New Oppo phone appears on TENAA, a slightly faster Reno3

Oppo introduced the Reno3 and Reno3 Pro smartphones in the last days of 2019. It now appears another smartphone is expected to join the family. Oppo PCLM50 was certified at TENAA, and while there are no photos yet, the full specs sheet has been posted. The device has the same size and weight as the Reno3, but the CPU appears to be slightly faster, while the main camera is downgraded to 48 MP. The CPU of the Oppo PCLM50 can reach 2.4 GHz and comes coupled to a chipset with a 5G modem. Given the Oppo Reno3 is running on Mediatek's fastest Dimensity 1000 platform, we are probably...

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DxOMark ranks the Sony Xperia 5 in the same class as the Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone 8 Plus

The latest smartphone tested by DxOMark is the Sony Xperia 5. Announced at IFA in September, the Xperia 5 is a midrange device with triple cameras, all with 12MP sensors. The Sony Xperia 5 was released a few months after the flagship-grade Xperia 1. Despite the former's mid-range position and hardware, it uses an identical triple-camera setup as the Xperia 1. Though there were improvements over the Xperia 1's cameras, DxOMark wasn't impressed with the Xperia 5. It received an overall score of 95 (the Xperia 1 got 91) with a 101 for photography and 83 for video. Slight improvements in...

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POCO secretly teases its next phone will be called "POCO X2"

It was just a few days ago that POCO has spring into an independent new brand. Following the news, POCO India posted a teaser video on Twitter offering a look into "Season 2" of POCO, hinting that upcoming smartphones from the brand are just over the horizon. #POCOIsHere and it'll give chills to others. IYKWWM 😉Season 2 is live now! Brace yourself for the impact. pic.twitter.com/wJPWgDgwCn— POCO India (@IndiaPOCO) January 21, 2020 In the first setup of the teaser, the name "POCO X2" is hinted at, but you need to look closely to see it. The characters of the name are scattered...

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Deal: T-Mobile OnePlus 6T is on sale for $349

OnePlus is currently running a sale on the OnePlus 6T. The OnePlus site in the US, the brand is selling off the T-Mobile variant of the 6T for $349 - a full $200 off the original price. In case you're wondering, that's for the Mirror Black T-Mobile variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Remember that OnePlus phones don't offer expandable storage and in case you were wondering, the 6T is no longer available directly from T-Mobile. Although the phone is already over a year old at this point, the OnePlus 6T was still one of the fastest smartphones of its time thanks to the...

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Amazon tops brands value chart, Google and Amazon complete podium

The latest Brand Finance Global 500 report is out and for the third year in a row Amazon tops the chart as the most valuable brand, its worth estimated at $220.7 billion. This is also the first time a company has surpassed the $200 billion mark and in Amazon's case a 17.5% improvement over its 2019 result. Top 10 Most Valuable Brands (Brand Finance) The growth is attributed to the company's expansion in cloud computing, streaming services, consumer electronics and logistics. Skimming through the top 10 list, Google comes in at the second spot with a sizeable $159.7 billion...

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Xiaomi Mi 9 long-term review video

It seems like the original Xiaomi Mi 9 flagship was released forever ago. Well, it has been almost an year, but the current mobile industry pace is what really managed to bury this otherwise still interesting phone rather quickly. Our own Angie has been daily-driving the Mi 9 for a few months now and has a few things to share from her experience. Now, we definitely won't go as far as to try and convince you or ourselves that none of the newer devices that succeed the Mi 9 are a better deal in 2020. Some of these are really hard to disregard, like the Mi 9T Pro or the Redmi K30,...

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FCC confirms the Samsung Galaxy A01 is headed to the US

Samsung has really been expanding the Galaxy A family lately if not necessarily in the most straight-forward and easy to understand way. The Galaxy A01, quietly announced last month, is at least doubly confusing. Not only are we still lacking specifics on certain aspects of its internals, like the chipset, but that naming convention seems really odd. Samsung Galaxy A01 There is still little official word on when and where the phone will be made available too. Thanks to a couple of FCC pages, we now at least have a hint as to the "where" part of that question as the Galaxy A01...

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Huawei P40 Pro render shows off new mint green color

The past two weeks have been rich in leaks for the upcoming Huawei P40 series flagships. Yesterday brought us our first live images of the P40 Pro and now we have a new render of the same phone in a new mint green color courtesy of Evan Blass (evleaks). Last week we learned that Huawei is planning to bring three P-series flagships this time around with the P40, P40 Pro and P40 Pro Premium. One of the main differentiating factors between the three will be their rear camera count with the Premium edition packing up to 5 sensors while the Pro will settle for four. The main camera...

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Motorola Razr foldable US launch pushed back to February 6

It's been a few months since Motorola officially unveiled its Razr modernized foldable screem take on the iconic Razr V3 design. Delays in release schedule for the nostalgia-infused handheld followed almost instantly but now the release is finally in sight. We are sure high interest in the product is only half of the story here, especially now with word of Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip also on the horizon. Regardless, Motorola appears to be following through with a US release for the Razr. As per the latest info, the official US schedule for the phone has January 26 set as the pre-order...

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Sony to unveil several 5G phones at the MWC

Sony is expected to unveil its first 5G phone - or phones - at the MWC in late February. The rumors are still shifting, so some details are uncertain. Even the name of the new flagship is yet to be settled, we've heard everything from "Sony Xperia 1.1" to "Xperia 0" and "Xperia 3". It will pack a 4K HDR screen and will feature a Snapdragon 865 chipset with X55 5G modem. The camera department on the back will be upgraded to a quad setup with the addition of a ToF sensor. The main camera sensor is expected to go up to 48MP (or even 64MP) and it will be joined by two 12MP sensors for...

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Xiaomi becomes 4th largest smartphone maker in Western Europe in 2019

It's not just India, Europe loves Xiaomi too. President of Xiaomi International Shou Zi Chew stated that the company is the fourth largest smartphone maker in Western Europe. The company's market share has reportedly grown an impressive 90% year over year. For the first three quarters of 2019, Xiaomi recorded a revenue of $10 billion. Half of that comes from outside of China, meaning that Xiaomi is truly a global company. The plans for this year are to release over ten 5G phones, many of which will be available globally. Shou Zi Chew at the 2020 World Economic Forum Xiaomi makes...

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Realme X2 beta testers start receiving Android 10 and Realme UI

Realme UI is already being pushed to Realme 3 Pro users, but Realme X2 owners are also up for a treat. According to a post on the Chinese side of the company forum, the phone brand is seeding the final update to its early beta adopters, meaning a wider rollout should follow in the next month or so. Realme X2 screenshots The screenshots reveal the name of the package, which is RMX1991_11_C.02, bringing Android 10-based Realme UI. The user interface is basically a redesigned ColorOS 7 with some new features like Personal Information Protection that seeds blank entries to apps,...

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Renders of two new budget LG phones leak ahead of imminent release

LG promised to turn its mobile division's fortunes around but with the fierce competition out there it's going to be a tough undertaking. Nevertheless, the Korean giant is starting to revamp its lineup and we are now getting our first look at a couple of its upcoming phones. LG L555DL and L455DL Evan Blass (aka @evleaks) tweeted a photo of the LG L555DL and L455DL without any details about their hardware. What we do know is that both will be offered by US prepaid carrier Tracfone. In addition, they feature waterdrop notches and what looks like LG's UX 8.0 on top of Android 9....

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Motorola One Hyper is available in Europe

The Motorola One Hyper made its debut in December and originally launched in Brazil and the US. Now, Moto's first phone with a 64MP main camera and a pop-up selfie cam is available on the Old Continent as well. You can find it on Lenovo's UK site for £270 and in the Netherlands for €300. It's also available through Dutch retailer Belsimpel, though the same 4/128GB model costs €330 there. The Norwegian site is also selling the phone, but the price is SEK 4,000 (€380). The cost in Finland is similar, €370. We also found the One Hyper on Lenovo's German and French sites, though...

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IDC: Samsung and Xiaomi dominate Indian smartphone market in H2 2019

IDC has published its report on the Indian smartphone market in the July-November period and it's good news for Xiaomi and Samsung, which remained the top makers in the period. September saw Samsung lose its second place to Realme, but the company sales went down after that and it was fifth for the final two months in the analysis. Its numbers are still amazing for a company that hasn't even had two full years in the market. Market share (%) by Company July 2019 August 2019 September 2019 October 2019 November 2019 Xiaomi 25.47 ...

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LG included Desktop mode with its Android 10 update

For some reason LG kept this on the hush-hush, but its Android 10 update comes with a custom Desktop mode, similar to the ones offered by rivals Samsung and Huawei. This feature was discovered by Carlos Bagnell while browsing through his updated LG V50 ThinQ 5G. Android 10 has a Google implementation of Desktop mode, but it isn't particularly good. The LG version does a much better version of spanning large displays (though it is itself in need of some polish). Check out Carlos' demo below: Watch #SGGQA 130: FBI iPhone Unlocking, EU Charge Cables, Android 10 on the LG V50 from...

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Huawei's EMUI now powers 50 million devices

Last month Huwaei said that 10 million phones are already running the Android 10-based EMUI 10. Today, the company took it to Weibo to mark another milestone - 50,000,000 devices from all across the world are on the latest user interface, after a massive OTA update push to global units earlier this month. EMUI 10 was initially introduced on August 9 in China with a system-wide Dark Mode, more responsive interface and faster hardware thanks to some boosters like GPU Turbo 3.0. Huawei also revealed all EMUI 10 devices will be able to link seamlessly to computers for file exchange and...

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First image of Realme's Sayshat fitness band pops-up online

Realme has teased its upcoming fitness band earlier this month during the Realme 5i launch event. Now we have what looks to be an official promotional banner for the device. The design looks quite straightforward and definitely has some Mi Band vibes. We can probably assume that like Xiaomi's popular family of wearables, the Realme alternative will have its main, compact plastic body pop in and out of a silicone band, both for charging and swapping styles. The display on the front of the unit looks to also be roughly comparable in size - rumors have suggested a 0.78-inch OLED,...

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Apple to begin iPhone 9 production in February, announcement coming in March

Apple will begin assembling its lower-cost iPhone 9 in February and make it official in March, as per supply chain sources quoted by Bloomberg. The assembly will reportedly be split between Taiwan-based manufacturers Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn), Pegatron Corp and Winstron Corp. The report claims the iPhone 9 will have an iPhone 8-inspired design with a Touch ID home button, 4.7-inch screen and iPhone 11-matching Apple A13 Bionic chipset. We've heard different reports, however, which suggest that the lower-cost iPhone 9 will indeed have an iPhone 8-inspired design but omit...

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Samsung Galaxy M11, M31 and A11 get certified by Wi-Fi Alliance

Samsung had great success in the midrange market last year thanks to its revamped A-series and M-series. 2020 is set to deliver even more Samsung phones in that segment and a new set of certifications from the Wi-Fi Alliance gives us some more details about the upcoming Galaxy M11, M31 and A11. The listing reveals all three handsets will run Android 10 but the M11 (model number SM-M115F/DS) and A11 (SM-A115F/DS) will only support single band 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connectivity while the M31 (SM-M315F/DS) steps up to dual-band capabilities. Galaxy M11 and M31 certifications The only...

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