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Did you think Huawei’s Ascend P6 was a slim smartphone? It has nothing on BBK’s just-unveiled Vivo X3. Despite a 5-inch (if 720p) screen, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a front 5-megapixel shooter and a 1.5GHz quad-core MediaTek processor, the X3 measures a wafer-like 5.75mm thick in its blue variant. There’s plenty of party tricks under the hood, too — the Android 4.2 device has both an infrared sensor for touch-free gestures and a dedicated audio chip from ESS. It also preserves much of the better hardware from its slower and thicker X1S cousin, including the 16GB of non-expandable storage and the 2,000mAh battery. The Vivo X3 ships to China on September 1st for the same ¥2,498 ($408) as the X1S. If the device proves tempting, you can check out the Engadget Chinese hands-on; their English-language video is available after the break.

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Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)

Source: Vivo

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Another 1080p quad-core Android phone, you say? Well, there’s a bit more to it. Launched by BBK spin-off Vivo in Beijing just now, this 5.7-inch Xplay goes one step further than its smaller X1 and X1S cousins by packing one extra audio chip and the OPA2604 operational amplifier from Texas Instruments in order to add extra oomph to Cirrus Logic’s CS4398 DAC and CS8422 stereo asynchronous sample-rate converter — both of which are featured on the X1 series. If you’re a DIY audio enthusiast, you might have already tinkered with an OPA2604 while making your own headphone amplifier; so in other words, Vivo is trying to save you the hassle.

Before we dive into the audio performance, let’s quickly look at the rest of the phone first. Underneath the 500-nit LTPS display lies a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core SoC (1.7GHz, 2GB RAM and Adreno 320 graphics engine), 16GB or 32GB of built-in storage, 3,400mAh battery and NFC. On the back you’ll find a Sony 13-megapixel imager next to a pair of speakers (FLAC playback is supported natively), but flip the phone over and you’ll be looking at a surprisingly generous 5-megapixel front-facing camera — much like the one on Oppo’s mid-range Ulike 2. Vivo’s somehow managed to pack all of this into a 7.99mm-thick body with a screen bezel of just 2.3mm thick (which bests Pantech’s thin-bezeled Vega Iron) and a large viewable-to-total area ratio of 75.11 percent. Alas, for 3G there’s only WCDMA 2100, meaning the phone may have to rely more on GSM 850/900/1800/1900 or WiFi in many parts of the world. More after the break.

Update: Hands-on photos added below, followed by a couple of video clips after the break.

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Source: Vivo

We’ve never paid much attention to BBK’s phones in the past, but today, this Chinese company — who’s actually the creator of the Oppo brand for the Western market — announced a rather interesting Android 4.1 device. The idea of this Vivo X1 is that BBK wants to take audio very seriously on its new flagship phone, which is why it’s been given a Cirrus Logic CS4398 digital-analog converter plus a CS8422 sample-rate converter — a combo that’s seemingly popular amongst Hi-Fi connoisseurs and manufacturers. And to match that audio performance, BBK’s also throwing in a pair of Beyerdynamic MMX 71 iE earphones (20Hz-22kHz, 12Ω, 104dB) as part of the ¥2,498 ($400) package; though you can also choose the AKG K420 or the Sennheiser CX215 instead when buying from BBK’s official online store.

The rest of the Vivo X1, however, is more bog-standard in comparison: MediaTek MT6577T processor (1.2GHz, dual core, Cortex-A9), 4.7-inch 960 x 540 IPS display, 1GB RAM, 16GB built-in storage, eight-megapixel main camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and WCDMA 2100 3G radio. The only real highlight here is perhaps the 2,000mAh battery, which is non-removable but still rather impressive considering it’s in a 6.55mm-thin body. Even the Oppo Finder has a 6.65mm thickness and yet lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack, whereas BBK’s thinner phone has one. What’s missing here is microSD expansion, but there’s 15GB of Baidu cloud storage should users wish to take advantage of that.

The Vivo X1 may just be available for pre-order now, but the folks at BBK couldn’t help but tease the highlights of its next-generation device already: bezel-free design, 1080p display, big battery and 13-megapixel camera. We look forward to that.

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Via: Engadget China

Source: Vivo