Pixel 9 series in August, OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite and vivo Y28s official, Week 26 in review

2024-06-30

Google surprised us all by announcing a Pixel event in August, instead of October. The Pixel 9 series, which will feature three phones for the first time, is coming on August 13!

The OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite is official. It packs a 6.67-inch 120Hz OLED, and the Snapdragon 695 SoC. The Nord CE4 Lite is equipped with a battery with 10% higher capacity, 5,500mAh. That is the capacity for the Indian model. The global version has a 5,110mAh battery instead (110mAh more than the CE 3 Lite). Either way, charging has been boosted a bit to 80W, so a full 100% still takes a reasonable amount of time – 52 minutes on the 5,500mAh variant. This is a very versatile phone. It has a microSD slot for extra storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack and stereo speakers with 300% Ultra Volume Mode. And you can share some of that large battery with the 5W reverse charging mode.

Pre-orders for the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite start today in Europe. The phone is available in one configuration (8/256GB) and costs €330. Make that €280 if you get the early bird deal. The situation in India is slightly different and the Nord CE4 Lite goes directly to open sales starting on June 27 (Thursday). The base 8/128GB model has an MSRP of ₹21,000.

Also official is the vivo Y28s. The smartphone is built around a 6.56" HD+ 90Hz LCD with a Dimenisty 6300 SoC and 8GB of RAM. There's a 5,000mAh battery and IP64 rating. The vivo Y28s 5G will be available in Mocha Brown and Twinkling Purple colors, but its pricing and availability are yet to be detailed.

And yet another phone arrived this week - the OnePlus Ace 3 Pro. Some of its highlights are the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, up to 24GB of RAM, and a potent 6,100mAh battery. OnePlus Ace 3 Pro comes in Porcelain White, Green Field and Titanium Silver colors. Pricing starts at CNY 3,199 ($440) for the 12/256GB model.

And would you believe it, another phone is official this week - the Motorola S50 Neo for China or G85 for Europe. Motorola unveiled the Razr 50 and Razr 50 Ultra and later made both official. The S50 Neo or G85 came alongside. It has a Snapdragon 6s Gen 3, a curved 6.7-inch pOLED display (FHD+ 120Hz), and a 5,000 mAh battery with 30W charging.

The Redmi Note 14 Pro may not have a 200MP camera. Instead, the phone will go with a 50MP sensor, hopefully a bigger one. The Redmi Note 14 Pro will also apparently have a "1.5K" resolution screen, just like the Note 13 Pro.

A pretty wild rumor out of Samsung's home of Korea today claims the company is thinking about using MediaTek Dimensity chips for the Galaxy S25 family which is due to launch next year in January. Not just MediaTek chips, mind, but MediaTek Dimensity chips (presumably the Dimensity 9400) alongside the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and Samsung's own Exynos 2500. So if this pans out (and that's a huge if), then the next flagship family from the Korean brand could have three different SoCs in various markets.