Category: Cell Phone

Supposed Redmi K40 live images have leaked online, likely originally via Chinese social media. The photos show how much the K40 has evolved in comparison with the Redmi K30, and it should excite fans of the series in general. There are rumors that the flagship-killing Redmi K40, which could end up with an SD 888 and AMOLED panel, could be released around the same time as the Xiaomi Mi 11 – towards the end of December.

The leaked live images show the alleged Redmi K40 from the front and back. The Redmi K30 had a dual-camera setup at the front that was situated in the top right-hand corner, but as can be seen in the real-world photos of the Redmi K40 (see below), these have been exchanged for a simple and subtle punch-hole cutout in the top center of the display. This should leave more screen real estate for owners to utilize.

The rear-facing main camera setup of the Redmi K40 has completely evolved from the K30. Whereas the predecessor had a line of four lenses in a central circular housing, the Redmi K40 sports a stadium-shaped housing on the top left-hand side that appears to feature five cameras and the flash. The words “ultra premium” can be seen in the camera bump, too. It certainly seems that Xiaomi has some surprises in store for the end of 2020.

Vivo has finally confirmed that its upcoming X60 flagship series will launch on December 29, 2020. This event may represent some interesting changes for the OEM, not the least in that it is to adopt the Exynos 1080 SoC for these phones rather than Snapdragon silicon as usual.

The devices should also be the OEM’s first premium products to ship with its new Android skin, OriginOS, and may also integrate 120Hz displays across all variants this time. Then again, the Vivo X60s may be similar to their predecessors in that they will have a larger-than-average main shooter in their rear camera array.

Vivo has also let it be known that at least 1 of these phones’ cameras has been designed as a result of a new collaboration with the lens specialist Zeiss. A new official teaser shows this company’s branding on the X60s’ new camera hump, whereas other renders show that the same exhibits text indicating that it has “Vario-Tessar 1.48-3.4/16-125 ASPH” technology from the same firm.

Zeiss and Vivo might offer more details on these indications at their joint press conference on this new collaboration, which will take place ahead of the X60 launch on December 17, 2020. Meanwhile, the former has given no hints as to what this new business move could mean for its existing partnership with Nokia.

Some recent official leaks from TENAA have all but confirmed that successors to the Reno4 and 4 Pro 5G are on their way. However, it seems OPPO is not about to stop there, and is working on a new premium variant for this smartphone series. Provisionally known as the Reno5 Pro+, it is expected to run on the Snapdragon 865 SoC.

This new tip comes courtesy of the Weibo leaker @Whylab via Abishek Yadav on Twitter. Should the English-language translation for this post hold up, it seems the Pro+ will also debut with interesting rear panel choices.

They are apparently finished in either some kind of leather – or, alternatively, an electrochromic material. This may mean that the resulting rear panel may be capable of changing its color or transparency in response to a current acting on it.

Furthermore, Whylab nows seems to have a reason to expect that the Pro+ will have a 50MP main shooter – which, moreover, will come from the heretofore-unreleased Sony IMX7xx series. Therefore, this entire package might sell for a pretty penny.

Then again, consumers in a position to spend less on a new Reno can also potentially consider its 4G variant. It is projected to have the Snapdragon 720G processor. Despite this putative budget choice, it is also predicted to have a 90 hertz (Hz) refresh rate for its 6.43-inch FHD+ AMOLED display.

This Reno5 4G’s new leak also claims that it will have 64+8+2+2MP cameras, along with a 44MP selfie camera. However, it is also said to have a plastic rear panel and frame. It is currently thought that it, along with its 5G, Pro and Pro+ siblings, might launch as early as December 10, 2020.

Foldable smartphones could become a thing of the past, again, as more smartphone companies delve deeper into rollable technology. Firms like OPPO have already teased such a flexible device, and unsurprisingly it appears that Xiaomi doesn’t want to be left off this particular bandwagon. LetsGoDigital has found a patent for a rollable phone from Xiaomi that incorporates the dual display design of the Mi Mix Alpha.

Thanks to Jermaine Smit, also known as Concept Creator, we can get a better look at the device, which has been given the moniker Xiaomi Mi Alpha R, in some renders and a video (see below). The smartphone looks just like the Mi Mix Alpha at first glance, but it then shows that it has a retractable or pull-out display due to the inventive utilization of rollable screen technology.

The Mi Alpha R is easily converted from smartphone size to tablet size thanks to the retractable screen, and the mechanism’s construction and design means that the display shouldn’t be obstructed with creases or lines, even when touched. Of course, this is just a patent and therefore the Xiaomi rollable phone might never be produced, but even if it was manufactured you could certainly expect a sky-high price tag for this one.

The first sighting of the next Moto G Stylus has been seen online. Funnily enough, Amazon US published its listing of the device, before swiftly taking it down again. Nonetheless, a contributor on /LEAKS republished a screenshot of the listing and several photos from it, as can be seen below.

The Moto G Stylus (2021) is expected, as its name suggests, to go on sale from next year. The Amazon US listing does not offer all the specifications of the device, but it does provide a few insights. For example, we know that Motorola has equipped it with a 5G chipset, although it is unclear which one it has chosen. Speculatively, we imagine that the Moto G Stylus (2021) will have the Snapdragon 690, seeing as its predecessor, the Moto G Stylus, has the Snapdragon 665.

Amazon US also reports that the new Moto G Stylus has 4 GB of RAM and will ship with Android 10. Additionally, the contributor on /LEAKS adds that the listing described the device having a 4,000 mAh battery. Moreover, the pictures show that the Moto G Stylus (2021) has a 48 MP primary camera, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a USB Type-C port.

Finally, the Moto G Stylus (2021) will retail for US$339.95. It is unclear from when in 2021 the device will be available, though.

The burgeoning Galaxy F series from Samsung is now touted to get a new member called the F62 in the near future. It has popped up in a benchmarking leak thus far, the most interesting aspect of which is possibly its apparent Exynos 9825 SoC: a processor being recycled here from its original appearance as the platform in the Galaxy Note 10 and 10+.

Despite this potential former flagship silicon, it is looking more and more like this Galaxy F62 will be a budget device, especially compared to these phablets. A rear panel that might correspond to the phone has been captured in images posted by 91Mobiles.

They show a particularly generic take on the square rear camera design, with a plain black finish that is clearly a fingerprint magnet and (according to the blog) likely to be made of the OEM’s glasstic in place of anything higher-end.

This F62 – or, as the latest rumors suggest, possibly the E62 instead so as to fit in with its SM-E62F model number – is also now said to be at the mass-production stage at a Samsung facility in Greater Noida, India.

This is (again) a strong hint that it will also debut in this country. It may do so with 6GB of RAM and Android 11 out of the box, although further specs on this potentially upcoming phone remain unknown at this time.

More details about the Galaxy S21 series have been revealed ahead of the anticipated launch earlier next year. The designs of the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra have already been revealed this week, and now Ice Universe has revealed details about the state of their primary biometric authentication method.

According to the leaker, the trio of devices will have much faster and larger UD fingerprint scanners than those that Samsung included in the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra. Specifically, Ice Universe claims that Samsung has doubled the speed of its fingerprint sensor between generations, and it should now be fast enough to ‘tap to unlock’ a Galaxy S21 series handset, rather than having to press its screen. The leaker adds that the sensor measures 64 mm², making it 1.77x the size of the sensor found in the Galaxy S20 series.

Additionally, the FCC has inadvertently confirmed that there will be Snapdragon 888 versions of the Galaxy S21 series. As the screenshot below shows, documentation for the Galaxy S21, referred to by its model number SM-G991U, states that it has an SM8350 chipset, which is the model number of Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset.

The US will be one of the countries in which Samsung sells Snapdragon 888-powered versions of the Galaxy S21 series based on the FCC filing, but it is unclear where else Snapdragon SKUs will appear. Samsung sells the Snapdragon version of the Galaxy S20 FE globally, but there is no indication that this will be the case with future Galaxy S handsets. Other Galaxy S21 series handsets should come with the Exynos 2100, which Samsung has hinted that it will unveil on December 15.

At the Snapdragon 888 launch earlier, Qualcomm confirmed that at least 12 OEMs have committed to using the chipset in their smartphones. It is expected to make its debut alongside the Xiaomi Mi 11 at the end of December 2020. Several Geekbench listings of devices running the silicon have surfaced, giving us a decent idea about its performance. An alleged ASUS ROG Phone 4 Geekbench listing has now shown up online.

Twitter leaker @Stufflistings (via Mysmartprice) stumbled upon what appears to be the ASUS’ upcoming gaming smartphone running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. Its single and multi-core scores of 1,081 and 3,584 fall in line with the silicon’s earlier Geekbench showings. However, it is unclear if the device in question is indeed the ASUS ROG Phone 4. In all likelihood, it could be the ZenFone 8. After all, ASUS was in the habit of launching its ZenFone-branded flagships before the similarly-specced ROG counterparts until 2019. Very little is revealed about the smartphone in this particular listing, so it’s hard to tell.

If the ASUS ROG Phone 3’s release date is anything to go by, the ASUS ROG Phone 4 might not hit the shelves until August 2021. However, the smartphone appearing on Geekbench this early indicates that ASUS may launch it earlier than usual. Qualcomm seems to have clocked the chipset’s Cortex-X1 core at a conservative 2.8GHz. ASUS can potentially overclock it to run at much higher speeds, thanks to the unique cooling solutions it uses on its gaming smartphones.

Nokia still has time to live up to rumors of new hardware launches before 2021 begins. The 5.4 is allegedly one of the devices in question, and, based on its name, may do so to succeed the 5.3. However, according to a new leak, it may not be a direct translation of that phone’s collection of hardware specs.

Earlier tips have indicated that this putative new x.4 smartphone would debut with a 6.39-inch display, much like the Nokia 3.4. A new one claims to confirm this detail – with the additional kicker that it may be an LCD HD+ panel.

It is also now asserted that the 5.4 will have a footprint very similar to the pre-exising budget device: 160.97 x 75.99 x 8.70 millimeters (mm), with a weight of 182 grams (g).

This latest report also claims that the 5.4 will run on the Snapdragon 662 SoC, whereas the 5.3 has the 665, a very similar 11nm processor that could be perceived as superior as all its 8 cores are clocked at 2.2GHz, whereas those of the 662 can start at 1.8GHz instead. Then again, this could make that chip more power-efficient.

That might be as well, as the 5.4 is now apparently destined for a 4000mAh battery. It might improve on the 5.3 in that it has 128GB of internal storage, yet may stick with 4GB of RAM whereas the older handset has 6GB options.

The Nokia 5.4 is also now said to have 48+5+2+2MP quad rear cameras, a 16MP selife camera, a rear-facing fingerprint sensor and (despite its peri-2021 status) Android 10 out of the box. However, its latest leak still does not include a concrete date for its introduction.

A YouTube-based leaker’s latest video revolves around what seems to be a live image of actual S21-series handsets. These devices, photographed from the back by a source sakitech claims wishes to remain anonymous, echo the new design linked to the phones in previous rumors, right down to the new kind of camera-hump.

The vlogger points out that the S21 Ultra (the larger of the 2 phones featured in the new still image) has 5 round cut-outs in its pronounced module. Its appearance may have been what led to talk of a penta-camera set-up for this flagship in prior reports. However, there are in fact only 4 lenses visible in this photo, accompanied by a flash and what is now thought to confer laser auto-focus on the phone.

sakitech also now asserts that the actual cameras consist of a 108MP main shooter (possibly the ISOCELL Bright HM3 sensor) with a 12MP ultra-wide camera, rounded out by the dual telephoto solution hinted at in prior leaks. One of these is ostensibly a periscope lens for the rumored 10X spec, whereas the other might handle 3X zoom duties.

The “S21+” next to this phone, on the other hand, is now projected to have two 12MP shooters, one of which is to be for ultra-wide functions, accompanied by a third that, while 64MP in resolution, is slated not to be the primary sensor but is (again) a zoom lens.

These specs may mean these S21 variants pack improvements in the camera department compared to their predecessors, although only to a certain extent, according to sakitech.

This latest S21+/Ultra leak also suggests that Samsung has chosen matte finishes for the rest of their casings, a detail that has been put to good use in the artist Snoreyn’s latest renders for LetsGoDigital. Then again, there are no guarantees this will translate to real-world units sold in 2021 as yet.

These new images also integrate the latest tips on S21 specs and esthetics from other sources such as Ice Universe. Finally, the same blog also now predicts that the new series will start at about €900 (~US$1090) on its release to the European market.