Cheaper OnePlus Nord smartphones will only get one OS update and two years of security updates

OnePlus is known for its excellent software support, but it has apparently chosen to treat its Nord sub-brand differently. OnePlus was long one of the only Android OEMs to release three OS upgrades to its smartphones, while newer handsets like the OnePlus 8T should receive Android 14 whenever that comes around. OnePlus will abandon the Nord N10 5G and Nord N100 long before then, though.

To recap, OnePlus announced the Nord N10 5G and Nord N100 as budget options in its portfolio, following the release of the OnePlus 8T and OnePlus Nord. OnePlus launched the OnePlus 8T on Android 11 but the Nord N10 5G and Nord N100 on Android 10, which seemed like an odd move. However, OnePlus is reported by Android Central as having confirmed the following about software support for the two devices:

The Nord N10 5G and N100 will receive one major Android update and a total of two years of security updates. The plan for these two devices aligns with industry standards for smartphones in more affordable price ranges. As always, we will continue listening to feedback from our users and looking for ways to improve the software experience for all OnePlus devices.

So, the Nord N10 5G and Nord N100 will receive fewer security updates than other OnePlus smartphones, too. To clarify, Android OEMs typically afford two OS updates to their smartphones, not one. In fact, companies like LG and Sony have been called out for failing to support some of their smartphones after one software update. OnePlus is not really offering one major Android update with the Nord N10 5G and Nord N100, either. Clearly, the company had OxygenOS 11 and Android 11 ready for the OnePlus 8T, so it seems that the company may have released its two new Nord smartphones on Android 10 to offer the bare minimum of software support.

Ultimately, OnePlus’ ‘Never Settle’ mantra wears a little thin when applied to the Nord N10 5G and Nord N100. We cannot understand why OnePlus has effectively announced that it has already abandoned the Nord N10 5G and Nord N100 before it has released them, though.

Intriguing 2021 iMac concept pushes Apple’s all-in-one into the modern world with thinner bezels

3D Designers over at Svetapple created a set of detailed concept renders of Apple’s upcoming 24-in and 32-in iMacs, based on accumulated design rumors. The renders indicate that the upcoming iMac lineup will feature significantly thinner bezels as well as round display corners, strongly evoking the design language used in the current generation of iPads. 

According to Svetapple, both the smaller 24-in iMac and the larger 32-in iMac will feature ultra high-resolution monitors. The 24-in model will feature a 4K panel, in line with the current generation variant. The 32-in, on the other hand, will feature a significantly higher resolution panel. This is due to the much larger screen-size relative to the current-generation 27-in iMac model. The upgraded display would offer significantly more real estate without compromising on pixel density. The slimmer bezels could even mean that the 32-in iMac’s footprint isn’t that much bigger. 

There’s very little to go on, right now. However, apart from the rejigged design, these new iMacs will likely feature 5nm Apple ARM-based CPUs. We should know more in the months to come. 

Rumor | The Redmi Note 9 5G will start at just US$150

Xiaomi is now thought to have new 5G variants of the Redmi Note 9 and 9 Pro in the works. Should some new TENAA listings truly pertain to these phones, they may have quad rear cameras, 6-inch-plus displays and large batteries with possible 22.5-watt (W) charging speeds. However, a new leak claims that they will fall into a relatively low price-tier on their launch.

This new tip comes from a Weibo account that insists the Note 9 5G will start at just 1000 yuan (~US$151). Furthermore, its Pro counterpart – which may have a 108MP main sensor and the new Snapdragon 750G processor – might have a base model worth about 1500 yuan ($226).

This would make the new series extremely competitive in the 5G space, even possibly giving the Realme V3 a run for its money. One of these phones (probably the Pro version) is also projected to have a 6.67-inch LCD display with what may be a form of variable refresh rate that allows it to range between 30 and 120 hertz (Hz).

New M1 MacBook Air smokes Core i9 16-inch MacBook Pro in Geekbench

Yes, you read that headline correctly: according to a new listing in the Geekbench 5 database, the M1 MacBook Air absolutely destroys the Core i9 16-inch MacBook Pro in both single- and multi-core tests. 

The scores apparently come from the MacBook Air 10,1. According to the Geekbench post, this MacBook Air runs macOS 11.0.1 and uses an “Apple Silicon” processor. The laptop posted an impressive 1687 and 7433 in the single- and multi-core tests, respectively.

Comparatively, the top-of-the-line 16-inch MacBook Pro with a Core i9-9880H performs about 35% worse in Geekbench 5’s single-core test and about 15% worse in the multi-core test. Average scores for the Core i9 16-inch MacBook Pro hover around 1100 for single-core and 6000-6500 for multi-core. 

This is quite the performance gap, especially considering this MacBook Air looks like the baseline model with 8 GB of RAM. Also, keep in mind that the M1 MacBook Air is fanless, suggesting that the new M1 13-inch MacBook Pro will perform significantly better than the best MacBook Pros currently on the market. The M1 MacBook Pro has active cooling, which should allow for longer sustained load operation.

The Geekbench post also shed some light on an M1 specification many have asked about: clock speed. According to the listing, the M1 has a base clock of 3.2 GHz. The Core i9-9880H, for comparison, has a base clock of 2.3 GHz. 

If this listing is legitimate, Apple has worked wonders with the M1 chip. That kind of performance in a passively cooled system with a TDP of 10 Watts is incredible, especially compared to an 8 core/16 thread 45 Watt monster like the Core i9-9880H. 

Apple’s statement that the M1 is the fastest CPU in the world may have been more than marketing fluff after all.

Apple announces the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with up 20 hours of battery life and 2.8x faster CPU performance

Most companies wait at least a year to refresh their laptops, but Apple has unveiled another 13-inch MacBook Pro, six months on from the release of the last model. The design of the new edition remains unchanged, but Apple promises big things from its new M1 processor. As we have covered separately, the M1 has eight CPU cores and eight GPU cores, while Apple claims that it will offer the following performance improvements over the current 13-inch MacBook Pro:

Build code in Xcode up to 2.8x faster.

Render a complex 3D title in Final Cut Pro up to 5.9x faster. 

Fluidly design intricate game scenes in Unity Editor up to 3.5x faster. 

Perform ML tasks in Create ML up to 11x faster.

Separate out beats, instrumentals, and vocal tracks from a recording in real-time in djay Pro AI.

Play full-quality, 8K ProRes video in DaVinci Resolve without dropping a single frame. 

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro will replace the two cheaper Coffee Lake SKUs that Apple had been selling. The entry-level model starts at US$1,299 and comes with 8 GB of RAM, along with 256 GB of storage. 16 GB of RAM is a US$200 upgrade, as is a 512 GB SSD. 1 TB and 2 TB drives can also be configured, but these are US$400 and US$800 upgrades over the 256 GB option.

All SKUs will begin shipping in the US from November 17/18. Apple has included two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports on all M1 models too, while all SKUs are rated for up to 20 hours of battery life.

MediaTek announces the Dimensity 700, a 5G chipset for next-gen mid-range phones

MediaTek has just announced new chipsets specifically optimized for Chromebooks. However, it has not neglected its Dimensity line of SoCs for 5G phones, introducing a new variant called the 700. It, like the rest of its siblings, is 7nm, and has 8 cores. Of these, 2 are “big” ARM Cortex-A76s clocked at 2.2GHz, whereas the rest are “LITTLE” A55 cores at up to 2.0GHz. Its GPU is a 950MHz Mali-G57 MC2.

The OEM notes that this complete package supports 5G-CA 2CC, a type of carrier aggregation rated for a throughput layer coverage of over 30% more compared to other solutions, as well as “faster average speeds” and smooth handovers between different 5G connections.

The new 700 also has MediaTek 5G UltraSave, which is rated to save battery while using this latest radio standard. It also supports a number of potentially key specs that consumers may look for in its ideal tier of the smartphone market.

Accordingly, OEMs could make a device with an FHD+ 90Hz display and multiple rear cameras with a 64MP main sensor capable of AI features such as bokeh or beauty mode and advanced low-light capabilities.

A Dimensity 700-powered phone could also be powered by up to 12GB of 2133MHz LP-DDR4X RAM, and have dual SIM slots, both of which support 5G, voice over 5G and dual standby.

The chipset can also support multiple voice assistants, Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1. Therefore, MediaTek is confident the Dimensity 700 can bring 5G to the masses in the form of new, probably mid-range phones, soon.

Apple Watch Series 6 in Review: Improved Health Metrics Thanks to watchOS 7 and New Sensor

Case and Connectivity – Begone, Force Touch

As can be seen on our title photo above with a 2015 Apple Watch for comparison, the Watch’s form factor remained unchanged and current sizes are identical to last year’s model. The new eye-catching features are new colors, in particular the new blue and red aluminum case, and the new solo loop bands.

As before the aluminum models feature Ion-X glass while the stainless steel and titanium models come with Sapphire glass instead. The LPTO OLED that was first introduced with the Watch Series 4 remains well usable in sunlight. According to Apple, its Always-On Display’s maximum brightness has been improved by 2.5x over the Watch Series 5 , which is supposed to be beneficial mostly to those who cannot raise their arm during their workout for whatever reason. We were particularly impressed by how fast the new device switched between the two modes. Even with Always-On Display enabled activating the full display when lifting your arm takes a split second.

The rear side has been updated to include the new sensor. The new sensor array is comprised of a crystal with four photo diodes and four green/red/infrared LED clusters. This array now allows for estimating your blood oxygen level as well as measuring and recording your heart rate, your heart rhythm, and recognize when you’re asleep. The latter does not require the new sensor and is thus available on all models that can be updated to watchOS 7, namely Series 3 and newer.

However, updating to watchOS on previous Apple Watch models comes at a price. The latest iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system no longer supports Force Touch, which in previous versions was used to access context menus or customize the currently installed watch faces. Instead, this way of input was now partly replaced with a long touch without applying extra force. The Apple Watch Series 6 lacks the Force Touch gasket that was still present on previous models, and on all older devices its readings are simply ignored.

The Apple Watch Series 6 supports GPS and is ISO 22810:2010 certified against ingress of water up to 50 m. The new Wi-Fi chip now also supports 5 GHz bands. Furthermore, the watch comes with NFC for Apple Pay as well as a speaker and microphone for Siri and phone calls. As before, an LTE model with eSIM support is available optionally at a premium.

Setup and Handling

Setting up an Apple Watch cannot be done with an Android smartphone as it requires a compatible iPhone. However, thanks to watchOS 7’s new family setup feature this no longer needs to be your own iPhone. Instead, you can now use any compatible iPhone to setup an Apple Watch for example for your children, senior parents, or others that don’t even own an iPhone. The Watch app required for pairing and setting up the Apple Watch is preloaded on any iPhone by default and is capable of managing multiple watches if necessary.

The Watch itself comes with numerous preloaded applications, such as for example a remote-control application for the iPhone’s camera. One of the Apple Watch’s largest benefits is its App Store ecosystem with a large variety of third-party applications. If an iPhone app also happens to support the Apple Watch it is automatically installed on a compatible Watch as well, as long as this feature remains enabled.

The watch faces can be customized either via the Watch app on the iPhone or on the watch itself. Changing between the various installed watch faces can be achieved with horizontal swipes across the screen. The digital crown is used for scrolling through settings menus or zooming in the Photos app. The single button can be used to either display the Dock, which contains all recently used applications, or a customizable list of favorite apps.

This all isn’t new by any means. Its ease of use is one of the basic principles defining the Apple Watch, as is the full integration of multiple Apple products logged in with the same Apple ID with one another. For example, should Siri respond to one of your questions with a search and website suggestion you can open this website on your Mac thanks to Handoff. Furthermore, all Siri suggestions and open websites are synchronized with your Mac to be found in Safari’s history. In addition, you can also use your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac. Once setup the watch will vibrate and play a sound reminiscent to that of a vault opening every time it unlocks your Mac. A nice touch for sure.

Notifications and Telephony

By default, the Apple Watch mirrors your iPhone’s notification settings, which can be later customized and adjusted to your liking. WhatsApp messages will display emojis but only a blurry preview of photos. Replies can contain either predefined blocks of text, emojis, a dictated message, or a digitized message with each letter scribbled onto the watch’s display. New messages can only be sent out as text, not as WhatsApp message. This holds true for all other messengers that don’t offer a native Apple Watch app.

You can take a phone call directly from the watch on your wrist, and you can also make phone calls through either your contacts, your recents, or a dialpad. While the LTE model is capable of operating independently of the iPhone it is paired to the GPS/Wi-Fi model requires the iPhone to remain close-by.

Health and Fitness – Finally with SpO2 Sensor

Fitness buffs love the Apple Watch, and the health sector was impressed by the Apple Watch Series 4’s ECG feature. And while other OEMs seem to struggle with reliable ECG data – Samsung’s implementation, for example, was delayed repeatedly and remains unavailable in many countries, including Germany, to this day – an increasing number of wearables started featuring blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) sensors capable of detecting possible sleep apnea. Apple, on the other hand, only supported heart rate and frequency (ECG) metrics as well as an app for hearing health. With watchOS 7, a sleep tracker is now finally available for all supported Apple Watches (Series 3 and later), and the Apple Watch Series 6 finally supports blood oxygen saturation monitoring.

Heart Frequency, Heart Rate, and Oxygen Saturation

By default, the ECG app is not available on an Apple Watch. Instead, it must be actively setup in the paired iPhone’s Health app where you can decide whether you want constant and automatic or manual heart rate and blood oxygen readings. Should the Watch detect atrial fibrillation, which is often linked to an increased risk of suffering a stroke, it will issue a warning.

Heart frequency measurements are very accurate. In our test, the Apple Watch was capable of accurately measuring our heart frequency both when idle and working out with increasing performance, and it reported values almost identical to that of a heart rate chest strap. When analyzing the workout data, we found almost identical data save for a single heartbeat.

On average, blood oxygen level data differed from that recorded by a certified pulse oximeter by just 1.5 % with a maximum of up to 3 %. Using the Blood Oxygen app on your watch you can start a manual reading of your blood oxygen levels. If needed the watch can automatically take readings several times a day and while asleep. The paired iPhone’s Health app will then graph that data over the course of days, weeks, or months.

Sleep Tracking

For the first time in the history of watchOS the new version 7 natively supports sleep tracking at night. However, when compared to sleep tracking data recorded by devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, the Fitbit Sense, or Honor/Huawei wearables such as the Honor Magic Watch 2 or TicWatch Pro 3 GPS Apple’s data is poor at best. The tracker is even incapable of properly distinguishing your sleep phases (light sleep, deep sleep, REM sleep) from one another.

What it is capable of recording is the time you fell asleep, the time you woke up, and how often and when you awoke at night. This data can be graphed and analyzed long-term over the last few days or weeks and will inform you whether or not you reached your self-defined sleep goal for weekdays and weekends. Despite the fact that heartrate and oxygen saturation data is available for that same time period a sleep diagram overlay is not available. In addition, unlike Fitbit’s algorithms Apple’s infrequent readings will be barely able to reliably detect sleep apnea.

We suspect that more frequent readings would decrease the Apple Watch’s battery life even further. At the time of writing the minimum charge required for a night’s worth of sleep tracking is 30 %. Charge levels below 30 % will result in a warning. How and why the Apple Watch Series 6 managed to record more time asleep than time spent in bed (see last screenshot) remains a mystery to us. We can positively assure you with absolute certainty that the number of power naps taken during the review period was unfortunately exactly zero.

Activity Rings

Another Apple Watch feature is its ability to motivate users to spend less time sitting and more time moving with its Activity app. The goal is to close all three rings every single day: stand, move, and exercise. Standing is primarily aimed at avoiding long-term sitting and requires you to get up at least once every hour and move around for at least one minute. It will also count towards your move goal, as will taking a letter to the mailbox on foot instead of by car.

The exercise goal can best be reached through workouts that can be recorded with the preinstalled Workout app. If you’re not a big fan of gyms or indoor sports facilities, you can alternatively also reach your daily exercise goal and close the ring with a 30-minute long brisk walk. Basically, anything you can record with the Workout app or any other Apple Health-compatible fitness app will count towards your exercise goal. The app will also calculate your daily calories by adding up all exercises, steps taken, etc. The app store contains numerous apps that allow you to record your calorie intake as well and use that data fed into the Health app to record and monitor your weight.

Workout Tracking

At the time of writing, Apple’s Workout app supported slightly less than 100 different workouts. Running can be paused automatically if you stop or, alternatively, manually by pressing the digital crown and side button simultaneously and then terminating the workout via touch button on the display.

Thanks to its built-in GPS the watch is capable of recording your track even without an iPhone present. Music and audio books that have been previously synchronized with your watch can be played during your workout on any compatible Bluetooth headset.

Today’s workouts can be found in the Activity app on the watch. Analyzing older workouts requires the Fitness and Health app on the paired iPhone. The latter will even display heart rate and frequency during your workout session as well as during the resting period immediately afterwards. Unfortunately, this data is also only available for the current day.

Various alternatives to Apple’s Workout app are available in the app store, such as for example Strava or other apps aimed at running, swimming, or golfing. Those apps are great for keeping long-term records in order to use these metrics for improvement.

Performance Comparison

According to Apple, the Apple Watch Series 6’s S6 chip is supposed to be up to 20 % faster than the Apple Watch 5’s S5 chip. Truth be told we were unable to tell the difference in everyday use. Both watches performed all tasks very quickly.

Battery Life – No More Than 2 Days Even Without Always-On Display

While other OEMs aim to improve battery life over time Apple is still content with an official battery life of 18 hours. The 44 mm Apple Watch Series 6 outperformed this official goal by 75 % and ran up to 31 hours and 40 minutes with enabled always-on display. And while not particularly impressive it should be more than enough to use the watch at night for sleep tracking even after a very long day.

If you are out and about and need to get through two days without recharging, you can opt to disable the always-on display. With that feature disabled we were able to squeeze out 2 days and 5 hours of battery life.

With GPS and heartrate sensor active at the same time Apple claims a battery life of up to 7 hours, or 6 hours for the cellular model. If the watch is connected to an iPhone it will use the latter’s GPS instead. Thus, you can easily plan long-lasting outdoor activities or extensive route tracking as long as you keep your iPhone nearby.

Verdict – The New Hardware is Great, the Software Experience Is Not

Making and taking phone calls, paying, listening to music, downloading popular apps from the app store – the Apple Watch has many benefits indeed. However, is switching to the new Series 6 justifiable if you already own an older model?

The SpO2 sensor’s data is more reliable than on many other devices. In addition, the Apple Watch allows you to have both manual and automatic readings enabled, which is seldom to be found on its competitors. Among others, one such contender is the Garmin Forerunner 745. The optical heart frequency sensor turned out to be very precise and accurate as well. The Apple Watch’s hardware is at the high level that we have grown accustomed to from Apple. However, the software is not there quite yet, particularly when it comes to Apple’s admittedly first implementation of sleep tracking. It simply does not record enough data for any sort of useful analysis.

The Apple Watch’s SpO2 sensor is a high-quality sensor. Apart from that, the differences to the Apple Watch Series 5 are minor at best.

Switching from the AW5 will only pay off if you are interested in the additional health data provided by the SpO2 sensor. Apart from the Apple Watch Series 6 Apple also lists two models without SpO2 sensor, ECG sensor and always-on display: The Apple Watch Series 3, starting at $199, and the Apple Watch SE, starting at $279.

The Apple Watch Series 6 with 44 mm display currently starts at $429 plus tax with various retailers already offering lower prices and holiday sales already. Apart from Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3, which costs between $400 and $500 as well, most other wearables are much cheaper.

LG begins testing Android 11 on the V60 ThinQ

LG overhauled its Android skin with LG UX 9.0, which it based on Android 10, but the company has not been forthcoming about when it will release a successor. To date, the South Korean company has offered no timescales for delivering Android 11, unlike most other Android OEMs. Even Samsung has commenced beta testing of its Android 11-based OS update, for example.

However, Max Weinbach has revealed that LG is working on Android 11, after all. According to Weinbach, LG is testing the new OS on at least the V60 ThinQ, which it released in March. Sadly, Weinbach has not offered any details about Android 11 on the V60 ThinQ, save for some information about test and release keys.

It should come as no surprise to see Android 11 in development for the V60 ThinQ though, considering that it launched on Android 10. It is unclear when LG will deploy Android 11, but we doubt that the OS will reach most LG smartphones until mid-2021, at best.

The Samsung Galaxy A52 5G appears on Geekbench with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G and 6 GB of RAM

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy A51 in December 2019, which it followed with a 5G variant in April. So, the South Korean company should be on the verge of releasing a successor, since it usually leaves about a year between smartphone refreshes. Late last month, a leaked suggested that Samsung had started developing firmware for the Galaxy A52 5G, and now the device has popped up on Geekbench. 

Spotted by Abhishek Yadav and Galaxy Club, the Galaxy A52 5G has been benchmarked as the SM-A526B, the same codename seen in last month’s firmware development leak. According to Galaxy Club, the SM-A526B has an Adreno 619 GPU and two CPU cores that can reach 2.2 GHz. Based on this information, it would seem that Samsung has chosen Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 750G for the Galaxy A52, which also features an octa-core Kyro 570 CPU and an X52 5G built on an 8 nm process.

Additionally, Geekbench reveals that the Galaxy A52 is being tested on Android 11, or One UI 3.0 as Samsung calls it. The benchmarking website confirms the presence of 6 GB of RAM too, which would be a 2 GB upgrade on the Galaxy A51.

Redmi K40 display details start seeping out revealing interesting upgrade over the Redmi K30 series

Some new information about the Redmi K40 has been provided by Digital Chat Station in regard to the type of display the upcoming affordable flagship-killer will have. For starters, apparently it will be a flat screen that will be used, so those not keen on the ever-present curved displays found in many current smartphones can breathe a sigh of relief here.

Along with featuring some straight edges on its screen, the Redmi K40 will offer a refresh rate of 120 Hz. The regular Redmi K30 could also manage up to 120 Hz while the Redmi K30 Pro had to settle for a 60 Hz refresh rate to save the battery life. So while the Redmi K40 supposedly trumps the Redmi K30 Pro here, how is it an improvement over the regular K30 model if they both support 120 Hz?

Well, according to the same source, the Redmi K40 will sport an OLED panel, whereas the Redmi K30 had to make do with an LCD panel. The Redmi K30 Pro has an AMOLED screen, so it seems that Xiaomi has decided to take the best parts of the Redmi K30 series and deliver them with the Redmi K40: 120 Hz OLED panel with a centered punch-hole for the selfie camera. It’s a potentially bright start for the next iteration, which is rumored to be coming with a Snapdragon 775G for the entry model and a Snapdragon 875 for the Redmi K40 Pro variant.