Android

Sony's 2018 flagship, the Xperia XZ Pro, has leaked out a month ahead of its expected reveal at Mobile World Congress on February 26. The device is the first from the Japanese maker to feature a contemporary bezel-less design.

The Moto X4 was one of our picks for best value smartphones of 2017, and its successor looks to continue that fine form. The X5, according to a leak, will feature an 18:9 display with minimal bezels, and also what appears to be a notch at the top of the display,

Android Oreo beta is now available for the international Huawei P10 and P10 Plus flagships, and it includes EMUI 8.0 with quite a few new features.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ will keep the same battery capacities as their predecessors, with the smaller sibling to house a 3000mAh battery, and the plus-sized variant to opt for a 3500mAh one.

The Honor 8 was released barely 18 months ago, so it's something of a surprise to hear that it won't be receiving the update to Oreo.

Master Lu, a popular Chinese benchmark, has revealed performance scores for the top SoCs in the business, with the Kirin 970 edging out Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 to first place.

Meizu VP Yang Xun has, at a press briefing, announced that the company recorded a total of 20 million shipments in 2017, a slight decline from 2016's total.

The latest Samsung Pay version that is apparently labeled 2.8.18 (the version number may vary depending on the device) drops the on-screen section menus for a traditional bottom bar. Overall, the UI is now cleaner and more user-friendly.

The Hi9 Gamer tablet runs Android 7.0 out of the box and comes equipped with an 8.4-inch 2560 x 1600 display, a quad-core MediaTek SoC, a PowerVR GPU and 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM.

Thanks to a partnership with Alibaba-owned AutoNavi, the Google Maps service returns to China, but with a few feature limitations needed to get the approval of the local government.

The HTC U11 EYEs has just been launched and will be sold in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China with price tags in the US$500 price range.

After a few months of full availability in Canada, the UK, and most European countries, the BlackBerry Motion finally reached the US market via Amazon and Best Buy.

In the aftermath of a pretty long stream of rumors and teasers, the Samsung Galaxy On7 Prime is now finally ready to hit the Indian market. This 5.5-inch handset with an Exynos 7870 processor will be available in two configurations, both loaded with Samsung Pay Mini and Samsung Mall.

Last time, the international versions of the upcoming flagships arrived at FCC. Now, the US versions of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are being tested and one step closer to being released.

The TAG Heuer Connected Modular 41 is not only a smaller variant of the popular Connected Modular 45 smartwatch, since it also doubles the amount of memory and storage space, and features a 326 ppi AMOLED display with a resolution of 390 x 390 pixels.

Rooting and custom ROM development has traditionally been Android's USP. Now, Windows Phone users too can join the fun, thanks to the efforts of XDA Developer, Heathcliff74.

Google's Play Store has once again been beset with supposedly vetted apps hiding malware. On this occasion, 63 apps have been pulled from the Play Store after it was discovered they harbored malware serving up porn ads.

LG's 2018 flagship has made its first appearance in the flesh. The purported render of the device reveals an evolution of the G6 design with even thinner top, bottom and side bezels.

The Nokia 8 made its way to DxOMark over the week, with the first-gen HMD flagship registering camera scores that wouldn't look out of place on a device straight out of 2015.

The U11 EYEs will be HTC's next mid-range offering. It'd be a solid device if it were priced as a mid-ranger but rumors point towards a price tag above the US$500 mark.

The Mi A1, against all apparent odds, received its stable Oreo update on the last day of 2017. The company has pulled the update, though, after feedback from users showed a number of bugs. Probably should have kept this one in beta for a while longer, but hindsight is 20/20.

The Xperia XZ1, one of Sony's flagship devices for 2017, is currently available on Amazon at an enticing price point of just $543.

Although the foldable Samsung Galaxy X will probably not hit the market before the end of the year, insiders familiar with the matter claim that an updated prototype has been shown at CES to a few chosen ones.

McAfee researchers recently uncovered a hacking operation that targets North Korean defectors and those who help them, using popular chat apps and social media services (Facebook included) to deliver malware to their Android devices.

Casio introduced a new smartwatch, GPS watch, and action camera, all of which have a rugged design intended for heavy outdoor use.

The purported Samsung Galaxy S9 box image that surfaced on Imgur reveals a 5.8-inch Infinity Display, a "Super Speed Dual Pixel" 12 MP main camera with optical image stabilization, and more.

All the devices are prototypes, so specs could change meanwhile. The GBox Pro mini PC is an HTPC powered by Intel's gen 8 core i5 CPU with integrated AMD Vega GPU, while the Hi9 Air tablet comes with a Mediatek SoC, and the SurBook Pro features the latest Gemini Lake Pentium CPU.

Although its specs or design are nothing really special, the Movi smartphone makes up for that by integrating a built-in projector that can deliver a 720p image at a size of 12 to 200 inches.

The Samsung Galaxy J2 Pro (2018) is now available in Vietnam for the equivalent of around US$145. This low-end handset has an unspecified 1.4 GHz quad-core processor, only 1.5 GB RAM, and runs Android Nougat out of the box.

The Honor 9 Lite will opt out of the recent trend of Amazon exclusives, with the budget device billed to go on sale in India via Flipkart's channel only.

The next Huawei P-flagship billed to be named the Huawei P20, made its way over to a HTML browser benchmark, with the listing showing a resolution in the mold of an 18.7:9 display ratio.

The BLOCKS Core modular smartwatch that started as a Kickstarter crowdfunded project is now available for anyone with full Android 8.0 Oreo onboard and support for Amazon Alexa voice commands.

OnePlus has been caught manhandling user data again, with a OnePlus 3T user on the OnePlus forums showing proof of his clipboard app sending data to an Alibaba-controlled server.

After a few delays, LG Pay launched in South Korea last summer and, thanks to its moderate success in that market, LG has decided to bring it to the US in the first half of 2018 with the help of the G7 and V40 flagships. The mid-range handsets are expected to get support for it at a later time as well.

LG has launched its ThinQ WK9 Google Assistant Touch Screen Speaker. The AI-powered device also features audio tuned by high-end audio maker Meridian Audio.

The new Garmin Forerunner 645 Music is a GPS running watch with Garmin Pay support that features an integrated music player for enjoying their favorite songs without having to carry a smartphone.

In India, the 6-inch Samsung Galaxy A8+ (2018) can be pre-ordered exclusively from Amazon starting today and will be fully released in that market on January 20.

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro will be making its way over to US, albeit not under any carrier. While it's welcome news, we're not so sure of how accommodating the device's price tag is.

The Honor 7X, our pick for best value budget smartphone of 2017, has finally been listed on Amazon, and will go on sale on January 25.

Blackberry devices will make their way all over the world again in 2018, with a Blackberry Mobile executive confirming that there will be at least two Blackberry-branded smartphones released in 2018.

The launch date of the Samsung Galaxy S9 lineup is no longer a secret since the president of the company's mobile business DJ Koh confirmed that the official unveiling of the new flagships will take place at MWC 2018.

The ZenFone Max Plus integrates the Face Unlock function, found on high-end models, which complements the fingerprint scanner for additional security measures. Also included is a 4,130 mAh battery that should provide longer-lasting usage time.

Samsung's head of mobile has reneged on his promise to deliver a foldable Galaxy Note this year. Instead it may not now make an appearance until late 2019.

The data collected by Google during the 7-day week period that ended yesterday reveals that Marshmallow is now below 29 percent, with Nougat getting closer to taking the lead, while Oreo still struggles to reach the 1 percent mark.

Xposed for both Android 8.0 and 8.1 has been released, and although the current version is just a beta, it's reportedly stable enough for regular use.

The name of the next LG flagship is currently still up in the air but its launch date is a lot more certain now, with multiple sources claiming a March announcement, and an April launch.

Lenovo is introducing a standalone Google Daydream headset that doesn't require external power or video signals, alongside a VR camera that allows easy 3D VR ready photo and video capture.

Although February is not here yet and the situation might change until then, unconfirmed rumors claim that Huawei and AT&T's deal is off and the two brands will no longer team up as expected.