Taiwan’s Economic Daily News claims that Apple will show new 13″ and 15″ Macbook Air models at WWDC 2016, next summer. The 11″ model will be discontinued, and the new editions will be thinner than any previous generation. They will be released in Q3’16, the source claims.
Huawei launched a new flagship smartphone called the Ascend Mate 8 in China. It is an all-metal device, with a very similar display to the Mate 7: 6″ and 1920 x 1080. However, Gorilla Glass 4 is used, rather than Gorilla Glass 3. The phone uses an octa-core processor with Huawei’s own Kirin 950 SoC, as well as an i5 co-processor. Other features include a defragmenter and a firewall. Set for a Q1’16 release, the phone will be shown at CES next year. It will target the CNY3,000+ ($470) price bracket.
Lenovo has joined forces with peripheral maker Razer to launch co-branded devices. Special ‘Razer Editions’ of Lenovo’s Y Series premium gaming laptops will be produced, as well as a Lenovo Razer Edition gaming desktop PC. A prototype was shown at Dreamhack 2015 recently, and will be launched at CES.
Samsung has introduced an entry-level OLED smartphone in China. The Galaxy J3 has a 5″ display with 1280 x 720 resolution, a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of storage and 4G connectivity.
In more Samsung news, the Gear VR wearable can now be purchased in the UK. The headset can be used with the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and S6 Edge+ smartphones. It costs £65 ($95).
Pocket-Lint has been told by Samsung that the company is leaving the digital camera, camcorder and related accessories market in the UK. A spokesperson said, ‘In the UK, we have seen a gradual and sustained decline in demand for standalone digital cameras and camcorders and related accessories’, adding, ‘This is a local decision, based on local market conditions’. (Samsung recently stopped selling some of its current models in Germany).
Vivo has released a new all-metal flagship smartphone in China, known as the X6. Split-screen and multi-tasking capabilities are built in, and the phone will operate faster than Vivo’s previous models thanks to 4GB of RAM. Itt is also designed to charge faster and can be unlocked in 0.4 seconds, using a fingerprint sensor.
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