I was planning on going to X-Cite’s big reveal yesterday, but ended up visiting a friend at the hospital. They are now the exclusive reseller of Xiaomi brand. For those that don’t know who they are, they’re pretty huge. One of the biggest phone manufacturers in China, and their recent Mi 5 phone is very impressive.

One of the major reasons they became so popular was because they’re really good at selling high end phones in terms of specs on a mid-range prices. I really hope X-Cite sticks to the prices that these phones retail in China and not have a ridiculous price difference.

I just double checked with XCite on availability. They currently have 4 Mi devices already in stock on [their website], the Mi 5 will be available by end of month.

I’m actually more excited about the LG G4 than I was about the LG G3 when it was first announced. Not only is it a brand new device, but it also comes with a brand new user interface (UX 4.0 UI). Although I really wanted my next phone to have a wooden cover, I guess leather looks pretty good too.

The number one feature I’m mostly looking forward to is the new camera and the features that come bundled with it.  It comes with a F1.8 camera, something rarely seen on mobile devices, it also means that the aperture is so low that it can absorb more light at night giving you better photos in dark/low light locations. Being able to take photos in RAW is a big plus too.

Unfortunately like the G3 they haven’t increased the battery size, even though other competitor phones did, 3,000 mAh is a lot of battery juice but I would have expected an increase having had the same amount since the LG G2. They did however improve things like the RAM, front camera, processor speed etc.

Full specs below:

• Chipset: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 808 Processor with X10 LTE
• Display: 5.5-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum Display (2560 x 1440, 538ppi)
• Memory: 32GB eMMC ROM, 3GB LPDDR3 RAM / microSD slot
• Camera: Rear 16MP with F1.8 Aperture / OIS 2.0 / Front 8MP
• Battery: 3,000mAh (removable)
• Operating System: Android 5.1 Lollipop
• Size: 148.9 x 76.1 x 6.3 – 9.8mm
• Weight: 155g
• Network: 4G / LTE / HSPA+ 21 Mbps (3G)
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / Bluetooth 4.1LE / NFC / USB 2.0
• Colors: [Ceramic] Metallic Gray / Ceramic White / Shiny Gold /
• [Genuine Leather] Black / Brown / Red / Sky Blue / Beige / Yellow
• Other: Manual Mode / Gesture Interval Shot / Quick Shot

There’s more to the phone than what I’ve just mentioned but I only picked the things I felt were noteworthy. I hope they bring back the LG On-Screen feature that was available on the LG G2. No release date on when it will be available in Kuwait but it should be available by the end of the month worldwide (so you can order it from Amazon).

I was browsing Ace Hardware the other day and found these DryNow packs that should come in handy if your phone sinks into water. It’s not cheap, KD 5.450 but definitely worth it if it’s going to save your phone, it’s also reusable which is a big bonus. If you’re thinking of just dipping your phone in rice as a solution, well that doesn’t always work.