October 2018 - hectic and eventful

The unusually volatile October is coming to an end, and new phone announcements still keep coming out like fresh pies out of the oven. There is the OnPlus 6T that just came out on Monday, next Tuesday is the day for a number of iPads to be introduced, and more to come.

The Xiaomi Mi Mix is undoubtedly the gem of the week, with its amazing characteristics like the 6.4 AMOLED display on an all-screen slide with no bezels, dual front and back cameras, up to as many as 10 GB of RAM, and the cherry on top - the 10W wireless charger.

Just three days prior, Black Shark Helo by Xiaomi made an entrance. The gamer’s dream is packed with some great features, like front stereo speakers, dual heat pipes, 6” AMOLED screen (although there’s no 120 Hz refresh rate, sorry, guys) and either 1 or 2 snap controllers, depending on the package.

There’s another awesome newcomer in the specialty device sector - the HTC Exodus 1, a device with an innovative focus on blockchain, which can only be purchased with BTC or ETH, and can actually be used a wallet for all the Satoshis you care to save there.

Back to the more traditional gadgets, Meizu Note 8 came out this week, with its classic 6” notchless display, dual-pixel main camera, plus one more for detecting depth of field, and an 8MP selfie camera. Snapdragon 632 is the chip driving the device, with the phone offering an impressive package with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The ask is very reasonable at CNY 1,300 ($185/€165).

Samsung is not lagging behind with new offerings, with the Galaxy A-series expanding even further. A6 is the company’s first device that is not produced at the proprietary factories, but still looks promising. 6” AMOLED display, 6GB RAM/64+GB storage, and a Snapdragon 660 chip should comprise a reliable device.

China has also welcomed the Oppo R 15x this past week, and while we don’t have the exact specs yet, it is a bumped-up version of the K1.

Panasonic came out with two variants of Eluga Z1s in India, a regular and a Pro version. The latter offers more RAM and storage, while the rest of the features are the same - 6.19”/720р display, Helio P22 chip behind the action, and a powerful 4,000mAh battery.