Android

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has confirmed that the company will launch Android One Redmi devices in the near future. The company's Redmi line is widely regarded as offering excellent value for money, and the allure of stock Android on its devices would make them no-brainers in their price brackets.

Moto’s G-series of mid-range smartphones tends to get most of the attention, but their lower specced E-series continues to offer budget-friendly options — if you’re willing to accept a few compromises. For those who hold battery life above performance, the E5 and E5 Plus might be the better option.

The Razer Phone is now available for slightly cheaper than it cost at launch. The device launched with an MSRP of US$700 but potential buyers can now get it for $100 less. The deal has been on for the past two days but will end on April 24.

Reuters has recently published an article stating that China will be ramping up efforts to greatly enhance its chip-making industry. The hefty seven-year ban on buying parts from US manufacturers that has been placed on Chinese tech firm ZTE by the US Department of Commerce has provided fresh impetus for the Asian state’s efforts in the semiconductor industry.

The Moto G6 lineup is now official and consists of the 3 handsets mentioned by multiple leaks and rumors in the last few months: the Moto G6, Moto G6 Play, and the Moto G6 Plus. The new Moto smartphones come with Oreo out of the box, Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, as well as multiple AI features.

After getting hit with a 7-year ban barring them from buying anything from a U.S. company, ZTE released a new statement today. The statement calls the Department of Commerce's ban unfair and says that it will not only severely damage ZTE but will harm ZTE's partners, including some U.S. companies.

The PH-1 is currently available on Amazon for US$400. This is the lowest the device has been officially sold at since it was launched but it's already a last-gen flagship for the most part, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise. The deal is available on both Amazon and Best Buy. Update: The device is now listed for $350. A mid-range price tag for arguably the best-looking device in the world is quite the decent deal.

The Ulefone Power 5 is Ulefone's new battery monster. The device gets its running juice from a nigh-unparalleled 13000 mAh battery. It also features quad cameras, wireless charging, OIS, and a slew of features you wouldn't expect to find on a device that could very well power a house.

Apple's iPhone X may have been the first to integrate the FaceID feature, but Android smartphones are set to get a refined version with Qualcomm's latest 3D facial scanning this year. While Samsung and Huawei are hard at work on their own versions, the Qualcomm one is most likely to be implemented first in Xiaomi's Mi7 smartphone, which could be launched this summer.

The Meizu 15 will be one of Meizu's flagships for the year. The company has deviated from its Mediatek ways of recent and the Meizu 15 will continue on the new path, as it is powered by the Exynos 8895, Samsung's flagship SoC from 2017.

The ZTE Nubia Red Magic joins the Razer Phone and Xiaomi's Black Shark gaming smartphones, but it is powered by the older Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and has a 6-inch 1080p 2:1 display. Fortunately, it features 8 GB of memory, 128 GB UFS 2.1 internal storage, and will be available for pre-order via Indiegog for just US$399 starting next week.

Honor, a sub-brand of Huawei, has rolled out the Honor 10, its flagship smartphone for 2018. Aimed at a younger Asian market, the Honor 10 has has funky looks with more than a hint of the P20 for a fraction of the price.

A message on the official Twitter account for Fortnite has shown an image of a passport with a stamp for China on it. The words “The Battle Bus is taking off! Destination, China” are also part of the mysterious tweet. While many commentators have taken this to mean the game is due to launch in China soon, others have speculated it could be related to a new map or location.

The very popular Battle Royale game, PUBG Mobile, has just received an update that brings its version number up to 0.4.0. In addition to the Dusk setting and the Training Grounds area, the update also comes with Arcade Mode, which supports 28 players and six variations: Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, All Weapons, Melee Only, Pistols and Item Heaven.

Thanks to the optimizations done in the last few months, the Microsoft Translator app can now use AI-powered offline translation packs without the need of a processor with hardware-accelerated AI capabilities. The new packs are 23 percent better and 50 percent smaller than their non-AI predecessors.

Developer metrics for the month of April have been released. The data released shows the dominance of Android Nougat in the market, with 30% of users being on that version of the OS. Android Oreo still has an utterly woeful market share, coming in at 4.6%.

At an event in Shenzhen, China, Huawei has announced that it will not be selling its Kirin SoCs to any third-party OEMs. This comes as bad news for ZTE after the latter was hit with a ban that will see it unable to use components made by American companies, Qualcomm included.

An ad in China has revealed what appears to be HMD's next device, the Nokia X. Details of the device aren't in circulation at the moment, and rumors claim it will be a mid-ranger instead of the flagship its name tag implies

Despite all the bad publicity ZTE is getting these days, the Chinese company is well on its way to officially reveal the Nubia Red Magic gaming smartphone on April 19. The latest leaked picture from Weibo reveals a 2:1 Infinity Display without the dreaded notch, as well as an RG LED strip on the back. This model is rumored to be powered by the Snapdragon 845 coupled with 8 GB of RAM.

According to a report from Reuters, ZTE may lose its Android license. As the current seventh-largest Android-based smartphone manufacturer, this would be a massive blow against the Shenzhen-based corporation. Even just losing access to the Google Play Store application would be incredibly detrimental to the beleaguered telecommunications-equipment maker.

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S flagship, although still many months ahead of us, is rumored to lack a foldable display. On the other hand, this handset is expected to feature a 3D camera, as well as an Infinity display similar to those that Samsung already used for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S8 handsets.

The render of the upcoming — and officially confirmed — LG G7 ThinQ Android flagship reveals a thick metal frame similar to that of the LG G6, a display with curved corners, as well as a rather wide notch at the top. All the details should be official in less than a month since the launch event will take place on May 2.

TENAA reveals that the Honor 10 will come with a 5.84-inch LCD screen capable of displaying 2280 x 1080 pixels, and rumors claim that there's an upper notch, as well. The rear camera setup comprises a 16 P + 24 MP combo with “semantic image segmentation mode.” The phone is powered by the Kirin 970 SoC and there will be 4 GB RAM/ 64 GB storage and 6 GB RAM / 128 GB storage versions.

This year, Samsung is porting the Infinity Display technology from the high-end Galaxy S and Note models to the more mid-rangy A and J series. According to FCC, the latest model to get the 18.5:9 aspect ratio Infinity Display screen seems to be a member of the Galaxy J family, most likely to be named J6.

The next Galaxy S flagship phone from Samsung could well incorporate a notched display, if a new patent application is any indication. Also in tow is a second Galaxy Note-like design that is completely bezel-less.

Recently, there have been reports of what appeared to be a Samsung Galaxy S9 Mini. More details of that device have been revealed and it would seem that we've been bamboozled yet again, with the device apparently a Galaxy S9 variant designed exclusively for the Chinese market.

Honor, Huawei’s online-focused brand, announced today their new budget-range Honor 7A and Honor 7C smartphones. While most of the specifications are as expected for this end of the market, these would be among the cheapest smartphones with face unlock functionality, as well as dual-Bluetooth and a triple card slot.

After Razer and Xiaomi, Asus could become the third big brand to hop on the gaming smartphone bandwagon. The rumor has been around for a while, but the device did not arrive at MWC 2018 as mentioned. Now, the company's CEO Jerry Shen also confirmed that a gaming phone by Asus can be expected, but did not reveal any details.

Introduced with the OxygenOS Open Beta all the way back in January, the new gesture-based navigation system for the OnePlus 5T is now available for everyone thanks to the OxygenOS 5.1.0 update. Once this feature is enabled, the navigation buttons are hidden, and the user needs to swipe the display for Home, Back, and Recent Apps.

Although there is no official announcement yet and last year's Galaxy Xcover 4 was only released in Europe and Canada, a Galaxy Xcover 5 was recently discovered on Samsung New Zealand's website. Since the webpage was taken down in the meantime, it is rather safe to assume that it was all an accident and this rugged phone will be unveiled soon.

OnePlus' official store in North America ended sales of the OnePlus 5T a few weeks ago, citing a depletion of stock intended for the region. The company's web stores in Europe and India are also saying the same, which could be evidence of just how well the device has done commercially.

The United States Department of Commerce has banned all American companies from selling components to Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE. This includes Qualcomm and Dolby, both of whom have made major contributions to previous ZTE phones. The loss of Qualcomm-made SoCs is sure to damage the salability of ZTE phones.

The 5-inch LG Fortune 2 comes about one year after the introduction of the Android Marshmallow-driven LG Fortune and provides more than enough for a backup device. Its list of specs and features includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, 2 GB RAM, 16 GB internal storage, an 8 MP main camera, and runs Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box.

The Android 8.1 Oreo OTA update for the Razer Phone has started its rollout earlier today. Its list of features includes multiple optimizations, an improved visual layout, as well as the latest security patches and bug fixes. The update rolls out in stages and all Razer Phone users should get the new firmware within the coming weeks.

Although most leaks and rumors that we heard so far mentioned a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 as the heart of the upcoming Moto G6 Plus handset, this mobile device features in fact the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 chip, which is listed by Geekbench as a Snapdragon 660 due to a bug. Other features apparently include 4 GB RAM and a 5.93-inch display.

Although the stable Android Oreo firmware for the Nokia 3 smartphone brings a faster boot time, autofill, picture-in-picture mode, Instant Apps, Google Play Protect, and the April security patch, it also takes away a feature that was present in the latest beta, namely the Night Light mode.

Sony has surprised by making the XZ2 Premium official less than two months after the launch of the XZ2 and XZ2 Compact. The new flagship features a 4K HDR display and dual rear cameras as well as a host of other other upgrades over the XZ2.

The Samsung Pro now comes with its most requested feature -- a backlit keyboard. In all other respects the device remains the same, but its newest feature makes it a viable alternative for users who normally buy higher end Windows or Apple notebooks.

A firmware teardown by XDA-Developers has revealed details of Xiaomi's upcoming device, the Mi 6X. The Mi 5X—also the Mi A1—was an immensely popular device but the Mi 6X could fail to match its success, with what appears to be a downgrade in battery capacity, and the lack of a headphone jack.

Sony's new flagships are finally hitting the US. The devices, the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact are now on sale on Best Buy. Potential buyers can now pre-order, with shipping estimated for April 20. The flagships will make their way to brick-and-mortar stores by May 6.

The Moto E5 Plus has made the trip over to Geekbench. The budget device will be powered by a Snapdragon 430, which is an improvement over the MT6737 on the Moto E4 Plus.

Xiaomi has a terrible history with releasing kernel sources—a direct violation of the General Public License. The company looks to have seen the light, with a company spokesperson declaring that devices will now have their sources released to the public, albeit with a slight caveat.

The Snapdragon 710 (SDM710) will be Qualcomm's first SoC in its new Snapdragon 700-series. The chipset will feature two A75 cores and six efficient A55 cores. It will also see likely see its first use on two Xiaomi devices that will be released later in the year.

Less than a month since it managed to reach 200 million users within a 30-day period, Telegram Messenger has to take a serious blow as the Russian authorities decide to ban its use in the country. The reason for this decision is the company's unwillingness to provide the keys required by the Federal Security Service to decrypt the users' messages.

The new Vivo Y71 phablet has a generous 6-inch display and features a low-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, 3 GB RAM, just 16 GB internal storage (expandable thanks to a microSD slot), as well as a single 13 MP camera on the back and a 5 MP selfie shooter. However, it also comes at a price of around US$168.

Although it is not a compact handset, the new ZTE Nubia Z18 also carries the "Mini" attribute. This 5.7-inch handset is powered by the Snapdragon 660 processor, next to 6 GB RAM, as well as 64 GB or 128 GB internal storage. Sadly, it is only available in China for now, where it can be acquired for the equivalent of US$285 or US$335 (depending on the amount of storage).