Best 6 reasons to grab Ulefone Armor 7E

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Mar 30, 2020

I have often wondered why a portable hairdryer can’t be used as a hand dryer. Well, it is possible for the hairdryer for dual or multiple functions asides drying wet hair but the practical approach to making it happen hasn’t seen the light of day until now. Xiaomi‘s ecological chain company Deerma has manufactured a practical hand and hairdryer device that performs both functions in the exact way they function separately, like infra-red detector for the hand dryer and others. The product dubbed Deerma Multifunctional Hair Dryer is now available for crowdfunding on Xiaomi Youpin with an impressive price tag of 249 yuan ($35). The product is expected to start shipping to backers in China from May 10.

The product is designed to give users an environmentally friendly and hygienic method of hand drying. The gadget comes with a stand which can be mounted on the wall. Thus, you can use it for hand drying without the need to touch the machine and by extension prevent cross-infection. The Delmar multi-functional hand dryer has a built-in infrared sensor, which can scan and sensitively identify human signals. The machine is automatically turned on when a signal from a human is detected. It then shuts down when the hand is removed.

The Deerma hand dryer features a high-torque high-speed motor with up to 26,000 rpm which delivers up to 14L/s high surging air volume, instant drying off excess water in the hand in a short while.

As a hairdryer, when it is turned on, the negative ions are released with the airflow and the concentration reaches 1 million pieces/cm3. Not only is the dry hand clean and hygienic, but the hair also is not frizzy. The product features an improved air duct structure. The spiral wind generated by the rotation of 6 fan blades can be transformed into the straight wind with a speed of up to 14m/s. The air duct also has a smooth structure which lowers the wind resistance. There are also three different wind temperatures of cold, medium heat, and hot. The wind speed can also be adjusted between high and low as desired.

The base which is the hand dryer also doubles as a storage rack for the hairdryer. Also, the company added several cool functions like two USB-A interfaces that can be used to charge other smaller gadgets such as electric shavers, electronic beauty mirror, electric toothbrushes, etc. You won’t need to drill the wall to mount the base

The machine base adopts a drilling-free, non-marking wall hanging, which can be easily installed with one stick and one hanging, and the smooth surface of the whole house is also suitable.

(source)

Huawei AX3, AX3 Pro and 5G CPE Pro 2 routers with WiFi 6+ launched

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Mar 30, 2020

Huawei recently disclosed that it shipped more than 12 million routers in 2019 with online sales accounting for a larger part of the sales. The massive sales also represent an increase of 139% year-on-year. To consolidate on the success, Huawei Smart Life has today announced what it touts to be the world’s first Wi-Fi 6+ smart routers. The routers come under a new AX3 series and are dubbed Huawei AX3 and AX3 Pro. The company equally launched the Huawei 5G CPE Pro 2. This router is an upgrade of the 5G CPE Pro that was launched last year.

The Huawei AX3 and AX3 Pro emerge as the world’s first router to come with support for WiFi 6+. The routers are equipped with a Kirin 650 and Kirin W650 chip respectively. The biggest feature of the Wi-Fi 6+ connectivity is that it supports a large bandwidth of 160MHz, while the traditional Wi-Fi 6 only has an 80MHz frequency band, thus doubling the speed at close range.

The second major feature of Huawei Wi-Fi 6+ is the support for a dynamic narrow bandwidth. By reducing the bandwidth of the mobile phone backhaul router, the signal strength can be increased by up to 6dB at the same transmit power.

In addition, Huawei AX3 series routers support Huawei’s one-touch networking, mobile acceleration, online lesson acceleration, remote office acceleration, and child online protection.

On its part, the new Huawei 5G CPE Pro 2 brings along 5G download speeds of up to 3.6Gbps which is double the speed of the first-gen model. The router equally supports up to 11 5G bands and has a 33% reduction in volume over the previous generation. The super uplink near field speed gets an increase of up to 20-60% while the far-field speed is increased by 200- 400%. The router is also equipped with a unique magnetic dipole antenna which improves coverage by 30%. It is powered by the 7nm Balong 5000 chipset that supports 5G NSA and 5G SA networks. This version also supports the WiFi 6+ protocol.

There is no word yet on their pricing and availability.

Huawei offers India technological solutions to help combat COVID-19

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Mar 30, 2020

As of today (March 30) India has recorded 1,071 cases of Coronavirus infection with 29 deaths. There are fears that the numbers could skyrocket within a short space of time despite the government’s efforts to contain its spread. Chinese tech giant Huawei is now offering to share resources with the Indian government that could help in the fight against COVID-19.

Huawei India’s CEO jay Chen is reported to have disclosed to ET that the company was working on solutions to apply its learnings and experience from China’s situation to help fight the disease. The company is looking to deploy new technology such as remote temperature monitoring which could help contain the spread of COVID-19. He also disclosed that the company is ready to deploy 5G+ thermal imaging which was one of the measures used in China to contain the spread of coronavirus infection. The technology is capable of monitoring the temperature of a moving object accurately and in real-time. It also would issue alert to any abnormal reading and eliminates the need to make contact with the person.

The tech giant is basically proposing the use of 5G technology to power teleconferencing which could aid medical experts to treat patients even when they are not physically present. Also, 5G remote imaging diagnosis platforms, 5G medical robots to help care for quarantined patients are some other ways the high-speed internet 5G offers could be used.

Unfortunately, India is yet to commence 5G field trials as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was expected to begin the tests within this month. The DoT had already met with telcos and their gear vendor partners to discuss use cases and their preparedness. The 21-day nationwide lockdown has definitely affected the plans as telcos focus on ensuring they sustain the delivery of voice and data connectivity to users.

(via)

Huawei Nova 7 may come with a Kirin 985 processor

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Mar 30, 2020

The Huawei Nova 7 series is expected to be announced next month. At least three phones are expected – the Nova 7 SE which should be the second phone with the new Kirin 820 5G chipset; the Nova 7; and the Nova 7 Pro with all having support for 5G.

The Nova 7 and Nova 7 Pro should have the Kirin 990 5G chipsets but the latest reports say the Nova 7 may actually come with a different processor – a new chipset to be unveiled soon called the Kirin 985.

Of course, this is not the first time we have heard of the Kirin 985. Prior to the launch of the Kirin 990 and Kirin 990 5G, it was reported that Huawei was working on a processor called the Kirin 985 and that it would power the P30 series but that didn’t happen. It was then reported that it would launch in the second half of 2019 but that too didn’t happen.

A Chinese blogger posted a few days ago on Weibo that the Kirin 985 (name might be changed) is coming.

Going by previous knowledge of the chipset, it may be built using the 7nm+ EUV lithography process and will be paired with the Balong 5000 modem. With respect to performance, it should be more powerful than the Kirin 820 5G.

Huawei Central reported that the chipset may power the Nova 7 Pro too but seeing as the Nova 6 5G is powered by a Kirin 990 chipset, and the Kirin 985 is not going to be more powerful than it (Kirin 990), it makes no sense to use the Kirin 985 in the Nova 7 Pro.

(Via: 1, 2)

Kirin 820 5G SoC ranks third in AI-Benchmark, Huawei / Honor Phones hold the Top 7 Positions

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Sudarshan Ravichandran

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Mar 30, 2020

At the Honor 30S launch event, the brand also officially announced the HiSilicon Krin 820 5G SoC, which also happens to power the new mid-range smartphone from the company. Now, the AI benchmark score of the new chipset is out, revealing it to be only less powerful than the manufacturer’s own HiSilicon Krin 990 5G SoC and MediaTek’s Dimensity 1000 5G SoC.

Huawei has been leading in on-device AI processing on mobile chipsets for the past couple of years. The company’s Kirin 970 was the first mobile SoC to feature a dedicated NPU (Neural Processing Unit). Later, in the following year, the Kirin 980 became the world’s first mobile SoC to feature a dual NPU design.

Now, even with a single-core NPU on Kirin 820 5G chipset, the manufacturer has mastered AI performance. In fact, the newest mid-range silicon from the company is 73% better in AI processing than its predecessor Kirin 810 from last year.

Talking about pure AI-Benchmark score, the all-new Kirin 820 5G garners 41838 points, and thus makes its way to the third position. The first two places are occupied by Kirin 990 5G and MediaTek Dimensity 1000 5G with an overall score of 70185 and 56158 respectively. Also, it is worth noting that non-5G version of Kirin 990 scores lesser than the new Kirin 820 5G with a score of 41773 points

Smartphones-wise, the Honor 30S with the Kirin 820 5G bags the 6th position with a score of 60843 points. Unsurprisingly, the top 7 positions are acquired by Huawei and Honor smartphones with Huawei P40 leading the chart. This is because we are yet to see a smartphone powered by MediaTek Dimensity 1000 5G SoC.

POCO GM reveals the Redmi K30 Pro won’t launch as POCO F2 in India

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Mar 30, 2020

Recently, Xiaomi‘s now independent Poco brand launched the popular POCO X2 and it was basically a rebranded Redmi K30 that was earlier launched in China. This may have fuelled speculations that the Redmi K30 Pro 5G which was equally unveiled in China recently will make its debut in India as Poco F2. An XDA Developers member equally found some code which suggests the Redmi K30 Pro may launch as a POCO branded phone, possibly the much-anticipated POCO F2.

That speculation or expectation has just been squashed by POCO GM C Manmohan. The GM held an interactive Zoom meeting today with fans where he shared some few information. The most important is the disclosure that the POCO F2 is different from the flagship Redmi K30 Pro. He also disclosed that the F2 is in the works and for those expecting a POCO F1 kind of surprise, he spilt some disappointing words. The Poco GM announced that the F2 will definitely not be priced around Rs 20,000 (~$265).

Recall that the POCO F1 had a RS 20,000 price tag when it was launched in 2018. This is despite packing a Snapdragon 845 chipset, a Liquid Cooling system and more. This was a crazy price tag which definitely was superb value for money offering. But then, Xiaomi couldn’t have claimed any reasonable profit from the product as the price wasn’t competitive at all. He even advised those with a budget of around Rs 20,000 (~$265) to go for the Poco X2 instead.

While Manmohan may have put paid to speculation of the Redmi K30 Pro 5G launching as Poco F2, we may still see the Redmi K30 Pro launch in India under the POCO brand but not as F2.

Furthermore, the Poco GM has also confirmed that the company is working on TWS earbuds. No word yet on the features or launch.

(via)

ZTE a1 ZTG01 5G with Snapdragon 765G unveiled in Japan for reservation

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Mar 30, 2020

ZTE has always set its sight on 5G to improve on its smartphone market shares. The company already launched the Axon 11 5G as its first 5G phone. A new ZTE-branded 5G phone has now appeared on the website of Japanese carrier au. The device is already available for reservation on the carrier’s website but the price is yet to be revealed.

The ZTE a1 features a 6.5-inch LCD display with FullHD+ resolution. The display features a punch-hole design situated at the top left corner and it houses a 32MP sensor.

The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset which places it in the mid-range segment. The phone is a premium mid-ranger as it packs support for 5G connectivity which is probably why it is being introduced in Japan. The processor is paired with 6GB RAM while there is a 128GB storage that can be expanded up to 1TB.

The phone will pack a quad-camera setup which is designed like the Axon 11 5G setup. The camera configuration includes a 48MP main camera as well an 8MP, a 2MP, and a ToF sensor. The phone packs a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. Under the hood, is a 4000mAh battery while the phone gest its interface from an Android 10 operating system. Other features include Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac.

ZTE a1 ZTG01 will be released sometime in July. The phone comes in black only.

(source)

Official: OnePlus 8 series will be launched on April 14

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Mar 30, 2020

After months of leaks, the OnePlus 8 series finally has a launch date. OnePlus has announced that its new flagships will be unveiled on Tuesday, April 14, 2020.

OnePlus 8 Glow — OnePlus 8 Interstellar Glow

The OnePlus 8 series launch event will be live-streamed and it will begin at 11 AM EDT/3 PM GMT/4 PM BST/8:30 PM IST. At the moment, it appears only the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro will be announced on that day.

The #OnePlus8Series is coming. April 14.

— OnePlus (@oneplus) March 30, 2020

The OnePlus 8 series will come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 processor with all-in-one 5G. The standard version will have a 90Hz Fluid AMOLED display with a punch hole and a 1080p resolution. The Pro model is expected to have a 120Hz QHD+ AMOLED panel with a punch hole too.

Other differences between the two devices include triple rear cameras on the OnePlus 8 and quad rear cameras on the OnePlus 8 Pro. The latter will also have a bigger battery capacity, support for fast wireless charging, support for reverse wireless charging, and also up to 30x digital zoom.

The OnePlus 8 series will run Android 10 out of the box and should come with a new version of OxygenOS. The phones are expected to cost a little more than their predecessors.

OnePlus is expected to launch a third phone too originally thought to be called the OnePlus 8 Lite. However, a new report says it may actually hit markets as the OnePlus Z. This makes sense considering the fact that there was a OnePlus X and a OnePlus Y will definitely be the butt of several jokes.

Honor 9A announced with a large 5000mAh battery & Budget Pricing

By

Joel Joseph

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Mar 30, 2020

While the Honor 30S was the highlight of the event today, the brand also announced the Honor 9A, a budget smartphone with a large battery. The phone comes with a simple design and a large 5000mAh battery which Honor claims is good for up to 3 days on a single charge.

The Honor 9A features a 6.3-inch waterdrop display with a 20:9 aspect ratio. The phone comes with the MT6765 Helio P35 chipset with dual SIM 4G support, VoLTE, EROFS file system and other features such as AI face unlock, rear fingerprint sensor, eReader mode, and WeChat and AliPay support.

The company didn’t go into the details of the specifications of the Honor 9A but focused on its battery capacity and reverse charging capability. The phone’s 5000mAh battery can reverse charge other devices at 5V1.2A. This large battery is good for 35 hours of video playback, 33 hours of 4G talk time, and 37 hours of FM radio playback. The phone also comes with a smart PA speaker system which is the company claims is loud.

The Honor 9A starts at 899 yuan (~$127) for the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant and goes up to 1199 yuan (~$169) for the 4GB RAM and 128GB storage model. There are three colors available at launch: Green, Blue, and Black.

Pre-sale kicks off today at 10 PM in China and the first online and offline sale is on April 7, the same day as the Kirin 820 equipped Honor 30S goes on sale.

Huawei router shipments cross 12 million units in 2019

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Mar 30, 2020

In a recent press conference held by Huawei, the Chinese tech giant announced that its routers had crossed 12 million units in shipment in 2019 alone. The announcement was made by Zhi Hao, the President of Huawei’s Consumer business IoT product line.

According to the senior executive, the tech giant had achieved the 12 million unit shipment in 2019, with products priced over 200 Yuan (roughly 28 US Dollars) having the most dominant share. Notably, online sales accounted for this and 2019 as the sales up by 139 percent over 2019. This includes the company’s routers with the latest Wi-Fi 6 standards.

For those unaware, Wi-Fi 6 is the latest generation in the standards. One of the biggest improvements it has made is the introduction of 5G technology. In other words, it has two high and two low bandwidths (high bandwidth, high concurrency, low latency, low power consumption). This also translates to an overall faster networking speed support, with better and wider coverage over the previous generations.

As of right now, Huawei is one of the leading figures in Wi-Fi 6 routers and other AIoT products. 2019 saw the breakout of the technology while 2020 is already witnessing a more widespread commercial adoption. This means that 2020 may surpass even 2019 with its overall router sales figures, although thee recent coronavirus outbreak might have certain negative impacts on sales as well.

Huawei also used the press conference as a stage to talk about its new Wi-Fi 6+ technology. The new routers are based on a self developed custom chipset. It will also soon be found in Huawei smartphones, tablets, smart displays, and other terminals and routers as well. The new chipset is dubbed that Kirin W650 and takes advantage of the company’s end to end dynamic narrow bandwidth technology.

(Via)

Honor 30S 5G launched with the 7nm Kirin 820 & 64MP quad-cameras with 3x Optical Zoom

By

Joel Joseph

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Mar 30, 2020

Just a few days after announcing the Huawei P40 series globally, the company’s sub-brand, Honor has announced the Honor 30S for China. This will be the company’s upper mid-range device, placed below the flagship P40 series with 5G connectivity. The Honor 30S is the first smartphone to use the company’s awaited Kirin 820 chipset.

The Honor 30S builds on the design of its predecessor. So it features the same rounded corners and the butterfly 3D glass back design as seen on the Honor 20S. There’s a side-mounted fingerprint sensor too! One big difference at the back is the new rectangular matrix camera housing that features four cameras and a flash module. Upfront, the phone features a single punch-hole camera similar to its predecessor.

The Honor 30S comes in four colors: Black, Blue, Green, and a new Feather Red gradient model.

Honor 30S Specs

The Honor 30S comes with the new 7nm Kirin 820 processor. Despite its mid-range placement, the chipset offers incredible performance and AI capability comparable to some of the best processors of 2020. The chip comes with 1 x Cortex-A76 core clocked at 2.36GHz, 3 x Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.22GHz, and 4 x Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.84GHz. Thanks to this chip, the Honor 30S does way better than some of the best flagships in the market today in terms of AI performance. You have Mali-G57 6-core GPU taking care of graphics.

The phone comes with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. Note that these are LPDDR4X and UFS 2.1 standards, respectively. The Honor 30S has a 6.5-inch LTPS LCD punch-hole display upfront with 2400 × 1080 pixel resolution and HDR10 certification. Thanks to Kirin 820, the phone supports 5G SA/NSA dual-mode standards and Wi-Fi ac, BL 5.1, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Note that there’s no NFC or an IR port.

The Honor 30S also supports a special e-Reader mode (Black & White), eye-protection mode, Link Turbo, GPU Turbo and an anti-aging software feature that the company claims will keep the UI smooth and snappy for more than 30 months.

The phone comes with a 4000mAh battery with 40W fast wired charging. It runs on Magic UI 3.1.1 on top of Android 10.

Honor 30S Camera Setup

The Honor 30S comes with a quad-camera setup at the back. The primary camera is a 64MP f/1.8 shooter which is paired with an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto shooter with 3x optical zoom, 5x hybrid zoom, and 20x digital zoom. There’s another 8MP f/2.4 ultra-wide-angle lens and finally, a 2MP f/2.4 macro shooter which can take close up shots up to 4cm. Unfortunately, the phone doesn’t get OIS.

The new Honor model supports 4K videos and 960fps slo-mo video at 720p resolution. You also get AIS and EIS for stabilization.

There’s a single front punch-hole camera of 16MP taking care of your selfie needs.

Honor 30S Pricing & Availability

The Pricing and availability details of the Honor 30S are as follows.

8GB RAM + 128GB ROM – 2399 yuan (~$338)

8GB RAM + 256GB ROM – 2699 yuan (~$380)

The Honor 30S will be up for pre-sale at 9 PM today in China and will go on sale for the first time on April 7. Offline sales in China kick off from April 10. Notably, the Huawei P40 series, including the brand new Huawei P40 Pro Plus will launch in China on April 8.

Honor 30S official camera samples showcase the camera prowess

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Mar 30, 2020

Honor is set to unveil its first smartphone for 2020 tonight. The Honor 30S will debut along with the Kirin 820 chipset that will power the device. Just before the conference kicks off, an Honor exec has shared a couple of samples captured by the Honor 30S’ camera.

The sample showcases the camera prowess of the Honor 3S’s wide-angle and telephoto lens. The Honor exec, Xiong Junmin disclosed that from 0.6x ultra-wide-angle to 3x zoom to 10x telephoto, the Honor 30S image system has a wider focal range, achieving full scene coverage in life.

The vivid, clear shots are not just only because the lens quality is high enough, but also due to the high processing power of the Kirin 820 chip. The chipset is said to use the same in-house ISP 5.0 found on the Kirin 990.

The Honor 30S has previously been revealed to pack a quad-camera setup at the rear in a matrix arrangement. The main camera is also revealed as a 64MP sensor with support for 3x optical zoom. Honor will release full details of the specs during the conference.

UPDATE: The Honor 30S has indeed been launched and here are some more camera samples released during the unveiling event.

Redmi K30 5G receives its First Price Cut in China

By

Sudarshan Ravichandran

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Mar 30, 2020

Redmi K30 5G, the brand’s first 5G smartphone was announced in December 2019 but it was made available to purchase only in January 2020. Now, just after two months from its release, the brand’s general manager Lu Weibing announces a permanent price cut on all the storage variants of the handset, except for the base version.

The Redmi K30 5G is the world’s first smartphone to feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G 5G chipset. Also, it is the cheapest phone to come with this SoC. Now, the brand reduces is price further down to make it even more affordable. However, the price cut is not applicable to the base 6GB + 64GB version, which will continue to retail for 1999 Yuan ($282).

The Redmi K30 5G will be available at a new reduced price as listed-below from 12 AM, 31st March 2020 in China.

Storage Variants	Launch Price	New Price	Price Cut
6GB + 64GB	1999 Yuan ($282)	1999 Yuan ($282)	No Change
6GB + 128GB	2299 Yuan ($324)	2199 Yuan ($310)	100 Yuan ($14)
8GB + 128GB	2599 Yuan ($366)	2399 Yuan ($338)	200 Yuan ($28)
8GB + 256GB	2899 Yuan ($408)	2699 Yuan ($380)	200 Yuan ($28)

As you can see from the above table, the base 6GB + 64GB variant does not receive any price cut and the price of 6GB + 128GB version has been only reduced by 100 Yuan ($14). However, the latter two storage configurations, 8GB + 128GB and 8GB + 256GB to be exact, gets a 200 Yuan ($28) price cut each.

Honor unveils 7nm Kirin 820 5G chipset; brings big improvements over the Kirin 810

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Mar 30, 2020

At the Honor 30S launch event held in China today, the manufacturer announced the Kirin 820 5G which is the first mid-range 5G processor from Huawei’s HiSilicon semiconductor arm.

The Kirin 820 5G is a 7nm processor that is touted as an upgraded version of the Kirin 810.

Starting with the CPU, the Kirin 820 5G has 8 cores arranged in a 1+3+4 configuration. There is a prime Cortex-A76 core clocked at 2.36GHz and it is paired with three other Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.22GHz. The remaining four cores are Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.84GHz.

The Kirin 820 comes with a Mali-G57 GPU with six cores, but the clockspeed wasn’t mentioned. There is also a new feature called Kirin Gaming+ 2.0 that should bring improvements to gaming.

There is 1 Big core for the NPU and a Kirin ISP 5.0 inside the new chipset. The new ISP is 15% more energy-efficient and brings a 30% reduction in image noise with support for BM3D SLR image noise reduction. This is the same ISP used in the Kirin 990.

The Kirin 820 5G is said to offer a 27% improvement in performance compared to the Kirin 810. It also brings a 38% improvement in GPU capabilities. While the new NPU improves AI performance by 73%.

The processor has a built-in modem that supports both SA and NSA networks. It supports 5G dual-mode and five frequency bands – n1, n3, n41, n78, and n79. You can set SIM 1 to 5G while the second SIM slot is set to VoLTE or you can have both SIM slots set to VoLTE.

At the moment, the Honor 30S is still the only phone with a Kirin 820 5G SoC but expect more phones from both Honor and Huawei to launch in the coming weeks and months.

Xiaomi Wuhan HQ official resumes operations, with nearly 2000 employees

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Mar 30, 2020

Earlier today (30th March 2020), Xiaomi had announced that its Wuhan Headquarters has officially resumed operations. The Chinese company has just sent the first batch of employees to the site with “epidemic care packages” that included masks, hand sanitizer, and a red envelope.

The tech giant has emphasized prevention and caution at work for its Wuhan Headquarters. Xiaomi will operate on stricter prevention and control measures such as two temperature measurements, two masks, and a meal sharing system as well, all to build a strong defense against the recent Coronavirus pandemic.

The headquarters has just recently opened back in December 2019. However, the site was a force to shut down after confirmed cases of infection surfaced on 20th January 2020. Now, nearly two months after, the Wuhan headquarters has finally opened again after forcing its employees to take a vacation to set up an epidemic prevention and control team. Amongst the near 2,000 employees, everyone has been screened for the infection with no cases having been discovered so far.

Xiaomi Wuhan headquarters had started construction back on 25th November 2018 and is located in the Wuhan East Lake zone and features an L shaped design. Its total surface area covers nearly 52,000 square meters with 2 floors underground and 7 floors above ground. It can accommodate about 2,400 to 3,000 employees in total as well.

For those unaware, the Wuhan district in China was where the recent Coronavirus outbreak was first discovered. Since then it has spread to upwards of 178 countries, while the Chinese government had imposed lockdowns on the city and various offices and factories like the Xiaomi Headquarters, to curb the further spreading of the infection.

Huawei Exec: Cost of Foldable phones is too high to make a profit

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Mar 30, 2020

In a recent press conference, the CEO of Huawei‘s customer Business, Yu Chengdong, stated that the cost of flexible displays on foldable smartphones are too expensive at the moment. This means that it is virtually impossible to make a profit.

Huawei had recently launched the Mate Xs, which is the successor to the first foldable smartphone from the company and features various improvements. Both the devices carried a hefty price tag and are generally considered premium grade high end devices that only enthusiasts would buy. With a price tag over 10,000 Yuan (over 1400 US Dollars), one could afford even afford high end desktops or laptops at this range.

During the press conference, Yu Chengdong was asked if the price of the foldable phones be about the same as an ordinary phone in the near future. To this, the senior executive responded saying, “I think we need more than a year, maybe a year and a half or two years.” He even mentioned that the cost of this kind of product is extremely high and that the company is losing money.

According to Yu Chengdong, the cost of making foldable smartphones like the Mate Xs is so high that there is virtually no way to make a profit. However, the reason Huawei is still focusing on expanding the production is due to the fact that its demand is impressively larger than expected, despite the 16,999 Yuan price tag (roughly 2,400 US Dollars).

For those unaware, the Huawei Mate Xs is an upgrade over the original Mate X. It features the new Kirin 990 5G SoC with various improvements to performance and battery life. The new designs also enhance the durability of the device and makes it a better foldable handset overall with an improved hinge mechanism as well.

(Via)

Huawei CEO wants to bring Google back to their smartphones

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Mar 30, 2020

Back in 2019, Huawei had faced a ban from the US Government, with the Chinese tech giant being placed in the “Entity List.” This effectively blacklisted the company, banning them from working, trading or buying and selling goods and services from or to another company based in the US. Meaning, Huawei could no longer support Google Mobile Services (GMS) on their new releases and had to ship smartphones with vanilla Android.

Following this, Huawei had to develop its own alternative, which is the now available Huawei Mobile services with its own AppGallery and more. The ban from the US Government had severely hampered the company’s plans, but it had also boosted Huawei’s future plans for its smartphones that featured more proprietary software and hardware.

Huawei's Richard Yu — Huawei’s Richard Yu (CEO)

Now, in recent interview with Wired, Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, mentioned that he wants to bring Google and its services back to their smartphones. The senior executive stated that the company had raked in large sums of profits for Google and had been “very good partners.” Furthermore, he hopes that, “we can get the license from the US government. We are open. In the interests of the value of those US companies, they should… I hope they can give us the license.”

In other words, Google services like Play Store would be preferable as it stil offers more choice in comparison to the newly launched HMS (Huawei Mobile Services). According to Richard, they wish to stay on the Android platform with Google’s integral services. For this the company would require the US Government’s license, which is given to company’s that wish to cooperate with Huawei since the ban.

The CEO also talked about other aspects in the interview as well, touching on the topic of the affect of the recent Coronavirus outbreak while discussing its Celia voice assistant, AppGallery and TomTom map system. The new software are meant to fill in the void left by Google while the company is taking active steps in providing precautionary and health safety measures in its factories in China.

(Via)

OnePlus’s TWS Earbuds will not launch alongside the OnePlus 8 series

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Mar 30, 2020

OnePlus is expected to launch its first pair of TWS earbuds this year. News of the earbuds first surfaced in December when leaker Max J. (@MaxJmb) shared a concept teaser image for the product.

The leaker has revealed in a tweet that the earbuds will not arrive next month along with the OnePlus 8. That sure is disappointing news for those looking forward to the earbuds.

Sadly not

— Max J. (@MaxJmb) March 29, 2020

There is no info on why the OnePlus TWS Earbuds (official name still unknown) will not launch next month since it is a perfect time for OnePlus to unveil its latest audio product.

However, we can assume it is because of the Coronavirus pandemic which may have affected production. So rather than announcing a product that will not be available for purchase, they are postponing the launch.

We still do not know what the earbuds look like or what features it will pack. We do have a feeling it will support wireless charging, so OnePlus 8 Pro owners can charge it using the reverse wireless charging feature of their phone.

Are you excited about the OnePlus TWS Earbuds? How much are you willing to pay for it when it launches?

OnePlus 7T Pro officially discontinued, OnePlus 8 Pro may arrive soon

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