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!
