Touchscreen

The Russian Internet-related tech company Yandex has announced its foray into the world of smartphones with the aptly named Yandex.Phone. The 5.65-inch device will sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SoC and features Yandex’s proprietary intelligent assistant, Alice. The smartphone will be released on December 6 at a store in the company’s headquarters in Moscow, and it will be priced at 17,990 rubles (~US$270).

Hot on the heels of the official launch of the Snapdragon 855 is a leak suggesting that the Sony Xperia XZ4 will be the first smartphone to ship with Qualcomm’s freshest silicon. If the rumor is accurate, it could be just what Sony needs to help lift the sales of its latest flagship.

Lenovo is planning on launching its Z5s smartphone in China on December 6, and it could end up being the first smartphone on the market to have a punch-hole design for the selfie camera. The Z5s is expected to feature a rear-facing triple camera setup while the front-facing camera is located in the top center. Both Samsung and Huawei are expected to release products with similar design features very soon.

Huawei has posted a promotional image on the company’s Weibo page to announce the release date in China for the Nova 4 smartphone: December 17. The successor of the Nova 3 device comes with the latest alternative to the notch/teardrop solutions. The Huawei Nova 4 will feature a punch-hole cut-out, with the selfie camera located in the top left-hand corner.

Reported specifications for the rumored Sony Xperia XZ4 have been leaked on a Chinese blogging site. Prolific leaker Ice universe has posted details about the possible flagship device that include mention of a Snapdragon 855 processor, a 6.55-inch FHD+ screen, 3,900 mAh battery, 6 GB RAM and up to 256 GB storage. However, the Japanese company has only just released its XZ3 smartphone.

To say the Vivo Nex was a unique device would be an understatement. It was the first smartphone to include a motorized front camera module, thus saving screen real estate. Nevertheless, the OEM has announced that 2 million units of the Nex have been sold since its release in June 2018.

New details about the Vivo NEX 2 have emerged online. Vivo has now updated its website with marketing material hinting at what features the device may have. The company will supposedly unveil its latest NEX smartphone on December 11.

The Korean electronics giant Samsung will reportedly debut a line of notebooks with 4K OLED panels at CES 2019. These devices will come in 13.3 inch, 14 inch, and 15.6 inch variants. However, don't expect the consumer models of these new machines to come cheap.

A report from Windows Central claims that Microsoft and Intel are working on a device with the codename “Centaurus.” The device is believed to be a foldable dual-screen version of the Surface PC that will operate on an edition of Windows 10 known as Core. Centaurus is not a new name for the Andromeda device project, which is believed to involve the long-rumored Surface Phone.

OnLeaks and 91Mobile have compiled a new image and video series purported to show CAD renders for the Galaxy S10. It shows a virtually bezel-less phone that, in fairness, closely resembles the Note 9. However, the Note does not have a dual camera integrated into the screen, a clear lack of a hardware fingerprint scanner, or triple rear cameras.

Recently, the news of a theft of Samsung tech secrets by a supplier to the company has come to light. As a result, more than one Chinese company may have gotten its hands on the ability to make folding screens of its own. Samsung now estimates that the damage done to its revenues as a result could easily exceed US$5 billion dollars.

Huawei has announced that full-screen gesture controls shown on its Mate 20 Pro — and in beta on the Mate 10 Pro — are now coming to the Huawei P20 and Huawei P20 Pro with the full release of EMUI 9.0 in China.

With 2019 looking like it will be the year of the foldable smartphones, you might be wondering what’s next. A new patent from Sony might give us a clue. How does a foldable smartphone with a transparent display sound like to you?

One area that Google holds a clear lead over the competition is the way it deploys its algorithm and machine learning nous to enhance the capabilities of its Pixel smartphones. In a new blog, the company explains how it has developed this technology to improve the quality of the portrait photos that are taken by the new Pixel 3.

The ASUS ROG Phone is now available as a Flipkart exclusive in India. The company is currently selling the gaming phone for INR₹69,999.

MediaTek started out as a provider of mobile SoCs for emerging Chinese smartphone makers. Up until now, the Taiwanese company presented solid entry-level and mid-range solutions, but, with the upcoming Helio P90, MediaTek is aiming to compete with the best SoCs from Qualcomm, Apple and Samsung. The Helio P90 SoC was recently teased as a "powerful" and "efficient" chip with "groundbreaking AI."

The world's first pop-up-camera phone, the Vivo Nex, is set to launch in Europe soon. According to a new report, it may cost as much as €849 (about US$967) in this region. On the other hand, as this is mainly based on rumor so far, this story should be treated at least a little skeptically at this point.

Foldable phones will surely be one of next year's highlights for revolutionary tech. Most of the big names have already scheduled showcasing events for their foldable phones. Samsung and LG will present their models at CES in January, while Chinese manufacturers like Huawei and, more recently, Oppo are expected to reveal their handsets at MWC 2019 in February.

For just under $200 USD, the 10.1-inch Android tablet promises 3 GB of RAM, 4G LTE, expandable storage, dual-SIM slots, a metal body, and a 10-core processor. It's certainly one of the more ambitious tablets from a Chinese manufacturer.

A previous render for the Sony Xperia XZ4 suggested that it might have a triple-camera setup and a flat display rather than curved as in previous generations of this phone. A new leak showing a case linked to the XZ4 appears to confirm these indications and also shows some more design tweaks for it.

It has been claimed that Microsoft is mulling over using AMD chips in a future Surface Laptop refresh. Apparently, the Redmond-based company has become frustrated with Intel, especially over the chipmaker’s long delay in shipping 10 nm Cannon Lake processors. It would be a considerable coup for AMD if Microsoft went ahead and utilized the red team’s upcoming Picasso APU.

Fresh details about Microsoft's first store in the UK have emerged online. Published on the City of Westminster's planning portal, Microsoft has confirmed the size of its London store's retail floor space and offered more details about its layout.

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo is proving to be one of the more innovative smartphone makers on the market – or at least one that is happy to experiment with new technology. Leaked photos of the sequel to its clever all-screen Vivo NEX with pop up camera show that the company is radically changing course once again for its flagship smartphone.

Renders based on leaked information of the Sony Xperia XZ4 have surfaced, courtesy of Steve Hemmerstoffer (@OnLeaks) and MySmartPrice. The renders show some notable design shifts, such as a flat front display, a triple-camera setup on the back, and a fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button on the side. Note that these renders are based on rumors and leaks and should be taken as such.

If you somehow missed all the Black Friday deals, not all is lost. Cyber Monday is here with similar bargains and Newegg has some of the best laptop deals around. This time we are taking a look at what Asus, Dell and Lenovo have to offer. Most of the models come with Intel CPUs but there is one AMD Ryzen model that might catch your eye.

Get the Spectre x360 13t for just $850 USD while it lasts. The convertible has apparently become HP's "#1 selling Spectre" while the "top seller" is the last generation budget AMD-powered HP 15z for only $320 USD.

The leaker IceUniverse has shared an image that appears to portray a Huawei phone with an Infinity-O-like display via Twitter. This tweet also suggests that the phone in question will be a competitor to the Samsung Galaxy A8s, and that this device will be released in December. However, the unnamed Huawei counterpart may beat the mid-range Galaxy to launch.

Samsung devices with the model numbers SM-G975F, DS SM-G975F and SM-G975X have been spotted in a certification on the website of the Russian body ROSTEST. These numbers could well pertain to the Galaxy S10, and suggest that at least 2 variants of the upcoming flagship are undergoing official approval already.

Stardew Valley is a bonafide hit, and the success keeps rolling in. In its first three weeks on iOS, the game brought in over $1 million in revenue. In total, Stardew Valley has sold over 4.6 million copies, although it's likely sold many, many more.

[Update: Cyber Monday deals now live.] If you're comfortable with spending $200 on a lesser-known smartphone instead of $500 or more on a name brand, then these Chinese smartphone deals may be of interest. The UMIDIGI UMI Z2 and Leagoo S9 can be had for just $210 and $160, respectively, for this weekend only.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is one of the most expensive phones of the year; however, it offers standout features for all of that money. The YouTuber JerryRigEverything's durability test demonstrated that potential and actual customers need to consider additional investments into protective accessories, however.

LG has launched its answer to the Google Home Hub. Dubbed LG XBOOM AI ThinQ WK9 (yes, you read that right), it focuses on its audio prowess to differentiate itself from the competition, tapping Meridian Audio to deliver high-end sound.

The manufacturer will be taking $50 to $300 off on a wide range of laptops and ZenFone smartphones throughout the rest of this month. Participating retailers like Newegg are even shaving off an additional $100 on certain deals.

A key Samsung executive has just confirmed that the upcoming Galaxy F foldable handset will ship with Bixby 2.0's successor. However, he also added that the company has not decided yet if the next-gen virtual assistant will be branded as Bixby 3.0, so in the end we might get Bixby F or something completely different.

Asus will be seeding the Android 9 Pie update for the ZenFone 5Z by the end of January 2019. The new update is expected to bring new features including a new contextual pop-up volume bar and a new Magnifier for easy copy-paste.

After all the buzz Samsung's upcoming Galaxy F foldable smartphone has generated, rival OEMs are taking notice of the new form factor. One of these rivals, Oppo, recently filed a foldable smartphone design with the Chinese patent office SIPO. While a patent doesn't necessarily mean that a device is coming, it does show that Oppo is considering the idea of a foldable smartphone.

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10 could very well use an in-display selfie camera eliminating the need for a notch altogether. The Galaxy S10 could implement the Infinity-O display that was showed off during the company's recent developer conference. A design patent to this effect was applied for at the Hague International Design System, whose database is managed by the World Intellectual Property Office.