LG V40 ThinQ to arrive in Europe

LG has introduced V40 ThinQ back in October. This is the sixth V-series device from the Korean maker, but we rarely saw a retailer offering any of the phones in Europe. It appears that LG is about to change this trend, as a European variant of the V40 received a certification for wireless charging. The device was listed with two monikers - LM-V405EB and LV-V405EBW, and according to sources, this is indeed the variant for the Old Continent. LG LM-V405EB listing at Wireless Power Consortium We know pretty well this is indeed the latest cameraphone, since all current versions...

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OnePlus Type-C Bullets Earphones Review

The OnePlus Type-C Bullets are a new pair of in-ear earphones from OnePlus. They're based on the OnePlus Bullets V2 but replace the standard 3.5mm jack with a USB-C connector. The Type-C Bullets have nearly the exact same design as the Bullets V2. The earphones have the same cylindrical design as before with metal housing. The cable is the same thin, flat style that is relatively tangle free. On the right speaker cable sits the remote control module that has large and very easy to use buttons for controlling playback, volume and calls. The difference in the design comes with...

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Oppo R17 Pro in for review

The Oppo R17 Pro or RX17 Pro as it's known in Europe for trademark reasons is the latest arrival in our office. It offers a premium design and feel with a gradient color finish on the back that unlike anything else in the market. On this occasion we got the Emerald Green variant which looks a bit more conservative than the so-called Radiant Mist color. A Snapdragon 710 chipset is ticking under the hood, so we expect great CPU performance combined with high power efficiency. You get 8GB of RAM with 128GB of internal storage and unlike the OnePlus 6T, which shares much of the design, ...

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Top 10 trending phones of week 44

As November ended, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro remained the most popular phone in our database with the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) and Huawei Mate 20 Pro joining it to form the same top 3 as last week. In fourth we have the Nokia 8.1 - the yet-to-be-announced international version of the Nokia X7. Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) dropped to fifth, while another rumored phone shot to sixth - the Galaxy A8s with its front camera sitting in a hole on the screen. Xiaomi Pocophone F1 slid to seventh, while in eight we have the third member of the unofficial phones family with the dual screen vivo...

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Weekly poll: are dual screens the way forward or unnecessary increase in cost

For the last couple of weeks we've been trying to determine the best place for the selfie camera - on a slider, through a hole in the screen, or on a plain old bezel - there are plenty of options. But what if we solve the problem by removing the selfie camera altogether? After all, the only reason it is needed is that you can't frame the shot with the rear camera as there's no viewfinder. We already know that a second screen works well as a viewfinder. The Meizu Pro 7 showed that even a tiny screen on the back is good enough to shoot selfies with the rear camera (it had a narrow 2" AMOLED...

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Counterclockwise: gaming phones vs. portable consoles, fight!

Gaming phones are back and this time they look here to stay. The industry has seen several attempts at the genre, but some of them are remembered as a joke, others had their fans, but simply fizzled out. Nokia's first entry was modest - the Nokia 6110 introduced Snake to the world. But it was with the Nokia N-Gage that the Finns seriously tried to challenge Nintendo. Let's see how well they did. In the red corner, the N-Gage has what came to be known as the "taco" form factor. The D-pad on the side was a nice touch, but the buttons on the right were uncomfortable to use. The phone...

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Google confirms there are no plans of shutting down Hangouts, sort of

Yesterday, we reported that Google will be shutting down Hangouts in 2020. This based on a report by 9to5Google. Google Real Time Communications product lead Scott Johnston confirmed on Twitter, however, that this is untrue. According to Johnston, Google has made no decision to shut down Hangouts. Instead, Hangouts users will be transitioned to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. https://ift.tt/2SjyZHs @hallstephenj, I run Hangouts and this is pretty shoddy reporting. No decisions made about when Hangouts will be shut down. Hangouts users will be upgraded to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts...

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Week 48 in review: Infinity-O leaks galore, Realme U1 is official

As we enter the last month of the year we find ourselves in the middle of the race to announce the first phone with a camera cutout in the screen is heating up. Samsung will premiere its Infinity-O display with the Galaxy A8s. Whether that display will be an AMOLED or an LCD manufactured by BOE remains to be seen. It's also unclear if the Galaxy A8s will become official before the year's. Meanwhile, Huawei swooped-in and declared that it has a phone with a screen cutout that will become official in December. Smart money is on that phone being the nova 4. Samsung's main focus is still...

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Weekly poll results: holes in the screen are the new crowd favorite

People are excited about screen holes - that option won last week's poll with nearly half the votes. The holes proved quite a bit more popular, people consider them less obtrusive than even the most petite teardrop notch (as for wide notches, they are getting voted off the island). We expect to see several makers launch smartphones with a hole in their screen for the selfie camera. There are a few teasers floating around, but the promo campaigns are just starting - so all this excitement was generated with very little effort. Still, we're yet to actually see such a phone, let alone use...

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