ASUS Pegasus X002 costing $130 will provide tough competition to Xiaomi Redmi 1S

Taiwanese manufacturer ASUS has announced a very competitively priced new smartphone ASUS Pegasus X002 ready to take on the likes of Xiaomi Redmi 1S and Meizu Blue Charm K52.  Xiaomi had sold off 40,000 units of its Redmi 1S handset in just 4.2 seconds when it was launched in India in September this year. Meizu announced its Blue Charm Note, also called the M1 Note, at the beginning of this month for $160 with some killer specs.

ASUS’ new phone is named after the winged horse ‘Pegasus’ from Greek Mythology which means wisdom and knowledge. The company’s name ASUS is also derived from the name ‘Pegasus’.

The ASUS Pegasus X002 boasts of a 5-inch display with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution, a 64-bit MT6732 quad-core chipset clocked at 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM and a 16 GB of internal storage expandable via microSD card. In the camera department, the handset has an 8MP rear camera with auto focus, LED flash and ultra picture quality mode, and a 5MP front-facing snapper.

Pegasus X002 is powered by a 2,500mAh battery and runs Android KitKat topped with Asus’s own Zen UI. It is a dual SIM smartphone supporting 4G TD-LTE/TD-CDMA and GSM networks.

The phone is available in China for only 799 Yuan which is equivalent to about US$129, a very competitive price considering the specs it offers. Currently, the phone is meant only for China with no information whether it will be released outside China at a later date. Pre-orders for the phone have already started.

Here’s the teaser video of Pegasus X002:

 

Take a look at some hands-on pictures of the ASUS Pegasus X002:

 

Source GizmoChina

ASUS Pegasus X002 costing $130 will provide tough competition to Xiaomi Redmi 1S

Huawei offers Ascend Mate 2 directly to US consumers for pre-order at $299

The Chinese company Huawei does not have much presence in the US. But now, the company is increasing its footprint there by offering its Ascend Mate 2 directly to US consumers for the first time. It is a big 6.1-inch phablet that the company had unveiled in CES 2014.

The Ascend Mate 2 is now available for pre-order and the unlocked device will be sold for $299 through the company’s new website GetHuawei.com. Customers who pre-order the handset by June 22 will get certain freebies including a SIM card with $50 of free service and a protective case with preview panel.

Apart from the ultra-large 6.1-inch 1280 x 720p IPS display screen covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, the phablet has a big 3,990 mAh battery that can last for 60 hours of standard use.

Let’s have a look at other specifications of the Ascend Mate 2:

• 1.6GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and Adreno 305 GPU


• 2GB RAM


• 16GB of built-in storage with microSD card slot to expand up to 32GB


• 13-megapixel Sony BSI Auto-focus primary rear camera with LED flash


• 5-megapixel front-facing camera with wide-angle lens


• 4G LTE Cat 4 high speed connectivity


• Android 4.3 Jelly Bean running and Huawei’s Emotion UI 2.0 Lite


• Dimensions: 161 x 84.7 x 9.5mm


• Weight: 202g


• Colors: Black & White

The Ascend Mate 2 smartphone is “Super Handy” and can be easily operated with one hand and also while wearing gloves. It has a “W.O.W” or “Windows on Windows” feature enabling the user to do 2 things at once due to the unique floating screens of the device. It has fast 4G LTE video streaming and a 79/21 screen to body ratio. The battery of Ascend Mate 2 is very powerful with a long life and Huawei calls it the “Weekend long Battery life”. It even has reverse charge ability and can charge other devices.

All these features in just $299 seems like a good bargain. What say?

Check out the Huawei Ascend Mate 2 video below:

Huawei offers Ascend Mate 2 directly to US consumers for pre-order at $299