Last week was a very interesting one for OnePlus. The Chinese manufacturer practically was in the news for various reasons ranging from bad to good. However, Qualcomm was able to take away the spotlight when it announced its first smartphone. If you missed out on these important stories, here’s your chance to get brought up to speed.

Nothing will be affordable

Carl Pei’s Nothing pair of earbuds is coming later this month. However, you don’t have to wait till then to know how much the first product from the startup will cost. The founder already revealed the price as well as some of the features of the wireless earbuds which will launch as the Nothing ear (1).

OnePlus tweets about the S Pen

The official OnePlus India Twitter account committed a gaffe last week when it tweeted about Samsung’s Galaxy S Pen. It was a mistake but one that won’t be forgotten quickly.

OPPO phones may feature in-house ISP

Google and Xiaomi are two manufacturers that have launched phones with an in-house image signal processor (ISP). OPPO may soon join the list has a leak revealed the manufacturer is working on its own ISP. This chipset should help future OPPO devices take better pictures since the chipset and camera algorithms can be better tweaked compared to the one that comes with the chipset powering the phone.

OnePlus admits to throttling performance for the sake of battery life

It was discovered that OnePlus was throttling the performance of the OnePlus 9 Pro when using several popular apps including Chrome and Twitter. However, when running benchmark apps, the device ran at full performance according to findings made by Anandtech. This discovery led to the device (and the OnePlus 9) being removed from Geekbench’s database. In OnePlus’s defense, it said it did that to save battery life. You can read their official response.

OnePlus Nord 2 5G gets a launch date, will have a custom MediaTek chipset

The much-awaited OnePlus Nord 2 5G now has a launch date. The phone will arrive in less than two weeks and when it does, it will have a custom MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chipset with improved AI features. The Dimensity 1200-AI is actually impressive as it does beat the standard version on AI Benchmark.

Qualcomm announces $1500 Snapdragon-branded smartphone

One of the top stories last week was the launch of the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders, a device made by ASUS for Qualcomm and with a Snapdragon logo. The Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders or Snapdragon Insiders Phone costs a pretty penny, though Qualcomm is offering a lot too including top specs such as 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, bundled premium earbuds (select markets), and up to 4 years of software support.

Huawei has a new tablet with a Snapdragon processor

The MatePad family grew larger with the launch of the MatePad 11, a Snapdragon 865-powered tablet. It boasts a 120Hz refresh rate, up to 256GB of expandable storage, quad speakers, and can be converted into a productivity device with an optional keyboard and pressure-sensitive stylus.

A new Nintendo Switch

Nintendo announced yet another Switch console – the second this year if you count the new Switch Lite colorway. The Nintendo Switch (OLED Model) as it is officially called brings a new display that is not only bigger but OLED. It also has a redesigned dock, more storage, and of course, costs more.

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The post Top stories from last week: OnePlus’ woes, Snapdragon Insiders Phone, a new Switch, and more appeared first on Gizmochina.

It has been officially confirmed that the OnePlus Nord 2 will be powered by a MediaTek processor. The chipset is the Dimensity 1200-AI, a custom version of the Dimensity 1200 built by MediaTek and OnePlus, thanks to the former’s Dimensity Open Resource Architecture initiative that allows customers to enhance features of the chip.

Now, the OnePlus Nord 2 has appeared on benchmarking site, AI Benchmark, showing us how well it performs against other devices. It also gives us a chance to compare the score of the Dimensity 1200-AI to that of the regular Dimensity 1200.

The variant of the OnePlus Nord 2 benchmarked on the platform has 8GB of RAM and runs Android 11. The benchmark site confirms that it is indeed powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1200-AI and it has an AI score of 172.7K (172666) points. When compared to the Realme GT Neo which has the standard Dimensity 1200 chipset and a score of 155.8K (155803) points, one can see there is a significant improvement.

However, the score of the Dimensity 1200-AI still lags behind those of other devices on the list such as the Snapdragon 888-powered LG V70 (yes, you read that right) which has an AI score of 203.1K, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro+ with a Kirin 9000 chipset and an AI score of 215.4K, and the Exynos 2100-powered Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra with an AI score of 202.1K.

Since AI is the focus here, the benchmark result does show that the OnePlus Nord 2 does have a more powerful chipset AI-wise than the Realme GT Neo. OnePlus says we will see these AI enhancements in the performance of the camera (photo and video) as well as the display departments.

The Dimensity 1200-AI is the first chipset to make use of MediaTek’s Dimensity 1200 Open Resource Architecture initiative and seeing how impressive it is, we can’t wait to see what other manufacturers come up with.

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• OnePlus Nord CE 5G is receiving its third system update within a month from launch

The post OnePlus Nord 2 (Dimensity 1200-AI) appears on AI benchmark site, scores higher than Realme GT Neo (Dimensity 1200) appeared first on Gizmochina.

OnePlus has officially confirmed its upcoming Nord device, the OnePlus Nord 2 5G. The company also revealed that the phone will be powered by the flagship-grade Dimensity 1200-AI processor.

Yes, the brand is officially calling it the Dimensity 1200-AI. The company says that it has worked closely with MediaTek to ‘enhance AI-based features’. So this is essentially a customized chip from MediaTek in collaboration with OnePlus as a part of its Dimensity 5G Open Resource Architecture.

“The Dimensity 1200-AI is the first example of MediaTek’s Dimensity Open Resource Architecture initiative, optimizing the powerful Dimensity 1200 5G chipset to deliver a customized experience for OnePlus users,” said Dr. JC Hsu, Corporate VP and GM of MediaTek’s Wireless Communications Business Unit. “As AI is reshaping the future of chipset technology, this initiative gives brands like OnePlus access to the latest AI-powered capabilities with the flexibility to innovate in new and exciting ways.”

This customized Dimensity 1200-AI chip will integrate several AI-based enhancements, especially in the camera and display departments. For example, OnePlus reveals that thanks to the AI Photo Enhancement, the Nord 2 5G can recognize up to 22 different photography scenarios and can even automatically adjust color tones and contrast in the photos taken in low-light situations. The phone’s AI Video Enhancement feature can enable live HDR effects in real-time at the time of recording. With the help of DOL-HDR tech, the phone can adjust tuning and image quality during live recording and even enhance the color range and accuracy of the videos, thereby increasing dynamic range and improving the highlight retention. In the display department, the phone will feature AI Color Boost technology which automatically converts standard content to HDR while AI Resolution Boost tech can automatically upscale video resolution to HD.

While OnePlus has confirmed the chip, it is yet to announce an official launch date for the Nord 2 5G. However, given that official teasers have started to emerge, it could be announced soon, possibly by the end of July, as revealed in a previous leak.

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