Top smartphone reviews of 2017

Being a mobile tech reviewer definitely has its perks. Shiny new devices are great and all, but still, at the end of the day, the most gratifying thing is to see our work actually help out readers and eager buyers navigate the vast and often confusing smartphone market. 2017 was a really interesting year, with many great announcements and more than...

New Nokia 8 update begins rolling out

HMD has started pushing out a new update to its Nokia 8 smartphone. The change-log mentions things like improved system stability and user interface enhancements, aside from the December security patch. This new update - which arrives as Oreo version 4.390 and weighs in at around 330MB - is currently hitting units in some European markets. It's worth...

OnePlus 5T Sandstone variant could be in works

If you are a OnePlus fan, you might remember that the Chinese company used Sandstone material on its OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 smartphones. Well, now it looks like the OnePlus 5T could get a Sandstone variant as well. The company recently published a video - called What's in the Box? - which shows random people touching/holding a OnePlus product...

Huawei P smart's European pricing and launch time frame revealed

Acclaimed leakster Evan Blass recently revealed that the Huawei Enjoy 7S will be globally available as the Huawei P smart. And now, a new report has revealing pricing and availability info for the device. As per the report, the P smart will go on sale in Germany sometime late January, and will carry a price tag of €249 (around $300). The report talks...

LG Q6 review

LG went all-in with the 18:9 display aspect ratio this year for its flagships - both the G6 and the V30 employ this spec that's become incredibly trendy in 2017. The tall screens have only recently started to make their way to mid-rangers, though, and on that front LG was among the first to deliver, with the Q6. Source: https://www.gsmarena.co...

New update hitting Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) and Sony Xperia XA

Samsung has started rolling out a new update to its Galaxy A7 (2017) smartphone. Arriving as firmware version A720FXXU2BQL9, it's a security update that brings along Android fixes for the month of December. The update is currently hitting units in Mexico, but should soon be available in other key markets as well. Moving on, the Sony Xperia XA meanwhile...

Xiaomi Redmi 5 in for review

Xiaomi Redmi 5 sounds like a successor to the Redmi 4, but it actually comes as a vanilla version of the Redmi 5 Plus that is essentially the follow-up of the Redmi Note 4. The name game might not be strong with Xiaomi, but the device appears to have everything you would expect from a 2017 phone in the affordable segment - an octa-core chipset, 18:9...

Verizon Google Pixel 2 bootloaders can be easily unlocked

Verizon may officially not allow Google Pixel 2 bootloaders to be easily unlocked, but it has now come to light that the process is as easy as unlocking bootloaders of non-carrier Pixel 2 units. According to an XDA report (which cites forum posts from several of its own members), a simple fastboot command (specifically, fastboot flashing lock_critical)...

Nokia 2 will be updated to Android 8.1 Oreo

The Nokia 2 was unveiled at the end of October as HMD Global's lowest-end smartphone to date. It arrived in stores in certain markets last month, running Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Having an older version of the OS on board is pretty much par for the course for an entry-level handset, so that's not surprising at all. However, the Nokia 2 will be updated...

iFixit drops the prices for its iPhone battery replacement kits to $29 or lower

Earlier today we saw that Apple issued an apology for not clearly communicating that it was capping the performance of certain older iPhones when their battery health degraded and offering to drop the price of battery replacement for these devices down to $29 for the entire year of 2018. Now, iFixit has announced that it too will be slashing the...

Honor View 10 now open for registrations on Amazon India

Amazon has started registrations for the Honor View 10 launch in India, unsurprisingly exclusive to Amazon India. Registrations in this case doesn't mean you put any money down but simply that you will be alerted when the phone goes on sale, which will happen on January 8, 2018. The price is yet to be announced. The Honor View 10 is the flagship...

Users file lawsuits against Apple for slowing down old iPhones

Apple confirmed it slowed down old devices to keep the battery life, but the silent way the company pushed the feature angered many people. According to Reuters, at least eight owners filed lawsuits in US District Courts in California, New York, and Illinois and a similar one was deposited in an Israeli court. Apple iPhone 6s Slowing down iPhones...

Amazon India teases upcoming Samsung Galaxy On smartphone

Amazon India is teasing a new upcoming device from Samsung. The landing page talks about a 'new way to shop', 'superior performance', and a 'stunning new look' before ending with 'coming soon'. We believe it is a successor to one of Samsung's older mid-range devices. Perhaps a 2018 Galaxy On7 or On8. That's pretty much all we can gather from the...

Nokia 3310 4G (TA-1077) spotted on TENAA, runs YunOS

The Nokia TA-1077, which received a certification in China earlier this month and is already said to be the Nokia 3310 4G, has now been spotted on TENNA. The listing also includes images of the device. While details are scarce on the specifications front, one interesting info the listing reveals is that the handset will be powered by Yun-OS, an Android-based...

Top 10 phones of 2017: Best video recording

We're completing our 2017 best camera roundup with a look at the Top 10 phones for video capture to come out this year. Unsurprisingly, some of these were already featured in the Top 10 rear cameras article from a couple of weeks ago, and whaddayaknow, some can also tike pretty nice selfies. We're done with the stills, though, it's now time for video....

LG and Samsung also confirm not slowing down old phones

Apple admitted purposely slowing down old iPhones, with plans to keep on doing it. This wasn't well accepted across the internet and major companies decided to dissociate from such practices. After HTC and Motorola's announcement yesterday, today LG and Samsung also confirmed not tinkering with the performance of older devices. LG G5 & Samsung...

Motorola Moto Z2 Force on T-Mobile gets Oreo

T-Mobile has started rolling out the Oreo update to Motorola Moto Z2 Force units on its network. The update carries a build number of OCX27, and also includes Android security fixes for the month of December. This comes a week after the Moto Z2 Force on Verizon started getting Oreo, making Verizon the first US carrier to roll out the update. If you...

Xiaomi launches the Yeelight speaker, powered by Alexa

Xiaomi joins the smart home speaker game with its latest announcement. The gadget is called Yeelight and is powered by Amazon's Alexa. The speaker's design is similar to the Echo Dot with a blue LED ring and volume control buttons on the top. Specs-wise, the speaker has quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU with 256 MB RAM and 256 MB internal memory. The Yeelight...

Motorola drops the price of the Moto G5S Plus in India

Motorola has announced a permanent price drop for the popular Moto G5S Plus in India. The phone will now start at INR 14,999 ($235), a good INR 1000 drop over the previous price tag. The price drop is likely to better compete with newer competition in the market, many of which now sport an 18:9 display. The Moto G5S Plus has always been a pricier...

Huawei Enjoy 7S to be sold globally as Huawei P smart

Last week Huawei announced a new midranger with the name Enjoy 7S. The phone comes with Kirin 659 chipset, dual cameras on the back and the latest EMUI, based on Android Oreo. According to Evan Blass who proved himself in leaking valuable info, the phone will be sold outside China as Huawei P smart. The Huawei P smart will keep the same specs as...

Apple issues statement regarding iPhone batteries and performance

Last week, we saw reports of Apple slowing down the performance of older iPhones. Back then, Apple had provided a short statement to media stating it was doing this to protect devices with older batteries from suddenly shutting down. Obviously, that didn't go down so well with people who have had theories of Apple intentionally slowing down older...

Samsung to unveil new Exynos SoC next week; Galaxy S9/S9+ clear FCC

Earlier this month, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 845, the SoC that'll likely power Samsung's next-gen S series smartphones in the US and China. The rest of the world, no points for guessing, will get Exynos-powered Galaxy S9 and S9+. Well, the next-gen Exynos SoC that'll power these flagships will be made official next week on January 4. A recent...

Samsung pushes out update to fix Galaxy Note8 LTE data interruption issue

Samsung has started rolling out a new update to its Galaxy Note8 flagship smartphone. The update doesn't change the build number (which remains at N950FXXU2BQKG), but it includes a fix for an LTE-related issue. Specifically, the changelog says the update fixes intermittent interruption of LTE data. That's it. Aside from this, some other usual bug-fixes...

New OnePlus 5T update brings camera improvements

The OnePlus 5T has started receiving a new update. Arriving as OxygenOS 4.7.6, the update brings along multiple changes, including those related to camera and system. To start with, camera-related changes include clarity improvements for selfie in low light, performance improvements for third-party camera apps, and some stability improvements. Moving...

The 20 most popular phones of 2017

While we wait for 2018's phone launches with anticipation, let's take a moment and glance back over our shoulder and have a look at your most popular phones of 2017. Before we get into the phones themselves, it became apparent that 3 brands dominated the top 20. The top 20 most popular phones, brand breakdown Samsung led the way with 35%, followed...

HTC and Motorola don't intentionally slow down older devices, unlike Apple

The mother of all mobile-related conspiracy theories was shockingly confirmed one week ago, when Apple admitted that it purposefully slows down old iPhones. While the company's intention is actually to prolong the life of those devices that are affected by aging batteries, this admission was obviously very controversial on the internet, where even...

Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra is the H4233 that leaked in September

Back in September an upcoming 2018 Sony smartphone had its specs leaked by a benchmark run. So far, however, all we've had to go on was its model number, namely H4233. And while that in itself betrayed the phone's mid-range status, it's always good to know exactly what a device is actually going to be called. In this case, the H4233 will be sold...

Here's a leaked list of devices sporting the Snapdragon 845 in 2018

By now it's pretty clear that most of the top of the line Android smartphones of 2018 will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC at the helm, which was unveiled at the beginning of this month. Thus, the situation next year will pretty much emulate what happened in 2017 with the Snapdragon 835. Today from a source in China comes a list of handsets...

Apple & Samsung take 70% of holiday activations

During this holiday season Apple & Samsung accounted for 70% of devices activated according to Flurry Analytics, with Apple taking the Lion's share with 44%. Google was a no show. Flurry took a look at the most gifted smartphones and tablets around the globe this holiday season, examining activations throughout the week leading up to Christmas...

Gionee S11 to launch in India in January 2018

Gionee will be launching its S11 smartphone in India in January 2018, according to the sources at Techook. The phone first launched in China last month along with three siblings. The Gionee S11 has a 5.99-inch, 18:9 FullView Display and a MediaTek Helio P23 processor with 4/6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It boasts a dual camera system on the front...

Deal: The LG V30 is down to £700 at CarphoneWarehouse

The LG V30 is still fresh on European shelves but it's already seeing its first discount - in this case a 12% drop in price at CarphoneWarehouse in the UK. Originally a £795 prospect in both Silver and Blue, the 64GB LG V30 is now down to £700. Other retailers in the UK offer the V30 as well, but their price is harder to swallow. The V30 is in stock...

ZTE briefly lists the Blade V9 listed on its website

An official product page for the ZTE Blade V9 briefly went online and was subsequently pulled down. But, luckily, it was online long enough to grab all the information about the upcoming phone. The Blade V9 is ZTE's first phone with an 18:9 aspect screen (the tallest so far was the 17:9 ZTE nubia Z17s). The Blade V9 has a 5.7-inch LCD of 1080x2160px...

Next-year Snapdragon 670, 640 and 460 specs leak

Qualcomm announced its flagship chipset in the beginning of December at the Snapdragon Technology Summit. According to the latest leak from Weibo, the chipset company from San Diego is preparing three more SoC platforms for 2018 - Snapdragon 670, Snapdragon 640 and Snapdragon 460. The SD670 comes as a successor of the SD660. The biggest change is...

LG reveals upcoming Google Assistant powered ThinQ Speaker

LG has revealed its upcoming Bluetooth speaker called ThinQ Speaker. The key feature of this speaker is that it comes with Google Assistant built-in. Along with being able to do your typical Google Assistant tasks like asking about the weather or the news or anything else, the ThinQ Speaker will also be able to integrate with LG's line of smart home...

Image of Meizu 15 Plus confirms bezel-less design

Images of the 15 Plus, the anniversary phone by Meizu, appeared earlier this month, revealing no bezels from three sides. A new render from Weibo today confirms the design and reveals the phone will have dual cameras at the back, coupled with what appears to be a 10-LED dual-tone flash, last seen in the Meizu Pro 6. The front will have only a single...

Huawei Mate 10 Pro giveaway: We have a winner!

Our long-running Huawei Mate 10 Pro holiday giveaway is finally over and we have a winner. Congratulations: Mihai S. If you are reading this, check your email. We already reached out to discuss a few details before we get that shiny new Mate 10 Pro rolling your way. To all the other participants - thank you for the impressive turnout and interest...

Motorola Moto X4 (standard model) gets Oreo as well

After the Android One variant of the Moto X4 started getting it last week, Oreo for the standard Motorola Moto X4 has begun rolling out as well. The update is currently hitting units in India, where the device launched last month. Thanks so much 😍😍😍😍😍 @motorolaindia Just received oreo update on my #motox4 (regular moto x4 in india) pic.twitter.com/XfR1377Hps—...

New LG Tribute Dynasty smartphone surfaces, coming to Sprint, Boost, and Virgin mobile

User manual for a new LG Tribute series smartphone has surfaced. Dubbed Tribute Dynasty, the device carries a model number of LG-SP200. A device with the same model number has already been certified by the FCC. Nothing much is known about the device at the moment, except that it will be available in the US through Sprint, Boost, and Virgin mobile....

Android Oreo update for G6 being tested by LG

A day after LG announced the roll-out of the final Oreo build for its V30 smartphone, it has come to light that the South Korean company is already testing Oreo update for the G6. The beta testing is currently going on in China. A user even shared screenshots of an Oreo-powered G6 unit. Take a look: The software version is V19A, and the list of supported...

AT&T's Huawei Mate 10 Pro launch pushed to February

A report from earlier this month confirmed that the Huawei Mate 10 series will hit AT&T and Verizon in the US sometime in January 2018. However, now it's come to light that the launch - at least for the AT&T Mate 10 Pro - has been pushed to February. The latest piece of news comes from a new report from The Information, which also quotes...

Android Oreo Open Beta for OnePlus 5T imminent

An Android Oreo Open Beta program for OnePlus' latest smartphone 5T looks imminent. The company's German arm sent out a tweet yesterday, suggesting this. Weihnachten ist zwar vorbei, aber wir haben trotzdem ein Geschenk für euch! ;) Wie wär's mit der Open Beta für Android Oreo auf dem #OnePlus5T! pic.twitter.com/LvKR3A6duC— OnePlus Deutschland (@OnePlus_DE)...

LG partners with HERE to develop next-gen telematics solution for driver less vehicles

LG has announced that it has partnered with HERE Technologies to develop a next-gen telematics solution for autonomous vehicles. The solution - a data communications hub - will be combination of LG's telematics tech and HERE's map data and location services. "When fully developed, telematics will play a key role as the communication hub for autonomous...

Mid-range version of HTC U11+ coming in January, U12 later on

Every year we pretty much hear the same thing about HTC: the company is going to put out less devices, focusing on its high-end and upper-midrange models. As 2018 is incredibly close now, we once again got the exact same prediction, this time from unnamed "industry sources" in Taiwan. HTC will allegedly release a rehashed version of the U11+ in January,...

Our editors talk: Best phones, worst phones 2017

It's been over 10 years since Apple launched the first generation Apple TV. This year alongside the new iPhones, Apple introduced the fifth generation now supporting 4K/High Dynamic Range and appropriately called the Apple TV 4K. Recently updated to tvOS 11.2, now graced by Amazon's recently launched Prime Video app and with Apples own TV app is...

Netflix teams up with WhatsApp in India to communicate with customers

Netflix has teamed up with popular messaging service WhatsApp in India to communicate with users. For now it seems Netflix will be using this platform to send messages related to account as well as suggestions to its customers. Netflix wants to send recommendations on Whatsapp now... pic.twitter.com/LsAqQUfs5j— Sahil Khan (@sahilk) December 27, 2017...

WhatsApp to discontinue BlackBerry OS and Windows Phone support on December 31

Just in case you had forgotten, WhatsApp will be dropping support for devices running on BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8.0 and older devices on December 31, 2017. Starting next year, you will not be able to use WhatsApp on these platforms. Earlier this year, WhatsApp confirmed its plans to sunset the BlackBerry and Windows Phone...

Top 10 fan favorite phones of 2017

Popularity is one thing, but winning people's hearts is a completely different task. It's now time to look back at 2017 and see which phones you guys liked the best. We'll rank the phones that got the most favorites by the registered users on our site. The list features 9 flagships, which was to be expected - high end devices cause most people to...

Garmin vivofit 4 activity tracker features always-on color display, over 1 year battery life

Garmin has launched a new activity tracker. Dubbed vivofit 4, the main selling points for the wearable include an always-on color display and over 1 year battery life. The device is also swim- and shower-safe. In addition to basic activity tracking, the vivofit 4 can also track your sleep and intensity minutes. Other features include a countdown...

Google planning to open physical stores in India to boost Pixel phone sales

According to a new report, Google is planning to open physical stores in India, a move that's aimed at boosting the sales of Pixel phones in the Asian country. The brick and mortar stores, or "experience centers," could be launched towards the latter half of 2018. The Mountain View, California-based company had recently set up pop-up stores in malls...

Huawei 2018 roadmap leaks, three P series phones coming in Q2

Huawei's product roadmap for the year 2018 has leaked. The image shows three new devices - codenamed Maya, Salina, and Honor 1 - are set for Q1 launch. The first quarter will also see more widespread availability for the Mate 10 Pro and Mate 10 Lite. Q2 will also be a busy quarter for the Chinese company, with three new P series phones lined up for...