The world’s first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 smartphone is here, The Game Awards 2021, Realme is India’s No. 2 smartphone brand, and more.
December 11, 2021 / 02:34 PM IST
The Game Awards 2021 took place this week in Los Angeles. A total of 26 video game awards were distributed during the event, starting with the ‘Game of the Year’, which was awarded to ‘It Takes Two’ by Hazelight Studios and EA Games. Other winners included Deathloop, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Forza Horizon 5, Life is Strange: True Colors, Genshin Impact, and Resident Evil 4, to name a few.
iPhone 13 production could have taken a major hit for the first time in a decade. According to reports, Apple has halted the production of its iPhone models due to supply chain limitations. This comes after reports which surfaced online about the US tech giant informing its suppliers about the weakening demand for the new iPhone 13 models. According to a Nikkei Asia report, Apple has halted the assembly line of its iPhone production unit for the first time in over 10 years due to supply chain constraints. The report does not specifically mention anything about the new iPhone 13. However, it is safe to speculate that the new iPhone models -iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, and iPhone 13 Pro – could be among the list of affected models.
The Moto Edge X30 was recently unveiled in China as the world’s first smartphone to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. Apart from the chipset, the Moto Edge X30 also features a 144Hz OLED display, a triple-camera setup with two 50 MP sensors, a 60 MP selfie camera with the option to choose from a hole-punch cutout and an under-display selfie camera, Android 12, and a 5,000 mAh battery with 68W charging support. The Moto Edge X30 features a starting price of CNY 2,999 (roughly Rs 35,550) in China. Motorola also launched a Snapdragon 888+ powered Moto Edge S30 alongside the X30.
At the Game Awards 2021, a Google spokesperson confirmed that games on the Google Play Store will get native support on Windows 10 and 11, starting next year. He noted that the games will be made available through a Google app developed on Windows 10 and 11 and there’s going to be a sense of continuity. Google didn’t reveal any details about the integration, but this doesn’t come as a surprise considering Microsoft recently announced its partnership with Amazon to bring Amazon apps to the Microsoft Store.
Realme recently announced that it has become India’s No. 2 smartphone brand with its highest ever market share of 18 percent in the past two years. According to Counterpoint Research, the Indian smartphone industry witnessed steady growth in smartphone shipments during the month of October. Xiaomi stood at 20 percent, followed by Realme, Samsung, and Vivo. Earlier this year, Realme also announced its landmark of hitting 100 million in cumulative shipments globally since its launch.
Around 60 percent of eligible iPhone models have installed iOS 15 that was launched in September at the 2021 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, better known as WWDC. The software update for iPhone 13, iPhone 12, and some older models comes with a bunch of improvements under the hood and some new features. In about 80 days of its availability, users have installed the iOS 15 update on their iPhone 12 and other eligible models.
Smartphone maker Infinix recently dropped its first laptop in India. The Infinix InBook X1 and InBook X1 Pro feature a starting price of Rs 35,999 and Rs 59,999, respectively. Both laptops arrive with 10th Gen Intel processing hardware, 14-inch Full HD displays, and Windows 11. The Infinix X1 Pro packs the 10th Gen Intel Core i7 paired with Iris Plus graphics and 16GB of RAM. The vanilla model comes in Core i3 and Core i5 options with 8GB of RAM.
Moto G51 5G launched in India is the company’s most affordable 5G smartphone. The device, which has been launched as a smartphone under Rs 15,000 in India, comes with Qualcomm’s recently launched Snapdragon 480+ SoC. Moto G51 5G features a 6.8-inch LCD with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels. The device has a hole-punch cutout for the front camera. It comes with a 120Hz refresh rate support as well. It has a 50MP primary camera and an 8MP ultrawide sensor as well as a macro unit on the back. It comes with a 13MP front camera sensor and runs Android 11-based MyUX out of the box.
