IF / News

Chipsets

MediaTek might be supplying Samsung with 5G chipsets for its low-end range Galaxy A series in the near future. The former has already formed partnerships with various other brands like OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi and may now also supply Samsung for its affordable range of smartphones. (Gizmo China, China Times)

Liu Chang, vice president of OPPO and dean of the research institute, has revealed that OPPO already has chip-level capabilities. The much-rumored M1 chip is indeed planned. It may be commercially available on OPPO products in the future. (GizChina, IT Home)

Touch Display

A new Xiaomi design patent indicates a smartphone featuring a quad-cam module and a sliding display design to expand the display area. The phone uses a front dual-camera design. The left side of the phone has a large frame. And the other three sides look narrower. The back of the phone also uses a dual-camera design. (GizChina, IT Home)

Liu Chang, vice president of OPPO and dean of the research institute, has revealed that the OPPO foldable phone is in development, which will have an adaptable OS. He believes folding phones are the future of smartphones. OPPO’s foldable display products are currently undergoing intensive research and development to ensure that they’re well optimized. (Gizmo China, IT Home)

Camera

Xiaomi has filed a new patent titled “Display Structure and Electronic Equipment” describing a hidden camera under the phone’s display that does not take up any space on the display. The display structure includes a screen and a light adjustment part located on a light emitting side of the display screen. The working state of the dimming component includes a light transmission state and a polarization state. (Gizmo China, IT Home)

OPPO is showcasing its camera under display technology, which OPPO calls “Perspective Panoramic Screen”, which brings users a more complete field of vision by integrating the front lens and screen. The whole machine being showcased does not have any physical openings, and even the charging interface will be removed (solved by wireless charging solution). (CN Beta, CNMO, 163, SCMP)

TSMC has reportedly obtained orders for CMOS image sensors from Sony, and will fabricate the chips using 40nm process technology at Fab 14A in Tainan, southern Taiwan. TSMC has placed equipment orders for additional 40nm process capacity at the fab in order to fulfill Sony’s orders for CIS. The foundry is scheduled to install the additional new 40nm manufacturing equipment in 2Q20 with pilot runs slated for Aug 2020. (CN Beta, IT Home, UDN, UDN, Digitimes, press)

Phone

Wang Chenglu, president of the Huawei consumer business group’s software division has revealed that the company plans to equip more of its products with its Harmony operating system (OS) in 2020, and will promote them at home and abroad. (GSM Arena, Reuters, Gizmo China, My Drivers)

vivo has announced that “after continuous discussion” between the teams at the vivo headquarter, the team eventually decided to suspend the renaming plan for Jovi OS. (GSM Arena, Gizmo China, Elecfans)

India’s second largest phone maker Intex Technologies is now planning to contract manufacture for the Chinese to make a turnaround. Intex promoter and director Keshav Bansal has indicated that in the light of tariff war between the US and China, few Chinese companies are in final talks with Intex for manufacturing and export of products to USA from India. This, he expects, will be one of the key strategy to revive the company. (Economic Times, CN Beta)

The CEO founder and CEO of OPPO Chen Mingyong has indicated that OPPO has long been more than just a mobile phone company. Smartphones are just a medium for OPPO service users. The company will invest CNY50B (USD7.1B) over the next 3 years into research and development, as it aims to hone its technological prowess amid the fierce competitions for the 5G-enabled internet of things era. (CN Beta, Gizmo China, China Daily)

Redmi K30 is announced in China – 6.67” 1080×2400 FHD+ IPS dual hole in display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, rear quad 64MP-8MP ultrawide-2MP macro-2MP depth + front dual 20MP-2MP depth, 6+64 / 6+128 / 8+128 / 8+256GB, Android 10, side fingerprint scanner, 4500mAh 30W, CNY1,599~2,199 (USD227~312) 4G / CNY1,999~2,899 (USD284~412) 5G. (GizChina, Gizmo China, Android Central)

Wearables

Global shipments of wearable devices totaled 84.5M units in 3Q19, a year-over-year increase of 94.6% and a new record for shipments in a single quarter, according to IDC. Most of the growth in demand for wearables is driven by new products in the hearables market. Hearables alone accounted for almost half the market in 3Q19, followed by wrist bands and smartwatches. (GSM Arena, IDC, press)

Augmented / Virtual Reality

Form has added heart-rate monitoring to its USD200 augmented reality (AR) goggles that let athletic swimmers track their lap-swimming data. The company has now updated its goggles in a partnership with Polar to measure a swimmer’s heart rate in real time. (VentureBeat, News Dio)

Google is adding a major new feature to its ARCore toolkit for developers: a Depth API capable of creating depth maps with a single device camera. The ARCore Depth API allows developers to use Google’s depth-from-motion algorithms to create a depth map using a single RGB camera. (VentureBeat, 9to5Google, The Verge, Yivian)

OPPO has announced its first AR Glasses. It offers three-dimensional reproduction and is also equipped to offer 3D surround sound. It is reportedly using diffractive optical waveguide technology to achieve thinness and high transmittance. (Gizmo China, CN Beta)

Home

Redmi XiaoAI Speaker Play launched, priced at CNY79. It has a 1.75” high-quality 5W speaker unit which comes in a U-shaped duct design. The speaker also has a 350cc large sound cavity which aims to delivery outstanding sound quality for the users. (CN Beta, Gizmo China)