Month: February 2022

Nach Russlands Überfall auf die Ukraine hat die Welt einen Cyberkrieg erwartet und nicht bekommen. Stattdessen tobt vorerst ein Propaganda-Krieg mit Cybermitteln. Eine Analyse von Sebastian Grüner und Moritz Tremmel (Ukraine-Krieg, Cyberwar)

There’s good news and bad news for fans of smartphones with old school features like removable batteries, microSD card readers, and headphone jacks.

The good news is that HMD’s got a new line of budget phones that cover those bases. The bad news is that the new Nokia C2 (2nd-edition), Nokia C21, and Nokia C21 Plus are very much budget phones, with both the prices and the specs to match.

All three phones are Android 11 Go Edition devices, which means they ship with a lightweight version of Android featuring apps optimized to run on entry-level hardware. And not only do these phones have entry-level hardware, but they also have some hardware that almost feels obsolete in 2022.

All three phones, for example, have micro USB ports rather than USB-C, for example. And they top out at WiFi 4 (also known as 802.11n) rather than the newer WiFi 5 or 6 standards.

HMD promises two years of security updates for the phones, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll ever receive a major OS update.

The Nokia C2 (2nd Edition) is the cheapest phone of the bunch. It’s expected to ship in April for €79 and up and features a 5.7 inch, 960 x 480 pixel LCD display, 1 to 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, 5MP rear and 2MP front-facing cameras, and a 2,400 mAh battery.

On the bright side, that battery is removable, making the Nokia C2 one of the few smartphones released in recent years that will let you swap out batteries. There’s also a microSD card reader with support for cards up to 256GB for additional storage, support for 4G LTE Cat 4 and Bluetooth 5 and an FM radio feature that works with or without headphones plugged into the 3.5mm audio jack.

HMD’s Nokia C21 and Nokia C21 Plus include slightly better specs (for the most part), but lack that removable battery. Both phones have 6.5 inch, 1600 x 720 pixel LCD displays and Unisoc SC9863a octa-core ARM Cortex-a55 processors.

The Nokia C21 is coming in March for €99 and up and features a 3,000 mAh battery, 2GB or 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (plus a microSD card reader), 8MP rear and 5MP front cameras, and a fingerprint sensor.

Like the C2, this model supports WiFi 4 and 4G LTE Cat 4, but it tops out at Bluetooth 4.2.

The C21 Plus will be available in April for €119 and up and has a bigger battery, dual cameras (13MP + 2MP depth), an IP52 water resistance rating, and support for 10-watt charging (the other phones only charge at 5-watts).

The Nokia C21 Plus will available in three versions:

• 2GB/32GB/4,000 mAh battery
• 3GB/32GB/4,000 mAh battery
• 4GB/64GB/5,050 mAh battery

HMD says models with the 4,000 mAh battery should run for up to 2 days on a charge, while the 5,050 mAh version should get up to 3 days of battery life.

press release via Android Police

 

has a 5.7 inch, 960 x 480 pixel display, just 1 or 2GB of RAM, depending on the configuration, and just 32GB of storage (although there is support for microSD cards up to 256GB.

The phone also has just a 2,400 mAh battery. But

The post HMD’s latest Nokia C series budget phones include a model with a removable battery appeared first on Liliputing.

Das Poco X4 Pro 5G hat eine hochauflösende Kamera, ein 120-Hz-Display und unterstützt, anders als der Vorgänger, nun auch 5G. (MWC2022, Smartphone)

Qualcomm says its new wireless solution with support for the emerging WiFi 7 standard could arrive in the second half of 2022. The Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 subsystem makes use of new technologies in the latest version of the WiFi standard to deliver peak speeds up to 5.8 Gbps and less than 2 milliseconds of sustained latency.

By comparison, the FastConnect 6900 solution used in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processors tops out at WiFei 6E with 3.6 Gbps peak data transfer speeds and has around 3ms latency.

WiFi & Bluetooth

Qualcomm isn’t the first company to jump on the WiFi 7 bandwagon. Rival MediaTek announced last month that it was already testing hardware, but the company also said it didn’t expect to ship anything until 2023.

The Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 system, meanwhile, is already sampling to partners and Qualcomm says you may be able to buy devices featuring the technology in the second half of 2022.

Among other things, Qualcomm’s WiFi 7 implementation leverages High Band Simultaneous Multi-Link technology that can use two WiFi radios at once for four streams of connectivity in the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands, potentially bringing faster speeds and reduced congestion (thanks to 320 MHz of bandwidth in the 6 GHz spectrum and 240MHz in the 5 GHz band).

FastConnect 7800 also includes includes two Bluetooth radios and support for Bluetooth 5.3. Qualcomm says this allows for Bluetooth connections to work over twice as much range as the company’s previous-gen technology. Pairing with Bluetooth devices is also said to be twice as fast.

With support for two steams, Qualcomm says the system also brings improved audio performance, while making use of Bluetooth Low Energy technology for reduced energy consumption: Qualcomm says its FastConnect 7800 system uses 30% to 50% less power than the FastConnect 6800, which should lead to longer battery life for mobile devices.

Snapdragon Sound

Speaking of audio performance, Qualcomm is also introducing new S5 Sound (QCC517x) and S3 Sound (QCC307x ) platforms, which the company says brings improved performance, reduced latency and lower power consumption to Snapdragon Sound-enabled devices. The company is promising that the chips can deliver:

• Lossless CD-quality 16-bit / 44.1 kHz audio over Bluetooth
• “High resolution” 24-bit / 96 kHz audio over Bluetooth
• 32 kHz super wideband voice call quality
• Stereo audio recording using earbuds
• Gaming mode with 68ms latency (25% lower than previous-gen)
• 20% reduction in power consumption

The new Snapdragon Sound system also brings an update to Qualcomm’s adaptive active noise cancellation technology.

Qualcomm says to expect the first device featuring the new Snapdragon Sound technology to arrive in the second half of 2022.

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Erstmals mit künstlicher Intelligenz: Das Snapdragon X70 soll 5G durchweg besser machen, passend dazu gibt es einen Wi-Fi-7-Chip. (Snapdragon, Qualcomm)

Das M4 Pro von Poco kommt mit einem AMOLED-Display, 64-Megapixel-Kamera und einem großen Akku - aber ohne 5G. (MWC2022, Smartphone)

Gigantische Aufrüstungspläne drohen Ressourcen zu verschlingen, die für die Energiewende gebraucht werden. Andererseits erkennen Regierende die Abhängigkeit von Öl und Gas jetzt umso mehr als Falle

Zum Start in die neue Woche sind 4K-Fernseher von Sony weiterhin im Angebot. Außerdem: weitere 4K-TVs, Notebooks, Kaffeemaschinen und mehr. (Fernseher, Sony)

Meta und Alphabet sperren RT die Werbeeinnahmen. Aber nicht nur der russische Staatssender gerät durch die Internetkonzerne unter Druck. (Ukraine-Krieg, Google)

Lenovo has put out a number of interesting Android tablets over the past few years, including budget models with competitive prices and premium devices including models with unusual features like HDMI input (allowing the tablet to work like an portable monitor for use with other devices).

But the company hasn’t had the best of track records when it comes to offering long-term support for those devices. Now the company is promising to take Android updates seriously: the new Lenovo Tab M10 Plus (3rd-gen) tablet will run Android 12 when it begins shipping in the coming months, but Lenovo is promising to deliver an Android 13 update next year and provide at least three years of security updates.

While that’s not exactly best-in-class at a time when other Android device makers are promising 4-5 years of support and Apple regularly releases updates for its older devices for longer than that. But it’s a start… especially since the Lenovo Tab M10 Plus (3rd gen) tablet is a relatively low-cost device.

It will sell for €249 (including VAT) when it goes on sale in Europe in April, and prices will start at $190 when it hits the United States in June.

Lenovo’s new tablet passed through the FCC a few weeks ago, so we already had a rough idea of what to expect. But full details are now available.

The tablet sports a 10.61 inch, 2000 x 1200 pixel, 400-nit display with an 85% screen-to-body ratio and support for touch or pen input (the optional Lenovo Precision Pen, with support for 4096s levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt detection, is sold separately).

It has quad speakers with support for Dolby Atmos sound, and the tablet is powered by either a MediaTek Helio G80 octa-core processor (for a WiFi-only variant) or  Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chip (WiFi + 4G LTE).

In select markets, Lenovo says the tablet will be available with up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but in the US it will come in 3GB/64GB or 4GB/128GB variants only.

Other features include 8MP front and rear cameras, a 7,700 mAh battery, 20W fast charging, a USB 2.0 Type-C port, 3.5mm audio jack, microSD card reader (for cards up to 1TB), and support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0.

The tablet measures 0.3 inches thick and weighs 465 grams (1 pound) and comes in a choice of “Storm Grey” or “Frost Blue” color options.

press release

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