Weekly Wrap-Up #2 : Xiaomi Mi 5, Le Max Pro, Vibe K4 Note, Redmi 3, OPPO F1, Mate 8, Zenfone Max & More…

This week we have seen few big announcements at the CES 2016 held in along with few domestic launches from the local and Chinese brands. Though we all have expected the international launch of the Galaxy A9, Samsung indeed launched the Windows 10 powered Galaxy Tab Pro S tablet. On the other hand, ZTE is rumored to unveil its flagship Nubia Z11 smartphone and apart from a couple of entry-level smartphones, the company has mentioned any details about the other devices. It had announced the widespread its reach by making their devices available through Nubia.com and local stores.

Coming to the major announcements, LeTV has shown their high-end Le Max Pro smartphone, this is the first ever smartphone announced with Snapdragon 820 processor. In terms of availability, Xiaomi Mi 5 might be the first smartphone to be launched, according to one of the company official, the device powered by Snapdragon 820 will be launched by the end of next month. The company also confirmed to launch the Xiaomi Mi 5 by the end of February. Special Edition Huawei Nexus 6P in Gold color that was earlier launched in Japan, China, and India is now made available in the U.S.

Launched in September 2015, Nextbit Robin had received huge popularity because of its unique cloud-first features. After the successful Kickstarter campaign, the devices are now getting ready to be shipped for the backers starting from February 16 and for the first 1,00,000 backers, the devices will be shipped on the same date. While the debutant Nextbin is making its presence felt at the global stage, we will be soon missing one of the pioneers in the mobile phone industry.

After acquiring the Motorola in 2014, Lenovo had kept it as a separate brand even though the parent company is also into the same industry. According to the Motorola’s COO, Rick Osterloh, the company will be more focusing on Moto than Motorola, which make the Moto devices that will launch in the future will sport a Lenovo branding instead of Motorola. Another Chinese company Huawei has internationally announced the Mate 8 at the CES 2016. The company also mentioned that more than one million handsets are sold in just one month after the launch in China.

After announcing the Asus Zenfone Max at the Zen festival held in New Delhi last year, the device is now available for pre-orders via Amazon and Flipkart and is priced at Rs. 9,999. The USP of the device is its 5,000mAh battery that is rated to deliver 38 hours of talk time and lasts upto 914 hours on standby time. Apart from the battery, it sports decent specifications like an HD display, Snapdragon 410 Soc, and a 13MP camera.

Xiaomi Redmi 3, the successor for the most popular entry-level smartphone Redmi 2 is all set to launch on January 12th. Unlike the earlier Redmi devices, the Redmi 3 comes with a metal body and a mid-range specifications. It is confirmed to sport a 4,100mAh battery and to be powered by the Snapdragon 616 octa-core processor. The device also sports a slightly larger 5-inch display instead of the 4.7-inch display on the earlier Redmi devices.

Lenovo has launched two new devices this week; the Vibe K4 Note is exclusive for the Indian market while the second device is the Vibe S1 Lite. The Vibe K4 Note is the same Vibe X3 Lite that was launched in China. It is priced at Rs. 11,999 and sports a 1080p display, 3GB RAM, 13MP rear camera along with dual front-facing stereo speakers and a fingerprint sensor.

On the other hand, the Vibe S1 Lite is trimmed down version of Vibe S1, which the world’s first smartphone to feature dual front cameras. The Vibe S1 Lite is limited to a single 8MP front camera but comes with an LED flash. The S1 Lite also packs a slightly larger 2,700mAh battery and runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop with Vibe UI overlaid.

OPPO has announced to unveil new F-series smartphones that come with affordable pricing but with premium looking design and great camera quality. The first device to launch under this new series is called as OPPO F1 which we exclusively reported to be the same OPPO A53 that was already available in China.

It features a 5.5-inch HD Display and is powered by Snapdragon 616 octa-core processor. There is 2GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, and a 3,075mAh battery. The metal build device sports a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera. It measures 7.43 mm thickness and is priced at 1,799 Yuan (approx $277 / Rs. 18,400) in China.

• iPhone 7 & iPhone 7 Plus (Rumored Specs & Features)

The iPhone 7 & 7 plus will be launched in the second half of 2016 and now we got some information about both the device. According to the suppliers in China, the device will continue to sport same screen sizes as on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. It is also said to sport a whopping 256GB of internal storage while only 128GB is the highest available storage on any iPhone launched till date. Recently Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe Special Edition came with 256GB of internal storage along with a MicroSD card slot support.

The larger iPhone 7 Plus will sport a 3,100mAh battery which is 12.7% bigger than the iPhone 6 Plus. There are few other rumors suggesting the company to ditch the 3.5mm audio port in favor of making the device slimmer. Instead of the normal wired EarPods, Apple will include the Bluetooth EarPods along with an adapter to use the normal 3.5mm headset through the lightning port. As per the company’s pricing, the iPhone 7 Plus with 256GB storage will be priced around $1149 since the higher storage variant of any iPhone will be $100 higher than its previous edition.

• Elephone P9000 Edge

A new variant of Elephone P9000 has been announced with flagship specifications and affordable price tag. The device is priced at $330, and the pre-orders are already started while the launch date is mentioned as January 30th. It features a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display and is powered by MediaTek Helio P10 octa-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz.

This might also be first MediaTek powered smartphone to run on Android 63.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box. There is 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage along with a MicroSD card slot. On the camera part, it has a 20.7MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash and an 8MP front camera for selfies. It is backed by a 3,000mAh battery, and the removable back cover comes with a matte finish that offers nice grip to hold on.

• BlackView BV5000

Blackview has unveiled their new rugged smartphone called Blacview BV5000 in the Philippines. Like any other rugged device, the BV5000 is also water, dust, and shock resistant. Apart from these features, it also includes a massive 5,000mAh battery that give days-long battery life. It sports a 5-inch HD IPS display and is powered by a MediaTek MT6735P quad-core processor. There is 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage along with a MicroSD card support.

In the camera department, it features an 8MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front camera. The dual SIM device comes with 4G LTE support and runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop. There is no information about the pricing and availability of the device. It is said to be available in Violet Black, Camouflage, Sunny Orange colors.

• Karbonn K9 Smart

Though there aren’t many device launches from Indian smartphone manufacturers, Karbonn has launched a new ultra-low cost smartphone priced at just Rs. 3,990. It comes with 21 regional languages support for typing and 12 language support for navigating the device. It features basic specifications, and even we can’t expect more than that considering its price tag.

The 5-inch device is powered by an unknown 1.2GHz quad-core processor coupled with 512MB of RAM and 8GB of built-in storage. There is a 3.2MP rear camera with LED flash and a VGA front camera. It is backed by a 2,300mAh battery which is good enough for giving a day long battery life. The dual SIM device doesn’t support 4G LTE but offers other basic connectivity features.

• Micromax Canvas TAB P70221

A new budget friendly tablet from Micromax has been listed on the company’s website. The 7-inch TFT display comes with WSVGA (1024 x 600) resolution that can be good enough for viewing multimedia content. The tablet is expected to be priced around Rs. 6,000 price range since it comes with entry-level specifications. It runs on the outdated Android 4.4 KitKat while almost all the recently launched devices came at least with Android 5.1 Lollipop.

Under the hood is the 1.3GHz dual-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. It has a 2MP camera on rear and front of the device while the rear camera is assisted by an LED flash. The device backed by a 3,200mAh battery that is rated to deliver 11.5 hours of talk time and lasts up to 158 hours on standby. Connectivity on this device includes 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and a MicroUSB 2.0 port.

• Smartphone related Gadgets at CES 2016

While there are many products showcased at the CES 2016, we have picked the best three products that bring more productivity out of the smartphones. The Withings Go is the latest fitness tracker with an E-ink display that can drastically increase the battery life when compared to normal LED/LCD displays. By connecting the Go fitness tracker with the dedicated Health a, you can get all the track all your previous activities and set goals for future workouts.

The same company also unveiled the Wi-Fi connected Thermometer called Withings Thermo. With the hot spot sensor inside it, the Thermo can measure the temperature of the temporal artery. It gives pretty accurate results by taking 4,000 measurements in just two seconds. There is also a specific app for Android & iOS devices to track all your data. Unlike the Withings Thermo, the Infanttech Smarttemp Wireless Bluetooth Smart Thermometer can send the body temperature of the children’s wirelessly to their parents smartphone via Bluetooth. You will also get notified once the children temperature crosses the set limit.

(Get the complete details around the recently held CES 2016)