Spec Sheet Shows iPhone 7 Plus With 256GB Storage and Lightning EarPods

A photo claiming to show a specification sheet for a 256GB-capacity iPhone 7 Plus has been circulating online today.

Originally posted on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, the image is just the latest in a series of pictures of potentially dubious authenticity given how easy it is to digitally alter them.

The photo in question appears to be of Hong Kong origin, and claims to show the inclusion of Lightning-equipped wired EarPods and a Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter in the box.

Those details square with the widely held belief that Apple’s upcoming iPhone 7 and 7 Plus won’t have a headphone jack, and will instead rely on an all-in-one Lightning port for charging, listening, and connectivity.

Yesterday, Apple added a 2TB storage tier to its iCloud service, which could be tied to the impending launch of a larger capacity handset or improvements to phone camera quality. Also yesterday, Apple was granted EAEC certificates for “AirPods” – wireless in-ear headphones which may be sold separately as accessories.

With just a week to go before Apple’s September 7 media event, leaks and rumors of varying quality will undoubtedly continue to emerge at an increasing pace. Pre-orders for the new iPhones are expected to begin on September 9 with a potential launch of September 16 or September 23.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Coolpad Mega 2.5D review: An inexpensive performer for the Indian market

Coolpad is a Chinese brand offering excellent smartphones at impressively low prices.

The quick take

The recent deluge of smartphones in India under $125/₹8,500 is changing the way we perceive budget smartphones, and upping the consumer expectations. Once ready to compromise for a basic smartphone experience, budget smartphone customers are now spoilt for choice with manufacturers pushing the boundaries with devices that have decent specifications sheet, good looks, as well as a capable camera.

Coolpad is one such brand offering feature-laden smartphones at affordable prices like we saw with the Coolpad Note 3 — 3GB RAM and a fingerprint sensor for cheap. Focused at the selfie-loving crowd, the Coolpad Mega 2.5D is a delightful looking phone with a pretty good overall experience for customers on a budget.

The Good

• Impressive design
• Good display
• Decent selfies for a budget smartphone

The Bad

• Middling performance
• Average battery life

About this review

I used the Indian retail variant of the Coolpad Mega 2.5D that ran Cool UI running on top of Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 out of the box. For most of the time, I used it with an Airtel 4G SIM in Delhi NCR. During my two weeks of usage, I received a minor system update with no specific changelog.

Coolpad Mega 2.5D Design

For a budget device, the Coolpad Mega 2.5D impresses on the first glance. Despite the plastic casing, Coolpad has done quite well in the design and construction of the phone making it one of the best looking devices in its price segment.

With the gold metal-colored finish and metal frame on the side, the Mega 2.5D doesn’t look cheap in any way and despite sporting a plastic body, the matte finish on the back panel and slightly curved body gives it an unlikely elegance. Of course, as the name suggests, the highlight is the 2.5D curved glass on the front which adds to the overall style and gives it almost a premium look.

One of the understated highlights of the Coolpad Mega 2.5D is its weight, or rather the lack thereof. At just about 140 grams, the smartphone feels really light once you hold it in your hand. Most 5.5-inch devices in the market easily weigh upwards of 150 grams.

Coolpad Mega 2.5D Hardware

Powered by the 1GHz MediaTek MT67355P 64-bit quad-core chipset paired with Mali T720 GPU and 3GB RAM, the Coolpad Mega 2.5D does well on the specifications sheet – similar to other budget smartphones in the segment. In real world usage, the performance is just about average though. While it is decent enough to handle day-to-day tasks, there is a bit of lag here and there – sometimes while performing basic operations or switching between apps. It’s a shame because the phone packs in a generous 3GB of RAM.

While playing graphic-intensive games, there is a visible drop in frames and the back panel tends to heat up (rarely though when not gaming). Clearly, if you’re a mobile gaming fan, the Mega 2.5D isn’t for you.

Although the Mega 2.5D sports 16GB of internal storage, you can expand it using a microSD card. That’s only if you’re using only one SIM with the phone since the hybrid tray allows you to use two nano SIMs or a combination of one SIM card and a microSD card.

Coolpad Mega 2.5D isn’t the fastest phone in the market, but gets along through most everyday tasks. With the specs it boasts of, one would’ve expected it to fare much better though.

The Coolpad Mega 2.5D sports an impressive 5.5-inch HD display. The color reproduction is accurate and viewing angles are fairly good as well. The text looks sharp, and even outdoors the sunlight legibility is surprisingly high.

The curved glass on the top though is a tad reflective. There are no physical buttons on the Mega 2.5D, and it uses on-screen navigation buttons.

Coolpad Mega 2.5D Software

The Coolpad Mega 2.5D runs on Android Marshmallow 6.0 with the company’s proprietary UI, CoolUI 8.0, on top. Like most custom UIs from Chinese OEMs, it doesn’t come with an app drawer and several aspects of it are clearly inspired by iOS – like the drop-down search for apps or the control center that comes up on swiping from the bottom, for example.

Honestly, the UI isn’t bad and like with most UX paradigms, one gets used to it. However, it’s apparent that Cool UI is a significantly heavy UI and pretty much the culprit behind the phone’s less than impressive performance. The phone is also painfully slow to boot up, although that’s not a showstopper really.

Coolpad Mega 2.5D Battery life

The battery life on the Coolpad Mega 2.5D is just about average. Only with limited use, the 2500mAh battery would last for an entire day. Stretch it a little, and you’d need to run for your charger by evening.

Few other smartphones in the price segment are offering two-day battery life, and although that’s not an absolute comparison, customers might want to look elsewhere if this is a primary buying decision. Of course, it’s not all bad. Also, the bundled 5V charger can charge the battery to full capacity in under two hours.

Coolpad Mega 2.5D Camera

The Coolpad Mega 2.5D packs in an 8MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture. The photos from the rear camera are decent and the color reproduction is good enough mostly. Although, you’d notice some washed out photos or the ones with the colors bleeding too frequently.

The front camera though fares better – justifying the focus on selfies in marketing pitch. The Mega 2.5D sports a generous 8MP front camera with 83.6-degrees field of view, that allows you to take great selfies for its price. Most photos are decent and sharp, and that’s that. Even indoors, photos turned out to be nice to look at, although with a bit of noise. There’s the beauty mode with options to make your skin smooth or slim your face, but most photos with the beauty mode tend to look a bit unnatural.

Coolpad Mega 2.5D Bottom line

The Coolpad Mega 2.5D is no pushover. There are few things going fine for a phone at its price – the impressive design, the decent selfies one could manage, and the overall neat display. Therefore, it’s a capable phone let down by just about average performance. There’s no fingerprint reader too, mind you.

The Mega 2.5D is company’s third budget smartphone in the Indian market after the well-rounded Note 3 and the Note 3 Lite. Clearly, the Coolpad Mega 2.5D is not as impressive as those two, but still makes for a fair option on the table.

Should you buy it? Probably

At ₹6,999 ($105), the Coolpad Mega 2.5D is a good enough budget smartphone with a decent display and acceptable performance. While the selfies are better than most in the segment and it looks stunning, the competition from Xiaomi with the Redmi 3s is tough – with a battery that lasts really long.

Pick up a Mega 2.5D if you’re okay with its misses, and really appreciate the positives. Coolpad though will do itself a favor to improve the Cool UI experience because that would take care of most of the mishits with this phone.

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Kia Optima Sportswagon first drive: A big friendly giant that lacks a bit of personality

The Kia Optima is the sort of car that you see starring in flashy US TV commercials, where enormous NBA superstars cram their frames into the cockpit and ramble on about its superb comfort and desirability, despite the fact they likely own a fleet of Rolls-Royces and Lamborghinis.

As such, the Optima has never been one to make waves in the UK, partly thanks to the fact that four-door saloons sales largely fall into the company car category, which has long been bossed by the Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Insignia and, more recently, the Skoda Superb.

Sensibly, Kia has decided to stretch the salesman’s favourite and offer it in an estate body style, which it refers to as the Sportswagon. Us Brits love a spacious estate – what with our dogs and kids and bicycles – and the Korean marque hopes it will appeal to families with plenty of junk to haul, as well as more traditional business users.

Kia Optima Sportswagon review: The wiley wagon

First thing to note is that Kia offers some seriously impressive kit on even the most basic “2” trim line Sportswagon models.

Granted, there’s no opportunity to order the barebones “1” specification level that’s offered on other models, but £22,295 for a spacious vehicle that comes equipped with a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system, 17-inch alloy wheels, hints of leather inside and a full suite of DAB radio and Bluetooth connectivity isn’t a bad start.

Spend a couple of grand more and “3” level customers are treated to an 8-inch touchscreen display, which is bright and responsive, as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.

The dash in these more expensive models isn’t quite on par with those offered by the VW Group – but the tech works seamlessly and the more expensive cars also get larger wheels, which helps the Optima Sportswagon live up to its athletic moniker.

Kia Optima Sportswagon review: Real estate

Kia owes a great deal to chief designer Peter Schreyer, who has single-handedly transformed the budget brand into something that can genuinely compete with the big German players in terms of styling.

In keeping with recent from, the Optima Sportswagon is a handsome machine that features plenty of sweeping lines, a large and bejewelled front grille, and the latest LED head and tail lamp technology that ensures it cuts an imposing figure on the UK’s roadways.

It’s also cleverly packaged, with 552-litres of load space in the back when the rear seats are upright, or 1,686-litres when those rear thrones are flipped down – via a single pull-lever, we hasten to add.

All those riding aboard get plenty of head and legroom, while handy little tech features, such as USB charging slots in the rear, are a welcome addition.

Kia Optima Sportswagon review: A dull daily drive

The Optima Sportswagon was never intended to offer scintillating performance but the driving experience is rather dreary. This is partly down to the fact that only one engine is on offer – a 1.7-litre CRDi diesel unit.

There’s not a lot of low-down torque, which renders quick getaways or speedy overtakes quite tricky, while the unit itself isn’t particularly refined. Give it a boot-load of throttle and it grumbles away until the car is up to cruising speeds.

The steering is also quite vague and slow, which can be an issue if you’re trying to hustle the thing along a twisting country road. Granted, the soft suspension is comfortable on long cruises and doesn’t wallow too much through corners, but it’s certainly not the sharpest tool in the box.

A Ford Mondeo Estate is arguably more entertaining to drive and Skoda’s 2.0-litre TDI engine is more powerful.

Kia also revealed a plug-in hybrid version of its Optima Saloon, which potentially returns a staggering 176.6mpg on the combined, belches out just 37g/km of CO2, and can be driven for up to 33-miles on electricity alone. The driving experience isn’t any more enthralling but it could be a good way to reduce the household motoring bills.

Kia Optima Sportswagon review: Top-of-the range tech

Those with a bit of cash to splash should look towards the GT-Line S, purely because it comes offered with some very neat kit.

The interior is given the full leather treatment, the wheels increase to 18-inches and there’s a suite of semi-autonomous safety features that rivals those of the premium German rivals.

Adaptive smart cruise control, high beam assist, autonomous emergency braking, blind spot detection, smart park assist and a 360-degree around view monitor are all thrown into the deal, while ambient interior lighting and chrome flourishes help elevate the overall quality no end.

Verdict

The Kia Optima Sportswagon will make a solid daily hack for most customers. It’s a good looking machine, especially in the top-of-the-range GT-Line S trim, while its infotainment system is slick and intuitive and the “3” models and above spearhead a suite of standard kit that’s more impressive than its rivals.

The problem, however, is poor engine choice. More importantly, an engine that isn’t as clean nor as fuel efficient as its closest competition, which will prove a stumbling block for company car users and fleet buyers. That, paired with the dreary driving experience, make the competition more compelling overall.

LG V20 will be world’s first phone with Google In Apps, confirms second screen

Ahead of a full debut at IFA 2016 in Berlin, LG has been drip feeding details about its forthcoming new smartphone, almost on a daily basis.

The latest feature it is shouting from the rooftops about is Google In Apps.

Coming as part of Android 7.0 Nougat, In Apps is a new feature that enables users to not only search across Google’s own applications, but third-party, user-installed apps too.

It can discover recently accessed apps, find people’s names inside apps, terms inside messages and more – all offline. For example, you can search for a keyword in Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn and other social chat apps, in order to find specific historic text.

• LG V20: Specs, release date and rumours
• Android 7.0 Nougat tips and tricks: Get your teeth into Google’s gooey goodness
• LG V20 design possibly revealed by case manufacturer
• LG V20 photo leaks showing off a simple design
• LG V20 is the first confirmed Android 7.0 Nougat phone, coming in September

Because it is an Android 7 feature and the V20 will be the first phone to market with that operating system, the LG device will be the first in the world to feature it.

What’s more, LG has confirmed that the second screen, as featured on the V10 released in the UK earlier this year, will also be part of the V20. And the In Apps feature can be set as a shortcut in the strip that runs across the top of the conventional display. This means you can launch it without impacting other functions.

We’ll find out more about the LG V20 in the next couple of days, with IFA kicking off with a swathe of press conferences and events today.

Acer Spin 7 preview: Flexible design with a touch of class

The convertible laptop game has gone from strength to strength, with the latest devices sporting slender bodies and discrete hinge mechanisms that make such flip-around screen devices as good-looking as their top-end notebook cousins. 

Acer’s take in 2016 is to add a touch of class to its top-end design, with the new Spin 7 the focus of its efforts. Much like the Swift 7, the aptly named Spin is a rather suave looking laptop.

Key to the Spin 7’s design is a hinge that allows for laptop, stand, tent and a laptop-like position, given the 360-degree swivel capability. It’s a feature that Lenovo has aced in recent years and an area where Acer’s more plasticky and less premium offerings have sat a few steps behind. On the evidence of the Spin 7, though, it’s full-on war for a place at the top.

With a 14-inch screen and 13-inch unibody design, the Spin 7 is really thin – 11mm thin, in fact (or 10.98mm if you’re counting) – and weights 1.2kgs, meaning it’s relatively lightweight for a do-it-all device.

Given its slender design, though, there are no full-size USB ports. This is a future-facing product, instead sporting two USB Type-C ports. That means you can use peripherals and charge the battery at the same time.

Pocket-lint

From small ports to a large trackpad: we are especially fond of the oversized touch surface which dominates the front of the device. None of this off-centre or dinky trackpad size as found in so many laptops these days.

The Acer Spin 7 will feature a 7th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and be configurable in various ways, with up 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage available. That’s impressive for a device so slim.

And so to the price: at €1,299 it’s a toss-up between this Spin 7 and the slimmer, sleeker looking Swift 7 in our books. Although the Swift is less functional, as it doesn’t have the hinge mechanism of the Spin, we’re more sold on its looks.

Or, if you’re looking for something more budget, then the Spin range will also feature Spin 1, 3 and 5 models too.