Author: chris eilers

Gionee is a company usually well known for their great battery smartphones (which pack huge batts, in other words). And lately, another handset like that called Gionee Marathon M5 Plus has been spotted on TENAA…

Gionee Marathon M5 Plus: A fantastic 6-inch phablet with HUGE battery

Yes, not long ago, a TENAA post revealed a new model made by Gionee. It belongs to the Marathon line which is famous for handsets equipped with very big batteries (usually more than 4,000mAh). The phone’s name is Gionee Marathon M5 Plus and the design has some changes if compared to the original Gionee Marathon M5. Specifically, there are a physical home button on the front and a big rear camera placed in the middle at the top of the machine.

Spec-wise, Gionee Marathon M5 Plus will feature a 6-inch AMOLED Full HD screen (which is larger than the M5), 3GB of RAM and a MediaTek octa-core SoC chip (but the model is still unknown). Other Gionee Marathon M5 Plus specs contain a combo of a 13MP main and a 5MP secondary camera. Though the Plus is bigger in size, it sports a 5,020mAh cell which is smaller than the M5’s 6020mAh one.

Nonetheless, that is still an impressive number, right?! And it is also enough to make Gionee Marathon M5 Plus outstanding among many phablets on the market now. Besides, we would like to praise it for the thickness. Despite boasting such a huge battery, the device is kind of slim at 8.2 mm.

Gionee Marathon M5 Plus price and availability

You might see HTC One X9 in some leaked photos a few days ago. But now, you will even see it more clearly with all angles through many images having been released lately…

HTC One X9 images show an attractive design…

According to some news sources, HTC One X9 will be introduced in early 2016 with some changes in design. Specifically, the logo HTC on the bottom of the phone’s front surface will be removed. Looking at the pictures, we guess that the company just simply moved it to the top to make HTC One X9 a bit newer. Besides, we notice two BoomSound speakers are also on board to bring you better sound quality.

Spec-wise, it is said that HTC One X9 specs will include a 5.5″ Full HD screen, a MediaTek Helio X10 MT6795 processor, 2/3GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. Besides, the whole smartphone will probably be powered by a 3,000mAh battery which is quite big enough. As for camera, the main shooter is capable of 16 megapixels with OIS feature and the secondary one is 4 megapixels Ultrapixel.

However, please note that the company has not officially confirmed anything yet. So, we’d better take the above information with a pinch of salt. Though, if this belongs to a high-end range series of HTC, we hope the specification will be more fantastic. But, in case of being a mid-rangers, we would love to buy the X9 with a good price.

 HTC One X9 price and availability

At the moment, we have just been informed that the HTC One X9 launch can occur in the first quarter of 2016. Apart from it, no word has been made for its price tag. Nonetheless, we predict it will cost around $470 when going on sale. Well, what do you think about that? Share with us by commenting on Facebook or at the box below!

RAM (or Random Access Memory) is one of the most important components to run a smartphone. So how much RAM is enough for our handset to work smoothly? Maybe 6GB RAM?

Before discussing advantages and disadvantages 6GB RAM can bring us, we need to know what RAM is first. As we mentioned, it, together with CPU, GPU, and ROM, is the most essential part of a phone. If CPU processes instructions, GPU displays the information on your screen and ROM holds the apps and logic, RAM is the one that connects all of them together. In other words, everything running through the CPU will be loaded from the ROM and plopped into RAM. Then, if the RAM capacity is bigger, it’s gonna make things ready to be run or loaded much faster.

Finally, one of the most anticipated smartphones made by ASUS has been launched. It is ASUS ZenFone Zoom with an amazing rear camera and…

Powerful ASUS ZenFone Zoom specs: 4GB RAM, 128GB ROM and…

Recently, the ASUS ZenFone Zoom launch has occurred at a press conference held in Beijing, China. ASUS ZenFone Zoom specs are also shown clearly and fully. First, we are aware that there are 2 slightly different models: ZenFone Zoom ZX550 and Zoom ZX551ML. Spec-wise, the ZX550 features a 5.5-inch Full HD display, an Intel Atom Z3580 2.3GHz processor under the hood, 16/32/64/128GB ROM (expandable to 64GB), 2/4GB RAM, and a 3,000mAh battery.

As for the second version, some small differences are an Intel Atom Z3590 2.5GHz chip, 32/64/128GB ROM (expandable up to 128GB), and 4GB RAM. Besides, both variants have the same combo of a 13MP rear plus LED flash and a 5MP front camera. Furthermore, the main shooter is really special since it uses Japan’s HOYA optics and includes 3x optical zoom, 12x digital zoom, optical image stabilization, and laser focus. That is also why the phone is called Zoom!

So, no matter what version you choose, the ASUS ZenFone Zoom specs are powerful in general and the design is pretty unique with a big snapper on the back. Despite being announced in early 2015, it is until now that the company officially releases their device with detailed prices. Check out the next part to see how much it costs.

ASUS ZenFone Zoom Price and availability

The 64GB and 2.3GHz processor version is priced at 2,799 Yuan (equivalent to $433) while the 128GB and 2.5GHz processor one is priced at 3,199 Yuan (equivalent to $495) in China. Other information about the international availability as well as prices of ASUS ZenFone Zoom will be revealed later. Let’s wait and see!

(Source: gizmochina)

Let’s continue to discover what 4GB RAM smartphones are available or going to be available on the mobile market. Then, tell us which one is your favorite!

1. Shallots Metal

Shallots Metal specs include a big 6-inch 2K display, a Snapdragon 810 processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB ROM (expandable), a fingerprint sensor, and an impressive 5,100mAh battery. As for the camera, there are an 8MP front-facing and a 16MP rear-facing snapper with f/2.0, PDAF tech and capability of recording 4K videos. In general, we can see this is a very strong device able to threaten other famous flagships such as Note 5, iPhone 6S, Xperia Z5, etc.

Many latest Android smartphones belonging to both high-end and mid-range categories have come without microSD card slots. However, lots of people do not think it is a good choice because a microSD card…

1. … does not require Internet connection.

Nowadays, there is a trend that users upload their data to Cloud services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft SkyDrive to save more internal space of their phones. Nonetheless, keep in mind that all of them need internet access and you cannot always stay in ideal places with strong Wi-Fi to get your files downloaded or uploaded fast. But, microSD card is different; it does not requires stable Internet connection to work properly; it is accessible all the time and in all places.

This year OnePlus team has released 2 smartphones which are the flagship OnePlus 2 and the mid-ranger OnePlus X. And if you wonder what will be launched next year, maybe you need to check out the following one: OnePlus Mini.

OnePlus Mini – Tiny but mighty with SD 810, 4GB RAM and…

Yes, it can be one of the new products OnePlus is gonna bring us next year. At first, we predicted OnePlus Mini was likely to be a mid-range smartphone due to its name, but the hardware shown on GFXBench recently seems very strong with the appearance of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and huge RAM capacity, so we cannot tell exactly what category it belongs to.

Besides, we are also aware that the OnePlus Mini 2016 can sport a handy 4.6-inch Full HD display with 479 ppi which makes it a true smartphone. However, some people think that the screen size and resolution have not been so reasonable. Other OnePlus Mini specs contain 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage (perhaps expandable up to 128GB like OnePlus X). As for the camera, there will be a 13MP rear and a 5MP front-facing one.

Nonetheless, we were not able to spot any information about the OnePlus Mini battery as well as its operating system. Hopefully, the handset will be equipped with a 3,000mAh battery and Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. So, those are the main things about the upcoming machine of OP. What do you think about the Mini’s features?

OnePlus Mini price and availability

As it has been put on a benchmark page, we guess the OnePlus Mini release date may be in the first quarter of 2016. Though the company has not confirmed anything yet, we hope this will be an excellent model coming with an affordable price such as around $270. Then, we can get ourselves a good phone to use and OP can have a great year in terms of sale.

Nokia phones, are, no doubt the best and most loved among other competitors in our market. As 2016 is approaching to remark the comeback of Nokia legend, let’s take a look at the best Nokia camera phones we know so far

1. Nokia McLaren – 50MP Pureview

Nokia McLaren, or Nokia 1030 is definitely on top of our best Nokia camera phone list with amazing 50MP Pureview camera. Visually, the phone looks impressive with a big camera module placed proudly on the back, giving a sense of premium and signature from the Finnish legend. Nokia McLaren had actually been planned to be the successor of Lumia 1020 when Nokia was still under contract with Microsoft, but cancelled at last minute. We hope on their Nokia comeback, the legend will bring this phone to life.

Of course we all want our smartphones to last long with just a single charge. But, the fact is another thing. So, have you ever wondered why your handset runs out of energy fast? Here are the reasons which will surprise you! Check them out now!

1. Wi-Fi:

What’s wrong with the Wi-Fi? No, actually, what’s wrong with a smartphone whose Wi-Fi mode is turned on continually? The answer is that it is one of the main reasons why your smartphone’s battery is drained. Imagine that when your device is not connected to Wi-Fi, it endlessly searches for a Wi-Fi connection every 30 to 90 seconds, which means it’s gonna work for all day long and surely consume energy to “live”.

2. 4G Radio:

4G technology is a great invention, but you also have to be aware that it requires larger hardware and much more battery than Edge or 3G network. In addition, the way 4G radios work is similar to the Wi-Fi radio. It will non-stop scan for available networks whenever not connected. Well, so if you do not need 4G, turn it off to save more energy as well as protect your battery life.

3. Bluetooth:

Yes, sometimes you will have turn on the Bluetooth to transfer images, songs, etc. between 2 machines and then forget to disable it. This is when the phone’s Bluetooth becomes the reason why your handset’s batt is very easily got drained. Just like the aforementioned points, the enabled Bluetooth radio will endlessly seek a connection without your intention.

4. Background applications:

Most smartphone users tend to run an application and change to use another one without removing the unnecessary one. You may think that is a normal case, yet it does harm your device’s battery life. Applications such as Skype, Facebook, Whatsapp running in the background take much more battery juice than what you can imagine.

5. Brightness

Last but not least, it is about the brightness of the screen. Sometimes you just keep only one brightness level for your machine. Nonetheless, that is not good for your eyes and your handset’s battery life because there are many situations where a too bright display is not necessary and you work for so long, then the energy is just wasted without being useful.

Well, those are some main reasons to explain why your precious smartphone battery is getting worse through time. Perhaps you do not mean to do all the things above, but from now on, you know what to do to maintain a good battery life, right?!

We have 2 smartphones attracting much people’s attention recently: ASUS Z1 Titan and HTC One M10. They’re very promising products for both companies’ success in 2016. But, what if they’re about to compete with each other?

ASUS Z1 Titan VS HTC One M10: Flagship vs Flagship

Firstly, let’s talk about display. HTC One M10 specs will include a 5.9-inch Super AMOLED screen with 4K resolution while ASUS Z1 Titan specs will pack a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED 2K one. Obviously, the Titan’s size is smaller and the display resolution is lower than those of One M10. But note that 2K is already so great for a phablet and with such a huge 4K screen, M10 is expected to show things in a very detailed and gorgeous way.

For other specs such as processor, Z1 Titan is likely to be powered by 6GB RAM, 256GB ROM, and a Snapdragon 830 chip. Meanwhile, M10 is run by 4GB RAM, 128GB ROM, and a 12-core chip (whose brand’s still unknown). At those points, we have to say that the Titan seems more advanced than its rival, but when it comes to battery life, we have to say the M10’s absolutely the winner thanks to its much more impressive 6,200mAh cell compared to the Titan’s 3,500mAh one.

As for the camera, the M10’s main one is capable of 20 megapixels and the front cam is 8 megapixels, which is a perfect combo for those who love taking photos. And once again, HTC One M10 is able to beat the ASUS phone since Z1 Titan just sports a 16MP rear snapper with a dual LED flash plus a 5MP selfie one.

ASUS Z1 Titan VS HTC One M10: Price and availability

In general, both ASUS Z1 Titan and HTC One M10 have their own advantages. So, how about prices? It is predicted that HTC One M10 price is around $500 and ASUS Z1 Titan price is around $400. So, which one do you prefer? Share with us your feeling and opinion!

It is very close to the end of 2015 and Samsung is still working hard to introduce their new products. One of them is Samsung Galaxy A9, which has been spotted on the internet in some teasers…

All you need to know about Samsung Galaxy A9 specs

Note that the teasers have been leaked in China, which may hint that A9 will go on sale in this country soon. And thanks to them, now we know more clearly about the Samsung Galaxy A9 specs. Specifically, A9 will sport a huge 4,000mAh battery which is one of its outstanding selling points. Besides, there are a big 6.-inch Super AMOLED Full HD screen, an octa-core Snapdragon 620 chip paired with Adreno 510, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage to power the whole handset.

As for the camera, the front-facing one is capable of up to 8 megapixels, which is a perfect feature for those who love taking selfies. We can see that this is such a great improvement for a Samsung machine. However, the main snapper still go with 13 megapixels and f/1.9. Apart from them, we also have to mention the fingerprint sensor built in the A9’s home button and Android 5.1.1 Lollipop OS.

Actually, we hoped Samsung Galaxy A9 would come with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, but perhaps we need to wait a bit more for an update. So, those are important things about Samsung Galaxy A9’s hardware we want to inform you of. What do you think?

Samsung Galaxy A9 price and availability

Now, it is the price’s turn. You may wonder how much an excellent phone as A9 will cost. According to the sources, Galaxy A9 is going on sale in China with a price tag of 3,000 Yuan or around $450. That’s quite not very affordable, right?! Yet, there may be some changes when the smartphone is officially released. So, let’s wait and see!

There have been a lot of handsets launched in this half of the year. Yet, if you are looking for latest Android phones costing about $150, here they are:

1. ASUS ZENFONE 2 (ZE551ML)

I guess you will also agree with us that ASUS ZenFone 2 is the best ASUS phone under $150 since it offers a pretty good package of specifications compared to the ASUS ZenFone 2 price. Specifically, ASUS ZenFone 2 specs include an Intel Atom Z3560 chip, 2GB RAM, 16/32/64GB ROM, and a 5.5-inch Full HD screen. The whole machine is powered by a 3,000mAh battery with fast charging tech enabling your phone to get 60% in 40 minutes. To take photos, you can freely use the Zen 2’s 13MP rear and a 5MP front camera.

2. XIAOMI MI4I 

In terms of the Xiaomi Mi4i specs, the device is run by an octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor with the speed clocked at 1.7GHz, a 5-inch Full HD display, MIUI skin based on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop OS, 2GB of RAM and 16/32GB ROM. In addition, it supports LTE ability, a dual SIM, a 3,120mAh battery, and a set of 13MP/5MP shooter.

3. XOLO BLACK 

Xolo Black is equipped with a Snapdragon 615 SoC octa-core processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage. One of the key features as well as the selling points is its dual camera on the back, including a 13MP and a 2MP sensor. Other Xolo Black specs are a 5MP selfie cam, a 5.5-inch Full HD display, Android Lollipop OS with HIVE UI, and a 3,200mAh battery. 

4. MOTOROLA MOTO G 3RD GEN (16GB)

We think this is a great representative of Motorola in this sub $150 price range. It’s got a handy 5.0-inch HD screen, 2GB RAM, a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core chip, a 2,470mAh battery and 16GB of internal storage (expandable to 32GB via microSD card). As for the camera, there are a 13MP main snapper and a 5MP secondary one for you to capture things.

5. SAMSUNG GALAXY GRAND MAX 

Samsung Galaxy Grand Max was launched in January, 2015 but still is a good Samsung product you can take into consideration. It is very slim at 7.9 mm with a stylish body and a textured back cover. Some Samsung Galaxy Grand Max specs are a 5.25-inch HD display, a Snapdragon 410 chipset, Android KitKat with Samsung Touch UI, and a 2,500mAh battery. In addition, there are a 13MP/5MP camera combo, a dual SIM, 1.5GB RAM, and 16GB ROM (expandable to 64GB) to run the Grand Max smoothly.

6. HTC DESIRE 626G+ 

We’ve already had Samsung, Xiaomi, Xolo, ASUS, and Motorola, so now it is HTC’s turn. HTC Desire 626G+ is considered as a potential choice for a budget of $150. HTC Desire 626G+ specs contain a 5.0-inch HD screen, a 2,000mAh battery, a MediaTek 6752 octa-core processor paired with 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM. Despite being a mid-ranger, this HTC device is still able to help you create good shots with its 13MP/5MP snapper set.

7. INFOCUS M810

Infocus M810 looks premium and its hardware is also excellent. Basically, it is powered by a Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM, and a 5.5-inch screen with Full HD resolution and 400 ppi. Additionally, Android Lollipop 5.1 with Inlife UI and a 2,600mAh cell are in charge to run the M810.

8) SAMSUNG GALAXY J7

Spec-wise, there is a 5.5-inch HD screen that can bring users high quality display when they play games or watch movies. Other Samsung Galaxy J7 specs have a Snarpdragon 615 64-bit octa-core chip paired with high-end Adreno 405 GPU, a 13MP/5MP cam combo, a 3,000mAh cell, 1.5GB RAM and 16GB ROM. Although the package of Samsung Galaxy J7’s features is not the best once compared with others in its kind, J7 is able to deliver pretty good productivity, smoothness and speed.

So, the above 8 devices are the 8 Android phones priced around $150 we would like to introduce to you today. What is your thinking? Share with us!