TM Roh: Samsung will build a processor tailored to the Galaxy
Samsung Electronics President TM Roh revealed that Samsung will be making an application processor that will be tailored to the needs of its Galaxy devices.
He reportedly gave away the information while questioned about the Game Optimization Service controversy at a meeting with employees.
Sadly he gave no specifics as to what this AP would be, nor at what stage of development it is.
Samsung already makes its own chip in the Exynos series, which are already almost exclusive to Galaxy devices (Vivo and Meizu being the occasional exception). However, it appears those aren’t developed in coordination with the mobile division, which has no say in what features go in and what is prioritized.
Some reports seem to suggest that the Exynos 2200 lags behind the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in terms of performance, which we can mostly verify, but the differences are subtle.
But in addition to the GOS scandal, where Samsung would throttle performance on the many phones, some Galaxy S22 Ultra owners have reported GPS signal issues, which also bring poor press to the Exynos brand.
Earlier this year we saw speculative renders of the Oppo Reno7 series, which showed a new design for the camera bump. Now leakster Digital Chat Station has refined the expected design, showing a phone that looks like a OnePlus 10 Pro with a flat screen.
The leakster also offers some specs, which don’t stray far from the Reno6 Pro. The phone will have a 6. 55″ display (almost certainly OLED) with 1,080 x 2,400 px resolution. One upgrade for the 8-series is the 120 Hz refresh rate (up from 90 Hz).
Oppo Reno8 (speculative render) * OnePlus 10 Pro
The triple camera on the rear will feature a 50 MP Sony IMX766 sensor, which is already used on the Reno7 Pro and several other Oppo devices. The 7 Pro utilized a custom Dimensity 1200-Max chipset, it will be interesting to see what the company has in store for us this time.
Unfortunately, chipset details for the Oppo Reno8 are not available yet. The Reno6 generation first launched in May, so the new series might arrive next month.
Vivo X Fold appears on Geekbench, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 confirmed
The next foldable phone will be the vivo X Fold, scheduled to arrive on Monday, April 11. We saw promo materials suggesting a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, and today the phone was benchmarked on Geekbench, and the listing confirmed the Qualcomm chip.
We can also see there will be a 12GB RAM option.
The single-core score of the V2178A phone is 1,223, which is among the better results compared with other phones with the same chipset. Multiple cores reached a 3,335 score.
If we can trust that one promo image with the specs sheet, we can also expect an 8″ inner screen with LTPO 3.0, which would be the first panel with the new version of the technology.
Hopefully, this foldable will escape the domestic scene since the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold, Oppo Find N, and Huawei Mate X2 never did, leaving the Galaxy Z Fold3 without competition in global markets.
Honor Magic4 Lite unveiled – a new name for the Honor X30/X9 5G
The Honor Magic4 Lite has quietly arrived on the scene. This is not a new device, it’s just a new name for the Honor X30, which is also available as the Honor X9 5G.
The Magic4 Lite model so far appears only in France with only one memory configuration – 6/128 GB. There are three colorways to choose from, Ocean Blue, Titanium Silver and Midnight Black.
Honor Magic4 Lite in Ocean Blue, Titanium Silver and Midnight Black
The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 695. Note that the Magic4 Lite and X9 5G variants come with Google Play services, while the X30 is for China skips the Google stuff.
The display is fairly large with a 6. 81″ diagonal, the IPS LCD panel has 1,080 x 2,388 px resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The camera on the back may be designed to mimic the impressive Magic4, but the setup is quite basic – a 48MP main camera, a 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensor. The camera on the front has a 16MP sensor.
Honor Magic4 Lite
One thing that the Lite shares with the premium Magic4 is the battery – 4,800 mAh capacity and 66W fast charging. This should be fast enough to get to 80% in 30 minutes.
There’s no pricing for the Honor Magic4 Lite yet, but you can keep an eye on the official store. The Honor X9 5G version launched in Malaysia at RM 1,300 (EUR275/$310).
The Honor family will continue growing tomorrow. The Honor Play 6T series is expected to launch in China tomorrow (April 7). Official details are scarce, but we expect to see a couple of devices (we’ve heard talk of Dimensity 800 and Snapdragon 778G chipsets).
Twitter confirms Edit feature is under development
Twitter has a new top shareholder in the face of Elon Musk, and the first thing he did after acquiring 9. 2% of the company asked its followers whether they wanted an Edit button. After 4 million votes, the result was overwhelming – 73. 6% voted “yse”, which is in favor adding the feature.
Today, the Communications team of the social media revealed the company devs have been working on the Edit feature since 2021, and testing is coming in “the coming months”.
Twitter already revealed it was working on an Edit button back on April 1, but everyone was suspicious about the statement given the calendar date. Communications posted a GIF revealing the location of the Edit Tweet button. It can be found in the Triple Dot Menu, just under Add/Remove From Lists.
Jay Sullivan, head of consumer products, said it was “the most requested Twitter feature for many years”. The team needs to figure out how it should be done properly, he said.
The beta feature for Twitter Blue Premium users will be available first. It will be available to all regular users once there has been enough feedback about “what works”, what doesn’t and what is possible.”
Microsoft adds new features to Windows 365 Cloud PC, tabs to File Explorer
Microsoft announced several new features for Windows 11 and its suite of apps to improve “hybrid work” modes – allowing employees to use their own computers to securely access company services whether they are at the office or working from home.
Windows 365 is a big part of that, it is a cloud-based virtual PC set up for work from home or remote work. Now there are several ways to access it – you can run it as an app or treat it as a virtual desktop. There is even a way to make a PC boot straight into Windows 365 if you’re going to use it long-term.
Windows 365 is a cloud-based virtual PC that can work offline too
While Windows 365 is primarily cloud-based, it can work offline too. Any changes that you make to your system will be synchronized the next time you connect via the Internet. 365 allows you to pick up your work where you left off, regardless of whether you’re at the office, at home or traveling for work.
It seems that video conference will be continuing even after COVID. Microsoft enhanced Teams for Windows 11 with a few neat features. They improve your experience by blurring background noise and keeping you centred in the frame. You can also reduce background noise.
The Eye contact feature adjusts where your eyes are looking at for a more natural conversation, a necessary kludge until under display cameras become more common. All of this will arrive on Qualcomm-powered devices first and they will leverage the Snapdragon NPU to do the processing.
Microsoft also works on Live Captions. This will be a great tool for the hard-of-hearing and deaf, and those who are still learning new languages. You can now use Live Captions with any app on Windows.
The File Explorer is finally getting a much-awaited productivity booster – tabs. This feature was originally planned for Windows 10, but was eventually canceled. The tabs allow you to organize Explorer windows. Additionally, the file manager offers context-sensitive suggestions and will surface relevant files (local or ones from the cloud) by using contextually sensitive tags.
The Windows 11 File Explorer is getting tabs
Favorites is a new tool in File Explorer. Marking a folder or file as “favorite”, will add it to Explorer’s main screen. It joins existing Quick Access, Recent documents and other features in Explorer.
There are many other new features that will improve the experience for individuals and companies alike. Below is a short video that runs through the highlights, you can also read more here and here.
Doogee S98 looks and sounds more like a secret agent gadget than a smartphone
If your phone looks like a tank and is built like a tank, you might as well use it to fight the bad guys, right?
Almost all smartphones these days are made to look classy and stylish, either appealing to grownups who want to look professional or younger audiences who want to be more expressive or any intersection of those two. There’s a certain class of phones, however, that were designed to be tough and endure potentially dangerous situations, marketed at companies and workers that also have to endure those same environments. These ultra-rugged phones are often anything but pleasing to look at, no matter the marketing spiel. A new phone in that category is turning the formula on its head with a design that is eye-catching and even attractive, especially when you consider how it almost works like a prop straight out of a spy flick.
There have been phones that attempted to bring a second display on their backs, often for the sake of having a way to view notifications even while the phone is face down on a desk. In truth, these smaller screens are advertised as a better way to take selfies since you can use the mightier cameras on the back of the phone and still see your face. There have been a few iterations of this idea over the years, but Doogee’s latest rugged phone is probably the most tasteful of them all.
Instead of a large camera bump on its back, the Doogee S98 has what is practically a circular smartwatch flanked by cameras and an LED flash. It functions the same way as other second screens, except it actually looks good in that position rather than something that feels simply tacked on. It gives the phone an almost futuristic vibe, or cyberpunk given its rather think skin.
The phone’s specs are nothing to write home about, which isn’t surprising considering how most rugged phones like this are often underpowered. It does have one particular feature that makes it unique and, at the same time, ironically uninteresting for most consumers. It has a 20MP night vision camera, which fits that secret agent theme. Of course, it has real-world applications in industrial and security fields, which is where the phone is headed anyway.
The Doogee S98 is unapologetically rugged in features and appearance, and it refreshingly embraces that with an interesting twist. While most phone makers will be content to just leave things like that, the company has given the phone’s design a bit more thought, resulting in a product that rises above the rest in a good way. The phone won’t sell like pancakes in the mainstream market despite those features, but it will at least make its owners the envy of their peers. At least until the next rugged phone manufacturer designs to copy or even one-up Doogee.
Samsung Galaxy M13 5G’s design revealed through leaked images
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy M12 last February, and it’s expected to announce the Galaxy M13 5G soon since the smartphone reportedly entered production in India last month. While we await more details from Samsung about the Galaxy M13 5G, its leaked images likely coming from the production unit give us an idea of what the smartphone will look like.
You can see that the Samsung Galaxy M13 5G’s back panel has three holes – the two big ones are for the cameras, and the smaller one is likely for the flash. This is surprising since the Galaxy M12’s Indian and global variants sported quad camera setups.
Samsung Galaxy M13 5G
That said, like the Galaxy M12, the M13 5G also has the SIM card slot on its left-side frame, with the volume rocker and power key on the right. This model could include a fingerprint reader for biometric authentication.
The Galaxy M13 5G has a USB-C port at the bottom joined by a speaker, and the smartphone could have a polycarbonate body. One of the images shared by the source reveals the M13 5G has model designation SM-M135F.
More details about the Samsung Galaxy M13 5G should surface in the coming days.
vivo X80 Pro+ with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 runs Geekbnech
The vivo X80 and X80 Pro are expected to use the Dimensity 9000, we’ve already seen AnTuTu and Geekbench results. The top of the line vivo X80 Pro+ will get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 instead, as seen in this scorecard from Geekbench.
The phone, vivo V2145, appears with the ‘taro’ motherboard, the code name for the 8 Gen 1. It was equipped with 12 GB of RAM and ran Android 12. Although the posted scores were low (especially for multi-core), they ran Android 12.
Geekbench result from vivo X80 Pro+ (V2145)
The vivo X80 Pro+ will have a large 6. 78″ QHD+ AMOLED display, a 120 Hz LTPO 2 panel, according to rumors. The Pro+ model will also stand out with its camera, featuring the vivo V1 custom ISP, a 50 MP main (ISOCELL GN1), a 48 MP ultra wide (IMX598), and a pair of 50 MP cameras (JN1 + JN2), likely to telephoto duty.
vivo is expected to unveil the X80 series soon. It will launch in India later this month, according to MySmartPrice. In terms of pricing, we’ve heard that the Pro+ will go for CNY 6,500 ($1,030/EUR950/Rs80,000).
The vivo iQOO Neo6 is arriving next Wednesday, but the phone was already listed at JD.com – one of China’s biggest online retailers. Although specifications and pricing have not yet been posted, we saw the final design. The phone will feature a flat-screen display and come in two colors.
The iQOO Neo6 will be offered in two colors – Black and Leather Orange. All four sides will be flat, and the phone is going to have a fingerprint scanner under the OLED panel.
vivo iQOO Neo6
The phone is expected to ship with Android 12 with OriginOS Ocean on top. Rumors suggest a 6. 62″ screen, 4,700 mAh battery and 80W fast charging. The company is likely to tease more iQOO Neo6 specs in the 7 days leading up to the event.
