MediaTek's Pentonic 2000 is the world's first 7nm TV chip, decodes 8K@120Hz

MediaTek is on fire these days. After announcing its flagship Dimensity 9000 SoC for smartphones, the company is now announcing its flagship TV chipset - the Pentonic 2000. And it appears that this silicon is the world's first in many aspects. First and foremost, this is the first 7nm chip for TVs and is based on TSMC's node. Secondly, it's the first to commercial TV chipset to support Versatile Video Coding (VVC) for H.266 content. That's a new codec with improved compression efficiency, mainly for streaming and broadcasting media. HEVC, VP9 and VS3 are also on the list of natively...

Read More

Flashback: iPhone 5c, the cheap and cheerful phone that didn't sell very well

A couple of weeks ago we looked back at the iPod touch – an iPhone minus the phone part and also the cheapest way to get into the iOS ecosystem in the early days. Apple’s devices (phones and others) have typically been expensive, but the company does try to offer affordable options every now and then. One of those – the iPhone 5c from 2013 – is the topic of today’s story. It launched alongside the premium 5s and instead of a sleek metal exterior, it opted for a colorful plastic shell. For what it’s worth, it was a nice break from the usual Silver/Black/Gold color palette. The C...

Read More

Xiaomi almost ready to update 9 of its smartphones to MIUI 13

Xiaomi's CEO, Lei Jun, promised that the next major MIUI version would arrive before the end of this year without giving any specific time frame or a list of phones. However, a developer dug out a list of phones that might be getting MIUI 13 pretty soon. The list was found inside MIUI 13's source code and the stable version for the Mi Mix 4, Mi 11, Mi 11 Pro, Mi 11 Ultra, Mi 11 Lite, Mi 10S, Redmi K40, K40 Pro and K40 Pro+ will likely arrive pretty soon. Perhaps the rest will be getting their MIUI 13 in 2022 but as Xiaomi usually does, not all updates will be based on Android...

Read More

Apple Watch Series 8's leaked render reveals no design overhaul

The Apple Watch Series 8 isn't arriving before next September, but information about it has already started pouring over the internet. Last month we heard the Watch Series 8 will come in three sizes, and now, we are looking at the Watch Series 8's CAD render revealing its design. This render has been created based on the images and CAD files received by the source from people familiar with the matter, and it tells us that the Watch Series 8 won't come with a design overhaul as expected. In fact, the only noticeable change we see is that the Watch Series 8 has a pair of speaker grilles...

Read More

WhatsApp working on message reaction notifications for its Android app

WhatsApp has released the 2.21.24.8 update for its Android users on the beta channel, which reveals the company is working on message reaction notifications for its Android app. WhatsApp has been developing the message reactions feature for a few months now, which, as evident from its name, lets users react to messages the same way they react to the posts and comments on the Facebook app. Previously, WhatsApp had no plans to notify users of message reactions, but the company later began developing it for the beta version of its iOS app, and now it's also working on providing the...

Read More

MediaTek Dimensity 7000 to be based on the 5nm node

MediaTek announced its flagship SoC, the Dimensity 9000, just a couple of days ago and now we have the first rumor about its supposed upper mid-range offering for 2022 - the Dimensity 7000. The information comes from a reputable Chinese tipster on Weibo. The rumor suggests that MediaTek's upcoming Dimensity 7000 chipset has entered the testing phase and is built on TSMC's 5nm manufacturing process and uses ARM's new V9 architecture, also implemented in the Dimensity 9000. It's still early to talk about clock speeds and CPU configurations but the so-called Digital Chat Station says...

Read More

MediaTek Dimensity 7000 likely faster than the Snapdragon 870

MediaTek announced its flagship SoC, the Dimensity 9000, just a couple of days ago and now we have the first rumor about its supposed upper mid-range offering for 2022 - the Dimensity 7000. The information comes from a reputable Chinese tipster on Weibo. The rumor suggests that MediaTek's upcoming Dimensity 7000 chipset has entered the testing phase and is built on TSMC's 5nm manufacturing process and uses ARM's new V9 architecture, also implemented in the Dimensity 9000. It's still early to talk about clock speeds and CPU configurations but the so-called Digital Chat Station says...

Read More

Realme GT 2 Pro specs tipped, Snapdragon 898 and 125W charging in tow

Last month Realme VP Mr. Madhav Sheth in an interview told us that the company is planning an "ultra-premium flagship" for the GT series and will commercialize 125W UltraDart charging next year. It's unclear if this premium flagship will be the first Realme smartphone to feature 125W charging, but reports coming out of China claim the GT 2 Pro (RMX3301) will be one of the first Realme smartphone's to charge at up to 125W. The Realme GT 2 Pro is also tipped to be powered by Qualcomm's next-gen flagship chip, which is expected to be called the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or Snapdragon 898. It will...

Read More

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 to skip S Pen slot

There's still quite a lot of time for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 to go official, but rumors surrounding it have already started doing rounds on the internet, with the latest one claiming the smartphone won't feature a dedicated slot for the S Pen. That's hardly a surprise since its predecessor - Galaxy Z Fold3 - didn't have an S Pen slot. But the Galaxy Z Fold4 was expected to feature an S Pen slot because the Galaxy S22 Ultra is said to come with one (S21 Ultra has S Pen support but no dedicated slot). Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 with S Pen support However, there's still some hope for...

Read More