Page 724 – GadgetByte Nepal

Samsung Galaxy M-series and A-series coming soon

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December 17, 2018

Samsung Galaxy M-series and A-series coming soon

When it comes to budget and mid-range phones, Samsung seems a bit behind. The J-series are the ones that carry Samsung’s budget and mid-range sigils. And honestly, as good phones they may be, they don’t really compete with phones from other brands in the same price range. But that may very well change with Samsung’s M-series coming soon.

And not only the M-series, but we might get a revamped A-series of phones from Samsung as well. Yes, there is an A-series right now, which comprises of upper mid-range phones. But now, it seems the A-series will also include lower to mid-range phones. Of course, these are not brand new phones, but only the existing J-series re-branded as A-series. With this, the existing J-series will be no more, but we might see similar phones, with updated specs and aesthetics, in the A-series lineup.

samsung galaxy a-series and m-series — *Source: Sam Mobile*

For now, there are leaks about two A-series phones. By codename, they’re called SM-A305F and SM-A505F. And they will probably be known as Galaxy A30 and A50 once they’re out. As the A-series and M-series will be taking on two-digit in there names. The A30 will feature two variants – of 32 GB and 64 GB storage. Also, the A50 will be featuring 64 GB and 128 GB storage variants. In addition, they will come in four and five colors respectively.

As for the other, Samsung’s online only lineup, the On-series will be rebranded as the M-series, according to reports. So, basically, the M-series might comprise of lower to mid-range phones. And now, we already have rumors surfacing about three of those M-series phones.

The code names of the devices are SM-M105F, SM-M205F and SM-M305F respectively. So, the phones will be known as Samsung Galaxy M10, M20 and M30 respectively. Additional information about them reveals that the M10 will be the least powerful variant with 16 GB / 32 GB storage models and powered by Exynos 7870 with 3 GB RAM.

The Galaxy M20 will come in 32 GB and 64 GB models. An Exynos 7885 will power the phone and this too, will have 3 GB of RAM. As for the M30, it will come in 64 GB and 128 GB models. But other than that, not much is known. Apart from the fact that these phones will be available in Blue and Dark Gray colors.

However, it looks like they will be here slowly and steadily. Because, these rumors were there since September, and yet here we are. But the M-series might likely target Asian markets, whereas the A-series will go to Europe. While this may not be as exciting as the rumors and leaks surrounding the coming Samsung Galaxy S10, we hope to see Samsung listening to their customers for once. And by that I mean, include better chips inside their mid-range phones.

OPPO R17 Pro’s Price Slashed in Nepal – Is it worth the bucks now?

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December 16, 2018

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OPPO R17 Pro’s Price Slashed in Nepal – Is it worth the bucks now?

Oppo’s R series is the company’s lineup of flagship-grade smartphones and we don’t get to see that many R-series phones in Nepal. Oppo R17 Pro was the first flagship Oppo device in Nepal and it is still among the limited R-series devices to launch in Nepal. When it was first launched it was an overly priced device, to say the least, however, it has since received a price drop. Does the latest price of Oppo R17 Pro in Nepal justify the hardware it packs?

Oppo Reno 17 Pro Overview

Display and Design

We have to give it to OPPO, however, for including interesting breakthrough technologies in the OPPO R-series. And the OPPO R17 is no exception. The phone packs a large 6.4″ AMOLED screen with Full HD+ resolution on a glass body. There’s Gorilla Glass 6 on the screen for protection as well. It has about 402 PPI pixel density and has a water-drop notch up top for more screen real estate. However, that means no notification LED lights though. From the front, it can be very easily confused with the OnePlus 6T.

The back is also not very different, except that the phone has two-tone gradient coloring and triple camera setup. No fingerprint sensor at the back, which means it’s embedded in the screen itself.

Camera

Among the triple camera setup, the primary one is a 12 MP lens with variable apertures (f/1.5 – f/2.4). We’ve seen it in the likes of Samsung Galaxy S9+ and the Galaxy Note 9. The secondary sensor is a whopping 20 MP depth sensor with f/2.6 aperture and auto-focus. If you ask me, that’s just too much of a gimmick. A 5 MP depth sensor would work just fine. Anyways, the third one is not a camera per se, but a 3D stereo TOF (time-of-flight) camera for Augmented Reality applications. OPPO has not provided anything of that sort, for now, so, it’s pretty much useless. Maybe, they’ll come up with something in the near future. Another gimmick? It looks like one to me.

As for the selfie camera, the water-drop notch at the front houses the 25 MP lens with f/2.0 aperture. The device does support 4K video recording at 30 fps. And as for camera quality, there is no doubt OPPO won’t be letting us down.

Performance and Memory

Powering the phone is an octa-core Snapdragon 710 chipset, along with 8 GB of RAM. This is something that is a turndown, as for its price, we should be getting a flagship processor. There’s also a 6 GB RAM variant but will not be making its way here. We only get the 8 GB / 128 GB option. There’s also an SD card slot in there, but that one is a hybrid, so, if you want to use two SIMs, no SD card for you. But of course, it’ll take you quite a lot of content and effort to fill up that 128 GB.

Battery

As for the battery, the R17 Pro has a good-sized 3700 mAh battery and that should be pretty adequate. The Snapdragon 710 is a power-efficient chipset, so, we can expect slightly above a day’s usage on a single charge. Also, this phone has Super VOOC charging. Meaning, the 50 W charger pumps up your phone from 0 to 40% in only 10 minutes! Very interesting.

Oppo R17 Pro Specifications:

Display: 6.4-inch AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 6 protection
Resolution: Full-HD+ (2340×1080 pixels), 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 402 PPI
Rear Camera: Triple camera – (12 MP, f/1.5-f/2.4, 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS) + (20 MP depth sensor, f/2.6, AF) + (TOF 3D stereo camera), Dual-LED flash
Front Camera: 25 MP, f/2.0, 1/2.8″, 0.9µm
OS: Android 8.1 (Oreo) with ColorOS 5.2 on the top
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 710
CPU: Octa-core (2×2.2 GHz Kryo 360 Gold & 6×1.7 GHz Kryo 360 Silver)
GPU: Adreno 616
RAM: 8 GB
Storage: 128GB internal, expandable via microSD card slot up to 256GB (uses SIM2 slot)
Sensors: Fingerprint (under display), accelerometer, proximity, compass
Connectivity: Dual SIM (nano + nano/SD card), Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz / 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C
Battery: 3700mAh with Super VOOC fast charging support, 50W (10V/5A) charging, 40% charge in 10 minutes

OPPO R17 Pro Price in Nepal

At its launch, the Reno R17 was priced at Rs 89,990 and it was too much for a phone of these specs even so, when OnePlus 6T and Galaxy Note 8 were going for less. However, it’s been more than a year since the launch and Oppo have slashed the price.

Right now, the price of Oppo Reno R17 in Nepal is Rs 59,990 for the 8/128GB variant. Even so, we doubt if you want to spend that much on a year old phone without a flagship-grade processor.

Model Name	Old Price	New Price in Nepal
Oppo Reno R17 (8/128GB)	Rs 89,990	Rs 55,990

So, there you have it. The OPPO R17 Pro is out and about in Nepal. It was a much-awaited phone here, but this is disappointing. Let us know what you think of the pricing.

DJI Mavic 2 Pro launched in Nepal

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December 14, 2018

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DJI’s Mavic 2 Pro is likely the king of the skies when it comes drones. And the Mavic 2 Pro is, for now, the most sophisticated drone out there. Launched in the international market only a few months ago, this drone already makes its way to Nepal. The price is, yes, quite steep, but you decide if it’s worth it or not.

DJI Mavic 2 Pro Overview

The DJI Mavic 2 Pro is one the most sophisticated drone out there at present for a reason. Right off the bat, the DJI Mavic 2 Pro features a 20 MP Hasselblad UHD 4K Gimbal camera. The camera has a 1″ CMOS sensor with adjustable aperture between f/2.8 to f/11. Also, the adjustable aperture means you can control how much light enters through. You can also record 10-bit HDR videos as well.

This drone also features 10-bit Dlog-M color profile that makes for great dynamic range. And that means more flexibility in grading room during post production. The large 20 MP sensor gives fantastic resolution for aerial photography and videography. Zooming, cropping or enlarging any taken image will not make you lose quality in a noticeable way.

The Mavic 2 Pro has narrow apertures, but it has this Hyper-Light feature. That is a low light setting designed to enhance your image quality while reducing noise. In addition, the Mavic 2 Pro has an ISO range of 100 – 12800, which is incredibly useful for low-light situations. Looking at this, it looks like a significant upgrade over the Mavic Pro. And if you have used the DJI Mavic Pro, you know what kind of image quality you’ll be getting. And this one is even better.

Besides image quality, the build of the DJI Mavic 2 Pro looks great. It is lightweight, and very responsive. DJI’s flight software is top-notch and highly reliable too. If you’ve used a DJI before, you’ll know. And even if you haven’t, it won’t be very difficult to get used to. Also, it has Omnidirectional Obstacle Sensing, which is a highly useful feature during navigation.

It gives up to 31 minutes of flight time and offers a top speed up to 44 miles per hour. Also, it is equipped with OcuSync 2.0 Transmission Technology – the latest version of DJI’s video transmission technology. And it allows you to see what your drone see – in real time, and that too, in 1080p.

The Mavic 2 Pro costs about $1500 in the international market, and here, in Nepal, it costs Rs.210000. Yes, the price looks a bit steep. But then again, there’s no other drone that offers as much features as the DJI Mavic 2 Pro. So, it depends on whether you need it or not.

DJI Mavic 2 Pro Specifications:

Camera: Hasselblad 20MP / UHD 4K Gimbal Camera
Sensor: 1″ CMOS + f/2.8-f/11 Adjustable Aperture
ISO: 100 – 12800
Color-profile: 10-Bit Dlog-M + 10-Bit HDR Video
Transmission: OcuSync 2.0 Transmission Technology
Flight time: Up to 31 Minutes Flight Time
Navigation: Omnidirectional Obstacle Sensing and Top Speed of 44.7 miles per hour
Features: Hyperlapse Time-Lapse Mode, Hyper-Light
Price in Nepal: Rs.210000

Here is how much the Samsung Galaxy S10 costs

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December 14, 2018

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Here is how much the Samsung Galaxy S10 costs

Samsung’s flagship, the “Galaxy S” series has always been one of the most anticipated devices every year. With that said, its no surprise that they would end up at the back of numerous leaks and rumors, and this year was certainly no exception.

[Update: Check out the official price of S10e, S10 and S10 Plus here]

We already know there will be three variants of the S10, namely the S10 Lite, the S10, and the S10 Plus. The addition of a 1TB storage option is also nothing new. Although, here is something you might have not known in particular, their price tag.

Price of Samsung Galaxy S10

Storage	Galaxy S10 Lite	Samsung Galaxy S10	Galaxy S10 Plus
128GB	£670	£800	£900
512GB	–	£1,000	£1,100
1TB	–	–	£1,400

Again, these are leaks and the price may or may not pan out to be true. Either way, this does give us a really compelling idea of how much the flagships should cost.

Read More: Samsung Exynos 9820 announced

In addition to the leaked prices, there were rumors that one of the smartphones would feature 5G. As we have come to know now, the Galaxy S10 Plus with the 1TB storage is that smartphone.

In addition, the same device is said to boast 6 cameras, 2 at the front 4 at the back. Rumors also hint at the inclusion of Powershare, allowing the Galaxy S10 to charge other smartphones wirelessly analogous to the Mate 20.

Other leaks about the device include a 6.7″ display, under display fingerprint sensor, a huge battery, and a display hole. Likewise, the new devices will likely be powered by either the Exynos 9820 or the Snapdragon 855.

Doubts about the headphone jack have surfaced as well. Moreover the Face ID Samsung had been working on might also not make it either, for now anyway. At least the in-display fingerprint sensor is coming to a Samsung smartphone.

The Galaxy S10 Trio is said to launch on 20th February. In addition, sales will begin as soon as March 8. The Galaxy S10 Plus with the 1TB storage and 5G will be revealed at a later date. Furthermore, there are speculations that the 5G Galaxy S10 will be a limited edition.

Apple Watch Series 4 saves a life!

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December 14, 2018

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For years, we have been hearing everyone talk about how gadgets are being a menace to one’s health. They are linked with the sedentary lifestyle of people, and you probably have come across numerous articles and research that list out several diseases associated with the excessive use of such devices.

But what if the gadgets could better your health, or even save your life? Well, a Reddit user will certainly give an affirmative response to this question. The user, who goes by the name Edentel on the site, reported that his new Apple Watch Series 4 helped him save his life.

Apple only recently pushed an update to watchOS that started supporting the Electrocardiography (ECG) feature on the Apple Watch Series 4. Obviously, the user, with much enthusiasm, tried the feature. But to his surprise, the device reported his heart activity to be abnormal. Thinking the result tobe a fluke, he tested for a couple more times. The result, though, stayed the same – atrial fibrillation (A-fib). [Atrial fibrillation is the condition where there is an irregular and rapid beating of the atria.]

According to the user, he then tested the ECG of his wife, and the result was normal. Consulting with the warning from his watch, he then went to a doctor to share the results. To that, the doctor confirmed the watch’s result.

Edentel said, “the Doctor came in, looked at the screen, looked at me and said ‘You should buy Apple stock. This probably saved you. I read about this last night and thought we would see an upswing this week. I didn’t expect it first thing this morning.’ ”

When Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 4, everyone was excited to test the new ECG feature. While it may have arrived a little late than it was expected to be, we need to give full marks to Apple for being able to make an impact on the life of its user.

The Apple Watch Series 4 is the first consumer electronic device to provide measurement of ECG over the counter. It also offers services such as heart rate measurement, sleep tracking, fall detection and emergency SOS among others. Apple is yet to unveil the product here in Nepal.

Honor Phones coming to Nepal soon

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December 13, 2018

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Huawei’s sub brand, Honor is a popular phone brand all around the world. Mostly, because their phones are known for the value-for-money aspect. And many of you have asked us if the Honor 8X or Honor Play will be coming to Nepali anytime soon. And now, the answer to that question is a…maybe. Honor brand is coming to Nepal very soon, and it will bring with it four Honor phones.

Kratos Technologies Pvt. Ltd. will be the official distributors of the Honor brand in Nepal. And those phones will be sold via offiline channels only. Honor is, for the most part, an online retailing brand. But in Nepal, it will be only done through offline channels.

Some Honor phones are really great. Honor Play is comparable to Pocophone F1 in many aspects. Honor 8X is another mid-ranger that is comparable to the Xiaomi Mi A2 and the likes. And we are really anticipating their launch in Nepal. If Honor is coming to Nepal, it is only natural that they launch those phones.

We also have word that among the four phones, there will also be budget phones costing below Rs.20000 from Honor too. And also Honor flagships like the Honor Magic 2. However, that is very unlikely. But the Honor 8X and Honor Play are the most likely phones to arrive.

And yes, the pricing is generally a bit higher in Nepal from other markets. But knowing Honor, their phones might not be as expensive as other brands too. So, let’s wait and see if Honor will really be that honourable in Nepal.

Honor View 20 – Benchmarks and more rumors

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December 13, 2018

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Honor View 20 – Benchmarks and more rumors

The Honor mobile brand is also quite a popular smartphone among the audience. Its phones like the Honor Play and Honor 8X were well received and still anticipated in many markets. But this, this is a bit more exciting. As the Honor View 20 is a flagship grade device. A successor to the Honor View 10, this phone will go official on December 26.

Until then, we’ll have to live with speculations, teases, rumors and whatever we can get our hands on. The Honor View 20 was also teased a while ago and now we have some more for you. Apparently, its benchmark scores leaked along with some specs.

The Honor View 20, also known as Honor V20, is very similar to the upcoming Nova 4 in terms of looks. This phone, too, has a small hole in the top left corner of the screen for the selfie camera. While other specs related to aesthetics are in the dark, the internals look pretty great.

According to AnTuTu benchmark scores that surfaced on Weibo, the phone acquired a score of 291,244 points. The score combines the total of CPU, GPU and memory tests. And leaked reports suggest this phone features the latest Kirin 980 processor inside with 8 GB RAM. But, for a phone with such internals, the benchmarks scores seem pretty low, as it doesn’t rank anywhere in the top 10 of AnTuTu’s benchmark scores. And it might not have been a big deal if the top 4 of the list were not occupied by phones with Kirin 980 chipsets.

But, of course, since the phone is still in the works, we can’t be sure if the score belongs to a prototype or the real deal. Besides these, leaks suggest the phone has a triple camera setup at the back. And the primary camera is a whopping Sony IMX586 48 MP sensor! In addition, it will have 128 GB of UFS 2.1 storage and will support Link Turbo for better connectivity.

Speculations price the phone at CNY 3000 right now, which equals about $435. The phone will go live on December 26 in China, whereas the global launch will happen sometime in January, 2019. As for the availability here, in Nepal, Honor is coming soon with 4 phones. But it is unlikely that this phone will show up. We’ll keep you posted on more updates regarding this.

MediaTek Helio P90 announced: The most powerful mid-range chipset yet?

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December 13, 2018

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MediaTek Helio P90 announced: The most powerful mid-range chipset yet?

Now MediaTek might be a known smartphone chip manufacturer. But it doesn’t have that long of a history. And the company only makes chips for budget and mid-range smartphones. The Helio P60 and Helio P70 are the most popular chips that the company makes which we see in mid-range smartphones. But with their latest release- MediaTek Helio P90, the company aims to bring flagship level power into mid-range smartphones.

The Helio P90 launched in China very recently eight-core and focuses on achieving the AI level performance found in flagships. It claims that it can have four times the AI performance than that of the P60 and P70. And sitting below the company’s X-series chips, it seems to be targeting Qualcomm Snapdragon 700 series. But with AI capabilities found in the likes of Snapdragon 845 and Kirin 980!

MediaTek Helio P90 Overview

The Helio P90 is built on a 12 nm architecture while others are going 8 nm. But, it still is a mid-range processor. It has an eight core architecture, consisting of two 2.2 GHz Cortex A75s and six 2.0 GHz A55 cores. It also packs the IMG 9XM-HP8 GPU, which can provide up to 50% upgrade in graphics processing over the P70.

There’s also the AIA (Artificial Intelligence Accelerator ) that joins two Application Processing Units (APUs). The APUs are the ones that deal with the AI side of tasks on the phone, while the AIA performs the common AI features, for better efficiency. This is usually seen in high end smartphones, and to have it in mid-range devices is a bit unusual.

Keeping the lot of technical jargons aside, the P90 is capable of enhanced image processing from the cameras. It’s image processing capabilities can equate to even the likes of flagship phones like the Huawei P20 Pro, and it could even be better!

In layman’s terms, the P90’s image processing abilities can track full body movement – not only faces, which is great for capturing videos, or building 3D avatars or such apps. It also has enhanced depth perception that can generate real-time bokeh effects in stills and videos. The depth perception also means better face detection, in both photography and biometric security as well.

The chip will be able to support dual cameras with up to 24 MP and 16 MP. It can also support capturing 4K videos at 30 fps. In addition, it can also be used for features like better beautification, improved automatic exposure, real-time photo / video enhancements, multiple object recognition and AI noise reduction.

The Helio P90 might appear on mid-range phones in the first half of 2019. With this, we won’t be surprised if mid-range phones start providing more value for money than flagships even.

LG Gram 17 is the lightest 17″ laptop in the market

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December 13, 2018

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LG has launched two new laptops in its popular ultralight lineup of laptops, the LG Gram 17 and the LG Gram 2 in 1. Both follow the same simple formula of extra thin and extra light laptops that do not compromise on performance. Both laptops come with better internals, bigger batteries, better displays and even sets a new benchmark for lightweight laptops.

LG Gram 17

This huge chunk of a laptop comes with a 17″ 2560 x 1600 resolution 16:10 IPS display. It comes with Intel’s latest 8th Gen processor (i7-8565U), up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB SATA 3 SSD. A second M.2 slot is also available for more storage. The battery is relatively humongous at 72Wh, which according to LG will deliver 19.5 hours of usage.

Also Read: Razer Blade Stealth 2019

The LG Gram 17 will cost you $1699.99 for the above-mentioned specs. Fun fact, this laptop weighs just 1.34 Kgs making it the lightest 17″ laptop in the market right now. It’s made up of Metal Alloy and has a thickness of just 0.7-inch. You also get a fingerprint ID and Windows 10 Home as standard. As for connectivity, you get Bluetooth 5.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

LG Gram 2 in 1

While the 17″ laptop follows a traditional form factor, the 14″ is a hybrid 360 degree convertible 2 in 1. It’s a touch display for sure and comes with a Wacom AES 2.0 pen. Furthermore, it’s a 14″ 1080p IPS LCD display, with Intel’s latest Gen processor with 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM. The laptop weighs 1.14 Kgs and comes protected with Gorilla Glass 5.

Also Read: Snapdragon 8xc built for Windows 10

Both laptops come with USB-C (v 3.1) port, 2 x USB 3.1, HDMI, audio jack, Micro SD card slot, and dual-mic. The bigger brother, however, enjoys an extra USB 3.1 port. Both get backlit keyboards, DTS Headphone X audio support, and MIL-STD-810G certification. LG states both laptops will be on display at the CES 2019 with no words on pricing and availability.

UMIDIGI F1 launched – Mid-range specs, budget price!

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December 13, 2018

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UMIDIGI F1 launched – Mid-range specs, budget price!

Chinese brands seem to be doing pretty well in the market these days. The Chinese companies are coming out with phone one after another. And UMIDIGI is one of the brands that came into the limelight with some of their products like the UMIDIGI Z2. And here’s another one from them – the UMIDIGI F1!

UMIDIGI F1 Overview

In terms of looks, the UMIDIGI F1 looks like any other phone from the late 2018s. It features a variation of edge-to-edge display, with very thin bezels and a water-drop / tear-drop notch. At the back, there is a dual camera setup, and a traditional fingerprint sensor.

To be honest, it looks like the OPPO F9 or Vivo V11. Apart from the fact that it’s back is not as shiny or glossy as those phones.

The UMIDIGI F1 features a large 6.3″ Full HD+ LTPS LCD display. The display has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a 92.7% screen-to-body ratio. For a budget phone, the display looks like a winner to me.

In terms of camera, the phone’s dual camera setup comprises of a 16 MP primary sensor with f/1.7 aperture and an 8 MP secondary one, which could very well be a depth sensor. The selfie camera on the phone measures a 16 MP with f/2.0 aperture. By the looks of it, the cameras won’t disappoint.

Under the body, a MediaTek Helio P60 powers the device, which is a powerful enough chip for midrangers. The 2.0 GHz processor combined with 4 GB RAM should give you ample amount of performance. Also, it packs a Mali-G72 GPU for good graphics performance.

It also has a 128 GB on-board storage and is expandable via microSD. In addition, this is the first UMIDIGI device to run Android 9.0 Pie out of the box. Furthermore, you get a massive 5150 mAh battery with 18W fast charging, USB-C, NFC, and such. For a budget smartphone, the specs and features are crazy!

The phone is set to launch next year for a crazy price tag of $199. It will go on open sale from 7th Jan 2019. But availability in all regions internationally is not quite known. Also, in Nepal, where UMIDIGI is still struggling, this phone, at the right price could be its salvation. But, we’ll see.

Also Read: UMIDIGI Mobiles Price in Nepal

UMIDIGI F1 Specifications:

Display: 6.3″ LTPS LCD display, Full HD+ resolution, 2340 x 1080 pixels,19.5:9 aspect ratio
Rear Camera: Dual, 16 MP primary with f/1.7 aperture + 8 MP secondary
Front Camera: 16 MP with f/2.0 aperture
CPU: 2.0 GHz Helio P60
GPU: Mali-G72
Memory: 4 GB
Storage: 128 GB internal, upgradeable via microSD
Battery: 5150 mAh
OS: Android 9.0 Pie
Price: $199