ZTE to launch 5G smartphone in first half of 2019

The Chinese company ZTE that was on the brink of bankruptcy is finally back in the game. It announced ambitious plans for 2019, including a 5G smartphone, new Axon and new Blade devices. The handset with next-gen connectivity will be announced as early as H1 2019 to boost sales in the second part of the year. ZTE has already completed multiple 5G tests, including calls, internet browsing, and WeChat messages. It passed all applicable scenarios with flying colors, receiving a green light from Chinese authorities to continue with its 5G development. The new flagship device will...

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T-Mobile teases "9G" because it's as true as AT&T's "5G E"

Remember AT&T's plan to switch the 4G LTE icon on its Android phones to "5G E" through software updates? Well, those are already rolling out to select devices. Let's be clear here: you are not getting any sort of real 5G via a software update. That's not how this works. Instead, AT&T wants to ride the 5G hype train of 2019 harder than most and has resorted to basically lying to its customers in this manner. If you ask the carrier it will say "it's 5G E" which is not "5G+" (the marketing name it's using for its actual 5G network), but who will be able to realize the minutiae of that...

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Anker PowerPort Atom PD 1 USB-C charger launched for $30

Anker is ready to start selling its PowerPort Atom PD 1 charger. Announced first back in October, the little charger will finally go on sale this month and is priced at $29.99. The Atom PD 1 is a really compact USB-C charger. In fact, it's the world's smallest USB-PD charger that is capable of outputting 30W. That's enough to charge any smartphone or tablet that supports the USB-Power Delivery standard and even smaller laptops like the Apple MacBook and the new MacBook Air. The Atom PD 1 uses Gallium nitride (GaN) instead of silicon, which makes it more efficient and also a lot...

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Qualcomm expects 30 5G devices this year

During its keynote at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Qualcomm said it's expecting a little over 30 5G-capable devices this year with most of them being smartphones. The spokesperson then went on to say that Qualcomm has won the majority of contracts with OEMs looking for 5G deployment in 2019. This might be not too far from the truth as even Samsung will be using Qualcomm's modem for its smartphones in the US because the Snapdragon X50 modem is better suited for the 2.5GHz spectrum. Meanwhile, T-Mobile will be relying on Intel's 5G mobile platform in 600 MHz smartphones. One thing is for...

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The Pocophone F1 camera will get 4K at 60fps video mode in February

The camera on the Pocophone F1 keeps getting better. A stable build with the 960fps slow-mo mode will roll out in a couple of weeks and that same update will enable Xiaomi's Night mode. The team is also working on enabling 4K video capture at 60fps. The stable release of this update is scheduled for some time in February. Poco camera originally supported only 30fps recording (at 2160p and 1080p). The first update also promises to resolve the battery drain and touch issues that users have reported. The Pocophone F1 lacks Widevine L1, meaning it can't stream HD video from Netflix...

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LG, Sony, and Vizio announce TVs with AirPlay 2 support

LG, Sony, and Vizio are joining Samsung in the first batch of brands to include AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support in their range of upcoming TVs. LG will be adding AirPlay 2 support in its range of 2019 televisions that it announced at CES. This includes the LG OLED, LG NanoCell SM9X series, LG NanoCell SM8X series, and LG UHD UM7X series. All of these will be shipping later this year. Sony announced that it will be bringing AirPlay 2 to its 2019 series of televisions that run on the Android TV platform. This includes the Z9G series, A9G series, and X850G series that will be coming out...

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Sharp Aquos Zero with Snapdragon 845 finally escapes Japan

Sharp just announced its Aquos Zero will be hitting its first international market as it goes on sale in Taiwan. At 146g the company claims it's the lightest 6-inch smartphone in the market, but its internals are still nothing to frown at. The Sharp Aquos Zero comes with Snapdragon 845paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of non-expandable storage. It's built around a 6.2-inch curved OLED screen by Sharp with QHD+ resolution (1,440 x 2,992 px) and features Gorilla Glass 5 protection. On the back, you will find only one camera with 22.6MP resolution and f/1.9 lens while the front...

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Verizon will soon offer the BlackBerry KEY2 LE to its business owners

In a few weeks the BlackBerry KEY2 LE will become available to Verizon Enterprise and Small Business customers. Late last year the QWERTY-packing phone gained support for Verizon's network, but you couldn't buy one from the carrier.d The Verizon version will come with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage (expandable). There will be a dual SIM version (hybrid slot). BlackBerry KEY2 LE is coming to Verizon's business customers The KEY2 LE is built for business users as it focuses on productivity and privacy. The Locker feature helps you control what info is synced with the cloud...

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alcatel 1x (2019) hands-on

The alcatel 1x sequel was just unveiled a CES, a little under a year after the original (which made its debut at the MWC). The phone is bigger and better than before, but it is the same at its core - a simple value for money proposition. The phone now has a 5.5" 18:9 screen, offering about 8% more screen real estate. The real upgrade is that this is now a 720 x 1,440px panel, increasing the pixel density to 292ppi - a noticeable jump from the 480 x 960px display on the original. A larger 5.5-inch screen • One-handed mode is available if that's too much for you The screen is...

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alcatel 1x unveiled with 5.5" 720p screen, alcatel 1c Go edition phone tags along

This year at CES alcatel has brought two Android phones for the masses. Both have 18:9 screens, which offer slightly more screen real estate while keeping the phones relatively compact. These two choose sensibility over vanity and go with grippy, fingerprint resistant backs instead of trying to fit a metal cover in this budget. The alcatel 1x (2019) brings a larger, sharper display than last year's model. The 5.5" display has a 720p+ IPS panel and is guarded by 2.5D Dragontrail glass. Not bad for the budget, which is $120/€120. alcatel 1x in Pebble Black and Pebble Blue It...

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Snapdragon 855-powered Xiaomi Cepheus spotted at Geekbench, likely Mi 9

In two days Xiaomi will unveil a new Redmi phone with a 48MP camera. However, there's another device in the works - a flagship. The Xiaomi "Cepheus" has swung by Geekbench and it showed what the Snapdragon 855 can do. If the name "Cepheus" sounds familiar, you may have seen the recent APK-teardown by XDA, which found references to this code name. There was evidence of a 48MP camera, an in-display fingerprint reader and an always on display mode. So, clearly a Mi flagship and it's quite possible that this is the Xiaomi Mi 9. The S855 chipset will be used in the 5G version of the Mi Mix...

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Richard Yu outlines Huawei's priorities for 2019 in open letter

Huawei was a company of contrasts in 2018 - it reached new highs in smartphone sales while being repeatedly targeted by governments across the globe because of privacy issues and evading trade sanctions. Richard Yu, Huawei CEO, addressed these issues in an open letter, along with priorities for 2019 and plans for the next 5 to 10 years. He also shared that his company managed to ship 200 million smartphone in 2018, making it the second biggest manufacturer in the world. Huawei CEO, Richard Yu Yu revealed that another 100 million devices were sold in 2018, including PCs,...

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LG Q4 preliminary earnings for 2018 show 10% increase in sales

LG announced today its preliminary earnings for the fourth quarter of 2018, along with total annual results. The company reached KRW15.8 trillion (about $14 billion) of consolidated revenues, which is slightly more than the sales results from the previous quarter. However, the operating profit went down sharply from KRW748 trillion in Q3 2018 (about $664 billion) to KRW75.3 trillion or nearly $67 billion. The annual numbers look slightly more promising - sales for the 12 months of 2018 reached KRW61.3 trillion ($54.4 billion), surpassing the 60 trillion mark for a second consecutive...

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Xiaomi's new AirDots Pro are the answer to Apple's AirPods

Xiaomi finally made its AirDots Pro truly wireless earbuds official. They look a lot like Apple's AirPods and aim to provide an alternative to the latter minus the price premium. The buds will set you back just CNY 399 ($60) and will be available starting January 11. The Mi AirDots Pro offer plenty of features as well. They weigh just 5.8g each and work with Android and iOS devices as well as Windows notebooks. The best part is that both buds can function independently from one another without affecting the sound quality. The buds boast 7mm neodymium iron boron drivers in...

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Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite runs Geekbench with Snapdragon 855

The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite may have a simpler camera setup and a smaller flat screen compared to its more premium siblings, but it will use the exact same chipsets. The Geekbench database already contains results from the SM-G970U - the US version of the S10 Lite. It's powered by the Snapdragon 855 chipset (code named "Nile") and it packs 6GB of RAM. That matches the 6GB we saw on the Galaxy S10+ (Exynos) when it went through AnTuTu, but obviously there could be several memory tiers. The benchmark score seems pretty low, below what the S845 scores. Seeing that this is a pre-release...

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Samsung posts Q4 guidance, profit goes down 38%

Samsung had a smashing 2018 performance with multiple record-breaking quarters, mostly thanks to a boom in memory chips demand. Now the effect is wearing off and the Q4 guidance, posted by the Korean company is quite disappointing. In a short press release, Samsung said the expected consolidated sales are approximately KRW59 trillion, while the operating profit should be around KRW10.8 trillion. These numbers are down respectively 38% and 10% from the previous quarter, while on a yearly basis, sales declined 28% and profit is down 10%. The company traditionally posts full...

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Redmi 7 official images surface

Xiaomi's founder, Lei Jun, teased on Weibo Redmi's first smartphone under its own brand - the Redmi 7. The past few days we had plenty of information going around, but these renders are our best look at the device yet. Redmi 7 renders in different colors The images depict the handset in its three color variants that leaked yesterday blue, red/purple and black. Along with the pictures, Lei Jun reveals that the smartphone will feature a 2.5D glass on both sides. There are just two days until the official announcement of the Redmi 7 and we can't wait to see how the 48MP main...

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Xiaomi Black Shark Skywalker appears on Geekbench with Snapdragon 855

Xiaomi introduced its first gaming device back in April, called Black Shark. Later it followed it up with the Black Shark Helo that was presented with 10 GB RAM and 256 GB storage, while most of the other internals remained the same. Now the Chinese maker is preparing a third phone, called Black Shark Skywalker. According to a Geekbench listing, it will have Snapdragon 855 and at least 8 GB RAM. The 3,494 single-core result and the 11,149 multi-core score are pretty much in line with a previously leaked benchmark - the Xperia XZ4 powered by the latest flagship Qualcomm chipset. The...

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