New Xiaomi patent shows a clamshell folding phone with rotating camera bar

In a new patent submitted by Xiaomi, we see sketches of a new smartphone form factor that is rather interesting. With folding smartphones making a comeback in the last year or so, we have a feeling that smartphone companies are going to push innovation in unique hardware form factors. This one from Xiaomi is a folding clamshell smartphone, like the Moto Razr or the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, but with a twist (literally). The clamshell phone features a bar on the upper half, which can be rotated horizontally to physically turn the rear facing cameras towards the front to be used for selfies....

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Honor 9X Pro is now available in the UK for £199.99 until May 29

Honor is adding a new smartphone to its roster in the UK. Even though the Honor 9X Pro is definitely not new on the international scene, having been initially announced last August, it took a while but now it's finally available to order in the UK, straight from Honor's revamped online store. If you purchase one until May 29 and apply the coupon on the listing page, you will pay just £199.99. After that, the price goes up to the recommended level, which is £249.99. The Honor 9X Pro has a 6.59" 1080x2340 19.5:9 IPS touchscreen with no notch or punch hole, a triple rear camera setup...

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T-Mobile's OnePlus 8 is receiving a software update that enables two additional 5G bands

T-Mobile's version of the OnePlus 8 is now getting a new software update, which is labeled 10.5.8.IN55CB. This brings with it newly unlocked support for 5G bands 2 and 66, both of which are expected to be used by T-Mobile at some point in the future. So when coverage on them goes live, your OnePlus 8 will be ready. Aside from that, the new release also packs the usual unnamed general improvements and fixes, but it also brings support for Google's live captions. The update is rolling out over-the-air in a staged fashion as always, and you can ignore it, but if you do then it will be...

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TCL 10 Pro and 10L will get Android 11 and two years of security updates

Back in April TCL made the 10 Pro and 10L official, and they went on sale earlier this month. These are the two Android smartphones that the company is primarily using to make a name for itself outside of China. While TCL has made a lot of Alcatel and BlackBerry branded handsets over the years, few people in the Western world know about it in this respect. Neither the 10 Pro nor the 10L are proper flagship devices, instead TCL is apparently emulating HMD Global's initial strategy with the revived Nokia brand - go after the mid-range first. Though nowadays even in that price segment,...

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Our Motorola Edge+ video review is up

Motorola was absent from the flagship territory for years now but the Edge+ finally marks its return. An aesthetically pleasing handset with all the features a flagship phone needs. We have the latest Snapdragon 865 chipset on board, a beautiful curved 90Hz OLED screen and a trio of cameras covering all the focal lengths. But how does it feel the phone in everyday use and more importantly, how does it stack in today's cut-throat high-end market segment? Will took the phone for a spin so make sure you watch the whole video to see what he has to share. If you want to know more head...

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Honor plans to use MediaTek 5G chipsets in future devices

Honor unveiled its midrange X10 5G on Wednesday and the company's President Zhao Ming made an interesting remark after the event keynote. He disclosed his company is working to strengthen its relationship with MediaTek and plans to utilize its 5G chipsets in future Honor phones. This comes after parent company Huawei's ban to do business with US companies was extended for another year and the US Commerce Department announced a new rule which severely limits Huawei's access to chipsets. Naturally, this puts Huawei and Honor in a tricky situation and moving to a new chip supplier like...

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vivo TWS Neo teased, coming alongside X50 series

TWS (true wireless) earphones are certainly in demand with all major smartphone vendors having at least one such product in their portfolio. Vivo is ready to bring another entry with its upcoming TWS Neo which will be a more affordable variant of the company's TWS Earphone from last year. Design-wise the TWS Neo look nearly identical to their predecessors with a stem in-ear approach and oval-shaped carrying case. Color options will be limited to white and dark blue and the accompanying product video promises good sound quality and low latency. The TWS Neo are scheduled to arrive on...

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Asus Zenfone 7 and ROG Phone III to debut in July

According to Taiwanese media Commercial Times, Asus is going to release two flagship phones in July or even earlier - sometime towards the end of the second quarter. The two phones in question are the Zenfone 7 and the upcoming gaming ROG Phone III. This goes well in line with the recent Wi-Fi certification that the upcoming ROG Phone III received. This means that the phone is in the final stages of the development phase and it should be ready to launch pretty soon. Now according to the new report, the Zenfone 7 will tag along. When you think of it, both phones, the Zenfone 6 and...

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Xiaomi reports 13.6% increase in revenue for Q1 2020, higher gross profit

Xiaomi published its financial results for the first quarter of 2020 and the numbers are up across the board, despite the difficult market situation. Total revenue was up 13.6% year on year to CNY 49.7 billion, beating the estimations. Gross profit increased significantly, up 44.9%, to CNY 7.56 billion, despite the higher R&D expenses (CNY 1.9 billion, +13.4% YoY). 60% of that total revenue was generated by smartphones, which brought in CNY 30.3 billion (+12.3% YoY). The number of shipments went up to 29.2 million units, representing a small increase compared to Q1 last year. Analysts...

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Realme X3 SuperZoom camera samples tease zoom capabilities

The Realme X3 SuperZoom is scheduled to be debut in Europe next Tuesday, on May 26. Keeping the hype machine going are a set of camera samples from the phone that show out its impressive hybrid zoom capabilities which go all the way up to 60x thanks to its 13MP periscope module. Realme X3 SuperZoom camera samples The three shots show us the different magnification levels ranging from 1x to 60x with a 5x middle option, which is likely where the purely optical zoom ends. This one in particular looks impressive as it manages to retain fairly good details without much...

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Redmi X TV, Redmibook 16.1" laptop teased by Xiaomi

Xiaomi is having a massive event on Tuesday, May 26, when it will reveal plenty of devices. We expected to see three smartphones from the Redmi 10X lineup, but now the company posted on its various Weibo profiles more teasers, confirming a new Redmi X TV with MEMC motion and a laptop with 16.1" screen will also appear during next week's launch. Redmi X TV teasers The TV is going to join the Redmi Smart TV Max - a monstrous 98" 4K TV set, as well as to the 70" Redmi TV, introduced back in 2019. The MECM motion, mentioned by Redmi, is Motion Estimation Motion Compensation, and...

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B&H reconsiders the price of the Sony Xperia 1 II pre-orders, hides it

After an excruciatingly long wait, the Sony Xperia 1 II finally went up on pre-order, but now it seems that there may be some trouble behind the scenes. B&H, which was the first US retailer to list the phone, has removed the price from its page. Previously, the new flagship was set to cost $1,200, but now we don't know. Sony US is mum on the subject as well. For what it's worth, the phone is still listed at the original €1,200 price at Belsimpel in the Netherlands and JPY 133,600 on Au in Japan. This many not be about changing the price, instead it could be an issue of availability...

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iPhone SE helps Apple to decent smartphone sales in China in April

According to the most recent market research, Apple is continuing its recovery in China following the COVID-19 outbreak. The company was able to make around 3.9 million sales in April with about 24% of those sales being iPhone SE. The April sales are up 160% compared to March this year but still down 60% compared to April 2019. The sequential increase doesn't come as a surprise because the country eased the measures and the market as a whole is showing signs of recovery. The overall smartphone sales are up 94% compared to March and the total volume is 40.8 million units. It's...

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The Realme Band is now available in India, screen brightness bumped up with a software update

The Realme Band is now available in India. It was originally scheduled to become available on the 28th, but Realme doesn't like to keep its fans waiting. The band can be ordered today from Realme.com, Flipkart and Amazon India at a price of INR 1,500 (half the listed MSRP). Note that only the band is available only Black and Green, the Yellow (which is the brand's signature color) is coming soon. Realme Band features • Black and Green color options Realme's press release about the launch mentions that the screen brightness has been enhanced - when we reviewed the Realme Band,...

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Xiaomi Mi Band 5 rumored to gain SpO2 sensor, Smart version will support Amazon Alexa

The upcoming Xiaomi Mi Band 5 will enhance the heart rate tracker with SpO2 measurement (blood-oxygen saturation). Additional health features will include menstrual cycle tracking. The international version was said to gain NFC support, previously exclusive to China. However, some new info casts doubt on global NFC support, but mentions a new "Mi Smart Band 5" version with a model number XMSH11HM (the regular Band 5 will be XMSH10HM). The current Xiaomi Mi Band 4 The Smart Band will have AI assistant support, specifically Amazon's Alexa. On previous generations, models sold in...

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vivo X50 and X50 Pro appear in new renders and promo video

We've seen an extensive number of leaks and details about the upcoming vivo X50 series in the past week. It has been making waves with its camera prowess headlined by the Samsung ISOCELL GN1 sensor and its impressive gimbal-like image stabilization system. We've already heard that there will be a regular X50 alongside the Pro model and now vivo released official renders to back up this claim. We can see the X50 and its Pro sibling in three of the official colors with the vanilla X50 being the pink one. It has a different camera setup but seems to retain the Samsung GN1 sensor on top...

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240Hz display Sharp Aquos Zero 2 now available outside Japan, price revealed

Sharp Aquos Zero 2 was launched back in September as the first phone in the world with a 240Hz refresh rate display. It was initially only available in Japan, but now, it is also coming to Taiwan and we finally know how much will it cost outside of the unique domestic market - TWD21,990, which is about $730/€670. Sharp equipped the Aquos Zero 2 with Snapdragon 855 chipset, 8 GB RAM, and 256 gigs of storage. The display is 6.4" in diagonal and brings a fingerprint scanner under the OLED panel, protected by Gorilla Glass 6. The phone might have impressive hardware, but the camera...

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Huawei Enjoy Z appears in AnTuTu benchmark with Mediatek chipset

Huawei is gearing up to release its Enjoy Z 5G on May 24 and we've already seen its key specs and renders. Now the phone appeared in the database of AnTuTu bearing the DVC-AN00 model number and gives us an idea of the potential of its MediaTek Dimensity 800 chipset. The Enjoy Z 5G managed a combined score of 316,328 which includes a CPU score of 101,812 and a GPU score of 90,692. The phone in the test was configured with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage and ran Android 10. In terms of the memory, we can see it's of the UFS 2.1 variety and it managed 69,703 points. Lastly the UX score...

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Redmi 10X to have 30x zoom and OIS; camera sample from Pro version arrives

The Redmi 10X lineup will arrive in China on May 26. We expect to see three different phones, and apparently at least one of them will have 30x zoom. This could mean one of the cameras could be 3x telephoto, unless Redmi has something else up its sleeve. The official Redmi page on Weibo shared the teaser about the 30x zoom and the OIS capabilities of one of the cameras, but it also revealed there will be some AI features for "creative inspiration". Aside from the fancy background blur and artificial coloring of some images and night shots, we are wondering what is Redmi going to...

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