Xiaomi Announces the Mi Note 2 (Snapdragon 821, 6GB RAM) and Mi MIX Concept Phones

Xiaomi has added two new phones to its lineup: the Mi Note 2 and the Mi MIX. Both are flagship phones with large screens that emphasize performance and design; however, despite some overlap in criteria and internal hardware, these are two very distinct devices.

Like its predecessor, the Mi Note, the Mi Note 2 has an aluminum frame and a glass back with curved edges, but instead of the previous design’s flat front, the Mi Note 2 uses a flexible OLED display to allow curved edges to the front too, design features Samsung’s recent Galaxy phones also employ. Another obvious change from the previous model is the addition of a capacitive fingerprint sensor. The pill-shaped sensor, which sits below the screen and is flanked by capacitive navigation buttons, keeps the lower bezel relatively slim, giving the Mi Note 2 a screen-to-body ratio of 77.2%. The rear-facing camera sits flush with the shiny and smooth glass on the back and includes a slightly raised and polished ring to protect the lens.

The design is generally symmetric and balanced: The centered earpiece has the sensors and front-facing camera to either side, and the centered USB Type-C port on the bottom has matching arrays of holes for the downward-firing speaker and microphone. The offset 3.5mm headphone jack on the top edge and the dual-color LED flash on the back are the only features to break symmetry.

The Mi Note 2’s 5.7-inch OLED display delivers excellent black levels and covers 110% of the NTSC color gamut, according to Xiaomi, which basically means it should deliver highly saturated colors. For people who prefer more accurate colors, the phone provides an sRGB mode and a control for adjusting the display’s color temperature. Unfortunately, its 1920×1080 resolution is less than ideal for such a large display.

Inside the Mi Note 2 is Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 821 SoC, which includes four of its custom Kryo CPU cores and an Adreno 530 GPU, and a sufficiently large 4070mAh non-accessible battery that supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology. It also comes with either 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal UFS 2.0 storage or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but there’s no support for microSD cards.

The 8MP front-facing camera includes autofocus and Xiaomi’s third-generation beauty mode processing. Around back is a 22.5MP Sony IMX318 Exmor RS sensor, which is among a new generation of sensors that use smaller 1.0µm pixels. Despite the reduction in full-well capacity, Sony claims its new sensor matches the image quality of its previous IMX230 Exmor RS sensor that uses larger 1.12µm pixels. Stacked above the sensor is a lens array with six elements and an f/2.0 aperture.

The Mi Note 2’s rear camera supports phase detect autofocus (PDAF) to improve focus speed. There’s no optical image stabilization (OIS), which could negatively impact low-light still image performance, but the camera does employ 3-axis electronic image stabilization (EIS) when shooting videos, even in 4K.

The Mi Note 2 comes in two different colors—Piano Black and Glacier Silver—and three different versions—two which will only be available in China and a global version that supports 6 modes and 37 frequency bands. The Mi Note 2 will be available in China starting November 1st for ¥2799 (4GB RAM / 64GB NAND) or ¥3299 (6GB RAM / 128GB NAND). The global version will cost ¥3499 (6GB RAM / 128GB NAND).

The larger Mi MIX was jointly developed with prolific designer Philippe Starck and features an all-ceramic body with ceramic buttons. The front is dominated by a 6.4-inch display with virtually no bezels along the top or sides, giving the phone a 91.3% screen-to-body ratio. The 5MP front-facing camera is located in the lower-right corner of the slim lower bezel, while the ultrasonic (instead of infrared) proximity sensor is located behind the screen. There are no physical or capacitive buttons in the lower bezel either, because it uses onscreen navigation controls.

Eliminating the upper bezel meant eliminating the traditional earpiece speaker too. In its place, the Mi MIX uses a piezoelectric-driven cantilevered beam that produces sound by vibrating the phone’s ceramic frame instead of a speaker driver. What’s not clear, though, is if people nearby will also be able to hear the conversation, or if the sound is directed only towards the user.

A circular camera sits flush with the ceramic back, stacked above a circular fingerprint sensor. A USB Type-C port sits centered on the bottom edge flanked by a symmetric array of small holes hiding a downward firing speaker and microphone. A 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top edge.

Its 6.4-inch IPS LCD display has an odd 17:9 aspect ratio that’s supposed to make room for the onscreen navigation controls while still providing a traditional 16:9 viewable area. Its 2040×1080 resolution seems low for such a large display, but it still provides a decent 362 PPI pixel density. Xiaomi claims a peak brightness of 500 nits and 94% coverage of the NTSC color gamut, making this a wide-gamut panel with more saturated colors. Like the Mi Note 2, the Mi MIX also provides a control for adjusting the display’s color temperature and a native sRGB mode.

Its internal hardware is also similar to the Mi Note 2’s, packing in an impressive list of hardware. The key differences are a larger 4400mAh battery and twice the internal UFS 2.0 NAND.

The Mi MIX will be available exclusively in China beginning November 4th and will come in two different versions. The standard version will cost ¥3499 with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, while a special limited edition version, which comes with 6GB of RAM, 256GB of internal storage, and 18K gold-plated accents around the rear camera and fingerprint sensor will cost ¥3999.

Kodak Ektra Smartphone Announced: MediaTek Helio X20, 21 MP Camera, USB-C

Eastman Kodak and the Bullitt Group on Thursday introduced the Ektra smartphone, which will be the first mainstream handset carrying the Kodak brand. The phone inherits its Ektra name from Kodak’s consumer cameras from the 1940s, and is designed to cater to digital photography enthusiasts, which is emphasized by overall design (which somewhat resembles the original), a large assembly of lenses as well as a dedicated shutter button. Initially, the Kodak Ektra device will be exclusively in Europe for €499.

Kodak developed the world’s first digital camera in the mid-1970s and has patented a huge number of digital imaging-related technologies since then. Although the company was fairly successful with its digital cameras in the 1990s and early 2000s, it lost a significant chunk of its market share later on as new companies entered the scene. Consequently, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2012 and then had to exit the digital camera business, sell off its image sensor solution unit and some other businesses, and then sell many of its patents to a group of high-tech rivals in 2013. After re-emerging from bankruptcy, Kodak decided to focus on commercial products and services, but did not forget its heritage of serving consumers. In 2013, it demonstrated its first micro four thirds camera to be made by a third party and in late 2014 announced plans for smartphones.

Nowadays the market for standalone cameras is on the decline as many people use smartphones to make pictures, and this is when Kodak decided to team up with Bullitt (which also has rights to produce phones under CAT and Land Rover brands) to create a Kodak-branded handset. Under the terms of the agreement, Kodak licensed two of its trademarks to Bullitt and then developed the photography software as well as the optical lenses assembly. In the meantime, Bullitt designed the Kodak Ektra smartphone itself.

From hardware point of view, the Kodak Ektra is a typical mainstream smartphone, featuring a 5” FHD display and is based on MediaTek’s Helio X20 SoC. The handset comes equipped with 3 GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 32 GB of NAND flash storage, a 802.11ac Wi-Fi + BT 4.1 wireless module, a 4G/LTE Cat4 modem and a 3000 mAh battery. A good thing is that the phone sports a USB Type-C port used both for data and charging.

Gallery: Kodak Ektra Smartphone

Meanwhile, the imaging capabilities of the Kodak Ektra deserve a closer look: after all, the smartphone is all about photography. The main (rear) camera of the phone uses Sony’s 21 MP Exmor RS IMX230/IMX338 sensor (Kodak does not reveal the exact model), which is found on some other smartphones nowadays, as well as a dual-LED flash. As noted above, Kodak designed the imaging software with SLR-like UI to select the scene type (e.g., HDR, landscape, portrait, macro, sport, night-time, panorama, bokeh as well as a smart auto mode). In addition, the phone supports the manual mode that allows adjusting exposure, ISO, focus, white balance and shutter speed — just like on cameras. Finally, Kodak applied a special coating to the lenses to maximize their luminous transmission.

While Sony’s 21 MP sensors are used relatively widely and behave predictably, Kodak’s lens assembly and custom software are supposed to be the main factors that will differentiate the Ektra from competing Android 6-based devices. Obviously, we will need to test the hardware and software before drawing any conclusions about imaging capabilities of the Kodak smartphone. As for the front-facing camera, Bullitt/Kodak installed a fairly good 13 MP sensor with an f/2.2 lens.

Gallery: Examples of Photos Made Using Kodak Ektra

Kodak and Bullitt intend to sell the Ektra in Europe later this year for €499 or £449, depending on the country, through Bullitt’s typical sales channels. The design as well as the price point clearly indicate that the Kodak Ektra is a niche phone that is positioned below flagship models from Apple and Samsung, but still relatively high in the market for what’s largely mainstream hardware. That said, it looks like the Ektra is banking on people familiar with the Kodak brand, who value imaging capabilities, stylish design and original accessories (Kodak will offer a case and a pouch). However, it is unlikely that the smartphone will capture a significant chunk of the market. After all, many smartphone makers claim that their products have the industry’s best photography capabilities and Kodak/Bullitt are definitely not the first to advertise such features.

Gallery: Accessories for Kodak Ektra Smartphone

Chinese Tech Giant LeEco Enters US Market with Le Pro3 and Le S3 Smartphones, Range of UHD TVs

LeEco announced its official entry into the U.S. market at its “Ignite the Eco World” event in San Francisco, an important step in the company’s globalization plan. Its initial products include two large-screen smartphones, a range of 4K TVs, and new content partnerships.

LeEco may be the biggest tech company you’ve never heard of. The Chinese company began life as LeTV in 2004 as a streaming content provider and is often referred to as the “Netflix of China.” It then began creating its own movie and TV content with its Le Vision Pictures studio and then expanded into hardware, selling TVs that plugged into its streaming service. More recently, it has expanded its hardware lineup to include smartphones and even a connected bicycle and electric car. It even has its own Uber-like taxi service in China, Yidao.

LeEco now looks to extend its reach further west. Earlier this year it purchased U.S.-based TV maker Vizio, the second largest brand in the U.S., for $2 billion, giving it a familiar name and a foothold in a market wary of Chinese brands. LeEco also purchased Dichotomy Creative Group in September, rebranding it Le Vision Entertainment. The new division is headquartered in Los Angeles and will be responsible for creating original English-language content spanning movies, TV, VR, and the Web. LeEco is even setting up its global headquarters in Silicon Valley (its campus in Beijing will remain its headquarters for China), having purchased a 48-acre plot of land in San Jose, California from Yahoo that will eventually employ some 12,000 people.

To kickstart its U.S. strategy, LeEco is offering two smartphones: the Le Pro3 and the Le S3. Both phones have 5.5-inch 1080p displays, but use different internal hardware. The Le Pro3 includes Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 821 SoC, 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, and 64GB of internal storage. Given its emphasis on streaming content it’s probably not too surprising it does not offer additional storage tiers or microSD card support. Its most interesting feature is a large 4070mAh battery, which should help keep the screen lit for extended movie watching.

The Le S3 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC, which combines four ARM Cortex-A72 CPU cores, four Cortex-A53 cores, and an Adreno 510 GPU that supports all of the latest 3D graphics APIs. We saw its smaller sibling, the Snapdragon 650 that comes with two fewer A72 cores, push the performance of Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 Pro to near flagship levels, so the Le S3 has good performance potential; however, in my brief time with the phone, I noticed some stuttering when navigating the UI and far too many instances where frame rate dropped below 60fps, more so than with the Redmi Note 3 Pro.

The Le S3 also comes with 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM, which should be adequate, but only 32GB of internal storage. For a device that needs to cache lots of music and videos, and still have room for pictures and apps, we definitely would like to see more NAND, especially without microSD card support. The Le S3 also does not get a big battery like the Pro3; its 3000mAh cell is a typical size for 5.1- to 5.2-inch phones rather than a 5.5-inch phablet.

Le Pro3 (left), Le S3 (right)

Both phones have a similar camera setup, with an 8MP front-facing camera and a 16MP primary camera that has an f/2.0 lens and PDAF for faster focusing but does not include optical image stabilization (OIS). Video recording options are pretty basic, supporting only 2160p30 (4K), 1080p30, and 720p30 modes, and with no electronic image stabilization (EIS) option, videos can look pretty shaky.

Le S3 (rose gold)

LeEco eliminated the 3.5mm headphone jack from its phones before Apple axed the analog port in its iPhone 7, opting to pass audio over the USB Type-C port instead. Both the Le Pro3 and Le S3 support LeEco’s Continual Digital Lossless Audio (CDLA) technology that passes digital audio over USB. CDLA compatible earphones, included with both phones, have their own DAC and audio processor that’s supposed to reduce noise and improve channel separation relative to traditional analog audio from a 3.5mm jack. A Type-C to 3.5mm adapter is also included so you can use traditional headphones too.

Both phones also support Dolby Atmos surround-sound technology thanks to the Snapdragon SoCs, which produces more realistic positional audio and even accounts for an object’s vertical position in the soundfield as well.

The Le Pro3 and Le S3 both use aluminum unibody construction and share a similar design language. On the back of the phones we find horizontal plastic antenna lines at the top and bottom, with a large, not-quite-circular camera surround and fingerprint scanner. LeEco was the first company to use Qualcomm’s ultrasonic Sense ID fingerprint sensor, but these phones are using the more common capacitive variety. The most obvious visual difference between the phones is the finish applied to the aluminum: The Le Pro3 has a brushed finish while the Le S3 has a sandblasted finish.

The phones also look quite similar from the front, with relatively small upper and lower bezels and a symmetric layout. Hiding behind the lower bezel is a set of capacitive, backlit buttons. The LeEco logo replaces the standard home glyph on the Pro 3 and is flanked by the recents and back buttons of the left and right, respectively. The only other difference is that the Pro 3 uses 2.5D curved glass, while the S3’s edge-to-edge Corning Gorilla Glass 3 is flat all the way to the edge, giving it a sharper feeling in the hand.

One thing that’s immediately obvious as soon as you turn on either phone is the ridiculously large black bezel on all sides of the screen. The black area is significantly larger in person than LeEco’s press renderings show. I have not seen a border this large on a phone in some time, at least not on a phone that costs more than $200. For me, it’s large enough to be distracting and, in my opinion, it gives the phones a low-cost look.

Both phones include an infrared LED on the top edge for remote control duties, which fits in with LeEco’s philosophy of enabling its hardware to work together. Centered on the bottom edge is a USB 2.0 Type-C port flanked by two perforated grilles. On the Pro 3 they’re covering a pair of speakers, although, having both so close together and firing downward will diminish the stereo effect.

Switching our focus to software, we find that both phones are still running Android 6 Marshmallow with LeEco’s Ecosystem User Interface (EUI) 5.8 running on top. It’s disappointing that the phones will not ship with Android 7, but the demo models I handled were at least running recent security patches (either September or October). What’s unique about EUI are the included apps and built in support for accessing LeEco’s streaming content. Swiping to the left of the default home screen opens LeView, a list of suggestions for video content that learns from your viewing habits, somewhat analogous to HTC’s BlinkFeed or Flipboard for news. Tapping the Live icon opens a 3×3 grid of live video previews of content available for streaming. The Le app gives more comprehensive access to LeEco’s catalog of videos, TV episodes, and music.

It should be obvious by now that LeEco’s business strategy is more Amazon than Apple; it makes money from selling content and uses hardware as a delivery system. Because its revenue is not hardware-focused like with many of its competitors, it can sell its products at competitive prices, even at cost if necessary. LeEco’s ultimate goal is to create an internet-connected ecosystem encompassing hardware, software, and content that provides seamless access to all forms of digital entertainment. That’s no easy task, especially in the U.S. where many entrenched companies, including cable providers, movie studios, TV broadcasters, and internet companies provide similar services, albeit not always in a holistic way.

LeEco thinks it has the answer to this problem with its EcoPlatform that’s open to third-party content providers and hardware partners, essentially giving them access to LeEco’s content delivery system with its apps and LeCloud network that encompasses more than 750 CDN nodes. LeEco announced a number of launch partners at its event, including Lionsgate, Showtime, Esquire, the History Channel, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to name just a few, and it mentioned that another major content partner will be announced on November 2.

To get the most from an ecosystem, whether it’s Apple’s or Google’s or Amazon’s, you need to fully buy in. This is especially true with LeEco, where signing up for Le EcoPass grants you access to 5TB of cloud storage, unlimited monthly movie viewing, extended warranties on LeEco hardware, and access to two EcoPass days (think Black Friday sales) at LeMall.com, its online storefront. It also offers the LeRewards program that grants further discounts on products.

Both the Le Pro3 and Le S3, along with LeEco’s other products, will be available for purchase on November 2 at LeMall.com. The Le Pro3 will cost $399 and the Le S3 will cost $249. There will be a $100 LeRewards discount available for both phones, which will drop the prices to $299 and $149, respectively. The Le Pro3 will be available in two colors—gray and gold—while the Le S3 will be available in three colors—gray, gold, and rose gold. Both phones will be unlocked and are compatible with GSM networks from AT&T, T-Mobile, MetroPCS, and Cricket Wireless.