them get high proportions of Indian sales value. An interesting fact here is that Apple lagged behind the brand which is sometimes called Apple’s clone.

Based on the research from Gfk data, in August, Oppo owned 8% of the total market share value in India, making it the second most powerful phone brand in this country. Meanwhile, Apple landed at no.3 with only 6.3%. Lyf is at the forth position with 6.1% of Indian sales value and Micromax is right behind with 5.4%. So what brand stayed at the top? It’s Samsung with 46.9%, but that’s another story.

Back to the Apple vs Oppo battle, according to another market research company – Counterpoint Research, Oppo arrived at the third position with 7%. At the same time, Apple landed at… no.6 with only 5.6%. At the second position was Lenovo + Motorola (8.5%). The fourth place belonged to Xiaomi (6.8%) and of course, Samsung was on top of the Indian smartphone market, once again.

Apple vs Oppo: New rivalry

The rivalry between Apple vs Oppo has become more and more obvious since many of Oppo smartphones have similar design to iPhone. From the statistics above, Oppo has gained more advantages. However, it was the result of August, when Apple had not released the iPhone 7/ 7 Plus. So let’s wait for the September updates to see if Apple could turn the tables!

Antutu has just shown the top phones for this September. According to this list, OnePlus 3 is not the King anymore. This position now goes to the latest Apple phone – iPhone 7 Plus.

Antutu list: OnePlus 3 fall behind at 6th place

Each month, there will be an Antutu list for top performance smartphones. The top phones on this list are the devices having the strongest processor based on Antutu benchmark. In September, the smartphone market welcomed many great phones like iPhone 7, Galaxy A8, or Xiaomi Mi 5s. These handsets contributed to change the orders of top Antutu phone chart where OnePlus 3 (with 140,288 points) had held the first place for more than 7 months.

The top place no longer belongs to the latest OnePlus 3 flagship. iPhone 7 Plus has taken this crown with the score of 172,644. Standing right behind 7 Plus is iPhone 7 with 170,124 scores. The first Chinese SND 821 phone – LeEco Pro 3 – gets the third position with 160,856 points. The 4th and 5th place go to Xiaomi Mi 5s and 5s Plus. Don’t be surprised! This is just because the Mi 5s siblings use the under-clocked SND 821 SoC. The ex-King OnePlus 3 falls back to the 6th place.  The other positions are Vivo XPlay 5 Elite (138,706), Note 7 (138,373), Le Max 2 (138,026), and Nubia Z11(127,685).

So, let’s have a look at iPhone 7 Plus specs again to see how strong this device is. Under the hood, the phone is powered by a 2.23Ghz quad-core A10 Fusion processor and runs on iOS 10. It packs 3GB RAM paired with 32/126/256 non-expandable inbuilt storage. About cameras, 7 Plus sports a 7MP front snapper and a dual 12MP cam on the back with f/2.8 and quad-LED flash. In addition, this latest Apple phone also has a 5.5-inch Full HD display, a 2900mAh cell, and IP67 certification (dust+water resistant).

Top phones on Antutu list: iPhone 7 Plus wins it all

After being surpassed many times by Android phones, Apple phone is finally a King of Antutu. iPhone 7 Plus with A10 chipset and 3GB RAM had defeated many Android flagships with 6GB RAM and SND 821 (Le Pro 3, Mi 5s Plus). It seems that iPhone 7 Plus will hold this throne for a long time. So, congratulations to iPhone 7 Plus, once again, for being the strongest phone on Antutu.