Google Pixel 2's portrait mode is made open source

There's no denying that the Google Pixel 2 has a really great camera. Although the camera UI does not offer manual controls, Google's HDR+ algorithm is really good at exposing most scenes very evenly. It can even do this fairly well in lower-lit conditions. HDR+ aside, Google made a Research Blog post about the Google Camera's portrait mode. The Google Pixel's portrait mode only needs a single camera lens, unlike many other OEMs that require a second camera to map out depth to synthesize the bokeh (blur) effect. We hope that publicly sharing our system with the community will...

Read More

First software update is now rolling out to the Galaxy S9 and S9+ in the US

Last week Samsung pushed out the first software update to the Galaxy S9 and S9+ units meant for Germany, and this contained the March security patches. Today the US-bound S9 and S9+ are starting to receive their first update as well, but in this case unfortunately the security patch level remains unchanged - February 1, 2018. The update does however come with stability improvements for the camera and the Face Unlock function, as you can see from the screenshot on the left. We assume there might be some other, unnamed bug fixes in there too. Since most S9 buyers will see this release...

Read More

vivo can't help itself, lists the V9 early in India revealing all of its specs

vivo's upcoming V9 has been the star of a few leaks so far, the biggest of which came yesterday. Now vivo itself apparently wants in on the leaking game, since it's managed to list the V9 on its website for India, complete with new press renders (though rather low-resolution) and a full list of specs. The V9 is apparently powered by the Snapdragon 626 chipset, paired with 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of expandable storage (and there's a triple slot inside so you can even use two SIMs and a microSD card all at once). It's also got a 19:9 6.3" notched IPS touchscreen with 2,280x1,080 resolution....

Read More

vivo X21 with under-display fingerprint sensor stops by Geekbench too

vivo is going to unveil the X21 at an event in China on March 19, and now that we're only a few days away from that a prototype has been spotted in the Geekbench database. As usual, this reveals some of the phone's specs. Note that the device that was benchmarked is the UD version, as you can see from the screenshot, which means it will have an under-display fingerprint sensor. The vivo X20 Plus UD was the first smartphone in the world to employ this tech, and the X21 is probably going to be the successor to the smaller X20 that was released last October. The vivo X21 UD comes with...

Read More

Huawei P20 goes to Geekbench running Android 8.1

The Huawei P20 - code name Emily or EML-L29 - took its Kirin 970 chipset for a run in the Geekbench fields. The chip performed as expected and seeing Android 8.1 as the software version was a pleasant surprise. The Oreo will be topped with EMUI, of course, but Huawei has really made an effort to keep the software fresh recently. 4GB of RAM isn't ideal for a flagship (it matches the P20 Lite) but it's not a dealbreaker either. JRGRAPH_EXPANDABLE_VERSION = false; JRGRAPH_EXPANDABLE_VERSION = false; GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core) Higher is better Samsung Galaxy...

Read More

Meizu E3 info leaks: specs to brag about at a modest price

Details of the Meizu E3 have surfaced ahead of the scheduled March 21 unveiling. Not the best way to celebrate Meizu's 15th birthday, but we're not complaining. The E3 will join the 18:9 display movement with a 5.99" 1080+ screen. Its body is made of metal with a noticeable indent on the side - that would be the fingerprint reader. Around the back there's a 12MP + 20MP dual camera, which will allegedly use the Sony IMX363 image sensor used in the Zenfone 5z and (reportedly) in the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s. The Xiaomi connection is interesting, because this phone clearly has the Redmi 5 Plus in...

Read More

Huawei P20 Lite goes on pre-order in Poland, ships on March 26

The Huawei P20 Lite was supposed to go official on March 27 along with its P20 and P20 Pro siblings but either there was a last minute change of plans or somewhat jumped the gun. The phone is now up for pre-order in Poland with shipments poised to begin on March 26. That's close to a week after it's China-bound Nova 3e counterpart becomes official. The Huawei P20 Lite costs 1,599.00 Polish Zloty (€380) and for that you're getting a 4GB+64GB Blue model and a Huawei Smart Scale as a gift. The specs hardly come as surprise after all the leaks we've had over the past weeks. Huawei...

Read More

New Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ now on sale

Raspberry Pi has announced a new model of their low-cost computing devices. Conveniently called the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, it is the successor to the obviously named Raspberry Pi 3 Model B launched over two years ago. The new Model B+ has a slightly faster 1.4GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 64-bit Broadcom BCM2873B0 processor that now also features better thermal management to run at sustained speeds for longer without throttling considerably. The main improvements are to networking. The B+ has dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which should make it ideal for use on newer 5GHz networks, as...

Read More

Motorola Moto G6, G6 Plus, G6 Play, E5 and E5 Play get certified

It looks like the Moto G6, G6 Plus, G6 Play and the Moto E5 and E5 Play will become official soon and the initial release market will be Asia. The Moto G6 series has received network certification in Thailand and Indonesia while the Moto E5 and E5 Play have been certified in Indonesia. The Moto G6 family will be topped by the G6 Plus with a 5.93-inch 1080x2160px display and Snapdragon 630 chipset. The Moto G6 will be downgraded to a Snapdragon 450 chip and the Moto G6 Play is expected to rock a Snapdragon 430. The Moto E5 and E5 play will likely retain the 16:9 aspect screen and...

Read More

Broadcom withdraws from Qualcomm deal following presidential order

First, there was an offer by Broadcom to acquire Qualcomm for $105 billion, followed by an improved one worth $121 billion. They were both denied, and later the San Diego upped its NXP acquisition bid that led to a lower offer of $117 billion. The discourteous dance was abruptly ended by a presidential order, followed by an official statement that Broadcom is officially terminating its offer. In a press release, the company stated that although it is disappointed with such outcome, it will comply and move forward with its re-domestication process and will hold its Special Meeting...

Read More

Huawei P20 Lite / Nova 3e appears in short hands-on video

Huawei Nova 3e - P20 Lite's name in China - will go official in a week. Clearly, someone got a unit ahead of schedule andmade a very short video showing off the phone. This is the White color option. We saw a photo of the Blue one a couple of days ago and another one a few days before that. There will be a Gold model too. While the video doesn't give any specs, TENAA spilled the beans already. You're looking at a notched 5.84" screen (1,080 x 2,280px resolution, 19:9) with a 24MP selfie cam living amid the top of the screen. Around the back, there's a 16MP + 2MP dual camera. The...

Read More

ZeroLemon doubles the Galaxy S9+ battery life with new 5,200 mAh case

Samsung launched the Galaxy S9+ with the same battery as the Galaxy S8+. Some concerns were raised that a 3,500 mAh charge was not going to be that great, even with Qualcomm's promised 30% better power efficiency of the new Snapdragon 845. US owners can opt to get far longer power autonomy with latest ZeroLemon case that comes with 5,200 mAh Li-Po battery in it. The new case promises to add 115 hours of standby time, 30 hours of calls and 61 hours of music playback. These numbers naturally depend on a lot of things and the real life performance will vary. However, you can count...

Read More

Xiaomi launches Redmi 5 in India

Xiaomi has launched the Redmi 5 smartphone in India. The phone will be available through Mi.com and Amazon India. The Redmi 5 is the smaller variant of the Redmi Note 5 launched in India last month, which is also known elsewhere as Redmi 5 Plus. The Redmi 5 has a 5.7-inch, 1440x720 pixel IPS LCD with 18:9 aspect ratio. The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 with a choice of 2GB or 3GB of RAM with 16GB or 32GB storage, respectively. The phone has a 12MP camera on the back with f2.2 aperture and PDAF and a 5MP camera on the front with Beautify 3.0 software. Lastly, there's...

Read More

4 HP OPPO Dibawah 1 Juta yang Laris Manis Di Pasaran Maret 2018

HP Oppo dibawah 1 juta sepertinya hingga sekarang masih banyak diburu. Oppo dikenal sebagai vendor ponsel yang aktif meluncurkan berbagai macam varian ponsel pintar. Hingga saat ini, Oppo secara terus menerus memanjakan konsumen melalui penawaran ponsel dengan spesifikasi yang lebih gahar namun dengan harga yang masih bisa terjangkau oleh kalangan menengah. Produsen yang berasal dari […]

Read More

Sony on why it dropped the headphone jack: the other kids were doing it

Sony dropped the headphone jack from the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact. Here's their rational: Why did you remove the headphone jack on XZ2 and XZ2 Compact? This is part of the shift to our new Ambient Flow design language. In order to create the beautiful seamless design, our designers needed to remove the headphone jack. Plus, we're aware of the major market trend toward wireless headphones over wired headphones. Now, we don't mean to sound bitter, but this paints Sony as a trend follower, not a trend setter. To be fair, the HTC U11 and U11+ don't have headphones jack either and...

Read More

Exclusive: Huawei P20 Lite appears in new lifestyle photos

Huawei is announcing the P20 series on March 27, but numerous leaks, images with cases, press renders and even posters revealing the alternative Chinese name mean there's little we don't already know about it. Latest photos we got in our mail are lifestyle photos, painting a cooler picture of the most bezel-less Lite phone up to date. Huawei P20 Lite with minuscule bezels The Huawei P20 Lite is expected to have 5.84" screen with a resolution of 2280 x 1080 pixels. The chipset is most likely going to be Kirin 659, coupled with octa-core CPU at 2.36 GHz. The dual camera on...

Read More

YouTube Dark Theme officially starts rolling out on mobile, iOS gets it first

YouTube's Dark Theme feature has officially started rolling out to users on Apple's iOS platform. Team YouTube took to Twitter to make this announcement yesterday. It's finally here! 🙌Dark theme is rolling out on iOS over the next few days. Toggle it on/off in settings. pic.twitter.com/Mkfl1Dzu3M— Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) March 13, 2018 As clear from the video embedded in the tweet, you just need to tap on your profile icon, followed by a tap on Settings. Once there, just enable the Dark Theme option, and you'll see the app immediately switch to dark mode. When...

Read More

ZTE is announcing nubia V18 with dual cameras on March 22

Back at MWC 2018, a nubia representative said that its phones will come with stock Android in the future. Although units sold in China will still be on nubia UI, we might see the first device poised to make the switch when it arrives at the global market. The name is nubia V18, and it is scheduled to debut on March 22, when the company will hold an announcement event in Beijing. The image says 6" screen for a thousand bucks, revealing the upcoming price of the phone would be around CNY1,000 (€127/$158). With such a price tag the phone is expected to be a decidedly low-end...

Read More

Xiaomi teases Mix 2s camera with clapping hands

Xiaomi has been doling out info about the Mix 2s, building up to the March 27 unveiling. The latest is two images of clapping hands, with vague text teasing new camera features. An earlier hand-based teaser was for the Snapdragon 845, could the two be related? The chipset supports AI camera enhancements (there's a teaser image for that as well), though clapping suggests speed. Maybe 4K at 60fps is considered fast or (more likely) the 720p at 480fps slow-mo feature. Clap for the AI-powered camera of the Xiaomi Mi 2s Or maybe it's about the speed of the autofocus? A leaked ROM...

Read More