With the huge volume of the chinese gadget production you would think it’s quite easy to find a solid small pure Android tablet. Well not really, because the Android tablets are a bit out of favor with chinese manufacturers for a long time already, especially the smaller ones. That hopefully changes at least a bit with the new Chuwi Hi9, which should be hitting the market soon by the end of December.
Chinese Chuwi already put out quite a big amount of windows devices or at the best case dualboot ones, but this one is really the pure Android one with Android 7.0 Nougat on board. Chuwi Hi9 will come with the 8.4-inch OGS fully laminated JDI screen with 2560×1600 pixel resolution (so aspect ratio 16:10) and 2.5D glass with seamless edges.
In terms of hardware the Hi9 will be packing MT8173 quad-core processor clocked at 1.9 GHz with PowerVR GX6250 GPU, 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM, 64 GB eMMC 5.1 internal memory, microSD card slot and 5000 mAh battery capacity. But it seems like the HDMI port will be missing though. As mentioned before it’s expected to come out by the end of December, but the official price for it is not yet confirmed, hopefully it will soon appear on their website. Buy Chuwi Hi8 Pro Tablet PC
And when we are already talking about Chuwi there is another piece of good news for their fans, because the CoreBook’s Indiegogo campaign reached the $100k stretch goal its RAM got upgraded from 6 GB to 8 GB for free. Check out the project on the Indiegogo’s page.
Not particularly fond of fitness trackers, I decided to give the MGCool Band 3 a try and see if fitness trackers do make sense. With fitness trackers hitting the market a dime a dozen, the MGCool Band 3 does manage to make a stand for itself, although it does disappoint at certain levels. With the bar set by the Mi Band 2, let’s see if the MGCool Band 3 manages to keep up.
MGCool Band 3 Specifications
Processor
NRF51822
Display
0.66″ inch OLED
RAM
256K
Physical Dimensions
24.80 x 2.42 x 1.10 cm, 2.5 grams
Operating System
Proprietary
Sensors
Heart Rate Sensor, Pedometer
IP Rating
IP68
Battery
105mAh
Connectivity
Bluetooth 4.0
MGCool Band 3 Design
The Band 3, like many other fitness trackers, features a display for showing you calorie count, real-time heart rate, steps, and last but not the least, time. It would be a real bummer if time weren’t a part of the “watch”. The display is non-touch with a plastic casing on top which is susceptible to scratching and also reveals quite a lot of what is present underneath the casing when exposed to sunlight. The watch does not have any buttons but comes with a touch-sensitive surface located right below the rectangular display. On the back of the watch, lies the heart rate sensor along with the charging pins. The band is made of silicon with stainless steel buckles. Plus points to MGCool for using good quality silicon and buckles that do not wear easily. There are two band colors to chose from, Black and Red. The dial is fixed tight to the strap, so there is no way of changing the strap. The dial is about 4 cm long, but approximately only 1.7 x 1.5 cm is occupied by the display, which seems like a wastage of space.
The watch fits snugly on my wrist, with there being instances when I actually forgot that I am wearing it, which is exactly what I was expecting from a tracker. The IP68 rating is a bonus! As far as the build quality is concerned, I have worn the watch day in and out and it got through with flying colours. More points to MGCool. Overall, the design of the Band 3 is good, although I would have loved to see more utilisation of the space on the dial.
The dial features multiple screens, first of which is the face, that displays the time and heart rate with the connection status. Long press the touch surface and it’ll take you to a menu which on tapping shows you three different watch faces to choose from, one being a cramped analog display. Tapping through the different options gets you to the heart rate, step count, distance walked, calories burnt, sleep tracker, stopwatch, find the phone, and finally the power off option.
The heart rate sensor works flawlessly and provides real-time heart rate. The pedometer is adept at tracking steps and the distance covered, thus fulfilling the basic requirements of a fitness tracker. Once paired with the companion app, it vibrates and shows incoming calls and messages although there’s hardly anything that fits on that tiny screen.There is also a ‘raise the hand to view screen’ option that can be configured via the watch companion app.
But the Band 3 lost some points amassed in the design and build quality section, in performance, primarily due to the badly designed companion app. The WearFit 2.0 is the watch companion app for the Band 3, and it is not the best out there. There are a few useless options like “Photograph”, which I assumed turned the watch into a Bluetooth remote for my camera, but it just opens up the camera module on the phone. It did manage to track my sleep cycle albeit with a few errors here and there. The battery life is not that great. I could squeeze out a maximum of two weeks with the ‘Raise hand to view’ option, which is less as compared to a few trackers out there. BUY MGCOOL Band 3 Smartband - BLACK
MGCool Band 3 Verdict
The Band 3 is a good fitness tracker, standalone with certain issues that might not bother someone who is using this watch for casual workouts or walks. But if you are looking for a watch that gets things done as and when you want it, I would suggest you skip the Band 3. All in all, I have mixed feelings about the Band 3, mainly because even though it does not do its job perfectly, it is offered at an unbeatable price of $19! At this price point, the MGCool Band 3 gives tough competition to the Mi Band 2, one of the most trusted and economic trackers in the market. So if you do not mind a watch that gets the basics right, the Band 3 is the watch for you!
We’re now happy to announce that we’re giving away a total of 5 units of the Hi-Dock to GizChina readers. What this means is that 5 people from the GizChina readership who share here will take home a free unit each!
You can purchase one from either GearBest or Amazon, two of the official sales channels for the item.
Fidgets can be a very effective and helpful self-regulation tool as they help focusing and concentration, decrease stress, increase tactile awareness of fingers/hands and keep you busy at the same time. If you’re in need of this kind of toy for health reasons or you just want to have fun, then check out these deals on two fun playthings!
You can get the fidget spinner for just $0.49 over at Gearbest with the coupon code 608ABSlaxin (choose China warehouse).
The second toy we have a look at today is a really cool looking fidget cube. The toy comes in a black and green color incorporation and it’s made of ABS as well.
The fidget cube features six various stress relievers, we have a face with 5 switches that sound differently, a rocker, a light switch, a smooth ball, a gamepad-like stick and a rotating plate.
You can get the fidget cube for just $0.99 over at Gearbest using the coupon code ABSlaxin.
It seems that Xiaomi plans to unveil soon another Mijia platform product – one however that will be really larger than usual. Rumor has it that it will be a huge, 120 inch projector aimed at companies especially.
The leaked information comes from well known analyst Sun Changxu, and it includes an image, that shows online gaming content projected on a huge “image” on the wall, with extremely wide span. If the rumors turn out to be true then Xiaomi will enter a new market, providing a very competitive alternative to other rivals. If there’s indeed a launch of this Xiaomi projector then it will be priced at a really affordable price, while providing high-spec components and features.
As always, there’s no official confirmation on this leak, so we’d better take it with a pinch of salt and wait for something more solid.
Better known as the Zenfone 3 Zoom, the Asus Zenfone Zoom S is scheduled to launch in certain European markets starting July 7. The impressive smartphone (that focuses on its imaging specifications) will be available initially in the Netherlands in black color and a suggested price of approximately 469€.
In case you’ve missed this specific model, you should take into account that it was officially launched during the first months of this year in the US, and was available in several Asian markets under the name Zenfone Zoom S. It’s dual camera is one of the most interesting features on this device: it comes with two 12MP cameras – a wide 25mm f/1.7 one and another 59mm f/2.8 unit – suitable for impressive zoom in functions – that basically give it its name.
The device also features a 13MP front facing selfie camera, a 5,5 inch full HD (1080p) AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 625 SoC, 4GB of RAM and a massive 5000 mAh battery.
This is huge guys, anyway you look at it! The Korean company unveiled today their massive display, equipped with impressive technical features that will… surely impress us
This new OLED display from LG is the world’s first flexible, transparent panel, with a size of 77 inches! This means that if we were to measure its height, with the display placed horizontally then it would reach around 170 centimeters (5 feet 7 inches). The new, impressive mammoth display has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and it will be used mainly in clothing stores, ad agencies etc.
Ulefone are being quite active lately and after releasing the dual camera phone Ulefone Gemini Pro, they are already working on their next big hit, the Ulefone T1 which will come with some real interesting hardware; let’s check it out!
Ulefone have just revealed that they’re working on a new device, currently named Ulefone T1, which will be featuring Global 4G LTE connectivity with support of up to 25 frequency bands and 5 telecom types. Meaning it’ll cover all major carriers in Asia, Europe and America, The covered bands will
be: (B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B17/B19/B20) for FDD-LTE and (B38/B39/B40/B41) for TDD-LTE. Additionally the Ulefone T1 will work on LTE CAT6 as well, so you should get a fast and stable connectivity in pretty much any situation. But Ulefone’s surprises don’t end there, indeed the upcoming Ulefone T1 will be featuring the latest MediaTek Helio P25 SoC clocked at 2.6GHz for high performance and power efficiency, paired up with a whopping 6GB of high-speed LPDDR4 RAM. From what we know until now, the Ulefone T1 looks like a really promising device, with a potentially fast connectivity, user experience and a good battery life. What do you guys think about it? Let us know in the comments below!
According to recent rumors, Xiaomi is already preparing for the mass production of their second in-house chipset, Surge S2. The device is the successor to the first S1 Surge SoC that has finally reached this stage after almost two years of development.
For those of you who don’t remember, the Surge S1 was manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), built on the 28nm manufacturing process.
It seems now that the time is right for the company to begin the mass production of Surge S2 chips, with rumors insisting that this will happen durin the 3rd quarter of the year. It packs an octa-core processor that feature four Cortex A53 cores running at 2.2 GHz and another four Cortex A53 cores working at 1.4 GHz, along with a Mali-T860 MP4 GPU. The specific chipset supports Cat. 4 LTE modem, LPDDR3 RAM and eMMC 5.0 storage.
The Surge S2 SoC will be built on the 16nm architecture and it could be used in the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 6c and Mi 6s models, scheduled to launch by the end of this year.
So here’s what we (thought) we knew about the dual camera system of the newly unveiled OnePlus 5. It packs a 16-megapixel IMX398 main sensor with f/1.7 lens and a 20-megapixel IMX350 sensor with f/2.6 telephoto lens, and the latter takes care of the extra zooming function just as other dual camera phones do, like the iPhone 7 Plus for example.
The official page of the OnePlus 5 claims that the device offers 2.0x “lossless” zoom, but words can be deceiving as you will surely find out. According to Carl Pei (OnePlus Co-founder) the real optical zoom is 1.6x, and the rest is taken care of a special software called “SmartCapture Multiframe Technology” .
However this isn’t the only disappointment regarding the phone’s dual camera system. Yesterday PhoneArena informed us that the phones EIS during 4K video recording is poor, almost disappointing but we also got news recently that the device uses the exact same display panel as its predecessor, OnePlus 3T.
AllCall Rio is a new budget piece from the fledgling chinese manufacturer and with its 3D curved screen and pretty appealing design it can surely turn some heads. And the makers are even confident it can stand up to way pricier models like Vivo X9 in terms of the screen quality.
Even though the Rio is featuring only HD resolution screen, it carries an 5-inch IPS Sharp made display with viewing angle up to 178 degrees and NTSC wide color gamut up to 80 %. In the following pictures you can check the comparison with the Vivo X9 both in color temperature and screen legibility in sunlight.
AllCall Rio is an extremely affordable phone, because it got released with a rock bottom price of $54.99 for a limited stock of 999 pieces. The sale will last until June 26th and you can also try your luck in a giveaway on facebook.
According to today’s information leak Bluboo will be joining the club of makers planning to release their 18:9 aspect ratio model soon. They expressed the desire to make the Bluboo S8 phone a high-end one with improved specs, so this one is most probably also going to get a slightly higher price tag than we are used to from the other Bluboo products in the past.
From the pictures it’s quite clear once again that the model will be a full-display one and heaving influenced by the design of the Samsung S8. New Bluboo S8 should be featuring Sharp 5,7-inch display with 1440×720 pixel resolution and aforementioned 18:9 aspect ratio, Mediatek flagship chipset Helio X30, 4GB/6GB RAM, 64GB/128GB ROM and dual rear Sony cameras with dual LED flash.
Seems like they are already pretty deep in the testing phase and the phone is expected to be launched by the end of July. Bluboo already have another full-display model Bluboo S1 in the Global Reserve and currently holding an activity enabling people getting up to 2000 free sample pieces.
VKworld has released images of its new Mix+ phone while also claiming that the handset also boasts the world’s thinnest bezels.
We’ve seen plenty of smartphones with thin bezels, so many that it has become very tricky to know which phone has the slimmest bezels in town, but if we’re to listen to VKworld then its new Mix+ is the most slender of them all! VKworld is claiming that it’s soon to launch smartphone, the VKwold Mix+, is designed with 0.8mm screen bezels which the phone maker tells us are the thinnest of any Android smartphone we have seen to date. The phone’s design means that 88% of the face is made up of the 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 4 screen, what’s more, the screen is an On-cell IPS panel with HDR screen technology for crisp visuals while on the go even in bright sunlight.
It’s early days yet, but it also appears the phone will have a simple single rear camera with dual LED flash, and fingerprint scanner. The phone comes in 2 colours, either gun metal grey or sapphire blue with a glass finish so that you can use the body as a mirror. Keep tuned for more details about the Mix+ as we hope to have more information and pricing very soon.
We already showed you alleged press images of the Moto G5S Plus during the past few days, but this new render affirms the dual-camera setup on the back. As you can see for yourselves it will be in a circular module with a dual-LED flash.
The leak comes that appeared earlier and gives us a new look at the Moto G5S Plus, confirming basically that it will also be available in gold colored front panel. The leak also suggests that the battery will be 3,068 mAh, which is basically the same as the G5 Plus 3000 mAh power cell.
the Moto G5S Plus could cost between INR18,999 ($293) and INR 19,999 ($310).
It appears that Ulefone are going to honor their promise and will be releasing the much wanted Android Nougat OTA update for the Ulefone Gemini. The update will become available in the following days so make sure not to miss the notification. A good present from Ulefone to their customers just as summer begins!
For those who aren’t fully aware of the Ulefone Gemini, the handset has been launched back in February and its main selling point is the dual camera setup on the back with a main 13MP and secondary 5MP shooter. The Gemini comes in a full metal body and is powered by a MediaTek 6737T CPU clocked at 1.5GHz, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. There’s also a front-facing fingerprint scanner, a gyroscope and a 3250mAh capacity battery. The Android 7.0 Nougat update is going to bring a smoother UX, lower power consumption, camera optimizations and the handy spit screen feature that allows you to use two apps simultaneously.
At the time of writing, the Ulefone Gemini can be purchased for just $116.99 on websites like AliExpress, including $30 worth of accessories. Instead, the more powerful Ulefone Gemini Pro boasting a deca-core CPU, will be available on AliExpress Tech Discovery at the discounted price of $239.99 with a $40 bag of accessories.
