IDC Q1 2016: Oppo and vivo replace Lenovo and Xiaomi in top-5 smartphone vendors list

Well known Chinese smartphone manufacturers Lenovo and Xiaomi are out of the top five vendors list, and have been replaced by two other - and comparatively lesser known - Chinese firms Oppo and vivo. This was revealed by market research firm IDC in its recently released Q1 2016 numbers.

"Along China's maturing smartphone adoption curve, the companies most aligned with growth are those with products serving increasingly sophisticated consumers," said IDC's said Melissa Chau. "Lenovo benefited with ASPs below US$150 in 2013, and Xiaomi picked up the mantle with ASPs below US$200 in 2014 and 2015. Now Huawei, OPPO, and vivo, which play mainly in the sub-US$250 range, are positioned for a strong 2016."

There was, however, no change in the first three spots, which were still claimed by Samsung, Apple, and Huawei, respectively. While the Chinese company continued with its impressive performance, Apple saw saw its first-ever y-o-y decline in the first quarter as volumes slipped to 51.2 million units. Samsung also witnessed a slight decline in its shipments.

Overall, a total of 334.9 million smartphones were shipped in the quarter, a slight increase from the 334.3 million figure reported in the year-ago quarter.

Google announces MODE bands for Android Wear

By far the best feature of the Apple Watch is the range of bands available for it, and the beautifully simple mechanism for attaching and removing them. Most Android Wear watches have nothing of the sort, with some not even offering the option to change bands.

Google wanted to do something about this, so the company has announced something called MODE bands. These are snap-and-swap watch bands that come in a variety of colors in leather and silicone. The main feature here is the attachment mechanism, which, like the Apple Watch, comes off with just the flick of a switch.

Considering the range of Android Wear watches available, Google knows you can't just make one design and expect them to work with all. So it has created a vendor playbook with instructions, requirements and brand guidelines. Other companies will have to use this to make their own MODE bands. It honestly doesn't sound particularly viable, and brings thisxkcd comic to mind. We will have to wait and see how well brands adopt this.

Samsung records better-than-expected Q1 growth thanks to Galaxy S7/S7 edge

Samsung has announced its Q1 2016 financial results, revealing a 5.7% increase in overall revenue and 12% increase in operating profit.

The figures stood at KRW 49.78 trillion ($43.46 billion) and KRW 6.68 trillion ($5.83 billion), respectively, ahead of the KRW 49 trillion ($43.3 billion) revenue and KRW 6.6 trillion ($5.7 billion) operating profit the company's earnings guidance had suggested.

"The first quarter saw overall earnings growth led by the early launch and successful sales of the flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 edge," the South Korean company said, while also attributing the growth to "improved memory product mix, expanded 14nm supply of System LSI products and increased sales of OLED panels."

Samsung's mobile division posted KRW 27.60 trillion ($24.12 billion) in consolidated revenue, up 6.6% year-on-year, and KRW 3.89 trillion ($3.4 billion) in operating profit, an year-on-year increase of 42%. This was the division's strongest performance in nearly a couple of years.

"As for the year ahead, Samsung anticipates softening demand in the smartphone market and negative growth in the tablet market," the company said, adding that it "will reinforce its leadership in the premium smartphone segment on the back of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, while continuing to increase volume and improve profitability in the mid-to-low-end segment."

Another rumor claims HTC working on next-gen Nexus devices

Back in January this year, there were rumors that like 2015, there will be two Nexus phones in 2016 as well, and both will be manufactured by HTC. Now, another rumor has cropped up that not only adds weight to the previous one, but also reveals some new information.

The latest rumor comes from the usually reliable leakster @evleaks, who also revealed that the two Android N-powered Nexus devices that HTC is manufacturing are internally being called as the M1 and S1.

Sadly, nothing else was revealed, especially in terms of their specs. However, if you recall, previous rumors claimed that one of the devices will sport a 5-inch display, while the other will come with a 5.5-inch screen.

Nextbit Robin "cloud phone" receives Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow update

The Nextbit Robin smartphone comes with cloud storage integrated into its customized Android OS. And starting today it also comes running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow underneath Nextbit's additions.

The update to the latest version of Google's mobile OS has started rolling out to Robin owners across the globe. It has all the goodies that you'd expect from Marshmallow, but it also comes with the most recent security patches.

"Additional processor tuning" should give you better battery life and improved performance, and the all-new audio tuning at the driver level apparently makes the phone sound clearer (both when using its dual speakers as well as with headphones, even with the volume turned all the way up). Finally, the camera app has been completely overhauled, which results in much faster picture taking and better quality shots.

The Nextbit Robin is now available to buy from Amazon too, for the same $399 price for an unlocked unit. It's compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile, and other companies operating on those two carriers' networks.

Two upcoming Android-powered BlackBerry devices get pictured

BlackBerry's next two Android-running smartphones have been portrayed by a few leaked images today. The handsets are apparently codenamed Hamburg and Rome, respectively, following the Canadian company's long-standing tradition of using cities for its devices' codenames.

The Hamburg either doesn't have a physical keyboard at all, or it could be a slider like the already launched Priv. The two leaked images depicting it don't shine any light on that aspect, unfortunately. Still, we do get to see its entire front fascia, as well as two of its dimensions.

It will be 146mm long and 78mm wide, as you can see. The second image (seen below) shows us the new BlackBerry logo in a close-up shot. The Hamburg seems to be made from metal, and it features a speaker grille underneath the screen. The power button is on the left side, while the other buttons are on the right.

The Hamburg should reportedly become available in the second half of the year for around $400. So it's going to be a mid-ranger.

Next up we have the Rome, which clearly has a physical keyboard. It's placed under the screen, but this isn't a slider, instead emulating the form factor of the Passport somewhat. The same new logo is present here too.

Unfortunately no specs have been leaked alongside these images, and for the Rome there isn't even a rumored release time frame to speak of (or any word on pricing). So we'll have to wait for some new leaks to get that information.

EE is taking pre-orders for its exclusive White Pearl Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

In the UK, EE has started taking pre-orders for a new color variant of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the S7 edge. This is called White Pearl and it's a hue that will be exclusive to this particular operator in the UK. So if you live over there and want to grab one of Samsung's newest flagships in white, you'll have to go with EE as your network of choice.

You can buy the Galaxy S7 for £9.99 when paired with a Pay Monthly plan that costs at least £45.99. For this amount of cash each month you'll get unlimited minutes and texts as well as 4GB of data. The S7 edge also starts at £9.99 upfront cost, but to snag it at this price you'll need to go with the £55.99 plan, which offers unlimited minutes and texts and 20GB of data each month.

Of course there are many other options to choose from, so make sure you go through the entire list of contracts before you make up your mind. Both White Pearl handsets will become available on May 6.

Meizu m3 records 4.5M pre-registrations in a day

The Meizu m3 - which was announced a couple of days ago, recorded a total of around 4.5M registrations in just 24 hours. This was revealed by an official statement by the Chinese company.

Priced at RMB 599 or around $92 (2GB/16GB version) and RMB 799 or around $125 (3GB/32GB version), the device comfortably surpassed the company's Pro 6 flagship in terms of first day pre-orders - the figure for the latter stood at 3M. Keep in mind that those numbers aren't actual pre-orders and no cash has exchanged hands just yet.

The handset will be available for purchase starting April 29 from the Meizu Mall and other official re-sellers in China.

MediaTek Helio X30 posts a smashing Antutu score, built on 10nm process

Analyst Pan Jiutang revealed on Weibo today the MediaTek Helio X30 chipset will be manufactured using a 10nm manufacturing process. According to him, the Helio X30 will come with ten CPU cores - the Cortex-A35 will be used for non-demanding tasks, while the heavy lifting will be done by the yet unreleased "Artemis"

Additionally, the X30 will support up to 8GB of RAM and come with a PowerVR GPU. Jiutang also provides a presentation slide, which shows the MediaTek Helio X30 scores 160,000 points on the Antutu benchmark, beating the Snapdragon 820 by 30,000.MediaTek's plans the Helio X30 to be its flagship chipset for 2017. The analyst reveals that until then the company aims to optimize power consumption. There are no details on which devices will use the upcoming chipset.

LG X Cam details revealed - 13MP 78° + 5MP 120° camera, 5.2" screen

The V10-like LG X screen is already on sale, but it's only now that we get the full details on the LG X Cam. This one is more of an affordable LG G5 as it shares its defining feature - the dual camera setup on the back.

It features one 13MP 78° and one 5MP 120° camera (compared to 16MP 78° + 8MP 135° for the G5). There are Pop-out Picture effects similar to the G5.

The LG X Cam itself is a slender 6.9mm and features 3D Arc Glass on the front with a brushed metal look.

On the front is a 5.2" 1080p screen, almost the size of the G5 screen (but without the resolution). The phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow on a weak-ish 1.14GHz octa-core processor and 2GB RAM. The 2,520mAh battery is a bit disappointing too.

Xiaomi Mi 5 Gold Edition to be available for purchase starting April 29

Xiaomi has announced that the Gold Edition of the Mi 5 will go on sale later this week - April 29 (10 AM). The announcement came on Weibo.

The new variant will be available in two different versions: a standard version powered by Snapdragon 820 SoC (clocked at 1.8GHz) with Adreno 530 GPU, and having 3GB/32GB memory configuration, and a higher-specced version powered by an overclocked (2.15GHz) SD820 chipset with Adreno 510 GPU, and having 3GB/64GB memory configuration.

As for the price, the standard version will carry a tag of RMB 1,999 (around $305), while the other version will set you back RMB 2,299 (around $355). In addition to the Gold Edition, the white color model of the Mi 5 Pro (featuring 3D Glass back) will also go on sale the same day, costing RMB 2,599 (around $400).

Keyever develops a 3.5" bar Win10 phone with a physical keyboard

A bit of an oddball of a smartphone coming out of China answers a question we haven't heard asked. A company called Keyever has come up with a design for a smartphone with a bar form factor and a physical keyboard that runs Windows 10.

The display on the smartphone is a 3.5-inch AMOLED unit with qHD resolution (540x960px), complete with touch support too. The smartphone is said to be powered by one of Qualcomm's latest 600-series Snapdragons. A generous 3,000mAh battery should be plenty for that display and hardware.

      Keyever Windows 10 bar phone

It's the keyboard that is the headline feature here, and it's also one where the engineers remain undecided, the source says. While the phone in the renders sports a numeric keypad, a full QWERTY option is being considered as well. The rear camera setup isn't final either, hence the pixelized back.

Keyever is shooting for a launch later this year, with Q3 being the target. Its intended price is said to be in the whereabouts of CNY 1000 ($155).