Vivo is mostly known for its range of good mid-range phones in Nepal. The Vivo V11 Pro was one of the best phones that made debut in 2018. And along with the Vivo V11, it was well-received. Vivo’s Y-series are also a popular range of lower mid-range phones in Nepal. And now, Vivo is on the verge of expanding its Y-series lineup with three new handsets in Nepal. The three phones are Vivo Y95, Vivo Y91 and the Vivo Y91i and these feature the typical 2018 looks with large displays and water-drop notches. And all three of these are similar in terms of many aspects.
Vivo Y95 Overview
The Vivo Y95 features a large 6.2″ IPS LCD display with 19:9 aspect ratio and HD+ resolution. With dual camera setup at the back, the primary lens is a 13 MP sensor, which is supported by a 2 MP depth sensor. The front camera is a 20 MP sensor for good selfies.
Under the hood, you get an octa-core Snapdragon 439 chipset with 4 GB of RAM. That is a typical low-end mid-range chipset. You also get 64 GB of storage on-board which is expandable via microSD. There is also a large 4030 mAh battery to power the device. In the software department, the Vivo Y95 runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with Vivo’s FunTouch OS 4.5 on top.
Vivo Y95 Specifications:
Display: 6.2-inch IPS LCD HD+ (1520 x 720), 19:9 aspect ratio
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 439
GPU: Adreno 505
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with Funtouch OS 4.5
The Vivo Y91 is pretty much similar to the Y95. It just looks like a slightly toned down variant of the Y95. This phone, too, comes with a 6.2″ LCD display and HD+ resolution. Other things, too, are pretty much the same. It also has the Snapdragon 439 chipset, but the difference is it has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB storage. However, this one also comes in a 2 GB RAM and 16 GB storage variant.
The other difference lies in the selfie camera as this one features an 8 MP selfie camera. Other things remain the same, with the dual rear camera comprising of a 13 MP regular camera and a 2 MP depth sensor as well. The battery size is the same 4030 mAh in this one as well.
vivo Y91 Specifications:
Display: 6.2-inch IPS LCD HD+(1520 x 720), 19:9 aspect ratio
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 439
GPU: Adreno 505
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with Funtouch OS 4.5
The Vivo Y91i looks very different from the Y91. It has a large notch up top and only a single camera at the back. Also, it has 2 GB RAM and 16 GB storage. Other things remain the same, with this one, too, featuring a 6.2″ LCD display with HD+ resolution, and an 8 MP selfie camera. Also, it has the same Snapdragon 439, and the same 4030 mAh battery. Probably, Vivo will be launching the Y91’s 2GB/16 GB variant as the Y91i.
Vivo Y91i Specifications:
Display: 6.2-inch IPS LCD HD+ (1520 x 720), 19:9 aspect ratio
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 439
GPU: Adreno 505
Operating System: Android Oreo 8.1 with Funtouch OS 4.5
RAM: 2 GB
Storage: 16 GB expandable up to 256 GB
Rear Camera: Single, 13MP with f/2.2 aperture
Front Camera: 8 MP
SIM (s): Dual Nano SIM
Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.2
So, these are the three phones from Vivo that are coming soon in Nepal. The pricing is yet unknown, but we are expecting all three phones to be under Rs.30000 in Nepal.
With faster screens appealing to the masses more and more, gaming laptops these days really try to integrate one in their devices. And why not? A good gaming laptop does not mean only unparalleled performance but good visuals and sounds as well. The ASUS ROG Strix Hero II is one such laptop with a super-fast screen and great audio. But what else does it pack?
ASUS ROG Strix Hero II Specifications:
Design and Build: Metal lid, plastic body, 36.1 x 26.2 x 2.61 cm, 2.4 kg
Display: 15.6″ Full HD (1920 x 1080), 93% sRGB & 70% Adobe RGB, 72% NTSC Color Gamut, 320 nits peak brightness with Anti-Glare
Keyboard: ASUS Aura RGB Gaming Keyboard, RGB backlighting, 1.4 mm key travel
Processor: Hexa-core 8th gen i7-8750H processor, Base-Clock @ 2.2 GHz, Turbo Boost Clock up to 4.1 GHz
RAM: DDR4 16 GB (2x slots, upgradeable up to 32 GB)
Graphics: 6 GB NVidia GeForce GTX 1060
Battery: 4-cell 66 Watt-hours (up to 3 hours of backup)
Connectivity: 802.11 ac Gigabit Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v5.0
Ports: 3 x USB A 3.1, 1 x USB-C (No Thunderbolt 3 support), 1 x 3.5 mm headphone jack, 1 x HDMI, 1 x Mini-display, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet, 1 x SDcard slot
Price: Rs.210,000 ($1550 international)
Design
The design of the laptop is pretty clever! It is something that you won’t see every day.
The whole laptop chassis has a square boxed design, and it’s a bit different than what we are used to seeing on others. It looks pretty cool, with a striking factor about how it looks. I’d describe it as elegant and futuristic. The laptop is not very slim for but it still maintains a small form factor even for a 15.6” laptop. It weighs 2.4 kg without the charger, which is okay, for a gaming laptop.
The outer lid is made of aluminum with brushed texture and ROG logo on the side. The logo glows, and can switch colors, which of course, is programmable just like the keyboard lighting inside. You get a two-tone design on the lid with a slash. One half is hairline brushed while the other is anodized. The lid also is designed to reveal the notification LEDs when closed too.
There’s also a light-strip up front, which seems a bit pointless. But of course, some might like it. The build of the laptop is plastic. But it does appear sturdy to look and feel and there’s no flex when pressed whatsoever. A metal build all over would definitely have been better, but it’s not. Still, it has a pretty great feel and heft, there’s not much to complain about.
The air vents are at the back and there’s also one on the right side. Also, these vents at the back are also cleverly designed to keep the laptop cool while also preventing accumulating dust. The design is the most appealing factor. Its sharp, arcane and stands out.
Display
On the display front, the laptop has a 15.6” Full HD panel with a 144 Hz refresh rate and 3 milliseconds of response time. That makes it another of the few laptops with one of the fastest screens on the market which is great for gaming. MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games tend to be very fast paced and screen like these are a treat.
The 144 Hz refresh rate certainly helps push out a good number of frames per second, and 3 milliseconds of response time make your actions look very fluid. Also, the bezels around the display are pretty thin, making it look great. But that leads to this awkwardly placed webcam down on the right.
The overall screen is smooth and the picture quality is fantastic! The picture quality is crisp, colors pop out everywhere, details look amazing and there’s nothing to complain about the image & video quality.
The brightness is about 320 nits, which is good enough too. The color accuracy is not bad with 93% standard RGB, 72% NTSC Color Gamut Coverage and 70% Adobe RGB. This works very well for gaming, but if you’re into editing stuff, there are better options out there.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The keyboard layout is somewhat different than other gaming laptops. It also features some additional hot keys for volume, microphone and the ROG Gaming Centre, which can help you take some quick actions in the middle of the game. This is a nice additional feature to have. But the position of the arrow keys seems a bit off, and it’s easy to confuse them most of the time.
The feedback from the chiclet keyboard is very good. You also get soft “clicky” sounds which can be pretty satisfying. There’s about 1.4 mm of key travel, and that is good enough for me.
The backlighting is not too harsh either and looks good nonetheless. The one thing that differentiates this ASUS ROG Strix Hero II from the Scar II is the highlighted keys. The Scar II has W-A-S-D transparent while this has Q-W-E-R. Which means that this laptop is meant for MOBA gamers while the Scar II is for those who’re into First Person Shooters.
The backlighting has various modes and can be customized but it is not as comprehensive as the MSI GE63 Raider RGB’s. But yes, it is a simple yet good keyboard.
The trackpad is also very nice. With Windows Precision Drivers, it tracks really well and the gestures are solid. The dedicated hardware buttons are nice as well, and even though you might have a mouse plugged in most of the time, the touchpad is really good.
Performance
In the power side of things, it features the latest Hexa-core 8th-gen Intel i7-8750H processor, coupled with 16 GB RAM at 2666 MHz frequency. And the performance is as expected. You can fly through multi-tasking nicely. You can have as many things running on the background as you want, and no app seems to be heavy enough to over-work it.
As for benchmarks, Cinbench 15 scores 174 points for single-core performance whereas 1203 for multi-core performance.
Gaming on this machine is pretty good too. It features the Nvidia GTX 1060 with 6 GB of Video Memory. And while that is a pretty solid performer, it feels somewhat inadequate to compliment the super-fast screen all that well. In our gaming tests, highly graphic intensive games like PUBG resulted in about 40 frames per second on maximum settings and about 50 on low. CS:GO displayed 60 in highest settings, about 80 on medium and 90 on high settings, on average.
But the beauty of the screen is reflected in MOBA games like Dota 2 and Paladin’s. Paladin’s on Ultra Settings averages on 80 frames per second. But there’s always so much going on in the game, yet the screen captures every moment without a hitch. The same goes for Dota 2 as well.
Yet I cannot help but wonder, if, maybe, this had a GTX 1070 in it, you’d get better frames. But the 1060 does a good job too.
Also, you have this ROG Gaming Center that looks something straight out of a Sci-Fi movie. This helps you regulate various settings for the games like change fan settings. It also gives you System information about core temperatures and memory used. But it is a bit complex to use, and it can take some time to get used to.
Thermals
As for thermals, they’re pretty good too. The max inner temperatures can go to 75 and 78 for CPU and GPU respectively. But there is no throttling.
You have three fan modes: Silent, Balanced and Over Boost. The laptop has HyperCool Pro thermal system with dual 12V fans, triple radiators and a heatsink, which do a fairly good job of keeping the laptop cool and without throttling.
Storage
Storage wise, there is a 256 GB M.2 NVMe PCI SSD, and a 1 TB FireCuda SSHD as well. So, for storage, you’re well sorted. On our tests, the SSD gave us about 1570 MB/s of read speeds and 870 MB/s of write speeds.
The SSHD is different that your regular HDD. These drives have a small amount of SSD built-in like a cache memory and stores your most important files on the SSD part, so that you have better access to it.
Ports
As for ports, you get enough of them as well. On the left, there is a power jack, an RJ45 Ethernet port, a mini Display port, an HDMI 2.0 port, two USB A’s, a USB Type-C (without Thunderbolt 3 support) and an Audio-jack.
The right side has a Kensington lock slot, another USB A and an SD-card reader.
Battery
The battery is the part where gaming laptops tend to struggle. And this one is no different. It has a 4-cell 66 Watt-hour battery. And it lasted merely 2.5 hours on normal usage and about 50 minutes while gaming.
But I think that was a problem with my unit. As it is a 66 Whr battery, which should give us more battery life. But nevertheless, you definitely need to carry around a charger with you, as it won’t last a whole day.
Conclusion
So, all in all, the ASUS ROG Strix Hero II is a good gaming machine. If you get this, you’ll have something that catches your eye, one of the fastest screen for a laptop, and also great sound quality.
To talk about the bad aspects of the laptop, you have a bad web-cam in a bad position. The quality is muddy, and noisy and just not good at all. Plus, the awkward position makes it worse. Also, there are 2 RAM slots if you want to upgrade the laptop but it has 12 screws underneath and is a bit difficult to open up. In addition, there’s no Thunderbolt 3 support.
This laptop is priced at $1550 or Rs.210000, here in Nepal. And the problem with that is, it seems a bit expensive for a GTX 1060. I, personally, would be a bit reluctant to pay that much for a GTX 1060. And there are other laptops in a similar price range with better performance. If it had a 1070, it would, hands down, be the best laptop at this price.
You also get the Acer Predator Helios 300 2018 with the same specs and screen that one costs a lot less at Rs.165000. If you don’t really care about the aesthetics, that can be a better choice. But for the extra cost, you get a better keyboard, better sound quality, better design and build too. So, it’s up to you.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI or the Redmi Note 5 Pro was one of the best value for money smartphones especially when it comes to the lower midrange price. And because of the same reason, I did recommend the device to our followers in a number of occasions as well. Recently, Xiaomi launched the successor of the device. But how much of an upgrade has the Redmi Note 6 Pro brought on the table? And can it fill the shoes of its predecessor? Let’s find out in Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro Review.
Camera
Let’s start with the camera. The camera is the biggest highlight of the phone and the presence of quad-camera setup readily cues that. The phone comes with a dual camera setup at the back and there are other two on the front.
The rear camera is aligned vertically in an iPhone XS style with LED flash in between. The camera duo at the back comprises of 12MP and 5MP sensor and the hardware setup is similar to that on the Redmi Note 5 AI. Despite the similarities on the hardware, you can see significant improvements on the Note 6 Pro when it comes to capturing the images. The images captured from the Note 6 Pro looks vibrant and colors seem to pop out more. A photography geek would find it to be slightly oversaturated; however, it looks way better than the undersaturated images from the Note 5 AI.
Details are well-preserved and color accuracy is also slightly better on the Note 6 Pro. I didn’t notice any sort of any sort of focusing issues either. All thanks to the Dual-pixel Phase Detection Autofocus on the phone.
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Dynamic range is decent and you can enhance the dynamic shots by turning on the HDR mode. The HDR mode doesn’t overprocess here, though it pulls out some details in the shadows keeping the overall sharpness of the image intact. It is not the best I have seen from a midranger, but considering the price, the job it did was respectable.
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HDR Off
HDR On
The phone also has an AI mode, which detects the object in focus and the AI is said to do some processing to make it look better. However, I did not notice any significant differences.
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AI Mode Off
AI Mode On
AI Mode Off
AI Mode On
And when it comes to the lowlight images, the captured images tend to lose some details. And the noises and grains are also quite noticeable. However, it did a better than the Note 5 AI. It feels really good to see this sort of improvements.
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Since there are two cameras, you can capture portrait images as well. The edge detection capabilities have considerably improved from the Note 5 AI. And this time, the amount of blur on the background looks more natural. So I was satisfied with the portrait images captured from the device.
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Now let’s move on to the selfie part. And even for the selfies, Xiaomi has packed two cameras on the front. Well, the 20MP primary camera does most of the job here and the secondary 2MP camera just gathers depth information of the subject. So with both the cameras in action, you can capture portrait selfies as well. And portrait selfies looks remarkable with proper edge detection and the right amount of blur intensity. Normal selfies also look good in a similar fashion so there is nothing much to complain here too.
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Normal Selfie
Normal selfie
Low Light Portrait selfie
Low light selfie
Portrait Selfie
But the sad part is, the phone can only shoot videos in 1080p and 30fos at maximum. So you won’t be able to capture 4k videos. But even at the Full-HD resolution, Note 6 Pro does a great job. Colors look true to life, focusing is great, and the video contains a decent amount of details. And the good thing here is the presence of Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS). The EIS does a great job on suppressing the shakes and vibration on the videos. And I must praise the Note 6 Pro here as the videos captured from it are better than that from most of the midrangers available at a similar price.
On the display front, the Redmi Note 6 is slightly bigger than its predecessor. Xiaomi stretched the screen from 6-inch on the Note 5 AI to 6.26-inch on the Note 6 Pro without increasing the size of the phone. So, you can already guess, it has a higher screen to body ratio.
The bezels and chin have been slashed significantly. But to increase the screen to body ratio, Xiaomi this time implemented a notch on the top. And this is one of the very noticeable differences between the Note 5 AI and Note 6 Pro. Although this created a slight bump in the screen to body ratio, the notch looks really ugly in this device and is annoying at the same time. Xiaomi could have implemented a teardrop/dew-drop style of notch like that on the Vivo V11 and the Oppo F9 but that’s not the case here. If you hate the notch on this device, you can also hide it with a black bar on the top. But since the display on this device is an IPS panel and not an AMOLED one, hiding the notch with the black bar won’t save you any battery juice.
And continuing with the display, Redmi Note 6 Pro features Full-HD+ resolution and this time with a 19:9 aspect ratio. At a pixel density of 403PPI, the contents on the screen look really sharp. And talking about color accuracy, it is decent enough considering the price. But when it comes to the color temperature of the display, I notice the display being slightly deviated to a warmer tone. The phone also has a color wheel to adjust the color temperature of the screen, however, I couldn’t exactly obtain the balanced color temperature. So, you have to live with that!
In terms of brightness, the screen glows with the maximum brightness of 480 nits, which is slightly lower than 530 nits brightness on the Redmi Note 5 AI. Nevertheless, the screen is legible even on the outdoors, which is the good part. You won’t face any issues even while viewing contents on the broad daylight. And since there is an ambient light sensor to adjust the display brightness according to the light of the surroundings, there won’t be any hassles on adjusting the display brightness every now and then. So, kudos to Xiaomi!
Redmi Note 6 Pro also has a notification LED on the top. But just like its predecessor, the LED blinks white and the color is non-adjustable. The LED is also dim when it comes to the brightness so you can’t see the blinking LED at times even when you are just a few feet away. I think Xiaomi should really give thoughts on bringing bright and colorful notification LED from next time around.
Design & Build
On the design side, you won’t see anything new and innovative here. Xiaomi implemented the same old-school design with metallic body capped with plastic material on the top and on the bottom. But this time, even the frame is plastic, which may invite reliability issue over time. Since other smartphone OEMs are incorporating premium plastic or glass back on their phone, I think, Xiaomi should also start implementing some modern design language.
Nonetheless, the device looks sturdy and feels decently premium on the hold. Although the device weighs 182 grams, the weight is evenly distributed throughout its body so it does not feel hefty especially when it’s on the hand. So I didn’t face any discomfort even while using the device.
Performance
Note 6 Pro launched nearly nine months after the launch of the Note 5 Pro. But there is barely any upgrade on the performance front. Just like its predecessor, the Note 6 pro comes with Snapdragon 636 chipset packing 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage on its sleeve. So, as you would expect, there were hardly any differences while running any app or game and multitasking between them. After nine months, we definitely expect an upgrade right? Well, you are not getting that here.
Nonetheless, the Snapdragon 636 is a decent chipset and handles most of the day to day tasks without a fuss. I played Asphalt 9 and also ran PUBG in the medium settings. And while playing the games, I did not notice any major lags and stutters. But occasionally, you will notice a slight drop in frame rates. If only Xiaomi had opted for Snapdragon 660 or the MediaTek Helio P60, there would have been fewer such issues. Well, we should probably have to wait for the Redmi 7 Pro to really get that sort of upgrade.
On the software side, the phone comes with an Android Oreo 8.1 with MIUI 9.5 out of the box. The MIUI 9.5 was heavy and cluttered. But I didn’t have to spend much time with that cluttered UI. Shortly after I got the handset for the review, the phone received MIUI 10.0.5 update. The new MIUI is much more polished and much more optimized than the 9.5. So users will surely enjoy using the device with new UI. However, ads appear here and there in the UI, which results in the bitter user experience. I turned off every setting related to the ads on the UI but still, it didn’t stop.
When people spend their hard-earned money on a new device, they expect a clean and delightful user experience. Come on Xiaomi, please don’t take that away from your users. Also, there are tons of bloatware, which I did not find myself using much. And the sad part is most of them cannot be uninstalled or disabled.
But except for the presence of bloatware and Ads issue, there is plenty of reasons to like about the new MIUI. In the new UI, what I liked the most is the gesture mode. You can replace the on-screen buttons with the finger gestures. Swiping up quickly minimizes the apps and brings the home screen, swiping up and pausing for a while shows the recent apps and swiping to the right let the user go back in the menu. Although the device is fun to use by navigating with the gestures, it took quite a while for me to get accustomed with this feature.
Security
On the security side of things, you get a fingerprint sensor and Face Unlock feature as a biometric authentication tool. The fingerprint sensor was fast and accurate. So I was duly pleased with it. However, Face Unlock feature is not easily accessible for all the users.
The feature is limited to some specific regions only. I didn’t try and test every available location to confirm if the service is available in that region. However, I would like you to know that it wasn’t available when I set the region to Nepal but the feature popped up when I set the region to India. It was a similar case even on the Redmi Note 5 AI. So I couldn’t quite understand why Xiaomi is doing this type of discrimination to its users.
Battery
Providing bigger batteries is one of the biggest traits of Xiaomi smartphones. And this time, it is no different. It comes with a huge 4000mAh battery to inject the power juice to the phone. With the massive battery on the board, the phone is capable of providing a prolonged backup as well. The handset provided me a remarkable 8.5 hours of screen on time. On the normal use, a fully charged Note 6 Pro can last for nearly two days.
Although the battery backup on the phone fairly pleased me, the presence of the MicroUSB 2.0 port didn’t impress me at all. Also, charging the device was a pain in the neck. This time too, Xiaomi has included a 10-watt adapter, which is quite a sluggish performer, when it comes to the charging the device. When I used the stock charger, it took nearly around half an hour to charge the handset from 0 to 30%. And I had wait for around two and half hour till the device get fully charged. Although Xiaomi claims that the device supports Quick Charge 3.0, you won’t get a fast charger on the box. So if you want to accelerate the charging speed, you should have to buy a separate fast charger.
Conclusion
To sum it up, the Note 6 Pro is a great device and I am not denying it. Although it brought some subtle upgrades over the Note 5 AI, I don’t think the device is worth all the price it’s asking at the moment. You can get better alternatives at a similar price. ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2, Realme 2 Pro, and Honor 8x would be the quick examples.
Even in Nepal, just by adding a couple of thousands, you can get the Huawei Y9 2019 and the Xiaomi MI A2, which are a great performer on both camera and gaming front. And if you can push the budget further, you can also buy the Pocophone F1. The Pocophone packs a flagship-grade processor, better battery backup, and even the cameras are great than the Note 6 Pro. So as of now, the Redmi Note 6 Pro is no go from my side.
Samsung seems to be going aggressive with their naming schemes for 2019. The new Samsung Galaxy A50 is set to launch sometime in 2019. Previously rumored to launch with the Exynos 7 9610, new rumors have surfaced for the product.
The first of which is the 4000mAh battery, although a bit small if compared to the Galaxy M20’s 5000mAh unit. We have seen the Galaxy Note 9 with same amount of battery life perform well, and this one should be no exception.
The other part of the rumor is the 24MP camera, which should act as the primary rear sensor. We are still unsure of the other cameras at the rear or the front. But we are expecting there to be more than one at the back and at the front.
We already know that the Samsung Galaxy A50 will come with an Exynos 7 9610 SoC. It’s single core GeekBench score is comparable to the Snapdragon 660 while the multi-core score is close to the SD636. The processor will come paired with 4GB RAM and 64/128GB storage.
A factor that we found was interesting was the inclusion of the Android 9 Pie. Going by the past history, only the flagship, or in this case the Galaxy S10 would debut the newest version of Android for Samsung. This could mean that the A50 will launch after the S10 is official and up in stores.
We have no idea about when the Samsung Galaxy A50 will be launching nor do we know about the pricing. We do have very slight hints that this phone will come with wireless charging and an optical under-display fingerprint scanner.
We are expecting Xiaomi to launch two new flagships in 2019, namely the Mi Mix 4 and Xiaomi Mi 9. That list does not include whatever Xiaomi is planning for the Pocophone series or their gaming lineup. While none of the phones are expected to launch anytime soon, a few of their features have leaked online.
This information comes from a research note from GF Securities of Hong Kong. The first piece of information is the inclusion of a Snapdragon 855 SoC, not a huge surprise here. The second speculation is about the smartphone’s inclusion of triple camera setups, a first for Xiaomi itself.
Yes, both the Mi 9 and the Mi Mix 4 is expected to feature triple cameras. One of the triple cameras will be an optical zoom lens. The lens will not be increasing the thickness of the devices, according to the notes.
Other rumors also include a foldable display for the Mi Mix 4. Although, this won’t be much of a surprise either seeing how the Mi Mix lineup has come up with unique and unusual form factors.
Likewise, the possibility of multiple versions of these devices is also highly likely. One of the versions should end up featuring 5G connectivity. The Mi 9 might launch around May while the Mi Mix 4 will be announced at a later date, probably October of next year.
The Huawei P Smart 2019 is now official. Moreover, the device is expected to start shipments from January 2 in Europe. And even the pricing has been revealed explicitly .
The smartphone features a 6.21″ LTPS IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1080×2340 pixels (19.5:9 aspect ratio). The display will come with Eye Comfort mode and a screen to body ratio of 83.1%.
Internals include a 12nm Hisilicon Kirin 710 processor paired with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The inbuilt internal storage will be expandable via a MicroSD card slot. However, the SD card use the SIM 2 Slot.
On the camera department, the Huawei P Smart 2019 features a dual camera setup at the back. It’s a 13MP f/2.2 primary lens aided by a 2MP depth sensor. The front gets an 8MP sensor with an HDR support.
Likewise, the device runs on Android Pie 9.0 with EMUI 9.0 on top. A 3400mAh battery keeps the device up and running, although lacks fast charging. It’s a 5V/2A 10W charging setup through MicroUSB 2.0.
The Huawei P Smart 2019 will be available in two colors, Black and Aurora Blue. While the smartphone will start shipping on January 2 in Europe, it will be available starting January 11 in the UK for £149 via different carriers plans.
The Huawei Y7 2019 is said to be in the pipeline on Huawei’s upcoming list of smartphones. The device will build on it’s predecessor, with a few internal improvements as well as the addition of a notch.
The yet unreleased smartphone will feature a 6.2-inch (1520×720) HD+ display with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The panel will come with a water drop notch which houses a 16MP front facing camera and the earpiece.
Huawei Y7 Prime 2019
Similarly, the Huawei Y7 2019 will comes with an octa-core Snapdragon 450 processor clocked at 1.8GHz. The SoC is coupled with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage.
The back of the smartphone features a dual-camera setup along with an LED flash. It’s a 13MP f/1.8 primary lens aided by a 2MP depth sensor. The feature list also includes AI integration with scene detection.
The smartphone gets a huge 4000mAh battery in classic Huawei fashion. The battery is said to last 2 days, however it does not support fast charging. Lastly charging is done through a microUSB port.
We currently have no information on the launch dates of the device. We do have word on a pro version for selected countries, which will feature 4GB/64GB configuration. The pricing for the base model of the Huawei Y7 2019 is expected to be around 150 euros.
Recent rumors claim that the Motorola Moto G7 series will be announced at the MWC 2019. Furthermore, it will be the sole global launch for the product lineup.
The Mobile World Congress is by far the biggest trade show dedicated to the telecom industry. The event attracts over 100,000 visitors, and will be held in Barcelona this year, as always.
However, an unnamed source claims that the series will launch before MWC 2019 in an event in Brazil. Seeing the popularity of Motorola’s G series in the county, this is also a possibility.
Brazil is one of the strongest markets for Motorola’s new mid-range smartphones. If we are to believe the unnamed source, the smartphone will launch right before MWC in February of next year.
The same rumors also claim that Motorola will be taking a more aggressive approach to the timing of its launch. Adding credibility to this rumor, the trio of Moto G6 series was also launched at an event in Brazil back in April.
The Moto G7 series from Motorola is one of the most important smartphones for the company. They will be relying on it for a huge chuck of their sales this year.
Moto G7 series leaks and rumors
We are expecting four variants in the lineup; the Moto G7, G7 Plus, G7 Play and G7 Power. The G7 power is a new addition to the lineup, also known as Moto G7 Supra for cricket surfaces.
The smartphone in subject will comes with a regular full sized notch, along with the Moto G7 Play. The G7 Power set to launch with the Snapdragon 625 SoC and a 5000mAh battery claimed to deliver multi-day battery life.
The Moto G7 and G7 Plus are expected to launch with water drop notch and dual back cameras. The G7 should come equiped with a Snapdragon 600 series processor.
While the G7 Plus is expected to come from Snapdragon’s 700 series SoC. Finally, the last smartphone on the list the G7 play will come with a rather tolerable SoC, probably form the Snapdragon 400 line?
What are the most used apps on your phone? Apart from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and the mainstream ones… Besides these, there aren’t probably many apps that you use. But if you are looking for some good apps to explore, you’ve come to the right place. This is our pick of the Best Android Apps for 2018.
Actually, not all of these apps are from 2018. This list contains much older apps as well, but are still relevant and popular today. And all of them are free Android apps. Some are fun, while some are just generally useful. So, here they are:
1) Snapseed
This might not be new to you at all. This app made debut back in 2012, and to this day, it still remains one of the best photo editing apps for your phone. While you can get apps like Photoshop and Lightroom as well, they’re very comprehensive. And this one, is simple and pretty easy to use, which is one of its best features. The app features 29 tools and filters to apply on your phone, and are easily accessible.
The only difficulty you might have is the number of overwhelming options inside each tool. But of course, there is an Auto Adjustment feature for each one which makes your job easier. In addition, it also saves your recent preferences for you to use in your next edit.
Due to all of this, this age old app is still on our list of Best apps of 2018.
2) Bored Button
If you tend to play a lot of games on your phone, then, this one is for you. Downloading a lot of games can be quite tedious, and occupy a lot of space on your device. But with this, you get a whole lot of games within a single app. And the app works just like its name. You have a button which you press if you get bored playing the game over and over. And then, you’re welcomed with a new game! Every time you press the button, there’s a new game waiting for you. But the catch is that only works when you have an internet connection.
There’s also an option to save any game for offline if you like it. You get games of various genres – from arcade to puzzle games, and you’ll be shown games based on your preferences. But if you’re into graphic intensive games like Asphalt and PUBG, this may not be for you. It is an app that satisfies your wandering mind.
3) Alarmy
An alarm app that is quite popular…sounds strange? Well, yes, but you have to give it to the creators. This app was also introduced back in 2012. It’s an app that will wake you up no matter what. For those who can’t seem to get up in the morning, this app features super annoying loud alarms that have to be turned off with quite the effort.
You can choose how to turn your alarm while setting it up. By default, you can choose to solve math problems. But a fun feature is that there is also an option for you to turn off your alarm by taking a picture of something. For instance, if you choose your bathroom, you have to get up and take a picture of your bathroom to turn the alarm off every time. All of that makes it super annoying, and ensures you get up, but that is the whole purpose of an alarm, isn’t it?
4) Shortly
This one is for you readers out there…those who love to read. More so, for those who love to read but can’t seem to find the time to go through long stories or entire books. And just like its name, the app lets you read short articles – mostly stories, but also some essays and monologues from various writers. That’s the whole point of the app, but that is the best part.
When you open the app, you can choose between 1 minute, 3 minute or 5 minute reads, depending on the amount of time you have. When you pick one and finish, you can click the next button to immediately begin reading another story of similar length. There is also an option to share the story through your social media handles, but the recipient also needs to have the app to read it though. There are options to change the theme colors as well. It is a very simple app, but one that is difficult to put down once you get started with it.
5) StopAd
This is an that does what it’s name says – stops advertisements in your online viewing experience. Well, it does not block all kinds of ads that you get, but mostly pop-ups and ad-links, and also other elements like images as well. This can be helpful while browsing on data. The app also “blocks” ads on YouTube in the sense that it blocks the ads with its own logo until you can skip them.
Also, while it is turned on, it uses its own VPN. Hence, it protects you from malware and your privacy as well. It blocksAd trackers as well as Social Media trackers to keep your browsing behavior and social media behavior private. There is also a paid version which can also help against Phishing and Malware attacks. So, it is a ad-blocker and a small-scale security app as well.
So, these were the Best Android Apps of 2018 for us. If you have any other apps that you would recommend, do let us know.
When MediaTek announced the Helio P90 some two weeks ago, it looked like it could be the most powerful mid-range smartphone chipset yet. And we might probably see it in phones in the first quarter of 2019, inside the likes of OPPO R19! While that is still in rumor phases, the Helio P90 was tested, and results are out.
It appears the Helio P90 might be able to go head to head with the Snapdragon 710. The AnTuTu score of the P90 is out, and it scored 162861, which falls short of the Snapdragon 710. The Snapdragon 710 scored a 167058 on AnTuTu, when tested on the Meizu 16X. However, the P90 is not on any commercial phone yet, and so, it was done on a test unit.
So, it might be a little short now, but when it debuts on a real smartphone, we expect it to at least go head to head with the SD 710, if not beat it. The Helio P90 has already launched in China, and it claims to have serious AI capabilities found in the likes of Snapdragon 845 and Kirin 980.
The MediaTek Helio P90 is a mid-range chipset based on a 12nm architecture. It has eight cores, consisting of two 2.2 GHz Cortex A75s and six 2.0 GHz A55 cores.
To know all about the Helio P90, you can click here. With the likes of Helio P90 coming, out, it looks like chip manufacturers, too, will try to better one after another. And that’s good for us, consumers in the end. We might be able to see better smartphones in the future.
