Week 4 in review: Oppo A55 5G is here, Xperia 1 III renders leak

Welcome to another week's recap. The biggest story of the fourth week of 2021 was the unveil of the Oppo A55 5G in China. Based around a Dimensity 700 chipset, 6.5-inch HD+ IPS LCD and a 5,000mAh battery. It costs CNY 1,599 (about $245/€200) in China and we expect it to launch globally soon.

Xiaomi closed off the week with something truly unbelievable. Mi Air Charge technology promises to be able to wirelessly charge a phone from a distance of "several meters". Providing up to 5W to multiple devices while you're using them, walking around or even when there are objects in the way. The smartphones need to be outfitted with a “miniaturized antenna array with built-in ‘beacon antenna’ and ‘receiving antenna array’.” The smartphone has 14 antennas to convert a millimeter wave signal that’s emitted by the charging pile. The signal is converted into electric energy through a rectifier circuit.

Huawei is reportedly in talks to sell off its P and Mate series to a consortium, backed by the Shanghai government. This comes after Huawei offloaded its Honor division. Huawei sold 50 million phones fewer in 2020, than it did in 2019.

Two phones leaked this week, showing periscope cameras. The Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro showed off a quad camera, including a 10x optical zoom via a periscope lens. We expect the Mi 11 Pro to add a 6.81-inch 1440p 120Hz OLED with 480Hz touch sampling rate and a Snapdragon 888 chipset.

The other phone that leaked was the Sony Xperia 1 III, which looks to include some sort of periscope of its own. Otherwise the Xperia 1 III looks to retain the flat and tall design and will likely go with an improved 6.5-inch 4K OLED panel on the front.

Those were the key stories of the week. The full list is below. See you next week!