News Analysis India

Tag: flagship

  • Xiaomi Removes Charger From Box After Mocking Apple For It

    Only a few weeks after mocking Apple for not including a charger with its iPhone 12 series smartphones, Xiaomi appears to be doing the same. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has now confirmed that the company’s latest flagship – the Mi 11 – will not bundle a charger inside. This despite the fact that back in October, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer had taken a pointed dig at Apple, boasting on Twitter that it “didn’t leave anything out of the box with the #Mi10TPro.”

    Several Twitter users took to the microblogging platform to troll Xiaomi for doing the same thing that it had criticised Apple for.Samsung – Apple’s biggest rival which had also mocked the company for not including a charger with the iPhone 12 series – got caught in the crossfire.

  • Xiaomi announces Mi 11 launch date

    Xiaomi has finally announced the launch date for Mi 11 series. The new flagships will be the first to bring the Snapdragon 888 processor to the market on December 28.

    Xiaomi revealed the Mi 11 launch date on Chinese social media platform Weibo. A poster shared by the company confirms that the launch will take place in China at 7:30 PM local time (6:30 AM ET). Pre-bookings for the phone have already started in the country.

    There’s still no word on a global launch date for the Mi 11 series, but we expect it won’t be far behind. That said, we don’t expect the series to become available outside of China before January 2021.

    It was previously tipped that the Mi 11 lineup would launch on December 29. However, the leak did not confirm if it’s a global launch date or a China-only timeline.

    Nevertheless, we expect to see the Mi 11 and Mi 11 Pro models during Xiaomi’s launch event on its home turf. There isn’t much out there in terms of credible rumors, but we did see some images of the alleged Mi 11 floating about online. There’s also some information available on the display and battery capacity of the two flagships. You can read all the rumors and leaks about Mi 11 series here.

    We expect Xiaomi to start teasing more details about the upcoming phones over the next few days. We’ll be sure to bring you any new information as and when we come by it.

  • Samsung Galaxy S21 Allegedly Spotted on Geekbench With Snapdragon 888 SoC

    Samsung Galaxy S21 is largely expected to launch next month, and the phone has been subject to several rumours and tips in the past. It has now been allegedly spotted on Geekbench with the new Snapdragon 888 SoC and Android 11. The smartphone, along with two others in the Galaxy S21 series, is expected to launch on January 14 with pre-orders beginning on the same day. Leaks suggest that there may be a Samsung Galaxy S21+ model and another Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra model in the lineup.

    Geekbench benchmarking site has listed a Samsung phone with model number SM-G991U. This model number is largely associated with Samsung Galaxy S21, and the listing suggests that the phone will run on Android 11 software when it launches. It is also tipped to have a processor codenamed ‘lahiana,’ that is associated with the newly announced Snapdragon 888 SoC.

    This next-gen flagship SoC for premium smartphones was unveiled a few days ago at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit 2020. The new chip, a successor to last year’s Snapdragon 865 SoC, was speculated to be named Snapdragon 875 SoC up until now. It comes with a third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon X60 5G modem that is touted to enable compatibility for both mmWave and sub-6 networks across all major bands worldwide.

  • iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown Reveals Significantly Larger Camera Sensor Than iPhone 12

    SThe teardown experts aka the folks over at iFixit have disassembled the new iPhone 12 Pro Max and the innards of Apple’s largest iPhone to date reveals several changes compared to the iPhone 12 Pro and the remaining models in general.

    Thanks to its sheer 6.7-inch display, the iPhone 12 Pro Max size is large enough to house a plethora of components. One of them is the L-shaped battery, which is also present in last year’s iPhone 11 Pro Max.

    Unfortunately, for 2020, Apple incorporated a smaller 14.13Whr cell than the 15.04Whr packed in last year’s flagship. After looking at this teardown, we figured that a part of that has to do with the massive camera module that includes three sensors and one new LiDAR unit

    In case you didn’t know what a LiDAR camera does, one use case is it can instantly measure someone’s height. More and more uses will eventually be added, but for now, this is one nifty feature of the LiDAR camera. According to iFixit, the standard 12MP shooter on the iPhone 12 Pro Max is 47% larger than the sensor on the iPhone 12, allowing more light to pass through. There are also four magnets surrounding the larger 12MP sensor, meaning Apple has employed its new sensor-shift stabilization technology.

  • Samsung May Launch Flagship Galaxy S21 Phone Early to Grab Huawei Share, Say Sources

    Samsung may launch its flagship Galaxy S smartphones more than a month earlier than expected in a bid to grab market share from Huawei and fend off competition from Apple, three sources familiar with the matter said.

    Huawei once challenged Samsung’s top position in the global smartphone market, but the Chinese rival is in survival mode with US restrictions choking off its supplies of chips used in smartphones and telecom equipment.

    South Korean chip industry officials hope Joe Biden’s presidency will ease some of those restrictions, although they are far from certain as they also expect the incoming US administration to maintain a tough stance on China.Samsung is preparing to launch its new Galaxy S21 as early as late January next year, whereas it previously launched its flagship S20 phone in early March this year, the sources said, asking not to be identified because the plan is not public.

    The South Korean company shipped 59 percent fewer Galaxy S20 5G series handsets in the United States in the second quarter compared to the previous model’s performance a year earlier, according to research firm Canalys. In contrast, Apple shipped 15 percent more of its flagship iPhone 11 than last year’s best-seller, the iPhone XR.

    Samsung, which lost its No.1 position to Huawei in the second quarter, regained the crown in the third thanks in part to the US restrictions on Huawei. A person at one major supplier of smartphone chips said Huawei’s stockpiles were expected to run out some time early next year.

    Samsung, however, faces intensifying competition from Chinese rivals like Xiaomi and Oppo, which are expected to take advantage of Huawei’s struggle to retain market share.

    Apple also launched its iPhone series in October, about a month later than usual, stepping up competition.

  • Xiaomi Mi 11 expected to come with 48 MP lens – for the ultra wide-angle camera

    Xiaomi fans might want to start saving up now as the Mi 11 is increasingly looking like it could be a market-upsetting device. The flagship is already believed to be coming with a Snapdragon 875 and possibly an under-display camera at the front, and now the ever-reliable Digital Chat Station has provided some more information about the potential main camera setup.

    While predictions for the main camera sensor have ranged from the conservative 108 MP (same as the Mi Note 10) to an outlandish 192 MP, little has been mentioned about the supporting lenses. However, according to the tech tipster, the “first batch of Snapdragon 875 flagship new machines”, which is expected to include the Xiaomi Mi 11, will boast of 48 MP ultra wide-angle lenses with upgraded image stabilization features and a tiny 0.8 μm pixel size.

    With this kind of equipment onboard, Xiaomi is clearly eyeing up taking back the DxOMark title from the Huawei Mate 40 Pro, which managed a camera score of 136 that put it ahead of the Mi 10 Ultra on 133. It seems the Chinese OEM wants to treat the ultra wide-angle lens in the Mi 11 with the same attention to detail that normally goes into just the main wide-angle sensor, meaning the rear-facing camera system of the 2021 flagship has the potential to be the best smartphone camera produced to date.