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How good can a $300 'flagship' smartphone camera be?
There were plenty of phones announced at IFA 2018, ranging from flagships like the Sony Xperia XZ3 to midrange options like the Motorola One. BlackBerry also unveiled a "Lite Edition" of its flagship KEY2, which is meant to reach a wider audience by dropping the cost and offering more color options. When it comes to creating more affordable devices, companies often skimp on cameras, which frankly sucks for anyone who wants a midrange phone but still wants solid photo quality. Without a good camera, your phone is basically a sad little work machine with no window to your world. The $300 Pocophone F1 has an impressive list of specs for the price, like a powerful Snapdragon 845 processor and a 6.18-inch full HD+ display, but we were curious how its cameras measured up. What better excuse then, to take the phone out on a "tourist test" here in Berlin, shooting the gorgeous architecture around the city's Konzerthaus?
Xiaomi teases 5G support for its all-screen Mi Mix 3
Earlier this year Chinese phone maker Xiaomi announced its plans to expand into Europe and the US, and if the company's latest teaser tweets are anything to go by, there's good reason to be excited about that. Director of product management Donovan Sung has posted a real life photo of the upcoming Mi Mix 3, and has hinted that it'll be 5G-ready (competitors Oppo and Vivo have also recently revealed their 5G progress).
Xiaomi’s high-end Mix 3 joins the sliding camera craze
"Sorry, they look alike. We're launching in October." That's the cheeky Weibo message posted alongside a never-before-seen Xiaomi smartphone, courtesy of president Lin Bin right after Huawei's Honor Magic 2 teaser at IFA. And boy do they look alike. Similar to the Oppo Find X, both devices here feature a slide-out camera at the top to achieve an all-screen design, except for one major difference: the Xiaomi uses the full body for sliding. Given Xiaomi's track record with its near-bezel-less designs, it's safe to assume that Lin is prematurely showing off the upcoming Mix 3, which is a rather unusual move for Xiaomi, but one that would no doubt annoy the folks over at Huawei.
Finally, a cheap smartphone with true flagship power
Xiaomi is one of the most respected smartphone brands in India, but apparently that wasn't not good enough. Earlier today, the Chinese phone maker launched a new sub-brand called Pocophone, which in turn revealed its new F1 smartphone. Normally, we wouldn't get too worked up over this kind of news, but as it turns out, Pocophone's F1 is a fascinating little machine.
Xiaomi's transparent phone shows off a dummy circuit board
When we had our hands-on with Xiaomi's Mi 8 Explorer Edition, we expressed our doubts that the circuit board you could see through the transparent rear actually showcased the phone's actual internals, not least because of the board's atypical layout. The company insisted it was real, but it seems that the visible parts are in fact all for show.
Xiaomi targets Europe with two cheap Android One phones
Remember Android One? Google launched the program in 2014 as a way to improve cheap, low-end Android phones. These days, though, that responsibility has passed to Android Go -- a new version of the operating system optimized for lower-performing hardware. Android One, meanwhile, has morphed into a 'pure Android' stamp of approval (similar to the old Google Play Edition branding) with timely software and security updates. Today, Xiaomi is announcing two new smartphones -- the Mi A2 and Mi A2 Lite -- which run this near-stock version of Android. More importantly, both devices are coming to 40 markets, including Spain. Update: The Mi A2 will be available in the following European markets: Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine. It's also coming to Colombia and Mexico (no word on North America) and a variety of markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, including Egypt, India, Hong Kong, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, and the UAE.
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.
Senator probes Alphabet and Twitter on data-sharing with Chinese firms
The New York Times recently revealed that Facebook entered into agreements with at least 60 mobile device companies, giving them access to Facebook user data so that the companies could recreate Facebook-like features. Among those companies are four Chinese firms -- Huawei, Lenovo, Oppo and TCL -- which has spurred some concern among US lawmakers. Today, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) sent letters to both Alphabet and Twitter, inquiring as to whether they entered into similar data-sharing agreements with any mobile device companies based in China.
A closer look at the transparent Xiaomi Mi 8
Out of the handful of new devices from Xiaomi today, it was the Mi 8 Explorer Edition that stole the show with its transparent design. Right after the keynote, I had to fight a crowd to get up close and personal with one of the few demo devices available, and it was worth the effort. While Xiaomi's website has stated that what's on display doesn't correspond to every single component, a company rep claimed that they are actually all legit, especially the Snapdragon chipset -- which is basically free promotion for Qualcomm-- and its surrounding electrical components. Assuming this is indeed the truth, what remains a mystery is whether this kind of layout would suffer from weaker heat dissipation.
Xiaomi's Mi Band 3 is water resistant to 50 meters
Xiaomi's latest tranche of releases, which includes the transparent Mi 8 phone, also features the Mi Band 3, a one-up on the super popular Mi Band 2 that helped propel the company to the top of the wearables market. The new device comes with a bigger, higher resolution OLED screen, the same 20 days of battery life and a water resistance upgrade to 50 meters. The company claims it's a more comfortable wear, too. It's available in red, black and blue, and launches in China initially at 169 yuan, or about $26.
Xiaomi's transparent Mi 8 also does 3D face unlock
Xiaomi may have already released the Mi Mix 2S earlier this year, but it's actually kept its true 2018 flagship, the Mi 8, for marking its eight anniversary -- hence the jump from last year's "Mi 6." As announced in Shenzhen today, the new handset starts at 2,699 yuan (about $420) and comes in a familiar-looking dual-sided glass design, with the most notable difference being the new vertical dual camera -- exactly the same module found on the Mix 2S, according to Xiaomi. And yes, there's a notch, which is for accommodating an infrared front camera for facial recognition, even when in the dark.
Global smartphone sales recover from a months-long slump
Smartphone sales shrank year-over-year in the fall, leading some to wonder whether the category's halcyon days were finally over. Well, not quite. Gartner has determined that smartphone sales bounced back ever so slightly in the first quarter of 2018, growing 1.3 percent over the same period a year earlier. Don't credit that to hot flagship phones like the Galaxy S9 or iPhone X, though -- if anything, it came in spite of those high-priced devices.
Google's mobile augmented reality platform arrives in China
Google's ARCore is helpful for making augmented reality widely available to Android users, but there's a glaring problem: it requires the Play Store to get updates. That's no good in countries like China, where Google's services are either unavailable or blocked. Thankfully, Google has a workaround. It's now making ARCore available in China through the Xiaomi App Store. You'll need Xiaomi's Mi Mix 2S to take advantage of the AR features, but this beats having to sit on the sidelines while the rest of the world uses immersive apps.
Xiaomi's smart home devices now work with Google Assistant
Xiaomi has had a hard time gaining traction with US customers. To help sidestep that, the Chinese company is prepping the runway for (hopeful) domestic success by adding Google Assistant tech to its smart home devices, 9to5Google spotted. Meaning that once the company's Mi line of bedside lamps, LED lightbulbs and Smart plug arrive on these shores you'll be able to control them with your voice. The lamp and bulb each are capable of 16 million color customizations, according to the company, and they'll be available "shortly." For the Mi lamp, that's this month for an undisclosed price. Everything else, including pricing and availability for the rest of the Mi line? We have to wait and see.
Xiaomi is officially coming to the UK and Europe
In addition to filing what could be the world's largest IPO since Alibaba, Xiaomi is also spreading its wings and landing in the UK and other European markets. Thanks to a partnership with CK Hutchison, the Chinese electronics giant's smartphones will soon be available through the Hong Kong conglomerate's telecom subsidiary Three UK. You'll also find other Xiaomi products in A.S.Watson's retail locations in various parts of Europe in the future. The company offers a whole bunch of devices other than smartphones and laptops, including robotic vacuums, smart bikes, rice cookers, air purifiers and so on and so forth. It's unclear which ones will make their way to Europe, but the partnership also covers Xiaomi's Mi Ecosystem IoT and lifestyle products for certain markets in addition to phones.
Xiaomi's Hong Kong IPO expected to raise at least $10 billion
Xiaomi's interest in listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange hasn't exactly been a well-kept secret, and following months of speculation, the time has finally arrived. Today, the Chinese smartphone maker filed its initial public offering documents, and according to Bloomberg's sources, this IPO is expected to raise "at least $10 billion." This would make it the world's largest IPO since Alibaba listed for $25 billion in New York back in 2014. Furthermore, Bloomberg said Xiaomi may see a valuation of "as high as $100 billion," which is about one-ninth of Apple's.
China's smartphone market sees its largest drop in five years
There's no question that China's smartphone industry is in a tough spot, but it's apparently worse than expected. Canalys has estimated that smartphone shipments in the country plummeted 21 percent year-over year in the first quarter of 2018 -- the steepest drop since 2013. Almost everyone saw their shipments go down, with Oppo and Vivo (both owned by BBK) taking the worst hit with a 10 percent drop. Gionee, Meizu and Samsung shipped less than half as many devices. Even Huawei, the clear frontrunner, grew by a mere 2 percent.
Researchers say some Android phone makers hide missed updates
A number of Android phones have a tendency to skip the occasional security patch while making it appear that the device is fully up to date, Wired reports. Researchers with Security Research Labs (SRL) looked into 1,200 phones from manufacturers like Google, Samsung, Sony, Nokia, Huawei, Motorola, LG, HTC, ZTE and TCL and found that there's often a gap between what the phones say have been updated and what patches have actually been installed. "It's small for some devices and pretty significant for others," SRL founder Karsten Nohl told Wired.
Xiaomi's take on a voice assistant is built for China
Chinese phone makers are in a tough spot if they want to use voice assistants. Google is largely a no-show in the country, Siri is limited to Apple devices and services like Alexa or Cortana don't have nearly as much influence as they do elsewhere. Xiaomi has a straightforward solution to that problem: create its own AI companion. The company has posted a video showing off Xiao Ai, an assistant designed with China in mind. The functionality is familiar: you can play music, check the weather, control smart home devices and translate foreign languages. The difference is the Chinese focus, with deep hooks into WeChat and Xiaomi devices like its robot vacuum.
Xiaomi's Mi Mix 2S is a more powerful take on an already beautiful phone
By now, you probably know exactly what to expect from a smartphone sequel with an S in its name: it'll be faster than its predecessor but its design won't change very much. That's not necessarily a bad thing for Xiaomi's newly announced Mi Mix 2S, though. Even if it isn't dramatically different from last year's Mi Mix 2, it still blends excellent performance with sleek ceramic body and impeccable attention to detail. It's just too bad it'll remain a China exclusive for a while.
