2019 GIZTECH-CHINA TECH NEWS

ZUK Z1 Unboxing - The Latest Flagship from China

Wonder where all the retro VHS camcorder videos and pics are coming from?

Anyone who uses social media will have noticed a glut of new videos with the grain and fuzz of an ’80s/’90s VHS camcorder video.

You can join in the retro party with the app that everyone’s using: VHS Camcorder from Rarevisions.

The app has all the features the old camcorders had, including clunky zoom, the date in the corner and a whole host of skins that let you choose exactly the type of grain you want.

The app is currently only on iOS but an Android version is in the works.

Via slashgear

Insignia Flex Elite 7.85: Wrong FCC ID!

Dan EE originally said the tablet IDed itself as the Nexus 9. I finally got curious about that and emailed him, because I didn’t see it in the About Tablet information.

It turns out I should have dug deeper. It’s in this screen:

Since it’s passed through the FCC — miraculously, given the wires — I’m not sure this matters except as an example of the sloppiness one can encounter in a Chinese tech product.

Dan EE also noted:

I kept the tablet. I am waiting to see if there will be an update to it that may include a new bootloader. They have to fix NetFlix and claim they are working on an update. The bootloader they have is obviously a secure bootloader. The RK3288 is designed so the bootloader can’t be read. If an upgrade comes out with a new bootloader, it can be extracted. This way I can put it back to stock if I want or need to. More importantly if the unlocked bootloader that I would need to put in a ROM bricks it, I can recover it. I am convinced that the most likely way to get a ROM onto this will require disassembly and some fine solder work.

Damn, with good firmware this thing could be a great tablet for the money. The AnTuTu video test V3.0 score was 765, off the charts! The chip has a lot of power saving modes, even running off the realtime 32.768KHz clock. I am sure are not being used. The main market for this is set top boxes and tv’s where they don’t worry about standby power.

I’m still skeptical there will be any update that will include a Netflix fix, despite Insignia’s claims.

I know owners of the iFive Mini 4 had a hell of a time trying to get it rooted. None of that applies here, however, because they’re still stuck with Android 4.x and such a root probably won’t work with Android 5.x.

Plus, Five Technology seems to have abandoned that tablet already — if the company is still in business at all [Google Translate]:

Click = big

Five has dropped any pretense that Android 5.x will come to the Mini 4 “soon.” The iFive Air got it, and that’s all.

I bring up the iFive Mini 4 because of the weird reference AnTuTu found to Five Technology.

Did Lightcomm — Insignia’s tablet supplier — grab the iFive Air Android 5.x and just modify it? I wonder.

Meanwhile, it looks like no one else at XDA Developers is interested.

Very frustrating all the way round.

[ Elephone ]

www.elephone.hk

http://www.bestchinaoffer.com/

Elephone Q Phone Review

So if you have a name for it, feel free to let us know and we’ll pass it along to Elephone. I’d call it the Elephone Mini or something. It’s going to be available later this year for about $80 USD. Which is a pretty fantastic price for a smartphone like this. While you can’t do Periscope or use Twitter on it, you can still have quite a bit of fun. It’ll be a great choice for someone’s first smartphone as well. At $80, it’s okay if someone loses this, compared to losing something like the Galaxy Note 5, right?

While we were at Elephone’s office today, we also got a chance to check out the Elephone Vowney as well as the Elephone S2. Both are really nice looking devices. You can look forward to hands on with those two later on today. Elephone is making some really nice handsets, as are most of the other OEM’s here in China, and really can’t wait to see them go international.

Teclast: We Don’t Use Crap Memory Chips In X98 Pro!

More drama over at Weibo.

Weibo:

The link goes to this page (use Chrome browser to translate).

Apparently someone started a rumor Teclast was using “white label” chips. They refute that with a very, very detailed explanation — with photos — of the brand-name chips they’re using.

Asus ZenPad S 8.0 (“Plus/Pro” Model) Gets Third Review

Asus ZenPad S 8.0 Review: An Almost-Great Tablet Held Back By Its Software

Antutu pulled down a score of 45013, just a little lower than the ZenFone 2. Understandable considering the higher resolution of the screen. The 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme benchmark managed a score of 7522, which is okay. It’s higher than you’d see in budget devices powered by the Snapdragon 615 or 410, but still not as good as the GPU in a flagship device. Note, I’m using the 4GB version of the tablet with the faster Intel chip.

Italics emphasis in original.

I expected an AnTuTu score in that range. At US$299, that’s a good score.

I’ve yet to encounter this version of the tablet in person, though, and look forward to finding a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 to compare with.

Meanwhile, after the break, some videos demonstrating the optional stylus.