OnePlus 2 Confirmed to Pack 4GB RAM, Will Cost Less Than $450

With less than three weeks left until its official reveal, OnePlus 2 has just got one other piece of hardware confirmed by the Chinese company that is going to release it on July 27.

According to OnePlus, its upcoming flagship smartphone will pack no less than 4GB of RAM. Not only that, but the RAM inside the OnePlus 2 will be the latest and greatest on the market, LPDDR4. OnePlus explains that the reason they have decided to go with the LPDDR4 is the lower power consumption for better battery efficiency. This means that OnePlus 2 users will be able to use their smartphone without draining the battery too fast. “With LPDDR4, you get twice the bandwidth performance as the LPDDR3 at the same power consumption profile. The RAM of the OnePlus 2 uses a lower operating voltage than its predecessor, decreasing from 1.2V to 1.1V.

And with speeds up to 32 GB/s, it is also twice as fast as the LPDDR3. It offers optimal support for power-saving low frequency mode that brings clock speeds down when performing those everyday and necessary tasks,” says OnePlus in a blog post.

The Snapdragon 810 CPU will utilize all 4GB RAM

Since the smartphone has also been confirmed to be equipped with a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, the OnePlus 2 will be able to use all 4GB RAM to its maximum potential. For those out of the loop, 32-bit chipsets can only make use of up to 3GB RAM. Keep in mind that, this is the last reveal that OnePlus offers before the smartphone's official unveil, which is set for July 27. In the same piece of news, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau promised fans that OnePlus 2 will be priced under $450. However, he did not say if that's the base price for the smartphone or for the 64GB model, which is likely to be announced as well.

OnePlus 2 teaser

OnePlus 2 price
Image credits to OnePlus

Read more »

Xiaomi Mi5 Tipped to Cost $386, Mi5 Plus Coming with 23MP Main Camera

We know that Xiaomi is preparing to launch its next-gen smartphone, the Mi5, this month. We also heard talk about an Mi5 Plus model which should make it out alongside it.

Today we get a new leak regarding the two flagships, which paints a slightly different story than what we have heard so far. The most important change is that, according to the leakster on Weibo, the Mi5 will take advantage of a Snapdragon 810 processor while the Mi5 Plus will be fueled by a next-gen Snapdragon 820. We previously heard that both models will be the recipients of a Snapdragon 820. Moving on, we’re told that the Xiaomi Mi5 will be the beneficiary of a 5.2-inch LCD display with Gorilla Glass 2.5 and taking advantage of 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution. The device has a 16MP primary camera alongside a very capable 13MP selfie shooter (at the level of the HTC Desire EYE).

The phone is said to be sustained by a 3,000 mAh battery and will take advantage of quick charge support allowing users to juice up 30% of the battery in just 40 minutes.

The Mi5 might be Xiaomi's first Android 5.1 Lollipop-touting device

The phone is said to be running the yet-unannounced MIUI 7 interface which is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. Xiaomi is yet to offer the latest Android update to its handsets. The leak document also shows us a price for the device which will be equivalent to $386 / €352. Moving along to the larger Mi5 Plus, the phone will come with a 5.7-inch display with QHD resolution and will take advantage of an impressive 23MP main shooter as well as a 12MP frontal camera. We can’t help but notice that these are pretty bizarre numbers, so we might be looking at a 24MP main snapper plus 13MP front camera.

The Mi5 Plus is showed as having a 3,500 mAh battery on the inside and a pretty chunky $600 / €547 price tag attached.

Xiaomi Mi5 and Mi5 Plus spec leak
Image credits to Weibo

Read more »

Monster from China: Coolpad Fengsheng C+ with Snapdragon 810 CPU, 4GB RAM

China is the largest smartphone market in the world, but also one of the most competitive. Following Xiaomi's success in China, many OEMs are now launching cheap smartphones that are getting better and better quality-wise.

Unfortunately, for consumers in the rest of the world, these devices rarely go on sale internationally because they are sold by native companies that do not have the resources to sustain such an endeavor. Not yet at least. Coolpad is a Chinese handset maker that recently entered the Indian market with two smartphones. However, the company's main market remains China where its products are among the most popular.

The latest addition to Coolpad's portfolio of Android smartphones is called Fengsheng C+. According to a new report, the smartphone will soon be available for purchase in China, though details on pricing options have yet to be announced.

Lots of RAM, but disappointing display

What's interesting about Coolpad's Fengsheng C+ is that it's one of the not so many smartphones available on the market that packs 4GB of RAM. The bad news is the smartphone is equipped with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, which means it's possible that Fengsheng C+ will face some overheating issues. Even so, the phone's specs look rather appealing if not for the 5.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display that only supports HD (720p) resolution.

On the back, Coolpad Fengsheng C+ packs a 13-megapixel photo snapper with autofocus, LED flash and video recording, while in the front there's a secondary 5-megapixel camera for selfies and video calls. It's also worth mentioning that the smartphone is powered by a 2,500 mAh battery and packs 32GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 64GB via microSD card slot. Other highlights of the Coolpad Fengsheng C+ include dual-SIM support, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, microUSB 2.0, GPS with AGPS and Bluetooth 4.0.

Coolpad Fengsheng C+
Images credits to zol.com.cn

Read more »

Sony Xperia Z3+ Receives Small Software Update That Should Fix Overheating Issues

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 chipset is clearly faulty, as many benchmarks confirm it. HTC One M9, which is equipped with this particular SoC, had major overheating issues before it hit shelves, but the Taiwanese company delivered a small software update that partially solved the problem.

Basically, the update throttles down the CPU and GPU speeds in order to avoid overheating. While the solution solved the reported overheating issues, it drastically reduced the HTC One M9's performance in benchmarks. HTC also had to release another software update to keep the One M9 cooler while it charges. For whatever reason, the smartphone would overheat while charging even though the Snapdragon 810 processor shouldn't have been used that much during this task.

All the issues that HTC One M9 had with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 chipset are present in all devices powered by this processor. Even though the chipset maker does not wish to admit that Snapdragon 810 has major overheating issues, real-life tests confirm it.

All devices powered by Snapdragon 810 chipsets have overheating issues

Sony Xperia Z3+ is another flagship smartphone that uses the Snapdragon 810 chipset. We have already reported about the handset's major issues with the camera app, which closes down due to increased temperatures. The same goes for any hardware-demanding app that users ran on the Xperia Z3+. Sony is already aware of these issues and promised to deploy a software update, just as HTC did. However, it's been almost a month and Sony has yet deliver on that promise. According to a new report, the Xperia Z3+ is now getting a new software update that supposedly fixes these overheating issues.

The update is about 70MB in size, but we can't yet confirm that it does address the overheating problems, as Sony has not announced anything on that matter. If this is indeed a fix for the overheating issues in Sony Xperia Z3+, then expect your smartphone to score lower in benchmarks because it's the only way to solve these problems.

Sony Xperia Z3+ new software update
Image credits to PhoneBunch

Read more »