Today, (February 19, 2019) Qualcomm has launched its second modem for use with 5G-New Radio (5G-NR): the Snapdragon X55. It is rated to support download speeds of up to 7 gigabits per second (Gb/s) and upload speeds of up to 3 Gb/s. Unlike its predecessor, the X50, this modem is also compatible with 2G, 3G and 4G.

PlusUs has introduced its Xpad, a charging pad that measures only 2.2 millimeters in depth. This spec leads the start-up to assert that it is the thinnest product of its kind worldwide. It is available as a reward as part of an Indiegogo campaign, which aims to raise US$20,000.

A recent video made by XDA based on a leaked version of Android Q from January 2019 does not have a 'back' option in its UI navigation functions. The user must now swipe to the left using the 'pill' to return to a second-most recent app. This Q build also has smoother animations for app-switching.

The Galaxy S10 and S10+ are here one day early, sort of. Norwegian TV channel TV 2 has aired the launch advert for the Galaxy S10 and S10+ before tomorrow's Galaxy UNPACKED event in San Francisco. The advert confirms many of the S10 and S10+'s features including its Infinity-O display, its in-screen fingerprint sensor and the now rare headphone jack.

The latest corporate acquisition in the AI field for Apple is San Francisco-based PullString, a company that was founded in 2011 by former Pixar executives and has been working on "shaping the future of voice applications" ever since. The value of the deal is rumored to be around US$30 million.

The Mi 9 will offer a mouth-watering specifications sheet including an AMOLED display, IR blaster, triple rear cameras, a Snapdragon 855, and up to 12 GB of RAM. All of that comes with a caveat, though: Prices also see a massive hike.

Huawei has just put an end to all the rumors about the launch date and location of its next-gen flagships by posting a video teaser on Twitter. The video apparently focuses on the zoom capabilities of the upcoming flagship. The Huawei P30 will arrive during a special event that will take place on March 26 in Paris.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is said to be available in 128 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB storage variants, and one of the color options for the 1 TB variant is Ceramic Black. Roland Quandt has tweeted that even the S10 Plus 512 GB version will be available in Ceramic Black in the US and elsewhere. We are also getting to know that the price of the Galaxy S10 Plus, though still expensive, will be cheaper than its nearest competitor, the Apple iPhone XS Max.

In the same Weibo post where he discussed the design features of the upcoming Mi 9 Explorer Edition, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun also delivered a rather startling morsel of information: The smartphone will feature 12 GB memory. This would put the device on the same RAM amount level as the top-end variant of the Samsung Galaxy S10+.

Sony has released a brief teaser for its upcoming appearance at MWC19. The clip has the caption “embrace a new perspective” that seems to point at the expected 21:9 aspect ratios of the Japanese company’s new smartphones. Apparently, the devices formerly known as the Xperia XA3 and XA3 Plus will be released as the Xperia 10 and 10 Plus, respectively.

Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun has posted some very interesting images of the Mi 9 Explorer Edition on Weibo. Along with the pictures, there is some text describing the process of creating the flagship smartphone’s unique transparent look, which involves a 0.3-mm sheet of micro-carved aluminum being inserted underneath the device’s back glass cover.

Xiaomi is set to unveil its newest flagship, the Mi 9, in a few days. The Mi 9 is said to feature wireless charging—the first time a Mi flagship will have that honor—and will further take things up a notch with 20 W wireless charging support. Wired fast charge comes in at a massive 27 W.

Gadgetsdeck has produced a handy infographic that shows how the Samsung Galaxy S series of smartphones has evolved over the last decade. The chart covers the model variants too, including the Edge devices, the Plus versions, and all three of the main models of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10 flagship smartphones.

The Redmi Note 7 Pro is expected to feature a Snapdragon 675 and Sony's 48 MP IMX586 sensor, the same module used on the Honor View 20. Initial reports claimed the Note 7 Pro would be launched in February but that's looking increasingly unlikely, and new information touts a March release instead.

Polish e-retailer X-Kom ran a promotion this past weekend that offered a free copy of Fallout 76 with four sets of PlayStation 4 thumbstick covers, all for POL 19 zl (~US $5). This discount is not out of the norm for retailers selling Fallout 76, a title that has had trouble selling copies and satisfying gamers.

The Android phone-maker OPPO had previously teased its new camera-tech breakthrough: 10x lossless zoom, facilitated by a prism and an extra series of lenses that can fit into a typical phone chassis. The OEM's vice president has announced that it is prepared to mass-produce these components. This should start by about June 2019.

Zotac has unveiled a new modified graphics card to its line-up: The Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti ArcticStorm. The Nvidia GeForce 2080 Ti-based GPU comes with a preinstalled ArcticStorm waterblock as part of a liquid cooling solution. The new card also comes with configurable lighting zones and can be fine-tuned with Zotac’s FireStorm utility software.

A real-life image of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy A50 confirms that the mid-range phone will feature a fairly robust triple-camera setup. Considering the phone will be powered by Samsung's Exynos 7 9610, which is designed with a focus on image processing, the Galaxy A50 may be able to produce stunning photos for a mid-range phone.

The MSI GL73 with RTX 2060 graphics begins to shine when gaming at higher resolutions beyond 1080p and with DirectX 12 active. Otherwise, users can get the same performance or better out of an older GTX 1070 laptop for lower prices.

A while ago, a series of Tweets from a smartphone case-maker presented the possibility that the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+'s fingerprint reader placement would make using screen protectors on these phones much more difficult than normal. Now, a 2nd accessory firm has released a video reiterating this line of speculation.

MyDrivers has reported that Xiaomi intends to announce a crowdfunding project for a new product: a smart sports watch. This device will apparently support real-time GPS tracking, so that a user can generate and maintain maps of their fitness-related activities (e.g. runing routes and so on).

The Realme 2 Pro is a phone directed at the younger market in a number of countries, including India. Here, the 2 Pro is available at Rs. 1000 (about US$14) less than usual. However, its better-spec'd SKUs are currently out of stock.

According to a review by Android Authority, the Honor View 20's main camera setup can provide excellent low-light performance, realistic colors, great image stabilization, as well as "amazing detail" but also lacks in the HDR area and its selfie shooter can be improved. The conclusion is that the View 20 beats the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

The Samsung Galaxy M30 is expected to arrive with a triple rear camera setup similar to that used for the Galaxy A8s, but it will have a notched Infinity-U display instead of the holed Infinity-O touchscreen used by its sibling. This handset should come with many features similar to those of the Galaxy M20.

An Intel export compliance metrics document has listed the new 9th gen H-series processors for laptops. These CPUs include the Core i5-9300H all the way to the Core i9-9980HK. The 9th gen H-series CPUs are not official yet and Intel has not provided many details apart from the boost clocks, L3 cache, and CTP values aimed at authorities and regulators to determine the capabilities of each chip. The 9th gen H-series processors are expected to be officially announced in Q2 this year and will feature in many gaming notebooks.

The February 2019-dated Android security patch comes with the software version G930FXXS4ESAE and seems to be only available for Samsung Galaxy S7 users in the United Kingdom and Austria for now. The Galaxy S7 lineup receives this month's patch after the Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy S9, and Galaxy Note 8.

Ming-Chi Kuo, one of the most accurate analyst going around when it comes to Apple’s product plans, has spilled the beans on its entire 2019 product pipeline. Kuo’s latest investor note for TF International Securities includes details about the next iPhone, Mac news, iPad news, AirPod news, a 6K 31.5-inch monitor and a ceramic Apple Watch.

July 7 will see the launch of AMD's 7 nm parts including the Ryzen 3000 CPUs and Navi GPUs alongside the new X570 chipset. A detailed announcement is expected during Computex 2019 in June followed by wide availability in July. AMD is also expected to announce 12 and 16-core Ryzen CPUs in the July to September timeframe. While Zen 2 is mostly on track, the simultaneous launch of Navi depends on whether TSMC is able to cater to the demand.

Watch a quick 5-minute video following the production, assembly, and diagnostics of the Gigabyte laptop from start to finish.

Razer is shutting down the Razer Game Store, its own online retail space for PC games. The store will close in the early morning of February 28th. Any games purchased through the Razer Game Store will continue to work, though keys purchased via the store will need to be redeemed before the end of February. Additionally, Razer will honor any pre-orders made through the Game Store and will continue its Razer Gold and Razer Silver rewards programs.

Apple does not quite match up to some other major software companies in terms of smart-home products. It has only one product dedicated to this market: the HomePod. The company may by trying to change this by hiring Sam Jadallah, an ex-Microsoft executive with experience in the smart-home space.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti featuring the non-RT 'Turing' TU116 core has made an appearance on the Final Fantasy XV benchmark scoring just short of a 'Maxwell' Titan X and not too far above the GTX 1070, which it is expected to replace. The GTX 1660 Ti is expected to launch on February 22 at an MSRP of US$279.

Xiaomi is now known as one of the very few Android OEMs who have released the most modern take on the slider phone. However, it also appears as though it wants to get into the pop-up camera game as well. A company executive has hinted that this may be the case should demand for that kind of device remain high.

Samsung rolled out the Android Pie-based One UI update to the Galaxy S9, S9 Plus, and Note 9 a while ago. The latest device to receive the update is the Galaxy Note 8, the company's last-gen flagship.

The Pocophone F1 has been lauded for the high price to performance ratio it brings to the table. Sadly, Xiaomi's high-value magnum opus isn't sold officially in the US. ZTE's Nubia is now offering something almost as good, and it's actually available in the US.

According to new reports, Huawei's upcoming flagships, the P30 and P30 Pro will feature 1080p displays. Both devices are expected to have some impressive specifications sheets, and the listed display resolutions are somewhat disappointing.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation opened its first shop earlier this month, at the Grand Arcade shopping center in Cambridge, England. The move to a brick-and-mortar presence for the previously online-only Raspberry Pi gives enthusiasts a chance to physically browse through the products the charity has been working on, including the Pi 3A+ and Pi 3B+.

A fresh patent granted to Apple shows that the Cupertino giant is hard at work on its own foldable smartphone. Interestingly, there are several different types of options that Apple is looking at in terms of the way the screen folds, the number of folding segments, and the types of hinges that it might use.

Motorola has been persisting with its Moto Mods line for a few years now, but one of its most interesting Mods has just passed through the FCC. The new Moto Mod 5G promises to make the Motorola Z3 the first smartphone with 5G capability on the market, although Samsung and LG might have other plans.

Xiaomi has published pictures of the Mi 9 flagship smartphone on its community pages in three different colors. There’s the regulatory black, a shimmering blue, and a color that has already received several different descriptions and seems to offer a dash of purple and a smattering of pink. Xiaomi has asked tweeters to retweet its post if the latter color offers “major unicorn vibes.”

A report from CNET mentions that TCL Corporation could be busy working on up to five different foldable devices. It seems two of the devices are tablets, two are smartphones, and one appears to be a combination of a smartphone, smartwatch, and bracelet. The Chinese company is apparently planning to release a foldable device in 2020.

After testing more than 20 laptops with Whiskey Lake-U processors, the raw gen-to-gen performance advantage looks to be one of the smallest in recent years. If you own a Kaby Lake-R laptop, it may be best to hold off on buying a replacement until Ice Lake comes out later this year.

MSI is encouraging buyers to look beyond just Amazon and Newegg by offering two-year warranty as standard when purchasing from smaller resellers and BTOs. The promotion gives these smaller stores a slight edge and a bigger reason for gamers to shop around instead of only looking at the usual online marketplaces.