Realme X7 series launch in India may happen in December

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Nov 2, 2020

The ZTE 8021N was approved by the TENAA telecom authority of China last week. The listing had revealed the entire specifications of the device along with its images. A fresh listing of a named ZTE Blade 20 5G has emerged in China Telecom’s product library. The listing confirms that the ZTE 8021N model number belongs to the Blade 20 5G.

ZTE Blade 20 5G pricing and release date (Rumored)

The release date of the Blade 20 5G is mentioned as Oct. 30. Since the date has already passed, it appears that it may go official in China very soon. The handset is listed with a pricing of 1,699 Yuan (~$254). When available, it can be bought in colors like Light Blue Mint and Jazz Gray color options.

Editor’s Pick: Yahoo teams up with ZTE to launch the $50 Yahoo Mobile ZTE Blade A3Y

ZTE Blade 20 5G specifications

The Blade 20 5G has a 6.52-inch display with a teardrop notch. Based on the TENAA listing of the device, it can be said that it could be equipped with an LCD panel with HD+ resolution support. The listing confirms that it is powered by the Dimensity 720 chipset and 6 GB of RAM. It has a native storage of 128 GB and it is preloaded with Android 10 OS.

The Blade 20 5G has an 8-megapixel camera on the front to take care of selfies. There is a 16-megapixel + 8-megapixel + 2-megapixel triple camera system on the phone.

The battery capacity of the phone is not mentioned in the listing. A rear-positioned fingerprint scanner can be seen on the backside of the Blade 20 5G. In terms of appearance, it resembles the ZTE Blade A7s 2020 4G phone available in the European markets.

Honor of Kings records 100 million active daily users, Tencent plans expansion to new genres

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Nov 2, 2020

Tencent‘s Honor of Kings is one of the most popular titles in the mobile gaming industry and has even garnered a massive playbase as well. Now, the game has recorded a sizeable 100 million active daily users, just as the studio also plans on expanding the game into different genres.

For those unaware, Honor of Kings is Tencent’s flagship title in mobile games and is based around the popular MOBA genre in video games. It has seen immense success in China, with playerbase in other Southeast Asian regions as well. With its popularity soaring, the company has now decided to expand the title into other genres of games while also forming a partnership with the British luxury group, Burberry.

This move arrives as the popular game title celebrates its fifth year anniversary and is facing growing competition from the mobile version of League of Legends, arguably one of the most popular PC games within the MOBA genre. Notably, League of Legends: Wild Rift is made by a US game studio, Riot Games, which is also under Tencent Games. The new mobile version of LoL is currently being tested in the Asian region.

According to Li Min, Game Director and General Manager of Tencent’s Timi Studios, “We are going to expand how players can interact with the Honor of Kings world and create a multi-dimensional brand experience that drives engagement both inside the game and outside it. This could include anime, films, music, and even live action series.” In other words, we can soon expect to see the title in more forms of mass entertainment platforms in the near future.

Vivo S7e 5G specs sheet and renders leaked; Likely to be one of the cheapest 5G phones by brand

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Nov 2, 2020

Earlier this year, Vivo announced the Vivo S7 5G selfie-centric smartphone that came with autofocus enabled 44-megapixel dual selfie camera setup. In other Asian markets, the phone has been rebranded as the Vivo V20 Pro 5G. Vivo is now rumored to launch the Vivo S7e 5G phone in China. Leaked information reveals that it will be a weaker sibling of the Vivo S7 5G.

Vivo S7e 5G Specifications

A tipster from China has revealed the key specifications and a render of the Vivo S7e. The leak reveals that the Vivo V2031EA smartphone that was spotted at TENAA last week will be breaking cover in the home market as the Vivo S7e 5G.

The Vivo S7e has a 6.44-inch AMOLED screen with a waterdrop notch. It offers a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and a 20:9 aspect ratio. The phone is expected to deliver a screen space of 90.1 percent. The handset houses a 4,100mAh battery.

Editor’s Pick: Vivo V20 SE launched in India for Rs 20,990 (~$282)

The Vivo S7e 5G has a selfie camera of 32-megapixel. The backside of the handset has a triple camera system that includes a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel secondary lens, and the third snapper of 2-megapixel. The leak reveals that the Vivo S7e 5G will be featuring that the Dimensity 720 chipset by MediaTek that includes a 2.4GHz octa-core processor. The phone measures 161 x 74.04 x 7.73mm and it weighs 171.3 grams.

The TENAA listing of the Vivo S7e 5G states that it has an in-screen fingerprint reader. It is loaded with Android 10 OS. There is no confirmation on the fast charging capabilities of the device. Also, the pricing of the phone is under wraps. It is likely to be one of the cheapest 5G phone from the brand. While Vivo is still mum on the existence of the Vivo S7e 5G, it is likely to debut at some point this month.

WhatsApp’s FAQ page explains how Disappearing Messages will work in the app

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Balaji S

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Nov 2, 2020

WhatsApp recently rolled out a “mute forever” on its messaging platform. However, it is available for a long time on its rival messaging platforms like Telegram. Now, the company is finally working on another feature that is again quite old on the latter. A new FAQ page on WhatsApp provides details about the upcoming “Disappearing Messages” feature.

As stopped by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp has opened a new FAQ support page for the feature. In it, it describes what’s coming and how to enable/disable it. It says the new messages sent after enabling the feature will be deleted after seven days. However, this negates the previous Expiring Messages feature in Beta that allowed users to customize the time. This started back in 2019, when we saw in a Beta version that users can delete the messages after an hr/a day/a week/a month/a year.

Prospects of Disappearing Messages

To compare, this is available as a self-destruct option for secret chats on Telegram. And users can customize the time interval as well. Still, this feature on WhatsApp looks like it will work across the board when it launches. Moving on, WhatsApp says the messages sent before enabling it won’t get affected. Although users get to control it on individual chats, only Admins can enable/disable it on Groups.

That said, the feature comes with a lot of conditions as well. If a recipient doesn’t open his WhatsApp for seven days he can still see the preview of messages in the notification window although it gets deleted inside the chat. Similarly, if you quote a disappearing message, the quote text might stay. Also, if you forward disappearing messages to a group/chat where the feature is off, it won’t vanish.

A few Disclaimers of the feature

For backups, every new backup will include the disappearing messages as well. And it will get deleted if the backup is restored after seven days. Having said that WhatsApp also has a disclaimer regarding the feature.

It says users can still take a screenshot, forward, copy & save content, or capture it with another camera to save the messages. And WABetaInfo says the “save to camera roll” will save the disappearing media to local device irrespective of the chats.

How to enable/disable it- Finally, the WhatsApp FAQ page also has steps to enable/disable it on Android/iOS/Web/Desktop/KaiOS. To enable/disable, Open WhatsApp. Go into an individual/group chat. Tap on the name. Now, you can toggle the feature on/off by selecting the Disappearing Messages option.

Currently, there is no ETA for this feature but we can expect it anytime soon after the multi-device support.

Xiaomi India set to launch a compact power bank on November 5

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Sudarshan Ravichandran

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Nov 2, 2020

Xiaomi is one of the popular power bank makers in the market. The company has been launching new models in the Mi Power Bank 3 series for more than a year. Just recently, it debuted Mi Power Bank 3 Pocket Edition in China. Now, it looks like either this or Mi Power Bank 3 Super Flash Charge Edition will launch in India on November 5.

Although Xiaomi had introduced Mi Power Bank 3 series last year in China, they debuted in India only a few weeks back. Now, the company is teasing to launch a third model on social media.

The tweet by Xiaomi India’s official Twitter handle reads ‘most powerful powerhouse ever’. Further, the company is calling this power bank ‘The Hidden Power House’. Above all, the teaser image compares the silhouette of this upcoming product with the already announced Mi Power Bank 3i 10,000mAh.

Since the image shows this power bank to be smaller and more compact than the already available models, we believe this could be either Mi Power Bank 3 Pocket Edition or Mi Power Bank 3 Super Flash Charge Edition. That’s because they are the only small-sized power banks sold by Xiaomi in its home country China.

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Further, since the company is calling it their most powerful powerhouse ever, it should be ideally the Super Charge Edition. But in India, Xiaomi has only launched 18W power banks. Hence, as the Pocket Edition supports 22.5 charging, it can be also said as the brand’s fastest charging power bank in the country.

Anyway, we will know everything about this compact power bank when it will go official on November 5.

Vivo V20 SE launched in India for Rs 20,990 (~$282)

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Nov 2, 2020

The Vivo V20 SE was first made official in Malaysia in September. However, when the device was announced alongside the Vivo V20 phone in October, the Chinese brand only confirmed its key features. Today, Vivo officially confirmed the Vivo V20 SE price in India along with its availability.

Vivo V20 SE price in India

The Vivo V20 SE has debuted in India with a price tag of Rs 20,990 (~$282). The phone comes in two attractive colors such as Gravity Black and Aquamarine Green. It is scheduled to go on sale from tomorrow (Nov. 3) through Vivo India’s online store and popular e-commerce platforms.

Editor’s Pick: Vivo officially confirms that Origin OS will replace Funtouch OS

Vivo V20 SE specifications

The Vivo V20 SE features a 6.44-inch AMOLED display with support a full HD+ resolution and a 20:9 aspect ratio. The Snapdragon 665 mobile platform drives the device with 8 GB of RAM. For storage, the handset offers users a microSD card slot and large native storage of 128 GB.

The Vivo V20 SE’s rear-mounted camera system has an f/1.8 aperture 48-megapixel primary shooter, an 8-megapixel camera for superwide and macro shots, and a 2-megapixel sensor for adding depth effects. There is a front-facing camera of 32-megapixel for snapping top-notch selfies.

The Vivo V20 SE is powered by a 4,100mAh battery that supports 33W FlashCharge technology. It boots to FunTouch OS 11 flavored Android 10 OS. For security, the Vivo V20 SE has an in-display fingerprint scanner. The regular connectivity features like dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, USB-C, and a 3.5mm audio jack can be also found on the Vivo V20 SE.

In related news, Vivo is expected to launch the Vivo V20 Pro 5G in India. It is expected to arrive as a rebranded version of the Vivo S7 5G that went official earlier n China.

US to “vigorously defend” executive order that seeks to ban TikTok

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Nov 2, 2020

The US Commerce Department recently stated that it would “vigorously defend” an executive order that seeks to ban all transactions made with the Chinese owned short video sharing platform, TikTok. This statement arrived after a federal judge halted the action.

According to a Reuters report, the commerce department stated that it intends to “comply with the injunction … but intends to vigorously defend the (executive order) and the Secretary’s implementation efforts from legal challenges.” Back in October, the US District Judge Wendy Beetlestone blocked the Commerce Department’s order that was set to take effect on 12th November 2020. This order would’ve effectively banned TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, from operating in the US

The Trump administration had also called out the social media application as a national security threat, with personal data being collected of over 100 million Americans that use the app. TikTok has strongly denied the allegations. Beetlestone’s noted that the “government’s own descriptions of the national security threat posed by the TikTok app are phrased in the hypothetical.”

Furthermore, another US District Judge Carl Nichols issued a preliminary injunction in a suit brought by ByteDance that also prevented the Commerce Department from ordering Apple and Google from removing the app from their respective app stores. At the moment, ByteDance is in talks for preliminary deals with Walmart and Oracle, either of which would oversee TikTok’s US operations. In other words, keep the app grounded within the US, which is something the US President himself approves of.

LG may launch a smartphone with rollable display within its Explorer Project

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Nov 2, 2020

In the Explorer Project, LG recently launched its first device, the LG Wing that arrived with an innovative and bold design. Now, the company might also be working on another new device within this project as a recent patent suggests that the South Korean tech giant is making another innovative smartphone with a rollable display.

According to a LetsGoDigital report, LG filed a new patent with the USPO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) back in August 2019, which was finally published in September 2020. The device in the patent is for a handset with a flexible display, which can be rolled up within its own housing. Looking at the images, the device seems to be like any other regular handset when in its compact form. However, it resembles a tablet when the display is completely unfurled.

Unlike a foldable device with a hinge in the middle, the rolling mechanism is on either side of the device. Meaning, one simply pulls out the rest of the display from the sides. When the device is unrolled, the frame also moves along with the display. This indicates that the bezel also acts as protection for the rollable display’s housing. The display from the LG smartphone with a pull out the rollable screen in an OLED panel with a metal housing.

Furthermore, since the rolling mechanism is housed on the sides, the company has also saved up on space and thickness. It has sufficient space for its internal components and is not very bulky, as per the design patents. Unfortunately, the specifications and the name of the device are currently unknown and we will have to wait for an official company announcement. So stay tuned as we will be providing more updates when additional information is available.

OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 Limited Edition launched for 3,999 yuan ($597)

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Sudarshan Ravichandran

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Nov 2, 2020

As expected, OnePlus has officially launched OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 Limited Edition in China. This version of the smartphone costs 3,999 yuan ($597) and comes in a single 12GB + 256GB storage configuration. It is already up for pre-order in the brand’s home country and will be available for purchase on November 11. There’s no word on international availability yet.

The OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 Limited Edition is exactly the vanilla OnePlus 8T in terms of specifications. It differs from the regular version in terms of design and software. In fact, it is the most customized limited edition OnePlus smartphone ever.

OnePlus has been making limited edition devices for a few years. Some of the notable ones are OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Editon, OnePlus 6 Marvel Avengers Limited Edition, and Oneplus 6T/7T Pro McLaren Limited Edition.

As their brandings suggest, all the OnePlus limited edition phones were limited to certain regions only. The same seems to be the case for the newly launched OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 Limited Edition. That’s because the company is yet to say anything about its availability in other markets apart from its home country.

Now, talking about the handset, this version of OnePlus 8T features a three-stage design. The top of the back panel resembles a window housing the camera array with the texts – ‘NETRUNNER EDITION’, ‘2077’, and ‘NEURAL CONNECTION STATUS: ACTIVE’. There’s also a barcode from the game.

Then, the mid-segment of the back panel is made of AG glass with the OnePlus logo embossed on it. The OPPO Reno4 Pro Artist Limited Edition uses a similar design. Finally, at the bottom, the panel sports a carbon-like design with Cyberpunk 2077 logo in yellow color.

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For software, the device ships with Android 11-based OxygenOS 11 operating system but with a special theme, AOD style, and camera filters designed after the game.

Lastly, the smartphone comes in a special box with the game’s map printed inside, a protective case with radium borders, Warp Charge 65 Power Adapter, USB cable, SIM card ejector, some stickers, and a badge.

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Note: Though the picture shows 6 badges, the retail unit will ship with any single random badge.

Samsung is the Most Popular Brand in Russia for the 10th year in a Row

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Nov 2, 2020

Samsung Electronics has received the title for the most popular brand in Russia for the 10th year in a row. The South Korean tech giant is the most favored brand among Russian consumers and has consistently topped the charts for the past decade.

According to a BusinessKorea report, Samsung took the top spot in the 2020 Top 20 Brands list, which was recently announced by the Russian brand market research agency, Online Market Intelligence (OMI). In this list, the company accounted for 17.9 percent of the total votes. Although, this also marked a 0.6 percent fall in votes from the 18.5 percent from back in 2019.

The smartphone maker was closely followed by Adidas, which received 12.2 percent of the total votes. While Nike and Apple came in third and fourth with 11.7 percent and 9.7 percent respectively. These rankings have remained unchanged from the previous year’s list. Later down the list, other known brands are also featured like Bosh (5.8 percent), Sony (4.8 percent), Xiaomi (4.6 percent), and Coca Cola (4.6 percent), LG (4.1 percent), and Jara (3.1 percent).

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G China — Samsung Galaxy S20 FE

Notably, Huawei was a new entry into this list and was in the 13th spot in 2020. Previously, we had reported on the Chinese tech giants like Xiaomi and Huawei breaking into the top 20 brands in Russia list. So, we can expect the companies to also have their presence grow in the region moving forward. Samsung had first been featured in the list in 2008 when OMI began and was ranked first for the first time in 2009. In 2010, the company lost its throne to Nokia, but retook the lead in 2011 and has yet to be toppled.

Huawei reportedly plans chip production plant in Shanghai to overcome US ban

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Nov 2, 2020

Huawei has been put on Entity List by the United States in May last year but the restrictions on the Chinese giant have tightened a few months ago, making it almost impossible for the company to make or procure chipsets or other necessary components.

But now, if the report from Financial Times is to be believed, then Huawei may be planning a dedicated chip factory in Shanghai, China to overcome the restrictions imposed by the United States government.

EDITOR’S PICK: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra flagship smartphone could already be in production

However, it’s noteworthy that the report adds that the chips plant by Huawei in China would be only for the core telecom infrastructure business and not the smartphone business. The report claims that the plant would be run by Shanghai IC R&D Center and the company would consider it experimental until the chips can be used commercially.

The chips would be manufactured using the 45-nanometer (45nm) process and next year and towards late 2021, the company will be moving manufacturing to 28nm chips. It could also start making chips for Smart TVs and IoT devices. It plans to make 20nm chips by 2022 and would make almost every 5G cellular hardware.

The smartphone business from Huawei is also getting some relief as more and more companies are being granted special licenses by the United States to continue doing business with Huawei as long as the components are used for the core 5G telecom business. Many companies, including Intel, AMD, Samsung Display, and others have received the license to supply components to the Chinese giant.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra could already be in production: Report

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Nov 2, 2020

A new report has suggested that the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra might have already started production. In other words, the next gen flagship from the South Korean tech giant might be arriving sooner than expected.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (part) production seems to be starting rn. Will have to wait a little to confirm if this is mass production or just sampling for PVT/DVT devices.

— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) October 30, 2020

According to a tweet from known leakster Roland Quandt (@rquandt), the part production of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has already started. Although, Roland also clarified that it is unconfirmed if this is in the mass production phase or just sampling for PVT/DVT devices. Meaning, this might just be the prototype’s production as a means of testing, as per a PhoneArena report.

Similarly, a previous report had also suggested that the company is planning on launching the Galaxy S21 series a month and a half earlier to make up for the lower than expected sales of the Galaxy S20 series. Furthermore, it is also being rumored that Samsung might be merging its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series of flagships to streamline its handset lineup and focus more on the Galaxy Z series of foldable devices.

The early launch of the Galaxy S21 is said to be an attempt to also take advantage of Huawei’s current predicament and fill in the gap in the market. While it is unclear when exactly the Galaxy S21 series will be launched, reports claim a January 2021 launch or even a late December 2020 launch as well. Unfortunately, we have no way of confirming this at the moment. The latest flagship devices from the company would likely sport Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 875 SoC and the Exynos 2100 processor, depending on the region. That is all we have to go on for now, so stay tuned for more updates.

OPPO K7x to arrive with 90Hz display and Dimensity 720 chipset

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Nov 2, 2020

On Wednesday, OPPO will be taking off covers from the OPPO K7x smartphone. Ahead of the announcement, the handset has already appeared at TENAA’s database with all its specifications. Today, OPPO shared a poster to reveal the capabilities of the phone’s display. Also, the handset has emerged on the Geekbench benchmarking platform to reveal its processor.

The poster released by OPPO reveals that the OPPO K7x has a punch-hole display. The image also confirms that the screen supports a refresh rate of 90Hz and a touch sampling rate of 180Hz. The image also shows the presence of a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.

The Geekbench 5 listing of the OPPO K7x (mentioned with PERM00 model number) reveals that it is driven by the MediaTek MT6853V/ZA processor. The model number belongs to the Dimensity 720 chipset. The SoC has a base frequency of 8 GB. It is preinstalled with Android 10 OS.

Editor’s Pick: HeyMelody app allows you to update OnePlus and OPPO TWS earbuds on non-OnePlus phones

OPPO K7x specifications

The OPPO K7x’s TENAA listing has revealed that it has a 6.5-inch LCD display that delivers a Full HD+ resolution. The phone is expected to arrive in 6 GB and 8 GB RAM variants and storage models like 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB in China. It has a microSD card slot for storage. It is backed by a 5000mAh battery.

The OPPO K7x has a selfie camera of 16-megapixel. Its rear shell has a rectangle camera housing that includes a 48-megapixel primary shooter, an 8-megapixel secondary lens, and two 2-megapixel sensors. The handset is expected to arrive in colors like green, gray, and blue in the home market. There is no word on the pricing of the OPPO K7x. It measures 162.2 x 75.1 x 9.1mm and it weighs 194 grams.

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Samsung W21 live image leaks online ahead of its official launch

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Nov 2, 2020

Samsung is gearing up to launch its new smartphone named Samsung W21 5G in China on 4th November. Now, just a couple of days ahead of the phone’s official launch, its live image has surfaced online.

The image shows that the phone will come with a triple-camera setup on the back with a rectangular camera module on the top-left corner. The camera sensors are placed vertically along with an LED flash.

Apart from the camera module, another noticeable thing is the textured back panel. Similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 2 smartphone, the upcoming Galaxy W21 5G will also feature a secondary display that allows users to use the phone when the device is folded.

The phone’s display has a punch-hole cut that houses the front-facing camera. Earlier, the phone was spotted on TENAA with model number SM-W2021 which has revealed almost every specification of the phone.

EDITOR’S PICK: Honor V40 Series Specifications tipped; likely to get launched in December this year

The Samsung W21 5G features a cover display of 6.23 inches that offers a resolution of 816 x 2260 pixels while the inner display measures 7.53-inch and it produces a resolution of 2208 x 1768 pixels.

It will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset that clocks at 3.09GHz. As for the memory, the chipset is coupled with 12GB of RAM and it has an internal storage of 512GB, but there’s no microSD card slot.

The device likely features three 12MP sensors on the back and a single 12MP snapper on the front side. The device packs a 2090mAh + 2160mAh rated capacity dual-cell battery and the 3C certification of the phone has already revealed that it could be arriving with support for 25W fast charging.

iQOO Z1 12GB RAM and 128GB storage variant goes on sale in China

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Nov 2, 2020

Vivo-backed iQOO had launched its smartphone named iQOO Z1 in China earlier this year as the world’s first smartphone powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ chipset. It was made available in three variants — 6GB + 128GB, 8GB + 128GB, and 8GB + 256GB.

A couple of weeks ago, the company announced another variant of the same device in China that comes packed with 12GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. After being available for pre-orders in China, the phone is now finally available for purchase.

The iQOO Z1 12GB RAM and 128GB internal storage model is priced at 2,498 yuan which roughly converts to $376. It is being offered in two color options — Silver and Blue.

The smartphone features a 6.57-inch IPS LCD display with support for HDR10 and DCI-P3 color gamut. It offers a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels along with a refresh rate of up to 144Hz.

EDITOR’S PICK: Huawei Mate 40 Pro Review: Another Dominant Camera Flagship from the Chinese giant

Under the hood, the device is powered by the MediaTek the Dimensity 1000+ SoC and was the first phone to come powered by this chipset. The octa-core processor comprises of four Cortex-A77 CPU cores and four Cortex-A55 cores along with Mali-G77 MP graphics.

In the camera department, it features a triple-camera setup on the back that includes a 48-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel ultrawide sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro lens. On the front side, there’s a 16-megapixel snapper for taking selfies.

The 5G smartphone also has a liquid cooling system that reduces the internal temperature of the device by up to 10 degrees celsius. It is running the Android 10 operating system out-of-the-box and is powered by a 4,500mAh battery that supports 44W fast charging.

Xiaomi launches Mi Power Bank 3 Pikachu Edition for 99 yuan ($15)

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