LENOVO THINKPAD X1 FOLD REVIEW: A FOLDING SCREEN FILLED WITH POTENTIAL

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is awesome… as a concept.

Come on, it’s a display that folds in half. You can carry it around like a tablet. You can prop it up and use it like a Surface Pro. You can fold it halfway and use it like a clamshell laptop. You can fold it slightly and hold it like a hardcover book. And everyone who sees you whip it out of your briefcase will ask “Wow, what’s that?” And you can tell them “Oh, nothing. Just the world’s first foldable PC.” Picture it. There’s no way you won’t feel like the coolest person in your meeting.

So should you buy it?

I mean, no. Before we get into this: definitely not. It’s a whopping $2,499, not including the stylus and keyboard. (Bundles with both accessories start at $2,749 on Lenovo’s website.) That’s more than anyone needs to spend even to get a very good laptop — and there are a few too many problems with the X1 Fold for me to put it in that category.

But! I do like the idea. The folding form factor certainly makes life easier, and I have no doubt that we’ll see more devices like this in the future — assuming manufacturers can work out some of the kinks.

A TRAVEL PRO

Here’s how a day with the X1 Fold went for me. In the morning, before signing on for work, I lay on the couch and used the Fold as a mini clamshell (that is, folded at 90 degrees with the keyboard on the bottom half of the screen) to catch up on emails. Someone had sent me an interesting YouTube video overnight. I unfolded the laptop into a 13.3-inch tablet, setting the keyboard aside, and watched it fullscreen.

Then, work time. I popped out the built-in kickstand and propped the unfolded ThinkPad up on my kitchen table, laying the keyboard out in front of it. I used multiple windows in split-screen, with Slack and Spotify over top, the way I’d use any standard 13-inch laptop. In the early afternoon, I had an hour-long Zoom meeting, so I headed back over to the couch and folded the thing into a book shape, with Zoom on one side and Slack on the other. After that, back to work — but I didn’t feel like going back to the table, so I folded the ThinkPad back into mini-clamshell mode and used it that way on the couch for the rest of the day.

This is all just to illustrate how many different uses there are for this form factor. I can’t say that a folding screen has ever been at the top of my “Laptop Features I Need” list — but after using the X1 Fold for a week, I would love to own one of these.

There’s no laptop I’d rather bring on a business trip than the X1 Fold, and that’s due to a couple of design choices in addition to the versatile form factor. For one: it’s really, really nice. The device is clad in an authentic black leather cover with a sturdy kickstand integrated into it. The ThinkPad logo adds a sleek splash of red. It all looked very out of place in my drab apartment. The only parts that look a tiny bit cheap are the bezels, which are large and rubber. Those are necessary to protect the sides of the display from clinking against each other, and they also give you something to hold while you’re using the Fold as a tablet.

A folding display also makes for a great travel companion. Folded in half, this ThinkPad is about the size of a hardcover book: 9.3 x 6.23 x 1.09 inches and 2.2 pounds (299.4 x 236 x 11.5 mm and 999g). The keyboard fits inside the folded device (magnets keep it secure), and it has a snug sleeve for the stylus on its side. I easily slipped the whole affair into my purse and would have loved carrying it around a trade show or conference under my arm. Any time I brought this somewhere, I thought, “Man, I wish I’d had this in college.”

And with the leather cover, I was never worried about bumping or scratching the Fold — something that can be stressful with devices this expensive. (Lenovo says its product underwent MIL-STD 810H testing and is resistant to conditions including humidity, dust, sand, extreme temperatures, and mechanical shock. This certainly promises a much higher level of durability than we’ve seen from folding phones thus far.)

THE FOLD

With foldable devices, there’s always one big question. The answer to that question is no: you can’t see the crease while you’re using the Fold (though it’s visible when the device is turned off). The exception is when it’s partially folded like a book. The lighting in the middle and the lighting on the sides is a bit uneven in that case. But credit where credit is due: when you’re using the Fold flat, there is no crease to be seen.

The hinge itself, which Lenovo says it spent years developing, is quite sturdy and didn’t give me any problems. The ThinkPad requires two hands and a bit of a firm tug to open. But on the plus side, it always stayed exactly in the position I put it in without any slips or wobbles.

Flat, the display is a 13.3-inch OLED with 2048 x 1536 resolution. That’s a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is unusual for a laptop but feels quite roomy compared to a traditional 16:9. I could easily stack two or even three Chrome windows side by side, often with Slack, Zoom, or another app over top, without having to zoom out. And I didn’t notice any jelly scroll (where one side of the screen is able to change pixels faster than the other side), which was a problem with some early foldable phones.

The viewing experience is a luxury. The panel reproduces 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut, 100 percent of Adobe RGB, and 95 percent of DCI-P3. It’s great for watching videos and movies; even the dock icons pop with color.

On the downside, good luck using this thing outside. Not only is it quite glossy, but it only reached 289 nits at maximum brightness. That’s not a problem for indoor work, but it’s still a bit of a letdown for the price since some premium business laptops offer 1,000-nit options for less.

PERFORMANCE AND SOFTWARE

Lenovo has come up with some neat software tricks to improve the Fold experience. There’s an app called Pen Settings where you can map the buttons on Lenovo’s stylus: they can do everything from copy / pasting to erasing, toggling music and volume, and pulling up various applications.

You can also use Lenovo’s Mode Switcher (which pops up whenever you fold or unfold the device) to split the screen in half, essentially creating two separate displays on either side of the crease. This is most useful in the mini-clamshell form if you want to have one application running up top and one on the bottom. But you can also use it when the Fold is flat, the same way you’d use the Windows split-screen feature. And if you split the screen in Mode Switcher, the Fold preserves that layout when you move between portrait and landscape orientations, whereas elaborate arrangements of tabs and apps sometimes get scattered everywhere otherwise.

These are nice touches, and they show that Lenovo has really thought through the potential this form factor has, rather than just slapping a hinge onto a Surface Pro. But when it comes to performance, there are signs that this product is still in an early stage.

There’s a lot to commend Lenovo for here. I get stressed out just thinking about the tasks this computer has. Not only does it need to know whether it’s in portrait or landscape mode (like any regular tablet), but it also has to detect whether it’s folded, how much it’s folded, and where the keyboard is — and then resize its interface accordingly. Given all that, I’m quite impressed that this thing (mostly) works.

Mostly. But it’s not seamless, and there are some areas where the Fold and Windows 10 aren’t quite seeing eye to eye yet.

For example: every so often when I had the Mini Keyboard connected, the Fold forgot it was there and sent up the on-screen keyboard anyway when I selected a textbox with the stylus. You can turn the on-screen keyboard off in Settings if this annoys you, but it’s still a glitch that’s disappointing to see. On the other hand, occasionally, the on-screen keyboard didn’t come up immediately when I wanted it to, and I’d have to prod the text box a few times before the Fold got the hint. And the little writing box, which is supposed to pop up whenever you tap a text field with the stylus, seemed to come somewhat randomly: it didn’t appear at some times when I wanted it, and it did pop up at some times when I didn’t (like if I had just highlighted something in a Google Doc).

There were two occasions, both after a restart, where the Fold didn’t realize it was in mini-laptop mode and tried to expand across the whole screen. I had to remove and replace the keyboard before the Fold detected it. (Lenovo is aware of that issue and says it’s working on a fix.)

Most annoyingly, I wasn’t able to video chat in Zoom or WebEx using mini-laptop mode because my video feed (like the tablet’s camera) was sideways. That’s not a Lenovo-specific problem — some other Windows convertibles also don’t properly rotate their cameras if you flip them around during video calls. But it’s still something I hope Zoom and WebEx are able to fix. Were it not for this issue, mini-laptop mode would be the ideal form factor for remote meetings (WebEx on the top half, notes on the bottom).

I have faith that Lenovo will iron out these kinks as time goes on. But at present, they are here.

The X1 Fold doesn’t have as heavy-duty of a processor as you’ll find in some other ThinkPads. It’s powered by the Intel Core i5-L16G7, one of Intel’s “Lakefield” CPUs. These are “hybrid” processors, efficient chips designed for small and light devices. They’re Intel’s answer to the Arm chips in phones, tablets, and now MacBooks. (Microsoft’s dual-screen Surface Neo is supposed to be getting one, too.)

Occasional glitches aside, I was pleasantly surprised by the performance here. Multitasking in a dozen apps and Chrome tabs was no problem, and I could do some scrolling and browsing during a long Zoom call without anything freezing up. Of course, that’s also true for plenty of devices you can get for a few hundred bucks.

And the Fold also dragged its feet on some tasks where other premium business laptops (not to mention high-end consumer laptops that are half this price) do better. It takes a good few seconds to boot up, for example, and I sometimes got impatient waiting for it to find things in File Explorer and send windows to fullscreen. Webpages were a bit slower than I’m used to. The ThinkPad also takes a few seconds to rearrange itself between modes — and mini-clamshell mode, in particular — but I’m willing to forgive that since it’s a brand-new use case for Windows 10.

Battery life, though, was quite disappointing. Running the X1 Fold through my sustained workload (around 12 Chrome tabs and apps, occasional Spotify and YouTube streaming and Zoom calls, 200 nits of brightness), I averaged four hours and 50 minutes on the Better Battery profile and five hours and 35 minutes on the Battery Saver profile (with Intel’s battery-saving features enabled). That’s not necessarily unexpected for a laptop with an OLED display and only a 50Whr battery. But it’s not good for a $2,500 device, especially one that’s meant to be used on the go. The Surface Pro 7, which has a higher-resolution screen, got seven to eight hours in our testing.

The final thing worth mentioning here is that Windows 10 is still a “meh” operating system for tablets. If you’ve never used a Windows tablet before, it’s quite different from using an iPad. Gesture controls are still fairly basic, especially compared to Apple’s shortcut offerings. Moreover, most Microsoft apps aren’t designed to be used on a tablet the way that iPad apps are, so you’ll be doing a lot of struggling to tap boxes and icons that are much smaller than your fingertip. And actions like rearranging tabs and dragging / dropping windows that are second-nature with a touchpad are difficult to do with your fingers.

Switching to Windows Tablet Mode helps with this a bit, but you have to dig into the Action Center to turn that on manually. The Fold doesn’t swap to it automatically when you disconnect the keyboard the way Surface Books do. (Again, it’s not a Fold-specific problem — in general, disconnecting Bluetooth keyboards from Windows convertibles doesn’t trigger Tablet Mode — but it’s inconvenient nonetheless.) And of course, Windows 10 doesn’t have any unique features that take advantage of the dual-screen setup; Microsoft is working on an operating system optimized for dual-screen hardware (including its own Surface Neo), but we don’t expect that to arrive until next spring.

The running theme here is that most of these issues are Microsoft’s fault, not Lenovo’s. The convertible laptops Microsoft makes use the same operating system. But the lack of tablet functionality makes more sense on Surface Books and Surface Pros, which can serve as tablets where needed but are still meant to function primarily as computers. The problem with the Fold is that it’s at its best as a tablet. The ideal X1 Fold customer will be using it as a tablet most of the time. Because there are two major reasons I don’t recommend this device as a primary laptop. Those reasons are…

THE KEYBOARD AND TOUCHPAD

The X1 Fold is beautiful to look at and, as a tablet, a marvel to use. But I still dreaded having to drive it for my actual work every day. That’s because the keyboard and touchpad are tiny.

Now, I understand why they’re tiny. Lenovo wanted to make a keyboard small enough to fit inside the folded device so it wouldn’t be an extra thing to carry around. And it certainly succeeded in making a keyboard that fits perfectly into the folded-up tablet. I was never concerned that it would fall out.

But I hate typing on it. The keys actually feel quite sturdy and have a satisfying click to them, but Lenovo essentially had to combine a number of keys to achieve its desired size. For example: the apostrophe / quotation key, usually to the left of Enter on a US keyboard, has been moved to the far right side of the keyboard above Enter. (It’s a half key, sharing a slot with colon / semicolon). Every time I needed to type an apostrophe, I had to consciously stretch my hand far to the right. Approximately 50 percent of my apostrophe attempts resulted in instinctively slamming Enter instead (as my colleagues who received numerous incomplete Slack messages can attest). I assume you’ll adjust to this after a while of using the Fold, but boy is there a learning curve.

It gets worse: Lenovo had to cram some keys that were already dual-purpose together, meaning that some buttons accommodate as many as four different symbols. Question mark / forward slash has been combined with period / greater than, so typing a question mark requires hitting all three of Shift, Fn, and period at the same time. Dash has been relegated to Fn+9, which also tripped me up. I had to go through this review and delete a bunch of accidental 9s I’d typed before I filed it. And backslash requires Fn+8, which would make the X1 Fold a huge pain for people in STEM fields who needs to use LaTeX and some other programming languages.

Again, I understand why the keyboard needed to be small. But I would rather carry the keyboard separately than have to press three keys to make a question mark. Lenovo could make a nice carrying case that fits the Fold, the keyboard, and the stylus, and I would be totally fine with that. The company could also create some more space by removing the touchpad — which it might as well because the touchpad is basically useless.

To put in context how tiny this thing is: if I place two fingers on it (and my fingers are quite small) there is almost no room above or below them. So as you can probably imagine, scrolling is a pain (you hit the plastic frame immediately) as is clicking / dragging, highlighting, and anything else that requires two moving fingers. (There’s nowhere close to enough room.) Laying out a big article, which involves copy-pasting text and moving a bunch of images around, was quite a struggle.

The touchpad also didn’t do what I needed it to as often as I wanted. It sometimes thought I was holding it down when I had let go, meaning I’d unintentionally move tabs around. And highlighting a segment of text or getting my cursor to land in an exact spot was often a trial-and-error process. Even with the touchpad on its lowest sensitivity, I rarely got the right location on the first go.

I don’t use third-party peripherals with laptops I review, but this touchpad pushed that principle to its limit: I have never been closer to saying “Screw it” and plugging in a mouse to give myself a break. I ended up using the stylus for most of my navigation, but that’s suboptimal for some actions (rearranging tabs, doing anything in Google Docs).

Overall, the X1 Fold is a spectacular device in a lot of ways. It’s good at the one thing it’s advertised for (folding). It’s beautiful, both to look at and to use. It’s sturdy. And the form factor is useful. It’s not a gimmick. I would love to own a tablet like this.

The key word there is “tablet.” The X1 Fold isn’t a tablet. It has a laptop operating system and — more importantly — it’s priced like a laptop. It’s priced like a very expensive laptop.

And it’s not ready to fill that role yet. The battery life isn’t there yet. The keyboard and touchpad aren’t there yet. The software integration, while commendable, isn’t there yet.

The key word there is “yet.” Because with all that being said, I can’t wait for the second generation. Samsung’s first foldable phones were riddled with issues — but just over a year and several iterations later, the company is selling a folding device that’s very usable (albeit pretty expensive). I’m sure that’s going to be the case with foldable laptops as well. Lenovo has a groundbreaking idea, with a strong foundation to build on. I really hope it’s able to patch the Fold’s glitches without compromising on the components that are already exceptional. That would be a breathtaking device, one that would earn my unambiguous recommendation.

AGREE TO CONTINUE: LENOVO THINKPAD X1 FOLD

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

To start using the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, you’ll need to agree to the following:

A request for your region and keyboard layout

Windows 10 license agreement, Lenovo privacy statement, and Lenovo limited warranty

PIN

You can also say yes or no to the following:

Wi-Fi

Microsoft account (can be bypassed if you stay offline)

Privacy settings (speech recognition, location, Find My Device, sharing diagnostic data, inking and typing, tailored experience, advertising ID)

Customize your device for gaming, schoolwork, entertainment, creativity, family, or business

Sync an Android phone

OneDrive backup

Office 365

Allow Microsoft to collect personal information for Cortana, including location and location history, contacts, voice input, speech and handwriting patterns, typing history, search history, calendar details, content and communication history from Microsoft services, messages, and apps.

Add a Lenovo ID profile

That’s six mandatory agreements and 15 optional agreements to use the ThinkPad X1 Fold.

The Nokia 5.4 is another iterative mid-ranger with an impressively low price tag

The Nokia 5.3 was announced in March and quickly became an affordable favorite with reviewers thanks to its low £150 price tag. Few other phones in that bracket can offer the same level of performance along with a passable camera. HMD Global has now seen fit to launch an iterative update in the form of the Nokia 5.4, and it looks set to be another popular lower-mid-range option.

You’d be forgiven for thinking very little has changed, but there are a few key differences when compared with its predecessor. The Nokia 5.4 has a punch-hole cutout in the display that houses a 16MP selfie camera in place of the waterdrop notch/8MP combo last time around. On the rear, the main camera has been upgraded to a 48MP sensor and the flash has moved, although the general aesthetic remains largely unchanged.

A Snapdragon 662 runs the show, pitting this phone against the Poco M3 and Moto G9 Power when it comes to performance. It’s a slightly modified version of the SD665 in the previous generation, so we should expect it to do a decent job again. It may well be a bit more power-efficient, too. The same 4,000 mAh battery is on board, but it won’t charge especially fast (10W).

For some reason, it’s being marketed as a good phone for side hustlers. HMD Global has some amusing stats to show off the attributes of the Nokia 5.4. Apparently, its battery can last for 42 commutes and its polycarbonate body can withstand the weight of a 10-year-old child. Cinema mode video recording is also talked up — 21:9 and 24fps for that “Hollywood-like feel” — but really what you’re looking at is a reasonably priced affordable phone with few bells and whistles of any note. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

HMD Global has long been the Android One program’s champion, and even though that branding has taken a back seat over the last year or so, the Nokia 5.4 still comes with the promise of three years of security updates and two years of OS updates. This just about makes up for the fact that it ships with Android 10 — let’s hope its Android 11 upgrade is right around the corner.

In the UK, the Nokia 5.4 will be available from December 18 in the Polar Night (blue) color, with Dusk (purple) coming in January. You’ll be able to get one from Nokia’s site first, with Amazon and Argos getting stock next month.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Lite Will be a Cheaper Foldable from Samsung

Samsung is definitely not moving slow when it comes to their devices. The company as a whole portfolio planned that is filled with a budget, mid-range, and flagship devices, and now, of course, foldable, because we do know that Samsung will be releasing a few of those, as well.

So far, we caught wind about the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 2, but based on a new report from a trusted source, Samsung is planning a third foldable, which will launch next year.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Lite Will be the Third Foldable to Launch Next Year

According to the OLED research firm UBI Research, Samsung works on three types of foldable OLED panels. Two of them will go into the Galaxy Z Flip 2, and the Galaxy Z Fold 3 third option is going to go into the Galaxy Z Fold Lite. So far, it has been a mystery, but the rumors that we have heard point towards the fact that this is going to be a cheaper version of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 whenever it launches.

According to the report, the Galaxy Z Fold Lite will bring a 7-inch internal display and a 4-inch external display. As far as other specs are concerned, like the battery, screen resolution, and camera, that information is still not revealed. However, it is safe to assume that the device is going. To run One UI, 3.0 out of the box.

The report reveals additional details about the Galaxy Z Flip 2 and Galaxy Z Fold 2; the Flip 2 will have a 6.7-inch internal and a 3-inch external screen. The latter will have a 7-inch internal screen and a 4-inch external display, which is strange since the Z Fold 2 had a 6.2-inch external display.

Obviously, when the Galaxy Z Fold Lite launches, if it launches, it is going to be cheaper than the rest of the foldable, and we are looking forward to seeing just how reduced the price is going to be.

Do you think there should be an affordable foldable device, or should Samsung just stick to making premium foldable devices?

Galaxy F62 is powered by the same chipset as the Galaxy Note 10

This year, Samsung unexpectedly introduced a new mid-range smartphone bearing the Galaxy F41 moniker, and it turns out that it won’t be a one-off Flipkart exclusive. Samsung is planning to release additional Galaxy F-branded phones in India next year, and the next one in line might be called the Galaxy F62.

The said smartphone model was recently benchmarked with the online tool Geekbench and the results are quite unusual. According to the test, the Galaxy F62 carries the same Exynos chipset that you would find inside the Galaxy Note 10, i.e., the Exynos 9825.

Although the chipset was introduced last year as an Exynos 9820 refresh, it still was a flagship-grade solution. It’s rather surprising to see a mid-range phone – and a Galaxy F-branded one at that – adopt a top tier SoC, even if it’s from a year ago and carries the Exynos brand.

6GB of RAM and Android 11

The Exynos 9825 SoC inside the Galaxy F62 will be paired with 6GB of RAM, reveals the benchmark. In addition, the smartphone is being tested running Android 11 and it will hit the shelves with the same version of Android OS pre-loaded. Benchmark scores clock in at 763 and 1952 points in single-core and multi-core tests, respectively.

There’s no telling when exactly Samsung intends to launch the Galaxy F62, partly because the series is so new and there’s no history behind it to use as reference. The first model in the series – the Galaxy F41 – was unveiled and released in October, but seeing the benchmark at hand, it’s more likely that the Galaxy F62 is scheduled for release in the first half of 2021.

XIAOMI MI 11 SERIES TO COME IN JANUARY 2021

We’re just one month away from the end of the year, so we can already say that 2020 was a rough year for most smartphone makers. Especially during the first two quarters of the year when COVID-19 was ravaging the world and disrupting the market. In the third quarter of 2020, the overall market report shows signs of a major recovery in the smartphone segment. We expect to see this tendency established during Q4 2020. Now, companies are working their best to recover the losses with competitive smartphones and, of course, new compelling flagships. Later this week, Qualcomm will reveal the Snapdragon 875 chipset that will give power to most of the 2021 flagships. This prepares the terrain for new flagship releases like the Galaxy S21 and the Xiaomi Mi 11 series.

Well, we’re seeing a set of leaks revealing the Galaxy S21 smartphones. This further solidifies all the rumors pointing to a January 2021 release. OnePlus will also reveal its OnePlus 9 family a little bit earlier in March 2021. Now, a new report indicates that Xiaomi will reveal its new Xiaomi Mi 11 flagship series in the same January 2021. That is at least one month earlier than the usual February window.

XIAOMI MI 11 SERIES TO DEBUT IN JANUARY 2021

The new report comes straight from the reliable Chinese tipster, Digital Chat Station. According to the tipster, Xiaomi will unveil its Mi 11 series that presumably consists of a Xiaomi Mi 11 and Mi 11 Pro as soon as “next month”. Considering that we’re just one day away from December, we believe that he meant January and not December. Of course, the new flagship family will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 chipset family that will go official this week at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit event held in Hawaii.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 series will bring a set of impressive specifications to the table. For instance, the Mi 11 Pro will come with a 120Hz display with Quad HD+ resolution. This kind of resolution was popular back in the days of 16:9 flagships but was neglected in the “full-screen” era. Now, it seems to be coming back this year. The handset will also pack a 50MP main and 12MP telephoto shooters. The vanilla Mi 11 is set to come with a whopping 108MP camera. We’re not sure why the vanilla packs the most impressive camera sensor, perhaps, the 11 Pro camera combo will justify the 108MP shooter absence.

If Digital Chat Station claims are accurate, we expect to see a new wave of leaks coming in the next month.

ALLEGED OPPO RENO 5 5G LEAKED IN THE WILD

The year is almost closing, but smartphone makers are trying their best to bump the Q4 2020 sales with last-minute launches. Oppo is reportedly preparing for the launch of its Reno 5 series in China. The new smartphone series will bring a vanilla Oppo Reno 5 5G and an Oppo Reno 5 Pro 5G. Both devices have been circulating through the rumor mill recently. The vanilla model already paid a visit to 3C certification with model number PEGM00 and PEGT00.

According to the 3C listing, the device will bring 65W fast-charging support. This kind of charging seems to be a tendency for devices in the BBK group. Realme released its Realme 7 Pro and X7 Pro featuring this charging capability, OnePlus followed with the OnePlus 8T, now it’s time for the Reno 5 series to come with this crazily fast-charging tech. The device is set to come in Starry Dream, Aurora Blue, Moonlight Black, and Star Wish Red colors. Today, an alleged photo popped out in the web revealing the Oppo Reno 5 5G in its Aurora Blue colorway.

OPPO RENO 5 SERIES DOES NOT BRING A MAJOR DEPARTURE IN TERMS OF DESIGN

Although we need to recommend the usual pinch of salt, we have to say that this image is perfectly on par with the leaked renders of the Reno 5 series. It shows the rectangular camera island comprising the Quad-Camera setup and a LED flash. Well, there is something written in the cutout and if my eyes are failing me it says 64MP AI camera. But digest this with a pinch or two of salt, after all, the resolution isn’t helping us here.

On the top right part, we have the vertically aligned Oppo logo, while the bottom serves as a house for “Reno Glow” branding. Well, it seems that Oppo is borrowing the big logos that Realme introduced with its Realme X7 series. At least it does not come with a massive “DARE TO LEAP” logo here. I’m sorry Realme fans… As for the color, well it does look like Aurora Blue to me, we have a predominantly blue color in the bottom part that reaches pink tones in the top thanks to the Gradient effect.

In the end, the Reno 5 series seems to be quite similar to the Reno 4 series. So if you have been waiting for a major design overhaul, you’ll be disappointed.

OPPO RENO 5 5G SPECS

According to previous leaks, the vanilla Reno 5 5G will boast the Dimensity 800U chipset. There is no info regarding the amount of RAM and storage available, but we assume that the device will start with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of Storage. The Reno series isn’t made of affordable devices, so we assume that 4GB isn’t enough anymore for a device of this level. Of course, this is just an assumption at the moment.

The phone will pack a 6.43-inch AMOLED display with a top-left aligned punch-hole for the selfie snapper. Moving around to the back, we have a Quad-Camera array comprising a 64MP primary, 8MP, 2MP, and 2MP camera sensor.

The phone draws power from a 4,300mAh battery with 65W fast-charging. We probably have dual 2,150mAh batteries here to withstand the 65W charging rates. The phone runs Android 11 straight out of the box with ColorOS 11 running on top. The device has 159.1×73.4×7.9 mm overall dimensions.

OPPO RENO 5 PRO 5G GETS ANOTHER CERTIFICATION, THIS TIME THE MONIKER IS CONFIRMED!

Oppo is now working on two smartphones that will expand the company’s Reno lineup. The devices have already surfaced on numerous listings with the model number PDSM00 and PDST00. While various reports claim that these two devices are the variant of Oppo Reno 5 Pro 5G, there has been no solid indication of the same. Well, that changes now as the same model number has now visited HDR10+ for the certification. Thanks to the new development, we now know that these model numbers will indeed arrive with the Reno 5 Pro moniker. This means we’re looking at at least two storage configurations of the smartphone.

OPPO RENO 5 PRO 5G WILL ARRIVE WITH 65W FAST CHARGING SUPPORT!

As you can see in the image above, the listing clearly mentions the moniker and confirms our previous reports as well. Sadly, the HDR10+ certification doesn’t really reveal any hardware aspect of the device. We already know that these devices will come with flagship hardware and specs just like other Reno devices. Thankfully, the previous listings have already revealed some key hardware. According to the previous TENAA, the device will arrive with a large 6.5-inch display with Full HD+ resolution.

The device will have a total of five cameras with a quad module on the rear and a single shooter on the front. The rear camera setup will consist of a 64MP primary sensor, an 8MP ultrawide, and two 2MP other sensors. On the front, you will find a 32MP front snapper that should be housed inside a punch-hole cutout. We already know that Reno 5 Pro 5G will make use of the Snapdragon 865 chipset under the hood. All of these will get its fuel from a 4,250 mAh battery that will support 65W fast charging capabilities for a swift top-up.

Apart from TENAA, the Reno 5 Pro 5G has previously made its way to GeekBench listing as well. The GeekBench creates some discrepancy as the device was found running on MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ chipset. The listing also mentions the Android 11 operating system with Color OS 11 on top.

With that said, there are still some discrepancies when it comes to the hardware and the same will get cleared as we will move closer to the official launch. Since the device has already appeared on TENAA and now got HDR10+ certification, we’re expecting it to launch anytime soon.

The Galaxy S21 is leaked again in all its alleged colors

Samsung is rumored to have designed a new kind of frame for its impending Galaxy S21 series. In the case of the base S21 and S21+, it may ‘blend’ into a housing for 3 large rear lenses around a top corner of the phone in question. The resulting look, according to Ice Universe, is “unique and deserves praise”.

That statement may be up for debate; nevertheless, this tipster’s latest post appears to corroborate earlier leaks concerning the Galaxy S21’s esthetics. It also showcases this phone in all the colorways predicted for it earlier, which may be called Phantom White, Gray, Violet and Pink. 

Prior reports suggested that some of these might get new frames finished in copper; however, this applies to the white “S21” only in this latest image. There is an additional black unit, even though this was portrayed as exclusive to higher-end variants in their last leak.

These new renders also show that the phones’ frames are in two parts: the shiny frame/camera hump and a seond part that picks up where it leaves off in a second, heretofore undisclosed material.

In the S21’s case, the rest of the rear panel, which also curves down to meet this second partial frame, is said to be made of plastic for the first time in this series’ history since the S6 generation ditched it in favor of glass.

The cheap and cheerful Moto e7 promises 36 hours of battery life

We don’t expect an awful lot from a phone costing less than £100, but Motorola assures us that its latest budget handset will last around 36 hours on a single charge and take photos that aren’t terrible with its 48MP main camera. It also boasts what Motorola is calling a water-repellent design — it can apparently withstand “moderate exposure to water such as accidental spills, splashes, or light rain — which is more than can be said for most cheap phones.

The Moto e7 is pretty unremarkable in many other ways. Its MediaTek Helio G25 chip, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of (expandable) storage will make for modest performance, at best, while its large (6.5-inch) display won’t look great with a 720p resolution. Other bells and whistles will be sorely missed, such as NFC, fast charging, and dual speakers.

SPECS

SoCMediaTek Helio G25
RAM2GB
Storage32GB (expandable)
Display6.5-inch HD+ (720p) IPS TFT LCD
Rear cameras48MP main camera (f/1.7), 2MP macro (f/2.4)
Front camera5MP (f/2.2)
Battery4,000 mAh (10W charging)
SoftwareAndroid 10
OtherHeadphone jack, FM radio, DualSIM, single speaker, rear fingerprint reader
Dimensions164.93 x 75.73 x 8.89mm
Weight180g
ColorsMineral grey, Aqua blue, Satin coral
Price£99

It’s obviously found lacking in many areas, but at least there’s a headphone jack, a rear-mounted fingerprint reader (within the Moto logo), and a relatively high-resolution main camera. There’s also a dedicated Google Assistant button, for whatever that’s worth. For £99, this might represent a decent deal for anyone seeking a bare minimum smartphone for the cheapest possible price.

The Moto e7 comes in three colors, a rather bland grey alongside more exciting aqua and coral numbers. In the UK, you’ll be able to get it from Amazon, Argos , Carphone Warehouse , John Lewis , 02, and Tesco. The Satin Coral colorway will only be available from motorola.co.uk. In Europe, it’ll cost €119.99. Availability will be expanded to Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia in the coming weeks.

The upcoming Lenovo K12 Pro is a rebranded Moto G9 Power

Lately, Lenovo, the parent company of Motorola has been rebranding its subsidiary’s smartphones as its own for certain markets. The latest such model is the upcoming Lenovo K12 Pro, which has been now spotted on FCC and TENAA confirming it to be a rebadged Moto G9 Power, which went official earlier this month.

91Mobiles found the Lenovo K12 Pro on FCC and TENAA with model numbers XT2091-8 and XT2091-7 respectively. The publication’s findings also confirm this handset to be a rebranded Moto G9 Power whose model number is XT2091-3.

That means this device should be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chipset paired with 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. There could be other storage configurations as well but we cannot tell for sure as the TENAA listing only has images as of now.

The phone will sport a 6.8-inch IPS LCD panel on the front with a resolution of 1640 x 720 pixels (HD+). This screen will feature a punch-hole cutout housing a 16MP selfie camera at the top left corner.

Further, the handset will house a triple camera setup consisting of a 64MP primary sensor, 2MP macro snapper, and 2MP depth sensor along with an LED flash in a matrix design. The rear panel of the device will also include a circular capacitive fingerprint sensor and a vertical Lenovo branding in the bottom left corner.

The main highlight of this phone will be its 6,000mAh battery with support for 20W fast charging via USB Type-C. Other specs of this smartphone will include dual-band WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, NFC, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD card support, and Android 10 operating system.

Recently, Lenovo confirmed that it will be reviving the Lemon-branded budget smartphones. Followed by that, the company teased the arrival of new phones late last week. Hence, we think that this device could be one of those Lemon handsets (XT2091-7 via TENAA).

Whereas, the same device with Lenovo K12 Pro branding (XT2091-8 via FCC) could launch in the Middle East just like the Lenovo K12 Note, which is a rebranded Moto G9 Play / Moto G9 (India).