Okay, do not buy smartphones right now. May has witnessed some good smartphone launches and some not-so-good smartphone launches. But moreover, May was packed with launches of AI. But the upcoming smartphone launches in June are flexible in nature, and one of them will have cinematic vision. And I might cry. HTC is coming back to India, the company that made the first Android smartphone. So overall, if you’re thinking of buying a new smartphone right now, wait, hold for this June month. I’m really excited for this upcoming series. It’s going to be a really interesting one. Let’s flippin’ go.
First up, we have two phones from OnePlus. OnePlus Nord 4 and OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite. Now, as per leaks, they are set to launch in June. The Nord 4 might be a rebrand of the OnePlus Ace 3V that has already launched in China. So, it will have a Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 processor, and before even you get a doubt about it, the 7 Plus Gen 3 is a scaled-down version of the 8S Gen 3, which is a scaled-down version of the 8 Gen 3, but slightly better than the 8 Gen 2. In simple words, the 7 Plus Gen 3 is closer to the 8S Gen 3, and it will also have on-device AI capabilities. For mid-range smartphones, we also got a chance to get our hands on the OnePlus Ace 3V, and if you see on Antutu, it scored almost 14.8 lakhs. It is said to have a 50MP main camera with OIS up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM, and it will come with UFS 4.0 storage. Hopefully, that was not a typo from OnePlus. Hopefully. Now, in terms of pricing, as per the leaks, Nord 4 will launch around 30–35,000 rupees. I’m expecting it to cross 30–33,000. It should be more 35,000.
Second, we have the Nord CE4 Lite, which is the most affordable offering from OnePlus. It is said to come with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chip, a 5,000 mAh battery with 67W charging, and finally, an OLED display on the Nord C4 Lite series. Now, as per leaks, it is rumored to be under Rs. 20,000. Next up, we have a foldable from Vivo, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro. If you see, the page is officially live for the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro, and it is hinting that it will have some AI features. Last year, we tried the Vivo X Fold Plus, which was launched in China, and the phone overall was pretty solid. It had zero creases, and most importantly, the cameras on the Vivo Fold were similar to those on their flagship. As per the leaks, again, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro is set to launch in June 2024, and it will come with a 50-megapixel main camera and a 64-megapixel 3x telephoto camera. It’s going to be a Zaius camera system. Now we have tried multiple Vivo smartphones with the Zaius collaboration, and surprisingly, the Zaius collaboration is working for them; the photos come out really well.
Now, if you guys want, we’ll definitely be covering the Vivo X Fold 3, so make sure you press the gray subscribe button. Along with the camera, it will have a Snapdragon 8th Gen 3 chip and a 5700 mAh battery. In terms of pricing, again, this is very crucial. It is supposed to be around 1.5 lakhs, which again falls into Samsung territory, so that has to be seen. Now HTC might make a comeback in smartphones, and back in the day, HTC used to be like the top-tier smartphone. And when Android skins and all were not a thing, the HTC Sense UI at that time was THE THING, like it was my dream to buy a HTC smartphone. Now HTC posted this on Twitter, which says AL24U, hinting at the release of its smartphone, the HTC U24, and that it might come to India as well. Now, there are no leaks about the official launch. In terms of specs, it is rumored to have a Snapdragon 7th Gen 3 chip, 12GB of RAM, and a and a 120Hz OLED display. Now, take this with a grain of salt. These rumors have been around for some time, but nothing substantial has come out. Since HTC has officially teased it, it would be interesting if HTC makes a comeback, and again, how they price the smartphone, and will there be a comeback of the legendary HTC Sense UI?
Next up is the Xiaomi 14CV. There are no leaks about when it’s going to launch, but Xiaomi dropped an official teaser, so it is coming to India. Xiaomi 14cv could be the rebranded version of China’s Xiaomi cv 4 Pro, so as per the leaks and rumors, it is said to come with a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip and a 50MP main camera, and it will have the Xiaomi X Leica partnership, and we have seen that the Leica partnership is working really well. As per the leaks, the Xiaomi cv will be priced around 45 to 50,000 rupees. I’m really interested to see how the cameras are going to be. This smartphone competition under 50,000 rupees is really getting hot. Next up, we have a flagship phone from Motorola, the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra. As per the leaks, it might launch globally in June. The Edge 50 Ultra supposedly will come with the Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 instead of the flagship 8th Gen 3. It will have a 50-megapixel main camera and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera. It will have up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Also, it will launch in that woodback variant. And if you remember, this is not the first time Motorola has had a wooden back. Anyone from Moto Z players? Moto Z era? Now, the H50 Ultra has already launched in Europe for Rs. 88,000, but if you have been following Motorola, they usually price their phones cheaper in India than in Europe. So I’m expecting it to come around Rs. 65–70,000.
Let me know: how much would you pay for a Motorola flagship? Next, this one is going to be the biggest launch in the history of the Windows system, Windows Copilot plus PCs. The Microsoft Surface and Surface Pro laptops are the first laptops to launch under Microsoft Copilot Plus PC. Now, the Surface laptop will be launching on June 18th, and in terms of specs, the Surface Laptop will come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus processor, which is an ARM-based processor with an AI core and is capable of running AI processors faster and better. Along with this, it has 16GB of RAM and a 256GB inbuilt SSD, and as per Microsoft, the Surface Laptop with X Plus chips is 58% faster than the current M3 MacBook Air. Now, in terms of pricing, it is priced around $1,000, which is roughly 83,000 rupees. Now you’ll be like, What is Windows Copilot plus PCs? Well, in simple words, this is the new line of Windows laptops that would be able to run AI-fied Windows. For example, there is this new feature coming up in Windows called Recall, which will continuously take screenshots in the background. So let’s say you forgot the name of the Excel file you opened five minutes ago. You can just ask Windows, and it will fetch that screenshot and tell you exactly the file name that you opened five minutes ago. Now Microsoft says that this screenshot taking and processing would be happening on a device, but the keyword here is that Microsoft says that it is happening on a device. Also, this recall feature would be turned on by default, so if you don’t want it, you’ll have to turn it off.
Now, what do you guys think about the Microsoft Recall feature and Windows ARM laptops? Like, when the MacBook made the switch from Intel to ARM, it was groundbreaking. Let’s see how it goes with Windows. Next up is the Z Fold 6 from Samsung, and it is almost confirmed that it will launch on July 10th. And as per this leak, the main focus on this foldable is going to be the camera system. Now, in terms of specs, it will come with the Snapdragon 8th Gen 3 with some extra cores, which will make it the 8th Gen 3 for the Galaxy. Along with that, it is said to have 12GB of RAM, and there are no leaks for the pricing information here. But it seems like Samsung is going to have very tough competition in the foldable space this year. And along with the foldable, Samsung will also be launching the Galaxy Ring, which they teased way back in January 2024. Now the Samsung Ring will be a fitness tracker that can also track SPO2, temperature, heart rate, sleep tracking, etc. So maybe the time has come for us to get rid of our smartwatches and fitness bands. It’s ring time. And last but not least is iOS 18. As of now, we all know that Apple is in talks with Google about getting AI on Apple devices. But it seems like this rista has been called off, and Apple has found another prospect for AI on Apple devices, and it’s none other than OpenAI. As per the leaks and rumors, Apple is in talks with OpenAI about bringing AI to iOS 18, which is about to launch at WWDC next month. And one thing that makes the suspicion even stronger is that if you saw OpenAI’s GPT-4.0 launch, they did all their demos either on iPhone or Mac. And specifically, they have launched their ChatGBT app for Mac OS first. Now, as per the rumors, the iPhones will first get the AI features, and later the Mac, watches, and everything else will get the AI update. Now, Apple needs to join the league of AI because, as you can see, every other company, from Samsung to Google, is going full-on with AI in Android smartphones, and it’s working for them. And that’s the list for upcoming smartphones. June might not be as exciting as May, but the whole foldable segment is heating up, and you will probably see some good launches upcoming in July. Plus, there is iOS 18, and we’ll definitely be covering that.
