android
UK retailer Clove pulls ASUS Transformer Prime from shelves citing problems
If you’re living in the UK and you were planning to get your ASUS Transformer Prime tablet from online retailer Clove, you might be out of luck. It appears that the retailer has pulled the ASUS Transformer Prime from their “shelves” citing quality control issues. No word on when they plan to restock it, but if the tablet is at the top of your shopping list, you might have to look elsewhere for it.
According to Clove, there were complaints from customers regarding some faults that they had with their units. While they did not specifically mention what these faults were, there have been some reports of GPS issues since the tablet has seen its launch. We personally did not encounter such issues during our review of the tablet, but we guess there were enough complaints by customers that prompted Clove to pull the tablet until further notice.
“Because of complaints of faults with the model we took the decision to thoroughly test stock before fulfilling any orders. We are at this time not satisfied that all units we could provide you with are working correctly, and performing to the standard we expect of the unit. We have therefore taken the decision until further notice stop selling the ASUS Transformer Prime.”
When ASUS caught wind of this, they responded in kind which basically let customers know that there will be other avenues for purchase of the tablet should they decide to look elsewhere.
“ASUS is not aware of any quality issues with the Transformer Prime. We have already issued a statement regarding the GPS module, and provided a number of options to our customers. We have conducted extensive testing on the Transformer Prime in laboratory conditions and the device is performing as expected in all areas and to all of our required parameters.
ASUS prides itself on the rigorous testing of all products to ensure the highest quality possible. We refute any and all claims from third parties regarding the quality of our products.
Stock availability to-date has been constrained due to massive demand for the Transformer Prime. Large quantities of stock is arriving on a weekly basis and we expect to see increased availability within the UK shortly.”
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?