Earlier this month Apple unveiled some of the new AI features coming to its smartphones, tablets, and laptop and desktop computers. But it looks like not everyone will get these so-called “Apple Intelligence” features. We already knew that you’d need an Apple A17 Pro or faster processor, which leaves behind anyone that doesn’t have an […]

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Samsung has ruled the global foldable phone market since it launched the original Galaxy Fold back in 2019 and the Galaxy Z Flip back in 2020. Unfortunately for the Korean manufacturer, it’s just been knocked off its perch for the first time.

Counterpoint Research reports that HUAWEI has overtaken Samsung to be the top foldable phone manufacturer in Q1 2024. The Chinese brand’s foldables accounted for 35% of the global foldable market, compared to Samsung’s 23%. Just a year ago, HUAWEI had a 14% global share versus Samsung’s 58%.

JEDEC and the Open Compute Project rolled out a new set of guidelines for standardizing chiplet characterization details, such as thermal properties, physical and mechanical requirements, and behavior specs. Those details have been a sticking point for commercial chiplets, because without them it’s not possible to choose the best chiplet for a particular application or workload. The guidelines are a prerequisite for a multi-vendor chiplet marketplace.

AMD, Broadcom, Cisco, Google, HPE, Intel, Meta, and Microsoft proposed a new high-speed, low-latency interconnect specification, Ultra Accelerator Link (UALink), between accelerators and switches in AI computing pods. The 1.0 specification will enable the connection of up to 1,024 accelerators within a pod and allow for direct loads and stores between the memory attached to accelerators.

Arm debuted a range of new CPUs, including the Cortex-X925 for on-device generative AI, and the Cortex-A725 with improved efficiency for AI and mobile gaming. It also announced the Immortalis-G925 GPU for flagship smartphones, and the Mali-G725/625 GPUs for consumer devices. Additionally, Arm announced Compute Subsystems (CSS) for Client to provide foundational computing elements for AI smartphone and PC SoCs, and it introduced KleidiAI, a set of compute kernels for developers of AI frameworks. The Armv9-A architecture also added support for the Scalable Matrix Extension to accelerate AI workloads.

TSMC said its 2nm process is on target to begin mass production in 2025. Meanwhile, Samsung is expected to release its 1nm plan next month, targeting mass production for 2026 — a year ahead of schedule, reports Business Korea.

CHIPs for America and NATCAST released a 2024 roadmap for the U.S. National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), identifying priorities for facilities, research, workforce development, and membership.

China is investing CNY 344 billion (~$47.5 billion) into the third phase of its National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the Big Fund, to support its semiconductor sector and supply chain, according to numerous reports.

Malaysia plans to invest $5.3 billion in seed capital and support for semiconductor manufacturing in an effort to attract more than $100 billion in foreign investments, reports Reuters. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the effort to create at least 10 companies focused on IC design, advanced packaging, and equipment manufacturing.

imec demonstrated a die-to-wafer hybrid bonding flow for Cu-Cu and SiCN-SiCN at pitches down to 2µm at the IEEE’s ECTC conference. This breakthrough could enable die and wafer-level optical interconnects.

The chip industry is racing to develop glass for advanced packaging, setting the stage for one of the biggest shifts in chip materials in decades — and one that will introduce a broad new set of challenges that will take years to fully resolve.

Quick links to more news:

In-Depth
Global
Product News
Markets and Money
Security
Research and Training
Quantum
Events and Further Reading

In-Depth

Semiconductor Engineering published its Systems & Design newsletter featuring these top stories:

• RISC-V Heralds New Era Of Cooperation
• AI For Data Management
• Trouble Ahead For IC Verification

Global

STMicroelectronics is building a fully integrated SiC facility in Catania, Italy.  The high-volume 200mm facility is projected to cost over $5 billion.

Siliconware Precision Industries Co. Ltd.(SPIL) broke ground on an RM 6 billion (~$1.3 billion) advanced packaging and testing facility in Malaysia. Also, Google will invest $2 billion in Malaysia for its first data center, and a Google Cloud hub to meet growing demand for cloud services and AI literacy programs, reports AP.

In an SEC filing, Applied Materials received additional subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (DoC) Bureau of Industry and Security related to shipments of advanced semiconductor equipment to China. This comes on the heels of similar subpoenas issued last year.

A Chinese contractor working for SK hynix was arrested in South Korea and is being charged with funneling more than 3,000 copies of a paper on solving process failure issues to Huawei, reports South Korea’s Union News.

VSORA, CEA-Grenoble, and Valeo were awarded $7 million from the French government to build low-latency, low-power AI inference co-processors for autonomous driving and other applications.

In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating unexpected driving behaviors of vehicles equipped with Waymo‘s 5th Generation automated driving system (ADS), with details of nine new incidents on top of the first 22.

Product News

ASE introduced powerSIP, a power delivery platform designed to reduce signal and transmission loss while addressing current density challenges.

Infineon announced a roadmap for energy-efficient power supply units based on Si, SiC, and GaN to address the energy needs of AI data centers, featuring new 8 kW and 12 kW PSUs, in addition to the 3 kW and 3.3 kW units available today. The company also released its CoolSiC MOSFET 400 V family, specially developed for use in the AC/DC stage of AI servers, complementing the PSU roadmap.

Fig. 1: Infineon’s 8kW PSU. Source: Infineon

Infineon also introduced two new generations of high voltage (HV) and medium voltage (MV) CoolGaN TM devices, enabling customers to use GaN in voltage classes from 40 V to 700 V. The devices are built using Infineon’s 8-inch foundry processes.

Ansys launched Ansys Access on Microsoft Azure to provide pre-configured simulation products optimized for HPC on Azure infrastructure.

Foxconn Industrial Internet used Keysight Technology’s Open RAN Studio solution to certify an outdoor Open Radio Unit (O-RU).

Andes Technology announced an SoC and development board for the development and porting of large RISC-V applications.

MediaTek uncorked a pair of mobile chipsets built on a 4nm process that use an octa-core CPU consisting of 4X Arm Cortex-A78 cores operating at up to 2.5GHz paired with 4X Arm Cortex-A55 cores.

The NVIDIA H200 Blackwell platform is expected to begin shipping in Q3 of 2024 and will be available to data centers by Q4, according to TrendForce.

A room-temperature direct fusion hybrid bonding system from Be Semiconductor has shipped to the NHanced advanced packaging facility in North Carolina. The new system offers faster throughput for copper interconnects with submicron pad sizes, greater accuracy and reduced warpage.

Markets and Money

Frore Systems raised $80 million for its solid-state active cooling module, which removes heat from the top of a chip without fans. The device in systems ranging from notebooks and network edge gateways to data centers.

Axus Technology received $12.5 million in capital equity funding to make its chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) equipment for semiconductor wafer polishing, thinning, and cleaning, including of silicon carbide (SiC) wafers.

Elon Musk’s xAI announced a series B funding round of $6 billion.

Micron was ordered to pay $445 million in damages to Netlist for patent infringement of the company’s DDR4 memory module technology between 2021 and 2024.

Global revenue from AI semiconductors is predicted to total $71 billion in 2024, up 33% from 2023, according to Gartner. In 2025, it is expected to jump to $91.9 billion. The value of AI accelerators used in servers is expected to total $21 billion in 2024 and reach $33 billion by 2028.

NAND flash revenue was $14.71 billion in Q1 2024, an increase of 28.1%, according to TrendForce.

The optical transceiver market dipped from $11 billion in 2022 to $10.9 billion in 2023, but it is predicted to reach $22.4 billion by 2029, driven by AI, 800G applications, and the transition to 200G/lane ecosystem technologies, reports Yole.

Yole also found that ultra-wideband technical choices and packaging types used by NXP, Apple, and Qorvo vary considerably, ranging from 7nm to 90nm, with both CMOS and finFET transistors.

The global market share of GenAI-capable smartphones increased to 6% in Q1 2024 from 1.3% in the previous quarter, reports Counterpoint. The premium segment accounted for over 70% of sales with Samsung on top and contributing 58%. Meanwhile, global foldable smartphone shipments were up 49% YoY in Q1 2024, led by Huawei, HONOR, and Motorola.

Security

The National Science Foundation awarded Worcester Polytechnic Institute researcher Shahin Tajik almost $0.6 million to develop new technologies to address hardware security vulnerabilities.

The Hyperform consortium was formed to develop European sovereignty in post-quantum cryptography, funded by the French government and EU credits. Members include IDEMIA Secure Transactions, CEA Leti, and the French cybersecurity agency (ANSSI).

In security research:

• University of California Davis and University of Arizona researchers proposed a framework leveraging generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) models to automate the obfuscation process.
• Columbia University and Intel researchers presented a secure digital low dropout regulator that integrates an attack detector and a detection-driven protection scheme to mitigate correlation power analysis.
• Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) researchers analyzed threshold switch devices and their performance in hardware security.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) seeks proposals for its AI Quantified program to develop technology to help deploy generative AI safely and effectively across the Department of Defense (DoD) and society.

Vanderbilt University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) partnered to develop dependable AI for national security applications.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a number of alerts/advisories.

Research and Training

New York continues to amp up their semiconductor offerings. NY CREATES and Raytheon unveiled a semiconductor workforce training program. And Syracuse  University is hosting a free virtual course focused on the semiconductor industry this summer.

In research news:

• A team of researchers at MIT and other universities found that extreme temperatures up to 500°C did not significantly degrade GaN materials or contacts.
• University of Cambridge researchers developed adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto biological surfaces, such as a finger or flower petal.
• Researchers at Rice University and Hanyang University developed an elastic material that moves like skin and can adjust its dielectric frequency to stabilize RF communications and counter disruptive frequency shifts that interfere with electronics when a substrate is twisted or stretched, with potential for stretchable wearable electronic devices.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded $36 million to three projects chosen for their potential to revolutionize computing. The University of Texas at Austin-led project aims to create a next-gen open-source intelligent and adaptive OS. The Harvard University-led project targets sustainable computing. The University of Massachusetts Amherst-led project will develop computational decarbonization.

Quantum

Singapore will invest close to S$300 million (~$222 million) into its National Quantum Strategy to support the development and deployment of quantum technologies, including an initiative to design and build a quantum processor within the country.

Several quantum partnerships were announced:

• Riverlane and Alice & Bob will integrate Riverlane’s quantum error correction stack within Alice & Bob’s larger quantum computing system based on cat qubit technology.
• New York University and the University of Copenhagen will collaborate to explore the viability of hybrid superconductor-semiconductor quantum materials for the production of quantum chips and integration with CMOS processes.
• NXP, eleQtron, and ParityQC showed off a full-stack, ion-trap based quantum computer demonstrator for Germany’s DLR Quantum Computing Initiative.
• Photonic says it demonstrated distributed entanglement between quantum modules using optically-linked silicon spin qubits with a native telecom networking interface as part of a quantum internet effort with Microsoft.
• Classiq and HPE say they developed a rapid method for solving large-scale combinatorial optimization problems by combining quantum and classical HPC approaches.

Events and Further Reading

Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:

Upcoming webinars are here, including integrated SLM analytics solution, prototyping and validation of perception sensor systems, and improving PCB designs for performance and reliability.

Semiconductor Engineering’s latest newsletters:

Automotive, Security and Pervasive Computing
Systems and Design
Low Power-High Performance
Test, Measurement and Analytics
Manufacturing, Packaging and Materials

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A trade ban has forced HUAWEI to be more self-sufficient if it hopes to keep producing smartphones. The manufacturer already turned heads when it launched the Mate 60 Pro late last year, featuring a 5G-enabled in-house chipset. Now, it looks like a teardown of the Pura 70 series reveals HUAWEI’s efforts at self-sufficiency too.

A teardown of the Pura 70 Pro commissioned by Reuters has revealed that the company is using more Chinese suppliers this time. The most notable new, domestically made component is the NAND storage. The outlet reports that the storage was likely packaged by HUAWEI’s HiSilicon chip division.

The US trade ban against HUAWEI has hurt the Chinese manufacturer in several ways, but it’s the company’s smartphone division that’s suffered the most. However, it looks like the US government is now taking aim at HUAWEI’s PC business.

Reuters reports that the US has revoked Intel and Qualcomm’s export licenses to sell to HUAWEI, citing three sources familiar with the issue. A fourth source told the newswire that the license revocation was effective immediately. The Department of Commerce reportedly confirmed that it revoked several export licenses to HUAWEI but didn’t reveal more details.

A trade ban has forced HUAWEI to be more self-sufficient if it hopes to keep producing smartphones. The manufacturer already turned heads when it launched the Mate 60 Pro late last year, featuring a 5G-enabled in-house chipset. Now, it looks like a teardown of the Pura 70 series reveals HUAWEI’s efforts at self-sufficiency too.

A teardown of the Pura 70 Pro commissioned by Reuters has revealed that the company is using more Chinese suppliers this time. The most notable new, domestically made component is the NAND storage. The outlet reports that the storage was likely packaged by HUAWEI’s HiSilicon chip division.

The US trade ban against HUAWEI has hurt the Chinese manufacturer in several ways, but it’s the company’s smartphone division that’s suffered the most. However, it looks like the US government is now taking aim at HUAWEI’s PC business.

Reuters reports that the US has revoked Intel and Qualcomm’s export licenses to sell to HUAWEI, citing three sources familiar with the issue. A fourth source told the newswire that the license revocation was effective immediately. The Department of Commerce reportedly confirmed that it revoked several export licenses to HUAWEI but didn’t reveal more details.

Qualcomm, a leading American semiconductor company, has recently confirmed that Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant, no longer requires its processors. This announcement comes amidst ongoing ...

The post Qualcomm confirms that Huawei no longer need its chips appeared first on Gizchina.com.

A trade ban has forced HUAWEI to be more self-sufficient if it hopes to keep producing smartphones. The manufacturer already turned heads when it launched the Mate 60 Pro late last year, featuring a 5G-enabled in-house chipset. Now, it looks like a teardown of the Pura 70 series reveals HUAWEI’s efforts at self-sufficiency too.

A teardown of the Pura 70 Pro commissioned by Reuters has revealed that the company is using more Chinese suppliers this time. The most notable new, domestically made component is the NAND storage. The outlet reports that the storage was likely packaged by HUAWEI’s HiSilicon chip division.

The US trade ban against HUAWEI has hurt the Chinese manufacturer in several ways, but it’s the company’s smartphone division that’s suffered the most. However, it looks like the US government is now taking aim at HUAWEI’s PC business.

Reuters reports that the US has revoked Intel and Qualcomm’s export licenses to sell to HUAWEI, citing three sources familiar with the issue. A fourth source told the newswire that the license revocation was effective immediately. The Department of Commerce reportedly confirmed that it revoked several export licenses to HUAWEI but didn’t reveal more details.

The US government has blocked chip makers including Qualcomm and Intel from selling any processors to Huawei, according to Bloomberg. On the one hand that could set back Huawei’s PC, smartphone, and tablet divisions in the coming years. On the other, Huawei’s been preparing for this for years and has already begun making chips and […]

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HUAWEI launched the Pura 70 series in China a few weeks ago, but it turns out we didn’t have to wait too long to get these camera phones in global markets.

The manufacturer has launched three out of the four Pura 70 series phones outside China, with the Pura 70 Pro Plus being the sole China-only phone. Otherwise, global users can choose between the Pura 70, Pura 70 Pro, and Pura 70 Ultra.

We thought the HUAWEI P60 Pro was one of the best camera phones of 2023, so we were curious to see how the company could build on this formula with its future devices. That time has come, as the Chinese brand has just announced the HUAWEI Pura 70 series.

The Pura 70 family consists of four models, namely the standard Pura 70, the Pura 70 Pro, the Pura 70 Pro Plus, and the Pura 70 Ultra. HUAWEI hasn’t disclosed the chipset, but a third-party report points to at least one of the phones offering the Kirin 9010 chipset (featuring a 12-core CPU and an in-house Maleoon 910 GPU).

Otherwise, the four phones have a number of features in common. This includes a similar 1.5K OLED screen (120Hz, LTPO, 2,500 nits peak brightness), a 13MP selfie camera, Harmony OS 4.2 (although the underlying Android version is unclear), an IP68 rating, and in-display fingerprint sensors.

The Pro, Pro Plus, and Ultra phones also support 100W wired charging, 80W wireless charging, and 20W reverse wireless charging. Meanwhile, the standard Pura 70 settles for 66W wired charging, 50W wireless top-ups, and 7.5W reverse wireless charging. Unfortunately, none of these phones come with storage expansion (not even NM cards), so you’ll have to choose your storage variant wisely.

Pura 70 Ultra: The top dog

HUAWEI’s first Ultra phone stands out primarily due to its interesting camera setup. The company is touting a retractable main camera here, featuring a one-inch sensor, a variable aperture (f/1.6 to f/4.0), and sensor-shift stabilization. I have some reservations about the decision to include moving parts on the device, but HUAWEI claims the mechanism is rated to retract and expand up to 300,000 times. It’s not the first modern smartphone with a retractable camera, as we’ve seen the TECNO Phantom X2 Pro in recent times. It also doesn’t seem to serve an extra purpose beyond enabling a large sensor (e.g. zoom). But this is still a rare sight on phones today.

In any event, the company asserts that all phones (including the Ultra model) are capable of capturing high-speed movement. The brand went so far as to claim that the Ultra camera, in particular, can clearly capture a car traveling at 300km/h (186mph).

We were very impressed with the P60 Pro telephoto camera, and the Pura 70 Ultra ups the ante in this regard too. Expect a 50MP 3.5x camera this time (up from 48MP 3.5x), along with the same wide f/2.1 aperture as last year’s phone. HUAWEI adds that the tele camera now supports macro shots from just 5cm away, down from the already impressive 10cm on the P60 Pro. The brand also says macro mode supports 35x zoom, although we’re guessing image quality will fall off a cliff long before you reach this zoom level. A 40MP ultrawide camera (f/2.2) rounds out the package.

Other Pura 70 Ultra specs worth knowing include a 5,200mAh battery, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB or 1TB of storage.

Pura 70 Pro and Pro Plus

The next two HUAWEI phones on the totem pole are the Pro and Pro Plus models. These two phones pack the same rear camera system, namely a 50MP non-retractable main camera (1/1.3-inch) with a f/1.4 to f/4.0 variable aperture, a 12.5MP ultrawide lens, and a 48MP 3.5x telephoto camera (f/2.1). The latter camera seems identical to last year’s shooter bar the 5cm minimum focusing distance.

HUAWEI’s Pro phones also have the same 5,050mAh battery. However, the Pro Plus delivers 16GB of RAM and your choice of 512GB or 1TB of storage. Meanwhile, the Pura 70 Pro brings 12GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage.

Pura 70: The core HUAWEI flagship experience

Don’t have the cash for a Pro or Ultra phone? Then HUAWEI is also offering the standard Pura 70. This brings a slightly smaller LTPO OLED screen and flat edges, along with 12GB of RAM, 256GB/512GB/1TB of storage, and a 4,900mAh battery.

The Pura 70 also brings less impressive camera hardware. You’re getting a 50MP variable aperture main camera (1/1.3-inch), a 13MP ultrawide lens, and a 12MP 5x periscope camera. The brand says this tele camera brings macro focusing abilities too, but didn’t give a minimum focusing distance (suggesting it’s not on par with the other models).

HUAWEI Pura 70 series pricing and availability

The Pura 70 phones are only available in China right now, although we’re expecting one or several of these models to launch globally.

Chinese users can expect to pay a starting price of 9,999 yuan (~$1,381) for the Pura 70 Ultra. Meanwhile, the Pura 70 Pro and Pro Plus start at 6,499 yuan (~$898) and 7,999 yuan (~$1,105), respectively. Otherwise, the vanilla Pura 70 will set you back at least 5,499 yuan (~$760).

The Honor Magic6 series has recently added a new feature that allows it to wirelessly connect to HiCar devices. This new functionality is available to ...

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We thought the HUAWEI P60 Pro was one of the best camera phones of 2023, so we were curious to see how the company could build on this formula with its future devices. That time has come, as the Chinese brand has just announced the HUAWEI Pura 70 series.

The Pura 70 family consists of four models, namely the standard Pura 70, the Pura 70 Pro, the Pura 70 Pro Plus, and the Pura 70 Ultra. HUAWEI hasn’t disclosed the chipset, but a third-party report points to at least one of the phones offering the Kirin 9010 chipset (featuring a 12-core CPU and an in-house Maleoon 910 GPU).

Otherwise, the four phones have a number of features in common. This includes a similar 1.5K OLED screen (120Hz, LTPO, 2,500 nits peak brightness), a 13MP selfie camera, Harmony OS 4.2 (although the underlying Android version is unclear), an IP68 rating, and in-display fingerprint sensors.

The Pro, Pro Plus, and Ultra phones also support 100W wired charging, 80W wireless charging, and 20W reverse wireless charging. Meanwhile, the standard Pura 70 settles for 66W wired charging, 50W wireless top-ups, and 7.5W reverse wireless charging. Unfortunately, none of these phones come with storage expansion (not even NM cards), so you’ll have to choose your storage variant wisely.

Pura 70 Ultra: The top dog

HUAWEI’s first Ultra phone stands out primarily due to its interesting camera setup. The company is touting a retractable main camera here, featuring a one-inch sensor, a variable aperture (f/1.6 to f/4.0), and sensor-shift stabilization. I have some reservations about the decision to include moving parts on the device, but HUAWEI claims the mechanism is rated to retract and expand up to 300,000 times. It’s not the first modern smartphone with a retractable camera, as we’ve seen the TECNO Phantom X2 Pro in recent times. It also doesn’t seem to serve an extra purpose beyond enabling a large sensor (e.g. zoom). But this is still a rare sight on phones today.

In any event, the company asserts that all phones (including the Ultra model) are capable of capturing high-speed movement. The brand went so far as to claim that the Ultra camera, in particular, can clearly capture a car traveling at 300km/h (186mph).

We were very impressed with the P60 Pro telephoto camera, and the Pura 70 Ultra ups the ante in this regard too. Expect a 50MP 3.5x camera this time (up from 48MP 3.5x), along with the same wide f/2.1 aperture as last year’s phone. HUAWEI adds that the tele camera now supports macro shots from just 5cm away, down from the already impressive 10cm on the P60 Pro. The brand also says macro mode supports 35x zoom, although we’re guessing image quality will fall off a cliff long before you reach this zoom level. A 40MP ultrawide camera (f/2.2) rounds out the package.

Other Pura 70 Ultra specs worth knowing include a 5,200mAh battery, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB or 1TB of storage.

Pura 70 Pro and Pro Plus

The next two HUAWEI phones on the totem pole are the Pro and Pro Plus models. These two phones pack the same rear camera system, namely a 50MP non-retractable main camera (1/1.3-inch) with a f/1.4 to f/4.0 variable aperture, a 12.5MP ultrawide lens, and a 48MP 3.5x telephoto camera (f/2.1). The latter camera seems identical to last year’s shooter bar the 5cm minimum focusing distance.

HUAWEI’s Pro phones also have the same 5,050mAh battery. However, the Pro Plus delivers 16GB of RAM and your choice of 512GB or 1TB of storage. Meanwhile, the Pura 70 Pro brings 12GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage.

Pura 70: The core HUAWEI flagship experience

Don’t have the cash for a Pro or Ultra phone? Then HUAWEI is also offering the standard Pura 70. This brings a slightly smaller LTPO OLED screen and flat edges, along with 12GB of RAM, 256GB/512GB/1TB of storage, and a 4,900mAh battery.

The Pura 70 also brings less impressive camera hardware. You’re getting a 50MP variable aperture main camera (1/1.3-inch), a 13MP ultrawide lens, and a 12MP 5x periscope camera. The brand says this tele camera brings macro focusing abilities too, but didn’t give a minimum focusing distance (suggesting it’s not on par with the other models).

HUAWEI Pura 70 series pricing and availability

The Pura 70 phones are only available in China right now, although we’re expecting one or several of these models to launch globally.

Chinese users can expect to pay a starting price of 9,999 yuan (~$1,381) for the Pura 70 Ultra. Meanwhile, the Pura 70 Pro and Pro Plus start at 6,499 yuan (~$898) and 7,999 yuan (~$1,105), respectively. Otherwise, the vanilla Pura 70 will set you back at least 5,499 yuan (~$760).

HUAWEI has regularly offered some of the best camera phones, and the company is preparing to launch the Pura 70 series soon. However, a Chinese leaker has made a rather interesting claim about the rumored Pura 70 Ultra phone.

Digital Chat Station on Weibo has claimed that the Pura 70 Ultra will be equipped with a 50MP one-inch main camera (1/0.98-inch) with an RYYB color filter. Check out the screenshot of the post below.

Why would this be a huge deal for phone cameras?

RYYB color filters debuted on the P30 Pro’s main camera in 2019, and this tech captures more light than the RGB filters used on conventional smartphone camera sensors. In fact, we praised the P30 Pro at the time for its unparalleled image quality in extreme darkness, noting that it beat the Pixel 3 XL with Night Sight. HUAWEI has also used an RYYB color filter on secondary cameras like the Mate X3‘s periscope camera to improve zoomed images in low light. However, it wasn’t uncommon to see a yellow tint in some images taken with an RYYB-enabled camera, so we hope HUAWEI is on top of this issue.

Meanwhile, one-inch sensors capture a ton of light compared to smaller sensors. Phones like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, vivo X100 Pro, and OPPO Find X7 Ultra all have a one-inch sensor, delivering brighter, cleaner low-light snaps as well as naturally shallow depth-of-field. This huge sensor also lets OEMs offer features like handheld astrophotography and instant shots with zero shutter lag in low light.

However, we’ve never seen a one-inch smartphone camera sensor paired with an RYYB filter before. So this combination means the HUAWEI Pura 70 Ultra could be the undisputed king of low-light photography and videography on paper. There is more to hardware, though, but HUAWEI has a great track record on the software processing front. So we’re extremely interested to see what the Pura 70 Ultra can do in low light if it is indeed offering a one-inch RYYB camera.

Aftermarket tinkering on Android phones isn't as prominent as it once used to be. That's not to say you can't root your Android phone or install a custom ROM like LineageOS on it. You can still tinker and customize your phone to a large extent as long as you have the interest and the technical know-how. Most — if not all — aftermarket tinkering requires you to connect your Android smartphone to a computer using a USB cable, so you can use tools like the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to interact with the device.

While traditional watches mostly come with a round dial, the Apple Watch has made many prefer the non-round design when choosing a smartwatch. Given how ...

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HUAWEI isn’t able to offer proper Google integration, but its foldable phones still deliver great hardware. Now, it turns out that the company will launch a new foldable this week.

The company confirmed on its Weibo account that it will launch the HUAWEI Pocket 2 in China on February 22. You can view the teaser image below.

HUAWEI hasn’t dished out any other details, but the accompanying image seems to hint at a circular camera housing and cover display in line with previous Pocket phones. Weibo leaker Fixed-Focus Digital also posted apparent renders last week, indeed showing a circular camera housing and a circular (but tiny) cover screen. But we’d take these images with a pinch of salt.

The aforementioned renders show a triple rear camera system too, while reliable Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station has claimed that the phone will arrive with a Kirin 9000S processor. Taken together, it looks like the HUAWEI Pocket 2 will be a flagship-tier offering rather than an upper mid-range device like the Pocket S.

Either way, the P50 Pocket was a rather capable device and was the first major Flip foldable with a triple rear camera system. But we hope HUAWEI swaps out the unorthodox super-spectrum camera in favor of a telephoto lens.

Huawei has unveiled the Pocket 2, its latest iteration of a clamshell foldable phone, aiming to refine the user experience with powerful specs and captivating ...

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HUAWEI isn’t able to offer proper Google integration, but its foldable phones still deliver great hardware. Now, it turns out that the company will launch a new foldable this week.

The company confirmed on its Weibo account that it will launch the HUAWEI Pocket 2 in China on February 22. You can view the teaser image below.

HUAWEI hasn’t dished out any other details, but the accompanying image seems to hint at a circular camera housing and cover display in line with previous Pocket phones. Weibo leaker Fixed-Focus Digital also posted apparent renders last week, indeed showing a circular camera housing and a circular (but tiny) cover screen. But we’d take these images with a pinch of salt.

The aforementioned renders show a triple rear camera system too, while reliable Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station has claimed that the phone will arrive with a Kirin 9000S processor. Taken together, it looks like the HUAWEI Pocket 2 will be a flagship-tier offering rather than an upper mid-range device like the Pocket S.

Either way, the P50 Pocket was a rather capable device and was the first major Flip foldable with a triple rear camera system. But we hope HUAWEI swaps out the unorthodox super-spectrum camera in favor of a telephoto lens.

Opinion post by

Hadlee Simons

HUAWEI has been subject to a US trade ban for over four years now, resulting in the company losing access to key hardware suppliers, Google services, 5G connectivity (until recently), and more.