Xiaomi launched the Mix Flip, its first flip-style foldable smartphone, back in July, and according to a new report from China it was very successful over there.
So much so, in fact, that its successor is planned to arrive earlier than initially expected. It will allegedly land before the end of June, and it will be a major iteration, not just a small incremental upgrade.
Original Xiaomi Mix Flip
The Mix Flip 2 will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, and it will be thinner than its predecessor while also packing IPX8 water resistance rating and support for wireless charging.
Xiaomi Mix Flip
So it’s looking like a pretty good update indeed, we’ll let you know when we find out more about it. In the meantime, you can read our in-depth review of the original Mix Flip to get a hang of what to expect from Xiaomi’s interpretation of this form factor.
vivo is currently working on the X200 Ultra, its absolute flagship smartphone for 2025. Today a new leak from China brings us a few interesting details about its cameras.
The phone will reportedly have a triple rear camera setup just like its predecessor, with a 50 MP main shooter, a 50 MP ultrawide, and a 200 MP periscope telephoto camera. The main camera will have a large aperture and OIS.
The X200 Ultra will capture 4K120fps video on all cameras, and will feature a new generation of vivo’s self-developed imaging chip. Additionally, switching cameras while recording video has been streamlined. Finally, the design of the camera island has been slightly changed, and apparently should look better than the X100 Ultra’s.
Ulefone has unveiled the Armor X31 Pro as the first 5G rugged smartphone in its Armor X series. It’s powered by the Dimensity 6300 SoC, runs Android 14, and comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage onboard, expandable by up to 2TB via a microSD card.
The Ulefone Armor X31 Pro has a 6.56″ HD+ 120Hz LCD on the front with 800 nits peak brightness and Gorilla Glass 5 protection. There’s also a 16MP camera for selfies and video calls.
Around the back, we have a circular camera island housing three cameras – 64MP primary (Sony IMX682), 25MP Night Vision (Sony IMX550), and 2MP macro. These are joined by two IR LEDs, an LED flash, and what Ulefone calls an “Independent Glare Flashlight.”
The Independent Glare Flashlight has a maximum brightness of 120 lumens and can be quickly turned on/off with a customizable key located on the Armor X31 Pro’s left-side frame.
Other specs of the Ulefone Armor X31 Pro include a 6,050 mAh battery, 18W charging, NFC, IR blaster, side-mounted fingerprint scanner, MIL-STD-810H certification, and IP68/69K rating.
Ulefone Armor X31 Pro’s features
Ulefone also announced the Armor Case for the X31 Pro. It’s sold separately and features a 180-degree rotatable back clip and a carabiner for easy carrying. Other accessories available for the Armor X31 Pro include an Armor Mount, Armor Mount Pro, and a Sports Armband. These are also sold separately.
Ulefone Armor X31 Pro’s accessories
The Ulefone Armor X31 Pro comes in Classic Black, Few Orange, and Lightsome Green colors. It’s priced at $399.99 (€385/INR33,980) and will be sold through AliExpress starting January 1, 2025, at a special price of $199.99 (€190/INR16,990).
The latest budget Android smartphone from HMD is here with the HMD Arc. It brings a 6.52-inch IPS LCD (HD+ 60Hz), a Unisoc SC9863A chipset (28nm) and a single 13MP primary camera. The phone boots Android 14 (Go Edition) and is listed in a single 4GB RAM and 64GB storage trim.
HMD Arc
You also get a 5,000 mAh battery with 10W charging, a 5MP selfie cam and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. HMD Arc supports storage expansion via its microSD card slot and is IP52/IP54 rated against dust and water splashes.
HMD Arc comes in a single Shadow Black color. Pricing details were not yet revealed.
We are two weeks away from the end of 2024 and yet the two most popular phones in our database were announced in the first quarter of the year. The interest in Samsung Galaxy A55 and Galaxy S24 Ultra may not be quite as high as when they first hit the shelves, but it’s still enough to top our trending chart.
Samsung Galaxy A55
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A change of guard is just around the corner though, as the Redmi Note 14 Pro+ climbed to third place, followed by the Redmi Note 14.
The Redmi Note 13 Pro has slipped to fifth, while the vivo X200 Pro has gained two more spots to capture the sixth spot.
The Redmi invasion continues with the Note 14 Pro in seventh, just ahead of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which lost quite a lot of ground over the past week.
Redmi Note 13 is now ninth, while the Samsung Galaxy A16 wraps up this edition of the chart.
A new leader by the end of the year? We wouldn’t rule it out if current trends continue.
A while back we heard that the iPhone 17 Pro will have a rectangular camera bump, instead of the current square bump that has been used for many generations. That report also claimed that Apple is dumping titanium and is going back to aluminum for the frames. More recently, a report suggested that Apple will stick with titanium for the Pros, so the weird camera bump rumor is false… right?
Perhaps not and it may be worse than we imagined. A post on Weibo shows this image and claims that it is a bare frame from the iPhone supply chain. The cameras will be in the top area with the ultra-wide lens going in the middle (it is the thinnest module, so this helps to leave enough room for the Face ID hardware on the other side).
Alleged iPhone 17 Pro frame
Leakster Digital Chat Station lends credence to this leak and shares a speculative render of the iPhone 17 Pro. This ties back to the original rumor, which claimed that the back will be a mix of aluminum and glass (the big hole at the bottom of the frame will be covered with glass to let wireless charging, NFC and other signals go through).
Speculative iPhone 17 Pro render
And can we talk about the placement of the camera island for a moment? Yes, it looks like the “visor” on Pixel phones, but as you’ll notice, Google placed its cameras lower. The iPhone 17 design will be basically impossible to hold horizontally without covering up at least some of the cameras.
Google Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL
Cupertino has always been cognizant of ergonomics, so it’s hard to believe they will get it this wrong. There is almost a full year until the 17-series arrives, so maybe this is a failed experiment.
Over the past few weeks we’ve seen a lot of Chinese smartphone makers launching devices with 6,000 mAh batteries and larger, but according to a new rumor out of China, this is only the beginning. Sure, Red Magic already went to 7,050 mAh, but next year it will have some (more) competition.
That’s because we can allegedly expect both Redmi phones and OnePlus handsets with 7,000 mAh batteries in 2025. This, combined with the ever-increasing mobile chipset efficiency means battery life in 2025 definitely shouldn’t be a problem anymore, even for the most demanding of users.
OnePlus 13
It’s been a long time coming, this, and at least this year’s 6,000+ mAh cells did not come with any penalty in terms of phone thickness thanks to the new silicon tech used, and we assume the same will be true next year – or, at the worst, we’ll see marginal increases in thickness that can easily be lived with because of the improvement in longevity.
Unfortunately the source of this rumor hasn’t detailed which devices from Redmi and OnePlus will go to 7,000 on the mAh scale, but we assume the Redmi K90 series and the OnePlus 14 are prime contenders. We’ll let you know when we find out more.
Oppo is reportedly working on a gaming tablet which will be called X8 Pad (or maybe Find X8 Pad, the “Find” bit could have been lost in machine translation from Chinese).
This has an 8.8-inch top-spec LCD touchscreen with rounded corners, a slim all-metal body, and it’s powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 SoC just like the Find X8 and Find X8 Pro smartphones, which are already official.
Oppo Pad 3 Pro
So it’s looking to be a very interesting offering, this. A small-screened tablet with a flagship SoC could be intriguing to some people. Keep in mind that this is just an unconfirmed rumor at this point, but it does come from the usually reliable Digital Chat Station on Weibo for what it’s worth.
Battlemage is here – Intel just announced the first two cards that use its new GPU architecture. Since Intel uses letters instead of numbers to denote generation, say “hello” to the Intel Arc B580 and B570.
The B580 is priced at $250, the B570 is a bit cheaper at $220. Both are based on the same BMG-G21 chip, but use different bins. The B580 has 20 Xe2 cores and 12GB of VRAM (192-bit bus, 456GB/s), while the B570 has 18 Xe2 cores and 10GB of VRAM (160-bit bus, 380GB/s). The B570 also runs at lower clocks and a lower TDP (150W vs. 180W), but both are powered by a single 8-pin connector. Here is the head-to-head comparison between the two cards.
Intel Arc B580 vs. B570
Perhaps a more important comparison is with the outgoing Arc A750, which launched at $250 – the same price as the Arc B580. However, the B580 is 24% faster on average compared to the old Intel card (tested at 1440p). The company’s own testing shows that it edges out the Nvidia RTX 4060 by a 10% margin and the Nvidia card is a bit pricier while having less VRAM (8GB).
The new Xe2 architecture up close
The new Xe2 graphics architecture looks promising – the BMG-G21 chip has 19.6 billion transistors, down from 21.7 billion on the ACM-G10 that was used for the A750. So, smaller chip, higher performance.
B580 vs. A750 • B580 vs. 4060 • Battlemage vs. Alchemist
The Xe2 cores are 70% faster at full tilt and more efficient too, offering 50% higher performance per watt than the cores used in Intel’s first gen GPUs (Alchemist). Additionally, they have new X Matrix Extensions (XMX) AI engines, which accelerate ray-tracing.
Intel Arc B580 Limited Edition
These days the software is just as important as the silicon, so Intel is also introducing XeSS 2. In addition to super resolution (image upscaling), version 2 features Frame Generation and Low Latency (these are answers to Nvidia’s frame gen and Reflex tech).
XeSS 2, now featuring frame gen and low latency options
F1 24 will be the first game to support XeSS 2, nine others will support it “soon”:
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions
RoboCop: Rogue City
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Dying Light 2 Stay Human
Ascendant
Marvel Rivals
Killing Floor 3
Citadels
Anyway, the Intel Arc B580 will be available from December 13. There is a B580 Limited Edition with dual fans. Acer, Asrock, Gunnir, Maxsun, Onix and Sparkle will also be releasing Battlemage cards. The cheaper Arc B570 is coming on January 16.
Xiaomi has diversified its Smart Band lineup (formerly Mi Band) over the years, and it now comes in three distinct variations, with the Active being the most affordable one at €30/20 – cheaper than the vanilla Smart Band 9.
Band 9 Active comes with a smaller 1.47-inch TFT display (60Hz) that boasts some thick bezels, and it’s noticeably dimmer than the OLED panels on its siblings. This little nugget is entirely made from plastic, and it’s just 16.5 grams and 9.99mm thick, making it comfortable to wear 24/7.
There’s no shortage of watch faces here, with 100+ options from the Mi Fitness app. Our review unit comes in Black with a matching TPU strap and we also received the flashy black and green option.
Smart Band 9 Active boasts a PPG sensor for heart rate and blood oxygen tracking. You also get the usual sleep and stress tracking too and activity tracking for over 50 sports modes. There’s no built-in GPS sensor here, but the device is still 5ATM water resistant, so you can take it to the pool without worries.
The retail package includes a proprietary two-in magnetic charger, which looks like the ones on previous Smart Bands.
Xiaomi added a 300mAh battery, which it claims can last up to 18 days with normal use. We’ll make sure to test those claims in our review alongside our usual set of tests.
