5G

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.

OnePlus last updated its premium 8T smartphone on December 29, 2020. However, this version of OxygenOS caused a strange issue in which videos on the device would pause out of nowhere. The OEM has just re-released the same update to address this, leaving it otherwise unchanged.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has announced a raft of Honorees and Best Of winners for its CES 2021 Innovation awards. The first category includes 8 smartphones, of which the LG Wing is a slightly obvious choice. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 5000 series has picked up one of the main prizes.

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.

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.

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.

OnePlus has made its newest batch of affordable smartphones available in the United States and Canada. The OnePlus Nord N10 5G will retail for US$299 and the OnePlus Nord N100 for US$179. Both phones can be purchased via T-Mobile and its subsidiary Metro in the coming days.

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.

The LG Wing is one of the most unusual smartphones of the year. The dual-display smartphone offers a very special smartphone concept that is unique until now.

Dell has spruced-up its premium Latitude 9000 series lineup with a design refresh and internal upgrades. The Latitude 9420 comes in both 2-in-1 and traditional laptop form factors. Both variants sport 16:10 displays and are powered by Intel 11th gen Tiger Lake processors with vPro configurations. The new Latitude 9420 also offers an automatic SafeShutter for the webcam and AI-powered Dell Optimizer software.

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.

A new leak from Evan Blass tells us everything there is to know about the Samsung Galaxy S21 series' camera prowess. The Samsung Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus will come with an identical camera setup with three sensors. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra will come with five lenses in total, including a laser autofocus module.

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.

Samsung has officially confirmed that its next Galaxy Unpacked event will happen on January 14 as widely expected. Headlining the event will be the company’s all-new Galaxy S21 range although other upcoming products like the Galaxy Buds Pro are also expected to be announced.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 has already been selling by the truckload in China, where it is currently on sale from 3,999 yuan (€505/US$618/£452) for the 8 GB + 128 GB model. While the Chinese OEM has declared the Mi 11 will be going global soon, those eager to get their hands on one before then can preorder the smartphone from €579 (US$709/£519).

OPPO has adopted a complicated approach to releasing its Reno smartphone series worldwide. The devices might have different SoCs for different markets, for example. However, there is now evidence that the well-spec’d new generation recently launched in China will make it into other countries unmodified.

As powerful as the freshly-launched Mi 11 is, some may have been disappointed when its also-rumored Pro sibling did not debut alongside it. However, the reliable tipster Digital Chat Station asserts that its own launch is still on. It will apparently take place after the Chinese New Year.

The Realme 7 series launched as 2020 phones with a combination of mid-range SoCs and premium specs. Now, there are hints that their maker has replacements for them in the works. They come in the form of new Geekbench listings based on a 5G Dimensity platform.

Xiaomi's Mi 10T Pro is very close to a high-end smartphone, but it lacks features like an AMOLED display to reach the highest honors. Nevertheless, the 6.67-incher scores point with otherwise strong features like 5G, a 144 Hz panel, and a 5,000 mAh battery at a comparatively low price.

2021 is expected to be the year in which the reasonably-priced Galaxy A3x smartphone series goes 5G for the first time. This is now all but set in stone thanks to this device's new Bluetooth certification. Its new connectivity is expected to be accompanied by a 6.5-inch display and 4GB of RAM.

iQOO is slated to launch a Snapdragon 888-powered flagship called the 7 shortly. A new Geekbench 5 listing may confirm this. These preliminary scores may show it is capable of matching up to Xiaomi's new phone based on the same platform in terms of specs and performance.

The Redmi Note 9 Pro is all set to hit Indian shores as the Xiaomi Mi 10i on January 5. It boasts an impressive feature set consisting of a 120Hz screen, a 108MP camera sensor, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G. The smartphone is expected to cost around INR 18,000 (US$246) in India.

An upcoming IQOO 7 smartphone powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 has made a devastating appearance on the AnTuTu benchmark by clocking over three-quarters of a million points. This puts the IQOO 7, which is to be launched on January 11, beyond the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro+ with their Kirin 9000 chipsets.

An alleged successor to LG's Stylo 6 phablet had previously shown up in renders hinting at a highly original, pen-centric rear panel design. Its latest leak does not bear this out: however, it does purport to reveal a "Samsung Galaxy Note rival" with an appreciably large display and SKUs with a choice of connectivity.

Motorola has been busy teasing an upcoming premium phone with an SoC from the Snapdragon 800 series. It may have surfaced in a new set of benchmarking results that might confirm which processor this is to be for the first time. This leak also points to 8GB of RAM and Android 11 out of the box for this device.

Vivo has made the X60 series official. They are the first phones to rock the Exynos 1080 SoC, and also have up to quad rear cameras with Zeiss branding. They start at ~US$536 for an 8GB RAM/128GB internal storage SKU. However, the OEM has also complicated things with the announcement of an additional Pro+ to debut in 2021.

Samsung’s Galaxy S21 can now be reserved in the US ahead of its official unveiling. With the words “Get ready to jump to the next Galaxy”, Samsung invites customers to put their name down on the reservation list with some added incentives thrown in to encourage sign ups.

Supposed specifications and the price for the Sony Xperia 1 III have leaked online. Unsurprisingly, a Snapdragon 888 processor is onboard and the 6.5-inch 5G smartphone allegedly boasts a 4K OLED panel and 120 Hz refresh rate. The reported price tag is US$1,199, which is the same as the Sony Xperia 1 II’s launch price.

iQOO is a premium sub-brand of the smartphone OEM Vivo. It launched the Snapdragon 865-powered 5 series in 2020. Now, there is an indication that these devices will get successors called the 7s. They may reprise iQOO's 120 watt (W) FlashCharge technology.

OnePlus is expected to launch its Snapdragon 888-powered smartphones in March 2021. A new leak indicates that the OEM will bring its 65 watt (W) charging and 30W wireless charging standards from previous flagships back. However, it will also apparently be included in the vanilla 9 this time.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 smartphone hasn’t even been officially launched yet and it already seems like it will be a great sales success for the company. Over 226,000 people have already signed up for Mi 11 preorders via a single platform. There is some speculation that sales for the Xiaomi Mi 11 series will start in China on January 1, 2021.
Update: The bookings figure has now reached over 400,000.

Details and key specifications for Huawei’s upcoming ARM-based laptop have been leaked on social media. It appears the notebook, which currently has the name Qingyun L410, is powered by the 8-core 5G-capable HiSilicon Kirin 990 chipset. It’s not known if the Huawei laptop will be launched outside of China.

The Galaxy A71 is a Samsung phone with 4G/LTE and 5G variants. Recent rumors suggest that its successor will get the same. The tipster OnLeaks has also posted renders for at least one of them that hint at 4 rear cameras and a 6.7-inch display.

A new leak indicates Huawei will add a new variant to the Mate 40 series. Despite looking like its higher-end siblings, it may be a more affordable version of the same. For example, it is rumored to have an older chipset. Then again, it also clearly has wireless charging.

The Vivo X60 series of smartphones will launch on December 28, 2020 - also known as tomorrow. However, its specs may have been spilled ahead of this event. The leaker Digital Chat Station claims to have dug them up on the TENAA website.

The smart-looking Samsung Galaxy Book Flex2 5G has appeared in a couple of official videos from the South Korean OEM, including an unboxing video. The Galaxy Book Flex2 5G is the new name for the Galaxy Book Flex 5G, which was actually launched in September. The convertible features an Intel Core i5-1130G7, i5-1135G7, or i7-1165G7 chip.

The reliable leaks site Winfuture.de has published a new post which apparently contains every last detail on the Galaxy S21 offerings for the European market. This includes the pricing structure for these sub-Ultra variants, starting at about US$1040 for the base model.

Both the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite and Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite bring a lot of phone to the table for very reasonable prices, but it can be a tricky process choosing between the two. While the Mi 10T Lite delivers a 120 Hz refresh rate and 64 MP main camera sensor, the Mi 10 Lite has a beautiful AMOLED panel that helps justify its higher price tag.

MediaTek has overtaken Qualcomm to become the world’s largest smartphone chipset vendor in terms of market share for the third quarter of 2020 (Q3 2020). MediaTek has been busy this year with its Dimensity series appearing in numerous budget and midrange smartphones. Qualcomm has remained strong in the 5G and high-end segments though.

OPPO has launched the Reno5 series' flagship, confirming its premium attributes compared to the rest of these smartphones in the process. They include its Snapdragon 865 SoC and new 50MP main camera module in the process. It starts at 3999 yuan (~US$612).

The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra reveals many strengths in our test. One feature of the Xiaomi smartphone stands out in particular: The fast-charging technology.