Meizu to announce four accessories alongside the Meizu 16T

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Oct 17, 2019

ZTE has revealed that it will be debuting two smartphones tomorrow. The confirmation has come through a Weibo post. The first phone that will be unveiled tomorrow is the Blade A7s. The name of the second phone is not known yet. It is speculated that it could be the Blade V20 phone that had recently appeared on TENAA with its full specifications.

The above shown screenshot of ZTE’s Weibo post states that it will be announcing two phones tomorrow. The name of the second phone is not revealed yet while the first one is Blade A7s that is already listed on the official My ZTE Mall. The sales of the smartphone will begin tomorrow. The other phone could be the Blade V20 that has also been approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. apart from China’s TENAA.

Editor’s Pick: Red Magic 3S with 90Hz screen, SD855+, 12GB RAM and 5,000mAh battery debuts for Rs. 35,999 (~$673) in India

The Blade V20’s TENAA reveals that it has a model number of V1050. The handset features a 6.088-inch display with a small-sized waterdrop notch. It offers HD+ resolution of 720 x 1560 pixels resolution. The smartphone is powered by 2.0GHz octa-core processor that works along with 4 GB of RAM. The native storage of the phone is 64 GB. It has a microSD card slot for more storage.

The rear shell of the phone has a square-shaped camera module placed at the top-left corner. It includes a 16-megapixel lens, an 8-megapixel shooter, a 2-megapixel sensor and an LED flash. The front notch of the phone has a 5-megapixel selfie camera.

The purported Blade V20 houses a big battery of 5,000mAh capacity. Through the FCC documents it was found that the phone may ship with 18W rapid charger. The other features of the smartphone are a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, a USB-C port and 3.5mm audio jack. There is no information available yet on the pricing of the smartphone.

The Blade A7s carries a price tag of 799 Yuan (~$113). Hence, the smartphone could be the Blade V20 could be priced around 999 Yuan (~$141).

Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 launched in China, Full Specs And Price

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Oct 17, 2019

In the month of July, Samsung launched its latest flagship grade tablet in the U.S which is called the Galaxy Tab S6. Four months after its debut, the tablet has now been launched in China. The key highlighting features of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 include the Snapdragon 855 processor, Full HD+ Super AMOLED display and an all new S-Pen that support air gestures.

As observed with its U.S launch, the tablet is offered in three colour options which include Grey, Blue and Pink. It is offered two storage variants for which the price are as follows:

6 GB + 128 GB: 5299 Yuan ($ 750)
8 GB + 256 GB: 5999 Yuan ($ 850)

The user’s willing to buy keyboard accessory for the Galaxy Tab S6 can get it for Yuan 700, which naturally is compatible with both storage variants. To entice customers, Samsung is giving away a free pair of Galaxy Buds Bluetooth earphones along with every purchase of the tablet. The device is available for purchase both via online and offline channels in the country which includes traditional brick and mortar stores and Samsung’s e-shop.

To recall the specifications fo the Galaxy Tab S6 are listed below:

10.5-inch 2560 x 1600 (16:10) sAMOLED display.
Snapdragon 855 processor.
6GB RAM + 128GB storage or 8GB RAM + 256GB storage.
MicroSD card slot (1TB Max).
13MP f/2.0 wide-angle primary camera with Live Focus + 5MP f/2.2 123° ultra-wide secondary camera.
8MP F/2.0 front-facing camera with Live Focus.
Optical in-display fingerprint scanner and face recognition.
Single SIM (nano)
Bluetooth S Pen with 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity and support for Air Actions (hand gestures to control video playback, presentations and more without touching the tablet).
AKG-tuned quad speakers.
7040mAh battery with support for fast charging via USB-C. Also charges via the popo charging dock which is sold separately. USB-C port also supports HDMI out.
Bixby, Samsung DeX, BookCover Keyboard (sold separately) with a trackpad and a dedicated DeX key.
Android 9 Pie.

Honor 20 Lite (Youth Edition) price and variants leaked

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Oct 17, 2019

The next Honor smartphone for China is the Honor 20 Lite (Youth Edition) smartphone. It will be made official on Oct. 22 and is now currently available for reservations. The TENAA listing of the phone have revealed the full specifications of the smartphone. Today, the smartphone has been spotted on the database of China Telecom through its four variants have confirmed. The pricing of the Honor 20 Lite variants has also been revealed.

Honor 20 Lite (Youth Edition) pricing and release date

The China Telecom listing of the Honor 20 Lite (Youth Edition) reveals that it will be hitting the Chinese markets on Oct. 25. The smartphone will come in four choices in the country like 4 GB RAM + 64 GB storage, 6 GB RAM + 64 GB storage, 6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage and 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage. These variants are mentioned with price tags of 1,799 Yuan (~$254), 1,999 Yuan (~$282), 2,299 Yuan (~$325) and 2,599 Yuan (~$367). The aforementioned pricing information may not be correct. Hence, it advisable to digest it with a grain of salt. The smartphone will be available for purchase in three colors such as Blue Water Jade, Midnight Black and Icelandic Fantasy.

Editor’s Pick: Honor 9X India launch could be drawing near

Honor 20 Lite (Youth Edition) Specifications

A Chinese tipster had recently claimed that Honor 20 Lite (Youth Edition) is powered by Kirin 710F even when the rumor mill was speculating that it could be fueled by Kirin 810 chipset. However, the China Telecom listing reveals that the smartphone features the Kirin 710F SoC that powered Huawei and Honor mid-range phones last year and earlier this year.

The Honor 20 Lite (Youth Edition) has a 6.3-inch OLED display with waterdrop notch. It is embedded with an in-display fingerprint scanner. The smartphone offers a tall aspect ratio of 20:9 as it supports full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels. The EMU 9.1.1 based Android 9 Pie OS runs on the device.

The smartphone is equipped with a 4,000mAh battery. The 3C listing of the phone had revealed in the recent past it could be arriving with 20W rapid charging technology. The front notch of the phone has a 16-megapixel selfie snapper. Its back panel has a triple camera system that has a 48-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel lens and a 2-megapixel sensor. The other features of the phone are USB-C and 3.5mm audio jack. Its dimensions are 157.2 x 73.2 x 7.7mm and 171.5 grams.

Samsung is already filing trademarks for its 2021 Galaxy A smartphones

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Oct 17, 2019

Not long ago, Samsung registered the names for its 2020 Galaxy A smartphone lineup which will succeed the Galaxy A handsets launched in the current year. To recall, these handsets will be called Galaxy A51, Galaxy A71, Galaxy 91 and the similar name scheming with an increment of one number will be applicable to all other handsets.

Surprisingly, months before these 2020 handsets are unveiled, Samsung has already filed trademarks of its 2021 Galaxy A lineup in the Europe Union. The list of trademarks applied by the Korean electronics giant include: Samsung A12, A22, A32, A42, A52, A62, A72, and A92.

Even though these handsets have the “Samsung” suffix instead of “Galaxy”, the accompanying description makes it obvious that these are smartphones that we are looking at. Having already registered Galaxy A smartphone trademarks for two upcoming years, we don’t expect to see any more trademark applications by Samsung for this lineup anytime soon.

As it happens, we barely know anything about 2020 Galaxy A smartphones except for the A91, it does not make much sense to make assumptions about companies lineup from the year 2021 or beyond.

Having said that, it is clear how crucial this lineup is for the company and it is here to stay for a long time like the Galaxy S series and the Galaxy Note series. Lastly, one of the first members of 2020 “Galaxy A” series are expected to be unveiled in month of February which is supposed to be the A31 or A51.

(via)

iQOO Neo Snapdragon 855 edition color variants confirmed

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Oct 17, 2019

Earlier today, Vivo’s iQOO sub-brand for gaming smartphones confirmed that it will be launching the iQOO Neo Snapdragon 855 edition on Oct. 24. It will be arriving as the more powerful version of the Snapdragon 845 powered iQOO Neo that went official in July. The Chinese manufacturer has now confirmed the color variants of the iQOO Neo Snapdragon 855 edition.

iQOO has shared images of the two color variants of the iQOO Neo SD855. Its color options are Carbon Fiber Black and Electric-optic Purple. The rear view of the smartphone reveals that it is equipped with a vertical triple camera setup. Like the other iQOO phones, the iQOO Neo SD855 model does not feature a rear-facing fingerprint sensor.

iQOO Neo Snapdragon 855 Carbon Fiber Black

The frontside of the phone is fitted with a waterdrop notch enabled OLED display with in-screen fingerprint reader. The bottom edge of the device features a 3.5mm audio jack, a microphone, a USB-C port and an external speaker. A volume rocker and a power key are available on the right spine of the device.

Editor’s Pick: OPPO & Vivo’s 5G models are reportedly getting an early release

iQOO Neo Snapdragon 855 Specifications

The exact size of the display is not known yet. The AnTuTu listing of the phone has revealed that its display carries support for full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. Through Geekbench and AnTuTu listings, it has been found that the phone will come at least come in 8 GB RAM version. This variant will be coming with 256 GB of storage.

The handset is loaded with Android 9 Pie OS and it has recorded an impressive scored of 477,016 on AnTuTu. So far, it appears to be a better performing phone compared to other phones fueled by Snapdragon 855 mobile platform. The smartphone is equipped with UFS 3.0 storage.

iQOO Neo Snapdragon 855 Electro-Optic Purple

The iQOO SD855 version will have a 4,500mAh battery. Its 3C appearance has revealed that it could be shipped with a 33W rapid charger. The other details of the smartphone are currently under the wraps. Also, there is no word on the pricing of the phone. However, since the highest version of the iQOO Neo is currently selling at 2,298 Yuan (~$324), its Snapdragon 855 edition could be priced around 2,498 Yuan (~$352). With only few days remaining for the launch, the Chinese firm is expected to soon release more information on the phone.

Successor of Galaxy Fold to have a unique camera system suggests patent

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Oct 17, 2019

In the Q1 of 2019, Samsung launched its first foldable smartphone which, as we all know, is called the Galaxy Fold. Even though its commericial availability was delayed a couple of times due to display issues, it is still a remarkable device and Samsung is bound to be working on its successor. After all, this is one of the most distinguishing form factors the smartphone industry has seen in the last decade.

Galaxy Fold 2 concept render based on patents

On August 29, 2019, Samsung was granted a patent by the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office) for a foldable smartphone which supposedly corresponds to the second generation Galaxy Fold. Similar to the original handset, the illustrated device in the patent has two displays, out of which, the smaller display is mounted on the cover while the second foldable display is revealed when the device in it unfolded state.

The special thing about this foldable smartphone is its camera system. The device is designed in such a way that the camera sensor present on the inside can also double up as the selfie camera. While the bezel present above the outer display does not have a cutout to allow the inner camera to see through, it incorpoates several lenses that allow the device to achieve the desired functionality. The image shared below with arrows will help to better understand its working.

the red arrows mark the lens placement, the black arrow marks the placement of camera sensor

To put it in simple words, Samsung is trying to establish a thoughtful design which would allow its upcoming foldable phone to reduce the number of camera sensors whilst unaffecting its functionality. To recall, the original Galaxy Fold has a total of 6 camera sensors and these sensors don’t come cheap. Clearly, this will allow Samsung to reduce the cost of its future foldable devices as the cost saved by eleminating redundant camera sensors can be passed on to consumers which would make the device more enticing.

Taking this implementation a step further, the patent also talks about the possiblity of an under-display camera rather than one embedded in the bezel above the display. While a handful of companies including Xiaomi and Oppo have showcased a handset (1, 2) with selfie-camera concealed under the display, not much can be said about the image quality such devices can produce.

For now, a foldable Samsung smartphone with under-display camera sensor present on the inside that would double up as selfie camera with the help of see through lenses seems like a farfetched concept. Nonetheless, the first concept with camera mounted in the bezel seems attainable. Samsung is expected to showcase its second foldable handset early next year. Therefore, we will have to wait patienlty to see if, such a feature makes it way to upcoming foldable devices from the company.

What are your thoughts on Samsung’s visionary approach to develop a foldable handset which has been made affordable with the help of clever implementation. Let us know in the comments below?

(source)

Red Magic 3S with 90Hz screen, SD855+, 12GB RAM and 5,000mAh battery debuts for Rs. 35,999 (~$673) in India

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Oct 17, 2019

Nubia had announced the Snapdragon 855 SoC powered Red Magic 3 smartphone in June in India. And now it has unveiled the enhanced Red Magic 3S phone that is fueled by the latest Snapdragon 855+. Since it is a gaming phone, it comes with gaming-centric chassis and monstrous specs like 12 GB of RAM, 5,000mAh battery, 90Hz refresh rate supporting display and inbuilt fan.

Red Magic 3S Specifications and Features

The Red Magic 3S has an aluminum body that measures 171.1 x 78.5 x 9.7mm and it weighs 215 grams. The back panel of the phone has an RGB-lit strip and a logo that flaunts multiple lights. The smartphone is fitted with a notch-less 6.65-inch AMOLED HDR display has slightly thick upper and lower bezels. It supports full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, DCI-P3 color gamut, 430nits brightness and 90Hz refresh rate for smoother scrolling and viewing experience.

The 2.96GHz Snapdragon 855+ mobile platform powers the Nubia Red Magic 3S with up to 12 GB of LPDDR4x and up to 256 GB of UFS 3.0 storage. With massive internal storage on the device, the phone does not feature a microSD card slot. The handset is backed by a humungous 5,000mAh battery. It supports Quick Charge 4.0 18W rapid charging and USB-PD 27W fast charging. The comprehensive internal cooling mechanism of the Red Magic 3S includes liquid and air cooling technology, multiple layers of graphite sheet and a centrifugal fan.

Editor’s Pick: Nubia Z20 dual screen phone now available in global markets

The Red Magic 3S boots to Red Magic 2.0 UI flavored Android 9 Pie OS. The operating system carries Game Space 2.1 which enables quick-launch games, settings for optimizing gaming experience, real-time monitoring of usage stats, notifications blockers, in-game video recording and more. The left edge of the device features a pair of capacitive shoulder buttons for gaming, a volume rocker and a power key. On the right edge, it features a Game Boost Switch, a SIM tray and a gaming port. The top and bottom edges of the phone have 3D stereo speakers. Users can attach a e-sports box design by Red Magic to the gaming port of the phone. The device features a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB-C slot and an Ethernet port.

For photography, the rear shell of the phone features a 48-megapixel camera with f/1.79 aperture. The smartphone can shoot 8K resolution videos at 15fps and 1920 pixels slow-motion videos. Placed on the front is a 16-megapixel f/2.0 aperture lens for shooting selfies. The other features that are available on the Red Magic 3S are rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, dual-SIM support, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, v5.0 Bluetooth, USB and 3.5mm headphone jack.

Red Magic 3S Price and Release Date

The 12 GB RAM + 256 GB storage model of the Nubia Red Magic 3S is priced at Rs. 47,999 (~$673). Its lower version with 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage costs Rs. 35,999 (~$505). The smartphone can be purchased in Mecha Silver and Cyber Shade color editions. Nubia will be carrying out the sales of the smartphone from Oct. 21. The handset will be exclusively available through Flipkart.

What’s your take on the pricing of the Red Magic 3S? Share us your thoughts by posting your comments.

Huawei camera lens supplier claims supply is tightening as demand increases

By

Airyl Jaszly

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Oct 17, 2019

These days, it’s fully expected for high-end smartphones to come with appropriately high quality cameras. It’s become a norm, especially considering how smartphones like the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and the freshly launched Google Pixel 4 set the bar extremely high. This has led to a huge increase in demand for high quality lenses, claims a source from Largan Precision.

Major lens maker Largan Precision has extremely optimistic shipment prospects for Q4 of 2019 thanks to handset vendors using multi-lens technology in their new devices, and it doesn’t seem like they’re going to be slowing down anytime soon. They’ve been having an excellent year thanks to their partnerships with companies like Apple and Huawei.

Largan’s revenue contracted on the year in the beginning of this year when Apple, its biggest client, saw its iPhone shipments decline, but the company quickly bounced back to growth in the following months when Huawei introduced its flagship P30 smartphones.

The process of making slimmer, high end camera lenses is sophisticated, and Largan is apparently hoping to make things simpler. This in turn will help leading lens suppliers sustain their advantage in the supply chain and enjoy robust shipments, the sources said.

Largan may still be the top dog at the moment, but that could change soon as demand continues to increase. According to some recent reports, Huawei may be searching for new supply sources for camera lenses for better discounted prices. Despite this, they’ll still be relying heavily on Largan for most of their supply.

(Source)

Xiaomi plans to launch expensive models in India to shed budget brand image

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Oct 17, 2019

Xiaomi, the Chiese smartphone company, which started selling smartphones in the Indian market in 2014, is currently the leading company in the Indian market, surpassing the dominating South Korea-based Samsung.

The company managed to get the pole position in the Indian smartphone market because of the budget devices. However, the company now wants to shed its image of a “cheap” or budget brand in the Indian market.

Xiaomi Shop

In order to do so, the company is set to widen its India product portfolio to include pricier, high-spec smartphones and smart TVs, confirmed a senior company executive. Usually, the company’s smartphones are priced under $250 in India and are sold through e-commerce platforms in the country.

The expensive smartphones from the company face stiff competition from brands like Samsung, Oppo, and Vivo. With more and more cheaper smartphones in the market from Xiaomi, the brand is now perceived as a cheap brand by many in India.

But Xiaomi has now taken step to change that. It is now launching smartphones priced above ₹20,000 and ₹30,000 in an effort to increase the Average Selling Price (ASP) for the company. For instance, the company recently launched the Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro devices in the Indian market.

Currently, the company is selling smart TVs under its Mi brand with price ranging from ₹11,999 to ₹54,999. Further, the company is also selling other IoT-based smart home products as well as lifestyle products.

Xiaomi is also putting in efforts to increase its presence in the offline market as well. The company has plan to open over 10,000 stores in the country by mid-2020 from over 6,000 stores currently.

Black Shark is allowing 20,000 beta testers to experience JOYUI 11 ahead of its public release

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Oct 17, 2019

Earlier this week, Xiaomi‘s sub-brand, Black Shark announced a new Android skin for its smartphones which is called “JOYUI 11”. While the new Android Skin provides a variety of distinctive visual and functional elements, its core features are derived from the latest MIUI 11. Recently, the company has shared a post on Weibo which exhibits that the company is allowing 20,000 beta testers to experience JOYUI ahead of its final roll-out which will take place in the month of December.

In order to register for the beta program of JOYUI, owners of Black Shark smartphones can either signup on Black Shark’s WeChat group or via the Black Shark community website. Once the registration is successful and 20,000 users have been randomly selected, the company will start rolling the pre-release preview in the month of November.

Talking about some of the features of JOYUI, it will include the Xiao Ai 3.0 assistant, MI work suite and a personalized theme based on top of MIUI 11. As observed with most other gaming-centric Android skins, the upcoming OS for Black Shark smartphones also comes with a dedicated game space which when toggled will minimise background processes in order to provide the best gaming experience possible and includes a DND (Do Not Disturb) mode to block or hide incoming notifications.

Besides, the game space also supports a floating game assistant which can be used to change settings like the placement of keys for a compatible gamepad, haptic feedback strength and touch sensitivity on compatible devices which include the Black Shark 2 and its “Pro” variant. It also incorporates a dedicated app which shows the parameters selected by thousands of other Black Shark owners based on each game.

(source)

Xiaomi launches a massive 34-inch curved gaming monitor and a 23.8-inch monitor

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Oct 17, 2019

Xiaomi has today launched two gaming monitors in China — one with a massive 34-inch display and another with a 23.8-inch display. With this, the company has now officially entered a new product category of gaming monitors.

Mi Surface Display 34-Inch

As the name indicates, the Mi Surface Display 34-inch comes with a massive 34-inch large curved screen having 21:9 aspect ratio, 3440 x 1440 pixels screen resolution, and 144Hz refresh rate, 1500R curvature.

There’s also AMD Freesync and low Blu-ray mode and the color gamut is 121 percent sRGB. The curved display also comes with a bracket which allows users to make adjustments for lifting and rotating the screen.

The company has said that the display and the bracket and magnetically snapped together and Xiaomi is also providing a three-year warranty for the same. While Xiaomi has not revealed this, reports indicate that the display is provided by Samsung.

Xiaomi’s new Mi Surface Display 34-Inch is priced at 2,499 Yuan which roughly converts to $352. However, the pricing for those who pre-books the products is 1,999 Yuan (~$282) and will go on sale from 21st October.

Mi Display 23.8-Inch

Along with the massive 34-inch curved gaming monitor, the company has also launched a more traditional Mi Display 23.8-Inch, which as you expect, features a 23.8-inch screen. The Full HD screen supports wide-angle viewing of 178-degrees.

It has a regular design and the control buttons hidden at the right-side bottom panel bezel under the screen. It comes with a cylindrical bracket which can adjust the angle of the viewing but doesn’t seem to support the vertical adjustment.

Continuing with the Xiaomi’s minimalistic design, the back panel of the monitor is clean and simple with just the branding and a HDMI port along with a power supply port. The Mi Display 23.8-Inch is priced at 699 Yuan (~$98) and will go on sale from 21st October.

RedmiBook 14 Ryzen Edition features revealed and pricing teased ahead of launch on October 21

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Oct 17, 2019

Xiaomi-backed Redmi had launched its own laptop in the form of RedmiBook 14 and now the company is gearing up to launch a new variant of the same. The company has already announced that RedmiBook 14 Ryzen Edition will be launched in China on 21st October.

Ahead of its launch next week, the company has revealed support for a new feature of the device — support for the company’s new cross-brand file transfer feature. The feature was launched earlier this year in cooperation with Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo for transferring files between the devices from these brands.

The company claims that with this new feature on the upcoming RedmiBook 14 Ryzen Edition, it can transfer files between laptops and smartphones without any file size limit and can transfer over 1000 images and HD videos in a blink of an eye.

Along with revealing this new feature, the company has also teased the pricing of this upcoming device. It said that the upcoming RedmiBook will be priced at XX99 Yuan. While most of the devices powered by the AMD Ryzen 3500U are priced above 4,000 Yuan, the product from Redmi is expected to cost 3,499 Yuan, roughly $493.

Recently, the company had revealed that the RedmiBook 14 Ryzen Edition will come in two choices in terms of processor — AMD Ryzen 5 3500U and AMD Ryzen 7 3700U processor. Apart from this, the company has not revealed much about the upcoming laptop. However, we expect most of the device specifications to remain unchanged compared to the standard RedmiBook 14 laptop.

The Ryzen 5 3500U chipset comes with Radeon Vega 8 integrated graphics, making it a good low-cost budget solution for gaming. With its four cores and a maximal clock speed of 3.7GHz, it is a great processor for the home and office computing, with ability to easily run multiple apps simultaneously. It can also handle some more demanding stuff as well, such as video editing.

On the other hand, the Ryzen 7 3700U comes with a quad-core APU using AMD’s Zen+ cores, with simultaneous multi-threading enabled to bring the total thread count to eight. Although it uses a 3000-series model, it’s still built on the slightly older 12nm process. It has a maximum clock speed of 4GHz and Radeon RX Vega 10 graphics card with 10 CUs (640 Shaders) clocked at up to 1400MHz.

Xiaomi has claimed that with the launch of this RedmiBook 14 Ryzen Edition, the company will be declaring war on the unreasonably high-priced premium laptops and aims to balance the price to performance ratio.

iQOO Neo SD855 variant set to launch in China on October 24

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