Taking cues from OnePlus, Oppo VP resigns to focus on Realme brand

Oppo is the fourth largest smartphone vendor in India, but the company hasn't traditionally been known for excelling in the value smartphone segment. Instead, Oppo, along with Vivo, has focused on offline marketing and offline retail to sell phones in the mid-range smartphone market, with the Oppo F7 being a prime example. This means that the company's phones haven't been able to compete with vendors such as Xiaomi, Honor, and Asus.

This changed in May when Realme, a new online exclusive sub-brand of Oppo, launched the Realme 1, which shared quite a lot of its specifications with the Oppo F7 (a phone which was significantly more expensive). The phone has already sold 400,000 units in 40 days in India. Sky Li, former vice president of Oppo and head of Oppo's overseas business, has now officially resigned from Oppo and founded Realme—a new technology brand. Mr. Li had previously served Oppo India as the country head, and now joins Realme as global CEO. Realme started off in May as a sub-brand of Oppo.

In a letter to Realme employees, Mr. Li introduced the new Realme brand and mentioned that the idea of creating the brand was born at the end of 2017. Realme has started off on the same path as OnePlus. OnePlus was founded when Peter Lau left Oppo and registered OnePlus as a new company.

Mr. Li, the founder of Realme, has led Oppo to grow from a company that was available in three markets to one that covers 31 countries and regions including Southeast Asia, South Asia, Middle East, Africa. He wrote in the letter: "Before leaving Oppo officially, I've been in charge of Oppo's global overseas market during these past few years, leading OPPO to grow from the business available in 3 markets to one that covers 31 countries and regions. The overwhelming response and trust from the young generation is something that has encouraged me to launch the new brand Realme."

Realme is said to be focusing on the ₹10,000-₹20,000 price range with its products for the Indian smartphone market. The brand has already gained over 1 percent share in the second quarter with one month's sales in India, according to Counterpoint Research. It's currently sharing production lines with Oppo in India, and has adopted an "India-first" approach to gain a majority of market share in India's online channels. As part of this strategy, Realme will launch all new products in India first before introducing them to any other global market.

The implications of forming Realme as a new brand are many. Can Realme replicate OnePlus' success in the value smartphone segment in India? The Realme 1 already under-cut all of its competitors with respect to pricing, while having competitive specifications. A potential successor has a real possibility to become the best phone in the budget smartphone market.

What are your thoughts regarding the founding of Realme as a new brand? Let us know in the comments below.

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Source: The Economic Times

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WhatsApp rolls out group video and voice calling

WhatsApp is the most popular IP-based messaging app worldwide, but it still suffers from feature limitations. The company has steadily increased the app's feature set in the last few months, adding the ability to switch from a voice call to a video call in the middle of a call, new group features including user search, the ability for group administrators to block users from sending messages in a group, and a Mute shortcut button for WhatsApp notifications in Android. The company has started labeling messages as forwarded. It's also developing a "Mark as Read" shortcut button for notifications.

Now, WhatsApp is rolling out group voice and video calls. The company originally rolled out voice calling in 2015, and added video calling later. The company states that its users spend over 2 billion minutes on calls per day. Users ca now make a group call with up to four people. The procedure to do so is simple: Start a one-on-one voice or video call and tap the "Add Participant" button in the top right corner to add more contacts to the call.

WhatsApp states that group calls are always end-to-end encrypted. The company also claims to have designed calling to work reliably around the world in different network conditions. The group voice and video calling feature is now rolling out both in the Android and iPhone versions of the app.

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Source: WhatsApp

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Xiaomi Mi A2 camera app gets ported to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro

The Xiaomi Mi A2 is a recently launched Android One device, and its camera on paper seems pretty great. For those on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro (whyred), there's some great news for you. You can now download the Xiaomi Mi A2 camera application for use on your phone on a custom ROM, ported by XDA Senior Member carlosggb. All you need is Magisk and you're good to go. Previously, one of the only options available to people was the Google Camera app. Now you can use an official Xiaomi application for photo taking instead if you want. You can check out the thread below to download and flash the Magisk module. You will need the camera2api enabled as well.

Xiaomi Mi A2 Camera Ported for Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro

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Asus ZenFone 5Z with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage now available on Flipkart

In recent years, OnePlus has been the strongest smartphone vendor in the affordable premium smartphone market in India. There was a time recently when the company faced almost no competition in the ₹30,000-and-above price segment. Last year, the OnePlus 5T was better than most of its alternatives in the price range. This year, however, both Honor and Asus have arrived in the affordable flagship segment. In particular, the Asus ZenFone 5Z aims to one-up OnePlus in the affordable flagship segment, as the phone has competitive specifications while managing to significantly undercut the OnePlus 6 in terms of pricing.

The Asus ZenFone 5Z was announced back at Mobile World Congress in February. It arrived in India on July 4 in three variants: 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage, 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM with 256GB of storage. At launch, the top-end 8GB RAM/256GB storage variant was not available, and Asus stated that it would be available soon. Now, the variant is available on Flipkart.

The phone's specifications are listed below:

Specifications	Asus ZenFone 5Z
Dimensions and weight	153 x 75.65 x 7.7 mm, 165g
Software	ZenUI on top of Android 8.0 Oreo
SoC	Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 (4x Kryo 385 Gold cores clocked at 2.8GHz and 4x Kryo 385 Silver cores clocked at 1.8GHz); Adreno 630 GPU
RAM and storage	8GB of RAM with 256GB UFS 2.1 storage; hybrid microSD card slot
Battery	3300mAh; Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 (9V/2A)
Display	6.2-inch Full HD+ (2246×1080) Super IPS+ LCD with an 18.7:9 aspect ratio, 550 nits brightness, 96% NTSC gamut, supports DCI-P3, Auto Color Temperature, 402 PPI
Audio	Hi-Res audio 192kHz/24-bit standard DTS Headphone:X 7.1 virtual surround sound for headphone support
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0
Ports	USB Type-C port, dual nano SIM slots (nano SIM + nano SIM/microSD), 3.5mm headphone jack
Bands	GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz WCDMA: Bands 1/2/3/4/5/6/8/19 FDD-LTE: Bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/18/19/20/26/28/29/30/32 TDD-LTE: Bands 34/38/39/40/41 LTE Cat13 UL up to 150Mbps / Cat18 DL 5CA 4×4 MIMO up to 1.2Gbps
Rear camera	12MP primary camera with Sony IMX363 sensor, 1/2.55″ sensor size, 1.4μm pixels, f/1.8 aperture, 24mm focal length, 83-degree field-of-view, four-axis OIS 8MP wide-angle camera with OmniVision 8856 sensor, 1/4″ sensor size, 1.12μm pixels, 120-degree field-of-view, 12mm focal length Video recording up to 4K at 60fps, three-axis electronic image stabilization (EIS)
Front-facing camera	8MP with f/2.0 aperture, 24mm focal length, 84-degree field-of-view

Asus states that a free pick-up and drop service option is available to all Asus ZenFone 5Z customers during warranty period. Asus service centers will also offer standby handset facility.

Flipkart is also offering complete mobile protection worth ₹2,299 at a discounted price of ₹99. A tempered glass screen protector and case are being offered for ₹229 each.

In terms of offers, Jio users recharging with ₹198 and ₹299 plans will get ₹2,2000 cashback in the form of instant credit of 44 vouchers of ₹50 each which can be redeemed upon subsequent charges in the MyJio app. 100GB "additional data" will be offered, and the fine print of this offer is that users will get 10GB 4G additional data voucher per recharge for the first 10 recharges.

The top-end 8GB RAM/256GB storage variant of the Asus ZenFone 5Z costs ₹36,999 ($538), which makes it significantly cheaper than the 8GB/256GB variant of the OnePlus 6 (which is available for ₹43,999). The 6GB/64GB and the 6GB/128GB variants are available for ₹29,999 ($437) and ₹32,999 ($480) respectively—making the ZenFone 5Z the cheapest Qualcomm Snapdragon 845-powered flagship available in India. The phone is exclusively available on Flipkart.

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Buy the ZenFone 5Z on Flipkart

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BlackBerry KEY2 is now available on Amazon India

The BlackBerry KEY2 is about as much of a business phone as you'll get these days. Its built-in backlit keyboard and mid-range specifications peg this smartphone as one of the best around for replying quickly to emails and writing longer messages. It launched pretty recently in a lot of places, but now it's making its way to India. The device is still costly though – Rs 42,990, or $625, via Amazon.in. It does come with Reliance Jio's cashback offer of Rs 4,450 and ICICI bank cash back offer of 5% along with additional launch benefits, in order to sweeten the deal. It's still pretty pricey though, and considering its specifications, there are a lot of better options on the market.

 

BlackBerry KEY2 Specifications

Specifications	BlackBerry KEY2
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 @ 2.2GHz
RAM	6GB
Camera	Rear: 12MP + 12MP with Dual-Tone LED Flash F/1.8 + F/2.6,  1.28μm + 1.0μm pixel sizes, 4k video recording support Front: 8MP fixed focus, selfie flash, 1080p video recording
Storage	64GB or 128GB with MicroSD support
Display	4.5-inch 1620×1080 IPS LCD
Audio	3.5mm headphone jack, speaker
Battery	3,500mAh supporting Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0
Ports	3.5mm headphone jack, one USB-C port
Miscellaneous	Built-in keyboard with fingerprint sensor
Price	Rs 42,990 w/ Reliance Jio's cashback offer of Rs 4,450 and ICICI bank cash back offer of 5%

Having mentioned the specifications, the BlackBerry KEY2 has a lot up its sleeve in terms of features. As a company, BlackBerry has always been known for their security. There's no end to the included security features on the BlackBerry KEY2. You'll get a private data and application locker, full control via DTEK over what your apps can access, and even controls over how much power apps can use. It's a lot more than other Android manufacturers offer on their devices, with the closest you'll get on other devices being Samsung's Knox.

The Blackberry Key2 is certainly a powerful device, and at a lower price, there would be nothing wrong with it. However, at its current price, it costs more than devices with much, much better specifications. There's a lot of unique features on top of those specifications, but are they really worth it? It's up to you to decide. If you are interested in a Blackberry device but are put off by the price, the upcoming Key2 LE may be worth the wait.

Buy the BlackBerry KEY2 on Amazon

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Linux apps will now run better on low-memory Chromebooks

Earlier this year, Linux apps on Chrome launched on the Pixelbook, a speedy Chromebook with 8GB RAM. Since then, dozens of devices have received support from low-end to high-end, and even ARM Chromebooks too. A recent Chromium commit introduces better resource management for Linux apps on Chrome OS by dynamically managing RAM – great news for low-memory Chromebooks.

Linux apps within the VM get dynamic memory management for low-memory conditions

Project Crostini allows users to run Linux apps in a virtual machine, segregated from the rest of the OS. While isolating apps in a VM makes it more secure, this makes it difficult for the OS to know what's going on in the virtual machine to allocate RAM correctly. The Chrome developers decided to over-allocate RAM initially, meaning that many users were left with a VM consuming more RAM than it needed. Fine for a top-spec Pixelbook – not so great for a 4GB RAM Samsung Chromebook Plus. This recent change pipes in new controls that dynamically responds to RAM usage in the virtual machine and gives it back to Chrome once the app is done with it.

Automating resource management behind-the-scenes is great for end-users in general, and adds another layer of polish to Project Crostini before it arrives for the masses in a few months. Linux apps for Chrome will come to the Stable and Beta channels in release 69, which is due out in September. Until then, Chrome OS users will have to switch to the Developer or Canary channels.

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The OnePlus 3/3T will skip Android 8.1 and get Android P

The Android community has been rather split when it comes to OnePlus and their products (and marketing tactics). There's a segment who feel they have stepped up to fill the role where Google's Nexus Program left off, and then there are others who dislike their slogan of "Never Settle." I think it's fair to say that with the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T, the company stepped up their design game and went from an up-and-comer in the market to an actual contender. The OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T is getting close to the end of its Android version updates and we're now being told that these two devices are going to be skipping Android 8.1 and going straight to Android P (9.0).

Many companies that I won't name in this article will do what they can to slack off when a smartphone gets to the end of its lifecycle. It's nice to see that OnePlus has not been one of those companies. True, they did drop the ball with the OnePlus 2 and the OnePlus X, but they have admitted their mistake and have vowed to do things differently in the future. And so far the company has done well for the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T. The OnePlus 3 came out in June of 2016 and the OnePlus 3T hit the market in November of the same year.

And neither of these devices have seen a slowdown when it comes to their OTA updates. Two months ago both of these smartphones received an update that brought Google Lens in the form of Google Assistant. Earlier this month these two phones received their last Open Beta updates to add new features, improved search tags in the App Drawer, and more. Then less than two weeks ago, the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T was pushed an update that brought their Andriod security patch level up to July, improved the front camera, fixed an issue with 3rd-party cameras, and more.

Today, the news is even better. The folks over at OnePlus have come out and said the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T will not be receiving an OxygenOS update that is based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Some will undoubtedly be upset about this but we are getting close to the official release of Android 9.0 and it makes much more sense to put their focus on that. OnePlus says they have been working closely with Google on the Android P Beta Program. The last bit of information they told us, which is natural in the Android ecosystem, is that OnePlus will be rolling out Android P to the OnePlus 6, the OnePlus 5, OnePlus 5T, the OnePlus 3/3T in that order. So those of us still rocking the OnePlus 3/3T as a daily driver will have to wait a bit longer before we get a taste of Android 9's secretive dessert.

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Source: OnePlus

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