OnePlus 8 series to go on sale today on Amazon India: Here are the alternatives to consider

OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro are going on sale later today on Amazon India. The OnePlus 8 series was previously available in limited quantities earlier due to production issues likely caused by the Coronavirus outbreak. However, this afternoon, both the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro will go on sale on Amazon India and OnePlus India store.

OnePlus 8 series pricing, sale date and launch offers 

OnePlus 8 is priced starting at Rs 41,999 for the base variant in Glacial Green colour with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant is priced at Rs 44,999 and comes in Onyx Black colour. The maxed-out variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage is up for grabs in Interstellar Glow and Glacial Green colours and is priced at Rs 49,999.

OnePlus 8 Pro is priced starting at Rs 54,999 for the base variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage while the maxed-out variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage is up for grabs at Rs 59,999. 

As part of the sale offers, OnePlus is offering a 10 percent discount for CITI Bank cardholders, an instant cashback of Rs 1,000 on Amazon Pay for those who pre-booked the phone, no-cost EMI of up to 12 months with major banks, benefits worth Rs 6,000 with Reliance Jio and six bonus audiobooks by Audible. As part of the OnePlus Red Cable Club, new users will also get six-months extended warranty and 50GB free cloud storage.

OnePlus 8 alternatives

OnePlus 8 is perhaps one of the best mid-range flagship phones to consider if looking for a new smartphone that you can depend upon. However, it’s likely that many people don’t want to spend over Rs 40,000 on a smartphone yet so here are the alternatives you can look at instead.

Realme X50 Pro is available starting at Rs 39,999 and comes packed with the latest Snapdragon 865 chipset as the OnePlus 8 along with 64MP quad cameras on the back and support for 65W fast charging out-of-the-box. The maxed-out variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage is available at Rs 47,999 on Flipkart.

The iQOO 3 is one of the most affordable Snapdragon 865 powered smartphones in India as it’s available both in 4G and 5G versions. The iQOO 3 also features an AMOLED screen, a 48MP quad-camera setup but supports 55W fast charging out-of-the-box.

The iQOO 3 starts at Rs 34,999 for the 4G variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage while the 256GB storage option retails for Rs 37,990. The 5G variant has 12GB RAM and 256GB storage and is priced at Rs 44,990. There are some cashback offers that buyers can avail which provides cashback of Rs 3,000. 

OnePlus 8 Pro alternatives

While the OnePlus 8 Pro features top-of-the-line specifications, there are other flagship smartphones you can consider especially when you’re spending over Rs 50,000 on a mobile phone.

Xiaomi recently launched the Mi 10, it’s flagship phone in India with a versatile 108MP camera array, Snapdragon 865 chipset, high refresh rate display and support for fast wired/wireless charging. It starts at Rs 49,999 for the base variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage and goes up to Rs 54,999 for the other variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro specifications 

OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro are both powered by the Snapdragon 865 SoC and are 5G-capable. OnePlus 8 rocks a 6.5-inch FHD+ 90Hz AMOLED display while the same on the OnePlus 8 Pro is a 120Hz QHD+ AMOLED display measuring 6.7-inches. Both are HDR10+ certified and rock in-display fingerprint sensors and punch-hole selfie cameras. 

There's a triple camera setup at the back of the OnePlus 8 including a 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor, a 16MP ultrawide lens and a 2MP macro. The OnePlus 8 Pro gets a quad-camera setup with a 48MP Sony IMX689 primary sensor, another 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor with an ultrawide lens, an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x hybrid zoom and a colour filter lens.

The OnePlus 8 is powered by a 4,300mAh battery while the OnePlus 8 Pro is powered by a 4510mAh battery. Both smartphones get charged via a 30W Warp Charge 30T charger. Only the OnePlus 8 Pro goes a step further and boasts of 30W wireless charging support as well. The OnePlus 8 Pro is also IP68-rated water and dust resistant.

 

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/3iaY7xQ

OnePlus confirmed to launch three affordable TVs in India on July 2

OnePlus has confirmed that it’s going to unveil three new televisions in India on July 2, entering into the affordable TV segment. The company is going all-in with marketing the new televisions and has revealed some key details about their upcoming affordable TVs. OnePlus currently sells two TVs in its Q1 series and while there’s no word on what the new and affordable TV series will be called, the company has revealed on its official forum, some of the key highlights about the three upcoming TVs in India.

In the heads up to the official launch, OnePlus is hosting a contest on Amazon India asking users to guess the starting price of its upcoming televisions. In a tweet, the company has also hinted at the starting price of three models, expected to be 32-inch, 43-inch and 55-inch starting at Rs 1X,999, Rs 2X,999 and Rs 4X,999 respectively.

It's all that you need at a price that you want. Can you guess the price of the upcoming OnePlus TV Series? #SmarterTV #OnePlusTV

— OnePlus India (@OnePlus_IN) June 27, 2020

Based on this, one can speculate that the starting price of the most affordable OnePlus TV could be Rs 19,999 or lower as is also indicated by the contest on Amazon.

Additionally, OnePlus has confirmed that the upcoming TVs have a nearly bezel-less display with over 95 per cent screen-to-body ratio and measures just 6.9mm at its thickest point. The new TVs are expected to come with HD, Full HD and 4K UHD resolution panels with support for Dolby Vision and 93 per cent DCI-P3 colour gamut.

The new OnePlus TVs are set to launch in India on July 2 but if you’re interested to get either of the three TVs based on the features teased by OnePlus, you can pre-book the upcoming OnePlus TVs. As a complimentary offer, everyone who pre-orders the upcoming OnePlus TVs will be eligible to get a 2-year extended warranty.

 

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2ZfVZMv

Xiaomi Redmi 9A key specifications and render leak ahead of the official launch

Xiaomi Redmi 9A has been leaked yet again, this time courtesy of the company’s own product brochure for July-August 2020. This brochure is meant for the authorised retailers in the Philippines region and so there’s no word for when the phone will arrive in India. The Redmi 9A is an entry-level phone in the Redmi 9 series of budget phones and the leak also revealed key specifications which corroborate previous leaks about the phone.

The brochure has been uploaded by GizGuide, a consumer technology publication based out of Phillippines which lists the Redmi 9A as “coming soon”. Notably, the brochure doesn’t list the prices of the Redmi 9A. Let’s take a look at the leaked specifications of the Redmi 9A.

Xiaomi Redmi 9A leaked specifications

The leaked image of the Redmi 9A looks in-line with the design of the previous generation Redmi 8 series. The phone features a waterdrop notch with the display measuring 6.53-inches. The display has an HD+ resolution with a rather noticeable bezel at the bottom with the word “Redmi” etched on it.

Redmi 9A is powered by the MediaTek Helio G25 octa-core processor with Mali-G31 as the GPU. This is paired with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage with support for up to 512GB microSD cards. 

The phone is equipped with a single camera on the back that uses a primary 13MP sensor. On the front, there is a 5MP selfie camera housed within the notch. 

The Redmi 9A is expected to be equipped with a 5,000mAh battery that could support 10W fast charging. It could be priced between 100-120 Euros which is around Rs 8,400 - Rs 10,000 by direct conversion.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2A9sd3v

Intel uses flawed testing to claim supremacy over AMD

The tussle for compute supremacy between Intel and AMD has never been this intense. AMD’s Ryzen series of processors have been hacking away at Intel’s market share in the consumer space at a fairly consistent rate, and team Blue has tried hard to not let go of their dominance. Now, a set of leaked slides from the Intel Partner Connect program has stirred up major controversy for Intel, causing a significant backlash from tech press and enthusiasts alike.

The presentation in question was given during the Intel Partner Connect event and is meant only to be used as training material for Intel’s partners. Amongst the many slides, is one that compares a tenth generation Intel Core i7-10750H powered MSI GL65 with the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS powered Asus Zephyrus G14. The slide shows benchmark data from 6 games that were played on both the machines, with Intel being ahead of the AMD Ryzen chip in every scenario. There is, however, only one problem. The GPU on the MSI GL65 is what is colloquially called the Max-P version of the Nvidia RTX 2060, while the GPU on the Zephyrus G14 is an Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q. Max-P means it’s a full-blown GPU with a performance-focused design. In fact, Nvidia quietly updated the RTX 2060 mobile to the performance of what would be an RTX 2060 Super, without changing its name. The RTX 2060 Max-P has a TDP of 90 Watts and the Max-Q version has a TDP of 65W. The two GPUs have a boost clock of 1560 MHz (RTX 2060 Max-P) and 1186MHz (RTX 2060 Max-Q). Suffice to say, it was not a fair comparison. The second issue with the slide is that Intel while using frame-rates as the benchmark, doesn’t actually state those numbers. Instead, it considers the Asus Zephyrus G14’s performance as “base” while its own performance is denoted by percentage points, qualified by the phrase “up to.”

Intel’s claim with the slide is that “Intel Core i7-10750H based system offers better gaming performance than top bin AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS based system across a wide selection of AAA games (measured at ultra-settings) for a lower price.”

Besides using a machine with a GPU that has lower performance, Intel also hastily chose to go up against a Ryzen 9 4900HS-based machine, instead of one powered by the Ryzen 9 4900H. The ‘HS’ part has a slightly lower clock-speed and even lower single and all core Turbo in comparison to the 4900H, bringing the overall TDP to 35W for the HS in comparison to the 45W of the H. The remainder of the slides also show Intel cherry-picking benchmarks to suit their narrative. For example, when talking about video encoding performance, Intel chose to use Magix Fastcut Plus, an obscure video editing program with 20 ‘mixed’ reviews on Steam. According to Intel, when video editing and rendering in this software, their Intel Core i7-9700K is 2.7 times faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 3950x. Intel should have ideally used Adobe Premiere Pro or even DaVinci Resolve for this comparison since these are far more commonplace than ‘Magix Fastcut Plus.’ Making matters worse is that Intel uses Premiere as a benchmark in a later slide when they talk about the performance gains of the 10th gen over the previous generation chips from Intel.

Over the last few years, AMD has been closing the price and performance gap on Intel, with their latest processors being neck-to-neck, if not better, than Team Blue’s offering. It is no secret that Intel has been struggling to squeeze more performance out of its 4-year-old 14nm process (which has been refined over the years). Proof of Intel’s struggle with delivering performance while keeping power draw and heat at a minimum is Apple’s recent announcement that it will completely ditch Intel in favour of its in-house silicon designed using the ARM instruction set.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2NAT63G

Huawei Nova 7i could launch in July in India: specifications and expected pricing

Huawei Nova 7i could launch in India sometime in July, according to a new report doing rounds of the Internet. The Nova 7i debuted in Malaysia in February earlier this year and features quad cameras on the back, support for fast charging out-of-the-box and is powered by an octa-core processor to boot.

As per an exclusive report by Pricebaba that cites a “trusted source”, Huawei is preparing to launch the Nova 7i in India in July. It can be noted here that Huawei hasn’t officially revealed any plans to launch the Nova 7i in India yet. The company had launched the Huawei Y9s in India last month in May alongside the Huawei Watch GT2E and much recently the Huawei Freebuds 3.

Huawei Nova 7i specifications and expected pricing

Huawei Nova 7i features a 6.4-inch Full HD+ (2310 x 1080 pixels) resolution display with a punch-hole cutout in the top-left corner for the selfie camera. The phone measures 8.7mm at its thickest point and weigh 183 grams. 

The Nova 7i is powered by Kirin 810 processor with an octa-core CPU and Mali-G52 MP6 GPU. This is paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage with an option to expand the storage further up to 256GB. The phone runs on EMUI 10 and doesn’t come with support for Google Play Services. The phone will likely come with Huawei AppGallery as we’ve seen previously with the Honor 9X Pro.

It features a quad-camera setup on the back which consists of a primary 48MP camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP macro camera and another 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there’s a 16MP selfie camera housed within the punch-hole cutout.

The Nova 7i is fitted with a 4,200mAh battery with support for 40W fast charging out-of-the-box. Huawei claims that the phone can go from 0 to 70 per cent in 30 minutes.

In Malaysia, the Huawei Nova 7i is priced at RM 1099 which roughly translates to Rs 19,300 by direct conversion. We expect Huawei to launch the Nova 7i at a similar price here in India. The phone comes in three colours, black, green and pink.

 

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/31iY39f

Microsoft to permanently shut down all retail stores

In what could be considered a bleak representation of current events, Microsoft has announced that they will be shutting down all but four retail stores. The company said that the four stores that will remain open will be transformed into experience centers. The company said that they will be moving the retail operations online.

"Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has evolved to largely digital offerings, and our talented team has proven success serving customers beyond any physical location," said Microsoft corporate vice president David Porter. Currently, Microsoft has over 80 retail stores that have had to stay shut due to the Coronavirus outbreak. During the time, while retail sales have obvious rock-bottomed, online sales have risen greatly, prompting Microsoft to take the new approach for retail. "Microsoft will continue to invest in its digital storefronts on Microsoft.com, and stores in Xbox and Windows," the statement said.

While the company has not declared how many employees would be impacted or lose their jobs due to this new direction, the company has said that the retail ream will continue to tend to customers from the Microsoft corporate facilities. They will continue to provide training, support and sales guidance remotely. The company has committed a $450 million corpus to aid everyone involved in this transition.

The announcement comes hot on the heels of the company announcing the end of Mixer, Microsoft’s game streaming platform. The company has said that they will be partnering with Facebook Gaming moving forward.

Over the last few years, Microsoft has been slowly pivoting from a hardware company to more of a services model. The company has been building its cloud computing portfolio such as Azure Cloud. Microsoft is also poise to enter the cloud gaming space with Project Xcloud, which is already available to users in various countries. In  India, Microsoft had announced a partnership with Reliance Jio for Xcloud.The company has also started to move away from the traditional sales model for its software, turning to the subscription model for its popular software such as Microsoft Office.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2ZhnrJF

Epson CinemaHome offers brings an Epson EH-TW650 projector, Yamaha YAS-209 soundbar and Milan 100-inch screen for Rs 89,999

Watching movies and TV shows at home have grown since the COVID-19 pandemic and since more people are spending time in front of the TV, the desire to upgrade to a better, more immersive experience is eminent. To give you a package deal, Epson has launched the Cinema@Home offer that brings with it an Epson EH-TW650 home theatre projector, a Yamaha YAS-209 soundbar and subwoofer and a Milan 254-cm (100-inch) screen. The bundle is priced at Rs 89,999 and those interested can know more about it here. 

Coming to the Epson EH-TW650, the projector has an RGB liquid crystal shutter projection system and a contrast ratio of 15,000:1. It also brings with it Vertical/Horizontal Keystone - ±30° / ±30°. The projector weighs a mere 2.7 kgs. In terms of connectivity, the projector has a USB-A and one USB type-B port. You also have the traditional RCA input along with a VGA port and 2 HDMI ports. In our review of the projector, we said, “The Epson Eh TW-650 brings with it fantastic performance with great colours and contrast, be it gaming or watching movies and TV shows. It has 2 HDMI inputs, which is nice, but we wish it had more audio output options. Turn down the lights and you will love the performance of the projector. If you are looking to build a home theatre setup or simply looking to test the projector waters without breaking the bank, then you can definitely consider this one.”

Moving over to the Yamaha YAS-209 soundbar, it has four 1-3/4 inch drivers and two 1-inch tweeters. It has a 6-½ inch wireless subwoofer. It has a total power output of 200 W. The bar weighs 2.7kgs and the subwoofer 7.9kgs. When it comes to connectivity, the soundbar has an HDMI ARC port, optical in, in addition to Bluetooth 4.2 and WiFi (2.4GHz only). The device also has one HDMI port for passthrough (50 / 60 Hz YCbCr=4:4:4, HDR10, HLG and HDCP2.3). The soundbar comes with Alexa built-in. You can read more about the soundbar here.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/31oQWfo