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Xiaomi Mi 8 is company’s newest flagship and it has a notch

Comes with a special variant!

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Xiaomi just wrapped up its annual launch event and the Chinese tech company presented a number of devices. Of course, the star of the show is their new flagship phone: the Mi 8. After months of speculation and rumors, Xiaomi’s new phone is finally official.

The Mi 8 is Xiaomi’s 8th-anniversary phone hence the skip in the numbering scheme and disregard for the number seven. The rumors were true about the Mi 8: It has a notched display, a Snapdragon 845 processor, and 6GB of memory.

The phone’s notched display is a 6.21-inch Super AMOLED panel with a Full HD+ resolution and 18.7:9 aspect ratio. The notch is pretty wide compared to Huawei’s or LG’s but it’s got something similar to the iPhone X. It owns a 20-megapixel AI-powered front camera, sensors, earpiece, and additional infrared lighting and lens to support 3D face scanning. During the launch, Xiaomi simply called it Face ID, which is a straightforward copy from Apple’s book.

Like its predecessor, the Mi 8 also has dual rear cameras. Both have 12-megapixel sensors but with different lens openings: f/1.8 and f/2.4. The main shooter is used for everyday photography and low-light scenes, while the other is for telephoto. AI is also present on the Mi 8’s rear shooters using 4-in-1 pixel binding for better low-light shots.

Xiaomi is proud to brag about the Mi 8’s DxOMark score of 99 points overall. Based on DxOMark’s ranking, the Mi 8 is now the best Xiaomi shooter beating the Mi Mix 2S and is even higher than the iPhone X. The photo category alone is rated at 105.

The rest of the Mi 8’s specs include a USB-C port for audio, charging, and data transfer, dual GPS, rear fingerprint sensor, and the latest MIUI software.

As always, there’s a special variant of the flagship Xiaomi phone. For the Mi 8, Xiaomi is not favoring ceramic bodies anymore because a see-through back panel is now a cooler feature.

Called the Explorer Edition, this Mi 8 variant gives you a peek at the internals of the phone which is pretty sweet. Not only that, it’s also Xiaomi’s first device to have an in-display fingerprint sensor — now that’s special.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 has a starting price of CNY 2,699 (US$ 420) for the base model with 64GB of storage. The 128GB version is priced at CNY 2,999 (US$ 470) while the most expensive version with 256GB storage will go for CNY 3,299 (US$ 515).

The Explorer Edition will have only one variant with 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage for CNY 3,799 or roughly US$ 590.

Gaming

Ghost of Yotei gets a story expansion in October

The Complete Edition comes with the expansion and a roguelike mode.

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Ghost of Yotei is a classic RPG experience set in the same universe as its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima. In my opinion, Atsu’s journey of revenge feels a lot more fun than Jin’s battle to save his homeland. If you’re in the same boat, Ghost of Yotei is coming back on October 1 with brand-new content.

Without delving too much into spoiler territory, Ghost of Yotei has a conclusive ending. Rather than shoehorning a forced epilogue, Echoes of Sekigahara, the title of the upcoming story expansion, explores Atsu’s past.

As with Tsushima’s expansion, Echoes of Sekigahara features a new map with new enemies, weapons, and collectibles. It will be set in two different time periods.

Besides the story expansion, the upcoming update also has a new mode called Most Wanted, which Sucker Punch Production describes as their “spin on a roguelike.” The mode explores Atsu’s experience as a headhunter, feeding her with bounties and earnable perks.

The two new content expansions will come with in the upcoming Ghost of Yotei Complete Edition. The new edition, coming on October 1, will also come with the co-op Legends mode. It also has a few perks and customization options. The edition will sell for US$ 70.

If you already have the base edition, you can grab an upgrade for only US$ 15. If you don’t want to pay for the upgrade, the game is still getting a few minor tweaks.

SEE ALSO: Ghost of Yotei review: A tale sharpened by vengeance

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HONOR isn’t taking the Robot Phone global — yet

The hardware is ready. The AI isn’t.

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The HONOR Robot Phone may have officially launched, but don’t expect this version to immediately make its way to global markets.

HONOR told media in Shenzhen that it currently has no plans to bring the current Robot Phone outside China. The main hurdle isn’t the hardware. It’s the phone’s AI experience, which is currently optimized for the Chinese market.

HONOR believes a future generation of the Robot Phone would be better positioned for a true global rollout once its AI experience is ready for markets outside China.

That doesn’t mean HONOR is abandoning the idea. Quite the opposite.

More than a phone with a moving camera

The Robot Phone is HONOR’s attempt to introduce a new idea to the smartphone market. It combines a smartphone with a 4DoF mechanical gimbal, allowing its camera to physically move. 

Its AI features take that concept further. YOYO Robot Mode can use voice commands, gestures, and AI tracking to control the camera. It can also automatically pan and tilt to keep a person in frame during vlogs, livestreams, and video calls. 

The phone also brings selected elements of ARRI Image Science and professional cinema workflows to its camera system. Its 200MP gimbal main camera supports 10-bit ARRI LogC3 recording, while ARRI Wide Gamut 3 and ARRI Looks give creators more control over their footage. 

But HONOR isn’t treating the Robot Phone primarily as a volume-driving product.

The company says its bigger goal is to introduce a new concept to the smartphone market and see what kind of effect it can have.

That makes the Robot Phone an interesting experiment for HONOR. The hardware is already here. The company now wants to learn what happens when a smartphone can physically move, respond to its surroundings, and use AI to help operate itself.

For now, though, China is where that experiment begins.

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HONOR Robot Phone’s camera can move on its own

Its built-in gimbal lets the camera move itself.

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The HONOR Robot Phone’s biggest trick is also the easiest to understand: its camera can physically move.

Instead of keeping its cameras fixed inside the phone, HONOR built a mechanical gimbal directly into the device. The system can tilt, rotate, and reposition the camera, opening up movements that aren’t possible with a conventional smartphone camera.

HONOR calls it the Titanium Agile Gimbal, and the company says it is the industry’s smallest 4DoF gimbal system. It packs more than 100 precision components into a module that’s just 9.59mm thick.

A tiny gimbal inside the phone

The 4DoF mechanical system is designed to deliver the benefits of a separate gimbal without requiring users to carry another piece of equipment.

HONOR says it reduced the gimbal’s overall volume by 65% compared with traditional gimbals while increasing its structural strength by 200%. The system uses more than 100 precision components and is backed by more than 100 patents.

At its core is a 2.6-gram titanium gimbal motor that can rotate at up to 360 degrees per second. A separate HONOR Shield Steel Flip Motor provides a torque density of 120 Nm/L.

Those numbers sound impressive, but their practical purpose is straightforward: the camera needs to move quickly and precisely while remaining small enough to fit inside a smartphone.

The camera can move on its own

The Robot Phone’s gimbal isn’t limited to simply stabilizing the camera.

It supports six dynamic camera movement modes: AI SpinShot, Default Stabilization, Tilt Locked, Super Steady, FPV, and FPV Vertical. AI SpinShot, for example, can perform 90- or 180-degree camera rolls, while the other modes are designed for different types of movement and shooting.

The phone also has three smart tracking modes: Gimbal Tracking, Subject Tracking, and Pre-Composition. These are designed to help the camera follow a subject or maintain a particular composition while the phone moves.

That’s the important distinction between the Robot Phone and a conventional smartphone with image stabilization. The camera isn’t just correcting for your movement. It can actively move to create or maintain a shot.

You can tell it what to do

HONOR also gives the gimbal its own set of AI-powered controls.

Through YOYO Robot Mode, the Robot Phone can combine voice commands, gesture recognition, AI perception, and physical movement. Users can wake the mode and deploy or stow the gimbal with a flip gesture.

Voice commands can be specific, too. HONOR says users can tell the gimbal to turn left by a certain number of degrees, look toward the sky, or rotate for a specified amount of time.

The phone can also use AI Subject Tracking to automatically frame and follow people during video calls, vlogging, and livestreaming.

That makes the Robot Phone particularly interesting for people who regularly shoot themselves. Instead of setting up a phone and constantly checking whether they’re still in frame, the camera can do some of that work itself.

The real question is how naturally all of this works in practice. We’ll get to answer that when we spend more time with the Robot Phone.

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