MediaTek unveils the Dimensity 1200 and 1100 - a pair of 6nm chipsets with Cortex-A78

Until today, the entire Dimensity series was fabbed on a 7nm process, but that just changed – the Dimensity 1200 and 1100 are MediaTek’s first 6nm chipsets. And they are the first to use the Cortex-A78 core. The two are based on the same raw hardware, but target slightly different bins. The Dimensity 1200 is the premium offering. Its CPU has a 1+3+4 configuration with a A78 core is running at 3.0GHz, plus three more A78 cores at 2.6GHz and the usual quartet of power-efficient A55 cores running at 2.0GHz. For comparison, the Dimensity 1000+ used an older A77 core that topped out at...

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Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3 is now available for sale starting at $489

Last September, Samsung unveiled it’s latest ruggedized tablet. The Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3 8.0 is positioned as a work-oriented tablet with ruggedized endurance and long battery life. This 8-inch tablet comes with a tough case that can survive drops from 5 feet high and even without the case it should survive falls of 4 feet. The Tab Active 4 will also include a waterproof S Pen for productivity in the most demanding of conditions. A waterproof S Pen for using the tablet with thick gloves As of right now, the new tablet has officially gone on sale starting at $489 for the 64GB...

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Samsung Galaxy M31 receiving Android 11-based One UI 3.0 stable update

Samsung opened the Android 11-based One UI 3.0 beta program for the Galaxy M31 last month, and now it has released the stable build of the One UI 3.0, making the M31 its first mid-range phone to get One UI 3.0 stable update. The One UI 3.0 update comes with firmware version M315FXXU2BUAC, January 2021 Android security patch, and requires a download of about 400MB. The new build also brings redesigned UI and new features to the Galaxy M31. You can check out the screenshots of the changelog below for more details. Galaxy M31 One UI 3.0 stable update The One UI 3.0 update...

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AirPods Max get the full iFixit teardown

iFixit has completed its extensive teardown of the Apple AirPods Max wireless headphones. The teardown has been in progress since the headphones went on sale and is now complete with a full list of all the chips onboard along with a teardown of the Sony WH-1000XM4 and the Bose Headphones 700 alongside for comparison. Here are some of the key takeaways from this teardown. The grille for drivers is held by the typical Apple pentalobe screws. However, they are not meant to be turned all the way but rather half-way to release a locking wedge on the inside. Despite doing that, the...

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The Honor V40 will reportedly be the first to arrive with Google Play Services since Huawei ban

Honor was expected to announce its new V40 5G flagship on January 18, but the announcement date was pushed back to January 22. The company claimed that it had venue scheduling and equipment issues for as cause of the delay, but some speculation leads to believe that Honor could have postponed the event so it could ship the devices with Google Play Services out of the box. This is according to insiders that told Lenta RU. Since the Huawei US ban from May of 2019, the phone maker would not be allowed to package Google Play Services with the new device, which hurt its sales in Western...

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Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro hands-on

It’s sort of a tradition for Samsung to announce new TWS earphones alongside its latest Galaxy S-flagships and this year we get the Galaxy Buds Pro. We got to spend some time with a pair of Galaxy Buds Pro earlier today and we did some quick tests to get a feel of what Samsung’s latest premium earbuds bring to the table. These are our initial impressions, but we will be doing a detailed review when we've spent enough time with them. Fit As with all in-ear headphones, you’ll have to find the right tip size for your ears to ensure a snug fit. This is rather important since the passive...

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Motorola confirms Edge S is coming January 26 with new Snapdragon 870

Only hours after Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 870 chipset, Motorola has confirmed that its Moto Edge S will premiere with the new chip on January 26. Motorola had already teased the new smartphone on Weibo and gave us hints about the new chipset. The Snapdragon 870 has the fastest closck speed of any chipset at the moment with the Kryo 585 (a reworked Cortex-A77), running up to 3.2GHz. The chipset is built on TSMC's 7nm process and has 8 cores - the aforementioned super-fast Cortex-A77, three Cortex-A77 running at a lower speed and 4 Cortex-A55 for efficiency. The Motorola...

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Samsung Australia accidentally reveals that the Galaxy S21+ is getting a Phantom Green color

The Galaxy S21 trio will go on sale next week and while it will be available through multiple retailers, some colors are exclusive to the Samsung online store. As it turns out, Samsung has been holding back and kept one Galaxy S21+ color under wraps - “Phantom Green”. Phantom Gold and Phantom Red are the two exclusives that were showcased during the announcement. However, when Samsung Australia detailed which devices are eligible to receive pre-order goodies it included a Phantom Green paint job for the S21+ as well. The bad news is that there is still no image of that colorway on...

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Acer unveils a trio of TWS headsets, two of which have built-in charging cables

Acer launched a trio of true wireless headsets in India. The premium model sells under the Gateway brand, the other two carry the Acer brand. They are on sale now at Amazon and Flipkart. What the three models have in common (beyond wire-free operation) is that their charging cases allow for up to 28 hours of total listening time. Outside of the case, the buds can last up to 4 hours in one go, adds another 24 hours. Recharging the cases takes an hour and a half. The Gateway TWS (GAHR012) are the premium offering with a price of CNY 3,500. They feature 9 mm drivers and Bluetooth 5.0...

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Affordable Samsung Galaxy A32 5G will arrive in the UK next month, Galaxy A12 launches today

Samsung is bringing its cheapest 5G phone to the UK – the Galaxy A32 5G will be available in a month. Two 4G-connected members of the A-series will launch before that. All three phones have 6.5” displays with 720p+ resolution, all three are powered by 5,000 mAh batteries with 15W charging support. The Galaxy A32 5G will cost £250 when it becomes available on February 19. It will come in Awesome Black, White, Blue and Violet. This Dimensity 720-powered phone comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage as standard (plus a microSD slot) and runs Android 11 with One UI 3.0 out of the box. It...

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Samsung Galaxy S21 & S21 Ultra hands-on review

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VLC update brings native support for M1-powered Macs, fixes macOS audio issues

The latest version of VLC, 3.0.12, brings some major improvements for macOS users. Especially those who got an M1-powered Mac, since this is the first version of the video player to natively support Apple silicon. Note that after updating to v3.0.12 you will still have the x86 app. You need to hit Check for updates from the menu again, then you’ll be shown v3.0.12.1, which is the actual ARM version of the app. Even if you have an Intel-powered Mac, you should download this update as it fixes the audio distortion issues that happened on macOS. It has some UI improvements for Big Sur as...

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Realme X9's slim profile teased by company CEO

Realme will launch a new X series, and we know from internal sources it will be Realme X9. Madhav Sheth, CEO in India and Europe, has posted a photo on his Twitter, revealing a slim profile of the phone - it will be as thick as six credit cards, stacked on top of each other. We can also see one of the colors the new Realme X9 will have - a whole palette of colors, similar to the Realme X7 Pro's "Iridescent" finish. There’s also the company slogan “Dare to Leap” in big letter, and we are sure this will be the paint job we’ll see the most in promo materials. Realme V15 5G, sold only...

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Qualcomm reclaims the clock speed title with the Snapdragon 870 5G chipset and its 3.2 GHz CPU

Old is gold – Qualcomm and TSMC figured out how to squeeze a bit extra performance out of the 7 nm node and created the Snapdragon 865++. Or as the company prefers to call it, the Snapdragon 870 (SM8250-AC). Its CPU reaches the highest clock speed in the mobile world – the prime core now runs at 3.2 GHz, up from 3.1 GHz on the 865+ and 2.94 GHz on the vanilla 865. Those two were surpassed by the Kirin 9000 and its 3.13 GHz prime core, but now Qualcomm has reclaimed the clock speed crown. The Snapdragon 870 still uses Kryo 585 cores, which are based on ARM’s Cortex-A77 with some in-house...

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 series gets One UI 3.1 update

Samsung’s One UI 3.1 interface based on Android 11 made its official debut with the brand-new Galaxy S21 series and now its’ making its way to Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7+ units in South Korea. The new update brings a refined UI design, improved performance and privacy features like removing location tags from photos you share as well as more lock screen widget options and video background for calls. You also gain separate personal and work profiles Depending on the model of the Tab S7 at hand, the firmware build will vary between versions T875NKOU1BUA8, T975NKOU1BUA8, and...

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vivo Y20G announced with Helio G80, triple camera, and 5,000 mAh battery

vivo has launched a total of five smartphones under the Y20 series - Y20, Y20i, Y20s, Y20A, and Y20 (2021). Today it added a sixth one dubbed vivo Y20G. The vivo Y20G is built around a 6.51" HD+ LCD that has a notch up top for the 8MP selfie camera. Around the back, we get a triple camera setup which is a combination of 13MP primary, 2MP macro, and 2MP depth sensor modules. The vivo Y20G has a Helio G80 SoC with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The smartphone boots Android 11-based Funtouch OS 11 and also comes with a microSD card slot which allows storage expansion by up to 1TB. The...

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Realme C12 gets a new version as C20 leaks extensively

The original 3GB/32GB variant of the Realme C12 introduced last August is just joined by a new memory version in India that has 4GB RAM and 64GB storage onboard. Priced at INR9,999 ($135/€110), the new variant costs INR1,000 ($15/€11) more than the base model and is already up for purchase through Flipkart and Realme.com in Power Blue and Power Silver color options. It will also be sold through retail stores across the country starting January 20. The Realme C12 is powered by the Helio G35 SoC, sports a 6.5" HD+ LCD, and features a 13MP triple camera. The smartphone also comes with...

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Xiaomi introduces new Mi Notebook 14 with an integrated cam

Xiaomi has been selling some of its Mi Notebook laptops without a camera, which is hardly ideal in these days of working and studying from home. Well today the company brought a new Mi Notebook 14 version that has an actual integrated webcam in the top bezel. Other key specs of the laptop include a 10-gen Intel Core i5 processor and an attractive price, from INR43,999 ($600/€500) to INR49,999 ($680/€560), depending on configuration. The new device's full name is Xiaomi Mi Notebook 14 (IC) and comes in three variants. The cheapest one comes has 8/256 GB memory and a basic Intel UHD...

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Honor is working on a new line of smartphones with Google Services

Huawei has been a bargaining chip in the US-Sino trade war since mid-2019 and as such has been dragging its Honor brand along. The Shenzhen-based company finally sold the division, leaving it to flourish on its own and allowing it to trade with US companies, including Google. According to Kommersant, a reputable Russian newspaper, Honor is working on a new line of smartphones that can run Google Services. An insider revealed that the split from Huawei means AppGallery will be available to the current Honor phones, while the new devices will have no easy access to the HMS universe....

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Asus ROG Phone 5 stars in hands-on video

The hype surrounding ASUS’s next ROG Phone is growing by the day and the latest leak shows us the phone from back to front alongside its new secondary screen. Yes, this year's ROG Phone 5 (name still tentative) will have a tiny secondary display on its back which can show different types of patterns and notifications. The two demoed uses show alerts for games and incoming calls. We also get to see the main screen for a brief second which confirms the new ROG Phone comes with symmetrical top and bottom bezels like on the ROG Phone 3 though they appear to be a tad slimmer this time...

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Motorola Moto G30 bags NBTC certification

The Motorola Capri Plus spotted on Geekbench last month with model designation XT2129 has been certified by Thailand's NBTC, which revealed the smartphone will be launched as the Moto G30. The listing doesn't include any specs of the device, but Geekbench revealed it will run Android 11 and have 4GB RAM, with the chipset speculated to be the Snapdragon 662 SoC. Rumored specs of the Capri Plus - which we now know is the Moto G30 - include a 90Hz HD+ screen, up to 128GB storage, and a 64MP primary camera joined by 13MP ultrawide and 2MP depth sensor units. There's no word from...

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vivo X60 Pro+ confirmed to feature Snapdragon 888, UD fingerprint scanner, and leather back

vivo took to Weibo today to confirm the X60 Pro+ arriving on January 21 will be powered by the Snapdragon 888 SoC. The poster shared by vivo confirms the X60 Pro+ will sport leather back and come in two colors. It also gives us a clear look at the camera system, which uses ZEISS optics and includes four cameras, with the main unit using the 50MP ISOCELL GN1 sensor. vivo hasn't detailed the specs of the X60 Pro+ yet, but it is listed on the company's China site with two memory options - 8GB/128GB and 12GB/256GB. The image included in the listing confirm the X60 Pro+ will pack a...

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