Weekly poll results: the Samsung Galaxy Note9 is great, its price isn't

About 1 in 5 people who voted in last week's poll say they have pre-ordered a Samsung Galaxy Note9. Among those who are holding back the most commonly cited reason why is the price. The Galaxy Note8 was a bit cheaper in the US and the UK ($70 or £30 less) than the Note9 pricing. The new model comes with double the base storage and a more advanced S Pen, which probably added to the cost. Not surprisingly, 1 in 4 people are waiting for the prices to drop before they make a move. Then there are the 14% who don't see the Galaxy Note9 as a big enough upgrade over the Note8 and prefer that...

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Counterclockwise: the story of Sony (Ericsson) phones told through Bond movies

James Bond is known for being a suave spy, but he loves his gadgets. Provided by Q, these often include an Aston Martin and a Sony Ericsson phone. It started with the Ericsson JB988, a fictional phone featured in Tomorrow Never Dies (it's the phone used by Bond to drive his BMW, which packed plenty of surprises for the baddies, courtesy of Q). Soon real phones took over and that's where our story starts. But first a spoiler warning: there are some details from the movies here, but we've concealed them (hover/tap to reveal). p span.spoiler { background-color: black; } p...

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Honor Play in for review

This is the Honor Play - a phone Huawei's sub-brand is selling as gaming-oriented, but which we think is much much more. First - here's our unboxing and key features video. The Honor Play has a lot of things going for it, but here are the main ones - a solid, well-made body, a large 6.3-inch IPS LCD, Huawei's current best Kirin 970 chipset and GPU Turbo, its latest EMUI 8.2 and a large 3,750mAh battery. First, let's look at the display. It has a notch, which you'll either loathe or care nothing about, but is otherwise lovely to look at. The screen packs a 1080x2340px...

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Gboard teardown hints at clipboard manager and floating mode in the works

The beta for Google's keyboard Gboard v7.5 is now out and it comes with a host of useful features, or at least hints of them. Chief among those is what effectively is a clipboard manager where you'd be able to see a list of things you've recently copied. Other implied functionality includes a floating mode, which will allow you to see more of the screen and won't cover up the area that isn't actively used for keys - the thing that happens with the current one-handed mode. A new search-as-you-type feature is in development too - the G in top left will light up when the app has found...

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Two more paintjobs for the Huawei P20 Pro to be shown at IFA

We haven't bothered trying to hide our fondness for the P20 Pro's color schemes, and it appears Huawei's design department will be making it even tougher to pick just the right option. Apparently, two weeks from now at IFA, the company will be announcing two more paintjobs for its flagship. Huawei P20 Pro in the existing Twilight and Midnight Blue color schemes The folks over at Android Authority have seen photos of the two new colors, though actually sharing them isn't an option. Anyway, one of them is a take on the existing Twilight gradient, enhanced with black. The other is...

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Motorola One (non-Power) certified: 5.86" 720p display, 3,000mAh battery

The Motorola One showed up on GeekBench the other day, and it turns out it's been to other places too. The toned-down version of the yet-unofficial One Power has passed by Chinese regulator TENAA where its listing reveals a ton of specs that the benchmark database wouldn't. Motorola XT1941-2 (Motorola One) at TENAA The handset that so far goes by XT1941-2 has a 5.88-inch display with a 1520x720px resolution in a 19:9 aspect - the Power's 6.2-inch screen is FullHD+. GeekBench told us that the chipset is the Snapdragon 625, and TENAA lists a total of three options for RAM...

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BlackBerry KEY2 receiving the August security patch in North America

A firmware update for the BlackBerry KEY2 is live in North America with users in the US and Canada getting the ABE181 build over the air. The update brings the security patch level up to August 5. The download is a little short of 400MB, and with security patches normally in double-digit megabytes, there's probably more to this update. Details remain scarce, though. If you happen to have the phone and the new build, do share in the comments any impressions you might have gathered. Via

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