Tablet

Huawei has released its performance for 2019 to the Chinese media. It claims it shipped approximately 240 million units in total that year, 6.9 million of which had 5G. For context, Samsung has announced that it shipped about 6.7 million of the same kind of phone in the same time-frame.

PC shipments increased by a small percentage in 2019 and this is mostly due to Microsoft discontinuing support for the venerable Windows 7 OS. 261 to 267 million PC system shipping throughout 2019 are nothing to scoff at, but these figures pale in comparison to the amount of smartphones shipped solely in Q3 2019.

Lenovo's Yoga Smart Tab includes a built-in stand, and promises superb voice recognition capabilities thanks to its multi-array microphones. And since this does not require too much performance its major weakness can be found somewhere else.

Chrome OS' next update will add the option of gesture-based navigation. If this feature sounds familiar, it is because it is also found on many phones running Android 10. Chromebooks will also have a greater panel of quick settings as a result of this new software version.

A study of device repair in Germany for the year 2019 found that 30.7% of those conducted by users were carried out on Apple phones. Samsung was second in these terms at 29.7%, followed by Huawei at 21.6%. Owners were most likely to replace their phones' batteries by themselves, and to resort to a professional for screen repairs, last year.

The second edition of Lenovo's Tab M8 HD is characterized by good workmanship, a modern design and comparably slim bezels. On top of the standard Android system, the tablet also has a kid's mode and a useful tablet manager.

Audio-Technica has packed its Las Vegas showcase with high-tech new products. They include 3 pairs of TWS earbuds, the flagship of which are the QuietPoint ATH-ANC300TW with hybrid noise cancellation. There are also headphones directed at audiophiles, finished with premium materials such as striped ebony.

The Wacom One is a new, 13-inch digital-art display. It has an FHD panel and in-built, foldable legs for various modes. It is aimed at those looking to get into electronically-enhanced or -generated art, and can also leverage Microsoft Office features with its corresponding pen.

Zendure has put its latest product, the MIX GO, up for crowdfunding on Indiegogo. It is a 5000mAh power bank that can also plug into the wall to power devices compatible with 45 watt (W) charging. Not a brand new concept, admittedly, but this version is also equipped with state-of-the-art gallium nitride (GaN) technology.

The Horseshoe Bend is clearly a product still in development and not yet ready for prime time, but Intel made it a big showpiece anyway. The 13-inch concept laptop unfolds into a 17-inch tablet and it's expected to run on Intel's next generation Tiger Lake CPU series.

Lenovo announced two new Chromebooks. The IdeaPad Duet Chromebook is a compact Chrome OS tablet with a detachable keyboard. The IdeaPad Flex 5 Chromebook is a 360-hinged 2-in-1 that is Project Athena certified. Both Chromebooks will be available in Summer 2020.

Lenovo announced the 2nd generation of its Smart Tab M10 Android tablet. The tablet comes with a speaker dock and the Google Assistant, allowing the tablet to operate as a smart speaker with a display when docked. The tablet runs on modest hardware, including a MediaTek Helio P22T Tab SoC.

After teasing the device last year, Lenovo is officially announcing the first ThinkPad with a flexible screen. The unique 4:3 OLED screen used here enables users to fold the device in the middle, giving this first its kind foldable PC a very small footprint when it is closed down and enabling various interesting use cases.

It has been a while since Apple released a new iPad Pro series, with the Cupertino-based company unveiling its third-generation models in October 2018. It seems that Apple is sticking with its 15-month refresh cycle though, and @OnLeaks is on hand with some detailed renders of this year's editions.

Our recent review of the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2019) revealed some weak points about Samsung's latest budget tablet. In particular, the performance of its SoC is not up to scratch and holds back the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2019) in daily use.

A new year and a new ThinkPad X1 lineup. Lenovo has given the X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga a Comet Lake U refresh, along with other treats for display and keyboard fans too. The X1 Carbon Gen 8 and X1 Yoga Gen 5 will be available worldwide from US$1,499 and US$1,599.

We knew Samsung was working on a 5G variant of its current flagship tablet, the Galaxy Tab S6 but we didn’t know when it was coming. Samsung has now cleared things up at least a little by announcing it will hit the market in Q1 2020.

Brydge has announced a new line up of its popular tablet keyboards coming in 2020. New keyboards are in bound for the Surface Go and the Surface Pro X along with new wireless keyboards for Windows, a new iPad OS Trackpad and other accessories.

In- or under-display fingerprint sensors are becoming more and more common among mobile devices. However, they are also mostly confined to AMOLED panels, which means getting this spec is likely to entail spending more on a new phone. Goodix, a company that makes these components, has announced that it is ready to mass-produce sensors that can work in LCD panels.

A new report published by a Chinese media outlet asserts that the flexible-display maker Visionox has agreed to supply its displays to the OEM Huawei. This agreement will apparently take effect from early 2020. Therefore, this brand (not to mention its subsidiary Honor) could start producing devices with next-gen screens very soon.

With the Tab M7, Lenovo shows that “low-priced” does not always mean “cheap”. The build quality of the Tab M7 is very good and the modern design makes all other low-priced tablets look obsolete. Unfortunately, the system performance is not very high, because of the intended purpose of the device.

Currently, there is a limit to the size of an MP4 file that can be saved on non-Apple phones, and it is typically 4GB. However, further development on this issue may have resulted in the ability to multiply this by up to 4X. It may take effect in an upcoming version of this OS, such as Android 11.

Samsung reportedly plans to release its first-gen foldable phone to the Taiwanese market soon. It is slated to do so in January 2020, and is said to cost well over US$2000 in this new region. The device already features on the OEM's official site for this country.

Samsung has given Galaxy Fold users a small Christmas present with its second significant update for the device since it went on sale a couple of months ago. It raised the security patch level to November while also adding Samsung’s DeX functionality which was absent at launch.

YouTube has developed a panel of controls that come into effect when it is being used on a smart TV or Chromecast-enabled device. Now, it may have also added voice commands and new remote-style buttons in this menu. They have been reported as existing in a server-side update thus far.

There is no need for a Surface Connect port now that Thunderbolt 3 is becoming ubiquitous amongst mid-range to high-end laptops and tablets. There is nothing that Microsoft can't do with the more universal Thunderbolt 3 port that they are already doing with the expensive proprietary Surface Connect port.

The Chinese Surface Go clone will be live before the end of 2019 with extra hardware features not found on the Microsoft version. The UBook follows on the footsteps of the larger UBook Pro which was designed to be a Surface Pro clone.

Samsung Electronics' President Young Sohn, a few days ago, announced that the company had sold a million units of its US$2000 Galaxy Fold. Apparently, the Samsung executive was wrong. The company did not, in fact, sell a million units of the foldable phone.

Visible light communication is a form of wireless technology that uses radiation in the visible to infra-red light spectrum to transmit data. It is seen as an increasingly robust and reliable way of doing so, and needs not much more than conventional, low-power LEDs to work. Its market is now thought to be capable of being worth US$101.3 billion by the end of 2024.

Samsung has revealed that it has sold 1 million units of the Galaxy Fold. The result should help to silence critics of the device who have questioned its resilience, usefulness and value for money.

Tronsmart has announced the Element T6 Max, a new speaker that, despite being wireless and intended as a portable accessory, has a striking 60 watts (W) of total sound output power. The OEM claims this is due at least in part to its new SoundPulse technology.

The 8-inch Raspberry Pi and Raspbian tablet is almost ready for mass production, according to its creators. The CutiePi project has not only finalised the board design, giving it a massive overhaul from initial designs, but also has published design files for the tablet should you wish to build the tablet yourself.

The tech market analyst firm Daniel Research Group has reported that its latest study shows US PC shipments will exhibit an indifferent trend. On the other hand, newer form factors are thought to do better in this new forecast. This trend is thought to be related to the strength of the nation's economy over the next 4 years.

Facebook appears to be preparing a screen-sharing feature for its Messenger app. The latest beta version of this app on Android is reportedly flashing up a new option to "Share your Screen Together" in its video-calling section. To date, there is no mention of the possibility of interaction with a caller's screen.

MAGFAST is a company set up to offer power accessories with an innovative magnetic interface. Its largest product is the Extreme, a charging station with 3 Qi-wireless charging coils on its top. It can also support USB type C, type A and Lightning-ported devices - as well as jump-leads for a car.

Amazon claims that the Fire HD 10 (2019) should last up to 12 hours between charges, but our tests demonstrated otherwise. Positively, our review unit outperformed Amazon's claims, while it impressed in other areas too. However, the Fire HD 10 (2019) is not all rosy though, as our tests demonstrated.

Airplane mode is an ever-present setting on mobile devices that is effectively an instant kill switch for all radios, those for wireless connectivity included. However, this setting can be considerably less convenient for those who depend on Bluetooth for audio. There are now signs that an Android 10 successor may allow more granular control over what it does.

Samsung has reportedly trademarked the name "Hideaway Hinge" with the EU's intellectual property office, EUIPO. This name, as it may sound on the tin, is a component relevant to smartphones and tablets. Therefore, it seems the Galaxy Fold's successors may be less obtrusive in the crease-region.

Some subscription-based streaming platforms have become huge for a number of reasons, the total lack of ads being one of them. However, there are emerging alternatives that reinstate this potential disadvantage back in return for no monthly fee. Research has shown that their uptake in the United States has increased by nearly 10% over the last 12 months.

Google is pushing a new update in which its SMS app will gain the ability to tell between 'real' and 'fake' corporate messages. This will be done in line with the search giant's new "Verified" initative, by which businesses register with Google so as to prevent their communiques being automatically labelled as a form of spam and never reaching their customers.