Storage

OPPO has introduced a new, albeit iterative, generation of its Reno series of sub-flagship mobile devices. Nevertheless, the 9 and 9 Pro are keeping track of some prominent smartphone trends, refined dual rear cameras and an Android 13-based UI included. The Pro also steps up to 16GB RAM SKUs for the first time.

The 2 TB Kingston drive is now on sale for US$205 or US$245 with the optional heat sink. The drive is also compatible with the PS5, but the heat sink alone isn't enough if you want to run at maximum speeds for extended periods.

Vivo's new X90 and X90 Pro series of premium smartphones has been unveiled with a top-end 1-inch sensor for a main camera, albeit only in the Pro model. The vanilla model has the same new display, ultra-fast charging and new processor as its higher-end siblings, however. It starts for less than US$520 in China.

VIOFO asserts that its latest A139 Pro records "real" 4K HDR video, unlike many dash-cams marketed with that spec. It is also equipped with Night Vision 2.0 powered by up-to-date tech from Sony and "upgraded" Wi-Fi, as well as the front, rear and in-cabin view support that ride-sharing customers and drivers in particular may find welcome.

OnePlus' top-end 10 Pro smartphone model was the subject of a high-profile durability crisis in 2022. Now, according to a prominent tipster, the brand is taking no chances of a recurrence next year by selecting more premium materials to make its 11 follow-up. Then again, its rear cameras are still tipped not to live up to this upgrade.

OPPO has confirmed that the Reno9 series of smartphones are on the way, with a late November 2022 launch date. They have been painted as differing little from their predecessors in recent leaks - however, their first official teasers hint at unusually premium RAM specs and new charging technology

Released about 4 years ago, the Samsung BAR Plus USB 3.1 flash drive comes in gray and silver. Three sizes are available for purchase, namely 64, 128, and 256 GB. Amazon is now running deals on all size and color combinations, with discounts going as far as 67 percent for the Champagne Silver 256 GB model.

Compatible with the Sony PlayStation 5 console, the Samsung 980 PRO NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD with heatsink comes in 1 TB and 2 TB variants, both in black finish. Amazon has discounted both, the larger model receiving a generous 53 percent discount (down to US$189.99), while the 1 TB variant is only 7 percent off (US$119.99).

Vivo has confirmed that a new generation of its X series of Android smartphones are to debut during its upcoming November 2022 product event in China, teasing this event in the process with a confirmation of earlier design leaks, complete with 1 extra colorway. Meanwhile, RAM/storage configurations for the putative vanilla X90, X90 Pro and top-end X90 Pro Plus models have allegedly leaked out.

In addition to other discounts that Amazon might apply in the coming days to the brand's memory and storage products, SK hynix is now offering 15 percent off coupons for the Platinum P41 (1 TB version) and Gold P31 (500 GB and 1 TB models) PCIe NVMe SSDs. The deal started earlier today and will run until November 18.

Now priced at US$159.99 after a massive 68 percent discount, the 2 TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD is not the only one in the lineup to get a price cut. While the 1 TB version has no discount, the 250 GB got 21 percent, and the 500 GB one is down to US$59.99, which translates to a 54 percent discount.

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.