Author: Duncan Pike

If you thought Xiaomi, the world’s second-largest smartphone maker, had finished making the news, you’d be mistaken. The Chinese tech company has officially launched its new Electric Vehicle business, aptly named Xiaomi EV Inc. Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s CEO, announced that he would be heading the venture and that it would be his last. “I am willing to put all my personal reputation on the line and fight for the future of our smart electric vehicle,” said Lei in March when the company first announced plans to enter the EV sector. Xiaomi zooms into another sector According to Nikkei Asia, Xiaomi has…

The next Microsoft event will take place on the 22nd of September at 17:00, during which the company will debut the latest Surface hardware. https://twitter.com/Microsoft/status/1433082292663209993 While it didn’t say as much in its Tweet, the signs are pretty clear. The company’s page for the event shows off what looks to be the next iteration of the Surface Pro X, the company’s 2-in-1 ARM-based laptop. The company usually holds its hardware-focused events around this time of year. With the launch of Windows 11 being so close, what better way to show off the new OS than with new tech to go with it?…

News about Microsoft’s new operating system Windows 11 continues to roll out as we near the launch and we finally have a date for when that’ll be. Late yesterday Microsoft announced the official date it’ll be making the upgrade to Windows 11 available: 5 October 2021. As with the Windows 10 rollout, Microsoft will stagger the rollout for 11, making it available to newer eligible Windows 10 PC users as a free upgrade first. That’s if you’ve got an activated Windows 10 licence (you wouldn’t steal a Windows). The free upgrade won’t be available to everyone right away. You might…

When some people say something is too good to be true, they aren’t talking about the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro. A still relatively unknown brand in South Africa, Xiaomi has been on a rapid and steady incline in the global smartphone market over the last couple of years. Recently, it overtook Samsung as the top smartphone manufacturer in Europe thanks to the 67.1% year-on-year growth in Q2 2021. Xiaomi has found itself in a very similar position to pre-2019 Huawei before trade bans from the US all but killed its stake in the global smartphone market. That position — providing high-quality,…

The global smartwatch market has seen significant year on year growth from Q2 2020 to Q2 of 2021, according to a new report by Counterpoint. While Apple maintained its lead, Samsung has snuck up behind and overtaken Chinese smartwatch maker Imoo to claim the third spot with a 7.6% market share. Apple still sits ahead of the pack with 28%, down from 30.1% in Q2 2020. Huawei is currently in second place, but not by much. Its current 9.3% market share is down 3.8% from the 13.1% it held last year.  Counterpoint cites the popularity of the Galaxy Watch 3 and Watch Active…

That semiconductor shorage you keep hearing about, yeah it’s about to get worse. TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, plans to raise the prices of its products. Up until now, you’ve probably felt the shortage by struggling to buy anything that uses semiconductors — which is pretty much most tech products these days. The price increase from TSMC means that the few things you can find will now be more expensive. According to The Verge, which cites a new report from The Wall Street Journal, TSMC plans to increase the price of its advanced chips by around 10% and its less advanced…

These days, every smartphone manufacturer is trying its very best to get its smartphone in your hands. Or at least that’s what they want you to believe. We recently got our grubby paws on the new Huawei Nova 8. We’ll take you through how Huawei is trying to differentiate this new glass sandwich. Right off the bat, we were fairly impressed with the slightly curved 6.57in OLED display. Boasting a 90Hz refresh rate isn’t something too many budget-focused phones can lay claim to, yet. While most flagships these days are running at 120Hz and some can even get up to…

Huawei has just launched two new handsets locally, the Nova Y60 and Nova 8. Aimed at two different markets, the Nova Y60 and Nova 8 plan to bring some value to the budget smartphone range. Here’s what you can expect from each of them. Huawei Nova Y60 With the Nova Y60, you’ll spend your time looking at a 6.6in 720×1600 LCD display, which is a little low on the resolution side of things but still fine. Underneath the screen, you’ll find a MediaTek Helio P35 chipset with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which isn’t all that much but…

When we reported that the literal greatest and almost world-leading smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi, was dropping its ‘Mi’ branding from its products, we were talking specifically about its smartphones. It seems it doesn’t apply to its TVs. After its annual Smarter Living 2022 event aired in India today, Xiaomi revealed a host of new products, including the new Mi TV 5X. Xiaomi Mi TV 5X specs The Mi TV 5X will come in three sizes, a 43in, a 50in and a 55in variant. All three of these sizes will feature a 4K HDR and 10-bit colour-capable panel. The panels are also…

Xbox had its own stream on Tuesday night which was technically part of Gamescom, but the event started in earnest last night with Opening Night Live hosted by Geoff Keighley. This one was a lengthy affair, wrapping up in just about two hours — but it had to be, considering all the news and trailers on show. If you didn’t get to watch it, here’s what you missed. Marvel’s Midnight Suns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz8Vw5tOf5M Firaxis, the developer behind the XCOM franchise, revealed its newest project. Midnight Suns is a tactical RPG — what else from Firaxis — with some familiar faces and…