The much-anticipated Xiaomi Mi Band 5 we recently highlighted has now officially launched. The band offers incredible upgrades over the previous model for almost a similar price tag. Xiaomi’s bands are mostly praised for offering a perfect combination of features while maintaining a reasonable price tag and are used by many people across the world as fitness trackers.

Xiaomi Mi Band 5 offers ample upgrades over the previous model

In comparison with the previous model, the Mi band 5 comes with a slightly larger display that sums to an overall increment of about 20 percent over its predecessor. On top of it, users will get an additional 100 watch faces to choose from featuring some of the popular characters in animated series such as Case Closed, Genesis Evangelion, Hatsune Miku and of course SpongeBob SquarePants.  

Watch faces from the animated shows will be accompanied by matching colored bands; meaning, if your band comes with a yellow band, then you’ll most likely have similar themed watch faces. Similarly, for those who’d have black versions, will get watch faces themed with the same color.

The second nifty upgrade pertains to the charging system. Unlike the previous model which required users to remove the tracker from the band to charge, Mi band 5 integrates a new magnetic driven charging system that attaches on the charging dock. Two electrodes stick out at the bottom of the tracker and automatically attaches to the dock. The upside of the new charging systems is, users of the older models will not use old accessories to charge the new band.

Alongside the band, Xiaomi is also unveiling new dual-toned straps comes with a black part wrapping the fitness tracker which might set off the illusion that the steps are connected to the two far ends of the body instead of being an entire removable/replaceable strap.

Xiaomi Mi Band 5 will start to officially ship as from 18^th and if you are as impatient as I am, then you got to grab one from the online stores such as AliExpress. The band is expected to cost around $27 (Ksh2,800)

Xiaomi Mi Band 5 Specifications

Alongside the long awaited Y6p, Huawei is set to unveil the Huawei Y8p in Kenya as from next week on 15^th June 2020. Pre-orders of the same model are expected to start soon after and will be updating the official recommended retail price as soon as we get it. Unlike the Y6p model which pack’s a massive 5000mAh battery, the Huawei Y8p instead focuses on photography with an impressive 48Megapixels sensor alongside other two sensors to complement variations in environments or different kinds of photos.

It’s a bit disappointing that we don’t get the same battery capacity as its immediate sibling but as anyone can guess, the tech giant is betting on an impressive camera to offer some kind of comfort. We also get some taste of high-level tech that’s missing on the Y6p such as an in-display fingerprint scanner but heavy users or for that sake gamers will need to cope with a 4000mAh battery.

Under the hood, the Huawei Y8p packs a 6GB RAM as well 128GB worth of internal storage space which of course can be supplemented by an external MicroSD card. The front panel is equipped with a 6.3 inches dew drop OLED display that manages to stretch further from side to side only giving room to a small notch at the top housing a selfie snapper.

Unlike the Y6p, the display panel on this model spells premium across the board, it utilizes OLED technology and has an ample screen resolution enough to make those images and text pop. The ultra-clear display is maxed out at 2400 x 1080pixels resolution that sums up to 418 pixels per inch. Thanks to the OLED technology, the panel on this device should provide remarkable visual experience and cinematic color gamut. Both bright and dark details should look vivid while watching videos, playing games or browsing images.

At the back, we get a set of three sensors; 2 megapixels depth camera, 48 megapixels main camera and an 8 megapixels ultrawide angle sensor. Photography shouldn’t be an issue for creators and if you’d rather go for a premium display panel, then this device is a good fit. Lastly, it goes without saying you’ll have to live without the Google services but Huawei has provided it’s AppGallery to load some apps. For those who can afford to do some minor hacks here and there, you could easily sideload missing apps from APK’s downloaded from other sources.  

Huawei’s next sequel on its mid-level themed Y-series lineup is expected to officially launch and pre-orders to start soon after on the 15^th of June 2020, we’ve therefore gathered enough info so you could decide if it fits your needs or move on to the next. And just like current Huawei devices, the Huawei Y6p comes amidst bad blood between the tech giant and the US government that has resulted in lack of Google Play services onboard, though you still have the Huawei AppGallery for some of the android applications.

The standout feature rests within the massive 5000mAh battery that the company says should last 20hours plus surfing on 4G networks, 32hours of video playbacks, 36hours on 4G calls and 37 hours of FM radio without headsets. Though lithium ion batteries still have a long way to go, we kind of like the idea of having such an incredible amount of mAh in a mid-tier device; with normal use, Huawei Y6p should last at least a day or two. Huawei was kind enough to include reverse charge capability in this handset; meaning, you could easily charge other devices with a compatible cable, though there’s no wireless charging yet.

Huawei Y6p packs a 6.3inch Dewdrop Display that stretches all the way with minimal bezels. The only obstruction on the front panel emanates from that notch housing the front selfie camera. According to the tech giant, the handset manages to cover a decent 88.4 percent of the entire front panel with the display screen the rest of it being taken by a narrow frame and a discreet front camera. However, don’t expect the kind of sharpness you get on pricier siblings or top tier competitors; Huawei only managed to equip this device with a low rated 720x1600pixels resolution that sums up to 278pixels per inch which is way low in the smartphone world.

On the backside, there’s a triple Rear Camera setup that includes a 13 MP clear main lens, a 5 MP wide angle lens and a 2 MP depth lens. This ample combination should produce standard images that you can confidently share with your peers or on social media. We acknowledge that there’s quite a bit of effort that goes in producing those sharp detailed vivid images under varying conditions; however, we expect the Y6p to do just fine in the arena given the price tag.

The front 8 Megapixels selfie camera is touted as the beauty camera which basically means that Huawei included some software enhancements to process photos taken by adding a few details such as automatic retouching.

Huawei Y6p Specifications

Huawei Y6p Price in Kenya: (TBA)