Latest Tech News

A leaked image of a promotional banner has confirmed the name of the upcoming foldable 5G smartphone from Huawei: Mate X. The picture doesn’t reveal details about pricing or hardware, but it does show the foldable device in three different forms that give a clear idea of what the Huawei Mate X will look like.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 line continues the recent tradition of having an additional hardware button that activates the Bixby virtual assistant out of the box. However, unlike previous flagship generations, users will be able to re-assign the functions of this button. This new feature may also be transferred to the Note 9 and older phones in the future.

Nvidia has announced that its GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card is now on sale. The new graphics solution can be purchased at prices starting at US$279.99. The latest addition to the GTX line-up offers 6 GB GDDR6 memory utilizing a 192-bit interface width and has 1536 CUDA cores. Its base clock is listed as 1500 MHz with a boost clock rate of 1770 MHz.

The discrete GPU market is about to get busy in 2020, as Intel is planning a triumphant return. To ensure its success, the company is now launching "The Odyssey" initiative which aims at involving gamers in the GPU development process. Intel is willing to listen to what end users have to say in order to create the best possible gaming GPUs.

KaiOS powers feature phones such as the Nokia 8110. MediaTek has prepared new 3G and 4G SoCs for this platform. One of these, the MT6731, can also support 4G in dual SIM slots. They are intended to bring new, affordable phones with these connectivity options in 2019

STT-MRAM is one of the alternatives for current SRAM and NAND flash memory / storage solutions. Intel's current implementation is manufactured on the 22 nm node and promises faster read/write speeds, better endurance, and long-term data storage at higher temperatures. Its hybrid nature should allow Intel to include it in future Optane products.

One month after showing up at CES and snagging quite a few "Best of" awards, the ZTE Nubia Red Magic Mars is now launching worldwide. This gaming smartphone is available in two variants — Essential (6/64 GB) and Superior (8/128 GB) — and a third one that features 10 GB of memory and 256 GB of internal storage space is also coming soon.

With almost a dozen Core i9-8950HK laptops under our belt, we have a pretty good idea about how these unlocked CPUs can perform. Average CPU performance is just 8 to 9 percent faster than the average Core i7-8750H laptop for a disappointing first year debut.

UPDATE: Newegg has the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and 1660 Ti AMP listed for US $279.99 and $289.99, respectively. The listings have detailed information on the cards' specifications. ZOTAC announced its take on the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti today in the form of two new graphics cards. The ZOTAC GAMING GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a relatively compact card (145 mm or 5.71 inches) that ZOTAC claims can fit into 99% of systems available today. The ZOTAC GAMING GeForce GTX 1660 Ti AMP is a fair bit larger (209.6 mm or 8.3 inches) but has larger fans and will be factory overclocked. ZOTAC has yet to announce pricing and availability.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 line introduces the Infinity-O display to the international market. Unfortunately, it seems that some app elements are being occluded or otherwise disrupted by the 'punch-hole' found in the upper right corner of this screen type. This highlights the increasing need to account for and adapt to this new display tech in the future.

A YouTuber has asserted that Microsoft will port some games and features to the Nintendo Switch later this year. The indie title Ori has been specifically named in relation to this new purported deal to link the two platforms. This development will also apparently bring Xbox Game Passes to the Switch.

Adobe is offering a discount on the prices of all-app Creative Cloud (CC) plans. This offer applies to monthly-paid prices for CC and CC plus Adobe Stock plans only, and drops them to US$39.99 and $69.98 respectively. It is valid from now until March 1, 2019.

Microsoft's next probable major software release is 19H2, the April 2019 update. However, a build associated with a release in 2020 is the one that has most recently popped up for users in the Skip Ahead program. Despite this, the company insists 19H2 will be ready on time.

Acer has upgraded its Swift 3 offering to feature the new NVIDIA GeForce MX250 GPU. The rest of the specifications remain more or less the same. The MX250 is, for all intents and purposes, a re-badged version of the MX150 with slightly higher clocks and will be available in both 10 W and 25 W TDP variants. However, it is not known which TDP variant is being used in the new Swift 3.

According to what appears to be a Staples employee training document that has recently surfaced on Reddit, the upcoming HP Omen Obelisk 875-0xxx series desktop will feature the yet-to-be-announced NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1180 as its top video card option. While this could be a typo, it could also be the name of a non-RTX flagship product.

The upcoming 'Navi' GPUs from AMD could offer much better power-efficiency according to notes from AMD's recent Linux driver patches. The patches detail that 'future ASICS' could use a new sw SMU framework superceding the current PowerPlay driver. In all likelihood, the new sw SMU might enable dynamic per-core voltage and frequency adjustment found in Ryzen APUs potentially resulting in less power-hungry GPUs and more performance per Watt.

Samsung’s Galaxy S10+ flagship smartphone has amassed 109 points in DxOMark’s Mobile test for its rear-facing triple camera setup. This puts the device on equal footing with Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro and P20 Pro in terms of points, but the image quality rating website has given the S10+ third place in the overall Mobile rankings.

Anthem, the action RPG developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts, has been officially launched. Players get to try on exosuits known as Javelins and explore a massive open world while fighting off hordes of monstrous adversaries. Early reviews of the game have ranged from lukewarm to mixed, but it will be paying gamers who eventually decide the title’s success or failure.

The independent benchmark DxOMark has given the Samsung Galaxy S10+ first place in its rankings for smartphone front cameras. At the moment, there are only 13 devices in the new selfie chart but Samsung has beaten out contenders from Google, Xiaomi, and Apple. The S10+’s front camera system was commended for its accurate autofocus and color capture.

A new rumor about the expected Sony Xperia XZ4 flagship smartphone has stated that the device could be renamed the Xperia 1. This follows the news that the Xperia XA3 and XA3 Plus are to be rebranded the Xperia 10 and 10 Plus, respectively. There also seems to be a fresh leak about the type of display the Xperia 1 will be fitted with.

Reggie Fils-Aime, President and COO of Nintendo of America, announced that he will retire from the company on April 15. Doug Bowser, currently the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, will step up as the new President upon Fils-Aime's retirement. Fils-Aime oversaw one of the most successful periods of Nintendo's life and managed the launches of the Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii, and Switch.

A flash sale is now on for the Eve V, but only until 13:00 GMT tomorrow. The Eve V has been plagued with delays, but Eve Technology ensures that the Surface alternative is in stock and will ship in 2-4 working days.

It took TSMC a little over two weeks to fully assess the consequences of the Fab 14B incident. Apparently, the chemical contamination was triggered by an abnormal reaction in the photoresistant material that led to a polymer residue compromising up to 30,000 of 12 nm and 16 nm wafers. Total losses are estimated around US$550 million, but TSMC intends to ramp up production in Q2 to mitigate part of the losses.

A set of leaked Nokia 9 PureView renders have appeared on Twitter ahead of the device's expected unveiling on February 24. HMD Global may release the Nokia 4.2, Nokia 3.2, Nokia 1 Plus at MWC next week too.

Lioncast is a comparatively new manufacturer, but that has not stopped it from expanding its range of mice. The company has now released the LM60, a wired mouse with RGB lighting and a high-resolution optical sensor. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lioncast has designed the LM60 with gamers in mind.

As a GTX 1050 successor, the GTX 1650 GPU is rumored to integrate a TU-117 core clocked at 1.48 GHz, faster Turing shaders, and 4 GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The number of CUDA cores and the TDP are not yet known. Launch date should be close the end of March and MSRP is believed to be around US$179.

"The Challenge on Wheels" special event that has begun today will last until March 7 and comes with the chance to obtain the Panhard EBR 75 FL 10 for free — or at least a good discount when purchasing it. This is the first premium wheeled vehicle in World of Tanks and can be obtained after completing ten challenging stages.

The upcoming Realme 3 smartphone will be launching in both Helio P60 and Helio P70 variants. This was confirmed by Realme following the results of AIDA64 results that have leaked online. While the P70 version will launch in India, the P60 variant is destined for a global rollout. The Realme 3 is expected to sport a diamond-cut finish on the back and will target the tightly contested upper mid-range segment.

Australia customers who purchase a Galaxy S10+ on a two-year plan with the telco Telstra are being offered a free, no strings attached, upgrade to the Galaxy S10 5G when it launches in the second quarter of the year. Customers who choose to opt in for the upgrade will have 21 days following the launch of the 5G model to return their Galaxy S10+ in good condition to swap it out for the free upgrade.

Reuters has reported that the South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix is planning on investing 120 trillion won (~US$106.6 billion) on chip manufacturing plants. The company will also spend an additional 55 trillion won (US$49 billion) on two existing factories over the next 10 years. SK Hynix is the world’s third-largest semiconductor vendor by revenue.

Xiaomi has launched the Mi 9 SE in China alongside the flagship Mi 9. The Mi 9 SE is the world's first phone to be powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 SoC and offers the same 48 MP camera and in-display fingerprint sensor as the Mi 9. While most other specs are on par, the battery capacity seems somewhat of a downer.

Samsung seems to have exited the 4K Blu-ray market in the US citing a niche market and current domination of Sony and Panasonic. Samsung became the second company after OPPO to stop making both 4K and FHD Blu-ray players coming in the wake of increased penetration of online streaming services and HDR format incompatibilities between the industry's Dolby Vision and Samsung's HDR10+.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold foldable flagship smartphone has finally been officially announced. The Snapdragon 855-powered device has a 4.6-inch HD+ Super AMOLED (21:9) cover display and opens up to reveal a 7.3-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED (4.2:3) main display. The suggested price for this foldable smartphone innovation: US$1,980.

Lenovo's ThinkPad division gets hit by another leak, as a reddit user has published data-sheets for most of the upcoming ThinkPad business laptops. Though there is no way to verify the specs at this point, the specs of the T490 do line up with the already announced special T490 Healthcare Edition.

Samsung also devoted some of its latest launch event to 5G and its potential in the future of telecommunicatons and online life in general. This led to the unveiling of the Galaxy S10 5G. It has an extra 3D-sensing module on its rear panel, in addition to the three cameras also found in the S10 and S10+.

Samsung has released three new types of wearable to go with the Galaxy S10 series in 2019. They are the Galaxy Buds, a possibly improved set of earbuds, the Galaxy Fit, a new activiy tracker, and the Galaxy Watch Active, a new sports-focused smartwatch. All three can charge wirelessly, including off S10 devices.

Today, (20 February 2019) Samsung announced the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+. However, the much-rumored new S10 variant, the S10e, was also counted in at some points. It will start at US$749, and has most of the new premium line's specs and features.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ are now official and boast quite the feature set. We've known about most of these features thanks to the bevy of rumors and leaks that have been floating around the Internet for months, but the devices look to be respectable upgrades over the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. Both phones feature triple-camera setups, in-display fingerprint sensor, and reverse wireless charging, among others. However, the phones come with a hefty price tag, starting at $900 and $1000, respectively.

Ever since the Chinese government started to investigate memory chip suppliers over suspicious price fixing schemes, DRAM module prices started to slowly decline, and it looks like prices could get reduced by 30% in Q2 2019. By the end of 2019 DDR4 DRAM modules may end up costing up to 50% less, and prices may flatten as the DDR5 standard becomes more popular.

Samsung's in-house virtual assistant, Bixby, has been historically linked to many limitations over its life. One of them is the inability to work in certain languages, German and Italian included. However, support for these languages, as well as for Spanish, is now being rolled out to its 2.0 version.

The release of the Samsung Galaxy S10 series is imminent. This event has also been roundly rumored to include a stage at which the OEM's first foldable device will be unveiled. That has not stopped MobiFlip from presenting new possible images of this phone.

Until now, the popular single-board computer has been specifically optimised for the Internet of Things version of Windows 10. However, there is now a tool that allows the installation of the full version of the OS on the Raspberry Pi 3. It is not all smooth sailing though.

Compact single-board computers can deliver excellent performance and fast file transfers. A new expansion board for the NanoPi M4 should allow it to be realised as network-attached storage (NAS).

At first sight, the Intel Core i9-9900KFC seems to be an unlocked 8-core, 16-thread processor that does not feature an integrated graphics card. However, Intel previously used the "C" suffix for chips with eDRAM cache for the higher-end Iris Pro integrated graphics parts, so this new chip is a mystery for now.

The new Archos handsets start at 5.7 and go up to 6.3 and 6.8 inches in size, but all will hit the market for less than 170 USD. The Unisoc SC9863-powered Oxygen 57 and Oxygen 63, as well as the Helio P22-driven Oxygen 68XL will launch with Android Pie onboard in May. Before that happens, these handsets will be unveiled at MWC.

The Surface Headphones look good, but can they command their premium price tag, and how do they stack up against their wireless on-ear competitors? We put the US$349.99/£329.99 Surface Headphones to the test in this hands-on review.

Featuring specs similar to Samsung's S10 lineup, the Mi 9 smashes the Korean competitor with halved starting prices. Some of the outstanding features coming with the Mi9 include the powerful Snapdragon 855 SoC, up to 12 GB of RAM, up to 256 GB of storage, a 6.39-inch AMOLED screen with in-display fingerprint sensor, a 20 MP selfie cam and an impressive 48 + 16 + 12 MP rear tri-cam.

The version labeled 50 of the Opera browser for Android comes with an improved ad blocker that features a site-specific setting, picture-in-picture support for videos on Android Oreo (and later), support for dark CSS themes, as well as support for the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian languages.

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo has launched its latest notchless all-display smartphone. The new Vivo V15 Pro has been unveiled in India and comes with an pop-up selfie camera and a triple rear camera set up.

Ahead of MWC 2019, LG has announced three new budget smartphones in the Q and K-series. The LG Q60 offers a triple-camera setup and higher onboard storage while the LG K50 and K40 are oriented at more price-conscious users. All phones sport an unnamed 2.0 GHz octa-core SoC and LG's FullVision display HD+ panels along with support for DTS:X audio and AI Cam.