Verizon offers 15GB of additional data and waives overage and late fees amidst COVID-19

Verizon is announcing the steps it's taking to help its customers during the COVID-19 outbreak, which leaves many with interrupted incomes and unpredictable hardships. Along with additional high-speed data, customers don't need to worry about overage or late fees for up to 60 days. Verizon Wireless customers will be given 15GB of additional high-speed data starting on March 15, lasting through April 30. This will be done automatically with no action required from subscribers. For those who already have an unlimited plan, Verizon is offering additional hotspot data, and the same can be said...

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Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S20 and S20+ are now $200 off

The Galaxy S20 and S20+ have only been available for a few weeks, but Samsung has already decided to create a special offer for you if you want to purchase either of these. Both models are now $200 off at Amazon. The Galaxy S20 can be yours for $799.99 (down from $999.99), while the S20+ is $999.99 instead of $1,199.99. So effectively you can now get an S20+ for the usual price of an S20. It's unclear how long this deal will last. Also note that due to shipping constraints created by the COVID-19 pandemic, if you order now you'll receive your device on April 1 to April 3. That's...

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Apple once again lets you buy as many iPhones as you can afford

Just in case your idea of self-quarantine is hoarding as many iPhones as possible, Apple has your back. The company has now reversed its stance on how many of its smartphones you are allowed to buy in one go. Last week, it emerged that Apple was imposing a purchasing limit of just two units at a time. It looks like that was only valid over the weekend, as the limit is now gone. You can once again order as many iPhones as you please. Or, you know, as many as your bank account will let you. Well, that's not technically true - there still is a limit, it's just that it's 999 units. So...

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Redmi Note 9 Pro Max release in India gets delayed

Xiaomi's sub-brand unveiled the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Redmi Note 9 Pro Max a couple of weeks ago, and the Pro model has already undergone a very successful first online sale in India. The next one is coming on March 24. On the other hand, the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max was initially supposed to be up for grabs on March 25. However, its first sale has now been delayed indefinitely. The sad news comes straight from Redmi's official Indian Twitter account. 📢 ANNOUNCEMENT:Due to recent state lockdowns across the Nation, we're postponing the 1st sale of #RedmiNote9ProMax to a later...

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Samsung Galaxy S20 series camera update goes global

Last week Samsung released its software camera fix for the Exynos-powered Galaxy S20 series and now the is making its way to more regions and is also arriving to Snapdragon units in the US. The Samsung Camera app will now boast the latest 10.0.01.98 build number. The S20 Ultra's autofocus and skin tone problems were addressed by the OTA update that is now seeding to S20 Ultra, S20+ and S20 users in Germany and the US on both carrier locked and SIM-free units. Galaxy S20 series ATCH update changelogs The update carries the same G98xxXXUxATCH build number where "xx" will vary...

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What to expect: a list of phone launches until the end of March

The MWC was cancelled, which caused many plans to change, but that hasn't slowed down the pace of new releases - we're in for 10 or so busy days, here's a handy list of all new smartphone launches coming by the end of March. March 24 - Redmi K30 Pro The Redmi K30 Pro will be unveiled this Tuesday. The company has already confirmed a flagship Snapdragon 865 chipset and has teased that a pop-up selfie camera will replace the punch hole. 5G connectivity is a given. Redmi K30 Pro teasers The 120Hz LCD will be switched out for a 60Hz AMOLED display from Samsung (the phone will...

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Samsung Galaxy M41 (or M51) CAD-based renders show 3.5mm jack, punch hole selfie camera

Samsung's M-series has been going strong and soon it will get a new member, seen here in CAD-based renders by @OnLeaks (and new partner Pigtou). This is billed as the Samsung Galaxy M51, though it's apparently a successor to the Galaxy M40 so it might launch as the M41 (there was no M50 to begin with). Samsung Galaxy M41 (or M51) The phone has a larger display - a flat 6.5" panel. That's 0.2" bigger than the M40 display, which is why this may get the "M51" name. Anyway, the phone measures 162.6 x 77.5 x 8.5mm, 9.5mm if you include the camera bump on the back. That hump should...

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Kuo: Next-gen flagship iPhone to feature sensor-shift image stabilization

According to the latest investor note from Apple analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, next year's 6.7-inch flagship iPhone (12 Pro Max) will come with some notable camera improvements. Chief among these will be the new five-axis sensor-shift image stabilization for the main camera which we heard about back in December. The new setup will replace the current optical image stabilization for the main camera and allow for shake-free shots while maintaining a slimmer profile. In addition, the main shooter will boast a large 1/1.9″ sensor and 7P element setup. We recently came across a report that...

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Facebook, Instagram and Disney+ lower streaming quality in Europe to reduce bandwidth usage

As more and more people are either working from home or just looking for at-home entertainment, Europe's Internet infrastructure is buckling. So, the EU is calling on video streaming providers to reduce bandwidth usage and Facebook and Disney+ are the latest to respond. This will affect the video quality on Facebook as well as Instagram (which is owned by the social networking giant). This comes after Netflix and YouTube reduced the streaming quality on the Old Continent, as did Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+. Disney is taking measures too by delaying the launch of its new service...

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LG G9 will be a mid-ranger with S765G chipset, 1080p screen, according to report from Korea

In a bid to return to profitability, LG will change the strategy of its mobile division - it will sell 5G flagships (i.e. LG V60) in North America and Western Europe and moderately-priced flagships (LG G9) in other regions (including South Korea). According to a report from Korea the feature gap between the G-series and the V-series will grow. The LG G9 will practically drop to mid-range status with a Snapdragon 765G chipset and a 1080p-class OLED display. It will be a larger display, 6.7" to 6.9" (up from 6.1" on the G8), perhaps because the larger LG V60 will not be available in the...

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Realme 3 and 3i get VoWiFi support with the latest update

Realme has started seeding its monthly update for the Realme 3 and 3i smartphones. The patch is 147MB big and carries the build number RMX1821EX_11.A.26. It brings the March 2020 security patch and squashes a couple of bugs for both phones. More importantly, it adds support for VoWiFi in India to users using Airtel and Jio services. Both phones are expected to receive Realme's new UI based on Android 10 sometime next month. Source

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Hands-on photos of Redmi K30 Pro show up a day before the launch

We already saw the Blue Xiaomi Redmi K30 Pro get disassembled on video, now hands-on photos of the the White version have surfaced on Weibo. Well, the back panel is white, anyway, while the circular camera hump and the front panel are still black. Xiaomi Redmi K30 Pro hands-on photos That camera hump will be quite impressive, housing two 64MP sensors - one for wide angle shots, another for 3x telephoto shooting (akin to the Galaxy S20). The phone will be capable of recording 8K video too, the rear camera will be quite an improvement over the current K30 and K30 Pro. Weirdly,...

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Honor Play 9A arriving on March 30 with a huge battery

The Honor 30 lineup is coming in seven days, and now we hear the Honor Play 9A will join the party as well. An official teaser was posted on the Weibo page of Honor, revealing the launch date of March 30, as well as the suggestion it will have a huge battery. Honor Play 9A official teaser The Honor Play 9A was leaked with its official renders, and the phone was said to come with Helio P35 chipset, 4GB RAM and up to 128GB of storage. The battery was rumored to be 5,000 mAh, and looking at how Honor advertises the phone with "long life" and "super endurance", the rumor might be...

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Redmi Note 9S officially launches on April 7, but you can get one sooner

The Redmi Note 9 Pro already had its first sale in India (which ended in minutes), now the international version of the phone has launched - the Redmi Note 9S. It's currently up for pre-order on Gearbest at $210 for the 4/64GB model, the 6/128GB one is $250. You can reserve a place in line with a $10 deposit, shipments are planned to start between March 31 and April 2 and the online retailer is ready to send the phone worldwide (or it could start shipping in 16 days, there's currently conflicting information). Gearbest is offering a "deposit expansion" bonus, meaning that $10...

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Huawei's Kirin 820 5G outperforms Snapdragon 855 and Kirin 980

The Kirin 820 5G has been popping up on our news feed for the last couple of weeks and we even had a pretty comprehensive report regarding the platform's details. Now, we have some insight into the performance as well. Based on its Geekbench 4 scores, the Kirin 820 5G can outperform the Snapdragon 855 in a single-core tests. It also beats the Kirin 980 in both single-thread and multi-thread performance. Perhaps, this is due to the main Cortex-A76 cores being clocked higher. Not to mention that this mid-range chip largely benefits from the energy-efficient 7nm process, much like this...

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Redmi Note 9S announced: the Note 9 Pro's global counterpart

Xiaomi's online event for the Redmi Note 9S just finished and just as expected it's a new name for the already announced Redmi Note 9 Pro. That's not to take anything away from what is certainly a great phone though. The Redmi Note 9S is built around a 6.67-inch IPS LCD panel with 1080 x 2400px (20:9 aspect ratio) resolution. Xiaomi says it can reach up to 450 nits brightness, supports HDR10 and complies with TÜV Rheinland's standards for low blue light emissions. This is also the first phone from the series with a punch hole for the selfie camera, which Xiaomi calls Tiny DotDisplay....

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Exynos chipsets now third in terms of market share, overtake Apple

Samsung's Exynos chipset division has become the third largest supplier in the smartphone world, displacing Apple, which slid to fourth, according to data from Counterpoint Research. Exynos chips enjoyed a 14.1% market share in 2019, up 2.2 percentage points compared to the year before. This is thanks to solid growth in North America and India. Samsung and Huawei are the only vendors in the global Top 5 to post growth. Apple, meanwhile, is down 0.5 percentage points to 13.1% share for a fourth place finish, ahead of Huawei in fifth. Qualcomm and MediaTek retain their leading...

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Huawei P40 Pro and Premium set to retain front 3D sensor to secure payments

Even though the chunky notch of the Mate 30 Pro is going away in favor of a dual punch hole, the Huawei P40 Pro and P40 Premium will reportedly retain the front facing 3D ToF sensor for secure face unlock. This will be used to authorize payments as it's more secure than plain camera-based face unlock. The extra hardware made the dual punch hole slightly wider than it is on the Huawei P40 as you can see in these renders shared by @evleaks: Huawei P40 Pro • Huawei P40 The P40 Pro and P40 Premium will pack a 32MP selfie camera plus the ToF sensor in the punch hole. The gesture...

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ZTE Axon 11 5G unveiled with 6.47" AMOLED display, Snapdragon 765G and quad cameras

ZTE announced its third 5G capable smartphone today with the brand-new Axon 11 5G. It brings support for dual-mode 5G (SA and NSA) thanks to the integrated modem found in the Snapdragon 765G SoC, a four-camera array with a 64MP main shooter and a 4,000 mAh battery wrapped in a sleek glass and aluminum frame topped with a competitive price tag. Upfront we have a curved 6.47-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with and waterdrop notch for the 20MP selfie camera. The panel also comes with a built-in fingerprint scanner and sports a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Around the back, the square setup hosts ...

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Watch the Redmi Note 9S announcement live here

Xiaomi introduced the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Redmi Note 9 Pro Max last week, and now it is time for a third phone to join the portfolio - Redmi Note 9S. It appears to be a rebranded Redmi Note 9 Pro as evidenced by its leaked Geekbench scorecard. Today, the company is having a live stream of its launch and the Xiaomi Singapore page on Facebook has provided a live stream. The Redmi Note 9 Pro originally comes with a Snapdragon 720G chipset, four cameras with the main one being 48 MP, while the selfie shooter is 16 MP, tucked into a punch hole. The phone was initially announced in...

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Samsung temporarily closes its smartphone factory in India to fight COVID-19 spread

Samsung is forced to temporarily close a second factory due to the COVID-19 outbreak - this time the plant in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. It was opened in the summer of 2018 and currently is the biggest smartphone factory of Samsung and that can produce up to 120 million units per year. Starting today, the factory will be closed until March 25, following the government's request. Previously the factory in Gumi, South Korea, was also closed twice for brief periods, leaving the Vietnam plan as the only one not to be affected by the outbreak. A spokesperson told Indian media that the company...

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OnePlus 7T Pro long-term review

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Redmi K30 Pro pricing leaks day before announcement

The long-awaited Redmi K30 Pro is getting announced tomorrow and one of the few question marks remaining was the price tag. A new leak now comes to fill us in on that. The regular 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant will costs CNY 3,699($520), while the the K30 Pro zoom version with 8/128GB will go for CNY 3,999 ($560). It's still not quite clear what the differences between the vanilla and "zoom version" will be but as we already got confirmation the standard K30 Pro will come with a telephoto module capable of 3x optical zoom and up to 30x digital zoom. Redmi K30 Pro zoom edition...

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Check out these leaked Huawei P40 Pro Premium camera samples

Huawei will introduce its P40 lineup in three days and we expect three phones with an impressive camera performance. Today, popular Weibo tipster Digital chat station gave us a sneak peek of what to expect, posting six camera samples from a Huawei P40 smartphone, without clarifying whether it is the vanilla, the Pro, or the Premium Edition. The images are all in broad daylight, and we can see stunning details and color. The leakster said the last photo of the dog was taken with the 10x zoom, cropped and then uploaded once again, meaning we are likely looking at P40 Pro Premium...

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