Month: October 2020

iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro’s battery runtimes fail to impress when compared to the iPhone 11 Pro

Apple unveiled the iPhone 12 series recently with added functionality and a new A14 Bionic SoC. However, details of the battery capacities of these phones were not obvious from the official spec sheets apart from the usual video and audio playback runtimes.

Arun Maini of the YouTube channel Mrwhosetheboss compared the battery life of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro with older models such as the iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone 11, iPhone XR, and the 2020 iPhone SE. In his tests, which had all the test iPhones running at the same brightness, battery health, and other settings without the SIM card installed, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro fell behind the iPhone 11 Pro Max and iPhone 11 Pro in terms of offering long runtimes.

In Arun’s testing, the iPhone 11 Pro still had about 18% battery remaining at the end of 6 hours and 35 minutes whereas the iPhone 12 Pro had already run out of juice by then. The phone that trailed behind all others was the iPhone SE 2020. His battery results ranked the iPhone models as follows:

iPhone 11 Pro Max: 8 hours 29 minutes

iPhone 11 Pro: 7 hours 36 minutes

iPhone 12: 6 hours 41 minutes

iPhone 12 Pro: 6 hours 35 minutes

iPhone 11: 5 hours 8 minutes

iPhone XR: 4 hours 31 minutes

iPhone SE (2020): 3 hours 59 minutes

A recent teardown revealed that the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro shared the same 2,815 mAh battery, which is smaller than what is available on the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro models (3,110 mAh and 3,046 mAh, respectively). It is possible that Apple would have had to reduce physical battery size to make room for the added 5G components.

Further complicating matters is that the iPhone 12 series have bigger and higher resolution displays compared to last year’s models, which further strains the battery. The only respite here is the new A14 Bionic chip, which is touted to be have much improved power efficiency owing to the 5 nm process.

The numbers can be expected to further go down by another 20% when the new iPhone 12 models are used on 5G networks. We will still need to see how the iPhone 12 Pro Max and the iPhone 12 Mini fare in these tests for a complete picture. Right now, it looks like users will have to compromise a bit on battery life in exchange for advanced hardware.

Big Navi ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6800XT allegedly boosts to a remarkable 2.5 GHz in 3DMark 11

According to tipster @patrickschur_, a custom ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6800 XT part can boost as high as 2.5 GHz when running 3DMark 11. Interestingly, the engineering sample Schur talked about seemed to spend a lot of time at high clock speeds. In an update to his original post, Schur claimed that the ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6800 XT was running at clock speeds higher than 2.3 GHz 85 percent of the time. 

These figures, coming just days before the Big Navi announcement, reinforce the possibility of the RX 6800 XT matching or getting close to the Ampere GeForce RTX 3080. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the RX 6800 XT isn’t AMD biggest Big Navi part, with a higher-end RX 6900 XT expected to match or even beat the GeForce RTX 3090 in raster workloads. 

The AIB RX 6800 XT clock speeds hint at AMD’s approach to Big Navi. Rather than going “wide and low” like Ampere, Big Navi could leverage fewer functional cores running at a far high clock speed, thanks to the TSMC’s 7nm process. With occasional boost clocks appearing to touch 2.5 GHz, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not 2.5 GHz game clocks are possible with a bit of overclocking on Big Navi. We should learn during AMD’s event on October 28th. 

Lenovo IdeaPad S340 15 with 10th gen Core i5, 8 GB DDR4 RAM, 256 GB SSD, and 1080p display on sale for $470 USD

One of Lenovo’s already cheap entry-level multimedia laptops is now even cheaper this week at Office Depot down to just $470 USD. Though the 15.6-inch IdeaPad S340 deal won’t net you a luxurious Yoga experience, the specifications and size are nonetheless respectable considering the low asking price.

The configuration comes with a 15.6-inch 1080p IPS display, Intel Core i5-1035G1 CPU, 8 GB of removable DDR4 RAM, 256 GB storage, Wi-Fi 5, SD reader, and a backlit keyboard. There is even space to add a secondary internal storage drive. In comparison, most other 15.6-inch laptops in the sub $500 range typically come with slower Core i3 Celeron CPUs, lower resolution TN displays, and no keyboard backlight.

In our full review of the IdeaPad S340 15, we found the system to be easily upgradeable and with good display quality for the price. However, the small battery and middling CPU performance for a Core i5 may turn off some power users.

See our review of the device here to learn more about the Lenovo device.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14 with the Nvidia GPU is better for gaming

We had already tested the Yoga Slim 7 14 with the Ryzen 7 4800U processor, and we were especially surprised by the very high CPU performance. However, there are still delivery issues with this processor. Alternatively, Lenovo offers even slower Ryzen CPUs as well as Intel CPUs. This is also the case with our test device that is equipped with the Core i7-1065G7 (Ice Lake, 10 nm). The performance of the quad-core processor is decent in the Yoga Slim 7, and AMD and Intel are still about equal in single-core performance, but the Ryzen CPUs have a clear advantage in the Multi tests.

To further increase graphics performance, Lenovo combines the Intel processor with a dedicated graphics card from Nvidia. The GeForce MX350 is a low mid-range chip, and the new integrated GPUs already come quite close to this performance level. Especially the RX Vega 8 of the Ryzen 7 4800U is very fast. Overall, the Intel/Nvidia combination is better suited for gaming in this case.

However, the additional graphics card also has a negative effect on emissions, since on the one hand, the fan becomes much louder under load, and on the other hand, the surface temperatures are also significantly higher. The battery life is on par, though.

Gigaset GS4: New smartphone “Made in Germany” comes with wireless charging and removable battery for €229

Two years ago, the relatively unknown German manufacturer Gigaset presented the GS185, the first smartphone to be assembled in Bocholt, Germany. Since then, the company has introduced a whole range of devices that are “Made in Germany”, although most of the individual parts are of course still supplied from Asia. Now the company has introduced the GS4, which is assembled in Germany as well and has an interesting unique selling point.

With this smartphone, potential customers get a 6.3-inch display with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. The selfie camera in the waterdrop notch comes with a resolution of 13 MP, whereas the manufacturer has decided to go with a triple camera setup on the back. In addition to the 16 MP main sensor, there is a 5 MP wide-angle camera and a 2 MP sensor for macro photography. Unfortunately, Gigaset’s camera setups in the past were often only suitable for occasional snapshots and with the specifications mentioned above, it looks like this is not about to change with the GS4 either. If photography is important to you, you should rather take a look at the competition from China or South Korea.

On the inside, Gigaset relies on the Helio P70 made by MediaTek, which is supported by 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal memory. The latter can be expanded by up to 512 GB using a microSD card. The battery comes with an adequate capacity of 4300 mAh and can be charged by cable with up to 18 Watt and wireless with up to 15 Watt. Furthermore, buyers can easily swap the battery themselves. These are the above-mentioned unique selling points, because wireless charging is still a rarity in this price range and replaceable batteries in general have become uncommon these days. While Android 11 was released last month, the older Android 10 is preinstalled here, which is still very common.

At the moment, the Gigaset GS4 is only available in Germany and Austria for €229, but there is a good chance that the smartphone will soon be available in the rest of the European Union. So far, the German manufacturer has not yet expanded its presence into the USA or Asia. This is unfortunate, as the GS4 occupies a niche that would probably be interesting for some customers in other regions as well.

The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT rumoured to top at a game clock of 2.4 GHz, but AIB cards could go even higher

We are just over a week away from the announcement of the Radeon RX 6000 series, but some interesting details about the upcoming cards have been shared online. Shared by @_rogame and @patrickshur_, the information is reputed to be the clock speeds of AMD’s ‘Big Navi’ graphics cards. According to @_rogame, AMD will release four variants of the Navi 21 GPU, called Navi 21 XL, XLE, XT and XTX.

As the screenshots below indicate, the XT variants are thought to be AMD’s more premium offerings, with the XL and XLE being the company’s two entry-level Navi 21 cards. Apparently, reference cards will offer lower clock speeds than AIB custom ones, which is not much of a surprise. Navi 21 XL and XT will reputedly exceed 2.1 GHz though, with the XT variants apparently being capable of reaching 2.4 GHz.

@patrickschur_ and @_rogame believe that 2.4 GHz represents the peak game clock for the Navi 21 XT, which would be a huge increase over the game clock of the RX 5700 XT. Additionally, @patrickshur_ believes that the Navi 21 XT will manage this with a 255 W TGP (total graphics power) and will be paired with 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM.

@_rogame speculates that AMD will brand the Navi 21 XT as the RX 6800 XT, while the Navi 21 will be the RX 6800. Both may have 72 Compute Units (CUs), with 80 CUs reserved for the RX 6900 XT, which will use the Navi 21 XTX GPU. Presumably, the Navi 21 XLE would be the RX 6900 based on those names, but we shall find out definitively on October 28 at AMD’s launch event.

Some early Google Pixel 5 units are exhibiting quality control issues

The Pixel 5 may have been well received by reviewers, but some early units are exhibiting quality control issues. First reported by Android Police, complaints of gaps between the display and chassis of some Pixel 5 handsets are mounting up online, especially on the Google Support and XDA Developers Forums.

The issue appears to be affecting devices in different ways, as the photos below demonstrate. On some devices, for example, there is a clear gap between the display and the housing. While these devices will undoubtedly need replacing, the issue is more subtle on others. Anecdotally, the Pixel 5 that we purchased has uneven gaps between the display and the case. Some areas are flush, but on others there is enough of a gap to slide a fingernail in between.

Both the Sorta Sage and Just Black versions of the Pixel 5 are affected, although it seems to be easier to notice the problem on the latter than it is on the former. Google is yet to comment on the matter, but numerous people are concerned about if the issue renders the Pixel 5’s IP68 water resistance. Even if there are no issues in that regard, the gaps are accumulating dust, which is rather unsightly.

The Motorola Moto G9 Plus has an identification problem

The Motorola Moto G9 Plus is launched in Germany at a reasonable purchase price of around 270 Euros (around $289 in the US). For this price, buyers of the Moto G9 Plus receive a 6.8 inch 60 Hz LC display with FHD+ resolution and a Snapdragon 730G with 4 GB RAM and 128 GB internal memory.

However, the Moto G9 Plus lacks features that set it apart from the mid-range competition. The built-in battery has a fairly large capacity of 5,000mAh which supports quick charging. Although nowadays this is not a unique selling point anymore. With the “TurboPower” charging technology, the battery is fully charged in about 60 minutes thanks to the 30-Watt quick charge function, which is a plus point at this price range.

Whether this is sufficient to prevail against other cheap mid-range mobile phones with high refresh rates (e.g. Poco X3 NFC) or with OLED panels (e.g. Samsung Galaxy M51) is at least doubtful. Because the G9 Plus has clear deficits, especially when it comes to the display. The maximum brightness we measured for a pure white screen background is only 390 nits, while the APL50 brightness, which is probably more relevant in everyday life, is only 361 nits. In addition, the 60 Hz panel of the Moto G9 Plus has non-uniform brightness levels, especially at the lower edge of the display, and shows a slight halo formation with dark display contents. 

If you would you like to get a detailed impression of the Moto G9 Plus we recommend our in-depth review on the Motorola smartphone.

The Xiaomi Mi Watch Color Sports Edition has two weeks of battery life and a SpO2 sensor for ~US$105

Xiaomi is yet to bring the Mi Watch to Europe, but the company has already announced a new smartwatch. The latest Mi Watch is cheaper, too. Xiaomi has called its latest effort the Mi Watch Color Sports Edition, which it has priced at CNY 699 (~US$105) – CNY 100 (~US$15) less than it charges for the Mi Watch.

The differences between the Mi Watch Color Sports Edition and the regular model are minimal, though. Xiaomi has switched from stainless steel to aluminium, for example, although this makes the Sports Edition 7.5 g lighter than the Mi Watch. The 1.39-inch AMOLED screen from the Mi Watch returns, as does a SpO2 sensor, a GPS module and an optical heart rate monitor.

Xiaomi has complemented the 454 x 454-pixel display with a 420 mAh battery, which it claims can last up to two weeks on a single charge. However, do not expect such long battery life with GPS and the heart rate monitor turned on, though.

The Mi Watch Color Sports Edition features 117 sports modes, along with sleep tracking. The smartwatch is 5 ATM water-resistant, which will allow you to take it swimming. Xiaomi has yet to announce international availability, but we imagine that the company will eventually bring it to market outside of China.

Leaked Lenovo Tab P11 details confirm design and specifications of upcoming budget tablet

It has been a few months since Lenovo unveiled the Tab P11 Pro, and now more details about a non-Pro model have leaked. The Tab P11 Pro will be available from next month, but Lenovo has yet to confirm plans to release the Tab P11. Unsurprisingly, the Tab P11 will be a less premium version of the Tab P11 Pro.

Instead of an 11.5-inch display, the Tab P11 has a slightly smaller 11-inch panel that resolves natively at 2,000 x 1,200 pixels. According to TechnikNews, the display has a screen-to-body ratio of 85% and a peak brightness of 400 nits. The display has relatively slim bezels too, within which Lenovo has integrated an 8 MP camera. There is also a 13 MP rear-facing camera, along with an LED flash.

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 will reputedly power the Tab P11, instead of the Snapdragon 730G in the Tab P11 Pro. Additionally, the tablet will have 6 GB of RAM, and a 7,700 mAh abttery. There is no word on storage options, but the Tab P11 will ship with Android 10, rather than the newer Android 11.

Lenovo will sell several accessories for the Tab P11 too, including a Precision Pen 2 active pen and a detachable type cover. The former apparently will support up to 4,096 pressure levels, tilt detection and will be charged via USB Type-C. Lenovo will sell a new Smart Charging Station, too. There is no word on pricing yet, though.