Quick Shots-118

Vivo Watch 2 to launch December 22 in China as company’s first eSIM wearable

Vivo entered the smartwatch market with the Vivo Watch in September 2020. Today, the company released the Vivo Watch 2. The product will likely compete with the Huawei Watch D, which got a China launch just a day later. This is also the first smartwatch from Vivo to gain SMS functionality via an eSIM, or embedded SIM, making it stand out a bit in an otherwise crowded market. 

From Digital Trends

Honor Magic V is the company’s first foldable to rival the Galaxy Z Fold 3

The foldable segment seems to be blowing up in China even as Samsung dominates internationally. Smartphone manufacturers are delivering their own Galaxy Z Fold 3 competitors. Recently, it was Oppo with the Find N. Now, Honor has announced that it will be launching its first foldable smartphone soon called the Honor Magic V.

The teaser image doesn’t reveal much, but the smartphone looks like an inward-folding phone that transforms to a tablet when unfolded, so pretty standard with the rest of the market. We don’t have information on the specifications or the features as of now.

From Digital Trends

iQOO 9 series to use Samsung ISOCELL GN5 main sensor

After learning about the iQOO 9 series display tech yesterday, the vivo sub-brand is now teasing the camera specs of its upcoming flagship. An iQOO official took to Weibo to detail a brand new custom camera sensor with improved imaging capabilities which was later suggested by Ice Universe and Digital Chat Station to be Samsung’s 1/1.57-inch ISOCELL GN5 sensor – a 50MP 1.0μm sensor.

From Gsmarena

Oppo K9x introduced with Dimensity 810, 5,000 mAh battery

Oppo introduced a new phone to its K9 lineup with a Dimensity 810 chipset – meet the Oppo K9x. The new phone comes with three cameras, a big battery and a flat display with 90Hz refresh rate.

The screen of the Oppo K9x is 6.5” LCD and the phone is powered by a Dimensity 810 chipset. It has a punch hole for the 16MP selfie camera in the upper left corner. RAM options are 6GB and 8GB and storage comes in 128GB and 256GB.

The back hosts a 64MP main camera alongside two 2MP units for macro and depth. Oppo ships the K9x with ColorOS 12 but it is based on Android 11.

The 5,000mAh power battery comes with 33W charging support. The phone has a 3.5 mm audio jack on the bottom, which is a rarity these days.

The company did not reveal the price now – it will be disclosed right before the first flash sale on December 27. The K9x will be offered in Silver Purple or Black.

From Gsmarena

vivo V23 series to come with 50MP dual selfie camera, launch in India next month

Earlier this month, a media report claimed the vivo V23 5G will launch in India in December, and later we heard the company will introduce the V23 Pro in the Asian country on January 4, 2022. While we are yet to get a confirmation on this date from vivo, we can now report that the vivo V23 series will definitely debut in India next month.

Our source also tells us that the V23 series will “come with India’s First 50MP Eye Autofocus Dual Selfie camera,” ruling out the launch of the V23e or the V23e 5G since both feature single front-facing cameras.

It remains unclear how many smartphones the V23 series will consist of in India, but we know it will include the V23 and V23 Pro at next month’s event since an official promo video was aired in India during a sports match teasing both phones as “coming soon.”

From Gsmarena

AMD set to share info about ‘phenomenal’ next-gen Zen 4 CPUs at CES 2022

AMD is set to share more details on its future Zen 4 processors, which are expected to arrive later next year, at CES 2022, alongside all the other stuff Team Red will have at the show.

This comes from AMD’s Chief Technology Officer, Mark Papermaster, who gave an interview to Forbes and explained that the next-gen Zen 4 CPUs will indeed get some kind of an airing at CES.

Papermaster said: “With regards to the upcoming generation – I point to CES in January. We’re excited to be revealing some additional details on our new product launches that will deliver phenomenal experiences and as we’ve said, later in the year as it progresses we’ll share more detail on Zen 4 with some mentioned at CES and more announcements on it over the course of 2022. It will be a very exciting year for AMD.”

From Techradar

Samsung teases blistering fast PCIe 5.0 SSDs

Ahead of CES 2022, Samsung has teased some ridiculously fast PCIe 5.0 SSDs, snappily named PM1743 SSD, that can apparently hit 13,000 MB/s read speeds without breaking a sweat. 

The advances come from Samsung combining the lightning fast PCIe 5.0 protocol with its own sixth-generation V-NAND. The only downside that we can see is that these SSDs are specifically designed for enterprise servers, not your gaming rig. 

“For over a decade, Samsung has been delivering SATA, SAS and PCIe-based SSDs that have been recognized for outstanding performance and reliability by leading enterprise server customers …,” said Yong Ho Song, who leads Samsung’s memory division. “The introduction of our PCIe 5.0 SSD, along with PCIe 6.0-based product developments that are underway, will further solidify our technological leadership in the enterprise server market.”

From Techradar

Supply-chain report backs iPhone 14 hole-punch camera claims

TheElec says that LG will be supplying some of the display panels for the iPhone 14, the first time the company has supplied OLED panels to Apple. LG has long made LCD displays for earlier generations of iPhones.

LG Display will be supplying low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) thin-film transistor (TFT) OLED panels for Apple’s iPhones launching next year, TheElec has learned.

Winning the order for LTPO TFT OLED from Cupertino, despite the volume being small, is critical for the South Korean panel maker as it will allow it to maintain an edge over Chinese rival BOE, which is aggressively looking to expand its share in Apple’s OLED panel supply chain.

LTPO TFT supports 120Hz refresh rate and is an advanced technology that smartphone makers apply to their premium OLED panels for premium smartphones.

Samsung Display, which dominates the supply of OLED panels to Apple, provided the LTPO TFT OLED panel used in the Pro models of the iPhone 13 series this year.

The report briefly but specifically referenced hole-punch screens.

LG Display will also be supplying the LTPO TFT OLED panels with hole-in display technology, where there is a hole at the top side of the panel for the front camera.

Interestingly, polls of 9to5Mac readers on hole-punch cameras have shown very split views. While a hole-punch would be smaller, some consider it to be more noticeable than the notch, which often fades into the status bar area to be effectively invisible. It’s unclear whether the same would be true of a punch-hole.

From 9to5Mac

Gigabyte laptops spotted with Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti GPUs ahead of CES 2022

Nvidia’s rumored RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti laptop GPUs, the mobile versions of the graphics cards already out there for desktops, have been spotted in two Intel Alder Lake-powered Gigabyte notebooks which are purportedly due to be revealed at CES 2022.

This was picked up by VideoCardz, which has dug up a good dollop of details on the specs of the Gigabyte Aorus 17 gaming laptop, and the creatives-targeted Aero 17 (plus Aero 16) for 2022. Sprinkle with the usual caveats, of course, but there are multiple pics of the laptops in question to back this up.

Indeed, VideoCardz reckons there will be up to five new laptops from Gigabyte in total, so possibly another couple on top of the models seen here. All will have Alder Lake 12th-gen CPUs and could run with RTX 30 Series Ti spins.

From Techradar

WhatsApp for iOS is testing a new interface for voice calls, E2E label

It’s almost the end of the year, but there are still features that WhatsApp is readying for launch as soon as possible. One of them is a new interface for voice calls.

As discovered by WABetaInfo, this new interface for voice calls is under development, which means that no public beta tester can try it for now, although the publication notes that it will be available in a future update for iOS and Android users.

Not only that but WABetainfo also says that WhatsApp is working on indicators for end-to-end encryption. As you probably know, it’s been a few years since all the messages on the app are end-to-end encrypted. With that in mind, the team behind WhatsApp decided to bring new visual additions so you can know for sure that everything you say is between you and the people you choose.Not only that but WABetainfo also says that WhatsApp is working on indicators for end-to-end encryption. As you probably know, it’s been a few years since all the messages on the app are end-to-end encrypted. With that in mind, the team behind WhatsApp decided to bring new visual additions so you can know for sure that everything you say is between you and the people you choose.

From 9to5Mac