Weekly Wrap-Up #42 : Vivo V7 Plus, Mi A1, iPhone 8, Moto G5S Plus, LG Q6 Plus, IFA 2017 & More….

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The latest PhoneRadar weekly wrap-up with all the latest happenings around the smartphones and mobile technology is here. We have seen some exciting launches at the ongoing IFA 2017 in Berlin, Germany. In the next few days, there are a couple of India-specific launches. Next week, Xiaomi is also expected to launch their next-gen flagship devices for the Chinese market. In case if you are interested to know more about the upcoming launches, check out our list of upcoming smartphones expected to launch in the month of September 2017.

Let’s take a look at the news from the last week:

• Apple is rumored to launch iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, and iPhone 8 at the September 12th event. However, the new leaks hinted the three new devices to be named iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. Along with the new iPhones, the company might also launch the LTE supported Apple Watch and 4K Apple TV. The launch event will be held at the Steve Jobs Theater on the new Apple Park campus. All the three iPhones will come with Apple A11 chipset and glass back body to support wireless charging. Based on the leaks, only the iPhone X will come OLED bezel-less display. The Touch ID will be replaced with the virtual home button, but the fingerprint sensor might come integrated with the power button on the right edge. With the 3D facial recognition technology, the device can be unlocked by scanning the face. While the iPhone 7 Plus has a horizontal dual camera setup, it will be positioned vertically on the iPhone X. The last year’s iPhone 7 Plus got one of the best dual camera setups and we can expect even better optics with the upcoming iPhone X.
• In the next few days, Vivo will be launching its new high-end smartphone called Vivo V7 Plus in the India market. The device is confirmed to feature a FullView display with 18:9 aspect ratio. While the Vivo V5 Plus came with a 20MP + 8MP dual selfie cameras, the upcoming Vivo V7 Plus features a single 24MP front facing camera. It comes with an Aluminum body with curved antenna bands across the top and bottom edges. The Vivo V7 Plus also sports an under display fingerprint sensor which was recently showcased at the MWC Shanghai event. Under the hood, the device will be powered by Snapdragon 625 or Snapdragon 660 octa-core processor. It packs 4GB/6GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB of internal storage. The smartphone will be running on Android 7.0 Nougat based FunTouch OS. Even the Vivo V7 is also mentioned to come with a 24MP selfie camera, but there is no confirmation of the presence of 18:9 display. While the Vivo V7 Plus will be launched on September 7th event in Mumbai, the Vivo V7 is expected to launch in the coming weeks.

• Last week, Xiaomi released Redmi 4A and Redmi Note 4 in new variants. The new Redmi 4A now comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage priced at Rs. 6,999. Earlier launched Redmi 4A is only equipped with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. The company also released the Redmi Note 4 in all-new Lake Blue color. Both the Redmi 4A and Redmi Note 4 are the best selling smartphones in their respective price ranges. In the next few days, the company will also unveil its latest flagship smartphone for the global markets. It is confirmed to feature a dual-lens camera on the rear. Talking about the unofficial details, the device is expected to be named as Mi A1 and will be the first Android One smartphone from Xiaomi. The Mi A1 will be the same Mi 5X that was launched earlier this month in China. Instead of the in-house MIUI, the Mi A1 will be coming with Android UI. In the next couple of weeks, Xiaomi is also expected to launch the Mi Note 3 and Mi MIX 2 smartphones in China. Both these devices will replace the last years Mi Note 2 and Mi MIX.
• Motorola launched the Moto G5S and Moto G5S Plus smartphone in India for Rs. 13,999 and Rs. 15,999 respectively. Both these devices are sold through Amazon.in, Moto Hubs, and retail stores. Both these devices are said to be the special edition devices and will be decent upgrades to Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus launched earlier this year. Both these devices sport unibody metal design and come with nano-coating making them splash-proof. The smartphones run on the latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box with almost stock UI and we expect to see the Android 8.0 Oreo update in the coming months. While the Moto G5S comes with a 5.2-inch Full HD display, the Moto G5S Plus features a 5.5-inch display with the same Full HD resolution. On the rear of the Moto G5S Plus, we can find the dual camera setup featuring 13MP + 13MP sensors with f/2.0 aperture and dual tone LED flash. The Moto G5S settles with a single 16MP rear camera. Both the devices are backed by the same 3,000mAh batteries and also support TurboCharge fast charging technology.

• Lenovo has recently launched the Lenovo K8 Note in India exclusively through Amazon India. It came in 3GB and 4GB RAM variants and the pricing starts at Rs. 12,999. It is the first Lenovo smartphone to ditch the in-house Vibe UI in favor of the vanilla flavored UI. Now, the company is getting ready to unveil a new smartphone in the K-series called Lenovo K8 Plus. This new device is mentioned to launch on September 6th and will be exclusive to Flipkart. As seen on the Lenovo K8 Note, the upcoming K8 Plus might also offer the dual rear cameras. The K8 Plus was earlier spotted on the benchmarking website revealing few key specifications. It will be powered by MediaTek Helio P25 (MT6757) octa-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz. The device runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box. The K8 Note came with a 13MP + 5MP dual camera setup on the rear. It is backed by a MediaTek Helio X23 deca-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz. With all these specifications, the device is backed by a 4,000mAh non-removable battery that also supports TurboCharge fast charging.
• From the last few years, Nubia is launching the flagship Z-series with two-sided bezel-less displays. Earlier this year, the company also launched the Nubia Z17 with the similar two-sided bezel-less display and FiT 2.0 (Frame Interactive Technology). Last week, the company also launched the Nubia Z17 Lite in China with slightly less powerful specifications. It will be available from September 6th exclusively in China and comes in Gold, Blue, Black colors. While the Nubia Z17 came with Snapdragon 835 SoC and 6GB/8GB of RAM, the new Nubia Z17 Lite features Snapdragon 653 SoC and 6GB of RAM. There is also a 13MP Sony IMX258 sensor and another 13MP Sony IMX258 sensor on the rear. At the Nubia Z17 Lite launch event, the company also mentioned to soon launch a complete bezel-less display to compete with the upcoming Mi MIX 2 and iPhone X. The all-screen smartphone combined with the in-house FiT technology will offer better productivity.

• LG’s has introduced the Q-series in India by launching the LG Q6 smartphone. It is one of the first mid-range smartphones to offer a display with the longer 18:9 aspect ratio. The LG Q6 sports the same FullVision display as seen on the LG G6, but the resolution is only limited to Full HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels). It is available exclusively through Amazon India and is priced very aggressively at Rs. 14,990. As we reported earlier, the company will soon launch the LG Q6 Plus in India for Rs. 17,990. The device comes in Astro Black, Ice Platinum, and Marine Blue color options. Apart from the 1 gig of extra RAM and doubled internal storage, the LG Q6 Plus shares the same design and specifications with the LG Q6. It comes powered by 64-bit Snapdragon 435 octa-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz and comes coupled with Adreno 505 GPU and 4GB of RAM. In terms of optics, there is a 13MP camera on the rear with LED flash and a 5MP selfie camera on the front with 100-degree wide-angle lens. It comes with an Aluminium frame, but the back is made of plastic. The LG Q6 Plus runs on the latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box with the LG UX 6.0 UI on top.
• MediaTek has officially released their new mid-range chipset under the Helio P-series called Helio P23 and Helio P30. Both these new chipsets come with dual SIM 4G VoLTE support. While the MediaTek Helio P30 will be globally available by the end of this year, but the Helio P23’s availability will be initially limited to China. These two new Helio octa-core chipsets are built using the 16nm FinFET process and come with 8x Cortex-A53 cores clocked up to 2.3GHz. There is also a Mali G71 MP2 GPU which is clocked at 770MHz in the Helio P23 and 950MHz in the Helio P30. Both the chipsets support dual camera setup and include the Imagiq 2.0 technology for post processing. While the Helio P23 supports 13MP + 13MP dual-camera setup, the Helio P30 supports 16MP + 16MP setup. The manufacturers can opt for RGB & Monochrome sensors or Wide-angle & Telephone sensor. There is a dedicated Vision Processing Unit (VPU) on the Helio P30 clocked at 500MHz that takes the processing load off the CPU and GPU, thus decreases the power consumption by 1/10th percent. As mentioned earlier, the Helio P23 and Helio P30 are the world’s first smartphone chipsets to support dual 4G VoLTE connectivity.

• At the Unpacked event held before the IFA 2017, Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 8 as the successor to Galaxy Note 7. It is the first smartphone in the Galaxy Note series to feature an Infinity display. The company first introduced the Infinity Display with 18.5:9 aspect ratio by announcing the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus smartphones. The Galaxy Note 8 also sports a large 6.3-inch display with Quad HD+ (2960 x 1440 pixels) resolution and 18.5:9 aspect ratio. According to DisplayMate, the display technology analysis firm, the Galaxy Note 8 sports the best smartphone display it has ever tested. It has mentioned the Galaxy Note 8 to feature 24-bit display using a flexible-substrate OLED technology. Even its maximum brightness can go up to 1,200 nits which is higher than any other smartphone. It also comes preloaded with four color modes called Adaptive Display, AMOLED Cinema, AMOLED Photo, and also the regular sRGB. In its report, DisplayMate has mentioned the Galaxy Note 8 display to support a larger native color gamut which is 141% more than sRGB ‘s value.

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