Top 10 trending phones of week 21

Week 21 saw a slew of new hardware debut so just as last week our top 10 popularity chart now saw a bunch of new faces and plenty of movement. The Samsung Galaxy J6 shot straight to the top, edging out last week's leader - the OnePlus 6 - by a few hundred hits. The Nokia X6 completed the rostrum at the expense of Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro, which had to settle for the fourth spot. Samsung Galaxy J8 debuts in the fifth spot, pushing the Xiaomi Mi 6X down to sixth - the 6X was a leader just two weeks ago. Oppo F7 got seventh, while in eight we have yet another Samsung handset - the...

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The new phones of week 21

Week 21 is at its end and as we look back at it and it was another one filled with smartphone announcements - 13 new phones debuted in the past seven days. Most of these phones were rumor mill lurkers but some of them, like the Meizu M8c and vivo Z1 almost came out of nowhere. The Samsung Galaxy Wide 3 was also an unexpected announcement but that is mainly down to its limited market availability - currently a Korean exclusive. The key announcement was the HTC U12+ - the Taiwanese company's latest flagship. Huawei made the Y5 Prime (2018) official with middle of the road specs, the...

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Week 21 in review: Xiaomi Mi 8 generates a lot of hype

This week we focused a lot on the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 8 and its fast approaching May 31 unveiling. The phone was handled in the wild, we saw its translucent back and found out most of its specs. Alongside the Mi 8, Xiaomi will announce MIUI 10 at its event. HTC announced its U12+ flagship and it was also tested by DxO, which praised its camera prowess. Samsung announced the Galaxy S Light Luxury. The phone, previously recognized as the Galaxy S8 lite has a 5.8-inch Infinity Display, a single 16MP camera and a Snapdragon 660 chip. The Galaxy J8 also became official. LG unveiled a trio...

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Weekly poll: would you buy an HTC U12+?

The HTC U12+ is barely out the gate and it already scored its first victory - DxO put it in 2nd place, right behind the Huawei P20 Pro. Those are some serious camera chops. Looking at the U12+ spec sheet and after our brief first person encounter with the phone, there's barely anything to complain about - besides launching this late in the game and the lack of a 3.5 mm headphone jack (an adapter is supplied in the box, though). The lateness is not so much an issues in itself, but it gave other flagships time to undergo a price adjustments. The P20 Pro, for example, started at €900, but...

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Android's evolution through the years

Now that we've had our first hands-on with Google's Android P beta let's take a look back at how Google's Android has evolved over the years. You may not believe it, looking at the size of your scroll indicator, but we did our best to make this brief! Introduction to Android Android is based on a modified Linux kernel which was initially developed by Android Inc., a company co-founded by Andy Rubin in October 2003, and purchased by Google in 2005 for circa $50 million. Google released its Beta mobile phone operating system, Android, on the 5 November 2007, the same year Apple...

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Sunday debate: Buying a mid-ranger every year vs. a flagship every other one

Flagships are cool, but smartphones these days age very fast. So would it actually make more sense to do some mid-range bargain shopping and upgrade more often? Yordan and Ro discuss. Yordan: "Two new phones are better than a fast-aging flagship." Earlier this year I was arguing in a constructive debate with Ivan on the Custom ROM vs. Stock Android topic. One of my points was that manufacturers know their customers and this is something that applies to the pricing departments as well. Technology today is changing and evolving rapidly and slaving to a device is one of the poor...

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