Android

The new Lenovo Tab 7 Essential and Tab 7 are both 7-inch tablets with quad-core MediaTek processors under the hood that come with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. These slates can be acquired in the US for less than US$100.

Update: Huawei has set out a series of impressive deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Hop in to find out which one catches your fancy.

OnePlus has confirmed that the OnePlus 5 and 5T will receive Oreo beta updates by the end of the year, with the full, stable update to come in early 2018. The Oreo beta program for the OnePlus 3 and 3T has been opened for months.

The Nokia 8, one of the few no-nonsense flagships currently on the market, is currently available on Amazon US for just a bit over $470, and on Amazon UK for £380.

The OnePlus 5T is now official, with an 18:9 minimal-bezel screen, and a new approach to the dual camera setup that OnePlus claims improves the low-light performance.

Hardcore gamers may just have to accept the fact that casual gamers of free-to-play titles are making publishers too much money for them to not integrate similar monetization practices elsewhere.

The new Vivo V7 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor and features a 24 MP camera for selfies, being similar to the Vivo V7+. However, the V7 comes with 32 GB internal storage, while its more expensive sibling features 64 GB of storage space.

Meizu's Head of Global Marketing, Ard Boudeling, has confirmed that the Chinese manufacturers will not be attempting to sell their devices in the US anytime soon, although other American markets are still game.

The Xperia XZ1 Compact is currently on sale on Best Buy at a bargain price of $499.99, $100 off its MSRP of $600. The XZ1 Compact is the only true compact premium phone this year, and lovers of smaller devices may want to jump on this deal.

A few weeks after its debut in Ukraine, Google's Android Pay arrives in the Czech Republic and Brazil. This mobile payment service will go live in Slovakia soon as well.

Gionee's upcoming M7 Plus has been spotted on a few benchmarks, with the mid-range device making a few improvements on the M7 that was released in September.

The upcoming OnePlus 5T was spotted on GFXBench with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB internal storage, as well as a generous 6-inch display with 2,060 x 1,980 pixels. Its launch is expected for tomorrow.

Lineage 2: Revolution has been available in South Korea, Japan, and China since early 2017, and today it finally hits North America and Europe. The game is available for both iOS and Android.

A user on Essential's Reddit community has discovered the presence of Google's new Treble API on their PH-1 after updating to the Oreo beta that was released yesterday.

A reputable seller on eBay currently has the Samsung Galaxy Note 8—brand new, unlocked, 64 GB—on sale for a bargain price of US$790. Pretty great deal when you consider the fact that its rival, the iPhone X, goes for US$200 more.

The Redmi Note 5 has been listed on JD.com, which may be a sign that we're set to get the mid-range killers in the coming weeks. Details of the device are unknown at the moment but we expect to see either the Snapdragon 630 or 636 on it, which would make for a delightful package, especially at the prices touted.

The tests conducted by the popular YouTube channel PhoneBuff revealed that the iPhone X and the Galaxy Note 8 are very close in terms of performance, but Samsung's flagship managed to win thanks to its strong multitasking capabilities.

U.S.-based investment information firm Valuewalk informs that a Samsung Galaxy S9 Mini version is most likely to be launched in early 2018, along with the S9 and S9+ flagship models. The Mini model would get a 4-inch display with curved edges and all the other powerful specs that come with the larger versions.

Essential has just released the first Android 8.0 Oreo beta for its Essential Phone PH-1. The device is one of just a handful of current flagship Android devices to have received any indication that the latest software from Google is about to hit it.

The next stage of Google's push to improve Android security is putting a spotlight on applications which misuse accessibility features to add functionality that wasn't expressely designed to improve use for people with disabilities. Some popular apps affected include LastPass, Cerberus, and Tasker.

The latest limited edition variant of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 flagship targets South Korean consumers who play Lineage 2: Revolution, coming with a rich collection of freebies that includes in-game collectibles, a Samsung DeX, an HDMI cable, and various discount coupons for even more accessories.

The 10.1-inch Moto Tab by Lenovo will join AT&T's portfolio as a slim and powerful premium tablet made for entertainment. Its list of specs and features includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, dual speakers with Dolby Atmos, Kids Mode, and more.

Although the Essential Phone's design makes it difficult to build custom ROMs for it, an XDA Developers user has been able to bring LineageOS 14.1 to Andy Rubin's flagship.

Average smartphone prices have seen a 7% rise over the course of the last year, and that's undoubtedly a product of the market's growth, with shipments for 2017 expected to total 7.4% more than what we saw in 2016.

Google has released Google Play install statistics which show that Marshmallow is still the most widely used version of Android with a 30.9% market distribution. Oreo comes in dead last—yes, even worse than Gingerbread—with just 0.3%.

Following Broadcom's unsolicited proposal to buy out Qualcomm a few days ago, the Qualcomm Board of Directors has reached a unanimous decision to reject any such advances.

Analytics firm TrendForce has released a report on the smartphone market, with Samsung, Apple, Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi having the top six spots, in that order. The report predicts a decline in Samsung shipments in Q4, however, and a rapid rise in Apple's that would give the American giants the top spot.

The Honor V10 will be a cheaper version of the Huawei Mate 10 devices that were released about a month ago. Earlier reports pointed towards an early December launch in London but it looks like the Chinese market will be getting it earlier than that, on November 28.

Although the Eluga I4 arrived less than two months ago, the new Eluga I5 is already official. At first sight, it looks like it has almost identical features and about the same price as its predecessor as well.

Although Samsung still has not confirmed the launch date of the new Galaxy A series, the handset with the SM-A530N model number, also known as the Galaxy A5 (2018), has just received an official support page. Sadly, this page contains no technical details yet.

The premature unboxing video and pictures confirm the 6-inch 2160 x 1080 AMOLED display alongside new features for the dual rear cameras. The source has since taken down its preview pages at the request of OnePlus.

There's a fullscreen compact device coming from Samsung in the near future, with the chance, albeit a slim one, that it will be the S9 Mini. The last Samsung flagship to have a mini version was the S5, so we're keen on seeing how this one goes.

Samsung's latest press release contains a number of new technologies that we expect to be seen on the S9. The most notable of them is the Exynos 9810, Samsung's newest flagship SoC.

Xiaomi and OPPO are said to be working on their versions of facial recognition technology that will rival Apple’s Face ID. This comes after MediaTek’s announcement of working with Meizu to do the same. Xiaomi and OPPO will be working in collaboration with Qualcomm, which is, perhaps, a product of the recent deal signed between the parties.

Chinese smartphone giants OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi have agreed a US$12 billion deal with Qualcomm, with the deal aimed at giving the American semi-conductor manufacturers an even stronger grip on the market.

Cheap smartphones are now even cheaper just for the occasion. The Vernee Mix 2 and LeEco Le Max 2 can be had new for $180 USD and $270 USD, respectively.

Although it was scheduled to go public in December, Google's Files Go file manager for Android leaked online earlier this week, so the tech giant decided to speed things up and made the app available via the Google Play store.

The SwiftKey virtual keyboard app for both Android and iOS has just received Photo Themes, as well as a gallery of nature images to use with this new feature. These shots were taken and curated by Keith Ladzinski, a top photographer who worked for ABC, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic.

The upcoming version of the Samsung Galaxy J3 has been spotted on benchmarking site GFXBench. The device is being listed with the model number SM-J337 and is a refresh to the current Samsung Galaxy J3 (SM-J330F).

Indian e-retailer, Flipkart, has announced its foray into the smartphone business with the launch of the Billion Capture+ smartphone. The new smartphone is tailor-made for the Indian market and features mid-range specs, dual 13MP rear cameras, and unlimited cloud storage for a starting price of ₹10,999 (US$169).

The Lenovo-owned telecommunications company has clawed its way back to the list of top 5 largest smartphone manufacturers through outreach and strong sales of the Moto Z2 Play.

The juice pack and the charge force case by mophie target the Galaxy Note 8 phablet, offering wireless charging support and about 3,000 mAh of additional battery capacity for less than US$100.

A MediaTek executive has, in an interview, revealed the company's plans for the future, with the Taiwanese manufacturers set to take a break from manufacturing flagship SoCs for a while, in favor of killer mid-range chipsets.

One month after launching in the Philippines, the 6-inch Oppo F5 Android phablet arrives in India, a very good market for selfie-centric handsets. The most attractive feature of this device is the 20 MP front camera with an AI-assisted beautify mode that promises to deliver amazing selfies.

HTC has released a report on its business side of things for the month of October, with figures pointing towards a palpable decline in revenue over the last year.

Huawei concluded talks with AT&T a few months ago, and it looks like the Mate 10 will be the first device to benefit from that partnership. Only the Mate 10 Pro, though, as Huawei, once again, ignores the regular Mate 10 .

Although all Galaxy A handsets released so far use a touchscreen display with a conventional aspect ratio of 16:9, the screen of the upcoming Galaxy A5 (2018) will use the same 18.5:9 ratio as the Galaxy S8 flagship.