The new devices of the week

IFA 2020 wasn't held in its traditional format, but you wouldn't be able to tell going by the number of announcements this week. Granted many of those didn't come from the showfloors in Berlin, companies choosing to have online-only events instead, but at the end of the day we still have a ton of new hardware to feast our eyes upon. So much so in fact that we felt we needed to sum it up and make sure you haven't missed anything.

There were over twenty new devices, so the fairest way to do it is to go alphabetically by manufacturer.

Honor

The brand had a lot to share with us, but we’ll stick to the truly mobile devices. Initially launched in China, and now hitting the global scene are two affordable tablets - Honor Tab 6 and Honor Tab X6. They provide big displays, Android 10, and while Honor did not reveal the price we expect them to be quite affordable.

Honor Watch GS Pro & Honor Watch ES

Honor is trying to diversify its portfolio and that’s why we saw two entirely new smartwatches - the Honor Watch ES with a rectangular display and the rugged Watch GS Pro for the adventuroustypes. They both have the Kirin A1 chipset that promises a long battery life, with the GS Pro supposed to live 25 days on a single charge, or at least 48 hours with the GPS turned on.

Huawei

Huawei was present at IFA 2020, but it used its keynote to reiterate its commitment to the Europen market, despite its recent troubles. However, the company unveiled two new phones in China - Enjoy 20 Plus 5G and Enjoy 20 5G.

The first one mimics the Mate 30 design but comes with a pop-up selfie camera, three shooters on the back, and a price of CNY2,299 ($335) in China. The non-Plus version brings more simplicity in the design and the specs sheet, and costs just CNY1,699 ($250), but you get a huge 5,000 mAh battery in return.

Lenovo

Lenovo gave us the Tab P11 Pro tablet for grown-ups and Tab M10, targeted at children. The first one comes with an OLED screen, Snapdragon 730 chipset as well as support for optional keyboard and Lenovo Precision Pen 2 stylus. The whole package will cost $500 for the United States and €700 for Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

The kid-friendly slate, priced at $160/€130 relies heavily on the Kids Space feature from Google. It has a simple 10.1” LCD with 720p resolution and a basic MediaTek P22T chipset. It has pogo pins on one side, and Lenovo said there’ll be a solution where it can be used as a screen on a stand when your kid gets tired of holding it and needs to go to sleep while watching his favorite Peppa Pig episode.

Lenovo Tab P11 Pro & Lenovo Tab M10 HD Gen 2

Motorola

The Motorola One 5G is a completely new smartphone in the US market, but fans from the rest of the world will recognize the phone as Moto G 5G Plus. It comes with a 6.7” LCD screen with Full HD+ resolution and a tall 21:9 ratio.

While pricing wasn’t announced, we know it will be offered by AT&T and Verizon.

Oppo

The Oppo F17 series comes with a 4,000 mAh battery, VOOC 4.0 support, and the Oppo F17 Pro can get you two hours of YouTube playback with a single five-minute charge. It can also provide one hour of TikTok or 36 minutes of PUBG, although these two are banned in India and we were baffled why is the local division even advertising it.

While we have all the key info on the Oppo F17 Pro in our hands-on review, the company did not reveal the vanilla F17’s price or release details. At least we know it has a Snapdragon 662 chipset, up to 8 GB RAM, and 64/128 GB storage.

Realme

Realme had its first keynote at IFA 2020, but used that to talk about its product strategy and tease a bunch of upcoming devices. Instead the company held two events in the days leading up to the show, giving us five new phones. The Chinese branch unveiled the Realme X7, Realme X7 Pro, and the affordable Realme V3 5G - they all had something unique about them.

The vanilla X7 is the first phone with a Dimensity 800U chipset, the X7 Pro is the one heavily advertised with the “Dare to Leap” logo on the back, while the Realme V3 5G is the most affordable 5G smartphone up to date. It starts from CNY999 (that’s about $150) and comes with Dimensity 720 chipset from Mediatek.

Two days later we saw the arrival of Realme 7 and Realme 7 Pro. They come as an upgrade over the Realme 6 lineup with improved cameras, bigger batteries, and 65W SuperDart charging.

Samsung

Samsung detailed the Galaxy Z Fold2 this week, but that one was technically announced at the Unpacked event last month. However, the Galaxy A42 5G is brand new and exciting for being the maker's most affordable 5G phone to date. A Galaxy Tab A7 was also unveiled alongside it.

Samsung Galaxy A42 5G

The Samsung Galaxy M51 jumped the gun and debuted a few days earlier. It has a massive 7,000 mAh battery - one of the biggest in a smartphone ever produced. Other specs include a big 6.7” Super AMOLED (the FP scanner is on the side, though), a 64MP quad-camera on the back, and a €360 price tag in Europe. It will arrive in India as well, and speculations are pointing at a price of around INR25,000 ($350/€285).

TCL

TCL kicked off the party in Berlin with two tablets - TABMAX and TABMID. As you can guess from the name, the Tabmax is the slate with more premium features like an 8,000 mAh battery, support for a stylus, and a big 10.36” LCD. The Tabmid is a midranger device with Snapdragon 665 chipset, Kids Mode, and a regular 8” LCD with Full HD resolution.

TCL TABMAX & TCL TABMID

The announcement also included a smartwatch with a designated SOS button and TWS earbuds - something that all manufacturers are now making, trying to lure more customers into their own ecosystem.

Tecno

Tecno is a sister company of Infinix and Itel and it has released its latest Camon lineup. Company execs said there will be three phones - Tecno 16, Tecno 16 Pro, and Tecno 16 Premier, but only the last one was truly unveiled with specs and pricing. It has a Helio G90T chipset, a big 6.89” screen, four cameras, and a 4,500 mAh battery with 33W fast-charging.

The company also unveiled the Spark Go 2020 - it runs Android 10 (Go Edition) OS on a Helio A20 chipset with 2 GB RAM. The price is INR6,499 ($90/€75) in India and will start selling next week.

Wiko

We got two more phone announcements from Wiko - View5 and View5 Plus. The Wiko5 has a Helio A25 chipset, 3 GB RAM, and 64 gigs of storage. The Plus variant comes with a slightly older Helio P35 platform which should be a bit more powerful on paper.

The Wiko5 and Wiko5 Plus share the same screen - 6.55” LCD; the same 48 MP quad-cam setup on the back, and a fingerprint scanner to keep the shooters' company. The vanilla variant costs €170, while the Plus option is €200.

ZTE

The Axon 20 5G wraps this list up on a high. It is the first phone on the market with an actual working under-display front-facing camera. ZTE claims to have solved the problem with light distortion by applying a special highly transmissive and transparent film that removes glare and fixes color. The pixel arrangement is also reworked to allow the shooter to remain hidden while the whole screen is being used.

On the inside, it is a pretty regular midranger with Snapdragon 765G chipset, 6/8 GB RAM, and up to 256 GB storage. It has a 4,220 mAh battery with 30W fast charging and will cost CNY2,198 ($322) in China. There’s no word whether the phone will be available internationally.