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iPhone 11, Pro and Max hands-on: Apple bets big on the camera

Apple refreshed its line of iPhones for 2019 at an event on Tuesday, announcing the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The phones start at $699, $999 and $1,099, respectively. These new iPhones pick up a fresh palette of colors, longer battery life and a A13 Bionic processor inside that promises faster performance. But more than any other feature, it’s the camera hardware and software that take the headlining role. There are three cameras on the back of the Pro phones and two on the back of the iPhone 11. See below for our early hands-on impressions.

This new crop of iPhones may wear different colors, but in terms of overall design, they look strikingly like last year’s iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR — notch and all.

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Volkswagen unveils the ID.3, its first ‘electric car for the masses’

Volkswagen has rolled out the final version of its first affordable long-range electric car, the ID.3, at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show. Coming in at “under €30,000” (about $33,180, currently), the ID.3 will come in three variants that offer between roughly 205 and 340 miles of range. The EV is slated to be delivered in mid-2020.

That “under €30,000” price tag VW is promoting applies to the base model of the ID.3, which has a 45kWh battery and offers 330 kilometers, or 205 miles of range. The company declined to provide pricing information for the two larger capacity variants of the car, which will feature 58kWh and 77kWh batteries, and will respectively offer around 420 and 550 kilometers (or 261 and 340 miles) per charge.
“That “under €30,000” price tag VW is promoting applies to the base model of the ID.3”

VW says the base version of the ID.3 will only charge at up to 50kW, and owners who want to charge faster (up to 100kW) will have to pay extra; 100kW charging will come standard on the midrange 58kWh version, while even faster 125kW charging will be available on the top-tier ID.3. The company is also offering an eight year / 160,000 kilometer warranty on the ID.3’s battery pack.

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Redmi Note 8 Pro pops up on AnTuTu rocking MediaTek Helio G90T SoC

Today, Xiaomi’s sub-brand announced the Redmi Note 8 Pro and the non-Pro smartphones revealing all specs. The beefed-up Pro version is particularly interesting as it sports the world’s first 64MP camera and the first smartphone to carry the MediaTek Helio G90T gaming SoC. And the first benchmarks are in.
Redmi Note 8 Pro pops up on AnTuTu rocking MediaTek Helio G90T SoC

The chip is based on the cost-efficient 12nm node and boasts unmatched gaming performance for its class. And we can see why. The handset appeared on AnTuTu with an overall score of 282,443 points. Those are impressive results as the rather chip SoC blows almost all of its direct competitors out of the water. In fact, we found comparable results in our database from last year’s Snapdragon 845 and the Kirin 970.

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Huawei showed the greatest SoC, HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G

As planned, Huawei unveiled the new HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G SoC at a special event held at the IFA exhibition in Berlin these days.

The company revealed two versions, the Kirin 990 5G with built-in 5G modem and the ‘simple’ Kirin 990 with 4G / LTE modem. HiSilicon’s new system-on-chip is manufactured using TSMC’s most advanced 7nm FinFET Plus EUV method (even the Apple A13 is going to be built with the same method) and one of its most important features is the built-in 5G modem.

Huawei’s SoC was lost for the first time in a few hours, after Samsung caught up with Huawei a few days ago to announce the Exynos 980 SoC, the first mobile SoC with a built-in 5G modem.

According to Huawei, the new Kirin 990 SoC incorporates more than 10.3 billion transistors but is 26% smaller in size than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 and 36% smaller than Samsung’s Exynos 9820. Inside, the Kirin 990 SoC features an eight-core processor in total, a pair of Cortex-A76 clocked at 2.86GHz, a pair of Cortex-A76 clocked at 2.36GHz, and a quad-core clock clocked at 1.95GHz Mali-G76 graphics processor, which has 16 cores in this case (6% better graphics performance than the Adreno 640 solution).

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Samsung’s working on a Motorola Razr-like foldable phone

The Galaxy Fold is now just weeks away but it seems Samsung is already preparing another foldable smartphone that’ll introduce a totally new design. Its release, however, depends largely on the success of Samsung’s first offering.
Samsung’s second foldable could look like a flip phone

According to Bloomberg, the South Korean giant is developing a new foldable with a 6.7-inch display that shrinks into a square when folded inwards like the upcoming Motorola Razr. This will feature a small punch hole for the selfie camera much like the Galaxy Note 10 which will be paired with a dual-camera setup that sits on the outside of the phone. The latter will face the rear when opened and the front when folded shut.

The majority of people currently interested in foldable smartphones are tech fans. Because of this, Samsung is reportedly collaborating with American design Thom Browne on the device to help broaden its appeal and attract consumers that are more interested in fashion and luxury. One person familiar with the matter also suggests Samsung’s next foldable will be more affordable and noticeably thinner than the Galaxy Fold. To help achieve this the company is reportedly testing Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG) for the 6.7-inch display although the phone’s reliability is the main priority.
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Huawei Watch GT 2 images with 445mAh battery

Last year, the Huawei Watch GT made its debut last October with the Mate 20 series, and it looks like the Chinese manufacturer is going to follow suit with its successor.

Unless announced at the IFA show this week, the new Huawei Watch GT 2 is set to be officially unveiled along with the Mate 30 series of smartphones on September 19.

Thanks to the Winfuture.de website, however, we have the opportunity to see official digitally processed images of Huawei’s new wearable that will succeed the well-known and successful Watch GT. Compared to its predecessor, the new Watch GT 2 features a smaller wreath – which may mean it has a larger screen. Also, although it is thinner and thinner, it will have a larger capacity battery (445mAh instead of 420mAh). The device appears to have a speaker and microphone, so that its user will be able to answer or make calls from the device – an LTE connectivity version may also be announced.

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Now Facebook says it may remove Like counts

Facebook could soon start hiding the Like counter on News Feed posts to protect users’ from envy and dissuade them from self-censorship. Instagram is already testing this in 7 countries including Canada and Brazil, showing a post’s audience just a few names of mutual friends who’ve Liked it instead of the total number. The idea is to prevent users from destructively comparing themselves to others and possibly feeling inadequate if their posts don’t get as many Likes. It could also stop users from deleting posts they think aren’t getting enough Likes or not sharing in the first place.

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AMD Readies Three HEDT Chipsets: TRX40, TRX80, and WRX80

AMD is preparing to surprise Intel with its 3rd generation Ryzen Threadripper processors derived from the “Rome” MCM (codenamed “Castle Peak” for the client-platform), that features up to 64 CPU cores, a monolithic 8-channel DDR4 memory interface, and 128 PCIe gen 4.0 lanes. For the HEDT platform, AMD could reconfigure the I/O controller die for two distinct sub-platforms within HEDT – one targeting gamers/enthusiasts, and another targeting the demographic that buys Xeon W processors, including the W-3175X. The gamer/enthusiast-targeted processor line could feature a monolithic 4-channel DDR4 memory interface, and 64 PCI-Express gen 4.0 lanes from the processor socket, and additional lanes from the chipset; while the workstation-targeted processor line could essentially be EPYCs, with a wider memory bus width and more platform PCIe lanes; while retaining drop-in backwards-compatibility with AMD X399 (at the cost of physically narrower memory and PCIe I/O).

To support this diverse line of processors, AMD is coming up with not one, but three new chipsets: TRX40, TRX80, and WRX80. The TRX40 could have a lighter I/O feature-set (similar to the X570), and probably 4-channel memory on the motherboards. The TRX80 and WRX80 could leverage the full I/O of the “Rome” MCM, with 8-channel memory and more than 64 PCIe lanes. We’re not sure what differentiates the TRX80 and WRX80, but we believe motherboards based on the latter will resemble proper workstation boards in form-factors such as SSI, and be made by enterprise motherboard manufacturers such as TYAN. The chipsets made their way to the USB-IF for certification, and were sniffed out by momomo_us. ASUS is ready with its first motherboards based on the TRX40, the Prime TRX40-Pro, and the ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming.

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Samsung Galaxy Note10+ handily defeats Apple iPhone XS Max in a speed test

The Samsung Galaxy Note10+ beat the Apple iPhone XS Max in the PhoneBuff speed test by a whole 30 seconds.

If you’re familiar with the PhoneBuff-styled speed test, you know this is a big deal. And if you’re not familiar, it uses an AI-trained robot to simulate the same actions on both phones, opening a bunch of apps and performing tasks for one lap, and then re-opening all of the apps to see if the phone has kept them in the RAM.

Interestingly the Galaxy Note10+ was faster to open most of the games and didn’t fall behind the iPhone XS Max in any of the tasks. And on the second lap it managed to use its 12GB of RAM to outdo the 4GB iPhone XS Max and claim the top spot alongside the OnePlus 7 Pro.

Here’s the full video.

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Huawei Mate 30 Pro global release likely to be delayed

Ever since the US trade ban, Huawei’s global sales have taken a hit. The company’s market share and shipments in Europe have declined and it looks like its global prospects are still uncertain. The temporary license that was granted to the company back in May has been extended. But considering how it applies to only existing products, the brand’s new models like Huawei Mate 30 series are going to be affected by this trade ban.
Huawei Mate 30 Pro featured
Mate 30 Pro’s expected design

The Mate 30 series is the first major flagship lineup from Huawei after the trade ban came into effect in May. The phone is set to take on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ and the upcoming iPhones with a powerful camera setup and a waterfall display. However, the phone’s global prospects look dim as South China Morning Post reports that Huawei could delay the global release of the handset due to the trade ban.

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