OnePlus to launch a 5G smartphone in 2019

Currently in Hong Kong the conference 4G/5G is taking place and plenty of manufacturers have taken the stage to announce their next steps into the next-gen connectivity world. Carl Pei, OnePlus co-founder, said his team will be among the two manufacturers with actual plans to launch a 5G-enabled flagship, likely called OnePlus 7. Cristiano Amon and Carl Pei on the stage of the 4G/5G summit in Hong Kong Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm, announced at least two flagships are expected to arrive next year, when Carl Pei joined him on stage to say the OnePlus smartphone will appear...

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Google Pixel 2 gets updated camera UI

With the Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL, Google added a bit more polish to the camera app. There's a new mode selector that's more in line with Apple and Samsung's camera interfaces. This replaces the menu that you used to have to tap to get to the "Portrait" mode on the Pixel 2 or 2 XL. Just swipe across the screen to switch between camera modes. Google Pixel 3 The updated Google Camera app is now rolling out as of Monday morning and shows you the current shooting mode just above the shutter button. Just to clarify, this updated app only brings the new mode selector and a shortcut to...

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eBay now lets you sell your phone without waiting with Instant Selling

If you're one of the people who buys the latest phone and then sells it second-hand on sites like eBay or Swappa for the newer model, eBay has a new feature that makes it easier to sell a used phone. Today, eBay has launched a new program called Instant Selling. The idea is simple: enter the details of the device you'd like to instantly sell on this website, get a dollar amount from eBay, add an image of the phone, and get paid the amount given by eBay. Rather than having to wait around for a buyer, eBay will buy the phone from you and sell it on its own terms. Of course, there...

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Google Pixel 3 gets a transparent version

We've seen YouTuber JerryRigEverything make transparent versions of other phones in the past - so what makes the Pixel 3 any different? Well the Pixel 3 has the dual-texture glass on the back - most of the glass has a "frosty" texture that feels almost like ceramic. Making this device totally clear would make for an interesting appearance, but the way that the glass on the Google Pixel is colored is not different: there's a layer of material under the glass. To get the transparent effect, all you have to do is get rid of the layer of material. It's easier said than done. To start,...

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Interview: Huawei CEO, Richard Yu talks Mate 20, Nano Memory cards, and foldable 5G phones

There is a lot going on right after a large event like the one Huawei held in London for the Mate 20 lineup. In fact, aside from the media rushing into the demo area to grab footage and images of the fresh new phones, some other key executives are hosting interviews with the press and key analysts. We had a chance to join an interview with Richard Yu, alongside other members of the press, where Huawei CEO touched on a few interesting topics about the actual Mate 20 lineup, as well as took some questions to talk about 5G, foldable phones from Huawei, the company's new Nano Memory card...

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Honor Magic 2 official images show the slider, gradient back, and black box

The Honor Magic 2 will be announced on October 31. This all-screen smartphone with a slider has been leaking a lot in recent days and weeks, but not only that - the Huawei sub-brand itself has been posting quite a few teasers already. Today it's gone ahead and outed a slew of new official images of the device through its Weibo account, and these are more than simple teasers - they show the box and the smartphone itself in all its glory - in two gradient colorways, blue and pink/purple. Honor Magic 2 official images The box is understated and black, with gold or rose gold text...

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Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 may have a next-gen Snapdragon chipset and a 6.4" screen

Xiaomi has officially confirmed that the Mi Mix 3 will support 5G connectivity, but the company may be withholding something even more interesting about the hardware - a next-generation Snapdragon chipset. It's referenced as the "855", though a rumored change in Qualcomm's naming scheme would see it launch as the 8150 instead. But that's besides the point - this board gives away juicy details like a 6.4" screen, a 20+16MP dual camera, 256GB storage and a 3,850mAh battery. The RAM capacity is listed as 8GB even though Xiaomi teased 10GB, which is likely the base and maximum capacity,...

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Not Again! Pixel 3 owners face buzzing speakers, memory management issues

It seems some early Google Pixel 3 adopters are having issues with their devices. The first issue has so far been reported for the bigger Pixel 3 XL and is a familiar one - it seems the speakers on it (mostly the bottom one) are buzzing and distorting. It's hard to describe a speaker issue with words alone but users are reporting that there's buzzing at certain frequencies, which can be noticed through certain apps that can play sounds on specific frequencies or watching videos with voice narration. Other users report sound distortion at both low and high volume. Finally it seems that...

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Samsung patents a way to make the entire screen a fingerprint reader

Samsung has filed a patent that describes a way to turn the entire display of a phone into a fingerprint reader. Current in-display fingerprint readers are not any bigger than the old readers and are fixed in place, so they are not as convenient as they can be. The patent describes an optical reader and specifically notes that it can be applied to foldable phones. This type of sensor will give apps more freedom in positioning the authentication UI on the screen so it will be used in tablets and other devices as well. Here's how Samsung imagines the reader: Patent drawings of...

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Oppo Find X Lamborghini Edition review

Few brands say exclusivity, high performance, and stunning looks quite like Italian car maker Lamborghini. So when you hear of the Oppo Find X Lamborghini Edition, you know it's no ordinary smartphone.

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HMD may have quietly discontinued the Nokia 8 Sirocco

The Nokia 8 Sirocco launched at the high price of €750. It has come down quite a bit since then - for example, it's €520 on Amazon.fr. It's similarly discounted in the UK too, down to £440. But that's not the strange part. If you hit "Buy now" on your regional Nokia.com site, you get redirected back to the homepage. Not to mention that the prices shown on the official site are way off what local retailers are offering. That's not quite the case in India - the indicated price is lower (INR 37,000) than Flipkart's (INR 50,000), but hitting the buy button still disappoints. It's not a...

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Samsung W2019 flip phone leaks again

Samsung is preparing its next iteration of a clamshell flagship called W2019. The device is already certified by TENAA, revealing a Bixby button on the side and a new Rose Gold color. The phone posed for the camera during the weekend and today a video appeared, giving us another glance of the device. Samsung W2019 from all sides The phone will have two 4.2" screens on the upper side of the body, while the bottom comes with a T9 keyboard. The bottom is reserved for a speaker grille and the USB-C port, but the phone is likely to skip the 3.5 mm audio jack. This will be the...

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Oppo R17 Pro will finally go on sale on November 11

Oppo announced the R17 Pro back in August without a launch date (not to mention a word on what that second 20MP camera does). Well now we know about the former - the Oppo R17 Pro will go on sale on November 11. The initial launch will be in China, where the phone will cost CNY4,300 or around €540 in its only 8GB/128GB configuration. We expect Oppo to expand the R17 Pro's availability to other markets as well. Oppo R17 Pro will go on sale on November 11 The Oppo R17 Pro offers a 6.4-inch AMOLED of 1080x2340px resolution with a water drop notch occupied by a 25MP f/2.0 selfie...

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Analysts: Jio to become 10th largest phone brand in the world

Reliance Jio is expected to become the 10th largest phone brand in the world, according to Digitimes Research, which predicts that 25-30 million Jio Phones will ship this year, all of them powered by the new Kai OS platform. The original Jio Phone was unveiled in July last year and the carrier managed to ship 18 million units until the end of 2017. That's just half a year of shipping and of just one model. It helped that carrier Reliance was offering the original Jio Phone effectively for free. Recently, the company launched a QWERTY-packing sequel, the Jio Phone 2. KaiOS powers...

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OnePlus Switch app update, now backs up application data

The OnePlus 6T will be unveiled on Monday and will be on sale soon after. If you're planning on getting one, the thought of how to migrate from your old phone may have crossed your mind - worry not, this just got easier as the company updated its OnePlus Switch app. For starters, it now supports more Android phones. But the best new feature is that it will backup your application data, which saves a lot of hassle (even cloud-connected apps can have hiccups when syncing to a new device). OnePlus Switch app The latest version of Switch will also copy your old wallpaper and...

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Samsung will unveil the Galaxy A9 in China on October 24

Samsung will hold an event on October 24 to announce the Galaxy A9 (2018) for the Chinese market. Samsung has sent out invites for the event and local sources claim that the Galaxy A9 (2018) will be rebranded to Galaxy A9s for the contry. Samsung invite for an October 24 event in China The Galaxy A9 (2018) is the world's first phone with four cameras on the back. It offers a 24MP f/1.7 main camera, an 8MP f/2.4 12mm ultrawide camera, a 10MP f/2.4 2x telephoto snapper and a 5MP f/2.2 depth-sensing fourth cam. On the front there's a single 24MP f/2.0 unit. The Samsung Galaxy A9...

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Honor Magic 2 specs and live images surface online

George Zhao, president of Honor, teased the Magic 2 with a sliding mechanism at IFA 2018. The Huawei-owned brand now got the phone through TENAA, which revealed its full specs, but no pictures. Luckily, live images appeared on Zanilia Zhao's Weibo profile - she was gifted a mesmerizing red Honor Magic 2 and now we know how the phone will look like. The new phone will have Kirin 980 chipset with clock speeds up to 2.6 GHz, coupled with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. The screen is 6.4" tall AMOLED panel with Full HD+ resolution and almost 100% screen-to-body ratio. The whole display will...

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Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 960fps video surfaces, another teaser shows face unlock

Last week a Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 teaser showed off the low-light performance and bokeh rendering of the dual camera on the phone's back. That same camera will allegedly support 960fps slow-motion video shooting as well, producing clips like this one: We say allegedly as there's no way to verify what phone shot this video. The Snapdragon 845 chipset that will power the Mi Mix 3 certainly support it, but the right image image sensor is needed as well. To hit 960fps, a sensor needs on-board memory. Upgrading to such a sensor hardly feels like a stretch when Xiaomi is teasing 10GB of RAM and...

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Oppo R15x is official, is essentially a K1 with 128 GB storage

Oppo K1 arrived two weeks ago with a waterdrop notch. The phone kept appearing under a different model name on Geekbench and finally arrived today at the company website as Oppo R15x with more storage. Both phones have otherwise similar specs, including the UD fingerprint scanner and the selfie camera. The company is yet to unveil the full specs, but the key features are already outed, along with pricing and availability. Oppo R15x arrives with a 6.4" AMOLED display with what appears to be a Synaptics optical sensor underneath it. The company claims there is a 91% screen-to-body...

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