Leaked prices suggest that custom NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti will be absurdly expensive

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti may be the cheapest RTX 30 series card, at least until it releases the RTX 3050 and RTX 3060, but custom cards will not reflect the price of the Founders Edition card. NVIDIA states that the Founders Edition will cost £369, €399 and US$399 when it launches tomorrow, making it significantly cheaper than the likes of the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080. However, leaked prices of custom RTX 3060 Ti cards are significantly higher than any of those prices.

According to listings on Dateks, NVIDIA’s board partners will charge anywhere from €484 to €664 for custom versions of the RTX 3060 Ti. These do not appear to be placeholders either, so most RTX 3060 Ti cards will cost between 20% and 66% more than the Founders Edition at launch. Prices will undoubtedly fall over time, but the scarce volumes of Founders Edition stock that NVIDIA releases makes its MSRPs somewhat meaningless when its partners ignore them.

Similarly, TechSpot spotted Amazon UK charging £490.18 for an MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 2X OC. Like in the Eurozone, this price is over a third higher than NVIDIA will be charging for the Founders Edition card in the UK. It is a comparable story in the US, too. While the Founders Edition will be available for US$399, the cheapest custom card is US$449.99, or 12% more expensive. Based on the multiple retailer listings, custom RTX 3060 Ti cards should be orderable from tomorrow.

Realme ‘Race’ announced with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 as design and specifications leak

Xiaomi may have just teased the release of the Mi 11 series following Qualcomm’s announcement of the Snapdragon 888, but Realme has a new flagship up its sleeve too. Realme has revealed little about the smartphone so far, bar that it will feature the Snapdragon 888 and that it is codenamed ‘Race’.

The company is yet to confirm when it will even announce the Race. Nonetheless, it has hinted that the device will be arriving in at least Europe and India.

Thankfully, GSMArena is onhand to fill in the blanks. According to a screenshot published by the website, the Race will launch with realmeUI V2.0, which is a custom version of Android 11. Additionally, the device will have 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. A microSD card reader is seemingly out of contention for the device, though.

The same screenshot states that Realme has assigned the model number RMX2202 to the Race. With that said, a device by this model number is yet to appear on authorities like the FCC. GSMArena has also provided a supposed photo of the Realme Race, which shows quad rear-facing cameras arranged in a circular housing and a curved glass back. There are no details on the camera sensors that Realme has included in the Race, though.

OnePlus 9E: A new entry into the high-end OnePlus range billed to land alongside the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro next year

Plenty has already been speculated about the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro, from the publication of multiple renders to several benchmark appearances. However, OnePlus reputedly has a third version of the OnePlus 9 series planned. According to the usually well-informed Max Jambor, OnePlus will release a smartphone called the OnePlus 9E, a name that has not been spoken of until now.

It is currently unclear if the OnePlus 9E will be an entry into OnePlus’ flagship range or a step between the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus Nord series. Jambor adds that ‘OnePlus is trying a similar approach to Samsung’ insofar as offering handsets across all price points.

Either way, we imagine that OnePlus will continue to reserve wireless charging and an IP rating for its ‘Pro’ smartphones, so the OnePlus 9E will probably arrive with neither of these. We would expect OnePlus to include an AMOLED panel with a high-refresh-rate though, as it is accustomed to do these days. Similarly, the OnePlus 9E is likely to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, although which remains unclear. If the OnePlus 9E represents an expansion of the current OnePlus flagship roster, then we would expect it to have a Snapdragon 875.

On the other hand, a Snapdragon 775G may be in order if OnePlus has decided to pitch the OnePlus 9E as a step below the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro. Regardless, the OnePlus 9E is expected to arrive in March 2021 alongside the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro.

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.