Moto X Force 'Shatterproof' Phone Listed on Amazon India Ahead of Launch

Ahead of Motorola's Monday launch where the company is expected to release the Moto X Force smartphone, the foreseen 'shatterproof' phone has been listed by a third-party retailer.

Amazon India has listed the Motorola Moto X Force without availability or price details. While we already know that ever since Motorola re-entered the India market, it released new devices in India exclusively through its long-time online retail partner, Flipkart. The listing can be an indication that Motorola may expand the availability of its Moto X Force smartphone at launch itself.

The Lenovo-owned company previous year expanded availability of its Moto devices via select Airtel stores alongside new e-commerce retail partners Amazon and Snapdeal. Thus we can expect that the Moto X Force will be available to purchase from more retail partners of Motorola rather than being limited to Flipkart at launch. We will have to still wait till Motorola's Monday launch to confirm.

The biggest highlight of the Moto X Force, which is an international variant of the Droid Turbo 2 for Verizon Wireless, is the 'ShatterShield' display. The company at global release back in October said that the display is made of an aluminium rigid core, flexible Amoled screen, and dual-layer touchscreen panel - wouldn't break into pieces even when dropped on a slab of concrete. Additionally, the smartphone also features water-repellent nano-coating.

For specifications, the Moto X Force sports a 5.4-inch QHD (1440x2560) display; powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core SoC clocked at 2GHz coupled with 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM; comes with 32GB and 64GB internal storage options; features expandable storage option via a microSD card slot (up to 2TB); 21-megapixel rear-camera with an f/2.0 aperture and Phase Detect Autofocus and dual-LED flash, and a 5-megapixel front camera with f/2.0 aperture and flash; includes 3760mAh battery with Quick Charging support;.

The Motorola smartphone runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and supports Wi-Fi 802.11ac, single-SIM with 4G LTE (Cat. 4), and other standard connectivity options. Motorola's Moto X Force was first available in the UK where it was priced at GBP 499 (approximately Rs. 49,900) for the 32GB variant, and a GBP 534 (approximately Rs. 53,400) for the 64GB variant.

SPECIFICATIONS

Display: 5.40-inch

Processor: 2GHz

Resolution: 1440x2560 pixels

RAM: 3GB             

OS: Android 5.1.1

Storage: 32GB

Rear Camera: 21-megapixel

Front Camera: 5-megapixels

Battery Capacity: 3760mAh

Videocon Infinium Z51Q Star and Infinium Z51 Punch Smartphones Launched

Videocon, after releasing its Infinium Z55 smartphone last month, has now released two new handsets under its 'Infinium' brand - the Infinium Z51 Punch and Infinium Z51Q Star. Priced at Rs. 5,999 and Rs. 5,490 respectively, the budget smartphones are available to buy through online retailers.

The two smartphones share most specifications, except the battery and camera setup. The dual-SIM dual-standby supporting Infinium smartphones run on Android 4.4.2 KitKat and sports a 5-inch FWVGA (480x854 pixels) IPS resolution display. Both are powered by a quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz, paired with 1GB RAM. The Infinium Z51 Punch and Infinium Z51Q Star both also bear 8GB of internal storage, which can be expanded via a microSD card (up to 32GB). Both sport the same set of wireless connectivity options including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, A-GPS, 3G, and FM radio.

The cheaper Videocon Infinium Z51Q Star includes a 5-megapixel BSI autofocus rear camera with LED flash with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. A 2000mAh battery backs the smartphone.

The Videocon Infinium Z51 Punch houses an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash along and a 5-megapixel front facing camera. It packs a 3000mAh battery. The two handsets come preloaded with V-Safe app, which is designed for emergency purposes to contact friends and family.

"Videocon Mobile Phones endeavours to meet the emerging requirements of value-for-money smartphones, which combine robust performance with unmatched specification. Our smartphones are targeted at users who aspire to own a good-looking phone, which offers the best of features at a pocket friendly price," said Jerold Pereira, CEO, Videocon Mobile Phones. "The newly launched smartphones Z51 Punch and Z51Q Star offer a unique combination of speed and features, high on style and all at a very competitive pricing. With our latest smartphone range, we aim to ensure that the varied needs of new-age smartphone users are being fulfilled indigenously," he added.

SPECIFICATIONS

Display: 5.00-inch

Processor: 1.2GHz

Resolution: 480x854 pixels

RAM: 1GB

OS: Android 4.4.2

Front Camera: 2-megapixel

Rear Camera: 5-megapixel

Storage: 8GB

Battery Capacity: 2000mAh

Meizu Pro 5 launched

Meizu has released its new flagship smartphone, the Pro 5, at an event on Wednesday in Beijing, China. The smartphone is part of the new Pro series of handsets, which come with Pro accessories and services.

The Meizu Pro 5 will be available in two versions - 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM with 32GB storage priced at CNY 2,799 (roughly Rs. 29,000) and 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM with 64GB of storage priced at CNY 3,000 (roughly Rs. 32,000). The smartphone will go up for reservation starting Wednesday and will hit the market on October 12 in China. It will be available in Silver, Grey, Golden and Silver Black colours.

Meizu said it is trying to bring the Pro 5 to India as soon as the end of this year, but added certification and other issues may delay it till early next year.

The company has assured that the Meizu Pro 5 will be getting "VIP services" containing M Support - a remote support system, which will mean that Meizu experts can go through the phone like TeamViewer. Meizu says users can be assured if privacy during this process, with SSL and AES encryption, and can end the session at any time.

The company said it will dawn testing its M Support service in October, and the service can be hoped to launch in November. Onsite service will be granted for those problems that cannot be resolved remotely.

The Pro 5 features an all metal body and much like some previously launched Meizu handsets, sports a physical home button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner. The company alleged that the Pro 5 smartphone sports "the fastest fingerprint recognition on a Meizu device yet." The physical home button is surrounded by a metal ring made of stainless steel. The Chinese company at the launch claimed that the new button finish will ensure a better tactile feel.

The handset comes with a 5.7-inch (1080x1920 pixels) Super Amoled display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection and 2.5D glass. The display sfeatures a pixel density of 387ppi. Under the hood, the Pro 5 is backed by a Samsung Exynos 7420 octa-core processor (quad-core 2.1GHz + quad-core 1.5GHz) coupled with Mali T760 MP8 GPU.

Running Flyme 5 runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop, the smartphone features dual Nano-SIMs and also support 4G LTE on both the SIM cards. The Pro 5 features LTE Cat. 6 standard offering download speed of up to 300Mbps in the TDD LTE 4G frequency band. The company is also promoting a brand new baseband modem, which also offers improved call quality.

The Pro 5 smartphone features a 21.16-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX 230, dual-tone flash and f/2.2 aperture. The rear camera includes a Blue glass filter and sports Panorama, burst mode and packs both phase detection laser focusing and autofocus focusing. There is a 5-megapixel front-facing camera also on board.

The handset is backed by 3050mAh battery and sports mCharge 2.0 technology that is claimed to offer up to 65 percent charge in just 30 minutes. Another main feature of the Meizu Pro 5 is it comes packed with USB Type-C port. It measures 156.7x78x7.5mm and weighs 166 grams.

The Chinese company is also promoting the audio capabilities of the Pro 5, containing an ESS ES9018K2M DSP and NXP chips, calling Hi-Fi 2.0. It also announced some accessories with the Pro 5 including the Harman Kardon Sound Sticks III which can be bundled with the smartphone at CNY 3798 (approximately Rs. 39,250) for the 32GB/ 3GB of RAM and CNY 4,098 (approximately Rs. 42,350) for the 64GB/ 4GB of RAM models.

The Meizu EP-31 earphones were also declared at the same event and can be bundled with Pro 5 package at an additional overall price of CNY 3398 (roughly Rs. 35,000) for the 32GB/ 3GB RAM and CNY 3698 (roughly Rs. 38,000) for the 64GB/ 4GB RAM. They can be bought separately at CNY 199.

The Flyme 5 operating system sports several additions over and above Flyme 4.5, and is said to be simpler, fatser and cleaner. It also brings 'split screen' functionality, including for incoming calls. Also, with the additional display real estate, users have more icon rows (from 4 to 5).

The firm said Flyme 5 is faster than MIUI for app loading, and offers 11 percent better battery life than Flyme 4.5. It is releasing on Friday for the MX5, but will be released in beta for the Pro 5 on October 15, and the final build on November 15.

SPECIFICATIONS

Display: 5.70-inch

Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels

Processor: 1.5GHz

RAM: 3GB

Rear Camera: 21.16-megapixels

Front Camera: 5-megapixels

OS: Android 5.1

Storage: 32GB

Battery Capacity: 3050mAh

Asus ZenFone 2 Variant With 4GB RAM Launched in US

Asus has released multiple variants of its ZenFone 2 smartphone in India and some other select markets. The Taiwanese tech company has now unveiled a new variant of the ZenFone 2 in the US sports 4GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, priced at $229 (roughly Rs. 15,000).

Previously, Asus released two ZenFone variants priced at $199 (roughly Rs. 13,000) for the 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage, and another variant priced at $299 (roughly Rs. 19,750) for the 4GB of RAM and 64GB built-in storage.

 The new ZenFone 2 variant in the US will be powered by a 1.8GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3560, similar to the ZenFone 2 ZE551ML released in India.

Other innards contains a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3; 5-megapixel front camera; 13-megapixel rear camera; dual SIM LTE; microSD card support; and 3000mAh battery.

Asus India recently started selling the ZenFone Selfie priced at Rs. 17,999. The Taiwanese Tech company currently only selling the 32GB variant with 3GB RAM. The ZenFone Selfie 16GB built-in storage variant with 2GB RAM priced at Rs. 15,999 will go on sale starting September 30. The ZenFone Selfie features 13-megapixel rear and front cameras, a highlight of the device at this price point, with 28mm focal length, f/2.0 aperture, and dual-colour Real Tone flash. The rear camera sports a laser autofocus module in addition. It is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (1.7GHz quad-core and 1GHz quad-core) processor with Adreno 405 GPU coupled with 3GB of RAM.

SPECIFICATIONS

Display: 5.50-inch

Processor: 2.3GHz

Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels

RAM: 4GB

OS: Android 5.0

Storage: 32GB

Rear Camera: 13-megapixels

Front Camera: 13-megapixels

Battery Capacity: 3000mAh

Smartphone With Android 5.0 Lollipop, Windows 10 Mobile Dual-Boot Launched

Elephone has released a new smartphone - Vowney - priced at $299.99 (roughly Rs. 20,000). The smartphone is available to pre-order starting Thursday and will go on sale on September 30.

The main feature of the Elephone Vowney is that it's a dual-boot smartphone that can run both Android 5.0 Lollipop and Windows 10 Mobile. The company is promoting its new Vowney smartphone as a flagship smartphone.

It sports a 5.5-inch QHD IPS LCD display, identical to some high-end smartphones from Samsung and LG, providing a screen resolution of 1440x2560 pixels and an impressive pixel density of 535 pixels per inch. The Elephone Vowney is powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT6795 processor clocked at 2.2GHz paired with 3GB of RAM. The handset packs 64GB of built-in storage and supports expandable storage via microSD card up to 64GB.

Another great feature of the Elephone Vowney smartphone is its 20.7-megapixel rear camera with Sony Exmor IMX230 sensor. The rear camera sports autofocus and supports 4K video recording. There is a dual-LED flash accompanying the rear camera. An 8-megapixel front camera is also its highlight.

The dual-SIM (Micro) handset includes a 4200mAh removable battery and also sports a fingerprint scanner on the back panel just below the rear camera. The company will be also offering an additional battery for the handset of a 3800mAh capacity. Connectivity options include GPRS/ EDGE, 3G, GPS/ A-GPS, Wi-Fi Bluetooth and Micro-USB. It will be available in White and Black colours.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Elephone back in July had launched the G7 handset in India priced at Rs. 8,888.

SPECIFICATIONS

Display: 5.50-inch

Front Camera: 8-megapixel

Rear Camera: 20.7-megapixel

Processor: 2.2Ghz

Resolution: 1440x2560 pixels

Storage: 64GB

RAM: 3GB

OS: Android 5.1

Battery Capacity:  4200mAh

Samsung To Launch Its First Foldable Smartphone

We have been hearing rumors about a Samsung foldable smartphone in the works for more than two years now, with the company showing off several models of folding displays as well.

The South Korean tech giant in the meantime has released Galaxy smartphones with curved edge displays. If a new leak is to be considered, we might finally able to see a foldable Samsung smartphone in January - with the company reportedly already testing the smartphone. Samsung's mysterious Galaxy View smartphone has been certified by the Bluetooth SIG claiming it's a tablet.

According to a tipster from China, Samsung's foldable smartphone has been codenamed Project Valley and is being tested with two different chipsets - Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and Snapdragon 620. Other details tipped by the tipster claim that the handset will sports 3GB of RAM; come with an embedded battery, and will come with expandable storage.

It's worth noting that a previous report had claimed that Samsung was testing the unannounced Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset 'aggressively'. The test results were said to determine if the chipset would be supported in next year's flagship models or not.

In other news, Samsung's mysterious Galaxy View device which was teased during its IFA event and expected to the oft-leaked 18.4-inch tablet from the company has supposedly been certified by Bluetooth SIG with model name SM-T670. The Bluetooth SIG details of the tablet doesn't tell many things; except that the Bluetooth version will be 4.1.

To recall, Samsung just as it did at the Galaxy Unpacked event last month, bothered a new upcoming product at the end of the IFA show - what appeared to be a large tablet. Dubbed Galaxy View, the teaser was mysterious enough to hide most details but a kick stand was visible on the back panel. We will have to wait for Samsung to make the announcement.

Lenovo A7000 Plus Launched

Lenovo has silently released the successor to the A7000 smartphone, the A7000 Plus, in the Philippines. The new smartphone will be going to hit the market on Tuesday via Lazada, a local e-commerce website.

Priced at PHP 7,999 (roughly Rs. 11,400), the company is yet to declare availability details of the Lenovo A7000 Plus for other markets. To recall, the Lenovo A7000 smartphone was declared earlier this year and it went on sale in India back in April at Rs. 8,999.

The Lenovo A7000 Plus comes with upgraded innards when compared to its predecessor. It sports a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display while the A7000 features a HD (720x1280 pixels) resolution 5.5-inch screen. The A7000 Plus is powered by an octa-core MediaTek (MT6752) SoC clocked at 1.7GHz paired with 2GB of RAM. The A7000 also sports an octa-core processor though was clocked at 1.5GHz.

The internal storage on the A7000 Plus has also been bumped to 16GB from 8GB on the A7000. It supports expandable storage via microSD card. The 13-megapixel rear camera on the A7000 Plus has also received an upgrade from the 8-megapixel offering on the A7000. The A7000 Plus features the same 5-megapixel front camera. The handset contains a 3000mAh battery.

Connectivity options on the A7000 Plus smartphone include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 4G LTE (FDD Band 1, 3, 7, 20; TDD Band 40), Bluetooth, GPS/ A-GPS and Micro-USB, just like its predecessor. The dual-SIM smartphone sports speakers powered by Dolby Atmos technology. The handset measures 152.6x76.2x7.99mm and weighs 140 grams.

Lenovo India last week declared that it sold over 500,000 K3 Note units in India in less than two months since the smartphone's launch in the country.

SPECIFICATIONS

Display: 5.50-inch

Processor: 1.7 GHz

Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels

Front Camera: 5-megapixel

OS: Android 5.0

Rear Camera: 13-megapixel

RAM: 2GB

Storage: 16GB

Battery Capacity: 3000mAh