India seizes $725 million of Xiaomi assets over illegal payments

Xiaomi India had $725 million from its bank accounts seized by the Enforcement Directorate over the weekend. The state organization said the Indian division of the Chinese manufacturer remitted the equivalent of INR55.5 billion to three foreign-based entities in breach of foreign exchange laws. Manu Kumar Jain, Xiaomi Global VP The directorate stated the huge amounts of royalties were remitted (gifted to other parties) by Xiaomi Technology India Private Limited on the instructions of their Chinese parent company. It was done “for the ultimate benefit of the Xiaomi group” in breach of...

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Samsung Galaxy A33 5G in for review

The Galaxy A33 5G is Samsung's latest entry into the compact midrange class and it's a great little phone. It has a good set of specs, looks and feels solid, particularly when you consider its price. What lets it down a bit is its retail package - you get a USB cable and a SIM tool. Fans of reasonably-sized phones will like the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G. It has what many consider the Goldilocks display size of 6.4-inch and that results in a practical sub-160mm, sub-190g frame. The phone feels great in the hand and its matte finish delivers a quality feel. It does nothing to repel...

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Xiaomi 12 Pro goes on sale in India today

The Xiaomi 12 Pro announced in China last December will go on sale in India today starting at noon local time through Mi.com, Mi Home stores, Amazon.in, and other retail partners across the country. The Xiaomi 12 Pro comes in three colors in India with two memory options - 8GB/256GB and 12GB/256GB, priced at INR62,999 ($825/€785) and INR66,999 ($875/€835), respectively. But with discounts and introductory offers, you can get the phone for up to INR10,000 ($130/€125) less. The Xiaomi 12 Pro has the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC at the helm and boots Android 12-based MIUI 13. It's built...

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Top 10 trending phones of week 17

The five-week reign of the Galaxy A53 is finally at an end as the newly announced Poco F4 GT just edged it out for the top spot. The Samsung mid-ranger had to settle for the silver medal, while its stablemate Galaxy A73 rose a couple of spots to join it on the podium. The Redmi Note 11 drops to fourth position, while the Galaxy S22 Ultra is now down in fifth. The Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max has gained a spot to place sixth ahead of another phone on the rise - the Xiaomi 12 Pro is up two positions. We then have new announcement OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite in eight and Galaxy A52s in...

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Huawei MatePad Paper review

Huawei keeps bringing in substantial revenues, thanks to the diversification of its consumer business and introducing more smart devices into its portfolio to make up for the missing smartphone sales. During MWC 2022 we saw its first e-ink tablet Huawei MatePad Paper, and after spending some quality time with it, we are ready with our review. This device tries to position itself in the golden mean between well-known e-readers and fully-fledged tablets. It has powerful internals, a lovely body, a big screen and features that put it in a unique spot where it has no competition. Let’s...

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Oppo Enco X2 review

Introduction Oppo’s flagship wireless earbuds for this year are in and they promise to deliver the best sound and noise cancellation from the brand to date. Developed in collaboration with Danish audio experts Dynaudio, Oppo’s Enco X2 offer almost every imaginable TWS earphone feature you could think of. There’s active noise cancellation, dual device pairing, support for the LHDC audio codec, an IP54 rating, wireless charging and a combined battery life rated at 40-hours of listening. We reviewed the first generation Oppo Enco X earphones last year and found them to be one of the...

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Week 17 in review: Oppo K10, Moto Edge 30, Vivo X80, Poco F4 GT official

The last week of April was a big one, announcements-wise. Oppo unveiled the K10 5G and K10 Pro in China. The K10 5G has a 6.59-inch IPS LCD of 120Hz refresh rate, Dimensity 8000 Max chipset, 64MP main camera, and a 5,000mAh battery. The K10 Pro has a 6.62-inch 120Hz AMOLED, a Snapdragon 888 chip, a 50MP main camera, and a 5,000mAh battery. The two handsets are offered in Black and Blue colors, but they are slightly different from one another. The standard K10 5G starts at CNY 1,999 (~$310), while the Pro option sells for CNY 2,499 (~$385) Motorola brought the Edge 30 with a Snapdragon...

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Poco Watch in for review

Fresh off its announcement, we have the new Poco Watch in for testing. This is Poco's first foray into smart wearables and it's in keeping with the company's doctrine - nice features at aggressive price. The Poco Watch is just €79 and is on sale from now. It comes in a simple box with the watch itself (ours is the Black but there are also Blue and Gold versions) as well as a proprietary pin charger. Controls and features on the Poco Watch are on par with the rest of the market - there's a single button that wakes the watch and then takes you to the app screen or back to the...

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The scrolling on the OnePlus 10 Pro is bad, and OnePlus should feel bad

The OnePlus 10 Pro has a major scrolling problem, and it makes the phone borderline unusable. To put it simply, the phone exhibits massive stutters and delays when scrolling in certain apps. My understanding is that this is brought about by the way OnePlus has configured the dynamic refresh rate system on the display. Before going any further, here is a demonstration of how this works. First, let me try scrolling through an average Instagram timeline, which over the course of time has come to be populated with more videos than photos. The significance of this will be explained...

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Weekly poll: are the vivo X80 and X80 Pro picture perfect or do you see some flaws?

vivo’s next camera-obsessed flagships are here – the X80 series proudly displays the ZEISS branding and uses some impressive image sensors. But is it enough for you to part with your hard-earned cash? We should note that the two phones were unveiled in China this week, but the global launch is scheduled for next Sunday. So, for now we will be working with Chinese pricing. The vivo X80 Pro starts at CNY 5,500 ($840/€790/₹63,700). It is kitted out with a lot of custom hardware, including the 1/1.3” 50MP ISOCELL GNV sensor and the upgraded vivo V1+ ISP. The main camera has a very bright...

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