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The Galaxy Fold is... kind of obscene - so it's only fitting that Samsung's showing it off at MWC inside of a huge glass display case so nobody can get very close to it. Or touch it. Samsung has four Folds at its booth here in Barcelona, and they look pretty cool! We did find that the displays do appear to have some dimpling on the plastic (see lower left of the top photo), and there's definitely a noticeable crease in the middle where the hinge is, which is... not the best.
Last week, I had a chance to spend some time with LG's upcoming high-end smartphone, the G8. In recent years, the G series lineup has seemed a bit technically short-changed compared to its rivals from Samsung, and even LG's own V series of ultra-high-end smartphones. 2019 may be the year that's finally a little less true.
At a private briefing during MWC (that evidently wasn't all that private), TCL showed us some concepts of foldable screens and devices it's been working on. The devices don't have names, release dates, or even really a considered use case - they're just explorations of form factor and engineering, not reflections of upcoming product designs. They're neat to look at, but that's really all you can say about them at this point. Well, almost.
At a presentation ahead of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, Oppo announced that its new 10x optical zoom smartphone camera system was ready for integration into commercial products. The company allowed a group of journalists to go hands-on with prototype phones utilizing the system in a series of min-dioramas, though the photos weren't made available for off-device viewing, making any kind of rigorous analysis basically impossible at this point.
Look, we don't get political on AP too often, but when the sitting President of the United States tweets about not only 5G, but 6G - it's pretty hard not to talk about it. Donald Trump tweeted this morning that he wants America to lead in 5G and 6G technology, which is all very funny, because it is very obvious the President doesn't know almost anything about either. (This largely being because by the time 6G is even in its infancy, we will probably be nearly a decade removed from a hypothetical second Trump term).
Samsung gave us our first look at the Galaxy S10 5G at a closed-door press briefing yesterday, and boy - is this thing a whole lot of phone. It's the size of a Galaxy Note 9, but slightly thinner and lighter (shockingly), and sports a unique, shimmery silver finish that I quite like. It also has a 5G logo on the back, because of course it does, and... that's about all I can tell you about it as an experience, because Samsung wasn't letting anyone power it on.
While the first 5G smartphones won't even be on the market for months, Qualcomm isn't wasting any time announcing its next-generation 5G modem (yes, already), the Snapdragon X55. The X55 is, basically, going to be the first globally viable 5G modem on the market when it begins shipping at the end of 2019, because it's the first one to support all the various known incarnations of 5G and offer 4G LTE, 3G, 2G, and CDMA in a single chip.
Mobile World Congress is just around the corner, and with it will come a slew of new smartphone launches. Among those new phones will be the world's very first 5G handsets (and phones with 5G enabled via big plastic bricks slapped on the back), and we know a few things about them. Namely: they're going to be expensive, and for a good long while you might struggle to even find a place to utilize any of that 5G capability. Oh, and they're also probably going to be covered in super tacky branding.
Samsung officially announced its latest tablet today, the Galaxy Tab S5e. And I'm not sure what it's trying to do - or who it's competing with, other than Samsung's own products. In the tablet market, you have one player that essentially matters: Apple. Apple makes full-size iPads starting at $330 for the classically proportioned 9.7" iPad, all the way up to a staggering $1000 for the entry-level version of the 12.9" iPad Pro. Storage options and LTE can send them up into the stratosphere from there.
It's early, but my least favorite news story of 2019 so far is this awful garbage from T3, a tech news site from the UK, about the Pixel 4 potentially being "modular." I won't link to it (nice try, T3!), but I will give you the title and a synopsis.
In 2019, the most talked-about feature of any new smartphones is not the camera, processor, modem, or software. It is the shape and size of the area reserved for the sensors and cameras on the front - and it is time to just stop it.
5G is either the biggest change to our wireless world in decades or the most overhyped marketing spin from carriers in as long - and it all depends on just who you’re asking. Cynical tech journalists like me have real reason to downplay the technology’s importance and relevance to ordinary consumers, but we needn’t get into all that here. Carrier and phone manufacturers, meanwhile, believe it will usher in a new age of devices and use cases we can’t yet fully imagine. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle - closer to the cynical end, I’d argue! - but I think regardless of how 5G plays out, it means very bad things for struggling phone manufacturers.
Buying a TV ahead of Super Bowl Sunday may not sound like a great idea - after all, aren't retailers well aware that shoppers are on the hunt under a deadline? But it's actually one of the best, probably only second to Black Friday, and oftentimes even better. You see, as manufacturers prepare to launch their new TV lineups, a glut of previous-year models must be sold off as retailers ready themselves for an influx of fresh stock. And in the age of online sales, they're more competitive and hungry than ever to get your business.We've rounded up the best smart TV deals out there not just with an eye to price, but what you're getting for the money. We'll break them down into a few categories to make it easier, starting with the most obvious.
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- We've pinpointed the version which triggers this change as v9.5, the beta that is currently rolling out. On some devices the behavior is controlled by enabling the system-wide dark theme option via developer settings, though others are seeing the new dark cards even without that setting on or available. It's possible that not everyone will necessarily see these black cards hitting their device, even if they are in on the beta. As always with Google, YMMV.
Dark mode is all the rage on Android right now, with many of even Google's own apps either having or being in the process of adding support for shadier themes (and it's not just Google apps). Soon, Android itself will support a darker palette at the OS level - something many in the community feel is years overdue. Now, it seems the Assistant UI is getting in on the action, and the team's first stab has, to put it plainly, not gone well. Just look at these screenshots.
According to a report out of The Wall Street Journal this afternoon, US federal prosecutors are seeking to file criminal charges against Huawei for theft of trade secrets from several of the company's American business partners in recent years. The most well-known example under consideration by the Department of Justice, according to the Journal, is the infamous case of T-Mobile's "Tappy" smartphone testing robot. T-Mobile sued Huawei for theft of trade secrets after the latter's employees stole parts from Tappy and attempted unauthorized access to T-Mobile facilities to further spy on the robot's technology. A jury agreed, holding Huawei liable for damages stemming from the incident.
DJI's Phantom 4 Advanced drone is probably soon to be replaced by the next generation of Phantoms, but that means the deals on these drones are going to be flying fast and furious over the coming months. Today, we've got the lowest price ever for the 4 Advanced "Plus" package, which includes a remote controller with an attached 1080p display. These model GL300E remotes go for $300-400 on the open market (they're not available for purchase separately), and the smartphone mount version of the Phantom 4 Advanced has never dipped below $849 (and is rarely below $1100), making this version with the built-in display controller a heck of a deal.
It seems Google may have pulled the plug on the Chromecast Audio stock a bit prematurely last week, as the Google Store is now accepting orders again for the dongle at its discounted $15 price. Shipments do appear to be a bit delayed, with my own order giving an estimate of January 30th to February 1st, which isn't too bad.
The official Westworld mobile game is dead. Or, it will be: on April 16th, 2019, the game will go offline permanently - never to return (it has already been removed from the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store). Given that it requires an internet connection to play, that makes this a full-on death sentence, and the final chapter in a legal drama that's taken the better part of six months to unfold.
Just prior to CES, Qualcomm hosted us at a small event in Las Vegas to benchmark test its new Snapdragon 855 processor. There were breakfast sandwiches (pretty good!) and coffee (eh). What follows are benchmark scores. This is a pretty straightforward post.
CES 2019 is (nearly) a wrap, and we’ve picked our ten favorite products from this year’s show. They really do span the gamut: laptops, smartphones, smart home, automotive, and general gadgetry, reflecting the increasing number of ways just about everything in our lives has become connected in one way or another. Without further ado, here are our Best of CES 2019 winners.