Saturday, 5 December 2015

Another Redmi? XIAOMI REDMI NOTE 3


Well this is quite a surprised. After merely a few months of the release of the updated Redmi Note 2, Xiaomi attracted attention by releasing the successor to it on Single's Day, and it's called Redmi Note 3. This time the changes are visible.








Sporting an all-metal body, a first for the company. The budget-priced but not so budget-specifications even has a fingerprint sensor at the back (unlocks in 0.3sec). But the main eye-catcher would be it's enormous battery which is now an astounding 4000 mAh! The Redmi Note 2 on the other hand had only a 3060 mAh battery. Don't worry about the thickness though, it only max out at 8.65mm. In terms of weight, it's only 4g heavier than the Redmi Note 2.

It's powered by MediaTek's most powerful processor the Helio X10. The camera on the other hand now features a 13MP rear shooter PDAF Auto Focus.





Other impressive features from this new Xiaomi device are 5.5-inch Full HD display, 4G Dual-sim, and the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi

Colours available are Grey, Silver and Gold.

To the best part, the Redmi Note 3 is priced at round RMB899 (around RM595)  for the 16GB with 2GB of RAM while the 32GB is priced around RMB1,099 (around RM730) with 3GB of RAM.

No information yet regarding it's arrival on our shores.

Source: en.miuilowyat.net

 

Thursday, 12 November 2015

New Dragon coming, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820





Following on the “hot” trail of the Snapdragon 810 (see what I did there xP), comes the cooler more powerful successor, the Snapdragon 820.

In terms of built design the thing worth stating is that the new 820 has 4 cores (deemed Kyro CPU) as compared to the 8 cores found on the Snapdragon 810. Their reasoning was that they found out extra cores doesn’t necessarily mean better overall performance (as with the heat issue they had, although other manufacturers such as Samsung and even Mediatek has managed to create not-so-hot 8 cores processor). A perfect case example would be Apple’s iPhone processor which has only 2 cores but has individual performance matching that of their Macbook (real life performance shows it being quite similar to other high end Android smartphones). Now Qualcomm is focusing more on the individual performance of each cores.

Snapdragon 820 is equipped in terms of connectivity with X12 LTE that offers theoretical download speeds of up to 600 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 150Mbps. In terms of Wifi, it now caters to the latest standard which is 802.11ad. To go even better than that there will be support for MIMO of 802.11ad and 802.11ac 2x2 in what they’re calling Advanced Wifi.

In terms of graphics, it’s powered by an Adreno 530 GPU that is said to be consuming 40% less power compared to the previous Adreno 430 while having increased performance. The CPU is also designed to not only handle 4K screens but also provide improvements in terms of lighting, shadows, colour reproduction, and reduced lag.

Technologies that could be found on the processor is Qualcomm Spectra camera Image Signal Processor (ISP) that would allow it to support camera with up to 25 MP. Included as well is the new Snapdragon Low Light Vision (LLV) which should help in producing better low-light photos using adaptive brightness and noise reduction technologies. The most interesting would be the Heterogeneous Signal Processing which produces similar result to HDR without the need to stitch two images together. This is done by analyzing the picture block by block instead.
 
Other than that it is also equipped with the lasts Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, 4X faster than conventional charging and 38% more efficient. Smart Protect feature that will prevent threats by detecting them early on.
Overall Qualcomm is promising better and more immersice VR experience on your devices.


Source: Android Headlines, Appy Geek, Qualcomm

Saturday, 3 October 2015

Apple's new upgraded phones, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S Plus

 Hye guys! Sorry for that this post took something. I've actually been quite busy since I've just finished my first week at work! Yay! But I'll be making efforts to put in new contents as soon as possible. I'm going to post a post on the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus (eventhough it has been sold in certain countries it still hasn't reached Malaysia so maybe I'm still early) to those who might need information on these new models by Apple as pre-orders will open next week in Malaysia. Enjoy!





As expected the Apple Event went ahead at 1a.m. Malaysian time (which basically means no sleep for us in Malaysia who were watching it live) So what did Apple released this time around with their new motto

 "The only thing that's changed is everything".

Not surprising as most of us know that this is the 'S' year which means basically all of last year's models will receive internal upgrades rather than external (no complaining if it's deemed significant enough and if you happen to like the external design). So that morning Apple launced the iPhone 6S to replace the iPhone 6, and the iPhone 6S Plus to replace the iPhone 6 Plus. An addition to the now standard 3 colours is another fourth option that would certainly be a favourite among the ladies which is the ROSE GOLD colour.









Rumours circulated saying that Apple will be incorporating their Force Touch technology into their iPhone. While that actually happened, Apple decides to give it another name which is 3D Touch (same function). A new technology that Apple first introduced in the Apple Watch that was then placed in the new Macbook Air, it introduced a new method of navigating by sensing the difference between a touch and a press. While pressing an icon, a pop-menu will appear listing down all features actions. For example, pressing the camera app icon would bring up a list of action choices such as 'Take a Selfie', 'Record a video', 'Record a slo-mo' and 'Take a photo'. Other applications that has implemented this as well are Mail, Maps, MEssages, Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox and Wechat (many more to come).








Before this there were many bend issues with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus where apparently you could bent your iPhone 6 Plus with your hands if you applied enough force. To overcome this problem Apple this time used Series 7000 Aluminium  for the construction of the new iPhones (similar material found in the Apple Watch Sport) that is said to be stronger and could handle higher pressure. Unbox therapy has already done a stress test on the new aliminium chassis for the new iPhones, you can watch the video here.

In terms of screen size the iPhone 6S remains at 4.7-inch while the 6S Plus also remains at 5.5-inch. Both displays are ionized strengthened.


Moving onto the internal components, the iPhone 6S/Plus has a new A9 processor that is said to be built by Samsung and TSMC. The 64-bit A9 70% more power and 90% more graphics performance compared to the A8. The new co-processor M9 was also introduced and now records live health, fitness, movement informations.























Touch ID has also been upgraded to the second generation which is supposed to be twice faster,

The most ineresting part that I feel most of you guys are waiting for is that the camera has finally been upgraded! The previou camera was excellent but lately many competitors have stepped up their games and released cameras as good as or even better than the iPhones. Samsung with their S6/Edge and Note 5 which are better than iPhones' camera (tested by PhoneArena ) and LG G4 that is on par with the 6/Plus. And we still haven't taken into account Sony's latest improved lenses on the Xperia Z5 that uses Sony Exmor technology. So it's high time that Apple upgraded its camera. DxOMark has tested the Xperia Z5's camera and the result may surprise you. Here's the link.








After almost 4 years of using their iSight 8MP camera, Apple now introduced their new 12MP iSight camera. They said that they would only increase megapixel counts when they didn't have to compromise on the quality of the pictures taken. One of the advantages of this new camera is that it can now capture 50% more pixel, has a faster autofocus and best of all better pictures. (See example of photos below)

Photos meanwhile comes alive with the new Live Photo function that takes a photo a second before and after the shutter camera is pressed. It would also be sort of a short video to remake the memory of the time the photo was taken as it would record sounds as well. You can turn this feature on or off by pressing the button on the top of the camera app. After that you just take a Live Photo as you would take a normal one.






The new camera has the ability to now capture Panoramas as big as 63MP. It's also capable of recording 4K video (eventhough you can't watch it on your phone)! The front camera also received a boost to now a 5MP Facetime HD for brighter and more beautiful selfies. If the rear camera has the True Tone flash, the front camera now uses the screen as a flash. 'Retina Flash' mimics the True Tone Flash by increasing the brightness of the display by 3x the standard.


Choices of storage for the new iPhones this time around is 16GB, 64GB and 128GB. In my opinion 16GB is not enough now as resolutions of videos keeps on increasing, applications requiring more MBs, you'll quickly find yourself needing more space.

The Wi-fi connectivity on the phone has been upgraded to be twice faster while there is now support for LTE Advance as well.






iPhone 6S and 6S Plus will ship with the new iOS 9. For more information about it, do visit this link. The expected date is on the 16 September.

Apple also surprisingly launced an Android app to entice android users to migrate which is the Move to iOS app. 


The new iPhones will be open for pre-orders in the US and the first batch of countries by September 12 and worldwide sales would be on 25 September (Singapore is among the first, Malaysia will definitely be left out)



Souce: Apple.com


GALLERY


Photos taken with the iSight 12MP/iPhone 6S/Plus














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