The hybrid Range Rover is badged in the same way as the Sport version, with the P400e name. It uses the same 398-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder hybrid powertrain, and has the same claimed 31-mile range on electric power only.
Aside from the all-new hybrid, the whole Range Rover line sees some mild changes to the exterior. The grilles have fresh patterns and the headlights have been tweaked. The lower grille in the front bumper is slightly simpler, looking more like one large unit. The rear bumper now has more integrated exhaust outlets.
The biggest changes to the lineup are on the inside. The new Range Rover now has the same dual 10-inch touchscreen center stack as on the Range Rover Velar and Range Rover Sport. All seats are now wider with thicker foam cushioning for greater comfort, but they can be upgraded to include 25 massage programs. There’s also available “Executive Seating,” standard on Autobiography models, which offer 24-way power adjustment and heated arm rests up front. In the rear, Executive Seating provides reclining seats that recline farther than before, while cosseting your passengers with heated and cooled cushions, heated arm rests, and calf and foot rests.
Other new features include the Activity Key first seen in the Jaguar F-Pace (and currently being enjoyed in our long-term fleet) and a Gesture Sunblind, which allows you to open and close the sunroof’s sunblind using forward and rearward hand gestures.
On the topic of the Autobiography models, the top tier SVAutobiography Dynamic sees mild changes. It continues to get a unique grille and rear bumper. The supercharged V8 also sees a bump in horsepower from 550 horsepower to 557 horsepower.
Note that the refreshed non-hybrid Range Rovers are given the 2018 model year, while the P400e is a 2019 model year. The on-sale dates will probably reflect those of the Range Rover Sport, which will be available in non-hybrid form early next year, with the hybrid following in the summer.
]]>https://briefnews.eu/2018-range-rover-comfier-seats-more-power-updated-dual-screen-tech/feed/0ZTE may unveil a dual-screen folding phone in October
https://briefnews.eu/zte-may-unveil-a-dual-screen-folding-phone-in-october/
https://briefnews.eu/zte-may-unveil-a-dual-screen-folding-phone-in-october/#respondSat, 30 Sep 2017 02:52:32 +0000http://briefnews.eu/zte-may-unveil-a-dual-screen-folding-phone-in-october/
Weeks ago, sources toldVenturebeat‘s Evan Blass that ZTE and AT&T had teamed up to release a dual-screen, unfoldable smartphone codenamed the Axon Multy. Today, Android Authority followed up with leaked screenshots of a similarly-designed phone, which sources claimed might be called the Axon M. Regardless, both sets of details imply that this is the device ZTE will announce at an anticipated press conference in NYC on October 17th.
Both reports agreed that the Axon Multy/M has dual HD screens that unfold into a 6.8-inch, 1,920 x 2,160 display. Closed, it’s less than 10mm thick, according to Venturebeat; Blass’ source noted that the smartphone will have a Snapdragon 820 chip with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 3,120mAh battery and a single 20MP camera. Lastly, it will reportedly be available for $ 650 as an AT&T exclusive.
As Blass noted, the Axon Multy/M appears to have a design similar to ‘Project Valley,’ the unfolding smartphone design that Samsung aimed to release in 2017 but which has yet to materialize. Given that phone designs have settled into the flat single-touchscreen form factor for about a decade, even these reports of a new design promise something fresh. Even if, as Blass pointed out, the Axon Multy/M’s fully-unfolded 6.8-inch screen would only be half an inch larger than that on the recently-announced Galaxy Note8.
]]>https://briefnews.eu/zte-may-unveil-a-dual-screen-folding-phone-in-october/feed/0Dual-screen ZTE Axon Multy unfolds into a 6.8-inch slab
https://briefnews.eu/dual-screen-zte-axon-multy-unfolds-into-a-6-8-inch-slab/
https://briefnews.eu/dual-screen-zte-axon-multy-unfolds-into-a-6-8-inch-slab/#respondTue, 05 Sep 2017 17:13:11 +0000http://briefnews.eu/dual-screen-zte-axon-multy-unfolds-into-a-6-8-inch-slab/
EXCLUSIVE:
While the world waits on a promised generation of devices with foldable screens like the oft-delayed Project Valley from Samsung, AT&T and ZTE have teamed up to offer a facsimile of their anticipated functionality in the form of a dual-screen smartphone called the Axon Multy.
Sounding very much like the promising-but-flawed Kyocera Echo of earlier in the decade (pictured below), Axon Multy is claimed (by a person briefed on its features) to be a horizontal clamshell of sorts, folding along its vertical axis. In its compact form, the individual 1,920 x 1,080 displays sit on both the front and rear faces of the handset (a notable divergence from the Echo’s unique “Z-hinge”).
Unfolded, the the two displays meet at the hinge to form a contiguous screen with a 6.8-inch diagonal. The device as a whole is said to be relatively slim for such a functionality, with a sub-10-millimeter thickness even in its closed (folded) configuration.
While a full spec sheet was not shared with VentureBeat, Axon Multy was said to feature Qualcomm’s top-of-range system-on-chip from 2016, the Snapdragon 820, paired with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a battery thought to possess a 3,120mAh capacity. Its single camera — which can serve multiple functions on a product with this form factor — contains a 20-megapixel sensor.
When it launches in mid-October for a claimed $ 650, exclusive carrier AT&T will apparently be highlighting its suitability for media consumption, particularly of the carrier’s own DirectTV content.
Much of the success for such a product would seem to hinge on ZTE’s software implementation of the expanded 1,920 x 2,160 mini-tablet mode. It should be noted that, even unfolded, its 6.8-inch screen is only half-an-inch larger than the recently-introduced Galaxy Note8‘s single display. That makes it even more of a challenge to justify this form factor than the Echo faced half-a-dozen years ago.
]]>https://briefnews.eu/dual-screen-zte-axon-multy-unfolds-into-a-6-8-inch-slab/feed/0‘YotaPhone 3’ isn’t the dual-screen powerhouse you were expecting
https://briefnews.eu/yotaphone-3-isnt-the-dual-screen-powerhouse-you-were-expecting/
https://briefnews.eu/yotaphone-3-isnt-the-dual-screen-powerhouse-you-were-expecting/#respondSun, 18 Jun 2017 20:01:41 +0000http://briefnews.eu/yotaphone-3-isnt-the-dual-screen-powerhouse-you-were-expecting/
If you’re one of the few people who are still waiting for the next dual-screen YotaPhone, listen up: we finally have an update for you. During Harbin’s China-Russia Expo over the weekend, Baoli Yota — the joint venture formed by investor Baoli (formerly known as REX) and manufacturer Coolpad — teased its upcoming “Yota3” with a date: it’s due in the early fall later this year (almost four years since the launch of its predecessor) and will come with 64GB or 128GB of storage for a more favorable $ 350 or $ 450, respectively, according to RBC.
Not much else is said about the device nor its design, but a source revealed to Engadget that there’s nothing new nor innovative here: it’s merely a new model with bigger screens, yet it’s powered by a mid-range Snapdragon 625 chipset — the same silicon inside the ASUS ZenFone 3, Moto Z Play and BlackBerry KEYone.
According to a spec sheet provided to Engadget, the Yota3 packs a much bigger 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display on the front and a 5.2-inch 720p E Ink touchscreen on the back, both of which are the least you’d expect after such a long wait. Likewise, you’ll find a fingerprint sensor on the front side. It’ll also come with Android Nougat, 4GB of RAM, dual SIM slots (one of which also serves as a microSD slot), a 12-megapixel main camera with dual flash, a 13-megapixel front camera, a 3,200mAh battery and a USB-C port which also does audio output (ugh).
These specs don’t seem bad on paper, but only for now; the Snapdragon 625 will make the Yota 3 look obsolete by the time it launches this fall — our source indicated some time between October and November. The two previous YotaPhones might have been a bit late to the game, but at least they shipped with flagship chipsets.
It’s been quite a roller coaster ride for the dual-screen YotaPhone series. Back in October 2015, Yota Devices planned to sell 64.9-percent stake to investment company Baoli who was going to enlist ZTE to manufacture the Yota3, but Baoli ended up buying just 30 percent in the following April. This left Telconet with 34.9-percent majority share, Rostec with 25.1 percent and MTH Limited with 10 percent.
Despite Baoli having already set up a joint venture with Coolpad (instead of ZTE) later that year, Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov revealed back in March that Yota3’s mass production was held up by Baoli’s refusal to allocate the necessary funding. According to our source, Baoli had been making moves to force its Russian comrades out of the operation, so much that Yota Devices’ former CEO Vladislav Martynov has allegedly filed a lawsuit against Baoli in the UK.
As of July last year, Martynov had already handed the CEO role over to COO Dmitri Moiseyev while remaining on the board, but that didn’t seem to work out on Martynov’s end, nor is it clear whether Moiseyev is still at Yota Devices. Efforts to reach either men for comment for this article were unsuccessful.
At this rate, the future of Yota3 remains uncertain despite its recent teaser in China. It is rather mind-boggling how this Russian-Chinese partnership has managed to drag on for this long in the rapidly changing smartphone market. Even if it manages to deliver the phone, it will be a tough sell with that aging chipset plus an apparent lack of new innovation.
]]>https://briefnews.eu/yotaphone-3-isnt-the-dual-screen-powerhouse-you-were-expecting/feed/0Samsung reportedly has a foldable, dual-screen smartphone in the works
https://briefnews.eu/samsung-reportedly-has-a-foldable-dual-screen-smartphone-in-the-works/
https://briefnews.eu/samsung-reportedly-has-a-foldable-dual-screen-smartphone-in-the-works/#respondWed, 12 Apr 2017 16:34:42 +0000http://briefnews.eu/samsung-reportedly-has-a-foldable-dual-screen-smartphone-in-the-works/Samsung may have just announced the Galaxy S8, but the Seoul, South Korea-based company may have something better up its sleeve. That’s according to ET News and The Investor, which reported on Wednesday that Samsung will begin to produce a limited number of dual-screen smartphone prototypes this year.
Work has reportedly begun in earnest. The design will feature a pair of flexible 5-inch, nearly bezel-less OLED displays joined by a single hinge that can be folded 180 degrees. And Samsung’s developing software with multitasking features that take advantage of its unfolded, effective 10-inch resolution.
The Investor speculates that it’s a preliminary version of the company’s long-rumored foldable smartphone, the Galaxy X.
The reports follow on the heels of Samsung’s Project Valley, an “early vision” of a foldable smartphone that featured a single flexible panel. It’s not a new idea — as The Verge points out, both NEC’s Medias W N-05E and the Kyocera Echo featured collapsing dual-screen designs. But it’s the first material effort from Samsung, which has long expressed its intention to build a foldable handset small enough to fit in a pocket.
Samsung plans to make between 2,000 and 3,000 units in the first half of 2017. According to The Investor, Samsung and its display-making arm Samsung Display have been accelerating development for a pilot test with “tens of thousands” of prototypes during the second half of this year.
But don’t hold your breath for a mass-market launch anytime soon. In April, Samsung Display’s principal engineer, Kim Tae-woong, said the company is currently focused on bezel-free displays. “Because the bezel-free display current sells well, we still have enough time to develop foldable displays,” Kim told The Verge. Samsung is pegging 2019 as the year it will commercialize foldable phones.
The comments were at odds with a Bloomberg report which claimed that Samsung would release two bendable smartphones: One that folded in half, and another with a 5-inch display that “unfurled” into a tablet-sized 8-inch panel. But one thing’s for certain: Samsung’s chasing rivals.
At an event in June 2016, Lenovo showed off a concept smartphone that uses a flexible screen and segmented body to converted from a watchband to a handset. And at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, LG Display showed off a prototype 18-inch screen that rolls up like a sheet of paper.
“Since foldable products draw the most attention in markets recently, it is important to understand demands and ideas regarding new UX through this prototype,” a source told ET News. “This is part of Samsung Electronics’ effort to introduce foldable Smartphones as ultra-premium products.”