Latest Tech News

The second iteration of Samsung's large-screen Android tablet for media consumption that will come to AT&T in the US has just been spotted online and it sports a few noticeable changes. The Galaxy View 2 has a 17.5-inch display — down from the 18.4 inches of its predecessor — and features a hinged kickstand.

Details about a refreshed Razer Blade 17 and updated Razer Blade 15 have been accidentally leaked in a YouTube video review posted by tech site PCWorld. The video has now been taken down, but not before some apparent key specifications were shared online. The base model of the Razer Blade 15 is likely to get a GPU upgrade from an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q to an RTX 2060.

Although the Galaxy Fold has been officially delayed, it looks like two more such models are in the pipeline. For now, they are known as "Type G" and "Type S," but there is no official information regarding their commercial names or release date yet. However, at least one of them is rumored to be announced by the end of the year.

Another video posted by Nvidia on the Twitter account for Nvidia GeForce has offered up some massive clues about what gamers can expect next from the company. Although original focus was mostly on the sleek device that featured in the four clips, it’s now shifted to what’s inside the laptop: Namely an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU.

Another limited edition product has been unearthed that will be seemingly part of AMD’s 50th anniversary celebrations. A red version of the great value for money Radeon VII desktop graphics card has made an appearance, although it looks likely at the moment the only differences with the regular card will be design-based rather than performance-based.

The security analyst responsible for dismantling the WannaCry malware that crippled tens of thousands of computer systems (including many used in government services) pleaded guilty to two counts of writing malware used in banking attacks. Marcus Hutchins, who discovered the kill-switch that finally resolved WannaCry, will face up to 10 years in jail and up to $500,000 in fines.

Samsung has announced that it is delaying the launch of the Galaxy Fold. The decision was made following issues experienced with the display by reviewers through a combination of mishandling and potential engineering concerns.

In accordance with previous reports, the Realme 3 Pro has been released to the Indian market today (22 April, 2019). It offers the Snapdragon 710 processor in a package with up to 6GB of RAM, an AI-enhanced selfie camera and gradient color options. The Realme 3 Pro starts at the equivalent of US$200.

In its effort to make its service more conversational, Twitter has decided to add the Highly team to its staff. Sadly, this means that the iOS and Slack apps currently maintained by Highly will go down on April 26. Highly has been around since 2014 and had raised a seed round two years ago.

WhatsApp is reportedly working on animated stickers in its latest betas. This enables a user to superimpose a a moving piece of art (e.g. a drawing or character) on a message. A blog has also apparently found that the app is going to replace its existing emoji design with a new one.

A trio of IT researchers affiliated with Facebook have created a new method to turn a video of an individual performing a series of actions (e.g. a dance) into a 3D 'game character'. This character - and its associated movements - can then be transposed onto a new background. The researchers assert that this background could interact with said character.

The Nokia 9 PureView's in-display fingerprint reader has been the subject of many a debate, and the company has sent out OTAs that were supposed to improve it. A new video, however, shows a Nokia 9 PureView being unlocked by an unregistered fingerprint, and a packet of chewing gum afterwards. And no, we're not making this up.

Huawei may be having troubles with a few governments but sales are stronger than ever. The company shipped 59 million smartphone units in the first quarter of the year, a hefty 50% year-on-year growth. This all but ensures that Huawei takes back its position as the second-largest smartphone manufacturer, ahead of Apple. It's even more impressive that the company has done this without being able to sell its devices officially in the US.

Samsung is reported to have postponed the launch of the Galaxy Fold in China. The Chinese launch was to take place at two separate venues, one in Hong Kong and the other in mainland Shanghai. Although no official reason for the delay in Hong Kong has been provided, the Shanghai launch postponement related to issues with the venue.

AMD has posted a tweet on its Ryzen Twitter account showing what can be done with just one Ryzen Threadripper 1950X HEDT chip and four Radeon RX Vega 64 LC graphics cards. The builder of the custom desktop PC setup has called his system “RippinRed 2.0”, and it also features 32 GB RAM, a motherboard from Gigabyte, and four monitors from Dell and Acer.

Dell has a very limited sale on at the moment for certified refurbished Dell XPS 15 9560 laptops. One particular SKU comes with an Intel Core i7 processor from the Kaby Lake series, a discrete GPU in the shape of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, and a generous 1 TB M.2 PCIe SSD. A usual price of US$2,306 is advertised for this laptop, but with the sale and a coupon it can be picked up for US$1,365.03.

Gigabyte Japan has announced the upcoming launch of the X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 motherboard. The board will be released domestically on April 26 for about 35,000 yen including taxes (~US$310). It’s not yet known if the Taiwanese manufacturer will be bringing the limited edition motherboard to other markets.

The next pitched battle between Sony and Microsoft in their console wars is starting to heat up. The latest news to surface is courtesy of some Microsoft insiders who say that the next-gen flagship Xbox will be more advanced than the Sony PlayStation 5.

By now, it is likely that you have read at least one rumor that the typical lozenge shape of the main iPhone camera module will mutate into a perfect square this year. The latest possible leak on the subject seems to confirm this design decision. It involves images of a case-mould for what may be 2 new iPhones.

Yota is an OEM associated with innovative dual-screen phones of the same name. It made its last such device in 2017, and hadn't been heard from since. Now, it has emerged that Yota has filed for bankruptcy in the Cayman Islands.

The new NVIDIA 1650 card is to be unleashed soon. However, it seems there is also a Ti variant of this graphics solution in the works. ASUS has apparently developed several different models of this new GPU, which have surfaced on the Russian ECC certification database.

The Chinese manufacturer has already started pushing a stable build of EMUI 9.1 to two of its flagship smartphones just a week after releasing it to beta testers. The update comes in at a whopping 4.56 GB.

AMD’s Radeon VII, RX Vega 64 LC, and RX Vega 64 have managed to defeat Nvidia’s top-end GeForce RTX hardware, the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti, in a World War Z GPU benchmark. In one specific test, the Radeon VII was measured offering an eye-popping average rate of 192 FPS compared to the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti’s best effort of 160 FPS.

A new leak has revealed more details of what appears to be the upcoming Moto Z4. Major takeaways include a 25 MP selfie camera, a single 48 MP rear camera, a teardrop notch, and an in-display fingerprint reader.

Emtek, the licensed owners of the BlackBerry Messenger app, announced that the service will shut down on May 31 considering that users preferred using other messaging platforms. However, BlackBerry said that BBM Enterprise is now available for use by consumers and will be free for the first year for new users.

Xiaomi looks set to add a new product to its ever expanding line-up on April 23. It is not a new smartphone this time though and is seemingly a TV instead. According to Xiaomi's General Manager of its Mi TV division, this new Smart TV will have a completely new design too.

Chuwi could be launching an 8-inch mini-computer that comes with a choice of Intel Gemini Lake processors in the not too distant future. The device, which is currently known as the iLife NG08, may be rebranded as the Chuwi MiniBook for market release. The little laptop features a Full HD touchscreen, 4 to 8 GB RAM, and it even has an integrated fingerprint scanner.

Two images of one of AMD’s upcoming Picasso range of desktop APUs have been leaked online. The pictures themselves don’t reveal very much, apart from the fact that AMD is likely preparing to finally release the desktop APU counterparts of the Picasso mobile APUs that were released earlier this year. The APU in question is believed to be the Ryzen 3 3200G.

Huawei's latest flagship is the P30 Pro, a phone that has many advantages over its 2018 counterpart. It now appears that it also performed better in the JerryRigEverything bend test than the P20 Pro. On the other hand, it seems this premium device has potential deficiencies in other areas.

A smartphone leaks blog claims to have unearthed a patent filed by LG in which a phone with a triple selfie camera is depicted. The phone in question could easily be a V50 ThinQ, except for the three distinctly lens-like sensors visible in its notch. This, then could suggest the next generation of LG phone design.

We may think we know when the next OnePlus flagship will be officially unveiled. However, the company's chief executive officer (CEO) has stated that the applicable rumors will be confirmed or denied on April 23, 2019. Judging by the typical product cycle associated with this company, the event itself is likely to follow in about a month from then.

Samsung has been copping a lot of flak for the highly publicized issues that some of the Galaxy Fold review units it has in circulation. However, some of these critics fail to adequately credit Samsung for pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Note: The views expressed here represent the views of the author alone and don't necessarily reflect the views of Notebookcheck.

Images of the components for the upcoming GPD Win Max handheld gaming PC have been leaked. The pictures show that an embedded chip from AMD’s Ryzen V1000 series has been chosen to power the device. It also seems that GamePad Digital (GPD) has decided to change the device’s name from Win 2 Max to simply Win Max.

A new report by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners has thrown light on the state of the US smartphone market in Q1. Apple had a tenuous dominance over the market, with the company's devices accounting for 36% of device activations in the first quarter of the year. Samsung is second with 34%.

A new video has been posted on Twitter accounts for Nvidia, Asus, and MSI that shows a bit more detail of the mysterious device that the trio of companies teased recently. The same Matrix-like streaming green code can be seen on the display while this time the keyboard is made much more visible. An eagle-eyed tweeter has spotted a very revealing clue about the device.
Lenovo also appears to be involved with the promotional stunt.

A finely crafted concept video of a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 phablet has been posted on YouTube. The creator of the video has specifically stated that it is not based on leaks, which helps explain some differences between the device shown in the clip and what is currently expected from the real thing.

The specifications of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 735 processor have apparently been leaked and posted online. It seems the rumored 735 will offer a bit of a bump up from the already announced Snapdragon 730 and 730G mobile platforms. The details offered state that the Snapdragon 735 will be manufactured on a 7nm LPP process.

Apple is not ready to make the jump to foldable designs for the time being, but luxury modification company Caviar from Russia might be able to inspire the Californian giant with its impressive iPhone Z concept. The Z-shaped folding pattern allows for quite a few interesting uses, including a laptop mode, a selfie mode, and a screen mode.

The iBOX-R1000 from ASRock is the first mini PC to integrate the new Ryzen R1606G / R1505G embedded dual-core CPUs with Vega 3 iGPUs. It comes with up to 32 GB DDR4-2400 RAM and supports one 2.5-inch SATA SSD / HDD. This mini PC is designed for digital signage, arcade gaming and gambling, kiosks, IoT gateways and thin client terminals.

The Zen 2-based Ryzen, EPYC and Threadripper chipsets should make for exciting launches soon. This is because their state-of-the-art 7nm architectures should deliver performance improvements in many areas compared to their Zen+ predecessors. However, it appears that the Zen 3s of the future are shaping up to be even better already.

Recently, the gaming community has been set alight with rumors that Grand Theft Auto will get a new version soon. This has come about as a result of the discovery of an online resume belonging to a "3D game artist" who lists the heretofore unseen title among his experiences at Rockstar Games. This individual also specifically claims a role in GTA 5's DLC.

The C-Force CF015C weighs just 700 g and is 6 mm thick, yet packs a 4K, 15.6-inch display that boasts 100% sRGB coverage. The CF015C is currently available for US$199 on Kickstarter and ships in June.

Microsoft has made the next upcoming version of Windows 10 available via its Insider Preview program. It is called 1903, or the May 2019 Update. An SDK for this build is also now ready to download.

A new report from Counterpoint Research has found that, of all Apple smartphones, the iPhone XR did the best in the US market in the month of February 2019. Of those who bought this device, 20% of those already using iOS upgraded from the 7, whereas 32% more exchanged models older than this for the XR. Counterpoint also found that the XR was responsible for the greatest conversion from Android to this platform in February.

Want a new phone? Fine, but clicking 'Pay Now' on the first listing you see for it could cost you. The analyst firm Minderest has found that there is a margin of as much as 41.3% between the worst and best prices for the same device online. According to this report, WirelessBoss gives the best deals on average.

The pop-up selfie camera is an increasingly common alternative to the display notch in smartphones. A Chinese media outlet claims that Meizu has joined the list of OEMs who are at least planning such devices. This version may rise from a central position in the top of a given chassis.

Dell, you tease. After going quiet having missed its last deadline to fix the XPS 15 9570's DPC latency issues, the company has now given a new date by when it plans to release a solution. Hopefully, it is not just breadcrumbing owners with this revised schedule.

With just over 24 hours to go, the NexDock 2 has already received 956% of its campaign goal. Nex Computer has one more surprise up its sleeve if the campaign can get to US$500,000 though.

A few days ago, there were reports that the Galaxy S10 phones would receive a camera update that would improve their night modes. The update was sent out yesterday and it's turned out that it doesn't actually do much.

Rumors claimed the Huawei P30 phones would feature OLED displays made by Samsung. Information disproving that idea has surfaced, though, and it looks like the P30 Pro actually opts for LG-made panels, with some units sporting BOE-made ones, just like the Mate 20 Pro did.