Weekly Roundup: Vivo V5 20MP selfie smartphone, OnePlus 3T, World’s thinnest Acer laptop and more


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Vivo launched its latest selfie-focused smartphone in the ‘V series’ in India dubbed Vivo V5. It is world’s first smartphone to come with a 20-megapixel front-facing camera.

The Vivo V5 has a unibody metal design, a 5.5-inch HD display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass protection, is powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek MT6750 64-bit processor, runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with Funtouch OS 2.6 and has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash.

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The Vivo V5 comes in Crown Gold and Space Gray colors, is priced at Rs. 17,980 and will be available for pre-order from November 16th to 25th and goes on sale from November 26th. Check our Vivo V5 Photo Gallery here and unboxing video below.

OnePlus announced 3T, an upgraded version of the OnePlus 3 that was introduced back in June. It has the same 5.5-inch 1080 Optic AMOLED display with 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection, runs on Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) with Oxygen OS top and has a 16-megapixel rear camera with LED flash with EIS 2.0, phase-detection auto-focus (PDAF) and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), but this is powered by a faster Snapdragon 821 processor, has a 16-megapixel front-facing camera with Samsung 3P8SP sensor and 1.0 µm pixel size, 3400mAh battery and new 128GB storage option, in addition to 64GB.

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The OnePlus 3T starts at US$ 439 (Rs. 29782) / EUR 439 / GBP 399 for the 64GB version and the 128GB version is priced at US$ $479 (Rs. 32485 approx.).

Acer launched Swift 7, which is currently the world’s thinnest laptop at just 9.98mm, thinner than the 10.4mm HP Spectre that was launched earlier this year. It weighs just 1.1 kilograms and has all-metal aluminum uni-body design.

The Acer Swift 7 features a 13.3-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) 16:9 IPS display with a micro-bezel and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection on top, is powered by seventh-gen 1.2GHz Intel Core i5-7Y54 processor with Intel HD Graphics 615, 8 GB LPDDR3 RAM and 256GB SSD. It runs on Windows 10.

The Acer Swift 7 comes in black and gold color, is priced at Rs. 99,999 and will be available from 18th November.

Vivo in China announced high-end X9, X9 Plus, and Xplay6 smartphones in the ‘X series’. Both the X9 and X9 Plus phones have a 20-megapixel front-facing camera with 1/2.8″ Sony IMX376 sensor and f/2.0 aperture along with a 8-megapixel camera for capuring depth information when shooting selfies. These phones also have a 16-megapixel rear camera with  1/2.8″ sensor.

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The X9 has a 5.5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED screen with 1.59mm slim bezels for easy on-handed operation and is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 processor with 4GB of RAM, and the X9 Plus comes with a 5.88-inch 1080p Super AMOLED screen, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 653 processor with 6GB of RAM.

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The Vivo XPlay6 has a 5.46-inch Quad HD curved display, is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor and runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with Funtouch OS 3.0. It has 12-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX362 sensor, 1.4μm pixel size, f/1.7 aperture, 4-axis OIS, PDAF for fast focus 0.03 seconds and a secondary 5-megapixel camera for capturing depth information. Check pricing here.

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Xiaomi introduced Mi Box 3c and 3s smart TV box with support for 4K video playback. The main highlight of the new devices are the AI-based PatchWall interface, making it the first set-top box system with AI in the world. The Mi box 3s also has HDR (High Dynamic Range) support.

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The Xiaomi Mi Box 3c and Mi Box 3s are priced at 199 yuan (US$ 29/ Rs. 1965 approx.) and 299 yuan (US$ 43 / Rs. 2950 approx.), respectively and will go on sale in China starting from November 22nd.

Reliance Retail has launched Wind 7i, a cheaper version of Wind 7 that was launched back in August. It has 4G VoLTE (Voice over LTE), dual-SIM support, 5-inch HD dispaly and is powered by Snapdragon 210 processor, similar to the Wind 7, but this has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, compared to 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage on the Wind 7. It also runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow).

lyf-wind-7iThe LYF Wind 7i comes in Black and Blue colors and is priced at Rs. 4,999.

Gionee announced S9, its latest smartphone with dual rear cameras in China. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with Sony sensor along with a 5-megapixel secondary camera. It has a unibody metal design, packs a 5.5-inch 1080p display, and is powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek Helio P10 processor.

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The Gionee S9 comes in Black, Gold and Rose Gold colors, is priced at 2499 yuan (US$ 365 / Rs. 24700 approx.) and goes on sale in China starting from November 25th.

Astrum Holdings launched of two new wearables this week – the SW130 smartwatch and SB110 smart band.

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Talking about the smartwatch, the SW130 comes with a 1.48-inch capacitive touch display with a resolution of 128×128 pixels. You can pair the smartphone through Bluetooth and it is compatible with smartphones and tablets supporting iOS, Android 2.3 or above.

On the other hand, the SB110 sports a 0.49-inch OLED display with IPX4 certified, meaning it is both water and sweat resistant. Just like other bands, it can also track step, calories, distance and sleep of the users.

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The SW130 comes in Black and White color with a price tag of Rs. 1,690 and the SB110 come in Black, Blue, and Orange at Rs. 1,790.

OKWU, a new Chinese start-up in India launched Pi, its first smartphone along with an accessory U-Tag. The OKWU Pi has a 5-inch HD display, is powered by 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6735 64-bit processor and runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow). It has 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash along with a secondary 2-megapixel camera for capturing sharp images. It has  a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and also has a fingerprint sensor on the back.

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The OKWU Pi comes in gold and rose gold colors and is priced at Rs. 5,999, and the U-Tag costs Rs. 990. Pre-Booking for the phone starts from 27th November.

Kingston launched DT50 USB flash drive in the Indian market ranging from 8GB to 128GB in capacity. The DataTraveler 50 comes with a cap-less design featuring a metal casing and colorful accent by capacity.

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It also features a USB 3.1 (1st Gen), capable of decent transfer speeds and also have backward compatibility with USB 2.0 as well. The Kingston DT50 USB will be available in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB storage capacity at a price of Rs. 375, Rs. 500, Rs. 850, Rs.1,500 & Rs. 2,800 respectively.

Alcatel launched Move Time, childrens’ smartwatch, which is equipped with GPS tracking, call and message functionality. This helps parents stay connected with their kids. It was introduced as CareTime at the CES earlier this year. 

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Aimed at children from age 5 to 9, the Move Time watch allows parents to call or send voice messages to their kids. The Alcatel Move Time kids watch comes with Orange and Blue strap options, is priced at Rs. 4,799 and is available exclusively from Flipkart.

Lastly, Huawei introduced Mate 9 Pro in China, which is a version of the Porsche Design Huawei Mate 9 without the graphite finish, but it still has the second generation Leica dual-lens camera with 12-megapixel RGB sensor, 20-megapixel monochrome sensor and Hybrid Zoom, featuring 2x magnification, dual-tone LED flash, laser auto focus, optical image stabilization (OIS) and uses Huawei’s own ISP.

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It has a 5.5-inch Quad HD AMOLED display, is powered by an Octa-Core HiSilicon Kirin 960 SoC with IntelliSense i6 sensor hub, runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat) with Emotion UI 5.0 on top, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera and a fingerprint sensor on the front.

The Huawei Mate 9 Pro is priced at 4699 yuan (US$ 685 / Rs. 46390 approx.) for the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version and the 6GB RAM with 128GB storage version costs 5299 yuan (US$ 772 / Rs. 52,315 approx.). It will be available in China starting from this month.


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