The PlayStation 5 will not allow users to add more solid-state storage at launch; functionality expected to arrive via a future update

Although the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X come with 1TB hard disk, it will not be enough in the coming years. Recently, we found out that the Xbox Series S comes with a pitiful 364GB of usable solid-state storage, but at the very least, it can be expanded. PlayStation 5 users, on the other hand, won’t have the privilege until much later in the release cycle.

A Sony spokesperson has told The Verge that the PlayStation 5’s memory cannot be expanded upon launch and that the feature will be enabled via a future update. The console’s teardown showed us that it comes with a free NVMe slot, which can bolster its memory. While Microsoft forces users to buy a proprietary US$220 hard drive, installing it is a whole lot easier, as it plugs right into the console. However, installing a solid-state drive on the PlayStation 5 requires some minor disassembly work, which may prove to be a daunting task for less tech-savvy users.

At the very least, the PlayStation 5 users will be able to play PlayStation 4 games off a USB hard drive. It will come as a boon to many enthusiasts as the current PlayStation 5 library isn’t particularly large now. It’ll be interesting to see how Sony addresses the expandable storage conundrum. Sony may or may not let will let users install just about any PCI-e Gen4 NVMe SSD into the console, as its needs to check a lot of boxes like high memory bandwidth, compatibility with Sony’s I/O controller, and more, before it can run on the console. In all likelihood, Sony may be waiting for faster, more power-efficient NVMe SSDs to hit the market before allowing users to chuck one in the PlayStation 5.

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy M62 smartphone could offer up to 256GB of storage

Much like Xiaomi, Samsung has a dizzying amount of smartphones out on the market. However, the company’s naming scheme is a lot easier to follow. Galaxy S phones are top-of-the-line flagships, Galaxy A devices serve as mid-ranger and upper-mid-rangers, and Galaxy M phones as budget options. There is now a Galaxy M62 in the works, and one of its specifications is somewhat antithetical to that of a smartphone that falls under the Galaxy M tag.

Sammobile heard from its sources that the mysterious Galaxy M62 could allegedly offer up to 256GB of storage. That is the highest ever in a Galaxy M series phone. Even the high-end Galaxy A phones’ storage capacities max out at 128GB, much like the Galaxy M62’s predecessor- the Galaxy M51. Many would consider 256GB of storage on a ‘budget’ smartphone counterintuitive. It is almost always more economical to buy an entry-level variant and top the storage up with a micro SD card.

Other Galaxy M62-related information is scarce at this point. It shouldn’t be too long before the rumor mill churns out some information about the device. Considering that it is numbered higher than the Galaxy M51, we can expect the Galaxy M62 to run marginally better hardware, maybe even the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G. That, combined with the Galaxy M series’ monstrous battery capacity, should make it an attractive buy in the face of similarly-specced offerings from Xiaomi, Realme, and others.

Leaked Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 specs indicate that its Cortex-X1 core is clocked at 2.8GHz

At this point, quite a lot has been revealed about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875. For starters, we know that it is a 5nm chip that will use its predecessor’s 1+3+4 configurations. Its AnTuTu and Master Lu benchmark results are also quite impressive compared to previous-generation hardware. Some leaked specifications now reaffirm what we already knew about the chip.

Digital Chat Station has stumbled upon an engineering sample of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875. Its ARM Cortex-X1 core is clocked at 2.87GHz, something we knew already thanks to the chip’s Master Lu listing. Furthermore, the three Cortex-A78 cores appear to be clocked at 2.42GHz and the remaining Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8GHz. The Cortex-X1’s clock speed is a bit puzzling, as the Snapdragon 865+ could push its Cortex-A77 to 3.1GHz with relative ease.

Details about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875’s Adreno 660 GPU are scarce, but we know that the ARM Mali-G78 manages to trade blows with it, giving us a rough idea about its performance. The leaker rounds things off by saying that Qualcomm wants to focus on efficiency instead of raw performance with the Snapdragon 875.

It appears that Qualcomm is quite content with the progress it has made with flagship Snapdragon chips. After all, the Snapdragon 875 does offer significant improvements over its predecessor. However, the Exynos 2100 might prove to be a formidable competitor this time around. It’ll be interesting to see how both chips fare against each other once they’re out and about in early 2021. 

NVIDIA is plotting to release the budget RTX 3050 Ti and RTX 3060 on GA106 GPUs with 6 GB of VRAM and up to 3,840 CUDA cores

@kopite7kimi has offered an insight into NVIDIA’s possible plans for the GA106, its entry-level GPU. Earlier this year, the same leaker alleged that NVIDIA would be using GA106 in the RTX 3050 and RTX 3060, but this has reputedly been changed to the RTX 3050 Ti and RTX 3060. Videocardz believes that NVIDIA plans to release an RTX 3050 still, but its specifications remain unknown at this stage.

According to @kopite7kimi, the RTX 3050 Ti will have 3,584 CUDA cores, approximately 7% fewer than the 3,840 CUDA cores in the RTX 3060. Videocardz adds that NVIDIA is thought to be using a 192-bit memory controller on the GA106, unlike other RTX 30 series cards. The presence of a 192-bit controller supposedly implies that NVIDIA will pair the RTX 3050 Ti and RTX 3060 with 6 GB or 12 GB of GDDR6 VRAM.

Videocardz also claims that the RTX 3050 Ti may launch in January or February 2021, with the RTX 3060 arriving at the turn of next year. The website speculates that NVIDIA will not release new GTX x050 cards if it brings the RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti market, too. If those two cards and an RTX 3060 are indeed scheduled for release, then NVIDIA may have up to nine RTX 30 series cards by Q2 2021. Presumably, the RTX 3050, RTX 3050 Ti and RTX 3060 will be NVIDIA’s budget offerings, considering that the company has priced the RTX 3070 Founders Edition at US$499.

Zepp Z: Huami’s latest smartwatch will be unveiled on November 17

Huami has confirmed that it will be launching a new smartwatch, the Zepp Z, on November 17. The first Zepp smartwatch, the Zepp E, launched earlier this year, with Huami having expanded beyond its Amazfit brand of wearables. Based on the teaser that GSMArena has published, the Zepp Z will arrive on November 17, and will be launched on the company’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels.

While Huami has not confirmed any specifications about the Zepp Z, the teaser image offers a few clues about the smartwatch. Seemingly, the smartwatch will have a circular display surrounded by a brushed metal case with three hardware buttons. It also looks as though the Zepp Z will have a leather strap, which will probably be removable.

We suspect that Huami will equip the Zepp Z with an AMOLED screen too, along with a heart rate monitor. The Zepp E does not have built-in GPS, so Huami may differentiate the two smartwatch series in this regard. The Zepp E costs US$249.99, so we would expect the Zepp Z to come in at a slightly higher asking price. The Zepp Z should launch in at least the US and the UK, too.

The Realme Watch S launches with blood-oxygen, heart-rate and workout-tracking abilities

Signs of a second-generation Realme smartwatch reared their heads in September 2020 with new certifications for such a device spotted at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This leak suggested that the device would be able to offer a heart-rate monitor, as well as a round face on which to view its read-outs. Now, a new launch by the OEM has confirmed this spec, along with a number of others.

The new Watch S does indeed have a heart-rate sensor, rated for “real-time” measurements, as well as one for blood oxygen saturation. Their data is displayed on a 1.3-inch screen that can automatically adjust for changes in ambient light so as to (ideally) stay visible at all times.

The Realme Watch S also has IP68 ingress protection (although this was confirmed through its recent leaks) and supports 16 different exercise types, including cycling; outdoor and indoor running; strength training; elliptical machine training; rowing machine training and yoga.

The OEM has priced this new smartwatch, which only comes in black with straps in either the same color, orange or camo green, at 14,999 Pakistani rupees (~US$99).

Realme has also confirmed that this wearable will launch in India (as it also might in the US soon). However, some fans of this company’s accessories might have noticed the absence of any mention of its Pro variant at this point.

It is slated to have a larger 1.39-inch display made of AMOLED and a 420mAh battery compared to 390mAh in Pakistan’s latest sports-focused smartwatch, but may have very similar specs to the vanilla S otherwise.

An OEM executive has stated that the Watch S Pro will also become available in India, but has yet to specify when and for how much.

The upcoming premium version of the Redmi Note 9 will come with a 120Hz display and VRR

The Redmi Note series has produced some well-received affordable phones in 2020 thus far. Now, the prominent tipster Digital Chat Station claims to have material pointing to a new variant with a premium 120Hz refresh rate spec for its LCD display. However, confusingly, this phone is not to be the rumored Note 10 or X, but…another Note 9.

This putative device will also have AdaptiveSync for its display, which means it can also use refresh rate modes of 30, 48, 50, 60 or 90Hz, potentially on the fly depending on the content reproduced. The “new Note 9” may have a 4800mAh battery to power this feature.

This putative Ultra-level Note 9 is also slated for a typical brightness of 450 nits, as well as third-gen Sunlight and Reading modes. It may also have Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to protect this new display. Then again, Digital Chat Station did not mention anything about a 108MP main camera, even given the rumored scope for this spec in a new Xiaomi device that may well be this one.

ARM announces the Cortex-A78C, a new variant of a next-gen high-end core

ARM’s new Cortex-A78C core is based on its previously launched A78. However, the company insists that it has diversified the audience for its series (which also consists of the A78E) with this core. It has apparently been optimized for “high performance, heavily threaded workloads”.

Like the A78, this new C variant is compatible with the Mali-G78 GPU. However, it is geared toward different formations in a single DynamiQ arrangement (by which ARM cores are combined with others to form a processor). The A78 can conform to big.LITTLE architectures (or 1+3+4 arrangements, as is likely to be the case in 2021).

However, up to 8 of its C siblings can be used to create an all-big chipset: no A55s or X1s required. This intriguing concept could (according to ARM) handle the next-gen demands of what it calls “digital immersion”. These applications range from productivity-focused tasks to virtual- or augmented-reality (AR or VR) gaming.

The Cortex-A78C core also supports ARM’s latest security-focused features. They include Pointer Authentication (PAC), which is rated to reduce exploits of the return-orientated programming (ROP) and jump-orientated programming (JOP) by over 60% and 40% respectively. However, and possibly most importantly, it has an L3 cache of 8MB.

Therefore, ARM is adamant that CPUs based this new Cortex-A78C core would be ideal for prosumer- to enterprise-grade portable devices – even laptops, perhaps – or gaming headsets, whereas the A78 is best for smarphone SoCs. However, it does sound like they might also be attractive to OEMs in the mobile gaming space as well. Time will tell where these fresh new CPU cores will end up.

Apple’s ARM-based MacBook Air will reputedly launch at US$799 with the MacBook Pro 13 priced at US$1,099

We are but one week away from Apple’s next hardware event, where the company is expected to announce its first ARM-powered Mac hardware. Apple will announce a new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 based on its new ARM architecture, according to Mark Gurman and Debby Wu of Bloomberg, which may be joined by a revised version of the MacBook Pro 16.

Leaker @000leaker has gone one further, though. Posting on Twitter, the account claims that Apple will launch the ARM MacBook Air for as low as US$799, with prices rising to US$999 for what we presume will just be higher memory SKUs. We should stress that @000leaker does not have the best track record, but there have been rumours that Apple will price its ARM Mac hardware at cheaper price points than its current Intel ones.

Additionally, the account claims that the new MacBook Pro 13 will cost between US$1,099 and US$1,299. Meanwhile, a 12-inch MacBook will apparently follow in Q1/Q2 2021, before 14-inch and 16-inch Pro models arrive in Q2/Q3 2021. @000leaker adds that the MacBook Pro 14 will retail for upwards of US$1,799, which would be quite the price hike from the MacBook Pro 13.

Apple is expected to equip the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 with full bore versions of the A14 Bionic, the 5 nm chipset that it uses in the new iPad Air and iPhone 12 series. The company may not brand its first ARM laptop chip as the A14 Bionic though, but it is thought to offer between eight and twelve processor cores.

Librem Mini V2: A powerful mini-PC with a Comet Lake Core i7 processor and up to 64 GB of RAM

Not even a year has passed since Purism released the Librem Mini, but the company has now unveiled a second-generation model. Unsurprisingly, Purism has called its latest machine the Librem Mini V2, which also offers a hint of the breadth of upgrades that the mini-PC has been afforded.

According to the manufacturer, the Librem Mini V2 has been upgraded to a Core i7-10510U, a 15 W chip from Intel’s Comet Lake-U family. While this is an upgrade from the Core i7-8565U that the company included in the first Librem Mini, the change will only yield a 6% performance improvement, based on our database.

Elsewhere, the Librem Mini V2 remains identical to its predecessor. The machine has two SO-DIMM slots for up to 64 GB of DDR4-2400 RAM, one M.2 slot for an NVMe or SATA III drive, along with a 2.5-inch drive bay for another SATA II drive. Additionally, Purism continues to equip its mini-PC with two video outputs, seven USB ports, an RJ45 connection and optional Bluetooth/Wi-Fi.

The Librem Mini V2 starts at US$699 with 8 GB of RAM, a 250 GB SATA SSD and a combination of coreboot + SeaBIOS. The machine can be configured up to US$3,193, though. The Librem Mini V2 is available to order now.