Xiaomi announced its newest flagship – the Mi 5 – at MWC last week. The device is all set to go on sale in China starting March 1 – tomorrow. In case you’re wondering how many people have registered for tomorrow’s sale, the figure stands at over 14 million. This was revealed by the Chinese company itself.

That’s quite impressive, and is even said to be a new record for the company as the milestone was achieved in less than a week after the $300 handset was unveiled.

As for the sale, it begins 10AM China time, and will see the company offering only the white color variants of the 3GB/32GB and 3GB/64GB models. There’s currently no word on when other versions, including the higher-end ceramic back variant will be available for…

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Oppo has released a new teaser that confirms the existence of the rumored R9 smartphone. It seems to be a camera-centric device given that the Chinese text in the teaser translates as “This time, it is worth and other ‘9’ point. #OPPO New camera phone R9 #.”

Sadly nothing else was revealed, but given that the Chinese company has finally confirmed the handset, we expect to see more teasers and leaks in the coming days. A leak last year suggested that the device looks almost identical to the iPhone 6s Plus.

Specs-wise, from what all has been rumored until now, the Oppo R9 will be powered by a Snapdragon 820 SoC and sport a 6-inch (1440 x 2560 pixel resolution) display. It will come with 3GB or 4GB RAM and 64GB of expandable internal memory.

In terms of camera, the handset will feature 21MP rear unit and a 13MP front shooter. Packing in a 3,700 mAh battery, the R9 will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow…

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If you recall, Microsoft was offering a $50 discount on its Band 2 fitness wearable until February 20. However, if for some reason you failed to take advantage of that promo, here’s a new deal: the device is now officially available for $174.99.

Yes, the new deal is an even better one, as the total discount in this case comes out to be $75 – Microsoft usually sells the wearable for $249.99. The promo runs through March 26 9pm PST, and is available for purchases made through online as well as retail Microsoft stores in the US.

Aside from Microsoft, third party retailer Best Buy also has the device listed for $174.99.

Source (Microsoft US) | Best…

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While Samsung’s newest flagships – the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge – are officially scheduled to go on sale starting March 11, looks like a few lucky people in the US will have their pre-orders delivered before that date.

One of the country’s “big four” carriers, T-Mobile, has already started shipping the pre-orders – many of those who pre-ordered the device(s) are getting their shipment notifications. Last year too, a few lucky ones got their T-Mobile Galaxy S6 pre-orders delivered before time.

In case you missed, the South Korean company’s mobile chief Koh Dong-jin recently revealed that the Galaxy S7 flagship will be available in 60 countries in the first wave of its global launch.

Via…

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The Microsoft Lumia 640 has received yet another price cut in the United States, where retailers including Best Buy and Walmart are now selling the device for $29.99. The model on offer (color option: black) is available via AT&T’s GoPhone prepaid service.

A quick look at the Microsoft’s US Store website reveals that the Redmond, Washington-based company is offering the black-colored AT&T variant for $29, but sadly the handset is currently out of stock. If you recall, an official price cut earlier this month saw the device coming down to $49.

For those who aren’t already aware, the phone is in the list of Lumia devices that are set to receive the Windows 10 Mobile update – in fact, T-Mobile Poland already started rolling out the update to Lumia 640 units on its network last month.

Source (Best Buy) | Walmart | Windows US…

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These are some of the best apps and games of this week.

Spark

Spark is a beautiful and powerful email app for the iPhone, which is now available on the iPad. The app makes good use of the iPad’s big display, with multiple panes, including an additional bar on the left with shortcuts for your calendars, attachments, inboxes, etc. There is also a Watch app now, and a sync feature that syncs mail between your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.

iOS

Photofy

Photofy is an image editing app for iOS that is now also available on Android. Although there are many photo editing apps out there, Photofy is tastefully designed. The main feature, among the usual editing options, is the ton of template texts in beautiful fonts that you can place on your images. Or if you want, you can type out your own. The app is free but with an in-app purchase you can access all the templates and filters.

iOS • Android

Peach

Peach is a new social network similar to Twitter. You update your status and and can see what your friends are up to. There is no traditional timeline as on Twitter or Facebook. You see your list of friends with their last status below their name and you click on their name to see a reverse chronological view of their timeline. It has some cool features, such as typing GIF and the title to search for the GIF and then directly post it. The app was previously iOS-only but is now available on Android.

iOS • Android

Backdrops

Backdrops is a wallpaper app for Android. The app is well designed and features some beautiful images in high resolution.

Android

The Walking Dead: Michonne

The Walking Dead: Michonne is a three part mini-series in The Walking Dead series, based on a comic book series of the same name. It explores what happens to Michonne’s character after she disappears between issues #126 and #139. The first episode is out now and the remaining will be released every month from now.

iOS • Android

Assassin’s Creed Identity

Identity is a new Assassin’s Creed game made specifically for the mobile platform. Although it is claimed to be an RPG game, it is mostly action-adventure. The good thing about Identity is that it feels, for the most parts, like a full-fledged Assassin’s Creed game and not like a watered down mobile version. There are plenty of missions to play, lots of things to do, and the it looks great, too.

iOS

Love You To Bits

Love You To Bits is a point and click adventure game. The game involves solving simple environmental puzzles to progress onto the next level. It’s quite fun and really well animated. Worth a look, especially if you have…

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Introduction

The Jaybird X2 is a pair of wireless Bluetooth earphones designed for fitness enthusiasts. The headset is the successor to the company’s Jaybird BlueBuds X. In reality, the two models aren’t all that different, but that’s not such a bad thing as the BlueBuds X is one of highest rated Bluetooth earphones around.

The premise is simple; the X2 is a headset designed primarily to be worn while working out and as such has a very minimal footprint and try to get out of your way as much as possible. In that pursuit, they have all the electronics built within the speaker enclosures themselves, while also being sweat-resistant and designed not to pop out while you’re running. Oh, and you can take calls on them easily.

But you could have gotten all that from their website. Let’s see what the headset is like in real life.

Design

The design of the X2 is nearly identical to that of the original BlueBuds X. It’s a roughly two feet long thin flat cable with speakers on either end. Not the first product to use this design but before I get into anything else, let’s just stop for a second and appreciate how the engineers managed to fit so much into such a small form factor.

When you first try to put them on, you realize there is no marking for left and right speakers. It is because the earphones are designed to be worn both in an under-the-ear and an over-the-ear style and because the drivers are angled inwards, you have to switch them around when you move from one to the other position.

Unfortunately, this results in an immediate problem, and that is the channels don’t switch when you wear them upside down. It’s only when you wear them in an under-ear style do you get the correct channel for each ear. It is not so much of a problem if you are listening to music, but using them for watching videos with stereo sound is downright confusing at times.

The fancy retail carrying box fits all the bits and piece

Once you figure out the left speaker from the right (the right one is the one with the controls near it), you then have to consider choosing between six different ear tips. Three of these are silicone, and the other three are Comply foam ear tips. For those not familiar with foam ear tips, you first have to squeeze them before inserting in your ears and once inside, the foam expands and takes the shape of your inner ear, which gives a tighter seal and is more comfortable on your ears. The foam ear tips also lack the annoying suction pump feeling of traditional silicone ear tips when you insert or remove them and are more comfortable. The problem is the foam can be damaged easily and isn’t exactly sweat resistant, so for working out, it would be preferable to use the silicone ear tips.

The other thing you have to consider putting on are the ear fins, which fit inside your outer ear and keep the earphones securely in place. In my testing, I found the Jaybird X2 to sit quite firmly in my ears, and I didn’t have to worry about them popping out every few minutes.

The last thing you would have to consider is the cord management clips. You get three with the earphones, of which one is spare. Even though the cable between the speakers is not long, you can still make it shorter by running it through the clips. It’s important not to make it too short because, as I found out, it can severely restrict your sideways head movement and also makes it harder to use the controls. I found I could skip using these, and it was still fine.

Coming to the earphones, they are made entirely out of plastic and come in a variety of colors. They are slightly longer than most earphones, as you can imagine, but not so long that they stick out too much from the side of your head (although you do feel them if you place your head sideways on a pillow while wearing them).

The right speaker has a flap on the back with the microUSB port for charging, and also an LED status indicator.

The fancy retail carrying box fits all the bits and piece

Below the right speaker is the remote control. It has three buttons that can do various functions. The middle button is for power and also play/pause, and the other two are for volume or for skipping tracks. How the controls work isn’t immediately apparent, and there is no user guide in the box either, which means you have to head over to the website for the…

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If you think about it, Samsung and LG are to “blame” for the current dominance of huge-screen handsets. Samsung got the ball rolling with the Note, LG killed off the phone/phablet distinction with the G3.

This year, however, both companies pulled back and their new flagships are smaller than their predecessors: from 5.7″ S6 edge+ to 5.5″ S7 edge, from 5.5″ G4 to 5.3″ LG G5. Their screens have another thing in common too, Always On mode.

The two diverge when it comes to the camera. The G5 has a secondary wide-angle camera while Samsung focused on low-light shooting and ultra-fast focus locks.

The Galaxy S7 edge is not nearly as locked down as the S6 before it. No, you still can’t change the battery, but you get your microSD slot back and water resistance too (IP68).

The LG G5 went all metal and LG used a unique process to hide the unsightly antenna lines. The killer feature, however, is modularity – currently, a camera battery grip (with extra hardware controls) and a hi-fi DAC from Bang & Olufsen give you the option to upgrade your G5 even after purchasing it.

Well, you’ve probably read our thoughts on the LG G5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, now we want to hear what you think. Vote away!

You have until next weekend to…

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MWC is still underway and the show floor will remain open to visitors up until March 2, but thankfully, announces are now finished, so we can all take a little rest from the bombardment of new devices and reevaluate the experience a little better. If you think you might have missed some handset announcement or are simply looking for an orderly recap, the table below should be for you. It also comes complete with links to out respective hands-on reviews.

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Alcatel Idol 4

specs hands-on

Alcatel Idol 4s

specs hands-on

Alcatel Pop 4

specs hands-on

Alcatel Pop 4+

specs hands-on

Alcatel Pop 4S

specs hands-on

Samsung Galaxy S7

specs hands-on

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge

specs hands-on

LG G5

specs hands-on

ZTE Blade V7

specs hands-on

ZTE Blade V7 Lite

specs hands-on

HTC One X9

specs hands-on

HTC Desire 825

specs hands-on

HTC Desire 630

specs hands-on

HTC Desire 530

specs hands-on

Sony Xperia X

specs hands-on

Sony Xperia XA

specs hands-on

Sony Xperia X Performance

specs hands-on

Cat S60

specs hands-on

Gionee S8

specs hands-on

Acer Liquid Jade…

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Gionee Marathon M5 is one truly fascinating device. This chubby fella is heavy at 211g for a reason – the 5.5″ smartphone is powered by a massive Li-Po 6,020 mAh. The mid-range chipset in charge of the Marathon M5 isn’t popular as a power efficient silicone, but considering the battery size and the modest quad-core processor, it shouldn’t matter that much.

The M5 utilizes a 5.5″ AMOLED screen, which may affect the power performance, too, as the AMOLEDs turned out not that great performance on previous Gionee smartphones.

Enough with the introductions, let’s get down to business, shall we?

Gionee has rated the M5 capable of making 68 hours of 2G calls and 28 hours when hooked on to a 3G network. In our testing the M5 lasted 38 hours worth of calltime on a 3G network.

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Talk time

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 LTE
46:44h

Gionee Marathon M5
38:07h

Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
33:20h

Huawei Ascend Mate2 4G
33:19h

Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)
32:54h

Xiaomi Redmi 3
32:53h

Oppo R7 Plus
30:46h

OnePlus 2
30:29h

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
30:29h

Motorola DROID Turbo
30:09h

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL Dual SIM
29:46h

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL LTE Dual SIM
29:46h

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
29:46h

Microsoft Lumia 640 XL LTE
29:46h

Huawei Honor 5X
29:40h

HTC One (M8) for Windows
28:34h

Samsung Galaxy Note5
28:34h

Nokia Lumia 1520
28:34h

Samsung Galaxy Note 4
28:31h

Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet LTE
28:25h

Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
28:23h

Huawei G8
27:44h

Samsung Galaxy S5
27:37h

Sony Xperia Z1
26:53h

Huawei Mate 8
26:45h

Samsung Galaxy S6 active
26:29h

Motorola Moto X Play
26:28h

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
26:01h

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 Duos
25:12h

Huawei Ascend Mate
25:12h

BlackBerry Passport
25:12h

Samsung Galaxy A7
25:12h

Motorola Nexus 6
25:03h

Alcatel Hero
25:02h

Samsung Galaxy A8 Duos
25:02h

Samsung Galaxy A8
25:02h

Oppo N1
25:01h

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
24:52h

Sony Xperia Z Ultra
24:23h

Oppo R7s
24:03h

Apple iPhone 6 Plus
23:49h

LG AKA
23:20h

Sony Xperia Z3
23:13h

Meizu PRO 5
23:10h

Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE Dual SIM
23:09h

Microsoft Lumia 640 LTE
23:09h

Microsoft Lumia 640 Dual SIM
23:09h

Oppo R7
22:58h

Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
22:42h

Motorola Moto E (2nd gen)
22:36h

Motorola Moto X Style
22:23h

ZTE Nubia Z9
22:20h

Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue
22:16h

HTC One Max
22:13h

Sony Xperia Z2
22:13h

Nokia Lumia 1020
22:13h

Nokia Lumia 1320
22:13h

Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
22:13h

Lenovo ZUK Z1
22:13h

Sony Xperia C3 Dual
22:11h

Meizu MX4 Pro
22:09h

Yota YotaPhone 2
22:09h

Samsung ATIV SE
22:05h

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
22:02h

Xiaomi Redmi Note
21:41h

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
21:39h

Motorola RAZR MAXX
21:18h

Xiaomi Mi 4i
21:02h

Meizu m2 note
20:55h

Huawei Nexus 6P
20:50h

LG Optimus G Pro E985
…

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