Weekly Roundup: Meizu m1 note, Nubia Z9 mini, Teewe 2, New Macbook Pro, LG Watch Urbane and more


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This week two Chinese smartphone brands made their debut in India – the popular Meizu and ZTE’s sub-brand Nubia.

Meizu launched its m1 note in India at Rs. 11,999. The company didn’t host any launch event for the m1 note and only announced it through Twitter saying that the smartphone will be available in India from May 20 on Amazon.

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The Meizu m1 note a 5.5-inch 1080p display from Sharp/AUO with 76 percent screen-to-body ratio, is powered by a 1.7GHz 64-bit octa-core MediaTek MT6752 processor with eight Cortex-A53 64-bit CPUs with Mali-T760 GPU and runs on Android 4.4 KitKat with Flyme OS 4 on top. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with Samsung sensor and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with 69-degree wide viewing angle.

The second new brand of smartphones launched in India is actually is the separate Nubia sub-brand from Chinese manufacturer ZTE. The company launched its first device in the country under its Nubia brand dubbed the Nubia Z9 mini at Rs. 16,999. The smartphone was first launched in China in March as ZTE Nubia Z9 mini for CNY 1,499 (approximately Rs. 15,000). In India, the pricing is little higher than we expected.

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The Nubia Z9 mini packs a 5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD CGS (Continuous Grain Silicon) OGS display with 74.1 percent screen-to-body ratio, is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 615 SoC and runs on Android 5.0 (Lollipop) with Nubia UI 2.8. It has 16-megapixel rear camera with Sony Exmor RS sensor, 6p lenses, LED flash and a 8-megapixel front-facing camera with 80-degree wide-angle lens with NeoVision 5.0 Camera UI. Read our hands on impressions here.

Indian brand iBall launched its cheapest Windows 8.1 tablet dubbed the iBall Slide i701 at Rs. 4,999. It comes with a free back cover autographed by iBall’s ambassador Kareena Kapoor, free HDMI Cable worth Rs. 699 and three interchangeable protective covers worth Rs. 599. It is already available through retail stores and e-commerce portals from May 21.

iBall Slide i701

The iBall Slide i701 features a 7-inch IPS screen and is powered by a quad-core Intel Atom processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. It packs a 2-megapixel rear camera and a VGA front-facing camera. It comes with free Microsoft Office license for one year and 1TB OneDrive cloud storage.

Celkon Campus Q405

Celkon launched Campus Q405, the company’s latest budget smartphone in the Campus series priced at Rs. 3,199. It has a 4-inch WVGA screen, is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat). It has a 3.2-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.

Intex Cloud M5 II

Intex launched its latest budget smartphone dubbed the Cloud M5 II at Rs. 4,799. It has a 5-inch FWVGA display, is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core Spreadtrum SC7731 processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat). It has a 5-megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It comes with dual SIM support and 3G connectivity.

Videocon Infinium Z45 Nova Plus

Videocon launched Infinium Z45 Nova+ at Rs. 4,900, the successor of Infinium Z45 Nova that was launched last year. It has a 4.5-inch FWVGA display, Android 4.4 (KitKat), 5-megapixel rear camera with BSI sensor, LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, similar to the Z45 Nova, but this is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor Spreadtum processor coupled with 1GB of RAM, instead of MediaTek processor and has a slightly bigger 1800mAh battery.

Lenovo S60

Lenovo launched S60, the company’s latest smartphone in the S Series in India at Rs. 12,999. It packs a 5-inch HD IPS display, is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor with Adreno 306 GPU with 2GB of RAM and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat) with Vibe 2.0 UI on top. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It has dual-SIM support and 3G connectivity.

Wiio WI3

Wiio launched the Wiio WI3 smartphone in partnership with Snapdeal at Rs. 7,499. It has a 5-inch qHD IPS display, is powered by a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and runs on Android 4.4 (KitKat). It has an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash and 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It comes with dual-SIM 3G support and a massive 4000mAh battery.

Mango Man, popular for its Teewe  media streaming dongle, this week launched its compact Teewe 2 streaming stick with better specifications at Rs. 2,399.

Teewe 2

Teewe lets you stream media from your Smartphone, Desktop, Mac or Chrome browser to your TV. The new Teewe 2 has a 1.6+ GHz Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 Processor with a Quad core GPU, compared to the Dual Core GPU on the first Teewe and has the same 1GB of DDR3 RAM. Last year the company partnered with Snapdeal to sell the dongle first, this time it has partnered exclusively with Amazon.in to sell the new streaming stick.

Panasonic this week launched new rugged smartphone in India dubbed the Toughpad FZ-E1 and Toughpad FZ-X1 priced at Rs. 1,19,000 and Rs. 1,09,000, respectively.

Panasonic Toughpad FZ-E1

The Toughpad FZ-E1 runs on Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld and is powered by a 2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974AB) processor, and the Toughpad FZ-X1 runs Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) and is powered by a 1.7 GHz Qualcomm S4 Pro (APQ8064T) processor. These are aimed at enterprise and B2B market. Checkout full details here.

This week Apple launched the updated 15-inch Retina display Macbook Pro with Force Touch trackpad that was first introduced in the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro earlier this year. It also gets faster PCIe-based flash storage, longer battery life that promises with up to 9 hours of wireless web browsing and optional AMD Radeon R9 M370X graphics, from NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics.

Apple 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro

Apple also introduced a new version of 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display with quad-core processors and AMD graphics that now starts at Rs. 1,59,900, compared to the Rs. 1,79,900 version that was launched last year.

Sennheiser launched URBANITE, URBANITE XL and URBANITE XL Wireless headphones in India. The URBANITE and URBANITE XL come in ‘i’ version for Apple iOS devices and ‘g’ version for other devices. The URBANITE On-Ear Headphones cost at Rs. 15,990,  URBANITE XL Over-Ear Headphones cost Rs. 19,990 and the URBANITE XL Wireless is priced at Rs. 24,990. All these soft pouch for safe storage, and a 2-year international warranty.

Sennheiser URBANITE

Lastly, LG finally launched the Watch Ubrane, it’s luxury Android Wear smartwatch in India at Rs. 30,000.

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The company first started rolling out the smarwatch in April. It has a 1.3-inch (320 x 320 pixels) P-OLED Display with narrower bezel, has a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 SoC, 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage. It is dust and water resistant and can stay in water up to meter deep for 30 minutes, packs a 410mAh battery and also has photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor to measure heartbeats. Checkout our hands on video below.

httpv://youtu.be/A5hHlaDlmPg

Weekly Announcements

First up, Oppo announced Oppo R7 and Oppo R7 Plus, two new smartphones in the R series. The Oppo R7 has a 5-inch (1080 x 1920 pixels) Full HD AMOLED display and runs on Color OS 2.1 based on Android 4.4 (KitKat), while the Oppo R7 Plus features a 6-inch (1080 x 1920 pixels) Full HD AMOLED display and runs on Color OS 2.1 based on Android 5.1 (Lollipop). Both these smartphones are powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor with Adreno 405 GPU for the international variant.

Oppo R7 Plus

The Oppo R7 and the Oppo R7 Plus come in Gold and Silver colors. The Oppo R7 is priced at CNY 2499 ($ 403 / Rs. 25680 approx.)  and the Oppo R7 Plus is priced at CNY 2999 ($483 / Rs. 30,810 approx.) These smartphones will be available in China first and will roll out globally starting next month.

LG announced G4 Stylus and G4c, two new smartphones in the G4 series. The G4 Stylus with stylus pen was introduced as G Stylo in Korea, this packs almost similar specifications that includes a 5.7-inch HD display, quad-core Snapdragon 410 SoC and Android 5.0 (Lollipop). It has 4G LTE connectivity, but the 3G variant is powered by a 1.4GHz octa-core processor. It will come in 13-megapixel or 8-megapixel rear camera options with LED flash, Laser Auto Focus and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It has 1GB RAM, instead of 1.5GB RAM in the Korean variant.

LG G4 Sylus and G4c

The LG G4c has a 5-inch HD display, quad-core processor, Android 5.0 (Lollipop), 8-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It also has 4G LTE support. Both these have G3 and G4-like buttons for power and volume on the back.

Sharp announced two new smartphones this week – the AQUOS Crystal 2 and AQUOS Xx.

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The AQUOS Crystal 2 follows the same formula as the original Crystal smartphone but comes with a bigger 5.2-inch display as opposed to a 5-inch display on the original. The phone measures 136x71x11mm and weighs in at 154 grams. It is powered by a quad core MSM8926 chipset and has 2 GB of RAM. There is 16GB of internal memory, an 8-megapixel camera at the back, 2-megapixel camera at the front and has a 2030mAh battery.

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The Sharp AQUOS Xx features a 5.7-inch S-CG LCD display, is powered by a Snapdragon 810 processor with Adreno 430 GPU coupled with 3GB of RAM. There’s 32GB of built-in storage on the AQUOS Xx, which is further expandable via microSD card (up to 128GB). At the back, the smartphone packs a 13-megapixel camera with CMOS sensor, and a 2-megapixel CMOS camera at the front, and a 3000mAh battery.

Elephone announced the P8000 which is powered by a Mediatek MT6753 SoC. The MT6753 is basically an under-clocked MT6752 SoC but with Worldmode LTE support and the P8000 is one of the first phones to implement it. This means that it will work with 4G networks across the globe.

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The phone has a large 5.5-inch 1080p display, a 64bit octa-core chipset clocked in at 1.5GHz coupled with 3GB of RAM, 16GB of on board storage and a fingerprint sensor as well at the back.. The phone has a large 4200mAH battery and rear facing 13-megapixel camera with LED flash, while there is a 5-megapixel front facing camera is also onboard.

At last, Meizu MX4 Ubuntu edition went on sale in China at CNY 1,799. This is the company’s second smartphone with Unbuntu Touch OS.

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The smartphone has same specs as the Android version that was launched in September last year. It sports 5.36-inch (1152×1920 pixels) IPS display and features 2.6mm slim bezels on the sides. The phone is powered by a 2.1GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6595 processor. There is a 20.7-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front facing camera with 3100mAh battery.


Author: Hitesh Arora

From making Gadget and Auto videos for TV and online media, this guy landed up in Tech Writing. He has his heart at the right place when it comes to finding deals online. You will always find him suggesting people which device to buy. Hitesh calls himself a TV buff, who loves cooking, eating, dancing, and sleeping. You can follow him on Twitter @hitesharoraa