Items tagged with mwc2019
One of the strangest devices spied during Mobile World Congress 2019 was the insanely fat Energizer 18,000 mAh phone. The official name was the Power Max P18k Pop, and while it was Energizer branded, the device was actually to be made by Avenir Telecom. Shortly after the show, Avenir took to Indiegogo for funding to build the device. Anyone who looked at the incredibly fat profile and imagined themselves holding a power brick up to their face may have thought twice about such a thick smartphone. The Indiegogo campaign was seeking $1.2 million in funding for the device and missed by a long shot. The Indiegogo campaign raised a scant $15,005, and honestly it's a surprise the campaign raised that...
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Sony announced a few smartphones at MWC 2019 with the most notable of them being the Xperia 1 packing a sexy 4K OLED display. That wasn't the only device unveiled, with Sony debuting the Xperia 10 and 10 Plus smartphones at the show. If you liked what Sony was offering in those budget devices, some good news has surfaced today. Both the Xperia 10 and 10 Plus smartphones are now up for preorder at several retailers. The Xperia 10 is selling for $349.99 (Amazon, Best Buy), and the 10 Plus is going for $429.99 (Amazon, Best Buy). The smartphones will work on AT&T and T-Mobile networks. If you are on Verizon both phones just recently picked up certifications to work on that network as well. The...
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If you’re looking for camera overload with your next smartphone, HMD Global is hoping to grab your attention with the release of the Nokia 9 PureView flagship smartphone. We talked about the phone in detail earlier this week when it was officially unveiled, but official pricing and availability is now being presented for all to see. For starters, the Nokia 9 PureView has an MSRP of $699, which is about a $100 less than what you’d expect to pay for a Google Pixel 3. However, HMD Global has a limited time promotion that is currently running that knocks $100 off that price, taking it to a more affordable $599 price tag. The smartphone officially goes on sale March 3rd,...
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T-Mobile has been talking up its new 600MHz 5G network that will give coverage using different types of bandwidths around the nation. T-Mobile has stated that its 5G network needs all spectrum bands to provide the best coverage. The company says that its millimeter wave (mmWave) tech is for dense urban areas, mid-band is for metropolitan areas, and the low-band is for nationwide coverage. T-Mobile had hoped that the network would be ready to launch, but announced at MWC 2019 that the full launch won't happen until the second half of 2019. The reason for the second half of 2019 launch isn't that T-Mobile is having an issue with its network or the network hardware; rather, no phones on the market...
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There has been a concerted effort by the smartphone industry at large to slim down handsets and get rid of the bezel, all in attempt to maximize portability. Energizer has decided to take a different approach. The battery maker is at Mobile World Congress showing off a thick phone that double as a power brick, or perhaps we have that backwards. Either way, Power Max P18K Pop is notable, not just because Energizer doesn't really have any skin in the smartphone game right now, but due to its massive capacity battery. This chunky monkey wields an 18,000 mAh battery pack, and might just be the first smartphone to live up to the company's catchphrase of being able to keep going and going and going....
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Odds are that most people have multiple devices that need internet connectivity on the go, be it a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. These gadgets represent a significant investment in money and with 5G looming, many might be considering updating their devices to take advantage of the faster connectivity. If all you want is 5G connectivity, HTC has rolled out a new device at MWC 2019 that will bring these faster speeds to all your devices via Wi-Fi. The device is called the HTC 5G Hub. HTC says that this is the first dedicated 5G mobile smart hub on the market and it can share a 5G connection with up to 20 devices via its hot spot feature. The 5G Hub has a 5-inch touchscreen with HD resolution on...
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Qualcomm is combining one of its most powerful 64-bit SoCs with its latest innovations in 5G mobility to deliver what it calls the world’s first commercial 5G PC platform. At the heart of this new platform is the company’s Snapdragon 8cx Compute Platform, which was first announced back in December 2018. The Snapdragon 8cx is Qualcomm’s first real credible challenge to Intel dominance in the laptop/2-in-1 convertible market and is built on the latest 7-nanometer process technology. The SoC employs an octa-core Kryo 495 CPU configuration and a new Adreno 680 GPU, which is said to double the performance of the GPU found in the Snapdragon 850 SoC, while offering...
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Qualcomm on Monday announced at Mobile World Congress (MWC) that it is extending its proprietary Quick Charge compliance program to wireless. Furthermore, Qualcomm is not trying to replace Qi as the industry standard. Instead, the compliance program will ensure Quick Charge and Qi interoperability, the company says. Belkin Boost Up Wireless Charging Pad "Qualcomm Technologies is proud to expand the Quick Charge compliance program to include Qi interoperability, as it will give consumers peace of mind that their Quick Charge enabled wireless charging pad has passed the rigorous tests established by both organizations. Further, we are pleased that Xiaomi, a longtime supporter of Quick Charge technology,...
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It seems the smartphone scene is often dominated by Apple, Samsung, and to an extent Huawei, but those are not the only three players in the mobile handset market. Lest anyone forget that Sony makes smartphones as well, the company just unveiled the world's first phone with a 4K OLED display, the Xperia 1. Sony's new handset wields a spacious 6.5-inch OLED display with a 4K resolution and 21:9 "CinemaWide" aspect ratio, and high dynamic range (HDR) support. That 4K res checks in at 1644x3840 because of the rectangular form factor, as opposed to 3840x2560 as found on most 4K monitors and TVs. The display is the star of the show, with Sony claiming accurate color reproduction and Bravia TV technologies...
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HMD Global, the “home” of Nokia phones, introduced a number of smartphones at the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. One of their most striking devices is the Nokia 9 PureView, which features a “Penta-lens” camera system with Zeiss Optics and Android 9 Pie. The Nokia 9 PureView includes seven circular cutouts on its back. Two of these cutouts are color cameras with Zeiss Optics, another three are monochrome sensors, and the final two are a LED flash and proximity sensor. The device uses artificial intelligence (AI) to to combine the data gathered from all of the cameras. The PureView is reportedly able to capture up to ten times as much light as...
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The storage needs of smartphone users are not diminishing, they are only expanding with the advent of high resolution photography and 4K video. To account for this, Micron and Western Digital (through its SanDisk subsidiary) announced the industry's very first 1-terabyte capacity microSD storage cards for consumers. While both solutions offer the same amount of capacity, Western Digital's has the higher read performance rating——the 1TB SanDisk Extreme UHS-I microSDXC card is rated to hit read speeds of up to 160MB/s, whereas Micron's c200 1TB microSDXC card is rated to read data at 100MB/s. Rated write speeds are similar between the two at 90MB/s for Western Digital/SanDisk and 95MB/s...
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Lenovo is working some magic on its ThinkPad family of laptops at the Mobile World Congress, which means that we’re seeing the introduction of the ThinkPad X390, X390 Yoga, T490, T490s and the T590. Starting off with the ThinkPad X390, this notebook ditches the previous 12.5-inch display in favor of a new 13.3-inch FHD panel while maintaining its 12-inch form-factor. Lenovo was able to achieve this feat by making the display bezels 50 percent smaller. ThinkPad X390 Lenovo uses 8th generation Intel processors (up to a Core i7 with vPro), up to 32GB of DDR4 memory, up to a 1TB PCIe SSD and Intel HD Graphics 620. The ThinkPad X390 uses a new hybrid HD and IR Camera for...
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The 2019 Mobile World Congress kicks off tomorrow in Barcelona, Spain but several companies have already introduced a wide variety of products. Many consumers are eagerly awaiting the announcement of mobile devices like foldable or 5G smartphones. However, after several months of heavy-handed hints, we have finally seen what Microsoft plans to do with their offering in mixed reality technology. The Redmond company just unveiled their HoloLens 2 at its press event today. The HoloLens 2 builds upon the original HoloLens, a mixed reality headset that was released by Microsoft in 2016. According to Julia White, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Azure, the HoloLens assisted...
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We got out first glimpse at Huawei's Mate X on Friday when the smartphone was leaked via a banner advertisement. But now, we're getting our first real look at the smartphone in the flesh, and boy does it look good. Samsung struck the first blow with its Galaxy Fold, but Huawei has arguably created a more desirable and stylish design with the Mate X. In its fully unfurled configuration, the Mate X takes on the form of an 8-inch tablet with minimal bezels all around. This gives you access to an 8:7 aspect ratio display with a 24820x2200 resolution. However, when folded -- the Mate X folds so that its folding display is presented outwards instead of inward like the Galaxy Fold --...
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LG has gone official with its new G8 ThinQ phone, and if you've been paying attention over the past few months, then you already know quite a bit about the device. First and foremost, this is the first smartphone in LG's long-running G-Series to incorporate an OLED display instead of an LCD. OLED technology is something that we've all just taken for granted these days, and even Apple came around to the display tech for its flagship phones back in 2017 with the iPhone X. With the LG G8 ThinQ, the QHD+ FullVision Display (3120x1440) measures a full 6.1-inches diagonally (coming in at 564 pixels per inch) with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Powering the smartphone is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor...
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Smartphones aren't all that get rolled out at MWC 2019, Huawei is pulling the covers off updated MateBook laptops, and one of them is an updated version of the high-end MateBook X Pro. The machine an Ultra FullView display that measures 13.9-inches and has a native resolution of 3000 x 2000. The LTPS panel used in the display supports 100% of the sRGB color gamut to help bring content to life. Huawei also baked in 10-point multi-touch and Finger Gestures Screenshot tech. Huawei MateBook X Pro As for the hardware under the hood, the MateBook X Pro has 8th gen Intel Core i7-8565U or Core i5-8265U processors available. Graphics are handled via an NVIDIA GeForce MX250 discrete GPU that has...
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Xiaomi has unveiled its pair of new flagship smartphones at MWC 2019 with the Mi 9, which we've already covered a bit, and the new Mi Mix 3 5G breaking cover today. The Mi Mix 3 5G, as the name would suggest, is a flagship, high-end smartphone and the first from Xiaomi to support 5G networks. Xiaomi says that the Mi Mix 3 5G will launch in May and will use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform with a Snapdragon X50 modem on board. The smartphone maker says that it has had a team of people working on 5G since 2016 and during the launch event for this new device, it provided a live demo with a 5G phone call using a network provided by Orange Spain. The Snapdragon 855 platform has an...
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Is 2019 the year of the “foldable” smartphone? It will be if Oppo has anything to say about it. Oppo’s latest patent reveals a foldable phone with no bezels and a unique pop-up camera. Rumor has it that Oppo will officially announce the device by the end of 2019. Renderings of Oppo's Foldable Smartphone-- Image from Let's Go Digital Oppo recently filed a patent with the European Trade Mark and Design Network (TMDN). Oppo has not disclosed anything about the device’s specs, but their patent reveals a few interesting features. First, the device includes an incredibly streamlined design and appears to be bezel-less. Second, the phone includes a pop-up camera. The device includes...
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Samsung isn't the only major smartphone OEM that is looking to dabble in folding smartphones. Huawei was widely expected to show off its first folding smartphone at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC 2019), but the design of the smartphone has already been leaked. A banner that was being erected to promote the phone was spied ahead of its big unveil and it appears to take a slightly different approach compared to what we saw with the Galaxy Fold. The Huawei Mate X appears to house quite a few sensors and cameras (we spy at least three) along a prominent "spine" that runs down one side of the device. The display is hinged in the center and when folded closed, the display...
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Chinese smartphone makers like Huawei, OnePlus, and Xiaomi are growing rapidly amid a declining smartphone market for the big players like Samsung and Apple. Much of the reason is that Chinese devices have similar hardware and features, for much less money. A perfect example is the Xiaomi Mi 9 smartphone that debuted this week for under $450. OnePlus has new devices coming that are expected to be unveiled at MWC 2019 next week. OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition As we build up to the show, a new report has surfaced that claims OnePlus will launch a 5G smartphone in Q2 2019, but the report claims that the device won't come to the US. According to USA Today, the prototype 5G OnePlus smartphone is set to...
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The Vivo V15 Pro is a perplexing smartphone; one that takes some of the intriguing design features of Vivo's previous flagship designs and applies them to a more budget-friendly device. The most obvious feature of the V15 Pro is a large 6.4-inch OLED display this is unbroken by unsightly notches or punch-hole cutouts. Instead, the smartphone gets around these design crutches by placing the selfie camera on a module that pops out from the top of the smartphone. It's not the most elegant solution -- and it is a mechanical system that could be prone to malfunction -- but it does at least look cool. Speaking of the selfie camera (which we have previously talked about),...
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Although we've been calling it the Galaxy F for months, it looks as though Samsung has settled on an official name for its first folding smartphone: Galaxy Fold. It's not the most imaginative name for the device, but it at least gets the point across right up front. The branding leak comes courtesy of Evan Blass, so we can pretty much take the information as fact. Samsung will officially unveil the production version of the Galaxy Fold tomorrow alongside the highly-anticipated Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+. While we don’t know the particulars with regards to the Galaxy Fold’s SoC, RAM and storage configurations, Samsung has been pretty forward with respect...
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