Asus Takes the Wraps off the Asus 5Q, Asus 5, Asus 5Z, and Asus Max M1

Asus announced the Asus 5 series at Mobile World Congress 2018, a lineup of new high-end, mid-range, and low-end devices: The ZenFone 5, which feature Qualcomm’s 845 chip; the ZenFone 5, a cheaper, slightly less powerful variant of the  ZenFone 5Z; and the ZenFone 5Q, which packs four cameras. Here’s everything you need to know.

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Asus ZenFone 5Z

The Asus 5Z, the undisputed flagship of Asus’s 2018 ZenFone lineup, features a 90% screen-to-body ratio, “premium materials” and a small, compact glass-covered body that measures 5.5 inches across. Its top-of-the-line features include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of UFS 2.1 storage, a dual camera module, and 2.5D 6.2-inch Full HD+ (2160 x 1080) 19:9 screen.

The above-mentioned screen, which has an Essential Phone-like notch on the left side to accommodate the front-facing camera, supports DCI-P3 color space and wide color gamuts, and taps Asus’s intelligent display technology to adjust the color temperature automatically in response to ambient light changes. Screen On, another handy feature, prevents the phone’s display from turning off when you’re looking glancing at it.

The Asus 5Z’s vibrant screen is complemented by three noise-canceling microphones and two five-magnet speakers in stereo configuration, driven by dual amplifiers. The handset supports Hi-Res Audio and files encoded up to 24-bit/192KHz, and DTS’s Headphone-X technology for 7.1-channel virtual surround sound on supported headphones.

The Asus 5Z doesn’t just pack a powerful screen and stereo speakers. It also has a dual rear camera with Sony’s IMX363 sensor and a six-element lens, and a 8MP front-facing camera with a f/2.0 aperture. The 12MP shooters, which have a f/1.8 aperture and 1.4um pixel size, tap dual-pixel phase detection autofocus (PDAF) that takes just 0.03 seconds to focus, and a four-axis optical image stabilization system the reduces blur.

One of the sensors has a 120-degree wide-angle lens, and both take advantage of a “night HDR” mode that delivers up to 5x brighter and clearer photos. On the video side of things, the Asus 5Z can capture smooth, jittery-free 4K UHD clips at 60FPS (or 1080p at 30/60FPS) stabilized with the help of three-axis electronic image stabilization (EIS).

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 is at the heart of the Asus 5Z, and it doesn’t disappoint. The chip comprises Qualcomm’s latest Kryo 385 core design, and packs the chipmaker’s new Adreno 630 GPU, optimized-for-AI Hexagon DSP, and Spectra 280 ISP. We’ve covered it at length, and from what we know so far, it’s no less capable in the Asus 5Z than in any of the smartphone’s competition.

The Asus 5Z leans on a variety of new AI-powered features in Asus’s new ZenUI 5.0. An energy-saving service called AI Charging automatically adjusts the phone’s charging rate in response to your usage habits (Asus claims it “slows down the battery aging process”), and AI Ringtone tweaks the phone’s call volume in response to ambient noise.

When it comes to photos, AI Scene Scene Detection uses algorithms to analyze subjects in real time and match them to one of 16 scene types, optimizing for different lighting conditions. AI Photo Learning identifies your go-to camera settings over time and adjusts the defaults accordingly. Real-time Portrait Mode produces a bokeh effect, blurring the background of photos while keeping the foreground intact. And Real-Time Beautification brightens your skin tone, removes stress lines, and applies other digital enhancements based on 365 facial points. It works in real time, and even in live-streaming video apps.

Other ZenFone 5Z highlights include super-fast biometric security features (the phone’s facial authentication can unlock it in 0.1 seconds, and its rear fingerprint sensor can unlock it in 0.3 seconds), and ZenMoji, a feature akin to Samsung’s AR Emoji: Cute characters respond to head and mouth movements captured via the phone’s front-facing camera. ZenMoji can be used in video and text chats and live-streaming, or you can add voice recordings to them via the microphone.

In terms of other internals, the ZenoFone 5Z has 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, an FM radio, and a USB Type-C connector. It starts at $499, and ships with Android Oreo.

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Asus ZenFone 5

The Asus 5, the Asus 5Z’s mid-range counterpart, is nearly identical to the 5Z. It’s got the same “premium materials”, compact body, 2.5D 6.2-inch Full HD+ (2160 x 1080) LCD, stereo speakers, and Android Oreo with Asus’s ZenUI 5.0. But it’s not a carbon copy.

One of the key differences between the Asus 5 and the Asus 5Z is the processor: while the Asus 5Z has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845, the Asus 5 has a Snapdragon 636 (paired with an Adreno 509 GPU). Asus says that Snapdragon 636, a 64-bit system-on-chip that was announced a few months back, delivers 40 percent faster CPU performance and 10 percent better graphics performance than the Snapdragon 630, the SoC that powers the ZenFone 5Q.

The ZenFone 5 also has slightly less capable shooters than the ZenFone 5Z — its dual rear cameras lack phase detection autofocus and four-axis OIS. But like the Asus 5Z, they’re capable of shooting in up to 4K at 60FPS, and both the front and rear cameras are three-axis stabilized (with EIS).

Asus didn’t announce pricing for the Asus 5, but said it’ll come in two configurations — one with 4GB of RAM and one with 6GB of RAM (both with 64GB of storage and microSD slots) — when it ships later this year. It’ll also be available in two colors: Midnight Blue and Meteor Silver.

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Asus ZenFone 5Q

The Asus ZenFone 5Q (or ZenFone 5 Lite, depending on the region), is a slight step down from the 5Q and 5Z, but no less uncompromising. It boasts a 4-camera module with a 20MP rear sensor and a 16MP front sensor, dual internal microphones with noise-canceling tech, an FM radio, a 120-degree wide-angle lens, and a 6-inch Full HD+ (2160 x 1080) 19:9 screen.

The cameras are the headliners. The rear and front sensors are 20MP with f/2.0 aperture and 16MP with f/2.2 aperture, respectively, and one sensor in each pair has a 120-degree wide-angle lens. Uniquely, Asus says all four can be controlled independently of one another; using the pre-loaded camera effects doesn’t require using the secondary sensor in conjunction with the main camera. (It’s a bit unclear how that’ll work in practice.)

The rear cameras can record in 4K resolution with three-axis EIS.

The processor — a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 — isn’t quite as powerful as the Snapdragon 636, but it’s capable in its own right. Asus says that its power efficiency (thanks in part to a FinFET Lower Power Plus manufacturing process), combined with the Asus 5Q’s 3,300mAh battery, delivers up to 24 days of 4G standby time and 4 days of music playback.

It’ll be available in a 4G RAM/64GB storage model (expandable with a microSD card) later this year in Midnight Black, Moonlight White, and Rouge Red. Like the Asus 5Z and Asus 5Q, it’ll ship with Android Oreo and Asus ZenUI 5.0.

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Asus Max M1

Lastly, Asus announced the Max M1, the latest model in the ZenFone Max series. The budget handset has a 5.5-inch “full-view” display, a 4,000mAh battery, dual rear cameras (one of which has a wide-angle lens), and a fingerprint sensor. Additional details were hard to come by as of publication time, but we’re expecting to learn more about the Asus Max M1 in the coming days.

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The Honor 9 Lite Camera Raises the Bar for Entry Level Smartphones

The Honor 9 Lite has the unique feature of being a budget phone with four cameras. There are two on the back and two on the front. Both dual configurations feature 13MP + 2MP sensors. Since this is such a unique setup to find in a budget phone, we took it to the aquarium to test out the camera.

Honor 9 Lite	Specs
Chipset	HiSilicon Kirin 659
Display	18:9 1080 x 2160 pixels 5.6″
RAM	3/4GB
Storage	32/64GB
Camera	Quad Lens: 13 MP + 2 MP, 1080p
Battery	3000 mAh

The default EMUI camera app is easy to use and comes with several important features. In addition to the standard photo and video mode, you’ll find Pro photo, Pro video, HDR, Panorama, Light painting, Time-lapse, Filter, Watermark and more. One feature that works particularly well is the wide aperture mode. The dual cameras help to differentiate the background from the object you’re shooting, so you can blur the background or even apply filters to it.

Sample Photos

The aquarium gives us some tricky lighting situations to test the phone in. There’s also quite a bit of movement, with the fishes swimming around. Check out these sample photos to see how to phone performed.

When a phones starts at the price of ₹10,999 ($170 USD), you just expect it to have a bad camera. The Honor 9 Lite proves that you don’t have to settle for a bad camera just because you’re getting an entry level phone.

Learn more about the Honor 9 Lite

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Chrome OS may allow for running Linux apps via Containers

While the average Chromebook user tends to stick with Chrome OS, Chromebooks are really just lightweight Linux machines capable of a lot more. For years, crafty Chromebook owners have been using Crouton (Chromium OS Universal Chroot Environment) to run Ubuntu, Debian, and Kali Linux systems within Chrome OS. When set up properly with an extension called Xiwi, you can use a keyboard shortcut to switch between Chrome OS and a standard Linux desktop environment. It’s a hack, but it looks a future version of Chrome OS will add native support for Linux applications via containers.

The first hint about containers in Chrome OS was discovered in October of last year in a Chromium Gerrit commit for the Google Pixelbook. A more recent commit spotted by Chrome Unboxed points to field trial testing for “Project Crostini”, a UI for adding a Linux Virtual Machine to Chrome OS installations. Importantly, unlike the unofficial solution, it doesn’t require hacking your Chromebook to get Ubuntu, Debian, and Kali Linux images up and running in Chrome OS.

Source: Chrome Unboxed

It’s available to some users in the latest Developer build of Chrome OS. After Project Crostini has been downloaded (it’s about 200MB in size) and initiated, you get a new option in the Chrome OS Settings menu. From there, once you finish the installation, you can run Linux apps and command-line tools seamlessly and easily from the Project Crostini interface. Not only does Project Crostini allow you to run Linux applications without sacrificing security, but it also gives you access to the Linux terminal, as well.

Google added support for Android applications on Chrome OS a while back, and bringing Linux programs to the operating system is yet another value add for Chromebooks. Depending on how the container feature is implemented, developers and fans of Linux alike could have a brand new device category to choose from.

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Source: Chrome Unboxed Source: Chrome Unboxed

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Qualcomm confirms that High-end Chromebooks with Snapdragon chips are coming

The majority of Chromebooks on the market are mostly low-end or mid-range devices. Their affordability is a big reason why Chromebooks became as popular as they are now. However, back in December, we learned that Chromebooks using Qualcomm’s high-end Snapdragon 845 were reportedly in the works. That rumor was corroborated this week by Monte Giles, Qualcomm’s new director of product management for mobile computing, who told members of the press that Qualcomm will take an interest in the Chromebook when the average selling price climbs above $500.

Mr. Giles said that if the purchase price stays at the current sub-$300 mark, the market is of no interest to Qualcomm. The company wants to be part of the high-end premium Chromebook market, and it’s watching how things are evolving right now.

As we pointed out, Chromebook devices that sell in volume are relatively cheap. This is in part thanks to Chrome OS’s open source nature — it doesn’t have expensive licensing fees like Microsoft’s Windows. (OEMs factor in those extra fees when they’re deciding how to price devices.) Another reason is that the operating system is lightweight and can run on low-end hardware, which contributes to lower device price tags.

Lately, we’ve seen some high-end Chromebooks hit store shelves, like the Google Pixelbook and Samsung’s Chromebook Pro. They have better specifications (RAM, CPU, iGPU) than many of the Chromebooks on the market, but are also made of higher-quality materials and have better build quality, which is especially evident in components such as the keyboard, trackpad, and hinges. Some people are willing to pay more money for a Chromebook that is higher quality than most of the devices out there, but the market remains niche.

So while Qualcomm’s SoCs will ship in Windows laptop and 2-in-1s, the company says to “stay tuned” for more information about Qualcomm-powered Chromebooks.

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Source: PCMag

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Samsung Galaxy Note 9 may launch with Bixby 2.0, according to Samsung mobile chief

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Samsung Galaxy S9+ were announced at the Mobile World Congress 2018, but that wasn’t all Samsung had in store for the world’s largest telecom convention. DJ Koh, Samsung’s mobile chief, told members of the press that Bixby 2.0 will launch as soon as August — around the time the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is expected to be released. Samsung’s virtual assistant on the Samsung Galaxy S9 can already recognize food and serve up nutritional information, apply lipstick with augmented reality, and provide fully voice-guided setup instructions, but soon it will be able to do much more.

“For Bixby 1.0, we focused on a fast rollout to the market. Expanding the ecosystem was difficult. So Bixby 2.0 will strengthen this aspect and we are working intensely,” he said. “In December last year, we began taking applications for the public beta version. So far over 800 companies have applied and are testing it.”

He then added, “at this speed, I think we will be able to unveil Bixby 2.0 when we launch the Galaxy Note 9.”

Version 2.0 of Samsung’s virtual assistant focuses on integration with other connected household devices. Samsung plans to roll out Bixby on its smart TVs, starting with its next generation of OLED TVs set to be unveiled next month. There are also plans to upgrade the assistant’s speech recognition — it’ll be able to pick out multiple people at a time based on the tones of their voices, according to Eui-Suk Chung, the executive vice president and head of software and AI, which could come in handy for the recently announced Bixby-enabled Samsung smart speaker.

“Bixby won’t be tied to a specific device. The ultimate goal is to make it ubiquitous,” said Chung at MWC 2018. “Samsung is unique in that it has TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, phones, PCs, and almost every consumer electronics. We also make the module chips that goes in them needed in IoT (Internet of Things). AI speaker will also be one among them.”

It’s clear the amount of faith the company has in its virtual assistant, along with the level of seriousness that the company is pursuing its expansion. While there have been some missteps along the way, the future looks bright for Bixby 2.0.

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Via: ZDNet

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Google Launches Flutter Framework Beta for Native App Design

Today at Mobile World Congress, Google is announcing a major update in their attempts to simplify UI development across platforms. With the launch of the first beta build of Flutter, Google hopes to signal that their new mobile UI framework is stable enough for use in mainstream apps.

While Flutter was unveiled in its current form as an Alpha build at Google I/O 2017, some of you may remember Flutter from the original Sky demo at the Dart developer summit in 2015. Flutter has come quite a ways since then, however it is still focusing heavily on responsiveness and ease of development, with the goal of enabling the eventual development of apps designed for 120 Hz displays from the ground up.

It is of course one thing to talk about ease of development, and another entirely to actually achieve it, and Google seems to be on the right track. With support for features like Hot Reload, integrated tooling, a reactive framework design, and a substantial selection of widgets, Flutter seems to have all the appropriate pieces coming into place. Flutter couples those features with native ARM compilation on all supported platforms, simple GPU acceleration for rendering, and clean inline video integration to make for a smooth development experience that lets you achieve fantastic performance. Google has also brought direct integration with Android Studio and Visual Studio Code, as well as clear instructions for XCode support, in order to ensure a seamless transition on all mobile platforms.

Flutter’s alpha builds have already proven to be extremely stable, to the point where Google felt comfortable to integrate it into their AdWords platform as a key tool for their development team.

The update to Google’s Dart programming language is fully integrated with the beta, bringing support for new tools that help remove boilerplate and speed up the development process. With Flutter’s package library reaching over 1000 packages, many commonly required tools are available, and more are being added frequently. From SQLite, to Firebase, to GraphQL Flutter is quickly gaining the widespread support from package maintainers that is needed for this type of tool to be useful.

Google is following the rapid release cycle that Chromium has been highly successful with, aiming for a new beta release every month, with a heavy focus on fulfilling the feature requests that the community expresses their desire for on the issue tracker. Feature requests on that tracker have led to some of the current primary roadmap features such as easier integration with existing apps, inline WebView, improved routing and navigation APIs, additional Firebase support, inline maps, and a smaller core engine. The Flutter community doesn’t stop at the issue tracker though; Google has put together a Gitter chat room for developers to help each other out, and the community has built multiple sites for discussion and learning such as the Flutter Institute, Start Flutter, and Flutter Rocks.

Check out the Getting Started Guide to start designing apps with Flutter today!

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Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon 700 Mobile Platform Series with On-Device AI for more Affordable Smartphones

Qualcomm is indisputably the leader in the Android smartphone system-on-chip space. Although the company faces tough competition from the likes of Samsung’s Exynos SoCs and Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin SoCs in the high-end space, they are essentially unparalleled in the mid-range and budget price segments of the smartphone market. The Snapdragon 600 series has consistently distinguished itself by offering higher performance and power efficiency when compared to competing solutions from the likes of MediaTek.

In particular, chips like the Snapdragon 636 (found in the newly launched Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro) redefine the user experience and performance which consumers can expect at prices going as relatively low as $220. At the higher-end of the mid-range segment, Qualcomm has the Snapdragon 660, which was announced last year as a downgraded variant of the Snapdragon 835. Despite featuring excellent CPU performance and power efficiency, we didn’t see many smartphones featuring the chip as OEMs preferred to use the lower-end Snapdragon 600 series for their mid-range smartphones and the Snapdragon 835 for their flagship smartphones.

Therefore, it’s clear that a gap exists between the capabilities of the Snapdragon 660 and the Snapdragon 835 (or even the cutting-edge Snapdragon 845). In terms of GPU performance, the Snapdragon 835 was still much better than the 660, and the Snapdragon 660 also featured a lower-end DSP (the Hexagon 642 vs. the Hexagon 682).

In order to fill that gap, Qualcomm has announced the new Snapdragon 700 mobile platform series at Mobile World Congress. The “Platform” nomenclature exists because of Qualcomm’s view that its SoCs are more than just a CPU paired with a GPU. The Snapdragon 700 series fits between the Snapdragon 660 and the Snapdragon 800 series, and is thus intended for more affordable smartphones. According to Qualcomm, the new series will have features and performance that were previously only found on the premium Snapdragon 800 series. They will have a focus for on-device AI, supported by the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine.

It’s important to note that today’s announcement is not for any specific SoC in the Snapdragon 700 series. This explains the lack of technical details being provided.

According to Qualcomm, the new series also features improvements to camera and device performance, as well as device power. It’s supported by the heterogeneous compute capabilities of features which include the Qualcomm Spectra ISP, the Kryo CPU, the Hexagon DSP, and the Adreno Visual Processing subsystem. Let’s take a look at these advancements one-by-one:

On-device AI. The Snapdragon 700 series will come with the multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine, which is said to deliver up to 2x improvements for on-device AI applications compared to the Snapdragon 660 SoC. (Qualcomm didn’t give any comparison figures for on-device AI performance relative to the Snapdragon 835 and the Snapdragon 845.)

Heterogeneous computing. According to Qualcomm, the new architectures of the Snapdragon 700 series, which include the Hexagon Vector Processor, Adreno Visual Processing subsystem, and Kryo CPU, work in cooperation to “learn voice and speech”, improve the ease of taking photos and videos, and enhance battery life without changing applications or settings.

Camera improvements. The Snapdragon 700 series has the Qualcomm Spectra ISP, but the company didn’t specify which version of the ISP would be included in the new series. For reference, the Snapdragon 835 has the Spectra 180 ISP, while the Snapdragon 845 has the next-generation Spectra 280 ISP. The company stated that consumers should expect “professional grade camera features” supported by “high-quality specs”, but once again, no specifics were provided.

The Snapdragon 700 series will also debut new architectures across the SoC, including the Spectra ISP, the Kryo CPU, and the Adreno Visual Processing subsystem. The new architectures are said to offer 30% improvement in power efficiency, and they will offer better performance and battery life across various applications when compared to the Snapdragon 660 SoC.

For some background, the Kryo CPU is a semi-custom CPU core based on ARM’s cores (since 2017) using the “Built for Cortex” license. However, it’s unknown which Kryo CPU will be included in the Snapdragon 700 series. For reference, the Snapdragon 835 features Kryo 280 “Performance” and Kryo 280 “Efficiency” cores, which are semi-custom versions of the ARM Cortex-A73 and the Cortex-A53 respectively. The newer Snapdragon 845, on the other hand, has Kryo 385 “Performance” and Kryo 385 “Efficiency” cores, which are semi-custom versions of the Cortex-A75 and the Cortex-A55 respectively.

Charging. In terms of features, the Snapdragon 700 series will feature support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+, which is “engineered to get up to 50% charge in only 15 minutes,” according to Qualcomm. This is a potentially important inclusion, as we have seen only a few smartphones support QC4+ up until now.

Connectivity. With respect to connectivity, the new SoCs will feature “an advanced set of wireless technologies” with “ultra-fast LTE,” carrier Wi-Fi features, enhanced Bluetooth 5 multicast audio and ultra-low power wireless earbud support.

“The Snapdragon 700 Mobile Platform Series will bring premium tier technologies and features into more affordable devices, something our global OEM customers and consumers are demanding,” Alex Katouzian (Senior Vice President and general manager, mobile, Qualcomm Technologies) said. “From our cutting-edge Qualcomm AI Engine, to superior camera, device performance and power, the Snapdragon 700 Series is optimized to support the experiences consumers have come to expect from the most advanced mobile devices at a lower price point.”

Our view: We are optimistic for the Snapdragon 700 series, even though Qualcomm hasn’t yet announced a particular SoC in the series, which means that many of the details are currently unknown. If the new series has the right balance of features and pricing, it has the potential to take the user experience of mid-range smartphones to the next level.

The other side of the equation is that there are still substantial issues with chipset adoption (for example, the Snapdragon 636 has only been used by a single smartphone so far, while there are very few smartphones with the Snapdragon 660). If Qualcomm solves this problem and ensures adoption of its newer, more powerful chipsets, then consumers of future mid-range smartphones have something to look forward to.

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