Google Pixel 5 features an under-display speaker, reveals diagram and hands-on video

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Oct 5, 2020

When the Nokia 1.3 launched in March, it came with a new camera app called Camera Go that is specially designed for Android Go devices. Today, the app is getting a Night Mode feature that allows supported Android Go devices to take better images in low-light without flash.

A minute and a half video released by Google via the official Android Twitter account today reveals that the Night Mode feature for the Camera Go combines several photos (burst photography) “to produce a bright, sharp photo”.

Low light, camera, action 📷! With Night Mode on Camera Go, take high-quality photos on your Android phone, no matter what time of day it is. pic.twitter.com/UooQhAm9tF

— Android (@Android) October 5, 2020

The video also reveals that the camera app has been built for specific camera modules on affordable phones. So it is not just software but a combination of software and hardware. This also explains why it is not available for all existing Android Go phones.

It was also revealed that Camera Go will get an HDR mode later this year that will increase the quality of photos taken on these budget devices at any time of the day. Evidence of an HDR Mode was found in the Camera Go app as far back as April. We believe the pandemic is responsible for the delay in rolling out the feature.

Night Mode on Camera Go has begun rolling out to the Nokia 1.3, Wiko Y61, and Wiko Y81 smartphones.

Photos of Huawei Mate 40 Pro cases reveal a unique camera arrangement

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Oct 5, 2020

Huawei is expected to announce the Mate 40 series of smartphones this month. It has been reported that there will be four models at launch including an RS Porche Design model. Ahead of the launch, we have gotten our hands on exclusive images of the Mate 40 Pro‘s cases and they show us what the camera design looks like.

The photos show that Huawei is going for a circle camera housing but with a design different from that of the Mate 30 series. Not only does the camera housing not taper at the edges, but the sensors are also arranged quite differently.

At the top is a rectangular opening for the periscope/telephoto camera and to its left, at the 9 o’clock position, is a pill-shaped LED flash. Arranged in an arc are three different sized holes for the other three rear cameras.

As you can see, this camera layout is quite unusual but we won’t be surprised if we see other manufacturers adopt it following the launch of the Mate 40 series.

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The Mate 40 Pro will be powered by the Kirin 9000 processor and will come with an AMOLED display with a double cut-out for dual front-facing cameras. The phone should pack a big battery with support for fast wired and wireless charging. It should also have support for reverse wireless charging and run EMUI 11 out of the box.

Rumor: OnePlus Nord N10 and OnePlus Nord N100 set to launch by month’s end

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Oct 5, 2020

October is going to be a big month for OnePlus as it has a bunch of new products launching. While we already know that the OnePlus 8T and a new pair of TWS earbuds are launching on October 14, new info says two new Nord phones, one of which is the OnePlus Nord N10, will also be arriving later this month.

The info comes from Mukul Sharma, the Indian leaker and YouTuber, and according to him, OnePlus will announce the OnePlus Nord N10 and OnePlus Nord N100 by the end of the month.

Exclusive: OnePlus Nord N10 and OnePlus Nord N100 devices are set for launch by the end of this month.#oneplus #OnePlusNord

— Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings) October 5, 2020

We already know of the Nord N10 which is the affordable 5G smartphone powered by the Snapdragon 690 Mobile Platform destined for North America. The spec sheet also includes a 6.49-inch FHD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate, a 64MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP quad rear camera setup, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.

The Nord N100 is currently unknown but should also be a budget smartphone. However, we can’t say if it will have 5G or not.

View this post on Instagram

#ComingSoon

A post shared by OnePlus Nord (@oneplus.nord) on Oct 5, 2020 at 6:02am PDT

Earlier today, the official OnePlus Nord Instagram account posted another teaser with the caption “#ComingSoon”. The post, just like the one from last week, reveals no details about what is coming. Nevertheless, we believe this is a hint for the new smartphones.

More details should surface in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled.

Samsung Galaxy F41: Expected Price and Specifications ahead of October 8 launch

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Oct 5, 2020

Samsung will launch the Galaxy F41 smartphone on October 8, at 5:30 PM in India. Ahead of this, the company has so far confirmed features like display, camera, and battery on the device. Let’s take a look at the expected price and other specifications before we reach Thursday.

Samsung teased the new F series of smartphones officially a couple of weeks back. The first entrant in the series is the Galaxy F41. From the official teasers, the device looks similar to its M series of smartphones. On the back, there is a fingerprint sensor and a triple-camera layout inside the slightly rectangular housing. The front has a display with a water-drop style notch while the right side has power and volume buttons.

Looking at price rumors, we can expect a polished polycarbonate back which is popularly called ‘Glasstic’ design nowadays. However, Samsung is yet to officially confirm it. Regarding the color variants, official teasers so far reveal a Green color.

Galaxy F41 Specifications

First, the company has already confirmed that the device will feature an sAMOLED Infinity-U display. Besides, the display is expected to measure 6.4-inch in size and sport a resolution of 2340×1080 pixels. Next, the device will probably host Exynos 9611 SoC and at least 6GB of RAM. While the storage is not known yet, we can expect the standard 64/128GB versions. Samsung is known to include microSD slots for storage expansion on its budget devices like the M series and hence, we can expect that to be present as well.

Samsung also confirmed one of the camera sensors on the back. Other sensors could be a wide-angle and a macro lens. While those are a mystery, we guess they might be carried over from the budget Galaxy M31. This means it could feature an 8MP ultra-wide, and a 5MP macro/depth sensor. That said, let’s wait for official details to confirm it. On the front, it could feature a 32MP selfie snapper and as per official teasers, the rear camera will have single take which is essentially a burst mode.

We can also expect other basic features like 3.5mm audio jack, 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a Type-C port that is evident from the leaked schematics. Samsung has officially confirmed that the device will feature a whopping 6,000mAh battery with support for 15W fast charging.

Expected Price, and Availability

From early leaks, we can expect the device to run Android 10, and Samsung’s One UI on top of it. As for price, it is speculated to debut somewhere around the INR 15,000-20,000($205-$273) segment in India. And as already announced, it will be available via Flipkart, and Samsung’s Online store.

Up Next: DxOMark: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G scores 121 points; trails behind the Mi 10 Ultra

Microsoft rebrands Bing to “Microsoft Bing” with new logos

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Oct 5, 2020

Like Google, Microsoft has also been recently rebranding its products and services by adding its own name. Some of the best examples include Microsoft Store, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft Teams. Following these products, in a blog post, the Redmond-based company has now announced a similar branding for its search engine called “Microsoft Bing” along with new logos.

According to the official post by Microsoft (via The Verge), its search engine will now be called Microsoft Bing. The company will be using two logos for it from now onwards. The changes are already live on bing.com.

One of the two logos is an iterative update to the previous logo – “the Bing b”. The second one contains Microsoft logo along with “Microsoft Bing” text in Segoe typeface, which is widely used by the company.

The company says that it has integrated Microsoft branding to Bing because its search engine powers search functions in a number of Microsoft products such as InPrivate search in Microsoft Edge, quick searches in Windows taskbar, search in Microsoft 365, and more.

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However, we don’t buy this pitch as the company has been adding Microsoft branding to its products for a few years now. Anyway, it will still be called only “Bing” by most people.

Future smartphones may host displays made of transparent wood material

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Oct 5, 2020

Technology is expanding exponentially in the past few years and now, new research suggests that transparent material made of wood might replace glasses in the future. And, who knows it might trickle down to smartphones as well.

Transparent Wood. Credits: USDA Forest Service

The research as spotted by PhoneArena, is published on the USDA(US Department of Agriculture) website. Researcher Junyong Zhu has the conducted research in collaboration with the University of Maryland and Colorado. As per the website, the team has developed the material made of Balsa wood. And, according to experts, the transparent wood is durable and lighter than glass.

Editor’s Pick: Future of Transparent OLEDs is in Automobiles: CEO of OTI Lumionics

How is it made?

Besides, the researches have utilized the wood from the Balsa tree. Residing in the genus of flowering plants, this tree grows faster and can reach a height of 30m. It is already applicable widely in the field of model-building, packing, insulation, and floatation devices. Coming back, the wood from the Balsa tree is subject to an oxidization bath at room temperature. Additionally, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is penetrated to make it virtually transparent like Glass.

Advantages over Glass

The report says the transparent wood is five times thermal efficient, durable, and lighter than Glass. The presence of natural cellulose, when combined with the PVA polymer, will reportedly make the transparent material bend as well. Additionally, the material splinters, unlike Glass that shatters when broken. It basically means the transparent wood will tear into small spicule shaped pieces if damaged.

Also, the report says manufacturing Glass costs more energy bills, heavy carbon footprint, and emissions of up to 25,000 metric tonnes a year. Hence, the development of transparent material might help reduce this in the future and be sustainable as well.

For now, it is like a potential alternative to Glasses on houses’ windows. However, the report says it is compatible with existing industrial equipment, and hence, the transition to manufacturing is not far away. That said, it is expected to be used in the Automotive industry, and maybe as an alternative to Glass in display technology. Hence, we can’t rule out the possibility of this ultimately trickling down to Smartphone displays in the future.

Up Next: Samsung scraps the idea of introducing Under-Display Camera technology with the Galaxy S21 series: Report

Qualcomm Tech Summit set for December 1; Snapdragon 875 expected to launch

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Oct 5, 2020

Qualcomm has sent out invites to the press for its annual tech summit. Unlike previous editions, this year’s own will be a digital event, no thanks to COVID-19. The summit will be a 2-day event scheduled to begin on December 1 and end on December 2.

The event should also see Qualcomm announce new processors, chief of them being the Snapdragon 875 processor that will power next year’s flagship phones. There may also be a new Snapdragon 700 series processor, probably the Snapdragon 775G; and a new processor(s) for Windows 10 on Arm.

Qualcomm Tech Summit 2020 — Image source: Android Authority

The Snapdragon 875 will be a 5nm chipset and will be Qualcomm’s most powerful processor yet. It will feature new cores in a 1+3+4 arrangement, with rumors saying the prime core may be Arm’s Cortex X1. It has also been reported that it will feature the Snapdragon X60 5G modem but we do not know if it will be an integrated modem.

[Update: Launch Date] Leak: Galaxy S20 FE base variant will cost ₹49,999 ($682) in India

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Oct 5, 2020

Update

Samsung has confirmed to launch Galaxy S20 FE in India on October 6 (tomorrow). If the below-mentioned leak is true, it will indeed start at ₹49,999 ($682) in the country. Anyway, we will know the exact price tomorrow.

Original Story

Due to pandemic and costlier price tags, the Galaxy S20 series did not sell well. Samsung predicted it quickly when the COVID-19 virus started spreading globally and begun to develop Galaxy S20 FE, a stripped-down version of its flagship smartphones at an affordable price tag of $699. It was unveiled in September for western markets and is expected to launch this month in India. Ahead of it, its starting price for the Indian market leaks.

The Galaxy S20 FE comes in two variants primarily. The standard Galaxy S20 FE (LTE) with Exynos 990 and Galaxy S20 FE 5G with Snapdragon 865. The latter variant is sold only in the markets where 5G is a thing, whereas the other markets get the 4G variant.

Further, talking about storage configurations, the device can be once again divided into three versions – 6GB +128GB, 8GB + 128GB, and 8GB + 256GB. However, it is worth noting that not all three variants are available in all the regions.

That said, according to an exclusive leak by 91Mobiles citing retail sources, the base variant for India will sell for ₹49,999 ($682). It is not sure which of the first two storage configurations will be sold as a base variant in India but still, the price is on-par with western markets

Anyway, it is worth noting that the model coming to India will be powered by Exynos which is not bad per se but it does fall behind its Qualcomm counterpart in terms of overall performance and battery life.

Report: Galaxy W21 will be based on Galaxy Z Fold2 in gold color

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Oct 5, 2020

In case you are not aware of, Samsung sells an exclusive premium series of phones in China going by the name of Galaxy W. Up until 2018, the devices in this series featured flip phone form factor but the company replaced it with foldable in 2019 with its Galaxy Fold 5G.

This version of Galaxy Fold 5G came in White color and was powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ unlike the regular version with Snapdragon 855. Now, according to a new report, the South Korean tech giant will be soon launching Galaxy W21 as a custom edition of 2020 Galaxy Z Fold2 in an exclusive gold color paint job.

Every year, Samsung releases a premium smartphone exclusively for the Chinese market in limited quantity in collaboration with China Telecom. These devices bear the Galaxy W branding and is known as 心系天下 in Chinese.

According to a report by The Elec, this year’s edition of Galaxy W series phone will be called Galaxy W21 and it will be based on Galaxy Z Fold2. It will come in gold color and the company will only produce around 30,000 units.

The upcoming Galaxy W21 is codenamed “victory” mocking Chinese companies like Huawei’s inability to make a foldable smartphone in gold color, which the Chinese customers adore, said a person familiar with the matter

Anyway, Samsung has been having a negligible market share (around 1%) in China smartphone market since 2017 due to the rise of domestic brands. So a victory in making an expensive phone that only elite people can buy cannot be termed as success.

That said, like last year’s Galaxy W20, we can expect the 2020 Galaxy W21 to be at least $1,000 costlier than the standard Galaxy Z Fold2 sold around the world. Last but not least, this handset was recently certified by TENAA and 3C. Hence, it should launch very soon.

Realme confirms electric toothbrush, 20000mAh power bank, and soundbar will launch on Oct. 7

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Oct 5, 2020

Realme’s October 7 launch event is going to big as the manufacturer plans to announce a handful of products. Alongside two new earphones including new TWS earbuds; a SLED TV; and a home security camera; Realme has now revealed that it will also announce an electric toothbrush, a new power bank, and the soundbar it teased a few months ago.

Realme N1 Sonic Electric Toothbrush

Realme’s first electric toothbrush will launch as the Realme N1 Sonic Electric Toothbrush. The teaser poster shows the brush will come in two colors – Blue and White. It also shows it has a power button and LEDs (for battery level indication) on the stem.

We do not know if the toothbrush will support USB charging or inductive charging as a charging port is not visible. Nevertheless, it should be quite affordable.

Realme 20000mAh Power Bank 2

Back in May, Realme launched the Realme 10000mAh Power Bank 2 in India. The power bank has 18W two-way fast charging and is available in yellow and black colorways. On Wednesday, the manufacturer will announce a version with a 20000mAh battery capacity for those who want one with a bigger capacity.

As seen in the image, this version is thicker but comes in yellow and black just like the 10000mAh variant. It has two USB-A ports and a USB-C port. We expect it to also support 18W two-way fast charging.

The 10000mAh version has a price tag of INR 999 (~$14). We presume this should sell for nothing less than INR 1,299 (~$18).

Realme 100W Soundbar

A few months ago, Realme revealed it has a soundbar on the way. It has now confirmed that it will launch the 100W Soundbar at its event on Wednesday. A poster shared on Twitter by the CEO, Madhav Sheth, shows the soundbar will have a separate subwoofer that is quite tall. Expect it to cost more than Xiaomi’s Mi Soundbar which is priced at INR 4,999 (~$68).

Zeiss’ Android-powered camera ZX1 will hit the stores carrying a price tag of $6000

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Oct 5, 2020

German optoelectronics manufacturer ZEISS‘s full-frame Digital camera, the ZX1 could be finally hitting the retail stores soon. Announced way back in 2018, the fixed lens camera running on Android is priced at $6000.

A report from DPReview (via The Verge) says that B&H Photo Video sent emails regarding the price and availability. For the unware, B&H Photo Video is an electronics retailer in the US. As per the report, the camera would be available soon. The exact date is, however, not revealed yet. Also, the pre-order page has neither the price or availability but just a ‘coming soon’ tag. This suggests that it might take a bit longer for it to hit the stores.

Carl Zeiss, a company from Germany which holds the ZEISS branding, launched a full-frame fixed-lens camera that runs on Android back in September 2018. As described by the company, an overview of the pre-order website has a tagline, “Shoot, Edit, Share”.

Zeiss ZX1 camera Specifications

The Zeiss ZX1 has a 37.4MP CMOS sensor with a maximum resolution of 7488×4992 pixels. Having an aspect ratio of 3:2, it is a full-frame sensor and supports DNG, JPEG formats. IT also has Zeiss’ own T* 35mm f/2 lens for better low-light focus, sharpness, and illumination. Other features include a 255-area AF system, three physical dials for ISO, Shutter speed, and Aperture. It also has a 0.7-inch OLED viewfinder with FHD resolution and 0.74x magnification.

As per the specifications listed on B&H, the Android-powered camera has an ISO sensitivity from 80 to 51200, shutter speed up to 1/8000 to 30 seconds, continuous shooting at 37.4MP up to 3fps. And modes like Aperture Priority, Manual, Program, Shutter Priority are also present. It can record 4K UHD(3840×2160) at 30fps and FHD(1920×1080) videos at 60fps.

Apart from this, there is a rear 4.34-inch LCD HD(1280×720) touch screen display with a 338ppi. It even has an Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC integrated so users can shoot and edit videos on the go. Other features like 512GB storage, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth, USB-C, 3.5mm audio&mic jack are present. While the price is a bit higher compared to Sony’s RX1($3,300) and Leica’s Q2($4,995) cameras, we will have to wait and see how Zeiss has made the ZX1 unique to others.

Up Next: POCO C3 confirmed to arrive with 13MP triple rear cameras

LG’s new trademarks indicate more Q series smartphones could be in the pipeline

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Oct 5, 2020

South Korean giant LG is not done with the Q series of devices yet. A report says that the company has filed three new trademarks that could be the names of the upcoming Q series of mid-range smartphones.

A report from LetsGoDigital, who are experts at spotting patents, says that LG has filed three new trademarks. Those are Q43, Q63S, and Q83. The trademarks are under Class 9 which lists electronic devices including Smartphones as well. LG has applied this trademark on September 25, at KIPRIS. It stands for Korean Intellectual Property Rights Information Service, an authority that grants patents for companies in Korea.

For the unware, LG, which pre-dominantly launches innovative devices like LG Wing in South Korea, focuses equally on its mid-range Q and K series of devices. For instance, its Q70 debuted as the first LG punch-hole smartphone in 2019. Similarly, it has other devices like the LG Q60 that launched in India back in September.

Following these, LG launched successors like the Q61, Q51 a few months back. While many other devices are due for an update, LG’s previous trademark on Q indicates many devices like Q31, Q32, Q33, Q51, Q51S, Q52, Q53, Q61, Q62, Q63, Q91, Q92, and Q93 are in the pipeline. However, it’s new trademark has the number ‘3’. This suggests that this might come once LG is done updating the models with ‘2’ on it. Further, the report also says the ‘S’ in Q63S indicates it could be a watered-down variant of the Q63 in terms of performance. But come with a big display and battery. That said, these are early guesses, and hence, we advise you to take it with a pinch of salt.

LG recently launched the first 5G smartphone in Q series, the Q92 5G. It is the first 5G smartphone in the Q series and is priced at KRW 499,000 (~$420). While this looks like a toned-down variant of the LG Velvet 5G, LG also launched the budget Q31 smartphone at KRW 2,09,000 (~$178). Let’s wait and see if LG brings the upcoming Q series of devices to other markets apart from Korea in the future.

Up Next: LG Wing gets the teardown treatment showing us the entire internals

MIUI Notes app adds support for sketches in China

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Oct 5, 2020

Xiaomi has been continuously rolling out MIUI 12 beta builds to eligible devices ever since the company officially unveiled the latest version of its Android skin in late April. With every new build, the firm has been introducing new features like heart rate monitoring using phone’s camera and LED flash, device frame screenshots, OCR in Gallery app, long exposure shots, new sky replacement filter, paper reading mode, and more. Now, the smartphone maker has updated the MIUI Notes app with support for sketches.

Just like any other major Android skin, MIUI also comes with a bunch of first-party apps. One of them is MIUI Notes. As the name suggests, users can use this app to take quick notes and can even record audio notes.

With the latest closed beta version, which is currently being rolled out in China (via ITHome), users can now even sketch in the app. It is interesting to see Xiaomi adding support for sketch since none of its devices comes with a stylus. Maybe the company is preparing a smartphone or tablet with digitizer but that’s just a speculation from our end.

Anyway, users can sketch in MIUI Notes with their fingers or standard stylus accessory available in the market. But that’s not an ideal experience, however, it’s better than nothing.

That said, Xiaomi is not the first Chinese smartphone maker to introduce this feature as OPPO ColorOS and Meizu Flyme already offer this option.

DxOMark: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G scores 121 points; trails behind the Mi 10 Ultra

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Oct 5, 2020

As promised, DxOMark has released the camera review for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G. The review lab has given the flagship an overall score of 121 points which places it even under the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

For photos, the stylus-toting smartphone scored 130 points. DxOMark says the phone has similar photo capabilities to the Galaxy S20 Ultra and praises its “vivid color rendering, fast autofocusing, and generally accurate exposure”.

The review says that the telephoto lens of the phone performs well at long range and it records good detail both indoors and outdoors. The exposure and color are also praised, however, issues begin cropping up in medium-range shots as lots of artifacts become visible and there is a “strong loss of texture and detail occurs in the outer field”.

The ultra-wide-angle camera also gets praised even though its field of view is not as wide as that of other phones such as the Mi 10 Ultra. The portrait mode is another strong area as DxOMark says the bokeh quality is very good and the depth-of-field effect is strong. However, there are times it falls short, and its depth estimation is said to not be as good as that of the S20 Ultra. The full review explains in detail the camera performance.

For video, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra scored 101 points. DxOMark said that the test was done in 4K/30fps mode and that the phone captures bright and well-contrasted videos in simulated low light (20 lux) and bright light (1000 lux). However, its videos are darker than those of the S20 Ultra and Mi 10 Ultra in simulated low-light conditions (between 5 and 20 lux).

The phone scores are high with respect to the level of detail in bright light. The stabilization system also gets praise and autofocus is also great but there are some focus breathing issues that DxOMark says is also evident in photo mode.

OLED sales to rise by 107% in second half of 2020: Report

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Sean

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Oct 5, 2020

Organic light emitting diode or OLED display panels are expected to face a major bump in sales in the second half of this year. A new report has suggested that the display technology will see a rise in sales of 107 percent in the latter half.

According to TheElec report, a UBI Research analysis has revealed that the OLED panel shipments will reach 383 million units and sales worth 28 billion US Dollars in the second half od 2020. This marks a significant rise of 66 percent and 107 percent respectively when compared to the first half. It is also indicative of the growing OLED market, which has already surpassed the LCD panels.

In the first half of 2020, OLED shipments arrived at just 231 million units, which marked a drop of 29 percent when compared to the shipments from the second half of last year. The sales during this period also fell by 36 percent in comparison to 2019, with the overall sales value coming in at just 13.53 billion US Dollars. Notably, the rise in the second half of 2020 would likely also be influenced by major smartphone launches like the Huawei Mate 40 series and Apple iPhone 12 series as well.

Furthermore, smartphone OLED display panel shipments accounted for 190 million units in the first half of 2020. In other words, smartphone displays amounted to 82.2 percent of all OLED panel sales across the globe. For sales, this was evaluated at 11.26 billion US Dollars or 83.3 percent of the total sales in the entire OLED display market. These panels were also used in smartwatches, which was the second highest in terms of shipment volumes, with 33.48 million units or 14.4 percent of the total shipments.

Samsung scraps the idea of introducing Under-Display Camera technology with the Galaxy S21 series: Report

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