OnePlus Nord Buds Review: Tasteful design and exceptional battery life at an affordable price

OnePlus’s Nord smartphones are good-looking, nail the essentials, and are always pocket-friendly. Now OnePlus wants to expand this formula to other products as it seeks to expand the Nord line beyond smartphones. The long-term goal likely involves creating a Nord product ecosystem consisting of earbuds, smartwatches, etc. The OnePlus Nord Buds is the first product in the ecosystem, offering a unique design and a solid battery life at a cheap price tag. I have been using the OnePlus Nord for over a week, and here’s what I like and dislike about them.

OnePlus Nord Buds

The OnePlus Nord Buds offer a tasteful design, a solid battery life and bass-driven sound at an affordable price tag.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

Buy from OnePlus

Pricing & Availability

• The OnePlus Nord Buds are available in India, the US, and Canada.
• They cost ₹2,799 in India. In the US and Canada, they’re priced at $39 / CAD 42 and will be available for purchase in early June.

You can purchase the OnePlus Nord Buds from OnePlus’s website and Amazon. They come in two colors: Black Slate and White Marble.

OnePlus Nord Buds: Specifications

Specification	Nord Buds
Build and Weight	IP55 dust and water resistance Earbuds: 4.82g (each earbud) Charging case: 41.7g
Audio	Single 12.4mm dynamic driver Driver sensitivity: 106.5dB @1kHz Frequency response: 20Hz-20KHz (44.1kHz) 4 microphones (2 per bud)
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.2 Codecs: AAC, SBC Range: 10 m
Battery & Charging	41 mAh (per earbud) 480mAh charging case 6 hours of continuous playback 30 hours with charging case (combined) USB Type C port 10-minute quick charge for 20 hours of playback
Features	AI noise cancellation for calls Dolby Atmos support OnePlus Fast Pair Sound Master EQ Pro Gamer Mode (low-latency mode)
In The Box	Pair of Nord Buds Charging case 3x silicon ear tips (S, M, L) USB charging cable User guide Safety and Warranty card Nord emoji sticker x1

About this review: The OnePlus Nord Buds review unit was provided by OnePlus India. OnePlus had no input in the content of this review. Unless otherwise specified, the observations in this review are with regard to Android smartphones.

OnePlus Nord Buds: Design, Comfort, Controls

The OnePlus Nord Buds have a striking design that sets them apart from Apple AirPods lookalikes that you normally see in this price range. The design is one of the strongest aspects of the earbuds. It’s refreshing to see a pair of entry-level earbuds not settling for a simplistic design and putting real effort to stand out from the crowd. The earbuds feature wide stems and flat edges with mirror-finished touch-sensitive buttons on the back, providing a nice contrast. The stems, which also house microphones, have a metallic NCVM finish, while the earcups are glossy.

The OnePlus Nord Buds are hands down the most comfortable truly earbuds I have ever tested. They are featherweight, and you can easily wear them for hours on hand without inviting any discomfort or irritation. It also helps that they don’t sit too deeply in your ear canal.

The OnePlus Nord Buds are hands down the most comfortable truly earbuds I have ever tested.

Silicone tips form a fairly tight seal, so the passive isolation is really impressive, blocking out quite a bit of lower-end frequencies. The tight seal also helps the buds stay firmly in your ear. They’re unlikely to pop out while walking, running, or doing any exercise. In addition, they’re IP55 rated for sweat and water resistance, making them a perfect choice for intensive workouts and other demanding physical activities.

The plastic charging case is rather tall and doesn’t easily slide in and out of the pocket. But at least it features a matte finish, so it’s not a fingerprint magnet. The charging port is placed on the backside, adjacent to the multi-function key, while an LED light on the front indicates the charging level of the case.

The buds offer fairly simple gestures: A single tap on either bud to play/pause the playback, double-tap to skip to the next track, and triple-tap to switch to the previous track. The long touch and hold action is also supported though you’ll need to assign an action using the HeyMelody app.

Sound quality

• The OnePlus Nord Buds pack 12.4mm, titanium-plated dynamic drivers with Dolby Atmos support.
• They provide bass-driven sound that’s fine for casual listening but may not be suitable for those who prefer a balanced sound profile.

The OnePlus Nord Buds are entry-level earbuds, so naturally, you wouldn’t expect them to sound as refined and rich as something like the Galaxy Buds 2 or OnePlus Buds Pro. They’re fine for casual listening, and if you’re a bass lover, you may even enjoy what’s on offer here. The Nord Buds feature 12.4mm, titanium-plated drivers with Dolby Atmos support. The sound signature leans towards the V shape, with the elevated bass and treble and recessed mid-range. Most mass-market earphones aimed at casual listeners opt for this sound as it makes for a fun listening experience and is a relatively safer bet.

OnePlus Nord Buds don't do proper justice to vocal-centric tracks and classical recordings and overall sound less detailed.

With this type of sound signature, your experience will largely depend on what kind of music you listen to. Electronic, Hip Hop, and Rap music benefit from the boosted higher and lower frequencies, and if that’s what you primarily listen to, you’ll find little to complain about here. But if you’re like me and listen to a wide range of music from different genres and periods, you’ll find that the Nord Buds don’t always fare well. They don’t do proper justice to vocal-centric tracks and classical recordings and overall sound less detailed. This was the case while listening to Heartbreaker by Bee Gees, which sounded quite muddy on the Nord Buds as the excessive bass overpowered the vocals and mid-range instruments. The same track sounded very open, lush, and lively on my OPPO Enco W51.

But, there were times when I preferred the Nord Buds over the OPPO Enco W51. For example, Sway by Dan + Shay and Again (Your Lie in April) by Kayou sounded more exciting and energetic on the Nord Buds thanks to the deeper bass.

The HeyMelody app offers additional sound profiles and an equalizer to let you fine-tune the sound to your liking.

If music quality is of paramount importance, you’ll be better served by other earbuds, although they would certainly not be as cheap as the Nord Buds. Otherwise, there’s not much to complain about here.

Do OnePlus Nord Buds offer ANC?

The OnePlus Nord Buds skip out on the active noise cancellation as a cost-cutting measure. This can be a deal-breaker for some. But if it’s any consolation, the earbuds provide a very good passive isolation if you can achieve the proper seal. That also means that if you’re planning to use the OnePlus Nord Buds mostly during commute and in crowded places, you’ll often find yourself cranking up the volume slider to drown out the outside noise. There’s no transparency mode either, which is again understandable given the price.

How is the calling experience on the OnePlus Nord Buds?

OnePlus has equipped the Nord Buds with four microphones, two on each earbud, and a wind-resistant design. In addition, there’s AI noise reduction software at play. OnePlus says all of these work in tandem to reduce background and wind noise during calls. For the most part, the earbuds do a good job of suppressing the background noise indoors but struggle a bit when you’re outside in a crowded setting. They’re also not that effective at cutting down wind noise.

Battery Life, Charging Experience, and more

• The OnePlus Nord Buds provide up to 7 hours of playback on a single charge.
• They also support fast charging, with a 10-minute enough to provide 5 hours of music listening time.

The Nord Buds claim to provide 7 hours of listening time. That’s 2 hours more than the flagship OnePlus Buds Pro. The charging case holds an additional 23 hours of charge for a combined 30 hours of playback. In my Spotify loop test, the earbuds lasted a tad over five hours, which, although not quite close to the company claim, is still impressive for a pair of truly wireless earbuds.

Should you run out of juice and need a quick refill, OnePlus advertises a 10-minute fast charge that gives you 5 hours of playback time. The charging case and earbuds combined take about half an hour to fully charge using a standard 10W charger. To check the battery level of each earbud and the charging case, you’ll need the HeyMelody app.

As you would expect, the OnePlus Nord Buds don’t offer a high-end codec like aptX or LDAC. That means they’re fine for audio and video streaming but not recommended for gaming. It’s a different story if you have a OnePlus, though, as you can enable Pro Gamer Mode to decrease the latency to 94ms.

Features like Dolby Atmos and Fast Pair are only available on select OnePlus phones, which is understandable given they require deeper system-level integration and thus can’t be made available to other devices via an app.

Should you buy the OnePlus Nord Buds?

The OnePlus Nord Buds are excellent entry-level truly wireless earbuds with a tasteful design, good sound, and exceptional battery life. While they nail the fundamentals, they may not be the most featured packed earbuds on the market, lacking features like ANC and transparency mode support. But rather than overpromising and underdelivering, the OnePlus Nord Buds focuses on getting the basics right. If you’re coming from the land of wired earphones or Bluetooth neckbands, the OnePlus Nord Buds are a great starting point in the world of truly wireless earphones.

If you’re in India and can spend slightly more, the Realme Buds Air 2 is an excellent alternative, offering ANC and 25 hours of battery life. Meanwhile, those in the US and Europe might want to check out the Realme Buds Q2 or Realme Buds 2 Neo, both of which are equipped with ANC.

Buy the OnePlus Nord Buds if:

• You’re on a tight budget and want serviceable truly wireless earbuds that get the job done.
• You like the bass-driven sound.
• You want solid battery life.
• You want a unique design.

Don’t buy OnePlus Nord Buds if:

• You want active noise cancellation.
• You want balanced sound.
• You can spend more.

OnePlus Nord Buds

The OnePlus Nord Buds offer a tasteful design, a solid battery life and bass-driven sound at an affordable price tag.

Buy from OnePlus

The post OnePlus Nord Buds Review: Tasteful design and exceptional battery life at an affordable price appeared first on XDA.

from XDA https://ift.tt/XcTymYZ
via IFTTT

OnePlus Nord Buds Review: Tasteful design and exceptional battery life at an affordable price

OnePlus’s Nord smartphones are good-looking, nail the essentials, and are always pocket-friendly. Now OnePlus wants to expand this formula to other products as it seeks to expand the Nord line beyond smartphones. The long-term goal likely involves creating a Nord product ecosystem consisting of earbuds, smartwatches, etc. The OnePlus Nord Buds is the first product in the ecosystem, offering a unique design and a solid battery life at a cheap price tag. I have been using the OnePlus Nord for over a week, and here’s what I like and dislike about them.

OnePlus Nord Buds

The OnePlus Nord Buds offer a tasteful design, a solid battery life and bass-driven sound at an affordable price tag.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

Buy from OnePlus

Pricing & Availability

• The OnePlus Nord Buds are available in India, the US, and Canada.
• They cost ₹2,799 in India. In the US and Canada, they’re priced at $39 / CAD 42 and will be available for purchase in early June.

You can purchase the OnePlus Nord Buds from OnePlus’s website and Amazon. They come in two colors: Black Slate and White Marble.

OnePlus Nord Buds: Specifications

Specification	Nord Buds
Build and Weight	IP55 dust and water resistance Earbuds: 4.82g (each earbud) Charging case: 41.7g
Audio	Single 12.4mm dynamic driver Driver sensitivity: 106.5dB @1kHz Frequency response: 20Hz-20KHz (44.1kHz) 4 microphones (2 per bud)
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.2 Codecs: AAC, SBC Range: 10 m
Battery & Charging	41 mAh (per earbud) 480mAh charging case 6 hours of continuous playback 30 hours with charging case (combined) USB Type C port 10-minute quick charge for 20 hours of playback
Features	AI noise cancellation for calls Dolby Atmos support OnePlus Fast Pair Sound Master EQ Pro Gamer Mode (low-latency mode)
In The Box	Pair of Nord Buds Charging case 3x silicon ear tips (S, M, L) USB charging cable User guide Safety and Warranty card Nord emoji sticker x1

About this review: The OnePlus Nord Buds review unit was provided by OnePlus India. OnePlus had no input in the content of this review. Unless otherwise specified, the observations in this review are with regard to Android smartphones.

OnePlus Nord Buds: Design, Comfort, Controls

The OnePlus Nord Buds have a striking design that sets them apart from Apple AirPods lookalikes that you normally see in this price range. The design is one of the strongest aspects of the earbuds. It’s refreshing to see a pair of entry-level earbuds not settling for a simplistic design and putting real effort to stand out from the crowd. The earbuds feature wide stems and flat edges with mirror-finished touch-sensitive buttons on the back, providing a nice contrast. The stems, which also house microphones, have a metallic NCVM finish, while the earcups are glossy.

The OnePlus Nord Buds are hands down the most comfortable truly earbuds I have ever tested. They are featherweight, and you can easily wear them for hours on hand without inviting any discomfort or irritation. It also helps that they don’t sit too deeply in your ear canal.

The OnePlus Nord Buds are hands down the most comfortable truly earbuds I have ever tested.

Silicone tips form a fairly tight seal, so the passive isolation is really impressive, blocking out quite a bit of lower-end frequencies. The tight seal also helps the buds stay firmly in your ear. They’re unlikely to pop out while walking, running, or doing any exercise. In addition, they’re IP55 rated for sweat and water resistance, making them a perfect choice for intensive workouts and other demanding physical activities.

The plastic charging case is rather tall and doesn’t easily slide in and out of the pocket. But at least it features a matte finish, so it’s not a fingerprint magnet. The charging port is placed on the backside, adjacent to the multi-function key, while an LED light on the front indicates the charging level of the case.

The buds offer fairly simple gestures: A single tap on either bud to play/pause the playback, double-tap to skip to the next track, and triple-tap to switch to the previous track. The long touch and hold action is also supported though you’ll need to assign an action using the HeyMelody app.

Sound quality

• The OnePlus Nord Buds pack 12.4mm, titanium-plated dynamic drivers with Dolby Atmos support.
• They provide bass-driven sound that’s fine for casual listening but may not be suitable for those who prefer a balanced sound profile.

The OnePlus Nord Buds are entry-level earbuds, so naturally, you wouldn’t expect them to sound as refined and rich as something like the Galaxy Buds 2 or OnePlus Buds Pro. They’re fine for casual listening, and if you’re a bass lover, you may even enjoy what’s on offer here. The Nord Buds feature 12.4mm, titanium-plated drivers with Dolby Atmos support. The sound signature leans towards the V shape, with the elevated bass and treble and recessed mid-range. Most mass-market earphones aimed at casual listeners opt for this sound as it makes for a fun listening experience and is a relatively safer bet.

OnePlus Nord Buds don't do proper justice to vocal-centric tracks and classical recordings and overall sound less detailed.

With this type of sound signature, your experience will largely depend on what kind of music you listen to. Electronic, Hip Hop, and Rap music benefit from the boosted higher and lower frequencies, and if that’s what you primarily listen to, you’ll find little to complain about here. But if you’re like me and listen to a wide range of music from different genres and periods, you’ll find that the Nord Buds don’t always fare well. They don’t do proper justice to vocal-centric tracks and classical recordings and overall sound less detailed. This was the case while listening to Heartbreaker by Bee Gees, which sounded quite muddy on the Nord Buds as the excessive bass overpowered the vocals and mid-range instruments. The same track sounded very open, lush, and lively on my OPPO Enco W51.

But, there were times when I preferred the Nord Buds over the OPPO Enco W51. For example, Sway by Dan + Shay and Again (Your Lie in April) by Kayou sounded more exciting and energetic on the Nord Buds thanks to the deeper bass.

The HeyMelody app offers additional sound profiles and an equalizer to let you fine-tune the sound to your liking.

If music quality is of paramount importance, you’ll be better served by other earbuds, although they would certainly not be as cheap as the Nord Buds. Otherwise, there’s not much to complain about here.

Do OnePlus Nord Buds offer ANC?

The OnePlus Nord Buds skip out on the active noise cancellation as a cost-cutting measure. This can be a deal-breaker for some. But if it’s any consolation, the earbuds provide a very good passive isolation if you can achieve the proper seal. That also means that if you’re planning to use the OnePlus Nord Buds mostly during commute and in crowded places, you’ll often find yourself cranking up the volume slider to drown out the outside noise. There’s no transparency mode either, which is again understandable given the price.

How is the calling experience on the OnePlus Nord Buds?

OnePlus has equipped the Nord Buds with four microphones, two on each earbud, and a wind-resistant design. In addition, there’s AI noise reduction software at play. OnePlus says all of these work in tandem to reduce background and wind noise during calls. For the most part, the earbuds do a good job of suppressing the background noise indoors but struggle a bit when you’re outside in a crowded setting. They’re also not that effective at cutting down wind noise.

Battery Life, Charging Experience, and more

• The OnePlus Nord Buds provide up to 7 hours of playback on a single charge.
• They also support fast charging, with a 10-minute enough to provide 5 hours of music listening time.

The Nord Buds claim to provide 7 hours of listening time. That’s 2 hours more than the flagship OnePlus Buds Pro. The charging case holds an additional 23 hours of charge for a combined 30 hours of playback. In my Spotify loop test, the earbuds lasted a tad over five hours, which, although not quite close to the company claim, is still impressive for a pair of truly wireless earbuds.

Should you run out of juice and need a quick refill, OnePlus advertises a 10-minute fast charge that gives you 5 hours of playback time. The charging case and earbuds combined take about half an hour to fully charge using a standard 10W charger. To check the battery level of each earbud and the charging case, you’ll need the HeyMelody app.

As you would expect, the OnePlus Nord Buds don’t offer a high-end codec like aptX or LDAC. That means they’re fine for audio and video streaming but not recommended for gaming. It’s a different story if you have a OnePlus, though, as you can enable Pro Gamer Mode to decrease the latency to 94ms.

Features like Dolby Atmos and Fast Pair are only available on select OnePlus phones, which is understandable given they require deeper system-level integration and thus can’t be made available to other devices via an app.

Should you buy the OnePlus Nord Buds?

The OnePlus Nord Buds are excellent entry-level truly wireless earbuds with a tasteful design, good sound, and exceptional battery life. While they nail the fundamentals, they may not be the most featured packed earbuds on the market, lacking features like ANC and transparency mode support. But rather than overpromising and underdelivering, the OnePlus Nord Buds focuses on getting the basics right. If you’re coming from the land of wired earphones or Bluetooth neckbands, the OnePlus Nord Buds are a great starting point in the world of truly wireless earphones.

If you’re in India and can spend slightly more, the Realme Buds Air 2 is an excellent alternative, offering ANC and 25 hours of battery life. Meanwhile, those in the US and Europe might want to check out the Realme Buds Q2 or Realme Buds 2 Neo, both of which are equipped with ANC.

Buy the OnePlus Nord Buds if:

• You’re on a tight budget and want serviceable truly wireless earbuds that get the job done.
• You like the bass-driven sound.
• You want solid battery life.
• You want a unique design.

Don’t buy OnePlus Nord Buds if:

• You want active noise cancellation.
• You want balanced sound.
• You can spend more.

OnePlus Nord Buds

The OnePlus Nord Buds offer a tasteful design, a solid battery life and bass-driven sound at an affordable price tag.

Buy from OnePlus

The post OnePlus Nord Buds Review: Tasteful design and exceptional battery life at an affordable price appeared first on XDA.

from XDA https://ift.tt/XcTymYZ
via IFTTT

Honor Magic 4 Pro Review: A swing and a near-miss

Honor’s back, and they are better than ever. Following the company’s split from Huawei towards the end of 2020, we saw its first solo venture arrive in the form of the decidedly mid-range Honor 50 series. Now the company’s back with a flagship smartphone in the west, the Honor Magic 4 Pro, and it shows that Honor means business in its great western return.

The Honor Magic 4 Pro has just been officially unveiled in the United Kingdom, and you can also purchase it from other European countries too. The Honor 20 Pro was one of my favorite phones when it came out, and with the Honor 50, I said I’d like to reserve judgment until the company releases a flagship to see if it’s well and truly back. While I’m a big fan of the Honor Magic 4 Pro and see potential, sadly I don’t quite think this quite stands up to the Honor flagships of old.

The Honor Magic 4 Pro will go on sale for £949.99 on May 27th in the United Kingdom, and for €1,099 in Europe.

Honor Magic 4 Pro

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is the first flagship from Honor in the west since its split from Huawei, and it boasts some impressive specifications.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Amazon UK

About this review: I received the Honor Magic 4 Pro for review from Honor on the 3rd of May, 2022. Honor did not have any input into the contents of this article.

Honor Magic 4 Pro: Specifications

Specification	Honor Magic 4 Pro
Build	IP68 water and dust resistance
Dimensions & Weight	Glass: 163.6 x 74.7 x 9.15mm 215g PU: 163.6 x 74.7 x 9.10mm 209g
Display	6.81-inch LTPO OLED 2848 x 1312p 460PPI 120Hz refresh rate 100% DCI-P3 coverage HDR10+ certified 1000nits peak brightness MEMC SDR to HDR upscaling
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Adreno 730
RAM & Storage	8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM 256/512GB storage
Battery & Charging	4,600mAh 100W wired fast charging support 100W wireless fast charging support
Security	In-display fingerprint scanner Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor Gen 2 3D Face Unlock
Rear Camera(s)	Primary: 50MP f/1.8 Ultra-wide: 50MP f/2.2, 122° FoV Telephoto: 64MP f/3.5, 3.5x optical zoom, 100x digital zoom 8*8 dToF Laser focusing sensor Flicker sensor
Front Camera(s)	Unspecified wide-angle camera with 100° FoV 3D Depth sensor
Port(s)	USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port
Audio	Stereo speakers 24bit HDR Stereo recording
Connectivity	5G NR 4G Bluetooth 5.2 Wi-Fi 6 (2.4Ghz/5GHz) NFC
Software	Magic UI 6.0 based on Android 12
Colors	Black White Cyan Gold Orange (PU)

Honor Magic 4 Pro: Design

• Big and bright
• Obnoxious pill selfie camera
• Quad curved

If there ever was a polarizing smartphone design, then this is it. Featuring a massive circular camera on the back wasn’t bold enough for Honor, as it also packs in a pill-shaped cut-out on the top left of the display. It’s not a design for everyone, but in a sea of similar glass slabs, I appreciate what Honor is going for.

To be clear, I like the Honor Magic 4 Pro’s design overall, and I find that the camera on the back (affectionately dubbed the “eye of muse”) goes a long way in giving it that unique look. It’s symmetrical and it’s bold, and that’s something that stands out. The flash being at the bottom of that massive circle can be annoying, as I find that my finger on the back of the phone can block it a little bit.

What I don’t like is the pill camera cut-out on the front. It’s too long, it takes up a lot of space, and it’s so far from the left-hand side that notification icons nearly get pushed to the center of the display. I understand that it’s long because it houses additional camera hardware, but it’s something that I would find myself getting frustrated with in the long term.

The display of the Honor Magic 4 Pro is a quad-curved 120Hz AMOLED panel with a maximum brightness of 1000 nits, a resolution of 2848 x 1312 pixels, and 460 PPI pixel density. The reason for the pill-shaped cutout is that it houses a 3D ToF sensor alongside the front-facing camera for better face unlock, and it does work well. Nevertheless, it’s still an eyesore, so it really depends on how important face unlocking is to you.

Haptics-wise, the best way I can describe it is that I’m able to feel notifications in my pockets and it’s nice to type on, which is more than enough for me. Other design aspects of the phone include dual-firing speakers, an IR blaster at the top for infra-red-controlled devices, and a pretty drastically curved screen. There’s also a single USB 3.1 USB-C port, a SIM tray, and no headphone jack. Finally, there’s an in-display fingerprint scanner too, and it’s ultrasonic so it doesn’t blind me in the dark when I go to unlock my phone.

Overall, the Honor Magic 4 Pro’s design is beautiful, but also extremely polarizing. It comes with a pre-applied screen protector which feels extremely low quality, but the clear case that you get in the box is decent enough to cover up the slippery back glass.

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Honor Magic 4 Pro: Camera

• Very good primary sensor
• Struggles to focus at times
• 100x zoom is a marketing gimmick

When Honor split from Huawei, it was always likely that one of the biggest casualties was going to be the camera. Huawei’s camera smarts were always at the top of the game, and while Honor no longer seems to have all the chops to compete with the best of the best, this camera hardware does have flashes of brilliance. It’s packed to the gills with premium sensors to cover all your bases, and as an all-around contender, it does an excellent job.

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Honor Magic 4 Pro: Magic UI 6

• Lacks essential features like VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling
• Magic UI 6 is fine
• Honor launcher is terrible

Honor’s Android smartphones run Magic UI, the company’s own variant of Android. Previous iterations were built on Huawei’s EMUI, but now, it looks a little bit different. Not different enough to say it actually is different as a whole, though. Nevertheless, the headlining feature in the software department is again the inclusion of Google Play Services, as previous Honor smartphones were preloaded with Huawei Mobile Services. This is the first flagship phone of Honor’s in the west since the split to come with them.

We’ve seen how Huawei Mobile Services have improved leaps and bounds over their initial iterations in the case of the Huawei P50 Pro, but nothing beats Google Play Services for me. The problem with Huawei Mobile Services wasn’t just that it wasn’t Google, it’s that there were still some teething issues that couldn’t really be solved. Any apps that used the Google Maps API couldn’t actually show the map, as it needed that integration. Installing apps that were not on the AppGallery was also often a cumbersome process, even if tools like Petal Search helped a little bit. It was difficult to hand an Honor phone to just anyone, as it definitely wasn’t what many consumers would be familiar with from an Android smartphone. I use a ton of Google services in my day-to-day life, and it’s a blessing to be able to use them on Honor’s smartphone without needing to jump through hoops or look for alternatives. I don’t have to think about using a Google service, or any of my favorite apps — they just work now as they do on the hundreds and thousands of other phones out there.

On the Honor Magic 4 Pro, there’s a significant amount of bloatware pre-installed, enough that even I noticed when I typically don’t. There are first-party Honor apps, alongside the likes of WPS Office and Booking.com.

Overall, Magic UI 6 is fine. I’ve had a lot of issues with the phone lacking essential features, including no VoLTE or Wi-Fi calling. I rely on Wi-Fi calling a significant amount, as I don’t get a signal in my apartment, and VoLTE is nice so that apps in the background retain a high-speed connection. I also can’t share Wi-Fi QR codes from the settings, something that pretty much every phone can do at this point.

The launcher, though, is absolutely terrible. There’s no app drawer option, and swiping down to search apps lags the entire phone. I believe it’s because it searches with every letter typed, but the entire phone slows to a crawl when typing and can even miss letters. It’s a terrible experience in that regard, and it’s one of the worst launchers that I’ve ever used on a modern smartphone. It’s just not worth using it, and you should definitely consider switching to some other good launcher.

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Performance

• Really low performance for what it should be
• Poor camera speed
• Refresh rate dips below 120Hz frequently

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is the first Honor smartphone in the west to pack flagship specifications in a long, long time. Normally, I’d be content with saying that this phone will perform the same as any other Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered smartphone, but that just isn’t the case. In fact, I had high expectations given that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is capable of being a top performer, and with Magic UI in tow, I genuinely thought that this phone would be capable of so much more. I was saddened to find that the phone struggled with a lot of basic tasks, and my findings were supported by the benchmarks that I ran.

For context, Huawei and Honor have both been known to be rather heavy-handed when it comes to software optimizations, often to the detriment of notifications and the like. While I haven’t run into problems with notifications, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of those optimization decisions had bled into Magic UI 6’s engineering.

The phone feels laggy at random points — from switching between apps to launching the camera — it just feels slow. A phone with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and 8GB of RAM should not perform this poorly, yet here we are. However, what’s interesting is that this performance is reflected in the battery life, as on this device, the battery life is pretty decent. My theory is that Honor has overdone the optimizations for the chipset, resulting in a laggy experience.

Even worse is that launching the camera can take several seconds to launch and take a photo, and switching apps will occasionally result in weird stuttering. I’ve already mentioned the launcher lag, too. The phone just isn’t enjoyable to use in the software department, and I haven’t a clue why. Sometimes the refresh rate visibly dips below 120Hz when I’m scrolling, and that’s not good enough for a phone that costs this much.

As for benchmarks, I was extremely surprised. Topping out at just over 240,000 GIPS (billion instructions per second), it throttled to 71% of its max performance over half an hour. This isn’t great, considering the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 can go as high as 280,000 GIPS from our testing. I noticed that the phone doesn’t appear to heat up much at all, again suggesting that Honor is deliberately limiting this chipset’s performance. You can enable a performance mode in the battery settings, but it doesn’t improve the camera or the laggy launcher, and I didn’t score higher in benchmarks, either.

Overall, I’m extremely disappointed in the software here. I expected better, and hopefully, with software updates, it does actually get better.

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Honor Magic 4 Pro: Battery & Charging

• Very fast charging
• Good battery life
• Terrible battery stat reporting

The Honor Magic 4 Pro has some of the best battery life I’ve experienced in a smartphone with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, though I don’t think the reason is without compromise. I think part of the cause of that is the software optimizations done by Honor in order to tame the chipset; after all, we’ve heard that manufacturers are struggling to really handle Qualcomm’s latest chipset.

As a result, battery life is pretty good, and I reckon I’m hitting about five hours of screen on time a day. The problem is that Honor has implemented Google’s AOSP choices when it comes to displaying battery stats in your phone’s settings, as it will reset after the clock strikes midnight. You can no longer just view your stats from when your phone was last charged — instead, it’s from whenever it crosses into the next day.

The charger you get in the box is a 100W charger too, which should hopefully make up for any battery shortcomings you may face. We were able to charge from 0% to 100% in exactly 40 minutes, which seems a bit slow on the surface. The company also sent us a wireless charger capable of 100W charging, too, and we were able to charge from 0% to 100% in 41 minutes.

The Honor Magic 4 Pro has a massive focus on charging, and it does a pretty good job at that. It’s faster at charging than most competitors in the west, though merely stands amongst the rest of the big offerings from Chinese brands like OnePlus and Xiaomi.

---

Miscellaneous

Fingerprint scanner

The fingerprint scanner is a fast enough scanner that uses ultrasonic technology to scan. Ultrasonic sensors are typically a little bit slower than optical scanners, but not by much, and it works with reasonable accuracy. It also doesn’t blind me when I’m unlocking my phone at night, which is a major plus.

Phone calls, signal strength, and 5G

There’s no VoLTE nor Wi-Fi Calling, though signal strength has been impressive enough. It can be difficult for some phones to get a signal in my apartment, but the Honor Magic 4 Pro was noticeably better than most that I’ve used in this department.

Bootloader unlocking

The bootloader cannot be unlocked on Honor smartphones.

Software Update Promise

Honor promises 2 generations of Android updates and 3 years of security updates. This definitely lags behind the promises that many others make at this point.

---

Is the Honor Magic 4 Pro worth your money?

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is in a weird spot because while it pulls off some things spectacularly well, it falters in others. The cameras are good though have major autofocus issues, the battery life is good at the expense of computation, and the software is good though lacking in some features. Every positive has an associated negative, and for the money, that’s a lot of sacrifices.

While I’m glad that Honor is back, there’s a lot of work that needs to go into the company’s software before I can wholeheartedly recommend this phone. It’s a shame that the smartphone landscape is the way that it is currently, as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 seems to be a key cause of a lot of the issues smartphone makers are facing currently. Given the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 though, maybe things will get better for the second half of the year.

Honor Magic 4 Pro

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is the first flagship from Honor in the west since its split from Huawei, and it boasts some impressive specifications.

See at Amazon UK

The post Honor Magic 4 Pro Review: A swing and a near-miss appeared first on XDA.

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Honor Magic 4 Pro Review: A swing and a near-miss

Honor’s back, and they are better than ever. Following the company’s split from Huawei towards the end of 2020, we saw its first solo venture arrive in the form of the decidedly mid-range Honor 50 series. Now the company’s back with a flagship smartphone in the west, the Honor Magic 4 Pro, and it shows that Honor means business in its great western return.

The Honor Magic 4 Pro has just been officially unveiled in the United Kingdom, and you can also purchase it from other European countries too. The Honor 20 Pro was one of my favorite phones when it came out, and with the Honor 50, I said I’d like to reserve judgment until the company releases a flagship to see if it’s well and truly back. While I’m a big fan of the Honor Magic 4 Pro and see potential, sadly I don’t quite think this quite stands up to the Honor flagships of old.

The Honor Magic 4 Pro will go on sale for £949.99 on May 27th in the United Kingdom, and for €1,099 in Europe.

Honor Magic 4 Pro

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is the first flagship from Honor in the west since its split from Huawei, and it boasts some impressive specifications.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Amazon UK

About this review: I received the Honor Magic 4 Pro for review from Honor on the 3rd of May, 2022. Honor did not have any input into the contents of this article.

Honor Magic 4 Pro: Specifications

Specification	Honor Magic 4 Pro
Build	IP68 water and dust resistance
Dimensions & Weight	Glass: 163.6 x 74.7 x 9.15mm 215g PU: 163.6 x 74.7 x 9.10mm 209g
Display	6.81-inch LTPO OLED 2848 x 1312p 460PPI 120Hz refresh rate 100% DCI-P3 coverage HDR10+ certified 1000nits peak brightness MEMC SDR to HDR upscaling
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Adreno 730
RAM & Storage	8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM 256/512GB storage
Battery & Charging	4,600mAh 100W wired fast charging support 100W wireless fast charging support
Security	In-display fingerprint scanner Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor Gen 2 3D Face Unlock
Rear Camera(s)	Primary: 50MP f/1.8 Ultra-wide: 50MP f/2.2, 122° FoV Telephoto: 64MP f/3.5, 3.5x optical zoom, 100x digital zoom 8*8 dToF Laser focusing sensor Flicker sensor
Front Camera(s)	Unspecified wide-angle camera with 100° FoV 3D Depth sensor
Port(s)	USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port
Audio	Stereo speakers 24bit HDR Stereo recording
Connectivity	5G NR 4G Bluetooth 5.2 Wi-Fi 6 (2.4Ghz/5GHz) NFC
Software	Magic UI 6.0 based on Android 12
Colors	Black White Cyan Gold Orange (PU)

Honor Magic 4 Pro: Design

• Big and bright
• Obnoxious pill selfie camera
• Quad curved

If there ever was a polarizing smartphone design, then this is it. Featuring a massive circular camera on the back wasn’t bold enough for Honor, as it also packs in a pill-shaped cut-out on the top left of the display. It’s not a design for everyone, but in a sea of similar glass slabs, I appreciate what Honor is going for.

To be clear, I like the Honor Magic 4 Pro’s design overall, and I find that the camera on the back (affectionately dubbed the “eye of muse”) goes a long way in giving it that unique look. It’s symmetrical and it’s bold, and that’s something that stands out. The flash being at the bottom of that massive circle can be annoying, as I find that my finger on the back of the phone can block it a little bit.

What I don’t like is the pill camera cut-out on the front. It’s too long, it takes up a lot of space, and it’s so far from the left-hand side that notification icons nearly get pushed to the center of the display. I understand that it’s long because it houses additional camera hardware, but it’s something that I would find myself getting frustrated with in the long term.

The display of the Honor Magic 4 Pro is a quad-curved 120Hz AMOLED panel with a maximum brightness of 1000 nits, a resolution of 2848 x 1312 pixels, and 460 PPI pixel density. The reason for the pill-shaped cutout is that it houses a 3D ToF sensor alongside the front-facing camera for better face unlock, and it does work well. Nevertheless, it’s still an eyesore, so it really depends on how important face unlocking is to you.

Haptics-wise, the best way I can describe it is that I’m able to feel notifications in my pockets and it’s nice to type on, which is more than enough for me. Other design aspects of the phone include dual-firing speakers, an IR blaster at the top for infra-red-controlled devices, and a pretty drastically curved screen. There’s also a single USB 3.1 USB-C port, a SIM tray, and no headphone jack. Finally, there’s an in-display fingerprint scanner too, and it’s ultrasonic so it doesn’t blind me in the dark when I go to unlock my phone.

Overall, the Honor Magic 4 Pro’s design is beautiful, but also extremely polarizing. It comes with a pre-applied screen protector which feels extremely low quality, but the clear case that you get in the box is decent enough to cover up the slippery back glass.

---

Honor Magic 4 Pro: Camera

• Very good primary sensor
• Struggles to focus at times
• 100x zoom is a marketing gimmick

When Honor split from Huawei, it was always likely that one of the biggest casualties was going to be the camera. Huawei’s camera smarts were always at the top of the game, and while Honor no longer seems to have all the chops to compete with the best of the best, this camera hardware does have flashes of brilliance. It’s packed to the gills with premium sensors to cover all your bases, and as an all-around contender, it does an excellent job.

---

Honor Magic 4 Pro: Magic UI 6

• Lacks essential features like VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling
• Magic UI 6 is fine
• Honor launcher is terrible

Honor’s Android smartphones run Magic UI, the company’s own variant of Android. Previous iterations were built on Huawei’s EMUI, but now, it looks a little bit different. Not different enough to say it actually is different as a whole, though. Nevertheless, the headlining feature in the software department is again the inclusion of Google Play Services, as previous Honor smartphones were preloaded with Huawei Mobile Services. This is the first flagship phone of Honor’s in the west since the split to come with them.

We’ve seen how Huawei Mobile Services have improved leaps and bounds over their initial iterations in the case of the Huawei P50 Pro, but nothing beats Google Play Services for me. The problem with Huawei Mobile Services wasn’t just that it wasn’t Google, it’s that there were still some teething issues that couldn’t really be solved. Any apps that used the Google Maps API couldn’t actually show the map, as it needed that integration. Installing apps that were not on the AppGallery was also often a cumbersome process, even if tools like Petal Search helped a little bit. It was difficult to hand an Honor phone to just anyone, as it definitely wasn’t what many consumers would be familiar with from an Android smartphone. I use a ton of Google services in my day-to-day life, and it’s a blessing to be able to use them on Honor’s smartphone without needing to jump through hoops or look for alternatives. I don’t have to think about using a Google service, or any of my favorite apps — they just work now as they do on the hundreds and thousands of other phones out there.

On the Honor Magic 4 Pro, there’s a significant amount of bloatware pre-installed, enough that even I noticed when I typically don’t. There are first-party Honor apps, alongside the likes of WPS Office and Booking.com.

Overall, Magic UI 6 is fine. I’ve had a lot of issues with the phone lacking essential features, including no VoLTE or Wi-Fi calling. I rely on Wi-Fi calling a significant amount, as I don’t get a signal in my apartment, and VoLTE is nice so that apps in the background retain a high-speed connection. I also can’t share Wi-Fi QR codes from the settings, something that pretty much every phone can do at this point.

The launcher, though, is absolutely terrible. There’s no app drawer option, and swiping down to search apps lags the entire phone. I believe it’s because it searches with every letter typed, but the entire phone slows to a crawl when typing and can even miss letters. It’s a terrible experience in that regard, and it’s one of the worst launchers that I’ve ever used on a modern smartphone. It’s just not worth using it, and you should definitely consider switching to some other good launcher.

---

Performance

• Really low performance for what it should be
• Poor camera speed
• Refresh rate dips below 120Hz frequently

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is the first Honor smartphone in the west to pack flagship specifications in a long, long time. Normally, I’d be content with saying that this phone will perform the same as any other Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered smartphone, but that just isn’t the case. In fact, I had high expectations given that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is capable of being a top performer, and with Magic UI in tow, I genuinely thought that this phone would be capable of so much more. I was saddened to find that the phone struggled with a lot of basic tasks, and my findings were supported by the benchmarks that I ran.

For context, Huawei and Honor have both been known to be rather heavy-handed when it comes to software optimizations, often to the detriment of notifications and the like. While I haven’t run into problems with notifications, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of those optimization decisions had bled into Magic UI 6’s engineering.

The phone feels laggy at random points — from switching between apps to launching the camera — it just feels slow. A phone with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and 8GB of RAM should not perform this poorly, yet here we are. However, what’s interesting is that this performance is reflected in the battery life, as on this device, the battery life is pretty decent. My theory is that Honor has overdone the optimizations for the chipset, resulting in a laggy experience.

Even worse is that launching the camera can take several seconds to launch and take a photo, and switching apps will occasionally result in weird stuttering. I’ve already mentioned the launcher lag, too. The phone just isn’t enjoyable to use in the software department, and I haven’t a clue why. Sometimes the refresh rate visibly dips below 120Hz when I’m scrolling, and that’s not good enough for a phone that costs this much.

As for benchmarks, I was extremely surprised. Topping out at just over 240,000 GIPS (billion instructions per second), it throttled to 71% of its max performance over half an hour. This isn’t great, considering the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 can go as high as 280,000 GIPS from our testing. I noticed that the phone doesn’t appear to heat up much at all, again suggesting that Honor is deliberately limiting this chipset’s performance. You can enable a performance mode in the battery settings, but it doesn’t improve the camera or the laggy launcher, and I didn’t score higher in benchmarks, either.

Overall, I’m extremely disappointed in the software here. I expected better, and hopefully, with software updates, it does actually get better.

---

Honor Magic 4 Pro: Battery & Charging

• Very fast charging
• Good battery life
• Terrible battery stat reporting

The Honor Magic 4 Pro has some of the best battery life I’ve experienced in a smartphone with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, though I don’t think the reason is without compromise. I think part of the cause of that is the software optimizations done by Honor in order to tame the chipset; after all, we’ve heard that manufacturers are struggling to really handle Qualcomm’s latest chipset.

As a result, battery life is pretty good, and I reckon I’m hitting about five hours of screen on time a day. The problem is that Honor has implemented Google’s AOSP choices when it comes to displaying battery stats in your phone’s settings, as it will reset after the clock strikes midnight. You can no longer just view your stats from when your phone was last charged — instead, it’s from whenever it crosses into the next day.

The charger you get in the box is a 100W charger too, which should hopefully make up for any battery shortcomings you may face. We were able to charge from 0% to 100% in exactly 40 minutes, which seems a bit slow on the surface. The company also sent us a wireless charger capable of 100W charging, too, and we were able to charge from 0% to 100% in 41 minutes.

The Honor Magic 4 Pro has a massive focus on charging, and it does a pretty good job at that. It’s faster at charging than most competitors in the west, though merely stands amongst the rest of the big offerings from Chinese brands like OnePlus and Xiaomi.

---

Miscellaneous

Fingerprint scanner

The fingerprint scanner is a fast enough scanner that uses ultrasonic technology to scan. Ultrasonic sensors are typically a little bit slower than optical scanners, but not by much, and it works with reasonable accuracy. It also doesn’t blind me when I’m unlocking my phone at night, which is a major plus.

Phone calls, signal strength, and 5G

There’s no VoLTE nor Wi-Fi Calling, though signal strength has been impressive enough. It can be difficult for some phones to get a signal in my apartment, but the Honor Magic 4 Pro was noticeably better than most that I’ve used in this department.

Bootloader unlocking

The bootloader cannot be unlocked on Honor smartphones.

Software Update Promise

Honor promises 2 generations of Android updates and 3 years of security updates. This definitely lags behind the promises that many others make at this point.

---

Is the Honor Magic 4 Pro worth your money?

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is in a weird spot because while it pulls off some things spectacularly well, it falters in others. The cameras are good though have major autofocus issues, the battery life is good at the expense of computation, and the software is good though lacking in some features. Every positive has an associated negative, and for the money, that’s a lot of sacrifices.

While I’m glad that Honor is back, there’s a lot of work that needs to go into the company’s software before I can wholeheartedly recommend this phone. It’s a shame that the smartphone landscape is the way that it is currently, as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 seems to be a key cause of a lot of the issues smartphone makers are facing currently. Given the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 though, maybe things will get better for the second half of the year.

Honor Magic 4 Pro

The Honor Magic 4 Pro is the first flagship from Honor in the west since its split from Huawei, and it boasts some impressive specifications.

See at Amazon UK

The post Honor Magic 4 Pro Review: A swing and a near-miss appeared first on XDA.

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These upcoming phones will utilize Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 and 7 Gen 1 processors

After months of rumors, Qualcomm finally took the wraps off of its latest chipsets, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 and the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. While Qualcomm did announce some of its partners that will take advantage of its new hardware, more details are starting to emerge, with companies shedding light on the products they will offer with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and Snapdragon 7 Gen 1.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1

Lei Jun, who is the founder and CEO of Xiaomi, announced through Twitter that the company’s next flagship will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. Furthermore, Jun stated that Xiaomi is working closely to produce the best product possible in collaboration with Qualcomm. While a specific handset wasn’t announced, it is speculated that Jun was talking about the Xiaomi 12 Ultra. 

It has been quite some time since we last heard from OSOM, the team made of former Essential team members. But, that doesn’t mean that they haven’t been hard at work on their first smartphone, the OV1. While its looks remain the same, it appears that its innards will be getting an upgrade. While it originally planned to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the official OSOM Twitter account confirmed its move to the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC. Of course, OSOM did not share exactly when its phone would arrive to the market. 

OnePlus has announced through its Weibo account that it will offer support for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 Soc. Despite announcing that a new product was on the way, it did not give any details about the device’s name or other specifications. One thing that it did reveal is that this product would launch during Q3 of 2022. Speculation suggests this could arrive as the OnePlus 10 Ultra. 

Motorola has announced that it will take advantage of the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. The news comes from its official Weibo account. Unfortunately, there isn’t much beyond its mention that it plans to use the recently announced SoC. According to rumors, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 handset that the firm is working on is codenamed Moto Frontier.

Realme is another company that is offering support for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, as confirmed through its Weibo account. In a new post, the company states that it has something in the works, with the handset expected to be dubbed the Realme GT 2 Master Explorer Edition.

ASUS announced via Twitter that the ROG Phone 6 will come equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 Soc. No further details were provided but we did get to see what the handset might look like some months ago. Of course, we will have to be patient, and wait for an official announcement. 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1

The OPPO Reno 8 Pro is set to make its debut in a few days. The handset will be powered by Qualcomm’s latest, Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC. Since this handset has leaked quite a bit online, we know its look and specifications. But there could be surprises, so we will have to wait for the full reveal to learn more.

Naturally, more companies will share details about their future devices running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 or Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC. Once that happens, we will keep this article up to date. See something we missed? Comment down below.

The post These upcoming phones will utilize Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 and 7 Gen 1 processors appeared first on XDA.

from XDA https://ift.tt/bdRq3TM
via IFTTT

These upcoming phones will utilize Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 and 7 Gen 1 processors

After months of rumors, Qualcomm finally took the wraps off of its latest chipsets, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 and the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. While Qualcomm did announce some of its partners that will take advantage of its new hardware, more details are starting to emerge, with companies shedding light on the products they will offer with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and Snapdragon 7 Gen 1.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1

Lei Jun, who is the founder and CEO of Xiaomi, announced through Twitter that the company’s next flagship will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. Furthermore, Jun stated that Xiaomi is working closely to produce the best product possible in collaboration with Qualcomm. While a specific handset wasn’t announced, it is speculated that Jun was talking about the Xiaomi 12 Ultra. 

It has been quite some time since we last heard from OSOM, the team made of former Essential team members. But, that doesn’t mean that they haven’t been hard at work on their first smartphone, the OV1. While its looks remain the same, it appears that its innards will be getting an upgrade. While it originally planned to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the official OSOM Twitter account confirmed its move to the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC. Of course, OSOM did not share exactly when its phone would arrive to the market. 

OnePlus has announced through its Weibo account that it will offer support for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 Soc. Despite announcing that a new product was on the way, it did not give any details about the device’s name or other specifications. One thing that it did reveal is that this product would launch during Q3 of 2022. Speculation suggests this could arrive as the OnePlus 10 Ultra. 

Motorola has announced that it will take advantage of the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. The news comes from its official Weibo account. Unfortunately, there isn’t much beyond its mention that it plans to use the recently announced SoC. According to rumors, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 handset that the firm is working on is codenamed Moto Frontier.

Realme is another company that is offering support for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, as confirmed through its Weibo account. In a new post, the company states that it has something in the works, with the handset expected to be dubbed the Realme GT 2 Master Explorer Edition.

ASUS announced via Twitter that the ROG Phone 6 will come equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 Soc. No further details were provided but we did get to see what the handset might look like some months ago. Of course, we will have to be patient, and wait for an official announcement. 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1

The OPPO Reno 8 Pro is set to make its debut in a few days. The handset will be powered by Qualcomm’s latest, Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC. Since this handset has leaked quite a bit online, we know its look and specifications. But there could be surprises, so we will have to wait for the full reveal to learn more.

Naturally, more companies will share details about their future devices running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 or Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC. Once that happens, we will keep this article up to date. See something we missed? Comment down below.

The post These upcoming phones will utilize Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 and 7 Gen 1 processors appeared first on XDA.

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via IFTTT