Month: October 2020

The Redmi K30 Ultra turned out to be an exciting mid-range smartphone in our review, and it hardly offers any real weaknesses considering its price range. The Redmi phone, which is so far only designed for the Chinese market, combines a bright 120 Hz OLED panel with an appealing configuration and a very nice look. In addition, there’s the very powerful MediaTek Dimensity 1000+, with which the K30 Ultra sets new standards in the mid-range.

The MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ is a 7 nm SoC that integrates four fast Cortex-A77 cores as well as four power-saving cores (Cortex-A55). The graphics unit consists of a Mali-G77 MP9. In addition, according to MediaTek, the APU 3.0 of the Dimensity 1000+ is supposed to achieve a theoretical peak performance of 4.5 TOPS through its six AI processors.

In our benchmark package, the K30 Ultra places itself at the front line. Especially in the graphics benchmarks, the K30 Ultra often offers twice as high frame rates as the comparison smartphones with the Snapdragon 765G. The latter also has a positive effect in our gaming test, as the FPS values are above average here too. But the Redmi phone also achieves a performance that is higher by a third in the multi-core score of the Geekbench test. All in all, the K30 Ultra is more at the level of a Snapdragon 855 Plus than on the one of its mid-range competition.

Would you like to take a closer look at the benchmark results or get a detailed impression of the Redmi K30 Ultra? We recommend then our review of the Xiaomi smartphone.

Rumors about OnePlus working on two low-cost smartphones have been around for quite some time now. Both phones leaked in their entirety a few days ago. The leak also prophesized that OnePlus would make the OnePlus Nord N100 and Nord N10 5G on October 26. OnePlus has slyly released both phones on its website, without the usual fanfare that has always accompanied its product releases.

The OnePlus Nord N10 5G is, for all practical purposes, a scaled-down OnePlus Nord. As foretold by earlier reports, it is the world’s first smartphone to run Qualcomm’s 5G-ready Snapdragon 690 SoC. However, its rear camera array is a tad better than the OnePlus Nord, as it employs a 64MP wide-angle lens as its primary sensor (the Nord has a 48MP lens). The remaining lenses -8MP ultrawide, 5MP depth, 2MP macro- are identical across both smartphones. The Nord N10 5G ditches its sibling’s dual-selfie camera setup and settles for a single 16MP lens.

OnePlus is one of the few OEMs that is committed to bringing high-refresh-rate displays to the mid-range. The Nord N10 5G comes with a 6.4-inch FHD IPS LCD panel clocked at 90Hz. A layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protects the display that has no official IP rating. Its 4,300mAh battery supports fast charging at up to 30W. At €329 (US$388), the OnePlus Nord N10 5G is only marginally cheaper than its better-specced sibling. There appears to be only one variant of the device with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. OnePlus will announce its North American price and availability soon.

Unlike the OnePlus Nord N10 5G, the OnePlus Nord N100 is in no way comparable to the original Nord. Retailing at €179 (US$211), it is the first ‘budget’ OnePlus phone to hit the shelves since the company’s inception. It bears all the marking of an entry-level device, with its Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 SoC, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. The marginally large 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel has an HD+ resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. One of the most significant differences between the Nord N10 5G and Nord N100 is in its cameras, with the latter using a triple camera array (13MP wide-angle, 2MP macro, 2MP depth) that is a lot less formidable than the former’s setup. Thankfully, the phone’s colossal 5,000mAh battery supports fast charging at 18W.

Apart from the obvious compromises in the type of panel used, camera setup, and hardware, the OnePlus Nord N10 5G and N100 also lack some minor features. The under-display fingerprint sensor is replaced with a rear-mounted capacitive model. Support for aptX HD is absent on both phones too. Interestingly enough, OnePlus has opted to ship these devices with stereo speakers, which the Nord lacks.

The executive Lei Jun has reportedly announced that the Redmi K30S will debut in China tomorrow (October 27, 2020). As this brand’s parent company Xiaomi is still observing its 10-year anniversary, it is also to be known as the Commemorative Edition. However, it seems customers in other markets will not miss out on this phone.

Jun has also conceded that this ‘new’ phone is also known as the Xiaomi Mi 10T on the global market, thus confirming several leaks suggesting that is indeed the case. Therefore, it seems this K30S will make a departure from the round camera-hump motif of the rest of its series for the first time.

Mi Fans in China can also expect a 6.67-inch display with a 144Hz refresh rate, even if it is also LCD. It may have 12GB RAM options paired with the Snapdragon 865 SoC. Despite these flagship specs, however, it is rumored to go for an attractive price.

Currently, it is thought to start at around 2499 yuan (~US$372). By contrast, the Mi 10T started at €499 (~$590). Xiaomi’s CEO has also noted that it will be released during China’s annual 11.11 sales event, which may indeed set the promise of a good price for this Commemorative Edition in stone.

The iPhone 12 series is still fresh from the oven, but rumor tidbits about next year’s iPhones have already started making their way online. This year’s iPhones sport great hardware no doubt, but they disappointed prospective buyers in one major aspect — lack of high-refresh rate displays, which has almost become a staple feature in the Android world today. The iPhone 13 (or whatever it will be called) may finally include high-refresh rate displays similar to the iPad Pro.

Replying to YouTuber Sam Sheffer on Twitter, known Apple leaker Jon Prosser seems to be confident that the iPhone 13 will indeed sport 120 Hz displays. Prosser also ruled out the possibility of USB-C and predicted a 50-50 chance for an in-display fingerprint sensor on the next wave of Apple iPhones.

While many expected Apple to move to a more universal USB-C charging solution, the iPhone 12 still uses the company’s proprietary Lightning connector. However, with Apple introducing the MagSafe ecosystem that enables easy wireless charging and hooking up compatible accessories, we may not see a USB-C port on the iPhone at all. In fact, Prosser even goes on to say that Apple may make upcoming iPhones completely portless. Of course, this also depends on how well the MagSafe ecosystem matures in the next year or so.

The other new feature that will surely make its way to the iPhone 13 (at least on the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max models) is Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X60 5G modem. The iPhone 12 series uses the Snapdragon X55 5G modem since that was the latest available Qualcomm offering during the iPhone 12 development process. Now, an excerpt from the Apple-Qualcomm settlement filing unearthed first by Danny Walsh on Twitter and posted by MacRumors reads,

Apple intends to commercially launch (i) New Models of Apple Products during the time period between June 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021 (the “2020 Launch”), some of which use the SDX55 Qualcomm Chipset, (ii) New Models of Apple Products during the time period between June 1, 2021 and May 31, 2022 (the “2021 Launch”), some of which use the SDX60 Qualcomm Chipset, and (iii) New Models of Apple Products during the time period between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2024 (the “2022/23 Launch”), some of which use the SDX65 or SDX70 Qualcomm Chipsets (each a “Launch” and collectively the “Launches”).”

For those not in the know, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon X60 5G modem in February this year. The Snapdragon X60 is fabbed on TSMC’s 5 nm process and can aggregate 5G mmWave and sub-6 GHz bands while also supporting aggregation of sub-6 GHz TDD and FDD bands so that carriers can maximize spectrum usage and capacity by combining the high performance of mmWave with the wider range of sub-6 GHz. The Snapdragon X60 modem also supports Voice over New Radio, which alleviates the need to fallback on 4G for voice usage.

The torrent of Galaxy S21 series leaks that we’ve seen in the past few weeks almost certainly confirm that Samsung plans on releasing it early (mid-January 2021, by some estimates) this time around. Several leakers have emphasized that the devices will come with a flat display, with the notable exception of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which will feature a ‘slightly’ curved screen, if a new leak is to be believed.

Twitter leaker @not_koh suggests that the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s display will be more or less identical to that of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with marginally better color accuracy and support for Dolby Vision. As foretold by several reports, the Galaxy S21 Ultra will be the first of its kind to support S Pen inputs. Whether or not it will ship with an S Pen out of the box remains to be seen. The screen might even be able to run at 1440p 120Hz, but that remains unconfirmed. Support for variable refresh rate operation is allegedly in the books, too. Another leaker weighs in stating that it will have a diagonal length of 6.8-inches. Both tipsters agree that the Galaxy S21 Ultra will cost around US$1,300.

Samsung appears to have taken a page or two from Huawei’s playbook while designing the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s cameras. The primary 108MP ISOCELL HM2 Bright sensor will be assisted by a 16MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 10MP (2x optical zoom) telephoto lens, and a second 10MP (5x optical zoom) periscope telephoto lens. Unfortunately, we have to wait a bit longer for an under-display camera, as the Galaxy S21 will use the tried-and-tested hole-punch approach to house the 40MP selfie shooter. As is the case with new Samsung releases, the entire Galaxy S21 series will come with some new camera features such as the ability to capture 4K video at 60 FPS on all cameras, WDR support along with HDR, and more. The features will eventually make their way to older devices via the One UI 3.1 update.

Not much seems to have improved on the storage/memory front. The Galaxy S21 Ultra will come in three variants with 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB of storage coupled with 12/16GB of RAM. Much like its predecessor, the smartphone will come with a 5,000 mAh battery. The smartphone will come with a 25W charger out of the box and support fast charging up to 45W. Despite one report stating otherwise, Samsung doesn’t plan on bringing back the headphone jack with the Galaxy S21 series.

Prima facie, the Galaxy S21 Ultra seems like a marginal upgrade over its antecedent. Most of the specifications are identical across the board, with minimal improvements in the camera and battery department. However, the phone’s Exynos 2100 SoC promises to deliver a significant performance boost over last year’s Exynos 990. The leaker rounds things off by saying that that the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold series is where the real upgrades will be at.