Xiaomi Redmi 6, Redmi 6A arrive for sale in India

Fans of Xiaomi in India were filled with joy when the company introduced its Redmi 6 series smartphones in the first week of September. Almost two months after the announcement, the Redmi 6 and the Redmi 6A have started appearing online for sale. The Xiaomi Redmi 6 can be currently found on Flipkart and Mi.com. Sadly, only the 3 GB + 64 GB option can be purchased for INR9,499, with all four colors available - Black, Rose Gold, Blue, Gold. The 3/32 GB, costing INR7,999, is listed as "Coming soon" at the retailer but is expected to come out of the blue by the end of the week. The...

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Honor View 10 will be just $349 for Black Friday

Black Friday is this month, and every company under the sun is getting ready for it. Huawei's sub-brand Honor is no exception, and what it's planned for the US market is rather impressive. Long story short: between November 23 and November 26 you'll be able to buy an unlocked Honor View 10 from the company's US online store for just $349. That's $150 less than the phone's usual selling price of $499, so you're saving a lot. Of course you need to be patient and wait until November 23 to grab one at that price. Quantities may be limited, as with all such deals, so you'll want to make...

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Deal: brand new T-Mobile iPhone 8 for $499.99, 8 Plus just $599.99 at Costco

A few days ago Apple started selling refurbished iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus units, starting at $499 and $599, respectively. That's a good deal, but what if you want a brand new device instead? Well, you're in luck if you're a Costco member and don't mind having T-Mobile as your carrier. The retailer is offering the iPhone 8 for $499.99 and the iPhone 8 Plus for $599.99, and again, these are new and never used. The offer is valid until November 15, but you will need to activate them on T-Mobile with qualifying service in order to get those prices. Although Apple would like people...

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Here's what's wrong with the Pocophone F1

Few smartphones have managed to surprise the mobile world in the past few years as much as Xiaomi's Pocophone F1. Basically the last time a handset promised such high-end specs for such a low price was when the OnePlus One made its debut. In the meantime OnePlus phones have become ever more expensive, which created the space in the market that Xiaomi is now filling with the Pocophone F1. We've already gone through its top features and reviewed it, both in writing and in video form, but we also wanted to dive deeper into everything that isn't quite right with this device. That's...

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Notches are coming to Samsung phones

It's a terrible day for notch haters. Samsung, one of the last holdouts in this regard, is ready to give up and join every other smartphone maker in Notchland. At its developer conference today, the company teased three different notch designs that it plans to use for its devices in the near future. From the left to the right in the image below, we've got Infinity-U, Infinity-V, and Infinity-O. These are brands for the displays that will incorporate said notches. As you can see, all three are basically shaped like the letters used to name them. U and V are traditional notches,...

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Samsung's Android Pie update arrives in January for the Galaxy Note9, S9, and S9+

Although its developer conference was very much focused on the foldable phones of the future, Samsung hasn't forgotten about the devices that are already on the market. So it announced that it will be releasing updates to Android 9 Pie for the Galaxy Note9, S9, and S9+ in January. An open beta program for the new release will become available later this month, but initially this will only be available in the US, South Korea, and Germany. The beta should head to other European and Asian countries at some later point. One UI, the company's new skin on top of Android (bye-bye Samsung...

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Razer Phone 2 review

The Razer Phone 2 is not your everyday, regular phone, in much the same way the Razer Blade is not exactly a conventional laptop. On the surface, this may sound like a straight-out praise, but in reality, there are many facets to such a device and more than one way to approach it.

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Samsung announces Infinity Flex Display, One UI and talks about Bixby's future

During its annual developers conference (SDC 2018), Samsung just announced its Infinity Flex Display and a so-called One UI that makes company's foldable phones more usable. It then talked about the scalability of Bixby and how the virtual assistant would grow in the future and eventually reach a broader range of Samsung and non-Samsung products. But let's talk about the interesting stuff first, hence the Infinity Flex Display. As expected, Samsung didn't announce a fully working flexible smartphone here but instead showcased its ready, elastic OLED panel that's going to be the...

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OnePlus Switch update adds support for transferring data from an iPhone

OnePlus has updated its Switch app to add support for transferring data from iPhones. Unfortunately, there is no companion app on iOS on the App Store, so the process is a bit complicated. The full set of instructions are on the OnePlus forum but the gist is that you need to download a beta version of the OnePlus Switch app for Android along with the iOS app from OnePlus website. Then you have to give special permissions to the app you just downloaded on your iPhone for it to work, since it is not an App Store app. After that you get hotspot settings on your OnePlus phone, which...

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OxygenOS 9.0.5 for OnePlus 6T improves screen unlock

OnePlus is rolling out OxygenOS 9.0.5 for the OnePlus 6T. The update, which is under 100MB, only has two states changes, one of which is ‘Improvements for Screen Unlock'. Personally, we didn't see any improvement in screen unlock pre- and post- update. It still mostly works fine, until you switch hands and use your other thumb, which totally bamboozles the system for some reason, even though the other thumb is also registered. It's only when you use the other thumb a couple of times does it start working fine with it. Apart from that, the other change is ‘General bug fixes and...

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Watch the Samsung Developer Conference keynote live stream here

Samsung is having its annual Developer Conference in San Francisco today and have provided a stream for everyone that wants to be a part of it. As a smartphone-focused media we are eagerly awaiting to see the Samsung Galaxy F get unveiled for the very simple reason - it is expected to be the first foldable phone with a flexible screen to hit the consumer market. According to reports, pre-production units are already being tested in the United States which will have unique Android UI, developed in partnership with Google. Plenty of model names appeared, suggesting European and Asian...

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Google to launch two more mid-range phones, ARCore APK teardown claims

In the latest ARCore v1.5 APK, colleagues over at Android Police were able to scrape off some interesting findings from the source code. Among the newly added supported devices, there were two more that are unknown. Their codenames are Bonito and Sargo. Looking down the list, we see the Mate 20 X, Honor 8X, Honor Magic 2, T-Mobile's OnePlus 6T with a single SIM slot and Xiaomi's Mi Mix 3. Supposedly, the Bonito and Sargo are Google-made devices given its history of naming phones after fish. Then again, that doesn't guarantee that this is, in fact, a Google device. We could be looking at a...

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Spotify Connect now available for free-tier subscribers as well

Spotify Connect is now enabled for free-tier subscribers (it was a Premium perk until now). You will need to update the firmware of your smart speaker to get support, though. Connect allows certain smarter than average speakers to stream music directly from the Internet, instead of using your phone as a middleman and playing over Bluetooth. You can see the list of compatible devices here. The free tier still doesn't have access to the highest quality audio that Spotify offers, but at least this saves you any additional quality loss from Bluetooth. Here's a quick overview of how...

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Microsoft is making PUBG and Pro Evolution soccer 2019 free on Xbox

Xbox One owners can now get PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds) and PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) 2019 for free from the Windows store. PUBG requires an Xbox Live Gold subscription ($9.99/month or $59.99/year) to play because it's a multiplayer shooter while PES 2019 can be downloaded for free but will need a subscription if you want to play with friends online. Microsoft will hold its gaming-focused XO18 show this weekend so it's likely that these deals will be a talking point on stage. We expect Microsoft will have other promotions as well. Meanwhile PUBG looks primed to become...

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Flipkart has ongoing discounts on five Honor phones

Flipkart is running a deal spree on recent Honor phones, dubbed Honor Festive Offers. Some phones, like the Honor 10 and the Honor 9 Lite are down 30% while others around 20%. The full list includes the Honor 9N/9i, the Honor 7s, the Honor 7A and the aforementioned Honor 10 and 9 Lite. If you're interested and want to see all the deals in detail, you can hop on over to the source link below. Source

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Galaxy J4 Core leaks: Samsung's second Go Edition phone has a larger 6" screen

Samsung's second Android Go phone - the Galaxy J4 Core - has cropped up on a Brazilian online store. It seems to be a mistake rather than a quiet announcement, but we're happy to gawk at the specs either way. It's a bigger and more advanced phone than the Galaxy J2 Core, but is still an entry-level device. It sports a roomy 6" display with a modern 18:9 aspect ratio. The 720 x 1,480px resolution makes it sharper too at 274ppi (the J2 Core screen was 5" 220ppi). The chipset, unfortunately, hasn't been updated and still features a weak CPU (quad-core A53 at 1.4GHz). It's paired with 1GB...

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Qualcomm to equip Samsung midrangers with UD fingerprint scanner in 2019

Reports about the fingerprint sensor emerged from South Korea, revealing who will dominate the market next year. Qualcomm and MediaTek-owned Goodix are the two key players who will work with the biggest smartphone manufacturers in 2019. According to industry insiders, Qualcomm has already won orders for ultrasonic FP sensors from Samsung for the midrange and high-end Galaxy models, with shipments scheduled for late 2018 and early 2019 This is hardly a surprise anymore, given the Korean manufacturer is ditching the iris scanner. Fingerprint scanners under the display are the...

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LG G7 Fit will be available in Europe, Asia and other regions this week

LG announced the LG G7 Fit at the end of August., that was quite a while ago. But the wait is finally over - potential buyers in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East will be able to snag one this week. The prices were not announced, however. The Fit is a curious device - it has outward similarities with the G7 ThinQ flagship, as long as you don't pay attention to the camera count on the back. The inside, however, is a Snapdragon 821 chipset. LG calls it "proven", we might call it "vintage", either way it's a flagship chipset dating back to the second half of 2016. We've seen...

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Die shot of Kirin 980 shows off the chip's floor plan, two different Cortex-A76 designs

The Kirin 980 chipset represents a massive technological improvement over its predecessor, but it's tiny - at just 74.13mm², it's a good 30% smaller than the Kirin 970. That's one of the advantages of the 7nm process. But looking at the die shot (taken by ChipRebel), the CPU and GPU with all their cores take up less than half of the chip. The 980 is the first chipset by HiSilicon to use ARM's new DynamIQ technology, which makes it easier to build heterogeneous designs. The DSU - DynamIQ Shared Unit - is the heart of the system. Connected to it are two different pairs of Cortex-A76...

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LG patents a smartphone design with under-display front camera

Apparently, Samsung isn't the only one planning on releasing a full-screen smartphone with an in-display front-facing camera as a recent patent suggests that LG is working on the concept as well. And thus, the new design eliminates the need of a notch or bezels altogether. The patent has been filed in South Korea and envisions two different designs - one with curved edges and one with straight. But the concept is all the same - an oval-shaped cutout houses one or at least two camera modules along with the usual sensors such as proximity and ambient. It can be in the middle or the upper...

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The new Apple Pencil for the iPad Pros doesn't support Qi charging

The new iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 (2018) came with a brand new Pencil - that that is incompatible with older tablets. Part of that is the new wireless charging system that replaces the Lightning connector of the first generation pencils. What's interesting about this wireless system is that it is incompatible with Qi charging. That's even though Apple uses Qi on the iPhone, Apple Watch and even the AirPods. The second generation Pencil has two magnet arrays (Halbach array), one on either side of the charging coil, they line up with the magnet arrays on the iPad. This way the...

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Legend Helsinki introduces tailor-made iPhone XS for over €3,000

A company specializing in tailor-made luxury devices called Legend has introduced its latest collection of iPhone XS and Apple Watch 4 masterpieces. The smartphone has a customized back panel with variants that have actual diamonds, crocodile leather, and carbon fiber. Prices are lurking around €3,000, but you can get an Apple iPhone XS Max Lu Edition 512 GB for over €4,060. The base prices are listed for the XS version with 512 GB internal storage, but if you want to have the half of that, the price goes down €200. To switch from the XS to the XS Max, you have to shell €130 more,...

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Qualcomm forced to license its patents to other chip makers

In an ongoing antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm led by the Federal Trade Commission, the company is forced to license its patents to its rivals, according to a preliminary ruling by the US federal court judge. This would potentially eliminate the possibility of Qualcomm achieving monopoly in the chip maker market. The judge said that if the company doesn't license its patents for building modems to the competition like Samsung, Huawei and Intel, it would obstruct or limit competing implementations of the patented components. Qualcomm has licensed its tech to rivals before but has...

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MIUI 10 is now hitting 20 more phones

Back in July, we saw the initial list of devices that will get MIUI 10. The first wave began in September, and today Chinese media announced 21 more phones would start receiving the Stable ROM. Out of the list is Poco F1 that is already on the receiving end, but we are yet to hear anything about Redmi 6 phones getting the new user interface. MIUI 10 focuses on gestures and full-screen experience. It will also allow devices to have better AI-infused pictures, even the older phones with one camera will get it. The software update will bring the new ringtones that mimic nature sounds...

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