Vivo’s next flagship device has been a long time coming now, with rumors actually ranging as far back as 2014, when the handset was hailed as one of the supposed early adopters of the Snapdragon 810 chip. Obviously that didn’t happen and Snapdragon 810 is no longer Qualcomm’s greatest chip. And also, we are still waiting on the XPlay 5, now said to come on March 1. Also, one lofty promise was changed for another, as the handset is now believed to be the first one to offer 6GB of RAM.

This is not a new speculation either, but yet another leaked benchmark sheet seems to prove it and shows how much of a performance difference it allegedly makes. It is an AnTuTu 6 run and even though the aforementioned 6GB are not explicitly mentioned, the 162,610 points cited are nearly 30K more than other phones in the database. We are slightly sceptical as to whether 2GB of extra memory can account for such an increase, but even if it is a bit overstated, it is worth noting. Plus, we already have a banner proving the XPlay 5 will use a Snapdragon 820 SoC and 6GB of RAM. A 5.5-inch QHD display has also been suggested.

The same source also leaked a few new renders of the upcoming handset. They look quite different from previous ones, but do seem airily similar to another Vivo render, meaning the sloped design might actually be part of the final unit.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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Over a couple of years after it was launched, popular instant messaging service Telegram has announced that it has surpassed the 100 million monthly active users milestone. The company also revealed that around 350,000 new users sign up for the service each day, and it delivers more than 15 billion messages daily.

Although Telegram is one of the few mobile messaging services that are widely seen as competitors to Facebook-owned WhatsApp, it’s user base is still one-tenth when compared to that of the latter – WhatsApp recently crossed 1 billion users. But it’s good to see Telegram catching up.

The service recently received an update that brought along new voice messaging features and improved Secret Chats. Both iOS and Android clients were updated.

Source 1…

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Android One was supposed to be pure Android for the masses (since the Nexus 6 and 9 went premium). However, it was got the cold shoulder from consumers, which caused Google to rethink its strategy (both one One and Nexus).

So, now we have the General Mobile GM5 Plus – an Android One handset with (the equivalent of) a $300 price tag and mid-range phablet specs. A far cry from the entry-level, sub-$100 phones that the platform originally targetted.

If you shake the pre-conception of “Android One = entry level,” you’ll find the GM5 Plus is actually a very appealing device.

The phone has a metal frame and a textured plastic back. It has a 5.5″ screen with 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4, the screen has 1080p resolution.

Above the screen is a 13MP selfie camera with autofocus and dedicated flash. There’s a similar 13MP camera on the back (with dual-flash). The camera has been tuned with DxO.

As any Android One, the phone runs a very fresh 6.0.1 Marshmallow software. The chipset is a Snapdragon 617 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage if you need more there’s a microSD slot.

Connectivity includes USB Type-C with Quick Charge 3.0 (60% battery in half an hour). The battery is 3,100mAh by the way. Anyway, the Qualcomm chipset supplies LTE Cat. 7 – 300Mbps down, 100Mbps up – and Wi-Fi ac.

The General Mobile GM5 Plus will be available internationally. GM is targeting 15 markets after it launches in Turkey. The price will be equivalent to…

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HP managed to surprise us at the MWC with the announcement of a Snapdragon 820-powered flagship – the Elite x3. The 6″ phablet is running on Windows 10 Mobile and supports Windows Continuum.

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Gionee unveiled the narrowest 5.5″ metal phone yet – just 74.9mm wide. Meet the Gionee S8. The company called out the iPhone 6s Plus, Huawei’s Mates, the Oppo R7s as examples of wider phones.

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Last year Meizu and Canonical worked together to bring us the Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition. Recently the two companies gathered once again to introduce the Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition, and Ubuntu-treated flavor of the company’s latest Pro 5 flagship.

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As for the built quality and feel of the K5 and K5 Plus – they are definitely solid, and the slight curve around both sides on the back make for a slicker look. That particular design trend is gaining momentum quick.

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