Xiaomi Black Shark 4S design and display specs revealed
The Black Shark 4S is coming on October 13, and the company is ramping up its teasers for the upcoming gaming flagship. An executive of the brand took it to Weibo to share a few cool details about the new screen of the phone, while a VP revealed the new design of the gaming smartphone.
The new device will have a Samsung E4 AMOLED screen with 144Hz refresh rate, ultra-quick touch response and color accuracy comparable to professional creative monitors. The 720Hz touch sampling enables a touch delay of just 8.3ms.
The new UI will also bring a screen mode for comfortable prolonged reading.
Getting to the back, the triple horizontal camera setup shares its design with the Black Shark 4 series’ island. The big difference is the brand moving away from the X aesthetics and will offer a new look that is still carrying the typical over designed gaming aesthetics. We can also see shoulder triggers, which the Black Shark 4S will inherit from its predecessor.
And two days before the phone gets announced, it also did a test run on AnTuTu, beating the current crown holder Black Shark 4 Pro. The benchmark also revealed there will be a 16/512 GB memory option.
The 887,734 total result is a sum of the performance of four key components – CPU, GPU, memory, and user experience. Quick math reveals the Snapdragon 888 Plus-powered phone was able to outdo its predecessor by 3.5%.
Read More at Gsmarena
OnePlus 9 RT official specs have been confirmed prior to its launch date
The upcoming OnePlus 9 RT is set for launch on October 13, but the company has already confirmed its key specs this early. The phone’s chipset, display, battery, and more details are now official.
OnePlus has revealed on its Weibo page that the device will be powered by the same chipset found in many of the best Android phones, namely the Snapdragon 888. The phone was previously rumored to feature a Snapdragon 870 SoC.
The processor will be coupled with an LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. While OnePlus didn’t reveal the phone’s memory capacity, a recent Geekbench listing claimed that it would have 12GB of RAM.
Further confirming recent rumors, the company also announced that the OnePlus 9 RT will sport a display with a 120Hz refresh rate, similar to the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro. It will also feature a Samsung E4 AMOLED screen. The handset will also pack a 4,500mAh battery with support for 65W flash charging.
Its price remains a mystery, but we won’t have to wait long as the phone will be officially unveiled on October 13, which will also be the start of pre-orders. It will be available beginning on October 19.
Read More at Android Central
How to Find Your Lost iPhone, Even If It’s Turned Off
Apple will now use its low-power U1 chip to continue tracking the location of an iPhone even after it’s switched off. This feature is enabled by default once you install iOS 15 on a compatible iPhone (iPhone 11 and newer, including the latest iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro).
When the iPhone is turned off, Apple continues to run its Low Energy Bluetooth chip via a custom secure applet. The rest of the device is completely switched off (including the always-on processor that’s used for background tasks like “Hey Siri” requests).
The other part of the equation has to do with Apple’s Ultra Wide Band U1 chip. Just like with the AirTags, your iPhone will keep on sending cryptographically secure beacons out to other Apple devices. And when someone passes near your switched-off iPhone, it will pick up those beacons, and will relay that information securely using the Find My network.
If you’re looking for a more technical explanation of what’s going on under the hood, check out this blog post by Naehrdine and this Twitter thread by Hector Martin.
Read More at Lifehacker
OPPO shares ColorOS 12 beta release timeline for several devices
| Rollout period | Devices |
|---|---|
| October 2021 | Find X3 Pro 5G |
| November 2021 | Find X2 Pro Find X2 Pro Automobili Lamborghini Edition Find X2 Reno 6 Pro 5G Reno 6 Pro 5G Diwali Edition Reno 6 5G |
| December 2021 | Reno 6 Reno 5 Reno 5 Marvel Edition Reno 6 Z 5G Reno 5 Pro 5G Reno 5 Pro F19 Pro+ A74 5G A73 5G |
| H1 2022 | Find X3 Lite 5G Find X3 Neo 5G Find X2 Neo Find X2 Lite Reno 10X Zoom Reno 5 5G Reno 5 F Reno 5 Lite Reno 5 Z 5G Reno 4 Pro 5G Reno 5 5G Reno 4 F Reno 4 Lite Reno 4 Z 5G Reno 4 Pro Reno 4 Reno 4 Mo Salah Edition Reno 3 Pro 5G Reno 3 Pro Reno 3 Reno 5 AF19 Pro F17 Pro A94 5G A94 A93 A54 5G A53s 5G |
| H2 2022 | F17 F19s F19 A74 A53 A53s A16s |
The company notes that the timeline mentioned above refers to the start time of the rollout. Since OPPO will release the ColorOS 12 beta in batches, some users might not receive the update in the period mentioned above. In addition, OPPO clarifies that the rollout timeline doesn’t apply to carrier-exclusive models.
Read More at XDA
Leakster: the Oppo Reno7 Pro will use a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor
Leakster Digital Chat Station has more news of Oppo’s upcoming flagship smartphones – the Reno7 Pro model (PFDM00) will use the Sony IMX766 sensor. This could be the same phone that is being co-developed with Kodak, which will use two such sensors. Though that might be a new Find model instead.
Either way, the IMX766 is highly popular over at Oppo HQ. It is currently used in the Reno6 Pro+ as well as the Snapdragon version of the Reno6 Pro and the Find X3 Pro flagship too. This sensor (or custom versions of it) is also used in phones from OnePlus, Realme, vivo and others.
It is a 1/1.56” sensor with 50 MP resolution and 1.0 µm native pixels (which grow to 2.0 µm with 4-in-1 binning). Also, it supports DOL-HDR an All-Pixel autofocus.
According to DCS this sensor will enable a notable improvement in image quality on the the Reno7 model compared to the Reno6 Pro. But note that this refers to the Dimensity 1200 version of the 6 Pro, which is sold in China and uses a 64 MP OmniVision OV64B, a 1/2.0” sensor with 0.7 µm pixels.
The OV64B is also used in the vanilla Reno6, so the new vanilla model should be in for a camera upgrade as well.
Read More at Gsmarena
Intel Core i9-12900K CPU leak suggests it could be a Ryzen 5950X killer
Intel’s Core i9-12900K has been spotted in yet more Alder Lake leakage, with another spilled benchmark suggesting that we’ll get promising performance from the 12th-gen flagship.
This comes from Twitter-based hardware leaker HXL (again) who flagged up a couple of purported benchmarks on Bilibili, showing the 12900K put through its paces on Cinebench R20 and CPU-Z.
As observed, the benchmarks were carried out under Windows 11 with DDR4 system RAM, using a QS or qualification sample (meaning it’s the final pre-release version and should be pretty much identical to the retail chip).
In Cinebench R20, the Core i9-12900K’s single-threaded performance proved to be almost 20% faster than the 11900K, and the same story was true in CPU-Z (actually the 12900K was 21% faster here).
In multi-threaded testing with Cinebench, the 12900K was 65% faster than the 11900K, and just a smidge faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. With CPU-Z, the Alder Lake flagship was 75% better than the 11900K, and very close to the 5950X (the AMD chip was 3% quicker here, so just marginally had the edge).
Read More at Techradar
Realme GT Neo2T confirmed, will arrive on October 19
The Realme GT Neo2 was introduced back in September, and just four weeks later we are going to see a follow-up. The smartphone maker scheduled a launch for October 19 when it will unveil the Realme GT Neo2T smartphone – a new device, designed in collaboration with streetwear and sports equipment company Li-Ning.
We are confident this is a new phone because multiple rumors revealed it will be powered by a Dimensity 1200 chipset – a 6nm platform with a marginally powerful CPU, compared with the Snapdragon 870 inside the Neo2.
One leakster suggested the back design will imitate a motherboard, while the Realme CMO has said the partnership with Li Ning will “be a crossroad of new design processes”. We have no idea what that would mean in terms of actual looks, but such collaboration is a big deal for Realme.
Li Ning is a former gymnast with three gold medals from the 1984 Summer Olympics. He now owns a sports equipment company that has endorsed basketball stars like Shaquille O’Neal, Dwayne Wade, and Jimmy Butler.
Read More at Gsmarena
Samsung Galaxy S22 phones certified with 25W wired charging
Samsung has certified the Chinese variants of the Galaxy S22 smartphones at 3C, and the listings reveal none of them will support more than 25W wired fast charging. That is correct – none of them will get the 45W standard, not even the S22 Ultra, despite what earlier rumors suggests.
A possible explanation could be that this only applies to the Qualcomm-powered units – the S22 Ultra with Exynos 2200 and custom-made GPU by AMD will be the only one with the fast speeds, but it is not going to arrive in China, so it wasn’t part of the certification application.
The SM-S9010, SM-S9060 and SM-S9080 are respectively the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, and the Galaxy S22 Ultra, with the last character being a 0 means these are units, designated for the Chinese market. All of them will use the Samsung EP-TA800 25W adapter that has been part of the Samsung portfolio since the introduction of the Galaxy Note10 in August 2019.
If Samsung sticks with 25W charging for yet another generation it risks falling way behind Android competitors, which are normally offering twice to three times the charging speeds and some even go as high as 125W.
Read More at Gsmarena
Google may soon launch an Apple One-like ‘Pixel Pass’ subscription bundle
Google is working on a new subscription service that will let users get a Pixel 6 along with access to some of the search giant’s best services, according to a new leak from YouTuber M. Brandon Lee.
The subscription service, which will apparently be called “Pixel Pass,” is said to be a “mobile-focused subscription bundle” that will get users a Pixel 6 phone with the promise of regular upgrades, an extended device warranty, network coverage from Google Fi, and access to first-party services such as Google, Play Pass, YouTube Premium.
Users will be able to sign up for a Pixel Pass subscription by purchasing a new Pixel 6 through Google Fi or Google Store. Unfortunately, however, there’s no word yet on how much the subscription will cost. It also remains unclear if Pixel Pass will be limited to the U.S. at launch.
Aside from the Pixel Pass subscription, Brandon has also accessed marketing materials that reveal the official color names for both the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. The standard Pixel 6 will be available in Kinda Coral, Sorta Seafoam, and Stormy Black options. Google’s Pixel 6 Pro, on the other hand, will be offered in Sorta Sunny, Cloudy White, and Stormy Black.
As confirmed by a huge new leak recently, the Pixel 6 series phones will be powered by Google’s Tensor chipset, which is said to offer 80% faster performance than the Snapdragon 765G inside the Pixel 5. It will also have a custom image processor and a new Titan M2 security chip.
Google’s answer to the best Android phones of 2021 are set to debut at its fall launch event on October 19.
Read More at Android Central
Instagram teen usage will be made healthier, says Facebook; TikTok the bigger concern, says academic
Deadline reports that Facebook spokesman Nick Clegg said that the company would be making changes to both Facebook and Instagram.
In the Facebook app, the company will boost content from friends and reduce political content, in line with user feedback.
Clegg told CNN that there would be three upcoming changes to Instagram.
“We understand the concerns of some that we need to press pause, listen to experts, explain our intentions and so on,” he said. “We’re going to introduce new controls for adults of teens on an optional basis, obviously, so adults can supervise what their teens are doing online.”
He added, “Secondly, we’ll be doing something which I think will make a considerable difference, which is where the teen is looking at the same content over and over again, and its content which may not be conducive so their well-being, we’ll nudge them to look at other content,” he said.
He also said there would be some kind of “take a break” prompt, but didn’t give any details. TNW notes that the YouTube app has a similar feature, but users have to switch it on and choose their own time limits.
Facebook clearly hopes that this kind of self-regulation will help stave off increasing pressure for legislation, but Reuters notes that lawmakers may not be dissuaded.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, has argued for more regulation against technology companies like Facebook.
“I’m just tired of hearing ‘trust us’, and it’s time to protect those moms and dads that have been struggling with their kids getting addicted to the platform and been exposed to all kinds of bad stuff,” Klobuchar told CNN on Sunday after Clegg’s interview.
Read More at 9to5Mac
