Chinese Tech

The Huawei P30 and P30 Pro will be launched on March 26, and while the devices' selling points remain photography, both will still feature top of the line displays—in the form of Samsung-made OLED panels.

Xiaomi usually offers a 12-month warranty for its phones to customers in its home country of China. However, this was turned on its head somewhat with the release of the Redmi Note 7. The company gave an extra 6 months' worth for this phone; now, it reportedly intends to roll this out to more of its future devices.

Xiaomi's new gaming phone, so far known as the 'Black Shark 2', has been listed by the online retailer JD.com. Although this page does not reveal its price, it allows potential buyers to reserve a unit ahead of its launch date (March 18, 2019). At this point, the final cost of the phone will presumably be revealed.

Huawei has launched its latest device, the Nova 4e, in China. The mid-ranger features a Kirin 710, 3340 mAh battery, triple rear cameras, 32 MP selfie camera, up to 6 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of storage. It will be sold as the Huawei P30 Lite in other markets.

Going by information released on Xiaomi's official forum, the company plans on sending out the Pie update to a host of devices over the next couple of months. The Redmi Note 5, for one, is expected to get the update before this month runs out.

Xiaomi had planned a sales event for the Mi 9 Transparent Edition, as well as the Mi 9 SE, for today (March 14, 2019) in China. However, reports that it has been abruptly cancelled have come in from that country. The OEM cited unit supply issues while apologizing for this move.

A Weibo account has posted a series of images, mostly of famous places or buildings that were allegedly taken with an OPPO device equipped with the OEM's new 10X zoom module. The user claims that the phone in question is a Reno, the first phone to bear this product name.

A new patent filed by Huawei may have given us our first look at the Mate 30 Pro. Going by the details of the patent, the device could eschew a selfie camera in favor of a rear secondary display. A triple camera setup may be located at the back of the device, including a periscope lens.

Huawei will launch the P30 phones on March 26 at an event in Paris and more details of the devices have been revealed, as they make their way across multiple benchmarks. Camera samples of the P30 Pro have also surfaced, giving us our first look at the flagship's powerful zoom capabilities.

The MediaTek Helio P23-powered Oppo A1 will soon get a cheaper sibling with lower specs known as the A1K. Insiders familiar with the matter revealed that the upcoming handset will feature a waterdrop display, a single-sensor main camera, and will use the MediaTek Helio P22 processor. Unfortunately, the official confirmation has yet to arrive.

A recent post on SlashLeaks shows real-life images of a device with Honor branding. The poster alleges that it is of the brand's 10 line - however, it can't be the pre-existing 10 Lite, as it appears to have triple rear cameras. Therefore, its contributor has dubbed it the Honor 10i.

Xiaomi has already released official Android Pie-based builds for a number of its 2018 devices. Recent rumors that may emanate from the Chinese MIUI community indicate that the Mi 6X will soon join their ranks. This phone, which is a twin of the Android One phone, the Mi A2, is a solid mid-ranger with the Snapdragon 660 processor.

Even though the Ulefone T3 looks very similar to Samsung's S10, the Chinese model is aimed at the premium mid-range market, since it comes equipped with the Helio P90 SoC from MediaTek. It does come with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, which is not that common for a mid-range handheld. Additionally, it gets the latest 48 MP camera together telephoto and depth lenses, plus a fingerprint sensor on the back.

Xiaomi's Redmi sub-brand is set to launch its fourth device this year, the Redmi 7, at an event in Beijing on March 18. The budget device will feature a Snapdragon 632, dual rear cameras, and up to 4 GB of RAM.

A Huawei device with the model name VOG-L29 has surfaced on Geekbench today (March 12, 2019). It has exhibited 2019 flagship specs and the scores to go with it. They have beaten up-to-date entries for the P20 Pro on the same database by a considerable margin.

OPPO has recently unveiled a new name for some of its devices in the future on Weibo. It is apparently to be called Reno. This is not the only recent reveal for the Chinese OEM: it also has a new logo and set of 2019 flagship specs.

A slew of leaks and speculations have pointed to the resurrection of the RAZR product line in the release of the first foldable under the Motorola brand. A new post on SlashLeaks consists of the new logo for this putative phone. It is accompanied by a supposed list of its major specs.

Motorola promised Oreo for the Moto G4 Plus when it launched in 2016 and went back on its word a year after. Media outcry over that betrayal forced the company's hands, making them promise Oreo as initially agreed. It's been eighteen months since then, though, and the Moto G4 phones are only just starting to receive the Android Oreo OTA.

Huawei released a bunch of promotional images for the P30 Pro last week. These images all showed incredible zoom and the public may have been fooled into believing them to be a display of the P30 Pro's purported 10x hybrid zoom. Well, those images were taken by a DSLR.

Huawei's Mate 20 phones may have given up their position as the best flagships on the market to the Samsung Galaxy S10 devices, but they've already sold in massive quantities. According to Huawei CEO Richard Yu, the company has shipped 10 million units of the devices, barely five months after they were launched.

The Huawei P30, P30 Pro, and P30 Lite have been going through network certification processes for agencies in Taiwan and Indonesia. Even though the devices have been listed under their model numbers, it has been possible to tell which device has which RAM and storage options, thanks to the information found on the leaked certificates.

Xiaomi doesn't plan on giving up on its Black Shark gaming phone series anytime soon, and the company is set to release another iteration, the Black Shark 2. The Black Shark 2 appeared on AnTuTu a few days ago, with the listing giving us a better idea of what to expect from the third-gen device.

Huawei's CEO, Yu Chendong, recently conducted an interview with the German publication, Welt. The executive was tackled on many issues, including foldable phones and their current extravagant prices. He responded by projecting that their prices may fall at a significant rate in the near future.

The Vivo V15 is the less potent sibling of the recently released Vivo V15 Pro. Introduced in Thailand last week, the V15 should hit India on March 15. However, it seems that China will get this handset as the Vivo S1 — the first S-series handset of the brand. However, a recent TENAA listing has revealed a few minor differences between the V15 and the alleged Vivo S1.

The Xiaomi Mi Max 3, like all Mi Max devices, is sold with the unique feature of having a huge screen. This generation has a 6.9-inch FHD display, which is matched by few other phablets. Units of this model worldwide are now eligible for an official update to the Pie-based MIUI 10.

The 6T is the first OnePlus flagship to be sold through a US carrier: T-Mobile. These units are now receiving a notification for a new update that confers RCS messaging. This new form of messaging on Android brings expanded features and capabilities compared to the old one.

Clement Wong, Huawei’s VP of Global Product Marketing, has confirmed that the upcoming Huawei P30 Pro will have a camera that offers periscope-style super-zoom capabilities. This confirmation has sparked speculation that the lens in question could actually be powered mechanically, enabling it to offer the rumored 10x optical zoom.

The POWKIDDY X18 is a cheap Android handheld games console that features a 5.5-inch touchscreen along with numerous physical controls including two joysticks, a d-pad and Y, B, A and X buttons. The X18 has a 5,000 mAh battery, while its design may remind you of some Japanese handheld games consoles...

A new update to the latest version of MIUI may expand the function of the under-display fingerprint sensor found in the latest Xiaomi flagships. It involves activating an array of app shortcuts when this module is used. The new feature will be found in the Mi 9, 9 SE and some versions of the Mi 8.

Months ahead of its launch, the OnePlus 7 has appeared in sale-page form on the retail website GizTop. It contains a list of specs with many details that may be plausible for this new release. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that it will prove accurate.

Xiaomi has made its name by offering phones that could be seen as value-for-money in the past. However, its CEO, Lei Jun, has unveiled plans that involve the company turning its back on this strategy in the future. He has said that "this might be the last time our price will be under RMB 3,000 (about US$447)".

Shen Yiren Brian, VP of OPPO, took to Weibo to announce that the upcoming Find Z flagship phone will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC and will also incorporate the company's new 10x hybrid optical zoom camera. The Find Z could also have a 5G variant and Shen claims that the phone will look different compared to contemporary phones in the market.

Xiaomi's new budget sub-brand, Redmi, has released three devices since it was formed earlier in the year. The company's fourth device, the Redmi 7, is on the way, and all the details of the budget phone have now been revealed.

Huawei has launched its newest mid-range phone, the P Smart+ (2019). The P Smart+ shares a lot of hardware with the regular P Smart that was launched a few months ago, the major difference being the triple rear camera setup, with one of the cameras being a 16 MP wide-angle lens.

Drawings in a patent filing made by ZTE have been turned into renders by LetsGoDigital. The device in the renders can be described as a foldable smartphone utilizing a clamshell form factor. The ZTE smartphone folds over itself and leaves an exposed portion of the display. It looks oddly reminiscent of a Game Boy Advance SP handheld game console.

AnTuTu has released its Android rankings for the month of February, with Xiaomi's new flagship, the Mi 9, sitting comfortably in first. Rather surprisingly, the Huawei Mate 20 places fourth.

Multiple new entries for the same device - a 'blackshark AAA' - have appeared on the Geekbench 4.3 database. They are all powered by the same SoC, which is likely to be the Snapdragon 855. Interestingly, all but 2 of the 10 listings specify 12GB of RAM.

Bloomberg's most recent report on Apple and its next-generation modem woes suggest that the company is in even more trouble than previously imagined. Its choices for 5G hardware in future iPhones are apparently limited and come with compromises. Therefore, it JUST may skip this feature in 2020 as well as 2019.

The OPPO F11 Pro has been characterized as a phone that would come out with a pop-up selfie camera on release. These leaks have been vindicated at its launch. It was also joined by the F11, a second variant of the same basic phone, but with a water-drop notch to house its own front-facing camera.

The Meizu Note 9 is one of a handful of phones that rocks the new 48MP Samsung camera sensor. It has been launched today in China for prices ranging from about US$208 to $238, depending on the variant selected. However, it will not be on sale until March 11, 2019.

The Meizu Zero was a novel prospect for the smartphone world: a device with no ports or buttons whatsoever. Its maker had been assessing the demand for this idea via a campaign on Indiegogo. However, it has failed to achieve its goal of US$100,000, securing only about 45% of this figure.

The new Honor Tab 5 is an 8-inch Android tablet that starts at the equivalent of US$163, but even the LTE version with 4/64 GB still comes for less than US$250. This slate uses the HiSilicon Kirin 710 processor with GPU Turbo 2.0, runs Android Pie with Magic UI 2.0 on top out of the box, and sports Dolby Atmos audio.

HTC is reportedly in talks with a number of Indian smartphone firms to license its hardware under their brands. These phones will apparently target the Rs 10,000- (about US$141) or-more section of this market. The Taiwanese OEM hopes to compete with the likes of OPPO and Xiaomi as a result of this move.

Huawei's high-value brand, Honor, is set to launch its next premium device in the coming months. Details of the Honor 20 have now surfaced, throwing light on a device with a specification sheet that mirrors the Huawei P20 Pro's.

Chinese underdogs Meizu are set to release their flagship for the year next month. The Meizu 16s is expected to feature a Snapdragon 855, 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, and a 48 MP camera. It will also ignore the punch-hole, notch, and slider in favor of incredibly slim bezels. Most importantly, it will cost under US$500.

OPPO's budget sub-brand, Realme, has unveiled the latest device straight from its stables. The Realme 3 features a 6.2-inch HD+ display, a 13 MP + 2 MP dual rear camera setup, a 13 MP selfie camera, and a 4230 mAh battery. Prices start at US$125.

LetsGoDigital has produced some renders of a potential Huawei smartphone that utilizes a sliding mechanism. The images are based on a patent the Chinese company applied for with the World Intellectual Property Organization. The slider features a front-facing dual camera setup with a flash between the lenses.