Author Archives: Ariela Ross

Snapdragon 820-Powered LeTV Le Max Pro Gets a Best of CES 2016 Award

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LeTV Le Max Pro Best of CES 2016 01

It has become a tradition for Chinese smartphone manufacturers to be the ones premiering devices based on new Qualcomm chipsets. This time it’s LeTV with the Snapdragon 820-based Le Max Pro, a monster of an Android smartphone that took home a Best of CES 2016 award.

LeTV, a Chinese company that started as a content creation platform, has made a goal out of dethroning Xiaomi, and that not only in their home country, but also globally. Being a somewhat new player in the smartphone industry, that’s a pretty lofty goal, but LeTV seems to have what it takes to succeed. This is the first time the company is present at CES, and for one of the devices exhibited there, it has managed to take away a Best of CES 2016 award already.

Each major online publication has given awards to the tech companies attending the event, so it’s no surprise than Samsung went home with more than 100 awards and LG with a bit over 50. Android Authority has decided to name the LeTV Le Max Pro the Best of CES 2016, and given the numerous revolutionary technologies that have been implemented in this device, their decision makes sense entirely.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the enthusiasm for Letv,” said Eric Mika, senior vice president of open ecosystems, strategic alliances and partnerships at Letv. “To walk away with an award from Android Authority in our debut CES appearance reflects all the hard work our team has put into making extraordinary products that create extraordinary experiences.”

“As the first Snapdragon 820-powered device, the Letv Le Max Pro ushers in an exciting future for smartphone performance,” responded Joshua Vergara, video producer and host, Android Authority.

That being said, the LeTV Le Max Pro is quite a beast, not only in terms of design, but also as far as its technical specs are concerned. The LCD display measures 6.33-inch in diagonal and comes with a QHD (2560×1440 pixels) resolution. With such features, the Le Max Pro steps firmly into phablet territory. Under the hood it sports the previously mentioned Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset with a quad-core CPU clocked at 2.2GHz and an Adreno 530 GPU. The 64-bit Kryta CPU is said to offer twice the performance of the Snapdragon 810, and the AnTuTu benchmark more than confirms that, with scores upwards of 130,000.

To make sure that users are able to run as many apps they want, LeTV has included 4GB of DDR4 (!) RAM. It certainly is great that this RAM tecnology is finally finding its way to smartphones. As for the storage, there will be 3 models available, with 32, 64 or 128GB of internal memory.

The dual-SIM Le Max Pro is also among the first devices to come with 802.11ad Wi-Fi, which is a standard that features higher speeds and longer ranges than Wi-Fi ac.

Camera-wise, the phone is equipped with a 21MP rear-camera with optical image stabilization, while the front sports a 2 Ultra Pixel camera. Not at last, Le Max Pro comes with a 3,400mAh non-removable battery and runs LeTV’s EUI on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. These end the long list of features that make the Le Max Pro one of the best devices on the market.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the LeTV X600, which marked the debut of the Mediatek Helio X10 chipset, or the Mate 8, Huawei’s new flagship.

[Source and Image Credits: Android Authority]

ASUS ROG XG2 External GPU Docking Station for Laptops [CES 2016]

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ASUS ROG XG2 External Graphics Docking Station

ASUS’ Republic of Gamers product line has gained several new members at this year’s CES, the most remarkable one being the XG2 external graphics docking station for laptops.

Alienware Graphics Amplifier and MSI GS30 gaming dock may have seemed like truly revolutionary products last year, but that’s only because people have forgotten about the external graphics card station ASUS launched at CES 2007. Now at the its second iteration and presented as a member of the ROG line, the XG2 represents a major step forward not only in terms of design, but also functionality.

According to a thread from the Zentalk forums, the ROG XG2 external graphics station was designed specifically for ASUS notebooks and is supposed to work exclusively with ASUS graphics cards. Both of these limitations could be enforced with a software, as the box connects to notebooks via USB 3.1 Type-C with Thunderbolt 3.0, and the custom PCB features a conventional PCIe 3.0 4x (the equivalent of a first-gen PCIe 16x, which in no way could possibly represent a bottleneck) slot, so hardware-wise there really aren’t any restrictions. It would be unfair to lock out other manufacturers’ notebooks from using the ROG XG2, as once you bought the box, you’ve already given ASUS your money, and the company shouldn’t be greedy for more.

The box features a couple of cooling fans at the top, some LEDs that generate some spectacular pulsating light effects and a tube that’s visible from the front that seems to have plasma and electricity in it. Overall, the design is fantastic, and this is surely not a product you’d be ashamed to bring at a LAN party. There’s plenty of room inside, so you can put in pretty much any graphics card your heart desires, as it doesn’t matter how long or large it is.

ROG XG2 also acts as a USB hub, and a LAN port would have been useful, too, since this is one of the first things to be left behind by ultrabooks. The external graphics stations was hooked up at a yet-to-be-released ultrabook at ASUS’ booth at CES, which despite being powered by a quad-core CPU (Intel Skylake i7 6700HQ) running at 3.3Ghz in Turbo Mode, and having 32GB of DDR4 memory and a 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD, won’t throttle. This jewel will be launched sometime in the future, with other details being currently unknown, as the ASUS employees who were at the CES booth refused to give other details.

According to ASUS, notebooks are supposed to revert to internal graphics once the ROG XG2 is removed while in use. However, as Linus masterfully demonstrated in this video, the laptop it was attached to got stuck. Still, ASUS has plenty of time to fix this as the ROG XG2 is a few months away from its launch. The company hasn’t disclosed any details regarding the price of the external GPU docking station, so that’s yet another thing we’ll have to look forward to.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the MSI GS30 gaming dock, or the Alienware Graphics Amplifier.