Weekly Roundup: Samsung Galaxy A9, HTC One X9, Gionee M5 Plus, M5 Enjoy and more


Samsung Galaxy A9

Last week of 2015, and Samsung announced its latest top-end smartphone in the ‘Galaxy A’ series at an event in China dubbed the Samsung Galaxy A9.

The Galaxy A9 packs a 6-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display with 2.5D curved glass and 2.74mm narrow bezels, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 652 (Previously 620) processor and runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop). It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), LED flash and a 8-megapixel front-facing camera.

Samsung Galaxy A9

It has dual SIM support with dedicated nano SIM slots and a microSD expansion slot, but this might be different in the international variant. It has 4G LTE connectivity, fingerprint sensor under the home button and packs a 4000mAh battery with fast charging support. It has metal frame and glass back similar to the Galaxy S6 series smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy A9 comes in White, Gold and Pink colors. No word on the pricing or availability yet. Check full specifications here.

HTC this week announced the One X9 smartphone, the company’s latest mid range smartphone in the new ‘One X’ series, as it promised. It packs a 5.5-inch 1080p display and is powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek Helio X10 processor. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, BSI sensor, optical image stabilization (OIS), 4K video recording and RAW image capture.

HTC One X9It has dual front-facing BoomSound speakers with Dolby audio, 7.99mm slim metal body and packs a 3000mAh battery with fast charging support. It has dual SIM support and has 4G LTE connectivity. The HTC One X9 comes in Gunmetal Grey and Silver colors and is priced at 2399 yuan  ( US$ 370 / Rs. 24458 approx.) and will go on sale in China soon. Check full coverage here.

Gionee introduced two new smartphones at an event in China this week – Gionee M5 Enjoy and Gionee M5 Plus.

Gionee M5 Enjoy

The M5 Enjoy packs a 5000mAh battery and also has a fingerprint sensor embedded into the home button that promises recognition time of 0.5 seconds. It has a 5.5-inch HD IPS display, is powered by a Quad-Core MediaTek MT6735 processor and runs on Android 5.1 (Lollipop) with Amigo OS 3.1. It has a 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It has metal body, 4G LTE connectivity, dedicated dual SIM slots, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage with expansion slot.

Gionee M5 Plus

Gionee M5 Plus packs a 6-inch 1080p AMOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 77.5% and 2.5D arc glass. It packs a 5020mAh battery with dual charging chips that offers up to 1 day of usage with just 1 hour of charging. It has a fingerprint sensor embedded into the home button that promises response time of 0.1 seconds and recognition time of 0.38 seconds. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash phase-detection auto-focus (PDAF) that can focus in just 0.1 seconds and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It has metal body,  4G LTE connectivity, dedicated dual SIM slots, 3GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage with expansion slot and also has USB Type-C port

The Gionee M5 Enjoy version  comes in Golden color and is priced at 1999 Yuan ($308 / Rs. 20,455 approx.). The Gionee M5 Plus comes in Gold and Silver colors and is priced at 2499 Yuan ($ 385 / Rs. 25,595 approx.). Both smartphones are available purchase through official Gionee online store in China.

LG G Pad II 8.3 LTE

LG introduced G Pad II 8.3 LTE, it’s latest tablet in Korea this week. It packs a 8.3-inch (1920 x 1200) WUXGA display, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 615 processor and runs on Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop). It has a 8-megapixel auto focus rear camera without flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. As the name indicates, it has 4G LTE connectivity, has built-in stylus and also comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Office apps.

LG G Pad II 8.3 LTE

The LG G Pad II 8.3 LTE comes in Brown Gold color and will be available in Korea as of now.

The firm also announced that it will unveil HOM-BOT Turbo+ robotic vacuum cleaner with augmented reality at CES 2016. The vacuum cleaner from the company appears similar to a Roomba robot vacuum in pictures, but it is equipped with the augmented reality feature.

LG Cordzero

HOM-BOT Turbo+, employs augmented reality technology in a smart feature called Home-Joy that allows consumers to issue instructions to the vacuum cleaner by intuitively designating areas that need extra cleaning using the camera of any smartphone. You can simply tap on the part of the room in the image to clean and HOM-BOT Turbo+ goes to that exact location and begins cleaning.The robotic vacuum cleaner features Triple Eye camera sensors which record the surrounding area  including the ceiling, to track where it has already cleaned. Click here to know more.

Xolo this week launched an upgraded variant of the Xolo Black phone with 3GB RAM at Rs. 11,999, and will be exclusively available from Snapdeal. The Black sub-brand was launched in July this year.

xolo_black_photos (14)

The Xolo Black sports a a 5.5-inch full HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and is powered by 2nd-gen Octa-Core Snapdragon 615 SoC. Running Android 5.0 Lollipop, the phone comes with 3GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB with microSD. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera along with a secondary 2-megapixel camera for depth mapping that lets you click the image first and adjust the focus later.

iBall launched the Slide WQ149R, the company’s latest Windows 10 tablet with a built-in hard disk drive slot that supports up to 1TB internal 2.5 inch slim SATA Hard drive that needs to be purchased separately. It has a 10.1-inch (1280×800 pixels) IPS screen and is powered by an quad-core Intel Atom Z3735F processor. It has a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It has a detachable keyboard and a touch pad. It is the first 10.1” 2-in-1 with hard disk drive option, says the company.

iBall Slide WQ149R

The iBall Slide WQ149R with HDD slot is priced at Rs. 16,499.

Portronics launched YOGG, its first smart wristband with a  0.9-inch wide OLED display. It keeps track of your daily activities, exercise levels, monitors sleep patterns, gives instant motivational feedback and provide alerts to help you make live a healthier lifestyle. The display shows time and notifications for calls, text and also notifications from apps.

Portronics YOGG

It can sync data with Android and iOS apps and promises battery life of up to 5 days on a single charge. The Portronics YOGG smart wristband is priced at Rs. 2999.

Lastly, Creative launched Woof 3, its latest compact Bluetooth speaker in India. It is in a size of a cup, but promises high quality audio with its 45mm driver. It has Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity and has a microSD slot that can play formats such as MP3/ WMA and even loss-less high-quality formats such as WAV/FLAC/APE.  It measures 75 x 65 x 68 mm and weighs 237 grams.

Creative Woof 3

It also acts as a microSD card reader for transferring your music, video, and personal data between your microSD card and your computer. It has a built-in microphone for phone calls, comes with 3.5mm AUX in port to connect devices without Bluetooth and the 500mAh battery promises up to 6 hours of playtime on a single charge. The Creative Woof 3 portable Bluetooth speaker comes in red, blue, silver and gold colors and is priced at Rs. 3,999 (MRP). It is exclusively available from Snapdeal at an offer price of Rs. 2,499.


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