Nokia 2 to hit India

HMD has announced the India launch date for its entry-level Nokia 2 smartphone. The device - which was officially unveiled in the Asian country late last month - will go on sale tomorrow, November 24.

The handset will cost INR 6,999 ($108). The phone will be available through offline retailers in Pewter/Black, Pewter/White and Copper/Black color schemes. There are also some launch offers for Reliance Jio and new Kotak bank customers.

Rose Gold Xiaomi Mi A1 now available in India

Xiaomi has announced that the Mi A1 will now be available in India in the Rose Gold color. The new color will be available starting midnight today IST on Mi.com.

The Mi A1 was announced back in September was only available in India in the Black and Gold variants, even though the Rose Gold variant was announced at launch. Starting today, however, customers waiting for the Rose Gold finish will finally be able to order one for themselves.

Apart from the color there isn't anything different about the device. We wish the company would have released the Android Oreo update by now, considering the whole Android One and quick updates directly from Google thing, but so far the device is still on Nougat.

OnePlus 3 and 3T users get a taste of Oreo

OnePlus announced the 5T last week with Android Nougat 7.1.1, but one year-old OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T are already getting the new Android 8.0 Oreo. The manufacturer announced on its forums that OxygenOS 5.0 is being pushed to a small number of users, with a broader roll-out to come in the following days.

Along with Android Oreo, the upgrade adds Parallel Apps and Picture-in-Picture features to the OnePlus phones. There is also Auto-fill and Smart text selection.

Android Oreo's Notification dots make it to the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T users. The launcher also brings new app folder design.

Nokia 2: Cheapest Android from Nokia

The Nokia 2 became official at the end of October as Nokia's cheapest Android smartphone model yet. The device has already landed in Russia and South Africa, and the pre-orders are started in the US. Today the Nokia 2 has gone up for pre-order at online retailers such as Amazon, B&H, and Best Buy. Regardless of where you buy from, the phone is priced at $99.

It makes a decent back-up smartphone, especially when you factor in battery life - the Nokia 2 comes with a huge 4,100 mAh cell. Otherwise it's understandably low-end given the price, sporting a 5-inch 720p display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable storage, and the Snapdragon 212 chipset. The main camera is an 8 MP unit with LED flash, while for selfies you get a 5 MP sensor.
The release date for the Nokia 2 isn't yet mentioned by any of the retailers taking pre-orders, so we're left guessing on that front. Hopefully this will be made clear soon.

OnePlus 5T: Better and Beautiful

The OnePlus 5T is a hardware improvement based on community feedback over the OnePlus 5. The company cares a lot about things like the 3.5mm jack and super fast charging and that's a very good think in our opinion. The OnePlus 5T rocks the same software but changes are very visible in the hardware department.

The most visible change is the 6” Optic AMOLED display with 18:9 aspect ratio and 2160 x 1080 pixel resolution. The wider screen gobbles up the bezels, making for a more modern look – and more room for apps. The fingerprint reader has been relocated to the back and positioned very well.

You also get a new exciting Face unlock feature that is way faster when compared to the FaceID on the iPhone X but is less secure as it uses 100 facial features in comparison to 1000 facial features used on the iPhone X. It works in the dark too.

The dual camera configuration is changed - the zoom lens is dropped in favor of improved low-light performance and portrait mode. Both cameras have the same field of view, but the second cam has a new 20MP sensor and it matches the main cam with a bright f/1.7 aperture.

The same aperture allows the software to run Portrait mode without the need for cropping the images. And in the dark lighting conditions under 10 lux, the OnePlus 5T will switch over to the secondary camera and uses a technology OnePlus calls 'Intelligent Pixel tech' which combines 4 pixels into one to reduce noise.

The 5T is a bit taller than the 5 to accommodate the screen. It has the same battery capacity - 3,300mAh - along with the Dash Charge.

The internal hardware is kept same as the OnePlus 5. The phone is powered by the good ol' Snapdragon 835 chipset coupled with 6/8GB of ram with 64/128GB internal storage.  The storage is dual-lane UFS 2.1 for increased read/write performance.

Talking about the pricing, the device is priced same as the OnePlus 5! The 6GB/64GB variant is priced at INR32,999($499) while the 8GB/128GB variant is priced at INR37,999($559).

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 rumors

Today, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 smartphone has been listed on Chinese retailer JD.com, it is believed that the launch of the smartphone should be imminent. Do note that the listing suggests 8,888 Yuan as the phone’s pricing but that is just a place holder and doesn’t reflect the smartphone’s actual cost.

A couple of weeks ago, two smartphones, Redmi MET7 and Redmi MEE7 appeared through TENAA which are believed to be the variants of the Redmi Note 5 smartphone. Both devices differ in terms of memory and storage capacity only.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 will be featuring a 5.9-inch Full HD IPS LCD display with a screen resolution 2160 x 1080 pixels and 18:9 aspect ratio. It will come with a full-screen design with thin bezels around the display.

Under the hood, it is powered by a 2.0GHz octa-core processor, but the chipset version is not yet known. We are expecting the device to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor.

The smartphone will be available in two variants — 3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage and 4GB RAM with 64GB of internal storage. It also has a microSD card slot, allowing users to expand the storage capacity.

In terms of software, the phone will run on Android 7.1.1 Nougat-based MIUI 9. It will be fuelled by a 4,000mAh battery. According to the earlier TENAA leak, the smartphone will be available in Black, Rose Gold, White, Blue, Gold, Pink, Red, Grey and Silver colour options.

While the pricing details on the JD.com listing of the device is symbolic, previous leaks related to the Redmi Note 5 suggests that the smartphone could be priced around 1,599 Yuan (~ INR16000).

Moto X4 launched in India

Motorola launched the Moto X4 in India yesterday. The device has an aluminum and glass body with IP68 dust and water resistance. It has a 5.2-inch, 1920x1080 IPS LCD screen with Corning Gorilla Glass. Running the whole mill is the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor with 3/4GB of RAM and 32/64GB of expandable storage.

On the back, the Moto X4 has a dual camera system, with a 12MP, f/2.0 main camera with dual pixel autofocus and a second 8MP f/2.2 wide-angle camera. Only the main camera is capable of capturing 4K 30fps video. On the front is a 16MP f/2.0 camera with flash. The device has a 3,000mAh internal battery and comes with 15W TurboPower charger.

The Moto X4 is priced at INR 20,999 ($322) for the 3+32GB variant and INR 22,999 ($353) for the 4+64GB variant. It will be available in Super Black and Sterling Blue colors.

Xiaomi Mi A1 is official with stock Android

Xiaomi held an event in New Delhi to announce its latest dual-camera device. Called Xiaomi Mi A1 its hardware is identical to the Xiaomi Mi 5X. However A1 stands for Android One and the phone is powered by stock Android 7.1.2 Nougat.

The Mi A1 features a Snapdragon 625 chipset, built on the 14 nm process, coupled with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage. The LCD measures 5.5” and sports Full HD resolution.

At the back the phone has dual cameras, similar to the flagship Mi 6 setup with a dual-tone LED flash. The fingerprint scanner is also there, but on the lower side, we see an “Android One” label, placing the phone in the portfolio of Google’s affordable devices for developing markets. Under the hood is a 3,080 mAh battery, charged through USB-C.

The stock Android means Xiaomi is launching the device without MIUI 9, but the Chinese manufacturer is keeping the MIUI camera app. The phone also arrives with promises that the OS will be updated to Oreo by the end of the year. The Mi A1 will be one of the first phones to get the Android P sometime next year.

The Xiaomi Mi A1 comes in Black, Gold or Pink and costs INR14,999 (just under €200). It is going to be available in 37 countries across the globe and sales are starting on September 12 in various online and offline stores.

Android 8.0 Oreo is here!

As expected, Google today decided to finally unveil the moniker of the next iteration of Android. Known simply as "O" for the past few months while a few Developer Previews and public betas went out, it now officially has a full name.

It's Android 8.0 Oreo.

So yes, the most rumored name actually turned out to be what Google chose to call its latest sweet treat. It's only the second time in Android's history when there's a commercial partnership involved - for version 4.4 KitKat Google teamed up with Nestle (which owns that brand), and this time around the search giant managed to get Mondelez on board the co-branding train.

Android 8.0 Oreo's code will be uploaded by Google engineers to the Android Open Source Project today, while software updates for the supported Nexus and Pixel devices are due to arrive "soon". Of course the final build will be sent to those devices enrolled in the Android Beta Program too.

Google also says that by the end of the year you should expect devices from Essential, General Mobile, HMD Global, Huawei, HTC, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony to either launch with or be upgraded to Android Oreo.

The latest version of Android comes with picture-in-picture support, notification dots, fully redesigned emoji (including over 60 new ones), Google Play Protect built-in, limits to background overuse of battery by apps, faster boot speeds, autofill system-wide, and support for Android Instant Apps.

Nokia 8 announced: its dual camera boasts Zeiss lens and OZO audio

“With the Nokia 8 – we wanted to create the ultimate tool to tell our story”. That’s what HMD told us and we think is a perfect description for this dual-eyed Finn. Any story that stars Carl Zeiss is one we’ll listen to, but let’s start at the beginning.

The Nokia 8 has a 5.3” IPS LCD display on the front with QHD resolution and a blinding 700nits of max brightness. 2.5D Gorilla Glass 5 curves into the phone’s metal shell, which is milled out of 6000 series aluminum. The phone measures 7.9mm at the thickest point and has basic resistance to the elements with an IP54 rating.

The optical engineers at Zeiss helped make the lens for both the rear and the front cameras. The main camera features two 13MP sensors (color + monochrome) with 1.12µm pixels and an f/2.0 aperture. The color camera has optical image stabilization (OIS) and there is Laser autofocus and a dual LED flash to help in the dark.

The selfie camera is one-eyed, but otherwise similar – 13MP sensor (1.12µm pixels) with an f/2.0 aperture and phase detection autofocus. The phone can livestream split-screen footage from the front and back cameras to YouTube and Facebook, something HMD calls Dual-Sight.

OZO – Nokia’s camera division – co-developed the 360° spatial surround audio recording, which will capture sound with a quality to match the sharp 4K video imagery. A rare feature, binaural audio, will give your viewers and even more immersive experience. The powerful Snapdragon 835 chipset handles all the necessary processing.

HMD partnered with Google to make Google Photos the default gallery app on the phone. You’ll get unlimited photo and video storage in the cloud, to bolster the 64GB built-in memory (there’s a microSD slot if you prefer to keep things offline).

The Nokia 8 will start selling globally in September at a price of €600, which is steep but par for the course on a flagship smartphone. Pure Android (7.1 at launch) will allow HMD to breeze through major software updates, though the time frame for Android O is still under wraps.