It’s a new dawn, it’s a new year and smartphone brands –it seems— don’t want to waste any minute of it, from the get-go. A lot of these brands like Xiaomi, Vivo and OnePlus took the remainder of last year to tease their upcoming phone launches, no holds barred, while some like Realme and Poco left you with a sneak-peek of what’s coming. Then there was Samsung, that kept its cards close to the chest, even if leaks took the better of it, to no one’s surprise.
Cut to the chase, January 2024 is packed to the gills, with multiple smartphone launches in the pipeline starting as soon as January 4. Those that we officially know of anyway. There are of course some that are yet to be confirmed as well but at this point, it feels more like a formality. Samsung for instance will most definitely launch its premier Galaxy S24 line-up this month even if it is yet to announce a proper launch date for the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra. iQOO’s Neo 9 could be heading to India, too, while Oppo seems to be burning the midnight oil to bring the Reno 11 to India sooner rather than later, albeit with a few changes that could irk some potential buyers.
Poco X6 series: The Poco X6 series is confirmed to launch in India soon, possibly within this month. The line-up will mark the India debut of MediaTek’s Dimensity 8300-Ultra. That signals another thing. The Poco X6 Pro is all but confirmed to be a rebranded Redmi K70E, corroborating rumour mills that have all been pointing toward the same for weeks now. The mention of a “series” also suggests that Poco may be gearing to launch the Poco X6 alongside which itself is rumoured to be a rebranded Redmi Note 13 5G.Realme 12 Pro series: Realme has started teasing its next phone launch in India kicking off the hype-train for its next phone, which as per rumour mills could be the Realme 12 Pro Plus, by teasing what’s set to be one of its big marquee features. The Realme phone, whatever it turns out to be, will be the first after the Realme X3 SuperZoom from 2020 to launch in India with a periscope telephoto camera. Realme has launched a phone called the Realme GT 5 Pro with a periscope camera in China recently but that is highly unlikely to launch elsewhere going by the history of these phones. But we’ll see. More details will be revealed on January 3.Oppo Reno 11 series: Oppo is set to launch its Reno 11 series smartphones, Reno 11 and Reno 11 Pro, in global markets kicking off with Malaysia on January 11. As per a new leak, the company is tipped to launch the two phones in India, too, on the same day. The models launching globally, India included, could be a bit different though. Rumour has it that Oppo might launch the Chinese Reno 11 as the global Reno 11 Pro which is to say that the global Reno 11 could end up becoming even more inferior as far as specs go. But we’ll see.iQOO Neo 9 Pro: iQOO launched the iQOO Neo 9 series in China in late December. There are two phones— iQOO Neo 9 and Neo 9 Pro— with largely the same specs and design. The iQOO Neo 9 brings Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for under Rs 30,000 while the iQOO Neo 9 Pro gets you the MediaTek Dimensity 9300 at around Rs 35,000. Buzz has it that the iQOO Neo 9 could be heading to India soon as the iQOO Neo 9 Pro. Watch this space for more.
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