Xiaomi Mi 11 Hands-on: Premium Design with a fabulous 2K 120Hz AMOLED screen

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Jan 4, 2021

Xiaomi’s latest 2021 flagship, the Xiaomi Mi 11 offers tremendous value for your money. It starts at just 3999 RMB (~$613) yet offers premium performance and display with the brand new Snapdragon 888 processor and an excellent 2K 120Hz AMOLED display

The phone recently went on sale in China and will soon be available globally as well. Despite being a standard edition (non-Pro), the Mi 11 has enough premium features to be called a full-fledged flagship model in 2021. So, let’s take a look at what the phone has to offer in this Xiaomi Mi 11 hands-on.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Hands-on: Design & Display

The Xiaomi Mi 11 comes in two variants – an AG matte finish variant and a vegan leather one. The AG matte model comes with a metal and glass sandwich design while the vegan leather model, unsurprisingly, has a leather finish on the back.

Xiaomi Mi 11 hands on 08 — Xiaomi Mi 11 – Vegan Leather

We got the Vegan Leather Xiaomi Mi 11 model for our review and we have to tell you that the back cover feels pretty premium. Another slight advantage of this leather variant is that the square rear camera module doesn’t protrude as much as the AG matte finish variant. This is because the vegan leather model is slightly thicker (194g, 8.56mm) as compared to the AG matte variant (196g, 8.06mm).

Despite weighing 194grams, the phone feels pretty lightweight. On closer analysis, we found that the overall body weight is well balanced which enables a much better hands-on feel on the Mi 11 as compared to its predecessor – the Mi 10. Also, the four curved design with smooth corners looks and feels very premium and makes it very comfortable to hold, even with one hand.

The Mi 11 comes with a larger and better display than its predecessor, featuring a 6.81-inch 2K 120Hz AMOLED panel. The display is definitely the biggest highlight of the new flagship and it’s probably the BEST OLED screen we’ve seen on a smartphone so far. Notably, the Mi 11 supports a 120Hz high screen refresh rate even at 2K WQHD+ resolution. The curved edges on the phone don’t come in between your user experience and there wasn’t any visible color shift either. Note that the new flagship has also reduced the size of the front selfie punch-hole camera.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Hands 0n: Specs & Features

Coming to the specs, the Xiaomi 11 is the world’s first Snapdragon 888 smartphone to launch in the market. The new chip ensures that the phone is extremely fast and fluid and it can register AnTuTu scores upwards of 700,000. Another important highlight of the Mi 11 is the Harmon Kardon tuned audio and there’s a perceived improvement in the sound quality. In our initial tests, we found the stereo speakers on the new flagship had excellent audio output.

Mi 11 hands on harmon kardon — Harmon Kardon Xiaomi Mi 11

While the Mi 11 is heavy on performance, design, and display, Xiaomi has taken a toned-down approach for its camera setup. Don’t get us wrong, the 108MP primary camera will give you pretty good shots especially in daylight conditions. But know that the triple camera setup that includes a 13MP ultra-wide-angle shooter and a 5MP macro lens doesn’t bring a whole lot of improvement in the camera department as compared to the Xiaomi Mi 10. Upfront, you get a 20MP selfie shooter.

The Mi 11 also features a pretty large 4600mAh battery on board with 55W wired charging support. However, the most impressive battery feature is the support for high-speed 50W wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging. The phone also supports Quick Charge 4 plus, QC3 plus, and PD3.0 fast charging protocols. Finally, it supports 5G and the new generation Wi-Fi 6E standard.

Xiaomi’s strategy for the Mi 11 is pretty clear. Focus on a few key areas of the flagship by adding top-notch specs while toning down certain areas like the camera department for the ideal price to performance ratio.

We’ll be releasing our full review of the Xiaomi Mi 11 pretty soon, so stay tuned for that!

So what do you think of the new Xiaomi Mi 11? If you have any questions about the Mi 11, let us know in the comments down below.

If you are looking to purchase the new Xiaomi Mi 11 5G, it is currently available on Giztop.

Huawei must focus on strategic areas and downscale enterprise operations: Founder

By

Sean

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Jan 4, 2021

Ren Zhengfei, the CEO and founder of Huawei Technologies has stated that the company has to scale back on its enterprise businesses and focus more on its strategic areas.

According to a GlobalTimes report, the senior official of the Chinese tech giant stated this to the staff through a recent internal email. This indicates that the company might further adjust its strategies to better face the challenges and competition. Ren said that “Because we are a company with limited power, we must do well and fine-tune the projects we are going to do. We must seize opportunities in the areas where we can, focus our energies, and do a good job in a down-to-earth manner. Only then can we truly find a better solution than others.”

The founder also discussed the company’s cloud computing businesses and even said that the company must learn from the likes of Amazon and Microsoft. As per the founder, Huawei must use its 30 years’ worth of network experience as a unique advantage in the cloud computing market and stand out in the industry. Although, he further added that “But Huawei can’t take the same path as Alibaba and Amazon, since we don’t have ‘endless money’ from the US stock market like them.”

According to Jiang Junmu, chief writer at C114.com, “Huawei’s enterprise is still limited in size and faces barriers to develop on a bigger scale, the points Ren mentioned are also some attempts the firm is going to make to try to break through the bottleneck.” Furthermore, Ren said that Huawei is currently discussing on “how to seize the opportunity of digitalization of government and enterprises, how to achieve better development in both, and how to achieve the world’s leading position.”

In other words, the founder believes that the company must “go all out” to build a large application ecosystem like Amazon to grow its Huawei Cloud business. It also has to downscale on its enterprise businesses and focus more on strengthening its software and application ecosystems that would be more beneficial to the brand at the moment.

Qualcomm to unveil its 8nm Snapdragon 480 5G SoC today: Report

By

Sean

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Jan 4, 2021

Despite 5G smartphones becoming a lot more common in recent times, most affordable 5G handsets still arrive in the mid range segments. This might now soon change as Qualcomm is apparently planning on announcing its Snapdragon 480 5G chipset today (4th January 2020), bringing the newer and faster bandwidth to more affordable devices.

[Exclusive] In all likelihood, Qualcomm will unveil its Snapdragon 480 5G processor today.
8nm
octa-core Kryo 460, up to 2GHz
100% improvement over Snapdragon 460
Adreno 619
Support for up to 120Hz displays
Wi-Fi 6 ready

Feel free to retweet.#snapdragon #Snapdragon480 #5G

— Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings) January 4, 2021

According to a Tweet by known tipster Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings), the chip making giant is reportedly going to unveil the Snapdragon 480 5G processor today. The new chip is based on an 8nm process and features the Kyro 460 octa cores that can clock up to 2GHz. As per the tweet, the new chipset offers a 100 percent improvement in performance over the previous generation’s Snapdragon 460 and the Adreno 619 GPU.

The leakster also added that the new chipset will support up to 120Hz refresh rate displays. Meaning, we might soon possibly see certain affordable handsets launching with high refresh rate display panels as well. And lastly, the Twitter post also mentioned that the new chip will also support Wi-Fi 6 standards as well. If the report is true, then we can expect to see a shift in the affordable smartphone segments, with more OEMs offering 5G networking in cheap handsets.

Unfortunately, this is still an unconfirmed report so take it with a pinch of salt for now. Although, StuffListings leaks have been accurate in the past so stay tuned for more, as we will be providing more updates when additional information is available.

Moto G Power 2021 leaks in render and live image along with specs

By

Sudarshan Ravichandran

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Jan 4, 2021

Lately, Lenovo has been releasing the same smartphones with different brandings (Motorola and Lenovo) and specifications in various regions. Back in November, a device said to be the successor of Moto G9 Play leaked in 3D CAD renders. Now, the very same phone has leaked once again as Moto G Power 2021.

The Moto G Power 2021 leak comes from Nils Ahrensmeier of TechnikNews. The tipster shared a render, a live image, and some specs on Voice.

According to him, this smartphone will be releasing in the US. He did not say anything about other regions. But we believe it could go official as Moto G Play 2021 in those markets.

This handset with model number XT2117 will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chipset paired with 3GB/4GB RAM and 32GB/64GB internal storage. It will come with a triple camera setup consisting of a 48MP primary sensor, a 2MP macro shooter, and a 2MP depth sensor.

Interestingly, despite featuring ‘Power’ in its name, the phone will be backed by a not so high capacity 4,850mAh battery. Lastly, it will be available in three colors namely Gray, Blue, and Silver respectively.

Further, going by the renders shared by both Nils and @OnLeaks, the upcoming Moto G Power/Play 2021 will sport a punch-hole (top left-aligned) display, matrix camera alignment, side-mounted fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C, and 3.5mm headphone jack.

That said, the launch dates of these Motorola phones are not known as of now. But they could go official anytime now in the coming days

Honor V40 could be postponed to January 18

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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Jan 4, 2021

It was reported in December that Honor has postponed the arrival of the Honor V40 phone to January 2021. Tipsters from China have been recently claiming that the Honor V40 will be launching on Jan. 12. However, fresh information reveals that its launch has been further pushed back. It is now speculated that Honor V40 may debut on Jan. 18.

According to a reliable leakster who is known for Huawei and Honor leaks, the launch event of the Honor V40 has been delayed. Another tipster has claimed that the Chinese brand had previously planned to debut the smartphone around the annual fan meeting event that was expected to take place on Jan. 13. The tipster claimed that the annual fan meeting will be now held online and the press conference of V40 has also been postponed.

He claimed that the Honor V40 is highly likely to debut on Jan. 18. The tipster also shared a poster of the device. A snapshot of the poster shared by the tipster reveals that the V40 ‘s reservation has started in China. The China texts mentioned above the phone’s image reads “Honor V40 series”, “appointment open”, and “Rebirth.”

Editor’s Pick: New Honor Smart Screen X1 TV features a 75 inch display, reservations now open

Since the poster mentions the Honor V40 series, it appears that there more could at least two V40 models. Recent reports have revealed that the model numbers of the V40 models could be NWE-AN10 and YOK-AN10. The series will mark the rebirth of the brand after its separation from Huawei, which was confirmed in November.

Rumors are rife that the Honor V40 series will arrive with a 6.72-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 300Hz touch sampling rate, Dimensity 1000+, a 50-megapixel quad-camera setup, 66W fast charging, and 45W wireless charging.

Huawei tops the DxOMark Selfie rankings with the Mate 40 Pro

By

Sean

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Jan 4, 2021

DxOMark, the known camera testing brand, has just crowned the Huawei Mate 40 Pro for having the best selfie camera in a smartphone. The firm made the decision after various tests and ranking it against smartphones from other brands as well.

The Huawei Mate 40 Pro has a dual selfie camera module on the front. It sports a 13 megapixel 1/2.8″ sensor, which arrives alongside a fixed focus lens and a time of flight sensor that helps with depth sensing for bokeh mode shots. Despite only having a 13 megapixel shooter, the Chinese tech giant’s engineers had surprisingly managed to “squeeze an awful lot of image quality out of the front camera module,” as per DxOMark. The device leads in the selfie category and holds the crown for Photography with 110 points, “thanks to class-leading performance across many attributes, and very few obvious flaws.”

As per the testings, DxOMark found that the camera offered great exposure even during low light scenarios, with a wide dynamic range as well. This helped the device quite a bit in well lit scenes, especially when the background was brighter than the subject. The tests also revealed that colors were fairly accurate, and the device offered good white balance in night scenes. Although it had a fixed focus lens, the Mate 40 Pro’s selfie shooter performed well in the tests, including the Bokeh shots.

Furthermore, the fash on the Mate 40 Pro also helped illuminate the subject during the dark conditions and provided good exposure. While it was crowned the best, the device still had a few areas to improve upon, namely with the few image artifacts, certain instabilities, color inconsistencies at times, and inaccurate white balancing issues on skin tones. Although, these were still minor issues compared to its otherwise great performance.

Xiaomi confirms Mi 11 65W GaN charger issue fix to be rolled out soon

By

Jeet

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Jan 4, 2021

Xiaomi recently launched its latest flagship smartphone — Mi 11, which went on sale a couple of days ago. Apart from being the first phone in the world to come powered by the SD888 chipset, it is also the company’s first smartphone to come without a charger.

As the company is not offering a charger in the box, some users are using the Mi 65W GaN charger that the company sells separately, to charge the phone. However, many of them are reporting an issue.

EDITOR’S PICK: Qualcomm and Samsung are aiming to lead the smartphone market with their 5nm chips

Although the charger was withdrawn from sale in China a few months ago, users who had purchased it prior to that are using it to charge the newly launched Mi 11. But on connecting that charger, the phone reboots and enters into an infinite loop cycle.

Zhang Guoquan, Director of Xiaomi‘s Mobile System Software Department has said in a Weibo post that the company’s engineers have obtained the charger creating the issue. After analysis, the team found that the problem is with the specific model and batch of the charger because of the charging compatibility conflicts.

The Chinese company is now expected to push out an over-the-air (OTA) update that will fix the issue with the Xiaomi Mi 11 smartphone getting affected by the 65W GaN chargers. However, as of now, there is no timeline for this fix.

OnePlus Band tipped to launch in India on January 11, key specs and price revealed

By

Sudarshan Ravichandran

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Jan 4, 2021

Last week, OnePlus Band, the brand’s first wearable was reported to launch in India sometime in Q1 2021. Today, the company has started teasing it officially. Additionally, a well-known reliable leaker has not only tipped its launch date but also some of its specs as well as price.

The latest information regarding the OnePlus Band comes from Ishan Agarwal, a popular teenage leaker on Twitter. According to him, OnePlus’ first fitness tracker will be launching in India on January 11 priced around ₹2,499.

Further, as per him, the wearable will sport a 1.1-inch AMOLED display (touch input). It will come equipped with a heart rate sensor, a SpO2 sensor for blood oxygen level monitoring, and will also support sleep monitoring.

That’s not all, it will feature 13 exercise (sports) modes and will be even IP68-certified dust and water-resistant. Last but not least, the fitness tracker will offer up to 14-day battery life.

If these specifications sound similar, then you aren’t wrong, Because they are identical to those of the OPPO Band. We already knew it last week when the product’s first poster was leaked. Anyway, now we can confirm that the upcoming OnePlus Band is nothing but a rebadged OPPO Band.

That said, it will be competing against Mi Smart Band 5 and Mi Smart Band 4 in India. The only standout feature of the OnePlus Band is the presence of a SpO2 sensor, which is absent on Xiaomi’s popular fitness trackers.

Adobe officially ends support for Flash, recommends uninstallation

By

Sean

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Jan 4, 2021

Back in 2017, Adobe had announced that it would be ending the support of its Flash browser plug in by the end of 2020. Now, the company has officially ended the software’s support and will begin blocking content running on Flash Player on 12th January 2020.

Keep in mind, that most people would not be affected by the discontinuation of the Adobe Flash player as most major websites have already switched to other platforms. Notably, Apple users in particular, namely with iPhones and iPads, as both iOS and iPads never supported Flash, to begin with. Steve Jobs, the co founder and former CEO of Apple, had also shared his “Thoughts on Flash” back in 2010. He criticized Adobe software’s reliability, incompatibility issues, and battery drain on mobile devices. He even called it “painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms,” as per a MacRumors report.

For those unaware, one of the reasons major websites shifted away from Adobe Flash was due to the platform suffering from various vulnerabilities. This exposed many PC and Mac users to malware and various other security risks as well. This caused many companies like Microsoft and Apple to constantly work to fix the numerous security issues. Thus, many eventually made the shift to other formats.

Since Adobe Flash is no longer being officially supported and has reached the end of its lifespan, the company has recommended users to uninstall and remove the software from their devices completely, “to help protect their systems.” So it is advised to do so, to avoid any potential vulnerability from being exploited on your desktop or laptop PCs.

Samsung website confirms the upcoming Galaxy Buds Pro TWS earphones

By

Jeet

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Jan 4, 2021

Samsung has officially confirmed its upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event where the company will be launching the next-generation Galaxy S21 series flagship smartphones. Along with that, the company is also expected to launch the Galaxy Buds Pro.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro true wireless earphones have been in the news for quite some time and now it seems that the company may have confirmed it. The device appeared on the South Korean giant’s official website.

Folks at Sammobile spotted that Samsung Canada had put up information about the Galaxy Buds Pro wireless earphones but the listing no longer appears. For those who are unaware, the upcoming earbuds are said to be the competitor of the Apple AirPods Pro.

Based on the leaks so far, it appears that the Galaxy Buds Pro will come with a 2-way speaker, similar to the Galaxy Buds Plus. There will also be a more powerful active noise cancellation feature, which the company is calling Intelligent Noise Cancellation.

It is also said to provide users with greater control over the experience. The earphones will reportedly have three modes — Conversation Mode, Ambient Sound Mode, and Active Noise Cancellation Mode, which will also have level controls.

EDITOR’S PICK: Ericsson reportedly lobbied against Huawei’s 5G ban in Sweden

They will also have Spatial Audio and an IPX7 rating for water resistance. There’s something mentioned about the Galaxy Buds widget for Samsung devices but currently, nothing is known about this.

In the battery department, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro are expected to offer eight hours of playback time and 4.5 hours of talk time on a single charge. With the charging case, the talk time can be increased to 15 hours while the playtime can be upped to 28 hours.

As for the pricing, the earphones are expected to be priced at $199 — the most expensive in the lineup, $50 less than the AirPods Pro. For comparison, the Galaxy Buds Plus and the Galaxy Buds Live are priced at $149 and $169 respectively.

Qualcomm and Samsung aim to lead smartphone market with their 5nm chips

By

Jeet

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Jan 4, 2021

Qualcomm and Samsung are two of the biggest mobile chipmakers and the companies keep advancing their technologies with each new iteration. They have announced their latest 5nm chipsets and devices powered by them are now making their way to the market.

While Qualcomm had announced its latest Snapdragon 888 chipset last month, smartphones powered by the same are now getting launched. Xiaomi Mi 11, the first phone powered by the SD888 went on sale a few days ago and another device, iQOO 7, is all set to go official this week.

On the other hand, the Samsung Exynos 1080 is manufactured using the 5nm process, and the recently launched Vivo X60 series smartphones powered by the same. The company is also working on Exynos 2100.

Samsung is set to launch its next-generation flagship smartphone — Galaxy S21 lineup on 14th January and those phones are expected to come powered by the Exynos 2100 chipset, which is believed to be revealed at the same event.

EDITOR’S PICK: Two foldable Apple iPhone prototypes have passed Foxconn’s durability test

Qualcomm and Samsung are trying their best to capitalize on the hills of Huawei’s absence because of the newly imposed sanctions on the Chinese giant by the United States. Samsung, which so far used to reserve its chipset only for its own smartphones, is now giving it to other mobile makers.

However, in terms of total chipset shipments in the third quarter of 2020, MediaTek emerged as the leading brand with a 31 percent market. Qualcomm and Huawei HiSilicon followed the suite with 29 percent and 12 percent market share. Samsung and Apple came in fourth and fifth with a 12 percent market share each.

Ericsson lobbied against Huawei’s 5G ban in Sweden: Report

By

Sean

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Jan 4, 2021

Borje Ekholm, the CEO of Ericsson, had apparently lobbied to overturn the ban on Huawei in Sweden, which prevented the company from participating in the roll out of 5G networking in the region.

According to a Bloomberg report, the Ericsson CEO had pressured a Swedish minister to reverse the ban on Huawei and ZTE as well. Reportedly, Ekholm had lobbied Foreign Trade Minister Anna Hallberg via a series of phone messages to review an order by the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS). For those unaware, this order was to operators that were required to remove networking equipment that was bought from the Chinese companies and replacing it from their infrastructure by January 2025.

An Ericsson spokesperson has confirmed the news that Ekholm was in contact with the minister. Furthermore, the news also arrives after Hallberg said that she did not have any contact with PTS and would never step in as minister and influence the decisions made by individual authorities. Halberg further added that she had never met with Ekholm regarding the matter. Similarly, Jacob Wallenberg, deputy chair of Ericsson’s board of directors, had previously said that “stopping Huawei is definitely not good.”

At the moment, Ericsson brings in 10 percent of its total sales from China, with Huawei being one of its biggest rivals as a telecommunications equipment provider. Notably, China had even warned that the Swedish companies would also see “negative impacts” from the ban if the decision wasn’t reversed. Although, the Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven is standing by the decision of the authority.

Two foldable Apple iPhone prototypes pass Foxconn’s durability test

By

Sean

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Jan 4, 2021

Samsung and Huawei are currently a few of the only companies that have commercially launched foldable devices in the market. But it seems that Apple might soon join their ranks as two of its foldable device prototypes have passed the durability test at Foxconn.

According to a UDN report, the supplier of the Cupertino based giant has passed two distinct foldable devices through its durability test. Both variants are unique and feature a folding mechanism similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and the Galaxy Z Flip. In other words, one bends horizontally, while the other folds vertically. As per the report, both foldable iPhones are not fully functional at the moment, and only the chassis and display components were tested.

Notably, these two areas are the crucial aspects, which had also proved to be the biggest launch challenge to Samsung’s first foldable device, the Galaxy Fold. So, it is reassuring to hear that Apple designs have passed quality control and durability checks for both parts. Furthermore, UDN also stated that now, the company would begin to evaluate both devices and will drop one of the designs and go forward with the other one.

Unfortunately, we have no solid idea when the company might actually launch a foldable device, but we can expect it to arrive most likely in 2022. It is also expected that Apple would ship an iOS/iPadOS hybrid software on this device to bring the functionality of both a tablet and a smartphone on the foldable device. Keep in mind, that this is still an unconfirmed report, so take it with a grain of salt for now and stay tuned for more updates that should arrive soon.

Xiaomi Mi 11 available from Giztop with fast international shipping

By

Simranpal Singh

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Jan 4, 2021

Just before the year-end, Xiaomi announced its new flagship smartphone – Mi 11. The smartphone comprises the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC, 108 MP rear-triple camera module and several other upliftments in comparison with its predecessor. However, the smartphone is already on sale in China and later will launch globally. But, the international users can grab the device from Giztop for $799 starting today.

Must See: Xiaomi Mi 11 vs iPhone 12: Specs Comparison

Giztop will start shipping the device within 24 hours. The smartphone is available in all three colours of Black, White and Blue. Moreover, the customers can opt from different storage variants of 8GB + 128GB, 8GB + 256GB and 12GB + 256GB storage variants.

However, it will take at least a month or two before the international audience gets their hand-on the new beast officially. It is better to ship internationally and enjoy the exciting performance of the device.

Xiaomi Mi 11 comes with a 6.81-inch AMOLED display featuring 1440 x 3200 pixels resolution. The display supports 120Hz refresh rate and 1500-nits brightness to aid better gaming experience. Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 sits inside the device coupled with Adreno 660 GPU. There’s a triple-rear camera module comprising a 108MP primary camera, 13MP ultrawide sensor and a 5MP macro lens. A single 20MP sits on the front side for selfies. The smartphone ships with 5.2 Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, Wifi and USB Type-C 2.0.

A massive 4600 mAh battery with support for 55W fast charging, 50W fast wireless charging is present.

Grab the Xiaomi’s flagship device at a great price of $799 from Giztop via the button below.

Grab Now

Related: Xiaomi Mi 11 first sale rakes in over 1.5 billion yuan in 5 minutes

Moto G Stylus 2021 appears in a different design in new renders

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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Jan 4, 2021

Recent reports have revealed plenty of information about the upcoming Motorola Moto G Stylus 2021 smartphone. The specifications, pricing, and renders of the phone were spotted in an Amazon listing last month. Popular tipster Steve Hemmerstoffer shared the CAD renders of the G Stylus 2021 phone. Interestingly, the new renders show the phone in a different design as compared to its renders that were seen at Amazon.

Moto G Stylus 2021 CAD renders

The CAD renders show that the Moto G Stylus 2021 with a punch-hole display design. The leak states that the phone measures 169.6 x 73.7 x 8.8mm and it houses a flat display of 6.8 inches.

Editor’s Pick: Mysterious Motorola Ibiza 5G phone with unannounced Snapdragon 4-series could be coming soon

The renders of the G Stylus 2021 that appeared at Amazon revealed that it is equipped with a rectangle-shaped camera module. And, reliable tipster Evan Blass had claimed that it is equipped with a 48-megpaixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro lens. However, the new renders show that the phone has a square-shaped camera housing. Also, the tipster has claimed that instead of a 2-megapixel, it has a 5-megapixel macro lens.

The leak reiterates that it has a front camera of 16-megapixel. Blass claimed that the phone has a side-facing fingerprint reader, but the new leak by Hemmerstoffer states that it has a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. As can be seen in the renders, the bottom edge of the device has a dedicated shaft for storing the stylus. Past reports have suggested that it could be fueled by the Snapdragon 675 chipset.

Samsung Display’s OLED sales to cross $5 billion in Q1 2021: Report

By

Sean

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Jan 4, 2021

The sales of OLED panels from Samsung Display is expected to cross 5 billion US Dollars in the first quarter of 2021, as per a new market research report from a known analytical based firm.

Omdia recently released a new report (Via TheElec), which stated that the display maker will exceed 5.18 billion US Dollars in sales of its OLED panels in the first quarter of the next year. This marks a significant rise of 30 percent over its first quarter sales from back in 2019, which reached 3.975 billion US Dollars. The rise is backed by the rise in the use of OLED panels in 5G smartphones. For those unaware, OLED panels are thinner than their LCD counterparts, making them more popular for 5G smartphones.

Furthermore, other benefits include better power efficiency. This is especially important considering 5G enabled handsets drain more power from the batteries in comparison to smartphones that support 4G networking, especially during content consumption. Notably, Samsung Display’s OLED panels are also expected to see a surge in sales due to the Apple iPhone 12 series launch. At the moment, the South Korean tech giant supplier around 8- percent of all displays for the Cupertino based company’s 2020 iPhone lineup.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, 62.8 percent of all smartphones are expected to ship with OLED panels, as per Omdia. On the other hand, only 31.8 percent of smartphones would arrive with LCD displays. The smartphone industry is now leaning towards OLED panels, and since the company is one of the biggest suppliers, this surge in sales isn’t all that surprising.

LG Display to showcase its transparent OLED panels at CES 2021

By

Sean

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Jan 4, 2021

LG Display had recently announced that it would be showcasing its transparent OLED panels at the upcoming event, CES 2021. These new displays are a new breed of OLED panels, with the company also unveiling its applications in various commercial spheres.

According to the display maker, the new OLED panels have a transparency rate of 40 percent. This is way higher than the transparency rate of 10 percent, which was seen on LCD (liquid crystal displays) panels, as per TheElec report. The South Korean tech giant stated that it would showcase the new display technology on three exhibition zones, revealing the implications of the panels in different scenarios. This included a smart home product, use in subway trains windows, and even restaurants. The company has previously shown an interest in its wide variety of applications, especially the transport and automobile industry.

In the smart home zone, the transparent OLED display can be seen combined with the bed and will display useful information to users like weather updates, or entertainment with TV programs and movies. The frame is housed in the bed’s frame itself and can also be separated from the bed and placed anywhere else in the house. In the metro zone, the LG Display’s transparent OLED panels replace the traditional glass panels on the train.

These panels will then be able to display information to users, like the upcoming stops or journey duration while also offering a view of the outside world. The third and final area is the restaurant zone. In this zone, the transparent panels are used as the petition between the customers and the cooks, allowing people a view of the menu while also the chefs that are preparing their food. LG Display stated that these online exhibitions will be open and available for everyone.

Mysterious Motorola Ibiza 5G phone with unannounced Snapdragon 4-series could be coming soon

By

Anvinraj Valiyathara

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Jan 4, 2021

German publication Technik News had recently revealed the codenames of upcoming Motorola phones such as Nio and Capri. While Nio is an upcoming Snapdragon 865 mobile platform powered smartphone, the Capri and Capri Plus are expected to debut as 4G midranges. These phones are tipped to launch in Q1 this year. Fresh information shared by the publication reveals that there is another upcoming Motorola phone codenamed Ibiza waiting to go official. It has shared the key specs of the device.

Motorola Ibiza specifications (Leaked)

The leak states the Motorola Ibiza phone’s model number is XT-2137. It will be powered by the mysterious SM4350 5G-ready Snapdragon chipset, which is codenamed as “Holi.” The SoC could be the forthcoming Snapdragon 4-series 5G chipset that is expected to debut in this quarter.

The handset is expected to arrive with a waterdrop notch display that supports an HD+ resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. Its SoC will be supported by 4 GB of RAM. The Ibiza phone will arrive with a native storage of 128 GB. The handset will run on Android 11 OS, and a 5,000mAh battery will be driving it.

Editor’s Pick: Upcoming Vivo Y31s could be first Snapdragon 4-series budget 5G chipset phone

The Motorola Ibiza will have a 13-megapixel Samsung S5K3I6 lens for capturing selfie shots. The back panel of the phone will have a triple camera setup that features a 48-megapixel Samsung S5KGM1ST main camera, a 5-megapixel Samsung S5K5E9 macro lens, and a 2-megapixel OmniVision (OV02B1B) depth sensor.

The exact moniker of the XT-2173 Ibiza phone is not known yet. It is likely to arrive as one of the cheapest 5G phones in the market. As far as launch is concerned, it is likely to debut in Q1 2021.

Huawei turns to Cloud services after US sanctions hamper its smartphone operations

By

Sean

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Jan 4, 2021

As Huawei Technologies struggles under the impacts of the US sanctions, the company’s founder Ren Zhengfei said that the smartphone maker is now looking towards cloud services as its primary focus, over its smartphone and 5G operations.

According to an SCMP report, the senior executive of the Chinese tech giant had made the announcement in an internal speech back in November 2020. The founder had said that the company must build up its strength in cloud services and that the brand needed to also make a “breakthrough” in the field. The official added that “It is impossible for us to simply follow the same path as Alibaba and Amazon … They have access to unlimited money in the US stock market.”

“Our enterprise business needs to scale back its battlefront … If our strategy is too broad, we will lose our combat strength.” Companies like Amazon are tech conglomerates with businesses spanning e-commerce, video streaming, and even cloud computing among various other businesses as well. Unlike these firms, Huawei has mostly focused on its telecom equipment services and its popular smartphone business.

As per Ren, the company should learn from companies like Amazon and Microsoft, both of which are major names in the global cloud services field. These brands focus on infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). For those unaware, customers of these companies pay a fee to utilize their computing resources such as networking and data storage. At the moment, Huawei is already a leading cloud service provider in China, alongside Alibaba and Tencent. Although, its presence in the global market is still scarce, despite there currently being a surge in demand for could services.

Vivo X60 series up for pre-order in China; goes on sale from January 8

By

Jeet

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Jan 4, 2021

A few days ago, Vivo officially launched its new X-series smartphones — the Vivo X60 series, with a starting price of 3,498 yuan (approximately $540). Now, the phones are up for pre-order in China and will go on sale from 8th January.

As for the pricing, the Vivo X60 is priced at 3,498 yuan (~$540), while the X60 Pro is priced at 4,498 yuan, which is around $695. The Pro+ variant, on the other hand, is set to go on sale later this month.

Both, the X60 and X60 Pro feature a 6.56-inch AMOLED display that offers a screen resolution of 2376 x 1080 pixels and a 120Hz refresh rate. The screen, which has a 19.8:9 aspect ratio, is HDR10+ certified.

Under the hood, the devices are powered by the Samsung Exynos 1080 chipset, making them the first devices in the world to come packed with this new SoC. It is coupled with 8GB and 12GB RAM, offering 128GB and 256GB of internal storage.

The phones come with features like an in-display fingerprint scanner, face unlock, Dual SIM support, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, and dual-band Wi-Fi in both phones. In the software department, they run the latest Android 11 operating system with the company’s newly announced OriginOS 1.0 custom user interface.

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As for the cameras, the Vivo X60 comes with a second-gen Sony IMX598 48MP f/1.79 gimbal camera with a 4-axis OIS anti-shake and a closed-loop motor for impressive stabilization. There’s also a 13MP f/2.2 120° ultrawide angle camera and a 13MP f/2.46 50mm telephoto camera.

On the other hand, the Pro model features the Sony IMX598 48MP gimbal camera but with an f/1.48 aperture size and 7P lens. It also has a 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide angle camera, a 13MP telephoto camera, and an 8MP f/3.4 periscope camera that provides 5x optical zoom and up to 60x superzoom. Both phones have a 32MP f/2.45 selfie camera.

The Vivo X60 is powered by a 4300mAh battery while the Vivo X60 Pro comes packed with a 4200mAh battery. Both phones come with support for 33W fast charging technology.

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