Honor 6X gets the bend, scratch, and burn test

Zack, Also known as JerryRigEverything on YouTube, has posted a video testing the durability of Honor's newest sub-$300 smartphone. The Honor 6X is a low-to-midrange device available from Honor, Huawei's other brand that targets to the younger crowd. Check out our full review of it here. If you don't know what Zack's durability test comprises of, a smartphone is tested for durability against scratches on every exposed surface of the subjected smartphone including glass, buttons, earpiece, and various materials that the phone is made of. Here are a few key takeaways from Zack's...

Google ending Hands Free payment pilot test to focus on Android Pay

Google launched a pilot program, last year, which allowed customers to make payments at the store without the need to take their phone or wallet out. Customers had to have both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled to communicate with beacons that are placed by the checkout registers. The customer would then tell the cashier their initials and the cashier would then confirm the profile picture associated with the customer's profile. A payment would be deducted from the customer's account and a receipt (presumably) sent via email. Well, like many of Google's side projects, this one is...

iPhone 6 Plus ignites in the middle of the night in Florida

A local news story comes from Palm Harbor, Florida where a couple shared their middle-of-the-night experience with the local NBC news station. The woman and her husband were asleep when, in the middle of the night when her iPhone 6 Plus began igniting on her nightstand. "My face was so close to the phone when it immediately went up in flames it woke me up, luckily I'm a light sleeper. it literally blew flames out the side of the phone," the woman told NBC. Luckily her husband, Kyle, woke up and used a shirt to smother the flames. She said if she didn't catch it as quickly as she did,...

LG Watch Sport with LTE, NFC, GPS, and heart rate monitor to cost $349, $100 more than the Watch Style

LG and Google are set to introduce the first two watches running Android Wear 2.0 on February 9, according to past rumors. The LG Watch Sport and LG Watch Style have been co-developed by the two companies in a Nexus-like collaboration, despite the lack of co-branding. The Watch Style has already received the leaked press render treatment, but unfortunately all we have to show you the bigger Watch Sport is the blurry image below, which surfaced last month (it's on the left). Now a new rumor claims that the Watch Sport will be priced at $349 in the US, which is exactly $100 more than...

New rumor says Sony Xperia Z5 Premium successor is coming, but probably not at MWC

Last month an unconfirmed rumor claimed that Sony would unveil a new flagship device during its Mobile World Congress (MWC) press conference on February 27. This will apparently come with a 4K display, so it should be the successor of sorts to the Xperia Z5 Premium from 2015, which itself had a 4K panel. Today however a new unconfirmed rumor has surfaced on Twitter, courtesy of user @ricciolo1, who has leaked mobile-related stuff in the past. He says that while a Premium-branded flagship Sony handset is indeed being worked on, we shouldn't expect it to become official at MWC. PREMIUM...

BLU Vivo 5R is just $149.99 today only

BLU launched the Vivo 5R last September, and it's been available ever since in unlocked form for $199.99. That's not a very large amount of course, but what if you could have one of these devices for even less? Well, you can now, but only if you act fast. Today only, Amazon has decided to shave a cool $50 off the Vivo 5R's price. So if you grab one within the next few hours you'll only pay $149.99. Both grey and gold color versions are available. The phone supports AT&T and T-Mobile, but not Sprint and Verizon, keep that in mind. It comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear...

Instagram is getting ready to allow multi-photo posts

If you've ever wanted to add multiple photos on Instagram in the same post, like an album of sorts, well, then you'll be very happy to read about the social network's next feature. Instagram is in fact getting ready to allow multi-photo posts. The feature is currently in testing in Instagram's beta app for Android, though some people are seeing it in the non-beta release too, even if it doesn't yet work as intended there. It's unclear how long it will take for this to roll out to every single Instagram user out there, but once you get it you'll be able to long tap on a photo in your...

Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) runs GFXBench, has specs outed once again

The latest yet-unannounced Samsung model to be put through the paces of GFXBench for Android is the Galaxy J7 (2017). Its GFXBench outing follows that from Geekbench a while back, and the smaller J3 (2017)'s GFXBench run from last year. According to the benchmark's data, the Galaxy J7 (2017) will come with a 5.5-inch 720p touchscreen, the Samsung Exynos 7870 chipset (with a 1.5 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU and ARM Mali-T830 GPU), 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, an 8MP rear camera, a 5MP selfie snapper, and Android 7.0 Nougat running the show. Interestingly, the Galaxy J7 (2017) model...

GoPro's Karma drone is finally back on sale, almost three months after its recall

GoPro finally announced its first drone, the Karma, last September, following a teaser campaign that spanned many months. Unfortunately, after the first batch of around 2,500 units arrived in the hands of customers, GoPro discovered a big issue with the Karma - namely that it had the propensity to randomly lose power during use. That's obviously not something you want your drone doing, so the company took the painful (but necessary) step of recalling all the drones it had sold, and halting sales of any other units until it fixed the problem. That may have taken longer than expected, but it...

Android 7.0 on the Galaxy S7 edge: Grace UX-ed Nougat

Software updates never come soon enough if you ask the average user. Manufacturers try to be reasonable and explain countless times that it takes extensive testing before a build is ready for rollout, but no - 'where's my update?!' is all they get. We just might have been guilty of the same.

Samsung tipped to tease the Galaxy S8 at the MWC

Samsung has scheduled a press event for the upcoming MWC in Barcelona on February 26. The chief of Samsung Mobile has already confirmed the Galaxy S8 won't be the star of the show, as the company wants to take the time and test thoroughly everything before going for launch. The press invitations revealed the event will be about the Galaxy Tab S3 slate. It is rumored to pack a 9.6" AMOLED screen of 2,048 x 1,535 px, Snapdragon 820 chip, a 13MP camera, and to come in LTE and Wi-Fi flavors. There is a chance we could still see a glimpse of the Galaxy S8 flagship, though. A new report from...

OnePlus 3T faster than Huawei Mate 9 Pro in speed test

The OnePlus 3T with its Snapdragon 821 and Huawei Mate 9 Pro with the Kirin 960 are two of the most powerful Android phones out there. Both devices run Android Nougat and have 6GB of RAM. That's why PhoneBuff put both devices to a speed test. The test itself is opening a set of applications in the same order - launching, waiting to load, starting if there's a button available and then moving on to the next one. After going through all basic apps like social media, games, streaming platforms and browser, time is logged as Lap 1. Then comes the second round - how fast do the opened apps...

Honor 8 Lite appears in Finland, specs and official photos revealed

Yesterday some images of a Honor-branded device appeared in a phone case. Sources were talking about Honor 8 Lite and today we've got confirmation of their words. The device comes with 5.2" LTPS display with Full HD resolution and 2.5D glass on top of it. The chipset underneath is the octa-core Kirin 655, and the RAM is 3GB. The internal memory is just 16GB but we can see a slot for SIM, that probably doubles as a microSD. The fingerprint scanner is located on the back and there are no frontal hardware buttons. If it all sounds familiar it's because the phone is...

Huawei hires former "I'm a Mac" actor for Mate 9 commercial

James Long played the "Mac" part in famous series of ads "Get a Mac" in 2006-2009. In them he was explaining to "PC" guy John Hodgman why getting a Mac is the better choice. Partnership between the actor and Apple faded when he played a satirical biopic of Steve Jobs in 2013. And that's where Huawei chimes in. In the new Huawei Mate 9 advertisement that probably is going to launch on Superbowl Sunday James Long is intereviewed by Ceramic White phone. According to the agency that produced the ad, "the actor's history was the primary reason he was considered". The spot itself is...

New Lenovo phone leaks in images

A new Lenovo smartphone has leaked in live images. Posted on Weibo, the shots focuse on the back and the side of the handset, revealing the position of its rear camera and speaker. Sadly, nothing is yet confirmed about the phone, although reports say it's part of the Chinese company's budget-focused 'A' series of devices. With this year's Mobile World Congress just a few weeks away, we help but speculate that the phone will be unveiled around that time. Via

New Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus schematics come with precise dimensions

March 29 and Samsung's eagerly-anticipated flagship announcement event can't come quick enough. The unveiling might still be nearly two months away, yet the leaks have been extensive and we can't help but feel we are already quite familiar with the future pair of handsets. There are live images and specs, even more revised specs and renders, to name a few, already in the wild. The screen resolution mystery was also recently unraveled, leaving little to the imagination. A fresh new batch of schematics offers detailed measurements for the Galaxy S8 pair. We already knew...

EU takes final step to ending roaming charges in June 2017

Early Wednesday morning the European Union reached historic deal. Starting 15th June 2017, all mobile phone users from the 28 EU members will not pay roaming charges when traveling to fellow EU country. Negotiations ended right after midnight with a pact between the European Parliament, European Council and European Comission representatives. Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, a Finnish member of the Socialists & Democrats EU parliament group, said: People all over the EU have waited for us to drop roaming charges in June 2017. Now all the negotiations are ready and we can deliver what...

Here we go again: OnePlus and Meizu found to cheat benchmarks

If you have been around this site or the mobile community in general for some time now, then you surely remember the "benchmark cheating" saga. Back in the day, it was a common practice, especially among smaller manufacturers, with a clear preference towards the AnTuTu testing suite. The practice slowly died off in recent years, but a new reseach from the dedicated XDA community has uncovered signs of it in two current flagships - the OnePlus 3T and Meizu Pro 6. The analysis mostly focuses on the fourth generation "flagship killer" and while cheating might be a bit too harsh for...

Google to have a Superbowl ad for Home

Superbowl is on Sunday and a lot of people can't wait for it. Some are into the game between New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons but some are into the sweet adverts that we are going to see between plays and quarters and especially at half-time. Google reported advertising revenue of $22.4 billion and are going to pay the $5 million chunk to get a spot in the Superbowl commercials. According to Ad Age, we will see a Google Home ad on Sunday. This will be a first for Google's virtual home assistant. Amazon already showed its Echo, voiced by Alexa in last year's Superbowl and the...

Apple breaks another record sales, shares go up 3%

Apple is back to growth after a strong demand for the iPhone 7 helped the company post record numbers in the holiday quarter. Sales of the new smartphone sent total iPhone shipments 5% up to a record during the October-December period. Phones are 2/3 of Apple's sales and they boosted company's revenue 3% to record $78.4 billion. App Store also marked a raise - revenue was $7.2 billion, which is more than many tech companies at all. Wall Street Journal reminds that the store had nearly three times more sales than Netflix. After announcing the official results, shares rose 3% to more...

Apple break another record sales, shares go up 3%

Apple is back to growth after a strong demand for the iPhone 7 helped the company post record numbers in the holiday quarter. Sales of the new smartphone sent total iPhone shipments 5% up to a record during the October-December period. Phones are 2/3 of Apple's sales and they boosted company's revenue 3% to record $78.4 billion. App Store also marked a raise - revenue was $7.2 billion, which is more than many tech companies at all. Wall Street Journal reminds that the store had nearly three times more sales than Netflix. After announcing the official results, shares rose 3% to more...

January security update hitting Samsung Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7(2016)

Samsung has started rolling out a new update to its Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7(2016) smartphones. Arriving as version A500F1U1CQA1 and A710LKLU1BQA4, respectively, the update brings Android security fixes forJanuary. There's currently no information on what other changes (if any) are included in the update. Given that the roll out has just begun, it may take some time for the update to hit your device, You can manually check for it by heading to your handset's Settings menu. Via

Apple pips Samsung to become world's top smartphone player

Apple is now the number one smartphone manufacturer in the world (surpassing Samsung for the first time in last five years), according to a new report from market research firm Strategy Analytics. The report reveals that the iPhone maker shipped a total of 78.3 million smartphones in Q4 2016, capturing 17.8% market share. On the other hand, the South Korean tech giant managed to ship a total of 77.5 million units in the quarter, which translates into 17.7% share of the market. "This was the iPhone's best performance for over a year, as Apple capitalized on Samsung's recent...

vivo V5 Plus sales begin today

The vivo V5 Plus, which was unveiled last month and went up for pre-order in India a few days later is available to purchase starting today. The phone carries a price tag of INR 2,7980, which translates to $415. Spec-wise, the handset is powered by Snapdragon 625 chipset and sports a 5.5-inch 1080p display. It comes with 4GB/64GB memory configuration, and features a 16MP rear unit and a dual front camera setup of 20 MP + 8 MP resolution. The V5 Plus runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow-based Funtouch OS 3.0, and packs in a 3,160mAh battery. Via

New update hitting HP Elite x3 Windows 10 Mobile phone

HP has started pushing out a new update to its Windows 10-powered Elite x3 smartphone, making it the fourth update the company has rolled out to the device. The new update bumps the firmware version to 0002.0000.0023.0113. It's hard to say what the update brings as the official changelog isn't yet available. Reports, however, say that it is a minor (bug-fixing and performance-enhancing) update that doesn't include any major new features. Via