Posts

Mate 20 launch date revealed: Here’s when we’ll officially see Huawei’s flagship

Image
The Huawei Mate 20 Lite has been announced at IFA 2018, but everyone is waiting for the Mate 20 reveal. Now, the Chinese brand has revealed an October 16 launch date in London for the new phablet. Huawei also said the device will be the first smartphone with its new Kirin 980 chipset. The company’s new chipset, announced at IFA too, packs a 7nm manufacturing process. But the Chinese brand has delivered plenty of other upgrades on paper. The Kirin 980 offers a dual NPU for improved AI smarts, as well as a Mali-G76 MP10 GPU. But the company has also upgraded its CPU cores and changed the layout, offering two Cortex-A76 CPU cores at 2.6Ghz, two Cortex-A76 cores at 1.92Ghz, and four Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8Ghz. Editor's Pick Huawei Mate 20 could set new standard for super fast wireless charging Huawei's upcoming Mate 20 flagship is expected to launch in October and will likely bring the features of the P20 Pro camera in a bigger and better way. One of the ways Huawe

Samsung Galaxy Watch review: The smartwatch that tries to do it all

Image
The brand new Samsung Galaxy Watch could be considered the Swiss Army knife of smartwatches. It tries to do a little bit of everything, from sleep tracking, to fitness tracking, to mobile payments, to all the other typical smartwatch functions. It even looks good doing it. But does Samsung nail the execution? Find out in our full review of the Samsung Galaxy Watch. Design Editor's Pick Best smartwatches (July 2018) Smartwatches are still a very new thing to a lot of people, and for good reason. You don't absolutely need one to get through the day, and some of the best smartwatches are much too expensive … Samsung has come a long way with its smartwatch design since the original Galaxy Gear. The Galaxy Watch elegantly disguises itself as a normal watch. It comes in 46mm and 42mm watch face variants. The one I’ve been testing and using for the past week is the 46mm version in silver, with Bluetooth connectivity. The smaller 42mm version is available in black

Thought twilight P20 Pro was cool? You’ll probably love these new options

Image
Four new Huawei P20 Pro colors have been unveiled at IFA 2018. These include two gradient colors and two leather-backed variants. Huawei has revealed two new colorways and two leather-backed models for its P20 Pro flagship — and they’re all absolutely gorgeous. The four new variants were revealed today at Huawei’s IFA 2018 presentation. As we exclusively reported just over a week ago, the new, non-leather finishes were inspired by the popularity of the twilight gradient color palette. These are aurora — named after and designed after the aurora borealis — and pearl white. While aurora’s black to turquoise gradient is the most eye-catching, the pearl white looks equally stunning and features subtle yellow and pink tints from certain angles. Most of the attention, however, will go to the black and brown leather versions of the triple-camera-toting phone. We’ve seen a few leather-backed phones in the past from the likes of LG , but this is a first for Huawei. I’m guessing

Huawei’s AI Cube isn’t just an Alexa-powered smart speaker, it’s a 4G LTE router too

Image
Huawei has revealed the AI Cube smart speaker. The Google Home and Amazon Echo rival has built-in Amazon Alexa and can be used as a 4G LTE router. The AI Cube was unveiled at IFA 2018 — pricing and availability have yet to be confirmed. Huawei is jumping headfirst into the smart speaker market with the Huawei AI Cube, announced today at IFA 2018 . Unlike the Google Home , Amazon Echo , and other leading smart speakers, the AI Cube — which if we’re being picky is quite clearly a cylinder and not a cube — is being marketed as a “two-in-one speaker” which, in addition to packing in Amazon’s Alexa AI for voice commands, can also double up as a 4G LTE router. Editor's Pick Huawei Mate 20 series: All the rumors in one place (Updated Aug. 20) Evan Blass In this post, which will be updated regularly, we take a closer look at the latest rumors surrounding the upcoming Huawei Mate 20, Mate 20 Lite, and Mate 20 Pro smartphones. The Huawei … The AI Cube is outfitted wi

Kirin 980 SoC announced with double the AI capabilities

Image
At IFA 2018 , Richard Yu lifted the lid on Huawei’s next-generation smartphone processor — the HiSilicon Kirin 980. It’s the first processor announcement based on a 7nm process — TSMC’s to be precise ( as expected)  — but there’s plenty more tucked away inside the high-end chipset, including new CPU, GPU, and NPU (AI) components, among others. There’s talk of some 6.9 billion transistors packed into just a one square centimeter chip, which certainly sounds impressive. Regardless of the number, the bottom line is the Kirin 980 will be much more powerful and energy efficient than Huawei’s last generation chipset. Kirin 980 boasts the latest Arm parts Leaping right into the performance side, the Kirin 980 utilizes Arm’s latest high-performance Cortex-A76 cores, another industry first, along with four lower power Cortex-A55  cores. Since the Kirin 970 featured high-performance Cortex-A73s, this is the first Huawei SoC built on cores capable of utilizing Arm’s DynamIQ technology , to

Huawei Mate 20 Lite announced: Four cameras, Kirin 710, AI everywhere

Image
Huawei has revealed the Mate 20 Lite at IFA, complete with four cameras. Huawei’s latest smartphone also offers a Kirin 710 chipset and 4GB of RAM. The phone continues Huawei’s trend of using AI branding for various features. The Huawei Mate 20 isn’t officially launching at IFA 2018 , but the Chinese company has revealed the cheaper Mate 20 Lite in Berlin instead. True to the TENAA filing , we’ve got a phone with a vertically stacked dual camera setup and fingerprint scanner, all located in a distinctive strip. As for core specs, expect a Kirin 710 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage, a 6.3-inch notched full HD+ display (2,340 x 1,080), and a 3,750mAh battery with 18 watt charging. Read: Huawei Mate 20 could set new standard for super fast wireless charging Moving to the photography field, Huawei ‘s latest phone offers a 20MP+2MP pairing on the back, and a 24MP+2MP combination for selfies. The company is pushing AI branding here as usual, claiming support for

Huawei Mate 20 Lite hands-on: Lots of AI features, middling specs

Image
Huawei just launched a new Mate device at IFA 2018 , but it’s probably not what you were expecting. Instead of the top-shelf Mate 20 , the Chinese giant revealed the more accessible Mate 20 Lite. It’s a phone that’s pretty much guaranteed to sell well, thanks to the strong association with the aspirational Mate 20. This is the first time Huawei has introduced the Mate Lite model first, but what else is interesting about it? Let’s find out in our Huawei Mate 20 Lite hands-on preview. The Mate 20 Lite looks premium, even if the design is a little generic. The body is covered in sleek glass, front and back, with a metal frame going around the edges. The phone is quite slippery, but it’s fairly light and easy to handle with one hand, despite the expansive 6.3-inch display. Editor's Pick Sony Xperia XZ3 hands-on: Keeping up with the times If you can’t keep up with Sony’s releases, you’re not alone. The Japanese manufacturer is known for the rapid cadence at which it launch