Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro will have five cameras, arriving on November 5

The Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro has been in the rumor mill for the past month and the device is allegedly coming with 30W fast-charging. Another rumor saying the phone will have a 108 MP camera appears to be true, according to a poster by Xiaomi, saying the phone will arrive on November 5. The image also reveals the Mi CC9 Pro will have a total of five cameras, lined up vertically. The setup also shows two dual-LED flashes next to a sign, saying "5X Optical", giving heads up about the telephoto camera. Xiaomi is pushing its CC lineup for "creative and curious" people that love to take...

Read More

Week 43 in review: Pixels start shipping, S10/Note10 fingerprint issues

This week a story broke that the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note10 series was susceptible to an exploit which would allow someone to unlock the phones with an unregistered fingerprint. Apparently the issue had to do with covering the fingerprint scanner surface with a silicone or TPU protector. Samsung has since swiftly fixed the issue with a software update. Google's Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL were in the middle of the news vortex yet again. They started shipping and some early adopters received their phone with a cereal as bonus. Then DxO Mark released its...

Read More

Honor Band 5 review

Honor has been in the wearables market for several years and has already launched five generations of smart bands. The latest Honor Band 5 is the logical evolution of Band 4 - on paper, it keeps all the key features, while improving the battery life and adding tracking for more activities. We've spent a fair amount of time with the gadget and now we are ready to share our observations. Unboxing Just like all cheap smart bands, you get a small wearable with its rubbery band and a proprietary charging adapter. The Honor Band 5 cannot be separated from the strap, unlike the Mi...

Read More

Top 10 trending phones of week 43

Following the dramatic changes from the previous seven days, week 43 saw our trending chart remain relatively stable. While there are three new names - top four are unchanged. The Redmi Note 8 Pro extends its streak at the top to three weeks with the regular Redmi Note 8 maintaining its second place. The Realme X2 Pro completes the podium ahead of the Samsung Galaxy A50, while another Realme - the 5 Pro shot up to fifth. Apple's iPhone 11 Pro Max continues its strong form and recaptures sixth place, while the Samsung Galaxy M30s returns to take seventh. Redmi 8 is down three...

Read More

The all rounder - why the Galaxy Note10+ is the flagship to beat right now

There's never a better time to take a look at the smartphone landscape of any given year than at the end of October. The Samsung Galaxy Note started the H2 flagship avalanche, followed by the annual Apple iPhones, the Huawei Mates, Google's Pixels and OnePlus' T refreshes. It's all here and it's all on sale, except the Huaweis due to their tricky situation, so you can have the full palette of premium smartphones to chose from for the Holiday season. And I'm here to tell you that the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ is the most sensible choice for your pocket this season. Before we get into why I...

Read More

Weekly poll: which is the best focal length for telephoto cameras?

We never thought we'd see it on a phone that doesn't have camera bolted to it (a la Galaxy Camera). And there's a good reason - 5x optical zoom on a phone took impressive feats of engineering - to underline how difficult it was, we'd like to point out that no company has done it twice. Huawei got there first with the P30 Pro, which was released in March. Then Oppo joined with the Reno 10x zoom in June. And that's it. No other smartphone maker has a phone 5x optical zoom. However, neither Huawei nor Oppo followed up with new models. The Mate 30 Pro dropped back to 3x. The several Renos...

Read More

Oppo Reno Ace in for review

Oppo introduced a couple of Reno2 smartphones earlier this year, but the lineup was missing a true flagship with Snapdragon 855+ chipset. Lo and behold, the Oppo Reno Ace is now here and it seems to have what it takes to rival the best in the market - 90 Hz display, four cameras, huge battery and a market-topping 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging. However, a smartphone should be judged by its real life performance rather than specs sheet so we got the Reno Ace with us to uncover all the pros and cons and see if the $500 phone really is as good as it appears. The Oppo Reno Ace is...

Read More

Weekly poll results: Pixel 4 XL somewhat makes up for the lackluster Pixel 4

People aren't happy about the old image sensor. They are not happy that there's no ultrawide camera. The limited storage is an issue. But what people dislike the most about the Pixel 4 is the small battery. The little Google phone got hammered in last week's poll, getting only 11% of the vote. It even lost out to older Pixels - by a single percentage point, but still. The Pixel 4 XL seems to have fared better, okay even. It got 27% of the vote and while that's still well short of the "Google missed the mark" option (which got 50% of the vote), it's pretty clear which of the two Pixels...

Read More