Mobile Devices

Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 888 to Power Next Era of Flagship Devices

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During the first day of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Tech Summit Digital, Qualcomm introduced their latest premium technology, the Snapdragon™ 888 5G Mobile Platform.

Qualcomm SnapDragon 888

Qualcomm Technologies’ innovation in the premium tier, coupled with the evolution of 5G, is accelerating and aiming to redefine immersive consumer experiences.

Qualcomm says diverse growth segments (the requirements and complexity to offer apps in Always On, Always Connected PCs, XR devices, Edge/Cloud AI products,  5G fixed wireless broadband, and others) depend on the innovation that comes from breakthroughs in the premium tier. For example, Gartner's Market Databook (as of Sept. 2020) says 5G wireless infrastructure worldwide spending will grow 95% in 2020 to about $8 billion.

Snapdragon 888, with the 3rd gen Qualcomm Snapdragon™ X60 5G Modem-RF System, enables global compatibility by offering mmWave and sub-6 across all major bands worldwide, as well as support for 5G carrier aggregation, global multi-SIM, stand alone, non-stand alone, and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.

The new 6th generation Qualcomm® AI Engine, with the completely re-engineered Qualcomm® Hexagon™ processor, takes a pivotal leap forward in AI compared to the previous generation to improve performance, power efficiency— at 26 Tera Operations Per Second (TOPS). 

The platform additionally features the 2nd generation Qualcomm® Sensing Hub, which incorporates lower-power always-on AI processing for intuitive, intelligent features.

While Snapdragon Elite Gaming™ has delivered dozens of mobile-first technologies to smartphones (including Updateable GPU Drivers, Desktop Forward Rendering, and frame rates achieving up to 144 frames per second), the 3rd generation of Snapdragon Elite Gaming featured in Snapdragon 888 delivers Qualcomm Technologies’ most significant upgrade in Qualcomm Adreno™ GPU performance.

Snapdragon 888 will triple down on the future of computational photography and transform smartphones into professional quality cameras. With the faster gigapixel speed Qualcomm Spectra™ ISP, users can capture photos and videos at 2.7 gigapixels per second or roughly 120 photos at 12MP resolution—up to 35% faster than the previous generation. 

OEMs providing their support for Snapdragon 888 included ASUS, Black Shark, Lenovo, LG, MEIZU, Motorola, Nubia, realme, OnePlus, OPPO, Sharp, vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE.  

Go Qualcomm Snapdragon 



World's First Smartphone with 144-Hz Display

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Nubia’s RedMagic 5G gaming phone claims to be the world's first smartphone with a 144-Hz display.

Nubia RedMagic

For example, while the AMOLED display on the OnePlus 8 Pro tops out at 120-Hz (it updates 120 times per second), the RedMagic 5G betters that with a refresh rate of 144 Hz.

Packing the refresh rate that premium desktop computer gamers want most, the RedMagic 5G gaming smartphone also rocks a flagship processor, a triple-lens camera, fast-charging battery and 5G mobile comms.

Their 6.65-inch AMOLED display has a 1080 x 2340 resolution (387.5 ppi), 600-nits max brightness with 4096 control levels, covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and has a contrast ratio of 100,000:1. It benefits from a 240-Hz touch sampling rate for fast response. And the shoulder trigger buttons now have a 300-Hz touch refresh rate and 2-ms touch delay for an improved console-like control setup. The phone also features in-screen fingerprint technology to unlock the phone.

Processing and graphics come via a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset, supported by up to 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256 GB of UFS 3.0 storage (reported as 83% faster than the previous flash storage specification). This phone is 5G-compatible too, with SA and NSA dual modes for key region support.

The main camera of the triple lens setup has a 64-megapixel Sony IMX686 sensor, while the others are an 8-MP wide angle and a 2-MP bokeh. And there's an 8-MP selfie cam to the front as well.

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Microsoft Adds to Surface Range

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Microsoft updates a tablet and laptop offering from the Surface range-- the Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3. Also announced are the Surface Headphones 2 and Surface Earbuds, as well as the Surface Dock 2 and USB-C Travel Hub.

Microsoft Surface launch

Created as the more affordable and portable Surface tablet, the Surface Go 2 keeps the same lightweight design with a 10.5-inch display, up from the 10-inch original. The display is also higher resolution at 1920 x 1080, but retains the same 3:2 aspect ratio typical of Surface devices. Internal specifications start from an Intel Pentium Gold processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB eMMC storage up to an 8th Gen Core m3 processor with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD.

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Microsoft Pushes Back Dual-Screen Surface Release?

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Microsoft might not release the dual-screen Surface Neo tablet and the associated Windows 10X OS in 2020, ZDNet report, the result of both the coronavirus affecting China-bases supply chains and a refocusing of efforts from the company.

Surface Neo

According to connected journalist Mary Jo Foley, Chief Product Officer Panos Panay internally informed "some" of his team Microsoft will not only not deliver own Surface Neo dual-screen 10X devices in the calendar year, it will also not allow 3rd party dual-screen device running on the Windows variant to ship in 2020. Currently, the report adds, the priority is to get Windows 10X on single-screen devices first, turning it into something of a Chrome OS rival in the process.

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Apple Updates iPad Pro

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Apple confirms various rumours with the March announcement of a new iPad Pro model-- one featuring a more powerful A12Z Bionic processor and an ultra-wide camera with a "breakthrough" LiDAR scanner providing depth-sensing capabilities.

iPad Pro 2020

“The new iPad Pro introduces advanced technologies never before available in mobile computing,” the company says. “Combining the most advanced mobile display with powerful performance, pro cameras, pro audio, the breakthrough LiDAR Scanner and new Magic Keyboard with Trackpad, this is another huge leap forward for iPad. There’s no other device in the world like the new iPad Pro and we think our customers are going to love it.”

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