Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) and Galaxy J5 (2016) are now official

After several leaks, the Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) and Galaxy J5 (2016) have finally been made official. Both devices are now listed on the South Korean company's China website.

The new Galaxy J7, which is the more powerful of the two, is powered by a octa-core 1.6GHz processor and sports a 5.5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display. It has 3GB RAM and 16GB expandable internal memory, and packs in a 3,300mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the handset features a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. Measuring 151.7 x 76 x 7.8mm and weighing in at 170g, the Galaxy J7 (2016) offers LTE connectivity as well as NFC capabilities.

The new Galaxy J5, on the other hand, is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz processor and sports a 5.2-inch HD Super AMOLED display. It has 2GB RAM and 16GB expandable internal memory, and packs in a 3,100mAh battery.

The phone's camera department is handled by a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP selfie shooter. Measuring 145.8 x 72.3 x 8.1mm and weighing in at 159g, the Galaxy J5 (2016) also offers LTE and NFC capabilities.

While prices as well as release date(s) are currently not known, there's also no information on if and when the two handsets will be made available outside of China.

iPhone SE reportedly nabs more than 3.4 million reservations in China

The iPhone SE, which was unveiled a week ago during a special event, is apparently very popular in China. According to a report from CNBC, the new 4-inch smartphone has managed to grab more than 3.4 million reservations, with a little over one day to go before the reservation window closes.

As always when talking about the Chinese market, you'll see most news outlets report this number as "pre-orders", however as a general rule in China these don't work like they do elsewhere. They're called reservations and no money changes hands before the actual purchase, unlike a 'western' pre-order where you generally do pay right when you make it.

This means that many people can reserve a new device, but that doesn't guarantee that all of them will actually buy a unit in the end. Unfortunately it's impossible to tell whether that's the case in this situation too, but it is how things generally go in the Chinese market.

That doesn't make the 3.4 million amount less impressive, it's just unclear whether we can already count these as sales or simply the number of people who have shown interest in the iPhone SE.

The same report states that the most popular color version is gold, followed closely by rose gold. The iPhone SE starts at CNY 3,288 in China, which right now translates into $506. Not anywhere near the $399 starting price in the US, but not as high as the prices in Europe have turned out to be either. The handset will be out on March 31, which is this coming Thursday.

Samsung app confirms Galaxy S7 Active's existence

There were a couple of leaks this past week about an Active variant of Samsung's Galaxy S7flagship. Now, the name 'Galaxy S7 Active' has been spotted listed in the change-log of Samsung's Level app, effectively confirming the existence of the device.

For those who missed, the Galaxy S6 Active successor was first spotted in a Zuaba listing carrying a model number of SM-G891A (GS6 Active is G890A). Then, a couple of days later, the usually reliable leakster @evleaks revealed that the device has a code name of Poseidon, and is being tested at AT&T.

As for how the rugged version would be different from the standard Galaxy S7, it is being speculated that design will be a differentiating factor. Plus, there will be military-grade protection (MIL-STD-810G) from scenarios like drops and falls, and not to mention a larger battery.

Oppo R9 and R9 Plus launching outside China next week

If you're waiting for Oppo to launch its R9 and R9 Plus smartphones outside China, here is some good news: the company has sent out media invites for a phone launch event in India scheduled for April 5.

While the invite itself doesn't explicitly say which phone(s) will be unveiled, the text 'Selfie Expert' is more than enough to conclude that the R9 and R9 Plus will be the star of the event given that they feature 16MP front shooters and have been marketed by the company ascamera-centric phones right from the beginning.

Both phones were made official in Oppo's home country of China on March 17, and were released a week later, with the company selling over 180,000 units on the first day itself.

As for the price, the R9 carries a tag of RMB 2,799 ($430) in China, while the Plus variant sets you back RMB 3,299 ($510). Given that the two have already begun their global expansion we are hoping Oppo will bring them to all of its supported markets shortly.

LeTV Le2 with Helio X25 benchmarked - a 5.5" phablet

The MediaTek Helio X25 was supposed to be exclusive to Meizu, but results spotted in GFXBench show it's used by the LeTV LeEco Le 2 too (it may seem like a meme-y name, but the LeEco brand is actually pretty big in China).

The phone is a 5.5" phablet with a 1080p screen, according to the benchmark. It has 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

The chipset, in case you are not familiar, has a 10-core ('deca-core') CPU design - a big Cortex-A72 (2x) cluster, medium A53 cluster (4x) and a small A53 cluster (4x) each at different clock speeds (the A72s top out at 2GHz). A Mali-T880 GPU handles the graphics - same GPU as the Exynos 8890, but with a third of the cores.

GFX result (click for full size)

The LeTV Le 2 boasts a 16MP camera with 4K video capture, plus an 8MP/1080p selfie camera. The phone should bring 4G LTE and dual-SIM connectivity, plus a USB Type-C port.

LeEco has scheduled an event for April 20, so it could be about a month before the phone is made official.

Samsung Pay comes to China in partnership with China UnionPay

Inline with the March time-frame announced by Samsung last month, the company has launched its mobile payments service Samsung Pay in China. Samsung has partnered with China UnionPay (CUP) for the launch.

The mobile payments service is currently available on select Samsung flagships including the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, and Galaxy Note5. However, the company says that future support for additional mid-range models is on the cards.

In China, Samsung Pay currently supports credit/debit cards from nine banks, including China CITIC Bank, China Construction Bank, China Everbright Bank, China Guangfa Bank, China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd, China Merchants Bank, Hua Xia Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Ping An Bank.

The launch comes over a month after rival Apple launched its mobile payments offering Apple Pay in the Asian country, which is also the world's largest smartphone market.

BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet now up for pre-order

The first Ubuntu tablet is now finally up for pre-order, after having been unveiled in February. The BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition is offered in two versions, one with 1,280x800 screen resolution and the other with a 1,920x1,200 panel.

The former is obviously cheaper, going for €249.90. It has a 10.1-inch touchscreen, the MediaTek MT8163A chipset with a 1.5 GHz quad-core CPU and Mali-T720MP2 GPU, 2GB of RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, an 8 MP rear camera, a 5 MP front camera, 16GB of expandable storage, and a 7,280 mAh battery.

The full HD model retails for €289.90, and has the exact same specifications aside from the display's resolution. The tablet's measurements are 246 x 171 x 8.2mm.

Deliveries for the BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition are set to commence during the second week of April. As a special launch offer, you're getting a tablet cover as well as a screen protector for free when you pre-order from BQ's official online store.

Facebook wants to build mobile payments and "secret conversations" into Messenger

Facebook is said to be working on deploying even more features into its Messenger apps - as if the money-sending and virtual assistant, for example, weren't enough.

The big one is that apparently Facebook will use Messenger as its mobile payments play, rivaling Apple Pay and Android Pay and letting you to pay for things in physical stores. This would expand upon the aforementioned existing feature that lets you send money to friends.

The revelations come from a look at comments in the code of the Facebook Messenger app for iOS. Another new thing coming in the future is "secret conversations", though it's unclear exactly what that means. It could be a way to hide certain conversations from Messenger's list, or maybe a feature that lets you set an auto-expiration for some dialogues. Then again, it could be as simple as encrypting messages.

You should also expect to see some kind of calendar syncing built into Messenger, as well as easy sharing of quotes from articles and sending status updates to only a subset of your friends.

First Oculus Rift delivered by Oculus CEO himself

The Oculus has come a long way since the early Kickstarter days, but this Saturday it reached an important milestone - the first Rift headset was delivered.

And this wasn't a regular FedEx delivery either, Palmer Luckey, co-founder and CEO of Oculus himself, handed over the headset to its lucky recipient - Ross Martin, a developer from Alaska.

The whole thing was streamed live on Facebook (the home of Oculus) and you can tell Martin was excited. He says he couldn't sleep and even showed up at his office (where he usually receives deliveries) during the weekend to receive the package. Luckey was visibly excited too - he's been waiting for this moment since 2009.

Samsung to build a $300 million R&D center in Vietnam

Samsung is about to start the construction of a new Research & Development center in Vietnam. The new facility will be in Hanoi and will cost the company $300 million.

The Vietnamese government has agreed to give Samsung the land to build its R&D center without having to pay rent for the next 50 years.

The company is forced to make the investment in a new facility due to restricted space in the one already in operation in Hanoi. The new center will join the ones in the Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen provinces.

Samsung C-series in the works, 5.2-inch C5000 leads the way

Samsung has been expanding its lineup all over the Latin alphabet, and the newest addition is apparently going to be a C-series. Evidence of that comes from an import listing on Indian customs database Zauba.

The smartphone in question carries a model number SM-C5000 and features a 5.2-inch display, and this is all that's been revealed now. Sources say that a C7000 model is also in development, but display size hasn't been specified.

It's tough to pinpoint exactly where the new series will be positioned - after all Samsung's alphabet goes S-A-J-E-Z in descending order of price, with an On and a Note thrown either side of those. Judging by the declared unit price of INR 13,625 ($205) it sits just above last year's Galaxy J5 (the J5 (2016) isn't out yet), but that number will certainly be higher once the smartphone actually hits the stores. Still, the Galaxy A's should remain closest to the flagship S in terms of price.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)

The C-series is said to be meant primarily for the Chinese market, but may also be available elsewhere. The first bit makes it unlikely that the Galaxy C5 is the mysterious motorcycle-related launch scheduled for March 31 in India. So, it's another round of the waiting game until some official info comes out.

Xiaomi phone with 4.3-inch screen and SD820 SoC spotted online

Looks like Xiaomi is preparing a competitor to the newly-launched Apple iPhone SE. A mystery handset allegedly sporting a 4.3-inch screen has been spotted in China, and reports say it is Xiaomi's answer to Apple's latest smartphone offering.

Кey specs of the device reportedly include Snapdragon 820 chipset, HD display, 13MP rear camera (sans OIS), and 3GB/32GB memory configuration. Carrying an RMB 1,799 (around $275) price tag, the phone is expected to launch in June. It is also expected to feature a fingerprint sensor.

Needless to say, nothing is officially confirmed at the moment. So, take all this for what it is - a rumor.