After the Redmi 2 Prime, Xiaomi has launched its second made-in-India handset. Dubbed Redmi Note Prime, the device is powered by a Snapdragon 410 SoC with quad-core 1.2GHz CPU, and sports a 5.5-inch (720×1280 pixel resolution) IPS display.

It comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB expandable internal memory, and packs in a 3,100mAh battery. In terms of camera, the Redmi Note Prime features a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. Measuring 154×78.7×9.4mm and weighing in at 185g, the smartphone runs Android 4.4 KitKat-based MIUI 7, and offers support for 4G and dual-SIM.

“With the launch of Redmi Note Prime, we are glad to provide our Mi Fans an opportunity to upgrade to an even more powerful smartphone with an expanded memory and dual-SIM capabilities,” said Manu Jain, Xiaomi’s India Head. “The 3100mAh high-capacity battery, coupled with MIUI optimizations, has enabled Redmi Note Prime to achieve the most impressive battery performance yet. Local manufacturing shows Xiaomi’s commitment to being a part of fabric of India and we are truly excited to roll out our second ‘Made in India’ offering for our Mi fans.”

Carrying an INR 8,499 (around $125) price tag, the handset is currently an Amazon India exclusive, with sales opening tomorrow morning. In addition, it’s also listed on Mi.com.

Source 1 2 |…

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Huawei’s sub-brand Honor might soon enter the United States smartphone market. According to the company, an announcement related to its US plans will be made at the upcoming International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

“The United States market is the highest end market for Huawei, so we have been planning for a very long time,” said George Zhao, President of Honor Global. “The International CES is planned for January, as you know, so you should expect to hear more about our United States plan at that time.” He made the comments while speaking at a media event held following Honor’s 2nd anniversary celebrations in Shenzhen, China.

While there’s currently no official word it, reports say that a US variant of the recently-launched 5X smartphone (shown in the image above) could be announced at Honor’s CES event, which is scheduled for January 5 2016 at 8…

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Facebook has confirmed that the company is testing a feature that’ll inform users when a friend is writing a comment. This comes after several users of the social networking service spotted “A friend is writing a comment” notification while viewing their News Feed in the past month or so.

“We’ve heard from people that they want their experience on Facebook to reflect the real time conversations they have,” Facebook said in a statement. “So we are testing adding a line above the comment box of a post that indicates when a friend is typing. This is to help people have real-time conversations with friends and family.”

There is, however, no information on when the feature will be officially rolled…

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If you’ve been waiting to know when Lenovo will start rolling the Android 6.0 update to its phones, here is some good news: a leak (shown below) allegedly revealing the Chinese company’s Marshmallow update roadmap has surfaced online.

The leaked image shows that the international version of the K3 Note will be the first to get the update, something that will happen in March 2016, followed by the Chinese versions of the Vibe X3 and Vibe P1 in the same month.

In the next couple of months, some other devices including the K3 Note (Chinese version) as well as international variants of the A7000, Vibe P1 and Vibe S1 will receive the update. And finally, in the month of July, the update will be rolled out to the international variants of the Vibe X3 and A7000…

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If mobile business was a sport, then Team BlackBerry threw the Hail Mary pass that fans dream about. The BlackBerry Priv is unique in more ways than one, unexpected in a way but also inevitable.

The company’s own oft-delayed BlackBerry 10 OS leaned on Android apps to bootstrap its ecosystem, but it never quite worked right – it ran an old version of the Android VM, there were bugs and even when everything ran smoothly, the made-for-Android UI of the apps didn’t fit the aesthetic of BB 10 OS.

The native platform is in freefall (some analysts have calculated Tizen has more market share), so BlackBerry had no choice but to go full-blown Android instead of just emulation. Some doubted it would ever happen but here we are.

It did bring its government-grade security features. Sure, Samsung KNOX got some certifications, but you don’t see President Obama or Chancellor Merkel pocketing a Galaxy. On the downside the first release of the software has some issues to hammer out – not unexpected, but not great for a company that needs everything to go just right.

BlackBerry is known for two things – security and keyboard. Sure enough, the BlackBerry Priv has a classic BB keyboard, hidden behind the wonderful 5.4″ QHD AMOLED display with a sliding mechanism. Hardware QWERTY and a slider, our nostalgia is welling up!

Unfortunately, the execution on the keyboard isn’t perfect – maybe because it’s cramped under the screen, maybe because the key travel is pretty shallow, the BlackBerry keyboard is not as great as we remember. And this is not something that can be fixed with a software update.

To be fair to the Canadians, they got a lot of things right – the screen, the camera especially, the top grade connectivity. There are some issues with those things, but the thing that will turn most people away is the price.

Even if the BlackBerry Priv was perfectly executed (and it’s not), few people can justify $900/€780 for it. Sales to individual consumers will probably be insignificant, so it’s really down to businesses to buy Privs in droves.

Would you use a Priv? If you could afford it or if your company got you one as a company phone that is. If you need help making up your mind, our review is a good place to…

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The end of the year is drawing closer and the holiday season is almost upon us. These last few weeks are traditionally busy and in the mobile realm most seem to be rushing in preparation for 2016 and all the exciting new releases and announcements it holds. Naturally, this means an influx of rumors and leaks, which is what dominated the news section this week.

Samsung was in the spotlight as everybody is eagerly awaiting the release of the Galaxy S7 flagship early next year. We managed to get our hands on an early render of the upcoming flagship duo and, by all accounts, the OEM looks to be planning a beefy 6.0-inch version of the phone to complement the standard 5.1-inch one.

And while we are on the topic of Samsung, the Korean giant got everybody excited a few days ago, with news of a new Galaxy A8 handset. Turns out, however, that it is not the eagerly-anticipated upgraded model, refreshed for 2016, but rather a Japanese version of the existing one with an Exynos 5333 SoC. Also, interestingly enough, some Galaxy Note 4 users have been getting an early Android 6.0 Marshmallow update, while the OEM’s latest generation of devices is oddly left out.

Another upcoming device also made headlines. It is Xiaomi’s new flagship, the Mi 5 and needless to say, expectations for the handset are pretty high. The Chinese OEM now has a solid reputation for delivering quality devices at a very competitive price point and the Mi 5 will likely make no exception. However, the device is still shrouded in a lot of mystery, with conflicting renders and specs sheets constantly flying in, so, the full picture might actually remain unclear up until the very launch.

In other news, Apple unveiled a rather controversial Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 6s duo, which has been met with a lot of criticism. It does feature a few questionable design decisions and has sparked a veritable flame war with third-party accessory vendors also fanning the flames, but we will let you decide on its merits for yourself. Cupertino might actually be focusing its designing efforts on other things, like a new Apple Watch and 4.0-inch iPhone, which will allegedly come out next April.

Also, we can probably expect a new metal LG G5 flagship in February, a OnePlus 2 and a new high-end offer by HTC, allegedly called Perfume. Overall, 2016 is starting to look quite promising from the very start.

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EXCLUSIVE: Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Plus sizes and renders leak
It looks like the next Samsung flagship will have a huge 6.0″ version, in addition to the standard 5.1″ one.

Leaked Samsung Galaxy S7 Plus 3D model rendered on video
Sticking close to the S6 aesthetics, the Galaxy S7 may not resurrect the features that the 2015 model cut out.

OnePlus 3 to have a front facing speaker, leaked render reveals
A departure from the usual sandstone backs is also suggested.

Alleged render shows physical home button on Xiaomi Mi 5
If true, this would make the Mi 5 the first Xiaomi device to offer such a design.

Lenovo A7010 appears online ahead of official launch
Has a 5.5-inch 1080p display, stereo speakers, octa-core MediaTek processor, and 3300mAh battery.

Xiaomi teasing a Prime launch on Amazon India
The Redmi 2 Prime has been available for 3 months, and it won’t be the Redmi Note 2 Prime, so what is it?

A metal LG G5 to launch in February, bring a 21MP camera and iris scanning
The screen is expected to get a small bump in size and a fingerprint reader is also in order.

New Xiaomi Mi 5 render shows up…

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The Oppo R7s was at the office for a while, and in case you missed it on the homepage, make sure you read the review – it’s a very attractive midranger. In this piece, however, we’ll focus on its battery life and not looks and other merits.

The smartphone comes with a 3,070mAh battery inside a body merely 7mm thick. We appreciate that the push for a sleek body hasn’t meant a sacrifice in capacity, and the powerpack is quite generous for a 5.5-inch device. It’s non removable, though.

The R7s sits right in the middle of the R7 lineup in terms of display diagonal, and its battery capacity reflects that. We won’t bore you with the numbers (which you can easily calculate for yourselves, if you’re into that), but the R7s actually has more mAh per square millimeter than the R7, though not as much as the R7 Plus.

Competing smartphones typically come with less juice. The Samsung Galaxy A7 packs a 2,600mAh cell, as does the Xperia C4. There are exceptions like the Motorola Moto X Play, which has an ample 3,630mAh battery, and next year’s Galaxy A7 (2016) will see an increase in capacity to 3,300. Meanwhile the LG G3 packs a 3,000mAh battery, removable too.

In the case of the Oppo R7s it’s also worth mentioning that it supports the company’s proprietary VOOC fast charging tech. Part of the retail package, the fast charger and special USB cable work together to deliver up to 4A of current at 5V to the smartphone.

VOOC charger and cable in the retail box

The battery inside is actually comprised of two separate cells, which can be charged simultaneously, thus reducing the current to each cell and keeping temperature in check. It also means that to make use of the VOOC fast charging you need both the charger and the cable to be compatible, because they have additional pins, missing in your garden variety pieces. You can certainly use standard chargers and cables as well, but at the expense of speed.

The actual battery life of the Oppo R7s ranges from great to average, depending on what you’d be using it for. Voice call endurance is among the excellent bits. With just over 24 hours on a 3G call, the R7s can literally last you a whole day of constant talking (though please don’t test it).

Come to think of it, the Galaxy A7 tops it by an hour, the LG G3 by an hour and a half, and the Moto X is good for 26 and a half hours, while a OnePlus 2 can even crosses the 30-hour mark. That said, those are all excellent results, and the R7s’ is one too. The Xperia C4 calls it quits in 13 hours, for an example.

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Talk time

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 LTE
46:44h

Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
33:20h

Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
33:19h

Oppo R7 Plus
30:46h

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
30:29h

OnePlus 2
30:29h

Motorola DROID Turbo
30:09h

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL LTE
29:46h

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL LTE Dual SIM
29:46h

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL Dual SIM
29:46h

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
29:46h

Nokia Lumia 1520
28:34h

Samsung Galaxy Note5
28:34h

HTC One (M8) for Windows
28:34h

Samsung Galaxy Note 4
28:31h

Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet LTE
28:25h

Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
28:23h

Samsung Galaxy S5
27:37h

Sony Xperia Z1
26:53h

Samsung Galaxy S6 active
26:29h

Motorola Moto X Play
26:28h

Samsung P6800 Galaxy Tab 7.7
25:45h

LG G3
25:38h

LG G Pro 2
25:37h

LG G Flex
25:19h

Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
25:16h

LG G2
25:15h

Samsung Galaxy A7
25:12h

Samsung Galaxy A7 Duos
25:12h

Huawei Ascend Mate
25:12h

BlackBerry Passport
25:12h

Motorola Nexus 6
25:03h

Alcatel Hero
25:02h

Samsung Galaxy A8
25:02h

Samsung Galaxy A8 Duos
25:02h

Oppo N1
25:01h

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
24:52h

Sony Xperia Z Ultra
24:23h

Oppo R7s
24:03h

LG AKA
23:20h

Meizu PRO 5
23:10h

Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE Dual SIM
23:09h

Microsoft Lumia 640 Dual SIM
23:09h

Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE
23:09h

Oppo…

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This year is coming to a close and the chart of the Top 10 has mostly settled in. It seems like the Samsung Galaxy J series will most likely go down as the most popular lineup on our site in the end of 2015.

Recently, the Samsung Galaxy J7 has been in the #1 spot more often than not and its posse, Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J2, are right behind it. This week even the baby brother, the Galaxy J1 made it into the list at #10 (this one has difficulty hanging on though).

You can at least count on one of the young brands coming out from China to break up the monotony, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 takes on that role this week (last week too). It displaced the Redmi Note 2, which fell off the Top 10.

Apple maintains a presence in this ranking too, with the iPhone 6s, though it could never flood the charts with models like Samsung does.

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Samsung Galaxy J7
RANK: 1WAS: 1

specs review

Samsung Galaxy J5
RANK: 2WAS: 2

specs review

Samsung Galaxy J2
RANK: 3WAS: 3

specs review

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
RANK: 4WAS: 5

specs review

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
RANK: 5WAS: 4

specs gallery

Samsung Galaxy S6
RANK: 6WAS: 6

specs review

Samsung Galaxy Note5
RANK: 7WAS: 7

specs review

Samsung Galaxy A5
RANK: 8WAS: 8

specs review

Apple iPhone 6s
RANK: 9WAS: 10

specs review

Samsung Galaxy J1
RANK: 10NEW IN

specs…

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With the Doze features, new and powerful permission engine and many more goodies awaiting users after the Android 6.0 update, we can easily forget some of the simpler features we have been taking for granted. However, quite a few unfortunate early adopters of Marshmallow have been having issues with the simplest of tasks – keeping time.

More and more reports are coming in of freshly updated Android 6.0 handsets with system clocks lagging behind and going out of sync. That’s right, the Marshmallow powerhouse in your pocket can’t keep up with time.

The drift is quite small and can’t really be noticed under direct observation, but user comments on the Google issue have suggested that a delay of up to 15 minutes can be accumulated over a period of 12 hours – just enough to miss that all important meeting or be late for an exam.

Chances are that most of you are still a good few month away from getting a Marshmallow update, if at all, so we can’t imagine too many of you are affected. Still, for those that are – don’t despair. The bug is already addressed and a fix is included, along with the new emojis in Android 6.0.1. Users have also figured out a couple of temporary fixes. One is to simply restart your headset, forcing it to sync the time with the network, while another instructs to manually switch over form 4G to 3G, which should have the same effect.

So, if you just received that eagerly-anticipated Marshmallow OTA, be sure to take a watch with you, just in case.

Source |…

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Remember when in the beginning of November Microsoft announced that it will be introducing changes to the quotas for its OneDrive cloud storage service? Effective as of the beginning of 2016, unlimited storage was no longer to be offered, and neither were 100GB and 200GB plans, for existing and new accounts alike.

Most important to casual users, however, was the company’s choice to limit free storage to 5GB instead of 15GB and to cancel the 15GB camera roll bonus.

Well, Microsoft appears to be backing out on that last bit, at least. You can now opt to keep the 15GB of storage + 15GB camera roll and the procedure is dead simple. You just need to follow the Source link below (nothing fishy, it’s on the OneDrive website) where you’d be asked to login, and that’s it. We tried it and it worked. Just make sure you do it before January 31, when the offer expires.

It’s an understandable move on Microsoft’s part, we take it. It’s pointless to allocate space for dormant subscribers who don’t use the service, but there’s also little benefit to aggravating users of a modest 15GB (okay, potentially 30GB, but…

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