Chinese Tech

Redmi 8A users will be pleased to know that they don't have to wait long for the MIUI 12 update. A Mi Community Forum moderator has stated that the device will get the software in August. It shouldn't be long before Xiaomi makes a beta version of the software available to the general public.

Native call recording is coming to the Poco F2 Pro. The feature has arrived for the Mi A2 Lite and Mi A3 too, although it may not be ready for prime time quite yet. The feature is embedded within the stock Phone app.

A couple of leaked images of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 global activity tracker have offered up some clues of what a Pro model of the wearable could deliver. According to the poster of the images, the global Mi Smart Band 5 does not feature NFC functionality, Alexa assistant, or the SpO2 pulse oximeter sensor for blood oxygen monitoring.

The FCC has confirmed that the Mi TV Stick is on its way to the US. The device will be available in the EU too and will support a host of current connectivity standards. Xiaomi is expected to release the Mi TV Stick in two editions and to include a multi-function remote in the box.

AnTuTu has published its latest Android smartphone price-performance charts, and they make for good reading for Xiaomi in particular. The Chinese OEM and its subsidiary Redmi top four out of five charts. The Redmi Note 8 Pro leads the cheapest range while the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro heads the pack in the 4,500 yuan (US$641) and above table.

Xiaomi released the Redmi K30 phones in China back in December last year. Since then, the phones have sold reasonably well, with Xiaomi announcing that it has sold three million units in the Chinese market, and temporarily slashing prices of the Redmi K30 4G by up to US$85.

A report on Weibo has revealed the Lenovo Legion smartphone racking up a huge score on AnTuTu in part thanks to its still apparently non-existent Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus processor. The score of 648,871 points puts the Lenovo Legion way beyond any of the average scores of devices in the Snapdragon 865-dominated AnTuTu flagship performance chart.

Rumour has it that the OnePlus Nord will be leading with a 48 MP primary camera, not a 64 MP sensor. The device will be rocking five other camera sensors too, including an ultra-wide-angle lens. A retailer has published a listing for the OnePlus Nord too, but it is likely just a placeholder.

The 3 Pro is Black Shark's Snapdragon 865-powered 2020 flagship that boasts a 7.1-inch OLED 1440p display. The Xiaomi gaming brand has declared international pre-orders for this device open as of today (July 7, 2020). Its price is set at just under US$900 on its new platform.

Huawei will reportedly start making the EMUI 11 update available to eligible devices in Q3 2020. Owners of the Huawei Mate 30, P30, P40, and Nova 5 series will receive it first. Alternatively, it is also expected to make its way to a host of Honor phones in the form of Magic UI 4.0.

Initial benchmarks of the Huawei Kunpeng 920 ARM processor in a desktop PC do not seem to paint a rosy picture. This particular PC was powered by an 8C/8T Kunpeng 920 soldered onto a Huawei motherboard and running custom Chinese Linux distro called UOS. The Kunpeng 920 was originally designed with server applications in mind, and it looks to be an indication of China's ongoing efforts to reduce reliance on major CPU players such as Intel and AMD.

Poco has launched the Poco M2 Pro in India. It comes with a 6.7-inch FHD+ screen, a quad-camera setup, a 5,000mAh battery that can be charged at 33W, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC. Prices start at INR 13,999 (US$187) for the base variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The device will be available for purchase on Flipkart starting July 14.

Despite its 20-year reliance on Huawei-made telecom hardware, the United Kingdom has now decided to remove Huawei from its 5G infrastructure by the end of 2020. The shift in policy is based on a new report from British cybersecurity experts that fear Huawei may be forced to use untrusted technology as a result of recent sanctions put on the company by the United States.

The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4C has been launched in Malaysia. The global version of the budget activity tracker has gone on sale there for 99 MYR (US$23). The Mi Smart Band 4C is basically a rebranded Redmi Band and offers users a heart-rate monitor, 5 ATM water resistance, and a 1.08-inch touchscreen.

Huawei has filed a trademark application with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for the name Mate V. This would be an adroit term for, say, a device that can fold like a book in the current Galaxy Fold style. Therefore, the term may hint at such an upcoming phablet from this OEM.

The Mi A2 and Mi A2 Lite are two-years-old now and have both received two major OS updates. While owners of the phones may reserve some hope over their prospects of getting Android 11, new information clarifies that such hopes are pointless.

The iQOO Z1x is set to launch on July 9, 2020 and to rock the Snapdragon 765G processor on this date. However, the OEM has yet to confirm any more details on the new phone's internals. A new Master Lu listing for a device with an unfamiliar model number is now linked to the upcoming mid-ranger, however, and may show what it can do with 8GB of RAM.

Xiaomi launched the AMD Ryzen 4000-series-powered RedmiBook 13, RedmiBook 14, and RedmiBook 16 back in May. The company has now confirmed that it's set to release a new RedmiBook 16, but this time out, one powered with Intel's 10nm Icelake Core i7 processors.

OnePlus continues to tease the OnePlus Nord ahead of its next pre-order event on July 8. The device, which will retail for under US$500, will feature OIS and some sleek-looking retail packaging. It seems that a July 21 release date has been confirmed too, as has the "world's first AR smartphone launch".

A leak has confirmed that Xiaomi has a new family of devices in development, codenamed Gauguin. Apparently sporting 64 MP and 108 MP rear-facing cameras, the Gauguin and Gauguin Pro also have Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs. The specifications of the Gauguin family seemingly line-up with the Redmi K40 and Redmi K40 Pro, which are due to arrive in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 respectively.

Huawei has confirmed that its next OS, EMUI 11, will be arriving in August. Based on open-source Android 11 without any Google apps or services, EMUI 11 will land on the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro this quarter before making its full debut on the Mate 40 and Mate 40 Pro later this year.

Recent China Beta versions of MIUI 12 suggest that Xiaomi is developing its answer to Top Shot, Google's machine-learning photography tool. Called AI shutter, the feature appears to have similar functionality to Top Shot and may eventually make its way to stable MIUI 12 builds.

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 may not receive MIUI 12 until September. The device, which Xiaomi released in October 2018, is on Round 2 of the company's MIUI 12 Release Schedule. However, it is not eligible for its fledging Mi Pilot progam.

Honor has launched a new set of earbuds, the Honor Choice True Wireless Earbuds. Priced at just US$34.99, the Honor Choice supports Bluetooth 5.0, up to 24 hours of battery life and USB Type-C charging. Touch controls are supported too and the earbuds are IP54 certified.

MIUI 12 firmware for owners of the Redmi Note 8 Pro in India has been restricted to official testers who were part of the Mi Pilot program so far. However, it appears that Xiaomi is expecting the testing period to be completed soon, as the MIUI 12 India ROM should start rolling out “shortly”.

The Redmi 8 has received yet another price increase in India, bringing the total to four price hikes in that market since it was released in October 2019. While one of the hikes was due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the other three increases for the Redmi 8 suggest that Xiaomi is milking the smartphone’s incredible popularity.

Placeholder images for what could end up being the Huawei Band 5 activity tracker and the Huawei Mate Watch have been shared on the Chinese social site Weibo. No specifications have been revealed, but the supposed codenames for the upcoming Huawei smartband and smartwatch along with some potential design details are displayed.

Huawei's best SuperCharge wired power adapter can charge a compatible device at up to 40 watts (W). However, a leak points to a new generation of these accessories that is capable of 66W. The OEM has reportedly had it approved for use by the regulator 3C, which may make it available for the Mate 40 series.

An alleged roadmap was posted on the Mi Community forums detailing Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4 rollout of the MIUI 12 stable ROM in China. While this does list all the Xiaomi and Redmi devices likely to be covered in each phase, it does not indicate any definite timeline. Interestingly, this roadmap also includes older devices such as the Redmi 4X and the Redmi Note 4X.

Nine months after release, the Redmi Note 8 is yet to receive a major OS update, even though the Redmi Note 8 Pro got its Android 10 update months ago. That is set to change, however, with new information giving Redmi Note 8 owners around the world an idea of when the Android 10 update will finally arrive.

The OnePlus 8 Pro was launched back in April but has routinely been out of stock since then. The phones has received mostly positive reviews and that appears to have translated into sales, with the implication of OnePlus selling a lot more units than it projected.

A post on Weibo by Redmi boss Lu Weibing has sparked speculation that either Xiaomi or Redmi is planning on releasing a small phone. A small-screen flagship variant of the rumored Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 was suggested by many of his post’s commentators. Weibing shared an image showing a size comparison of the Apple iPhone 4 and Redmi Note 8.

It has been rumored that Huawei will be releasing its own Display ranges of monitors set at three different price points, and a 32-inch model is expected to be part of the lineup. It’s likely Huawei Display monitors will target the space that will be occupied by Redmi Display and Xiaomi Mi Display external monitors.

iQOO has announced that its new addition to the Z1 series of phones will debut later in July 2020. According to recent leaks, this one will be powered by the Snapdragon 765G processor, whereas the flagship has the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ SoC. Its mid-range sibling may also have a 6.57-inch FHD display and triple rear cameras.

A new phone design patent attributed to the OEM Huawei shows that it has one truly massive lens in an even larger rectangular housing on its back panel. However, there may be a good reason for this: its schematics show that it may also be capable of DSLR-like zoom. Therefore, this IP may one day represent the company's next image-sensor breakthrough.

Xiaomi has officially announced that the MIUI 12 beta stable update (V12.0.2.0.QFJINXM) has started to roll out to some Xiaomi Mi 9T/Redmi K20 devices in India. The firmware has now been pushed OTA and users chosen by random should start receiving notifications to install the MIUI 12 update. The public ROM should be available soon.

Huawei is now expanding its EMUI 10.1 rollout. The company is currently sending out the EMUI 10.1 update to owners of the Mate 20 X 5G in Europe, as well as owners of the P30 and P30 Pro in South Africa, North Africa, South-East Asia, and the Middle East.

The Meizu 17 Pro has managed to squeeze its way into an increasingly tight AnTuTu flagship smartphone performance chart. The table for June shows the Meizu 17 Pro beating out the OnePlus 8 Pro, while a total of just 23,453 points separates the first place device with the last place device in the Snapdragon 865-dominated chart.

It seems likely that the MIUI 12 update for Redmi Note 9 smartphone users in Europe has been temporarily halted. A new MIUI 11 stable update has started rolling out for the Redmi Note 9 instead, which will bring the device up to date in terms of security patches. Owners of the phone in China have already started receiving MIUI 12.

A potent combination of Redmi and MediaTek has made some waves at the top of the latest AnTuTu midrange smartphone performance chart. Both the Redmi 10X Pro 5G and Redmi 10X 5G devices have snatched up first and third places, respectively, with the help of their MediaTek Dimensity 820 processors.

After sending out a global beta MIUI 12 update to the Redmi Note 8 Pro, Xiaomi has now also released a MIUI 12 update to the Redmi Note 8 and Redmi Note 7 Pro in China. The update bears the build designation "MIUI 12.20.7.3", and is only available for those who opted into the MIUI 12 China beta testing program.

A leak has confirmed that the Redmi K30 and Redmi K30 Pro will soon be joined by a device called the Redmi K30 Ultra. Possibly the real name for the rumoured Redmi K40, the device has been spotted with a 64 MP primary camera and a pop-up selfie camera. Xiaomi has just certified a 120 W with the 3C too.

The FCC has confirmed multiple aspects of the Amazfit Band 5, Huami's new fitness tracker. Set to feature 5 ATM water resistance, a heart rate monitor, an AMOLED panel and a 125 mAh battery, there is talk of the Amazfit Band 5 resembling the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5.

OnePlus has teased the design of the OnePlus Nord. Spotted on an Instagram video, the company has revealed that the device will feature a flat screen, multiple rear-facing cameras and at least one, if not two, front-facing cameras.

POCO has confirmed the existence of the M2 Pro, and is currently teasing it on Twitter and Flipkart ahead of its July 7, 2020 launch. These official leaks show some inextricable links between it and the pre-existing Redmi Note 9 Pro. For example, both phones are now known to have quad rear cameras and 33 watt (W) charging.

An anomalous Geekbench 5 listing of a Xiaomi Redmi K30 shows scores that are many times more than even a Ryzen 9 3950X. The fact that such a record exists in the official Geekbench database is the reason why buyers should exercise due diligence when considering synthetic benchmarks as a sole yardstick for overall device performance.

A new and unabashed Apple Watch clone has hit the market, complete with IP68 certification and ECG functionality. Called the W26, the smartwatch is available from multiple brands for under US$25 and comes with a heart rate monitor along with a 1.75-inch display.

Rumour has it that the OnePlus Nord will be launching in India on July 21. Additionally, the OnePlus Nord is purported to feature a 90 Hz display, up to 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. A total of six cameras will be in tow too, along with OIS and EIS.

The Xiaomi Mi TV Stick appears to be getting closer to an official launch, as details about the gadget have been appearing via Geekbench, Google Play Console, and on official Google certification. It is the 1080p (FHD) Mi TV Stick model that has been spotted recently, although there is evidence of a 4K (UHD) device too.

The Mi 10 Pro has earned plenty of positive reviews for its excellent rear cameras and audio performance, as well as for being competitive across the board. It would seem, however, that the phone has one major weakness, and one that may be a dealbreaker for some in the social media era.