Tech News

Last month Huawei introduced Honor 10 GT - an updated variant of its flagship Honor 10 with 8 GB RAM. It also has GPU Turbo and Night Mode update that lets you take night pictures without a tripod out of the box. First, it was introduced only in Phantom Blue color, but the company now announced the device arrives in another color called Lily White. The Honor 10 GT has a 5.84" tall screen with a notch on top. The chipset is Kirin 970 with AI capabilities for machine learning and delivering power to the most used apps. The camera setup on the back is dual - a 16 MP main snapper and a...

Today, The International Data Corporation (IDC) releases preliminary data that shows smartphone OEMs have shipped a total of 342 million units during Q2 of this year. This calculates to a 1.8% decrease from Q2 of 2017, where OEMs shipped a higher total of 348.2 million handsets. During the same quarter, Huawei has surpassed Apple in the number of overall shipments. The Chinese OEM shipped 54.2 million units with a record high of 15.8% of global market share and a whopping (also record breaking for Huawei) 27% market share in China. This puts Huawei at the No. 2 spot globally while Apple...

Today, a huge leak comes from XDA-Developers thanks to firmware files obtained by @FunkyHuawei that were shared with the development site. The firmware files are able to say a lot about the unannounced Huawei flagship, or flagships, rather, since it looks like there will be three variants of the next Mate device: Mate 20 Lite, Mate 20, and Mate 20 Pro. The firmware file obtained was specifically for the Mate 20, here's what was uncovered. The Mate 20 is said to be the first Huawei flagship to have HiSilicon's Kirin 980 CPU (expected to be announced at IFA next month) built on a 7nm...

This afternoon, Apple held an earnings call where CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple Pay made over 1 billion transactions this quarter alone. In fact, Apple Pay made more transactions than its competitors Square and PayPal. Cook also announced that Apple Pay will finally be supported at 7 Eleven and CVS Pharmacy stores sometime in the fall. If you have been following the story with CVS from almost four years ago, the store began to accept NFC payments until it disabled its NFC readers in favor of another QR-code mobile wallet called "CurrentC". Well, it wasn't CVS' fault, this was due to...

Today, Google made a blog post about Spotify integration with alarms in the Google Clock app. Starting today, you can set an alarm clock to wake you up with a Spotify playlist, or you can choose from Spotify's curated morning playlists. After you shut off your alarm, the Clock app will even give you the option to continue listening to the music that just woke up you so you can get ready with your jams. What's interesting is that Google decided to release Spotify integration before its own Google Play or YouTube Music streaming services. Perhaps Google wanted to test it with Spotify...

A new report from Samsung's home of South Korea confirms the previously outed release date for the upcoming Galaxy Note9: August 24. As you can see from the image below, it's clearly written on a promotional poster made for the device by KT, one of the Korean carriers. Since the date was first leaked by a Polish Samsung employee, and now the same date is said to apply to the Korean market, we're assuming that's when the global launch will happen. Of course things might still change, but this is probably the best estimation of when the phone will be in stores - until August 9 comes, of...

Apple might be adding a much-requested feature to at least one of the three iPhones it's gearing up to launch this fall. We're talking about dual-SIM support, something that's very popular in certain markets, but not so much in the US where the company is based. This has been rumored before, but now we get a sort of confirmation from Apple itself, through some code included in iOS 12 developer beta 5. As you can see from the screenshot below, a component of the system that generates diagnostic reports includes new references to "second SIM status" and "second SIM tray...

The flexible smartphone race has started. After Samsung revealed its plans to deliver the first ever foldable smartphone with flexible display, Huawei committed to beating it to the punch. Now a new report claims that two more major Chinese manufacturers are joining. Xiaomi and Oppo are reportedly looking for display manufacturers to supply their foldable handsets. The options, for now, are rather limited - BOE, Visionox and LG Display. But instead of following, Xiaomi is planning on leading in the segment by being the first manufacturer to bring a working flexible device by kicking...

Earlier this month, HTC pushed an OTA update in Taiwan to the U12+ adding new features and a much-needed update to the pressure-sensitive buttons. The patch weighs 437MB and the build number is 1.21.617.3. Тhe changelog outlines the very same update we saw with the Taiwanese version of the device. The most important fix is for the pressure-sensitive buttons that should now be more responsive and won't get in the way of the Edge Sense gestures. The double tapping on the edge should work better now too. The update also brings the so-called Auto Zoom feature for video recording....

Canon has launched a new pocket sized PowerShot SX740 HS camera. The camera is meant for casual users as well as vloggers who want something compact and easy to use for taking quick photos and videos that look a little better than what you get from your smartphones. The SX740 HS has a 20.3MP sensor and 24-960mm equivalent lens that gives it 40x optical zoom capability, more than enough for most users and especially impressive for a compact camera. The camera can also record 4K video, which makes it the first in the PowerShot series to do so. The SX740 HS includes Canon's newest...

Samsung continues to expand the selection of AR emojis based on Disney properties - the latest addition are the main characters from Frozen. Anna, Elsa, Olaf and Kristoff can be downloaded from the Galaxy App Store for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. This leaves Zootopia from the official list of movies to be turned into AR emoji. Samsung has already covered The Incredibles, Mickey and Minnie, Goody and Daisy, along with a pack of 18 generic AR emoji (there are 18 more on the way). Source

Oppo released the Realme 1 as an online-exclusive smartphone that sold out in two minutes after its launch in India back in May. Eyeing a huge potential in the new subsidiary, the Oppo Vice President Sky Li announced he is stepping down and is moving to become the CEO of the Realme brand. Sky Li, pictured in 2016 at the Oppo F1 launch In a press release, Realme listed plenty of markets that the company is planning to join. Quoting Gartner, growth in smartphone sales has been observed in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa and emerging Asian countries and sales are...

Samsung is currently in the endgame as far as the launch of the Galaxy Note 9 is concerned. Following months of (not-so-many) rumors and leaks, Samsung started teasing Galaxy Note 9 features with a handful of short videos. There’s one for the bigger battery, another for more storage, and one for better performance as well. And the teaser video for better performance couldn’t be more unclear about what it’s actually hinting at. Is it general software optimization, or perhaps the fact that the top-end Galaxy Note 9 will have up to 8GB of RAM?

Galaxy Note 9 may have it all… except for 8GB of RAM

Actually, going by the teaser video, one would think Samsung is advertising faster data speeds. Why else would you turn off automatic updates, disable background data usage, and switch to Wi-Fi if your phone is unable to open a PDF file? Those are clear indications that faster data speeds may be a part of the marketing push. After all, the Galaxy S9 already trumps the iPhone X in LTE speeds, so it wouldn’t be wrong to advertise the Galaxy Note 9 on that front. Even if that isn’t the case, it seems unlikely that a Note 9 with 8GB of RAM exists.

The first piece of evidence (or the lack of thereof) is that we haven’t yet seen a Galaxy Note 9 benchmark with 8 gigs of RAM. Neither have there been any solid rumors that would confirm an 8GB RAM model. Not to mention that bringing 8GB of RAM just a year after 6GB of RAM was introduced on the Note 8 would make little sense. Samsung needs to make sure the Galaxy Note 9 has plenty to offer for those looking to upgrade to a new phone, but it also needs to hold something back for next year. And 8GB of RAM will ultimately look better as a highlight feature on the tenth-anniversary Galaxy S flagship.

If you have been hoping to see Samsung make the shift to 8GB of RAM with the Note 9, you’re likely to be disappointed. Should Samsung actually announce a Galaxy Note 9 with 8GB of RAM (with 512GB of internal storage, as the rumors say), no one is going to complain. But the company said in its earnings report today that the new Note “offers exceptional performance for a reasonable price.” And there probably isn’t going to be anything reasonable about the price of a Galaxy Note with 8GB of RAM.

What do you think?

The post Is there actually a Galaxy Note 9 with 8GB of RAM? appeared first on SamMobile.

OnePlus derives almost a third of its global revenue from India and it's a sign that the company is doing well when it posts shipments. Not only that, but Counterpoint reports that during the second quarter of this year OnePlus shipped more premium phones than Samsung for the first time in its history. Counterpoint defines the premium segment as phones costing INR 30,000 and above ($440/€370). That may seem a bit low for a premium segment, but it's partly because OnePlus and others are aggressively pushing high-end phones below the INR 40,000 mark and are skewing the market. The OnePlus...

Sony just published its Q2 financial report and unfortunately it holds little good news for its struggling mobile business. The Japanese firm shipped just 2 million phones in Q2 this year compared to the 3.4 million in Q2 2017. That's just $1.18 billion revenue and a 27% decline year-over-year. The main reason lies in the weak Japanese and European sales, but interestingly, Sony remains stable in the rest of the world. It has also forced Sony to re-calculate its projected sales and revenue for 2018. Initially, the OEM forecasted 10 million sales accounting for $5.74 billion until...

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer is the premium phone in the series. Besides its attractive translucent back, it also comes with a 3D face scanner and an under display fingerprint reader. Naturally, this drives up the price, but TENAA reveals that there may be a more affordable version in the works. We've seen this device before, though TENAA hadn't posted the photos at that point and they certainly add a new dimension to the rumors. The design looks similar, including the back, but the notch on the front is noticeably narrower. Sure, the TENAA photo is quite dark, but the selfie camera is right...

The Q2 2018 shipment numbers published so far have brought good news for Samsung in India. The company regained some of the lost ground and is showing signs of market dominance again. In the premium smartphone segment (>INR 30,000 or $437), however, it seems Samsung is having a tough time in India, at least according to a report from Counterpoint Research.

As per the latest data from Counterpoint Research, OnePlus reportedly surpassed Samsung to emerge as the leading premium smartphone brand in the country. Strong demand for the OnePlus 6 has helped the Chinese company register a staggering 446% YoY growth and capture 40% of the market share in the premium smartphone segment in Q2 2018.

OnePlus 6 is the best-selling premium smartphone

Samsung settled for the second spot with 34% market share, a drop of 25% when compared to last year. As confirmed by Samsung in its Q2 2018 earnings, Galaxy S9/S9+ sales have been slow globally, and the same applies to India as well.  Even Samsung’s arch rival, Apple, had a weak quarter with market share dropping to 14% – its lowest ever in the country.

The report says the premium smartphone segment in India grew by 19% YoY and 10% sequentially during the second quarter. The growth is primarily in the sub-INR 40,000 (~$583) category where OnePlus and other smaller brands have positioned their products. It shows that consumers are unwilling to pay substantially more for Samsung and Apple unless there is a strong product differentiation.

While Xiaomi is going after Samsung’s volume, OnePlus is going after its profits. It is clear Chinese brands are the biggest threat to Samsung’s dominance in India. The company has done reasonably well to counter Xiaomi in the last quarter by launching new models, but that’s not a strategy Samsung can easily adopt for the premium segment.

The post OnePlus surpassed Samsung to lead India’s premium smartphone segment, says Counterpoint Research appeared first on SamMobile.

While we await the Galaxy Tab S4’s official launch, Samsung is pushing out the latest Android security patch to the Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 over in Canada. That’s right, the Galaxy Tab S2 is getting a security update nearly three years after its retail debut. Or is it? Some markets, including Canada, saw the release of the Tab S2 much later with a newer version of Android on-board, so this isn’t as impressive as an update for an old device like the Galaxy S6.

July 2018 security update for the Galaxy Tab S2

The July 2018 security update for the Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 is available on various carriers in Canada; the build number is being bumped up to T818WVLS3BRG1. The July 2018 patch fixes four critical Android OS vulnerabilities and nine vulnerabilities discovered in Samsung’s software. Don’t expect to see any major changes or new features with the update other than the usual performance and stability improvements. But if you do notice something different after installing the update, do let us know in the comments.

To download the update, head into the Settings » Software update menu on your tablet. We also have the complete firmware available in our database should you wish to manually install the update, although you will also need to download considerably more data if you take this route.

The post Galaxy Tab S2 updated with July 2018 security patch in Canada appeared first on SamMobile.

Mid-range and budget Galaxy phones these days have up to 24-megapixel front-facing cameras. Meanwhile, Samsung is still using an 8-megapixel sensor for the selfie cameras on its flagship smartphones. Of course, despite the lower megapixel count, the flagship front cameras usually take better photos than the cameras on cheaper Galaxy devices thanks to higher-end sensor specs. But the front-facing camera on Samsung flagships is perhaps the least talked about whenever a new flagship is around the corner.

Selfies… selfies everywhere

Really, when was the last time you read a story on what the Galaxy Note 9 could offer when it comes to taking selfies? Sure, the Note lineup is for the professionals and business-minded folks, but it’s not like the front camera is talked about much in the rumors that come out for upcoming Galaxy S flagships. And the reason for that may be the fact that the front camera doesn’t get upgrades as often as other aspects of a top-of-the-line smartphone.

Samsung seems to stick to a two-year cycle for front camera upgrades. The 8 MP camera on the Galaxy S8 came two years after Samsung upgraded to a 5 MP front camera on the Galaxy S6. Samsung also made changes to aspects like sensor size and aperture and added software-based autofocus. In 2019, rumor has it that the Galaxy S10 will feature dual cameras at the front, which means we would see noticeable changes after a period of two years yet again.

What improvements would you like to see?

Samsung brought over the Galaxy S8 front camera to the Note 8 and the Galaxy S9. The same is likely to be the case for the Galaxy Note 9, and our question today is: Are you okay with the front-facing cameras found on Samsung’s flagships phones today?

Do you think they perform well, or do you think there’s room for improvement? What kind of changes would you like to see? Would a dual camera front setup make you happy, or do you think we also need more megapixels? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so go ahead and get a discussion started down in the comments section!

The post Do you like the selfie camera on Samsung’s current flagship phones? appeared first on SamMobile.

Samsung has just posted its financial report for the second quarter of 2018. The Korean conglomerate reached KRW58.48 trillion (around $52.2 billion) in sales, its lowest result for the past 12 months. Samsung stated the decline in revenue, hinted earlier in the earnings guidance was due to lower sales of smartphones and display panels, while demand for memory chips remained strong, just like analysts predicted. Тhe IT & Mobile Communications division, responsible for the Galaxy smartphones saw its sales fall 20% from KRW30 trillion to KRW24 trillion on a yearly basis....

When Huawei announced GPU Turbo there was plenty of misunderstanding of what it does. So, now the company announced CPU Turbo with the Kirin 970-powered Honor Note 10 and there seems to be a similar confusion. The official announcement is very vague, but here's what we have so far - enabling CPU Turbo mode will raise the clock speeds (by an unspecified amount) and will free up RAM. Let's break it down. The Honor Note 10 features a cooling system dubbed "The Nine" - a heat pipe that keeps the chipset running cool. This should help it stay cool and enable the higher clock. That might...

The Huawei Honor Note 10 was teased for such a long time, it almost feels like a relief to finally see it go official. Many of the rumored specs turned out to be true, but the company managed to surprise us with some fresh and unexpected features. The Honor Note 10 is built around a 6.95-inch Full HD+ (1080 x 2220 pixels) AMOLED display with thin side bezels and no notch. The display supports the HDR10 standard and has 115% NTSC color gamut coverage. The Honor Note 10 comes with Huawei's in-house Kirin 970 chipset paired with 6GB or 8GB of RAM. The internal storage variants of...

Lenovo is looking to launch a new selfie-centric smartphone and it has stopped by TENAA for a quick certification. The handset carries the model name L38031 and the main selling point is the dual front camera. The phone has four cameras in total, but unfortunately the listing only mentions the resolution of one of them - 13MP. In all likeliness the front and back setups consist of a primary high-res module and a secondary depth-sensing unit of low resolution (in the 2MP-5MP range). It's unclear though if the 13MP module is the main one on the front or the back. As we go down the...

Samsung’s earnings releases tend to offer bits and pieces of information that help us understand what the company is focusing on for the coming quarters. Its full earnings results for Q2 2018 show that revenues were down 4 percent in the quarter due to sluggish sales of smartphones and display panels. Samsung also confirmed reports that the Galaxy S9 sales have indeed been slow.

Samsung’s display division was expected to take a hit in this quarter and it certainly has. There was weak demand for flexible OLED panels while shipments and prices for LCD panels also declined. The company is now relying on newer products such as foldable displays to drive growth for this crucial division.

First foldable smartphone due early next year

Samsung was expected to bring in around $22 billion in revenue when it was selected as the sole supplier of OLED panels to Apple for the iPhone X. Amid reports that Apple had cut its sales target for the flagship device, it was reported that Samsung had overestimated demand for OLED displays.

The company was said to be taking a step back to re-evaluate its investments in OLED production as it seemed to have overestimated demand from Chinese manufacturers as well. Most Chinese OEMs have stuck with LCD panels because of cost benefits and haven’t made the switch to OLED.

Despite improved factory utilization for rigid products, Samsung says that demand for flexible OLED products “from major customers” remained slow. This had a negative impact on the company’s revenues. It didn’t help that shipments and the average panel price for LCD products also declined during this period.

Samsung expects better performance from its display division in the second half of this year, though. It predicts that OLED sales will rebound on recovering demand for flexible displays. It will enhance technological and price competitiveness to actively address customer demand.

It pledges to reinforce its competencies in new products such as foldable displays. Samsung is expected to start mass producing its foldable OLED displays in the second half of this year. They will first be supplied to the company’s mobile division which is said to launch Samsung’s first foldable smartphone early next year. It’s only after that might the display division start thinking about supplying the foldable OLED display to other manufacturers.

The post Samsung seeks to drive growth with foldable displays appeared first on SamMobile.

When the Galaxy S9 was announced earlier this year, Samsung said that it expected the new flagship to outperform the Galaxy S8. Reports to the contrary soon started trickling in. They claimed that the Galaxy S9 sales were slow. Customers in Samsung’s home country of South Korea were said to be particularly uninterested as the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ reportedly hit record lows.

A recent report claimed that it’s the first time in the history of the Galaxy S series that Q2 sales are lower than Q1. All market reports pointed to an acute underperformance by the flagship duo. Some have even claimed that it’s Samsung’s worst-selling Galaxy S flagship since the Galaxy S3 which came out in 2012.

Samsung had hinted at this much in its earnings guidance for Q2 2018. The company released its full earnings for the quarter today and confirmed that the Galaxy S9 sales have been below expectations.

Galaxy S9 sales

Samsung’s earnings for the second quarter of this year are down 4 percent compared to a year earlier. The company blamed this on multiple factors including “slow sales of the Galaxy S9.” It mentions the stagnant high-end smartphone market as one of the reasons for the underperformance of this year’s flagship.

Samsung doesn’t reveal sales numbers for its smartphones in the earnings reports. It does mention that aside from the overall sluggish smartphone market, increased competition is also the cause of its smartphone shipments and revenues declining quarter-over-quarter. It mentions the slow sales of the flagship duo once again in addition to the phasing out of older low-end models for the decline in revenues.

The company’s mobile division posted 24 trillion won or $21.4 billion in revenue for the quarter with an operating profit of 2.67 trillion won or $2.38 billion. It’s a considerable decline from the 30.1 trillion won or $27 billion in revenue and the 7.59 trillion won or $6.8 billion in profit that the division posted during the same period last year. The Galaxy S8 was actually the world’s best-selling Android smartphone in Q2 last year.

One of the reasons why customers haven’t been that interested in the new flagship duo is that they’re not significantly different from their predecessors. Many customers who purchased the Galaxy S8 saw little reason to upgrade and with competition in the high-end segment heating up, it’s evident that the Galaxy S9 has been unable to generate the kind of response that Samsung was hoping for.

The post Samsung confirms Galaxy S9 sales have been slow this past quarter appeared first on SamMobile.

Xiaomi Mi A2 was unveiled last week as a significant upgrade over the Mi A1, as we established in our hands-on. Manu Kumar Jain, VP and overseeing operations in India announced on Twitter the device will arrive in the country on August 8 and now we know it will be offered exclusively by Amazon. The Mi A2 is part of the Android One program and arrives as the global variant of the Mi 6X, which runs MIUI instead of stock Android. The phone's Snapdragon 660 chipset supports Quick Charge 4.0, but for some reason that will be enabled only in India. Other specs of the newly...

Samsung has brought over yet another popular Disney franchise to AR Emoji on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. AR Emoji now lets you create an emoji avatar of the characters Elsa, Anna, Olaf and Kristoff from the 2013 film Frozen. This is the second movie franchise to be a part of AR Emoji, with the first being The Incredibles.

AR Emoji gets more Disney characters

Samsung will continue to bring more such Disney characters to AR Emoji as the months go by, as it had announced earlier this year. We will hopefully see characters from some of Disney’s more iconic franchises such as Toy Story. AR Emoji also received a major update recently that improves facial tracking and introduces more customization options. Whether the Galaxy Note 9 will bring further improvements remains to be seen, although most of the improvements aren’t likely to factor into the Disney emojis, which are created in real-time with no further customization options once you’ve captured a photo.

To access the new Frozen AR Emoji pack, open the camera app and swipe to the AR Emoji mode. Then tap on the plus icon on the bottom right side, and you should see Frozen in the list of top stickers. If not, open the Galaxy Apps store, then search for ‘Frozen AR Emoji’ and install it manually. You can then access the newly added characters in the AR Emoji camera mode.

The post Disney’s Frozen characters now available in AR Emoji appeared first on SamMobile.

Samsung has posted record profits in every quarter over the past year but it was expected that the momentum would be slowing down by the second quarter of this year. Many analysts had predicted that the company’s record profit run would be nearing an end by Q2 2018. The company’s own earnings guidance for the quarter suggested as much.

The company released its official Q2 2018 earnings results today and they show that the record profit run is indeed losing momentum. Overall revenues are down 4 percent compared to the same period last year.

Samsung’s Q2 2018 earnings

The earnings result is in line with the guidance that Samsung issued earlier this month. It posted 58.48 trillion won or about $52 billion in revenue compared to 61 trillion won or $54.7 billion in the same period last year, a 4 percent dip.

Samsung’s quarterly operating profit came in at 14.87 trillion won or $13.3 billion which represents a 6 percent increase compared to Q2 2017. Samsung posted an operating profit of 15.64 trillion won or $14.49 billion in Q1 2018. Q2 2018 is thus Samsung’s slowest quarterly profit growth in over a year.

The company puts the decline in revenues on softer sales of smartphones and display panels. Demand for memory chips remained robust. It’s a market that Samsung dominates but that wasn’t enough to prevent revenues from dipping this past quarter. The memory business did make a significant contribution to the higher operating profit.

The semiconductor business remains Samsung’s cash cow. It saw consistent demand for DRAM chips and NAND flash memory amid a decline in NAND prices. The display business remained under pressure this past quarter due to weak demand for flexible OLED panels with shipments and prices for LCD panels dipping as well.

The Consumer Electronics Division’s profits were lifted due to stronger sales of premium TVs such as the QLED models due to seasonality brought on by the global football event. Samsung expects demand for its memory chip products to remain strong going forward. Flexible OLED shipments may rise as well.

The post Samsung’s Q2 2018 earnings show its record profit run is ending appeared first on SamMobile.

Shortly after the Motorola One Power certification surfaced, the Motorola One device also appeared online with the specs sheet revealed along with some TENAA renders. For now, it seems that the two handsets will differ in design - the Motorola One should incorporate a glass back while the One Power will stick to the all-aluminum shell - while the hardware remains pretty similar. At least that's what the rumor mill suggests so far. The TENAA listing reads a 6.18-inch notched display with 1080 x 2246 pixel resolution and tall 19:9 aspect ratio. The chipset is likely Snapdragon 636,...

BlackBerry is preparing a new smartphone for the Indian market with the Optiemus manufacture, and the device was first rumored to be called Ghost. Later Evan Blass said the Ghost will be actually named Evolve and will have a mightier sibling, called Evolve X. After the series of mystical leaks, the phones are finally set to step into the light. BlackBerry and Optiemus have scheduled an event for August 2 in India, where the alleged flagships will be introduced. The phone was tipped to have a 4,000 mAh battery, dual-camera setup with optical zoom and low light enhancement. A...

Samsung decided to match its Galaxy A portfolio to the Galaxy S monikers and announced the Galaxy A8 (2018) and the Galaxy A8+ (2018) in the end of 2017. A phone from the Korean manufacturer has just popped up on Geekbench with model name SM-A750FN. The phone was benchmarked with Exynos 7885 SoC that has two performance cores at 2.2 GHz and six more for efficiency at 1.6 GHz. The RAM on the SM-A750FN is 4 GB and the phone is listed with Android Oreo 8.0. All specs are the same with the Galaxy A8+ (2018), suggesting the new phone might be different in some other aspects like screen...

T-Mobile has a habit of posting future smartphones a bit too early. In this month, T-Mobile has posted a couple of mid-range devices (Moto E5 Play and E5 Plus, Samsung Galaxy J7 Star) to its support pages, all of which support T-Mobile's latest 600 MHz band for better and stronger signal. Today, a new device was spotted on T-Mobile's support site by TmoNews. The LG Q7+ is expected to hit T-Mobile very soon with support for the aforementioned 600 MHz frequency (band 71). The Q7+ is an LG Q7 with higher RAM and storage (4GB + 64GB). There's a 5.5-inch display with FHD+ resolution...

Back in May, Facebook held its F8 developers conference where it announced new features for its Facebook family of apps. More specifically, it was at this event that WhatsApp was officially going to get group calling sometime in the future. Today, WhatsApp has officially announced that group calling for both voice and video is finally here. The messaging app also shares that WhatsApp users spend more than 2 billion minutes on WhatsApp calls per day. To start a group call, start a one-on-one video or voice call with a single person. Then, you'll see a button at the top-right...

A new report from Junper Research predicts that the in-store contact-less payments industry will break $2 trillion by the year 2020. 2018 is the first year that the market will break past $1 trillion, one year earlier than Juniper Research anticipated. Apple will lead the mobile payments market with Apple Pay anticipated to make up half of all mobile wallet payments globally by the year 2020. Along with Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and other OEM Pay wallets, these services will reach 450 million users by the same year. Mobile Payment transactions will make up 15% of all contact-less payments...

Just this weekend, we saw renders of two unreleased Samsung Wireless Fast Charge docks. One is a redesigned Fast Charger that would be updated to support the Galaxy Note9's supposed faster wireless charging (EP-P3100), and the other one was the Samsung Wireless Charger Duo (EP-N6100), which has two wireless charging areas: one upright and the other flat. Today, a new report from MobilTelefon.ru brings live images to support the renders. In fact, the Samsung Wireless Charger Duo is already available in a Samsung retail store in Russia for a retail price of RUB 6,990 (~USD...

Sony's newest top of the line smartphone has just become available in the US, and right on time. The Xperia XZ2 Premium went on pre-order in the States at the beginning of the month, and around three weeks later it's now in stock at both Amazon and Best Buy (see the Sources linked below). It packs a 4K HDR touchscreen, being the first handset ever to don that setup, but living on the cutting edge of technology will cost you dearly. $999.99, to be precise. That's for an unlocked unit that will work on GSM-based carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Straight Talk, MetroPCS, and Cricket....

Today Asus has started sending out an update to Android 8.1 Oreo to the Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL. This particular model launched in November of 2016, so it's good to see that the Taiwanese company hasn't forgotten about it, software-wise. The Zenfone 3 Max initially ran Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, then got updated to Nougat, and now it's time for it to jump straight to 8.1. It might in fact be the first Asus smartphone to receive this specific version of the OS. Other members of the Zenfone 3 line have gotten 8.0. The new version is 15.0200.1807.406. Aside from packing all the goodies that...

Huawei's next flagship smartphone is coming this fall and it will be the Mate 20 (echoing the switch from 10 to 20 this year for the P series). A live image purporting to show the Mate 20 Pro has been leaked in China, and it portrays a device with no notch but what seems to be a very good screen-to-body ratio nevertheless. There's not a lot more that can be ascertained from the picture alone, but the same tipster that shared it has helpfully also listed some of the phone's specs. Thus, the Mate 20 Pro will allegedly have the Kirin 980 chipset at the helm (which should become...

Samsung has a habit of launching new accessories alongside its flagship smartphones and that’s going to be the case this year as well. Several leaks have revealed that there’s going to be a new Wireless Charger Duo for the Galaxy Note 9. The accessory will let users charge two smartphones or one smartphone and the Galaxy Watch wirelessly at the same time.

Some new live images of the Wireless Charger Duo have been leaked online today. The accompanying report also mentions the price tag for this accessory in Russia. Recent reports have also suggested that this may not be the only dual wireless charger that Samsung launches with the Galaxy Note 9.

Samsung’s Wireless Charger Duo

These leaked images of the new Wireless Charger Duo come from Russia where it appears that the accessory is already available for purchase at retailers. It carries a price tag of 6,990 rubles which is equal to around $110.

The images are pretty self-explanatory with regards to what this accessory can do. It will let users charge two devices wirelessly at the same time. It can either be two smartphones or one Galaxy Watch with one smartphone.

For those who are unaware, the Galaxy Watch is a new smartwatch that Samsung will be unveiling alongside the Galaxy Note 9 on August 9, at least that’s what the rumor mill will have you believe. The Galaxy Watch is also expected to be released on August 24 alongside the new flagship smartphone.

It remains to be seen, though, if this Wireless Charger Duo will be offered as a pre-order incentive for the Galaxy Note 9 in some markets. It’s pretty clear that this accessory will be available for purchase on its own.

The post Live images of Samsung’s Wireless Charger Duo leaked online appeared first on SamMobile.

It is almost certain that Samsung will launch the Galaxy smartwatch (or smartwatches if you consider all the variants) alongside the Galaxy Note 9 at the Unpacked event on August 9 in New York. The smartwatch, officially named as the Galaxy Watch, has been acquiring all the necessary regulatory approvals in the run-up to the launch, with the most prominent being the FCC approval earlier this month.

Today, the Galaxy Watch has cleared one more regulatory obstacle by receiving certification from the National Radio Research Agency (NRRA). Four different variants of the Galaxy Watch – SM-R800, SM-R805N, SM-R810, and SM-R815N – have been certified by the NRRA. The multiple variants probably refer to the rumored screen-size options and LTE versions. This certification doesn’t reveal anything noteworthy or new about these devices.

Samsung’s first Tizen 4.0-based smartwatch

We already know a lot about the upcoming Samsung smartwatch from previous leaks and regulatory approvals. Due to the change in branding from what should be the Gear S4 to the Galaxy Watch, there were many rumors about Samsung ditching the Tizen OS and opting for Google’s Wear OS. However, we reported exclusively a couple of weeks ago that the Galaxy Watch will come with Tizen 4.0 OS out of the box.

Samsung accidentally revealed the Galaxy Watch on its website last week. With all these leaks, there is not much surprise left in terms of hardware when Samsung goes on stage to introduce the Galaxy Watch. Hopefully, the company has some innovative software features in store to get us excited about its first Tizen 4.0-based smartwatch.

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With the R15, Oppo adopted the notch. With the R17, it might shrink it down. We saw photos by TENAA, but the one of the front was too dark to make out any detail. These two images from Weibo show an Essential-style notch, though with a slightly different design. By the looks of it, the Oppo R17 will house only a selfie camera and an earpiece in its notch. Look at the separate glass panel in the second photo, it gives a better look. It's not clear where the proximity sensor and ambient light sensor go in this setup. Oppo R17's notch is smaller, looks like the F9 notch • Just the...

Xiaomi announced the Mi 8 series in three flavors - a regular version, a cheaper Mi 8 SE and a premium variant with see-through back and in-house Face ID solution, called Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer. The phone is finally arriving at the Mi Store, as announced by the company, for CNY3,699 which is nearly $530. The phone has a Snapdragon 845 chipset, coupled with 8 GB RAM. Storage is 128 GB, although this is all you get - no microSD slot on board. The screen is 6.21" Super AMOLED panel with a cutout on top for the selfie camera, speaker, and advanced facial recognition software, simply...

The Nova 3 and the P20 Pro are incredibly close in terms of hardware save for the display, the battery and that amazing camera system on the P20 Pro. But the P20 Pro costs twice the money, which makes the Nova 3 look like a steal. But do specifications tell the complete story? And how does it compare against the OnePlus 6? Let's find out.

No, we don’t actually know how soon the Android 9.0 P update will arrive on the Galaxy Note 9. But as someone who’s been getting extremely impatient about getting a Note 9 in my hands, I’ve come to realize that there’s one area where Samsung will probably fall behind once again, and that’s software updates. Not regular software updates, but major ones, like Android 9.0, which Google will officially release sometime in the next two months.

How soon will the Galaxy Note 9 get Android 9.0?

One thing is clear: The Galaxy S9, as Samsung’s mainstream flagship, will be updated to Android 9.0 before the Galaxy Note 9. This has always been the case for major OS upgrades, despite the Galaxy Note flagships commanding higher price tags. But that’s not a huge problem as a major update for a Note device arrives not long after the Galaxy S flagship from that year. The problem is a generic one: Samsung still takes too long to roll out big updates to its flagships.

And it makes sense as well. With the millions of devices the Korean giant sells, testing has to take longer in order to make sure things work properly once the consumers have installed the update. Of course, as 2018 has shown, all that time in the oven and more expansive beta testing hasn’t exactly helped Samsung release problem-free Oreo updates to most of its devices. But it’s still acceptable that Samsung takes the time it takes to release new versions of Android.

Well, it was acceptable. It may not be so anymore, now that Project Treble has entered the scene.

Project Treble may do wonders… or it may not

What is Project Treble? The simple version is that it is designed to make it easier and faster for OEMs to release software updates. And it has already been put to use by some companies, with Android 9.0 betas available for some non-Google devices. Those are mostly devices that run stock Android, but that doesn’t change the fact that those devices may quickly get the stable Android 9.0 update later this year. With Samsung’s phones, we don’t yet know if Project Treble will actually help.

The Galaxy Note 9, for all the awesomeness it will be packed with (big battery, more storage, more feature-packed S Pen, stereo speakers, and possibly better performance), may end up being just as disappointing as any other device before it as far as software updates are concerned. I’ll still be getting one, despite knowing that I might have to use Android 8.0 Oreo for months after Android 9.0 is released by Google. But it would be great if Samsung can increase its pace and bring us Android P ahead of the usual schedule, both on the Note 9 and on the Galaxy S9.

Does Samsung’s software update policy make a difference to whether or not you buy one of its flagships?

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Nokia published less than stellar results in Q2 - the network business was slow, but it's supposed to pick up as carriers start building their 5G networks later this year. And it's already happening, the Finnish company just announced a multi-year partnership with T-Mobile. The $3.5 million deal will see Nokia furnish T-Mobile US with hardware, software and services to develop and deploy a nation-wide 5G network. Sprint customers can also look forward to the 5G future thanks to the merger with T-Mobile. The network includes both wide-coverage 600MHz bands and the high-capacity 28GHz...

OnePlus has announced that the two year old OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T will also be getting the Android P updates. The company revealed this information on their forum. OnePlus specified that they have been listening to user feedback and have taken this decision as a result. However, the company also mentioned that because they are now focusing their efforts on the Android P update for the 3/3T, they are skipping the Android 8.1 update for either devices (they currently run on Android 8.0). As for when the update will go live, we don't know. OnePlus said the Android P roll out...

@VenyaGeskin1 is perhaps better known for his speculative renders, but this time around he is mixing it up with photos of iPhone dummy models. Specifically the 6.5" and 6.1" versions of the 2018 Apple phones. The phone in white is the top iPhone model - iPhone 11 Plus - you can tell by the dual camera on its back rather than by the notch on its front - all new iPhones will have notches. The black device is the budget 6.1" iPhone - iPhone SE Plus - though this one might be getting delayed. It will use an LCD panel, which is reportedly causing trouble, the other new iPhones will go...

Earlier today Oppo teased the arrival of the F9 on the Twitter page of its Malaysian division. The phone was expected to have a Pro variant and today the version was confirmed on the official page of the company. The Oppo F9 Pro appeared in its first official image, revealing a triangle-shaped notch and VOOC charging. The Oppo F9 Pro will have dual cameras on the back in a horizontal layout. The color of the back panel will change from red through pink to violet, but it is yet to be revealed if it will be light-based or the pattern is fixed. The frontal appearance is also...

The Zenfone Max Pro (M1) has gone up on the official Asus web store in Spain and costs €250. Units will be available August 13. This is the model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB storage (ZB602KL). We snooped around other regional Asus web stores, but there's nothing yet. Maybe things will change in a couple of weeks, the phone doesn't show up in searches on the Spanish site either, which suggests that it was added very recently. The Zenfone Max Pro (M1) boasts a 5,000mAh battery that powers the efficient Snapdragon 636 chipset. On the software side is a pure Android (8.1 Oreo in this...

Samsung’s Galaxy A series may not offer the best value for money, but they are compelling midrange smartphones for people who don’t place too much emphasis on specs. The company has already launched the Galaxy A8, A8+, A6, and A6+ in the A series lineup this year. It appears there may be more A series models in development.

A new Samsung smartphone with the model number SM-A750FN has surfaced on the Geekbench website. This is the first time we have come across this device, and we don’t know what name it will carry if and when it is launched. However, based on the model number, we can guess this will be a new offering in the Galaxy A lineup and could be one of the rumored new Galaxy A models we reported about recently.

Similar specs as the Galaxy A8

As per the Geekbench result, the mysterious device has 4 GB of RAM, runs Android 8.0, and is powered by an Exynos 7885 SoC clocked at 1.6 GHz. The specs are similar to the current Galaxy A8/A8+, which gives the impression it will probably target the upper midrange segment. While it is too early to talk about availability, there is information pointing towards a European variant in development.

Nothing else is known about this new device currently. Often, it takes months for a smartphone to go on sale after appearing on a benchmarking website for the first time. Also, since all of this device information is derived from a benchmark listing which can be easily faked, it is wise to be skeptical about it until further leaks pop up online.

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Huawei has sent out invites for an IFA keynote to be held on August 31. Chances are that there will be no new phones unveiled, but new hardware instead - the Kirin 980 specifically. Not a huge surprise, last year the company unveiled the 970 at IFA. We won't see a new Honor device either as the sub-brand is holding its own event in Berlin. The keynote itself is just 45 minute long too. As for the Kirin 980 chipset, the unofficial info we have so far is that it will have an octa-core with a big and a little cluster. The rumor pointed to a "Cortex-A77" core, even though there's no...

The Samsung Galaxy J8 launched in India last month and it is already a hot seller. The company will reportedly also launch a version called Galaxy On8, which will be an online exclusive for Flipkart. Flipkart already sells the J8, so what gives? The catch seems to be the pricing - the J8 is INR 19,000 while the Galaxy On8 is set to cost INR 1,000 less than that. Samsung Galaxy J8 (should be identical to the Galaxy On8) The retailer has a history of of similar moves. It rebranded the J6 as the Galaxy On6 as its own exclusive with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage (vs. 3GB / 32GB...

LG announced a V30 Signature Edition back in December and now it is time for the V35 ThinQ to get the premium treatment. The next-gen Signature Edition has zirconium ceramic back cover that prevents scratches, sleek Black or White design and comes with Bang & Olufsen headphones in the package. LG Signature Edition in White and Black Beyond the premium exterior, the second-gen LG Signature Edition is basically the V35 ThinQ, packing a 6" FullVision OLED panel with 18:9 ratio and QHD+ resolution. The chipset is Snapdragon 845, while RAM is 6 GB and storage is 256 GB, expandable...

The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL appeared in 3D renders a month ago, and now the bigger device shined in live images, revealing more details about the design. The Pixel 3 XL will have a notch on the display and only one rear camera. Google is ditching the dual glass/brushed metal design on the back and is opting in for a glass panel from top to bottom. Google Pixel 3 XL live images The Google Pixel 2 XL arrived with OLED screen. Sadly we can't figure out if the panel here is the same, although it is very likely both the 3 XL and the regular 3 will finally go with the...

Samsung is all set to launch a new device in the Galaxy On series of smartphones in India this week. The Galaxy On8 will be the online-only variant of the Galaxy J8, allowing Samsung to sell it at a slightly lower price. According to Business Insider, the phone will be available exclusively from Flipkart for nearly ₹18,000, around ₹1,000 less than the Galaxy J8.

Galaxy On8 arriving in India this week

The Galaxy On8’s specs aren’t expected to be different from the Galaxy J8. It will have an octa-core Snapdragon chipset (the Snapdragon 450) along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage, same as the J8. Other Galaxy On8 specs should include a dual rear camera (16-megapixel and 5-megapixel sensors), a 16-megapixel front camera, a 3,500 mAh battery, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, and Android 8.0 Oreo. Of course, the 6-inch HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity display will come along for the ride as well.

The Galaxy On8 will follow the Galaxy On6, which was recently released in India as the online-only variant of the Galaxy J6. The Galaxy J6 and Galaxy J8 have sold more than two million units in India since they were launched, and the On6 and On8 should further help sales thanks to the lower prices.

Don’t Miss: Samsung Galaxy J8 hands-on impressions

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If recent reports are believed, Samsung is now willing to spend a bit more on hardware for its premium mid-range smartphones in a bid to gain more market share. The company hasn’t launched a smartphone with a triple-camera at the back so far. The Galaxy S10 has been rumored to be the first Samsung smartphone with this advanced camera system but if a new report is believed, Samsung might introduce its triple-camera system on the Galaxy A (2019) series first.

Galaxy A (2019) triple-cameras

One of the other rumors we have been hearing about the Galaxy S10 is that it may be the company’s first smartphone with an in-display fingerprint sensor. That may not be the case if a recent report out of South Korea is believed. It claimed that the in-display fingerprint sensor technology will actually debut with some models of the Galaxy A (2019) series.

The latest report claims that Samsung is looking to add features like the triple-camera and in-display fingerprint sensor to its Galaxy A lineup before they’re fully adopted for the flagship Galaxy S series. The global hardware development team that works on smartphones other than the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note flagships has reportedly started researching for adding these key features to the next Galaxy A series.

One of the features they’re said to be considering is the “super-wide angle” triple-camera system that’s expected to be present on the Galaxy S10 as well. While the Galaxy S10 may feature an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor, Samsung is reportedly considering a cheaper optical display-based fingerprint sensor for the Galaxy A (2019) series.

It’s not common for Samsung to work on major features like these at the same time for its high-end and mid-range lineups at the same time. However, Samsung is said to be renewing its focus on budget devices as sales come under pressure in the high-end segment.

Samsung has traditionally released the new Galaxy A handsets a couple of months before the new Galaxy S flagship. If the company doesn’t delay the Galaxy A (2019) launch next year then it’s quite possible that the Galaxy S10 may not be the first Samsung smartphone with an in-display fingerprint sensor or a triple-camera system.

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Sony is having an announcement at IFA in exactly one month, and some suggestions pointed to a new XZ-branded phone, probably an Xperia XZ3 with one camera. We might also see the Xperia XA3, which is in the pipelines too - it was recently approved by the Eurasian Commision. Latest leak comes from China, where the Xperia XA3 popped up on TENAA. The listing does not reveal much about the device with model number H4413, apart from having LTE and arriving with Android OS, which is far from surprising. Sony H4413 on TENAA If this indeed launches at the IFA press conferece, the new...

Oppo launched the Find X back in June and now is back to business as usual with its other devices. The F-series is selfie-driven, since the Oppo F5 arrived with 20 MP front snapper, while the Oppo F7 upgraded to 25 MP, embedded in the cutout on top. According to Oppo Malaysia, the successor will be called Oppo F9 and the phone is already being prepared for a launch in August with an even smaller notch. The image was posted by the Malaysian division on its official Twitter page and said it will have "waterdrop screen". The message, accompanying the photo also raised some deep...

Samsung is announcing the Galaxy Note9 on August 9, and the phone keeps appearing in leaks. The latest information about the phone slid in our inbox from Indonesia, where the smartphone was listed for pre-order, revealing its price. The phone will cost IDR13,5 million, which is about $940. This is the cost of the 128 GB variant, the 512 GB one will be IDR17,5 million or somewhere around $1,215. The Samsung Galaxy Note9 will arrive in three colors at the Asia-Pacific market - Black, Blue, and Copper, but the 512 GB variant will skip on the Brownish option. For everyone pre-ordering...