The Apple rumor mill turns up right at the beginning of the year: Apple is planning to bring its first augmented reality device onto the market this year, expects the usually well-informed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, but details about the hardware are for the time being not leaked. Most recently it was said that Apple was working on both an AR / VR headset and classic glasses with AR functions, the introduction of which is probably still a long way off.
AirTags and mini-LED devices Kuo also expects Apple to launch the AirTags key finder 2021 on the market. Observers assume that the AirTags rely on both Bluetooth and ultra-broadband radio and are in a simple, small button housing, Apple could offer accessories such as key rings.
Likewise 2021 the first Apple devices with mini-LED screens are on the horizon, both MacBooks and iPad Pro could rely on the technology enable the playback of high-contrast HDR content. The analyst had previously forecast that Apple would introduce a new 14 “MacBook Pro with mini-LED display and in-house chip. Also a new 16 “MacBook Pro and an iMac with Apple Silicon should be on the program.
iPhone 13 with lidar throughout Suppliers assume that Apple will use lidar sensors for all model series of the iPhone 13. So far, these can only be found in the Pro models and the iPad Pro 100. Lidar allows a three-dimensional recording of the environment, which, for example, augmented reality apps can use. In the iPhone 12 Pro (Max), this also supports the camera’s auto focus, making it faster even in dark surroundings and ensure more reliable focus on objects or people. It can also be assumed that Apple will expand support for 5G networks in the millimeter wave range (mmWave), so far such devices have only been offered in the USA. In Germany mmWave is unlikely to play a role for the time being.
According to another report from the supply chain, Apple is also using gallium nitride transistors (GaN) interested in high-performance power supplies from 60 watts to 100 watts are intended. The manufacturer could thus introduce more compact USB-C power supplies for MacBooks, some of which are already offered by third-party manufacturers.
TikTok has released its first augmented reality filter that can utilize the iPhone 12 Pro’s LIDAR sensor for an enhanced confetti effect that realistically settles on people or objects in your room.
The effect itself is just a somewhat belated 2021 ball drop (which feels like it would have been a lot more useful a few days ago.) But the ball drop filter is just the start, with TikTok promising to “develop more innovative effects in 2021.” And the fact that one of the most popular video platforms in the world is jumping onboard with support for one of the marquee features on Apple’s more pricey and premium smartphones is certainly notable.
To ring in 2021 we released our first AR effect on the new iPhone 12 Pro, using LiDAR technology which allows us to create effects that interact with your environment – visually bridging the digital and physical worlds. We’re excited to develop more innovative effects in 2021! pic.twitter.com/6yFD2FfHta
— TikTokComms (@tiktok_comms) January 6, 2021
TikTok isn’t the only major company with eyes on Apple’s LIDAR tech. Snapchat, one of the other major players when it comes to augmented reality filters, already added support for Apple’s LIDAR sensor back in October, allowing creators to build their own enhanced AR filters for the app.
Samsung will be the exclusive supplier of LTPO OLED displays for the upcoming iPhone 13 generation, reports The Elec. Those panels will be used on the two Pro models and will run at 120 Hz.
LTPO panels are more power efficient than their LTPS counterparts. A key advantage is that they can have an adaptive refresh rate without additional hardware. The vanilla iPhone 13 duo will continue using the older LTPS panels, which probably means they’ll stick to 60Hz for another year.
That will change in 2022, as Apple is reportedly planning on using only LTPO OLEDs for all four iPhone 14 models. By then, it should be able to use LG Display as a second source of panels to reduce its reliance on Samsung Display.
But only Samsung will have enough capacity to meet Apple’s quotas this year. It is planning to produce 60,000 sheets per month at its A3 line in Asan. For comparison, LG’s E6 line in Paju can put out only 5,000 sheets a month, though it plans to expand that to 25,000 before the end of this year.
LTPO panels take a longer time to produce as the technology requires the addition of an oxide layer (the O in the name). This makes them harder to produce and more expensive too.
The power savings of 5-15% are worth it, though. While it was never officially confirmed, Apple allegedly wanted to include both 5G and 120 Hz in the iPhone 12 generation but had the power budget for only one and it went with next-gen connectivity. LTPO will allow the display to run at 120 Hz without killing the battery.
LTPO was developed by Apple and first used on the Watch Series 4 (which can throttle its display down to 1 Hz to save battery). Samsung’s Galaxy Note20 Ultra became the first phone to use an LTPO panel and rumor has it that the upcoming S21 series will use the technology as well.
As we can read in PhoneArena, it seems that a feature that debuted in the last iPad Pro will make room in all variants of the next iPhone, and is neither more nor less than the LiDAR sensor , a laser-based sensor that allows the device higher performance in augmented reality applications.
This is achieved by measuring the time it takes for the laser to bounce off an object and return to the terminal, something that is known as ToF (Time of Flight) and that allows us to know the precise distance to through various calculations.
The iPad LiDAR sensor allows us to have depth maps , thus improving the performance of augmented reality scenarios, something that has worked very well on iPads, but can also be helpful on iPhones, for example, taking photos in portrait mode.
In any case, although on the iPhone 12 we can find some variants that have a LiDAR sensor, the iPhone 13 will enjoy the advantages that the LiDAR sensor is capable of providing the user in all its variants , so that it will not be necessary to have the most expensive models of the Pro ranges to be able to have this sensor.
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Jordi Bercial
Avid technology and electronics enthusiast . I mess around with computer components almost since I learned to ride. I started working at Geeknetic after winning a contest on their forum for writing hardware articles. Drift, mechanics and photography lover. Don’t be shy and leave a comment on my articles if you have any questions.
We are rapidly approaching the end 2020 of the year, which was not particularly important for us gracious. However, we will not talk about the disadvantages of the last twelve months, but about devices that made their debut in this difficult period for the global economy. It turns out that the mobile device market, despite solid blows and recorded sales drops, is doing quite well. This can be seen even after hardware premieres. The majority of interesting devices from the low, medium and high price range have reached the stores. The end of December is the perfect time to sum up the news from each of the mentioned segments. Therefore, I invite you to the TOP list 10 of the most interesting smartphones 2020 of the year.
Author: Marcin Karbowiak
At the beginning, a little explanation: Let’s define what the title “most interesting smartphones 2020 year”. As the criterion, I adopted not the most innovative forms, but models that offered the most desirable features in their category and an appearance that encouraged you to buy. Of course, in the list you will find models that we had the opportunity to check, not necessarily for the purpose of publishing a review. The exception is Nokia 8000 4G, which is not a smartphone in the full sense of the word. Despite the fact that the equipment is equipped with a specific KaiOS operating system and we have access to the application store, it is still only a mobile phone with “smart” functions. These types of devices are called “future phones”. Some people are looking for such devices with a physical keyboard in the layout of buttons characteristic of old cells.
The end of the year is the time of summaries. For this reason, we have prepared a TOP list for you 10 of the most interesting smartphones 2020 year. On the list you will find both budgeters, mid-range models and flagships. There was also a classic cell phone.
POCO M3 smartphone test – Stereo speaker power, unusual design and battery life 6000 mAh are impressive
The mentioned Nokia is the only classic cell in the TOP 10. The remaining pages are occupied by three budget models, three mid-range models, and three flagships made of blood and guests, respectively. In the case of the first segment, I decided to put in it relatively fresh equipment that left “my workshop” a few days ago, i.e. the POCO M3. The category of inexpensive smartphones also includes the Samsung Galaxy M 11 and the Motorola Moto G8 Power. The average shelf included in the list is represented by the Apple iPhone SE 2020, Samsung Galaxy M 51 and Xiaomi Mi 10 T Lite 5G. In the case of flagships, I had a real nut to crack, but in the end I chose the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 and Huawei Mate 40 Pro. For the last device, there is a lack of Google services making it difficult to use the hardware. Even so, the features made it impossible for me to miss it.
Each TOP page 10 is dedicated to one model, starting with the cheapest and ending with the most expensive. You will not find specification descriptions in the text, as they are presented in the tables at the bottom of each publication card. In the material, I bought myself on the most important advantages of the devices, which convinced me to include them on the list. I based the attractiveness and importance of the features on the price, so what seems to be something amazing in a budgetary, in a flagship does not deserve greater recognition. Of course, among the flagship models there is also a representative of the young age segment of devices with folding screens. In this respect, technology is just beginning, while Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 gives the impression of the most solid and functional solution on the market. So much for explaining what our TOP is 10. Let’s move on to the details.
TOP 10 the most interesting smartphones 2020 years:
With an update to its camera software, Google has cut the astrophotography mode of its Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 smartphones. From version 8.1 the mode is only available in connection with the wide-angle camera. Since then, users who want to capture the sky with the ultra-wide-angle camera have received an error message and a message that it is necessary to switch to the main camera. Google does not provide a reason for this change, the changelog does not contain any information.
Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 only support the astromode with the wide-angle camera.
Google distributed version 8.1 of the camera app since mid-November 2020, but according to The Verge, the company adjusted the camera support page a few days earlier. Since the beginning of November it has been said there that astrophotography only works from zoom factor 1. Heise online was able to reproduce this behavior on a Pixel 5 (test): With version 8.0 of the camera app, the astro mode was available with both a zoom factor of 0.6 (ultra-wide-angle camera) and a factor of 1 (wide-angle camera). After installing version 8.1, only the message “Set zoom to 1x for astrophotography” appeared on the former.
Google’s Pixel Forum provides an indication of the reason for the change. Users of the Pixel 4a refer to it there 5G and Pixel 5 on the significantly poorer image quality of the ultra-wide-angle camera in astromode compared to the wide-angle counterpart. In addition to clear image noise, a greenish cast is particularly noticeable. Points that are also noticeable in the camera comparison with the Apple iPhone 12 Pro and Huawei Mate 40 Pro were noticed.
The update of the camera app does not affect the night mode. This is still available for both cameras in version 8.1. Pixel 4 and Pixel XL users can still use the astromode Use both built-in cameras – the quality differences between the wide-angle and telephoto cameras are small. Users of a Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 who have already installed the update can only return to the previous version by manually installing an older version in the form of the corresponding APK file. However, this is associated with risks, as Google does not offer the files itself.
As we enter a new year we could hardly think of a better duo to lead our trending chart. The newly announced Xiaomi Mi 11 is a runaway leader, representing the latest and greatest in Android.
The second place then goes by the oldest member of the top 10 and the most popular phone in our database for the entire 2020 – Galaxy A51.
We then see the Redmi Note 9 Pro complete the podium, pushing last week’s leader – the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max – down to fourth.
Another newly announced phone – the vivo X60 Pro enters the ranking in fifth position, while the Poco X3 NFC retained sixth.
Samsung Galaxy A12 returns in seventh, while the upcoming Galaxy S21 Ultra has slipped down to eight. We can expect the latter to be at or near the top in two weeks’ time when it goes official.
The Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro has lost two positions and is now ninth, while the Galaxy A21s takes the last available position.
That leaves no room for the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G, Poco M3 and the Galaxy A71, which were all part of the elite last week.
The new smartphone feature that most people are excited about is the under display camera. The first such phone arrived earlier this year, but 2020 also saw the rise of some questionable design trends. Trends that our readers do not want to see continued into next year – that was the topic of last week’s poll.
Useless camera modules emerged as the most hated feature of modern phone design. Depth sensors, vague “AI sensors” and even macro cameras bring little to no utility and they don’t make phones look better or more desirable, contrary to what designers may think.
A close second in the “most hated” ranking was the decision to remove almost all in-box accessories. Apple did it and while we were sure others would follow, we were wrong in thinking it would take at least until next year – Xiaomi already did, although admittedly it will give you a charger for free with the purchase of the Mi 11.
Reading through the comments, there were many people who still hate notches and punch holes with a burning passion. Those under display cameras can’t arrive soon enough. But the comments also made it quite clear that many are unsatisfied with the lack of small phones.
And not just small affordable phones, small flagships too. If other makers are intent on copying Apple’s homework, they should have copied the iPhone 12 mini, not the charger thing.
But if there’s one thing that irks people more than the size of modern phones it is that many of them have small batteries. Makers got caught up in a charging speed race and some sacrificed battery capacity in the process. 100+ Watt charging speeds make for splashy headlines, but most people would rather have phones that don’t need to be charged very often.
There’s hope that some of these unfavorable trends will be reversed in 2021, but we suspect some will become the new normal.
Xiaomi recently made its first Wi-Fi 6E router official. The Mi Router AX6000 is priced at CNY 599 (about $91) and is currently available for reservation in China and will be going on its first sale on January 8. It is chuck-full of next-get Wi-Fi features, which we will mention shortly. However, it’s difficult to properly get a sense of the new technology, without a practical illustration. In a short clip, Xiaomi did just that, placing the Mi Router AX6000 in the center of a huge stadium and then testing the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max and the recently-launched Xiaomi Mi 11 for Wi-Fi speed at different angles and distances. The goal was to see how much of the 800 Mbps broadband bandwidth going into the router would ultimately end-up transmitted to each phone.
Before you set the comment section ablaze, we realize this is neither a proper scientific or very practical test to run. It is squarely meant to showcase the theoretical benefits of running a cutting-edge Wi-Fi 6E router, with a compatible client device, like the Mi 11. Apple’s perceived “loss” here simply stems from the fact that it uses a slightly-older Qualcomm X55 modem, equipped with the company’s FastConnect 6800 subsystem for Wi-Fi, whereas the Mi 11 get to enjoy the latest and greatest Qulcomm X60 modem, with its FastConnect 6900. Without going into too much technical detail, the latter gets access to the new 6GHz band, which is one of the major things the “E” in Wi-Fi 6E denotes over the “basic” Wi-Fi 6. It then runs advanced 4-stream (2×2 + 2×2) Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) operation, allowing it to combine a 2×2 6 GHz connection with a 2×2 5 GHz connection on top of that, for a theoretical maximum peak speed of 3.6 Gbps.
Of course, you need a compatible and capable router to even get close to such speeds, which is where the Mi Router AX6000 comes in. It has a theoretical maximum aggregated wireless output of 6000 megabytes/s and is also equipped with a 2.5Gbps LAN port. The latter complies with the IEEE 802.3bz standard and can work with existing Cat 5e ethernet cables, making it a great upgrade path, as home internet connections start exceeding the 1Gbps mark in certain places.
Compared to “vanilla” Wi-Fi 6, which, by the way, is also a major and long-overdue upgrade over Wi-Fi ac (Wi-Fi 5), which you can read more about here, Wi-Fi 6E and the Mi Router AX6000 in particular offer 4×4 160MHz bandwidth, double the 4×4 80MHz bandwidth of Wi-Fi 6. Then there is 4K QAM modulation high-speed transmission technology, which claims to compress data transmission and achieve 20% greater density and hence 20% more data transfer at the same time compared to the previous generation 1024 QAM. Leveraging that and 512MB of on-board RAM, the Mi Router AX6000 promises blazing single-device speeds, as well as support for up to 248 simultaneous clients. A feature that will become more and more important with the proliferation of IoT tech.
Xiaomi Mi Router AX6000
With six independent signal amplifiers, the Mi Router AX6000 also promises great coverage and not just at a large open stadium. A single router should be able to effectively cover a large three-bedroom apartment. And if you need anything beyond that, the AX6000 offers support for Xiaomi Mesh. There are also other smart software features included, like automatic Wi-Fi password randomization and synchronization with Xiaomi smart devices that support Xiaomi ChangKai Connect. Also, the AX6000 can intelligently identify some Xiaomi/Redmi phones and automatically toggle gaming-specific network optimization for their Wi-Fi traffic, as needed.
There is still no word on international availability for the Mi Router AX6000. But judging by the speed at which some of the company’s other recent routers, like the AX3600 or the AX5 have been managing international ROMs and market releases, we might have to wait a bit for the Mi Router AX6000.
Source 1 (in Chinese) | Source 2 (in Chinese) | Via 1 | Via 2
The pandemic hardly seems to have thwarted Apple’s product plans 2020. The manufacturer brought a large number of new hardware onto the market: It started with an updated iPad Pro and a new edition of the entry-level iPhone SE, followed in autumn by the extensively redesigned iPad Air, a HomePod mini, and the two new Apple Watch Variants Series 6 and SE as well as the – several weeks late – iPhone 12. The first ARM Macs and AirPods Max ended a packed autumn.
But Apple shouldn’t take its foot off the gas, important product launches are also imminent for 2021. We give an overview of the expected devices and innovations.
MacBook Pro and iMac with Apple Silicon With the move the entry-level Macs based on ARM-based Systems-on-a-Chip (SoCs), Apple has only just proven that its in-house processors don’t have to hide from Intel. The entry-level models with Apple Silicon are superior to many benchmarks much more expensive Intel Macs and use comparatively little power.
Already in the first half of the year 2021 could now be followed by a high-end version with faster chips, more RAM and additional connections, possibly in the form of a new MacBook Pro. A 14 “model with mini-LED panel has been under discussion for a long time, which will replace the previous 13 “replaces MacBook Pro. Apple is working on processors with up to 16 high-performance cores as well as four energy-saving high-efficiency cores and more powerful GPUs with 16 and 32 shader clusters, it was said last. In addition to a new MacBook Pro, an iMac with Apple Silicon is also expected, possibly not until the second half of the year. There are also rumors about a new case design with a 24 “display. An ARM-Mac-Pro will only be 2022 expected.
AirPods 3 Design changes are coming to the AirPods: The AirPods 3 will probably be based on the design of the AirPods Pro, so Apple should shorten the noticeably long stem. It is also assumed that the AirPods exchangeable ear tips received to allow a better fit. New models could appear in the first half of the year 2021 – two years after the AirPods 2.
Active noise suppression is likely to be reserved for the Pro models. With the second generation of AirPods Pro, Apple is said to have a more compact design in a rounder housing that does not require any style.
iPad mini 6 Apple also likes to introduce new iPads in spring, usually in March, alongside an iPad Pro with faster ones With the chip, mini LED display and 5G support, a new edition of the iPad mini could also be pending, which 2020 did not receive an update. There are hardly any tangible rumors about the small iPad, but maybe Apple will bring the far-reaching innovations of the Air to the iPad mini 6, including the display that extends to the edge and the relocation of the fingerprint sensor to the standby button.
iPhone SE 2021 With the iPhone SE no major innovations are to be expected, but the device could become even cheaper in the trade and slide well below the 400 – euro mark . Occasionally it was speculated that Apple also wanted to launch a large version of the SE – based on the former Plus models with a 5.5 “display – but so far there are no concrete indications for this.
(Pocket-lint) – Yes, it really is only a few months since the last MacBook Air hit the streets. But while this new end-of-2020 model looks and feels the same as the one from earlier in the year, what’s inside is quite different.
That’s because the MacBook Air now runs exclusively on Apple’s own processors, dubbed Apple Silicon. The Apple M1 chip inside shares more in common – actually a lot in common – with Apple’s A-Series iPhone and iPad chips than any Intel processor. It’s the same M1 that’s now available in the Mac mini range as well as the 13-inch MacBook Pro (although there’s still an Intel model available of the latter for now).
Apple Silicon is here: What does the Apple M1 mean for your next Mac?
The transition to Apple Silicon follows on from 15 years of Macs using Intel processors and, while we’re not sure what’s happening at the top-end of the range, it’s safe to say that all low-to-mid-level Macs will be running Apple Silicon by the end of 2021. So what difference does it make and is now the right time to jump in?
Design
Dimensions: 304 x 212mm / 41-161mm thick / Weight: 1.29kg
As with the 2019 and early 2020 models, the external design of the first M1 Macbook Air is the same. We’ve remarked elsewhere how surprised we are that Apple didn’t take the opportunity to create a radical new Mac with the change to its own processor design. After all, we could have had a replacement for the old MacBook, which was sort of like a sub-MacBook Air.
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But we didn’t get that and so we move on. Apple is perfectly capable of pushing the envelope on design – just look at the AirPods Max – but clearly with the portable Mac it feels that its distinguished and hardy aluminium unibody is something to stick with. And why not? This is a hugely successful design that remains modern-looking, even though we’re now nearly 13 years on from Steve Jobs pulling the original from an envelope.
Once again there are two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports – which can sometimes limit you a little, but in reality it’s increasingly a rarity. The notable thing here is that they support the new USB 4 standard. The 3.5mm headphone jack remains but it’s surely now on borrowed time on the Mac.
The keyboard is the same again as the early 2020 MacBook Air, but that keyboard brought serious improvement over earlier generations, with the introduction of the Magic Keyboard with an older-style scissor mechanism. It’s very comfortable to type on for long periods and has much better travel than older ‘butterfly’ MacBook Pro keyboards. While many lauded the Magic Keyboard as a revelation, the fact is you should expect a fantastic keyboard to be part of a laptop like this. It’s a minimum requirement.
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Touch ID is in the top right corner of the keyboard, meaning quick and easy login with a fingerprint, but we really hope that Face ID will come to the Mac in 2021. You’ve been able to use your face to log into Windows 10 since 2016, so Apple is trailing behind here – in particular as the technology already exists in its phones.
Display
13.3-inch Retina Display, 2650 x 1600 resolution
Can drive up to one 6K external display
True Tone support, P3 wide colour
Again you get the well-known 13.3-inch Retina display, giving you the same resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels as the 2019 and early 2020 versions. True Tone ensures the display adapts to your environment, while there’s also support for the P3 wide colour gamut – which is new for the Air this time around.
The Air’s display no longer has a huge bezel, but it does feel like Apple needs to match some of the PC designs coming out with near-borderless displays, which aren’t even that new – the Dell XPS 13 has had a super-thin bezel for half a decade now. We’ve said that bezel design needs to be refined for other Macs, too, particularly the iMac, and perhaps we will see some movement here over the next year or so.
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We found there was no problem driving our external 4K display via USB-C, but you can only connect a single 4K, 5K or 6K display at 60Hz (yes, you can drive Apple’s Pro Display XDR if you really want to – wouldn’t that be a dream?). The recent Intel version was capable of driving two 4K displays, or a single 5K display or a single 6K display over Thunderbolt, so the M1 is a rare and slight downgrade in that regard which will be noticed by some.
When we talked about the changes we wanted to see from Apple Silicon Macs, one of them was the hope that the Mac would support touch. Apple seems very set against touch for the Mac – and is persisting with the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro – yet tells us that an iPad is a computer and that it can do anything. As a differentiator between product lines, it makes sense.
But there’s now (more than) a generation of kids who are totally used to touch and are pretty bemused they can’t touch a laptop’s screen, especially if they’ve done it with Windows 10, iPads and smartphones. Every time we’re using a Mac, someone in our family tries to touch the screen to flick through pictures or webpages – and that has to say something about what should happen with the Mac. Of course, Apple will have been thinking about this, but our opinion is that a change needs to happen sooner rather than later.
Performance and battery life
Apple M1 processor (3GHz; 8-core – 4 performance and 4 efficiency cores)
7 or 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
256/512GB storage (up to 1TB, 2TB)
8GB RAM (upgradeable to 16GB)
Battery cited at 15 hours
There are two versions of the Air available: one with seven-core graphics (more on that shortly) and a 256GB SSD; another with eight-core graphics and 512GB of storage. You can upgrade the storage in either version to a maximum of 2TB (an eye-watering upgrade in terms of cost though).
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Both versions of the Air have 8GB of RAM as standard (upgradeable to 16GB, which is the limit of what Apple Silicon can currently support, it seems). The two options also house identical CPUs – the eight-core Apple M1 with CPU cores based on the latest ARM design. And they don’t use fans either – so are silent in operation.
The M1 shares a huge amount with Apple’s A-Series processors and, more specifically, the A14 Bionic found in the iPhone 12 and 2020 iPad Air. Like that chip, the M1 is based on TSMC’s 5nm manufacturing process – which means it’s super-efficient. No non-Apple computer yet has a chip based on that process. Intel is still floundering with getting to 7nm, while Qualcomm hasn’t yet announced PC silicon based on 5nm.
The best Chromebook 2020: Our pick of the top Chrome OS laptops for school, college and more
Like the A14 Bionic there are four performance cores and four cores designed for power efficiency. This results in serious performance. Like others, we have been blown away by the raw capability on show here, because everything you expect to take time – like an installation or processing of video – happens so quickly. One negative, however, is that unlike the MacBook Pro with the M1 chip, performance will throttle over time to keep things cool and that’s why pros will still want to go with the Pro.
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We don’t normally do benchmarks on Pocket-lint (unless it’s for a gaming laptop or rig), but as this is the first time a chip has made its way into the wild it makes sense for a quick comparison. Our Geekbench 5 benchmark results show simply steaming performance (1731 single-core, 7475 multi-core score). A simple look at the Mac charts for Geekbench 5 shows you that on single-core performance the M1 is faster than any Mac Pro. And on multi-core performance the new M1 systems fall only behind the Intel Xeon Macs (Mac Pro and iMac Pro) and the 2019/2020 iMacs with Intel’s high-end Core Core i7-10700K and i9-9900K (check out our 2020 iMac review).
Raw performance is certainly not an issue then. And the efficiency of the ARM-based design has another benefit we had expected – longer battery life. Apple cites up to 18 hours video playback and 15 hours using the web. We found you could eke the battery out to last around 11 hours, but 10 is more common for serious use with video calls and lots of apps open and working in the background – which is still a great innings when many Windows machines will score around seven hours.
A note about the graphics. As we mentioned, the 256GB version of the Air has seven-core graphics, while the 512GB version has eight-core. There’s a pretty simple reason for this: with the manufacturing of any silicon, a certain percentage of product won’t come up to snuff, probably through defective cores. Those ‘bad cores’ can then be shut off and the product sold as a different version, hence the seven-core variant.
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There’s support for the latest Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6 standards, while the 720p FaceTime HD camera is now enhanced with some smarts from the image signal processor (ISP) on the M1 platform – it’s clearly better than in previous generations, as skin tones are better, colours are generally improved and the room looks brighter – but we still feel that Apple should upgrade the camera to a Full HD one.
Apple Silicon app support and macOS Big Sur
Support for non-native Apple Silicon apps via Rosetta 2 translator
All Apple apps are Apple Silicon-ready
Affinity, Google Chrome, Microsoft Office and other key apps have support
Others on the way, including full Adobe Creative Cloud compatibility
The key question with the move to Apple Silicon processors is if Apple could avoid the issues it had when it moved from Power PC to Intel processors around 2005. Could apps really work seamlessly on a completely new processor this time? The short answer is yes, Apple has avoided the major issues.
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That’s thanks to Rosetta 2, a code translator, helping non-native apps run on Apple Silicon systems. Bizarrely it isn’t installed as default – presumably if you just use Apple’s own apps you won’t need it. But if you open an app that isn’t ready for Apple Silicon, you’re prompted to install.
For an ever-increasing number of apps from the Mac App Store and Apple’s native apps, everything works fine. But for stuff from other vendors, more work is needed. That work is happening, of course, but if you rely on even a couple of lesser-known apps you may want to wait until you know there is native M1 support.
Zoom, for example, worked absolutely fine on Rosetta 2. Yet the company has been quick to announce an Apple Silicon version. Native Apple Silicon support doesn’t guarantee any problems, however – Google had to work to fix Chrome after the ARM version crashed repeatedly, which was a major pain for us the first few days we used this Mac. Generally though, apps are stable using Rosetta 2.
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Apple Silicon-enabled Affinity apps, including Affinity Photo, run brilliantly, as does Microsoft Office (also now updated for Apple Silicon). But other big-vendor apps are lagging behind. Adobe Creative Cloud has yet to fully move across, even if Lightroom already has support.
Now, if you compare apples with oranges and look at Microsoft’s rambling attempts to cater for ARM-based Windows PCs, the Apple Silicon transition is already a dream. The Windows Store is a car crash in comparison to the Mac App Store and, while you can easily live off apps from the Mac App Store, the same can’t be said of its Windows equivalent.
macOS Big Sur is generally very stable providing you’re using at least the 11.1 version – the 11.0 version wasn’t so hot, with some apps quite slow, a couple of issues with USB-C docks and so on. While the Apple Silicon support is the big story with Big Sur, the design has been overhauled. This isn’t the radical change that Apple first billed, but the design is more like iPadOS than ever.
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That isn’t a bad thing, because the new design elements are largely familiar, while the OS does feel genuinely fresh to use.
Verdict
While there’s a question mark over whether you should jump to Apple Silicon quite yet, there’s little doubt that Apple has seriously powered up the Air with its move to Apple Silicon. So much so that it’s hard to suggest you should plump for the MacBook Pro 13-inch over it – you have to really need the fan for sustained high performance over a longer time.
If you’re looking for an excuse to upgrade and the performance isn’t enough, consider the battery life. Obviously, a lot of us aren’t travelling so much at the moment, but the longevity of this Air really is a fresh experience. And this is a great laptop in many other ways, of course – the screen is super, the design robust, and the keyboard actually works well.
In the ultraportable market there’s little to compete. Of course, there are cheaper PCs, but they all have a compromise versus the Air, either in terms of performance or portability. It’s clear, then, that the M1 chip spells a bright future for Apple.
Also consider
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MacBook Pro (2020)
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The step-up model does cost more and gives you a fan instead for sustained workloads, but it’s mostly identical to the Air. One extra benefit is that it does give you even longer battery life (yes really) and so for some that could be worth the cost alone – it’ll take you up to the thick end of 20 hours.
Read our MacBook Pro review
Pocket-lint
Dell XPS 13
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“Dell has once again proven it’s the laptop master” is what we said in our verdict on this laptop. And it’s a serious rival to both the MacBook Air and Pro. But considering the power of the M1, the XPS 13 has a real fight on its hands. But if you’re looking for the closest Windows 10 equivalent to the Air, this is the one. And it’s got a thin bezel, too!
Apple macOS 11 Big Sur: All the key new Mac features explored
For the true music fan, there should be as little difference as possible between listening to your music on your home system and listening when you’re out and about – whether that’s simply being in the garden, on a walk or even (fingers crossed for the future) on your daily commute or on holiday.
Until fairly recently, though, being able to listen to your tunes on the go required a massive compromise in the quality you had to accept. That gap between home and mobile is, as is the way with technology, closing all the time – and here we have a terrific example of just how good your music can sound from a relatively simple handset and headphones combination; with a rather important addition to link the two…
Here’s a brilliant turntable, tablet and wireless speaker system
Here’s an excellent hi-fi system combining vinyl and streaming
Enjoy CDs and streaming with this complete digital hi-fi system
While we’re huge fans of bespoke personal music players (and for the very best sound, you should plump for one, and listen to high-resolution music files), being practical about this, it’s clear that for most people, using their mobile device is the preferred option. It’s simply more practical to use one piece of kit for everything – provided it can do a competent job. And today’s smartphones do a really fine job of being the jack of all trades. You can take your pick of the best Android or Apple devices, but for our purposes, we’re going down the Apple route here, as the Cupertino king has produced consistently great-sounding products over the years.
And, of course, for our purposes here it’s the sound that we’re thinking of. Plug in a decent pair of in-ear headphones (you’ll need Apple’s 3.5mm-to-Lightning dongle), or fire up a pair of wireless earbuds and the iPhone 12 really earns its stripes. We’ve come to expect musicality and rhythm where Apple’s smartphones are concerned and its latest effort doesn’t disappoint.
Essentially, it’s a case of more of the same, with the iPhone 12 delivering enthusiasm and musicality in spades. It works well across multiple genres and keeps you entertained right to the last second of every track.
Play Michael Jackson’s Man In The Mirror and there’s plenty of sparkle in those highs during those opening seconds. The iPhone picks out plenty of detail and texture from Jacko’s voice and its ability to handle dynamics with aplomb means you feel the full impact as the vocal switches from sounding delicate in the verses to punchier and more direct in the chorus, reinforced with the backing of the gospel choir.
Best smartphones 2020
(Image credit: AudioQuest)
The iPhone is a decent music player in its own right, then. But, to really boost the sound of this little system, you need to add a good DAC. Audioquest’s DragonFly range has always impressed us with its abilities at a reasonable price. And the DragonFly Cobalt we have here is its best effort yet – although also its most expensive. You’ll need to invest in Apple’s USB camera adapter to use it (another £26/$29 to the bill, sadly), but you’ll certainly appreciate the difference to the sound the investment makes. And it’s not restricted to simply improving your mobile tunes; use this little stick on your laptop and it will be a winner as well.
Once attached to your device and selected as means of audio output, the DAC’s LED will shine one of six colours to indicate sampling rate: red for standby, green for 44.1kHz, blue for 48kHz, yellow for 88.2 kHz, light blue for 96kHz or purple when decoding MQA.
The Cobalt does wonders in cleaning up sonic performance, no matter what kind of file we feed it or whether it’s streaming from YouTube, Spotify, Tidal or playing from our own hi-res library.
AudioQuest claims its new DAC ‘strips away fuzz and fog that weren’t even noticeable until removed’, and we’d have to agree. It is so precise a rendering that we feel almost duty bound to play our highest-resolution recordings through it.
Lines are indelibly drawn round the edges of each instrument, with granular detail on offer to complement the cleanliness and military precision. The Cobalt isn’t necessarily concerned with polishing your music, only the lens through which it can be seen: bedroom recordings can still sound intimately lo-fi, purposefully screeching treble remains uncensored and grisly riffs still drag their knuckles along the floor.
You could spend your time analysing the music if you like; the Cobalt makes that easy with its wide-open soundstage and impressive clarity, but AudioQuest has not lost itself entirely in the detail, offering still a keen sense of rhythm and expressive dynamic range. The Cobalt’s hard work is also heard as it belts out grand dynamic shifts before donning its reading glasses to contour those more diminutive quivers.
The only reason some people might be put off the Cobalt in favour of the cheaper DragonFly Red is that the Cobalt is a serious performer. It improves on almost every aspect of its older sibling’s Award-winning presentation, yes; but with that added insight and maturity comes a slight loss of the fluidity that makes the Red sound so human. That doesn’t counteract any of the sonic improvements you’re getting for your premium outlay, but some may favour the Red’s more relaxed temperament.
Best DACs 2020
(Image credit: Shure)
Our choice of headphones for this on-the-go system might be a surprise to some – they’ve been around for many a year now, after all. But the Shure SE425, for all their lack of modern wireless connection, are still, after seven years, hugely competitive in-ears. As we said when giving them their gong in 2019, these simply sound fun, absorbing, classy, polished, captivating…
Get some music going and it’s as if the Shures disappear, leaving you with just their sound. To say it’s an immersive experience is an understatement. The level of finesse on offer is astonishing even at this price: you’ll hear things you never thought were there, even on recordings you know inside out.
They’re energetic, too, more than capable of handling tight rhythms and punchy rock, while never tipping over into brashness. It would be easy to overcook the top-end in the name of excitement, but Shure has kept just enough of a lid on it to create space and fun without making it feel like someone’s squirted lemon juice into your ears.
The midrange performance is as solid as you like – that vein of detail continues all the way down the frequency range.
Vocals are nuanced and placed to the fore, yet they never conflict with other elements in the same frequency range.
Move down to the bass and there’s a decent amount of thud. The sense of isolation helps with low-frequency extension too – these really do block out almost everything around you.
And, of course, that cable only helps to get them in this system. As with most hi-fi, having a direct physical link tends to help quality – and the DAC and headphone combo here is a superb recipe for sonic success.
As we wrap up the year we take a look back at the most popular reviews on our website and we are now in the final quarter of the year. These are the phones everybody was most eager to learn more about in the last three months of the year.
A month or two behind their usual schedule, the Apple iPhone 12 family dropped on the mobile scene and triggered the usual frenzy. Tensions running as high, as usual, with all eyes on Cupertino’s launch. This year – a quartet of phones. As per our statistics you were most interested in getting more in-depth info on the vanilla iPhone 12, followed by the 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, in that order. Strangely enough the iPhone 12 mini not only missed the top 10 cut, but barely made the top 20.
The Mate 40 Pro also got your attention. The Mate 40 Pro was one of the heavyweight contenders in out ultimate camera shootout, which you found rather interesting. The other participants being the iPhone 12 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra and the Sony Xperia 1 II.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro (Max) was one of the most popular phones of the year so it’s no wonder its long term review managed to make another top 10 cut, after its regular review featured in our Q2 2020 review roundup.
And rounding-off what is the final of a four-part series for the last quarter of the most popular reviews of 2020 we see the Xiaomi Mi 10T line and particularly the Mi 10T Pro 5G. A phone that with its Snapdragon 865 5G chipset, 144Hz HDR10+ IPS display, 108MP primary camera and great all-round performance and battery life is pushing the envelope and successfully challenging 2020 flagships at a fraction of the price. The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE has proven to be just as popular among readers for most of the same reasons as well.
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 lineup of phones will reportedly debut on January 14th. If there’s even a slight chance you might pick one up, you can now place a reservation to guarantee a preorder slot when those become available, which they usually do right after an Unpacked event ends.
Samsung’s page will take down some basic information like your name, email address, and zip code in exchange for dibs on buying one of these new phones. You won’t pay anything to reserve your preorder — Samsung will collect that once you actually order the phone yourself. But what you can also do now is get a quote for a phone you might like to trade in.
You can get up to $700 of instant trade-in credit toward the purchase of a Galaxy S21 if you trade an iPhone 12 series phone, or one of Samsung’s own Note 20 and S20 phones. It’s even offering up to $550 of trade-in credit for certain phones with cracked screens. Samsung just really wants you to preorder one of these new phones.
Samsung isn’t showing off the Galaxy S21 yet, but it will soon.Samsung
Reserving one of Samsung’s upcoming phones before the preorders begin will net you $50 to use on accessories like smartwatches and earbuds, and by using the Shop Samsung app for Android, you’ll get an extra $10 on top of that. There’s usually another nice preorder perk announced when the phones launch. For previous launches, Samsung has offered at least $100 in gift cards in addition to other goodies, so it should be a great value if you’re in the market for a new device.
You’ll likely want to catch up on the rumors and leaks if you haven’t already, as there are plenty of them. For starters, Samsung itself confirmed that the Galaxy S21 will support the S Pen stylus. We’ve also seen what appears to be a leak of the official teasers for the S21 series, showing off some phone colors and the revamped rear camera array.
My outlook on this year’s smartphone market is in stark contrast to the year as a whole. I actually feel like 2020 was a better year for smartphones than 2019, seeing technologies introduced last year rapidly evolve and mature.
Just take a look at how fast we jumped from 90Hz displays to having 120Hz and even 144Hz bright, energy-efficient OLEDs. Even LCDs have been improved in this regard so now midrangers employ HRR panels.
Under-display fingerprint readers have taken a big step too. I’m still using my trusty OnePlus 7 Pro, which boasted probably the fastest UD fingerprint reader at the time and now it feels slow compared to most 2020 implementations.
Telephoto cameras are more common now, shoot better and we even get more than one of those on certain smartphones like the Mate 40 Pro+ (3x and 10x optical zoom) or the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra (2x and 5x optical zoom). Sadly, no significant improvement in the ultrawide department this year except that more manufacturers start to implement AF in those.
Lastly, in 2020 batteries got bigger and charge faster. Fast charging is a common thing even in the budget segment whereas in 2019 was still touted as a special feature. Also, a 4,000mAh battery was a standard, now most users frown upon anything below 4,500mAh or even 5,000 mAh.
Anyway, here’s my list of top 5 phones this year reflecting what I liked about tech in 2020.
Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
Let me start off with perhaps the best phone of 2020, in my opinion. There’s literally nothing about this phone that I dislike. Maybe punch-hole bothers me a little but the rest of the hardware covers 100% of my needs and expectations. And I’m pretty sure it does for a lot of people.
Superb screen, versatile and competent camera setup, mature and feature-rich software, stupid-fast 120W charging, dependable battery life, stereo speakers and one of the best features on the list – the Transparent Edition. The one we reviewed at the office is just stunning in person and gets in touch with my geeky side. It’s truly a shame it’s not available outside of China.
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
To be honest, I somehow expected more from the Galaxy S20 lineup this year. I can’t really put my finger on it but something just doesn’t feel right about those phones and how Samsung used the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s price to justify the high launching price of the other two S20s.
Maybe that’s why I like the Galaxy S20 FE so much. It’s an excellent all-rounder with the right price – a true flagship killer in my book. It has the flagship SoC, it has a versatile camera setup with 3x zoom, extra-long battery life, fast charging, HRR OLED panel and a ton of other high-end features you wouldn’t normally find on a phone in this price bracket.
Sorry, guys, that’s my choice from Samsung this year in case you expected to see the Z Fold2. That one is also a great phone but a bit out of reach price-wise and I still don’t think foldables are anything more than a tech showcase. Samsung is definitely getting there, though.
iPhone 12 mini
Back in 2014 when I got the original Sony Xperia Z1 Compact for my girlfriend’s birthday, something stuck with me. And that’s the feeling of holding a small, yet powerful and capable smartphone. To be able to operate the phone with one hand with ease. That’s why I think the iPhone 12 mini is one of the best phones in 2020, even though I’m not a big Apple fan myself.
iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12 mini
It’s the epitome of compact flagships and I regret not suggesting to my father to wait for the mini instead of pulling the trigger with the iPhone SE (2020). For anyone sick of big-screen phones and familiar with iOS, the iPhone 12 mini makes all the sense in the world.
Asus ROG Phone 3
Despite not being able to fully understand mobile gaming at this point in its development I properly like the Asus ROG Phone 3. I’m an old-school PC gamer and everything from the aesthetics to the buttery-smooth 144Hz OLED and nifty pressure-sensitive shoulder triggers is free of compromises. And the best part is that the hefty 6,000 mAh battery is enough to keep the device going for days.
Not to mention the huge selection of accessories that take the gaming experience on a whole new level.
OnePlus 8 Pro
To be frank, I’m including the OnePlus 8 Pro just because it aligns so well with my own priorities. The OnePlus 8 Pro is surely an improvement over its predecessor (unlike the vanilla 8) in many aspects but I keep coming to OnePlus because of that notorious software. That’s what I love about the brand and what I got used to for the past couple of years. Even though it’s not the flagship killer anymore.
Objectively speaking, though, the OnePlus 8 Pro is well worth the price hike. OnePlus flagships have always been criticized for skipping on some essential features and the OnePlus 8 Pro is the first phone from the company to check all the boxes. Blazing-fast wireless charging and reverse wireless charging too, IP68 certification and a display that can easily go head to head with the ones on high-end Samsung phones. Lastly, OnePlus improved the camera experience quite a bit too.
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