io-tech tested Sony’s recent small flagship model – the Xperia 5 II.
October is coming to an end, but with io-Tech delivery, techtober will only continue. However, the test cluster has also undergone a small change and Sony’s fresh Xperia 5 II has arrived to break the flood of mid-range 5G phones. The novelty of the Japanese giant complements the manufacturer’s year 2020 collection by bringing much of the iron features of the Xperia 1 II, which went on sale in the spring, to a much smaller body with a 6.1-inch OLED display. However, there are also changes to the package and, for the first time, Sony has introduced a higher refresh rate display in its range.
Key features of the Sony Xperia 5 II include 6.1 “21: 9-aspect ratio OLED display 120 at Hertz refresh rate , Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 system chip, 8GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage and 4000 mAh battery. The camera system is operated by three 12 megapixel cameras – an ultra-wide-angle camera, a wide-angle camera and a television camera.
In this article, we take a look at the Sony Xperia 5 II a little shorter than a full test article based on just over a week of round-the-clock user experience.
Mediatek has been supplying smartphone companies with plenty of midrange and entry-level chipset with 5G capabilities, but the company has been moving upwards recently and it now seems ready to take another step. According to one reliable leakster Digital Chat Station, the new platform will be based on the 6 nm process technology and will have the same architecture as the upcoming Exynos 1080 platform by Samsung.
The Mediatek chip has a model number of MT689x (the last digit is yet unknown) and will have a Mali-G77 GPU. The leakster Digital Chat Station claimed it will reach over 600,000 points on AnTuTu which would put it right next to the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 865+ in terms of raw performance.
The new chip is likely going to be an update over the 7nm Dimensity 1000+ and there might be phones on the Chinese market that would run it and still manage to keep their final price around CNY2,000 – that’s about $300.
Such a price tag is not unusual in China – the Xiaomi Redmi K30 Ultra and the Realme X7 Pro employ the Dimensity 1000+ platform and they both start from the same ballpark of CNY1,999 – CNY2,199.
OnePlus announced the vanilla Nord in July, followed by the Nord N100, and Nord N10 5G at the end of last month. Now we hear a Nord SE will be joining the series and according to Android Central it will be powered by the Snapdragon 765G SoC like the regular Nord.
OnePlus Nord
The publication also claims that Nord SE will sport an AMOLED display. Its diagonal is unknown, but the panel may have a 1080p resolution.
The smartphone will pack a 4,500 mAh battery and support 65W charging that debuted with the OnePlus 8T.
The Nord SE is codenamed “Ebba” and will be sold in India and Europe. There’s no word from OnePlus about the Nord SE yet, but the source claims the smartphone will launch shortly after the OnePlus 9, which is rumored to arrive in March 2021.
Last month, Samsung sent out two updates for both 4G and 5G variants of the Galaxy S20 FE that aimed at fixing a touchscreen issue that was affecting some users of the phone. Before any fixes were issued, the phone would register ghost touches and jittery movement when scrolling or zooming. A new update is now rolling out for the Galaxy S20 FE, but initial reports of the update – which mention the touchscreen issues in the changelog – still don’t fix the issue entirely.
The update’s build number is G781BXXU1ATK1 and the new firmware began rolling out this week. One of the bullet points in the changelog mention that “The stability of Touch screen has been improved”. According to Reddit user ingongingong, the “jittery scroll still happens, but less often”. The user also cite that the issue when pinch-zooming in or out “still happens, but its smoother and better”.
Some users in the Reddit thread suggest this could be a hardware issue, not fixable by software updates. User NicoToscani71 writes: “It was noticeable from day one. I couldn’t figure out why 120Hz screen looked like it was having a minor stroke when scrolling […] I was getting so many more typos using G-Board than on my Note 9. The two updates have made very minor improvements, but I still want to throw this POS out the window at least two or three times a day.”
A hardware issue would require the company to recall the phone. Although Samsung knows a thing or two about recalling a phone, the company might simply choose to let customers live with a slightly malfunctioning touch screen. If you’re experiencing this issue leave a comment and let us know whether the update fixes it or just minimizes it.
This is the OnePlus Nord N10 5G and it’s cheaper than the OnePlus Nord. But that doesn’t mean that it’s a cheap-feeling phone.
For starters it arrives in a reasonably-stocked box with a USB-C cable and a 30W charger. The only key ingredient that’s missing is a complimentary case and at the time of writing we couldn’t find one on OnePlus’ website, so you’d better take care not to drop the N10 5G.
Before we continue with our impressions of the OnePlus Nord N10 5G, let’s address its place in the Nord food chain. OnePlus’ best midrange phone is the OnePlus Nord, which has an AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 765G and 4,115mAh battery. The OnePlus Nord N10 5G sits below it with an IPS LCD with 90Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 690 chipset and a 4,300mAh battery. The cheapest OnePlus phone is the Nord N100, which has an IPS LCD with regular 60Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 460 and a 5,000mAh battery.
There are a lot of differences between the expensive Nord and the N10 5G, but for €50 more the Nord has an AMOLED, a dual front camera and a better processor, while the N10 5G has a bigger battery, a better main camera (64MP vs 48MP) and expandable storage.
Moving from an OLED screen to an IPS LCD is a definite and tangible step back, but we’re here to tell you that the OnePlus Nord N10 5G’s 6.49-inch 1080p IPS LCD is a great panel. It’s bright, colorful and contrasty. We’ll go into detail on all of those claims in our full review so stay tuned!
More importantly, thanks to the 90Hz the display on the Nord N10 5G is just as smooth as the one on the Nord.
The OnePlus Nord N10 5G has a plastic rear panel with a stylish reflecting design. The phone comes in a single Midnight Ice color, which is either grey-ish or blue-ish, depending on your vantage or the light.
We’re very glad OnePlus included the 30W Warp charger in the box. Paired with OnePlus’ classic red USB cable the Nord N10 5G tops up very quickly. We’ll tell you just how quick the battery replenishes in your review, stay tuned!
High refresh rate and fast charging – staples of OnePlus phones
We’ve started work on it and there’s a lot of ground to cover. We’ll go over the five cameras on the OnePlus Nord N10 5G, the battery life, the display, the design and the build.
OxygenOS Open Beta 3 was released for the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro just before the end of October, but there was a mix-up. Some users received the stable update, version 11.0.1.1, instead of the beta, and installing that leads to a full wipe.
If you’re received the wrong update but haven’t restarted the phone yet, you should download this APK. This is a specially-designed app with that will help preserve your data, you just need to install it and hit the “Keep data” button.
Update notification for Open Beta 3 • Stable version of OxygenOS – this will wipe your data
Even with the app, it’s best to use the OnePlus Switch app to back up your data and move that backup off the device for safe keeping. Note that some users are reporting that their phone automatically installed the update (and rebooted, wiping their data in the process), so if you’re on the Open Beta channel it’s best to create an update just in case.
Check out the OnePlus Forums post for more details. There are other issues with the OB3 release, e.g. some users are reporting troubles with 5G when using two SIMs.
While we were just getting used to 96-Layer flash becoming commonplace and over 100-Layer flash from Samsung and SK hynix is just starting to enter the market, Micron announced its next-generation 176-layer replacement gate flash is now in volume production and shipping, setting a new high for layer counts.
(Image credit: Micron)
Micron’s fifth-generation 3D TLC flash not only scales higher than its closest competitor’s offerings, but the company claims its flash is also faster and offers the highest bit density yet.
Micron has shipped multiple generations of floating gate flash, but now that is has split with Intel on the manufacturing front, the company is doubling down on its second iteration of charge trap technology. Micron pairs that technique with its replacement gate (RG) tech, which uses highly-conductive metal wordlines instead of a silicon layer, for its next generations of flash.
Before this, Western Digital’s/Kioxia’s 112L, Samsung’s 1xxL, and SK hynix’s 128L TLC broke the 100-layer barrier, but none have scaled quite as high as Micron’s new flash. The relatively new replacement gate architecture offers up improved speed, endurance, and efficiency with 176 layers.
Micron stacks two 88-layer decks to attain such heights, similar to how it has done so with past nodes; however, that doesn’t mean its physical height has increased. Surprisingly, while the replacement gate flash scales to new heights at almost triple the layer count of the company’s older 64-Layer (64L) floating gate flash, it has the same height – just one fifth the thickness of a piece of paper, which is roughly 45 μm (microns) thick after wafer thinning.
(Image credit: Micron)
Micron’s previous-gen 96L and 128L flash could only operate at up to 1,200 MTps, but its new 176L flash is faster, reaching up to 1,600 MTps over the ONFI interface. This leads to a 35% improvement to read and write latency over the company’s floating gate 96L TLC, and it is 25% faster than its 128L replacement gate TLC. The company also noted a 15% increase in mixed performance over its 96L UFS 3.1 modules.
Yes, we have noticed the lack of 128L RG products in the market, but the company says it was simply a transitory node and that the new second-gen replacement gate NAND will have a much faster pace to market. As such, the company is banking on its new 176L NAND for a better return on investment.
“Micron’s 176-layer NAND sets a new bar for the industry, with a layer count that is almost 40% higher than our nearest competitor’s,” said Scott DeBoer, executive vice president of technology and products at Micron. “Combined with Micron’s CMOS-under-array architecture, this technology sustains Micron’s industry cost leadership.”
As a matter of fact, the new flash is shipping in Crucial products now. The company didn’t specify which models, but Crucial’s P5 looks like a prime candidate for the update based on our review samples’ results. Retail consumer products aren’t the only target market for the company’s new flash. The company markets the flash for the 5G and data center markets, with the latter to accelerate AI and big data analytics.
(Image credit: Micron)
The new flash is shipping in volume with 512Gb die capacities and NAND packages stacked with as many as 16 dies per package. Perhaps most astonishing, not only does Micron’s flash have the highest layer count in the business, but thanks to the company’s CuA techniques, it also boasts the greatest bit density. Micron notes that its new 176L replacement gate flash offers a 30% smaller die size compared to the industry’s best in class, which we believe refers to SK hynix’s 128L TLC.
IBM Cloud for Telecommunications may already count on 35 partners, including companies of the caliber of Nokia, Samsung and Cisco. The purpose of the platform is to make the most of the potential of 5G both in the consumer and professional fields
of Alberto Falchi published on 09 November 2020 , at 17: 03 in the Cloud channel IBM Nokia Cisco 5G
IBM opens its cloud to telcos with IBM Cloud for Telecommunications, an open platform designed to accelerate business transformation in the telecommunications sector, which will allow companies that adopt it to offer their customers new digital experiences and at the same time modernize their corporate infrastructure and the applications that rely on it.
IBM Cloud for Telecommunications, to exploit the full potential of 5G
The spread of 5G will completely revolutionize the business of many companies, especially those operating in the telco sector. This is mainly due to the virtualization that underlies these networks, which allows the creation of new services that leverage data. The new IBM platform will allow these companies to be able to count on the scalability and flexibility necessary to face new business challenges. It is based on Red Hat OpenShift and the support of numerous partners, who will provide the software and hardware needed to face the revolution, and includes the IBM Cloud Satellite services , which allow you to run the services IBM Cloud where you want it: in the cloud, on premises or at the edge. IBM Edge Application Manager and IBM Telco Network Cloud Manager will help speed up the delivery of new services and automate processes through AI while containing infrastructure costs.
According to IBM, the new platform allows to accelerate the development of new services by 33% , reduce downtime by 95% and improve productivity by 37%. Currently, the ecosystem has 35 partners, among which names such as Nokia, Cisco , Intel, Samsung, Juniper, Dell, Palo Alto and many others: the complete list is available at this address.
“ We are proud to partner with IBM to develop leading-edge 5G solutions in the telecommunications industry , with Red Hat OpenShift. Customer service providers will benefit from a new opportunity to quickly and efficiently deploy private 5G networks “- stated Jane Rygaard, Head of Edge Cloud at Nokia -” The shift to 5G will be crucial for companies wishing to complete digital transformation plans. And having multiple cloud-based solutions will help the sector to lay the foundations for further progress “.
“ Cisco is proud to make its industry-leading data processing solutions available to IBM Cloud for Telecommunications , security and Service Provider “- stated Keith Dyer, VP for IBM Strategic Alliance – “ We are pleased to expand our 20-year partnership with IBM and to bring the potential of our joint solutions to our common customers “.
Already 18 November, i.e. next Wednesday, on the eve of the Vivo Developers Conference 2020, the new Vivo OriginOS will be unveiled. This one is to replace the Funtouch OS overlay used in Vivo smartphones. However, that’s not all, because the people responsible for the refreshed interface are preparing a nice surprise for fans of the brand related to pure Android. Although information about OriginOS has already appeared on the web, we have only now found out when the manufacturer will officially announce its latest solution. The information is important because mobile devices from China are already available in the regular Polish sales network.
Vivo is preparing for the premiere of the OriginOS overlay, which will replace the earlier Funtouch system AXIS. We know the date of the presentation of the new interface for smartphones. What do we already know about it?
Vivo X smartphone 51 5G with a gimbal and the Y series enter Europe
It has been talked about for some time, that Vivo intends to offer its customers two completely different philosophies for using smartphones. It seems that this is actually what the company’s plans are. It turns out that on Vivo mobile devices you will be able to use both OriginOS and pure Android. It will be up to the end user which option is more convenient for him and what type of interface is to be used for him on a daily basis. This is a good decision, but the manufacturer intends to convince us to his proprietary solution, which can turn out to be extremely complex.
Huawei HDC Conference 2020 – HarmonyOS, EMUI 11 and HMS Core 5.0
I’m not claiming the OriginOS system that will be shown anymore 18 November will be as extensive in terms of services as HMS (Huawei Mobile Services), while Vivo intends to create some kind of ecosystem. This means a policy similar to Huawei. We will find out everything next Wednesday, the day before the developer event, where new applications, games, services and possible business partnerships will be presented. The market debut of OriginOS may take place only with the premiere of the Vivo X smartphone 60, which is to take place later this year. It is worth noting that Apple designers were involved in the design of the overlay.
PTS’s (Post- och telestyrelsen) decision to effectively exclude Huawei’s and another Chinese manufacturer ZTE’s 5G equipment from Swedish mobile networks
Last month, the Swedish Post and Telecom Government announced that it had decided to ban the use of Chinese manufacturers’ technology in building the country’s 5G networks. The decision was made on the recommendation of the country’s security police Säpo and the Defense Forces due to the threat of espionage. According to the decision, Huawei’s and ZTE’s technology must be removed from the country’s networks by 1 January 2025.
Huawei has now issued a press release stating that it will appeal the licensing terms decided by the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority, PTS, for participation in auctions in the 3.5 and 2.3 GHz bands. In its appeal to the Stockholm Court, the company requested that the decision be suspended pending an in-depth investigation. According to Kenneth Fredriksen, Huawei’s Nordic director, the company understands the Swedish government’s desire to improve the level of network security and responds to objective and fact-based security requirements. According to Fredriksen, the recommendations of Säpää and the Defense Forces were made on the basis of assumptions and the companies concerned were not given the opportunity to comment on the alleged security issues before the decision was taken.
According to Huawei, the decision is in itself contrary to both EU and Swedish law. In addition, Fredriksen says he has constantly sought dialogue with the PTS, but to no avail. According to him, the company is awaiting the decision of the Administrative Court, trusting that it will be fair and will benefit both Huawei and society as a whole.
According to a Huawei press release, the terms of the license, which in practice prohibit the use of the company’s 5G devices, were decided 20. October. The auction for the 2.3 and 3.5 GHz bands is scheduled to start tomorrow 10. November. According to the company, it had not been informed of any problems with its equipment prior to the decision and, to date, PTS has not provided information on which specifications or requirements have not been met for its 5G equipment, despite requests
iPhone 12 Mini iPhone 12 Pro Max Summary The iPhone 12 Mini has unique dimensions for a modern smartphone. Hardly any other device is so small and light. The specifications are also excellent. The beautiful new design features the same fast soc, 5G antennas and modern camera as in the ‘normal’ iPhone 12. The OLED screen is also much better than that of previous small iPhones. When it comes to battery life, you give up something, but that is simply part of the consideration you make when you choose this format.
Summary The iPhone 12 Pro Max is the ultimate iPhone from 2020, with the longest battery life, largest screen, and best camera of all new models. Although it is overtaken by the competition in certain aspects, the camera system is still among the top in other parts. The 12 Pro Max is probably not cheap, but the extra price compared to the less luxurious iPhone 12 Pro is limited. Unless you find the 12 Pro Max really too big, we would go for this device if the Pro features appeal to you.
The iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max make Apple’s smartphone line-up for 2020 complete. Recently we already discussed the iPhone 12 and 12, which the manufacturer from Cupertino released first. Those were fine smartphones with a beautiful new design, but the 12 Mini and 12 Pro Max are actually the most interesting options of the foursome. The extremes in the line-up have appealing characteristics, not only in terms of price, but also in terms of size and other features.
To start with the iPhone 12 Mini: fans of small smartphones have had to watch with sorrow how the average device becomes bigger, thicker and heavier in recent years. became. Even Apple, which traditionally produces fairly compact smartphones, no longer had a really small model in the range. In 2020 that changes with the iPhone 12 Mini. Well, it is slightly larger than the original SE from 2016, the smallest iPhone still supported at the moment. But compared to the current offer in the smartphone market, the iPhone 12 Mini has unique dimensions. With a starting price of 809 euros, the iPhone 12 Mini is also the cheapest model within the iPhone 12 Series.
Top Model iPhone 12 Pro Max is the largest device that Apple has ever presented, with an OLED screen that has a diagonal of 6.7 inches. The design looks similar to that of the iPhone 12 Pro that we discussed earlier, but if you look closely, the camera island on the back is a lot bigger. The 12 Pro Max is the only one in the series to have a new, larger sensor for the primary camera and a telecamera with more magnification. Although the price has not increased compared to last year, the 1259 that you have to deposit at least for Apple’s top model remains of course a lot of money. For whom are the extremes in the new line-up interesting?
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If you asked me which of the four different models of the new iPhone 12 you should buy without providing any further context on your needs or desires, I would tell you to buy the regular iPhone 12 without question. It has the best balance of screen size, storage, cameras, battery life, and value. It is, in my opinion, the best iPhone 12 for most people.
But the iPhone 12 mini is my favorite.
For the first time in many years, Apple is making an intentionally small phone. The key, though, is that unlike other small phones, Apple isn’t putting worse parts in it. The iPhone 12 mini has all the same features as the larger iPhone 12. It has the same cameras, same processor, same everything save for two things: screen size and battery life.
The iPhone 12 mini starts at $729 for a 64GB model in the US, but $50 more gets the 128GB model and that’s a much better option. It’s a small phone, but it’s not a cheap phone.
Read more: iPhone 12 Pro Max review.
The iPhone 12 mini
iPhone 12 mini hardware
It’s traditional to refer to phones by their screen size and for the iPhone 12 mini, that number is 5.4 inches diagonally. But that number doesn’t tell the story at all. The phone is smaller than the traditional 4.7-inch-home-button iPhone design we saw from the iPhone 6 on through the 6S, 7, 8, and 2020 SE models, even though the screen itself is larger.
That’s because the 12 mini, just like the rest of the iPhone 12 line, has switched over to Apple’s more modern OLED screens and Face ID notch for unlocking. Those two features allow Apple to design the phone with minimal bezels and maximal screen.
Despite the smaller screen size, you don’t miss out on as much as you might expect. Compared to the regular iPhone 12 with a 6.1-inch screen, there are maybe one or two lines of text that are cut off. What you actually miss out on is that sense of immersion you can get from a bigger screen when you’re playing a game or watching a movie. Those were the only times this screen felt cramped.
If there is a knock on the screen, it’s that it doesn’t offer a high refresh rate like many Android phones — including the Pixel 5, which isn’t too far off from the iPhone 12 mini’s size. I’m more annoyed that the Pro iPhones don’t have it, though — here on the mini, I think battery life is more important.
To me, the iPhone 12 mini is most reminiscent of the iPhone 5. Yes, it is bigger and has a glass rear panel instead of aluminum, but it shares the squared-off aluminum sides and general feeling of being an object that was designed to be proportional to your hand. This is a phone that you can get a grip on, literally.
The phone feels well built, with tight tolerances and subtle touches like carefully beveled edges. The rear glass is glossy and the rails are matte — on our black review unit the rails have a kind of slate finish instead of being true black. The camera bump on the back and the Face ID notch on the front are proportionally big compared to the smaller size of the phone, but not annoyingly so.
Because it’s a bit narrower, it’s easier to reach the opposite side of the screen with your thumb. Because it’s a bit shorter, a lot of people will be able to reach the top for the swipe-down gestures without contorting their hands into awkward claws or risking dropping the phone.
It has a much, much better chance of fitting into small pockets — the kind that are all too common on pants designed for women.
As a man with big pockets and big hands, I do not have the strongest feelings about why it’s been so frustrating not to have a small iPhone option. But I sympathize with those who do and agree with the sentiment 100 percent — I’m glad Apple recognized it and I hope other phone companies do what they often do and follow Apple’s lead.
iPhone 12 mini (left) and iPhone 12 (right)
iPhone 12 mini battery and performance
Apple chose to make the iPhone 12 mini hew closely to the features and specs of the regular iPhone 12. It’s a laudable goal, but as I used it I found myself second-guessing that decision a little bit.
It’s corny to say I’m impressed by how much Apple packed into such a small space — but I am. The iPhone 12 mini has the fastest processor on any phone, it has the same dual-camera system as the iPhone 12, and most remarkably it has all the components and antennas necessary for both sub-6 and (in the US) mmWave 5G. It is fast, multitasks well, and doesn’t feel like a compromise when you use it. It really is an amazing feat of technology.
It’s amazing until the battery dies, anyway.
I don’t want to sugarcoat it nor be overly dire about it, but the battery life on the iPhone 12 mini is noticeably worse than on the iPhone 12, which itself was a step down from the battery-champ iPhone 11. For me, it’s good enough, but it does mean I’m already using it differently than I use bigger phones.
Without making any effort at it, I have consistently drained the iPhone 12 mini’s battery by early evening. I’d say it’s fair to expect the 12 mini to clock up something near four hours of screentime with stuff like web browsing, Facebook, and taking photos. Intense games give you a chance to watch the battery percent tick down minute by minute.
So it’s not bad, but it’s definitely not great. My feeling after a little less than a week is that getting through a day requires a little bit of battery management. Holding yourself back from putting an hour into an Apple Arcade game, knowing where your next opportunity to charge might be, and above all being more willing to turn on the low power mode.
Of course it works with Apple’s new magnet-based MagSafe system for cases and wireless charging. Using MagSafe, the iPhone 12 mini maxes out at 12W wireless charging instead of the 15W you get on the larger iPhones, but since the battery is smaller, the overall charge time ends up being about the same.
Exactly how small is small? Apple never provides exact battery size specs — and I get the reasoning even though I disagree with it. Lots of factors affect battery life, and the iPhone 12 mini has the benefit of a smaller OLED screen. But it also has 5G.
The reality of 5G in the US continues to be very different from the hype. It’s radically dependent on which network you’re on and what part of the country or city you’re in. Often the speeds are equivalent to LTE. If you stand out on the right street corner and get mmWave, you can indeed get speeds that are astonishing — until you walk down the street and they drop back to the same LTE we’ve used for years.
I often have to remind people that phone design isn’t inevitable. Apple chose to keep this iPhone 12 mini the same thickness as the iPhone 12 and it chose to keep the extra parts necessary for mmWave 5G. I would rather lose both of those things in exchange for a bigger battery.
The iPhone 12 mini has a regular wide and an ultrawide camera.
iPhone 12 mini cameras
The iPhone 12 mini has the exact same camera setup as the regular iPhone 12. There’s the 12-megapixel main wide-angle camera with a f/1.6 aperture for letting in more light paired with a somewhat worse 12-megapixel ultrawide camera. Unlike the Pro models, there’s no telephoto lens nor a LIDAR sensor.
I am happy to report that the results are just like the specs: the same. The iPhone 12 mini reverts to Night mode less often than even the iPhone 11 Pro and the Pixel 5. Apple has made some improvements in image processing this year with its A14 Bionic processor that results in more detail in more lighting conditions (aka the Deep Fusion “Sweater Mode”).
It’s a very good camera system, and that’s not usually something I get to say when I’m talking about a smaller phone. Usually smaller means cut corners and the camera is often the place where those corners get cut. Not so here: video is excellent at handling different lighting conditions, portrait mode is usually more than good enough for Instagram, and you can trust the camera to take the photos you expect when you tap the shutter. And you can expect them to get saved quickly.
Next year, though, I hope Apple pays a little more attention to the secondary camera sensors. The selfie camera is fine, but it’s increasingly disappointing compared to the advances on the main camera.
I can take some dramatic shots with the ultrawide — the tree you see above is objectively boring but looks dope with this lens. Still, if you zoom in even a little, you can see that on a technical level the ultrawide is also far behind the main sensor.
The iPhone 12 mini
As I said above, I don’t have ergonomic reasons to need a smaller phone. My advice for most people is to get the regular iPhone 12 for its better battery and bigger screen.
And yet, I love the iPhone 12 mini. It is my favorite of the new iPhone 12 models. Despite real concerns with the battery, it’s the one I have decided to get for myself.
For me, the reason to prefer the iPhone 12 mini is hard to state in words, but I’ll give it a shot. With every phone, you can tell what it was designed around. There’s some key feature that everything else has to contend with, that sets the hardware narrative. For many years now, that feature was the screen. Making it big, bright, beautiful, and bezel-less was the big thing driving phone design, and all other considerations were secondary.
The iPhone 12 mini feels like the first iPhone in a long time with a different goal. It was designed around the human hand and real pockets. It is an object that doesn’t aim to be judged against other smartphones (which are mostly big now), but to be judged simply as an object you need to hold. You judge a spatula or can opener or whatever by whether it’s easy to grip, by whether it fits in your hand. It’s about time we got back to judging smartphones that way, too.
That design decision means that other things — like battery life — are secondary. But it’s nevertheless a strange kind of relief to hold it. You know the feeling when a buzzing noise you’d grown accustomed to suddenly stops and you realize you’ve been annoyed all day but couldn’t say why? It’s like that.
Whether we admit it or not (and whether we hate it or not), we’ve subtly been adapting ourselves to ever-growing phone sizes. The iPhone 12 mini is adapted to us.
iPhone 12 Mini iPhone 12 Pro Max Summary The iPhone 12 Mini has unique dimensions for a modern smartphone. Hardly any other device is so small and light. The specifications are also excellent. The beautiful new design features the same fast soc, 5G antennas and modern camera as in the ‘normal’ iPhone 12. The OLED screen is also much better than that of previous small iPhones. When it comes to battery life, you give up something, but that is simply part of the consideration you make when you choose this format.
Summary The iPhone 12 Pro Max is the ultimate iPhone from 2020, with the longest battery life, largest screen, and best camera of all new models. Although it is overtaken by the competition in certain aspects, the camera system is still among the top in other parts. The 12 Pro Max is probably not cheap, but the extra price compared to the less luxurious iPhone 12 Pro is limited. Unless you find the 12 Pro Max really too big, we would go for this device if the Pro features appeal to you.
The iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max make Apple’s smartphone line-up for 2020 complete. Recently we already discussed the iPhone 12 and 12, which the manufacturer from Cupertino released first. Those were fine smartphones with a beautiful new design, but the 12 Mini and 12 Pro Max are actually the most interesting options of the foursome. The extremes in the line-up have appealing characteristics, not only in terms of price, but also in terms of size and other features.
To start with the iPhone 12 Mini: fans of small smartphones have had to watch with sorrow how the average device becomes bigger, thicker and heavier in recent years. became. Even Apple, which traditionally produces fairly compact smartphones, no longer had a really small model in the range. In 2020 that changes with the iPhone 12 Mini. Well, it is slightly larger than the original SE from 2016, the smallest iPhone still supported at the moment. But compared to the current offer in the smartphone market, the iPhone 12 Mini has unique dimensions. With a starting price of 809 euros, the iPhone 12 Mini is also the cheapest model within the iPhone 12 Series.
Top Model iPhone 12 Pro Max is the largest device that Apple has ever presented, with an OLED screen that has a diagonal of 6.7 inches. The design looks similar to that of the iPhone 12 Pro that we discussed earlier, but if you look closely, the camera island on the back is a lot bigger. The 12 Pro Max is the only one in the series to have a new, larger sensor for the primary camera and a telecamera with more magnification. Although the price has not increased compared to last year, the 1259 that you have to deposit at least for Apple’s top model remains of course a lot of money. For whom are the extremes in the new line-up interesting?
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max reigned our trending chart for a long time and in a weird twist it was taken down by a couple of rumored phones part of Xiaomi’s Redmi lineup.
The Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 9 5G appeared in a couple of major leaks and clearly got a lot of people excited. Combined with the iPhone 12 Pro Max hype dying down a bit it pushed the new Apple flagship down to third place. It will certainly hope to do better next week when its market availability starts.
The newly announced Huawei nova 8 SE vaulted to fourth, while the Poco X3 NFC regained some of its old glory to capture fifth.
The Redmi 9 Pro capitalized on the hype generated by its upcoming 5G siblings to return to the chart and capture sixth.
The Samsung Galaxy M51 is up to seventh as the iPhone 12 Pro has slid all the way down in enough from second last week. That’s still better than the vanilla 12 and the 12 mini, which went from third and eight to dropping out of the chart.
The longest serving member of our top 10 chart this year, the Galaxy A51, makes a return to get the ninth position, while the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro gets the last available position.
This means we lose the OnePlus Nord N10, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro+ and the LG K92 in addition to the two iPhones.
Welcome to another week’s recap. Let’s start with the first Snapdragon 875 benchmark, which shows Qualcomm’s next chip beating the 865 and Huawei’s Kirin 9000 in Master Lu. The CPU score of the 875 is 13% better than the 865, while the GPU score is about the same.
The Snapdragon 875 will become official next month. It will have a 1+3+4 CPU with the prime core being the Cortex-X1 custom core, running at up to 2.84GHz.
OnePlus unveiled the Cyberpunk 2077 Edition of its 8T smartphone in China. It goes on sale on November 11, piced at CNY 3,999 (CNY 300 more than the regular 8T). Outside of its thematic design, the Cyberpunk 2077 edition is the same as the OnePlus 8T.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 series will likely come out early in 2021, according to reputable insider Jon Prosser. The Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra will reportedly become official on January 14, then go on to launch on January 29.
Apple announced its final 2020 event for November 10. The One More Thing event will be all about Apple Silicon and we expect three ARM-powered Macs – the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13 and MacBook Pro 16. We’ll be covering the event so stay tuned.
Samsung unveiled its W21 5G for China. It’s a more premium Galaxy Z Fold2 for the local market. It shares the specs and screens, but the exterior has a gold color with a striped finish, a dual-SIM card and 512GB of storage by default. The W21 costs CNY 20,000 – CNY 3,000 more than the Galaxy Z Fold2.
Those were the key stories of the week. See you next one!
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