Phablet

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has reportedly launched a full-scale probe into Google's business practices. It is doing so based on allegations of anti-trust behaviors on the part of the Mountain View giant. Should the CCI find a basis for these complaints, the target could be liable for potentially sizable penalties.

A new entry into the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) may show where Samsung may think foldable displays and their use in the future are headed. It depicts an electronic product that can lay flat, but can also be folded...into a 3D rectangle. This "display device", therefore, may be a new kind of convertible, although it does not really seem that portable.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has ordered the recall of a wireless charging pad sold by the company Imagine Nation Books due to a burn hazard. This order affects about 64,000 of these products circulating in the country. Those who have bought them are advised to return them for a refund without delay.

There is a rumor that Redmi is not satisfied with just producing budget-friendly smartphones and phablets and intends to move into creating laptops too. The sub-brand’s parent company, Xiaomi, has been in the notebook business for a few years now, and it has won praise for products such as the Mi Notebook Pro and Mi Notebook Air.

Images of a mystery smartphone have been shared on Twitter, with some tweeters immediately presuming they were gazing at the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 10 for the first time. Unfortunately, it was quickly revealed that the renders were not of the coveted phablet. In other Note 10 rumor news, the possibility of it coming with UFS 3.0 storage seems more likely.

Although it also sports a 32 MP selfie shooter and a 24 MP triple camera on the back, the Honor 20 Lite is not a rebranded Honor 20i. Available in blue and red, this new handset is powered by a Kirin 710 processor and sports a 6.21-inch borderless display, 4 GB of memory, and 128 GB of internal storage.

If missing the initial release date of April 26 was not bad enough, Samsung is now having it worse: according to the company's officials, a new release date for the Galaxy Fold cannot be confirmed yet. Unfortunately, this can only mean one thing — Samsung is struggling to iron out the serious display problems of its foldable device.

Although the Realme X has an official launch date — May 15 — there are still no technical details to talk about. However, it is rumored that this handset will come with a full HD+ 6.5-inch display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor, an in-display fingerprint reader, and a 48 MP dual camera setup on the back. The Realme X Youth is rumored to be a rebranded Realme 3 Pro.

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo has launched a new Pro variant of its affordable all-screen S1. Whereas the standard model is equipped with a MediaTek Helio P70 the new model picks up a Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 along with a few other extra bells and whistles.

Ice universe is back with more teasing tips about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 10 flagship phablet series. Although the leaker didn’t specify which Note variant he was referring to (Pro, 5G, etc.), he did manage to set off yet another stream of speculation thanks to posting a picture of Superman and using the “not equal to” ≠ symbol.

Arun Maini is a popular tech YouTuber who claims to be in contact with the also-famous leaker IceUniverse. The former has reportedly gained even more detail on the upcoming Galaxy Note "Pro" variants than the latter has posted to Twitter.

Noted tipster Ice universe appears to have gone back on his slightly cryptic comment about the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 (the Pro 4G version) coming with 25 W fast charging capability. The leaker admitted the probability of this was giving out the “wrong message”. However, another rumor that has been around for some time is that the Note 10 will get a pop-up camera.

While the overall smartphone market may be down, Huawei is bucking the industry trend by confirming its position as the number 2 smartphone maker in the world ahead of Apple. While both Apple and Samsung lost ground, Huawei enjoyed incredible year-over-year growth with a 50.3 percent increase in smartphone sales.

The Royole FlexPai had been available in China in December 2018, but only in pre-order form. No new units have been offered in subsequent events - until now. The company had reportedly put the flexible phone back on the retail site Tmall in April 2019.

At least one of the four expected variants of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 10 phablets will come with a 4500 mAh battery, according to an image of a battery found on a consumer website for South Korean KC certification. At almost the same time, it has been reported that the same device will also support fast 25 W charging.

The well-known smartphone industry tipster Ice universe has sparked a flurry of speculation with two enigmatic tweets pertaining to Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note 10. His two clues consisted of the simple line “Da Vinci is symmetrical,” which was followed by a tweet containing a picture of the famous Vitruvian Man drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci.

Samsung PR is in overdrive. After delaying the public release of the Galaxy Fold following reports of numerous display issues, the company is now doing its best to shut down any negative press about the foldable smartphone.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold was supposed to see an official release tomorrow (April 26, 2019). However, as many of us know by now, teething problems uncovered by reviewers have postponed the launch of this next-gen smartphone. A tweet allegedly referencing an AT&T email suggests that it will now take place in June.

As part of its international roll-out, the European prices for the OPPO Reno series have been announced. The base model will cost €500 (about US$557), whereas the one with 10X zoom will be €800 (~US$892). The 5G variant of the same will be €100 (a total of $1003) more than this.

OnePlus will launch its new OnePlus 7 phones on May 14. This will be the first time the company launches a Pro model and it looks increasingly like an attempt to move upmarket, as the top trim OnePlus 7 Pro is now being touted to have an MSRP north of US$800.

As rumored, and completely expected, Samsung will launch a 5G variant of the Galaxy Note 10. Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg spilled the beans on the yet to be officially unveiled device during the company’s fiscal Q1 2019 earnings call.

Underdogs Meizu have finally unveiled their newest flagship that will take on the Mi 9, Honor View 20, and Huawei P30. The device features a slew of competitive hardware feature while being priced appropriately. There's also the fact that it eschews the notch and punch-hole in favor of incredibly slim bezels.

Lenovo's latest flagship smartphone has been released today (April 23, 2019), as scheduled. Its launch confirms the presence of a quadruple rear camera, which incorporates a 48MP module as expected. Besides this, it has a Snapdragon 855 processor, a 12GB RAM variant and a 4000mAh battery.

Certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance earlier this month, the Samsung Galaxy M40 (SM-M405F) is expected to hit the market soon as the fourth member to be added to the Galaxy M lineup. This handset would be the first Galaxy M device to run Android 9.0 Pie out of the box and apparently sports 128 GB of internal storage.

Although the Galaxy Fold has been officially delayed, it looks like two more such models are in the pipeline. For now, they are known as "Type G" and "Type S," but there is no official information regarding their commercial names or release date yet. However, at least one of them is rumored to be announced by the end of the year.

The Nokia 9 PureView's in-display fingerprint reader has been the subject of many a debate, and the company has sent out OTAs that were supposed to improve it. A new video, however, shows a Nokia 9 PureView being unlocked by an unregistered fingerprint, and a packet of chewing gum afterwards. And no, we're not making this up.

A new leak has revealed more details of what appears to be the upcoming Moto Z4. Major takeaways include a 25 MP selfie camera, a single 48 MP rear camera, a teardrop notch, and an in-display fingerprint reader.

Huawei's latest flagship is the P30 Pro, a phone that has many advantages over its 2018 counterpart. It now appears that it also performed better in the JerryRigEverything bend test than the P20 Pro. On the other hand, it seems this premium device has potential deficiencies in other areas.

A smartphone leaks blog claims to have unearthed a patent filed by LG in which a phone with a triple selfie camera is depicted. The phone in question could easily be a V50 ThinQ, except for the three distinctly lens-like sensors visible in its notch. This, then could suggest the next generation of LG phone design.

Samsung has been copping a lot of flak for the highly publicized issues that some of the Galaxy Fold review units it has in circulation. However, some of these critics fail to adequately credit Samsung for pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Note: The views expressed here represent the views of the author alone and don't necessarily reflect the views of Notebookcheck.

A finely crafted concept video of a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 phablet has been posted on YouTube. The creator of the video has specifically stated that it is not based on leaks, which helps explain some differences between the device shown in the clip and what is currently expected from the real thing.

Apple is not ready to make the jump to foldable designs for the time being, but luxury modification company Caviar from Russia might be able to inspire the Californian giant with its impressive iPhone Z concept. The Z-shaped folding pattern allows for quite a few interesting uses, including a laptop mode, a selfie mode, and a screen mode.

Rumors claimed the Huawei P30 phones would feature OLED displays made by Samsung. Information disproving that idea has surfaced, though, and it looks like the P30 Pro actually opts for LG-made panels, with some units sporting BOE-made ones, just like the Mate 20 Pro did.

An image of the retail box for the Huawei Mate 20X 5G phablet has been leaked online. The most recent Mate series originally consisted of the Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, and the Mate 20X. It was announced at MWC19 that the latter device would get a 5G variant, which will apparently come with some important changes.

The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has ordered Google and Apple to remove the app TikTok from their respective stores. This ban has followed allegations that the service increases the risk of child abuse. TikTok can now appeal this ruling on dates set for about a week from today (April 17, 2019).

An XDA contributor has noticed that Google Maps has gained the ability to scan a mobile device's clipboard for addresses. This enables it to suggest an address that has been copied from, say, Chrome, in its search bar without the need for a button or option to paste it. It is not clear when this new feature of Maps arose.

The V50 is LG's first 5G-enabled device, and was scheduled for release during an event on April 19, 2019. However, the OEM has issued a statement saying that this launch is now postponed. No reasons were given for this, although it is known that 5G services in South Korea are experiencing technical difficulties.

A short video clip of a Samsung Galaxy Fold smartphone running AndroBench 5 ends with the device achieving some very impressive results. The sequential read rate was measured at 1478.85 MB/s, and a 4 kB random read performance measurement of 37,635.85 IOPS was also recorded. The Galaxy Fold utilizes Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 3.0.

The OPPO F11 Pro that was launched last month is now ready for a special edition. The F11 Pro Marvel's Avengers Limited Edition will come out the same day as the new Avengers movie — on April 24. Unfortunately, it might only be available in a limited number of markets, starting with Malaysia.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G with its menacing quad-rear camera setup has been deemed by DxOMark to be the joint best camera smartphone in the world, alongside the Huawei P30 Pro. In fact, the S10 5G is top dog in both the video and selfie categories but loses out in the still photography section due to the P30 Pro's outrageous zoom abilities.

A new listing on the Bluetooth Launch Studio website reveals that the Motorola Razr XT2000-1 will be available exclusively via Verizon Wireless in the US. However, its availability in other markets remains a mystery for the time being — just like the specs, which are rumored to include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 processor and a 6.2-inch main display.

A recent tweet from tipster Ice universe has arguably explained what Samsung could be planning in terms of naming the phablets that are part of its upcoming Galaxy Note 10 lineup. The four models, which are differentiated by two sizes and whether they come with 5G or not, could end up being called the Samsung Galaxy Note 10e and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Pro.

Although Huawei still has troubles in the US, the new Huawei P30 and P30 Pro can be pre-ordered stateside thanks to B&H. The models available are the P30 Pro with 256 GB and the 128 GB P30, both unlocked — compatible with T-Mobile's and AT&T's GSM networks, but not with Verizon's CDMA network — and feature dual-SIM capabilities.

Google Wallet has reportedly gained access to a number of Google accounts over the last few days. That would be fine and all - if the official iteration of this app still existed. It was discontinued and absorbed into Google Pay some time ago, meaning that this name may now be used by scammers to steal user payment details or funds.

For the first time ever, we're set to get four new Samsung Galaxy Note devices. The Galaxy Note 10 is expected to come in four flavors, with one of the three said to be a cheap, smaller model, not entirely unlike the newly released Galaxy S10e.

Earlier this year, the chief technical officer (CTO) of LG Electronics gave an interview in which he hinted at the possibility of smartphones that may be capable of rolling up completely rather than simply folding in the future. Now, a blog claims to have found a number of patents filed by this OEM that point to relevant form factors.

Skype for Mobile now offers the user an option to share their screen with a caller. This could enable people on a Skype call to share things such as slideshows, webpages, a homescreen and so on. The new function is found in the '...' menu on the mobile version of this app.

Huawei launched sales of the P30 and P30 Pro in China yesterday (April 11, 2019). It now asserts that it took only 10 seconds for it to run out of stock of the new flagships during this event. The OEM reportedly earned 200 million yuan (about US$29.8 million) in this process.

Any direct successor for the R17 is dead; long live Reno. This is the main message of an interview given by OPPO's CEO, Shen Yiren, that took place after the launch of the latter earlier this week. Accordingly, this new brand, in conjunction with the new Find Z, will pick up where the R-line left off.