Last week was packed full of announcements such as a new foldable smartphone from Huawei, a new Redmi flagship killer, and a brand new PUBG game, among other announcements. If you were too busy, here is your chance to catch up on the important bits.

Huawei Mate X2 – a new fold, literally

Huawei announced the Mate X2, its third foldable smartphone. The new device brings a new folding design – inward fold rather than outward fold. The change in design means the Mate X2 is now more like a Samsung Galaxy Fold 2, but a better and refined one if we are being honest.

You get two displays, each with a 90Hz refresh rate. The larger screen which unfolds into an 8-inch tablet has no cut-outs for a camera, so if you want to take a selfie, you either fold the device to use the front-facing cameras or flip the phone backward (unfolded state) to use the rear cameras. The Mate X2 also has a Kirin 9000 processor and 55W fast charging.

Redmi K40 series arrives along with friends

The Redmi K40 series launched last week with three models in all – a flagship killer and two pro models with better cameras and a more powerful processor. The new phones also came along with friends such as the Redmi AirDots 3 earbuds, a humongous 86” TV, and new pro computers.

PUBG shoots into the future with a new game

Fans of the battle royale game, PUBG, will be getting a new installment that is set in the future. PUBG: New State, as it is called, will feature new game mechanics, new weapons, and a new location when it arrives later this year for iOS and Android.

Samsung has a new camera sensor

Samsung announced a new 50MP camera, the ISOCELL GN2, which is expected to appear in some flagships this year. The new camera has the largest sensor of any smartphone camera, an advanced autofocus feature, and more. It is already being mass-produced, so we should see it in a commercial device soon.

New Motorola smartwatches coming later this year

Motorola no longer makes smartwatches but a company called eBuyNow has been given the license to do so using the American company’s name. In 2019, they launched a new Moto 360 smartwatch, and this year they are planning to announce three new models one of which has a square dial and another which will arrive as the Moto G Smartwatch.

HP gets serious about gaming with HyperX acquisition

HP announced last week that it is acquiring HyperX, a gaming brand owned by Kingston Technologies. The deal will cost $425 million and is expected to be completed later this year.

RELATED:

• Next Week in Tech: Meizu 18, Red Magic 6, Realme GT, and more kickstart the March Madness
• New leak confirms Redmi Note 10 (global) will have a Snapdragon 678 processor
• Nothing appoints former Samsung executive as VP and head of Indian division

The post Top stories from last week: Huawei unveils Mate X2 foldable, Redmi K40 series follow; a new PUBG game, and more appeared first on Gizmochina.

Korean tech giant Samsung has announced a new 50MP camera sensor dubbed ISOCELL GN2. The sensor is an upgrade of last year’s model the ISOCELL GN1 which was announced with a faster auto-focus. Although the new GN2 still retains a 50MP sensor size, it features bigger pixels as well as improved energy consumption. The sensor also comes with a new Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) dubbed Dual Pixel Pro.

The ISOCELL GN2 has a pixel size of 1.4μm  while the sensor has a size of 1/1.12-inch, the largest you can find in a smartphone. Samsung claims the large 1.4μm pixel size is capable of delivering “exceptionally detailed photographs in regular settings”. The sensor also deploys the four-pixel-binning technology to achieve a 2.8μm pixel size in order to deliver quality images in a low-lit environment.

Further, the new Samsung sensor is capable of capturing 100MP photos by re-organizing the color pixels through what Samsung calls “an intelligent re-mosaic algorithm”. How this works is that the sensor captures three 50 MP layers in Green, Blue, and Red, which are then overlaid, upscaled, and merged to produce the high-resolution photograph.

Another key highlight of the ISOCELL GN2 is the Phase Detection Auto-Focus (PDAF) feature which Samsung christened Dual Pixel Pro. This is the first sensor with this feature which is said to be Samsung’s most advanced PDAF solution. The technology involves splitting the green pixels diagonally instead of splitting the red, green, and blue pixels vertically. This allows the top and bottom to read phase differences in addition to the left and right sides. In this way, the autofocus is swift and precise even in adverse conditions such as the low-light environment or fast-moving object.

Samsung says the camera sensor is already being mass-produced. There is no indication when we’ll find it in smartphones but whenever it comes, the sensor will feature Smart ISO Pro which is creating instant HDR images with fewer motion-artifacts. The sensor also supports 1080p @ 480 fps or 4K @ 120 fps video recording.

RELATED;

• Samsung Koisk is designed to change how stores take orders in this pandemic era
• Samsung might soon launch its custom chip with AMD GPU: Report
• Samsung is working on foldable OLED displays for Google, Xiaomi and Oppo: Report

(source)

The post Samsung 50MP ISOCELL GN2 camera sensor announced with several upgrades over the GN1 appeared first on Gizmochina.