Weekly Roundup – Xiaomi Mi A1, Vivo V7+, Lenovo K8 Plus, Honor V9 Play and more

This week Xiaomi launched Mi A1 Android One smartphone in India, Lenovo unveiled K8 Plus, Vivo launched V7+, HP launched Pro 8 tablet and more. Let’s take a look at all the launches and announcements that happened this week.

Xiaomi launched Mi A1, smartphone in the new ‘A series’. It is the global variant of the Mi 5X that was introduced in China back in July, but this is an Android One phone created in partnership with Google running stock Android based on Android 7.1 (Nougat) and it will get Android 8.0 (Oreo) by 2017. It will also be one of the first phones to get Android P. It will come with unlimited high quality photo and video backups in Google Photos.

It has  12MP dual rear cameras, one with a wide-angle lens and other with a telephoto lens offering portrait mode, background blur, 2x optical zoom and more. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 Mobile platform.

The Xiaomi Mi A1 comes in Black, Gold and Rose Gold colors, is priced at Rs. 14,999 and will be available exclusively from Flipkart and Mi.com online as well as Mi Home stores and other offline retailers starting September 12th at 12 noon.

Vivo launched V7+ selfie-focused smartphone in India. It has a 5.99-inch (1440 x 720 pixels) FullView display with 18:9 aspect ratio, narrow bezels and 84.4% screen-to-body ratio and a 24-megapixel front-facing camera with LED flash, Face Beauty 7.0 and Portrait mode. It also has a 16-megapixel rear camera with phase-detection auto-focus (PDAF) and LED flash.

The Vivo V7+ comes in Champagne Gold and Matte Black colors, is priced at Rs. 21,990 and will be available for pre-order till 14th from Amazon.inFlipkart as well as offline retail stores and goes on sale from September 15th.

Lenovo launched K8 Plus mid-range smartphone in the ‘K series’ in India. It packs a 5.2-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, is powered by an Octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 SoC, runs on stock Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) and will get Android 8.0 (Oreo). Similar to the K8 Note, it has a 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash along with a secondary 5-megapixel camera to capture depth information for bokeh effect.

The Lenovo K8 Plus comes in Fine Gold and Venom Black colors, is priced at Rs. 10,999 for the 3GB RAM version and is available exclusively on Flipkart.

Panasonic launched P9 budget smartphone in the ‘P Series’ in India with support for 4G VoLTE. It comes with a 5-inch FWVGA display with Asahi Dragon Trail glass protection, is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6737M processor, runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat), has an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

The Panasonic P9 comes in Champagne Gold and Black colors, is priced at Rs. 6490 and is available through Panasonic brand shops and retail outlets across the country.

10.or (pronounced Tenor), a new smartphone brand announced its debut in India with the 10.or E manufactured by Huaqin Technology exclusively on Amazon India. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass screen, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 430 SoC, runs on Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) and that company promises to offer Android 8.0 (Oreo) update. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with phase detection auto focus (PDAF) , LED flash, PDAF and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera that also has an LED flash.

The 10.or E series comes in Aim Gold and Beyond Black colors, is priced at Rs. 7,999 for the 2GB RAM with 16GB storage version and the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage variant costs Rs. 8,999. It will be available exclusively from Amazon.in from September 14th.

Xiaomi launched Mi Car Charger and Mi 2-in-1 USB Cable, two new accessories in India. The Car Charger has full metal body and has two USB ports to charge two devices simultaneously and the 2-in-1 USB Cable lets you charge and sync your Micro USB devices as well as Type-C devices using just one cable.

The Mi 2-in-1 USB Cable comes in White color, is priced at Rs. 299 and is available from mi.com and Mi Car Charger comes in Silver color, is priced at Rs. 799 and is available from mi.com in India.

HP launched Pro 8 Tablet Android tablet with support for voice calling in India. It is aimed at business and can be used in range of outdoor settings since it can withstand temperatures from -10°C to 50°C[3] and has a bright 500-nit, 8-inch WXGA screen that is easy to read even in direct sunlight. It is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT8735 processor and runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow).

It supports text input in Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu. The HP Pro 8 Tablet comes in Black color is priced at an MRP of Rs. 19,374 and the MOP of the tablet is Rs. 18,942.

nubia launched nubia M2 Play, the company’s third smartphone in the company’s ‘M series’ in India. It packs a 5.5-inch HD 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 435 Mobile Platform, runs on Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) with nubia UI 5.0, has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, Sony sensor, 0.1s Hybrid Focus that uses both PDAF and CAF and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

The nubia M2 Play comes in black color, is priced at Rs. 8,999 and is available exclusively from Amazon.in.

ASUS launched ROG G701 gaming laptop in India. It sports a 4k UHD display that features  120Hz panel with NVIDIA G-SYNC technology. The laptop is powered by Intel Core i7 processor and comes with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics. It comes with 8GB RAM and up to 64GB DDR4 memory. The ASUS ROG G701 is priced at 3,49,990.

Nikon launched D850 DSLR professional camera with a 45.7 megapixel CMOS sensor in India. It can shoot up to 7 (frames per second) fps, or 9 fps when using the optional battery grip and an EN-EL18-series battery. The camera can shoot 4K UHD video at 30 or 24 frames per second and 1080p video at up to 120 fps. It can record uncompressed 4:2:2 8-bit 4K UHD footage to an external recorder over the HDMI port while recording locally to a card at the same time. In addition, there is a 8K time-lapse video mode.

The D850 will be available at Rs. 2,54,950 for just the body. Nikon is also offering  which a bundle which will include the AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR lens for price of Rs. 2,99,950. It will be available from September 7.

Samsung announced Galaxy C8, which is the Chinese version of the Galaxy J7+ that went official recently. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by a 2.39GHz Octa-Core MediaTek Helio P20 SoC and runs on Android 7.1 (Nougat). It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/1.7 aperture along with a 5-megapixel secondary camera with f/1.9 aperture to capture depth information.

Samsung officially announced the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2017)  in Vietnam. It has a 8-inch WXGA, is powered by a Quad-Core Snapdragon 425 processor, runs on Android 7.1 (Nougat) and also comes in both WiFi (SM-T380) and 4G variants (SM-T385). It has an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, f/1.9 aperture and a 5-megapixel camera on the front.

Huawei’s Honor Brand also introduced Honor Play 6, a budget smartphone with 4G VoLTE support. It is Chinese version of the Y5 2017 that was introduced earlier this year that packs a 5-inch HD display, is powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6737T processor with 2GB of RAM, runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with EMUI 4.1, has a 8-megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera that also has soft LED flash.

Alcatel announced A7, A7 Plus in the ‘A series’ and Idol 5 smartphone in the ‘Idol series’ at the IFA 2017. The A7 XL has 12-megapixel rear camera with secondary 2-megapixel camera to capture depth information and has a 6-inch 1080p screen. Both the A7 and and A7 XL have a 4000mAh battery with support for fast charging. The Idol 5 is a cheaper version of the Idol 5S that was introduced in the U.S. back in June.

Huawei’s Honor brand announced Honor V9 Play, the company’s latest budget smartphone, as it had promised. It packs a 5.2-inch HD 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek MT6750 processor, runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat) with EMUI 5.1 top, has a 13-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.

Cat introduced two new rugged smartphones – S31 and S41 and Caterpillar T20 rugged Windows 10 tablet.  The Cat 31, successor of Cat 30 has a 4.7-inch HD screen and a 4000mAh battery, while the Cat C41, successor of Cat C40 has a 5-inch 1080p screen and packs a 5000mAh battery. Both the phone are rugged with IP68 ratings for waterproof, dust resistant design and are drop proof to 1.8m onto concrete with MIL-STD 810G spec.


Sneha Bokil: Sneha Bokil is a tech enthusiast and is currently using OnePlus 3T but she still treasures her Nokia N70 (M). You can follow her on Twitter @snehabokil and on Google+
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