HI-FI TECH NEWS

Thursday, 3 August 2023

Amazon Great Freedom Festival Sale 2023: Best Deals on Laptops

Amazon Great Freedom Festival Sale 2023 is now live for all users. Prime subscribers had one-day early access to the sale, which is now open to non-Prime members as well. The Great Freedom Festival Sale brings a host of discounts across different product categories — mobile phones and accessories, home appliances, Amazon products, and more. SBI credit card holders can get an additional 10 percent instant discount of up to Rs. 2,500 on top of the deals and offers on various products during the sale.

We've already covered some of the sale's best deals and discounts now live. Here, we'll look at some of the best laptop deals in the Amazon Great Freedom Festival Sale 2023.

Amazon Great Freedom Festival sale: Best deals on laptops

HP 15s

The HP 15s is powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 processor and packs 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD storage. The laptop runs Windows 11 Home and features 15.6-inch FHD display with an HP True Vision 720p HD camera on its top centre. The HP 15s features Intel Iris Xe graphics, dual speakers, and a thin and light design. The HP 15s is available for Rs. 52,499, down from its retail price of Rs. 66,599.

Buy now: Rs. 52,499 (MRP Rs. 66,599)

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro is a thin and light laptop with a 14-inch 2.8K (2,880 x 1,800) IPS display with 90Hz refresh rate and 400 nits of peak brightness. The Lenovo laptop is powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 processor and packs 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD storage. It comes with Windows 11 Home preloaded and includes a three-month Xbox Game Pass Utimate subscription. The laptop features Intel Iris Xe graphics and is 1.69cm thin and weighs 1.3kg. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro can be picked up during the Great Freedom Festival Sale for Rs. 68,990.

Buy now: Rs. 68,990 (MRP Rs. 1,06,290)

Asus Vivobook 16X (2022)

The Asus Vivobook 16X is powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor and packs 8GB of RAM and 512GB SSD storage. The laptop also comes in an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H variant with 16GB of RAM. The Asus laptop features a 16-inch FHD+ (1,920 x 1,200 pixels) display with 300nits peak brightness and 60Hz refresh rate. The laptop comes with Windows 11 Home preloaded and features a thin and light construction, with its thickness coming in at 1.84cm and weight 1.88 kg. The Asus Vivobook 16X is available for Rs. 46,990 during the sale, with the Ryzen 7 variant coming in at Rs. 57,990.

Buy now: Rs. 46,990 (MRP Rs. 68,990) and Rs. 57,990 (MRP Rs. 82,990)

MSI Modern 14

The MSI Modern 14 is powered by a 12th Gen Intel Core i5 processor and packs 8GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD storage. The laptop features a 14-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) display with 60Hz refresh rate. It comes preloaded with Windows 11 Home and features Intel Iris Xe graphics. The MSI laptop sports a thin and light construction and weighs just 1.4kg. The MSI modern 14 is available for Rs. 45,990 during the Great Freedom Festival sale.

Buy now: Rs. 45,990 (MRP Rs. 67,990)

Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro

The Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro is powered by a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and packs 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD storage. It features a 13.3-inch FHD AMOLED touchscreen display with a 1080p HD camera on its top centre. The Samsung laptop features Intel Iris Xe graphics and sports an aluminium body, which measures 11.2mm and weighs 0.87 kg. The Galaxy Book2 Pro can be picked up for Rs. 99,490 during the sale.

Buy now: Rs. 99,490 (MRP Rs. 1,39,990)

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Amazon Great Freedom Festival Sale 2023 Now Live for All Users: Grab Best Deals and Discounts

Amazon Great Freedom Festival Sale 2023 is now live for all users — including Prime and non-Prime members. The sale includes a number of offers and discounts on smartphones, wearables, laptops, home appliances and other electronics. The Great Freedom Festival Sale, which started for Prime users on August 3, will conclude on August 8. Amazon is offering an instant 10 percent discount of up to Rs. 2,500 on select transactions made using SBI Credit Card or through EMI.

The e-commerce giant began the Great Freedom Festival Sale 2023 a day early, on August 3, exclusively for Prime subscribers. With biggest discounts and deals, the ongoing sale is the perfect time for buyers to purchase products from their wishlists.

Smartphones

The company is offering up to 16 percent off on iPhone 14, starting at just Rs. 66,999 for the base variant with 128GB storage. At the time of launch, the smartphone was marked in India at Rs. 79,900. Amazon is offering an exchange discount on the purchase of the smartphone for up to Rs. 54,950.

Other smartphones from Redmi, Samsung and OnePlus are also available on some of the sale's biggest deals, along with exchange offers.

Amazon devices

On Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, Echo Buds, Kindle and other Amazon products, the company is offering up to 56 percent discount.

Home appliances

TVs, washing machines, refrigerator, ACs and other home appliances can be availed at a discounted price during the ongoing Amazon Great Freedom Festival Sale. There is up to 49 percent off on television sets, including Redmi Android Smart LED TV X43 and Acer V Series Smart QLED Google TV.

Wearables

Amazon Great Freedom Festival 2023 Sale has deals on wearables like smartwatches, earphones, and headsets. One can avail up to 87 percent discount on purchasing smartwatches, starting at just Rs. 899 during the ongoing sale.

Other products on sale include printers, monitors, gaming devices, kitchen appliances, speakers, hard drives as well as cameras. The Amazon Great Freedom Festival Sale 2023 ends on August 8. Grab your favourite deals before the sale concludes.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 alongside the Galaxy Tab S9 series and Galaxy Watch 6 series at its first Galaxy Unpacked event in South Korea. We discuss the company's new devices and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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OnePlus Ace 2 Pro's AnTuTu Benchmark Score Hints at Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, 24GB RAM

OnePlus Ace 2 Pro will launch in China soon and the company is actively teasing the arrival of the handset through the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. While the exact launch date of the smartphone is yet to be revealed, its performance benchmarks have surfaced online, giving users a sense of how the performance of the phone is. It is shown to come with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, coupled with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of onboard storage. The OnePlus Ace 2 Pro is expected to come as a successor to the OnePlus Ace Pro.

A OnePlus handset has been spotted on the benchmarking website AnTuTu with model number PJA110. The listing is thought to be of OnePlus Ace 2 Pro and it has scored an impressive 17,33,703 points on the benchmarking site. As per the listing, the phone's CPU has one high-performance core with a maximum clock speed of 3.2GHz, four cores capped at 2.8GHz and three cores with a maximum clock speed of 2.02GHz. These specifications are associated with the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC.

Based on the listing, the OnePlus Ace 2 Pro will pack 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. In the CPU test of AnTuTu, the smartphone scored 4,56,555 points and it received 6,13,916 points as GPU score. The MEM score is 3,63,631 points whereas the UX score is 2,99,601 points. The listing also suggests Android 13 operating system running on the handset.

OnePlus started teasing the arrival of the OnePlus Ace 2 Pro in China last week. It is confirmed to go official in August. It is teased to come with a Tiangong 3D cooling system with a large surface area.

As per a recent leak, the OnePlus Ace 2 Pro could feature a 6.74-inch display with curved edges. The display is said to offer 1.5K resolution and 1440Hz Pulse Width Modulation(PWM) frequency. It is tipped to pack a 5,000mAh battery and could offer 100W fast charging support.

OnePlus Nord 3 brings some serious upgrades over its predecessor, including some flagship-grade specifications. We discuss this and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Tesla in India: How the Automaker Could Enter World's Third-Largest Market With No Threat From Chinese Rivals

China's loss in India could be Elon Musk's gain.

Tesla has had a red-carpet welcome from India for its proposal to invest in the country, while its largest rival in electric vehicles, China's BYD, has been stopped cold by increased scrutiny from New Delhi.

The result could be an opening for Tesla to negotiate terms for an entry to the world's third-largest auto market without the competitive threat from BYD that it faces in other emerging markets, like Thailand.

"The future of who wins in India will have some bearing on who wins globally in the EV race," said Jasmeet Khurana of the World Economic Forum.

Since a meeting between Musk and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June in New York, Tesla has fast-tracked closed-door discussions with Indian officials on a potential plant investment and plans to build a new low-cost $24,000 (roughly Rs. 19.85 lakh) EV.

Those talks continued over the past week with Tesla discussing minute details of its plans to gain access to India's fast-growing EV market, and PM Modi personally tracking developments, sources say.

Those meetings, though, have been strictly kept under wraps, with officials putting out no photos on social media of handshakes with executives which otherwise is a usual affair after high-profile meetings.

BYD, meanwhile, appears to be taking a backseat. Months after seeking clearance for its own $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,233 crore) investment in India, BYD is no longer keen to pursue the approval, Reuters reported. In a further setback, BYD is facing an investigation over allegations that it underpaid import tax in India.

Among other concerns, Indian officials are worried about the national security implications of Chinese-made vehicles and the data they could collect. India is "uncomfortable with Chinese automakers," an official said.

While all investments from China have faced tightened approval requirements in India since a border clash between the two in 2020, there could be an outsized effect on the developing market for EVs in India because of China's dominance in battery materials, battery production, and other technology.

Tesla, too, has Chinese suppliers that have helped it slash production costs at its Shanghai factory and it now wants to bring them to India - where it appears to have an upper hand in talks with New Delhi.

India has told Tesla it will allow its Chinese suppliers into the country if they forge partnerships with local firms, just like Apple did. But at the same time, India is hesitant about BYD's $1-billion (roughly Rs. 8,233 crore) plan even though that too was proposed as a partnership with a domestic engineering firm.

The Global Times, a Chinese state-run newspaper, said the reported pushback on BYD's investment plan "will lead to a chain reaction and deal a blow to the overall confidence of Chinese companies in investing India."

BYD did not respond to requests for comment on the status of its India investment plan or the import tax claim. In a statement to Reuters, the company noted it had been active in the Indian market for 16 years and sells commercial vehicles and passenger cars there.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on its talks with Indian officials. Musk had said in June that PM Modi was "pushing us to make significant investments in India, which is something we intend to do."

INDIA'S GROWING EV MARKET

Tesla wants to sell 20 million cars globally by 2030, up from 1.31 million in 2022, but faces hurdles to expanding its Shanghai factory.

BYD was the world's biggest seller of EVs and plug-in hybrids in 2022 with a total of 1.86 million units - the vast majority in China. It trails Tesla in terms of sales of fully electric cars.

"Tesla sees competition mainly with BYD, and both are expanding globally at great speed," said Gaurav Vangaal of S&P Global Mobility.

"If they want volumes, they have to come to India," he said, adding that with the government incentivising companies to build EVs locally, India can also serve as an export base.

Annual production of light electric vehicles in India is expected to rise to 1.4 million by 2030, close to 19 percent of the total forecast production of 7.25 million, according to estimates by S&P Global Mobility. It was less than 50,000 in 2022.

India's nascent EV market is dominated by local player Tata Motors, whose best-selling Nexon EV sells for as high as $19,000 (roughly Rs. 15.71 lakh) while Chinese carmaker MG Motor's ZS EV starts at $28,000 (roughly Rs. 23.15 lakh) while BYD's Atto 3 retails at around $41,000 (roughly Rs. 33.90 lakh) in India.

Toyota Motor, Hyundai Motor and Kia all sell mid-sized gasoline SUVs priced at around $24,000 (roughly Rs. 19.85 lakh), Tesla's identified entry point.

Tesla does not currently sell vehicles in India.

"Tesla has become a desirable product in name alone," said Sam Fiorani of AutoForecast Solutions. "Add to that an affordable product tailored for the Indian market and it has the potential to be a hit locally."

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Qualcomm Predicts Q4 Sales Below Market Estimates Due to Macroeconomic Headwinds, Weaker Global Handset Units

Qualcomm forecast fourth-quarter sales below market expectations on Wednesday and said it would likely cut jobs as consumer spending on gadgets like smartphones remained stubbornly weak amid slowing global economic growth.

The San Diego, California-based company said it also expects no further sales to Chinese telecom giant Huawei [HWT.UL] because it does not have a license to sell 5G chips to Huawei. More broadly in China, a slower-than-expected economic recovery weighed on orders to Qualcomm. Smartphone shipments in the world's second-largest economy were down 5 percent in the June quarter, Canalys data showed.

Qualcomm said its forecast also takes into account the impact of macroeconomic headwinds, weaker global handset units, and the fact that phone makers are using existing inventory rather than putting in fresh chip orders.

On a conference call with investors, Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkhiwala said Qualcomm's forecast for the rest of the year assumes no "material revenue" from Huawei.

"As you are aware we have a 4G license for shipping into Huawei. We do not have a 5G license, and we are not assuming any material revenue going forward," Palkhiwala said.

The company estimated fourth-quarter revenue of $8.1 billion to $8.9 billion (roughly Rs. 66,978 crore), while analysts polled by Refinitiv expected $8.70 billion (roughly Rs. 71,949 crore). Qualcomm forecast a fourth-quarter adjusted earnings range with a midpoint of $1.90 (roughly Rs. 157), in line with analysts' consensus estimate of $1.91 (roughly Rs. 158) per share according to Refinitiv data.

Qualcomm warned of likely restructuring charges for job cuts.

"While we are in the process of developing our plans, we currently expect these actions to consist largely of workforce reductions, and in connection with any such actions we would expect to incur significant additional restructuring charge," the company said in a securities filing.

Qualcomm shares fell about 7 percent in choppy extended trading.

At a conference in May, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said he had not seen signs of healthy consumption in China yet and the smartphone industry recovery was "a number of quarters out."

Qualcomm rival MediaTek last week warned that phone manufacturers are "cautious" about buying chips due to tepid end-user demand.

Qualcomm said on Wednesday it expected the use of existing inventory by phone makers "will be a factor through the end of the calendar year."

Qualcomm shares fell amid a broader sell-off in tech and chip stocks, with Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index slipping 3.5 percent. Analysts are expecting Apple to report its largest fiscal third-quarter revenue drop since 2016 later this week as iPhone sales slow in the US and elsewhere.

But other chip firms are seeing different results. Shares of Qorvo, which also supplies wireless chips to smartphone makers, rose 4 percent in extended trading after its forecast beat analysts' expectations and CEO Bob Bruggeworth said it had won more business with its "largest customer," which is Apple. Apple. NXP last week reported better-than-expected results partly on the strength of Apple orders.

CEO Amon said the company will be supplying modem chips for Apple's next iPhone.

Kinngai Chan, the analyst at Summit Insights Group, said Huawei is not a large Qualcomm customer and the US company's stock declined because its outlook is "much weaker than expectations" amid flat Android handset sales.

Revenue at Qualcomm's mainstay handset chip business fell 25 percent to $5.26 billion (roughly Rs. 15843,489 crore) in the third quarter. Adjusted overall revenue of $8.44 billion (roughly Rs. 69,788 crore) missed estimates of $8.50 billion (roughly Rs. 70,284 crore).

It forecast adjusted fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.80 (roughly Rs. 148) and $2 (roughly Rs. 165), compared to estimates of $1.91 (roughly Rs. 158).

The automotive sector was a bright spot as Qualcomm seeks to diversify beyond smartphone chips. Revenue from the sector grew 13 percent on the increasing use of computer chips in vehicles.

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Nykaa CEO Steps Up as Marketing Head as Six Executives Resign Amid Growing Competition

Six executives, including the marketing head, of India's cosmetics-to-fashion retailer Nykaa have resigned since April, the company said on Wednesday, key departures that come as competition intensifies in the fast-growing sector.

The exits include that of Chief Marketing Officer Shalini Raghavan, with Nykaa's founder and CEO Falguni Nayar stepping up to take direct oversight of that function, given its criticality, the company said.

The others who have quit are Kingshuk Basu, a senior vice president (VP) for retail; Sumant Kasliwal, senior VP in the fashion unit; Aditya Sandhu from the business-to-business sales unit; VP Sachin Kataria from the e-commerce business; and Shantanu Prakash, VP for marketing and communications.

"Leadership roles are being augmented with an eye on strategic realignment, cost rationalization and growing complexity of the business," Nykaa said in a statement when Reuters asked about the departures

It did not say why the executives had left.

Nykaa offers beauty products on its website and at stores, competing with rivals Tata Group and Reliance, both of which have interests in the fast-growing $16 billion (nearly Rs. 1,32,400 crore) beauty and personal care market in the world's most populous country.

In March, Reuters reported five key executives had quit Nykaa, including its chief commercial operations officer and the CEO of its wholesale business.

Nykaa's said on Wednesday that it elevated Shailendra Singh as business head for physical retail — beauty, in June.

Shares of Nykaa parent, FSN E-Commerce Ventures, have fallen nearly 60 percent from their listing price in November 2021.

FSN reported a 71.8 percent drop in net profit for the January-March 2023 quarter, but an almost 50 percent rise in pre-tax profit.

Its investor presentation said it recorded a 4 percent growth in core employees, or business executives, in that period, compared to 17 percent and 25 percent growth in the previous two quarters.

Is the iQoo Neo 7 Pro the best smartphone you can buy under Rs. 40,000 in India? We discuss the company's recently launched handset and what it has to offer on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Binance Reportedly Saw Monthly Illegal Crypto Transactions Worth $90 Billion in Banned China Market

Binance users traded $90 billion (roughly Rs. 7,42,800 crore) of cryptocurrency-related assets in a single month in China, where cryptocurrency trading has been illegal since 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday citing internal figures and current and former employees of the exchange.

The transactions made China Binance's biggest market by far, accounting for 20 percent of volume worldwide, excluding trades made by a subset of very large traders, the WSJ said. The newspaper did not specify the month during which the transactions were made.

Binance's origins lie in China, though the world's largest crypto exchange withdrew from mainland China in 2017 during a regulatory crackdown. It did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a comment on the Journal report.

"The Binance.com website is blocked in China and is not accessible to China-based users," a company spokesman told the WSJ.

The exchange has also been under the scrutiny of US regulators like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The CFTC sued Binance for operating what it said was an "illegal" exchange and a "sham" compliance program, while the SEC sued Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao saying that Binance artificially inflated its trading volumes, diverted customer funds, failed to restrict US customers from its platform and misled investors about its market surveillance controls.

The exchange is also under investigation by the US Justice Department over possible money-laundering and sanctions violations, Reuters has reported.

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