OnePlus is working on an entry-level phone for a launch in the US market sometime later this year. The company recently re-entered the mid-range smartphone segment with the OnePlus Nord and now it looks like the next phone from the house of OnePlus could be an even more affordable budget phone.
According to a report by Android Central that cites an “insider source”, this upcoming entry-level smartphone by OnePlus goes by the code-name “Colver” and has been spotted previously as well. The phone is expected to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 processor that was announced earlier this year.
While the report lists down the specifications of the upcoming entry-level phone quite extensively, it looks like the phone is based on Realme C15. Interestingly, the Realme X50 had a lot in common with the OnePlus Nord and so it will be exciting to see how the company maintains its reputation that it has amassed all these years for making one of the smoothest Android phones and carries it to the budget segment.
Nevertheless, here’s everything we know about the upcoming entry-level phone by OnePlus including its specifications and expected pricing.
OnePlus entry-level phone specifications and expected price
The entry-level phone by OnePlus is said to feature a 6.52-inch HD+ (1560 x 720 pixels) resolution display that likely has a punch-hole cutout or a waterdrop notch cutout for the selfie camera.
It is slated to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 processor with an octa-core CPU and Adreno 610 GPU. This is paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage but there could be multiple variants by the time it goes official. The phone is expected to run on Android 10 based OxygenOS 10.
Moreover, the leak suggests that the phone will have a micro SD card slot for memory expansion, something the company has only provided with the erstwhile OnePlus X.
The phone could come with a triple camera setup on the back that consists of a primary 13MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture, a 2MP macro lens and a 2MP depth sensor. There is no information about the selfie camera at this point but we will keep an eye out for more details.
OnePlus’ entry-level phone could come with a rear fingerprint sensor and a 3.5mm audio jack. One of the highlighting features of the phone is expected to be its 6,000mAh battery that supports 18W fast charging. The phone is expected to be priced around $200-mark which puts it in the sub-Rs 15,000 smartphone segment by direct conversion.
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With September just around the corner, leaks of Apple’s proposed activities are starting to get more and more prominent. The newest leak is courtesy a report by a French publication Consomac, which reports that Apple has just received certification for new iPad and Apple Watch models.
The report claims that Apple has registered a number of new iPad models, seven in total with the EEC. The models numbers registered are A2270, A2072, A2316, A2324, A2325, A2428 and A2429. Additionally, eight new Apple Watch models registered carry the model numbers A2291, A2292, A2351, A2352, A2375, A2376, A2355 and A2356.
Apple usually launches the iPhone models at its September event, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has confirmed that the launch of the iPhone 12 series will be a few weeks later than usual. Currently, it is rumoured that the iPhone 12 series of smartphones will be launched at an event now being hosted in October, while September would see the launch of a new iPad and Apple Watch. Rumours have pointed to the possibility of there being more than the one usual Apple Watch model, including a budget-friendly model of the Apple Watch Series 6 called the Apple Watch SE.
The new iPad and Apple Watch are expected to both launch with the latest version of the respective mobile operating systems; iPadOS 14 and WatchOS 7. Both the operating systems are already available as Public Betas, with WatchOS being available as a public beta for the first time. The final versions are expected to be released in September.
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Now that iOS 14 finally supports picture-in-picture mode, YouTube is expectedly working on a native PiP mode for its iOS app which will allow users to minimize the video to a floating window which stays on top of other apps or the home screen. The feature was available for iPads previously, while iOS 14 brings it to iPhones, along with support for homescreen widgets and an app library.
Picture in Picture working on iPadOS with the YouTube app. (But only worked with this live stream, there must be some codec trickery happening behind the scenes for certain playback scenarios). pic.twitter.com/75vG7Ai4ln
— Daniel Yount (@dyountmusic) August 27, 2020
The YouTube PiP feature is still being tested and could be rolled out in stages, before a mass public release. The feature was first reported by 9to5Mac, quoting some Twitter users who posted about the feature being available on their iPhones. Users, however, mention the feature is working only for some videos, suggesting that PiP is still in its testing phase. It’s unlikely that all users will receive the update, as this is likely to be tested among a few users.
Picture-in-picture is a great way to watch videos while using other apps. On YouTube, PiP enables videos to run in a floating window that can be repositioned and resized. This allows users to minimize YouTube and open other apps to send a message, or browse the web.
However, enabling picture-in-picture will require an active subscription to YouTube Premium, available for Rs 129 per month for users in India. This also includes a free trial period and access to YouTube Premium’s library of songs, and no ads while watching a video.
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Xiaomi Redmi 9A has been confirmed to launch on September 2 in India. Earlier, there were rumours that Xiaomi will launch the Redmi 9i as a rebranded version of the Redmi 9A in India, however, it seems like the company has decided not to go that way and is gearing up to launch the Redmi 9A in India.
The Redmi 9A was launched back in July 2020 alongside Redmi 9 and Redmi 9C. The Redmi 9 was launched as Redmi 9 Prime in India while the Redmi 9C was rebranded as Redmi 9 for India. Xiaomi has posted a tweet revealing the launch date of the Redmi 9A in India and has also gone live with a dedicate event page on its website. Now that the Redmi 9A is confirmed to launch in India, let’s take a look at the specifications, features and expected pricing of the Redmi 9A.
#DeshKaSmartphone! देश का स्मार्टफोन! இந்த தேசத்தின் ஸ்மார்ட்போன்! দেশ কা স্মার্টফোন! ദേശ് കാ സ്മാർട്ഫോൺ! దేశ్ కా స్మార్ట్ఫోన్! ದೇಶ ಕಾ ಸ್ಮಾರ್ಟ್ಫೋನ್!#Redmi9A is launching on 2nd September 2020! Get notified: https://t.co/UtbNlCawJM pic.twitter.com/wiDvN96N7l
— Redmi India - #Redmi9 is here! (@RedmiIndia) August 28, 2020 Xiaomi Redmi 9A specifications and expected pricing
Xiaomi Redmi 9A features a 6.54-inch HD+ (1600 x 720 pixels) resolution display with a waterdrop notch cutout on top for the selfie camera. This gives the screen a 20:9 aspect ratio with 400 nits maximum brightness. It measures 9 millimetres in thickness and weighs 196 grams.
The 9A is powered by MediaTek Helio G25 processor with an octa-core CPU and is paired with upto 4GB RAM and 128GB storage options to choose from. It also supports memory expansion by upto 512GB via microSD card. It runs on MIUI 12 out-of-the-box.
The Redmi 9A comes with a 13MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 5MP selfie camera housed within the notch cutout. It comes with the basic set of sensors and connectivity features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0.
Xiaomi Redmi 9A is equipped with 5,000mAh battery with 10W regular charging speeds. Xiaomi Redmi 9A is priced ar EUR 99 which roughly translates to Rs 8,500 by direct conversion but we expect Xiaomi to price the Redmi 9A more aggressively.
The company launched the Redmi 9 in India just a day back and the Redmi 9 Prime was announced earlier this month.
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Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, from independent British firm Tonic Games, has become the most downloaded games on PlayStation Plus. It has also been purchased over seven million times on Valve's Steam platform for PC.
The HP Envy 15 is a sleek looking laptop that's aimed squarely at content creators. Powered by the 10th generation Intel Core i7-10750H processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660Ti which are both kept cool using a Vapour Chamber cooler. There's also super-fast 1TB NVMe by Samsung and a decent 16GB of DDR4 memory. All this allow the HP Envy to be a solid machine for content creation. You won't be let down irrespective of whether you want to edit on it or use it as a rendering station. The laptop also doubles up as a gaming machine in case you want to blow off some steam. For content creators, the HP Envy offers great performance in a very elegantly designed machine at a price point that is much lower than its competitors.
With content creation starting to occupy more of the occupational landscape today, OEMs are finally starting to see the segment as a standalone business opportunity. Apple’s had this clarity for as long as they’ve had the MacBook Pro lineup, but the PC side of things is just starting to realise that creators have very specific needs, not all of which are met by gaming machines. Asus got on the bandwagon by having the display on many of their gaming machines be “Pantone certified” and Dell pivoted their XPS 15 to be more of a creator laptop than a gaming machine. Now HP is stepping up its game with the Envy 15, having it be tailor-made to cater to the need of those who produce content for a living. The Envy makes a few choices that set it apart from gaming laptops, but at the end of the day, is this the right laptop for content creators or should they look somewhere else?
Our standard testing for creative workloads involves Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Premiere. In addition, we also tested the Envy using DaVinci Resolve, Blender, Apophysis fractal rendering program and Photoshop to see just how the laptop keeps up with these specific workloads. We exported a batch of 50, 100 and 500 RAW files all shot using a Nikon Z7 through Adobe Lightroom Classic. This test w do for all our gaming and creator-centric laptops. In this test, the Envy surprisingly recorded some very slow render times. The HP Omen 15 (Review) that we reviewed recently has the same CPU and a lower-end GPU but still managed to complete the export task much faster.
Switching over to Premiere Pro, we see a completely different behaviour. Now Premiere Pro intelligently shifts the loads between the CPU and GPU depending on the matter being rendered. Here, faster renders are also aided by Intel’s QuickSync technology. Here, we noted that the HP Envy does admirably well, recording the fastest render times across all the 10th gen gaming laptops and even the Ryzen 4000 ones we’ve tested. You can see the render times in the chart below.
HP Envy Thermals
What’s particularly interesting is that the HP Envy trades the traditional copper pipe-based cooling system for a vapour chamber. While running our standard 4K 20-minute timeline export, the Intel Core i7-10750H stays well in the 80s for the most part, spiking into the early 90s only momentarily. The vapour chamber does manage to keep the CPU-GPU well within their respective operating temperatures. We also didn’t find the fans to be too loud even when operating at their max. While the internals maintain a good temperate zone, the surface temperature is a different story. The use of aluminium for the keyboard island allows it to also act as a heat dissipator, hence, you will feel the heat from the inside. You can feel the heat at the centre of the keyboard, which clocked 47-48 degrees while the WASD keys clock 40 degree Celsius. Perhaps the most surprising find was the palm-rest, which we measured to be at 41.5 degrees Celsius. Suffice to say, if you’re gaming on this thing or running a sustained render load, this thing is definitely going to feel hot.
HP Envy 15 Gaming Performance
HP is not positioning the Envy 15 as a gaming laptop, but it would be ridiculous to not consider it as one. We ran our standard suite of games on the Envy and found that it actually manages the 60fps mark across most games with their graphics setting set to the High or Medium preset. The Envy sports only a 60Hz display, so we’re more than happy to see games hit that mark. It's smooth and free from any kind of tearing and that’s pretty much all you can hope for. Where the Envy falters as a gaming system is due to the fact that after a few hours of sustained gaming, the surface temperatures do get really hot. Good thing that HP isn’t targeting gamers with this machine.
Keyboard, Trackpad and I/O
The HP Envy 15 features a nice white backlit chiclet-style keyboard. White backlighting is starting to become very commonplace these days, especially in laptops that have silver keycaps. It's best to keep the backlight turned off during the day and only turn it on while using the laptop in dark environments. The keyboard itself is a treat to use, with generously sized keycaps and decent distance between the keys, it was super easy to get used to. Where the keyboard IS a little weird is that it removes the right CTRL key and puts a fingerprint sensor there. It’s a weird spot for a fingerprint sensor, but it does fit into the scheme of things, at least aesthetically.
The trackpad on this machine is definitely smaller than the one on the Dell XPS 15 and the 16-inch MacBook Pro (Review). Like much smaller. However, you do a get a good trackpad, one with unified clicks and also using Windows Precision drivers. The trackpad is usable for the basic stuff like navigating Windows and even simpler photo and video editing.
The I/O on the Envy is rather impressive. You get two Thunderbolt 3.0 ports, a full-sized HDMI port and two USB 3.0 ports. For any creator, this should be sufficient enough. While the Thunderbolt 3 ports are great for further expansion, it is sad to see that they do not support PowerDelivery.
Display
The HP Envy 15 packs a full HD IPS panel with a rated brightness of 300 nits and 100 percent sRGB coverage. We measured the panel brightness numbers to be very close to what HP claims and as for the colour accuracy, the display seems to be calibrated right out of the box. The white point is set for the sRGB colourspace, which is nice. However, if you're going to be using this for colour sensitive work, calibrating the display using a Spyder or an Xrite is absolutely necessary. This is because while the panel may be set to reproduce colours in the most accurate way, the ambient lighting in our working environment has an impact on the way we perceive colour. Professional colour calibration of the display tunes the display's colours taking the ambient light into account which allows for better colour accuracy when it comes to colour-sensitive work. The Envy 15 can easily be used for the purposes of professional photo editing, video editing and even colour grading.
Verdict
The HP Envy 15 is trying to take on brands that have practically ruled the kingdom. However at the same time, the MacBook Pro and the new Dell XPS 15 are considerably expensive, so the HP Envy 15 does fill up a massive price gap that currently exists. The review unit we received retails for Rs 1,49,999, currently being the cheapest of the creator laptops with Intel’s 10th generation processors. You could bump up the specs to an RTX 2060 and an OLED display if you wanted and still not hit the price point of the Dell or the MacBook Pro. The Envy does manage to deliver on the promise of good performance for creative workloads and can also easily hold its own when it comes to gaming. For the price, it does truly offer solid value for money and can be a solid recommendation for those who don the role of content creators and gamers.
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The design and the daylight camera output is what the Nokia 5.3 gets right, and the battery lasts a day. The software too is a good differentiator, provided you can bear with sluggish performance. Where it falters is in gaming, low-light photography and overall performance. All things said and done, you can give this one a skip.
With everything that’s happening in the Indian smartphone market — The coronavirus pandemic, a war cry against Chinese smartphones and increasing competition in the budget segment, HMD Global’s Nokia has remained in the sidelines so far. The company had a big launch planned during MWC but after the tech-show was cancelled, Nokia announced a bunch of smartphones via an online event for Europe. The Nokia 5.3, which was announced back in March, finally launched today in India, armed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC, a quad-camera setup and more. With strong demand for non-Chinese brands (Nokia is indeed one of the few non-Chinese players in India), can the Nokia 5.3 make the switch over from Chinese smartphones worth it? You can watch our video for a quick take on the Nokia 5.3, or read our in-depth review to know more.
Performance
Even while most mid-rangers under Rs 15,000 are coming with MediaTek’s chipsets, Nokia chose to stick to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC, the chipset that powered by the Redmi Note 8, the Vivo U20, among many others last year. It’s unclear why Nokia had to stick to using an older mid-range chip, especially given how closely it works with Qualcomm in introducing new chipsets in their smartphones, but the gulf in performance is significant when compared against its Chinese rivals — The Redmi Note 9 and the Realme 6i. Both of them are powered by MediaTek’s G-series chips, tuned for gaming and high performance. And the Snapdragon 665 does not seem able to keep up —
Benchmark scores peg the Snapdragon 665 lower than even the MediaTek Helio G80 powering the Realme 6i and the Narzo 10, while the Note 9 is a cut above all. This is consistent across all benchmark apps we ran, to test CPU and GPU performance.
Having said that, it’s important to note that benchmark scores given by MediaTek chips can be deemed inadmissible for comparison. MediaTek chips can detect when a benchmark app is running and puts the CPU running at peak capacity for only the duration of the test, resulting in scores higher than what you’d get under normal circumstances. Despite that, the gap in scores between the Snapdragon 665 are still too significant, and this factor can be negated.
Gaming
The Adreno 610 GPU in the Nokia 5.3 had so far proved inferior to the competition, but Call of Duty: Mobile allows the phone to run at ‘Very High’ graphics, not that the experience is anything to be happy about. At the highest graphics settings, CoD: Mobile on the Nokia 5.3 manages a paltry 28 FPS, but with 100% stability. The gameplay feels sluggish as a whole, but there are no additional frame drops. So if you can get used to playing at low frame rates, you wouldn’t mind a few rounds on this phone. But this one’s not good enough for the ongoing Call of Duty: Mobile Championships.
As for PUBG Mobile, the graphics can only be pushed till ‘balanced’ and frame rate set to medium. During our 15 minute test of a battle royale match in Erangel, the Nokia 5.3 felt similarly slow and sluggish, but no additional frame drop, even during intense gunfights.
Software
Nokia is one of the few brands that are still committed to Google’s Android One programme, and the Nokia 5.3’s software is the same as the Google Pixel, sans the Pixel-exclusive features. With no additional third-party apps, the Nokia 5.3 is the cleanest Android skin to use, and also the simplest. Nokia has also been quite consistent with its update rollouts, and the Nokia 5.3 has been promised to get at least two version updates in its lifetime.
Despite the Pixel-like software, the experience of using the phone is far from smooth. The smartphone feels slow and sluggish in daily use and requires a lot of patience for daily usage. That’s because even the first-party apps like Dialer, Camera and Gmail take upwards of 5 seconds to launch from cold. Small things like auto-rotate will take ages to trigger. Multitasking will make the phone crawl and there’s nothing like a dedicated gaming mode to please gamers.
So even with an ad-free, no-frills Android skin, the Nokia 5.3 struggles to offer an experience that’s reliable enough for prolonged daily use.
Camera
The camera is what the marketing claims will be the reason to own this phone. Well, the 13MP primary camera at the back is indeed a good shooter. But the other three lenses could do much better to take on the competition. The Nokia 5.3 lacks the large-format 48MP and 64MP cameras common for the mid-range segment. Neither does the phone rock the Zeiss branding we expect from Nokia smartphones.
Yet, the daylight output from the 13MP primary camera is crispy sharp, with adequate dynamic range and saturated hues. The photos can be shared on social media without much editing, and the shutter response is fast enough after the initial 5-second wait to launch the camera app.
In low light, even with the Night Mode turned on, the Nokia 5.3’s camera feels horribly outdated. The low-light shots come out shaky, full of noise and with no detail whatsoever. You can just barely make out the frame you’ve shot. Nothing more. The photos can’t even be saved in post-processing.
The 5MP ultrawide lens produces good photos when the light is optimal but the quality goes down swiftly when shooting indoors or under low light. The Night Mode also works with the ultrawide lens, but the results are of no good.
There’s also an 8MP selfie camera that produces good selfie portraits but relies heavily on beauty filters that smoothen the facial details.
Battery
With nothing in the smartphone that can draw too much power, the Nokia 5.3 manages well over a day with a 4000mAh battery on board. The battery consumption is conservative if you just stick to browsing, texting and calling. But running the benchmark apps, heavy use of the camera, watching an episode of Black Mirror on Netflix and playing a 30-minute match of PUBG Mobile will drain the battery by evening. The Nokia 5.3 also charges with just 10W power. There’s no fast charging support on this one.
Design and Display
So far, the Nokia 5.3 has turned out to be a strictly average smartphone, far behind the competition it faces. But the design of the smartphone hides that fact. Like most Nokia smartphones, the R&D team has put exception attention to detail, carving a smartphone that’s ergonomic, non-slippery and easy to use. The material is plastic and there’s Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the display, but it’s the finishing that exudes premium, while the little attention to detail like the breathing notification light on the power button makes it all the more useful.
The 6.53-inch display, however, takes away from the exquisite design. The 720p resolution can be made out when placed beside the Redmi Note 9, and it’s barely visible out in the sun. There isn’t much to write here except to ask readers to tone down the expectations when it comes to the display quality.
Bottomline
In all, the Nokia 5.3 comes out as a missed opportunity for the brand. With strong demand for non-Chinese smartphones in the market, this could have been the right moment for HMD Global to swoop in and capture the market, but the Nokia 5.3 would be an inferior choice amidst the likes of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9, Realme Narzo 10, and even the Samsung Galaxy M20, all of which are better than the Nokia 5.3 in at least a few aspects. Then again, the Nokia 5.3 will be more readily available than some of the best options in this price range.
The design and the daylight camera output is what the Nokia 5.3 gets right, and the battery lasts a day. The software too is a good differentiator, provided you can bear with sluggish performance. Where it falters is in gaming, low-light photography and overall performance. All things said and done, you can give this one a skip.
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