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Gaming smartphones are still a thing in China
If you've been searching for a crossover between a smartphone and a PS Vita, look no further. In China, a company by the name of iReadyGo had been making Android-powered gaming handhelds for years -- you may recall its shameless PS Vita ripoff back in 2011. The manufacturer then went on to release several dedicated gaming smartphones and was eventually acquired by Snail Mobile, a local gaming-centric mobile virtual network operator, in mid-2014. Following the W3D from 2015, the company plans to release a new Android smartphone at the ChinaJoy expo later this month, but I managed to spot one lurking around at MWC Shanghai. This upcoming Snail Mobile i7 is a surprisingly well-specced gaming phone for its 1,899 yuan (about $280) price point, especially with its 6-inch 1080p touchscreen, 6GB RAM, 64GB storage, stereo speakers, dual SIM slots and removable 6,000 mAh battery.
Xiaomi's Redmi Pro does OLED and dual camera on a budget
Just because Xiaomi is selling Segways, drones, bicycles and rice cookers these days doesn't mean that it's forgotten what it started off with years ago: mobile phones. Today, the Chinese company announced the Redmi Pro which is the latest smartphone in its entry-level portfolio. As suggested by the name, this Android 6.0 device packs some surprising features that make it stand out from its predecessors: This is the first time that Xiaomi's featuring an OLED display plus a dual-camera setup on a device, which is a surprising move given that these are headed to the affordable Redmi line instead of the flagship Mi line. The price? From 1,499 yuan which is about $225.
MediaTek's 10-core mobile chip hits the market next month
As a believer of the old "quality not quantity" saying, Qualcomm backed away from octa core in favor of just four custom-designed cores for its Snapdragon 820 chipset. MediaTek, being the pioneer of octa-core mobile CPU, simply shrugged and teased its upcoming 10-core, tri-cluster Helio X20 last May. So where is it now? Well, at today's Shenzhen event, MediaTek co-COO and EVP Jeffrey Ju told Engadget that the first Helio X20 devices will finally be hitting the markets next month. To heat things up a little, MediaTek also announced the Helio X25 which is just a faster version of the Helio X20: 2.5GHz instead of 2.3GHz for the Cortex-A72 performance cluster, and 850MHz instead of 780MHz for the Mali-T880 MP4 GPU. This will also be getting to consumers' hands soon after the Helio X20, according to the exec.
Yes, 10-core smartphones will be a thing in 2016
When MediaTek first launched an octa-core mobile processor back in late 2013, many folks -- including Qualcomm -- called it a gimmick, but said feature has since become quite popular amongst device manufacturers, to the point where Qualcomm eventually had to come up with its very own octa-core offerings. Just to stay one step ahead of others, MediaTek is now prepping the launch of a deca-core aka 10-core chip dubbed the Helio X20, which will succeed the octa-core Helio X10 (MT6795) that's already powering HTC's Asia-only One M9+ plus several upcoming Chinese flagship phones. MediaTek is sampling its new chip in Q3, and the first commercial devices to use it will arrive as early as end of this year.
