This week Huawei’s Honor brand launched the Honor 9i smartphone, Samsung launched the Galaxy On7 Prime, Meizu introduced the M6s with side-mounted fingerprint sensor, OPPO launched a mid-range A83 smartphone and lots more in our weekly roundup.
Huawei’s Honor brand this week launched the Honor 9 Lite smartphone in India. It was introduced in China last month and packs a 5.65-inch full HD+ full-screen display with 18:9 aspect ratio, is powered by Kirin 659 SoC, similar most other mid-range Huawei and Honor phones, but this runs on Android 8.0 (Oreo) with EMIUI 8.0 out-of-the-box.
It comes with a 13-megapixel front and rear cameras along with a secondary 2-megapixel rear camera to capture depth information for portrait shots. It has a metal frame, glass back, has a fingerprint sensor on the back that can unlock the phone in 0.25 seconds and packs a 3000mAh battery. It is priced at Rs. 10,999 for the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage version and the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version costs Rs. 14999. It will be available exclusively from Flipkart and Honor Store starting from January 21st.
Samsung launched the Galaxy On7 Prime smartphone in the country. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass screen, is powered by Octa-Core Exynos 7870 processor, runs on Android 7.1 (Nougat) and has 13-megapixel front and rear cameras. It features a metal unibody design and comes in two variants, one with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage and the other variant has 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. It has dedicated dual SIM slots and the fingerprint sensor is embedded into the home button. It comes with Samsung Mall app and Samsung Pay Mini.
The Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime comes in Black and Gold colors, is priced at Rs. 12,990 for the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage version and the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version costs Rs. 14,990. It will be available exclusively from Amazon.in online starting from today, January 20th.
OPPO launched A83 in the ‘A series’ in India. It was introduced in China last month, has a 5.7 HD+ full-screen 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by MediaTek Helio P23 SoC with 3GB RAM, comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with support for A.I beauty technology as well as face unlock to unlock the phone quickly.
It has dedicated dual SIM slots along with a microSD slot and packs a 3180mAh battery. It doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor. It comes in Black and Gold colors, is priced at Rs. 13,990 and will be available from Flipkart and Amazon.in.
Meizu just announced M6s that is also called S6 in China. It packs a 5.7-inch HD+ 18:9 display and is the first smartphone to be powered by Samsung Exynos 7872 Hexa-Core SoC with Mali-G71 GPU. It has a 16-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.
It has a Super mBack fingerprint sensor on the right side that can unlock the phone in 0.2 seconds and is also customizable to perform several actions. There is a Halo button below the display that has pressure sensor to perform the same mBack actions. It has a unibody metal design and packs a 3000mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging that can charge from 0 to 30% in 15 minutes.
It comes in Champagne Gold, Matte Black, Moonlight Silver and Cobalt Blue colors, is priced at 999 yuan (US$ 155 / Rs. 9925 approx.) for the 32GB storage version and the 64GB storage version costs 1199 yuan (US$ 186 / Rs. 11909 approx.). It is already available in China.
HTC announced HTC U11 EYEs, in the U11 series in Taiwan. It has a 6-inch full HD+ 18:9 display with Corning Gorilla Glass protection and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 with 4GB of RAM. Like the original U11 and U11 Plus, this feature Edge Sense technology for squeeze interaction, but this runs on Android 7.1 (Nougat).
It has the same 12MP HTC UltraPixel 3 on the back Optical image stabilization (OIS), dual LED flash and f/1.7 aperture and the main highlight of the smartphone are the dual 5-megapixel front cameras to for HDR Enhancement and Bokeh Mode to blur the background. It has a fingerprint sensor on the back and also comes with Face Recognition Unlocking. It has a glass back and packs a 3930mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging capabilities. It is also dust and water-resistant with IP67 ratings.
It comes in Red, Silver and Black colors, is priced at NT$ 14,900 (US$ 504 / Rs. 32020 approx.), available for pre-order in Taiwan and ships from February 1st.
Xiaomi introduced new 50-inch 4K HDR TV in the series. It has PatchWall, a UI layer on top of the Android OS that’s based on deep learning AI technology. It can curate content based on recommendations. It also have Dolby and DTS Audio. It also comes with multi purpose Mi Remote Control, which also has infrared in addition to Bluetooth to work with most appliances such as setup box. It has Mi Touch that replaces traditional navigation buttons so you can use gestures to control your TV. It also has Speech Recognition for voice control.
The Xiaomi Mi TV 4A 50-inch is priced at 2399 Yuan (US$ 372 / Rs. 23,830 approx.), and is available in China.
Fitbit announced Ionic, its first smartwatch, Flyer, its latest Bluetooth wireless headphones with with durable, sweatproof design with hydrophobic nano-coating and Aria 2 Wi-Fi Smart Scale for the Indian market. All these were introduced back in August last year. These are priced at Rs. 22,990, Rs. 9,990 and Rs. 9,990, respectively and will be available in the Indian market from February.
China-based Transsion Holdings’ TECNO Mobile launched Tecno Camon i in India. It has a 5.65-inch HD+ 18:9 FullView display, is powered by quad-core MediaTek processor and runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat) with the company’s own HiOS on top. It has 13-megapixel front and rear cameras with LED flash, and the rear camera has quad LED flash.
It has a unibody metal design, features a fingerprint sensor on the back, comes with dedicated dual SIM and a microSD card slot and packs a 3050mAh battery. It comes in Champagne Gold, Midnight Black and City Blue colors, is priced at Rs. 8999 and will be available from offline stores.
Karbonn launched Titanium Frames S7, latest budget smartphone. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass screen, is powered by a quad-core processor with 3GB RAM, runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat) and comes with 13-megapixel front and rear cameras with LED flash for both. It features a fingerprint sensor on the back, packs a 3000mAh battery and comes with a metallic finish on the back. It comes in Black, Champagne and Red colors, is priced at Rs. 6999 and is available exclusively from ShopClues.
Motorola launched Motorola Sphere+ Bluetooth Speaker with integrated Bluetooth headphones in India. The speaker offers 2 x 8W (16W) watts of power and bass porting for a deep, rich listening experience. You can dock the headphones on the speaker base to charge, while transitioning seamlessly from one to the other so the music never stops.
It comes in Black and White colors, is priced at Rs. 12,999 and is available from retail stores.
LG introduced X4+, the company’s smartphone in the ‘X series’ in Korea. It has military grade durability with MIL-STD-810G that can withstand impact, vibration, high temperature, low temperature, thermal shock, and humidity and also has a dedicated digital to analog converter (DAC) for Hi-Res 32-bit 192 kHz audio listening.
It packs a 5.3-inch HD screen, is powered by Snapdragon 425 SoC, runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat), has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front camera. It also comes with LG Pay, has aluminum back with fingerprint sensor below the camera and packs a 3000mAh battery.
It comes in Moroccan Blue and Lavender Violet colors, is priced at 300,000 won (US$ 282 / Rs. 17,980 approx.) and will be available through all the three major carriers in Korea later this month.
TAG Heuer announced the Connected Modular 41 Android Wear smartwatch which is the successor to the Modular 45 launched last year. The smartwatch will obviously run on Android Wear platform, but the version isn’t clear. The Connected Module 41 measures 41mm in diameter and come in seven standard models. It is priced at $1200 (Rs. 76,085 approx.) and is already available to purchase online in selected markets.
Ulefone introduced Armor 2S, a cheaper version of it. It packs that same 5-inch 1080p display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, has dust and water proof body with IP68 certification so that it can survive 1.5-meter depth in the water for an hour or 1-meter depth in concrete for 24 hours and packs a 4700mAh battery with fast charging. It comes in Dark Gray,Golden,Green and Red colors, is priced at $199.99 (Rs. 12670 approx.) and is available from online retailers.