Gionee Mobile seems to have come out from their smartphone drought and just released a new smartphone dubbed the Gionee S8S. In this post, we’ll be taking a close look at the full specifications and price of this device. If you remember some time ago, Gionee was allegedly bankrupt after their manager allegedly spent 1b yuan gambling at a casino and now it seems they’ll be coming back soon.

The Gionee S8s is a brand new smartphone in Gionee’s line up and according to Gionee is called the  “Notch Fullview Display”. The S8s comes with an impressive  5.86-inch display accompanied by 3GB of RAM alongside 32GB of internal storage (expandable via micro sd).

You also get a dual rear camera setup with a 3000mAh battery keeping the lights on. The best part of the battery is that it comes with fast charging support which according to Gionee will make the phone charge from 0-100 percent in less than an hour. The pricing isn’t too bad either. Nevertheless, enough of the chitchat. Let’s see what this phone comes with

Gionee S8s Design and Display

The design on the Gionee S8s isn’t really bad but there’s nothing too flashy about the device. You get a 5.86-inch display screen with the annoying wide notch cut out at the top where the front-facing camera is placed. I wonder why the notch everyone is abandoning is still being added to a Gionee phone in 2019 though

The display resolution gives you a 1520 x 720 pixels screen resolution with a 19:9 aspect ratio. It still has the chin at the bottom though

At the back of the device, you get to see the camera at the top left corner supported by an impressive LED flash underneath for better night shots. Like all new smartphones, it still has the fingerprint sensor for security and it’s placed at its usual position at the center. The overall device build is plastic and i’m not surprised considering the price range. It’s not too heavy as the phone just weighs 167.5 grams and measures 8.75mm in thickness .

When buying the device you get to choose between two color options; Matte Black and Gold. It uses two Nano SIM Card slots and another one for the micro SD card slot for expanding the memory

Gionee S8s Operating System

I’m pretty impressed that the phone ships with the Android 9.0 Pie OS as the Operating system. It also has Gionee’s UI customizing the whole user interface so you don’t expect to get a stock Android experience on this phone.

Performance and Hardware

In the performance department powering the phone is handled by a  MediaTek Helio P22 chipset which has an Octa-core Processor clocked at 2.0GHz. You also get an IMG PowerVR GE8320 GPU clocked at 650MHz.

In the memory department, you get 3GB of RAM which would ensure good user experience and better multitasking alongside 32GB of internal storage which can be expanded further using a micro sd card to up to 128GB through the in-built Micro SD card slot. T

Gionee S8s Camera

The main camera of the Gionee S8s is a dual camera setup. You get a 13MP main rear camera supported by the usual secondary 5MP camera which acts as a depth sensor and makes it possible to take photos in portrait mode. It also has a dual LED flash to improve pictures taken in low light conditions

Selfie lovers would get a  front facing camera with a single 8MP camera that’s enough for all their selfie needs.

Gionee S8s Connectivity and Battery

There is obviously the usual Bluetooth and WIFI adapter among many other sensors. There’s also support for 4G LTE connectivity, GPS and a USB Type-C port with support for USB On The Go (OTG).

Keeping the lights on is a 3,000mAh battery which I believe should be able to get you through the day if you aren’t a heavy smartphone user . However, Gionee says it would get you the day “with ease”. The battery also has full support for equipped with fast charging and Gionee says it should charge from 0-100 within an hour

Gionee S8s Price And Specifications

Design

• Dimension: 149.1 x 71.65 x 8.75mm
• Material: Plastic
• Weight: 167.5 grams
• SIM: Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Display

• Type: IPS LCD Capacitive touchscreen
• Size: 5.86-inch
• Screen Resolution: 19:9, 1520 x 720 pixels
• Multi-touch: Yes

Software and performance

• Operating System: Android 9.0 Pie
• Chipset: MediaTek Helio P22 (MT6762) , Octa-core 2.0GHz
• RAM: 3GB RAM
• Internal Storage: 32GB
• Card Slot: Yes, up to 128GB (dedicated slot)

Camera

• Primary: 13MP + 5MP – dual-LED flash
• Secondary: 8MP – HDR

Network and Connectivity

• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, hotspot
• Network 2G: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• 3G: 2100 MHz
• 4G: Yes
• Bluetooth: Yes
• USB: Yes, Type-C
• Loudspeaker: Yes
• Audio Jack: Yes
• Fingerprint Sensor: Yes (rear-mounted)
• NFC: N/A
• GPS: Yes
• Sensors: Gravity, Proximity and Light Sensor

Battery

• Capacity: 3,000mAh non-removable
• Type: Li-Poly
• Fast Charging: Yes
• OTG Support: Yes

Price and Availability

The Gionee S8s price in Nigeria is N46,500

The Gionee S8s price in Kenya is KES 13,000

The Gionee S8s price in Globally is $130

Buy Gionee S8S on Jumia

The Gionee S8s price on Jumia Is N45,500 – Buy This Device

9mobile free data is here again. 9mobile is giving subscribers free data but there’s a clause attached to It . You need to be a Samsung User. Yes . That’s the clause.

According to Samsung NG, if you are using Galaxy J4+, J6+, A7 2018 and A9 2018, you are entitled to get free data on 9mobile.

For people using the Samsung Galaxy J6+ and J4+, you’ll get 1.5GB Free instantly, 100% data bonus for 6months and 50% bonus next 6 months. While Samsung Galaxy A7 and A9 users get 2GB Free data instantly, 100% data bonus.

How To Get 9mobile Free Data On Samsung

All you need to do is to Download Samsung Member App here.

==>Get insider tips to unlock your device’s full potential

==>Easily review device diagnostics

==>Access exclusive events and benefits

==>Pose questions directly to the experts and get 1-on-1 customer support

==>Connect and share with others in the community

Note: Bonus Offer ends March 31st 2019.

Facebook Moments, the app that Facebook launched in 2015 to help you manage pictures of photos of you and your friends will be closed down on February 25.

The Facebook Moments app used Facebook’s facial recognition software to identify your friends through a bunch of photos so that you can group them all together.

I think why the app was not quite successful is because the app didn’t actually link those photos up to Facebook. The photos could only be viewed within the app. Uploading to Facebook directly was better.

Why Facebook Moments Is Shutting Down

According to Facebook – ‘not many people were using it’. However, we are seeing the application of the technology in Facebook’s native app when you receive notifications about old photos that you have uploaded with your friends in the form of ‘memories’. Facebook itself has not added any new features to it over the years.

For those who have been using the app and uploading photos in the app, there is no need to worry. Facebook has created a tool, that lets you create a private album of the photos on your Facebook account and the photos will only be visible to you. The second option is to download the photos to your device. The deadline period is until May, after which the photos will be deleted by Facebook

A couple of months ago Xiaomi Global Spokesman Donovan Sung made a post about their new store that launched in Spain and also asked for suggestions on where they should launch their next store and here’s what I said.

This means the expansion of Xiaomi had been on the cards for a while.

If you have been following up Xiaomi for a while, you would know that they tend to compete on the foreign market rather than their home country China due to the congestion.

Now, the company is looking to take things to the next level and come to Africa. On Sunday, Xiaomi announced the establishment of their African Regional Department and Wang Lingming (Xiaomi’s VP) was appointed as the manager of the department.

At the moment, in Africa we have over 1.2 billion people but the smartphone usage isn’t really too high and many people still use feature phones and because of this some phone brands don’t really do well in Africa. At the moment Transsision Holdings rules the African smartphone market with its three brands – itel, TECNO, and Infinix ranking at the very top in Africa in terms of market share.

In 2019, the Africa will become one of Xiaomi’s main pioneers in their international business, and their biggest rival here is Transsision Holdings.

What I Think About Xiaomi Coming To Africa

Xiaomi has everything it takes to succeed in Africa especially if it starts off with its recently established Redmi Brand. Redmi already have one of the core features that is missing in all the Transission brands – high quality specs at a low price. You can see how successful the Redmi Note 7 has been so far and we can guess how much the price would have been if it was a Transission product.

Transsision basically takes advantage of the mid-range and low-end smartphone market which is a strong competitive ground for Xiaomi. I believe this would also boost competition among the two brands.

Android Q is already on its way although the current distribution rate of it’s predecessor Android Pie is still pretty low, depending on how OEM’s adapt some of us might use Android Q completely skipping Android P.

Android Q Dark Mode
Although, it’s still pretty early to confirm everything Google would be releasing on Android Q but some members of the dev team at XDA Developers already got an exclusive leak and one of the most exciting features in it is the fact that it has dark mode

Also, users  would get more privacy and also a desktop mode. Here a couple of screenshots

In May 2018, Google unveiled Android Pie and actually started working on Dark Mode then and considering most of the Google standalone apps are getting dark mode, it won’t be surprising to see Google integrate it into the full OS.

There’s also a possibility this feature would enable users force dark mode on some certain applications.

Improved Privacy
If you check one of the screenshots I posted previously , you can see the new permission settings. This would give users a little more flexible control over how apps use their data.

Desktop Mode And Native Screen Recording

The new desktop mode is quite similar to the  Samsung’s Dex and Huawei’s EMUI Desktop. Also in this new version, we will also have native screen recording , something that was already available on ROMs from various manufacturers.

Like I said before, It’s still pretty early to know all the other features but be sure that Google would be following this path. We’ll get more insight once the developer preview is out

While we all are still expecting HMD Global to release the Nokia 9 with 5 cameras, another leak of Nokia 6.2 2019 has just surfaced.

The Nokia 6.2 will reportedly come with an in-display camera at the front and is powered by the Snapdragon 632 chipset coupled with 4GB RAM and another variant with 6GB RAM.

Nokia 6.2 (2019)

However, it will go official in China first and would gradually expand worldwide under the Android One program. According to the leak, the device will launch ending of January. Take this information with a pinch of salt.