Top stories of 2021: Q4
Welcome to our recap of the top news articles of 2021. This is Q4, you can also take a look at the top stories of Q1, Q2 and Q3.
We’re at the closing fourth quarter of 2021 and the tide of interest is shifting towards the Galaxy S22 series, expected in January, and at the new Snapdragon 8 Gen1-equipped phones.
The new Qualcomm flagship chipset was announced, based on a 4nm node, with a Cortex-X2 core that can run at up to 3.0GHz, three performance Cortex-A710 cores at 2.5GHz, and four Cortex-A510 for efficiency, running at 1.8GHz.
The first official phone to get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was Motorola’s Edge X30.
Xiaomi ended the year with its 12 series – the 12 and 12 Pro on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 platform, and the 12X with a SD870 chip.
But it was the unofficial Galaxy S22 that dominated the news feed in Q4. Every leak, whether it was a rumor of a specification, an image of reported screen protectors, or a proposition from an insider, was immediately interesting to our readers.
We now have a pretty good idea of what the Galaxy S22 series will be when they are official in January. But throughout the months of October, November, and December we found out the camera details of the three upcoming phones, their design, and their general specs.
It was confirmed that the Galaxy S22 Ultra would have an in-body S Pen. We learned that the Galaxy S22 and S22+ will get new 50MP main cameras and a conventional (read, non-binning) 10MP 3x telephoto, while the S22 Ultra would retain the 108MP, 12MP 0.5x, 10MP 3x and 10MP 10x, but with a big improvement in computational photography.
We saw images of Galaxy S22 series dummies, stacked against current phones, like the Galaxy Note20 Ultra and S21 Ultra. It appears that the Galaxy S22 Ultra will be bigger than its predecessor.
There were a few other major phone announcements in Q4. Google’s Pixel 6 duo came out alongside the new in-house Tensor chip. The Pixel 6 duo also ushered in a high-megapixel main camera for the first time in a Pixel.
Huawei’s P50 Pocket arrived to challenge the Galaxy Z Fold3. It flaunted a gapless clamshell folding design, a 6.9-inch 120Hz main screen, and a 1-inch circular cover screen, as well as a Snapdragon 888 with 4G.
Finally, the Oppo Find N, the company’s first foldable was aimed at a new crowd – those that wanted a phone that unfolded to a big inner display but folded to a small, usable outer one. It was an instant hit. Indeed, it’s smaller than the Galaxy Z Fold3 but still has a fairly huge 7.1-inch inside display. While its outer display is a perfectly-usable 5.49-inch 18:9 AMOLED. It only makes it more of a shame that the Find N isn’t expected outside of China.
That will do it for 2021. We’re eager to get 2022 started, see you there – front page!
The company is prioritizing the US variant of the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Behold, the first Galaxy S phone with a built-in S Pen.
The leak comes in the form of a couple of alleged screen protectors for the devices.
The Redmi Note 11 Pro and Pro+ are pretty much the same, Redmi Note 11 tags along.
The revived demand for tablets brought a renaissance to the once overlooked segment.
Looks like the Ultra model in the S22 series will offer a tangibly different look compared to the other two models.
The lineup is rumored to consist of two smartphones – Note 11 and Note 11 Pro.
OnePlus founder Pete Lau confirms the news on Weibo.
It’s already up for grabs in China.
All three phones will be available in China from December 31.
Samsung’s next flagship will improve upon image quality with similar imaging hardware.
It’s unclear if the non-Pro models will also use eSIM tech or come with a physical SIM slot.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra will indeed carry an S Pen in its body, does away with the camera island.
A 5,000mAh battery, 48MP main + 50MP ultrawide + 8MP 3.3x tele cameras, 32MP selfie.
12/16GB RAM is once again reserved for the Ultra variant.
The ultra wide and the selfie cameras will be the same as on the S21 and S21+.
That’s as fast as on the Xiaomi 11T Pro and Mix 4.
Motorola also announced a Snapdraong 888+ powered Edge S30.
Sony’s extravagant “Pro” phone will arrive in early December in select markets in Europe.
It’s a mobile SoC with a lot of AI and ML stuff built in.
Impressive new cameras and a super powerful custom-built Tensor chipset.
Mavic 3 Cine brings a 1TB SSD and Apple ProRes support.
Facebook the social network stays the same, don’t worry.
The Snapdragon 778G+ and 695 will cater to the premium mid-range market, while the 680 and 480+ aim at more affordable models.
The phone also has a slightly larger 6.6″ display compared to the M3 Pro 5G. The major camera improvement is the addition of an 8 MP ultra-wide.
The MediaTek Dimensity 9000 chipset will bring 5G support, Bluetooth 5.3, and Wi-Fi 6E.
Both chipsets offer fast 5G and Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, the option for fanless designs and battery life measured in days.
Both the CPU and the GPU will offer higher performance and reduced power usage. The 5G modem can deliver speeds of up to 10 Gbps.
The company teased the new foldable in anticipation of Oppo’s Inno Days.
Oppo went for a smaller device and picked a sane 18:9 aspect ratio for the external display (the internal one is 8.4:9).
The phone is quite different from both the OnePlus 9 and the 9R. It should be faster than both and it has a better camera than the 9R
They will also get an upgraded 48MP selfie module.
The report cites supply chain constraints and China’s power restrictions.
That’s twice as much of what the iPhone 13 lineup has.
The images suggest an extra high aspect ratio.
Available as a free upgrade to Windows 10 users.
A source code from MIUI 13 suggests.
Traffic-light triple-camera solution on the back, a flat panel on the front.
Tired of those Lightning cables?
Since the official renders are already out, it shouldn’t be too long before Garmin introduces these wearables.
The G200 and G51 have 6.8″ LCDs with high refresh rate, the G71, G41 and G31 opt for 6.4″ 60Hz OLED panels.
And will also be powered by the still unannounced Snapdragon 898.
The diminutive flagship will be announced on December 28.
The Reno7 Pro 5G has a breathing notification light around the camera island.
Perhaps the Galaxy S22 Ultra won’t have a “P-shaped” camera after all.
It will be available in two colors.
Check out which phones made our list.
The company says it gathered CNY100 million of income, sold 40 units per second.
