Week 16 in review: All about the Galaxy Fold, OnePlus 7/7 Pro, Pixel 3a/3a XL
Welcome to your recap of the week's hottest tech stories. Week 16 of the year marked the first live encounters with the Galaxy Fold across the web (and here at GSMArena HQ) and it didn't take long for the first issues to arise.
Several of the early units' displays malfunctioned and while removing the protective layer on top of the screen was the explanation for some of them, other seemingly were just defective. Samsung issued a statement that it will look into the display issues and that users are not to remove the protective layer and that this would be made clear to buyers in the retail-ready packaging.
We also saw the first disassembly of the Samsung Galaxy Fold, which gave us our first look at the five part hinge mechanism and the two differently-shaped batteries, not to mention the "soft like rubber" inner display.
OnePlus made plenty of headlines with the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro. The most popular story detailed the displays and cameras of the two phones. The OnePlus 7 will retain the waterdrop notch and the 6.4-inch screen and will gain a dual camera with a main 48MP sensor. The OnePlus 7 Pro will have a larger 6.64-inch screen without a notch, a pop-up selfie camera and a triple camera on the rear (with the same 48MP main snapper).
Rumors that the OnePlus 7 Pro will have a QHD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate appeared and were confirmed by the company in a teaser a day later, while stereo speakers are also allegedly coming.
Both the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro will be made official on May 14.
We saw the first official renders of the Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL this week. We also got wind of their future price - the Pixel 3a will cost between 400-450 while the Pixel 3a XL will start at 530.
Apple finally settled its legal troubles with Qualcomm and in an interesting (and still unclear) turn of events Intel exited the 5G model business. It undoubtedly cost Apple a pretty penny to straighten things up with Qualcomm but it could potentially bring a 5G iPhone sooner rather than later.
Samsung announced the Galaxy A60 and Galaxy A40s for the Chinese market. The Galaxy A60 has a punch hole display while the Galaxy A40s is a rebranded M30.
Finally, Apple may bring back the iPhone SE in the form of a 4.7-inch phone in an iPhone 8 body with an A13 chipset and 128GB of storage. It's expected to arrive next March.
See you next week!
The OnePlus 7 Pro will come with a larger screen and an extra rear camera compared to the standard model.
A few units in the first round of devices have folding displays that failed in two main scenarios.
It still just a rumor at this point but it comes from a source with a good track record.
The combined score for the rear camera matches the Huawei P30 Pro, but the S10 5G pulls ahead with a much better selfie camera.
Razr 2019 and One Vision inch closer to launch.
Analysts predict shipped phones are 45 million at most, 10% less on a yearly basis.
Just hours after Apple and Qualcomm announce they are dropping the legal feud, we find out why.
The toned down Mi 9 went on sale in the Netherlands.
Yes, foldable phones are tricky - this one has two "front" cameras, for example.
The two new additions to the Galaxy A line might remain China-exclusives.
All three are firsts for the company, which has exclusively made phones with 1080p 60Hz screens and single loudspeakers.
Pete Lau is hinting at triple rear cameras with a four-second teaser.
Interestingly, the main foldable screen may be easier to replace than the small external screen.
We will see them go official next month on May 7 at Google's I/O 2019 developer conference.
The Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL won't come cheap, but what did you really expect?
It seems the iPhone SE successor will come in an iPhone 8 shell.