Moto Z Series India Launch Set for October 4

The Moto Z series, which was unveiled at the Lenovo Tech World 2016 in San Francisco back in June, is set to launch in India on October 4. Motorola India's official Twitter handle confirmed the launch event on October 4. Additionally, the company also started sending 'Block your date' invitations for the launch event.

As of now, it's not clear which smartphones from the Moto Z series will be launched in India - the Moto Z, the Moto Z Force, or the Moto Z Play - or if all three are going to make their way into the country. To recall, Lenovo India had in June confirmed that the Moto Z along with the magnetic Snap-on back panels, the Moto Mods, would launch in India by October. The Moto Z Play, a more affordable variant of the Moto Z modular smartphone was announced at IFA 2016.

Running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, the Moto Z features a fingerprint scanner on the home button, sports a USB Type-C port, and doesn't include the 3.5mm headphone jack. It features a 5.5-inch QHD Amoled display, and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC coupled with 4GB of RAM, and a choice of 32GB or 64GB of storage, which is expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB). It sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and laser autofocus, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with front flash. It packs a 2600mAh battery that can deliver up to 30 hours of battery life, with TurboPower charging to give 8 hours of battery life in 15 minutes.

The Motorola Moto Z Force, on the other hand, features Moto ShatterShield technology for its display, which the company says will not crack or shatter. It sports a larger 3500mAh battery. Rest of the specifications are same as the Moto Z. The biggest highlight of the Moto Z series is the Moto Mods which connect to the 16 dots at the rear. At launch, Lenovo launched the JBL SoundBoost, the Moto Insta-Share Projector, and the Power Pack.

iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus Users Complain of Lightning EarPods Issue; Apple Promises Fix

After reports of a bug that causes a loss in cellular service after disabling Airplane Mode on the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, some more glitches have reportedly been found on Apple's latest offerings. This time the glitch pertains to the Lightning port, which appears to disable in-line controls on the connected headset after a period of no playback. Apple has acknowledged the issue, and says a fix will be issued via a software update.

Reported by several iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users across the Web, the bug affects both the bundled Lightning EarPods and third-party headsets that are connected via the Lightning-to-3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter. The issue reportedly occurs when the smartphone's display is off for five minutes, with the headset connected but not playing back audio during that time. After this point, audio playback will work, but users cannot adjust the volume, activate Siri, or answer calls using the in-line controls on the EarPods or third-party headsets.

(Also see: iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus India Price, Release Date And More)

Furthermore, the glitch is an on and off thing in that the issue is not persistent. Those experiencing the issue can remove and plug in the affected headset again. This is an easy, temporary fix but it doesn't solve the underlying problem, which appears to be a software issue related to Lightning port power-saving features.

Apple has acknowledged the issue and is working on a fix that should be brought to users via a software update in the near future, an Apple representative confirmed to Business Insider.

The Cupertino giant controversially dropped the 3.5mm headphone jack with the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in September, though Apple wasn't the first to do so - though it claims it required "courage" to make the decision. Other major brands like Lenovo quietly did away with the headphone jack a month before with some models of the Moto Z.

(Also see: iPhone 7 Drops the 3.5mm Headphone Jack: Pros and Cons)

The decision to drop the iconic headphone jack came from Apple's need to free up space for newer technologies and to make use of the Lightning port for higher quality audio output. The dual-camera setup, Taptic engine for the pressure sensitive button, water resistance and a 14 percent bigger battery were all made possible by the removal of the 3.5mm port, according to Apple's own claims. Of course, teething issues like these do not help making the decision to drop the 3.5mm headphone jack acceptable to customers.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

NETWORK	Technology	GSM / HSPA / LTE

LAUNCH	Announced	2016, January
	Status	Available. Released 2016, February

BODY	Dimensions	150 x 76 x 8.7 mm (5.91 x 2.99 x 0.34 in)
	Weight	164 g (5.78 oz)
	SIM	Dual SIM (Micro-SIM/Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

DISPLAY	Type	IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	5.5 inches (~72.4% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	1080 x 1920 pixels (~403 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
		- MIUI 8.0

PLATFORM	OS	Android OS, v5.1.1 (Lollipop)
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8956 Snapdragon 650
	CPU	Hexa-core (4x1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 & 2x1.8 GHz Cortex-A72)
	GPU	Adreno 510

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 256 GB (uses SIM 2 slot)
	Internal	16 GB, 2 GB RAM 32 GB, 3 GB RAM

CAMERA	Primary	16 MP, f/2.0, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, check quality
	Features	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, HDR, panorama
	Video	1080p@30fps, check quality
	Secondary	5 MP, f/2.0, 1080p

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes
		- 24-bit/192kHz audio - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

COMMS	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot
	Bluetooth	v4.1, A2DP, LE
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
	Infrared port	Yes
	Radio	Stereo FM radio, recording
	USB	microUSB v2.0, USB On-The-Go

FEATURES	Sensors	Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
	Browser	HTML5
	Java	No
		- Fast battery charging - XviD/MP4/H.265 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/Flac player - Photo/video editor - Document viewer

BATTERY		Non-removable Li-Po 4000 mAh battery

MISC	Colors	Silver, Gray, Gold
	SAR US	1.26 W/kg (head)
	SAR EU	0.56 W/kg (head)
	Price group	5/10

TESTS	Camera	Photo / Video

Samsung’s Massive Galaxy Note 7

NETWORK	Technology	GSM / HSPA / LTE

LAUNCH	Announced	2016, August
	Status	Coming soon. Exp. release 2016, September 2

BODY	Dimensions	153.5 x 73.9 x 7.9 mm (6.04 x 2.91 x 0.31 in)
	Weight	169 g (5.96 oz)
	Build	Corning Gorilla Glass 5 back panel
	SIM	Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
		- IP68 certified - dust proof and water resistant over 1.5 meter and 30 minutes - Stylus - Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified)

DISPLAY	Type	Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	5.7 inches (~78.0% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	1440 x 2560 pixels (~518 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 5
		- Always-on display - TouchWiz UI

PLATFORM	OS	Android OS, v6.0.1 (Marshmallow), planned upgrade to v7.0 (Nougat)
	Chipset	Exynos 8890 Octa
	CPU	Octa-core (4x2.3 GHz Mongoose & 4x1.6 GHz Cortex-A53)
	GPU	Mali-T880 MP12

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot) - single-SIM model microSD, up to 256 GB (uses SIM 2 slot) - dual-SIM model
	Internal	64 GB, 4 GB RAM

CAMERA	Primary	12 MP, f/1.7, 26mm, phase detection autofocus, OIS, LED flash, check quality
	Features	1/2.5" sensor size, 1.4 µm pixel size, geo-tagging, simultaneous 4K video and 9MP image recording, touch focus, face/smile detection, Auto HDR, panorama
	Video	2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@240fps, HDR, dual-video rec., check quality
	Secondary	5 MP, f/1.7, 22mm, dual video call, Auto HDR

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes
		- 24-bit/192kHz audio - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

COMMS	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
	Bluetooth	v4.2, A2DP, EDR, LE
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
	NFC	Yes
	Radio	No
	USB	v3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector

FEATURES	Sensors	Iris scanner, fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, heart rate, SpO2
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
	Browser	HTML5
	Java	No
		- Fast battery charging - Qi wireless charging (market dependent) - ANT+ support - S-Voice natural language commands and dictation - MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.265 player - MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+/FLAC player - Photo/video editor - Document editor

BATTERY		Non-removable Li-Ion 3500 mAh battery

MISC	Colors	Blue Coral, Gold Platinum, Silver Titanium, Black Onyx
	SAR EU	0.25 W/kg (head)     1.28 W/kg (body)
	Price group	9/10

TESTS	Performance	Basemark OS II 2.0: 2676 / Basemark X: 32648
	Display	Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 4.247 (sunlight)
	Camera	Photo / Video
	Loudspeaker	Voice 69dB / Noise 69dB / Ring 72dB
	Audio quality	Noise -92.8dB / Crosstalk -92.9dB
	Battery life	Endurance rating 90h

Disclaimer. We can not guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. Read more