Oppo Reno5, Reno5 Pro design and specs officially confirmed as pre-orders begin

Oppo will introduce the Reno5 series smartphones on December 10, and while we already have a decent idea of what they look like, the images posted on Oppo's official site confirm a few of their specs and give us an even better look at the smartphones as the company has started accepting pre-orders. The Reno5 lineup is rumored to consist of three smartphones - Reno5 5G, Reno5 Pro 5G, and Reno5 Pro+ 5G. However, Oppo has only listed the vanilla and Pro models on its website, with no word on the Pro+ variant. The Reno5 5G and Reno5 Pro 5G look similar - they have frosted glass backs...

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Qualcomm to launch a new 7-series Snapdragon chipset in Q1 2021

Qualcomm introduced its new flagship chipset called Snapdragon 888 earlier this week. We expected an upper-midrange platform to take the stage as well, but the San Diego company had nothing more to share about an eventual successor of the year-old Snapdragon 765 series. According to one leakster on Weibo, the new chipset will be introduced in Q1 2021 and will start shipping almost immediately. The new 7-series chipset by Qualcomm is expected to be the main competitor to the 5 nm Exynos 1080 with integrated 5G modem and the MT6893 platform by Mediatek - another upper-midranger, built...

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Brazilian pro-consumer agency doesn’t buy Apple’s reason for removing chargers

With the iPhone 12, Apple removed the charging adapters from the retail packaging, claiming that the change will reduce carbon emissions. Apple also claimed that most people already have a charger lying around. While most of the world shrugged and went along with Apple’s eco-explanation, one region in Brazil is not buying what Apple is selling. The public consumer protection agency for the Brazilian state of São Paulo has officially asked Apple to include chargers with new iPhones or it will face fines. Back in October, Procon-SP (the pro-consumer agency in São Paulo) asked Apple...

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Verizon's Galaxy S20 family (sans S20 FE) now receiving Android 11 with One UI 3.0 update

Mere hours ago, Samsung officially announced its Android 11 update timeline, with the first devices slated to get it being the Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra. Little did we know at the time that the company would be pushing out the first updates later today, but it is now happening. Verizon's S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra are now in the process of receiving the One UI 3.0 update based on Android 11, through build G98xUSQU1CTKH, where "x" is different based on which phone you have. As usual, the rollout is expected to be staged and take at least a few days, if not weeks, to reach all...

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Magic UI 4 Beta arriving to Honor 20, 20 Pro, and V20

The next devices in line for Magic UI 4 are the Honor 20, 20 Pro, and Honor V20. This is according to a Huawei Central reader. The outlet reports that Honor is launching a closed Beta for the new firmware update for global variants. Meanwhile the Chinese variants of these devices are already on the second build of the same Beta. Honor 20 Pro and Honor 20 Magic UI 4 is the Honor counterpart of Huawei’s EMUI 11, which is based on Android 11. As previously reported, Huawei and Honor devices updated to EMUI 11/Magic UI 4 will be on the list to receive Huawei’s incoming Harmony OS,...

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Google Pixel 5 durability test looks for metal under layers of plastic

Google's highest-end smartphone of the year isn't a true flagship, because it's missing the top of the line chipset. Even so, the Pixel 5 is interesting to see in a sea of similar looking glass-sandwich devices. On its website, Google keeps advertising how the phone is made out of metal, so YouTuber Zach from JerryRigEverything decided to go hunting for that metal, during one of his trademark durability testing videos. Spoiler alert: what you're touching when you hold the Pixel 5 isn't metal, aside from the power button. The rest of the phone has layers of plastic hiding that metal, if we...

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Reports say some iPhone 12-series units losing LTE and 5G service

Since the end of October, a few hundred users have taken yo Apple's forums to report that their iPhone 12 (with reports seemingly covering all fourmodels) drops the cellular connection on 5G and 4G networks. This seems to be happening more often with Verizon and AT&T users but T-Mobile clients experience the issue too. A separate Reddit thread has been created just for this and owners of iPhone 12 say that this happens mostly while they are traveling by car. The workaround, for now, is to turn on the airplane mode on and off again. One of the commenters said that he was able to reach...

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Wakeout is Apple’s best iPhone app of 2020, Zoom takes the win on iPad

The end of 2020 is nearing and Apple has just announced its 15 best apps and games and several categories. The “iPhone App of the Year” award goes to Wakeout - a platform helping all the people confined at their home stay active. Working and studying from home also brought an award - to Zoom for “iPad App of the Year”. Wakeout • Zoom • Disney+ In the Games category Genshin Impact from miHoYo became “iPhone Game of the Year”, while Riot’s Legends of Runeterra took the prize in the iPad store section. Another category is Apple TV, where Disney+ took the prize for best app, while...

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Ming-Chi Kuo: MacBooks to be the driving force of mini LED panels in 2021

You've probably heard by now that Apple plans to release new iPads and MacBooks with mini LED panels. And things seem to be moving well for Apple and its suppliers with the yields turning out a lot better than expected. That's why Ming-Chi Kuo believes that we will see two new MacBooks with mini LED panels. The lower-priced MacBook Air along with a re-designed MacBook Pro, probably the 13-inch model, will be the first from the MacBook family to adopt the new display tech. iPads will get the same treatment but the MacBooks will remain the driving force of mini LED adoption mostly...

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Here's the first unofficial look at the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro, pictured in violet

The new Galaxy S21 smartphones will be paired with the Galaxy Buds Pro at the upcoming Samsung Unpacked event. These are a sequel to the Galaxy Buds+ and have a similar design (rather than a low-profile bean-shaped design like the Buds Live). Evan Blass has published images of the upcoming TWS headset in violet. You can see the “Sound by AKG” label, which has been there since the original Buds. Based on FCC documentation, the new model will have a 500 mAh battery – that’s double what the Buds+ have (270 mAh). Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro (in violet) But the Buds+ will not be going...

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Google’s Best Apps of 2020 dominated by work-from-home solutions

Google has published its list of Best Apps for 2020. Genshin Impact was the Best Game for Android devices as the Best Apps category was dominated by work-from-home solutions - an app for mental health and wellbeing, a recipe cookbook, and the Microsoft Office package. Google Play Best App of 2020 - Loona: Bedtime Calm & Relax Google also gave the Best Game of 2020 award to Genshin Impact. Users voted for Spongebob: Krusty Cook-Off, while the best competitive game was Brawlhalla, followed by Bullet Echo. However, if we talk about apps in general, Disney+ was voted Best of...

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Lenovo, Meizu and nubia will also launch Snapdragon 888 phones soon

Following Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 announcement a growing list of smartphone brands began teasing their plans to incorporate Qualcomm’s latest chipset in their upcoming flagships. Chinese makers Lenovo, Meizu and nubia are the latest brands to confirm their plans via posts on their official Weibo accounts. Lenovo confirmed the Snapdragon 888 is coming soon to its Legion gaming line. The maker teased the launch event for its Lenovo K12 series which will be announced on December 9 and will be accompanied by the latest Legion gaming phone powered by Qualcomm's newest flagship SoC. This would...

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Motorola will include a Desktop Mode and a TV interface in its Android 11 update

Motorola snuck in an interesting detail about its Android 11 implementation into the S888-powered Moto G announcement – the company is working on a desktop mode for its phones, similar to the Samsung and Huawei modes. Of course, Motorola is a pioneer in the field with the Atrix from the distant 2011. Motorola's new Desktop Mode is coming with its Android 11 update The desktop mode allows you to juggle multiple freely-resizable windows, just as you would expect. This mode requires the USB-C adapter to support DisplayPort Alt Mode to feed the video signal out (this can also...

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Snapdragon 888 fully unveiled: the first with Cortex-X1, 35% faster GPU

After yesterday’s preview, Qualcomm fully unveiled its new Snapdragon 888 chipset today. It’s a 5nm chip with next generation architecture. The first devices with the 888 will be out in Q1 of next year, several smartphone makers are already vying for who will be first. There is a lot to cover, so settle in. CPU The 888 is the first chip to go official with the Cortex-X1 core (ARM’s base design has some Qualcomm tweaks). Compared to the A78, the X1 can execute 33% more instructions per clock, has double the SIMD hardware and the capacity of the L1 and L2 caches has been doubled as...

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vivo with Snapdragon 888 does early Geekbench 5 test

The floodgates are open – Qualcomm unveiled preliminary details about the Snapdragon 888 and a number of companies have confirmed that they are building a phone using the new flagship chip. vivo is among them as evidenced by this Geekbench result. The vivo V2056A is listed with a “Lahaina” motherboard, which is the code name for the 888 (Qualcomm uses names of locations in Hawaii for the 800 series). The phone packs 12GB of RAM and runs Android 11, nothing too surprising here. Geekbench 5 result: vivo V2056A with Snapdragon 888 But the benchmark is interesting beyond the...

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Huawei Mate 40 Pro+ still tops AnTuTu's charts in November

AnTuTu published its charts for best performing flagships and mid-range phones in November 2020 and the list doesn't seem to be all that different from October's. There is some movement in the rankings but we can see mostly the same phones. The Mate 40 Pro+ and Mate 40 Pro still lead the pack with the brand new Kirin 9000, which will remain unchallenged at least until the first Snapdragon 888-powered smartphone comes around. The third position is now taken by the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra, which saw its average slightly improve over the last month surpassing the Redmi K30S Extreme Edition and...

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Motorola will launch Snapdragon 888-powered Moto G next year

Motorola is working on a Snapdragon 888-powered phone, but it’s not the smartphone you would expect – next year there will be a Moto G phone with a flagship chipset. The G-series has been around for years and its focus has always been value-for-money. Motorola returned to the flagship field after a few years absence, not with a Moto X phone, but with the Edge+. So, you would have thought that an Edge+ 2 or something will be the first Motorola with an 888 chip. And that is probably still coming. But a Moto G with a flagship chipset may shake up the market a bit – there has been a dearth...

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Xiaomi Mi 11 to be the world’s first phone with Snapdragon 888, Redmi to also adopt the SoC

Qualcomm introduced its latest flagship chipset called Snapdragon 888, and companies immediately started bragging they’ll bring their new phones with the platform. Xiaomi went a step further and announced on that the chip will make its global debut on the Xiaomi Mi 11. Meanwhile, in a Weibo reply the Redmi director Lu Weibing revealed the brand’s next flagship will also be among the first phones with the SD888, without revealing any details on a launch date or any eventual name. Xiaomi co-founder and CEO Lei Jun held a keynote during the Snapdragon Summit, speaking about the loyal...

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Samsung reveals One UI 3.0 stable rollout schedule, S20 series first in line to get the update

Samsung's been testing the Android 11-based One UI 3.0 beta update on its flagships for some time, and it has now shared a list of devices eligible to get One UI 3.0 stable update along with their release schedule. The first smartphones in line to get One UI 3.0 stable update are the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra, which will get stable builds sometime this month. These will be followed by nine smartphones in January 2021, and the rollout for other smartphones and tablets will continue till September. You can check out the complete list below to see if your device is...

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Reuters also confirms Samsung about to discontinue the Galaxy Note line

What started as a far-fetched rumor back in August has only gained more traction in the past months and now it looks just about certain that Samsung will in fact discontinues its Galaxy Note line. The latest confirmation comes from Reuters and is based on three sources with close knowledge on the matter. The rumored move is expected to reflect the lowered demand for flagship smartphones in relation to the ongoing pandemic. Samsung is allegedly planning to relocate its development resources to its foldable phone range. One of the sources also mentioned Samsung is planning to bring S Pen...

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Oppo: Reno5 series are coming on December 10

Oppo has finally announced the launch date of the Reno5 series after a month filled with rumors and leaks. The smartphones will arrive on December 10 when the “Diamond Glow series will debut”, according to a nine-second video teaser, posted by the company on Weibo. The Reno5 lineup will be the first to bring three phones from the start - a vanilla Reno5 with a Snapdragon 765G, a Reno5 Pro with Dimensity 1000+ chipset, and a Reno5 Pro+ with Snapdragon 865. Expectations are the first two to be minor upgrades over the Reno4 5G and Reno4 Pro 5G, while the Pro+ version, albeit not...

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vivo V20 Pro 5G arrives in India

vivo announced the V20, V20 SE, and V20 Pro 5G in September. The vanilla V20 and SE models already made their way to India since and today the Pro variant joins them. The vivo V20 Pro 5G is offered in Midnight Jazz and Sunset Melody colors and comes in a single 8GB/128GB configuration. It's priced at INR29,990 ($410/€340) and will go on sale later today through vivo's online store, Flipkart, Amazon.in, and other online and offline retailers across the country. vivo V20 Pro 5G offers and availability The V20 Pro 5G has a Snapdragon 765G SoC at the helm and our unit boots Android...

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