Chinese Tech

Market analysts are predicting that the slight oversupply of NAND flash for eMMC/UFS and SSD storage seen in the first few months of 2018 will continue through to the middle of the year. Due to a delay in production expansion, this could result in higher prices in the last half of 2018.

The new Lenovo Air 2018 has a 15.6-inch display, an 82.7 percent screen-to-body ratio, and starts at US$923. The Lenovo 7000 has a 14-inch display, an 80.8 percent screen-to-body ratio, and the same starting price as its sibling. Both feature 8th generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processor choices, as well as the NVIDIA GeForce MX150 GPU.

Honor, Huawei’s online-focused brand, announced today their new budget-range Honor 7A and Honor 7C smartphones. While most of the specifications are as expected for this end of the market, these would be among the cheapest smartphones with face unlock functionality, as well as dual-Bluetooth and a triple card slot.

OnePlus' official store in North America ended sales of the OnePlus 5T a few weeks ago, citing a depletion of stock intended for the region. The company's web stores in Europe and India are also saying the same, which could be evidence of just how well the device has done commercially.

The United States Department of Commerce has banned all American companies from selling components to Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE. This includes Qualcomm and Dolby, both of whom have made major contributions to previous ZTE phones. The loss of Qualcomm-made SoCs is sure to damage the salability of ZTE phones.

A firmware teardown by XDA-Developers has revealed details of Xiaomi's upcoming device, the Mi 6X. The Mi 5X—also the Mi A1—was an immensely popular device but the Mi 6X could fail to match its success, with what appears to be a downgrade in battery capacity, and the lack of a headphone jack.

Move over, Hades Canyon. There's a new Kaby Lake G mini PC in town. The Beelink KB-G1 Game is an ultra-SFF desktop sporting Intel's new Core i7-8809G CPU with RX Vega M graphics. Although the KB-G1 Game is slightly thicker then the Hades Canyon NUC, it can support up to four displays at one time.

The Moto E5 Plus has made the trip over to Geekbench. The budget device will be powered by a Snapdragon 430, which is an improvement over the MT6737 on the Moto E4 Plus.

Xiaomi has a terrible history with releasing kernel sources—a direct violation of the General Public License. The company looks to have seen the light, with a company spokesperson declaring that devices will now have their sources released to the public, albeit with a slight caveat.

The new Vivo Y71 phablet has a generous 6-inch display and features a low-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, 3 GB RAM, just 16 GB internal storage (expandable thanks to a microSD slot), as well as a single 13 MP camera on the back and a 5 MP selfie shooter. However, it also comes at a price of around US$168.

Although it is not a compact handset, the new ZTE Nubia Z18 also carries the "Mini" attribute. This 5.7-inch handset is powered by the Snapdragon 660 processor, next to 6 GB RAM, as well as 64 GB or 128 GB internal storage. Sadly, it is only available in China for now, where it can be acquired for the equivalent of US$285 or US$335 (depending on the amount of storage).

The Black Shark gaming phone comes with totally unique features that include a 550 nits 5.99-inch display, special detachable game controller, sturdy back design for improved grip, watercooling system that allows the SoC to run at lower temperatures and thus avoiding throttling, plus stereo speakers that emulate surround sound acoustics.

The successors of the Xiaomi Mi 5X and its Android One variant known as the Xiaomi Mi A1 will soon be unveiled in China. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 626-powered Xiaomi Mi 6X is expected to be unveiled on April 25 with MIUI onboard, while the Android One variant will hit the market as the Xiaomi Mi A2.

ETNews has claimed that Huawei will announce a truly foldable phone in November of this year. According to the South Korean news outlet’s sources, the Shenzhen-based company will show off the device to the public for additional research purposes, but it won’t be immediately available for purchase. It would be quite a coup for Huawei to beat rivals such as Samsung and Apple in this particular race.

The flagship Huawei MateBook X may soon be accompanied by a mainstream Honor laptop offering. It's possible that Huawei wants to expand its product portfolio in an attempt to keep Xiaomi at bay. Beyond the April 19th announcement date, however, there is no word yet on the specifications of the supposed Honor MagicBook or what regions it will be available in.

According to PCPowerPlay, Dell's marketing for its new laptops in China involves hailing the ability of the devices to enhance cheating in PUBG. Players in the region have become notorious for their blackhat gameplay, so this isn't surprising. Update: Dell has issued an official statement on the issue.

Images of BlackBerry’s Athena phone have surfaced online, via the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO). The device has a good-looking mechanical QWERTY keyboard beneath a large screen, and it offers dual-camera functionality on its rear. The Athena is expected to be the successor to 2017’s BlackBerry KEYone.

Samsung may still be the world’s largest smartphone vendor but the South Korean company is struggling to make an impact in the important Chinese market. The smartphone market in China is currently dominated by domestic brands, with Apple also managing a small slice of the pie. It has been reported that Samsung’s share dropped to 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2017, putting the company in 12th position for that particular market.

The trendsetter may become the copycat: rumors coming out of Taiwan speculate that Apple may be releasing an iPhone with three lenses in 2019, a design that may be inspired by Huawei's P20 Pro.

An AnTuTu listing of the next-gen Mate flagship has surfaced. The device is expected to be powered by the Kirin 980, HiSilicon's next-gen premium SoC. The Mate 20 impressed on this listing, showing a significant 30% advantage over the new Snapdragon 845.

Huawei has sent out invites for an event where the upcoming Honor 10 will be officially unveiled. Not much is known about the device itself but it will be powered by a Kirin 970, and could sport a notched 5.8-inch FHD+ display.

Images of a concept phone from ZTE called the Iceberg have appeared on the iF World Design Guide website. The smartphone utilizes a glass unibody, showing off transparent glass corners that give it a unique look. However, haters of the controversial notch design will despair at the Iceberg’s most obvious feature: A second notch!

According to supposedly reliable sources, Xiaomi and Google are working together on a smartphone for the US market. This device is said to be neither an Android One smartphone nor a Pixel, which leaves us a bit stumped as to what both companies have in the works.

Xiaomi has released Nougat kernel sourced for the Redmi Note 5 Pro. This will be yet another device that Xiaomi has released sources for over the past few months, which could be an indication of a change in the company's stance on community development.

Xiaomi has taken its exceptional form of 2017 into the new year. The company has apparently averaged over 10 million smartphone shipments over the first three months of the year. The company leapfrogged Vivo to become the fifth-largest smartphone brand in the world by the end of Q4 2017. If current sales numbers remain steady, Xiaomi could go fourth.

Doogee’s Mix 4 prototype smartphone has been unveiled on a popular YouTube channel, and it seems the Shenzhen-based company has come up with a novel way of discarding the controversial notch. The Mix 4 device has a mechanical slider, allowing the front-facing camera to be neatly placed behind the display when not in use.

Huawei has sent out invites for an event that will take place on May 15 in London. There are no exact details as to what device will be unveiled on that date but a few clues make us believe we could be looking at the Honor 10's launch.

Honor is offering a number of its devices on a two-day deal. The flagship Honor View 10 is on sale for $470, the Honor 6X for $150, and the Honor 7X for just $1. Yes, you read that right. All deals end on April 8.

The teased silhouette of the Black Shark presents rounded edges and a power or volume button on the side, but the previously rumored directional gamepad is most likely not going to get included. Xiaomi confirmed that the Black Shark will be unveiled on April 13 there will be variants with storage capacities ranging between 64 - 256 GB.

Huawei's new Mate RS features technology that hasn't been seen on smartphones before, which is about par considering its hefty $2000 price tag. The device also uses OLED panels made by LG—particularly noteworthy after the issues with the LG V30 and Pixel 2 XL's displays.

Motorola is set to announce the launch of its new G6 series devices, the G6, G6 Plus, and G6 Play, at an event in Sao Paulo, Brazil—on April 19.

The Honor V10 was launched globally months back in December. The device has taken its sweet time to make its way across the pond, though, going on sale via Honor's website a while ago. Potential buyers who prefer doing their shopping on Amazon can finally rest easy, with the device getting listed.

Meizu decided to steer clear from notched or bezel-less displays for its 15/15+ anniversary models, keeping the tried and true bezel-less sides + upper/lower bezel design of yesteryear models. The 15+ model will feature a 5.95-inch QHD screen and an Exynos 8895 SoC, while the standard model will come with a 5.46-inch FHD display and a Snapdragon 660 SoC. Both models integrate 4/6 GB RAM and 64/128 GB storage, plus a sturdy metal back.

The OnePlus 6 is about due for an announcement. There have been reports that the device will launch with an MSRP of US$700 for its highest-specced variant. We are, of course, not at all convinced.

Fans of the Mi X5 will probably be disappointed to learn that the 6X is set to feature only a slightly more powerful Snapdragon 626 SoC. The imaging setup, however, has been substantially upgraded to include a 20 MP selfie cam along with a dual 20 MP + 8 MP rear cam. The display was also replaced with a larger 5.99-inch 2160x1080 IPS panel, but the memory and storage configuration remained the same 4 GB + 64 GB.

UMIDIGI's latest device is the A1 Pro. The device will be powered by the new MT6739 SoC, and will feature dual rear cameras, an 18:9 HD+ display, 3 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of storage. The presence of a USB Type-C port is, perhaps, the biggest surprise on this.

Xiaomi's new Mi TV 4S will be an improved refresh of the Mi TV 4 that was launched last year. The TV features a 55-inch 4K HDR display, 2 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, a quad-core Cortex A53 SoC clocked at 1.5 GHz, a Mali-450 MP5 GPU, and a 28W audio output setup.

Huawei may have struggled in its bid to get into the US smartphone market, facing disappointments from all prospective partners. The company will not be giving up on that particular venture, though, according to CEO Richard Yu.

Huawei launched the Mate 10 devices towards the end of 2017. While the Mate 10 Pro is being sold in the US officially, the base Mate 10 and Mate 10 Lite never made the trip over. The latter is currently listed on Amazon, though, with a US$310 price tag.

Since the Lenovo Tab 4 has been around for a while, the time seems right for a new Android slate from the Chinese brand. Sadly, the FCC arrival of the Dolby Atmos-certified Lenovo TB-8304F1 does not reveal anything else than its audio certification and the power input of just 5 V and 1 A, but many expect it to hit the market as the Lenovo Tab 5.

It's only been one week since Huawei's last promotion on the Mate 10 Pro and now the manufacturer is bringing it back but with a deeper $150 discount. The news follows on the footsteps of Best Buy's plan to drop all Huawei devices because of U.S. Intelligence intervention.

Xiaomi's last device with a MediaTek SoC was the Redmi Note 4. The MediaTek Redmi Note 4 never attained the critical acclaim of its Snapdragon sibling but it would seem the Chinese company is set to make a return to its old MediaTek ways.

Huawei has released its sales figures for 2017. The company's total revenue for the year stood at US$92.5 billion, a 15.7% rise from 2016. 153 million smartphone shipments accounted for US$36.4 billion of that number.

Although the sub-US$200 market sector is quite crowded these days and there are a few capable handsets even around US$100, the ZTE Tempo Go tries to fight them with a price tag of just US$79.99. Sadly, this is nothing new, since the Tempo Go is only a ZTE Tempo X — a handset that arrived in late September 2017 — with Android Go onboard and a slightly different name.

The new Huawei P20 and P20 Pro have been hailed as game-changing camera smartphones and are already in the running for best flagships of the year. The US, sadly, will never get to enjoy the devices, with Huawei apparently not ready to make another attempt at selling its smartphones in the US.

Dutch website LetsGoDigital has uncovered a patent for a foldable phone filed by Huawei in September 2017. The Chinese technology company seems to have developed a tablet-sized device which when folded would be the size of a regular smartphone. The central “gap” problem, created when a foldable dual-screen smartphone is opened up, has been addressed by making the device bendable.

A device that appears to be the Mi 6X has made a surprise appearance on TENAA. It isn’t a full listing, though, so all this tells us is that the device will sport a design similar to the Mi 5X's but with an 18:9 display and vertically aligned dual rear cameras.

Firefox has released an official extension designed to put a stop to Facebook's user-tracking. The extension puts all Facebook-related tabs into a sealed "container", preventing any tracking to be conducted beyond the site itself.

Huawei have officially unveiled the P20 and P20 Pro. Important specifications such as RAM and Storage were missing from the announcement, but the rumors are likely to be pretty reliable, based on the accuracy of the confirmed screen and camera specifications.

AMD GPU prices may finally be coming down, but will the company’s stock follow suit? According to analyst Christopher Rolland, that may indeed be the case. A new Ethereum ASIC miner from Bitmain may threaten Team Red’s financial outlook, as Ethereum mining is estimated to be responsible for about 20% of AMD’s sales.