This week, as expected, Apple announced its new 4-inch iPhone with model name ‘SE’ – consider it as the ‘special edition’ or an ‘enhanced’ version of the existing iPhone 5s.
In its compact 4-inch form factor, the new iPhone SE gets almost everything from the iPhone 6s expect that it does not support Apple’s 3D Touch display. The iPhone SE 16GB variant is priced at Rs. 39,000, whereas the 64GB variant price hasn’t been announced as yet. It will be available from April 8th in India and is likely to go on pre-order starting March 29th, next Tuesday.
The iPhone SE comes in four colour options – Silver, Grey, Gold, and new Rose Gold. Apple also introduced new leather cases, which will be priced at Rs. 2,900, comes in two colours – black and midnight blue. Also, the price of the ‘Lightning Dock’ will be Rs. 3,700, said Apple India.
The Cupertino giant also announced a smaller version of last year’s iPad Pro with a 9.7-inch True Tone Retina display. The new iPad Pro 9.7 has a A9X, Apple’s 3rd generation 64-bit chip and four speakers, similar to the original iPad Pro. It has a new 12-megapixel iSight camera with 4K video recording, similar to the iPhone 6s and also a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The True Tone display measures the color temperature to the ambient light and adjusts the screen to match.
Apple has already priced the 9.7-inch iPad Pro prices for India. It will get launched in early April at Rs. 49,900 (MRP) for the 32GB with Wi-Fi model and Rs. 61,900 (MRP) for the 32GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. It also comes in 128GB and a new 256GB capacity, but no details about the pricing for these variants yet. It comes in silver, space grey, gold and a new rose gold colour options.
There is a new Smart Keyboard for the smaller iPad Pro in charcoal grey and that will cost Rs. 13,900. The Polyurethane iPad Pro Smart Cover and Silicone Cases are priced at Rs. 3,700 and Rs. 5,200 respectively. The existing Apple Pencil is also compatible with the new iPad Pro 9.7, and it is already available for Rs. 8,600.
Apple also announced a price cut for the Apple Watch – which now costs $299 in the United States, and alongside introduced some new Watch band options.
Apple is calling the new collection of bands as ‘spring line-up’. Unfortunately there’s no word on the pricing just yet.
Checkout all the Apple announcements in a quick roundup video below.
httpv://youtu.be/S_rRnJ2EcAE
Xiaomi this week started selling its latest Mi Bluetooth speaker in India, as it had promised. The compact speaker was introduced back in September last year, has a full metal body and weighs just 270 grams. It has a built-in microphone so that you can use it for calls when it is connected to your smartphone, but it lacks a microSD card slot that is present in the Chinese variant. Read our Xiaomi Mi Bluetooth Speaker Review here.
The Xiaomi Mi Bluetooth speaker is currently available in Gold and Blue colors and is priced at Rs. 1,999 in India. It is currently available from Mi.com.
Xiaomi also announced two new Mi TVs in China – a 65-inch curved 4K TV priced at 8,999 yuan (US$ 1380 / Rs. 92,270) and the Mi TV 3S 43-inch Full HD TV priced at 1,799 Yuan (US$ 276 / Rs. 18,500 approx.). Both Mi TV will be available in China starting from March 31st.
The new Mi TV 3S lineup now includes a 65-inch 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) curved TV with display from Samsung and a 43-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) TV with display from LG / AU Optronics. The 65-inch Curved TV has a 5.9mm slim metal body, and also support Mi TV bar with independent 6-piece sound system. Check here for more details.
Vivo launched Y31L, the company’s latest 4G smartphone in India. It packs a 4.7-inch qHD screen, is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 410 SoC, runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop) with Funtouch OS 2.1, has a 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The vivo Y31 was launched back in September last year.
The vivo Y31L comes in comes in black and white colors and is priced at Rs. 9,450.
InFocus launched Bingo 10, the company’s most affordable smartphone running Marshmallow in the Bingo series for Rs. 4,299. It has a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with LED flash for capturing better images in low lighting conditions, 5-megapixel auto focus rear camera with LED flash, 4.5-inch FWVGA screen, quad-core MediaTek MT6580A processor, Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) and has 1GB of RAM.
The InFocus Bingo 10 comes in White (with Green twist) and Black (with Blue Twist) colors and is priced at Rs. 4,299. It is exclusively available from Snapdeal.
Lastly, QiKU (pronounced as Chiku) introduced F4, the company’s latest budget smartphone at an event in China. It has a 5-inch HD display, is powered by an Octa-Core 64-bit MediaTek MT6753 processor, runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop) with 360 OS and anti-theft security feature. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, PDAF for quick focus in 0.1 seconds and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
The Qihoo 360 (QiKU) F4 comes in White, Black, Pink, Gold and Blue colors and is priced at 599 Yuan (US$ 92 / Rs. 6,130 approx.) for the 2GB RAM with 16GB storage variant and 799 Yuan (US$ 123 / Rs. 8,190 approx.) for the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage variant. The first flash sale started yesterday. No word on the global roll out yet.