The latest Galaxy S21 leaks appear to confirm quad cameras

A YouTube-based leaker’s latest video revolves around what seems to be a live image of actual S21-series handsets. These devices, photographed from the back by a source sakitech claims wishes to remain anonymous, echo the new design linked to the phones in previous rumors, right down to the new kind of camera-hump.

The vlogger points out that the S21 Ultra (the larger of the 2 phones featured in the new still image) has 5 round cut-outs in its pronounced module. Its appearance may have been what led to talk of a penta-camera set-up for this flagship in prior reports. However, there are in fact only 4 lenses visible in this photo, accompanied by a flash and what is now thought to confer laser auto-focus on the phone.

sakitech also now asserts that the actual cameras consist of a 108MP main shooter (possibly the ISOCELL Bright HM3 sensor) with a 12MP ultra-wide camera, rounded out by the dual telephoto solution hinted at in prior leaks. One of these is ostensibly a periscope lens for the rumored 10X spec, whereas the other might handle 3X zoom duties.

The “S21+” next to this phone, on the other hand, is now projected to have two 12MP shooters, one of which is to be for ultra-wide functions, accompanied by a third that, while 64MP in resolution, is slated not to be the primary sensor but is (again) a zoom lens.

These specs may mean these S21 variants pack improvements in the camera department compared to their predecessors, although only to a certain extent, according to sakitech.

This latest S21+/Ultra leak also suggests that Samsung has chosen matte finishes for the rest of their casings, a detail that has been put to good use in the artist Snoreyn’s latest renders for LetsGoDigital. Then again, there are no guarantees this will translate to real-world units sold in 2021 as yet.

These new images also integrate the latest tips on S21 specs and esthetics from other sources such as Ice Universe. Finally, the same blog also now predicts that the new series will start at about €900 (~US$1090) on its release to the European market.

Xiaomi Mi 11 fan-made concept render portrays an exquisite-looking smartphone that apparently has a 5,000-mAh dual-battery capacity

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.

A new leak may push LG’s rollable phone closer to a launch date

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.

Lenovo might announce ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga in the next week

Earlier this year, the names of two new ThinkPad X1 models were leaked: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano and ThinkPad X1 Titanium. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano is already available in the USA – the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium meanwhile is nowhere to be found. The last time we heard about it were a few leaked promo videos on Youtube.

2020 is drawing to a close and by this point, we expected to see the ThinkPad X1 Titanium in early 2021, maybe with an announcement at the virtual CES. However, there are new signs that at least the public announcement might still come in this year.

Lenovo has recently updated its Accessories and Options Compatibility Matrix (OCM). The newest version (as of December 6 2020) includes the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga Gen 1. Alongside the full-name of the product, the OCM also reveals the model-numbers: 20QA and 20QB. Also, it appears the X1 Titanium Yoga will rely on M.2 2242 SSDs for internal storage, exactly like the ThinkPad X1 Nano.

With the model appearing in the OCM, this might be a hint that an announcement is imminent. At the same time, there is news from China: The Chinese tech-site ITHome reports that Lenovo’s Think division will hold a special event next week, officially launching the ThinkPad X1 Nano in China – and unveiling the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga at the same time. This should be regarded as a rumor at this point, but we might see more of the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga very soon.

Based on prior leaks, we already know that the X1 Titanium Yoga will be a convertible ThinkPad with Intel’s Tiger Lake platform inside. It will be the thinnest ThinkPad laptop yet, with a body completely made out of metal. Judging from the pictures, it looks like the screen will have a 3:2 aspect ratio, though this is not confirmed yet.

LG Gram 2021 launch event announced with four lightweight laptops up for release

LG will present its new Gram laptops in South Korea on December 16, the company has confirmed. The event will commence at 18:00 KST (UTC +9), according to a post on the dedicated LG Gram website. LG is yet to announce anything globally, which suggests that the December 16 event will be limited to South Korea. Nevertheless, LG will probably release its new Gram laptops outside its home market, so the launch event will be relevant to international audiences.

Based on recent findings, LG plans to upgrade its Gram series to Intel’s new Tiger Lake architecture. The timing of LG’s event hints that it will continue to use U-series processors in its laptops, rather than the upcoming Tiger Lake-H series. Currently, LG sells 14-inch, 15.6-inch and 17-inch versions of the Gram, but the company may have added a new model into the mix for its latest refresh.

The FCC and KCC have confirmed that the new 14-inch and 17-inch models will be called 14Z90P and 17Z90P, respectively. LG has recently certified a 15Z95N in South Korea and with the FCC, so a new 15.6-inch model appears to be also on the way. Additionally, LG has registered the model number 16Z90P, which implies that the company plans to release a 16-inch version of the Gram, too. There are hardly any 16:9 and 16-inch displays, so a 16-inch Gram will probably have a 16:10 aspect ratio, like the current 17-inch model.

In short, it seems that LG will release 14, 15.6, 16 and 17-inch versions of the Gram this month. However, the Z95N model number of the 15.6-inch SKU insinuates that it will differ from the 14, 16 and 17-inch variants somehow.

Apple MacBook Pro 13 M1 with more than 20 hours battery runtime, but no performance advantage over the MacBook Air

We have already reviewed the MacBook Air 2020 with Apple’s own M1 processor, ans especially the removal of the annoying chassis fan is a step in the right direction. The entry-level MacBook Pro 13 with 2x Thunderbolt ports also got the M1 update, but it keeps the active cooling solution. The Pro is also equipped with the Touch Bar and a slightly bigger 58.2 Wh battery. We have initial test results, but we are a bit surprised by the performance figures.

CPU and GPU Performance

It is obviously no secret that Apple uses identical M1 chips with 8 CPU and 8 GPU cores for the MacBook Pro 13 as well as the MacBook Air. However, there is no difference between the two models in the initial benchmarks. We expected more headroom for the processor due to the fan, but the active cooling unit only seems to be ensuring the consistency of the performance (which it does). This means most users will never notice a difference between the two MacBooks.

Battery Runtime

Compared to the MacBook Air (49.9 Wh), the MacBook Pro 13 has a slightly bigger 58.8 Wh battery pack, so the battery runtime is also a bit longer. We recorded more than 20 hours in our Wi-Fi web browsing test at 150 nits, which is great. Similar to the MacBook Air, we see a roughly 50 % shorter result when we repeat the test at the maximum brightness setting (which is also higher than MBA at >500 nits). This result once again confirms that the display is the biggest consumer in these kinds of scenarios.

The battery runtime seems to the be the only real advantage of the new MacBook Pro 13 over the MacBook Air so far. The performance is pretty much identical, only sustained workloads will benefit from the active cooling in the Pro. However, the performance drop is not that severe on the passively cooled MacBook Air, so we really don’t think this will be a deciding factor for the target audience. We are still running our tests and the full review of the MacBook Pro 13 will clarify whether the MacBook Pro 13 with the M1 CPU is a good upgrade or if you should just get the less expensive MacBook Air.

NVIDIA sets expectations for more RTX 3060 cards as it publishes RTX 3060 Ti performance benchmarks

So, NVIDIA announced the RTX 3060 Ti yesterday, but a blog post by the company has also confirmed that more RTX 3060 cards are on the way. There have been rumours that NVIDIA plans to release an RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 mobile early next year, although the company is yet to state that this is the case.

Nonetheless, NVIDIA describes the RTX 3060 Ti as being ‘the first member of the RTX 3060 family’, so it definitely has subsequent RTX 3060 releases planned. The same blog post also contains the benchmark chart that Videocardz published in mid-November, confirming the latter’s authenticity. NVIDIA leans heavily on the claim that the RTX 3060 Ti outperforms the RTX 2080 SUPER, although the chart makes a point of comparing the Ampere card with the RTX 2060 SUPER too, which one would hope is the case. We have included the chart published by Videocardz also as this includes data labels, which the official chart lacks.

Concrete details on the RTX 3060 are scarce for now, although Videocardz claims that NVIDIA will base the card on its GA106-400 GPU. Moreover, RTX 3060 is thought to feature 3,840 CUDA cores and will be offered with 6 GB and 12 GB of GDDR6 VRAM. Nothing is known about the mobile version, or versions of the RTX 3060, though. Wccftech reports that the graphics card will be available with AMD Ryzen 5000H and Intel Tiger Lake-H series processors, but no details about the RTX 3060 Max-P or Max-Q have been leaked so far.

One-Netbook upgrades the Gx1 Pro portable console/laptop with Tiger Lake Core i7-1160G7 CPUs and 7-inch FHD screen

The small form-factor laptops that double as consoles are getting quite popular in China these days. GPD may have been first to market, but the competition is heating up as new players like One-Netbook or AYA keep one-upping each other with more sophisticated models. Speaking of One-Netbook, the company just announced an upgraded Gx1 Pro model powered by Tiger Lake CPUs. We have been hearing rumors about the Tiger Lake models, but now we have the final specs confirmed by One-Netbook itself. It certainly is not the first ever model featuring the new Tiger Lake processors, as GPD already announced its Tiger Lake Win 3 console earlier this year. Still, the new Gx1 Pro stands out with its own suite of advantages.

First off, the Gx1 Pro is the first among the Chinese models to feature a 7-inch 1920×1200 IPS screen, which also supports 10-point multi-touch input. One-Netbook now offers a Tiger Lake i7-1160G7 upgrade over the previous Amber Lake i5-10210Y processors, so it also benefits from the integrated Xe GPU with 96 execution units. The updated version also comes with 16 GB of LPDDR4x-4266 RAM and at least 512 GB of NVMe SSD storage.

Port selection includes 2x Thunderbolt 4 connectors, plus a USB-A 3.0, a micro HDMI video output and a headphone jack. Other features include two detachable game controllers, microSD card reader, WiFi 6 + Bluetooth 5.1 a SIM slot and a 12,000 mAh battery. Design-wise, the upgraded model is identical to the previous iteration that reminds of a miniaturized Alienware Area 51m, except now it comes with an additional all-black color option. With a total weight of 623 g (including controllers) this model is slightly lighter than the competition.

Although pricing has not yet been revealed, we can expect the upgraded model to cost more than the Amber Lake models, so north of $840.

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro leak via the FCC and Evan Blass ahead of their launch

Samsung is now rumored to introduce its next-gen TWS earbuds as the Galaxy Buds Pro during the S21 launch event. Now, there is even more evidence for this theory, coming direct from the FCC in the form of a new certification. It is for a product called SM-R190, touted to be these accessories’ model number in a prior leak.

The Commission’s new documentation may also corroborate much of this pre-exising story, right down to the appearance of the name “Buds Pro” on its identifying information, which appears to have been sourced directly from Korean authorities.

This part of the FCC’s assessment also contains a schematic for what is probably the earbuds’ charging case, which gives it a rounded cuboid footprint. A new render freshly posted by Evan Blass on Voice purports to show the same in 3D and full color.

On that note, it looks like the Buds Pro might be styled so as to match every color option currently linked to the Samsung Galaxy S21 series. Blass’ new “Galaxy Buds Pro” renders show a finish that could be called Phantom Violet, at least; furthermore, the FCC lets slip that they may also come in black.

As for the earbuds themselves, their new images also suggest that they go back to the Buds/Buds+ form factor for this new version. Then again, it also looks like this design has been highly refined, and also exhibits the small external grilles seen in the Buds Live. This may be a further hint that Samsung intends to debut these Pros with active noise cancellation (ANC).

Finally, their FCC approval also contradicts earlier reports, in that these “Galaxy Buds Pro” may actually have a charging case with more battery compared to that of the Buds+: 500mAh, rather than 472mAh as in these pre-existing TWS earbuds.

Motorola to release a Snapdragon 888-powered Moto G smartphone in 2021

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.