ARM

A possible Snapdragon 870 processor has been spotted on Geekbench as part of a Vivo V2045 device. The recorded single-core and multi-core scores reveal decent gains of up to +18% over the Snapdragon 865. The “Snapdragon 870”, which might be basically an overclocked SD865, wasn’t too far behind the Snapdragon 888 on this benchmark.

Without warning, the US government has now slammed Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi with an American investment ban supposedly due to ties with the Chinese military. Xiaomi, in return, refutes those claims but that's unlikely to count for much.

Apple supply chain specialist Ming-chi Kuo has issued a new note to investors detailing some of the changes expected on the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. According to Kuo, the new models will drop in mid-2021 and will include minor design changes but will most notably drop the somewhat controversial OLED Touch Bar.

ECS has released ARM versions of its LIVA brand of mini-PCs. The Q1A and Q1A Plus have Rockchip SoCs, 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM and measure just 74 x 74 x 34.6 mm. The two machines run Android 8.1 and Ubuntu 18.04 natively.

After launching the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra today, Samsung has also opened its trade-in program for the series. It's pretty good, actually, with Galaxy S10 series owners being able to trade in their phones for a massive US$550, for example.

Samsung has made the Galaxy S21 Ultra official, alongside its smaller S21 and S21+ siblings. Its heretofore well-leaked specs is housed in a fresh case design with a metallic rear camera housing and an otherwise matte finish. The OEM also confirms its newly-acquired S Pen compatibility, new 108MP main shooter and Knox Vault security features.

Lu Weibing has now confirmed that Xiaomi is ending production of the Redmi K30 Ultra. The Redmi K30 Ultra was launched alongside the Mi 10 Ultra and was also never sold outside China, despite fans asking for a global release. The Redmi K40 will succeed it and there are reports it could sport the Dimensity 1200.

With its Snapdragon 690 SoC and 90 hertz (Hz) FHD IPS display, the HTC Desire 21 Pro 5G has stepped into the ring with the OnePlus Nord N10. However, while that phone is destined for multiple markets, its new rival has only debuted in its native Taiwan to date. Its price there works out much higher compared to its competition, however.

Qualcomm has revealed that it has bought the CPU-design team NUVIA for approximately US$1.4 billion. The OEM asserts that the move will make it more competitive in the future, and will enhance the development of Snapdragon mobile chipsets, as well as platforms for AI-powered vehicles, XR and infrastructure. Its hardware partners, including Microsoft and Samsung, have welcomed the acquisition.

Redditor newhacker1746 managed to get Ubuntu up and running on an A10-powered Apple iPhone 7, after using the Checkra1n jailbreak exploit.

Nubia has confirmed that its RedMagic series of premium Android gaming smartphones will get a new generation in 2021. This new device's first teaser reveals that its 4500mAh will be capable of charging by up to 120 watts (W). It is also likely to launch with the top-end Snapdragon 888 processor.

The latest device from YARH.IO makes the Raspberry Pi even more portable. The appropriately-called YARH.IO Micro 2 has an IPS display, a keyboard and a replaceable battery. The YARH.IO Micro 2 can be purchased as a complete unit or built at home using a 3D printer and off-the-shelf parts.

The Mi Mix 3 was launched back in 2018. Xiaomi has been coy about its plans for a Mi Mix 4 release since then, but it appears that the company is now gearing up for that phone this year. And it could be joined by the Mi Note 11.

MediaTek's Dimensity lineup has turned out to offer some of the most impressive chipsets on the market, and the Taiwanese company is set to release the line-leading offering on January 20. The MediaTek Dimensity 1200 is coming, and it will offer flagship performance at an affordable price point.

Motorola is said to have a new premium phone in the works with the code-name "Nio". It also has a rumored model number (XT2125), which has shown up on the Federal Communications Commission, (FCC) website. This new leak may thus confirm the device will launch soon with a 20 watt (W) power brick and a 5000mAh battery.

The Over:Board is a carrier board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 that turns the compact machine into a mini-ITX motherboard. The Over:Board features a host of I/O, including dual HDMI and USB 2.0 ports. There is a PCI-Express slot too, along with a CPU fan header.

After releasing the Motorola Edge and Motorola Edge+ last year, it appears Motorola is already gearing up for the next device in the series. The phone in question is tipped to be the Motorola Edge S and is supposedly set for imminent launch.

TCL has just launched its first ever NXTPAPER tablet at CES 2021. It is built around the OEM's recently-developed e-ink competitor, and is slated to deliver a "paper-like" viewing experience. It is joined at the virtual show by the new TAB 10s slate.

The Redmi K40 series is on the way, and it will come with all the features required to make it a certified flagship killer. Xiaomi has now confirmed a February launch, what will almost definitely be a 120 Hz AMOLED, and a Snapdragon 888 for the Redmi K40 Pro.

Lenovo has made an ambitious leap into the business end of AR glasses with the new ThinkReality A3s. Their lenses are 1080p displays for their potential mixed-reality (MR) or heads-up display content. They also have dual RGB cameras to orient this view, and come in smartphone- or laptop-tethered USB type C variants.

Chinese electric automaker NIO announced that its latest electric vehicle ET7 will use NVIDIA Drive Orin SoC for AI-assisted driving. The ET7 will use Orin in a cluster of four to form the Adam supercomputer, which is capable of processing 8 GB of data from the vehicle's 33 sensors each second. The ET7 is certified to meet ISO 26262 ASIL-D safety standards and will ship in 2022.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite appears to be getting closer to an official announcement as a smartphone believed to be this device has turned up on both the FCC and BIS. In addition, a new specs leak relating to the presumed Mi 11 Lite suggests it will sport an AMOLED screen and will be powered by an SM7150 platform chipset from Qualcomm.

Xiaomi has announced that it has shipped 20 million units of devices in the Redmi Note 9 series globally. That's an amazing number, especially since it was done in just four months, placing Redmi Note 9 sales well ahead of that of the already impressive Redmi Note 8 series.

Samsung has made the Galaxy A02s - a potential 2021 cost-effectiveness champ - official, but has yet to release it to any market. A new leak has led to speculation that the US will be first among them. The OEM has certified a number of A02s variants that could correspond to various carriers in the country.

OPPO released a Lite version of its Find X2 flagship in 2020. Now, Evan Blass asserts that this phone is getting a successor. However, fans of the OEM might find it eerily familiar on its launch, as it will not be a brand-new device, but a renamed Reno5 5G.

Xiaomi is billed to launched the Mi 11 Pro soon and a new report has now tipped the upcoming flagship to make at least one major improvement over the Mi 11 that was released last week. Yes, the Mi 11 Pro is expected to ditch the 108 MP on the Mi 11 in favor of a more sophisticated sensor.

AnTuTu’s price-performance charts for December make for good reading for Xiaomi. The new Mi 11 tops the most-expensive smartphone table while sub-brand Redmi has the top spot in the three cheapest charts. However, the Realme X50 Pro 5G prevents Xiaomi from commanding all five charts by heading up the 3,000-4,499 yuan list.

After having tasted good success in the Chinese market, the Redmi Note 9 4G is now available in Europe as the Redmi 9T. The Redmi 9T is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC and features a 48 MP quad-camera setup along with a 6,000 mAh battery that supports 18 W fast charging. Pricing in Germany starts from €169.90

SlashLeaks now claims that an OPPO device newly discovered on Geekbench 5 is the upcoming Find X3 flagship. This is most likely because of the Snapdragon 888 SoC that it, according to this new listing, runs on. Then again, its reportedly stellar performance on AnTuTu has not exactly been replicated here.

Apple proved that ARM's cores can easily compete with the mobile CPUs from Intel and AMD, and we see more and more companies jumping on the custom ARM-based CPU bandwagon, including processor maker Phytium ready to release its own octa-core chip for the Chinese market in the coming months.

Xiaomi has released the global variant of the Note 9 5G — Note 9T. The Note 9T aims to make 5G affordable thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 800U SoC. The Note 9T also offers dual 5G standby, a 48 MP triple-camera setup, and a 5,000 mAh battery with 18 W fast charge. Early bird customers in Germany get to avail the base variant of the Note 9T at €30 discount.

Lenovo has introduced the mid-range Tab P11 Android tablet powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC. The Tab P11 comes in several RAM and storage variants and features a 2K display that covers 70% NTSC color gamut. Buyers can also equip the Tab P11 with the optional Keyboard Pack and Precision Pen 2 for enhanced productivity.

Lenovo has brought 5G connectivity to the IdeaPad series with the IdeaPad 5G. The IdeaPad 5G, which is also available in a 4G variant, is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Compute Platform promising always-on connectivity and up to 20 hours battery life. The Lenovo IdeaPad 5G also comes with Alexa Show Mode for hands-free, full screen interaction via voice commands.

Samsung's answer to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, the Exynos 2100, will officially be unveiled on January 12. Preliminary tests have revealed that both chips perform on par with each other. The Exynos 2100 will make its debut alongside the Samsung Galaxy S21 series on January 15.

Although HTC is no longer a key player in the smartphone market, they are still afloat. The next handset to come from this legendary brand is the HTC Desire 21 Pro 5G, which was recently spotted with three cameras on the back, dual-SIM capability, as well as Android 10-based firmware. There is no launch date or price to talk about yet, sadly.

A tweet by tipster @L0vetodream strongly hints that an all-new iMac based on Apple’s new ARM-based platform could arrive as early as March, adding the all-in-one to an increasing list of ARM-powered Mac devices.

An AMD Ryzen 9 5900H APU has been tested on various synthetic benchmarks as part of a Mechrevo gaming laptop that also comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 GPU. The results for the Zen 3 Ryzen 9 5900H chip in Cinebench showed welcome generational performance improvements over fellow 8-core chips Ryzen 9 4900HS and Intel Core i7-10875H.

Quite unexpectedly, Xiaomi has now started the Android 11 rollout for the Redmi Note 8. The rollout is still in its infancy, however, as it's only being sent out to enrolled beta testers in China, but it's something nonetheless and the myriad of Redmi Note 8 owners now have something to look forward to.

The iQOO 7 is an upcoming Android flagship reported to have blown past the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 11 on benchmarks ahead of its launch. Its brand has been on Weibo to hype it up again, this time with details on its audio system, which has apparently been developed in conjunction with Monster. This teaser may also hint at a BMW Special Edition for the phone.

Honor's first phone of 2021 is said to be powered by a MediaTek chipset. However, according to a new report, its next launch after that may feature a Snapdragon processor instead. Now that it is out from under the Huawei umbrella, it can partner with Qualcomm to make "normal" Android phones again.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 has only just been launched; however, other members of its series are hot on its heels, according to recent rumors. The latest tip comes from a Vietnamese YouTube channel that asserts the 11 Lite is coming with a design similar to the vanilla model. However, it will have a mid-range Qualcomm processor and 6GB of RAM.

Xiaomi blindsided us all by releasing the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G and its entourage instead of the Redmi Note 10 series last month. It appears that the company is working on the Redmi Note 10 lineup, though, as the Redmi Note 10 Pro 5G has been spotted online for the first time. Launch may also be closer than expected.

AnTuTu has published its midrange smartphone performance chart for December, and it is looking somewhat stale with the typical Dimensity (Redmi 10X) and Kirin (Huawei Nova 7) phones jostling for position. However, a potential Redmi K40 sporting a Snapdragon 7-series SoC could soon be in competition to be the fastest midrange smartphone.

The Redmi Note 8T was released as a variant of the Redmi Note 8, but with NFC support. Xiaomi is set to release the successor to that device, in the form of the Redmi Note 9T, and details of the phone have now surfaced ahead of launch.

The leaker Ice Universe claims to have found new AnTuTu benchmarking scores for an unreleased OPPO device, said to be the upcoming Find X3 flagship. Should this be the case, it has beaten the current official #1 in these terms, the Xiaomi Mi 11, as well as the also-rumored fellow Snapdragon 888 phone the iQOO 7 - and by a good margin, too.

The Honor V40 series of flagship smartphones was allegedly to debut on January 4, 2020. However, the OEM has obviously missed this date, and has instead now apparently set it to the 18th of this month instead. The devices may feature waterfall-style screens at this event - not to mention the Kirin 9000 SoC after all.

AnTuTu has published its December 2020 Android flagship smartphone performance chart and the Xiaomi Mi 11 with the Snapdragon 888 has managed to take the top spot away from the Huawei Mate 40 Pro+ with the Kirin 9000. The Snapdragon 888 vs Kirin 9000 results were very close, but the Mi 11’s 2K 120 Hz display tipped the difference.

Qualcomm has launched its newest 5G-ready Snapdragon 480 chipset. It features an eight-core Kryo 460 CPU clocked at 2.0GHz, an Adreno 619 GPU, and comes with Qualcomm's X51 5G modem. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 480 is expected to make its debut in 'early 2021.'

Poco has teased what could be the long-awaited sequel to its flagship killing Pocophone F1. The “F2” is briefly mentioned in a video thanking fans for a successful 2020 suggesting that we could see a Pocophone F2 in 2021. Unfortunately, early indications are it won’t be quite the flagship killer that made the original famous.