vivo X Fold appears in hands-on photos
We’ve seen plenty of rumors suggesting vivo is ready to enter the foldable smartphone market soon with its vivo X Fold and we finally have our first real look at the device in question. In true unreleased device fashion, vivo X Fold was spotted in a Chinese subway station with a thick protective case meant to shoulder it from the eyes of the masses.
The X Fold comes with a square-shaped inward folding screen and by the looks of it there is no visible crease in the middle portion of the panel. According to speculation vivo’s complex hinge mechanism is the key component for the gapless folding display. The folding screen is also expected to be covered in UTG glass.
Past vivo X Fold rumors suggest an 8-inch QHD+ folding display with 120Hz refresh rate, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and a 4,600 mAh battery with 80W fast charging and 50W wireless charging.
From Gsmarena
Is Samsung’s next rugged phone secretly a great gaming device?
Samsung usually releases at least one rugged smartphone and tablet every year. Most such devices are not very well specced. However, this year could be different. This year, the company could release the Galaxy Xcover Pro 2 to replace the Galaxy Xcover Pro that was launched in 2020.
An unannounced Samsung smartphone with model number SM-G736B was spotted in Geekbench’s database. It could be launched as the Galaxy Xcover Pro 2. The device runs Android 12 (possibly with One UI 4.1) and features 6GB of RAM. More interestingly, it uses the Snapdragon 778G processor, which is also used in the Galaxy A52s 5G and the Galaxy A73.
The Snapdragon 778G is a powerful chipset and offers excellent gaming performance. Thanks to its fast Cortex-A78 CPU cores, Adreno 642L GPU, support for high-refresh-rate screens, and 5G connectivity, the chipset is ideal for gaming and day-to-day performance. Moreover, it uses the power-efficient 6nm fabrication process from TSMC, making it a powerful yet efficient chipset.
From Sammobile
Samsung Galaxy A53 goes on sale ahead of official announcement
While Samsung is gearing up to announce its new Galaxy-A series phones on March 17 we’ve already seen the Galaxy A53 5G unofficially on sale in Serbia and now the phone has also made its way to retailers in Kenya. Buyers can scoop up the unannounced midranger for KSH 45,500 which converts to $400.
The listed specs include a 6.52-inch display, Exynos 1200 chipset which may be called the Exynos 1280 and a 4,500 mAh battery. The camera department includes a 64MP main cam alongside a 12MP ultrawide and two 5MP modules for macro shots and dept data. The selfie cam comes out to 32MP. The software side is covered by One UI 4 on top of Android 12 while storage is 128GB and RAM is 8GB.
From Gsmarena
The Redmi K50 series will have WQHD OLED displays and Gorilla Glass Victus
The display will use a Samsung-made OLED panel with 1,440 x 3,200 px resolution (for a sharp 526 ppi pixel density), Dolby Vision, DC dimming and Gorilla Glass Victus protection. DisplayMate has already tested the panel and has awarded it an A+ score (for setting or matching 16 display records).
From Gsmarena
Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti launch date leaked – along with some bad news
A new Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti leak has emerged, bringing both good and bad news for people looking forward to Team Green’s next super-powerful graphics card.
The good news is that it looks like The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is finally going to launch on March 29, which isn’t too far away at all. We last saw the RTX 3090 Ti way back at the start of January, when Nvidia gave us a quick glimpse during its CES 2022 keynote, along with a promise that we’d learn more about it later in the month.
However, the silence since then suggested Nvidia had delayed the GPU due to some undisclosed issues (though rumors suggested it could be due to issues with the GDDR6X memory used in the GPU).
But, as Videocardz reports, someone has seemingly leaked Nvidia’s launch plans for the RTX 3090 Ti, with the company apparently announcing the release date of the GPU, and it hitting store shelves, on the same day: March 29.
This is good news for anyone who’d been worrying that the RTX 3090 Ti had been secretly cancelled – after all, we could very likely see next generation RTX 4000 series GPUs later this year, possibly making the RTX 3090 Ti redundant, especially if there’s a more powerful RTX 4090 in the works.
Before you get too excited, though, this leak – which hasn’t been confirmed, so take with a pinch of salt – also means buyers will have a tricky decision to make.
From Techradar
As Moore’s Law Slows, Apple Is Forced To Use Cheaper Chipsets In Non-Pro iPhones
Apple has consistently driven performance and smartphone capabilities in smartphone SOCs. The iPhone is one of the best phones and the incredible silicon teams at Apple are much of the reasons why. Apple has consistently had the best CPU, GPU, video recording, and efficiency with every release. Many buyers of the iPhone may even argue that the massive yearly gains in the chipset are irrelevant because the iPhone is already well past the point of diminishing returns.
Ming Chi Kuo, the legendary Apple supply chain analyst, has dropped some major news for fruit phone lovers. The not-so successful iPhone Mini is dead and Apple is instead replacing it with an iPhone Max. This would be a larger iPhone with a similar screen size as the flagship iPhone Pro Max. In addition, Kuo commented that the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max would not receive the new A16 chipset that launches this year, but instead will receive the existing A15 chipset. In addition, he stated the Pro models would receive 6GB of LPDDR5 instead of 6GB of LPDDR4X like the non-pro iPhones.
From Semianalysis
Samsung officially confirms March 17 for Galaxy A event
Samsung is all set to introduce its latest Galaxy A-series phones later this week on March 17. The Galaxy A event keynote will tip off at 10AM ET time (2PM UTC) and will be live-streamed on YouTube and Samsung.com for you to tune in.
We’re expecting the long-rumored and leaked Galaxy A73 and Galaxy A53 at the event coming in as Samsung key upper-midrange devices. Both upcoming phones will serve as refreshes of their predecessors with faster chipsets and slightly altered designs. The A73 is also expected to debut a 108MP main camera while the A53 will likely debut the all new Exynos 1200 chipset.
From Gsmarena
The excellent YouTube Vanced app has been shut down
There are quite a few unofficial YouTube apps available for Android, but YouTube Vanced is arguably the best one on the market. Unfortunately, the developers of the app have now revealed that it will be discontinued.
The developers posted the announcement on Twitter on Sunday:
Vanced has been discontinued. In the coming days, the download links on the website will be taken down. We know this is not something you wanted to hear but it’s something we need to do. Thank you all for supporting us over the years.
YouTube Vanced’s team added in a follow-up tweet that the current version of the app will continue to work “until they become outdated in two years or so.” We’re guessing that the app will only work fine as long as Google doesn’t make major changes to YouTube or its mobile app.
There’s no immediate word on why the app was discontinued, but it seems likely that the developers received a DMCA takedown or some sort of legal action from Google. After all, YouTube Vanced is a modified version of the standard YouTube app, introducing features like ad-free playback, a dislike counter, sponsor blocking within videos, and background video playback.
Some of these YouTube Vanced features like ad-free playback and background video listening require YouTube Premium in the official app. So it’s easy to see why Google may have taken action.
From Android Authority
iPhone Production in China’s Tech Hub Screeches to a Halt as COVID Explodes
Foxconn, a major supplier for Apple and critical partner for the manufacturing of the iPhone, has halted production in the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen, according to a spokesperson from the tech giant. The halt in operations is a direct result of soaring covid-19 cases in China, a country that has managed to keep cases relatively low for the past two years.
Two Foxconn campuses in Shenzhen have temporarily shut down, a direct result of Beijing’s order on Sunday that non-essential businesses in Shenzhen pause operations until March 20. The city of 17.5 million has been effectively locked down as cases rise, with many workers being told to work from home if they can.
“The operation of Foxconn in Shenzhen, China has been suspended from March 14 onwards in compliance with the local government’s new covid-19 policy. The date of factory resumption is to be advised by the local government,” a spokesperson for Foxconn Technology Group told Gizmodo by email early Monday.
“Due to our diversified production sites in China, we have adjusted the production line to minimize the potential impact. Meanwhile, we have required all the employees to have covid PCR test on top of existing prevention measures to ensure the health and safety of our employees,” the spokesperson continued.
From Gizmodo
Revolutionary new Moon rover will make it easier to navigate the Lunar surface
Astrolab has created a new Moon rover designed around flexibility and exploration. The multi-functional Flexible Logistics & Exploration Rover, or FLEX Rover for short, is still in ongoing development. However, the company recently released a blog post with a video featuring retired astronaut Chris Hadfield. In the video, Hadfield talks about the FLEX Rover and why it’s important. Additionally, he talks about how it will make navigating the Lunar surface easier.
From BGR
