ZTE teams up with Indian carriers for early 5G testing

ZTE teams up with Indian carriers for early 5G testing

This morning, the reports that ZTE has begun trial testing in India for 5G technology. The report cites that Indias top telecom companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Reliance Jio have been working with Chinese telecom equipment and smartphone manufacturer ZTE. India is one of the largest global wireless markets and one that has plenty of room for expansion. Fan Xiaobing, president of global marketing and solutions for ZTE told : Fan also mentioned that ZTE will bring telecom equipment and products to local carriers that are designed and customized for local needs. ZTE is getting an early start in India to get ahead of its telecom equipment competitors like Huawei, Nokia, and Ericsson (all of which manufacture telecom equipment for Indian carriers). India sees the importance of 5G in the country and is planning to begin rolling 5G out to customers starting in 2020. The Indian government will also auction off spectrum to carriers for the first time, spectrum that will support a future 5G network. ZTE is currently in discussions with Indian carriers for 5G backhaul: the infrastructure foundation necessary for wireless 5G communications to be able to take place. We expect to have new partnerships around 5G backhaul soon in India. Check out the source link for the full report.

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Deal: iPhone 7 prices drop in the US

Deal: iPhone 7 prices drop in the US

Not impressed with the iPhone 8? Then how about a good deal on an a 256GB model for $600. Apple no longer offers those, but it would charge you $650 for the 128GB model. This deal comes courtesy of T-Mobile USA. If you prefer to get the phone on a 24-month credit, then you can pay $25 a month (assuming a good credit rating). Note that only Jet Black units are available. Still too expensive? Virgin Mobile drops the 7 to $450 and the to $350. It goes without saying that the phones are locked to their respective carriers, so thats something to consider. Check the links below for the deals. |

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OnePlus 5T allegedly cancelled, OnePlus 6 to launch in early 2018

OnePlus 5T allegedly cancelled, OnePlus 6 to launch in early 2018

If you were holding out for a OnePlus 5T, perhaps you shouldnt the rumor mill thinks that its not happening. Instead, the launch of the OnePlus 6 has been pulled up to early 2018. Last year, the company launched the 3T as a way to switch to the +1 version of the chipset (Snapdragon 820 to 821) and to raise the price a bit. Well, they did upgrade the selfie cam too. This year, there will be no +1 for the Snapdragon 835 and OnePlus already played the dual camera card. Plus, it offers generous storage and RAM, so theres not much for a T version to upgrade. What will the OnePlus 6 be like? Tough to tell for now, but a move to a 6 screen the first bump in screen size of the series is not unlikely, especially if combined with an 18:9 screen and a bezel-less design. If thats true, well hear from Carl Pei and co. about it early on in the hype cycle.

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Weekly poll results: rounded corners are a hot new trend

Weekly poll results: rounded corners are a hot new trend

Theres a growing trend in smartphone design that slices and dices the screen in shapes that stray further and further from the traditional rectangle. Rounded corners are a relatively tiny change and an old one at that (the Palm Pre had rounded corners). But then companies like LG, Essential and then Apple started cutting off larger portions. LG did it to fit a secondary screen on the same line as the selfie camera, Essential just jammed the selfie camera in the top row of the screen and Apple was even more aggressive. And our readers only a quarter of voters are okay with any sort of screen cutout. Its a roughly even split between those who only accept small cutouts and those that will agree to a big chunk of their screen being taken away in the name of a great feature. Still, the overwhelming portion of the vote 60% went to the Rounded corners option. It is curious that the traditional rectangular screen got relatively weak support. We think this means that rounded corners are in as a design element.

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Gionee S11 pops-up on TENAA with a 6-inch, 18:9 FullVision AMOLED display

Gionee S11 pops-up on TENAA with a 6-inch, 18:9 FullVision AMOLED display

Gionee is definitely keeping busy lately. Only a few days ago the company the and and a recent suggest a third budget-oriented 18:9 device is on the way as well. Well, now we can bump the count with at least one more handset the Gionee S11, which recently showed up on the Chinese certification authority's website as well. It seems Gionee has really taken the ultra-wide aspect ration trend to heart, since the S11 is listed as using a 6.01-inch, 1080 x 2160 pixel AMOLED panel. Likely the very same FullVision one used in the M7. You definitely won't hear us complaining, since it has all the right signs to really impress. At least on paper, that is. TENAA also shares the unit they received runs on a 2.5GHz octa-core chipset, coupled with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Taking after its predecessor, the Gionee S11 will also have a total of four cameras two on the back and two on the front. By the looks of things, the setup won't really be changed and will consist of 16 MP + 8 MP on one side and 20MP + 8MP on the other, respectively. According to TENAA, this is all crammed into a body, measuring 155.8 x 72.6 x 6.95mm and weighing in at 178 grams. This includes a sealed-in 3,600 mAh battery. Other mentioned specs are a fingerprint reader on the back and an Android 7.1.1 Nougat-based OS. Interestingly enough, a device with the Gionee S11 moniker popped-up on GFXBench recently as well. The benchmark also reports a 6-inch, 1080 x 2160 pixel display and a 16MP main camera so far, so good. However, other details don't really match up, like the quad-core MediaTek MT6763 chipset, 4GB of RAM and 4MP selfie cam. Since the S10 does have two other variants, we can expect to see the same from the S11, which could explain the mismatch. Here's hoping we get some official info from Gionee soon. | |

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Alleged Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 renders show dual camera setup and a near bezel-less design

Alleged Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 renders show dual camera setup and a near bezel-less design

Last week, Xiaomi reinforced its Redmi value lineup with yet another the . But as appealing as the 720p, Snapdragon 435 device is, considering its 89 starting price, what fans are truly waiting on is its bigger brother the Redmi Note 5. Besides one a bit more substantial , there really hasn't been much info on the next member of XIaomi's legendary value branch. A new set of renders has recently popped-up online that claim the major way the Chinese manufacturer plans to add another bit of value to the Redmi mix is through a dual camera setup. Now, it is worth noting that these images look almost nothing like the first batch we saw and the sources are a bit shady, so definitely don't think of this as a surefire thing. However, if we do give the renders the benefit of the doubt, we definitely like what we see. On the back, the Redmi Note 5 is said to have a 16MP main snapper, accompanied by a 5MP secondary one. While on the front, the likely 5.5-inch, FullHD panel seems to extend almost to the left and right sides of the glass. Then again, most renders tend to over exaggerate the bezel situation at least a bit nowadays, leaving the two cameras as the more exciting part of the rumor. The display is likely not the only thing Xiaomi will keep unchanged about the Redmi Note 5. When you have a lineup as successful as this, fiddling with it really isn't that great of an idea. That's why we expect to see the same metal unibody design, central-mounted fingerprint reader on the back, capacitive navigation buttons on the front and a 3.5mm audio jack and IR blaster on the top of the phone. To reiterate a few other alleged specs, we are anticipating a choice between two efficient 14nm Qualcomm chipsets the Snapdragon 630 and Snapdragon 660, coupled with 3GB or 4GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of storage. Powering that should be a 3,790 mAh battery with QuickCharge 3.0 support, cut down a bit compared to the Redmi Note 4's 4,100 mAh in order to achieve a slimmer 7.5mm profile. Rounding things up are a 13MP selfie camera and a Type-C port. Theres no indication which chipset powers which model, but industry sources claim the tiers and their respective prices will be as follows:

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The vivo X20 is now up for sale in China

The vivo X20 is now up for sale in China

The vivo and are undoubtedly two of the more interesting new devices to take on the ultrawide aspect trend. They were finally unveiled and didn't exactly fly under the radar, thanks to seductive specs sheets. As promised, sales for the smaller vivo X20 have commenced today and the phone can be picked up in in gold, rose gold or black from a variety of Chinese retailers, including , , and . The price is set at CNY 2,998 or about $450, also just as promised. That sum actually gets you quite a few bells and whistles. First off, there is the 6.01-inch 1,080x2,160 (18:9) Super AMOLED display. Then there is a trendy Dual 12MP, f/1.8, plus 5MP dual camera setup on the back. EIS is thrown in as well. Underneath the hood, we find Qualcomm's upper-midrange Snapdragon 660 SoC, with a 2.2 GHz octa-core CPU and this seems to be the one aspect keeping the new vivo handsets out of true flagship territory. While not a series 800 beast, it still packs 8 Cryo 260 CPU cores, an Adreno 512 GPU and is made on an efficient 14nm process, which should make good use of the 3,245 mAh battery. Other specs include 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a pretty solid set of connectivity options: 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, Micro USB 2.0. There is also a fingerprint reader on the back and a Face Wake feature, which vivo claims can unlock the device in 0,1 seconds. The phone runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat with a custom Funtouch UI on top. We are still waiting for the X20 Plus to hit shelves. For CNY 3,498 ($530) it brings a bigger 6.43-inch Super AMOLED panel of the same resolution to the table and more juice at 3,905 mAh. | | |

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