Global Xiaomi 12 Pro gets listed by the FCC, appears in Geekbench benchmark
The Xiaomi 12 Pro and its vanilla sibling were spotted in the database of an Indonesian telco a few weeks ago, now the Pro has also gone through the FCC and has appeared in several benchmark results.
From Gsmarena
Tecno Pop 5X debuts with Android 10 Go, Unisoc chipset
There’s always room for another ultra-affordable smartphone, or at least that’s what Tecno thought. The Transsion brand launched the Pop 5X device in Mexico with a quad-core CPU, Android 10 Go and a 4,000mAh battery.
At the front, we have a 6.5” HD screen with a 5MP selfie cam mounted on a waterdrop notch. Tecno does not reveal what the chipset is, but the phone is likely a rebranded iTel Vision 1Pro (another product by Transsion), and from its specs page we can see it is powered by a Unisoc SC9832E. The RAM is 2GB and storage is 32GB, but you can expand the latter with microSD cards.
On the back the Pop 5X has an 8MP main camera and two QVGA shooters of what we assume is limited utility. There’s also a physical fingerprint scanner next to the camera island.
From Gsmarena
Valve’s Steam Deck Finally Has an Official Release Date
PC gamers patiently waiting to get their hands on Valve’s portable gaming PC won’t have to wait much longer, as the company announced that it’s making the Steam Deck available to order on February 25, 2022.
Not only did the company announce that it would start taking orders for the highly-anticipated Steam Deck, but it also announced that the hardware would ship just three days later, on February 28, 2022. That means that if you actually manage to order one, you won’t have to wait very long to have the gaming PC in your hands.
From Howtogeek
OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is reportedly launching next month
Last year, OnePlus added a new entrant to the Nord family with the launch of the OnePlus Nord CE. While not as competitive as Xiaomi or Realme’s mid-range offerings, the OnePlus Nord CE offered a great all-around smartphone experience, as we noted in our review. The device was certainly well received as the company is now looking to follow up with a successor. We got our first look at the OnePlus Nord CE 2 last month via leaked renders. Now a leak suggests the official launch may just be around the corner.
According to tipster Max Jambor, who has a good track record when it comes to OnePlus product leaks, OnePlus plans to launch the Nord CE successor as soon as next month. The render shared by Max points to a February 11 launch — just a couple of days apart from the Galaxy S22 series launch which is reportedly launching on February 9.
From XDA
This could be our first look at Lenovo’s new Legion gaming phone
Earlier this week, news and renders of Lenovo’s rumored Halo flagship broke cover. Now, the company’s forthcoming gaming phone is the subject of the latest leak.
Per details from reliable leaker Evan Blass, the Lenovo Legion Phone 3 could make its debut soon. While it’s the sequel to the Lenovo Legion Duel 2, the company has seemingly dropped the “Duel” branding, opting instead for Pro and Elite suffixes.
Despite its name change, the Legion Phone 3 keeps its proudly brash design language and gaming-centric touches. This includes four ultrasonic shoulder keys and two rear capacitive buttons, RGB lighting elements, and twin cooling fans complete the look. A host of colorways are on offer, too, including a baby blue option. The Pro model also gains a “leather-like” finish on its back.
From Android Authority
MediaTek Kompanio 1380 announced, aimed at premium Chromebooks
A new member of MediaTek’s Kompanio chipset series was unveiled and it will be aimed at premium Chromebooks. Kompanio 1380 brings similar specs to the previously launched Kompanio 1300T but lacks 5G connectivity.
The CPU is based on 4x Arm Cortex-A78 big cores clocked at up to 3GHz and 4x Arm Cortex-A55 efficiency cores working at up to 2GHz. The GPU side is covered by the Arm-Mali G57 which is a step down from the 1300T’s Mali-G77 MC9. Elsewhere the new chip brings MediaTek APU 3.0, up to 16GB, LPDDR4x RAM and support for eMMC, UFS 3.1 and NVMe storage.
| Kompanio 1200 | Kompanio 1380 | Kompanio 1300T | |
| Process | TSMC 7 nm | TSMC 6 nm | TSMC 6 nm |
| Big cores | Cortex-A78 | 4x Cortex-A78@ 3.0 GHz | 4x Cortex-A78 |
| Small cores | Cortex-A55 | 4x Cortex-A55@ 2.0 GHz | 4x Cortex-A55 |
| GPU | Mali-G57 MC5 | Mali-G57 MC5 | Mali-G77 MC9 |
| RAM | Up to 16 GB, LPDDR4x 2,133 MHz | Up to 16 GB, LPDDR4x 2,133 MHz | Up to 16 GB, LPDDR4x 2,133 MHz |
| Storage | UFS 2.1 | UFS 3.1 | UFS 3.1 |
| Connectivity | 5G Sub-6 GHz | Wi-Fi 6/6E | 5G Sub-6 GHz, |
| Display | 120 Hz @ 1080p | 120 Hz @ 1440p | 120 Hz @ 1440p |
Kompanio 1380 can power up to three independent displays with two panels at up to 4K at 60fps or a 1440p one at up to 120Hz. The chip also supports PCI-Express Gen 3 and USB 3.2 Gen 1. You get Wi-Fi 6/6E and Bluetooth 5 connectivity. Acer’s Chromebook Spin 513 announced last month will be the first device on the market with the Kompanio 1380 chipset.
From Gsmarena
Nvidia’s new tech could boost future GPU ray tracing performance by 20%
Nvidia’s ray tracing prowess is set to level up with Team Green’s graphics cards in the future, with a research paper outlining a new tech called Subwarp Interleaving which could potentially lead to up to 20% performance improvements.
That’s a big jump, of course – albeit a best-case scenario, because as ever, performance will vary from game to game – with potential gains in the average ballpark of around 6.3%, as measured on a ‘microarchitecture enhanced Turing-like GPU’, as Tom’s Hardware reports.
So, that’s a nice uptick, with some potentially much bigger improvements on certain titles. The caveat is that it’s still early stages for the work, and the architectural tuning required to introduce this feature likely won’t be realized until after next-gen cards – meaning the next range, presumably RTX 5000, after RTX 4000 ‘Lovelace’ cards which are due to arrive later in 2022.
From Techradar
iPhones will soon accept card payments with tech perfected by Samsung
What if it was possible to allow small business owners to accept contactless credit card payments using just the smartphone in their pocket without extra hardware like the Square Reader?
Montreal-based fintech startup Mobeewave developed its mobile point of sale (mPOS) solution to answer this very question. It worked with Samsung on a pilot program to test the technology in Canada. The test went very well. Now that technology may soon allow iPhone owners to accept NFC contactless credit card payments right on the device itself.
From Sammobile
Samsung’s Q4 2021 profit reaches four-year high, thanks to strong chip demand
A few days ago, Samsung had revealed its earnings estimates for the fourth quarter of 2021. Earlier today, the company published its final earnings report. Thanks to solid semiconductor chip sales and slightly higher smartphone sales, the South Korean firm’s operating profit reached a four-year Q4 high.
Samsung Electronics‘ Q4 2021 revenue reached KRW 76.57 trillion (around $63.64 billion), while the operating profit was KRW 13.87 trillion (around $11.52 billion). The company reported a net profit of KRW 10.8 trillion (around $8.97 billion) for the fourth quarter. Samsung’s revenue was 24% higher than Q4 2020, but operating profit declined slightly compared to Q3 2021 due to special bonuses paid to employees.
For the full year, the company’s revenue reached a historic high of KRW 279.6 trillion (around $232.43 billion), and the operating profit was KRW 51.63 billion (around $42.92 billion).
From Sammobile
A robot performed surgery on a pig without human intervention and outperformed real doctors
A robot has successfully performed autonomous abdominal surgery on a pig.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University reported the breakthrough on Wednesday in Science Daily News. The team has been programming its Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) for years; in 2018, the robot performed semi-autonomous laparoscopic surgery. This, however, is the first time the robot has successfully completed such an operation without “the guiding hand of a human.”
From Techradar
