Android

Preliminary benchmarks proved that the Kirin 990 is almost on par with all other major brands, but Huawei is clearly not content with parity. The Chinese company is already planning to release a 5 nm successor allegedly known as Kirin 1000, which will use ARM's Cortex-A77 cores plus a faster NPU, and it should be launched with the Mate 40 in Q3 2020.

After months of beta testing, Activision and Tencent Games' latest offering, Call of Duty: Mobile is now live and available worldwide. While not quite as feature-packed as its biggest competitor, PUBG Mobile, it does seem to be a more refined game.

The NVIDIA SHIELD TV is due an update soon. The most likely candidate to fit this bill has gone through registration with the FCC, and has also just secured Bluetooth SIG approval. Therefore, there may still be time for it to be released this year

Google has already conceded that numerous leaks concerning Motion Sense, a new ability in the upcoming Pixel 4 smartphones by which they can respond to various hand gestures, are valid. Now, a new report claims to list all the regions in which those intended to control media on the devices will be available on lauch.

A Realme executive has just lifted the lid on the X2 Pro, which is to be the brand's first Snapdragon 855 Plus device. This upcoming flagship is also said to have a 90Hz display and next-gen VOOC charging technology. At present, it does not have an official launch date.

Although US$1099.99 for an unlocked 256 GB Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ cannot be considered affordable, US customers can take advantage of the free Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Fit that come with the flagship. Samsung is also offering a free 6-month Spotify Premium trial and 4 months of YouTube Premium access.

Huawei has released its official update roadmap for the Android Q-based EMUI 10 update. All of the company's two-year-old flagships will receive the update and even year-old mid-range phones like the Honor 9X are set to get their second major updates.

The Mi Mix 4 has been a rollercoaster so far. The flagship was hyped up to high heavens but it turned out that most of those rumors were for the Mi Mix Alpha concept phone instead. A recent leak may have led Xiaomi fans to keep faith in the future launch of the Mix 4 but Xiaomi has now doused the flames of those hopes in brutal style.

The Honor V30 will be the successor to last year's Honor V20, and will—hopefully—be rebranded as the View 30 for international markets. The V30 has been sighted for the first time, giving us our first look at what will be an affordable sibling to the Huawei Mate 30.

UMIDIGI has launched the F2, its first phone with an in-display selfie camera. This device also ships with "stock" Android 10 out of the box. It also has quad rear cameras, which include a 48MP main shooter and a dedicated macro lens.

Sony recently launched the Xperia 5 and is already working on a new flagship phone. This device, likely to be the Xperia 2, will be powered by the upcoming Snapdragon 865, and has now appeared on the company's official servers.

Samsung has steadily improved night mode on the Galaxy S10 phones over the past few months. The latest update allows users to use night mode on all of their phones' cameras. And yes, that includes the selfie camera.

Xiaomi recently released the Mi Mix Alpha and that may have led some to believe that the Mix 4 was dead in the water. Apparently not, if new rumors are anything to go by. The Mix 4 is touted to be on the way, and it could come with the same 108 MP sensor we saw on the Alpha.

The OPPO K5 is to be launched on October 10, 2019 as the OEM's new 64MP camera phone. However, the rest of its specs are not known. A novel model number from the same company has appeared on Geekbench with 8GB of RAM and a Qualcomm processor.

Xiaomi India's managing director, Manu Kumar Jain, has tweeted a photo of himself and a second executive in what appears to be the OEM's regional office. The background of this image contains a whiteboard on which a possible yearly timeline is sketched out. If so, the word "F2?" is found under the "November" point of the same.

Realme may have a phone powered by the Snapdragon 855 SoC in the works. This is indicated by a new certification granted by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) for a new device from this brand. It is described as running a processor that matches up to the premium chipset well.

A while ago, Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 8 and Note 8 Pro but the duo never quite hit the heights of their predecessors. The company is apparently set to release a more attractive device in a purported Redmi Note 8T, and it will be powered by the Snapdragon 730G.

It was only a few days ago that Xiaomi unveiled the Mi Mix Alpha to a stunned global audience. The company has now rolled out an unboxing video that also answers the question of how the nearly all-glass, all-display device will be protected.

Motorola is still planning a 2019 release for its rebooted Razr foldable smartphone according to CNET. The company had originally planned to have launched the device by now but it may have postponed its launch plans following the issues that both Samsung and Huawei have had to address with their foldable devices.

The PRO TREK Smart WSD-F21HR is a new Casio watch with a heart-rate monitor, as well as a range of other sensors for outdoor functions and general location management. It has a 1.32-inch dual display to save battery, a microphone and Wear OS.

Realme has announced a new software update for the 3 Pro. It upgrades the phone's security patch level to September 2019. This OTA also adds Digital Wellbeing and a screen-on time meter to this build of Color OS.

The Manifest has conducted a study to find out which name was most familiar in the wearables sphere. 77% of those polled were able to name Fitbit in this context, compared to 73% for the next most recognized name ("Apple Watch"). Ironically, the latter sold a million more units in the second quarter of 2019 (2Q2019) than the former.

The market for fingerprint readers (from capacitive to thermal, and consumer- to government-grade) is estimated to be worth about US$3.5 billion at present. This worth is thought to grow to as much as $7.1 billion by 2024, however. The scanner type we have become most familiar with is thought to represent the largest sector over these next 5 years.

Despite all the bans and restrictions imposed on Huawei that ultimately lead to a delay of the Mate X, the company is considering the release of improved versions that also includes a stylus, as revealed by the latest published patent. The stylus option really makes much more sense for the larger screen integrated in foldable devices, and, with this move, Huawei could provide a serious competitor for Samsung's Galaxy Note.

Samsung has released the Galaxy A70s to the Indian market. Those who already own the pre-existing A70 may or may not be happy to learn that it is a veritable clone of their current phone, but with a 64MP sensor in place of the 32MP main shooter found in the rear camera set-up. The Galaxy A70s also has different backplate colors.

Honor has confirmed that the 9X will come to UK and European markets soon. However, some images obtained by a reliable leaker indicates that these phones will have a rear-facing fingerprint sensor, whereas existing Chinese units do not. There is also some doubt that they will ship with Google Play Services in their new regions.

One could be led to believe that Huawei would be abandoning its devices but they'd be wrong. Very wrong. The company is preparing to send out the Android Q to its two-year-old flagships, with the EMUI 10 beta-testing program now open for the Mate 10 line phones.

Xiaomi recently unveiled the latest version of its skin, MIUI 11. The company is set to send out the MIUI update to its devices and a list has surfaced online showing which device will be eligible and when they'll receive the OTA. It's an impressive list, too, with the oldest device on it being three years old already.

The Redmi 7 was launched about six months ago and Xiaomi is set to release a direct successor. The Redmi 8 brings several tangible improvements over its predecessor but the SoC is a downgrade in terms of performance, and potential buyers may just be better served looking at the cheaper Redmi 8A.

It has only been a week since the launch of the Mate 30 series in Munich, but it has already become clear that Google and Huawei have been working more closely together than perhaps the current US administration would like. Despite having no official access to Google products, the Mate 30 series can access services like Google Pay without issue. Read on to find out why this is the case and what Google and Huawei have done to work around the restrictions currently imposed on the Chinese company.

Samsung has been unable to compete with Huawei in the camera hardware department but tables may be set to turn with the Galaxy S11, as a new report touts some monstrous camera hardware for the upcoming Samsung flagships.

Less than six months after the release of the Redmi 7A, Xiaomi has launched a successor, the Redmi 8A. The Redmi 8A offers a tangible upgrade over the 7A, with a bigger battery, fast charging, and a very interesting main camera being the biggest talking points, while still managing to keep its sub-US$100 pricing.

Xbox consoles are steadily upgrading in order to use the more popular virtual assistant platforms. The latest of these is Google Assistant. Those who wish to connect the two can join a forum group for a new public beta update and follow the instructions found thereon.

The Moto Z2 Play may finally have an update to Android 9.0 (Pie). However, this story is based on a forum post from a total of 1 user so far. Then again, this individual has supplied a number of screenshots that look convincingly like those for a new upgrade for this brand.

OPPO has announced that it will unveil the K5 in China on October 10, 2019. This phone is slated to have a quad rear camera, the main shooter of which will be 64MP in resolution. It is listed on some retail platforms already, which reveal it has 6GB of RAM and 128GB in fixed storage.

The camera benchmark website DxOMark has a new number one smartphone camera, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro. The Mate 30 Pro scored an incredible 121 points, usurping the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G. The former's selfie camera apparently falls short of recent Samsung flagships and even the Sony IMX586 in the ASUS ZenFone 6, though.

OnePlus has officially launched the OnePlus 7T in India featuring a 90 Hz AMOLED HDR10+ display, Snapdragon 855+, and a triple-camera setup. The OnePlus 7T also features a new design and is the first new smartphone launch to feature Android 10 out of the box.

Xiaomi normally releases fitness bands or watches that run proprietary apps rather than a dedicated, familiar OS. A tech blog may have found evidence that this may change soon. It claims to have detected code in the Wear OS phone app that points to upcoming compatible products from this OEM.

Canon has released a new mirrorless camera that can record 4K vertical videos and then share them directly to social media. The EOS M200 has a 24.1MP APS-C sensor and CMOS auto-focus. It can also record in 60fps FHD and has a lightweight, convenient build.

Music is a rather unique Apple app in that it is cross-platform (or, in other words, has an Android version). Its latest updates also make it compatible with Google's Chromecast. It has also acquired a dark mode, presumably to align with iOS' new system-wide option.

Introduced back in May with a Snapdragon 855 onboard, the gaming handset Nubia Red Magic 3 is now ready to receive two essential performance upgrades (as the Red Magic 3S): the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ processor and high-end UFS 3.0 storage. The global launch of both 8 + 128 GB and 12 + 256 GB variants is set for October 16.

The OnePlus 7T will be launched tomorrow, and OnePlus has confirmed that the device will run Android Q straight out of the box. That would make it the second device to launch with Android Q, behind the Huawei Mate 30.

Samsung has launched a new smartphone camera sensor. The ISOCELL Slim GH1 is a 43 MP camera designed to have a small physical footprint, making it perfect for use as a selfie camera. It uses Tetracell technology to output 10.9 MP images and supports 4K video recording, PDAF, EIS, and HDR.

Google has announced that future updates will make it more difficult to activate the Assistant by mistake. The company has also taken pains to reassure users that their audio data will not be collected by default in the same release. A specific opt-in determines whether the same will be analysed by humans or not.

Samsung has finally released its new Galaxy A20 variant to a few select markets such as Malaysia. It goes for a price of RM 699 (or about US$167) in this country. For this, the customer gets 13+5+8MP rear cameras, 3GB of RAM and the Snapdragon 450 processor.

On the outside, the Mi 9 Pro is identical with the non-Pro version; however, the internals have been refreshed with a Snapdragon 855+ SoC, up to 12 GB RAM and up to 512 GB storage, while the 4,000 mAh battery now supports 45 W wired / 30 W wireless / 10 W reverse charging options. There is also an improved speaker with the largest sound chamber among all Xiaomi handhelds.

The Asus ROG Phone 2 may be the most impressive mass-production smartphone in the world, hardware-wise, and it has finally made its way to the US, months after it was launched. Oh, and it will set buyers back a whopping US$900.

Xiaomi has officially unveiled the Mi Mix Alpha which is undeniably one of the most breathtaking smartphone designs we’ve ever seen. Instead of using a flexible AMOLED display to create a foldable, the company has used the same technology to create a super futuristic looking device with a wraparound screen.

Samsung has announced that it will release the Galaxy Fold to the US market once and for all on September 27, 2019. However, the devices are only to be made available in various physical locations run by certain businesses and chains. They are AT&T, Best Buy and Samsung Experience stores.

Not content on just outdoing the iPhone 11 Pro Max and Mate 30 Pro on cameras, Xiaomi has hinted that it will release a successor to the Mi Mix 3 with a 100% screen-to-body ratio on September 24 at an event in Beijing. The device, currently called the Mi Mix Alpha by the Chinese company, will feature a host of other flagship hardware as previously confirmed by leaker Xiaomishka.