The Qi standard is typically employed when giving a smartphone the ability to top up the battery wirelessly. However, there might be a different way of wirelessly charging future devices that can run Android 15, and that is NFC Wireless Charging support. According to the latest findings, Google is figuring out a way to bring this technology to supported models, bringing in some level of convenience, regardless of whether this approach is inferior to the Qi standard.
NFC Wireless Charging requires smaller hardware to work, making it ideal for compact smartphones
With Qi-enabled devices sporting bigger wireless charging coils, NFC Wireless Charging may solve this conundrum through the same technology that fuels contactless payments. Even though the NFC Wireless Charging (WLC) specification was announced back in May 2020, it is yet to be widely adopted, possibly because its charging speeds are significantly inferior to the Qi standard. The charging antennas can be shrunk to a size of 1cm while making them highly bendable so they can easily be accommodated into small devices such as smartwatches, Bluetooth trackers, wireless earbuds, and others.
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With Android 15 expected to launch later this year, we could see support for NFC Wireless Charging and a wave of WLC-enabled accessories entering the market. According to Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman, the Android 15 beta 1 includes WLC-related additions to the operating system’s NFC APIs. The report mentions that Google attempted to bring WLC support in late 2021, which is nearly a year and a half after the specification was first released, but canceled all progress later on.
No explanation was given as to why Google would resurrect its abandoned project, but it is not just compact smartphones that could benefit from this addition, but other products such as Bluetooth trackers, which can later be paired with an Android handset. By integrating NFC Wireless Charging, these trackers and other accessories would cost less to maintain and be easier to charge. However, Google adding support through software is one thing, and bringing it in a feature form to other products is another. Hopefully, the upcoming I/O keynote will provide more answers to this.
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The Galaxy S24 lineup was introduced with Samsung’s first AI-powered software suite called Galaxy AI. Given that the new models accounted for 53 percent of the Korean giant’s Q1 2024 operating profit, many would conclude that these features would be one reason for their popularity. Unfortunately, based on a separate rumor, the upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra will disappoint in the battery department, as it sticks with the same 5,000mAh battery as previous-generation models. However, Samsung intends to raise that backup by up to 10 percent with something called ‘Battery AI.’
The Pura 70 flagship series officially launched by Huawei also sports the company’s new Kirin 9010, a 12-core SoC that delivers a slew of improvements over its predecessor, the Kirin 9000S from last year. However, regarding lithography, the Kirin 9010 and Kirin 9000S are pretty much identical, with a teardown revealing that Huawei stuck with SMIC’s 7nm process to mass produce its latest SoC.
Qualcomm is expected to officially unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in October this year, so it is no surprise that the flagship’s engineering sample is being thoroughly tested and benchmarked to iron out the problems before commercial units are sent to the company’s phone partners. However, early results show that the chipset’s performance is beyond disappointing, with the performance cores said to be running at a significantly lower resolution than what previous reports suggested.
Huawei achieved another milestone with its Pura 70 series launch and that is sourcing 90 percent of smartphone components from Chinese suppliers. With the U.S. export control barring foreign companies from shipping parts to the company to use in various products, Huawei was adamant about cutting off overseas manufacturers and relying on local firms to get the job done. So far, the progress has been impressive, and only a few components remain to completely eliminate dependency on supply chain partners outside of China.
Samsung has maintained the same 5,000mAh battery capacity and fast-charging speeds for various flagship generations falling under the Galaxy S Ultra lineup. Sadly, based on one rumor, the company will repeat history with the Galaxy S25 Ultra launch next year. This means that Samsung has to develop creative ideas to deliver a higher runtime than the previous models.
Samsung did not follow a consistent launch schedule for its previous-generation Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, so it was uncertain when the company would unveil the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. Now, the latest rumor claims that the Korean giant is facing development problems with its top-end slate, but there is a surprise for all those waiting for the Galaxy S25 series next year. The premium tablet is said to launch alongside Samsung’s premier smartphone lineup in early 2025.
The Dimensity 9400 is scheduled to be announced later this year, and one of the most significant differences between it and chipsets like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and A17 Pro is that MediaTek will not rely on custom cores for its upcoming SoC. Instead, ARM’s current CPU designs will be utilized, which might give an impression that the Dimensity 9400 is at a distinct disadvantage. However, one tipster claims that MediaTek and ARM are collaborating to use the latter’s ‘BlackHawk’ architecture in the upcoming silicon, potentially delivering better Instructions Per Clock (IPC) performance than competing current-generation chips.
Huawei was previously rumored to be developing an Apple M1 competitor to take that ARM-based chipset market share away from the company. However, according to the latest information, the Chinese firm is using the Taishan V130 architecture to mass produce a silicon that can come close to the M3’s multi-core performance. It appears that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is not the only one trying to carve out a piece of the pie.
The Snapdragon X Elite was previously reported to operate on two power limits; 23W and 80W. However, according to the latest findings, Qualcomm’s newest ARM chipset can touch almost 100W, and that is for the CPU alone, making it a power guzzler compared to its closest competition, Apple’s M3 Pro. However, there are several variables to keep in mind before criticizing the massive power draw of the chipset, and we will be talking about those details here.
A few hours have passed since Huawei officially announced the Pura 70 series of flagships, which boast the upgraded Kirin 9010 chipset, along with improvements in various areas. As you would expect, in the blink of an eye, the premium Pura 70 Pro and the Pura 70 Ultra sold out in just one minute when sales went live on the Chinese phone maker’s online store. This might showcase evidence that the latest models will ship in droves and that Huawei’s competition has much to worry about.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, or ASE, has reportedly won an exclusive order from Apple to supply two SiPs, or ‘system in a package’ for the upcoming iPhone 16 series. These chips will serve to replace both the volume and power buttons on the upcoming handsets, presenting capacitive buttons that will deliver extra functionality.
Huawei added a slew of improvements to its latest Kirin 9010 over the Kirin 9000S, such as a 12-core CPU cluster, but those upgrades do not necessarily translate into the chipset being faster or more power efficient than the rest of the competition. According to a series of tests, the company’s latest SoC is revealed to be 30 percent slower than Qualcomm’s previous-generation Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 while consuming the same amount of power. Let us have a look at those results in more detail.