Samsung Galaxy S9+ takes a fall: drop test against the iPhone X

This isn’t for the faint of heart – PhoneBuff did a drop test on the Samsung Galaxy S9+, the phone fell again and again and again. It got through surprisingly well, though not without major cosmetic damage.

For the S9, Samsung made some design changes to make the phone more durable – it used thicker glass and stronger aluminum to protect that glass. Well, the front glass is thicker, the back glass is the first thing to go, watch:

It’s cool to see that the variable aperture survived this ordeal, even if the selfie camera did not. Still, you may want to slap a case on your Galaxy S9+ for piece of mind. Here’s a quick video of S9’s cases:

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Samsung Galaxy S9+ gets torn down by iFixit, found hard to repair

It's the Samsung Galaxy S9+'s time to get the iFixit disassembly treatment and for us to have a good look inside its beautiful glass and metal hull.

The teardown starts off like you'd expect for a waterproof glass and metal phone - with a heatgun, opening pick and a lot of nervous prying.

The battery is glued in place and required Adhesive Remover and a lot of know-how to remove.

The camera is the more interesting component. Being the Galaxy S9+ it's the dual camera with the main variable aperture sensor and the second, tele sensor.

The main camera's aperture is made up of two rotating circular blades that adjust between the wide f/1.5 and the narrower f/2.4 one.

The conclusion, as with so many modern flagships, is that you'd best leave repairs to certified repair shops and professionals. The screen is very difficult to replace because you'd need to disassemble the rear glass panel.

Check out the complete guide over at iFixit's website.

Huawei Y7 (2018) press renders leak

A couple of days ago Huawei made the Y9 (2018)smartphone official, but it looks like it's prepping even more devices for the affordable Y line this year. Coming at some point to complement the Y9 (2018) will be the Y7 (2018), the successor to the original Y7 from last year if the naming is to be taken seriously.

The Huawei Y7 (2018) has now received the leaked press render treatment, and you can see it in all its glory below.

There aren't any specs to go with the image, so we'll have to resort to stating the obvious. That is, the Y7 (2018) has an 18:9 touchscreen like the Y9 (2018), but only one 13 MP rear camera, placed on the top left side of the back on a horizontally aligned island which also contains the LED flash.

The fingerprint scanner is on the back, even if the bottom screen bezel seems ample enough to have housed it. The phone is likely to ship with a 3.5mm headset jack and microUSB - we're still waiting for USB Type-C to make its way to handsets as cheap as this one. Maybe next year.

The Y7 (2018) has a metal frame but the absence of any visible antenna lines coupled with how affordable it's supposed to be make us think that the back is polycarbonate (don't call it plastic).

Some past rumors have referred to the Y9 (2018) as the successor to the Y7, but this leak proves them wrong. Since both of those have a 4,000 mAh battery, there's a chance that the Y7 (2018) will be similarly endowed.

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Watch the Galaxy S9 duo get scratched, burnt and bent

If you've been waiting for the Samsung Galaxy S9 (and S9+) to pass JerryRigEverything's Durability test, it's time to grab the popcorn.

And if you were fearing the worst you can breathe a sigh of relief. The duo of Galaxies will withstand any regular-day beating you might throw at it.

As per usual, JerryRigEverything tested the phone's glass' scratch resistance - normal - its burn resistance - better than most OLEDs as the screen pixels recovered - and its bend resistance - the phones didn't bend.

The stronger aluminum used in the Galaxy S9 and S9+ seemingly doesn't dramatically change the phone's rigidity. It didn't bend but neither did its predecessor.

We'll have to wait for a drop test to see if the stronger glass makes a noticeable difference.

Huawei nova 3e goes official on March 20

Exactly one week before its world premiere of the P20 family in Paris, Huawei is holding a different event in China. This will take place on March 20 and on that occasion the Huawei nova 3e will be announced for the domestic market. That's been made obvious by the event invite Huawei has sent Chinese media. You can see the invite to the left, and it spells out the phone's name very clearly.

The nova 3e has managed not to leak at all so far, which is intriguing. The lack of previous news about it might be due to the fact that it's just going to serve as the P20 Lite for the Chinese market. This is apparently what's now rumored regarding the nova 3e, and if this pans out then the fact that we haven't heard anything about it yet makes perfect sense.

That's because if feels like the P20 Lite has been leaking every day for a couple of weeks now. Also, Huawei has a propensity for launching the same device in different countries under different names. If the nova 3e is the P20 Lite in disguise, then expect it to possibly be powered by the new Kirin 970 mid-range chipset, with a neural processing unit of its own and a hexa-core CPU with two Cortex-A72 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores. It's made on the 12nm process, an improvement compared to the 16nm Kirin 659 it aims to replace.

On the other hand, the nova 3e is said to use a 5.6-inch 1080p+ tall display, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, a vertically-aligned dual rear camera setup, and a 3,350 mAh battery. That capacity and the screen's size don't line up with what we've heard about the P20 Lite, so perhaps these will be two different devices after all.

Source (in Chinese) | Via

Huawei Y9 (2018) goes official: 2 cameras front and back, 4,000mAh battery and Oreo

Huawei has announced the Y9 (2018) midranger in Thailand - a phone that shares a lot of bits with the Mate 10 Lite and puts them in a redesigned package.

There's a 5.93-inch IPS LCD on the front, naturally in an 18:9 aspect, because who still makes 16:9 phones. Resolution is 1,080x2,160pixels - the new FullHD.

Inside it, the Kirin 659 is in charge of things, Huawei's own chip now dominating the company's mid-tier lineup (for example, Honor 9 Lite, P smart, and the Mate 10 Lite, of course, have it). In this case it's paired with 3GB of RAM, while storage is 32GB (expandable via microSD).

The camera department appears to be coming straight from the Mate 10 Lite - a 16MP primary shooter on the back, and a 13MP selfie cam, each of them with an extra 2MP camera for depth sensing.

At least a couple of things the Y9 (2018) does better than the Mate - it launches on Android Oreo, while the 10 Lite is still on Nougat, and battery capacity is a more generous 4,000mAh (3,340mAh on the older phone).

Availability and pricing remain to be detailed.

Source (in German)

Oppo is teasing a new F7 "Selfie Expert"

The Oppo R15 and R15s have been a rather constant presence in the rumor mill these past few weeks. A new official teaser, however, brings an interesting twist to the company's upcoming lineup - the Oppo F7. This is the first time we are actually hearing anything substantial about the device and there might be a pretty good explanation for that. Looking at the poster, the next "Selfie Expert" looks almost identical in design to the R15, which is probably how it slipped under the radar.

The promotional image in question was posted on Twitter by Oppo India. It showcases the design and also teases the brand's new local ambassador - likely the cricketer Hardik Pandya. Digging deeper through the Twitter comments also yields a date - March 26, when the local announcement is likely to take place.

As far as we can gather, the Oppo F7 will feature a 6.2-inch FullHD+, 19:9 display, with an alleged screen to body ratio of 89.09 percent. Rumors also hint at a whopping 25MP sefie camera - only fitting for a "Selfie Expert", complete with AI features, similar to the Oppo F5, enhanced real-tile HDR, improved beauty mode and AR stickers.

There are no other specs clues currently available for the Oppo F7, but given its visual similarities with the R15, we are not ruling out the possibility of both being base on the upcoming Snapdragon 670 chipset, or perhaps the MediaTek Helio P6 - prime candidates to power the R15. Also, the pair of devices will likely be running Color OS 4.0, based on Android Oreo.

Source | Via

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s will come with wireless charging

We can add wireless charging to the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s' list of improvements over the Mi Mix 2.

The feature has been tipped by Xiaomi itself, via its official Weibo account.

 

Xiaomi is yet to release a phone with wireless charging, but hopefully this is a sign of things to come and all of its upcoming flagship devices join the trend.

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 will be announced in Shanghai on March 27. It will have a 5.99-inch display (that will likely sport a notch), a Snapdragon 845 and a dual camera on the back.

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vivo V9 live images leak ahead of its announcement on March 27

It was just yesterday when we found out that vivo is expected to announce the V9 for the Indian market on March 27, and today we're already treated to leaked live images showing the device.

The first time we saw the V9 was in a billboard in Indonesia in February, but these pictures give us a much better idea of what to expect, design-wise.

The notch is there, even if it's hard to see in the first shots (take a look at the last, blurry one if you're not convinced of the notch's existence).

The handset also has a dual rear camera setup, mounted vertically because now that Apple's gone this route with the iPhone X it seems like that's the way to go. The screen of the V9 definitely has a bottom bezel, but it is quite small. Thus, its fingerprint sensor is on the back.

There's also a 3.5mm headset jack on the bottom side of the vivo V9, next to what disappointingly looks like a microUSB port. The phone has an all-metal build with barely visible antenna lines.

The vivo V9 will ship with a 24 MP selfie camera, as well as a hybrid slot for dual SIMs or one SIM and one microSD card. Its price in India will allegedly be around INR 25,000.

Source (in Malay)

Lenovo says Moto Z family isn't dead, in response to layoff rumors

Yesterday they were some rumors that started circulating regarding layoffs at Motorola's Chicago offices. Allegedly the Lenovo-owned company was saying goodbye to 50% of its employees there.

In the meantime Lenovo has reached out to let us know that those rumors were false. Here's the full statement we received:

In late 2017, Lenovo announced a worldwide resource action that would occur over the next several quarters, and impacting less than two percent of its global workforce. This week’s employment reductions are a continuation of that process. We are reducing our Motorola operations in Chicago however this did not impact half of our workforce there and our Moto Z family will continue.

So this is a development that's been in the works for a while now, and, most importantly, the Moto Z line of flagship smartphones hasn't been killed off as a consequence. Also, the layoffs did not impact half of Motorola's Chicago workforce.

Video of Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s confirms the selfie camera notch

Leaked images showed that the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 still will put its selfie camera in the top right corner to enable a uniformly thin bezel all around the screen. However, the authenticity of that image came into question after yesterday’s leak that showed the rear camera in a different position.

There is now video evidence now that the selfie cam will be in a little notch in the corner. As far as notches go, this one is by far the most inoffensive, it’s about the size of a status icon.

Unfortunately, we don’t see the bottom of the screen in this video. Leaked images of the front show that the thicker bottom bezel of the first two Mix models will be gone.

This older video does show the bottom of the screen. Xiaomi has gone for an iPhone X-style interface - the Mi Mix 2s will not have on-screen buttons, but instead rely on gestures (there will probably be a toggle to go back to buttons, MIUI loves to offer tweaks to its users).

As for an under-screen fingerprint reader, that rumor has been conclusively put to rest.

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vivo X21 will be unveiled in China on March 19, vivo V9 to launch in India on March 27

vivo will be quite busy this month, as the Chinese smartphone maker is going to unveil two devices by the time April comes along.

First, on March 19 at an event in its home country it will make the X21 official, as revealed through official channels today. What you see below this paragraph is the invite for that, which tells us that the X21 will follow in the footsteps of the vivo X20 Plus UD and come with an under-display fingerprint scanner.

However, that's about everything we know of it so far, since the X21 has been curiously absent from any recent leaks. Given its name, we expect it to be a successor of sorts to the X20. Hopefully more details will be revealed in the next few days, otherwise we'll have to wait until March 19 to really get to know the phone.

In India, vivo will make the V9 official on March 27, according to a report from the subcontinent. We've seen the vivo V9 once before, when it appeared on a billboard in Indonesia despite not having been announced. In the meantime, some more promo materials for the V9 have surfaced, and you can see those above and below this paragraph.

The V9 has a screen notch, a pretty slim bottom bezel, a 24 MP selfie camera, and of course a dual rear camera setup. The V9 is expected to be priced at INR 25,000, which would make it more expensive than both of its predecessors, the V7and and V7+, which launched at INR 18,990 and INR 21,990, respectively.

Via 1 | Via 2 | Via 3

ZTE nubia N3 gets official with 5,000 mAh battery, 5.99" 18:9 display, Snapdragon 625

ZTE's sub-brand nubia has unveiled a new smartphone today in China. The nubia N3 comes with a 5.99" IPS 2,160x1,080 18:9 touchscreen, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset at the helm, and a huge 5,000 mAh battery to ensure you won't need to charge it every night. Speaking of that, it supports 18W fast charging.

The handset has 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot. It runs Android 7.1 Nougat underneath nubia's custom UI. On the back there are two cameras, but their resolutions and specs are unknown at the moment. For selfies you get a 16 MP shooter.

The nubia N3 will go on sale in China on March 24. It will be offered in Obsidian Black, Space Gold, and Nebula Red. Pricing hasn't been revealed yet. It's the ZTE sub-brand's first mid-ranger to come with a tall screen aspect ratio, thus adhering to one of the latest trends. Amazingly it somehow managed to escape the temptation of having a notch.

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Xiaomi launches Mi LED Smart TV 4A in India

Following the Mi LED Smart TV 4, Xiaomi has launched the Mi LED Smart TV 4A in India in two sizes, 43-inch and 32-inch.

The Mi LED Smart TV 4A 43 has a 1920x1080 LED backlit panel and a 20W speaker system. It has three HDMI ports, three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, AV in and a headphones jack. It's powered by an Amlogic T950 SoC with 4x Cortex-A53 clocked at 1.5GHz and Mali-450 at 750MHz with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. It runs Xiaomi's Patchwall UI with built-in applications for popular services such as Hotstar, Sony LIV, Voot, Hungama Play, ALT Balaji, ZEE5 and more. The television is controlled by an 11-key Bluetooth remote. The 32-inch model is largely the same, although it has a 1366x768 resolution and one less USB port.

The Mi TV 4A 43 is priced at INR 22,999 and the Mi TV 4A 32 is priced at INR 13,999. Both models go on sale on March 13, 12PM IST.

Android P Developer Preview 1 is here with notch support, indoor positioning, better messaging notifications

Today Google has outed the first Developer Preview of Android P. You can install this on a Pixel smartphone if you flash a system image, but you should only do that if you're a developer wanting to test your app against the upcoming release (or aren't using your main phone). That's because Google counts Android P DP1 as an alpha, which means many things may break and you're bound to encounter loads of bugs.

At this stage, Android P brings with it OS-level support for the dreaded screen notch that's starting to invade the non-Apple smartphone world. You also get indoor positioning via Wi-Fi RTT, also known as 802.11mc. If a device has hardware support for this, RTT APIs will measure the distance to nearby Wi-Fi access points - without needing to connect to those. Knowing the distance to three or more APs means you can calculate the phone's position with an accuracy of 1 to 2 meters.

So we'll probably be seeing a lot of indoor navigation apps soon (and support for this added into existing mapping solutions). There's also the potential for "disambiguated voice control" - something along the lines of saying "turn on thislight", when the phone will know which one you mean judging by your position. And of course, special offers will use this protocol to try and sell stuff to you.

Improved messaging notifications are in too, you'll see pictures and stickers in them, and support for smart replies is now OS-wide, developers just need to enable that for their apps. Google has also slightly altered the design of the notification pane and the Quick Settings toggles, as it does for every single new Android version.

A multi-camera API enables seamless zoom, bokeh, and stereo vision on devices with two front or rear snappers. It remains to be seen how many OEMs will choose to use this API and not continue to go with their own custom solutions employed thus far, but this could be a boon for developers of third-party camera apps.

Android P supports HDR VP9 video, HEIF image compression, and the media APIs will be enhanced and refactored at some point before the final release. The Neural Networks API reaches version 1.1 in Android P, after being launched on Android 8.1 last year to accelerate on-device machine learning.

The Autofill framework has new APIs that should improve the overall experience, and the fingerprint authentication UI inside apps should be more consistent. Android P restricts access to your microphone, camera, and sensors from apps that are idle.

The image above roughly details the release timeline for Android P. The next Developer Preview will be out in May, followed by DP3 and DP4 in June, and DP5 in July. The final build will become available for Pixels at some point in Q3 - so before the end of September. Note that only from DP2 onwards will the builds have a 'beta' quality, at which point you'll be able to enroll your compatible device into the Android Beta program to try the new version.

Source

Huawei P20 promo images show off the AI-powered triple camera

Official-looking promo images show off the triple camera setup on the Huawei P20 series and they reveal the ace up its sleeve – AI. The tagline reads “See mooore with AI” (three Os for three cameras, get it?).

Previous images of the P20 showed only two cameras, so the three camera setup may be reserved for the Pro model. It’s a little strange that the third camera is on a separate “island”, but perhaps there’s a good reason for that – we’ll find out on March 27.

  
Official-looking promo images for the Huawei P20 series

And since the notch is a controversial topic, this is one of the smaller notches we’ve seen recently. It will likely do face unlock, which will likely be yet another AI feature.

Via (in Dutch)

Android P may allow your phone to work as a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse

Samsung’s latest DeX dock allows the Galaxy S9 to be used as a trackpad, a feature that Huawei already supported in its own PC mode and Microsoft in its Continuum before that.

Android P may bring official support for this and even add the option of using the phone as a keyboard. A patch for this was committed back in December 2016, but has been disabled.

Using a phone as a trackpad is pretty okay, though the typing experience won’t be great. Still, simplifying the controls to something like joystick sounds nice – e.g. an extra controller for your console. Alternatively, it could be a standard way to control “smart” appliances over Bluetooth – press any key to do the laundry.

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LG X4 smartphone announced in South Korea

LG has launched a new budget Android smartphone in South Korea, the LG X4. The phone is priced at 297,000 South Korean won ($275).

LG X4

The X4 has a 5.3-inch display with a resolution of 1280x720. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor with 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage with microSD support. On the back is an 8MP camera and on the front is a 5MP camera. Other features include a fingerprint sensor with LG Pay support, LTE connectivity, Wi-Fi 802.11n, 3000mAh battery and Android 7.1.2 Nougat.

The phone will be available in a choice of Black or Gold color options on SKT, KT and LGU+ networks.

Source • Via

Xiaomi wants to enter the US smartphone market by the end of the year, or in early 2019

As you may know, Xiaomi has been doing quite well in the smartphone space with its devices that offer great specs for their prices. However, the Chinese company has only been officially active in a handful of markets so far. One of the biggest omissions has been the US, but that's about to change if a new report from the Wall Street Journalpans out.

According to Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, the company is looking to finally enter the US market either towards the end of this year or in early 2019. Unfortunately no more specific details are available at the moment, but he did say he's aware of the hurdles facing such a move - among which are adapting to American regulations and accommodating US customers' specific needs.

Xiaomi has had an online store in the US since 2015, but so far it has only sold accessories and fitness trackers. Entering the US smartphone market makes perfect sense for Xiaomi, especially now when it's looking for new avenues of growth. Yet given what has recently happened to Huawei's push to sell smartphones through carriers in the US, it's likely that Xiaomi devices will be available over there only in unlocked form.

Source | Via

Google rolls out March security update for its Pixels and Nexuses, factory images and full OTAs available

Microsoft has Patch Tuesday, Google has Patch Monday - the first Monday of the month, that is (unless it's a holiday in the US). So, as today is the first Monday of March, like clockwork the search giant has outed the newest Android security update for its Pixels and Nexuses.

Factory images and full OTA zip files have been posted as usual (see the Source links below). If you want to manually flash either, note that the former will erase your data. Although unless you're an enthusiast with very limited patience, you're probably best served by the over-the-air rollout, which should have commenced already.

That means that in a few days you will receive the update notification straight on your device, and you can go from there. Aside from the usual myriad of security fixes, this month's update also comes with the following functional updates:

The March 1 patch fixes 16 issues, with a further 21 being addressed by the March 5 security level. Even if the vulnerabilities range from high to critical, Google notes that there are no reports of these issues being exploited in the wild.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Via