iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus: No earphone jack confirmed.

As expected, Apple took of the wraps off their new iPhones, the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus (No iPhone 7 Pro it seems).


With most rumours hitting the mark, no more audio jack, same design and the inclusion of water resistance being the most famously talked about, let's take an official look at the newest release by Apple.

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus has mostly similar dimensions with their predecessors, even sharing the overall shape. The major difference would be the placement of the antenna lines and the cameras.

Instead of the antenna lines going straight across the body, you'll find it going across the top and botton of the phone. It's still too early for  me to decide whether this is a better or worse design decision by Apple.








Moving on to a hot feature, there is a new camera(s) to on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. For the first time, the cameras on Apple's two iPhones are significantly different.  The iPhone 7 getting an upgraded 12 MP iSight camera with a bigger aperture of f/1.8. The iPhone 7 Plus meanwhile gets a dual camera setup consisting of the standard wide-angle lens with a telephoto lens.





What it does is give the iPhone 7 Plus the ability to have 2x optical zoom. It also helps in creating the Bokeh effect, something that was usually restricted to DSLR (though nowadays you can find an app that can replicate this).

To make things clearer, Apple has put a new Quad-LED true tone flash that is 50% brighter than the previous flash.

At the front, you'll be getting a 7MP camera. This should translate into better FaceTime videos and better selfies as well.


Moving onto the display, it still maintains the same resolution as their predecessors. iPhone 7 being only HD while iPhone 7 Plus is Full HD. Though there is a wider gamut of colour now and it's 25% brighter.


To ease (burden?) your mind, there is no longer an audio jack for you to plug-in your earphone/headphones. For this, you'll have to use the Lightning adapter provided for free with the new iPhones. This means that you can't listen to music with your old earphone while charging your phone. For me, it's quite a bummer.

You'll also be getting a new earpods with Lightning connector as all matter regarding listening to music, transferring data and charging will be done through the Lightning connector.

Another solution would be for you to go and get a bluetooth earphones. Prices are going down but a good pair is still quite expensive and wouldn't be in the reach of the average Joe. Apple also introduced their own version, which are the Airpods. Design wise, I really don't like. Plus, it's expected to cost quite a lot.

We all know that the iPhone chip is going to be the most powerful in a smartphone, just to emphasize that fact Apple named its latest processor as the A10 Fusion. Two times faster than the A8. It's a quad-core 64-bit processor that is also said to increase the iPhone's battery life.


Other notable features are:

• Stereo speakers: with the other speaker being at the top.
• Internal storage now starts at 32GB, 128GB and 256GB

Sadly though there will not be any blue coloured iPhone as rendered in some rumours, but what we do get is a new Jet Black with a redesigned matte black. Yes, two black iPhones with the Jet Black being the more premium. If I'm not mistaken the Jet Black iPhone is only available in the highest configuration.

As to when it will be coming to Malaysia? Well don't hold your breath because Malaysia is not even in the second wave of countries to receive the latest iPhones.

This has always been something that bugs me, how come Malaysia is not selected. Are we not economically attractive enough? 

Prices starts at: 

iPhone 7 $649  and iPhone 7 Plus $769

Lowyat.net has made assumptions on the possible prices for the iPhones when they reach Malaysia.

Do check their article here.

Lowyat.net: How much will they cost in Malaysia?

For now pre-orders from online retailers such as Lazada has already begun.

Sources: Apple , TrustedReviews

TECHRUMOURS: Mi Note 2/Pro challenging for glory?

*All of these are only rumours circulating the internet. Do take it with a pinch (or even more) of salt.

Xiaomi for this year has lost some ground to its local competitors Oppo, Vivo and Huawei. To counter this, they’re switching their focus to even higher premium built smartphones as they realised that consumers are willing to spend a bit more of their money for something that is worthy.

Their hopes now rest on their next flagship phablet line, Mi Note 2 and Mi Note 2 Pro, successors to their quite famous Mi Note and Mi Note Pro. 

LAUNCH DATE 

Xiaomi was actually preparing to launch it earlier this year but as we all know it didn’t quite happen. Lately many leaks have started circulating the net, pointing to a close launch. 

DESIGN

  

We might be seeing a curved display on the Mi Note 2 but most probably only on the highest variant which should be the Mi Note 2 Pro.

Source: Android Headlines , Android Headlines,

SCREEN

Two screen sizes are known as of now, a 5.5-inch or a 5.7-inch QHD display.

CPU

Instead of the planned Snapdragon 820, it will be replaced with the updated version Snapdragon 821 (Quad-core, 64-bit). There will be 6GB of RAM to play with. 

CAMERA

Joining the dual-camera bandwagon, there is rumoured to be two 12MP cameras at the rear of the smartphone. 

BATTERY

Having a bigger body while always allow a bigger battery, the Mi Note 2 is expected to have a 4,000mAh as its fuel provider.

To charge, Xiaomi will be using the latest USB Type-C port. 

AUDIO

OTHER NOTABLE FEATURES

1.       .. Price as of now is said to cost 3,499 Yuan ($526)
2. Storage is said to be available at a start of 128GB.

OTHER SOURCES:

Huawei P9 with Leica-branded Dual-lens

Update: It’s now priced at RM2,099 This for me is quite an affordable price for an excellent high-end, flagship level smartphone. 

After impressing the tech world with the camera quality of the Nexus 6P, Huawei has started to receive due global recognition as a smartphone producer.  Following on to that, Huawei has released an update to their main smartphone line, presenting the Huawei P9. What’s special about this smartphone? Well apparently it has two cameras. Not interesting enough? Well get this, it’s certified by Leica.

Before dwelling deeper into the cameras let’s get rid of the other “non-interesting” features about this phone. The smartphone measures 145 x 70.9 x 6.9 mm making it quite thin. Another plus for it is for the fact that it doesn’t have any eye-disturbing camera bumps. The cameras at the back are enclosed in a black rectangle, similar to the Nexus 6P. Below that you’ll find a fingerprint scanner. Following other flagship smartphones, it has an aluminium unibody which makes it look even nicer. The device is quite light as well, weighing in at only 144 grams.

The screen is a standard 5.2-inch Full HD IPS Display which outputs a maximum of 500 nits of brightness and 96% colour saturation. This Full HD display can be said as a good choice as it saves more battery. Though don’t look down on it as it gives out an impressive 423 ppi. Something worth mentioning is the fact that the bezels are very,very thin exhibiting an almost bezel less feel.

What sets Huawei smartphones from the rest is that they usually put in their own in-house processors. Some being able to beat other top processors in the market. This time the Huawei P9 comes with an octa-core Kirin 955 (which has a 16nm FinFET built), a boosted version of the Kirin 950. The power will be provided by a big 3,000 mAh battery and like the standard nowadays supports fast charging. Charging it is done through a USB Type-C port.

It runs the latest Android Marshmallow with Huawei Emotion UI 4.1 skin. Some previous Android users might be surprised when using this as it does not have an app drawer. Gestures such as knock to open, switching the placement of the on-screen buttons is also possible.


Now moving to the most anticipated aspect of all, the Leica certified dual cameras. Both are f/2.2 12MP sensors but the difference is that one of them is a monochrome sensor. Basically how they work is that one is dedicated for colour reproduction while the other is for capturing black and white details. Both lenses uses 1.25-micron Sony IMX286 sensors. A combination of this is touted to give an increase of 200% light sensitivity and 50% bump in contrast. Other than that, it has a full manual mode which includes the standard controls with the addition of control over ISO, shutter speed and exposure. The only things that I could complain on is the lack of 4K recording and OIS
The front meanwhile has a quite big 8MP camera with the standard beautification mode found on Huawei devices.






Variants available are the 3GB RAM with 32GB of storage or 4GB RAM with 64GB. It is said that there is also a dual-sim tray that can also double up as a microSD slot. You also get the latest Wifi standard AC, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC

 Source: Android Authority, Lowyat.net, Huawei,

The most radical smartphone concept so far: LG G5

Now let’s focus on the first launched smartphone at MWC 2016 because I think it’s not getting the appropriate attention that it should be, the LG G5.

The event was themed "Let’s Play" to showcase all the latest LG devices.

Staying true to all the leaked images, the new flagship looks impressive. It certainly has a few similarities with the Nexus 6P but that’s not a bad thing. According to Lowyat.net reporter, the G5 feels like a smaller Nexus 6P. The author even added that the G5’s size is actually the one that feels better.

No more rear volume buttons as a compromise to their all-metal unibody design. You could still find the fingerprint reader though. What differentiates it, is that it’s also a button. Just a bit higher than that is not one, but two cameras. LG opted to go dual-camera on its newest smartphone.

One is a 16MP shooter while the second is an 8MP camera that would then allow you to have a wider angle of view of 135 degrees. Probably for panorama or fish-eye shots. Another 8MP camera can be found on the front side of the phone.

Another aspect of the LG G5 that should be given focus on is the bottom part of the smartphone. Apart from allowing the user to change batteries (something lacking in most smartphones). It now can be detached and re-attached with different modules. For example, you can attach a B&O Hi-Fi audio player or even a camera handle called LG Cam Plus. The possibilities are endless and it’s up to LG to decide the limit.

Dwelling deeper onto the 2 modules, apart from giving the G5 a better camera-like grip the LG Cam Plus also has physical buttons for photo, video and even for zoom. It also adds an extra 1200mAh of juice to the G5’s battery. The B&O Hi-fi can also be used as a separate Hi-fi DAC player for PC or other smartphone. 

Continuing on from the last device, the Always-On Display feature that would be showing the date and time even when the phone is asleep. This is achieved with the redesigned display driver IC memory and power management that allows the G5 to only display a portion of the screen, LG stated that this would only draw 0.8% of battery per hour.

Other specifications are Snapdragon 820 as the processor, a 2800mAh battery (with support for Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0, 4GB of RAM, a 5.3-inch QHD (2560x1440p) IPS display, 32GB of Internal storage and a USB-C port.

No news yet on when the device would arrive. It'll be great to see if this device can shake the market and finally attract the Malaysian market to LG devices.

Source: lowyat, LG,