nubia outs Red Magic gaming brand

Not to be outdone by the soon to be announced Xiaomi-backed Black Shark gaming device, ZTE sub-brand nubia is unveiling a gaming-related sub-brand of its own. It's called Red Magic and the company has sent us the teaser image you can see below. With nubia's support, Red Magic is preparing to launch an entire line of products that "provide a more complete gaming experience for the masses", whatever that means. Red Magic claims that it's put "all possible specs under the microscope" before it went about creating its first smartphone. The end result of its efforts should be "a product...

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HP announces Chromebook x2, a $599 Chromebook with detachable keyboard and stylus

HP has launched the Chromebook x2, a device HP calls the world's first Chromebook detachable. What it essentially is is a Chromebook tablet with a keyboard dock as well as stylus support. The HP Chromebook x2 has a 12.3-inch, 2400x1600 resolution IPS display. The display has support for a stylus and it comes bundled with the HP Active Pen. Another thing that's included is the keyboard dock, which includes a full-size keyboard, trackpad and B&O speaker system. The machine is powered by an Intel Core m3 processor with 4 or 8GB of LPDDR3 memory and 64GB of storage with microSD...

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Deals: Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ get a 10% discount on eBay

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are new and exciting, but unfortunately this also makes them expensive. That's why you may want to be on the lookout for deals such as this one in the US. Samsung Galaxy S9 An S9 (Snapdragon 845, dual-SIM) goes for $670 - available here - while the S9+ (S845 again, dual-SIM) goes for $770. That's down from the MSRP of $720 and $840 respectively. Samsung Galaxy S9+ These are new factory unlocked units located in Florida. They are available in Midnight Black and Coral Blue.

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Blackmagic Design announces Pocket Cinema Camera 4K for $1295

Launched in 2013, the original Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera became a success for bringing professional grade quality and control to a compact, pocketable design. Five years and many requests later, the company has finally announced the successor - Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. The new 4K model is completely redesigned and although it's probably not pocketable anymore, it's still a relatively compact camera that promises big things. The biggest upgrade is the new 4/3 HDR sensor with a native 4096x2160 DCI 4K resolution. The camera now boasts 13 stops of dynamic range and an ISO...

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Dual-camera BlackBerry with QWERTY appears in renders

The BlackBerry brand is enjoying its new lease of life under TCL Technology ownership. Last year we saw the rebirth of smartphones with QWERTY keyboards with the arrival of BlackBerry Keyone. After its market performance was dubbed as "Mission Accomplished", the device is getting a successor. According to leaked images from the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO), the new phone will be called BlackBerry Athena and will have a dual camera on its back. The BlackBerry Athena looks to follow on the formula of Keyone. It's dual camera setup, paired with dual-LED flash,...

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Moto G6 Play handled on video

Despite a few delays, Motorola is still planning to release a new Moto series of affordable handsets. By all accounts, the launch event will be held on April 19, in Brazil and the lineup will include the Moto G6, G6 Plus and G6 Play. The latter of the three devices was spotted in a very short clip. Despite its mismatched title, we are pretty confident the G6 Play stars in the video, since the single main camera is clearly visible. Plus, leaks on the Moto G6 family have been rather abundant, leaving little to the imagination. Moto G6 Play As per current info, the G6...

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BLU Vivo One Plus has an 18:9 screen, 4,000 mAh battery

Whoever named the latest BLU phone must have had a terrible case of the flu that day. Meet the BLU Vivo One Plus - yes, basically a string of three fairly well known phone brands (although there is a space between "One" and "Plus"). So, what's the phone about? The official page uses some dubious superlatives. It starts with a 4,000 mAh "monster battery", admittedly large, but nothing a certain 5" phone can't match. The "Charged!" heading also seems like a bit of an exaggeration over the bog standard 5V at 2A "fast charger". BLU Vivo One Plus in Black, Gold and Dark Blue BLU...

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Galaxy S9 and S9+ use two different camera sensors: Sony and in-house

As it has done in the past, Samsung is dual sourcing the image sensors for the Galaxy S9 and S9+ - depending on where you buy yours, it may have a Sony-designed IMX345 or a Samsung-designed S5K2L3 ISOCELL Fast. TechInsights has examined both sensors at a microscopic level and found them to have a different design. Both sensors have a 3-layer stacked design - a CMOS sensor with the image pixels, another for the image signal processor (ISP) and finally a DRAM chip for those coveted 960fps videos. But the organization is different. Sony IMX345 design • Samsung ISOCELL Fast design •...

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Xiaomi Mi 6X may use a Helio P60 chipset, an upgraded Redmi Note 5 Pro camera

The Xiaomi Mi 6X - likely the same hardware as the Mi A2 - has gone back to the rumor mill to clarify a few things. When it went through TENAA, we knew it would be powered by an octa-core processor, but what kind we couldn't tell. Then later a leak pointed the finger at Snapdragon 626/636. And here's the latest rumor on the matter, which claims that actually the chipset is a Helio P60. That would be a fine alternative to the S835 as the P60 is has four Cortex-A73 cores, though the Mali-G72 MP3 GPU can't touch the Adreno. No matter, this should be a mid-range device, with the Mi 7 coming...

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Exclusive: Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo specs leaked

Just days after we told you the Samsung J720F is arriving as Galaxy J7 Duo in India, we received a photo in our inbox from a sales training session, revealing all of the phone's key specs. The new device is coming with a Super AMOLED display, dual cameras, latest OS and 4G capabilities. A 5.5" Super AMOLED display with HD resolution means the phone will have standard 16:9 ratio screen. The camera on the back is similar to the 13 MP + 5 MP setup of the Galaxy C7 (2017), but with a less impressive f/1.9 aperture on the main sensor. The octa-core 1.6 GHz processor is the CPU on the...

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Meizu acquires an in-display fingerprint reader patent

In-display fingerprint readers are certainly shaping up as one of the trends of 2018. We are yet to see a device with true mass market potential to pack one, but with more and more announcements coming in, it's just a matter of time. A quick check at the State Intellectual Property Office of China reveals that Meizu has jumped on that bandwagon as well. The news was also confirmed by a company spokesperson. As per the initial description, the Chinese OEM will be baking the functionality into its on-display Super mBack button, essentially making it even more flexible. Besides its...

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Vulkan 1.1 on its way to Android P

Vulkan - the Open Source graphics API project, widely considered to be the multi-threaded spiritual successor to OpenGL has played already a significant part on the Android gaming scene over the past few years. It has officially been a part of the Android core since Android 7.0 Nougat, powering more and more advanced graphics engines. Recently, the Khronos Group, in charge of Vulkan, released a new 1.1 specification for the API and while looking through some Android P source code, the guys over at XDA have already confirmed it will be part of the Android P core. It appears that the...

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Nokia 6 (2018) launches in the UK tomorrow, in the Netherlands soon

Just like its predecessor, the Nokia 6 (2018) will be exclusive to Carphone Warehouse in the UK. The updated model is set to launch tomorrow at a price of £230 SIM-free (the 2017 model is currently going for £200). Despite CW's exclusivity among retailers, the new Nokia 6 should also be available through Nokia.com. The Netherlands should get the 6 in May at a price of €280 for the 32 GB model (and just €20 more for the 64 GB one). Some stores are already accepting pre-orders. MediaMarkt may have it as early as this Friday, PDAshop claims that units will be available on March 23,...

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Google Home and Google Home Mini launched in India

Google has launched the Google Home and Google Home Mini products in India. This is the company's first foray into the Indian market with its voice assistant devices, a segment currently ruled by the Amazon Echo uncontested since it launched in December last year. The Google Home devices are priced identical to competing Amazon Echo devices. The bigger Google Home is priced at INR 9999 ($153) and the smaller Google Home Mini is priced at INR 4999 ($69), same as the Echo and the Echo Dot, respectively. Google Home will be available in White only and the Home Mini in either Chalk or...

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Axon 9 and 9 Pro trademarked by ZTE, several Blade phones too

ZTE seems to be making final preparations to launch the Axon 9, but the phone will not be alone - the company trademarked both the "Axon 9" and "Axon 9 Pro" names in a single filing that also includes a roster of midrangers and entry-level phones. The trademark was filed with the Eurasian Economic Union. Rumors suggest the new Axon will rekindle the ZTE-OnePlus rivalry in the affordable flagship range. It's slated to have Snapdragon 845 chipset, 64/128/256 GB storage and two dual cameras (20MP on the back, 13MP on the front). Its rumored price is between $550 and $630 (the OnePlus 5T...

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LG G7 ThinQ to debut on May 3

LG Electronics officially confirmed the LG G7 ThinQ name of its next flagship. In a press release, the company also stated the launch would take place in Seoul and New York on May 3. The ThinQ moniker means the phone will come with AI technology for "more enjoyable entertainment". The company introduced the ThinQ brand to its phone lineup through the refreshed LG V30S at MWC 2018. It has enhanced AI modes for scene recognition in its camera, extra voice commands for Google Assistant and pre-installed apps. The LG G7 ThinQ will come with performance upgrades too. The AI features...

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Meizu 15 Lite to cost less than €200

Meizu is launching three phones for its 15-year anniversary. They already popped up on TENAA with most specs and plenty of images, but pricing was one of the few unknowns until now. Sources in China claim that the Meizu 15 Lite, the most affordable of all three devices, will cost as low as CNY1,499 which is the equivalent of $238/€192. Along with the price info, live images of the 15 Lite in Black also arrived. The phone looks like the real deal with the 10-LED flash on the back and central-positioned selfie camera on the front. According to previous reports, Meizu 15 Lite will...

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