android
Coby budget tablets now shipping with Android 4.0 on board
For those who might remember, back in 2011 we reported that Coby, an electronics manufacturer in the US, announced a series of Android tablets that feature modest specs which is safe to assume that they will not be breaking the bank upon its release. Well the good news for those in the market for an affordable Android tablet, you will be pleased to learn that Coby has recently announced that their series of Android tablets announced last year have begun shipping.
If you weren’t around at that time or missed out on CES 2012 earlier this year, the Coby tablets come in six different sizes:
- Coby MID7042 – 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display
- Coby MID8042 – 8 inch, 800 x 600 pixel display
- Coby MID9042 – 9 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display
- Coby MID9742 – 9.7 inch, 1024 x 768 pixel display
- Coby MID1042 – 10 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display
- Coby MID10245 – 10 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display
Apart from the different display sizes and aspect ratios, internally they appear to be all the same. This means that would-be buyers can expect to find a 1GHz Allwinner ARM Cortex-A8 single core processor with 1GB of RAM, microSDHC card slots, HDMI and USB ports and front-facing cameras. The Coby tablets 9” and above will come with 8GB of internal storage, while the 7” and 8” model will only feature 4GB.
While they will not come with support for Google Play or other preloaded Google apps, they will come with the latest build of Android in the form of Ice Cream Sandwich and access to the GetJar app store. The 7” Coby MID7042 is expected to retail for a little over $150, while the high-end Coby MID10245 appears to be retailing anywhere from $260 to $280 depending on which retailer you purchase them from
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?