Category: Cell Phone

There have been some alleged leaks and glimpses of the Xiaomi Mi 11 and Mi 11 Pro, and fortunately concept designer Ben Geskin has come up with a terrific render of what he thinks the regular model could look like, based on the numerous whispers that have been shared online about the device. The design is sophisticated, with the rear-facing camera unit catching the eye in a positive manner with its already rumored square housing and large main sensor (108 MP?) clearly visible.

From the front there is little to notice in this concept Mi 11 apart from the subtle punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera in the top left-hand corner. The display will supposedly be a quad-curve type, although that is not plainly obvious in the Xiaomi Mi 11 render. If the real thing ends up looking this elegant, it will likely win many fans solely by its appearance. However, Xiaomi will also stuff its next flagship smartphone to the gills with desirable high-end components, including the new Snapdragon 888 SoC.

One of those key parts is the battery, and new certification shared online recently hints at the Xiaomi Mi 11 possibly coming with a dual-battery system that would amount to somewhere in the region of a 5,000-mAh total battery capacity. Noted leaker Digital Chat Station also states that this particular device, which could be the Mi 11 but might also be a different smartphone from the same company, can manage 55 W fast charging and have its depleted battery refilled in just 35 minutes.

Rollable phones are an emerging alternatives to foldables, and currently exist as concept or prototype devices in the hands of OEMs such as OPPO, TCL and LG. Now, there is a new hint that the latter is getting them ready for consumers as well.

It comes in the form of a certification for a device called the LM-R910N, which, according to the leaker Tron (or @cozyplanes on Twitter), LG has had approved as an unlocked and carrier-locked phone in South Korea.

This tipster – who also broke the news that this OEM has a new, 16-inch Gram laptop in the works – asserts that it is Project B, the code-name for LG’s first-gen rollable.

Assuming this new leak is accurate, it may be a sign that LG is gearing up to launch “Project B” some time in 2021. It may even be a sign that the OEM aims to be the first to get a extendable display device onto the market, beating others such as the OPPO X 2021 to the punch.

Should this be the case, it may be hoped that this new form-factor will not eventually meet the same fate as other innovative smartphones such as the G Flex series.

Motorola wants to recapture some of the ground it lost in the high-end smartphone market. While the Motorola Edge+ may not have made as much of an impression as Motorola hoped it would, it hasn’t dissuaded the company from trying again in 2021. A Motorola spokesperson has confirmed that a Snapdragon 888-powered smartphone is in the works.

Motorola seems to have learned a thing or two from the Motorola Edge+. For starters, Motorola, a company renowned for making low-cost smartphones, cannot launch a US$999 flagship device and expect people to flock to it. The only way out is to target the new ‘affordable flagship’ segment that is dominated by the likes of Realme and Redmi. That is why Motorola has decided to launch its Snapdragon 888-powered smartphone as a part of the Moto G series.

An affordable flagship in the Moto G series will resonate well with long-time fans and new buyers. Even if it priced at around US$500, users wouldn’t mind paying a little extra for top-of-the-line hardware. However, it’ll be a while before we know anything about it, as the smartphone isn’t due for release until late 2021.

Xiaomi may have just teased the release of the Mi 11 series following Qualcomm’s announcement of the Snapdragon 888, but Realme has a new flagship up its sleeve too. Realme has revealed little about the smartphone so far, bar that it will feature the Snapdragon 888 and that it is codenamed ‘Race’.

The company is yet to confirm when it will even announce the Race. Nonetheless, it has hinted that the device will be arriving in at least Europe and India.

Thankfully, GSMArena is onhand to fill in the blanks. According to a screenshot published by the website, the Race will launch with realmeUI V2.0, which is a custom version of Android 11. Additionally, the device will have 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. A microSD card reader is seemingly out of contention for the device, though.

The same screenshot states that Realme has assigned the model number RMX2202 to the Race. With that said, a device by this model number is yet to appear on authorities like the FCC. GSMArena has also provided a supposed photo of the Realme Race, which shows quad rear-facing cameras arranged in a circular housing and a curved glass back. There are no details on the camera sensors that Realme has included in the Race, though.

Plenty has already been speculated about the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro, from the publication of multiple renders to several benchmark appearances. However, OnePlus reputedly has a third version of the OnePlus 9 series planned. According to the usually well-informed Max Jambor, OnePlus will release a smartphone called the OnePlus 9E, a name that has not been spoken of until now.

It is currently unclear if the OnePlus 9E will be an entry into OnePlus’ flagship range or a step between the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus Nord series. Jambor adds that ‘OnePlus is trying a similar approach to Samsung’ insofar as offering handsets across all price points.

Either way, we imagine that OnePlus will continue to reserve wireless charging and an IP rating for its ‘Pro’ smartphones, so the OnePlus 9E will probably arrive with neither of these. We would expect OnePlus to include an AMOLED panel with a high-refresh-rate though, as it is accustomed to do these days. Similarly, the OnePlus 9E is likely to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, although which remains unclear. If the OnePlus 9E represents an expansion of the current OnePlus flagship roster, then we would expect it to have a Snapdragon 875.

On the other hand, a Snapdragon 775G may be in order if OnePlus has decided to pitch the OnePlus 9E as a step below the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro. Regardless, the OnePlus 9E is expected to arrive in March 2021 alongside the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro.

We may have only just reviewed the Galaxy A31, but Steve Hemmerstoffer (OnLeaks) has already revealed the design of a successor. Presumably planned for release in spring 2021, Hemmerstoffer claims that the device will be called the Galaxy A32 5G.

The renders published by Hemmerstoffer show that Samsung has made several changes from the Galaxy A31. The South Korean company has ditched the rectangular camera unit of this year’s models, for example, although the cameras on the Galaxy A32 5G are still arranged vertically. There is a fourth sensor though, which is new.

In fact, the Galaxy A32 5G resembles the LG Velvet more than it does its predecessor. The Galaxy A32 5G will have plastic back though, unlike LG’s mid-range handset. The back will also be flat. Apparently, Samsung has designed the Galaxy A32 5G with a 6.5-inch display, which pushes its dimensions to 164.2 x 76.1 x 9.1 mm.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy A32 5G will have a 3.5 mm jack too, along with a USB Type-C port and a fingerprint scanner. The latter will be integrated within the device’s power button. The chipset and battery capacity underpinning the Galaxy A32 5G remain unknown for the moment, though.

Some recent leaks have pointed toward the possibility that the Galaxy Z Fold series will absorb the Galaxy Note line in coming years. This is due to rumors of the “Galaxy Z Fold3” having pen support, which has been beyond its predecessors due to the fragility of their flexible AMOLED screens. However, this improvement may prove a disadvantage to some Samsung fans.

The leaker MauriQHD has posted a new tweet that could be interpreted as meaning that the Galaxy Z Fold2 and its eventual successor could launch for around the same price. Therefore, should this third-gen Fold really subsume stylus functions and features, its cost could get prohibitive for some potential customers, even if they have for example been interested in the Note line since the original N7000.

Then again, the latest indications are that there may be a final Galaxy Note 21 in 2021 after all. Perhaps it will be refreshing to move on from its form-factor after that year after all – so long as it becomes more economical, of course. In the meantime, it may be interesting to see how the ultra-thin glass (UTG) in the putative Z Fold3 works out in the presence of S Pen use after all.

Huawei flagship phones or phablets have built up a good reputation of setting the DxOMark standard on their launch. Now, the OEM has reportedly developed a new way of potentially staying ahead of the competition. They comprise a new form of lens that might make the camera in question quicker to focus in the future.

According to a new report in the Chinese media, it is based on an (unspecified) type of liquid that changes shape in response to changes in the voltage acting on it. This, apparently, can bring focus latencies down to the millisecond range, or closer to that of the human eye.

Should this new rumor prove accurate, it could be quite the coup for Huawei. This OEM already boasts of having the best dual 10x optical zoom on the market; improving on this with ultra-fast auto-focus could be the next big thing for the company – marketing-wise, at least.

In addition, it could make teardown videos of the future that much more interesting. They may not be too far away, as the respected leaker Digital Chat Station asserts that these “liquid lenses” are to be first paired with the upcoming Sony IMX782 sensor. It is also allegedly destined to be part of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro as a telephoto camera.

The OPPO Reno4 series originally launched in June 2020. Despite this, it seems the OEM is forging ahead with a new generation for these phones. An earlier leak has suggested that the base-model 5 would not deviate from the Snapdragon 765G found in its predecessors. However, it now seems the Pro variant might be a very different story.

A new device, the “OPPO PDST00”, has appeared on Geekbench 5 with a platform called the ARM MT6889Z/CZA. This processor has also been seen in the Vivo V1986A ahead of its launch. This device turned out to be the iQOO Z1, and does indeed have the Dimensity 1000+.

Its new potential rival has scored exactly 3000 in multi-core Geekbench tests, which outdoes most of the iQOO’s results in the same respect to varying degrees. This possible Reno 5 Pro has been joined by another unfamiliar OPPO phone, the PEGM00, on this website.

It has a Qualcomm processor with the code-name lito: the 765G, in other words. Both of these possibly upcoming devices have about 8GB of RAM and run Android 11. Therefore, should they really be the successors to the Reno4 and 4 Pro 5G, they may now not be too far from a launch.

Multiple teasers and leaks have already revealed plenty about Xiaomi’s next mid-range smartphones, as we have reported. The devices have been seen on Geekbench too, but now photos of the devices and their packaging have been published online. The pictures confirm that Xiaomi will announce the Redmi Note 9 5G and Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G, but the company is expected to release a third device, too.

According to the leaked photos, the Redmi Note 9 5G and Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G will have 6,000 mAh batteries, giving them an advantage over many modern smartphones. A capacity of 6,000 mAh is also much larger than most of Xiaomi’s flagship smartphones, which typically have 4,000 mAh or 5,000 mAh cells.

Additionally, the leaks confirm that the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G has a 108 MP primary camera, making it the first Redmi handset to use such a high megapixel sensor. A few Xiaomi smartphones have 108 MP cameras, but none as cheap as the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G, which is thought to launch for CNY 3,000 (~US$456).

The Redmi Note 9 5G will arrive with MediaTek’s Dimensity 800U chipset, while the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G will have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 750G. Moreover, the Pro model should have a 6.67-inch and 120 Hz display, four rear-facing cameras and even a 3.5 mm headphone jack. We would expect the regular Redmi Note 9 5G to have the latter component too, though.