By now, if you haven’t heard of the Pocophone F1, you probably are cut out from the rest of the world. It is a phone that has caused a stir around the world. Flagships specs for the price of a mid-ranger is the major selling point for the phone. For a price of some $300, it houses the latest flagship grade processor and such internals, albeit on a plastic body.
And even after three months of its initial release, the phone is still in many’s wish-list. And in a country like ours, where we mostly receive new products later than the international market, it’s exclusive launch by Daraz Nepal is a great news! Daraz announced that it will be exclusively selling the Pocophone F1 through the website on Daraz 11.11 Sales Day, for a price of Rs.34000! And that is another great news for us consumers.
The pre-booking of the phone was available since November 1. You can still do it through here. And the pre-booking facility was very well received as well. People are crazy excited about the Pocophone F1. We can tell as the pre-bookings have exceeded 3000! Daraz expected to sell that many Pocophone F1s in the 11.11 Sales Day itself. However, in just a few days after the pre-bookings started, that number has exceeded. And it continues to do so.
The Pocophone F1 features a 6.18″ Full HD+ display with an 18.7:9 aspect ratio, with Gorilla Glass 3 on top. Also, it sports a dual camera setup which of a 12 MP primary lens and a 5 MP depth sensor. As for the selfie camera, the phone packs a 20 MP lens. It runs on the Snapdragon 845 and comes in two RAM options. A 6 GB / 128 GB or 6 GB / 64 GB version and an 8 GB / 256 GB variant. However, we’ll only get the 6 GB / 64 GB variant in Nepal. The phone also houses a large 4000 mAh battery with Fast Charging 3.0.
As for those of you, who have registered for the Pocophone F1, you guys will be notified through email on November 11, 12.00 A.M., i.e. on Daraz 11.11 Sales Day. You will also receive notifications through the Daraz App. So, if you haven’t downloaded the app yet, you better do it now. Not only can you get great offers and discounts, but there are also mystery boxes and a lot of surprises awaiting you on Daraz 11.11 Sales Day!
The OnePlus 6T is creating quite a buzz around the world right now. After a couple of weeks of its international launch, the Oneplus 6T launched in Nepal. It is sold exclusively on Daraz starting November 11, which is its 11.11 Sales Day. However, you can also buy the phone later from retail shops and Oliz store, albeit at a higher price tag.
The OnePlus 6T is a flagship smartphone, and it comes with all of the 2018’s top specifications. The 6T sports a tall 6.41-inch Full HD+ Optic AMOLED display that has the minimal Waterdrop notch on the top. This display is donned by the Corning Gorilla Glass 6 with its previous iteration, the Gorilla Glass 5, covering its back.
The OnePlus 6T features the latest flagship CPU from Qualcomm as the Snapdragon 845 powers up the phone aided by Adreno 630 GPU and 6 GB of RAM. It comes with 128 GB of internal memory which is definitely good to see as there is a lack of a microSD card slot on the device. The OnePlus 6T runs on the latest and greatest from Google, i.e. Android v9.0 Pie. OnePlus has cashed in a lot on the software side of this device, as it has a completely revamped OxygenOS along with a lot of customizations.
Oneplus 6T Camera: Is it any Good?
Camera wise, the OnePlus 6T comes with the same camera setup that the OnePlus 6 possesses. So, you must already know the megapixel count which stands at 16-megapixel and 20-megapixel. The second lens helps to set proper depth, and the wider aperture of f/1.7 on both the lenses capture in more light in the low-light environment.
The major additions to the optical side of the OnePlus 6T are Nightscape and Studio Lighting. Nightscape helps to take better low-light images while Studio Lighting enhances the face contour on portraits.
In terms of battery, the OnePlus 6T features the biggest battery on any OnePlus smartphone. There is a 3,700 mAh battery that coupled with the Full HD display, will give you a day of battery life. OnePlus’ trademark 20W fast charging technology is also embedded on the phone.
The OnePlus 6T has ditched the headphone jack for which it has been receiving a lot of hate. According to the company, this step was undertaken to add in more battery and include the in-display fingerprint scanner. The scanner is placed under the display and it takes only 0.34 second to unlock the phone, OnePlus claims.
Huawei, the smartphone brand that rocked the smartphone’s camera aspect, had recently brought its new flagship handsets on the international market. Namely known as the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the Mate 20, the new handsets feature three cameras at the back, a powerful processor, and a big battery. And the good news is that among these recently launched two flagships, the premium or the Pro version has finally launched in Nepal for a flagship price.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro Overview
Talking about the specs, the most exciting feature in the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is its camera. As mentioned earlier, the Mate 20 Pro comes with three cameras at the back. But unlike the Huawei P20 Pro, the Mate 20 Pro uses a primary camera backed by an ultra-wide lens and telephoto lens. So users now can not only do the lossless zooming while capturing the images but also can expand the field of view without moving anywhere. On the front, both the camera houses the same 24MP selfie shooter, which is equipped with an f/2.0 lens.
Another cool thing on the phone is its highly powerful Kirin 980 chipset. This new chipset is designed on 7nm architecture and is said to surpass the Snapdragon 845 on the performance front. Alongside this powerful chipset, the phone is also provided with an ample 128GB of storage. In terms of RAM, the Mate 20 Pro comes with 6GB of memory.
Huawei Mate 20 comes with Android Pie. On the top, Huawei has added its custom skin EMUI 9.0 on the top. So the users can readily see some pre-installed apps on the phone.
Connectivity: Dual SIM (Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM/NM), Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C, No 3.5mm headphone jack
Battery: 4200mAh with Supercharge technology (40W fast charging), Supports Wireless Fast charging (15watts) and reverse wireless charging
Colors: Emerald Green, Midnight Blue, Twilight, Pink Gold, Black
Huawei Mate 20 Pro Price in Nepal [Updated]
The latest price of Huawei Mate 20 Pro in Nepal is Rs. 129,900 for the 6/128GB variant. It is available through official mobile retailers throughout Nepal.
The Xiaomi Redmi 6 is an entry level phone that made quite a bit splash in the smartphone market when it came out. And many have been calling it a king, when it comes to entry level phones. And so, we thought we’d test that theory out. Can it really be called the Entry Level king as others so put it?
Xiaomi Redmi 6 Specifications:
Design: Plastic build
Display: 5.45″ HD+ IPS LCD display (720 x 1440 resolution), 18:9 aspect ratio
Rear Camera: Dual Camera setup, 12 MP primary sensor with PDAF & f/2.2 aperture + 5 MP depth sensor
Front Camera: 5 MP lens
CPU: Octa-core 2.0 GHz MediaTek Helio P22
GPU: PowerVR GE8320
RAM: 3 GB
Storage: 32 GB, 64 GB (expandable up to 256 GB via microSD)
Battery: 3000 mAh
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2
Ports: microUSB, 3.5 headphone jack
Price in Nepal: Rs.16,490 (32 GB), Rs.18,490 (64 GB)
Design and Build
The Xiaomi Redmi 6 comes with an all-plastic build. Considering it’s a budget phone, that’s not surprising. The phone appears to be built sturdily when you hold it, but there occur some flex, creaks and squeaks when you abuse the phone a little. Of course, it seems it can withstand minor drops and such.
The design on it is typical Xiaomi. And since it’s a phone from some 3-4 months, back, it looks kind of old, especially when you’re getting used to the notched designs with bigger screens these days. This makes the design look a bit boring, but it is quite practical. The buttons are on the right, but not tactile enough when you press them. The fingerprint scanner sits at the right spot – under the cameras. It is easy to reach with your finger at the back, and is also pretty fast and accurate.
The SIM slots and the microSD slot are on the left side. One of the slot houses a SIM and a microSD card, whereas the other is a single SIM slot. The inclusion of a microSD card slot is a good option, as the phone only has a 32 GB of storage on-board. But yes, it also comes with a 64 GB version as well.
The speaker is located at the back, which is an unusual place for a speaker to be. It is easy to muffle while laying it on the table, but since the speaker is loud, you can still hear it that way. Vibration, on the other hand, isn’t that strong. It’s easy to miss your calls when walking or riding.
Even though the build is plastic, the phone is pretty slippery. Overall, the design is old school Xiaomi. While it looks kinda practical, its nothing eye-catching. Yes, this is a budget phone, but the Oppo Real Me 2, also a budget phone, was a bit more eye-catching than this.
Display
Up front, there’s a 5.45” IPS LCD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It has an HD+ resolution, which may look okay on paper, but it appears inadequate. Especially because you can notice some pixelation at a few points on the screen. Of course, you have to look very closely to be able to see that, but it is quite visible while watching YouTube.
Of course, it is a budget phone, but even on other phones with the same pixel density, I hadn’t faced such problems. So, this can very well be a software or codec issue on this unit.
Besides these small problems, the display overall is good enough. Colors are vibrant, and details are represented well enough as well. There is considerable amount of bezels on all sides, but they don’t look too violating.
Camera
In the photography department, this phone comes with a dual camera setup at the back, and a single camera in the front. The dual camera setup comprises of a 12 MP primary lens and a 5 MP depth sensor, both with f/2.2 aperture.
While the overall image quality from these cameras look good, the pictures lack sharpness. The colors appear a bit cooler, and it could do with a bit more contrast. Also, bright colors appear over-saturated. The dynamic range on this is also only okay at best. It’s because with the HDR mode on, it looks like it does a good job, but the images appear to have been altered with effects.
Xiaomi Redmi 6 Camera Sample
1 of 15
Image has low contrast and looks cool
color representation sample
building
colorful building
low contrast
overlay nature shot
sky hdr
indoor lighting
portrait mode
low light portrait mode
portrait mode indoor
evening
night light
The portrait mode is decent enough. Edge detection, like on other phones, tends to sometimes miss out on the subject. But when it does work, it works pretty well in terms of background blurring and such. However, in low light, the pictures gather a lot of noise. And most of the times, the images come out pretty much unusable. This has to do with the camera’s narrow apertures, but it is what it is.
The 5 MP selfie camera is better than the rear cameras, achieving good results under good lighting conditions. But sometimes, the AI tends to overdo itself and make your face a bit too artificial, or cartoonish. With that off, it does an okay job, and the bokeh effect on selfies looks better than the one on the back.
Selfie Camera
1 of 4
regular selfie
beauty mode selfie
group selfie
bokeh selfie
The phone is capable of taking Full HD videos at 30 fps, and shares the same story just like the pictures. They are usable when taken under good lighting, but are quite grainy in low light.
For a phone in this price range, it does include EIS, but it’s not that great. Of course, it’s better to have one than none, but you can also turn it off if you wish.
Performance
Here’s the kick to the guts: the performance on this phone isn’t as good as expected. For a phone which many claim to be an entry-level killer, it didn’t meet my expectations. Maybe, I had it too high or something, but I was a bit disappointed.
The Helio P22 chip on it doesn’t perform as good as it should. Now, I have used a few other phones with the same chipset, and this one doesn’t seem to be at par with them. Even simple tasks such as using YouTube can get some lags. However, it wasn’t like this when I got the phone… this actually started after I updated the phone to the available latest software, i.e. MIUI 10.
I also tried PUBG on this, and it did run, with the BAGT app helping with the performance and it was playable to an extent. The BAGT app is available in the PlayStore and it will help play heavy games on your phone. Basically, this is a laggy performer in my experience compared to the Realme 2, which came with a Snapdragon 450. So, all I can say is it must be a software issue. I did succeed in playing games like Clash Royale and Pocket Pool but Asphalt 9 was not playable at all.
The UI in this one has been greatly improved and it’s more user friendly now, but the software in general seems to be a lot heavier, especially after the MIUI 10 update I received. It seems to hog down a lot of processing power and memory. Which is why, this phone’s performance was not very good during my review.
It’s added navigation gestures are a breath of fresh air. You swipe up from the bottom to go to the Home Screen, swipe and hold for recent apps, and swipe from left or right to go back. Also, there are little things like brightness slider, and updated settings menu that gives a freshness to the old MIUI 9 that we have used for so long.
However, Xiaomi still needs to optimize its UI by a lot. It may not be a big deal for most high end Xiaomi smartphones, but its not the case for budget smartphones like the Xiaomi Redmi 6.
Connectivity
In terms of connectivity, its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth seem to work fine without any problems. This phone has a headphone jack at the top while it’s microUSB port is at the bottom. It misses out on the Gyro-Sensor, and I also faced issues with the proximity sensor. I found random apps opened after a call was over.
Battery
The 3000 mAh battery on a phone of this caliber should have been fine, but I didn’t find it satisfactory. Again, that probably had to do with the latest update as the UI is pretty heavy. It gave me around 4 and a half hours of average screen on time. Also, it takes 2 hours to fully charge, and if we’re nitpicking, the cable is too short.
To conclude, as much as many claim this phone to be an entry-level king, I don’t believe it to be so. The Oppo A3s costs a bit more and has only 2 GB RAM with 16 GB storage, but that phone performed better than this one.
But overall, this phone still provides a great value for money. For a price of Rs.16,500, you get some of the best basics for a smartphone. I feel like it could’ve performed better if used with the MIUI 9.5 it came with. So, if you can, you should probably hold off on upgrading it the MIUI 10 until Xiaomi can optimize its heavy UI for entry-level phones.
Pros
Low pricing
Okay performance, although could do with a lot of optimization
A foldable phone was just a concept. And the big players in the tech industry like Samsung and LG had promised to bring such futuristic phone. But before these tech titans debuted the product, a startup company shocked the world with World’s first foldable smartphone.
The California-based startup company namely known as Royole has been the first in the race of bringing the world’s first foldable smartphone. The smartphone is christened as “FlexPai”, which was unveiled at a conference in Beijing. The phone is actually a phablet with 7.8-inch size when unfolded, just as big as an iPad Mini. This giant screen comes in 4:3 aspect ratio with the resolution of 1920 x 1440 pixels. But when folded, the device can turn into a manageable 4-inch size.
The display on the handset is an AMOLED panel, which folds down in the middle. The phone is said to come with Dubbed Water OS, which switches the contents to only half of the screen when folded. The other half of the screen displays a wallpaper. When unfolded, the FlexPai measure 7.6mm in terms of thickness. The phone does not fold perfectly flat so the thickness will be more than 15.2mm when folded. Although the device may look cool, it may not still fit into many people’s pockets. Nonetheless, the hinge on this device is rated to being unfolded 200,000 times. So we can consider it durable in that respect.
On the performance front, the FlexPai comes with 7nm Snapdragon 8150 chipset packing either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. Snapdragon 8150 is a unique chipset, whose details have not been mentioned on the website. But the rumors cues that it is a new flagship chipset from Qualcomm (probably for the foldable phones). So if that’s true then we can expect a top-tier performance from the device. In terms of storage, the company has provided three options: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB.
On the camera front, FlexPai enjoys a dual camera setup. The camera pair on the device embraces a 20MP telephoto lens and a 16MP wide-angle lens. Although the capacity of the battery has not been revealed yet, the phone is said to come up with proprietary Ro-Charge fast charging technology, which squeezes the power to the battery from 0% to 80% just in an hour.
128GB and 256GB variants are already available for pre-order in the US. In terms of price, the base variant (6/128GB) comes with the price tag of $1300. And for the 256GB model, the price is set at $1469. All the pre-orders will start shipping in December.
If you are a fan of smartwatches and fitness tracking device, we have good news for you. Samsung Galaxy Watch, which is Samsung’s premium smartwatch is now available for purchase in Nepal. This activity-tracker is the successor of the Gear S3 Frontier. Although Samsung ditched the “Gear” monitor in this smartwatch, it still comes with all the premium features and inspirable glory found on all the previous Gear smartwatches.
In terms of size, Samsung Galaxy Watch comes in two sizes: 42mm and 46mm. However, Samsung Nepal launched only the 46mm variant here in Nepal. Even in the connectivity side, there are two options internationally: one with LTE support and another with Bluetooth. But only the variant with Bluetooth connectivity is available for purchase in Nepal.
In terms of display, the Galaxy Watch comes with 1.3-inch Super AMOLED display. The dial on the smartwatch is circular and features 360 x 360 pixels. This results in a pixel density of 278PPI. The screen on this device is shielded with Corning Gorilla DX+ glass to evade the vulnerabilities of cracks and scratches. And like all the previous Gear smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch also comes with the rotatable dial. So navigating, tuning and switching the features in the watch is easy and hassle-free.
Since the device features a Super AMOLED display, it is very power efficient in nature. Users can even choose dark watch faces to be more frugal on spending the battery power. Users can find 60 thousand different watch faces in the Galaxy Store. So users can definitely find one perfect watch face, which would match their requirements.
On the performance front, Samsung Galaxy Watch comes with Exynos 9110 chipset paired with 768MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. The activity tracker has Tizen 4.0 OS on the software side of things. To fuel the processes inside the device, the watch comes with 472mAh battery. And the smartwatch does come with Wireless Charging feature.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Specifications
Dimensions: 46 x 49 x 13 mm; weight: 63g
Display: 1.3-inch Super AMOLED
Resolution: 360×360 pixels
Protection: Gorilla DX+ glass, IP68, and 5 ATM water resistance
Chipset: Exynos 9110 SoC
Processor: Dual-Core 1.15GHz
OS: Tizen 4.0
RAM: 768MB
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC, A-GPS/Glonass
Tihar, the festival of lights is approaching. And for this festival, the smartphone maker has already brought the Samsung Tihar Special Offer to woo its potential customers. With the maximum cashback of Rs. 10,000, this offer surely looks enticing.
In the multitude of Samsung smartphones available in Nepal, only six smartphones are receiving the cash back this time around. Samsung Galaxy A6, J6 Plus, J7 Pro, On Nxt, J7 Nxt, and the recently launched J4 Plus are the lucky handsets to receive the cash back. The phone stacked for this offer is receiving a maximum discount of 25%. So this Samsung Tihar Special Offer surely deserves all the attention. And here we tried to present the specs, price, and offer price of the smartphones to make it easy for the interested ones.
64GB Internal Storage, expandable (up to 256GB) via micro SD slot
Android 7.1 (Nougat) With Experience UI on the top
13MP rear camera, f/1.7 Aperture, LED flash
13MP front camera, f/1.9 Aperture, LED flash
Fingerprint Scanner
3,600mAh battery
Price: Rs. 30,900
Tihar Offer Price: Rs. 25,900
Samsung Galaxy On Nxt
5.5-inch FHD PLS TFT display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4
6GHz Octa-Core Exynos 7870 processor
3GB RAM
32GB Internal Storage, expandable (up to 256GB) via micro SD slot
Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) with Experience UI on the top
13MP rear camera, f/1.9 Aperture, LED flash
8MP front camera, f/1.9 Aperture
Fingerprint Scanner (Front mounted)
3,300mAh non-removable battery
Price: Rs. 23,990
Tihar Offer Price: Rs. 19,990
Samsung Galaxy J4 Plus
6.0-inch HD+ IPS LCD display
4GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 425 processor
2GB RAM, 32GB Internal Storage, Expandable up to 512GB via MicroSD card
Android Oreo (v8.1) with Experience UI on the top
13MP rear camera, f/1.9 Aperture, LED flash
5MP front camera, f/2.2 Aperture, LED flash
Fingerprint Scanner (Side mounted)
3,300mAh battery
Price: Rs. 23,490
Tihar Offer Price: Rs. 19,390
Samsung Galaxy J7 Nxt
5.5-inch HD AMOLED display
Octa Core 1.6GHz, Exynos 7870 processor
3GB RAM
32GB Internal Storage, expandable up to 128GB/256GB via micro SD card
Android 7.0 (Nougat) with Experience UI on the top
13MP rear camera, f/1.9 Aperture, LED flash
5MP front camera f/2.2 Aperture, LED flash; Portrait selfie mode
3,000mAh battery
Price: Rs. 20,990
Tihar Offer Price: Rs. 18,990
What do you think about the Samsung Tihar Special Offer? Are you going to buy any Samsung smartphone in this festive season? Please let us know by dropping your thoughts in the comment section.
The OnePlus 6 is undoubtedly one of the best smartphones of 2018. Even with the launch of the OnePlus 6T, the device is still garnering a lot of attention due to the value for money it offers. And with the new updates, it has received, the 6 is more refined than ever.
At the OnePlus Keynote earlier this week, the company had promised that the 6 would receive an update at the end of the week. After the release of the Open Beta 6, OnePlus followed that with the stable 9.0.2 update that carries some new set of features that are present on the new flagship of the Chinese manufacturer.
The most-talked-about the update on the OxygenOS 9.0.2 is definitely the Nightscape mode. Although the feature is still in its infant stage, the results it has produced is quite decent, to say the least. The Night mode brightens up the photos that are captured in a dark environment even without the use of LED flash. It will be certainly interesting to see how it holds up against the Nightsight that the Pixel 3 XL is set to receive.
Likewise, the OnePlus 6 now will run with Full-Screen Gesture 2.0 which is more refined and offers a better ease of use. The overall animation on the smartphone has also changed making the software more snappier.
The Studio Lighting feature, which is the result of collaboration between OnePlus and Kevin Abosch, has also been introduced to the 6. Studio Lightingapparentlyy helps to enhance face contour, and it has been directly integrated with the camera.
With the OxygenOS 9.0.2, the OnePlus 6’s security patch has been updated to November 2018. The users who are into using the gestures will probably like the fact that Google Assistant can now be triggered by holding the power button for 0.5 seconds.
Following the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 and the Honor Magic 2, Lenovo has released its own take on a slider phone, and that’s the Lenovo Z5 Pro. The device is continuing the sliding mechanism trend that has let the manufacturer make the smartphone bezel-less. One major advantage the Z5 Pro has over the other two phones is certainly the price.
Lenovo Z5 Pro Specifications
A few months back, Lenovo had teased the launch of the Z5 showcasing it to be a bezel-less phone. However, that turned out to be completely false, as the device had a notch and a chin. However, Lenovo seems to have rectified its mistake by launching an actual bezel-less device.
The Lenovo Z5 Pro is a tall smartphone with a 6.39-inch of Super AMOLED display that comes in Full HD+ resolution. Lenovo has partnered with Samsung for the display front which is definitely good to see. This display is bordered by a small 2.07 mm of bezels. These bezels have made the Z5 Pro the smartphone with the highest screen-to-body ratio that stands at just 95.06%. This display has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 and is HDR 10 compliant which is nice to see.
Underneath the hood, the Lenovo Z5 Pro has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 chipset that is aided by 6 GB of RAM and Adreno 616 GPU. The device runs on Android v8.1 Oreo with Lenovo’s own ZUI 10 on top. Storage wise, the device is available in 64 GB and 128 GB versions.
In terms of optics, the Lenovo Z5 Pro is equipped with dual 16-megapixel and 24-megapixel cameras accompanied by dual-LED dual-tone flash. The camera setup supports 4K video capture at 30fps. There are also dual cameras up front as the slider reveals 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel selfie cameras.
The slider also has an IR face recognition system embedded. The Lenovo Z5 Pro is backed by a 3,360 mAh battery which has Fast Charging enabled.
Lenovo Z5 Pro Specs Overview
Display: 6.39-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED; 19.5:9 aspect ratio
Front Camera: 16 MP front-facing camera (f/2.2) + 8 MP
Sensors: Under-display Fingerprint, IR Face Recognition, Accelerometer, Gyro, proximity, compass
SIM: Dual SIM with 4G
Color Variant(s): Ceramic Black
Battery: 3,350 mAh with Fast Charge
Lenovo Z5 Pro Price and Availability
The Lenovo Z5 Pro might prove to be a tough competitor to the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 and Huawei Magic 2 due to its price. While the two devices sell for over $500, the Z5 Pro starts at CNY 1,998 (~330) for the base model (64 GB). The 128 GB storage variant will sell for CNY 2,298 (~$330). The device is already available for pre-order in China and will be available starting November 11.
After the MacBook Air, Apple also refreshed the Mac mini which was long due for an update. The last Mac mini we saw was four years ago, so was the wait worth it? Well, it depends on who you are asking. The concept is pretty awesome, a PC that was small, quiet and could easily be used for multiple purposes. The new refresh comes in with updated internals, better cooling, better connectivity, and more storage options. So, let’s look at what the new Apple Mac mini 2018 has in store for us.
Internals
The new Mac mini starts at $799 for which you get an 8th gen i3 processor, 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM, 128GB SSD, Intel UHD 630 graphics, and a Gigabit Ethernet. You can also bump it all the way up to a $4,199 configuration. For that price, you get an 8th Gen i7 processor, 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM, 2TB SSD, Intel UHD 630 graphics and 10 Gigabit Ethernet port. You also get an option to opt in for Final Cut Pro X for $299.99 extra as always.
Performance Boost
There were a few huge claims made by the company on the topic of improvements. Apple claims the newer system is 5x faster in system performance and up to 60% faster in graphical processing. The cooling has also been improved resulting in up to 70% maximum sustained power. That’s the result of the increased airflow inside the system by almost 2 times. The T2 chip has also been integrated into the system.
Connectivity
Apple has paid a lot of attention to its connectivity options. You get an optional 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, four thunderbolts 3 ports, one HDMI 2.0, 2x USB 3 and a headphone jack. The HDMI port allows you to connect up to two 4k monitors or one 5k monitor. While the Thunderbolt 3 port is capable of data transfer speeds of up to 40Gbps.
Intel UHD 630 graphics with support for eGPU though Thunderbolt 3
Configurable up to 2TB SSD
Configurable up to 10-gigabit ethernet
Conclusion
The Mac mini comes in the same familiar enclosure, made from 100% recyclable aluminum, and in a new space gray finish. On the software side, the Mac mini gets the latest macOS Mojave. The Mac mini will be available for purchase starting the 7th of November this year. As for all the gamers out there, yes the Mac mini also supports the Blackmagic’s Mac-friendly eGPU for added graphical oomph.
