Weekly Wrap-Up #10 : Vivo V3 Max, Galaxy J3, Xiaomi Mi 5, Smartron tbook, Canvas Spark 3 & More…

The latest wrap-up covering all the announcements and updates from the mobile industry is here. This week we got some information about the upcoming devices from two new Indian brands Creo and Smartron.  Apart from this, we have seen few device launches and a couple of devices receiving the Marshmallow updates.

• Motorola Moto G (3rd Gen) devices in received the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow update. In January, the company has updated the device from Lollipop to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The updates also include the security patch updates for the month of March. The Changelog remains same as seen on the Moto X Play that had received the same update a couple of weeks back. The OS with version 24.61.55 comes in a size of 371.4MB and users can updates their device by going to Settings > About Phone > System Updates.

• HTC is rumored to launch the Snapdragon 652 powered HTC 10 alongside the Snapdragon 820 variant. The design and specifications remain same on both the variants except the storage capacity and RAM. The SD652 variant comes with 3GB of RAM and just 16GB of internal storage. The SD820 backed variant includes 3GB RAM + 32GB storage and 4GB RAM +128GB storage. It runs on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out-of-the-box with Sense UI 8.0 laid on top. The device will be officially unveiled on April 12th in London, New York, and Taipei.

• OPPO will be launching their high-end smartphone OPPO F1 Plus in India on April 5th. It was announced earlier at the OPPO F1 launch in January. As seen with the teased images, we expect the recently launched OPPO R9 will be launched in India and Indonesia as OPPO F1 Plus. The metal build device comes with a 13MP rear camera and a 16MP selfie camera on the front. It also has a 5.5-inch 1080p display, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of built-in storage. The F1 Plus will be priced at Rs. 26,990 in India.

•  Along with OPPO, another Chinese brand Vivo will also unveil their two new smartphones on April 5th. As we exclusively covered, Vivo V3 and V3Max are two new devices that will be launched in the next couple of days. Both the devices come with an all metal body featuring a 360-degree fingerprint sensor on the rear. The V3 will include 3GB RAM and 16GB storage while the V3 Max comes with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage. The devices come with a 13MP PDAF rear camera and dual chip fast charging that is said to give  two hours of music playback with just five minutes of charging

• Recently the Snapdragon 652 powered LG G5 listing was spotted on TENAA confirming the earlier rumors. The device will have the model number LG H848 will be launched as the replacement for LG G5 in Latin American countries. As seen with the HTC 10, the LG G5 Lite comes with same specifications but with just 3GB of RAM instead of 4GB. On April 1st, the Snapdragon 820 powered LG G5 was made available in most of the countries. But there is no information about the Indian launch date.

• Smartron tbook & tphone

Smartron is an Indian brand that had unveiled their first ever product called ‘Smartron tbook.’ It is a 2-in-1 tablet running on Windows 10 OS and looks more like a Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Apart from this, the company will be launching their first ever smartphone ‘Smartron tphone’ on Aril 18th in Hyderabad. Talking about the tablet, it comes with a Magnesium + Aluminum build body with a kickstand on the back. The tablet is priced at Rs. 39,999 and comes with unlimited cloud storage.

It features aa 12.2-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600 pixels) resolution display. The tbook is powered by a 64-bit Intel Core M processors clocked at 2GHz. There is 4GB of RAM & 128GB of SSD storage along with a MicroSD card slot for storage expansion. It also includes two USB 3.0 ports, one Micro-HDMI, and one Type C with USB 3.0 for charging. The tablet comes with two 1W stereo speakers and dual microphones for noise cancellation. The sale of the tbook starts from April 8th and will be exclusively available on Gadgets 360.

• Xiaomi Mi 5 – Rs. 24,999

Xiaomi Mi 5 is the only high-end that was launched in India in the month of March. It is also first Snapdragon 820 powered device to be made available in the Indian market, the Indian variants of the Samsung Galaxy S7 & Galaxy S7 Edge are powered by the Exynos 8890 processors. It features a 5.15-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display and packs Snapdragon 820 SoC along with Adreno 530 GPU. As of now only the 3GB RAM variant with 32GB of built-in storage will be available in India. It runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with latest MIUI 7 overlaid.

The device packs a 16MP rear camera with PDAF and 4-axis OIS that can record videos at 4K resolution. On the front is a 4MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture for capturing better selfies even in low-light conditions. It is backed by a 3,000mAh and supports Quick Charge 3.0 for faster charging speeds. The physical home button below the display also houses the fingerprint sensor. Connectivity options include 4G LTE with VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, GPS/A-GPS, and a USB Type-C Port. Though the device is priced at Rs. 24,999 we have added in the premium smartphone list because of its top class specs and high-end build quality.

• Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016)

Samsung launched its latest affordable smartphone Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) in India this week. The device comes with a unique feature called as S Bike Mode and is this might also be the most affordable smartphone with NFC. Once the S Bike is activated, the incoming calls will be answered by a pre-recorded audio while only the emergency calls can be altered by pressing 1. While the device is already launched in the U.S, there is S Bike mode on those devices.

It comes with a 5-inch HD (1280 x 720) Super AMOLED display and is powered by Spreadtrum SC7731 quad-core processor along with 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage. Coming to the camera side, it has an 8MP rear camera with LED flash and 5MP selfie camera. The device is kept powered on by a 2,600mAh battery. It supports dual SIM dual standby and runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. It is priced at Rs. 8,990 and is available to purchase exclusively from Snapdeal.

Gionee S8 – 2599 Yuan (Rs.26,700)

As we exclusively covered earlier, Gionee has officially launched their flagship launch of Gionee Elife S8 and also the high-end clamshell device Gionee W909 in China. The company has offered the pressure sensitive display that works almost same as 3D Touch on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Even the Quick Menu options also work fine but as of now are limited to just system apps. The S8 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the latest Amigo 3.2 UI overlaid.

It features a 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) AMOLED display and is powered by the Helio P10 octa-core processor. The device includes 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. On the camera front, it sports a 16MP rear camera with PDAF & laser autofocus and an 8MP Selfie camera on the front. The device is backed by a 3,000mAh battery that can easily give at least a single day of mixed usage. It is equipped with a fingerprint sensor that comes integrated into the physical home button the front.

• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro – 899 Yuan (Rs. 9,250)

Few months back, Xiaomi had launched the metallic build Redmi 3 as the successor for the Redmi 2 in China. Now a new variant of Redmi 3 called as Redmi 3 Pro with added fingerprint sensor is made official. It sports a 5-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels)IPS display and is powered by the Snapdragon 616 octa-core processor. There is 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage along with a MicroSD card slot. The device runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop with the latest MIUI 7 overlaid. It supports dual SIM dual standby with the hybrid SIM card slot that can be used for expanding the storage.

It has a 13MP rear camera with  PDAF and f/2.0 aperture that can record videos in Full HD resolution. For selfie lovers, it features a 5MP front camera with beauty mode and live filters. The device is kept powered on by the massive 4,100mAh battery that can easily last more than of usage. Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, GPS/A-GPS, Bluetooth, and MicroUSB 2.0 port. While the non-fingerprint variant is priced at 699 Yuan, the new fingerprint variant comes with a price tag 899 Yuan.

• Micromax Canvas Spark 3 (Q385)

Micromax launched the Canvas Spark 3 with a large 5.5-inch display and is priced only Rs. 4,999. It is the successor for the Canvas Spark 2 that was launched last year. The Spark 3 will be sold exclusively through Snapdeal and the registrations for the first flash sale on April 7th had already begun. Though the device lacks the 4G LTE connectivity, it can be still recommended for those who use their smartphone for accessing multimedia content.

The 5.5-inch display on this device comes with HD (1280 x 720) pixels resolution and Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top. It is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. There is also a MicroSD card slot for storage expansion. The device supports dual SIM dual standby and offers 3G HSPA along with other basic connectivity features. It includes an 8MP rear camera, a 5MP front camera, and 2,500mAh battery.