Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 with 6.26-inch Dewdrop notch display, AI dual rear cameras, 16MP front camera, 4000mAh battery announced

Huawei has officially introduced the Y7 Pro 2019, a new smartphone in the 'Y Series' after it surfaced  recently as Y7 2019. It packs a 6.26-inch HD+ display with Waterdrop notch Screen, Octa-Core Snapdragon 450 SoC, 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash with support for AI scene detection, secondary 2MP camera for portait shots, and a 16-megapixel front camera. It doesn't have a fingerprint sensor, but comes with Face Unlock. It has a gradiant finish, dedicated dual SIM and microSD slots, Dual 4G VoLTE support and a 4000mAh battery. Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 specifications 6.26-inch (1520 × 720 pixels) Full HD+ 19:5:9 2.5D curved glass display 1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 450 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, expandable memory with up to 512GB microSD Android 8.1 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.2 Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD) 13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/1.8 aperture, 2MP secondary camera, f/2.4 aperture 16MP front-facing camera Dimensions: 158.92×76.91×8.1mm; Weight: 168g Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS 4000mAh (Typical) / 3900mAh (Minimum) battery The Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 comes in Aurora Blue and Black colors, is priced at 39,90,000 Vietnamese dongs (US$ 171 / Rs. 11,990 approx.) and is already on sale. Source

Nokia 9 penta-camera smartphone with in-display fingerprint sensor surfaces in first press render

After several leaks, we now have the first press render of the Nokia 9 flagship smartphone from HMD Global, thanks to @evleaks. This shows a familiar penta camera arragement arranged in 1-1-3 formation with ZEISS optics, rotating zoom-Camera tech on the back on the smartphone codenamed 'Beholder'. It also reveals an in-display fingerprint sensor on the phone, which is the first for Nokia, as well as 18:9 aspect ratio display, glass back with Android One branding and a metal frame. Nokia 9 PureView "Beholder." HNY pic.twitter.com/x4Kh3anP46 — Evan Blass (@evleaks) December 31, 2018 The phone is rumored to come with a 5.9-inch Quad HD 3D glass OLED display, powered by Snapdragon 845 with up to 8GB of RAM, 128GB storage, expandable memory with microSD, Android 9.0 (Pie), IP68 ratings for water-resistance, Nokia OZO Audio and 4150mAh batery with wireless charging. HMD Global recently confirmed that the Nokia 9 has been delayed since quality of the camera has not yet reached the necessary level due to complex camera unit and production challenges by Foxconn. Hope we have expect the Nokia 9 at the MWC 2019 in February. Source

Get Android 9.0 Pie on Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 with crDroid ROM

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 was amongst the best selling devices launched last year in India, despite launching in 2017 it was launched with Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) and was updated to Android 7.0 (Nougat) in August 2017. Redmi Note 4 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 mobile platform, the same processor that powers Mi A1 which recently received Android 9.0 (Pie) update along with Dual 4G VoLTE support. Xiaomi has already announced the list of smartphones eligible for Android Oreo/Pie update, and as expected Xiaomi’s best-seller from 2017 is not included in the list and now we can assume that Redmi Note 4 will not receive any Android update. In case you wish to enjoy the latest version of Android on your Redmi Note 4, you can use custom ROM on your device. Earlier we brought Android 9.0 based Arrow OS impressions to our readers and this time we tried Android Pie 9.0 based crDroid ROM on our unit and here are our impressions, Performance and Benchmarks [gallery size="large" columns="2" link="file" ids="271194,271193"] Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 is a decent performer, but we obtained AnTuTu score of 74816 on crDroid ROM which is significantly less as compared to 81212 on Arrow OS. We experienced a decent and reliable day to day performance, we also tried PUBG ...

Huawei Y7 2019 with 6.26-inch Dewdrop notch display, AI dual rear cameras, 4000mAh battery surfaces

Huawei is gearing up to introduce Y7 2019 soon, as the images and specifications have surfaced. It is the global version of the  Enjoy 9  with a 6.26-inch HD+ display with Waterdrop notch Screen, Octa-Core Snapdragon 450 SoC,  13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash with support for AI scene detection, secondary 2MP camera for portait shots, but this will feature a 16-megapixel front camera. Huawei Y7 2019 rumored specifications 6.26-inch (1520 × 720 pixels) Full HD+ 19:5:9 2.5D curved glass display 1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 450 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, expandable memory with microSD Android 8.1 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.2 Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD) 13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/1.8 aperture, 2MP secondary camera, f/2.4 aperture 16MP front-facing camera Dimensions: 158.92×76.91×8.1mm; Weight: 168g 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS 4000mAh (Typical) / 3900mAh (Minimum) battery It should come in Midnight Black, Aurora Blue, Coral red and Aurora violet colors and is expected go official around MWC 2018 in February. Source

Sony introduces USB Type-C Ultra-fast charger with 39W USB PD output

Sony has silently introduced new USB PD Compatible charger (CP-ADRM2). This offers Ultra-fast charging (46.5W) for devices with USB PD technology to charge smartphones with Quick Charge 4/4+, tablets, portable consoles and even notebook computers with powerful USB PD (Power Delivery) output. The USB Type-C port offers up to 39W (5V/3.0A, 9V/3.0A, 12V/3.0A, 15V/2.6A) charge to compatible devices by safely increasing the voltage to the USB-C port. The USB-A port delivers 7.5W (5V/1.5A) to a second device. It measures 65.0 x 78.0 x 31.0mm and weighs 165g. It has a heat resistant design, and an Intelligent Power Controller to maintain safe and reliable performance with repeated use. Even though it has a plastic body, it comes with a matte finish helps to prevent scratches. No details about the price of the charger yet, but it should go on sale in Asian countries, starting from China soon. Source

Android Messages Spam Protection finally starts rolling out

After half a year in development, Spam protection in Android Messages is finally going live to some users, though not everyone seems to have it just yet. This means the change appears to be server-side and in a limited roll out for the time being. When the feature does hit your device, you should see a notification detailing you about the new Spam protection. A new "Spam protection" option in the Advanced section of the Settings menu will also appear allowing you to manually toggle the feature on or off. When the setting is enabled, some information about the messages you receive will be sent to Google, however, it will not read the message content like your phone number or the actual message itself. How the Spam protection works is undescribed, but presumably, it looks at that data statistically to determine commonalities between spam messages to detect them. If you send a spam report manually, it still submits the full message to Google, including phone numbers of both sender and recipient as well as the message's contents. For now, it remains to be seen how effective Google's solution may be against the increasing number of spam messages. Source

LG G7 ThinQ to get Android 9.0 Pie update in Q1 2019

LG has been beta testing the Android Pie for the G7 ThinQ for a while now before pushing out the stable version. The company has officially confirmed that the stable Pie update would roll out from Q1, 2019 and this applies for Korea.  LG software updates usually arrive in its home market; Korea first and then takes a couple of months to reach other markets. If you own a G7 and not from Korea, we guess you'll probably have to wait at least until Q2 of next year to get Android 9.0 Pie update. While companies like Samsung, OnePlus have already rolled out Android 9.0 updates to their phones, LG is still taking months to push out the update even to its flagships. The company hasn't announced any details regarding the Android 9.0 update to any of its mid-range phones and we're pretty sure, the company would not roll out the update anytime soon. Source | Via

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Android 9.0 Pie update said to roll out from January 15th; Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S8 series in February

Samsung has pushed the Android 9.0 Pie stable update to the Galaxy S9 and S9+ earlier this week. It also started the beta testing for the Galaxy Note 9 and has been pushing updates in regular intervals. Now, according to Samsung Turkey the final stable update for the Galaxy Note 9 is expected to roll out from January 15th.  The Samsung Turkey website which listed January 15th roll out for the Galaxy Note 9 is also listing the 15th day of the month for each device; January 15th for the Galaxy Note 9 and February 15th for the Galaxy S8, S8+, and Galaxy Note 8. Samsung Turkey also has a history of changing the dates on its update roadmaps. With Samsung being so quick with the Android Pie update for the Galaxy S9 in some markets, it’s totally possible the stable update for the Galaxy Note 9 might indeed start rolling out by mid-January. The January 15th date may just be for Turkey and a few other markets, though. For now, it remains to be seen when the worldwide release for both the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 will happen, and we hope Samsung doesn't take much time. Source | Via

Samsung Galaxy A50 with Exynos 9610, Android 9.0 Pie, 4000mAh battery surfaces

Samsung with the Galaxy Note 9 has pushed the battery to a bigger capacity and it seems like the company might extend it to the mid-range as well in 2019. The Galaxy M20 is rumored to have a 5,000 mAh battery, and the upcoming A-series smartphone; the Galaxy A50 might come with a 4000mAh battery. This would make the A50's battery bigger than the Galaxy A9 (2018) which had 3800mAh and the Galaxy A8 Star’s (3,700 mAh), and also the Galaxy A8+ (2018), which has a 3,500 mAh battery. The 4000mAh battery should offer impressive battery backup, especially with Android Pie’s battery improvements. The Galaxy A50 will run Pie out of the box. However, the Galaxy A50 won't make its debut before the Galaxy S10. The Galaxy A50 will also come with a 24MP primary rear camera, which is the same as many A-series devices launched this year. The phone will come with 4GB RAM and 64/ 128GB storage variants. It will be powered by the Exynos 9610. There's also the possibility the phone might come with an Infinity-O or Infinity-V display. Until we hear from the company, nothing is confirmed, so, stay tuned. Source

Essential Phone officially discontinued as company shifts focus to future products

The Essential phone might not have seen the success it needed but the phone was well worth for the price after the price cuts. The phone despite the poor sales was always available for those who were interested, however, it went out of stock earlier today and the company now has confirmed that the Essential Phone won’t be restocked as the company shifts its focus to future products. The Essential Phone had gone out of stock at most retail locations including Essential’s own website. Many recent fire sales indicated that it was to clear out existing inventory. Now, the company has confirmed that it won’t be restocking the PH-1 after selling out over the holiday season. This more or less confirms that the Essential Phone is now effectively discontinued and it shouldn’t come as much of a shock. The device was introduced in 2017 and since then there has been no clear path forward for its direct successor. The company, however, says that it is working on its next mobile product. Presumably, pointing at the AI phone that we’ve heard some time ago. Adding some fuel to that fire too is the company’s recent acquisition of CloudMagic. For those currently using an Essential Phone, the company assured ...