vivo iQOO Z1 is the first phone with Dimensity 1000+

Yesterday we saw the arrival of Dimensity 1000+ chipset by Mediatek. It brings some improvements over the Dimensity 1000. which appear tailor-made for a gaming phone. During the announcement, vivo's gaming branch revealed it is developing a phone with the new platform and today we know the name - vivo iQOO Z1. The information was shared on Weibo by a trustworthy leakster Digital Chat Station. So far we don't know much about the phone - only that it will have a 144 Hz refresh rate of the screen, as well as 5G connectivity, provided by the MediaTek SoC. The Dimensity 1000+ was...

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Motorola Razr 2019 finally goes on sale in India

The Motorola Razr 2019 foldable smartphone announced last November was launched in India back in March. It was supposed to go on sale in the country from April 2, but the sales were delayed multiple times due to the nation-wide lockdown imposed by the Indian government to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, with e-commerce companies in India now allowed to deliver non-essential goods in areas marked as orange and green zones, Motorola has finally kicked off the sales of the Razr 2019 in India. It is priced at INR124,999 ($1,655/€1,525) and can be purchased from Flipkart in Noir Black...

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YouTube Music gets a new Explore tab and song lyrics

Today Google's new music streaming service is getting a couple new features. There's a new Explore tab in the YouTube Music app waiting to help you discover more tracks, and you also get song lyrics so that you can sing along to your favorite tunes. The new functions should become available for both Android and iOS shortly, although this being Google the rollout might take some time to reach every YouTube Music user out there. Still, these new features are at least definitely on the way. Check out some new features on #YouTubeMusic. Introducing the Explore Tab, where you can find new...

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Realme X3 SuperZoom to sport periscope camera offering up to 60x magnification

Realme is working on a bunch of new devices at the moment, but perhaps none is more interesting than the X3 SuperZoom. This phone has already received a few certifications here and there, and thanks to a benchmark run it's been revealed to sport last year's Snapdragon 855+ chipset along with 12GB of RAM. Today a new rumor shines some light over the choice of name. A leakster on Twitter claims the SuperZoom will go up to 60x, which is clearly digital only, but here's the thing - that means that this phone will have a periscope zoom camera. These have up until recently been confined to...

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Discover app by Facebook finds free data from carriers in Peru

Facebook has a new app called Discover, and its part of a new "Free Basics Initiative" that offers wireless subscribers a free, but limited, amount of data per day. This data can only be used for "low-bandwidth traffic data", mostly browsing on websites. The point of this free data is for users to be able to keep connected even after their data salary runs out. In Peru, where the Discover app is initially available, most mobile users pay for data and minutes on a pay-as-you-go basis. Although data and plans are relatively cheap, there are many rural areas of Peru where income is more...

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Android 10 finally reaches the Xiaomi Mi Note 10

Xiaomi's Mi Note 10 launched last November sporting the world's first 108 MP camera on a smartphone, as well as one of the most flexible setups at the time, with two telephoto shooters alongside it and an ultrawide and a macro cam. The phone has been doing quite well, sales-wise, and even got a lesser sibling recently in the form of the Mi Note 10 Lite. One thing that it hasn't so far received is an update to Android 10, which is weird because a lot of other (even older) Xiaomi devices have. Well, the wait is finally almost over for the Mi Note 10, as today the Chinese company has started...

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Google Lens can now speak the text you scanned, copy it to your computer

Spending extra time at home gave us a great opportunity to pick up a new language, but since we didn't, we're glad to see the new features Google added to Lens. The app can help you practice your pronunciation - just scan some text with the camera and hit "Listen". This works with single words and even full paragraphs. Sometimes we run into things we don't understand, even if they are in plain English. Now you can select a word or concept and do a Google search with a single tap. As usual, this brings up helpful results from Wikipedia and other sites, videos too. If...

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iPhone 11 gets above-average selfie camera score on DxOMark but doesn't make top 10

Apple's iPhone 11 has been well received by consumers all over the world and established itself as the brand's current best-selling smartphone. DxOMark has released its latest camera evaluation which takes a deep dive into the iPhone 11's selfie shooter performance. It boasts the same fixed-focus 12MP front-facing unit as the iPhone 11 Pro duo with a f/2.2 aperture and 23mm focal length. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 11 scores nearly identical to its Pro brethren but with slightly weaker focus performance. iPhone 11 selfie camera scores The iPhone 11's selfie shooter managed a 91...

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Sony WF-SP800N TWS earbuds come with ANC and up to 26 hours of battery life

Today Sony unveiled its latest truly wireless (TWS) earbuds with the brand new WF-SP800N. They come with active noise cancelation (ANC) as well as IP55 water and dust resistance and plenty of battery life to keep you going in your workouts or any other task you throw at them. Sony's new buds are part of its Extra Bass audio series and come with an in-ear design and adjustable arc support. Each bud weighs in at 9.5 grams which is a bit on the heavier side. There are touch controls on each side as well as adaptive sound control with distinct profiles for walking, running, and different...

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HTC revenue takes a dip in April, totals less than 10 million

HTC's revenue stream is drying up - the company posted a report for April of this year, which shows that it brought in only NTD 297 million (in US dollars, that's just under $10 million). This is a sharp 31% drop compared to March of this year and half of what the company pulled in April last year. The company had pinned its hopes on its Vive VR business, but so far that is failing to make up for the steeply declining smartphone sales (the company has released only a few new models since 2019). In NTD million 2020 2019 MoM Change YoY Change ...

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Meizu 17 pricing revealed a day early as a retailer jumps the gun

There's one more day until Meizu unveils its new flagship phone, but JD is done waiting and published a product page for the Meizu 17. Actually, that pages been up for a while now, but the pricing info has been updated. The model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage is listed at CNY 4,000 - that's $565 or €525. There's a second option, 8/256GB, but the price for that one seems to be a place holder. For comparison, the Meizu 16s started at CNY 3,200 when it was unveiled a year ago. There will also be a Meizu 17 Pro (with 12GB of RAM and a ceramic back) as well as a 17T model. The...

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Realme X3 Pro with Snapdragon 865 may have been spotted at AnTuTu

Realme seems to be working on a second Snapdragon 865 powered phone as a previously unseen RMX2072 device posted a score of over 600,000 on AnTuTu. Rumor has it that this will become the Realme X3 Pro. A Realme X3 (RMX2142) went through TENAA a few weeks ago and there were signs of an X3 SuperZoom (RMX2086) as well. This one will use the older S855+ chipset, same as the X2 Pro, but with offer slower 30W charging (that's still plenty fast, of course, but the X2 Pro goes up to 50W). Back to the alleged Realme X3 Pro. Based on the memory score, it will have UFS 3.1 storage (for comparison,...

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Honor launches Magic Earbuds with Hybrid ANC for €99.90

Honor launched the Magic Earbuds in Europe - the brand's first true wireless product. It is already available for purchase around the world, with additional promos in the Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy. The earphones come with hybrid active noise canceling in two colors - Pearl White and Robin Egg Blue. The hybrid active noise canceling technology is essentially having two microphones on the outer side of the bud, confirming the direction of the speech, while a third mic on the inner side listens to sounds and removes any background noise up to 32 dB. The Magic Earbuds...

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Smartwatch market grows by 20% in Q1

According to the latest report from Strategy Analytics, the smartwatch market grew by 20% in Q1 compared to the same period last year with an estimated 14 million units shipped. Apple was once again the most dominant brand in the segment with its 7.6 million shipments and 55% market share. Coming at a distant second is Samsung with 1.9 million shipments, tightly followed by Garmin with 1.1 million which saw a 38% increase in shipments compared to last year. Apple, Samsung, Garmin and Fossil all managed to increase their sales during the period. Samsung's market share however declined...

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Samsung Galaxy A21s bags NBTC certification, launch imminent

The Samsung Galaxy A21s we've been hearing about for a few months has been certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, FCC as well as Bluetooth SIG. Now the smartphone has bagged certification from Thailand's NBTC, meaning it should go official soon. The Galaxy A21s has half a dozen model numbers, but the one that's been certified by NBTC sports model code SM-A21F/DS. The Thai certifying authority's website doesn't reveal any specifications of the A21s, but the smartphone passed through Geekbench last month revealing key specs in the process: Exynos 850 SoC, 3GB RAM, and Android 10. The...

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MediaTek unveils Dimensity 1000+ chipset with 144Hz support, iQOO teases phone

MediaTek unveiled an improved version of its flagship 5G chipset dubbed the Dimensity 1000+. It's based on the same core hardware as the Dimensity 1000, but it features multiple enhancements that seem tailor-made for a gaming phone. The 1000+ chip supports 144Hz screens with a maximum resolution of 1080p+ (with aspect ratios of up to 21:9). The MiraEngine is tasked with enhancing SDR video and converting it to HDR10+. MediaTek developed 5G UltraSave to reduce power usage of the modem. It has a low and a high bandwidth modes and it dynamically switches between them, depending on what...

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Samsung Galaxy A51 gets One UI 2.1 and April security patch with latest update

The Samsung Galaxy A51 announced last December with Android 10-based One UI 2 is getting a new software update which brings in One UI 2.1. The new build also includes the April 2020 Android security patch and comes with improved AR Emoji, Quick Share, Music Share, and updated Gallery app and Samsung Keyboard. However, the update doesn't bring all One UI 2.1 features to the Galaxy A51. Samsung Galaxy A51 The new firmware sports version A515FXXU3BTD4, requires a download of around 1.25GB and is currently seeding in Afghanistan, Egypt, Israel, Russia, South Africa, Kenya, Morocco,...

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LG Velvet pre-orders begin tomorrow in South Korea, will cost $735

LG Velvet has been teased and revealed in multiple press releases, and now we finally have information about the pricing and availability of the phone. Starting tomorrow, May 8, customers in South Korea will be able to pre-order the midranger with any of three major carriers in the home country of LG. And here's the kicker - the price is KRW899,800, which equals to $735/€680. LG Velvet comes with Snapdragon 765G chipset, accompanied by the Snapdragon X52 modem for 5G connectivity. There is a single storage tier - 8 GB RAM and 128 gigs of storage, but there is a slot for MicroSD...

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Poco F2 Pro colors and price leak, should cost €570

The Poco F2 Pro launch day was leaked, and we know the phone is coming on May 12. Today a new rumor popped up, claiming the likely-rebadged Redmi K30 Pro will arrive in four colors - Purple, White, Blue, Gray. According to one source, the 128 GB version of the phone will be priced at INR47,000 or the equivalent of €570. Is this the Poco F2 Pro? This price tag is quite different from another that leaked at the end of April. Back then it was said to be €649 for the 6/128 GB option and €749 for the 8/256 GB variant. Even with taxes and tariffs, the Poco F2 Pro will unlikely follow...

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Apple's AppStore scores best monthly revenues in years

Apple saw a strong 31% yearly growth in App Store revenues for April totaling $1.7 billion. This, in turn, is the strongest monthly performance for Apple's platform since September 2017. The numbers are based on preliminary data from Sensor Tower and were first reported by investment bank Morgan Stanley. They also confirm that the app economy is more than well off during the COVID-19 pandemic and is one of the beneficiaries of social distancing policies. Total app downloads also grew by 40% YoY which in itself is a milestone for Apple and also marked the fourth month in a row of...

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Realme Narzo 10 series launch set for May 11

The Realme Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A smartphones were supposed to launch on March 26 in India, but the launch was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. However, Realme today announced that the Narzo 10 lineup will be unveiled on May 11. The Narzo 10 series will be unveiled through a pre-recorded launch video which will be streamed next Monday at 12:30 PM local time (7 AM UTC). This announcement from Realme comes days after the Indian government eased lockdown restrictions in the country, allowing e-commerce companies to deliver non-essential goods in areas marked...

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OnePlus certifies a 65W fast charger

OnePlus introduced its latest flagships, and both of them come with 30W fast-charging. However, this doesn't sound that fast, especially when the parent company BBK Electronics is launching Oppo smartphones with 65W charge over the cable. This is likely going to change with the next OnePlus flagship - the brand has just certified a 10V/6.5A charger at TUV Rheinland. Listing of the certificate This is most likely the same technology as in the Oppo Find X2 Pro and the Chinese-bound Oppo Ace smartphones. The OnePlus 8 Pro charges its 4,510 mAh battery with the Warp Charge 30T...

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