Technicational

Hello - my name is Ivan, and I'm the resident photographer here at GSMArena.com! This is my list of favorite phones for the year and you can tell right away that it's a bit boring and predictable. In my defense, I like the biggest and absolute best phones with the more versatile and capable cameras. But I did include an odd phone or two that piqued my interest for other reasons. So let's get started. I'll list the devices in reverse order, so the last is my absolute favorite. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G I went to the press event for the Galaxy Z Fold3 and Z Flip3 announcement...

This challenging year is finally done, and we can look ahead to the bright 2022. Yes, it sounds like “2020 too”, but we remain hopeful that changes for the better are coming and life will bring everyone the chance for a new beginning. Thank you for staying with us. We published nearly 5,500 news articles and almost 150 phone reviews. You can take a detailed look in our 2021 numbers in this a dedicated article. We can only wish your phone to never run out of battery life in the most important moments and may it allow you to capture many great memories. Let’s hope the screens emit...

Realme had a strong year where we saw plenty of devices in all prices and categories. There were gaming handsets, capable upper mid-rangers with top-tier chipsets, and the usual legion of phone taking on the overly competitive midrange market. As the year is rounding to an end, we decided to look at Realme’s successes and failures, and with such a wide portfolio, it wasn’t hard to find plenty of products to put on both sides of the fence. Winner: Realme GT Neo2 This phone arrived late in the year but quickly managed to steal our hearts. It is, by far, the best "flagship killer" on...

HMD Global recently rolled out Android 12 update for the Nokia X10 and X20, and now it's the Nokia G50 that's getting a taste of the latest version of Android. HMD hasn't officially announced the Android 12 rollout at the time of writing this, so we don't know which countries will get the update in the first wave. However, multiple reports reveal that the Nokia G50 has received Android 12 in Finland and some European nations. The Nokia G50's Android 12 update requires a download of 2.09GB. It has version number V2.160 and comes with the November 2021 Android security...

Xiaomi recently unveiled the 12 and 12 Pro in China with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipsets and the new flagship is featured in a teardown video posted by WekiHome on YouTube. The teardown reveals that the 12 Pro’s build is very much “glass sandwich” structurally. After breaking through the adhesive seal around the rear panel of the glass, we can see the layout of a main board and camera cluster towards the top, battery in the center, and the daughterboard at the bottom housing the charging part, speakers, and haptic motor. Many of the connectors, modules, cameras, and links to the...

We already know that the OnePlus 10 Pro will become official next month, the company's CEO confirmed that. Recently some rumors started pointing towards the first week of the month (that's next week!), but today a purported promo video for the device leaked in China and it brings with it the revelation of the supposed exact announcement date. OnePlus 10 Pro launching on January 11, 2022 according to this leaked video on Weibo.https://ift.tt/3mMNVzr #Oppo pic.twitter.com/MhcQxBFkIw— Abhishek Yadav (@yabhishekhd) December 30, 2021 It's January 11, if this video is really a...

It's the end of the year, we are all feeling a bit nostalgic. Having gone throught the most popular reviews of Q1 and Q2 it's now time to recap what phones of the third quarter got your interest. If there is one thing that you, our audience, has made abundantly clear is that you really like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 family and particularly the Redmi Note 10 Pro, or Max, as it is known on some markets. Not only did its review top our Q1 chart and indeed the 2021 yearly popularity chart as a whole, but our long-term review coverage of the phone managed to snag the second spot in this...

While the first members of the Oppo Reno5 series arrived in 2020, some did so quite late (including one on December 31) and others launched in 2021. This year we also saw the Reno6 and recently the Reno7 series. There were many launches in the A and F series as well, but we’ll try to condense the best and the worst of Oppo’s 2021 here. Winner: Oppo Find X3 Pro Let’s start with the best, otherwise known as the Oppo Find X3 Pro. The phone was unveiled in March and it flaunted a meticulously crafted design and custom camera hardware. The design won a Red Dot Award, in no small part...

Welcome to our recap of the top news articles of 2021. This is Q2, you can also take a look at the top stories of Q1, Q3 and Q4. It's now time to look at the months April through June, which were defined by a myriad of phone announcements as well as looming phones from further down 2021. Sharp officially brought a 1-inch sensor to a phone with the Japan-exclusive Aquos R6. It had more going for it with a 240Hz refresh rate display, another first. But as with all of Sharp's innovations, this one never came out of Japan. Sony unveiled the Xperia 1 III, 5 III, and 10 III in Q2, all of...

The Exynos 2200 is coming sooner than expected – the new flagship chipset with AMD graphics will debut on January 11. This is the week after CES and the rumored date for the Galaxy S21 FE launch. Of course, the FE will use the older Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 chipsets, depending on the market (more specs here). This new chipset will be reserved for the upcoming Galaxy S22 series, which are expected to arrive in February. #PlaytimeIsOver. The gaming marketplace is about to get serious. Stay tuned for the next #Exynos with the new GPU born from RDNA 2. January 11, 2022....

The latest iQOO 9 Pro teasers are in and they are all about the upcoming flagship’s display. The phone will come with a curved Samsung E5 AMOLED panel of the LTPO 2.0 variety refreshing at up to 120Hz and with a 1,000Hz touch sampling rate. The teasers also confirm a 2K resolution which is a marketing term used to describe QHD+ panels in China. The panel will bring a 517 PPI count and will reportedly crank out up to 1,500 nits peak brightness. iQOO 9 Pro display and fingerprint scanner official teasers In addition, iQOO 9 Pro will offer an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner...

The OnePlus 10 Pro is launching next month, and it may actually show up in the first week of January. As such, you'd expect it to get certified left and right - and you'd be right. Case in point: the OnePlus NE2210 has just passed through 3C certification, and this has yielded the public listing you can see below. The NE2210 is reasonably expected to be the model number of the 10 Pro, and 3C reveals that this model will support 80W fast wired charging. That's a nice step up compared to OnePlus' previous standard, which was 65W and branded as Warp Charge 65. So maybe this will be...

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HDMI Forum, the entity responsible for issuing and licensing HDMI standards, will be announcing HDMI 2.1a at CES 2022. This is the next version of the latest HDMI 2.1 standard that is currently available, and will bring with it source-based tone mapping or SBTM. According to The Verge, SBTM enables tone mapping of HDR content on the source device rather than the display. This means, if you have a Blu-ray player plugged into a TV and playing HDR content, the tone mapping for the HDR content will be done on the Blu-ray player rather than the television. While the article does not...

Realme GT 2 series is launching on January 4 and we’ve come to expect three devices based on leaks. One of those was just spotted on Geekbench and its the vanilla model bearing the RMX 3310 identifier. It packs a Snapdragon 888 chipset at the helm aided by 12GB RAM and managed scores of 1,125-points on the single-core test and a 3,278-points outing in the multi-core department. The listing also confirmed Android 12 which presumably comes with Realme UI 3 on top. Realme GT 2 Geekbench test run Realme GT 2 is rumored to arrive in India and was already certified by the country’s local...

Samsung brought a late Christmas gift for many Galaxy users and pushed the (fixed) One UI 4 to the Note20 and S20 series, the S10 lineup, and the latest foldables. We can also report the original Samsung Galaxy Z Flip in its LTE and 5G variations is joining the One UI 4 party for good measure. The update was spotted in Italy and Switzerland, and we’re confident other users will also be getting notified by the end of the day. It can also be triggered through the Software Update menu in Settings if it is disabled for some reason. One UI 4 brings an overhaul of the interface design,...

Tecno’s Spark 8 Pro was quietly announced earlier today as expected and it brings a large 6.8-inch screen with MediaTek’s midrange Helio G85 chipset and a decently sized 5,000mAh battery. Spark 8 Pro’s display outputs FHD+ resolution and comes with a punch-hole cutout for its 8MP selfie cam. The back features a ridged design and triple camera setup with a 48MP primary camera next to a 2MP depth cam and a third unspecified module. The phone also houses a side-mounted fingerprint scanner and comes with a headphone jack and 33W charging. The software side is covered by Android 11 with...

Yet another round of images of the upcoming Galaxy S22 Ultra in the wild has arrived. As before, this isn't a real phone but rather a dummy, but it nonetheless serves the purpose of illustrating what the phone would look like. It would be nice to see a set of images of the real Galaxy S22 Ultra, only to see the proper cameras in their place. Still, here's a look at the Silver variant of the Galaxy S22 Ultra, alongside the Black one. The S Pen is also present in its in-body holster. Samsung Galaxy S22 dummy, source: @hypark22 In related news, the Galaxy S22 Ultra will have...

The vivo Y21 launched in India back in August, and now it will get a mightier sibling, called vivo Y21T. According to sources, it will come on January 3 with a triple 50MP camera and a Snapdragon 680 chipset with LTE-only connectivity. Looking at the leaked specs, the Y21T could very well be the vivo Y21s (or the vivo Y33s), but with a Qualcomm chipset instead of the Helio G80. vivo Y33s According to the leak, a 5,000 mAh battery powering the vivo Y21T supports 18W fast charging, most likely through a USB-C port. The phone will have one memory option - 4/128GB and a trio of...

Xiaomi held a big conference yesterday where it announced a bunch of new hardware but it also brought a new user interface for its device portfolio with MIUI 13 for phones, tablets, smart devices and TVs. A day after the big event we get our first list of Xiaomi devices in line for the update. The improvements brought to the new version of MIUI for phones include enhanced security with electronic fraud protection, new privacy controls, revamped widgets, wallpapers and a new Mi Sans font. Global users of the following Xiaomi phones should expect MIUI 13 from Q1 2022. The list includes...

Asus has been testing Android 12 on the Zenfone 8 and Zenfone 8 Flip for a few months now, and as promised, the Taiwanese tech company has released the Android 12 stable update for both smartphones before the year ends. The firmware for the Zenfone 8 comes with version number 31.1004.0404.73 and the Zenfone 8 Flip with 31.1004.0404.61. But do note that the update is currently only seeding for the Zenfone 8 sporting model designation ZS590KS and the Zenfone 8 Flip having model code ZS672KS. Besides, your device should be running the latest Android 11 firmware rolled out by Asus to...

Xiaomi launched three phones under the Redmi Note 11 family, followed by a Redmi Note 11T, and now another one is joining - Redmi Note 11S. The phone with model number 2201117SG appeared on multiple certification websites, including the NBTC in Singapore, BIS in India, and the Eurasian Economic Area (EEC). There are no less than four more variations of the model number, which are likely for the different carrier configurations, as well as multiple storage options. Sadly, the listings give zero information on any actual specs, launch date, or pricing whatsoever. The Redmi Note 10S...

Samsung is expected to announce the long-delayed Galaxy S21 FE next month, though conflicting reports have us guessing the launch will take place either during (January 3 or 4) or shortly following CES 2022 (January 11). A customer has already been able to purchase the unreleased phone at a retailer in South Africa. Reddit user u/UnknownWon posted several nuggets of useful information that most of us get to benefit from. The user posted an unboxing video that shows the initial setup of the S21 FE, and we can spot the slim box that omits the charger. More recently, u/UnknownWon...

Samsung is moving fast in the updates world. Just yesterday the company managed to restart its update to One UI 4 based on Android 12 for the Galaxy S21 family as well as the Galaxy Z Fold3 and Flip3 after having paused the rollout for a few days to fix some bugs. And today, only one day later, the company is ready to send out One UI 4 to even more devices. We're talking about the entire Galaxy S20 family, including the S20 FE, as well as the Galaxy Note20 family. All of the devices in these ranges are now receiving the latest software, based on Android 12, at least in one place in the...

Yesterday we heard that Oppo might skip the number 4 and its unlucky connotations in Chinese culture, and go straight from X3 to X5 in its Find series of high-end smartphones. Not just that, but apparently there will be no less than three Find X5 branded handsets - we're guessing vanilla X5, X5 Pro, and X5 Lite, since that's what the company has done in the past. Today a few renders based on "early prototype schematics" have been outed, and it's unclear whether these show the Find X5 or the Find X5 Pro, so keep that in mind. As you can see, the curved glass around the camera...

Beats by Dre has announced a new limited-edition variant of the Beats Studio Buds earbuds to commemorate the 2022 Year of the Tiger in China. The new limited-edition model features aesthetic differences to the standard model. It comes in a red color with golden tiger stripes on the case as well as the earbuds. Aside from that, these are pretty much identical to the standard Beats Studio Buds, which are a pair of truly wireless earbuds with active noise-canceling and 8-hours of listening time. They also retail for the same RMB 1099 as the other color variants. The...

Xiaomi’s 12 series phones are official but they weren’t the only new gadgets announced on stage. We got a new Xiaomi Watch S1 smartwatch as well as all-new Xiaomi TWS Earphones 3. Watch S1 is Xiaomi’s most premium watch to date with its stainless steel construction, sapphire glass-protected 1,43-inch AMOLED display and third-party app support. Xiaomi Watch S1 in its three leather strap variants It can track over 117 sports modes and is also 5ATM waterproof. There’s an onboard NFC module for payments as well as a microphone and speaker for calls via your paired phone. There...

After months of leaks and rumors, Xiaomi’s 12 series is now official with three entries - Xiaomi 12, Xiaomi 12 Pro and Xiaomi 12X. The vanilla model takes a more compact approach with its 6.28-inch screen while still fitting the very best Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. The 12 Pro bumps up the size to 6.73-inches and also boasts the same SoC but it also adds an LTPO AMOLED display, bigger battery, faster charging and more capable camera hardware. The more budget-oriented Xiaomi 12X comes with the Snapdragon 870 SoC and similar size and specs to the Xiaomi 12. Xiaomi 12 Xiaomi 12 comes...

Samsung's stable updates to One UI 4 based on Android 12 for the Galaxy S21 family and the Galaxy Z Fold3 and Flip3 were halted last week due to a nasty issue with Google Play compatibility. Now, about five days later, the issues seem to have been sorted out through some collaboration with Google over the holidays, as the rollouts are finally restarted. There's a new build doing the rounds, and this is labeled G99xBXXS3BULC for the S21 models (where "x" is a number that varies according to which device you have). The Korean variants get G99xNKSS3BULC. On the other hand, the new build for...

Samsung's working on a successor to the Galaxy M32 from earlier this year, which will unsurprisingly be called Galaxy M33. A prototype of this model has been spotted in the Geekbench database today, where it showed up with the Exynos 1200 chipset at the helm. That's the same SoC that the Galaxy A53 5G was caught running the same benchmark with, and their scores are pretty similar too, unsurprisingly. It is in fact likely that the Galaxy M33 will be a rebranded A53, but with one major difference - a much larger battery. The Galaxy M33's cell has already been certified by SafetyKorea,...

Realme TechLife brand DIZO is gearing up to announce a set of new smart accessories on January 5 with the Watch R smartwatch and Buds Z Pro TWS earphones. The Watch R looks a lot like the Realme Watch T1 with a round 1.3-inch AMOLED display, 5ATM waterproofing, continuous heart rate monitoring. It’s also confirmed to feature SpO2 meter, over 100 sports modes and a battery life rated at 12 days of contentious usage. DIZO Watch R and Buds Z Pro (images: DIZO) DIZO Buds Z Pro are said to feature 10mm drives, ANC and up to 25 hours of playback with the included charging case. The...

Oppo finally received a patent for a phone with an under-display camera, and now the company secured the rights on three more designs. All of them have one thing in common: a rear display within the camera island. It is highly unlikely these solutions will be part of the Find X5 series, but we would love to see a revolution in the way we use smartphones, and hopefully, Oppo could lead it. A display on the back is nothing new - Meizu Pro 7 series brought a tall 2” Super AMOLED screen, while the Mi 11 Ultra reused a 1.1” Mi Band 5 panel. And let’s not forget the vivo NEX Dual Display...

Realme is all set to introduce its GT 2 series on January 4 and as we inch closer to said date we get more details. Just a few days ago we got to see the GT 2 Pro Master Edition’s display in a teaser video and today we get plenty of details about the panel’s specs. Realme GT 2 series display specs (images: Weibo) Realme GT 2 series will bring a 6.7-inch LTPO AMOLED panel with 3216 × 1440px resolution and up to 120Hz refresh rate. The screen already received an A+ rating from DisplayMate and is will be protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus. Realme GT 2 series...

OnePlus 10 Pro was confirmed to arrive in January 2022, and the phone is already up for reservations, which is just a feature to notify users when the product arrives. A listing on JD.com said the pre-order is scheduled for January 4, and we think this is also the launch date in China. Smartphone companies usually put their phones up for pre-order when the device is launched, but OnePlus is not a typical maker, since it is as popular overseas as it is at home. We would not be surprised to see a simple teaser on January 4 with some of the key features of the phone, like a Snapdragon 8...

Oppo promised in early December a Find X phone with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will arrive in Q1 2022. Two weeks later, Mediatek confirmed that another device from the series will be powered by a Dimensity 9000. The leakster Digital Chat Station revealed the flagship family would actually have three members at launch, with the third one with a yet unknown chipset. They also stated Oppo is working on another Find N phone, which will have a horizontal hinge, which will compete with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 and Huawei P50 Pocket on the Chinese market. Interestingly enough, they also called...

It has been a productive year for Xiaomi – it launched over 50 devices and that is just counting the phones. It also did a bit of rebranding by dropping the ‘Mi’ from its premium devices – starting in the second half of this year, the company goes with just “Xiaomi” + model number, just as it has always done in China. The year isn’t over yet, the company plans to unveil one of the first phones with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – the Xiaomi 12 series – which will probably arrive with the stable MIUI 13 (a beta version is already undergoing tests). Winner: Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra It’s...

Oppo's Find N foldable phone did stay long in the spotlight and after being the most popular smartphone in our database last week didn't even make the top 10 this time around. Instead all eyes are on the Xiaomi 12, which is due to be announced in two days. It leads from the Redmi Note 11 Pro and Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G, which have been in these positions for three weeks now. In fourth place we have another upcoming phone - the vivo V23 Pro, which just edged out the newly introduced Huawei P50 Pocket foldable. That pushes the iPhone 13 Pro Max to sixth, just ahead of another new...

What are the best-sounding smartphones to come out this year? Not the ones that are the loudest - that's settled by the numbers in our tests and we already covered it. No, we're talking about the phones that we can listen to with our own ears and truly like what we're hearing. And while some of the phones we've gathered here are objectively loud and that did help their cases, that's not what got them on this list in the first place. We introduced the current testing methodology in early 2020 to replace the old one in an attempt to offer a test that better reflects real-world usage of...

Huawei has consistently delivered impressive smart wearables for the past few years and it's no wonder we welcomed the Watch GT3 with high expectations. Having spent the better part of a month putting it through its paces we are now ready to share our impressions with you. Spoiler alert: it's very good, an the 2021 smartwatch to have for many a user. Read on to find out if you are among them. Design and Build The Huawei Watch GT3 adopted the rotating top button from its more premium Watch 3 siblings, down to the neat detail with the engraverd brand name. The bezel has minute...

Another week down and only one left to go in 2021. It was business as usual, which means a lot of Galaxy S22 leaks. We saw official cases for the Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra, as well as a look at the new S Pen. We saw the Galaxy S22 series dummies pictured side by side for scale, as well as a reported official poster for the Galaxy S22 Ultra. We learned that all three S22 models will have glass backs, as opposed to last year's series, where only the Ultra was all glass. Finally, the Galaxy S21 FE is expected to become official on January 3 and launch on the 11. The upcoming phone was...

Folding phones seem to have an ever-increasing fanbase and Oppo Find N is no exception despite its single-market availability. W loved our time spent with the compact foldable doing our full review and plenty of you are also fond of Oppo’s first folding phone. Last week’s poll was all about your opinion on the Find N and now that the votes are in, we have a clear majority that believes Oppo made the best foldable to date. And there’s good reason for all the positive feedback, Oppo really made a well-rounded device with a unique form factor that does not really have a direct competitor...

Working, studying and spending more time at home than ever before leads to some unexpected market trends. The tablet market was dormant for years with Apple having an unparalleled lead over competitors yet once 2020 rolled in things began to change. Android makers re-emphasized their efforts in the once-forgotten tablet sphere and we got plenty of interesting options in all price points over the past twelve months. Apple also kept improving its own iPads with its refreshed mini and high-end Pro models. We’ve gathered a bunch of our top picks for the best tablets of 2021 and are presenting...

Anker has launched a new multi-device charger featuring four USB-C ports. This charger is capable of providing up to 120W at the same time, provided you can do a bit of math. The way this works is that different ports on the charger have different outputs. One of the ports is capable of sending up to 100W of power by itself if it's the only one in use. Another one can do up to 60W and then the remaining two can do 20W each. Now, if you plug in two devices, the 100W port drops down to 90W if you use one of the two 20W ports or 60W if you use the 60W port. And if you're charging...

Apple unveiled the iPhone 13 lineup in September, and the iPhone 14 is still months away from the launch, but rumors around the iPhone 15 have already started doing rounds on the internet, with the latest one claiming Apple will ditch the physical SIM card slot beginning with the iPhone 15 series in 2023. Word comes from Brazilian publication Blog do iPhone, which says that the 2023's Pro models (tentatively called iPhone 15 Pro) will not have physical SIM card slots and will rely entirely on eSIM technology for connectivity. The source also claims that these iPhones will come with dual...

It was a challenging year for all brands, but Apple ends up an absolute winner. Sure, it ended up a victim of the chip shortages as well and is still having trouble putting all of its devices on store shelves. But those devices are in high demand and when that's said for devices as expensive as Apple's are, you know they are pretty great. Apple grew its sales in much of 2021. Whether it was tablets, laptops, or phones, Apple either was the number one or in the top five among rivals. Couple that with Apple's unmatched high margins and it spells a superb 2021. But it wasn't all wins for...

Samsung's been testing the Android 12-based One UI 4 beta on the Galaxy S20 series for some time now, but the lineup won't get any more beta builds since the Korean tech giant has said that the S20 smartphones will receive the stable update next. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra This revelation comes from Samsung Korea's Beta Operations Manager, who said "there are currently no plans to open additional betas" and the company is "preparing to open the official version." While that's undoubtedly good news, the official didn't tell which S20 series smartphone will receive the stable One UI 4...

The foldable smartphone space is definitely heating up these days, with more and more companies announcing more and more such devices. Motorola was one of the pioneers of the space, with the original foldable Razr launched in 2019. The 5G followup a year later made much smaller waves, but the company is undeterred and in fact it's already working on the next generation Razr. This information comes straight from a Lenovo exec, posting on Weibo (Lenovo owns Motorola). He promises that the next Razr will be more advanced in terms of performance, and it will come with an improved UI....

Welcome to our recap of the top news articles of 2021. We'll start with the main events of the first three months of the year and we'll cover the next quarters in the following episodes of the series. The first quarter of the year was transformative and shaped a lot of 2021. Qualcomm had just announced its Snapdragon 888 in the last month of 2020, and the first phones with the new flagship chipset came out at the turn of 2021. The Xiaomi Mi 11 pioneered the SD888, but notable phones with Qualcomm's new silicon included the Mi 11 Pro, the Redmi K40 Pro+, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, Mi Mix...

The first week of January 2022 is turning out to be busier than expected. We know Realme, vivo, and Xiaomi are hosting launch events on 4th, 5th, and 6th, respectively, to unveil their new smartphones. Now Lenovo has announced it will kick off the new year by unveiling a gaming smartphone on the first day of 2022. Lenovo's new gaming smartphone is called the Legion Y90, and while the company hasn't detailed its specs sheet yet, it did reveal a few specs of the phone's display. The Lenovo Legion Y90 will pack a 6.92" E4 AMOLED screen with a 144Hz refresh rate and 720Hz touch sampling...

vivo sub-brand iQOO unveiled the iQOO Neo5 S and Neo5 SE earlier this week, and today the company further expanded its portfolio with the iQOO U5's announcement. The iQOO U5 is powered by the Snapdragon 695 SoC, runs Android 12-based OriginOS Ocean out of the box, and has three RAM options - 4GB, 6GB, and 8GB. It also comes with Memory Fusion 2.0, allowing virtual RAM expansion up to 4GB. The U5 has a single 128GB storage option, but you can still expand the storage (up to 256GB) via a microSD card. The Snapdragon 695-powered smartphone packs a 6.58" 120Hz FullHD+ LCD with a...