Video: Inside a smartphone factory – Oppo factory and office visit

We all love smartphones, and, as self-respecting technology fans, we have a pretty good idea of what’s going on inside our magical mobile toys. But it’s not that often that we get to see the people and machines that make the magic possible, so we were excited when Oppo invited us to visit its manufacturing facilities and offices in Shenzhen, China.

Hot on the heels of the Beijing launch of the Oppo R7 and R7 Plus, we flew to Shenzhen for a tour of Oppo’s production facilities. While a tropical storm derailed our plans a bit, the trip was definitely worth it.

Together with a group of fellow bloggers and journalists, Darcy and I got to see the assembly process of the new R7 and other Oppo devices and learned a bit about the company’s history as a manufacturer of Blu-ray players. In particular, we got a look at the manufacturing process of circuit boards for the Oppo R7, followed by a visit to the factory’s QA department.

From a tumbling machine that tests the phone’s resistance to repeated bumps and scuffs, to a button-testing machine and the glass-resistance testing rig, Oppo uses specialized equipment to ensure that every device that goes out its gates adheres to a high standard of quality.

Finally, we went upstairs to visit the company’s local offices, hosting Oppo’s logistic, marketing, and administrative personnel.

All in all, our Oppo visit gave us a rare look at what happens behind the scene in the mobile industry and despite the weather playing tricks on us, we definitely enjoyed the experience.

To learn more about Oppo’s latest devices, check out our first looks at the Oppo R7 and Oppo R7 Plus and stay tuned for our full reviews in the coming weeks.

Xiaomi’s $15 Mi Band adds support for Google Fit

Earlier this month, Xiaomi launched accessory stores in Germany, France, the US, and the UK. Among the devices sold was the Mi Band, a $15 fitness tracking band that is IP67 certified, has a battery life of 30 days, tracks sleep and steps, and can even notify users of calls and texts through the band’s LED lights. Now the Mi Band is getting even better with the addition of Google Fit support.

Thanks to a new update to the Mi Fit app, the Mi Band can share data with Google Fit as soon as you connect the Mi Fit app with your Google Account. Adding Google Fit support certainly helps further legitimize the highly affordable fitness band as a worthwhile option for those looking for something a bit simpler and cheaper than popular options like the FitBit. While Google Fit support is the biggest news, the Mi Fit app update also brings with it some UI tweaks, bug fixes, and other general improvements.

You can grab the latest update now right from Google Play.

Get it now on Google Play!

Just what is 2.5D screen glass?

The 2.5D glass trend sounds like stereotypical marketing jargon… how can something exist between two and three dimensional space anyway? However, the term is actually based on a real design factor, it’s not just a name used to try and sell you semi-useless screen protectors.

2.5D refers to a slight curvature at the edge of the glass display, also known as a contoured edge. While not an official name for any piece of technology, it is widely used to reference this type of display design. You might not even really be able to notice it on some handsets, but on devices where the glass sits atop the rest of the body, rather than being secured behind a slightly raised bezel, you’ll certainly appreciate the more seamless edge.

A lot of phones have featured glass with some sort of curved edge over the years, but recently the design has become a much more prominent marketing term as handsets have tried to distinguish themselves based on aesthetic design. You can easily spot curved glass on modern handsets such as the Google Nexus 6, Xiaomi Mi Note, and now the Apple iPhone 6 too, just to name a few.

So, is it curved or not?

While not curved in the most obvious sense, the name refers to rounding off the edges of a flat “2D” display in the z-axis, adding a slight curve to what would usually be a straight edge. If you can’t quite picture this, a press slide from the launch of the Xiaomi Mi Note probably demonstrates the differences a little better than I can put into words.

This effect can be made more or less extreme, depending on how much of a curved edge is required. Even a small curve can be used to make the edge of the glass feel smooth, while a larger curve may look more stylish.

Going further and actually bending the display leads to a more noticeable 3D effect. This is probably how we would describe handsets like the G Flex 2 or Samsung’s Galaxy Note Edge and S6 Edge, but these curved displays rely on bendable substrates and electronics too, while 2.5D glass does not. That’s not to say that these type of displays don’t feature curved glass edges as well, but it’s important to make the distinction about the term, now that handsets feature more noticeably curved displays.

How is it made?

Although a lot of fuss has been made about 2.5D glass, there’s nothing particularly special about the way it is designed and built. Because the actual electronic display components are not curved in anyway, unlike a flexible display, 2.5D glass is manufactured in much the same was as a straight glass panel, just with some additional shaping added when it comes to forming the glass to the right size.

It’s a little more expensive, but can produce more premium looking results.

Fortunately, this means that 2.5D displays can still benefit from hardening and strengthening manufacturing techniques, such as those used by Corning’s popular Gorilla Glass. Individual smartphone sized glass pieces are cut from the larger mother sheet, with an additional processing layer thrown in to trim and smooth the edges of the glass. It’s a little more expensive, but can produce more premium looking results.

The shaped glass can then be put through the hardening process, by heating the sheet in a solution of molten salts at very high temperatures and then cooling it rapidly to force the glass to compress. Shaping and hardening is done in this order so that the structural integrity of the stronger glass is not put at risk by attempting to reshape it nearer the end of the processes.

For comparison, a fully curved display like the G Flex 2 or Galaxy S6 Edge requires that the display’s transistor backplane and circuit light elements, such as the OLEDs or LCD pixels, also conform to the curve. Flexible electronic circuits like this are even more complex and expensive to produce than the curved glass component.

What are the benefits?

The benefits of 2.5D glass are purely ergonomic and aesthetic. It is especially important on touchscreen devices to ensure that any surfaces that consumers are going to touch and swipe their fingers across are smooth. You wouldn’t want to snag your finger on a sharp glass corner!

You’ll still find 2.5D displays used in products with a non-glass edge, simply because it helps keep the edge of the glass away from the user’s fingers. Remember that intentional gap between the Note 4’s body and its metal frame? It would have been a big deal if sharp glass was exposed by the gap.

In curved glass edge smartphones, 2.5D simply looks a little nicer than raising the bezel up above the display edge and helps to ensure that the glass fits nicely against the rest of the phone’s body.

2.5D has become a prominent marketing term as handsets have tried to distinguish themselves based on aesthetic design

As for toughness and scratch resistance, it’s the underlying manufacturing technique that determines these properties rather than anything inherent in the 2.5D name that specifies any such properties.

You’ll find that a number of Gorilla Glass handsets are also listed as 2.5D displays, but the two are separate terms. There’s also no reason to assume that these are any tougher or weaker than their regular flat glass counterparts. After all, it’s only the very edge of the display which is any different. 2.5D displays manufactured with a different process will result in different levels of toughness.

The only minor downside is that consumers who like to place an additional screen protector on their smartphone might find it difficult to find third party products that exactly fit the contours of the 2.5D glass. This is because the screen protector has to be manufactured to fit around the curves of the display, which is a trickier and more expensive process than producing a completely flat protector. You can find specific 2.5D screen protectors for these devices.

Overall, the term 2.5D display is not completely meaningless, but it’s not a major technical achievement that gives one phone an advantage over another either. A 2.5D display may lend itself to some nice looking designs, but it’s certainly not something to base your purchasing decisions on.

Korean handset manufacturer Pantech heads towards liquidation

It’s no secret that South Korean smartphone manufacturer Pantech has been struggling for finances, but the company is now facing the very real prospect of going out of business. Pantech has been up for sale since 2011, but has failed to find a buyer and has now asked the Seoul Central District Court to end its receivership.

Pantech was placed under court protection in August, but has been unable to find a suitable buyer to take over its financial obligations. This means that Pantech, which was once the second largest handset manufacturer in the country, will likely have its assets sold to try and payback some of the money that it owes. According to data from the Financial Supervisory Service, Pantech’s total assets are worth 268.3 billion won (US$242.52 million), while its total debt stands at 996.2 billion won (US$900.48 million), as of the end of 2014.

If the court accepts the application within the next 15 days, it will consult parties of interest for the next two weeks on how to proceed. This leaves one final month for a buyer to materialize, but it’s likely that Pantech will be faced with a liquidation order.

“Despite our 10-month long efforts, we could not find an appropriate bidder with a right evaluation of Pantech … Being unable to take our duty and role as a company, we have decided to apply for the end of the normalization procedures.” – Pantech

The company has been steadily releasing Android hardware in select markets despite its instability, including as the rather good Vega Iron 2, but sales have remained sluggish for years. The company has seen its debts accumulate massively, partly due to its acquisition of a few smaller manufacturers that failed to return a profit. Pantech was placed under a five-year debt restructuring scheme in 2007, but has not managed to grab a foothold in the competitive smartphone market since.

Back in 2013, Samsung purchased a 10 percent stake in its rival, partly in an effort to help prop up the company. This seems to have been a rather poor investment with hindsight.

Pantech’s tangible and intellectual assets will be divided up among its creditors, if the court issues a liquidation order, and the company could be wound down in little over a month. Such is the competitive nature of today’s smartphone market.