Mobile Devices - Page 77

Samsung isn't far away from launching their flagship Galaxy S9 smartphone, and as we pass the release we're going to hear more and more about their upcoming Galaxy Note 9, of which we're now seeing awesome concept designs of.

YouTuber 'Concept Creator' has crafted a beautiful concept design of the Galaxy Note 9, with an all-metal-and-glass design with some beautiful curves. There's a vertically-aligned dual camera on the back, USB Type-C connectivity, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and of course the S-Pen stylus.

This Galaxy Note 9 concept rocks an in-display fingerprint sensor, something I'm hoping Samsung can get working and debut with the Note 9 later this year. Inside, I'm expecting to see Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 845 or hopefully the purported Snapdragon 850 with a 5G modem to drive 5G connectivity in early-2019.

Qualcomm is close to the full push of its next-gen 5G mobile connectivity, and the launch of their next-gen Snapdragon 845 processor, a new SoC the company detailed during their Snapdragon Technology Summit in Hawaii in December.

PCMag is now pondering what Qualcomm's successor to the Snapdragon 845 will be, with a purported Snapdragon 850 "probably coming this year, not next year, and that it'll probably appear first in Qualcomm's Windows always-connected PCs". PCMag's Sascha Segan is making a "bold guess" that the '50' in Snapdragon 850 will be something to do with Qualcomm's super-fast X50 modem, the first consumer 5G modem in the world.

Qualcomm recently teamed with Sprint to prepare US smartphone customers for 5G in the first half of 2019, which means we'll need to see X50-powered smartphones in the second half of 2018 or very early 2019 at the latest. Qualcomm is utterly leading the 5G race here, and I don't see this slowing down into the new year.

Samsung hasn't even confirmed their new Galaxy S9 smartphone and the rumors on the next-gen Galaxy S10 are already appearing, with something that should really steal the show: 5G connectivity.

Inside, we should expect Samsung's new-new-flagship will rock a high-performance SoC with a built-in Neural Processing Unit, or NPU. Samsung will also reportedly use LPDDR5, 5G connectivity, UFS 3.0 storage, 3D + AI tech, and over 93% of the front of the Galaxy S10 will be display goodness.

Samsung would also use a next generation OLED display, something that should ensure the Galaxy S10 has the best smartphone display, ever. We should expect to hear and see more on the Galaxy S10 later this year, with a launch in Q1 2019 at this rate.

Samsung is gearing up for the massive reveal of its next-gen Galaxy S9 flagship smartphone, where we should see a slightly tweaked design with a huge upgrade to the camera.

The latest peek at the Galaxy S9 is courtesy of notorious leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks on Twitter) where he teased some new renders of both the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ and what we should expect from Samsung's new flagship.

Samsung will continue the overall styling of the Galaxy S8 with the new Galaxy S9, where we can see what will be a beautiful edge-to-edge Super AMOLED display. The slightly larger Galaxy S9+ will rock a new vertical dual camera on the back, which I really like the look of.

Razer has just announced a new limited edition version of their first gamer-focused smartphone, something that celebrates The Year of the Dog on the Chinese calendar.

The new 2018 Gold Edition Razer Phone is a limited edition version of the handset, and arrives in a beautiful red-sleeved box with gold foiling and even a certificate of ownership. There's the iconic triple-headed snake on the back of the phone, but it rocks an awesome gold style.

Razer says that the limited edition 2018 Gold Edition Razer Phone will be available at three Hong Kong-based telcos, the RazerStore Hong Kong, and RazerStore US while supplies last, and I'm sure that won't be long. There will only be 1688 of these new Gold Edition phones, so they will be gone in as fast as that 120Hz display can refresh.

CES 2018 - Facebook wants to be in your house with microphones and cameras in more ways than one, and instead of just being installed on your smartphone or tablet, the social networking giant is working on a new voice-enabled video chat product called Portal.

Facebook's purported Portal video device would compete against the likes of Amazon Echo and Google Home, but Facebook will be aiming Portal at family and friends that want to stay in touch, always. Facebook will reportedly launch Portal in May 2018, which should see the device unveiled at their annual F8 developer conference.

Portal would sport a screen that can be used to video chat Facebook friends, and it'll double as a streaming music/video device as well. Facebook will use its partnerships with app makers like Spotify and Netflix, versus Amazon using their in-house ecosystem that includes Prime Video and Music.

CES 2018 - Qualcomm has just announced their new QCC5100 Low Power Bluetooth SoC and while it might not sound like much, the company is promising it increase Bluetooth power consumption by up to 65%.

This means that any device powered by the QCC5100 could provide audio playback times of many days, and not just many hours. Senior VP and GM of Qualcomm's Voice & Music business unit, Anthony Murray, explained that the new QCC5100 chip transmits much more power which will reduce the amount of times headphones cut in and out when you're moving through a busy place or on transportation.

Qualcomm's new QCC5110 also supports Bluetooth 5, something that was only announced last year, and so far only found idn flagship smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Apple iPhone X.

CES 2018 - Samsung might change up the game with the Galaxy S9 and most of that will be happening inside of the smartphone, which should pack the latest from Qualcomm and their Snapdragon 845 and quite possibly a huge change in the camera.

We all know how important the camera is to most people who buy smartphones these days, with Samsung rumored to have a "reimagined" camera inside of the Galaxy S9. The latest rumor is coming from a new trademark placed by Samsung in Korea right before the holidays, which reads "The Camera. Reimagined".

The new rumor was discovered by Galaxy Club and references what should be marketing for the Galaxy S9 when it arrives next year, with the last known rumor for the Galaxy S9+ camera being a dual-snapper but that's it.

When Razer launched their gamer-focused Razer Phone late last year, we found out that it was powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, had 8GB of RAM, and even Dolby Atmos certified speakers.

Razer Phone stood out from the competition by being the world's first 120Hz smartphone, but until now, there wasn't much support in the games department that supported 120Hz on the Razer Phone.

The company has tackled this issue by deploying a list of games that have been optimized to run at 120Hz. This is a list of just some of the games that are now 120Hz optimized, with a full list available on the Razer website.

Mophie has just unveiled what a lot of travelling business and workstation users will love: their new powerstation AC external battery that is capable of charging laptops.

As you can see in the video above, Mophie's new powerstation AC has up to 100W of AC power output, pumping over 15 hours of battery life into your smart devices. There's AC power output and USB-C PD fast-charging, which is something you'll need with its huge 22,000mWh of battery power.

You can charge up specific laptops like Apple's new MacBook and MacBook Pros with the USB-C port, as they only draw 30W. Larger laptops that draw up to 90W will drain the Mophie powerstation AC in less than an hour, so you won't be able to fully charge a higher-end USB-C laptop without draining the powerstation AC completely.

CES 2018 - Samsung has kicked off CES 2018 a little earlier this year with a quick reveal of their next-gen mobile processor, Exynos 8910, which will be a direct competitor to Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 845 that the company detailed last month in Hawaii.

Samsung's new Exynos 9810 processor packs 8 CPU cores that are divided into two CPU clusters, with the first being 4 high-performance CPU cores clocked at 2.9GHz, while the other 4 cores are energy-efficient CPU cores. Samsung says it has made considerable improvements to the CPU architecture, improving cache memory as well.

The company is teasing a huge 2x increase in single-core perofrmance, while there's an even bigger 40% performance jump for multi-core performance compared to its predecessor. Samsung is also tapping neural networks to improve deep learning algorithms, meaning Exynos 9810-powered devices will be even better at recognizing people and specific elements in photos... perfect for the CIA.

If there's something I want to see in the next few years, it would be proper next-gen rollable displays, something that Samsung has been experimenting with for years.

The latest comes from Let's Go Digital, which after a patent filed in mid-June 2017, shows a new device that looks like a scroll, which packs a rollable display. Samsung's purported device would see you pull an OLED display out of a scroll-like device, rocking a fingerprint sensor on the side.

Something like this would change the tablet world as we know it, as these device would eventually receive thinner and better displays as technology progresses. The biggest hurdle would be batteries, and how thick this rollable 'tablet' would be in your pocket.

We all know Samsung will be launching a few new flagship smartphones in 2018 with the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ both appearing in the next few months.

Later in the year Samsung will launch their new Galaxy Note 9 which will sell like hotcakes, as usual, but the South Korean giant has lofty sales goals for 2018 according to industry sources. Here's what Samsung is aiming for:

This isn't bad considering Apple should sell around 200 million iPhones this year, and Huawei with 150 million sales a year.

We've had a few sneak peaks at Samsung's next-gen flagship smartphone over the last few weeks, but this new leaked photo of the Galaxy S9 sitting next to the Galaxy S9+ is our best look yet.

The latest leak is from China (of course) with a post on social networking site Weibo, with an Indian blog (hub.91) posting the story. As we can see from the shot, the Galaxy S9 is on the left with a repositioned rear fingerprint sensor and dual LED flash.

The Galaxy S9+ on the right has a repositioned dual-camera rig (instead of them being side-by-side), with both handsets featuring a gorgeous glass back.

Apple has been experiencing massive global backlash over its deliberate slowing down of older iPhones, with their $29 battery replacement program kicking off immediately instead of early 2018.

Apple confirmed the news with TechCrunch, where they said: "We expected to need more time to be ready, but we are happy to offer our customers the lower pricing right away. Initial supplies of some replacement batteries may be limited".

The company normally charges $79 to replace out-of-warranty iPhone batteries, but the company has reduced this cost by $50 down to $29 after massive controversy of lowering iPhone performance in the excuse of stopping unexpected shutdowns.

Qualcomm blew me away with their announcement of their next-gen Snapdragon 845 processor, which is like a technology beast wrapped up in a beautiful 10nm FinFET chip.

But it looks like we can expect the new Snapdragon 845 processor to power some of the best 2018 flagship smartphones, including Samsung's much-touted Galaxy S9/S9+, LG's next-gen G7/G7+ smartphones (and their V40 handset), HTC's upcoming U12/U12+, the Google Pixel 3 (XL, too), and even Samsung's next-gen Galaxy Note 9 smartphone.

The new tease is coming from a leaked image from China, which shows what smartphone will be powered by the Snapdragon 845. It could be fake, but we know the Snapdragon 845 is real - and we also know most of these smartphone are coming out next year. Now I want all of them, gosh.

Apple has found itself in hot water after being busted slowing down previous-gen iPhones in the grand gesture of helping the batteries inside of their smartphones, but now main competitors in Samsung and LG are trolling Apple.

First, Samsung came out and said: "We ensure extended battery life of Samsung mobile devices through multi-layer safety measures, which include software algorithms that govern the battery charging current and charging duration. We do not reduce CPU performance through software updates over the lifecycles of the phone".

Now remember, Samsung isn't innocent when it comes to battery-related drama as they went through explosive times in 2016 with a global recall of their flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. I personally purchased one and regrettable returned it after Note 7s around the world were exploding.

One of the biggest companies in the world was busted intentionally slowing down their products, and in retaliation to this news, they've come out with a pathetic apology. That company is Apple, and that product is a little known smartphone; iPhone.

Apple has officially apologized to its customers, explaining how iPhone batteries age, and that the company has a plan to workaround unexpected device shutdowns, and how it will move from here on out. The company explained: "We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize".

Apple continued: "There's been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we're making. First and foremost, we have never-and would never-do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades".

HTC could steal the smartphone show next year with their next-gen U12 handset, something that should boast some powerful internals but a beautiful 4K display.

According to a new report from DigiTimes, HTC is going to be releasing less smartphones next year, so that they can stop losing money quarter after quarter. HTC is expected to also unveil a cutdown variant of their U11+ smartphone, but we don't know what else to expect other than the cut-down U11+ and the flagship U12.

Speaking of the HTC U12, we should expect the company to tap Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 845 processor, joined by a 4K display and even a beautiful 18:9 aspect ratio panel that would see the display rock a resolution of 4320 x 2160, versus 3840 x 2160.

CES 2018 is right around the corner and while the headlines are dominated by Samsung to reveal their new Galaxy S9 smartphone in early 2018, Sony are reportedly preparing a new flagship handset for the show.

Sony's rumored next-gen Xperia flagship smartphone is reportedly going by the model number 'H8266' and will rock a 5.48-inch 1080p display, Qualcomm's fresh Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB of RAM and a large 128GB of built-in storage.

Inside, the rumored next-gen Xperia smartphone will have a 3210mAh battery that should provide all-day battery life if Sony returns to its roots and provides best-in-class battery optimization (something that I used to love about Sony's smartphones, but they've been lacking the last few generations).