Latest Tech News

Garmin has unveiled the vívofit jr.3, its latest wearable for children. Available for US$79.99 in multiple colours, the vívofit jr.3 features timed activities, a colour display and an ICE widget, among other features. The vívofit jr.3 comes in Marvel and Disney Princess designs, too.

The Kokoon NightBuds are, like the Amazfit ZenBuds or Bose Sleepbuds II, designed to be worn in bed so as to help the user fall asleep. To this end, they measure just 5.4 millimeters in depth, although they are not TWS. They have launched via Kickstarter, where they have amassed nearly 15 times their goal.

TOPTON's latest Mini-PC features a choice of 45 W processors up to the Core i9-10885H, despite its compact size. The machine supports dual-channel RAM and up to three storage drives too, along with a plethora of ports. It is available either as a barebones kit or with RAM and storage.

Samsung is not planning any great leaps forward with the Galaxy S21 series, according to Ice Universe. Instead, Samsung's next Galaxy S smartphones will be a conservative upgrade from this year's models, with no 144 Hz displays or ultra-fast charging. 3C certification documents have seemingly confirmed a 25 W charging brick for the Galaxy S21, too.

Huawei has announced a new version of an existing mid-ranger. The Nova 7 SE Vitality Edition is essentially the exact same as the original - with the exception that it runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 800U chipset rather than the Kirin 820 SoC. This means the refreshed variant is still 5G, although it starts for slightly less that the "first" 7 SE.

The Xperia 5 II may not feature a vapour chamber cooling system, but Sony has attempted to keep its latest flagship cool in other ways. Multiple pieces of graphite film should help prevent overheating, while the Xperia 5 II looks simple to repair too.

Apple decided to release the new iPad Air and the iPhone 12 practically simultaneously, a first for the company. The fourth-generation tablet features the same 5 nm chipset as likes of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, so it was inevitable that people would draw performance comparisons. As AnTuTu has demonstrated, it seems that the iPhone 12, at least, is holding back the A14 Bionic somewhat.

Nokia has secured a contract from NASA to provide it with a 4G/LTE network - for a lunar base. The US' space administration has plans to have such a structure on the moon and operational by 2028, and the Finnish brand is the one to supply the astronauts who will work there with a telecommunications infrastructure based on a common terrestrial mobile data standard.

OnePlus is a smartphone brand that has leveraged hype around "alternative" flagships into a market-leading position over the years, and Carl Pei has been there from the start as its co-founder. However, he has just posted a goodbye message to its official community website, thereby affirming he is stepping down from this position and leaving the OEM.

SMIC's N+1 (7 nm) chips are mostly on par with GloFo's, Samsung's and TSMC's competing nodes as far as scalability and power consumption is concerned, but the Chinese tech is still a step behind when it comes to performance. Next goal for SMIC is to dethrone TSMC in regards to Chinese chip orders.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has started receiving One UI 2.5, its final OS update. One UI 2.5 brings wireless DeX and changes to the camera app, among other alterations. The update has gone live as an OTA in Germany and will be reaching other regions shortly.

Apparently, AMD made it easier to overclock the Ryzen 5000 CPUs, as the Geekbench tests were recorded on an iMac Pro running macOS, which are not particularly suitable for overclocking. The best results for the Ryzen 9 5950X running at 6 GHz show decent gains of 20% in single-core tests and 12% in multi-core tests over a Ryzen 9 3900X clocked at 5.9 GHz.

We recently reviewed the 15-inch version of the ultra light-weight Galaxy Book Ion and were very pleased with it - all except for one major issue. Despite its good connectivity, its driver issues mess with its overall rating. We hope the manufacturer will be sending an update.

Apple has pegged November 17 as the date to announce its first ARM-powered MacBook, according to Jon Prosser. The ARM Mac event will, by extension, be the earliest opportunity to see Apple's first ARM-based laptop chipset. Prosser claims to have revealed the launch date of the long-awaited AirPods Studio, too.

Huawei has a premium pair of ANC headphones in the works called the FreeBuds Studio. To be unveiled on October 22 in two colours, the FreeBuds Studio will retail for in the region of €400 and will look to challenge the likes of the Sony WH-1000XM4, Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 and the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless.

There's not a lot of mice out there with customizable rotax, polling rate, lift-off height, angle snap, swappable parts, RGB LED lighting, and a 16000 DPI all in one, but the Mad Catz R.A.T. Pro X3 almost covers it all.

A new Micromax phone called the Micromax IN 1A has just shown up on Geekbench. It is powered by what looks like a MediaTek Helio P35 SoC coupled with 4GB of RAM, and running Android 10. The phone is likely a part of the company's upcoming IN line of low-cost smartphones, which will be released in India soon.

Overclockers and enthusiasts looking to get a bit more out of their GeForce RTX 3080 cards have a solid option now in the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra. EVGA's new BIOS for the card pushes the TDP up to 450W, freeing the AIB card from power throttling to a certain extent.

ASUS has packed an awful lot of features into the slim chassis of the ROG Swift PG32UQX, its 32-inch gaming monitor. Not only has ASUS included a 4K panel, but it also has equipped the PG32UQX with a 1,152 zone Mini-LED backlight and a 144 Hz refresh rate. The PG32UQX supports NVIDIA G-Sync Ultimate too, although there is no HDMI 2.1 on board.

Dark Souls modder Grimrukh, known for the well-received Daughters of Ash mod, has announced a new collaborative project called Dark Souls: Nightfall. Nightfall is apparently a full-fledge mod "sequel" to the original game, promising expanded lore, new environments, voice acting, and more.

Huami has been teasing its upcoming Amazfit Pop smartwatch on social media. The new wearable has a cheerful and fun-looking design that belies the inherent capabilities of its many features. The Huami Amazfit Pop offers NFC payment ability, 50 m water resistance, blood oxygen measurement, and it delivers over 60 fitness modes.

Redmi Note 8 users around the globe are going to be disappointed by the latest MIUI 12-related messages issuing from Xiaomi HQ. While there seemed to be a few signs pointing to an October update for users of the Global or Indian Redmi Note 8, it now appears to be more likely that nothing will arrive before November.

Updated across all platforms — including mobile — Vivaldi 3.4 comes with an arcade game inspired by the Future Noir and Cyberpunk genres. This easy-going title is named Vivaldia and it comes along various features such as the very useful periodic reload, configurable context menus, and much more.

Details of a Redmi K30S smartphone have started springing up online, but it appears the brief mystery surrounding the device has been solved with a prosaic answer. It’s likely the upcoming Snapdragon 865-powered Redmi K30S is simply a rebadged Xiaomi Mi 10T for the Chinese market.
Update: An appearance on TENAA confirms the Redmi K30S is a rebranded Mi 10T.

Microsoft has launched an extended warranty program for the Xbox Elite Controller Series 2. The company has extended the normal warranty from 90 days to one year after reports of “mechanical issues” affecting the expensive accessory.

The $200 USD 15.6-inch portable monitor uses a brand new IPS panel with full sRGB coverage and a much brighter backlight than any other external monitor we've tested thus far in this price range.

Canon has updated the EOS M50 with a Mark II model. This new camera has a 24.1MP APS-C sensor with the OEM's DIGIC 8 image processor. It also has on-board Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which helps with its new ability to livestream directly to YouTube wirelessly. It should be available in late November 2020 as a single unit or bundled with compatible EF lenses.

The MINISFORUM X35G is a Mini-PC with an Ice Lake processor, 16 GB of RAM and a Thunderbolt 3 port, among other ports. The compact PC is available to back on Indiegogo from US$350 and will begin shipping next month.

The Xiaomi Mi Smart Speaker is a Google Assistant-enabled device that was launched in India recently alongside the Mi Band 5 and Mi Watch Revolve. It has a 63.5 millimeter (mm) driver rated for 12 watt (W) audio and has an LED accent that indicates when it is active. According to a new leak, it may also have European availability in its future.

Omnivision has announced its new high-end mobile camera sensor, the OV64A. It is 64MP, which is nothing new to this manufacturer; however, this one has pixels of a ground-breaking 1.0 micron in size. This may enhance its sensitivity compared to its predecessors.

The launch of Watch Dogs Legion is almost here, so Ubisoft has released the system requirements for run its upcoming triple-A title. The game is lean when it comes to 1080p even at high settings, but it becomes a touch power-hungry at 1440p and beyond, especially with ray tracing enabled.

More benchmarks of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro have appeared online, this time on AnTuTu. CPU scores of the A14 Bionic look good, but initial GPU scores are rather underwhelming, especially compared to the likes of the Snapdragon 865.

Apple is expected to sell at least 70 million iPhone 12 units by the end of 2020, DigiTimes claims. Apple may even top 80 million units before the new year, barring an escalation in the trade war between China and the United States. Apparently, hardware improvements and a fresh design will drive iPhone sales this year.

Last year, we posed the question to our readers about how they would feel if laptops begun shipping without integrated 3.5 mm audio jacks similar to most smartphones nowadays. Now, it appears that at least one laptop manufacturer is slowly but surely testing this out for themselves.

OnePlus and CD Projekt Red are said to be working on a Cyberpunk 2077-themed OnePlus 8T. The limited-edition device is expected to come with custom animations, wallpapers, and packaging. It will likely be up for grabs on November 5.

It's gonna be tough finding another 14-inch laptop with both GeForce MX350 graphics and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity in this price range. One of Lenovo's best 14-inch Ultrabooks is now the cheapest it's ever been complete with a glossy 1080p display and metal chassis.

The OnePlus Watch is close to release, based on an official teaser. It would seem that OnePlus' first smartwatch will have a round display, unlike the recently released Oppo Watch.

The OnePlus 7 and 7T series will begin receiving Android 11 and OxygenOS 11 from December, according to a company spokesperson. It is unclear whether these will be beta or stable builds, but the likes of the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7T Pro will at least get a taste of Android 11 before the year is out.

The Predator Helios 300 can run all current games smoothly. It comes with a 17.3-inch screen (144 Hz, FHD, IPS). Users can install up to three storage devices in the Helios 300.

In this quick test, we attempt to overclock and underclock the Ryzen 5 4600U APU powering a Xiaomi RedmiBook 16 using the new Renoir Mobile Tuning 1.0.0. Underclocking worked like a breeze, but the Renoir-U APU in question shows no overclocking potential. We suspect that the Renoir-H APUs may be more overclocking-friendly.

According to a teaser posted by Realme India's CEO, the company has plans to release the Realme X7 and Realme X7 Pro in the country. Both phones will be the first MediaTek Dimensity-powered devices to be sold outside of China. We can expect to hear more about the smartphones' launch in the coming weeks.

The Alder Lake-S chips would get 6 more cores over the current Comet Lake-S models, and the difference in size reflects this to some extent. However, the bigger chips also require a new socket, so Comet Lake-S users will be forced to upgrade the motherboard in case they want to make the jump to the 10 nm big/small architecture.

Huawei has a good mid-range tablet on offer: the MatePad 10.4. The 10.4-inch Android tablet did a good job during our review and we were particularly impressed by its good price-to-performance ratio and connectivity. The MatePad 10.4 lacks access to Google services, however. Find out whether we can still recommend this tablet in our review highlights.

Xiaomi has brought the Mi CC9 Pro, Mi Note 10 and Mi Note 10 Pro onto Android 11, courtesy of a new closed beta update. The update can be downloaded on an unlocked handset via TWRP and is an encouraging sign of development for Xiaomi's 108 MP smartphone.

The humble Raspberry Pi can be used as a music server, a simple project has shown. The single-board computer combines with a VU meter and a DAC to stream music from local or network-attached storage.

OnePlus has released a new version of the Nord, its budget alternative to the likes of the OnePlus 8T and OnePlus 8 Pro. The Gray Ash variant is only available with the premium storage option of the OnePlus Nord though, making it just £80 cheaper than the entry-level OnePlus 8T.

The AirPods Studio may not be arriving until December at the earliest, according to a new report. March 2021 is another likely candidate for the release window of Apple's over-ear headphones, which are rumoured to cost up to US$599. The AirTags are now slated to arrive next month alongside iOS 14.3, though.

Dell has announced a whole range of sales events and deals for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and winter 2020 in general already. They include discounts on some Alienware laptops, desktops and monitors. Some of this hardware will be cut by up to 50% in price during these events.

Dell's end-of-2020 holiday deals have been outlined in good time this year. They are a range of discounts on PCs and monitors for entrepreneurs as well as those looking for gift ideas already. This includes Vostro-brand machines, in addition to the new XPS 13 Touch.

A South Korean media outlet says that Samsung is planning to release the Galaxy S21 series early. Its launch could be pushed to as early as late December 2020, but January 2021 seems more likely. The report also states that the Galaxy S21 Ultra will ship with an S Pen.