Vernee, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer that produces and sells smartphones with impressive specs at very affordable prices, is rumored to be the first company with phones that are powered by upcoming chipsets from MediaTek and Qualcomm. The Vernee Apollo, which was announced earlier this year, boasts a Helio X20 64-bit ten-core processor, 6GB of RAM, a 2560 x 1440 display and 128 GB of internal storage, all for the very reasonable price of $399. Now, the up-and-coming smartphone vendor is rumored to be working two new devices, which are expected to be the first smartphones to market with MediaTek’s Helio X30 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 830.
The first device, which appears to be the successor to the Apollo, carries the name Apollo 2, and will reportedly come equipped with the Helio X30. The X30 uses a 10nm processor, which, like its predecessor, packs ten cores, and has a clock speed of up to 2.8 GHz. The second device will be a premium (and likely more expensive) version of the Apollo 2, called the Apollo 2 Pro. The Apollo 2 Pro is said to be the first device to feature the Snapdragon 830, the rumored successor to the Snapdragon 820 found in many of today’s most popular flagship devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Unfortunately, the particular specifications of the Snapdragon 830 are not known at this time. The Apollo 2 is expected to pack a whopping 8GB of RAM due to the fact that the Helio X30 is capable of supporting up to 8GB, and is also likely to have a 2560 x 1440 Super AMOLED display. The devices are both likely to ship with Android 7.0 Nougat. Unfortunately, information about these devices is scarce at this time, but more information should become available as their expected release date of March 2017 approaches.
Pricing of these devices is not known yet, though it’s probably safe to assume that the Apollo 2 will be priced similarly to its predecessor, and the Apollo 2 Pro will probably be slightly more expensive. It’s important to note that the information available about the devices at this point is based purely on rumors, and nothing has been officially confirmed by the company. If the rumors do turn out to be true, however, this will be one powerful device, and will give high-end flagships from popular brands a run for their money.