How the RYYB sensor on the Huawei P30 Pro works

The Huawei P30 Pro is the first smartphone to use Sony's new IMX650 sensor. Apart from having a resolution of 40MP, the special feature of this sensor is that it has an RYYB color filter. Huawei claims this makes the sensor collect 40% light. But what is an RYYB color filter and how does it differ from what other phones have? To understand the RYYB filter, we must first understand how a Bayer filter works. A Bayer filter is a color filter array overlaid on top of an image sensor, and is named after Bryce Bayer, who invented it. The reason we need a color filter array is because...

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Week 19 in review: Pixel 3a/3a XL are here, OnePlus 7 Pro and Realme X are near

This was the week that Google chose to hold its I/O Conference at which it detailed what's coming in Android Q this fall and announce the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL midrangers. The Pixel 3a is starting at $399 or €399 and brings a 1080p OLED, the same 12.2MP camera with Night Sight and HDR+ as the Pixel 3, stereo speakers and the pure Android experience. Drawbacks include a plastic body, no IP rating or wireless charging, no second ultra-wide selfie camera and only a Snapdragon 670 chipset. Sharp announced the Aquos R3 with a potent combination of a Snapdragon 855 and a 120Hz screen. And...

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Top 10 trending phones of week 19

It's been a week of almost unprecedented calm in our trending chart with most of the phones staying exactly where we left them last week. The Samsung Galaxy A50 leads from the yet-to-be-announced OnePlus 7 Pro and its Galaxy A70 bigger brother. Redmi Note 7 still leads the Huawei P30 Pro in fourth and fifth, while sixth place has a new name. The Realme X is debuting next week in China, but it's already gathering plenty of attention. The young brand already made a big splash in India and each new handset is met with increasingly high expectations. Huawei P30 lite and slides a...

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Weekly poll: Are the new Pixel 3a and 3a XL any good?

People have been getting increasingly tired by the rising prices of flagships and the new Pixel 3a phones may be just what the doctor ordered. Despite a similar price point, these are not a continuation of the Nexus line in one very important way. What Nexus phone was known for having a good camera? They may have had the premium chipsets, but the imaging department was never flagship level (to be fair, prices weren't on that level either). The Pixel 3a has the same sensor and camera software as the acclaimed Pixel 3 phones. They lack the Pixel Visual Core, so that software has to run on...

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Weekly poll results: Dark themes really are all the rage

Dark themes are awesome, last week's poll has concluded. Some like them for their power efficiency, some for the aesthetics, there's a lot of overlap between these two camps too. There's a growing number of OLED-based phones, especially at the higher end of the market. Android Q is set to add native support for OS-wide dark theme - which was the default back in the Holo days. That is a welcome change from the bright white backgrounds of Material design. iOS 13 is rumored to add dark theme support too. On phones with LCD screens you lose the perk of saving power, but there are still...

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Counterclockwise: weird phone accessories

The Ericsson T68 is famous for having a camera add-on - one of the earliest examples of a mobile phone that can shoot photos. But modern smartphones have so many features that there are no gaps in their capabilities. Still, add-on companies have to sell something and the results are... well, we'll let you be the judge. Do you yearn for the ergonomics of old-school handsets? Just plug in one of these and you'll be transported to the good old days of using payphones or waiting until you got back home to make a call. There are Bluetooth versions too, for those of you who want to look retro...

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