Another busy week is now behind us and so we take to the charts once again to see which devices captured your attention during the last seven or so days. It never seizes to amaze us what a whopping influence successful sales promotions can have on our regular top ten chart.

This week, the element of surprise comes in the form of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2. The affordable smartphone was announced only recently and thanks to an immense success in its initial sale on the home Chinese market, it managed to swoop in out of the blue straight to fourth place. The flash sale saw around 800,000 units sell in just 12 hours, so it comes as no surprise that our specs page got a surge in hits as well. With the next batch set to go up for grabs on August 24, it will be interesting to see whether the Redmi Note 2 basks for longer in the spotlight.

As for the rest of the chart, rearrangements are present, but they all seem to follow a long-standing logical pattern. An extra week of time was enough for the Samsung Galaxy Note5 to steal the first place on the list away from the Moto G (3rd gen), something it nearly missed to achieve a week ago. Other notable changes include the Galaxy J5 and Galaxy A8 which seem to have switched places and now occupy the fifth and seventh spot respectively, with the Galaxy S6 still unshaken in its popularity at sixth place.

We can also see that both the OnePlus 2 and the Lenovo K3 Note are continuing their gradual descent down the ranks, another lasting trend. Finally, at the very bottom of the chart we find the Galaxy Note 4, which has settled in, replacing the iPhone 6. This is also quite natural as the previous generation Note is surely rubbing off some views from the Note5.

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Samsung Galaxy Note5
RANK: 1WAS: 2

specs review

Motorola Moto G (3rd gen)
RANK: 2WAS: 1

specs review

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
RANK: 3WAS: 3

specs review

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
RANK: 4NEW…

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Wires had their heyday with the telegraph and telephone, but these days we avoid them as much as possible. To help with the transition Samsung introduced the Level Link – a small Bluetooth fob that can wireless audio stream to anything from headphones to cars.

The idea is pretty simple – a switch tells the Level Link if it’s transmitting or receiving, then you just have to plug in the old-fashioned 3.5mm audio jack.

When acting as a receiver, it lets you stream audio from sources that lack Bluetooth functionality – your favorite corded headset or your car’s stereo (plug the Link into the AUX input). The transmitter functionality has potential too – you can watch TV with headphones but without cables.

Check out the infographic Samsung has come up for some more…

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Yesterday we reported about the partnership between Lenovo’s ZUK subsidiary and Cyanogen. ZUK’s first smartphone – the Z1 – will be going international thanks to Cyanogen OS later this year. As promised, the international availability was detailed today.

So, until the recently China exclusive, the ZUK Z1 will be going on sale internationally in mid-October. The smartphone costs about $280 in China, but its international price will be a bit higher, most probably around $330.

As of today the retailer Gearbest has the ZUK Z1 in stock. It costs $340 in there and can be purchased in both white and gray flavors. Judging by the video, the Cyanogen OS running on the unit was a Preview version. This means either the retail OS will be seeded later with an update, or it’s just an issue with the demo unit.

Please note that Gearbest’s warehouses are located in China and the US, so make sure you check any customs charges that may be due when shipping outside of those countries.

The ZUK Z1 packs a 5.5″ 1080p display and runs on the Snapdragon 801 chipset with 3GB of RAM. The rest of its specs include a 13MP main cam, an 8MP selfie snapper, 64GB storage, LTE connectivity, a fingerprint scanner and a beefy 4,100 mAh battery. There is also a USB Type-C port.

Gearbest | Source |…

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