Mobile Devices - Page 70

Samsung revealed during its recent quarterly earnings call that it will be using AMD Radeon RDNA technology inside of its new devices in around two years time. It was only back in June 2019 that AMD and Samsung announced a multi-year strategic partnership that would see RDNA architecture to power its next-gen mobile devices.

AMD said in its own financial call that it has added $100 million to its revenue from Samsung in earnings statements, with Seeking Alpha reporting that an unknown Samsung rep talked about RDNA technology, saying: "we expect that the GPU technology will start being adopted in products that will be launched two years down the road roughly".

The move shows that AMD's mobile GPU technology should give Samsung the boost in mobile graphics performance that it needs, with the South Korean giant needing Radeon IP to give it the boost it needs to fight Qualcomm. Funny, that the Adreno GPU was born from ATI Technologies back in the day and acquired by Qualcomm -- and two years from now Samsung will use mobile RDNA tech from AMD in its devices.

Samsung itself has posted to the official Samsung Exynos Twitter account 'Power evolved. August 7, 2019. #NextGenPower' in a new tweet, teasing the next-gen Exynos SoC.

We should expect the new Exynos 9825 SoC to be unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked event in New York City on August 7, so expect some big things under the hood. Samsung will be using its own 7nm EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) over the 8nm used on the Exynos 9820 that went into the Galaxy S10 handsets.

Samsung will be launching the new Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ smartphones at the event, and will see it powered by either the in-house Exynos 9825 or Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 855 depending on the region and carrier.

ASUS has already sold out of the first batch of its new ROG Phone II gaming smartphone, selling its first run of 10,000 units during its first 73 seconds on sale in China.

JD.com received 2.5 million reservations for the ASUS ROG Phone II, so with just 10,000 sold it means ASUS has hundeds of thousands of potential customers just in China that want the phone, and couldn't get it. ASUS has even gone as far as apologizing for the lack of units, and that production staff are working around the clock to get more made.

ASUS promised that new ROG Phone II batches will drop on August 4, 7, and 12 -- at least in China. ASUS is using a large 6.6-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a native 2340x1080 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. Inside, we have the new cherry-picked Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ chip at up to 2.96GHz, 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and 512GB of storage.

Samsung will be removing the 3.5mm headphone jack from its upcoming Galaxy Note 10, the first flagship handset that Samsung is making the move with -- but it won't be completely screwing new Note 10 customers, though.

According to new reports we should expect Samsung to launch the new Galaxy Note 10 with a set of wireless Galaxy Buds earphones, a move the company did with the Galaxy S10 earlier this year. Samsung will be launching different accessories for the Note 10 includign the Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Watch, and a new wireless charger.

We can expect some of those to be bundled with the Galaxy Note 10 depending on the region, and in some regions the choice between two or three of them. Speaking of the new Galxay Buds, the above image is from the new Buds that have been listed on Samsung's own website that have the same gradient coloring that the purported Note 10 has.

ZTE has just unveiled its new Nubia Z20 smartphone that has a next-gen "flexible display" that doesn't quite make it a foldable smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X, but it's an interesting product nonetheless.

The new ZTE Nubia Z20 is one of the only smartphones in the world capable of recording 8K video, something the company will be marketing towards professional videographers and enthusiasts. There will be included editing tools, something that will be interesting to see -- on-device 8K video editing? Hmm.

The flexible display sees ZTE using a "flexi" panel that it, and the protective glass, will be curved. This means there will be less of a bezel around the display according to ZTE, which will be interesting to see. We should expect Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 or new Snapdragon 855+ inside of the phone, a bunch of RAM and high amounts of storage to match the flexible display tech and 8K video recording abilities.

Tik Tok, the Android and iOS app that's for sharing short video clips that range in the forms of comedy, talent and just things you most likely wouldn't expect happen. Tik Tok's parent company is taking that all to a new level with their soon to be released smartphone.

The parent company of Tik Tok is ByteDance, and they have just confirmed through a spokesperson that a smartphone had been part of device maker Smartisan Technology's development plans. Here is what the spokesperson had to say: "The product was a continuation of earlier Smartisan plans, aiming to satisfy the needs of the old Smartisan user base."

According to a news outlet called Caijing, this smartphone has been in development for seven months now, and that Wu Dezhou, a former executive at Smartisan was leading the course. It probably most likely best to assume that we won't see this phone outside of China, judging by the companies that are developing it. What we can notice though is that its awesome to see ByteDance branch out into different markets.

The pieces of Apple's next-gen iPhone are quickly coming together, where in the last few months we've gone from Apple securing a multi-year deal on 5G with Qualcomm, to Apple acquiring Intel's modem division for $1 billion.

In early April it was rumored that Apple wouldn't have a 5G-capable iPhone until 2021, largely because of the Qualcomm issues (at the time) as well as the problems Intel was having with its modem and in particular, its in-development 5G modem. Fast forward to last week and rumors swirled rather quick that Apple was in "advanced talks" to acquire Intel's modem division.

Then just 3 days ago Apple confirmed it had acquired Intel's modem division in a deal worth $1 billion, a move that will see Apple getting 5G modems into its new 2020 range of iPhones faster. The new iPhone is also expected to have a super-snappy 120Hz refresh rate, bringing it up to the levels of the high-end gaming phones in the Razer Phone 2 and new ASUS ROG Phone II.

Samsung barely had its Galaxy Fold smartphone on the market with it getting into the hands of a select few reviewers and influencers, before the company pulled it and delayed the launch... and now its first fordable smartphone will launch in September.

Samsung says in its press release: "Samsung is conducting final product tests to make Galaxy Fold available to consumers starting from September in select markets. Availability details will be shared as we get closer to launch". We should expect more details on what they've changed during the announcement, but this is what Samsung has said so far regarding tweaks to the Galaxy Fold:

Samsung will unveil its new Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ smartphones in around two weeks time, with new rumors suggesting Samsung's new handset will have the best specs on the market.

The latest news on the Note 10 is that it will pack Qualcomm's just-announced Snapdragon 855+ processor which powers the new insane ASUS ROG Phone II gaming smartphone. Notorious mobile leaker Evan Blass has detailed the specs of the Galaxy Note 10 as well as the Galaxy Note 10+ variant.

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+

It looks like Apple is ready to splash some cash around with The Wall Street Journal reporting that the iPhone maker is close to a deal to buy Intel's smartphone modem division for $1 billion.

Intel backed out of the 5G modem business in April, right after Apple settled its battle with Qualcomm over modems. Then Intel CEO Bob Swan confirmed Intel had left the modem business because of the Apple settlement, and that without Apple as a customer of its modems the company "just didn't see a path forward" with its modem business.

It all started because Intel reportedly couldn't deliver a 5G modem for Apple's new 2020 iPhone in time so it forced Apple into settling its dispute with Qualcomm to get 5G-capable modems in 2020. Now the WSJ is reporting that Apple will acquire Intel's modem division, which will include its patents, staff, and more for $1 billion and that the deal will be announced next week.

The new ASUS ROG Phone II gaming smartphone has a super-fast 120Hz display but it looks like the 2020 iPhone will have a "switchable" 60Hz/120Hz display. Apple will be sourcing 120Hz panels from either (or both) Samsung and LG, with discussions happening now.

We should expect Apple's new iPhone to possibly roll out with 5G connectivity, with fresh news popping off this morning that Apple was in "advanced" discussions to buy Intel's modem division. The move to a 120Hz panel isn't completely new for Apple as both of the 2017 and 2018 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models feature a 120Hz display.

Apple calls the 120Hz screen technology ProMotion Display, which is a switchable refresh rate display that drops to just 24Hz with a static image on screen, and 48Hz when videos are playing. This is the big saver on battery life as it means the screen isn't constantly refreshing at 120Hz which would be a drain on battery life.

ASUS has just unleashed its next-gen ROG Phone II gaming smartphone, so now we have official specifications and details on the new top of the line gaming phone.

Inside, the new ASUS ROG Phone II has Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 855+ chipset which is a cherry-picked SoC for the next wave of gaming smartphones. ASUS has used a large 6.6-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a native 2340x1080 resolution and super-slick 120Hz refresh rate.

ASUS is even using a 240Hz touch sampling rate for the best in touch response with a touch latency of just 49ms, something that you should see the results of instantly when it's in your hands. Underneath, ASUS is supporting 10-bit HDR, the ROG Phone II packs a display with 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 108% of the DCI-P3 color space, and is protected by Gorilla Glass 6.

Samsung had lots of hype around its Galaxy Fold with samples sent out to specific press and influencers, but in the end it failed as it was pulled from the market -- along with foldable phone competitor Huawei and its Mate X. They both flew too close to the sun.

Now rumors are swirling about the next-gen Galaxy Fold 2 and that Samsung is opting for a foldable clamshell-style design with a foldable 6.7-inch display. The new Galaxy Fold 2 will have a much smaller 1-inch screen on the front for basic notifications, including the date and time, making it a cheaper phone to produce than the original Galaxy Fold.

The foldable clamshell-style Galaxy Fold 2 rumors is giving me some mad throwbacks to the game-changing RAZR phone from Motorola back in the day. The original RAZR had a physical keyboard at the bottom with a clamshell design that saw the screen at the top. Samsung is definitely looking like it's working on something similar with the Galaxy Fold 2 if these new rumors are true.

Qualcomm has just announced its new Snapdragon 855 Plus, a mid-year refresh of its now previous flagship Snapdragon 855. The new Snapdragon 855 Plus is virtually identical to its predecessor, except the new chip is overclocked, and is further optimized for gaming, VR, AI, and 5G.

The company has overclocked the Adreno 640 GPU by 15% which will see the next-gen gaming phones from the likes of ASUS and Razer, rolling out with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus and faster-than-ever mobile gaming performance. Qualcomm is promising its new Snapdragon 8 55 Plus will deliver "best-in-class cellular performance, superior coverage and all-day battery life in premium 5G devices".

There is no on-board 5G modem on the Snapdragon 855 Plus, so there is the SoC with a 4G LTE chip and the separate 5G chip for now until we get to the Snapdragon 865 which should be announced later this year. We should expect to see Qualcomm's new flagship Snapdragon 855 Plus inside of the next-gen Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL as well as Samsung's new Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ smartphones due out in the coming months.

Qualcomm announced its new Snapdragon 855 Plus chip which is focused on next-gen gaming devices, with ASUS the first company out of the gate announcing its new Snapdragon 855 Plus-powered ROG Phone II handset.

ASUS hasn't shared any details on its new ROG Phone II gaming smartphone ot her than it being powered by the new Snapdragon 855 Plus from Qualcomm. If we look at the first-gen ROG Phone it was made with keeping it cool in mind with its heat dissipation through a copper heat sink and cooling fan, the first smartphone in the world with a cooling fan.

The original ASUS ROG Phone used speed-binned Snapdragon 845 that was optimized for heavy gaming workloads, so when mixed with the improved cooling and fan it was a great gaming smartphone. The center of the gaming smartphone world are high refresh rate displays of which the original ROG Phone II had a 90Hz panel, you need more GPU juice to hit 90FPS in games on a smartphone.

Samsung will be unveiling its new Galaxy Note 10 smartphone next month, which will be found in two variants: the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ handsets. We should expect internal storage to range right up to a huge 1TB.

The new reports on the Galaxy Note 10 tease that it will pack a huge 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage, so if you throw in 5G connectivity the next-gen Note 10 5G will have it all: 1TB storage, 12GB of RAM and 5G connectivity. The normal non-5G models of the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ versions will offer 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage models with 4G LTE connectivity, the 5G model should most likely ship with the largest battery, too.

Samsung is reportedly not including a microSD card slot on any of the Note 10 and Note 10+ models, a disappointment considering the previous-gen Note handsets had a microSD card slot and it was a big deal being able to expand the storage by such a large percentage. Although, I can see Samsung pushing the new Note 10 handsets (especially with the 5G model) to use the cloud more thanks to their surely fastest-phone-ever speed and already large storage.

Some new information has come out of some security researchers, according to the researchers a new form of malware called 'Agent Smith' has hijacked over 25 million Android units.

The security firm called Check Point has recently released a new press release that details the malware, saying that once the malware is installed it begins to look for common apps and replace them with malicious versions of them. The apps that are infected by Agent Smith begin to display crooked ads designed for financial manipulation and gain.

According to Check Point's Head of Mobile Threat Detection Research, Jonathan Shimonovich, "The malware attacks user-installed applications silently, making it challenging for common Android users to combat such threats on their own." At the moment, most of the infected devices are located in India and surrounding counters, as the malware is distributed through 9Apps which as third-party app store that is popular within those countries.

Google is not far away from the official unveiling and release of its new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones which will come with the latest Android Q out of the box, and it seems the larger of the two phones will not have a gigantic bezel, oh and a triple-camera rig to boot.

OnLeaks and PirceBaba have some beautiful Pixel 4 XL renders that are based on the latest leaks from OnLeaks, with the purported Pixel 4 XL rocking a 6.25-inch display with a bump at the top of the display replacing the huge (but not so bad after you've used it) notch on the Pixel 3 XL. With these leaks and renders, the new Pixel 4 XL should be a little big bigger than the current Pixel 3 XL.

We look to still have a bottom-firing speaker on the Pixel 4 XL, something I've come to enjoy on my Pixel 3 XL while the camera rig on the Pixel 4 XL gets a huge upgrade. Google already has some of the best camera software in smartphones today mixed with an alright sensor on the Pixel 3 XL, but the new Pixel 4 XL rocks a triple-camera array which might possibly include a 16-megapixel telephoto lens and a Time of Flight (ToF) sensor.

Samsung is not far away from its huge reveal of the Galaxy Note 10 smartphone, with what appears to be our first real look at the upcoming phone thanks to a leak from TechTalkTV on YouTube.

The new images show that we are to expect multiple SKUs in the Galaxy Note 10 family with the video showing us the higher-end Galaxy Note 10+ and the first thing you'll notice is the camera hole has been moved from the right-hand corner, to the center of the display.

The previous rumors of Time of Flight and anti-flash features on the rear-camera are confirmed if this leaked image of the Note 10+ is real, but there aren't any clear shots of the bottom so we don't know if Samsung has kept, or removed the 3.5mm headphone jack. I'm hoping that for a beast of a phone the new Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ keep their 3.5mm headphone jack, I'd be pretty disappointed if we lost it.

President Trump has eased the pressure on Huawei by allowing the Chinese company to sell its hardware, and allow US-based companies to buy Huawei hardware and products. The US recently blacklisted Huawei from selling its hardware in the US, which could've caused up to $30 billion in lost sales over the next two years.

With the ban in place, companies couldn't sell US technology to Huawei as the Trump administration said the Chinese company "engaged in activities that are contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interest". This extended into serious concerns over Huawei-made 5G hardware, but it seems Trump and his 4D chess is at play here with a reversal during the G20 in Japan where President Trump said: "US companies can sell their equipment to Huawei" as long as the transactions don't have a "great, national emergency problem".

The move to un-ban US companies from telling tech to Huawei comes after the 6-week ban was in place, and after President Trump talked with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 in Japan. The Trump administration is still in talks about on-going trade deals between the US and China, with Huawei commenting on Twitter: "U-turn? Donald Trump suggests he would allow #Huawei to once again purchase U.S. technology!"