Storage

Qualcomm's next-gen mobile flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, is said to have started surfacing on Geekbench in the form of the new top-end Android smartphones currently in a race to launch first with the new, cutting-edge spec. Now, it has popped up again, thereby purporting to confirm that Vivo's performance-focused brand iQOO is poised to launch handsets based on the advanced silicon.

ZTE launched an especially top-end Aerospace Edition of its Axon 30 Ultra flagship smartphone in 2021. Now, it has hinted at the same for that device's successor, the 40 Ultra. The upcoming Special Edition stands a good chance at even more RAM in addition to a cutting-edge under-display camera (UDC) OLED screen.

Though heat sinks for SSDs have always been optional, they have become a necessity this generation if you want to utilize PCIe4 x4 speeds to the fullest. The Lexar NM800 Pro includes one as an option and it'll fit inside the PS5, too.

Vivo is said to release a top-end variant for its upcoming X90 series of Android smartphones so premium that it will ship with Qualcomm's next-gen flagship mobile SoC. Now, a device with a potentially authentic model number has appeared on Geekbench with 12GB of RAM. However, the rest of the specs fail to match those of previous "Snapdragon 8 Gen 2" leaks.

Honor is projected to launch the Magic 5 and 5 Pro as its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered flagship smartphones in 2023. However, they are now said to be joined by a Prestige Edition as a new type of Ultra in the same year. The putative US$1,000+ top-end variant might launch with a "custom" OLED display and a 1-inch main camera sensor.

EZVIZ has launched the DB1C as a new option for those interested in a teched-out doorbell. It is compatible with 2.4Ghz/5Ghz Wi-Fi, which can stream FHD video to a user's personal device. The new smart home component also has AI that can tell when there is a human in front of it, so as to avoid blowing the same device up with unnecessary or inaccurate alerts.

SanDisk's Extreme line of portable SSDs have USB type-C ports and handy keychain-compatible metallic housings. Many of its variants are also listed with potentially substantial discounts on Amazon right now. They include over US$300 off the original price of a version with a capacity of 2TB and a rated top transfer speed of 1,050 megabytes per second (MB/s).

The 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB variants of the Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD are all discounted on Amazon and in stock. The discounts start at just 8 percent for the 1 TB model, but the 2 TB one is available for 39 percent off, while the best deal comes for the 500 GB model, which received a 43 percent discount.

iQOO is a smartphone brand with a penchant for launching mobile devices with high-end specs for surprisingly reasonable prices. Now, it is projected to build on that reputation with upcoming next-gen flagships to launch with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 as soon as possible after that processor's predicted November 2022 launch. This is now expected to happen so fast that they will debut in India by December.

DOOGEE has announced that it will debut its first ever tablet in November 2022. The T10 will start at just under US$120, yet to pack potential advantages such as a USB type-C port for data and charging; support for dual-SIM 4G/LTE and Wi-Fi 5, and expandable memory. On the other hand, it will have an FHD LCD display driven by a bargain-bucket processor from Unisoc.

Redmi's alleged plans to launch a 2023 version of the pre-existing Note 11 Pro seemed confusing enough even before the new 12 series became official. Nevertheless, the Xiaomi brand is still said to go right ahead with the use of this product name, especially as a device with an allegedly corresponding model number has just shown up on Geekbench, increasingly obsolescent specs and all.

Gigabyte asserts that its new AORUS TACHYON motherboard, made for Z790-compatible processors such as Intel's Raptor Lake line, has broken records on Cinebench. They apply to an overclocked version of the high-end Core i9-13900K CPU. The OEM now pitches the board as "exclusively for extreme overclocking" on the back of this new achievement.

Redmi has introduced its 2022 budget tablet in its native market of China today (October 27, 2022) alongside the new Note 12 series of smartphones. The metal unibody slate has a 10.6-inch 2K 90Hz display, quad speakers and up-to-date MIUI Pad 13 software, yet will be released for less than US$160 as a special offer for the upcoming 11.11 sales event.

Intel's Sapphire Rapids and AMD's EPYC Genoa processors are the first server-grade models to include Compute eXpress Link support, which should also come to desktops and laptops by 2025 at the soonest, according to estimates recently released by Team Red.

The Motorola Moto Razr 2022 has proven a hit on the Chinese foldable smartphone market thanks to its upgrades over its predecessors. Now, it is finally ready to try and do the same in other regions such as Europe. Then again, according to the latest leaks, it might fail to undercut its main rival the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 on its impending global launch.

Thanks to 16 NAND channels with 2400 MT/s bandwidth, the SM8366 PCIe 5.0 controller from Silicon Motion can provide sequential read / write speeds of up to 14 GB/s plus an impressive 3.4 million random IOPS throughput.

Samsung and China Telecom have just made the W23 - and W23 Flip - official. The high-end take on the existing Galaxy Z Fold4 has arrived alongside one on the latest Galaxy Z Flip for the first time. Both have been modified to have more RAM than standard SKUs, and to have a new high-end finish with more gold accents, ceramic finishes or both than usual.

Danish mobile accessories brand, Sandberg, has just introduced the USB Webcam Flex with Full HD 1080p resolution and the USB-C All-in-1 Docking Station that features 3 USB ports, HDMI, DisplayPort and VGA, an Ethernet port, card readers, and more. Both products are already available on Amazon and come with a 5-year warranty.

After leading the global mobile DRAM market for over a decade, Samsung unveils the industry's fastest LPDDR5X DRAM solution. With a speed of 8.5 Gbps, up from a previous record of 7.5 Gbps, established in March, the Samsung LPDDR5X DRAM was validated for use on Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platforms.

DOOGEE launched its new GT variant of the S96 Android smartphone some time ago. Now, it has finally revealed that its release will start in earnest tomorrow (October 15, 2022) with some special discounts for its "limited" gold edition. The GT features an updated chipset and selfie camera in addition to the "extreme" durability ratings of the original S96 Pro.

DirectStorage 1.0 did not seem to improve load times in a meaningful way, but the 1.1 version is introducing GPU decompression that completely relieves the CPU of any game asset decompression tasks and speeds up game load times by an additional 3x.

Although it is only available in the Dev Channel, support for iCloud Photos in Windows 11's Photos app is an inspired move by Microsoft that promises to bring its ecosystem closer to Apple's. Even more, Apple TV and Apple Music will hit Windows 11 next year, while preview versions will show up in a few weeks.

Leaks pointing to a new potential flagship for iQOO's Neo line of often performance-oriented Android smartphones have finally been vindicated. The Vivo sub-brand has finally opened reservations for this new seventh-gen device, casually revealing the premium camera (or camera hump, at least) DNA it has inherited from its OEM's 2022 flagships.

The long-term strategic partnership inked by Google Cloud and Coinbase involves the ability of select Web3 customers to pay for their cloud services using select cryptocurrencies. The list of supported currencies has not been unveiled yet, but more information should surface in the near future.

The ZTE Axon 30 is an Android flagship smartphone with a powerful Snapdragon 870 SoC, up to 12GB of RAM and an FHD+ AMOLED display with a selfie camera hidden under it for a truly edge-to-edge screen. It also has a discount of nearly US$200 on its OEM's Amazon US store in a Fall 2022 Prime event that also includes a deal on ZTE's new Wi-Fi 6 router.

Proprietary storage loses the battle yet again. By sticking with standardized M.2 2280 PCIe4 x4 SSDs, PS5 owners are now paying much less than XBox owners when it comes to adding additional storage.

The new 36 Gbps GDDR7 standard offers 50% improved speeds over the current 24 Gbps GDDR6X one from Micron. Peak GDDR7 bandwidth could reach 1.7 TB/s with a 384-bit bus. Samsung also plans to release 32 Gb DDR5 chips this year, and envisions a future where 1000-layer V-NAND storage could be possible by 2030.

The Pixel 7 series of flagship Android smartphones is slated to launch on October 6, 2022 - or just a couple of days from now. Nevertheless, the leaks that purport to reveal how both new devices will look are still coming in. The latest includes images that seem to act as quick-start guides - which, should that be the case, suggests that Google has had a significant change of heart concerning an often-contentious area of its mobile device specs.

Anker's eufy home-security brand has launched a third-gen outdoor camera kit powered by its OEM's new BionicMind AI. It can be "taught" to recognize specific faces as friendly, and can even learn to "perceive" certain human behaviors as potentially suspicious. The new features are touted to make camera activation, user notification and footage storage within the eufyCam 3 system more selective, powerful and effective than ever.

iQOO is Vivo's performance-focused sub-brand of Android smartphones, and is as such now expected to go all-out for the most speed and power in 2023. A new tip from an eminent leaker now hints at the very latest display technology from Samsung in the upcoming premium devices, which are also now believed to start with at amount of RAM normally seen in only the highest end of flagship SKUs.

The C3W Pro is the latest security camera from EZVIZ, of the Wi-Fi-capable form-factor intended to be installed outside. As such, it packs the OEM's latest color night-vision features, including automatic activation in response to movement. Its 1080p resolution and 2MP streaming mode allow it to hit a potentially attractive price-point.

OPPO's Reno8 is currently 2022's only smartphone in the top 3 of DxOMark's charts in terms of battery performance. It has outscored others such as the iPhone 13 Pro Max thanks to its apparently impressive efficiency and lengthy screen-on time, especially on standby. Its up-to-date 80W charging speed didn't hurt either, of course.

Motorola is now projected to have a new Moto G-series of Android smartphones to introduce to the Indian market soon. This "G72" is the subject of new leaks that hint at a design more like that of higher-end 2022 devices from the same OEM, not to mention updated biometrics. Then again, unlike its apparent predecessor, it may only support 4G/LTE.

Infinix has launched its first-gen 180W ThunderCharge smartphone via an online retail partner - revealing in the process that it will also challenge the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra with a 200MP main rear camera. Then again, that is where the potentially top-end specs stop with this new Zero Ultra.

The new models are among the first to feature the latest NVMe 2.0 specs and come with 1 / 2 / 4 TB capacities. A special aluminum heatsink is provided to cool the Phison E26 controller. Top sequential read speeds can reach 12.3 GB/s, while write speeds go up to 10.1 GB/s.

At first glance, the Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition gives the impression that Tecno has made a white smartphone finished with stark black lines that form an artful pattern of squares on its back. However, the OEM asserts that exposing this rear panel to light turns its colors up in a way that lives up to its new name. The new 19 Pro special edition will become available via Amazon.in soon.

The Zendure SuperBase Pro 2000 is a new portable generator rated for a 2,096 watt-hour (Wh) capacity and for an output of up to 2,000 watts (W). The OEM has also fitted it with handy wheels and a suitcase-like carrying handle, not to mention an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) mode. It currently comes with an interesting deal on Geekbuying for European customers: either a Bluetti solar panel or an electric scooter thrown in for free.

The X-H2 is a new mirrorless APS-C camera that upgrades to the latest Fujifilm sensor and processor available to it, giving it the highest resolution and possibly the greatest performance of its line to date. It also packs the OEM's latest sensor-shift technology and in-body image stabilization (IBIS) for "robust" 8K/30fps recording with the option of internal Pro-Res - although it does also boast a full-sized HDMI port.

The Mate 50 RS has premiered as the highest-end of its new smartphone series. Its appearance has been altered in partnership with the Porsche Design Studio, although it has the same display as the 50 Pro. Despite its 4G/LTE-only nature, its single SKU has debuted at a price staggeringly close to US$2,000.

Samsung has now made the Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro official as the latest addition to its "extreme" (and extremely business-like) line of slates. It has launched with an upgrade to sub-6GHz 5G connectivity and Wi-Fi 6E, and even supports "private 4G/LTE" bands on top of that. Its 10-inch display runs off a battery that is user-replaceable and supports fast-charging via a POGO-pin interface.

Starting tomorrow, the top-of-the-line SK hynix Platinum P41 PCIe NVMe SSD will get a 15 percent off coupon for the 2 TB and 1 TB models. This Amazon deal will only be available until Wednesday, August 31. The Gold P31 SSD with the same capacities is also available with the same discount until Wednesday.

Netflix has just confirmed that the upcoming BioShock movie adaptation will be directed by Francis Lawrence, the man behind titles such as I Am Legend and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Michael Green (Logan, American Gods, Blade Runner 2049) will be in charge of the script, while the movie will be co-produced by 2K and Vertigo Entertainment.

The latest device to launch as the iQOO Z6 is now official in its home market of China. It is also the world's latest smartphone with up-to-date 80W charging technology, yet starts at much less than US$250. It has debuted alongside the Z6x, a smartphone that costs even less, yet packs its brand's first 6,000mAh battery and a 144Hz display.

Huawei has finally set a date for the debut of its Mate 50-series smartphones. Word of another new MatePad Pro that might do so alongside the premium handsets has arisen. The slate is said to have a high-end display and to run a version of HarmonyOS that may make it more 'PC-like' than ever before.

A user who applied for an RMA for their Samsung 980 Pro SSD had to go through a few unconventional steps. Samsung asked them to smash the SSD with a hammer/sand it and document the process before sending it back, presumably to ensure maximum data privacy for the user.

The list of upcoming Amazon deals for SK hynix SSDs in the following days includes a 20 percent discount for the P41 2TB/1TB/500GB starting on August 22, a 20 percent off one-day deal for the P31 2TB/1TB/500GB on August 23, and a 15 percent off coupon for the P31 2TB/1TB, starting on August 24.

The Huawei Mate 50 series might be severely delayed at this stage; however, a new leak asserts that they will be novel and interesting enough to be worth the wait. It consists of a spec dump pointing to FHD+ AMOLED displays for each variant, even the probably more budget E variant. The new tip also purports to reveal exactly what makes their rear cameras XMAGE for the first time.