One of the most contested aspects of the MIUI software experience on Xiaomi and Redmi phones in places such as India has been the extensive use of ads all over. But it looks like the appeal of introducing ads into your software UI is just too high, because now Realme is doing it too. Realme as a brand is an Oppo offshoot that is pretty clearly aiming to compete primarily with Xiaomi (and mostly, its Redmi sub-brand), and it's been doing a great job so far. Now though, it will introduce ads in its UI in India, which it's sneakily calling "commercial content recommendation". All Realme...

Fingerprint scanners have really taken off in the past few years. What was once limited to only a few select smartphones, is now available on practically every smartphone. The technology behind the sensor has also improved and changed, with the newest trend being the inclusion of under-display fingerprint sensors. These under-display/in-display fingerprint sensors were found on a good majority of smartphones released in 2019, but these have been primarily seen alongside OLED displays as their thinness allows light to pass through easier. This comes with the drawback of increasing the cost of the smartphone, thus effectively restricting the technology to mid-range smartphones and above. Thankfully, LCDs with support for in-display fingerprint scanners have been in the works , aiming to bring the technology to lower price points. Now, Goodix has claimed that mass production of optical under-display fingerprint scanners for LCDs will happen this year. Goodix Technology, popularly known a...

The Nokia 4.2 was released earlier this year in India for INR 10,990 (approximately $154 or €137). Subsequently it got a price cut down to INR 9,499 ($133 or €118), which made the already affordable phone even more so. Now though it's received a new price cut, and this one is huge. The Nokia 4.2 went from INR 9,499 to INR 6,975 ($97 or €87) over at Amazon, and we expect the price change to be reflected on both Flipkart and Nokia's online store in the subcontinent too. So now the Nokia 4.2 is around 36% cheaper than its introductory price, which makes it a much more appealing purchase,...

Last week, Realme shared a couple of posters of the X50 5G, which revealed the design of the smartphone and confirmed quad rear cameras and a side-mounted fingerprint reader. Today, the company shared a new image, which shows us the front of the X50 5G. A previously shared poster by Realme did reveal that X50 5G will feature a display with a pill-shaped hole in the upper-left corner for the dual selfie camera. But the image shared by Realme today offers a clearer look and shows off the slim bezels surrounding the phone's display on three sides - left, right, and top. The X50 5G will...

Another year is upon us and another cultural decade begins. We can only hope the next 12 months will be as eventful an filled with entertainment as the past 12 have been. Thank you for staying with us for another round of exciting stories from the world of mobile technology. We've been quite the busy bees in 2019 - we are on the brink of reaching 1 million subscribers on our YouTube channel, after publishing more than 140 videos in 2019 - that's almost 24 hours of non-stop phone reviews and opinions. We also posted nearly 6,000 articles, trying to stay on point with every leak,...

This year the mobile phone market saw the rise of many new trends - from high refresh rate screens through 108MP image sensors to periscope cameras. The first foldable phones went on sale, charging speeds went through the roof, displays got curvier and grew punch holes. Some brands used these trends to their advantage and grow in the market, others missed the mark. In this series we look at what each company got right in 2019 and where their efforts came short. Winner: Pixel 3a and 3a XL Undoubtedly, Google's best products this year were the Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL. Sure, you...

You've heard this before - Samsung has chosen the S20 as the name of its next Galaxy S flagship, instead of the logical S11. The information originally came from reputable tipster @Iceuniverse and he's now reconfirmed his statement. The renaming makes some sense. 2020 marks the beginning of a new decade and Samsung has concluded the old one with 10 annual Galaxy S flagships. Making the next one the Galaxy S20 will differentiate it, especially when put side by side with the Galaxy S10. Yes🙂— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) December 31, 2019 By all accounts Samsung is bringing out...

The final countdown has begun to 2020, with hours remaining until you fall asleep early and fail to stay up until midnight to ring in the new year. So to finish on a productive note these last few moments and be able to say that you did something , we have one task for you: tell us what you loved in tech from 2019. Yesterday, I mentioned that I thought the phone scene wasn’t as exciting as it had been in previous years, but that’s not to say there wasn’t great tech released over the past 12 months. I keep saying that the Galaxy Fold was awesome because I truly believe that. A $2,000 phone with a laundry list of issues was my favorite piece of tech from the year. That makes almost no sense, I know, particularly when you consider that I won’t even fork out the cash for one. It’s the device I wish I had right now instead of this Pixel 4 XL, yet I know so much is wrong with it that I refuse to invest. Coward, Kellen. 2019 also brought us Google’s vision of a budget phone, the Pixel 3...

Realme has released a new software update for the Realme 5 Pro that adds Dark Mode toggle to the notification center and bumps up the Android security patch level to December 2019. The new firmware, bearing version number RMX1971EX_11_A.15 also comes with an updated Nightscape algorithm for the selfie camera and extends Clone Apps support to Twitter, Freecharge, Zomato, Swiggy, and Snapchat. Here's the complete changelog of the update: Security Android security patch: December 2019 System Added click the blank area to back to the...

This year the mobile phone market saw the rise of many new trends - from high refresh rate screens through 108MP image sensors to periscope cameras. The first foldable phones went on sale, charging speeds went through the roof, displays got curvier and grew punch holes. Some brands used these trends to their advantage and grow in the market, others missed the mark. In this series we look at what each company got right in 2019 and where their efforts came short. Oppo is one of the most innovative smartphone manufacturers for the past few years and is constantly pushing the envelope...

Yesterday Xiaomi quietly-unveiled the Watch Color but skipped revealing any specs prior to its January 3 release in China. Thankfully, a leaked retail box can fill-in the blanks and confirm some of our earlier suspicions. The Wear OS-based Xiaomi Watch Color indeed has a 1.39-inch 454x454px AMOLED display. Underneath, there's a 420mAh battery, NFC and GPS with GLONASS support. Naturally, the Xiaomi Watch Color is water resistant, up to 5 ATM or 50 meters. It connects using Bluetooth 5.0 low energy. Xiaomi Watch Color We'll know all about its price and potential international...

Update 17 (12/31/19 @  9:25 AM ET): MIUI 11 Download links refreshed with newer releases. We have also added Recovery and Fastboot ROM for the Redmi Note 8T (willow). Previous Updates Update 16 (12/20/19 @ 9:40 AM ET): MIUI 11 Download links have been added for several newer versions. MIUI 11 Fastboot ROM has been added for the Redmi Note 8 Pro, Redmi 6A, Redmi 6, Redmi Note 6 Pro, Mi Note 10/Mi CC9 Pro, and Redmi 5 Plus/Redmi Note 5 India. Update 15 (12/04/19 @ 8:42 AM ET): MIUI 11 stable fastboot ROM download link added for the Mi Max 3. Several other devices have also been updated with newer releases. MIUI 11 is now available for 42 Xiaomi devices. Update 14 (11/27/19 @ 7:05 AM ET): MIUI 11 stable recovery ROM download link added for the Redmi Note 8. Download link added for MIUI 11 fastboot ROM for the Mi 9 SE, Redmi Note 5A Prime/Redmi Y1, Redmi 8, Redmi 8A, Redmi 4X. Several other links have been updated too. Update 13 (11/22/19 @ 10:20 AM ET): Download link ad...

Samsung's new truly wireless Galaxy Buds+ are ticking all the boxes on their way to becoming official. The latest step in their leaked journey is getting Bluetooth certification with the Chinese MIIT. The buds, model number SM-R175 (the current gen carry the SM-R170), are expected to become official alongside the Samsung Galaxy S11 series, if not sooner. Samsung Galaxy Buds+ coming up.#Samsung #SamsungGalaxyBudsPlus pic.twitter.com/ovxv06rS1X— Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings) December 31, 2019 So far we've seen an official support page for the Galaxy Buds+ and a pair of short videos,...

The Oppo Reno3 and Reno3 Pro unveiled last week are now available for purchase in China through the company's official site, JD.com, and TMall. The Reno3 comes in two memory versions - 8GB/128GB priced at CNY3,399 ($490/€435) and 12GB/128GB that costs CNY300 ($43/€38) more. The Pro version also comes in 8GB/128GB configuration, priced at CNY3,999 ($575/€510), and for CNY500 ($70/€65) more you get double storage with 12GB RAM. The Reno3 and Reno3 Pro both support 5G connectivity, but the former is powered by Mediatek's Dimensity 1000L SoC while the latter has Qualcomm's Snapdragon...

Back in September this year, Google introduced a new grid tab layout, tab hover previews, in-search answers, and tab grouping on Chrome for Android. Earlier this month, the company started testing a new UI for Chrome’s new tab page on Chrome Canary. It seems like the duet tab strip flag has finally made it to the dev version of Chrome and you can now enable it on the latest update. As per a recent report from 9to5Google, the latest update for Chrome now has the experimental enable-duet-tabstrip-integration flag which can be enabled in the chrome://flags page. Once enabled, the flag moves the browser’s UI from the top of the screen to the bottom , making it easier to access on large devices. The UI is much smaller than what we’ve seen earlier and it shows a “strip” of favicons from tab groups floating right above the tab count button. The new tab button can also be found on the same strip with a down arrow to hide the strip. Once the strip has been hidden, you can open it again b...

OEMs are preparing to ring in the new year with releases centered around the new  Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 and its dual-mode 5G support capabilities. ZTE had already announced that it will contribute to the 5G bandwagon in 2020 with the ZTE Axon 10s Pro 5G, coming in with the Snapdragon 865 of course, along with the Snapdragon X55 modem, WiFi 6, LPPR5 RAM and UFS 3.0 storage. Now, the device has passed through TENAA, indicating that its launch and availability is just on the horizon. The ZTE Axon 10s Pro 5G will measure 159.2 × 73.4 × 7.9 mm and weigh 175g. TENAA mentions that the display is a 6.47″ OLED panel with 2340 x 1080 resolution and an in-display fingerprint sensor. The phone will come in 6GB, 8GB, and 12GB RAM variants, as well as storage options ranging from 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. The phone lacks support for any microSD card expandability, nor does it have the 3.5mm headphone jack. The Axon 10s Pro has a 3,900 mAh battery, with fast charging support, though the TENA...

We've heard all about the upcoming Realme X50 5G these past few weeks. It's coming on January 7, it will feature a Snapdragon 765G chip, two-day battery , which will get to 70% in just 30 minutes, it will have a 6.67-inch LCD with 120Hz refresh rate and a dual punch hole selfie camera. We also know that its rear cameras will be a 64MP Samsung GW1, an 8MP ultrawide, a 13MP 5x hybrid zoom and a 2MP super macro. But now we can add another name to its January 7 unveil - the RMX2052, or Realme X50 Youth. As of now very little is known about this Youth variant, but it's very likely the Realme...

As 2019 nears its grand finale, Samsung has something special in store for the Galaxy Note 9 owners: the sweet treat of Android 10. Samsung has begun rolling out stable Android 10 update to Galaxy Note 9 users in India, as per multiple user reports on our forums. At the time being, the update is only being made available to those who had participated in the Android 10 beta program that opened last month . The stable update for those on Android Pie will likely follow in the coming days but there’s no word on it just yet. Samsung Galaxy Note 9 XDA Forums || Buy from Amazon.in The update changelog reads: We are very grateful to all of you for your positive and active participation in One UI‌ Beta program. Finally, we have planned to release the official version for all Beta users before its official opening for other users. The update, version N960FXXU4DSLB, weighs only 100MB in its incremental OTA form and brings along December 2019 security patches along with various bug fixe...

Late last month, OPPO announced the latest version of its Android skin — ColorOS 7 — based on Android 10 in China. Soon thereafter, the company announced ColorOS 7 for global markets at an event in New Delhi. We got a chance to experience the new software with all the new features and UI changes, but the software is yet to make it to end-users. While OPPO and Realme plan to start rolling out ColorOS 7 to their devices early next year, the companies have started testing the software with a select group of users. Realme has already started ColorOS 7 beta recruitments for its flagship Realme X2 Pro. Now, OPPO is following suit with a trial version of the software for the OPPO F11 series . Buy OPPO F11 from Amazon.in || Buy OPPO F11 Pro from Amazon.in According to a recent tweet, OPPO has opened applications for the first batch of ColorOS 7 testers for the OPPO F11, F11 Pro and F11 Pro Marvel’s Avengers Limited Edition. Users who are interested in taking part in the beta test can app...