Nokia 6.1 Plus Hide Notch option is coming back

The notch was introduced in September 2017 with the iPhone X, and since then it has been a polarizing topic about aesthetics and functionality. While some phones natively had a toggle to have a black bar on top, others were forced to stay with the cutout. The Nokia 6.1 Plus introduced the feature but was later removed by Google, since the HMD phone is on the Android One program. According to sources, you can put the notch back on, but only in Developers Mode, which leads to the assumption, the toggle might make it to all end users as a default option. To hide the notch on the...

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White Samsung Galaxy Note9 leaks

Samsung announced the Galaxy Note9 in four colors - Copper, Lavender Purple, Blue with a yellow S Pen and the classic Midnight Black. Later a fifth option called Cloud Silver started appearing and now it is up for another leak and color number 6 - White. The photo was shared by Evan Blass on Twitter who raised his doubts about the originality of the image and even asking for confirmation from arm-chair Photoshop detectives. This led the following Twitter thread into a downward spiral where people were frantically looking for mistakes instead of agreeing that Samsung might indeed...

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Huawei Mate 20 Pro torn down by iFixIt

The latest device to be torn down by iFixit is the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. Starting off, the back glass is heated to soften the adhesive holding the phone inside. One of the first things noticed is because there's no fingerprint scanner, there isn't a flex cable tethered to the glass as there usually is so the glass comes all the way off. Source: iFixit Between the glass and battery is a mid-board that houses a few things: the two-directional wireless charging coil (it can be used to charge other Qi devices as well), NFC antenna, and the dual-tone LED flash. This section is...

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Samsung confirms it will announce Android Pie Beta program as soon as this week

Samsung teased its foldable phone earlier today by switching its profile photo on Facebook to a Samsung logo in a folded shape. We imagine this might be in anticipation of an imminent announcement, believed to take place during Samsung's 2018 Developer's Conference scheduled to take place on November 7-8. On the same note, Samsung's official Developer's Conference app reveals notes about a "New Galaxy UX" that is coming with Samsung's Android 9.0 Pie Beta Program. This comes just over a week after new screenshots of the allegedly leaked build of Android Pie running on the Samsung Galaxy...

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Huawei Mate 20 Pro torn town by iFixIt

The latest device to be torn down by iFixit is the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. Starting off, the back glass is heated to soften the adhesive holding the phone inside. One of the first things noticed is because there's no fingerprint scanner, there isn't a flex cable tethered to the glass as there usually is so the glass comes all the way off. Source: iFixit Between the glass and battery is a mid-board that houses a few things: the two-directional wireless charging coil (it can be used to charge other Qi devices as well), NFC antenna, and the dual-tone LED flash. This section is...

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Google issues statement about RAM management issues

Two of the hottest Android smartphones right now are the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, however there have been multiple reports of RAM management issues along the lines of apps being released from RAM prematurely. One specific case given by Android Central describes Spotify music playing in the background unexpectedly stops when taking a couple of photos in the camera. In response to these RAM management issues, Google has provided 9to5Google with an update "in the coming weeks" that will address the memory issues. We're rolling out a software update in the coming weeks to keep...

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iPhone XR isn't selling as well as Apple anticipated, production reportedly cut

Since it's the cheapest of the new iPhone trio, you'd expect the iPhone XR to be the best selling of the bunch, but apparently that's not how things work in Apple land. According to a report by Nikkei Asian Review, the most affordable iPhone of 2018 is definitely not doing as well, sales-wise, as Apple anticipated it would. This has led the company to cancel a so called "production boost" for the model. This move has signaled disappointing demand for the XR, as Apple told Foxconn and Pegatron to halt plans for additional production lines dedicated to it. A source familiar with the...

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Xiaomi is holding a launch event in the UK on November 8, Mi 8 Pro teased

Xiaomi is holding a launch event in London this Thursday, on November 8. It's expected to unveil at least the Mi 8 Pro for the UK market, to go with its first ever official store in the country. The company has started teasing the event, with one of the images showcasing an in-display fingerprint sensor - of which there is one on the Mi 8 Pro. Another image clearly hints at the number "8", although it's shown as the infinity symbol here. All of these eights - as well as holding the event on the 8th of the month - are no coincidence. This year the Chinese company celebrated its...

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Samsung is reportedly working on a dual-core NPU for upcoming 7nm Exynos chipset

Industry officials are reporting that Samsung is working on a dual core NPU - an AI-specific co-processor - for the upcoming 7nm chipsets. It will have a dual core design and will offer a significant boost in AI tasks. Leakster Ice Universe claims that this NPU will be used in image processing for the camera on the Galaxy S10. Video recording and voice recognition will also get a boost from the new processor. Earlier this year Samsung unveiled its first chipset with an NPU, the Exynos 7 9610. It used AI for automatic scene recognition and bokeh rendering (separating the foreground...

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Analysts: almost half of the Apple smartwatches shipped are Series 1

The smartwatch market is picking up speed. It grew so fast - 53% year over year based on data from Counterpoint - that even though brands shipped more units than before, their shares fell. Apple remains king of the hill. The reception of the Apple Watch Series 4, the biggest update yet, was positive. The popularity of the Series 3 inched up as well, thanks to the newly lowered prices. This lead to a 24% increase in shipments in Q3 compared to the previous quarter this year. However, the original Watch Series 1 made up the bulk of Apple's shipments, nearly half. The new models are...

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New Apple iPad Pro review roundup: not quite ready to replace laptops

The early reviews of the Apple iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 (2018) are out, but they are a little reluctant to render a final verdict. The tablets (the big one especially with 1TB of storage) can cost a ton of money and they feature several fundamental changes, so more time is needed for definitive conclusions. Here are some of the early impressions that agree on some points, though not all. The new Pencil and keyboard, the USB-C port and the new chipset are almost universally praised, but Apple's new tablet still falls short of perfection in some cases. Engadget points out that USB-C...

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New Apple iPad Pro review roundup: not quite ready to replace laptpos

The early reviews of the Apple iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 (2018) are out, but they are a little reluctant to render a final verdict. The tablets (the big one especially with 1TB of storage) can cost a ton of money and they feature several fundamental changes, so more time is needed for definitive conclusions. Here are some of the early impressions that agree on some points, though not all. The new Pencil and keyboard, the USB-C port and the new chipset are almost universally praised, but Apple's new tablet still falls short of perfection in some cases. Engadget points out that USB-C...

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The Oppo RX17 Pro comes to Europe tomorrow - an R17 Pro in all but name

The Oppo R17 Pro will land in Europe tomorrow and it's arriving under a new name - Oppo RX17 Pro. The event will take place in Milan, Italy, and we will be attending it live but there's also going to be a live stream so you can watch at home too. Not that we expect any surprises in the spec sheet. This follows the introduction of the Oppo RX17 Neo, which is currently available for pre-order in Europe. Note that the Neo isn't equivalent to the vanilla R17, but instead is closer to the RX15 and K1 (this model also launched in Japan). Unlike the Neo, the Oppo RX17 Pro should be a...

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HTC is preparing a midranger with Snapdragon 435

HTC financial results find a new bottom every new quarter, but the company is not giving up and keeps pushing new phones. We saw the U12 Life midranger at IFA in Berlin and it looks like we might see even more affordable smartphone. A device with the model number HTC 2Q72XXX was just approved on Bluetooth SIG website, revealing a Snapdragon 435 chipset. The Qualcomm SoC dates back to February 2016 when it was introduced along two other chipsets. The 435 is built on the even older 28 nm process with eight Cortex-A53 cores, clocked at up to 1.4 GHz. There is an Adreno 505 GPU and a...

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Asus Zenfone 6 prototypes reveal a weird-positioned waterdrop notch

Asus introduced the Zenfone 5z at MWC 2018 with a Snapdragon 845 chipset and an impressively low price tag of $340 in India. The appearance of the phone was nothing out of the ordinary for a 2018 flagship - dual camera, fancy colors, up to 256 GB RAM, and a wide notch on the display. Later the notch shrank to a waterdrop cutout, as seen in Oppo and Huawei smartphones, and it looks like it will also appear on the Asus Zenfone 6. But here's the catch - the new device will have the notch on the right side and not on the center, according to early prototype units. At first you think the...

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Two-year old Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime starts receiving Android Oreo

Earlier this year Samsung announced on its Members app that some 2016 devices, launched on Marshmallow, are getting Android Oreo. One of the phones due for early November was the Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime and according to a tip in our mailbox, the new OS is already hitting devices. Thanks for the screenshots, anonymous tipster! The screenshots from our anonymous tipster reveal the new update is 1040 MB, which might be tricky for owners of devices with 16 GB storage. It brings Samsung Experience 9.5 with plenty of UI and safety improvements in the Home Screen, Smart View,...

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Thunder Purple OnePlus 6T is now official

OnePlus 6T was unveiled last week only in two variants of Black, but today the device is introduced in a new shade at the China launch party. The new variant is called Thunder Purple OnePlus 6T, already known from official promo images we reported earlier today. The new phone is different from the original only by its appearance - otherwise hardware wise, it's the same device head to toe. It's powered by a Snapdragon 845, it has a bigger screen and an under-display fingerprint scanner, it's got 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage, and a bigger battery. The device also comes with dual...

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Samsung teases Galaxy F foldable phone days before its developers conference

Samsung Mobile has updated its profile image on Facebook with a teaser for its upcoming foldable phone. The Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) starts this Wednesday, so we additional info may surface later this week. We have only rumors to go on for now. They describe the Samsung Galaxy F as having two screens - an internal one with a 7.3" diagonal and a 4.6" external screen. So, it will be like a flip phone, the large internal screen will be protected while the phone is closed. Compare that to the design of the FlexPai, which has one screen that remains on the outside. The phone...

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New Huawei device upcoming, likely the Honor View 20

Huawei introduced all its flagships for 2018 and now we're onto their successors. One of the more exciting phones was the Honor View 10, and it looks like the follow-up View 20 is on its way. A phone with model number VCE-AL00 and VCE-TL00 received the needed certificate by the 3C agency, coming one step closer to a launch. We think this is precisely the Honor View 20, likely launched in China as V20, since the timeline matches its predecessor View 10 that arrived mid-November in China, followed by an early December global launch. Although it is way too early for specs,...

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