Mobile Devices - Page 80

Samsung had quite a year last year with the battery-related issues surrounding the Galaxy Note 7, all of which seem to be gone on the new Galaxy Note 8, seem to be somewhat present on the new iPhone 8 Plus.

Some users are experiencing the side of the iPhone 8 Plus display separated from the phone itself, something that normally requires an incredible amount of force to do manually. Both the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus were built using water-resistant adhesive that is hard enough to remove, let alone arrive like that out of the box.

Chinese site ThePaper.cn is reporting that an iPhone owner received their new iPhone 8 Plus on October 5, noticing that the screen has been popped open. Inside, there was no sign of an explosion at all, but an Apple spokesperson has chimed in saying that the company isn't commenting on the matter but are looking into it.

Google might have unveiled their next-gen Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones with the usual bang, but the biggest surprise might just be their new Google Pixel Buds.

Pixel Buds are Google's new Bluetooth neckbuds that feature a circular like design that loops into your ear, with up to 5 hours of listening time. Google even offers you a charging case, something that will provide Pixel Buds with 24 hours of charge... enough for a few recharge sessions.

Google's new Pixel Buds have Google Translate built-in, with support for over 40 languages in real-time translation during your conversations. The most unfortunate part of Pixel Buds is that Google has locked down the real-time translation to Pixel smartphones, but as neckbuds they'll work with any Bluetooth-enabled device.

Microsoft will have the fastest console in the world when it launches its new Xbox One X next month, but just how many consoles will Microsoft ship in 2018?

According to Lewis Ward, IDC Research Director for Gaming and VR/AR: "No, the XB1X won't be enough for Microsoft to catch up. It should give PlayStation 4 Pro a run for its money in 2018 in the United States and the United Kingdom, however. I'm projecting about four million XB1X consoles shipped from Q4 2017 through the end of 2018, and about five million PlayStation 4 Pro consoles shipped in the same timeframe".

Ward continued: "The way shipments break down globally, however, that implies a very tight race in the United States and the United Kingdom".

Samsung has some of the best flagship smartphones on the market and available right now to buy, with the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, and even the new Galaxy Note 8. Apple on the other hand, is still a little while away from unleashing its new iPhone X.

Right now, Samsung is the only company in the world that is capable of making enough OLED displays, NAND flash, and DRAM in the quantities that Apple need for the mass sales of its iPhone. This is a huge profit driver for Samsung, with The Wall Street Journal reporting that these massive orders chalk up big profits for Samsung's component business, which is around 35% of Samsung's revenue.

So when your friends say "but the iPhone X is way better than your Samsung junk", you can reply with "well, your iPhone X wouldn't even exist without Samsung" and then link them to this article. Boom.

Earlier this year HMD Global announced at MWC 2017 that the Nokia 3310 will make a grand, updated return to the market with a 2.4-inch QVGA color display, 16MB storage, 2-megapixel camera and of course, Snake. The good news continues to roll in for all of us nostalgia folk, HMD Global have recently revealed their plan to release yet another model of the Nokia 3310, this model will include 3G.

This is significant news for the 17-year-old new phone, as this version can now be used on some GSM networks like T-Mobile and AT&T. Set for a mid-October release, HMD Global have added Yellow and Warm Red to the Azure and Charcoal color options and is priced at €69, or about $81. No word on which, if any US carriers will sell the Nokia 3310.

It looks like we should expect Qualcomm to announce its Snapdragon 845 processor before the end of the year, with rumors that the Snapdragon 845 will power Xiaomi's upcoming Mi7 smartphone that is rumored for release in early 2018.

Xiaomi is poised to rock a 6-inch 18:9 ratio bezel-less OLED display made by Samsung, something that would look utterly gorgeous and catapult the Mi7 up to the levels of the iPhone X and Galaxy Note 8. Mi7 should feature Adreno 630 graphics and Qualcomm's incredibly fast X20 LTE modem, all inside of the Snapdragon 845. Xiaomi's upcoming Mi7 will reportedly also include dual rear-facing cameras, and a glass/ceramic body.

Qualcomm will benefit from the Mi7 being powered by Snapdragon 845, as Xiaomi also has an in-house SoC development team. Xiaomi has the upcoming Surge S2 smartphone made on 16nm FinFET, while its successor will be knocked down to 10nm.

Google is hosting a media event on October 4 where it is expected to unveil its next generation Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 smartphones, with a new leak teasing a bunch of information on the new handsets.

Android Authority has the story that Google will be unveiling a new Pixel XL 2 smartphone with a curved display, with a screen-to-body ratio of between 80% and 85%. We should expect dual stereo speakers on the front, with no headphone jack - why Google... why?! Google will reportedly be offering certain markets with USB-C headphones in the box, with no more details on this part of the rumor.

Inside, we should expect the QHD display to rock Gorilla Glass 5 protection, while Qualcomm powers it with its Snapdragon 835 processor. Digging deeper, we will have 64/128GB of storage, front/rear Pixel-branded cameras with OIS and a Google Imaging Chip (interesting...), backed up by a 3520mAh battery.

The world thinks that Samsung will be the first with a popular foldable smartphone, but it looks like that award will be going to Chinese electronics giant ZTE.

ZTE's upcoming codename Axon Multy smartphone could launch on October 17 as the Axon M, with dual 1080p displays that fold out into a huge 6.8-inch 1920 x 2160 display. When folded, it looks like most regular smartphones, so it'll blend in easily without looking out of this world.

ZTE's purported Axom M could really change things in the smartphone world if it's done right, as they would beat Samsung to the foldable smartphone punch. I've been wanting a larger foldable smartphone, because I'm always doing so much at once... so a single screen for quick use and a foldable screen for multi-tasking would be perfect.

Intel is so close to launching their new Core i7-8700K that we can almost smell the silicon, but now some leaked benchmarks of the flagship Coffee Lake-S processor are here.

The new Core i7-8700K is a changed beast, with 6C/12T of CPU performance compared to the Core i7-7700K and its 4C/8T of brute gaming performance. EXPreview has some preliminary benchmarks on the new Core i7-8700K processor, with it coming in at around 8% faster than the 7700K in office tasks.

But what about gaming? EXPreview ran The Witcher 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Division, and Hitman. The new 8700K is 18% faster than the 7700K in The Witcher 3 on the Ultra preset, while it's 10% faster in Hitman. In both ROTTR and The Division, the difference is negligible... just a few FPS difference.

Razer has been rumored to be working on a new mobile device for a while now, but the company has now officially teased it is working on a new mobile device.

Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan was interviewed by CNBC, where he explained: "One of the most hotly rumored things about Razer is that we're coming up with a mobile device. And I can say that we are coming up with a mobile device specifically geared toward gamers and entertainment. We're hoping to have it come ... by the end of the year, so that's something we're working on".

The gaming peripheral giant isn't releasing a new product into the mobile market 'just because', it has been planned and it's made for gamers, with Tan continuing: "The mobile market is one of those that we've taken a long-term view to look at ... We realized that a lot of our gamers are also passionate about the mobile gaming market, so we've done a couple of moves".

Apple made quite the splash with its recent iPhone X announcement, but with the phone starting at $999, most people will be turning towards other flagship smartphones if they aren't diehard Apple fans.

This is where something like Google's upcoming Pixel refresh comes into play, with the new Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 to be unveiled at a media event on October 4. We're now hearing about official colors and pricing of the larger Pixel XL 2 smartphone, which will really turn some iHeads.

Google will reportedly launch Pixel XL 2 in three colors: Kinda Blue, Just Black, and Clearly White. They'll be offered in 64GB and 128GB variants, priced at $649 and $749, respectively. This isn't too damn bad at all.

Apple has hyped its new iPhone X to infinity and beyond, with the new iPhone X starting at $999... and according to Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI Securities, the iPhone X hype is killing iPhone 8 pre-orders.

Kuo explained in a recent post: "Historically, it takes 3-6 weeks or more to ship new iPhone models after they are available for preorder, due to initial tight supply and robust demand. However, our latest review indicates it will take less than 1-2 weeks for the iPhone 8. We believe this is because there is a strong likelihood that iPhone X demand will cannibalize iPhone 8 pre-orders".

I think we'll see iPhone 8/8 Plus orders pick up when people realize there aren't enough iPhone X smartphones to go around, which should begin in November when Apple begins shipping iPhone X handsets.

Now that the Galaxy Note 8 is here, we're only a little over 6 months away from Samsung announcing their next-gen Galaxy S9 smartphone. We should expect Samsung to go for Apple's throat with the Galaxy S9, since it'll be the first flagship smartphone to arrive post-iPhone X.

Samsung will reportedly use their own in-house camera sensor on the Galaxy S9, passing the 4K 60FPS sensor inside of the iPhone X and even their own Galaxy Note 8, with a camera that can shoot 1000FPS video. Samsung should be shooting 1080p video @ 1000FPS, and not 4K - as that would require some out-of-this-world technology.

How did Samsung do this? Especially considering how much of a strain shooting 1000FPS video will have on the camera sensor, the processor, RAM, and everything in between.

Samsung has already hit two smartphone home runs this year with the Galaxy S8 and recently released Galaxy Note 8, but 2018 is going to be an even bigger year with the next-gen Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 handsets.

The first real juicy rumors of Samsung's next-gen Galaxy S9 are surfacing, with the South Korean giant rumored to use a modular design on the Galaxy S9. This would be a huge shift for Samsung, as its local rival LG has been made a modular-like phone before, without that much success.

Apple's recent increased threat in making something a little less iPhone-y with iPhone X would have Samsung on the offensive to continue pressing its boot into Apple's neck, and a modular smartphone with a next-gen AMOLED display and Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 845 on 10nm would be a delicious combination.

Apple is the first with a smartphone that shoots 4K 60FPS footage with their new iPhones, but Samsung is going to be joining the 4K 60FPS party with their larger than life Galaxy Note 8 smartphone.

Samsung is now teasing that it will ha ve 4K 60FPS video shooting abilities on the Galaxy Note 8, something that popped up on the promotional page for Samsung's latest flagship. Samsung teased: "Go beyond FUll HD with 4K UHD video. Galaxy Note8 shoots 4K Ultra High Definition video at 60fps, so everything you capture looks stunning and vibrant".

Shooting 4K 60FPS video is going to chew through some serious internal storage, so it's great that Samsung includes expandable storage through microSD cards on the Note 8. Apple might have the 256GB of storage on its tapped out iPhones, but 256GB isn't that much these days - especially when you're shooting 4K 60FPS.

Apple announced its new iPhone X in the last 24 hours, offering up the 64GB version for $999 while the 256GB variant of the iPhone X will cost $1149. What's better than the launch itself? Parody videos!

YouTuber 'jacksfilms' uploaded their new iPhone X parody video and it's freaking beautiful. The stand out for me would have to be the bit where he explains the new Face ID technology on iPhone X that uses the front-facing camera as your personal security to enter the phone as there is no Home ID button or fingerprint sensor on iPhone X.

He explains its beautifully in the video, saying: "When you look at your phone it'll shoot thousands of lasers straight into your pores, then it sucks your soul like Dementor. Thank you for your life juice".

Apple might excite people with the new iPhone 8 and iPhone X smartphones, but Samsung is the company that is out-innovating the South Korean electronics giant right now.

Samsung has teased that it will be releasing a bendable smartphone in 2018, with Koh Dong-jin - president of mobile business at Samsung Electronics, said that there are multiple problems to overcome first. Dong-jin explained: "As the head of the business, I can say our current goal is next year. When we can overcome some problems for sure, we will launch the product".

The problems that Samsung faces to reach a bendable smartphone include the company getting to the point of mass-producing a foldable smartphone that is not just thin, but feature-packed isn't easy. We should expect to hear more about Samsung's plans soon, where I'm hoping to see something shown off at CES 2018 in January.

Apple didn't just announce its new iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X smartphones - but the company has also entered the 4K era with their new Apple TV 4K device.

The new Apple TV 4K will have 4K movies and TV shows on tap through the iTunes Store, with some of those 4K movies including HDR support. If you have been using Vudu to purchase 4K movies, you're used to paying $25-$30... but Apple will be charging just $15-$20 on the Apple TV 4K which is great for 4K content moving into the future.

Apple has powered the new 4K-capable Apple TV with their A10X Fusion processor, which has "superior performance" and "superior graphics" over its predecessor.

Apple has released the most exciting iPhone in years with the new iPhone X, and while it might not step right up to the top of the smartphone mountain and claim dominance over all of its competitors, the new iPhone X is a compelling enough smartphone for Apple fans to stick with the fruit logo company.

Apple has used its new A11 processor that offers up to 30% more performance over its predecessor, while rocking Face ID technology, VR/AR integration, and a beautiful OLED panel that Apple of course calls "Super Retina Display".

The new A11 chip is a 6-core processor, made up of two big and four LITTLE cores based on the big.LITTLE technology. This allows the new iPhone X to include 30% more performance, while throwing in a huge 50% power efficiency improvement over the previous-gen A10 processor.

This is why I love Qualcomm: they've come out trolling Apple on the eve of their new iPhone announcement by releasing a list of "Android Firsts", which is a freaking long list of technologies that have all been done first on Android. Here's the list:

The list includes some of the technologies that we've all come to love, including fast-charging and Quick Charge technology, dual cameras, iris authentication, fingerprint under the display, 4K display, gigabit LTE, Bluetooth 5, and so much more. It really rubs the lemon right into Apple's eye, and rightfully so.

Apple markets itself and their new products like they created creation itself, but they didn't. Qualcomm, Samsung, HTC, LG, Xiaomi, Motorola, and many other companies are leaders in the technology world... not Apple.