Android

iFixit has now published its Pixel 4 XL teardown, with the new Google phone earning a 4/10 repairability score. The report also reveals some previously unknown details of the phone's hardware, most notable being that of the 90 Hz QHD+ AMOLED display.

Asus has now joined the list of OEMs to send out an Android 10 build to their smartphones. The Taiwanese OEM is currently rolling out the Android 10-based ZenUI 6 beta build to users of last year's flagship, the Zenfone 5Z. The Zenfone 6's rollout is expected to follow soon.

The LG K50 offers plenty of attractive features for just under €200 (~US$223), including an appealing design and a large display. Its cameras and system performance are on par with its competitors too, but two issues prevent it from being a smartphone that we could recommend.

Huawei has faced more than its fair share of troubles this year but the company's sales figures are completely unaffected and have even grown. The Chinese company has now confirmed that it has sold 200 million devices this year, over two months earlier than when it hit that same milestone last year.

Realme makes good value for money hardware but are usually panned by enthusiasts for their software. The company has identified that flaw, however, and is set to shake things up by adopting a new skin said to be similar to stock Android.

Samsung has officially launched the Exynos 990 SoC along with a new 5G Exynos Modem 5123. Both are expected to find their way into the Samsung Galaxy S11 and other high-end devices from the company in 2020.

A Linux user has discovered that Disney+, Disney's new streaming service, doesn't work on his Fedora machine. The problem lies with the DRM used by Disney, which implements the highest possible security level. However, Disney has stated that the streaming service will work with Android devices and Chromebooks, both of which are built upon Linux.

Two UK Banks, National Westminster and Royal Bank of Scotland, have removed their respective mobile banking apps from the Google Play Store for Samsung Galaxy S10 users. Citing security concerns, it's likely the banks' decisions were driven by the recent news that the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner used in the S10 could be fooled with a cheap silicone screen protector.

Qualcomm has commissioned a Signals Research Group (SRG) study of 5G performance, efficiency and general UX in those countries and cities to which the new radio bands have been rolled out. It reportedly found that 5G can achieve up to 10X performance compared to 4G/LTE. In addition, it is also capable of 5 times the download speeds than the older standard.

LG has revealed that the G8X ThinQ will be released for sale in the United States on November 1, 2019. This phone is a variant of the OEM's 2019 flagship designed to work with the new Dual Screen accessory. Both devices also have US starting prices and the scope for promotional deals already.

The upcoming Power 3 is now official and ready to become the handset with the most generous battery capacity that UMIDIGI has created so far. In addition to the 6,150 mAh battery, its specs also include a 48 MP quad camera, a 6.53-inch full HD+ FullView display, and a MediaTek Helio P60 processor.

Samsung has released a software patch to fix a security flaw in the ultrasonic fingerprint readers used in the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 device families. The patch should come as a notification to users who have registered their biometric data.

Huawei opened up pre-orders for the foldable Mate X today, but the phone will only be sold in China. Shipments and retail sales will begin on November 15th. Priced at roughly US $2400, the Mate X is an expensive piece of kit, especially considering it's unlikely to be sold in Western markets. Additionally, Huawei announced a more powerful foldable, the Mate Xs, which is set to be launched in March 2020.

Sony recently announced the Sony Xperia 1 Professional Edition. The new smartphone is largely the same as the standard Xperia 1, save for a better-calibrated display, support for transferring files from Sony-branded cameras, and support for Ethernet connections via the USB Type-C port. These small features come at a massive price increase: the Xperia 1 Professional Edition will sell for ~US $1300 in Japan only later this month.

A phone calling itself the "motorola moto g(8) plus" has been benchmarked as a Snapdragon 665 device with 4GB of RAM. These specs are in accordance with previous rumors surrounding this putative device. The new results also show that it runs Android 9.0, which suggests it could still launch this year.

"Joker" is a relatively new form of malware that reportedly acts to steal contacts and sign those with infected devices up for premium SMS services. Most recently, it has been detected in a heretofore-overlooked host on Android by the Pradeo security team. This lab has had the app removed from the Google Play Store, but potentially affected users are advised to uninstall it immediately.

Meizu is slowly developing a reputation for offering good premium hardware at mid-range price points, and the newest device out of the company's stables, the Meizu 16T, continues that trend. A Snapdragon 855, Super AMOLED display, triple rear cameras, and a 4500 mAh battery. Price tag? US$280.

The Snapdragon 735 will succeed the Snapdragon 730, and details of the SoC have now surfaced, giving us our first look at Qualcomm's next-gen sub-premium chipset of choice.

A device with a model number purportedly associated with Samsung's Galaxy A51 has surfaced on the Geekbench database. However, its results depict it as powered by the Exynos 9611, and not the next-gen 8 nanometer (nm) model rumored for its 2020 line of phones. In addition, it apparently has only 4GB of RAM.

Samsung has posted a notice on its Korean website announcing that its One UI 2 beta built on Android 10 is coming soon. The One UI 2 beta has been available for the Galaxy S10 range since the middle of October but only in select markets.

A new study into user attitudes towards wearables found that health tracking is the most popular use of this electronics category. 36% of those polled reported concerns that these functions may not live up to reality, however. 10% of the respondents also said they worried about data security on these devices.

DxOMark has now published its Google Pixel 4 camera review. Going by the website's test criteria, the Pixel 4 is overall a worse camera phone than the OnePlus 7 Pro and Honor 20 Pro. On the flip side, it's somehow the the joint best phone when it comes to videos.

TENAA has certified a new phone from the Vivo sub-brand iQOO. Its specifications are nearly identical to that of the Neo, a 2019 gaming phone. However, it has what appears to be a Snapdragon (SD) 855 processor rather than the older device's SD 845. Therefore, it seems the 2 phones are an original and refresh respectively.

Huawei has launched the Nova 5z today (October 21, 2019) in China. This new phone will have few surprises for this series' fans: it has the exact same form-factor and cameras as the Nova 5i Pro. However, it does have different RAM and storage SKUs that make it a budget option compared to the pre-existing phone.

A series of tests have shown the Google Pixel 4 XL hilariously outpacing the OnePlus 7T in real-world, resource-intensive processing tasks. The fact that the Pixel 4 XL has less RAM and a weaker SoC than the 7T makes it all the more impressive.

The Honor Play was released just over a year ago and has received one major update: Android Pie. That will apparently be the end of the road for the device, which is unfair to owners of the Kirin 970-powered phone. Even worse, though, is Huawei's justification for the decision.

The Google Pixel 4 phones don't have support for shooting 4K60fps videos even though Android phones have been able to do that for well over a year. Google has now explained the rationale behind the decision but it's woefully unconvincing.

DeX is Samsung's proprietary facility that converts one of its Galaxy flagships into a desktop PC on connection to a monitor. One environment supported by the mode in Android 9.0 (Pie) is GNU/Linux. Unfortunately, its beta program will come to an end with the roll-out of Android 10.

The OnePlus 7T has undergone the JerryRigEverything test of device robustness. Unfortunately, it faltered during the last stage of this process. Therefore, it is the first in many generations from this OEM to do less than come through this veritable tech YouTube rite of passage with flying colors.

LG's South Korean telecomms company has announced the debut of its new app, "U+ AR Shopping". It enables users to transform the content of 2 popular TV shopping channels into augmented reality (AR) experiences. Consumers can then leverage them to visualize and manipulate their potential purchases in 3D.

Google introduced Digital Wellbeing in order to allow users to track and manage their phone use, which extends to a per-app basis. This feature is now integrated into a new Chrome browser update. It can be used to display screen time and how much of it is spent on each website visited.

It's been almost a week since Google unveiled the Pixel 4 phones in New York but it's still baffling just how poor the phones are—the smaller Pixel 4, in particular. In fact, some choices by the company were so off the mark that one could almost be led to believe that the entire thing was a joke.

A carrier-provided list of Sony Xperia devices billed to get the Android 10 update has surfaced, and will be sure to leave owners of Sony's older flagships infuriated, as apparently, the Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact will not get Android 10.

Xiaomi is taking the camera performance of its phones seriously and could be set to push the envelope with its upcoming devices. New reports allude towards sumptuous camera features like 8K video recording, 5x optical zoom, and a 108 MP sensor debuting on the Mi 10.

OnePlus has once again shown its dedication to providing timely software updates, as it's now sending out the Android 10-based Oxygen OS 10 beta build to the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T. The build is exclusive to factory unlocked, non-carrier models.

Some new details about Samsung’s Galaxy S11 series have been shared online concerning the amount of SKUs that will be part of the lineup, the communication abilities of the devices, and the expected screen design. While some may have been hoping for a notch-free S11, it appears Samsung is saving that for a different series.

The Pixel 4 XL's 90 Hz QHD+ AMOLED display has been hailed for its impressive quality, even winning DisplayMate's "Best Smartphone Display" award. That raises a few questions, of course, the most important being: who exactly made the phone's display?

A leak a few weeks ago claimed that Xiaomi was set to release a Snapdragon 730G-powered Redmi Note 8T. A new report counters that, though, and while a Redmi Note 8T may actually be on the way, fans of the company are unlikely to be thrilled about what it will offer.

A British Galaxy S10 user has claimed that this phone's ultrasound sensor could be fooled into unlocking for non-registered fingerprints. This issue was allegedly caused by a cheap gel case with a clear flap to cover the screen. Samsung has admitted that this is the case, and has stated that it will push a software fix for it shortly.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 SE now has an upgrade to MIUI 11, which is based on Android 10. It confers various upgrade-specific features such as gesture-based navigation and system-wide dark theme. This build also adds MIUI's new Focus Mode, which is suspiciously similar to OnePlus' Zen Mode.

The Mi Mix 4 merry-go-round continues. First, Ice Universe claimed it was in the works, then Xiaomi's Brand Promotion Manager could not decide whether it was or not. Now, a photo of the rumored device has leaked online, along with a release date. It is sooner than we thought, too.

A Brazilian phone blog has posted what it claims are live images of the Moto G8 Play. It shows that this device may have a 6.2-inch HD+ display, a 4000mAh battery and a triple rear camera. Its SoC remains unnamed, but is described as a 2.0GHz octa-core processor.

The OnePlus 7T Pro was just launched and a new leak has now revealed all the major design information from the next device in the series, the OnePlus 8 Pro. The leaked images reveal a quad-camera setup and a punch-hole selfie camera design.

Since the launch of the first-gen Redmi Note back in 2014, Xiaomi's Redmi Note series has consistently offered the best value for money in the mid-range segment. The company has announced that it has now sold a hundred million Redmi Note phones, with the Redmi Note 7 duo accounting for a fifth of that figure.

Just 26 days after its release, Apple has reported that 50% of all iPhones are running iOS 13. Compared to the abysmal history of Android OEMs' software updates, the high adoption rates for the newer versions iOS continue to be a strong feature of the iPhone brand.

An Amazon pre-order page listing the Nvidia Shield TV Pro popped up earlier this morning and was promptly taken down. The page listed specs of the Shield TV Pro, which largely mirror those of the standard Shield TV. However, the Pro model will use Nvidia's Tegra X1+ SoC and will support Dolby Vision HDR.