Flashback: periscope zoom cams with smooth zoom are the future, but we already had them

In 2019 the Huawei P30 Pro and Oppo Reno 10x zoom kicked off a zoom arms race with the introduction of the periscope telephoto lens – or should we say “re-introduction”. One phone had a periscope several years ago and with a design that was more advanced than modern phones. Currently, you can get a periscope-equipped phones from Huawei, Oppo, Samsung, Xiaomi, vivo and Honor. But they have two major downsides. One, they have very long focal lengths (100+ mm). And two, they are locked at that focal length. This means that mid-range zoom requires either digital zoom with the main camera...

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Weekly poll: smartphone design trends you'd hate to see continue in 2021

We already established the features you look forward to in 2021, but now we wanted to know the opposite – which recent trends in smartphone design would you hate to see continue next year? Most phones today have three or four cameras, even the entry-level models that can’t actually fit three real modules in the budget. This has led to a high number of low-res “depth sensors” and “macro cameras”, the benefit of which is marginal to non-existent. More annoyingly, some high-end phones also pad out their camera count with a 2 MP something-or-other module. Speaking of cameras, we saw...

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2020 Winners and Losers: Apple

It's been a difficult year for everyone, and even the giant that is Apple faced some atypical disruptions. It needed to sort a lot of supply and manufacturing hurdles in order to unload its considerable fleet of devices this year. It even needed to push the announcement of its golden goose - the iPhone line by as much as two months due to the pandemic. But still 2020 has been a slam dunk year for Apple. Using the strong momentum of sales of its iPhone 11 and XR series in 2019, Apple started the year off a bit later than it perhaps indented, but with a bang. Winner: Apple iPhone SE...

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Huawei's first Kirin-powered laptop's specs leak

A while back we heard that Huawei is working on several PCs powered by its own silicon - desktop PCs and laptops. With the company already confirming its desktop PC powered by its own HiSilicon ARM chip, we now more details about the notebook too, albeit from a leak rather than an official source. A trustworthy Weibo tipster posted a photo of the notebook's box revealing some key specs. The device is powered by the Kirin 990 chipset paired with 8GB of RAM, 512GB SSD and a 14-inch 1080p display. The laptop runs Linux-based Deepin OS 20 but the transition to HarmonyOS will be made...

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Weekly poll results: Under screen cameras the most expected trend of 2021

We asked and you told us: under display cameras will be your most anticipated smartphone feature of 2021. This is the second year in a row that you’ve selected this specific feature on top of your list and there’s good reason – the tech is slowly but surely making its way to phones on the market. Our ZTE Axon 20 5G review is out so you might just want to check it out and see how the first comercially available under screen cam fared in our testing. Nearly 35% of you want to see selfie cams tucked under the display on more devices this coming year which is miles ahead of the second spot...

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Samsung fails to ship 300 million units for the first time in 9 years

According to a report coming from South Korea, Samsung won't be able to hit the 300 million units mark this year and it's going to be the first time in nine years too. It is estimated that the manufacturer will likely reach 270 million shipments, but it is doubtful that it would go beyond that. At the end of the third quarter of 2020, Samsung confirmed 189 million phones shipped, which is still a pretty good number given the raging pandemic this year. Still, the company has set a goal to hit 307 million units in 2021 by expanding its mid-range and low-end 5G smartphone lineup and...

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Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+ specs detailed in a massive leak

Specifications of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra were detailed last week, and now the S21 and S21+ have also got the same treatment, leaving little to the imagination. The S21 and S21+ will be powered by the Snapdragon 888 SoC in the US and have an Exynos 2100 chipset at the helm in Europe. Both smartphones will boot Android 11 with One UI 3.1, have 8GB RAM onboard, and come with two storage options - 128GB and 256GB. But neither of them is likely to come with a microSD card slot for storage expansion. The vanilla S21 will feature a 6.2" FullHD+ Infinity-O Dynamic AMOLED display, while...

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vivo X60 Pro full specs revealed by TENAA

The vivo X60 Pro arriving on December 29 with an Exynos 1080 SoC has appeared on Chinese certifying authority TENAA's website with full specs. The smartphone will come with 8GB and 12GB RAM with two storage options - 128GB and 256GB. It will run Android 11 out of the box, which will have vivo's new OriginOS on top. The X60 Pro will feature a 6.56" FullHD+ AMOLED screen and come with a total of five cameras - a 32MP selfie shooter on the front and a 48MP primary camera on the rear joined by one 8MP and two 13MP units. The Exynos 1080-powered smartphone will be 7.59mm thin, weigh...

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Huawei's HarmonyOS 2.0 beta is based on Android's framework

Huawei released the HarmonyOS 2.0 beta version of the software for select devices earlier this month and one developer decided to dig a little deeper to see what Huawei's new OS is all about. And as it turns out, it's still pretty much Android-y. First, he made a simple "Hello world" app for the much older Android 4.4 KitKat environment and this triggered a very similar message on a virtual machine running a recent version of Android (left) and a virtual machine running HarmonyOS 2.0 beta (right). This seems to be a reoccurring theme with other things, but instead of "Android", the...

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Xiaomi CEO confirms Mi 11 retail box will not come with a charger

A few years ago, when Apple ditched the 3.5mm headphone jack, some Android phone makers were quick to mock the Cupertino-based tech giant's decision, only to follow suit later on. Well, history is repeating itself. Apple launched the iPhone 12 lineup in October and removed the in-box charger and earphones citing environmental reasons. Xiaomi took a jab at Apple for not including the adapter with the box, but the company is following the footsteps of Apple as its CEO Lei Jun today confirmed that the Mi 11 arriving on December 28 will not have a charger in the retail package. Jun cited...

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