Positronic 1mo ago • 100%
And will still have that awful GN3 sensor on the primary rear camera. Xiaomi were using a Sony sensor of the same size on the Redmi Note 12 Pro a phone that cost somewhere around $200-300 depending on the region it was sold back in 2022 and 2023.
Positronic 5mo ago • 100%
They didn't, Google are the first to do three years of OS updates and security patches with the Pixel 2 and extended that to the first gen Pixel. Samsung were doing two OS updates until they promised they would do 3 OS updates at the Note20 launch and extended it to the S10 and other models. You are correct that they upgraded that to four with the S21 before Google made the jump from 3 to 7.
Positronic 6mo ago • 100%
It was comparable in price to the Edge 40 in India which was the only market it was launched in at the time of the comment. The European price is over the top but it should probably get price cuts soon.
Positronic 6mo ago • 100%
A hands-on article from the same website says it's not pure wood. It's been treated to protect it from water and skin oil
www.gsmarena.com
Starts at 1999 RMB ($276/€257) for the 12 GB RAM 256 GB storage variant. There are three other variants, 12/512 for 2299 RMB ($318/€296), 16/512 for 2499 RMB($345/€322) and 16 GB/1 TB variant for 2799($387/€360) RMB. It may be available as the Poco F6 internationally. The primary sensor is a Sony LYT 600 sensor which is a 50 MP 1/1.95" sensor. They've also got rid of the 2 MP macro after keeping it for what feels like an eternity. I'm not sure about Xiaomi's lineup even though this is great value at least in China. The Turbo series is supposed to be Redmi's performance focused flagship and is supposed to slot in between the Redmi Note series and K series. The problem is it is better than the Redmi K70E/Poco X6 Pro and arguably better than the Redmi K70 which could be sold as the Poco F6 Pro globally. The 8s Gen 3 is essentially an 8 Gen 2 with a slightly weaker GPU but with newer ARM architecture for the CPU which should lead to better efficiency.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
There were rumours about "Dream Chip" i.e. Samsung Mobile designing their own chip. Exynos is designed by Samsung LSI, they're part of the same conglomerate but there is a lot of internal competition apparently. Might explain why the Samsung OLED panel on iPhones is sometimes ahead of the Samsung OLED panel on Samsung flagships.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
True, although you'd have to pay quite a bit extra to get 7 years of updates as this phone is half the MSRP of a Pixel 8. The 7a is a year old now so it'll likely only get two more years of OS updates and four years of security patches. Tbf it is good Nothing are providing 3 updates since the phone is $300 in India and €349 in Europe. The Poco X6 Pro matches the update commitment but MIUI had a reputation for being buggy outside China. HyperOS (MIUI's successor) also has ads in system apps and a lot of pre-loaded bloatware. It does have a faster chip and storage compared to the Phone 2a though so there are pros and cons to both devices.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
It might not be powerful enough to run the software longer and the hardware may show it's age. Secondly the cost of the phone cannot be ignored either, more software updates means more money spent on software development. Android updates have to be certified by Google. This process costs money. It isn't feasible to expect a company to provide more than 4-5 years of updates at that price point unless they start charging for updates or make money through services or ads.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
I don't know if the hardware will be good enough in 4 years anyways. They've cut corners to get to that price point, the chip is similar to the 778G from 3 years back and it's using UFS 2.2. Honestly the phone feels like it was made for India and the marketing indicates that. They don't have many options with a clean OS and 3 years of OS updates at that price point there.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
All Sony phones (including their flagships) get two years of OS updates and three years of security patches. That's rumoured to change this year but the Xperia 1 III and 5 III are not getting Android 14.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
It costs less than any of Apple or Google's offerings and they do not make money through software and services unlike Apple or Google. I think it's unreasonable to expect 7 years or more of OS updates on a phone that costs $300-400. They should do better on their flagship though, it costs double but still has the same support.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
This phone is 72.4 mm wide according to GSMarena. Height might still be an issue for you since it's 161.2 mm
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
Tbf it is cheaper than the Edge 40 Pro, they messed up their naming. This phone is the successor to the Edge 40 not the Pro. Mind you there are still some downgrades as they downgraded the storage to UFS 2.2.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security patches according to the product page
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
If you're willing to pay a lot of money, Sony might be an option. They have kept the micro SD card on their phones. There are rumours they'll start updating their phones longer with the VI series too but we'll have to wait and see.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
First of all sorry for the delayed reply but i only got the notification a few hours back for some reason.
I wouldn't go as far as to claim that "more cameras" is the complaints being made here.
It is one of the most common complaints cited against buying a smaller phone especially in tech enthusiast circles. Some people say they ended up getting the bigger phone because it had better cameras or the presence of the telephoto was enough.
I hard disagree with this. Apple is literally the worst company to try to make this shit work.
We'll have to disagree. Apple have been one of the best at maintaining equality between a larger phone and a smaller phone in recent times since they manufacture phones in enough volume to actually care about miniaturizing components. The minis had feature parity with the regular iPhones of that year. The Pros are larger but they've maintained feature parity with the Pro Max in most instances except for the 12 Pro/12 Pro Max and 15 Pro/15 Pro Max. Even with those two instances the only difference was in the cameras. I'll acknowledge there's no fair comparison with Google or Samsung but that's only because they don't make a smaller Pro/Ultra phone. Even if they did, I'm fairly sure the cameras would be different.
1 in 20 is still a decent number of people.
In the volumes Apple sells, that probably equates to a couple of million units. 5% would not be a very attractive proposition for other manufacturers since they'd need to increase profit margins to actually make money from making a smaller phone as they deal with much smaller volumes.
www.qualcomm.com
This is the official announcement post, AnandTech's article is [much better](https://www.anandtech.com/show/21316/qualcomm-intros-snapdragon-7-gen-3) but it links to the Qualcomm post so thought that would be the main link. Pretty much confirms it's a cut down version of the 8s Gen 3 released a few days back. The OnePlus Ace 3V already ships with this chip in China.
www.gsmarena.com
Seems like an interesting device, might get sold as the Nord 4 in Europe and India but probably won't make it to North America.
Positronic 7mo ago • 50%
Realme 12 Pro+ does what you're asking for but availability is limited to a few countries. Design may still be considered fancy though.
Positronic 7mo ago • 66%
Not... Really... Sure it makes some difference, but the much more constraining factor is the money. Cameras arent that big, but they're one of the priciest pieces of hardware in the device.
There's isn't enough physical space for three sensors on a smaller phone especially if it's the size of the iPhone mini. They can fit them on a 6.1-6.2 inch device, that's why the S24 and iPhone 15 Pro have them. However the 16 Pro is supposedly getting larger because it's getting a larger sensor for 5x optical zoom. If you look at a periscope lens, it needs a substantial amount of extra width as well. A teardown of any recent flagship reveals that camera modules occupy more space than they did if you look at tearsowns from three or four years back. This makes sense because the sensor itself is increasing in size and the size needs to go up both length and width wise to maintain the aspect ratio of the sensor. Heck in some cases like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and Oppo Find X7 Ultra, the camera modules occupy more space than the rest of the motherboard.
The problem is more that they keep trying to sell small phones at cheaper price points.
The iPhone mini was cheaper but it had pretty much the same specs as the regular iPhone except for wireless charging speed iirc. Sales were much lower than the regular model despite that (around or less than 5% of total iPhone 12 and 13 sales). If Apple couldn't make a smaller phone sell particularly well, I doubt anyone else could.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
Yeah it's strange some of them expect the exact same specs as the Pro or Ultra phone in a smaller form factor. Some sacrifices have to be made to fit components in a smaller form factor as you cannot overcome the laws of physics. I've seen many ridiculous comments saying manufacturers can fit the same cameras and all the sensors along with a bigger battery if they made the phone thicker. It's almost as if they expect the bigger phone to get neutered to maintain parity.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
Flexible OLED panels have smaller bezels, better viewing angles and are less prone to exhibiting a rainbow effect. You can check Dylan Raga's review of the Pixel 6, 7 and 8 to see why the 8's display is an upgrade over the 6 and 7.
www.androidauthority.com
Wonder if they'll use a rigid OLED panel like they did on the 7a and 8a. Dylan Raga wrote an excellent piece [reviewing](https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-8-display-deep-dive/) the Pixel 8's display where he said they'd finally switched to a flexible OLED panel on the regular model.
Positronic 7mo ago • 100%
Yeah that's a fair point. I don't like the output of the primary sensor and the 3x on the S24. Feels like they oversharpen and oversaturate colours way too much. Also feel the hardware is lacking compared to the Pixel 8 and iPhone 15 Pro's sensor as they're physically bigger and don't have as much of a problem with shutter lag.
**News Articles** Xiaomi Blog- [Xiaomi 14 series](https://www.mi.com/global/discover/article?id=3192), [Smart Band 8 Pro, Watch S3 and Watch 2](https://www.mi.com/global/discover/article?id=3189) GSMarena- [Xiaomi 14 and 14 Ultra](https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_14_and_14_ultra_make_global_debut_at_mwc-news-61724.php), [Pad 6S Pro, Smart Band 8 Pro, Watch S3 and Watch 2](https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_tab_s6_pro_watch_2_watch_s3_and_band_8_pro_go_global-news-61752.php) **Reviews and First impressions** GSMarena-[Xiaomi 14 review](https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_14-review-2672.php), [Xiaomi 14 video review](https://youtu.be/_3Jo7Vy4YbY?si=fcbUnJ3w59ssVnHK), [Xiaomi 14 Ultra hands-on, ](https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_14_ultra_handson_review-news-61748.php) [Ben's gadget reviews, Xiaomi 14 video review](https://youtu.be/NqwwvtZZ8OM?si=RAS8CUM8ZraLSzV6) [Juan Bagnell, Xiaomi 14 video review](https://youtu.be/82U5t0S21k0?si=7pTfNAWcKVd6COLR) [Toms Guide, Xiaomi 14 review](https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/android-phones/xiaomi-14) Android Authority - [Xiaomi 14 hands-on](https://www.androidauthority.com/xiaomi-14-hands-on-3415329/), [Xiaomi 14 hands-on (video)](https://youtu.be/BzZaJwcSaEI?si=GfI-mTWzsL-90AyC), [Xiaomi 14 Ultra hands-on](https://www.androidauthority.com/xiaomi-14-ultra-first-look-video-monster-3419184/), [Xiaomi 14 Ultra hands-on (video)](https://youtu.be/K_QHXefNB2g?si=uLjCGqqQLECNPBC3) [TK Bay, Xiaomi 14 video review](https://youtu.be/mIYlUHgaLCY?si=vgOhM9mluMSYFAGp)
www.gsmarena.com
As expected the Snapdragon has better battery life. It lasts 13.2% longer than the Exynos in their battery test (9:45h vs 8:28h) with the biggest differences being in calls over an LTE network (34:15h vs 28:26h) and video playback scores (11:27h vs 9:16h). The Snapdragon version is superior in their web browsing and gaming sections too. There's surprisingly not much of a difference in performance with the Exynos version getting slightly better Geekbench scores. It's also a smidge better in the GPU stability test. However the Snapdragon version pulls ahead in the GPU tests and throttles slightly less in the CPU stability test. With regards to the camera, it seems like the Snapdragon version produces sharper images. With Samsung dual sourcing SoCs next year it's clear there are going to be significant differences since different foundries are going to fab both chips for that generation. The difference in battery life should be even bigger with the S24 as the Snapdragon version will be fabbed by TSMC who's process is superior to the 4nm LPP+ that will be used for the Exynos 2400. There's also history of the Exynos version performing [poorly at launch](https://twitter.com/AdamConwayIE/status/1496481958016262148).
www.gsmarena.com
Pros * Standout design. * Thoroughly excellent display. * Better-than-most battery life, speedy charging. * Super-powerful chipset, surprisingly good stability. * Superb camera system, particularly great telephoto for both far and near subjects. Cons * Slippery as can be (in the reviewed colorway). * Ultrawide camera not all that wide. * Uninspiring selfie camera, 1080p video only.
He's pit 20 models this year divided into the same three categories as last year (standard or daylight shot, low-light and portrait). I got the OnePlus Open, Pixel Fold and 7a for the standard test, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel Fold, Pixel 7a for the low-light test and Oppo Find X6 Pro, iPhone 15 and Galaxy S23 for portrait shots. Wish he'd also include an ultrawide and zoom category but I can understand why he's not doing zoom because different phones would win at different zoom levels as some phones have a 2x lens while others have a 3, 3.5x, 4x, 5x or 10x lens.
m.gsmarena.com
The article says it's similar to the OnePlus 12 but there are some pretty significant changes. The display is lower resolution at 1264p and the ultrawide is inferior (it's an 8 MP 1/4" sensor) but the telephoto is better as it's using the IMX 890 (50 MP, 1/1.56", 1 micron pixel size) instead of the OV64B (64MP, 1/2", 0.7 micron pixel size). Seems to be the biggest flagship killer in China as it undercuts every Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 phone as it starts at ¥3298 ($462) for the 12/256 GB variant.
www.gsmarena.com
The primary camera has been upgraded on the K70 and K70 Pro, they now have the Light Hunter 800 (a 50 MP 1/1.55" sensor). Both get metal frames and brighter displays but neither are LTPO. The K70 Pro also gets a 50 MP 2x telephoto and a 12 MP ultrawide while the K70 sticks to the rubbish 8 MP ultrawide+2 MP macro combo they love using. The K70 and K70 Pro start at ¥2499 ($353) and ¥3299($465) for the 12/256 GB version. They also announced the [K70E](https://www.gsmarena.com/redmi_k70e_also_launches_packs_a_dimensity_8300_and_a_667_120hz_display-news-60751.php) with a Dimensity 8300 and 1220p display(the K70 and K70 Pro are 1440p) which starts at ¥1999 for the 12/256 version ($282). [Leaks](https://www.gsmarena.com/redmi_k70e_will_be_sold_internationally_as_poco_x6_pro-news-60740.php) suggest this model will be available as the X6 Pro internationally.
Dave2D - [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aRr1jYSU3U&pp=ygUWYXN1cyB6ZW5mb25lIDEwIHJldmlldw%3D%3D) The Tech Chap - [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fce7wuRQoQ&pp=ygUWYXN1cyB6ZW5mb25lIDEwIHJldmlldw%3D%3D) MrWhosetheboss - [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKe1H5cIVDk&pp=ygUWYXN1cyB6ZW5mb25lIDEwIHJldmlldw%3D%3D) SuperSaf - [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97F9Q_HhqhA&pp=ygUWYXN1cyB6ZW5mb25lIDEwIHJldmlldw%3D%3D) Ben's Gadget reviews - [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7UV7uHrivI&pp=ygUWYXN1cyB6ZW5mb25lIDEwIHJldmlldw%3D%3D) XDA Developers - [Written](https://www.xda-developers.com/asus-zenfone-10-review/), [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKiLBAwJNsQ&pp=ygUWYXN1cyB6ZW5mb25lIDEwIHJldmlldw%3D%3D) Android Police - [Written](https://www.androidpolice.com/asus-zenfone-10-review/) CNET - [Written](https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/asus-zenfone-10-review-a-rare-small-phone-that-comes-with-compromises/) PhoneArena - [Written](https://www.phonearena.com/reviews/asus-zenfone-10-review_id5866) Tom's Guide - [Written](https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/asus-zenfone-10) Laptop Mag - [Written](https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/asus-zenfone-10) Digital Trends - [Written](https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/asus-zenfone-10-review/) Stuff - [Written](https://www.stuff.tv/review/asus-zenfone-10-review-one-handed-wonder/) Pocket-lint - [Written](https://www.pocket-lint.com/asus-zenfone-10-review/) Android Authority - [Written](https://www.androidauthority.com/asus-zenfone-10-review-3334171/) T3 - [Written](https://www.t3.com/reviews/asus-zenfone-10-review-a-true-flagship-android-phone-but-smaller) Tech Advisor - [Written](https://www.techadvisor.com/article/1973287/asus-zenfone-10-review.html) Digital Camera World - [Written](https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/reviews/asus-zenfone-10-review-a-gimble-toting-compact-superphone)