In today’s highly-competitive and overflowing market, staying relevant and up to par with competitors is a tough challenge, but standing out from the crowd and gathering gazes is even harder. A new eccentric and bold design is definitely a plan, but that has become increasingly difficult in the current mobile market, dominated by the boring “slab” handset design.

Still, ZTE seems to have managed to find a way to stick out with the upcoming Nubia X8. A new set of photos, recently shared by the OEM on Chinese social outlet Weibo, seem to show a new control design for the phone, featuring resistive touch volume rockers.

From the looks of things, the X8 will have a set of three grooves carved right into the side if the frame, two of which are touch operated volume controls. It is hard to tell whether the power button will be resistive as well, but, judging by the space around the button, it could also be a standard physical one, albeit quite shallow.

In any case, besides being a peculiarity, we really doubt the concept will yield anything good. There are obvious reasons the industry has stuck with physical power and volume buttons for so long. It is quite simply the more convenient and responsive way. Still, we are inclined to keep an open mind.

Another piece of information was also shared alongside the photos – what appears to be a promotional banner. It is even complete with a date – October 15, when we will most likely see the release of the Nubia X8. As for the rest of the specs of the phablet, we first heard some rumors, back in May when the Nubia Z9 was unveiled, some of which sound pretty plausible.

The Nubia X8 is said to have a huge 6.0-inch display and sport a slim unibody design. Previous images have actually shown what appears to be a fingerprint reader below the camera on the back, much like recent Huawei devices, but rumors also hint at a possible front placement for the sensor – underneath the signature Nubia home ring. ZTE will also, allegedly, pack the flagship with 4GB of RAM and offer it in 32GB and 64GB storage…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1R7nnjN
via IFTTT

Creating sub-brands has been one of the preferred strategies used by Chinese manufacturers lately and in today’s case ZUK has been backed by none other than the Chinese behemoth Lenovo with their logo proudly sitting on the ZUK Z1 box.

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1Ou09Hc
via IFTTT

While we already knew that Oppo’s upcoming R7s smartphone will have 3GB RAM, it has now been revealed that the device will also be offered in a 4GB RAM variant.

For those who aren’t in the know, other rumored specifications of the handset include Snapdragon 615 SoC, 5.5-inch FullHD AMOLED display, 32GB expandable internal memory, 13MP/8MP camera combo, and Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. It is also said to carry a bigger battery than the R7.

The R7s is set to be unveiled during this year’s Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX), which is scheduled to take place in Dubai from October 18 to…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1jkdEwd
via IFTTT

OnePlus has become the latest smartphone manufacturer to join the ‘Make in India’ bandwagon. The company announced today that it has entered into a partnership with Foxconn, and will soon begin manufacturing handsets in the country.

It was revealed that by the year’s end, the Chinese contractor’s factory in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh will start assembling OnePlus devices.

While the move would likely result in Indian customers paying less for OnePlus smartphones, the gap between the demand and supply of its handsets won’t get bridged at-least for a while, the company noted, adding that it will stick to its invite system for the near future.

Many other Chinese smartphone manufacturers, including Xiaomi, Gionee, and Oppo have already jumped on to the ‘Make in India’…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1LE6TLG
via IFTTT

To keep up with tough competition on both the technical and media fronts, Samsung is always refreshing its commercials and putting the word out to current and prospective customers. This time around, it is in the form of infographics about the company’s latest pair of flagship phablets – the S6 edge+ and the Note5.

These promotional materials were launched alongside a set of new commercials and generally seem like a pretty good and most of all, informative idea. Tech savvy people and especially those of us already buried knee deep in the realm often tend to forget that what we see when exploring a new product can be easily be left out by the average consumer. Thus, anything that brings a little clarity to the Swiss army knife on steroids that a contemporary mobile phone has become is pretty welcome.

Also, it is worth noting that Samsung has done a good job really focusing most on the Galaxy S6 edge+ and Note5 exclusive features that indeed set them apart from other products, including the company’s own.

Source 1 | Source 2 |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1OtqvJh
via IFTTT

Xiaomi has sent out press invites for an event next week. While a teaser image accompanying the invite (shown below) suggests a new product launch on October 19 (next Monday), there isn’t much known about it at the moment.

The most likely candidate is the Mi 5 smartphone, which has been the subject of numerous rumors and leaks till now. Although previous reports have suggested that the device would be launched either in November or December, an October launch cannot be completely ruled out.

However, if this does happen, it’d be safe to say that the handset won’t feature the Snapdragon 820 SoC as the first devices with the chipset are expected to arrive in December at the earliest.

Another possible launch candidate is the Mi Pad 2. There were reports earlier that the device could be announced in Q3, a time frame which has already passed. However, that time-frame was never confirmed by Xiaomi, so an October 19 launch for the Mi Pad 2 is still a possibility. The successor to the Mi Pad was also recently spotted on China’s 3C Certification center website.

Whatever be the case, we’ll come to know soon as October 19 is just a week…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1ZuvIEl
via IFTTT

If you’ve heard of Elephone, you’re probably thinking “phones with big batteries,” but it turns out the company put together a very impressive Android Wear watch. It should be available soon for $115 shipped and it checks all the right boxes.

The Elephone ELE smartwatch has a large, round 1.5″ display with 320 x 320px resolution. It’s a TFT without the “flat tire” design that Moto couldn’t fix even in the second generation. It’s one of the biggest round screens on a smartwatch.

The watch is powered by MediaTek’s MT2601 chipset, which was specifically designed for wearables. It has two Cortex-A7 cores at 1.2GHz, a Mali-400 GPU and 512MB RAM. There’s 4GB of storage too (note that they are listed in gigabits in the source link).

The ELE smartwatch is well equipped – a metal casing with an IP67 rating, changeable metal link or leather wrist strap, a heart rate sensor (something the affordable Zenwatch 2 does not have) and a relatively big 400mAh battery. The one thing that’s missing is GPS.

The whole thing weighs 60g, but there’s no word on the thickness.

You can find the Elephone ELE smartwatch on Gear Best. There’s no availability date, but you can sign up for a notification.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1PagTDh
via IFTTT

Tesla has released an update for the Model S that brings an important new feature: autopilot. Autopilot on the Model S will enable features such as auto steering, lane changing activated by the turn signal, and auto parking.

The version 7 update also has some other features, such as a new UI and the Model S without autopilot hardware will be getting improved climate control, improved efficiency and performance for RWD Model S, and improved hill start assist that works on all surfaces.

Tesla had initially began rolling out the update in beta version to 600-700 early access users back in August in the US and parts of Europe. The version rolling out now is the final version and available to all…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1OtabbB
via IFTTT

A new Xiaomi handset has been spotted listed on TENAA’s website. Dubbed Mi 2014816, the device is an entry-level smartphone that is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz processor and sports a 4.7-inch display with 1280×720 pixel resolution.

It comes with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory (expandable up to 32GB), and runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat. In terms of camera, the Mi 2014816 features an 8MP rear unit and a 2MP front shooter.

Measuring 134×67.21×9.2 (mm) and weighing in at 134g, the handset comes in red, orange, yellow, green black, and white color options. Connectivity support includes Bluetooth, GPRS, GPS, and GSM, TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE, and USB.

Source (translated) |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1OtadQJ
via IFTTT

The LG-made Google Nexus 5 smartphone, which was released back in November 2013, has received a major price cut in India, where online retailer Snapdeal has the 16GB variant (along with Google Chromecast) currently listed for INR 15,999 ($247).

That’s a total of over 50% in savings. However, if you don’t opt for the combo offer, the 16GB variant alone will cost you INR 20,299 ($313), which still amounts to a discount of more than 30%. There are similar discounts on the 32GB variant, too.

The price slash comes just a day before the scheduled launch of the newly-announced LG-made Google Nexus 5X and Huawei-made Nexus 6P smartphones in India.

Source…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1Ot07PK
via IFTTT