Xiaomi 12 series is also "coming soon" with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip introduced at Qualcomm's ongoing Snapdragon Tech Summit will power several flagship Android devices next year. Realme has already confirmed that its GT 2 Pro will have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip at the helm, and now Xiaomi's Founder and CEO, Mr. Lei Jun, has also confirmed the use of Qualcomm's freshly announced flagship chip on the Xiaomi 12. Mr. Jun didn't divulge anything about the Xiaomi 12 but said that the Xiaomi 12 series "will be the world's first smartphones" to have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC under the hood. .@Qualcomm has always been one of the...

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Motorola Edge X30 arrives December 9 with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset

On Tuesday, Qualcomm officially announced its next chipset. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is the chip maker’s first 4nm chipset for smartphones and Motorola has confirmed that the Edge X30 will be its first flagship with the new SoC. Motorola confirmed via Weibo that the Edge X30 will be announced at a launch event in China on December 9 at 7:30PM local time. The teaser doesn’t confirm anything more about the new Moto Edge device. This Motorola phone was rumored all month. 3C certification suggests the Motorola Edge X30 (XT2201-2) will support 68.2W charging for its supposed 5,000 mAh...

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Beats announces limited edition Union x Beats Studio Buds

Beats by Dre today announced a limited edition version of the Beats Studio Buds in collaboration with American clothing store Union Los Angeles. These will be available in the US and Japan on December 1, 2021. The Union X Beats Studio Buds feature a unique red, black, and green colorway inspired by the Pan-African flag to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Union LA and the company's roots as a Black-owned business. These limited edition buds will only be available through Union's Los Angeles and Tokyo stores and the company website. Aside from the distinct colorway, the Union X...

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Realme GT 2 Pro will be among the first smartphones to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

Now that Qualcomm has finally made its next-generation flagship chipset official at its event in Hawaii, Realme has something to say too - and that is that the GT 2 Pro will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It's hard to imagine a less surprising announcement, but there you have it - it's official now. Don't forget, the upcoming GT 2 Pro is going to be Realme's "first-ever ultra-premium flagship", rising above the likes of the X50 Pro and previous members in the GT family. Realme proudly boasts that it will be among the first manufacturers to launch a smartphone with the...

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Snapdragon Sight: Qualcomm's new 18-bit ISP is made for the 108MP, 8K future

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 brings notable improvements in performance and power efficiency for the CPU and GPU. But the camera hardware inside the chip also received major upgrades, so much so that Qualcomm is launching a separate brand for it. Snapdragon Sight is the branding for the ISP, which now comes with a variety of features oriented towards professionals. Those are thanks to much-improved throughput and even casual users will benefit from that. The ISP can now process 3.2 gigapixels per second (up from 2.7 gigapixels per second on the SD888). Coupled with other optimizations, this...

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Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 unveiled with new ARMv9 CPU cores, new Adreno GPU architecture

Qualcomm unveiled its next-generation chipset for flagship Android devices and it brings improvements across the board. In a way, it is a clean break from previous designs as it switches over to the new ARMv9 instruction set and a new naming scheme. We won’t have to wait long to see it in action, the first commercially available phones with the new chip will come out before the end of the year. Meet the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 – that’s the new naming scheme, digit for class (8 being flagship) and a generation. It is Qualcomm’s first 4nm chipset and the first to use this new generation of the CPU...

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Rocket League Sideswipe now available worldwide for iOS and Android

Rocket League Sideswipe from developer Psyonix (owned by Epic Games) is now available worldwide on iOS and Android devices. The game is around 700MB-1GB in size depending on platform and device, and is available for free. Rocket League Sideswipe is the mobile version of the incredibly popular Rocket League for PC and consoles. Similar to the standard version, Sideswipe is based on the same basic concept of 'football but with cars' where you steer your vehicle to shoot your ball through the enemy's goalpost. The major difference between the standard version and Sideswipe is that...

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The 4G Samsung Galaxy A13's back panel leaks revealing some design features

As we wait for Samsung's presumably most affordable 5G handset, the Galaxy A13 5G, we get a couple of photos of the 4G variant. Or to be exact, we only have photos of the back panel, which would most likely be the same for the 5G model too. Samsung Galaxy A13 4G back panel The back features a total of five holes - four for the cameras and one for the LED flash. There's no camera island so we assume that each lense will protrude a little from the body. Moreover, the panel is most certainly made of glossy plastic and there are the 3.5mm audio jack and USB-C connector at the...

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The Google Pixel 6 series refuses to charge with certain USB-C cables

The Google Pixel 6 series has been plagued with numerous issues at launch, although some of the problems have already been ironed out with software updates. However, there seems to be more coming this way. Reports online claim that the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro refuse to charge over some USB-C cables and chargers. To be fair, Google warned about this and said that some cables and charging bricks won't be compatible with the phone, especially the ones that are not Power Delivery-certified. The reasoning behind this is to protect the device's charging port and battery as there are plenty of...

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Canalys: HP shipped the most PCs in Western Europe during Q3, Apple leads tablet department

Based on data from Canalys and its Q3 2021 Western Europe’s PC market which includes desktops, notebooks and workstations grew by 21% compared to last year, totaling 16.3 million shipments. HP regained the top spot with its 4.4 million shipments and a 27% market share, followed by Lenovo with 4.1 million shipments and 25% share. Dell grew by 43% to take up the third spot with 2.3 million shipments while Apple (1.9 million) and Acer (1.2 million) round out the top five makers. The July – September period marked the sixth consecutive quarter of growth for the PC market in Western Europe...

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Nokia PureView 9 won't be getting Android 11, says company's official website

Despite Nokia being a bit slow when it comes to updating its phones at times, it has kept its promise to deliver two full years of major Android updates. The Nokia 9 PureView, however, is going to be an exception to the rule according to the company's official Polish website. Nokia outlines the camera experience and its features to be the main reason for the decision. It says that the device's camera software and features are not compatible with Android 11 and therefore, the core appeal of the phone would be lost after updating. After all, Nokia 9 PureView's innovative camera is the...

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Here are the best apps of 2021 on Google Play

Google just announced the best apps for 2021 on its Google Play Android app store but this time around, the selection includes the apps for Wear OS and Google TV. The company says the main criteria for choosing the best apps in each category innovative nature of the said apps. New gameplay features and new ways to interact with the software. Once again apps focused on personal growth are leading the pack with the highest demand. Apps such as Balance for meditation, Moonly for guidance through the lunar calendar and Laughscape for mediation through laughter. The best game category...

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Amazon Appstore not working on Android 12 phones

As Android 12 becomes more widespread, a growing number of users can't access their apps from Amazon's Appstore and some believe that the company's DRM is to blame. It doesn't play well with Google's new OS. As per Amazon's support forum, users are unable to download apps or even access their app library on the store. The issue itself appeared in October as soon as Google Pixel owners started updating to Android 12. Amazon has already acknowledged the issue and is working on a fix. It has put out a warning on its app store. The good news is that if you are still running Android 11,...

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Third Moto smartphone incoming soon with under-display selfie camera

Motorola is expected to bring two new smartphones in December - the Edge S30 with Snapdragon 888+ and Edge X30 (Edge 30 Ultra on the global scene) with Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chipsets. According to a leakster, a third phone might also make an appearance, and its unique feature will be an under-display front-facing camera. Motorola Moto Edge 30 Ultra The trend of UD selfie shooters started 15 months ago by ZTE and its Axon 20, while Xiaomi and Samsung adopted the technology this past summer, respectively in the Mix 4 and the Galaxy Z Fold3. The leakster Digital Chat Station did not...

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Samsung unveils the first 5G modem for cars, plus a chipset for in-vehicle infotainment

Cars are catching up to smartphones in terms of compute power and connectivity – thanks to Samsung’s new modem, future models will be able to connect to 5G networks and enjoy download speeds of up to 5.1 Gbps. The Exynos Auto T5123 is the first 5G modem designed specifically for automotive use and it is already being mass produced. Car parts have stringent requirements for durability and longevity, so automakers can’t just use chips meant for smartphones. This is actually more than just a modem. It has a pair of Cortex-A55 cores CPU cores and can provide satellite positioning data for...

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Tecno Camon 18T brings Helio G85 and 48MP selfie cam

Tecno’s Camon 18 series keeps expanding and the latest member is the Camon 18T. Following up on the budget-friendly Camon 18i, Tecno’s Camon 18T brings the looks of the more premium Camon 18 models but relies on MediaTek’s less capable Helio G85 chipset. Tecno Camon 18T in Iris Purple, Dusk Gray and Ceramic White You still get a 6.8-inch IPS LCD with FHD+ resolution and a punch-hole cutout for the 48MP selfie cam. There’s also a dual-LED flash system to help out your selfies. Going around the back we find another 48MP sensor alongside a 2MP macro cam and 2MP depth helper....

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Xiaomi to launch a 120W charging phone in India next month

Xiaomi sub-brand Redmi today announced the Redmi Note 11T 5G in India, which is a rebranded Redmi Note 11 launched in China last month. The Note 11 series also includes the Note 11 Pro and Note 11 Pro+, with the latter being the fastest charging among the trio as it goes up to 120W. There's no word yet from Xiaomi about the launch of the Note 11 Pro+ in India, but a new media report claims the smartphone could arrive in the Asian country before January, meaning sometime next month. However, like the vanilla Note 11, the Pro+ model is also expected to come with a different moniker - Redmi...

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Leak: the Honor 60 Pro will have larger display and a 50MP ultra wide camera

A leak from yesterday detailed the Honor 60 specs, but the Pro variant managed to keep its secretes. Until today that is, as leakster Ishan Agarwal has discovered what the upgrades will be over the vanilla model. The Honor 60 Pro will feature a 50 MP sensor in its ultra wide camera (sensor size unknown). The lens will have an f/2.2 aperture and autofocus, allowing it to shoot macro photography. For comparison, the vanilla model will have an 8 MP sensor. The selfie camera on the front may be another upgrade with a 50 MP sensor (it’s just that the selfie cam on the vanilla phone is...

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MIUI 13 to come pre-installed on new Redmi K50 series

Xiaomi is expected to launch the MIUI 13 later this year, likely alongside the Xiaomi 12 flagship line. The latest reports are the user interface will also come pre-installed in all Redmi K50 smartphones. Digital Chat Station claimed on Weibo that the Redmi K50 phones with Dimensity 7000 and Dimensity 9000 will be underperforming compared to their siblings powered by new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chips. The Redmi K40 lineup consists of four devices and has three different chipsets. We expect even more diversity with the new lineup - the Redmi K50 (or Redmi K50 SE) will be powered...

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Redmi Note 11T 5G launches in India with Dimensity 810 and 33W charging

Redmi India held their latest product launch keynote earlier today in India where we saw the debut of the Redmi Note 11T 5G. It’s a direct successor to last year’s Redmi Note 10T 5G and matches the vanilla Redmi Note 11 in all its key specs. Redmi Note 11T 5G in Aquamarine Blue, Stardust White and Matte Black Redmi Note 11T 5G brings a 6.6-inch IPS LCD with a 90Hz refresh rate and a punch-hole cutout for its 16MP selfie cam. It utilizes MediaTek’s Dimensity 810 5G chipset paired with 6/8GB RAM and 64/128GB storage. You only get a 50MP main shooter and an 8MP ultrawide snapper around...

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