LG Neon Plus incoming with dated looks, render reveals

LG is rumored to unveil the flagship V60 ThinQ next year in February at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. But before that, the company might announce a budget smartphone dubbed Neon Plus that has appeared in a leaked render. The image confirms the blue color for the Neon Plus and reveals the design which looks straight from 2016 since the display is surrounded by thick bezels at the top and bottom. The render also tells us that the smartphone will come with a single 8MP primary camera and a 5MP selfie shooter. The phone has its power button on the right side, with the...

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WhatsApp adds expiring messages for group chats in latest beta

WhatsApp frequently adds features to its widely popular communication app. Back in October, it was rumored that WhatsApp was testing a new feature called "Disappearing Messages" but its function wasn't clear until now. The feature has been spotted again in the latest version 2.19.275 of WhatsApp Beta for Android and we have a better understanding of its purpose. The feature has since been refined and renamed to "Delete messages" and lets the users messages expire after a selected amount of time, either an hour, day, week, month, or year. Source: WABetaInfo As per WABetaInfo's...

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Next-gen Huawei Mate X is launching in the second half of 2020

We've already heard that a slightly changed version of Huawei's Mate X foldable smartphone will make an appearance at MWC 2020 in February, sporting the Kirin 990 chipset and possibly named Mate Xs. But that's just a minor revision of an already existing product. The true successor to the Mate X, according to a new rumor from Taiwan's supply chain makers, will land at some point during the second half of next year. Some of the company's suppliers for the upcoming phone, including those for hinges and panels, have already begun small-volume trial production runs for components the new...

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Android 11 could finally let you record videos over 4GB in size

Fun fact: Android phones can't record video files that are larger than 4GB in size. This could possibly change next year in Android 11, though, and to say it would be a welcome change is a huge understatement. The limitation is getting more and more annoying as time goes by, because right now handsets capable of recording 4K videos at 30fps are basically everywhere, and that means big file sizes. 4K60 takes up even more space, and don't be surprised if the first devices with 8K recording capabilities show up on the market in the very near future. With that in mind, the size per...

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Top stories of 2019: Q3

As the year winds down it's a great time to reflect on the top stories of the past 12 months. This is the third of four installments where we look at the stories that shaped this year. Here are the top stories of Q1, Q2. We're now entering the fall flagship territory. The long and mostly uneventful summer has passed and the world of tech has finally begun picking up again. This is the time when the biggest makers in the world unveil their most important flagships (or joint most important, for companies like Samsung). The first major second-half of the year flagship came out...

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Realme X50 will have over two-day battery life

The next 5G Realme smartphone is the Realme X50. It's a 5G supported smartphone arriving with the Snapdragon 765G chipset on deck. This was one of the chipsets announced at the Qualcomm Summit earlier this month with 5G support on-board via the integrated modem. Today, Realme China's product manager, Wang Wei Derek, posted a screenshot on Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo from the Realme X50 5G with the text reading "After one day of use" (translated). The screenshot showed the phone was left with 62%. Source: Weibo Obviously, we don't know the kind of usage that the...

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2019 Winners and Losers: Huawei and Honor

This year the mobile phone market saw the rise of many new trends - from high refresh rate screens through 108MP image sensors to periscope cameras. The first foldable phones went on sale, charging speeds went through the roof, displays got curvier and grew punch holes. Some brands used these trends to their advantage and grow in the market, others missed the mark. In this series we look at what each company got right in 2019 and where their efforts came short. Next up is the company that many expected to dominate the year and fight for the global lead, but ultimately came at the wrong...

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Counterpoint: iPhone XR was the top-selling smartphone globally in last quarter

The iPhone XR announced last September was the top-selling smartphone across the globe in Q3 2019, according to a report by Counterpoint Research's Market Pulse. It captured a market share of 3% and also remained the best-selling smartphone in every quarter globally since Q4 2018. Counterpoint reports that iPhone XR alone contributed to over one-quarter of Apple's total sales during the quarter, which made it the best-selling smartphone for the Cupertino-based tech giant across all markets. Apple also tweaked the XR's prices in China and other regions to keep the demand strong...

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Redmi Note 8 lineup is available on open sale in India

Xiaomi released the Redmi Note 8 series for the Indian market in mid-October, and until now they were sold during flash sales. Due to "popular demand", the company has finally launched an open sale for the Redmi Note 8, Redmi Note 8 Pro and Redmi 8. They can be purchased during any time of day at Flipkart or Amazon, Mi.com, and some offline stores. The Redmi Note 8 Pro is one of the first phones on the market with a 64 MP camera and a Helio G90T chipset. It has a huge 4,500 mAh battery and a microSD slot, which is exclusive for India. Xiaomi also included an 18W charger in the box...

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Oppo Enco Free TWS earphones arrive with AI noise cancellation and up to 25-hour battery life

Oppo today unveiled the Reno3 series at an event in Hangzhou, China and alongside that, the company launched its truly wireless earphones, dubbed Oppo Enco Free. The Oppo Enco Free pack 13.4mm dynamic drivers and have a frequency response range of 16Hz to 20KHz. They come with an FPC positioning system paired with a dual magnetic circuit and composite diaphragm to deliver detailed, studio-quality audio. The Enco Free sport a half in-ear design but they also come with silicon tips in three different sizes for a better fit. The earphones weigh 4.6 grams each and are IPX4 certified,...

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MediaTek introduces the mid-range chipset Dimensity 800 that comes with integrated 5G

MediaTek hosted a quick press conference in Beijing where it introduced to media representatives the Dimensity 800 chipset, aimed to power mid-range smartphones in 2020. It has an integrated 5G modem and will be a more affordable solution than the Dimensity 1000/L that can be found in the Oppo Reno3 smartphone. The company did not disclose any specs but revealed the platform will be demoed at CES 2020 in Las Vegas in the first days of the new year. Expectations are the Dimensity 800 to compete with smartphones powered by Kirin 800 series and Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 series chipsets....

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Huawei P40 Pro might come with a penta camera setup and notchless display

The Huawei P40 and P40 Pro are coming in March 2020 and we already got a glimpse of their designs through leaked renders last week, which revealed the P40 duo will sport rectangular camera islands on the back. The images didn't reveal the total number of rear cameras, but thanks to a recently leaked image, we know the Pro variant will come with a total of five snappers on its back - a 64MP Sony IMX686 main sensor joined by a 20MP ultrawide, a 12MP periscope telephoto (10x optical zoom), a macro camera, and a 3D ToF unit. The image shows off the P40 Pro in blue color, with the four...

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Oppo Reno3 Pro and Oppo Reno3 are official with 5G out of the box

Oppo just announced the Reno3 lineup in its home market, while the Western world is still recovering from the feast of food and emotions and presents that is Christmas. There were two phones on stage - the Reno3 Pro and the Reno3, both of which come with 5G connectivity. The mightier Pro version has a Snapdragon 765G chipset, while the vanilla Reno3 is the first smartphone to sport MediaTek's new Dimensity 1000L SoC. Oppo Reno3 Pro The Reno3 Pro has a 6.5" OLED panel with a 90 Hz refresh rate and a punch hole for the selfie camera. The panel has a 180 Hz touch detection rate for...

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Realme X50 5G appears in an official poster, live image confirms side-mounted fingerprint reader

The Realme X50 5G, coming on January 7, has appeared in an official poster shared by the company's CMO Xu Qi Chase on Weibo. The image posted by Chase shows off the X50 5G in Polar color while also revealing the back of the phone housing a quad-camera setup aligned vertically in the upper-left corner, with the Realme logo down below. The design is reminiscent of the XT and X2, but upon closer inspection, you can see that the flash is placed below the text and there's no text under the camera encircled with yellow rings - something that we've seen on all Realme smartphones with quad...

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