M30 Pro: An FHD tablet with LTE and a MediaTek Helio P60 chipset for US$189.99

We have reported on several Teclast devices over the years, with the company specialising in tablets. Now with the M30 Pro, Teclast has released a tablet with a MediaTek Helio P60 chipset that retails for US$189.99. Available on AliExpress, the Teclast M30 Pro also has 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.

Meanwhile, the Helio P60 offers four ARM Cortex-A73 cores, four ARM Cortex-A53 cores and an ARM Mali-G72 MP3 GPU that can boost up to 850 MHz. ARM manufacturers the processor cores on a 12 nm process and the GPU cores on a 16 nm process, for reference.

These components power a 10.1-inch IPS display that resolves natively at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels in a 16:9 aspect ratio. There is also a 7,500 mAh battery, which Teclast claims can deliver up to 10 hours of battery life when streaming videos, and a microSD card reader should you need more than the allotted volume of built-in storage.

The M30 Pro has an LTE modem too, for which it has two nano SIM card slots. Additionally, Teclast has included support for A-GPS, BDS, GPS, Glonass and Galileo navigation services. The M30 Pro also has plenty of I/O, as the image below demonstrates.

Teclast ships the M30 Pro with Android 10. However, we would not necessarily hold out hope for Android 11 and beyond. The manufacturer has not promised Android 11 for the M30 Pro, at any rate.

Amazfit Bip U Pro to reach Europe with a SpO2 sensor and GPS for €70

It has only been a month since the Amazfit Bip U arrived, but Huami has already moved onto the Amazfit Bip U Pro. The company teased the latter in October, which was then followed by a certification published by the Bluetooth SIG earlier this month. Now, @Sudhanshu1414 has revealed that Huami will be bringing the Bip U Pro to Europe.

Apparently, Huami will charge approximately €70 for the Bip U Pro, or €10 more than the cost of the Bip U. As we reported last month, the Bip U Pro adds a microphone, a geomagnetic sensor and GPS. Sadly, there is no NFC module, as many smartwatches have.

Additionally, the Bip U Pro has a 1.43-inch that resolves at 320 x 302 pixels. Huami has built the smartwatch with a polycarbonate shell, a BioTracker 2 PPG biological optical sensor, an accelerometer and a gyroscope. Huami has included a 230 mAh battery too, which should last up to 9 days on a single charge.

Presumably, the Amazfit Bip U Pro will be available from Amazon. The smartwatch should be purchasable from Amazfit directly, too.

Galaxy A32 5G leaked: Samsung gives its midrange smartphone a new design and 5G connectivity

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.

The Galaxy Z Fold3 will cost roughly as much as the Z Fold2: new leak

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 is now touted to have liquid-lens technology ready for its next-gen smartphone cameras

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.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad E15 Gen.2 AMD offers a more compact design and a lot more performance

The Lenovo ThinkPad E15 is a cheap office notebook with a 15.6-inch display. For less than 1000 Euros (~ $1191), buyers get a rigid chassis, modern communications modules, and very good input devices. In addition to the Intel model, Lenovo also offers an AMD model. It is known as the E15 Gen.2 and has a new, more compact design.

The AMD Ryzen 7 processor offers a lot more CPU and GPU performance than the Intel alternative. Lenovo configured the fan to run at the lowest speed possible, which is why the surface temperatures hit more than 60 °C (140 °F). When compared to the AMD variant, the Intel version offers slightly better battery life.

The fact that the E15 is a low-end device is most apparent when it comes to the screen and the selection of ports. The E15 features an outdated USB 2.0 port and its screen is quite dim (250 cd/m²). Moreover, the colour reproduction leaves a lot to be desired. These problems are present in both Intel and AMD models.

Those who are looking for a cheap and reliable office notebook should get the ThinkPad E15 Gen.2 with an AMD processor. It offers more performance and is cheaper. 

ZTE announces a new smartwatch with a blood-oxygen sensor and IP68 for ~US$38

ZTE is an OEM responsible for the ground-breaking under-display camera phone the Axon 20 5G, launched earlier this year. On the slightly more expected end of the scale, it has also debuted a square-faced smartwatch with advanced fitness-tracking features. It has a 1.3-inch, 240×240 TFT display, although a lot seems to go on behind this relatively restrained screen.

This Watch Live offers 12 different sports modes, as well as sleep- and stress-tracking features. It is also rated for continuous heart-rate tracking as well as SpO2 measurements. ZTE does not divulge its battery capacity, yet claims that it can last from between 14 to 21 days on a single charge.

This new ZTE Watch Live also has an IP68 certification despite its budget price. It is now listed on this OEM’s Chinese-market web-store at 249 yuan (~US$38).

For this, the buyer gets the device finished in black with a black silicone band. Its marketing material also shows that the strap could also come in blue, orange or gray, although these options appear not to be available to order yet.

The Medion Erazer Beast X10 offers plenty of gaming power, a sober look, and a good level of features

With the Erazer Beast X10, Medion has a compact 17.3-inch gaming laptop in its range that is based on a barebone from Tongfang (GM7MPHP). The laptop isn’t immediately recognizable as a high-performance gaming powerhouse thanks to its discreetly designed, fancy, slim, matte black all-metal case.

The Beast X10 brings all the latest games onto the screen with ease. The combination of a Core i7-10750H hexa-core processor, a GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics core, and 32 GB of memory (dual-channel mode, max. 64 GB) makes this possible. Thanks to the 1 TB NVMe SSD, you shouldn’t run out of storage space that quickly. However, should this be the case, the laptop offers space for a second NVMe SSD.

The matte 17.3-inch display (Full HD, IPS, 144 Hz) scores points with stable viewing angles, decent brightness, good contrast, fast response times, and great color reproduction. Furthermore, battery life is good too. One battery charge is enough for practical runtimes of about 7 to 8 hours.

In the period from August 28, 2020 to February 28, 2021, the game Marvel’s Avengers will be included with the purchase of the Beast X10 as a free download. However, not from Medion but from Intel. The corresponding promotion code (“while stocks last”) will be sent by e-mail and must be redeemed with Intel by March 31, 2021. Medion has informed us that the procedure for claiming the code is explained in detail in the e-mail. The offer is not limited to Medion, as other laptop manufacturers are also participating in this Intel promotion.

More information and many benchmark results are available in our review of the Medion Erazer Beast X10 (MD61804).

Apple MacBook Air M1 with 50 % longer battery runtime, but the weak power adapter limits the charging performance

We have already taken a look at the graphics performance of the two different iGPUs (7 vs. 8 cores), and now we have first results for the battery runtime. The battery capacity is unchanged at 49.9 Wh, but the new M1 chip is supposed to be much more efficient. Apple’s official specs sheet lists 15 hours for web browsing, which is much more compared to the 10 hours of the old model.

Wi-Fi battery runtime

Our Wi-Fi test at Notebookcheck is performed at an adjusted brightness of 150 nits. Therefore, it is very important to deactivate the automatic brightness control of the MacBook Air. To get to the 150 nits, we had to reduce the brightness by 7 steps, and then use the fine control (via Option + Shift) to reduce the brightness by two more steps.

The old MacBook Air 2020 with the Intel CPUs managed a runtime of 10:17 or 11 hours, respectively, depending on the processor (Core i5 or Core i3). The new MacBook Air with the M1 chip on the other hand lasts 16 hours, which is an improvement between 45-55 %.

The Wi-Fi runtime at the maximum display brightness, which is once again around 400 nits, is considerably lower. Our test unit only lasted for about 8.5 hours. This is still better compared to the previous Intel MBA, but the gap is much smaller.

Charging Performance

Apple continues shipping the MacBook Air with the compact 30W power adapter. We have also tested the charging performance with the more power 96W unit from the current MacBook Pro 16. The initial charging performance was increased from 31 to around 43 Watts for the first 45 minutes before it dropped. Overall, the charging time was reduced by 17 minutes to 2:23 hours. In addition to the shorter charging time, the more powerful PSU also gives more headroom when you use the device during the charging process. In this case, the charging time with the included 30W adapter would be much higher. The MacBook Pro 13 with the M1 chip is still shipped with the more powerful 61W power adapter.

A look at the efficiency of the power adapters only reveals minor differences in a range between 0.05-0.1W. The maximum performance does not seem to be limited by the power adapter, either, because we see a peak power consumption of 31W for the new MacBook Air, which levels off at 22-25 after a short time. This behavior is identical for both power adapters.

OPPO’s Reno 5 Pro will launch with the Dimensity 1000+ processor: new leak

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.