Oppo’s Reno family sits between the Find flagships and the mass-market A models. This week the Reno7 series was unveiled with three new models that offer mostly the same specs – the major differences are in the choice of chipset and the camera department.

All three have 90Hz AMOLED displays, though the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G stands out with HDR10+ support and higher typical brightness (800 nits vs. 600 nits), plus a slightly larger diagonal of 6.55″ compared to 6.43″ for the other two. All three have 1080p+ resolution with a 20:9 aspect ratio and Gorilla Glass 5 protection.

Also, all three have 4,500mAh batteries, though charging speeds differ. The Pro is again on top with 65W support, but the vanilla Reno7 5G almost matches it at 60W. The Reno7 SE 5G is that one that noticeably lags behind with 33W charging. None of these have wireless charging. No 3.5mm headphone jacks or memory card slots either, in case you were wondering.

Finally, we get to the real differences. The Reno7 Pro is powered by a custom MediaTek Dimensity 1200 Max chipset, though it’s not quite clear what the “Max” customization entails. The vanilla Reno7 gets a Snapdragon 778G, while the SE gets a Dimensity 900. All three are 6 nm chipsets fabbed by TSMC.

The Pro model gets a 50MP sensor for its main camera, a fairly large one – 1/1.56″ type (Sony IMX766). Not huge by any means, but it has 1.0µm pixels, quite alright for a premium mid-ranger. The vanilla phone has a smaller 1/2.0″ 64MP sensor instead, while the SE settles for a 48MP sensor. The vanilla and Pro models also have ultra wide-angle cameras and 32MP selfie cams (the first with the new IMX709 sensor), the SE skips the ultrawide and gets a 16MP selfie module.

Both the Reno7 and 7 Pro get the IMX709 front camera sensor, only the Pro has the IMX766 on the rear

One last thing – the Pro model has a neat trick, the camera bump on the back is encircled with LED lighting and acts as a notification light.

The three phones are launching in China in December and we have no doubt that we will see them go global. Though there may be some hardware changes as we’ve seen with the Reno6 series.

A closer look at the IMX709 • Pricing details

Anyway, we only have Chinese prices for now: CNY2,200 for the SE, CNY2,700 for the Reno7 and CNY3,700 for the Pro. So, instead of converting them to dollars or euros, we’ll look at some other phones in China – the rivalry should carry on once the Renos go global and the various phones should maintain their relative costs.

We’ll start with cousins OnePlus 9 and 9RT. These currently sell for CNY2,900 and CNY3,300, respectively, so they are quite close to the Reno7 and Pro. However, these are powered by the flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset and have 120Hz AMOLED displays – 6.55″ for the 9 and 6.62″ for the 9RT. Both have 65W fast charging. Also, while the 9RT has a camera setup nearly identical to that of the Reno7 Pro, the OnePlus 9 features two large sensors – 1/.43″ 48MP for the main and 1.56″ 50MP for the ultrawide.

OnePlus 9 • OnePlus 9RT 5G

Then there are the Realmes – the artsy GT Explorer Master for CNY 2,600 and the regular GT for CNY 2,400. These have Snapdragon 870 and 888 chipsets, respectively, and 120Hz AMOLED displays (6.55″ and 6.43″), plus 65W fast charging. The Explorer Master has a camera setup similar to that of the Reno7 Pro, the regular GT doesn’t focus on the camera much.

Considering the price of the Realme GT, there isn’t much point in looking at alternatives to the Reno7 SE, but you can always have a look at the Realme GT Neo2 (or Neo2T).

Realme GT Explorer Master • Realme GT 5G • Realme GT Neo2

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G costs just CNY2,000, cheaper than the SE, but has a Snapdragon 780G chipset, the 5 nm sibling of the 778G inside the vanilla Reno7. This one has a 6.55″ 90Hz AMOLED display, 33W fast charging (with a slightly smaller 4,250 mAh battery) and a 64MP main camera, plus an 8 MP ultra wide (it’s not great, but it’s better than not having any like the SE).

The Redmi Note 11 Pro is CNY 1,800, even cheaper, but boasts a Dimensity 920, 6.67″ 120 Hz AMOLED, 108 MP main camera plus 8 MP ultra wide and 67W fast charging (5,160 mAh battery).

Of course, there’s always the regular Xiaomi Mi 11, which goes up to a Snapdragon 888, a 6.81″ 120Hz AMOLED, 108 MP main camera and 55W fast charging. This one goes for CNY3,800, so slightly more expensive than the Reno7 Pro.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G • Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro • Xiaomi Mi 11

Don’t forget that the Reno6 series still exists, so the new models have to compete with those as well.

So, the Oppo Reno7 series is not exactly price competitive in China. And it’s not like they have exclusive software to fall back on, the OnePlus phones already run ColorOS in China and will run the unified OS globally starting with Android 13.

Even so, we have to ask – is anyone here interested in one of the Reno7 models? We know there aren’t any reviews out yet, but does one of the three look like it can be your next phone?

If you’re having trouble voting with the embedded poll widget above, try casting your vote here.

Last year Qualcomm unveiled the first mobile chipset to go above 3.0GHz, that was the Snapdragon 865+. But today’s story takes us a decade earlier to visit another Snapdragon chipset – the first to achieve 1GHz on mobile and more specifically the first smartphone to use it.

The Toshiba TG01 was nothing short of jaw-dropping when it was unveiled in January of 2009. For the first time we had to use “gigahertz” when describing the CPU clock speed and that wasn’t the only incredible feature of this device.

It was both large and small. It had a “massive” (for the time) 4.1” screen and we were genuinely worried if it could be used single-handed and whether it will fit in their pocket. The 5:3 aspect ratio of the screen and some chunky bezels did make the device 70mm wide and 130mm tall. Certainly not unwieldy by today’s standards, but pretty huge for the time.

However, all of that compute power and the large LCD were housed in a slate that measured just 9.9mm thick. This was before the modern trend of razor-thin phones came about and was fairly impressive

So, what OS was chosen to rein in this 1GHz beast? Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional (later updated to 6.5). Android had only arrived on the scene a few months earlier, so WM didn’t seem like an unreasonable pick. Also, Toshiba envisaged this as a phone for demanding business folk, so the Microsoft OS was the way to go.

Toshiba TG01 next to an iPhone 3G

Tradition dictates that the manufacturer should do its best to cover up the ugly Windows Mobile UI. In this case Toshiba divided the display into eight vertical strips. They were kind of like folders in that they contained shortcuts and files and each represented a category (e.g. contacts, media files, etc.). Only three were visible at the time, so you had swipe left and right to view the ones off screen and up and down to view additional items in each category.

Above that was a single widget – developers were still trying to figure out touch UIs. Anyway, once you got past the custom Toshiba UI and its fancy 3D animations, you were faced with the dour Windows Mobile interface that looked straight out of Windows 95.

The TG01 interface supported basic customization • And gestures • Playing Prince of Persia HD

The situation wasn’t helped by the touchscreen. The LCD was partly to blame. The 4.1” panel had 480 x 800 px resolution and at 228 ppi it looked sharp. However, color rendering was limited to 65K, even though full 24-bit color was available on some contemporary phones (65K colors was a Windows Mobile limitation).

Even worse, this was a resistive touch display and it lacked the sensitivity of capacitive touchscreens like the ones on the iPhone. The typing experience on the virtual keyboard wasn’t great, despite having larger keys to aim for. There was an accelerometer for auto screen rotation, but that was rather sluggish.

The larger screen made for a larger virtual QWERTY keyboard

Beauty requires sacrifice or rather that sub-1 centimeter thickness required limiting the battery capacity to 1,000 mAh. If that sounds small it’s because it is – featurephones had 1,000 mAh or so, smartphones tended to have more. For example, a Nokia E52 also measured 9.9 mm thick and had a 1,500mAh battery. And that one only had to feed a 600MHz CPU and a 2.4” display. An iPhone 3GS from 2009 (quite chunky at 12.3mm thick) had a 1,400mAh battery and it wasn’t known for its endurance.

Anyway, it’s clear that all the work went into three things: the 1GHz chipset, the 4.1” display and the 9.9 mm thick body. Everything else was less important. The camera, for example, had a 3.15MP sensor and could record 480p videos at 30 fps. Not bad, but nothing to get excited about either, since the first phones with 720p recording also arrived in 2009. And some of them didn’t even need a 1GHz CPU to do it.

The Toshiba TG01 as we saw it at the MWC back in 2009

The Toshiba TG01 made a splash in the headlines when it was announced and it left an impression on us when we first handled it at MWC 2009. However, despite its dominating clock speed and screen size, the phone didn’t leave much of a mark on the smartphone industry.

Previously we looked back at the HTC HD2, which launched a few months after the TG01. It used the same Snapdragon S1 chipset as the Toshiba, had an even larger 4.3” display and ran Windows Mobile 6.5 with HTC’s superior Sense UI. Despite their similarities, however, the HD2 achieved legendary status, while the TG01 is barely remembered.

vivo was expected to announce its first tablet in January, but that didn’t happen. However, later in August, vivo VP said that the company will launch a tablet in H1 2022, meaning anytime between January and June. And while we await more details from vivo about its first tablet, reliable tipster Digital Chat Station has revealed that the company will launch a tablet with the Snapdragon 870 SoC at the helm. Although it’s unclear if they are referring to vivo’s first tablet or a different model.

We also don’t know the name of vivo’s tablet, but the company trademarked “vivo Pad” with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in June under Class 9, which covers several product categories, including PDAs and tablet computers.

A vivo device believed to be a tablet was also spotted on TUV’s website with an 8,040 mAh battery.

vivo Pad trademarked with EUIPO

vivo isn’t the first company under the BBK Electronics group to launch a tablet. That honor goes to Realme, which launched the Realme Pad in September with a slim design, metal build, Helio G80 chip, 10.4″ screen, and a 7,100 mAh battery. You can read our Realme Pad review here to learn more about it or watch the video review below.

Aside from vivo, OnePlus and Oppo are also expected to enter the tablet segment. The former trademarked “OnePlus Pad” with EUIPO in July, and we saw a leaked image of the latter’s slate earlier this month.

A few leaked screenshots revealed that the Oppo Pad (tentative name) will come with the Snapdragon 870 SoC, 6GB RAM, 256GB storage, Android 11-based ColorOS 12, and a 120Hz screen, which Digital Chat Station says is an 11″ LCD with a 2,560×1,600-pixel resolution.

The tipster also claims that the Oppo Pad will come with a 13MP primary camera, an 8MP secondary camera, pack an 8,080 mAh battery, and have a base price of CNY2,000 ($310/€275) in China.

Source (in Chinese)

There was no clear consensus in last week’s poll – some think that Motorola is onto something with the new G-series, others think that all five are duds. Two models in particular stood out, the Moto G200 and the G71, the other three are shaping up to be disappointments.

The Motorola Moto G200 5G impressed with its €450 price tag and Snapdragon 888+ chipset. Commenters seemed happy with the 108+8+2MP camera setup, though some lamented the loss of the ultrawide selfie camera of the G100. We didn’t see much talk about the 144Hz refresh rate of the screen, but like the 888+ chip it’s not an easy to find feature at this price range.

The Moto G200 is a few steps short of perfection, though. We already mentioned the absence of the second selfie camera and there were the usual complaints that the phone lacks a microSD slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack (two things that the Moto G100 did have). No stereo speakers was also a concern.

Moving over to the Motorola Moto G71 5G, it received less attention than the Moto G200, but some think it is the better model. It’s smaller, a 6.8” phone like the G200 isn’t for everyone. It’s cheaper too and overall has a pretty good mid-range package.

Unfortunately, both of these (actually all five) have one major issue in the software department – stock Android is fine and dandy (people hate bloat), but having only one guaranteed OS update is causing many to look at phones from competing brands. Longevity matters and Motorola just doesn’t offer it, not even with the Moto G200 and its close-to-flagship specs.