Elephone Vowney Hands-On Video Surfaced, 4GB Of RAM In Tow

Elephone is one of many China-based smartphone OEMs which are trying to make a name for themselves out in the market. This company was manufacturing low and mid-range devices for a long time, but have since then decided to dabble in a higher-end space. The company has released quite a few compelling devices in the last couple of months, including their P7000 and P8000 handsets. That being said, another Elephone-branded device was rumored to be released by the end of this year, the so-called Elephone ‘Vowney’ smartphone.

It was rumored that Elephone is actually working on two different variants of this handset, one of which was supposed to ship with Android Lollipop pre-installed, and the other one sporting both Android and Windows 10 OS’. That being said, a first hands-on video of the Elephone Vowney has surfaced online. If you take a look at the video down below, you’ll get to see this phone in action, along with its design and OS. The Elephone Vowney is the company’s upcoming flagship, and it’s made out of metal, while it sports a rear-facing fingerprint scanner.

The Elephone Vowney will reportedly feature a 5-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) display, which will make it the first Elephone-branded smartphone to sport such a high-res display. The device will be powered by MediaTek’s Helio X10 (MT6795) 64-bit octa-core processor, and 4GB of RAM will also be included in this package for all your multitasking needs. The 20.7-megapixel camera (Sony’s IMX230 sensor) will be available on the back of this handset, while the NFC functionality will also be included in here it seems.

Elephone’s upcoming Vowney handset will be one of the affordable flagships out in the market. A number of Chinese resellers actually list this device already for only $299, and as you can see, the device offers top of the line specs, and the build quality also seems up to par. Take a look at the video down below in order to get a better look at the device, we’ll let you know when additional info surfaces, but unfortunately we still don’t know when exactly will Elephone unveil this handset.

Teclast X “Super Tablet” iPad Clone Coming: Core-M?

Weibo:

There’s an earlier Weibo that won’t show in my timeline but still appears on the Teclast page:

And that goes to this Teclast forum post [Google Translate].

So Teclast and Onda have decided to have one more go at iPad clones. I doubt we’ll see another round of iPad Mini clones, though. My sense is that the end of these kind of tablets from China is near.

Doogee Titan T3 images reveal secondary display

Ready for another crazy smartphone from Doogee? We briefly discussed the DG7000 Pro which was tipped to sport two displays, and now the Doogee Titan T3 has appeared with an extra panel and a luxurious look that might seem familiar…

Knockoff’s are beyond abundant when it comes to the world of Chinese smartphones, and almost every company has a “similar” product regardless of their size or locale. The Doogee Titan T3 is Doogee’s take on Vertu’s line of luxury smartphones sans all the exotic alloys and expensive materials that make Vertu’s products stand out.

As you can see from the photos, the Doogee Titan T3 will feature a stitched leather backside that wraps around from back to front at the bottom. While that’s not unique, the secondary display is something new as it sits on top of the device where the audio jack is normally located. There’s been no word on the size of that panel, but it’s said to give you notifications and the time.

The rest of the Doogee Titan T3 specs will include a 5-inch 720p display, a MediaTek MT6735 processor, and 2GB of RAM. You’ll get 16GB of storage to work with, and while the size of the snappers wasn’t mentioned, the front-facing camera will support iris scanning. The handset will also be water-resistant to a degree, but that’s all we know for now.

It remains to be seen how the Doogee Titan T3 will actually hold up when you get it in your hands or what the price tag will be when it’s unleashed. The company is expected to officially unveil the T3 in October, but we should hear more about it before then.

via – GizmoChina

iFive Air: Flyme 4.5 Skin Firmware

Weibo:

Five Technology had been off Weibo for nearly a month. I wondered if the company died.

Now this. The web page — a locked forum post — is here [Google Translate].

Well, they once did MIUI for one of their tablets, so why not Meizu’s skin too?

After this, where does Five Technology go? There’s been no word of any new tablets.

Insignia Flex Elite: New Owner Comments

From digitaldoom at XDA Developers forum.

First:

I managed to pick the flex elite 7.85″ tablet up @ my local Best Buy yesterday for a discounted price of only $90 and so far very happy with it for the cost. Not sure I would be so happy at the full $150…maybe so though.

Battery life isn’t the greatest even with a good battery saving app. Doesn’t bother me to much though because I usually have my tabs plugged into the wall outlet.

Some things I like are the beautiful display and greatly bright lighting, makes it easy to use outside or in. Also like the quick responsiveness and sensitive touch screen. It’s not so sensitive that you’re accidentally hitting things you don’t want to but plenty sensitive to pick up on the intentional hits. I like the thin style (only 0.3″ thin, I think). Although it’s plastic it feels solid and higher end in the hands. All in all it’s just a decent tab for the average user…although maybe not so much for the enthusiast.

A couple things I don’t like are that there are no accessories available for it at all. I’m rough on electronics (drop alot) and a good, solid case is near necessity for me. Still ticked off about dropping my Sero 7 PRO and killing it last year…man, was that ever a nice tab?!

Another thing I am a bit disenchanted with is no root instruction yet available and no ROM that I know of…been searching and hoping. I also read somewhere that it’s not possible to write to the micro SD card from the tablet…if true, that really sucks! Though I rarely use a micro SD card with tabs, it’s nice to be able to use them to keep onboard space freed up. I still need to buy a micro SD to test this last statement for myself, so can’t guarantee the accuracy of the statement.

Anyway, decent tab that will probably fulfill my web browsing, shopping and WordPress needs for the next year so can’t complain for a $90 investment. I don’t expect any updates to the firmware over it’s lifetime and really not to hopeful for a root instructional to be written but still pretty decent out of the box so far….I’ll let you know about the possible microsd issue once I find out for myself.

Second:

OK, so I found out that the microsd card is difficult to get mounted and working correctly on this tablet (unfortunately I’m no geek). But I was finally able to use an app to xfer files after formatting the SD card to ntsf instead of fat32. Still a pita but got it working.

Now if only someone would make an easy root instructional for this thing I might actually keep it for a while

Dahyum. He got it for just US$90?!!? Great deal.

OMA: The Only And Best Hope For The Insignia Flex Elite?

Dan EE, who first made me aware of the tablet, sure gets around!

Now he’s over at the ARCtablet forum (click = big):

If OMA were to produce a custom ROM with Rockchip’s MultiWindow Android 2.0 baked in, the Insignia Flex Elite would be worth buying.

At US$149, with an OMA ROM, it might even be a bargain.

Setting aside whatever hardware issues might exist (second-tier quality control and battery), an OMA ROM would increase the value of that tablet beyond its US$149 asking price.

Here’s what OMA did for the Rockchip 3188-based Chuwi V88:

And this is Rockchip’s MultiWindow Android 2.0:

And here (ignore the Pipo custom skin over Android):

And again:

Imagine that on the Insignia Flex Elite!

It’d be better multiwindowing and multitasking than an expensive iPad!

That would be worth putting down a US$149 bet on the questionable hardware.

And in reviewing my posts, I discovered that the Insignia out-performed the Asus ZenPad S 8.0 in one of the Google Books PDF tests.

I wrote this about the Asus:

Surface Japan worked with Foxit. Page renders were generally three seconds, with an unpredictable five seconds for some. I was really surprised by that speed for a PDF that gives so many tablets — even the iPad — problems.

Yet I wrote this about the Insignia:

Surface Japan was a surprise. Here it is on the iPad Mini 2:

(YouTube insert)

The Insignia Flex Elite kicked the iPad 2’s ass. There wasn’t that multi-second delay for each page. At most, one second.

So yeah, with an OMA ROM, the Insignia Flex Elite might really be something special after all.

Let’s all hope he’ll take the time to create one.