OPPO, a company that innovates every once in a while has bought something relatively new to the table. A smartphone camera with 10x optical zoom capability. For starters, it’s still a prototype, and the test unit on display was a triple camera module. Although, the smartphone that carried the camera setup wasn’t revealed.
Specs first, the main camera module is a 48MP sensor, which shoots at 12MP by default. Following that is a 120-degree ultra-wide lens (equivalent to 16mm) along with a “stealthy periscopic telephoto camera” (equivalent to 160mm). So with the help of all three cameras, the phone is capable of covering focal length from as low as 16mm up to 160mm, hence the 10x optical zoom.
This isn’t actually the first time we’ve seem 10x optical zoom on a smartphone. One of which was the Galaxy K Zoom, with focal length ranging from 24mm-240mm. But that had a monstrous lens and carried the form factor of a typical point and shoot camera.
OPPO’s implementation is better, the form factor and dimensions of the device are like any other smartphone, and the full final design of the phone is said to go public soon enough. Take a look a few camera samples from the yet unnamed smartphone, thanks to PCWorld and GSMArena:
Credit: GSMArena
Credit: GSMArena
Credit: GSMArena
So, it works, and that’s all we can say for the time being. It’s still in it’s testing phases, so should improve over time. The triple camera setup will make its way to OPPO’s next flagship and hopefully trickle down to other OPPO devices as well. It also remains to be seen if OPPO will license this technology out to third-party manufacturers.
A few days back, the Chinese tech company announced a mid-range smartphone with the fancy features like Full View display, pop-up selfie camera and under display fingerprint sensor. Namely known as the Vivo V15 Pro, the smartphone got all the tech enthusiasts awe-inspired. And at the time, when the Nepali tech community is hyped about the Vivo V15 Pro launching in Nepal, Vivo subtly announced a price drop on three of its smartphones.
The Vivo Y71 comes with a 6-inch tall display in an 18:9 aspect ratio. On the resolution front, the phone features HD+ resolution packing 268 pixels in every inch.
On the performance front, the phone has got Snapdragon 425 chipset bundled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory. The onboard memory on this device can also be expanded up to 256GB via micro SD card. Talking about the camera, the phone flaunts a 13MP camera on the back. On the front, a 5Mp selfie shooter resides on the top bezel. And to the device energized, a 3360mAh battery continuously fuels the processes inside the phone.
Display: 5.99-inch FullView display, 18:9 aspect ratio
Resolution:1440 x 720 pixels
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 425
CPU: Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU: Adreno 306
OS & UI: Android 8.1 Oreo; Funtouch OS 4.0
Memory: 2GB RAM, 16GB storage; expandable via microSD card up to 256GB
Rear Camera: 13MP, f/2.0 aperture, autofocus, LED flash
Front Camera:5MP, f/2.2 aperture, Screen Flash
Connectivity: Dual-SIM (Nano), 4G, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, A-GPS, USB-OTG
Sensors: Accelerometer, Proximity, Compass
Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 3,360mAh battery
Price:Rs.17,890 Rs. 15,790
Vivo Y81i
The Vivo Y81i has already received a successor in the form of Vivo Y91i. Since the Y81i is already available in the Nepali market as well, the Y81i has got some price cut making it slightly affordable at the moment.
Talking about the Y81i specs, the firstly boasts a tall 6.22-inch display. And the screen is shielded with Gorilla glass on the top to evade the vulnerabilities of cracks and scratches during the falls. On the performance side, the phone has MediaTek Helio A22 chipset on its board. Talking about the memory, the phone comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard memory.
Camera wise, the Y81i comes with a single camera setup both on the front and on the back. In terms of resolution, the front one has got a 13MP camera and a 5MP camera on the back. And just like the Y71, the Y81i also comes with 3260mAh of a non-removable battery.
Display: 6.22-inch IPS LCD with Gorilla Glass protection
Resolution: HD+ (720 x 1520 pixels), 19:9 aspect ratio, 270 PPI
Chipset: MediaTek Helio A22, 12nm architecture
CPU: Quad-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU: PowerVR GE8320
OS & UI: Android 8.1 (Oreo) with FunTouch OS 4.0 on the top
Memory: 2GB RAM; 16GB storage, expandable up to 256GB
Rear Camera: 13 MP with f/2.2, PDAF
Front Camera: 5MP with f/2.2
Connectivity: Dual SIM (Dual 4G), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS + GLONASS, Micro USB 2.0, USB-OTG, 3.5mm headphone jack
Sensors: Accelerometer, proximity, compass
Battery: Non-removable 3260mAh
Colors: Black and Red
Price: Rs.18,990 16,790
Vivo Y81
The Vivo Y81 is a more capable version of the Y81i since it has been boosted up with a more capable processor and a beefed-up memory. Namely speaking, the processor here is an Octa-core MediaTek Helio P22 chipset. And the chipset has been coupled with 3GB RAM and 32GB of onboard memory.
On the display side of the things, there is a 6.22-inch HD+ IPS panel. As far as the camera is concerned, the phone comes with a 13MP rear camera and a front camera.
Last year’s Huawei P20 Lite was one of the most remarked phones of 2018. The phone was also launched in Nepal as Huawei Nova 3e, and it was well received here as well. That’s the things of 2018. Now the smartphone is on the verge of receiving a successor. The Huawei P30 Lite is said to be unveiled on March 26 alongside the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro. Although there is enough time for the official unveiling of the P30 Lite, some of the specs have already been leaked. Huawei P30 Lite recently appeared on TENAA, that where its partial specifications have been divulged.
Huawei P30 Lite Specifications (Leaked)
Two variants of the P30 Lite were certified by the TENAA, which carried their identity in terms of models numbers MAR-AL00 and MAR-TL00. And when it appeared in TENAA, its database revealed the dimension of the phone to be 152.9 x 72.7 x 7.4 mm. And as suggested by the institution’s database, the phone will be relatively tall in terms of the display at the 6.15-inch size. Further divulgence includes the mention of Full-HD+ resolution display and a 3240mAh battery. Rumors suggest that the phone will also come aboard with an 18-watt fast charger.
Aiding to these leaks, further rumors and speculations have also been in the market. And the latest rumors suggest that the phone will get triple rear cameras at the back. And some leaked images of the phones readily cues that. Some rumors also claim that the triple camera module on the device will be a 20+16+2MP combo.
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Apart from that, we can also see the use of a conventional type of fingerprint sensor at the back. On the front, a tiny water drop notch is conspicuous. Since such types of notch is quite trendy these days, that was more or less expected.
On the performance front, we might see Kirin 710 chipset implemented yet again. Last year, the Huawei P20 Lite and Huawei Nova 2i shared the same chipset. So we can also expect the same between the Huawei Nova 3i and the Huawei P30 Lite. Software-wise, the phone will boot on Android 9 Pie out of the box with Huawei’s custom skin EMUI 9.0 on the top.
Notch or bezels. This single statement has brought in a lot of discussions in the tech world where half the people are okay with notches while half criticize them. Amidst all this, Huawei brought to us something called a punch hole, which is literally a hole in the display. So, what does the Nova 4 pack other than a piercing in the display? Let’s find out!
Huawei Nova 4 Full Specifications
Design: Glass body, two-tone gradient coloring
Display: 6.41″ Full HD+ IPS LCD display with Punch-hole
First things first, let’s talk about the elephant of the phone, the front camera located on the top left corner. Well, I had expected this hole to be a little smaller than it actually is and that’s because Huawei’s official images show a different story. Nonetheless, having used phones with bezels, and notches in the middle, the Nova 4 is definitely a breath of fresh air. For me, new things are always welcome!
And the punch hole does not look so bad. When I use the phone, I completely forget that there is this black circle on one of the sides of the phone. It’s like notches, you get used to it! Sadly, the whole point of a display like this is to eliminate bezel, which hasn’t been done completely. You still see a thick line on the bottom with bezels even on the sides and top.
But this solution to the notch problem definitely gets a thumbs up from me, I would definitely prefer a punch hole display over a water drop notch. And for those who are wondering, the camera is completely below the glass.
Up front lies a 6.4-inch IPS LCD display with a full HD+ resolution. On paper, its competitor, the OnePlus 6T, certainly has an advantage due to its AMOLED display, but in real life, I found the Nova 4’s display to be on par with the 6T. The IPS display is bright, vivid, and colorful. The touch responsivity is buttery smooth and the overall experience you get with this display is great. There is also a setting that lets you choose your personal display calibration, so you can make the display pop out like you want to.
Design and build
Now, going for the aesthetics, the Nova 4 gives the vibe of the P20 pro’s looks, but the back doesn’t look like glass to me, maybe it’s high-quality plastic. Having said that, it feels comfortable to hold and just goes along in your hands. The power button is located at the right position and is very tactile. The fingerprint sensor is also located just where I want it to be and its really fast like other Huawei phones. The volume buttons are located on the left, they are tactile and where you want them to be.
Performance
The Nova 4 is powered by last gen Kirin 970. We know how good the Kirin 970 is, we have seen it on the P20 Pro and the Nova 3. And it has never once let me down. Yes, when you compare it with the Snapdragon 845 powered Oneplus 6T, the benchmark tells a whole different story. But, real life performance is quite good, I mean it is not the 6T level, but the Kirin 970 is no slouch by any means.
I played low-end to high-end games, browsed through a lot of applications and web pages, went through a ton of videos, but it has done everything in an effective manner. The phone even handles PUBG at its high setting. And the fact that it is able to do that is a win in itself.
The Huawei Nova 4 only comes in a single RAM variant which is 8 GB DDR4X, so you don’t have to worry about software hiccups if you are willing to cash in on this phone.
Benchmark Scores
AnTuTu V7: 196513
GeekBench 4 (Single-Core): 1765
GeekBench 4 (Multi-Core): 6385
3D Mark (Sling Shot Extreme – OpenGL ES 3.1): 1229
3D Mark (Sling Shot Extreme – Vulkan): 1184
Software
On the software side of things, the Huawei Nova 4 runs on Android Pie with EMUI 9.0.1 on top. Like I mentioned before, you won’t be facing any issues as far as software is concerned. With the EMUI 9.0.1 update, Huawei has evolved and the optimization is top notch. I have noticed smoother performance than how it was before on Huawei devices. And even some of the Huawei users have agreed to that.
However, you have the same bloatware on the device which I have been complaining for a few years now. Huawei should get rid of these applications on phones sold outside of China at least. Even I, as a reviewer, have never really used those applications as I think they just take up the internal memory. And this is where the OxygenOS on the OnePlus 6T shines, it is free of bloatware, and is one of the cleanest versions of Android with quite a lot of tricks inside the box.
Having said that, the Nova 4 also has several customizations. If you are a business person and want to keep your personal and business life separate, there is the Private Space feature. Likewise, you have motion control that consists of various gestures.
Camera
There are three cameras stationed on the rear side of the Huawei Nova 4 that work for a various purpose. The Nova 4 I reviewed comes with a 20mp primary camera, a 2mp depth sensor while the other 16MP camera works as a wide-angle lens.
Okay, first let’s talk about the aspect where a lot of smartphones don’t shine, the night environment. Taking both the Nova 4 and OnePlus 6T out for a comparison, I took a few samples from both the phones and the first thing I noticed is that the 6T has a better-detailed image with a good balance of exposure.
Zooming into a couple of the samples, you will see that the Nova 4 loses details while the 6T does a good job. Also, some of the samples from the Nova 4 just look muddy and noisy.
Now coming on to the night mode, well I need to mention that I don’t use its “default” nightscape feature the 6T has. I don’t like the images it produces so I just use the google camera port.
So comparing that against the Nova 4, I have to say that the quality of the samples you get will depend on the environment. In pitch dark, the samples are bad. But in presence of hits of sources of lighting, the Nova 4 does better work than the 6T. But the Nova 4 takes a lot of time to capture an image with night mode than the 6T does.
In the day time images, the details are a little better on the OnePlus 6T, and one thing I noticed with this same image is that the 6T has natural colors overall as the Nova 4 has tried to darken them.
Even the dynamic range is portrayed well by the 6T as the shadow details pop out without exposing the highlight details. But there were a couple of times such as the second image where Nova 4 has done better work in handling the dynamic range.
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And when I talk about exposure, I have to say that almost all Huawei smartphones overexpose the images at times and this phone here is no different. If saturation is considered, yes, the colors on the pictures from Nova 4 look like they pop out more, but if the colors are zoomed into, they are unnatural.
The portrait is where both the devices do equally well, they have blurred out the necessary parts of the background and the subject has popped out quite well.
The other major shining point about the Nova 4 is its ultra-wide lens. The camera is able to capture wide-angle shots just by a single swipe. And this is quite useful. So with the wide-angle lens at the helm, I could capture wide-angle shots such as this. And even when I was in a crowded space where there was a little space to shoot photos, the phone let me capture a wide image.
This feature has been very helpful for me, so I will certainly miss it when I revert back to my daily driver.
Now the selfie is where the Nova 4 does well. Take the two samples below as an example. My shirt’s color is red so you can definitely notice where OnePlus 6T has done a blunder. The colors on the image don’t match the actual one as my shirt has turned pink, and the color tone of the overall image is colder which looks unusual. The Nova 4 though, nails the coloring and color tone.
Talking about the portrait selfies, both the Nova 4 and 6T are a hit and miss. You will notice that both the phones couldn’t identify my ear as the subject. The Nova 4 also has the lighting effect which can be applied to selfies, but I didn’t quite like it.
And even though the Nova 4 does well on the selfie front, it fares badly in video quality. The videos are just too shaky, and the colors are quite dull. Plus, it can only shoot 4K videos at 30 fps.
Extras
Extras really make phones standout these days, and even the phone companies have been excelling in this aspect.
So, let’s talk about the security options available on the device. The Huawei Nova 4 has both the fingerprint and face unlock feature. Both these options are snappy, and if it wasn’t for the unlocking animation, they would be as fast as the ones on the OnePlus 6T.
Now on to the speaker, there is a single mono speaker grill on the device. Comparing them side-by-side the speaker on the 6T is definitely louder than the Nova 4. However, there is the slightest bit of distortion on the 6T while the audio is much clearer on the Nova 4.
In terms of storage, the Nova 4 is available in only one variant which is 128 GB. One thing the 6T and Nova 4 share is the lack of microSD card slot. There’s also IR Blaster for the husband who can’t take control of the TV’s remote.
The earpiece on this device is in an unusual position at the extreme top. It did take me some time to get used to it as my traditional call position, if you call it, made the volume slightest bit lower. But there was no issue in the call quality whatsoever.
Huawei has also included an LED notification light sensor which you don’t see in phones ditching the traditional notch. And even though the light is in a weird position at the top, it still does the job for me.
And I think I forgot to mention this, the Nova 4 has a huge, huge, huge advantage over the OnePlus 6T, and yes, you guessed it right, it’s the headphone jack. Even though the jack is in the wrong place for me as it’s on the top, I have loved using my wired headphone on it.
Battery
There is a 3750mAh battery inside this device. In my heavy usage, the Nova 4 gave me a screen-on-time of around 5 hours 30 minutes to 6 hours which will definitely increase for a normal user.
Plus, there is an option here that lets users lower the screen resolution which, again, helps preserve battery. The OnePlus 6T also has a somewhat similar battery life, but the difference lies in the charging speed as OnePlus’ proprietary fast charging charges the 6T faster than Huawei’s 18-watt charger.
Conclusion
The Nova 4 is a decent phone no doubt, and it is facing stern competition from a lot of other devices, with the “mighty” OnePlus 6T being one of those. The effort Huawei has put into this smartphone here is quite commendable. The Nova 4 is a handy phone that looks quite good, it has top-notch internals including the wide-angle lens.
However, the pricing it comes with is similar to the 6T, which makes it the direct competitor as I mentioned before. Now I really like the Nova 4, but I still think the 6T takes the crown here due to the better camera, more-premium ness if that’s even a word, and just for the overall performance and usability.
However, the Nova 4 is 5,000 cheaper in Nepal and if you are looking for a phone with a wide angle lens over a telephoto lens and a better selfie camera, the Nova 4 is still a good choice.
Pros
Cons
– Punch-hole display is a good alternative to the notch
Samsung had a tough year in 2018 as its midrange J-series simply couldn’t compete against the likes of Xiaomi, Asus, and Realme. However, recently, Samsung changed the strategy and announced a completely new series, the Galaxy M. The company launched the Galaxy M10 and Galaxy M20 in India. Samsung Nepal has also not been behindhand to launch these phones in Nepal as the company launched the Galaxy M10 (see the price here) last week and today the company has made the Galaxy M20 available to the Nepali audience for a great budget price.
Samsung Galaxy M20 Overview
The Galaxy M20 is offered in 3GB RAM and 32GB storage variant in Nepal. It comes with a 6.3-inch display with FULL HD+ resolution and a tiny notch on top. The company has included a dragontrail glass for protection against drops and scratches.
It is powered by a new Exynos 7904 Octa-core processor which should handle most of your tasks with a breeze, except for the high-end games. On our test, we found it to be comparable to Snapdragon 630 which means you can play high-end games like PUBG on low-end settings.
In terms of camera, there’s a dual-camera on the back which comprises of a 13MP primary lens and a 5MP wide-angle lens. There’s an 8MP front camera on the front. On our test, we found both the front and back camera to be “good enough”, nothing extraordinary though.
What we found extraordinary is the big 5000mAh battery. It’s easily one of the best battery life smartphones we have tested so far. It should last you for 2 days if you are a moderate user. Samsung has also included 15W fast charging and USB Type C port.
Battery: 5000mAh with fast charging support (15W fast charging, takes 2 hours and 15 minutes for full charge)
Price: Rs. 17,490 (3+32)
Samsung Galaxy M20 Price in Nepal & Availability
Samsung has launched the Galaxy M20 aggressively in Nepal and carries a price tag of just Rs. 17,490. This makes the Galaxy M20 unbeatable at this price tag, at least for now. So, what do you think of the Galaxy M20? Do you think its the best smartphone under Rs. 20,000 in Nepal? Would you recommend someone? Let us know in the comments below.
DxOMark scores have been in the hype lately, a set in stone benchmark with its fair share of controversies. Just yesterday, the newly released Samsung Galaxy S10+ made a visit to the DxOMark lab. Managing to secure a score of 109 points, although not the highest, is still impressive as it is. So, with a total of five cameras, three at the back and two at the front, let’s look at how the Samsung flagship faired.
Samsung Galaxy S10+ Front Camera
10 MP, f/1.9, 26mm (wide), Dual Pixel PDAF
8 MP, f/2.2, 22mm (wide), depth sensor
Up to 2160p@30fps video recording
Starting off with a front camera score of 96, a new highest. DxOMark states the selfie camera captures good skin color, are natural, pleasant, has a fairly wide dynamic range, and manages to contain noise very well. It has also improved over its predecessor by a margin, mostly thanks to the secondary depth sensor which has improved portrait selfies a lot. Take a look at the scores it received in individual categories.
Samsung Galaxy S10+ Rear Camera
Primary: 12Mp sensor with 1.4µm pixels and 26mm-equivalent, f/1.5–2.4 aperture lens, Dual-Pixel AF, OIS
Ultra-wide: 16Mp sensor 1.0µm pixels and 13mm-equivalent, f/2.4-aperture lens
Telephoto: 12Mp sensor with 1.0µm pixels and 52mm-equivalent, f/2.4 aperture lens, PDAF, OIS
Up to 2160p/60fps video recording
As for the rear camera, it scored 109 points, tieing it up with the Huawei P20 Pro and the Mate 20 Pro. The camera does especially well in exposure, color and bokeh category. The tests also reveal the S10+ is capable of “outstanding dynamic range”, pleasant colors and good exposure. Although, they also state that the testing did not include it’s ultrawide camera’s capabilities. Take a look at the score sheet below:
Conclusion
These are obviously great scores, but still, fall short in comparison to the Huawei P20 Pro or the Mate 20 Pro and those are already aging at this point. Again, the S10+ does offer an all-rounder camera performance, safe to say it’s a complete package that no other smartphone offers right now. But in the end, you also need to consider if DxOMark scores are a viable way of judging a smartphone camera, and a huge chunk of people disagree.
It has not been very long that the Samsung Galaxy Watch launched. And now, we have another one, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active! Sure, it is more of a fitness tracker that also acts as a smartwatch. But all of these many products can be confusing and overwhelming. Plus, there are also two Fitness trackers now!
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active comes in a smaller form factor at 40 mm. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, so, it’s definitely meant for the active ones. It has IP68 Water and Dust Resistance and is water-proof up to 5 ATM or 50 meters.
The watch packs a 360 x 360 circular display, weighs only 25 grams and has wireless charging. It only has a 230 mAh of battery, but with S10 supporting reverse wireless charging, you can charge it on your phone as well! However, the rotating bezels we loved so much on the Galaxy Watch is now no longer here. Also, it can’t do all that the Galaxy Watch can do. After all, it costs $200 whereas the Galaxy Watch cost quite a lot more. It runs on Tizen OS 4.0, has 768 MB of RAM and 4 GB storage, very similar to the Galaxy Watch.
The most important feature on this one has to be the new Heart Rate Monitor, which can now, also measure your blood pressure. It also offers Sleep Tracking, Fitness Tracking, various exercises, and overall health tracking. This watch can also detect up to 6 workout activities automatically, which is nice. But users will be able to engage in about 39 activities on it. It will cost $199 when it launches on March 8th.
Samsung Galaxy Fit
This is more of a FitBit from Samsung rather than a smartwatch. It also has rectangular screens like a traditional Fitbit. The Galaxy Fit features a 0.95″ AMOLED touchscreen with 120 x 240 resolution. It runs on the Realtime OS and shares many fitness features with the Samsung Galaxy Active – like the automatic workout detection and heart rate monitor. However, this is built to be tougher – with STD 810G Military Grade durability certification. And this one is also 5 ATM water resistant. In addition, this also supports iOS.
There’s NFC connectivity as well and connects to your watch via BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) as this one will have a smaller 120 mAh battery. Availability and pricing are not yet known for this.
Samsung Galaxy Fit E
This is nothing new, but a stripped down version of the Samsung Galaxy Fit. It comes with a smaller 0.74″ PMOLED (Passive Matrix OLED) display. It also packs a smaller 70 mAh battery and connects via BLE. Running on Real-time OS, too, the features in it are more or less the same as the Galaxy Fit too. Pricing on this one is also not known.
Vivo stayed low in the smartphone business for most of its time. Staying the midrange territory, the smartphone maker has quite satisfied its customers. And Vivo’s V-series and Y-series smartphones are here to tell all the tales. Now the Chinese tech titan seems to be pushing its limits. With under-display fingerprint sensor on the Vivo X21 UD, pop-up selfie camera on the Vivo Nex and the hole-less design on the Vivo APEX 2019, Vivo has garnered tons of applauds. And continuing with that innovative and winning spirits, Vivo has planned to drop a capable smartphone really soon. And Vivo iQOO is the phone, which seems to carry all the capable internals to place itself on the category of gaming phones.
Vivo iQOO smartphone
Most of the Chinese smartphone companies have a sub-brand. Huawei has the Honor, Oppo has the Realme, and Xiaomi has the Pocophone and Redmi. Vivo has also planned to expand its business implementing the same strategy. And for that, the company recently announced its sub-brand IQOO. Vivo is yet to launch a smartphone under the sub-brand iQOO. But we shouldn’t have to wait too long for that. Vivo recently announced to launch an iQOO smartphone on March 1. And going by the specifications, the handset looks quite like a performer.
On the recent post on Weibo, Vivo teased the iQOO smartphone with the tagline “Monster Inside”. And this “Monster” will feature Snapdragon 855 chipset and a whopping 12GB of RAM. On the storage side, the phone will get 256GB of onboard memory. A chunk of specs spilled also mentioned that the phone would come with 4000mAh battery. With this setup, the handset undoubtedly cues to be of gaming genre. We have seen such configuration with a powerful processor, tons of RAM, and massive batteries on the phones like Xiaomi Black Shark, ASUS ROG phone, and Razer Phone 2. So we can expect the same with the Vivo iQOO smartphone.
Other than that, the phone may get the 44-watt fast charging, which probably would go by the name of FlashCharge. If it comes true, the FlashCharge would be the second fastest charging standard lagging just behind the Oppo’s Super VOOC charging technology.
On the optics front, the phone should be getting triple camera setup at the back. Although nothing has been mentioned about the front camera, it may feature the pop-up style camera which we recently saw on the Vivo V15 Pro. The Vivo iQOO is also said to come with an under-display fingerprint sensor. It cues that the display on the device will be of Super AMOLED type.
Following the MI 9 launch, Xiaomi also threw in a particularly unique smartphone, the MI 9 SE. The SE stands for Special Edition, and given its price tag and features on offer, so we won’t argue with that. The phone also comes with most of the features from it’s bigger brother. Although this one flexes the world’s first Snapdragon 712chipset.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 Chipset
So, the Snapdragon 712 makes its first appearance in the wild. Based on a 10nm process, the SoC gets eight Kryo 360 cores clocked at 2.3GHz. The chipset comes with the Adreno 616 GPU, scoring 32fps on Manhattan Offscreen GFXBench 3.0. This is overall an incremental upgrade over the SD710, an already capable processor by default.
Internals
Furthermore, you get 6GB of RAM to go with the chipset. Storage options include either 64GB or 128GB, but remember, it is unexpandable. Battery size comes in at 3070mAh, with 18W fast charging support over USB-C. On the software side, the phone runs on Android 9.0 Pie with MIUI 10 on top.
Yes, this comes with an AMOLED display, like the last time, but the size of the display and it’s aspect ratio has gone up. It now comes with a 5.97-inch 19.5:9 AMOLED display with resolutions of 1080 x 2340px. The display also houses a fingerprint sensor, is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 and supports HDR 10 content.
Camera
Xiaomi treated this phone with triple cameras. It’s a 48MP f/1.8 primary camera aided by a 13MP f/2.4 ultrawide sensor and an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto lens. The one aspect this Special Edition Mi 9 misses out on is 4k@60fps video capture capability. At the front, that notch houses a 20MP f/2.0 selfie shooter, which can capture videos at 1080p@30fps max.
Pricing starts at CNY 1,999 (approx $300) for the 6GB/64GB variant. There is another version of the Xiaomi MI 9 SE with 6GB/128GB configuration priced at CNY 2,299 (approx $340). Availability should start around the month of March, while the phone will come with Violet, Blue and Gray color options.
JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council), the Solid State Technology Association recently announced the new LPDDR RAM standard: namely known as the LPDDR5 RAM standard. This new standard promises faster data transfer, better power management, and improved efficiency over its predecessor.
LPDDR5 RAM Modules Overview
The LPDDR4 standard has been in the business for around four years now. Although it was well-remarked for its speed and capabilities, the new one now has much better things to offer. The data rate on this new generation of RAM has received an improvement of 50%. This enhancement will also boost the performance of the next generation of portable electronics devices to a whole new level. The new RAM also promises improvements in capabilities of the mobile devices.
Other than that, the LPDDR5 RAM progresses on the throughput side. The LPDDR5 has a throughput of 6400 MT/s, which is a significant leap from the 3200 MT/s found on the LPDDR4. This advancement will considerably boost memory speed and efficiency for a variety of applications including mobile computing devices.
To achieve such an impressive result, the LPDDR5 RAM received an overhaul in architecture. It now features 16 Banks programmable architecture and multi-clocking architecture.
Other notable inclusion on it is the Data-Copy and Write-X features. Both of these features promise to make the device more efficient in terms of power.
According to Business Wire, “The Data-Copy command instructs the LPDDR5 device to copy data transmitted on a single I/O pin to the other I/O pins. This eliminates the need to transmit data to the other pins. The Write-X command instructs the device to write all-ones or all-zeros to a specific address. This eliminates the need to send data from the SoC to the LPDDR5 device.”
With such features, the LPDDR5 RAM modules sound amazing. But although it sounds promising when peeked into its feature list, we should really have to use LPDDR5 equipped device to truly feel the performance boost.
Talking about the pricing, it’s now available for JEDEC’s official website at a solid price of $355.
