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Xiaomi's latest tablet offers LTE on the cheap
Save for the earlier false alarm of Google nixing the tablet section on its website, things have been a little quiet in the Android tablet world. But earlier today, Xiaomi updated its tablet lineup with the Mi Pad 4, an 8-inch, 0.76-pound metallic slate that starts from a mere 1,099 yuan or about $170. Not bad at all for a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 device with 3GB of LPDDR4x RAM, 32GB of eMMC 5.1 storage, microSD expansion, a 1,920 x 1,200 IPS display and more. For an extra 300 yuan (about $46), you get 4GB of RAM plus twice as much storage; but you might as well throw in another 100 yuan ($15) for the LTE + GPS version. At 1,499 yuan or about $230, the Mi Pad 4 is one of the most affordable LTE tablets coming from a major brand.
Vivo's in-display fingerprint reader won't play nice with screen protectors
It's only been two weeks since Vivo's latest attempt with an in-display fingerprint reader on a smartphone, and even though it didn't work perfectly for us, the company thinks it's ready for prime time. In China, consumers will soon be able to use this cool feature on the new Vivo X20 Plus UD, which is available today for 3,598 yuan or about $560, and it'll be shipping from February 1st. As the "UD" in the name implies, the fingerprint reader here has been moved from the rear side to underneath the display, courtesy of Synaptics' Clear ID sensor.
ASUS goes dual-camera crazy for its ZenFone 4 series
ASUS' smartphone division was unusually quiet back at Computex a couple of months ago, but now we know why. Today, the Taiwanese company unveiled its ZenFone 4 smartphone line with not one, but five Android Nougat devices in one go: ZenFone 4 Pro, ZenFone 4, ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro, ZenFone 4 Selfie and ZenFone 4 Max Pro (and these will all get updated to Android O). Going along with the event's "We Love Photo" slogan, all five models share one thing in common: they all have a dual camera setup, though one model is using it for 2x optical zoom, while the rest use it for super wide-angle shots on either side.
Qualcomm's new mid-tier mobile chips are good news for gaming
Qualcomm's latest mid-tier mobile chipsets, the Snapdragon 630 and 660, are designed to give smartphone users more processing power, crisper photos and improved connection speeds over LTE or WiFi, among a few other fresh features. The 630 upgrades the 625 processor, while the 660 follows the 653.
