Realme 2 leaks ahead of official announcement

An image of the upcoming Realme 2 went live on the company's website ahead of official announcement. The image has since been taken down. Realme2 The image showed the new Realme 2 from the front and the back. There wasn't any accompanying information and the image didn't lead to a dedicated page for the device. The only thing accessible was the image on the homepage along with the tagline "A notch above". While that's not much to go on, the image does give us a few ideas as to what to expect. For one, the display now has the popular notch indicating a shift towards a more...

Read More

Huawei Mate 20 Pro to have tiny notch and chin

On Monday leaked images of the front panel of a Huawei Mate 20 smartphone revealed a notch and sophisticated 3D face-scanning technology. Just three days later and we have more details from Twitter. Steve H., more commonly known as @OnLeaks, suggested the Mate 20 Pro will have 6.25" screen with a 6.8 mm notch and just 3.8 mm chin. According to my sources: #HuaweiMate20 Pro ≃ 6.25-inch (6.8mm notch + 3.8mm chin)— Steve H. (@OnLeaks) August 15, 2018 While the leakster is not sure if these numbers are for the Mate 20 Pro or the vanilla Mate 20, the numbers he shared are surely...

Read More

Google Voice app for Android updated with Contacts tab

Google Voice was recently revamped for iOS which included a bunch of changes, including a new dark green app icon and app elements. Not only this, but the app was also updated with Enterprise calling features and integration with G Suite accounts. The latest Google Voice update for Android is now rolling out via a server-side change that enables a new "Contacts" tab for easy access to your contacts right from within the Google Voice app. Since this isn't a new version of the APK, the app icon remains the same blue and white icon for now. The new Google Voice for iOS uses the new icon,...

Read More

Google One upgrade plans now available in the US

Google is rolling out its Google One storage service in the US. Users in the states can now choose to upgrade their existing paid Google Drive plans over to Google One. Google One is Google's storage service that covers Google Drive, Gmail and Photos. The new starting plans for Google One include 100GB for $1.99/month, 200GB for $2.99/month and 2TB for $9.99/month. The 2TB plan replaces the previous 1TB plan at the same cost and those on 1TB Google Drive plan will be upgraded to 2TB Google One plan automatically. Beyond 2TB, the pricing remains the same as on Google Drive,...

Read More

Xiaomi Mi Max 3 in for review

It's big, it's huge, it's the Mi Max 3 - a phone with decent enough hardware, low price tag and screen of epic proportions. The Mi Max 3 comes with a 6.9-inch 2160 x 1080px IPS display - it wasn't too long ago that we used to have 7-inch tablets. The screen has rounded corners, no notch, acceptable side bezels and fairly small chin, which along with the tall 18:9 aspect ratio helps a little with the handling. Yet, no matter how good the screen-to-body ratio is the Mi Max 3 is not usable with just one hand. With a footprint this big and a slippery anodized aluminum back drops are more...

Read More

BlackBerry Keyone starts receiving the Oreo update today

Any Canadians with a BlackBerry Keyone? Check your phone, there should be an Oreo update waiting for you. The update started its rollout already - it was initially scheduled for the 13th, but there was a minor delay. Anyway, Keyones from other countries should join in before long. The update brings the Android version to 8.0. The updated for phones on Rogers also includes Wi-Fi calling support. The BlackBerry Keyone originally launched with 7.1 Nougat in early 2017. The Oreo update has been tested in a closed beta for a couple of weeks now. And if you're wondering "why not 8.1?", we...

Read More

Motorola announces list of devices getting updates to Android 9 Pie

Motorola is the latest Android device maker to announce which of its products are due to be updated to the latest iteration of the OS - Pie. Google sent this out to its handsets last week, and Essential followed. Other companies are still at the stage of unveiling lists of phones that will at some point taste Pie. Motorola is planning to update the Moto Z3, Z3 Play, Z2 Force Edition, Z2 Play, X4, G6, G6 Plus, and G6 Play. That's it. If you own any other Moto smartphone, you're out of luck. The company says these models will receive Android 9 Pie updates "this fall". Nothing more...

Read More

Alexa and Cortana can now trade places: Alexa on Windows 10, Cortana on Echo

Alexa and Cortana are now BFFs - you can use Alexa-enabled devices to talk to Cortana and vice versa. This feature was unveiled by Microsoft and Amazon at Microsoft's BUILD developer conference, but was limited to beta testers. It is now available to a wider audience as a public preview. Note that this is available only in the US for now. Here's how it works. Say you have an Amazon Echo. You can say "Alexa, open Cortana" and then ask her about your schedule, send an email and anything else the assistant can do. You can do multiple commands without having to say "Open Cortana" before each...

Read More

Gold-plated 2018 iPhone is up for pre-order, will set you back £100,000

The three upcoming iPhones that Apple will launch next month have been leaking a lot. One thing that we still don't know is what they'll be called, however. That hasn't stopped the gold-plating experts at Goldgenie from choosing to refer to the successor to the iPhone X as the iPhone Xs. What's more, you can already pre-order a "Billionaire Solid Gold Edition" of the iPhone "Xs". It comes with 18k gold plating and can be yours for the eye-watering amount of £100,000. The good news, if you can call it that, is that pre-ordering only requires a 50% deposit. You then have plenty of time...

Read More

Huawei P20 Pro, Nokia 7 Plus and Honor 10 win EISA awards

EISA (Expert Imaging and Sound Association) has published its top picks for 2018-2019 in the "Mobile Devices" category. Let's start with the Honor 10, which was voted the best lifestyle smartphone. The handset won the award due to its head-turning design with stunning color schemes and NPU chip inside that drives those AI features such as scene recognition when shooting stills. Nowadays Instagram is a lifestyle and you'd need the perfect selfie and the best possible photo of the place you've been to. So the Honor 10 delivers. And unsurprisingly, the Huawei P20 Pro takes the best...

Read More

vivo X23 tipped to sport Snapdragon 670 and advanced 3D face recognition

The vivo X23 is still pretty much a mystery and we have nothing solid on it. We just heard about vivo X21's successor yesterday from the most unusual place - vivo's own Jovi smart assistant. According to Jovi, the handset will arrive on August 20 although, it seems way too early given the limited information that has leaked. Translated Weibo post Luckily, there's a new report going around detailing some of the key specs. The handset will feature a Snapdragon 670 chipset paired with at least 8GB of RAM and it's built around a 6.4-inch "full-screen" display. We don't know if the...

Read More

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite review

Xiaomi wanted to expand its reach beyond its few official markets and it had to do just one thing - give up on MIUI. It all started with the Mi A1 - Xiaomi's first Android One smartphone, and now not one but two sequels are coming to replace it - Mi A2 and Mi A2 Lite. Our Mi A2 review is done, so today we will be taking the Mi A2 Lite for a spin.

Read More

Sony Xperia XZ2 drops to €469 in France

Sony's Xperia XZ2 launched in France earlier this year at €799. If you haven't picked one up yet but are interested in the device, now may be the perfect time to act. Rue du Commerce is currently offering the Xperia XZ2 in blue for only €469. That means you can save a whopping €330 compared to the normal pricing of the handset in the country. It's unclear how long this deal will last, so don't postpone hitting that Buy Now button if you're captivated by the phone's 5.7-inch 18:9 FHD+ touchscreen, its Snapdragon 845 chipset, the 4GB of RAM that comes along with it, the 64GB expandable...

Read More

BlackBerry Key2 LE press renders leak

BlackBerry is having an announcement on August 30 in Berlin right in time for IFA. The company already outed its flagship Key2, so it will most likely introduce the Key2 LE that appeared earlier this month. With two weeks left until the event, first press renders just leaked, revealing the looks of the midranger. It will keep the QWERTY keyboard, but the back of the phone looks more plastic than the polycarbonate panel of the Key2. BlackBerry Key2 LE press renders BlackBerry could also drop the metal frame and front from the Key2 LE, allowing the device to be offered in...

Read More

OxygenOS 5.1.11 for OnePlus 6 fixes screen flickering, improves HDR mode

Today OnePlus started rolling out OxygenOS 5.1.11 to the OnePlus 6. As usual this is a staged distribution, so only a limited number of users will receive it in the next few hours. A broader rollout will happen in a few days after the company makes sure there are no critical bugs. The initial push isn't based on regions, it's just randomly sent to a subset of devices. The new build fixes the screen flickering issue in daylight that surfaced last month. This occurred in bright ambient lighting conditions when adaptive brightness was turned on. Additionally, the camera HDR mode has...

Read More

IDC: Xiaomi lead Samsung by a margin in the India market during Q2

India is the second largest smartphone market and every maker wants a piece of that pie. So, analysts are tracking it carefully, but their numbers differ. The latest to chime in is IDC and its data shows that Xiaomi has a larger lead than other analysts have suggested. Xiaomi took a 29.7% share of the Q2 shipments with 10 million units. In contrast, Samsung shipped only 8 million units for a 23.9% of the market. While the numbers from Canalys and Counterpoint agree on the Xiaomi numbers, the Samsung numbers are off. And not just them - going by IDC data, Oppo's market is smaller and...

Read More

Oppo F9 launches: a 6.3" screen with a tiny notch, 90.8% StB ratio

This may feel like a bit of a deja vu, but today is the official unveiling of the Oppo F9. It boasts a 90.8% screen to body ratio, its 19.5:9 screen covering most of the front and featuring a small V-shaped notch. That notch houses a 25MP selfie camera with hardware support for HDR. The other camera, the one on the back, is a 16MP + 2MP dual shooter. The second sensor is used for bokeh effects while the 16MP sensor does most of the work (it has an f/1.8 aperture).

Read More

Motorola P30 is official with SD636 and ZUI 4.0

Motorola P30 was unveiled today, as promised last week. The phone was already listed yesterday on the official Moto website, but today it is available for pre-order. The P30 arrives with Snapdragon 636 chipset, dual cameras for Bokeh effects and price tag of around $300. The Motorola P30 arrives with 6.2" IPS LCD panel and Full HD+ resolution. There is a notch on top, making the tall screen even taller, extending the ratio to 19:9. The octa-core CPU is clocked at 1.8 GHz and comes with Adreno 509 GPU. Motorola coupled the chipset with 6 GB RAM and two storage options - 64 GB or...

Read More

Xiaomi Mi A2 gets 1080p videos at 60fps with software update

Not long after the Mi A2's official launch last month, Xiaomi delivers an update to the phone including the latest August security patch and a new feature to the main camera. Screenshots after the update We are talking about Full HD video recording at 60fps. But the best part is that the camera supports EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) in 1080p@60fps mode - we've checked and it works perfectly. If you still haven't received the update, try downloading it manually by going to Settings > System > System Update > Check for update.

Read More

Huawei Honor 8X photos show a small V-shaped notch

Makers are already stepping away from wide notches - yes, Sharp and Essential had this design from the beginning, now Oppo is adopting it and so is Huawei. The ARE-AL00, which is reported as either Honor 8X or 8S, arrived at TENAA and the photos show a small V-shaped notch. The full specs aren't available yet, those will be published later. Various certification authorities have lifted the veil a little bit - like 3C, which confirmed the 18W fast charger (9V at 2A). Huawei ARE-L00, perhaps the Honor 8X or Honor 8S The Huawei Honor 8X (or 8S) will reportedly use a...

Read More

Samsung Galaxy J2 Core manual shows a customized Android Go phone

Samsung's first Android Go phone - the Galaxy J2 Core - has been making the rounds and causing some confusion. We saw the quad-core CPU of the Exynos 7570 benchmarked and we have some idea about the geographic distribution of its variants. Perhaps its manual can clear some things out. Here's some good news - the back is removable and you can change the battery. Here's some bad news - the USB port looks like a microUSB. The phone is a dual SIM handset with old-school slots, there are no card trays here (and you need to remove the battery to change the SIMs). There's a microSD card slots...

Read More

Samsung announces world's first 5G modem - the Exynos 5100

Samsung has been working on its 5G modem for some time now and was first showcased during this year's CES. Today, the company formally announced the finished product and called it Exynos 5100. It's the companys's first 5G modem and complies to the 3GPP standards. Like the modem in the current Exynos 9810 chipset found in the Galaxy S9, S9+ and Note9, the Exynos 5100 modem is built on the 10nm manufacturing process supporting legacy networks like 2G GSM/CDMA, 3G WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, HSPA, and 4G LTE within a single chip solution. What's more important, though, is that the modem is a...

Read More

Samsung patents self-regenerating oleophobic coating

Samsung introduced its first smartphone with curved edges back in 2015, eventually making all flagships with such screens up to the newest Galaxy Note9. The screen proved to be a weak point and a shattered Gorilla Glass is not something unusual among Samsung smartphone owners. According to a patent on WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), the Korean company decided to take the matter into its own hands and patented self-healing oleophobic coating that is applied on the Gorilla Glass. Samsung is currently using standard oleophobic coating on its smartphones, protecting...

Read More

Oppo R17 to be launched on August 23

Oppo just set a date for the official announcement of its mainstream flagship, Oppo R17 after revealing all the key specs of the device through the official website. Translated Weibo post from Chinese The site says that pre-orders start at 10:00 AM on August 18 but the actual shipments, according to Oppo's official Weibo account, will begin on August 23. The teased specs of the R17 seem tempting and we can't wait to see how the in-display fingerprint performs in real-life scenarios. Source (in Chinese)

Read More