Launch

Samsung has delivered on an earlier teaser with the launch of the ISOCELL JN1 camera for mobile devices today (June 10, 2021). It packs the industry's smallest pixel size of 0.64 microns, which fits in well with its relatively tiny overall size. The OEM asserts that it is ready to become the main, wide, ultra-wide or telephoto camera of the mid-range to flagship phones of the immediate future.

Motorola has launched a new low-cost 5G smartphone in the US. The Moto G Stylus 5G comes with significant upgrades, such as a newer Snapdragon chipset and a new stylus design. It will hit shelves on June 14 and cost US$400.

The Schenker Vision 14 is a new entrant into the ~14-inch, 16:10 display thin-and-light laptop market. This fresh option has magnesium alloy in its construction, as well as Tiger Lake CPUs and 3K/90Hz panels in some configurations. It can support up to 64GB of RAM, Thunderbolt 4, and has 2 slots for M.2 2280 SSDs.

Apple's WWDC 2021 keynote has introduced the next big things in iPadOS. They include new cross-platform features such as the upgraded Maps, FaceTime and Messages app. However, others, such as fresh split-screen capabilities, better-fitting widgets and the new Shelf, are more tablet-specific.

Apple has announced its next iteration of macOS named macOS Monterey during its WWDC keynote. macOS Monterey will be available for a wide range of Mac hardware this fall with several new productivity-enhancing features such as Universal Control, Shortcuts, Focus, streamlined Safari, AirPlay, and more.

Have you ever wanted to carry your HomePod Mini around with its audio still playing in the process? Now you might be able to, should Mission Accessories get its new Kickstarter campaign funded. It claims that its new Battery Base converts the little Apple smart speaker into a portable audio accessory. It is rated for up to 9 hours of use between charges, which it does via USB type-C.

Optoma has announced the FHDS130 SOLO LED Display as its latest addition to its line of large-scale products in the "pro-AV" category. The 130-inch screen is calibrated by the OEM out of the box, and is rated for clarity, brightness and sharpness. It also has a single-cable solution that might reduce installation time and complexity by a considerable margin.

Now that the pre-order phase is over, the company has opened up its latest flagship smartphone for anyone to purchase. U.S. and European customers will have to pony up at least 749 USD or 749 Euros for just the baseline 8 GB+128 GB option.

Samsung has debuted the Galaxy A22 5G in the Dutch market, starting at €249 (~US$303) for a 4GB/128GB SKU. It has arrived alongside what is called its 4G/LTE variant, although the two phones have considerably different specs, starting with their displays. The A22 5G's is larger, although it has a 60Hz refresh rate compared to 90Hz in its 4G/LTE counterpart.

Google has formally launched its latest TWS earbuds, albeit as effectively cut-down versions of its original Pixel Buds for $100 less than their original price. Therefore, the new A variants' design is much unchanged from their predecessors. They also retain features such as noise reduction and touch controls, but lose others, wireless charging included.

Huawei describes its latest FreeBuds 4 as high-sound-quality TWS earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC). They are also pitched as particularly comfortable earphones, due to their light build and design. They are rated for up to 22 hours of battery life, counting their wireless-charging-enabled case.

Huawei has launched its latest smartwatches alongside its new MatePads. The 3 and 3 Pro have eSIM functions in addition to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC. The OEM also claims 24/7 heart-rate and blood-oxygen tracking, as well as long battery life, for the new HarmonyOS-powered wearables.

Huawei has launched a new high-end tablet in Germany called the Huawei MatePad Pro. It features a 12.6-inch OLED screen, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, a 10,000mAh battery and HarmonyOS 2.0. It will retail at EUR 799 and will hit shelves on June 13.

The Huawei Mate Pad 11 is now official in Germany. It runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ chipset coupled with 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and a 7,250mAh battery. It costs EUR 399 and will be available for purchase on July 13.

The Huawei MateView and MateView GT are now official in Germany. The former is a creator-specific 4K monitor, while the latter is a curved, 165Hz WQHD SKU earmarked for gamers. Prices start at EUR 549 for the MateView GT and EUR 699 for the MateView.

Apple's Podcasts app will soon spawn a new wave of titles, to be published by new partner brands such as the Washington Post and Sony Music and also by independent creators. These new streams will require monthly or yearly fees, for which bonus or early-access content, as well as an ad-free experience, are thrown in. The new subscriptions are to be available in 170 countries from May 2021.

"Ultrathin gaming" probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think "Alienware". Dell is looking to change all that this year by launching the thinnest gaming laptop the company has ever made.

NVIDIA kicked off its Computex 2021 keynote with a slew of gaming announcements and has officially launched the RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti GPUs for US$599 and US$1,199 MSRP, respectively. The company also showed off a Doom Eternal demo running on the RTX 3080 Ti at 4K with RTX on and confirmed that RTX features are coming to several current and upcoming games in the coming weeks.

AMD has unveiled the RDNA 2-based RX 6000M mobile GPUs for gaming laptops to take on the competition from NVIDIA Ampere Laptop GPUs. The RX 6000M lineup includes the RX 6800M, RX 6700M, and the RX 6600M designed to target 100 fps+ gaming at 1080p and 1440p. AMD is also introducing the AMD Advantage Design Framework, which is a collaborative effort with OEMs to introduce performance standardization in AMD gaming laptops.

Asus has modified its high-end ROG Strix G17 gaming laptop with an AMD graphics card. The Asus ROG Strix G17 Advantage Edition features a Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, a Radeon RX 6800M GPU, 32GB of DDR4-3,200 RAM and a high-refresh-rate screen.

Meizu has just announced a new smartwatch powered by the latest Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform for wearables. The OEM has packed it with a raft of health-monitoring features, heart-rate and blood-oxygen measurements included, not to mention 4G/LTE support. It can be pre-ordered from tomorrow (June 1, 2021) at a price equivalent to US$235.

Xiaomi has just showcased its latest standard for mobile-device charging, consisting of a power brick rated to charge at up to 200W. The OEM claims that it can power a compatible smartphone with a 4,000mAh battery from 0 to 100% in just 8 minutes. It has not stopped there, though, having also revealed its latest wireless charger that can apparently go at a blazing-fast 120W.

Intel had added the Core i7-1195G7 and the Core i5-1155G7 SKUs to its 11th gen Tiger Lake-UP3 lineup. The new SKUs offer increased CPU and GPU boost clock with the Core i7-1195G7 being the first U-series processor to hit the 5 GHz single-core boost mark. Intel also introduced the Intel 5G Solution 5000, which is an M.2 5G solution built in collaboration with MediaTek.

Ulefone has announced the Armor 11T as a ruggedized smartphone with the special feature of a thermal imaging camera which, as the OEM claims, is co-engineered with FLIR. The smartphone is also slated to ship with Android 11, which will run on the MediaTek Dimensity 800 5G processor.

Acer has launched an upgraded version the Predator X38 that was originally announced during CES 2020. The new Predator X38 S is now VESA DisplayHDR 600-certified and comes with a built-in NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer. The rest of the features including the 2300R UWQHD+ panel are similar to the previous version.

The Intel Core i9-11900KB, Core i7-11700B, Core i5-11500B, and Core i3-11100B are now official. All four desktop processors are based on the 10nm Tiger Lake architecture. They are custom-made for small form-factor machines and may not be available to the general public.

The Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is a new Samsung tablet that definitely falls into the budget category. Despite this, it has both Wi-Fi and 4G/LTE-enabled variants. It will be available in certain European markets from June 2021 with an 8.7-inch HD+ TFT display, a 5,100mAh battery and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

By opting for Intel 10th gen Ice Lake instead of 11th gen Tiger Lake, Infinix will be able to keep costs lower without needing to sacrifice too much performance in the process.

Nubia's premium Android gaming brand has launched a new variant for its 2021 smartphone series. This 6R has frankly near-mid-tier looks, yet still manages to pack the Snapdragon 888 processor and up to 12GB of RAM. It starts at ~US$425, although its top-end Buddha IP Limited Edition is closer to $630.

The Enco Free series are the more affordable of OPPO's TWS earbuds; nevertheless, the latest generation boasts active noise cancellation (ANC) for just under US$100. They also feature an IP54 ingress-protection, up to 30 hours of the future and input from the OEM's high-end audio partner Dynaudio.

In a celebratory livestream for Dragon Quest's 35th anniversary, Square Enix announced four new Dragon Quest games, including Dragon Quest 12, the first mainline game in four years. Other titles include an HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest 3, a Dragon Quest 11 spinoff, and a Dragon Quest-themed puzzle game for smartphones.

Acer has upgraded its TravelMate lineup with the TravelMate P6 and the TravelMate Spin P6 convertible. Both the new TravelMate devices are based on the Intel 11th gen Core vPro platform and offer 14-inch FHD displays with 100% sRGB coverage along with optional 5G and NFC connectivity.

Today (May 27, 2021), OPPO has launched the Reno6 series of premium mid-range smartphones. It largely consists of refreshes for their immediate predecessors; then again, the OEM has introduced the new Dimensity 900 processor in the base 6. This phone also follows the emerging flat-edge trend among Android phones and starts at about US$440.

Acer is offering ConceptD 5 and ConceptD 5 Pro content creator laptops with Intel Tiger Lake-H processors and NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ampere Laptop GPUs. The ConceptD 5 Pro variant offers NVIDIA's professional Ampere RTX A3000 and RTX A5000 options as well. Both the ConceptD 5 and ConceptD 5 Pro feature 16:10 Pantone-validated displays, Acer Vortex Flow cooling, and Corning Gorilla Glass touchpads.

Acer has launched Chromebook 317 and 314 with some interesting specs. The Chromebook 317 comes with a 17-inch screen and Intel processors, while the Chromebook 314 has a 14-inch screen and a MediaTek processor. Prices start at US$379 for the 317 and US$269 for the 314.

Acer's top-of-the-line Predator Helios 500 gaming notebook has received a significant upgrade. It now ships with an Intel Core i9-11980HK processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card with 16GB VRAM, and a 17.2-inch 4K 120Hz mini-LED screen. It will be available for purchase sometime in Q3 2021, starting at EUR 2,499 (US$3,042).

Acer has refreshed its Predator Orion 300 (P03-630) gaming desktop with current-generation hardware, including an Intel Core i7-11700 processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card. Gamers can buy the entry-level SKU in June 2021 for EUR 1,099 (US$1,337).

Acer has updated the hardware on its Nitro 50 desktop. One can now pick between 11th-generation Intel Rocket Lake and the AMD Ryzen 5000 series of processors. GPU options max out at the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Its entry-level model costs EUR 999 (US$1,216).

Acer has introduced the Aspire Vero, an Intel Tiger Lake-powered laptop built to conform to the company's Earthion sustainability principles. Acer said that the Aspire Vero and its packaging are made from paper and recyclable plastic. The company also announced that it is now part of the RE100 initiative with a target of using 100% renewable energy by 2035.

Acer has introduced a new member to the Swift series, the Swift X. The Swift X offers AMD Ryzen 5000 APUs options along with the NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU in a thin, lightweight design that weighs 1.39 kg and is just 0.7 inches thick. Acer also claims a 17-hour battery life for content creation on the go.

Acer has announced the Predator Triton 500 SE powered by the latest Intel Tiger Lake-H45 processors and up to an NVIDIA RTX 3080 Laptop GPU. The Triton 500 SE also offers two high-refresh rate display options and Killer networking for low-latency online gaming.

Redmi's new AirDots 3 Pro are rated for a kind of noise-cancelling that apparently adapts to the ambient condition by themselves, using AI. The Bluetooth 5.2 accessories are rated for up to 28 hours of play-time with their new case, which is also capable of wireless charging. They start for under US$50 in China at present, although this price might increase after their initial promotional window.

Panasonic has just introduced the "evolved", Mark II form of the Micro Four Thirds GH5 camera. The new up-to-4K/60fps/10-bit unit improves on its immediate forebear in a number of ways, an upgrade to USB type-C charging at a reduced starting price compared to the Mark I included. Then again, the OEM projects that the flagship GH6 will also be there to hold out for before the end of 2021.

Four new Ryzen 5000 laptops have just been released courtesy of Xiaomi’s subsidiary Redmi. The RedmiBook Pro 14 Ryzen Edition laptop offers buyers the choice between two Zen 2 Lucienne parts while purchasers of the RedmiBook Pro 15 Ryzen Edition laptop can look forward to getting to grips with one of two Zen 3 Cezanne APUs.

Motorola has introduced the Moto G30 on the US market, by way of Amazon.com. This version of the phone comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, as well as the 6.5-inch 90Hz display found in units from other regions. It is priced at US$300, but will not ship until July 2021.

Razer's latest keyboard is the Blackwidow V3 Mini HyperSpeed. It has a 65% form-factor, which translates to a 60% form-factor that retains arrow keys. The new board also features the OEM's HyperSpeed Wireless Technology, an aluminium frame and a choice of 2 switch types.

Lenovo has the Yoga Pad Pro tablet in China for CNY 3,300 (US$515). Some of its key specs include a 13-inch LCD panel, a Snapdragon 870 SoC, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, and a 10,000mAh battery. One can use the tablet as an external monitor, too, via the included micro-HDMI port.

Qualcomm has refreshed its Snapdragon 7c platform aimed at entry-level Windows 10 on ARM PCs and Chromebooks to the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2. The 7c Gen 2 is essentially the same SoC as the original 7c but with faster Cortex-A76 cores. Qualcomm said that the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 can cater well to the needs of K-12 students, front-line workers, and casual users with decent performance, multi-day battery life, and always on LTE connectivity.

Samsung has launched the Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G tablet in Germany. Some of its key specs include a 12.4-inch WXQGA (2,560 x 1,600) LCD panel, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, and a 10,900mAh battery that supports 45W fast charging. Its price is set at EUR 649 (US$792).

OnePlus has expanded its affordable Y-series Android TV portfolio with the introduction of the OnePlus TV 40Y1. The TV 40Y1 features the same specifications as the TV 43Y1 with the exception of screen size. The OnePlus TV 40Y1 will go on sale from May 26 on Flipkart for an introductory price of ₹21,999.