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Xiaomi Mi 8 Launch, Jio Holiday Hungama Offer, Vivo X21 in India, and More News This Week

Xiaomi Mi 8 Launch, Jio Holiday Hungama Offer, Vivo X21 in India, and More News This Week 1p2h5t

By Gadgets 360 Staff | Updated: 3 June 2018 12:22 IST

Highlights

Other main highlights of the week include the Vivo X21 India launch
Jio, Airtel, Idea, Vodafone - all unveiled new offers for subscribers
India-specific launches included Quora Hindi and Google Neighbourly

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It's been an interesting week for tech news, with Vivo X21 - sporting a novel in-display fingerprint sensor - also arrived in India this week, marking the biggest smartphone launch in the country for the period. 4m1a70

Let's begin with the Xiaomi flagships. The iPhone X.

At its annual launch event, Xiaomi also Mi 8 SE, which is a cheaper variant of the smartphone offering several of the same features but running on the recently unveiled Snapdragon 710 SoC - appearing to be the first smartphone to do so. It bears a smaller bezel-less display than the Mi 8, and also foregoes the infrared and 3D face unlock technology of the Mi 8 and Mi 8 Explorer, but retains the display notch. It has a lower resolution dual camera setup, the same 20-megapixel front camera, and gains a front flash module. The 4GB RAM/64GB storage variant is priced at CNY 1,799 (roughly Rs. 18,900) while the 6GB RAM/64GB storage variant is priced at CNY 1,999 (roughly Rs. 21,100).

Xiaomi also unveiled shown off at the event was the Mi VR Standalone headset, priced at CNY 1,499 (roughly Rs 15,800).

Apart from its annual product launch event, there were other pieces of Xiaomi news this week. Xiaomi Mi Bluetooth Headset.

Other pieces of Xiaomi news included leaks such as the said to come in 3 variants, two with dual rear cameras and one with a single camera sensor on the back. Key features are said to be 5.45-inch display, 5-megapixel selfie camera, Snapdragon 625 SoC, 3000mAh battery, and 2GB, 3GB, and 4GB RAM options.

We next come to the Android One programme - just like other 2018 smartphone launches by the company. The Nokia 2.1 has been given a global average price of $115 (roughly Rs. 7,800) and will be available in July 2018; the Nokia 3.1 has received a global average starting price of EUR 139 (roughly Rs. 10,900) for two variants (2GB RAM/ 16GB storage and 3GB RAM/ 32GB storage) and will be available from June 2018, while the Nokia 5.1 global average of EUR 189 (roughly Rs. 14,800) and will arrive in the same RAM/ storage variants as will the Nokia 3.1.

The Nokia 2.1 runs Android 8.1 Oreo (Go edition) out-of-the-box, sports a 5.5-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, is powered a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 SoC with 1GB of RAM, features an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera, it bears 8GB of storage. A 4000mAh battery powers the budget handset, said to deliver 2-day battery life. The Nokia 3.1 runs Android 8.0 Oreo, sports a 5.2-inch HD+ (720x1440 pixels) display with an 18:9 aspect ratio; a MediaTek MT6750 SoC with 2GB or 3GB of RAM; a 13-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel front camera; 16GB or 32GB of inbuilt storage (expandable via microSD card), and a 2990mAh battery.

The Nokia 5.1 runs Android 8.0 Oreo and it sports a 5.5-inch full-HD+ (1080x2160 pixels) IPS LCD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It is powered by a MediaTek MT6755S SoC, paired with 2GB/ 3GB of RAM. It has a 16-megapixel rear camera, and an 8-megapixel front camera. There are two inbuilt storage variants - 16GB and 32GB - both of which are expandable via microSD card (up to 128GB). The Nokia 2.1 will be available in Blue/ Copper, Blue/ Silver, and Grey/ Silver variants; the Nokia 3.1 will be available in Blue/ Copper, Black/ Chrome, and White/ Iron, while the Nokia 5.1 will be available in Copper, Tempered Blue, and Black variants.

Now, coming to the telecom news of the week. Reliance Jio's compelling plans continue unabated with a new offer - the Holiday Hungama Offer, which gives Jio prepaid s cashbacks on the Rs. 399 recharge. s will need to buy the recharge through the MyJio app or Jio website using PhonePe as the payment method to avail the cashbacks.

Separately, Jio and Galaxy J7 Duo, giving Jio subscribers cashbacks and other benefits. Jio is offering Samsung Galaxy J2 (2018) buyers instant cashback vouchers up to Rs. 2,750 (55 cashback vouchers worth Rs. 50 each) along with 100GB additional 4G data (10 vouchers for 10GB additional data each) on the purchase of the Rs. 198 and Rs. 299 prepaid plans. Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo buyers get the same instant cashback vouchers but get double data for a maximum of four recharges instead, on the purchase of prepaid plans worth Rs. 198 or above.

Other news that made headlines in the telecom sphere included corporate plans announced by state-owned telecom operator BSNL for employees of Baba Ramdev's Patanjali group of companies. There are three plans, Rs. 144, Rs. 792, and Rs. 1,584, with 2GB of data and 100 SMS messages per day apart from unlimited voice calls and a day on all packs. The Rs. 144 plan has a validity of 30 days, while the Rs. 792 plan has a validity of 180 days, and the Rs. 1,584 has a validity of 360 days.

A new report claimed that the Jio Fibre commercial launch reported to be planning to offer integrated billing for its services to customers. The incentive for customers would be a 5-10 percent discount on the total bill. The telco is said to aim to bundle mobile, landline, broadband, and DTH bills together.

Airtel this week also expanded its 4G VoLTE offerings to 15 circles, adding that early adopters will get 30GB of free data from the company. The first 10GB will be given after a subscriber makes their first VoLTE call, and the other 20GB will be provided in batches of 10GB each after about services is given at four weeks and eight weeks respectively.

Vodafone also another appearance in this week's recap of the top news stories, with the announcement that its FTTH/ broadband plans will now come bundled with unlimited voice calling - plans priced between Rs. 249 and Rs. 645 will get unlimited calls only on the BSNL network, while higher denomination plans will get unlimited calls on any network.

As we mentioned right at the beginning, perhaps the X21 UD in China, though in India the company has retained the X21 name as it is only bringing the top-end model to the country.

Meanwhile, the went on sale in India this week.

A leaked render of an smartphone called launch event it is hosting on June 6, where the Moto Z3 Play is expected to go official. The phone will reportedly have a 6-inch display, Snapdragon 660 SoC, 4GB RAM, Android 8.1 Oreo, and 8-megapixel front camera.

In other important news this week, killed off its Trending section, and started testing a Breaking News label.

Apple on Saturday was also unveiled its latest processor designs, launching the Cortex-A76 U, Mali-G76 GPU, and Mali-V76 VPU.

Another major piece of news was that the launched a new hyper local app in India, called Neighbourly, helping people get information about the area they are in from the locals themselves.

Speaking about Google launches, the Mountain View company on Thursday EA 2018, which kicks off next week.

As for next week, there are some important launches set. First up, is the latest reports indicate that Apple will not have anything to show off on this front this time around.

Computex 2018 also kicks off on Monday, and we can expect to see new launches from the usual suspects such as Redmi Y2 - a new model in the company's selfie-focused Redmi Y-Series in India.

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