Counterpoint: Smartphone sales in Q1 2020 decline 13% on a global scale

Counterpoint Research posted its analysis of the global smartphone market for Q1 2020, and the numbers do not look good at all. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, shipments fell 13% on a yearly basis, with the total being under 300 million - a number that was last reported in 2014. There were only two major companies that did not suffer a yearly decline in shipments - Xiaomi and Realme. All the others saw a decrease, but the overall picture remained the same - Samsung and Huawei are top sellers, Apple is comfortably third, and then plenty of China-based companies are in a battle for the last...

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Android 10-based One UI 2 update delayed in India due to COVID-19

Samsung has announced that the rollout of Android 10-based One UI 2 update for its Galaxy devices in India has been delayed. The delay has been caused due to the nation-wide lockdown in India imposed by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19. This information comes from Samsung through its Members app, and it's a bit vague since the company says "we're experiencing a slight delay" without revealing how much the update schedule is affected and when the rollout will commence. However, Samsung might resume its full operations and begin the rollout of One UI 2 update in...

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HTC Vive announces Vive Sync for holding VR meetings, available for free in Beta

With COVID-19 pushing many industries to continue to conduct business online through tele-conferencing platforms, there's a new demand for presentation and business tools online. HTC is announcing a new presentation tool for its VR platform: the Vive. The platform is called Vive Sync, and it lets people conduct presentations in a virtual 3D space. The first aspect of the VR platform that's different from video conferencing is the use of personalized avatars. These avatars are full body and can convey body language in a presentation. Creating your avatar starts with a selfie....

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Black Shark 3 and 3 Pro gaming phones land in Europe on May 8

Xiaomi's gaming-oriented sub-brand Black Shark launched its latest devices in China in March, and now it's finally ready to bring them to Europe. Both the Black Shark 3 and the Black Shark 3 Pro will go on sale in Europe on May 8. Prices haven't been unveiled yet, but given Black Shark's past antics, expect them to be very competitive for the innards you are getting. And those innards are indeed nothing to scoff at. Black Shark 3 (left) and Black Shark 3 Pro (right) The Black Shark 3 has a 6.67" 1080x2400 AMOLED touchscreen with 90Hz refresh rate, the Snapdragon 865 SoC at the...

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Intel unveils 10th generation Comet Lake desktop processors

Intel has taken the wraps off its 10th generation lineup of desktop CPUs. Codenamed 'Comet Lake', these new parts are still technically based on the 14nm 'Skylake' process from a few years ago but with multiple refinements. First, let's get one thing out of the way. Intel today announced 32 new models in its 10th generation lineup, starting with the Celeron chips at the bottom all the way up to the i9 10900K. We are not going to discuss all of them but just a select few. Having said that, as you can probably see from the part list below, most of the chips are just variations of...

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Counterpoint: China smartphone sales declined 22% in Q1, Huawei extends lead

According to the latest report from Counterpoint Research, smartphone sales in China experienced the roughest quarter in recent memory, dropping by 22% compared to Q1 2019 values. As expected the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is the main reason for weak demand as shipments in February alone declined by 35% YoY. At the same time, tge share of online sales grew to 50%, up from 30% last year. Huawei was the only OEM to stay afloat during the period with a 6% increase in sales. Apple saw a mere 1% decline while vivo (-27%), Oppo (-30%) and Xiaomi (-35%) suffered significant setbacks. In terms...

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Oppo A92 leaks in Aurora Purple, shows off an A72/A52 like design

Despite the similar names, the Oppo A92 seems to have more in common with the Oppo A72 than the A92s. You can see it clearly in the L-shaped layout of the quad camera on the back and the single punch hole on the front. Oppo A92 in Aurora Purple (leaked renders) We've seen leaked renders before, but these two from @evleaks offer a better look at the phone. The second image clearly shows the side-mounted fingerprint reader. This is just like the A72 and A92s and this similarity likely means that we're looking at an LCD instead of an AMOLED display. This gradient color is called...

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iPhone 12 pricing leaks - no 5G premium

We keep getting bits and pieces of the upcoming iPhone 12 lineup - including almost finished design, and some specs. Well, we now have the first clues about pricing as well. Let's start with the premium ones. The iPhone 12 Pro with the 6.1-inch display will be selling for $999 while the iPhone 11 Pro Max successor with the massive 6.7-inch screen will ask $1,099. Which is exactly as much as their predecessors cost. The rumored budget duo, or in other words, the iPhone 11 successor with 6.1-inch display and the smaller variant featuring 5.4-inch diagonal, will be priced at $749 and...

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Our Realme X50 Pro 5G video review is up

Realme launched its first true flagship last year, the Realme X2 Pro and it was a thoroughly impressive package at its price point. And now, we have the Realme X50 Pro 5G - a worthy successor of last year's flagship in many ways. More importantly, though, the Realme X50Pro 5G is one of the cheapest Snapdragon 865-powered smartphones around, offering amazing bang for the buck. Not to mention that features like 90Hz display, stereo loudspeakers, huge battery and insanely fast charging are not a novelty for Realme's flagship lineup. We've already done a detailed written...

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Realme UI with Android 10 hits Realme 3 and 3i

Realme promised to deliver its home-baked custom overlay on top of Android 10 called Realme UI straying away from Oppo's ColorOS and it did so for a number of its phones already. Since yesterday, the Realme 3 and 3i also join the list and the new software brings a ton of new changes and features. It's important to note that the new Realme UI is entirely based on Android 10 and has more of that stock-ish look. Underneath it's still a ColorOS engine with all the performance tweaks that entails. The update itself weighs around 213MB and it's it's almost identical for the two...

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Leaked schematic of HTC Desire 20 Pro shows a quad camera and the brand's first punch hole

HTC has not completely fallen off the face of the Earth - @evleaks just shared a schematic of the HTC Desire 20 Pro design and its code name, "Bayamo". When it is officially unveiled, this will become the first HTC phone with a punch hole camera. That said, the phone doesn't give into other modern trends and keeps its display flat. And if this schematic is accurate, the bezels will be pleasantly thin (even more impressive is that side and top/bottom bezels are actually even for a change). HTC Desire 20 Pro (leaked schametic) The quad camera on the back reminds us of Oppo's Reno3...

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Honor 8S's 2020 refresh leaks: low price, more storage and a gradient

A refresh for the Honor 8S is on the way - the 2020 model will maintain the dual texture look on the back and will remain a simple, highly affordable smartphone. Honor 8S (2020) leaked image According to leaked info, the price will edge up a bit and the new model will cost €135. That is compensated with more RAM and storage out of the box - 3/64GB. Compare that to the original, which was €120 and came with 2GB of RAM and 32GB storage. There is also a slight tweak to the design, you can see that there's a bit of a gradient going on. Here's the 2019 model for...

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Samsung confirms the Galaxy Note20 and Fold 2 launches on track for H2 2020

With the uncertainty going on this year, it's always good to hear that devices you are looking forward to are still on schedule, either because you are a fan of the brand looking for an upgrade or just for the sheer love of technolgy. So we are glad to see Samsung confirming the launch of the Galaxy Note20-series and the Galaxy Fold 2 for the second half of this year in its recent Q1 2020 earnings report. Although the confirmation comes out a little vague. For the second half, amid uncertainties including the possibility of a prolonged pandemic, market competition is forecast to intensify...

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Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite is official, brings a lot of phone for little money

Xiaomi just made the Mi Note 10 Lite official. We knew just about everything about the device thanks to extensive leaks and teasers, but it's nice to get an official confirmation and, of course, the pricing and availability details. The Mi Note 10 Lite's starting price is €349 and it nets you a 6/64GB variant. For €399 you can get the 6/128GB model and they are both coming in mid May. Save for the camera, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite is an almost exact match to the Mi Note 10/Mi Note 10. It has a 6.47-inch 1080p AMOLED screen, a Snapdragon 730G chipset and a 5,260mAh battery with 30W fast...

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Redmi Note 9 and global Note 9 Pro announced

After debuting in India last month, the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Note 9 Pro Max were followed by the Redmi Note 9S which is the global variant of the 9 Pro. Now, the company announced its all-new vanilla Redmi Note 9 as well as the global version of the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, which is called Redmi Note 9 Pro. Yes, it's properly confusing, but that's that's Xiaomi naming for you. Redmi Note 9 The third entry to the Redmi Note 9 line brings a 6.53-inch IPS display with FHD+ resolution and a punch-hole cutout in the top left corner for the 13MP selfie cam. Around the back, we have the same...

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Xiaomi's Mi 10, Mi 10 Pro and Redmi K30 Pro get GPU updates

Qualcomm announced an interesting new feature (dubbed Elite Gaming) with the introduction of the Snapdragon 865 and 765 chipsets - the ability to update GPU drivers through an app, instead of waiting for a firmware update. Three Xiaomi phones are the first to take advantage of this new feature. The Xiaomi Mi 10 5G, Mi 10 Pro 5G and Redmi K30 Pro, all S865-powered devices, can now have their GPU drivers updated independently from the ROM. Unfortunately, the app that does it is available only on Xiaomi's Chinese app store at the moment. This is pretty similar to how computer GPUs work...

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Watch the Redmi Note 9 series and Mi Note 10 Lite announcement here

Xiaomi announced the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max and the Redmi Note 9 Pro in India and later brought the latter to other markets at Redmi Note 9S. Today the company is announcing the official global rollout of the series and odds are we will get to see the vanilla Redmi Note 9 for the first time. The announcement is taking place online as is the norm these days and you can follow it in the livestream below. It starts at noon UTC. The Redmi Note 9 is expected to keep the design of its bigger and mightier siblings - four cameras, lined up in a square, while the front will be a bit smaller...

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LG posts historic Q1 but mobile division still loses money

LG posted its Q1 numbers and they paint a great overall picture. The company's consolidated revenue was KRW 14.73 trillion ($12.4b) on which it made KRW 1.09 trillion ($921.4m) in operating profit. This is just the second time in its history that LG has exceeded KRW 1 trillion in the first quarter of a year. LG's Home Appliance & Air Solution and Home Entertainment companies did well, posting KRW 8.39 trillion ($6.95b) in revenue. However LG's Mobile division reported just KRW 998.6 billion ($843.9m) in sales and a resulting operating loss of KRW 237.8 billion ($200.96m). That loss has...

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Honor X10 will feature a custom Sony IMX600y sensor

A few days ago we learned of a Honor 5G-capable mid-range smartphone with plenty of info regarding specs coming straight from TENAA. And now a trustworthy leakster shares a few more specs, saying that the phone will come with a custom Sony IMX600y sensor. The Sony IMX600 sensor has been used in a number of Huawei and Honor phones. Most recently, the 40MP imager was part of the Honor V30 Pro and the Huawei Mate Xs. The IMX600y custom sensor has the same resolution so we still don't know what makes it unique. Anyway, along with the rumor, there's also a brief specs sheet attached...

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Samsung Q1 results shows increased smartphone profits despite COVID-19

Samsung has posted its quarterly report for the January - March 2020 period and it doesn't look that bad. The company met analysts' expectations and revealed a slight revenue decrease on a quarterly basis due to seasonality, but profits rose compared to Q1 2019. The mobile business reported less revenue than 12 months ago, but operating profit increased. Despite a decline in shipped units, the launch of the Galaxy S20 lineup and expanding its 5G portfolio allowed the Korean company to salvage its profitability. (in KRW/USD) Mobile DivisionRevenue Mobile...

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OnePlus Z pops up in alleged hands-on image

While OnePlus successfully launched its 8-series flagships earlier this month, the company's midrange option - the OnePlus Z - is yet to see daylight. We saw recent reports claiming the device is due to launch in July and now we have our first alleged hands-on image thanks to the folks over at True-Tech. As expected, the phone sports a flat display with a single centered punch hole. Judging by the instructions on the display it will come with a built-in fingerprint reader. This also means the OnePlus Z will employ an OLED panel, likely of 90Hz refresh rate as last year the company...

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