Android

Samsung has now unveiled its two new super-premium smartphone camera sensors, the 200 MP ISOCELL HP1 and the 50 MP ISOCELL GN5. The HP1 is the world's first 200 MP CMOS sensor and offers up to 16-in-1 pixel binning, while the GN5 succeeds the GN2 used on phones like the Mi 11 Ultra.

Microsoft has sent out invitations to a launch event that will take place in three weeks. The event may be a chance for the company to showcase the Surface Duo 2 and a next-generation Surface Book 4, among other devices.

RedMagic has announced that it will unveil a refresh of its 2021 Android gaming flagship 6 range later in September 2021. For now, it is hyping this 6s Pro with previews of specs such as its touch-sampling rate. The OEM has also revealed that the phone will have a new, "aerospace-grade" thermal-management system.

Snapdragon Sound is a Qualcomm's audio platform slated to feature in the next generation of audio peripherals from OEMs such as Xiaomi. Its maker has announced that it will support Lossless audio technology, rated to reproduce "CD-quality" audio at a high bitrate.

New certifications have provided some concrete details about two of Samsung's future flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S22+ and the Galaxy S22 Ultra. For some reason, the company has decided against increasing the battery capacity of the Galaxy S22 series relative to the Galaxy S21 series. Worse still, battery capacity has even gone the other way with one device.

Samsung has already seen an uptick in the enthusiasm for foldable devices with the launch of its latest Galaxy Z Fold and Flip models. Now, its Display division is reportedly at the limits of its capacity to produce the requisite displays. Therefore, the OEM is now billed to nearly double the resources devoted to this process.

Nokia has announced the recently-launched X20 smartphone can now upgrade to Android 12. This Beta 1 build is available as an OTA to members of the brand's developer preview program. Therefore, interested parties may now have a way of getting a sneak peek at what the HMD Global company has planned for the OS' next major upgrade.

Samsung has released the second firmware update to its two new smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch4 Classic. The update brings with it a few handy new features, but owners are already complaining about overheating issues and short battery life with LTE models.

More details about the upcoming Xiaomi CC11 and Note 11 series have emerged, courtesy of a TENAA listing. The handset will be available in nine colours, with a 6.55-inch OLED display and up to 12 GB of RAM.

Google is said to be developing custom chips for its Pixelbooks, according to Nikkei Asia. Although not a lot of details about the new chips have been revealed, they will be Arm-based like its new Tensor SoC developed for the forthcoming Pixel 6 range.

For the first time, a leak has provided a look at the upcoming Xiaomi 11T Pro. The images showcase the Xiaomi 11T Pro in all its glory, with notable takeaways including a side-mounted fingerprint reader and a 108 MP camera.

Meizu is set to release its next flagship phones, the Meizu 18s and 18s Pro, shortly. Both phones will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888+, with the Meizu 18s Pro also laying claim to some impressive camera hardware.

Last week, rumours circulated that Google would showcase the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro on September 13, 24 hours before the rumoured Apple iPhone 13 launch event. According to the leaker who provided the first glimpses of Google's Pixel 6 series, this may well be misinformation.

Google's highly anticipated Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones will reportedly receive a noticeable improvement regarding their wireless charging function, but the feature might only work with the latest iteration of Google's own wireless charger which is called the Pixel Stand.

Nokia is said to launch a new 5G phone called the G50 soon. New rumored details for the device have emerged, its screen size and potential quality included. It is also projected to have triple rear cameras and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.

Honor has leap-frogged Xiaomi and Apple to become the third most successful mobile device OEM in its native China for the month of July 2021. This growth is most likely attributed to the sale of phones such as the mid-range 50 series.

Xiaomi is slated to launch a direct successor to the Mi 11 Ultra that might also have a 50MP main rear camera. Now, a reliable leaker claims that this "12 Ultra" will come with not just 1 but 3 sensors of this resolution. This, apparently, will give the potential flagship secondary functions such as ultrawide-angle shooting at a top-quality resolution.

According to a report, Xiaomi is planning to eventually bring Android 12 to over 70 devices, including those released under its Redmi, POCO and Black Shark brands. Older handsets like the Mi 9 and Redmi K20 series are supposedly set to miss out on Google's upcoming OS, though.

MediaTek is rumored to launch the Dimensity 2000 as its next-gen 5G flagship SoC. Now, the latest word on this chipset is that it might be announced prior to 2022 as a processor based on a 4 nanometer (nm) architecture, not to mention ARM v9. Therefore, it is now projected to offer a serious challenge to the likes of Qualcomm's own next top-end mobile processor.

Bose has launched the latest generation of its QuietComfort line of headphones. The OEM asserts that these new 45s live up to their name with a "lightweight" design, not to mention "world-class" Acoustic Noise Cancelling technology. The new Bluetooth 5.1 accessories will be released in September 2021.

A new leak has now given a good look at Realme's next sub-premium device, the Realme GT Neo 2. The Realme GT Neo 2 takes heavy styling cues from its stablemate, the OnePlus 9, and is expected to rival Xiaomi's Redmi K40G.

Xiaomi has started rolling out a new update to the Redmi Note 8 Pro in India. V12.5.3.0.RGGINXM brings several new elements to the device as part of an upgrade to MIUI 12.5. The update finally brings Android 11 to the Redmi Note 8 Pro, too.

The Fossil Gen 6 smartwatches are the world's first wearables to rock the Plus version of the Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform, and are also the first of their brand to offer blood-oxygen measurements. They come in a variety of styles and materials, some of which are available to order in the US from now.

A reliable leaker has recently asserted that the Android OEM OPPO is now close to launching its first ever foldable device. Now, the same tipster has elaborated further with a new claim that this phone's main display will integrate LTPO technology. It is also now said to launch with the latest version of Android.

A Weibo-based leaker has posted an in-the-wild image of a phone allegedly set to launch from the OEM Honor soon. It could be taken to be the pre-existing X20 - were it not for the apparent size of the device from the back. The tipster asserts that its display is 7 inches in diagonal length at least, and, thus, belongs to the rumored X20 Max.

Some recent leaks have hinted that the OEM Vivo would launch an X70 Pro Plus as the flagship of its upcoming premium Android smartphone line. Now, the company has posted a new domestic pre-order page that essentially confirms these details. It also reveals the device's launch date for the first time.

Xiaomi is planning to release new MediaTek-backed smartphones, codenamed Evergreen, Evergo, Pissaro and Pissaropro. All models will feature high-resolution primary cameras, with the Samsung ISOCELL HM3 due for Pissaro and Pissaropro.

Realme India has confirmed that one of its upcoming smartphones will run the new MediaTek Dimensity 810 chipset. The only device that fits the bill is the Realme 8s. Realme is expected to launch it sometime in September 2021.

Samsung had announced that One UI 4, an OS skin based on the upcoming Android 12 version, would become available in a preview form last month. Now, a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has been detected as running what could be this update on Geekbench 5. Therefore, the beta in question might be released soon.

A new leak has now tipped Google's upcoming premium phones, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, to launch within the next few weeks. On September 13, to be exact. The phones will offer premium specifications and are expected to debut as two of the best camera smartphones on the market.

Samsung's new flagship, the ~US$1,800 Galaxy Z Fold3, is one of relatively few phones on the market designed to bend in half - albeit in one direction only. Now, the popular YouTube channel JerryRigEverything reveals what happens when someone tries to fold the ultra-premium device in other ways.

Netflix has confirmed the existence of its new mobile gaming arm through the release of its first two compatible titles. Then again, they are only available to its subscribers in Poland and on Android thus far. Both of the games in question are from the Stranger Things franchise, and can be played without ads through their new portal.

The Fossil Gen 6 wearables are smartwatches that have leaked extensively in terms of putative specs and design choices, although the OEM has been able to keep the date of their unveiling a mystery thus far. However, it has now released an email to its subscribers that drops heavy hints that the devices will make it to a launch before September 2021.

A new leak has now provided some much-needed information about the cameras on Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S22 and S22+. It appears the two phones will finally offer a substantial camera upgrade, after Samsung kept hardware mostly the same across the S20 and S21 series.

Xiaomi is bringing the Redmi K40 Pro+ to Europe as the Mi 11i. The first "i" smartphone in the Mi 11 series ranks between the Mi 11 Lite 5G and the Mi 11 in terms of performance and equipment. As our review reveals, the gap to the more expensive Mi 11 high-end model is only very narrow in some cases.

Speculation in China indicated that the upcoming Realme Pad could come equipped with a Snapdragon 768G. Those look to have been completely off the mark, as new information claims the upcoming AMOLED tablet will sport the much less impressive MediaTek Helio G80 instead. Other specifications have now also been confirmed.

The Samsung Galaxy A22 4G dares to replace the modern 5G mobile communication standard with other equipment characteristics. But is it still able to keep up with other smartphones?

Google may have sparked some dissatisfaction by announcing YouTube Music for wearables, then confirming that it is compatible with smartwatches capable of running the latest Wear OS 3 version only. A mobile security analyst has tried what is probably one of the most effective work-arounds for this potential problem, but ultimately came up unsuccessful in this effort.

A Vivo executive is now quoted as saying that this Android OEM's former flagship NEX line is indeed to be brought back from the dead. It will apparently follow an annual product cycle, which will resume from the first half of 2022 onward. Nevertheless, leaks for the upcoming top-end X70 series continue apace.

New information tips Chinese smartphone makers, Xiaomi, to adopt a 1/1.5-inch 50 MP camera that will displace the 64 MP Sony IMX686 as its CMOS sensor of choice. This move ensures that better camera performance will trickle down to the company's cheaper smartphones.

Motorola is currently said to have a couple of new Moto E-series smartphones in the works. One of them may have found its way onto Geekbench, in a new leak that purports to confirm numerous rumored specs for the device. They include SoC and RAM profiles that are emphatically in the lowest of market tiers, especially for 2021.

Google has teased UWB support in the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, its next flagship smartphones. The Pixel 6 series will feature 5G mmWave connectivity too, courtesy of a Samsung-supplied modem.

Google will be selling a trio of Pixel smartphones by the end of the year, with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro due to arrive later this year. In the meantime, Google has mocked Apple by referencing the headphone jack, a port that Google long-abandoned itself on its flagships.

OPPO is conspicuous in the absence of the mid-year flagship (or flagship refresh) launches in which other Android OEMs have come to indulge in 2021. However, according to a knowledgeable leaker, such devices from this company might be on the way after all. Some of them are slated to come in foldable, ColorOS 12-powered form, no less.

Philips has upgraded its OLED+ TV line, its flagship OLED TV series. The OLED+ 936 series will be available in three sizes later this month, with a few changes from the OLED+ 935, including HDMI 2.1 support.

The Microsoft Surface Duo 2 has made its way to Geekbench in over a dozen listings. The upcoming handset runs Android 11 using a Snapdragon 888 and 8 GB of RAM, both upgrades over the hardware in the Surface Duo. Other improvements are afoot too, including high refresh rate displays.

One of Samsung India's latest Twitter posts effectively confirm that it will bring "Awesome for Everyone" in India with the Galaxy A52s 5G. A new page on the OEM's official website suggests this launch is definitely on the cards and will be completed in the very near future, although it has yet to say when exactly.

Vivo is slated to launch its next top-end mobile Android devices as the X70 series. Now, the OEM has confirmed that they will debut a chipset that the OEM has designed and developed in-house, called the V1. It will act as an image-signal processor (ISP) in the new phones. Meanwhile, the vanilla X70's appearance may have been spoiled in a new leak.