This week HMD Global introduced Nokia 7, Xiaomi unveiled the Redmi 5A, Huawei introduced Mate 10 series of phones, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Book 2 and lots more from this week in our roundup.
This week at an event in Germany, Huawei introduced Mate 10, its latest flagship smartphone along with the Mate 10 Pro. The Mate 10 packs a 5.9-inch Quad HD 2.5D curved glass display, while the Mate 10 Pro comes with a 6-inch FHD+ FullView OLED 18:9 display with ultra narrow bezels.
Both the phones are powered by an Octa-Core HiSilicon Kirin 970 10nm SoC with i7 co-processor with dedicated neural network processing unit, run Android 8.0 (Oreo) with Emotion UI 8.0 and have Leica dual-lens camera with 12-megapixel RGB sensor, 20-megapixel monochrome sensor and 2x Hybrid Zoom, dual-tone LED flash, laser auto focus, optical image stabilization (OIS) and Huawei’s own dual ISP.
The Mate 10 Pro is also water-resistant body with IP67 ratings. Both the phones have dual 4G VoLTE and pack a 4000mAh battery with SuperCharge technology.
The Huawei Mate 10 comes in Champagne Gold, Classic Black, Pink Gold and Mocha Brown colors and is priced at €699 (US$ 825 / Rs. 53412 approx.) and the Mate 10 Pro comes in Titanium Grey, Midnight Blue, Mocha Brown and Pink Gold colors and is priced at €799 (US$ 940 / Rs. 61,077 approx.) for the 6GB RAM with 128GB storage version. There is also a Porsche Design Mate 10 made of premium materials in Diamond Black color priced at €1395 (US$ 1646 / Rs. 10,6585 approx.).
Xiaomi this week announced Redmi 5A, a budget 4G smartphone in the Redmi series and the successor of last year’s Redmi 4A in China without much changes. It has the same 5-inch HD display, Quad-core Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform, 2GB RAM, 13-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera and a 3000mAh built-in battery.
It comes in Platinum Silver, Champagne Gold and Rose Gold colors and is priced at 599 yuan (US$ 90 / Rs. 5880 approx.).
HMD Global this week announced Nokia 7 smartphone in China, as expected. It has a 5.2-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, is powered by Snapdragon 630 Mobile platform, runs on Android 7.1.1 (Nougat), which is upgradable to Android 8.0 (Oreo), has a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, ZEISS and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
It has Dual-Sight technology to create Bothie – a split screen visual for both photos and videos, features 7000 series aluminium chassis with diamond cut bevelled edges and Corning Gorilla Glass on the back. It also has a fingerprint sensor on the back. It has a 3000mAh built-in battery with fast charging.
It comes in Gloss Black and Matt White colors, is priced at 2,499 yuan (US$ 376 / Rs. 24,520 approx.) for the 4GB RAM version and the 6GB RAM version costs 2,699 yuan (US$ 406 / Rs. 26,480 approx.).
Samsung this week announced Galaxy Tab Active2, successor of theGalaxy Tab Active. It is MIL-STD-810 certified to survive excessive pressure, temperatures, environments, vibration and drops. It has 1.2m anti-shock inbox protective cover, IP68 water and dust resistance and better display touch mode for gloved and wet touch.
It has a 8-inch WXGA screen, is powered by Octa-core Samsung Exynos 7870 processor, has 3GB of RAM, runs Android 7.1 (Nougat), comes in WiFi and 4G versions and packs a 4,450mAh user replaceable battery. It comes in Black color and will be available from October 2017 in select markets.
Micromax launched Bharat-1 its first 4G VoLTE feature phone in partnership with State-owned telecom operator BSNL. It is powered by Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform with 512MB RAM, comes with Dual SIM support so you can also use 2G/3G SIM on second slot. It has a 2.4-inch QVGA display and packs a 2000mAh battery.
It has support for 22 different languages and comes with entertainment apps for Live TV, Music, Movies and Videos. It comes in Black color, is priced at Rs. 2200 and is already available from stores across India.
Motorola introduced a new Moto mod for the Moto Z series phones. The new mod named as Moto Smart Speaker comes with Amazon Alexa voice assistant support. It quite resembles the current Moto SoundBoost 2 speaker mod but with Alexa Assistant support built-in. It connects to the rear of your phone giving you on-the-go access to the personal assistant.
It is priced at $149.99 (Rs. 9,750 approx) and will be available from November in markets where Alexa is supported.
HP introduced the new ZBook x2 which is the world’s first detachable PC workstation. It aimed to solve the mobility problems of artists, designers, and digital imaging professionals. It comes with a detachable keyboard and a chunky tablet with a 14-inch (2160 pixels by 3840 pixels) touchscreen display. It starts at $1,749 (Rs. 1,17,042.94 approx.) for the base model and will be available from December.
ZTE this week introduced its foldable Axon M smartphone with dual 5.2-inch 1080p displays that can be used in 4 different modes. It is powered by Snapdragon 821, has 4GB of RAM, runs on Android 7.1 (Nougat) and comes with a single 20-megapixel camera that can be used as both front and rear cameras.
It comes in Black color and will be available exclusively from AT&T in the U.S. this fall at $24.17 with a 30-month contract that comes to about $725 (Rs. 47190 approx.). It will also be available in China, Europe and Japan soon.
Samsung introduced Connect Tag that uses narrowband network technology (NB-IoT, Cat.M1) to track pets, children, and personal items. It offers smart location notifications based on a NB-IoT or Cat.M1 network. The Samsung Connect Tag will work with GPS, Wi-Fi-based positioning (WPS) and Cell ID, so it can receive accurate location information both indoors and outdoors for location tracking.
Canon announced a new flagship PowerShot camera; the G1 X Mark III in the company’s G-series. It is much bigger than the G1 X Mark II model and has a familiar body of G5 X compact. It features a 24.3-megapixel APS-C CMOS Sensor and Canon’s dual-pixel autofocus technology making it the first point and shoot compact offering from Canon with both the features. It will be available from November 2017 and is priced in India at Rs. 79995 ($1,299 in the U.S.).
Samsung announced the 360 round camera that can shoot 360-degree footage. It comes with 17 lenses including eight horizontally positioned stereo speakers and one single lens placed vertically. It can stream and record high-quality 3D content for virtual reality.
The 360 Round camera will go on for sale sometime in October and is expected to cost $10,500 (Rs. 6,83,355 approx.).
Ultimate Ears (UE) announced two new portable speakers; the UE BLAST and MEGABLAST with Amazon’s Alexa Voice Assistant support built-in. From the look of them, they look very identical to the previous Boom speakers from UE but differ with the internal hardware.
The Ultimate Ears BLAST and MEGABLAST are priced at $229.99 (Rs.14,956.25 approx.) and $299.99 (Rs. 19,508.35 approx.) respectively, while the Power Up charging dock costs $39.99 (Rs. 2,600.55 approx.).