Weekly Roundup: Nokia 6 (2018), OnePlus 5T Sandstone White, Honor View 10 and more

This week HMD Global introduced the most expected Nokia 6 (2018) smartphone, OnePlus introduced Sandstone White edition of 5T, Honor launched the View 10 smartphone, Samsung launched the Galaxy Tab A 7.0 tablet, and more that happened this week in our weekly roundup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J541tEI3-0 HMD Global this week announced  Nokia 6 (2018), the company’s latest mid-range smartphone and the successor of last year’s Nokia 6, smartphone in China, as expected. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, is powered by Snapdragon 630 Mobile platform, runs on Android 7.1.1 (Nougat), which is upgradable to Android 8.0 (Oreo), has a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, and a 8-megapixel front-facing camera. It  a unibody design with 6000 series aluminium chassis created using two-color anodization process and diamond cutting technology and  packs a 3000mAh battery with support for fast charging that can charge the phone up to 50% in 30 minutes. It comes in Black and Silver colors, is priced at 1499 yuan (US$ 230 approx. / Rs. 14,655 approx.) for the 32GB storage version and the 64GB storage version costs 1699 yuan (US$ 262 approx. / Rs. 16,610 approx.). It goes on sale from January 10th in China. OnePlus announced  OnePlus 5T Sandstone White ...

Honor Band A2 with OLED display, continuous heart rate tracking launched in India for Rs. 2799

Huawei’s Honor brand  launched Honor Band A2 in India. It was introduced in China back in May last year, has a 0.96-inch OLED touch display and heart rate sensor with continuous heart rate tracking during fitness activities. In addition to fitness, it also has sleep tracking that offers suggestions based on the sleep data to help improve their sleep quality. It also notifies the users of incoming calls and messages when connected to to your phone over Bluetooth. It has sweat and water-resistance and promises with up to 9 days of battery life. Honor Band A2 specifications 0.96-inch OLED touch display Bluetooth 4.2, Compatible with Android 4.4 and iOS 8.0 or above Pedometer, Sleep tracker, Exercise tracker, Sedentary reminder Call and Message notification, Incoming call mute function Water and dust resistant (IP67) 95mAh battery with up to 9 days of battery life and 18 days standby The Honor Band A2 comes in Black color, is priced at Rs. 2799 and will be available exclusively from Amazon.in starting from January 8th. Commenting on the launch, P Sanjeev, Vice President, Sales, Huawei Consumer Business Group, said: The Honor Band A2 is the best in category wearable gadget with smart health and notification features. It is more than just a simple fitness band that not only helps you live a healthy lifestyle but also stay updated ...

Reliance Jio packs revised – 1GB per day 28-day pack now at Rs. 149

Reliance Jio launched Happy New Year 2018 plans with 28 days validity  for Rs. 199 and Rs. 299 with 1.2GB per day and 2GB per day data, respectively. Now the company has revised the packs that lets you enjoy 1GB data per day  at Rs. 149 and Rs. 198 pack  offers 1.5GB data per day with the same 28-days validity. All the old long-validity plans are back to previous rates after Rs. 50 discount. Rs. 349, Rs. 399 and Rs. 449 packs offer 70GB, 84GB and 91GB data with 70 days, 84 days and 91 days validity, respectively offering 1GB data per day. The Rs. 398, Rs. 448 and Rs. 498 packs now offer 105GB, 126GB and 136GB data with 70 days, 84 days and 91 days validity, respectively offering 1.5GB data per day. These plans will be available starting from Tuesday, 9th January, 2018. Jio recently launched new surprise cashback offer that offers 100% cashback that offers Rs. 400 worth vouchers on recharge of Rs. 399 or more as well as cashback up to Rs. 300 from its wallet partners and vouchers of up to Rs. 2600 on every recharge till January 15th.

Meizu M6s with full-screen display surfaces on certification site ahead of January 17 announcement

This week Meizu confirmed that it will introduce the M6s smartphone on January 17th, which will be called Meizu S6 in China. Today images of the smartphone has been revealed by TENAA that shows the phone's 18:9 aspect ratio screen with minimal bezels. It also shows side-mounted fingerprint sensor on the right side, just below the power button. It also reveals unibody metal design with antenna lines running on the top and the bottom parts of the back. On the back is mblu branding along with the Meizu branding. The phone is said to be powered by upcoming Hexa-Core Samsung Exynos 7872 SoC with Mali-G71 GPU. Meizu M6s rumored specifications 5.7-inch (1440 × 720 pixels) HD+ 18:9 2.5D curved glass display Hexa-Core Samsung Exynos 7872 14nm processor with Mali-G71 GPU 4GB RAM with 64GB storage, 3GB RAM with 32GB storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD Android 7.0 (Nougat) with FlyMe OS 6.0 Dual SIM Fingerprint sensor Dimensions: 152 × 72.54 × 8mm 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS 2930mAh battery The Meizu M6s is expected to come in a range of colors. We should know more details when the phone gets certified and will know the price when it goes official ...

Micromax Bharat 5 Plus with 5.2-inch display, 5000mAh battery launching soon

Micromax has started teasing the Bharat 5 Plus, the company's upcoming smartphone on its social channels and has also listed the phone on its site. It packs a 5.2-inch HD screen, is powered by quad-core MediaTek processor and packs a 5000mAh battery with up to 21 days standby and also allows the phone to charge other devices using OTG cable. [HTML1] It has a 5-megapixel front camera and comes with 4G VoLTE support. All these specifications are similar to the Bharat 5 that was launched last month, but this comes has 2GB of RAM and comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera. Micromax Bharat 5 Plus specifications 5.2-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek processor 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 64GB with microSD Android 7.1 (Nougat) Dual SIM 8MP rear camera with LED Flash 5MP front-facing camera with 83.3-degree wide-angle lens 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS 5000mAh battery The Micromax Bharat 5 Plus comes in Black color. It is expected to launch in coming days, so we should know the price soon.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Android 8.0 Oreo update rolling out to some units

Samsung is currently beta testing the Oreo build for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and the stable update is due for later this month, and now when no one was expecting, a Note8 Exynos variant has randomly got the Oreo update according to a Samsung retail store employee. It is very unusual since the company never expanded the Oreo build to Note8. The Reddit user claims that it is the device customers can 'touch and experience' indicating that it is a display piece at a Samsung store. The screenshots posted by him shows the build number as N950FXXU2CRA1.DM with Galaxy Experience 9.0. Since it is not a beta firmware, it must be an internal test build of Oreo for the Galaxy Note 8. The update also brings January 2018 security patch and other Oreo OS based improvements and features. It doesn't look like it is a soak test either, as it is not Samsung's style to release major firmware updates to a few people ahead of a public release just for testing. The Reddit user further mentioned that he would be able to provide further information on the update only tomorrow when he goes back to work. Either way, it is good news for the ...

Airtel broadband customers get 5GB free monthly data on their postpaid connection

Airtel is already offering additional data for its broadband users for every Airtel postpaid or DTH connection as a part of myHome rewards program. It started with 5GB per connection, later it increased it to 10GB. Now it is offering its broadband customers 5GB additional mobile data every month on their Airtel Postpaid connection in your home.  This can be availed through myAirtel app for those who have bundled their postpaid and broadband connection on myHome. Airtel said that the offer is only valid for specific Broadband and Postpaid plans in every telecom circle. All plans with the Broadband Data Rollover is eligible for this offer as well, but the  5GB free mobile data will not be part of Postpaid Data Rollover. One of our readers pointed out that the offer is available on broadband plans of Rs. 1099 or above, but this might vary depending on the circle. To claim the offer you need to: Install My Airtel app for Android or iOS Enter your postpaid number and verify the OTP your receive On the App’s HomePage click the Get 5GB free mobile data banner on the top go to myHome tab on home page and follow the step to claim your Free monthly Data If you ...

Xiaomi might bring Split Screen to Marshmallow devices

Split screen was one of the major features that Google announced with android Nougat back in 2016, but some smartphones launched in late 2016 and early 2017 didn’t get the Nougat update. Xiaomi rolled out the Nougat update to Mi 5, Mi Max, Redmi Note 4 and Redmi 4 devices in second half of 2017 but core Nougat features like Split Screen and Quick Switch were not available (to Stable ROM users) until the announcement of MIUI 9 back in November. Redmi Note 3, Redmi 3S/Prime/Plus, Redmi 4/Prime (Chinese variant) are the Xiaomi devices launched in 2016 which are running on Marshmallow and despite being a capable hardware, users of these devices are not able to enjoy features like Split Screen and Quick Switch. Now, it seems that Xiaomi is working to enable Split Screen feature for these devices, a post from MIUI China Forum admin says: ‘分屏团队的工程师目前已在积极适配基于 Android 6.x 的机型，预计在1月初上线到6.x体验版机型进行测试，待测试完成后，就会上线到开发版及后续稳定版中。’ ‘Split screen team engineers are currently actively adapted based on Android 6.x models, is expected to go online in early January to 6.x trial version of the model to be tested until the test is completed, it will go online to the development version And follow-up stable version.’ The post was originally published ...

Apple App Store hit record $300 million sales on New Year’s Day

Apple just announced that apps and games were the bigger part of the holiday season in 2017 as the App Store has hit a record $300 million in purchases on New Year’s Day 2018. During the week of Christmas, a record number of iOS users made purchases from the App Store spending over $890 million in the seven-day period. Among all the games, Pokemon Go claimed back the top spot on December 21st, thanks to the introduction of new augmented reality  AR+ features built on Apple’s ARKit. The Apple App Store currently has over 2000 AR based apps widespread in various categories. The most popular AR titles in the games section include CSR Racing 2, Stack AR and Kings of Pool and in shopping category apps like Amazon and Wayfair topped. In the education apps including Night Sky and Thomas & Friends Minis; and social media apps including Pitu and Snapchat. The company says that the newly designed App Store introduced in the iOS 11 is making it easy for users to discover more apps and games. iOS developers since the time the App Store launched in July 2008, have earned over $86 billion. Commenting on the same, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing said: We are thrilled ...

10.or D Review

10.or (pronounced Tenor) made its debut in India with the 10.or E smartphone last year, and it launched  it launched the 10.or G later. Last month it launched its most affordable 10.or D smartphone as a part of "Crafted for Amazon" programme. Similar to the first two smartphones, the 10.or D too has impressive specifications on paper for the price. Did it live up to our expectations? Let us dive into the review to find out. Unboxing We recently unboxed the phone, check out the video below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xSiRNzuztM Box Contents 10.or D in Beyond Black color 2-pin charger (5V-2A) micro USB cable SIM ejector tool Quick start guide Display, Hardware and Design The 10.or D has a 5.2-inch screen with a resolution of 1280 by 720 and a pixel density of about 282 ppi (pixels per inch). It has 400 nits brightness so the display is bright, colors are vibrant, viewing angles and the sunlight legibility are good as well. It has bezels, above and below the screen. The company doesn't say if it has used any kind of hardened glass for protection. There is an earpiece above the display. It has a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture. There is also a tiny notification LED next to the camera. It has proximity sensor, but lacks ambient light sensor for auto brightness so you have ...