Smartphones

BlackBerry Phones No More as TCL Ends Partnership?

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Chinese smartphone maker TCL announces it will no longer make BlackBerry-branded devices, as August 2020 brings the end of a 4-year licensing and tech support partnership, one TCL will not renew going forward.

TCL BlackBerry

“We do regret to share however that as of August 31, 2020, TCL Communication will no longer be selling BlackBerry-branded mobile devices,” a note posted on the BlackBerry Mobile Twitter account reads. “TCL has no further rights to design, manufacturers or sell any new BlackBerry mobile devices.”

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Bloomberg: Apple Preps Smaller, Cheaper iPhone

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iPhone SE2Apple will soon present a new iPhone, Bloomberg reports-- specifically a smaller, lower-cost model reminiscent of the 2016 iPhone SE, with a release date slated to come as soon as March 2020.

Rumours revolving around such a device have been dropping since 2019, with sources including reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The Bloomberg story corroborates on such hearsay. It says the upcoming affordable iPhone has a 4.7-inch display and runs on the A13 chip, the same as the iPhone 11. In addition, the device will feature Touch ID built into the Home button, but no Face ID, and current-generation camera technology. The sources also point out "iPhone SE 2" as a possible name.

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120Hz Display for Next OnePlus

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OnePlus details the display inside the upcoming flagship smartphone from the company, presumably dubbed the OnePlus 8-- a Fluid Display featuring a 120Hz refresh rate, up from the 90Hz seen in the previous OnePlus 7 Pro.

OnePlus

Like the one in the OnePlus 7 Pro, the Samsung-made 120Hz Fluid Display consists of an AMOLED panel with peak brightness over over 1000 nits. It promises a longer lifetime, as well as a touch sampling rate of 240Hz and 10-bit colour. To take advantage of the 120Hz refresh rate, the OnePlus phone features hardware-based custom MEMC (motion estimation/motion compensation) technology to insert extra frames in 30/60fps video run at the much faster frame rate. The technology is similar to that found in high-end TVs, and it remains to be seen whether it brings about an unwanted "soap opera effect." Just in case, users can switch MEMC off in settings.

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Motorola Brings Pop-Up Camera in One Hyper

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Motorola straddles the line between midrange and flagship with the One Hyper-- a smartphone with a motorised pop-up front-facing camera, meaning the 6.5-inch display lacks any oversized bezels or notches.

Motorola One Yper

Thanks to the pop-up camera, the 2340 x 1080 resolution display features a 90% screen-to-body ratio. The actual front-facing camera features a 32MP sensor, and accompanies a rear-facing dual-camera array consisting of a 64MP main sensor and a 8MP wide angle lens. Motorola also says users get an optional "quad pixel" mode able to merge every 4 pixels together for improved light capture, as well as other shot optimisation features.

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MediaTek Takes on 5G With Dimensity 1000 Chip

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MediaTek readies for the 5G era (and to take on the likes of Qualcomm) with the launch of the Dimensity 1000-- a high-end SoC featuring an integrated 5G modem, together with the latest in Arm CPU cores.

Dimensity 1000

First announced back in May 2019 as simply the "5G SoC", the Dimensity 1000 represents a rebrand ushering "the 5th dimension" in mobile connectivity. It promises the fastest throughput yet, at 4.7Gbps downlink and 2.5Gbps uplink speeds over sub-6GHz networks, and supports standalone and non-standalone (SA/NSA) sub-6GHz networks, as well as multi-node support for every cellular connectivity generation from 2G to 5G. Wireless connectivity also includes Wifi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1+, with 1Gbps throughput in both downlink and uplink speeds.

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