Android

Mara Group, a Rwandan-based smartphone company, unveiled the Mara X and Mara Z smartphones. The phones carry the pride of being the first handsets manufactured and assembled completely in Africa. Mara Group hopes that the phones are merely the beginning of a tech revolution that will boost Rwanda's economy and standing in the region.

OnePlus held a launch event for its 7T series today (October 10, 2019). The OEM also went over OxygenOS 10 - which is based on Android 10 - a new software update that will ship on these new phones and come to older ones soon. Its developers have also implemented a new instant translation feature for video chats, which will come to this ROM soon.

OnePlus has unveiled its second-gen McLaren Edition phone today (October 10, 2019). It is a 12GB/256GB version of the new 7T Pro (which was also unveiled today) with a signature black-and-orange finish. Other highlights of the OEM's latest show included the 7T and its series' UK pricing.

Call of Duty Mobile recently claimed the award for most downloads in the first week after launch for any mobile game in history, surpassing 100 million unique installs after its first week. Sensor Tower estimates peg total downloads at 102.2 million as of October 8th. Total revenue or the free to play title is estimated at just over US $17.7 million.

Pressured by the new Apple and Huawei flagship SoCs, Qualcomm plans to launch the Snapdragon 865 model 1 month in advance, and the first handhelds to sport the new SoC will apparently come from smaller smartphone makers like Oppo and Vivo, plus the usual Huawei competitors like Xiaomi and Samsung.

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.

Oppo has continued with its spate of Reno branded device launches with the official unveiling of the Reno Ace. The new device looks to be positioned in a similar segment of the market to the OnePlus 7T from sister company OnePlus.

The OnePlus 7T has become a very high-quality upper class smartphone that clearly stands out from its predecessor. Many features from the OnePlus 7 Pro have been adopted. Is the possible 7T Pro redundant? You can read here what we discovered in our review.

The Motorola One Macro has become official in India, and will sell for a price of INR 9999 (or about US$140). It is a triple-camera phone, one of which takes 2MP photos with a pixel size of 1.75 microns. The OEM claims that this allows it to get 5X closer to a subject than the average phone.

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.

According to sources cited by the Nikkei Asian Review, Google may be working on a 5G-capable Pixel 4. The handset may be announced at Google's Pixel event on October 15th but likely wouldn't be available for months. However, considering how new and small 5G networks are, a 5G-compatible Pixel 4 seems unlikely.

A new feature in the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build allows Windows to make and receive phone calls when synced with a compatible Android smartphone. The feature, part of Microsoft's Your Phone app, is expected to roll out to the public sometime in the first half of next year.

The OPPO Reno A, the Chinese OEM's latest mid-range smartphone, was launched in Japan today. Packing a Snapdragon 710, 6 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of storage, the handset seems centered around selfies due to its 25 MP front-facing camera. The Reno A is currently available in Japan for ¥35,800, or about US $330.

HMD Global has announced an OTA update to Android 10 for the Nokia 8.1. It is the first of this brand's phones that were included in the beta program for the OS in question to see the stable version. It upgrades the 8.1 with Dark Mode, navigation gestures and the September 2019 security patch.

Realme has revealed that the X2 Pro's display will come with a touch-sampling rate of 135 hertz (Hz). This means that the upcoming Snapdragon 855 Plus flagship may have enhanced user-input responses to go with its 90-hertz display refresh rate. Its camera prowess has also been teased on Weibo.

Samsung has announced that it will start a new beta program for One UI 2.0, its latest software skin based on Android 10. Unfortunately, it may only apply to those who own Galaxy S10-line devices in South Korea to start off with. However, this is a good indication that it will spread worldwide before too long.

Xiaomi's latest gaming phone, the Black Shark 2 Pro, will be released for sale in Europe on October 9, 2019. It will be sold through the brand's regional website for an as-yet undisclosed price. The 2 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC and up to 12GB of RAM.

After being quiet for the best part of twelve to eighteen months, Andy Rubin’s Essential has surfaced with what appears to be a radical reinterpretation of a smartphone. The new mobile device looks to be focused on communication with visual content taking something of a backseat.

Realme has launched its new X2 device for the Chinese market today. As rumored, it has an updated processor compared to that contained in its pre-existing variant, the XT. This new version is also the one coming to Europe later this month.

New research has found that nearly 50% of all US households with broadband subscribe to 2 or more subscription-based services in 2019, whereas this figure was 33% in 2017 and only 20% in 2014. The apparent demand has driven the number of individual services to match in the country. It has grown by 1.4 times since 2014.

Samsung might be done tinkering with the ARM core designs, as the Mongoose proprietary cores appear to be missing on the upcoming Exynos 9830. The Korean giant is rumored to drop its two homegrown high-performance cores for a couple of ARM Cortex-A77 cores in order to better match the Qualcomm competitors.

The latest Insider's version of Windows 10 updates the Your Phone app so that it is compatible with the Samsung Galaxy S10 series, as well as the Galaxy Fold. This allows a user to monitor battery levels, screen-mirror and sync data. However, Microsoft has stated that these new features will be available to certain regions only to start off with.

Amazon updated the Fire HD 10 with a faster processor and a new USB Type-C charging port that supports fast charging. There are a few additional upgrades as well. Thankfully, the price tag remains constant at US $149 for the standard model and $199 for the Kids Edition, which includes a bumper case, a two-year replacement program, and a year of Amazon's FreeTime service.

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.

Sony has unveiled another device, the Xperia 8. The Xperia 8 is a mid-range phone that raises more questions over the logic in Sony's naming scheme while simultaneously managing to offer an overwhelmingly disappointing package at a ridiculous price point.

Computational photography - or imaging that depends at least as much on software as on hardware - was worth US$7.9 billion as a market in 2018. However, the latest analysis indicates that this valuation will grow to $29 billion over the next 5 years. This market is led by companies such as Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Alphabet and Apple.

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.

The Google Pixel 4 phones are just about a week away from their official launch event. A new leak has revealed some previously unknown details about the phones and a particular specification of the smaller Pixel 4 may just leave fans seething.

Original camera samples from the Pixel 4 have leaked out, once again proving that the Pixel phones are the ones to beat when it comes to mobile photography. The samples show photos from a variety of camera modes the most interesting of which is the Astrophotography mode that lets users take stunning pictures of space.

Some launch prices for the Google Pixel 4 and 4XL flagship smartphones have been posted on Twitter by well-known tech insider Evan Blass. The prices are for the Canadian market, which show that the entry-level Google Pixel 4 with 64 GB storage will cost CAD$1,049.95 (~US$788), while the 128 GB storage variant of the Google Pixel 4 XL will allegedly cost CAD$1,359.95 (~US$1,022).

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.

Realme has announced that its upcoming flagship, the X2 Pro, will have dual stereo speakers. Furthermore, they will be equipped with Dolby Atmos and "hi-res" audio. The brand has not given a launch date for this phone, but is now clearly aiming it at the European market.

The Asus is, perhaps, the best value Snapdragon 855-powered device on sale in the US. The device costs just US$500 but that price tag has no negative connotations on the phone's camera performance, as the Zenfone 6—going by DxOMark's latest review—trades blows with the best camera phones in the world.

The highly anticipated launch of the Mi Mix 4 has been something of a wild ride so far. Fans expected a launch event last month but were left disappointed. Since then, though, it's been multiple conflicting reports on the existence of the Mix 4, and the latest one will leave rekindle the flames of hope in fans of the series.

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 Huawei device with the novel model number ART-TL00x has appeared on the TENAA regulator's website. As this phone has dual cameras, is described as having an HD 6.39-inch screen and the Kirin 710F SoC, it may be intended as a successor to the budget Enjoy 9. However, it lacks a launch date (and a product name) at present.

Many models that launched with Android 8.0 are still affected by a 0-day vulnerability that was not properly patched in 2017. The list of models includes: Google's Pixel 1 and 2, Samsung's Galaxy S7/8/9, Huawei P20, Xiaomi Redmi 5A / Note 5, Xiaomi A1, Oppo A3, Moto Z3, and all LG's smartphones launched in 2H 2017.

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.

OnLeaks and CashKaro have posted a new set of renders that suggest an upgrade to an in-display camera in the OnePlus 7's successor. The 2 groups also now assert that this device will support wireless charging. Otherwise, this phone looks much like the OEM's early-2019 flagship.

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.

Samsung has been helping to blaze the 5G smartphone trail and it looks set to do the same for tablets. A new Galaxy Tab S6 variant has been spotted going through a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth certification process that also carries the label Galaxy Tab S6 5G suggesting a release isn’t far away.

Motorola is now linked to an upcoming release for another One-line phone. It is rumored to be called the One Macro, and to be powered by a MediaTek SoC. A phone that might meet this description has been tweeted as a render by Evan Blass.

Microsoft has taken wraps off the Surface Duo, a Surface device that offers telephony capabilities. The Surface Duo runs on a custom version of Android built in partnership with Google and will feature support for apps from the Google Play Store, which can scale across dual screens for enhanced productivity.

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.

The Pixel 4 has already been quite heavily leaked ahead of its launch, including by Google itself. However, the first official render that clearly shows the entirety of the front and rear of the device has now surfaced as well.

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.

Redmi has announced that it will start selling its Note 8 Pro via Amazon's German store in October 2019. This phone is the brand's first device to feature a 64MP camera sensor. It will be sold in 6GB RAM SKUs with either 64 or 128GB of internal memory in its new market.