HTC One X9 unveiled, comes with a 5.5-inch display, 13MP camera with OIS, and 3,000 mAh battery

After unveiling the premium mid-range smartphone, the HTC One A9, the Taiwan-based smartphone manufacturer has announced yet another smartphone. The HTC One X9, which was unveiled in China yesterday, comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p display, an octa-core processor with MediaTek, a 13-megapixel primary camera with OIS, and a 3,000 mAh battery.

HTC One X9 Specifications

• Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with HTC Sense UI
• 5.5-inch IPS LCD display, 1,080 x 1,920 pixels (401 ppi), 170-degree viewing angle
• 13-megapixel primary camera (BSI sensor), dual-tone LED Flash, OIS, 4K video recording
• 4-megapixel UltraPixel front-facing camera, ƒ/2.0 aperture, 24.7 mm wide-angle lens, and 1080p video recording
• MediaTek Helio X10 (MT6795T) with 2.2GHz octa-core 64-bit CPU and PowerVR G6200 GPU
• 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, and microSD card slot (2TB)
• Dual BoomSound speakers with Dolby audio
• Dual-SIM, 4G LTE/3G HSPA+, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS (with A-GPS and GLONASS), microUSB v2.0 port
• 3,000 mAh battery; 153.9 x 75.9 x 7.99 mm; 173 grams

The HTC One X9 is a metal-clad smartphone, just like other high-end smartphones from the company, and utilises a design that we saw in the One A9. However, you can also notice design cues from the HTC Desire series of smartphones with 2013 and 2014. It features a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS LCD display and front-facing dual stereo loudspeakers with HTC BoomSound and Dolby Audio.

There’s 3GB of RAM, 32GB  of internal storage, and a microSD card slot that can intake cards of upto 2TB. For imaging, there’s a 13-megapixel camera with OIS, dual-tone LED flash, and an ability to record 4K videos. There’s a 4-megapixel UltraPixel wide-angle camera with ƒ/2.0 aperture and 1080p video recording.

In terms of processing hardware, the One X9 is equipped with a MediaTek MT6795T processor with 64-bit octa-core CPU and PowerVR G6200 GPU. The One X9 comes with a dual-SIM card slot and can connect to 4G and 3G networks. Other connectivity features include dual-band gigabit Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS, and microUSB v2.0 port.

It isn’t clear whether it is running Android 5.1 Lollipop or Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The HTC One X9 will be available in two colours; Gunmetal Grey and Silver. It will be available in China soon with a price tag of CNY 2,399 (~ Rs. 24,477). The company hasn’t announced its plan to launch the HTC One X9 in other markets around the world, but it is expected that it could reach India in Q3, 2016.

Pinterest Launches A New Way To Track Price Drops On Buyable Pins

Pinterest has a new way to entice users to come back and buy things: keeping tabs on the price.

That comes in the form today of a new tool that helps Pinterest users monitor price drops on products they’ve pinned. When users save pins, they’ll get a heads up when a price drops in the form of an in-app notification and an email. They can then jump straight to that pin and make the purchase.

The tool was driven by some user behavior the company expected to see in the shopping experience, Pinterest product marketing manager Sarah Shere said. Often when users are shopping, they are also waiting for the price to drop to the right point before finally making a purchase — which is something the company wanted to ensure it could enable as part of its shopping experience.

“I don’t think it’s a unique psychology to Pinterest, but we tried to build a shopping experience that worked for that customer experience — discovering a product, waiting for the right moment, and then completing the purchase in a seamless way,” said Shere. “In this case one of those right moments is waiting for the price to drop.”

Pinterest launched buyable pins earlier this year, which lets retailers add a “buy” button to pins and enables users to buy those products straight through Pinterest. After putting in a credit card and an address, a user can purchase products that have that buy button on them. Users can make purchases from anywhere on the app, like boards and through search.

In the end, this is likely about getting Pinterest users to come back and buy products on Pinterest. Though the company might not treat commerce as a strong monetization channel just yet alongside its advertising business, it helps get users to come back to Pinterest over and over again. That, in general makes the service more sticky — giving it an opportunity to better monetize its user base.

Still, commerce is becoming increasingly important to Pinterest, which is still rolling out new products that could one day drive additional revenue for Pinterest. According to an earlier report, Pinterest is forecast to make around $169 million in revenue this year.