Chinese Tech

With the new Legion Cube C730, Lenovo is attempting to provide a hybrid between mini PCs and mini tower desktops. The portability is quite affected by the 20-pound weight, but Lenovo does offer a handle to move the system around easier. Users can choose between the i7-8700K/8700 and i5-8400 six-core CPUs, up to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, up to 512 NVMe SSD plus up to 4 TB HDD storage, and a choice between the GTX 1060 and the Radeon RX 570 GPUs.

The Moto Z Play was loved by enthusiasts when it was released two years ago. Sadly, the company failed to live up to expectations with its successor, the Moto Z2 Play. Fans of the Moto Z Play may have a reason to smile now, though, as details of the upcoming Moto One Power surface.

Xiaomi has unveiled its new Redmi 6 Pro. The device is a natural successor to the Redmi 4 Prime, and shockingly is powered by the same Snapdragon 625, almost two years after the latter was released.

Xiaomi has announced the launch of its new Mi Pad 4 tablet. The device comes with a base price tag of US$170, which makes it the cheapest device powered by a Snapdragon 660.

Xiaomi has announced that it sold a million units of the Mi 8 devices in just 18 days. Considering how many devices the company has in its portfolio, and the fact that its talents lie in the mid-range and budget market, this number can only be chalked down as a massive success.

The OxygenOS 5.1.6 and 5.1.8 updates to the OnePlus 6 has caused a number of users to experience weird battery behaviors, with some claiming their devices now offer half the regular screen-on time.

Huawei's customer support has announced that the Huawei P9 will not get the update to Android Oreo. This comes after the company sent out beta updates to users of the devices in China last month.

Huawei is said to be working on an SoC that will end Qualcomm's reign over the Android SoC market. The chipset, supposedly the Kiirin 1020, is touted to offer twice the performance of the current Kirin 970.

The Mi Max 3 popped up on TENAA a few days ago, throwing some more light on what we should expect from the device. Some highlights include an IR blaster, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 5400 mAh battery, and a notchless 6.9-inch display.

The Honor 10 and Honor View 10 are great camera devices by their own rights but didn't come with any form of image stabilization out of the box. Both devices are currently receiving a security update that brings that feature, however.

In a second letter this month, lawmakers are again expressing concern that Google has been showing preference in working with the Chinese telecommunications company rather than the U.S. army. The search giant only sees Huawei as just one of many contractors under its belt with no current plans to cease cooperation for now.

The OnePlus 6 was conspicuous by its absence on the list of supported devices for Google ARCore but it turns out that the ARCore app can be sideloaded on the phone and it works just fine. It is not known when the OnePlus 6 will be eventually added to the Play Developer Console but it should only be a matter of time.

Xiaomi launched the new iteration of its skin, MIUI 10, a short while ago. While most devices will receive the skin update, it doesn't guarantee an OS update to Oreo.

According to an official statement, Huawei has sold six million P20 smartphones. The device became available for purchase about three months ago, so this is surprisingly good returns for the company.

Nvidia may deny the imminent release of their next gen gaming GPUs all they want, however, more evidence for a Q3 2018 GTX 11xx release has recently been unveiled by Power Logic's CEO. The largest GPU air cooling provider on the market is expecting a considerable increase in cooler shipments in the second half of 2018, essentially confirming Nvidia's and AMD's next gen GPU arrival.

A leaked picture of what could be the Huawei Mate 20 is doing the rounds online and apparently, the device does not sport a notched display. A sketch of the Mate 20 has also leaked revealing a dual camera setup with an LED flash in between the lenses. Further details are scarce at this point but the smartphone is expected to be powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 980.

Buyers who have opted for the OnePlus 6 trade-in program were seen getting multiple voucher breakups instead of a single voucher for the exchange amount. This is causing problems as the trade-in program allows using only one voucher. OnePlus is known to have acknowledged this issue and is working on a resolution.

Meizu CEO Jack Wong has confirmed that the company will build on the success of the recently released Meizu 15 devices with a pair of direct successors in the Meizu 16 and 16 Plus. One of the devices will feature a Snapdragon 845.

OPPO unveiled the Find X yesterday at an event in Paris. A solid flagship, the Find X features a never-before-seen sliding camera mechanism. It will likely make its way to the US in the coming months, and could come with price tag of over US$1000.

Xiaomi is set to unveil three new devices in the coming weeks. The Mi Pad 4 and Redmi 6 Pro are confirmed for a June 25 launch and will be followed by the Mi Max 3 shortly after.

Realtek is almost ready to launch a more affordable all-in-one USB dock for laptops. The latest prototype features a 10 Gb/s USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 main port splits the bandwidth across a great selection of connectors. Even though there is no Thudnerbolt 3 support, all the connector chips are proprietary, so the dock should feature a sub-US$100 price.

A fatal vulnerability has been discovered on the new OnePlus 6, one that allows the flashing of unsigned boot images on the device even when the bootloader is locked.

A comprehensive report has shown Samsung’s dominance over the global smartphone market in Q1 2018, Xiaomi’s almost palpable growth, and the extreme competition in the Asian smartphone market.

A document detailing OPPO’s next flagship, the OPPO Find X, has surfaced. The device will be powered by a Snapdragon 845, and will come with most of the features you’d expect to find on a current-gen mainstream flagship.

According to new reports, Huawei has sourced AMOLED panels from Samsung for the Mate 20. Of more surprise is the fact that these panels are apparently 6.9-inch ones, which likely means a size hike for the next Huawei flagship, bringing it eerily close to tablet territory.

The OnePlus 6 is now the most commercially successful device released by OnePlus. The phone hit one million uints sold within the first 22 days of its release, in spite of its higher price tag and OnePlus's continued "underground" approach to marketing and retail.

A device with the Honor V12 moniker has appeared on the FCC and TENAA websites for certification. One would expect it to be a successor to last year’s Honor V10 flagship but the listed specifications and renders give us other ideas.

Xiaomi has announced the launch of its two new entry-level smartphones, the Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A. The previous offerings in the series were best-sellers, so these new ones have rather large boots to fill. Of course, there’s the pesky little issue of the devices featuring MediaTek processors.

The Vivo APEX smartphone that debuted to great fanfare as a concept at MWC 2018 is now a reality. It has officially been launched as the Vivo NEX S for the Chinese market and offers the highest display-to-bezel ratio of any smartphone on the market.

The upcoming Kirin 710 is fabricated on the 12 nm stepping and comes with Cortex-A73 cores, while the Snapdragon 710 is expected to come with the 10 nm Cortex-A75/A55 cores, so Huawei's chips will probably be featured in more affordable mid-range smartphones. The only stronger spec on the Kirin 710 is the dedicate NPU derived from the Kirin 970, but the Snapdragon is also capable of AI processing.

Huawei has officially launched its new MediaPad M5 tablets for the US market. The devices come in three variants and bring some much-needed life back to a dying tablet scene. Prices begin at just over US$300.

The Mate 10 Pro remains one of the best devices on the planet, and is currently available for US$550 on multiple retail outlets, a significant price drop from its US$800 launch MSRP. The model on sale is unlocked, comes with 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, and a US warranty.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 devices have been said to be numerical improvements over the S8 devices but you wouldn’t think that if you saw their sales numbers. The flagships finally overtook the iPhone X and iPhone 8 pair to become the best-selling smartphones in the world in April, although there’s an obvious reason for that.

A user on Reddit has narrated the tales of their trip into China, which saw the country’s border police accost them and install what was almost definitely surveillance software on their Android devices.

Intel's 14 nm Goldmont Plus platform is seeing a very limited release as laptops equipped with Celeron N4000/N4100 or Pentium N5000 SoCs are still difficult to come by. Chinese manufacturers may finally be jumping in to scoop up the inexpensive CPU series and offer cheap Windows laptops. The EZbook X4 is one such model that promises a lot of mainstream features like 1080p and backlit keys for just under $300 USD.

iPhone X clones are a dime a dozen, and the latest device to join that hallowed list is the subtly-named Ulefone X. The new device may be a shameless clone but it does look good on paper, which is more than can be said for a few other devices in that niche.

Following Trump's intervention, ZTE has finally been granted a lifeline out of its current dire straits. The Chinese company has been ordered to pay a massive US$1.4 billion fine for its misdemeanours that saw it hit with a trade ban a few months ago.

Live images of Nubia's upcoming flagship, the Nubia Z18, have surfaced, revealing everything the device has to offer. Slim bezels, a chin, and a notch are some of the biggest talking points.

Motorola has finally unveiled its latest device, the sub-premium Moto Z3 Play. The smartphone is definitely solid on paper but its five hundred dollar price tag may be off-putting to some.

GPU Boost will not increase the clock rate of the GPU as its name might suggest. Instead, the Honor technology will dramatically improve the power efficiency of GPUs in its smartphones to improve battery life. The manufacturer is claiming that a mid-range smartphone with GPU Boost can outperform a flagship smartphone without GPU Boost while allowing for HDR and higher frame rates in games.

Over the past month, Lenovo carried out a subtly engaging media campaign for its upcoming device, the Z5. That device was unveiled yesterday, however, and it would seem that most of the company's claims were pure hogwash.

AMD’s press conference earlier today contained a number of interesting new AMD-powered devices. One that stood out was the refreshed Huawei MateBook D with Ryzen APU and Vega graphics.

If you are searching for a 15-inch hexa-core laptop but maybe budget is not that generous, MSI has you covered with the GF63 series which should be launched soon. This sub-US$1000 model integrates the Intel i7-8750H six-core CPU coupled with 8 or 16 GB of RAM, and can pack a 256 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD storage combo. Users can also choose between the GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti GPUs.

The upcoming Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is expected to debut as a larger Mi A1 because it sports the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor and up to 4 GB RAM/64 GB internal storage. However, its generous 5.99-inch display has a notch and a 2:1 aspect ratio, providing a resolution of 1,080 x 2,160 pixels.

Xiaomi, yesterday, released a trio of devices in its Mi 8 lineup. The Mi 8 SE is the cheapest and least powerful of the devices but still manages to offer unbeatable value, especially considering its sub-$300 price tag.

Vivo has unveiled its latest device, the Vivo Y83. While mostly unspectacular, it will go down as the first device to be powered by MediaTek's mid-range Helio P22 SoC.

Alongside the Mi 8 reveal, Xiaomi also showed off a limited edition Mi 8 Explorer Edition. The Mi 8 Explorer Edition features an in-display fingerprint sensor and a transparent back that reveals the innards. The Mi 8 Explorer Edition is limited to China as of now and will be available only in defined quantities.