Apple is gearing up to launch the upcoming iPhone 14 series smartphones in which the Pro models will come with a revamped design that will see the company adopting the pill-and-hole cutout for the front-facing camera.

Now, a new report coming from analyst Ross Young claims that Apple will fully adopt the new pill-and-hole cutout design for the front panel of next year’s Apple iPhone 15 series.

If the report is to be believed, then unlike this year’s iPhone 14 lineup, the new design won’t be limited to Pro models, but all the models in the iPhone 15 series will have pill-and-hole cutout instead of a notch. The non-Pro iPhone 14 models launching this year will continue to have a notch on top of the screen.

In the new design of the phone’s front panel, the pill-shaped cutout is for the Face ID sensors, while the hole is for housing the front-facing camera.

Eventually, the Cupertino-based technology giant will move the Face ID sensors and the front-facing camera lens under the display. As per the report, if everything goes according to the company’s plan, then the move to shift components under the screen could start happening with iPhone 16 models coming in 2024.

The Apple iPhone 14 series, which will have four models, will be the first in the lineup to have significantly different specifications and features for the non-Pro and Pro versions.

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Lately, we have been hearing a lot about the upcoming iPhone 14 series and it appears that the devices will come with some major changes which were expected to happen in the future iPhone models.

In the latest development, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, in his latest Power On newsletter, has claimed that the iPhone 14 series models won’t feature a notch for housing sensors. Instead, the phones will have a pill-shaped cutout on top of the screen.

Earlier, Apple had said that the notch was necessary for housing the sensors required for the front-facing camera as well as the Face ID feature. So, it will be interesting to see how the Cupertino-based tech giant manages to pack everything in a tiny space.

Prior to this new report from Mark Gurman, Korea-based publication The Elec had also claimed that the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max will come with a punch-hole cutout on the screen instead of a notch. Even Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has claimed about iPhone 14 models have a punch-hole cutout. These multiple reports about the same thing almost confirm this development.

Apple had first introduced the notch with the iPhone X and since then, it has largely remained unchanged. It houses the TrueDepth camera array which includes an infrared camera, a flood illuminator, a front camera, and a dot projector.

Reports also point that the Apple iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Max will continue to offer the notch but the Pro models in the series will come with a new pill-shaped punch-hole cutout for housing the sensors.

Some rumors claim that the company may adopt a laser-based time-of-flight architecture for Face ID while other rumors indicate a unibody lens design that will help the company reduce the size of the front camera module.

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A few years ago, with the launch of the iPhone X in 2017, Apple added a notch on top of the screen and it has continued so far, with the recently launched iPhone 13 models also featuring a notch. But the company is now expected to change that with upcoming phones.

If the new report coming from The Elec is to be believed, which is based on the display suppliers, then the upcoming iPhone 14 series models with OLED displays could have a punch-hole cutout instead of a notch.

The report claims that Samsung has already started receiving machines from Philoptics and Wonik IPS for laser-cutting holes in the OLED panels.

It is being said that Apple has decided to get rid of the notch on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models as the company is confident about Samsung’s ability and expertise in hole punching for displays, which the South Korean giant has already been doing for years with the introduction of its own Galaxy S10 lineup.

If the report is true, the iPhone 14 Pro Max, featuring a 6.7-inch display with a punch-hole cutout could end up being the smartphone from Apple with the best screen-to-body ratio the company has ever designed.

The upcoming Apple iPhone 14 Pro models will be using Samsung’s HIAA (Hole-in-Active-Area) method which is said to be the most advanced OLED hole-punching technology so far. HIAA employs laser drilling between the OLED deposition and thin-film encapsulation (TFE) which is more challenging to do with Samsung‘s flexible OLED displays that use plastic instead of a glass substrate.

So far, Apple is dependent on Samsung Display for the OLED LTPO panels but LG is also reportedly working on the same but LG is yet to conduct trials that will determine if its production meets the needed quality and cost.

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Apple had been rumored to launch new MacBook Pro laptops with a notch on the display. The recent launch of the latest MacBooks confirmed this rumor, although, a 2020 patent from the company has revealed that the notch design had been in the plans but with additional functionality.

The patent in question was first spotted by PatentlyApple back in March 2020 and showcased future iMac and MacBook Pro with a notch that appeared similar to the notch on iPhones. While the newly launched MacBook Pros feature a notch that houses its front facing camera, TrueTone sensor, and other sensors, it does not offer any form of biometric authentication based system like Face ID.

However, the patent describes the Macs with Face ID support on their notches. As per the patent, this system enabled the device to capture “face gestures and emotions, video chatting, generating emoji, encrypting data, unlocking the computing device, supplementing passwords, differentiating different users, and the like.” In other words, the newly launched MacBook Pros might have been initially slated to support Face ID as well, but it seems that the feature will likely be included in future iterations of the notebook.

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After months of speculation and anticipation, Apple has finally confirmed that it will be hosting a digital event on 13th September. While the company has not confirmed the devices getting launch, it is going to launch its next-generation iPhone 12 models.

Ahead of the official launch, most of the details about the upcoming smartphones have already been leaked online. We know that all the models will have an OLED display panel and the usual wide notch on top of the screen.

If you were hoping that the next year’s iPhone model will get rid of the notch on top of the display for a full-screen experience or some other kind of solution so that the company could offer edge-to-edge experience and better STB ratio, then you will be disappointed.

A popular leakster has claimed through a tweet that iPhone 13, which will get released in 2021, will also have a notch on top of the display, but it will be a bit thinner compared to what Apple is currently offering.

EDITOR’S PICK: Broadcom is ending its exclusivity deal for seven years in EU antitrust deal

Many smartphone manufacturers have been trying out different types of solutions to get rid of the big notch on the display. Android phone makers have adopted pop-up camera modules, dot-notch, and pill-shaped notch to offer a better screen-to-body ratio.

However, it seems that Apple isn’t interested in trying out such solutions. Instead, it seems like the company is waiting for the under-display camera technology to be solid enough for mainstream commercial usage.

UP NEXT: Taiwan sees rise in exports in September because of Huawei stockpiling

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Lately, smartphone manufacturers are attacking the bezels around the display like it’s the enemy to kill. Everyone wants to get rid of anything apart from the display on the phone’s front. We have smartphones that hide the front camera inside its body via a pop-up motor. There are even patents which show off an in-display camera design (coming soon), that lies beneath the display. For those looking for a less expensive option, there’s the notch, and I think we all will agree that waterdrop seems to be the most preferred one. Then came the punch hole camera, that reserves a small dot on the display, usually on one corner, so that it doesn’t hinder your experience.

Meizu’s take on the issue of bezels is a bit unique. With the Meizu 16th model, the company paved the way for a design that embraces the bezels (our 16th hands-on here!) around the display. The new Meizu 16S takes the same design to another level by adding a larger display, surrounded by even thinner bezels. The bezels on the top and the bottom are slimmer, with the chin measuring just 4.2mm. The top bezel is pretty slim as well, despite housing the front camera. This was made possible by using the 20MP Samsung 3T2 selfie sensor, which is the world’s smallest front facing camera.

The display is now 6.2-inches in size, in a relatively similar form factor as its predecessor (151.9 x 73.4 x 7.6mm). The phone might not be as light as the previous model, but at 165 grams, it’s still pretty easy to hold. Not to mention the 0.5° angle arc design that makes it comfortable to hold, even with one hand. The increase in thickness from 7.3mm on the Meizu 16th to 7.6mm in the 16S model is justified because of a significant increase in battery capacity. The new model houses a larger 3600mAh battery on board, which is a solid 20% increase.

We got the pearl white model in for review and it looks enticing. The back has what Meizu calls a plasma finish that gives it a premium look. However, we are even more excited to see how that Carbon Black variant with carbon fiber texture will look in our hands on. We’ll try to get that variant for review, but for now, we are playing around with this Pear White model.

The dual rear camera module consists of a 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor and a 20MP IMX250 sensor. There’s four-axis OIS to ensure the shots come out steady. The AI scene recognition will try to match the right settings for the perfect shot, depending on the environment.

The power and volume buttons are on the right while the left side remains clean. This is because the SIM card slot goes down below, alongside the speaker and USB-C port.

Inside, the Meizu 16S is powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor with 6GB /8GB RAM and 128GB / 256GB storage options. Adreno 640 GPU works together with Meizu’s Hyper Gaming tech offering a smooth and lag-free gaming experience. Further, mEngine 3.0 also provides an immersive experience with games like BuildTopia.

• RELATED: Meizu launches POP 2 earbuds, EP63 Noise Cancelling Headphones and more

Finally, Meizu has ensured that the phone supports NFC. There are stereo speakers for a rich audio experience. Unfortunately, in the pursuit of adding a bigger battery, Meizu had to kill the headphone jack. So, you will have to use its Type-C port for your wired audio needs.

We will review the Meizu 16S in the coming days. So expect a full detailed analysis of the phone soon. Meanwhile, you can check out our review of the Meizu 16th launched last year.

Check out our Meizu 16S hands-on gallery down below.

Meizu 16S hands on

1 of 11

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The design of the Lenovo Z6 Pro’s display has remained a mystery but we don’t have to wait until its launch on Tuesday, April 23 to know what it looks like. A video ad for the phone has now been uploaded on the web and it shows what the phone looks like.

The Z6 Pro will not have a notch-less display like the Z5 Pro GT, so that means no slider design or pop-up selfie camera. Instead, it will have a U-shaped notch similar to that of the Essential PH-1 according to the video.

The video advert also confirms the phone will have its fingerprint scanner under the display and have four rear cameras. It appears the phone may also come in just one color variant as the advert doesn’t show any other variant other than the red and black on we have seen in leaked photos and press renders.

The Lenovo Z6 Pro will have four cameras with a bunch of features. The reservation page Lenovo put up on its site shows the phone will have a large 2.9μm pixel size, super night mode, 8-axis OIS, a Time of Flight (ToF) camera, a 2.39-centimeter super macro mode, and a 125° super wide-angle field of view.

READ MORE: Buy Top Variants of Lenovo S5 Pro Global Version at Lowered Prices on Giztop

The Lenovo Z6 Pro will be powered by the Snapdragon 855 processor, have support for 5G, pack a 4000mAh battery, have liquid-cooling, and stereo speakers with Dolby audio.

(Sources: 1, 2 | Via: 1, 2)

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OnePlus 6T is officially here and China is the only major market where the phone is yet to release (November 2). For the past few years, the company has consistently manufactured best sellers. In recent years, the popularity of its phones have grown ten fold. But will the OnePlus 6T, a phone that replaces the five-month-old OP6, live up to our expectations?

Short answer is that it does! I managed to play around with the device at launch in India yesterday and things look really good. The phone is essentially the OP6 at heart. It’s a more refined version of an already good device, making the 6T an excellent find at its aggressive selling price. In simple terms, if the OnePlus 6 was modular, you would just have to replace a few parts to get to the OnePlus 6T. I sympathize with the OP6 owners, I mean, we really need a modular OnePlus device. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could just swap out some parts instead of having to buy a brand new phone to keep ourselves updated?

That said, what’s a really good question is whether the OP6T is worth upgrading from the OP6.

Well, in a lot of ways, the OnePlus 6T has a lot to offer, even for existing OnePlus 6 users! You won’t get a long list of changes as compared to its predecessor, but these changes, albeit few, future proofs the phone for quite some time.

Let’s see these changes in detail in the OnePlus 6T hands on down below.

OnePlus 6T Hands-On

OnePlus 6T hasn’t changed much in terms of its looks when compared to its predecessor. In fact, when you hold the phone, it feels exactly like the OnePlus 6. The two variants, Midnight Black (Matte) and Mirror Black (high gloss) are the same as the older model. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any differences.

The notched display is much better looking. Waterdrop really works for me personally, much better than the standard ugly notches. When I was reviewing the OnePlus 6, I started to ignore the notch after a day or two, and it became just an extension of the display. But every now and then, I would look at that notch and would hope that there was a better alternative to it.

Fast forward a few months and we saw OPPO refine what essential did with the notch, and OnePlus (unsurprisingly) hooked the 6T to this design. Until we get to a point where front cameras go under the display, the waterdrop notch seems to be our best alternative. Before you start talking about slider phones, personally, I don’t think they are here to stay. Adding moving parts to a smartphone-like device is never a permanent solution and this will likely be just a phase before we move on to in display cameras or something better.

The second change is the fingerprint sensor that goes from the back of the phone to the front, right inside the display.  I didn’t get a lot of time to play around with the sensor in the demo area, but the initial experience was pretty positive. OnePlus seems to have improved on the available in display fingerprint technology to make it usable for everyday purposes. I say usable because it’s still a bit slower than a traditional fingerprint sensor. But in display sensors are the way forward and the OnePlus 6T could definitely be the phone that brought this technology to the mass market. Samsung is also going to jump to this technology next year and I’m sure pretty soon, it will become standard among flagships.

You’d definitely miss the headphone jack. But that’s another step forward than backward. I know many here would disagree with this statement but Bluetooth seems to be the future. As smartphones become more advanced and compact, companies will try to squeeze out things that have alternate options. Bluetooth headphones have come a long way and they have a lot more to go, but this is probably a good time to switch.

OnePlus 6 came with gesture support and it was good enough for daily use. The new OnePlus 6T improves the same gestures with better animations making the overall navigation fluid and quick.

In the camera department, there are two major improvements. One is ‘Nightscape’ for better low light photography (it essentially boosts ISO and exposure) and the other one is studio lighting for better selfies. Both need to be tested extensively to determine whether they are really new features or just gimmicks. But in general, don’t expect anything out of the ordinary in comparison to the older model.

The bigger battery is really going to boost that battery life. It’s not that the OP6 had a bad battery life, but the 6T is going to take things to the next level, leaving behind expensive competitors like S9 or even the Pixel 3 XL. Also, did you notice the About Phone section (picture in the gallery below)? That’s different than any other UI out there!

Overall, the OP6T feels like a worthy update to an already good device. We’ll look at the phone in detail in an in-depth review soon!

Till then, more OnePlus 6T Hands-on pictures are down below!

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In an attempt to increase the screen size and to keep up with the bezel-less design trend started off by Essential Phone and iPhone X, smartphone OEMs have jumped onto the notched-display bandwagon. Display notches are essentially a cut-out, at the top, of a part of the smartphone’s display. Some of the advantages of display notches are it offers the ability to retain the display area on either side of it, for showing information such as time, battery percentage and more.

With display notches, smartphone OEMs are now in a position to provide maximum screen space without abandoning the critical hardware at the top, such as the Selfie Camera, Receiver Speaker, other Sensor, LED Indicators., etc. Now, you can get a 5.5-inch sized smartphone with a 6.2-inch display on it.

Whether you love it or hate it, here are the different types of display notches- smartphones with notched-display.

iPhone X Notch

Apple’s iPhone X came with a spectacular edge-to-edge display that dominates the entire front of the smartphone. Well, nearly the entire front side of the phone. Unlike the Android flagships such as the Pixel XL 2, Samsung’s Galaxy S8, and LG’s V30, iPhone X didn’t come with a top bezel; instead, it came with a wide display notch which looked odd.

The notch on the iPhone X contains the TrueDepth camera system, which powers the iPhone’s Face ID facial recognition technology. It also incorporates the hardware elements required for Apple’s all-new Animoji feature and an IR sensor.

Before the launch of iPhone X, the display notches (design) sparked a lot of discussions among consumers and industry experts, much of it negative. But over the time, hate for the notch has faded away as many people have become used to Apple’s design choice. Android smartphone manufacturers are now embracing the notch concept on their smartphones.

Medium-sized Notch (Oneplus 6, Asus Zenfone 5Z, Huawei P20 Pro, etc.)

Soon after the unveiling of iPhone X, a large number of Android smartphone makers have joined the bandwagon and released smartphones with the displays that have a notch. The Huawei P20 Pro, OnePlus 6 and Asus Zenfone 5Z too came with a notched display (but a smaller one).

Unlike the iPhone X, Android phones such as the OnePlus 6 came with several new features that allow users to control the notch in whatever way they want. Users can turn it off (notch) in the Display Settings.

By doing so, a regular black bar will appear on the top of the display which is similar to the regular black bar that we used to see on many other Android phones. On that black bar, system time, battery indicator, as well as notifications, will be displayed. If you don’t like the notch, you can make it disappear. This is a unique feature that is not yet available in the Apple’s iPhone X.

Water-Drop Notch (Essential PH-1, Oppo F9 Pro, Vivo V11 Pro)

Essential was the first to launch a smartphone with a “notch” ahead of Apple. Of course, Apple overshadowed Essential just a few weeks later with the iPhone X notch. Oppo coined the name waterdrop notch with the launch of Oppo F9 Pro.

While Essential PH-1 notch (similar to Oppo F9 Pro notch) didn’t get mainstream, a host of Android phones such as Vivo V11 Pro have been launched with a waterdrop notch.

While the ‘regular’ notch mostly contains the speaker, front-facing selfie cameras and other types of sensors such as notification led, IR blasters.

The waterdrop notch – due its shape and size – isn’t that accommodating, it contains only the front-facing camera. Its primary purpose is to offer more screen real estate on the phone’s display. No doubt it is an attractive design element, but the functionality of the waterdrop notch remains a bit foggy.

In other words, the waterdrop notch is a nice differentiator among the crowded notched-display phones, but it is low on functionality.

Final Thoughts

The notch-display design is now a mainstream design element, especially with the launch of budget Realme 2, which claims to be the most affordable phone with a display notch. The Realme 2 comes with a starting price point of Rs 8,990 (125 USD).

The display notch exists on the Apple’s iPhone X because it needs a wide array of sensors on the front for Face ID tech, but on Android, notched-display is just an aesthetic choice. The notch might not be a permanent fixture for Android smartphones.

Android phones such as the Vivo Nex, Oppo Find X have taken the full-screen experience to a whole new level. With a motorized pop-up camera, these phones came with no ugly notches and massive 92-93.5% screen-to-body ratio.

There are several reasons a pop-up camera such as the one in the Vivo Nex might not be ideal (long-term reliability being the main one). But design changes such as the Oppo Find X and Vivo Nex shows that smartphone makers are experimenting with new ideas to get rid of the ugly notch. Essential, which released the first smartphone with a notched-display, also filed a patent for a similar camera design found in Vivo Nex.

Do you like the notched-display, if so, which type of notch you like the most? Tell us in comments

The post We Look At Different Types Of Notches In The Market Today: Pick Your Favorite appeared first on Gizmochina.

Huawei has introduced a new chipset this month and finally, there seems to be some progress in the company’s mid-range lineup. Huawei Nova 3i is the most important improvement of this year if we consider the mid-end sector, but is it worth spending a bit more to get this new handset instead of the older Huawei P20 Lite which was the main Huawei mid-ranger until its arrival? Let’s see it with a Huawei Nova 3i vs Huawei P20 Lite specs comparison.

Huawei Nova 3i vs Huawei P20 Lite

Huawei Nova 3i vs Huawei P20 Lite: Design

First of all, there is a slight improvement in the design, even though Huawei Nova 3i is aesthetically similar to Huawei P20 Lite. The new handset has trimmed bezels compared with its predecessor, and it is also available in gradient hues, unlike the P20 Lite. Further, Huawei Nova 3i has a glass back, while the P20 Lite has a plastic back. For the rest, it is more or less the same, but Huawei Nova 3i is definitely more beautiful and well-made than its opponent.

Display

Both Huawei Nova 3i and Huawei P20 Lite have displays with a notch included, but the Nova 3i has a bigger 6.3-inch panel which may be very useful for people using the smartphone for productivity and multimedia. A 6.3-inch display is much more comfortable to use but it also results in a bigger phone. Indeed, the Nova 3i is bigger, heavier and even thicker than its opponent. Due to minimal differences in the viewing quality, I would surely pick the Nova 3i because of its bigger screen.

Huawei Nova 3i vs Huawei P20 Lite: Specs & Software

Under the hood, Huawei Nova 3i has more recent and powerful hardware than the P20 Lite. It has the new octa-core Kirin 710 chipset which is an improvement over the overused Kirin 659. So, it should provide evidently better performance. Further, it has more RAM in the most expensive configuration. There is no challenge under this point of view: Huawei Nova 3i wins.

Huawei Nova 3i vs Huawei P20 Lite: Camera

Even when it comes to the camera department, Huawei Nova 3i is better, but differences are marginal. With the dual rear camera having exactly the same specs, the only difference is represented by the front camera setup which consists of a dual selfie camera (with 24 and 2 MP resolutions) for the Nova 3i and a 16 or 24 MP single camera (depending on the market) for the P20 Lite. Huawei Nova 3i can shoot more interesting selfies by detecting depth info in a more accurate way.

Battery

Given its bigger dimensions, Huawei Nova 3i has a bigger battery, and this means a longer battery life. It has 340 mAh more capacity and it has even the GPU Turbo technology out of the box which can provide up to 30 percent more power efficiency. On the other hand, with a smaller battery on board, the Huawei P20 Lite should charge faster as both the devices feature a fast battery charging technology.

Huawei Nova 3i vs Huawei P20 Lite: Price

Huawei Nova 3i has just been launched, so it is still available at a pretty expensive price. You can currently get it for €350 which roughly translates into about $407. Huawei P20 Lite is currently way cheaper and it can be found at less than €278 thanks to online street prices, which roughly translates into $323. Huawei Nova 3i is obviously the winner of the comparison thanks to its more beautiful design, its more advanced hardware, and its bigger battery. But in the actual situation, we suggest you go for the P20 Lite due to its more affordable price tag. If it is not urgent for you to get a new handset, then wait a month or so for the price of the Nova 3i to drop, and it will be worth getting it.

Huawei Nova 3i vs Huawei P20 Lite: PROs and CONS

Huawei Nova 3i

PROs

• Better design
• Bigger display
• More powerful hardware
• Bigger battery

CONS

• Bigger dimensions

Huawei P20 Lite

PROs

• More affordable
• Smaller dimensions
• Cameras almost at the same level
• Wider availability

CONS

• Worse build quality and hardware

The post Huawei Nova 3i vs Huawei P20 Lite: Specs Comparison appeared first on Gizmochina.

We have to come to a stage where smartphone users are split into two groups: those who hate the notch and those who don’t mind it. I still haven’t come across someone who said he or she was a big fan of the notch design, but I’m sure there are people who love the notch design too.

But why are smartphone companies obsessed with this infamous notch? Despite the strong criticism, more and more smartphones are shipping with the notch design and the numbers are only going to increase in the coming months.

If you are thinking that mechanical sliders from OPPO and Vivo phones are going to replace the notch in the long run, think again. For reasons that I’ll mention down below, I doubt mechanical sliders are the future. They are cool without doubt, but may not be something that you would like to see on a smartphone and here’s why.

Before I start rambling about what’s wrong with mechanical camera sliders, I would have to clear this one thing: I find them really cool and futuristic. Yes, they look futuristic but they are likely not going to be on your future smartphones.

I would have to agree that OPPO and Vivo have really wowed us this year. They have managed to do what even the big conglomerates like Samsung, Apple, and Sony couldn’t do. At an age where smartphone design innovation has become more or less stagnant, OPPO’s Find X and Vivo’s Nex models have refreshed our imaginations.

Who would have thought sliding cameras were the future and we would see it on flagships in 2018? But our obsession with full screen displays really necessitated something like this. And both OPPO and Vivo have managed to implement this design pretty well. After all, how cool is it to see your smartphone automatically pop up the camera and put it back in, all within a second or two. The overall process is seamless and credit has to be given where its due! Well done OPPO!

A sliding camera that pops up automatically and goes back in seamlessly looks really, really cool and it’s something that you would love to showcase it among your friends. But is it really better than the notch?

I think not.

First let’s see what sliding cameras bring to the table.

1. An amazing and beautiful full screen display on the front.
2. A cool and futuristic looking unique design.

Now, let’s see what it takes away from the phone. It’s much more than you can imagine.

Durability:

What are the chances that your camera breaks off from your phone? Wait, you didn’t think this was a possible scenario right? If you think the chances are rare, think again! Just think how many times has your smartphone almost slipped off your hands while using the camera. I consider myself to have pretty sturdy hands but even I have managed to drop all of my smartphones at least a couple of times during my usage.

Not only that, a moving part is always going to be less durable and that’s a fact. Considering how we are using our smartphones nearly 10-12 hours a day at least, we want our smartphones to be sturdier and less susceptible to any kind of damage. Heck, recent smartphones are even waterproof / water resistant, even when the possibility of water ruining our phones are quite rare. So, we like to be safe right? But with a sliding camera, it looks like we are going a step behind.

Not to mention the possibility of dust accumulating in the sliding component. Remember, these are all automatically controlled by software, so what happens when the slider stops working for some reason? Do we stop using the camera?

Now I know that both OPPO and Vivo must have really tested their sliding components for durability. They must have considered a lot of scenarios and I’m sure these designs have passed their stress test. The sliders worked pretty well in the units that were sent for review, but when you mass produce the same designs, we’ll have to wait and see what issues crop up with these sliders. I’m not expecting manufacturing defects in general, but there are a lot of factors at play with a sliding component, and we’ll have to wait and see how durable they in your everyday usage.

Battery Life:

Any added motorised component puts a strain on your battery. And in case of smartphones, saving juice is of utmost importance. But with a motorised sliding camera, we’ll have to see how their batteries perform. Specifically for the OPPO Find X, which has to slide up the camera housing anytime you want to unlock your phone and when it could be as much as hundreds of times in a day, it must really take a toll on the battery life. Unlike the Vivo Nex, the housing is pretty big on the Find X, so battery life is something that we’ll have to keep a close eye about the device. To make matters worse, there’s no fingerprint sensor (Vivo Nex has an in display sensor), so Face Recognition is a must for unlocking the device! Every single time you unlock you phone, there camera housing has to pop and go back in again.

Camera Sensor:

Sliding cameras are cool, but can they really keep up with the huge sensors on phones like the Huawei P20 Pro or the Galaxy S9+?

The internals of a smartphone have to be really optimised to make sure you can cram in the best components without taking too much space. For example, it isn’t the case that we don’t have sensors that can take DSLR like photos on a smartphone too. But they come at a cost — these sensors are large and would take up a lot of space inside, which isn’t practically optimum. This is the same reason why we don’t have gigantic 5000mAh battery on every phone out there (well, we do have a few but they are basically phones that focus on maximising battery life and not really flagships).

With a motorised sliding component in the picture, the already tight space inside a smartphone gets even more cramped. This means smartphone manufacturers have to make room by cutting out somewhere to ensure everything fits in this tight space. Now you know why we have protruding cameras… But with the Vivo Nex or the OPPO Find X, the camera sensors cannot be too large, at least not as large as the competition. So, it remains to be seen how the cameras on these sliding components perform in day to day usage, especially in comparison to other premium flagships. On paper, the camera setup on the Find X looks pretty good, but we know specs are just a small part of the equation. Only real life camera samples will show us the real camera prowess.

So, it really boils down to what you are willing to give up for a full screen design. OPPO Find X and Vivo Nex have revolutionary smartphone designs but they are not without their own set of flaws. For a full screen display, you might have to sacrifice on a few essential areas like battery life, camera quality and even durability. Personally, despite being a big fan of the Find X’s design, I would prefer a display with thin bezels but with an amazing camera, long battery, and most of all, durability. If I am going to shell out nearly y$600 or more on a phone, I would want to keep the phone around for a few months at least. Considering how this design makes it really hard to add a case to the phone, it further increases my scepticism of its durability.

All this being said, I would have to conclude by saying that OPPO Find X and Vivo Nex takes our dream of having full screen smartphones a lot further. Once you get used to seeing full screen design on smartphones, it’s only a matter of time until other manufacturers really work hard to get this design right!

But we are not there yet. We still have a long way to go to get the right full screen design but until then, I would prefer a notch over a motorised pop up camera slider on my smartphone for the above mentioned reasons.

What’s your take?

The post Opinion: Camera Sliders May Not Be Necessarily Better Than The Infamous Notch appeared first on Gizmochina.

Honor had a busy day today announcing first its revolutionary GPU Turbo technology and then releasing its first ever smartphone featuring this tech, the Honor Play. Like the name suggests, the phone relies heavily on this technology to enhance the overall gaming experience of the smartphone user. The basic hardware on the Honor Play is standard flagship stuff, but the underlying technology that powers the device makes it a really good gaming device.

Before we move on to the basic specs details, let’s take a look at what makes the Honor Play special.

The new Honor flagship is basically a gaming centric smartphone. It’s the first Honor device to feature the revolutionary GPU Turbo technology that enhances GPU performance significantly by increasing graphics processing efficiency by up to 60%. This results in better gaming performance than flagships such as the Xiaomi Mi 8, iPhone X, and even the Mi Mix 2S. The company revealed that the phone manages to beat these flagships in terms of frame rate and jitters, thereby giving an enhanced gaming experience on the device.

Further, the phone boasts of 4D gaming experience, powered by the same GPU Turbo technology. 4D gaming is possible because the Honor Play can detect a number of gaming scenes including shots, explosions and quakes. You also get a 3D sound experience, so you’ll be able to clearly locate the angle of firing. The phone also reportedly features a special film on its screen to reduce reflection and improve gaming experience under light. It also features in-game network optimisation which promises seamless shift from Wi-Fi to mobile data in order to ensure uninterrupted gameplay.

Now coming to the standard stuff, the phone has a 6.3-inch FHD+ 2340 x 1080 display with a notch on top. Unlike other Honor flagships, this one features a metal back and U shaped antenna lines. The dual cameras are located on the left side while the fingerprint sensor lies around the centre at the back. There are three color options: Nebula Purple, Aurora Blue, and Midnight Black.

The Honor Play features the Kirin 970 chipset (Mali-G72 MP12) inside in two memory configurations (expandable up to 256GB): 4GB + 64GB and 6GB + 64GB. The rear dual camera setup is average, featuring a 16MP f/2.2 primary sensor paired with a 2MP f/2.4 secondary depth sensor with support for AI shooting and AR gestures. On the front, there’s a 16MP f/2.0 sensor for selfies.

The phone has a decent 3750mAh battery inside which should be good enough for a day’s worth of gaming. Other features include Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi ac, and GPS. The phone is running on EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 OS.

Honor Play is cheaper than the flagship Honor 10 model and starts at 1999 Yuan ($312) for the 4GB + 64GB variant. The 6GB + 64GB variant will cost 2399 Yuan ($375). There’s a special Honor Play Cool limited edition with a special back design that retails for 2499 Yuan ($390). The regular editions go on sale on June 11 in China, while the special limited Cool edition will go on sale in July. One more thing, you get a free TPU case inside the box.

The post Honor Announces The Honor Play: Its First Phone With GPU Turbo & 4D Gaming appeared first on Gizmochina.

Ever since the first OnePlus One made it to the market, the company has made its name for releasing flagship killers.

But is the OnePlus 6 worthy of this tagline? Let’s find out!

It’s become a tradition for OnePlus flagships to be revealed in detail much before its official launch. The same was applicable for the OnePlus 6 and everything we knew about the phone before launch has come out to be true. So, there are no surprises in this article.

OnePlus 6 Design

The OnePlus 6 has joined the numerous flagships of 2018 that feature a glass body. Some might argue that metal is better than glass, but OnePlus defends this move by saying that the glass body is more malleable than a metal one and its lighter too. Plus, with Gorilla Glass 5 protection at the back (as well as front), the phone is set to take a few hits without breaking down. In fact, OnePlus claims that the OnePlus 6 is as durable as its predecessors with a metal body. Personally, I can vouch for OnePlus’ sturdy built quality as my old OnePlus 3T has slipped off my hands numerous times. The phone does features a few dents here and there, but apart from that, the device still performs flawlessly. So it’s good to hear that the GG5 back is as good as the previous OnePlus flagships.

The back features a vertically arranged dual camera setup, with a dual LED flash, pill shaped fingerprint sensor, and the OnePlus logo just below it. The company has ensured that the design is symmetrical and looks good. There’s a metal frame that goes around the glass body. The alert slider is now located on the right, above the power button. The volume buttons stay on the left like the previous OnePlus phones. The bottom features the USB Type-C port, speakers, and a headphone jack.

The OnePlus 6 is water resistant too, but the company hasn’t revealed an official IP certification. There are three color options, Mirror Black (high gloss), Midnight Black (Matte finish), and Silk White. The White color model is unfortunately a limited edition variant and will be available for sale later in June.

OnePlus 6 Hardware

You get the best hardware of 2018 inside the OnePlus 6. So love it or hate it, but the notch is here to stay. The phone features a 6.28-inch 2280 x 1080 tall 19:9 AMOLED display, with a notch on top. Of course, there’s an option to get rid of the notch inside the software, but that simply means you’ll be putting a black bar on the sides of the notch, technically wasting the available screen space.

Snapdragon 845 is inside with 6GB / 8GB RAM and 64GB/ 128GB/ 256GB ROM options. There’s dual SIM card slots and support for 40 bands across Europe and Americas. The battery size is nothing extraordinary, but with the 10nm SD845 and software optimisations, the 3300mAh battery should last an entire day.

As for the camera department, the OnePlus 6 comes with a 16MP primary sensor with f/1.7 aperture, 1.22um pixels and OIS. The larger pixel size of the main camera is said to improve the low light performance. There’s a 20MP secondary camera for depth information. The phone supports 4K videos at 60 fps which puts it in the same ranks as Galaxy S9 and iPX. Slo-mo videos can be shot at 480 fps @ 720p for up to a minute. You get a new video editor too with features such as adding filters, and music.

Unfortunately, there was no mention of wireless charging on the device.

OnePlus 6 Software

You get a familiar Oxygen OS on the OnePlus 6 with Android 8.1. Of course, you can test out the latest Android P beta on the phone too. What’s new in the OS is the gesture support. For example, swiping left or right takes you a step back or forward. Similarly swiping up from the home screen goes back home. This gives you the opportunity to free up the space taken by on screen buttons. There are the other standard features such as reading mode, gaming mode etc.

OnePlus 6 Pricing

In this age of premium smartphones costing nearly thousands of dollars, OnePlus is still fairly affordable. As expected, the company did increase the pricing of its new flagship, but as Carl Pei mentioned in the launch event, the company has always focused on fair pricing. And with the OnePlus 6, the pricing is quite fair indeed.

The OnePlus 6 starts at $529, which is a $30 increase as compared to the starting price of the OnePlus 5T.

Here are the official OnePlus 6 prices of all the variants:

6GB+64GB Mirror Black – $529

8GB+128GB Mirror Black – $579

8GB+128GB Midnight Black – $579

8GB+256GB Midnight Black – $629

8GB+128GB Silk White – $579

So the pricing starts from $529 and goes up to $629. That’s pretty aggressive for a 2018 flagship smartphone!

The only issue here is that the Silk White variant is a limited edition, so we don’t know how many units will be up for grabs. Also, the 256GB version is only available in the Midnight Black edition.

Overall, I’d say well done OnePlus!

What are your thoughts?

The post OnePlus 6 Is Here To Slay The Expensive Flagships Armed With A Notch & An Affordable Price Tag appeared first on Gizmochina.

We are just a three hours away from the official launch of the OnePlus 6, but looks like the leaks will continue to come in. This time, we have got some pretty high quality hands on images of the handset, well before its showcased officially. The pictures practically confirm at least three color options for the device: White, Mirror Black, and another Black version (Matte?).

The OnePlus 6 hands on images that were leaked today practically confirm the entire design of the handset. So you get a notch up front along with a thin chin at the bottom. The back features the dual camera setup in a vertical arrangement, flash, and a fingerprint sensor below it. Below the setup lies the OnePlus logo. The alert slider is shifted to the right above the power button while the volume buttons stay on the left as its predecessor.

The White OnePlus 6 clearly stands out from the crowd. We are big fans of white smartphones if they are made well, and the company isn’t new to making high quality, good looking white models. The OnePlus 6 was also released in Sandstone White and it was definitely a beautiful phone. We are not quite sure whether this is the Sandstone White OnePlus 6 version, but it surely doesn’t look too glossy. There are two more color options available, the high gloss Mirror Black OnePlus 6 and the Matte like Black OnePlus 6.

RELATED: Check Out The First OnePlus 6 Camera Samples

The launch is just a few hours away, so stay tuned for more details!

Participate in our OnePLus 6 Giveaway & You Can Win A Free OP6 Flagship!

(source: phonearena, via)

The post Early OnePlus 6 Hands On Images Reveals Everything About The Phone’s Design Before Launch appeared first on Gizmochina.

OnePlus will finally announce its newest flagship, the OnePlus 6 later this week. Like tradition, most of the details of the smartphone are already available, which leaves basically the price tag to be revealed on the launch date. Today, a number of OnePlus 6 cases have been leaked, once again, confirming the design of the device. The new case leak has no surprises and conforms to the what we’ve seen earlier.

The big takeaways from this case leak are the vertically arranged camera setup and the 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom. The dual cameras are placed vertically at the back with LED flash and the fingerprint reader below it. Right below the fingerprint sensor lies the OnePlus logo. So, the basic back design remains the same as its predecessor (even OP5T had a fingerprint sensor at the back with the logo below it), save for the placement of the camera sensor.

OnePlus had already confirmed the headphone jack on the OnePlus 6. It looks like the placement will be similar to the one on the OP5T. In fact, the case confirms that the bottom design will be the same as its predecessor.

Apart from these features, the OnePlus 6 is confirmed to feature the notch on top, a Snapdragon 845 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. A teaser even hints at waterproofing, a first for a OnePlus flagship. Given the presence of the glass back (instead of metal as found on the previous two generations), there’s a lot of speculation that the phone will feature wireless charging too. But that remains to be confirmed.

Expect the OnePlus 6 to be priced below $600 for the base version. But the company is likely going to charge a premium for its new flagship, so a price hike is expected.

READ MORE: OnePlus 6’s New Teaser Could Be Hinting At A Heart Rate Sensor

For the complete set of case renders, head over to the source link.

(Source)

The post OnePlus 6 Cases Confirm The Complete Design Of The Upcoming Flagship appeared first on Gizmochina.

LG G7 ThinQ will be officially announced on May 2, but you no longer have to wait to know all the details about the upcoming Korean flagship rivaling Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+. The famous and reliable leakster Roland Quandt has just revealed the specs and new renders of the device alongside its possible listing price in Europe. According to fresh render published by the German leakster, the flagship will come in at least three hues: black, red and blue.

It will exhibit a tall display with very narrow bezels, a notch and an incredibly tall 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Roland Quandt has revealed that this display will be an AMOLED panel with a 6.1-inch size and a Quad HD+ resolution of 3120 x 1440 pixels. It will have a maximum brightness of 1000 cd/m^2, the support to DCI-P3, 100% RGB color gamut and a 30% lower energy consumption compared to the previous models. The display will also sport an iPhone X-like notch to minimize bezels. Under the hood, there will be an octa-core Snapdragon 845 chipset, the best Qualcomm SoC with a max frequency of 2.7 GHz. There will also be 4 or 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage, but Roland still does not know whether it will be expandable or not.

RELATED: LG Q Note Could be an Upcoming Stylus Totting Phablet

The rear side will be made of glass and it will house a dual camera setup with a 16.3 MP resolution and f/1.6 apertures. We expect to see a wide-angle secondary sensor, but this is yet to be confirmed. From what the leakster revealed, LG G7 ThinQ will have a 3000 mAh battery with the support of the latest Qualcomm’s fast charging technology: Quick Charge 4.0. Its price should be lower than €680 in Europe, that is rather cheaper than Samsung Galaxy S9 which has been launched with an expensive €849 price tag.

(Source)

The post Fresh LG G7 ThinQ Leak By Roland Quandt Reveals Specs and 3 Color Variants appeared first on Gizmochina.