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OnePlus 12 debuts with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, IP65 rating and 50W wireless charging. OnePlus went ahead and launched its OnePlus 12 at a special event in China that coincides with the company’s tenth anniversary. OnePlus 12 is one of the most impressive new phones, bringing the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, up to 24 GB RAM and 1 TB storage. Wireless charging makes a return after it was omitted from the OnePlus 11 and OnePlus also blessed its latest flagship with an IP65 rating against dust and water jets.

There’s an impressive curved 6.82-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 1,440 x 3,168px resolution and 1-120 Hz adaptive refresh rate upfront. The BOE-made panel is advertised to crank out up to 4,500 nits peak brightness for HDR content or 1,600 nits in normal use. OnePlus also boasts a 2,160Hz PWM dimming feature and class-leading blue light filtering.

Going around the back reveals a Hasselblad-branded camera setup headlined by a 50 MP main shooter with Sony’s dual-layer stacked Lytia 808 sensor. This is the same sensor used on the OnePlus Open with 1.12µm pixels and a 24mm equivalent f/1.7 lens with OIS. The main shooter is complimented by a 70mm equivalent 64 MP telephoto module with 3x optical zoom and up to 6x lossless magnification via in-sensor zoom. The third shooter is a 14mm equivalent 48 MP ultrawide camera with an IMX581 sensor. OnePlus 12 boots ColorOS 14.0, based on Android 14 in China which will likely arrive as OxygenOS 14 for the international markets.

The phone brings a 5,400 mAh dual-cell battery which is the largest seen in a OnePlus phone to date. The other notable bit is that the OP 12 also supports up to 50W wireless charging as well as 10W reverse wireless charging. If you prefer old-fashioned wired charging, you can go up to 100W speeds.

The new flagship also supports the very latest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity standards and also brings an IR blaster and USB Type-C 3.2 connector for faster-wired transfer speeds. OnePlus 12 comes in black, emerald green and white colors. Pricing in China starts at CNY 4,299 ($607) for the 12/256GB model and tops out at CNY 5,799 ($818) for the version with 24GB RAM and 1TB storage. OnePlus 12 is already on pre-order in China while open sales start on December 11. The international crowd might have to wait deep into January of 2024 for the OnePlus 12 global launch. The company has not yet confirmed an official global launch date.

Samsung Galaxy Fit3's leaked images reveal color options. The Samsung Galaxy Fit3 was expected to go official early this year, but that didn't happen. Samsung hasn't announced when it will unveil the Fit3 but renders that leaked last week revealed what the smartband would look like. Now, more images have surfaced, showing the Fit3 in two new colors: grey and black.

These pictures also corroborate the previous design leak of the Samsung Galaxy Fit3. It has a rectangular screen - rumored to be larger than the three-year-old Fit2's display - with a physical button and a microphone on the right side. The Samsung Galaxy Fit3 will come with silicone straps and the usual slew of health and fitness trackers, including sleep tracking, heart-rate monitoring, and step counter. Samsung is rumored to unveil the Galaxy S24 series in January 2024, and whether or not it will introduce the Galaxy Fit3 at the same event remains to be seen.

The Huawei P70 will reportedly use an in-house image sensor for its cameras. With the introduction of the Mate 60 series Huawei resumed the manufacture of 5G-capable HiSilicon Kirin chipsets for use in its smartphones. Now it seems that the company plans to swap another chip with an in-house design, the image sensor.

Huawei has long been using Sony sensors in its phones, a peculiar design with two yellow sub-pixels instead of two greens. However, leakster Fixed Focus Digital reports that Sony and Huawei have not renewed their contract – and that Huawei doesn’t have any more Sony sensors in its inventory.

This fuels the speculation that the upcoming Huawei P70 series will use Huawei-designed sensors. The company recently had to replace another part of its camera system – after the partnership with Leica ended, Huawei introduced XMAGE platform including a bespoke NPU. Huawei is also reportedly working on a new optical fingerprint reader for the P70 series. Of course, the company has not officially confirmed any of that, but we expect these in-house designs will be a big part of its presentation when the time comes – which should be in early next year.

Not by choice, Huawei has had to build its own alternatives to components that it previously imported. By the sound of it, the P70 series will take that to the next level.

Huawei to launch new Kirin 830 chipset with the nova 12 series. Huawei revealed last year that there will be no Kirin chipsets in 2023 and even got cocky, calling reports “false news”. Fast forward nine months, and we saw the company announce the Mate 60 series with a Kirin 9000S platform, and now we hear there are plans for yet another SoC – a Kirin 8 series.

The new chip is likely to be called Kirin 830, and according to the leakster, it will launch with the nova 12 series “at the end of the year”. This isn't the first time we have heard about this particular chipset, but only now do we get a timeframe for its arrival. The nova 12 and nova 12 Pro appeared in some leaked posters, suggesting the Kirin 830 chip will be only for the vanilla smartphone. The phone will have three cameras on the back, a mighty 60 MP selfie shooter at the front and 88W charging support.

The performance of the Kirin 830 is rumored to be on par with Snapdragon 778G or Snapdragon 870 by Qualcomm, but we are still in the land of speculation. The bigger issue is who will manufacture the chipset as 5G technologies and patents are still held by US companies that are not allowed to trade with Huawei or its subsidiary chipset maker HiSilicon.

Apple iPhone 15 Pro in for review. It's time to unbox the new Apple iPhone 15 Pro. Just like the bigger phone, the Pro ships with a single item - a USB-C cable. As far as those go, this one is a quality, braided unit. Before we come back to the inevitable comparisons with the Pro Max, let's take a good appreciative glance at the new iPhone 15 Pro. Perhaps it's the years of glossy, razor-like iPhone Pro models before it, but the subtle, lightly-curved new device looks distinguishable in a positive way.

At around 19 grams lighter, it also feels like a smaller phone than before. We can thank Apple's choice of titanium and aluminum alloy here. The new material also brings a matte finish, which is pleasant. Returning to those comparisons with the Pro Max, you get a few benefits going big - bigger display and battery, which means better media consumption for longer, though we'll test both thoroughly in our review.

But you also have the new 5x telephoto camera, which reaches far beyond the 3x of the 15 Pro. Focal lengths, like phone size, are subjective though, some people just might prefer the smaller iPhone's shorter zoom.

EU Commissioner wants Apple to open its ecosystem to competitors. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, introduced the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to ensure a higher degree of competition by preventing large companies from abusing their market power. One of the targeted companies is Apple, and according to Reuters, Commissioner of Internal Market Thierry Breton told Tim Cook he needs to open the ecosystem to competitors. Breton revealed he met the Apple CEO in Brussels and told him Apple should allow iPhone users to benefit from competitive services, be it electronic wallets, browsers or app stores. One of the counter-arguments Cook used was that it might compromise security and privacy, but the EU chief added DMA fosters innovation without jeopardizing either of these.

So far, six companies have been designated as gatekeepers that need their digital products and services adapted to the Act – Alphabet (owner of Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (owner of TikTok), Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), and Microsoft. According to the European Commission's website, the DMA wants gatekeepers to allow third parties to inter-operate within the companies' own services, allow business users to access data generated by them, and allow businesses to conclude contracts and deals outside the platform.

iPhone 15 Pro Max demand is outpacing last year’s 14 Pro Max. The iPhone 15 series went on pre-order in the first wave of countries last Friday and we now have some our first set of estimates on how well things are going for it. Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, suggests the iPhone 15 Pro Max is garnering most of the consumer attention and is outpacing initial demand for last year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max. Demand for the entry level iPhone 15 and 15 Plus is on par with last year’s iPhone 14 and 14 Plus. Looking over at the iPhone 15 Pro, Kuo suggest demand is lower this year as more users are looking for the updated camera experience on the larger Pro Max model.

Kuo: iPhone 15 Pro Max demand is outpacing last year’s 14 Pro Max
Wait times for the iPhone 15 Pro Max are “significantly” longer than last year's 14 Pro Max, not just because of the higher demand, but also due to ongoing production challenges and an altered production schedule. Lastly, Kuo expects the iPhone 15 series to reach a combined 80 million shipments by the end of the year.

Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max have more RAM than last year's models. Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 series yesterday at its "Wonderlust" event, and while the brand talked about the new features and improvements the iPhone 15 lineup comes with, it expectedly didn't mention the amount of RAM its smartphones have onboard. But thanks to MacRumors and software code researcher aaronp613, we know this year's Pro versions have more RAM than last year's models.

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max each have 8GB RAM onboard - that's 2GB more RAM than what the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max came with. This information was found in the files in the Xcode 15 Release Candidate. However, there are no details about the type of RAM used on the iPhone 15 series. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus come with 6GB RAM, which is the same as last year's iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus.

All four iPhone 15 models will be up for pre-orders starting September 15 in the first wave of countries, with sales beginning September 22.

Xiaomi Watch S3 to come with bigger battery and 4G. Xiaomi is working on a new flagship smartwatch, reveals leakster Digital Chat Station on their Weibo profile. The tentatively named Watch S3 will have a bigger battery than the S2, and for the first time a Xiaomi wearable will support LTE connectivity.

The battery of the Watch S3 will be 520 mAh, which is slightly better than the 500 mAh cell on the Watch S2. The OLED screen will reportedly gain adaptive refresh rate, improving the battery life significantly. The upcoming watch will also support 4G connectivity and native voice calls.

The leakster added in comments' replies the watch is likely to launch at the end of the year at the Xiaomi 14 series launch event. The smartphones usually arrive in December as some of the first devices with Qualcomm's latest flagship Snapdragon chipset, and it looks like this year will be no exception.

iQOO Z7 Pro launched in India with Dimensity 7200 and 66W charging. The iQOO Z7 Pro is now official as the latest Z7 series device in India. It brings updates across the board compared to the iQOO Z7 launched in March. The Z7 Pro gets a larger curved 6.78-inch AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. It also retains the in-display fingerprint scanner and 16MP front-facing camera housed inside a punch-hole cutout. MediaTek’s Dimensity 7200 chipset sits at the helm aided by 8GB RAM and 128/256GB storage. The back houses a 64MP main camera with OIS and a 2MP depth sensor. There’s a 4,600 mAh battery here which supports up to 66W fast charging and iQOO claims a 1-50% charge in 22 minutes. The software side is covered by Funtouch OS 13 based on Android 13 with iQOO promising 2 years of Android updates and 3 years of security patches. The device is also IP52 dust and water-resistant.

iQOO Z7 Pro comes in Blue Lagoon and Graphite Matte colors. Pricing starts at INR 23,999 ($290) for the 8/128GB trim and INR 24,999 ($302) for the 8/256GB version. Open sales are scheduled to begin on September 5 via iQOO India and Amazon at 12 noon IST time.

Realme GT5 240W unboxing. The Realme GT5 240W is an exercise in excessiveness. It has 1TB of storage and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip paired with 24GB of RAM - yes, 24! Inside is a 4,600mAh battery that takes a whopping 240 watts of charging. That's not the first time we've seen this insane number, mind you, the GT3 did it first. Realme says the GT5 can get 20% battery back in 80 seconds. We'll test that and the full time to 100% in a separate article.

The box also has a beefy USB-C cable and a case. The Realme GT5 has a 6.74-inch 144Hz AMOLED display with a 1240x2772px resolution. It's a superb panel with excellent contrast and colors, and it gets plenty bright. The glass on top is flat.

Things change on the other side of the Realme GT5 240W. The glass tapers down towards a fully round edge. The camera module and the SuperVOOC charging LED indicators share an island, which curves down towards the top and bottom of the phone. The entire thing looks like liquid metal and feels as smooth as silk. There's not a single sharp corner to touch.

The Realme GT5 is a Chinese exclusive for now but it will likely make its way to a market near you at some point. Stay tuned for our charging test in the meantime.

Sony Xperia 5 V is launching on September 1. Exactly one year after the Xperia 5 IV made its debut, Sony is ready to announce a successor with the Xperia 5 V. The upcoming device is set to debut on Friday, September 1 at 4PM Japan time (7AM UTC) and as usual, there will be a livestream on YouTube. https://youtu.be/0cHBnrLgKno?si=AoXohE3ARRYnVnzZ The short teaser trailer for the event boasts about the phone’s camera quality in both day and night shots. Based on the leaked promo video from last month, Xperia 5 V will boast a dual camera setup.

We also know it will feature a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and up to 16GB of RAM as per a listing on Geekbench. A previous certification on China’s 3C agency confirmed 33W fast charging.

Galaxy S24 Ultra tipped for a switch to flat screen as well. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra leaks so far are somewhat expected - camera upgrade, design changes, faster charging, etc. But the latest report is a bit of a shocker. According to reliable tipster Ice Universe, the upcoming Galaxy S24 Ultra will feature a flat display instead of a curved one.

Samsung was the first to introduce a curved screen design back in 2014 when the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge came to be, while later on it moved its entire Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S9 lineups to curved glass. The company has since reverted the lower members of the flagship lineup to flat panel and now it may also give the most premium one the same treatment.

Ice Universe says the Galaxy S24 Ultra will be 79mm wide, which can only be explained my a move to a flat screen. The Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 78.1mm width thanks to its curved edges and it's extremely unlikely for the bezels to actually grow.

Still, we'd take nothing for granted just yet. Samsung could still simply go for a larger screen, explaining the discrepancy.

Realme Buds Air 5 series will go global on August 23. The Realme 11 series arrived back in May, and they shared the stage with the Buds Air 5 Pro earphones. Today, we learned the audio wearables will reach their first international market on August 23 - it will be launched in India, alongside the Realme 11 5G and Realme 11x 5G.

In just two days, Realme first revealed the Buds Air 5 Pro would arrive in India, and today we saw another case with a different size, LED placement, and fancy blue color - surely this is the vanilla Buds Air 5, a likely successor of the Buds Air 3.

The Buds Air 5 Pro has 11 mm woofers and 6 mm planar drivers, ANC, and supports a high-bitrate LDAC codec. They are splash-proof for protection against sweat and the occasional rainshower, and Realme claimed they could isolate up to 50 dB of noise thanks to six microphones (three on each bud). Battery life is rated at 11 hours with ANC off or 40 hours with the charging case. The big unknown is how much they would cost - the Pro is selling for CNY 399 ($60) in China, but that price will be increased in India after taxes and tariffs.

Samsung US starts selling the Galaxy Z Flip5 and Z Fold5, here are the SIM-free and carrier deals.
Pre-orders are done, Samsung’s latest foldables, smartwatches and tablets are now on sale. Here are some of the deals that you can get from Samsung US, plus the offers from carriers.

Starting with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5, you can get up to $600 off (the base price is $1,000) with a trade-in. There is a $200 guaranteed minimum for trades, so even an old smartphone with a cracked screen is worth that much. Note that students get a 10% discount. There are some bundles that you can get too, you can pick up a Galaxy Tab S9 with a 30% discount of a Galaxy Watch6 with a 25% discount. Check out the Z Flip5 offers over on Samsung.com.

Don’t miss the carrier deals from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. They are a bit more restrictive in what you can send in, but a Galaxy S III or iPhone X are acceptable and instantly fetch a $1,000 discount, effectively making the 256GB Z Flip5 free. This offer is available for new and existing customers.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 starts at $1,800, but this is for the 512GB variant thanks to a free storage upgrade. On top of that you can get up to $1,000 off with an eligible trade-in. Once again there is a guaranteed minimum, so any smartphone in any condition will fetch you at least $200. The same additional offers apply: 10% off for students, 30% off for a Galaxy Tab S9 and 25% off for a Galaxy Watch6. The carrier deals from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are the same. Got an LG V50 ThinQ? Send it in for a $1,000 discount. Google Pixel 4? $1,000 discount. You get the idea, check out the eligible phones and other Z Fold5 deals over on Samsung.com.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch6 and Galaxy Watch6 Classic start at $300 and $400, respectively, for the small versions (40mm and 43mm) with Bluetooth. When trading in any old smartwatch in any condition you will get at least $50 off. A Watch4 is worth $100, a Watch4 Classic $200, the maximum discount you can get is $250. Students get 15% off. Head over to Samsung.com for more on Watch6 deals. Finally, the three tablets: Galaxy Tab S9, Galaxy Tab S9+ and Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. The Wi-Fi versions of these start at $800, $1,000 and $1,200, respectively. The maximum trade-in value is $650 with a guaranteed minimum of $75 (any tablet in any condition). You can trade in an old phone instead of a tablet, but there’s no guaranteed minimum in this case.

Also, even if you skip the trade-in offer, you can still pick up a free Get Free Cover Keyboard Slim. If you plan to use these slates for taking notes in class, you should know that students get a 15% discount. Have a look at Samsung.com for more details on Tab S9 offers.

Infinix ZeroBook 13. The Infinix ZeroBook 13 is the successor to the previous generation ZeroBook 12 model. If you’re wondering if the numbering stands for the generation of the notebook or the display size then it’s neither. Instead, the number refers to the generation of the Intel CPU inside, with the new ZeroBook 13 being equipped with Intel’s latest 13th gen models. The model we have here is the flagship in the series and also the most interesting one by far. Featuring a Core i9-13900H, 32GB memory, and 1TB SSD, the ZeroBook 13 is kitted out like a high-end notebook but comes in at an astonishing price of INR 81,990 ($989). This makes it the most powerful and well-equipped notebook in its price range, with most other models with similar specs priced well over INR 100k.

Design

The ZeroBook 13 has the same basic design as the previous generation model. Largely inspired by the MacBook Pro models of yore, the design features a silver aluminum construction throughout. The lid has a few flashy markings on it with an illuminated Zero logo.

The choice of logo seemed quite curious at first since most people wouldn’t be familiar with this branding. 'Infinix' itself isn't a particularly well-known name in the notebook space, let alone their sub-brand 'Zero'. When asked about it, Infinix argued that they wanted to showcase what is essentially their halo brand but eventually conceded that it would make more sense to have the Infinix name there instead.

I was also less sure about the flashy markings on the lid for what is supposed to be a mature, professional-grade product. Perhaps it is a way to stand out from the crowd but it is quite aggressive and distracting from the otherwise clean appearance.

Lift the lid and you are greeted with the now familiar black chiclet keyboard and large trackpad with a fine speaker grille on the side. The interior is certainly cleaner and less aggressive, if derivative. On the left are two USB-C ports, only one of which supports charging the laptop. There is also a USB-A 3.0 port with HDMI 1.4 and a DC power connector for the charger. On the right side is another USB-A 3.0 port along with a microSD slot, headphone jack, and a slider that switches between the three performance profiles.

The bottom of the laptop features ventilation for the dual fans inside. The air is pulled in from the back and exhausted out through a vent near the hinge. I am not particularly fond of this method of exhausting the hot air as it causes turbulence as the air exits from this cramped space and also the vent closes when the lid is closed, which makes it unsuitable to use the notebook with the display closed and connected to an external display.

One cool design feature is a row of red LEDs, which turn on whenever you put the laptop in the Overdrive performance mode using the switch on the side. The other two profiles don’t get any lighting. I wouldn’t have minded green lighting for the Economy mode and white lighting for the default Balanced profile.

The ZeroBook 13 is a reasonably well-built machine. The aluminum construction gives it a premium look and feel. The lid has a nice tension to it and moves decisively with minimal flex. The only part of the design that feels a bit flimsy is the flex on the area above the keyboard. This doesn’t affect the area below as there is no flex on the actual keyboard.

Display and Sound

The ZeroBook 13 has a 15.6-inch, 1920x1080 resolution 60Hz IPS panel. Infinix claims 100% sRGB coverage and 400 nits of peak brightness. There is no HDR support nor is there a touchscreen.

The OnePlus Ace 2 Pro will fully charge its 5,000mAh battery in just 17 minutes at 150W. OnePlus will unveil the Ace 2 Pro in China on August 16 and has already started building up hype for the phone by bragging about its super fast 150W SuperVOOC S charging. It’s 99% efficient and can fully charge the 5,000mAh battery in just 17 minutes, according to the company.

SuperVOOC S was developed in-house and was designed to be gentle with the battery. The phone advertises 4 years of battery life (presumably, this means that the battery will have at least 80% of its original capacity after 4 years of usage).

The phone will be paired with a 150W GaN charger and a USB C-to-C cable. Besides SuperVOOC S mode, this power brick can also output 45W using the USB Power Delivery standard, so that it can be used for other portable devices, including laptops.

Interestingly, OnePlus Ace 2 Pro is the first phone from the company to support the alternative UFCS protocol – Universal Fast Charging Specification. The development of UFCS was led by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in partnership with Oppo, vivo, Xiaomi and Huawei as an effort to bring some compatibility between their proprietary fast charging solutions.

Hands-on video with the Lenovo Legion Y700 (2023) shows off the tablet's two USB-C ports. While Lenovo pulled out of the gaming phone market, it is still working on gaming tablets – next up is the Lenovo Legion Y700 (2023), a sequel to the Y700 from last year. The new model will launch on July 22 (Saturday).

The Y700 (2023) packs a lot of power with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset and LPDDR5X RAM (capacity TBA). That’s big step up from the Snapdragon 870 of last year’s model. The battery capacity is the same at 6,550mAh. This is designed to be a small tablet, smaller even than the original as the thickness and weight have been shaved down to 7.6mm and 348g (down from 7.9mm and 375g). A CNC-machined unibody houses the 8.8” LCD (2.5K resolution) with 144Hz refresh rate (up from 120Hz). It has 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space and a peak brightness of 500 nits. The display also supports stylus input with detection for 4,096 levels of pressure.

Oppo A78 4G announced with Snapdragon 680 and 67W charging. The Oppo A78 4G is finally official as the latest device announced by the brand in Indonesia. As expected, the A78 4G brings several noteworthy changes compared to its 5G counterpart including a smaller 6.43-inch AMOLED display (FHD+ 90Hz) with a punch hole cutout, a Snapdragon 680 chipset and faster 67W charging.

Oppo A78 4G sports the same back design with a 50MP main cam and a 2MP depth module and also includes an 8MP front-facing camera. The software side is covered by ColorOS 13.1 based on Android 13 while the battery capacity comes in at 5,000 mAh. Oppo A78 4G is available in Sea Green and Black Mist colors and comes in a single 8 GB RAM and 256GB storage trim. Pricing is set at IDR 3,599,000 ($236 converted) and buyers in Indonesia will also get a free pair of Enco Buds2 in White with their purchase from Oppo’s official online store.

OnePlus Fold details surface: 7.8" internal and 6.3" cover displays, 4,800mAh battery. Last week we saw 3D renders of the OnePlus Fold that were created by . Now the leakster is back with details on the hardware, including the screen, chipset and cameras.

The new foldable will allegedly have a 7.8” internal display, an AMOLED panel (1,900 x 2,100px LTPO, if previous rumors are to be believed). The cover display will measure 6.3”, both will have 120Hz refresh rate. This one will also be an AMOLED panel, though perhaps not an LTPO one. The OnePlus Fold will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with 16GB of RAM 256GB storage, similar to the top configuration of the OnePlus 11. The phone will have a 4,800mAh battery with 67W charging support (slightly smaller and slower than the battery on the 11, 5,000mAh/100W).

The phone will have a triple camera on the back, likely with Hasselblad branding and features. The main module will feature a 48MP sensor (IMX890, allegedly), there will be a 48MP ultra wide module as well as a 64MP telephoto camera (there are no details on the lens for now). There will be two selfie cameras – one 32MP on the cover display and one 20MP on the inside. A few final details about the OnePlus fold include OxygenOS 13.1 (based on Android 13) software out of the box, a side-mounted fingerprint reader and the old time favorite, the alert slider.

OnePlus hasn’t set a date officially yet, but rumors claims that the Fold will be unveiled in August in New York. This should be just after Samsung unveils the Galaxy Z Fold5 (in Seoul). Early on there was talk of a flip foldable, but we haven’t heard anything about it recently.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ and S9 Ultra have their fast charging abilities outed. Samsung has long been rumored to introduce a new tablet family at its next Unpacked event, alongside the Galaxy Z Fold5 and Flip5 and the Galaxy Watch6 family. This event is now likely to take place in late July, and as we get closer to that point more and more details about these devices are being outed.

Today we're talking about the Galaxy Tab S9+ and the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra - two of the three tablets that should comprise the S9 family (the third being the 'vanilla' S9 model). Through a new TUV certification, we now know that there will be three versions of each. The Galaxy Tab S9+ will arrive with model numbers SM-X816B, SM-X810, and SM-X816N, while the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra gets SM-X916B, SM-X910, and SM-X916N. For both, the first one is the 5G-capable model, the middle one is the global Wi-Fi only model, and the last one is the one specifically destined for the South Korean market.

The same certification also reveals that the S9+ and S9 Ultra could both ship with a charger that supports 10V/4.5A - or 45W - fast charging. That said, this being Samsung, it's more likely that the tablets support 45W charging but will ship without any brick in the box. The 45W charging wouldn't be a surprise at all, since last year's Galaxy Tab S8+ and Tab S8 Ultra both supported it too.

Weekly poll results: the Pixel 7a starts strong, the Pixel Fold was deemed to be overpriced. As expected, the Pixel 7a has garnered a lot of interest – Google’s attractively priced almost flagship has a lot of buyers already lined up. A few feel it’s too pricey, but Pixel prices don’t hold at MSRP for very long.

Case in point, the Pixel 7 regularly falls to around the same price as the 7a in some places occasionally. The price fluctuates quite a bit, so you have to bide your time, but the slightly better hardware of the 7 is worth it.

Right now, a lot of people plan to do just that, pick up the Pixel 7 at a 7a price. And that will remain possible until the 7 is discontinued, which will likely happen around the Pixel 8 launch. And by then the Pixel 7a price will have fallen.

One thing that Google really needs to work on is bringing the Pixel phones to more markets. We get that the company doesn’t have a lot of retail experience, but it’s leaving a lot of potential sales on the table right now.

In a result that should surprise no one, the Google Pixel Fold was deemed too pricey. $1,800 is a lot, even for the US market, which is the only market you can actually get a Fold right now. Glowing reviews can boost the desirability of Google’s first foldable, but this will never top the sales charts.

And it wasn’t meant to, but it is an important product for Google to have. If foldables are the future, Google (as the primary developer of Android) needs first-party hardware in that category.