Storage

Motorola has brought the Dimensity 930 SoC in a new package to India in the form of the Moto G73. The new mid-range Android smartphone has landed in its new market with a 50MP main camera and Android 13 out of the box. It has been made available in just 1 RAM/storage configuration, with a release scheduled for later in March 2023.

With sequential read speeds of up to 7,450 MB/s, the Samsung 990 Pro is one of the fastest but also most expensive PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the market. Thankfully, the lightning-quick NVMe drive has now dropped to its lowest price thus far on Amazon.

A tablet thought of as the "OPPO Pad 2" prior to its launch eventually debuted as the OnePlus Pad instead. Now, however, the former name is now back on Geekbench, albeit with a Qualcomm chipset as opposed to the latter's MediaTek Dimensity SoC. Therefore, it now seems like OPPO intends to release its version of the tablet with this ex-flagship platform instead.

OPPO has announced the expansion of global availability for its first ever clamshell foldable smartphone, the Find N2 Flip. The potential Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4-killer is going to India next, although its price in the market has yet to be revealed. Meanwhile, its main rival remains at the ~US$1,000 point in the same country.

Oukitel backs itself to surpass others such as AGM and Ulefone to become the brand with the rugged smartphone of the loudest (and largest) loudspeaker system. The WP22 may also outdo its rivals with a 10,000mAh battery - not to mention Android 13 out of the box. It will debut with a MediaTek Helio-series SoC and 8GB of RAM later this month.

The very spacious 4TB PCIe 4.0 SSD originally carried an official price tag of US$399, but after another considerable price drop on Amazon and Best Buy, the quite capable Crucial P3 Plus has finally fallen below the US$250 mark.

OnePlus has confirmed that it will augment its sub-flagship Ace series of Android smartphones with a new 2V model. It will distinguish itself from the line's current flagship with a high-end MediaTek chipset rather than one from Qualcomm, and, as it turns out, with a new build too. Its OEM has scheduled it for an initial early March 2023 debut in the Chinese market: an announcement that has sparked speculation that it may be offered elsewhere under a different name later in the year.

With sequential read speeds of up to 3,500 MB/s, the Samsung 970 Evo Plus is not the quickest NVMe SSD on the planet, but the 2TB version arguably offers a a lot of value after dropping to its lowest price ever on Amazon.

From a list price of US$329.99, the 2 TB version of the Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 7000s PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD is now down to US$169.99. This SSD features AES-256 encryption support, is compatible with the Sony PlayStation 5 console, and delivers sequential read/write speeds of up to 7000/5500 MB/s.

Samsung has made the 4G/LTE-only version of its Galaxy A14, a new affordable Android smartphone, official today in Malaysia. Its hardware compromises go even beyond its last-gen connectivity to keep its budget appeal flying; then again, it has launched with the upgraded design of its 5G counterpart.

Amazon is running a sale on certain Samsung storage devices, including internal and external drives. You can save up to 62% on SATA SSDs, external SSDs, and SD cards.

Nokia touts the G22 as the first Android smartphone of its series to launch with QuickFix technology, in that it is designed to make teardowns and battery replacements easier for the user compared to its predecessor. Whether this new focus on sustainability helps distract from the similarity between the new device and its predecessor in other potentially crucial areas remains to be seen.

Although some modern PCIe 3.0 drives are available at similar prices these days, traditional SATA SSDs like the Samsung 870 Evo can be a reasonable choice for owners of a desktop PC or older laptop with a vacant 2.5-inch slot.

The first PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs could soon see availability, as Newegg lists the Gigabyte AORUS Gen5 10000 2 TB model for backorders at US$339.99. This price seems surprisingly reasonable considering it is not actually available in stock.

Ulefone has announced that it has a new 10.1-inch FHD+ tablet for sale. The Tab A8 aims for a high-end appearance with support for 4G/LTE as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a slim metallic unibody and an unavoidably Xiaomi 13-esque camera hump - however, its internal specs knocks it down to a more affordable tier of the mobile device market. Then again, it has a headphone jack - just not normally where you'd expect to find one.

The 2.5-inch SATA SSD made by the American company is best suited for users of older devices, who are in need of a substantial storage upgrade of up to 2TB and do not have a state-of-the-art M.2 slot at their disposal.

Compatible with a wide range of devices, including smartphones and consoles, thanks to the USB-C interface, the rugged Samsung T7 Shield SSD arrived back in late April 2022 in 1 TB and 2 TB versions. A 4 TB has been added to the lineup a few months later. Now, all are discounted by up to 48% (for the 2 TB, Beige model).

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is one of the newest devices to appear on the latest version of Geekbench for Android. The new v6.0.0 iteration of the benchmark adds some new metrics by which to assess single- and multi-core performance, while dropping others from the previous version. It seems the benchmark will still be just as valuable a source of potential leaks, however.

Both the 1TB and 2TB options of the quick Samsung 980 Pro M.2 SSD have dropped to their lowest prices yet on Amazon, which makes the NVMe drives a decent choice in the high-end PCIe 4.0 segment.

iQOO asserts that the Android smartphone it has just launched in India brings up-to-date 4 nanometer (nm) processing to that market. It also offers a 120Hz display, nearly top-end RAM and fast 120W charging. Nevertheless, the new device may not be all some consumers may have hoped for.

MediaTek touts its latest Dimensity 7200 mobile processor as a platform in which power savings meet "peak power". Like its 9200 flagship sibling, it is a 4 nanometer (nm) chipset, and is also rated to bring specs from current top-end smartphones to more mid-tier devices. They include support for potentially faster 5G, up-to-144Hz displays and 200MP camera sensors.

With read speeds of more than 5,000 MB/s, the WD Black SN770 is not the fastest NVMe drive on the market. But thanks to an ongoing deal at Amazon, the 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD may convince some budget-minded buyers with its appropriate price-performance ratio.

Razer has chosen quite a day to announce pre-order pricing for the new 16- and 18-inch versions of its Blade laptop. They are out there now, albeit in a limited range of SKUs thus far. They mostly consist of configurations with RTX 4080 graphics thus far, available with a limited-edition gift with their purchase to mark their release.

The spacious 2TB SATA SSD is one of the more cost-effective solutions to expand the storage of desktop PCs or older laptops with a 2.5 inch slot, especially since the SanDisk SSD Plus has now hit its lowest price ever on Amazon.

MediaTek has indicated that the updated Helio G36 SoC will be the one to bring specs such as 50MP rear cameras and 90Hz displays to the new budget, 4G/LTE-only smartphones of the near future. It also boasts a GPU optimized with the OEM's HyperEngine 2.0 Lite features for potentially enhanced gaming at this tier; then again, some on-chip specs remain unchanged compared to its predecessor.

Those with their hearts set on a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Apple's first ever in-house M-series processor and a Touch Bar may find that it is available as a renewed model more often than not. OWC's Valentine's Day sale includes just such a unit at nearly 50% of its starting price, described as a factory-sealed refurbished unit from the OEM in an as-new condition.

Gigabyte has now unleashed new versions of the Aorus 15 and 17 laptops. The OEM touts the duo as machines for gaming on the go, with a updated design that packs WINDFORCE Infinity cooling and up-to-360Hz displays. The upgraded Aorus variants also offer DDR5 RAM and MUX switches.

An Android device calling itself the Nokia G22 has rolled up onto the Geekbench database for the first time. However, the alleged 2023 device's appearance might cast a dark cloud over hopes for significant upgrades in this round of HMD Global-brand smartphones, not to mention those for software support in the existing G21.

Corsair's quick PCIe 4.0 SSD comes with a preinstalled heatsink, which makes the MP600 Pro LPX with 1TB a perfect fit for gamers who would like to upgrade the rather paltry internal storage of their PS5.

The superfast PCIe 4.0 SSD from Western Digital is one of the best-performing storage solutions on the consumer market, and thanks to a current deal at Best Buy, the 1TB version of the WD Black SN850X has dropped to its lowest price yet.

A comparison between the latest PCIe 5.0 SSD solutions and the previous two generations in Forspoken's integrated DirectStorage benchmark shows that the loading time differences are negligible. Strangely enough, the PCIe 5.0 SSD also exhibits some FPS instabilities.

The "Ace 2" is currently rumored to debut as the Chinese-market version of the 11R, the next member of OnePlus' flagship smartphone series for 2023. Now, the device's design has been brought up once again in the form of a new render. On that note, it is also now slated to launch with specs nearly as high-end as that of the 11.

The new M2 Pro-powered MacBook Pros seem to suffer from significantly reduced SSD performance compared to corresponding equivalent M1 Pro models. Independent reviews show between 15% to 40% reduced SSD scores with the M2 Pro-based MacBook Pro 14. This is being attributed to the use of fewer, higher-density NAND chips in the M2 generation unlike what we've seen before in M1.

OPPO is thought to launch an X6 series of flagship smartphones based on the new top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. Now, thanks to a new leak, they are said to have a sibling with the MediaTek Dimensity 9200 SoC instead. It has allegedly been certified by Chinese authorities ahead of its launch.

GoPro has just launched its fifth-gen Million Dollar Challenge, which is open to participants worldwide. As the name suggests, it is a video clip contest with a US$1 million prize-pool. It is open to users of the HERO11 Black and Mini action-cams in 2023, which is also the first year that submissions made through the OEM's Quik App will be accepted.

Amazon US has reduced the prices of all Crucial P3 SSDs, including the 4 TB edition. Available at between 26% and 33% discounts, the Crucial P3 series offers up to 3,000 MB/s sequential write and 3,500 MB/s sequential read speeds.

Amazon US has shaved nearly 50% off Crucial X6 series SSDs. Available in 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB and 4 TB capacities, the Crucial X6 series offers up to 800 MB/s read speeds, measures just 69 x 64 x 11 mm and weighs under 40 g.

A 30 TB SSD purchased from Walmart for US$38.99 has been exposed as a 128 GB SD card wrapped in a Samsung rip-off shell. The SSD, which is neither Walmart-branded nor an official Walmart product, has now seemingly been removed from the retailer’s site. In tests carried out by Computer Clan, the SD card ran faster when taken out of the fake 30 TB SSD case.

The Realme GT Neo 5 is already being touted as its brand's next smartphone with the most premium charging tech as an option at launch. Now, according to a new leak, this new spec will be paired to those geared for speed in other areas as well. They may include generous amounts of RAM, an OLED display and the latest software out of the box.

Graphite is often hailed as the ideal anode and, as such, may become one of the hottest manufactured commodities in the battery industry going forward. However, a Finnish company asserts that its new alternative compound is comparable, if not superior, and can be made using less energy. Furthermore, it can apparently be made using an abundant by-product of the forestry industry.

JEDEC is looking to replace the venerable SO-DIMM standard with a new form-factor called CAMM that allows better scalability of up to 128 GB per module and increased data transfer speeds beyond DDR5-6400. Furthermore, CAMM would allow for thinner and lighter laptop chassis, as well as user-replaceable LPDDR modules.

Tecno touts the Phantom X2 Pro as the world's first ever Android smartphone to launch with real mechanical zoom for its main rear camera. Now, this inaugural "retractable portrait lens" device is coming to Amazon - albeit in India only. Its first commercial release is set to start in mid-January 2023 with high-end specs to go with its cutting-edge feature.

The Windows Task Manager in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25276 allows creation of live kernel memory dumps from the System process apart from the already existing memory dump creation from user mode processes. The new Windows Insider Preview build also offers previews of Apple TV and Apple Music apps in the Microsoft Store, although these can be downloaded to public versions of Windows 11 localized in the US as well.

Amazon US has reduced the Samsung 980 Pro, a blisteringly fast SSD that utilises PCIe 4.0 to deliver up to 7,000 MB/s sequential read speeds. Fast enough to be used in a Sony PlayStation 5, the Samsung 980 Pro can be picked up for between a 43% and 53% discount, depending on the capacity chosen.

Zendure touts its SuperBase V as a full home power back-up solution thanks to its switch to "EV-grade" semi-solid state energy storage, as opposed to the lithium-based batteries of most conventional portable stations. It is rated to deliver 6.4kWh in its base-station mode, although it can scale up to 64kWh as a double unit with add-on Satellite Batteries.

Jackery has brought its latest additions to its Explorer family to introduce to the world at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The 1500 Pro is the more portable of the two, although some may prefer the larger capacity of the new Ultra Charging flagship. The 3000 Pro is hyped as capable of powering some appliances on the go.

Samsung hypes its latest addition to the Galaxy F series of Android smartphones as "F for Fast" (amid other things beginning with F). However, it is hard to see how it will live up to this hype with its well-worn ultra-budget specs. Then again, it now starts for under US$100 in India.

The new Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo 50q Gen 4 is a desktop of just one liter (l) in volume, yet is rated to fit SSDs and HDDs of up to 1TB in size, as well as up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM. It is also WiFi 6-capable thanks to choice of its 13th-gen Intel platforms, and supports business-class IGEL operating systems as well as Windows 11 installs.

Released at the end of August, the Crucial X8 lineup of portable SSDs uses the USB 3.2 interface, provides up to 4 TB of storage, and speeds up to 1050 MB/s. Now, the 4 TB version is available on Amazon for roughly half the US$479.99 list price, so those interested can get it for US$249.99.

Xiaomi's main sub-brand Redmi has kicked the new year off with sales of the 12C in China. Its main features are far from anything new, although they come in an eye-catching new chassis in four potentially appealing colors. It starts at around US$100, albeit for lackluster specs, the best of which are a large battery, a 3.5mm jack and a 50MP main rear camera, and the worst of which one would not think would even have a place in 2023.