Weekly Wrap-Up #43 : iPhone 8 Plus, Mi MIX 2, Vivo V7 Plus, Zenfone 4 Selfie, Mi A1 & More….

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he latest PhoneRadar weekly wrap-up is here with all the latest happenings around the smartphones and mobile technology. We have seen flagship launches all over the globe in the last seven days. While we have already seen the all-new iPhones, Google will soon bring their latest flagship devices. Also, stay tuned on PhoneRadar to know about the exciting deals and discounts during the Flipkart’s Big Billion Days sale (Sep 20th- 24th) and Amazon’s Great Indian Festival sale (Sep 21st -24th). 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:

• Last week, the new iPhones are officially unveiled by Apple at the Steve Jobs Theatre in its new HQ called Apple Park. The list of new devices announced at the event are the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, Apple Watch Series 3 LTE, and Apple TV 4K. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are the successors to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Where the iPhone X is the special edition device with all-screen OLED display and new Face ID security system. All the three new iPhones come with glass body and are capable of both fast charging and wireless charging. Under the hood, they come powered by the A11 Bionic hexa-core chipset coupled with the first Apple-made GPU. On the other hand, the Apple Watch Series 3 comes with LTE support and display itself acts the LTE antenna. The new iPhones will be available to pre-order starting September 22nd in India via Apple Resellers stores, Flipkart, and Amazon.

• As rumors suggested, Xiaomi has launched its first ever Android One smartphone called Mi A1 in India for Rs. 14,999. The device is sold through all the leading offline and online stores along with Mi.com & Mi Home stores. It runs on Android 7.1.2 Nougat with Pure Android UI and will soon get the Android 8.0 Oreo update. Though it runs on the stock Android, the device still includes a few Mi apps like camera and Mi Remote. It comes with a metal body and sports a 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display. The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. On the rear is the 12MP dual rear cameras with 2x optical zoom. There are the same sensors that can also be found on the flagship Mi 6 smartphone. It is backed by a 3,080mAh non-removable battery and supports fast charging using the USB Type-C port and 10W power adapter. The Mi A1 measures 155.4 x 75.8 x 7.3 mm and weighs 168 grams.
• Lenovo-owned Motorola officially announced the Android 8.0 oreo update for a list of smartphones. Apart from the Moto Z series, only the Moto G and Moto X smartphones launched in 2017 are eligible to get the new Android update. The new Moto C and Moto E smartphones launched in this year are also left out. Even the company has earlier promised the Android 8.0 Oreo update for the last year’s Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus smartphones. While there is no other information from the company, we hope they add other devices to this list in the coming months. As of now, there is no timeline mentioned for the release of Android Oreo update. With the new update, the company mentioned offering the new features like smart text selection, autofill framework, and new emojis. The devices running on Android 8.0 Oreo will be booting up faster than those with older versions. It also brings in new animations, longer battery life, and several more features.
• Asus launched three new devices called Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro, Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual and Zenfone 4 Selfie last week in India. All the three devices will be available exclusively on Flipkart.com starting from Rs. 9,999. The smartphones will be running on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with Zen UI 4.0 on top. The Zenfone 4 Selfie (a.k.a Zenfone 4 Lite) and Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual comes with almost similar specifications apart from the camera sensors. They come with a 5.5-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels) IPS display and are powered Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor. While the Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual sports a 16MP rear camera and 20MP + 8MP dual front cameras, the Zenfone 4 Selfie comes with a single 13MP sensor on the front and rear of the device. On the other hand, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro features a 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display and Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor. In the camera department, there is a 16MP camera on the rear and 12MP + 12MP dual cameras on the front. All the devices are backed by a 3,000mAh non-removable battery with fast charging support.

• YU Televentures has launched its latest affordable smartphone called YU Yureka 2 last week in the Indian market. It comes with a price tag of Rs. 11,999 and will go on sale exclusively on Flipkart during the Big Billion Days sale. Earlier to the Yureka 2, the company launched the Yureka and Yureka Black smartphones. While the device packs decent specifications to compete with the Chinese smartphones, it still runs on a couple of years old Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. It sports a 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) IPS display and is powered by 64-bit Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz. There is 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 128GB via MicroSD card slot. In terms of optics, the Yureka 2 features a 16MP rear camera with LED flash and an 8MP front camera for selfies and video calls. The smartphone is backed by a 3,930mAh non-removable battery and also supports Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology. Along with 4G VoLTE support, it offers all the basic connectivity options.
• Google confirmed the Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 to launch on October 4th. Both these devices will be successors to first-gen Pixel devices launched in 2016. From the last few months, we have been several leaks about the upcoming these Pixel 2 devices. Unlike last year, the two Pixel 2 devices will come from two different manufacturers. The Pixel 2 will be manufactured by HTC and comes with almost same design as on the first-gen Pixel devices. It also comes with Active Edge features which works same as the Edge Sense on HTC U11. On the other hand, the LG-made Pixel XL 2 will be featuring the FullVision display with 18:9 aspect ration and Quad HD OLED panel. Both the devices will come powered by Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor coupled with Adreno 5540 GPU & 4GB of RAM. The smartphones will be running on Android 8.0.1 Oreo out of the box. Alongside the Google Pixel 2 smartphones, we can also expect to see Google Assistant-powered earphones and the successor to Google Home speaker.

• A week after its official launch, Vivo V7 Plus with 24MP selfie camera has went on sale just last week. With a price tag of Rs. 21,990, the smartphone is available via Vivo retail stores along with Flipkart and Amazon. It comes with a unibody metal design and is available in Gold, Matte Black, and Rose Gold color variants. The Vivo V7 Plus sports a 5.99-inch HD+ (1440 x 720 pixels) FullView display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Under the hood is the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It runs on Android 7.1 Nougat based Funtouch OS 3.2 out of the box. Talking about the selfie camera, the 20MP + 8MP dual camera setup on the Vivo V5 Plus is now replaced with a 24MP single sensor on the new V7 Plus. On the rear is a 16MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture and dual LED flash.
• In China, Xiaomi has launched the Mi MIX 2 and Mi Note 3 smartphones as the successor to last year’s Mi MIX & Mi Note 2. The company also announced the Mi MIX 2 to soon launch in the Indian market. Talking about the Mi MIX 2, it now comes with a 5.99-inch bezel-less display with 18:9 aspect ratio. It comes with a ceramic body and features 12% thinner bottom bezel than the original Mi MIX. There is also special edition Mi MIX 2 with a unibody design made of ceramic and sports an 8GB of RAM and 128G of onboard storage. It packs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor coupled with Adreno 540 GPU and 6GB of RAM. There is a 12MP camera with 4-axis OIS on the rear and a 5MP camera with the facial recognition feature on the front. Coming to the Mi Note 3, it looks similar to Mi 6 but with a bigger a 5.5-inch display. It got a 16MP front-facing camera with beautification AI for better selfies. Unlike its predecessor, it got the mid-range Snapdragon 660 processor. The dual cameras on the rear are the same 12MP sensors as seen on the Mi 6 with 4-axis OIS and 2x optical zoom.

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