Storage

Realme has announced a new, top-end version of its GT Neo 3, for release during the OEM's ongoing anniversary event. This new SKU adds with a new 512GB storage option to the new Android smartphone's 12GB RAM/150W charging SKU. The company is also making other attractive offers on devices such as Book-series laptops, albeit to the Chinese market only.

The portable drive can offer read and write rates of up to 2000 MB/s and 1900 MB/s, respectively, when connected to a proper USB-C 3.2 Gen. 2 2x2 port. Prices start at $120 USD up to $190 USD for a whole terabyte of storage.

Carl Pei's latest tech start-up Nothing has revealed a little more about its first full mobile device, the phone (1). It has hinted strongly that it, like images for a prototype it has just shared, will have a transparent nature. Then again, the final product has no guarantee of looking anything like the latest officially-leaked concepts, leaving the phone (1)'s appearance a mystery for now.

The SSD controller on the PCIe 5.0 models is indeed producing more heat, but Apacer is not implementing active cooling just yet. Instead, the new NVMe 2.0 devices feature a hefty heatsink with aluminum fins or an ultra-thin graphene thermal pad for compact systems. Read speeds are expected to reach 13,000 MB/s and write speeds can top at 12,000 MB/s.

Rumors of Sony's next-gen alpha 7r- (or α7r-) series camera have just gathered speed thanks to a new alleged leak from the blog PhotoRumors. It purports to spill a comprehensive list of specs for the upcoming full-frame unit. They point to updates in terms of the camera's sensor, processor, thermal management, as well as signature features such as Eye AF.

The Snapdragon 8 Plus (or 8+) Gen 1 chipset has just launched in conjunction with initial benchmarks purporting to establish the potential for seven-figure AnTuTu scores in the newly refreshed flagship. However, according to a new set of results, it can go even further than that, easily cracking 1.1 million in combination with Android 12 and some of the best RAM, storage and display specs available.

Building a custom rig can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience; however, as Gigabyte asserts, it can get frustrating, especially when it comes to fitting things (mostly cables) around other things. The OEM has launched the new AORUS Project Stealth, a PC that requires assembly rather than building, as a new solution to these potential issues.

Yesterday, SK hynix has finally unleashed its first Gen 4.0 SSD with a 176-NAND layer, namely the Platinum P41. As unveiled back in early January, it is available in 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB versions. The prices start at US$104.99 and go up to US$259.98, but the stock seems depleted already.

The latest Infinix Android 12 smartphone, the Note 12 VIP, is also the world's latest 120W smartphone. Furthermore, the OEM touts it as the slimmest mobile device with this charging technology. It also has a 120Hz AMOLED display and a 108MP main rear camera and a reasonable price tag, if only because of its 4G/LTE-only MediaTek Helio chipset.

The iPod Touch is the latest version of Apple's non-cellular, music-playback-focused mobile devices. Now, in the fifteenth year following its original launch, the Cupertino giant has finally discontinued its Home Button-enabled media player. It will still be available to buy, albeit only as long as its remaining stock lasts.

Carl Pei's new tech company Nothing touts its upcoming inaugural smartphone as one that will bring some much-needed novelty and innovation back to the Android market. Those claims might prove materially ironic should a complete specs breakdown painting a distinctly middle-of-the-road picture of the phone (1) turn out to be accurate. Then again, the source of these details could be described as spurious at best.

Smart Access Storage would first be featured on select laptops like Corsair's upcoming Voyager lineup. The technology may later on be introduced to desktop PCs with the launch of the Zen 4 AM5 platform. More details should be provided at Computex this June.

XPG pitches its latest Atom 50 M.2 2280 SSDs at those planning PC builds for their creative or professional output; then again, the ADATA brand also hints one might be ideal as new backups for their PlayStation 5 (PS5) storage. The drives are rated for NVMe 1.4 and PCIe Gen4 x4 for potentially blazing maximum read and write speeds, and come with a 5-year warranty in their new markets.

Samsung has just previewed the latest in its storage solutions for hardware such as smartphones, tablets. The OEM has indicated that these new chips could help these devices use and transfer data up to twice as fast as their predecessors, while using as little as half the power. These new UFS 4.0-compatible chips could also boost portability in these products, not to mention their compatibility with more demanding use-cases, perhaps even VR/AR.

The GT Neo 3 is now officially one of Realme India's newest products. The Android 12-powered smartphone comes with a choice of batteries that charge at either 80 or 150 watts (W), much like its OnePlus equivalent the 10R. However, in an awkward twist of events, the Realme version has started as the cheaper option.

OnePlus has made the Lite version of the Nord CE 2 official. The Android smartphone has launched with a 120Hz display, although it is LCD rather than AMOLED as in higher-end phones of this brand. Then again, specs such as these knock its price down to well under US$300.

Western Digital's quick PCIe 4.0 SSD with a spacious 2TB capacity is currently discounted on Amazon and has thereby hit its lowest sales price to date, which presents a great opportunity to upgrade the storage of modern gaming PCs or laptops.

Xiaomi has rounded its major Indian product launch of today (April 27, 2022) with the Pad 5. The OEM touts its new Android tablet as a way to do many aspects of life, content consumption, note-taking and gaming included. The 2.5K+ display slate will be released to its new region in May 2022.

Xiaomi has just introduced the top-end 12 Pro smartphone to the Indian market; then again, many consumers there are probably already aware that it is the OEM's early Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 adopter with a 2.5K+ 120Hz AMOLED display and up to 12GB of RAM. It will be available to buy in its new region very soon.

There are already smartphones with Samsung's Exynos 1280 processor on the market - however, the OEM never outlined its specifications in any detail. Now, however, it has confirmed various aspects of the chipset, such as its architecture, its individual ARM cores and the speeds at which they are set.

Xiaomi India has announced 2 new versions of the Redmi 10 Android smartphone today (April 20, 2022). Its new Power version offers new, higher end finishes and more RAM. whereas the 10A offers bargain specs with a price to match.

Motorola has announced that the Moto G22 will be released to the Indian market soon. The affordable new Android smartphone will bring the same 90Hz IPS display, 4G/LTE-only MediaTek processor and 5,000mAh battery that it launched with in Europe with it later in April. However, it does have one upgraded spec compared to units from its existing market.

The 2TB variant of the very quick PCIe 4.0 SSD Crucial P5 Plus, which is also compatible with Sony's latest and greatest PS5 gaming console, is currently heavily discounted and has therefore hit its lowest Amazon price on record.

The GTS 2 Mini is a better-priced example of Amazfit's popular line of health- and fitness-tracking smartwatches. Now, the brand has announced a re-release for this product, with new colors and slightly modified specs this time around. It will go live via its Indian-market sales channels later in India.

Samsung is now slated to release the Galaxy A73, one of its latest mid-range Android smartphones, to its Indian webstore later in April 2022. In fact, it is already there, albeit without pricing for the 2 SKUs of the phone to become available to the market. However, those details have allegedly leaked out before the OEM has had the chance to update its page with this information.

A new Android smartphone from Samsung might be poised to bring a 50MP main camera to the ~US$150 bracket in countries such as India soon. This device, complete with a model number that could place it in the Galaxy F series, is depicted as having much the same specs as a new Galaxy A-series phone on Geekbench.

Intel and AMD will be releasing new server farm processors that support the new PCIe 5.0 interface standard and Samsung wants to be ready with storage products when that happens. Samsung has reportedly held bids to diversify its PCIe 5.0 SSD testing suppliers to better its QA processes on the runup to the launch of the fast mission-critical SSDs.

There is good news and bad news for OnePlus fans in North America today (March 31, 2022). The good news is that the brand's latest 10 Pro flagship is now available to order in the region; however, the latter is that it will do so without one of its most cutting-edge attributes. It will arrive at buyer doors without the newest form of wired charging available to the OEM.

Realme has reportedly leaked the existence of an upcoming 2022 smartphone on its own Indian website. Now, the same device is allegedly in line for the successor to the ISOCELL HM2 sensor that has brought triple-digit resolutions to many phones in the past - despite not even having 5G.

Adding an actively cooled SSD to spacious desktop builds is not a big deal, but this solution does not work for laptops and mini PCs. In order to solve this problem for the upcoming PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs, Phison recommends a jump from 16 nm to 7 nm along with reducing the NAND channel total. Future SSD generations could also use a totally new connector.

Vivo is a mobile device OEM tipped to break into tablets (and foldables) as of 2022. Its inaugural Android-powered Pad has now experienced a new leak of marketing material which seems to tout it in terms of its weight, height and specs this time. It also specifies a launch date that points to a marquee product event for the company on the day in question.

Samsung touts the Galaxy M33 as a phone that can bring a class-leading processor and battery to the mid-tier 5G smartphone market. Now, it is slated to bring these specs to a new country following their launch in Europe. The new M-series device will be an Amazon.in special on its upcoming debut.

Samsung has released two of its latest Galaxy A-series phones with very similar hardware, albeit with a different SoC and RAM/storage options in the A23, which make it the higher-end of the pair. Nevertheless, they are both affordable, and are now available in a new market: India.

An executive with the mobile division of Lenovo in China has hinted that more of its upcoming devices could launch with 512GB of internal storage - its next-gen foldables included. This, then, could include the rumored successor for the second-gen Razr smartphone.

The so-called "removable SSDs" in the Apple Mac Studio aren't actual SSDs but just raw storage modules. Apple silicon Macs do not use the standard NVMe protocol but instead use their own implementation via PCIe. This means, it is not possible to simply swap-out or add storage at whim to the Mac Studio without matching the exact capacity and vendor and doing a full DFU restore.

The GDC trailer shows loading times of only 1 second for NVMe SSD solutions using the DirectStorage API, yet the difference compared to the default Windows API is revealed to be minimal in a separate slide.

MSI has introduced the Summit E14 Evo as one of its latest business-class laptops. This new FHD+ 16:10-display clamshell is more or less with its forebear - then again, this 2022 model has 12th-gen i5 or i7 silicon, and also benefits from dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. On the other hand, some compromises appear to have been made here for the improved affordability of its new SKUs.

Nothing has now confirmed the launch of its first-gen smartphone, not to mention how it will fit into the company's plans for its future. Its CEO, Carl Pei, has now also unveiled the device's OS, slated to act as a "digital hub" for the OEM's oneday ecosystem as well as the overlay for the "innovative" phone's Android-based UI.

NVMe storage has been around for 11 years now, but its raw performance is barely utilized in applications today. Microsoft intends to change this by introducing DirectStorage - a technology that is already doing wonders on the latest Xbox consoles. The first DirectStorage API version is now available for game developers and we should see the first compatible games in the near future.

Sabrent has announced a new Thunderbolt 3 docking station aimed at content creators and power users that not only provides a host of connectivity options but also comes replete with two RAID-able NVMe SSDs up to a total of 16 TB capacity. The Sabrent DS-SKRT-D16TB dock is compatible with both Windows and Mac computers.

The Realme C35 is a phone that shares some design elements with the OEM's current flagship phones, although it comes with a much less high-end processor. It has now arrived in India with the same specs, its 3.5mm jack and triple rear cameras included, and will be available to buy shortly

150W SuperVOOC flash charging is one of the 2 brands for BBK Electronics' cutting-edge power standards unveiled at MWC 2022. It has been presented as such by OPPO; however, the OEM executive Pete Lau has announced that the first device to get it will launch as a new OnePlus smartphone instead. It will apparently be pitched at the middle of the market and launch in 2022.

Pioneer has seemingly resurrected the optical drive, straight of the early 2000s, by launching the BDR-213JDK. This optical drive supports 21 different Blu-ray, CD, and DVD formats, and is currently available for purchase in Japan.

The new 20TB WD Red Pro is one of the largest NAS hard drives currently on the market, but at US$499 it might not be the most cost-efficient storage solution for owners of a network-attached storage server.

Lenovo has now made its first-gen Legion Y-series Android smartphone official. It brings a relatively novel form-factor to its market, having rear-firing fans that blast through its rear panel and surround its RGB logo. Its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor and generous battery drive a 144Hz AMOLED display with a 720Hz multi-finger touch-sampling rate.

The drive comes with a thin CNC aluminum heatsink designed to fit within the confines of the Sony Playstation 5 console. Maximum sequential transfer rates can reach 7000 MB/s read and 6600 MB/s write.

Amazon's current deal on the Seagate IronWolf HDD is a good choice for private NAS owners who are still searching for an affordable yet reliable hard drive with 4TB of storage capacity.

Samsung has now launched its latest Galaxy Tab S8-series slates in India, its new and extra-large Ultra variant included. They have debuted in a limited range of RAM and storage options in their new market. On the other hand, pre-order customers might get freebies that include first-party keyboard covers thrown in with their purchases.

The Legion Y90 is Lenovo's upcoming flagship gaming smartphone for 2022. The OEM's latest teaser for this device outlines the specs to come in its updated RGB-enabled chassis. They include the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, LPDDR5 RAM - and "heterogenous" storage that combines an SSD with the more usual UFS 3.1 mobile memory chip.