5-inch Moto G4 Play lands in India for ₹8,999 ($135)
Lenovo launched the Play variant of the Moto Z series, and the company is now doing the same for the budget Moto G4 lineup. The Moto G4 Play is targeted at the entry-level market, and will go up for sale exclusively on Amazon India starting later today for ₹8,999 ($135).
The Moto G4 Play shares the same design as the larger Moto G4 and G4 Plus, but the internal hardware is more in line with that of the Moto G 2015. The phone features a 5-inch 720p display, Snapdragon 410 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage with microSD slot, 4G with VoLTE, 8MP camera, 5MP front shooter, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, and a 2800mAh battery. On the software front, you’ll get Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.
The larger 2800mAh battery is an upgrade from the Moto G 2015’s 2470mAh battery, but in other areas, the Moto G4 Play is identical to last year’s budget phone. In doing so, Lenovo is able to launch the phone for under ₹10,000, with the phone retailing for ₹3,500 ($50) less than the ₹12,499 price tag of the Moto G4.
If you’ve invested in the Moto G 2015, there really isn’t a whole lot of reason to consider the G4 Play, as both handsets feature identical specs. But with the sub-₹10,000 segment seeing increased competition, the G4 Play is Lenovo’s push to make the Moto G series accessible to more buyers.
Apple iPhone 7: Seven things to expect
The Apple iPhone 7 is expected to be announced at the company’s event on 7 September in San Francisco.
With so many rumours floating around as to what the iPhone 7 will or won’t have, we have rounded up seven features that have been consistently speculated upon over the last couple of weeks.
That’s not to say they are a given, far from it, but these are the rumoured features that continue to surface from multiple sources, time and time again, giving us a strong indication of what to expect.
Apple iPhone 7: iOS 10
This we do know. Apple’s new version of its operating system iOS 10 will be coming out for all iPhones (that can run it) this month, and in particular the new iPhone.
The new OS brings a number of new features including improvements to the lock screen, messages, Homekit, Photos, and Siri.
Apple iPhone 7: No headphone jack
Apple is expected to ditch the headphone jack on the iPhone and replace it with a second speaker.
Those that want a wired connection will be able to do so via a dongle through the Lightning port, but the suggestion is that Apple will recommend you connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to the phone. Who needs wires.
Apple iPhone 7: A new home button
It’s the only physical moving part on the iPhone, so changing it to a touch sensitive button makes a lot of sense.
It’s one less part to worry about, and it could mean a simpler design. It should also help if Apple want to make the iPhone more waterproof.
Apple iPhone 7: Some form of Waterproofing
With the headphone socket gone and a physical home button removed, according to the rumours, Apple could make the iPhone waterproof to some degree.
It would mean that the SIM tray would have to be protected, but all the rumours suggest this could happen. If the iPhone 7 had an IPX7 rating, like Apple Watch, it could withstand incidental exposure to water of up to one metre for up to 30 minutes.
Apple iPhone 7: New processor
A new iPhone always brings a new processor and in every Apple iPhone launch so far we’ve always seen a speed enhancement for the new device.
The iPhone 6s range uses Apple’s own A9 chip so it’s expected that the new iPhone 7 will use an A10 processor. Still speculation for now though.
Apple iPhone 7: New camera
A lot of the rumours have focused around a new dual-lens camera for the iPhone to help its users get even better pictures, though it’s been claimed it might only appear on the Plus model.
With the invite featuring a camera technique called bokeh, that allows greater depth of field normally only associated with DSLR cameras, a camera upgrade is almost a given.
Apple iPhone 7: Tweaked design
We’ve enjoyed the current iPhone design for two years now with the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6s, meaning if history repeats itself, we are up for a completely new design.
That said, rumours also claim that Apple is holding off on a complete refresh for two reasons. The first is that it’s the 10th anniversary of the iPhone in 2017, and secondly that the current design has been very popular.
Still we suspect, and if the rumours are accurate, some tweaks like a new Piano Black colour and the removal of the plastic antenna lines on the back might appear.
Hot Wheels AI is the love child of slot cars and Roomba
Model cars and track racing are the bread and butter of Hot Wheels, but they might look a little long in the tooth compared to flashy console games like Gran Turismo and Need for Speed. With the new Hot Wheels AI set, toy autos get a bit of a boost — not just in speed, but in intelligence. Now you can race against a computer in the real world, right there on your living room rug.
Each Hot Wheels AI set comes with two cars, 20 pieces of track and two controllers. The 1/32 scale models look like normal toy cars, with snazzy shells not based on any existing real world vehicle — the blue design is called “Fast Fish” and the orange one is “Spin King.” Flip them over and underneath you’ll find two infrared sensors similar to the ones on a Roomba. They allow the computer inside to “read” the gradient pattern on the vinyl track, so it knows exactly where the car is and can adjust the steering to stay on course even in the middle of a heated race.
The track pieces can be arranged in over 40 layouts, allowing you to add turns and straightaways to your hearts’ content. That’s not the only thing about Hot Wheels AI that can be customized — the shells can be swapped out for new designs, and the wheel rims are interchangeable as well (gold-plated and spinning options not yet available).
Once you’ve got everything to your liking, it’s time to race. There’s no app or anything like that — Hot Wheels AI comes with special controllers that connect at 2.4GHz to each car. They have a very video game flair to them: The shape resembles an Xbox gamepad, and the controls include a directional joystick on the left with two shoulder buttons up top. But that’s where the similarities end. The triggers on the back are designed more like those you’d find on a slot car control, and the front has an array of colorful buttons for choosing game modes.
There’s an autodrive mode where the cars zip around the track on their own. But let’s face it: You want to be the one doing the driving. There’s a freeplay mode that puts you in full control and lets you take it anywhere, including off track. On the track you might want to try the practice mode. That’s just a basic run which lets you try for your fastest time while you get used to the controls. Once you’re done practicing, though, it’s time to race against another player or an AI in championship mode. That lets you set up a race with a certain number of laps, like 10. The computer will then track the relative position of the cars, with the controller speakers announcing the standings on each lap and eventually calling a winner.
Both the practice and championship settings allow you to select from three skill levels: Beginner, Advanced and Expert. The first difference is how much assistance you get from the computer — beginners just need to hit the gas, and the system will do the work of keeping your car on the road. Expert puts you almost in full control of acceleration and steering. The other big difference in skill level is how fast you’re able to go. Beginner putts along at a steady but unexciting pace, while expert takes advantage of the cars’ ability to travel up to 5.6mph, the scaled down equivalent of 180mph.
Besides the controller, another distinctly video game twist to Hot Wheels AI is the ability to deploy hazards against your opponent during a championship race. These road mishaps are activated with the touch of a button, but there’s no actual oil stick that appears on the track — the affected car will skid or stall out on its own, with the speaker on the controller announcing the cause of the problem. It’s a lot like Mario Kart — in fact, the hazards can only affect the lead vehicle, so it’s exactly like the accursed blue shell. (Oh, how I hate you blue shell.)
The number of sabotages you have is limited by the difficulty level selected: beginners get nothing, advanced racers get two and experts have four in their arsenal. They can be reloaded by driving your car into the “pit area” of the track. It’s an optional bend you can add to the side of the track for “repairs,” but the AI won’t guide you there automatically — you have to switch to the RC assist function and manually drive your vehicle in. It’s not easy, so you’re definitely earning that refill.
I’m infamously bad at games like Mario Kart (just ask my coworkers), but I still found beginner difficulty to be a little too constraining. I do think it’s great for younger kids still trying to figure out the basics. Advanced mode was a little more my speed — you get enough guidance to keep you on the track, but it’s still possible to maneuver around a bit and it’s not annoyingly slow. I still ran off the track a few times, especially after being rammed by my human opponents. The AI is a fair enough driver, and a good way to learn the ropes. But for a real challenge you’re going to want to play this with a friend or a competitive family member.
In fact, the varying difficulty modes make it great for groups of kids. If you have younger siblings, then you know the pain of being told to “go easy” or even let them win. With Hot Wheels AI, an older child can choose the advanced or expert setting and drive to their full potential, while the littler one can still feel like they’re participating without getting frustrated by their lack of skill. They might eventually notice their car isn’t fast enough, but hopefully by that point (and age) they’ll have improved enough that it’s time to graduate to another skill level.
Hot Wheels AI might be aimed at ages “8+,” but it really does reach across age groups. The controllers can be handed off to younger kids, or older adults with fond memories of slot cars and plastic tracks. It’s the same classic combination of speed and style that Hot Wheels is known for — but now it’s got some brains on the inside. The basic set goes on sale this October for a sweet $100.
EE begins rolling out a faster 4G network
Like any four-year-old, EE’s 4G network hasn’t yet fulfilled its potential. For its last major upgrade, the carrier flipped the switch on Cat 6 LTE-Advanced two years ago; and today, EE has announced it’s begun rolling out even faster Cat 9 technology (the first UK provider to do so, it seems). This increases the maximum theoretical download speed on EE’s “4G+” network from 300 Mbps to 450 Mbps, though real-world testing puts the max at more like 360 Mbps. The catch? Only a handful of phones can take full advantage.
The jump to Cat 9 is down to a blend of 20MHz of spectrum from the 1800MHz band and 35MHz from the 2600MHz band. Right now, though, only the Galaxy S6 Edge+, S7, S7 Edge and HTC 10 can make use of all that bandwidth. Oh, and the Note 7 too, if it hadn’t been recalled. If you don’t have any of those handsets and aren’t planning to pick up the next iPhone, which’ll undoubtedly support Cat 9, you will still benefit somewhat, thanks to a general increase in network capacity.
The Cat 9 network is already live at EE’s Wembley Stadium testbed, and will be spreading to other parts of London, as well as Manchester and Birmingham later this year. And by the end of 2017, EE expects to have Cat 9 up and running on over 500 masts.
Source: EE
Europe’s free roaming law comes with an asterisk
In June 2017, the European Commission will get its wish and scrap roaming charges for travellers across the continent. Phone calls, text messages and data downloads abroad will be treated as if they originated at home, but there will be a catch. In new plans set out this week, the Commission will instruct operators to let consumers roam for in Europe up to 30 days at a time, for a total of 90 days per year.
To stop abuse, representatives had called for a fair use policy to stop travellers from buying cheap SIM deals in one European country and then abusing those benefits in another. The new plans are a first look at how the Commission intends to deal with that issue. They appear to lean on existing free movement agreements made by Member States that require some citizens to register their residency if they stay for a period of more than 90 days in a year. It’s determining whether a person can a considered a traveller or a (semi-permenant) resident — the latter of which would possibly need to buy a local mobile SIM.
Since April 2016, operators have capped roaming charges at €0.20 per MB, €0.06 per SMS and €0.05 per minute. The new plans will lower call and text message prices to €0.04 cents per minute and €0.01 per SMS, but data usage may rise to 0.85 cents per MB. To help people who regularly travel between countries for work, the Commission says that as long as they log onto their home network once a day, they will not be included in the 30-day and 90-day limits.
This is not to say that carriers cannot be more lenient with their roaming restrictions. These limits are effectively a basic right for all Europeans, and you can expect to see operators continue to differentiate themselves by offering better deals.
Representatives will now invite member countries and the EU’s telecoms regulator to comment on proposals before they’re adopted on December 15th. Overall, it looks like consumers who enjoy “unlimited” data plans at home will be offered the same opportunities abroad, as long as they don’t exceed average their carrier’s domestic usage limits.
Via: Express
Source: Europa
iPhone 7 Series Said to Feature 60FPS 4K Video Recording Capability
A Vietnamese technology website claims to have spent some time trying out a fully assembled and operational 4.7-inch iPhone 7, offering a few original tidbits amid a number of details that have already been rumored about Apple’s device, set to be unveiled tomorrow.
The tinhte.vn blog offers no photos to back up its claims about the upcoming iPhone 7, so the following should be taken with a liberal dose of salt, but the writer reckons the smaller handset will be capable of recording 4K video at a smoother 60 frames per second, in contrast to the 30fps 4K recording found on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus (60fps is limited to 1080p resolution video on both devices).
Given the significant additional storage that would be required for such a spec bump, speculation is inevitable that 60fps 4K video is one of the main reasons why Apple is expected to offer 128GB and 256GB capacity models, and would seem to tie in with the company’s recent introduction of a 2TB iCloud storage tier option.
According to the writer, the iPhone 7 also has a rubber sealed SIM tray which – along with the lack of headphone jack – improves the overall effectiveness of the device’s waterproofing.
Over the weekend, respected KGI securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also listed improved IPX7 water resistance as one of the upgrades to the upcoming iPhone. That would see the handset match the Apple Watch’s impressive level of waterproofing, something which the company has arguably underplayed.
Elsewhere, the writer suggests that speculation regarding a new black color option is on the mark, and will replace the Space Grey iPhone variant currently available. Also, the volume buttons apparently no longer sit inside a small recess, but are placed directly on the side of the device body.
Lastly, the writer claims that the new touch-sensitive home button utilizes haptic Force Touch feedback technology to mimic the sensation of a physical depress, and still requires the user to exert a decent amount of pressure on the button to activate it.
Of course, nothing can be confirmed until Apple’s big reveal, but with just a day to go before the company’s live streamed media event, the wait is almost over. MacRumors is providing live coverage of the event for those unable to watch, both on MacRumors.com and through our @MacRumorsLive account on Twitter.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Samsung Calls Note 7 Recall Cost to Company ‘Heartbreaking’
The president of Samsung has confessed that recalling 2.5 million of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones will cost the company a “heartbreaking amount”.
According to Bloomberg, the comment came on Friday when the head of Samsung’s mobile business Koh Dong-Jin was asked by reporters about the financial impact of having to recall the phones, following the discovery of a defect in the batteries that caused some handsets to explode while charging.
Some analysts forecast that the scale of the recall will cost Samsung anything between $1 billion and $5 billion in revenue. Given that Samsung’s projected net income is $20.6 billion this year, the firm will undoubtedly absorb the loss. But Dong-Jin’s comment could just as easily refer to the cost to the company’s manufacturing reputation in its rush to beat Apple’s iPhone 7 to market.
In Samsung’s haste to beat Cupertino to launch, beginning last year the South Korean firm had brought forward the release of its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series models by roughly a month. The move was initially deemed a success after it helped Samsung report on its best profit in more than two years, but the strains on its supply chain appear to have backfired disastrously.
“Samsung might have over-exerted itself trying to pre-empt Apple, since everybody knows the iPhones launch in September,” said Chang Sea-Jin, business professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and author of Sony vs. Samsung, a history of the electronics giants.
Speaking to Reuters, Sea-Jin called the recall “an unfortunate event; it feels like Samsung rushed a bit, and it’s possible that this led to suppliers also being hurried.”
Samsung said in a statement to Reuters that it conducts “extensive preparation” for its products and will release them to the market “only after proper completion of the development process”.
However, many view the recall as a gift for Apple, which is currently dealing with depressed phone sales and relatively lukewarm anticipation for this year’s devices as analysts speculate the company is holding back its most impressive upgrades for 2017.
Indeed, since news emerged of Samsung’s mass battery defect, Apple has alerted iPhone parts suppliers to increase production rates, suggesting the company is confident of a late surge in sales of its latest flagship smartphones.
“The time advantage that [Samsung] had on the iPhone, that’s evaporated now,” said Bryan Ma, an analyst at IDC in Singapore. “It’ll hit them this quarter obviously, but if it’s something they immediately address and immediately turn around, then there won’t be a long-term impact.”
With Apple said to be overhauling its mobile design for a tenth anniversary “iPhone 8”, and Samsung clearly keen to bounce back and impress after its latest troubles, everything points to 2017 being potentially one of the most ultra-competitive years the smartphone industry has ever seen.
Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
Discuss this article in our forums
Michael Kors Access Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Michael Kors has entered the smartwatch market with a line of luxury watches called Michael Kors Access. Right now that consists of two watches: Bradshaw and Dylan.
These are Android Wear-powered smartwatches designed for fashionistas, complete with exclusive watch faces designed by Michael Kors and support for interchangeable metal, leather and silicone straps. As far as the operating system, at this point you either like Android Wear or you don’t. The good news is that both watches will be updated to Android Wear 2.0 later this year.
The Michael Kors Access: Dylan.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Michael Kors did a nice job with many of the watch faces. They look great, there are dozens to choose from and each one can be completely customized to give you a unique look. You can also set the watch to automatically change the watch face based on the time of day. So you can have something a little more traditional at the office, but after 6 p.m. the watch face will automatically change to something more fun.
Both watches feature round displays with a 320×290-pixel resolution, however they aren’t as sharp as other smartwatches I’ve tested. The display also isn’t a complete circle. Like we saw with the Moto 360, there is a black bar at the bottom of the display for the ambient light sensor, which creates an unsightly “flat tire” look.
The Michael Kors Access: Bradshaw.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The watches are powered by the new Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip, although performance wasn’t as speedy as I had expected. I noticed delays when changing watch faces and choppy performance when browsing through notifications.
Overall, the watches look nice and the stainless steel casing gives them a good weight, but they are very big and bulky. On the side is what appears to be a traditional watch crown, but it doesn’t spin and it’s really just a home button.
The charger looks nearly identical to the one used with the Apple Watch.
Sarah Tew/CNET
If they look familiar, that’s because both watches were actually designed by Fossil and are similar to the company’s Q Founder smartwatch, although they don’t include the same ridiculous charger. Instead, the watches are charged through a magnetic dock that looks identical to the Apple Watch charger. A full charge will deliver about two days of battery life, which is standard for most smartwatches.
Someone who wants a smartwatch that doesn’t look like a smartwatch would find the design of these devices appealing, but for me they’re too heavy and too big. I still prefer the Moto 360 and the Huawei Watch.
The Access smartwatches are available now from the Michael Kors website starting at $350 (£329, AU$579).
HP Envy x360 review: The big-scale convertible
Convertible laptops are multiplying. It’s like they’ve grown reproductive organs and formed their own tribe. But that means there’s something to suit every scale, level of productivity and price point.
The HP Envy x360 isn’t a brand new model. HP been making oversize convertibles under this name since 2014. But for 2016 the x360 is back to assert itself as the pack leader of 15-inch hybrids.
It’ll cost you at least £779, though. The version we’re reviewing here is £949. It’s not exactly cheap, then, but it’s nowhere near the slightly terrifying £1,299 HP Spectre 13 (a laptop that, admittedly, is a lot better looking).
HP Envy x360 review (2016): Design
Most of you will know the drill by now. Convertible laptops like this have screen hinges that don’t just stop dead at 135-degrees like most laptops. They carry on until the back of the screen meets the keyboard’s keys, and can sit at angle. It’s the laptop equivalent of one of those infuriatingly fit and flexible people who can do the splits while standing up.
Pocket-lint
Flexi-hinges like this are more common nowadays, but we tend to see them in smaller laptops than the HP Envy x360. A bit of touchscreen-based tablet flavour makes sense in 11-inch and 13-inch laptops, but do you really want it in a 15.6-inch one like this?
The first issue is that the HP Envy x360 isn’t strictly portable. It’s slim and light for a 15.6-inch laptop – at 2.17kg and 18mm thick – but if you want something to take around with you every day, this isn’t what we’d recommend. A 12-inch or 13.3-inch laptop would offer a better compromise between comfort and size/weight.
Given we wouldn’t use one of these on the road, we have to think of some at-home uses for the flexi-hinge. Fair enough, there are a few. You might want to play Delia Smith 2.0 with the laptop propped-up in the kitchen, displaying a recipe. Or hitch the laptop up next to you in bed, working your way, episode-by-episode, into a Netflix-induced insomnia. They’re all believable, but make sure you actually want to use some of those situations, or you might was well buy the cheap non-convertible HP Envy 15.
Pocket-lint
This Envy family is where you’ll find HP’s laptops that are neither ultra-cheap nor super-expensive. If you want those, look as the Spectre and Pavilion series. Envy is a comfy middle ground where a lot of self-respecting laptop buyers live.
The HP Envy 360 has an all-aluminium shell, which feels great and looks like an HP take on a 15-inch MacBook Pro, AKA the forgotten big brother of the MacBook family. Where Apple hasn’t really updated the design of its 15-inch MacBook Pro or Air lines in an age, the HP Envy 360 feels modern.
HP Envy x360 (2016) review: Connectivity
It’s light-ish, slim-ish and doesn’t have an optical drive. But who needs one of those?
It also has a USB-C port, which most laptop-makers now bung into their mid-range laptops as a nod to the future order. Full-size USB ports are going to slowly become relics of the past. It’ll take a good long while, though.
Pocket-lint
Other than that you get two normal USB 3.0 ports, a full-size HDMI and a full-size SD card slot. This is a pretty minimal complement for a 15-inch laptop, but the Envy x360 is ready to be plugged into a monitor, or paired with a keyboard and mouse if you like. Of course, with a 15.6-inch screen of its own maybe you won’t need to.
HP Envy x360 review (2016): Screen
The Envy x360 has a classic modern mid-range laptop screen: a glossy, glass-topped touch display with an LCD IPS panel. It looks the part and has the viewing angles any self-respecting convertible needs.
Look closer and you can see a few little niggles, though. The HP Envy 360’s display colours aren’t the most potent. It’s just unable to display the deepest red and blues, and screen pixellation is pretty clear.
Pocket-lint
This is an issue with 15.6-inch laptops as a whole, not just the Envy x360. While laptop-makers have loads of affordable, high-res 11-inch and 13-inch screen panels to choose from, 15.6-inch ones just don’t seem to come in the same array of resolutions. It’ll be a while before we see a 4K-screen laptop at this sort of price.
The screen also doesn’t quite go bright enough to work outdoors on a sunny day, but you’d look a bit silly out in the park with a 15.6-inch laptop anyway.
HP Envy x360 (2016) review: Keyboard and trackpad
The HP Envy x360 feels more like the kind of laptop you’d plonk on a table and do a bit of work with. It has the right kind of full-size keyboard for the job, and even packs in a NUM pad thanks to the extra space the large screen affords. There’s a keyboard backlight too.
It’s a decent keyboard, although not really any deeper than that of a smaller, thinner laptop.
The HP Envy 360 also has a massive trackpad. HP has a thing for really wide pads. A bit of a strange kink, perhaps, but it does give your fingers loads of room to play with. Its button placement is much more intuitive than your average large laptop, keeping the right button to just the bottom-right corner so you don’t end up accidentally clicking it all the time.
Pocket-lint
The one niggle with the trackpad is that its surface doesn’t feel entirely smooth as you move your finger back and forth across it. This is because it’s plastic. The fanciest laptops use frosted glass. Annoyingly, the cheaper Envy 15’s pad feels better.
HP has tried to make this pad look like a glass one, but get your fingers involved and you can tell it’s not one.
HP Envy x360 review (2016): Specs and performance
HP sent us the very top-end version of the HP Envy 360. It costs £949 and has an Intel Core i7-6550U with 8GB RAM. Not only is this a high-end processor among dual-core Intel chipsets, it also has Iris graphics rather than the standard, slower Intel HD 520 chipset.
This doesn’t turn the HP Envy x360 into an amazing gaming machine, but does mean you have a much better chance of making some games playable if you fiddle around with the graphics settings a bit. Still: don’t buy this if you’re after a true gaming machine.
Pocket-lint
The HP Envy x360 is versatile performance-wise, but it actually uses the same family of CPU you might find in a super-skinny 11-inch or 13-inch laptop. HP only makes this model with dual-core processors, and if you’re after a workstation-style machine, you’ll want one with a quad-core i7.
We’re not saying that the Envy 360 can’t do certain things, though. It’s powerful enough to use Photoshop, to edit video, all of that jazz. Dual-core laptops like this just aren’t quite on-par with a desktop PC though.
Day-to-day performance is, though. The single spec benefit of the Envy x360’s larger footprint is that it can fit in both an SSD and a hard drive. This is the best solution for people who don’t have thousands of pounds to spend on a laptop.
You put Windows OS and any performance critical apps onto the 128GB SSD, then dump all your music and video on the much slower 1TB hard drive. Compared with what you get in a MacBook, the HP’s SSD is actually quite slow, but it’s fast enough to give Windows 10 the SSD zip we’re after.
HP Envy x360 (2016) review: Battery life and speakers
If you’re not bothered about a slim and attractive frame, for this price you can get a much more powerful laptop. But in return, you get much better battery life. A super-powered quad-core laptop will generally last around four to four and a half hours between charges, but HP says the Envy 360 lasts for up to 10 hours.
Pocket-lint
That’s a bit of an ambitious claim. In our experience it’ll last for about seven hours of light use before you have to find a plug socket. That’s not world-beating, but certainly a lot longer than your average 15.6-inch laptop.
The HP Envy 15 is a strange mix of old and new laptop DNA. And most of it makes sense. One very welcome nu-school tweak is that this laptop has really pretty beefy-sounding, loud speakers. They don’t bloom out of the sides of the laptop like the best laptop and tablets speakers do, but they are punchy.
Verdict
Who needs a 15.6-inch convertible laptop? Not everyone, but there must be a good few potential buyers given this isn’t HP’s first go at the design.
What you need to bear in mind, though, is that aside from a bonus HDD, this is a blown-up take on the more common smaller hybrids. It doesn’t have desktop-grade power and, while the screen quality is decent, colour isn’t as punchy as the kind of 13-inch laptop you might buy at the price.
And that’s the rub of it, really: we think the 13-inch Spectre x360, which out in 2015, is the more logical buy in this category.
We’re glad HP is making this sort of laptop, even though it won’t suit all. What the Envy x360 excels at is something quite simple: being a home-based laptop that looks nice and isn’t super-heavy.
Google Pixel and Pixel XL phones expected to launch running Android 7.1 Nougat update
When Google releases its next pure Android phones, they’ll launch running Android 7.1 according to the latest leak. The news comes from @LlabTooFeR, a leaker known for revealing nuggets of HTC-centric information before it’s confirmed.
Perhaps notably, the tweet refers to the next phones as the Pixel and Pixel XL, rather than any form of Nexus, corroborating rumours that Google is shifting its hardware strategy this year.
- Next Nexus (2016): Release date, rumours and everything you need to know about Marlin and Sailfish
- Nexus Marlin vs Nexus Sailfish: What’s the rumoured difference?
- New Google Pixel phones, Daydream VR, and more expected 4 October
As for Android 7.1, that’s yet to be released by Google and is likely to be the major Android Nougat update that initially includes software elements and features exclusive to the two new phones. Most notably, Daydream VR.
Daydream is almost certainly going to launch first on the two new Pixel phones, setting them apart from any devices currently running Android 7.0 Nougat, or any device that’s being updated between now and when the Pixels are announced.
Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL to be released with Android 7.1 (NMR1).
— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) September 5, 2016
There have been rumours for months claiming that Google was turning to HTC to build its next stock Android phones this year. Likewise, speculation and inside information seemed to suggest that HTC wouldn’t be a Nexus partner manufacturer, but used more as a contractor to build Google’s hardware designs.
That’s significant, because it means we’re unlikely to see HTC’s branding on the devices, and we won’t see the familiar Nexus moniker stamped anywhere either.
The Pixel branding has so far been used for Chromebooks and a tablet of Google’s design. Launching a Pixel-monikered phone would certainly help tie all of the search giant’s hardware together. It is worth noting that Chromebook Pixel and Pixel C haven’t exactly sold like hot cakes, so it’ll be interesting to see if the more in-house effort on the phone has a negative or positive impact.
AIVAnet 