Last week was packed full of announcements. Not only were there several new phones but we also got a handful of new tablets from two tech giants, a new operating system, and new CPU and GPU cores from Arm.
Redmi Note 8 2021
The Redmi Note 8 2021 was one of the devices announced last week. The refreshed phone which originally launched in 2019 now comes with a new processor and the latest version of Android. There is no price tag yet but it will be sold in Europe.
Fuchsia OS is official, rolls out to the Nest Hub
Fuchsia OS, the operating system in development by Google since 2016 is now official and the tech giant is pushing it out as an update to the first-gen Nest Hub which originally runs Cast OS. Google has bigger plans for the operating system but it is starting with its IoT devices, so expect to see the new OS power a lot more devices soon.
US drops Xiaomi from its trade blacklist
The United States has had no other choice than to Xiaomi has officially been removed from the US trade blacklist following a ruling from a US court. The company had taken the US Govt. to court following its addition to a list of companies designated as Communist Chinese Military Companies. The court has now ruled in favor of the Chinese tech giant.
Lenovo and Samsung’s new tablets battle it out
Both Lenovo and Samsung announced new tablets last week. The latter announced the Xiaoxin Pad Pro 2021, Xiaoxin Pad Plus, and the YOGA Pad Pro while Samsung announced the Galaxy Tab S7 FE and the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite.
Arm’s new CPU cores are powerful and boast a new architecture
Arm’s CPUs and GPUs are the basis for a lot of mobile processors. Last week, it announced new ones that are not only powerful but also mark a big shift in architecture as they drop the 2011 Arm v8 for the new Arm v9.
The new CPUs include the Cortex-X2 performance core, the Cortex-A710 big core which succeeds the Cortex-A78, and the Cortex-A510 which succeeds the Cortex-A55 that was announced back in 2018. As you can see, Arm has switched from two digits to three for its big core and little cores.
For the new GPUs, we have the Mali-G710 and Mali-G610 for high-end chips and the Mali-G510 and Mali-G310, successors to the Mali-G57 and Mali-G31 for budget and mid-range chips. All of this GPUs are available with different cores, so that will play a role in their performance when they begin to appear in chipsets.
OPPO Reno6 series
The Reno6 series made its debut in China last week. The three devices come with high refresh rate displays, MediaTek and Qualcomm processors, and support for 65W fast charging across board.
Realme could switch back to ColorOS
When Realme first began shipping phones, the devices ran ColorOS. Along the line, it announced its own UI called realme UI, which is actually a fork of OPPO’s ColorOS. Now a recent survey carried out by the brand realme could switch back to ColorOS for its smartphones, though with some features exclusive to its own phones.
Redmagic 6R is a more affordable gaming flagship
Nubia’s RedMagic gaming smartphone brand announced a new model for its RedMagic 6 series last week. The RedMagic 6R is a proper flagship in its own right with its AMOLED display, 144Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 888 chip, and support for 55W fast charging, but it is more affordable than its siblings with a starting price of under ~$450.
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