Android

A phone calling itself the OPPO PCLM50 has surfaced on Geekbench 5 recently. This putative new phone has an unnamed chipset, but one that may very well be Qualcomm's new mid-tier flagship, the Snapdragon 765G - or its nearest variant, the 765. It may also ship with the latest ColorOS 7 and 8GB of RAM.

The Galaxy XCover 4s is one of the latest in Samsung's line of rugged smartphones. It currently runs Android 9.0 (Pie). Now, however, devices with its model number have appeared on a benchmarking site running a major upgrade to this OS.

Is 2020 the year when foldables go mainstream? Probably not, but it is likely the dawn on mainstream OEMs releasing foldable smartphones en-masse, albeit at ludicrous prices. The Galaxy Z Flip may seem better value than the Motorola Razr 2019 on paper, but it is still a waste of money.

The Mi A3 is not due to receive Android 10 until next month, right? Not so, according to Xiaomi. The company has informed fans that the OS upgrade is live and rolling out to handsets now. There appears to be no evidence of this being the case, though.

An APK teardown has revealed that Google will be bringing native call recording functionality to the Google Phone app in Pixel devices. The updated Google Phone app will allow users to record, transcribe, and export the recordings. It will also prompt users on either side of the call whenever recording is initiated or terminated.

Huawei has given users of the Huawei Y9 (2019) Indian variant and the Nova 3/Nova 3i a cold shoulder as the company has confirmed the said devices will not be updated to EMUI 10. This is surprising considering that global variants of the Huawei Y9 are confirmed to received the update after a recent backlash and that these phones use the same Kirin 710 SoC as the Honor 8X, which is already getting its share of EMUI 10 goodness.

Google has been working hard to bring all sorts of AI-powered smarts to Android smartphones for some time. The latest application of this technology will bring Android closer to realizing the Star Trek vision of universal translator with a forthcoming update to Google Translate for Android.

The upcoming Poco X2 smartphone is confirmed to feature a 120 Hz RealityFlow display, and all the hints point it to be a rebadged Redmi K30 for the Indian market. Leaked images of the Poco X2 also seem to confirm a Redmi K30-esque design including the presence of a dual punch-hole front camera notch. The Poco X2 is all set to be officially released on February 4.

The Oppo Find X2 and Find X2 Pro just made an appearance on Thailand's NBTC certification website . Both devices will reportedly come with a 120 Hz WQHD+ screen, and support Oppo's 'Super VOOC Charging' at 65W. The expected release date for both phones is sometime in Q1 2020.

A whole host of renders of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Flip have been posted online. The numerous images make it clear how the expensive flagship will look, and it seems quite eye-catching in either purple or black. Full specifications for the phone have also been revealed, with the expected Snapdragon 855+ playing a major role.

The Redmi Note 8 Pro may come in a host of enticing colours, but its 64 MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 rear-facing camera leaves plenty to be desired. We found the Note 8 Pro wanting in low-light conditions, with shortcomings in other areas like dynamic range and colour balance. Camera experts agree, too.

DxOMark has now tested the iPhone 11 Pro Max's selfie cameras, and given it a score that places it below other phones like the Galaxy S10+, Note 10+, Asus Zenfone 6, and Huawei Mate 30 Pro. There's one problem with that, though—the sample shots themselves tell another story.

Owners of the Huawei Y9 (2019) mounted a campaign against the company after it was revealed that their phones would not get the Android 10 update. That move appears to have been effective, as Huawei has now backtracked and promised the update for the phone. Sadly, that says nothing about other phones that were similarly snubbed, like the Nova 3 series and the Honor Play.

The Motorola Moto G8 Plus has already been released: however, a tech blog claims that a vanilla variant for this phone will follow this year. Should this leak prove valid, it will be the first phone of its line to have a punch-hole display. It may also have triple rear cameras and a rear-facing fingerprint sensor.

A new leak has revealed just how expensive the Galaxy Z Flip will be. Those who were expecting Samsung to release a more reasonably-priced foldable smartphone will be left disappointed, with the Galaxy Z Flip set to be pricier than even the Galaxy S20 Ultra.

The Geekbench tests reveal an Android 10 device featuring 12 GB of RAM and what appears to be a Snapdragon 865 SoC, judging by the single-core and multi-core scores. The existence of a stylus also means that Motorola is looking to provide some competition for Samsung's Galaxy Note lineup.

Xiaomi's latest build of MIUI 11 for the Mi 9T and Redmi K20 may be re-issue Android 10 to both devices, but there have also been reports of the update causing heavy battery drain for some handsets. There is a workaround though, with some Xiaomi software potentially being at fault.

It appears Motorola wasn’t pulling a stunt when it claimed the delay in launching its foldable Razr flip phone reboot was due to stronger than anticipated demand. Despite holding off on pre-orders for a month to better prepare for the launch, pre-orders are already backed up to mid-February at its online store, according to The Verge.

The Xiaomi Black Shark 2 Pro was one of the first phones to be launched with the Snapdragon 855+. While it offers impressive performance, it would appear that the company cut corners on its audio hardware, with the phone posting terrible scores on DxOMark's audio tests.

Xiaomi has announced that it will keep its brick-and-mortar stores in China closed for several days from January 28, 2020. The OEM has stated that this is to co-operate with governmental efforts to contain the spread of a novel coronavirus that has already claimed numerous lives in the country. However, customers can still order products online if necessary.

POCO may have confirmed the arrival of the POCO X2, but it has been caught using images of the Pocophone F1 to advertise its next device. Expected to be a modified Redmi K30, the POCO X2 will launch on February 4.

LG did the unexpected a few weeks ago by releasing Android 10 for the V50 ThinQ early, but it seems that LG UX 9.0 offers more than we had initially thought. The update brings Samsung Dex and Huawei Desktop Mode-like functionality to the V50 ThinQ, which is a welcome bonus.

The Nokia 9.1 is dead, long live the Nokia 9.2. That is the latest rumour about Nokia's next flagship, which may come as no surprise. More excitingly, Nokia has ditched the Light camera technology from the Nokia 9 PureView in favour of a conventional camera setup. The Nokia 9.2 PureView will apparently arrive in 1H 2020, too.

Today, the world seems filled with screens of high enough resolutions to consume the content they can show regardless of their size or portability. However, a new report shows that TVs have still managed to retain the greatest share (over 50%) of videos watched among respondents in the US. They spend an average of 20 hours per week using their TVs, compared to 4 hours watching phones.

Those who use TCL's latest triple-camera smartphone, the PLEX, may be pleasantly surprised by a new OTA update that confers Android 10 and the January 1, 2020 security patch on these devices. This download is 2.7GB in size, and that is because of all the other features found in the new OS, which include a Modern Combat title and numerous UI tweaks.

As Sony looks to revitalise its Xperia sub-division this year, rumour has it that it will attempt to do so by releasing the world's first 5G and 4K OLED smartphone. The company's next flagship, supposedly called the Xperia 2, will feature a host of other flagship hardware too.

The news that Xiaomi may not bring Android 10 to the Mi A2 Lite has clearly annoyed some people. Hundreds of people have responded by petitioning the company to do so, with representatives seemingly on hand to calm fears. Xiaomi still does not know when the Mi A2 Lite will receive its final OS upgrade, though.

The Galaxy S9 and S9+ have been eligible for beta versions of One UI 2.0, Samsung's custom version of Android 10, for months now. The arrival of Android 10 on the Galaxy Note 9 brought hope to the idea of Samsung honouring its January release schedule for the S9 series too, but that no longer appears to be the case.

Motorola’s Razr reboot with foldable pOLED display is up for pre-order, but it looks like it could carry the same caveats as Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. Ahead of its widespread availability the company has posted several videos including a care video that suggests it’s not going to offer a care-free user experience as promised by execs at its launch event.

POCO is continuing to pull out the surprises, this time by revealing that the POCO X2 smartphone will be launched at 12 PM on February 4. POCO India has used the light-hearted slogan “Bruh, it’s #SmoothAF” to announce the upcoming unveiling of its new device on the company’s official Twitter account.

The Motorola Razr foldable smartphone is now available for pre-order from Verizon Wireless. The phone boasts a Snapdragon 710 and Android 9.0 Pie, both of which seem outdated considering the phone's $1500 price tag. However, buyers will primarily be paying for the foldable form factor in addition to some nostalgic bragging rights.

Byte has emerged from beta onto the Play Store and the App Store. It, much like its predecessor Vine, allows the user to make videos of 6 seconds in length. Both apps also have a creator in common, who hopes to bring a form of revenue-sharing to this platform soon.

Huawei has confirmed that the Huawei Y9 (2019) will not receive the Android 10-based EMUI 10 update, and owners of the phone are, well, unhappy about that decision. Rightfully so, too, as the Honor 8X, another mid-range phone, was released around the same time and will be getting the update.

Action cameras are a popular device category, particularly among those who want to record their rugged pursuits wherever they go. A new report indicates that the market in question will grow to be worth US$8.9 billion in the next 5 years. This is thought to be influenced by similar performance by the travel and adventure-sports markets worldwide.

According to a new leak, Redmi - which is usually known as a smartphone brand - will launch a fitness tracker soon. It may be of the kind that fits into a silicone wrist-band, and may also have a front-facing capacitive button. This device may have been certified for use in India already.

ChargeLabs has designed the HyperDisk to be a tiny external drive housing super-fast memory. This OEM claims that it has read-speeds of up to 960 megabytes per second (MB/s) and write-speeds of 920MB/s. It comes in 512GB, 1TB and 2TB SKUs, and has attracted over US$600,000 of crowd-funded backing.

Recently, the Google/Huawei Nexus 6P was the subject of a class action lawsuit in which the claimants experienced a disproportional amount of battery drain, bootloops or both. This case was settled, and the beneficiaries have now been informed that they will receive their respective compensation. It should be issued from now until February 29, 2020.

Thanks to accumulated experience and cheap hardware, Blackview’s rugged smartphone is able to go head to head with the established competitors. The inclusion of an infrared camera tells us that Blackview is going after a specific manufacturer.

For some reason, Sony continues to deliver sub-standard camera performance with its smartphones, and the Xperia 5 continues that trend. The phone was tested by DxOMark and found lacking, only managing to match two-year-old flagships from other companies.

India is now a larger smartphone market than the US according to a report by Counterpoint Research. Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Realme accounted for nearly 72% of the 158 million devices shipped in the country. Despite the increased popularity of Chinese devices, Samsung has still maintained its position as the second-largest smartphone brand in the country.

It seems owners of the Xiaomi Redmi 8A budget-friendly smartphone could soon be enjoying all the features that Android 10 has to offer. A recent Geekbench database entry for a “Xiaomi Redmi 8A” has “Android 10” mentioned as its operating system. The cheap handset with a large battery currently operates on Android 9 Pie.

Google Camera has just been updated to version 7.3.017 on the Play Store. A new report allegedly based on a teardown of its APK specifies the ability to record at 24 frames per second (fps). This option may pertain to upcoming phones such as the Pixel 4a series, which may also have cropped up in this code.

The eminent tipster Evan Blass has posted images of a Motorola phone with a feature new to this OEM: stylus support. The device as depicted also has a punch-hole camera, suggesting that it is intended for release this year. However, it may not be intended to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Note series.

The Samsung Galaxy M20 will probably get a successor called the M21 this year. A new addition to the Geekbench 5 database suggests that this phone does in fact exist. Should it be genuine, it will be powered by the Exynos 9611 chipset and 4GB of RAM.

What appears to be official promotional material for the Samsung Galaxy S20 phones has surfaced, confirming the names and designs of the S20+, S20 Ultra, and Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Buds+ TWS earphones. Those will pre-order the S20+ or S20 Ultra will get a free pair of Galaxy Buds+. S20 buyers, sadly, appear to be completely ignored.

For the first time, pricing details of the Samsung Galaxy S20 phones have been revealed. Going by the leak, the Galaxy S20 could share a base price tag with its predecessor, the S10, but things go downhill from there, with the most expensive device potentially costing up to US$1,699.

Samsung will indeed launch a follow up device to its controversial Galaxy Fold. Although some are referring to the Galaxy Z Flip as the ‘Galaxy Fold 2’, the device described by XDA’s Max Weinbach will indeed be a proper successor to Samsung’s original foldable smartphone/tablet hybrid.

Smart TVs are already popular purchases, and may become more so in the future due to their role as smart-home hubs. The latest analysis of their market has found that their shipments may number about 266 million over the next 5 years. This is driven by 4K content and its increasing availability.