Smartwatch and accessories manufacturer DIZO has announced January 5, 2022, as the date for the India launch of its latest next-gen smartwatch – the DIZO Watch R, and the DIZO Buds Z Pro with active noise cancellation. The prices of these new products are yet to be released by DIZO but they will be available via Flipkart from January 5 – barring any last-minute changes.
The DIZO Watch R has a 1.3-inch AMOLED display with 500 nits brightness, a 2.5D curved glass screen, and a metal frame. The Watch R has a 9.9mm body which is as slim as it can get. Indeed, DIZO is touting the Watch R as the thinnest smartwatch having the biggest AMOLED screen in the segment. More than 150 watch faces are available for the DIZO Watch R.
Blood oxygen and heart rate monitoring are available 24 hours, and there are more than 100 sports modes for a variety of fitness regimens. The Watch R also comes with music and camera controls, a 5ATM waterproof body, and up to 12 days of activity on a single charge.
The DIZO Buds Z Pro is a pair of TWS earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC). The Buds Z Pro reflects a natural light design, features 10mm, dynamic drivers, with Bass Boost+ and super-low latency. The DIZO Buds Z Pro earbuds are compatible with the realme Link companion app, and the earbuds offer up to 25 hours of playback on a full charge.
It is unclear whether the pricing details of the DIZO Watch R and Buds Z Pro will be released before or during their unveiling on January 5th. We’ll keep tabs on the two products for any further developments.
Noise is adding to its smart wearable lineup in India with the launch of the Noise ColorFit Ultra 2. The ColorFit Ultra 2 is the successor to the ColorFit Ultra which is just a few months old. The new smartwatch has a 1.78-inch AMOLED display, offers blood oxygen monitoring via its SpO2 sensor, and has over 100 customizable watch faces which are also cloud-based.
The ColorFit Ultra 2 also has more than 60 sports modes, 24-hour heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and up to 7 days of use on a single charge. The 180mAh battery of the ColorFit Ultra 2 can last up to 20 days on standby. The ColorFit Ultra 2 comes in a square dial and has IP68 water and dust resistance. The smartwatch supports Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity for Android 7/ iOS 10 devices and older. The affordable ColorFit Ultra 2 also offers a step tracker, activity history, caller information, as well as several other call functionalities and notification features.
The Noise ColorFit Ultra 2 is now available via Amazon India at an introductory price of Rs. 4,499 ($60). It will be available in four color variants namely Olive green, Jet black, Silver grey, and Navy gold. The decent price offer and impressive features of the ColorFit Ultra 2 could combine to attract the quantum of attention needed to continue to push Noise up a few notches in the smart wearables market in India.
Soundcore By Anker Life P2 Mini Earbuds which generally retails for $50 is now available at a heavily discounted price of $29.87 only at AliExpress. This is one of the lowest prices offered on this product. This deal ends on 30 December at 11:59 PM PT.
Generally retailing for $50, you can now buy Soundcore By Anker Life P2 MiniEarbuds for a discounted price of $29.87 only at AliExpress. This super deal ends in 3 days. So place your order asap.
Please note that the above price is region-specific and the final price may vary according to your shipping region, warehouse, and regional taxes.
For more information on such exciting deals and offers check out our deals hub.
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Huawei appears to be working on a new 4G smartphone for next year since a device with the model number JLN-AL00 just gained permission from China’s telecommunication authority. The device was certified on December 24th and it reveals one of its key features.
Thanks to the certification, the Huawei JLN-AL00 is now confirmed to have 4G connectivity. Interestingly, the device was listed running on HarmonyOS out of the box. It seems that the company is working on a budget smartphone for the Chinese market.
The specifications of the phone are yet to know but as this is its first certification, we expect the handset to appear more frequently on the Internet.
Huawei P50 Pocket Specifications
In related news, Huawei recently launched a Galaxy Z Flip 3 competitor dubbed Huawei P50 Pocket. The P50 Pocket is a foldable flip phone sporting a 6.9-inch OLED display with an 1188 x 2790 pixels resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The screen has a 300Hz of touch sampling rate, 442 PPI pixel density, and P3 color gamut. It also has a 1.04-inch cover screen with a 340 x 340 pixels resolution.
As for the cameras, the Huawei P50 Pocket has a triple system at the rear. It has a 40MP main lens, a 13MP ultra-wide sensor, and a 32MP ultra-wide sensor. Upfront, it boasts a 10.7MP selfie sensor with an aperture of f/2.2.
At the helm, the device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 octa-core SoC. Although it has the flagship SoC, it still has 4G connectivity. It is paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of onboard storage.
On Christmas Eve, OPPO announced a new version of the newly launched OPPO Reno7 in China. This variant of the smartphone is called OPPO Reno7 New Year Edition. As the name suggests, it is themed after the Chinese New Year, which falls on February 1, 2022. This handset is now up for pre-order.
The OPPO Reno7 New Year Edition sports an exclusive paint job. It comes in an eye-catching Red Velvet hue with a matte finish.
As the upcoming Chinese New Year is the ‘Year of the Tiger’, there’s also a tiger’s head embossed near the OPPO branding at the bottom right side of the phone’s rear panel.
Apart from the aforementioned differences, the OPPO Reno7 New Year Edition is the same as the regular OPPO Reno7 inside out. In fact, it also costs the same. But customers who pre-order the device before the sale kickstarts on December 30 will get a ¥50 discount.
The product arrives in the following memory configurations.
8GB + 128GB – ¥2,699
8GB + 256GB – ¥2,999
12GB + 256GB – ¥3,299
As far as specs are concerned, the Red Velvet OPPO Reno7 New Year Edition features a 6.43-inch 90Hz FHD+ AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G chipset, 64MP (wide) + 8MP (ultra-wide) + 2MP (macro) triple rear camera setup, 32MP selfie camera, 4,500mAh battery with support for 60W fast charging, ColorOS 12 based on Android 11, 7.64mm thickness, and 185g weight.
Oppo seems to be working on a new pair of TWS earbuds under the Enco Air branding. The Oppo Enco Air2 will be the successor to the Oppo Enco Air launched earlier this year. Today, 91Mobiles has revealed the launch timings of the Enco Air2 in India.
According to the publication, the Oppo Enco Air2 will launch either by the end of January or in early February 2022 in India. Unfortunately, the specs of the earphones aren’t revealed. However, we expect it to come with a design similar to Enco Air.
The Enco Air2 may come with a long stem-like design that resembles the AirPods. It is expected to have better battery life, sound quality, and features than Enco Air.
The Oppo Enco Air was launched with a 12mm dynamic driver. It came with features such as ultra-low-latency of 47ms and a Deep Neural Network algorithm that was said to provide improved call quality. As for the battery, the Enco Air TWS has 24 hours of battery life including the charging case. The earbuds solely offer a 4-hour battery backup. It has a 10W fast charging support via the USB Type-C port.
In related news, Oppo recently launched the Enco Buds TWS in India. It comes with features like IP54 dust and water resistance rating. It has an 88ms low latency feature, voice assistant support, and Advanced Audio Coding(AAC). It was launched at a price tag of ₹1,999(~$27).
Lenovo is on a roll currently, with multiple tablet and laptop offerings being launched within the past couple of months and several more on the way. One of these is the 17-inch Lenovo ThinkBook Plus with one of the most rad laptop designs we have seen this year – the thing actually packs a tablet inside for boosted productivity.
Courtesy of Evleaks on Twitter, we now have multiple high-definition renders of the notebook from almost every angle, effectively leaving little to the imagination. The images show the device running Windows 11 and with a secondary display on the right of the keyboard that almost looks like a tablet embedded into the body.
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A custom interface seems to have been designed by Lenovo for the secondary display, which in the renders almost looks like a better version of the Start menu. This alt-Start menu sits atop an array of shortcuts that should quickly direct you to various productivity apps and features.
But that’s not all the secondary screen is capable of, as renders also show that it can display important bits of apps for quick access. The laptop even comes with a stylus, something which the secondary screen obviously supports.
Additionally, the 17-inch Lenovo ThinkBook Plus seems to be equipped with two USB-C, two USB-A, one HDMI, a 3.5mm headphone jack interface, and Harman Kardon speakers.
As for launch, Lenovo is expected is to unveil some new laptop products at CES 2022 that’s set to kickstart on January 5th, and we may see the ThinkBook Plus in the event as well.
Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy M33 5G soon as the pace of its leaks has started increasing. Last time, the smartphone’s battery details were leaked and now, the phone has appeared on the Geekbench portal.
According to Geekbench v5, the Samsung Galaxy M33 5G has a model number SM-M336BU. It has scored 726 points in the single-core department and 1830 points in the multi-core department. These scores are possible due to the Exynos 1200 SoC, under the hood. For those who are unaware, it is a 5G-enabled octa-core chipset. The chipset’s first six cores are clocked at 2.00GHz and the other two cores are clocked at 2.40GHz.
The smartphone has 6GB of RAM and boots on Android 12 out of the box. We expect it to run on Samsung’s One UI on top of it. Other than this, there isn’t anything else to learn from the certification. However, the phone was recently certified by Safety Korea and it revealed that the device will pack a 5,830mAh rated battery.
Rumours are rife that the smartphone will come with a 6.5-inch water-drop display. It will have a Full-HD+ resolution. It is expected to feature a quad-camera system with a 64MP primary lens, an 8MP secondary unit, a 5MP lens, and lastly a 2MP sensor(via – 91Mobiles). It is touted to have a 13M selfie sensor. If these specs are to be believed, the Galaxy M33 5G will be a great contender in the mid-range market.
Earlier this month, vivo unveiled OriginOS Ocean based on Android 12 in China. The latest version of the company’s mobile software will be available for a vast number of vivo and iQOO-branded handsets. Just as promised, the firm has now started recruiting open beta testers for the first batch of eligible devices.
Chinese smartphone brand vivo has scheduled to release OriginOS Ocean open beta update for the first batch of eligible phones on December 30. Ahead of that, the company has opened registrations for testers.
The recruitment process began on December 24 and will continue until January 3. Applicants who apply on or before December 29 will receive the update via OTA on December 30. On the other hand, those who apply by December 3 will get the update within 24 hours from registration.
In order to enroll, interested users will have to go Settings > System Update > Gear Icon > Update Early Access > Public Beta and follow on-screen instructions. Users who were part of the closed beta program do not need to register for open beta as they will receive the new update automatically on December 30.
Having said that, the below-listed devices are part of first batch for OriginOS Ocean open beta update.
vivo X70 Pro+
vivo X70 Pro
vivo X70
vivo X60 Pro+
vivo X60t Pro+
vivo X60 Pro
vivo X60 Curved Screen Edition
vivo S10 Pro
vivo S10
vivo S9
iQOO 8 Pro
iQOO 8
iQOO 7
The second batch of smartphones are planned to get the update in late January, whie the third and fourth batches are expected to receive the update in February-March and April respectively.
Last week, an official promo image of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra emerged online, confirming its back design as well as a burgundy color scheme. Thanks to some fresh leaks, we get to see another color variant of this upcoming device.
Tipster @hypark22 took to Twitter to post pictures of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in a black color variant. The device in the pictures is a dummy model of the Galaxy S22 Ultra. However, it gives us a good idea of how the smartphone will look and feel in our hands.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra black
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Image via @hypark22
Image via @hypark22
Image via @hypark22
Image via @hypark22
The device is seen to feature a minimalist ultra-premium matte-black look without any glass on its back panel. It has a moderate thickness with squared-off edges and a boxy look akin to the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The phone has a large Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with thin bezels, an S Pen with a built-in slot, and a USB Type-C port.
The S22 Ultra has completely ditched the camera island design of its predecessor and has instead opted for a more clean and minimalist looking design with camera lenses protruding directly from the rear panel.
The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is rumored to launch in February of 2022 with four color variants: Black, Burgundy, Dark Green, and White. Previous reports suggest that the smartphone features a 6.8-inch display with a 120Hz variable refresh rate, HDR10+, stereo speakers, and an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. Depending on the region, the phone is said to feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor or Exynos 2200. And is powered by a 5,000mAh battery and supports 45W fast charging.
For photography, the phone is equipped with an enhanced 108MP ISOCELL HM3 (could be ISOCELL HM4) primary camera, which has been revealed to be powered by artificial intelligence, offering better photos with quality enhancement mode. The device has a 12 MP ultrawide sensor and two new 10MP Sony telephoto sensors with 3x and 10x zoom capabilities. Additionally, the phone is expected to feature a 40MP front camera.
The Indian electric vehicle market has been booming lately as many India-based companies have moved towards the Electric vehicle counterpart. One such brand named Okaya, the battery manufacturer has launched its own Electric scooter dubbed Okaya Electric Faast.
The Electric Faast is priced at ₹89,990(~$1,200) and it will compete with the likes of the popular Ather 450x, Ola Electric S1, Bajaj Chetak, TVS iQube, and Bounce Infinity E1. The scooter is currently up for booking in India for Rs. 1,999(~$27). It will soon be up for booking at the nearest Okaya dealer or from the official website.
The Okaya Electric Faast was showcased at the EV Expo 2021 held in Greater Noida, Delhi, India. The electric scooter comes with 150-200 km of range even at its top speed of 60-70 kmph. With this range, it is one of the longer-running scooters in the market. It utilizes a 4.4kW lithium phosphate battery which offers the claimed extended range.
It has LED lights at the front and sports digital cluster DRLs, combined braking system. It has a maxi-scooter style design that offers a bold look from the fronts. The scooter’s built details, seat storage capacity, and other specs aren’t known. But we expect the company to list it soon on its portal.
Okaya already has three electric vehicles, the AVIONIQ, CLASSIQ, AND FREEDUM. With the Electric Faast’s launch, the company’s EV portfolio has expanded. At the EV Expo 2021, the company also revealed that it will soon launch an Electric motorcycle called Okaya Ferrato. Since it will be a motorcycle, it will have a higher 80-90 kmph speed and up to 100km range.
Xiaomi officially announced a new branch of MIUI 13 built specifically for tablets called ‘MIUI 13 Pad’ with a number of optimizations designed to make Android and some of its apps look better on a larger screen.
A teaser was posted by company CEO Lei Jun yesterday who revealed that MIUI 13 Pad will be going big on multitasking, allowing at least two apps to be visible at the same time. On top of that, the OS has also adapted the top 3000 apps for larger screens so that not even a single inch is wasted.
A few other tablet-specific optimizations and features are likely there too but we would have to wait until tomorrow to see them. For the uninitiated, Xiaomi has scheduled a major end-of-year launch event where a number of new products are expected to be launched, including Xiaomi 12, Watch S1, and of course, MIUI 13 along with MIUI 13 Pad.
The unveiling of MIUI 13 Pad comes at a time when smartphone OEMs are increasingly focusing on enhancing their Android skins to better adapt to larger screens – the reason for this being the pandemic that has acted as a major accelerator for tablet sales due to increased emphasis on WFH culture and online learning. And what good is a tablet if its UI can’t make use of the additional screen estate?
As for MIUI 13 itself, the update is bringing a number of new features but is prioritizing fluidity and privacy over everything else. Still, a few meaningful changes have been done including entirely reworked widgets for system apps.
BBK subsidiary OPPO has expanded its budget offering segment with the launch of the OPPO A11s in China. The smartphone has been in the loop since September when the key specifications and renders first leaked.
The OPPO A11s comes powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 paired with 4GB of RAM with a higher 8GB RM version. There are 64GB and 128GB storage options available.
The smartphone features an expansive 6.5-inch LCD screen with an HD+ resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels. It also comes with a 269ppi pixel density and support for a 90Hz refresh rate. The phone crams a 5,000mAh battery with support 18W charging.
On the camera aspect, the A11s packs a triple camera setup made up of a 13-megapixel main camera with a 2-megapixel depth sensor and a 2-megapixel macro camera. For selfies, the device packs an 8-megapixel front camera housed inside the punch-hole located at the top left corner of the screen.
In addition, the A11s also packs a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. For interface, it boots Android 10-based ColorOS 7.2 out of the box. The phone has a dimension of 163.9 x 75.1 x 8.4 mm weighing in at 188 grams. It is available in black and white colors.
As for the pricing and availability, the Oppo A11s is priced at 999 yuan (~$156) for the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant. The higher 8GB RAM + 128GB storage version is priced at 1,199 yuan (~$188). The sleek smartphone is already up for grabs on OPPO’s official online store and other authorized retail channels in China.
Meizu launched the Meizu 18 series comprising Meizu 18 and Meizu 18 Pro in March 2021. A few days after the debut of the handsets, the company promised that the smartphones will offer a pure OS experience without ads, bloatware, and push notifications. However, the firm went against its word by showing ads in November. As a result, Meizu is now facing a penalty from the government.
Meizu 18 Pro
According to a report by ITHome, Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. has been fined more than ¥25,000 ($3,923) by the Zhuhai Market Supervision and Administration Bureau. Because the company, despite promoting no ads on Meizu 18 and Meizu 18 Pro, went on displaying ads for a short period of time.
Back in November, due to a configuration mismatch, users of Meizu 18 and Meizu 18 Pro were exposed to banner ads and full-screen app opening ads in the stock Weather app of Flyme, an Android-based operating system found on Meizu smartphones. However, the firm did fix it in a few hours.
But at the end of the day, it was not supposed to happen. Hence, the Chinese government had to impose a fine on Meizu for not keeping up with its words.
For the unaware, Meizu heavily promoted Meizu 18 series as ‘Three Zero Mobile’, which stands for no ad, no bloatware, and no push notifications. It even trolled other brands as part of its April Fools’ day joke.
But one fine day, Meizu deleted social media posts containing these promotions. When questioned, the firm explained that it could not continue this move for its future products as it is not a sustainable business decision. Hence, the Meizu 18 and the Meizu 18 Pro are currently the only Meizu smartphones that offer a ‘pure OS experience’.
Xiaomi’s biggest launch event for 2021 is finally upon us and is scheduled to commence tomorrow from 07:30 pm Chinese Time (11:30 am GMT). A number of products are set to be unveiled and the company’s socials have already started dropping teasers for them. Of course, the biggest highlights are the Xiaomi 12 lineup and the MIUI 13 update, but the event will also be lifting the curtains on other much-awaited products including the Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro, TWS Earphones 3, and the Buds 3, all of which have been described below.
Xiaomi 12 series
The Xiaomi 12 series is undoubtedly one of the most highly anticipated launches of this year and has been making rounds all over the internet for the past couple of months. With extensive leaks already having revealed most about it, the only thing that remains is a release, and we are now closer than ever to it.
Xiaomi 12
The Xiaomi 12 series is comprised of the Xiaomi 12, Xiaomi 12 Pro, Xiaomi 12 Ultra, and the Xiaomi 12X, but it appears that the latter two’s launch event is reserved for 2022. The Xiaomi 12 has been revealed to have a very manageable 6.28-inch display, making it the first compact flagship from the company in years. On the other hand, the Xiaomi 12 Pro goes for a more prevalent screen size of 6.73-inches. Both phones have been marketed as having made some notable strides in the camera department, thanks to the inclusion of a new ‘Xiaomi Image Brain’ tech. The devices are also expected to be one of the first to come with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.
MIUI 13
Xiaomi fans would be more excited for the Android skin upgrade, however, especially since the company has been rather late in rolling out Android 12 for its devices.
Judging from screenshots, not much seems to have been changed in terms of the UI except for the system app widgets that have gotten reworked entirely. Apart from this, Xiaomi claims that the update is a whole lot more fluid and brings a number of improvements to security and privacy.
Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro
The Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro isn’t exactly a new launch as it was released in August this year but it now gets a new variant with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. It was earlier selling in only 6GB+128GB and 6GB+256GB RAM and storage options, so the new variant should be a treat for workaholics that have to constantly switch between a hundred apps or for the gamers out there. Full specifications of the tablet can be inspected from here.
Xiaomi Watch S1
The Xiaomi Watch S1 will be a part of an entirely new lineup of smartwatches and will feature a circular design. Teasers from today say that it’s aimed at “business professionals” and that the S in its name stands for ‘strong,’ which is quite appropriate considering it got sapphire glass up front.
Xiaomi TWS Noise Cancelling Earbuds 3
The Xiaomi TWS Noise Cancelling Earbuds 3 or the Xiaomi Buds 3, whatever you wish to call them, are the non-Pro variant of the Xiaomi Buds 3 Pro released earlier this year. They have been revealed to have a Hi-Fi sound quality, made possible through super dynamic dual magnetic units. The ANC feature has been claimed to reduce noise by 40dB.
Xiaomi has established itself as one of the leaders in the smartphone business and its great brand image in that market has bled into its other ventures as well, resulting in good overall sales no matter what the product. It’s thus safe to assume that all of the Xiaomi products to be launched with the December launch event will be selling like hotcakes too.
It seems that Foxconn‘s, a major Apple supplier, issues have yet to subside as it extends the shut down of its factory in India. The news arrives as the local government has begun inspecting the hostels and living quarters of the factory workers.
Previously, we had reported on Foxconn shutting down its plant in India over a case of food poisoning that had affected more than 250 women that were working at the plant and were living in one of the hostels. This causes protests to erupt near the factory, which lead to the suspension of operations in the site. Now, the prior week long closure has been further extended as an investigation has begun into the workers’ hostels.
According to a Gadgets360 report, the recent incident had revealed the living conditions of these workers, especially women, that were staying in these hostels in South India. Thus, Apple’s Taiwanese supplier and others tech firms, including some contractors that provided food and living facilities, were summoned for a meeting by local authorities. The latest update arrives from an official close to the matter who added that the state government has asked Foxconn to review services being provided to the workers.
This includes necessities like power backup at the hostels, food, and water. The Directorate Of Industrial Safety And Health also recommended providing recreational facilities like TVs, a library, and indoor games as well. Another source revealed that Foxconn told government officials that it had “ramped up production too quickly” but will now first upgrade workers’ living standards before pushing for full capacity at its factory again.
With Android 12 OS releasing a while back, Google likely began working on the next iteration that will succeed it. Now, a new report has revealed some interesting information related to the Android 13 operating system way ahead of its eventual launch.
The new changes in the next gen Android platform will offer major improvements in audio streaming through Bluetooth. This was first spotted by Mishaal Rahman on a commit in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Looking at this, it appears that the Search Engine giant plans to merge the LE Audio codec (LC3) and has added it to system settings as an option. In other words, this codec will be able to take the highest priority when pairing with an audio device.
Rahman noted that he is unsure if these patches will be capable of getting LE audio running already, but seemed confident that the feature will be ready by the time of Android 13’s official launch. For those unaware, Bluetooth LE Audio is quite notable since it can potentially massively improve battery life while still offering a stable connection that doesn’t compromise on audio quality either. Furthermore, Bluetooth LE Audio would also enable support for multiple streams through more than one pair of headphones.
Android 13 may be the first release to add full support for Bluetooth LE Audio.
Google recently merged an LC3 (the LE Audio codec) encoder and is adding the codec as an option in settings. It'll be the highest priority A2DP source codec.
Apart from just hearables based products, essentials like hearing aids will also benefit from the newer technology as it would make them on par with consumer products in terms of functionality and practicality. As of right now, Bluetooth LE Audio API has already been introduced with Android 12, although, it is just the basic foundation and does not fully support it. However, the upcoming version would likely be the first to support it when it finally arrives.
Earlier this month, HiSilicon, the chip designing unit of Huawei, unveiled new technology related to the field of photography. The company has self developed a new ISP (Image Signal Processor) that is touted to offer smarter, sharper, and clearer images.
The Chinese tech giant’s chip subsidiary announced the new ISP during the China Security Expo. It is called the HiSilicon Yueying ISP Engine, which is run by artificial intelligence and will power a new generation of smart IoTs (Internet of Things) products. In other words, it is an intelligent image processing engine that will be arriving in new smart products soon. The AI in the new ISP Engine is deeply integrated to ensure image quality whilst also establishing a new benchmark for AI powered imaging.
Meaning, it will enable breakthroughs for smarter and clearer picture quality in every scene. HiSilicon also showcased the new ISP’s capabilities in a number of tests, which highlighted its super sensitivity noise reduction that users deep earning to intelligently sharpen images in extremely low light scenes. This was demonstrated in a dark room where one couldn’t even properly discern between objects and their overall shape.
The HiSilicon Yueying ISP Engine is built with an NPU (Neural Network Processing Unit) and VPU (Vector Processing Unit), both of which are closely integrated with another to better supplement different functions while offering end to end AI solutions. At the moment, it remains to be seen just how well the new ISP Engine from the chip designing unit of Huawei performs. So stick with us, as we will be providing updates if any notable developments surface.
Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has kept an event on December 28 for the launch of its much-awaited flagship smartphone series, the Xiaomi 12, and for its Xiaomi Watch S1 smartwatch. The Xiaomi 12 series was in the leak-stage for a while and most of its details have been learned. So much so that recently, the company CEO Lei Jun shared a video of the phone’s box locked up with multiple key locks, in order to prevent any further leaks. The Watch S1, on the other hand, was teased a few times.
Today, we’re rounding up all the details learned so far about the upcoming Xiaomi 12 series and the Watch S1. Let’s have a look.
Xiaomi 12 Series Rumor Roundup: What to Expect?
Xiaomi is touted to have multiple models in the Xiaomi 12 series. Rumours reveal that the company may launch the Xiaomi 12, 12X, 12 Pro, and 12 Ultra. However, recently, it was confirmed that not all devices will land up at the December 28’s event. It was reported that Xiaomi may launch the Xiaomi 12, Xiaomi 12 Pro, and the Xiaomi 12X while keeping the Ultra for a release in 2022. But, the Xiaomi 12X’ details are very limited and it may or may not end up at the event. That said, let’s have a look at the vanilla 12 and 12 Pro’s details.
Display and Design
Xiaomi 12 series is expected to come with a new design, especially at the back. The fronts will have only little changes like the front punch-hole cut-out shifted to the top middle instead of its left positioning seen in the last year’s Xiaomi Mi 11. This time around, Xiaomi will go with a cleaner design with the camera island placed vertically.
Xiaomi 12 render by Evan Blass
The Xiaomi 12 will come with a 6.28-inch centre-punch-hole AMOLED display with a Full-HD+ resolution. On the other hand, the 12 Pro will have a slightly larger 6.73-inch Samsung E5 AMOLED LTPO display with 2k(1440 x 3200 pixels) resolution. The duo is expected to feature a high 120Hz refresh rate and 10-bit colour depth.
A recent leak revealed that the Xiaomi 12’s display has gained DisplayMate A+ certification and has Gorilla Glass Victus protection. The phones will come with a 20:9 aspect ratio and a thin-bezel design.
Cameras on the Xiaomi 12 and 12 Pro
As said earlier, the phones will come with a vertical camera module featuring a triple camera system. The vanilla model will feature a 50MP primary lens, a 13MP ultra-wide lens, and a 32MP telephoto camera, while the Pro model will have a 50MP primary, 50MP telephoto lens, and a 50MP ultra-wide sensor.
Upfront, the duo is expected to come with a 32MP selfie lens. The camera features of the phones include an f/1.9 aperture sensor and the 115-degree FOV on the ultra-wide lens.
Hardware and Software
Under the hood, the duo is expected to come powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC. It will be paired with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 onboard storage. The Xiaomi 12 Pro is touted to have a 4,600mAh battery with a 120W fast charging support, while the vanilla 12 will get a 4,500mAh battery limited to 67W fast charging technology. In case the Xiaomi 12X lands at the event, it is touted to come powered by the Snapdragon 870 SoC.
The 12 and 12 Pro will have wireless and reverse wireless charging support with 30W wireless charging on the vanilla and 50W wireless charging support on the Pro model. The series was recently confirmed to come with Harmon Kardon tuned speakers. The Pro will have a quad-speaker setup, whereas, the vanilla will boast a stereo-speaker setup. The Pro model is tipped to house a vapour chamber liquid-cooled temperature control system. Interestingly, the phones will have Xiaomi’s in-house Surge P1 chip, which is said to be useful for power management.
Xiaomi 12 will be the first smartphone series from Xiaomi to run on MIUI 13 out of the box. Xiaomi will also release the MIUI 13 software tomorrow and it will be based on Android 12 OS for the Xiaomi 12 series. It will bring features like virtual RAM support, better stability, and fewer bugs, as revealed by the company.
Pricing, Color variants, and Availability
The series will be officially released tomorrow and is expected to be on sale from the first or second week of January 2022. A previous leak revealed that the Xiaomi 12 may launch at a starting price of CNY 3,699(~$580).
[Update] – Now, a known tipster revealed that the Xiaomi 12 may come at a price of CNY 4,299(~$675), while the Pro may cost CNY 4,999(~$785). The Xiaomi 12X is tipped to start at CNY 3,499(~$550).
However, the authenticity of the pricing is still a question, so do take it with a pinch of salt.
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Xiaomi 12 Pro black
Xiaomi 12 Pro blue
Xiaomi 12 Pro green
Xiaomi 12 Pro pink
The Xiaomi 12 Pro’s renders were leaked earlier today. The phone was seen in four color variants – Black, Blue, Green, and Pink(not official names). The live images of three of these colours were also surface.
Xiaomi Watch S1 Rumor Roundup: What to Expect?
Watch S will be an entirely new lineup of smartwatches. The Watch S1 will be the first smartwatch in the lineup and it will feature a circular design. It will have a metal-body construction and physical buttons. As per a recent poster, the smartwatch will feature two physical buttons.
These buttons could be a home button and sports or an action button similar to the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve Active. Unfortunately, there aren’t any explicit specs leak of the watch. But we expect the smartwatch to sport a large colour display. It may come with features like a 24-hour continuous heart rate monitor, sleep tracking, water resistance, and sports modes, similar to the Mi Watch Revolve Active.
Xiaomi has just teased a new audio based product earlier today (27th December 2021). The new product in question is the Mi True Wireless 3 Earbuds. As the name suggests, it is a truly wireless earphones that will be launching in China soon.
The company shared the new teaser on its official Weibo account (a Chinese microblogging website) with an image poster. Looking at the teaser poster, we can see the upcoming Mi True Wireless 3 Earbuds in a black color variant. Notably, the design of these earphones charging case and earbud tip also resembles another product, namely the Buds 3 Pro that we had reviewed back in November. In other words, the individual buds may also arrive with a small stem.
While finer details about the Mi True Wireless 3 Earbuds is still unknown, the teaser hints at the earphones featuring “flagship level noise reduction capability.” Meaning, we might see either active noise cancellation or other forms of noise reduction on the new earbuds. Additionally, the Mi True Wireless 3 Earbuds will offer HiFi sound quality for an improved audio experience. The Chinese tech giant is set to announce the hearables tomorrow (28th December 2021) in a launch event. So stay tuned for more, as we will be covering the conference.
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