Update 1 (7/01/19 @ 2:00 AM ET): A teaser on Flipkart reveals that the Redmi 7A will be launched in India on July 4th. Xiaomi’s Redmi recently upgraded its entry-level catalog with the launch of the Redmi 7A in China. Priced at almost nearly $80, the Redmi 7A is a decently-powered smartphone for first-time smartphone users or for those looking to minimize their usage. Compared to its predecessor , the Redmi 7A comes with a performance upgrade, a better display, a bigger battery, and a more charming design. Now, the smartphone is expected to arrive in markets including India and Europe. Thanks to XDA Recognized Developer  yshalsager , we have learned about the presence of model identifiers for the Indian as well as the global variants of the Redmi 7A. As per the developer, the model names corresponding to the global variants of the Redmi 7A are “M1903C3EG” and “M1903C3EH” while the Indian variant corresponds to “M1903C3EI.” These model names coincide with those for the Chinese...

Xiaomi's Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro sold 200,000 units in their first flash sale, and today the company announced that the duo reached 1 million sales. The series was introduced on May 28, which means the company needed just 4-5 flash sales to push over a million smartphones.The numbers might have even been higher, but the production capacity is seemingly limited at this point - the Pro version isn't even available outside China yet. To celebrate the seven-digit sales, Redmi brand manager Lu Weibing announced promo sales in China - every buyer of a Redmi K20 smartphone will get...

A lot like the Xiaomi Mi 9, but lighter and smaller. Also comes without the 3.5 mm audio jack and with more modest chipset and price - that's the Xiaomi Mi 9 SE's short story. Now that the phone is with us we will try and tell you the long one once we take it through our full testing procedure. You even might think SE stands for Small Edition, because it doesn't look that special. But when we tinkered around a little more, we realized it is a very snappy phone, with its Snapdragon 712 chipset and the 6 GB RAM. The weight of 155 grams and the small footprint will...

It's been a while since we had a week as calm as this one. With no major launches or aggressive promo campaigns most of the phones on our chart have retained their positions. The Samsung Galaxy A50 leads ahead of its Galaxy A70 sibling, followed by a trio of Xiaomi phones. This time around though the Redmi Note 7 is the one to take the bronze medal, while the Xiaomi Mi 9T has dropped down to fifth. The Redmi K20 Pro still splits those two, taking the fourth spot for the third week in a row now. Samsung Galaxy M40 and Galaxy A30 are exactly where we left them last week - sixth...

A much-awaited feature that arrived with Android Oreo was the ability to see the battery level of the Bluetooth device you were connected to. It’s an important feature and quite surprising that it took so long to implement in AOSP, as even custom ROMs such as LineageOS supported it. There are so many reasons as to why it should be a standard feature, for example allowing you to roughly estimate how much listening time you have on your Bluetooth earphones. However, while Bluetooth battery indicators have been in AOSP for nearly two years now, the other Google-owned OS, Chrome OS , doesn’t have them. That’s set to change, with a commit spotted by Chrome Story which says that soon, Chromebooks will be able to display the battery level of a connected Bluetooth device. If you have a Chromebook on the Canary channel of Chrome OS, you can enable Bluetooth battery indicators now. Simply enable the following flag. chrome://flags/#show-bluetooth-device-battery Whether it works or not...

While there weren't many big smartphones announcements this week, there were plenty of very interesting stories. Starting off with Oppo and the reveal of the first under display selfie camera. It has a large sensor with resulting large pixels but its image quality isn't great and it might take some time before it makes it to an actual product. Still, it is an exciting development in the long battle for the full-screen phone. We saw official press renders of upcoming Xiaomi CC9 as well as invitations for its July 2 unveil. The specs include a 48MP main camera as well as a 32MP...

Looking for a mid-ranger with a big OLED screen on a budget? Well, the Galaxy M30 might just be the thing for you. This is actually the only handset from the M-series so far to boasts an AMOLED screen and among the few in this entire price segment. More rare finds on this kind of budget are the ultra wide-angle camera and the gigantic 5,000 mAh battery. But let's not spoil the video for you any further. Check it our below. If you want to learn more details about the phone head this way for our in-depth written review

Google Chrome is the most popular cross-platform web browser available on the market right now, claiming 62.7% of the global browser usage share up until May 2019, with Apple’s Safari coming in second at 15.89% and Mozilla’s Firefox claiming 5.07%. Because of its lion’s share, the smallest of changes that Google Chrome undertakes for its platform end up affecting millions of users around the world. So when Google announced the next extensions manifest version in the form of Manifest V3 for Google Chrome Extensions, we knew we were in for some big changes, especially when it came to light that Google was building in a content blocker API within Chrome itself. What is Manifest V3? If you are an active Chrome user, you undoubtedly use a few extensions. Extensions are small software programs that customize the browsing experience using the APIs that the browser provides , allowing users to tailor functionality and behavior to suit their individual needs and preferences. These extension...

Kiwi Browser by XDA Senior Member arnaud42 has been the browser of choice for many for a long time now. With extension support , a reachability button , an AMOLED friendly dark mode and lots more, it’s really no wonder why it’s exploded in popularity since its release last year . arnaud42 isn’t done adding features to Kiwi Browser either, as the latest version now available on the Google Play Store has added text reflow support, translator settings, external download manager support and more. You can read the full changelog below. This version supports text rewrap / reflow (adapt text based on zoom level). Interface and animations are really improved Better performance (new GPU driver and 64-bits engine!) New settings: Google Translate, Yandex and Baidu (Settings, Translator) Possibility to add exceptions / whitelist in content filter Support for external download managers Show extensions first Protect incognito windows While there are loads of new features and impr...

Google released the first Android Q beta back in March, and root access via Magisk quickly became available for the Google Pixel and Google Pixel 2 . The Google Pixel 3 , however, could not be rooted on Android Q because the developer of Magisk, XDA Recognized Developer topjohnwu , needed to figure out how to work with the new logical partitions layout. With his new internship at Apple, topjohnwu has had less time to work on Magisk, but that hasn’t stopped him from having two big breakthroughs in development. In the latest Canary release, Magisk now supports system-as-root, making it harder for apps to detect root access, and also supports devices with logical partitions such as the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a XL series on Android Q. Google Pixel 3 Forums       Google Pixel 3 XL Forums Google Pixel 3a Forums   Google Pixel 3a XL Forums Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a Logical Partition Support on Android Q To help developers test AOSP versions of Android on existing devic...

This week, Oppo showed off the first under-screen camera. It's the perfect solution as it not only avoids problems, it will actually improve how people use the camera. First off, notches and punch holes are an unsightly compromise that contorts the screen and UI of the phone. And people have made it clear in previous polls that they are not a popular option (not a deal-breaker, perhaps, but still better avoided if possible). Then there are pop-ups and flip-ups, both of which enable a full-screen design. The downside is that a pop-up mechanism takes more room inside the phone than a...

The tide has turned - in a poll just over 6 months ago, punch holes won over notches and even old-school bezels. The poll from last week shows that holes are no longer welcome. It's unequivocal, the "holes are a bad idea" option collected over half the votes. Of the remaining options a punch hole in the top left corner won with just 18% of the votes. Interestingly, a centered punch hole was the least favorite option. This poll was all about punch holes, so there was no breakdown of the alternatives. However, reading through the comments makes it clear that notches haven't suddenly...

Phones have had rotating controls since the early days. In the 19th century, if you wanted to call someone, you had to crank a handle (it generated the electric pulse that rung the bell of the other phone). In the 20th century, there was the rotary dial. While cell phones never had a rotary dial, the likes of the Sony CMD J7 had a Jog Dial - a wheel on the side of the phone that can be used to navigate menus. BlackBerry started with trackwheels too, but the iconic Pearl series introduced the trackball. The T-Mobile G1 had a trackball too. Of course, later models swapped out the...

Remember Fuchsia OS? It seems like every time we stumble upon an exciting new development regarding the mysterious open-source OS we have to dust it off from obscurity. That's just the nature of early development stage software, plus things are actually looking up on the exposure and availability side of things. After sharing a few tasty details about its side-project at the last I/O event, Google has now quietly launched a developer portal for Fuchsia OS. And to re-iterate the answer to everybody's pressing question before the comment section gets flooded again - NO, it is not...

This new development might come as a bitter-sweet announcement for many, but it is clearly the position Xiaomi and more specifically the MIUI team currently finds itself in. If you haven't been keeping up with recent development surrounding the popular custom Android project - Xiaomi closed its MIUI Global Beta program. This might come as a shock considering its immense popularity, but the latter actually turned out to be a double-edged sword. There are many aspects to the matter, already discussed at length in the mi forum, but it all boils down to the fact that too many users...

When I discovered that Google was deprecating Android Beam in Android Q, I was surprised to see how many people were upset by the news. The file transfer service used NFC to transfer files between devices, and although it was slow and rarely used, it still had its fans because of how widely available it was.  Every Android device supported Android Beam, as a matter of fact. Now, in order to share files, you have to use other methods that aren’t guaranteed to work on every device. Google has pushed users toward the Files by Google app, but it now appears that the company is working on a new file-sharing tool. The tool, called Fast Share, is part of the Nearby service in Google Play Services, and it looks to be not only an Android Beam replacement but also an Apple AirDrop competitor. Fast Share was first spotted by  9to5Google earlier today, but we quickly figured out how to access it for ourselves to share the below screenshots. We also thank XDA Recognized Developer Qui...

As far as reasonably priced flagships go, the Asus 6z is a pretty compelling offer. This makes its tardiness on the India market a little bit unfortunate. If you haven't been keeping up with these particular developments - the ZenFone 6, as its is internationally known, should have hit shelves in the country on June 19. However, a ruling by the Delhi High Court barred the Taiwanese company from launching any phone in India with the "ZenFone" branding and pushed that date back a little to June 26. Since then Flipkart has been exclusively offering the base 6GB/64GB model for INR...

The last few years have been rough for Taiwanese smartphone brand HTC. While the brand is certainly capable of designing decent smartphones , it can’t seem to keep up with the current trends of the smartphone industry. Although it isn’t giving up on smartphones, its focus has shifted away from flagships and toward the blockchain and 5G . As a result, we’ve seen the brand slow down software support for its existing products like the HTC U12+. The smartphone was launched last year with Android 8.0 Oreo-based Sense UI on top. HTC U12+ Forums Just last month, HTC announced its Android 9 Pie update timeline for three of its devices. According to the timeline, the HTC U12+ was scheduled to receive the Android Pie update this month. This week, we’ve learned the brand has followed through with its promise. Twitter user @sardroid shared a screenshot of the Android 9 Pie OTA update on their Taiwanese HTC U12+. XDA Member satinghostrider and multiple users on the HTC forums have reporte...

The Xiaomi Mi CC9 arriving on July 2 will be coming with a feature called Mimoji which is similar to Apple's Animoji, Samsung's AR Emoji, Huawei's Qmoji, and Oppo's 3D Omoji. Xiaomi says that Mimoji comes with 165 different hairstyles, faces and accessories to choose from, and it supports both still pictures as well as video recording. You can check out the sample photos down below, and click here to see the video. Mimoji samples The Mi CC9 Meitu Custom Edition which will be joining the CC9 on next Tuesday is already confirmed to come with an AI-powered portrait mode for...

The Samsung Galaxy A90's presence is the rumor mill has been rather confusing so far. What was initially believed to be a re-branded Galaxy A80 for different markets was later mistakenly associated with a mysterious new Galaxy R series. Thankfully, after the latest batch of leaks, the story is starting to make more sense. As far as we currently know the Galaxy A90 moniker will be a reality. In fact a total of two handsets will likely carry it - SM-A905 and SM-A908, probably along with some other "Pro" moniker. Both are expected to feature a Snapdragon 855 chipset - marking a...

The OnePlus 7 Pro has received a price cut in Canada. The base model with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage is now down from CAD999 ($760/€670) to CAD899 ($685/€605). The 8GB/256GB and 12GB/256GB models, on the other hand, got a price cut of CAD110 ($85/€75) and now cost CAD939 ($715/€630) and CAD1,009 ($770/€680) respectively. You can purchase the OnePlus 7 Pro at the new price from OnePlus Canada's official website. That said, this is a permanent price drop and those who purchased the OnePlus 7 Pro between 10 am ET on May 17 and 12 pm ET on June 28 will get a refund for the difference...

Samsung has released a new software update for the Galaxy A50 in India which brings in the June 2019 security patch to the phone. This new firmware requires a 422MB download and sports version number A505FDDU2ASF2. And, while the changelog only mentions improvements to the stability of Knox Guard and security of the device, a user has reported that this build also brings in new camera features to the Galaxy A50 like Night Mode and Super Slo-Mo video recording. However, these features aren't automatically accessible and you have to reset the camera settings to use...

US president Trump made a few very important and surprisingly hopeful announcements regarding the US - Huawei saga at today's G20 summit. In case you haven't been following the recent ban closely, here is a quick refresher course to get you up to speed. But aside from all the complex political and economic concerns, the situation quite simply boils down to major losses and setbacks on all sides. Hence, the extreme backlash, followed by bargaining and delays and more recently, legal loopholes just to keep the delicate economic balance between the US and China. Well, at the risk of...

Xiaomi recently announced that it will be shutting its Global Beta ROMs for all devices, with effect from July 1, 2019. Public beta ROMs, though are presumed to be Beta in nature, have been stable enough for a lot of users to use it as a daily driver mainly because of the rather frequent nature of updates. This came with the drawback that a lot of these users would not provide feedback to Xiaomi through the relevant channels, defeating some of the purposes of the program and living with a not-so-stable MIUI experience. Now, Xiaomi is looking for a closed group of beta testers who wish to try out the upcoming Android Q update to the Poco F1, as well as Android Pie updates to the Xiaomi Mi 6 , Xiaomi Redmi 6 and Xiaomi Redmi 6A. This recruitment drive is for testing out “ Stable ROM ” and making it “ more perfect ” before releasing it publicly, which does practically make it a beta test. The thread further goes on to call the version “unstable” and “nightly”, which does indeed make ...

The OnePlus 7 got OxygenOS 9.5.4 update earlier this month which came with DC Dimming and Fnatic Mode. And a week later, it received OxygenOS 9.5.5 with May 2019 security patch and camera improvements. Now, this latest OnePlus flagship is getting its third update of the month - OxygenOS 9.5.6. This new firmware comes with improvements to the photo and audio quality, and that's as specific as it gets as OnePlus hasn't provided any details about these improvements. That said, OxygenOS 9.5.6 also bumps up the Android security patch level to June 2019 and squashes some bugs. Here's the...

On this episode of the Droid Life Show , we’re discussing the latest in Android news from the past couple of weeks. We have what may be real Galaxy Note 10 photos to scratch our heads over, RCS rollout from Google without carrier involvement, Verizon preparing to lock phones, and all sorts of 5G news. We also want to dive into topics like Google’s auto-delete option for your history, how bad Motorola is at updating phones in 2019, and why Tim is sad about Android updates these days. Poor, Tim. Trivia is back again! We’ll be live at 10:00AM Pacific (1PM Eastern).

External storage is cheap, but Newegg has even cheaper prices than usual on SanDisk Ultra A1 microSD cards. The 128GB card has dropped from $20 to $16.99 and the 64GB version has dropped from $15 to $9.99. Those might be all-time low prices and they are good for a few more hours. You know what to do. SanDisk Ultra 128GB microSD ($16.99) SanDisk Ultra 64GB microSD ($9.99)

All premium Huawei Mate 20 phones can now be updated to EMUI 9.1 - the Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, Mate 20 X and the Mate 20 RS Porsche Design. Actually, the rollout for the X started a couple of days ago, likely as a final tester before the full release. Note: Mate 20 lite isn't invited to the party. EMUI 9.1 is based on Android 9 Pie (same as EMUI 9.0), but offers a more optimized experience including a new file system, EROFS, and GPU Turbo 3.0 (with support for 25 games). The camera app gains the Moon mode from the P30 phones. The Mate 20 series has been in beta since April. Here's...

When Samsung released its Android Pie -based software called One UI, we were big fans of its focus on one-handed ease of use and system-wide dark theme. Furthermore, unlike Android Pie builds for other devices, Samsung didn’t disable installing custom overlays in One UI. Sadly, around the time of the Galaxy S10 launch, Samsung merged the changes blocking custom overlays used by the Substratum theme engine. Fortunately, the Projekt team found a workaround. They have created a new app called Synergy to install themes on Samsung Galaxy phones running One UI, and it doesn’t need root. Themes on One UI have been possible for a bit of time now with Custom Themes Install for OneUI . This app would let you install themes that were compiled for the Samsung theme store and made specifically for this app. It’s very useful but doesn’t give the same type of flexibility as Synergy. Synergy lets you import themes directly from Substratum Lite and the aforementioned custom themes. How to In...