Blackview has had a long-standing relationship with MediaTek with its recent smartphones like the BV9900 featuring the Helio P90 chipset inside. Today, the Chinese rugged smartphone maker has confirmed that it will launch its first 5G rugged flagship next year. What’s even more interesting is that Blackview confirmed the 5G phone will be powered by the new MediaTek Dimensity 1000 chipset.
5G seems to be a hot feature among smartphone manufacturers this year with all major tech giants releasing at least one 5G model in the market. However, the competition for 5G will further intensify in 2020, with more manufacturers, including ones like Blackview expected to join the party.
Blackview’s smartphones are usually pretty affordable, so we would have expected it to feature something like the upcoming mid-range MT6873 chipset from MediaTek. So the jump to MT6889 Dimensity 1000 is a big deal for the rugged smartphone maker.
Rugged smartphones are usually placed between low-end and mid-range with a core focus on its rugged features. But with 5G and Dimensity 1000, things could get really exciting in the rugged smartphone market. You could finally get a smartphone that’s rugged, powerful like a flagship, and affordable at the same time. Notably, even Ulefone has confirmed a 5G rugged smartphone based on the same Dimensity 1000 chipset.
As of now, that’s all we know about the upcoming Blackview rugged flagship. We can expect more details in the coming weeks.
Historically, Apple has primarily relied on Chinese manufacturers and their home facilities for the mass production of their iPhone lineups. However, in recent times the American company has been taking planned downsizing steps in the region whilst investing its production in other countries such as India and Vietnam. Now, Apple is starting to export from India after Foxconn started the production of the iPhone XR.
iPhone XR Camera
According to a report, Apple will see an export doubling its value to $3.2 billion this fiscal year. The Cupertino-based company is set to increase its manufacturing and financial commitment within the Indian subcontinent. Ravi Shankar Prasad, IT and Electronics Minister, met Foxconn officials that stated that the iPhone XR model is now being made in the Chennai (Tami Nadu) factory in South India. Initially, Apple had first invested in Indian production and manufacturing via Wistron. It is another Taiwanese maker similar to Foxconn but is based in Bangalore, Karnataka.
Foxconn Group Chairman, Terry Gou, stated that the company is looking at the beginning of mass production of iPhones in India. This is in line with the Indian Government’s interests as the country wishes to be a preferred manufacturing destination for electronics based companies. India is known to levy import duties and tariffs on foreign imports. However, the country also helps incentivize foreign manufacturers to set up production within India. Notable examples include major brands such as Xiaomi, Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, and LG.
iPhone XR (Black)
Local manufacturing also ensures that Apple can avoid the 20% duty that the Indian Government has mandated for imported devices. Thus, the American tech giant is hopeful of pricing its handset offerings more aggressively within the second-largest smartphone market in the world after China.
The HMD owned smartphone brand, Nokia, is celebrating both Black Friday and its third anniversary in India. The celebration brings about new offers which includes gift cards. Nokia’s online store in India is hosting a special promotion this week which has select Nokia models arriving with gift cards worth up to INR 5,000 (or roughly 492 CNY and 70 USD).
Nokia 8.1
During the special sale, Nokia has announced that the 5000 rupees gift cards will be available with the Nokia 7.2, Nokia 6.1 Plus and Nokia 5.1 Plus. The company also offers a 2000 rupees (approx. 28 USD or 196) gift card on devices such as the Nokia 8.1, Nokia 4.2, Nokia 3.1 Plus, Nokia 3.2 and lastly Nokia 2.2. Notably, the Nokia 6.2 will also be available during the sale and buyers will receive a 4000 rupees (approx. 56 USD or 392 CNY) gift card on purchase.
The offer is valid on the website until the 1st of December 2019. To avail this offer, users must use the promo code ‘GIFTCARD’ at the checkout page online. The gift card is valid for 30 days from the date of being issues and cannot be redeemed on the next purchase from the Indian Nokia website.
Nokia 2.2
Notably, the announcement of the promotional week arrives shortly after the company had announced a price cut on the Nokia 2.2. It was previously available for INR 7,699 (757 CNY or 107 USD) and is now priced at INR 5,999 (590 CNY or 84 USD). The deal is valid until 1st December until 7:30 pm (this Sunday). So, interested readers from India should quickly check the official Indian Nokia website.
Hong Kong-based smartphone manufacturer Infinix Mobile has just added a new product to its wearable fitness line-up. The Infinix Band 5 launched in India today (November 27), following the successful run of the XBand 3, which had launched in May 2019. Both fitness bands are currently available on Flipkart.
Infinix Band 5 Specifications and Features
One of the major highlights of the Infinix Band 5 is its colorful 0.96-inch LCD display. The fitness tracker features IP67 certification that makes it water and dust-resistant. Users do not have to worry about exposing the tracker to sweat and dust for a prolonged duration. The device also flaunts a continuous heart rate monitor.
The Infinix Band 5 is compatible with Android 4.4 or higher and iOS 8.0 or higher. The device features notifications alert, weather forecast, find-my-phone, sleep monitoring, calorie count, step count, sedentary reminder, distance count, alarm reminder and multiple sport modes. The device displays time and the user can raise their hand to wake up the screen.
The device also supports one-button incoming call rejection while the tracker can be shaken to click pictures. The recorded data is easily accessible via the Infinix Life2.0 app. The Infinix Band 5 is powered by a 90mAh battery that lasts up to seven days on a single charge. The tracker offers 23 days of standby time. The Infinix Band 5 directly competes with Xiaomi’s Mi Band 3i.
Infinix Band 5 Price and Availability
The Infinix Band 5 is available in three colors, namely red, black and blue. The device is priced at Rs. 1,799 (~$25) and will be available on Flipkart starting Dec. 3.
Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro was announced earlier this month in China with a massive 108MP sensor at the back. The phone had a special CC9 Pro Premium edition as well featuring the world’s first 8P lens on a smartphone. However, ever since its launch, this special edition was pretty hard to purchase due to supply issues. That changed recently as the Mi CC9 Pro Premium Edition is now available via open sale in China.
Xiaomi’s product manager Thomas Wang revealed that the company was struggling to procure a steady supply of the 8P lens in the first two weeks post-launch due to low production yield. However, the supply has stabilized now which allowed Xiaomi to list the Premium Edition on open sale. This particular edition is available on the company’s official website in 8GB RAM + 256GB variant for 3499 yuan ($498).
The Mi CC9 Pro comes with the mid-range Snapdragon 730G SoC. There’s a powerful penta-camera setup at the back featuring a 108 MP sensor along with a 5 MP (upscaled to 8MP) telephoto sensor with 5x optical zoom, another 12 MP 50mm (telephoto) 2x optical zoom lens, a 20 MP ultrawide shooter and a 2 MP dedicated macro lens. Up front there’s a 32MP sensor. A large 5260 mAh battery powers the device.
On Dec. 5, Huawei will be announcing the Huawei Nova 6 series of smartphones in China. The Nova 6 5G (model number WLZ-AN00) and Nova 6 (model number WLZ-AL10) were certified by the 3C authority of China. Ahead of the launch, the Nova 6 5G has been spotted on Geekbench with some of its key specs. It has revealed that it will be yet another phone from the company that will be equipped with Kirin 990 chipset.
The Huawei Nova 6 5G has scored 3,821 in the single-core test of Geekbench. In its multi-core test, the phone is recorded a score of 11,936. The Nova 6 5G is preloaded with Android 10 OS and it has 8 GB of RAM.
Yesterday, Honor had launched the Honor V30 and Honor V30 Pro smartphones. Both are 5G-ready devices. The V30 features Kirin 990 SoC along with Balong 5000 5G modem. On the other hand, the Kirin 990 5G chipset that is integrated with a 5G modem powers the Honor V30 Pro. The Kirin 990 SoC has a 1.86GHz base frequency and its 5G version has 1.96GHz base frequency.
The octa-core processor that fuels the Huawei Nova 6 5G phone that has appeared on Geekbench has 1.86GHz base frequency. It indicates that the phone will be equipped with Kirin 990 chipset and it will come with a separate Balong 5000 5G modem for 5G connectivity. The 3C certification of the 4G and 5G editions of the Nova 6 had revealed that it may arrive with 40W rapid charging technology.
The Chinese firm has already revealed that the Huawei Nova 6 is fitted with a display that features a pill-shaped punch-hole at the upper-left corner. Probably, it could be housing the same 6.57-inch IPS LCD display that is available on the Honor V30. The punch-hole houses two cameras sensors out of which one is a 32-megapixel sensor. The company has confirmed that the phone will allow user to capture 105-degree wide-angle selfie shots.
The Nova 6 is equipped with a side-mounted fingerprint reader. It is expected to come equipped with a Sony IMX686 60-megapixel quad camera system on its back. Leaked renders have revealed that the phone may arrive in multiple color editions like red, purple, blue and black. Rumors are rife that the company will be also announcing the Kirin 810 powered Nova 6 SE smartphone alongside Nova 6 on Dec. 5.
It’s been just a few weeks since the launch of Redmi Note 8, and the third-party developers have even extended support for unofficial TWRP Recovery. The users can now quickly flash third-party custom recovery – TWRP without any issue. Most of the features are working flawlessly and can be used to backup data and flash stock ROM. Moreover, it can be used to ease the customization by flashing custom ROMs, Kernels, MODs shortly.
The Unofficial TWRP for Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 packs features such as working decryption, OTG, Backups, F2Fs support, Fastboot support, and a lot more. The users can flash it to replace the stock recovery. It can be flashed easily by following the steps below.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 Soc coupled with Adreno 610 for handling graphics. It houses a 6.3-inch display sporting resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels with 409 ppi of pixel density. The huge display is well protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
The Xiaomi has made it available in various storage variants to cater to every type of user. The least comes with 3GB RAM and a 32 GB Internal storage. There are also 4GB + 64 G, 6GB + 64GB, 4GBB + 128 GB and 6GB + 128GB internal storage variants of Redmi Note 8. The phone also supports expandable storage upto 256GB via microSD card slot.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 features a quad rear camera setup featuring a 48-megapixel primary lens, an 8-megapixel ultrawide, a 2-megapixel macro, and another 2-megapixel depth sensor. On the front, there’s a 13-megapixel camera for selfies and video calling. In connectivity, the user can enjoy WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, FM Radio, and USB 2.0. Redmi Note 8 packs a 4000 mAh Li-Po battery with 18W fast charging. It is available four different colors of Neptune Black, Moonlight White, Space black, and nebula Purple.
Note: Installing custom recovery may void your warranty. GizmoChina does not endorse in rooting or making any changes to your device. You may proceed to install the custom recovery at your own risk. If any damage to data or device happens, GizmoChina should not be held responsible.
Enable Developers Option by heading to the Settings > About Phone > Tap MIUI Version 7 times.
Enable USB Debugging Mode by heading to the Settings > Additional Settings > toggle USB Debugging option.
Steps to install TWRP on Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
Follow each step carefully. Otherwise, your device may brick.
Make sure you have enabled the USB Debugging option by following the above steps.
Now, extract the ADB and Fastboot Drivers into a folder on your PC.
Open CMD or Powershell by pressing Shift + Right Click on an empty space in the folder created by following the above step.
Connect your device with the PC via USB cable.
Execute the following command to boot into bootloader/fastboot mode of Redmi Note 8 pro. (Note: A popup for permission to “Allow USB debugging” will come, tap OK.)
adb reboot bootloader
Type the following command to flash the TWRP recovery on Redmi Note 8.
Once TWRP gets flashed on your device, type the following command to reboot your smartphone:
fastboot reboot
That’s it! Now, you can enjoy the custom recovery.
The custom recovery will open doors for the ability to flash custom ROMs, Mods, and kernels in the future. There are many other benefits of using a custom recovery. It allows you to take a full backup of your system without any hassle. It can survive your device once it is soft bricked.
We hope you have successfully installed the TWRP on Redmi Note 8. If you have any issues, then do let us know via the comments below.
Xiaomi is best known for its electronic products, namely smartphones. But the company often dabbles with other products which are completely different from its technological backgrounds. These offshoots include bags, sneakers and even a travel suitcase which is transparent.
Xiaomi Mi Suitcase Transparent Edition
On November 27th, Xiaomi’s official Weibo account announced the limited edition transparent version of the Mi Suitcase. The unique travel partner arrives exclusively to certain Xiaomi Home flagship stores in seven different cities. It will be available starting from 30th November 2019 and will carry a price tag of 499 Yuan or roughly 71 US dollars.
According to the official notes, the transparent suitcase from Xiaomi is made with urban elements in mind. What it exactly means is open to anyone’s imagination, but the unique and bold design will help it grab public and media attention. See below for more details.
Locations of Availability
Xiaomi House Beijing China Resources Colorful City Shopping Center
Xiaomi House Beijing Shimao Tianjie Plaza
Xiaomi House Beijing Sanlitun Taikoo Li
Xiaomi House Beijing Wangfujing Dongfang Xintiandi
Xiaomi Home Beijing Science Park
Xiaomi Home Shanghai Jing’an Joy City Flagship Store
Xiaomi House Shanghai Oriental Pearl Store
Xiaomi House Nanjing Jingfeng KINGMO Flagship Store
Xiaomi House Wuhan Chuhe Hanjie Flagship Store
Xiaomi House Chengdu IFS Store
Xiaomi Home Chengdu Ocean Pacific Taikoo Li
Xiaomi House Xi’an Joy City Flagship Store
Xiaomi House Xi’an G Park Flagship Store
Xiaomi House Shenzhen Vientiane Tiandi Flagship Store
90 Minutes Suitcase
The transparent edition has been seen before under a different guise by Xiaomi. Previously, 90 points suitcases released a transparent suitcase to mark its third anniversary after becoming one of the most successful Xiaomi product lineups in and outside of China.
Huawei has been setting a couple of notable milestones lately. The company has seen a huge boost in terms of sales despite the US ban. Now, the Chinese company says that its latest software release, EMUI 10, has already been installed in over 1 million devices from both its own expansive smartphone lineup as well as that of sub-brand Honor.
EMUI 10, the latest version of Huawei’s custom software overlay, is based on the latest Android 10. Huawei started seeding EMUI 10 in early September with its flagship P30 and P30 Pro smartphones being the first in line to get the beta version.
The latest version of EMUI is an important update for Huawei phones as it improves smoothness and performance on existing devices. The company has even added a system-wide dark mode which even forces apps that don’t have a dark mode to comply.
The system settings are now better organized in this new version and the OS is designed to offer a better experience when working other devices like a Windows 10 laptop. EMUI 10 allows the smartphone to cast its screen directly on to the Windows 10 device, offering a seamless working experience. The update equally brings Android 10-inherent features.
It’s a big improvement over previous versions, and we’re glad to see it’s doing well.
OPPO is expected to announce the OPPO Reno 3 smartphone in December. On Nov. 20, OPPO had unveiled the all new ColorOS 7. The Chinese firm confirmed at the event the OPPO Reno 3 will be the first OPPO phone to arrive with ColorOS 7 preloaded. Since OPPO and Qualcomm are said to partner to launch a dual-mode 5G phone in December, it is speculated that the Reno 3 will be announced in the coming month. A screenshot of the purported OPPO Reno 3 5G phone has appeared. It suggests that the phone is equipped with a punch-hole display.
OPPO Reno 3 screenshot
As it can be seen in the image above, there is an unused portion on the upper-left corner of the interface of the OPPO Reno 3. This suggests that there could be a punch-hole at the said corner of the phone’s display. The screenshot also suggests that both the SIM slots of the Reno 3 will carry support for 5G SIMs. OPPO hasn’t launched a phone with punch-hole display yet. The Reno 3 could be first OPPO phone to arrive with the new display design. It is speculated that the phone could be featuring a Samsung AMOLED display. The predecessor Reno 2 came with in-display fingerprint reader. Hopefully, the successor model will be also equipped with it.
Rumors have it that the OPPO Reno 3 5G will be sporting a 6.5-inch AMOLED display that carries support full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and 20:9 aspect ratio. Its screen is expected to deliver 90Hz refresh rate. The Snapdragon 735 5G chipset that is yet to go official could be present under its hood along with 8 GB of RAM. The device may hit the Chinese markets in 128 GB and 256 GB UFS 2.1 storage choices.
The OPPO Reno 3 5G could be housing a 4,500mAh battery that will be equipped with 30W VOOC 4.0 Flash Charge technology. It is speculated that the Reno 3 5G will be arriving in China two models such as 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage and 8 GB RAM + 256 GB storage. These variants could be priced at 3,299 Yuan (~$469) and 3,599 Yuan (~$512), respectively.
What do you think about the punch-hole display phones? Would you be interested in buying a phone with such a display design? Share us your thoughts by posting your comments below.
Last month, Chinese smartphone maker TECNO Mobile had launched the Camon 12 Air smartphone The company has today introduced the TECNO Spark PowerMobile that comes with a massive 6,000 mAh battery. It has arrived in India with a sub-Rs. 10,000 (~$140) price tag. The smartphone will be available for purchase starting next week.
TECNO Spark Power Specifications and Features
The TECNO Spark Power flaunts a 6.35-inch 2.5D Curved Glass Display with a resolution of 1548 x 720 pixels and a waterdrop notch housing the selfie camera. The device features thin bezels on three sides and a thick chin on the bottom. The smartphone draws power from an octa-core MediaTek Helio P22 SoC with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of native storage. The storage is expandable up to 256GB via a microSD card.
In terms of optics, the TECNO Spark Power features a triple-camera layout at the rear, complete with a quad-LED flash setup. The primary lens uses a 13-megapixel sensor with an aperture rating of f/2.0, an 8-megapixel wide-angle sensor and a 2-megapixel macro sensor. There is a 13-megapixel sensor on the front for taking selfies. The TECNO Spark Power runs on Android 9.0 Pie with the HiOS 5.5 skin on top.
Connectivity options include dual nano-SIM 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v5.0 and GPS/A-GPS. The Spark Power draws power from a 6,000mAh battery but lacks any form of fast charging. It might take up to 3 hours to recharge the battery completely with the standard 10W charger. The rear panel is made up of thick polycarbonate material and houses the fingerprint scanner. The smartphone supports face unlock for additional security.
TECNO Spark Power Price and Availability
The TECNO Spark Power is available in Alpenglow Gold and Dawn Blue. The smartphone is priced at Rs. 8,499 (~$119) and will be available on Flipkart, starting Dec. 1
According to a new report, Apple is set to partner with a Chinese manufacturer to meet the booming demand of its AirPods Pro wireless earphones. The move occurred, despite the US-China trade tensions, due to surging demand for the wireless earphone units. Notably, Apple is known to have lobbied against the tariffs that are imposed on Chinese manufactured products.
AirPods Pro
The Cupertino-based company has reportedly turned towards a Luxshare-ICT to double the production of the AirPods Pro earphones at its Chinese facility. The production units will see an increase to 2 million units a month. Furthermore, Apple has also asked another Chinese company by the name of GoerTek to boost production at their Vietnam-based factories for the base AirPods variant, the world’s best-selling wireless earbuds.
The news of Apple’s sudden shift towards an increased production in China is accredited to the fact that such companies can meet the booming demand for extra production while maintaining strict quality control. The AirPods already have a 45% share of the wireless earbud market which will see further growth owing to increased productivity.
Apple’s increased production from 1 million units to 2 million for the Pro variant will be produced at two Luxshare factories in mainland China owing to increasing demand. Notably, this is a step away from its usual suppliers such as Taiwan’s Foxconn, Quanta Computer and Inventec. According to an Apple supplier, Luxshare has a “wolflike” aggressive tendency for meeting the required goals under the deadline. Hence, the sudden requirement for
The Chinese-made AirPods will be levied the trade tariffs due to the ongoing US-China trade disputes; however, both countries are also “very close” to a phase one trade deal, according to a Chinese news outlet. This move from the American tech giant also threatens the position of its previous suppliers that aim to stay competitive.
Smartphone sales have been on the decline for Q3 2019 according to Gartner. This was the third consecutive quarter of decline for smartphone sales, but the smallest decline of the year, with a 1.7% drop in the second quarter of 2019, and a 2.7% drop in the first quarter of 2019. On the bright side, however, sales are expected to pick up again next year.
“We expect 2020 to be a growth year,” says Anshul Gupta, a senior research director at Gartner. According to him, “midtier smartphones will remain key to drive growth across market segments worldwide more so in emerging markets due to aspirations to own best possible smartphone,”.
Brands such as Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo have been able to improve their entry-level and midtier portfolios as a result of this shift in purchasing decisions, and Huawei, Samsung and OPPO have grown in the third quarter of 2019 as a result. In comparison, Apple has seen a double-digit decline in sales in a year-over-year comparison.
Huawei in the meanwhile has recorded double-digit sales growth despite the slowing smartphone market, and was the only one of the top-five global smartphone vendors with double-digit growth in smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2019. This is in spite of the US ban on Huawei, which has resulted in greater sales in China.
One of the chief issues driving the drop in sales is a lack of value in smartphones. Consumers no longer what to buy the least-expensive smartphone, nor the most expensive smartphone. Instead, they’re opting for mid-tier smartphones that provide better value. This makes sense considering how far mid-range devices have come as of late.
If premium devices are to make a resurgence in terms of sales, they’ll need to bring something new to the table. Companies are pushing 5G heavily right now, and many are looking towards foldable designs to innovate. Whether these investments pay off remains to be seen, but something needs to be done to shake up the premium end of the market.
There are various designs for vapes, such as oval and round shape. They all have comfortable handheld feeling. But how do you think about the vape with rectangle shape? Actually, it can also give a perfect experience. The VOOPOO Vinci X Mod Pod coming with the rectangle shape and heavier weight, and we got it a few days ago. Let’s see what we got.
Unboxing:
There is an Vinci X device, an Vinci Pod, two coils, an USB cable, an user manual, a Gene Chip card and a warranty card in the package.
Design:
With metal body, the Voopoo Vinci X Mod Pod looks clean. The main colors black with the honeycomb pattern design make the Vinci X mystically. As the premium material, the Vinci X is a bit heavier than most of the other vapes.
Let’s take a look at the front side. You can see a Fire button first. Actually, there is a 0.96-inch TFT screen placed below the fire button, if you don’t turn on the device, it is hard to see the screen. The increase button, the decrease button and an USB port are vertically arranged on the screen below.
On the other side, the well-marked VOOPOO logo is set on the middle. The Vinci X supports removable battery which is installed from the bottom.
The capacity of Vinci pod is about 5.5ml (standard edtion) and 2ml (EU edition). The coil included in the package has two kinds of resistance, which are 0.3ohm and 0.6ohm. By the way, the resistance range of the Vinci X is around 0.1ohm to 3.0ohm.
Performance:
The build quality of Voopoo Vinci X Mod Pod is better than most of the other vapes. The X pod has a suitable sense of the weight, and the handheld feeling is good and comfortable. The honeycomb pattern design on the side is special and prominent.
The pod is shipped with the Vinci X device in one package, and it is easy for users to fill e-liquid. The operation step is very easy, and there is no oil leaking. Like most of the vapes selling on the market, the Vinci X mod pod adopts magnetic base in both directions to connect the device and the pod. It has stronger magnetic attraction than the others, which makes sure that the pod will not fall off easily in the process of use.
There are two coils with different resistance in the package, and they support plug and play.
Before using the Vinci X mod pod, you should prepare an 18650 mAh battery which is the Vinci X mod pod fueled by. Removable battery provides a very convenient experience. If you don’t want to charge it when using the vape, you can prepare two batteries and charge one of it when using. The vape supporting removable battery has a good life extension, but the size of vape would be larger.
The device comes with a display which can show the output power, record two week usage data and lasting time of the last puff. The feature seems well, and you can change your using habit according to the data. Take an example, if you want to reduce your dependence of cigarette, you can control your inhalation of number and inhaling time from the data showing on the display.
With the increase and decrease button placing on the screen below, you can adjust the output power of the device with different coil supporting up to 70W. Our tester thinks that the power adjusted below 20W can get the perfect experience and smoke volume. Of course, you can adjust the power to get more smoke volume, but please pay attention that too much power will make your throat uncomfortable.
Furthermore, you can know how much battery reserve it, which is easy for us to charge in time.
Conclusion:
Overall, the Vinci X is an incredible vape with its beautiful design and fabulous features. It does a great job of providing users with the information they want to know about the usage on the screen. What’s more, users can adjust their usage habit from the data.
Yesterday, MediaTek officially unveiled the Dimensity 1000 5G chipset, its first high-end SoC since 2017’s Helio X30. The ‘1000’ is the first chip in the brand new Dimensity series that’ll feature 5G SoCs. However, a number of media outlets in China raised questions about the naming strategy of the new chipset.
MediaTek Dimensity 1000
In the post-launch conference Q&A session, a couple of Chinese media outlets asked whether MediaTek’s Dimensity ‘1000’ has anything to do with the names of the existing competitors from Huawei or Samsung. Huawei’s 5G chip is called Kirin 990 while Samsung’s new chip also gets the Exynos 990 name. So MediaTek was asked whether the new chip was named as the Dimensity 1000 to get some sort of a naming advantage.
However, MediaTek clarified that Dimensity 1000’s name has nothing to do with the competitors in the market. The number 1000 is considered special internally, so it decided to call its new chipset as Dimensity 1000. However, MediaTek added that they believe its new chipset is definitely better than Huawei’s Kirin 990 5G SoC.
Chinese tipsters have claimed that punch-hole display design will be the trend in the year 2020. The Honor V30 and V30 Pro 5G phones and even the Huawei MatePad Pro tablet are equipped with punch-hole displays. Some of the other phones that are expected to arrive with punch-hole screens include Samsung Galaxy A51, Galaxy A71, Huawei Nova 6, Nova 6 SE and Redmi K30. A new video teaser released by Vivo reveals that even the Vivo X30 series will be equipped with a punch-hole display. It also confirms the three color variants of Vivo X30.
The latest video on Vivo X30 by showcasing its design. The device is equipped with a curved glass rear with a quad camera setup placed at its top-left corner. The quad camera setup includes three cameras placed vertically besides a periscope lens and an LED flash. The Chinese manufacturer has confirmed that the Vivo X30 series will be coming with support for 60x super zoom. The brand name of the company and 5G logo can be seen towards in the bottom-left corner of the back shell.
The bottom edge of the Vivo X30 features a USB-C port, a microphone and an external speaker. The right edge of the device has a volume rocker and a power key. There is a dedicated button on the left spine of the Vivo X30 for accessing AI assistant. The top edge of the phone is not visible. Probably, it could be featuring the 3.5mm audio jack.
Like the recently released Vivo S5 smartphone, the Vivo X30 features a punch-hole positioned as the top-right corner of its screen. The display will come integrated with an in-screen fingerprint reader. It remains to be seen whether the Vivo X30 features the exact same 6.44-inch display that is available on the Vivo S5. At the end, the video confirms the existence of the Vivo X30 Pro and it reveals that the Vivo X30 will be available in Black and two gradient color options like Blue and Orange.
Vivo will be launching the Vivo X30 series 5G phones by mid-December. The exact launch date is currently under the wraps. The rumor mill has revealed the specifications and pricing of the phone, but these details may not be correct. The only thing that is known about the Vivo X30 series is that it will be fueled by Exynos 980 chipset that will bring support for dual-mode 5G and it may arrive with a 33W fast charging support.
After the launch of the Honor V30 series ended yesterday, President Zhao Ming of Honor talked about DxOMARK camera ratings in an interview with the media. According to Zhao, the Honor V-series devices may not participate in DxOMARK scoring anymore due to the standards that camera rating site sets for devices.
Zhao goes on to state that many of the metrics that DxOMARK use for scoring are purely hardware-based, and as the hardware specifications get higher, so too will the scores. Because of this, cameras like the Honor V30’s that don’t push the boundary in terms of pure hardware doesn’t sit well with DxOMARK’s scoring system.
While this does seem a bit dismissive and one could poke many holes in the argument, it does make some sense. The Honor V30 and V30 Pro cameras don’t really wow in terms of pure specs, but rather with all the optimizations and features that have been added. Whether the cameras live up to actual standards remains to be seen though.
The Honor V30 and V30 Pro feature Matrix Camera technology for systemic imaging technology framework through software and hardware collaboration. The Honor V30 Pro is equipped with a laser autofocus and LED flash enabled triple camera system on its back.
The triple camera setup of the Honor V30 features a customized Sony IMX600 RYYB 40-megapixel primary lens, an 8-megapixel telephoto lens and an 8-megapixel superwide lens. It comes with support for laser autofocus, LED flash, 4-axis OIS, EIS 3x optical zoom, 5x hybrid zoom, 30x digital zoom, 4K video shooting at 30fps and 720p video shooting at 960fps.
Honor has just announced its flagship Honor V30 and V30 Pro 5G smartphones in its home country, which are powered by the company’s own Huawei Kirin 990 SoC. From the interview of Honor president Zhao Ming, it seems that the company is very confident about the success of Kirin 990 chipset.
He has claimed that every 5G chipset available in the market, except for the Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 990, is a low-end one. He says that it’s very difficult to make a good 5G chipset and their SoC has passed Level-6 tests while other have not even passed Level-4.
Zhao Ming also says that there’s a big different in propaganda and experience claiming that all the other chipset makers are just spending a lot on marketing and not the actual technology, which can be reflected in the sales numbers.
Announced in September this year, the Kirin 990 SoC is built with a 7nm extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) process. Huawei says its new integrated chip is smaller than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 + X50 5G modem, allowing for more compact 5G smartphones. It is also claimed to be the world’s first mobile SoC with more than 10 billion transistors, making it more efficient with power consumption.
The highlight of the SoC is that it’s also the first full-frequency 5G SoC — it’ll support both non-standalone and standalone architectures as well as TDD/FDD full frequency bands. The Kirin 990 is a true unified design, supporting Sub-6 GHz 5G networks on both SA and NSA architectures, making it the first to do so.
Aside from implementing the 5G modem, another biggest change in the Kirin 990 is the NPU, or Neural Processing Unit. It is basically a co-processor optimized for the sort of vector math which is the lifeblood of machine learning frameworks like Facebook’s Caffe2 and Google’s TensorFlow.
The chipset uses two big, two middle and four little cores to optimize multitasking, with clock speeds of 2.86GHz, 2.36GHz and 1.95GHz respectively. The 990 5G also packs a 16-core Mali G76 graphics processor for mobile gaming, as well as smart cache built-in to reduce bandwidth by up to 15 percent.
The next phase of smartphone sales growth seems to be dependent on the new communications technology — 5G. Every major smartphone maker has either launched a 5G smartphone or is soon going to do so.
And it seems that the competition is not only about launching a 5G smartphone but also having an in-house chipset. If the teaser coming from Lenovo is anything to go by, then it seems that the company will soon launch a new 5G chipset.
Lenovo’s executive has taken to Weibo to tease the arrival of its upcoming 5G processor. Along with sharing the image, the post lists out the existing 5G mobile chipsets and adds “5G SoC released next week is full of flowers, but the real trump card is still on the way.”
This is surprising given that there were no leaks and reports hinting about this development. The teaser about Lenovo 5G chipset launching soon comes at a time when Oppo is also working on its own mobile chipset. It remains to be seen if the chipset from Lenovo is aimed at mid-range segment or the high-end one.
With the launch of their own chipsets, Lenovo and soon Oppo will join the list of brands having their own mobile processor, which currently includes Samsung, Huawei, Apple, and Xiaomi. Currently, almost every smartphone manufacturer is dependent on either Qualcomm or MediaTek for the chipset.
The teaser image shared by the company just reads “5G” and has the brand’s logo attached. Nothing much is revealed or known at this point in time about this upcoming chipset. But going by the teaser, it seems that the mobile processor could get launched next week.
It seems that the company will take the stage to announce the chipset while the launch of a smartphone powered by the same could happen next year. The announcement seems to have been timed perfectly. Qualcomm will be announcing its next-generation flagship Snapdragon chipset in the first week of December while MediaTek has just announced its own 5G chipset, entering the high-end segment.
Or maybe we’re reading too much between the lines and the company is just hinting at a new 5G smartphone which will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC launching next week. This is more likely given that Lenovo was the first to launch SD855-powered smartphone — Lenovo Z5 Pro GT.
Various smartphone manufacturers are now working to bring the latest Android 10 update to their devices. Realme has recently confirmed that it will be releasing Android 10 update for its phones from the beginning of 2020. Sony will be rolling out Android 10 for its phones starting from next month. OnePlus has already released the latest Android 10 update for its eligible phones. Xiaomi too has started releasing the new version of Android for its phones. Now Samsung Israel has confirmed the Android 10 roadmap for its smartphones through the Samsung Members app.
Some of the other devices that will be treated with Android 10 update in April include Galaxy A50, Galaxy A70, Galaxy A9 (2018), Galaxy A7 (2018) and Galaxy Tab S6 tablet. In May, the Android 10 update will be released for Galaxy A10, Galaxy A10s, Galaxy A20 and Galaxy A30s. The Galaxy J6 and Galaxy A20s will be getting the upgrade in June. The Galaxy J6+, Galaxy J8 and Galaxy Tab S5e users in Israel will be provided with the update in July. In August, the Galaxy Tab A 8 (2019) will be updated to Android 10. The users of the Galaxy Tab S4 and Galaxy Tab A 10.5 will have to wait until September to get the next Android update.
Since the information has been released by Samsung Israel, its Android 10 roadmap may not align with markets such as the U.S. and the U.K. In October, Google released a list of manufacturers that included brands like ASUS, LG, Motorola, OPPO, Realme, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Transsion and Vivo that have committed towards releasing Android 10 upgrade for their devices by the end of 2020. Hence, it is possible official information on Samsung Galaxy Android 10 roadmap for other markets will appear in the coming weeks.
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