mobile

With the launch of Samsung's third foldable phone just last week, you might have presumed that, save for a few software improvements, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is pretty much feature complete. Imagine the surprise, then, of many new owners when they discovered that the phone had one hardware feature they couldn't use at all. Fortunately, Samsung has promised to right that wrong and is finally rolling out a new firmware update that enables the phone's eSIM functionality.

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Once upon a time, Nokia and then Samsung held the crown for having a confusing number of similarly named phones. The new Nokia under HMD Global is still catching up while Samsung has opted to go on a diet and now LG seems to be trying to claim the throne. After a near-silent launch of an LG Q31 in South Korea, the phone maker is now announcing three new phones for its budget K series, offering a more up-to-date aesthetic and one strange design, all with prices that might sound like a miracle given today's smartphone prices.

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We live in a digital and mobile world but, ironically, many of the things we deal with still aren't designed to fit both. Electronic documents that come in PDF form are one of the biggest offenders and while there is no shortage of PDF reader apps for phones, actually reading them on small screens is an entirely different matter. To address that problem, Adobe has embarked on a multi-year campaign to make PDFs behave better without actually changing them and the first stop in that journey is the new Liquid Mode for Acrobat Reader on mobile.

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Today the Google Pixel 4a 5G was revealed in an unofficial capacity in a manner similar to Tuesday's leak of the Pixel 5. This device may seem like a traditional bump from one iteration of a phone to a (5G) version - but it's not as simple as all that. Instead, we're getting a similar name, basically the same software, and the same amount of data storage - and a few kicks in the pants.

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For a time, it almost seemed that Android missed the mobile gaming train with more titles opting to go iOS first or even iOS only. Of course, Google's mobile platform does have thousands of titles, not all of them that noteworthy, but things have definitely improved these past years. It's almost ironic considering how Android has more open support for game controllers but that, also ironically, excludes some of the more popular ones. With Android 11, however, that list grows just a little with the addition of the Nintendo Switch Pro and the now-defunct Steam controllers.

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It's no secret that Samsung wants to build its own empire that encompasses nearly every aspect of modern life. With its hands inside the consumer electronics cookie jar, it is almost close to achieving that dream but falls a bit short when it comes to the content for some of those devices. It doesn't have its own entertainment arm yet, unlike Sony or Apple, but its Samsung TV Plus is as close it has gotten. Now that streaming service is coming to its smartphones but you will need one of the company's most recent and most expensive to get it.

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Being the contrarian that it is, OnePlus has always resorted to less traditional and less rigid marketing methods to promote its products or events. That includes pretty much confirming some of the features and details of a new smartphone ahead of its release. It's still sticking to that strategy, confirming one of the OnePlus 8T's special features. But if an unofficial detail is also correct, that could actually cause a bit of resentment for some OnePlus 8 Pro owners.

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It's a big day for the folks over at HMD Global. Not only is the company launching the Nokia 8.3 5G, but that new phone will be joined by two entry-level budget options: the Nokia 3.4 and the Nokia 2.4. On top of that, HMD Global also announced a number of new accessories for these phones, including the arrival of the Nokia Power Earbuds in the US.

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This morning the Google Pixel 5 was leaked in a big way. Per the leak, the Google Pixel 5 will be released with a 6-inch OLED display with 2340 x 1080 pixels across its face. With the flexible OLED tech and a 19:5 aspect ratio in play, this device works with a 432 PPI (pixels per inch) display density with a 90Hz image refresh rate. This device also sports HDR and 24 bit color depth.

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Qualcomm today announced the Snapdragon 750G, which appears to be the successor to the 730G with a major upgrade: 5G support. The 750G will take its place alongside Qualcomm's other 5G-capable 700-series SoCs, and given the numbering, it'll probably be a little less powerful than other chips in the series. Still, Qualcomm is touting some fairly big improvements over the 730G, so the 750G should be a pretty capable SoC.

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While Samsung largely dominates the foldable phone market, with Huawei now taking a backseat and Motorola's Razr successor nowhere yet in sight, it can't really claim to have been the first. That title belongs to Chinese OEM Royale whose FlexPai was quickly pushed to the background after a few months in the limelight. With the FlexPai 2, it's trying to reclaim some of that prestige through a pricing game that, unfortunately, may not matter that much to markets outside of China.

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Perhaps even more than Samsung, Sony has a handful of businesses it could tap to improve its smartphones. It had display, imaging, entertainment, and gaming chops but, for one reason or another, including infighting and sibling rivalry, it never fully exploited those avenues. Once upon a time, however, it did dare with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. That popular "PlayStation Phone" was left without an heir but an alleged prototype has now popped up to show Android and Sony fans what could have been.

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