Week 43 in review: Redmi Note 12 series debuts, Galaxy S22 gets One UI 5

Another week down, let’s recap. The Redmi Note 12 series was this week’s biggest story. It includes the Redmi Note 12, Redmi Note 12 Pro, Redmi Note 12 Pro+ and Redmi Note 12 Explorer.

The 12 Pro, Pro+ and Explorer all come with MediaTek Dimensity 1080 chips, while the vanilla 12 is based on a Snapdragon 4 Gen 1. All four have 6.67-inch 120Hz AMOLED displays. All four except the Explorer have 5,000mAh batteries. Charging varies between phones, the 12 supports 33W, the 12 Pro 67W, the Pro+ 120W, while the Explorer charges its 4,300mAh battery in just 9 minutes (announced) at 210W.

The cameras are another difference. The Redmi Note 12 has a 48MP widescreen camera and a 2MP depth sensor. The Redmi Note 12 Pro has a 50MP wide, 8MP ultra wide and 2MP macro. Pro+ and Explorer bump the wide-angle camera to the Samsung ISOCELL HMX 200MP camera.

The Redmi Note 12 Explorer will go on sale in China on October 31, while the other three phones will follow on November 1.

vivo has detailed the camera upgrades of the upcoming X90 series without revealing the specs of the camera. Developed by vivo itself and partner Zeiss, the X90 series focuses on improving portrait and night photography. The Ultra-Clear Image Quality Engine is a super-resolution algorithm that uses a virtual model of the lens to recover approximately 35% of information lost due to optical imperfections. A multi-frame mode is available to further improve image quality and dynamic range. This is especially useful for a periscope lens.

The next system is dedicated to portrait photography and is itself divided into three parts. The first part tries to understand the scene and detects up to 103 feature points on the face and also takes into account the pose of the subject. The next two parts split the work – one deals with the subject and applies machine-learning beauty filters, the other adjusts the background by adjusting multiple sliders (blur, tone, brightness, etc.).

There is another dedicated system that is used for low light photography. The maximum sensitivity has been doubled and the camera can reach ISO 102,400. The system is good enough to capture a photo of a starry night sky without a tripod or long exposure, says vivo.

Much of the processing is handled by a new acceleration engine, which sounds like a successor to the V1 ISP. Developed in-house, it accelerates deep learning and computer vision tasks, combining traditional ISP approaches with modern AI-based solutions. We can’t wait for the X90 series.

Samsung has rolled out the One UI 5 and Android 13 update for the Galaxy S22 series. The company has added a ton of new customization features, both automatic and manual, to make your phone (and watch) look exactly how you want it to. There are also some handy tweaks like stacked widgets to save space on your homescreen. Samsung will roll out the One UI 5 update to all eligible Galaxy S and Z series devices, as well as many A series Galaxies, by the end of the year.

Executives confirm the move, even if Apple isn’t happy with it.

Sony’s flagship wireless headphones are put through their paces.

Europeans now get the latest and greatest from Google and Samsung.

The Pro models come with MediaTek’s new Dimensity 1080 chipset, while the vanilla model comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 4 Gen 1.

The phone has 16/512 GB storage and comes with a new design and a different back cover.

The company has been working on an improved custom ISP with on-chip SRAM and developing new lenses together with Zeiss.

Apart from faster charging and different battery capacity, the Explorer is identical to the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ (yes, including the 200MP camera).

The short video comes on the same day that Samsung started rolling out the first stable One UI 5 updates.

They will be larger than their 9 Series predecessors. The Pro+ model will (obviously) have the better chipset, but also a curved AMOLED display and an additional camera.

The flagship of the Mate series is here with us for a quick unbox and first impressions.

Xiaomi also plans to announce a new ultra-thin Book Air 13 laptop this Thursday.

Nothing’s second TWS earbuds bring a half-in-ear design and will be available in over 40 countries starting November 4th.

Compared to SD 480 and HD+ LCD on the Mark 3. There are some unconfirmed rumors that this might not be a Japan exclusive like its predecessors.

The list also includes Galaxy A devices and tablets.

The Dimensity 9000 was the first to score 1 million points, the 9200 will surpass it with a Cortex-X3 CPU core and an Immortalis G715 GPU.

The first OnePlus device with a MediaTek chipset in the US.

The price is €1,200.

An affordable phone with good specs and a large battery.

It also has a 360 degree rotating hinge.

It’s a big day for software if you own Apple hardware.

However, the company has yet to announce its final plans.

The new feature is now rolling out globally.

You can’t blame the company for not rolling out constant incremental improvements.

The advanced theme system was used to adapt key areas of the user interface to the Windows 11 Fluent style.