blackjack spelen

Ca莽a-n铆queis arco-铆risThe world鈥檚 most popular smartband is considered to be the Xiaomi Mi Band 2. Its market share is about 15%. It even has outrun such beasts as Apple, Fixbit, and Samsung. But this list is going to change in the nearest future. Many manufacturers have joined the race. Huawei has launched the Honor A2, Oukitel has launched the A18, MGCOOL has introduced the Band 3, and so on. As you see, all those companies that want to compete with Xiaomi and other top brands have already managed to come with their own ultra-budget fitness trackers. Today we are going to take a closer look at one of such products coming our way from MPOW, a well-known company specialized in making headphones/speakers, phone accessories, and car accessories. The new Xiaomi Mi Band 2 rival is dubbed as the MPOW D6.MPOW D6 (1)MPOW D6 (2)MPOW D6 (3)MPOW D6 AppearanceThe MPOW D6 looks identical to other smartbands. But this doesn鈥檛 mean it has nothing to boast of in terms of appearance. Vice versa, this fitness tracker comes with a well-designed look sporting a 0.87-inch screen with a resolution of 128×32 pixels. While you may think this is a small screen, it is quite sufficient to display everything you need. There is also a touch key to interact with the smartband. Actually, it works properly without lags.On the opposite side, we can find a heart rate detector.The next difference in comparison to other models, the MPOW D6 main body is detachable. At this moment, there is only one color option (black), but most likely the manufacturer will come in with straps in various colors to meet customers鈥 needs.As you can see, there is a USB interface on the bottom, which is used for charging. All you need to do, just plug it into the computer to charge. You can also use a USB cable.The straps are made of TPU, but thanks to the high-quality material and matte surface, we have a feeling as they are made of a better material such as silicone. The clasp is made of stainless steel.MPOW D6 HardwareThis smartband is powered by the nRF52832 SoC, which is a powerful, highly flexible ultra-low power multiprotocol chip ideally suited for Bluetooth Smart apps. This processor is based on a 32-bit ARM Cortex architecture. It is paired with a 512kB ROM and 64kB RAM. The nRF52832 SoC comes with a hardware-level Bluetooth 5 support. One of the main advantages of this chip is the EasyDMA support that simply means it has s direct memory access.The MPOW D6 sports a 90mAh battery that can fully charge in 1.5 hours and keep alive for up to 15 days. However, if you are a heavy user, most likely you will charge it more frequently.MPOW BAND Features and MPOW BAND APPThe MPOW D6 smartband itself provides only a few types of features. The lock screen only shows the time when you raise your hand. A single tap on the touch key will make the smartband show the remaining power, time, and date.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramAnother tap will display pedometer results.Tap once again and it will display heart rate.It also displays the distance you have passed.And finally, it showcases how many calories you have lost during the last exercise.But agree this is not enough for a modern smartband. To increase its efficiency and make the MPOW D6 more useful the manufacturer has developed a special app named MPOW BAND. This fitness tracker is compatible with Android (higher v4.4) and iOS (higher v8.0) devices.First, you have to download and install the app. When we were reviewing this product the software version was 1.0.3. Once it鈥檚 done, you have to sign up with your email and set a password to create an account. All the data will be recorded for the user you have signed in.Next, you have to pair your smartphone with the smartband.Fill all fields with correct information. It will help the app when analyzing your data. And choose the language (although it鈥檚 in English by default).Before we go to the main features of the MPOW D6, there are some other that can be useful as well. Say, you can set alarms, decide what kind of notifications to get (Facebook, Skype, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc.), set up the sedentary reminder, and so on.As for the main features, this fitness tracker offers three of them including a pedometer, heart rate monitor, and sleep monitor.Each of them has its own section to show and analyze the data.Bacar谩 Super 6

Zopo, once the darling of the Chinese smartphone market, is back just in time for Christmas with the recently launched Zopo P5000 and it could be their best phone to date!We’ve had an early Christmas present today all the way from Shenzhen based Zopo! Yup, Zopo is still about and yes they do have a new range of smartphones, possibly the best smartphones ever to ship with the Zopo name stamp on the back!Zopo has sent me the Zopo P5000, their latest flagship phone which comes with all the hardware features that we come to expect from top of the range phones of today, plus a few nice features that actually push the P5000 in front of certain other phones on the market.As usual, I’m starting out with a quick unboxing of the Zopo P5000 and then will follow up with a full review in the coming weeks.Zopo P5000 UnboxingThe P5000 is easily the best looking Zopo phone I鈥檝e had my hands on, and in addition to that it also has the best materials, best build quality and actually features top-end hardware.In the past, Zopo has struggled to keep up with smartphone trends, but the Zopo P5000 is bang right up to date with a 5.99-inch HD+ 18:9 Full-Screen display! This is pretty big news for Zopo, but the hardware highlights don鈥檛 end there!Above that full display screen, you鈥檒l find a 16 megapixel Samsung SP3 f2.0 camera with soft LED flash. The rear has dual lens camera is made up of a 13 megapixel and 5 megapixel Sony IMX258 f2.0 sensor and beneath the attractive metal body is a huge 5000mAh battery!Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramWith a huge battery, the P5000 is slightly thicker than similar metal bodied phones, but less time on charge is more important to most users than the physical size of the phones.Sticking with modern trends, the P5000 uses a Type C USB 2.0 for charging and data transfer, which might not be as desirable as a faster connection but at least it鈥檚 more future-proof than a standard USB which we鈥檙e still seeing on some phones.As the Zopo P5000 has a full-display screen and a 85% screen coverage up front, the fingerprint scanner has had to be moved to the rear of the phone just below the dual camera lens. The fingerprint scanner lens is a little smaller than some brands, but so far it has proven to be fast and accurate.We鈥檙e also impressed to see that Zopo has shipped the P5000 with a largely stock installation of Android 7.0 and that the phone comes with Google Services and the Google Store all installed and working as they should out of the box.The stock Android installation runs smoothly thanks to 4GB Samsung DDR3 RAM and Mediatek Helio P10 1.5Ghz octacore chipset, not the most modern processor but it鈥檚 powerful enough for most uses and supports most common LTE networks too.Other details include 64GB Samsung internal memory, space for a micro SD card and dual nano SIM slots.Zopo, once the darling of the Chinese smartphone market, is back just in time for Christmas with the recently launched Zopo P5000 and it could be their best phone to date!We’ve had an early Christmas present today all the way from Shenzhen based Zopo! Yup, Zopo is still about and yes they do have a new range of smartphones, possibly the best smartphones ever to ship with the Zopo name stamp on the back!Zopo has sent me the Zopo P5000, their latest flagship phone which comes with all the hardware features that we come to expect from top of the range phones of today, plus a few nice features that actually push the P5000 in front of certain other phones on the market.As usual, I’m starting out with a quick unboxing of the Zopo P5000 and then will follow up with a full review in the coming weeks.Zopo P5000 UnboxingThe P5000 is easily the best looking Zopo phone I鈥檝e had my hands on, and in addition to that it also has the best materials, best build quality and actually features top-end hardware.In the past, Zopo has struggled to keep up with smartphone trends, but the Zopo P5000 is bang right up to date with a 5.99-inch HD+ 18:9 Full-Screen display! This is pretty big news for Zopo, but the hardware highlights don鈥檛 end there!Above that full display screen, you鈥檒l find a 16 megapixel Samsung SP3 f2.0 camera with soft LED flash. The rear has dual lens camera is made up of a 13 megapixel and 5 megapixel Sony IMX258 f2.0 sensor and beneath the attractive metal body is a huge 5000mAh battery!Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramWith a huge battery, the P5000 is slightly thicker than similar metal bodied phones, but less time on charge is more important to most users than the physical size of the phones.Sticking with modern trends, the P5000 uses a Type C USB 2.0 for charging and data transfer, which might not be as desirable as a faster connection but at least it鈥檚 more future-proof than a standard USB which we鈥檙e still seeing on some phones.As the Zopo P5000 has a full-display screen and a 85% screen coverage up front, the fingerprint scanner has had to be moved to the rear of the phone just below the dual camera lens. The fingerprint scanner lens is a little smaller than some brands, but so far it has proven to be fast and accurate.We鈥檙e also impressed to see that Zopo has shipped the P5000 with a largely stock installation of Android 7.0 and that the phone comes with Google Services and the Google Store all installed and working as they should out of the box.The stock Android installation runs smoothly thanks to 4GB Samsung DDR3 RAM and Mediatek Helio P10 1.5Ghz octacore chipset, not the most modern processor but it鈥檚 powerful enough for most uses and supports most common LTE networks too.Other details include 64GB Samsung internal memory, space for a micro SD card and dual nano SIM slots.Well, let’s begin with a small lesson on dash cams, shall we? A dash camera is a small digital video camera that mounts to the dashboard of a vehicle and records the drivers journey whenever the car is turned on and moving or on his choice. It is a crucial tool for ensuring safety on the road by assisting the police and insurance companies in case of an accident.A dash cam can help by showing speed, acceleration, time, place, direction, driver behavior and quite possibly revealing聽who was at fault during an accident. For anyone who spends a fair amount of time behind a steering wheel it’s an excellent tool in case of need. In recent years, this type of camera has seen its market share rise exponentially not only as a security measure but also as a form of leisure to record vacations or trips in new places.Manufactured in China and primarily aimed at the budget category AZDOME DAB211 Dash Camera is a good VFM product that provides many functionalities at an affordable price. I really think you’re gonna like it, so let’s go and have a look…Azdome DAB211 – Technical SpecificationsCPU: Ambrerella A12A55Sensor: Ov4689, 4MPLCD: 2,31 LTPS 16:9 non-touchLens: 150 Degree A+HD ultra wide angle, 39 Degree top to bottom adjustmentVideo Resolution: 2560X1440 30fps, 2304X1296 30fps, 1920X1080 30fps/60fpsPhoto Resolution: Max 16MPMemory Card: SD Card (Max 64GB)Power: 5V 1.5ALanguage: MultipleFeatures: Mic, Park Mode,Night vision, GPS, Over Speed Warning, ADAS, G-SensorPackage Contents:聽Dash Camera, User Manual, Cable Clips, Car Charger (x2 USB ports), Suction Mount, 3M Mount, USB Cable X2, Trim removal ToolAzdome DAB211 – UnboxingDespite its affordable price the聽DAB211 dashcam聽boasts a full package that includes the dash camera itself (obviously), a User Manual in English, cable clips, a car charger (x2 USB ports), a suction Mount, a 3M tape mount, two USB Cables (a long one for the car and a short for the pc) and a trim removal tool.聽The only thing missing from the packaging is a micro SD card, so you need to buy one as mean to store your videos. It supports cards up to 64 GB, a decent amount of storage for several hours of video.Azdome DAB211 Main featuresThe dash cam is created from durable plastic with a 2,3 inch non-touch screen in front. On the left side you can find the SDcard placement and an HD out port. On the right side you can find the microphone, the reset option, the power button and a micro usb port. The screen provides information on the present setup and turns out to be simple and easy to use, even for people with no experience.聽The dashcam comes with an internal battery so you can setup the device or see the videos / pictures without having to connect it to a charger. It supports video resolutions at 2560X1440 30fps / HDR 2560X1440 30fps, 2304X1296 30fps, 1920X1080 at 30fps/60fps with quite decent detail, during day or (sometimes) during night.聽The rest of the settings are for the Time Lapse, ADAS (Advanced Driver Alert System), Motion detection, G-Sensor, Parking mode, Split Record mode, Microphone on/off and Anti flicker mode for the display. All options are explained properly in the manual, I have to stress this. There are also options as to change the language, the time, the time zone and other relevant system settings.The camera is quite easy to set up. If you never had a dash cam before, then I suggest you take a good look at the manual since the setup is made once in the beginning before the driving and it must be made in the most correct way, in order to fit to your needs and standards. Unfortunately I did an erroneous set up at the beginning after being hasty to try it, and lost a couple of days of videos! Don’t be afraid of the English Manual, as you will see that it’s clear and very helpful, so please take some time with it. You can buy the聽Azdome DAB211 dash cam from:Aliexpress – Amazon #1 – Amazon #2Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramAfter the initial setup, the placement of the dash cam in the car was much easier. I chose the suction mount, and placed the dash cam right behind the interior rear view mirror. The charger is universal, but in my car it was to long and kept moving in close turns. So my suggestions is that if you already have a car charger for your car model (and you’re OK with it) use it instead. You won’t have any issues 馃檪Again I have to stress out: set the dash cam right. In my case, ADAS was ON as to warn in case of changing lanes and the camera was set to send a warning to protect from collision. The result was like having a siren inside my car all the time 馃檪 It would surely turn my eyes open in case i was half sleeping. Then it kept doing the same noise in a two-lanes road where cars park on the right side due to the limited parking space in Athens. In my opinion safety features tend to turn your attention elsewhere than the street it self. I just couldnt drive with the siren on. I stopped the car and turned off all safety features.聽Azdome DAB211: how to use, check videos etc.I connected the dash cam with my pc and copied the videos as to view them properly, but don’t forget that you can take also pictures turning into the pictures mode. The limitation here is that it takes only 50 photos, but if you think about it it’s not a digital camera for photos, but a dash cam with a specific purpose.During daylight the results where clear and I had no issue to read licence plates (the most important thing to look for in an accident, if the other car drives away). There is an excellent 150 degrees wide view in the front that could be also used as a vacation recording. Very good performance, very decent quality! Well done!During the聽night the image is darker than the one we can see with our own eyes – the same happens when strong sunlight falls directly on the lens. There is some flaring from strong lights like those LED headlights some modern cars use. It is functional and kept recording for a good distance in front of me but the “digital” noise in the video makes certain licence plates difficult to read. Glaring from external lighting to the windshield or the dashboard is visible also and sometimes can “blind” the dash cam but with no significant issues.The parking mode is VERY practical. When it senses vibrations it starts recording for a minute and then it turns off. Motion detection turns on and off the camera automatically when the car is moving. Sadly there is no speed camera warning system. GPS information can be seen in the company software and was mildly accurate, but perhaps the placement of my camera was wrong? I will get back to this when I have better tests to show you.Azdome DAB211 review: verdictGiven the fact that this is a very affordable dash camera, I have to admit that I was impressed. It offers good聽1440P HDR images and video that could possibly become a life saver聽in case of an accident.It provides a full package, with everything included but the SDcard. During the night the image of the recorded video is not that clear, so if you’re one of those who have to work after hours (like truck or taxi drivers for example) you will have to make some sacrifice in quality if you plan to use it. On the other hand, if you plan to use it during the day, then you’re going to get an excellent value for money product – judging from its current price of course.T-Bao/Civiltop is a fairly new laptop manufacturer known for a couple of laptops here and there, but they are an ODM with prior laptop experience. They have released what seems like a decent price proposition, $280USD for a 15.6鈥 Apollo Lake laptop. Well its good when you don’t consider the discounts off the myriad other Apollo Lake laptops, but we’ll talk about that later.T-Bao X8S ReviewThe Apollo Lake laptop market is now filled with many options for you to choose from, ranging from great but expensive (read the Chuwi Lapbook Air) to cheap and good (Chuwi Lapbook 14.1, Jumper EZBook 3 Pro). However, these laptops are almost exclusively 14鈥 and smaller, with next to no options in the 15.6鈥 range. Enter T-Bao鈥檚 X8S, a low cost option for those who want a nice, big screen.T-Bao鈥檚 low cost optionT-Bao X8S SpecificationsProcessorIntel Apollo Lake N3450Display15.6″ 1920×1080 Glossy LCD DisplayRAM6GBStorage64GB eMMCOperating SystemWindows 10Cameras5MP CameraBattery8,000mAhPhysical Dimensions32.80 x 22.00 x 1.80 cm, 1.9 kgBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.T-Bao X8S HardwareThe body is made of hard, glossy plastic with a rough texture that is not unlikeable. The laptop tapers from back to front and the size of the laptop is incredibly small for a 15.6鈥 screen. In fact, its very close to the XPS15 which also has razor sharp bezels, meaning that the total footprint of this laptop is indeed impressive. Clocking in at 1.9kg, the X8S feels fairly heavy.We also have ports galore, two full size USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port as well as a microSD card slot for expansion. We have a micro HDMI port as well, but I wish this was a full size HDMI port instead. There sure is room to spare on the sides for full size HDMI ports AND more USB ports, maybe even a USB-C or Microusb port also.The hinge on the laptop is fairly stiff, requiring both hands to open it up. Surrounding the screen are razor thin bezels, giving the screen an illusion of floating. The keyboard here is fairly average, each keycap is made of plastic, and it has adequate travel.The trackpad is large, fairly accurate, and multi-finger gestures work fairly well.Flex cityGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramT-Bao X8S DisplayWe have a 15.6鈥 IPS LCD with a full HD 1920×1080 resolution, and the display is quite a pleasure to look at. Its not the brightest of displays, topping out at around 250 nits, but it displays some decent colours, decently saturated, and fairly good whites, but not as deep blacks. All in all, a good screen that will do the job, just not in direct, strong sunlight.T-Bao X8S AudioThe speakers are average in pretty much all respects, first the volume is average, it doesn鈥檛 get too loud and does get drowned out if there is constant, loud noise. Audio quality is also average, its good enough for your basic use, average clarity, average treble, however bass never gets deep or booming enough.T-Bao X8S BatteryBattery life on the laptop is fairly characteristic for Apollo Lake laptops, it falls in line with other laptops in terms of minutes per mAh. However, it only has an 8000mAh battery, and combine that with a large 15.6鈥 screen and battery life is below average. I get between 5-6 hours of screen on time using Chrome, and a bit more than that using Edge. Charging up the laptop takes about 2 hours.Below average battery lifeT-Bao X8S Software & PerformanceWe have windows 10 activated and we have a fairly responsive eMMC drive which in turn makes the laptop one of the more responsive Apollo lake laptops. the 6gb of ram is good for multitasking, but the bottleneck is still the Apollo lake. gaming wise it can play some basic games, but anything intense you got to bump down to 720p for 30fps.T-Bao X8S ConnectivityIn terms of connectivity, there is no dual band WIFI but the reception and speed of the normal WIFI is actually pretty decent, Bluetooth works well, and the ports are capable of pretty fast transfer speeds.T-Bao X8S Verdict Buy the T-Bao X8SThis laptop isn鈥檛 perfect, its biggest failing would be the build quality. A large 15.6鈥 laptop made of plastic is bound to have a lot of flex, and this one does. It does have below average battery life due to its large screen and slightly inadequate battery, but the rest of the laptop is decent. The T-Bao X8S can be had for $280USD if you can鈥檛 find it on sale and at that price, there are better options, like the smaller Jumper EZBook 3 Pros which regularly can be found for $250 and below. However, this laptop was recently released and its already on sale for $209 at Geekbuying which makes it an absolute steal of a deal, especially for a 15.6鈥 laptop which is rare these days.I guess we can all agree that 2017 is the year of the full display (18:9 ratio) smartphones. Xiaomi Mi Mix started the trend, LG carried on, Samsung Galaxy S8 pushed it forward adding a 19:8 screen ratio and now dozens of other OEM’s have followed their lead. The new combination took over the smartphone market adding a much needed touch of fresh design after a couple of years of stagnant copying of the iPhone 6.Manufacturers rushed to create new models and grab any piece of the market鈥檚 share. MHORSE is not a newcomer in the industry, but a rather shy company from China that chooses to launch specific model from time to time. This month the decided to launch one of the cheapest and most affordable bezel-less, 18:9 smartphones, named MHORSE Pure 1.It comes with a price tag less than $119 and for that money you get 4G/LTE connectivity, plus dual front and back cameras, a truly beautiful design and a fingerprint scanner!impressive quaLITY FOR ITS PRICEMHORSE Pure 1 – Technical SpecificationsCPU鈥 Quad-Core 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A53Chipset鈥 MediaTek MT6737HGPU鈥 ARM Mali-T720 MP2 600MHz, 2-CoresCamera鈥 8 MP+2MP with Single-LED and AF Rear Camera | 5 Megapixel Front cameraMemory鈥 RAM- 3GB | ROM 32GB External Memory Support up to 128GBDisplay鈥 Screen size 5.7 inches HD+ (1440脳720 Pixels)Battery鈥 Removable 4,380 mAh Lithium-PolymerSensors-Proximity Sensor, Accelerometer, Ambient Light, Fingerprint, CompassOperating System鈥 Android 7.0 NougatI/O Interface鈥 1 x Micro SIM Card Slot,1 x Nano SIM Card Slot, microSD/TF Card Slot, Micro USB Port, 3.5mm Audio Out Port, Power Button, Volume Button, Microphone, SpeakerDimensions鈥 279 x 7.3 x 0.98 cmWeight鈥 203 GramsFeatures鈥 LTE CAT4 150 Mbps Download, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps Upload, HSDPA 21 Mbps Download, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps Upload, HSDPA 21 Mbps Download, Computer Sync, OTA Sync, Tethering, VoLTE Support, FM Radio,USB On-The-Go (OTG) Support, Fast Charging Technology, 18:9 Display Aspect Ratio.Basic packageThe box contains the basic stuff for the price range it competes in:one USB cable,a power adapter,a SIM tray ejector needle,a see-through (transparent) silicon case,a warrantyand a User鈥檚 manual in multiple languages (in big clear font).DesignThis is clearly a design focused product. You can read in the back:鈥淒esigned in Italy, Assembled in China鈥滭/p>The sample I reviewed, has the beautiful and shiny Titanium silver color in the back. The curvy panel looks like the front of the Samsung Galaxy S7 combined with the back of Xiaomi Mi 5!The front has small side bezels while larger ones existing in the top and lower part. The 5.7鈥 display comes with a typical (budget) resolution of 1440脳720 pixels (HD+), but still manages to look fine while in everyday use. The colors are vibrant and the viewing angles are great, but it seems that the black color appears washed-out some times. Also while in direct sunlight you need to create a shadow with your other hand to see the display clearly but this is something that can be expected from a really budget Android smartphone.Note also that there is no physical button in the front and the lower bezel of the display is empty. The top one, has another pair of camera lenses, a speaker offering quite decent sound quality, along with proximity and lighting sensors.聽The display has a screen protector on it, but unfortunately the way it has been applied by the company is not impressive. Air bubbles are visible and the top is angled a bit closer to the right. You just don鈥檛 pack a smartphone with 鈥淒esigned in Italy鈥 label with this screen protector application! The MHORSE Pure 1 has a metallic frame and a plastic back panel that has – surprisingly- very good quality. If you take a good look at the back side, and start from the left you can see: the double vertical placed LED flash, the double vertically placed camera and the fingerprint scanner. It was a clear design decision to place all three of them horizontally, similar to the way we can find them on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 flagship – and this means… trouble. It thus has the same fault as Samsung鈥檚 flagship. When reaching for the scanner your finger touches the camera lenses. If you manage however not to touch the camera with the tip of your finger, then the fingerprint scanner really works and it takes about a second to unlock the screen.聽As I mentioned earlier the plastic back looks great but it will get scratched easily, so – thankfully – the accompanying case in the box will help you with that.NOT LIGHT, BUT SURELY A FUN TO PLAY WITHThe phone is not light I have to stress this. At 203.9 grams it’s surely heavy due to its metallic frame and the large battery you will find inside. Its dimensions are 15.279 x 7.3 x 0.98 cm, so it is smaller than the Xiaomi Mi A1 but surely a lot thicker, giving you the sense of a sturdy well built device. The phone is also available – beside of the Titanium silver variant聽– in black, titanium gold and blue. The blue one is a solid winner as it has a silver frame, turning the phone into a luxury 鈥渋 want to have it now鈥 object.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramIn the bottom of the metallic frame there is a single speaker, a micro-USB port and a microphone. The sound of聽 the microphone is loud although it sounds distorted at maximum volume. The top has a 3.5mm headphone jack! On the right side of the frame you can find the SIM tray. You can fit two micro SIMs inside, or one SIM card along with a microSd card if you want to expand its storage. The power and volume buttons are placed at the left. I am left-handed user and until now (except LG鈥檚 back volume placement) I had to stretch my fingers or use the other hand in order to reach the volume buttons when on a call. So if you’re a right handed person (like almost 90% of the population) you might find the placement weird and uncomfortable. For us 鈥榣efties鈥 this is truly a gift. Using Pure 1 feels so natural to me. I hope more companies will follow on, using buttons on the left side for some of their models.Note also tha the phone supports OTG (On-The-Go) and fast charging features. With the first you can connect it to a huge range of peripherals and flash discs, while with the fast charging feature you can expect it to be fully charged in just under 2 hours.Specs and PerformanceThe M-Horse Pure 1 is using the entry level MTK6737 CPU that is paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The MTK6737 is a quad-core CPU clocked max at 1.3Ghz, announced at mid-2016. The accompanying ARM Mali-T720 MP2 GPU is two-cored and clocked at 650 MHz. All of the above combine normally, providing typical performance for the low-mid segment of the market, with an average Antutu score of approximately 36000. MHORSE Pure 1 is running Android 7.0, with some preinstalled apps and a small touch in the settings. The software runs properly without any issues. You will not break any records for faster app loading but at that price range this can be expected. This is a phone for light usage, and keeping that in mind, M-Horse has done a good job. I played some games, that do not need the latest Mediatek or Qualcomm SoCs to run smoothly, and I had no issues at all. Nougat gimmicks work too. You have two apps running in two windows simultaneously, you can swipe three fingers down to take screenshots etc. M-Horse has added an Intelligent 鈥渁ssist menu鈥 in the Setting menu, to control the available gestures like Double-tap to awake the screen etc. The other menu in the settings that I found really interesting is the one with the “Fingerprint” functions. By touching the sensor you can answer a call, take a photo, and play/pause the music and video players. FM Radio is included too in the application package, something that those of you who are always on the move will surely appreciate!Battery LifeThe phone has a 4380mAh non -removable battery. The results that I got from it aren鈥檛 that amazing. The battery lasted a full day with heavy use and has about 7h of SOT (screen-on time). It is not bad but M-Horse could do much better with a battery pack of almost 5000 mAhs. Perhaps the software needs a bit more tuning? I believe so…Camera performanceThe phone has 4 cameras and seems to be on par with the current flagship trend, as several small OEM manufacturers use it to attract more customers. On the front we have a dual 5MP + 2MP camera and on the back a dual 8MP + 2MP camera. The 鈥楥amera鈥 app offers Video, Photo, Beauty, Panorama and SLR modes. It has HDR and full menu in the settings. Given the budget nature of the smartphone, don鈥檛 expect much from the cameras. The pair of lower+higher resolution lenses is used to gather depth information, as to produce a 鈥榖okeh鈥 effect where the main object has a background blur effect. Bokeh here is simulated on the SLR mode but fails miserably – and it cannot compete against the rest of some under $250 smartphones that have a dual camera.[flickr_set id=”72157690415957854″]With plenty of light, the pictures are 鈥榦k鈥 and better than other same-range mobile phones. At low light conditions however, things are… not that good. The phone follows the path of all budget category phones, having a lot of digital noise and low quality results. At least, the Autofocus function is excellent for the price range, offering fast and reliable performance while in everyday use.ConclusionThe MHORSE Pure 1 has a full-view display and 4G/LTE connectivity, offering really decent value for it鈥檚 super low price (it costs 119$ at the time this review was published). If you want the pros of this phone, then you don’t have to try hard to find them: it’s the software it uses, along with 3GB RAM, 4G/LTE connectivity and a trully reliable fingerprint scanner at the back.Yes, I know that the placement of the scanner is as bad as it can get, but even Samsung failed at that. The camera is proper for the price you’re about to pay, just don鈥檛 use the SLR mode or expect any good results while in low light conditions. I have to say however that the HD+ resolution of its display was a bad choice. Considering the energy needing 5,7 inch display, the company wanted to keep the phone going on for longer times and HD stretches the battery duration a lot.As a left handed person I loved the button placement. This is a good, tight budget phone, that really looks amazing and could become an excellent gift for the Christmas period.

Not particularly fond of fitness trackers, I decided to give the MGCool Band 3 a try and see if fitness trackers do make sense. With fitness trackers hitting the market a dime a dozen, the MGCool Band 3 does manage to make a stand for itself, although it does disappoint at certain levels. With the bar set by the Mi Band 2, let’s see if the MGCool Band 3 manages to keep up.MGCool Band 3 SpecificationsProcessorNRF51822Display0.66″ inch OLEDRAM256KPhysical Dimensions24.80 x 2.42 x 1.10 cm, 2.5 gramsOperating SystemProprietarySensorsHeart Rate Sensor, PedometerIP RatingIP68Battery105mAhConnectivityBluetooth 4.0MGCool Band 3 DesignThe Band 3, like many other fitness trackers, features a display for showing you calorie count, real-time heart rate, steps, and last but not the least, time. It would be a real bummer if time weren’t a part of the “watch”. The display is non-touch with a plastic casing on top which is susceptible to scratching and also reveals quite a lot of what is present underneath the casing when exposed to sunlight. The watch does not have any buttons but comes with a touch-sensitive surface located right below the rectangular display. On the back of the watch, lies the heart rate sensor along with the charging pins. The band is made of silicon with stainless steel buckles. Plus points to MGCool for using good quality silicon and buckles that do not wear easily. There are two band colors to chose from, Black and Red. The dial is fixed tight to the strap, so there is no way of changing the strap. The dial is about 4 cm long, but approximately only 1.7 x 1.5 cm is occupied by the display, which seems like a wastage of space. The watch fits snugly on my wrist, with there being instances when I actually forgot that I am wearing it, which is exactly what I was expecting from a tracker. The IP68 rating is a bonus! As far as the build quality is concerned, I have worn the watch day in and out and it got through with flying colours. More points to MGCool. Overall, the design of the Band 3 is good, although I would have loved to see more utilisation of the space on the dial.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramMGCool Band 3 PerformanceThe dial features multiple screens, first of which is the face, that displays the time and heart rate with the connection status. Long press the touch surface and it’ll take you to a menu which on tapping shows you three different watch faces to choose from, one being a cramped analog display. Tapping through the different options gets you to the heart rate, step count, distance walked, calories burnt, sleep tracker, stopwatch, find the phone, and finally the power off option.The heart rate sensor works flawlessly and provides real-time heart rate. The pedometer is adept at tracking steps and the distance covered, thus fulfilling the basic requirements of a fitness tracker. Once paired with the companion app, it vibrates and shows incoming calls and messages although there’s hardly anything that fits on that tiny screen.There is also a ‘raise the hand to view screen’ option that can be configured via the watch companion app. But the Band 3 lost some points amassed in the design and build quality section, in performance, primarily due to the badly designed companion app. The WearFit 2.0 is the watch companion app for the Band 3, and it is not the best out there. There are a few useless options like “Photograph”, which I assumed turned the watch into a Bluetooth remote for my camera, but it just opens up the camera module on the phone. It did manage to track my sleep cycle albeit with a few errors here and there. The battery life is not that great. I could squeeze out a maximum of two weeks with the ‘Raise hand to view’ option, which is less as compared to a few trackers out there.MGCool Band 3 VerdictAnother attractive smartphone from OPPO, but we鈥檙e going to learn if beauty is more than skin deep.OPPO is well established in the smartphone market for making some unique, memorable and highly innovative smartphones. The brand has been responsible for the excelling Find range of flagships, the innovative N series of camera phones and more recently the 鈥楻鈥 series.The current range-topper in the OPPO R series are the R11s and R11s Plus. OPPO has been kind enough to send over the R11s for me to test and review, but before we get to that we should take a look at this beauty in the flesh.While we tend to receive either the black, white or gold versions of phones to review I鈥檓 pretty happy that OPPO decided to give me the red version of this phone. If the red isn鈥檛 to your liking then you can always choose from either champagne or black.The red version of the R11s is also the perfect variant to show off OPPO鈥檚 Starry sky screen design feature. Basically a method of blending the red colour of the body into the edges of the display itself.Of course the screen 18:9 panel just like all top of the line smartphones that are launching. For the R11s OPPO is using a 6.01 inch AMOLED panel (the larger R11s Plus has a 6.43 inch display) with a FHD+ 2160 x 1080 resolution. It鈥檚 early days yet, but so far the screen looks every bit as good as it sounds.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramDespite the large display, the overall size of the OPPO R11s has a compact size that is more like a previous generation 5.5-inch phone. The actual dimensions are 155.1 x 75.5 x 7.1mm with a weight of just 153g.OPPO uses many of the same internal hardware components across both the R11s and R11s Plus. What this means is both phones have the same 64GB internal memory, the option to use a micro SD card and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset.Both phones also boast OPPO鈥檚 class-leading VOOC fast charging system, which in the case of the R11s, can give the 3205mAh battery 2 hours of talk time after only 5 minutes of charging! The charging is so fast you can actually watch the % grow!Another area the R11s shares with the R11s Plus is the camera hardware. The specifications are super impressive with the dual rear cameras module running both a 20 megapixel + 16 megapixel combo with dual F1.7 apertures, This promises fast and accurate daylight processing and stunning low-light/night shots, but we鈥檒l have to test this to see if the promise lives up to performance.IF you鈥檙e a fan of selfies then you鈥檒l love the fact that OPPO has given the R11s a 20 megapixel front camera and that the camera app has all the latest beautification features ready to go. My review R11s comes with the international version of Colour OS 3.2 meaning that it has the full suite of language options built-in plus all Google Services are installed out of the box.The DOOGEE Shoot 1 is the company’s first ever dual camera phone and it is a budget one costing about $100, as such I wasn’t expecting much from it to begin with. Have I been proven wrong? Let’s find out in our DOOGEE Shoot 1 Review!DOOGEE鑱絊hoot 1鑱絊pecificationsProcessorMediatek MTK6737T ProcessorDisplay5.5閳 SHARP搴 FHD 2.5D G+FFRAM2GB LPDDR3Storage16GB eMMC 閳 microSD鑱絪lotOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 MarshmallowCameras13MP + 8MP rear cameras, 8MP frontBattery3300mAhPhysical Dimensions168g, 156.6鑱絰 77 x 8.7 mmDOOGEE鑱絊hoot 1鑱経nboxingThere isn’t really much to say about DOOGEE’s Shoot 1 unboxing. It comes in a quite ordinary box with a case, screen protector, USB charger 5V/2A, a鑱絤icro USB cable and the SIM removal tool. There’s also an additional screen protector for those who will want to change it down the line.DOOGEE鑱絊hoot 1鑱紻esign & Build QualityI give the DOOGEE Shoot 1 quite an high score as far as design and build quality goes. While it’s made of plastic it doesn’t feel cheap in your hands, it’s just lighter than its metal counterparts, which is definitely a plus.Design wise, it’s the typical Chinese phone of 2016 and 2017: sleek, visible antenna lines, centered camera(s) on the back and a fingerprint scanner on the front accompanied by two touch buttons beside it.Regarding its overall size, the phone is definitely taller and wider than other smartphones, having bigger than average hands this didn’t bother me, but to somebody with smaller hands this could affect their ability of using the phone properly.鑱紾iven the averagely sized 3300mAh battery this slightly disappoints me.DOOGEE鑱絊hoot 1鑱紻isplayFor a phone that costs just about鑱?100, I’m honestly just glad it has a Full HD display. It isn’t the best I’ve seen and it has kind of a yellowish tint to it, but again in this price range I wasn’t expecting much more.Viewing angles are good and the touch screen panel is accurate and fast, so there are no problems during every day use.DOOGEE鑱絊hoot 1鑱紿ardware & PerformanceThe hardware on the鑱紻OOGEE Shoot 1 is mediocre at best. The phone is powered by a鑱組ediatek MTK6737T CPU paired with 2GB of RAM, which is alright for a budget phone but to me it’s somewhat weird that a phone with a Full HD panel only comes with 2GB of RAM.In my opinion, the amount of RAM should have a priority over screen resolution. We’ve seen 5.5-inch phones with HD displays and while they aren’t as sharp, they’re still bearable. What isn’t bearable in my opinion is running out of RAM and having to reload apps constantly. I’m not saying this has been happening to me on this handset as it’s new and there are few apps installed, but in the long run it might become a problem. Let me know in the comments below if you agree with me.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram That said, the phone is snappy for what it is and I haven’t had any problems during every day use.鑱結ou’ll also be able to run most games without excessive drops in frames, although you should probably look for something else if gaming is your No. 1 priority.The front-facing fingerprint scanner on the front works OK, it isn’t one of the most accurate on the market but it’s not too bad. I don’t like how the home button feels though and that’s probably because it protrudes from the glass, other smartphones only have the rim protruding, some not even that.As far as connectivity goes, 4G LTE is good, the DOOGEE Shoot 1 supports bands 1/3/7/8/20 so no problems over here in Europe and most other parts of the world. The phone part is alright and sound is clear.Battery life is average, you can get through a day of moderate use, albeit I’ve noticed standby times aren’t amazing, so you might find the phone will less battery even after not using it for some time.The phone’s speaker isn’t very loud and sound quality is average at best.DOOGEE鑱絊hoot 1 Camera & PhotosThis is probably where the DOOGEE Shoot 1 disappointed me the most. I was really excited to try the dual camera setup as it’d be the first phone with this feature I ever used, other than a friend’s Honor 8.And what is there to say? The dual camera setup feels more like a single camera setup with an additional light sensor. The bokeh effect (shallow depth of field) appears to be software, indeed if you look at the image you can see the foreground is still in focus even if further away.Definitely disappointing as the main 13MP camera itself isn’t too bad, photos are sharp and color reproduction is on point, what’s bad is dynamic range and high noise even at low ISO.Either way, have a look at the images and judge for yourself! DOOGEE鑱絊hoot 1鑱紾allery DOOGEE鑱絊hoot 1鑱紺onclusionFor about $100 the DOOGEE Shoot 1 isn’t the best or worst phone in this price range. You can definitely get something better for your specific needs as this one tries to be good in everything but doesn’t really shine in nothing.How the鑱絪econdary rear camera works is a mystery to me, I’d rather preferred they had stuck with one but I understand phone manufacturers always want to get customers’ attention with the latest trend 閳 dual camera setups.

Recently I got the chance to review the Blackview R6. While I found the device to be good enough for daily use, it had plenty of cons that prevented me from recommending it. So when I was offered the Blackview P2, I eagerly accepted the device. So, is the P2 a good phone, and has it improved upon the mistakes of the R6?Design and BuildIn terms of design, the Blackview P2 again chooses the functional route over the flashy route. Unlike before however, the P2 actually looks good and unique. One of my gripes about the R6 was how generic the design was.Once again we have a CNC Aluminum frame around the phone, with the power and volume button sitting comfortably on the right. On the bottom of the frame there鈥檚 a speaker and the USB-C port, and at the top there鈥檚 the usual 3.5mm headphone jack. The rear this time is completely metal. Unfortunately, the capacitive buttons are, again, not backlit. This is really quite disappointing since it鈥檚 such a basic thing to have in a device. On the bright side however, Blackview did decide to include an LED notification light this time around. The device is also quite a bit on the weighty side at 232g due to the 6000mAh battery.The design this time is much improved from the R6鈥檚 design. Where the R6 was quite generic looking, the P2 looks nice and svelte in black, though the thickness is instantly noticeable. That鈥檚 beside the point though. The Blackview R6 is a device that clearly puts substance over style, and it鈥檚 instantly apparent once you hold it in your hand. Blackview continues their excellence in build quality with the P2. The device simply feels fantastic in the hand, and it鈥檚 very solidly built. The weight is the main issue here, as it鈥檚 a noticeably heavy device. Thankfully, the weight distribution is very good.Overall, the device has some very good build quality paired with a nice svelte look that wouldn鈥檛 look out of place next to the iPhones and Samsung of the world. While there are some nitpicks to be had, it鈥檚 looking good for the P2.DisplayThe Blackview P2 has a full HD 1920×1080 display, and this time around Blackview have managed to get a quality panel for the device. The display is sharp, vibrant and accurate, as a good display should be. Sunlight visibility is also good, and I only needed to crank it to full brightness when under harsh sunlight.It鈥檚 good to see that Blackview have avoided the missteps of the Blackview R6. The color accuracy on the P2 is much improved. The device鈥檚 white balance leans towards the cooler end of the spectrum, but all too noticeable.Viewing angles on the Blackview P2 are once again good. It鈥檚 more than capable of matching up with similarly priced devices. Overall, this display is surprisingly good, especially at its price point. The Blackview P2 gets another thumbs up from me.SoftwareBlackview UNI Launcher makes another appearance here, and once again it鈥檚 pretty much stock Android with a skin on top and no app drawer. The icons are still bad, even worse than the R6 actually, so I threw on Nova Launcher. The settings menu has some options for unlocking the phone with gestures, but they鈥檙e not really all too useful when you consider the device fingerprint sensor. Aside from that, everything else is pretty much stock Android 6.0.PerformanceThe P2 comes with a MTK6750T chipset and 4GB of RAM, promising some good performance, and I鈥檓 happy to announce that it鈥檚 entirely as good as it sounds.The UI is snappy and quick, with few to no slowdowns throughout this testing period. Opening multiple apps at the same time was also no problem thanks to the huge amount of RAM in the device. Moving onto gaming, The P2 once again impresses with all around good showings. Playing simple games like Tetris and Prune proved to be no challenge for the P2. More graphic intensive games like NOVA 3 caused some minor slowdowns, but nothing that effected my enjoyment of the game.Overall, the performance of the P2 is great. The combination of the MTK6750T and 4GB RAM provides a very good user experience, with everything being quick and snappy. It鈥檚 not the fastest device, but it provides reliable performance all throughout.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramBattery LifeThe battery life of the P2 is fantastic, and what else would you expect from a 6000mAh battery. With standard usage and brightness set to 60%, the P2 easily powered through an entire day with 45-55% of battery life left. With heavier usage and brightness set to 80%, the battery managed to get through with 10-15% of battery left.The P2 also charges surprisingly quick. It can go from 0% to 100% in 1 hour and 30 minutes. And while this isn鈥檛 the best I鈥檝e seen, it鈥檚 really quite impressive for the price. So to summarize, the Blackview P2 does extremely well in terms of battery life.Audio QualityThe P2鈥檚 audio quality is decent, but it doesn鈥檛 impress. For starters, the phone鈥檚 main speaker lacks in volume, bass and sharpness. This is a real let down for me, because I was really hoping this phone would be exceptional in all aspects.Following that, the in-ear speaker is also lacking in volume. It is however clear, which means when you do hear the person on the other line, you can understand what they鈥檙e saying pretty easily. Also, it鈥檚 a shame the phone has two speaker grilles but only one speaker, a common and misleading practice that needs to stop.CameraThe Blackview P2鈥檚 camera is, at its best, decent. The phone suffers from the same problem most mid-range smartphones suffer from, the cameras rarely stand out amongst the competition. Their cameras are fully usable, but they aren鈥檛 going to be the reason you buy the device.Now to its credit, the P2 does do fairly well in daylight. Details are captured well, there鈥檚 minimal noise and colors are accurate, if not a tad understated. White balanace is also good, though things tend to lean towards the cool side. Once night hits however, things take a turn for the worse. The camera starts to become really slow, which presents the user with a terrible case of shutter lag. This, paired with the amount of noise generated by the camera in low light make low light photography pretty bad.Video recording doesn鈥檛 fare much better either. I do have to say that the sound quality of the recordings are decent, but aside from that it鈥檚 just average. And finally, the selfie camera is OK. It鈥檚 more than sufficient for the odd selfie every now and then, though it could definitely be better.ConnectivityThe P2, like its cousin the R6, impresses in connectivity. The GPS locked-on quickly and managed to hold a strong connection every time I needed it, and mobile reception was good as I could get a clear connection from inside a hospital.Bluetooth works well, and Hotknot also works though I鈥檓 not sure why you鈥檇 use it over Bluetooth. Everything ran as it should have and there weren鈥檛 any times where a problem with stop me from doing something. As such, the P2 gets a thumbs up from me.ConclusionBlackview have stepped up their game with the Blackview P2. It鈥檚 a quality device with a lot of good points going for it, but it does have some clear flaws. Though unlike the Blackview R6, the cons don鈥檛 really outweigh the pros.ProsStock software is snappyBuild quality is fantastic, as usualConnectivity is goodBattery that goes on and onGood displayGaming performance is good4GB of RAM allows for a lot of multitaskingDesign is unique and pleasantConsCameras are averageNo backlit buttonsHeavyAudio quality is lacking volume, bass and detailBlackview is a company that I rarely pay much attention to. Their devices are usually decent, but also surprisingly generic, hence why I like to focus on more attention grabbing companies and their devices. When I was offered the Blackview R6 however, I decided to give it a try, if only to see if my suspicions and preconceptions were true. So, how is the Blackview R6?Design and BuildIn terms of design, the Blackview R6 is more focused on being simple and functional than flashy. My unit is the Titanium Grey model, which comes with a simple grey rear and a completely black front. Going around the device is a CNC Aluminum frame, with the power and volume button sitting comfortably on the right. On the bottom of the frame, there鈥檚 the microUSB port, and at the top there鈥檚 the usual 3.5mm headphone jack.  PerformanceThe R6 performs like any other MTK6737T powered device. It鈥檚 quick and snappy in the UI department, but once you start gaming things become more troublesome.Playing simple games is completely fine, for example Angry Birds or Tetris. Unfortunately, anything that requires even slightly more graphic fidelity is going to make you drop frames. Playing NOVA 3 results in a low of dropped frames, at some points rendering the game unplayable. The R6 is good at managing RAM, as it鈥檚 fully possible to run multiple apps in the background without slowdown. Unfortunately, I still stumbled freezes and slowdowns way more often than I would鈥檝e liked. The fingerprint sensor is accurate and quick, though it鈥檚 not much of a consolation.Overall, the performance is acceptable but may leave some desiring more. If you have any desire to game on your phone, then you will want to avoid the R6. If you don鈥檛 really game much or only play light games like Candy Crush, then the R6 should be sufficient.Battery LifeThe battery life on the R6 is above average, not more and not less. The 3000mAh battery in the R6 isn鈥檛 as beastly as the 6000mAh unit in its cousin the P2, and the results reflect that.With standard usage and brightness set to 60%, the R6 is fully capable of getting me through an entire day with 10-20% of battery life left. With heavier usage and brightness set to 80%, I managed to run out the battery before the end of the day. Realistically however, the R6鈥檚 battery life more than sufficient enough to get most people through the day.One more thing to take note off is that the device takes quite a while to charge with the included charger, about 2 hours and 20 minutes to go from 0% to 100%.Audio QualityThe R6鈥檚 audio quality is a mixed bag. The main speaker, located on the bottom right of the rear, is small and easy to muffle with a single finger. It is however very loud, though it lacks in clarity and bass. It鈥檚 good if you find it hard to hear your phone ringing, but it鈥檚 not optimal for music.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramSimilarly, the in-ear speaker is loud, but it can be somewhat blurry at times. It might get just a bit too loud since people around me could hear what the person on the other line was saying. On a more positive note, the person on the other hand could hear me just fine.CameraThe camera on the R6 isn鈥檛 very good. It can take some decent shots, but the white balance and saturation are incredibly inaccurate. Colors are blown way out of proportion and simply look unnatural or painful. 聽Just take a look at some of these samples.Now the R6 isn鈥檛 the worst camera I鈥檝e used, and these problems could be fixed by going through the settings, but the average user isn鈥檛 going to know that. They want to be able to point and shoot at a moments notice, needing to fiddle with settings just to take a usable photo simply isn鈥檛 acceptable. The front facing camera is similarly abysmal, with highlights getting blown to oblivion and details getting blurry and smudged. Low light shooting isn鈥檛 something you want to do with this device either as trying to snap a steady picture is a fight in itself.Video recording is also not really good. As is the case with most devices at this price point, the recorded footage is mediocre and the sound quality is also fairly bad. Still, if you鈥檙e looking at something in this price point, good video quality is simply something you don鈥檛 expect to get.ConnectivityMoving onto a more positive note, the R6鈥檚 GPS performance is fantastic. No matter where I went, the device managed to get a lock-on pretty quickly with minimal fuss. Reception was also great, as I could easily get 4G speeds anywhere I went.I never really faced any major connectivity issues throughout my testing. Everything ran as it should have and there weren鈥檛 any times where a problem with stop me from doing something. So for connectivity, the R6 gets a big thumbs up.ConclusionThe Blackview R6 is a device that leaves me quite conflicted. It鈥檚 a device that has some high highs, while also having some really low lows. Things like the build quality and connectivity of the device left me impressed, while the other aspects of the device were lacklustE.ProsStock software is snappyBuild quality is fantasticConnectivity is goodReliable battery lifeConsBad cameraMediocre video recordingNo backlit buttonsNo notification LEDGaming performance is poorDisplay isn鈥檛 greatMany people dream of the old days when phones lasted for three weeks straight and while that is no longer a reality, the Oukitel K6000 Plus offers the next best thing; up to 4 days of battery life.Oukitel K6000 Plus ReviewOukitel has been trying for quite a while to unseat the Ulefone Power 2 as one of the most popular MediaTek battery phones. This time, Oukitel is fighting Ulefone on its own turf, releasing a phone almost spec for spec with the Oukitel with a couple of minor differences. It uses the MTK6750 processor, 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM and of course, a massive 6080mAh battery as well. can the new Oukitel K6000 Plus successfully beat down the Ulefone Power 2? Let鈥檚 find out.Oukitel鈥檚 Ulefone Power 2Oukitel K6000 Plus SpecificationsProcessorMediatek MTK6750 Octacore ProcessorDisplay5.5″ 1920×1080 px, LCD Gorilla Glass 3RAM4GBStorage64GB eMMCOperating SystemAndroid 7.0Cameras16MP, 8MP frontBattery6080mAhPhysical Dimensions208g, 15.70 x 7.6 x 0.98 cmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Oukitel K6000 Plus HardwareBuild quality is great. The body is metal and it feels good in hand. The only issue is that so many other midrange to low end devices feature similarly good build that metal like this no longer is special or exclusive to higher end devices.The phone is large, definitely not compact for a 5.5鈥 device, nearing 1cm in thickness and 76mm wide.I suspect people with smaller hands will have trouble hefting this phone while those who do not mind big device might be less put off by the size. The fingerprint sensor/home button combo is on the front with capacitive buttons flanking said button. Overall the build quality here is good, but the phone is large, as is expected for phones with massive batteries.Well built but bigOukitel K6000 Plus DisplayThe Oukitel K6000 Plus uses a 5.5鈥 1920x1080px display by AUO and the display here does not disappoint. The display is quite strong, showing off crisp text, pictures and the like while colourizing each pixel quite well.Colours are quite vivid, blacks are pretty dark and whites are slightly on the blue side, so I don鈥檛 have any complaints about how this display looks.It has a maximum brightness of 450 nits which is respectable, viewable even in direct sunlight. The screen is also covered with Asahi Dragontrail Glass, so it is protected against scratches to a certain degree.Oukitel K6000 Plus AudioThere is a single speaker on the back that provides decently loud sound. It鈥檚 still possible to get overpowered (e.g. on a highway) but the phone pumps out respectable sound.Audio quality is slightly above average, there is some decent clarity from the speakers and some bass as well. While the speaker here is not something to boast about, it is by no means a deal breaker either.Oukitel K6000 Plus BatteryBam bam! Another 6000mAh battery in my hand, and I鈥檓 over the moon! The K6000 Plus has a slightly larger battery than the Ulefone Power 2 (6080mAh vs 6050mAh) but that should not have any measurable effect on battery life compared to other factors like software optimization, screen brightness, etc.I put this phone through its paces, a 16 hour day with 5 hours of screen on time consumed about 38% of the battery, meaning there was 62% left.The next test was a two day test, two 16 hour days and about 10 hours of screen on time. I had about 17% left in the battery by the end of the second day. Can you kill this phone in a day? Yeah its possible. Will it be realistic? Definitely not, you will need to do some ridiculous things to kill this in a single day if you so desire.The phone also supports MediaTek鈥檚 PumpExpress fast charging, however the included charger was not a PumpExpress charger.Heavy users will not be able to kill the battery in a single day while medium and light users can stretch that to 3, even 4 days.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramTwice the battery, double the鈥attery?Oukitel K6000 Plus SoftwareThis phone comes with the latest Android 7.0 Nougat and let me start with a slight downside, the icons, notification shade and settings menu are not stock, you have custom Oukitel icons for each of those sections of the phone. A custom launcher replaces the icon on the launcher but you鈥檒l have to live with the custom icons elsewhere.That being said, moving between home screens, swiping, and accessing the notifications shade was all silky smooth. As fast as the Ulefone Power 2, but of course still slower than expensive flagships.Moving on to the fingerprint sensor, it is fast and accurate, there鈥檚 not much else to say here. As long as a fingerprint sensor passes a certain threshold of speed and accuracy, there isn鈥檛 much else to talk about.The processor handles opening and closing apps quite well, there wasn’t a lot of lag or hestitation when opening or closing apps, there definitely was some if you compare it directly with a higher end phoen, but it isn’t big enough to be an annoyance.Multi-tasking is handled very admirably as well, considering there鈥檚 4GB of RAM here. I faced no issues switching between many apps and even some games as well, so no issues there.I could run any game on this phone with no lag at all which is pretty impressive, you won’t have any issues gaming and you can do it for a long time as well.Oukitel K6000 Plus ConnectivityDouble check the network bands on this phone before you buy to ensure it works with your carrier. I was only able to get LTE in Ontario as the network bands did not support 3G in Canada. LTE speeds are not bad, not the fastest but not slow either. WiFi, bluetooth and GPS works quite well also, GPS works and doesn’t jump around at all.Oukitel K6000 Plus CameraSo the thing is, I was able to take good photos in good lighting conditions, pretty good pictures in fact, detail is good, colours are saturated and contrast is good, dynamic range isn’t the greatest and HDr does fix that, but it doesn’t fix it fully either.But the downside here is that the K6000 Plus’s camera quality actually dips pretty sharply once you enter less than ideal lighting conditions. It obviously doesn’t handle low light situations well either.The front facing camera has 8MP and takes some decent photos, and performs about the same as the front facing camera in terms of colour reproduction and low light conditions.You can film 1080p video and detail in the video just isn’t that great, but colours and saturation are fine.Oukitel K6000 Plus Camera Gallery Oukitel K6000 Plus VerdictThe Oukitel K6000 Plus isn’t backing down from the Ulefone Power 2 at all. In fact, it has almost all the same pros and cons as the Ulefone Power 2, tit for tat. With that in mind, the K6000 Plus is also a good option for a Mediatek battery phone, and the camera is the weakest part of this phone so far.It is very close, too close to call as to whether the Ulefone or the Oukitel is a better device. that being said, if you go either way both the Ulefone and Oukitel perform quite similar. However, the K6000 Plus and the Ulefone Power 2 both face competition with the Redmi Note 4X, and that is still the biggest challenge MediaTek battery phones face today. Buy the Oukitel K6000 PlusToo close to callOukitel K6000 Plus Video ReviewMany people dream of the old days when phones lasted for three weeks straight and while that is no longer a reality, the Oukitel K6000 Plus offers the next best thing; up to 4 days of battery life.Oukitel K6000 Plus ReviewOukitel has been trying for quite a while to unseat the Ulefone Power 2 as one of the most popular MediaTek battery phones. This time, Oukitel is fighting Ulefone on its own turf, releasing a phone almost spec for spec with the Oukitel with a couple of minor differences. It uses the MTK6750 processor, 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM and of course, a massive 6080mAh battery as well. can the new Oukitel K6000 Plus successfully beat down the Ulefone Power 2? Let鈥檚 find out.Oukitel鈥檚 Ulefone Power 2Oukitel K6000 Plus SpecificationsProcessorMediatek MTK6750 Octacore ProcessorDisplay5.5″ 1920×1080 px, LCD Gorilla Glass 3RAM4GBStorage64GB eMMCOperating SystemAndroid 7.0Cameras16MP, 8MP frontBattery6080mAhPhysical Dimensions208g, 15.70 x 7.6 x 0.98 cmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Oukitel K6000 Plus HardwareBuild quality is great. The body is metal and it feels good in hand. The only issue is that so many other midrange to low end devices feature similarly good build that metal like this no longer is special or exclusive to higher end devices.The phone is large, definitely not compact for a 5.5鈥 device, nearing 1cm in thickness and 76mm wide.I suspect people with smaller hands will have trouble hefting this phone while those who do not mind big device might be less put off by the size. The fingerprint sensor/home button combo is on the front with capacitive buttons flanking said button. Overall the build quality here is good, but the phone is large, as is expected for phones with massive batteries.Well built but bigOukitel K6000 Plus DisplayThe Oukitel K6000 Plus uses a 5.5鈥 1920x1080px display by AUO and the display here does not disappoint. The display is quite strong, showing off crisp text, pictures and the like while colourizing each pixel quite well.Colours are quite vivid, blacks are pretty dark and whites are slightly on the blue side, so I don鈥檛 have any complaints about how this display looks.It has a maximum brightness of 450 nits which is respectable, viewable even in direct sunlight. The screen is also covered with Asahi Dragontrail Glass, so it is protected against scratches to a certain degree.Oukitel K6000 Plus AudioThere is a single speaker on the back that provides decently loud sound. It鈥檚 still possible to get overpowered (e.g. on a highway) but the phone pumps out respectable sound.Audio quality is slightly above average, there is some decent clarity from the speakers and some bass as well. While the speaker here is not something to boast about, it is by no means a deal breaker either.Oukitel K6000 Plus BatteryBam bam! Another 6000mAh battery in my hand, and I鈥檓 over the moon! The K6000 Plus has a slightly larger battery than the Ulefone Power 2 (6080mAh vs 6050mAh) but that should not have any measurable effect on battery life compared to other factors like software optimization, screen brightness, etc.I put this phone through its paces, a 16 hour day with 5 hours of screen on time consumed about 38% of the battery, meaning there was 62% left.The next test was a two day test, two 16 hour days and about 10 hours of screen on time. I had about 17% left in the battery by the end of the second day. Can you kill this phone in a day? Yeah its possible. Will it be realistic? Definitely not, you will need to do some ridiculous things to kill this in a single day if you so desire.The phone also supports MediaTek鈥檚 PumpExpress fast charging, however the included charger was not a PumpExpress charger.Heavy users will not be able to kill the battery in a single day while medium and light users can stretch that to 3, even 4 days.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramTwice the battery, double the鈥attery?Oukitel K6000 Plus SoftwareThis phone comes with the latest Android 7.0 Nougat and let me start with a slight downside, the icons, notification shade and settings menu are not stock, you have custom Oukitel icons for each of those sections of the phone. A custom launcher replaces the icon on the launcher but you鈥檒l have to live with the custom icons elsewhere.That being said, moving between home screens, swiping, and accessing the notifications shade was all silky smooth. As fast as the Ulefone Power 2, but of course still slower than expensive flagships.Moving on to the fingerprint sensor, it is fast and accurate, there鈥檚 not much else to say here. As long as a fingerprint sensor passes a certain threshold of speed and accuracy, there isn鈥檛 much else to talk about.The processor handles opening and closing apps quite well, there wasn’t a lot of lag or hestitation when opening or closing apps, there definitely was some if you compare it directly with a higher end phoen, but it isn’t big enough to be an annoyance.Multi-tasking is handled very admirably as well, considering there鈥檚 4GB of RAM here. I faced no issues switching between many apps and even some games as well, so no issues there.I could run any game on this phone with no lag at all which is pretty impressive, you won’t have any issues gaming and you can do it for a long time as well.Oukitel K6000 Plus ConnectivityDouble check the network bands on this phone before you buy to ensure it works with your carrier. I was only able to get LTE in Ontario as the network bands did not support 3G in Canada. LTE speeds are not bad, not the fastest but not slow either. WiFi, bluetooth and GPS works quite well also, GPS works and doesn’t jump around at all.Oukitel K6000 Plus CameraSo the thing is, I was able to take good photos in good lighting conditions, pretty good pictures in fact, detail is good, colours are saturated and contrast is good, dynamic range isn’t the greatest and HDr does fix that, but it doesn’t fix it fully either.But the downside here is that the K6000 Plus’s camera quality actually dips pretty sharply once you enter less than ideal lighting conditions. It obviously doesn’t handle low light situations well either.The front facing camera has 8MP and takes some decent photos, and performs about the same as the front facing camera in terms of colour reproduction and low light conditions.You can film 1080p video and detail in the video just isn’t that great, but colours and saturation are fine.Oukitel K6000 Plus Camera Gallery Oukitel K6000 Plus VerdictThe Oukitel K6000 Plus isn’t backing down from the Ulefone Power 2 at all. In fact, it has almost all the same pros and cons as the Ulefone Power 2, tit for tat. With that in mind, the K6000 Plus is also a good option for a Mediatek battery phone, and the camera is the weakest part of this phone so far.It is very close, too close to call as to whether the Ulefone or the Oukitel is a better device. that being said, if you go either way both the Ulefone and Oukitel perform quite similar. However, the K6000 Plus and the Ulefone Power 2 both face competition with the Redmi Note 4X, and that is still the biggest challenge MediaTek battery phones face today. Buy the Oukitel K6000 PlusToo close to callOukitel K6000 Plus Video Review

I guess no one knew this small company a couple of months ago but now almost everybody is talking about them 鈥 and for a VERY good reason if I might add. Geotel is one of the new additions in the mobile phone industry during the past few months and they already managed to produce a very decent budget Android smartphone, called Geotel Note. Have a look at its review to find out our thoughts about it.Geotel Note聽SpecificationsProcessorMediatek MT6737 ProcessorDisplay5.5″聽IPS – 1280 x 720 (HD 720)RAM3GB LPDDR3Storage16GB eMMC – microSD聽slotOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 MarshmallowCameras13MP, 8MP frontBattery3200mAhPhysical Dimensions110g, 152.3 x 76.8 x 8.2 mm UNBOXING聽Geotel NoteIt鈥檚 always typical to expect nothing from a鈥 budget Android smartphone when it comes to its package, but this isn鈥檛 the case with Geotel Note, since the device comes with several extra accessories, such as a screen protector and a hard plastic case.Pretty decent package for this price, I have seen less extra accessories given for much more expensive smartphones, so I cannot complain.Geotel Note聽鈥 Hardware (Camera, Display, Chipset)OK, let鈥檚 see how this little guy performs in everyday use. First of all, it鈥檚 made entirely out of plastic but still it doesn鈥檛 feel cheap at all. On the contrary, it has a special glossy finish on its back and the display (5,5 inch –聽 HD resolution) looks and feels impressive for a phone of this category.The Geotel Note packs an 8Mpixels front facing camera (f/2.0, 84 degrees wide angle), along with notification LED next to it, and customizable on-screen navigation keys on the front (yes, you can swipe to make them disappear and re-appear if you wish or change their placement).As we mentioned earlier, one of its most premium features is the glossy/shiny back plate that impresses everyone who looks at it, but on the other side 鈥 beware- it鈥檚 a huge fingerprint 鈥渕agnet鈥 as you will see from the images below.Below the back plate you will find room for 2 SIM cards along with a micro SD slot and a fully replaceable 3200 mAh Li-Ion battery. In the same area, you will also find the main camera of the device, a 13Mpixels shooter with LED flash and several functions (autofocus, touch focus, video recording, f/2.0, 5P camera lens etc.)I really liked the sound from its speaker for use with ringtones, but the loudspeaker could be a bit better in terms of quality and volume output during phone calls.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram On the other hand, I had no problem with the GPS signal of the device, so I could use it with Google Maps with no problems at all. The same goes for its WiFi/Bluetooth signal, nothing to impressive but also, nothing to blame it for.Geotel Note –聽Battery lifeGeotel Note 4G聽has used a removeable 3200mAh battery to power MT6737 SoC聽and battery life understandably won鈥檛 be great. After some testing, I was able to get around 3-4 hours of screen on time before the battery bar hit 0% and this was almost exclusively light use; web browsing, social networking聽and messenger with the occasional light game and photo.Heavy users will kill the battery before the day ends, medium users can stretch the battery out for a maximum of a day while light users won鈥檛 see this phone dying before the day completes.Geotel Note聽鈥撀燑/strong>Software, Benchmarks聽Let鈥檚 have a look now at its software. The device runs on stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow and it鈥檚 equipped with a quad-core MTK6737 chip, along with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. The device has average benchmark scores that clearly depict on its everyday performance but no one can ask for more, given the fact that its price is under 90$ most of the time. You will surely enjoy聽the usability of stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow (no significant lags, no extra battery hog applications, no bloatware 3rd party apps) and the device also comes with some extra gesture/motion controls such as “5 fingers back”, that enables us to return to Home just by shrinking the display with 5 fingers. Geotel Note –聽Camera qualityYou can鈥檛 possibly expect awesome imaging results from a budget Chinese smartphone, no matter what its camera resolution might be. The Geotel Note has a decent main camera, one that can offer quite pleasing photos in daylight conditions, but still most of the time its dynamic range is usually off and sometimes the colors may look washed out. Don鈥檛 complain however, these are good photos for a 90$ smartphone, be sure of this. I wouldn’t expect much from its selfie camera however. It’s has an 8MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture and 84 degrees wide-angle view but still it is plagued by slow viewfinder speed and average ISO in low light conditions. Don’t be alarmed: you will be able to shoot great selfies for social media sharing, but -as I told you- I wouldn’t expect something more.What I LikedGreat display, with impressive performance even under direct sunlightPure Android 6.0, no bloatware, no battery hog appsGreat value for moneyWhat Could Be ImprovedMediocre battery lifeAverage chipset powerCould use a better selfie cameraGeotel Note 鈥 Our impressionsI think Geotel has a winner here. I always try to judge a smartphone for its price and functions as a whole, and the Geotel Note 4G is one of the most decent, budget Android smartphones around. It surely deserves your attention if you are searching for an affordable smartphone with some decent specifications.The large phablet market is slightly less crowded than other segments of said market, but it is competitive nonetheless. Elephone has a new budget entry into this market with its 6鈥 Elephone C1 Max.Let’s check out how well this phone fits in the scheme of things and if it’s worthy of your hard earned money.Elephone C1 Max ReviewThe Elephone C1 Max tries to offer quite a few things. It is cheap, starting at $129 on presale while sporting a full metal body. Specswise, it is entry level, an MTK6737 processor and 2GB of RAM.It also offers dual cameras, not in the style of the Huawei P9 or the UMi Z Pro, but rather the Redmi Pro with one 13MP rear camera and a second 5MP camera for Bokeh. However, this phone faces strong competition in the large phablet market if you do not mind forgoing the dual camera setup.Quite possibly its strongest competitor is the Bluboo Maya Max which sports the faster MTK6750 processor and costs about $20 more. Let鈥檚 see if it鈥檚 worth it.Phablet with dual camerasElephone C1 Max SpecificationsProcessorMediatek MTK6737 Quad Core ProcessorDisplay6.0″ 1280×720 px, LCDRAM2GBStorage32GB eMMCOperating SystemAndroid 7.0Cameras13MP + 5MP Rear, 2MP front (5MP interpolation)Battery2800mAhPhysical Dimensions227g, 164 x 83 x 8.5mmBig thanks to Elephone for providing this review unit. You can purchase one here.Elephone C1 Max HardwareI鈥檝e never been a fan of phablets, and I鈥檓 still not. The phone is huge, edging out even the Nexus 6 and the Bluboo Maya Max in size, albeit slightly. This is a two handed affair for all but basketball players and any other sport where huge hands are a benefit.It鈥檚 quite a heavy phone as well at 227g so I know at least one GizChina reader who will never purchase this device.I鈥檓 a huge fan of the build quality and the colour though. Deep red (rose gold is considered closer to pink) metal phones are not very common in the wild, with the recently released Red iPhone and Red Oneplus 3 coming to mind.So those of you who are looking for red devices are in luck, as the Elephone C1 Max comes in Red (dubbed wine red). The red body is quite eye catching and unique and I had one person asking whether this was the new red iPhone 7 Plus. It is deeper red than the new iPhone though.The body is full metal and feels good in hand. At the same time, it feels sturdy and durable as well, the slightly grained metal texture imparts a solid sense of feel and traction to the device. The curves on the front and the back make it slightly easier to hold as well.On the front we find the capacitive buttons that do not light up below the screen and they are dot matrix style. The front of my phone is black, and I cannot tell if there is a black bar going around the screen, but regardless this is still not a bezelless device.On the back we find the dual cameras as well as the fingerprint sensor. I found it slightly hard to reach because of my small hands, so again two hands are required this time.I absolutely love the build quality and colour of this phone, both of which are top notch. What I don鈥檛 like are the bezels, this phone could definitely be reduced in size as there is some bezel around the screen. The last rather unfair contention I have with this phone is the MicroUSB port. I want all phones to move to USB-C but that is probably too much to ask for a budget device.I love red metal phonesElephone C1 Max DisplayThe 6.0鈥 screen has a resolution of 1280×720. That works out to 244PPI, and in comparison a 5鈥 720p screen has 293PPI and a 5鈥 960×540 screen has 220PPI. That gives you an idea of what to expect from such a low resolution.There is a definite difference when I move from my Zuk Z2 which has almost double the PPI (440PPI) that this does. I suspect quite a few people will be turned off by this low resolution and I do not blame you. That being said, I quickly adjusted within 陆 an hour of using this phone and stopped noticing the low resolution.The screen itself is capable of producing some decent colours and contrast; no one will be blown away by what the screen is capable of showing but they won鈥檛 be disappointed by the colours and contrast either.Max brightness tops out around 400 nits which is respectable but still difficult to see in sunlight. There is Dragontrail glass protecting the screen and it does its job.Elephone C1 Max AudioThere is a single speaker on the bottom of the device and it pumps out decently loud audio but it is outstripped by more expensive phones like my Zuk Z2 or the UMi Z/Z Pro.Audio does start to distort slightly at loudest volume and there is a complete lack of bass as well when listening to audio.Elephone C1 Max Battery2800mAh is very small for such a large phone. I would think that Elephone could have fit a larger battery into such a large body, but that probably would have increased costs too much. I was not expecting great battery life out of this phone, and I didn鈥檛 get great battery life either.The maximum screen on time I could achieve was 3.5 hours, which would barely be enough for light users, let alone medium users. During that 3.5 hours of SOT, I browsed the web, browsed Reddit, and engaged in texting and social media. Nothing backbreaking like photos or gaming, so expect even less if you use your phone for that.Inadequate BatteryElephone C1 Max SoftwareI am very happy to see the latest Android 7.0 on this phone, and it is completely stock. Android 7.0 runs surprisingly fast on the MTK6737 quad core processor. Swiping between home screens is very fast and fluid and is most likely the result of well optimized software, as I鈥檝e had less than stellar experiences with other MTK6737 phones.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramOpening and closing apps also far exceeded my expectations. Light apps open instantly, medium apps hesitate for a microsecond before opening, and only the heaviest apps will cause the phone to pause for a significant amount of time before launching said app.As a device reviewer, I鈥檝e been spoilt with 4GB of Ram on my Zuk Z2, but multi-tasking on the 2GB C1 Max is quite fine. As long as you鈥檙e not constantly switching between 20 apps, the phone should more or less handle multi-tasking quite well. Because this is a 6鈥 device and Android 7.0 comes with new multi-window features, I wanted to spend a bit of time talking about that. You are able to run two apps side by side and it works decently well the for most part. Not all apps are compatible with multi-window and you do see slight lag if you run two apps at the same time.The fingerprint sensor on the back is decently fast, it unlocks the phone about as fast as the iPhone 6 which was no speed demon and is noticeably slower than other phones like the Redmi Note 4X. That being said, its speed is more than good enough for daily use. The sensor鈥檚 accuracy is pretty decent as well, it doesn鈥檛 reject my finger unless I have skin torn off or my fingers are wet.Moving on the gaming performance, the MTK6737 performs surprisingly well, it is able to play all the intense games on the play store with little to no stutter, but that is no endorsement of the MTK6737. Instead, the phone can handle games so well because the resolution is very low, and the MTK6737 can handle 720p games pretty easily. You won鈥檛 find much on the play store that you cannot play at a decent framerate.To be honest, performance even for a heavy user like me is not bad, I could conceivably see myself using this phone if my Zuk Z2 suddenly dies. Lighter users won鈥檛 find an issue here.Elephone C1 Max ConnectivityDouble check the network bands on this phone before you buy to ensure it works with your carrier. I was only able to get LTE in Ontario as the network bands did not support 3G in Canada.However, LTE performance is quite strong with me getting receptions in almost everywhere my dad鈥檚 iPhone gets LTE. Certain places like basements or large buildings saw that LTE drop though. WiFi, and Bluetooth are good, but GPS is definitely a little sluggish and sometimes likes to hop around, not enough to throw me off navigation though.Elephone C1 Max CameraIf you saw my UMi Z Pro review, I launched into a full blown explanation of why colour cameras are lower quality than monochrome cameras, and you can read that here. Sadly, the secondary camera here is only 5MP and does not capture monochrome or colour photos, it is purely there for Bokeh.The 13MP main camera isn鈥檛 the best. On the plus side, lower end cameras have definitely improved throughout the years, but lower end cameras weren鈥檛 great to begin with, so an improvement on a horrible product is a less horrible product. It captures sufficient detail but the camera is easily blown out if there is a strong light source pointed directly at the camera.Colours are adequate but not great, colours just are not very rich and saturated which is how many of us like to view pictures.Turning on HDR does fix some of that but it does not fix it completely. If you switch the phone into dual camera mode, the 5MP camera does an admirable job adding Bokeh to the shot, something I was not expecting.It adds Bokeh almost as naturally as the UMi Z Pro, and the Z Pro was not bad at adding Bokeh at all. However, the base picture captured on the C1 Max didn鈥檛 start out great, so you are adding Bokeh to a subpar photo.The front facing camera is 2MP (5MP interpolation) and is horrible.The video camera is capable of capturing up to 1080p and quality is not the best, video has sufficient detail but colours are washed out.Elephone C1 Max聽Camera Gallery Elephone C1 Max VerdictTo be honest, Elephone should have just used the 5MP camera as the front facing camera and ditched the dual camera concept altogether. But if they did, they would be losing out on the trend and the marketability of dual cameras, which is why I understand why they did it.However, that does not mean that I agree with that decision. This phone has three points that you have to be aware of before buying, the display, the battery, and the camera. The display is only 720p, you get around 3.5 hours of SOT, and the camera is not great. But on the other side of the fence, the phone is relatively cheap, has a very nice metal body, and runs the latest Android 7.0. Buy the Elephone C1 MaxAs someone who refuses to move up to 5.5鈥 devices, 6鈥 is just too big for me and using a phablet is almost out of the question for me personally. But if you are looking for a big phablet, your choices are much more limited, and if you鈥檙e looking for a large phablet (bigger than 5.5鈥? with a dual camera, you are even more limited with the C1 Max being one of the options out there.Elephone C1 Max Video Review

The first thing to get out of the way is UMi鈥檚 rebranding to UMiDigi. I鈥檓 personally not a fan, as UMi is much more recognizeable than UMiDigi, with the added benefit of being less confusing.Now with that out of the way, UMi has been on a roll lately releasing phones with many 鈥渇irsts鈥 and some gimmicks. The UMi Plus E was the first phone to use the Helio P20 processor, the UMi Z was the first to use the Helio X27, and now the UMi Z Pro is the first MTK device with identical cameras on the back, similar to what you see in phones like the Huawei P9 and the iPhone 7.UMi Z Pro ReviewThe specifications here are truly flagship worthy, a Helio X27 processor, 4GB of RAM, and now, dual cameras. It also has a large 3780mAh battery that will make it difficult for anyone to run down in one day. However, I do feel that UMi missed the boat in terms of marketing.They did not properly explain the advantages of using one colour and one monochrome camera, one that could have been very beneficial (more details in the camera section below).A true dual camera phoneUMi Z Pro SpecificationsProcessorMediatek Helio X27 ProcessorDisplay5.5″ 1920×1080 px, Sharp LCDRAM4GBStorage32GB eMMCOperating SystemAndroid 6.0Cameras2x Sony, 1x Samsung 13MP CamerasBattery3780mAhPhysical Dimensions1.3kg, 76 x 156 x 8.2 mm UMi Z Pro HardwareThis phone is not small. In the post 鈥淢i Mix鈥 age, a 156x76mm phone is definitely sizeable. If you have small hands like me, the size could make you think twice about buying this phone as your daily driver.It is very slim, standing at 8.2mm which is quite a feat considering there are three 13MP Samsung cameras and a 3780mAh battery. The curved front and back edges do help in making this phone feel smaller than it really is, but it definitely can鈥檛 pass for a 5鈥 device.The build quality here is another story. They improved on the build and design of the UMi Plus E, which is quite a feat. The aerospace grade aluminum feels exquisite to the touch but is a little slippery. It鈥檚 not as slippery as glass, but it鈥檚 bad enough to be a minor complaint.The cameras do protrude out the back but this is necessary to achieve that 8.2mm thickness. My usual response to cameras sticking out of thin phones doesn鈥檛 apply here; they already put a huge battery to the UMi Z Pro. One sticking point I鈥檝e seen with the build of the UMi Z/Z Pro is the removal of a physical home button, but rather similar to the Mi5s鈥 ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, the button cannot be depressed but operates via a tap or a hold.I鈥檓 actually a fan of that so you won鈥檛 hear any complaints from me. There are also capacitive off screen buttons as well.UMi (or UMiDIGI) has created one handsome and well built phone.Handsome, well builtUMi Z Pro DisplayThere is a 1920×1080 Sharp branded IGZO screen that produces some good colours and is sharp and clear. Yes, it鈥檚 a good screen, but it also isn鈥檛 anything special. Max brightness tops out at 500 nits, making it easy enough to see in direct sunlight.Dragontrail glass was also used in place of Gorilla Glass and for all intents and purposes it works well.UMi Z Pro AudioOne of the marketing points that UMi used was how great the audio was going to be because of its dedicated audio chip that was capable of this and that. At the end of the day, the audio output from the phone is good but not amazing.Audio can be deafeningly loud and like UMi claimed, there is no distortion at max volume. Audio quality is quite good with clear mids and highs and sufficient bass.UMi Z Pro BatteryBattery life should no doubt be good, as the 3780mAh sony battery indicates. However, I don鈥檛 expect it to get better battery life than the Helio X20 Redmi Note 4 or even come close to the Redmi 4 Prime. Turns out I鈥檓 mostly right.I was able to get around 6 hours of screen on time over a 16 hour day with about 10-15% left. This use consisted mostly of web browsing and some texting, with the occasional game and photo. I performed a couple of tests as well and was able to browse the web for about 9 hours straight while I could play back video for around 11 hours straight as well.Battery life here is definitely good and will not be a dealbreaker. Even heavy users will be hard pressed to drain the battery completely in a day, and medium users can get 2 days easily.Good BatteryUMi Z Pro SoftwareThere is a completely stock version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow on the phone with the bare essentials, a very welcome change from something like MIUI or EMUI. Usage speed is very good, launching and switching apps is lightning fast, as fast as any flagship you will find.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramHowever, I find certain actions like swiping feel ever so slightly slower than top end phones like an iPhone or S7. I don鈥檛 know what is causing it, could be input lag or just software optimization, but either way it鈥檚 a very small difference.The fingerprint sensor is fast, but the phone is not and let me explain.The sensor is incredibly fast at recognizing your finger and sending the 鈥渁ll good鈥 signal to the phone itself, but the phone takes a long time to unlock and wake the phone from sleep. If the phone screen is already on, the phone unlocks in a jiffy. If the screen is off, it鈥檚 quite slow.The phone multitasks like a champ and has no problem at all. It performs as well as the UMi Plus E and better in some cases as the SoC in the Z Pro is faster. The phone also handles gaming beautifully with no stutter detected at all.UMi Z Pro ConnectivityCheck whether this phone is supported by your carriers before buying it, that goes without saying. I was able to get reception wherever my Zuk Z2 got reception, with a couple of exceptions such as basements, deep in buildings, etc. Speeds are quite good though. WiFi is fast as well, bluetooth works fine, and GPS was quite accurate as well.UMi Z Pro CameraThe dual cameras are setup so that one takes regular pictures, and the other takes monochrome (or black and white) pictures. The long and short of it is that capturing colour pictures lowers the quality of said picture, so capturing a monochrome photo and a separate colour photo should theoretically get around that.Skip this next paragraph if you already know or do not have any interest in finding out why colour photos lower picture quality.Since a monochrome picture is just black and white, the only information it has to capture is how bright and dark each pixel is. The normal camera has to capture each pixel鈥檚 brightness AND colour, and how all cameras capture colour is by utilizing light filters.Each pixel in the camera is given its own filter of only ONE COLOUR, and each pixel will alternate between red, green, and blue filters kind of like a chessboard with three colours. The result is that each pixel will only let one colour of light through, either red, green, or blue. However, in order to create an image, just a single red value is not enough, but a green and a blue value is needed as well.So we use some fancy math to take surrounding values and calculate the approximate RGB values for each tile. The downsides of this is that the fancy math basically cuts resolution in half, so if you had a 13MP camera, the resulting photo would just be 6.5MP.The other downside would be that the filter cuts the amount of light that enters the sensor, since it only lets one colour of light come in, and blocks the other two, so theoretically it cuts out 66.66% of light coming in. Therefore, a dual camera setup should effectively negate that problem, giving you full 13MP photos with 3x the light.The UMi Z’s 13MP camera was not a bad camera at all. It took deep, saturated colours if a bit underexposed, and detail was definitely not bad. This dual camera setup improves on the UMi Z. The dual camera combination works well together in melding the colour and detail into one photo, resulting in some photos that are able to be zoomed in quite far before grain starts to show.Colours were punchy and vibrant but still fall slightly behind my Zuk Z2. However, low light shots are difficult to make out because of how soft the photos are. Without any OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), I guess the effects of both cameras shaking at the same time is difficult for the camera to resolve and the resulting picture is soft. Grain is kept quite low though. However, if I place the camera on my tripod, pictures turn out quite well.UMi Z Pro Camera Gallery UMi Z Pro VerdictI really like the UMi Z Pro as a phone, even though its the exact same as the UMi Z except for the camera. I was initially quite excited and skeptical about this dual camera implementation, and while it still doesn’t match up to something like the Huawei P9, it does work quite well.This phone is more expensive than the UMi Z, and whether or not that dual camera setup is worth the extra cash is up to you. I personally would pay the extra $20 or so for the dual camera setup, but either way the UMi Z and the Pro are both good devices. UMiDigi Z Pro: Buy Nowdual camera for $20 moreUMi Z Pro Video ReviewNow why does this phone exist? I ask this as a genuine question, when great phones like the Redmi Note 4 (review here) and the Redmi 4 Prime (review here) already exist.Let鈥檚 switch gears for a moment. Why did Xiaomi choose to use the Snapdragon 625 in a Note device when the Note 3 used a 650 series chip? This decision seems like it would cannibalize sales of the aforementioned Redmi 4 Prime.Nevertheless, the Redmi Note 4X is another great phone by Xiaomi that doesn鈥檛 need to exist.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X Review5.5鈥 devices are still the most popular screen size by far with individuals like me (who prefer smaller phones) being the exception. The Redmi Note 4X is almost identical to the Redmi 4, but that might not be a bad thing as the Redmi 4 Prime was a great device in its own right.I was seriously contemplating replacing my Zuk Z2 with the Redmi 4 Prime, but I was not willing to give up the speed of a Snapdragon 820 for the battery life of the Prime. However I am considering making the switch again.A 5.5鈥 Redmi 4Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X SpecificationsProcessorSnapdragon 625 ProcessorDisplay5.5″ 1920×1080 px, Sharp LCDRAM3GBStorage32GB eMMCOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 (MIUI 8.1)Cameras13MP/5MP CamerasBattery4100mAhPhysical Dimensions0.175kg, 76 x 151 x 8.4 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X HardwareOther companies are scrambling to catch up to Xiaomi鈥檚 Mi Mix, so this was (one of) Xiaomi鈥檚 opportunities to at least shrink the bezels on its Redmi Note series of phones. However, the physical dimensions of this phone are the exact same size as the older Redmi Note 4. It retains the same size, a similar shape, and the same amount of bezels as its older big brother. It鈥檚 a bit unwieldy for someone with small hands (like me), but the curved back and chamfered edges to help with that.The black bar around the screen is very apparent on the white version of this phone and I had wished this was eliminated as it is unsightly enough to be a dealbreaker for some. We have backlit capacitive buttons below the screen and the fingerprint sensor on the back. The hardware buttons are slightly mushy and lack the crisp feedback on other more expensive devices.Xiaomi most likely used the exact same physical design as the older Redmi Note 4 to reduce costs, but the phone could have been smaller. The last point of contention I have with the build is the use of the older MicroUSB port instead of the newer USB-C port, but I suspect that not everyone will have an issue with that.Well built, a little bigXiaomi Redmi Note 4X DisplayThe Note 4X sports a 5.5鈥 full HD IPS display and it is quite a pleasure to use. Colours are quite vivid and deep and the display is sharp. However, devices in the $200 range all feature similarly great screens so the excellent display used in here stands out a lot less. reading news on the screen is razor sharp and is generally a pleasure to use.Maximum brightness is good at around 450 nits, easily viewable in direct sunlight. However, the display is reflective so it might be tough to see it in strong sunlight. Viewing angles are great though.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X AudioSpeaker quality here is pretty much the exact same as the older Redmi Note 4, meaning decently loud sound with some slight distortion in certain tracks at max volume. However lower the volume a tad and its gone. Mids and highs are decently clear but bass is lacking in this phone.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X BatteryIf you go back to my Redmi 4 Prime review, you will remember that the Prime blew me, a battery fanatic, away completely. The Redmi Note 4X for all intents and purposes should get the same, if slightly less battery life than the Redmi 4 Prime due to the bigger screen. I was only able to perform one round of battery tests due to the incredible length of each test, and battery life is absolutely amazing.I got 11 hours of screen on time with 18% left at the end of the day. This was incredibly heavy use, with about 6 hours of intense gaming, an hour of snapping photos, 2 hours of Youtube, and the rest was web browsing, SMS, news. This actually edges out my Redmi 4 Prime battery tests which you can check out here. Becaue the battery life on the Redmi 4 Prime and Note 4X are so similar, I thought some further anecdotal evidence might be useful here.My sister who uses my Redmi 4 Prime regularly ends the day with about 80% battery life. This is mostly Snapchat, Snapchat, Snapchat, and a bit of Instagram. She has gone 4-5 days without charging before, but most of the time she still plugs it in at the end of the day by habit.Quick charge via the microUSB cable stands at about 2 hours to a full charge.Heavy users like me can get through two days of heavy use with no issue while light and medium users will be able to get at least 4 days of light use.Stupid long BatteryGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramXiaomi Redmi Note 4X SoftwareBy this point I鈥檝e gotten used to custom versions of Android, with phones using EMUI, MIUI, and ZUI popping up just as frequently as stock Android. That being said, MIUI is one of the best, complete, and most optimized versions available out there in the market and it works well. System animations are fluid and polished, swiping between screens is silky smooth and its generally a pleasure to use.However, the Snapdragon 625 is the first point of contention I have with this phone. Because this is a Note device, its only fair we compare performance to other Note devices. The Snapdragon 625 does lag slightly behind the Helio X20 (and up) and the Snapdragon 650 series in opening and closing apps.There is a slight moment of hesitation in this 625 that is either drastically reduced or non existent in more powerful chips. That being said, its still plenty useable and perfect for normal use even for someone like me. Do note that MIUI tends to clear out your RAM quite frequently forcing you to relaunch apps, but you can turn that off in developer options.The Snapdragon 625 is powerful enough to run even the most intense games without hiccups. This is quite impressive especially at the 1080p resolution. There will be a game here and there that might require lowered graphical settings to run at a high framerate, but those are few and far between.I ran just one benchmark, Antutu, and it obtained a score of around 60,000, exactly what I expected from a Snapdragon 625 chip.Performance here is very good and the snapdragon 625 is a very good chip as well. however, my complaint stems from the fact that Redmi Note devices have traditionally been more powerful than Redmi devices, but here we have the exact same chipset in both Redmi and Note devices. This seems to be an anomaly that some will not want repeated.The fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate, I didn鈥檛 see any issues here. It is slightly slower than top end sensors on S7s and iPhones, but its still more than fast enough for the average user. It does have trouble trying to detect my fingers if the skin is wet though.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X ConnectivityConnectivity here is strong, but not as strong as my Zuk Z2. I still saw more frequent drops to HSPA+ compared to the latter device, but speeds were still good. My speedtest results yielded very decent speeds as well. Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS reception was all very good and I did not see any issues with those.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X CameraThe Redmi Note 4 has a 13MP camera with f/2.0 lens and PDAF. The camera does a great job taking photos in well lit conditions with detailed photos and saturated colours. Colours and detail improve when HDR is turned on, but it does take longer to take a photo. Other smartphones have improved the HDR snap time quite a bit, leaving the Redmi Note 4’s HDR snap time a little slower.The camera does have trouble with low light shots, but much less so The front facing camera takes passable shots in good lighting conditions, indoors its a hit or miss, and the camera struggles with low light.The phone is capable of up to 1080p video and quality is good enough. You can actually shoot in 4K if you use a third party camera app like Open Camera, and the quality is good.The camera app is quite feature rich, allowing you to tweak various camera related settings to get better shots.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X Camera Gallery Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X VerdictI said it once and I鈥檒l say it again; the Redmi Note 4X is a great phone that doesn鈥檛 need to exist. You can either take a step down in size to the Redmi 4 Prime or a step up in processing power to the original Redmi Note 4. Still though, those who feel compelled to purchase this phone won鈥檛 be disappointed.While this phone鈥檚 processor is fairly weak for a Note device, it more than makes up for that in battery life, matching the Redmi 4 Prime鈥檚 battery life tit for tat. The Snapdragon 625 utilized in this device is no slouch either, pushing anything it throws your way.If you do purchase this device, I recommend getting at least the 3GB version of the Redmi Note 4X as MIUI does use more resources than stock Android does. I also highly recommend reading both Gizchina鈥檚 reviews for the Redmi Note 4 (review here) and the Redmi 4 Prime (review here) before making your decision as you might find one of the other two devices more appealing.You can buy the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X here.Good device, but look at the Note 4 and the PrimeXiaomi Redmi Note 4X Video ReviewNow why does this phone exist? I ask this as a genuine question, when great phones like the Redmi Note 4 (review here) and the Redmi 4 Prime (review here) already exist.Let鈥檚 switch gears for a moment. Why did Xiaomi choose to use the Snapdragon 625 in a Note device when the Note 3 used a 650 series chip? This decision seems like it would cannibalize sales of the aforementioned Redmi 4 Prime.Nevertheless, the Redmi Note 4X is another great phone by Xiaomi that doesn鈥檛 need to exist.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X Review5.5鈥 devices are still the most popular screen size by far with individuals like me (who prefer smaller phones) being the exception. The Redmi Note 4X is almost identical to the Redmi 4, but that might not be a bad thing as the Redmi 4 Prime was a great device in its own right.I was seriously contemplating replacing my Zuk Z2 with the Redmi 4 Prime, but I was not willing to give up the speed of a Snapdragon 820 for the battery life of the Prime. However I am considering making the switch again.A 5.5鈥 Redmi 4Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X SpecificationsProcessorSnapdragon 625 ProcessorDisplay5.5″ 1920×1080 px, Sharp LCDRAM3GBStorage32GB eMMCOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 (MIUI 8.1)Cameras13MP/5MP CamerasBattery4100mAhPhysical Dimensions0.175kg, 76 x 151 x 8.4 mmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X HardwareOther companies are scrambling to catch up to Xiaomi鈥檚 Mi Mix, so this was (one of) Xiaomi鈥檚 opportunities to at least shrink the bezels on its Redmi Note series of phones. However, the physical dimensions of this phone are the exact same size as the older Redmi Note 4. It retains the same size, a similar shape, and the same amount of bezels as its older big brother. It鈥檚 a bit unwieldy for someone with small hands (like me), but the curved back and chamfered edges to help with that.The black bar around the screen is very apparent on the white version of this phone and I had wished this was eliminated as it is unsightly enough to be a dealbreaker for some. We have backlit capacitive buttons below the screen and the fingerprint sensor on the back. The hardware buttons are slightly mushy and lack the crisp feedback on other more expensive devices.Xiaomi most likely used the exact same physical design as the older Redmi Note 4 to reduce costs, but the phone could have been smaller. The last point of contention I have with the build is the use of the older MicroUSB port instead of the newer USB-C port, but I suspect that not everyone will have an issue with that.Well built, a little bigXiaomi Redmi Note 4X DisplayThe Note 4X sports a 5.5鈥 full HD IPS display and it is quite a pleasure to use. Colours are quite vivid and deep and the display is sharp. However, devices in the $200 range all feature similarly great screens so the excellent display used in here stands out a lot less. reading news on the screen is razor sharp and is generally a pleasure to use.Maximum brightness is good at around 450 nits, easily viewable in direct sunlight. However, the display is reflective so it might be tough to see it in strong sunlight. Viewing angles are great though.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X AudioSpeaker quality here is pretty much the exact same as the older Redmi Note 4, meaning decently loud sound with some slight distortion in certain tracks at max volume. However lower the volume a tad and its gone. Mids and highs are decently clear but bass is lacking in this phone.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X BatteryIf you go back to my Redmi 4 Prime review, you will remember that the Prime blew me, a battery fanatic, away completely. The Redmi Note 4X for all intents and purposes should get the same, if slightly less battery life than the Redmi 4 Prime due to the bigger screen. I was only able to perform one round of battery tests due to the incredible length of each test, and battery life is absolutely amazing.I got 11 hours of screen on time with 18% left at the end of the day. This was incredibly heavy use, with about 6 hours of intense gaming, an hour of snapping photos, 2 hours of Youtube, and the rest was web browsing, SMS, news. This actually edges out my Redmi 4 Prime battery tests which you can check out here. Becaue the battery life on the Redmi 4 Prime and Note 4X are so similar, I thought some further anecdotal evidence might be useful here.My sister who uses my Redmi 4 Prime regularly ends the day with about 80% battery life. This is mostly Snapchat, Snapchat, Snapchat, and a bit of Instagram. She has gone 4-5 days without charging before, but most of the time she still plugs it in at the end of the day by habit.Quick charge via the microUSB cable stands at about 2 hours to a full charge.Heavy users like me can get through two days of heavy use with no issue while light and medium users will be able to get at least 4 days of light use.Stupid long BatteryGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramXiaomi Redmi Note 4X SoftwareBy this point I鈥檝e gotten used to custom versions of Android, with phones using EMUI, MIUI, and ZUI popping up just as frequently as stock Android. That being said, MIUI is one of the best, complete, and most optimized versions available out there in the market and it works well. System animations are fluid and polished, swiping between screens is silky smooth and its generally a pleasure to use.However, the Snapdragon 625 is the first point of contention I have with this phone. Because this is a Note device, its only fair we compare performance to other Note devices. The Snapdragon 625 does lag slightly behind the Helio X20 (and up) and the Snapdragon 650 series in opening and closing apps.There is a slight moment of hesitation in this 625 that is either drastically reduced or non existent in more powerful chips. That being said, its still plenty useable and perfect for normal use even for someone like me. Do note that MIUI tends to clear out your RAM quite frequently forcing you to relaunch apps, but you can turn that off in developer options.The Snapdragon 625 is powerful enough to run even the most intense games without hiccups. This is quite impressive especially at the 1080p resolution. There will be a game here and there that might require lowered graphical settings to run at a high framerate, but those are few and far between.I ran just one benchmark, Antutu, and it obtained a score of around 60,000, exactly what I expected from a Snapdragon 625 chip.Performance here is very good and the snapdragon 625 is a very good chip as well. however, my complaint stems from the fact that Redmi Note devices have traditionally been more powerful than Redmi devices, but here we have the exact same chipset in both Redmi and Note devices. This seems to be an anomaly that some will not want repeated.The fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate, I didn鈥檛 see any issues here. It is slightly slower than top end sensors on S7s and iPhones, but its still more than fast enough for the average user. It does have trouble trying to detect my fingers if the skin is wet though.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X ConnectivityConnectivity here is strong, but not as strong as my Zuk Z2. I still saw more frequent drops to HSPA+ compared to the latter device, but speeds were still good. My speedtest results yielded very decent speeds as well. Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS reception was all very good and I did not see any issues with those.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X CameraThe Redmi Note 4 has a 13MP camera with f/2.0 lens and PDAF. The camera does a great job taking photos in well lit conditions with detailed photos and saturated colours. Colours and detail improve when HDR is turned on, but it does take longer to take a photo. Other smartphones have improved the HDR snap time quite a bit, leaving the Redmi Note 4’s HDR snap time a little slower.The camera does have trouble with low light shots, but much less so The front facing camera takes passable shots in good lighting conditions, indoors its a hit or miss, and the camera struggles with low light.The phone is capable of up to 1080p video and quality is good enough. You can actually shoot in 4K if you use a third party camera app like Open Camera, and the quality is good.The camera app is quite feature rich, allowing you to tweak various camera related settings to get better shots.Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X Camera Gallery Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X VerdictI said it once and I鈥檒l say it again; the Redmi Note 4X is a great phone that doesn鈥檛 need to exist. You can either take a step down in size to the Redmi 4 Prime or a step up in processing power to the original Redmi Note 4. Still though, those who feel compelled to purchase this phone won鈥檛 be disappointed.While this phone鈥檚 processor is fairly weak for a Note device, it more than makes up for that in battery life, matching the Redmi 4 Prime鈥檚 battery life tit for tat. The Snapdragon 625 utilized in this device is no slouch either, pushing anything it throws your way.If you do purchase this device, I recommend getting at least the 3GB version of the Redmi Note 4X as MIUI does use more resources than stock Android does. I also highly recommend reading both Gizchina鈥檚 reviews for the Redmi Note 4 (review here) and the Redmi 4 Prime (review here) before making your decision as you might find one of the other two devices more appealing.You can buy the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X here.Good device, but look at the Note 4 and the PrimeXiaomi Redmi Note 4X Video ReviewThe Nubia Z11 has been by go to phone for a the past couple of months, and I’m happy to say that it will continue that role. Here’s my full review.The Nubia Z11 is the big brother of the Nubia Z11 Mini which I reviewed in the summer last year. The Z11 is not only a larger phone but it also comes with a more premium appearance, fancy flagship design features and, of course, high ends specifications.Nubia Z11 Review – DesignThe Nubia Z11 isn’t an all out new design. It doesn’t have a new and innovative shape or some special “Never before seen” features, but it still damn impressive in the flesh and a pleasure to get to grips with in the hand.It all starts with a 5.5-inch FHD 1920 x 1080 display. Nothing super fancy about that you might think, but Nubia has waved its magic over the phone to create a device with screen that reaches right up to the very edges of the metal frame.The bezel-less design is a pure joy to look at and it’s subtle yet attention grabbing trait to the Z11. You’ll find people looking at it, knowing that there is something quite different about this phone, but not quite getting what it is, well until you point it out to them.Nubia have been smart with the bezel-less design too and have been clever enough to realise that this feature needs some smart software behind it to make the use out of it. This is a very important detail, one which we hoped Vivo would have considered back when they releases the Vivo Xplay 6 with curved display but nothing to make use of it.Just as with any smartphone, we find a traditional ‘forehead’ and ‘chin’ arrangement. The former is where the front facing camera and receive are located while the latter houses the trademarked and patented (don’t copy it again Meizu) “Nubia Halo” with capacitive navigation buttons either side.The main halo acts as the ‘home’ button for the phone and will also pulse when charging or to notify you of a message. Capacitive buttons either side are use for navigating around the Android 6.0 based Nubia UI OS, and are only visible when you tap them.My review version of the phone is the white faced, gold alloy rear version. This colour combination is very attractive and also tells us savvy Nubia users that this version of the phone is has just 4GB RAM. The black and gold version of the Nubia Z11 comes with 6GB RAM.Flip the handset over and you will see that Nubia has used the rear panel as a home for the fingerprint scanner, and 16 megapixel OIS rear camera, and dual LED flash. You can also see that a Nubia logo is on there too.Final external details on the Nubia Z11 are a Type C USB in the base, 3.5mm headphone jack and IR remote at the top, physical buttons for the power and volume controls on the right and dual SIM card tray on the left.Nubia Z11 Review – HardwareI’ve already touched on the 5.5-inch FHD display but I’ll add that this bezel less beauty is a vivid panel that love to be starred at for hours on end. The colours are truly a joy to behold and really help the excellent photos from the rear camera pop of the panel.If we move to the top of the phone and that 3.5mm headphone jack the first thing I have to say is “Thanks”. Not only have Nubia wisely decided that they should keep the headphone jack, but they have also enabled the phone with some decent HIFI performance and DOLBY ATMOS. Not only that but the included Nubia earbuds are an amazing piece of kit too.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramWhile audio coming out of the Nubia Z11 is really very good, it is audio that goes in to the phone that is the problem. Originally I thought I had an issue with the stereo in my car but other phones had no issues and voice controls were clearly understood. The issues are that the Z11 doesn’t pickup audio from time to time meaning Google Now won’t hear commands. The audio issues also effects video, but oddly not calls..Continue on to the rear and we come across that fingerprint scanner. I’m totally happy with having the fingerprint scanner on the rear of the phone, or in fact on the chin in a home button. As long as the scanner is fast and accurate I don’t mind where it is located.Nubia has gotten this aspect of the phone correct too. Set up is blazing fast and the fingerprint scanners speed and accuracy is really second to none.Internally the Nubia Z11 can’t be faulted either. The Snapdragon 820 might not be the newest chipset on the planet but its fast enough for everything that I ask the handset to do, and that 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory seemed to be more than up to every task I asked of the handset too. Compared to the OnePlus 3T, the Nubia Z11 doesn’t have the same instant response but it is no slouch either.Built in to the phone is 3000mAh battery which at the start of ownership is pretty good. This was a phone that needs nightly charging, but generally the battery life was fine for a good amount of use through the day. However, subsequent updates made to the OS on the phone seem to have really eaten in to the battery life and I now find that a top up through the day is needed to keep going.As I know the phone is capable of better, I hope that the Nubia development team get on it and fix the problem for the next OTA.Nubia Z11 Review – CameraNubia have always taken time and care with the camera performance of their phones, and not only do we get a decent hardware, but also a great camera application to take full advantage of the phone.EIS allows the phone to take clear photos even with zoom maxed out and helps to create nice, smooth video. But it isn’t smooth enough to use when taking long exposure photos, which is one of the Nubia’s party pieces.While the Z11 does take some amazing photos, I did find that low-light images weren’t quite as good as some rivals and the overall speed of taking a photo is much slower than say the OP3.Sample photos below. What I LovedPremium design really takes on similar top end phonesAmazing camera featuresEdge gesturesWhat Could Be ImprovedBattery LifeLow Light Photo PerformanceBuggy HardwareNubia Z11 Review – ConclusionNubia really has impressed me with what they can build. The Nubia Z11 is a premium flagship phone that would look impressive if seen at the local mobile phone stores along with the likes of the latest Huawei, Sony, Samsung and Apple devices.They’ve also managed to create a well made phone using premium quality materials while maintaining flagship standards in terms of hardware performance and specifications.Where the Nubia Z11 struggles though is with battery life and issues that causes bugs with the audio. The good news is that Nubia is rolling out updates for the Z11, but the bad news is these updates have yet to address these problems and aren’t being rolled out as OTA updates and to find them you need to search around the Italian Nubia Site and download them.

For over a year I have a pleasure to use Meizu smartphones as my daily devices. In January Meizu was so nice to send me their last year’s flagship model – Meizu Pro 6 Plus, which was presented in December. Before this phone I’ve been using Meizu Pro 6, but after one month of using Plus version I must say, that December’s device is true 2016’s flagship Meizu phone.BoxPhone is packed in box which is typical for Meizu Pro devices. Black, plastic, square box which looks very elegant. Shining model name which is placed on the top everything looks llike premium device box. At the bottom there is a sticker with basic information about the device – model, color, memory and supported frequencies. Mine version was ment to be sold in China, so description is written in Chinese. But if you buy phone from international distribution, everything will be in English. Inside of the box we have Meizu Pro 6 Plus device, charger (in my case it is charger with US connection), USB-C cable, SIM slot key, instruction and warranty card (Chinese / English, depending on where you order it). I miss some earphones there, as Meizu advertise this model as having great Hi-Fi chip inside. Meizu Pro 6 Plus build design and qualityAs I said at the begining, this model is true Meizu flagship for 2016. And as every flagship, producer took care to build quality and made Pro 6 Plus looking as real premium device.If we will look at the design, we won’t see much difference comparing to previous Pro series devices. In the front panel of the device we can find white notification LED, speaker, selfie camera and light and proximity sensors. Below them there is 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with 2K resolution (2560 x 1440 px, 518PPI). I must say, that the displayed image quality is more than great. Additionally it supports 3D Touch (Force Touch) feature, but only for system and some Chinese apps. At the bottom of fron panel (as usual in Meizu products) there is physical Home button which is back button, fingerpring scanner and heart rate monitor in one. Unfortunately hear rate monitor is not working now (it isn’t implemented in firmware yet). On the sides, as usual, we will find SIM card slot (left), power and volume buttons (right). On the bottom there is 3.5mm audio input, USB-C 3.1 input, microphone and a speaker. On the top there is additional microphone, that reduces outside noises during calls. What about back side? It looks like every other Meizu device. We have here antenna lines on the top and bottom of back. There is also main camera and 10 LEDs below it (the same we could see in Pro 6 model). Camera is a very interesting element in this device because Meizu decided to add 4-axis OIS in it. More about it in Camera part.Specification of Meizu Pro 6 PlusDimensions: 155.6 x 77.3 x 7.3 mmWeight: 158 gDisplay: 5.7 cali (2560x1440px, 518 ppi), Super AMOLEDProcessor:64GB version: Samsung Exynos 8890 (4x Exynos M1 2.0GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 1.5GHz) + Mali-T880 MP10128GB version: Samsung Exynos 8890 (4x Exynos M1 2.3GHz + 4x Cortex-A53閳 1.6GHz) + Mali-T880 MP12RAM: 4GBInternal memory: 64GB / 128GBMain camera: 12MP, f/2.0, 10 LEDs, 4-axis optical image stabilization, Sony IMX386Front camera: 5MP, f/2.0Battery: 3400 mAhAdditional: Fingerprint scanner, heart rate monitor, fast charge mCharge, support for Wi-Fi 2.4/5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n, LTE Cat.6, Bluetooth 4.1, BLE, audio chip ESS ES9018K2MSystem: Flyme OS 6 (Android 6)Available colors: gold, grey, silver鑱組eizu Pro 6 Plus in daily usageI received this device straight from Meizu, so unfortunately it came with chinese OS installed (English and many chinese apps). Using it wasn’t a problem, but some features were working terrible – GPS wasn’t able to catch satelites (google maps navigation didn’t work). There was also a problem with some apps notifications, but this is an old Flyme OS problem. Fortunately, few days ago Meizu released open Flyme OS 6 global beta, so I “moved” to it as fast as possible. Since that moment using Meizu Pro 6 Plus became much more better.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramPhone works perfectly. I didn’t notice any problems like freezes or lags. Calling, Internet browsing, messaging or listening to music is pure pleasure. Thanks to huge amount of free space I can download a few of my favourite Spotify playlists and listen to music, which sounds great in this device. I am not real audiophile, so I can’t tell you more about technical part of music playing. For me it’s great.Of course I tested also games. Clash Royale (I play it for some time, it doesn’t require great specification) works perfectly – loads fast, there aren’t any lags, phone doesn’t get hot. During the test of Need For Speed No Limits I also didn’t notice any problems. But during this game the phone get a bit warmer (with a silicon case on it).Connectivity? Works very good. LTE connection in most of the time. Unfortunately Meizu devices (at the moment) doesn’t support VoLTE calling, which is requested very much but a lot of users. GPS started working really fast and navigation works perfectly (very high accuracy), after I updated the device to the Global firmware.And what about benchmarks… In AnTuTu unfortunately (or not) it loses with most of last year’s flagship. When I write this review, the best result it has is about 112k points, which gives it 24th place (mine version was on 25th place). But I think it’s because there isn’t 128GB version available, where CPU and GPU has better clocks.BatteryMeizu Pro 6 Plus has a big battery. Comparing to basic Pro 6 model it is 1000 mAh bigger, so it has capacity of 3400 mAh. During a normal (not too intensive) usage of the phone, battery is more than enough for whole day. However if we use the device more intensive (playing games, video watching, mobile data enabled, localization services, etc…) then at the end of the day we can feel the lack of power. Fortunately Pro 6 Plus supports mCharge fast charging, which allows to charge it to full battery in about one hour.CameraAnd now there is time for (in my opinion) the best thing in this phone (next to normal SoC). This is the first Pro series device with 4-axis optical image stabilization (we have Pro 6s also, but it is for Chinese market only). The main camera is 12MP, f/2.0 with Sony IMX386 sensor. Below it we have 10-LED light circle, that will give us bright light to make better pictures when lighting is worse. Unfortunately, we can’t take pictures with RAW extension, but I hope that Meizu developers will add this feature in the future (many users demand it for some time already).For the lovers of selfie pictures there is 5MP, f/2.0 front camera. I must say, that image quality in it is also good.Below you can find some pictures done with Meizu Pro 6 Plus camera:The Doogee Shoot 1 is the company’s first attempt at creating a budget dual-camera phone with a primary 13MP Samsung shooter聽to get the image and a secondary 8.0MP one to add in depth information and thus create photos with a very shallow depth of field.We’re going to see how that works in the full review but for now let’s go ahead with the unboxing and first impressions!Doogee Shoot 1: UnboxingDoogee’s Shoot 1 unboxing is pretty straight forward, it simply comes in a black/greysh box and聽once you open it, you have the smartphone there with its silicone case. Removing the cardboard separator below it you find the USB charger rated for 5V/2000mA, a microUSB cable, SIM removal pin and an additional screen protector (it already comes with one).Doogee Shoot 1:聽Hands OnBeing entirely made of plastic, the聽Doogee Shoot 1 doesn’t have the most premium feeling in hands, that said, it doesn’t feel cheap neither. The build quality is solid and it doesn’t flex or make weird noises when put under stress.On the positive side, since the phone is not encased in an aluminum chassis, the overall weight of the device is very low at about 167 grams. Which makes it also easy to hold even if it doesn’t have a small footprint.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramIn addition to that, the plastic body removes the slippery of metal phones, so I feel confident holding this phone even without a case, something I can’t say about many other phones.The included silicone case is “OK”, it feels cheap but I’m still glad they added it in the package. It also features some flaps to cover the headphone jack and microUSB port at the bottom, I’m not sure why though as the phone isn’t advertised as waterproof and thus shouldn’t get near water anyway.Doogee Shoot 1:聽First ImpressionsOverall I’m finding the phone worth its price, it’s snappy and it’s full of neat features like douple-tap to wake up聽and many more that aren’t usually available on budget phones, heck even on more expensive ones 鈥 looking at you, Vernee Apollo聽鈥? I’m not having any weird software issues聽or getting limited by the 2GB of RAM.In the full review you’ll learn more about the dual-camera setup and how it actually works, for the moment being I’ll only say I’m not totally sold on it.Yi has shaken up the camera industry again and again with their action cameras, and now Yi has released their most groundbreaking product yet (on paper at least): a $330 4K mirrorless camera.You never judge a book by its cover, but if the cover promised similar performance to more expensive books at half the price, it gets people鈥檚 attention. That was a horrible analogy, but you get my point, do you?You can buy the Xiaoyi M1 mirrorless camera here, both the kit lens and dual lens versions.Xiaoyi M1 ReviewPaper specs aside, let鈥檚 get real. First of all, you cannot get the Xiaoyi M1 for $330 outside of China. The lowest I鈥檝e seen it go is about $350, which is still an incredibly low price for a 4K capable mirrorless camera.The M1 boasts a 20MP Micro 4/3 sensor (the same one used in the Panasonic GX8), 81 point Auto Focus system, and up to 4K/30fps video recording. The specs seem to indicate that this camera is ready to take on DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, but the lack of physical controls indicates otherwise. As mentioned by Yi themselves, this is aimed at those looking to move away from smartphone cameras but not quite ready for DSLRs just yet, a bridge camera to be specific.Let鈥檚 see how it performs.Cheap shot?Xiaoyi M1 SpecificationsSensorSony IMX269 20MP SensorDisplay3鈥 2 million dot TFTKit Lens12 – 40mm F3.5 – 5.6 lensOptional Lens42.5mm F1.8 lensPlatformMirrorless Micro 4/3 MountConnectivityBluetooth, WiFiBattery900mAhPhysical Dimensions0.28kg, 11.35 x 3.36 x 6.43 cmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Xiaoyi M1 HardwareSo before I start this review, I want to get this out of the way, I鈥檓 not a photography expert, I don鈥檛 have a degree in art, I don鈥檛 have a photography portfolio, I don鈥檛 shoot weddings on the side, so I鈥檓 an average Joe, most probably like you… well, almost. I do know my way around mirrorless/DSLR cameras because I shoot video on a regular basis, so hopefully I can give you some insight into this camera if you are interested.A second item to get out of the way: this is not a potential replacement for mid-tier DSLRs. It鈥檚 not weather sealed, does not have manual mode when shooting 4K (I鈥檒l talk more about that later), and most importantly, does not have enough physical controls, (almost) everything is controlled via the touch screen.Now with that out of the way, let鈥檚 get on with the build quality.I did a double take when I saw this camera. It鈥檚 definitely a Leica lookalike, down to the red dot that graces every Leica body. The body is made of pretty high quality plastic and is also very lightweight, making it feel more like a point and shoot rather than a mirrorless camera.On the top, you find the hot shoe, on/off button, and a selector dial for different modes. The video record button is nested within the selector dial, and can be a bit troublesome if you hit it by mistake without actually wanting to shoot video. There is also an extra dial for controlling zoom as well. Everything else is controlled through the 3″ touchscreen integrated into the body.On the right, you find a removable flap that reveals the HDMI, SD card slot and MicroUSB. The standard screw in is found below the camera, and sadly, no microphone jack here.The camera includes the standard kit lens, but I opted for an additional prime lens for $100 more. Both the kit lens and prime lens are constructed mostly of plastic. The kit lens has a lock/unlock feature that allows you to shrink the size of the lens for easier portability. The prime lens looks normal, but perhaps the strangest part of the prime lens is the non-functional focus ring. You can鈥檛 focus the lens using that ring, it seems purely cosmetic. My Sigma and Panasonic kit lens were both compatible with the M1 which is very promising.Good PlasticXiaoyi M1 SoftwareThe first thing I did (after snapping a few test shots) was pair with the included smartphone app. This was an incredibly easy process that involved tapping 鈥渃onnect鈥 and the phone automatically disconnects from existing WiFI and connects to the camera WiFi. My M1 immediately downloaded an update which took about a minute to install.The lack of physical buttons means you interact with the touchscreen almost exclusively. As someone who lives in Canada, that instantly becomes a problem in the winter. I can use my Panasonic G7 outside with gloves on without issue, but not so with the Yi M1.Cold weather aside, the UI is quite simple. Anyone familiar with smartphone UI will be completely at home聽here. You can change f-stop, aperture and EV by tapping on the setting and rolling the physical dial, but anything else requires some swiping. Swipe right for scene modes and left for settings.ISO is, oddly enough, found in the settings menu instead of directly on the main screen. Changing ISO was a pain, so it was easier to play with the other settings to compensate. The UI speed and fluidity does not match Android or iOS, but it isn鈥檛 slow enough to frustrate users.However keep in the auto mode and you should be fine. The camera defaults to snapping photos in JPEG format, but you can change it to RAW if you want. There is no option to save in both though. If your camera is connected to your smartphone via the app, you can download JPEGs off the camera onto your phone for sharing, but the app does not recognize RAW files.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramXiaoyi M1 PerformanceThe time between turning on the camera to first shot was slightly below 3 seconds. It鈥檚 not a slow time, but lags about 1 second behind my Panasonic G7. However, I didn鈥檛 see any lag when snapping photos or shooting up to 4K video, so the chipset is definitely sufficient.The Yi M1 uses a contrast detect autofocus system with 81 autofocus points. Autofocus is accurate in good light, but I found that it sometimes didn鈥檛 focus properly on the desired object, especially if the object had low contrast. Continuous autofocus was unuseable most of the time, as it never focused on what I wanted it to focus on. Keep the camera in AF-S for the best autofocus performance (depress the shutter button halfway to focus).Low light focusing was difficult to achieve and I had a lot of trouble getting it to focus properly.Low light focusing issuesXiaoyi M1 Picture QualityLet鈥檚 start with the kit lens. In auto mode, I was able to take very decent pictures quite easily with a ton of detail and natural colours. JPEGs taken in good lighting conditions definitely exhibit a lot more detail than any smartphone camera and many point and shoots. In low light the performance starts dropping. I saw quite a bit of noise/grain at ISO12800 and higher. However, JPEGs from the M1 compared to the Panasonic G7 left me underwhelmed.I started shooting in RAW and immediately started seeing the difference. I could bring out so much detail in the photos and make them look better. Do note that some of the edits I did are purposely overexposed in order to show you the limits of each RAW file.Moving on to the prime lens, pictures definitely look sharper than the kit lens and the Bokeh (blurred background) effect is quite strong. There is a switch on the lens to activate macro mode which allows you to take very sharp closeup shots (very close) and the pictures turn out quite beautiful.Low light performance is better than the kit lens above meaning that low light shots turn out even better.I want to compare them to my Panasonic kit lens and Sigma f.28 40mm prime lens as well, I won鈥檛 go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that my Panasonic kit lens takes better photos than the Yi kit lens while the Sigma prime lens takes slightly sharper shots than the Yi prime lens but with way less Bokeh (background isn鈥檛 as blurred).The Yi M1 still edges out my old Rebel T3 and my friend鈥檚 Rebel T5i in picture quality though.Finally, I would like to reiterate that all the image quality testing was done with JPEGs straight out of the camera. Check out the image gallery below. More pictures coming soon!Xiaoyi M1 Image Gallery YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA Xiaoyi M1 Video QualityVideo is more my jam, and I was initially excited at the thought of a cheap, mirrorless, 4K capable camera, but this left me disappointed, the chief reason being that there is no manual mode when recording in 4K. The camera then compensates for every change of lighting that you come across.As such there is a flickering that occurs every time the camera changes the settings to compensate which is quite an obvious distraction. In situations where lighting is constant (e.g. outdoors), 4K quality is actually quite excellent. Hwoever I still see a slight but noticeable difference in quality between my more expensive Panasonic G7 and the Yi M1.Xiaoyi M1 Battery LifeThe 900mAh battery is capable of taking around 390 shots before dying, which definitely isn鈥檛 the best. Filming a 4K video for about 15 minutes ate about 54% of the battery capacity. You charge the battery by plugging in a MicroUSB port into the camera itself, so there鈥檚 no need for a separate battery cradle. It takes about 2 hours to charge completely, which is quite a long time for such a small battery.Xiaoyi M1 VerdictYou still see people with smartphones bringing out point and shoots at events like weddings or special get togethers, and in my mind, this is the perfect replacement. Not only is it comparable in size (DSLRs are much larger), but the camera and user interface are very simple and touch friendly. That being said, this is not a cheap camera, starting at $350, this would be in the upper ranges of point and shoots, edging into entry level DSLR territory. Probably the biggest problem this segment of users would encounter would be the autofocus. Autofocus here isn鈥檛 the greatest, so some users might find it difficult to get a good shot.The M1 has replaced my phone camera when I bring it out to special events. Get togethers, outings, dinners, weddings. Bringing my large mirrorless Panasonic is conspicuous at weddings and could be seen as trying to upstage the official photographer (depending on how big his ego is). However, the M1 is small, compact, and has a completely silent mode, so I can upstage the wedding photographer without him even finding out, getting crisp photos of the wedding rings. Thanks Xiaoyi.You can buy the Xiaoyi M1 mirrorless camera here, I recommend the cheaper kit lens version instead of the more expensive one with the prime lens simply because there are a lot of M43 options.Simple to useXiaoyi M1 Video ReviewYi has shaken up the camera industry again and again with their action cameras, and now Yi has released their most groundbreaking product yet (on paper at least): a $330 4K mirrorless camera.You never judge a book by its cover, but if the cover promised similar performance to more expensive books at half the price, it gets people鈥檚 attention. That was a horrible analogy, but you get my point, do you?You can buy the Xiaoyi M1 mirrorless camera here, both the kit lens and dual lens versions.Xiaoyi M1 ReviewPaper specs aside, let鈥檚 get real. First of all, you cannot get the Xiaoyi M1 for $330 outside of China. The lowest I鈥檝e seen it go is about $350, which is still an incredibly low price for a 4K capable mirrorless camera.The M1 boasts a 20MP Micro 4/3 sensor (the same one used in the Panasonic GX8), 81 point Auto Focus system, and up to 4K/30fps video recording. The specs seem to indicate that this camera is ready to take on DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, but the lack of physical controls indicates otherwise. As mentioned by Yi themselves, this is aimed at those looking to move away from smartphone cameras but not quite ready for DSLRs just yet, a bridge camera to be specific.Let鈥檚 see how it performs.Cheap shot?Xiaoyi M1 SpecificationsSensorSony IMX269 20MP SensorDisplay3鈥 2 million dot TFTKit Lens12 – 40mm F3.5 – 5.6 lensOptional Lens42.5mm F1.8 lensPlatformMirrorless Micro 4/3 MountConnectivityBluetooth, WiFiBattery900mAhPhysical Dimensions0.28kg, 11.35 x 3.36 x 6.43 cmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Xiaoyi M1 HardwareSo before I start this review, I want to get this out of the way, I鈥檓 not a photography expert, I don鈥檛 have a degree in art, I don鈥檛 have a photography portfolio, I don鈥檛 shoot weddings on the side, so I鈥檓 an average Joe, most probably like you… well, almost. I do know my way around mirrorless/DSLR cameras because I shoot video on a regular basis, so hopefully I can give you some insight into this camera if you are interested.A second item to get out of the way: this is not a potential replacement for mid-tier DSLRs. It鈥檚 not weather sealed, does not have manual mode when shooting 4K (I鈥檒l talk more about that later), and most importantly, does not have enough physical controls, (almost) everything is controlled via the touch screen.Now with that out of the way, let鈥檚 get on with the build quality.I did a double take when I saw this camera. It鈥檚 definitely a Leica lookalike, down to the red dot that graces every Leica body. The body is made of pretty high quality plastic and is also very lightweight, making it feel more like a point and shoot rather than a mirrorless camera.On the top, you find the hot shoe, on/off button, and a selector dial for different modes. The video record button is nested within the selector dial, and can be a bit troublesome if you hit it by mistake without actually wanting to shoot video. There is also an extra dial for controlling zoom as well. Everything else is controlled through the 3″ touchscreen integrated into the body.On the right, you find a removable flap that reveals the HDMI, SD card slot and MicroUSB. The standard screw in is found below the camera, and sadly, no microphone jack here.The camera includes the standard kit lens, but I opted for an additional prime lens for $100 more. Both the kit lens and prime lens are constructed mostly of plastic. The kit lens has a lock/unlock feature that allows you to shrink the size of the lens for easier portability. The prime lens looks normal, but perhaps the strangest part of the prime lens is the non-functional focus ring. You can鈥檛 focus the lens using that ring, it seems purely cosmetic. My Sigma and Panasonic kit lens were both compatible with the M1 which is very promising.Good PlasticXiaoyi M1 SoftwareThe first thing I did (after snapping a few test shots) was pair with the included smartphone app. This was an incredibly easy process that involved tapping 鈥渃onnect鈥 and the phone automatically disconnects from existing WiFI and connects to the camera WiFi. My M1 immediately downloaded an update which took about a minute to install.The lack of physical buttons means you interact with the touchscreen almost exclusively. As someone who lives in Canada, that instantly becomes a problem in the winter. I can use my Panasonic G7 outside with gloves on without issue, but not so with the Yi M1.Cold weather aside, the UI is quite simple. Anyone familiar with smartphone UI will be completely at home聽here. You can change f-stop, aperture and EV by tapping on the setting and rolling the physical dial, but anything else requires some swiping. Swipe right for scene modes and left for settings.ISO is, oddly enough, found in the settings menu instead of directly on the main screen. Changing ISO was a pain, so it was easier to play with the other settings to compensate. The UI speed and fluidity does not match Android or iOS, but it isn鈥檛 slow enough to frustrate users.However keep in the auto mode and you should be fine. The camera defaults to snapping photos in JPEG format, but you can change it to RAW if you want. There is no option to save in both though. If your camera is connected to your smartphone via the app, you can download JPEGs off the camera onto your phone for sharing, but the app does not recognize RAW files.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramXiaoyi M1 PerformanceThe time between turning on the camera to first shot was slightly below 3 seconds. It鈥檚 not a slow time, but lags about 1 second behind my Panasonic G7. However, I didn鈥檛 see any lag when snapping photos or shooting up to 4K video, so the chipset is definitely sufficient.The Yi M1 uses a contrast detect autofocus system with 81 autofocus points. Autofocus is accurate in good light, but I found that it sometimes didn鈥檛 focus properly on the desired object, especially if the object had low contrast. Continuous autofocus was unuseable most of the time, as it never focused on what I wanted it to focus on. Keep the camera in AF-S for the best autofocus performance (depress the shutter button halfway to focus).Low light focusing was difficult to achieve and I had a lot of trouble getting it to focus properly.Low light focusing issuesXiaoyi M1 Picture QualityLet鈥檚 start with the kit lens. In auto mode, I was able to take very decent pictures quite easily with a ton of detail and natural colours. JPEGs taken in good lighting conditions definitely exhibit a lot more detail than any smartphone camera and many point and shoots. In low light the performance starts dropping. I saw quite a bit of noise/grain at ISO12800 and higher. However, JPEGs from the M1 compared to the Panasonic G7 left me underwhelmed.I started shooting in RAW and immediately started seeing the difference. I could bring out so much detail in the photos and make them look better. Do note that some of the edits I did are purposely overexposed in order to show you the limits of each RAW file.Moving on to the prime lens, pictures definitely look sharper than the kit lens and the Bokeh (blurred background) effect is quite strong. There is a switch on the lens to activate macro mode which allows you to take very sharp closeup shots (very close) and the pictures turn out quite beautiful.Low light performance is better than the kit lens above meaning that low light shots turn out even better.I want to compare them to my Panasonic kit lens and Sigma f.28 40mm prime lens as well, I won鈥檛 go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that my Panasonic kit lens takes better photos than the Yi kit lens while the Sigma prime lens takes slightly sharper shots than the Yi prime lens but with way less Bokeh (background isn鈥檛 as blurred).The Yi M1 still edges out my old Rebel T3 and my friend鈥檚 Rebel T5i in picture quality though.Finally, I would like to reiterate that all the image quality testing was done with JPEGs straight out of the camera. Check out the image gallery below. More pictures coming soon!Xiaoyi M1 Image Gallery YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA YI DIGITAL CAMERA Xiaoyi M1 Video QualityVideo is more my jam, and I was initially excited at the thought of a cheap, mirrorless, 4K capable camera, but this left me disappointed, the chief reason being that there is no manual mode when recording in 4K. The camera then compensates for every change of lighting that you come across.As such there is a flickering that occurs every time the camera changes the settings to compensate which is quite an obvious distraction. In situations where lighting is constant (e.g. outdoors), 4K quality is actually quite excellent. Hwoever I still see a slight but noticeable difference in quality between my more expensive Panasonic G7 and the Yi M1.Xiaoyi M1 Battery LifeThe 900mAh battery is capable of taking around 390 shots before dying, which definitely isn鈥檛 the best. Filming a 4K video for about 15 minutes ate about 54% of the battery capacity. You charge the battery by plugging in a MicroUSB port into the camera itself, so there鈥檚 no need for a separate battery cradle. It takes about 2 hours to charge completely, which is quite a long time for such a small battery.Xiaoyi M1 VerdictYou still see people with smartphones bringing out point and shoots at events like weddings or special get togethers, and in my mind, this is the perfect replacement. Not only is it comparable in size (DSLRs are much larger), but the camera and user interface are very simple and touch friendly. That being said, this is not a cheap camera, starting at $350, this would be in the upper ranges of point and shoots, edging into entry level DSLR territory. Probably the biggest problem this segment of users would encounter would be the autofocus. Autofocus here isn鈥檛 the greatest, so some users might find it difficult to get a good shot.The M1 has replaced my phone camera when I bring it out to special events. Get togethers, outings, dinners, weddings. Bringing my large mirrorless Panasonic is conspicuous at weddings and could be seen as trying to upstage the official photographer (depending on how big his ego is). However, the M1 is small, compact, and has a completely silent mode, so I can upstage the wedding photographer without him even finding out, getting crisp photos of the wedding rings. Thanks Xiaoyi.You can buy the Xiaoyi M1 mirrorless camera here, I recommend the cheaper kit lens version instead of the more expensive one with the prime lens simply because there are a lot of M43 options.Simple to useXiaoyi M1 Video Review

Jumper won the last generation laptop game with the Jumper EZBook 2, packing some of the best specifications possible in a laptop for $160-$180. However, with this new wave of Apollo Lake devices, it is Chuwi who has released the most compelling laptop so far. Jumper is not content to sit on its laurels but is fighting back with the Jumper EZBook 3.Jumper EZBook 3 ReviewThe EZBook 3 has been updated to contain Intel鈥檚 brand spanking new Apollo Lake Celeron chipsets designed to perform slightly slower than a Core M. We here at GizChina聽have been impressed with performance from Apollo Lake devices in general (N3450/N4200), but those have been quad core CPUs.The EZBook 3 utilizes the dual core Apollo Lake N3350 but strangely enough still costs around the same as N3450 laptops. The EZBook 3鈥檚 biggest hurdle will be to outclass or at least match the Chuwi Lapbook in order to be compelling, so let鈥檚 see what the EZBook 3 can pull off.Jumper鈥檚 first Apollo Lake laptopJumper EZBook 3 SpecificationsProcessorIntel Apollo Lake Celeron N3350Display14.1″ 1920×1080 px, LCDRAM4GBStorage64GB eMMCOperating SystemWindows 10Cameras2MP CameraBattery10500mAh (38Wh)Physical Dimensions1.3kg, 33.00 x 22.00 x 2.10 cmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Jumper EZBook 3 HardwareApart from the shrinking of the overall laptop鈥檚 footprint, the EZBook 3 is for all intents and purposes incredibly similar to the EZBook 2. One big difference though, while the EZBook 2 had a metal lid, the EZBook 3 is all plastic.The plastic used in the EZBook 3 feels OK, it has a more matte finish compared to the older EZBook 2 but at the same time is not as matte as the Lapbook. As a result, the laptop does not feel as premium as the Lapbook, and definitely loses out in that area. It鈥檚 about the same size as the Lapbook but significantly lighter.Open up the laptop and the screen is framed by the small bezels and the colour combination of the black keys and black trackpad make for a very nice colour scheme. To be honest, this laptop looks a lot better open than it does closed.The lid opens up quite far, about 160 degrees which is nice, but there is a bit of bounce on the hinges though.One of the biggest issues I have with this device is the keyboard. I鈥檓 not one to complain about keyboard flex too much, there are quite a few instances where other reviewers complained about keyboard flex while I did not see much issue, but there is an incredible amount of keyboard flex on the EZBook 3, even for me. The flex is significant enough to break my concentration while typing, and I don鈥檛 type incredibly fast, just at a moderately brisk clip (90WPM).Another issue I faced was my TAB key not working properly, the top right corner of the key cannot be depressed, meaning that you have to carefully hit the bottom left part of the key quite hard to activate it. This issue with the TAB key is most likely a quality control issue, but the flex is a design flaw.The trackpad works quite well, accuracy, multi finger gestures worked nicely, but I did find the trackpad to be a bit small compared to the Lapbook and my Xiaomi Air 12. There is also preinstalled software to prevent misclicks which I promptly uninstalled as I did not find it useful for myself personally.Jumper did not knock the build of this laptop out of the park, yes they made quite a light, decent looking laptop with very small bezels and that fact cannot be discounted. However, the issues with the keyboard remain a large hurdle.“Problematic Keyboard”Jumper EZBook 3 DisplayJumper used a 1080p 14.1鈥 matte display in the EZBook 3, and it looks like the exact same display in the EZBook 2. This means all of the same pros and cons apply here, colours are quite decent, the screen seems to be a bit on the blue side, and colours get a bit distorted at off angles. There is virtually no glare no matter what angle you look at it from, and that is a very nice change from glossy IPS displays. Maximum brightness tops out around 300 nits which is OK for laptops but not the best. I do not have any complaints about the screen, but I do not have a lot of praise to shower on it either.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramJumper EZBook 3 AudioAudio is average, maximum volume doesn鈥檛 wow but doesn鈥檛 disappoint either. Audio quality is also nothing to write home about, with average mids, highs, and bass as well.Jumper EZBook 3 BatteryYou get a nice sizeable 10,500mAh (38Wh) battery in the Jumper EZBook 3 which should provide some decent battery life considering the use of the dual core N3350, and as a result the EZBook 3 has the best battery life out of all the Apollo Lake devices I have tested so far. This includes the Lapbook and the Voyo VBook V3. I was able to use the laptop for around 9 hours before the laptop died completely. Granted this isn鈥檛 heavy use like gaming or photo editing (which I will talk about later), just web browsing, reading news, and watching TV.I performed the perfunctory battery tests as well and was able to achieve around 10.5 hours of local video playback and it scored 8.5 hours of web browsing before dying. This is what I had hoped battery life in the Lapbook and the VBook V3 would be, and I鈥檓 very happy the EZBook is able to achieve that.“Good battery”Jumper EZBook 3 SoftwareHmm, performance is somewhat disappointing. I鈥檓 not sure if this can be fully attributed to the dual core CPU as the eMMC drive definitely plays a part as well. Doing light tasks doesn鈥檛 see the laptop slowing down much. Opening up light windows store apps and regular software is almost as fast as the Lapbook and Voyo VBook V3. It is slightly slower than the previous two but I don鈥檛 think any of you will be able to tell the difference without actually having both devices in front of you. One area where the EZBook struggles a little compared to other Apollo Lake devices is web browsing in Chrome. Where I could web browse pretty much perfectly (except for 4K youtube of course) on the other Apollo Lake devices, browsing on the EZBook was slightly jittery and laggy. Not by much, but the difference is definitely noticeable. Weirdly enough though, double finger scrolling through edge is actually a better experience on the EZBook than the Lapbook and Voyo most likely because of the touchpad used.Probably the biggest difference in performance between the dual core N3350 and the quad core N3450/N4200 would be the difficulty it has running anything heavier than light apps. While I could do light Photoshop and video editing on the N3450 and up, I couldn鈥檛 do those things properly on the N3350. The same applies to gaming. DOTA2 refused to run at more than 15fps even at 720p, I tried out lighter games such as Left4Dead 2 and Battlefront II and those ran OK.Performance while better than Atom devices, definitely isn鈥檛 the EZBook鈥檚 strongest suit here.Jumper EZBook 3 ConnectivityBoth USB ports are capable of powering hard drives, charging phones, and the like.Jumper EZBook 3 VerdictI like Jumper, I really do. They snagged the 鈥渢op spot鈥 for Atom laptops last generation and I was hoping that they would worm their way back in, but sadly they did not. The Chuwi Lapbook still remains the 鈥渂est鈥 Apollo Lake laptop you can purchase at the moment with the Voyo laptops and the EZBook 3 trailing behind. There is one issue with this device and that is the keyboard flex. Apart from that, the screen is OK, the build is respectable enough and you get good battery life. Performance here isn鈥檛 an issue really, it runs Windows 10, it tackles light tasks quite well, so this isn鈥檛 a 鈥渂ad鈥 laptop. However when you compare the performance to the price you pay, you start seeing the problem. The original price of this laptop was $300USD, and its currently on flash sale for $240. The Chuwi Lapbook starts at $280 and can be had on sale for around $250, which, for a laptop that bests it in almost every single way, is a better buy. At this moment in time, I cannot recommend the EZBook 3 over the Chuwi Lapbook. In my opinion, if you could buy the EZBook 3 at $220, that would represent decent value for money. However, anything higher and it sidles too close to the Lapbook.You can buy the Jumper EZBook 3 here.So before this review went live, I saw that the EZBook 3 was discounted all the way down to $209USD. The sale might be over though if you鈥檙e reading this right now. At that price, the EZBook 3 is back in the fight but not the top dog just yet. What I mean is that $209 is more representative of what you get in the EZBook 3 but the Chuwi Lapbook is still top dog as it was discounted down to $240USD. $209 is definitely a more than fair price to pay for the EZBook 3, but I would still recommend spending the extra $30 on the Lapbook.“Price reduction required”Jumper EZBook 3 Video ReviewJumper won the last generation laptop game with the Jumper EZBook 2, packing some of the best specifications possible in a laptop for $160-$180. However, with this new wave of Apollo Lake devices, it is Chuwi who has released the most compelling laptop so far. Jumper is not content to sit on its laurels but is fighting back with the Jumper EZBook 3.Jumper EZBook 3 ReviewThe EZBook 3 has been updated to contain Intel鈥檚 brand spanking new Apollo Lake Celeron chipsets designed to perform slightly slower than a Core M. We here at GizChina聽have been impressed with performance from Apollo Lake devices in general (N3450/N4200), but those have been quad core CPUs.The EZBook 3 utilizes the dual core Apollo Lake N3350 but strangely enough still costs around the same as N3450 laptops. The EZBook 3鈥檚 biggest hurdle will be to outclass or at least match the Chuwi Lapbook in order to be compelling, so let鈥檚 see what the EZBook 3 can pull off.Jumper鈥檚 first Apollo Lake laptopJumper EZBook 3 SpecificationsProcessorIntel Apollo Lake Celeron N3350Display14.1″ 1920×1080 px, LCDRAM4GBStorage64GB eMMCOperating SystemWindows 10Cameras2MP CameraBattery10500mAh (38Wh)Physical Dimensions1.3kg, 33.00 x 22.00 x 2.10 cmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Jumper EZBook 3 HardwareApart from the shrinking of the overall laptop鈥檚 footprint, the EZBook 3 is for all intents and purposes incredibly similar to the EZBook 2. One big difference though, while the EZBook 2 had a metal lid, the EZBook 3 is all plastic.The plastic used in the EZBook 3 feels OK, it has a more matte finish compared to the older EZBook 2 but at the same time is not as matte as the Lapbook. As a result, the laptop does not feel as premium as the Lapbook, and definitely loses out in that area. It鈥檚 about the same size as the Lapbook but significantly lighter.Open up the laptop and the screen is framed by the small bezels and the colour combination of the black keys and black trackpad make for a very nice colour scheme. To be honest, this laptop looks a lot better open than it does closed.The lid opens up quite far, about 160 degrees which is nice, but there is a bit of bounce on the hinges though.One of the biggest issues I have with this device is the keyboard. I鈥檓 not one to complain about keyboard flex too much, there are quite a few instances where other reviewers complained about keyboard flex while I did not see much issue, but there is an incredible amount of keyboard flex on the EZBook 3, even for me. The flex is significant enough to break my concentration while typing, and I don鈥檛 type incredibly fast, just at a moderately brisk clip (90WPM).Another issue I faced was my TAB key not working properly, the top right corner of the key cannot be depressed, meaning that you have to carefully hit the bottom left part of the key quite hard to activate it. This issue with the TAB key is most likely a quality control issue, but the flex is a design flaw.The trackpad works quite well, accuracy, multi finger gestures worked nicely, but I did find the trackpad to be a bit small compared to the Lapbook and my Xiaomi Air 12. There is also preinstalled software to prevent misclicks which I promptly uninstalled as I did not find it useful for myself personally.Jumper did not knock the build of this laptop out of the park, yes they made quite a light, decent looking laptop with very small bezels and that fact cannot be discounted. However, the issues with the keyboard remain a large hurdle.“Problematic Keyboard”Jumper EZBook 3 DisplayJumper used a 1080p 14.1鈥 matte display in the EZBook 3, and it looks like the exact same display in the EZBook 2. This means all of the same pros and cons apply here, colours are quite decent, the screen seems to be a bit on the blue side, and colours get a bit distorted at off angles. There is virtually no glare no matter what angle you look at it from, and that is a very nice change from glossy IPS displays. Maximum brightness tops out around 300 nits which is OK for laptops but not the best. I do not have any complaints about the screen, but I do not have a lot of praise to shower on it either.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramJumper EZBook 3 AudioAudio is average, maximum volume doesn鈥檛 wow but doesn鈥檛 disappoint either. Audio quality is also nothing to write home about, with average mids, highs, and bass as well.Jumper EZBook 3 BatteryYou get a nice sizeable 10,500mAh (38Wh) battery in the Jumper EZBook 3 which should provide some decent battery life considering the use of the dual core N3350, and as a result the EZBook 3 has the best battery life out of all the Apollo Lake devices I have tested so far. This includes the Lapbook and the Voyo VBook V3. I was able to use the laptop for around 9 hours before the laptop died completely. Granted this isn鈥檛 heavy use like gaming or photo editing (which I will talk about later), just web browsing, reading news, and watching TV.I performed the perfunctory battery tests as well and was able to achieve around 10.5 hours of local video playback and it scored 8.5 hours of web browsing before dying. This is what I had hoped battery life in the Lapbook and the VBook V3 would be, and I鈥檓 very happy the EZBook is able to achieve that.“Good battery”Jumper EZBook 3 SoftwareHmm, performance is somewhat disappointing. I鈥檓 not sure if this can be fully attributed to the dual core CPU as the eMMC drive definitely plays a part as well. Doing light tasks doesn鈥檛 see the laptop slowing down much. Opening up light windows store apps and regular software is almost as fast as the Lapbook and Voyo VBook V3. It is slightly slower than the previous two but I don鈥檛 think any of you will be able to tell the difference without actually having both devices in front of you. One area where the EZBook struggles a little compared to other Apollo Lake devices is web browsing in Chrome. Where I could web browse pretty much perfectly (except for 4K youtube of course) on the other Apollo Lake devices, browsing on the EZBook was slightly jittery and laggy. Not by much, but the difference is definitely noticeable. Weirdly enough though, double finger scrolling through edge is actually a better experience on the EZBook than the Lapbook and Voyo most likely because of the touchpad used.Probably the biggest difference in performance between the dual core N3350 and the quad core N3450/N4200 would be the difficulty it has running anything heavier than light apps. While I could do light Photoshop and video editing on the N3450 and up, I couldn鈥檛 do those things properly on the N3350. The same applies to gaming. DOTA2 refused to run at more than 15fps even at 720p, I tried out lighter games such as Left4Dead 2 and Battlefront II and those ran OK.Performance while better than Atom devices, definitely isn鈥檛 the EZBook鈥檚 strongest suit here.Jumper EZBook 3 ConnectivityBoth USB ports are capable of powering hard drives, charging phones, and the like.Jumper EZBook 3 VerdictI like Jumper, I really do. They snagged the 鈥渢op spot鈥 for Atom laptops last generation and I was hoping that they would worm their way back in, but sadly they did not. The Chuwi Lapbook still remains the 鈥渂est鈥 Apollo Lake laptop you can purchase at the moment with the Voyo laptops and the EZBook 3 trailing behind. There is one issue with this device and that is the keyboard flex. Apart from that, the screen is OK, the build is respectable enough and you get good battery life. Performance here isn鈥檛 an issue really, it runs Windows 10, it tackles light tasks quite well, so this isn鈥檛 a 鈥渂ad鈥 laptop. However when you compare the performance to the price you pay, you start seeing the problem. The original price of this laptop was $300USD, and its currently on flash sale for $240. The Chuwi Lapbook starts at $280 and can be had on sale for around $250, which, for a laptop that bests it in almost every single way, is a better buy. At this moment in time, I cannot recommend the EZBook 3 over the Chuwi Lapbook. In my opinion, if you could buy the EZBook 3 at $220, that would represent decent value for money. However, anything higher and it sidles too close to the Lapbook.You can buy the Jumper EZBook 3 here.So before this review went live, I saw that the EZBook 3 was discounted all the way down to $209USD. The sale might be over though if you鈥檙e reading this right now. At that price, the EZBook 3 is back in the fight but not the top dog just yet. What I mean is that $209 is more representative of what you get in the EZBook 3 but the Chuwi Lapbook is still top dog as it was discounted down to $240USD. $209 is definitely a more than fair price to pay for the EZBook 3, but I would still recommend spending the extra $30 on the Lapbook.“Price reduction required”Jumper EZBook 3 Video Review

When Jumper announced their new Apollo Lake EZBook 3, I was incredibly excited. However, now that I鈥檝e seen the specifications and the starting price, I鈥檓 quietly apprehensive.I haven’t聽reviewed the Jumper EZBook 2 on Gizchina (I reviewed the EZBook Air though), but it was pretty clear that the EZBook 2 won the Atom laptop game of last generation. An aluminum lid, 14鈥 1080p screen, and 4GB of RAM for $180, sometimes $160.However, this time around the Chuwi Lapbook is currently the Apollo Lake top dog (there are under five devices so far). I don鈥檛 know if the EZBook 3 can dethrone the Chuwi Lapbook, I hope so, because competition is good for consumers, we鈥檒l see in the full review.Jumper EZBook 3 SpecificationsProcessorIntel Apollo Lake Celeron N3350Display14.1″ 1920×1080 px, LCDRAM4GBStorage64GB eMMCOperating SystemWindows 10Cameras2MP CameraBattery10500mAh (38Wh)Physical Dimensions1.3kg, 33.00 x 22.00 x 2.10 cmBig thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.Jumper EZBook 3 UnboxingThe laptop comes in a pretty plain, no frills brown box. It鈥檚 not very pretty, but then again other laptop boxes aren鈥檛 much to write home about either, so it doesn鈥檛 have a lot of competition. There are a couple of pieces of foam to keep the laptop in place and protective plastic on the lid and on the keyboard. The only accessory in the box is the charger.Jumper EZBook 3 Hands OnGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe plastic used is the same as the EZBook 2, a glossy, dull grey that looks like the metal used in a Macbook. There is no aluminum lid this time and no light up Jumper logo either. There are two USB ports, a charging port and a MicroSD card slot. I was hoping for manufacturers to start using USB-C to charge their laptops but I think that might just bump up the cost too much.Opening up the laptop presents the screen flanked by very nice narrow bezels, the bezels are slightly larger than those found on the XPS13 and thus lose that 鈥渇loating display鈥 quality that the XPS13 is graced with.The keyboard and trackpad are matched in colour to the bezels, so it鈥檚 a pretty nice combo. One problem with the keyboard though, the TAB key isn鈥檛 working properly, I鈥檒l have to find out what鈥檚 going on with that.I turned on the laptop and did a few quick things, I tested out the keyboard/trackpad which work (except for the TAB key) and there is an annoying preinstalled software that 鈥減revents鈥 mistaps on the trackpad.One of the ways it does this is to ignore the second tap if its too close to the first, meaning double taps don鈥檛 work properly. I鈥檒l play around with it a bit more before deciding what to do with it.Jumper EZBook 3 First ImpressionsAnnounced a few days ago, the Meizu M5S is about to go on sale in the Chinese market and already benchmarks and photo samples from reviews are being released.Chinese tech site MyDrivers, have been given an early version of the Meizu M5S to get to grips with and they have already published their findings in regards to the phones benchmarks, charging time and also photography capabilities.We’ve taken those details and posted them here for you to take a look at, but we also hope to review the phone for ourselves once it is made available to international distributors.Meizu M5S Benchmarks, Charging Times and Camera samplesFirst of all let’s take a look at the speed of charging the Meizu’s 3000mAh battery. Meizu have built the Meizu M5S with fast charging features and ships the phone with an 18W charger. Combine these details with the, let’s face it, average size battery and it isn’t surprising to see the phone charge to 56% in only 30 minutes. A full charge takes 120 minutes.In comparison the Xaomi Redmi Note 4X takes 135 minutes to fully charge, however, the Xiaomi also has a significantly larger 4100mAh battery.Meizu M5S Benchmarks Once fully juiced up we can see what type of score this new Meizu has to offer. For those of you hoping for large numbers you might want to turn away now, as the Meizu M5S scores are rather lack luster 38,000 points!Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramAgain for comparisons sake the Xiaomi Redmi 4 boasts an Antutu score of 43,000 points while the more powerful Redmi 4 Pro reaches 62,000 points.Meizu M5S Photo SamplesMoving on to the photographic prowess of the Meizu M5S. The handset comes with a 13 mega-pixel F2.2 aperture, PDAF auto focus, and dual LED flash. These are the specs we now expect to see on phones these days, but we have to remind ourselves that lens quality, coating and software all play big parts to a phones photo quality.Unsurprisingly MyDrivers reports that in bright conditions the camera offers a good dynamic range and a well-calibrated white balance.Night time images aren’t too bad even considering the small F2.2 aperture, but there does seem to be a purplish tone to the images that isn’t present in the real world.

The Vernee Apollo was dropped into a pretty heavily saturated phone market. You have phones like the Redmi Note 4 and LeEco phones that represent much better price to performance ratios, and Vernee’s own Apollo Lite (review here) could be seen as cannabalizing the Apollo’s sales.Vernee Apollo Second OpinionTo be honest, I’m not quite sure what the Vernee Apollo offers that the Vernee Apollo Lite does not, especially considering the slight price discrepancy. The differences include a 2K screen, an overclocked Helio X20 processor, and a different camera.For Your ReferenceThe original Vernee Apollo review can be read here.That’s not to say the Vernee Apollo is a bad phone though. I share quite a few of the same sentiments as our very own Pierre (who reviewed the phone), but a few differing ones as well.Value?Vernee Apollo SpecificationsProcessorMediatek Helio X25 ProcessorDisplay5.5″ 2560×1440 px, LCDRAM4GBStorage64GB eMMCOperating SystemAndroid 6.0 MarshmallowCameras22/8MP CameraBattery3180mAhPhysical Dimensions0.188kg, 15.20 x 7.56 x 0.93 cmBig thanks to Gearbest鑱絝or providing this review unit.Vernee Apollo HardwareIn terms of build quality, the Vernee Apollo is my favourite phone by far. The sand-blasted aluminum unibody definitely outclasses many devices out there and is something I would pick over a glass encased phone (ahem Zuk) in a heartbeat. It feels a bit thick considering there’s only a 3180mAh battery in there and a protruding camera module. Overall though, the Apollo is my absolute favourite.I recently dropped the Apollo onto dirty concrete and there is sadly a small scratch on the corner and a couple of small nicks on the glass as well, but the glass scratches are well obscured by the multitude of smudges left by my fingers.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram“Incredible build”Vernee Apollo DisplayThe display quality is one area where my opinions differ from Pierre’s. While objectively the screen is sharp, the difference in sharpness just doesn’t do enough for me to justify using a 2K display. I would rather take the slight increase in battery life that comes from using a 1080p display.Again, objectively the colours on this phone are quite accurate, definitely closer to Nexus 5 levels of accurate than AMOLED displays, but with a bit more obvious pop added in. It is a lot easier to think that鑱絚ompletely oversaturated and inaccurate displays look “better” than鑱絘ccurate and well calibrated (yet seemingly washed out) displays like what we find here.The state of colour calibration in Android handsets is rather indicative of how OEMs use oversaturated screens to pull customers over to their own device, the same way TVs in Big Box stores do as well.That’s not the say that the screen is bad, it is just calibrated more towards colour accuracy than it is towards saturation, and that can be adjusted slightly using the included Miravision.Vernee Apollo …MehThere are a couple of things that had me go… meh. First of all is battery life. After the recent January OTA update I experienced slightly better battery life. In fact I was able to get around 6 hours of screen on time over 12 hours, which doesn’t impress me in the slightest but is actually a very good score for a 3180mAh battery powering a 2K display and an overclocked processor. Audio while incredibly loud, isn’t great quality either.Vernee Apollo VerdictI’m not sure Vernee needed to release the Apollo, not when they had a popular phone in the Vernee Apollo Lite. The Vernee Apollo is built like a flagship and has specs like a flagship as well, but it sits in a market saturated with competition.Yes, the phone is built impeccably, but there are too many other phones that provide similar specifications for less.Vivo has鑱絙een great enough to send over its latest smartphone and the first handset to boast dual front cameras. Read my unboxing and first impressions of the Vivo V5 Plus.Vivo have once again raised the bar and done something that no other smartphone brand has done before. The Vivo V5 Plus might look like your usual, super-stylish, Vivo handset but on closer inspection you’ll notice that this handset boasts a novel feature.Where as most phone makers are focussing on adding dual rear cameras to their smartphones, Vivo has decided to do things the opposite way around with the Vivo V5P and spec the phone with dual front cameras. We’re not talking cheap run of the mill sensors here either, as Vivo has opted for dual 20 mega-pixel sensors!Vivo V5 Plus UnboxingWe’ve been sent the international version of the Vivo V5P which will be readily available in Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, India, Thailand, and Indonesia. The International version of the Vivo V5P comes with English labelling on the packaging, while the device itself comes with Google Play services installed.Inside the packaging is the Vivo V5 Plus, in the usual protective plastic packaging that all Vivo device ship with.Remove the phone and list the flag and you will uncover packages that contain a charge, USB cable, headphones, silicone case, and a screen protector.With other Vivo phones that we have reviewed the headphones included have been pretty high quality units, but those included with the Vivo V5P look more like the cheap earbuds that come with the iPhone.It’s also worth noting that the Vivo V5P comes with a standard USB cable as the phone isn’t equipped with a more modern USB Type C.Vivo V5 Plus First ImpressionsUpon unboxing the Vivo V5P you will be welcomed with quite a stylish smartphone that quite plainly sees inspiration from other mid-range Vivo phones, Oppo devices and, yes, the iPhone.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe unibody design is manufactured from a single piece of alloy so while you can’t remove and replace the built in battery, there is a SIM tray in the gold body for either dual micro SIM cards or a single SIM and micro SD card.Two antenna lines break up the expanse of gold on the rear of the phone, power and volume buttons on the right, 3.5mm headphone jack, Vivo logo and rear 16 megapixel camera make up the rest of the features that are built in to the attractive鑱絞old body.Up front is a 5.5-inch FHD display, a physical button with fingerprint scanner in the chin and those dual 20 mega-pixel front cameras along the top edge of the phone. As mentioned before, these are high-end sensor boasting F2.0 apertures,鑱?P lenses and 1/2.78” sensor size!While it all looks rather good on first look, a few details are missing or not as expected on closer inspection. For one the 16 mega-pixel rear camera sits proud of the phone. I’m not really a fan of cameras that aren’t flush with the body, and the rear camera on the Vivo V5 Plus juts out more than most.Im also not really a fan of the flat 5.5-inch panel across the front of the phone. I’ve become use to a 2.5D curve on my phones and with the display on the Vivo V5 Plus sitting a couple of mm away from the metal chassis I would have preferred a curved glass panel.As it is the Vivo V5 Plus feels a little thicker than other phones, but the good news is Vivo have put that space to good use with a 3160mAh battery living inside along with dual engine fast charging technology and HIFI audio.Other specification highlights for the Vivo V5 Plus include 4GB RAM, 64GB internal memory and Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor.Vivo V5 Plus Review Coming SoonOver the weekend, a couple of shipments from DHL meant that I spent way lesser time playing cricket and table tennis than I should’ve. Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but the UMi Z and another phone (keep an eye out!)鑱絛id keep the geek in me busy for quite a while.The UMi Z is touted as one of the first Helio X27 phones in the market. UMi are also having a bit of a crucial time, with a rebranding underway (and possibly change in OEM, according to what I’m hearing). The UMi Z will be the last phone to feature the ‘UMi’ branding.Anyway, coming to the device itself, it’s quite a nice phone to see, hold, and to use (so far). I’ll be honest with you — the rather superlative unboxing experience does add a bit of a bias to this. The last time an unboxing felt so nice was when I received the OPPO Find 5.UMi ship the UMi Z in an all-metal svelte box, that鑱絯ill make it hard to throw away. Besides the phone, UMi also included 3 x phone covers and a tempered glass protector in our test set. None of this stuff I ever use; but I’m truly tempted to use one phone case in particular — the ‘Z’ case. Keen readers will remember UMi made a similar case for the UMi Zero sometime back.The entirety of the contents came in an ‘air cushion’. Inside were 5 boxes — one each for the three cases, tempered glass protector, and the phone.Opening up the retail box, you’re greeted by the UMi Z sitting pretty, with a tab on one end (removed before I took the picture) to take the phone out.Besides the phone, there’s some (high-quality, I must say) accessories you need to get up and running with the UMi Z — a wall charger, USB cable, SIM tray ejection pin and some literature no one’s ever cared about.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramMoving on to the cases — I’m not sure if they’re part of the standard package — we have a flip case (with a magnet on it, so its ‘smart’), a standard silicon case to protect the phone during bumps, etc., and my favourite of the three — the Z case.The flip case. …and the soft-touch (and bendy) silicon case. The swagger-enriched Z case. The phone itself looks a lot like an OPPO. Like one of those selfie expert phones that’s been selling like crazy in India. That said, it also surprisingly feels as well made as an OPPO. To be very honest, I would rather have the grey version if I had the choice. However, I must admit that the golden version is pretty eye candy too, definitely more so in real life than in pictures.I haven’t used the phone very long, but from what I can tell right now is that:it has a great build qualityit looks greatit has a touchscreen that’s not greatit has a fingerprint sensor that’s not greatYou shall be learning more in the review, and me, during the time I use this phone as my daily driver in the coming days. Meanwhile, you can have a look at the phone at the following shops: Gearbest Banggood CooliCool TomTopOukitel鈥檚 been on a rise as of late. They鈥檝e been pumping out devices at a fairly alarming rate, with device after device coming out almost monthly. So when they approached us to review one of their new devices, we were curious to see what they were like.With that they鈥檝e sent us their latest mid-range device, the Oukitel C5 Pro. Marketed as a rugged device with mid-range specs, it鈥檚 just popped up at my doorstep. So, is Oukitel biting off more than they can chew, or is the Oukitel C5 Pro going to surprise us all? Read my first impressions to see what I think.Oukitel C5 Pro: UnboxingUnlike many of the devices I鈥檝e received recently, the Oukitel C5 Pro鈥檚 box makes it clear that this is a mid-range product. Nobody鈥檚 going to look at this box and expect something premium or expensive. But is that necessarily a bad thing for the device? Let鈥檚 take a closer look at it to see. The box features a classic design, with an image of the device up front as well as some of its key selling points. There鈥檚 also an Oukitel logo up at the top of the front, with a nice orange font. The sides are the opposite with the logo in white on a bright orange background, which gives it a very clean look.On the back of the device, we鈥檝e got another image of the device and the logo, as well as the model name and some other specs. Opening the box reveals a slide-out cardboard shelf with the device in its silicone case on top, and the other accessories on the bottom. Overall, the box design is clean and functional, which contrasts the premium and svelte boxes of many other companies. The accessories included are a simple silicone case, the power adapter, the microUSB charging and data cable and the essential el cheapo earphones. A simple bunch of inclusions, pretty much the standard package for most devices. They aren鈥檛 as solid or as well built as the one鈥檚 from Blackview or Honor, but they work well.Oukitel C5 Pro: First ImpressionsThe Oukitel C5 Pro is an interesting device in terms of build quality. The device features a plastic rear that features a camo design, and it鈥檚 removable. Removing said rear reveals the dual sim card slots, the microSD card slot and the incredibly minuscule 2,000mAh battery. There鈥檚 also the speaker and its weird triangular grille.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram Moving further on the rear, we find the device鈥檚 camera and LED flash. Flip the device over, and you find the device鈥檚 display, with the various sensors and front facing camera at the top. The capacitive touch buttons at the bottom are designed after the Lollipop buttons are sadly not backlit.Going around the device is an aluminum band that holds the power button and volume rocker on the right. The top features the device鈥檚 microUSB port and 3.5mm headphone jack. On the bottom on the hand holds a singular mic, while the left is completely devoid of any ports or buttons. It feels nice and solid. I haven鈥檛 handled that many Oukitel devices aside from the U8, but there鈥檚 one big problem with the build quality instantly. You see, the C5 Pro鈥檚 design on the rear may look interesting and gives the device a unique look, but there鈥檚 a reason it鈥檚 covered with a silicon case out of the box. It鈥檚 incredibly uncomfortable to hold.While the rear panel feels incredibly tough and durable, the design on the back feels very鈥 wrong. It鈥檚 not comfortable to hold and irritating to touch. I can鈥檛 fully describe the feeling, but I鈥檒l do my best. It鈥檚 like cheap satin on a hard plastic sheet, with a texture on it. If you鈥檙e irritated by the sound of two spoons rubbing against each other, this texture will bother you to no end.Moving on, turning on the display reveals a bright vibrant showing that looks pretty nice for the price. On closer inspection however, some flaws are revealed. For starters, there鈥檚 a noticeable gap between the display and the screen. It makes sense for a rugged device, but it does ruin the immersion. Sunlight visibility and brightness settings are quite satisfactory however.Turning on the camera is also quite the disappointment. Unlike many devices these days where the pictures look decent until closer inspection, the C5 Pro鈥檚 camera is just incredibly grainy. Colors are accurate and vibrant, but the the details are completely ruined. I鈥檒l take a look at the settings to see if there鈥檚 anything I could change about it.The Apollo is Vernee’s answer to one of the most successful phones of the 2016, i.e. the鑱絆nePlus 3/3T. While that may be true on an aesthetical鑱?amp; physical level, the same cannot be said about performance & overall usability of the phone.Does that mean the Vernee Apollo has no reason to exist? Well, let’s get into the review to find out!Vernee Apollo鑱絊pecificationsProcessorMediaTek MT6797T Helio X25 @2.5GHz with鑱組ali T880 GPUDisplay5.5閳 2k 2560x1440px, LCD IPS Sharp IGZORAM4GBStorage64GB (expandable)Operating SystemAndroid 6.0 MarshmallowCameras21.0 MP SONY IMX230 PDAF Rear, 8MP Front CameraBattery3180mAhPhysical Properties188g, 152 x 75.6 x 9.3mmVernee Apollo鑱絇ackagingThe Vernee Apollo comes in a big black and heavy box. That’s (the fact that it’s heavy) not entirely because of the phone itself though; Vernee does include a pair of VR goggles to take advantage of the high resolution 2K display for Virtual Reality purposes. Inside the box we also find a 5V/7V/9V – 2A USB charger and an USB type-A to USB type-C charging cable.Vernee Apollo鑱絉eviewDesign & BuildThis department is where the Vernee Apollo shines the most. While the design is rather ordinary and similar to dozens of phones we get to see on GizChina (OnePlus 3(T) being one of them, the build quality is actually pretty top-end.The device feels solid in your hands as it features a thick metal back cover and, while that adds a bit of weight to it, I definitely prefer this to the light and generic-looking phones we find on the market, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is one example.The Apollo also comes with a 2.5D glass coating, nano molding antenna bands, up to 98% metal coverage for the body and an unique matte texture achieved through a 360-degree sand-blasting. The phone has a premium build quality — there’s no doubt about that.On another note, the camera protrudes quite a bit, but do not worry, there’s a thin metal ring that will protect it from getting scratched.Size and weight wise, it’s a big 5.5-inch phone, so no surprises about that. The weight is a bit over my comfort zone and it being made of a smooth metal surface has me holding very carefully every time. I think an ordinary silicon鑱絚ase would fix most of my problems, though. On the plus鑱絪ide, I still haven’t dropped it yet!DisplayThe biggest selling point of the Vernee Apollo is its 2K鑱?560 x 1440px鑱絊harp IGZO IPS display. It is as stunning as you would imagine, super clear and colors are appear to be quite on point.The viewing angles are above the ordinary. With that I mean that you still get to see the screen perfectly at insane angles, definitely more than what you would probably ever need. The display is also very bright but at鑱絫imes you may have to fight to avoid direct sun light as it is a tiny bit reflective (or at least it is with the included screen protector).Since the high resolution 2K display pushed Vernee to include a VR headset in the box, let’s talk about鑱絫he Virtual Reality experience in this section as well.In a word: bad. Beware, it’s not the phone’s fault, but the VR headset they include is pretty pants. It doesn’t even include a button, which is usually just a magnet! How do they think I will get my “VR experience” without a way to start it? If you guys aren’t aware, most VR demos ask you to push a button to begin them, without one you are just left in the home waiting for nothing to happen.That said, this is pretty easy to fix by buying a鑱絚heap VR headset with鑱絘n included button. I only wish鑱絍ernee had thought about it.As far as the actual VR experience goes, it is really interesting and fun. The 2K screen sure does improve the video quality; I had already tried VR on 1080p and it was much more pixelated compared to a 1440p display. I think it’s still too early to get good VR on smartphones, so take it with a grain of salt.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramHardware & PerformanceThe Vernee Apollo comes with鑱給ne of the most powerful CPUs from MediaTek, the Helio X25. This processor can go鑱絬p to 2.5GHz and is paired up with a Mali T880 GPU. Other than that, there is鑱?GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable internal storage.But鑱統ou could have found all this鑱絠nfo in the spec sheet.鑱紿ow does the phone actually perform, though? Well, the Apollo is snappy and you can definitely see an improvement over the older Helio X10. It opens up apps faster and multitasking is rather flawless. Sure there are some minor bugs here and there, but overall the user experience is pretty鑱絞ood.Games also run fine and, while the 2K resolution may only make it worse in some cases, they are still playable. Don’t expect the performance of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, though.As many MediaTek SoCs, the Helio X25 is not immune to overheating. I’ve noticed it the most while taking photos and recording videos, that also caused the phone to discharge relatively fast. Hopefully they can fix this later in a small update, or even a new Android Nougat ROM.If you’re interested in real numbers, here are its Antutu and Geekbench scores: 4G LTE connectivity is good, at least here in Europe. It supports Band 20, which is pretty fundamental over here. Call quality is good as well, no complains about that. The phone has a Dual SIM / 1 SIM + 1 microSD setup.WiFi and GPS also work flawlessly, meanwhile I’ve been having some problems with Bluetooth (weak signal), I’m not quite sure if it’s the phone itself or my headphones got damaged somehow, I’ll update the review鑱絯hen I finally figure it out.The fingerprint scanner is鑱絧laced on the back and although not recognizing my finger 100% of the times, when it does, it’s鑱絣ightning fast. And no, I’m not over selling it, they use a special algorithm (specially after鑱絫he last update) that recognizes your fingerprint instantly, you need to try it to get an idea!Battery life is decent,鑱絙ut that also depends on your usage habits. The way I use it, I can get through a day, that is if I don’t go out snapping photos or playing games. I sure wish it had a slightly bigger battery or having a more optimized software. Battery fully charges in about 1hr and half with the included charger.Vernee Apollo鑱紺amera & PhotosThe Vernee Apollo sports a 21MP rear camera with an aperture of f/2.2. The shutter speed is fast but not the fastest,鑱絫hat said, if you take your time and hold your phone steady you can get very nice high quality sharp photos. White balance is a bit all over the place, I’ve noticed. Meanwhile the front camera is decent and has a resolution of 8 megapixels.The camera can shoot 4K videos at 30fps, but for some reason they aren’t fully compatible with YouTube.鑱絀 get an error and the upload fails. Meanwhile 1080p videos don’t suffer of this problem.Here are some photos so you can judge for yourself: Without HDR With HDR Without HDR With HDR Without HDR With HDR Creepy Crop Vernee Apollo鑱紾allery Vernee Apollo鑱絉eviewConclusionIn my opinion the Apollo is a missed opportunity for Vernee to create a very appealing鑱絆nePlus 3(T) alternative. Or at least, they shouldn’t have marketed it as such, if not just for the fact that the OnePlus 3(T) packs superior hardware and software support.If you take the鑱絍ernee Apollo鑱絙y itself though, I think it’s a rather spectacular phone. Sure, it is on the heavier side and battery life isn’t amazing, but the build quality is really outstanding, the phone is powerful, snappy and, most importantly, it rocks a stunning 2K display which in my opinion鑱絠s on-par with the best screens present on Samsung flagships and the likes. Buy the Vernee ApolloI鈥檝e been playing around with the Blackview R6 recently, as you can tell from my recent unboxing video. It鈥檚 been a very interesting device so far, and I鈥檓 actually quite pleased by it. My curiosity grew however, and I wanted to see what the company could do with a larger budget and better specs.With that, I鈥檝e received the brand new Blackview P2, which is the company鈥檚 more ambitious device. It features some really interesting specifications and design, and I鈥檝e been looking forward to getting it in my hands. Expectations are pretty high here, just in case you couldn鈥檛 tell.So can the Blackview P2 live up to my expectations, or will it fall flat? It鈥檚 still too early to tell, and I’ll need to put the device through the wringer to actually find out the answer. But for now, you can read on to see my first impressions of the device first.Blackview P2:聽UnboxingThe Blackview P2 comes in the exact same type of box that the previous R6 came in, even in all the small details. It鈥檚 still a normal white box with the same subtle design, logo location and model number sticker in the corner. Of course the model number and specs on the back are different, but aside from that it鈥檚 the same box. Inside the box we get more dejavu, with the phone鈥檚 placement being exactly the same as the R6鈥檚. Next to it is the P2鈥檚 model number, and under that there鈥檚 also the same set of accessories, with minor differences. Instead of the microUSB cable, we have a USB-C cable and an additional USB to USB-C adapter.Aside from that, we鈥檝e got the same set of things, those being the silicone case, instruction manual, el cheapo earphones and wall adapter. The wall adapter this time is different however, it鈥檚 much larger than the R6鈥檚 due to its 9V output which allows it to charge much faster. It鈥檚 somewhat disappointing that it鈥檚 so similar, but it鈥檚 still quite a nice and sturdy box. Left to right: Oukitel C5 Pro, Blackview R6, Blackview P2 Overall the P2鈥檚 box is a good quality, that鈥檚 the general impression I get from this unboxing. I鈥檝e noticed that Blackview has a certain attention to detail that is tough to find with similar companies, and it鈥檚 much appreciated. While I do feel they could鈥檝e done more to distinguish their models, it鈥檚 a minor gripe.Blackview P2:聽First ImpressionsThe Blackview P2, similar to the R6 before it, feels heavy and solid, though it鈥檚 for good reason this time. The device feels and looks sturdy, though by extension it also looks quite chubby and chunky. A metal frame wraps all around the device, presenting us with the familiar sandwich design we鈥檝e seen before.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe rear of the device is mainly aluminum, with small plastic strips at the bottom and the top. Further by the top we have the camera, LED flash and the rather small fingerprint sensor, as well as the Blackview logo. At the bottom we鈥檝e got the CE markings and a message that says 鈥楧esigned by Blackview, Assembled in China鈥? On the right of the device, we have a textured power button and the volume rocker. They鈥檙e quite comfortably placed, which is good. The top features the 3.5mm headphone jack, while the left holds the microSD and sim card slot. And at the bottom of the device we find the USB-C charging port and speaker grilles, though only the left one works.The device features a 2.5d display on the front, and the effect is very noticeable on the black model. At the top of the display, there鈥檚 the front facing camera module, notification LED and earpiece speaker. And below that, we have a pair of capacitive touch buttons which are surprisingly not backlit. This is a truly disappointing find for such a promising device, and I have no idea why Blackview did this. In terms of build quality, the Blackview P2 feels very good. Pulling more parallels from the Blackview R6, the P2 feels incredibly well built to the point that it feels comparable to more expensive devices from big companies like HTC or Huawei. The device is also very ergonomic, featuring subtle curves that make it comfy to handle despite its girth.Display-wise, the P2 may lose out on some points depending on what you prefer. Unlike the Bluboo Dual, the display on the Blackview P2 is slightly more subdued and dull. It鈥檚 still a good panel featuring some incredible viewing angles and accurate colors, it鈥檚 just not as vibrant as the competition. Depending on how you like your displays, this could either be a pro or a con. Camera performance so far ranges from very good to middling. It鈥檚 kind of like your typical Chinese phone shooter, just slightly better than usual. Taking decent photos in low light is actually possible now, but switching on HDR results in some very bad shutter lag. No verdict yet, but I can say you won鈥檛 be buying this for its camera.In terms of UI performance, everything鈥檚 been running smoothly. Most games I鈥檝e played suffered from no to minimal lag, and standard usage has been snappy. Not much to complain about here, and even the battery charges very quickly. Speaking of the battery, the 6,000mAh unit has been quite impressive so far, and I鈥檓 looking forward to putting it to the test..

Earlier this evening Andi was on Facebook Live with the Nubia Z11. Rewatch the video here!Before anyone begins watching this video please keep in mind that the first minute or so is of complete silence as Andi was messing around with the WIFI rather than keeping an eye if he was live or not!In the video Andi goes hands on with the Nubia Z11 flagship smarphone. The top of the range handset boasts 4GB RAM, Snapdragon 820 chipset, 64GB memory and 5.5-inch bezelless display. The video goes through all the features of this amazing smartphone including a few features that are unique to the Nubia range.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramNubia Z11 Video ReviewBluboo鈥檚 been playing it pretty stable these past few years. With some fairly average devices backed by some good prices, they鈥檝e managed to stay relevant for quite a long time. Recently however, the company seems to have become more inspired to make interesting devices. Or at least follow the current trends.Enter the Bluboo Dual, Bluboo鈥檚 attempt at a dual camera device after the popularity of similar devices. It鈥檚 one of their more ambitious devices in recent memory right next to the Bluboo Edge. Curious, I agreed to review it to see what Bluboo has done with the concept.So, is the Bluboo Dual an good聽and thoughtful new product聽with a smart implementation of an interesting feature, or is it merely just a gimmicky device? Read on to see my first impressions of the device.Bluboo Dual: Unboxing The front The rear The Bluboo Dual comes in a svelte black box that looks premium and expensive. It鈥檚 a big difference compared to their earlier box designs, and it鈥檚 quite the improvement too. The box feels solid and tough with enough strength to not get squashed by my hands squeezing it.On the front we get the simple Bluboo logo, along with the 鈥楤eyond your life!鈥 tagline, leaving it simple and understated. The rear features some simple specs, and mine comes with a sample sticker, which is pretty funny. Opening the box reveals the Bluboo Dual itself, and digging further reveals a pair of el cheapo earphones, a micro-USB cable, the power adapter, the sim ejector pin and an instruction booklet. Unfortunately, the folds on the inside are plain white, which I honestly feel should鈥檝e been black to mesh with the box.Unfortunately, there鈥檚 no case included in the box, which is a bummer. Most devices I test these days come with some sort of silicon case, so it鈥檚 somewhat disappointing to see there being none. Anywho, let鈥檚 move on the the meat of the story, the device itself.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramBluboo Dual: First ImpressionsThere鈥檚 not really any elegant way to say this, the Bluboo Dual looks almost exactly like a Rose Gold iPhone 7 Plus. The subtle rounded edges, the dual camera placement, the antennae design, it鈥檚 all reminiscent of Apple鈥檚 big mobile device. As a result, it鈥檚 a relatively good looking device, though quite lacking in terms of originality. In terms of build quality, the Bluboo Dual feels decent. It鈥檚 not shoddily built in any way and it鈥檚 honestly pretty well put together, but it lacks that solid, premium feel that many phones aspire to achieve. Of course, you鈥檇 be hard pressed to find a phone with that quality in the same price tag, but it鈥檚 they are becoming more frequent.The display quality of the Bluboo Dual is actually very good, almost astonishingly so too. The colors are vibrant and natural, while images and text are crispy. This also extends to the viewing angles, which are reminiscent of much more expensive devices. Bluboo鈥檚 managed to get a pretty good panel here.Camera performance so far has been鈥 Kind of lackluster honestly. If you take your time to catch an image and fiddle around in the settings you can get some real good photos. But just straight out the box speed shooting isn鈥檛 something this phone does well. Of course, that鈥檚 just an early impression, digging through more settings should yield some interesting results.Now general performance here definitely takes the back seat to the rest of the specs, which is a shame. I鈥檓 still buggering around searching for a more powerful phone setting, but for now it鈥檚 not optimal. The device definitely has the potential, it鈥檚 just needs a lot more polishing to shine.

The Breakdown If youre looking for an easy to use, affordable electric scrubber for simple hopusehold usage, then this Phaewo Electric Spin Scrubber could surely do the job! Its worth having a look for it. Quality – 7.7 Ease of use – 7.5 Performance – 8.5 Battery – 8.1 Design – 7.9 Daily tasks tend to take a lot of our free time. Any help possible is more than welcomed. Robot vacuums for example is an great accessory for everyone who works long hours and wants to have a social life or time just to relax.My personal drawback is kitchen and bathroom tasks. They look horrible by the end of the week and I dont want to use heavy-duty tile cleaners due to my asthma. Upon to this task, my kids got old enough to eat themselves, thus dropping half the food around the house, either on the wook texture or the carpets. Again usage of heavy cleaners is avoided for allergies and skin irritation.I had to find a solution and a Spin Scrubber was the answer. Phaewo has an amazing electric model with a decent price of 86 euros at the time of this review. You can buy the Phaewo Electric Spin Scrubber using the coupon: JxMUKGXV聽for the price of 70,99鈧? The coupon is valid until June 15.Buy Phaewo Electric Spin Scrubber from Geekmaxi Phaewo Electric Spin Scrubber: Technical specsGeneralType:Cleaning machineModel:聽CX-QXJ100Color:WhiteProduct DetailsPower type: rechargeableBattery: 2x 7.4V / 2000mAh lithium batteryWorking time: 90 minutesRated voltage: 8.4VMaximum power: 84WAdapter: 12V-1A line length 1.5mWeight & SizePackage Weight: 2.65kgPackage Size(L x W x H):690脳210脳100mmPackage Contents1 x Floor mop1 x waxing sponge1 x hard hair flat brush1 x Corner round brush storage base1 x storage stainless steel frame1 x User Maual1 x adapterPhaewo Electric Spin Scrubber: Main FeaturesPowerful Motor:聽The tile cleaner has an 84W motor and two 7.4V rechargeable batteries. Recharging time is about 2.5 hours for a 90-minute cleaning! You only need one device to audaciously clean everything with just the spin of a brush!Easy Storage: The cleaner comes with a free rack. Don’t waste your time on drilling a hole in your wall or in finding a space to store your grout brush and accessories! After cleaning, just hang your wet scrub brush to dry on the rack.Unique Accessories:聽It has a 24-inch long extension handle, no need to bend over your toilet to get those nasty stains. This detachable toilet cleaner’s head is flexible, so you can clean from different angles. Your package also includes 4 different brushes.Water Resistant:聽This scrubber is fully waterproof from the hinge and below. The top part, its handle, is water resistant from splashing water, so don’t immerse it in water.All-around Cleaner:聽You can use this versatile spin brush for the bathroom, different floors, car, walls, windows, glass surfaces, patio furniture, tile grout, shower, toilet, bathtub, and kitchen.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe electric spin Scrubber looks like a an electric standing broom and can be used with or without an extension. It is not heavy to pick and use on wall, but needs both hands for long time usage. It weighs 2.6 kgs. The extension handle is 60 cm long so you can reach the floor and ceiling easily. The head of the scrubber can be bent to 82 degrees for ease of use and the lower part is fully waterproof for water bucket usage. It has an 84W motor and two 7.4V / 2000mAh rechargeable lithium batteries. Recharging takes about an hour and half for 2 to 3 hours for usage depending on the speed of the motor. The 84W power motor has a torque of 40kgf.cm which offers more than enough power for most household tasks. On the scrubber body a LED Display presents the battery percentage and the speeds – you can hear/see that anyway. A button in the display works as on/1st speed/2nd speed/off. The scrubber has a metal rack and a scrubber base when on the closet. It holds the accessories together for easy reach.The accessories are a floor mop which can be used also for glass or metal surfaces like the exterior of your car. I use this mop on the wooden floor to get stains from baby food and i am planning to try it on the car. For car usage and wooden floors also, there is a round sponge. You can use it to apply wax or shining/wood protection cream.The sponge is easy to use with the wood shining cream. Both are quite easy to clean after. I was worried that the cream might not get off the sponge but a bit of soaking did the job.There is a round head brush to use in the corners – in my case glass shower corners and the joining between the wall tiles and the bathtub. I use soda, vinegar and simple cleaners diluted in water. The scrubber does the job and I dont need any toxic cleaners any more. A second hard hair flat brush comes along for floor usage and this is the one I use on the balcony tiles and carpets. The two brushes can be used on grills and/or other metal parts in the garden but I havent tried that yet. I am going to use the round head brush to clean the balcony rails out of sand when weather allows it.There is a usage manual and an adapter inside the main package. From this long description of accessories and daily usage you get the point! You can clean whatever you want! I am more than happy and I fully recommend it.The Breakdown ALLDOCUBE has released its ALLDOCUBE X tablet, It has a fantastic visual experience and offers a range of benefits and a good value for money. Its an ideal Super AMOLED tablet for listening to music, watching videos and reading web pages. DESIGN – 8.5 SCREEN – 9.5 SOUND – 9.0 PERFORMANCE – 7.0 BATTERY – 6.5 CAMERA – 6.0 SOFTWARE – 8.5 As a manufacturer, Alldocube has focused so far on notebooks and tablets. With the ALLDOCUBE X1, they had already launched a promising 8.4″ tablet, now the big brother follows. The ALLDOCUBE X is available in a larger 10.5-inch format and even offers a Super AMOLED panel! Can it meet high expectations? let’s explore and take a closer look at the ALLDOCUBE X: its features, performance and more. SPECIFICATIONSScreen : 10.5″ with a resolution of 2560×1600, Samsung Super AMOLEDProcessor聽: MediaTek MT8176 Hexa-Core CPU (2 core Cortex A72 with a frequency of up to 2.1 Ghz + 4 core Cortex A53 with a frequency of up to 1.7 Ghz)Graphics聽: IMG PowerVR GX6250Sound聽: HiFi Audio DAC AKM AK4376ARAM : 4 GBBuilt-in memory : 64 GB + expansion slot with micro SD memory cards up to 128 Gb – (there’s also a 128GB variant)Wireless interfaces聽: WiFi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.1Camera : Rear 8MP + front 8MPBattery聽: 8000 mAh with support for fast charging technology Pump Express 2.0Connectivity: USB type C, 3.5mm jack, fingerprint sensorOperating system聽: Android 8.1Dimensions聽: 243.68 mm 脳 173.14 mm 脳 6.9 mmWeight聽: 500 g UNBOXING Nice packaging design, a minimum of screaming elements – everything is strict and tasteful. They could not resist only at the last moment and slapped the Super AMOLED sticker. But this is really a step forward for Chinese tablets, and in this case it is really something to be proud of.Standard equipment: tablet, charger, cable, documentation and a pin to remove the tray for the memory card. As a bonus from the factory, a high-quality protective film is pasted on the screen.The charger is not simple, but with the support of fast charging technology Pump Express 2.0. It can produce 2A at 5V / 7V / 9V or 1.5A at 12V. The maximum power is 18W. In order to fully charge the tablet battery from 0% to 100%, it took 3.5 hours.DESIGN The design is classic. Unlike smartphones, you can’t get rid of the frames in the tablets. More precisely – it is possible, but ergonomics and convenience will suffer. Frames allow you to confidently hold the tablet in your hands without fear of accidental touch.In the upper part you can see the front camera and the light sensor. The front camera with fixed focus will fit only for video communications. The rear camera has autofocus, but the quality also does not shine. Why? Even in cheap smartphones they put decent cameras, but on tablets they are used extremely rarely.The back cover of the tablet is made of aluminum, treated to matte condition. The tablet is not not slippery and it is pleasant to hold it in hand. Partly due to the low weight and thickness. The thickness of 6.9 mm gives a decidedly nice sensation of use.By default, it is assumed that the tablet will be used in horizontal mode. The buttons for adjusting the volume and locking the screen are placed on the left side.The Fingerprint scanner is on the right side. Very unusual solution and very convenient! Just slide your finger across the edge and it is guaranteed to pass through the scanner. The speed and the accuracy of reading is simply amazing.In addition to the fingerprint scanner, a headphone jack and a USB type C were located on the same side for charging and connecting to a computer. Holding the tablet in a horizontal mode will not prevent you from interfering with the wires from charging or headphones, and your hands will not close the audio speakers, because they were carried to the upper bound.SCREEN The screen is clearly the strongest side of the tablet. Samsung’s Super AMOLED, and that says it all. It uses the same screen as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 which is for the moment 3 times more expensive than the Alldocube X. Colorful color rendition, high brightness and contrast, endless black color – all these are the advantages of matrices on organic LEDs.And do not forget about the high resolution. With a screen diagonal of 10.5″ and a resolution of 2560×1600 pixels, the detailing reaches 288 ppi! Even with the Apple iPad Pro 2018, this figure is lower. The image looks super realistic, especially if you view content in high quality.All those who have seen Super AMOLED screens with their own eyes, noted that the image is very cool and even live. And since black does not emit light, the themes on a black background look especially beautiful and besides they save a lot of battery power, because unlike IPS matrices, a black pixel does not consume any energy at all.The vertical and horizontal viewing angle is about 180 degrees with absolute preservation of brightness, color and contrast of the image.Another feature of the display, although it already relates more to the software part, is the possibility to switch the tablet to reader mode, when the whole screen becomes monochrome.SOUNDWith the two stereo speakers, this tablet’s sound is amazing. I tried to watch movies with built-in sound and ran various videos from YouTube and play games – everything is perfect. The stereo effect and the volume are really felt.ALLDOCUBE X is equipped with an AKM HiFi audio chip, which is intended to significantly improve the viewing experience of movies. So it’s stereo sound is very satisfying.Of course there is something to complain about – a louder sound appears at the speakers at maximum volume, especially if the source has a high volume level. You just need to turn down the volume by a couple of tick marks.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramSOFTWARE The tablet is running the stock Android 8.1 operating system without pre-instaled apps related to the manufacturer or any bloatware. The manufacturer decided not to make any changes to the system providing the user a clean stock Android. On the main screen, you can place shortcuts and group them into folders, you can also slide up to reach a menu with all installed applications from Google, third-party apps and so on.Settings are also quite standard. In the screen settings, it is possible to hide the navigation buttons, set the automatic activation of the night mode on a schedule (reduces the intensity of blue light), increase the size of the font and the elements, and so on. With standard settings, everything looks very fine.CAMERAThe ALLDOCUBE X has an 8MP front and rear camera, the front camera has fixed focus and it will fit only for video communications. The rear camera has autofocus, but the quality also does not shine. Why? Even in cheap smartphones they put decent cameras, but on tablets they are used extremely rarely. So you can not rely on the camera of this device very much. Here is some shots taken by the rear camera聽 : PERFORMANCE The tablet has a 4Gb of RAM installed, it allows you to work in multitasking mode, open a lot of tabs in the browser and at the same time enjoy high speed when switching between applications. With the 64GB Built-in memory, you can not enjoy installing applications and games, and if you are going on a business trip or vacation – take a small film library. In addition, there is always the possibility to additionally install a memory card.The processor provides a good performance for using apps and browsing the web, in Antutu it scores 102,616 and in Geekbench it achieve 1,608 points in single-core mode and 3951 in multi-core mode. In graphics tests, the result is not very high, so I cant recommend it to gamers. This means that in demanding games, to get a comfortable FPS, you will need to reduce the graphics settings to medium or even low. Another important point – at a long load, the tablet copes well with it, the metal cover dissipates the heat quite well, so the processor does not overheat and does not throttle. The standard 15-minute stress test showed that with a long load of all cores, the performance drops to an average of 94% of the maximum possible.But still the games for this tablet are secondary. The main thing here is the playback of multimedia content, the tablet is equipped with a dual-band WiFi adapter with support for the ac standard. This standard provides a higher speed (if your router supports it). This allows you to watch online any content, even Ultra HD quality. Quality is available in Youtube up to 1440p 60 fps and the tablet reproduces it without any problems.BATTERYIn the final part, let’s talk about the autonomy. On one hand, we have a pretty good battery with a capacity of 8000 mAh, on the other hand – not the most economical processor, a very bright screen and its high resolution. Therefore, the work time will depend primarily on the type of tasks performed and the brightness value of the screen. at 50% of brightness and with video playback on Youtube (1080p quality) I was able to get 6 hours 50 minutes of on-screen time and when playing a video from the internal memory, the time increases up to 7 hours and 56 minutes.But this is of course a simple task for the processor. In the mixed use mode: video through YouTube, use of the browser, few games I came out with about 5 hours of continuous use.The charger that cames in the box support fast charging technology Pump Express 2.0. It can produce 2A at 5V / 7V / 9V or 1.5A at 12V. The maximum power is 18W. In order to fully charge the tablet battery from 0% to 100%, it took about 3.5 hours.ALLDOCUBE F40 Getting a quality quad driver in-ear headphones can be quite a costly enterprise, because models like 1more can cost up to $200. For all more budget conscious customers there are the new ALLDOCUBE F40 coming for a much lower price and sporting the same extra quality quad driver setup.So what makes the ALLDOCUBE F40 earphones special ? Well the makers decided to give it quad driver setup, featuring non-destructive 4 frequency division technology and 8 coil iron. The three dynamic drivers and one balanced armature are divided as follows :ALLDOCUBE is also trying to get some more inspiration from the nature and the anti-oxidation copper core around the neck keeps the vibration isolated from your ears.CONCLUSIONLet’s sum up. The tablet is excellent but it has a number of key features that for some people can become disadvantages:The lack of support for SIM card slot indicates that the tablet is designed mostly for home use.Graphics settings should be reduced to medium and low when playing demanding games.Mediocre autonomy.If we talk about its benefits, then there will be basically everything related to the consumption of audio and video content:Contrast, bright and colorful display with Samsung Super AMOLED premium class screen!The AKM AK4376A audio chip outputs the sound in headphones to the HiFi level. The quality is not inferior tospecialized audio devices HiFi class.Audio speakers are amazing.Fingerprint scanner on the side is very convenient and practical.The amount of RAM and internal memory corresponds to modern needs.WiFi support in standard AC, DualBand (2.4Ghz / 5Ghz).Support for fast charging and the presence of a fast charger it in the kit.Excellent apperance and build quality, materials (metal + glass).Thickness is only at 6.9 mm.

OPPO wrapped up 2018 with some impressive smartphones in its portfolio including the mind-boggling Find X and the OPPO R17 Pro. The latter is what we got our hands on and we are excited to share our thoughts with you on OPPOs best R series device of last year. The OPPO R17 Pro series came to India in December and that is when I got a chance to review it which I was waiting to do eagerly. The handset has also been made official in Europe with the OPPO RX17 Pro moniker. It costs 45,990 in India and thats the territory of most flagship phones but the handset comes in just one storage and RAM variant – 8GB + 128GB. It competes with the likes of OnePlus 6T, Samsungs Galaxy S9, and other devices in that price range. Pros : Extremely fast charging – Super VOOCGood Looks and gradient colorsGreat camerasReliable performanceCons :Color OS with Android 8.1 OreoNo headphone jackNo waterproofing or wireless charging DesignMany smartphone enthusiasts know the parallels drawn between OnePlus phones and OPPOs R series. The R17 Pro continues that idea while adding some sparkle to the rear side of the R17 Pro. While the front of the handset has a teardrop notch and a screen very similar to the OnePlus 6T with very slim bezels (even at the bottom), the rear comes with two gradient colour options – Emerald Green (the one which I have) and Radiant Mist. This adds to the attractiveness instead of a simple all-Black coating like the OnePlus 6T. The build quality and materials are also top notch but I hate the slippy glass back as it gives me jitters every time I imagine it falling from my hand. As a matter of fact, it did fall off my pocket and hand a couple of times, thankfully from a relatively low-height area. It survived without any major damage. There were noticeable scuffs on the edges and sides after the fall,聽though the back had no signs of damage at all. OPPO bundles a rubber case with the device but I didnt use it for most of the time as it defeats the purpose of having such an attractive-looking smartphone. To add to that, the expensive handset doesnt come with waterproofing or wireless charging which OPPO should have added to such a premium phone. However, the majority of OPPOs high-end devices dont come with the feature but I would have been overjoyed to have these two things as a feature set for the R17 Pro.聽Display The OPPO R17 Pros Full-HD+ AMOLED panel is top notch. It is one of the areas where parent OPPO beats OnePlus 6T. In fact, coming from a OnePlus 6T itself, I quickly noticed the brightness of the display is much better than the OnePlus device. While one could struggle with brightness issues in outdoor scenarios with the OnePlus flagship, there will be no such fears with the R17 Pro. It also has a good level of low brightness and viewing angles are also no problem. In addition, Cornings latest Gorilla Glass 6 gives peace of mind to users, in case they fear an accidental drop. It comes with a pre-applied screen protector which is a nice gesture from OPPO. Being an AMOLED, the blacks and whites are impressive, however, there are no built-in software settings to tune the colors if a user wants warmer or cooler options. All in all, a great display with a pleasurable viewing experience is what we get on the OPPO R17 Pro. Performance  For a premium handset that is priced Rs 46,000, the R17 Pro with a Snapdragon 710 SoC definitely seems underpowered on paper. Thats more so in India with many lower-priced devices sporting a Snapdragon 845 SoC. Heck, the POCO F1 comes at less than half the price but still has a Snapdragon 845 SoC. While theres no denying that the flagship SoC is obviously better, I for one did not notice any difference in regular usage one bit. There was no lag or frame drops, or stutters on the R17 Pro anywhere in my entire time of use. The high amount of RAM and storage definitely helps but suffice to say the Snapdragon 710 SoC is no slouch and is a reliable performer. Sound quality on the handset is pretty loud and it still doesn’t distort at high volumes although the placement of the speaker leaves a lot to be desired, as other reviewers have also pointed out.As mentioned earlier, day-to-day usage is a breeze although OPPO could learn the art of RAM management from OnePlus. Apps opened fairly fast and I have had no crashes so far. Moderate gaming is also a great experience, especially with the big screen and OPPOs Game Space software that kicks in automatically once you fire up a title. There are almost no noticeable frame drops or lag on titles that I played such as Asphalt 9.Heavy gaming is also no problem with even the most tasking graphics. I played Asphalt 9 and for a few races and I couldnt find any reason to complain. While technically the Snapdragon 710 SoC is a minus on paper for the OPPO R17 Pro, in terms of real-life usage the margins are really thin and I think thats what buyers should see.Software: Color OS 5.2 (Android Oreo 8.1)Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram Color OS, is in my opinion, the biggest handicap of an otherwise outstanding flagship device from OPPO here. I cant stand to see icons littered all over my home screen and OPPO stays stubborn year after year not including a simple drawer option for those who need it. Take a look at EMUI. Despite being a Chinese ROM, theyve come far and give their users the option of an app drawer if they need it. Is that really hard to do? Thankfully some other annoyances like the persistent notifications have been addressed by the company and are a lot better now. I also direly need a Google Feed integration on my home screen which is not what OPPO plans to add in its Color OS launcher. Theres also no swipe down to show notifications which is another big pain on Color OS. Not to mention the absence of an AOD display on the lock screen which is super useful on the likes of OnePlus 6T. 聽聽聽Hence, Ive moved to a custom launcher called Ruthless. It is close to AmirZs Rootless Launcher but has more customization options, and in my opinion, much better. Not all is gloom and doom though about Color OS. There are some features which arent so bad like the super fast face unlock and the remarkably more accurate on-screen fingerprint reader. Theres a Theme Store for wallpapers and also a Lock screen Magazine that automatically changes wallpapers on the lock screen which is a good feature to have. The battery endurance is also good on the handset although I dont understand why OPPO will not show detailed battery usage stats. like SoT in the battery usage section. Theres also a Phone Manager app which proves handy when you want to clean junk cache files and data in a few taps. OPPO has released Color OS 6.0 with Android Pie in China and I believe the R17 Pro will be one of the first handsets along with Find X to receive the update, whenever that happens. As of now, OPPO has not provided any timelines, as usual. 聽Camera The OPPO R17 Pro is one of the few phones that proves strong in the most vital areas for a high-end smartphone. It has a good build, design, a good battery, a good processor, and also a pretty good camera. Its OPPOs first handset with a triple camera setup which consists of a 12MP + 20MP + 3D TOF sensor. Although, the latter doesnt seem to be working right now but might be activated in the future. Its also the first to boast variable aperture which adds to the quality of images in specific scenarios. It also has OIS for video and supports slow-mo as well as regular video recording at 1080p. However, the camera app is pretty basic but theres an expert mode if youre looking for to do for more granular manual controls. Daylight images are impressive with balanced background and highlights without a lot of oversharpening. Colors are a bit over-emphasized but if you like that, you will be pleased. 聽聽Low-light images are also surprisingly good because of the f/1.5 aperture and the impressive 1.4um pixel size. Theres a dedicated Night photography mode which works well and manages to reduce noise and reproduces good image colors. AI Beautification can be turned on or off if its an annoyance. Portrait mode seems to botch up the borders badly in some cases but works fine in other cases. Theres an AR sticker mode as well in the camera app but I dont think its good enough, to be honest. Apples Animoji is miles ahead and OPPO has a lot of work to do.Selfies turn out to be pretty good as well with good details and sharpness as well as color accuracy. Thankfully, the beauty mode can be turned off when you want it. As for the portrait mode, it works great when it does with edge detection but misses the point sometimes. There’s 1080p video recording and slow-mo available as well.BatteryBattery on the OPPO R17 Pro is as big as the OnePlus 6T and endurance is also close but slightly lower than its OnePlus counterpart. However, both can last you a day with moderate to even heavy usage. When Im working, I use my smartphone sparsely but when Im done I do a lot of media consumption, social media and some gaming as well. Despite that, I rarely felt the need to charge the phone mid-day even when I used it heavily. 聽What really puts the OPPO R17 Pro in a league of its own is the Super VOOC charge, which is mind-blowing to say the least. I was very impressed with OPPO when they first debuted VOOC back with the OPPO Find 7 some years back. And Super VOOC has spoiled me for every other phone in the industry. Suffice to say, its the current industry leader in the fast charging aspect. You can get around a 40% charge within just 10 minutes. And within 20 minutes, youll have around 70% charge which is good to last you easily for a full day if youre an average user. I have never had such peace of mind ever (with regards to battery) in my several years of using a smartphone and thats saying a lot. That said, the biggest downside is that the fast charging works only with OPPOs bundled charging brick. Youll have to carry it around to take advantage. Or, you could buy OPPOs fast charging power bank which is only available in China right now. There are battery saving options as well which goes the standard route to saving some juice for you but I didnt feel the need of it any time of my lengthy usage. Final ThoughtsThe OPPO R17 Pro is a well-rounded package in the flagship arena that gets most of the stuff right. It has a great display, a satisfying camera, a reliable battery with jaw-dropping fast charge, and the looks of a premium handset. There are things like the software that leaves more to desire but, as we all know, those can easily be addressed to a certain extent with launchers from the Play Store. Thankfully, OPPO also included a pair of USB-C earphones which ease your pain of not having a 3.5mm headphone jack.The Breakdown NOA N10 is one surely impressive device, packed with an elegant ceramic body and in my humble opinion it comes out as a semi-luxury phone, one with a price you cannot unsee. If you spend your day with calls, texting, facebook, instagram, and you like having an... affordable jewel in your hands, then you should really add NOA N10 as an option. Appearance – 8.0 Battery life – 6.5 Audio – 8.8 Camera – 7.0 Software – 7.9 Performance – 7.9 Internationally known for the European EISA Awards, EISA聽 (Expert Imaging and Sound Association) started in 1982 when the editors-in-chief from five European photo magazines came together to select The Camera of the Year for the first time. The Association has members in 30 countries located in Europe, Australia, United States, and recently new members from Canada, Japan, India and Hong Kong/China. For over 35 years this organization has chosen the best consumer electronics every year. Over 50 special interest magazines, covering aspects such as audio, video, home cinemas, auto, photo and mobile technologies decide which devices will be the recipients of EISA awards.The award carry a lot of prestige especially to the European market and are much sought from the major electronics companies. Last September EISA presented the awards for 2018-2019 in Berlin. Best smartphone was awarded to Huawei P20 Pro, Nokia 7 Plus took the Consumer smartphone award, Honor 10 took the Lifestyle smartphones award and NOA N10 took the Best Buy smartphone award. NOA who? is a thought coming to many as the much coveted Best Buy (or in market lingo Best VFM) was awarded to an unknown company and not to Xiaomi, Honor or Nokia, globally known for their VFM smartphones.NOA line is created from Hangar18, a Croatian smartphone manufacturer with a strong presence in the SE European region, and a tendency of growth and expansion into the rest of Europe. NOA strives to be the leader in the B smartphone market segment following affordable premium philosophy, and has made great inroads in this field during the last five years.NOA N10 has reached Gizchina HQ and we are curious to see how this outsider managed to win, the most likely to succeed, Far East models on this smartphone category.It has a full notched display, 4GB of RAM, stock Android Oreo, a large 3600mAh battery, three 16MP cameras, 4G LTE, DTS sound and a ceramic back! Face Unlock and a shiny gradient back with a fingerprint sensor, complete this more that good, set of characteristics. The company provides warranty for 2 years.NOA N10 CharacteristicsOS:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Android 8.1 OreoSoC: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 MediaTek Helio P23 (MT6763V/WT),CPU: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 4x 2.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A53, 4x 2.0 GHz ARM Cortex-A53, Cores: 8GPU: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 ARM Mali-G71 MP2, 700 MHz, Cores: 2ROM:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 64GB ROM, TF card up to 128GBRAM:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 4GB LPDDR4x RAM, 1600 MHDisplay: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 6.18 in, IPS, 1080 x 2246 pixelsFront Camera: 16.0MP cameraBack Camera: 16.0MP + 16.0MP Sony IMX499 Exmor RS, dual back cameraNetwork: 聽聽聽聽聽聽 GSM:850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, UMTS: 850, 900, 2100 MHz, LTE (FDD): Bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, LTE (TDD): Bands 38, 39, 40, 41Bands: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 5GHz 802.11 b, g, n, Dual band, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi DirectSIM:聽聽聽 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 2 Nano SIM Cards, Dual standbyBluetooth:聽聽聽聽聽 4.0 A2DPBattery: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 3600 mAh, Li-PolymerExtras: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor, GPSDimensions: 75.6 x 155 x 7.9 mmWeight: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 168 gUnboxingThe smartphone arrives in a white hard paper box. The brand name is written with shiny grey details on top. The bottom of the box has a grey sticker with black letters describing the characteristics and various other information. Inside you will find:1 X NOA N10 smartphone1 X Power adapter1 X USB cable1 X USB-C headphones1 X SIM card eject tool1 X Screen protector1 X Silicone Case1 X Manual and 1 easy to setup guideThe retail box is excellent and full. I like the tempered glass and the headphones, both seen rarely in a smartphones packaging nowadays. N10 arrives protected in sticker, plastic film on the display and plastic film on the back with IMEI / Serial Number details. The packaging is a good proof of what I am about to see later on.DesignThe mobile comes only in Grey. The colour looks like light silver with a distinct metallic mottled finish that reminds me of last years Honor smartphones. It is very masculine and modern. It is clearly one of the best greys you can see in smartphones. It looks astonishingly good in the sun. Very elegant design!In the front we can see a huge 6.18 inch display with a 19:9 aspect ratio. The notch in the top resembles Huawei P20 – it is smaller that my daily driver, Xiaomi Mi 8. There is no protection here that i know of – this is the reason probably the company provides a tempered glass in the retail box.The notch is the place where you can find the microphone, the frontal single selfie camera and the usual pack of sensors. There is no LED flash here so your selfies will suffer in low light conditions. Unfortunately there is no notification light either. The microphone is wide so you wont have to align the smartphone to your ear for a clear sound, an issue found in many smartphones like OnePlus 6.There are very small bezels on the side of the display and a bigger one on the bottom. This is a full view display with excellent ratio to the body. There are no physical keys on the lower bezel.The frame is metallic (aluminum) with matte grey colour. In the right side it has three metallic buttons, two for the volume control and one for the power/lock button. There is a small rattling noise and partial movement when you move your fingers on them but nothing serious to complain about. On the top there is a noise cancellation microphone. In the left you can see a double SIM tray. On the lower part you will find the USB type C port, another noise cancellation microphone on the left of it and a speaker tray on the right of it. As you understood from the retail box content there is no 3.5 mm audio jack. You can use the included headphones, another set of USB-C type headphones or bluetooth ones. In the sides, near the top and on the bottom you can see the four antenna band. They are distinct due to a near black tone of gray.The back panel is made from ceramic material, with curves very similar to those of the Xiaomi Mi 8. Ceramic is much stronger than glass, very sturdy and allows no scratches after lengthy usage.The way the back panel and the side panel join together is perfect. The shiny gradient coloring is just amazing as I have already told you. The glass is a fingerprint magnet as it is usual to the material. The transparent silicone case that comes along in the retail box is perfect,聽 as you could see the glass panel in all of its glory. In the top center of the panel you can find the double camera. On its right there is a double LED flash and on the bottom the fingertip sensor. Under the sensor you can see the brand. The whole vertical area (camera, sensor, logo) are included in a matte grey colored vertical box, that makes a nice antithesis with the rest of the shiny colour.NOA N10 has a small bulge in the camera setup. I use my smartphone a lot on the office desk and I simply hate bulges. Whenever I try to write something most of the smartphones slide like a boat. At least the case, when on, stops any movement.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramNear the bottom of the panel we can see the dts logo, a designed in EU by NOA and CE branding.聽The phone has no waterproof protection. In general this is a wonderful exterior, similar to Xiaomi Mi 8 in all but the camera setup, the smaller notch and the width. N10 is a bit wider. The quality is equal to Xiaomis flagship in any aspect and that is an amazing accomplishment for the small Croatian company.Not surprised NOA got the EISA award, at least from this aspect.HardwareThe screen is the main selling point with a 6.18 inch, 19:9, IPS INCELL display. It has a FHD+ resolution (1080 x 2246) that covers almost 90% of the front with 403 ppi. The display is bright and vivid and has good contrast. It is visible under the midday sun but not as much as I wanted. Viewing angles are excellent. The display is made from AU Optronics Corp., a Taiwanese company, reputed for its quality products. This smartphone comes with the MT6763V/WT SoC known also as Helio P23. It is an 8-core processor with 8 Cortex-A53 cores working at a frequency of 2.5GHz. It is accompanied by a ARM Mali-G71 MP2 GPU working to help with the graphics. Helio P23 and Snapdragon 625 have stellar performance in stability and power usage – they are used today by many companies. There are 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM to assist and G71 is a good GPU. My opinion is that a more modern SoC could be used here. N10 could do much more with a Snapdragon 600 series SoC, and that could attract more people to the brand and the model.The daily usage should not suffer, I had no issues in any task. Of course heavy gaming or multitasking stress the SoC. Benchmark results are better that any other Helio P23 driven smartphone since N10 has a working speed of 2.5 GHz and not the usual 2.0GHz. There are 64GB of ROM in the phone. The internal storage can expand to 128GB with an external SDcard placed in the SIM tray. It supports dual SIM functionality with two nano-SIMs or a nano-SIM and the aforementioned microSD card. Connectivity is great. GSM:850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, UMTS: 850, 900, 2100 MHz, LTE (FDD): Bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, LTE (TDD): Bands 38, 39, 40, 41. The phone is an excellent companion for your travels. The only caveat here is the lack of NFC. The smartphone has a good sensor pack having GPS (A-GPS, Beidou, GLONASS, GPS), Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor and FM Radio. Bluetooth has the 4.0 Specification.Navigation works fine with satellites being found fast and having a good precision.聽Audio is more than good, it is excellent!!!聽It supports DTS. That a comprehensive audio solution which offers an improved stereo sound image, internal speaker optimization and a panoramic experience over headphones. There is only a single external speaker at the bottom.Xiaomi Mi 8 sounds like a entry phone next to N10! I really like the execution of the audio department on this smartphone. Wifi is able to connect to 802.11 a/b/g/n, 2.4G/5GHz Dual-band.Call quality is excellent and video calls are good without any issues. Selfie cam has no LED, so keep in mind to have a light source near, when you want to make a video call.SoftwareThe operating system found in the smartphone is stock Android 8.1. I dont know whether N10 will be updated to Android 9 Pie. Last security patch is from October 2018. I had no OTA update and I have no idea whether this smartphone is to be updated constantly or at all. In the settings NOA has added a few touches here and there. In the notification area, we can see NOA care. This is a paid service that covers damages to the phone not included in the warranty. A manual in Serbo-Croatian is included as an application. Intelligent assist has options to use the fingerprint sensor to answer a call, take a photo etc. You can hide the navigation bar from here or alter the position of the buttons. There is the typical three-pointer gesture to take a screenshot that I use a lot, a flip phone to silent option, and some information on Split Screen usage.You can find also a DuraSpeed setting that allows fine-tuned control over foreground and background apps on a toggle based system. If you want more performance you can toggle your prefered application and it will stop running in the background – there will be no updates or notifications on it.Face Unlock worked properly, it is fast and works even in low light environment!!! Is there an IR camera hidden somewhere? Face Unlock is not a 100% safe method to use and I prefer the fast and reliable fingerprint sensor. I can not tell that I am happy with the speed of both the biometric sensors.聽Multitasking works as long you wont open 100 apps – the software tends to kill them, so the SoC can handle the latest processes.Gaming considering the SoC is doable with low graphic settings. Due to the high clocking speed and ARM Mali-G71 MP2 GPU this smartphone is better at gaming than any other Helio P23 or Snapdragon 625 handsets. NOA could add more than 4GB of RAM to keep the smartphone run smoothly for a couple more years.PUBG is playable at medium graphic settings. I did not see the usual lagging typical to P23 SoCs, possibly due to the SoC having a working speed of 2.5GHz and not 2.0GHz.聽Sound is good and loud. There is a single speaker. This is not a phone for audiophiles, but for daily usage I was more than satisfied with the work done from DTA. Buy NOA N10 Smartphone here CameraN10 has a set of Sony IMX 499 sensors in the back. These Sonys sensors are not known to me and I had to check what NOA is claiming with my own eyes. N10 uses the couple of 16 MP cameras to create an image with a resolution of 96 full MPs using photo oversampling technology.聽A third 16MP camera exists in the front that works without the assistance of another flash. As mentioned facial recognition is possible from the selfie-cam. The camera application has all the basic stuff you expect these days. The Settings menu allows a lot of configuration – i like a lot the option for noise reduction in video recording. There are six modes to utilise: HD – a mode where the user is asked to keep N10 stable. A picture is taken with a lot of processing, with a square format and a lot of details. Video recording with flash support. Photo with flash, HDR and filter support. Beauty mode has a lot of configurations and a gradient scale for adding them to our subject face. SLR mode is the specialized bokeh mode. Finally there is Panorama.Selfies are supported by Video, Photo, Beauty and SLR. N10 is a good camera phone.Taking pictures with the main camera is an enjoyable experience. As you can see from the samples the results are more than good outside, even in Athens cloudy sky. Zooming is good, without excelling in the area since it is based solely in software. Nightly or low light shots have a lot of noise and details are blurry but not bad. HDR worked properly without losing details or sharpness. SLR was not of my liking, even with the two Sony lenses. I think NOA needs to update their software in this area. SLR in selfies the single camera uses software to blur the background – the results are bad. This is a disadvantage of all single front camera phones and N10 specific. While the front lense is not mentioned the pictures are great with excellent color and details. Even with the laptop monitor light the results were perfect, more natural than my Mi 8 20MP front lense.Video recording is up to 1080p. The results are ok, mediocre in bright light, extra noisy in low light. The smartphone has no OIS or EIS and the image is shaking so you need to keep your hand steady, which is not always possible. The noise recording is clear and loud.BatteryNOA N10 has a Li-Pol, non removable, 3600 mAh battery. With medium usage the battery is more than capable to keep the phone on all day, as with continuous video playback I got 6 hours of screen-on-time.Sadly there is no fast charging, and the 5V charger takes more than one and half hour to fully charge the battery.ConclusionN10 provides excellent sound and a full clear screen for browsing and media consuming. Camera is quite good in selfies, very good during the day. Night shots depend on the light source. Bokeh and zoom are not to be used in my opinion. Video again is dependant from the light. N10 has no EIS and the results are depending this time from how stable are your hands. With this hardware NOA could do much more. I take comfort that only big companies with big price tags have great results, and that is not always the rule.SoC and RAM specs, come directly from 2017, there is no fast charging and there is a possibility that we might never see an OTA update. So take into account that this is not a device for exsessive gaming or multitasking.

We know gaming products cost relatively more. Take any product made for gamers and you will see they are priced higher. This is true for almost all categories of game products, including laptops, PCs, mice, keyboards, etc. However, this is logical 鈥 gamers have higher requirements concerning not only the appearance but also performance. Recently, in October 2018, Onikuma, which is known in the game industry as the maker of cheap game headphones, launched a new product called K1 Pro. Actually, many game products at this price tag are not able to provide good performance and dont have good build quality. But those who are familiar with this brand should know the Onikuma K1 Pro differs from its rivals a lot.In fact, Onikuma is one of the best-selling budget gaming headset brands on Amazon. It has offered a couple of game headsets that were selling in millions. Among them, the K6, K5, and others have already proven this brand can design good headphones. In this sense, the K1 Pro is a good addition to its line of cheap game headsets.ONIKUMA K1 Pro DesignThe ONIKUMA K1 Pro looks like an ordinary game headset. We mean it has a good combination of different colors (blue and black or red and black). They breathe life into the appearance. This headphone costs around $30, but its look makes us think as we are dealing with a game headphone from a top echelon. This product stands out due to its rugged construction. On both over-ear ear pads and headband, there is a synthetic soft and comfortable leather padding. Of course, there may be many users that dont like leather earpads on cheap products because most of them become a sweaty mess. We mean many gamers prefer a mesh fabric. But this is not the case. The ONIKUMA K1 Pro uses a quality leather, which wont ravel even after long usage. As you guess, the headband is adjustable.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe mic and the headset are fixed on the left ear cup, while the mic switch and volume control are placed on a knob along the knitted audio string. The Onikuma K1 Pro has a cable of 2.2m long. In the end, it has a 3.5mm plug as well as a USB plug to cover all the devices it will connect. To see the LED light effect you have to plug the USB.ONIKUMA K1 Audio PerformanceAs said at the beginning of this review, we pointed out the game headsets should provide an excellent sound experience. Its because they should help users not only to immerse into the game fully but also to hear every voice and detect the enemys position. The ONIKUMA K1 Pro provides an amazing 7.1 surround music performance. It handles bass tests perfectly, without a sound distortion even at maximum volumes.This doesnt mean the Onikuma K1 Pro was expected to provide a subtle audio performance. But due to the high precision 50mm drivers and 3D surround sound effect, it does an excellent job at delivering a crisp sound with better volume ranges. The Onikuma K1 Pro is also a well-balanced product. Thus, both ear pads provide an identical sound volume. Moreover, this simply means gamers wont have to add volume when one ear cup is off.When playing with your friends or online teammates, microphone quality is significant when communicating. Thanks to the noise reduction, the Onikuma K1 Pro helps you pick up your and your friends voice clearly and let the outside noise out of your talk. Actually, the omnidirectional microphone is one of the major improvements made in comparison to old models.The Onikuma K1 Pro is a wired gaming headset that can work with nearly all the latest mainstream gaming devices, including the PlayStation PS4/PS4 Pro, iPad, PSP, as well as the PC, laptop and smartphones with a 3.5mm audio jack. It is also compatible with Microsoft Xbox using a Microsoft adapter. Unfortunately, the latter is not included in the box.When testing the ONIKUMA K1 Pro on the PS4, and the top-of-the-class sub-bass lows give the varied guns plenty of punch. So it wont let you fully immerse in the virtual world you want and your ears wont deafen of sneaky gunshots and explosions. You will hear the personages voice cues and barked orders are clearly picked. However, this headphone performs perfectly in single-player games. The output is really impressive. The background music and various sound effects come out clearly.We know gaming products cost relatively more. Take any product made for gamers and you will see they are priced higher. This is true for almost all categories of game products, including laptops, PCs, mice, keyboards, etc. However, this is logical 鈥 gamers have higher requirements concerning not only the appearance but also performance. Recently, in October 2018, Onikuma, which is known in the game industry as the maker of cheap game headphones, launched a new product called K1 Pro. Actually, many game products at this price tag are not able to provide good performance and dont have good build quality. But those who are familiar with this brand should know the Onikuma K1 Pro differs from its rivals a lot.In fact, Onikuma is one of the best-selling budget gaming headset brands on Amazon. It has offered a couple of game headsets that were selling in millions. Among them, the K6, K5, and others have already proven this brand can design good headphones. In this sense, the K1 Pro is a good addition to its line of cheap game headsets.ONIKUMA K1 Pro DesignThe ONIKUMA K1 Pro looks like an ordinary game headset. We mean it has a good combination of different colors (blue and black or red and black). They breathe life into the appearance. This headphone costs around $30, but its look makes us think as we are dealing with a game headphone from a top echelon. This product stands out due to its rugged construction. On both over-ear ear pads and headband, there is a synthetic soft and comfortable leather padding. Of course, there may be many users that dont like leather earpads on cheap products because most of them become a sweaty mess. We mean many gamers prefer a mesh fabric. But this is not the case. The ONIKUMA K1 Pro uses a quality leather, which wont ravel even after long usage. As you guess, the headband is adjustable.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe mic and the headset are fixed on the left ear cup, while the mic switch and volume control are placed on a knob along the knitted audio string. The Onikuma K1 Pro has a cable of 2.2m long. In the end, it has a 3.5mm plug as well as a USB plug to cover all the devices it will connect. To see the LED light effect you have to plug the USB.ONIKUMA K1 Audio PerformanceAs said at the beginning of this review, we pointed out the game headsets should provide an excellent sound experience. Its because they should help users not only to immerse into the game fully but also to hear every voice and detect the enemys position. The ONIKUMA K1 Pro provides an amazing 7.1 surround music performance. It handles bass tests perfectly, without a sound distortion even at maximum volumes.This doesnt mean the Onikuma K1 Pro was expected to provide a subtle audio performance. But due to the high precision 50mm drivers and 3D surround sound effect, it does an excellent job at delivering a crisp sound with better volume ranges. The Onikuma K1 Pro is also a well-balanced product. Thus, both ear pads provide an identical sound volume. Moreover, this simply means gamers wont have to add volume when one ear cup is off.When playing with your friends or online teammates, microphone quality is significant when communicating. Thanks to the noise reduction, the Onikuma K1 Pro helps you pick up your and your friends voice clearly and let the outside noise out of your talk. Actually, the omnidirectional microphone is one of the major improvements made in comparison to old models.The Onikuma K1 Pro is a wired gaming headset that can work with nearly all the latest mainstream gaming devices, including the PlayStation PS4/PS4 Pro, iPad, PSP, as well as the PC, laptop and smartphones with a 3.5mm audio jack. It is also compatible with Microsoft Xbox using a Microsoft adapter. Unfortunately, the latter is not included in the box.When testing the ONIKUMA K1 Pro on the PS4, and the top-of-the-class sub-bass lows give the varied guns plenty of punch. So it wont let you fully immerse in the virtual world you want and your ears wont deafen of sneaky gunshots and explosions. You will hear the personages voice cues and barked orders are clearly picked. However, this headphone performs perfectly in single-player games. The output is really impressive. The background music and various sound effects come out clearly.Onikuma is a company well known during the past few years for providing a decent range of gaming accessories – but where they trylly do a great job is on their gaming headsets segment (ok, their keyboards too). Recently I got the Onikuma K6 Gaming Headset for a small review and I can safely say that – given its current price at 27鈧 it’s a solid device that offered some impressive performance coming out of its box!It comes with an aggressive look that most gamers will love, but the real question here is: how does it sound? Well here’s my opinion of the Onikuma K6 Gaming Headset after almost 10 days of using it!聽I really enjoyed the sturdyness of the Onikuma K6, as it proved to be quite decent in every day usage. It’s a rather large headphone, with a wide band on top – able to adjust for聽length by about an inch on either side. The ear cups don’t articulate to better hit the sides of your head straight on, but there’s about an inch of pleather-coated padding on both ear cups that removes the need for extra moving parts.Grab the Onikume K6 Gaming Headset from Amazon!One of my main concerns with this headset at first was its weight, as it seems (and feels huge), but in the end I had no issues at all wearing it for several hours聽continuously. The padding on the headband is also very soft, so your head will not ache, and moreover it’s聽just tight enough to not move around, removing the need for constant adjustments while you’re playing.One of the most impressive features of the device is – no doubt- its LED lighting on the outer part of the ear cups. When lit, it looks like a small turbine I guess and in the specific model it’s in red/black color. However when you plug in the USB port that comes with the standard cable of the headset and enable the mic,聽you get an accent that switches between red, green, blue, purple, yellow and teal- depending on which product you bought.It’s a great addition for anyone who wants their gaming gear to light up, and you can always unplug the USB-A cable to go dark.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe聽Onikuma K6 comes with an almost 2,7m long cable that splits at the bottom for USB and 3.5 mm, and there’s another splitter included in the box if you’re using the headset with your PC (which requires mic-in and audio-in).聽 As for consoles, you’ll only get the extra lighting if you plug in with USB, which in a lot of cases isn’t possible because you’re hooked up to your controller. For those of you using the first-generation Xbox One controllers, a separate聽Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter聽is needed for full functionality.聽Sound performanceI cannot complain about the sound quality, having spent only 26 Euros on this impressive headset. Obviously it’s no match to other higher quality PC Gaming headsets that cost 80-90-100+ Euros but still, it completely covered my needs. It’s great for listening to music, podcasts, some PC gaming and the bass is VERY good!聽There’s a quite thick padding around the cups that does a decent job of cutting out ambient sound around you, giving a nice immersive feeling while you’re in a game. Note that you can also cut-out the mic if you don’t want to talk, or don’t want others listening to you 馃槈What we didn’t likeAfter 10 days of heavy usage, there’s so few things that could have bothered me… in fact only one. I think that some times the headset had mic looping and those were the times that my friends at the Battlefielf Squad told me that they could hear my audio coming from across the mic – especially when the mic volume was turned to max.聽One solution was to put the mic a bit further from my face/mouth. I was then able to realise that it did a very good work, as its sensitivity was good enough to grab sounds even from 1-2 meters far.Onikuma K6 gaming headset: our verdictIf I were to choose a gaming headset based on its worth, then this would be on the first places of my list. If you’re an average user who likes to play typical PC games (NOT heavy duty), enjoys some impressive LED lighting then the聽Onikuma K6 will surely do the job for you.聽It comes with a really long cable, more that 8ft /2.5m long, and provides quite clear sound with some good bass and typical performance. I loved the padding and the size of the ear cups, as they stayed in place for long, with minimal weight on my ears. I think most of you out there will enjoy using it for several hours/day.Tribit is one of those companies that has managed to built a certain reputation over the years, especially when it comes to high-quality audio solutions that dont necessarily break the bank. I have to say that this new XBoom rugged portable speaker is surely leaving up to the myth and maybe more.The impressive mini speaker is currently available at the company’s official Amazon listing for just聽鈧?1.42, and if you ask me – after 10 days of heavu usage – it’s SURELY worth it!聽 Paying for this device will get you a fully waterproof speaker with a solid聽20-hour battery life, and clear audio delivered at a full 24-watts across two 360-degree speakers drivers.Its design is similar to the one the JBL speakers have enforced in the market over the past couple of years, but the price is much lower while performing exceptionally at the same time. So how did this little beauty managed to do in our hands? Have a look at its small review and… go buy it, before you lose the chance.聽Tribit XBoom – Highlights and FeaturesFully Waterproof (IPX7) 鈥撀營t also floatsHuge battery life 鈥 Up to 20 Hours (5200mAH)Bluetooth 4.2 鈥 Range 66 feet (20m)Bass boost button24 Watt drivers and 360掳 soundLinks with a second Tribit XBOOMTribit XBoom – Features and SpecificationsBluetooth聽鈥 Version 4.2Bluetooth Range聽鈥 60 Feet / 10M+Bluetooth Profile聽鈥 A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, HSPDrivers聽鈥 2x45mm, 2x Passive RadiatorsOutput聽鈥 2x12WFrequency Response 鈥撀?0-20KHzBattery Life聽鈥 Up to 20 hoursBattery Size聽鈥 5200mAhCharging time聽鈥 4 Hours (5V,2A)Weight聽鈥 545 gr.Design and Build QualityAs you can easily understand, the Tribit XBOOM shares its looks with the聽JBL Flip4聽Bluetooth speaker, as they share almost the same size and shape. The only thing that’s different between them is those large white PLUS-MINUS controls on the XBOOM compared to the more subtle ones found on the JBL. In my case, I really liked them, they are easy to use and at the same time good looking 馃槈聽One thing I didn’t quite like is the black silicone carrying strap up top, which doesn’t seem to be removable. I must admit that I prefer Ultimate Ears’ approach of a metal ring hidden on the bottom. That being said, you could just cut it off if it really bothers you.The Tribit XBoom has IPX7 certification so – according to the company- it can be used at the sea or while having a swim by your pool – it also floats! – so you can use it with no worries about it being… destroyed by the water.Battery life/Playback timeThere’s a small micro USB cable inside the main package that thunkfully聽charges at 2A, so you won’t spend so much time waiting for its 5200 mAh battery to fully charge! And when this happens be prepared to be blown away as you can easily have more than 20 hours of play back time – even in continuous usage! When compared to the 3000 mAh battery of the JBL Flip 4 opponent and its mere 12 hours of playback time, you can easily understand why this thing is considered as a value for money product in the market.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramSound qualityObviously, the sound quality is the main reason one would consider buying a portable Bluetooth speaker and I can safely say that聽this is one device that doesnt disappoint. Thats not to say the boom name is necessarily 100-percent accurate. No company has yet devised a way to engineer a speaker quite this small and still deliver heart-stopping thumps at every kick of the bass drum or thrum of the bass guitar. Bearing that in mind, the bass tones are substantially more powerful than is often found in a Bluetooth speaker and crystal clear to a point.聽Overall, the quality of noise put out by the XBoom is very good, with clear bass and impressive high frequencies especially with consideration to its price. Yes, some times some bass tones can get washed out and tend to produce some slight static in the higher pitched low tones if both the source volume and speaker are set at maximum volume. That’s not surprising in almost any kind of speakers in this price range, so no harm done.聽If you take a good look at the photos, you may see a button with an X letter on it. This is the XBASS button that can surely improve drastically the whole acoustic experience if you want to crank the volume up and possibly use it while hanging out with friends at home or anywhere else.Below the XBASS button you can find is a robust cover that protects the micro USB and AUX-in port. Now, If youre a nail-biter, youre going to struggle to remove this cover. Using this cover is vital if you want to either charge the speaker, or connect a 3.5mm audio jack.聽Obviously there’s also Bluetooth version 4.2 compatibility, so you can easily connect your smartphone with the Tribit Speaker in 1 second, while offering an extremely reliable signal even at distances exceeding 10m.Special perksIf youve got two XBOOMs they can be linked together by holding down the pairing button for 5 seconds. This will “daisy chain” them, so each speaker will be playing the same audio. This is a cool feature for boosting output and filling larger spaces, but its a bit of a shame they dont pair as left and rights to offer a stereo sound.Think of it as a way to enrich the audio inside a room, with two speakers that produce basically twice the same audio, from opossite directions. Cool feature, that can surely help make a party outdoors in… seconds 馃槈Our verdict

Tribit is one of those companies that has managed to built a certain reputation over the years, especially when it comes to high-quality audio solutions that dont necessarily break the bank. I have to say that this new XBoom rugged portable speaker is surely leaving up to the myth and maybe more.The impressive mini speaker is currently available at the company’s official Amazon listing for just聽鈧?1.42, and if you ask me – after 10 days of heavu usage – it’s SURELY worth it!聽 Paying for this device will get you a fully waterproof speaker with a solid聽20-hour battery life, and clear audio delivered at a full 24-watts across two 360-degree speakers drivers.Its design is similar to the one the JBL speakers have enforced in the market over the past couple of years, but the price is much lower while performing exceptionally at the same time. So how did this little beauty managed to do in our hands? Have a look at its small review and… go buy it, before you lose the chance.聽Tribit XBoom – Highlights and FeaturesFully Waterproof (IPX7) 鈥撀營t also floatsHuge battery life 鈥 Up to 20 Hours (5200mAH)Bluetooth 4.2 鈥 Range 66 feet (20m)Bass boost button24 Watt drivers and 360掳 soundLinks with a second Tribit XBOOMTribit XBoom – Features and SpecificationsBluetooth聽鈥 Version 4.2Bluetooth Range聽鈥 60 Feet / 10M+Bluetooth Profile聽鈥 A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, HSPDrivers聽鈥 2x45mm, 2x Passive RadiatorsOutput聽鈥 2x12WFrequency Response 鈥撀?0-20KHzBattery Life聽鈥 Up to 20 hoursBattery Size聽鈥 5200mAhCharging time聽鈥 4 Hours (5V,2A)Weight聽鈥 545 gr.Design and Build QualityAs you can easily understand, the Tribit XBOOM shares its looks with the聽JBL Flip4聽Bluetooth speaker, as they share almost the same size and shape. The only thing that’s different between them is those large white PLUS-MINUS controls on the XBOOM compared to the more subtle ones found on the JBL. In my case, I really liked them, they are easy to use and at the same time good looking 馃槈聽One thing I didn’t quite like is the black silicone carrying strap up top, which doesn’t seem to be removable. I must admit that I prefer Ultimate Ears’ approach of a metal ring hidden on the bottom. That being said, you could just cut it off if it really bothers you.The Tribit XBoom has IPX7 certification so – according to the company- it can be used at the sea or while having a swim by your pool – it also floats! – so you can use it with no worries about it being… destroyed by the water.Battery life/Playback timeThere’s a small micro USB cable inside the main package that thunkfully聽charges at 2A, so you won’t spend so much time waiting for its 5200 mAh battery to fully charge! And when this happens be prepared to be blown away as you can easily have more than 20 hours of play back time – even in continuous usage! When compared to the 3000 mAh battery of the JBL Flip 4 opponent and its mere 12 hours of playback time, you can easily understand why this thing is considered as a value for money product in the market.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramSound qualityObviously, the sound quality is the main reason one would consider buying a portable Bluetooth speaker and I can safely say that聽this is one device that doesnt disappoint. Thats not to say the boom name is necessarily 100-percent accurate. No company has yet devised a way to engineer a speaker quite this small and still deliver heart-stopping thumps at every kick of the bass drum or thrum of the bass guitar. Bearing that in mind, the bass tones are substantially more powerful than is often found in a Bluetooth speaker and crystal clear to a point.聽Overall, the quality of noise put out by the XBoom is very good, with clear bass and impressive high frequencies especially with consideration to its price. Yes, some times some bass tones can get washed out and tend to produce some slight static in the higher pitched low tones if both the source volume and speaker are set at maximum volume. That’s not surprising in almost any kind of speakers in this price range, so no harm done.聽If you take a good look at the photos, you may see a button with an X letter on it. This is the XBASS button that can surely improve drastically the whole acoustic experience if you want to crank the volume up and possibly use it while hanging out with friends at home or anywhere else.Below the XBASS button you can find is a robust cover that protects the micro USB and AUX-in port. Now, If youre a nail-biter, youre going to struggle to remove this cover. Using this cover is vital if you want to either charge the speaker, or connect a 3.5mm audio jack.聽Obviously there’s also Bluetooth version 4.2 compatibility, so you can easily connect your smartphone with the Tribit Speaker in 1 second, while offering an extremely reliable signal even at distances exceeding 10m.Special perksIf youve got two XBOOMs they can be linked together by holding down the pairing button for 5 seconds. This will “daisy chain” them, so each speaker will be playing the same audio. This is a cool feature for boosting output and filling larger spaces, but its a bit of a shame they dont pair as left and rights to offer a stereo sound.Think of it as a way to enrich the audio inside a room, with two speakers that produce basically twice the same audio, from opossite directions. Cool feature, that can surely help make a party outdoors in… seconds 馃槈Our verdict*.Then wait for your phone to connect to the Wi-Fi network. When the connection is established, you will see a Wi-Fi logo on your smartphone display. You can then go to the Ophelia GPS app and proceed.The app is quite simple to use although it packs some advanced features such as Follow Me Mode 鈥 can lock target automatically to capture the best moments, Point Fly and Track Radius 鈥 can automatically move the drone using the GPS system. You can also make the drone follow a preset route automatically or use 3D VR glasses to see the world through the eyes of a bird.Youll find the image captured by the drone to be stable and fluid due to the 2204 1500KV brushless motors which provide more power and a smoother flying experience while making less noise. The Ophelia HS700 also uses the new enhanced 5G WiFi HD video transmission system for a higher distance so that you can fly farther in a safe way.Below is a video to help you set up this drone if the manual is “too complicated”銆

We finally received the newly released Ophelia HS700 drone. This company is not well known in drone manufacturing but I was quite fascinated with the first impression that it gave me. Personally, I think that this product is perfect for beginners but professionals who love the height and distance will also find this drone useful. In this review, we will discuss the salient details and here are all you need to know.Ophelia HS700 Drone 鈥 Tech SpecsMotor2204 1500KV Brushless MotorCamera12 MP 1080p FHDFlight Time15 MinutesFlight Height/Distance150m high and 1000m distanceBattery2800 mAh Li-Polymer batteryAppOphelia GPS on Google Play StoreController1km distance @ 2.4GHzPhysical Dimensions220 x 220 x 155 mm, about 608gOphelia HS700 鈥 Whats In The BoxThe box of the Ophelia HS700 is quite rich and has multiple accessories that you will need to assemble before you get a working drone. The box itself looks quite matured and the unit I received has a black box with HS700 and some specs written on sides of the box. The box is about the shape of a portable backpack and it is convenient to hold. Inside the box, we can find the following1 x Drone HS700 Ophelia1 x Remote Controller1 x Drone Battery8 x Propellers2 x Landing Gears1 x Camera1 x Camera Mat1 x Phone Holder1 x Balance Charger1 x Charge Transfer Box1 x USB Cable1 x Screwdriver1 x Propeller Spanner1 x Explosion-Proof Bag1 x Manual1 x 8GB TF Card (installed in the camera)Ophelia HS700 鈥 Design & AppearanceThe Holy Stone Ophelia HS700 comes with a sleek design. This drone is not foldable like the DJI Mavic Air and other expensive drones out there but it is portable enough to fit in a very small space thus it will not give you any storage problems. The unit I received comes in black colour with a silver lining which gives it a premium appearance. The body of this device is molded with a top-notch plastic material and only the propeller holder is forged from metal (its 98% covered with plastic). I was particularly impressed with the quality of the plastic build. Even after a few accidents and flying it against a concrete wall (I needed those accidents to confirm the strength of the build material), the drone stayed solid with no scratch and only the propellers sustained very minor scratches.Installation, Flight and FunctionsHonestly, you dont need a “professor” to help you install the components of this drone. The Ophelia HS700 comes with a detailed manual with a simple glance, you will certainly install this drone without problems. Before the flight, please ensure that you have paired the transmitter, calibrate the Gyro and compass. These processes are quite easy and are well outlined in the user manual. The take-off of the Ophelia HS700 and the movements are faster than I anticipated but the controls are cool and steady. After the calibrations, you have to press the power button and the propellers will start spinning. Once the spinning start, you got 10 seconds to take off else the propellers will stop spinning.Although it is listed that the maximum flight height is 120m, it was more like 150m to me and the flight distance hit 800m. The aerodynamic structure of this drone, lightweight body, and slick design significantly increase its flight stability. The Ophelia HS700 reaches a speed of 25 km/h, and up to 60 km/h when flying downwind. It was quite interesting that I was able to fly this drone for about 15 minutes (drones hardly exceed 10 minutes) but the uninteresting part of this is the battery charging time. It took almost 270 minutes for a full charge and there is no spare battery. So you should have it in mind that after 15-18 minutes of fun, you will need to wait for about 300 minutes before you catch some fun again. Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramCameraThis drone comes with a 12 MP 1080p camera with a 120掳 Wide-angle lens and it can be adjusted up to 90掳 manually. It produces FHD images at 1920 x 1080 resolution. It also gives 1080P resolution videos @25fps. Although this drone comes with a FHD camera, the video at a higher height seems shaky and the images got some noise as you can see above. Nevertheless, with a little tweak on the video, it is acceptable. Image of Landscape at Maximum Height, over 120mAPP CompatibilityThe APP is Ophelia GPS and it weighs only 78MB. It is quite easy to use if you choose to use APP control. However, note that you can fly this drone with or without the app. After downloading the app, launch a search of the available Wi-Fi networks and select HolyStoneFPV_We finally received the newly released Ophelia HS700 drone. This company is not well known in drone manufacturing but I was quite fascinated with the first impression that it gave me. Personally, I think that this product is perfect for beginners but professionals who love the height and distance will also find this drone useful. In this review, we will discuss the salient details and here are all you need to know.Ophelia HS700 Drone 鈥 Tech SpecsMotor2204 1500KV Brushless MotorCamera12 MP 1080p FHDFlight Time15 MinutesFlight Height/Distance150m high and 1000m distanceBattery2800 mAh Li-Polymer batteryAppOphelia GPS on Google Play StoreController1km distance @ 2.4GHzPhysical Dimensions220 x 220 x 155 mm, about 608gOphelia HS700 鈥 Whats In The BoxThe box of the Ophelia HS700 is quite rich and has multiple accessories that you will need to assemble before you get a working drone. The box itself looks quite matured and the unit I received has a black box with HS700 and some specs written on sides of the box. The box is about the shape of a portable backpack and it is convenient to hold. Inside the box, we can find the following1 x Drone HS700 Ophelia1 x Remote Controller1 x Drone Battery8 x Propellers2 x Landing Gears1 x Camera1 x Camera Mat1 x Phone Holder1 x Balance Charger1 x Charge Transfer Box1 x USB Cable1 x Screwdriver1 x Propeller Spanner1 x Explosion-Proof Bag1 x Manual1 x 8GB TF Card (installed in the camera)Ophelia HS700 鈥 Design & AppearanceThe Holy Stone Ophelia HS700 comes with a sleek design. This drone is not foldable like the DJI Mavic Air and other expensive drones out there but it is portable enough to fit in a very small space thus it will not give you any storage problems. The unit I received comes in black colour with a silver lining which gives it a premium appearance. The body of this device is molded with a top-notch plastic material and only the propeller holder is forged from metal (its 98% covered with plastic). I was particularly impressed with the quality of the plastic build. Even after a few accidents and flying it against a concrete wall (I needed those accidents to confirm the strength of the build material), the drone stayed solid with no scratch and only the propellers sustained very minor scratches.Installation, Flight and FunctionsHonestly, you dont need a “professor” to help you install the components of this drone. The Ophelia HS700 comes with a detailed manual with a simple glance, you will certainly install this drone without problems. Before the flight, please ensure that you have paired the transmitter, calibrate the Gyro and compass. These processes are quite easy and are well outlined in the user manual. The take-off of the Ophelia HS700 and the movements are faster than I anticipated but the controls are cool and steady. After the calibrations, you have to press the power button and the propellers will start spinning. Once the spinning start, you got 10 seconds to take off else the propellers will stop spinning.Although it is listed that the maximum flight height is 120m, it was more like 150m to me and the flight distance hit 800m. The aerodynamic structure of this drone, lightweight body, and slick design significantly increase its flight stability. The Ophelia HS700 reaches a speed of 25 km/h, and up to 60 km/h when flying downwind. It was quite interesting that I was able to fly this drone for about 15 minutes (drones hardly exceed 10 minutes) but the uninteresting part of this is the battery charging time. It took almost 270 minutes for a full charge and there is no spare battery. So you should have it in mind that after 15-18 minutes of fun, you will need to wait for about 300 minutes before you catch some fun again. Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramCameraThis drone comes with a 12 MP 1080p camera with a 120掳 Wide-angle lens and it can be adjusted up to 90掳 manually. It produces FHD images at 1920 x 1080 resolution. It also gives 1080P resolution videos @25fps. Although this drone comes with a FHD camera, the video at a higher height seems shaky and the images got some noise as you can see above. Nevertheless, with a little tweak on the video, it is acceptable. Image of Landscape at Maximum Height, over 120mAPP CompatibilityThe APP is Ophelia GPS and it weighs only 78MB. It is quite easy to use if you choose to use APP control. However, note that you can fly this drone with or without the app. After downloading the app, launch a search of the available Wi-Fi networks and select HolyStoneFPV_銆

*.Then wait for your phone to connect to the Wi-Fi network. When the connection is established, you will see a Wi-Fi logo on your smartphone display. You can then go to the Ophelia GPS app and proceed.The app is quite simple to use although it packs some advanced features such as Follow Me Mode 鈥 can lock target automatically to capture the best moments, Point Fly and Track Radius 鈥 can automatically move the drone using the GPS system. You can also make the drone follow a preset route automatically or use 3D VR glasses to see the world through the eyes of a bird.Youll find the image captured by the drone to be stable and fluid due to the 2204 1500KV brushless motors which provide more power and a smoother flying experience while making less noise. The Ophelia HS700 also uses the new enhanced 5G WiFi HD video transmission system for a higher distance so that you can fly farther in a safe way.Below is a video to help you set up this drone if the manual is “too complicated”UMIDIGI is once again back in Gizchina HQ, with yet another notched Android smartphone, cloned to the max – but with a VERY decent price and typical specifications! Its not so special name is UMIDIGI One Pro and as you can easily understand, it tries to borrow things (names, specs, design) from other phones (iPhone X, Huawei P20 Pro, Honor etc) but manages to retain its low-end character combined with a very aggressive price that’s just 169$ at the time of this presentation.Compared with smartphones of any other brands present in the market, UMiDIGI One Pro is a beautiful, affordable smartphone and comes with really notable features that most of you might even find interesting. 馃槈Enter the UMiDIGI One Pro, the latest in the onslaught of UMiDiGi devices, this time coming in a beautiful Twilight color that will surely blow your mind!UMiDIGI One Pro ReviewIn terms of overall appearance, body build and form, the UMiDIGI One Pro is your typical Huawei/Honor device – packed with pure Android and lower end specs. Actually, it’s a decent low to mid range model, that excels in design and it’s just average in terms of performance in everyday use. It weighs approximately 190 gr. (despite the fact that it hosts a typical 3250 mAh battery) and its size is聽148 x 71,4 x 8,3 mm. This means that it’s really thin, relatively lightweight and very easy to use with one hand – if anyone’s interested.The UMiDIGI One Pro has its main dual camera on the rear but it saves a special place for its fingerprint sensor, just inside the On/Off button that sits at the right side of the device!Yes, it has borrowed the sensor placement that Sony first established in most of their smartphones, and in my eyes, that’s a good decision. The devices frontal is almost empty apart from the notorious notch that sits at the top of the display. Apart from this, there’s just the screen, a selfie camera (with low-end FaceID-like features) and the earpiece of course.UMiDIGI One Pro SpecificationsDisplay:聽5.86 inch, 1520 x 720 Pixel ScreenCPU:聽MT6763 Octa Core 2.0GHzSystem:聽Android 8.1RAM + ROM:聽4GB RAM + 64GB ROMCamera:聽12.0MP + 5.0MP rear camera + 16.0MP front cameraSensor:聽Proximity Sensor, E-compass, Gravity Sensor, Face ID, Light Sensor, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyroscope, NFCSIM Card:聽Nano SIM card + Nano SIM card / TF cardFeature:聽GPS, A-GPS, GLONASSBluetooth:4.2Networks:聽GSM: B2 / B3 / B5 / B8, CDMA BC0 / BC1 –聽WCDMA: B1 / 2 / 4 / 5 / 8, TD-SCDMA: B34 / 39 –聽FDD-LTE: B1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 8 / 12 / 13 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 25 / 26 / 28A / 28B, TDD-LTE: B34 / 38 / 39 / 40 / 41Big thanks to UMiDiGi for providing this review unit. You can buy one here 馃檪UMiDIGI One Pro Build QualityThe screen is a聽5.86-inches IPS panel, with a resolution of 1520 x 720 pixels. The display comes with 2.5D curved glass with a typical pixel density, equipped with Cornings Gorilla Glass system for screen protection.The impressive “Twilight” colour of this phone really sold me. I pride myself on being immune to colour choice, but man has this purple-blue-green-ish really sold me. Lets ignore the eye catching color for a moment, the build quality here is good but… not excellent.Surely it has improved from the days of the notorious UMI Super, but still it feels plastic some times – and this isn’t at all bad, for a phone at this price range. In any case, the phone is fairly easy to hold, but not as easy as a five-incher, the thinness does make it feel very small though.The body is made out of plastic and metal, along with a special cover at the back that resembles glass (but it’s not). Its build quality is good as I said before but as with every phone that uses a glossy finish it gets easily smudged and you may end up polishing it every couple of minutes with a small cloth :pUMiDIGI One Pro DisplayThe聽One Pro comes with a capacitive IPS display with typical maximum brightness that could make it hard to use only under direct sunlight. As we mentioned earlier, the screen size is 5.86 inches and has a resolution of 720 x 1520 pixels, providing a 19:9 aspect ratio and a staggering 90% screen/body ratio -> that’s according to the manufacturer.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThis display does have a slightly blue/purple tint that is almost unnoticeable in real life but does show quite noticeably on camera. Max brightness tops out around 400 nits which is quite respectable for such a panel, and is also relatively viewable under direct sunlight. Touch sensitivity is excellent and the 19:9 aspect ratio allows for excellent one hand use, typical of that of a 5.2 inch smartphone!UMiDIGI One Pro BatteryThe combination of the built-in 3250mAh battery, IPS display, and the聽Helio P23 (MTK6763) SoC should provide average battery life. And while that holds mostly true, I believe its battery life could definitely be better. I managed to get approximately 5 hours of screen on time with ease, ending the day with 18% left. This comes after about 2 hours of YouTube, about an hour of gaming, 1,5 hours of local video playback, and about 3 hours of Bluetooth music in addition to all the miscellaneous items I performed such as Whatsapp, texting, FaceBook etc.The one area where UMiDiGi has to improve on is the standby battery drain. I was getting a guaranteed 1% battery drain every hour, with it jumping up to 1.5% sometimes. This has to be solved if possible through software. UMIDIGI says that the One Pro supports wireless charging and – it does, but with certain hickups: it has to be placed firmly on the OEM wireless charging pad and the charging rate is not that fast. However for a price of 169$ one could forget about these, plug a USB Type-C cable and get on with his life 馃槈UMiDIGI One Pro SoftwareWe have Android 8.1 Oreo running inside the phone, and I must say that UMiDiGis software optimization has taken a step up again over the older models, with this phone feeling even smoother when moving between home screens, going into settings etc. Launching lots of apps at the same time, on the other hand, is a more ponderous process with the Helio P23 chipset struggling (a bit) to keep up with our needs, with 4GB of RAM being all this phone needs. Not an overkill (like having 6GB), but also not 3GB (which is not enough anymore). The Helio P23 doesnt affect gaming, it’s able to play all the games at 720p without issue, Modern combat, Asphalt, lighter games such as Super Mario Run ran without a hitch, even when I was recording the screen at the same time. The phone gets warm on its back side but never gets burning hot. I also ran a malware scan and didnt find anything. The fingerprint sensor is NOT that accurate, so you will have to train it 2-3 times more in order for it to get to “know” you. Let’s say we had an average of 80% success in identifying my thumb – which could be better I guess.UMiDIGI One Pro Connectivity Reception on this phone is great. The device comes with full 4G support (LFDD-LTE: B1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 8 / 12 / 13 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 25 / 26 / 28A / 28B, TDD-LTE: B34 / 38 / 39 / 40 / 41), it offers very good connectivity inside large cities, with no dropped calls or problems during communication.WiFi speeds are great, an 800MB file takes 4 minutes (on fast WiFi that is), and Bluetooth range is good also. I used the GPS to navigate to work, and it was fairly accurate and fast. No problems with Google Maps, or Sygic navigation 馃檪 Well done UMIDIGI on this. UMiDIGI One Pro CameraThe camera is a welcomed surprise when using it in day mode! It’s photos offer good detail levels and it can be relatively easy to shoot good photos – as you keep your phone relatively still! Don’t worry the phone snaps photos pretty quickly so you dont have to be a statue forever.Colour reproduction ranges from good to great, with colour sometimes being rather average and showing great saturation and vividness other times. HDR mode, on the other hand, should be left disabled at all times, well almost all times. The HDR mode is way too aggressive, trying to equalize bright and dark spots when they arent that far apart in the first place. You have to leave it off unless there are extremely obvious bright and dark spots, e.g. taking a picture of the sun. In those cases, the aggressive HDR does its job well.Moving on to Bokeh mode, which I see more and more as a gimmick, it adds Bokeh in a very unnatural circle, and not only that the overall quality of the photo is lowered as well. There is also a pro photo mode that works quite well and uses very convenient sliders to change the camera settings. The front facing camera is rather typical also.[flickr_set id=”72157695459236610″]Now for the video. The camera app seems to lag behind real life by about 陆 a second. Now a camera lagging behind real life slightly is normal, but 陆 a second is reserved for low-end cameras, not in a $169 device. In addition, the video recording is weirdly laggy, almost like the video is recording normally for a second, then slow for the next. Overall, these items make for an average video experience, and is really a downside to this phone.UMiDIGI One Pro VerdictHands down, this is a very beautiful – and affordable mid-ranger in the market. UMIDIGI shows signs of improvement with every device they launch: first they try to change their support, then they copy the good features of high end phones and combine them with a pure Android 8.1 Oreo UI that surely delivers.Nope I am not certain that you will get a lot of OTA updates with this device. I got TWO wireless OTA updates during the 10 days I had it in my hands, but they brought bug fixes and small performance improvements. I really hope this phone gets Android 9.0 Pie – UMIDIGI has to surprise us and make a turn towards decent after sales support. This will surely help them improve their sales even more.聽This UMiDIGI One Pro at $169,99 is surely one of the phones one should pay attention to, especially if the design of a phone is high on your “plus” list. It offers typical battery life with a 3250 mAh battery, very good built quality, decent display (nothing much) and a solid chipset with 4GB of RAM for decent everyday use.Buy UMIDIGI One Pro from their official shop

If you’re into tech-devices, smartphones and anything related to it, there are a set of things that you can’t live without. Cables, Chargers, Cases are commonly listed by most tech-lovers, however, there is something that particularly gives life to our world of dreams – The Power Strips.While some of us, are from a past when Power Strips were only used to connect devices to an electric current, nowadays they offer a plenty of additional features that expand the usability while also facilitate the life of many users in different environments. BESTEK is one among the companies that are really concerned about delivering products that offer usability, practicality, and portability. Based on this, today we’re going to take a deep look in one of its most recent products – The BESTEK MRJ8002.UNBOXING:The MRJ-8002 came in a simple plain box, no fancy design, and no gimmicks. At first sight, it looks pretty simple, but let’s have in mind that it’s the content what matters. Once again, we can’t judge a book by its cover, and the content does not disappoint. PACKAGE CONTENT:BESTEK MRJ-8002USER MANUALLike previously mentioned the package is just a plain card box hiding the user’s manual and the Power Strip.Get the BESTEK-MRJ8002 from hereBESTEK MRJ-8002:Moving directly to the Power Strip the MRJ-8002 brings a design that is rather different from the standard power strips. Instead of being a simple rectangle with plug holes, it brings a more modern design that stands in an office and fits neatly on top of a table. The BESTEK MRJ-8082 has 8 numbered outlets in total, 4 in the left side and 4 on the right side. The front of the Power Strip is made of a plain black glass finish that goes from the bottom covering the entire top of the device. On the top, we can find 4 USB 3.0 Ports that are protected by small silicone caps that can be easily removed. On the bottom, we have the rotating stand that can be adjusted in order to get the Power Strip fixed over a surface.The 8 sockets support AC Input: 100-125V and comes in the US standard of Plugs. So if you have a ton of devices with EU Plugs, be careful before ordering the BESTEK MRJ-8002. Otherwise, grab some adapters and let the fun begin.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram The Top USB Port combo is made of three ports with 5V/7.5A Auto 0~2.4A and a single port that brings Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 Support V/2.4A, 9V/1.6A, 12V/1.1A. During my tests this latter port managed to deliver the expected results, making my Redmi Note 5 Pro charge from 59% to 90% in less than 40min. These results can vary from user to user and may depend on what you’re running in your phone while it is charging. After inserting the Redmi Note 5 Pro in the QC2.0 port I was a bit disappointed and concerned to see only a 950mA max rate on the Ampere application. However, it took only a few seconds for the Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 to take action by doubling the charging rate.The other USB ports are just standard 3.0 ports, so don’t expect more than 2.5A of charging rate on it. However, the combo of USB ports is perfect for placing other devices and also they’ll greatly expand the capabilities of your office. There’s a neat and interesting thing in the BESTEK MRJ-8002. After putting it in the wall socket and pressing the Power button in the rear, the product logo lights up, as well as small indicators of each USB port with their respective capabilities.If you’re into tech-devices, smartphones and anything related to it, there are a set of things that you can’t live without. Cables, Chargers, Cases are commonly listed by most tech-lovers, however, there is something that particularly gives life to our world of dreams – The Power Strips.While some of us, are from a past when Power Strips were only used to connect devices to an electric current, nowadays they offer a plenty of additional features that expand the usability while also facilitate the life of many users in different environments. BESTEK is one among the companies that are really concerned about delivering products that offer usability, practicality, and portability. Based on this, today we’re going to take a deep look in one of its most recent products – The BESTEK MRJ8002.UNBOXING:The MRJ-8002 came in a simple plain box, no fancy design, and no gimmicks. At first sight, it looks pretty simple, but let’s have in mind that it’s the content what matters. Once again, we can’t judge a book by its cover, and the content does not disappoint. PACKAGE CONTENT:BESTEK MRJ-8002USER MANUALLike previously mentioned the package is just a plain card box hiding the user’s manual and the Power Strip.Get the BESTEK-MRJ8002 from hereBESTEK MRJ-8002:Moving directly to the Power Strip the MRJ-8002 brings a design that is rather different from the standard power strips. Instead of being a simple rectangle with plug holes, it brings a more modern design that stands in an office and fits neatly on top of a table. The BESTEK MRJ-8082 has 8 numbered outlets in total, 4 in the left side and 4 on the right side. The front of the Power Strip is made of a plain black glass finish that goes from the bottom covering the entire top of the device. On the top, we can find 4 USB 3.0 Ports that are protected by small silicone caps that can be easily removed. On the bottom, we have the rotating stand that can be adjusted in order to get the Power Strip fixed over a surface.The 8 sockets support AC Input: 100-125V and comes in the US standard of Plugs. So if you have a ton of devices with EU Plugs, be careful before ordering the BESTEK MRJ-8002. Otherwise, grab some adapters and let the fun begin.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram The Top USB Port combo is made of three ports with 5V/7.5A Auto 0~2.4A and a single port that brings Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 Support V/2.4A, 9V/1.6A, 12V/1.1A. During my tests this latter port managed to deliver the expected results, making my Redmi Note 5 Pro charge from 59% to 90% in less than 40min. These results can vary from user to user and may depend on what you’re running in your phone while it is charging. After inserting the Redmi Note 5 Pro in the QC2.0 port I was a bit disappointed and concerned to see only a 950mA max rate on the Ampere application. However, it took only a few seconds for the Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 to take action by doubling the charging rate.The other USB ports are just standard 3.0 ports, so don’t expect more than 2.5A of charging rate on it. However, the combo of USB ports is perfect for placing other devices and also they’ll greatly expand the capabilities of your office. There’s a neat and interesting thing in the BESTEK MRJ-8002. After putting it in the wall socket and pressing the Power button in the rear, the product logo lights up, as well as small indicators of each USB port with their respective capabilities.The Meizu 16 is the second flagship from Meizu in less than six months and it represents the pinnacle of the brand’s efforts in 2018. It represents the company’s change in strategy as the brand no longer wants to play just a mid-range and entry-level game. With the 16 (or as they say, 16th), Meizu once again wants a ticket to the big league. The Meizu 16th represents a lot of things, but let’s just say, above all the phone maker wants it to be a smashing hit in the premium smartphone arena. Will it be able to do that? Will it threaten stalwarts likes the Mi 8, the OnePlus 6? Well find out in this full review of the Meizu 16. Meizu 16th Design The Meizu 16s awesome design is truly one to look at and marvel at. You’ll know what i mean when you see the front screen pushing the bezels out of the phone to their death. And Meizu should get brownie points for doing this without reaching for an easy notch solution that everyone in the industry has been doing for the past year. The result is a 92.18% non-intrusive screen real estate and it commands attention for sure. I’ve been using the device for some time and every time I’ve walked into a crowd, this phone gets the gazes and along with it, me as well. Meizu said at the launch event that they have poured hundreds of millions of dollars to cram sensors on the mini bezel at the top and here is the finished product. Theres a small LED as well on the top bezel but it lights up for low battery notifications only and no other stuff. That’s half of the design story. The rear of the design is also very well done. It’s a chassis befitting a flagship. The metal back is coated by a 7 layering process of glass that makes it look like ceramic and is completely minimalistic. The edges curve ever so slightly giving the phone a very good in-hand feel. The rear camera housing is indented and rises above the rest of the surface. Meizu has included a transparent case and you might want to slap it on as the back can get scratched easily. Thankfully for us, we have a White version and we’ve been spared from the fingerprint smudge-fest that is otherwise quite visible on other shades. A word of caution though. Due to being a completely glossy glass finish, the Meizu 16 has to be handled with firm grip. I found the device to be super slippery and it gave me the jitters a couple of times when it could have slipped from my hands. Overall, the design is one of the standouts of the Meizu 16 and for that we’d say, mission accomplished!DisplayThe 聽6.0-inch AMOLED display of the handset gives users a great immersive experience, thanks to those nonexistent bezels on the top and bottom. It is crisp, vibrant, and viewing angles are good. However, outdoor visibility isn’t top notch but it isn’t something you would regret too much. Playing games on the display is very entertaining. In short, I don’t have any qualms for about the display. Being a 6.0 incher, it is great for one-handed use for me personally as I have big hands. Meizu 16th PerformanceSince we’re talking about the overall performance, there are two factors here. The Snapdragon 845 with 8GB of RAM is one. It makes light of everything you throw at it. I played a number of games on it with ease. These include those titles that don’t task the CPU heavily as well as some heavy duty ones like PUBG too. My unit has Play Store and other Google Apps pre-installed and the model number M822H is certified by the EEC. So, this could be a European version. Also, theres almost no bloatware on the device except for some Meizu tools like ToolBox and Recorder which have handy features. Take a look at the AnTuTu score below. The other factor is Flyme OS. This is where I have some feedback for Meizu. Despite such ample fire power sitting at its heart, I noticed lag while doing some mundane tasks albeit not for long. But that’s not the real issue. The first few days were great. And then suddenly one day, my unit started to freeze in the middle of nowhere. This happened around 8 times over the course of just a few hours and there was no pattern to it. It would freeze anywhere and restarting it was the only way I could resume using it. Now, this could be a one-off issue with just my review unit but I have got in touch with their personnel to resolve the issue. Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramUpdate: I tried to find a solution to the problem and changed the default system launcher with a Rootless Pixel Launcher and the issue seems to have vanished. There has no been a single free till date since then.聽Also, Flyme OS doesn’t let you change wallpapers, at least a number of review units I checked didn’t have it. Again, this issue is also totally fixable with updates. So I won’t roast the company on this. Also, RAM management could be better, especially with 8GB you could do a lot more. My unit kept four apps in the cache but beyond that, it would have to reload them as I tried it more than once. One more thing that Meizu needs to fix is the notification system. Some apps simply don’t send notifications at all for no reason. For example, ever since i started using the device, i have never received Slack notifications unless i activated the app. This probably means Flyme OS kills the app in the background but i couldn’t do anything to prevent it. Similarly, other apps also shared the same fate. These are the bugs Meizu needs to fix as soon as possible.聽聽 Besides these minor qualms, Flyme OS is Flyme OS. A lot of the UX remains the same. You still don’t get an app drawer. You get an mBack gesture option that allows swipe from corners to go back. This is something Ive always preferred instead of the bottom screen gestures. Other small and nifty features like swiping down for the notification shade, swiping up for the universal search, double tap to wake the screen are all very nice and useful additions. Dropping the notification shade, there are quick toggles for screenshots, screen recording, eye-friendly mode for night and some more all of which are very useful. Meizu debuted something called Super Swipe that is software working behind the scenes to vastly improve touch response. Then theres mEngine 2.0, a new haptic feedback motor in the Meizu 16th that is supposed to be customizable. However, i didnt find any setting to customize it whatsoever on my phone. On-screen fingerprint readerThe on-screen fingerprint reader is one of the main attractions of the Meizu 16th and it works. Meizu does need to work on the accuracy of the sensor but considering the tech is in its infancy, and the price point at which Meizu offers it, it is mind-blowing. Props to the company for doing that. Theres also face scanning and it is really fast. It works very well in daylight but not so well in dark situations. However, it is much faster than the on screen biometric. 聽Thats pretty much it for the performance and features. Overall, the Meizu 16th is a reliable workhorse and you wont feel short of power when you need it.Call reception, SpeakersIve had no troubles with calls. Reception is great, and the Meizu 16th supports VoLTE. However, you need to activate it from settings to make calls over Jios VoLTE network which I use. Voice is crisp and clear over the earpiece and its great. As for speakers, Im very happy with them. Meizus dual speaker setup helps in even crowded public areas and you can hear your phones volume. At top level it quite louder than the average phone and a good plus to have. 聽Meizu 16th BatteryThe battery on the Meizu 16th is a 3,000mAh juice pack and it has Meizus proprietary mCharge tech which is very close to Oppos VOOC in terms of speeds. It is a life saver when you have small batteries that can deplete quickly. For my unit, my usage varies from day to day. Sometimes Im a heavy user and sometimes Im just an average guy. When Ive used the device heavily, Ive had to charge it in the middle of the day. My typical pattern in such days is a lot of YouTube, social media, and messaging with Wi-Fi always on. While for average use, it can last you by the end of the day. But expect no more. A days use is what youll get in average situations. There are two power saving modes and one particular is the aggressive 鈥楽uper Saving Mode that turns off all lights and features (except for phone) and uses the AMOLED panel like Samsung uses it in the power saving mode. Standby times arent the best though as Ive seen the device lose even 7-10 percent battery overnight. Ive had Xiaomi devices that are excellent at this and lose no more than 3 percent and if Meizu optimizes well, it can do as well. I wouldnt mind having a bigger battery and sacrificing some slimness, but it is what it is. 聽Meizu 16th CameraMeizu has used a dual setup for the rear and the Meizu 16 captures crisp shots with good details as long as youre in good lighting situations. Colours are natural and dont look over-saturated. Focus is a wee bit slow and shutter speed as well. Theres 3x optical zoom on the camera and it works ok but you should expect noise obviously when you use it. Low-light performance drops a bit and you’ll see some noise and loss of sharpness. The camera app is pretty basic. It has a few modes like Panorama, Slow-mo, Time-Lapse and Pro.[flickr_set id=”72157673024110848″]Theres portrait mode for Bokeh effects for the front camera and it works but the edge detection feature needs some fine-tuning. I found its blurring to be very uneven in some cases especially with hair. On the flip side, details are well captured and the image looks crisp and has true-to-life colours. Meizu 16 has HDR mode and you have options to switch it to Auto, on or off. Of course, you do get AI beauty features and there are three levels – No beauty, light beauty, and full beauty mode. 聽It also does 4K video recording and I found an odd bug in the Mp4 files. I recorded the POCO F1 launch event in 4K and I played it back after saving it. For some reason, the file failed to play. This happened with other recorded videos as well. Im not sure what this is but it needs a fix as soon as possible. I have some snaps captured from the cameras below and you want to see them. Meizu 16th Final verdictAs a tall person that never had good balance, when I first saw this pair of hovershoes delivered to me I thought “I’m not sure I’m gonna live long enough to make a review of these”. But, as you can see, I’m still alive and well, so let’s get going with the full review of this amazing and super fun transportation device!KOOWHEEL Hovershoes SpecificationsRange10KMTop聽Speed12KM/HMaximum聽Load聽Weight130KGSMotor聽Size90MMMotor聽Power250W*2Working聽Temp.0鈩?40鈩僊aximum聽Climbing聽Angle9掳Front聽and聽Rear聽Tilt聽Angle80掳Left聽and聽Right聽Tilt聽Angle50掳Battery聽Capacity2AhCharging聽Time2HRecharging聽Time1500Charging聽InputAC100V-240VCharging聽Temp.0鈩?40鈩僀harging聽Output29.4V/1AN.W.3.3KGS*2Dimension227*155*113MMKOOWHEEL Hovershoes UnboxingThe聽KOOWHEEL Hovershoes arrive in a massive box with a ton of聽cushioning so that they get to you in one piece. Inside the box we then find a power adapter for charging, a little bag to carry the wheels with you and the wheels themselves. You don’t need anything more. KOOWHEEL Hovershoes Design & HardwareWell, I’ve never had to deal with this kind of items so I can’t really compare it to anything else. What I can say though, is that they look sleek, they aren’t of some weird color that would probably attract kids. Instead, they’re all black, with some red accents, LEDs that turn red or green depending on the status, the KOOWHEEL logo on top and the name “Hovershoes” on the side.Build quality is really good and I love the four handles (two for each), present on the sides. These make carrying the Hovershoes a simple task; you can also carry them with one hand if you want to. That said, both wheels are pretty heavy at 3.3Kg each, but that’s to be expected. You’re packing a motor, metal wheels and an hopefully big battery inside each of these. Plus they’re entirely made of metal for durability purposes.Overall, the Hovershoes were quite solid, and the fact that they’re still rolling is proof. I think I tested them to their limits and aside a few scratches, they’re still like new.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramKOOWHEEL Hovershoes UsabilityI loved using the聽KOOWHEEL Hovershoes but most importantly, I’m happy I’m still unhurt. I suggest starting out with a couple of supports, I was lucky enough to have some sawhorse table legs lying around, so I used them to help stand up on the wheels.After slowing going forward and back for a couple minutes, I finally tried to go without support and well, I was surprised I didn’t fall.So, I’d say that in around 10 minutes, you’ll be able to learn how to ride these, at home, on a flat surface. I suggest you spend some more time before going on the road as any little bump could break the magic.The聽KOOWHEEL Hovershoes do auto-balance after you turn them on. All you have to do is click the button and then step on them. They’ll auto-calibrate and stay still in an horizontal position. You then move forward by tilting your foot forward, but you probably already know that.These wheels can get quite fast for an home use, meanwhile outside they don’t achieve incredible speeds at聽12Km/h, but then I wouldn’t suggest going and faster. This isn’t an electric bike or scooter, if you mistake on these you can get hurt. So, consider using them as if they were a self-balancing scooter – in pedestrian zones, malls and big houses.KOOWHEEL Hovershoes Battery/RangeI didn’t have a chance of testing the range as I mostly tried them in a parking lot. But I can say that they lasted long enough for me to risk my life a couple times, I’d say over half hour of riding at top speeds (I know because they beep when you reach that) and there was no sign of battery running out juice. This means you can probably use these for an hour, probably more, depending on the speed at which you use them and the angle of climb of the road.More than enough batteryKOOWHEEL Hovershoes VerdictLet’s now get to get verdict, should you get these or not? My answer is: sure, if you can afford them!The聽KOOWHEEL Hovershoes aren’t cheap at $389.99 but they are a lot of fun. If you’re a person that has used a self-balance scooter or other electric transportation vehicle then you already know these type of devices are always pricey.聽KOOWHEEL, albeit dropping the price from an initial $489.99, can’t really do much about it.The materials used on the Hovershoes are premium, the components inside are premium, they work as they’re supposed to, which isn’t always the case with such items and most importantly – they’re unique.If you follow trends and you like to have the latest gadgets, then the聽KOOWHEEL Hovershoes are definitely worth the price as you can hardly find anything like this on the market.Lots of Fun, Worth the Price

In early 2018 Huawei took over the world by announcing their premium P20 series with astounding photographic abilities. P20 arrived with a full notched display copying iPhone X, and shiny gradient colours, borrowed from its sub-company Honor. Copying, borrowing and even cloning, is a method all smartphone companies use. It is a fast way to capture trends and at the same time promote the company that provides the design – a win-win scenario for most. Everybody does it and hopefully will be doing it in the future. If you are looking for a P20 series lookalike that costs way far less than the original flagship while packing as much value as possible at a low price, Umidigi Z2 is your next phone.This is the second smartphone from Umidigi that arrives in my hands after the amazing UMIDIGI A1 Pro this year and i just cant believe how well the company is upgrading its products year after year. While A1 Pro is the undisputable winner in the entry level category, Z2 comes at the middle one, a place where Xiaomi rules with the Redmi series during the past couple of years. So Z2 has to stand its ground and prove its worth and value. It has a full notched display, 6GB of RAM, stock Android Oreo, a large 3850mAh battery with 18W fast charge, four cameras and an amazing array of global band support. Face Unlock and a shiny gradient coloured back with a fingerprint sensor complete this excellent set of characteristics.Umidigi Z2 Technical SpecificationsOS: Android 8.1CPU: MTK6763V Octa Core 2.0GHzGPU: ARM Mali-G71 MP2ROM: 64GB ROM, TF card up to 256GBRAM: 6GB LPDDR4x RAMDisplay: 6.2 inch, 1080 x 2284 pixelsFront Camera: 16.0MP + 8.0MP dual front cameraBack Camera: 16.0MP + 8.0MP dual back cameraNetwork: GSM / WCDMA / FDD-LTEBands: 2G: GSM B2/B3/B5/B8 CDMA BC0/BC1, 3G: WCDMA B1/B2/B4/B5/B8, 4G: FDD-LTE B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B13/B17/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28SIM: 2 Nano SIM Cards, Dual standbyBluetooth: 4.0Battery: 3850 mAhExtras: Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor, GPSSize: 153.4 x 74.4 x 8.3 mmWeight: 165g UnboxingThe smartphone arrives in a dark gray to black, hard paper box, with an extra half-cover and crafted texture to prove to you that they care even for the small parts – It is the same package that A1 Pro arrived in. The brand name is written in a gold-copper colour in the box- same colour is used in the logo Link to the World typed in the instructions envelope inside. A thank you card is added inside, with details on how to enter a giveaway competition.The bottom of the box has a black sticker with white letters describing the characteristics, the package contents, a warning not to use non approved batteries and the brands email address. The box has dimensions 180 X 90 X 35 mm and weights 430 grams. Inside you will find:1 X UMIDIGI Z21 X Power adapter1 X USB cable1 X USB to 3.5mm audio jack adapter1 X SIM card eject tool1 X Screen protector1 X Silicone Case1 X Manual in English, Italian, Spanish, German and FrenchThe retail box is excellent and complete according to my… taste. I really liked the silicone case as it has a leather type texture with an excellent grip and protection from fingerprints. Another nice touch is that the usb cable is in red – a color that UMI usually choses for some of their models from time to time.DesignThere are three color versions, Phantom (black), Twilight and Twilight Black. I had the latest version in my hands, yes the Twilight Black. It is bluish and black on the top turning purple at the bottom. I prefer this colour to the other two and it looks astonishingly good in the sun. (look below)In the front we can see a huge 6.2 inch display with a 19:9 aspect ratio. The notch in the top resembles the one used in Huawei P20’s display. There is no protection here that i know of, except from the plastic cover attached to the display. The plastic film will be too scratched in the future, will look bad and will downgrade the – in all respect- clean nice looking panel. Dont think about it, go and buy a tempered glass to replace the film and enhance the panels protection. The notch is the place where you can find the microphone, the front-facing dual camera and the usual pack of sensors. There is no LED flash here so your selfies will suffer in low light conditions. Unfortunately there is no notification light either.There are very small bezels on the side and a bigger one on the bottom. This is a full view display with excellent ratio to body of approximately 90% (according to UMI that is). There are no physical keys on the lower bezel. Bezels are smaller than OnePlus 6 but Z2 has a larger notch.The frame is metallic with a dark grey colouring. In the right side it has two metallic buttons, the volume control and the power/lock button. There is a small rattling noise and partial movement when you move your fingers on them but nothing serious to complain about. On the top there is a noise cancellation microphone. In the left you can see double SIM tray. On the lower part you will find the USB type C port and the speaker trays on the left and right of it. As you understood from the retail box content there is no 3.5 mm audio jack. I know this a trend that keeps the width smaller but I believe that Umidigi should include an audio port. It would be an advantage over the competition. Any way the company wanted a 2018 flagship look and there are very few flagships that keep a 3.5mm port. At the side, near the top and bottom a small part of the antenna bands is visible, having the same colour with the SIM tray, a darker tone or gray.The back panel is made from curved glass, something that we dont easily see in the category except from medium to premium devices that cost a couple hundred US dollars more. The way the back panel and the side panel join together is perfect. The shiny gradient coloring is just amazing as I have already told you. Surely the glass is a fingerprint magnet and if you dont like the black silicone case that comes along in the retail box, a transparent case would be just perfect as you could enjoy the glass panel to all its glory. In the center of the panel you can find the double camera. On its left there is a LED flash and on the bottom a fingertip sensor. I really like that the sensor is larger in diameter from the two equally sized lenses – it makes my finger easier to reach and unlock.I also like that there is no bulge in the camera setup. I use my smartphone a lot on my desk and I simply hate bulges. Whenever I try to write something most of the smartphones slide like a boat. Not Z2.I was really astonished the way Umidigi A1 Pro looked and at this price tag I cant but admire what Umidigi has done again!This is an excellent exterior that easily outperforms in beauty any other plastic or metal smartphones in the price category. Not only that! With the colour gradient it is better looking than double-prized flagships – I can confirm it by having a OnePlus 6 in my other hand. The quality is equal to the flagship-killer and that is an amazing accomplishment for half the price.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramHardwareThe screen is the main selling point with a 6.2 inch, 2.5D curved, 19:9 display. It has a FHD+ resolution (2246 X 1080) that covers 90% of the front with 403 ppi. I dont know who builds this panel but Umidigi keeps a close partnership and usually buys from SHARP. The display is bright and vivid and has good contrast. It is visible under the midday sun but not as much as I wanted. Viewing angles are good and since this is a good panel, I suppose this is another SHARP product.This smartphone comes with the MTK6763V SoC known also as Helio P23. It is an 8-core processor with 8 Cortex-A53 cores working at a frequency of 2.0GHz. It is accompanied by a ARM Mali-G71 MP2 GPU working to help with the graphics. Helio P23 and Snapdragon 625 have stellar performance in stability and power usage, and they are still used today by many companies. There are 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM to assist and the G71 proves to be a good GPU. My opinion is that a newer chip could be found here at the expense of having less RAM/ROM. The daily usage should not suffer, however as I had no issues in any task. Of course heavy gaming or multitasking stress the SoC. Benchmark results are the same as in any other Helio P23 driven smartphone. There are 64GB of ROM in the phone. The internal storage can expand up to 256GB with an external SDcard placed in the SIM tray. It supports dual SIM functionality with two nano-SIMs or a nano-SIM and the aforementioned micorSD card.Connectivity is exceptional. It supports Dual 4G LTE, and nearly all available bands, thus is an excellent tool for people that travel a lot. Is supports 2G: GSM B2/B3/B5/B8 CDMA BC0/BC1, 3G: WCDMA B1/B2/B4/B5/B8 TD-SCDMA B34/B3, 4G: FDD-LTE B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B13/B17/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28, TDD-LTE B34/B38/B39/B40/B41. The only caveat here is the lack of NFC.The smartphone has a good sensor pack having GPS (A-GPS, Beidou, GLONASS, GPS), Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor, and FM Radio. Bluetooth has the 4.0 Specification. Navigation works fine with satellites being found fast and having a good precision.Audio is based on a single external speaker at the bottom. It is clear and loud and much better than expected for the price range. Wifi is able to connect to 802.11 a/b/g/n, 2.4G/5GHz Dual-band.Call quality is excellent and video calls are good without any issues. Selfie cam has no LED so keep in mind to have a light source near in video calls.SoftwareThe operating system found in the smartphone is stock Android 8.1. I dont know whether Z2 will be updated to Android 9 Pie. On the first power-on I had an OTA update of 106.43MB! Constant upgrades is the safe path to compete against software oriented companies like Xiaomi or Android One smartphones. So let’s all hope that Umidigi keeps updating Z2, because we cannot say the same for most of their previous models. First boot and set up was fast. I am using Oreo since December so the experience is typical with no issues. In the settings Umidigi has added a few touches here and there. Smart Assistant has options to hide the navigation bar, and flip the buttons, there is a Flip to Mute option for calls, alarms or music and a Sweep QR scanner. Face unlock works properly while having a nice option to lit the display as to brighten up the users face in low light conditions. In the Fingerprint setup there are a lot of options to use the fingerprint sensor. For example you can answer a call or take a screenshot. In the System settings you will find the Android System Update and in the About Phone the Umidigi Wireless Update. The latest Google Security patch level is the one from May – it’s turning a bit old I guess. There is also the well known DuraSpeed setting here as well. This setting allows fine-tuned control over foreground and background apps on a toggle based system. If you want more performance you can toggle your prefered application and it will stop running in the background – there will be no updates or notifications on it.Face Unlock worked in a decent way, it is fast and works most of the time in low light environments with its lit-display option. As always I repeat that it is not a 100% safe method to use and one should prefer the fast and reliable fingerprint sensor. Having said that, I must admit that this is the first phone that Face Unlock is faster to unlock the phone when compared to the two biometric sensors. While the fingerprint sensor works flawlessly the time to lit the display is almost 2 seconds. This is something that Umidigi needs to fix. Multitasking works as long you wont open 100 apps – the software tends to kill them, so the SoC can handle the latest processes.Gaming -considering the SoC- is doable with low graphic settings. Due to the 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM and ARM Mali-G71 MP2 GPU this smartphone is better at gaming than any other Helio P23 or Snapdragon 625 handset. PUGB is playable at medium graphic settings but the experience is lower than Snapdragon 625 smartphones – there are a lot of lags.Sound is good and loud. There is a single speaker. This is not a phone for audiophiles, but for daily usage I was satisfied with the volume and clear sound. My opinion is that is a bit better from the competition in the price range. The back of the phone gets warm even after average usage but nothing more than that. Don’t worry it won’t melt 馃槈CameraThe quad cameras are made from Samsung and consist of a main pair in the back with a 13MP main shooter from Samsung with f/2.0 aperture and a 5MP, f/2.4 aperture lens for the the bokeh effect. A dual LED supports night shots. Facial recognition and selfie countdown are possible from the front camera. The camera application has all the basic stuff you expect these days. There is a Picture and Video main menus with the settings. HDR is seen in a prominent place at the top, while in Picture you can alter with a left to right gesture from the left side between Normal or Bokeh pictures.I cant tell you that I felt happy with the application. It looks and feels very basic and below this price range. You need to swipe to the left or right to access the settings which is typical these days but there is no mark or clues to do so.[flickr_set id=”72157700210394934″]Having said that, the Z2 is a decent camera phone. It is really good in bright light but suffers in low light something usual in this price range. HDR worked properly without losing details or sharpness. Bokeh effect is much better than that of the competition.Taking pictures with the main camera or selfie camera is an enjoyable experience – as you can see from the samples the results are a bit better than that of the competition in the category. In good lighting conditions or outside in bright weather pictures are good. Nightly or low light shots have a lot of noise and details are blurry at least. HDR worked properly without losing details or sharpness.Video recording is up to 1080p. The results are ok, mediocre in bright light, extra noisy in low light. The smartphone has no OIS or EIS and the image is shaking. At least the noise recording is clear and loud.Considering the price I am happy with the whole experience and results.BatteryZ2 has a Li-Pol, non removable, 3850 mAh battery. With medium usage the battery is more than capable to keep the phone lit all the day as with continuous video playback I got 6.5 hours of screen-on-time.The company advertises the quick charge functionality with the 18W charger. It takes 80-90 minutes for a full charge and the device gets a bit warm in the procedure. I didnt see any battery drain in any application or gaming.ConclusionWhat Umidigi did here was to take the typical medium category smartphone and successfully incorporate all the 2018 trends into it. Big full-view bezel-less display, notch, shiny gradient coloring, 6GB RAM, stock Android, quad cameras, face unlock and fast charge, are ALL there in UMIDIGI Z2. The quality of build is very good – i have to stress that.Daily usage is effortless and the battery can keep up until the end. In case of heavy usage the phone has limitations on its SoC even with the existence of high quality RAM.There is no protection or audio jack and you need to consider this by buying a tempered glass and bluetooth headsets. There is no notification light either – something that I find unfortunate.In early 2018 Huawei took over the world by announcing their premium P20 series with astounding photographic abilities. P20 arrived with a full notched display copying iPhone X, and shiny gradient colours, borrowed from its sub-company Honor. Copying, borrowing and even cloning, is a method all smartphone companies use. It is a fast way to capture trends and at the same time promote the company that provides the design – a win-win scenario for most. Everybody does it and hopefully will be doing it in the future. If you are looking for a P20 series lookalike that costs way far less than the original flagship while packing as much value as possible at a low price, Umidigi Z2 is your next phone.This is the second smartphone from Umidigi that arrives in my hands after the amazing UMIDIGI A1 Pro this year and i just cant believe how well the company is upgrading its products year after year. While A1 Pro is the undisputable winner in the entry level category, Z2 comes at the middle one, a place where Xiaomi rules with the Redmi series during the past couple of years. So Z2 has to stand its ground and prove its worth and value. It has a full notched display, 6GB of RAM, stock Android Oreo, a large 3850mAh battery with 18W fast charge, four cameras and an amazing array of global band support. Face Unlock and a shiny gradient coloured back with a fingerprint sensor complete this excellent set of characteristics.Umidigi Z2 Technical SpecificationsOS: Android 8.1CPU: MTK6763V Octa Core 2.0GHzGPU: ARM Mali-G71 MP2ROM: 64GB ROM, TF card up to 256GBRAM: 6GB LPDDR4x RAMDisplay: 6.2 inch, 1080 x 2284 pixelsFront Camera: 16.0MP + 8.0MP dual front cameraBack Camera: 16.0MP + 8.0MP dual back cameraNetwork: GSM / WCDMA / FDD-LTEBands: 2G: GSM B2/B3/B5/B8 CDMA BC0/BC1, 3G: WCDMA B1/B2/B4/B5/B8, 4G: FDD-LTE B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B13/B17/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28SIM: 2 Nano SIM Cards, Dual standbyBluetooth: 4.0Battery: 3850 mAhExtras: Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor, GPSSize: 153.4 x 74.4 x 8.3 mmWeight: 165g UnboxingThe smartphone arrives in a dark gray to black, hard paper box, with an extra half-cover and crafted texture to prove to you that they care even for the small parts – It is the same package that A1 Pro arrived in. The brand name is written in a gold-copper colour in the box- same colour is used in the logo Link to the World typed in the instructions envelope inside. A thank you card is added inside, with details on how to enter a giveaway competition.The bottom of the box has a black sticker with white letters describing the characteristics, the package contents, a warning not to use non approved batteries and the brands email address. The box has dimensions 180 X 90 X 35 mm and weights 430 grams. Inside you will find:1 X UMIDIGI Z21 X Power adapter1 X USB cable1 X USB to 3.5mm audio jack adapter1 X SIM card eject tool1 X Screen protector1 X Silicone Case1 X Manual in English, Italian, Spanish, German and FrenchThe retail box is excellent and complete according to my… taste. I really liked the silicone case as it has a leather type texture with an excellent grip and protection from fingerprints. Another nice touch is that the usb cable is in red – a color that UMI usually choses for some of their models from time to time.DesignThere are three color versions, Phantom (black), Twilight and Twilight Black. I had the latest version in my hands, yes the Twilight Black. It is bluish and black on the top turning purple at the bottom. I prefer this colour to the other two and it looks astonishingly good in the sun. (look below)In the front we can see a huge 6.2 inch display with a 19:9 aspect ratio. The notch in the top resembles the one used in Huawei P20’s display. There is no protection here that i know of, except from the plastic cover attached to the display. The plastic film will be too scratched in the future, will look bad and will downgrade the – in all respect- clean nice looking panel. Dont think about it, go and buy a tempered glass to replace the film and enhance the panels protection. The notch is the place where you can find the microphone, the front-facing dual camera and the usual pack of sensors. There is no LED flash here so your selfies will suffer in low light conditions. Unfortunately there is no notification light either.There are very small bezels on the side and a bigger one on the bottom. This is a full view display with excellent ratio to body of approximately 90% (according to UMI that is). There are no physical keys on the lower bezel. Bezels are smaller than OnePlus 6 but Z2 has a larger notch.The frame is metallic with a dark grey colouring. In the right side it has two metallic buttons, the volume control and the power/lock button. There is a small rattling noise and partial movement when you move your fingers on them but nothing serious to complain about. On the top there is a noise cancellation microphone. In the left you can see double SIM tray. On the lower part you will find the USB type C port and the speaker trays on the left and right of it. As you understood from the retail box content there is no 3.5 mm audio jack. I know this a trend that keeps the width smaller but I believe that Umidigi should include an audio port. It would be an advantage over the competition. Any way the company wanted a 2018 flagship look and there are very few flagships that keep a 3.5mm port. At the side, near the top and bottom a small part of the antenna bands is visible, having the same colour with the SIM tray, a darker tone or gray.The back panel is made from curved glass, something that we dont easily see in the category except from medium to premium devices that cost a couple hundred US dollars more. The way the back panel and the side panel join together is perfect. The shiny gradient coloring is just amazing as I have already told you. Surely the glass is a fingerprint magnet and if you dont like the black silicone case that comes along in the retail box, a transparent case would be just perfect as you could enjoy the glass panel to all its glory. In the center of the panel you can find the double camera. On its left there is a LED flash and on the bottom a fingertip sensor. I really like that the sensor is larger in diameter from the two equally sized lenses – it makes my finger easier to reach and unlock.I also like that there is no bulge in the camera setup. I use my smartphone a lot on my desk and I simply hate bulges. Whenever I try to write something most of the smartphones slide like a boat. Not Z2.I was really astonished the way Umidigi A1 Pro looked and at this price tag I cant but admire what Umidigi has done again!This is an excellent exterior that easily outperforms in beauty any other plastic or metal smartphones in the price category. Not only that! With the colour gradient it is better looking than double-prized flagships – I can confirm it by having a OnePlus 6 in my other hand. The quality is equal to the flagship-killer and that is an amazing accomplishment for half the price.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramHardwareThe screen is the main selling point with a 6.2 inch, 2.5D curved, 19:9 display. It has a FHD+ resolution (2246 X 1080) that covers 90% of the front with 403 ppi. I dont know who builds this panel but Umidigi keeps a close partnership and usually buys from SHARP. The display is bright and vivid and has good contrast. It is visible under the midday sun but not as much as I wanted. Viewing angles are good and since this is a good panel, I suppose this is another SHARP product.This smartphone comes with the MTK6763V SoC known also as Helio P23. It is an 8-core processor with 8 Cortex-A53 cores working at a frequency of 2.0GHz. It is accompanied by a ARM Mali-G71 MP2 GPU working to help with the graphics. Helio P23 and Snapdragon 625 have stellar performance in stability and power usage, and they are still used today by many companies. There are 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM to assist and the G71 proves to be a good GPU. My opinion is that a newer chip could be found here at the expense of having less RAM/ROM. The daily usage should not suffer, however as I had no issues in any task. Of course heavy gaming or multitasking stress the SoC. Benchmark results are the same as in any other Helio P23 driven smartphone. There are 64GB of ROM in the phone. The internal storage can expand up to 256GB with an external SDcard placed in the SIM tray. It supports dual SIM functionality with two nano-SIMs or a nano-SIM and the aforementioned micorSD card.Connectivity is exceptional. It supports Dual 4G LTE, and nearly all available bands, thus is an excellent tool for people that travel a lot. Is supports 2G: GSM B2/B3/B5/B8 CDMA BC0/BC1, 3G: WCDMA B1/B2/B4/B5/B8 TD-SCDMA B34/B3, 4G: FDD-LTE B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B13/B17/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28, TDD-LTE B34/B38/B39/B40/B41. The only caveat here is the lack of NFC.The smartphone has a good sensor pack having GPS (A-GPS, Beidou, GLONASS, GPS), Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor, and FM Radio. Bluetooth has the 4.0 Specification. Navigation works fine with satellites being found fast and having a good precision.Audio is based on a single external speaker at the bottom. It is clear and loud and much better than expected for the price range. Wifi is able to connect to 802.11 a/b/g/n, 2.4G/5GHz Dual-band.Call quality is excellent and video calls are good without any issues. Selfie cam has no LED so keep in mind to have a light source near in video calls.SoftwareThe operating system found in the smartphone is stock Android 8.1. I dont know whether Z2 will be updated to Android 9 Pie. On the first power-on I had an OTA update of 106.43MB! Constant upgrades is the safe path to compete against software oriented companies like Xiaomi or Android One smartphones. So let’s all hope that Umidigi keeps updating Z2, because we cannot say the same for most of their previous models. First boot and set up was fast. I am using Oreo since December so the experience is typical with no issues. In the settings Umidigi has added a few touches here and there. Smart Assistant has options to hide the navigation bar, and flip the buttons, there is a Flip to Mute option for calls, alarms or music and a Sweep QR scanner. Face unlock works properly while having a nice option to lit the display as to brighten up the users face in low light conditions. In the Fingerprint setup there are a lot of options to use the fingerprint sensor. For example you can answer a call or take a screenshot. In the System settings you will find the Android System Update and in the About Phone the Umidigi Wireless Update. The latest Google Security patch level is the one from May – it’s turning a bit old I guess. There is also the well known DuraSpeed setting here as well. This setting allows fine-tuned control over foreground and background apps on a toggle based system. If you want more performance you can toggle your prefered application and it will stop running in the background – there will be no updates or notifications on it.Face Unlock worked in a decent way, it is fast and works most of the time in low light environments with its lit-display option. As always I repeat that it is not a 100% safe method to use and one should prefer the fast and reliable fingerprint sensor. Having said that, I must admit that this is the first phone that Face Unlock is faster to unlock the phone when compared to the two biometric sensors. While the fingerprint sensor works flawlessly the time to lit the display is almost 2 seconds. This is something that Umidigi needs to fix. Multitasking works as long you wont open 100 apps – the software tends to kill them, so the SoC can handle the latest processes.Gaming -considering the SoC- is doable with low graphic settings. Due to the 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM and ARM Mali-G71 MP2 GPU this smartphone is better at gaming than any other Helio P23 or Snapdragon 625 handset. PUGB is playable at medium graphic settings but the experience is lower than Snapdragon 625 smartphones – there are a lot of lags.Sound is good and loud. There is a single speaker. This is not a phone for audiophiles, but for daily usage I was satisfied with the volume and clear sound. My opinion is that is a bit better from the competition in the price range. The back of the phone gets warm even after average usage but nothing more than that. Don’t worry it won’t melt 馃槈CameraThe quad cameras are made from Samsung and consist of a main pair in the back with a 13MP main shooter from Samsung with f/2.0 aperture and a 5MP, f/2.4 aperture lens for the the bokeh effect. A dual LED supports night shots. Facial recognition and selfie countdown are possible from the front camera. The camera application has all the basic stuff you expect these days. There is a Picture and Video main menus with the settings. HDR is seen in a prominent place at the top, while in Picture you can alter with a left to right gesture from the left side between Normal or Bokeh pictures.I cant tell you that I felt happy with the application. It looks and feels very basic and below this price range. You need to swipe to the left or right to access the settings which is typical these days but there is no mark or clues to do so.[flickr_set id=”72157700210394934″]Having said that, the Z2 is a decent camera phone. It is really good in bright light but suffers in low light something usual in this price range. HDR worked properly without losing details or sharpness. Bokeh effect is much better than that of the competition.Taking pictures with the main camera or selfie camera is an enjoyable experience – as you can see from the samples the results are a bit better than that of the competition in the category. In good lighting conditions or outside in bright weather pictures are good. Nightly or low light shots have a lot of noise and details are blurry at least. HDR worked properly without losing details or sharpness.Video recording is up to 1080p. The results are ok, mediocre in bright light, extra noisy in low light. The smartphone has no OIS or EIS and the image is shaking. At least the noise recording is clear and loud.Considering the price I am happy with the whole experience and results.BatteryZ2 has a Li-Pol, non removable, 3850 mAh battery. With medium usage the battery is more than capable to keep the phone lit all the day as with continuous video playback I got 6.5 hours of screen-on-time.The company advertises the quick charge functionality with the 18W charger. It takes 80-90 minutes for a full charge and the device gets a bit warm in the procedure. I didnt see any battery drain in any application or gaming.ConclusionWhat Umidigi did here was to take the typical medium category smartphone and successfully incorporate all the 2018 trends into it. Big full-view bezel-less display, notch, shiny gradient coloring, 6GB RAM, stock Android, quad cameras, face unlock and fast charge, are ALL there in UMIDIGI Z2. The quality of build is very good – i have to stress that.Daily usage is effortless and the battery can keep up until the end. In case of heavy usage the phone has limitations on its SoC even with the existence of high quality RAM.There is no protection or audio jack and you need to consider this by buying a tempered glass and bluetooth headsets. There is no notification light either – something that I find unfortunate.

Vernee is once again “in the house” here in Gizchina HQ and today they decided to send over one of their slimmest and most efficient rugged Android smartphones and surely one that most of you outgoing professionals out there, will like.聽Say hello to聽Vernee V2 Pro聽a new rugged smartphone -part of their high-end portfolio – equipped with an Helio P23 SoC processor,聽a 2160 x 1080 pixels display and 6GB of RAM for excellent multitasking.Since its official launch some weeks ago, the phone has generally been well received, and we believe, pretty much rightly so. It definitely isn’t a phone that will ‘change everything’, but it’s a fairly nice device – one of聽the slimmest ever designed by the Chinese company and it surely deserves all the praises for this. Let’s take a deeper look in the Vernee V2 Pro review!Vernee V2 Pro: Technical specsDisplay: 5.99 inch, 2160 x 1080 pixels screenCPU: MTK6763 ( Helio P23 ) Octa Core 2GHzSystem: Android 8.1RAM: 6GB – ROM: 64GBCamera: 16.0MP ( SW 21MP )+ 5.0MP rear camera; 8MP ( SW 13MP ) + 5.0MP dual front camerasSensor: G-sensor control, distance sensor, light sensor, electronic compass, gyroscope, geomagnetism, NFC, OTG, fingerprint recognitionSIM Card: dual Nano SIM + dual standbyFeatures: GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BDSBluetooth: 4.2Dimensions: 164,2 x 79,4 x 12,1 mm / Weight: 259 grNetwork:聽2G: GSM B2, 3, 5, 8 –聽3G: WCDMA B1 / 2 / 4 / 5 / 8 – TD-SCDMA: B34 / 39 –聽4G: FDD-LTE: B1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 8 / 12 / 17 / 19 / 20, BC0 / BC1 – TDD-LTE: B34 / 38 / 39 / 40 / 41Vernee V2 Pro Review: Design & BuildIt’s always good to start from – whats probably the most important factor in a rugged phone 鈥 its build quality and design. As you might have guessed by reading the review introduction, the Vernee V2 Pro comes as a slim, powerfull rugged device, with a large battery and ample RAM/storage, enough to cover the needs of almost any type of user.The smartphone is indeed slim compared to similar devices currently out with 12mm of thickness. Sure, it wont be as thin as an average smartphone, but if you take into consideration that you usually put an external case on them to avoid damages from drops and whatnot, while you dont need one on the already tough V2 Pro, then were not too far off as far as bulkiness goes.聽Right off the bat, the Vernee V2 Pro will remind you of at least 5-6 other typical mid-range models in the market, just pick one, they’re all the same to me. The only real noticeable feature however is the total absence of a front facing fingerprint scanner, something that adds a lot of points to its general design score, leaving a lot of space for its 5.99 inch display to show off a bit.聽At around the $249 mark (while writing this review), the Vernee V2 Pro isn’t the cheapest Chinese device, but I guess that it does the job. While the Chinese are getting to a point where they almost get the hardware right (full display, 4G/LTE, dual NANO SIM, 6GB RAM, microSD support up to 128GB, FM Radio, OTG, NFC etc.), there’s definitely still a void to fill when it’s software we’re talking about. More on that later.聽Combined with a metal finish and some polycarbonate parts on its body (that is prone to smudges on the back side however), the Vernee V2 Pro is surely a quite tempting device to hold and use. Unfortunately it still has large bezels on top and bottom, even though the company has done their best to “hide” them. They’re not huge, don’t get me wrong, but I guess that’s the price to pay to get a quite efficient, full display smartphone with true IP68 certification.聽The glass on top of the 2.5D display seems to (thankfully) feature some kind of oleophobic coating along with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, so you won’t be seeing a lot of smudges there while in everyday use, something that I really liked during my days with this device in my hands.The Vernee V2 Pro is IP68 water and dust proof, which is a great feature to have, albeit 鈥 in this case 鈥 it needs rubber plugs to make it so. So we have one at the bottom for the USB Type-C port with OTG support and another at the top for the 3.5mm audio jack.聽As far as build quality goes, the聽V2 Pro feels really solid in the hand, it does not make any noise when squeezed as well as when shaken. Kudos to Vernee for the high value production quality. You can easily rely on it for hard work, outgoing experiences, some trips to the sea or to the mountains, with out worrying that it may break. It won’t…Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramVernee V2 Pro Review: Hardware & PerformanceEquipped with Mediatek’s Helio P23 SoC along with 6GB RAM and 64GB of storage, one can surely expect the V2 Pro to provide quite impressive everyday use, with no lags or other issues. You can easily get more than decent performance in everyday use, as it will get the job done for everyday chores, extensive social media, Emails, a bit of Skype, Chrome for browsing etc. No lags, no apps freezing thankfully. While the VOS (V OS) is pretty much vanilla Android, there are still a few areas where it can be improved – the camera app for example, and others here and there. As I write this review, I’ve been notified of another OTA which will hopefully make things better. Don’t get me wrong, it’s quite intuitive as a UI, as it comes with several power saving features, some gestures like 3 fingers screenshot, Picture-in-Picture mode, some Pinned Shortcuts that can help increase your productivity etc.It runs on Android 8.1 Oreo, with full Google Apps support: all the stock apps are waiting for you when the device boots, such as聽Gmail, Youtube, Maps, Google Drive, but there are some other 3rd party apps that must accompany every rugged smartphone like a compass, a pedometer, gyroscope and excellet GPS/A-GPS support with fast location fix and more than 10 satellites connected at any time.There’s also a heart rate sensor located at the back, next to the dual camera of the device. It tries to measure our heart-rate with typical success but I would not rely on it for medical reasons, or anything similar. Performance wise, the V2 Pro is right up there with the likes of other Helio P23 phones. In fact it’s pretty zippy thanks to the lightweight OS (unless it’s having a RAM issue).聽I’ve managed to run several apps all at the same time without having any caching issues. I’d go as far as to say that you really don’t need 6GB of RAM at this point in time if your 4GB RAM is accompanied by decent software. But if your phone comes with 6GB RAM, who am I to turn it down? 馃槈 Moving on to the hardware, it’s been a mixed bag of sorts. The display comes with an impressive聽2160 x 1080 pixels resolution and yes, it is doing its best to fulfill all your needs. All in all it packs a nice and bright panel with some amazing back light consistency聽– no light bleeding whatsoever, with impressive clarity given its size. Well done here Vernee! The sound is.. average I must say. Both the earpiece and the built-in loudspeaker offer typical performance. While the earpiece is still doable, the loudspeaker offers poor sound with virtually no bass, a bit lower volume than expected but if you turn off the sound enhancer settings this helps a lot!聽The Vernee V2 Pro has a non-removable 6200mAH Li-Po battery which has a decent fast charging feature. These days people prefer purchasing fast charging battery smartphones, so take into account that this smartphone needs only 150 minutes to charge completely, with the use of the 9V/2A charger you’ll find inside its main package. As for its battery life while in typical usage, I’ve constantly managed to get over 5 hours of screen on time (5-5,5 hours on an average) when mostly on WiFi, and around the 6 hours mark when on 3G/4G. While this is good, it could get better, especially considering the battery size of 6200mAh.聽As I mentioned before, the fingerprint scanner of the device is positioned at the back, just below the main camera. It is not one of the fastest in the market, but it surely gets the job done, offering 0,1 seconds of recognition time, with an average of 95% success rate while in everyday use. Typical stuff there too, don’t expect anything else.Vernee V2 Pro Review: CameraIf you read the title of our review, then you must already know that the V2 Pro is one of the first rugged smartphones out there, equipped with not 3, but 4 cameras: a聽16.0MP + 5.0MP main pair of lenses along with two 8.0MP + 5.0MP front shooters for selfies with bokeh effects. The 16MP lens can use interpolation to increase its resolution to 21MP, but I wouldn’t suggest it. Just use the true 16MPixels of the sensor, it’s much better.聽The main dual camera is definitely potent enough to take some breathtaking shots I’m sure, but again that’s bottle-necked by the software running on the phone. It’s sad to notice that there’s no manual mode on the camera app, something the V2 Pro definitely deserves.聽The camera聽can capture the images at 4608 x 3456 pixels and record some decent videos of 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution @ 30fps.聽It’s a dual setup that manages to聽focus fast, and thanks to its RAM/SoC combination, saving clicked photos is extremely fast also. As you’d expect, the shutter tends to remain open for a little while longer in low-light situations, which means you’ll often end up with blurred photos. This, in turn, will make you miss OIS. There’s an ‘anti shake’ mode in the settings that you can turn on (probably something based on EIS), but it doesn’t work all that well anyway.[flickr_set id=”72157700394121035″]The front camera can also capture images with a maximum resolution of up to 3264 x 2448 pixels but when it comes to recording the video the results are NOT impressive, as it only records 480p videos @ almost 30fps. Fortunately there’s also a front facing flash that can surely brighten up those selfies during the night, with聽beauty mode and facial recognition.Vernee V2 Pro Review: ConclusionIf you’re in the market for a rugged smartphone with affordable price and some impressive technical specs, then the Vernee V2 Pro is definitely a phone that breaks away from the norm! Equipped with a decent chipset, 6GB RAM and 64GB of storage, along with a large battery (6200 mAh) it can surely become the phone you need for those hard working days, or just a heavy duty device if you’re clumsy.Meizu’s much talked about device, the Meizu 16th (Yup, that’s what they call it), is now out. Gizchina were invited at the launch event in Beijing and we also have a review unit of the handset. This is Meizu’s successor to the Meizu 15, which is oddly just around 4 to 5 months old and is now been replaced by a much bigger upgrade. Meizu has also priced the flagship in the most aggressive manner. The base Meizu 16th variant (6GB + 64GB) will set you back by $395. That is an unbelievable price for such flagship grade specifications, especially when it comes with an on-screen fingerprint reader. Yes, both of Meizu’s flagships have the on-screen reader and that is absolutely insane at that price point. Meizu has just two colour variants, the classic Black and White while we’ve heard a Blue version is also coming out soon.First Leaks and live images pointed out to a radical design change mainly for the front of the phone with the flagship duo coming with extremely thin bezels, and they weren’t bluffing. One of the USPs of the phone is the 91.18% screen-to-body ratio that the company spent millions on to get users a cutting edge thin bezel experience, said Meizu at the event. The top bezel hides a number of sensors in that this area and there’s an ear-piece that doubles as a stereo speaker. The front is mostly screen of the Super AMOLED variety. That’s pretty much everything you’ll find on the front. The rear has a glossy finish made with a 7-layer coating process that gives the glass a ceramic feel. The backside curves gently at the edges and the in-hand feel is great and it isn’t as slippery as it would seem to be.Meizu 16th: Contents of the BoxGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramUnboxing the device, the first thing is the phone itself. All else lies beneath it in two small packages. One of the black boxes beneath the phone has a plastic back cover, a USB Type-C cable, and some paperwork. The other box has a charging brick with a rating of 12V – 2A and a SIM ejector tool. That’s pretty much what you get in the box. We had hopes for a headphone in there but that’s probably a trade-off for the price point at which you’re getting the Meizu 16th.Meizu 16th: First ImpressionsWe have the 8GB + 128GB variant with White colour. In our initial hands-on, we were very pleased to see the rear not showing fingerprint smudges as much as the Black version. The phone is very light tipping the scales at around 150 grams and applying the transparent case doesn’t add much girth or weight which is always a good thing. Sadly though, we found the phone to have no slot for a micro SD card, which wouldn’t worry us as much as some guy who bought the 64GB version. We set up the on-screen fingerprint reader quite easily at first boot and our initial testing showed it worked well but it isn’t exactly as fast as your highly reliable traditional scanner.Our unit comes with the Google Play Store and Android Oreo 8.1 with the latest version of Flyme OS. The very first thing we did was to find the gesture system. And man, you’re going to like the new options thrown in by Meizu. We set our phone to gesture navigation and didn’t use the mBack feature. The gesture system allows users to swipe from the left and right edges which we’ve always been a fan of. So, going back requires a short swipe from the left or right edge of the screen. Also, we tried to change the wallpapers and it seems like the current Flyme OS doesn’t support it, very weird. Meizu 16 All in all, we received many “Hey, what an awesome looking phone.” comments even in our short time with it. That does say a lot about the new flagship. It has killer looks, the hardware to match, and hopefully, it lives up to the expectations Meizu has from it. In case you want to check out the unboxing and first impressions video, we’ll leave a link to that below. Stay tuned for the full review coming up soon on our website and the Gizchina YouTube channel.

Apple was, and in some form still is, the driving force behind the improvement of some Android smartphones. The first iPhone was heavily copied and cloned to a huge extend from the rest of the mobile industry and this practice goes on until today. Every year store shelves are filled with similar or exact copies of the latest iPhone design. 2018 trend is a full view, 18:9 aspect ratio display design, with a notch and top-left vertically positioned cameras, copying iPhone X.A few companies stay away from this practice, with Samsung being the strongest example, along with its superior notch-less design in Galaxy S series. Some companies prefer their own full view notch-less design but they keep the iPhone X pack panel positioning: best example being Xiaomis Mi Mix 2s. As you can understand, every trip to a smartphone store today, makes us go very fast from whow! to shear boredom every year – and year after year.Meizu is a relatively small Chinese company with a long history in innovation. With a huge dose of panache Meizu decided to celebrate its 15 years in the smartphone industry by improving its MX line, topping its characteristics. Their creation is called Meizu 15: it has no 18:9 display, no notch, no back-left vertical positioned cameras. Meizu broke the mold of those boring iPhone X copies, with their anniversary Meizu 15, 15 Plus and 15 Lite smartphones, the zenith of MX series.Most would expect a flagship series with top of the selve parts. Meizu did things differently here too. They focused on the middle category (and the relevant price range) by selecting last years Exynos 8895 SoC for the Plus model and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 for the standard model! After a couple of years with low profits, Meizu wanted a smartphone for the masses. With an affordable price their devices could sell easier than a premium flagship that Meizu had planned for the future (Meizu 16 series). The company wanted more and more people to buy their phones, in order to prove to the largest possible extend, their level of expertise and excellence. The standard model arrived in my hands and tries to do exactly that: catch my eye when compared to the more famous Chinese, South Korean and US brands, made by a company that likes to differ.Meizu 15 CharacteristicsDisplay: 5.46-inch (1080 脳 1920 pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED display, 10000:1 contrast ratioSoC: Octa Core Snapdragon 660 14nm Mobile Platform (Quad 2.2GHz Kryo 260 + Quad 1.8GHz Kryo 260 CPUs) with Adreno 512 GPUMemory: 4GB RAM with 64GB / 128GB internal memoryOperational System: Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) with Flyme OS 7Photography: 12MP rear camera with wide-angle lens, 1/2.3鈥 Sony IMX380 sensor, 1.55渭m pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, Four-axis OIS, PDAF, Laser auto-focus, secondary 20MP telephoto lens, Sony IMX350 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 6-LED ring LED flash. 20MP front-facing camera.Network: 2G: GSM B2/B3/B5/B8, 3G: WCDMA B1/B2/B5/B8, 4G: FDD-LTE B1/B3/B5/B8, TDD-LTE B34/B38/B39/B40/B41Dimensions: 143脳72.7脳7.25 mmWeight: 152gConnectivity: 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-CBattery: 3000mAh battery with mCharge fast chargingCharacteristics: GPS, Miracast, OTG, Type-C, fingerprint ID, Face Unlock, 3.5mm audio jack, Stereo speakers.Meizu 15 PackagingThe smartphone arrived in a black premium box that has a soft-feel and matte black information and brand marking. It looks and feels luxurious with the Meizu 15th Anniversary written in the tray that keeps the mobile inside.聽 Inside you will find:1 脳 Phone1 脳 Built-in Battery1 脳 Type-C Cable1 脳 Eject Pin1 脳 User Manual1 脳 Power AdapterBeing a 15th Anniversary product I would expect something more like a protective case, etc. Nevertheless, the package is quite pleasing.Meizu 15 DesignFrom the first look in its box, Meizu 15 is a beauty created to be loved unconditionally. The wide聽 body has the 16:9 aspect ratio panel with almost no side bezels (width of 1.175mm), a design reminiscent of MX4. Picking it up you notice the display that has a brighter tone of black than the one of the body. The upper and lower bezels have the same height. The upper has a visible selfie-cam in the center. The speaker is a small horizontal line near the frame. The lower bezel has a fingerprint sensor in the center. No side bezels exist as we said, and that is that, a clean minimal front.The corners of the protective glass dive into the unibody frame. The frame is made from surgical-grade 316L stainless steel and aluminum alloy/composite specially build to feel plastic. The top and bottom have a external noise canceling microphone. On the left side of the phone you’ll find the volume adjustment buttons. The right side has a power button right under the top positioned SIM tray. The bottom has from left to right, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a USB-C port and a loudspeaker. The buttons do not rattle, their feel and position is great. The back part of the frame is u-shaped, brushed with a horizontal pattern for design seen only when light is reflected on the black variant.Both cameras are located at the top center, positioned vertically with a LED ring below them. On top and bottom we can see the antennae bands near the middle frame in a designed adopted by Meizu long before Apple or anyone else did. The bands have a pattern that looks like the Ancient Greek border lines in pottery and architecture.The fine exterior does absolutely nothing to keep fingerprints or smudges off. With dimensions of 143 X 72.7 X 7.25 mm and weight of 152 grams the smartphone feels compact and it is easy to handle. Feeling it around there are no parts protruding – apart from the camera ring – it rises a bit over the camera glass adding another layer of protection to it.I am adding Meizu 15 in my top 5 beauties of the year, next to Vivo NEX, Oppo Find X, Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus and Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s. The total is an apogee of minimalism. A beauty that derives from clean lines and discretion: Meizu even kept its brand logo hidden in black matte in the back, seen only under the reflection of the light.Meizu 15 HardwareThe display is an OLED panel of 5.46 inches having a 79.8% screen-to-body ratio thanks to the custom panel design by Samsung. Black is deep and colors are bright and saturated. Resolution is up to Full HD (1080 脳 1920 pixels) which is not perfect but not bad for the size. The display is really vivid, it has high contrast with a ppi density of 403. Brightness is excellent, the display is readable under Athenss midsummer sun, and聽 can easily compare to other Samsung AMOLED panels. Viewing angles and color temperature are excellent. The latter can be set from Flyme in case some people prefer warmer or colder colors. While Gorilla Glass is not mentioned I dont believe the company would let their anniversary product unprotected. Another fine touch is that fact that the software adds palm rejection, a nice thing to have with so small side bezels.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramFingerprint reader button works as a home button as seen in all smartphones that keep their reader in front. Meizu took its traditional mBack button and enhanced it to Super mBack. mBack was used to navigate the UI with gestures and Super mBack adds a haptic motor. The haptic motor adds custom feedback to on-screen controls – Ive added my birthday in PUBG Mobile, the smartphone rattling in month and year changes and a wide smile appeared in my face. The button – it is not really a button, just a specific place pushed inside the screen – It is also equipped with pressure sensors to recognize taps and long presses. The fingerprint reader is very accurate and fast and is small enough to impress us with its performance in recognition. Face Unlock works with the selfie cam and the smartphone can be set to wake when picked, but to tell you the truth I rarely used it for unlocking. Meizu is really proud of its work on its facial recognition software. It is very fast with not false positives but struggles in low light conditions – typical of a technology that has no Infrared sensors.The standard model was positioned in the upper part of the middle price category. The reasonable choice was Qualcomms Snapdragon 660, a choice made also from Xiaomi when they decided to downgrade their Mi Note series. SD 660 has eight Kryo 260 cores, 4 clocked at 1.8GHz and 4 at 2.2 GHz. GPU is Adreno 512 and RAM is at 4GB. The SoC has been used in all premium-mid tier smartphones in 2017 and some companies as Oppo used it in their annual flagships. With that said the chipset comes very close to flagship abilities as seen in the benchmark suites. Daily usage is great. Gaming and multitasking have no issues while at the same time its price is kept low.There is no option for expanding the storage space so you need to choose wisely between the 64 and 128 GB models.Meizu 15 supports dual SIM functionality with two nano Sims. It supports 2G: GSM B2/B3/B5/B8, 3G: WCDMA B1/B2/B5/B8, 4G: FDD-LTE B1/B3/B5/B8, TDD-LTE B34/B38/B39/B40/B41. Navigation works flawlessly with satellites being found fast and having good precision.聽Wifi is of 802.11ac/b/g/n standard and Bluetooth of 4.2. Call quality is excellent and video calls are good without any issues.Meizu 15 SoftwareMeizu is known for its lightweight custom Android OS, called Flyme OS that (at the time of this review) is at its 7.0.2 version still being based on Nougat 7.1.1. Meizu’s interface聽is a vast improvement over the previous version (FlyMe 6) and the company claims that is was worked down to pixel level. I am not a Flyme expert, I havent used it since MX4 Pro but I can confirm a few things. Firstly, I have to say well don to its multilingual support, with no Chinese popping up in smaller menus or applications other than the in house browser. It is clean and fast. The design of Flyme 7 is comparable to iOS in some details and its general approach. Minimalism and clean lines as in the exterior are adding a pinch of art, finesse and elegance.At the same time I cant seem to handle mBack or Smart Touch simulated smart button, as the gestures have proven to be more difficult than I had imagined. I believe that my own stock Android smartphone is keeping me off from mastering Flymes philosophy of handling its gimmicks. Always-on display can be enabled along with raise to wake up. The later paired with face recognition makes unlocking effortless. Notification area, search page and task switcher are designed nicely and are very practical to use. Nougat supports split-screen and Flyme has a nice way to support it from the task switcher. Diving in Flyme you can find many options existing in some of the other heavily customized MIUI or EMUI OS’s. Vault, guest mode, multi-user, permission and notifications, all have various options to be customized to your specific needs.聽 Meizu has added a Game mode that prioritizes resources and keeps the user undisturbed from external apps. In house applications are beautiful and you can download anything else from Meizus App Store or Google Play Store of course. I can find only one bad and that is Nougat of course. Flyme should proceed to Oreo as soon as possible, as Android P is already reaching its production stage in a few months. While playing around i found a bug. A simple stupid bug not found in any other smartphone that has passed from my hands ever: I cannot change the background image, either from the themes application of the gallery due to my version not supporting it. Waiting for an update then?Meizu 15 CameraMeizu 15 is to the company what Mi Note 3 is to Xiaomi. The best camera phone ever made from Meizu. Starting with that fact lets describe the camera set-up. Meizu has adopted a dual-camera setup with a main Sony IMX 380 12 megapixel sensor (f/1.8 aperture, 1.55碌m, 1/2.3-inch). The secondary 20 megapixel (1/2.8″, 1.0碌m) is a telephoto lens with two tasks: 2x lossless zoom (can go to 3x interpolated) and bokeh effect. There is a 4-axis OIS, PDAF and laser autofocus. The circular LED consists of six smaller individual LEDs and it’s used for photography along with an extra notification LED existing on the front. There is some AI support here – there where some annotations in night shots but not the plethora of AI support that I have seen in Huawei P20 Pro or other releavant devices. The camera application is clean too, simple to use but I would prefer it to be a bit faster from mode to mode. You can find Portrait (bokeh), Photo, Video and More. The later includes Pro mode, Panorama, Scan, Time-lapse, Slow-Motion and Square. HRD and Beautify along with a small menu of settings provide the most minimal set up seen in such a good camera and price category. Daily pictures and Portrait mode provide excellent examples with bright colors almost equal to this year flagships. HDR is being supported brilliantly without over saturating the pictures while color is represented accurately without adding effects. Night shots have some noise but not enough to disappoint us. They are more than good. Meizu took the latest Sony sensor and added the best software she could produce. This is really Meizus best camera phone by far. There is one extra thing to add on. Optical zoom is one of the best I have found in any smartphone of the same segment![flickr_set id=”72157699287916074″]At the front of the phone,there’s a 20 megapixel selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture. AI is supported here as well and the result is not bad at all. Beautify is supported on both front and back side cameras.Video quality is good but not excellent. 4K and 1080p both at 30fps provide clear videos with good sound. Colours are good, sound is good, zoom is good, for everyday usage there is nothing extra to ask for. Meizu could add image stabilisation, but sadly they did not – probably because it would increase its price.Meizu 15 BatteryA 3000mAh battery is hidden in the sleek metal body of the device, while the AMOLED screen and the energy sufficient Snapdragon 660 provide good results. The phone provides 11-12 SOT in case of direct YouTube video playback which is 5-6 hours of daily usage. The phone made it every night with 10-15% with medium usage. My opinion in smartphones is that battery life is never sufficient and I would prefer the body to be thicker – thus packing a 4000mAh battery.Flyme has two modes to enhance battery life. Low Power mode controls Bluetooth, GPS, sound, haptic engine etc to ensure that you will make it until the end of the day in case you dont have your charger along. Super saving mode changes the home-screen to black and white and disables mostly everything than phone calls and messages. With 32% right now (at the time I am writing these words) I have one day and three hours remaining battery life in case of emergency. Not bad. 馃槈Fast charging is supported with an mCharge 4 charger. This is an excellent charger to include and with a 3000mAh battery you will need to carry it around in case of heavy usage. Charging is fast at only 45 minutes from zero to 100 percent!Meizu 15 ConclusionThis is an anniversary phone for Meizus 15th year in the smartphone industry. Huawei. BBK (Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus) and Xiaomi monopolize the Chinese market and Meizu is strangling to keep a part of the sales.Meizu 15 is the zenith of MX series excellent design, a design we would see in any smartphone today if iPhone X did not exist last year. Meizu provided the best they could: excellent camera, excellent sound, brilliant design, a fast OS and one of the best fast chargers. Meizu did one thing wrong: the price is not low enough unfortunately – not as low as it could be. At $400+ the category is dominated either by flagship killers from OnePlus and Xiaomi or last years flagships that have superior chipsets and overall characteristics. I am not into gaming so my daily usage is more than covered from this beautiful phone. I would love to have it as my daily driver if it was not for that price. Meizu 16 is at the corner so a price drop on the 15 should be imminent in my humble opinion.What Meizu 15 does correctly is to provide a statement to the Chinese market that they can handle being different. If you are not into the “mainstream” products, Meizu 15 is an excellent choice. Meizu is up there with the rest of the great smartphone producers, even if they got a bit sidetracked during the previous years.Apple was, and in some form still is, the driving force behind the improvement of some Android smartphones. The first iPhone was heavily copied and cloned to a huge extend from the rest of the mobile industry and this practice goes on until today. Every year store shelves are filled with similar or exact copies of the latest iPhone design. 2018 trend is a full view, 18:9 aspect ratio display design, with a notch and top-left vertically positioned cameras, copying iPhone X.A few companies stay away from this practice, with Samsung being the strongest example, along with its superior notch-less design in Galaxy S series. Some companies prefer their own full view notch-less design but they keep the iPhone X pack panel positioning: best example being Xiaomis Mi Mix 2s. As you can understand, every trip to a smartphone store today, makes us go very fast from whow! to shear boredom every year – and year after year.Meizu is a relatively small Chinese company with a long history in innovation. With a huge dose of panache Meizu decided to celebrate its 15 years in the smartphone industry by improving its MX line, topping its characteristics. Their creation is called Meizu 15: it has no 18:9 display, no notch, no back-left vertical positioned cameras. Meizu broke the mold of those boring iPhone X copies, with their anniversary Meizu 15, 15 Plus and 15 Lite smartphones, the zenith of MX series.Most would expect a flagship series with top of the selve parts. Meizu did things differently here too. They focused on the middle category (and the relevant price range) by selecting last years Exynos 8895 SoC for the Plus model and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 for the standard model! After a couple of years with low profits, Meizu wanted a smartphone for the masses. With an affordable price their devices could sell easier than a premium flagship that Meizu had planned for the future (Meizu 16 series). The company wanted more and more people to buy their phones, in order to prove to the largest possible extend, their level of expertise and excellence. The standard model arrived in my hands and tries to do exactly that: catch my eye when compared to the more famous Chinese, South Korean and US brands, made by a company that likes to differ.Meizu 15 CharacteristicsDisplay: 5.46-inch (1080 脳 1920 pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED display, 10000:1 contrast ratioSoC: Octa Core Snapdragon 660 14nm Mobile Platform (Quad 2.2GHz Kryo 260 + Quad 1.8GHz Kryo 260 CPUs) with Adreno 512 GPUMemory: 4GB RAM with 64GB / 128GB internal memoryOperational System: Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) with Flyme OS 7Photography: 12MP rear camera with wide-angle lens, 1/2.3鈥 Sony IMX380 sensor, 1.55渭m pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, Four-axis OIS, PDAF, Laser auto-focus, secondary 20MP telephoto lens, Sony IMX350 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 6-LED ring LED flash. 20MP front-facing camera.Network: 2G: GSM B2/B3/B5/B8, 3G: WCDMA B1/B2/B5/B8, 4G: FDD-LTE B1/B3/B5/B8, TDD-LTE B34/B38/B39/B40/B41Dimensions: 143脳72.7脳7.25 mmWeight: 152gConnectivity: 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-CBattery: 3000mAh battery with mCharge fast chargingCharacteristics: GPS, Miracast, OTG, Type-C, fingerprint ID, Face Unlock, 3.5mm audio jack, Stereo speakers.Meizu 15 PackagingThe smartphone arrived in a black premium box that has a soft-feel and matte black information and brand marking. It looks and feels luxurious with the Meizu 15th Anniversary written in the tray that keeps the mobile inside.聽 Inside you will find:1 脳 Phone1 脳 Built-in Battery1 脳 Type-C Cable1 脳 Eject Pin1 脳 User Manual1 脳 Power AdapterBeing a 15th Anniversary product I would expect something more like a protective case, etc. Nevertheless, the package is quite pleasing.Meizu 15 DesignFrom the first look in its box, Meizu 15 is a beauty created to be loved unconditionally. The wide聽 body has the 16:9 aspect ratio panel with almost no side bezels (width of 1.175mm), a design reminiscent of MX4. Picking it up you notice the display that has a brighter tone of black than the one of the body. The upper and lower bezels have the same height. The upper has a visible selfie-cam in the center. The speaker is a small horizontal line near the frame. The lower bezel has a fingerprint sensor in the center. No side bezels exist as we said, and that is that, a clean minimal front.The corners of the protective glass dive into the unibody frame. The frame is made from surgical-grade 316L stainless steel and aluminum alloy/composite specially build to feel plastic. The top and bottom have a external noise canceling microphone. On the left side of the phone you’ll find the volume adjustment buttons. The right side has a power button right under the top positioned SIM tray. The bottom has from left to right, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a USB-C port and a loudspeaker. The buttons do not rattle, their feel and position is great. The back part of the frame is u-shaped, brushed with a horizontal pattern for design seen only when light is reflected on the black variant.Both cameras are located at the top center, positioned vertically with a LED ring below them. On top and bottom we can see the antennae bands near the middle frame in a designed adopted by Meizu long before Apple or anyone else did. The bands have a pattern that looks like the Ancient Greek border lines in pottery and architecture.The fine exterior does absolutely nothing to keep fingerprints or smudges off. With dimensions of 143 X 72.7 X 7.25 mm and weight of 152 grams the smartphone feels compact and it is easy to handle. Feeling it around there are no parts protruding – apart from the camera ring – it rises a bit over the camera glass adding another layer of protection to it.I am adding Meizu 15 in my top 5 beauties of the year, next to Vivo NEX, Oppo Find X, Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus and Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s. The total is an apogee of minimalism. A beauty that derives from clean lines and discretion: Meizu even kept its brand logo hidden in black matte in the back, seen only under the reflection of the light.Meizu 15 HardwareThe display is an OLED panel of 5.46 inches having a 79.8% screen-to-body ratio thanks to the custom panel design by Samsung. Black is deep and colors are bright and saturated. Resolution is up to Full HD (1080 脳 1920 pixels) which is not perfect but not bad for the size. The display is really vivid, it has high contrast with a ppi density of 403. Brightness is excellent, the display is readable under Athenss midsummer sun, and聽 can easily compare to other Samsung AMOLED panels. Viewing angles and color temperature are excellent. The latter can be set from Flyme in case some people prefer warmer or colder colors. While Gorilla Glass is not mentioned I dont believe the company would let their anniversary product unprotected. Another fine touch is that fact that the software adds palm rejection, a nice thing to have with so small side bezels.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramFingerprint reader button works as a home button as seen in all smartphones that keep their reader in front. Meizu took its traditional mBack button and enhanced it to Super mBack. mBack was used to navigate the UI with gestures and Super mBack adds a haptic motor. The haptic motor adds custom feedback to on-screen controls – Ive added my birthday in PUBG Mobile, the smartphone rattling in month and year changes and a wide smile appeared in my face. The button – it is not really a button, just a specific place pushed inside the screen – It is also equipped with pressure sensors to recognize taps and long presses. The fingerprint reader is very accurate and fast and is small enough to impress us with its performance in recognition. Face Unlock works with the selfie cam and the smartphone can be set to wake when picked, but to tell you the truth I rarely used it for unlocking. Meizu is really proud of its work on its facial recognition software. It is very fast with not false positives but struggles in low light conditions – typical of a technology that has no Infrared sensors.The standard model was positioned in the upper part of the middle price category. The reasonable choice was Qualcomms Snapdragon 660, a choice made also from Xiaomi when they decided to downgrade their Mi Note series. SD 660 has eight Kryo 260 cores, 4 clocked at 1.8GHz and 4 at 2.2 GHz. GPU is Adreno 512 and RAM is at 4GB. The SoC has been used in all premium-mid tier smartphones in 2017 and some companies as Oppo used it in their annual flagships. With that said the chipset comes very close to flagship abilities as seen in the benchmark suites. Daily usage is great. Gaming and multitasking have no issues while at the same time its price is kept low.There is no option for expanding the storage space so you need to choose wisely between the 64 and 128 GB models.Meizu 15 supports dual SIM functionality with two nano Sims. It supports 2G: GSM B2/B3/B5/B8, 3G: WCDMA B1/B2/B5/B8, 4G: FDD-LTE B1/B3/B5/B8, TDD-LTE B34/B38/B39/B40/B41. Navigation works flawlessly with satellites being found fast and having good precision.聽Wifi is of 802.11ac/b/g/n standard and Bluetooth of 4.2. Call quality is excellent and video calls are good without any issues.Meizu 15 SoftwareMeizu is known for its lightweight custom Android OS, called Flyme OS that (at the time of this review) is at its 7.0.2 version still being based on Nougat 7.1.1. Meizu’s interface聽is a vast improvement over the previous version (FlyMe 6) and the company claims that is was worked down to pixel level. I am not a Flyme expert, I havent used it since MX4 Pro but I can confirm a few things. Firstly, I have to say well don to its multilingual support, with no Chinese popping up in smaller menus or applications other than the in house browser. It is clean and fast. The design of Flyme 7 is comparable to iOS in some details and its general approach. Minimalism and clean lines as in the exterior are adding a pinch of art, finesse and elegance.At the same time I cant seem to handle mBack or Smart Touch simulated smart button, as the gestures have proven to be more difficult than I had imagined. I believe that my own stock Android smartphone is keeping me off from mastering Flymes philosophy of handling its gimmicks. Always-on display can be enabled along with raise to wake up. The later paired with face recognition makes unlocking effortless. Notification area, search page and task switcher are designed nicely and are very practical to use. Nougat supports split-screen and Flyme has a nice way to support it from the task switcher. Diving in Flyme you can find many options existing in some of the other heavily customized MIUI or EMUI OS’s. Vault, guest mode, multi-user, permission and notifications, all have various options to be customized to your specific needs.聽 Meizu has added a Game mode that prioritizes resources and keeps the user undisturbed from external apps. In house applications are beautiful and you can download anything else from Meizus App Store or Google Play Store of course. I can find only one bad and that is Nougat of course. Flyme should proceed to Oreo as soon as possible, as Android P is already reaching its production stage in a few months. While playing around i found a bug. A simple stupid bug not found in any other smartphone that has passed from my hands ever: I cannot change the background image, either from the themes application of the gallery due to my version not supporting it. Waiting for an update then?Meizu 15 CameraMeizu 15 is to the company what Mi Note 3 is to Xiaomi. The best camera phone ever made from Meizu. Starting with that fact lets describe the camera set-up. Meizu has adopted a dual-camera setup with a main Sony IMX 380 12 megapixel sensor (f/1.8 aperture, 1.55碌m, 1/2.3-inch). The secondary 20 megapixel (1/2.8″, 1.0碌m) is a telephoto lens with two tasks: 2x lossless zoom (can go to 3x interpolated) and bokeh effect. There is a 4-axis OIS, PDAF and laser autofocus. The circular LED consists of six smaller individual LEDs and it’s used for photography along with an extra notification LED existing on the front. There is some AI support here – there where some annotations in night shots but not the plethora of AI support that I have seen in Huawei P20 Pro or other releavant devices. The camera application is clean too, simple to use but I would prefer it to be a bit faster from mode to mode. You can find Portrait (bokeh), Photo, Video and More. The later includes Pro mode, Panorama, Scan, Time-lapse, Slow-Motion and Square. HRD and Beautify along with a small menu of settings provide the most minimal set up seen in such a good camera and price category. Daily pictures and Portrait mode provide excellent examples with bright colors almost equal to this year flagships. HDR is being supported brilliantly without over saturating the pictures while color is represented accurately without adding effects. Night shots have some noise but not enough to disappoint us. They are more than good. Meizu took the latest Sony sensor and added the best software she could produce. This is really Meizus best camera phone by far. There is one extra thing to add on. Optical zoom is one of the best I have found in any smartphone of the same segment![flickr_set id=”72157699287916074″]At the front of the phone,there’s a 20 megapixel selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture. AI is supported here as well and the result is not bad at all. Beautify is supported on both front and back side cameras.Video quality is good but not excellent. 4K and 1080p both at 30fps provide clear videos with good sound. Colours are good, sound is good, zoom is good, for everyday usage there is nothing extra to ask for. Meizu could add image stabilisation, but sadly they did not – probably because it would increase its price.Meizu 15 BatteryA 3000mAh battery is hidden in the sleek metal body of the device, while the AMOLED screen and the energy sufficient Snapdragon 660 provide good results. The phone provides 11-12 SOT in case of direct YouTube video playback which is 5-6 hours of daily usage. The phone made it every night with 10-15% with medium usage. My opinion in smartphones is that battery life is never sufficient and I would prefer the body to be thicker – thus packing a 4000mAh battery.Flyme has two modes to enhance battery life. Low Power mode controls Bluetooth, GPS, sound, haptic engine etc to ensure that you will make it until the end of the day in case you dont have your charger along. Super saving mode changes the home-screen to black and white and disables mostly everything than phone calls and messages. With 32% right now (at the time I am writing these words) I have one day and three hours remaining battery life in case of emergency. Not bad. 馃槈Fast charging is supported with an mCharge 4 charger. This is an excellent charger to include and with a 3000mAh battery you will need to carry it around in case of heavy usage. Charging is fast at only 45 minutes from zero to 100 percent!Meizu 15 ConclusionThis is an anniversary phone for Meizus 15th year in the smartphone industry. Huawei. BBK (Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus) and Xiaomi monopolize the Chinese market and Meizu is strangling to keep a part of the sales.Meizu 15 is the zenith of MX series excellent design, a design we would see in any smartphone today if iPhone X did not exist last year. Meizu provided the best they could: excellent camera, excellent sound, brilliant design, a fast OS and one of the best fast chargers. Meizu did one thing wrong: the price is not low enough unfortunately – not as low as it could be. At $400+ the category is dominated either by flagship killers from OnePlus and Xiaomi or last years flagships that have superior chipsets and overall characteristics. I am not into gaming so my daily usage is more than covered from this beautiful phone. I would love to have it as my daily driver if it was not for that price. Meizu 16 is at the corner so a price drop on the 15 should be imminent in my humble opinion.What Meizu 15 does correctly is to provide a statement to the Chinese market that they can handle being different. If you are not into the “mainstream” products, Meizu 15 is an excellent choice. Meizu is up there with the rest of the great smartphone producers, even if they got a bit sidetracked during the previous years.

本文地址： http://one.zhutima.com/?id=24

文章来源：天狐定制

版权声明：除非特别标注，否则均为本站原创文章，转载时请以链接形式注明文章出处。