Phablet

A video of someone unboxing a brand-new Huawei Mate X foldable smartphone has made its way onto YouTube. The vaunted device has been apparently thoroughly revised by the Chinese manufacturer and should be released soon, with various reports stating a November timeline. The Mate X in the video now sports a handy red button that pops the smartphone open.

The Nubia Red Magic 3S is a slight improvement over the Red Magic 3. The updated handset sports a faster Snapdragon 855+ SoC and UFS 3.0 storage. All other factors, including the price tag, are the same as the older Red Magic 3. The Red Magic 3S is available starting at US $479

Since the regular Galaxy Note 10 has a price tag of almost US$1,000, it should be no surprise that a US$500- to US$600-priced Lite edition is already in the works and might hit the market soon. However, Samsung still has to confirm the release of this device — and other similar editions, such as the Galaxy S10 Lite.

ZTE's sub-brand Nubia has just released the dual-display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+-powered Z20 flagship worldwide. Only available in Twilight Blue and Diamond Black versions, this premium device can be acquired in most markets, including Australia, Canada, EU, Japan, or Israel. US customers can get it for US$549.

The OEM Meizu has released teasers for a new phone, the 16T, on Weibo. It will have the same SoC (the Snapdragon 855) as its siblings, the 16s and 16s Pro. However, it will also have a bigger screen and battery compared to these pre-existing variants. The Meizu 16T will launch on October 23, 2019 for the equivalent of US$352.

The inability to run Google Play Services on the Huawei Mate 30 has made it a more difficult purchase decision for most in Western markets. VMOS aims to fix this to an extent.

According to recent reports, Samsung are about to release 2 new phones with the model numbers SM-G770F and SM-N770F. Due to their similarity to those of the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 respectively, it is now believed that they are budget versions of these phones. The SM-G770F is said to have the same specs as the Galaxy A91.

It might be hard to believe, but the Pixel 4 leaks keep coming. This time serial leaker Evan Blass has leaked official Pixel 4 renders and marketing shots ahead of its official launch next week.

An XDA contributor claims to have found an option to switch a screen's refresh rate from 60 to 120 hertz (Hz) in MIUI 11. This suggests that there is an upcoming Xiaomi phone with this spec in development. This would leap-frog the new industry standard of 90Hz nicely.

The Redmi Note 8 Pro is set for an Indian-market release on October 16, 2019. However, it appears that this is not all its parent company Xiaomi has to debut on that date. MIUI, its OS skin, has teased a launch of its own in the same country at the same time.

Samsung has released an updated schedule of repair charges for a number of its newer phones. The recently-released Galaxy Fold is at the top of this list. It shows that an out-of-guarantee repair for its flexible screen costs US$599.

Scheduled to arrive globally this week, the PlayStation 4 system update labeled 7.0 is expected to bring Remote Play to smartphones and tablets running Android 5.0 Lollipop or later, 16-player parties, chat transcription, enhanced audio, an improved backend that should take care of most connectivity issues, system-level HDR tuning, and more.

The Mi Band is a popular fitness wearable series worldwide, albeit with one potential drawback: many units sold outside China come without NFC. Its maker, Xiaomi, will reportedly address this deficiency in its next generation. This device is also now said to be more durable and sophisticated that its predecessor.

There have been multiple reports of Pokemon GO handing out strikes preventing play to those who own certain Redmi devices. This pattern has been linked to MIUI 10.3.2.0, a recent firmware update for the phones affected. Niantic, the AR game's developer, has announced that it is now working on trying to revise them.

The Reno2 line of smartphones will become available in a new market, the UK, on October 16, 2019. OPPO is calling this event "Reno Studio Earth", during which the Reno2, Reno2 Z and Reno2 F will be released to this region. The last of these is also now on sale in India.

A new report from Taiwan indicates that Apple needs new stocks of its iPhone 11, but not of the Pro or Pro Max variants. Sources who claim to be close to the suppliers in question have noted that this is a surprising uptick in orders from the Cupertino giant compared to last year. This behavior may be related to economic forces driving sales of the most 'budget' 2019 iPhone.

Google has announced the re-institution of its Shopping service, albeit for users located in the US only. The company claims that the renewed feature can analyse millions of retail listings and other data in order to show customers the best deals. It is also now possible to order the resulting items directly through Google.

Although it plans to keep selling mobile devices in China, Samsung no longer intends to make them in the same country. This move is thought to have been taken in order to cut costs, and also due to overwhelming competition from other OEMs such as Huawei. The South Korean company will transfer production to other nations such as Vietnam in the future.

Chrome OS PCs have many advantages; however, one of their worst drawbacks is that system recovery requires external media. Now, it appears Google is developing an alternative method: Chromebook restore via Android phone. This new way out of a software failure can only be enacted through a specific keyboard shortcut.

Huawei has had its latest phablet series on shelves in its home country for only 6 days now. In this time, it has reportedly sold out on a popular online sales platform, accrued 1 million sales in 3 hours and may have raked in half a billion yuan per minute in the process. This apparent success is ascribed to the uptake of Google-less EMUI 10 in China.

Although this is not official yet, it looks like Samsung has already disbanded the entire team that was working in its Austin R&D center to develop architectures and designs for the System LSI division so next-gen Exynos chips will — most likely — use solutions developed by ARM instead.

Samsung India will open registrations for the Galaxy Fold in this country on October 4, 2019. On this date, it will reportedly be sold for INR 164,999 - which equates to about US$2320. This price includes a discounted for 1 repair should the new phone's display get damaged.

Although US$1099.99 for an unlocked 256 GB Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ cannot be considered affordable, US customers can take advantage of the free Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Fit that come with the flagship. Samsung is also offering a free 6-month Spotify Premium trial and 4 months of YouTube Premium access.

Despite all the bans and restrictions imposed on Huawei that ultimately lead to a delay of the Mate X, the company is considering the release of improved versions that also includes a stylus, as revealed by the latest published patent. The stylus option really makes much more sense for the larger screen integrated in foldable devices, and, with this move, Huawei could provide a serious competitor for Samsung's Galaxy Note.

Samsung has released the Galaxy A70s to the Indian market. Those who already own the pre-existing A70 may or may not be happy to learn that it is a veritable clone of their current phone, but with a 64MP sensor in place of the 32MP main shooter found in the rear camera set-up. The Galaxy A70s also has different backplate colors.

Introduced back in May with a Snapdragon 855 onboard, the gaming handset Nubia Red Magic 3 is now ready to receive two essential performance upgrades (as the Red Magic 3S): the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ processor and high-end UFS 3.0 storage. The global launch of both 8 + 128 GB and 12 + 256 GB variants is set for October 16.

Google has announced that future updates will make it more difficult to activate the Assistant by mistake. The company has also taken pains to reassure users that their audio data will not be collected by default in the same release. A specific opt-in determines whether the same will be analysed by humans or not.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 665-powered Vivo handset that will hit China tomorrow as the U3x is also set to launch the same day in India, where it is called U10. Available in three storage/memory configurations for prices that start around the equivalent of US$112, this 6.45-inch handset has a 5,000 mAh battery with support for 18 W dual-engine flash charge.

A couple of more Google Pixel 4-related leaks have surfaced, one concerning the apparently official names for the colors the smartphones will come in and another about the not inconsiderable price tags. According to one specific retailer, potential Pixel 4 buyers in Ireland will have to cough up just under €820 (~US$903/£723) for the 64 GB variant of the regular-sized model.

The Redmi K20 Pro is going to gain new variants powered by the Snapdragon 855 Plus processor soon. These refreshed units will also have up to 12GB of RAM, 512GB of internal storage and a new rear panel. They will be released in China on September 23, 2019.

The online device valuer Flipsy.com has released the results of a new study on the best way to sell a phone in 2019. Marketplaces - both in a user's vicinity and online - emerged as those associated with the greatest payouts, albeit with some caveats. However, other "buyback" options such as online stores were found to be the most convenient, although the seller might sacrifice the best deal this way.

Smart materials may prove to be the basis of the electronic components of the future. Their market's value was estimated at US$36 billion in 2017. That figure is now thought to grow until it hits $127 billion in 7 years from now.

The Huawei Mate 30 series has been launched in the absence of Google Play Services. In lieu of this, Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) are slated to take over on these phablets. The OEM claims that the OS in which they will operate will keep user data to itself.

Huawei released its new Mate 30-line flagships at a Munich event today (September 19, 2019). A new special edition of the same developed in collaboration with Porsche was also introduced. It was unveiled on stage by the OEM's Richard Yu and Jan Becker from the car-maker's design team.

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro has a new quadruple rear camera set-up that incorporates dual 40MP shooters. One of these is a "dedicated cine-camera" for 4K HDR recording at 60fps. This device also offers 10x zoom with an ultra-low ISO of 51200 and up to 7680fps slow-motion. These specs beat those of competitors such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series by a good margin.

Huawei has unveiled its latest line of flagship phablets on stage today in Germany as scheduled. It is powered by the new Kirin 990 processor, and also has variants based on the 5G version of the same. However, the complete lack of Google apps and services during the EMUI 10 parts of the show was inescapable.

Google's I/O 2019 event saw announcements for plans to bring Chrome's Incognito Mode to mobile services such as Search. This is now reportedly in testing for Maps. It is accessed by tapping the avatar associated with a Google account within this app.

Realme has announced that it will launch a new 64MP camera phone for the Chinese market on September 24, 2019. The brand has also released some details of this device - the X2 - which make it sound suspiciously like the XT that is now official in India. However, it has some crucial differences, such as its 32MP selfie camera.

The Vivo NEX 3, a new flagship that was unveiled today in China, has just climbed on top of the AnTuTu smartphone ranking with a score of over 490,000 points. The next two handsets are the Black Shark 2 Pro and the Asus ROG Phone 2, both scoring slightly above 469,000 points. The NEX 3 will go on sale later this week starting around US$800.

Qualcomm and TDK have clubbed together to acquire a remaining interest in the Singaporean body RF360 Holdings. This has enabled the 2 companies to produce a new kind of multi-mode radiofrequency front-end (RFFE) filter. It may contribute to improved switching between 4G and 5G in the Qualcomm modems of the future.

A document allegedly filed with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) suggests that Sharp may have a device with a punch-hole selfie camera in the works. Like that of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series, it is in the midline of the display. Some renders included in this apparent patent indicates that this phone would also have a relatively large chin, however.

Huawei’s Mate 30 line has leaked in full renders thanks to well-known leaker Evan Blass. Leaving nothing to the imagination, we know get to feast our eyes on the Mate 30 Pro, the Mate 30 and the Mate 30 Lite in all their glory.

Google Assistant had been reported to gain a dark theme at the start of 2019. However, this update did not get to all users at once. Now, it appears that the Mountain View giant is pushing this change again. This new roll-out, which also affects the Google App, has been observed in a small number of countries thus far.

The Kirin 990 SoC is the latest LTE chipset released by Huawei. A phone that purports to be a new model from this OEM has appeared on the Geekbench results database. It suggest that this new processor is a good match for the Snapdragon 855 Plus.

Following months of speculation, the existence of the Samsung Galaxy M30s as a retail product has been confirmed. It may be exclusive to Amazon India, a site that is currently promoting it as a device with an impressive 6000mAh battery. This new Galaxy M-series variant will go on sale on September 18, 2019.

The soon-to-be-released Google Pixel 4 XL is back in a new unofficial video that does not leave much to be discovered at launch. The video shows the upcoming flagship device with a round camera module on the back that makes it similar to the iPhone 11, a 90 Hz display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, 6 GB of memory, and more.

Vivo is arguably one of the most innovative smartphone makers on the market right now. The company pioneered the first true all-screen smartphone as well as the first under-screen fingerprint reader. Now it looks set to deliver the first smartphone with a 99.6 percent screen-to-body ratio.

The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max have all finally been officially revealed by Apple. The new smartphones feature high-performance A13 Bionic chips and standout camera systems: a dual setup for the regular iPhone 11 and triple lenses for the Pro and Pro Max handsets. Prices range from US$699 to US$1,449, with iPhone trade-in discounts available as well.