Tag Archives: Android 6.0 Marshmallow

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.

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[Source and Image Credits: Android Authority]

Symetium Smartphone Packs Enough Computing Power for a PC

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Symetium Smartphone PC

What if you could plug your smartphone into a dock, and along with a monitor, you used it as a PC? The Symetium smartphone was developed precisely with that idea in mind.

Symetium rised from Sweden, so it’s no wonder that it has Scandinavian design written all over it. Besides the minimalistic design that seems to characterize everything made in Sweden, Norway or Denmark, Symetium focuses on symmetry and quality, things that you don’t get to see in many smartphones with flagship claims.

According to Jonathan Gustafsson, the young Swedish entrepreneur behind Symetium, this smartphone may look like others, but it’s nothing like them. In fact, the goal was “to create a device that removes the line between mobile and desktop devices.”

Sure, smartphones can already be compared to desktop PCs, performance-wise, but many a times users need a larger display, and phablets or tablets simply won’t do. By plugging it into a dock that connects to displays via a USB Type-C to HDMI adapter, Symetium becomes the brains of your desktop PC. Even though it’s supposed to be running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the user interface is adequate for both mobile and desktop use. In the absence of a mouse and keyboard, the touchscreen display can be used for such purposes.

“With Symetium, I want to go past mobile operating systems and join the two together. It is time for phones to stop being phones as they are much more than that and have been for years,” explained Gustaffson.

Specs-wise, Symetium is nothing short of impressive. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC that is paired with 6GB of RAM and up to 256GB in storage. Some might argue that the 1080p OLED display could’ve had a higher resolution, but since this is a 5-inch smartphone with a 440ppi pixel density, more than that wouldn’t have made any sense. For audio files (and audiophiles), the phone packs stereo speakers. Photography fans weren’t let down, either, as the device includes a 24MP rear camera.

“In my eyes Symetium will always be a 5 inch portable computer that can make calls and that’s how it was built. This means that there will be no limitation when it’s used without a simcard,” concluded Gustafsson.

In the last three years, since Gustaffson begam working on Symetium, the project has made quite a few waves on social networks, but it remains to be seen if it will ever be commercially available.

Jonathan Gustafsson turned to Indiegogo to get his project funded. To enter mass production, he needs to hit the funding goal of $1,250,000 within the next 29 days. That is quite a lot, but then again, the Symetium smartphone PC is a very ambitious project. Assuming that the campaign will be successful, anyone who has pledged $549 as an early bird or $699 as a regular backer can expect to receive their Symetium in August 2016. I sincerely doubt it that any other company will be able to exceed Symetium’s specs by then, but on the other hand, with such a high funding goal, this looks like Ubuntu Edge all over again.

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Nexus 5X and 6P Are Now Available for Pre-Order

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LG Nexus 5X and Huawei Nexus 6P

Google’s new iteration of the Nexus smartphones has been announced today, and the two devices are already available for pre-order on Play Store, with enough innovations to make tech enthusiasts droll.

Mountainview seems to be circling the letter S with its new smartphones, and I’m referring here to both the iPhone 6S and the Samsung Galaxy 6S. However, the Nexus 7 name was already taken by its line of tablets, and until now there has been a tight correlation between the number and the screen diagonal, anyway. It’s a bit of a certainty that Google is not crazy enough to launch a 7-inch phablet, so for the time being, adding letters to previously used names seems to be the way to go. More important than the names chosen for the devices are the design and the specs, and none of the new devices fails to impress in these departments. While both are obvious upgrades of the LG-built Nexus 5 and the Motorola-built Nexus 6, it’s more interesting to see how what differences are between these two new mobile monsters.

For the Nexus 5X, Google stuck with LG, seeing just how successful the Nexus 5 was at the time. On the other hand, the tech giant ditched Motorola and brought Huawei on board to create a Note 5 and iPhone 6S killer. Truth be told, the two new smartphones are only similar in terms of software, connectivity and sensors, both coming with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Wi-Fi ac, LTE Cat 6, GPS, Bluetooth 4.2, USB Type-C connectors and a wide range of sensors, including one for biometric authentication via fingerprints. Other than that, they pretty much differ in every possible aspect. The rear camera of both phones has a 12MP sensor (each could be made by a different company, though) with 2160p@30fps video recording capabilities, while in the front the 5X includes a 5MP camera, and the 6P packs an 8MP snapper.

Nexus 5X measures 147 x 72.6 x 7.9 mm (5.79 x 2.86 x 0.31 in), weighs 136 g (4.80 oz), and sports a 5.2-inch FHD display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Under the hood, it packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC with a hexa-core CPU and an Adreno 418 GPU. As for memory, it includes either 16 or 32GB of ROM and 2GB of RAM. With good specs that aren’t that mindblowing in this day and age, it’s clear that Google has made the Nexus 6P their flagship. Huawei’s contribution to the Nexus line is greater in every aspect, measuring 159.3 x 77.8 x 7.3 mm (6.27 x 3.06 x 0.29 in) and tipping the scale at 178 g (6.28 oz). Partially responsible for that is the 5.7-inch QHD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The Nexus 6P even packs more processing power, as it features a Snapdragon 810 with an octa-core CPU and an Adren 430 GPU. For this particular phone, Google and Nexus have decided to drop the 16GB version and stick with 32/64 and 128GB, instead, along with 3GB of RAM.

For a limited time only, Google will give $50 in Play Store credit to anyone pre-ordering the Nexus 5X or 6P from here.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the rumors about Huawei making one of the Nexus phones, and the ASUS-built Google Nexus Player.