Corning expands its Gen 10.5 LCD glass production in China

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Feb 2, 2021

Qualcomm has just announced that it is planning on building a new research and development center to push 5G innovations. This center will be situated in France and arrives after the company met with the local government’s officials.

As per an official Qualcomm announcement, Cristiano Amon, CEO elect and President of the company met with Agnès Pannier-Runacher, minister delegate for the industry in the French Government. This new research and development site will be a part of the company’s extensive R&D network and will also play an integral role by bringing in employees from the region to help develop 5G technology for the various markets across the globe.

The new 5G research and development facility also builds on “Qualcomm Communications SARL’s strong presence in France.” For those unaware, the chipmaking giant already has established facilities in the region for over 20 years. The new center is located in Lannion in Brittany and Issy-Les–Moulineaux in the Paris-Region. For those unaware, Lannion is a center for telecoms engineering excellence and a European technology hub.

John Smee, Vice President of Engineering in Qualcomm stated that “France already has a leading technical engineering infrastructure in place, so it is a natural fit for this new 5G R&D hub. The 5G R&D team will be working on advanced systems engineering to help define the future of 5G and beyond – and the new center is a tremendous opportunity for the individuals involved and for the company.”

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Samsung Galaxy A32 4G tipped to arrive in four colors

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Sudarshan Ravichandran

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Feb 2, 2021

In early January 2021, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy A32 5G as its most affordable 5G handset to date. According to numerous reports, the company will be also releasing a 4G variant of this smartphone in some markets. Now, ahead of its launch, its color variants have been tipped by a reliable leakster.

The upcoming Galaxy A32 4G is in the news for a while now. Since the 5G variant is now official, we know almost everything about the 4G version as well. Because the LTE version is expected to feature the exact same set of specs except for a different SoC.

However, we were unaware of its color variants. Thankfully, we now know that as well, courtesy of a tipster called Sudhanshu Ambhore (@Sudhanshu1414). As per him, the Galaxy A32 4G will be available in four color options, namely Black, Blue, White, and Lavender.

With that being said, the only things that are unknown about the forthcoming Galaxy A32 4G are its announcement date, price, and availability.

According to previous reports, the Samsung Galaxy A32 4G will flaunt a 6.5-inch LCD panel with a resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels (HD+) and a dewdrop notch at the top center. The device will be powered by MediaTek Helio G85 SoC paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. There could be other storage configurations as well.

Further, the handset will come with a 48MP (wide) + 8MP (ultra-wide) + 5MP (macro) + 2MP (depth) quad-camera setup on the back and a 13MP front-facing camera. It will be backed by a 5,000mAh battery with support for 15W fast charging and will run Android 11-based One UI 30.

Other features of this smartphone will include dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, NFC (select markets), microSD card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C, side-mounted fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, proximity sensor, gyroscope, and compass.

Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G sees record breaking sales in India worth $54 million in just 3 weeks

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Feb 2, 2021

Earlier today (2nd February 2021), Xiaomi India announced that its newly launched smartphone, the Mi 10i 5G, saw record breaking sales. The device saw sales worth 400 crores INR (roughly 54 million US Dollars) in just three weeks.

The Chinese tech giant has just revealed the achievement of its Mi 10i 5G, which first went on sale on the 7th of January 2021. Since then, the device has registered “blockbuster” sales within just three weeks of its first launch. Furthermore, the company also added that the device is one of the most searched smartphones, as per the January 2021 Google search result reports. In other words, the smartphone was extremely successful in India.

Manu Kumar Jain, Managing Director of Xiaomi India, stated that “With the launch of Mi 10i 5G, our aim was to deliver future proof technology and a perfect flagship experience. The response received during the first few weeks is a testimony to customers appreciating a 10 on 10 smartphone which combines a stellar camera setup featuring the 108MP primary camera along with class leading performance through Snapdragon™ 750G. As we continue to build the Mi Brand in India, we will focus on offering the latest and the best technology to our Mi Fans.”

Listing some of the handset’s notable specs, the Mi 10i 5G feature a 108 megapixel rear camera, along with a 120Hz refresh rate display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G 5G enabled processor, all of which is powered by a large 4,820mAh battery pack. The smartphone also supports NavIC, which is the nation’s indigenous navigation system built by the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).

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China Smart Speaker market sees slight decline in 2020: IDC

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Feb 2, 2021

The smart speaker market in China saw a decline last year. The overall market fell by 8.6 percent year on year, out of which a significant part also includes the smart screen devices as well.

According to an IDC report, the sales volume for smart speakers in China reached 36.76 million units in 2020. Smart speakers with displays accounted for 35.5 percent of all units during the same time, which saw a 31 percent rise in sales year on year. The report added that the overall market decline was primarily due to the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic along with “channel adjustments and limited application scenarios.”

During last year, the smart speaker market in China was still dominated by three major brands. Out of these, the competition was the most intense between Alibaba’s Tmall Genie and Baidu’s Xaiodu. In terms of annual sales, Alibaba edged ahead with its Tmall Genie. On the other hand, the fourth and final quarter saw Baidu win, through its collaboration with Pinduoduo in China. Furthermore, the market for smart speakers with displays had Baidu maintain the lead with a 63.4 percent market share.

These smart speakers are mainly designed to offer additional functionality and bring another level of interaction as well. At the moment, the smart speaker market in China is developing at a “rapid pace” as market education pushed by vendors help in better penetration of their products in the market. For 2021, IDC expects that the smart speaker market will see over 42 million units in shipments, marking a 14 percent year on year increase.

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Samsung Galaxy A52 5G color variants revealed in a fresh leak

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Feb 2, 2021

Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy A52 5G smartphone. Last week, reputed tipster Evan Blass had shared a render to reveal the front and rear design of the smartphone. Now, he is back with GIF images of the Galaxy A52 5G’s color variants.

The new leak reveals that the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G will come in four colors like Awesome Black, Awesome White, Awesome Violet, and Awesome Blue. Readers can click on each image below to get a 360-degree spin view of Galaxy A52’s each color variant.

While the rumor mill has revealed a lot of information on its specifications, Samsung is yet to officially confirm the existence of the Galaxy A52. The device is rumored to arrive in 4G and 5G versions depending on the market. The 4G model of the Galaxy A52 is likely to feature the Snapdragon 720G, whereas its 5G edition could be driven by the Snapdragon 750G chipset.

The Galaxy A52 5G is expected to house a 6.5-inch S-AMOLED display with an Infinity-O design. The Full HD+ display could be integrated with a fingerprint reader. The rear shell of the phone is rumored to sport a 64-megapixel quad-camera system. The Galaxy A52 will boot to Android 11 OS. Its 3C certification revealed that it could be shipping with a 15W charger. Its dimensions are 159.9 x 75.1 x 8.4mm.

The Galaxy A52 5G has bagged approvals like China’s TENAA and 3C, Bluetooth SIG, and Wi-Fi Alliance. Its support page had recently appeared on Samsung Austria’s website. Also, its 4G edition has bagged BIS certification in India. A recent report revealed that the 5G edition will also come to India. These certifications suggest that its launch could be drawing near.

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Nokia 1.4 bags WiFi certification ahead of launch

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Sudarshan Ravichandran

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Feb 2, 2021

Last month, the entire specs of the upcoming Nokia 1.4 entry-level smartphone leaked. However, the handset is yet to go official. Now, ahead of its launch, the device has been certified by WiFi Alliance.

The WiFi certification of HMD Global’s Nokia 1.4 does not reveal anything new since everything about this phone has already leaked. But the certification suggests that it could be announced very soon.

According to the previous report, the forthcoming Nokia 1.4 with model number TA-1322 will be the successor to the 2019’s Nokia 1.3. It will be an entry-level smartphone priced around €100.

The handset will sport a 6.51-inch LCD panel and this screen is expected to come with a dewdrop notch. The phone will be powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor paired with 1GB RAM and 16GB internal storage.

For optics, the device will be equipped with an 8MP + 2MP dual camera setup along with an LED flash at the back and a 5MP snapper on the front for selfies and video calls. On the connectivity front, the smartphone will come with a dual SIM card slot (4G + 2G), single band WiFi (2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack, and MicroUSB port.

Other features of this phone will include a MicroSD card slot (up to 128GB), fingerprint sensor, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, proximity sensor, Android 10 Go Edition, and a 4,000mAh battery.

Last but not least, the Nokia 1.4 will measure 166.42 × 76.72 × 8.70mm in dimensions and will be available in two colors, namely Blue and Gray.

China smartphone AP shipments to stagnate in Q1 2021: Report

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Feb 2, 2021

The shipments of smartphone AP (application processors) in China will reportedly not see any changes sequentially in the first quarter of this year. This flat trend arrives despite the market seeing a significant rise of 57 percent back in 2020.

According to a DigiTimes report, the smartphone AP shipments, which includes those for mobile exports as well, will stagnate in the first quarter of 2021. Furthermore, the former Huawei budget smartphone unit, Honor, has also started raising its chip inventory, with other brands also pushing to raise their orders to also maintain their high inventory levels as well. At the moment, the 8 inch and 12 inch foundaries are packed with orders and are running at full capacity due to smartphone makers driving up orders.

The report also added that about 211.6 million smartphone APs were shipped to Chinese companies in the fourth quarter of last year. This marked a rise of 9.9 percent quarter on quarter and 7.7 percent year on year. The market performed better than expected with robust shipments, with brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo seeking to expand their market share in the domestic market as the current market leader struggles after US sanctions.

Notably, MediaTek was one of the top suppliers of smartphone APs in China, accounting for 42.5 percent of all shipments during the final quarter of last year. The chipmaker was followed by Qualcomm that had a market share of 41.5 percent and Huawei’s HiSilicon with a 9.5 percent share. DigiTimes estimates that MediaTek will remain the market leader in the first quarter, while Qualcomm will remain will be close behind.

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Samsung Galaxy M02 launched in India as a rebranded Galaxy A02

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Sudarshan Ravichandran

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Feb 2, 2021

Samsung has finally launched the Galaxy M02 in India after teasing it for the past few days. The entry-level smartphone offers a large screen, a huge battery, and a dual-camera setup. Let us take a look at the entire specs, features, price, and availability of this handset.

Galaxy M02 Specifications and Features

The newly announced Galaxy M02 is nothing but a rebranded Galaxy A02 that went official last week in Thailand. It sports a 6.5-inch PLS TFT LCD panel with a resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels (HD+). The screen has a dewdrop notch at the top and hence, Samsung advertises it as an ‘Infinity-V Display’.

Under the hood, the device features a MediaTek MT6739W SoC paired with 2GB/3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. Unfortunately, despite launching in the second month of 2021, the smartphone runs Android 10 (One UI Core 2.x) instead of the latest Android 11-based One UI Core 3.0.

As for optics, the phone comes with a 13MP (wide) + 2MP (macro) vertically aligned dual-camera setup on the back and a 5MP front-facing camera in the notch for selfies and video calls. It is interesting to see the company opting for a macro shooter, rather than the commonly used depth sensor.

Other features of this handset are dual-SIM, 4G, VoLTE, single-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, and GNSS (GPS, GLONASS), grip sensor, accelerometer, proximity sensor, dedicated microSD card slot (up to 1TB), 3.5mm headphone jack, MicroUSB port, and a 5,000mAh battery.

Lastly, the phone’s body is made of polycarbonate with a grippy pattern and comes in four colors, namely Denim Black, Denim Blue, Denim Gray, and Denim Red. It measures 164.0 x 75.9 x 9.1mm in dimensions and weighs 206g.

Galaxy M02 Pricing and Availability

The Samsung Galaxy M02 will be retailing for the following price tags.

2GB + 32GB – ₹6,999 (Introductory Offer – ₹6,799)
3GB + 32GB – ₹7,499

It will go on sale starting February 9 and can be purchased from Samsung online store, Amazon India, and leading offline store across India.

Xiaomi blocks users from installing Google’s GMS on its smartphones in China

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Feb 2, 2021

Xiaomi has its own Android-based operating system named MIUI and the company has been regularly updating it. Recently, some users of MIUI started reporting that they weren’t able to install Google Mobile Services (GMS) on their smartphones.

The restrictions seem to have come after the rollout of MIUI 12.5. Now, the China-based smartphone maker has responded to those reports and said that the company no longer allows users to install or sideload GMS applications because of compliances.

The company confirmed that the devices that don’t come with the Google service framework won’t be able to install GMS applications. This isn’t surprising as most of the devices in China don’t have support for GMS as Google services are banned in the country.

While Xiaomi has not revealed the list of models affected by this policy change, some users have reported that Redmi K30 Ultra and Redmi 10X 5G are among those models that don’t support sideloading GMS apps.

It’s noteworthy that the restrictions apply to devices in the company’s home market, i.e. China, and users in other regions should be able to install Google Mobile Services as well as related applications on their Android smartphones.

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Visionox may receive 5 million Huawei and 10 million Honor orders in 2021: Report

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Feb 2, 2021

A new report has revealed that Visionox might receive large orders from Huawei, and its former subsidiary, Honor. The supplier will provide the smartphone OEMs with AMOLED displays, with unit orders numbering in the millions.

According to a TechWeb report, a person close to the supplier has stated that the company might be receiving 5 million orders from Huawei and about 10 million orders from Honor for AMOLED panels. Back in January 2021, Visionox had announced that its net profit for 2020 is expected to be around 141 million to 210 million Yuan (roughly 21 to 31 million US Dollars), which marks a year on year increase of 120 to 227 percent. The company attributed this growth to its continuous innovation and rising demands.

Notably, Visionox is also the company behind the first mass produced display that supports an under screen camera. Furthermore, it also has an exclusive deal with ZTE to provide these displays for the company’s flagship ZTE Axon 20 smartphone. It even provides high end hyperboloid curved displays to major OEMs for their smartwatch lineup and even smartphones. A few of its major customers include Chinese tech giants like Xiaomi, ZTE, Huami, and South Korea’s LG as well. Recently, the company even picked up Oppo, Motorola, and more as their new customers.

So, Huawei and Honor putting in large orders with the company is great news for the supplier. Meanwhile, Honor placing in larger orders is also indicative of both companies’ current position, as Huawei struggles with its smartphone division due to US sanctions that had caused it to sell its budget sub brand to ensure its survival. At the moment, Honor is pushing to launch its products, especially in China, to establish itself as a major contender in its home market of China.

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Google is shutting down in-house Stadia game development studios

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Feb 2, 2021

A couple of years ago, Google launched its own game streaming service named Google Stadia and the company had plans of developing some of the games on its own for its newly introduced services. However, it seems that things didn’t work out well.

Google has announced that the company is shutting down its in-house game development studios for the Stadia platform. With this, the company will now be focusing on provided content from third-party developers.

The company is shutting down studios in Montreal and Los Angeles. Along with that, Google has also confirmed that Jade Raymond, who was hired by the company to lead this new game development division, is also leaving the company.

Making the announcement, Stadia Vice President and General Manager Phil Harrison confirmed that Google will continue to invest in the Stadia platform. Explaining the reason behind shutting down the game development studios, he says, “creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially. Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we’ve decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E [Stadia Games and Entertainment], beyond any near-term planned games.”

A few months ago, Jack Buser, Director of Games at Stadia had said that the company has around 400 games in the work for the streaming service and also added that exclusive games from studios like Harmonix and Supermassive are in development.

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Facebook to notify users on personalized ads prior to Apple privacy changes

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Feb 2, 2021

Earlier this week, Facebook announced that it would send out notifications for iPhone users across the globe regarding how data is used to provide personalized ads. This arrived just prior to incoming privacy policy changes from Apple.

According to a Reuters report, the social media giant is rolling out these notifications before Apple, due to the potential harm that the new privacy updates might bring to Facebook’s advertising business. The new notification will arrive in the form of a full screen prompt that would ask both Facebook and Instagram users to allow their apps and website to be used for personalized ads. The platform will even ask users to “support businesses that rely on ads to reach customers.”

For those unaware, the company is already fighting a public battle against the Cupertino based giant’s plan to ask its userbase whether they wish to allow apps to track their activity across other websites or even applications. Facebook has warned users that Apple’s notifications “suggest there is a tradeoff between personalized advertising and privacy.” Further adding that this move would hurt small businesses that rely on ads from their platform.

At the moment, it is unknown when exactly the new prompt will pop up on the two social media platforms, although, Apple is expected to roll out its privacy notifications soon. The brand stated that these prompts will start appearing on most iPhone models within the next few months. So stay tuned for more, as we will be providing more updates when additional information is available regarding the matter.

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POCO M3 for Rs 10,999 (~$150) brings SD662, 48MP triple cameras, 6,000mAh battery and more

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Feb 2, 2021

Last year in September, POCO India launched the POCO M2 smartphone. Today, the company held an online unveiling event in India to announce the POCO M3 smartphone, which was previously announced for the global markets in November. The POCO M3 midrange brings features a tall aspect ratio screen, a Snapdragon 662 chipset, a 6,000mAh battery, and 48-megapixel triple cameras with a starting price of Rs 9,999.

POCO M3 specifications and features

Place on the front of the POCO M3 (Review) is an IPS LCD panel of 6.53 inches. The 60Hz display offers a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It comes with Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It boots to MIUI 12 for POCO, which is based on Android 10 OS. The handset comes with support for Widevine L1 for playback of streaming content from OTT platforms. The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. For security, the POCO M3 features face unlock and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.

The waterdrop notch available on the display has an 8-megapixel selfie camera. The unique large-sized rectangle-shaped camera housing on the backside of the phone has a 48-megapixel main camera with f/1.79 aperture and a pair of f/2.4 aperture 2-megapixel sensor for depth effects and macro shots. The POCO M3 supports photography features like AI beautify, AI scene detection, night mode, portrait mode, panorama, time-lapse, 120fps slow-motion video recording, and 1080p video shooting at 30fps.

The POCO M3 has Snapdragon 662 chipset under its hood along with LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.1 / 2.2 storage options. There is a microSD card slot for additional storage. The phone comes with 18W fast charging support for its 6,000mAh battery. It also supports reverse charging.

The POCO M3 comes with other features such as dual stereo speakers, an IR blaster, dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, USB-C, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The handset measures 162.3 x 77.3 x 9.6mm and it weighs 198 grams.

POCO M3 price in India

Here are pricing and color variants of the POCO M3:

6 GB RAM + 64 GB storage – Rs 10,999 (~$150)
6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage – Rs 11,999 (~$164)
Color variants: POCO Yellow, Cool Blue, and Power Black

The POCO M3 will go on sale starting from Feb. 9 at 12PM (local time) in India through Flipkart. Buyers with ICIC Bank cards can avail flat discount of Rs 1,000 on the device.

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OPPO Find X3 Pro key specifications leaked online ahead of expected launch in March

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Feb 2, 2021

OPPO is expected to soon launch its flagship smartphone — OPPO Find X3 Pro. Some of the information related to this upcoming device has leaked online and as the launch nears, more details about the phones keep surfacing.

In the latest leak related to the OPPO Find X3 Pro, the smartphone’s key specifications have been revealed. The OPPO phone with a model number PEEM00, which is believed to the Find X3 Pro, has appeared in a cloud-based benchmarking platform.

It reveals that the smartphone will be powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, which is powering most of the flagship phones launched in recent weeks. The leak also indicates that the phone is running the Android 11 operating system with ColorOS 11.

As for the internals, the device packs 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. It features an OLED display, measuring 6.7-inch and offers 3216 x 1440 pixels screen resolution and an adaptive refresh rate that ranges from 10Hz to 120Hz.

OPPO Flagship Smartphone — Leaked OPPO Find X3 Pro render by Evan Blass

Coming to the camera department, the device is expected to have a quad-camera setup on the back and will come with features like 25x “microscope” macro zoom. Earlier reports have indicated that the device may pack two 50MP Sony IMX766 sensors.

Prior to this leak, the Find X3 Pro smartphone’s renders were leaked, showcasing the upcoming phone’s design. A few days ago, it passed through the FCC certification process and it was reported that the phone may get launched in March this year.

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Realme X7 Pro 5G full specifications for India emerge on official website

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Feb 2, 2021

On Thursday, Realme will be launching the Realme X7 5G and Realme X7 Pro 5G smartphones in India. The former is believed to arrive as a rebadged version of the Realme V15 5G phone that went official last month in China. Ahead of the launch, Realme India has officially listed the Realme X7 Pro 5G phone with full specifications and images.

Realme X7 Pro 5G specifications and features

A 6.55-inch S-AMOLED FHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate is available on the Realme X7 Pro 5G. After the OPPO Reno5 Pro 5G, it will be the second Dimensity 1000+ SoC powered phone to arrive in India. It has 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB / 256 GB of UFS 2.1 storage.

The Realme X7 Pro 5G has a 32-megaixel front-facing camera. The rectangle-shaped camera module has a Sony IMX686 64-megapixel primary camera, a 119-degree 8-megapixel superwide sensor, a 2-megapixel macro lens, and a 2-megapixel B&W lens.

The Realme X7 Pro 5G has a 4,500mAh battery to keep the lights on. The handset supports 65W SuperDart charge technology. The handset lacks a microSD card slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. It boots to Realme UI based Android 11 OS. Readers can visit the source link to know to see detailed information on its specs.

Realme X7 Pro 5G variants and color options

The Realme X7 Pro 5G could be coming to India in options like 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage and 8 GB RAM + 256 GB storage. The smartphone will be available in three hues like Skyline White, Aerolite Black, and Iridescent. It is speculated the highest variant of the Realme X7 5G could be priced at Rs 21,999 (~$301). Hence, it is likely the Realme X7 Pro 5G may arrive with sub-Rs 25,000 (~$342) pricing in the country.

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Vivo S9 launch date could be March 6; Dimensity 1100 chipset, 44MP dual selfie camera expected

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Feb 2, 2021

Vivo is reportedly working on the Vivo S9 5G smartphone. Like the predecessor Vivo S7 5G, it will be a selfie-centric phone. A tipster from China (via) has claimed that the Vivo S9 may go official on March 6. The leakster has also shared the key specifications of the smartphone.

According to the tipster, the Vivo S9 5G will be launching on March 6. The leak claims that the device will be equipped with a 6.4-inch notch screen and it may arrive with a 44-megapixel ultrawide dual selfie camera. Hence, it appears that the Vivo S9 5G may inherit the same 6.44-inch AMOLED screen with wide notch which was made available on the Vivo S7 5G.

The leak claims that the Vivo S9 5G will be coming to the market as the world’s first Dimensity 1100 SoC powered phone. This reminds us of the Vivo V2072A phone that had appeared at the Google Play Console. It was spotted with Dimensity 1100 chip and a wide notch display. Hence, it seems that the V2072A model number may belong to the Vivo S9 5G smartphone.

The Vivo V2072A Google Play Console listing had revealed that it has 12 GB of RAM and Android 11 OS. Like the predecessor model, the device may arrive with up to 256 GB of storage. The other specs of the smartphone are currently under wraps.

In related news, Vivo is likely to soon launch an S-series phone called Vivo S7t 5G. It is rumored to be packed with same specs as the Snapdragon 765G powered Vivo S7 5G. However, the presence of Dimensity 820 SoC is said to be the major difference on the Vivo S7t 5G.

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Honor V40 5G smartphone to go on sale in China today; price starts at 3,599 yuan ($557)

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Feb 2, 2021

Honor recently launched its first major smartphone after splitting from Huawei — Honor V40 5G. The device went on sale in China a couple of weeks ago and in the first sale, all the units were sold out in about three minutes.

Now, the Honor V40 will again be on sale today in China. As for the phone’s pricing, the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage model is priced at 3,599 yuan (approximately $557) while 8GB RAM + 256GB storage model costs 3,999 yuan, which is approximately $619. It comes in three color options — Black, Silver, and Rose Gold.

The smartphone features a 6.72-inch screen with a dual punch-hole design and is the first V-series phone from Honor to feature an OLED panel. The screen offers a Full HD+ resolution of 1236 x 2676 pixels resolution, a 120HZ refresh rate, a 300Hz touch sampling rate, and a DCI-P3 color gamut. The display is also integrated with a fingerprint sensor.

Under the hood, the device is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ 5G chipset along with 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB or 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage. In the camera department, the phone has a 50-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens, a 2-megapixel macro lens, a laser autofocus unit, and an LED flash.

On the front side, it features a 16-megapixel sensor and a ToF (Time-of-Flight) lens for depth estimation. As for software, the phone runs Magic UI 4.0 based on the Android 11 operating system with GPU Turbo X for graphic acceleration. It has a 4,200mAh battery that carries support for 66W superfast wired charging and 50W fast wireless charging.

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Vivo X60 series smartphones to reportedly launch in India in March or April

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Feb 2, 2021

In December 2020, Vivo officially launched its flagship smartphone lineup — Vivo X60 series, and shortly after that, the devices were available for purchase in China, with a starting price of 4,998 yuan which is about $778.

A couple of weeks later, the company launched the Vivo X60 Pro+ smartphone powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC. Now, the smartphone is all set to make its way to the Indian market in the coming months.

As per the report, the X60 lineup, including the Vivo X60 Pro+, could get launched in India in the month of March or April. We expect to get more information about this launch in the coming weeks.

The Vivo X60 Pro+ features a 6.56-inch display that offers a screen resolution of 2376 x 1080 pixels along with a 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. Under the hood, the device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, paired with 8GB or 12GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB internal storage.

In the camera department, the phone has a 48MP Sony IMX598 primary camera, a 50MP Samsung GN1 sensor with an f/1.57 aperture, a 32MP f/2.08 portrait camera with a 50mm focal length, and an 8MP f/3.4 periscope camera that has OIS 5x optical zoom and 60x super zoom. On the front, there is a selfie camera of 32MP with an f/2.45 aperture.

The smartphone supports dual SIM, an in-display fingerprint scanner, face unlock, NFC, Bluetooth 5.2 with support for SBC, AAC, aptX HD, and LDAC. It is running OriginOS 1.0 based on Android 11. It packs a 4200mAh battery with support for a 55W flash charge.

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Samsung Galaxy M62 receives NBTC certification, likely to launch soon

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