NEW BQ AQUARIS M8

BQ announced another member of the M family of devices, about a week ago. It is 8 inches Tablet, that comes to complete the M family called Aquaris M8.

Bq have realised variety of tablets in different sizes but they have never 100% designed in Spain any tablet smaller than 10 inch.
Just to recall Aquaris E10 and last year we were with the M10 (Also as first Ubuntu tablet).
Now we can find the first tablet designed by BQ in a size of 8 inches.

SPECIFICATION
This is a tablet that, as its name suggests, has a screen of 8 inches with HD resolution of 1280 * 800px. Screen is protected by glass with Dragontrail technology.

It is also designed to be tough and allows users to take it wherever they want to because it is dust and scratches resistant due durable materials used for production.

Like its big sister, the Aquaris M10, this new tablet has 0.7W speakers located on the front supported by SMART PA chip ( Intelligent sensor that optimizes the speaker based on the content they reproduce.) for better sound quality in multimedia consumption. 

Aquaris M8 has 16GB of memory expandable via microSD and 2GB of RAM, cameras 2 and 5 Megapixel and a battery of 4050mAh accompanied by MediaTek quad-core processor for energy efficiency. This is surprising choice of SoC since neither BQ nor its users have had good experiences with that brand. BQ informed in the past that they had signed a contract with Qualcomm for use of SoC's, apparently that refers only to smartphones not tablets. I am rather sager to try to see the actual performance of this processor and if BQ will update this product to Android Nougat while Mediatek is known for not providing necessary drivers to do so.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
The new BQ Aquaris M8 is now available for purchase through the online store BQ at a price of  179.90€ and at this moment is available only in white. Which translate to around £162.

Spec comparison Aquaris X5 Plus vs Huawei P9 vs P9 Lite

In this post I would like to compare specs of three phones two of them are in similar price range and one a bit more expensive. I have chosen Huawei P9 and P9 Lite for that comparison because, while I upgraded my Moto G3 to X5 Plus my brother upgraded his UMI Touch to Huawei P9 so battle of these two phones can be called as friendly battle against me and my bro :)

Aquaris x5 plus can be purchased through Amazon Prime with one day delivery and it's 2GB/16GB variant costs £259.90 where 3GB/32GB costs £289.90

Huawei P9 and P9 Lite can be purchased through Carphonewarehouse for price of respectively £379 or £239.

As you can see all of these phones are Full HD and IPS Screens are used to display it. Only difference is it's size. X5+ is 5" where both of P9's are 5.2". Point for bq for better Pixel density.

2GB of RAM version of X5+ will compete with P9 Lite due same memory specification. Both of them have 16GB storage as well. Point for bq for supporting bigger Micro SD card, that is 256GB against 128GB for P9's. Higher speced brothers are 3GB and 32GB but bq still supports bigger SD card.

Processor competition brings winner in P9 as it's 2500MHz Kiring 955 is most powerful in this comparison but Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 is decent SoC as well with LITTLE.big architecture and clocked at 1800MHz is pretty battery efficient and still decent enough to handle some 3D gaming. At the end of the day, 1 point still goes to P9.

Another point is going to X5+ for better battery life as nearly stock Android + energy efficient SoC + 3200mAh will provide you will amazing battery life. For me heavy use which includes 5-6h screen on time live me with about 30% of juice left at the end of the day. Unfortunately P9's battery doesn't handle heavy use that well and you will need a little recharge on the go.

So far X5+ is winning 3:1 against Huawei and there few more things which makes me love X5+ more. Dual SIM isn't hybrid so you can use 2 x sim + SD Card where P9 give you choice of 2 x sim or 1 x sim + SD Card.

Another differences are:

4K vs FHD in video recording for bq

Laser Autofocus for P9

Bq as got NFC for Android Pay where P9 does not support.

Overall I am glad i have chosen bq Aquaris X5+ for price of £259.90 I have received amazing piece of mobile technology. If you are looking for your next phone look at www.bq.com for more information about other bq phones.

I can't wait for Android Nougat 7.1 on my Bq Aquaris X5 Plus

Yesterday Google announced their all new Pixel Phone which runs Android 7.1 out of the box. All improvements made in its newest version are just amazing. App drawer opens by sliding up which saves space in Dock as there is not need for App Drawer Icon anymore. All icons are circle and looks so much more tidy than current the ones on Google Now Launcher. Also built in Google Assistant onto firmware rather than Allo app (None of my friends use Allo since they all stick to WhatsApp out for habit). Only reason I have got Allo app on my phone is Google Assistant but it doesn't work as nice as on Pixel Launcher. I hope Google will allow manufacturers include Pixel Launcher alongside all other Google Apps. I would never buy Pixel Phone because of its £599 price tag. I am not power user but a bit of multitasker and all I do on my smartphone is pretty well handled by Bq Aquaris X5 Plus and don't need to pay more than double the price. However what has been built onto Pixel makes me want it on my own phone. Bq I appeal to you, let us taste some Nougat before Samsung update their phones.

How you guys feel about new update and new Google phone comparing to £250 BQ Aquaris X5 Plus??

Regards
Hikari

Future of BQ, my hopes and expectations

Bq is manufacturing smartphones, tablets, e-readers, 3D Printers and robotics. I won't be focusing on last two areas at all. This is not my area of expertise but Smartphones, Tablets and other mobile technology is something I enjoy on a daily basis. Bq has become my favourite choice thanks to their Aquaris X5 Plus model.



Recently they have released Aquaris U family of smartphones which looks very appealing thanks to its price tag, design and specification.



But what about future of the brand? What would I expect from my newly found favourite manufacturer?
I hope that they releases new tablet before Christmas which could be purchased in different screen sizes 7",8" and 10". Currently only choice for modern Android Tablet is Aquaris M10 or Edison 3 Mini, there should be more variation in their catalogue. My perfect tablet I would buy from them should have:
* 8" at least HD IPS screen
* 2GB RAM and 16GB of RAM
* Come with LTE variants
* Any Qualcomm Snapdragon processor from 6xx series.
* Android Nougat out of the box but I would do with Marshmallow if update would be scheduled for the future.
* Price, which should stick in current Bq pricing and I believe that 179€ - 219€ would be fair.

For the next year, I would like to see Bq entering wearables market by offering few fitness trackers and affordable smart watches with good battery life. They have proofed already that they can produce good battery performing smartphones so I believe they good do the same in wearables area.

I hope this all will happen sooner rather  than later.

Any of you would like to purchase new tablet and smart watch form Bq if they produce one ??

New Aquaris U family

Official Bq website just listed there new members of Aquaris family, marked with "U" moniker this time. Three newest devices are Aquaris U Lite, Aquaris U and Aquaris U Plus. They all comes with 5" HD Screen powered by at least 2GB of RAM and 16GB of Storage (Plus version will be available in 3GB/32GB version as well). Differences appear in details. Cheapest Lite version uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 CPU where more expensive sibling are using Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 CPU. As always all Bq products are going to be more affordable than phones from big players on the market, starting at €149.

Comparing Aquaris U to Aquaris X5 look like the same phone (at least on the picture) which means that manufacturer decided to stick to really good design of their older product. It is not bad thing at all given that X5 Plus feels like premium phone when you hold it in your hands.

If would you like to read more about newest Bq devices just use one of links below.

Bq Aquaris U Plus
Bq Aquaris U
Bq Aquaris U Lite

Regards
Hikari

Where to buy BQ Aquaris X5 Plus in UK

BQ Aquaris brand has got very positive reception in their home country of Spain but here in UK they are not known as much which is really shame. They used to have online store for UK and few other countries but recently Great Britain store has been pulled off. If you want to buy BQ device from store.bq.com you and have it shipped to UK, you need to order it through global store and pay in Euros also shipping costs around €12-€14.

Bq Aquaris X5 Plus belongs to affordable flagship category I could say. Powered by 3GB RAM, 32GB Storage and Qualcomm octa-core processor works pretty well indeed.

If any of you will be interested purchasing one you can do it through store.bq.com and pay €279 for 2GB/16GB version or €319 for 3GB/32GB version. Alternatively you can visit Amazon and purchase 2GB/16GB version for £259.90 with Prime.

Regards
Hikari

BQ Aquaris and more

In August I have started to look for my new phone which was going to be my birthday gift in September. I have researched market all the way and back. I was looking for the most affordable phone with NFC, Fingerprint sensor and good battery life. My interest went to Google Nexus 2017, HTC 10, LG Stylus, LG X Power and few other devices but either they were to expensive, not released yet or were missing something I wanted. After few weeks or research for my ideal phone I came across brands like UMI, Wileyfox and Bq. Chinese and British brand were missing my desired feature although they price tag was very attractive. In the end BQ Aquaris X5+ was the one which has had everything and was priced at 279 euros. Since then I was reading about other products of that brand and find out that they have released first Ubuntu devices. I have got impressed with efforts of this Spanish manufacturer and decided to create English blog dedicated to them as most of my researched needed to be translated from Spanish. I hope it will make some of none Spanish find life easier and awareness of this brand will grown in years to come.

Regards
Hikari