Top Tech News of the Week 24th - 30th June, 2018 Weekly Round Up

Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 launched with 4G LTE, AI Face Unlock and more

Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 has been announced along with the Redmi 6 Pro earlier today in China. The fourth-generation tablet comes with interesting features such as AI Face Unlock. The device comes in two variants - Wi-Fi and 4G of which the latter has a nano SIM slot. The Mi Pad 4 has been launched in Gold and Black color variants and will go on sale from June 27 in the country.

The Mi Pad 4 measures 200.2 x 120.3 x 7.9mm in dimension and weighs in around 242.5 grams. It is touted to be 9.4% smaller than its predecessor - the Mi Pad 3, making it comfortable for one-handed usage. It comes with the AI Face Unlock feature and it is interesting to see the same on a tablet.

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Moto Z3 Play with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage officially unveiled

Motorola launched the Moto Z3 Play in Brazil, which is the first smartphone from the third generation of Moto MOD supported devices. And now, the company has launched an upgraded model of the same which now comes with 6 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128 GB of storage for a price of BLR 2,699 (Rs 48,585), which makes it the costliest Moto Z3 Play smartphone. The smartphone also comes in a new color Onyx or the dark blue color variant as well.

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Samsung patents a bezel-less dual-screen smartphone

According to a recent patent by Samsung, the company is been working on a new device which is said to be featuring a bezel-less design along with two screens, the displays will be placed on the front and the rear panel of the smartphone.

The patent which has emerged shows a design that claims a secondary display fixed on the rear panel. The design includes a bezel-less full edge-to-edge display clubbed with a smaller screen on the rear back. According to the reports, the secondary screen will not be much different from the Meizu Pro 7 and LG V20 bit it will be slightly bigger in size.

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itel, Spice, Tecno, Infinix will launch 25 smartphones in India within six months

With an aim to increase its presence and market share in India, Chinese conglomerate Transsion Holding is all set to launch more than a dozen smartphones in next six months. The company's CEO Arijeet Talapatra shared the details of the upcoming devices with Gizbot exclusively.

Arijeet said, "We are planning to launch 25 smartphones and 21 feature phones in next six months." He further went on to say with conviction that all of the company's brands are doing good in India.

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Instagram update brings group video chat, custom camera effects and updated explore feed

Instagram received a new update, which brings a slew of new features to the app. The notable feature additions are the ability to make group video chat in Instagram Direct, an updated Explore feeds, and the ability to add custom camera effects. These features were announced at the F8 developers' conference by Facebook in May this year.

With the latest update, these features are live on the iOS and Android versions of the Instagram app. If you haven't received these features, you can update the app to check for the new feature additions.

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Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 632, 439, 429 mid-range Mobile Solution

Qualcomm has announced three new mid-tier Mobile Solution (chipsets) in MWC Shanghai 2018 with AI centric features and computational capabilities. Qualcomm has unveiled the Qualcomm Snapdragon 632, which will be the successor to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 and the Qualcomm 439 and Qualcomm 429, which are the successor to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 and 425, respectively.

These chipsets will be available for smartphone manufacturers from the 2nd half of 2018 and we might be able to see smartphones launching with these chipsets by the end of 2018.

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Asus Zenfone 5Z India launch confirmed for July 4

Asus Zenfone 5Z unveiled at the MWC 2018 tech show in Barcelona in February is all set to be launched in India soon. The smartphone was speculated to be launched in India on June 26 as a Flipkart exclusive. While the India launch did not happen as expected, Asus has announced that the flagship smartphone will be launched in the country on July 4.

The official Twitter handle of Asus India has posted a tweet and the company has come up with teasers confirming the July 4 launch date. The smartphone will be launched at 12:30 PM on the mentioned date. And, it will be a Flipkart exclusive as teased earlier.

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Galaxy Note 9 to be launched on the 9th of August 2018: Samsung

It's now confirmed that the South Korean smartphone giant, Samsung will be launching its flagship note smartphone aka the Samsung Galaxy Note9 in the US&A on the 9th of August 2018, which will be a global launch. Just like the Galaxy S9/S9+ launch, the company is most likely to launch the Galaxy Note9 in India on the 2nd or the 3rd week of August 2018.

According to the latest teaser and a press-invite, the Galaxy Note9 is expected to come in a brand new color with an improved S-Pen to offer high-precision note-taking and other applications.

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Meizu plans to take on the Mi 8 SE with its ambitious X8

Meizu seems all set to give a tough time to its rival smartphone-maker Xiaomi. Earlier this week it was reported that Meizu is planning to take on Xiaomi in the Indian market. The company will launch the M6T smartphone on Flipkart and will go against the likes of the Xiaomi Redmi 5.

Now, Meizu's founder Jack Wong has confirmed that the company will launch its latest Meizu X8. The smartphone is powered by a Snapdragon 710 Soc and will be first launched in China. He said that the X8 will be better than Xiaomi Mi 8 SE which is also equipped with the same chipset.

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