Latest Tech News

IFA 2020 will be a heavily pandemic-adapted, mostly virtual event with few actual real-world attendees. A Realme executive has confirmed that the brand will have a presence at this show in any case. It will take that opportunity to make a "big announcement" during the conference.

The latest report on the market for mobile devices in India by Canalys has shown that its shipments totalled 17.3 million for the second quarter of 2020 (2Q2020). That sounds fine - until one compares it to the figure of 33 million from 2Q2019. This contraction was attributed to factors such as supply disruptions among the OEMs concerned.

The premium appearance of the 13-inch Chuwi CoreBook Pro is hiding some dated specs, but at least the price seems fair. Surprisingly enough, this model integrates a quality 3:2 IPS screen with 2160 x 1440 resolution and 100% sRGB color gamut, but apart from this, the hardware specs are so 2016, with an Intel Core i3-6157U CPU, 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and 256 GB SSD.

Multi-functional USB hubs have become a solid trend on crowdfunding websites, particularly those that bake additional functions into these ultrabook accessories. The Fophie is one such hub that adds wireless charging and phone-holding options to its ingredients list. It has now attracted just over 2000% of its original Kickstarter goal.

The URSA Mini Pro packs what is often regarded as best-in-class digital film recording into a body measuring just 9.2 inches across. Its OEM, Blackmagic Design, claims to have stuffed its latest generation with all-new internals that allows it to output in up to 12K natively. It also has new accessories that allow it to work with a Thunderbolt 3-enabled PC.

Pine64 has launched a new PinePhone model that comes with a Convergence Package. The device modestly powered device runs an Alpine Linux-based PostmarketOS that has built-in smartphone and desktop modes.

The Android 10-based MIUI 12 update for the Redmi Note 7 Pro smartphone is now in its beta testing phase for the India ROM. Devs have asked owners to be patient during the testing period, but it seems the Redmi Note 7 Pro will be brandishing a stable version of MIUI 12 in the not too distant future.

A PlayStation executive has explicitly stated that “we’ll let you know” in regard to PS5 pre-order information. The recent DualSense hands-on video has led to speculation that an optional back buttons adapter will appear down the line. A new fan-made PlayStation 5 UI concept offers AI suggestions and a dark mode theme.

Acer has announced some new affordable curved gaming monitors to its lineup in the form of the Nitro XZ2 Series models. Gamers can choose from three different panel sizes and enjoy FreeSync technology, quick response times, decent refresh rates, and best of all, price tags that won’t break the bank.

As nice as it may look, the XPS 17 is missing a few quality-of-life features that many less expensive laptops already integrate. We'd love to see these addressed on the inevitable successor.

The Dell XPS 15 9500 laptop has started appearing on certain country-specific sites with a new processor option in the configurator for the Intel Core i9-10885H processor. The high-end Comet Lake chip offers 8-core processing and can be joined by up to 64 GB RAM, a 2 TB NVMe SSD, Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX500-DBS, and the option for a UHD+ display.
The new i9 configuration has now appeared on Dell US.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) supplies the silicon on which many OEMs' SoCs or devices are based, Huawei's included. However, the current US administration has issued an executive order that prevents the latter from conducting this kind of business. TSMC has stated that it is complying with the directive.

Mobvoi is a wearables brand that is teasing its next upcoming products, the Earbuds Gesture, via Indiegogo. They can be controlled through either head movements (in line with their name) or touch-sensitive panels. The OEM also claims they have a whopping 50 hours of battery life.

Samsung promoted the Galaxy Watch Active 2 as a health-focused wearable that would rival the Apple Watch series thanks to its in-built medical-grade electrocardiography (ECG). However, the function was disabled at its launch. This is not the case anymore; however, German and Austrian users are reportedly still waiting for their access to this feature.

With the Velvet, the Korean manufacturer has managed to pull off a fascinating comeback into the midrange smartphone segment. However, due to its very tall aspect ratio, the LG Velvet is not suitable for watching 16:9 or 18:9 video content.

EMUI 10.1 has reached the Huawei P30, Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro in more countries. Similarly, Magic UI 3.1 has landed in Europe for the Honor View 20. All updates are rolling out as over-the-air (OTA) upgrades.

Hardkernel has released its latest single-board computer (SBC), the ODROID-N2 Plus. Equipped with a new Amlogic S922X processor and up to 4 GB of RAM, Hardkernel claims that the ODROID-N2 Plus can offer twice the performance of a Raspberry Pi 4. The SBC is overclockable, too.

Xiaomi has lifted the restrictions that it placed on its latest Mi Notebook laptops in India. Unveiled last month, the Mi Notebook 14 and Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition can now be purchased freely directly from Xiaomi or Amazon India.

Xiaomi has released a new raft of updates to the Mi 9, Mi 9 Pro 5G, Mi 10 Youth Edition and the Redmi K20 Pro. The updates should all be arriving now to eligible handsets as Xiaomi continues with its MIUI 12 rollout.

Honors' stylish 15.6-incher scores with a slim metal case, a Ryzen 5-APU and memory running in dual-channel mode. The battery life turns out decent, but not outstanding.

Xiaomi could be working on a possible new flagship as was indicated by a recent Chinese 3C certification. The Xiaomi device, which has a model number M2007J1SC, was later discovered to be codenamed Cas and will be a 5G device with 120 W fast charging support. Xiaomi Cas is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 865/865 Plus and will also sport a 48 MP triple-camera setup that can take "supermoon" shots similar to the Huawei P30 Pro.

Two separate posts by OnePlus employees have confirmed that the OnePlus Nord will come with six cameras in total, and a 90Hz AMOLED screen. The rear camera will consist of a 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 5MP depth sensor, and a macro lens. The phone will be unveiled on July 21 via an online-only event.

Samsung may have teased the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, but Evan Blass has now revealed a full render of the Galaxy Note 20. Unsurprisingly, the Note 20 looks like its predecessor. Seemingly arriving on August 5, the Note 20 may be powered by the unpopular Exynos 990 chipset.

OPPO is now slated to release a phone called the A72 5G in China soon. This phone is also thought to be called something like the Reno 10X Mark 2 in other markets. Its model number and yet-to-be-launched MediaTek SoC have appeared in another new leak that may show what they offer the consumer.

Rumour has it that Samsung will be introducing a successor to the Galaxy A71 that supports OIS. The so-called Galaxy A72 will not arrive until 2021 at the earliest, but the inclusion of OIS should yield a leap in camera performance for Samsung's mid-range Galaxy A series.

A new certificate issued by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (or Bluetooth SIG) confirms in no uncertain terms that Samsung has a device called the Galaxy M51 in the works. Other recent leaks strongly suggest this phone will come with a battery rated for 7000mAh in capacity. It is also possible it will act as an M40 successor in 2020.

For its latest keyboard, Razer has dispensed with 40% of the keys found in the regular Huntsman. In turn, the new Huntsman Mini is more compact and should give desks a cleaner look. The Huntsman Mini is available in two colours and two switch types.

The Xiaomi Mi A1 has received a July update. The update is being pushed to devices now and contains a few changes from last month's update.

FriendlyARM has now made the NanoPi NEO3 available to purchase. Starting at US$20.00, the NanoPi NEO3 comes with up to 2 GB of DDR4 RAM and is based on the Rockchip's RK3328 quad-core ARM chipset. The tiny SBC is smaller than the Raspberry Pi Zero W but offers Raspberry Pi Model 3 levels of performance.

Geekbench has offered an early glimpse of the Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G, and it appears as though AMD has packed plenty of performance into its upcoming 65 W APU. Based on the company's Renoir architecture, the Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G can compete against more powerful processors like the Ryzen 7 3800X and Core i7-10700K.

The ROG Phone 3 is arriving on July 22, but that has not stopped two prominent internet personalities from posting images of the device. The device, which succeeds the ROG Phone 2, will feature three rear-facing cameras and the new Snapdragon 865+ SoC among multiple other features befitting a gaming smartphone.

Alleged images of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2020 smartphone have appeared online, and they offer an interesting solution to getting rid of the punch-hole cut-out for the selfie camera. The likely fan-made renders show the Mi Mix 2020 clad in marble white and sporting a quad-camera system on the rear.

Samsung's 970 QVO internal SATA-based SSD and Samsung Portable SSD T7 are now available for purchase in India. The former is compatible with the SATA 6 Gbps interface, while the latter is optimized for USB Gen 3.2 ports. Prices start at INR 9,999 (US$133) for the 1TB variant of the 970 QVO. A 500GB version of the Portable SSD T7 also retails for the same amount.

A press release has revealed that Philips (TP Vision) and Bowers & Wilkins have decided to extend their partnership and continue to offer their respective expertise in future Philips OLED and LCD TVs. The duo previously collaborated on the well-received 65OLED+984 and OLED+934 models, and new televisions are expected to be released soon.

MIUI 12 China Beta ROM is all set to gain new video calling features on select devices such as the Mi 10 Lite and the Redmi K30 Pro, according to a post by a Xiaomi forum moderator. The post also indicates that Xiaomi will be temporarily stopping MIUI 12 rollout for several devices including the Redmi Note 7 and Redmi Note 8 owing to feature and stability issues. Development for Mi 8 series and others will be suspended from September 5.

The brand equity researcher BrandZ has issued a report in regard to the top 50 Chinese global brand builders for 2020. While Huawei tops the list and Xiaomi manages a powerful fifth position, it’s the owner of TikTok, ByteDance, which has done especially well to power ahead of the well-established Mi brand.

New information has surfaced on the upcoming Asus Zenfone 7. The Zenfone 7 will succeed the positively received Zenfone 6 and will deliver a number of improvements. A launch date remains unknown.

The Redmi X50 smart TV has finally gone on sale and has been priced at just 1,899 yuan (US$272). The TV, which is framed in metal and features a 4K display, offers users the chance to enjoy MEMC picture-smoothing technology on a device with a 97% screen-to-body ratio. The Redmi X50 is the smallest member of the new Redmi Smart TV X Series.
The Redmi X50 has been reduced to 1,799 yuan (US$257).

The PlayStation 5 DualSense controller is going to be the star of the show in a live hands-on demonstration hosted by noted game journalist Geoff Keighley. It should be an opportunity to show if the PS5 accessory has back buttons or not, and there might even be a glimpse at the console or PS5 UI as well.

Fresh rumors indicate that NVIDIA Ampere GA102 may feature markedly higher base and boost clocks compared to the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Apart from this, we also get to hear that NVIDIA could be introducing a new 12-pin power connector at least on its PG133-based Founders Edition cards to workaround the issues of current 6-pin and 8-pin power supply wires.

A recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval has confirmed that the upcoming Samsung SM-R220 is a wearable of the fitness-tracker variety. Now, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has set its wireless connectivity spec in stone. This new device may launch alongside the Galaxy Note 20 series on August 5, 2020.

Huawei is thought to have a new series of slates that consists of the MatePad T10 and T10s in the works. They are linked to the Kirin 710A processor and are, thus, thought to be budget devices on their launch. A new leak on Geekbench 4 suggests that at least one of them has 4GB of RAM and runs Android 10.

The Bakeey GTX is a new smartwatch that is not only affordable but also packs multiple features. According to the manufacturer, the GTX supports heart rate, blood pressure and blood oxygen levels monitoring. The Bakeey GTX retails for as little as US$27.99 and is compatible with Android 4.4 and iOS 9.0 or newer.

The MINISFORUM S40 keeps the dream of the Intel Compute Stick alive. Featuring a Gemini Lake processor, active cooling and 64 GB of storage, the S40 is available for under US$150. Its manufacturer claims that it can output to two 4K monitors simultaneously at 60 Hz too.

Honor has announced 45 W Renoir versions of the MagicBook Pro, its MacBook Pro 16 lookalike. Unveiled alongside refreshed editions of the MagicBook 14 and MagicBook 15, the MagicBook Pro will be available with up to a Ryzen 7 4800H APU, 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD.

Huawei's sister brand Honor has presented AMD Renoir versions of the MagicBook 14 and MagicBook 15. Both laptops will be available with either Ryzen 5 4500U or Ryzen 7 4700U, along with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. The two laptops should be making their arrival in other markets like the EU and the UK, too.

Following a directive issued by the Indian Trade Ministry, Amazon has made it mandatory for all sellers to mention its 'country of origin' on every product listing. Sellers have until August 10 to comply. Other platforms, such as Flipkart, are expected to follow suit in the coming days.

Lenovo will be launching new gaming laptops with up to a Ryzen 4800H APU throughout this summer and fall. Available in late July is the IdeaPad Gaming 3 15.6-inch starting at US$659 with a GTX 1650 Ti GPU, while the Legion 5 17-incher is packing an RTX 2060 GPU will be available in September for US$1,089 and up. There also is a legion 5P esports edition, but this will not be available in the U.S.

A video of Superman and The Witcher actor Henry Cavill is proving popular online. Having already been watched over 1 million times in under three hours, the video is accompanied by a Barry White soundtrack and highlights the many pitfalls of building a PC from scratch.

Introduced today and already available to order from QNAP's partners worldwide, the QSW-1105-5T is the company's first 2.5 GbE network switch. Its highlights include five 2.5 GbE NBASE-T RJ45 ports, plug-and-play setup, auto-negotiation, as well as automatic loop detection and blocking.