LG TONE Platinum SE review

Introduction Headsets and audio equipment reviews are hardly a daily occurrence here at GSMArena, but most of us have deep personal interest in the area. That's why the TONE Platinum SE caused quite a lot of excitement here at HQ and I was nominated to share some of that with it. Heads-up this is going to be more of a personal experience review than a benchmark-filled test. First things first, then. We have used and even reviewed LG Tone headsets in the past, like the LG Tone Infinim HBS-900 and the HSB-730 Tone+. And the basic design concept and form factor are pretty much...

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Weekly poll results: Galaxy A7 (2018) and its triple camera get the thumbs up

It seems that Samsung has brought in a winning mid-fielder - the Galaxy A7 (2018) got a 74% approval rating. This is a phone built around its Infinity Display and triple camera and the early response to them is a positive one. As expected, some people wished for more features - a tele camera and a faster chipset were the most commonly requested. We suspect those will be present on the Galaxy S10 instead, so there won't be any in fighting in Samsung's lineup. Plus, this A7 is a €350 phone, so it can get away with those. Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) One warranted criticism was...

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Never mind the ugly notch, the Pixel 3 XL is going to be a big deal

In less than three weeks, on October 9, Google will unveil the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL to the world. I've marked that day on my calendar and I can't wait. Here's why I think the Pixel 3 XL, in particular, will be a big deal (and likely my next phone). Before we start, a few introductory words. I'm an avid Google Pixel fan and former Pixel 2 XL owner. I like the camera, the software experience, the feel and the stereo speakers (in that order) of the Pixel phones. And I've always found they have that special X factor that most other phones lack. The Google Pixel 3 XL will almost certainly...

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Best Buy accidentally sold a 3rd generation Chromecast to a customer

We all know Reddit is a source of pretty strange stuff. This one we came across isn't exactly strange, but it's a rare one indeed. A customer walked into Best Buy with the intention of buying a second-gen Chromecast but walked out with a still unreleased third generation. The OP (original poster) as redditors like to call it, clarifies that Best Buy must have put out the new device by mistake. When the cashier tried to scan the item, the Chromecast didn't appear in the database, but since the customer already had it in his hand and the price was identical to the second generation...

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Some iPhone XS and XS Max units refuse to charge until woken up

With iPhone XS and XS Max units making their way to more and more people, an unpleasant charging issue has come to light(ning?). Numerous users have reported on the Apple discussion boards that their phones wouldn't automatically start charging when the Lightning cable is connected - in some cases a tap on the screen was needed to wake up the phone and start charging, others required an unplug-and-plug-back-in type of procedure. Y U no charge? We did try ourselves with the units we have at the office, but for better or worse ours charge just fine, both with the bundled charger and...

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Oppo is launching a new series of smartphones and we think we know how it looks

Remember the three Oppo devices that got certified two weeks ago? Well, according to the latest report, they could be part of a whole new lineup and have nothing to do with the Oppo R17 as previously thought. A teaser poster has popped up on Oppo's official website inviting us to join the unveiling of a new lineup of smartphones on October 10. Looking at the poster, we can't stop thinking of an in-display fingerprint and a full-screen notch-less design. The shape of the handset appears to be quite similar to the Oppo smartphone listed on TENAA. The PBCM30, PBCM10 and PBCT10...

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Samsung Galaxy P30 gets certified at TENAA

The supposedly China-only smartphone from Samsung just got certified by TENAA and we finally get to see what it looks like. However, the listing is still incomplete so we will have to wait a little bit longer for the full specs to be revealed and for now, we only have some tiny bits and the photos to work with. The listing shows a 5.99-inch device with an LCD panel and a 3,300mAh battery powering it all. The photos also reveal the rear-mounted fingerprint reader, the notch-less screen and a dual camera setup on the back. Apparently, this is not the phone that was previously thought to...

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Still no Pie in the Android distribution chart

There's a huge segmentation in the Android OS versions distribution and updates never come soon enough - there's little to dabate here. Every now and then, however, a new distribution chart comes out so we can muse on the trends and numbers. The latest edition puts Oreo at just under 1/5 of the market (19.2% total between v8.0 and 8.1), a 4.6 percentage points increase from the last time we checked. Nougat's piece of the pie is still the largest, but there's a slight drop (29.3% vs. 30.8%) so a bit of the Oreo gains have probably come from updates, not just new releases. Speaking of...

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Alleged Nokia 7.1 Plus visits TENAA for certification

Finally some solid info on how the upcoming Nokia 7.1 Plus would look like as well as some juicy details about the specs. This one comes from TENAA and confirms the back design we saw a few days ago. It's hard to tell whether the handset has a notch or not from the TENAA photos so yesterday's mystery remains largely unsolved. Then again, according to the specs sheet, the Nokia X7 (7.1 Plus) comes with a 6.1-inch panel featuring 1080 x 2246 pixels resolution hinting at a wide notch on the top of the display. Further down, the table reads an octa-core CPU clocked at 2.2 GHz, which...

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New iPhone XS Max ad doubles down on its size

Apple has released a new video ad today, and this one's all about the iPhone XS Max. The biggest iPhone ever made is already outselling its smaller sibling, so it looks like people do prefer larger handsets. And Apple isn't at all apologetic about how big the iPhone XS Max is. In fact, this ad is all about the company unashamedly pushing the phone's size, doubling down on this trait that may not be to everyone's liking. Then again, people who do love big phones will probably enjoy the iPhone XS Max very much. It helps that it has the best display on any smartphone ever (at least...

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