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Unlocked phone shootout: Meet the Huawei P8 Lite and Oppo R7
It used to be, not too long ago, that buying an unlocked smartphone online from some unfamiliar Chinese OEM was a sure-fire recipe for frustration. The thing is, the bar for no-contract phones has gotten so high within the past two years or so that you could easily ditch the common flagships down at your local carrier store and live the unlocked life with a great device you've never even heard of. To test that wallet-friendly hypothesis, I took a pair of unlocked Chinese smartphones that either are or soon will be available stateside. Say hello to the $250 Huawei P8 Lite and the $400 Oppo R7.
Oppo's R7 Plus squeezes a big battery into a slim body
Nope, these aren't the near-bezel-less phones that Oppo teased us with back in March, but they are still very compelling. Following the super slim R5, the Chinese company has shifted its focus back to specs with two new models: the 5-inch R7 and the 6-inch R7 Plus. For us, it's really all about the bigger phone: its 7.75mm-thick aluminum unibody manages to pack a generous 4,100 mAh battery, which goes very well with Oppo's renowned VOOC rapid charging -- a feature that's proven to be faster than most of its competitors'. Not to mention that the device also comes with a single-touch fingerprint sensor on the back, along with an 8-megapixel f/2.4 front imager plus a 13-megapixel f/2.2 main camera with an RGBW sensor (Sony's IMX278) for better sensitivity in the dark, as well as laser auto-focus and dual-tone LED flash.
How would you change Acer's Aspire R7?
Head into the basement and dust off that Jerry Goldsmith CD, because this week, How Would You Change is looking at Acer's Aspire R7. With a hinged display, the laptop hybrid could fold down to a tablet, or be used with the screen essentially floating over the keyboard, a mode known internally as the Starship Enterprise. When we dumped it into Sarah Silbert's lap, she found that the only thing not to like was the slow CPUs, which Acer replaced a few months after. But what about you? Did your inner Trekker win out and compel you to buy an R7, and if so, what did you like, what did you hate and what would you have changed? All you need is a tall ship, a star to steer it by and to head on over to our product forums.
AMD's graphics card comeback: the new R7 series, R9 series and Mantle
It's been a tricky couple of years for AMD's graphics card division. Not because the last batch of Radeon HDs were bad, but because the competition's offerings were often better -- and because improvements in integrated graphics have hurt demand for discrete GPUs in general. However, as was revealed a couple of weeks back, AMD has a plan. The company's latest R7 and R9 cards don't only notch up the FLOPs, but also come with support for something called "Mantle" -- a programming tool which unifies game development across PCs and consoles, and which promises superior visual performance so long as developers make AMD-specific versions of their games to exploit it. We'll look at Mantle in greater detail in a moment, but for now what matters is that all of AMD's new cards support it -- from the lowliest R7 240 right up to the huge R9 290X -- and that's why they're each worthy of a detailed breakdown.
AMD unveils Radeon R9 and R7 series video cards, unifying graphics code for PCs and consoles
Graphics cards aren't normally our go-to choices for audio processing, but we may have to make exceptions for AMD's just-unveiled Radeon R9 and R7 lines. The R9 290X (shown above), R9 290 and R7 260X (after the break) will support TrueAudio, a new programmable pipeline that enables advanced audio effects without burdening a PC's main processor or a dedicated sound card. Not that the range will be lacking in visual prowess, of course. While the company isn't revealing full specifications, it claims that the R9 290X flagship will have five teraflops of total computing power versus the four teraflops of the previous generation. The boards will ship sometime in the "near future," with prices ranging from $89 for an entry R7 250 to $299 for the mid-tier R9 280X. AMD isn't divulging the R9 290X's price, but pre-orders for the card will start on October 3rd. The firm has also revealed a new programming interface, Mantle, that makes the most of the Graphics Core Next architecture found in many of its recent processors and video chipsets. Developers who build the low-level code into their games should get better performance from GCN-based devices without having to re-optimize for each platform -- a title meant for Radeon-equipped PCs should still behave well on a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, for instance. Mantle will debut on Windows through a December update to Battlefield 4, and should spread to other platforms in the months ahead.
Acer finally adds pen input to its big-screen R7 Ultrabook, we go hands-on
We'll keep our source anonymous here, but an Acer rep staffing the company's press event here at IFA just told us its funky Aspire R7 Ultrabook is "not selling so well." We're not sure if that's because it shipped with last-gen Ivy Bridge processors, or because the touchpad sits above the keyboard, but either way, Acer is trying to boost its chances of success. This week, the company announced the R7 is getting refreshed with Haswell CPUs (Core i5 and i7) and an optional active digitizer for proper pen input. That latter feature in particular addresses a chief complaint potential buyers had about the original, which could only be used with generic capacitive pens. After all, what fun is a 15-inch, 1080p display with an articulating hinge if you can't use it for the occasional doodle? In particular, the laptop makes use of an N-Trig digitizer, allowing for hovering and pressure-sensitive pen input. And though there's no shortage of pen-optimized apps in the Windows Store, Acer is also bundling a few of its own, including MemoryBinder for drawing, Screen Grasp for taking screencaps (natch), and Scrapboard for cobbling together a mish-mash of photos, screenshots and other media. Across the board, you'll enjoy a straightforward UI that makes it easy to select and crop objects on screen, with options to either put a window around selected content, or "lasso" it using the pen or your finger. Even more than that, we were especially taken with the "AccuFinger," an onscreen, finger-friendly circle with a fine pointer attached, which you can use to select tiny items on screen even when you forgot to take the pen with you. (OK, you could use the touchpad too, but this is the decidedly cooler option. Plus, the touchpad drivers need fine-tuning anyway.)
Acer Aspire R7 review: a flexible form factor at a reasonable price
If you told us Acer was coming out with an innovative new take on the Windows 8 convertible, we'd probably laugh in your face. After so many months of evaluating slidable, twistable, bendable and detachable machines, we'd (hopefully) be forgiven for believing we'd seen every possible form factor. The Aspire R7 proves that we were wrong, and we're actually kind of glad. With a 15.6-inch display sitting in a unique, flexible "Ezel" hinge, this device lets you switch between four modes, and the panel can even lie nearly flat above the keyboard like an all-in-one desktop. Oh, and Acer switched the positions of the keyboard and touchpad, a setup that definitely takes some getting used to. Though the R7's form factor sets it apart, it offers the same specs as many Windows 8 convertibles: you get a 1080p screen, a Core i5 processor and 6GB of RAM for $1,000. So does the R7's appeal hinge on its distinctive design? Follow us past the break to find out -- we promise the bad jokes stop here.%Gallery-189719%
SmartQ R7 e-reader boasts 3G, touchscreen LCD, magazine service and IPTV (video)
Late to the touchscreen MID party, Chinese manufacturer SmartQ was determined not to miss another opportunity. That's why it spent the month of April touting its new R7 e-reader as -- you guessed it -- the iPad killer. With the same ol' 600MHz ARM11 and 256MB of RAM inside as its ho-hum MIDs, that claim's quite a stretch, but our cohorts at Engadget Chinese actually found the Ubuntu-powered 7-inch SVGA touchscreen device moderately capable in a recent hands-on. Like fellow PMP / e-Reader the Onda VX560, the device supports 1080p in most every video format under the sun, reads e-books (PDF, EPUB and CHM), and has an optional USB 3G modem for on-the-go capability. Ubuntu standbys Midori and Pidgin handle web browsing and IM, respectively, and it can even stream live video and purchase Chinese magazines through SmartQ's services. Sluggish as it might be, for $1,680 RMB (about $250) we'd say that's a pretty respectable featureset. Video after the break, specs and hands-on pics at our source links.
Smart Devices announces R7 e-book reader to a world in apathy
It's a fact of life: Every company gets into e-readers sooner or later. Therefore, Smart Devices has surprised no one by announcing that it will be branching off from its usual MID fare to launch one of its own. The R7 sports a color LCD (no E ink for these folks!), 7-inch (800 x 600) resistive touchscreen, buttons, and some form of storage (presumably). How's that for vague? We do know one thing, however -- seeing as how the company has been peddling the same functionality with its MIDs forever, and seeing as how the budget e-reader is the new budget mp3 player, this thing better be either really awesome in the specs department, or really really cheap.
IPEVO's Kaleido R7 wireless digital photo frame now available
IPEVO's Kaleido R7 wireless digital photo frame -- which we first caught sight of at CES -- is now officially available, for all those out there who were waiting expectantly. If you've already forgotten, the 7-inch frames (800 x 480 resolution) has 512MB of memory plus an SD card slot, and it's just dying to sync up with your PC, Mac, or your cell phone to obtain your precious, precious memories for display. It can be yours this instant for $199. Check another photo of the frame after the break.
Panasonic launches four new Toughbooks
Panasonic is getting funky-fresh on everyone today with word of a new lineup of Toughbooks making their way out to store shelves. The company is launching four different models of the hard-as-nails laptops (W7, T7, R7, Y7), all of which are based on Intel's Santa Rosa chipset. The new over-performers are said to be able to withstand a 76-centimeter drop (about desk height) while switched on and continue working, versus the previous model's 30-centimeter rating (which applied only when turned off). The Toughbooks also have an "irrigation system" for the keyboard which can route water away from important bits to a "drain" at the base of the computer. Keep reading after the break to see a rundown of all the new models and specs.[Via Impress]
Ricoh Caplio R7: 8.1 megapixel with 7.1x wide zoom
Ricoh keeps on keepin' on with another bump in specs for their R-series shooters. The R7 takes the R6 into 8.1 megapixel territory while maintaining the 7.1x wide zoom lens while tossing in their new Smooth Engine III image processing which should help quiet the noise at higher ISOs. Available in silver, black, and orange next month for a tax inclusive price of £230 in the UK. %Gallery-6452%[Via Impress]
Samsung busts out the R7, their first 10-inch mobile TV
Those pranksters at Samsung are always mixing up the display sizes on us, and now they've thrown down a 16:9 widescreen 10-incher for your DMB viewing pleasure. The R7 features MP3 and photo playback, and can even handle an external drive for viewing video, but it seems mostly suited to lounging around the home with some up-close and personal DMB broadcasts. Samsung wants to move the TV from a "fixed, family-oriented device to a more mobile, personal gadget." We're not so sure that ethic would go over so hot if verbalized in the States, but it's not like they'll be shipping it over here anyways, so the point is moot.[Thanks, Dan]
