Tech PRIME

Sharp has begun 2018 with an Android One smartphone addition to its product line. The Japanese electronics giant launched the Sharp S3, successor to the S2 under Google’s Android One project. The handset is an entry-level device for Japanese netizens who aren’t bothered by traditional bezels and poly-carbonate bodies but want a stock Android experience. The Sharp Android One S3 will come in Black, White, Green and Pink colour shades, thanks to its plastic construction. It’s price a bit on the higher side of things with a 32,400 Yen ($297) on shelf tag. The Sharp S3 will be sold in Japan chiefly but might make its way to Taiwan eventually. Specs of the Sharp S3 (Android One) As for the specs, the Sharp S3 sports a 5-inch Full HD IGZO display and a Snapdragon 430 SoC under the hood. The processor is aided by 3 GB Of RAM and 32 GB of expandable storage. You’ll find a standard 13 MP rear camera and a basic 5 MP front camera on the device. With all the specs the Sharp

Meizu’s 15th-anniversary phone has been doing the circles of the rumour mill for some time. But there has been no clear leak of its actual design. Well, today’s leak might blow you away. A couple of live images of a Meizu phone were snapped by a tipster just today. The source of the image alleges the handset is the  Meizu 15 Plus. The spy photos show a very clear design that has no bottom bezels on the purported Meizu 15 Plus. What little bezels there are, can be seen on the top of the display. Notably, this corroborates an  earlier leak  which shows the same bezel-less design on the phone. Personally, I’d prefer this design over the notch of the iPhone X any day. Another talking point is the invisible fingerprint scanner. It may very well be that Meizu opts for an on-screen fingerprint scanner since the technology is ready. Another place where the fingerprint could be is the power button. Meizu did it with the Meizu M6s, they could do it with the Meizu 15 Plus. Contr

China is the largest and highest competitive market in the world. Recently, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) released a report showing there were sold over 461 million smartphones in this market in 2017. It’s an 11.6% decrease in comparison to 2016. Anyway. GFK’s data show the top 5 smartphone brands in China are Huawei (including Honor), OPPO, Vivo, Apple, and Xiaomi. In total, they occupy 78% of the market. Moreover, while three of these companies have lower growth rate, OPPO and Vivo achieved a market growth of nearly 100% in 2016. Even not knowing this data, we can state the competition in the Chinese smartphone market is too high. That’s why most of them have started targeting overseas markets as well. OPPO is among those. This manufacturer began entering overseas markets starting 2009. So at the end of 2016, OPPO was officially represented in over 20 countries and regions. Among them, South Asia and India are in the spotlight. Lik

Just  yesterday  we were talking about a few leaked photos of the white version of the Smartisan Nuts Pro 2. But there was no certain information concerning the changed made on its appearance, as well as the pricing. As for now, the manufacturer has published a couple of posters revealing everything about it. The Smartisan Nuts Pro 2 is one of the most beloved full-screen smartphones that comes with a strict business style. There are no certain advantages coming our way from this handset, but it looks different. Probably, this is the selling point of the phone charmed many customers. Initially, there were a few color options to choose from. They include black, wine red, and light gold. But now we learned there will be another attractive color option in face of white. According to the published posters, the Smartisan Nuts Pro 2 will be officially announced tomorrow, on January 31 at 10 AM. This is way sooner than we expected. Before this announcement, we have been thinking t

Chinese phone maker – Elephone – has just begun sending out invites for the press event that is taking place in Madrid, Spain on February 8th. At the conference the company will finally be launching the much hyped Elephone U and Elephone U Pro. Of course, the device we’ll be laying our eyes on is the higher end Elephone U Pro, the handset is indeed coming with an unexpected Qualcomm CPU, more specifically a powerful and efficient Snapdragon 660 along with 6GB of RAM and a massive 128GB of internal storage. Meanwhile, on the outside, we’ll find a large 5.99-inch FHD+ curved AMOLED display with an 18:9 aspect ratio coated in Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Camera wise, the Elephone U series will come with a 13MP+13MP dual camera setup that has been optimized with ArcSoft’s image algorithms to provide higher quality images. Finally, among other specs, the Elephone U Pro will be featuring a “must have in 2018” face recognition system, NFC, wireless charging and quick charge te

Meizu’s 15th-anniversary phone has been doing the circles of the rumour mill for some time. But there has been no clear leak of its actual design. Well, today’s leak might blow you away. A couple of live images of a Meizu phone were snapped by a tipster just today. The source of the image alleges the handset is the  Meizu 15 Plus. The spy photos show a very clear design that has no bottom bezels on the purported Meizu 15 Plus. What little bezels there are, can be seen on the top of the display. Notably, this corroborates an  earlier leak  which shows the same bezel-less design on the phone. Personally, I’d prefer this design over the notch of the iPhone X any day. Another talking point is the invisible fingerprint scanner. It may very well be that Meizu opts for an on-screen fingerprint scanner since the technology is ready. Another place where the fingerprint could be is the power button. Meizu did it with the Meizu M6s, they could do it with the Meizu 15 Plus. Contr

A new third party made concept video for the Nokia phone with Penta-lens camera setup has surfaced on Youtube. The video may have been spurred by the  recent report that HMD Global is working on a Nokia branded phone with Penta-camera setting . The phone since it first surfaced on the web has been speculated to be the flagship Nokia 10, even though the Nokia 9 is yet to see the light of the day. The video reveals a sleek looking Nokia 10 with a front side dominated entirely by the screen which probably will adopt the trendy 18:9 design. Atop the display is two openings that appear to be a dual selfie camera, while a 3.5mm audio jack sits right at the top corner. Both sides of the Nokia 10 concept phone appears to be made of glass finishing, an indication that the device will support wireless charging. Visible at the rear is a bulgy ring which obviously will house the 5 camera lenses, while a fingerprint reader sits below it. The Nokia 10 as per the  previously leaked

Currently, there are two mainstreams on the smartphone market. Customers want their new handsets to sport larger screens and to come with powerful camera modules. Both features can be found on many devices launched by all category manufacturers. But only a few of them take their chance to come with new and innovative features. Recently we have heard Nokia will come with a handset sporting a penta-camera. But we are more interested in Huawei that is said to launch the P20 with three camera sensors on the back. Our bigger interest is related to the fact Huawei is one of the influencers in the market. So any changes and innovations it comes with become a mainstream quickly. As for now, the larger variant of the mentioned phone, the Huawei P20 Pro will sport the same design. This is another hint all the previous rumors are true. Actually, there are too many leaks and rumors concerning the Huawei P20 and Huawei P20 Pro. Say, the latest of them prove these models will skip MWC 2018

As rollout of 5G networks starts to gain momentum, Qualcomm has announced a partnership with Oppo to make 5G smartphones. Further, the tie-up announced at “2018 Qualcomm Technology Day” in China is a part of the “5G Pioneer Initiative” by the US chip maker. Under the tie-up Qualcomm will “provide comprehensive solutions such as the radio frequency front-end field to OPPO”, it was said. Oppo CEO Tony Chen elaborated on plans saying, “ In the future, OPPO will continue to invest in groundbreaking technologies such as 5G and Artificial Intelligence, and apply these to product scenarios based on the core needs of users. ” 5G Smartphones are coming by 2019 5G technology trials are already underway in China as the 5G technology R&D trial phase III specifications were released this month in Beijing. The phone maker has plans to out a 5G mobile phone by 2019. “ OPPO plans to launch 5G mobile phones in 2019 to bring the greatest 5G experience to users around the

Sony has already sent out  invitations for MWC 2018 . Though the Japanese manufacturer has been received too many complaints concerning the passivity on the smartphones market and especially on the full-screen market, the company calmed down everyone stating it will stay in the mobile industry for  strategic reasons only . Seems this takes some responsibility off Sony, and we can’t wait and require more from it. But Sony is among those rare companies that haven’t launched yet a single full-screen handset. Seems it is going to happen in late February in Barcelona. Recently, we learned the upcoming  Sony flagship  is dubbed as the Sony Xperia XZ Pro. It is going to be first 18:9 screen smartphone coming our way from the Japanese tech giant. But there is a more interesting feature coming with this phone. The market is full of full-screen handsets. Any smartphone maker has its own representative there. Sony hasn’t. And the Sony Xperia XZ Pro is going to become the most attracti

Samsung Galaxy S9  and S9+ renders have been leaked again. This time, these renders belong to skin maker, Dbrand, famous for their custom skins. The unveiling of these flagships is not far away and leaks and renders have been pouring from everywhere. The renders are very similar to the earlier reports of the S9 series. It is no more a speculation but a surety that the S9 will feature a single rear camera while the S9+ will have a dual camera setup. The fingerprint scanner has also been repositioned, now sitting right below the camera instead of beside it. The front features the fabled infinity display with speculations rife that it will have an aspect ratio greater than 18:9. There’s an array of sensors on the top bezels apart from the front camera. The only physical buttons on the phones are the Bixby, Volume and Power buttons. From the renders, it is evident that the Samsung flagships will have a glass body. Rumors are rife that there will be different processor v

Nokia 3 owners are still patiently waiting for  Android 8 Oreo to arrive on their devices  after the said  update failed to roll out during the last the last few days of 2017 , but the latest news from HMD Global itself says the Nokia 3 is now the next in line up of devices getting the Android Oreo beta update. Making this known via a tweet on Saturday, Sarvikas, the Chief Product Officer at HMD Global also emphasized that its company most basic smartphone – the Nokia 2 will soon have a taste of the Oreo update, but will be upgraded directly to Android 8.1 Oreo to ensure better performance optimizations due to its limited 1GB RAM. No exact date has been specified for the Oreo roll out to the Nokia 2 and Nokia 3, but we assume it won’t be long before it arrives. HMD Global had back in 2017 promised timely update for all of its Android lineup and has never reneged on delivering such promise. The Nokia 8, Nokia 7, and even Nokia 6 (2018) have all received their share of th

Back in November Xiaomi announced the very new version of its own Android-based OS, the MIUI 9. The update already has made its way to several Xiaomi smartphones, followed by the MIUI 9.2 incremental update. However, a few devices still are waiting for Xiaomi’s eyes of love. The Redmi Note 3 owners waiting for the update can finally rest since the company decided to roll out the latest 9.2 version of MIUI to the 2016’s smartphone. The new MIUI 9.2.4.0.MHOMIEK updates weighs at 290MB and come with Google January Security Patch. Furthermore, the update brings a revamped UI, New Gallery App, App Vault, Calendar Cards, Mi Video App, New Mi Explorer, Mi Drop, bug fixes, battery optimization, and more. Worth nothing to mention that this update is a Nightly build, and the company will collect users feedback. After the conclusion of this phase, Xiaomi will drop out the stable build. Something that will disappoint some users is the fact that this build still is Marshmallow-based, so