The upcoming charger reportedly uses gallium nitride for more compact internals, increased power output, and better efficiency. It will join Apple's 140W USB-C GaN brick unveiled alongside the redesigned MacBook Pro in 2021.

There is no information on whether Apple wants to replace the current 20W USB-C charger or the more expensive 30 W USB-C charging brick. All we know is that the accessory will offer about 30 W power output and a new form factor.

Various manufacturers already offer different GaN chargers that boast higher power and compact designs. Besides, some available options are less expensive than Apple's official 20W USB-C charger. Moving to GaN will be a welcomed change considering a somewhat uninspiring power output and a chonky size of the current 20W USB-C charger.

On March 8, 2022, Apple hosts an event where the company is expected to reveal a third-gen iPhone SE alongside a new iPad Air. Ming-Chi Kuo does not say whether the new charger will show up during the presentation.

Of course, do not expect Apple to ship the new charger with iPhones in the box. Apple stopped selling iPhones with chargers and EarPods in 2020 to reduce e-waste and carbon footprint. At the same time, ever modern iPad comes with the 20W USB-C charger in the box.

Apple may release a new 30W GaN charger this year

Strangely, the new darker dark mode which is being tested on Google’s Android search app isn’t the same shade of black as the one currently being rolled out on desktops, however, it still looks great if you’re afraid of the blinding brightness of light mode. 

As spotted by 9to5Google, this change is most notably being applied to the background of Google’s Discover page, where the new dark mode uses an almost black colour value of #171717, a stark change from the lighter grey #202124 that we’re all used to.

Similarly to the desktop darker dark mode which is steadily being rolled out, this feature should be a great benefit for those with OLED displays, since it should conserve the limited battery life of your mobile device while also making colours pop thanks to the added contrast. 

Unlike the desktop darker dark mode, however, this change is not currently widely available as it is not yet being officially rolled out to all users. To access the new dark mode for yourself you’ll need to be in the latest 13.8 beta from the Google Play Store.

Google’s darker dark mode is coming to Android

“We value the feedback we receive about our products and after careful consideration, we plan to roll out a software update soon so users can control the performance while running game apps,” Samsung spokesperson Kelly Yeo said in a statement given to The Verge.

This statement comes after Samsung was caught, seemingly red-handed, throttling all but benchmarking tools on Galaxy S22 phones through the company’s preinstalled Game Optimizing Service.

Using this ‘service’ Samsung reportedly almost halved the performance of around 10,000 apps including social media apps such as Instagram and Tiktok, as well as games such as Genshin Impact. 

According to Samsung’s spokesperson, the Game Optimizing Service was designed to help games achieve a level of “great performance” while also “managing the device temperature effectively,” which suggests the range of phones is a little too powerful for their own good. 

This statement given to the media was echoed in an official announcement from Samsung on its Members app, which has been translated by Twitter user Dohyun Kim. In this statement, it was similarly promised that there was an update coming to the Game Optimizing Service to “provide an option to prioritize the performance as soon as possible.” 

Unfortunately for owners of the Galaxy S22 range of devices who are looking to get the most out of their phone, and don’t mind things getting a little toasty, there’s no official word on just how long a wait “as soon as possible” might be. 

Samsung has addressed reports of Galaxy S22 throttling, promising a fix

According to a report published by The Elec, Samsung is currently working on a new type of OLED display based on what the sources claim to be a "two-tandem structure." A two-tandem OLED panel would mean twice the brightness and four times the life expectancy compared to displays based on a single tandem structure. Samsung is internally calling it T1, with 'T' stands for tandem.

iPads featuring displays based on two-tandem structure are unlikely to debut anytime soon. If the report is to be believed, these iPads featuring the new display technology will debut sometime in 2024. The report also claims that the new two-tandem structure OLED displays will also be introduced to MacBook and iMac devices at a later date.

The mass production of T1 displays is expected to begin in 2023 and may first be used by the company itself in its smartphones and tablets. Meanwhile, the iPad and Mac devices will use the T2 displays, which will be the successor of T1. Commercial production of T2 displays is set to begin in 2024.

Apple is currently transitioning to mini-LED display technology for its iPad and Mac devices. Although not confirmed, one of the reasons why Apple is switching to mini-LED technology could be the price factor—they are significantly cheaper than OLED and micro-LED panels.

The report doesn't detail why the company wants to adopt a two-stack structure OLED panel instead of sticking to mini-LED. While the manufacturing cost of an OLED panel is higher than that of a mini-LED display panel, for Apple and Samsung, the two-tandem OLED may have a more favorable cost-benefit ratio.

Source: The Elec, The Korea Herald; via SamMobile

Future iPads may use a new type of OLED display manufactured by Samsung

The latest hotfix update carries OxygenOS 11.0.15.15 and includes fixes for freezing issues when sharing pictures in Gallery. However, the update includes no other changes apart from the fix. You can see the full official changelog below.

Changelog

Meanwhile, OnePlus has already rolled out the February 2022 security patch to many of its flagship and mid-range smartphones, including OnePlus 9RT, OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro, OnePlus Nord 2, OnePlus Nord N100.

However, it’s worth noting that the update will be available for every OnePlus Nord CE user from today. Also, you can manually check for an update on any OnePlus smartphone just by navigating to Settings > System > System updates.

In other news, OnePlus recently announced 150W SuperVOOC fast-charging technology with the promise of taking the battery from 0 to 100 percent in just 15 minutes. OnePlus is also adding this fast-charging technology to one of its upcoming mid-range smartphones.

OnePlus is pushing an important ‘hotfix update’ to OnePlus Nord CE

As noted by Android Authority, several people over on Korean forums have investigated Samsung's Game Optimizing Service (GOS) and found out that it "optimizes games" by throttling over 10,000 possible apps. The full list is compiled in an Excel file here, but download it at your own risk.

The list contains several popular apps including TikTok, Microsoft Office, Instagram, Netflix, and more. Interestingly, some of Samsung's own apps such as Samsung Cloud and Samsung Pay are in the list too. Benchmarking apps such as GeekBench 5 and 3DMark are excluded from this list.

While it's not uncommon for smartphone vendors to throttle apps, Samsung seems to be following the same trajectory as OnePlus. There are two issues with the approach of both companies. Rather than throttling apps according to some indicators or metrics, apps are being explicitly named in a list and then throttled. The other problem is that even if Samsung does need to do this, not informing users beforehand can be seen as a deceptive tactic where your phone scores excellent in benchmarks but in real use-cases, it throttles app performance in lieu of battery optimization.

Samsung is yet to comment on the accusations but we'll let you know if we get a statement.

Via: Android Authority

Samsung accused of throttling over 10,000 apps

According to a recently published press release, OPPO incorporated its self-developed BHE within the new ultra-fast 150W SUPERVOOC flash charge. As a result, the battery can effortlessly maintain roughly 80% of its original capacity, even after undergoing as many as 1,600 charge cycles. This figure is double the current industry standard, which is why it’s capable of providing exceptionally fast charging alongside the battery’s health protection.

On the other hand, OPPO’s new 240W SUPERVOOC flash charge technology marks the latest massive technological breakthrough in the industry. In only about 9 minutes, the 240W SUPERVOOC can charge a 4,500mAh battery from 1% to 100%.

OPPO’s Chief Charging Technology Scientist Jeff Zhang said:

150W SUPERVOOC with BHE

• Since it has two charge pumps, it can support up to 20V/7.5A charging.
• The adapter nearly has the same size as the previous generation’s adapter because it uses gallium nitride (GaN).
• The adaptor measures 58 x 57 x 30mm and weighs about 172g.
• Its battery health, safety, and performance are greatly improved thanks to OPPO’s Battery Health Engine.

Battery Health Engine

• It comes with two key technologies: the Smart Battery Health Algorithm and the Battery Healing Technology.
• The Smart Battery Health Algorithm can detect real-time electric potential within the battery’s negative electrodes.
• It ensures that dead lithium is kept to a minimum by automatically adjusting the charging currency and keeping it within a reasonable range.
• Battery Healing Technology ensures that the battery’s inner system is optimized and continuously repaired.

OPPO plans on incorporating BHE into most mid-to-high-end OPPO and OnePlus devices in the long run. The 150W SUPERVOOC flash charge with BHE will launch on a OnePlus smartphone in Q2 2022.

240W SUPERVOOC

• OPPO has pushed the limits of high-power flash charge technology with the 240W SUPERVOOC, as users will only need 9 minutes to charge a 4500mAh battery to 100%.
• It comes with three charge pumps.
• The power the handsets receive is convertible to 10V/24A.
• OPPO has already tested the technology for heat dissipation, ensuring that it’s safe for use.
• It has five safety protection measures and a specially-made intelligent control chip. This chip can control and manage the voltage, current, and temperature of the 240W SUPERVOOC.
• OPPO installed 13 temperature sensors in the smartphone it comes with, ensuring temperate protection and fewer chances of overheating.

OPPO Reveals High-Speed Flash Charging Breakthroughs

Google up its game in providing easy access to emergency contacts. It has begun the rollout of Fast Emergency Dialer (FED) to various Pixel units, allowing users to call different emergency services with just a slide of a finger.

According to the Google Support Page, the FED feature will allow the individual to conduct calls even with the phone locked since it is located in the lock screen and emergency menu of the Pixel phones. When trying to access it through the lock screen, the FED will be in the form of a swipe on a slider. Nonetheless, Google still provides the option for the Traditional Emergency Dialer (TED) that will allow users to dial phone numbers manually. You can choose this connection option with emergency services in the Personal Safety app.

FED has capabilities to make emergency calls convenient and faster for everyone, which can be handy in times of unexpected events. According to Google, the FED has three main features. First is Quick Access, which allows one to call an emergency number with one action through the slider. Second, FED will automatically find emergency numbers and put them on your phone whenever you are in other places. Last, FED will also offer and search for multiple emergency numbers in your area, such as those from Police, Fire, or medical services. This can be helpful for travelers who need instant help in foreign lands; however, Google noted that FED isn’t available in all regions or areas, and its availability will depend on the user’s carrier and other circumstances. In that case, the Pixel phone will automatically opt for TED.

On the other hand, while the FED is basically designed to be accessed through the slider of a turned-on lock screen, Google also mentioned that the feature can be accessed in other ways depending on the Pixel device you have. For Android 11 and earlier and Android 12 on Pixel 5 and earlier, the FED can be accessed by holding the Power button for 5 seconds, tapping Emergency, and using the slider in the emergency menu. Meanwhile, Android 12 on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro can summon FED with power and volume buttons. To do this, just press the two buttons simultaneously, tap the Emergency, and use the slider in the emergency menu.

Google Starts Fast Emergency Dialer Rollout to Pixel Lockscreens

This will be HTC's first major move in a long time following a considerable period of no-show where it neither announced its withdrawal from the market nor released any flagship smartphone since 2018 when it launched the HTC Exodus 1. However, during this time, the company has kept itself occupied with selling low-end phones in select markets.

HTC's Vice President, Charles Huang stated that the company has plans of incorporating particular metaverse capabilities in the upcoming smartphone. However, Huang did not shed light on the hardware and capabilities of the device that is set to be presented as soon as next month.

WinFuture suggests that the integration of metaverse capabilities is because the company is targeting users who would like to employ HTC's smartphone for VR and AR applications. Correspondingly, HTC's co-founder and CEO, Cher Wang, mentioned that HTC aims to keep on investing in the VR product market on an extensive scale.

Presently, we do not know if the new flagship phone will be available in Europe. To know more, we'll have to wait until there are further statements from the company.

Source: WinFuture via PhoneArena

HTC comes out of hibernation, teases new metaverse-focused smartphone

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona has returned. But it's not the same as before. Yes, the event has been changing over recent years—from Samsung holding its own events for its Galaxy flagships before the showcase comes around to the pandemic disrupting the annual event for the past two years.

But MWC 2022 has found itself in a strange middle ground. True to form, Samsung revealed its latest Galaxy S22 series weeks in advance of the event, while major brands such as Sony said they wouldn’t have a presence at the event at all. Furthermore, OnePlus, often a big reason to tune into MWC each year for its latest flagship launch, has been strangely AWOL (it launched the OnePlus 10 Pro in China and nowhere else thus far).

Instead, mobile brands like TCL, Nokia, and Motorola are holding the fort. This may not be the most prestigious of fields, but they came with a raft of announcements to keep things interesting.

Outside of the companies whose products are readily available in the US, there was more on the agenda. Brands like Realme, Honor, and Xiaomi all had hardware to show. Perhaps most interesting for US onlookers is what Oppo unveiled. Oppo is a sister brand to OnePlus, and their ties have grown ever closer of late. The Oppo Find X5 Pro, revealed just ahead of MWC, even sports a Hasselblad partnership—a new team-up that came to the OnePlus 9 Pro last year.

Fortunately, aside from this oddly limited showing from the phone world, there was more to get excited about at MWC 2022. Laptops, 2-in-1s, tablets, and a few surprises have come to the rescue of the Mobile World Congress this year.

Despite lacking a flagship phone launch at the event, we actually return to a top tech brand for one of the most interesting sets of products for MWC 2022: Samsung, which revealed the Galaxy Book2 Pro and Galaxy Book2 Pro 360.

The first iterations were no-frills in terms of design, just well-built, stylish, and super thin—alongside top ultrabook specs. The Galaxy Book2 Pro and Book2 Pro 360 look to continue the trend. You still get all that we just mentioned but with a 2022 dose of the latest Intel chips, Thunderbolt 4, FHD 1080p webcam, and 65W USB-C charging capabilities. The Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro has a starting price of $1,050 (£999) and the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 starts at $1,250 (£949).

While Samsung’s laptops are top notch and great for right now, they aren’t devices to get you excited about the future of computing. At this year’s MWC, Lenovo and Huawei have covered that in the laptop space.

Lenovo announced a lot of productivity laptops for home and business, as well as some gaming laptops, tablets, and more. However, the pick of the bunch is the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s Gen 1.

This is a new device for Lenovo, and what makes it a standout is that it's the first device to be announced that features the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chip—Snapdragon’s latest PC system-on-a-chip (SoC). It’s exciting because Windows on ARM has shown it can facilitate excellent hardware like the super thin and stealthy Surface Pro X, but compatibility and performance issues have reigned thus far.

Following the success of Apple moving to ARM for the likes of its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 14-inch—providing big efficiency gains while still maintaining performance—Windows transitioning to a similar chip architecture feels like an inevitability. But it has been a rocky road, and every new Snapdragon PC chip and Windows update seems to bring promises of improved compatibility. The ThinkPad X13s Gen 1 will be the first opportunity to put an 8cx Gen 3 chip and Windows 11 on ARM combination through its paces.

While this next product from Huawei won’t be landing on US shores, it’s worth consideration in markets where Huawei remains available—like the UK, Europe, and China. The Huawei MateBook E is the company’s first attempt at a Surface Pro–like 2-in-1 device.

The tablet component is very thin—a hurdle the rejuvenated Surface Pro 8 attempted to clear but then fell foul with poor battery life and active fans. It will be interesting to see if Huawei has been able to get the balance right.

Then, there's the Kindle and reMarkable-like Huawei MatePad Paper—a 10.3-inch e-ink tablet looking to address both your e-reading and note-taking needs.

Rounding things out for Huawei is the MateStation X, an all-in-one with serious iMac vibes. There's no dedicated GPU, just an AMD mobile chip, putting it in competition with the latest colorful M1 Mac.

Returning to one of the brands that tried its hardest to keep the “mobile” in Mobile World Congress, TCL wasn’t shy about venturing into other categories, too. TCL expanded its tablet range with its NXTPAPER MAX 10, TAB 10 HD 4G, and TAB 10s 5G. TCL’s NXTPAPER devices offer a paper-like canvas to accommodate drawing and note-taking while still giving you other tablet goodness such as a slim bezel FHD+ display for showing off movies and TV shows.

TCL’s other tablet options are more traditional and get much of their appeal from big battery life: 5,500mAh for the TAB 10 HD 4G, and 8,000mAh for the TAB 10s 5G, as well as low prices.

Information on availability is to come for the NXTPAPER MAX 10 in the US and Europe, with pricing starting at €269 (~$304/£227). The TCL TAB 10 HD 4G is available now in Europe, with US availability to come, at a starting price of €179 (~$202/£151), while the TCL TAB 10s 5G will go on sale later in the year, starting at €349 (~$394/£294). TCL also revealed a new higher-end TAB PRO 12 5G is on the way, with a large display for an entertainment and productivity focus.

All these new and interesting non-mobile-phone products beg the question: Why are other product categories taking center stage? Yes, after the pandemic not all companies seemed keen on MWC 2022, like the aforementioned Sony. Also, phone manufacturers that don’t have a big presence in the US now make up a sizable chunk of the show’s lineup—such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, and Honor. The absence of a new OnePlus flagship really doesn’t help, either.

However, to see why the markets outside of phones—in particular, compact devices for productivity and entertainment—Microsoft chief product officer and Surface hype man Panos Panay may have given us the answer on January 26 in a Windows blog post titled “A new era for the PC.” Panay cited analysts Canalys who noted that the PC market had seen its largest growth in a decade over 2021—a level of growth that was 27 percent higher than 2019.

Moreover, brands like Qualcomm are keen to push the narrative that PCs are becoming more of a mobile experience, too, an argument that is getting easier with Apple’s move to traditionally mobile-phone housed ARM chips on its laptops.

“The PC is here to stay. It’s going to become more powerful … It’s going to become more mobile,” are the words of Qualcomm senior vice president and general manager Alex Katouzian in a blog post on the future of the PC.

Why is the mobile phone show full of other devices that facilitate working and playing from home? These companies believe it’s what the people want, and are keen to oblige.

The Most Intriguing Launches at MWC 2022 Weren’t Phones

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Intel Arc GPU squeezes into Samsung’s lightweight Galaxy Book2 Pro

We’re here at Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona, where a raft of new devices have been unveiled. It certainly isn’t the biggest year for mobile phones at the event, particularly for products coming to the US. Notably missing are the splashy releases by Samsung we've seen in years past. 

Nevertheless, HMD Global (maker of Nokia phones), TCL, and Motorola have done their best to keep the gadget-reveal hype going. Meanwhile, a brand like Oppo (in the absence of a major new model from sister brand OnePlus) is highlighting what’s on offer for a global audience, with the US sadly missing out on a heavy hitter.

TCL and HMD are two brands without the strongest showing in Barcelona, with a wide range of tech being launched. As such, TCL takes pride of place in this roundup with two dedicated entries.

The straightforward phone launches from TCL come in the form of a new TCL 30 5G, TCL 30+, TCL 30, TCL 30 SE, and TCL 30 E. (That's not confusing at all.) They're successors to the 20 series from 2021. The big news here are the prices—the most expensive is the 30 5G at €249 (roughly $280 in US dollars), and the price drops in a sliding scale down to the 30 E (€139). US pricing and availability have yet to be confirmed, but the 30+, 30, and 30 SE are all available to buy now in Europe, and the other two models are set for release in April.

And the specs offer good value for the money. Each phone gets a 50-MP triple-camera setup, except for the TCL 30 E, which settles for a 50-MP dual camera team-up.  The displays and big batteries are likely to appeal to many. The TCL 30 5G, TCL 30+, and TCL 30 all get 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED panels. The full range is sporting roughly a 5,000-mAh cell, which should offer battery life well into a second day. 

The one obvious downside is that only some of these devices are guaranteed to get one Android OS upgrade (to Android 13) and two years of security updates.

It wasn’t all about quantity for TCL though, with some quality inbound in the form of interesting concept devices. First, there’s the TCL Fold 'n Roll. The name says it all here: This phone is both foldable and rollable, allowing you to both extend the display and shrink it down to size, then close it shut. 

Next is the 360-degree Ultra Flex, again continuing TCL’s useful theme of explaining it all in the name. This foldable can be closed shut with the screen on the inside or the outside. The final one, in some ways, combines both these ideas. The TCL Surround Display features a display on the front when closed. Then, when open, you get a larger display on the front and a display half the width on the back. It’s an interesting look, but the practical benefits remain unclear.

It's worth noting that we've yet to get our hands on TCL’s foldable line, and this is not the first time we’ve seen such devices. These are all just concepts, so it's unlikely we'll see any of them available for sale, though TCL has been hinting that it might launch a foldable this year.

Motorola is keeping things simple at MWC 2022, with one phone headlining its offering—the Edge+ (technically announced last week). The brand’s latest flagship sports the top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, a swift 144-Hz screen refresh rate, and a triple-camera setup with optical image stabilization. 

The design is as straightforward as it gets, but additional appeal comes from three years of bimonthly security updates and two OS upgrades. That's still not as great as what Samsung now offers, but it's a start. Oh, and there's a stylus, like on the new Galaxy S22 Ultra. 

The phone is listed at $1,000, but Motorola is offering an $899 starting price for the first few weeks of the phone's launch—which suggests that you should probably never pay $1,000 for it. Motorola didn't share any official release dates.

Closely following TCL when it comes to the sheer number of devices being revealed at this show is HMD Global, which makes Nokia phones. Along with new earbuds and wireless headphones, the company showcased three new smartphones. 

The top dog is the Nokia C2 2nd Edition—a modest device you can expect to be super cheap. It comes with a 5.7-inch display, up to 32 GB of internal storage (expandable to 256 GB via MicroSD), and a single 5-MP rear camera. This model also comes with a removable 2,400-mAh battery (you read that right, and no, you haven’t gone back to 2010), and a headphone jack.

Next, there’s the Nokia C21 and C21 Plus. The smaller model also comes with a removable battery, while the Plus does not. Both models have a 6.5-inch HD+ HDR display. So in this case, “Plus” does not indicate a larger size. Instead, the Plus offers a higher megapixel count on the camera and a larger battery. Both also offer a headphone jack and a fingerprint sensor. Pricing and availability are yet to be confirmed for all these new models.

Weirdly, HMD didn't tie a feature phone announcement with its lineup, though that might be because it announced a remake of the Nokia 2760 as a flip phone at CES 2022 (alongside four other smartphones). 

Oppo phones aren't readily available in the US, but the company often creates impressive flagship experiences that rival the likes of Samsung, Google, and Apple elsewhere in the world. The new Find X5 series is no different.

The Oppo Find X5 Pro is the flagship, sporting a unique look that has evolved from its previous version. Rather than having an angular camera bump on the rear that looks like it has been attached after the fact, here the camera module is molded and blends in. 

That’s not the only thing that may make the phone’s design divisive; the black color option is extremely shiny and reflective—showing off even the slightest smudges and prints. Here's hoping the white version won't have the same issue.

Oppo’s cameras have long been a selling point. Here we get a 50-MP main camera, a 50-MP ultrawide, and a 13-MP telephoto. Interestingly, while this device is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, Oppo has opted to use its own MariSilicon X Imaging NPU to power the image processing. This will certainly make for an intriguing point of comparison against flagships using Qualcomm's processor. 

Oppo has also adopted a Hasselblad partnership, following in the footsteps of its sister company OnePlus. The partnership here is for software only, with some Hasselblad-themed styles included.

The final big proposition of Oppo’s latest is super speedy 80-watt wired charging and 50-watt wireless charging—both backed up by a pleasingly sized 5,000-mAh battery. The phone is set to start at £1,049 (about $1,400) in the UK, making it one of the pricier flagship phones around.

The next three phone brands don’t quite reach the heights of Oppo in showing US phone buyers what they're missing, but they certainly represent added choice across the rest of the world. You may be familiar with Poco, a Xiaomi subsidiary that got plenty of praise for its Pocophone F1 back in 2018, though it never made it to US shores.

Poco now has a wide range of phones, with its MWC offering consisting of the new Poco X4 Pro 5G and Poco M4 Pro. Like many budget phones outside the US, these brands focus on cramming flagship-worthy speed into a low price bracket, and they often come with a surprisingly strong camera, particularly when compared to brands like HMD Global. 

The X4 Pro, for example, offers a 120-Hz AMOLED display, a 108-MP camera, and 67-watt charging—all at a starting price of €299 ($336/£250). The Poco M4 Pro, despite lacking 5G, looks interesting with its 90-Hz AMOLED screen, triple-camera setup, and MediaTek Helio G96—a chip range that typically favors mobile gaming performance compared to Snapdragon’s offerings. This too comes in at an extremely low price: €219 ($246/£184).

Realme, another sister brand of Oppo and OnePlus, has been on a similar path to Honor as we approach this MWC. Both brands have typically offered value-for-money options but are now are hoping to get in on some flagship action.

Realme’s headliner is the GT 2 Pro. This phone was launched in China on January 4, but now it's coming to the rest of the world … er, except for the US. It sports plenty of top specs, but its most interesting feature is what it's made of—the GT 2 Pro is constructed from a bio-based polymer. It’s a combination the company believes promotes both style and sustainability. Bio-based polymers are made up of renewable raw materials alongside nonrenewables like fossil-fuel-based carbon.

Aside from its intriguing construction, a unique 150-degree ultrawide camera is another eye-catching feature that might let you ditch the awkward swivel you need to do for panorama shots. 

Realme has yet to reveal pricing and availability, but it is a brand known for drawing you in with aggressively low costs. It'll be interesting to see how much it can undercut rivals like Samsung and Oppo.

It isn’t all about budget devices for these ambitious non-US manufacturers, though. Honor, a former subsidiary of Huawei now trying to make it on its own, had its biggest launch yet at MWC 2022 with the Magic4 Pro.

The Magic4 Pro is a fully-fledged flagship with a 6.81-inch LTPO OLED display and a smart 120-Hz refresh rate. The camera system is the big sell, with a 50-MP wide, a 50-MP ultrawide, and an exciting 64-MP periscope telephoto lens for getting some great zoom shots. 

The top Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip is backed up by a healthy-sized 4,600-mAh battery and remarkably speedy 100-watt charging—wired and wireless.

Honor’s main difficulty since its revival has been widespread availability, with a confusing mix of Chinese and global launches, often falling short of making the phones easily available in Europe. Things were more promising with its previous launch, the mid-range Honor 50, which got more eyes in the UK with various retailers. Pricing and availability for the Magic4 Pro haven't been announced yet, so time will tell.

The Most Exciting Phones From MWC 2022

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With the cheap phone market dominated by big Chinese names like Redmi, Realme and Pocophone, it can be easy to forget about the stalwart mobile manufacturers – but HMD Global has just given us a reason to pay it some heed.

HMD Global, which makes Nokia phones, debuted three new super-budget mobiles as part of annual tech conference MWC 2022.

These new mobiles are the Nokia C2 2nd Edition (the original came in 2020), Nokia C21, and Nokia C21 Plus – they're all part of the company's C line, which is its lowest-end collection, compared to the slightly-higher-end G and verging-on-mid-range X families.

As we said, these are super affordable handsets. The first and last phones are launching in the UK, and we have their prices as £75 (roughly $100, AU$140) and £100 (around $130, AU$190) respectively.

Here are their specs, so you can see how they compare:

If you're confused about the C21 Plus' battery situation, it seems that you can opt between two sizes, just like how many mobiles offer you a choice in RAM and storage.

In an age where every budget phone maker is trying to put out a super-flashy, specs-heavy monster, it's slightly refreshing to see genuine true budget phones. Seriously, how many phones do you see nowadays with just 1GB RAM, or with a single rear camera?

Obviously, these devices aren't going to run like your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy device, but they're designed for people who don't need a best-in-class smartphone. They're cheap and cheery, perhaps for seniors or technophobes who can't totally put off the tech-ification of the world.

Alongside the new smartphones, HMD Global unveiled a few headphones and earbuds, and they're all affordable devices just like their mobile counterparts.

The Nokia phones are coming to the UK starting in April, but we don't know if they'll be arriving elsewhere, so we'll have to wait and see.

These aren't the only cheap phones we've seen at MWC, either. TCL unveiled its own selection with impressive rear cameras and big batteries, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. We're expecting more to launch all the time, so stay tuned in the coming days for more.

These new Nokia mobiles remind us what 'cheap phone' really means

There is much more than Android apps support for Duo users to get excited. The February firmware update also brings the latest security patches. Other noteworthy changes include device and UI stability improvements, improved system performance, and improvements to the Android Auto experience. You can see the full official changelog below.

Changelog

Notably, the update is currently rolling to the unlocked variants of the Surface Duo in North America and Europe. The company is currently testing the release for carrier-locked Surface Duos, and the update should be available in a matter of a few days.

Meanwhile, you can download the update on your Surface Duo 2 by Checking for Updates in Settings.

Surface Duo users can now run Android apps on their PCs

Reddit’s iOS and Android app gets its biggest update in years

Revenue from in-app purchases across both apps and games totaled $131.6 billion in 2021, claims a new intelligence report from Sensor Tower. The report also indicates why smartphone app developers are relying heavily on subscriptions to retain users. Consumer spending on subscription-based apps increased 41% in 2021. In 2020, the segment grew by 34%.

Consumers spent $18.3 billion on subscriptions in 2021. In 2020, the figure stood at $13 billion. That’s a massive 41% jump in revenue. Surprisingly, even after growing at such a rate, revenue from subscriptions represents just a small portion of the overall revenue from in-app purchases across both apps and games.

Subscriptions account for just 14% of the cumulative revenue from smartphone apps and games. The number may seem small, but in 2020, revenue from the subscription model, particularly in non-game apps, represented just 11.7% of the total consumer spending. Simply put, subscriptions are a lucrative source of revenue, and the sector is growing consistently.

The app categories that witnessed the most growth were shopping, entertainment, health and fitness, work, and education. In the subscriptions game, YouTube was the top revenue producer globally. The video streaming site was followed by dating service Tinder and Japanese webtoon service Piccoma.

There’s little doubt that well-established tech giants, as well as startups, are looking at subscriptions to earn a steady stream of income from smartphone users. It is no coincidence that 90 out of the top 100 top-grossing U.S. apps currently include a subscription.

Apple’s iOS ecosystem on an iPhone still commands the lion’s share in the subscriptions model. Nearly 75% of consumer spending on subscription apps came through Apple’s App Store, indicated the report. However, it is important to note that Android users increased their spending on subscription apps by 78% on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis. Apple iPhone users only increased their spending by 31%.

Subscription revenue in apps sees massive growth, still a small part of in-app purchases

The smartphone will be available in both Europe and India. You can check out the specifications and features of the Edge 30 Pro below.

Motorola Edge 30 Pro specifications

The Moto Edge 30 Pro features a 6.7-inch Full HD+ 10-bit P-OLED display with a 20:9 aspect ratio and a 144Hz screen refresh rate. It’s powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 coupled with 8GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB UFS3.1 internal storage.

As for the camera specifications, the Edge 30 Pro has a 50MP main sensor with OIS and f/1.88 aperture, a 50MP ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture, and a 2MP depth lens. The smartphone will also feature a 60MP snapper selfie camera.

Inside the smartphone, you get a 4,800mAh battery which supports 68W Type-C fast-charging. Motorola Edge 30 Pro will be based on Android 12 and is eligible to get Android 13 and 14 alongside the quarterly security updates for 2 Years.

The phone is available in two color options — Cosmos Blue and Stardust White. The back of the smartphone is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

Other features include IP52 certification for water resistance, 15W wireless charging, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, ThinkShield for Mobile, and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.

Moto Edge 30 Pro in Europe with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage costs €799. Sales are expected to begin soon.

The smartphone will be available in India starting from March 4 on Flipkart and in Offline stores. The handset will cost INR49,999 for users in India.

Are you excited about the Motorola Edge 30 Pro? If so, are you planning to buy it? Sound off in the comments section below.

Motorola Edge 30 Pro offcially launches: Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, 68W fast charging, 144 Hz display, and more

Reddit today introduced a new Discover tab feature for the official Reddit iOS and Android apps. The new feature curates pictures, GIFs, and videos in a scrollable grid to help Reddit users find new content and communities that they may be interested in, in a way that’s reminiscent of Instagram’s explore page or Pinterest.

 

The Discover tab replaces the Communities / Subscriptions tab in both iOS and Android as the second icon on the bottom, represented by a compass icon. While this means that now you can’t access a list of your subscribed communities from the bottom, fret not — you can still get to your subscribed community list by swiping in a drawer from the left (and yes, r/all is still there). There’s also a new slide-over from the right for your profile, where you can change your online status, look at your posts, and more.

 

“The corpus of content and communities on Reddit is pretty vast,” said Jason Costa, Reddit’s director of product for community and content. Costa described Reddit as traditionally having a heavy emphasis on text-based expression, yet Costa believes that there was an opportunity to showcase the rich multimedia content within communities as context. “(i)n particular, there’s not really a place on Reddit where you can go and easily discover great video content, great imagery content, great GIF content,” Costa said. Reddit was evaluating the use of the Communities button, and Costa said that’s how the location of the Discover tab came to be. Since the profile slide-over from the left already existed, the subscriptions list and favorites were moved there. “We think the community drawer is a real improvement over the existing tab,” Costa said.

 

 Discover tab helps you find new communities using pictures / videos. You can scroll through topics on the top from left to right.

Image: Reddit

“I personally think users are going to discover and join more communities as a result of this. And I think the old and new Redditors alike are gonna find really interesting and compelling content that resonates with them.” Costa said. In testing, users that tried the Discover tab subscribed to at least one additional community vs. those that didn’t use it, “which is exactly what we were hoping for,” Costa explains “they would discover, and... traverse the breadth of the corpus of content communities on the site. So you know, that alone, as a signal, gets us really excited for you know, what old and new users are going to do with [it].”

 

The Discover tab kind of feels like a replacement for r/all, but it turns out the longtime cumulative subreddit of all subreddits is sticking around. Costa confirmed Discover is not a replacement for r/all and that they will continue to coexist, saying, “I think Discover tab is a pretty unique and differentiated experience.” The Discover tab adjusts to your current interests, so If you subscribed to a lot of football subs and spend a lot of time in baseball subs, you’re going to start seeing more sports-related content in the Discover tab.

 

 

 

Finally, with regards to third-party Reddit clients like Apollo, Relay, and BaconReader, it looks like the Discover feature won’t make it there: “You know, I think we’re thinking through more broadly this year, what our developer platform strategy could look like. But for the Discover tab, specifically, no plans to expose an API at this time,” Costa said.

Reddit’s new Discover tab pushes the app into the modern social media era

Apple will add fifth US English Siri voice in iOS 15.4

Pixel 7 leaks show Google finally has a consistent phone business

Alongside letting more iOS and Android users enjoy Facebook’s TikTok clone, Meta has also announced that they’re expanding tests for overlay ads in order to help creators earn money from Facebook Reels.

These new overlay ads will appear in two different forms, banner ads, which are a “semi-transparent overlay at the bottom of a Facebook Reel,” and sticker ads, which are a “static image ad that can be placed by a creator anywhere within their reel.” According to Facebook, these ads will allow creators to earn a “portion” of the ad revenue while being “non-interruptive” to users.

As if that wasn’t enough of an incentive from Meta to start making content, the social media giant also announced “Stars” which can be purchased by users in order to directly support their favourite creators while giving Facebook that all-important revenue-generating cut. 

Thankfully, the rollout of Reels isn’t all about flooding the platform with ads, as Meta also announced new editing features for creators around the world to utilize. These new features will allow creators to make reels up to 60 seconds long, while also clipping the content they make before saving it as a draft. 

Meta is also debuting a new “Remix” feature, which, just like TikTok’s Duet feature, allows creators to make a reel alongside an existing publicly-shared reel on Facebook, opening the floodgates for a tidal wave of reaction content. 

Meta has launched Facebook Reels globally with plenty of ads

Lite Mode, which Google launched as Data Saver back in 2015, was designed to improve the loading of webpages in Chrome by tunneling traffic through Google servers on slow connections. Google launched the Data Saver extension for Chrome in 2015 for desktop versions of the browser, and integrated Data Saver natively in Chrome for Android in 2016.

The company deprecated the Data Saver extension for desktop versions of Chrome in 2019, but kept Data Saver under the name Lite mode in Chrome for Android. Engineers improved Lite Mode in the same year in Chrome for Android by introducing support for Lite Pages.

A new message by Chrome Support Manager Craig on the Google Chrome Help website confirms that Google is retiring Lite Mode in Chrome for Android when the stable version of the browser hits version 100. The release is scheduled for March 29, 2022.

On March 29th, 2022, with the release of Chrome M100 to the stable channel, we’ll turn off Lite mode, a Chrome feature for Android that we introduced back in 2014 as Chrome Data Saver to help people use less mobile data on their phones and load web pages faster.

Craig explains the reasoning behind the decision. Data costs have gone down considerably in many regions and Google has integrated improvements in Chrome that help reduce data usage.

In recent years we’ve seen a decrease in cost for mobile data in many countries, and we’ve shipped many improvements to Chrome to further minimize data usage and improve web page loading. Although Lite mode is going away, we remain committed to ensuring Chrome can deliver a fast webpage loading experience on mobile.

Google does not reveal the number of users that have used Lite Mode in Chrome for Android. Those who have used it may consider switching to a browser with an integrated content blocker or extensions support to speed up the browsing significantly.

Now You: have you used Lite Mode in the past? (via Caschy)

Sources:

https://stadt-bremerhaven.de/chrome-lite-mode-wird-eingestellt/

https://www.ghacks.net/2022/02/23/google-ends-lite-mode-data-saving-feature-for-chrome-on-android/

The growing popularity of foldable phones is mainly driven by Samsung, but the South Korean tech giant may not be able to claim the top position for a very long time as more big brands are laying the groundwork for their first-ever foldable phones.

"Big brands" also include Apple as rumor has it that the company is working on a foldable iPhone phone. Previous rumors, however, suggested that Apple would bring the foldable iPhone to the public eye in 2023. But according to a recent report from Display Supply Chain Consultants(DSCC), which is run by Display Analyst Ross Young, the foldable iPhone is unlikely to arrive before 2025.

According to the display firm, Apple "does not appear to be in a hurry to enter the foldable smartphone market, and it may even take longer than [2025]."

Apple, however, seems to be quite optimistic about the potential of the whole foldable display technology, so much so that the company is interested in introducing it to its future notebooks.

As described by the analyst, it can be a notebook with a full-sized keyboard when folded and an external monitor when not folded, thus making it a dual-use product. The analyst wrote:

"This size could create a new category for Apple and would result in a true dual use product, a notebook with a full-size keyboard when folded and for use as a monitor when not folded and used with an external keyboard."

The display analyst also predicts that the notebook display could be around 20-inch and that it might allow for UHD/4K resolutions or higher.

Young has an excellent track record of leaking accurate information, but there're many instances where he updated his previous claims. The same may also happen with this leak too, so hold your horses until other reliable sources confirm the leak.

Source: DSCC; via Apple Insider

Apple's foldable iPhone may be coming in 2025, foldable MacBook could soon be a reality

Twitter user Golden Reviewer has compiled a couple of synthetic GPU benchmarks where they have compared the AMD Xclipse 920 GPU alongside several other mobile graphics chipsets including the last-gen Exynos 2100.

The two graphics tests are:

• GFXBench 3.1
• 3DMark Wildlife Extreme

The performance for the AMD RDNA 2 mobile APU is unimpressive, to say the least, as it barely beats the Mali GPU inside the Exynos 2100. Compared to its main rival, the Snapdragon (SD) 8 Gen 1, the AMD Xclipse 920 GPU inside the Exynos 2200 is very underwhelming as the former is 20-30% more efficient. Many were speculating this was the case after Samsung, oddly, kept mum about its initial January 11 launch event.

The GPU performance and efficiency comparisons are given below:

On the Exynos 2200 page, Samsung writes "Playtime is well and truly over" and seeing the efficiency result above we do wonder if Samsung means the thing literally. The company is also promising console-quality graphics from this chipset. Here's the full write up:

Console quality graphics now on mobile with the Exynos 2200 mobile processor. The Samsung Xclipse GPU sets to usher in a new era and completely change the way we experience mobile gaming. Playtime is well and truly over.

For those wondering if it's the processor that is holding the AMD Xclipse RDNA 2 back, this doesn't seem to be the case. The Cortex-X2 cores in the Exynos 2200 CPU itself seems to be performing as expected almost up there with the SD Gen 1.

The main apparent advantage that the Exynos 2200 has right now over its immediate rivals is ray-tracing on mobile. Samsung showed that off back in October last year.

Source and images: Golden Reviewer (Twitter)

Playtime over indeed: AMD RDNA 2 inside Samsung S22's Exynos 2200 fails to deliver

The Galaxy S22’s 45 W charging doesn’t actually improve charge times