Watch the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 announcement live here

The time for the official unveiling of the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 has come. After numerous leaks, plenty of rumors and benchmarks, the new smartphone series is arriving today at an official event taking place in New Delhi, India. The event begins at 9 AM CET or 12:30 PM local time. The new Pocophone F1, also expected to be called Poco F1, is arriving with Snapdragon 845 and 6/8 GB RAM variants, according to the rumors. It will have a dual camera on the back with some AI features and a 20 MP selfie shooter. Battery is 4,000 mAh, with some fast-charging, at least Quick Charge 3.0, but no...

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Apple switching to Chinese suppliers for cheaper iPhone components

Apple is trying to lower the cost of its upcoming devices, including the new iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. Sources reveal that Taiwanese supply chain companies are forced to counter the competition from Chinese rivals which offer the same service and product management model for a more affordable price. "Assembled in China" According to DigiTimes, Taiwan-based battery module maker Simplo Technology has switched from working for Apple to supplying electric bikes' companies. New iPhones and other iDevices will have batteries from Desay Battery Technology and Sunwoda Electronic. The...

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OnePlus starting a new Closed Beta for "elite" members

Some phone makers offer a Beta program to users so they can test new features and provide feedback of any issues or bugs lurking about. OnePlus is going looking for Beta testers to be part of a more exclusive "elite crew" of members of the OnePlus community. There will only be 100 users in this exclusive testers group and those selected by OnePlus must constantly communicate and provide feedback to the OnePlus team via a Slack group. If chosen, also be prepared to flash builds often and wipe the phone often. These builds will test new features weeks or months before the public will get to...

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T-Mobile encourages MNVOs to voice support for Sprint-T-Mobile merger

The FCC is currently going through a 180-day period when any individual or company can submit petitions or comments on whether the T-Mobile and Sprint merger should or should not take place. This would be a determining factor on whether the FCC should continue or reverse its decision on the merger. As reported by Reuters an email was sent to at least one unnamed MVNO network that runs on T-Mobile's towers to submit a letter to regulators supporting the merger. The email also offered which points the company could use during interviews, namely how a merger of the number 3 and number 4...

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Netflix tests payment system that bypasses iTunes billing on iOS

First reported by TechCrunch, Netflix is testing a new iTunes payment method in 33 countries that would eliminate iTunes as the middle man. For reference, iTunes gets 30% of all subscription revenues from folks that sign up through iTunes billing for the first year, and then 15% after that. Customers in these markets scattered across Asia, Europe, and Latin America will no longer be able to pay using iTunes as of September 30. By testing this new payment method, Netflix hopes to recuperate the cut it pays to iTunes by directing customers to subscribe on its mobile site before being...

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Samsung Galaxy Watch with LTE for T-Mobile goes on pre-order

Samsung's newest wearable, the Galaxy Watch, got announced alongside the Galaxy Note9 smartphone earlier this month. And starting now you can pre-order one for T-Mobile, with LTE, straight from Samsung's US online store, if you visit the Sources linked below. The carrier itself doesn't seem to have begun accepting pre-orders, but if you're impatient you can do the deed over at Samsung.com. The 42mm watch will set you back $379.99, while the 46mm model is priced at $399.99. The former's price is $4.99 more than TMo will charge for it, while the latter sees no difference. Obviously...

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Google Fit gets a redesign ahead of possible Pixel watch launch

Today Google has unveiled a brand new version of its Fit app for both Android phones and smartwatches running its Wear OS platform (previously known as Android Wear). The new Google Fit has been redesigned to be centered around Move Minutes and Heart Points. These goals are based on recommendations from the American Heart Association (AHA) and World Health Organization (WHO), as Google's worked with both of those in order to better understand the science behind physical activity. Fit should now help you get the amount and intensity of exercise you need to improve your health. Move...

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Doogee S70 is a rugged gaming phone that will be crowdfunded

Doogee is a fairly new Chinese phone maker that made a very cheap phone with very thin bezels and shamelessly called it the Doogee Mix. For reference, the Xiaomi Mi Mix was the first mainstream phone to make very thin bezels a trend. Doogee is going to release a new gaming phone (lol wut) that's also rugged. This is about the third or so gaming smartphone to come out in the last year. What's different about this device is that it will be crowdfunded on Indiegogo. The device has a shatter proof 6-inch FHD+ 18:9 display and a huge 5,500 mAh battery - which makes sense for a gaming...

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Nokia 5.1 Plus listed on company's European sites

The Nokia 5.1 Plus launch was largely focused on India, but the new mid-ranger is coming to Europe as well. Its companion, the Nokia 6.1 Plus, is nowhere to be seen on the Old Continent, however. We found the 5.1 Plus in Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. Apparently, it was on the German page as well, but it was pulled down. You can't pre-order in any of those regions yet, the most you can do is sign up for updates. But it is coming. Nokia 5.1 Plus in Europe, hiding its notch • Except in Russia Here's a...

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Nokia 7 plus will be getting Android 9.0 Pie in September

HMD Global promised that it would be updating all of its Nokia phones to Android 9.0 Pie eventually but for now, Nokia's CEO confirmed that the Nokia 7 plus will be the first device to get the delicious dessert. After going into beta earlier this month, we can expect the smartphone to receive a stable OTA update by the end of September. This will make the first Snapdragon 660-powered phone to get the Android 9.0 Pie OS. Of course, the CEO clarified that regional distribution might affect timeframes, but most will get it sometime in September. Judging by the time of release and...

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Oppo F9 Pro in for review

Today Oppo launched the F9 and F9 Pro in India and we have the better of the two at hand in our office, so naturally we decided to share our first impressions with you. But first let's clarify the subtle differences between the Oppo F9 and F9 Pro. In India, the Oppo F9 Pro has 6GB of RAM compared to 4GB on the regular F9, a 25MP selfie camera compared to 16MP on the F9 and VOOC Flash charge, which the F9 lacks. To justify the difference in specs, the F9 Pro costs more than the F9 - it can be ordered for INR 24,000 (€300) while the regular F9 costs INR 20,000 (€250). It looks like Oppo...

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Nokia 6.1 Plus (X6) review

Nokia's return to the smartphone market with Android hasn't exactly set the sales charts on fire, but the company has steadily been making progress, with a constant stream of new and relevant devices. The latest one we have today is the Nokia 6.1 Plus, an entrant in the ever-popular mid-range segment.

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Samsung Pay celebrates 3rd birthday with expansion to South Africa

Samsung announced today that the mobile payment platform Samsung Pay is celebrating its third birthday. Originally launched in South Korea, today the service reached its 24th market and first in Africa in the country of South Africa. With three years in operation, Samsung Pay passed more than 1.3 billion transactions globally. The platform has over 2,000 partners from the banking and financial sector that allow Galaxy users to pay with their phone instead of their credit or debit card. DJ Koh, chief of Mobile Communications Division at Samsung said the company is not...

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Realme 2 to be announced on Aug 28 with bigger battery, a notch and two cameras

We knew that the Realme 2 was coming to India but didn't expect it to arrive so soon. Shortly after the retail box leaked the company itself decided to tease the phone a little bit and announce the launch date through its official Realme twitter account. We expect the notched smartphone to be officially unveiled on August 28 after 12 PM local time. In addition, the company sparked some interested by revealing the battery capacity - 4,230 mAh, which is approximately 28% bigger compared to its predecessor, the Realme 1. From night long movie marathons to unending gameplays, with...

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Asus ROG phone with 4GB and 6GB of RAM spotted at TENAA

The Asus ROG Phone flies high with an overclocked Snapdragon 845 chipset and 8GB of RAM. But what if there was a more affordable version with less RAM? TENAA says that there is not one but two. The Z01QD model has three RAM capacities: 8GB, 6GB and 4GB. Storage remains a choice between 128GB and 512GB. The 2.95GHz CPU clockspeed is unmistakable and so is the futuristic design of the back. But the camera on that back may not be the same - TENAA lists only a single 12MP shooter instead of the 12+8MP dual cam on the current ROG phone. Asus Z01QD - a ROG phone with less...

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Google Photo Books launches in the UK

Film cameras may be dead, but physical photos haven't gone away. Last year Google launched Google Photo Books in the US, a service that let you turn your cloud library into something you can hold in your hands. Today this service arrives in the UK. It costs £12 for a 20-page softcover book and £23 for a hardcover. You can add more photos, up to 100 total. You can create a book using the Google Photos website or mobile apps (Android and iOS). The powerful search feature will help you fish out the photos you want, even if you have a large library. The moment you open Photo Books,...

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China becomes the biggest market for Samsung

Samsung announced its Q2 results at the end of July and the numbers looked good for the semiconductor business. The company reached its highest ever revenue and sales of NAND and RAM chips, and now a business report by Samsung unveiled who were the biggest buyers. Huawei, Apple, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom (the conglomerate behind T-Mobile) and Technotronics were the major clients, according to the official documents. The semiconductor division of Samsung posted record-smashing Q1 and Q2 results, amassing to over KRW42 trillion (over $37 billion) in sales. Around 11% of the amount...

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LG TONE Platinum SE headphones come with a Google Assistant button

The LG TONE Platinum SE is the first in the series to support the Google Assistant. It Assistant can be activated with a tap of the button instead of having to say "OK Google", which will make conversations in a foreign language flow more smoothly. LG TONE Platinum SE • A button to summon the Google Assistant The Platinum SE features dynamic drivers for great bass and a balanced armature for better reproduction of high-frequencies. This kind of hybrid design is used in professional in-ear monitors. LG TONE Platinum SE The LG TONE Ultra SE has a different trick - a...

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Honor 8X poses for a live photo

The Honor 8X has been around the rumor mill lately and the company even teased it on its official Weibo account. But we already knew it's launching soon thanks to the leaked TENAA certification. The live photos show the device from afar and also reveal two retail boxes hinting at the two screen variants that were rumored before - 7.12" and 6.95". According to the new information coming straight from the source, the handsets will sport considerably more powerful hardware and also feature Huawei's "elevator mode". The technology allows fast switching between networks seamlessly without...

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512GB version of Samsung Galaxy Note9 gets more pre-orders than the 128GB one

More details about the Samsung Galaxy Note9 pre-orders are trickling in. In its home country of South Korea the Note9 topped the S9 pre-orders and, surprisingly, most people went for the 512GB model. According to SK Telecom, the country's largest carrier, over half the people chose the pricier model - KRW 1.35 million ($1,200/€1,050) - which offers more storage (512GB vs. 128GB), but also more RAM (8GB vs. 6GB). The base Galaxy Note9 costs KRW 1.09 million, 20% less ($975/€845). The price clearly didn't scare off the early adopters, who should receive their unit on August 24 (this...

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Geekbench tests vivo X23 with better than expected chipset

The vivo X23 was expected to feature a Snapdragon 670 chipset, but a score in the Geekbench database shows a Snapdragon 710 instead (and confirms the rumored 8GB of RAM). There's no reason both can't be true - this model (V1809A) was seen next to another model (V1809T) when both were certified with 22.5W fast chargers. So, one could be the X23 and the other the X23 Pro. Then there's the vivo V11 Pro with nearly identical looks and a Snapdragon 660. vivo X23 (V1809A) details courtesy of Geekbench Anyway, the vivo X23 was supposed to be unveiled yesterday, but all we got was a...

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Nokia 6.1 Plus and Nokia 5.1 Plus are the global names for Nokia X6 and Nokia X5

HMD Global unveiled Nokia X6 in China back in mid-May, followed by Nokia X5 last month. Both devices followed the latest notch trend, becoming the first Nokia-branded smartphones with the cutout. Today the Finnish company held an event in New Delhi, India, where it announced the devices on the worldwide scene with their global monikers respectively Nokia 6.1 Plus and Nokia 5.1 Plus. Nokia 6.1 Plus This is not the first time we see this moniker since the phone appeared with the name back in July at the Hong Kong market. This iteration of the phone has 4 GB RAM accompanying the...

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Oppo F9 goes live in India as F9 Pro - Helio P60 and front-facing 25MP camera

Oppo has been teasing the F9 Pro for some time now and as promised, the company unveiled the device today in India. And just like its predecessor, the F7, this one is a selfie-centric smartphone with mid-range specs and focuses on design. But if specs seem way too familiar, it's because the F9 Pro is actually a standard F9 for the Indian market. Oppo markets the unusual and minimalist "waterdrop" notch design, which doesn't take away too much space on the top, as one of the main features. The screen is 6.3-inch with FHD+ (1080 x 2340) resolution and tall 19.5:9 aspect ratio and uses a...

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ZTE nubia Z18 spotted in a video, sample photos in tow

The nubia Z18 has been popping up from time to time, but only now we've seen sample photos from the camera. Also, we could see the upper half of the phone shown in a Guinness world record video. It's not easy to miss with that Essential-like notch. Apparently, the nubia Z18 has been used to record the making of the world's largest light painting. There are even three samples to prove it and the video has been re-posted by nubia's official Weibo account as well. The night sample seems pretty impressive with the long exposure setting turned on. Alleged sample photos from the...

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Samsung Galaxy A8 Star to shine in India

Samsung announced the Galaxy A9 Star in China, later rebranded and launched as Galaxy A8 Star in the Philippines. The phone with dual rear cameras on the side and a square fingerprint scanner in the middle of the panel is now arriving in India, according to an Amazon teaser. Teasers of Galaxy A8 Star The phone is listed as Samsung Star, but likely will adopt the Galaxy moniker once everything is cleared out. Amazon emphasized on the dual cameras that "shines day and night," most likely because of the wide-open f/1.7 aperture of the 16 MP + 24 MP vertical setup. Coming...

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Pixel 3 XL pictured in the wild with a deep notch housing two cameras

Leaks about the Pixel 3 XL are right on schedule as the phone's release is getting closer and closer. We've even had some close encounters with the device more than two weeks ago and the latest spy photos show it in the wild. A reader from MobileSyrup was able to capture the handset in question out in the wild. Of course, we are talking about a pre-production unit, but the design won't change drastically until it's released, that's for sure. We can see from the photos that the deep notch is still at hand housing a front dual camera setup, probably used for advanced facial...

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