Blackberry, Lenovo, Asus and Hyve expected to launch smartphones this week | HT Tech

Blackberry, Lenovo, Asus and Hyve expected to launch smartphones this week

While Waterloo-headquartered Blackberry is expected to launch its two or three mid-range smartphones on Monday, Chinese handset-maker Lenovo’s India arm is most likely scheduled to launch its Lenovo Phab 2 smartphone which is the first Project Tango smartphone.

By: HT CORRESPONDENT
| Updated on: Nov 07 2016, 11:22 IST
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While Waterloo-headquartered Blackberry is expected to launch its two or three mid-range smartphones on Monday, Chinese handset-maker Lenovo’s India arm is most likely scheduled to launch its Lenovo Phab 2 smartphone which is the first Project Tango smartphone.
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While Waterloo-headquartered Blackberry is expected to launch its two or three mid-range smartphones on Monday, Chinese handset-maker Lenovo’s India arm is most likely scheduled to launch its Lenovo Phab 2 smartphone which is the first Project Tango smartphone.

Diwali is the time when we see most smartphone launches and if you think that the deluge of smartphone launches is over, think again as four handset makers are about to launch more than one smartphone in the second week of November.

While Waterloo-headquartered Blackberry is expected to launch its two or three mid-range smartphones on Monday, Chinese handset-maker Lenovo's India arm is most likely scheduled to launch its Lenovo Phab 2 smartphone which is the first Project Tango smartphone.

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Tango (formerly named Project Tango in-testing) is a technology platform developed and authored by Google that uses computer vision to enable mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to detect their position relative to the world around them without using GPS or other external signals.

The Phab 2 was launched at the Lenovo Tech World 2016 event in San Francisco by Yang Yuanqing - Chairman and CEO of Lenovo. The smartphone was developed in collaboration with Google, and is meant to make "AR and VR as pervasive as your GPS."

The Phab 2 Pro smartphone sports a 6.4-inch QHD IPS display, and a total of four cameras. It bears a 8-megapixel front camera, a 16-megapixel rear RGB camera, a depth-sensing infrared camera with an imager and an emitter, as well as a motion tracking camera. The Pro draws power from an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC, coupled with 4GB of RAM and a 4,050mAh battery.

The handset, whicn also comes with Dolby Atmos audio technology for its speakers apart from Dolby Audio 5.1 Capture technology for recording 3D sound, was launched at a priced at $499 (roughly 33,500).

While the Phab 2 comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera, the Phab 2 Plus sports a dual 13-megapixel rear cameras with Fujitsu Milbeaut imaging software, and a 8-megapixel front camera. The Phab 2 is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT8735 SoC, coupled with 2GB of RAM, while the latter is powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT8783 SoC coupled with 3GB of RAM. The Phab 2 Plus also comes with a fingerprint sensor on the rear panel.

For Blackberry, the launch assumes significance, as the company looks to make a comeback after declining sales of smartphones globally. Its last product -- Priv (launched for a price of 63,000), didn't do too well in terms of sales. Blackberry globally had to revise prices of the Priv from $50 to $43 in April. Currently, Amazon lists the Priv at 37,690. Blackberry is known to have missed sales estimates of smartphones more than one quarter in a row.

Asus India also has sent out invitations to the media which directly hints that the Taiwanese handset-maker is looking at launching a smartphone for India. The launch also assumes significance as Asus plans to gain more share as it competes with Xiaomi and other Chinese brands like Lenovo.

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Asus had earlier told HT that there was a significant change in leadership and the company was going all out in trying to woo the Indian consumers.

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First Published Date: 07 Nov, 10:41 IST
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