LG X5 and LG X Skin Unveiled - Specs & Prices

Korean electronics giant LG has unveiled two new devices, the LG X5 and the LG X Skin in its X series of smartphones. Both the LG X5 and X Skin are fairly similar in looks and specs to the LG X Power which was released sometime last month, except in size and battery capacity.

LG X5

The LG X5 is the first to device on the X series that spots a number appelation instead of a word.

The LG X5 packs an expansive 5.5-inch screen with 720p resolution. The new phone is thinner and very slightly lighter than the X Power, at 7.2mm in diameter and a weight of 133g  while the X Power weighs 139g. The device however crams a smaller battery capacity of 2,800mAh as against the 4,100mAh on the LG X Power..

LG X5

The LG X5 boots Android 6.0 Marshmallow and is powered by a modest  1.3GHz quad-core processor. The device also comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage which is expnadable. There's a microSD card slot for that.

The LG X5's camera is the same as that of the X Power - 13MP with resolution of 1080p. The device spots a 5MP selfie camera up front..

The LG X5 and the X Power are headed to the South Korean market later this week in White and Indigo Black color variants for KRW 200,000 in South Korea ($175 in the US and €155 in Europe).

LG X Skin

The LG Skin has a 5-inch touchscreen display and is the thinnest and lightest of the three by far at 6.9mm and a weight of 122g. It also runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor but has a bit lesser 1.5GB RAM. Also, the LG X Skin packs a smaller 2100mAh battery.

LG X Skin

In the Camera unit, the LG X Skin packs an 8MP rear facing camera despite the face that the price is higher than the others.

The LG X Skin clutches a price tag of KRW 231,000 (that is about US $200 and €180 in Europe).

Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016) image leaked - release date & Price

The Samsung Galaxy J2 2016 edition which is expected has been spotted in images leaked online.

The images showed the gold color variant of the device, which is an indication tht the Galaxy J2 (2016) will be released soon.

The Samsung Galaxy J2 is unique in that it will be the first Samsung device to sport the Smart Glow ring-type LED indicator on the back side which can help display notifications of different colors with phone call, e-mail, SMS and other features on the phone.

Apart from that, the Smart Glow feature will help users take pictures of themselves with the rear camera. Its usually difficult to take a selfie with the rear camera which usually has a more powerful shutter but the Smart Glow ring will illuminate when it detects the face and the photo will then be taken in a few seconds.

Smart Glow feature

The Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016) comes with a 5-inch HD display with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution and is powered by the 1.5 GHz quad-core Spreadtrum SC8830 processor with Mali-400MP2 GPU. The sleek device will have 2GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage which is expandable up to 32GB with microSD card slot.

The Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016) runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) OS out-of-the-box. 

The mid-range device will feature an 8-megapixel auto focus rear camera with LED Flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. 

Connectivity options to be available are 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS and 3.5mm audio jack with FM Radio support as well. There is no news about the battery size of the device.

Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016) rumored specifications

• 5-inch (1280 x 720 Pixels) HD display
• 5 GHz quad-core Spreadtrum SC8830 processor with Mali-400MP2 GPU
• 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB with microSD
• Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) OS
• 8MP auto focus rear camera with LED Flash
• 5MP front-facing camera
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
• 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS

Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016) Price in US, UK, Nigeria

The Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016) will have the model number SM-J210F and we can expect the launch soon in which the price and availability of the device will be announced but it is rumored to tag a retail price of about Rs. 6,757 in India (about US $100) which is unlikely.

Water-resistant Vkworld Crown V8 with Thermal touch coming soon

Chinese phone maker Vkworld is gearing up to release the Vkworld Crown V8 smartphone which comes with an innovative thermal touch, the first of its kind. The Vkworld Crown V8 also scores another first in being the world's thinnest smartphone, with a minute thickness of only 4.7mm.

If you at a fix as to what the Thermal touch is all about, think no more. It is a technology that combines infrared and visible light cameras to detect the heat signature from your fingers and turn any object into a touchscreen. The technology could be embedded in the smartphones and wearable devices to offer new ways of interacting with our environment

The Vkworld Crown V8 looks quite different from your regular smartphone. The front and back of the phone are covered with glass and the frame is metal but the shape of the phone is different from others, a little bit like the old Moto Droid Razr, perhaps the world's most secure Sirin Lab's Solarin smartphone.

Vkworld Crown V8 Features

The Crown V8 features IP67 certification which means it is water-resistant, dust-proof and Vkworld claims it is shatter-proof. According to the company, the phone can withstand a one-meter depth of water for up to 30 minutes.

Vkworld Crown V8 features Corning Gorilla Glass 4 but with some redesigned details such as a shatter shield layer covering on the surface of the glass to further protect the phone.

The only interesting feature of this device is its thermal touch screen, as it is the first of it’s kind and it will be interesting to see how the company has implemented it. Stay tuned for more information.

Display: The display of Vkworld Crown comes from LG Display and it is an IPS display with OGS full lamination.

Speaker: The device also features innovative front-facing speakers which promises to deliver surround sound and deep bass just the way some HTC phones do.

Vkworld Crown V8 Price in US, India, China

The Vkworld Crown V8 will hit the market in the middle of July at a very cheap price of $79.99, which is about Rs 5,500 in India.

One aspect of the device still covered in veil is the thermal touchscreen. It is still not clear how it would work and there are no further details about the device as of this moment.

Huawei P9 & P9 Plus Specs Review

Huawei’s flagship P9 and P9 Plus devices released just two months back, have already recorded sales exceeding 2.6 million units according to recent data from Huawei. This record sales didn't just happen but are as a result of the strong and powerful specs the flagship devices pack.

Huawei P9 Key Features

The 5.2 inch full HD display included in the P9 uses the Hollywood movie colour gamut, allowing the display to cover 96 percent of the colour spectrum.

The dual-lens 12MP camera features RGB and BW sensors, as well as laser-assisted focus. This makes the camera 200 per cent more sensitive than predecessors and allows it to provide 300 per cent more detail.

The P9 is powered by Huawei’s latest Kirin 955 chipset, which is based on the TSMC 16nm FinFET Plus chip technology. CPU performance is 100 per cent faster than the P8 and 3D graphics are improved by 125 per cent.

Running Android Marshmallow 6.0, the P9 uses the Huawei Emotion UI 4.1 interface, adding hundreds of user experience tweaks and improvements.
The P9 supports the latest reversible USB Type-C Connector technology.
Huawei P9: Processor & Software

As expected, the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus pack Huawei's own Kirin 955 SoC, which is a pretty astounding bit of kit. Needless to say, Huawei is promising big performance, but also big battery efficiency. There's 3GB of RAM onboard the P9 while the P9 Plus has 4GB, and the software is Android 6.0 together with the firm's own UI.

Huawei P9: Design & Display

Huawei laid much emphasis on how much effort has gone into the Huawei P9's design and build, during the launch. The firm seems very aware that it is competing in a modern premium market of predominantly metal and glass flagships such as the Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6s. 

The Huawei P9 is made from "one piece of sleek and solid metal," so a unibody design, but also features glass components too. In terms of shape, well, the leaks showed it all, and we reckon there's no denying the Huawei P9 is an attractive phone to look at - there is a hint of Samsung, HTC, and Apple in there, amongst others, but to be fair there is only so much that can be done with smartphone slab design and the cohesive whole doesn't really look like anything else. We have been impressed by Huawei's design and build quality before, and this device appears to continue the firm's aptitude for good-looks and solid build with a deft hand.

The handset is 6.95mm thin, thinner than both the Samsung Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6s, and it has an incredibly narrow bezel around the display at only 1.7mm - again thinner than both mentioned rivals with what Huawei describes as an "invisible edge".

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The display itself is a 5.2in IPS setup on the regular Huawei P9, with a Full HD 1080p resolution at 423 pixels-per-inch. Huawei also claims 96% colour saturation and 500nits of brightness. Meanwhile, the Huawei P9 Plus has a 5.5in Super AMOLED display, again at 1080p and 401ppi, with 108% colour saturation. The Huawei P9 Plus is slightly thicker than the regular model at 6.98mm.

Huawei P9 Camera

Another hyped element during the pre-launch rumours was the camera tech, initially off the back of images showing a dual-lens and then, more recently, because of Leica branding. Of course this all turned out to be right on the money - the Huawei P9 features a dual-lens Leica 12MP Summarit H 1:2.2/27 ASPH sensor array. The two wide-aperture, f/1.1 sensors fulfill different purposes, both feature a large pixel size for more light, but one handles RGB colour while the other is a monochromatic black-and-white sensor. There's also hybrid laser and depth auto-focus capabilities which can switch to the best solution for short and long-range photography - the handset has the world's first dedicated depth image-signal processor (as well as a dedicated Digital Signal Processor) for this purpose. As expected, you're also able to re-select a focal point post-capture, but that's not the main point of the dual-camera setup as it has been with past implementations. Nope, here it's all about the overall image quality.


There's a Professional Mode to give you full manual control of ISO, focus, shutter speed, exposure, white balance, and it allows RAW output.

Battery, Connectivity & Other Hardware

The P9's battery isn't quite as massive as earlier rumours suggested, but still impressive nonetheless with a sizeable 3000mAh cell. The handset also packs in stereo speakers. The Huawei P9 Plus has a bigger 3400mAh cell and is alleged to offer two-day battery life. Both models have a "new generation" fingerprint scanner with 3D scanning, which is claimed to improve the security.

Huawei also made a point of how well-equipped the P9 is when it comes to mobile connectivity, including dual-SIM support with an integrated microSD and SIM slot and the world's first triple-antenna. The P9 has support for 18 4G bands across 1334 networks in 217 regions. MicroSD support allows for cards up to 128GB and there's the new USB Type-C connector in the bodywork. Onboard storage is either 32GB or 64GB depending on availability.

Huawei P9: Price & Availability

Both the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus are available at a price of £449 in the UK for the P9 and £549 for the P9 Plus.

Xiaomi Notebook: A cheap Macbook Pro look-alike

The Xiaomi Notebook laptop has been rumored to pop in the second half of 2016. This new month officially ushered us into the second half, so expectations are high as to when the new Xiaomi laptop will be officially announced. 

Recent statements by Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun unwitttingly confirms the existence of the laptop. 

Also, very recently a new alleged image of the Xiaomi laptop was leaked online.

The leaked image is probably the first real and clear image of the Xiaomi notebook that we have seen. And it sure does reveal a few things about the upcoming device. 

First of all, like expected, it looks like the Mi laptop has been heavily inspired from the Apple Macbook Pro. The all metal silver design with the Mi logo up front, is almost identical to Apple’s Macbook Pro series.Certainly a Macbook look alike the laptop is.

According to the previous rumors, the Xiaomi Notebook is expected to come in three display variants, 12.5-inches, 13.3-inches and a 15.6-inch model. The small display variants are expected to hit the market first. The specs are expected to be high-end and the pricing should be aggressive as well. The company is said to target the young generation with this new laptop, unlike Huawei, who was targeting the business users with its new Matebook convertible.

The Xiaomi Notebook is expected to be released  sometime in the month of September. We haven’t got an official confirmation of the product yet, but for now, the CEO’s comment on this matter is good enough to confirm that the laptop exists and is in development.

As for the price of the Xiaomi Notebook, it is not known as of this moment but as is customary with Xiaomi, the Notebook will likely carru a very cheap price tag. Till the sevice is unveiled officially, we won't know all the juicy details.

ZTE Nubia Z11 Roles out Globally: Specs & Price

Chinese Tech giant ZTE released the ZTE Nubia Z11, the last of the Z11 family just a couple of days ago in China. The device was subsequently made available to the Chinese market since then.

However in her bid to capture a piece of the International phone market, ZTE has immediately made the phone available globally. The beautiful smartphone is now available for international pre-orders via online retailer OppoMart. And already, just few days after opening it up for pre-orders, the ZTE Nubia Z11 online registration has hit a million persons. That is an indication of the global acceptability of the brand, and that figure is still climbing higher ahead of July 6 when the smartphone starts shipping.

Here's a quick recap of the specs of the Nubia Z11.

ZTE Nubia Z11 Full Specifications

The ZTE Nubia Z11 wears a Metal fuselage over its entire body and the screen fuses with the body to create a borderless screen design. 

The Nubia Z11 boasts of a 5.5-inch curved touchscreen display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixel, with 2.5D glass cover.

In the camera specs, the sleek device sports a 16 mega-pixel rear facing camera with LED flash and auto-focus while the front facing “selfie” camera is a cool 8 mega-pixel affair.

The ZTE Nubia Z11 is powered by a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with Adreno 530 GPU. The device tags along two memory variants, a 4GB RAM and 64GB on-board storage and another with 6GB and a huge 128GB of internal storage. Amazingly both variants are expandable up to 256GB.

The sleek device will boot Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box and will support FiT technology as well as sport a Finger print scanner.

The ZTE Nubia Z11 is fired up by a 3000 mAh non removable Li-Ion battery. Connectivity options on the smartphone include Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS/ A-GPS, GLONASS, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go, GPRS/ EDGE, 3G, and 4G LTE. Onboard sensors include Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, and compass. 

Both 4GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB variants are in stock. While the 4GB variant is available in silver, gold, and gray color options, the 6GB variant is only available in gold color.

ZTE Nubia Z11 Price in India, Nigeria, Ghana

As for price, the 4GB RAM ZTE Nubia Z11 variants carry a price tag of US $499, while the 6GB model sets you back US $699. In case you aren't aware, that's up from the $375 and $525 price tags the variants carry in China.

Specifications Highlight

• NETWORK Technology GSM / CDMA / HSPA / LTE
• 
  
• LAUNCH Announced 2016, June
• Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2016, July 6
• 
  
• BODY Dimensions 151.8 x 72.3 x 7.5 mm (5.98 x 2.85 x 0.30 in)
• Weight 162 g (5.71 oz)
• SIM Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
• 
  
• DISPLAY Type IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
• Size 5.5 inches (~75.2% screen-to-body ratio)
• Resolution 1080 x 1920 pixels (~403 ppi pixel density)
• Multitouch Yes
• Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• - nubia UI 4.0
• 
  
• PLATFORM OS Android OS, v6.0.1 (Marshmallow)
• Chipset Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820
• CPU Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo
• GPU Adreno 530
• 
  
• MEMORY Card slot microSD, up to 256 GB (uses SIM 2 slot)
• Internal 64 GB, 4 GB RAM or 128 GB, 6 GB RAM
• 
  
• CAMERA Primary 16 MP, f/2.0, phase detection autofocus, OIS, dual-LED (dual tone) flash
• Features 1/2.8" sensor size, 1.12 µm pixel size, geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR
• Video 2160p@30fps
• Secondary 8 MP, f/2.4, 1.4 µm pixel size, 1080p
• 
  
• SOUND Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
• Loudspeaker Yes
• 3.5mm jack Yes
• - Dolby Atmos
• - 24-bit/192kHz audio
• - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• 
  
• COMMS WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
• Bluetooth v4.1, A2DP, LE
• GPS Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
• NFC Yes
• Infrared port Yes
• Radio To be confirmed
• USB Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go
• 
  
• FEATURES Sensors Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
• Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
• Browser HTML5
• Java No
• - Fast battery charging: 83% in 30 min (Quick Charge 3.0)
• - MP4/H.264 player
• - MP3/WAV/FLAC/eAAC+ player
• - Photo/video editor
• - Document viewer
• 
  
• BATTERY Non-removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery
• 
  
• MISC Colors Silver, Gray, Gold, Rose Gold

HP Unveils Cheap Chromebook 11 G5 Laptop with Touchscreen option

Since the advent of Google’s Chrome OS, several computer companies have manufactured laptops running on the open source Linux kernel-based Chrome, including HP which recently launched the HP Chromebook 11 G5.

The Chrome OS running laptops called Chromebook have displaced Windows based laptops in sales in the US and is strongly giving the Macbook a run for their money with sales topping that of Apple’s Mac in the first quarter of the year.

In addition to their astronomic growth in the market, more big changes are ahead for Google’s Chrome OS, which is expected to enable apps from the Google Play Store later this year a move which could bring some 2 million Android apps to Chrome users in more than 40 countries

The HP Chromebook 11 G5 isn’t the first HP laptop sporting Google's Chrome Operating system. The US based computer giant had earlier on released the Chromebook 11, Chromebook 11 EE, Chromebook 13 and Chromebook 14. The second most recent release is that of the 13-inch HP Chromebook 13 released in April which is the first Chromebook to use the sixth-generation Intel Core M processor and enable docking station compatibility.

HP Chromebook 11 G5 Full Specifications & Price

The HP Chromebook 11 G5 is a very cheap, affordable laptop which features a slimmed-down design and a narrow display bezels thus making the device slimmer and lighter than previous generation Chromebooks.

The slimmed-down design makes it easy to slip the device into a backpack with ease and gives students a lot more arm room on their desks. A new, smooth-curve keyboard design makes it easier to wipe out dust.

The Chromebook 11 G5 comes with a 11.6 inch display, with an optional HD IPS Touchscreen panel protected by Corning Gorilla Glass NBT, which reduces reflection and is damage-resistant to help resist handle swiping, tapping, and accidental bumps. The IPS panel with wider viewing angles enables a more collaborative environment for group discussion when students share a single screen, making for a more interactive learning experience in the classroom. Please note that there’s a Touchscreen version and one without touchscreen which is carries a cheaper price tag.

The HP Chromebook 11 G5 is powered by an Intel Celeron N3060 processor that quickly launches apps, allows for speedy web browsing, and efficiently manages the battery. It also comes with USB 3.1 Gen 1 port, AC plug LED, HDMI port, Micro SD card reader and webcam.

HP claims the HP Chromebook 11 G5 battery can last for up to 11 hours on a touchscreen and up to 12.5 hours on a non-touchscreen device.

The HP Chromebook 11 G5 will hit retail stores in October and channel partners starting in July and carries an affordable price tag of $189 in the USA in Nigeria that is about N40,000 and 4,000 Cedis in Ghana.