Android

The Moto Razr 2019 seems to be ready to take on the mobile world by storm with its foldable display and other new technologies. The only problem could be the value this handset can provide, as it is expected to hit Verizon with a price tag that reads no less than US$1,500.

Pandora users — including those using the free version of the streaming service — can enjoy the new capabilities provided by the in-app Voice Mode. This voice assistant can be used to accomplish multiple music-related tasks by using various phrases and is activated using the "Hey Pandora" command.

The first benchmarks using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 reference device have started to roll in. This new processor has done impressively well compared to its predecessor in two separate tests. It has also outdone devices with the Kirin 980 and A12 Bionic chipsets, albeit mostly in terms of graphics performance

Netflix has announced plans to inflate its prices by up to 18%. However, this will only affect new and existing customers who use US dollars to pay for their subscriptions. This move resulted in a 6.5% increase in its stock price yesterday (January 15, 2019).

Some recent rumors claim that Samsung could launch quite a few Galaxy A handsets this by the end of the year, and the Galaxy A40 is one of them. The device with the model number SM-A405FN has recently surfaced on Geekbench and its specs include the Exynos 7885 processor, 4 GB RAM, and Android 9.0 Pie-based software.

Recently, Twitter revamped its platform with the 'Interesting Tweets' feature. However, some users have asserted that the tweets chosen by its algorithm persisted in timelines regardless of whether they turned it off in Settings or not. Now, a new option to return to a completely chronological order of tweets is being rolled out.

Realme (OPPO's increasingly popular sub-brand) has decided to release a tool enabling owners of its 2 Pro device to unlock their bootloaders. However, it involves rather more steps than the average adb-command process for many Android phones. Realme also claims that bootloader-unlocking in this case increases the risks to user personal data and security.

Some users of the Samsung Galaxy S8, 8+ and Note 8 have seen a new stock beta OS for their phones. This ROM, which is installed by way of joining the OEM's Beta Program, updates the 2017 devices to Android 9.0 (Pie) and the new One UI. This may be an important milestone to official stable Pie on this generation of flagships.

Powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 960 processor, the Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro also comes with an active stylus and features 4 GB of memory and up to 128 GB of internal storage space. Thanks to these attributes, this slate remains a worthy choice for content creators about one year after its release. This week, it has also been spotted running Android Pie, so a major firmware update should arrive shortly.

Expected to be unveiled at the Unpacked event that will take place in less than a week in San Francisco, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ has recently surfaced on Geekbench. The model spotted in the popular benchmark database is labeled SM-G975U and sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, 6 GB of memory, as well as Android 9.0 Pie-based firmware.

The Redmi Note 7 was released for sale today (January 15, 2019) in its home country, China. The Snapdragon 660 phone with the 48MP camera sensor reportedly took only 9 minutes to sell out completely. Redmi sources are quoted as claiming that "hundreds of thousands" of units were sold in this time.

OnePlus has released the latest Android Pie-based Open Beta (OB) ROM for its latest flagship series. It is known as the OB3 and OB11 for the 6T and 6 respectively. These OBs claim to bring increased detail to the stock weather app, as well as the January 2019 security patch. Finally, it may improve on Google Duo integration on these phones.

Analytics platform has revealed its projected shipment figures for the big players in the smartphone market this year. Samsung and Apple are expected to see declines in sales, while Huawei and Xiaomi could see even more growth.

Samsung is set to unveil its new line of devices, the Galaxy M series. The company is expected to kick off the series with three devices, and specifications and official renders of the devices have surfaced.

The Redmi Note 5 was launched a year ago and received the update to Oreo in some parts of the world. The device has now been confirmed to also be set to receive the Android Pie update, with a Q1 rollout on the cards.

Silently introduced in China back in November 2018, the HiSilicon Kirin 710-driven Honor 10 Lite is now finally ready to conquer the Indian market. Sales will start on January 20 via Flipkart and hihonor.in. The prices are equivalent with US$210 for the 4/64 GB variant and US$253 for the 6/64 GB model.

The 5G version of the upcoming Galaxy S10, also known as the BeyondX, will reportedly launch as a Verizon exclusive in the US. The new leak comes after the carrier announced that it would partner with Samsung to release a 5G enabled smartphone in the US during the first half of 2019.

The Lenovo Z5 Pro GT is a long name to say (or type out), but for the Snapdragon 855, a triple camera and as much as 12GB of RAM it may be worth it. It had been launched in December 2018, with a general release planned for January 24. However, this date has now been put back by 5 days.

The possibility of mid-range counterparts for the Pixel 3 and 3 XL is the subject of much rumor and speculation at present. It is thought that these new Google phones may be powered by the Snapdragon 670 and 710 respectively. A new listing on Geekbench may have confirmed this in part.

The Nokia 9 PureView was expected to arrive at MWC 2019 in late February, but a recent report claims that this upcoming handset with no less than five cameras on the back will be unveiled before the end of January and will become available for purchase in India on February 6 for a price of around US$820 (8/128 GB model).

Sit tight Note 9 owners, because Samsung has seemingly backtracked on releasing its Android Pie update for the device on January 15. The company's official Turkish website now reports that One UI will be rolled out to the Note 9 on February 1 instead, which will come as a disappointment for those who were anticipating updating their device to Android Pie tomorrow.

Huawei might be on its way to becoming the world's second-largest smartphone maker, but the latest move made by the Chinese brand might be a costly one in the long run. The EMUI 9.0 update will come without access to third-party launchers, although this limitation will only be applied in China in the beginning.

Hot on the heels of briefly giving us a glimpse of the Galaxy S10, Samsung has included more teasers in another press release about what devices it will soon be unveiling. This time the company has heavily hinted at the prospect of announcing its foldable smartphone, the Galaxy F, at its Galaxy UNPACKED event next month. The company is expected to reveal its Galaxy S10 series at the event in San Francisco too.

The Realme 3 will be announced in the first quarter of 2019 and will probably come without a punch-hole selfie shooter and/or a triple camera setup on the back. The handset should arrive with a dual camera setup and a notch in two variants — regular and Pro. A Realme phone with a 48 MP camera is also expected to hit the market this year.

OPPO announced the first smartphone with a 5X optical zoom camera only last year, but the company is now taking one step further according to new leaks. The company has reportedly sent out press invitations to introduce its new smartphone with a dual rear-facing camera, which will include a 10X optical zoom lens.

Although it might struggle in some markets like India — where it lost the crown to Xiaomi — Samsung remains the leader of the global smartphone market. On the other hand, the smartphone production drop of 3.3 percent expected for 2019 could help Chinese brand Huawei to finally beat Apple and to become the world's second smartphone maker.

Samsung India's online store and Amazon India will be the first to sell the lower-priced Galaxy M handsets, which will debut locally before becoming available worldwide. The Galaxy M lineup will consist of three handsets at launch, namely the Galaxy M10, Galaxy M20, and Galaxy M30.

The new version of MIUI, Xiaomi's skin for Android, is officially open for development, according to an OEM executive. This announcement was made recently at the Xiaomi MIUI Core Experience Annual Meeting. Therefore, this new OS, MIUI 11, is likely to be installed on new Xiaomi flagships when they are released later this year.

27 months after the LG V20 was released, LG appears to have finally ended all software support for it. The device ran on Android Nougat out of the box and only received the Oreo update almost a year after launch. This marks a sad end for a device widely regarded as the last truly great Android flagship.

The Sony Xperia XZ4 is set to be released at MWC next month. The company's Vice President of Marketing, however, has alluded to the fact that the company may not launch an XZ4 Compact. Also, new information claims the XZ4 will not feature a 3.5mm headphone jack after all.

Samsung is set to unveil the Galaxy S10 phones next month. The biggest of the three, the S10+ will apparently be only 7.8mm thick, which would make it the slimmest phone ever with a 4000 mAh battery. In comparison, the S9+ with a 3500 mAh battery was 8.5mm thick.

The Snapdragon 675 will likely be the most popular sub-premium SoC this year, as it's one of the select few SoCs that support Sony's 48 MP IMX586 sensor. The chipset made its way over to Geekbench and AnTuTu and managed to outperform the Snapdragon 710, an SoC that logically should be more powerful.

OPPO is capable of producing some streamlined, appealing premium handsets. However, they all have one main drawback as expensive flagships: they lack wireless charging. Now that the OEM has joined the Wireless Power Consortium, this situation may change soon.

A mistake or a marketing ploy? Call it what you like, but Samsung may have briefly let slip an official render of the Galaxy S10 in a One UI press release. The company has since replaced the image with one of a generic phone too, which only adds to the speculation about whether we have caught our first glimpse at the front of the S10.

A device with the model number SM-G970U has shown up on Geekbench. Despite its decent specs (Android 9.0, 6GB of RAM and the Snapdragon 855 under its own codename msmnile), it has posted a score of less than 2000 in single-core terms. The speculation revolving around this new listing points to an S10 Lite on un-optimized software.

A relatively unknown leaker has posted an image of a heretofore unseen, notchless phone, portrayed as lined up against a another that could be the OnePlus 6T. This phone exhibits what looks like the OnePlus Launcher, and, like the '6T', is shown in an unwieldy prototype case. However, this new leak also has some odd discrepancies.

Although LG failed to unveil the G7 flagship at MWC, as usual, it looks like the upcoming LG G8 ThinQ might arrive just in time for the yearly trade show in Barcelona. This means that the LG G8 could launch alongside a new Xiaomi flagship and just a few days after the Samsung Galaxy S10.

Vivo intends to impress everyone at MWC 2019 with an innovative smartphone design that is codenamed "The Waterdrop." It's still unclear how the handheld will look and work, but the first leaks suggest it will have a fluid design, with rounded corners, glass edges that meld into the body and a display that could be encased in glass.

The CAT S48c can be acquired by Verizon Business and Enterprise customers at US$249.99 with a two-year contract or for a full retail price of US$599.99. This rugged 5-inch smartphone can be used with gloves or wet hands and can survive extreme temperatures and drops onto concrete from up to 6 feet.

An article posted to the online outlet Motherboard has alleged that the carriers T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T have been selling their US customers' geolocation data to private companies, who then went on to sell it to other parties such as those who issue bail bonds. The carriers in question have subsequently committed to put an end to these practices.

The Redmi Note 7 was launched yesterday but word on the grapevine claims the company is set to release another phone, but this time with a more impressive camera sensor and SoC.

Although it should receive the Android Pie update in April according to the official update roadmap, the Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) has recently surfaced on Geekbench running Android 9. This happened quite a few times already, so Samsung might update this handset earlier than expected.

Early reviews of Royole’s foldable FlexPai device have come in, and it seems the main attraction of the smartphone is what everyone expected it to be: Its flexibility. The company has done well in beating major players like Samsung and Huawei to the crown of producing the first fully foldable phone, but it has done this by creating a seemingly flawed handset.

Powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 processor, the HiSense U30 is a handset with a 6.3-inch O-Infinity display that features a 20 MP selfie shooter and a 48 + 5 MP main camera setup. Now on display at CES, it is scheduled to go on sale in March in China, Russia, and some European markets.

According to the rendered images and 360-degree video by 91mobiles and OnLeaks, the Nokia 8.1 Plus will join the Nova 4, Galaxy A8s, and the other handsets that come with a camera hole in the display to accommodate the selfie shooter. There is also a vertical dual camera setup with a LED flash, as well as a rear-mounted fingerprint reader.

A new article on the site GalaxyClub claims that the 5G variant of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10 line will have the series' largest-ever battery. Much like the rumored Galaxy M20, It will have a capacity of 5000mAh. This possibility would mean that even the Galaxy Note 9 would no longer have the largest battery of any Samsung flagship.