Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer likely arriving on July 24

Xiaomi launched three flagship phones back in May - the vanilla Mi 8, the lite version called Mi 8 SE and the powerhouse variant with a translated name Mi 8 Explorer. While the first two have been on the shelves since early June, the third device is yet to arrive on any market, but at least it showed up on TENAA last week. According to a poster, the Mi 8 Explorer will finally launch on July 24 in China at 10 AM local time. The phone is listed with a price tag of CNY3,699 (about $555/€473), which is CNY100 off from the initially announced cost of the device at the unveiling. The...

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Xiaomi Mi Max 3 screen and battery confirmed, other specs leaked

Xiaomi is announcing the Mi Max 3 on Thursday, but the company decided to go ahead and to tease the main specs that make the device stand out - the huge screen and massive battery. The rest of the specs were leaked in Chinese media, effectively leaving nothing to the imagination. The Mi Max 3 will have 6.9" screen with Full HD+ resolution and 18:9 ratio, so no notch, just a regularly thin bezel on top. The battery will be 5,500 mAh, which is an upgrade over the 5,300 mAh power cell the predecessor Mi Max 2 had. Xiaomi Mi Max 3 in promo materials, live image, retail...

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Sony quietly updates last year's RX100 V with a faster processor

Sony has quietly updated its RX100 V camera that it launched last year. The new model is still called RX100 V but if you look at the model number it is DSC-RX100M5A. The new model just casually replaced the old one on the company's website. The new RX100 V includes the faster BIONZ X processor from the new RX100 VI. It has improved Eye AF setting and the buffer now holds 233 frames instead of 150 for continuous shooting. The improved performance means you get reduced latency in the EVF and other aspects of the UI. Lastly, the RX100 V now has the new menu system from the newer model...

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Week 28 in review: iPhone rumors gather traction, Mi Max 3 getting bigger

The most important event this week was the official announcement of the Sony Xperia XA2 Plus. A couple of less major new products were introduced by Xiaomi and Microsoft - the hybrid watch Mijia Quartz and the Surface Go Windows tablet. We also got a bunch of new leaks and rumors about the flagships of the upcoming Fall - Samsung Galaxy Note9, Huawei Mate 20 Pro took turns in the spotlight. Some midrangers that are closer to a debut made headlines too - the Nokia X5, the Xiaomi Mi A2 and Mi Max 3. For these and the other top stories of the week check out the list...

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Smartphone World Cup: The final

It's been a long and exciting tournament - passions high and tensions rising, especially in the two semi-final matches. We've tallied up the scores and the final is lined-up. It's the Samsung Galaxy S9+, against the OnePlus 6. Samsung Galaxy S9+ • OnePlus 6 Now, that's a tough battle, if we ever saw one. Speaking of which, the two semi-finals were definitely no walk in the park. Any speculations or excuses for hard or easy groups and match-ups is now out of the question. There are really no real losers beyond this point. Innovations and futuristic looks took the vivo...

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Sunday debate: Are our smartphone processors fast enough?

We're only two months away from Apple announcing its latest A12 SuperSonic (our name) processor alongside the 2018 iPhones, which will undoubtedly have increased CPU/GPU performance. In this weeks Sunday debate we discuss whether our smartphone processors are fast enough? Paul: "For the majority - they sure are" As enthusiasts, it's hard for any of us not to get caught up the in the various specs and associated numbers of our smartphones. Be it the number of megapixels, the amount of RAM or, as in the case of this subject matter, CPU performance. If I take a step back,...

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Top 10 trending phones of week 28

After more than a month of rapid movement, the top 10 trending phones chart had finally had a relatively calm week. There are still three new names, mind you, but the top five contains the same phones as last week. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro kept its lead ahead of the Oppo Find X and the only change on the podium is the Samsung Galaxy J8, which replaces its J6 sibling. The Galaxy J6 is still around in fourth, just ahead of the Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro, which also slipped a position and is now fifth. The higher placed of two new entries is the Huawei nova 3 in sixth, pushing the Samsung...

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Benchmarking the Snapdragon 710

The Snapdragon 710 is a rather curious new beast. It is the ambassador, of sorts, to Qualcomm's fresh lineup of 700 series chips, unveiled back in February. Currently, we have only heard news of one other 7 series chip - the Snapdragon 730. It will likely be based on a Samsung 8nm LPP manufacturing process, use different cores and even feature a dedicated NPU 120 chip for on-device machine learning tasks. It looks like a different beast altogether and is unlikely to show up before the end of 2018. For now, we get the Snapdragon 710 - a 10nm chipset that Qualcomm is also taunting...

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The BlackBerry KEY2 video review is up

We already reviewed the BlackBerry KEY2 in our typical detailed manner - the long-form text review has been up on our homepage for the past week or so. But if you'd like to see the device in action, Ricky has prepared a pretty exhaustive video review too, which just went live on our YouTube channel. The BlackBerry Key2 is a real attention-grabber with its unorthodox form factor and rubber back cover. But it's bound to remain a niche product, or at least Ricky thinks so. The majority of us have already gotten used to on-screen typing and switching back to a physical keyboard takes...

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Weekly poll: What makes a good smartwatch?

Over the last two weekends, we've reflected upon the highlights that 2018 has brought us so far in wearables and looked forward to the major up'n'coming releases. For some, the tech we wear on our wrists is a series of compromises. For example, those who want a great color display with all week battery life will currently be left wanting, while for those who want to track their sleep are unable to do so when they have to charge their watch every night. Today's wearables have only been improved by their ability to work in conjunction with our smartphones, hence why we have an interest in...

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Counterclockwise: mad scientist ideas for phone keyboards

BlackBerry phones (PDAs first) got their name because of their distinctive keyboards - the keys were arranged in a way that resembled the fruit. But let's not look at a straight up QWERTY keyboards or even how the keyboard slides or rotates out of the way (we did that two weeks ago. Instead let's look at more creative implementations of the keyboard itself. If you haven't seen it, this is a great video that explains how the telephone keypad came to be. Bell Labs ran tests on many, many designs until it settled on the one we know today. With the invention of the SMS, keypads needed to type...

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