Samsung was expected to be the pioneer of the foldable display smartphone and it was believed that the company would be the first to release such a handset. However, a relatively unknown Chinese company called Royole shook the smartphone industry by unveiling a foldable smartphone commercial model in China days before Samsung displayed its own version at the developer conference in San Francisco. Now, the company has also officially listed the processor name on its website as the device goes on sale. Believe it or not, Flexpai is now the first Snapdragon 855-toting smartphone to go on sale. For more info on specifications, check out this link here.

At launch, Royole refrained from naming the processor because the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 was not official at that point. However, it wasn’t a secret that it would have Snapdragon’s latest and greatest chipset because the GPU was known to be the Adreno 640. The FlexPai boasts a 7.8-inch flexible AMOLED panel with a 1920 x 1440 resolution and a 4:3 aspect ratio. It has a camera combo of 16MP + 20MP fueled by a battery of 3800mAh capacity.

Flex Pai comes in three variants – 6 + 128G version is priced at 8999 yuan ($1304), 8 + 256G version is priced at 9998 yuan ($1449), and 8 + 512G version will retail for a whopping 12,999 yuan ($1884). According to officials, FlexPai will be shipping by the end of December 2018.

(Source, via)

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In a major announcement, Asustek Computer Inc. has revealed today that CEO Jerry Shen will leave his position by the end of this month. Shen, who has been at the helm of Asus for more than ten years, will vacate the position for SY Hsu and Samson Hu who will act as co-CEOs moving forward in 2019. The Asustek CEO will then be directing his experience towards a new venture in the AI and IoT segment reported DigiTimes. Asus will be a key partner in the new company with 30 percent stake in Shen’s new venture.

Following the announcement, Asustek chairman Jonney Shih has praised the departing CEO as “the best CEO in the world”. Jerry Shen has had an engineering background from which he rose to the position of CEO and always held close ties with media.

The board of directors at Asus have agreed to the co-CEO management model as they believe SY Hsu and Samson Hu will work together effectively. With the new changes, Asus will also be shifting its smartphone strategy in the coming year. The report said that Asus will focus more on gamers and power users.

• RELATED: Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 to receive Android Pie update in early 2019

Asus has been lagging in the AI and IoT (Internet of Things) department so far, and the new move seems to be a step to improve in that direction. With many big corporations investing heavily in AI, Asus will spend a maximum of NT$10 billion on developing its own AIoT business. The fund will be aimed at strategic investments and mergers/acquisitions and reach a position of leadership in three years.

(Source, Via)

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Meizu made the announcement that in Guanwei today and there’s an official poster that says the offer is for old buyers who register the two devices between December 13, 2018, to January 13, 2019. Owners can visit the official Meizu website to register for the respective offer to avail it.

Furthermore, Meizu has also dropped the price of the Meizu 15/15 Plus by 800 Yuan starting December 7. The Meizu 15 is now priced 1498 yuan ($218) while the Meizu 15 Plus is now 1798 Yuan ($262). If you know the Meizu 15/15 Plus specifications, that is not a bad deal at all. Interestingly, sales numbers on Meizu official website, Meizu Tmall official flagship store, Meizu Jingdong official flagship store and Suning Tesco’s for the 15/15 Plus increased by 528 percent year-on-year on December 7, suggest media sources in China. For more info on Meizu 15 specifications, check out this article here. As for our Meizu 16th review, you can check out the below video!

(via)

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Google Photos has been offering unlimited free storage for videos and photos since 2015 when it updated its gallery app with a new look and design. The free storage works for both iOS and Android users, however, Google compresses the uploaded content in order to save space. Now, starting today, some video formats that are unsupported will take up storage space the limited storage space quota allotted to each user. The new change came to be known when a side note appeared on the Google support site declaring the same.

The side note says, “[Unsupported] Videos uploaded after December 6, 2018 take up storage space.” It seems some users were using the unlimited storage to their advantage by disguising unsupported movie formats and uploading them to avail free storage. The side note’s appearance on the support page means the change is already live currently. That said, Google supports a large number of formats such as below:
mpg, .mod, .mmv, .tod, .wmv, .asf, .avi, .divx, .mov, .m4v, .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .m2t, .m2ts, .mts, and .mkv files.

Do note that this change will have a minimal effect on smartphone users who upload photos or even videos through their devices. However, large files in unsupported formats will take up space. The Photos app has recently undergone a drastic redesign with Google imparting a new Material Theme design to the app recently.

source, via

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While Huawei is set to announce a probable Nova 3 successor this month, the Huawei Nova 3 itself is getting EMUI 9.0 with Android Pie. The handset that was announced in July this year has been under testing for Android Pie since some time. However, it seems Huawei is now ready to seed the update via OTA to some regions. Do note that not all variants are receiving the update and a post on Reddit shows the Chinese variant has received the update.

Furthermore, Huawei has also released a timeline for other handsets that are progressing on EMUI 9.0 with Android Pie. Below are the devices.

• Nova 2s has released a beta version on November 20th
• Nova 3i started beta recruitment on November 28th
• Nova 3e expects to launch beta recruitment in January
• Maimang 7 has launched a beta survey on November 28

Speaking about the Nova 3 update, it weighs around 4.7GB in size and comes with build number PAR-AL00 9.0.0.101. That’s quite a big update and if any Chinese user wishes to update their Nova 3, he/she should probably check for adequate internal storage before downloading the OTA. However, users might want to consider updating in the first place because there’s a big change in the update.

• RELATED: Huawei Nova 4 images leaked on TENAA; Official teaser video and live shots also appear

With regards to the features, the changelog mentions that EMUI 9.0 removes support for third-party launchers which means users will be stuck with EMUI after the update. That’s a pretty disappointing move if you’re into third-party launchers like Nova. Other than that, the update spruces up the battery life, animations and even face unlock is faster than before. The new HiVision feature that detects food and calories was also found to be very accurate by the Reddit user who posted the changelog.

(Source, Via)

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Apple clearly believes a lot in the potential of augmented reality (AR) as it has been pushing developers to create AR applications for its iOS platform for a couple of years now. A new patent filing from the Cupertino giant has surfaced online showing one important area where Apple is working to leverage AR to facilitate users. Ride-hailing apps like Uber have made commutes much easier for frequent city travelers and it is becoming increasingly popular due to its convenience and affordability. However, with more and more people using such services and apps, a big problem is identifying a customer/driver.

Apps like Uber do include GPS pointers to pinpoint the exact position to both the individuals involved, however, it can get confusing at times. For example, crowded locations which are common in big metro cities would make the identification issue much tricky. Apple’s AR solution is simple and effective. It will pinpoint the exact ride through an on-screen indicator. It’s kind of like what you see in games when vehicles have some pointers or highlights over them that indicate they can be used. The system would be usable both by the driver and the customer as well, suggests the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

• RELATED: Apple Patents Display Tech For Self-Driving Cars Using AR To Enhance Driver Safety

The AR system would feed the customer’s app with the vehicle’s model, and colour and then identifying with it with the rear camera. A similar system would be used to identify the customer such as a photo. It is worth noting that this is merely a patent and it doesn’t mean that a similar feature will be introduced in the future. However, it does show that Apple is interested in that particular application.

(source)

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It can be fairly said that 2018 was the year of the bezel-less smartphone. Now that we’re at the end of the year, we can definitely say that we’ve seen some breathtaking designs this year to phase out the bezels including the OPPO Find X and the Vivo NEX. However, there’s always some bezel left somewhere on the screen and a true 100 percent screen-to-body ratio has not been achieved still. Interestingly, a Samsung patent filing has popped up online that promises a display that wraps on all edges of a device. At least, that’s what the shoddy images presented by Samsung in the patent appear to show.

The patent published by the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office) clearly shows a flexible display. It wraps on the left and right and even top and bottom leaving absolutely no trace of any bezels whatsoever. The low-quality image shows icons placed even on the edges. Unfortunately, the provided images from Samsung are too poor to make up anything and besides that, the filing is merely for a utility patent, not design. Also, this solution seems to create more questions than it answers such as the problem of edge detection, placement of vital sensors and so on. Regardless, Letsgodigital has created concept images based off of these patents and it does look stunning.

At the moment, bezel-less displays do seem to be the future as Samsung is getting ready to reveal its Galaxy S10 devices next year, however, this new patent design looks far from finished. If Samsung is working on an ultimate bezel-less phone, it is likely that we won’t see it anytime soon. For now, we’ll have to stay content with Infinity-O displays and flexible OLED panels.

(via, source)

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Three months back, Xiaomi announced the Mi 8 Lite aka the Mi 8 Youth Edition in China with Android Oreo. Now the handset is getting Android P soon as Xiaomi released a beta for the handset on its forums today. Currently, Xiaomi is seeding Android Pie to its Mi 8 and Mi 8 Explorer Edition as well, as we found out last week. Moreover, the Mi MIX 2s and the POCO F1 were also treated with high priority with regards to Android Pie. Since the beta has kicked off, we will probably see a stable Android Pie version for the handset soon.

It is to be noted that beta versions usually have unaddressed bugs and issues that not all users are very comfortable with. So, if you’re more of a stable ROM user, you should stay away from this particular beta. Also, there are no details regarding the features of the new beta version right now. However, we will update readers as soon as there’s more info on it.

The Mi 8 Lite/Youth Edition was the first Xiaomi smartphone with a cool gradient color design. It has a stunning mirror effect glass on the back similar to the Huawei P20 with Twilight Gold and Dream Blue flavors. The handset has also been released globally after its Chinese launch making its way to countries like Taiwan, Ukraine, France, and Mexico.

(via)

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5G has been the theme of the Qualcomm Summit in Hawaii where the US-based chip maker released its first 5G-equipped mobile SoC – the Snapdragon 855. In fact, Qualcomm’s first keynote was dedicated to convincing journalists and media that next year is when 5G will be of significant importance. At the summit, Motorola demonstrated a live 5G speed test on its prototype 5G moto mod stuck on a Moto Z3. Media present at the event was allowed to try out the speed test themselves by downloading 1GB files in a Motorola app. Reporters who tested the mod stated that speeds of 470Mbps were achieved. However, The Verge reports that the 5G network was, in fact, running on speeds of 130 – 140Mbps, much lower than the 5Gbps that is the ultimate promise of 5G.

According to the publication’s findings, there were two main factors that would make the Motorola 5G test much less significant that it appeared. Firstly, the 1GB files that were being downloaded at the demo were coming from an on-site server and not the actual internet. This means that this was not a real-world performance experiment. Moreover, the files were also seemingly undergoing compression. That means a file of 1GB could have been shrunk even up to 40 percent before being the data transfer took place. Now, while Motorola officials present on site said that compression is a common phenomenon even in real-world usage and what’s important for the user is the file itself, these cannot be two excuses for a real-world 5G test. That’s because, with compression, it would be impossible to get an idea of the true speed of the network.

• RELATED: Kirin 980 devices head the list of AnTuTu’s top 10 devices for November

Motorola said that the speed test was a temporary setup for a matter of days and it was not aware of compression. The company is now advertising speeds of 300Mbps to 500Mbps and if you want to see those promised 5Gbps levels in real life, you’re going to have to wait a bit more.

(Source)

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A relatively lesser known 3D avatar app from Korea, Zepeto, recently became a hot trend in some regions of Asia and even in the US. Following that, the app is also now getting a lot of attention in China. According to Tech Node, the hashtag #玩zepeto停不下来# (“can’t stop playing Zepeto”) is being hit hundreds of millions of times on Weibo. Moreover, Baidu searches for the term “Zepeto” have grown exponentially in the last few days. The app has no Chinese version and the recent surge in popularity is also causing trouble for the platform servers, said Zepeto’s official Weibo account.

Zepeto was previously in the news after suspicions and rumors that it was tracking user location. The 3D avatar creator developed by Snow Corporation lets users make 3D avatars of themselves allowing them to meet randomly or through chat rooms and even take virtual selfies. Avatars can be given many different facial features and can be dressed in all sorts of attire. The app itself is free, but like many others, serves ads to keep itself sustainable.

The Korean version isn’t quite Chinese-friendly but it is still in trend right now. After the new surge in popularity, Snow Corporation has agreed to launch a China-specific app called Zaizai by the end of this year. After that happens, Chinese users with the global version will be given the option to migrate to the new app. Zepeto’s creator, Snow Corporation is also behind popular messaging app Line that is used widely in certain Asian countries.

(via)

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Soon after OnePlus introduced the Thunder Purple variant of the OnePlus 6T, the Chinese smartphone maker announced that it would be releasing a special OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition. The handset is the result of a collaboration between OnePlus and popular automotive maker McLaren. The OnePlus announcement follows OPPO’s recent move to release a special Lamborghini Editon Find X as well as Huawei’s Porsche Editon Mate devices being released for a few years. Now, pre-registration for the handset has kicked off in India and potential buyers can visit Amazon India to get notified about future updates regarding the upcoming device.

The OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition is arriving in India on December 12 when the company also celebrates its fifth-anniversary ‘Salute to Speed’ event will be held at Richardson and Cruddas Limited and passes for the venue can be purchased from OnePlus at a cost or Rs 799 via Oneplus.in starting December 6 at 10 am IST. The special edition OnePlus 6T will go on sale the very same day in the country and those present at launch will be able to get hands-on at the experience zones set up at the venue.

The brand will also be making the special edition debut in China on December 14. As for what extra the special edition will offer, it should come with a new paint job like previous OnePlus special edition phones. It is also expected to house 10GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. This also warrants an expensive price tag and there could likely be McLaren branded accessories as well with the device. Head over to the source link below to register for the device.

(source, via)

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Qualcomm’s mobile CPUs are held in high regard in the mobile smartphone segment and each year dozens upon dozens of flagship use the SoCs from the US-based chip maker. We’re a few hours away from the unveiling of Qualcomm’s next-gen CPU – the Snapdragon 855, and AnTuTu has just revealed some juicy scores with the Galaxy S10 Plus toting the said CPU. Earlier today, quite a lot of info got out before launch as an online portal published its report of the upcoming CPU prematurely. But let’s take a look at those official scores quickly.

Currently, all other chip makers that make mobile CPUs have already rolled out their next-gen CPUs. Samsung released the Exynos 9820, Huawei announced the HiSilicon Kirin 980 SoC a while back and these two have been pitted against Qualcomm’s latest 7nm beast. As you can see the image, the results speak for itself. When the Snapdragon 855 releases tomorrow, it will be the strongest chipset around. The device being tested on the benchmark here is none other than the Galaxy S10+ and it records a score of 343,051. This is close to a previously leaked benchmark involving the same CPU that resulted in an all-time high score of above 360,000. The Exynos 9820 which is also based on the 7nm process and boasts a dedicated AI core recorded a score of 325,067. Lastly, the Kirin 980 from the house of Huawei comes third with 309,425 score. Obviously, the Snapdragon 845 is the last on the list with the lowest score.

• RELATED: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 details leaked ahead of the official announcement

It was previously thought that the unannounced CPU would be named Snapdragon 8150. However, it is now clear that SM8150 is its internal name. Aside from flaunting its own dedicated NPU, the System-on-Chip will also support Multi-Gigabit 5G connectivity.

(Source)

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Popular US-based mobile chip maker Qualcomm could still reconsider a move to buy NXP after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s statement at the G20 Summit that the matter could be revisited, suggests an analyst for TrendForce based out of Taipei. Qualcomm gave up all hopes for the deal recently when China blocked the move amidst escalating tensions between the US-China Trade war back in July this year. The saga started back in October 2016 when Qualcomm made a successful $38 billion bid for the semiconductor maker. However, in the months that followed, unforeseen issues such as shareholder backing arose prolonging the deal to be completed successfully. In July 2018, the deal finally fell apart when China disapproved the deal. Since Qualcomm has significant ties with Chinese OEMs, the chip maker had no choice but to agree with China’s decision.

Now, Yao, senior analyst at TrendForce says that Qualcomm could be forced to reconsider the move even after backing out because of unimpressive mobile chip sales this year. Most big smartphone markets like the US, China, and India are almost fully saturated and the world number one chip maker will be forced to look into new avenues for the coming decade. Unlike smartphones, the automotive chip industry has a huge amount of untapped potential. With NXP being the biggest supplier to the industry, Qualcomm could be forced to reopen the deal amidst a grim outlook for the mobile chip industry in the coming months.

A recent study by Allied Market Research forecasted the autonomous vehicle industry could grow to US$54.23 billion by 2019 and potentially to US$556.67 billion by 2026 with a 40 percent compound annual growth rate. On the other hand, the global smartphone shipments shrunk by 6 percent Y-o-Y in the Q3, 2018.

(Via)

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Big data has become the new oil of big tech companies across the globe as these giant corporations try to better understand the customer. However, recent big controversial incidents of data theft privacy breach with some high-profile companies have also opened the eyes of users. This is more so the case in China where consumers are becoming wary of the loose rules and guidelines that protect their private data. A new study conducted by the China Consumers Association revealed today that many popular Chinese apps collect an alarming amount of personal data.

According to the study, 100 apps were reviewed out of which 91 apps were found to be involved in the practice. The personal data that these applications collected included user location, contact lists and even mobile numbers on the user’s smartphone. Amongst the most notable apps that were reviewed from the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store included Alipay from Ant Financial Services, popular photo-editing app Meitu, bike-sharing platform Ofo and even messaging apps like QQ and WeChat from Tencent Holdings.

The matter is even more serious for other small-scale apps revealed the study. “The problem [of excessive data harvesting] is especially severe among smaller app providers, which have no privacy clauses or provide unreasonable terms.” said the report.

• RELATED: Nine persons docked for selling info about Samsung’s flexible OLED panels to Chinese entity for $13.85 million

The report comes as tech companies are scaling up their efforts to harvest data which will be used for Artificial Intelligence initiatives in 2019. However, the general populace has become quite aware due to high-profile cases that came into public view this year. In early 2018, China’s three big tech giants – Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent were questioned over their data harvesting practices in Mainland.

(via)

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China is the biggest smartphone market in the world bar none. However, it is also one of the most aggressively competitive marketplaces where even the likes of Apple are marginally small players. But Apple cannot afford to overlook the market, even if it means low hardware sales for the company. That’s because Apple rakes in huge cash through its App Store sales each year from China. The Cupertino giant, however, has to keep a tight vigil on its online marketplace as China also happens to be the place where a lot of security is needed when it comes to these online app stores. Fresh information is that Apple has removed as many as 700 applications from the store earlier this week.

As regards to why these apps were removed, it is said that they were in violation of Apple’s rules regarding app updates. According to laid out guidelines, any updates have to go through an iOS App Store so Apple can verify the integrity and safety of the new versions being rolled out to the public. It appears as these apps have violated that condition as they must have rolled out updates without getting it passed through the App Store. Now, this isn’t anything new in China but Apple wants to curb the habit and thus the big purge wiped out 700+ apps from the huge online marketplace.

None of these excluded apps belonged to a single category. In fact, some of these apps were also big and popular like the ones owned by search giant Sogou and e-commerce platform Pinduoduo. The current development happens after Apple ran a massive clean-up program a few months ago to take action illegal gambling platforms on its App Store.

(Via)

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Huawei recently received a big blow when the US turned suspicious towards its telecommunications equipment business in the country along with ZTE. Huawei has denied any foul play from their part but the OEM has grown wary of the current stance of the US government. Recently, the US also pushed its allies to stop using equipment made by the Chinese OEM. Whatever the actual reason might be, the smartphone maker would make presumptions that other big companies like Google might also be forced towards the same route in the near future. Hence, it would make sense for the company to have an alternative not only in hardware (like SoCs) but in software.

Fresh information is that Huawei is developing its own operating system that will replace Android eventually. Now, this has been reported a couple of times in the past but now, Huawei has confirmed the same. Sketchy reports in the past had revealed Huawei was working on something called KirinOS with almost little to no detailed info on the subject. The new confirmation comes from Huawei’s Mobile Products VP, 李小龙 Bruce_Lee.

• RELATED: Huawei CEO Comments On Rumors about its Independent OS

Besides the official’s confirmation on Weibo, there is little to go about more detailed info. As per his replies to the comments below his post, the best we can say is that the new OS is “under development.”

In a more recent development, Huawei has also been testing its recent smartphones with Google’s new FuchsiaOS and the doors are open to further testing with the company’s development team now making it compatible with Kirin 970-powered devices.

(via)

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We’ve recently come to know that Samsung is not the only OEM that’s digging holes in their displays, Huawei is very close off its heels. Samsung first showed off its Infinity-O panels at a conference in San Francisco last month, and since then other OEMs have also come out of the closet with the same design. The latest is Lenovo. The company recently certified a triple camera device at TENAA now called the Lenovo Z5s. According to a blogger from Weibo, the same handset will have an in-screen camera design.

The blogger shared a post of the alleged Lenovo Z5s handset revealing its front today. There’s no way to say if the handset is the Lenovo Z5s itself but a recent teaser of the same device leaves no doubts regarding the same. The only thing different between Lenovo and Huawei’s implementation is the positioning of the camera lens. Lenovo goes for a more symmetrical look while Huawei moves the sensor to a top left position to make it less distracting and noticeable.

As far as other specifications are concerned, the Lenovo Z5s dimensions are phone: 156.7 × 74.5 × 7.8mm as revealed by MIIT. The handset is expected to have a 6.3-inch display and a 3120mAh battery running ZUI based on Android. The triple camera is also pretty obvious but detailed specifications of the individual sensors are not known yet. The handset with model number Lenovo L78071 is also believed to be the very first handsets that will boast a Snapdragon 8150 SoC on board. However, this is more of speculation rather than official info. The handset is thought to be launching next month, possibly on 4 December which is when the next Qualcomm flagship mobile CPU will also debut at an event in Hawaii.

(via)

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Japanese Electronics giant, Sharp, recently announced its first OLED display flagship at IFA 2018 labelled as Aquos Zero. The company known for its quality LCD panels showcased the handset that not only has an OLED panel but also has a curved display design and high-end specifications. Now, the brand has held a product launch conference in Taiwan announcing the Aquos Zero there. The company has not yet declared prices as an official release will be in January. However, the handset is believed to cost around NT$20,000 (about RMB 4,500).

The big highlight of the Aquos Zero is, obviously the curved 2k OLED panel. Sharp boasts that this is the lightest OLED flagship around tipping the scales at just 146g. That is achieved by the carbon fiber back in conjunction with the magnesium alloy frames that also make it a sturdy device. The display is 6.2-inches and has a pixel density of 538ppi and a resolution of 2992×1440p owing to the notch. The curved display has support for HDR as well as 100 percent DCI-P3 wide colour gamut.

Under the hood, the Aquos Zero rocks a Snapdragon 845 SoC paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. There’a single 22.6MP rear sensor beneath which lies a fingerprint reader while the front has an 8MP shooter. It runs Android 9.0 Pie which is always good to hear on the back of a 3130mAh battery. It also comes with IP68 water resistance and Dolby Atmos stereo sound.

(via)

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While MediaTek’s recent new mobile chipsets – the Helio P70, Helio P60 – were received well in the mobile industry, current data paints a not so rosy picture of the previous months for the chip maker. As per studies, MediaTek revenues in October actually fell by 9.8 percent as compared to September, a decrease of 0.84 percent Y-o-Y. Furthermore, most of 2018, while not being a complete flop, also hasn’t earned the company anymore. In fact, revenue was down by a very slight 0.4 percent.

MediaTek’s projection this year was to achieve a targeted 10 percent increase in shipments. However, even with a better response to the MediaTek Helio P70 from brands like Xiaomi and OPPO, the company’s order book still lies at 1 to 110 million chips which is the same as the last quarter of 2018. The current situation was not helped by the fact that smartphone shipments shrank in the same quarter. It is even compounded by the risk that some of their orders might get canceled next year.

On the other hand, Qualcomm’s presence in the mid-range chipset category was augmented with the announcement of the new Snapdragon 7xx series this year which was in competition with the Helio P70. Furthermore, MediaTek’s decision to withdraw from the high-end chip segment has also left the arena open for Qualcomm. This factor will, inevitably, come into play, even more, when 5G is introduced as expectations are that the US-based chip manufacturer will be the major supplier even as MediaTek will start mass-producing its own Helio M70 SoC by next month.

(via)

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The current generation of DRAM, DDR4, also known as “double data rate fourth generation” has been around for quite long. The module started to make its way to computers way back in 2014. However, it is only now after four year’s that we’re seeing the very first glimpse of the next generation, i.e. DDR5. SK Hynix, a prominent DRAM manufacturer, has managed to call first dibs on the world’s first 16GB DDR5 memory chip. The chips are also the first DDR5 modules to be compliant with the JEDEC memory standard.

Speaking more about specifications, the new modules are prepared using Hynix’ 10nm fabrication. DDR5 is expected to give much faster transfer speeds, and evidently, the Hynix DDR5 chip can go up to 5200Mbps transfer speeds which is roughly 60 percent faster than DDR4’s 3200Mbps. Furthermore, it will do this consuming 30 percent less power than the previous version. SK Hynix has left out some details including the die size used for the new modules.

The company intends to shore up its DDR5 range with other capacity versions like the 8GB and 32GB. However, the important thing to note is that SK Hynix has only demoed the first chipset. Actual commercial production isn’t expected to start until 2020. It took quite a lot of time before DDR4 RAM modules actually started going mainstream after they were finalized and this is likely to be the case with DDR5 as well.

Apart from SK Hynix, Cadence and Micron have also been working on DDR5 RAM and expecting productions to begin by 2019.

(Via)

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The OnePlus 6T, which is the current flagship of OnePlus, was one of the earliest smartphones to come with Android 9.0 Pie. Even then, OnePlus has continued to keep polishing the software with follow-up updates. The handset is currently receiving OxygenOS 9.0.6 which, apart from usual bug fixes, includes camera optimization, face unlock improvements, and aims to offer a better UI experience.

Delving into a bit more detail, OnePlus posted a short changelog for OxygenOS 9.0.6 which includes the below points:

• Improved unlocking experience
• Optimized standby power consumption
• General bug fixes and improvements

Communication

• Fixed issues with adding APN on Verizon network

Third-Party Apps

• Fixed issues with no notifications from Play Store

Camera

• Optimized image processing

The update follows close on the heels of an OxygenOS 9.0.5 that improved the on-screen fingerprint reader and miscellaneous system tweaks. The current update will be rolled out stage-wise which means users might have to wait a few days for it to show up on their respective devices. Moreover, this OTA won’t weigh a lot on your storage as it will be around 200MB. If you can’t wait for the OTA, there are links to the update on the official forum which we will link down below.

• RELATED: OnePlus 5G phone pricing tipped; Snapdragon 8150 likely to power it

Amongst related developments, the OnePlus 6T just received a new colour variant called Thunder Purple that comes with a matte gradient design.

(Source, Via)

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Nubia is said to debut its first gaming device, the Red Magic, in India next month. Now, after long-standing speculation, Asus will also be announcing its ROG gaming smartphone in the country. The launch is scheduled for November 29. It’s been quite some time since Asus first revealed it’s flashy ROG Phone back at Computex. Even the Nubia Red Magic is arriving very late in the country as its successor is to be revealed in a few days in China on November 28.

Apart from India, the ROG Phone was previously made available in the US and UK. For the Indian market, gaming phones are quite the new category as Honor was just the first device to market the Honor Play as a gaming smartphone. However, with the increasing popularity of mobile multiplayer titles like PUBG, there might just be some takers of these new devices. Speaking of which, we’re reminded that the ROG Phone with all its bling and firepower doesn’t come cheap, unlike the Honor Play. The phone retails for £799 (₹72,800) in the UK and if the Indian price is anything close to that region, Asus could have a hard time selling its first gaming device in the market.

• RELATED: Asus ROG Phone 512GB storage model is now available in the US for $1,099

Some of the most noticeable features of the ROG Phone include a tweaked 6.0-inch AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate and a 1ms response time. That is not to be seen on any other gaming phone except the Razer Phone. It also features a higher-clocked Snapdragon 845 that goes up to 2.96GHz, Bluetooth 5.0 with AptX HD, 3.5mm jack with a dedicated DAC, and a really unique sporty look and feel. Of course, no gaming smartphone is complete without an RGB light and the ROG Phone also has one on the back along with cooling vents placed on the side.

Asus knows the price sensitivity of the Indian market and it will be interesting to see how the Taiwanese giant prices its upcoming device.

(Via)

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Qualcomm’s mobile SoCs are the backbone of dozens of flagship smartphones that launch each year. The US-based chip maker has a solid reputation for manufacturing top-notch CPUs coupled with reliable modems and GPUs. That’s why everyone’s looking forward to the highly anticipated successor of the current Snapdragon 845 SoC. While Qualcomm seems to be a bit late this year, a report states that we could likely see the company’s first 7nm chipset on December 4. Qualcomm will be holding an event at the Qualcomm Technology Summit and Chinese press members have received invites with statements, ” Dare to be the first 5G mobile experience.” The 3-day event will take in Hawaii and the invite also contains a Xiaomi VR device with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC.

As far as the specs of the Snapdragon 8150 SoC are concerned, current talk is that it is expected to come with three-cluster CPU core design, similar to Kirin 980. The alleged chipset was recently detected at AnTuTu bagging an all-time record score of 362,292 which is unseen on any Android device. The only other CPU that can come close to it is Huawei’s Kirin 980 CPU. Huawei’s home-grown CPU marked 311,840 points. The Snapdragon 845 SoC in the Black Shark Helo is the next best with a score of 301,757 points.

• RELATED: Snapdragon 8150 and Helio P80 top AI benchmark test

The core architecture goes like this. There will be one large core clocked at 2.84GHz, three medium cores clocked at 2.4GHz, and finally, four small efficiency cores clocked at 1.78GHz. The GPU inside is believed to be the Adreno 640 which is 20 percent better than the previous version. After a likely reveal next month, we should see the first Snapdragon 8150 SoC devices hit the market in early 2019.

(Via)

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OPPO recently announced a few days back that it will be revealing some “good things to share with us” about ColorOS on November 22. ColorOS is OPPO’s proprietary custom interface on top of Android and this will be its fifth anniversary. Hence, the company has some new updates in store for us. A recent invite letter shared with the press revealed that the new ColorOS is very different from earlier versions. While much still remains a mystery about the new product, OPPO just released a poster on social media hinting at a new feature.

As per the new poster, smooth and stable gaming should not be a feature relegated to flagships. From what the statement hints, it seems OPPO might be bringing its GPU acceleration technology called Hyper Boost to low-end smartphones. Hyper Boost is OPPO’s equivalent of GPU Turbo which was released by Huawei. It not only improves gaming but also boosts system performance and applications with the help of the system engine and application engine.

Not only does it speed up app load times by 32 percent, but OPPO has also worked closely with 11 popular mobile game developers to optimize 100 games for its devices. The next step is to use AI to enhance the technology even further and partner with even more game developers.

As per the company’s announcement, 17 new models will already be getting the new software accelerator and we could see more added to that list when OPPO announces the new ColorOS. Apart from Hyper Boost, we just might see the company create a roadmap for devices likely to receive Android Pie. It’s about time OPPO started doing it.

(Via)

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Lenovo announced its most high-end handset in 2018, the Lenovo Z5 Pro, two weeks back in China. Not only does it come with razor-thin bezels and a slider design, but it is also the cheapest of all slider phones in the market coming in at just 1,998 Yuan (~$287). No wonder there was an overwhelming interest in the handset when reservations started and Lenovo recorded 500,000 registrations. The handset went on sale on November 15 for the second time and it quickly went out of stock just like the first sale. However, some potential buyers also found the handset being put on sale at Jingdong, Taobao, and even Weibo by purchasers at a higher price.

The VP of Lenovo, Chang Cheng, was quickly made aware of the situation and he has responded saying that Lenovo will be stepping up production to avoid similar incidents. The next round of sales on Jingdong Mall is displayed to be on November 22 10:00. The handset’s 6GB+64GB is priced 1998 yuan and the 6GB+128GB retails for 2298 yuan.

• READ MORE: The Lenovo Z5 Pro Goes Up For Pre-Order On Giztop; See Details

The highlights of the handset include an extremely high 95.06% screen-to-body ratio on the 6.39-inch Samsung AMOLED display. The bezels have been advertised to be slimmer than even Xiaomi’s slider phone the Mi MIX 3. The other attention grabber is the fifth-generation photoelectric screen fingerprint which is considered to be faster and more accurate than previous generations. Under the hood, the handset boasts a Snapdragon 710 SoC and a battery capacity of 3350mAh. For more information on specs, visit this link here. It does, however, come in just one Black color option.

(Source)

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A new report from Internationa Data Corporation (IDC) revealed today, that Xiaomi has once again become the number one brand in India for Q3, 2018 with a market share of 27.3 percent. The Chinese smartphone maker has had a remarkable Q3 shipping 11.7 million units and has consequently toppled Samsung from first place. Moreover, the gap between the first and second now seems to be widening with Samsung garnering a 22.6 percent market share. Meanwhile, Vivo has retained its third position with a growth rate of 36 percent, said the report.

The chief factor of Xiaomi’s resurgence can be attributed to e-commerce sales prior to the Diwali festive season. “eTailers continued to drive affordability with multiple financing options such as zero or low-cost EMIs (equated monthly installments), buyback guarantees and cashback on debit/credit cards,” said Upasana Joshi, Associate Research Manager, IDC India. A big part of these sales was due to Xiaomi’s hugely successful Redmi 5A and Redmi Note 5 Pro besides the newly announced Redmi 6/6A models. Samsung, despite losing first place, recorded an annual growth of 4.8 percent, thanks to its affordable new models like the Galaxy J6 with an Infinity Display.

• READ MORE: Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 gets a huge price cut post-Redmi Note 6 Pro launch

The offline segment also clocked a growth of 6.6 percent in the same quarter. Overall, the smartphone market reached a new record high of 42.6 million unit shipments in the third quarter representing a 9.1 percent year-on-year (YOY) growth.
However, with such robust sales, a price hike from Xiaomi and Realme has also hit the industry. Due to the ever-depreciating rupee, both the above-mentioned OEMs have increased prices of a number of their products. Xiaomi increased the prices of the Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A while Realme hiked the prices of the Realme C1 and Realme 2 recently in the country.

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While the world prepares to enter the 5G era, smartphone OEMs are doing their part to introduce new handsets that will eventually become the gateway to this blazing fast Internet medium. The likes of Xiaomi have already introduced their very first 5G compatible handsets in the shape of the Mi MIX 3 while OPPO recently demonstrated a working R15 prototype with 5G. However, Huawei has just announced that it will be introducing it’s first 5G handset at the Mobile World Congress in 2019.

President of Huawei in Western Europe, Vincent Pang, made the announcement at the annual Huawei Innovation Day on 7 November 2018, in Rome, during an exclusive interview with Communications Today. What’s even more interesting is that Pang hinted that this could very well be the first foldable 5G smartphone. The announcement comes after Samsung demoed its own foldable handset at the annual developer conference a few days back but the handset is yet to make a true official appearance. The Korean giant will also be releasing the handset at some point in 2019. The first foldable 5G Huawei device will be made available to retail during the third quarter of 2019.

Apparently, Huawei believes that Europe is on track for a speedy deployment of 5G technology and infrastructure and hence the company is releasing a 5G handset early, suggested Walter Ji, President of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, also present at the event. Besides the above mentioned innovative tech, Huawei has invested heavily in improving the camera and battery department as well.

• READ MORE: Huawei And BOE Are Reportedly Teaming Up To Make 8-Inch Foldable Display Smartphone

The Chinese brand has done quite well with its recent two flagships – the P20 Pro and Mate 20 models – in Europe. As per an IDC report, The Chinese smartphone OEM is the second largest smartphone seller in the world displacing Apple.

(Source)

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When we talk about virtual voice assistants, the two names that come to mind immediately are Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. While Google dominates the Android smartphone segment with its data-driven assistant, Alexa has carved out a niche of its own in the new smart speaker segment. However, if fresh news is to be believed, Huawei might soon join the race with the likes of Samsung and numerous other smartphone OEMs.

Richard Yu, CEO of Consumer Electronics at Huawei was quoted by CNBC in an exclusive interview as saying, ” In the beginning, we are mainly using Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa” for its AI Cube and smartphones, he said. “We need more time to build our AI (artificial intelligence) services … Later we will expand this outside of China.”

Huawei already has a China-centric voice assistant called XiaoYi, not to be confused with the similarly named Xiao AI of Xiaomi. The world number two brand also recently unveiled the Huawei AI Cube which is the company’s first AI-powered smart speaker. Yu stated that until their own voice assistant is ready for prime time, they will continue using Google and Amazon’s offerings in their global products.

• READ MORE: Global smart speaker shipments grew 197% in Q3 2018, Xiaomi takes the fifth position

Despite the executive’s statement, much about the voice assistant remains unknown. There’s no detail on what languages it will support on debut nor the time of its unveiling itself or even what it will be called outside of China. However, it seems the ever-growing popularity of voice assistants has attracted the Chinese giant’s attention and it wants a share of the pie.

(Source)

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Talk about the next generation of mobile internet – 5G connectivity – is fast heating up as chip manufacturers and telecom operators are in advanced stages of testing the blazing fast network for millenials of the 20th century. However, there is considerable time before the tech becomes widely available to the public. Samsung has just announced that the second standard for 5G networks will be set in December of 2019. Interestingly, this time it will not be only about mobile phones but will usher in the era of smart cars and smart factories among others.

The second 5G standard or Release 16, as it is called, will be handed over to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), said Sungho Choi, VP at Samsung Electronics’ network business, at the ongoing two day 5G Vertical Summit 2018 in Seoul. The non-standalone standard was already given the go-ahead last year followed by 5G standalone standard this January which completed Release 15.

Release 15 is laid out to support enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), and ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). Release 16 encompasses much more than that. The standard will help connect smart cars, factories, enterprise networks and ensure public safety. The 5G Automotive Association and 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G ACIA) will work closely with 3GPP to set standards that will result in high-speed data connectivity, boost safety and help improve reliability.

Samsung is hoping to cash in on the 28GHz spectrum and is betting on it to be deployed in 5G SA next year which could give it a lead over Huawei. Both the company’s network business arm and logic chips wing are gunning on 5G that will open new vistas for the Korean giant in these respective sectors in 2019.

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It’s no secret that LG’s smartphone division has been struggling for quite a few years now. Despite toying with new ideas and excellent offerings like the LG G7 ThinQ, and even the LG V30, the arch-rival of Samsung has failed to make its mark in the mobile market. Now, rumours are that the Korean smartphone maker might fuse its two flagship series – the G series and the V – into one. Echoes of these rumours were heard earlier in the year as well but now there seems to be some evidence to back it up.

As per a report by LetsGoDigital, five V series trademarks ranging from V50 to V90 were unearthed from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office as the company has sought approval of these monikers. The LG V90 moniker, in particular, was also trademarked in Mexico in July. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that LG will be combining the two flagship ranges but the sheer amount of trademarks hint that it is a possibility. The other possibility is that LG continues its way with the current lineup. And the way in which the company has been churning out V series variants, it’s only a matter of time before it requires these trademarks.

Of course, combining the G and V series makes more sense since there isn’t much of a differentiating factor between the two and merging them would help sales figures. For now, this is all speculation and there are no concrete details as to what the troubled smartphone giant has in store for the future of its flagship devices. The company’s latest flagship device is the LG V40 ThinQ  rocking five cameras.

(Source, Via)

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The Vivo Z3, which is the successor of the Vivo Z1, was announced back in early October. However, sales of the upper-midrange handset kicked off on November 1st with the company offering two CPU variants – a Snapdragon 670-toting version and a more powerful Snapdragon 710 version. Around ten days after the sales kicked off, the smartphone maker has announced today that sales have exceeded 300,000 units. The announcement comes at a time when 11/11 Singles day has kicked off in China and Xiaomi has recorded sales worth $575 million.

The Vivo Z3 comes in a 4 GB RAM + 64 GB Storage that costs 1,598 Yuan (~$230). This is the only version that features the Snapdragon 670 SoC. The other two that boast a Snapdragon 710 SoC are – 6 GB RAM + 64 GB Storage that retails for 1,898 Yuan (~$274) and a 6 GB RAM + 128 GB Storage that sells for 1,898 Yuan (~$274).

As a quick recap, the Vivo Z3 packs a lot of punch for the price at which it is offered in the country. It’s highlighted features include a dedicated gaming mode with 4D game shock, DND, P-i-P, and Vivo’s Dual-Turbo engine which is the equivalent of Huawei’s GPU Turbo. Furthermore, it is packed with Jovi AI assistant and IR face unlock that works in low-light conditions. The 3,315mAh battery supports dual-engine flash charging technology which is Vivo’s fast charging tech.

• READ MORE: Vivo Z3i launched in China as rebranded version of Vivo V11i

In terms of the build as well, it’s a fairly premium looking handset with glass-sandwiched design and metallic frames. The display is endowed with the latest Halo notch cutout making it very pleasing for daily use. The Vivo Z3 is available in eye-catching colors – Starry Night Black, Dream Pink and Aurora Blue – the latter two of which are of gradient quality. For more info on specifications, you can check out our launch article here.

(via)

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