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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.

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.

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.

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.

According to the official Twitter handle of Poco India, the Xiaomi Poco F1 is all set to launch on August 22. While no specifications have been revealed, we do know that the Poco F1 is Xiaomi's shot at the affordable flagship category.

India remains a solid market for the Chinese smartphone brand, as Xiaomi accounted for no less than 10 million units sold in Q2 2018, which translates to a market share of 29.7 percent. Samsung got the second place, while Vivo and OPPO came in third and fourth. The Indian market grew by 20 percent since the same period of 2017.

After it impressed everyone with the sophisticated Find X, OPPO now presents the R17 mid-range handheld with outstanding premium features. Besides being the first OPPO model integrating an in-display fingerprint scanner, the R17 comes equipped with the Snapdragon 670 SoC coupled with 8 GB of RAM and 128 storage. It also features a notch, but this one seems less intrusive.

The race for the first foldable smartphone to hit the market might involve LG and a few others as well, but it looks like Samsung and Huawei are the strongest brands in it. According to DJ Koh, the company focuses on making the foldable smartphone a popular product from the first try, but this does mean it will wait for Huawei to steal the start.

Although the release date is not public yet, HTC has just confirmed that Android Pie will reach the U12+, U11+, U11, and U11 Life (Android One) handsets. The company also revealed that the timeframes will be announced in a timely manner, so it is rather safe to assume that the update will not arrive too soon.

Google is expected to miss out cashing in on the Fortnite craze due to Epic Games' decision to distribute the Fortnite Mobile APK outside the Play Store. App Store intelligence firm Sensor Tower projects that Google might stand to miss out on more than US$50 million in platform fees for the remaining part of 2018. Circumventing the Play Store might have a slight impact in overall downloads of the game but its revenue potential stands to remain fairly unaffected.

Epic Games is now accepting invitation requests for installing Fortnite Mobile on non-Samsung devices. Once signed up, users have to wait for a confirmation email before Epic activates the account for playing Fortnite. However, developers have found a way to modify the APK so that any phone can be spoofed to be the Galaxy Note 9 in order to instantly play the game.

Preorders for the Galaxy Note 9 have already started. The prices associated with this event confirm what has been suspected for months: the new Samsung phablet will set you back considerably. The prices also compare well with those of the iPhone X.

The upcoming Pocophone F1 is more than just another Xiaomi handset because this will be the first smartphone by POCO, which is a new sub-brand of the Chinese company. POCO's first effort focuses entirely on speed and sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with liquid cooling, an IR blaster, and a generous 4,000 mAh battery.

TCL might be taking the Palm brand name a bit too literal with the newly leaked 3.3-inch model that will be available only in the US from Verizon later this year. Insider sources claim that this model will be powered by a Snapdragon 435 SOC and will integrate 3 GB RAM with 32 GB storage. To keep things ultra-light, TCL will only equip this model with an 800 mAh battery.

The event that provided the Galaxy Note 9 with its debut also introduced the Galaxy Watch, Samsung's new smartwatch. This device, like the latest Note, uses Bixby as a virtual assistant. The new Galaxy Home smart speaker also runs Bixby.

The Fortnite beta is coming to Android after all. However, it is invite-only, and those who own the Galaxy Note 9 will be the first to have access to these invites. On the other hand, the other restrictions on the game's availability have not been confirmed - yet.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has been officially released. Its specs and appearance match those found in its leaks, some of which were committed by Samsung themselves. The company emphasized the advantages offered by its new S Pen, battery and storage capacity in its introduction.

Android 9 brings support for gesture-based navigation but current phones can choose to retain the conventional navigation buttons. While OEMs making Android One devices are still free to choose whatever navigation UI they deem fit, Google says that future Pixel phones will only feature the new gesture-based UI.

Earlier this year two large security exploits known as Spectre and Meltdown were reported to exist on modern day CPUs. While Spectre has been confirmed to be exploitable on AMD, Intel, IBM, and ARM, it was previously believed only Intel, IBM, and a handful of ARM's CPUs were vulnerable to Meltdown. However, researchers have confirmed that at least some ARM processors are indeed vulnerable to Meltdown.

A week ago, we heard that Samsung is pushing the Oreo update for the Galaxy A, J, and C handsets to December. Sadly, it can get even worse: the new Oreo roadmap says that most of those devices are scheduled to get Oreo — not Android Pie, but Oreo — in January 2019. In the end, it would not be surprising to find out that Samsung cancels the update.

New images and an unboxing video of a production unit of the Google Pixel 3 XL have surfaced online. The Pixel 3 XL appears to run on Android 9 Pie and features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC with 4 GB RAM. While the Pixel 3 XL lacks a headphone jack, Google appears to have compensated for the same by bundling a set of USB-C earphones in the box.

Evan Blass has received images of a desktop-like Android-based environment that has been in development at Motorola. Blass received a tip, including supporting images, from a graphic designer who has been working on the project.

Qualcomm has announced a new SoC for the burgeoning mid-range Android segment. Dubbed the Snapdragon 670 Mobile Platform, the new SoC has two high performance cores and six efficiency cores and comes with the Spectra 250 ISP for advanced imaging capabilities. The SoC also brings forth the Hexagon 685 DSP, normally found in the top-tier variants, for improved AI capabilities.

Android 9.0 Pie has just arrived, and Vivo is one of the first brands to reveal its update plans. According to the Chinese company, its handsets will get the update in Q4 2018. Insiders familiar with the matter claim that the Vivo X21 will probably be the first one to get the update.

Professional camera maker RED has created a lot of hype around the launch of its first smartphone, the Hydrogen One. The new device features what the company claims has a display capable of displaying 3D holographic images that work without the need for glasses. After first being teased last year, the device now has an official launch date.

The Razer Phone 2 might be launching sometime in December 2018 according to Razer Vice President Chen Xiaoping who revealed this information during the just concluded ChinaJoy entertainment expo. Given the launch timeframe, it is being speculated that the Razer Phone 2 might feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC.

The Pocophone F1 has not yet been officially unveiled, but it looks like the phone is already available on the Romanian site PC Garage. For only ~US$487 users can now get a Snapdragon 845 handheld with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, a notched 5.99-inch 1080+ IPS screen, dual 12 MP + 5 MP rear camera setup, 20 MP selfie shooter and a generous 4,000 mAh battery with quick charge features.

Xiaomi's Director of Product Marketing, Zhi Zhiyuan, has confirmed that the company has no plans of releasing an Mi Max 3 Pro. Previous word claimed that the Pro variant of the newly launched Mi Max 3 would be powered by a Snapdragon 710.

Huawei has now launched its latest device in India. The Honor Play is notable for being the cheapest device to be released with Huawei's flagship Kirin 970 SoC.

It is likely that at least one of the next devices to be released by Oppo will be of the R17 line of phones. A Chinese certification may have given more weight to this rumor, and also indicates how the front panel of such phones will look. It will apparently include a display notch, albeit a minimal one.

A tech website claims to have found an invitation sent to content creators in Canada relating to the Pixel 3. If this leak is genuine, the new Android device's release will take place in October. However, the leak's contents fail to mention the other products rumored to also be included in the next Pixel line.

Android Verified Boot (AVB) was present on some phones with Oreo. Google have implemented it to protect against outdated security patches. The company will also impose it on new phones with Pie out of the box. AVB may also make non-stock firmware building more difficult.

Filings of a new Palm smartphone with model number PVG100 have made it to the FCC and Wi-Fi Alliance certifications. The specifications of the Palm PVG100 are still unclear but from the Wi-Fi Alliance's certification, it can be seen that the phone supports only the 2.4 GHz band implying either a budget or mid-range device.

The Asus ROG gaming smartphone has gone up for pre-order in Finland giving us a first look at its pricing. The powerhouse device packs a vapor cooled Snapdragon 845 and 8GB of RAM and will retail for an eye-watering 999 EUR.

The Xiaomi Pocophone F1 has made its way to the AnTuTu benchmark posting an impressive score of 285302. This is higher than most Snapdragon 845-based flagships and could likely be the result of the liquid cooling mechanism that helps minimize throttling due to heat.

A recent smartphone sales report for the first half of 2018 by Sigmaintell Consulting shows that Huawei shipped more than 25 million handsets (out of a 100 million total) with a notched display during the given period, followed by Apple with over 20 million units. The third position goes to Chinese brand OPPO.

Android 9 is now available for all Pixel phones and is officially being christened Android Pie. This is the initial release of the OS and some of the features announced during Google I/O such as a Digital Wellbeing dashboard, and a revamped Do Not Disturb mode will be made available later.

A developer has turned up yet another icon that may represent another new Apple device. This one may correspond to the putative iPhone XI Plus. It may also be larger than its nearest predecessor, and retain some of its main front-panel features.

T-Mobile has just added the US$350 LG Q7+ to its portfolio, but only the Moroccan Blue variant. This 5.5-inch, Qualcomm Snapdragon 450-powered handset comes with Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, 4 GB RAM, and 64 GB internal storage. Those interested can also acquire it for 24 monthly payments of US$14 each (plus tax).

Apparently, Motorola has two mid-range devices in the works. One is the Motorola One, and the other is the Motorola One Power. Both are Android One devices but it remains unknown what actually separates them.

The biggest headline from Counterpoint Research's newest report on the smartphone market may have been Huawei's dethroning of Apple to become the second-largest smartphone company in the world, but equally impressive is HMD's showing in the global market.