TECHNOLOGY AND US

Tuesday

LG announces 2022 OLED TV models with new 42-inch and 97-inch sizes

LG today unveiled its 2022 range of OLED TV models, including the new LG G2, C2, B2, and A2. Each of these come in different sizes, with a couple of new size options being added for 2022. LG G2 97-inch The LG G2 is the company's flagship 4K OLED TV model for 2022. The new version features an updated OLED Evo panel capable of reaching higher peak brightness than the previous generation G1. It also features a heatsink for the panel, which LG markets as Brightness Booster technology. The heatsink pulls heat away from the panel, making it run brighter and also reduce image retention as...

TCL announces six new Android tablets

TCL is holding a mega launch event today with new phones, TVs, laptops smart home appliances and several new Android tablets. There’s the brand new Nxtpaper 10S which features a special matte textured screen that’s easier on the eyes as well as the budget aimed Tab 10L and Tab 8 4G. TCL also brought three new kids tablets on stage with the Tkee Mini, Mid and Max. TCL Nxtpaper 10s TCL’s Nxtpaper 10s comes with a 10.1-inch IPS panel with 1200x1920 resolution. The interesting bit here is that the display features a matte finish instead of the more traditional glossy surface which should...

Verizon-bound TCL 30 V 5G does mmWave, 30 XE 5G is headed for T-Mobile

TCL is on a mission to deliver affordable 5G connectivity to everyone and will release a number of products over the coming months. Today’s launches are focused on the US and include two smartphones, one each for two of the country’s leading carriers. TCL 30 V 5G Let's start with the TCL 30 V 5G, which as you can probably guess is for Verizon, specifically its mmWave network. The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 480 (8 nm), which has support for the faster flavor of 5G (it also does sub-6, of course). This is the higher-end of the two models. It has a slightly larger, sharper...

Watch the TCL CES 2022 press event live here

TCL is one of the companies that decided to have a press event at CES 2022 and did not step back, despite the worrying pandemic situation. It will host a global press event today, January 4, at 15:00CET (6AM PST) where we expect to see plenty of smart devices, including smartphones, tablets, smart glasses, and possibly a few more devices. Once the event is over, tune in to our homepage for the detailed information on all new products.

OnePlus 10 Pro's specs detailed by TENAA

OnePlus just posted a couple of 10 Pro teasers, but it didn't reveal much in the way of specs. Well, here comes TENAA to fill us in on those. The regulatory's website now has the full listing for the OnePlus 10 Pro, complete with most of its specs. The phone, model number NE2210, measures 163.0 x 73.9 x 8.55mm and weigh 200.5g. It has a 6.7-inch 1440x3216px AMOLED of 120Hz refresh rate. There's a 5,000mAh battery (rumored to be capable of 80W wired and 50W wireless charging), a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip with up to 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. OnePlus 10 Pro at TENAA The ...

Motorola Moto G71 5G India launch set for January 10

Motorola unveiled the Moto G31, Moto G51 5G, and Moto G71 5G last November. The first two are already available in India, starting at INR12,999 ($175/€155) and INR14,999 ($200/€175), respectively. And today, Motorola announced the Moto G71 5G will make its debut in the Asian country next week - on January 10. While Motorola hasn't revealed the Moto G71 5G's India price yet, the company said that the smartphone will be sold through Flipkart and have two color options - green and blue. That said, since the Moto G71 5G is already official, we know what's on offer. The smartphone's...

OnePlus 10 Pro teasers confirm January 11 launch, design

The OnePlus 10 Pro was expected to arrive today, but January 4 was simply when the company confirmed the launch date. In a couple of teasers OnePlus confirmed its next flagship is coming on January 11 at 2 PM Chinese time. The news came accompanied by a bunch of images spread across the OnePlus website and its social channels. They confirming the rear design of the phone - a huge square on the left side with three cameras and a ring flash. OnePlus 10 Pro Pete Lau, co-founder and CEO of OnePlus, said specifications are not the essential part of a smartphone in a lengthy...

Monday

Moto G71 allegedly coming to India on January 10

Back in November, Motorola decided to unload half a dozen or so new smartphones on us, including the Moto G71 5G - which was then immediately rumored to be headed to India at some later point, alongside the G51 5G and the G31. While the latter two handsets are both already available in the subcontinent, the G71 5G has so far been missing in action. Worry not, though, for today a prominent tipster has purportedly unveiled the Indian launch date for the Moto G71 5G, and it's January 10. If this pans out it means that next Monday India is getting yet another of Moto's latest...

OnePlus 9RT is officially launching in India on January 14 alongside Buds Z2

Earlier today OnePlus started teasing the imminent arrival of the 9RT in India, and now the company has finally decided to let us know when the launch event is actually taking place. It's going to be on January 14 at 5 PM local time. The phone will be joined by the OnePlus Buds Z2. The OnePlus 9RT was initially unveiled for the Chinese market back in October, and this is going to be its first outing in another territory. Hopefully India is just the first step in its global journey, we'll have to wait and see. The OnePlus 9RT has a 6.62" 1080x2400 120 Hz AMOLED screen, the Snapdragon...

2021 Winners and Losers: Honor

To say 2021 was a bounce-back year for Honor would be an understatement. The former Huawei sub-brand rose up from the smog of the Huawei US ban and got on track releasing phones with Google Mobile Services (GMS) once again. The Honor 50 series came first followed by the flagship Magic 3 series shortly after. The Magic 3 Pro+ in particular brought arguably the most impressive spec sheet of any Android flagship this year though, like the rest of the Magic 3 series, it remained exclusive to China. Honor continued to deliver on the laptop front with excellent offerings with new AMD Ryzen...

Lava is offering a free Agni 5G for everyone who returns their Realme 8s 5G

The Lava Agni 5G was launched as “the first Indian 5G smartphone” with a Taiwanese chipset back in November, and the phone has some intriguing mid-range specs, such as a quad-cam setup on the back, big 6.78” LCD with Gorilla Glass on top, and 90 Hz refresh rate. The brand has decided to launch a one-of-a-kind deal where it will give a free Agni 5G to every customer who returns a Realme 8s 5G. That’s right - the trade-in is only for this specific Realme smartphone. The Lava phone does have some specs that are better than this particular Realme - a bigger display and an extra 5 MP...

Xiaomi Black Shark 4S Pro keeps its AnTuTu title in December

AnTuTu released its monthly chart of best-performing Android devices, and for the third month in a row the best result comes from the Xiaomi Black Shark 4S Pro. The gaming flagship has been a leader since its launch in October thanks to its Snapdragon 888 Plus chipset and 16 GB RAM. The Chinese benchmark platform also released a list of midrangers, where competition is more intense, but vivo took the crown with the iQOO Z5 smartphone. The Top 10 flagship performance is missing phones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset because of insufficient data, AnTutu revealed. Expectations are the...

Sunday

My top 5 phones of 2021 - Victor

For better or worse, we've had yet another "interesting" year. Мost things in the world are still a mess — no way around that. There is still room for positivity, though, at least as far as the mobile industry is concerned. Despite all of the ongoing supply shortages and manufacturing difficulties, the smartphone makers produced more than a few excellent devices. I've reviewed, used or otherwise experienced a fair share of devices throughout 2021, and these are just some of the ones that left an impression on me. Asus ROG Phone 5/5s Though many have and are still trying to dethrone...

Top 20 phones of the year 2021

With 2021 nearly in the history books, it’s time for a comprehensive list of the twenty most popular phones of the past year. These were the device you searched for the most on our site and the ones that shaped how the year went by. As usual, there’s a clear-cut leader in terms of total devices on the list and it's none other than Samsung (shocker, we know). A total of four manufacturers contributed to the list this year which is one less than last year's index. Samsung’s Galaxy A-series and S-series phones piled on the hits with 9 out of 20 devices in the list, or exactly 45% of the...

Week 52 in review: Xiaomi 12 series is here, 2021 is gone

It's time to wrap up the last week of 2021 (we have a separate series for the top stories of the entire year). Xiaomi waited until the very end of the year to announce its 12 series. The Xiaomi 12 and 12 Pro have Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipsets, while the Xiaomi 12X has a Snapdragon 870. All three have 50MP main cameras, but the 12 Pro's sensor is the largest at 1/1.28" type. The Pro also has a 100mAh bigger battery, a bigger 1440p display that's also variable refresh rate, thanks to 120Hz. All three Xiaomi 12 phones are available from December 31 in China. We're still waiting for...

Best smartwatches of 2021

It's a wrap! The year 2021 has come to an end and with the growing smartwatch demand, we can't miss highlighting the best ones on the market. And since this is a smartwatch category, we are skipping the fitness bands and trackers. Wristwatches, in general, are a very personal thing, even more personal than smartphones in a way, so we've tried to compile a more comprehensive list instead of trying and rank the best ones. Nothing too crazy this year within the smartwatch market, though, as Wear OS and WatchOS dominate the market, especially since Samsung moved away from its own Tizen OS....

Samsung announces the Odyssey Neo G8, the world's first 4K 240Hz monitor

Samsung today revealed three new models of its monitor lineup for 2022. All of these are slated to be officially announced during CES 2022 from 5-7 January in Las Vegas. The first of these new monitors is the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8. This is a 32-inch display with the world's first 4K 240Hz panel. It also features a 1000R curvature and Quantum Mini LED backlighting. The mini LED backlighting system uses units that are 1/40th the size of conventional LED units. With Samsung's Quantum Matrix and Quantum HDR 2000 technologies, the display can achieve up to 2000 nits of peak...

Weekly poll: what do you think of the Xiaomi 12 series?

Last year the Xiaomi unveiled the first phone with the then new Snapdragon 888. While not quite first, the company has secured an early supply of Qualcomm’s new top chipset and has unveiled two “coming soon” models with it, plus a budget option with the SD 870. The Xiaomi 12 is smaller than its predecessors going back to the Mi 8 – the 6.28” display is a welcome departure from the 6.81” slab that was the Mi 11's display. For those that prefer a larger display, there is the Pro model. This panel is an OLED with 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support and Gorilla Glass...

Saturday

It is time for another phone revolution

The smartphone is dead! The bar form factor reached its peak a while ago and now we've come to a standstill. We need something new, a breakthrough that will herald a new era for the most popular handheld device in the world. The next big thing is nigh, and I can't wait! Years ago, I read this, and it shows how far our technology has gone and how far, well, we've gone: "Your mobile phone has more computing power than all of NASA in 1969. NASA launched a man to the moon. We launch a bird into pigs." It's true, isn't it? While we do get incremental speed and camera lenses upgrades each...

2021 Winners and losers: Google

It was a very good year for Google, but especially for its mobile division. The jury's still out on whether hardware sales will match the quality of its latest phones but in all cases the phones we saw from Google in 2021 deserve respect. Winner: Tensor Google's custom-developed chip Tensor is probably the company's biggest win. It enables advancements in machine learning and computational photography that Google wouldn't have been able to achieve by using an off-the-shelf Qualcomm chip. The processor has two Cortex-X1 cores, instead of the usual one, which means the Tensor is plenty...

iQOO 9 Pro's 150-degree ultrawide-angle camera samples shared by the company

vivo sub-brand iQOO has shared four pictures shot with the iQOO 9 Pro's 150° ultrawide-angle camera, two of which were captured in fisheye mode. You can check them out below. iQOO 9 Pro 150-degree ultrawide-angle camera samples iQOO previously confirmed that the iQOO 9 series will feature a 50MP Samsung GN5 camera with gimbal stabilization, which will be joined by a 150° ultrawide-angle unit on the iQOO 9 Pro. iQOO 9 Pro camera samples captured in fisheye mode The company also confirmed that the iQOO 9 series will come with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, 2K 120Hz E5...

vivo Y21T goes official with Snapdragon 680 SoC and 50MP camera

The vivo Y21T expected to debut in India on January 3 is already official in Indonesia. However, it's not an entirely new smartphone. It's actually a Y33s with a different chip, screen, and selfie camera. The vivo Y33s is powered by the Helio G80 SoC, while the V21T has the Snapdragon 680 at the helm. The diagonal of the 6.58" LCD has been reduced to 6.51", and so is the resolution, from FullHD+ to HD+. Moreover, vivo swapped the 16MP selfie shooter with an 8MP unit while also ditching the NFC chip. The rest of the vivo Y21T's specs include Android 11-based Funtouch OS 12, triple...

Realme GT Master Edition gets Android 12-based Realme UI 3.0 early access beta

Realme recently released the Android 12-based Realme UI 3.0 stable update for the Realme GT 5G in India, and now it's the Realme GT Master Edition that's getting the company's latest custom Android skin, albeit through the Realme UI 3.0 early access beta program. Those interested in trying the Realme UI 3.0 can enroll in the early access program by heading to their GT Master Edition's Settings > Software Update menu, clicking on the Settings icon in the top-right corner, then clicking on Trial version > Early Access > Apply Now, and submit the requested details. You'll receive the update...