Author: chris eilers

Xiaomi Mi TV and MI BOX owners who are into gaming can now enjoy Xiaomi’s very first Xiaomi Gamepad, which beginns shipping now to customers in China.

With Xiaomi’s aggressive global expansion strategy, Xiaomi has become a major player in the phone market and also tablet market with products like the Xiaomi MI4. Not unlike Apple, Xiaomi also extends their programm vertically into customer living rooms with with the MI TV, MI BOX and also now the Xiaomi MI Gamepad.

China has just recently lifted the banning of consoles and opened up the doors for that market. Xiaomi is using that to launch the new gamepad, which can convert the Xiaomi MI TV and MI BOX into Android Gaming Stations.

If you have a look at the pictures, you can see that the Xiaomi MI Gamepad is very similiar to the XBOX 360 controller or other PC Gamepads. We see the common two dual analogue sticks, the direction pad and an action button to the right and on the top of the Xiaomi accessory.

So far Xiaomi has only been shipping the Gamepad to a few lucky customers in China with a very special discount price. As with the MI4 and other Xiaomi devices, international customers have to wait for the full production of the Xiaomi Gamepad before they will be available officially or via resellers.

Xiaomi Gamepad photo

We actually like the Xiaomi MIpad, so probably will try it out these next coming month, given that we cant get one. How do you like the Xiaomi Gamepad? Do you fancy buying one?

We have been seeing UBUNTU Touch since beginning of the year on various Meizu Smartphones, like the Meizu MX3. Now finally the Meizu MX4 Phone has been showing with UBUNTU Touch as well.

Start of the year Meizu and Canoncical have been presenting the Meizu MX3, running on Ubuntu Touch as an alternative OS for the Meizu phone. Fans could see Ubuntu Touch presented at the CES and MWC but so far we havent seen an official timetable for fans to download Ubuntu Touch.

Read our Full Meizu MX4 Hands on Review 

Time has been running fast and Meizu has already launched the Meizu MX4, forcing Canoncial to develop Ubuntu Touch for the Meizu MX4 Mediatek phone, and now we can finally see it.

Our first picture shows the Meizu MX4 running with Ubuntu Touch on the Mediatek powered smartphone. The official Launch of Ubuntu for the Meizu MX4 will be December. It seems that Meizu is really innovative with their Meizu MX4. In addition to Flyme 4.0 and Ubuntu Touch, the Meizu MX4 has also been seen with YunOS working. YunOS is and Android based OS, made by Chinese E-Commerce Giant AliBaba.

Ubuntu Touch essentially uses the same core technologies as Ubuntu Desktop, so apps that are designed for Ubuntu Desktop will also run on Ubuntu Touch and vice cersa. Additionally Ubuntu Desktop parts support the Ubuntu Touch System.That means that your Ubuntu Touch Device can provide a full desktop experience when connected with an external monitor or docking station.

There are some rumors that Ubuntu for the new Meizu MX4 PRO will be available as an Option at Launch and apparently Canonical got Ubuntu Touch running for the Mediatek MT6595 CPU. This could mean that other smartphone manufacturers could work on opening up their smartphones for Ubuntu Touch OS.

What do you think about Ubuntu Touch on the Meizu MX4 and possibly other chinese Smartphones soon?

Last Night we saw the first time pictures that claim to show the Meizu MX4 Pro Smartphone Pricing and Specs. Those Pictures come from source very close to Meizu, and show how much the Successor of the very successful Meizu MX4 will cost.

We believe that Meizu will launch their real 2014 Flagship Smartphone End of October. Earlier leaks suggested that the Meizu MX4 Pro will come with the same Design as the Meizu MX4, but now we can see that the Pro Version will in fact be larger and have a few design changes as well.

Read our Meizu MX4 Hands on Review 

The Meizu MX4 Pro will come with a 2KQuad HD display and a 2560 x 1440 resolution, which will in fact be a tad larger with 5.4 inch, instead of 5.36 inch. The Trademark Meizu Home Button will be replaced with a rectangle physical button, that is probably including a fingerprint scanner.

The Meizu MX4 Pro will sport Samsung’s Exynos Octacore 5430 Processor, including LTE and hifi Audio. The Exynos Octacore 5430 is also used in the new Samsung Alpha and features big.LITTLE processor with four Cortex-A7 cores at 1.8 Ghz and 1.3 Ghz. The eight cores can run at the same, so we expect excellent multi core performance. The Processor comes also with hexa-core Mali-T628 MP6 GPU, which is the newest Mali available design.

The Camera on the MX4 Pro will probably still be the gorgeous 20.7 MP Sony Shooter that we see already on the Meizu MX4.
But what about the pricing of the new Meizu MX4 Pro? The Meizu MX4 Pro will sell at 2499 Yuan (1325RM/405USD) in China, but we dont have confirmation for international pricing yet.

What do you think about the Meizu MX4 Pro Specs? How do you feel about the Samsung Exynos Octa Core Processor and physical home button?

If you waited for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 official launch – the Galaxy Note 4 is launching on 15th October in Malaysia. You should be able to purchase the Note 4 relatively shortly after, also Maxis, Digi and UMobile preparing to sell the Galaxy Note 4 on contract soon.

The SamsunG Galaxy Note 4 will launch in Malaysia with Samsung’s Exynos Processor, which we spotted recently in the SIRIM DB, and not Snapdragon’s 805 CPU as in other countries.The Note 4 sports a 5.7″ Quad HD AMOLED display. The Exynos 5433 is an Octa-Core Processor (4x Cortex A53 cores at 1.3GHz + 4x Cortex A57 cores at 1.9GHz) and is combined with 3GB of Ram and 32GB of internal memory. The internal memory on the Note 4 is extendable via MiCro Sd.

For Performance, first benchmarks from Antutu show that the Exynos 5433 is stronger then the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 competitor. Even in Graphics Benchmarks, the ARM Mali-T760 GPU on the Exynos 5433 seems to beat the Snapdragon’s Adreno 420 GPU. To be fair Antutu benchmarks, should be taking with a grain of salt though, since they are not always fully accurate.

If you cannot wait for the offcial launch, Lazad is already offering the Import Version for RM2225 with “200lazadavoucher” Code.

We will definitely give you the newest details after the launch of the Note 4. Maybe Samsung will suprise us with the Snapdragon 805 CPU Version for Malaysia.

What do you think of the SamsunG Galaxy Note 4 Launch for Malaysia?

If you are interested in buying the newest gadgets, Lazada is giving extra Discount Vouchers on Samsung Galaxy Note 4. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6PLus.

You can buy the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 as cheap as Rm2224.

• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 for RM2224 with Lazada Voucher Code “200lazadavoucher”

The iPhone 6 comes as cheap as R2339 after the discount.

• iPhone 6 for RM2339 with Lazada Voucher Code “200lazadavoucher”

Check out all the offers from lazada after discount

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 32GB (Black/White) RM2,224

Apple iPhone 6 16GB (Silver/Grey/Gold) RM2,339
Apple iPhone 6 64GB (Silver) RM2,687
Apple iPhone 6 64GB (Grey/Gold)  RM2,789
Apple iPhone 6 128GB (Silver/Gold) RM3,088
Apple iPhone 6 128GB (Grey) RM3,115

Apple iPhone 6 Plus 16GB (Silver/Grey) RM3,259
Apple iPhone 6 Plus 16GB (Gold) RM3,269
Apple iPhone 6 Plus 64GB (Silver/Grey/Gold) RM3,789
Apple iPhone 6 Plus 128GB (Silver/Grey) RM4,099
Apple iPhone 6 Plus 128GB (Gold) RM4,199

To use the Lazada Voucher, make sure to enter the “200lazadavoucher” Voucher on the Lazada Checkout Page. The RM200 Voucher on Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 is valid till 6th October only.

If you are interested just click on the Banner below and use the RM200 Voucher. Please beware that these are Import Versions and you have “only” two weeks Lazada Warranty.

We do like iFive for producing nice little tablets, but what we enjoy even more then their tablets, are their iFive launch pictures.

iFive seems to be the only chinese Android Smartphone maket that uses sexyness so openly to sell their tablets and products. Every time we see a new iFive product, we can be sure to see gorgeous women modeling the android devices.

The launch of the iFIve Mini 4 has not been different, as you can see for yourself with those pictures.

Apart from those beautiful pictures lets focus on the iFive Mini Tablet itself. Like other tablet makers, iFive follows the strategy to make the iFive Mini as similiar as possible to the iPad Mini. It does not come as a surprise then, that it comes with a 7.9 inch screen and alloy metal body.

The 7.9 inch display comes with a 1536 x 2048 resolution, which is the same as Apple’Retina display. The iFive Mini tablet also sports a quad core 1.8Ghz Rockchips RK3288 CPU with Mail-T764 GPU and on top 2GB of DD3 Ram.

iFive Mini 4 Specs

Screen: 7.9-inch Resolution 1536 x 2048
Processor: Rock-Chips RK3288 Cortex-A17 Quad Core 1.8GHz
RAM: 2GB
ROM: 16GB
SD memory card
Main camera: 8 mega-pixel
Selfie camera: 2 mega-pixel
OS:Android 4.4 Kitkat
3G :No
LTE: No
Battery: 5000mAh
Dimensions: 198.7 x 134 x 7.5mm
Weight: 330g
Price :$190

The iFive Mini 4 also supports WIFI, dual cameras with a 8MP Main Camera and a Micro Sd Slot to extend your internal memory. The Price Tag of the iFive Mini 4 tablet is at 190 USD and it runs on Android 4.4.

The iFive Mini 4 is already available for sell internationally via numerous resellers, just google it.

We have already seen some leaked pictures in the past weeks, but the newest image first shown by Android Police, seems to show the new Nexus 6, by Motorola, outside in the wild. Its hard to say for sure if that is really the new Google Phone, but all evidence so far seems to say that this is really the new Nexus 6.

The phone above is clearly in a case, but we still see a few reasons why this is really the new Nexus 6 phone. It definitely reminds on the Motorola Moto X, but the volume button have been moved to the middle of the device so they can be easier reached on the large 5.9 inch Nexus 6 device. WE can also see front facing speakers. Also this phone seems to be running on the newest version of Android L that leaked this week with bigger navigation and status icons.

As for size of the new Nexus 6, you can see on the picture that the device is not super large, but its definitely not small either. It seems a man’s hand is holding the phone, and reaching up to half of the device. We are guessing that the Nexus 6 could be about the size of the iPhone 6Plus, but with a bigger display and smaller bezels on the same size.

For the new Google Nexus 6 Specs we expect a 5.9 inch 2K display, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 CPU, 3GB of RAM, 3200mAH battery and a 13MP Camera with OIS. None of these we can confirm by the newest leaked picture above though.

So is this the new Nexus 6 in the picture? It is hard to say 100% sure, but the combination of design and software shown, makes us think this could actually be the real new Google Nexus 6. According to rumors, Google will launch the new Nexus 6 on the 15/16.10. So in just two weeks more we will know for sure.

Zopo’s first smartphone with MT6595 CPU, will launch in China and other selected countries at the same time. Is the newest Zopo ZP999 enough to stand against the Meizu MX4 or even Xiaomi Mi4 though? Lets take a look.

The Zopo ZP999 is not yet officially listed on Zopo’s website but already Zopo is teasing their new phone on Social Media and Press Releases. These Teasers actually include already the full specifications for the new Zopo ZP999 phone.

It seems to us that Zopo is a bit upset before their launch of the new phone. 2013 Zopo has been the first company to work with the then new Mediatek octacore MT6592 CPU, for the ZP998. This year Mediatek decided to work with Meizu for the Meizu MX4 to introduce their new Octacore Mediatek CPU. This might be one of the reason why in Zopo’s first Facebook posting they were attacking the Meizu MX4 vs their Zopo ZP999.

If you have a closer look at the new Zopo ZP999, you can see that it looks very similiar last year’s ZP998. That is because basically Zopo has taken their current FlagShip Design and updated it with newer hardware and specs. The case and Design of the ZP999 is exactly the same as the ZP998. But let’s be honest the ZP998 has a very nice design, so there was probably no need to fix what is not broken.

Some of the other features stay the same with the ZP998 also, as the 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 display, a 14 Megapixel Main Camera with F2.0 and a 5 Megapixel Selfie Camera.

Compared to the ZP998, the ZP999 should have a better performance though, as the octacore MT6592 processor has been switched to Mediatek’s newest MT6595 chipset. The MT6595 chipset is still an Octacore CPU, but works with big.LITTLE architecture. With the big.LITTLE architecture the CPU switches between the cores to guaruantee the best balance of performance and battery life. The MT6595 chipset is also higher clocked at 2.2 Ghz and comes with up to 3GB of RAM.

With the MT6595 chipset, there is also a faster GPU, a PowerVR G6200 at 600 Mhz. From benchmarks in the Meizu MX4 we can see that the PowerVR G6200 is not as performant as the Adreno 330 GPU on Snapdragon 801 CPU. The performance is still the best on any Mediatek phone up to now, and its definitely enough for excellent gaming and video user experience.

From our research it seems to be also clear that Zopo will launch an additional “Pro” Version of their new phone. The specs we described above are for the “Pro” Version of the Zopo ZP999. The Standard ZP999 comes with a slower MT6592M processor, 2GB of RAM and only 720HD display. It seems that Standard version also only supports TD-LTE 4G networks.

Zopo ZP999 full specifications

The Zopo ZP999 will launch at the same time in 32 countries, the list includes Malaysia, Vietnam, Netherlands Spain and of course China. We are still waiting for the full list and how the international customers will be able to buy the phone.

The Zopo ZP999 pricing in China is at 1999 yuan, which is the same price as the Xiaomi Mi4 and IUNI U3, but 200 Yuan more expensive then the Meizu MX4. Internationally though the Zopo ZP999 will probably sell for 399.99 USD which is a tad less, then the officiall international Meizu MX4 price.

What do you think of the newest Zopo Phone? Did you buy an Zopo phone before? Do you think the ZP999 can compete with the Meizu MX4 or even Xiaomi Mi4? Let us know in the comments.

The Galaxy Note 4 just launched, and already we see reports of yet another “Gate”, a “Gap Gate”.  Early users report of a small gap between the screen and the walls of the phone. The issue was first reported on by iTToday in South Korea, and so far only a few users and Note 4 devices seem to be affected.

According to the users, a business card or two pieces of paper can fit in the screen gap. This could potentially be a source for liquids or dust into the device.

The Note 4 has just been introduced to South Korea, and all 30.000 initial units were sold out. Initially Samsung acknowledged the problem, but was more or less ignoring it, probably in hope to bring not more attention to it: ”The reported issue does not impact the functionality or quality of the Galaxy Note 4,” an official Samsung spokesperson told us. “We assure our customers that all Galaxy Note 4 units meet our strict manufacturing and quality control standards.”

Today Samsung adresses the issue in a new light though and says the Gap is a “a necessary manufacturing issue,” and not an anomaly in a few devices. Samsung further says on their European Website that they

So basically it seems that for the Design and Manufacturing of the Note 4, the Gap in the Screen seems to be necessary, according to Samsung. That also means, that all Galaxy Note 4 will have the Gap, not only a small number of phones.

Further Samsung said on their European Website:

Basically Samsung says, that the Gap, which is already big enough to fit a Credit Card, could get bigger with the times. Also that Gap is existent on every Galaxy Note 4 Screen. If Samsung is correct with that, and its not a PR mistake, this would be a recipe for disaster on the Note 4. With an even bigger gap dirt and liquids can easy get in and damage the Note 4 phone. Hopefully this would not lead to a damaged screen or worse.

We have seen a lot of devices, as well on similar size as the Note 4, without any significant screen Gap. Yet Samsung is embracing the GAP as a necessary feature. When we actually had the possibility to test the Note 4 in Berlin on the IFA, we couldnt see the GAP, although we did not specifically look for it as well. The Samsung Galaxy Alpha, with a very similiar design, does not have any screen Gap.

It is very interesting to see the second big smartphone manufacturer to have those big problems with their FlagShip Smartphones. Very unique about this case though, is that Samsung is actually admitting to having a Gap on the Note 4, saying its a feature, that could further expand. While Apple went through Bendgate, basically denying it 100%.

We have yet to see what is the better strategy for not hurting the brand. The most important though is that Galaxy Note 4 users are not negatively affected, so we will follow this issue very closely.

At the moment the new CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella is on a trip across China. According to different reports Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun and Satya Nadella had a secret meeting.

At the moment the new CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella is on a trip across China. According to different reports Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun and Satya Nadella had a secret meeting. Apparently the meeting was about the launch of a 50USD Xiaomi Windows Based Smartphone ! Even with affordable smartphones like the Redmi Note for RM509 and the Redmi 1S for RM419, 50USD is unheard of so far for Xiaomi quality.

Our Sources have shown that the meeting was about knowledge on Microsofts Cloud Services and also about the option of a collaboration between Microsoft and Xiaomi to build a low-cost Windows based Phone, that could be as cheap as 50USD.

For Xiaomi this might be the preparation for a Launch in the US market. Since MIUI is very closely related to APPLE’s IOS they might face charges from Apple, if Xiaomi would launch with MIUI V6. 

Apparently Xiaomi, becoming one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world in just 4 years had brought them a lot of attention from giants in the industry. It only makes sense that Microsoft is trying to tap into Xiaomi’s enormous knowledge base in Logistics and Marketing.

Just recently Xiaomi has also announced that they want to focus more on the tablet market. Xiaomi will attacks Apple and their iPAd Market share with the Xiaomi MiPad Series. For that reason Xiaomi is focusing more on software development and producing tablet optimized apps. The Software is one of the most important criteria when selling tablets and phones, one of the reasons why Apple’s iOS is so popular is the large amount of well working Apps.

Windows is still struggling with their Windows App Market when it comes to Windows Tablets and phones, so Windows would massively benefit from Xiaomi’s scale and experience with building up their own MIUI ecosystem

Xiaomi has clearly proven that they can produce high quality Android Smartphones that are affordable. ALso they have an excellent Marketing Machinery. Would you go for a windows-based Xiaomi Phone for 50 USD or do you prefer MIUI V6 on Xiaomi?

While a lot of Users are still trying to buy the OnePlus One, OnePlus has already officially conriemd that they will launch the Next phone as early as Q2 or Q3 in the coming year.

Deal from 29.09-01.10 only

• OnePlus One for RM1048 with Lazada Voucher “CYBERLAZ50”

The OnePLus One was launched in April this year and due to high demand sold only on Invite Basis. That meant a lot of customers who could not get their hands on the oneplus one. The new phone, maybe called oneplus two will sell via the pre-order system that is starting by OnePLus this October.

But what you expect from the OnePLus Two ( thats the most obvious name for the OnePLus One Successor). The OnePlus Two is expected to get a smaller screen then the current 5.5 inch phone. Before the OPO launch, OnePlus repeatedly said that the OPO would be a 5.5 inch phone in a 5inch body. We can clearly see that OnePlus did not reach that goal though.

We learned about the OnePlus Two on a Reddit AMA session with OnePlus. OnePlus said:“OnePlus 2 should be out in Q2 or Q3 of 2015. By that time, I’d think Android L would be standard. :).” They also talked about the chance of getting a smaller screen on the OnePlus Two: “We’ve seen a lot of people asking for a smaller device, and want to let everyone know that we hear you. We’re thinking about it.”

From the Conversation on Reddit it gets quite clear that OnePlus wants to make up to those users, who were not able to buy the OnePLus One because of the Invite System. They even said that they “they underestimated demand by 30x, which lead to the scarcity”

MUST SEE: OnePlus One vs Xiaomi Mi4 Review

Lets hope for a better user Experience with the OnePlus Two!

At the moment Lazada has a Special Campaign Online Revolution were you get RM50 and RM25 off your Purchase. The Deals are only Valid from 29.09-01.10.

We checked some of the best prices for you. Please let us know in the comments if you can find some more deals.

• iPhone 6 16GB for RM2399 with Lazada Voucher “LAZADAiPhone6”
• OnePlus One for RM1048 with Lazada Voucher “CYBERLAZ50”
• Xiaomi Redmi Note for RM459 with Lazada Voucher “CYBERLAZ50”   Deal starts 30.09 at 12.00pm
• Asus Zenfone 4 for RM174 with Lazada Voucher “CYBERLAZ25”    – Lazada ended the deal this morning, lots of happy customers bought already.

Just use the Voucher Codes directly at the Checkout. They should both work for till 01.10 and are Valid on all Products.

As always there are different opinions on Lazada, but overall there one of the better Retailers in Malaysia. The Xiaomi Redmi Note is the Original Version directly from Xiaomi. While the iPhone 6 is not cheap, Lazada is definitely a good place to buy an original one.

Please let us know in the comments if you find some more good deals.