Last week was a very eventful one. No fewer than fifteen new phones were announced across the globe. However, phone launches were not only the big announcements. There were a few goodbyes too in the smartphone industry. Here’s a recap of the top stories from last week:

POCO has a new flagship killer and a mid-range killer too

POCO announced two new phones last week that marked its return to its roots of making unbeatable value-for-money smartphones. After years of waiting for a true POCO F1 successor, the new POCO F3 (actually a rebadged Redmi K40) arrived as the brand’s latest flagship killer. But it didn’t come alone. POCO also announced the POCO X3 Pro, a mid-range phone with a Snapdragon 800-series processor. Yes, the new Snapdragon 860 (the snapdragon 855+ in a new skin) is a chipset made for mid-range phones and it arrived first in this new phone. Both phones are super affordable and pack pretty interesting features. Do check out our review of the POCO X3 Pro.

Black Shark 4 Series – speed is matters

China’s Black Shark announced two new gaming smartphones last week – the Black Shark 4 and the Black Shark 4 Pro. Powered by the Snapdragon 870 and Snapdragon 888 processors respectively, these two gaming beasts pack more than just powerful chipsets. They also charge super-fast, supporting 120W fast wired charging; have incredibly fast storage (SSD on the pro model), and are stunning too.

Three new OnePlus 9 phones and a smartwatch

After months of leaks, the OnePlus 9 series finally launched last week. The OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro bring revamped cameras, powerful chipsets, top-of-the-line displays, and fast wired and wireless charging. They also brought along a sibling called the OnePlus 9R and the OnePlus Watch.

Moto G100 and Moto G50

Motorola’s first Snapdragon 800-series powered Moto G phone launched too. The Moto G100 has a Snapdragon 870 processor inside it, six cameras in total, and some software features, one of which allows you to use the phone as a desktop computer when hooked up to a monitor and paired to a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. It didn’t come alone either. The Moto G50, a budget 5G phone, also tagged along.

Honor’s new products – a phone and tablet for China and a fitness tracker for global markets

The Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition and the Honor Pad 7 tablet were announced in China. The former has a curved 90Hz OLED display, a 5G processor, 64MP quad rear cameras, and 66W fast charging. The Honor Pad 7 is an Helio P22T-powered 10-inch device targeted at students. It comes in LTE and Wi-Fi-only variants. The Honor Band 6 also got a global launch last week, three months after it was announced in China.

HMD Global’s Chief Product Officer resigns; Xiaomi loses CFO to ByteDance

Juho Sarvikas, the Chief Product Officer of HMD Global and the face of Nokia Mobile since the brand made a comeback, announced he is leaving after 15 years of service. Xiaomi, on the other hand, has lost its CFO, Shou Zi Chew, to ByteDance, the company behind the viral app, TikTok.

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The Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition has just been launched in the company’s launch conference earlier today (23rd March 2021). The device arrives with a thin and light design and a 3D curved display.

Design & Specifications

Honor’s newly launched device is just 7.64mm thick and weighs about 169 grams. Its display is a 6.57 inch curved OLED panel with a high refresh rate of 90Hz. This display also arrives with support for customizable always on display as well. It has a FHD+ resolution of 2340 x 1080px. The handset supports 5G networking, with dual card standby along with Link Turbo support as well, which enables the use of WiFi+5G+4G for a consistent networking experience. Keep in mind, we do not have the international name of the device, and the direct translation has it dubbed as the Honor V40 ‘Light Luxury Edition’.

For photography, a single centered punch hole camera can also be found, which is a 32 megapixel sensor. On the rear, a 64 megapixel quad camera setup is housed, paired with an 8 megapixel ultra wide angle lens, a 2 megapixel macro sensor, and another 2 megapixel depth of field camera. Under the hood, a 3,800mAh battery pack with support 66W fast charging powers the smartphone, which sports the MediaTek Dimensity 800U processor. The handset runs Android 10 based Magic UI 4.0 out of the box.

Price and Availability

The Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition is available in two variants based on the the memory configuration. It is available in an 8GB RAM + 128GB ROM variant for 2,999 Yuan (roughly 460 US Dollars), or can be purchased in the 8GB RAM + 256GB ROM variant for 3,299 Yuan (roughly 506 US Dollars). The device officially begins sale on March 26, and will be available in multiple color variants, including silver, black, blue, and more.

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• Honor Pad 7 with 10.1-inch FHD display goes official; pricing starts at 1,399 yuan ($215)
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• Honor V40 Lite Luxury Edition to come with 66W Fast Charging support

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After a not-so-packed third week that gave us a chance to catch our breaths, the wave of smartphone announcements for the coming week is going to be overwhelming. With phones from POCO, OnePlus, Black Shark, Honor, Vivo, realme, and Motorola, there is a lot to look forward to in the coming week.

POCO X3 Pro

POCO kicks off the week with a global launch event on Monday, March 22. It is believed that it will announce the POCO X3 Pro, an affordable 4G flagship killer, that will come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 chipset. The Xiaomi offshoot is also expected to announce a second phone, the POCO F3 which has been reported to be a rebadge of the Redmi K40. This means the POCO F3 will have the Snapdragon 870 5G processor powering it, a super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and 48MP triple rear cameras.

Vivo X60 series heads to India but the first stop is Malaysia

The Vivo X60 series will be making its way to India on March 25 but before then, it will make its first stop in Malaysia on Monday, March 22, for its global debut. It has been reported that the camera-centric phones will drop the Exynos 1080 chipset found in the China model for the Snapdragon 870 processor.

Vivo Y72 5G

Vivo will try to grab more of the spotlights on Monday when it unveils its new mid-range 5G phone, the Vivo Y72 5G in Thailand. This phone will have a MediaTek chipset at its heart, a 5000mAh battery, and 64MP triple rear cameras.

OnePlus 9 Series and OnePlus Watch

OnePlus takes over on Tuesday, March 23, for the launch of the OnePlus 9 series. Three phones are expected at the launch which should simultaneously hold in India, Europe, and the United States. There is the top-of-the-line OnePlus 9 Pro which will come along with a standard variant called the OnePlus 9 while an India-exclusive OnePlus 9R will also be announced. The much-awaited OnePlus Watch will also be unveiled at the event. China will get its own launch event on the following day.

Black Shark 4 series

On the same Tuesday, Black Shark will be unveiling its new gaming smartphones – the Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Pro. These two phones will come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 870 and Snapdragon 888 processor respectively, 144Hz AMOLED screens, 4500mAh batteries, and support for 120W fast wired charging. The phones will also have motorized shoulder buttons that retract into the frame when not needed.

Huami’s Amazfit T-Rex goes pro

If you don’t want to grab the OnePlus Watch, then you may be interested in Huami’s Amazfit T-Rex Pro smartwatch which is launching on March 23 too. This is a rugged smartwatch and it will be arriving with new features such as a new BioTracker PPG sensor and a revamped operating system.

Another Honor V40 phone, this time it’s “light and luxurious ”

The Honor V40 5G launched earlier this year as the manufacturer’s first phone following its split from Huawei. Now, it is getting a sibling that will be sold as the Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition and it is also coming on March 23.

The phone looks premium with its curved display and eye-catching rear design. It has been reported it will have support for 66W fast charging, so you can refill its 3800mAh battery in under an hour.

realme C25 and realme 8 series

realme has two events next week. The first will hold in Indonesia on March 23 and it plans to unveil the realme C25 smartphone, a budget MediaTek-powered phone with a 6000mAh battery capacity.

The following day, March 24, realme India will take the wraps off the realme 8 series. This will be a bigger event with not only more phones but more fanfare as the phones are realme’s challengers to the Redmi Note 10 series.

Motorola Edge S goes global as the Moto G100

Towards the end of last year, Motorola announced that the first Moto G smartphone with a Snapdragon 800 series processor is coming this year. On Thursday, March 25, the phone will arrive as the Moto G100. The device should be familiar to those who have been following Motorola’s announcements this year as it is a rebadge of the China-exclusive Motorola Edge S, the first flagship killer of 2021. We are excited nonetheless.

iQOO Z3

The iQOO Z3 5G is scheduled to launch in China on March 25. Reports say the phone will come with a Snapdragon processor, an FHD+ display with a 144Hz refresh rate, and support for 55W fast charging.

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The post Next Week in Tech: POCO X3 Pro, Black Shark 4 series, OnePlus 9 series, Moto G100, Realme 8 and more incoming appeared first on Gizmochina.

Today, Honor took to Weibo to confirm that a new smartphone named the Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition will debut on March 23 in China. Ahead of the launch, a couple of live shots of the smartphone have surfaced on the Chinese microblogging site.

The Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition will be coming in hues such as green and white. In terms of appearances, the handset bears a resemblance to the Huawei Nova 8 5G, which debuted at the beginning of this year. It is now available for registrations through multiple retailers in China until March 23.

The smartphone flaunts a curved edge screen with a hole-punch cutout at the top-center position. The display is integrated with a fingerprint scanner. An oval-shaped camera island with four cameras and an LED flash is available on the backside of the phone. Shown below are some of the real-life images of the handset.

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Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition specifications (Rumored)

The Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition has a 6.57-inch OLED screen that delivers a Full HD+ resolution, a 10-bit color depth, 90Hz refresh rate, and a 240Hz touch sampling rate. It will come preinstalled with Android 11 OS.

The rear camera module of the Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition has a primary shooter of 64-megapixel, a superwide lens of 8-megapixel, and two 2-megapixel snappers for depth effects and macro images. For selfies, it is fitted with a 32-megapixel camera. The 3,800mAH battery of the Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition will be equipped with 66W fast charging support.

The Honor V40 Light Luxury Edition is expected to sell as the Honor V40 Lite in global markets. There is no word on the pricing of the device.

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• Honor 10A and V40 Lite are among Honor’s upcoming lineup

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