Snapdragon 865, 765 and 765G 5G SoCs announced: These are the OEMs who are on board

5G will not just be restricted to premium smartphones in 2020. Qualcomm announced 5G-enabled Snapdragon 765 and 765G chipsets that will allow OEMs to bring affordable 5G smartphones next year. And in case you were wondering who all are on board, Xiaomi, Nokia, Oppo and Motorola already committed to launching Snapdragon 765-powered smartphones next year. Qualcomm also teased the Snapdragon 865, giving brief sneak-peaks into the features.

The Snapdragon 765 and 765G comes with a new Snapdragon X52 5G modem integrated into them allowing phones to deliver 3.5 gigabit internet speeds, theoretically. The new mid-tier chipset are also designed with AI in mind. They come with Qualcomm’s 5th-gen AI Engine which Qualcomm claimed to be 2X faster than the one on the Snapdragon 855 last year, capable of delivering 15 tera operations per second (TOPS).

As for the flagship Snapdragon 865, surprisingly enough, it won’t come with the 5G modem integrated. Instead, Qualcomm will continue to follow a modular approach to delivering 5G connectivity with the new Snapdragon X55 modem and the RF modules installed separately. In addition, the Snapdragon 865 will come with an ISP capable of crunching data at 2 gigapixels per second. This, Qualcomm claimed, will allow the chipset to deliver 8K video recording at 30 frames per second. Apart from that, Qualcomm claimed the SoC will be capable of longer sustained peak perofrmance and bring ‘desktop-class’ gaming.

The chipsets were unveiled by Alex Katouzian, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile at Qualcomm. And then soon after, we saw senior execs from various OEMs come up on stage to announce smartphones powered by the new chipsets in 2020.

Xiaomi, Nokia, Oppo and Motorola will be launching smartphones with new chipsets

Xiaomi founder, Lin Bin announced the upcoming Redmi K30 and the Mi 10 will be powered by the Snapdragon 865 and will be 5G-enabled. In addition, Xiaomi will announce ten other 5G-capable smartphones powered by the flagship chipsets and the mid-range Snapdragon 765 and 765G. Bin also said Xiaomi will introduce new mobile form factors, particularly in the foldable space next year to take advantage of all the new use-cases 5G is poised to bring. He specifically talked about the Mi MIX Alpha and how the concept phone will become mainstream next year.

Motorola was also present and announced it will be launching 5G devices with the Snapdragon 865 and 765 next year.

Next up was Oppo’s Senior VP of Sales, Alan Wu who announced Oppo will launch a new flagship smartphone with the Snapdragon 865 in Q1 2020. He also announced the Reno 3 Pro will be powered by the Snapdragon 765G and will also be 5G-ready.

Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer at HMD Global committed to launching Snapdragon 765-powered 5G smartphones. The unnamed Nokia phone will come with new Zeiss imaging technolgy, Nokia’s Pure Display tech and ‘Future Proof 5G’.

It will be interesting to see just how many of these devices will be made available in India considering the country is still quite far behind in deploying 5G connectivity. Note that that Snapdragon 765 and the 765G will not have a non-5G variant.

Qualcomm also announced the next-generatio optical in-display fingerprint sensor called 3D Sonic Max. It brings two-finger authentication with the authentication area now 17 times bigger. Qualcomm also said it’s far more secure and accurate, and is likely to be present in devices launching next year.

Further details on the chipsets will be announced at another keynote scheduled tomorrow.

Disclaimer: Qualcomm sponsored the author's travel and stay at Maui for the Snapdragon Tech Summit 2019.

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HP introduces Chromebook x360 12, 14 with Intel Celeron CPU starting at Rs 29,990

It appears HP is taking the Chromebook market far more seriously than any other player in the country. Just a few months after launching the Chromebook x360 and Chromebook 14, the American PC maker has introduced two more Chromebook offerings for Indian PC buyers. The first is a whole new model called the Chromebook x360 12 and the second is a cheaper variant of the existing Chromebook x360. While the former costs Rs 29,990, the latter costs Rs 34,990. Both machines are powered by an Intel Celeron N4000 CPU.

The Chromebook x360 12, as you can imagine, is a slightly smaller version of the 14-inch Chromebook x360 (also called the Chromebook x360 14) that was launched earlier this year. The new entrant sports a 12-inch LCD touchscreen unit with an HD+ resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio. It’s powered by an Intel Celeron N4000 “Gemini Lake” Dual-core CPU. The same chip will now be available on the Chromebook x360 as well. HP has not mentioned the RAM variants that both models will be available in. Storage on the Chromebook x360 12 will be a standard 64GB that's expandable up to 256GB using a microSD card. It will come in Ceramic White and Natural Silver colour options.

According to HP, the new Chromebook x360 models—both 12-inch and 14-inch versions, that is—are compatible with the optional USI stylus, which costs Rs 3,999. USI stands for Universal Stylus Initiative and is an industry-standard specification for cross-system styli. Like all Chromebooks, both newly launched machines will run Chrome OS with native support for Android apps and Google Assistant. They will be sold in India with a free one-year subscription to Google One, which should give the user 100GB of extra space on Google Drive among other benefits. They willl also be bundled with a Reliance Jio offer that gives the user 2GB of data per day for a year.

HP launched the Chromebook x360 and Chromebook 14 in India in August this year at a starting price of Rs 44,990 and Rs 22,990, respectively. While the Chromebook x360 was offered with an Intel 8th Gen Core i3 and Core i5 CPU with up to 8GB of RAM, the Chromebook 14 was introduced with an Intel Celeron CPU with 4GB of RAM. Now that the Chromebook x360 is offered with a Celeron option as well, its starting price goes down to Rs 34,990. The Chromebook x360 12, on the other hand, starts at an even lower Rs 29,990. You can read our review of the Chromebook x360 here and the Chromebook 14 here.

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Redmi K30 leaked poster hints at vertical quad rear-camera setup, dual front cameras

We’ve come across multiple reports about the rumoured Redmi K30 smartphone, information about which has leaked quite a few times by now. A previous report revealed the phone’s screen and now, a new image of the handset has surfaced online, which gives us our best look yet at its rear panel and the main camera setup. The Chinese actor Wang Yibo is apparently endorsing the handset and a new promo image of the actor holding the phone seems to have leaked online. As per a Weibo post that has since been removed, via DroidHolic, the images showcase a new design for the camera setup on the Redmi K30. 

It can be seen that the handset sports a centrally placed, vertically stacked quad-camera setup on the back. There’s a circular ring around the camera with a gradient design below which 5G text is placed and no fingerprint sensor is to be spotted on the rear. One would expect Redmi to use an in-display fingerprint sensor on the upcoming handset but as per previously leaked information, the device might come equipped with an LCD screen, which doesn’t support in-display fingerprint sensor. Thus, the fingerprint option is said to move on the right edge of the device. 

Another image of the phone, which shows the device from the front, reveals a dual front camera setup, which is housed in a punch-hole display. There are thin bezels around the screen, which are a bit noticeable. The Redmi K30 is expected to be launched in just over a week’s time but it seems like the usual bout of rumours and leaks will be making the rounds on the internet before the smartphone is officially announced. 

A previous report about the handset suggests that it could be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 or a Snapdragon 730G SoC. It could be equipped with a 6.66-inch screen with a 120Hz refresh rate giving it that smooth interface. Furthermore, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has already confirmed that the device will run on MIUI 11 at launch. 

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Reliance Jio reportedly moving free JioFiber consumers to paid connections

Reliance Jio announced the commercial rollout of its JioFiber home broadband service on September 5. However, the company was testing the service with multiple users across regions in India before the launch, and the participants were using the service for free. Now, the telco is reportedly converting these free connections to paid ones to generate more revenue and hence, these users will need to opt and pay for the JioFiber service. As per a report by The Economic Times, the company has commenced billing free customers of its service and is asking them to select from the available JioFiber broadband packs. 

As per the report, Jio is said to have about half a million users who were a part of the JioFiber trails. A person with knowledge of the matter told ET, “All new JioFiber customers, who’ve put in the Rs. 2,500 refundable deposit, are now being charged in the big metro markets, and commercial billing on a pan-India basis should be operational in a couple of weeks.” Another informant told the publication, “Existing customers who had opted for the trials are being told that free home broadband services will be discontinued shortly and they need to migrate to specific JioFiber plans to stay connected.”

To recall, JioFiber plans are priced starting at Rs 699 per month and offer speeds of up to 100Mbps. Since JioFiber has come into the scenario, rival telcos have upped their respective offerings to retain consumers. Airtel recently rebranded its Home Broadband service to XStream Fiber and announced some new plans. However, it removed the data rollover facility and is instead offering unlimited high speed data at Rs 299 per month. Tata Sky has also revamped its offering and its users can now avail data rollover option on plans starting at Rs 650.

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Samsung plans on releasing not one, but two foldable smartphones in 2020

It looks like foldable smartphones are the next big trend in smartphone design. Earlier this year, Samsung launched their first real foldable smartphone in the Galaxy Fold. There was a ton of hype behind it but it soon fizzled out as a few display issues caused the phone to be delayed. Undeterred, the Korean tech giant plans to release not one, but two foldable smartphones in 2020. 

Both Motorola and Huawei have released their foldable smartphones and more companies are looking at releasing their versions of the device. There have been rumors floating around the internet that state that LG will be launching their own foldable smartphone. It is very clear that this looks to be the next big design change in the smartphone industry.

Analysts and experts have talked about how Samsung plans to release two new foldable smartphones in 2020 and the first of these devices will reportedly come with a clamshell design. Reports state that the cover display will only be used to show users their basic information and features like battery info and such. The new clamshell phone should cost around $845 (Rs 60,500 approx) and could be launched in February 2020 along with the Galaxy S11. 

Experts have also said that the next Galaxy Fold will be announced towards the end of the year. First reported by LetsGoDigital, Samsung looks to have filed a patent with the Hague International Design System in May and only announced it in November. As of now, there have been no official announcements regarding these new devices but as we move into 2020, we expect more companies to experiment with their devices. 

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NASA locates crashed Vikram Lander, credits Chennai Engineer for discovery

It looks like NASA has pinpointed the location of the crashed Vikram Lander from the Chandrayaan-2 mission. The American space agency published photos of the crash site that were taken from an orbiting satellite. The before/after images clearly show the point of impact as well as the scattering of debris.

NASA credits the finding of the Vikram Lander to a Chennai Engineer named Shanmuga Subramanian, who has since posted the letter he got from John Keller, Deputy Project Scientists at the Lunar Orbiter Reconnaissance Mission on Twitter. Subramanian doesn’t seem to be connected to either NASA or ISRO, and simply seems to be someone who was just very interested in the Vikram Lander. 

@NASA has credited me for finding Vikram Lander on Moon's surface#VikramLander #Chandrayaan2@timesofindia @TimesNow @NDTV pic.twitter.com/2LLWq5UFq9

— Shan (@Ramanean) December 2, 2019

To recall, the Vikram Lander was supposed to have made a landing about 600km from the moon’s south pole on September 6. Unfortunately, the lander lost contact shortly before touchdown. The final fate of the lander was unknown until very recently when the Indian government admitted that the lander had crashed. In a statement to the Lok Sabha, Jitendra Singh, the minister of state for the Department of Space admitted that the lander had ‘hard landed’ on the surface of the moon. “The first phase of descent was performed nominally from an altitude of 30 km to 7.4 km above the moon surface. During the second phase of descent, the reduction in velocity was more than the designed value. Due to this deviation, the initial conditions at the start of the fine braking phase were beyond the designed parameters. As a result, Vikram hard landed within 500 m of the designated landing site,” he said.

While the Vikram Lander did not succeed in touching down on the surface of the moon, the folks over at NASA seem to understand how difficult it was. “Despite the loss, getting that close to the surface was an amazing achievement,” the space agency wrote on its page. However, it should be noted that the  Chandrayaan-2 orbiter seems to be working normally. A few weeks ago, ISRO published photographs of the lunar surface taken by the orbiter. You can check out those photos here.

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Huawei Watch GT2 launching in India on December 5

The official Twitter handle of Huawei India has confirmed that the Huawei Watch GT2 will be launching in India on December 5, 2019. The company has also revealed a “notify me” page for those who are interested in getting an alert when the watch goes on sale.

The Huawei Watch GT2 has a number of features that make it an interesting wearable. For starters, the Watch GT2 features Huawei’s own Kirin A1 chip, which the company developed specifically for wearables. The Kirin A1 chip features a dual-chip design along with support for Bluetooth 5.1 and BLE 5.1. With BLE 5.1, the Kirin A1’s power requirements dip to as low as 10mAh per MHz, which Huawei claims is one-third the power consumption of comparable wearables. Besides the Kirin A1 chip, the Watch GT2 will be available in 2 sizes, 42mm and 46mm dials. The 42mm version will sport a 1.2 inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 390x390 while the 46mm version will have a 1.39-inch display with a resolution of 454x454. It packs the usual sensors such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light sensor etc.

Besides offering water resistance of up to 5ATM (50 meters), the Watch GT2 also features 15 workout  modes which include running, swimming, cycling etc. The Huawei Watch GT2 runs on Huawei’s in-house LiteOS and with a 445mAh battery, the company claims the wearable can deliver up to 2 weeks of battery life. With the launch of the Watch GT2 just round the corner, we can expect the final price and the actual shipping date to be made public very soon. What we do know for now is that the watch will be available online on Amazon and FLipkart, along with being available in offline stores as well.

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