With this past week finally drawing to a close, we’ve once again witnessed a new influx of tech news headlines which you might have missed throughout the course of several days. Fear not though, as we’ve put together this quick summary of all the consumer electronic goodness that happened throughout the week – with all that being said, kick back, relax, and scroll onwards!
Pixel 9: Improved Biometrics?
While the Pixel 9 doesn’t launch until August, we’ve gotten a good amount of leaks about Google’s 2024 flagship phone series, and a more recent one has put a smile on our faces. More specifically, it looks like the company is rumoured to be using a much better in-display fingerprint sensor this time around, which should be a big improvement over the dodgy biometric scanners of past Pixel models. It’s predicted that Google might use the Qualcomm 3D Sonic Gen 2 for its Pixel 9 phones, the same kind of scanner that Samsung uses for the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
OnePlus is Launching a New Nord Phone
Following the launch of the Ace 3 Pro and OnePlus Pad Pro, OnePlus is now gearing up for the launch the OnePlus Nord 4, the next big device in its midrange Nord lineup. With that in mind, an official launch event is scheduled for July 16th in Milan, Italy. Invites sent to media and influencers hint at an exciting feature, with the tagline “Never Settle” emblazoned on a metal invite card – in addition to the Nord 4, OnePlus is also set to reveal several other products, which include the OnePlus Pad 2, the Nord Buds 3 Pro, and the OnePlus Watch 2R, which the company teases as a “lightweight” Wear OS smartwatch.
REDMAGIC Unveils its 9S Pro Phones
Chinese smartphone manufacturer REDMAGIC recently launched its 9S Pro series gaming phones, which feature some fancy-looking hardware specs including a “Leading Version” of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, upgraded cooling system, and a large 6.8-inch OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. Set for a global launch on July 16th, the lineup consists of the 9S Pro which comes with a massive 6,500 mAh battery with 80W charging, and the 9S Pro+ with a 5,500mAh battery and 165W charging. Both run on a custom Red Magic 9.5 OS on top of Android and come in various RAM and storage configurations, with a limited edition 9S Pro+ boasting 24GB RAM and 1TB of storage.
Threads Reaches 175 Million Active Users
Meta’s Threads platform, a Twitter/X competitor launched in 2023, has reached 175 million monthly active users according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Despite starting with a basic feature set, Threads has since added a growing roster of features in addition to benefitting from easy logins via Instagram accounts. With that said though, it’s set itself apart from Facebook and Instagram due to the format of the platform which mirrors that of Twitter/X.
Nintendo Wants to Make Enough Switch 2 Units
In an effort to combat scalpers, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa recently stated that the company intends to produce enough consoles to meet demand with the Switch 2, in order to reduce incidents of scalping once the new console launches. Hopefully, buyers will no longer need to purchase unreasonably-priced consoles from resellers taking advantage of supply shortages, a problem which continues to plague major video game console launches.
