iQOO 7 5G smartphone was launched as a flagship device consisting of Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC, 6.62-inch HD+ display with 120Hz refresh rate, 120W fast charging support and 256GB storage. Furthermore, there are several advancements over its predecessor which makes it a true flagship. However, the smartphone is currently available only in China, but users across the globe can order it for $699 via GizChina. Moreover, you can get an additional $50 discount with the coupon code – Q750 if you order it now.
The Early Bird sale on iQOO 7 is limited till January 21. We suggest the interested users grab the smartphone as soon as possible, otherwise, it will go out of stock.
iQOO 7 features a 6.62-inch AMOLED FHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate while carrying a 1080 x 2400 pixels resolution. The device houses Snapdragon 888 SoC coupled with 8GB LPDDR5 RAM. Furthermore, there’s a triple camera setup on the rear side featuring a 48-megapixel primary camera, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera, and a 13-megapixel portrait sensor. It is available in three different colours of Black, Latent Blue and Legendary Edition.
The smartphone sports a dual 2000 mAh battery which supports 120W ultra-fast charging technology. It can charge zero to 100 per cent within just 15 minutes. It measures 162.20 x 75.80 x 8.70mm (height x width x thickness) and weighs 209.50 grams.
It’s a golden opportunity for the global iQOO fans to grab the iQOO 7 at a great price even before its official launch. Make sure to use coupon code – Q750 to get instant $50 discount.
In December 2020, Huawei officially announced the Nova 8 and Nova 8 Pro smartphones but the models were only launched for sale a couple of days back. Also in December, there were rumors that the tech giant will launch a Special edition of the Nova 8 Pro. That has now happened as Huawei has announced the Nova 8 Pro King of Glory edition.
The special edition comes with an interesting design and a cool new UI theme. The purple back of the phone is engraved with the Luban character on top while the internals remain unchanged. In other words, the Nova 8 Pro King of Glory Edition features an Hisilicon Kirin 985 SoC and is available in an 8GB+128GB storage option.
The device is equipped with a 6.72-inch OLED panel with curved edges. It supports a custom resolution of 2676 x 1236 pixels, a 10-bit color depth, and a 120Hz refresh. The edges of the screen have an 80-degree curvature. The display is integrated with a fingerprint scanner.
The top-left corner of the display is a pill-shaped cutout that features a 32-megapixel main selfie camera and a 16-megapixel secondary lens. The back panel of the phone has a quad-camera system featuring a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens, a 2-megapixel macro lens, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. Its front features a 32-megapixel selfie camera.
Further, the Nova 8 Pro gets a bigger 3,900mAh rated battery and support for 66W fast charging. A recent leak had revealed that both phones could be available in 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage and 8 GB RAM + 256 GB storage editions.
The special edition also costs as much as the regular version – it will go on sale in China tomorrow for CNY 3,999 ($620).
The global PC market improved by a high margin in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As people continued to work and study at home, annual PC shipments reached a record high for the first time since 2010. All three popular research firms – IDC, Canalys, and Gartner, disclosed the same in their Q4 reports.
Photo by fauxels from Pexels
According to the reports by three firms, Lenovo led the global PC market in the last quarter of 2020, followed by HP, Dell, Apple, and Acer respectively. Also, as per Garter, Asus came sixth.
As far as shipments are concerned, the reports go like this.
Global PC Market Shipments and Market Share Q4 2020 (Thousands of Units)
As you can see from the above table, the data from IDC and Canalys are almost identical. On the other hand, Gartner’s data differ by a long shot.
IDC says the total shipments accounted for 91.6 million units, whereas Canlays’ report shows the data a little lower at 90.3 million units. Lastly, Gartner’s data is the lowest of all at 79.4 million units.
Anyway, all these reports have two things in common. First, the ranking of brands and second, according to all of them, the last quarter’s YoY growth was highest in the past 10 years.
For more insights, go through the official reports linked below.
CES 2021 is blowing up with a lot of announcements despite being a virtual event. Among the lot, a Japanese Startup now says that its wearable can help you monitor Blood Glucose without piercing your skin.
Quantum Operation Inc., has showcased a prototype of a Wearable that typically is like a Smartwatch. It says that the wearable can measure and monitor the Glucose levels in Blood precisely in addition to heart rate and ECG. Apparently, this is possible due to the presence of a Spectrometer inside.
On wearing it on the wrist, a user will have to just press the monitoring option from the Menu. The results will take about 20 seconds. If you consider Blood Glucose monitoring so far it requires a person to pierce his/her fingers or use an implanted monitor. However, this prototype reportedly uses the principle of the Raman Spectroscopy technique.
It is an interaction of light with the chemical bonds of a material. This technique finds its significance in Noninvasive glucose monitoring according to various projects in the past. Reports say that a laser passed through a fiber optic cable can help monitor Glucose by pressing it against the wrist.
Having said that, Quantum is not the only one to try this idea. Several companies including Apple themselves have worked on it in the past. In fact, Apple’s patent(via) shows a concept similar to the spectroscopy technique. Coming back, the initial data sample provided by Quantum Operation reportedly has a lot of fluctuations compared to traditional flash glucose monitoring.
Considering this as just a prototype, we can let it slide. However, the company should work more on the accuracy if it plans to make this a working solution. Speaking of which, Quantum says that it plans to sell this wearable to healthcare professionals, insurers and build a big data platform to test the information of patients more.
Samsung has unveiled its new flagship chipset. The Exynos 2100 processor is a 5nm chipset with significant upgrades in CPU, GPU, and AI performance and it also comes with a built-in 5G modem.
The Exynos 2100 5nm processor is built on the 5nm EUV process node. The new chip has an octa-core chipset with a 1+3+4 core arrangement. There is a prime Cortex-X1 core clocked at 2.9GHz, three high-performance Cortex-A78 cores, and four Cortex-A55 power-efficient core. Samsung says that the new CPU brings a 30% increase in multi-core performance and a 19% increase in single-core performance over the previous generation.
Inside the new processor is the Mali-G78 GPU that brings more than a 40% increase in graphics performance. The GPU has 14 cores which are significantly fewer than the Kirin 9000‘s 24 cores.
A new feature that has been added is AMIGO (Advanced Multi-IP governor) technology “which overlooks and optimizes power usages of CPU, GPU, and other processes, allowing longer use time even with intense on-screen activities.”
There is also a new ISP that brings support for camera resolutions up to 200MP. The new ISP has support for up to six cameras and can process four simultaneously. AI brings features such as fast and seamless recognition of objects, scenes, and faces. Content-aware image processing helps adjusts dynamic range, exposure, noise, sharpness, white balance, and color so that your images can turn out great.
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The Exynos 2100 also brings support for 4K recording at 120 FPS and 8K playback at 60 FPS. It also the first chipset with an AV1 decoder for 8K video.
There are three NPU cores inside the Exynos 2100 and Samsung says that processing power has increased from 15 TOPS (trillion operations per second) to 26.
The 5G modem brings support for both sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrums and boasts downlink speeds of up to 5.1Gbps for the former and up to 7.3Gbps for mmWave networks.
While Samsung didn’t say which smartphone the chipset will appear in, we know it is the Galaxy S21 series that is launching on Thursday, January 14. However, it did say that the chipset is already in mass production.
In line with enhancing it’s recycling credentials, and a strong preference for environmental safety, Samsung kick-started the Galaxy Upcycling program in 2017, aimed at providing a robust template for reusing old smartphones in innovative ways. The possible uses of old, disused phones ranged from retooling the phone’s as a gaming machine to an implement to feed your favorite domestic pet, as well as many other diverse and creative uses.
Those items were created in the early days of the program and needed a high level of expertise in tinkering. However, four years down the line this year, the Galaxy Upcycling program is evolving into an easier approach which entails essentially flashing the old phone with new software.
Several videos are now available showing how these phones are transformed from seemingly useless pieces of home materials to useful devices. One video shows how an old phone is transformed into a baby monitor that can detect when the child is crying and instantly notify the minder or parent, while the other transformed old phone can automatically switch on the light in the evening.
In 2020, Samsung also built eye examination tools out of old Galaxy phones. As the company continues to strive for a reduced overall carbon footprint, it has continued to evolve smart ways of reusing and recycling materials. A new set of smart TVs now come with solar remote controls having up to 28% made off recycled and biodegradable materials. In addition, the packaging box of these TVs come with a QR code which can be scanned for information on how to transform the box into an item of home furniture.
The measures and programs put in place by the South Korean tech giant, are certain actions in the right direction as she pursues a policy of greater environmental responsiveness.
The robot vacuum cleaners are slowly and steadily becoming normal in households across the globe. Major manufacturers are heavily investing in such smart products to aid automation. Similarly, Roborock launched highly-advanced S7 robot vacuum featuring compelling features at CES 2021. The primary features of the device include Sonic Mopping, powerful 2500Pa suction motor, and VibraRise technology for efficient cleaning.
Roborock S7 features major improvements over its predecessor as it features new ultrasonic carpet recognition – VibraRise technology. It enhances the overall effectivity as it intelligently switches vacuuming mode upon detecting carpeted areas. The Robot vacuum can vibrate at 50Hz frequency which can vibrate at 3000 times per minute. Moreover, it can lift 5 mm to keep the floors clean while returning to its docking station.
The users can manually drive the robotic clear by toggling the joystick mode. It even features “quiet mode” which reduces the noise, power and water usage. Roborock S7 can be controlled from the device itself or via Mi Home application. The model works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri.
It has a maximum suction power of 2500Pa which is enough to pick every dust particle from the floor. Furthermore, it carries a 470ml dust compartment, 300ml water tank and a 5200 mAh battery. The vacuum can keep working for straight 3 hours once fully charged. Roborock S7 measures 353 x 350 x 96.5mm in size.
Roborock S7 will start retailing via Amazon in the US from March 24 at the price of $649. It is available in black and white colour options.
Chinese smartphone maker Coolpad has launched a new audio accessory for the Indian market. The product is the brand’s first-ever truly wireless earbuds dubbed Coolpad Cool Bass Buds. The headset comes with several impressive features such as deep bass drivers, Bluetooth 5.0, digital battery display, USB Type-C charging, and more.
The Cool Bass Buds feature 13 mm dynamic drivers that offer deep bass and powerful sound. The phone connects via Bluetooth 5.0, ensuring fast and strong connectivity, and the earbuds themselves have the lightweight Dolphin Design 2.0, weighing in at about 49g.
The charging case is quite unique, sporting a digital display to show the battery level. The earbuds have 40mAh batteries each, which will provide about 4.5 hours of playing time, and this can be extended to 20 hours with the charging case. The earbuds also support quick charge — 15 minutes will provide 3 hours of listening time.
During the launch, Coolpad India Online Marketing Manager, Harsh Sharma stated that the brand intends to offer an exceptional end-user experience with every product that it launches. The company gave a lot of thought to the innovative, new-age design of the Cool Bass Earbuds, and it finds the final product very impressive. “With a comfortable fit, lightweight and portable design, quick charge, and the best-ever bass, the Cool Bass Earbuds are definitely set to take the market by storm and become the most preferred wireless earbuds out there”, he said.
The Coolpad Cool Bass Buds is already available to buy on Amazon.in for a decent price of Rs. 1199 (~$16.36). The earbuds come in black and blue colors.
Apple’s iPhone 12 became the world’s top-selling 5G smartphone in just two weeks of its launch. Now, a report by Digitimes says that the entire iPhone 12 series has helped Apple gain a huge market share in China for Q4 2020.
According to the report, the iPhone 12 series’s sales in China has exceeded the expectations during Q4 2020. If you recall, right from the launch, the iPhone 12s have been under demand in China. The initial waiting period was from five to six days for iPhone 12 while it was several weeks for iPhone 12 Pro. However, the company has overcome this and shipped nearly 18 million units in Q4.
That said, the reasons for demand on Apple’s iPhone 12 series were ranging from power management chips for iPhone 12 to the IC shortages for the 12 Pro variants. Still, Apple’s strong foothold on the Chinese soil is reportedly due to the adoption of 5G which is already mainstream in the country.
China’s market has faced the maximum of ups and downs in the horrific 2020 year. Apple is no exception to this. It began the year by selling just less than 500K phones during February 2020. Cut back to Q2, it witnessed a 225% growth and sold 13 million iPhones despite the HUAWEI’s domination.
Now, the situation of sales and market share seems to be totally under its control as the report says the market share of Apple has gone above 20% in Q4. We have to give it up to Apple here as it has managed to battle tough local players like Xiaomi and HUAWEI. If the Digitimes’ report is to be believed, the situation will further improve going into Q1 of 2021.
Huawei will soon announce a new chipset according to a leak from China, and the processor will make its debut in a new version of the Nova 7 SE smartphone. The chipset will launch as the Kirin 820E 5G and it should be a less-powerful version of the Kirin 820 5G.
Kirin 820 5G
To cut around its chipset problem, Huawei has adopted a format of releasing an underpowered version of an existing processor. The Kirin 9000 flagship chipset has a slightly underpowered version called the Kirin 9000E and now the Kirin 820 5G is about to get an underpowered version too.
The specifications of the chipset are currently unknown but a leak by Digital Chat Station has revealed that the processor will appear in the soon-to-be-announced “Nova 7 SE Lohas Edition”. The phone will be the third version of the Nova 7 SE Huawei will announce in the span of a year.
The original Nova 7 SE was announced in April 2020 with a Kirin 820 5G under its hood. It was then followed by the Nova 7 SE Youth Edition with a Dimensity 800U processor in October of the same year.
A spec sheet of the new Nova 7 SE Lohas Edition was also posted on Weibo by the leaker. It reveals the phone will have a 6.5-inch display with a 2400 x 1080 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. It will have four rear cameras – a 64MP f/1.8 main camera, an 8MP ultrawide angle camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro camera. The front-facing camera is a 16MP f/2.0 sensor.
The phone will have a 4000mAh battery and support for 40W wired fast charging. The dimensions are given as 162.31 x 75.08 x 8.58mm and its weight is 187 grams. Huawei will ship it with EMUI 10.1.1 based on Android 10.
As you can see, save for the processor, the rest of the specs are the same as those of the other two Nova 7 SE phones. The Nova 7 SE Lohas Edition will also look like the other two variants (punch-hole display, vertically stacked cameras) but will have a bigger logo on the back.
There is no launch date yet for the smartphone but it should not be far off.
At CES 2021, LG has unveiled a wide variety of products. But in this article, we will take a look at the company’s two new monitors. The first one called LG UltraFine Display OLED Pro is the firm’s first OLED monitor. On the other hand, the second model with LG UltraGear branding is a gaming monitor with up to 160Hz refresh rate.
LG UltraFine Display OLED Pro (32EP950)
This LG monitor flaunts a 31.5-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels (4K). Hence, it supports individual dimming for all the 8 million pixels (OLED Pixel Dimming HDR technology). The South Korean tech giant claims the screen to cover 99% of DCI-P3 color gamut and Adobe RGB respectively.
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As far as I/O is concerned, the LG 32EP950 features 2 x DisplayPort, 1 x USB Type-C, 3 x USB Type-A, and HDMI. That said, LG hasn’t revealed this product’s price and is also yet to publish the entire specifications. But what we know is that his monitor is targeted at professionals who edit images and videos.
LG UltraGear (27GP950) Gaming Monitor
Unlike the above monitor, this model is aimed at gamers. Although LG hasn’t revealed its complete specs as well as price, we can say that this one is similar to the Acer monitors that were announced last week.
Talking about the known features, the LG 27GP950 sports a 4K (3840 × 2160 pixels) IPS LCD panel. This screen can refresh at the maximum rate of 160Hz and supports VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) via HDMI 2.1. Hence, it can be paired with the latest-gen gaming consoles (PS5, Xbox Series X) to experience 4K 120Hz gaming.
Other features include 1ms (GtG) response time and VESA DisplayHDR 600.
A recent Chinese government report has shown that domestic smartphone shipments in the country last year declined by 20.4% from 2019 as the number of handsets delivered to consumers dropped from 372 million in 2019 to 296 million last year.
The data emanated from the China Academy of Information and Communications (CAICT), an authoritative think tank in such matters. The report showed both the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the supply chain and demand and the emerging consumer behavior of retaining their phones for a longer period before upgrading to a new model.
From the CAICT data, there was a decline of 4% in shipments of smartphones in 2019 from the previous year, 2018. Therefore, a trend of year-on-year reduction in shipment figures has been established with the recent data.
Smartphone and other mobile phone retailers had expected that the outgone year, 2020 would have engendered renewed sales, as Chinese consumers purchased new phones compatible with the country’s rapidly-expanding 5G networks.
The negative impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, whose epicenter at the earlier stages was Wuhan was already visible in the mid-year sales results, as several Chinese companies had steep declines in their shipment numbers including Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi. However, the global powerhouse and 5G leader, Huawei continued to post record growth within the same period.
In the second half of 2020, sales numbers of Huawei slowed down as trade restrictions imposed by the US government on the company took effect, almost crippling some aspects of its production quota, and thus the supply end was negatively impacted. The restriction has therefore afforded Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi to ramp up their production numbers with the hope of filling the void created by Huawei.
A total of 25.2 million smartphones were shipped to China last month, which reflected a 12.8% year-on-year decline, according to the CAICT report.
Samsung is already expected to unveil its Tile-like Galaxy SmartTag Bluetooth Tracker at the Galaxy Unpacked event on January 14. Now, a fresh report by 91Mobiles says that a SmartTag+ will accompany the regular variant.
Once again, Ishan Agarwal, through his reliable tip, says that there will be a ‘+’ edition of Galaxy SmartTag. Accordingly, the SmartTag+ will have a model number EI-T7300. If you recall, the EI-T5300 belongs to the regular SmartTag courtesy of NCC, EUIPO trademark, Indonesia Telecom, and more.
While the report doesn’t delve much into the SmartTag+’s features, it does say that both of them will have Black, Oatmeal, Denim Blue, and Mint color variants. As for the regular SmartTag, the measurement will be around 4cmx4cmx1cm and weight 13g.
In addition to locating your objects via Bluetooth 5.1, you can expect it to have end-end encryption and ‘Privacy ID’ features. If you recall, an earlier EUIPO trademark for the SmartTag shows that it could also support UWB(Ultra Wide Band), interfacing with NFC, and RFID.
If that isn’t enough Ishan says that it will auto-connect to Galaxy devices, ring the phone on pressing a button twice, and share location with your kith and kin. Coming back, our guess is that the Galaxy SmartTag+, as the name suggests, might have a bit of exclusive features to position itself higher.
The Galaxy SmartTag series will add to the tally of trackers like SmartThings Tracker in 2018. It will have a ubiquitous design of a typical Bluetooth Tracker found in the market. That is, a square shape with rounded corners and a lanyard hole for strap/thread. Early reports also state that the SmartTag will be priced at around ₹1,350($18.44).
Blackview recently unveiled the BL6000 Pro 5G rugged smartphone carrying some exciting specifications and a compact design. The smartphone’s thin design made a difference over the other thick rugged smartphones which are available in the market, Blackview BL6000 Pro can easily fit inside your pocket without compromising the rugged aesthetics and functionality. It didn’t fall-back on the specifications and on any other aspect of being a rugged smartphone.
Ending the era of thick-rubber and rough screws, the Blackview BL6000 Pro 5G has changed the perception of the rugged smartphones by introducing a clean and compact look. The device is fully water, dust and drop proof, and even complies with IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810G standards. The device is powered with Dimensity 800 SOC, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage. A powerful 48MP triple-rear camera is present on the rear featuring 5280 mAh battery.
The 5G support even enhances the rugged experience. The smartphone is at your service in any adverse situation, including these three circumstances.
While Surfing
Do you love surfing? Then the Blackview BL6000 Pro can be your companion as it is fully waterproof which uses Nano moulding technology and waterproof membrane. The user can record quality videos using its 48MP primary camera. Moreover, the user can live stream using its 5G supported SoC with over 1.25Gbp/s upload speed.
Cycling
Blackview BL6000 Pro 5G houses GPS support for real-time positioning. It can further enable to efficiently track the activity. Moreover, the user need not worry about any damage due to falling from the vehicle. It enables the users to vlog and upload instantaneously along with cycling.
Working in Extreme Conditions
The smartphone comes with MIL-STD-810G grade certification which can withstand drops and bumps. Moreover, the user can video call with family while working in those conditions.
In other words, Blackview BL6000 Pro 5G is a device which is produced as an outcome of several breathtaking innovations over the past few years. The interested users can further head over to the official website for more information.
Blackview is launching a new budget rugged smartphone – Blackview A70 in the coming days. It will feature 5380 mAh battery at the price of around $80. It will compete against the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite. Black A70 giveaway will kick off from January 9. The users can know more about the device by heading to the Blackview website.
We are just two days away from the 2021 Galaxy Unpacked event of Samsung. The company will be announcing Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra 5G smartphones as per various reports. Amidst a bucket load of leaks, a new report by WinFuture.de shows how the retail packaging would look like.
As per the report given by Roland Quandt(@rquandt), we see two images of what is claimed to be the retail packaging of Galaxy S21+ 5G, and S21 Ultra 5G. Both the boxes are Black in color. Additionally, the supposed marketing poster for the in-box contents shows what we can expect inside the box. Apparently, it will include a Quick Start Guide, USB-C cable, and a SIM-ejector.
Just like the report says, the poster doesn’t include the Charging Adapter and earphones as an in-box content. Previously, reports have said that Samsung will exclude chargers and earphones in regions like the UK. While we would have expected Samsung to at least include the AKG earphones, sadly looks like that isn’t going to happen either.
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Galaxy S21+ Box
S21 Ultra Box
Apple began all this with the iPhone 12 series launch. It said that not including Chargers will reduce logistics, transportation cost, saves space, and reduces the overall Carbon footprint. This according to the company would be a headstart for a sustainable environment.
Although Samsung hasn’t quite revealed anything about the Galaxy S21 series officially yet, we expect it to give similar reasons for the omission. To corroborate this, it has already removed posts mocking Apple back in October. On the flip side, it can also garner more revenue by selling the proprietary charger separately just like Apple.
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Night Mode
64MP camera
512GB Internal
5G
IP rating
Anyway, let’s wait and see if Samsung gives any bundle offers initially. That said, Roland has also shared additional images of the marketing posters showing features like a 64MP camera, internal storage(256GB, 512GB), 5G, Night Mode, and Water Resistance(IP). The poster almost confirms that Samsung will ditch the microSD slot finally to popularize higher internal storage for faster load times.
Videos have always been an important part of our lives and as smartphones are getting faster and smarter, these handheld all-purpose devices can potentially replace your dedicated DSLRs, point and shoot cameras, and even action cameras for your videography needs.
As much as we have advanced in the smartphone imaging department, videos have often been a neglected feature on Android smartphones, even on flagships. However, in recent years, brands have eventually figured out the importance of smartphones as video cameras and are focusing on improving the overall videography experience.
Reno5 Pro 5G
OPPO has been at the forefront of optimizing smartphone cameras and we have already seen some interesting technologies from the brand like the RFB-ERSGAN neural network which upscales original low-resolution images into high-resolution ones without losing details or even the Hybrid Zoom technology with a stacked periscope zoom lens structure.
In the upcoming Reno5Pro 5G, OPPO will be using its brand new Full Dimension Fusion (FDF) Portrait Video System. This is a set of imaging algorithms that work behind the scenes to optimize the video on the new device. And in a recent briefing, OPPO explained how the system works and how it optimizes the videos according to a number of parameters for the best possible output.
So here’s a quick look at how OPPO’s FDF Portrait Video System on the OPPO Reno5Pro 5G works. This article isn’t meant to be a deep dive into the system. Instead, it’s a quick overview of what happens behind the scenes when you take a video using the phone.
As mentioned above, OPPO’s camera system is a collection of different algorithms that work in tandem to optimize the videos recorded on the OPPO Reno5Pro 5G. The system is comprised of two main engines:
1. Quality Enhancement Engine
As the name suggests, the Quality Enhancement Engine improves the quality of the video in a number of different parameters like brightness, dynamic range, and noise reduction. This engine works in the background to improve the overall quality of the video being recorded.
2. Portrait Perception Engine
The Portrait Perception Engine on the other hand focuses on scene recognition. It works in the background to identify human figures in the scene and effectively optimize them with respect to its environment. This particular engine is also responsible for enabling creative filters inside the video like the AI Color Portrait mode.
To understand it better, this flowchart will give you a quick overview of how the system works.
OPPO FDF Portrait Video System
HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
The two engines work together to optimize the video on the Reno5Pro 5G. Each engine has its own set of optimizations being processed in the background. Now let’s take a quick look at these processes.
Quality Enhancement Engine
The Quality Enhancement Engine is comprised of two AI algorithm architectures – AI Highlight Video and Ultra Steady 3.0.
OPPO AI Highlight video
AI Highlight Video
OPPO reveals that AI Highlight Video is its proprietary algorithm architecture that combines Ultra Night Video Algorithms and Live HDR Algorithms to optimize the brightness, color, and clarity in videos, irrespective of its light levels. OPPO also notes that this is the first time that they have been able to use both its Night and Live HDR algorithms simultaneously. This means that AI Highlight Video works in daylight as well as low-light situations and it’s available on both front and rear cameras. You just have to press a button in the camera UI to turn on this feature. AI Highlight Video optimizes the video in three different parameters.
AI Adaptive Brightness Enhancement: The algorithm uses adaptive gain to control the exposure time to ensure the images in the video are bright yet not overexposed.
AI Adaptive Dynamic Range: The Adaptive Dynamic Range adjusts the dynamic range to each frame in a video using Dynamic Range Conversion and Filmic Tone Mapping (FTM) technologies. OPPO claims that this process restores lost colors, brightness, and darkness to the image’s natural levels. This process also includes Multi-Frame HDR for better dynamic range across the entire video.
AI Adaptive Noise Reduction: This process adds inter-frame fusion for temporal noise reduction (between two frames) and intra-frame fusion (inside the frame) for spatial noise reduction. OPPO claims that this process removes an image’s noise without removing essential details, unlike other regular de-noising algorithms.
It’s clear that OPPO is giving a lot of importance to its AI Highlight Video algorithm. In fact, the company shared a few key stats on how it improves the overall quality and performance of videography on smartphones.
OPPO reveals that AI Highlight video enhances the brightness of night-time videos by 74.4% with 33.7% clarity as compared to the regular video mode. It takes just 20ms to complete the entire process on the Reno5Pro 5G while the power consumption also drops by 40% as compared to its predecessor.
Ultra Steady 3.0 OPPO’s Quality Enhancement Engine also depends upon its new generation of Ultra Steady 3.0 technology which provides stabilization technology to a broader range of scenarios like running, jumping, and even extreme sports.
Next up is the portrait perception engine. A lot of you might already be familiar with this engine. This set of algorithms is responsible for enabling portrait centric features like the cool AI Color Portrait videos, irrespective of the background or the state of the person.
Portrait Perception Engine
Portrait Perception Engine undergoes three typical processes when you shoot a video.
Scene Design Manager: The first stage is defining the portrait scene and processing the requirements needed for the same. Using OPPO’s own database with over 10 million data, the Scene Design manager can analyze real-life portrait scenes in different scenarios and provide required adjustments to the video against a set of fixed parameters. This is the first stage where the engine prepares the video for further processing.
AI Modelling: Once the scene is assessed, AI models and deep neural networks kick into action, essentially separating out the portrait from the background. This is a very important part of OPPO’s portrait video processing. To increase the speed and accuracy of its AI model that identifies portraits, the company is using its own database to train the SOTA AI model. It helps to further compress these models making them suitable for smaller devices like smartphones. OPPO claims that the entire portrait recognition process can be performed in less than a millisecond, which is extremely important for a seamless and instantaneous videography experience.
Portrait Processing: When you look at its real-life applications, the Portrait Perception Engine forms the base of OPPO’s FDF Portrait Video System. The final portrait processing algorithm optimizes the video in three aspects:
1. Face Optimization
2. Motion Tracking
3. Instance Segmentation
portrait video system summary
Thanks to the Portrait Perception Engine which includes portrait identification and portrait processing, OPPO’s smartphones with the FDF Portrait Video system can:
Accurately identify features of every person and their faces even if the subjects are side-on to the camera or are partially obscured.
Apply AI Highlight Video optimizations like color, brightness, or contrast adjustments to portraits.
Add personalized optimization to each subject in the image (instance segmentation)
Add special features to portraits like AI Color Portrait
It’s clear that OPPO believes that videos are going to be a very important part of smartphones in the coming years. The company’s FDF Portrait Video System is just another effort to deliver more to its users on the video front.
portrait video system summary
The company has revealed that as of September 2020, it had applied for 7,300 imaging-related patents worldwide, out of which 2,350 have already been granted.
The OPPO Reno5 Pro 5G is the latest model to feature its new FDF Portrait Video System. The phone launches in India on January 18, so we’ll know soon how much of a difference this new Engine brings to the video experience.
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021, TCL showcased a wide range of devices such as TCL 20 SE and TCL 20 SE smartphones, NXTPAPER and Tab 10s tablets, and Movaudio S600 TWS. The Chinese firm also unveiled two innovative products such as a 6.7-inch rollable AMOLED screen and a 17-inch printed OLED scrollable screen.
The 6.7-inch rollable AMOLED display can be seen in a small smartphone form factor. The screen can stretch from 6.7 inches to 7.8 inches just with a simple tap. This will allow the smartphone to turn into a tablet. The TCL device featuring the rollable AMOLED display will come equipped with an easily adaptable user interface.
Here's a real-life peek at the TCL AMOLED Rollable Display (it'll make you feel like you're at a CES booth again!): #CES2021pic.twitter.com/RRVM5QAqwc
The thickness of the device is under 10mm, which makes it slimmer than a foldable smartphone. The company claims that the curling and sliding radius of the flexible screen can be as small as R3mm along with the special mechanism design. Just with a swipe of a button, the display that is originally curled and hidden inside the case can be pulled out. According to TCL, the device offers a sliding life of up to 100,000 times.
The 17-inch printed OLED display that has a thickness of 0.18mm was presented in a unique design of a scroll painting. In the video above, the screen can be seen fitted with two rods at the two ends and it can be seamlessly opened or closed like a scroll painting.
The flexible screen is equipped with TCL CSOT’s cutting-edge inkjet printing technology, with a 100% color gamut, it significantly enhances the quality of the display. It can be widely applied across flexible TVs, curved and foldable displays, and transparent commercial displays.
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Its OLED RGB self-luminous devices are manufactured with high-precision inkjet printing technology, without the need for fine metal masks. As a result, the cost is 20% lower than traditional display technologies and is more applicable for large-sized displays and mass production.
Samsung will be announcing the Galaxy S21 series on January 14. Ahead of it, the South Korean tech giant has dropped the prices of its predecessor, Galaxy S20 series (Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, Galaxy S20 Ultra), as well as, Galaxy Note10 Lite in India. Let us take a look at how much price cut these four handsets have received in the country.
The information regarding the Galaxy S20 series price drop in India comes from the retail sources of 91Mobiles. According to the publication, the series has got up to around ₹16,000 in price cut.
As you can notice from the table above, the Galaxy S21+ gets the highest price drop. Anyway, it is worth noting that Flipkart had been selling this smartphone for only ₹49,999 in the past few months. But now, the device is listed for ₹54,999, which is still ₹2,000 cheaper than the offline price.
On the other hand, the two variants of Galaxy Note10 Lite also get a ₹3,000 price cut each in India. Here are their new prices in the country.
Model
Old Price
Price Drop
New Price
Galaxy Note10 Lite (6GB + 128GB)
₹37,999
₹3,000
₹34,999
Galaxy Note10 Lite (8GB + 128GB)
₹39,999
₹3,000
₹36,999
Similarly, a few days back, Samsung also dropped the prices of its best-selling mid-rangers (Galaxy A51, Galaxy A71) in India.
Earlier today, we saw an exclusive report about the vivo Y12s launching in India soon. The company has finally made it available in India for a price tag of ₹9,990($136). This is a mild upgrade over the yesteryear vivo Y12.
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vivo Y12s Glacier Blue
vivo Y12s Phantom Black
vivo Y12s: Price, Availability
vivo Y12s comes in Glacier Blue and Phantom Black color options in India just like it did for the Southeast Asian markets. Similarly, it has a single 3GB RAM and 32GB storage variant that will sell for ₹9,990($136).
As usual, you can buy the Y12s on vivo shop India in addition to Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm, Tata Cliq online. The device will also be available across all major retail partners offline in the country.
The Indian variant of the vivo Y12s also measures 164.41×76.32×8.41mm and weighs 191 grams. It features a 6.51-inch HD+ IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1600×720 pixels and a 20:9 aspect ratio. Under the hood, you get a MediaTek Helio P35 SoC paired with 3GB RAM and 32GB Storage. You can also expand this via a microSD slot.
For the optics, we have a dual-camera setup with a 13MP f/2.2 main and a 2MP f/2.4 auxiliary sensor. Upfront, there is an 8MP f/1.8 sensor for selfies. The device gets camera features like Portrait, Photo, Video, Pano, Live Photo, Slo-Mo, Time-Lapse, Pro, DOC.
Other specs include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, FM-Radio, GPS, GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS, Galileo, 4G LTE, side-mounted fingerprint sensor, face unlock, micro-USB port, 3.5mm audio jack, 5,000mAh with 10W charging, and Funtouch OS 11 out of the box.
Recent reports have revealed that Motorola will be launching a new Snapdragon 865 powered smartphone in Q1. The device is being referred to with its “Nio” codename since its final product name is yet to be confirmed. The arrival of the phone could be close at hand as it has received certification from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S.
The Motorola Nio has appeared with its XT2125-4 model number at FCC. The listing mentions that the device carries support for 5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, NFC, and GNSS. It is also found that the model number of Nio’s battery LZ50. The TUV certification has revealed that the smartphone has a 5,000mAh battery and it may arrive with support for 20W charging.
The Motorola Nio phone was recently spotted at the Geekbench benchmarking platform in the recent past. The listing revealed that the Snapdragon 865 SoC powered phone has 8 GB of RAM and it runs on Android 11 OS.
Past reports have revealed that the Motorola Nio will be sporting an FHD+ display that offers a 90Hz refresh rate. It has a 16-megapixel + 8-megapixel dual selfie camera system. The rear side of the phone has a triple camera system housing a 64-megapixel main camera, a 16-megapixel superwide lens, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The device is expected to arrive with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of built-in storage. It may come in a higher version featuring 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage.
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AI Highlight Video optimizes the video in three different parameters.
