- Android 6.0 Marshmallow
9
Feb
Huawei, Best Buy, and Newegg join Amazon in selling the GX8
At the end of last week, Huawei’s somewhat new GX8 became available in the United States through Amazon. Now, the phone, which costs $349 off-contract, can be bought through an additional three retailers as Huawei is expanding their reach in the country. Huawei itself along with Best Buy and Newegg are joining Amazon in selling the GX8 to U.S. consumers.
The GX8 comes with a 5.5-inch Full HD (1920×1080) TFT display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 13MP / 5MP cameras, a 3000mAh battery, and Android 5.1 Lollipop smothered in Huawei’s EMUI 3.3 software overlay. So what’s the difference between this phone and the new Honor 5x? Not much outside of price. The Honor 5X costs around $150 less than the GX8. It’s also guaranteed that the Honor 5X will receive a software update to raise its version to Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Huawei, Best Buy, and Amazon are all selling the GX8 for $349; however, Newegg has a special promotional price where you can get the phone for $299. Newegg is also throwing in a 64GB microSD card as part of a limited time offer that might just last until the pre-order label is removed. If you prefer to buy device in-store though, head over to your local Best Buy because the electronics retailer is the exclusive in-store seller of the GX8.
While all models have the same 16GB of internal storage, you do get to choose a color. The Huawei GX8 comes in Horizon Gold, Mystic Champagne, and Space Grey.
[Huawei] [Best Buy] [Newegg] [Amazon]
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6
Feb
Here are the videos you don’t want to miss this week – February 6, 2016
It hasn’t been all too busy in the Android world this week, but our video team has been hard at work to bring you some wonderful Android-related coverage.
This was a very comparison-heavy week. Josh just published his big Huawei Mate 8 vs Nexus 6P comparison, Lanh compared the honor 5X, OnePlus X and Nexus 5X, and Gary did a great job at comparing all of the fast charging standards out there. That’s not all though – Bailey got a chance to review the new BLU Vivo XL, Gary took an in-depth look at what’s inside the Kirin 950 processor, and Joe rounded up the best Android apps of the week.
Alright, I’m done talking your ear off. Without any more delay, here are the videos you don’t want to miss this week.
Comparisons
Huawei Mate 8 vs Nexus 6P
The Huawei Mate 8 and the Nexus 6P are two of the manufacturer’s best smartphones to date. But how do they compare against one another? Be sure to check out Josh’s full comparison of the Mate 8 and Nexus 6P.
honor 5X vs Nexus 5X vs OnePlus X
The new honor 5X and OnePlus X are both available for under $250, but how do they compare with this year’s inexpensive Nexus device? Join Lanh as he compares the honor 5X, OnePlus X and the Nexus 5X.
Fast charging standards compared
With so many fast charging standards out there (Qualcomm Quick Charge, OPPO VOOC, MediaTek PumpExpress+, Motorola TurboPower), how can you tell which one is the best? Gary compares all of these standards and tries to figure out which fast charging method is the best out there.
BLU Vivo XL review
We don’t normally see AMOLED displays, full 4G LTE coverage and full day battery life on sub-$150 smartphones, but that’s not the case for the BLU Vivo XL. Of course, a smartphone that’s this inexpensive doesn’t come without its flaws, but is the low price point enough to make it a good value? Check out Bailey’s full review of the BLU Vivo XL.
An in-depth look at the Cortex-A72 and Mali T880
One of the key CPU core designs for 2016 is the Cortex-A72, which can be found in the Kirin 950. The question is, how well does it perform? Gary explains everything you need to know in his informative video attached above and written portion below.
Android Apps Weekly
Spotify gets video, Final Fantasy IX gameplay, VR for all! – you don’t want to miss the latest episode of Joe’s Android Apps Weekly show.
5
Feb
In-depth look: Just how good are the Cortex-A72 and Mali T880 in the Kirin 950?
One of the key CPU core designs for 2016 (and beyond) is the Cortex-A72. Designed by ARM, it was announced at the beginning of 2015 and during the summer I got a chance to talk with the lead designer, Mike Filippo. Robert Triggs also wrote a deeper analysis of the A72’s core architecture. The Cortex-A72 is ARM’s second generation 64-bit core design and ARM wanted to achieve three main goals with the design:
- Push the performance up for the next generation of phones and mobile products.
- Pull the power down significantly so that it can sustain maximum frequency performance for longer.
- Reduce the area of the design, which contributes to the reduction in power, but also enables low cost designs as well.
As with many industries, going from design to product is a long process and now at the beginning of 2016 we are starting to see the first smartphones with
System-on-a-Chips (SoCs) using the Cortex-A72. One of the first is the Huawei Mate 8 with its Kirin 950 processor.
The Kirin 950 is an octa-core processor that includes 4 Cortex-A72 cores, clocked at 2.3GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores, clock at 1.8GHz, an ARM Mali T880 GPU and Huawei’s i5 co-processor. It is build on a 16nm FinFET+ process node and is said to be 30% more efficient than the Kirin 930. According to Huawei this means that the CPU uses at least 20% lower power and has 11% higher performance than ARM’s previous generation of core design.
See also: Huawei Mate 8 review
As for the GPU, the Mali T880 is ARM’s latest generation of GPU which offers up to 1.8x the performance of the 2014 Mali T760 GPU, while boasting up to a 40% energy reduction. As well as the CPU and GPU, the Kirin 950 also includes the i5 co-processor. It supports all the functions of a sensor hub as well as speech recognition, MP3 playback, and Fused Location Provider (FLP) navigation.
So this is all great in terms of theory, ARM designed a faster, more efficient CPU core and Huawei turned that design into a faster, more power efficient chip. But what about the real world? How does it perform?
I recently got my hands on a Huawei Mate 8 and I have been running a large variety of tests on the phone to see what kind of performance levels this latest generation of SoC can deliver.
Benchmarking
To test the Kirin 950 I have performed different types of performance testing. First, I use the standard benchmarks which are available from the Google Play store including AnTuTu, Geekbench, CPU Prime Benchmark, Epic Citadel, and 3DMark. Second, I used some benchmarks that are closer to real world scenarios, like the Kraken Javascript test. Third, I used my own benchmark tools, which I wrote, so that I can independently verify the other results.
The standard benchmarks
Here is a table of the CPU focused benchmarks, alongside the scores for the Exynos 7420 (as found in the Note 5) and the Snapdragon 810 (as found in the Sony Z5 Compact):
| AnTuTu | CPU Prime Benchmark | Geekbench | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirin 950 | 91087 | 31108 | 1772 (single-core) 6089 (multi-core) |
| Exynos 7420 | 77989 | 22862 | 1504 (single-core) 5258 (multi-core) |
| Snapdragon 810 | 76497 | 20771 | 1385 (single-core) 4295 (multi-core) |
As we can see the Cortex-A72 in the Kirin 950 performs excellently. The AnTuTu, CPU Prime Benchmark and Geekbench scores are all higher than the Exynos 7420 and the Snapdragon 810, both of which have Cortex-A57 cores. Of particular interest is the increase in the single-core performance scores from Geekbench.
But what about the GPU, do we see similar gains? Here is a table of the GPU test results, along with the comparison results:
| Epic Citadel | 3DMark – Sling Shot (using ES 3.1) | 3DMark – Ice Storm Unlimited (ES 2.0) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirin 950 | 59 fps at 1800 x 1080 in Ultra High Qualiry mode. | 923 | 19026 |
| Exynos 7420 | 49.2 fps at 2560 x 1440 in Ultra High Qualiry mode. | 1278 | 25073 |
| Snapdragon 810 | 58.5 fps at 1200 x 720 in Ultra High Qualiry mode. | 1168 | 27160 |
So while the CPU part of the Kirin 950 is clearly leading the way, it seems that the GPU is actually slightly behind. I don’t know if this is a software optimization issue, an implementation issue that is particular to the Kirin 950, but I was expecting more from the Mali T880.
More like the real world
In the hope of moving slightly closer to read world scenarios I ran two JavaScript benchmarks using the latest version of Chrome for Android. Kraken was created by Mozilla and measures the speed of several different test cases extracted from real-world applications and libraries. Octane is from Google and has similar goals.
| Kraken (lower is better) | Google Octane | |
|---|---|---|
| Kirin 950 | 3524 | 10868 |
| Exynos 7420 | 3753 | 9174 |
| Snapdragon 810 | 4253 | 9100 |
Like the CPU tests earlier, here we can yet again see the improvements that the Cortex-A72 brings when compared to the Cortex-A57. The Mate 8 is faster for both Kraken and Octane when compared to the Cortex-A57 based processors.
My benchmarks
To make sure that everything is fair, I have also written my own benchmarks. I use these mainly to check that the results I am getting from the popular testing apps are genuine. The first of my custom benchmarks tests the CPU without using the GPU. It is a four stage test that first calculates 100 SHA1 hashes on 4K of data, then it performs a large bubble sort on an array of 9000 items. Thirdly, it shuffles a large table one million times, and lastly it calculates the first 10 million primes. The total time needed to do all those things is displayed at the end of the test run. The results are below in the “Hashes, bubble sorts, tables and primes” column. Note that lower is better for this test.
See also: SoC showdown: Snapdragon 810 vs Exynos 7420 vs MediaTek Helio X10 vs Kirin 935
The second of my three custom benchmarks uses a 2D physics engine to simulate water being poured into a container. The idea here is that while the GPU will be used slightly for the 2D graphics, most of the work will be carried out by the CPU. The complexity of so many droplets of water will exercise the CPU. One drop of water is added every frame and the app is designed to run at 60 frames per second. The benchmark measures how many droplets are actually processed and how many are missed. The maximum score is 5400.
My third benchmark is written in Unity3D. It is a terrain flyover that yields a frame per second score for a pre-programmed pass over the rendered world.
| Hashes, bubble sorts, tables and primes (lower is better) | Water simulation (best score is 5400) | Terrain 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirin 950 | 19074 | 5400 | 3543 total frames, 22.83 |
| Exynos 7420 | 30370 | 5349 | 3432 total frames, 21.48 fps |
| Snapdragon 810 | 22937 | 5222 | 4800 total frames, 42.22 fps |
As we can see the Kirin 950 performs better than the other two devices for the hashes etc test. In fact the Kirin 950 is 37% faster than the Exynos 7420 in this particular test. The Note 5 held the record for my water simulation benchmark, until the Mate 8 came along. The Exynos 7420 scores 5359, just slightly shy of the maximum score, however the Mate 8 hits the jackpot. This is great news for Huawei, however it is terrible news for me, as it means I will need to re-write the benchmark for 2016’s flag ship devices!
As for the Unity3D test, the Sony Z5 Compact comes out top due to its 720p screen resolution. It is followed by the Mate 8 and then the Note 5. However it is worth noting that the Mate 8 has a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 which is lower than the Note 5’s 2560 x 1440. This means that if the Kirin 950 was driving a display akin to the Note 5’s display then it would be slower than the Note 5 overall.
Wrap-up
So what does this all mean? Firstly we can see that the CPU part of the Kirin 950 has pushed the performance envelope to new heights and clearly the Cortex-A72 is a significant improvement over the Cortex-A57. However the Kirin 950 seems to be weaker than expected on the GPU side. We won’t know if this is a software optimization issue, or an implementation issue until either Huawei releases some software updates for the Mate 8, or we see other SoCs using the Mali-T880 but with better performance.
Overall it is safe to say that the next generation of mobile SoCs are upon us and that they are faster, leaner and more efficient!
5
Feb
Huawei launches the GX8 in the United States for $349.99
Last month, Huawei announced it was planning to launch a revamped model of the G8 in the United States. This was pretty significant news as it would only be the second smartphone the manufacturer has released in the region. Unfortunately, the firm failed to supply a date for the device to hit the shelves. However, the GX8 made its debut on Amazon earlier today in three gorgeous colorways — Horizontal Gold, Mystic Champagne and Space Grey — with a $349.99 price tag attached.
It’s important to bear in mind that this is a factory unlocked GX8, so it will only work on GSM carriers like T-Mobile and AT&T, but not with CDMA operators like Verizon and Sprint. It does, however, support 4G on the two main compatible networks, which is great news if you’re in the market for an affordable mid-range LTE handset. A full list of supported carrier bands can be seen below:
- 2G Network: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
- 3G Network: 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
- 4G Network: LTE 2100 (B1), 1900 (B2), 1800 (B3), AWS (B4), 850 (B5), 2600 (B7), 900 (B8), 700 (B12), 700 (B17), 800 (B18), 800 (B19), 800 (B20), 800 (B26)
Just in case you need a refresher on its specifications, the GX8 packs a 5.5-inch Full HD display, a Snapdragon 615 octa-core CPU, an Adreno 405 GPU, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable internal storage, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 5-megapixel selfie shooter, a 3,000mAh non-removable battery and a biometric scanner.
For more information on picking up a Huawei GX8 in the US, hit the source link below.
Source: Amazon
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5
Feb
Deezer partners with Huawei to bring music streaming to millions
A full third of the world’s population operates on Huawei’s mobile network, and since Deezer is the world’s leading web-based music streaming service, a deal between the two is a match made in heaven. Today Huawei announced that Deezer’s catalogue of over 40 million tracks, podcasts, and audiobooks would be arriving stock on honor devices going forward.
In case you don’t know, Deezer is a worldwide music streaming service currently making waves in over 180 countries. It boasts over 6 million subscribers, and uses curated playlists and algorithmic recommendations to help users discover new music that they will love. The Paris-based company makes their streaming services available on tablets, PCs, home sound systems, and now Huawei honor smartphones.
OUR HONOR REVIEWS
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“Honor customers are always looking to find new ways to be entertained on their mobile devices. And Deezer is at the forefront of innovation and entertainment,” said Liu Dan, Chief Strategy Officer and VP of honor, Huawei Consumer Group. “We are delighted to partner with Deezer as its extensive selection and variety of music and audio services will no doubt, surprise and delight our customers.”
What are your thoughts regarding Deezer’s partnership with Huawei? Do you own a Huawei device or subscribe to Deezer’s streaming music services? If so, let us know how your experience with either has been so far in the comments below!
4
Feb
Huawei teases the Honor 7 Premium, coming to Europe later this year
Fresh from launching the Honor 5X in Europe today from just €229/£169, Huawei is not content to rest on its laurels. With the Honor 7 having proven popular in Europe, the Chinese electronics manufacturer has today announced it will be launching a new version of the handset, called the Honor 7 Premium. It might not be an entirely original name, but if it follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, Huawei could be on to another winner.
Details were scarce, but the gist of the announcement is that the Honor 7 Premium will sport 32GB of internal storage, feature a 9A/2A fast charger in the box, as well as being available in Golden or Mystery Grey. Other than that, it’s anyone’s guess whether it will stick to the 5.2 form factor seen in the original model or perhaps increase in size as is the trend nowadays. Other unanswered questions include whether Huawei will continue to use its own Kirin processor, or will it source a unit from Qualcomm as they did with the Honor 5X?
What features would you like to see in the Honor 7 Premium? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. We’ll have a couple more Honor related posts later this evening, once the event is done and dusted.
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4
Feb
Huawei’s Honor 5X is now available in Europe from €229/£169
Today is February 4th, which means it’s the day that the European launch of Huawei’s Honor 5X at an event held in Munich, Germany. In the States, the handset launched with a budget-friendly $199 price tag, while in Europe it has been announced that the 5.5-inch Honor 5X is priced at €229 in Europe, or £169 in the UK. Join us after the break for a brief rundown on the handset’s hardware.
The Honor 5X features a 5.5-inch Full HD display using IPS technology, Snapdragon 616 processor, 2GB of RAM, rear fingerprint scanner, 16GB of internal storage that is expandable by up to 128GB thanks to the included MicroSD card slot. There’s dual-SIM functionality as well. Some of you may have noticed the bump in spec, in that the Honor 5X was originally slated to use the Snapdragon 615, but is now using the updated version, the 616. The difference in processor means that the lower quad-core runs a smidge higher, thus providing a little extra grunt. Providing the power is a 3,000mAh non-removable battery. Moving on, and the Honor 5X carries a 13MP rear camera with LED flash, with an 8MP front camera for those selfie pictures.
The handset runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with Huawei’s EMUI 3.1 skin on top, an update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow has already been confirmed, although the ETA has not been set presently.
The Honor 5X supports all European network bands, so theres no worries that it won’t support your network’s 4G bands. The Honor 5X also supports WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz only).
Besides being priced at €229/£169, the Honor 5X will launch in Gold, Silver and Grey variants from Honor’s own web store, vMall.eu, as well as Amazon.
What do you think of the Honor 5X? Is it the smart choice for the budget-conscious consumer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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4
Feb
honor 5X vs honor 7 quick look
Chinese OEM honor may have only been around for a couple of years, but the Huawei subsidiary has recently been trying to make a splash in global markets. Last month, it introduced the new honor 5X to the US market at CES and today at an event in Germany, the honor 5X made its Western European bow.
It’s been a year since honor released the honor 6 and honor 6 plus and last August, we saw the first switch to metal with the honor 7. Now, the honor 5X aims to offer a premium experience at a very affordable price, but how does it compare to honor’s flagship and which one should you buy? Join us below for a quick look.
Specs
Before we dig into our first look, let’s take a look at the specs of each of these smartphones:
| honor 5X | honor 7 | |
|---|---|---|
| Display | 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution, 401ppi TP & LCD full lamination |
5.2-inch IPS LCD Full HD, 424 ppi |
| Processor | Octa-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 Adreno 405 GPU |
2.2 GHz octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 935 processor Mali-T628 GPU |
| Memory | 2GB | 3 GB |
| Internal Storage | 16GB expandable up to 128GB via microSD |
16/64 GB expandable up to 128GB |
| Software | Android 5.1.1 Lollipop EMUI v3.1 Planned upgrade to Android Marshmallow |
Android 5.1.1 Lollipop EMUI v3.1 Planned upgrade to Android Marshmallow |
| Dual SIM | Yes, 2 SIM cards and microSD card | Yes, 2 SIM cards or 1 SIM + micro SD |
| Camera | 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, SmartImage 3.0 image processor, 28mm wide angle lens with flash 5MP front camera with f/2.4 aperture, 22mm wide angle dual LED flash 5MP front, no flash |
20 MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, 1/2.4″ sensor size, phase detection autofocus dual LED flash 8 MP front,with flash |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, 2.4QG Bluetooth 4.1 microUSB 2.0 GPS, AGPS, Glonass |
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.0 GPS+GLONASS NFC IR blaster USB 2.0 |
| Sensors | Fingerprint sensor, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Digital compass | Fingerprint sensor, Accelerometer, Gyrometer, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Digital compass |
| Battery | 3000mAh, non-removable | 3100mAh, non-removable |
| Dimensions | 151.3 x 76.3 x 8.15mm 158g |
143.2 x 71.9 x 8.5 mm 157 grams |
| Colors | Dark Grey, Daybreak Silver, Sunset Gold | Gray, Silver, Gold |
Design
Both handsets adopt a similar design with large displays and equally large bezels dominating the front of the handset. As you might expect, they adopt a similar design to Huawei’s own smartphones, albeit with enough tweaks to have their own identity. Put close together, you might struggle to distinguish them apart, however, as you might expect from two similar yet unique smartphones, there are certain things that can help you tell them apart.
On the front is the most noticeable difference: the display. The honor 5X has a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS display while the honor 7 sports a smaller 5.2-inch IPS-Neo display of the same resolution, but crucially, this comes with Gorilla Glass 3 protection. In actual usage, the honor 7 display is noticeably more vibrant with colours and while the honor 5X display is definitely inferior, it still provides a good experience. Each handset comes with a screen protector applied out of the box, and while you’ll have few issues if you remove the protector on the honor 7, the honor 5X display does scratch quite easily.
One of the most noticeable differences is the Smart Key on the left of the Honor 7, which lets you set customisable shortcuts to launch certain apps or features but has been left out of the honor 5X. Given the lower price of the 5X, certain sacrifices are to be expected and as useful as the Smart Key can prove to be, it’s an acceptable sacrifice.
Each phone sports a metal frame, where on the bottom, you’ll find the speakers – a mono speaker in the honor 7 and stereo speakers in the honor 5X – and microUSB ports. On the left, you’ll find the SIM card tray and a key difference: the honor 7 has two independent trays, with the first used for SIM cards and the second for a microSD card or a second SIM card. In comparison, the honor 5X has just one tray but gains an extra slot; while many handsets do offer dual SIM support, only a handful allow you to use two SIM cards and a microSD card at the same time.
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Both handsets offer metal unibody designs, with the honor 7 sporting a matte finish, and the honor 5X a brushed design. While the honor 7 feels premium in every sense of the word, the honor 5x… doesn’t. It’s difficult to explain why, but despite being very well built, the honor 5x doesn’t feel like a premium metal smartphone. That being said, it’s still a very nice design and more than solid in the hand.
Underneath the camera, each device has a square fingerprint sensor and this is an area that Huawei – like we saw with the Nexus 6P – and subsequently, honor, definitely excel in the smartphone market. The honor 7 bought a range of features to the fingerprint sensor including being able to launch a call or app and the honor 5X also has a few tricks up its own sleeve. Different taps and swipes on the sensor can be used to navigate back to the home screen, access recent apps, dismiss your alarm, answer calls, take a photo and much more.
It’s worth noting though that while both fingerprint sensors do offer a lot of features, and are exceptionally fast at unlocking your phone, you won’t be able to use them for Android Pay. As both devices also run Android 5.1.1 at their core – although, the honor 7 is expected to get the Marshmallow update in the coming weeks – you won’t be able to access any apps that use Marshmallow’s built-in fingerprint API.
Overall, hardware has been a strength for Huawei for a few years now and as we’ve seen with the honor 7, and now the honor 5x, the company can offer great hardware at an affordable price.
Software
An issue that’s faced both honor and Huawei devices, is the interface with EMUI proving to provide polarized opinions. Both devices run on EMUI v3.1 atop Android 5.1.1 Lollipop but is it any better than previous interface and have some glaring issues been fixed?
One of the biggest differences between EMUI and a more traditional Android approach is the home-screen and launcher, where Huawei has opted to ditch the traditional app drawer and place all your app icons on your home screens. While some of you may find this disconcerting, it does become usable after you get used to it and you can always install a launcher to change some of these elements.
EMUI also heavily customises the notification menu, with it adopting a dark opaque colour that also takes on the colours from the home screen in the background. The notification menu comes with two tabs, one for Notifications and the other for Shortcuts, and a particularly neat feature is that it will automatically open the shortcuts tab if you swipe down and have no notifications.
See also: Huawei, I love your phones — just fix your software, please
The differences are minimal between the two on the software front, but the honor 7 does come with a range of software features that are – oddly – missing on the honor 5X. These include the Knuckle Sense feature that let you capture a screenshot or launching an app by drawing a letter or tapping with your knuckle on the display.
Also absent is the voice command feature that allowed you to locate your phone from a distance, and while missing features are always worth mentioning, it’s worth noting that these features aren’t the most reliable. Instead, the honor 5X offers a more simplified experience that is actually more pleasing to use than EMUI on the honor 7.
Overall, EMUI is certainly not stock Android, but Huawei’s approach does have its fans and the software experience from the honor 7 to the honor 5X has definitely been improved. The latter offers a more refined interface and while both do still have their issues, it’s good to see that Huawei is making progress in the software department. Neither smartphone runs the latest Marshmallow OS, but the update is already available as a beta for the honor 7 and is expected to launch for the honor 5X in the coming months.
Hardware & Performance
Under the hood is where you’ll find a major change from the honor 7 to the honor 5x; the processor. With the former, honor opted to use Huawei’s own HiSilicon Kirin processor, while the latter is powered by a Qualcomm processor.
The Kirin 935 inside the honor 7 features eight Cortex-A53 cores, with four clocked at 2.2GHz and four at 1.5GHz, while the Snapdragon 616 inside the honor 5X has the same amount of cores at lower clock speeds of 1.5GHz and 1.2GHz respectively. The honor 7 sports 3GB RAM under the hood while the honor 5X has just 2GB but a crucial difference is also the GPU; the Kirin 935 has a Mali-T628 GPU while the honor 5X has an Adreno 405 GPU, which should, in theory, offer better graphics performance.
Both smartphones also come with expandable storage and the honor 7 has either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB storage depending on which model you go for. The honor 5X meanwhile offers 16GB storage across all models, meaning you’ll most likely need a microSD card to expand the measly storage.
See also: Best cheap Android phones (January 2016)
Given the price differences between the two devices, some concessions were to be expected, and under the hood is where honor has attempted to scale back some of the features. The honor 7 offers Wi-Fi n/ac, a wide range of Bluetooth profiles, NFC, infrared and LTE Cat 6, which offers download speeds of 300Mbps on the go. In comparison, the honor 5X offers just Wi-Fi n and doesn’t come with support for 5GHz wireless, has no NFC or infrared capability and supports the slower, yet still very fast, LTE Cat 4.
Where both smartphones certainly excel is the battery, with the honor 5X offering a large 3000 mAh battery, and the honor 7, a 3100mAh battery. Compared to other devices at the same price point as these devices, the battery capacity is definitely on the larger side of the market and each smartphone should easily last you a full day’s usage.
Camera
On the back, each handset has a square camera sensor and the honor 5X follows on from the honor 7’s camera fantastic camera, albeit not without some compromises. Budget smartphones aren’t known for having fantastic cameras, but honor has sought to break the mould by equipping the honor 5X with a 13MP shooter with f/2.0 aperture, 28mm wide-angle lens, blue glass infrared filter, anti-reflective coating and Huawei’s SmartImage 3.0 image processor for low light shots.
In comparison, the honor 7 comes with a 20MP 27mm wide-angle lens with f/2.0 aperture, 1/2.4” sensor size, phase detection autofocus and a range of software features including the super-night and light-trail modes. Both handsets offer dual LED flash and Full HD video recording but only the honor 7 offers HDR in video.
honor 5X camera samples
On the front, the honor 5X has a 5MP sensor with 22mm wide angle lens, f/2.4 aperture while the honor 7 has an 8MP sensor with 26mm wide angle lens, f/2.4 and an LED flash. Both devices also come with Huawei’s Beauty Mode feature that lets you apply effects and filters to your selfies to bring out your face’s natural features.
honor 7 camera samples
Overall, both cameras are certainly impressive for their respective price points and there’s no doubt that the honor 7 camera is one of the best at the price point. Where honor have done exceptionally well however, is in the camera on the honor 5X; it’s rare that budget smartphones have cameras worth talking about, but, despite its shortcomings, the honor 5X camera definitely breaks the theory that budget smartphones should have poor cameras.
Verdict
There’s no doubt that the honor 7 is a smartphone that’s helped honor capture the mid-range market and to follow it up, the company has attempted to take on the budget segment. With a 5.5-inch 1080p display, metal build, excellent fingerprint sensor and impressive camera, there’s a lot to like about the honor 5X before you even see its price point.
Throughout this quick look, we’ve been talking about the price without mentioning it and there’s a very good reason for that; the honor 5X feature set may seem like it should cost $300 or more for an unlocked device, honor’s latest smartphone costs just $199 unlocked, direct from the Chinese OEM. In comparison, the honor 7 isn’t officially available to buy in the USA – not least from honor directly – but can be had for approximately $350 to $450 depending on where you choose to buy from.
Which smartphone should you buy? It’s a rather straight forward decision; at its price point, the honor 7 has a lot of competition from a lot of more established devices, including last year’s flagships and becomes a lot harder to recommend. However, at its $199 price point, there’s very few devices that can compete with the honor 5X’s feature list and none that offer the same metal build and ultrafast fingerprint sensor.
Read more:
For more on each handset, be sure to head over to our honor 7 and honor 5X reviews. Let us know what you think about each smartphone and which you’d buy in the comments below and over in our honor forum, where you’ll find more discussions around honor and the company’s devices.
4
Feb
Huawei ships 10 million P8 Lite handsets globally, sees record-breaking sales in January
Huawei announced that it has shipped over 10 million units of the P8 Lite handset, a milestone that they have achieved only 9 months after the handset’s launch in Europe last year. That’s not all, Huawei says that their P8 series smartphones have reached a cumulative 16 million people across the globe, which is indicative of its sales figure and not the number of handsets shipped. Note that shipping a handset does not equal to it being sold.
Related: Huawei P8 Lite review
A quick recap of the Huawei P8 Lite spec sheet: this handset comes with a 5.0-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels) IPS LCD display, protected by Gorilla Glass 3. Under the hood lies Huawei’s in-house HiSilicon Kirin 620 chipset, which comprises of an octa-core 1.2 GHz Cortex A53 cluster. The chipset is paired with ARM’s Mali-450 GPU in quad-core configuration.
The P8 Lite sports 2 GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage (occupies the second SIM slot), 13MP rear and 5MP front cameras, and a 2,200 mAh non-removable battery. Android 5.0.2 Lollipop runs the show, albeit a heavily skinned version of it dubbed Emotion 3.1 UI, once again an in-house product from Huawei.
Huawei Video Reviews
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Consumers might not get the whole buzz surrounding the P8 Lite handset; what’s so special about this mid-range handset? Huawei doesn’t see it that way, especially since the P8 Lite is their first handset to achieve better sales in international markets than in China.
One of the most interesting numbers that you can extract from Huawei’s PR is its record-breaking sales in January. The Chinese company shipped a cool 12 million smartphones in January 2016. And get this, year-on-year growth is 93%, i.e. Huawei sold 93% more smartphones last month than it did in January 2015. January also marked the fourth consecutive month in which the company sold over 10 million handsets.
Source: IDC
Overall, Huawei had a top-notch year, having shipped 108 million smartphones in 2015. That’s a 44% year-on-year growth, helping the brand retain its position as the world’s third-largest phone maker. It also propelled the company to become the largest Chinese smartphone maker, beating Lenovo and Xiaomi to it, and become the first Chinese smartphone maker to break the 100 million sales milestone as well.
2016, all eyes on Huawei.
Read next: Huawei, I love your phones — just fix your software, please
Huawei Reached Another Milestone with P8 lite exceeding 10 million shipments
February 3, 2016-Today Huawei announced that it has shipped more than 10 million Huawei P8 lite smartphones, a mark that was reached just nine months after launch in Europe last spring. In total, the entire Huawei P8 series has successfully reached more than 16 million people globally.
The year got off to a quick start for Huawei, as the company set a new record by shipping over 12 million smartphones in January – a 93 percent increase from Jan 2015. January was also the fourth consecutive month that Huawei shipped over 10 million smartphones. With Huawei’s growing brand awareness and the continuous global growth, consumer interest in Huawei devices has continued to increase significantly.
This success builds on a strong 2015, during which Huawei shipped 108 million smartphones – a 44 percent increase from the previous year – to firmly establish its position as one of the top three global smartphone brands.
The Huawei P8 lite is the first Huawei smartphone to achieve higher sales in global markets than in China, signaling a breakthrough in Huawei’s strategy of internationalization, and reaffirming the effectiveness of Huawei’s global market structure.
Adopting the stylish design of Huawei P series, the Huawei P8 lite is beautiful and perfectly crafted. It uses contrasting shades in its gold waistline design — the slim and stylish appearance delivers a sense of peace and calmness. Among Huawei’s smartphone portfolio, the P8 lite brings youthful energy at a lower cost to consumers, who continue to adopt the phone in record numbers.
3
Feb
14 sweet tech gifts for Valentine’s Day
Did you know Valentine’s day is just around the corner? You better make your dinner reservations now if you haven’t already. The traditional gifts to show your love are cards, chocolates and roses. There’s nothing wrong with those traditional gifts, but sometimes your significant other may want something different. Many of you can get away with not getting gifts, but why risk it? Isn’t it better to make someone happy and show your appreciation and love for them rather than to complain and call Valentine’s Day a Hallmark Holiday?
We’re a tech site and as such we have 14 Valentine’s gift suggestions for you. But you better order your gift soon if you haven’t already. The 14th is less than two weeks away.
Google Nexus 6P and Huawei Smart Watch – Save $50 on both from Google.com
Operating System
Display
- 5.7 inches
- WQHD (2560 x 1440) AMOLED display at 518 ppi
Rear Camera
- 12.3 MP¹
- 1.55 µm pixels
- f/2.0 aperture
- IR laser-assisted autofocus
- 4K (30 fps) video capture
Front Camera
- 8MP camera
- 1.4 µm pixels
Processor
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 v2.1
- 2.0 GHz Octa-core 64-bit
- Adreno 430 GPU
Memory & Storage²
- RAM: 3 GB LPDDR4
- Internal storage: 32 GB, 64 GB, or 128 GB
Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker – $129.99 LINK
- Clear, full-range sound you might not expect from a compact speaker
- Voice prompts make pairing your devices easier than ever
- Up to 8 hours of music from rechargeable lithium-ion battery
- Wireless connection to your smartphone, tablet or other Bluetooth-enabled device
Sphero BB-8 App-Enabled Droid – $135.99 LINK
- Authentic Movement: Guide your BB-8 with a smartphone or tablet
- Listens & Responds: BB-8 recognizes and reacts to your voice
- Holographic Messaging: Record and view virtual holographic videos with BB-8
- Autonomous Behavior: BB-8 has a mind of its own – explore the Star Wars galaxy together
- Adaptive Personality: Your BB-8’s unique attitude and actions evolve as you interact
- Authentic Movement: Guide your BB-8 with a smartphone or tablet
- Listens & Responds: BB-8 recognizes and reacts to your voice
Samsung Gear S2 Smartwatch – LINK
- Function meets style with elegant curves and premium finishes
- Intuitive circular interface and rotating bezel for easy navigation
- Access to important notifications, texts, and updates at a glance
- Compatible with Android 4.4 and later with 1.5GB RAM. Some features may not be available. For best compatibility, connect with Samsung Galaxy devices.
- Wireless charging dock included
- 1.2-Inch Display Size
- 4GB Internal Memory / RAM 512MB
Amazon Echo – $179.99 – LINK
- Plays all your music from Prime Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and more using just your voice
- Fills the room with immersive, 360º omni-directional audio
- Allows hands-free convenience with voice-control
- Hears you from across the room with far-field voice recognition, even while music is playing
- Answers questions, reads audiobooks and the news, reports traffic and weather, gives info on local businesses, provides sports scores and schedules, and more with Alexa, a cloud-based voice service
- Controls lights and switches with compatible WeMo, Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, Wink, Insteon, and other smart home devices
- Always getting smarter and adding new features and skills–over 95 added since launch
Kindle Fire 7″ – $49.99 LINK
- Beautiful 7″ IPS display (171 ppi / 1024 x 600) and fast 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. Rear and front-facing cameras.
- All-new Amazon Underground, a one-of-a-kind app store experience where over $10,000 in apps, games and even in-app items are actually free – including extra lives, unlocked levels, unlimited add-on packs and more
- Enjoy more than 38 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, apps and games
- 8 GB of internal storage. Free unlimited cloud storage for all Amazon content and photos taken with Fire devices. Add a microSD card for up to 128 GB of additional storage.
- Updated user interface – Fire OS 5 designed for quick access to your apps and content plus personalized recommendations that make it easy to discover new favorites
- Up to 7 hours of reading, surfing the web, watching videos, and listening to music
- Stay connected with fast web browsing, email, and calendar support
Magazine Subscription to Texture – LINK
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With Texture, you have an all-access pass to world’s best magazines. So anytime you want to read something great, you can. Choose any issue from a catalog that includes all the top magazines in every category.
It’s magazine reading without limits. Flip through an entire issue that hit newsstands today. Or dig into a single article from a back issue in the vast archive. Audio and video exclusives bring extra dimension to the experience.
Caseco Blu-Toque Dual Layered Bluetooth Knit Hat – $49.99 LINK
- Wear your Blu-Toque while walking the dog, working outside, commuting, or going for a jog.
- Knit from soft synthetic wool, Blu-Toque is lightweight, warm, and water resistant.
- Blu-Toque is universal?it works with any Bluetooth device.
- Take calls and listen to music right from this integrated beanie. No more headphones, no more wire
August Smart Lock – Keyless Home Entry with Your Smartphone, Red – $149.99 LINK
- Secure – Safe, keyless access to your home with iOS and Android smartphones
- Easy DIY Retrofit Install, – Replace the interior of your existing deadbolt; outside is unchanged
- Total Control – You control who has access to your home and manage how long their access lasts
- Always On – Powered by batteries means it’s always on, even if your power, Wi-Fi, or cable go down
Behmor Connected Temperature Control Coffee Maker – $299.99 LINK
- Customizable, temperature control coffee maker with phone app for easy operation
- Free Behmor app works on Apple iOS 7 and higher (available now); Android 4.0+ and higher (available January 2016)
- Create your favorite brewing profile including brewing temperature and pre-soak time or select from app’s library
- Delayed Brew option heats the water waiting to brew
- Double walled thermal carafe holds 8 5oz cups per brew cycle
WeMo Switch, Wi-Fi Enabled, Control your Electronics from anywhere – $39.99 LINK
- Turn appliances and electronics on or off from anywhere. Never worry if you left the iron, coffeemaker or hair straightener on. Turn on the nightlight for your little ones!
- Easy to install and simple to use
- Set schedules and receive customized notifications
- Works with any smartphone or tablet running Android 4.0 and higher or iOS 5 and higher. Electrical Rating120V/15A/60Hz/1800W
- Compatible with Amazon Echo for voice control hands-free convenience
1byone Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 Speaker Dimmable Multicolored LED Light Bulb – $30.99 LINK
- Multicolored & ever-changing – Small smart LED bulb can convert 7 main colors – over 16 million supported colors, plus warm and cool white. You can choose your favourite color for each situation to surround you in your room.
- Music playing via Bluetooth – Connect to your bluetooth devices easily, and the built-in Bluetooth speaker enables you to enjoy music anywhere. Play music from the app or your usual program and have the bulb change colors automatically.
- Smart Functions – This smart light bulb can play your music, match the lights to the music, has a normal white lights mode, can adjust the brightness, can be renamed and can set a timer in the app to switch off / on. Wake up to your favourite music and color or come home with lights already switched on.
Jabra SPORT PACE Wireless Bluetooth Headset – $99.99 LINK
- Premium wireless sound and inline buttons to control music or phone calls
- Secure and comfortable fit with behind the ear wearing style and multiple sized ear gels
- Built toward US Military standards for rain, sweat, shock and dust resistance (IP54 rated)
- Rapid charge feature to provide an hour’s worth of bather life in only 15 minutes of charging. Reflective cable for early morning or nighttime usage
- Integrated training via Sport Life App to provide in-ear readouts during workouts: pace, time, distance, calories burned. Also works with most popular 3rd party sports applications.
Honor 5X Metal Body Unlocked Smartphone – Gold 16GB $199.99 LINK
- Unlocked Dual SIM LTE smartphone with three card slots. Supports nano-sim, micro-SIM, and a microSD card up to 128GB. Works with AT&T and T-Mobile Networks.
- Sleek, robust housing crafted from aircraft-grade aluminum made with four metal finishing processes.
- An accurate fast fingerprint sensor improves with time and unlocks in 0.5 Seconds. Set your fingers as shortcuts to call contacts and take photos.
- Powered by Android 5.1 Lollipop with 16GB Internal memory and 2 GB RAM. A Qualcomm 64-bit Octa-Core Processor renders a smooth, responsive experience.
- A Picture perfect 5.5-Inch, 1080P full HD display can Show off your 13MP Camera pictures with shooting modes like time-lapse, slow-motion, and perfect-selfie.
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