Android

A listing for the purported Xiaomi Poco F2 has surfaced on Geekbench and while we are expecting a Snapdragon 855-powered flagship killer from Xiaomi this year, the scores do not seem to reflect such high aspirations. Going by the RAM, SoC identifier, and the base clock, we feel this could be a mid-range variant of the Poco F2 or a renamed Poco F1 Lite... or even a fake leak.

Roland Quandt has posted a new article in which he claims to set out every detail on the upcoming Huawei P30 and P30 Pro prior to their launch. This includes nearly every major spec and detail of the phones, including their relative RAM capacities, camera counts, new color schemes and battery capacities.

A few days ago, a series of renders pointed to a Pixel 4 XL design with a dual selfie cam set into its screen. Now, a Twitter-based leaker alleges that the smaller device from the same upcoming line will also follow this trend. However, its punch-hole will be circular rather than pill-shaped.

There have always been rumors that Huawei was working on its own OS. Those have now been confirmed by the company, with Huawei CEO Richard Yu affirming that the Chinese monolith has a working mobile OS all geared up and ready to go, just in case.

A few days ago, a Geekbench listing showed what appeared to be a Poco F1 Lite running on Android Pie with 4 GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 660. We are leery of the whole thing, though.

Until now, we'd been led to believe that Google's upcoming mid-range devices would be called the Pixel 3 Lite and Pixel 3 XL Lite. Apparently not, as Google code points towards the devices being named the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL. Reminds us of the Samsung Galaxy S10e, in fact.

Samsung's Galaxy Fold and Huawei's Mate X foldable phones may rightfully dominate the headlines but they come with the caveat of outrageous prices. Xiaomi is set to join the foldable race in the coming months and will, in typical fashion, offer a product that heavily undercuts the competition in price.

The Huawei P30 and P30 Pro will be launched on March 26, and while the devices' selling points remain photography, both will still feature top of the line displays—in the form of Samsung-made OLED panels.

Xiaomi usually offers a 12-month warranty for its phones to customers in its home country of China. However, this was turned on its head somewhat with the release of the Redmi Note 7. The company gave an extra 6 months' worth for this phone; now, it reportedly intends to roll this out to more of its future devices.

The Galaxy S10s are Samsung's first flagships in which the front-facing cameras peek right through their high-end OLED displays. However, their future replacements may not even require the cut-out in order to fit around a camera. These panels may provide a full-screen experience by hiding all their sensors underneath them.

Xiaomi's new gaming phone, so far known as the 'Black Shark 2', has been listed by the online retailer JD.com. Although this page does not reveal its price, it allows potential buyers to reserve a unit ahead of its launch date (March 18, 2019). At this point, the final cost of the phone will presumably be revealed.

The first leak on the Google Pixel 4 devices have surfaced, in the form of a sketch of what is said to be the Pixel 4 XL. Going by the leak, we could be set to get a pill-shaped punch-hole, dual rear cameras, and an in-display fingerprint sensor on Google's next flagship.

The Sony Xperia 1 has now been listed on Amazon. The device is listed with a US warranty, so it's almost definitely the unlocked model for the US market. Sadly, it also comes with a US$999 price tag, and apparently doesn't ship until...December 31.

Over the past week or so, WhatsApp has taken to enforcing its strict anti-third-party policies. The company considers third-party versions of the messenger a security risk and is now banning users of such apps. GB WhatsApp and WhatsApp Plus are examples.

Huawei has launched its latest device, the Nova 4e, in China. The mid-ranger features a Kirin 710, 3340 mAh battery, triple rear cameras, 32 MP selfie camera, up to 6 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of storage. It will be sold as the Huawei P30 Lite in other markets.

Going by information released on Xiaomi's official forum, the company plans on sending out the Pie update to a host of devices over the next couple of months. The Redmi Note 5, for one, is expected to get the update before this month runs out.

Samsung has announced that it is ready to start producing its highest-capacity RAM module for mobile devices. It has a 10-nanometer architecture and should deliver data speeds of up to 34.1 gigabytes (GB) per second. This 12GB low-power double data rate 4X (LPDDR4X) chipset is likely to be integrated into phones such as the Galaxy Fold.

Xiaomi had planned a sales event for the Mi 9 Transparent Edition, as well as the Mi 9 SE, for today (March 14, 2019) in China. However, reports that it has been abruptly cancelled have come in from that country. The OEM cited unit supply issues while apologizing for this move.

A Weibo account has posted a series of images, mostly of famous places or buildings that were allegedly taken with an OPPO device equipped with the OEM's new 10X zoom module. The user claims that the phone in question is a Reno, the first phone to bear this product name.

It's finally here - Q has been released for download and use - albeit only on Pixel-line phones. On the other hand, this Beta 1 form of the OS is mainly meant for development and testing, not daily use. However, it does come with most of the promised and projected new features associated with the next version of Android.

A new patent filed by Huawei may have given us our first look at the Mate 30 Pro. Going by the details of the patent, the device could eschew a selfie camera in favor of a rear secondary display. A triple camera setup may be located at the back of the device, including a periscope lens.

Huawei will launch the P30 phones on March 26 at an event in Paris and more details of the devices have been revealed, as they make their way across multiple benchmarks. Camera samples of the P30 Pro have also surfaced, giving us our first look at the flagship's powerful zoom capabilities.

The MediaTek Helio P23-powered Oppo A1 will soon get a cheaper sibling with lower specs known as the A1K. Insiders familiar with the matter revealed that the upcoming handset will feature a waterdrop display, a single-sensor main camera, and will use the MediaTek Helio P22 processor. Unfortunately, the official confirmation has yet to arrive.

It may have taken over 7 months, but HTC has finally confirmed in which quarter it plans to release Android 9 Pie for the U11, U11+ and the U12+. The three devices should receive the update in Q2 this year, which could by the end of June at the latest. Do not hold your breath though, because HTC has thrown in some caveats too.

A mobile insurance and device company, Asurion, has announced its findings on a study about missing devices and cases in which their owners managed to get them back. The company reported that having a lockscreen showing a contact number resulted in 3 times the chances of recovering such a device. In addition, the use of a cross-platform browser is a good idea in case of phone loss.

A recent post on SlashLeaks shows real-life images of a device with Honor branding. The poster alleges that it is of the brand's 10 line - however, it can't be the pre-existing 10 Lite, as it appears to have triple rear cameras. Therefore, its contributor has dubbed it the Honor 10i.

The latest build of Windows 10 available via the Insider program expands the functions of the Your Phone app on the OS. This service, which formerly gave Android users a more convenient way to move their files on their PCs, now supports screen mirroring. Unfortunately, it only works with some Samsung Galaxy-line devices so far.

Xiaomi has already released official Android Pie-based builds for a number of its 2018 devices. Recent rumors that may emanate from the Chinese MIUI community indicate that the Mi 6X will soon join their ranks. This phone, which is a twin of the Android One phone, the Mi A2, is a solid mid-ranger with the Snapdragon 660 processor.

Even though the Ulefone T3 looks very similar to Samsung's S10, the Chinese model is aimed at the premium mid-range market, since it comes equipped with the Helio P90 SoC from MediaTek. It does come with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, which is not that common for a mid-range handheld. Additionally, it gets the latest 48 MP camera together telephoto and depth lenses, plus a fingerprint sensor on the back.

Following the launch of the Xperia 1, Xperia 10, and Xperia 10 Plus a few weeks ago, Japanese OEM Sony is set to unveil yet another device. The device, said to be the Xperia 4, will be a compact sub-premium phone featuring a Snapdragon 710, dual rear cameras, and Sony's new 21:9 display.

Samsung is now sending out the stable Pie update to its Verizon and Unlocked models in the US. Unlocked Samsung models are usually the last to receive updates, so this means that all Note 9 users in the US have now received the Pie-based One UI update.

Google has quietly launched a breakthrough on real-time voice recognition technology via its AI blog. Using AI technology and tapping into the neural processing capabilities of its Pixel phones, Gboard users can now offline real-time speech recognition.

Google looks to be cutting back on its computing hardware efforts reports Business Insider. According to the report, dozens of engineers and program managers working on the Pixelbook and Pixel Slate have been told to seek other roles within the Alphabet parent company.

XDA Developers has discovered a clue in the kernel source code for the Exynos versions of the Samsung Galaxy S10 line-up that could point to the development of a 5G version of the Galaxy Note 10. The code also offered up a new device codename “luge.” It has been speculated that this could be one of Samsung’s next foldable smartphones.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 received the Pie update in certain regions last month and Samsung is also now sending the March security to those models. Note 9 users in certain markets are also getting the security patch, interestingly, even ahead of the new Galaxy S10 phones.

Xiaomi's Redmi sub-brand is set to launch its fourth device this year, the Redmi 7, at an event in Beijing on March 18. The budget device will feature a Snapdragon 632, dual rear cameras, and up to 4 GB of RAM.

A Huawei device with the model name VOG-L29 has surfaced on Geekbench today (March 12, 2019). It has exhibited 2019 flagship specs and the scores to go with it. They have beaten up-to-date entries for the P20 Pro on the same database by a considerable margin.

OPPO has recently unveiled a new name for some of its devices in the future on Weibo. It is apparently to be called Reno. This is not the only recent reveal for the Chinese OEM: it also has a new logo and set of 2019 flagship specs.

A slew of leaks and speculations have pointed to the resurrection of the RAZR product line in the release of the first foldable under the Motorola brand. A new post on SlashLeaks consists of the new logo for this putative phone. It is accompanied by a supposed list of its major specs.

Motorola promised Oreo for the Moto G4 Plus when it launched in 2016 and went back on its word a year after. Media outcry over that betrayal forced the company's hands, making them promise Oreo as initially agreed. It's been eighteen months since then, though, and the Moto G4 phones are only just starting to receive the Android Oreo OTA.

Huawei released a bunch of promotional images for the P30 Pro last week. These images all showed incredible zoom and the public may have been fooled into believing them to be a display of the P30 Pro's purported 10x hybrid zoom. Well, those images were taken by a DSLR.

Huawei's Mate 20 phones may have given up their position as the best flagships on the market to the Samsung Galaxy S10 devices, but they've already sold in massive quantities. According to Huawei CEO Richard Yu, the company has shipped 10 million units of the devices, barely five months after they were launched.

The Huawei P30, P30 Pro, and P30 Lite have been going through network certification processes for agencies in Taiwan and Indonesia. Even though the devices have been listed under their model numbers, it has been possible to tell which device has which RAM and storage options, thanks to the information found on the leaked certificates.

The Galaxy Fold has showed that Samsung is more interested in inwards-folding devices for now, but the company is clearly open to exploring the outwards-folding side, as shown by a recently unveiled clamshell phone patent. Additionally, it looks like Samsung already has an improved hinge that allows the two halves to flatten on the fold.

Xiaomi doesn't plan on giving up on its Black Shark gaming phone series anytime soon, and the company is set to release another iteration, the Black Shark 2. The Black Shark 2 appeared on AnTuTu a few days ago, with the listing giving us a better idea of what to expect from the third-gen device.