Tech News

It's hard to believe that we're halfway through 2018 already! So let's press 'pause' for a second and look back at the direction phone development took this year. We go to extraordinary lengths here at GSMArena to ensure that the data within our Phone Specifications pages are accurate and up-to-date. We've selected the most popular 140 phones to avoid outliers messing with the averages and trawled through this wealth of data we've accumulated to...

Remember Light's ludicrous L16 camera with 16 lenses on the back? Well, that tech is reportedly going to be used in a phone that will launch later this year. Thanks to Foxconn's big investment in the small firm, the tech is going in a smartphone with nine cameras. According to the Washington Post, the company already has a working prototype with anything between five and nine lenses that function together to deliver DSLR-like performance in low-light...

It's no secret that Sony's Mobile division has been going through a rough patch, for quite some time now. After the fairly recent internal CEO shuffle, it seems that active steps have finally been taken to evaluate the state of the mobile branch, in hopes of bringing it up to speed with the Japanese giant's successful imaging and gaming divisions. Word of an ongoing internal investigation into the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa markets first came...

Apple is said to be working on a new version of its navigation app, Maps. The company has started from scratch and it uses not only the data gathered from its own fleet of cars, but also from iPhone users. But of course, Apple is doing so while respecting user privacy. The new Maps will first be introduced in San Francisco and the Bay Area with the next version of IOS 12 beta. It should cover Northern California towards the end of 2018. Since it...

Even old sleuths like Sherlock Holmes know that a fingerprint can identify a person. Today, fingerprints are read multiple times a day - it's routine - thanks to the readers on modern smartphones. But is that the best way for a device to know that it's being handled by its rightful owner? What about 3D face scanning? "Wanted" posters have been used for even longer than fingerprints and they work because your face is unique. Well, most of the time,...

T-Mobile has started pushing out a new update to LG G6 units on its network. Arriving as software version H87220a, the update brings along Android 8.0 Oreo. As per the official change-log, several other bug fixes and software improvements are also included. So with this, all Big Four carriers - including AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon - have rolled out the update to LG G6 units. Given the T-Mobile update - which weighs in at around 1.7GB - has just...

We've reached the quarter finals of our Smartphone World Cup after some high-profile departures in the round of 16. You have until Friday to support your favorites and you can vote once a day in each match. Nokia 7 plus vs. Samsung Galaxy S9+ These two come from different walks of life - the Galaxy S9+ is a flagship representing the best that Samsung has to offer. Its screen, camera and chipset are among the best and there's no shortage of perks...

As we approach Motorola's August 2 Chicago event, device leaks have naturally been pouring in. As per the rumor mill, we have the proper Moto Z3 flagship to look forward to at the venue, as well as a new Motorola One family of handsets. Hot on the heels of a major render leak, for the Moto One and One Power, today brings a couple of new blurry photos of a mysterious new Moto smartphone. Leaked photos It clearly features a glass sandwich design,...

Samsung launched the new Galaxy J3 and Galaxy J7 in the US a few weeks back. At the time of the announcement, the company said these devices would be available for purchase in early July through carriers and retail partners. However, the new budget smartphones seem to be hitting the market a little earlier than announced. The Galaxy J3 and J7 went on sale as the Galaxy J3 Achieve and Galaxy J7 Refine on Sprint and Boost networks just a couple of...

The so-called "Andromeda" project has been popping up in the news since last year but information is rather scarce. Now, a leaked email along with some new APIs found in Windows 10's latest preview gives us a bit more to speculate about. The Andromeda Surface Phone isn't going to be just a "phone." It's going to be a "pocketable device" following the steps of Microsoft's successful Surface line of laptops with flexible hinges. It aims to be in a...

The latest update for Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ and Galaxy Note8 included a cool new feature that remain largely unnoticed. The functionality in question allows you to set a video as your lock screen wallpaper. Here's the feature in action on a Galaxy Note8: The functionality - which debuted on the Galaxy S9 series - arrived on the S8 series and Note8 with the update that also brought along the June security patch to these devices. To access video lock...

Carrier-specific version of headsets are a pretty common occurrence these days. Besides a new confusing branding, these devices typically come with minor tweaks, compared to the generic model. The new Samsung Galaxy J3 V 3rd Gen - a new Verizon exclusive, however, offers quite a significant improvement over the regular Galaxy J3 (2018). The Exynos 7570 Quad, Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 chipset of the original, has been swapped for an octa-core...

So far, HMD has confirmed multiple times that all its Nokia branded smartphones will get the Android P update. In fact, the company recently launched a Beta program in China for the owners of Nokia 6.1, Nokia 7, Nokia 7 plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco. However, there has been no information on the availability of the update. Well, that changes now, as users are being told the roll out will begin anytime after July. As you can see, the information comes...

Oneplus has released a new teaser video through its official Twitter handle. It's a small, 15 seconds video that doesn't directly reveal the product being teased. But it's easy to guess, given the extensive focus on red color in the video along with C61422 (which is hex color code for red) and the hashtag #Oneplus 6 in the tweet. Now initiating: C61422. Do you wish to continue? https://t.co/QTDxIcWP5N #OnePlus6 pic.twitter.com/mTyjqk5FZZ— OnePlus...

Xiaomi's Android One smartphone - Mi A1 - is getting a new update. Weighing in at around 1.2GB, it's a major update that bumps the Android version of the device to 8.1 Oreo. Aside from what the 8.1 update brings (like Pixel 2 launcher look as well as dark and light themes), the update also includes Android security fixes for the month of June. The official change-log isn't yet available, but here's an unofficial one from someone who received the...

The BlackBerry Key2 is the second member of a rather unique family of smartphones with actual physical keyboards - a rare sight in this day and age. The Key2 was announced at the beginning of this month in New York, and starting today you can pre-order one if you're in the US. Both Amazon and Best Buy have listed it, for the same price: $649.99 unlocked. You can pick between silver and black color versions. The handset will be released on July 13....

We already expected the LG V20 to at some point be graced with an update to Android 8.0 Oreo, because T-Mobile promised to bring this version of the OS to its version of the phone back in March. Up until now, however, we had no rough timeline to speak of for the new software's release. Over in Canada, though, Fido has updated its own official update schedule page to give us a better idea about when the V20 should taste Oreo in North America. According...

Google acquired Waze five years ago but the majority of features weren't implemented into Google Maps like interactions between drivers, incident reporting, traffic cams, speed cams, police patrols, etc. Today, however, Google Maps is introducing road status to a limited number of users. Screenshot from Google Maps For now, Google Maps reports only road work but incident reporting such as crashes are bound to be implemented shortly after. The app...

In our mind, the most impressive aspect of the NEX S is that it even exists in the first place. In one impressive swoop, vivo managed to take what was initially showcased as a tech concept and actually polish and push it to an end-user release. Frankly, a move that took most of the industry by surprise definitely raised the collective bar, in more ways than one. As such, the vivo NEX S is an important and monumental device. It will go down as a...

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and fitness band Under Armour have teamed up to launch their own pair of wireless headphones. Called the US Sport Wireless — Project Rock Edition, with Project Rock being Johnson's brand of apparel. The Sport Wireless are a pair of Bluetooth headphones. They are designed for use during workouts and especially in the gym. They feature a rugged design that can take a few falls and also happens to be IPX4 certified for some...

Recent reports pointed at Huawei ordering 6.9-inch Samsung Super AMOLED panels for its October release of the Mate 20 but the latest leak coming from Honor has something more to add to the story. The photo shows an order of 6.9-inch displays - probably AMOLED judging by the model number - intended for an Honor device code-named "Ravel". As you might remember, Honor released a bigger version of its Honor 8 smartphone called Honor Note 8 with an AMOLED...

It's been a busy week for Qualcomm. First, the entry-level Snapdragon 632, 439 and 429 chipsets see daylight then a Snapdragon 2500 for kids' smart wearables gets announced and now the so-called QCC3026 Bluetooth audio SoC. The chip is aimed at entry-level to mid-tier Bluetooth headsets and the company claims that he TrueWireless Stereo protocols that the QCC3026 brings along will reduce power consumption by up to 50% compared to regular headsets....

Honor will hold a sale for the Nebula Purple and Dream Purple color variants of its Play and 9i smartphones on July 2. The Nebula Purple Honor Play will cost CNY 1,999 (€260) for a 4+64GB version and CNY 2,399 (€310) for the 6+64GB one. The Honor 9i starts at CNY 1,399 (€180) for a 4+64GB phone and CNY 1,699 (€220) for a 4+128GB variant. Honor Play and Honor 9i in Purple Both devices were announced in the beginning of July with Huawei's GPU Turbo...

Fossil is among the few players to actually make gains in the smartwatch market with sales doubling last year and in early 2018 reaching 14% of the total smartwatch market revenue. Recently, 7 new smartwatches surfaced on FCC's website and now a couple of other devices were certified. Fossil DWA6 smartwatch Judging by the model numbers, all those seven smartwatches belong to the same family - DW7F1, DW7M1, DW7E1, DW7E2, DW7S1, DW7B1, DW7T1 but they...

After AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, now T-Mobile has also started rolling out the Oreo update to Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge units on its network. The update arrives as version G930TUVU4CRF1, and weighs in at around 1.7GB. In addition to the usual Oreo goodies, the update brings along some performance improvements, feature enhancements, and minor bug fixes. It also includes support for Universal Profile 1.0 Compatibility (which allows files up to...

Samsung DeX will soon be getting dual monitor support, possibly when the Galaxy Tab S4 is released, according to our sources. We can confirm that the Galaxy Tab S4 will indeed support DeX, and Samsung will be adding the option to use the tablet display as the second monitor when it’s connected to DeX. The same will work with phones as well. Dual monitor mode coming to Samsung DeX Naturally, a tablet...

After AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, now T-Mobile has also started rolling out the Oreo update to Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge units on its network. The update arrives as version G930TUVU4CRF1, and weighs in at around 1.7GB. In addition to the usual Oreo goodies, the update brings along some performance improvements, feature enhancements, and minor bug fixes. It also includes support for Universal Profile 1.0 Compatibility (which allows files up to...

At its Find X event, where Oppo revealed the price and availability of the Find X and its Lamborghini Edition, Oppo also announced the O-Free wireless headset. The two truly wireless earphones are said to be very compact and come in Black with either Copper Blue and Bordeaux Red accent color. The O-Free Wireless Bluetooth headset supports TrueWireless Stereo which synchronizes the left and right earphone perfectly with the phone's streaming. The...

While the Galaxy J6 is all about offering an immersive viewing experience, the Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6+ are about giving consumers the right mix of features taken from both the budget and mid-range Galaxy J and Galaxy A lineups. Or, well, the right price tag would be more accurate, as the new A6 and A6+ fill the gap between Samsung’s premium mid-range offerings (the A8 and A8+) and the J series devices. The Galaxy A6+ is clearly the more interesting...