Chinese Tech

Does the Amazfit GTS look familiar to you? Well, while it may look like the spitting image of the Apple Watch, it is actually the latest smartwatch by Huami, Xiaomi's sister company. The device is a snip at around ~US$140 in most markets and packs plenty of features, but its software failed to impress us out of the box.

Huawei has faced more than its fair share of troubles this year but the company's sales figures are completely unaffected and have even grown. The Chinese company has now confirmed that it has sold 200 million devices this year, over two months earlier than when it hit that same milestone last year.

Realme makes good value for money hardware but are usually panned by enthusiasts for their software. The company has identified that flaw, however, and is set to shake things up by adopting a new skin said to be similar to stock Android.

The upcoming Power 3 is now official and ready to become the handset with the most generous battery capacity that UMIDIGI has created so far. In addition to the 6,150 mAh battery, its specs also include a 48 MP quad camera, a 6.53-inch full HD+ FullView display, and a MediaTek Helio P60 processor.

Huawei opened up pre-orders for the foldable Mate X today, but the phone will only be sold in China. Shipments and retail sales will begin on November 15th. Priced at roughly US $2400, the Mate X is an expensive piece of kit, especially considering it's unlikely to be sold in Western markets. Additionally, Huawei announced a more powerful foldable, the Mate Xs, which is set to be launched in March 2020.

The Hygon C86 is essentially an AMD EPYC Zen 1 chip with an additional cryptographic layer added by the Chinese joint venture company collaborating with AMD. The chip was manufactured by GlobalFoundries as a proof-of-concept, and future Hygon CPUs will most likely be manufactured through other foundries like TSMC.

A phone calling itself the "motorola moto g(8) plus" has been benchmarked as a Snapdragon 665 device with 4GB of RAM. These specs are in accordance with previous rumors surrounding this putative device. The new results also show that it runs Android 9.0, which suggests it could still launch this year.

Meizu is slowly developing a reputation for offering good premium hardware at mid-range price points, and the newest device out of the company's stables, the Meizu 16T, continues that trend. A Snapdragon 855, Super AMOLED display, triple rear cameras, and a 4500 mAh battery. Price tag? US$280.

The Honor Band incorporates a 0.96-inch colour touchscreen display that operates at a resolution of 160 x 80. The fitness tracker supports NFC, along with heart rate, sleep patterns and Sp02 monitoring. The band is up to 5 ATM water-resistant too and launches at CNY 159 (~US$22), with a pre-sale starting today. The company has also unveiled the xSport Pro, a new pair of wireless in-ear headphones.

TENAA has certified a new phone from the Vivo sub-brand iQOO. Its specifications are nearly identical to that of the Neo, a 2019 gaming phone. However, it has what appears to be a Snapdragon (SD) 855 processor rather than the older device's SD 845. Therefore, it seems the 2 phones are an original and refresh respectively.

Huawei has launched the Nova 5z today (October 21, 2019) in China. This new phone will have few surprises for this series' fans: it has the exact same form-factor and cameras as the Nova 5i Pro. However, it does have different RAM and storage SKUs that make it a budget option compared to the pre-existing phone.

The Honor Play was released just over a year ago and has received one major update: Android Pie. That will apparently be the end of the road for the device, which is unfair to owners of the Kirin 970-powered phone. Even worse, though, is Huawei's justification for the decision.

The OnePlus 7T has undergone the JerryRigEverything test of device robustness. Unfortunately, it faltered during the last stage of this process. Therefore, it is the first in many generations from this OEM to do less than come through this veritable tech YouTube rite of passage with flying colors.

Xiaomi is taking the camera performance of its phones seriously and could be set to push the envelope with its upcoming devices. New reports allude towards sumptuous camera features like 8K video recording, 5x optical zoom, and a 108 MP sensor debuting on the Mi 10.

OnePlus has once again shown its dedication to providing timely software updates, as it's now sending out the Android 10-based Oxygen OS 10 beta build to the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T. The build is exclusive to factory unlocked, non-carrier models.

The Huawei Watch GT 2 has now been released, with our review following in tow too. While the successor to the Watch GT is certainly appealing, it suffers from some glaring issues too.

A leak a few weeks ago claimed that Xiaomi was set to release a Snapdragon 730G-powered Redmi Note 8T. A new report counters that, though, and while a Redmi Note 8T may actually be on the way, fans of the company are unlikely to be thrilled about what it will offer.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 SE now has an upgrade to MIUI 11, which is based on Android 10. It confers various upgrade-specific features such as gesture-based navigation and system-wide dark theme. This build also adds MIUI's new Focus Mode, which is suspiciously similar to OnePlus' Zen Mode.

The Mi Mix 4 merry-go-round continues. First, Ice Universe claimed it was in the works, then Xiaomi's Brand Promotion Manager could not decide whether it was or not. Now, a photo of the rumored device has leaked online, along with a release date. It is sooner than we thought, too.

A Brazilian phone blog has posted what it claims are live images of the Moto G8 Play. It shows that this device may have a 6.2-inch HD+ display, a 4000mAh battery and a triple rear camera. Its SoC remains unnamed, but is described as a 2.0GHz octa-core processor.

The OnePlus 7T Pro was just launched and a new leak has now revealed all the major design information from the next device in the series, the OnePlus 8 Pro. The leaked images reveal a quad-camera setup and a punch-hole selfie camera design.

Since the launch of the first-gen Redmi Note back in 2014, Xiaomi's Redmi Note series has consistently offered the best value for money in the mid-range segment. The company has announced that it has now sold a hundred million Redmi Note phones, with the Redmi Note 7 duo accounting for a fifth of that figure.

Xiaomi has announced the existence of the Mi Surface via its Weibo channel. It is a 34-inch 1500R-curved monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio. This new panel is also rated for AMD FreeSync and 121% of the sRGB color space. The Mi Surface is to be released on October 21, 2019.

The Honor 20 Youth Edition has reportedly been leaked ahead of its release to the Chinese market. It is slated to run on the mid-range Kirin 810 processor and to have triple rear cameras. This Edition is thought to launch on October 25, 2019.

A video of someone unboxing a brand-new Huawei Mate X foldable smartphone has made its way onto YouTube. The vaunted device has been apparently thoroughly revised by the Chinese manufacturer and should be released soon, with various reports stating a November timeline. The Mate X in the video now sports a handy red button that pops the smartphone open.

Huawei UK has launched the Nova 5T. It is essentially the Honor 20 with a new name and a new region. Fans of everyday Android may be glad to learn it will be released with Google Play Services.

1More is the ODM responsible for Xiaomi's audio wearables. However, it also releases these products under its own brand. The latest of these are truly wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC).

OnePlus' chief executive officer, Pete Lau, has given an interview on the company's future in its home market. Its main message was that the company has no plans to diversify into non-premium smartphones at present. Furthermore, no domestic flagship brick-and-mortar stores are in the works either.

The Huawei Enjoy 10 appeared in a Geekbench 4 listing earlier today. The phone, which boasts an octa-core processor and 4 GB of RAM, looks to be in line with other mid-range handsets like the Google Pixel 3a and Xiaomi Mi A3.

A device called the "OPPO PCCT30" has posted scores on the Geekbench 5 website. This model number is currently believed to belong to a second-gen Reno 5G smartphone. Its new benchmarking scores reveal that it is powered by the Snapdragon 855 processor, but could have done better by this chipset.

Recent offerings in Motorola's Moto G mid-range series may have felt a bit stale but the company appears to be looking to put the lineup back on the map. The latest Moto G8 Plus leak is sure to leave fans of the series excited, with notable features including much improved performance, a big battery, an interesting camera setup, and a couple other tidbits.

Xiaomi fans may have felt confused when the Redmi 8's spec sheet was released, as the device features a Snapdragon 439—the same SoC on the cheaper Redmi 8A, and a much weaker chipset than the Snapdragon 632 on the Redmi 7. Xiaomi had a reason for it, and it's not a completely unreasonable one, either.

Xiaomi is set to release a successor to the immensely successful Redmi K20 Phones. The Redmi K30 is on the way and it will feature both 5G support and a dual selfie camera setup reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus.

Qualcomm has announced that over 30 manufacturers have taken the Snapdragon X55 modem up in order to produce their 5G fixed wireless broadband consumer-premises hardware. This means the equipment carriers and ISPs will install in homes in order to access this relatively new form of broadband is highly likely to integrate this modem.

The Amazfit GTS has made its way to India, having been unveiled in China earlier this year. The Apple Watch clone features a 1.65-inch and 348 x 442 AMOLED panel, which sits within a 43.25 x 36.25 x 9.4 mm chassis. The 5 ATM water-resistant smartwatch also weighs 27.2 g without a strap and is available on Amazon.in for ₹9,999 (~US$140).

ZTE's sub-brand Nubia has just released the dual-display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+-powered Z20 flagship worldwide. Only available in Twilight Blue and Diamond Black versions, this premium device can be acquired in most markets, including Australia, Canada, EU, Japan, or Israel. US customers can get it for US$549.

The Honor Band 5 convinced us during our tests and is a good fitness tracker package at an affordable cost. The device offers more than the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 does in our opinion too, despite its shortcomings. One may have people looking elsewhere, though.

OPPO has launched a new phone, the K5. This event has proved a series of leaks true, as the phone has a new-ish Snapdragon 730G processor, 6GB SKUs and a quad rear camera with a 64MP sensor. The K5 is also the first device to feature a VOOC 4.0 battery.

The Chinese regulator TENAA has approved a new phone from the OEM ZTE. It is listed as a 4GB RAM device with a 6.1-inch HD screen and triple cameras in a Pixel-esque square housing. It is set into a rear panel that may be plastic or glass and also includes a fingerprint sensor.

Xiaomi phones may be upgraded to telephoto lens capable of as much as 50X digital zoom in the near future. Furthermore, their optical zoom specs may improve considerably in the same generations. This rumor has srung from alleged findings that code in MIUI 11 outlines these functions.

The OEM Meizu has released teasers for a new phone, the 16T, on Weibo. It will have the same SoC (the Snapdragon 855) as its siblings, the 16s and 16s Pro. However, it will also have a bigger screen and battery compared to these pre-existing variants. The Meizu 16T will launch on October 23, 2019 for the equivalent of US$352.

The Mi 9T Pro is a rebranded Redmi K20 Pro for the global market, and can be purchased for under US$350. As such, it's a tad surprising to see the device do so well in DxOMark's test, matching last-gen flagships like the Galaxy Note 9 and iPhone XR. Of course, though, there were a few issues with the phone's overall camera performance.

Just two months after the release of Q, Huawei is now sending out the stable Android Q-based EMUI 10 update to owners of the Mate 20 Pro outside China. The OTA weighs in as a heavy 4.42 GB download.

The Honor View 30—or V30 depending on where you buy it—will be Huawei's next premium phone. A short while ago, the first image of the device leaked. This time out, though, details of the phone have surfaced. Notable takeaways include 5G support, a suprising Pro model, and what looks to be a brand new, powerful 60 MP sensor by Sony.

The inability to run Google Play Services on the Huawei Mate 30 has made it a more difficult purchase decision for most in Western markets. VMOS aims to fix this to an extent.

Launched first in Malaysia, the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro have now arrived in Europe, albeit with limited coverage. The retailer promises to deliver 128 GB and 256 GB SKUs of both devices within a week, although it remains unclear whether these are official EU models or import models.

The Vivo Y3 is a sub-US$250 phone sold in China. A new leak suggests that the OEM is going to release a second version of this device. It may be called the 'Y3 Standard' and have 2 rear cameras where the original has 3.

The Nokia 6.2 has been launched in India, albeit to comparatively little fanfare. It is a 4GB RAM device with 64GB of internal powered by the Snapdragon 636 SoC. It also has a round camera housing with a triple camera.

An XDA contributor claims to have found an option to switch a screen's refresh rate from 60 to 120 hertz (Hz) in MIUI 11. This suggests that there is an upcoming Xiaomi phone with this spec in development. This would leap-frog the new industry standard of 90Hz nicely.

A phone calling itself the Vivo V1936A has appeared on Geekbench, rocking what appears to be the Snapdragon 855 processor and 8GB of RAM. This has led to speculation that this device is linked to iQOO, an emerging high-end sub-brand of this OEM. To date, it has produced a more powerful 5G flagship as well as other phones of varying premium status.