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31
May

These are the banks that support Fitbit Pay


Credit cards are so last year.

fitbit-ionic-fitbit-pay-edited.jpg?itok=

Fitbit’s Ionic and Versa smartwatches are chock-full of helpful features, with one of my personal favorites being Fitbit Pay. Fitbit Pay allows you to use your smartwatch to pay for things at stores that accept NFC, and it’s an incredibly useful trick.

Not as many banks support Fitbit Pay compared to the likes of Google and Samsung Pay, but the list is growing all the time.

If you’re interested in using Fitbit Pay, these are the banks/cards that currently work with it.

United States

  • AlaTrust Credit Union (Visa)
  • American Express
  • Bank of America
  • Bank of Southern California (Mastercard)
  • Boeing Employees Credit Union – Debit
  • Capital One – Credit
  • CedarStone Bank (Mastercard)
  • Central Minnesota Credit Union (Visa)
  • Chase (Visa)
  • Citizens Equity First Credit Union (Mastercard)
  • Commerce Bank
  • Cornerstone Community Financial Credit Union (Visa)
  • Family Savings Credit Union (Visa)
  • Farmers Bank & Trust
  • First National Bank of Spearman (Mastercard)
  • First Tech Federal Credit Union (Mastercard)
  • Fisher National Bank (Mastercard)
  • Fortifi Bank (Mastercard)
  • Greater Kinston Credit Union (Visa)
  • Idaho Central Credit Union (Visa)
  • Latino Community Credit Union (Visa)
  • Local Government Federal Credit Union (Visa)
  • Members Choice Credit Union (Visa)
  • North Carolina Press Association Federal Credit Union (Visa)
  • North Central Bank
  • Numerica Credit Union (Visa)
  • Peoples Bank (Mastercard)
  • Peoples National Bank of Kewanee (Mastercard)
  • PNC (Visa)
  • Progressive National Bank (Visa)
  • Security Service Federal Credit Union (Mastercard)
  • State Employees’ Credit Union (Visa)
  • SunTrust (Mastercard)
  • Sun Community Federal Credit Union (Mastercard)
  • The Bank of Beaver City (Mastercard)
  • The Colorado Bank & Trust Company of La Junta (Mastercard)
  • Triad Bank (Mastercard)
  • U.S. Bank
  • VACU (Mastercard)
  • Wells Fargo

Canada

  • ATB Financial (Mastercard)
  • RBC Royal Bank

United Kingdom

  • boon. by Wirecard
  • Danske Bank (Mastercard)
  • Santander
  • Starling Bank (Mastercard)

Australia

  • ANZ
  • Bendigo Bank
  • Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Mastercard)
  • Latitude Financial Services (Mastercard)
  • National Australia Bank
  • Westpac (Mastercard)

Denmark

  • Danske Bank (Mastercard)
  • Eurocard (Mastercard)
  • Jyske Bank
  • Nordea
  • SEB (Mastercard)

Finland

  • Danske Bank (Mastercard)
  • Eurocard (Mastercard)
  • Finnair Plus (Mastercard)
  • Nordea
  • SEB (Mastercard)
  • Stockmann (Mastercard)
  • Tuohi (Mastercard)

France

  • boon. by Wirecard
  • Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne (Mastercard)
  • Crédit Mutuel du Massif Central (Mastercard)
  • Crédit Mutuel du Sud-Ouest. (Mastercard)
  • Fortuneo (Mastercard)
  • Max (Mastercard)

Ireland

  • boon. by Wirecard
  • KBC (Mastercard)

Italy

  • boon. by Wirecard
  • Carrefour Banca (Mastercard)

New Zealand

  • ASB Bank

Norway

  • Danske Bank (Mastercard)
  • Eika Kredittbank AS (Mastercard)
  • Eurocard (Mastercard)
  • Nordea
  • SEB (Mastercard)

Singapore

  • OCBC Bank
  • United Overseas Bank

Spain

  • boon. by Wirecard
  • Santander (Mastercard)
  • Servicios Financieros Carrefour (Mastercard)

Sweden

  • Danske Bank (Mastercard)
  • Eurocard (Mastercard)
  • Nordea
  • SEB (Mastercard)

Switzerland

  • BonusCard
  • boon. by Wirecard
  • Cembra Money Bank (Mastercard)
  • Cornèrcard
  • Swiss Bankers (Mastercard prepaid cards)
  • UBS (Mastercard)
  • Viseca

Taiwan

  • Cathay United Bank
  • CTBC Bank
  • E.SUN Bank
  • Taipei Fubon Bank
  • Taishin
  • Union Bank of Taiwan

Fitbit Versa and Android: Top 10 things you need to know

31
May

How to activate Reading Mode on the OnePlus 6


How do I enable Reading Mode on my OnePlus 6?

reading-mode.jpg?itok=ar6F459Q

Reading Mode is a great and relatively new feature to OxygenOS that adjusts the way your device displays color — in fact, it gets rid of color altogether, turning your display completely monochromatic and mimicking the look of a Kindle.

As the name suggests, this is best used for reading e-books, though the possibilities are really endless; you could just as easily use Reading Mode for scrolling through Twitter or writing an essay in Google Docs.

Why would you want to use Reading Mode?

Just like Night Mode, Reading Mode eliminates blue light, which is known to negatively impact sleep cycles and cause eye strain, making for an experience that’s easier on the eyes. It may not seem like much at first, but given how many hours most people spend staring at screens each day, it can really make a difference in your physical and mental health — not to mention it’s easier on your phone’s battery.

The software is also smart enough to understand when Reading Mode isn’t useful. As soon as you launch an app like the camera or gallery, color automatically begins to fill the display, turning back to grayscale after you hit the home button or switch back to a different app.

OxygenOS: Top 10 features you need to know

  • How to enable Reading Mode
  • How to turn on Reading Mode automatically within certain apps

How to enable Reading Mode

If you have a OnePlus 6 or OnePlus 5/5T with OxygenOS 4.5 or newer, enabling Reading Mode is simple.

Open the Settings app.
Scroll down to the Device sub-menu.

Select Display.

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Select Reading Mode.

Under Activate manually, slide the Turn on Reading Mode toggle.

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Just like that, you’ll notice the color fade out of your display as it shifts to grayscale. Having no color at all can be a bit jarring though, so you might just want to enable Reading Mode within certain apps — luckily that’s just a few taps away while you’re still in the Reading Mode settings.

How to turn on Reading Mode automatically within certain apps

Go to the Reading Mode settings.
In the menu, tap Add apps for Reading Mode.

Scroll through your list of apps and tap the apps you want to enable.

reading-mode-oxygenos-2.jpg?itok=PgTeAlN

That’s it! From there you can just hit the back button and the apps you selected will begin to open in grayscale moving forward. Your battery and your eyes will thank you.

Questions? Comments?

Have any burning questions about Reading Mode, or just want to share how you’ve been using it? Sound off in the comments below!

OnePlus 6

  • OnePlus 6 review
  • OnePlus 6 vs. OnePlus 5T: How much changes in six months?
  • OnePlus 6 vs. OnePlus 5: Should you upgrade?
  • These are the official OnePlus 6 cases
  • The OnePlus 6 doesn’t work on Verizon or Sprint
  • Join the discussion in the forums

31
May

Pixelmator Pro Gains New Exporting Tools, Auto Color Adjustments and Touch Bar Support


Pixelmator Pro, a graphics and image editing app from the Pixelmator team, received its first major update today to introduce new features that include MacBook Pro Touch Bar support, new tools for exporting images, auto color adjustment options, a Tutorials page, and more.

The app now includes full support for the Touch Bar on recent 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models, providing quick access to tools for making color adjustments, choosing effect presets, selecting colors for brushes, and more. The Touch Bar has been designed to offer up the most useful options whenever you switch to a new tool.

New Export for Web features are designed to allow users to prepare and optimize images for the web with advanced compression techniques in just a few clicks. The Pixelmator team says these tools compress images to the smallest size possible without a loss of quality.

Quick Export offers up a web-friendly image optimized with your most-used settings, while a new Slice tool is meant to make it easier to create web designs by slicing images into smaller images with the option of optimizing each one separately.


There are new Auto White Balance, Auto Lightness, and Auto Hue & Saturation tools that are powered by machine learning. These tools are meant to let users make one-click adjustments to optimize photos. Pixelmator says its machine learning algorithm was trained on millions of images to identify the contents of a photo and select the best lighting, contrast, and colors.


Other new features in Pixelmator Pro include support for opening and exporting vector images using the SVG format, support for exporting HEIF images, live previews when formatting text or tweaking layer blend options, a Select Color Range tool for selecting similarly colored areas of an image, and a whole new Tutorials page designed to help new users learn the ins and outs of Pixelmator Pro.

Dozens of other tweaks and bug fixes have been added, with release notes available on the Pixelmator Pro website.

Pixelmator Pro, which requires macOS High Sierra and a Metal-compatible graphics card, can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $59.99. [Direct Link]

Tag: Pixelmator
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31
May

Xiaomi Unveils Mi 8 Smartphone With iPhone X-Like Notch Design, Vertical Dual-Lens Camera System, and Animated Emoji Features


Chinese technology firm Xiaomi held a product launch event in Shenzhen today and unveiled the Mi 8, a 6.21-inch OLED smartphone that most observers would agree bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple’s flagship iPhone X.

Xiaomi’s Mi 8 isn’t the first recent smartphone to sport an iPhone X-esque notch and probably won’t be the last, but there are several other similarities between the two devices that are worth highlighting.

Xiaomi’s eighth-anniversary Mi 8 AMOLED smartphone
For example, the cellular signal, battery, and Wi-Fi symbols sit either side of the notch, just like in iOS 11. In addition, the higher-tier Mi 8 model features the Xiaomi equivalent of Animojis as well as facial authentication – two tentpole features of Apple’s iPhone X.

Flipping over the Mi 8 reveals a rear dual-lens camera system in vertical orientation, giving the back of the device an appearance that could be easily mistaken for Apple’s smartphone.

The naming convention that Xiaomi has chosen for its new phone also arguably takes a page out of Apple’s playbook – the Mi 8 follows the company’s previous Mi 6 model, jumping a number in order to mark Xiaomi’s eighth anniversary in the smartphone business.

Apple’s iPhone X, pronounced “ten”, skipped the number 9 and adopted the more flashy Roman numeral to reflect its next-generation technology, while also being a nod to the iPhone’s tenth anniversary.

In terms of specs, the Mi 8 packs a 20-mexapixel front-facing camera, while the rear dual-lens array features two 12-megapixel cameras. Xiaomi claims the device’s onboard dual GPS enhances location accuracy. This is also the first Android smartphone to use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 845 chipset, which features on-device AI processing and a Gigabit LTE X20 modem.

Xiaomi’s eighth-anniversary Mi 8 AMOLED smartphone
The company also announced a premium Explorer version of the Mi 8, which comes with a pressure-sensitive integrated finger scanner and a semi-transparent rear chassis.

Xiaomi’s devices, ranging from televisions to tablets, have been publicly criticized in the past for heavily borrowing design elements from Apple’s iPhones and iPads and adopting marketing materials tactics similar to Apple’s.

In the most recent case just last year, Apple won the right to prevent Xiaomi from registering its “Mi Pad” mobile tablet device as an EU trademark because the name was deemed too similar to Apple’s iPad.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 will be available in China starting 5 and 8 June, starting at RMB 2699 ($420), with a smaller 5.88-inch sized ‘SE’ model priced from 1799 RMB (or $280). The Mi 8 Explorer Edition is priced at RMB 3699 ($520) and will be available at a later date.

Xiaomi has recently made a push into European markets, so it stands to reason that the company’s latest smartphones will make their way over there in the not-too-distant future. Xiaomi hopes to enter into the U.S. smartphone market by the end of the year.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTag: XiaomiBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Neutral)
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31
May

‘Philips Hue Sync’ App Launches for Mac and PC to Sync Lights With Movies, Music, and Games


A few days after updating its iOS app to version 3.0, Philips Hue today is launching the “Philips Hue Sync” app for Mac and PC computers. Using the app, users can sync their Hue lights to films, music, and games that they’re interacting with for an even more “immersive experience,” according to the company.

The app works by creating light scripts for nearby Hue lights, based on screen-grabbed content from the Mac and what Philips calls a “smart color algorithm.” With this information gathered, the app then matches the chosen Hue lights to the on-screen action of games and films in real time.

For music, Philips Hue Sync creates light scripts based on the beat and type of song “on the fly,” and matches the playing music with dynamic lighting effects. Any of these features can be further customized, including brightness levels, “immersion controls” from subtle to intense, and a mode change for easily switching out the color pallet.


To set up the app, users will need to create a new entertainment area within the updated Philips Hue app on iOS or Android devices. Entertainment areas can encompass everything from one Hue bulb to a collection of devices like Hue Light Strips and table lamps (totaling up to 10 lights), but they most be color capable. Then simply download the Philips Hue Sync app for Mac, connect to a bridge, and choose the new entertainment area in the start-up menu.

Following the 3.0 iOS app update and the new Sync app for Mac, Philips is planning a line of Hue lights for outdoors that will be coming in July. With the outdoor Hue bulbs, users can connect and control their lighting on a patio, balcony, or other environments outside. The new lights include the Philips Hue Lily, which can be used to highlight key features in a garden, and the Philips Hue Calla, which can be placed in the ground and light pathways through outdoor spaces.

Tag: Philips Hue
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31
May

Drone-delivered meals come to Shanghai, but they’re dropped off by … a human?


Ele.me

Drone-delivered meals is now a thing in Shanghai with a new service launching in recent days on the outskirts of the Chinese city.

Hungry folks living and working in Shanghai’s Jinshan Industrial Park can now fire up an app, choose their lunch or dinner, and have it delivered by … a human being.

OK, let us explain.

The drone service isn’t door to door. Instead, ele.me — the Alibaba-owned company operating the service — is using the technology to increase delivery speeds by flying meals along 17 pre-defined routes, bypassing busy roads that would ordinarily ensure your meal arrives late as well as cold. The industrial park covers an area of about 22 square miles ( 58 square km) and ele.me claims it can deliver meals within just 20 minutes of being ordered, the South China Morning Post reports.

It works like this: You use the app to select a meal from one of 100 food outlets in the area. When the meal is ready, a delivery rider collects it and takes it a short distance to the nearest drone station. The drone carries the meal to the drone station nearest to your location. Another delivery rider takes the food to your door.

Ele.me said at a launch event that the drone service will reduce its operating costs by a significant amount compared to regular road-based delivery, adding that it has the potential to boost the income of its delivery personnel by as much as five times.

With a growing number of delivery companies grappling to find a workable drone platform that’s both safe and efficient, ele.me’s solution seems to fit the bill. With regulatory bodies worried about chaos in the skies, flying drones along fixed routes to drone stations seems like a logical approach until an effective drone air traffic control system can be devised, especially for urban areas. Other companies, Airbus among them, are looking at similar setups for package delivery by drone. Another bonus is that the system should prevent the rapid offloading of delivery personnel.

Ele.me, meanwhile, clearly sees technology as vital to its future success. Last year, it unveiled a food-delivery robot for so-called last mile deliveries inside office buildings. Chief operating officer Kang Jia said this week that his company is looking to introduce its second-generation food delivery robots, which will cover more than 500 office buildings in major Chinese cities, later this year.

Editors’ Recommendations

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  • Volkswagen tests autonomous parking, aims for 2020 commercial launch
  • Walmart makes good on its grocery delivery promise in North Carolina city
  • Uber kills UberRush on-demand delivery service


31
May

Moto G6, G6 Play, and G6 Plus: Everything you need to know!


moto-g6-plus-g6-g6-play-2.jpg?itok=NMUUi

It has six Gs. Count ’em.

Motorola’s new Moto G6 series isn’t a reinvention of the product line exactly, but it moves the brand further in that luxury budget category so many companies, from Honor to Xiaomi, are vying to win.

There are three new phones in the series — the Moto G6, G6 Plus and G6 Play — and they’re all intriguing in their own ways. Let’s take a look at what you need to know.

Read our preview, and read our review

If you want to lust after the G6 series on video, we have a hearty preview for you. If you’re ready for the full review of the G6 or G6 Plus, we have that as well. Be sure to check these out!

Moto G6 review: Finding success in compromise

Moto G6 Plus review: Motorola still masters the art of the mid-range phone

There are three to choose from

moto-g6-plus-g6-g6-play-3.jpg?itok=Cypag

The Moto G6 isn’t a single phone, but three (so far), each aimed at a different segment of the budget market.

The Moto G6 Play is the cheapest, and forgoes some of the camera fanciness for a $199 price point. It’s also made of shiny plastic instead of shiny glass. Its 720p display isn’t great, but it’s good enough in its 5.7-inch, 2:1 aspect ratio. Its rear fingerprint sensor is tucked into the Motorola batwing symbol, which is awesome.

In the middle, the Moto G6 is the one that most people will be interested in. Made of curved Gorilla Glass 3 and adorned with two rear cameras and the ability to wake and respond to voice commands without turning on the screen first. The 5.7-inch 1080p panel is bright and gorgeous, and there’s a front-facing fingerprint sensor. At $249, it’s going to be tough to beat in the budget segment.

The Moto G6 Plus, which isn’t available in North America, adds a more powerful Snapdragon processor to the mix. It’s also got a bigger 5.9-inch 1080p screen than the Moto G6, and features a slightly better camera combo, front and rear.

Moto G6, G6 Play, and G6 Plus specs

Let’s take it to 11 2:1

moto-g6-plus-front-g6-back.jpg?itok=PmOB

Every model in this year’s Moto G6 series has a 2:1 (aka 18:9) screen aspect ratio, aligning it with popular budget models like the Honor 7X and the new Nokia 6 as well as most high-end phones today.

That means the phones are each taller and narrower than their Moto G5 predecessors, but despite the significantly larger screen size on paper, there isn’t much additional usable space on the 5.7-inch Moto G6 than compared to, say, the 5.2-inch Moto G5 Plus, which has a more traditional 16:9 screen.

A glass house

moto-e6-series-18.jpg?itok=hvB2_KFR

In addition to elongating each phone, Motorola has swapped out the metal enclosures of last year’s G5 for glass — at least on the two higher-end Moto G6 phones (the G6 Play is made of a shiny plastic resin, much like the Moto E5).

The Gorilla Glass outer layer is surely more slippery and prone to picking up fingerprints, but its curves also shimmer in the light and feel more substantial, making the new Moto series much more attractive and premium-looking than their predecessors. Motorola also includes a simple clear rubberized case in the box to keep that glass looking pristine when you’re expecting to be a bit rough on the phone.

Go out and Play

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The Moto G6 Play has a 4000mAh battery which, despite the phone’s last-generation Snapdragon 427 processor, ensures that it should have multi-day battery life. More importantly, it seems to be a great phone for people who just want a no-frills Android Oreo experience.

The 13MP camera isn’t going to change the game, but in our brief time with it, it worked very well, and launched quickly.

The G6 is the G5 Plus sequel

moto-e6-series-32.jpg?itok=c9r3azeZ

It may not seem like it on paper, but the Moto G6 is the real sequel to last year’s Moto G5 Plus. It has a Snapdragon 450 platform, which seems on paper to be a step down from the G5 Plus’s Snapdragon 625, but it’s basically the same chip with only a few minor regressions, like maximum clock speed.

For U.S. buyers, the Moto G6 is actually a pretty big upgrade, owing most to the…

Camera, man

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The Moto G6 has a dual camera setup: a main 12MP sensor with an f/1.8 lens and a secondary 5MP sensor that facilitates portrait mode and a few other niceties.

Motorola is also taking the camera experience a lot more seriously than in previous generations, with an interesting Smart Camera mode that identifies objects and landmarks.

The Moto G6 Plus also has a dual camera, but its 12MP sensor has a slightly wider f/1.7 lens, and its front-facing camera has a special low-light mode that uses pixel binning to get more light from every one of its 16 megapixels.

Say it, don’t spray it

moto-e6-series-5.jpg?itok=qAktbVjt

On the Moto G6 and G6 Plus, Motorola has improved the popular Moto Voice functionality, allowing users to perform actions on the device itself (like turning off Bluetooth or starting to play a specific movie on Netflix) in addition to activating Google Assistant when necessary. The phones can also be activated by voice without turning on the screen first.

It’s a nice compromise and something that will be quite useful for those who use their phone in the car or when it’s across the room.

Get on the beta train

moto-beta-experiences-1.jpg?itok=YsHxBfV

If you’re looking to be on the forefront of Motorola innovation, you’ll soon be able to sign up for the company’s new Beta Experiences program, which promises to allow users to sign up for beta versions of Motorola’s new and upcoming software and apps. We don’t know a whole lot yet about the particulars, but it’s good to know that Motorola is taking software experiences more seriously than before.

Motorola’s new Beta Experiences program will let you test new Moto features before they’re public

Where and when can you buy them?

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The reality is that Motorola approaches each market in which it sells like a separate business, and caters the release schedule for each product to various market demographics.

The Moto G6 Play and Moto G6 are available in almost every market that Motorola operates, including the U.S. and Canada.

Unfortunately, because the Moto X4 is already so close in style and specs to the Moto G6 Plus, Motorola is choosing not to sell it in the U.S.

Where to buy the Moto G6 series in the U.S. and Canada

Should you upgrade to the Moto G6 or another phone?

moto-e6-series-33.jpg?itok=EuQ7ptJd

There are so many great budget phones to choose from, and Motorola has some stiff competition. At the same time, if you already have a Moto G5 series phone, should you upgrade?

  • Moto G6 Plus vs. Moto G5 Plus: Should you upgrade?
  • Moto G6 Plus vs. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro: Spec comparison

Grab some accessories!

The G6 you buy will already include a basic case, but you can always go a step further. There are already great accessories like cases, power banks, car chargers and more available. Be sure to check them out!

More: Best Moto G6 screen protectors

More: Best Moto G6 accessories

What’s on your priority list?

Let us know what you think about the Moto G6 series? Let us know in the comments below!

Updated May 2018: Added information regarding where to buy the G6 series, as well as links to great accessories.

31
May

The Xiaomi Mi 8 is a blatant iPhone X ripoff with a full-sized notch


The Mi 8 offers the same design as the iPhone X and top-notch internals for half the price.

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Over the last two generations, Xiaomi has introduced a glass-and-metal design aesthetic with flowing curves and rounded edges that made devices like the Mi 6 stand out. However, Xiaomi is ditching all that with its latest flagship and going back to what it does best: copying Apple.

The company unveiled the Mi 8 in China earlier today, and it’s immediately evident that the iPhone X was the “inspiration” for the device. The phone features a full-sized notch at the top of the display, which houses a complement of sensors including the 20MP front camera, proximity sensor, IR lighting module and an infrared lens, and the earpiece. Unlike the iPhone X, however, there’s still a prominent bezel at the bottom, making the design asymmetrical.

Xiaomi is offering an IR face unlock feature that works in a similar fashion to FaceID, but it isn’t as secure as Apple’s implementation or Samsung’s iris scanning tech. The phone comes with a 6.21-inch AMOLED FHD+ (2248×1080) panel, and Xiaomi is touting a maximum brightness of 600nits and 88.5% screen-to-body ratio.

xiaomi-mi-8-front.jpg?itok=N4iuYmXw

The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 845, and Xiaomi is offering dual 12MP + 12MP cameras at the back with AI scene detection. The primary sensor has OIS and large 1.4-micron pixels, and from the specs it looks like the camera is identical to the one featured in the Mi Mix 2S. That bodes well for the Mi 8, as the Mi Mix 2S has one of the best cameras I’ve used this year.

On the software front, the Mi 8 is running MIUI 10, which comes with a host of new features aimed at China. We’ll likely be seeing a global version of the ROM in the coming months.

The front camera is interesting too, as it is a 20MP unit with huge 1.8-micron pixels. There’s also a 3400mAh battery that should easily deliver a day’s worth of use.

As for the naming convention, Xiaomi says it skipped the Mi 7 and went with the Mi 8 moniker to commemorate its eighth anniversary.

xiaomi-mi-8_0.jpg?itok=1ZSdpVio

More than any other Android phone I’ve seen recently, the Mi 8 looks like a blatant copy of the iPhone X, from the notch up front to the orientation of the dual cameras at the back. The design feels like a regression from the likes of the Mi Mix 2, and with Xiaomi now having an official presence in European markets, the Mi 8 doesn’t really paint a great picture for the brand as a whole.

The phone will be making its debut in China, and will be sold in three variants: the base model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage will retail for ¥2,699 ($420), the 6GB/128GB option will cost ¥2,999 ($470), and the model with 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage will set you back ¥3,299 ($520). That’s still less than half the price of true flagships, so if you’re in the market for a phone that looks like the iPhone X for around the $500 price point, Xiaomi has you covered.

31
May

Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor and transparent back


The Mi 8 Explorer Edition is loaded with innovative tech, but you won’t be able to buy one.

xiaomi-mi-8-explorer-edition-back.jpg?it

Alongside the launch of the standard Mi 8, Xiaomi unveiled a limited edition model that offers plenty to be excited about. The Mi 8 Explorer Edition shares the same design as the standard model — it basically looks a lot like the iPhone X — but Xiaomi is rolling out an in-display fingerprint sensor, much like the Vivo X21.

Xiaomi hasn’t detailed whether it is using the same Synaptics sensor as Vivo, but the render suggests that is likely the case. The activation point for the fingerprint reader is in the lower third of the screen, just like the X21. More interestingly, the Mi 8 Explorer Edition comes with a transparent back that exposes the innards of the phone.

xiaomi-mi-8-explorer-edition.jpg?itok=en

You can view the camera module, the Snapdragon chipset, battery, and the internal connectors, and it looks very cool. The downside is that like most limited edition Xiaomi phones, the Mi 8 Explorer Edition is unlikely to make its way outside of China.

The Mi 8 Explorer Edition also comes with a 3D face unlock feature, which according to Xiaomi uses “advanced structured light technology” to accurately measure your facial details. It sounds very similar to that of FaceID on the iPhone X, but Xiaomi hasn’t mentioned if it is as secure. The standard Mi 8 has a face unlock feature as well, but it misses out on the 3D tech.

Other specs of the Mi 8 Explorer Edition include a Snapdragon 845, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, dual 12MP cameras at the back, and a 20MP front camera. The phone will go on sale in China for ¥3,699 ($580), and while that’s a crazy bargain when you consider the tech on offer, the device will be sold in extremely limited quantities.

31
May

The $280 Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is the world’s first phone with a Snapdragon 710


The Mi 8 SE is designed to maximize value.

xiaomi-mi-8-se.jpg?itok=eBT7KkoF

Xiaomi has unveiled two phones at its launch event in Shenzhen: the Mi 8 and a Mi 8 Explorer Edition, which has an in-display fingerprint reader and a transparent back.

The Chinese manufacturer is rolling out a third variant dubbed the Mi 8 SE that’s aimed at a lower price point. The standard Mi 8 starts off at the equivalent of $420, but the Mi 8 SE will cost just $280. The phone shares a similar aesthetic as the standard Mi 8, but the highlight is that it marks the global debut of the Snapdragon 710, Qualcomm’s latest mid-tier chipset.

The Snapdragon 710 is aimed at delivering flagship-class performance at the mid-range segment, with the chipset offering eight Kryo cores in a 4×4 configuration. The four performance cores go up to 2.2GHz, and the four energy-efficient cores are clocked at 1.7GHz. The chipset also enables AI capabilities similar to that of the Snapdragon 845.

As for the device itself, the Mi 8 SE comes with a 5.8-inch AMOLED panel, dual 12MP + 5MP cameras at the back, 20MP front shooter, and a 3120mAh battery. All three devices Xiaomi unveiled today run MIUI 10 out of the box, which is based on Android 8.0 Oreo.

The Mi 8 SE will go up for sale in China next month for ¥1,799, or $280. There’s no information regarding global availability yet, but we should know more in the coming weeks.