Business Articles

Three major market research firms have declared Xiaomi is now the world’s third-largest smartphone company in terms of units shipped for the third quarter of 2020. The good news for Xiaomi comes at the expense of Apple, which slips into fourth. Strong sales for the Redmi 9 series, Redmi K30 Ultra, and Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra have helped the Chinese OEM achieve impressive growth.

In our test, the Dell Latitude 14 5410 can convince us primarily with two aspects: Upgradeability and battery life. But because Dell insists on only offering Intel CPUs, we can't give the Dell laptop an absolute recommendation.

WearOS smartwatches may not be as popular as Apple's or Samsung's equivalents, but you can currently get one for just US$99, £89 in the UK and €99 in the Eurozone. The Skagen Falster 2 comes in multiple looks and features a heart rate monitor, GPS and NFC for use with Google Pay.

Sony may be on the verge of releasing a version of the Xperia 1 II with 12 GB of RAM, but it will not necessarily offer any performance improvements on the standard 8 GB model. To that end, Geekbench has shown the performance limits of going from 8 GB to 12 GB of RAM, with marginal improvements in single-core and multi-core tasks.

Google has announced several new initiatives to improve the environmental friendliness of its Pixel smartphones. From 2025, the packaging of Google's smartphones will be plastic-free, while at least 50% recycled or renewable plastic will be used in its Pixel or Nest hardware.

Apple and Foxconn may have been partners for years but the relationship has soured in the last few years, according to a report published by The Information. Reputedly, Foxconn has employed a range of tactics to maximise profits, including overcharging for production costs and even potentially revealing Apple designs to third-parties before they have been announced.

The Hela Bio smartwatch is not only a fitness tracker but a smartwatch that can measure blood glucose levels, blood pressure and heart rates. The smartwatch has gained over US$200,000 in crowdfunding, but some things do not add up.

Huawei's place on the US administration's Entity List had cut it off from supplies of high-end OLED smartphone panels from Samsung and LG. However, new reports indicated that the former has obtained a license to sell these components to the Chinese OEM again. Then again, it still can't use them to make new flagship devices.

A leaked internal document has revealed HMD Global's future plans for Nokia, which apparently include the release of a Nokia 10. The Nokia brand will remain committed to the Android One ecosystem too, which is becoming increasingly Nokia-dependent following the seeming withdrawal from the program by Xiaomi.

Apple is now estimated to have an installed user base of 1 billion iPhones. The figure comes from a respected Apple analyst who has been tracking iPhone sales data for the past 13 years.

The PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has been discussing the phenomenal reception of the upcoming PlayStation 5 in an interview. Pre-orders for the next-gen console in the US have gone way beyond what the PlayStation 4 could manage, and a noted analyst has suggested that over one million PS5 pre-orders may have already been made worldwide.

Rockstar Games has given an insight into what improvements it plans to bring to the next-generation version of GTA V. Specifically, how its triple-A game will differ on the PS5. The game will benefit from improved rendering distance and a higher resolution, among other changes.

OLED TVs cost stacks of cash anyway, but Xiaomi's transparent Mi TV Lux takes it up a notch. Costing around US$7,000, the Mi TV Lux looks brilliant, but its showstopper design is held back by its 1080p resolution and its limited connectivity.

The Pro1 X is a collaboration between F(x)tec and XDA Developers with native support for both LineageOS and Ubuntu Touch. The price is high for outdated hardware and long lead-times, though.

Acclaimed battle royale PUBG will deliver enhanced performance on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. According to the PUBG Corporation, both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will deliver a 60 FPS experience when running under the "Framerate Priority Mode."

Here we go again. CD Projekt Red has delayed the release of Cyberpunk 2077 for the third time; this time re-scheduled for December 10. Apparently, the company is guilty of its own ambition this time.

DOOGEE's latest in its line of durable smartphones is the S96 Pro. This device counts a 20MP Sony "night vision" sensor among its 4 rear cameras. It also has a colossal battery of over 6000mAh in capacity, an ingress-protection rating of up to IP69K and the MediaTek Helio G90 SoC.

One month after NVIDIA acquired ARM, AMD announced a US$35 billion buyout of chipmaker Xilinx. The major acquisition is set to significantly broaden AMD's pool of engineers and could give the company a vital edge over a struggling Intel.

5G networks are set to transform the mobile data experience. However, very robust 4G infrastructure means that people in some countries already have access to ultra-fast connectivity. Etisalat in the UAE tops the list, offering speeds of nearly 100 Mbps on average, 3 times higher than the US average of 33 Mbps.

A new development in OLED technology could result in ultra-high-resolution displays, thanks to the latest developments in increasingly thin, effective solar panels. It involves cutting-edge physics that could be relevant to both fields, which feature in a new paper co-written by R&D scientists at Samsung.

LG's display division has just released its financial performance figures for the third quarter of 2020 (3Q2020). It has posted a net profit of about US$9.7 million, whereas it reported losses in 2Q2020 and in 3Q2019. There are also year-on-year (YoY) and quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) gains in revenue and operating profits in this new report.

Redmi is set to add a new member to the K30 series tomorrow, albeit in China only. However, the rest of the world has apparently already seen this phone, as it is a rebranded Mi 10T. Nevertheless, it is projected to sell for prices in keeping with its budget-friendly flagship-killer kin.

A new research report has concluded that 63% of households with residential security equipment in the US are now considering buying a smart home device in the next 12 months compared to 40% of broadband internet-using households. Therefore, it seems that the trend toward integration with assistants such as Amazon Alexa among home-grade security OEMs is paying off in that respect.

Apple is now slated to finally unleash its long-awaited AirTags in 2021. These new products are currently widely accepted to be this OEM's answer to products such as Tile anti-loss wireless accessories. However, according to leaks of new patents obtained by the Cupertino company, their applications may go far beyond that.

Fancy some origami while you wait for your Xbox Series X to arrive? Well, Microsoft is offering Papercraft Kits with some Xbox Series X pre-orders, albeit only Germany. You can print out your own Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S 'Papercraft Kit' worldwide, though.

The first benchmark result for the RTX A6000 is in, and it does not look good for NVIDIA's enterprise card. Based on a full-fat GA102 GPU with 10,752 CUDA cores supported by 48 GB of VRAM, the RTX A6000 only managed 11% higher scores on average than the RTX 6000.

After spending almost two decades on the market, the only portable media player sold by Apple that still carries the iPod name is the 7th generation Touch, which is much closer to an iPhone than to the original iPod. Once accounting for 40% of Apple's total revenue, the iPod is now only a shadow of its former self.

The release of Halo Infinite may be a while off yet, but The Master Chief Collection is coming to the Xbox Series X and S on November 17. The re-release will run at up to 120 FPS on Microsoft's new consoles and will feature a host of improvement, such as a refined split-screen mode. Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be free for those who already the collection and also for those who subscribe to Xbox Game Pass.

Microsoft has released the Windows 10 21H1 Insider Preview Build 20241, integrating yet more features into next year's update. Behind the scenes, the company has been working on many features, including one that will warn people if their HDD or SSD is in a bad way.

Lenovo has had to remove almost all its products from its German website, because of a patent dispute with Nokia. The Chinese company has supposedly been violating H.264 patents that Nokia holds, resulting in the Finnish company taking out an injunction to freeze Lenovo's online sales.

The current US administration put Huawei on its Entity List, which ultimately led to the OEM being cut off from vital suppliers such as TSMC. However, that company has now obtained a license to once again sell to the Chinese electronics giant. Then again, the terms of this new allowance may render it considerably less of a reprieve for Huawei than it sounds.

Dell's compact business-oriented 13.3-incher offers long battery life, a good keyboard (backlit), and a fast NVMe SSD. An LTE modem is optionally available.

Apple may have pleased may fans with the release of the iPhone 12 Mini, a rare return to mobile screens of well under 6 inches in size. Therefore, other non-iOS smartphone manufacturers may want to start on their own equally compact flagships, right? Wrong, says eminent leaker Digital Chat Station.

In order to bring the total weight down to 643 grams, Fujitsu had to reduce the number of components, replace the metallic upper cover with carbon fiber and redesign some of the ports and internal circuitry. The UH-X / E3 models are powered by the Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU and includes a small 25 Wh battery, but Fujitsu also offers the slightly heavier UH90 / E3 models with 54 Wh batteries and the UH75 / E3 models powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 4700U APUs that weigh just under 1Kg.

Acer is releasing an updated mobile workstation: The ConceptD 7 Pro combines the Quadro RTX 5000 with Intel Comet Lake H. As a variant, the ConceptD 7 contains the GeForce RTX 2080 Super instead of the ISV-certified Quadro.

The new Travelmate models come in slimmer yet sturdier chassis made of an aluminum-magnesium mix. Upgrades include the latest Tiger Lake CPUs with Xe iGPUs, up to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, up to 1 TB NVMe SSD storage, a Thunderbolt 4 connector and a larger battery that can last up to 15 hours.

The CXI4 is Acer's new Chromebox with up-to-date connectivity, featuring Wi-Fi 6, USB 3.2 Gen 2 and type C ports. Therefore, it may prove an option for the processing needed in retail or learning spaces. It also has the dimensions and VESA mount necessary to hide it behind nearly any screen paired with it in these environments.

A new software tool from Parallels, the Parallels Desktop for Chromebook Enterprise, allows certain Chromebooks to natively run Windows apps alongside Chrome OS apps, no Internet required. The software seamlessly integrates Windows into Chrome OS, allowing shared use of system functions like the clipboard, network connections, and more.

The Covid-19 pandemic often has connotations of economic downturn and general consumption-insecurity. Nevertheless, the US consumer tech sector is now projected to grow by 18% year-on-year for the final quarter of 2020 (4Q2020), whereas this figure was 4% in 4Q2019. This increase is thought to be connected to the need for remote working and learning equipment, particularly laptops and monitors.

Xiaomi is revamping the packaging of the Mi 10T Lite in Europe by using cardboard instead of plastic. The result should yield up to 60% less plastic used without needing to remove the charger or case from the box, an impressive feat. Xiaomi has, of course, took another opportunity to remind people of Apple's recent decision to do otherwise, though.

The US carrier T-Mobile now lists the new OnePlus 8T as its latest 5G phone. It costs the same as unlocked units in this country; however, a buyer may avail of an offer by which one is half this price when bought with a new line on the network. This requires a 2-year bill-pay contract, however.

SK Hynix and Intel have reached a deal to sell Intel's NAND memory business for US$9 billion over the next 5 years. The sale includes Intel's NAND IPs and a NAND manufacturing facility in China.

ROG Strix Scar 15 G532, ROG Strix Scar III G531, HP Pavilion 15-cs0053cl, XPS 13 7390, XPS 13 9380, Yoga C930, Yoga Book C930... it's no surprise that even we're starting to get a bit confused at how all these names are structured.

Xiaomi has announced plans to bring the Mi 10T series to the UK. The Mi 10T, Mi 10T Pro and Mi 10T Lite will all be available to purchase from multiple retailers, including Amazon and Mi.com. The Mi 10T Lite will start for just £199, too.

OPPO unveiled products new to this OEM during its October 19, 2020 Wisdom Life conference in China. They include its first-ever TVs, which run on a version of ColorOS developed specially for this new category. They have 4K panels, the highest-end of which is also QLED and has a 120Hz refresh rate.