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Zebronics Max Pro Gaming Keyboard Review:The craziest thing about Mechanical Keyboards is that they tend to bridge the gap between the new generation non-tactile keyboards to the ones from the typewriter era. Most budget keyboards today use dome-switch technology, which helps to budget the expenses of the manufacturer. But leading to posses a relatively lacky and mushy feel to its users. This is what mechanical keyboards are trying to solve by offering a tactile feedback for each button press. Once you choose to shift to a mechanical keyboard, then you might never shift back. In this line-up Zebronics has released a new add-on to its max series: the Zebronics Max Pro!Design:Talking about the design, there are some major aesthetic changes that elevates the design & overall feel, making the Zebronics Max Pro a worthy follow-up to its predecessor.This time Zebronics has choose to adapt the black matte exterior instead of the glossy finish. The keyboard weighs around 1.3kgs and is designed to withstand stress, thus offering a rigid experience. The only drawback I saw on the design aspect is that it lacks a wrist rest. This is one major feature I look forward when purchasing a gaming keyboard. But yes! if you’re looking for a durable keyboard that respects the scarcity of your desk space, then I think the Zebronics Max Pro will suit your choice. Also this time Zebronics has done a great job in choosing the perfect font, it certainly offers justice to the overall design choice. The device has a 1.8m Braided Cable which is really flexible & rigid. The best part is that the matte surface does not attract too many fingerprints as well.The Max Pro is every gamer’s Dream Budget KeyboardGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramGaming & Features:One of the key features of a good mechanical keyboard is called N-Key Rollover. This feature helps to detect each key-press independently. Which means you wouldn’t miss to record a key when several keys are pressed simultaneously. And that’s perfectly been carried out by the Zebronics Max Pro. The Keys are pretty tactile and gives a great feel while coding or playing games. Usually most of the mechanical keyboards use Cherry MX switches but leading to an increased net price. Thus Zebronics wanted to make the keyboard affordable by choosing the Outemu Switches. When I first heard that Zebronics are using Outemu, I didn’t actually have a good feel about this choice. Though it did kind-off prove me wrong! The Outemu switches are crisp, loud, and gives a pretty tactile feedback.Rodadas Gr谩tis CasinoCassinos de roleta

After a well-received K1, Koolnee launched the K1 Trio which is just its second smartphone launch. However, it sure as hell doesn’t look like one. Even the Koolnee K1 was a very well-built phone and it received a lot of attention. The Koolnee K1 Tri aspires to be something more than the Koolnee K1. It wants to provide modern features like extremely thin bezels and an overall great phone at a very affordable price.We used the phone for quite some time and we’re upbeat about the latest smartphone. We’ll let you know about them in detail in our review below. Also, the final verdict will be at the end for which we will first pen down our experiences with the device.Koolnee K1 Trio Looks and BuildThe Koolnee K1 Trio amazes with its looks and charm. It has a sleek and silky smooth metal design with a unique colour. At the top, it leaves a very slender room for the earpiece and a couple of sensors. At the bottom is a sizable chin for the biometrics. Apart from that, its almost edge to edge. A minor gripe was the placement of the volume button and power button on the opposite side. I had trouble using it in landscape mode as I accidentally pressed one of those buttons quite a few times. As I said in the unboxing, it is heavy and I never got used to the extra weight of the device. It is manageable in daily use though. You’ll feel the extra grams during your long in-hand sessions.The front fingerprint reader is good enough for daily use but not as fast as, say, the Redmi Note 5 Pro. However, it is very accurate. I almost never had to double scan my finger in my days of use. The rear has a curved 4D Glass design but I doubt its glass as it seems plasticy when you knock it. The handset is a bit slippery and smudgy too but not as much as the Honor 9 Lite. The corners are also steel-made with chamfered edges, the likes you’ve seen on the Galaxy S6. All in all, the Koolnee K1 Trio has just an awesome design fit to be in the premium segment.DisplayThe front 6.0-inch screen is the star of the show that makes the smartphone a joy for multimedia users. The display of the Koolnee K1 Trio is colour accurate and very bright. You’re not going to have trouble in outdoor usage with it. Also, the viewing angles are great too. Touch sensitivity is perfect as well and you couldn’t ask for more with this display. I, for once, was satisfied with the ample real estate when I played games.Sound QualitySound levels were a bit on the lower side than most average speakers, I must say. During my content consumption, I found myself cranking up the volume to high levels many times to get desired levels. But, it doesn’t differ by much. If you’re alone by yourself, you won’t notice that much of a difference. Call quality was via the earpiece was good but the phone doesn’t support VoLTE which I use in India. So, I had to take. The headphone jack also does its job and won’t get you complaining if you’re used to average quality.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramPerformance The Koolnee K1 Trio possesses the MediaTek Helio P23 chipset. In my regular tasks, the processor served well most of the time. There were instances where the CPU would skip a heartbeat but that was pretty rare. All I’m saying is that it isn’t as fluid as the Snapdragon 630 series. If you’re coming from something like that, you’ll notice the difference straight away. Also, at such a low price point, the handset has 6GB of RAM and 12GB of storage which I found to be a very welcome addition. That amount of RAM does help the processor in multitasking and games and I found myself downloading a lot of content because of that huge extra onboard storage. That amount of storage is a highlight of the K1 Trio with a $240 price tag.Casual gaming isn’t at all a worry on this phone as I tried a number of titles like Clash of Clans and Crash of Cars both of which aren’t graphically intensive. Some graphically intensive games like Asphalt 8 for example mostly work well but you can notice some frame drops in a while. In conclusion, the Helio P23 while not as buttery smooth as the Snapdragon 636, it can get your job done.SoftwareIn terms of software, the Koolnee K1 Trio comes with a very close to stock UI. There’s absolutely no bloatware on the phone which is pleasant to see. Even though it is mostly stock, Koolnee does throw in some good customization tweaks in the mix. It comes with Face Unlock which I found to be working reasonably well. Its home button also doubles as a one-touch navigation key. The on-screen navigation buttons can be disabled if users wish to do so. It isn’t anywhere near as fast as the OnePlus 5T version though. Also, low light is where it isn’t ideal to use. I do feel the lack of the notification LED on the phone.聽I encountered some bugs in the UX whereby the Bluetooth would turn on randomly along with the GPS and it was annoying. However, this might get fixed with an OTA.The Koolnee K1 Trio comes with Android 7.1.1 and we’re not sure whether we’ll see Android Oreo on this. At least we haven’t heard about an official confirmation. The UX does need some polishing here and there. At places, there are obvious wrong English wordings and sentences that don’t make sense at all. Thankfully, these are issues that can be fixed with software updates.BatteryThe battery is another highlight of the phone. The heaviness of the device can be overlooked by the 4,200mAh battery. The handset lasted me a day easily even at times of heavy use. Koolnee has optimized the software well for longevity. You’ll have to be resilient to push this battery to its limits. Sadly, it doesn’t come with fast charging or USB Type-C. Without it, the K1 Trio is quite slow to charge. I mostly charge my devices at night and I never needed to charge the K1 Trio mid-day.CameraI kept the camera for the last part because it is the weakest point of the Koolnee K1 Trio. That is more so in the case of the selfie shooter. Apart from being positioned a bit awkwardly, the K1 Trio selfie camera just lacks the quality for daily use. It picks grainy shots with noise even in daylight situations. And there isn’t adequate detail at all. And you can forget about night shots since day shots even aren’t good enough. It does have a beauty mode but the best you can get out of this shooter is with plenty of light. Even then it lacks colour accuracy. Well, there are compromises to be made with the Koolnee K1 Trio, and the biggest one is in the selfie department. The rear camera is much more bearable than the selfie lens. It manages to capture good details and colour accuracy is good as well. It does tend to overexpose and oversaturate in some situations. Also, it doesn’t have an auto HDR mode and the lens takes a lot of time to focus on subjects. Take a look at the images we took with the rear shooters in the above gallery.Koolnee K1 Trio: Final ThoughtsAfter a well-received K1, Koolnee launched the K1 Trio which is just its second smartphone launch. However, it sure as hell doesn’t look like one. Even the Koolnee K1 was a very well-built phone and it received a lot of attention. The Koolnee K1 Tri aspires to be something more than the Koolnee K1. It wants to provide modern features like extremely thin bezels and an overall great phone at a very affordable price.We used the phone for quite some time and we’re upbeat about the latest smartphone. We’ll let you know about them in detail in our review below. Also, the final verdict will be at the end for which we will first pen down our experiences with the device.Koolnee K1 Trio Looks and BuildThe Koolnee K1 Trio amazes with its looks and charm. It has a sleek and silky smooth metal design with a unique colour. At the top, it leaves a very slender room for the earpiece and a couple of sensors. At the bottom is a sizable chin for the biometrics. Apart from that, its almost edge to edge. A minor gripe was the placement of the volume button and power button on the opposite side. I had trouble using it in landscape mode as I accidentally pressed one of those buttons quite a few times. As I said in the unboxing, it is heavy and I never got used to the extra weight of the device. It is manageable in daily use though. You’ll feel the extra grams during your long in-hand sessions.The front fingerprint reader is good enough for daily use but not as fast as, say, the Redmi Note 5 Pro. However, it is very accurate. I almost never had to double scan my finger in my days of use. The rear has a curved 4D Glass design but I doubt its glass as it seems plasticy when you knock it. The handset is a bit slippery and smudgy too but not as much as the Honor 9 Lite. The corners are also steel-made with chamfered edges, the likes you’ve seen on the Galaxy S6. All in all, the Koolnee K1 Trio has just an awesome design fit to be in the premium segment.DisplayThe front 6.0-inch screen is the star of the show that makes the smartphone a joy for multimedia users. The display of the Koolnee K1 Trio is colour accurate and very bright. You’re not going to have trouble in outdoor usage with it. Also, the viewing angles are great too. Touch sensitivity is perfect as well and you couldn’t ask for more with this display. I, for once, was satisfied with the ample real estate when I played games.Sound QualitySound levels were a bit on the lower side than most average speakers, I must say. During my content consumption, I found myself cranking up the volume to high levels many times to get desired levels. But, it doesn’t differ by much. If you’re alone by yourself, you won’t notice that much of a difference. Call quality was via the earpiece was good but the phone doesn’t support VoLTE which I use in India. So, I had to take. The headphone jack also does its job and won’t get you complaining if you’re used to average quality.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramPerformance The Koolnee K1 Trio possesses the MediaTek Helio P23 chipset. In my regular tasks, the processor served well most of the time. There were instances where the CPU would skip a heartbeat but that was pretty rare. All I’m saying is that it isn’t as fluid as the Snapdragon 630 series. If you’re coming from something like that, you’ll notice the difference straight away. Also, at such a low price point, the handset has 6GB of RAM and 12GB of storage which I found to be a very welcome addition. That amount of RAM does help the processor in multitasking and games and I found myself downloading a lot of content because of that huge extra onboard storage. That amount of storage is a highlight of the K1 Trio with a $240 price tag.Casual gaming isn’t at all a worry on this phone as I tried a number of titles like Clash of Clans and Crash of Cars both of which aren’t graphically intensive. Some graphically intensive games like Asphalt 8 for example mostly work well but you can notice some frame drops in a while. In conclusion, the Helio P23 while not as buttery smooth as the Snapdragon 636, it can get your job done.SoftwareIn terms of software, the Koolnee K1 Trio comes with a very close to stock UI. There’s absolutely no bloatware on the phone which is pleasant to see. Even though it is mostly stock, Koolnee does throw in some good customization tweaks in the mix. It comes with Face Unlock which I found to be working reasonably well. Its home button also doubles as a one-touch navigation key. The on-screen navigation buttons can be disabled if users wish to do so. It isn’t anywhere near as fast as the OnePlus 5T version though. Also, low light is where it isn’t ideal to use. I do feel the lack of the notification LED on the phone.聽I encountered some bugs in the UX whereby the Bluetooth would turn on randomly along with the GPS and it was annoying. However, this might get fixed with an OTA.The Koolnee K1 Trio comes with Android 7.1.1 and we’re not sure whether we’ll see Android Oreo on this. At least we haven’t heard about an official confirmation. The UX does need some polishing here and there. At places, there are obvious wrong English wordings and sentences that don’t make sense at all. Thankfully, these are issues that can be fixed with software updates.BatteryThe battery is another highlight of the phone. The heaviness of the device can be overlooked by the 4,200mAh battery. The handset lasted me a day easily even at times of heavy use. Koolnee has optimized the software well for longevity. You’ll have to be resilient to push this battery to its limits. Sadly, it doesn’t come with fast charging or USB Type-C. Without it, the K1 Trio is quite slow to charge. I mostly charge my devices at night and I never needed to charge the K1 Trio mid-day.CameraI kept the camera for the last part because it is the weakest point of the Koolnee K1 Trio. That is more so in the case of the selfie shooter. Apart from being positioned a bit awkwardly, the K1 Trio selfie camera just lacks the quality for daily use. It picks grainy shots with noise even in daylight situations. And there isn’t adequate detail at all. And you can forget about night shots since day shots even aren’t good enough. It does have a beauty mode but the best you can get out of this shooter is with plenty of light. Even then it lacks colour accuracy. Well, there are compromises to be made with the Koolnee K1 Trio, and the biggest one is in the selfie department. The rear camera is much more bearable than the selfie lens. It manages to capture good details and colour accuracy is good as well. It does tend to overexpose and oversaturate in some situations. Also, it doesn’t have an auto HDR mode and the lens takes a lot of time to focus on subjects. Take a look at the images we took with the rear shooters in the above gallery.Koolnee K1 Trio: Final ThoughtsIt took a while to arrive but its finally here. We know we’re a bit late with this one but customs and legal hurdles got in way of the package and hence the delay. The Koolnee K1 Trio promises to be your Xiaomi Mi Mix on a budget. Its UPS is the tri-bezel-less screen which is bezel-less from three sides. That’s why it’s called K1 Trio. Coming from Koolnee, an established decade-old manufacturer, it is one of the premium products in their portfolio alongside the Koolnee K1. Koolnee isn’t that much known outside of China but with the tagline “Beyond Expectations,” the company has plans to expand to other countries in Asia.Koolnee K1 Trio: UnboxingThe review unit we received came in a plain white box with just a simple Koolnee branding on the top. That’s it. There aren’t any colours or phone images on the top of the box. Inside you get the phone itself, a standard wall charger and a micro USB adapter, and some booklets and manuals. There’s no back cover although the phone did have a pre-applied screen protector. Oh, and you also do get a SIM ejector tool. That’s pretty much it for the unboxing experience.Koolnee K1 Trio: First ImpressionsMy first impressions for the Koolnee K1 Trio were like, “Wow, this is a great build and design”. For around $250, you get a premium glossy shiny build that will definitely turn heads. I know because mine did. There are two colour options for the Koolnee K1 Trio. The review unit I got was the cool Blue colour. It is somewhat reminiscent of the Coral Blue on the Galaxy S9. It just looks different than all other blue colours and stands out of the crowd. However, the front has a different shade of Blue than the back.Also, the full metal-build of the phone comes with curved edges at the back which makes holding the phone easy. I could also see the back cameras rise above the chassis and create a small bump. The handset also has chamfered edges again made entirely out of metal.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe front has what Koolnee calls 4D Glass on top of a 6.0-inch Full-HD+ display. And it does look good with those minimal bezels, I must say. It is worth noting that the top does have a bezel albeit a very slim one that houses the ear-piece and a couple of sensors. Still, the front design of the handset just looks great and you’ll love the look of it. The bottom chin is somewhat thick as it houses a fingerprint reader. But it is still smaller than the one on the likes of the Maze Alpha. I didn’t mind the bottom bezel much especially because I like a front fingerprint reader.On the other hand, the 8MP selfie shooter is also on the bottom which was a pretty awkward experience for me. If you’ve used the Mi Mix or any other phone with a bottom selfie camera, you know what I mean.Also, I found the Koolnee K1 Trio to be somewhat heavy. That is even after using a Redmi Note 5 Pro. I noticed the phone remarkably weighs around 214 grams which is obviously heavier than most phones in this range. We can understand this might be due to the 4,200mAh juice pack and the metal build. The rear is very prone to get smudges and fingerprints on the rear side so you’ll have to keep a cloth with you if you don’t want that.The volume buttons are on the left while the power button is on the right side and this can be a bit problematic when you use the phone in landscape mode. The buttons are just a bit wobbly, especially the volume button, but they work well.It took a while to arrive but its finally here. We know we’re a bit late with this one but customs and legal hurdles got in way of the package and hence the delay. The Koolnee K1 Trio promises to be your Xiaomi Mi Mix on a budget. Its UPS is the tri-bezel-less screen which is bezel-less from three sides. That’s why it’s called K1 Trio. Coming from Koolnee, an established decade-old manufacturer, it is one of the premium products in their portfolio alongside the Koolnee K1. Koolnee isn’t that much known outside of China but with the tagline “Beyond Expectations,” the company has plans to expand to other countries in Asia.Koolnee K1 Trio: UnboxingThe review unit we received came in a plain white box with just a simple Koolnee branding on the top. That’s it. There aren’t any colours or phone images on the top of the box. Inside you get the phone itself, a standard wall charger and a micro USB adapter, and some booklets and manuals. There’s no back cover although the phone did have a pre-applied screen protector. Oh, and you also do get a SIM ejector tool. That’s pretty much it for the unboxing experience.Koolnee K1 Trio: First ImpressionsMy first impressions for the Koolnee K1 Trio were like, “Wow, this is a great build and design”. For around $250, you get a premium glossy shiny build that will definitely turn heads. I know because mine did. There are two colour options for the Koolnee K1 Trio. The review unit I got was the cool Blue colour. It is somewhat reminiscent of the Coral Blue on the Galaxy S9. It just looks different than all other blue colours and stands out of the crowd. However, the front has a different shade of Blue than the back.Also, the full metal-build of the phone comes with curved edges at the back which makes holding the phone easy. I could also see the back cameras rise above the chassis and create a small bump. The handset also has chamfered edges again made entirely out of metal.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe front has what Koolnee calls 4D Glass on top of a 6.0-inch Full-HD+ display. And it does look good with those minimal bezels, I must say. It is worth noting that the top does have a bezel albeit a very slim one that houses the ear-piece and a couple of sensors. Still, the front design of the handset just looks great and you’ll love the look of it. The bottom chin is somewhat thick as it houses a fingerprint reader. But it is still smaller than the one on the likes of the Maze Alpha. I didn’t mind the bottom bezel much especially because I like a front fingerprint reader.On the other hand, the 8MP selfie shooter is also on the bottom which was a pretty awkward experience for me. If you’ve used the Mi Mix or any other phone with a bottom selfie camera, you know what I mean.Also, I found the Koolnee K1 Trio to be somewhat heavy. That is even after using a Redmi Note 5 Pro. I noticed the phone remarkably weighs around 214 grams which is obviously heavier than most phones in this range. We can understand this might be due to the 4,200mAh juice pack and the metal build. The rear is very prone to get smudges and fingerprints on the rear side so you’ll have to keep a cloth with you if you don’t want that.The volume buttons are on the left while the power button is on the right side and this can be a bit problematic when you use the phone in landscape mode. The buttons are just a bit wobbly, especially the volume button, but they work well.I have to be honest, I’m a guy who doesn’t use Bluetooth headsets/earbuds/headphones in his everyday life. I don’t find them to be comfortable for once, but I also tend to always bring my phone to my ear every time it rings – and perhaps that’s not the smartest thing I could do.I also hate cords and having huge headphones protruding from my head so all of the above have led me to a life of solitude – as far as 螔luetooth聽headsets/earbuds/ headphones are concerned. That’s why when I got this small beauty called聽Wavefun Micro Mini Earbud, I wasn’t THAT “hyped” to do a review –聽 I admit it. Alas I was mistaken… and that’s the reason why:Wavefun Micro Mini Earbud: basic packageWAVEFUN Micro Mini Bluetooth EarpieceMagnetic USB Charging DockWhite Color Gift BoxS/M/L Black Ear TipsEnglish User ManualIt’s really easy to activate and connect your phone to the聽Wavefun Micro Mini Earbud the first time you receive its package. Just turn it on by pressing continuously the first (protruding) button until the notification LED in the middle pulses in red-blue color – indicating that it’s waiting to pair with your smartphone. Go to the Bluetooth Settings of your device, locate the WAVEFUN Micro device and select it. That’s all, pairing complete 馃檪Wavefun Micro Mini Earbud: main featuresMINI & LIGHT WEIGHT: It’s surely one of the smallest earbuds on the market, weighing only 3,9 gr. while providing exceptional ease of use and portability. Its dimensions are聽3.5 x 2.4 x 1.1 inches making it REALLY easy to misplace or even lose it, so try to be careful where you place it when you’re not using it.聽In fact I did manage to misplace it for a couple of days, but I finally remembered that I had placed it inside my trouser’s pocket once. And thankfully my wife hadn’t put it yet in the washing machine.COMFORT & SECURE FIT IN EITHER EAR: It’s ergonomically-designed and in its basic package you will find 3 different sized ear plugs, that ensure a great snug and secure fit in your ear, no matter which one you prefer: left or right.聽It fits exceptionally in the ear. It doesn’t move at all, and you can easily use it while running, walking, cycling or whatever you do that needs excessive body movement. Trust me, as long as you choose the right ear plug, you won’t have any issue with its fit in your ear.聽Very good SOUND quality: It’s excellent for everyday phone calls, with impressive maximum volume, enabling you to use it even in crowded areas, or while you’re in a busy street, or in a room full of people talking. The caller will NOT complain about the clarity of your voice, but you won’t complain either about the volume of each phone call.聽It’s louder than other budget Bluetooth earbuds that are available in the market, providing a decent communication experience for the average user.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramIf you want to listen to music on the other hand (why would anyone would use a single earbud for music?) then you won’t be impressed. It’s Bluetooth 4.1 compatible and uses a聽CSR8610 chip for audio, providing decent treble and non-existent bass obviously. Don’t get me wrong, you can enjoy your favorite songs from your phone if you want, but surely there are way better stereo headsets and headphones in the market that provide excellent music quality.聽Note also that it has voice notifications like 芦Power On/Power Off, Phone Connected, Phone Disconnected etc).You’re gonna love its MAGNETIC USB CHARGER: It’s really easy to charge it using it, just by connecting it to any available USB port: on your PC, laptop, on a power outlet with an adaptor, directly from a power bank etc.聽You only have to place the Earbud close to the hole of its charger and instantly the magnets there will attract it with significant strength, making sure it doesn’t slip. A red indicator light shines when it’s charging and it goes off when charging is complete 馃槈 It’s that simple.It takes approximately 1 hour to fully charge it, enabling you to talk for almost 5 hours straight before it needs to be recharged. Alternatively you can keep it in stand by mode for several days (80 hours or so), depending the use of course.DUAL BUTTONS, for easy Siri/Google Assistant support: Given its REALLY small size, one would think that there would be no space for extra buttons etc. Fortunately this is NOT the case here, as the聽Wavefun Micro Mini Earbud comes with two buttons: one for the typical聽answer/end and play /Pause functions and a second to reduce volume and skip songs.聽It’s also compatible with most Smartphone Assistants such as Siri (iOS), Google Assistant (Generic Android), Bixby (Samsung) etc. You can easily activate it by聽holding the main button for 2 seconds.聽Given its current price, I really cannot find something negative to tell about this gem that could possibly change the way I have been using smartphones all my life :p And that’s making me use a Bluetooth headset/Earbud during the everyday use of my smartphone.聽Just make sure you always know where you put it, and that you don’t misplace it (like I did). I know there are several other similar gadgets out there (at the same price range) but all I can say for this specific is that it SURELY is worth its money.聽

I have to be honest, I’m a guy who doesn’t use Bluetooth headsets/earbuds/headphones in his everyday life. I don’t find them to be comfortable for once, but I also tend to always bring my phone to my ear every time it rings – and perhaps that’s not the smartest thing I could do.I also hate cords and having huge headphones protruding from my head so all of the above have led me to a life of solitude – as far as 螔luetooth聽headsets/earbuds/ headphones are concerned. That’s why when I got this small beauty called聽Wavefun Micro Mini Earbud, I wasn’t THAT “hyped” to do a review –聽 I admit it. Alas I was mistaken… and that’s the reason why:Wavefun Micro Mini Earbud: basic packageWAVEFUN Micro Mini Bluetooth EarpieceMagnetic USB Charging DockWhite Color Gift BoxS/M/L Black Ear TipsEnglish User ManualIt’s really easy to activate and connect your phone to the聽Wavefun Micro Mini Earbud the first time you receive its package. Just turn it on by pressing continuously the first (protruding) button until the notification LED in the middle pulses in red-blue color – indicating that it’s waiting to pair with your smartphone. Go to the Bluetooth Settings of your device, locate the WAVEFUN Micro device and select it. That’s all, pairing complete 馃檪Wavefun Micro Mini Earbud: main featuresMINI & LIGHT WEIGHT: It’s surely one of the smallest earbuds on the market, weighing only 3,9 gr. while providing exceptional ease of use and portability. Its dimensions are聽3.5 x 2.4 x 1.1 inches making it REALLY easy to misplace or even lose it, so try to be careful where you place it when you’re not using it.聽In fact I did manage to misplace it for a couple of days, but I finally remembered that I had placed it inside my trouser’s pocket once. And thankfully my wife hadn’t put it yet in the washing machine.COMFORT & SECURE FIT IN EITHER EAR: It’s ergonomically-designed and in its basic package you will find 3 different sized ear plugs, that ensure a great snug and secure fit in your ear, no matter which one you prefer: left or right.聽It fits exceptionally in the ear. It doesn’t move at all, and you can easily use it while running, walking, cycling or whatever you do that needs excessive body movement. Trust me, as long as you choose the right ear plug, you won’t have any issue with its fit in your ear.聽Very good SOUND quality: It’s excellent for everyday phone calls, with impressive maximum volume, enabling you to use it even in crowded areas, or while you’re in a busy street, or in a room full of people talking. The caller will NOT complain about the clarity of your voice, but you won’t complain either about the volume of each phone call.聽It’s louder than other budget Bluetooth earbuds that are available in the market, providing a decent communication experience for the average user.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramIf you want to listen to music on the other hand (why would anyone would use a single earbud for music?) then you won’t be impressed. It’s Bluetooth 4.1 compatible and uses a聽CSR8610 chip for audio, providing decent treble and non-existent bass obviously. Don’t get me wrong, you can enjoy your favorite songs from your phone if you want, but surely there are way better stereo headsets and headphones in the market that provide excellent music quality.聽Note also that it has voice notifications like 芦Power On/Power Off, Phone Connected, Phone Disconnected etc).You’re gonna love its MAGNETIC USB CHARGER: It’s really easy to charge it using it, just by connecting it to any available USB port: on your PC, laptop, on a power outlet with an adaptor, directly from a power bank etc.聽You only have to place the Earbud close to the hole of its charger and instantly the magnets there will attract it with significant strength, making sure it doesn’t slip. A red indicator light shines when it’s charging and it goes off when charging is complete 馃槈 It’s that simple.It takes approximately 1 hour to fully charge it, enabling you to talk for almost 5 hours straight before it needs to be recharged. Alternatively you can keep it in stand by mode for several days (80 hours or so), depending the use of course.DUAL BUTTONS, for easy Siri/Google Assistant support: Given its REALLY small size, one would think that there would be no space for extra buttons etc. Fortunately this is NOT the case here, as the聽Wavefun Micro Mini Earbud comes with two buttons: one for the typical聽answer/end and play /Pause functions and a second to reduce volume and skip songs.聽It’s also compatible with most Smartphone Assistants such as Siri (iOS), Google Assistant (Generic Android), Bixby (Samsung) etc. You can easily activate it by聽holding the main button for 2 seconds.聽Given its current price, I really cannot find something negative to tell about this gem that could possibly change the way I have been using smartphones all my life :p And that’s making me use a Bluetooth headset/Earbud during the everyday use of my smartphone.聽Just make sure you always know where you put it, and that you don’t misplace it (like I did). I know there are several other similar gadgets out there (at the same price range) but all I can say for this specific is that it SURELY is worth its money.聽Smartisan is not an old company. Founded in May 2012, theyve released less than 10 phones to date mostly in the Chinese market. The phone in question is the Smartisan Nut Pro 2, a very promising smartphone with a promising price tag. In addition audiophiles, this is most likely the best phone loudspeaker you can buy on the market today, more details in the audio section below.Smartisan Nut Pro 2 ReviewPersonally, the Snapdragon 660 processor is the perfect mix of power and battery efficiency for me, and Ive used three of them to date, the Xiaomi Mi Note 3, the Elephone U Pro, and the Smartisan Nut Pro 2. Ive praised the Mi Note 3 as a great but overpriced device (but is frequently on sale), and its objectively the best phone out of these three. That being said, the Smartisan Nut Pro 2 comes close, very close, and heres why.Very PromisingSmartisan Nut Pro 2 SpecificationsProcessorSnapdragon 660 Octacore ProcessorDisplay5.99 2160×1080 IPS LCDRAM3/4/6GBStorage32/64/128/256GB eMMCOperating SystemAndroid 7.1 NougatCameras12MP IMX386 with OIS, 20MP FrontBattery3,500mAhPhysical Dimensions15.44 x 7.34 x 0.74 cm, 156gSmartisan Nut Pro 2 HardwareIve never been a fan of glass phones, but lately my daily drivers have all been glass, and the Smartisan Nut Pro 2 is my latest daily driver with a glass back. That being said, the phone is very well made and unbelievably light. Combine the featherweight 156g and perfect weight distribution and the Nut Pro 2 feels like slippery, light Styrofoam in your hand.This thing is solid, a metal band keeping the guts of the phone firmly in place, and dropping this on a wooden floor yielded absolutely no scratches, just my heart hitting the floor in fear. While I like the design of the phone, fairly boxy, and a dual tone black/bronze colour scheme, the boxiness does make the phone feel larger than say the curved Mi Note 3 or stunning Elephone U Pro, but it does have fairly minimal bezels.A lack of a headphone jack could be a dealbreaker for some.Insanely LightSmartisan Nut Pro 2 DisplayIm probably going to get a bunch of crap for saying this, but Ill go ahead and say it anyway. The Smartisan Nut Pro 2s LCD display is THE best LCD display Ive ever seen. The primary driver for my love of the display is the insanely high contrast, higher than any LCD display Ive ever seen (that includes the majors like Samsung, Apple, LG, Sony). In fact its good enough that moving from an AMOLED display to this LCD isnt a major transition in terms of colour saturation (I like oversaturated colours if you noticed).Max brightness tops out around 550 nits which allows for easy sunlight legibility, and touch sensitivity is excellent, easily useable with cloth gloves.I do have one complaint, and the auto brightness is very aggressive. In pretty much 98% of situations, the brightness could be lowered by a good 20% and still be more than bright enough for use. Thats a lot of battery needlessly wasted.Smartisan Nut Pro 2 AudioIll get less crap for saying this than my adulation of the display, but the speakers here are the best phone speakers Ive never heard by far.While the Galaxy S9 might have the best speakers yet in a Samsung phone, the Smartisan Nut Pro 2 still surpasses the S9 and every other phone Ive heard comfortably.Where the Nut Pro 2 excels is audio quality. No matter what kind of audio youre playing, an action movie like the Avengers, a conversation filled TV show, or any kind of music, the Smartisan has a rich, vibrant body that not only provides copious amounts of bass but is clear and undistorted at the same time. While other phones might deliver similar volumes and clarity, they lack the rich, vibrant body the Smartisan has. Even youtube videos without bass heavy tracks give comfortable amounts of low frequencies that emulate the real sound a lot better than toher devices.Where the audio diverges a little bit is the bass output. Its a lot more punchy and deep than any other smartphone Ive used (except the Razer phone), however the Smartisan outputs more of a natural, non-fatiguing bass without being muddy. Its not as deep or rich as the Google Home or Apple Homepod, but its a cell phone for crying out loud.One area where the Smartisan might not match up to the Galaxy S9 or the iPhone X would be volume, but even within this supposed downside is a ray of sunshine. Sure, the S9 or the X are louder, but at the very top end of the S9/iPhone Xs speaker volumes, you can hear the speakers are slightly unbalanced, with mids and highs slightly overpowering the bass which results in slightly harsher sound quality. The Smartisan at its maximum volume sounds just as natural as it would at low volume, no change in the balance or power of each set of frequencies.Quick edit to discuss the ZTE Axon 7, I have used it and while the ZTE is able to output much heavier bass and has incredible stereo separation compared to the Smartisan Nut Pro 2, the bass on the Axon 7 is muddier than the Smartisan and the audio output on the Axon 7 is generally less crystal clear or natural than the Smartisan, hard to believe, I know.Smartisan Nut Pro 2 BatteryIve seen slightly better battery life out of other Snapdragon 660 phones than the Smartisan Nut Pro 2, specifically the Xiaomi Mi Note 3. I can still get 10 hours of screen on time easily on the Smartisan, but the standby battery drain is higher than Ive seen on other devices and I hope Smartisan fixes it as soon as possible, because battery drain during smartphone use is actually fairly reasonable, even doing things like Youtube, gaming, or taking photos.Dont forget the auto brightness is fairly aggressive, so youre losing a good 5-10% (estimate) off the top of the battery life also.Batterys GoodSmartisan Nut Pro 2 Software & PerformanceThe phone I obtained came with a reseller custom ROM with Google Services stuffed into the ROM, resulting in frequent freezing, copious amounts of lag, and the inability to update. I had to perform a deepflash operation to get the stock ROM back onto the phone but once it was on, I was quite satisfied.The Smartisan comes with Android 7.1 Nougat with no promises from Smartisan updating to Android 8.0 Oreo.Smartisans UI is a direct skin of the skeumorphic design language of the iPhone 4 era, with the settings menu a direct copy of iOS. Whether you like it or not is personal opinion, but I suspect many people reading this would probably dislike it.Smartisan has added three major features to Android, namely Big Bang, One Touch, and Idea Pills. Big Bang is basically Google Translate baked into the phone that allows you to translate almost anything including photos, while Idea Pills is in essence a quick note taking app that allows one to quickly take text notes or voice messages to capture fleeting inspiration. There is a dedicated Idea Pills hardware button that allows one to access the function easily, and unfortunately this button cannot be remapped to something else.One Touch is the only function that I personally find the most useful and fairly innovative. Activating One Touch (by hardware combo or swiping from a phone corner) shrinks to screen down to allow for very quick and intuitive copy and pasting between apps, something I do use occasionally.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe Smartisan UI is very polished and fast and while I do find launching apps on this phone a smidge slower than the Mi Note 3s MIUI9, its still very well polished and bug free.Multitasking on my 6GB unit was flawless, and gaming on the phone was perfect also, the phone got warm after about 30 minutes of gaming.The fingerprint sensor is fast and very accurate even with ripped or wet fingers, and face unlock is slightly slower than other phones but is good enough to use on a daily basis, even at night with minimal lighting.Smartisan Nut Pro 2 ConnectivityThe Smartisan Nut Pro 2 supports a rather unorthodox assortment of LTE bands, namely 1,2,3,4,5,7,8.Users in Canada will be pleased as the Nut Pro 2 is fully supported on Rogers, Bell and any subsidiaries that use these two networks, but Telus users will have to pass.Its a little more complicated in the USA, but suffice it to say that you will get 3G connecitivity on all the carriers (that are not CDMA) but 4G doesnt work on all of them.Sprint is completely incompatible with the Smartisan while AT&T and Verizon do use bands 2,4,5, however these 3 bands are not the carriers main bands and thus you wont get 4G connectivity in large swathes of the states. Buy the Smartisan Nut Pro 2The only carrier which is compatible with the Smartisan is T-Mobile. T-Mo uses band 4 and 12 as their main network bands with band 4 being more widespread than band 12. This means that the Smartisan will work on T-Mobile in certain cities.This phone will also work for any European users, but in a rather unconventional move this phone does not support LTE Band 20, just bands 3 and 7. It will still work, but do be careful.WiFi reception, Bluetooth reception, and GPS performance are all excellent. The 256GB version of this phone supports NFC while the phones with smaller storage capacities don’t. I installed Android Pay on this phone to check if it worked, and it looks like it does.Smartisan Nut Pro 2 CameraThe Smartisan Nut Pro 2 utilizes the IMX386 sensor with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) which results in very good photos in daylight. Detail in these photos is excellent, and in all actuality I believe the sharpening algorithm used by Smartisan is slightly better than Xiaomis Mi Note 3, zooming into each photo as far as you can yields fairly aliased edges, something that the Mi Note 3 cant quite match.However, where the Smartisan does fall behind is colour reproduction. While the colours in photos are generally pretty accurate, they arent as pretty or deeply saturated the same way the Mi Note 3 does. Colours do look a little drab unless youre taking a photo of something exceptionally colourful. This seems to me to be a software decision as opposed to a lack of optimization, as the colours are generally fairly true to life without being oversaturated.HDR mode works very well in high dynamic range environments but washes the photos out in photos where HDR is not needed.The bokeh mode here is quite stellar. While there is no option to adjust bokeh while youre taking the photo, you can adjust it after the fact which in my opinion is a better option. The foreground/background separation is quite good and the edges are fairly separated, however the camera does make mistakes sometimes and will occasionally put a small part of the foreground into the background.Low light performance is decent also as the OIS helps keep the phone steady to avoid introducing blur into the photo and to keep the shutter open longer. While you do get some noise and grain in each low light photo, its not a horrible amount.The front facing camera is surprisingly good quality. With a high 20MP count, photos taken with this front camera are actually a lot better than rear cameras on many phones below $150. Great detail, decent colour reproduction, and fairly good dynamic range. It is capable of taking decent 1080p video as well.The rear facing camera is capable of filming 4K video at a 4:3 aspect ratio without stabilization, and a cropped 16:9 aspect ratio with stabilization on.The stabilization on the phone is unreal. Filming my dog while walking produced a video that looked like it was filmed using a gimbal, and even a full tilt sprint yielded very useable footage. The video is cropped somewhat (by 10-15%) so you do lose out on some pixels with stabilization on, and for the vast majority of people, its worth it.The video quality is very sharp brimming with detail as long as there is not a lot of movement in the video. Once you do introduce movement, you get a lot of ugly artifacting which looks to me to be a software issue and the 4K video looks a lot more like noisy 1080p.Smartisan Nut Pro 2 Camera Gallery Smartisan Nut Pro 2 VerdictThe Nut Pro 2 is a stellar phone by almost all measures of the word. It hits all the important checkboxes, a well built body, incredible display and speakers, good battery life and performance, and a great camera. However, there are a couple of items that could be dealbreakers depending on your preferences.First of all, its glass, and glass phone haters need not apply (ironically its my daily driver). The software is a direct copy of 2014 iOS and is locked down in strange places, and finally the video camera starts artifacting if too much motion is introduced.While these issues can be deal breakers, they are a small price to pay for such a great device. I recommend purchasing the 32/64GB version of this phone as that seems to be the best bang for your buck, starting at just $315USD at various retailers, youre not going to find a much better phone than this. Buy the Smartisan Nut Pro 2The Apple Watch is one of those wrist accessories that is coveted by many and offers an experience that few other competitors can come close too. However, its pretty much a walled garden where it can only be hooked to the iOS ecosystem. So, what if someone (like an Android user) craves that cute squricle design and wants it at a relatively affordable price? Enter the Amazfit GTS from Xiaomi sub-brand Huami. Weve used this eye-catching smartwatch for more than a week and were ready to give you a good idea about the different software and hardware facets of the product, so read on!聽Amazfit GTS SpecificationsDesign: Looks like the Apple Watch but is slimmer and lighterThis is one of the most appealing aspects of the Amazfit GTS. I say this not because Apple also follows the same squircle dial philosophy but because it somehow is more suited to small screen UI compared to a circular dial. It uses the whole display and apps dont have to fit into a weird circular form. Speaking about build and materials, its a premium quality without a doubt. Many of my friends, in fact, mistook it for an Apple Watch at first glance. The screen is OLED and the bezels are thinner. And the overall thickness is also less than an Apple Watch and this makes the Amazfit GTS a delight for everyday use. Also, the straps are replaceable. Its got a 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3 layer, 5ATM water resistance, and a 1.65-inch AMOLED display. Suffice to say, Amazfit has impressed me with the right mix of good materials and features when it comes to the design.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramDisplay: Just Gorgeous Im putting this in a separate place because Amazfit has done all the right things with it. And also of course, because it will be attracting all the eyeballs. Its a Gorilla Glass-protected display with a better pixel density than Apples accessory. It has good sunlight legibility, good viewing angles and also an AOD feature, thanks to the AMOLED panel. More points for getting the display right.聽Battery: StellarBattery life is one of the biggest highlights of the Amazfit GTS. It goes on and on and on. I used it with the Always-on display turned on and it still lasted me for more than five days. If you switch it off, the watch will go well beyond the seven-day mark easily. Thats a big blessing in an age where smartwatches cant survive two days without a charge. And I cant appreciate it enough. Not having to recharge one of your most important accessories every other day is a luxury that you can afford with the Amazfit GTS. And it puts most other similar offerings at a big disadvantage.聽聽聽Software: Does the basic job聽聽  Setting up the Amazfit GTS is a breeze. Simply install the Amazfit app, connect via Bluetooth, and you’re good to go. Simple as that.The Amazfit GTS comes with Amazfits own software and its where youll feel the need for more features or apps. What it is intended to do, it does well. For example, you get notifications, 12 different fitness-tracking capabilities, and basic functions like alarm, event reminder, weather, music playback and activity history. But thats pretty much it. You dont get any more apps, nor the freedom to go and download more. There is Amazfits app though which gives you control with customizing watch faces (and there are many) and also keep track of everything on the watch. You can silence or reject calls, but pick them up because theres no speaker on it and this means no native music either.聽 The watch works well with daily fitness activities. Walk tracking is on by default and you get a real-time update on your screen updated constantly. Activities like running and cycling also get detected precisely and statistics are reliable. The Amazfit app keeps a record of all this stuff including details of your sleep. I’ve put a few screenshots of it on top, so check that out. You’ll also like that the heart rate scan is available simply at a swipe although it can be toggled to remain active all the time. Theres also a basic Always-On display that puts the battery to a disadvantage but is useful to have.聽Note: The notifications stay only for a sec. but there’s a setting shortcut to access them via long-pressing the crown. This is a really convenient option to have.Conclusion

The Apple Watch is one of those wrist accessories that is coveted by many and offers an experience that few other competitors can come close too. However, its pretty much a walled garden where it can only be hooked to the iOS ecosystem. So, what if someone (like an Android user) craves that cute squricle design and wants it at a relatively affordable price? Enter the Amazfit GTS from Xiaomi sub-brand Huami. Weve used this eye-catching smartwatch for more than a week and were ready to give you a good idea about the different software and hardware facets of the product, so read on!聽Amazfit GTS SpecificationsDesign: Looks like the Apple Watch but is slimmer and lighterThis is one of the most appealing aspects of the Amazfit GTS. I say this not because Apple also follows the same squircle dial philosophy but because it somehow is more suited to small screen UI compared to a circular dial. It uses the whole display and apps dont have to fit into a weird circular form. Speaking about build and materials, its a premium quality without a doubt. Many of my friends, in fact, mistook it for an Apple Watch at first glance. The screen is OLED and the bezels are thinner. And the overall thickness is also less than an Apple Watch and this makes the Amazfit GTS a delight for everyday use. Also, the straps are replaceable. Its got a 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3 layer, 5ATM water resistance, and a 1.65-inch AMOLED display. Suffice to say, Amazfit has impressed me with the right mix of good materials and features when it comes to the design.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramDisplay: Just Gorgeous Im putting this in a separate place because Amazfit has done all the right things with it. And also of course, because it will be attracting all the eyeballs. Its a Gorilla Glass-protected display with a better pixel density than Apples accessory. It has good sunlight legibility, good viewing angles and also an AOD feature, thanks to the AMOLED panel. More points for getting the display right.聽Battery: StellarBattery life is one of the biggest highlights of the Amazfit GTS. It goes on and on and on. I used it with the Always-on display turned on and it still lasted me for more than five days. If you switch it off, the watch will go well beyond the seven-day mark easily. Thats a big blessing in an age where smartwatches cant survive two days without a charge. And I cant appreciate it enough. Not having to recharge one of your most important accessories every other day is a luxury that you can afford with the Amazfit GTS. And it puts most other similar offerings at a big disadvantage.聽聽聽Software: Does the basic job聽聽  Setting up the Amazfit GTS is a breeze. Simply install the Amazfit app, connect via Bluetooth, and you’re good to go. Simple as that.The Amazfit GTS comes with Amazfits own software and its where youll feel the need for more features or apps. What it is intended to do, it does well. For example, you get notifications, 12 different fitness-tracking capabilities, and basic functions like alarm, event reminder, weather, music playback and activity history. But thats pretty much it. You dont get any more apps, nor the freedom to go and download more. There is Amazfits app though which gives you control with customizing watch faces (and there are many) and also keep track of everything on the watch. You can silence or reject calls, but pick them up because theres no speaker on it and this means no native music either.聽 The watch works well with daily fitness activities. Walk tracking is on by default and you get a real-time update on your screen updated constantly. Activities like running and cycling also get detected precisely and statistics are reliable. The Amazfit app keeps a record of all this stuff including details of your sleep. I’ve put a few screenshots of it on top, so check that out. You’ll also like that the heart rate scan is available simply at a swipe although it can be toggled to remain active all the time. Theres also a basic Always-On display that puts the battery to a disadvantage but is useful to have.聽Note: The notifications stay only for a sec. but there’s a setting shortcut to access them via long-pressing the crown. This is a really convenient option to have.ConclusionThe Breakdown Tribit XSound Go is a great portable wireless speaker with IPX7 waterproof design, solid sound, great battery life and most of all unbeatable budget price for fantastic value. Design – 80% Sound – 75% Battery – 90% Features – 75% Value – 90% You have surely noticed the Tribit company over the past months as creators of pretty good high-quality audio gadgets and their earbuds Xfree and X1 gathered some very favourable reviews. And they are certainly not novices in the speaker department either, after all we had our very positive review of their 360-degree speaker XBoom almost exactly a year ago. But this time we will be focusing on the smaller piece with the Tribit XSound Go model and a classical design. But i can tell you right off the bat, that this one didn’t disappoint and as for the budget speakers go it’s right up there with the best.Let’s start with one of the great benefits of this speaker and that’s the portability. Tribit XSound Go dimensions are only 56x59x170 mm with 380 g of weight so it’s pretty easy to just pack it with you wherever you go. For convenience there is already a black lanyard strap to hook it to your bag or something, but can be easily detached if needed or if it would offend your sense of design.In terms of design of the speaker itself there is not much to say,聽 it’s pretty classical pill-shaped one with rounded back and speaker grille up front. On the bottom there are also tiny rubber “legs” so the speaker is not going to travel on the surface by itself when performing some loud music feats. Front speaker grille carries the Tribit logo and behind him we can find dual 40 mm drivers and one passive radiator. Controls are full on top with five buttons, each of them with a texture so you can even go for some blind controls if needed. And finally in the back is a waterproof silicone seal hiding the charging micro-USB port and the AUX 3.5 mm jack. There is no micro-SD slot though so you are limited to use it in connection to your Bluetooth device.Speaking about waterproof, Tribit XSound Go proudly boasts the official IPX7 certification so it can be a perfect audio partner even to some pool party and whatnot. It should be fine even being submerged for a while, but in my testing i didn’t have the heart to just throw it into the water. But it endured providing music in a shower with flying colors, so i can clearly vouch for its waterproofing rugged capabilities.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramBut of course the most important question is, how does it sound ? The speaker can dish out total of 12W of power (2x6W), so it should be enough to cover small to mid-sized room with enough sound. I liked the very well rounded sound even in the lower frequencies and balanced structure with handling the vocals and guitars especially (which is not so common even in much more expensive range). Sound is pretty natural, even though don’t expect any real basses coming from the tiny speaker. What should be really commended is the minimal distortion even at very high sound levels, i can say that roughly up to 90% of the maximum volume there is still little to none distortion.Wireless connection is handled by the Bluetooth 4.2 with official up to 66 feet range and in my testing the pairing has been smooth and fast with no dropping or any issues. The integrated microphone on top of the speaker works fine with good enough quality and supports the voice assistants like Google or Siri, eventually even Amazon Echo.Another excellent feature is the battery life and the makers are boasting of full day of music on a charge. In my experience the advertised 24 hours of endurance is a bit too generous, but even my roughly tested 20 hours are fantastic considering the small size and portability. The only small issue is maybe the fact, that the charging of the 4400 mAh battery inside is a bit slow ithe 5V/1A and will take about 4 hours to complete.The Breakdown Tribit XSound Go is a great portable wireless speaker with IPX7 waterproof design, solid sound, great battery life and most of all unbeatable budget price for fantastic value. Design – 80% Sound – 75% Battery – 90% Features – 75% Value – 90% You have surely noticed the Tribit company over the past months as creators of pretty good high-quality audio gadgets and their earbuds Xfree and X1 gathered some very favourable reviews. And they are certainly not novices in the speaker department either, after all we had our very positive review of their 360-degree speaker XBoom almost exactly a year ago. But this time we will be focusing on the smaller piece with the Tribit XSound Go model and a classical design. But i can tell you right off the bat, that this one didn’t disappoint and as for the budget speakers go it’s right up there with the best.Let’s start with one of the great benefits of this speaker and that’s the portability. Tribit XSound Go dimensions are only 56x59x170 mm with 380 g of weight so it’s pretty easy to just pack it with you wherever you go. For convenience there is already a black lanyard strap to hook it to your bag or something, but can be easily detached if needed or if it would offend your sense of design.In terms of design of the speaker itself there is not much to say,聽 it’s pretty classical pill-shaped one with rounded back and speaker grille up front. On the bottom there are also tiny rubber “legs” so the speaker is not going to travel on the surface by itself when performing some loud music feats. Front speaker grille carries the Tribit logo and behind him we can find dual 40 mm drivers and one passive radiator. Controls are full on top with five buttons, each of them with a texture so you can even go for some blind controls if needed. And finally in the back is a waterproof silicone seal hiding the charging micro-USB port and the AUX 3.5 mm jack. There is no micro-SD slot though so you are limited to use it in connection to your Bluetooth device.Speaking about waterproof, Tribit XSound Go proudly boasts the official IPX7 certification so it can be a perfect audio partner even to some pool party and whatnot. It should be fine even being submerged for a while, but in my testing i didn’t have the heart to just throw it into the water. But it endured providing music in a shower with flying colors, so i can clearly vouch for its waterproofing rugged capabilities.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramBut of course the most important question is, how does it sound ? The speaker can dish out total of 12W of power (2x6W), so it should be enough to cover small to mid-sized room with enough sound. I liked the very well rounded sound even in the lower frequencies and balanced structure with handling the vocals and guitars especially (which is not so common even in much more expensive range). Sound is pretty natural, even though don’t expect any real basses coming from the tiny speaker. What should be really commended is the minimal distortion even at very high sound levels, i can say that roughly up to 90% of the maximum volume there is still little to none distortion.Wireless connection is handled by the Bluetooth 4.2 with official up to 66 feet range and in my testing the pairing has been smooth and fast with no dropping or any issues. The integrated microphone on top of the speaker works fine with good enough quality and supports the voice assistants like Google or Siri, eventually even Amazon Echo.Another excellent feature is the battery life and the makers are boasting of full day of music on a charge. In my experience the advertised 24 hours of endurance is a bit too generous, but even my roughly tested 20 hours are fantastic considering the small size and portability. The only small issue is maybe the fact, that the charging of the 4400 mAh battery inside is a bit slow ithe 5V/1A and will take about 4 hours to complete.The Breakdown EarFun Free Earbuds is an Ultimate True Wireless Earbuds. Coming with an ultra-comfortable design, intuitive control and premium sound experience. It has special features for exercise, outdoor activities and sports, with an IPX-7 waterproof rating. It comes with a powerful charging case that supports both advanced Qi wireless charging and Type-C charging, Alongside with many other features. Design & Ease of use – 7.0 Sound quality – 7.0 Battery & charging – 8.0 Features – 7.0 EarFun Free Earbuds is an Ultimate True Wireless Earbuds. Coming with an ultra-comfortable design, intuitive control and premium sound experience. It has special features for exercise, outdoor activities and sports, with an IPX-7 waterproof rating. It comes with a powerful charging case that supports both advanced Qi wireless charging and Type-C charging, Alongside with many other features.Technical SpecificationBluetooth VersionV5.0Bluetooth ProfileA2DP , AVRCP , HFP , HSPEarbuds Battery2*50mAhEarbuds Battery LifeUp to 6 hours 锛坴aries by volume level and audio content锛塃arbuds Charging timeAbout 1.5 hourCharging Case battery500mAh , it can charge about 4 times for earbudsBattey Case Charging Time聽聽USB-C about 2 hours , Wireless charging about 2.5 hoursInputDC5V / 1AMaterialABC , PC , TPUTotal Weight60g / 2.08oz锛坕ncluding charging case锛塏et Weight5.5g / 0.19oz each earbud on averageListening DistanceUp to 15mUnboxing BUY EarFun Free True Wireless EarbudsFeaturesIPX7 100% Waterproof via SweatShied Technology6mm Graphene Driver for Superior Sound30-Hour Uninterrupted Play TimeSnug Fit Ergonomic Design49ft (15m) Wireless Distance RangeNoise Cancelling Hands-Free CallsIntelligent Voice AssistantAdvanced Wireless ChargingQuick Charge with USB C PortSound QualityThe EarFun Free Earbuds is powered by the latest Bluetooth 5.0 which dramatically enhances the stability and the connection of the earbuds; after a one-time setup, the bluetooth earbuds will automatically turn on and pair with your smart device. The EarFun Free Bluetooth Earphones work flawlessly at a distance up to 49 feet (15 meters).ConnectivityGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramTWS & BLUETOOTH 5.0: Powered by latest Bluetooth 5.0 which dramatically enhances the stability and connection of the earbuds; after a one-time setup, the bluetooth earbuds will automatically turn on and pair with your smart device; EarFun Free Bluetooth Earphones work flawlessly at a distance up to 49 feet (15 meters).Water resistanceThe earbuds feature the IPX7 truly sweat & waterproof. With innovative SweatShield Technology, EarFun Free Wireless Earphones can easily resist from sweat and rain, and you dont have to worry even if it rains, suitable for handling sweat too when you are running or in the gym.Design & Ease of useThe EarFun Free Earbuds ergonomic and lightweight (5.5g for each earbud) design fit comfortably and snuggly in your ear, 3 sizes of ear tips option provide individualized fit and comfort for all-day wearing with no pain. They fit securely, stay firm in place even for a workout or running.Battery & charging The EarFun Free Earbuds offers 6-hour working time per charge for the Bluetooth headphones and 24 extra hours in the compact charging case. 4 times full charge by the charging case and just 10 minutes charging can make 2-hour listening. The case can be charged via Type C or a Qi wireless charging pad.Comparison with the competitorsConclusionEvery time, I am impressed by the quality that even the cheap true wireless earphones are offering. The EarFun Free provides a sound quality that is sufficient for the overwhelming majority of users. To me, the EarFun Free would be enough for normal everyday life.The earphones offer a natural sound, bass and treble are absolutely perfect. There is also a good everyday practicality. Meaning, the earphones will automatically turn on/off when you put them in the charging box, with absolutely a very good battery life.

The Breakdown EarFun Free Earbuds is an Ultimate True Wireless Earbuds. Coming with an ultra-comfortable design, intuitive control and premium sound experience. It has special features for exercise, outdoor activities and sports, with an IPX-7 waterproof rating. It comes with a powerful charging case that supports both advanced Qi wireless charging and Type-C charging, Alongside with many other features. Design & Ease of use – 7.0 Sound quality – 7.0 Battery & charging – 8.0 Features – 7.0 EarFun Free Earbuds is an Ultimate True Wireless Earbuds. Coming with an ultra-comfortable design, intuitive control and premium sound experience. It has special features for exercise, outdoor activities and sports, with an IPX-7 waterproof rating. It comes with a powerful charging case that supports both advanced Qi wireless charging and Type-C charging, Alongside with many other features.Technical SpecificationBluetooth VersionV5.0Bluetooth ProfileA2DP , AVRCP , HFP , HSPEarbuds Battery2*50mAhEarbuds Battery LifeUp to 6 hours 锛坴aries by volume level and audio content锛塃arbuds Charging timeAbout 1.5 hourCharging Case battery500mAh , it can charge about 4 times for earbudsBattey Case Charging Time聽聽USB-C about 2 hours , Wireless charging about 2.5 hoursInputDC5V / 1AMaterialABC , PC , TPUTotal Weight60g / 2.08oz锛坕ncluding charging case锛塏et Weight5.5g / 0.19oz each earbud on averageListening DistanceUp to 15mUnboxing BUY EarFun Free True Wireless EarbudsFeaturesIPX7 100% Waterproof via SweatShied Technology6mm Graphene Driver for Superior Sound30-Hour Uninterrupted Play TimeSnug Fit Ergonomic Design49ft (15m) Wireless Distance RangeNoise Cancelling Hands-Free CallsIntelligent Voice AssistantAdvanced Wireless ChargingQuick Charge with USB C PortSound QualityThe EarFun Free Earbuds is powered by the latest Bluetooth 5.0 which dramatically enhances the stability and the connection of the earbuds; after a one-time setup, the bluetooth earbuds will automatically turn on and pair with your smart device. The EarFun Free Bluetooth Earphones work flawlessly at a distance up to 49 feet (15 meters).ConnectivityGizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramTWS & BLUETOOTH 5.0: Powered by latest Bluetooth 5.0 which dramatically enhances the stability and connection of the earbuds; after a one-time setup, the bluetooth earbuds will automatically turn on and pair with your smart device; EarFun Free Bluetooth Earphones work flawlessly at a distance up to 49 feet (15 meters).Water resistanceThe earbuds feature the IPX7 truly sweat & waterproof. With innovative SweatShield Technology, EarFun Free Wireless Earphones can easily resist from sweat and rain, and you dont have to worry even if it rains, suitable for handling sweat too when you are running or in the gym.Design & Ease of useThe EarFun Free Earbuds ergonomic and lightweight (5.5g for each earbud) design fit comfortably and snuggly in your ear, 3 sizes of ear tips option provide individualized fit and comfort for all-day wearing with no pain. They fit securely, stay firm in place even for a workout or running.Battery & charging The EarFun Free Earbuds offers 6-hour working time per charge for the Bluetooth headphones and 24 extra hours in the compact charging case. 4 times full charge by the charging case and just 10 minutes charging can make 2-hour listening. The case can be charged via Type C or a Qi wireless charging pad.Comparison with the competitorsConclusionEvery time, I am impressed by the quality that even the cheap true wireless earphones are offering. The EarFun Free provides a sound quality that is sufficient for the overwhelming majority of users. To me, the EarFun Free would be enough for normal everyday life.The earphones offer a natural sound, bass and treble are absolutely perfect. There is also a good everyday practicality. Meaning, the earphones will automatically turn on/off when you put them in the charging box, with absolutely a very good battery life.Nowadays, there are plenty of scenarios when we can’t get along with earbuds. I know you will say they are comfortable to wear but most of the earbuds have a number of disadvantages. Say, they may fall out when doing sport, they require battery power to operate, they cost more than the regular headphones, etc. But all the aforementioned problems will disappear once you find a worthy product. Fortunately, I have got my hands on such earbuds. And today I am going to talk about all the highlights of the Soundpeats Truengine 2 dual-driver earbuds.As said, there are myriads of cases where you need a pair of good earbuds. Say, if you travel a lot and like do that by your car, then you would like to have at least a single earbud in your ear to listen to the navigation instructions. Moreover, if you exercise much, good music will help you have a better workout. Generally, in those cases where you don’t like to have a cord laying on your neck or on your chest, the wireless earbuds are the best solution.Those who are not familiar with this brand, Soundpeats was founded in 2010 and specializes in compact/ portable audio accessories. As you understand, it knows how to design good wired and wireless earbuds.Particularly, Soundpeats Truengine 2 is quite comfortable to wear due to the outstanding design. Of course, it’s difficult to offer anything new in this niche, but the earbuds can always fit better than other similar products. This is all about our protagonist. During the test period, they didn’t fall out from the ears even for a single time. They are fitted with a soft rubbery loop called a Freebit earfin. This simply means they sit inside the concha of the ear and hold the pod in place.These earbuds also have an IPX5 waterproof certificate.The pairing didn’t cause any issue as well. Once you take them off the charging box, they will start searching for a Bluetooth to pair with. Interestingly, when you pair both earbuds with the phone, you will get a stereo sound effect. But if doing this for the single earbud, it will automatically turn to mono.As you guess, we are dealing with the world’s first dual-driver TrueWireless Plus setup for each ear. In other words, these earbuds come with one composite-diaphragm bass driver and one treble driver plated in beryllium. The company has put its own crossover inside the earbuds to separate high and low frequencies and run them through their own optimized speakers.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe case itself is very compact. So you can carry it with you. Once you take off them from the charging box, they are ready to use. And once you put them back, they will turn off and start charging automatically.When it comes to sound performance, the Soundpeats Truengine 2 provides a better experience than expected. The sound quality is way better than what we get from most of the similar products. The sound is well balanced and the mid-tones are not overwhelmed by an excessive amount of bass. And there is enough beat to give the sound a great depth.There are built-in mics in each ear for phone calls. Due to the Qualcomm’s cVc noise cancellation technology, it helps keep the sound clear even when theres ambient noise. As the company claims, they are using the ‘best-in-class chip’. It is combined with the Bluetooth 5.0 protocol, which provides way better performance than its predecessor.Due to the enhanced communication features, it is used for multiple devices, such as wireless headphones, wireless keyboards, mice, game controllers, and even for communication between a various smart home and IoT devices.If you own a smartphone that supports Bluetooth 5.0 and your headphones support the older version, you wont get any benefit from this friendship. Bluetooth is backward compatible. This means you can continue using your existing Bluetooth 4.2 and older devices with a Bluetooth 5.0 phone.But this is not the only cool feature of Bluetooth 5.0. Say, it allows you to play audio on two connected devices simultaneously. Usually, I do this when watching movies with my wife. You could even stream two different audio sources to two different audio devices at the same time. This means we can listen to two different pieces of music, but streaming from the same phone.

Nowadays, there are plenty of scenarios when we can’t get along with earbuds. I know you will say they are comfortable to wear but most of the earbuds have a number of disadvantages. Say, they may fall out when doing sport, they require battery power to operate, they cost more than the regular headphones, etc. But all the aforementioned problems will disappear once you find a worthy product. Fortunately, I have got my hands on such earbuds. And today I am going to talk about all the highlights of the Soundpeats Truengine 2 dual-driver earbuds.As said, there are myriads of cases where you need a pair of good earbuds. Say, if you travel a lot and like do that by your car, then you would like to have at least a single earbud in your ear to listen to the navigation instructions. Moreover, if you exercise much, good music will help you have a better workout. Generally, in those cases where you don’t like to have a cord laying on your neck or on your chest, the wireless earbuds are the best solution.Those who are not familiar with this brand, Soundpeats was founded in 2010 and specializes in compact/ portable audio accessories. As you understand, it knows how to design good wired and wireless earbuds.Particularly, Soundpeats Truengine 2 is quite comfortable to wear due to the outstanding design. Of course, it’s difficult to offer anything new in this niche, but the earbuds can always fit better than other similar products. This is all about our protagonist. During the test period, they didn’t fall out from the ears even for a single time. They are fitted with a soft rubbery loop called a Freebit earfin. This simply means they sit inside the concha of the ear and hold the pod in place.These earbuds also have an IPX5 waterproof certificate.The pairing didn’t cause any issue as well. Once you take them off the charging box, they will start searching for a Bluetooth to pair with. Interestingly, when you pair both earbuds with the phone, you will get a stereo sound effect. But if doing this for the single earbud, it will automatically turn to mono.As you guess, we are dealing with the world’s first dual-driver TrueWireless Plus setup for each ear. In other words, these earbuds come with one composite-diaphragm bass driver and one treble driver plated in beryllium. The company has put its own crossover inside the earbuds to separate high and low frequencies and run them through their own optimized speakers.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe case itself is very compact. So you can carry it with you. Once you take off them from the charging box, they are ready to use. And once you put them back, they will turn off and start charging automatically.When it comes to sound performance, the Soundpeats Truengine 2 provides a better experience than expected. The sound quality is way better than what we get from most of the similar products. The sound is well balanced and the mid-tones are not overwhelmed by an excessive amount of bass. And there is enough beat to give the sound a great depth.There are built-in mics in each ear for phone calls. Due to the Qualcomm’s cVc noise cancellation technology, it helps keep the sound clear even when theres ambient noise. As the company claims, they are using the ‘best-in-class chip’. It is combined with the Bluetooth 5.0 protocol, which provides way better performance than its predecessor.Due to the enhanced communication features, it is used for multiple devices, such as wireless headphones, wireless keyboards, mice, game controllers, and even for communication between a various smart home and IoT devices.If you own a smartphone that supports Bluetooth 5.0 and your headphones support the older version, you wont get any benefit from this friendship. Bluetooth is backward compatible. This means you can continue using your existing Bluetooth 4.2 and older devices with a Bluetooth 5.0 phone.But this is not the only cool feature of Bluetooth 5.0. Say, it allows you to play audio on two connected devices simultaneously. Usually, I do this when watching movies with my wife. You could even stream two different audio sources to two different audio devices at the same time. This means we can listen to two different pieces of music, but streaming from the same phone.The Breakdown 4.0 7.9 The whole experience is immersive. Either connected to a 4G network, either on WiFi or simply carrying offline THOR 5 provides the best that smartwatches and smartbands can offer. Design 7.9 Operating system 7.9 Battery life 7.9 Specifications 7.9 Zeblaze announced recently the world’s first Dual System Smartwatch, but to be honest it’s a bad marketting name to use as there are many smartphones that have dual mode operation (as mentioned). What Zeblaze should have stated is that this THOR 5 smartwatch is the world’s first Dual Processor Smartwatch. Dual System wearables combine smartwatch and smart band advantages, without leaving something out. A Dual Processor wearable uses a different SoC for each mode, being customised exactly for each function. We were just curious to see whats new on this futuristic tech, and we were simply amazed.3G smartwatches started a trend in the wearables a couple of years ago. Up to then, smartwatches were being synced with a smartphone to record fitness or health data while passing over notifications, music control e.t.c. However 3G connectivity upped the game with the ability to include a nano SIMin the smartwatch, thus turning it to a standalone smartphone-watch. People liked the concept of not having to carry their flagship smartphones during their training, outdoor activities or even places where carrying an expensive smartphone is risky.Zeblaze is a Chinese company founded in 2014 in Shenzhen, China. Its expertise is smartwatch development and production. In the past 5 years the company has managed to join the smartwatch industry leaders by having exceptional best-sellers with outstanding quality and competitive pricing. Their latest development is THOR 5. This smartphone is an update to the companys portfolio in every possible way. It has a worlds- first achievement by being the first wearable with two processors. The later offers two self-contained modes of operations.Smart Watch Mode utilizes a MediaTek SoC to provide an excellent 4G smartwatch mode, where the watch can be used with or without a smartphone synced in.Smart Wristband Mode utilizes an energy efficient Nordic processor thus turning the wearable into a fitness/health smart band with up to four days of usage.Buy Zeblaze Thor 5 here!Zeblaze THOR 5 – SpecificationsDial material: Case Material – Zinc alloy, Strap Material – SiliconeDimensions: 54 X 50 X 15.2 mm, Weight: 67gDisplay: 1.39 inch AMOLED (454 X 454 pixels)Chipset: MTK6739 1.25Ghz, Quad CoreNordic 52840Memory: RAM – 2GB, ROM: 16GBOperating Mode: Capacitive Multi-touchGPS: GPS/GLONASS/BeidouBluetooth Version: Bluetooth 4.0WiFi: Dual-band (2.4GHz/5GHz) single stream 802.11a/b/g/n, MAC/BB/RF802.11d/h/k compliantSIM Card Slot: Single SIM (Nano-SIM)Network Frequency:GSM: 850(B5) / 900(B8) / 1800(B3) / 1900(B2)WCDMA: 850(B5) / 900(B8) / 1900(B2) / 2100(B1)4G FDD: 2100(B1) / 1900(B2) / 1800(B3) / 850(B5) / 2600(B7) / 900(B8) / B12 / 800(B20),TDS-CDMA: B34 / B49, TDD: B38 / B39 / B40 / B41Sensors: Heart-rate Sensors, Proximity Sensor, AccelerometerCamera: 8.0 MP Front CameraportBattery: 545 mAhStandby Time (Watch Phone Mode): About 1 daysStandby Time (Smart Wristband Mode): About 4 daysCharging: About 3 hours of magnetic chargingOperating System: Android 7.1.1 – APP Name: Willwatch 2Compatible OS: Android 4.4 or above , iOS 9.0 or aboveApp Language: English, Portuguese, Spanish, French,German, Italian, 袪褍褋褋泻懈泄, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional ChineseWatch Language: English, Portugu锚s(Brasil), Portugu锚s(Portuguesa), 袪褍褋褋泻懈泄, Espa帽ol, Italiano, Fran莽ais, Polski, Bahasa Indonesian, Deutsch, Ti岷縩g Vi峄噒, T眉rk莽e, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Bengali, Thai, Burmese, Korean, JapaneseColor: Black, BlueSpecial Features: Phonebook, Heart Rate Monitor, Pedometer, Call or Message Reminder, Voice Search, Offline Music, Weather, Clock faces & Notifications, Browser, Auto Light-up Screen, Stopwatch, E-book, OTA Upgrade, Google Play, Alert Type, Ring, VibrationZeblaze THOR 5 鈥 Retail PackageTHOR 5 arrives in a tasteful black case of hardened paper. Inside you will find the typical contents of a modern smartwatch.1 x Zeblaze THOR 5 Smartwatch1 x USB Charger Cable1 x Screw Driver1 x User ManualUser manual is in English. It is very helpful, as it provides details and icons suitable also, for a novice smartwatch user.聽There is no charger in the retail package. You will have to use your smartphones 5V charger or a power bank.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 External CharacteristicsThe case of the smartwatch is made from a zink alloy 鈥 in back color. The watch looks and feels as a rugged sport watch. Its size is big and I guess it’s suitable only for mens hands. It is a bit heavy but not as much as to be an inconvenience. I tried it for a week, typing for more than 8 hours a day without any issues. It is a matter of time until youll forget it is strapped in your hand. The excellent wide strap, made out of silicon has a strong grip around the wrist, and THOR 5 is not dangling around. The feel is smooth on the skin, both for the strap and the interior of the smartwatch. The big round AMOLED screen is protected by a rim a millimeter over its surface. In the left side we can see two wide buttons, one used as On/Off/Menu and one as a 鈥 very very helpful – Back button. On the right side there’s a selfie-camera protruding, designed for some Skype calls if you like the whole thing. The microphone is a small hole in the side of the camera module.On the back of the smartwatch you can see the heart rate sensor, the pogo pins for the charger cable and the single SIM tray.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 CharacteristicsAs we mentioned earlier, this is the worlds first Dual Processor smartwatch. A Mediatek MTK 6739 quad-core SoC is the workhorse behind the smartwatch mode (Smart Watch Mode). The MT6739 is a cost-effective, yet highly modern featured smartphone SoC that delivers a great Android experience and the potential of beautiful, large display phone designs to value-driven markets. Yes, this is a smartphone SoC! Combined within the MT6739 is a highly efficient 64-bit quad core, ARM Cortex-A53 CPU that operates up to a frequency of 1.5GHz.A Nordic 52840 SoC is used for the smart band mode (Smart Wristband Mode). The nRF52840 is built around the 32-bit ARM庐 Cortex鈩?M4 CPU with floating point unit running at 64 MHz. Exceptionally low energy consumption is achieved using a sophisticated on-chip adaptive power management system. The nRF52840 is fully multiprotocol capable with full protocol concurrency. It has protocol support for Bluetooth 5 and 2.4 GHz proprietary stacks. It offers generous memory availability for both Flash and RAM, which are prerequisites for such demanding applications.The 1.39 round AMOLED display has a resolution of 454X454 pixels. It is very bright and clear providing an excellent visual experience. From setting up the phone, adding WiFi password, the user can observe firsthand the touch effect of this display. Each letter is selected without errors, an amazing sensitivity, missing from most of the smartphones/smartphones in the market today. The display has a variety of customized dials. The user can personalize the device even more either by downloading new dials or adding a picture of his choice to an existing dial.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramHaving a smartphone SoC and a smartphone display, Zeblaze provides THOR 5 with a smartphone internal memory. There are 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM! Not only can you multitask (quite easily I might add) but you can also play games or see a movie in YouTube! The ROM is enough to keep your favorite MP3 tracks in, in case you dont want to carry your smartphone around or connect to a cell network. Yes, you have a standalone offline media player here!Are you amazed? I am not finished yet! The most amazing part of this smartphone smartwatch is the 8MP selfie-cam. 8MP selfie-cam! You can take pictures of your friends or鈥 you can make a video call (via Skype), right out of your wrist. Video calls and streaming and much more like proper phone calls, are able due to THOR 5 4G LTE connection, using the intern SIM tray. This wearable supports 22 global bands! Yes you can call and accept call in your wrist!THOR 5 supports WiFi in case you are home or in the office. 4G or WiFi connection is used to update the device using OTA updates from Zeblaze! Google Play is always synced with your email account to download any application you need like Spotify, a 3rd-party Maps, Gmail, games etc.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 TrackerDon’t forget that this Zeblaze smartwatch is also a fitness band, with full support of all kinds of tracking with a wide array for sensors. It supports GPS, GLONASS, Beidou precision tracking for your athletic activities plus any kind if map navigation either from Google Maps or other similar application. As mentioned earlier, in the back of the phone there is the heart rate sensor.It works both in real-time or by providing rates in sport activity analysis. Other from the GPS tracker and Heart-rate monitor, the user can find the typical information applications: Step counter, Calories Counter and Speed and Cadence Monitor. The package is boosted by standalone applications for various sport activities like cycling or basketball. By turning into Smart Wristband Mode the user can take advantage the low power consumption and record his sport / outdoor activities for up to four days without carrying around a power-bank.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 SoftwareTHOR 5 runs on Android 7.1.1 and not Android 5 found in most smartwatches today. Since it is not Wear OS it has a lot of advantages. Right from start, setting up the smartwatch, a QR code is provided in the AMOLED display. Scanning that with your smartphone and you can download and install WiiWatch 2 app. Note however that this is not the best of applications 鈥 it is very basic 鈥 but works properly. From there you can sync your smartphone to THOR 5.Attention must be given:To add the smartwatch in the paired devices accepting all permissionsTo keep the app always on so syncing is done smoothly without interruptions.In WiiWatch you can set your age, sex, height and weight as to have proper tracking and correct results. You can set also the Notifications being sent to the smartwatch. You cannot reply to them from the device, you need to do that from your phone. From the app you can alter various settings, send files up to 50MB and lookup for the device. THOR 5 makes a loud ring as for you to be able to find it in house, car etc.Android provides Google Play as mentioned. You can use any application possible having the display size as the only limitation. From the smartwatch you can decide on a rounded or square display of all applications. The former setup has a larger font but the sides are lost under the display. The latter is fully visible but the font is too small to use without eye strain. Voice search (yes that too) is usable though Google Assistant.Navigation is easy not only by the amazingly sensitive display but from adding a second back-button. In the main dial (that can be customized as per user needs) there are 4 main screens.Sliding-Down we can see the 5-part main operations screen. There are:Main control 鈥 shortcut screen with time, date, battery, Bluetooth Connection Switch, airplane mode and QC code provider.Switches for: Hand Bright Screen, Quiet Mode, Bluetooth, Brightness, Location, and Data.Clean cache memoryLocal Music PlayerWeather DisplaySliding-Right we can see the NotificationsSliding- Up we see the tracking screens. The first screen has the daily distance walked, calories burned and steps walked. Second screen has the week average for the steps / km in two different graphs. Clicking on settings of this page the user can insert daily targets for: Distance, Calories, Steps. A fourth setting can apply ass the users Age, Height, Sex, Walk Target.Sliding-Left brings the full menu of this smartwatch: Contacts, Phone, Messaging, Settings, Browser, Downloads, Calendar, Clock, Camera, Gallery, Music, Sound Recorder, File Manager, Heart Rate Monotor, Fitness, Weather, Voice Search, Play Store, Maps, Assistand, Sports Target, Long Standby, App Store.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 Battery LifeWhat is left? Battery life! As advertised it has a full day of battery life at the smartwatch mode. Battery life goes up to four days in smartband mode but there are some limitations. There is no touch screen or multiple dials and applications. Its only usage is tracking: steps, distance, hourly activity, active minutes and calories burned.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 ConclussionThe Breakdown 4.0 7.9 The whole experience is immersive. Either connected to a 4G network, either on WiFi or simply carrying offline THOR 5 provides the best that smartwatches and smartbands can offer. Design 7.9 Operating system 7.9 Battery life 7.9 Specifications 7.9 Zeblaze announced recently the world’s first Dual System Smartwatch, but to be honest it’s a bad marketting name to use as there are many smartphones that have dual mode operation (as mentioned). What Zeblaze should have stated is that this THOR 5 smartwatch is the world’s first Dual Processor Smartwatch. Dual System wearables combine smartwatch and smart band advantages, without leaving something out. A Dual Processor wearable uses a different SoC for each mode, being customised exactly for each function. We were just curious to see whats new on this futuristic tech, and we were simply amazed.3G smartwatches started a trend in the wearables a couple of years ago. Up to then, smartwatches were being synced with a smartphone to record fitness or health data while passing over notifications, music control e.t.c. However 3G connectivity upped the game with the ability to include a nano SIMin the smartwatch, thus turning it to a standalone smartphone-watch. People liked the concept of not having to carry their flagship smartphones during their training, outdoor activities or even places where carrying an expensive smartphone is risky.Zeblaze is a Chinese company founded in 2014 in Shenzhen, China. Its expertise is smartwatch development and production. In the past 5 years the company has managed to join the smartwatch industry leaders by having exceptional best-sellers with outstanding quality and competitive pricing. Their latest development is THOR 5. This smartphone is an update to the companys portfolio in every possible way. It has a worlds- first achievement by being the first wearable with two processors. The later offers two self-contained modes of operations.Smart Watch Mode utilizes a MediaTek SoC to provide an excellent 4G smartwatch mode, where the watch can be used with or without a smartphone synced in.Smart Wristband Mode utilizes an energy efficient Nordic processor thus turning the wearable into a fitness/health smart band with up to four days of usage.Buy Zeblaze Thor 5 here!Zeblaze THOR 5 – SpecificationsDial material: Case Material – Zinc alloy, Strap Material – SiliconeDimensions: 54 X 50 X 15.2 mm, Weight: 67gDisplay: 1.39 inch AMOLED (454 X 454 pixels)Chipset: MTK6739 1.25Ghz, Quad CoreNordic 52840Memory: RAM – 2GB, ROM: 16GBOperating Mode: Capacitive Multi-touchGPS: GPS/GLONASS/BeidouBluetooth Version: Bluetooth 4.0WiFi: Dual-band (2.4GHz/5GHz) single stream 802.11a/b/g/n, MAC/BB/RF802.11d/h/k compliantSIM Card Slot: Single SIM (Nano-SIM)Network Frequency:GSM: 850(B5) / 900(B8) / 1800(B3) / 1900(B2)WCDMA: 850(B5) / 900(B8) / 1900(B2) / 2100(B1)4G FDD: 2100(B1) / 1900(B2) / 1800(B3) / 850(B5) / 2600(B7) / 900(B8) / B12 / 800(B20),TDS-CDMA: B34 / B49, TDD: B38 / B39 / B40 / B41Sensors: Heart-rate Sensors, Proximity Sensor, AccelerometerCamera: 8.0 MP Front CameraportBattery: 545 mAhStandby Time (Watch Phone Mode): About 1 daysStandby Time (Smart Wristband Mode): About 4 daysCharging: About 3 hours of magnetic chargingOperating System: Android 7.1.1 – APP Name: Willwatch 2Compatible OS: Android 4.4 or above , iOS 9.0 or aboveApp Language: English, Portuguese, Spanish, French,German, Italian, 袪褍褋褋泻懈泄, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional ChineseWatch Language: English, Portugu锚s(Brasil), Portugu锚s(Portuguesa), 袪褍褋褋泻懈泄, Espa帽ol, Italiano, Fran莽ais, Polski, Bahasa Indonesian, Deutsch, Ti岷縩g Vi峄噒, T眉rk莽e, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Bengali, Thai, Burmese, Korean, JapaneseColor: Black, BlueSpecial Features: Phonebook, Heart Rate Monitor, Pedometer, Call or Message Reminder, Voice Search, Offline Music, Weather, Clock faces & Notifications, Browser, Auto Light-up Screen, Stopwatch, E-book, OTA Upgrade, Google Play, Alert Type, Ring, VibrationZeblaze THOR 5 鈥 Retail PackageTHOR 5 arrives in a tasteful black case of hardened paper. Inside you will find the typical contents of a modern smartwatch.1 x Zeblaze THOR 5 Smartwatch1 x USB Charger Cable1 x Screw Driver1 x User ManualUser manual is in English. It is very helpful, as it provides details and icons suitable also, for a novice smartwatch user.聽There is no charger in the retail package. You will have to use your smartphones 5V charger or a power bank.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 External CharacteristicsThe case of the smartwatch is made from a zink alloy 鈥 in back color. The watch looks and feels as a rugged sport watch. Its size is big and I guess it’s suitable only for mens hands. It is a bit heavy but not as much as to be an inconvenience. I tried it for a week, typing for more than 8 hours a day without any issues. It is a matter of time until youll forget it is strapped in your hand. The excellent wide strap, made out of silicon has a strong grip around the wrist, and THOR 5 is not dangling around. The feel is smooth on the skin, both for the strap and the interior of the smartwatch. The big round AMOLED screen is protected by a rim a millimeter over its surface. In the left side we can see two wide buttons, one used as On/Off/Menu and one as a 鈥 very very helpful – Back button. On the right side there’s a selfie-camera protruding, designed for some Skype calls if you like the whole thing. The microphone is a small hole in the side of the camera module.On the back of the smartwatch you can see the heart rate sensor, the pogo pins for the charger cable and the single SIM tray.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 CharacteristicsAs we mentioned earlier, this is the worlds first Dual Processor smartwatch. A Mediatek MTK 6739 quad-core SoC is the workhorse behind the smartwatch mode (Smart Watch Mode). The MT6739 is a cost-effective, yet highly modern featured smartphone SoC that delivers a great Android experience and the potential of beautiful, large display phone designs to value-driven markets. Yes, this is a smartphone SoC! Combined within the MT6739 is a highly efficient 64-bit quad core, ARM Cortex-A53 CPU that operates up to a frequency of 1.5GHz.A Nordic 52840 SoC is used for the smart band mode (Smart Wristband Mode). The nRF52840 is built around the 32-bit ARM庐 Cortex鈩?M4 CPU with floating point unit running at 64 MHz. Exceptionally low energy consumption is achieved using a sophisticated on-chip adaptive power management system. The nRF52840 is fully multiprotocol capable with full protocol concurrency. It has protocol support for Bluetooth 5 and 2.4 GHz proprietary stacks. It offers generous memory availability for both Flash and RAM, which are prerequisites for such demanding applications.The 1.39 round AMOLED display has a resolution of 454X454 pixels. It is very bright and clear providing an excellent visual experience. From setting up the phone, adding WiFi password, the user can observe firsthand the touch effect of this display. Each letter is selected without errors, an amazing sensitivity, missing from most of the smartphones/smartphones in the market today. The display has a variety of customized dials. The user can personalize the device even more either by downloading new dials or adding a picture of his choice to an existing dial.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramHaving a smartphone SoC and a smartphone display, Zeblaze provides THOR 5 with a smartphone internal memory. There are 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM! Not only can you multitask (quite easily I might add) but you can also play games or see a movie in YouTube! The ROM is enough to keep your favorite MP3 tracks in, in case you dont want to carry your smartphone around or connect to a cell network. Yes, you have a standalone offline media player here!Are you amazed? I am not finished yet! The most amazing part of this smartphone smartwatch is the 8MP selfie-cam. 8MP selfie-cam! You can take pictures of your friends or鈥 you can make a video call (via Skype), right out of your wrist. Video calls and streaming and much more like proper phone calls, are able due to THOR 5 4G LTE connection, using the intern SIM tray. This wearable supports 22 global bands! Yes you can call and accept call in your wrist!THOR 5 supports WiFi in case you are home or in the office. 4G or WiFi connection is used to update the device using OTA updates from Zeblaze! Google Play is always synced with your email account to download any application you need like Spotify, a 3rd-party Maps, Gmail, games etc.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 TrackerDon’t forget that this Zeblaze smartwatch is also a fitness band, with full support of all kinds of tracking with a wide array for sensors. It supports GPS, GLONASS, Beidou precision tracking for your athletic activities plus any kind if map navigation either from Google Maps or other similar application. As mentioned earlier, in the back of the phone there is the heart rate sensor.It works both in real-time or by providing rates in sport activity analysis. Other from the GPS tracker and Heart-rate monitor, the user can find the typical information applications: Step counter, Calories Counter and Speed and Cadence Monitor. The package is boosted by standalone applications for various sport activities like cycling or basketball. By turning into Smart Wristband Mode the user can take advantage the low power consumption and record his sport / outdoor activities for up to four days without carrying around a power-bank.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 SoftwareTHOR 5 runs on Android 7.1.1 and not Android 5 found in most smartwatches today. Since it is not Wear OS it has a lot of advantages. Right from start, setting up the smartwatch, a QR code is provided in the AMOLED display. Scanning that with your smartphone and you can download and install WiiWatch 2 app. Note however that this is not the best of applications 鈥 it is very basic 鈥 but works properly. From there you can sync your smartphone to THOR 5.Attention must be given:To add the smartwatch in the paired devices accepting all permissionsTo keep the app always on so syncing is done smoothly without interruptions.In WiiWatch you can set your age, sex, height and weight as to have proper tracking and correct results. You can set also the Notifications being sent to the smartwatch. You cannot reply to them from the device, you need to do that from your phone. From the app you can alter various settings, send files up to 50MB and lookup for the device. THOR 5 makes a loud ring as for you to be able to find it in house, car etc.Android provides Google Play as mentioned. You can use any application possible having the display size as the only limitation. From the smartwatch you can decide on a rounded or square display of all applications. The former setup has a larger font but the sides are lost under the display. The latter is fully visible but the font is too small to use without eye strain. Voice search (yes that too) is usable though Google Assistant.Navigation is easy not only by the amazingly sensitive display but from adding a second back-button. In the main dial (that can be customized as per user needs) there are 4 main screens.Sliding-Down we can see the 5-part main operations screen. There are:Main control 鈥 shortcut screen with time, date, battery, Bluetooth Connection Switch, airplane mode and QC code provider.Switches for: Hand Bright Screen, Quiet Mode, Bluetooth, Brightness, Location, and Data.Clean cache memoryLocal Music PlayerWeather DisplaySliding-Right we can see the NotificationsSliding- Up we see the tracking screens. The first screen has the daily distance walked, calories burned and steps walked. Second screen has the week average for the steps / km in two different graphs. Clicking on settings of this page the user can insert daily targets for: Distance, Calories, Steps. A fourth setting can apply ass the users Age, Height, Sex, Walk Target.Sliding-Left brings the full menu of this smartwatch: Contacts, Phone, Messaging, Settings, Browser, Downloads, Calendar, Clock, Camera, Gallery, Music, Sound Recorder, File Manager, Heart Rate Monotor, Fitness, Weather, Voice Search, Play Store, Maps, Assistand, Sports Target, Long Standby, App Store.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 Battery LifeWhat is left? Battery life! As advertised it has a full day of battery life at the smartwatch mode. Battery life goes up to four days in smartband mode but there are some limitations. There is no touch screen or multiple dials and applications. Its only usage is tracking: steps, distance, hourly activity, active minutes and calories burned.Zeblaze THOR 5 鈥 ConclussionThe Breakdown The small size and the extremely useful LCD display makes the AINOPE power bank a great option for users that needs to charge their phone two or three times over the course of a weekend, and the ability to charge two phones at once is a great bonus. DESIGN – 80% PERFORMANCE – 65% FEATURES – 80% EASE OF USE – 80% VALUE – 70% The Ainope 10,000 mAh power bank is a relatively small portable device built for the very important purpose of keeping the battery of your smartphone or tablet charged for a long period of time. The power bank is not a new device by any means, but it is a consequence of the smartphones lacking battery which has gotten better over the years, but most handsets still offer only a one-day battery life and, if youre traveling, unless youre sure youre going to have access to power sockets, youre going to need a reliable power bank.SpecsProduct Dimensions95mm x 63mm x 24mmItem Weight195gCapacity10000mAh/ 37wHInputs1 x USB-C (5V/2A) and 1 x Micro-USB (5V/2A)Outputs2 x USB-A (5V/2.1A and 5V/1A)Batteries2 Lithium Polymer batteriesUnboxing Design聽and ease of useThe Ainope 10000mAh portable charger is one of the smallest power banks available, it has a lightweight and slimmer body compared with other chargers on the market. You can put it into your pocket or backpack with ease. No matter you are out for camping or business, you will find the portable charger as a lifesaver if the phone battery died during the travel.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram PerformanceDespite the compact size, the Ainope charger has a large capacity of 10000mAh, which can provide 3.6 charges for iPhone 7, 2.6 charges for iPhone X, 2.3 charges for Galaxy S9 and 1.4 charges for iPad Mini. It Supports charging while discharging, so you can charge your phone with this portable charger when it is being charged.The power Bank uses advanced charging technology to ensure the fastest possible charge up to 2.1 amps. But it still does not support Qualcomm Quick Charge. FeaturesThe Ainope 10000mAh portable charger features an accurate LCD power display with the exact power percentage. You will know the accurately available power even every 1% rather than vaguely indicated by a row of LED lights, which is convenient for you to recharge your portable charger in time. The charger has dual USB Outputs of 2.1A and 1A, It supports the charge of two devices simultaneously. While there is two inputs of 2A for charging the power bank. One USB-C at 2A and one Micro-USB at 2A. (Don’t use a 5V/1A adapter to recharge this portable charger, or it will be very slow). This portable charger is compatible also with some low input devices (e.g. Smart Watches, some Bluetooth headsets and GPS devices). SecurityAinope’s power bank has a multi-protection system and premium li-polymer battery cells that ensure full protection for your device. It has surge protection, short circuit prevention and more advanced safety features to keep you and your devices safe. The manufacturer ensures that the power bank is designed and built using only high-quality chips and hardware. PROS10,000mAh battery capacityCompact designThe LED display which accurately shows the battery levelDual USB outputCONSNo Fast Charging supportLong charge time of the portable chargerConclusion

The Breakdown The small size and the extremely useful LCD display makes the AINOPE power bank a great option for users that needs to charge their phone two or three times over the course of a weekend, and the ability to charge two phones at once is a great bonus. DESIGN – 80% PERFORMANCE – 65% FEATURES – 80% EASE OF USE – 80% VALUE – 70% The Ainope 10,000 mAh power bank is a relatively small portable device built for the very important purpose of keeping the battery of your smartphone or tablet charged for a long period of time. The power bank is not a new device by any means, but it is a consequence of the smartphones lacking battery which has gotten better over the years, but most handsets still offer only a one-day battery life and, if youre traveling, unless youre sure youre going to have access to power sockets, youre going to need a reliable power bank.SpecsProduct Dimensions95mm x 63mm x 24mmItem Weight195gCapacity10000mAh/ 37wHInputs1 x USB-C (5V/2A) and 1 x Micro-USB (5V/2A)Outputs2 x USB-A (5V/2.1A and 5V/1A)Batteries2 Lithium Polymer batteriesUnboxing Design聽and ease of useThe Ainope 10000mAh portable charger is one of the smallest power banks available, it has a lightweight and slimmer body compared with other chargers on the market. You can put it into your pocket or backpack with ease. No matter you are out for camping or business, you will find the portable charger as a lifesaver if the phone battery died during the travel.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on Telegram PerformanceDespite the compact size, the Ainope charger has a large capacity of 10000mAh, which can provide 3.6 charges for iPhone 7, 2.6 charges for iPhone X, 2.3 charges for Galaxy S9 and 1.4 charges for iPad Mini. It Supports charging while discharging, so you can charge your phone with this portable charger when it is being charged.The power Bank uses advanced charging technology to ensure the fastest possible charge up to 2.1 amps. But it still does not support Qualcomm Quick Charge. FeaturesThe Ainope 10000mAh portable charger features an accurate LCD power display with the exact power percentage. You will know the accurately available power even every 1% rather than vaguely indicated by a row of LED lights, which is convenient for you to recharge your portable charger in time. The charger has dual USB Outputs of 2.1A and 1A, It supports the charge of two devices simultaneously. While there is two inputs of 2A for charging the power bank. One USB-C at 2A and one Micro-USB at 2A. (Don’t use a 5V/1A adapter to recharge this portable charger, or it will be very slow). This portable charger is compatible also with some low input devices (e.g. Smart Watches, some Bluetooth headsets and GPS devices). SecurityAinope’s power bank has a multi-protection system and premium li-polymer battery cells that ensure full protection for your device. It has surge protection, short circuit prevention and more advanced safety features to keep you and your devices safe. The manufacturer ensures that the power bank is designed and built using only high-quality chips and hardware. PROS10,000mAh battery capacityCompact designThe LED display which accurately shows the battery levelDual USB outputCONSNo Fast Charging supportLong charge time of the portable chargerConclusionThe Breakdown DESIGN – 85% SOUND – 90% COMFORT – 80% BATTERY – 80% VALUE – 90% Since the launch of the AirPods by Apple, TWS (True Wireless Stereo) earbuds have rapidly grown in popularity and have quickly become one of the most common type of device to listen to audio on the go. Nowadays, thanks to the fast progress of the technology, lots of TWS earbuds are able to bring a pretty amazing user experience at affordable prices.Today, we’ll be checking out the latest SoundPEATS TruePods which now retail for around . Will they be able to deliver a good value for the money? Let’s find out in the full review!SoundPEATS TruePods True Wireless Earbuds Review: Top QualitySpecs & FeaturesLatest Bluetooth 5.0Advanced touch controlDual mic in each earbud20 hours extended enjoymentBiological diaphragm enhanced soundPackagingThe SoundPEATS TruePods come in a very simple black packaging. Once we lift up the top we quickly have a look at the earbuds case, inside which we find the earbuds themselves. Aside from the two primary tech pieces we also find an USB charging cable and a spare pair of eartips.DesignThe design of the two earbuds is certainly not super innovative or revolutionary. They are indeed inspired by Apple’s AirPods but they definitely aren’t a clone. The design is much more squarish and most noticeably they’re black; no white option here. There are touch controls to turn them on and put them in the various modes. Finally, there is an LED on each earbud which can blink white or red depending on the current mode (pairing, paired, charging).Meanwhile, as far as the charging case is concerned: it looks very stylish and it’s relatively compact. Earbuds lay horizontally inside and there are two LEDS on the front to show whether the charging case needs charging or its already fully charged. On the back there’s an USB Type-C port for charging.Sound QualityThe SoundPEATS TruePods are equipped with what the company calls high-end speaker with “biological diaphragm enhanced sound”. We aren’t sure what these marketing words mean but, in real life use, they sound very good.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe earbuds feature a clean and crystal clear sound, they’re also relatively loud when volume is set to the maximum. Meanwhile basses are still very present and strong, probably also due to the good sound isolation provided by the eartips. Overall a very enjoyable music listening experience. Same can be said about other type of audios like talks, Youtube videos and whatnot. We’ve never any issues with the sound quality provided by the TruePods.Moving onto the microphone side, the audio appears to be pretty clear. The dual mic system definitely helps reducing outside noise, thus it’s possible to actually make a call in most environments.User experienceThe earbuds by SoundPEATS bring a top user experience. With that we mean you never noticed they’re more affordable than big brands’ counterparts.Once you pair them with your smartphone, they will always pair automatically when you take out the main (right) earbud. You then take out the left earbud which pairs with the right one and you’re ready to go. It’s all pretty simple and straight forward.Touch controls make it easy to use them as well. You can double tap the right earbud to pause/play music, double tap the left one to activate Google’s Assistant (or Siri on iOS). Meanwhile if you hold the button you can switch previous or next song. There are also other functionalities you can learn directly on the user manual.BatteryIt’s really hard to quantify how good battery life is on these earbuds as every time you stop using them, you put them in the charging case which of course brings them back to 100%. Either way, we believe the 20 hours battery life claim by the manufacturer is actually accurate. That means you would get 4 hours with the earbuds on one charge, while the charging case provides an additional 16 hours of autonomy.Finally, SoundPEATS smartly decided to provide the charging case with an USB Type-C port. So, you’ll never struggle looking for the right side to charge it back up, a real improvement in “quality of life” over microUSB equipped options.ConclusionThe SoundPEATS TruePods are a very valid option in their price range. We could even go as far as saying they bring much more quality than you’d expect for what you pay. So yes, we definitely suggest you check them out if you’re actually looking for a pair of high quality TWS earbuds.The Breakdown DESIGN – 85% SOUND – 90% COMFORT – 80% BATTERY – 80% VALUE – 90% Since the launch of the AirPods by Apple, TWS (True Wireless Stereo) earbuds have rapidly grown in popularity and have quickly become one of the most common type of device to listen to audio on the go. Nowadays, thanks to the fast progress of the technology, lots of TWS earbuds are able to bring a pretty amazing user experience at affordable prices.Today, we’ll be checking out the latest SoundPEATS TruePods which now retail for around . Will they be able to deliver a good value for the money? Let’s find out in the full review!SoundPEATS TruePods True Wireless Earbuds Review: Top QualitySpecs & FeaturesLatest Bluetooth 5.0Advanced touch controlDual mic in each earbud20 hours extended enjoymentBiological diaphragm enhanced soundPackagingThe SoundPEATS TruePods come in a very simple black packaging. Once we lift up the top we quickly have a look at the earbuds case, inside which we find the earbuds themselves. Aside from the two primary tech pieces we also find an USB charging cable and a spare pair of eartips.DesignThe design of the two earbuds is certainly not super innovative or revolutionary. They are indeed inspired by Apple’s AirPods but they definitely aren’t a clone. The design is much more squarish and most noticeably they’re black; no white option here. There are touch controls to turn them on and put them in the various modes. Finally, there is an LED on each earbud which can blink white or red depending on the current mode (pairing, paired, charging).Meanwhile, as far as the charging case is concerned: it looks very stylish and it’s relatively compact. Earbuds lay horizontally inside and there are two LEDS on the front to show whether the charging case needs charging or its already fully charged. On the back there’s an USB Type-C port for charging.Sound QualityThe SoundPEATS TruePods are equipped with what the company calls high-end speaker with “biological diaphragm enhanced sound”. We aren’t sure what these marketing words mean but, in real life use, they sound very good.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe earbuds feature a clean and crystal clear sound, they’re also relatively loud when volume is set to the maximum. Meanwhile basses are still very present and strong, probably also due to the good sound isolation provided by the eartips. Overall a very enjoyable music listening experience. Same can be said about other type of audios like talks, Youtube videos and whatnot. We’ve never any issues with the sound quality provided by the TruePods.Moving onto the microphone side, the audio appears to be pretty clear. The dual mic system definitely helps reducing outside noise, thus it’s possible to actually make a call in most environments.User experienceThe earbuds by SoundPEATS bring a top user experience. With that we mean you never noticed they’re more affordable than big brands’ counterparts.Once you pair them with your smartphone, they will always pair automatically when you take out the main (right) earbud. You then take out the left earbud which pairs with the right one and you’re ready to go. It’s all pretty simple and straight forward.Touch controls make it easy to use them as well. You can double tap the right earbud to pause/play music, double tap the left one to activate Google’s Assistant (or Siri on iOS). Meanwhile if you hold the button you can switch previous or next song. There are also other functionalities you can learn directly on the user manual.BatteryIt’s really hard to quantify how good battery life is on these earbuds as every time you stop using them, you put them in the charging case which of course brings them back to 100%. Either way, we believe the 20 hours battery life claim by the manufacturer is actually accurate. That means you would get 4 hours with the earbuds on one charge, while the charging case provides an additional 16 hours of autonomy.Finally, SoundPEATS smartly decided to provide the charging case with an USB Type-C port. So, you’ll never struggle looking for the right side to charge it back up, a real improvement in “quality of life” over microUSB equipped options.ConclusionThe SoundPEATS TruePods are a very valid option in their price range. We could even go as far as saying they bring much more quality than you’d expect for what you pay. So yes, we definitely suggest you check them out if you’re actually looking for a pair of high quality TWS earbuds.The Breakdown If youre out in the market for a terrific value-for-money smartphone with good core qualities, the Redmi Note 7 Pro should definitely receive your attention. Build and Design – 85% Display – 80% Performance – 85% Camera – 80% Battery – 85% Pros Attractive build, great performance, good rear cameras, reliable battery life Cons MIUI ads, slow recharging, no dedicated micro SD slot, selfie camera could be better Xiaomis Redmi Note lineup has become a household name in India and is easily the best-selling range for the company in the country to date. But there were doubts about the companys long term vision for the series when the company announced the Redmi Note 6 Pro as it wasnt the usual high-profile upgrade many had expected. But six months after its launch, Xiaomi brought the Redmi Note 7 Pro with some eye-catching specifications on paper and a renovated design. Xiaomi marketed it with a Thug Life tag on its promotional posters but does it really live up to the hype? Weve got our hands on the Redmi Note 7 Pro and well see if the latest Redmi Note has what it takes to win the Indian budget smartphone buyers heart. Build & DesignMany Redmi Note series fans had been clamouring about the unchanging design and build quality of the Note series. With the Redmi Note 7 Pro, the company has finally heard users and taken the series to the next level. Its no longer a matte finish metal with those plastic stripes on the top and bottom. Its metal topped with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and a gradient finish, one that buyers would find attractive and pleasurable to use. The display is also now a dot-notch design which is minimalistic and gives a higher screen-to-body ratio than before. And, theres also a USB Type-C, which is another demanded feature. This is the biggest design upgrade for the Note series and I must say it can now compete with the Realmes and Honors in the industry.Xiaomi throws in a transparent back cover for extra protection which I suggest should be used all the time. The handset is slippery due to the glass coating but it also has P2i splash resistance which is good enough to protect from small drizzles. In short, its a big upgrade over its predecessors and a very pleasant one indeed. One pretty weird thing is the placement of the notification LED slightly offset from the centre on the bottom bezel. Its not a deal breaker or anything but Xiaomi could have moved it to the far extreme to make it much more bearable. DisplayXiaomi has opted for an LTPS 6.3-inch panel with Full-HD+ resolution on the handset. Its a pretty crisp and bright display with good colour accuracy. Viewing angles are great and sunlight legibility isnt a problem either. And Xiaomis MIUI offers a good amount of customization for those who want to tinker with colour tones. For casual users, there wont be much of a difference between this and an AMOLED panel. Im glad that Xiaomi didnt make a bad tradeoff here as the display quality doesnt leave a lot to be desired. Also, if you just despise the notch, theres a way to hide it in the settings and its a good feature to have the option. Redmi Note 7 Pro Performance Performance is one area where the Redmi Note 7 Pro really shines and shows its value. After all, Xiaomi brought the newly-announced 11nm Snapdragon 675 SoC to a price point not seen before. And what we have on our hands is just a powerful handset that is reliable not only for mundane tasks but even hardcore gaming. This processor doesnt hiccup and gets the job done. One particular moment that I repeatedly faced a lag was with the home gesture when I wanted to momentarily exit games. It was a bit annoying but that’s the only place that I faced any stutter. Hence I put up with it. There could be the occasional stutter or frame drop in games but it’s almost non-existent on my phone and overall performance is highly pleasing.Gaming I played COD Mobile with the highest graphics settings and gameplay was buttery smooth. Im not the one to look at many benchmarks but will post the results here. Also, there might be heat build up after long gaming sessions as this is a metal glass build but its under acceptable levels. The price point at which this performance has been achieved is remarkable. If youre into benchmarks, well leave some scores here for you to check out.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramAudio, fingerprint, and call receptionThe fingerprint reader works as usual (very accurate) while face scanning is a tad bit slower than devices like the OnePlus 6T. As for sound quality, its what weve come to expect from most Redmi Note devices in the recent past. The single bottom firing speaker is adequately loud and is sufficient for round-the-clock use. I havent found any additional quality in this particular aspect. Calls and receptivity have also been reliable for the most part, so no complaints there either. Redmi Note 7 Pro Camera That’s another big upgrade area where the competition will have to dig deep to even compete with Xiaomi. The Redmi Note 7 Pro is endowed with a 48MP Sony shooter and it performs admirably in well-lit conditions for a phone under Rs 15,000. Day shots are well detailed with good and accurate colour reproduction and vividness. There’s also a 48MP mode if users want to go all in but I found the 12MP mode enough for my demands.As for low-light shots, the camera still is a big improvement from its predecessor although you start to see noise creeping in as light decreases. There’s a dedicated Night Sight mode which won’t help in reducing the graininess but it does improve the dynamic range.As for selfies, it isn’t as interesting as the rear camera but still clicks very decent portraits in well-lit conditions. In low-light, the quality does come down more than the rear sensor. Edge detection is usually never fully accurate on most phones these days and that’s true for the Note 7 Pro as well. That said, I’d still call this shooter an upgrade over last year’s model. The same can be said for the video mode that tops out at 1080p at 30fps. The stabilization is decent though as it works satisfactorily to cancel out usual shakes and jerks.All in all, it’s remarkable to see how far the Redmi Note series has come in the photography department with the Note 7 Pro. I remember how users of the Redmi Note 3 would lament the lack of a strong camera on an otherwise great handset more than a couple of years back. With the Redmi Note 7 Pro, I’d say the job is accomplished.Redmi Note 7 Pro Battery Xiaomi puts in a 4,000mAh cell inside the Note 7 Pro which Ive found to be fairly adequate. Ive touched the 6-hour SOT mark and sometimes even more with moderate usage. With heavy gaming sessions (1+ hours), I drained the battery faster and it was at 30 percent by evening. This is enough to drag you through the rest of the day. This phone can last you a full-day easily with regular use patterns but extensive gaming sessions will probably lead to the battery ending by night. Again, battery life is all very subjective and your mileage may vary. Theres also QC 4.0 support but sadly theres no compatible charger to provide that fast charging in the box. Youll have to buy it separately.Redmi Note 7 Pro Software: Android Pie MIUI 9 MIUI now has a lot of new features and its improved a lot over time. Theres dark mode, wallpaper carousel, a dedicated theme store, and a great gesture system that works. Theres a lot more but theres no app drawer. I genuinely feel that the company should offer an optional app drawer option. Even recent ColorOS 6 update for OPPO has added the feature while EMUI has had it for a while. As for ads, I honestly didn’t find many obtrusive ones except for notifications from the Mi Browser. This is one negative I admit, but Xiaomi has promised to trim down ads in the near future so let’s hope for the best. Also, these can be switched off. Although this isnt a big drawback as there are a ton of launcher options in the Play Store. Performance-wise, MIUI 10 is a good servant that will tend to your daily needs without being a battery hog. Conclusion

The Breakdown If youre out in the market for a terrific value-for-money smartphone with good core qualities, the Redmi Note 7 Pro should definitely receive your attention. Build and Design – 85% Display – 80% Performance – 85% Camera – 80% Battery – 85% Pros Attractive build, great performance, good rear cameras, reliable battery life Cons MIUI ads, slow recharging, no dedicated micro SD slot, selfie camera could be better Xiaomis Redmi Note lineup has become a household name in India and is easily the best-selling range for the company in the country to date. But there were doubts about the companys long term vision for the series when the company announced the Redmi Note 6 Pro as it wasnt the usual high-profile upgrade many had expected. But six months after its launch, Xiaomi brought the Redmi Note 7 Pro with some eye-catching specifications on paper and a renovated design. Xiaomi marketed it with a Thug Life tag on its promotional posters but does it really live up to the hype? Weve got our hands on the Redmi Note 7 Pro and well see if the latest Redmi Note has what it takes to win the Indian budget smartphone buyers heart. Build & DesignMany Redmi Note series fans had been clamouring about the unchanging design and build quality of the Note series. With the Redmi Note 7 Pro, the company has finally heard users and taken the series to the next level. Its no longer a matte finish metal with those plastic stripes on the top and bottom. Its metal topped with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and a gradient finish, one that buyers would find attractive and pleasurable to use. The display is also now a dot-notch design which is minimalistic and gives a higher screen-to-body ratio than before. And, theres also a USB Type-C, which is another demanded feature. This is the biggest design upgrade for the Note series and I must say it can now compete with the Realmes and Honors in the industry.Xiaomi throws in a transparent back cover for extra protection which I suggest should be used all the time. The handset is slippery due to the glass coating but it also has P2i splash resistance which is good enough to protect from small drizzles. In short, its a big upgrade over its predecessors and a very pleasant one indeed. One pretty weird thing is the placement of the notification LED slightly offset from the centre on the bottom bezel. Its not a deal breaker or anything but Xiaomi could have moved it to the far extreme to make it much more bearable. DisplayXiaomi has opted for an LTPS 6.3-inch panel with Full-HD+ resolution on the handset. Its a pretty crisp and bright display with good colour accuracy. Viewing angles are great and sunlight legibility isnt a problem either. And Xiaomis MIUI offers a good amount of customization for those who want to tinker with colour tones. For casual users, there wont be much of a difference between this and an AMOLED panel. Im glad that Xiaomi didnt make a bad tradeoff here as the display quality doesnt leave a lot to be desired. Also, if you just despise the notch, theres a way to hide it in the settings and its a good feature to have the option. Redmi Note 7 Pro Performance Performance is one area where the Redmi Note 7 Pro really shines and shows its value. After all, Xiaomi brought the newly-announced 11nm Snapdragon 675 SoC to a price point not seen before. And what we have on our hands is just a powerful handset that is reliable not only for mundane tasks but even hardcore gaming. This processor doesnt hiccup and gets the job done. One particular moment that I repeatedly faced a lag was with the home gesture when I wanted to momentarily exit games. It was a bit annoying but that’s the only place that I faced any stutter. Hence I put up with it. There could be the occasional stutter or frame drop in games but it’s almost non-existent on my phone and overall performance is highly pleasing.Gaming I played COD Mobile with the highest graphics settings and gameplay was buttery smooth. Im not the one to look at many benchmarks but will post the results here. Also, there might be heat build up after long gaming sessions as this is a metal glass build but its under acceptable levels. The price point at which this performance has been achieved is remarkable. If youre into benchmarks, well leave some scores here for you to check out.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramAudio, fingerprint, and call receptionThe fingerprint reader works as usual (very accurate) while face scanning is a tad bit slower than devices like the OnePlus 6T. As for sound quality, its what weve come to expect from most Redmi Note devices in the recent past. The single bottom firing speaker is adequately loud and is sufficient for round-the-clock use. I havent found any additional quality in this particular aspect. Calls and receptivity have also been reliable for the most part, so no complaints there either. Redmi Note 7 Pro Camera That’s another big upgrade area where the competition will have to dig deep to even compete with Xiaomi. The Redmi Note 7 Pro is endowed with a 48MP Sony shooter and it performs admirably in well-lit conditions for a phone under Rs 15,000. Day shots are well detailed with good and accurate colour reproduction and vividness. There’s also a 48MP mode if users want to go all in but I found the 12MP mode enough for my demands.As for low-light shots, the camera still is a big improvement from its predecessor although you start to see noise creeping in as light decreases. There’s a dedicated Night Sight mode which won’t help in reducing the graininess but it does improve the dynamic range.As for selfies, it isn’t as interesting as the rear camera but still clicks very decent portraits in well-lit conditions. In low-light, the quality does come down more than the rear sensor. Edge detection is usually never fully accurate on most phones these days and that’s true for the Note 7 Pro as well. That said, I’d still call this shooter an upgrade over last year’s model. The same can be said for the video mode that tops out at 1080p at 30fps. The stabilization is decent though as it works satisfactorily to cancel out usual shakes and jerks.All in all, it’s remarkable to see how far the Redmi Note series has come in the photography department with the Note 7 Pro. I remember how users of the Redmi Note 3 would lament the lack of a strong camera on an otherwise great handset more than a couple of years back. With the Redmi Note 7 Pro, I’d say the job is accomplished.Redmi Note 7 Pro Battery Xiaomi puts in a 4,000mAh cell inside the Note 7 Pro which Ive found to be fairly adequate. Ive touched the 6-hour SOT mark and sometimes even more with moderate usage. With heavy gaming sessions (1+ hours), I drained the battery faster and it was at 30 percent by evening. This is enough to drag you through the rest of the day. This phone can last you a full-day easily with regular use patterns but extensive gaming sessions will probably lead to the battery ending by night. Again, battery life is all very subjective and your mileage may vary. Theres also QC 4.0 support but sadly theres no compatible charger to provide that fast charging in the box. Youll have to buy it separately.Redmi Note 7 Pro Software: Android Pie MIUI 9 MIUI now has a lot of new features and its improved a lot over time. Theres dark mode, wallpaper carousel, a dedicated theme store, and a great gesture system that works. Theres a lot more but theres no app drawer. I genuinely feel that the company should offer an optional app drawer option. Even recent ColorOS 6 update for OPPO has added the feature while EMUI has had it for a while. As for ads, I honestly didn’t find many obtrusive ones except for notifications from the Mi Browser. This is one negative I admit, but Xiaomi has promised to trim down ads in the near future so let’s hope for the best. Also, these can be switched off. Although this isnt a big drawback as there are a ton of launcher options in the Play Store. Performance-wise, MIUI 10 is a good servant that will tend to your daily needs without being a battery hog. ConclusionThe Breakdown The Origem HS-3 are uniquely-styled wireless headphones with an adjustable ear hook, The design is a little different, and the aspects of it are a bit fragile, but ultimately the headphones deliver a great sound quality, which is the most important thing to consider. DESIGN – 75% SOUND – 95% COMFORT – 70% PERFORMANCE – 75% BATTERY – 75% VALUE – 80% The Origem HS-3 are uniquely-styled wireless headphones with an adjustable ear hook, it has a thin flat cable that rests around the neck and a three-button remote for multimedia controls. The latter also has a microphone for answering calls and they are IPX5 certified, which means they will survive the rain. SpecsBluetooth 5.0 (10m range)Supported Codec: APTX, AAC, SBCFrequency: 20Hz~20 KHzTransmission Power: Class II I (-6dBm~+4dBm)Rechargeable lithium polymer battery 3.7VWorking Time: Approx. 6 hoursCharging Time: Approx. 30 minutesMicro USB charging portIPX5 waterproofDimensions : 7.1 x 3.9 x 2 inchesWeight: 0.64 ouncesColors: Silver, Red, GunmetalFeaturesHDR (high dynamic range) algorithm for superior soundHDR Audio algorithm delivers consistent, balanced sound at any volume.It detects the sound pressure of the listening environment and volume of the sound to dynamically adjust loudness for all different frequency levels.Rotating ear hook designThe patented rotating ear hook is designed to fit all ear shapes and ensures a more comfortable fit.Voice recognitionBuilt-in voice recognition provides no-hands control of the music and voice calls.Say your command to control your music, pick up calls or activate the assistant.Quick chargebuilt-in fast charging, the battery can be charged in 30 minutes to provide 6 hours of listening time.IPX5 waterprooffor intense exercise and bad weather, but cant be submerged in water.Camera shutter remote controlMake your headphones a convenient and easy hads-free shutter control for mobile devices.Multiple sized earbuds to fit most ears.Each ear piece has hinged earhooks to provide a secure fit.Smart built-in MIC ensures HD voice for clear conversationsUnboxingBox contents :A padded zipper case to hold everything.A Micro-USB cable for chargingExtra sets of earbuds to fit any size earThe Origem HS-3 HDR Bluetooth earphonesManualsThe box has a quite interesting design, It opens from the side and it is kept closed by magnets which allows opening and closing very comfortably. When we opened it we found everything well accommodated, headphones and a quick guide. The box comes in a dark design on which the picture of the headphones emblazoned. If you open the box, the headphones appear directly with a transport case behind a transparent plastic cover. The case contains earplugs in four sizes (S, M, L and XL) and a USB cable for charging. Inside the box, we also find a quick start guide below the actual headphones.DesignThe patented adjustable ear hook is designed to fit most shape and size of ear. +/- 70 degrees rotatable ear hooks are made from nickel-titanium alloy without the worry of deform or broken. The earphone is fine-tuned with the angle of 120 degrees to provide a more comfortable and secure fit for better audio delivery. 4 sets of customizable earplugs are made by high-quality silicone that ergonomically fits seamlessly in every ear. IPX5 water-resistant rating nano-coating protects the earphones from sweat and ensure more life span, perfect for the gym, jogging, running, cycling, workout, etc.Sound QualityOrigem HS-3 Bluetooth earbuds are equipped with powerful 10mm graphene dynamic driver and high-end CSR8675 chip with DSP audio HDR algorithm. The Algorithm can detect the sound pressure of the listening environment and volume to dynamically adjust for all different frequency levels based on ISO226 Equal Loudness, delivering fullness of sound with detailed highs, crystal clear mids, powerful bass and excellent soundstage.The headphones have good acoustic insulation and a pretty great, clear and natural sound when playing any type of music, they do a really good job mimicking surround sound. The overall experience was excellent.Voice RecognitionThe Origem HS-3 Bluetooth Headphones has a smart microphone, which can recognize your commands immediately after you speak it without hitting a button or anything and ensures crystal clear voice calls. This built-in innovative voice control system can accurately pick up your voice to achieve play/pause music, accept/reject call, previous/next song and activate phone voice assistant. It makes you enjoy real hands-free control over your music and phone calls anytime.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramMicrophone QualityThe included microphone isnt anything unusual. Sure, its a solid microphone, it just isnt backed by any special technologies to really help it excel in tough listening environments. If youre trying to call someone at an airport terminal with a thousand people buzzing around you, then youre not going to be amazed with the kind of call clarity you end up getting.But the microphone does happen to be loaded with a number of smart-listening features because the HS-3 Bluetooth Headphones are built with true voice recondition technology. That lets you access a variety of controls without having to touch a single button. For someone who makes a lot of use out of their voice assistant features, native support is definitely worth noticing.BatteryOrigem makes charging a breeze with 3.7V rechargeable lithium polymer battery specially designed for fast charging. Up to 4X faster than regular headphones, making the headphones able to full charge in about 40 minutes. 10 minutes charging can support up to 2 hours play time.The headphones battery life is 6 hours, which isnt so great along the lines of what we would expect from true wireless headphones, not standard wireless headphones like this. But considering the charge speed, we can turn a blind eye to the battery life.Wireless ConnectivityAs their name suggests, the Origem HS-3 Bluetooth Headphones connect with the aid of Bluetooth 5. That provides a variety of advantages out of the gate, mostly pertaining to sync and signal strength. But as mentioned earlier, youll find these headphones are built with a high-end CSR8675 chip thats capable of delivering DSP audio algorithm support. You could think of this as Bluetooth Plus instead of regular Bluetooth.That chip is also essential to the smooth implementation of their true voice recognition software, which is what allows you to initiate features without having to ever hit a button. You dont even need to use some kind of wake-up word, just start talking and your command will be done. So the voice control system can be quite useful for playing or pausing music, taking or rejecting calls, skipping between tracks, and so forth.Comfort and ease of useAlongside the seamless voice control which is handy, the Origem HS-3 wireless headphones offer 6 hours of playback from a single charge and thanks to the fast charging technology the Origem HS-3 headphones can recharge from flat to full in just 30 minutes. Origem has also equipped the wireless earbuds with patented ear hooks to help keep the earbuds in place even during a workout or while running. They come with a padded zipper case to hold everything during transport, the overall experience is quite satisfactory.Worth noting that control buttons for some weird reason are positioned on the side that is towards your neck. Which means you need to bend your hand and fingers to reach for these buttons. Buttons should be on the side that is facing outwards, so you can easily press them with your fingers.User experienceThe Origem HS-3 headphones have a very good sound quality with the peculiarity of adding the HDR features which allows it to equalize itself with the music it plays, also the manufacturer has the possibility of updating its firmware through USB through the computer.They also have a function that I love and is that they allow being linked to two devices without the need to be constantly linking, in case you want to use them with the laptop or another smartphone, for example. Another function that these headphones have is the voice control that works very well provided you have a good pronunciation of the commands in English.Conclusion

The Breakdown The Origem HS-3 are uniquely-styled wireless headphones with an adjustable ear hook, The design is a little different, and the aspects of it are a bit fragile, but ultimately the headphones deliver a great sound quality, which is the most important thing to consider. DESIGN – 75% SOUND – 95% COMFORT – 70% PERFORMANCE – 75% BATTERY – 75% VALUE – 80% The Origem HS-3 are uniquely-styled wireless headphones with an adjustable ear hook, it has a thin flat cable that rests around the neck and a three-button remote for multimedia controls. The latter also has a microphone for answering calls and they are IPX5 certified, which means they will survive the rain. SpecsBluetooth 5.0 (10m range)Supported Codec: APTX, AAC, SBCFrequency: 20Hz~20 KHzTransmission Power: Class II I (-6dBm~+4dBm)Rechargeable lithium polymer battery 3.7VWorking Time: Approx. 6 hoursCharging Time: Approx. 30 minutesMicro USB charging portIPX5 waterproofDimensions : 7.1 x 3.9 x 2 inchesWeight: 0.64 ouncesColors: Silver, Red, GunmetalFeaturesHDR (high dynamic range) algorithm for superior soundHDR Audio algorithm delivers consistent, balanced sound at any volume.It detects the sound pressure of the listening environment and volume of the sound to dynamically adjust loudness for all different frequency levels.Rotating ear hook designThe patented rotating ear hook is designed to fit all ear shapes and ensures a more comfortable fit.Voice recognitionBuilt-in voice recognition provides no-hands control of the music and voice calls.Say your command to control your music, pick up calls or activate the assistant.Quick chargebuilt-in fast charging, the battery can be charged in 30 minutes to provide 6 hours of listening time.IPX5 waterprooffor intense exercise and bad weather, but cant be submerged in water.Camera shutter remote controlMake your headphones a convenient and easy hads-free shutter control for mobile devices.Multiple sized earbuds to fit most ears.Each ear piece has hinged earhooks to provide a secure fit.Smart built-in MIC ensures HD voice for clear conversationsUnboxingBox contents :A padded zipper case to hold everything.A Micro-USB cable for chargingExtra sets of earbuds to fit any size earThe Origem HS-3 HDR Bluetooth earphonesManualsThe box has a quite interesting design, It opens from the side and it is kept closed by magnets which allows opening and closing very comfortably. When we opened it we found everything well accommodated, headphones and a quick guide. The box comes in a dark design on which the picture of the headphones emblazoned. If you open the box, the headphones appear directly with a transport case behind a transparent plastic cover. The case contains earplugs in four sizes (S, M, L and XL) and a USB cable for charging. Inside the box, we also find a quick start guide below the actual headphones.DesignThe patented adjustable ear hook is designed to fit most shape and size of ear. +/- 70 degrees rotatable ear hooks are made from nickel-titanium alloy without the worry of deform or broken. The earphone is fine-tuned with the angle of 120 degrees to provide a more comfortable and secure fit for better audio delivery. 4 sets of customizable earplugs are made by high-quality silicone that ergonomically fits seamlessly in every ear. IPX5 water-resistant rating nano-coating protects the earphones from sweat and ensure more life span, perfect for the gym, jogging, running, cycling, workout, etc.Sound QualityOrigem HS-3 Bluetooth earbuds are equipped with powerful 10mm graphene dynamic driver and high-end CSR8675 chip with DSP audio HDR algorithm. The Algorithm can detect the sound pressure of the listening environment and volume to dynamically adjust for all different frequency levels based on ISO226 Equal Loudness, delivering fullness of sound with detailed highs, crystal clear mids, powerful bass and excellent soundstage.The headphones have good acoustic insulation and a pretty great, clear and natural sound when playing any type of music, they do a really good job mimicking surround sound. The overall experience was excellent.Voice RecognitionThe Origem HS-3 Bluetooth Headphones has a smart microphone, which can recognize your commands immediately after you speak it without hitting a button or anything and ensures crystal clear voice calls. This built-in innovative voice control system can accurately pick up your voice to achieve play/pause music, accept/reject call, previous/next song and activate phone voice assistant. It makes you enjoy real hands-free control over your music and phone calls anytime.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramMicrophone QualityThe included microphone isnt anything unusual. Sure, its a solid microphone, it just isnt backed by any special technologies to really help it excel in tough listening environments. If youre trying to call someone at an airport terminal with a thousand people buzzing around you, then youre not going to be amazed with the kind of call clarity you end up getting.But the microphone does happen to be loaded with a number of smart-listening features because the HS-3 Bluetooth Headphones are built with true voice recondition technology. That lets you access a variety of controls without having to touch a single button. For someone who makes a lot of use out of their voice assistant features, native support is definitely worth noticing.BatteryOrigem makes charging a breeze with 3.7V rechargeable lithium polymer battery specially designed for fast charging. Up to 4X faster than regular headphones, making the headphones able to full charge in about 40 minutes. 10 minutes charging can support up to 2 hours play time.The headphones battery life is 6 hours, which isnt so great along the lines of what we would expect from true wireless headphones, not standard wireless headphones like this. But considering the charge speed, we can turn a blind eye to the battery life.Wireless ConnectivityAs their name suggests, the Origem HS-3 Bluetooth Headphones connect with the aid of Bluetooth 5. That provides a variety of advantages out of the gate, mostly pertaining to sync and signal strength. But as mentioned earlier, youll find these headphones are built with a high-end CSR8675 chip thats capable of delivering DSP audio algorithm support. You could think of this as Bluetooth Plus instead of regular Bluetooth.That chip is also essential to the smooth implementation of their true voice recognition software, which is what allows you to initiate features without having to ever hit a button. You dont even need to use some kind of wake-up word, just start talking and your command will be done. So the voice control system can be quite useful for playing or pausing music, taking or rejecting calls, skipping between tracks, and so forth.Comfort and ease of useAlongside the seamless voice control which is handy, the Origem HS-3 wireless headphones offer 6 hours of playback from a single charge and thanks to the fast charging technology the Origem HS-3 headphones can recharge from flat to full in just 30 minutes. Origem has also equipped the wireless earbuds with patented ear hooks to help keep the earbuds in place even during a workout or while running. They come with a padded zipper case to hold everything during transport, the overall experience is quite satisfactory.Worth noting that control buttons for some weird reason are positioned on the side that is towards your neck. Which means you need to bend your hand and fingers to reach for these buttons. Buttons should be on the side that is facing outwards, so you can easily press them with your fingers.User experienceThe Origem HS-3 headphones have a very good sound quality with the peculiarity of adding the HDR features which allows it to equalize itself with the music it plays, also the manufacturer has the possibility of updating its firmware through USB through the computer.They also have a function that I love and is that they allow being linked to two devices without the need to be constantly linking, in case you want to use them with the laptop or another smartphone, for example. Another function that these headphones have is the voice control that works very well provided you have a good pronunciation of the commands in English.ConclusionThe Breakdown The Meizu 16s is a great value-for-money proposition that excels in most aspects and isnt bad in others. A solid offering from Meizu. Build and Design – 90% Performance – 90% Battery Life – 85% Camera – 80% Software – 75% Pros Great Screen, Full day battery life, Outstanding performance, Stunning looks, Value-for-money Cons No headphone jack, Flyme OS, cameras could be better Meizus flagship of 2018, the Meizu 16th (review) represented a big upgrade over its short-lived predecessor both in terms of design and specifications. But now, after nine months, the Meizu 16s is here and we’ve got our hands on it and we’ll be finding out if this latest Meizu flagship lives up to the hype. So, heres Gizchinas review of the stunning Meizu 16s. 聽Meizu has settled for a single model this year compared to two variants that were announced last year. We have the White shade here with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage with model number M971H. The Flyme software build number is 7.2.3.GP. Well leave a detailed specification sheet link here if you dont already know it. Looks and Design Last years Meizu 16th was a stunner when it came to look and feel. It was an exquisite piece of metal-glass with great ergonomics and premium materials like ceramic. This years flagship Meizu 16s is even better as it has been designed under the guidance of founder Jack Wong who has 10 years of experience in the same field. As a result, the Meizu 16s bezels are even thinner than before. The chin now measures 4.2mm which is as much as the forehead. Thats another impressive feat as the selfie shooter which is 20MP (Samsung 3T2 sensor) has the smallest selfie lens on a phone.The handsets curved arc design on the rear gives it a very comfortable feel in the hand and the slim 7.6mm body along with 165g of weight makes it a pleasure to hold in the hand. An added touch are the more polished edges which add a bit of shimmer to the already attractive phone. However, I do have to note that the omission of the 3.5mm jack nags me a bit especially considering the phone is slightly thicker than last years model. Display The Meizu 16s has a Super AMOLED display which is slightly bigger than its predecessor model. Its one of the best parts of the handset. Thanks to the COF bonding technique, we have a full-screen experience that is a joy to use day-in-day-out. There are no notches, no cutouts, just a seamless screen with Full-HD+ resolution. It gets bright enough even in strong sunlight to be easily usable, not to mention in-house use is no problem at all. The colour contrast was also balanced and to my liking but users can tweak it in the settings if they want. Being an AMOLED display, viewing angles werent an issue. All in all, the screen is one of the best things about the Meizu 16s. The in-display fingerprint reader is also noticeably faster which was pleasant to see but the face unlock is even faster.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramMeizu 16s CPU Performance The Meizu 16th was a great performer and its successor is an equally good beast if not better. I found daily tasks to be as fluid as ever and the animations were a pleasure to behold. Even more surprising is the fact that I have almost never encountered any lag either in daily use or even while heavy gameplay. If youre looking for raw power, the Meizu 16s is a mean machine that breezes through anything and everything you put in front of it without a hiccup. 聽For gaming, I tried multiple titles such as Call of Duty Mobile (on max settings) and Clash of Clans and suffice to say there were no frame drops or any stutter in even my hour-long sessions, although the phone did heat up a bit by the end of those long games. Sound Quality The audio quality on the handset is good enough via the stereo setup but it seems the lower levels need more punch while the higher levels are adequate. Lets just say the speakers are slightly above average. Sound quality for calls is quite decent although Im not the one to do a lot of long or even short calls. The Meizu 16s also has the same bands as the 16th so overseas buyers might need to consider this before buying. Also, Meizu is yet to declare any plans of announcing the handset outside of China. And as I said, I do miss the headphone jack, please bring it back Meizu. The NFC chip does make a return though.聽Meizu 16s Software The Meizu 16s comes with Flyme OS 7.3 based on Android Pie. However, there arent any new notable features compared to last year. Its pretty much the same UX although Meizu is close to announcing Flyme OS 8.0. I do miss features such as the app drawer as its a vital aspect of my Android experience. The gesture system is something I welcome due to its intuitive nature and ease-of-use. Simply swipe from the edges to go back and swipe up from the bottom of the screen to go home.聽 Theres also this cool feature that allows you to swipe up and down on the bezels to quickly access all app in alphabetical order. I also have to mention that Flyme is quite aggressive with notifications as I had to change permissions to get on-time alerts for even some of my staple apps such as Slack. But once thats done, its fine. In short, Flyme OS is neither special nor am I very annoyed with it. It’s there, it gets the job done.聽Meizu 16s CameraThe 48MP rear camera takes good sharp colour-accurate images in the day. Images turn out to be balanced and well saturated with pleasing tones. Although, the dynamic range was lacking in some shots. Night shots are detailed as well and better than the average mid-ranger but you can start to see noise as light starts to decrease and there’s a dedicated night mode. It’s called Super Night mode and using it can result in a reduced amount of noise. But it’s not as spectacular as the ones on the Pixel or Huawei flagships. Its also got 3x lossless zoom which works as advertised. Selfies also have adequate details in well-lit conditions but tend to be a bit soft in low-light scenarios but still have decent quality. Video quality is great as well and the stabilization is top notch.聽 In essence, the camera won’t disappoint you if you’re not a pro photographer.聽 Battery The battery of the Meizu 16s impressed me, a lot. Its one of the big highlights of the phone. For the first couple of day, I recorded a SOT of more than 6 hours with moderate usage. It included YouTube mostly and social media and around an hour of gaming. But thats it. Even for heavy use, the 3,600mAh battery stands well up to the task and can last at least till the evening. Also, it has 24W fast charge so that helps too. ConclusionIf you hate notches and dig affordable flagship phones, this $475 Meizu flagship is for you. Meizu has improved upon last year’s core hardware which makes the Meizu 16s a more compelling package although I’d have been very happy if they didn’t skip the headphone jack.It’s got the same awesome screen as its predecessor, a bigger battery, a more powerful processor and decent cameras at almost half the price of most premium brands.Meizu 16s official landing page聽

The Breakdown The Meizu 16s is a great value-for-money proposition that excels in most aspects and isnt bad in others. A solid offering from Meizu. Build and Design – 90% Performance – 90% Battery Life – 85% Camera – 80% Software – 75% Pros Great Screen, Full day battery life, Outstanding performance, Stunning looks, Value-for-money Cons No headphone jack, Flyme OS, cameras could be better Meizus flagship of 2018, the Meizu 16th (review) represented a big upgrade over its short-lived predecessor both in terms of design and specifications. But now, after nine months, the Meizu 16s is here and we’ve got our hands on it and we’ll be finding out if this latest Meizu flagship lives up to the hype. So, heres Gizchinas review of the stunning Meizu 16s. 聽Meizu has settled for a single model this year compared to two variants that were announced last year. We have the White shade here with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage with model number M971H. The Flyme software build number is 7.2.3.GP. Well leave a detailed specification sheet link here if you dont already know it. Looks and Design Last years Meizu 16th was a stunner when it came to look and feel. It was an exquisite piece of metal-glass with great ergonomics and premium materials like ceramic. This years flagship Meizu 16s is even better as it has been designed under the guidance of founder Jack Wong who has 10 years of experience in the same field. As a result, the Meizu 16s bezels are even thinner than before. The chin now measures 4.2mm which is as much as the forehead. Thats another impressive feat as the selfie shooter which is 20MP (Samsung 3T2 sensor) has the smallest selfie lens on a phone.The handsets curved arc design on the rear gives it a very comfortable feel in the hand and the slim 7.6mm body along with 165g of weight makes it a pleasure to hold in the hand. An added touch are the more polished edges which add a bit of shimmer to the already attractive phone. However, I do have to note that the omission of the 3.5mm jack nags me a bit especially considering the phone is slightly thicker than last years model. Display The Meizu 16s has a Super AMOLED display which is slightly bigger than its predecessor model. Its one of the best parts of the handset. Thanks to the COF bonding technique, we have a full-screen experience that is a joy to use day-in-day-out. There are no notches, no cutouts, just a seamless screen with Full-HD+ resolution. It gets bright enough even in strong sunlight to be easily usable, not to mention in-house use is no problem at all. The colour contrast was also balanced and to my liking but users can tweak it in the settings if they want. Being an AMOLED display, viewing angles werent an issue. All in all, the screen is one of the best things about the Meizu 16s. The in-display fingerprint reader is also noticeably faster which was pleasant to see but the face unlock is even faster.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramMeizu 16s CPU Performance The Meizu 16th was a great performer and its successor is an equally good beast if not better. I found daily tasks to be as fluid as ever and the animations were a pleasure to behold. Even more surprising is the fact that I have almost never encountered any lag either in daily use or even while heavy gameplay. If youre looking for raw power, the Meizu 16s is a mean machine that breezes through anything and everything you put in front of it without a hiccup. 聽For gaming, I tried multiple titles such as Call of Duty Mobile (on max settings) and Clash of Clans and suffice to say there were no frame drops or any stutter in even my hour-long sessions, although the phone did heat up a bit by the end of those long games. Sound Quality The audio quality on the handset is good enough via the stereo setup but it seems the lower levels need more punch while the higher levels are adequate. Lets just say the speakers are slightly above average. Sound quality for calls is quite decent although Im not the one to do a lot of long or even short calls. The Meizu 16s also has the same bands as the 16th so overseas buyers might need to consider this before buying. Also, Meizu is yet to declare any plans of announcing the handset outside of China. And as I said, I do miss the headphone jack, please bring it back Meizu. The NFC chip does make a return though.聽Meizu 16s Software The Meizu 16s comes with Flyme OS 7.3 based on Android Pie. However, there arent any new notable features compared to last year. Its pretty much the same UX although Meizu is close to announcing Flyme OS 8.0. I do miss features such as the app drawer as its a vital aspect of my Android experience. The gesture system is something I welcome due to its intuitive nature and ease-of-use. Simply swipe from the edges to go back and swipe up from the bottom of the screen to go home.聽 Theres also this cool feature that allows you to swipe up and down on the bezels to quickly access all app in alphabetical order. I also have to mention that Flyme is quite aggressive with notifications as I had to change permissions to get on-time alerts for even some of my staple apps such as Slack. But once thats done, its fine. In short, Flyme OS is neither special nor am I very annoyed with it. It’s there, it gets the job done.聽Meizu 16s CameraThe 48MP rear camera takes good sharp colour-accurate images in the day. Images turn out to be balanced and well saturated with pleasing tones. Although, the dynamic range was lacking in some shots. Night shots are detailed as well and better than the average mid-ranger but you can start to see noise as light starts to decrease and there’s a dedicated night mode. It’s called Super Night mode and using it can result in a reduced amount of noise. But it’s not as spectacular as the ones on the Pixel or Huawei flagships. Its also got 3x lossless zoom which works as advertised. Selfies also have adequate details in well-lit conditions but tend to be a bit soft in low-light scenarios but still have decent quality. Video quality is great as well and the stabilization is top notch.聽 In essence, the camera won’t disappoint you if you’re not a pro photographer.聽 Battery The battery of the Meizu 16s impressed me, a lot. Its one of the big highlights of the phone. For the first couple of day, I recorded a SOT of more than 6 hours with moderate usage. It included YouTube mostly and social media and around an hour of gaming. But thats it. Even for heavy use, the 3,600mAh battery stands well up to the task and can last at least till the evening. Also, it has 24W fast charge so that helps too. ConclusionIf you hate notches and dig affordable flagship phones, this $475 Meizu flagship is for you. Meizu has improved upon last year’s core hardware which makes the Meizu 16s a more compelling package although I’d have been very happy if they didn’t skip the headphone jack.It’s got the same awesome screen as its predecessor, a bigger battery, a more powerful processor and decent cameras at almost half the price of most premium brands.Meizu 16s official landing page聽The Breakdown Hummer 2019 is a budget rugged phone. As NOA likes with all its portfolio, it is elegant having beautiful small details, followed by a trully affordable pricing and IP68 water resistance. If youre in the market for a phone with similar specs, then you must have a look at it. Design – 78% Performance – 69% Battery – 82% Camera – 68% Software – 75% 螡螣螒 had an excellent 2018 having its NOA N10 being awarded the prestigious Best Buy smartphone during the European EISA Awards ceremony. The other two awards went to Huawei P20 Pro for Best smartphone and Nokia 7 Plus for Best Consumer smartphone. With Huawei being the second largest smartphone brand globally and Nokia (HMD GLobal) being in top 5 in Europe it was a surprise that a small Croatian company managed to get the VFM award. We had the chance to see N10 – you can read here the extensive review – and we are looking forward for NOA N20,聽the next smartphone in the companys Elements line. 螡螣螒 has three main lines. Other than Elements lineup, NOA has a budget Core line and a Rugged line to cover the markets needs. From the Rugged line the newest product is called Hummer 2019. The smartphone was presented in MWC Barcelona and was offered first to the HGSS the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service!This smartphone arrived to our offices for a review and the following, are the sum of our impressions. NOA Hummer 2019 – Technical SpecificationsOS: Android 8.1SoC: MediaTek MTK6739 Quadcore A53,1.5GHzCPU: 4x 1.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A53, Cores: 4, 64-bitGPU: PowerVR GE8100 GPU , 570 MHz, Cores: 2ROM: 16GB, Micro SD card up to 128GBRAM: 3GB RAM LPDD3, 666MHzDisplay: 5.5″ Incell HD+ 720*1440px, 293ppiFront Camera: 8MPBack Camera: 13MP + 2MPNetwork: NFC, 4G, BT4.0, WiFi b/g/n, 802.11 b/g/n, support Hotspot . GSM:850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, UMTS: 900, 2100 MHz, LTE (FDD): 800, 1800, 2100, 2600 MHzSIM: 2 Nano SIM Cards, Dual standbyBattery: 3800 mAh Li-PoExtras: IP68, MIL-STD-810G,G/P/L-sensor, Gyrometer, Lightsensor GPS (1.57542GHz) + AGPS Navigator, USB Type-C, NFCDimensions: 156 X 75 X 12 mmNOA Hummer 2019 – UnboxingThe smartphone arrives in a yellowish hard paper box. The brand name is written in black while a huge R, U and G letters with huge font work as the design.The box is covered in plastic wrap. Inside the phone is the first think to see, inside a plastic bug. Covering the screen is a hard sticker with the logo and the characteristics (a first to see in a retailers box). The bottom of the box has a white sticker with black letters describing the characteristics and various other information.Inside you will find:1 X NOA Hummer 2019 rugged smartphone1 X Power adapter 5V/0.3A1 X USB to USB-C cable1 X USB-C to USB-OTG cable1 X set of headphones, 3,5mm1 X SIM card eject tool1 X Manual and 1 easy to setup guideThe retail box is excellent and full. I like the headphones and the OTG cable, rarely offered with any smartphone anymore. The Hummer arrived with the aforementioned sticker and a protection sticker over the fingerprint sensor. The packaging is as good as in the N10 flagship we saw last year. NOA Hummer 2019 – DesignThe mobile comes only in Black with orange details. It is masculine while having a sporting touch. In the front we see a 5.5 inch display. The top bezel is big – it has the microphone, the frontal single selfie camera with the LED flash, and the usual pack of sensors. The LED flash is welcomed for selfies in low light conditions. Unfortunately there is no notification light. The microphone is wide so you wont have to align the smartphone to your ear for a clear sound, an issue usually met with many smartphones. There are thick bezels on the side and a bigger one on the bottom that has the NOA logo on it. There are no physical keys on the lower bezel.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe frame is metallic (aluminum) with matte grey colour in the most part of the sides and hardened plastic in the rest. The metallic part has three silver joints – another pleasant detail. In the right side there are two metallic buttons, one large for the volume control and one orange in colour, for the power/lock button. Both buttons are niched for better grip. There is a small rattling noise and partial movement when you move your fingers on them but nothing serious to complain about. I would prefer the volume button to be larger for ease of use however. In the left side there is a metallic button – used for the camera – and the SIM/SDcard hybrid tray. Same rattling noise and partial movement with the specialised button here. On the top there is a covered port for the 3.5 mm audio jack. On the lower part you will find the covered USB type C port and a noise cancellation microphone. The microphone is in the lower left back inside a double holed grille. 聽The back panel is made from hardened plastic and it’s the most interesting part of this rugged smartphone. We can see a design of two notches each having orange coloured dots. The rest looks and feels like a hardened leather cover was sawn in. In the center top we can see in a vertical position the two camera lenses and the fingerprint sensor. On the right side of the two lenses we can see the Dual LED flash light. In the center there is sticker with the IMEI numbers and the S/N – you can remove it of course. Bellow there is the NOA logo, IP68 mark, Designed in EU logo, CE marking and the microphone.The rounded frame and the leather textured back panel allows for an excellent grip on the phone. The is no bulge on the camera set. The joins between alla materials is perfect. The leathered texture back and the orange details present a mix of sport/luxury design we have never seen before. NOA has a good design department and they are not cutting any corners in their Rugged line.NOA Hummer 2019 – HardwareThe protection is the main selling point of any rugged phone. Hummer 2019 is build on IP68 standards. That is officially protection from contact with harmful dust and Protection from immersion in water with a depth of more than 1 meter. You cant find a better IP rating on phones. 聽MIL-STD-810 stands for a “MILitary STandarD” used in the United States. For certification with this standard, the resistance of the devices tested to extreme conditions to which they may be subjected during their life cycle emphasized. This standard establishes testing methods that replicate the effects of environmental stress on devices. MIL-STD-810G is the latest standard – 31 October 2008- and it was the most serious and detailed change in the standard, focusing on shock and vibration resistance tests. Hummer has this standard too. This rugged smartphone has the top level in protection standards, thus it can guarantee that it will keep working under all conditions. The screen has a 5.5 inch IPS INCELL panel. It has an HD+ resolution (720 x 1440) with 293 ppi and 67% screen to body ratio. The display is bright and text is visible under bright sun. It is visible under the midday sun but not as much as I wanted. Viewing angles are excellent. The display is probably made from the same manufacturer as N10, AU Optronics Corp., a Taiwanese company, reputed for its quality products.聽This smartphone comes with the MediaTek MTK6739 chipset. It is an 4-core processor with 4 Cortex-A53 cores working at a frequency of 1.5GHz. This is a power efficient SoC. Along comes a 3800 mAh battery and the combination is guaranteed to keep the phone on for many days in case of need. GPU is GE8100. The SoC is supported by 3 GB RAM and 16GB of ROM memory. Internal storage can be increased using a SDcard for up to 128GB more storage. This is a rugged phone to use when working outside, on camping, on military or as a daily tool in fire brigades or police. It is not designed for gaming or media playback. All the extras – and this phone has a lot of extras – are there to make daily usage easier. Having that said, Hummer 2019 focuses in protection and users needs when outdoors. It has an excellent signal reception either with 4G/LTE or 3G. Connectivity is great. GSM:850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, UMTS: 900, 2100 MHz, LTE (FDD): 800, 1800, 2100, 2600 MHz so this means that the phone is an excellent companion for your travels. Obviously, it has Bluetooth and NFC, while the latter is not found in many medium price range devices so it is a welcomed plus. Wifi allows the device to be connected to 802.11 b/g/n and can be used as a WiFi Hotspot. It supports dual SIM functionality with two nano-SIMs or a nano-SIM and the aforementioned microSD card. The smartphone has a good sensor pack with GPS (A-GPS, Beidou, GLONASS, GPS), Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor and FM Radio. Navigation works fine with satellites being found fast and having a good precision.聽Audio is good both during calls and while music playback. It is not very loud but the sound is clear without any significant distortion. Call quality is excellent and Skype 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.Hummer 2019 has a double camera in the back with a main 13MP sensor and a 2MP for depth perspective. It is not advertised in the official page because it is a simple set for keeping memories and not participating in any photography contests. Same applies for the selfie-cam that has an 8MP sensor. The camera application has all the basic stuff you expect these days. Photos and videos in daylight are viewable. In low light… well you need to find some strong light to get a mediocre picture. There is a Li-Pol, non removable, 3800 mAh battery. Along with the SoC and the small HD+ display, the battery provides up to two days of medium usage, or even more when outdoors without internet. The 5V charger takes about an hour and forty minutes to fully charge the battery.NOA Hummer 2019 – SoftwareThe operating system found in the smartphone is stock Android 8.1 using a black theme. I dont know whether Hummer 2019 will be updated to Android 9 Pie. Last security patch is from March 2019. I had no OTA update and I have no idea whether this smartphone is to be updated constantly or at all. Face Unlock works properly, even in low light environment if youll keep the phone steady. Face Unlock is not a 100% safe method to use and I prefer the fast and reliable fingerprint sensor. I am not happy with the speed of both the biometric sensors. I had the same issue in N10 and I think this is a project to work on for NOA. Multitasking is minimal. The quad processor is energy efficient and not for media consuming of gaming. Benchmarks have very poor results as you can see. Gaming considering the SoC is doable with low graphic settings. I tried Asphalt 9 and PUGB mobile, graphics, sound and lag makes the experience enjoyable only when you want to kill some time. Phone gets a bit warm during gaming.NOA Hummer 2019 – ConclusionHummer 2019 is a budget rugged phone. As NOA likes with all of its portfolio, it is elegant having beautiful small details. It looks great outside however, I have to admit it.聽It is perfect for working outdoors, or for military service, police and fire brigade personnel and people that enjoy nature. This is not the phone that you will worry about when passing over a deep river on foot, or having in the a sandy beach under a scorching sun (40C) during your summer holidays. It will work when you will need it. While having to do with a low-end hardware you can use your social apps plus you can kill some time gaming, but only basic stuff. GPS and radio are good while keeping us company and battery is perfectly sized for the job. Camera is for basic usage only, so don’t expect too much from it.The Breakdown Hummer 2019 is a budget rugged phone. As NOA likes with all its portfolio, it is elegant having beautiful small details, followed by a trully affordable pricing and IP68 water resistance. If youre in the market for a phone with similar specs, then you must have a look at it. Design – 78% Performance – 69% Battery – 82% Camera – 68% Software – 75% 螡螣螒 had an excellent 2018 having its NOA N10 being awarded the prestigious Best Buy smartphone during the European EISA Awards ceremony. The other two awards went to Huawei P20 Pro for Best smartphone and Nokia 7 Plus for Best Consumer smartphone. With Huawei being the second largest smartphone brand globally and Nokia (HMD GLobal) being in top 5 in Europe it was a surprise that a small Croatian company managed to get the VFM award. We had the chance to see N10 – you can read here the extensive review – and we are looking forward for NOA N20,聽the next smartphone in the companys Elements line. 螡螣螒 has three main lines. Other than Elements lineup, NOA has a budget Core line and a Rugged line to cover the markets needs. From the Rugged line the newest product is called Hummer 2019. The smartphone was presented in MWC Barcelona and was offered first to the HGSS the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service!This smartphone arrived to our offices for a review and the following, are the sum of our impressions. NOA Hummer 2019 – Technical SpecificationsOS: Android 8.1SoC: MediaTek MTK6739 Quadcore A53,1.5GHzCPU: 4x 1.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A53, Cores: 4, 64-bitGPU: PowerVR GE8100 GPU , 570 MHz, Cores: 2ROM: 16GB, Micro SD card up to 128GBRAM: 3GB RAM LPDD3, 666MHzDisplay: 5.5″ Incell HD+ 720*1440px, 293ppiFront Camera: 8MPBack Camera: 13MP + 2MPNetwork: NFC, 4G, BT4.0, WiFi b/g/n, 802.11 b/g/n, support Hotspot . GSM:850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, UMTS: 900, 2100 MHz, LTE (FDD): 800, 1800, 2100, 2600 MHzSIM: 2 Nano SIM Cards, Dual standbyBattery: 3800 mAh Li-PoExtras: IP68, MIL-STD-810G,G/P/L-sensor, Gyrometer, Lightsensor GPS (1.57542GHz) + AGPS Navigator, USB Type-C, NFCDimensions: 156 X 75 X 12 mmNOA Hummer 2019 – UnboxingThe smartphone arrives in a yellowish hard paper box. The brand name is written in black while a huge R, U and G letters with huge font work as the design.The box is covered in plastic wrap. Inside the phone is the first think to see, inside a plastic bug. Covering the screen is a hard sticker with the logo and the characteristics (a first to see in a retailers box). The bottom of the box has a white sticker with black letters describing the characteristics and various other information.Inside you will find:1 X NOA Hummer 2019 rugged smartphone1 X Power adapter 5V/0.3A1 X USB to USB-C cable1 X USB-C to USB-OTG cable1 X set of headphones, 3,5mm1 X SIM card eject tool1 X Manual and 1 easy to setup guideThe retail box is excellent and full. I like the headphones and the OTG cable, rarely offered with any smartphone anymore. The Hummer arrived with the aforementioned sticker and a protection sticker over the fingerprint sensor. The packaging is as good as in the N10 flagship we saw last year. NOA Hummer 2019 – DesignThe mobile comes only in Black with orange details. It is masculine while having a sporting touch. In the front we see a 5.5 inch display. The top bezel is big – it has the microphone, the frontal single selfie camera with the LED flash, and the usual pack of sensors. The LED flash is welcomed for selfies in low light conditions. Unfortunately there is no notification light. The microphone is wide so you wont have to align the smartphone to your ear for a clear sound, an issue usually met with many smartphones. There are thick bezels on the side and a bigger one on the bottom that has the NOA logo on it. There are no physical keys on the lower bezel.聽Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe frame is metallic (aluminum) with matte grey colour in the most part of the sides and hardened plastic in the rest. The metallic part has three silver joints – another pleasant detail. In the right side there are two metallic buttons, one large for the volume control and one orange in colour, for the power/lock button. Both buttons are niched for better grip. There is a small rattling noise and partial movement when you move your fingers on them but nothing serious to complain about. I would prefer the volume button to be larger for ease of use however. In the left side there is a metallic button – used for the camera – and the SIM/SDcard hybrid tray. Same rattling noise and partial movement with the specialised button here. On the top there is a covered port for the 3.5 mm audio jack. On the lower part you will find the covered USB type C port and a noise cancellation microphone. The microphone is in the lower left back inside a double holed grille. 聽The back panel is made from hardened plastic and it’s the most interesting part of this rugged smartphone. We can see a design of two notches each having orange coloured dots. The rest looks and feels like a hardened leather cover was sawn in. In the center top we can see in a vertical position the two camera lenses and the fingerprint sensor. On the right side of the two lenses we can see the Dual LED flash light. In the center there is sticker with the IMEI numbers and the S/N – you can remove it of course. Bellow there is the NOA logo, IP68 mark, Designed in EU logo, CE marking and the microphone.The rounded frame and the leather textured back panel allows for an excellent grip on the phone. The is no bulge on the camera set. The joins between alla materials is perfect. The leathered texture back and the orange details present a mix of sport/luxury design we have never seen before. NOA has a good design department and they are not cutting any corners in their Rugged line.NOA Hummer 2019 – HardwareThe protection is the main selling point of any rugged phone. Hummer 2019 is build on IP68 standards. That is officially protection from contact with harmful dust and Protection from immersion in water with a depth of more than 1 meter. You cant find a better IP rating on phones. 聽MIL-STD-810 stands for a “MILitary STandarD” used in the United States. For certification with this standard, the resistance of the devices tested to extreme conditions to which they may be subjected during their life cycle emphasized. This standard establishes testing methods that replicate the effects of environmental stress on devices. MIL-STD-810G is the latest standard – 31 October 2008- and it was the most serious and detailed change in the standard, focusing on shock and vibration resistance tests. Hummer has this standard too. This rugged smartphone has the top level in protection standards, thus it can guarantee that it will keep working under all conditions. The screen has a 5.5 inch IPS INCELL panel. It has an HD+ resolution (720 x 1440) with 293 ppi and 67% screen to body ratio. The display is bright and text is visible under bright sun. It is visible under the midday sun but not as much as I wanted. Viewing angles are excellent. The display is probably made from the same manufacturer as N10, AU Optronics Corp., a Taiwanese company, reputed for its quality products.聽This smartphone comes with the MediaTek MTK6739 chipset. It is an 4-core processor with 4 Cortex-A53 cores working at a frequency of 1.5GHz. This is a power efficient SoC. Along comes a 3800 mAh battery and the combination is guaranteed to keep the phone on for many days in case of need. GPU is GE8100. The SoC is supported by 3 GB RAM and 16GB of ROM memory. Internal storage can be increased using a SDcard for up to 128GB more storage. This is a rugged phone to use when working outside, on camping, on military or as a daily tool in fire brigades or police. It is not designed for gaming or media playback. All the extras – and this phone has a lot of extras – are there to make daily usage easier. Having that said, Hummer 2019 focuses in protection and users needs when outdoors. It has an excellent signal reception either with 4G/LTE or 3G. Connectivity is great. GSM:850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, UMTS: 900, 2100 MHz, LTE (FDD): 800, 1800, 2100, 2600 MHz so this means that the phone is an excellent companion for your travels. Obviously, it has Bluetooth and NFC, while the latter is not found in many medium price range devices so it is a welcomed plus. Wifi allows the device to be connected to 802.11 b/g/n and can be used as a WiFi Hotspot. It supports dual SIM functionality with two nano-SIMs or a nano-SIM and the aforementioned microSD card. The smartphone has a good sensor pack with GPS (A-GPS, Beidou, GLONASS, GPS), Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor and FM Radio. Navigation works fine with satellites being found fast and having a good precision.聽Audio is good both during calls and while music playback. It is not very loud but the sound is clear without any significant distortion. Call quality is excellent and Skype 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.Hummer 2019 has a double camera in the back with a main 13MP sensor and a 2MP for depth perspective. It is not advertised in the official page because it is a simple set for keeping memories and not participating in any photography contests. Same applies for the selfie-cam that has an 8MP sensor. The camera application has all the basic stuff you expect these days. Photos and videos in daylight are viewable. In low light… well you need to find some strong light to get a mediocre picture. There is a Li-Pol, non removable, 3800 mAh battery. Along with the SoC and the small HD+ display, the battery provides up to two days of medium usage, or even more when outdoors without internet. The 5V charger takes about an hour and forty minutes to fully charge the battery.NOA Hummer 2019 – SoftwareThe operating system found in the smartphone is stock Android 8.1 using a black theme. I dont know whether Hummer 2019 will be updated to Android 9 Pie. Last security patch is from March 2019. I had no OTA update and I have no idea whether this smartphone is to be updated constantly or at all. Face Unlock works properly, even in low light environment if youll keep the phone steady. Face Unlock is not a 100% safe method to use and I prefer the fast and reliable fingerprint sensor. I am not happy with the speed of both the biometric sensors. I had the same issue in N10 and I think this is a project to work on for NOA. Multitasking is minimal. The quad processor is energy efficient and not for media consuming of gaming. Benchmarks have very poor results as you can see. Gaming considering the SoC is doable with low graphic settings. I tried Asphalt 9 and PUGB mobile, graphics, sound and lag makes the experience enjoyable only when you want to kill some time. Phone gets a bit warm during gaming.NOA Hummer 2019 – ConclusionHummer 2019 is a budget rugged phone. As NOA likes with all of its portfolio, it is elegant having beautiful small details. It looks great outside however, I have to admit it.聽It is perfect for working outdoors, or for military service, police and fire brigade personnel and people that enjoy nature. This is not the phone that you will worry about when passing over a deep river on foot, or having in the a sandy beach under a scorching sun (40C) during your summer holidays. It will work when you will need it. While having to do with a low-end hardware you can use your social apps plus you can kill some time gaming, but only basic stuff. GPS and radio are good while keeping us company and battery is perfectly sized for the job. Camera is for basic usage only, so don’t expect too much from it.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 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.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.

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 verdictWe 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”*.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_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

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 shopIf 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.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.

The huge demand for bezel-less smartphones has placed several smartphone manufacturers in the middle of a race for the best offering. The advent of 18:9 screens have brought us the possibility of having handsets with large displays, but without sacrificing size, ergonomics and design.Now it’s possible to have a 6-inch smartphone that is comfortable to hold, and also a 5.7-inch smartphone that would sit alongside old 5.2-inch devices. The Chinese smartphone industry is betting high on this new trend, and Umidigi is no exception. The Umidigi A1 Pro is the latest company’s offering for the budget segment, with a nice design, compact display, and specs that don’t compromise the performance of a $99 smartphone. Keep reading, and you’ll know more about this decent package. – Main Specs:Display: 5.5-inch 1440×720 pixels LCD IPS panelCPU: MT6739 Quad-Core 1.5GHzSystem: Android 8.1 OreoStorage: 3GB RAM + 16GB ROMCameras: 13MP + 5MP f/2.0 dual back cameras and 5MP f/2.4 front-facing snapperSensors: Gravity Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Gyroscope, Magnetic Field SensorFeatures: GPS, GlonassBluetooth: 4.0SIM Card: Dual SIM Dual Standby, 2 Nano SIM or 1 Nano SIM + microSD cardNetworks: 2G: GSM B2/3/5/83G: WCDMA B1/2/4/5/84G: LTE FDD B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/19/20LTE TDD B38/40/41Size: 145.3 x 69.1 x 8.5mmWeight: 173gBattery: 3150mAhPackage and Accessories:The Umidigi A1 Pro comes inside a plain black package with the Umidigi Logo written in gold letters. There is cool cover above the standard box, you’ll just need to swipe it to have access to the box with all the contents. Behind the box, we have some details about the Umidigi A1 Pro specifications.Inside the box we have the standard set of acessories that Umidigi often includes with most of its handsets:Protective CaseSmall ManualUSB Type-C casePower Adapter 5V/2AScreen Protector (Installed on the phone)Sim NeedleOf course, this isn’t the biggest package of accessories provided by a manufacturer, but it’s good to have the enough for the daily adventures. I dunno how the glass rear back would stand against non-flat surfaces, also it’s good to have a screen protector for avoiding unnecessary scratches.When it comes to the main package itself, Umidigi provided a long USB Type-C cable that seems to be made of quality materials. Judging from this, I really need to say how impressive is to have the new standard on a 99$ smartphone – for example Xiaomi could learn a thing or two from these small companies.Design:The strongest point of Umidigi A1 Pro, to not mention the price, is its design. The handset mixes the best of design languages to combine into a phone that for sure doesn’t look to be cheap as it is. While on the front we have a 5.5-inch 18:9 display that could easily be confused as a 5.0-inch smartphone, on the back Umidigi choose a glossy back that really makes the device stand out against competition on this segment. The dual-camera setup is vertically aligned on the middle of the phone, with the dual LED flash marking its presence as well.The materials itself doesn’t look to be really made out of glass, but of a thin plastic frame, however, the look is what matters… as a consequence, the back of this handset is a fingerprint magnet, and should scratch easily. So grab the back cover included on the package.Turning back to the display, Umidigi deserves some applause for trimming down the 5.5-inch display to a 5.0-inch pocket-friendly form factor. Is this result of a wizardry? Of course not, it’s one of the results achieved by the 18:9 trend, large and taller displays that does not hurt design. On the top portion of the smartphone, we can spot the 5MP selfie snapper, the ear speaker, and the sensors. Unfortunately, there’s no Notification LED which the absence is really annoying.If you’re looking for a cheap phone that fits perfectly on your pocket, the A1 Pro is a good choice. I’ve been using bigger than 5.5-inch smartphones for the past years, and this smartphone really looks smaller than it is, but the 5.5-inch HD+ display is really there.Moving to the bottom of the smartphone, we can find the USB C port alongside the 3.5mm headphone jack, that marks a presence here. With the addition of USB Type-C, Umidigi could have chosen to drop the old headphone port, but thankfully the company decided to keep the old and loved port. On the bottom, we can also find the speaker grill and the microphone.Moving to the top, we can find the SIM tray, where the user can opt between using Dual SIM nano cards or a single SIM + microSD for further expanding the 16GB onboard storage.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramTo conclude the design section of this review, the Umidigi A1 Pro houses the Volume and Power button on the right side, while on the left there’s nothing to write about. Worth mentioning that in order to make a compact phone, Umidigi had to place the 173g of this smartphone in a minor form-factor, so the phone feels heavier and thicker (8.3mm) than it looks.Hardware:The strong selling point of this smartphone, probably won’t be its hardware but everything that you can acquire with this combination of specs. The display itself is one of the good sides of this smartphone, despite its 1440×720 pixels of resolution, the display looks good enough for multimedia content and everyday usage. However, against strong sunlight, its visibility becomes compromised, out of this scenario you can easily spot the content on this compact 18:9 panel.This budget, beauty and pocket-friendly smartphone are powered by MediaTek’s favorite processor for the budget segment – The 1.5GHz QuadCore MT6739 SoC. The processor itself is a cost-effective chipset made for the low-end segment its 1.5GHz 4xA53 cores can handle most tasks, while also offering a low energy consumption. The graphical power is ensured by the MG PowerVR GE8100 GPU clocked at 570MHz.This combination of specs makes a smartphone that can handle average tasks like web-browsing, social media apps, multimedia content, however, things start to be a little messy when you try to play games, you’ll be able to play casual games but the more intensive graphical gaming will have a poor performance. Thankfully, Umidigi included 3GB of RAM on this smartphone, so you won’t have applications resetting in the background all the time. When it comes to storage we have 16GB that can be further expanded via a microSD card. The handset supports dual SIM dual standby funcionality, its coverage includes the following networks/frequencies:2G: GSM B2/3/5/83G: WCDMA B1/2/4/5/84G: LTE FDD B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/19/20LTE TDD B38/40/41The sensor package inside this smartphone is composed of the Accelerometer Sensor, Light Sensor, Orientation Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Gyroscope, Magnetic Field Sensor and Pressure Sensor. The Bluetooth 4.0 is pretty stable on this smartphone, so I could easily hear music through my Bluetooth Headphone without drops or any kind of issue. The navigation power is ensured by GPS, A-GPS, and Glonass. The lock times can be a little longer if you are inside the house, but they are pretty fast and precise if you’re outside. The WiFi connectivity also works pretty fine with good reception and zero drops, LTE is fast and Call Quality is also great. Video Calls are also stable, but can become a little laggy if you’re running a lot of tasks in the background.Software:One of the amazing characteristics of this smartphone is on the fact that it is running Android 8.1 Oreo right out the box. It’s amazing to see Umidigi providing an updated version of Android, while some other manufacturers are still shipping phones with the two years old Android 7.1.2.The software itself is complete stock, there some customizations made by Umi here or there, but the main part is made of Google’s Pure 8.1 Oreo. The interface is entirely pure without any kind of fancy menu or weird icon pack if you enjoy the experience of an Android One smartphone will really love this handset. One of the custom additions made by Umi on the A1 Pro is the addition of a Face Unlock feature.To enroll your face, you’ll just need to find the “Face Unlock” section in the main Settings menu, after that you can “Start Enroll” and place your face on the circle to get your face recognized. It works only when the screen is on, and isn’t more convenient than placing your finger on the fingerprint sensor, however, if you like new things you can try the Face Unlock feature.Worth noting, that since Umidigi A1 Pro comes with Android 8.1 Oreo it has Project Treble compatibility. That means that the device could theoretically receive faster updates once that Google releases new versions of Android, but we don’t know if this will be the case since Umidigi isn’t a company with a good update track for its smartphones. However, the Treble viability could facilitate the process of porting a from the handset. I tried to flash a Custom Treble GSI (Generic System Image) on the A1 Pro, without success and the phone got stuck at boot. Let’s see if in the future we’ll have a GSI that is compatible with A1 Pro, for now, Treble is just a cool addition to this phone. The handset comes with Android 8.1.0 and brings the April Google Security Patch. Right on the top of the About Phone menu, we can see the Wireless Update option, there we can find if Umidigi has provided any kind of update for the smartphone.Camera:Of course, one of the main market strategies adopted by Umidigi with the A1 Pro uses the dual-camera setup placed on this smartphone back. The setup consists of a pair of 13MP and 5MP sensors with f/2.0 lens aperture. The camera application itself is pretty simple bringing the Photo, Video, Panorama, Beauty, and Bokeh Mode. The Photo, Video and Panorama modes are self-explanatory, while the Beauty mode consists in a kind of beautify effect pre-loaded when you take a picture, it can be useful for selfies, but the results look rather generic. The Bokeh effect tries to mimic the loved effect of Portrait pictures, however, on the practice, it is far from perfection. Like we have seen on previous smartphones equipped with two cameras, the Bokeh effect is nothing more than a blur effect towards a circle that you can adjust. The rear camera can take up to 13MP pictures and record up to 1080p 30FPS video footages. It has EZL mode for reducing the shooter delay, Anti-shake mode, EIS, Auto Scene detection, Timer mode, White Balance control and Anti-flicker. During the sunlight I could take some decent pictures with the A1 Pro, the problem comes at night. Overall, the focus speed is decent enough for fast snaps, and pictures are detailed in most scenarios. When it comes to the Bokeh effect, it isn’t the best way to take portrait pictures, and you’ll need some tweaking in order to take decent pictures with that blurred effect. The pair of dual cameras does a decent job in what Umidigi proposes with the A1 Pro, it’s a $99 phone that can take good-looking pictures in light environments. Turn off the lights, and you’ll have a lot of noise everywhere. However, even in dark conditions, the pictures are “usable” enough. The double LED flash also make wonder in some extreme situations, so it’ll be a good friend, of course, if you don’t mind using it. The selfie camera in counterpart surprised me in a good sense. The 5MP f/2.4 unit can take some detailed pictures of the sunlight, and doesn’t lose much its quality inside the house or in darker environments. The Beauty mode can improve the selfies, but that results in pictures that are too much artificial for my taste.The camera can take some decent video footages as well, however, don’t expect to see the more smooth and stable videos. While EIS is present, the results achieved with it are just average and 30FPS is only the bare minimum nowadays, however, take in mind that this is a smartphone made for the low-end budget segment.Battery:The Umidigi A1 Pro packs a non-removable 3,150mAh battery. This capacity is more than enough for an entire day of usage, due to the low-end processor and the resolution it is easy to get through an entire day of work and arrive at home with more than 20% of juice.Of course, if you’re a gaming person you can easily drain this battery, especially when this processor and GPU doesn’t seem to enjoy gaming sections. Furthermore, the MT6739 still is made of the old 28nm architecture, that can’t stand against the benefits of newer SoCs made at the 14nm process. I just hope that MediaTek starts to ship its new line of 12nm processors for the low-end segment and let the old MT673x line have a rest. Through a day of medium usage that consists of some hours of web-browsing, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Slack, I was able to achieve 5 hours of screen usage with 10% of battery left. Of course, the results could be better with some tweaking on the software. If you’re a heavy user, then you’ll probably get 3:30 to 4:00 hours of screen usage.If you charge your phone during the night, you’ll probably have more than enough juice to use it for the entire day. But if you’ll need to charge your phone, Umidigi provided a 5V/2A charger that can fully charge the A1 Pro in 1hour and a half.Conclusion:If you’re looking for a good backup phone that can easily fit in your pocket, but that also have a beauty tall display the Umidigi A1 Pro is a good choice of a smartphone on the $99 segment. Also, it is a perfect phone for kids due to its cost and small form-factor.One of the things that I really enjoyed during my usage is that despite the not-so-fast processor the 3GB of RAM provided a pleasant experience with apps being kept on the background. At this segment is pretty common to see handsets with just 2GB of RAM, while it is enough amount, 2GB is just the bare minimum for Android, so having 3GB of RAM is a great advantage of A1 Pro against its competition on the segment. Also, worths noting that this cheap package includes the new USB Type-C standard, it doesn’t seem to be made of poor materials and works as it should. So, in 2018 is there any excuse for keep using micro USB ports?The downsides of this smartphone? Well, before putting any nail on the A1 coffin, I would like to say that at $99 it’s hard to find something that succeeds on every aspect and the A1 Pro does a decent job in what it is proposed to do. Of course, camera performance could be better at night, but it’s hard to find a good phone below the $400 price ratio that can perform well at night. The worse aspect of this phone should be the choice of processor, the MT6739 really isn’t enough anymore for today’s standards. A good octa-core processor like the MT6750 would be a perfect choice for this smartphone, even if it increases a little on the price.The Notification LED is also absent here, probably for cutting some costs, but would an RGB or single-light LED really make a big difference on the final price? It’s a matter of taste, but I’ve been using the LED as a notification reminder during the past years since I usually use my phone in the Do Not Disturb mode. The only way to avoid delayed notifications is to use a custom app for Ambient Mode.The huge demand for bezel-less smartphones has placed several smartphone manufacturers in the middle of a race for the best offering. The advent of 18:9 screens have brought us the possibility of having handsets with large displays, but without sacrificing size, ergonomics and design.Now it’s possible to have a 6-inch smartphone that is comfortable to hold, and also a 5.7-inch smartphone that would sit alongside old 5.2-inch devices. The Chinese smartphone industry is betting high on this new trend, and Umidigi is no exception. The Umidigi A1 Pro is the latest company’s offering for the budget segment, with a nice design, compact display, and specs that don’t compromise the performance of a $99 smartphone. Keep reading, and you’ll know more about this decent package. – Main Specs:Display: 5.5-inch 1440×720 pixels LCD IPS panelCPU: MT6739 Quad-Core 1.5GHzSystem: Android 8.1 OreoStorage: 3GB RAM + 16GB ROMCameras: 13MP + 5MP f/2.0 dual back cameras and 5MP f/2.4 front-facing snapperSensors: Gravity Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Gyroscope, Magnetic Field SensorFeatures: GPS, GlonassBluetooth: 4.0SIM Card: Dual SIM Dual Standby, 2 Nano SIM or 1 Nano SIM + microSD cardNetworks: 2G: GSM B2/3/5/83G: WCDMA B1/2/4/5/84G: LTE FDD B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/19/20LTE TDD B38/40/41Size: 145.3 x 69.1 x 8.5mmWeight: 173gBattery: 3150mAhPackage and Accessories:The Umidigi A1 Pro comes inside a plain black package with the Umidigi Logo written in gold letters. There is cool cover above the standard box, you’ll just need to swipe it to have access to the box with all the contents. Behind the box, we have some details about the Umidigi A1 Pro specifications.Inside the box we have the standard set of acessories that Umidigi often includes with most of its handsets:Protective CaseSmall ManualUSB Type-C casePower Adapter 5V/2AScreen Protector (Installed on the phone)Sim NeedleOf course, this isn’t the biggest package of accessories provided by a manufacturer, but it’s good to have the enough for the daily adventures. I dunno how the glass rear back would stand against non-flat surfaces, also it’s good to have a screen protector for avoiding unnecessary scratches.When it comes to the main package itself, Umidigi provided a long USB Type-C cable that seems to be made of quality materials. Judging from this, I really need to say how impressive is to have the new standard on a 99$ smartphone – for example Xiaomi could learn a thing or two from these small companies.Design:The strongest point of Umidigi A1 Pro, to not mention the price, is its design. The handset mixes the best of design languages to combine into a phone that for sure doesn’t look to be cheap as it is. While on the front we have a 5.5-inch 18:9 display that could easily be confused as a 5.0-inch smartphone, on the back Umidigi choose a glossy back that really makes the device stand out against competition on this segment. The dual-camera setup is vertically aligned on the middle of the phone, with the dual LED flash marking its presence as well.The materials itself doesn’t look to be really made out of glass, but of a thin plastic frame, however, the look is what matters… as a consequence, the back of this handset is a fingerprint magnet, and should scratch easily. So grab the back cover included on the package.Turning back to the display, Umidigi deserves some applause for trimming down the 5.5-inch display to a 5.0-inch pocket-friendly form factor. Is this result of a wizardry? Of course not, it’s one of the results achieved by the 18:9 trend, large and taller displays that does not hurt design. On the top portion of the smartphone, we can spot the 5MP selfie snapper, the ear speaker, and the sensors. Unfortunately, there’s no Notification LED which the absence is really annoying.If you’re looking for a cheap phone that fits perfectly on your pocket, the A1 Pro is a good choice. I’ve been using bigger than 5.5-inch smartphones for the past years, and this smartphone really looks smaller than it is, but the 5.5-inch HD+ display is really there.Moving to the bottom of the smartphone, we can find the USB C port alongside the 3.5mm headphone jack, that marks a presence here. With the addition of USB Type-C, Umidigi could have chosen to drop the old headphone port, but thankfully the company decided to keep the old and loved port. On the bottom, we can also find the speaker grill and the microphone.Moving to the top, we can find the SIM tray, where the user can opt between using Dual SIM nano cards or a single SIM + microSD for further expanding the 16GB onboard storage.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramTo conclude the design section of this review, the Umidigi A1 Pro houses the Volume and Power button on the right side, while on the left there’s nothing to write about. Worth mentioning that in order to make a compact phone, Umidigi had to place the 173g of this smartphone in a minor form-factor, so the phone feels heavier and thicker (8.3mm) than it looks.Hardware:The strong selling point of this smartphone, probably won’t be its hardware but everything that you can acquire with this combination of specs. The display itself is one of the good sides of this smartphone, despite its 1440×720 pixels of resolution, the display looks good enough for multimedia content and everyday usage. However, against strong sunlight, its visibility becomes compromised, out of this scenario you can easily spot the content on this compact 18:9 panel.This budget, beauty and pocket-friendly smartphone are powered by MediaTek’s favorite processor for the budget segment – The 1.5GHz QuadCore MT6739 SoC. The processor itself is a cost-effective chipset made for the low-end segment its 1.5GHz 4xA53 cores can handle most tasks, while also offering a low energy consumption. The graphical power is ensured by the MG PowerVR GE8100 GPU clocked at 570MHz.This combination of specs makes a smartphone that can handle average tasks like web-browsing, social media apps, multimedia content, however, things start to be a little messy when you try to play games, you’ll be able to play casual games but the more intensive graphical gaming will have a poor performance. Thankfully, Umidigi included 3GB of RAM on this smartphone, so you won’t have applications resetting in the background all the time. When it comes to storage we have 16GB that can be further expanded via a microSD card. The handset supports dual SIM dual standby funcionality, its coverage includes the following networks/frequencies:2G: GSM B2/3/5/83G: WCDMA B1/2/4/5/84G: LTE FDD B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/19/20LTE TDD B38/40/41The sensor package inside this smartphone is composed of the Accelerometer Sensor, Light Sensor, Orientation Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Gyroscope, Magnetic Field Sensor and Pressure Sensor. The Bluetooth 4.0 is pretty stable on this smartphone, so I could easily hear music through my Bluetooth Headphone without drops or any kind of issue. The navigation power is ensured by GPS, A-GPS, and Glonass. The lock times can be a little longer if you are inside the house, but they are pretty fast and precise if you’re outside. The WiFi connectivity also works pretty fine with good reception and zero drops, LTE is fast and Call Quality is also great. Video Calls are also stable, but can become a little laggy if you’re running a lot of tasks in the background.Software:One of the amazing characteristics of this smartphone is on the fact that it is running Android 8.1 Oreo right out the box. It’s amazing to see Umidigi providing an updated version of Android, while some other manufacturers are still shipping phones with the two years old Android 7.1.2.The software itself is complete stock, there some customizations made by Umi here or there, but the main part is made of Google’s Pure 8.1 Oreo. The interface is entirely pure without any kind of fancy menu or weird icon pack if you enjoy the experience of an Android One smartphone will really love this handset. One of the custom additions made by Umi on the A1 Pro is the addition of a Face Unlock feature.To enroll your face, you’ll just need to find the “Face Unlock” section in the main Settings menu, after that you can “Start Enroll” and place your face on the circle to get your face recognized. It works only when the screen is on, and isn’t more convenient than placing your finger on the fingerprint sensor, however, if you like new things you can try the Face Unlock feature.Worth noting, that since Umidigi A1 Pro comes with Android 8.1 Oreo it has Project Treble compatibility. That means that the device could theoretically receive faster updates once that Google releases new versions of Android, but we don’t know if this will be the case since Umidigi isn’t a company with a good update track for its smartphones. However, the Treble viability could facilitate the process of porting a from the handset. I tried to flash a Custom Treble GSI (Generic System Image) on the A1 Pro, without success and the phone got stuck at boot. Let’s see if in the future we’ll have a GSI that is compatible with A1 Pro, for now, Treble is just a cool addition to this phone. The handset comes with Android 8.1.0 and brings the April Google Security Patch. Right on the top of the About Phone menu, we can see the Wireless Update option, there we can find if Umidigi has provided any kind of update for the smartphone.Camera:Of course, one of the main market strategies adopted by Umidigi with the A1 Pro uses the dual-camera setup placed on this smartphone back. The setup consists of a pair of 13MP and 5MP sensors with f/2.0 lens aperture. The camera application itself is pretty simple bringing the Photo, Video, Panorama, Beauty, and Bokeh Mode. The Photo, Video and Panorama modes are self-explanatory, while the Beauty mode consists in a kind of beautify effect pre-loaded when you take a picture, it can be useful for selfies, but the results look rather generic. The Bokeh effect tries to mimic the loved effect of Portrait pictures, however, on the practice, it is far from perfection. Like we have seen on previous smartphones equipped with two cameras, the Bokeh effect is nothing more than a blur effect towards a circle that you can adjust. The rear camera can take up to 13MP pictures and record up to 1080p 30FPS video footages. It has EZL mode for reducing the shooter delay, Anti-shake mode, EIS, Auto Scene detection, Timer mode, White Balance control and Anti-flicker. During the sunlight I could take some decent pictures with the A1 Pro, the problem comes at night. Overall, the focus speed is decent enough for fast snaps, and pictures are detailed in most scenarios. When it comes to the Bokeh effect, it isn’t the best way to take portrait pictures, and you’ll need some tweaking in order to take decent pictures with that blurred effect. The pair of dual cameras does a decent job in what Umidigi proposes with the A1 Pro, it’s a $99 phone that can take good-looking pictures in light environments. Turn off the lights, and you’ll have a lot of noise everywhere. However, even in dark conditions, the pictures are “usable” enough. The double LED flash also make wonder in some extreme situations, so it’ll be a good friend, of course, if you don’t mind using it. The selfie camera in counterpart surprised me in a good sense. The 5MP f/2.4 unit can take some detailed pictures of the sunlight, and doesn’t lose much its quality inside the house or in darker environments. The Beauty mode can improve the selfies, but that results in pictures that are too much artificial for my taste.The camera can take some decent video footages as well, however, don’t expect to see the more smooth and stable videos. While EIS is present, the results achieved with it are just average and 30FPS is only the bare minimum nowadays, however, take in mind that this is a smartphone made for the low-end budget segment.Battery:The Umidigi A1 Pro packs a non-removable 3,150mAh battery. This capacity is more than enough for an entire day of usage, due to the low-end processor and the resolution it is easy to get through an entire day of work and arrive at home with more than 20% of juice.Of course, if you’re a gaming person you can easily drain this battery, especially when this processor and GPU doesn’t seem to enjoy gaming sections. Furthermore, the MT6739 still is made of the old 28nm architecture, that can’t stand against the benefits of newer SoCs made at the 14nm process. I just hope that MediaTek starts to ship its new line of 12nm processors for the low-end segment and let the old MT673x line have a rest. Through a day of medium usage that consists of some hours of web-browsing, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Slack, I was able to achieve 5 hours of screen usage with 10% of battery left. Of course, the results could be better with some tweaking on the software. If you’re a heavy user, then you’ll probably get 3:30 to 4:00 hours of screen usage.If you charge your phone during the night, you’ll probably have more than enough juice to use it for the entire day. But if you’ll need to charge your phone, Umidigi provided a 5V/2A charger that can fully charge the A1 Pro in 1hour and a half.Conclusion:If you’re looking for a good backup phone that can easily fit in your pocket, but that also have a beauty tall display the Umidigi A1 Pro is a good choice of a smartphone on the $99 segment. Also, it is a perfect phone for kids due to its cost and small form-factor.One of the things that I really enjoyed during my usage is that despite the not-so-fast processor the 3GB of RAM provided a pleasant experience with apps being kept on the background. At this segment is pretty common to see handsets with just 2GB of RAM, while it is enough amount, 2GB is just the bare minimum for Android, so having 3GB of RAM is a great advantage of A1 Pro against its competition on the segment. Also, worths noting that this cheap package includes the new USB Type-C standard, it doesn’t seem to be made of poor materials and works as it should. So, in 2018 is there any excuse for keep using micro USB ports?The downsides of this smartphone? Well, before putting any nail on the A1 coffin, I would like to say that at $99 it’s hard to find something that succeeds on every aspect and the A1 Pro does a decent job in what it is proposed to do. Of course, camera performance could be better at night, but it’s hard to find a good phone below the $400 price ratio that can perform well at night. The worse aspect of this phone should be the choice of processor, the MT6739 really isn’t enough anymore for today’s standards. A good octa-core processor like the MT6750 would be a perfect choice for this smartphone, even if it increases a little on the price.The Notification LED is also absent here, probably for cutting some costs, but would an RGB or single-light LED really make a big difference on the final price? It’s a matter of taste, but I’ve been using the LED as a notification reminder during the past years since I usually use my phone in the Do Not Disturb mode. The only way to avoid delayed notifications is to use a custom app for Ambient Mode.

Microwear recently released two new products one of which is the premium Microwear L2 smartwatch, the other is a smart bracelet called Microwear X2 or X2 Plus. Thanks to the company, we were able to review both the smart accessories. Here we share our thoughts about the Microwear X2.Microwear X2DesignThe Microwear X2 is the company’s first smartband. Unlike the L2, the X2 is more of a round-design wearable although the screen or dial inside is rectangular. Also, the screen itself isn’t touch responsive but you can interact with it through touch via a touch button below the screen.In terms of design, it is a different product which is unlike the metal-made L2 but is also a lot cheaper. The straps are also made of edible silicone instead of stainless steel. The sporty and trendy look of the bracelet hints that it is made to withstand daily wear and tear and is suitable for sports enthusiasts.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe Microwear X2 also has IP68 waterproofing like the Microwear L2 which is great for a bracelet that costs nothing more than $32. The highlight of the bracelet is its great battery life due to the smaller OLED screen. The watch’s 480mAh battery can last you 180 days in standby mode and advertised regular use is 70 to 90 days. The battery life on the Microwear X2 is so good, I haven’t had to charge the wearable ever since it came out of the box. The 0.96-inch display is quite bright, has a wide colour gamut, and high contrast.Microwear X2: Fitness FeaturesIn terms of features, the standout function is blood oxygen as well as blood pressure measurement. This is probably something we missed on the Microwear L2 and it makes the X2 a true fitness companion. The measurements work very well especially the heart rate tracker gives strong clues of pulse. Also, it does measure heart rate in real time so that takes it a step further than the Microwear L2 which doesn’t measure blood pressure levels. Besides, it has all the 8 sports and fitness tracking modes like the L2 including running, riding, climbing, badminton and so on.If you forgot, it also has a dedicated mode for measuring your performance in intimate moments just like the L2. The running mode was fairly accurate when it came to the accuracy of steps take. However, we didn’t get to try out the other modes like badminton sadly. Still, the amount of options at the modest price of $33 is really great.Navigation and Smart Features The navigation of these modes is quite easy. You use the touch-sensitive button beneath the display to scroll between different apps and modes. Once you’re on a particular mode, you use the side keys to enter the app.The Microwear doesn’t skip on the smart functions of a watch either with notification pushing available. The watch will sync with both iOS and Android phones and give users missed call notifications, messages, and more. Only you won’t be able to receive calls because it doesn’t have a speaker. However, you can’t reply to the notifications on the X2 itself. There are six to seven different watch faces which range from a simple analog style clock to different digital designs. The digital faces display more information like steps, heart rate, date and some display temperature as well. Visit Microwear Official SiteFinal thoughts: You can’t go wrong with it聽Microwear is a Chinese brand that mostly dabbles in accessories like sports watches, fitness bands, and Android watches. It is a seven-year-old brand whose latest product is the Microwear L2 (Waterproof) smartwatch that launched around ten days ago. The company was kind enough to send us a review unit and we used the smartwatch extensively and here’s our review of the same.Microwear L2: DesignIn terms of design, the Microwear L2 is a very neatly crafted wearable and the one that reached us was a Black variant that comes with a USB charger cable and some user guides. It has really well built stainless steel straps that look premium just like the smartwatch itself. The straps are also adjustable in accordance to your wrist size with a hook buckle as and when needed and the buckle has a flip lock. The one sent to me fit me perfectly and I didn’t need to change adjust anything. The straps can be replaced and the company also has silicone straps if you don’t like metal straps.Talking about the dial, it is circular and most importantly it is IP68 waterproof-rated. So, you can practically dive with it. However, IP68 is limited to 1.5 meters and around 30 minutes. The watch is bit hefty but it isn’t something you can’t live with. The watch weighs around 70 grams.Microwear L2: Specs Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe Microwear L2 has a 1.3-inch display with 240 x 240p resolution. In our daily use, we found it to be serving its purpose well. Viewing angles on it are good, brightness is also good, and daylight visibility is also not an issue. The display is touch responsive and worked well in our regular use of the device. It also has two physical buttons that can aid in navigation. If you’re looking for more basic specs here they are:CPU: 1.1GHz MTK2502RAM: 32MROM: 32MCompatible OS: Android 4.4 and above, IOS 8.0 and aboveBattery: 380 mAh, 2-3 working daysBluetooth Version: 3.0, 4.0 Visit Microwear Official SiteMicrowear L2: FeaturesWhere the Microwear L2 really shines is in its features and battery life. Not only can it serve as a smartwatch, it can also double up as a fitness companion. For the former, I was able to use the built-in calculator, alarm clock, calendar, stopwatch, and music apps very comfortably. Needless to say, it connects with both iOS and Android for calls and message alerts. The L2 uses Bluetooth 4.0 and can take and receive calls all by itself, thanks to the integrated speaker. This is a really great feature especially the price at which it is being offered. It can also display notifications from Facebook, and Twitter and it supports around 20 languages which include most of the European ones.If you’re a sports fanatic, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see the Microwear L2 tracks 10 types of sports activities. This includes walking, running, swimming, cycling, mountain climbing, basketball, and many more. I was able to use the mode and it tracked my running and walking perfectly. It also has an optical heart rate monitor that can work also in a motion state. The L2 can also measure atmospheric pressure with a barometer and it also has a compass, something greatly useful for hill climbers and travellers.Other important features include a sedentary reminder that alerts you when you’ve been sitting for too long. The sleep monitor comes with a chart that allows users to gauge sleep quality over time and I found it to be handy. Interestingly, the Microwear L2 can also be used as a smart remote camera, I found.If you’re a casual fitness lover or someone who doesn’t do extreme sports or someone who isn’t stats-driven sports enthusiast then I think the Microwear L2 is for you, especially if you don’t want to spend more.The other highlighted feature of the smartwatch is its battery. It promises a standby of 100 hours and 10 hours of continuous use while on Bluetooth. In our use, we were quite happy to see it push through our whole day of regular use and that’s the best you can ask from a smartwatch right now.Final thoughts

Microwear is a Chinese brand that mostly dabbles in accessories like sports watches, fitness bands, and Android watches. It is a seven-year-old brand whose latest product is the Microwear L2 (Waterproof) smartwatch that launched around ten days ago. The company was kind enough to send us a review unit and we used the smartwatch extensively and here’s our review of the same.Microwear L2: DesignIn terms of design, the Microwear L2 is a very neatly crafted wearable and the one that reached us was a Black variant that comes with a USB charger cable and some user guides. It has really well built stainless steel straps that look premium just like the smartwatch itself. The straps are also adjustable in accordance to your wrist size with a hook buckle as and when needed and the buckle has a flip lock. The one sent to me fit me perfectly and I didn’t need to change adjust anything. The straps can be replaced and the company also has silicone straps if you don’t like metal straps.Talking about the dial, it is circular and most importantly it is IP68 waterproof-rated. So, you can practically dive with it. However, IP68 is limited to 1.5 meters and around 30 minutes. The watch is bit hefty but it isn’t something you can’t live with. The watch weighs around 70 grams.Microwear L2: Specs Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe Microwear L2 has a 1.3-inch display with 240 x 240p resolution. In our daily use, we found it to be serving its purpose well. Viewing angles on it are good, brightness is also good, and daylight visibility is also not an issue. The display is touch responsive and worked well in our regular use of the device. It also has two physical buttons that can aid in navigation. If you’re looking for more basic specs here they are:CPU: 1.1GHz MTK2502RAM: 32MROM: 32MCompatible OS: Android 4.4 and above, IOS 8.0 and aboveBattery: 380 mAh, 2-3 working daysBluetooth Version: 3.0, 4.0 Visit Microwear Official SiteMicrowear L2: FeaturesWhere the Microwear L2 really shines is in its features and battery life. Not only can it serve as a smartwatch, it can also double up as a fitness companion. For the former, I was able to use the built-in calculator, alarm clock, calendar, stopwatch, and music apps very comfortably. Needless to say, it connects with both iOS and Android for calls and message alerts. The L2 uses Bluetooth 4.0 and can take and receive calls all by itself, thanks to the integrated speaker. This is a really great feature especially the price at which it is being offered. It can also display notifications from Facebook, and Twitter and it supports around 20 languages which include most of the European ones.If you’re a sports fanatic, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see the Microwear L2 tracks 10 types of sports activities. This includes walking, running, swimming, cycling, mountain climbing, basketball, and many more. I was able to use the mode and it tracked my running and walking perfectly. It also has an optical heart rate monitor that can work also in a motion state. The L2 can also measure atmospheric pressure with a barometer and it also has a compass, something greatly useful for hill climbers and travellers.Other important features include a sedentary reminder that alerts you when you’ve been sitting for too long. The sleep monitor comes with a chart that allows users to gauge sleep quality over time and I found it to be handy. Interestingly, the Microwear L2 can also be used as a smart remote camera, I found.If you’re a casual fitness lover or someone who doesn’t do extreme sports or someone who isn’t stats-driven sports enthusiast then I think the Microwear L2 is for you, especially if you don’t want to spend more.The other highlighted feature of the smartwatch is its battery. It promises a standby of 100 hours and 10 hours of continuous use while on Bluetooth. In our use, we were quite happy to see it push through our whole day of regular use and that’s the best you can ask from a smartwatch right now.Final thoughtsWith the popularity of smart wearable devices, more and more customers are switching to fitness trackers from classic watches and bracelets. Though the market is full of various brands that are offering different smartbands, the Xiaomis models stand out. The first two generations of Mi Bands were popular due to the sense of technology and practicality. Thats why they were accepted by customers easily. However, the Mi Band 2 was launched two years ago. And the company has had to update this product line. It happened on May 31, which the manufacturer announced the Xiaomi Mi Band 3. It got much attention from all corners of the globe. So we should find out what changes made it catch users eyes.Also Check Xiaomi Mi Band 3 DealXiaomi Mi Band 3 DesignIn recent years, Xiaomi products have come in changed packaging. The Mi Band 3 is no exception. Compared with the previous two generations of bands, the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 has a distinctly different packaging style. Instead of a yellow paper box, it uses a new style of white flip plastic design. The main body of the product can also be seen directly through the outer packaging.The box includes the main body of the Mi Band 3, the wristband, the charging cable, and the manual. Though there are various color options, including black, blue, and orange, the main body is black for all variants. Even聽the聽translucent variant uses the graphite black body.The appearance is the biggest difference between the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 and the previous two generations of bracelets. The main body of this version is treated with a black process that hides the non-pressable button. The bracelet panel is treated with a UV coating process and is covered with an anti-fingerprint coating. As for the look and feel experience, the Mi Band 3 has a stronger sense of integration, with a more exquisite and compact texture than the previous two generations.The back of the body is still equipped with a photoelectric heart rate sensor, which will have a green light when working. It is worth mentioning the treatment of the back of the main body is different from the previous models. It adopts a treatment process similar to that of the wristband.The charging connectors are on the bottom. Compared with the traditional USB interface, the charging method eliminates the inconvenience caused by plugging and unplugging, and also saves valuable internal space.In the first two generations, the problem related to the separation of the main body from the wristband has been solved in the Mi Band 3. Now it adopts a larger nesting area on the wristband to securely hold the main body on the wristband. According to the introduction, the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 adopts a two-color one-piece molding process of encapsulation to increase the ring area to achieve tight meshing.Gizchina News of the week Join GizChina on TelegramThe wristband is basically connected to the front of the body, and there is no obvious separation between them. It should be noted that the Mi Band 3 cannot be separated from the wristband from the front (outside), but needs to be separated from the back (inside). In other words, the bands body can be effectively prevented from falling off inadvertently.The design of the wristband is identical to the previous model. It uses the same snap-on solution. However, the manufacturer has used a higher quality material, which is felt from the first touch. Its skin-like texture hints we are dealing with a well-designed product.In addition to the difference in the appearance of the main body, the screen is further enlarged. So it not only looks different but also provides better touch operations. The Xiaomi Mi Band 3 uses a 0.78-inch OLED display with a resolution of 128 x 80 and a 193ppi pixel density. As the company likes to say, this band can display up to 24 Chinese characters. And from this point of view, it has obvious advantages over other bracelets on the market.Xiaomi Mi Band 3 OperationsCompared with the previous generation, the full-screen touch scheme significantly enriches the interaction mode.One of the Xiaomi Mi Band 3s selling points is the 5ATM waterproofing certification. Thus, it can be used when swimming. But we should note the screen loses its touch functionality in the water like many smartphones.In line with the previous Mi bracelet, it is also used on the smartphone with the 鈥楳i Fit app, and the sync process is also the same. Through the app, users can view the status, function management, etc. The Xiaomi Mi Band 3 supports many reminder functions such as the sedentary reminder, event reminder, etc. Plus, it supports a real-time heart rate detection function and views sleep quality.Thanks to the screen size increase, the Mi Band 3 can implement way more functions directly from the bodys screen. Say, we can view the date and time, bands status, motion information, heart rate, weather forecast, mobile notifications, and so on. All operations can be listed by sliding on the screen and selecting via a long press.If the motion information and other data are shown in a common way, the message notification function has been updated. Now the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 will show the message content by swiping left and right on the screen.Even do not dream of replying to those messages via the Mi Band 3.One of the features we liked most is the ability to use the stopwatch, find the phone, and dial style options directly from the screen. No need to open the APP to implement these operations.