Notebook, Smartphone, and Tablet News

HTC's mobile division has failed at picking itself up from its dire straits and word on the grapevine claims that the company may be unable to handle production of its next device by itself.

EISA (Expert Imaging and Sound Association) has announced its picks for the best smartphones of the year across different categories, with Huawei and Nokia being the biggest winners.

A short while ago, Meizu released its two new flagships, the Meizu 16 and 16 Plus, with both devices looking an awful lot like what most of us would expect from an ideal flagship. On paper, at least.

Huawei is supposedly testing the new Android Pie on four of its devices. The company is likely to rollout out the Android P-based EMUI 9 in the near future.

Samsung doesn’t look as though it will bring a Galaxy S9 Active to market this year. With the typical launch window for the device passed, coupled with the relatively weak demand for the S9 line generally, it seems as though the Active variant may have quietly slipped off the radar.

Amazon is currently flogging the Essential Phone PH-1 for just US$280. Despite being powered by last year’s Snapdragon 835, Essential has already pushed out the official build of Android 9.0 Pie to the device making it a great deal.

PNY has leaked specs and pricing information for the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti. The RTX 2080 Ti is listed at US$1,000 while the RTX 2080 is at US$800. The listed prices, however, seem to be placeholders and are likely to change once the new GPU becomes official.

In a direct blow to Huawei, Xiaomi, and ZTE, OnePlus could get the backing and marketing resources from one of the largest carriers in the United States for its upcoming flagship smartphone. Rumors are pointing towards a launch price of $550 USD or hundreds of dollars less than the popular alternatives from Apple or Samsung.

The Ti versions for Nvidia's mid-high and high-end GPUs usually arrive around 9 to 12 months after the launch of the original wave, but this time around, it seems like Nvidia is ready to launch the Ti version of the high-end card together with the regular versions. While the RTX 2080 is rumored to cost US$699 initially, the GTX 2080 Ti could get a US$1,000+ MSRP.

Since the Windows on ARM initiative did not impress too much with this year's Snapdragon-powered laptops, ARM is willing to take matters into its own hands and release CPUs specifically designed for ultrabooks and compact laptops. Based on the Deimos 7 nm architecture an Hercules 7-5 nm architecture, ARM's upcoming laptop chips are set to rival Intel's and AMD's ULV offers.

Just two days after Nvidia announces its Turing architecture, Intel has begun to tease its discrete GPU products. Intel has released a trailer intended to garner much hype, but does Intel even stand a chance against RTG and Nvidia? According to its trailer, we will find out in 2020.

Details of Huawei's upcoming Mate trio of devices have surfaced, showing devices with five cameras, wireless charging, and huge batteries.

Market analysts claimed sales of the Samsung Galaxy S9 was one of the worst ever in the series but Samsung has other ideas, and also believes the new Note 9 will outsell the Note 8.

Word of the Mi Mix 3 has been scarce but there's a chance we get it sometime next month. There's also been word of another Snapdragon 710-powered Xiaomi device in the works.

A fresh exclusive report shows the upcoming BlackBerry KEY2 LE in blue/blue black and reiterates the specs mentioned by the latest rumors: Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor, 2 GB of memory, 32 GB or 64 GB internal storage, 13 MP + 5 MP dual camera setup on the back, a 3,000 mAh battery, and Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box.

Huawei's latest silicon, the Kirin 980, will debut this October in the Mate 20, according to a press release obtained by Android Authority. The SoC will be the world's first commercially-available piece of silicon based on a 7 nm process. For reference, Samsung and Apple just release 10 nm chips last year.

A fresh rumor suggests that Apple could be adding Pencil support to its 2018 iPhones. The addition would give the iPhone the direct ability to compete with the just-launched Galaxy Note range, in addition to differentiating it from the Galaxy S 10.

A Melbourne, Australia based teenager was able to remotely hack and access some of Apple's secure servers for over a year, downloading over 90 GB of secure files and customer information. Using hacking software to obtain authorized keys for logging in, the teen hacked the company because he has always "dreamed of" working there.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is the next game in the popular tactical shooter series by CI Games that has just been confirmed to arrive on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2019. This new title is set in the Siberian wilderness and comes with a new way to play, namely the contracts system.

PUBG Mobile crossed 100 million downloads this month, cementing it as one of the most popular Battle Royales for smartphones and tablets. Despite its success, it still trails behind Fortnite, which hit 100 million downloads last month on iOS only. The new Android version of Fortnite may spell trouble for PUBG Mobile and Tencent games.

Although the Sony Xperia XA2 arrived in January 2018, it seems that its successor will hit the market before the end of the year. A handset that is rumored to be the upcoming Xperia XA3 was recently spotted on Geekbench as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660-powered Sony H4493. This handset sports 6 GB of memory and runs Android 8.1 Oreo.

Blizzard was most likely planning to reveal the Switch version of Diablo 3 at Blizz Con this November, but the overzealous Forbes editors wanted to share the news way to early. Of course, Forbes already deleted the article, but it was too late... no one can really delete anything from the Internet. The article reveals the name of the Switch version, as well as the exclusives that come with it.

An Honor model codenamed ARE-AL00 just got its TENNA certification, and the leaked specs point towards a possible next gen Max version of the Honor 8. Powered by the Kirin 710 SoC coupled with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, the new mid-ranger will feature a 7.12-inch LCD display and a 4,900 mAh to match it. There is a fingerprint sensor on the back, plus an 8 MP selfie shooter and a 16 MP + 2 MP rear dual cam.

Want to see a laptop with 12 cores and over 20 TB of internal storage? Eurocom can make it possible if enough users show interest. The reseller is collecting data to see how it can best approach building its next generation of gaming laptops and mobile workstations.

A recently-released piece of marketing by Huawei Taiwan appears to take the same approach with which Samsung have targeted Apple in the past. The apparently jokey image and text may make fun of the "innovation" involved in the design of the Galaxy Note 9.

There have been no notebooks with both narrow bezels and 144 Hz panels until now. Asus has teamed up with AU Optronics to develop a 17.3-inch 144 Hz/3 ms panel made specifically for gaming and the narrow-bezel GL704 will be the first to use it.

The new "thinnest gaming laptop in the world" is just 15.75 mm thick at its thickest point to be even thinner than last year's ROG GX501. The GX531 introduces narrow bezels and 144 Hz displays to the Zephyrus family with plenty of changes both internal and external. Expect a worldwide launch as early as September.

Earlier this year code commits showed up in ChromeOS that showed Google was adding support for 'AltOS.' New commits now show that the alternative operating system is likely to be Windows 10, but feasibility for the average Chromebook is questionable.

Google is aiming to bring its Cloud platform and AI solutions to the forefront of enterprise-level computing. The company outlined its plans to do so at its relevant Next '18 event in San Francisco this year. The Edge TPU, which could make Google's AI provision end-to-end, was also unveiled.

Our coupon codes will trim a bit off these popular models when ordered from the online retailer Computer Upgrade King. Our list will only expand as more systems are launched and reviewed. CUKUSA is a partner for a number of notebooks units we publish.

Uber lost a net $891 million this quarter as it continues to aggressively invest in new ventures and technologies. Despite bringing in almost $3 billion, the company hemorrhaged cash as it acquired new companies, started new lines of business, and invested in new technology. Despite this massive loss, investors remain optimistic about the company's future.

Sony has dethroned Canon as the leading US retailer of full-frame cameras. The milestone will be celebrated with a new "Be Alpha" campaign, which will focus on connecting creatives across North America via social media and pop-up events. It will be interesting to see how Canon and Nikon, the two biggest names in the camera world, will react to the shift.

Motorola just released their list of phones with a planned update for Android 9.0 Pie. However, the Moto G5 and Moto E4 lines, both of which were incredibly popular last year, are conspicuously absent. On top of that, there is no set date for the update. Rather, it will be pushed "starting this fall."

Only one week away from the official announcement of the next gen gaming GPUs powered by the Turing architecture, and the leaked benchmarks are already starting to pop up on the Internet. This time it looks like an alleged RTX 2080 made it in the hands of an overzealous tester who stressed it in Ashes of the Singularity on Crazy 4K settings.

The Threadripper 2990WX was already pushed to 5.4 GHz last week, but it looks like there is room for more overclocking when enough liquid nitrogen is used. Overclocker Ivan Cupa managed to get all 32 cores of the 2990WX model running at an outstanding 6 GHz, but there is no way of telling how much better it performs, as no benchmarks were provided.

Asus' main flagship for the year, the Zenfone 5Z is finally making it over to the US. While currently unavailable, it's said to be on pre-order at the moment and will go on sale on August 13 with a bargain price tag of US$499.

OPPO has unveiled its new F9 sub-premium device. The F9 is a solid offering on paper, and continues the new trend of innovative design factors with one of the best notch implementations we've ever seen.

Motorola has launched three new devices in China. The E5 Plus and Z3 are known quantities, so the main arrival is the Snapdragon 636-powered Moto P30.

Xiaomi released the Mi A2 in India last week, with the device being, for the most part, an Android One rebrand of the Mi 6X. It also fails at being a worthy successor to the popular last-gen Mi A1.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple's next trillion dollars could come from its services business, AR glass, and Apple Car. The Apple Car is expected to launch sometime between 2023 to 2025 and will be positioned as the 'next star product'. While the idea of an Apple-branded vehicle was shelved sometime ago, some of the recent hirings of the company might mean Apple is indeed reconsidering getting into the automobile industry.

Although it will use the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor as the regular Mi Pad 4, the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 Plus is expected to come with a larger display and a higher-capacity battery. Rumored to arrive in black or gold finish, this Android slate should come with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB or 128 GB internal storage.

Phoronix has done a performance comparison of the AMD Threadripper 2990WX in Windows 10 Pro and Linux and the results show Threadripper numbers significantly lower under Windows 10 Pro than in Linux. In some tests such as 7-Zip Compression, the Threadripper 2990WX posted almost 58% higher scores in Linux compared to Windows 10 Pro implying that Linux is a better OS of choice when testing high core count CPUs.

Although ZTE can sell its products to the civilian consumers all over the US, a recent bill that was signed by Donal Trump bans the government use of any device made by the Chinese brand due to security issues. Even more, this bill also forbids the use of Huawei hardware for the same reason.

Lenovo has introduced the AMD Ryzen variant of the Lenovo Yoga 530 convertible notebook in without much fanfare and initial reviews seem to show promising performance. The Lenovo Yoga 530 is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 2500U with Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics and benchmarks have shown the laptop beating the Intel Core i7-8550U by a fair margin. The dual-channel DDR4-2400 memory in the Yoga 530 also helps it gain leads over the Ryzen 7 2700U-powered IdeaPad 720S.

The Galaxy Note 9 comes with a display that managed to raise the bar "significantly higher" compared to the previous Samsung handsets that were praised by DisplayMate for the quality of their screens. In this case, the display lab claims that the Note 9 sports "the most innovative and high-performance smartphone display" it ever tested.

On August 13 at Siggraph Nvidia announced its new Turing based RTX Quadro GPUs, designed to process real time ray tracing. The full Turing GPU is the second biggest in the world (the first being Volta) and it is the world's first GPU with ray tracing functionality built in. The new RTX Quadro lineup will be arriving in Q4 or sooner.

AMD's Threadripper 2990WX has finally launched, and it is officially the fastest CPU in the world. With 32 cores, 64 threads, and an all core frequency of 3.4 GHz, it's a monstrous CPU. However, the path to 32 cores on the desktop is paved with compromises and some disappointments.

The NVIDIA Quadro RTX GPUs implement Samsung's latest 16 Gigabit GDDR6 memory. The enhanced bandwidth of GDDR6 helps in improved performance and memory efficiency while consuming 35% less power. The Quadro RTX is the first product to implement Samsung's GDDR6 VRAM.

Rumors about a BlackBerry KEY2 Lite smartphone are have just been refueled with TCL's teaser of a new model that will be announced at IFA 2018 on August 30. The Lite version should keep the same appearance as the regular version, complete with the QWERTY keyboard, but some key hardware components like the SoC, memory, camera setup and battery would be downgraded.

The new BI329 mini PC is Zotac's latest model dedicated to the HTPC and IoT markets. It comes in three variants: a barebones one without RAM and storage, one with 4 GB RAM and 120 GB SSD, and a Windows variant that has 4 GB of RAM, 32 GB M.2 storage plus pre-installed Windows 10 Home. All these variants are powered by Intel's Celeron N4100 quad-core ULV CPU.