Phones

BlackBerry has always been a name associated with business-smart mobile devices. That is also why you’re unlikely to find a BlackBerry phone in anything but somber hues, like black, silver, or gray. There were some red editions, true, and those were pretty radical as far as BlackBerry is concerned. The upcoming KEY2 LE, a.k.a. KEY2 Lite, will supposedly mix things up a bit and this latest batch of leaked photos show just how much, or how little, it will show off its colors.

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The notch has become an inescapable fact of smartphone life this year but some manufacturers just refuse to live in Apple’s shadow. There’s a certain irony in how Chinese manufacturers often accused of always aping the iPhone’s designs are the very ones trying to differentiate themselves from the crowd. But not everyone wants or can afford elevating cameras and some seem to have a found another path forward. That is exemplified by the “V” style notch on the OPPO R17, OPPO F9, and, soon, the Honor 8X.

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When the Motorola P30 was leaked earlier this week, all I could see was the latest Android-laden iPhone X. Even though the Essential Phone PH-1 was the first major smartphone with a notch, Apple put one on their iPhone and sold an outrageous amount of units. Since then, several China-based companies have taken to cloning the iPhone X industrial design as best they could. When you're in a place where making a good, cheaper copy isn't looked down upon, it's rewarded, it makes good business sense to make said copy.

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The Huawei Mate 20 was listed for sale well before its official announcement. This device was listed by a smartphone sales website we've not been able to confirm much about, so we're not going to link directly to it. But it would appear that they've all the info we've seen about the Mate 20 plus a little bit extra we've not yet seen listed anywhere. Take everything here with a grain of salt.

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It’s that time of year again. New Android version, new guessing and then waiting game for which phones will get the update and, just as importantly, when. Things have gotten better over the years, in no small part thanks to high-profile security scares and Apple gloating, but it’s far from being ideal. Ideally, that would be when lists like this will be superfluous. But until that glorious day, here are some of the smartphone makers who have gone public about their love for Pie and those that have been unsurprisingly yet annoyingly silent for the past weeks.

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Google giveth and Google taketh away. New software versions are often expected to bring in new features and remove bugs but it isn’t unheard of for things to happen the other way around. There are some cases that features presumed to be there forever are suddenly yanked out without as much a warning. That definitely feels like the case with the sudden inability of non-root call recording apps to work in Android 9 Pie. That said, it probably shouldn’t come as surprise despite being an unfortunate “regression”.

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Some manufacturers have wholeheartedly embraced the notch. Others, like Samsung, continue to ignore it. Still others have tried to come up with different ways to compromise. Like Vivo before it, OPPO played with an elevating mechanism in the Find X to mixed results, only to return to a notch. But this is no Apple notch in the OPPO F9. It is a notch that is barely there but might, ironically, irk notch haters even more.

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Following news that some 2016 Pixel XL owners are experiencing issues with fast charging following the Android Pie update, Google has confirmed that it is working on a fix for the problem. According to impacted device owners, their Pixel XL smartphones no longer fast charge after installing the latest Android update, forcing them to charge at normal or slow speeds.

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The Huawei Mate 20 suffered a bit of a leak this week in the form of a couple of front panels. If the leak's contents be entirely legitimate, it would suggest that the company were delivering the smartphone with a 3D camera setup. This would not be a giant shock, as the only 3D camera setup on the market thus far is the Xiaomi Mi 8, a device that's just about as blatant a copycat as the latest Motorola phone leak - but, back to the subject.

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Samsung’s early launch of the Galaxy Note 9 means only one thing. We only have a little over two weeks to get a breather before we’re inundated by even more new products. IFA 2018 is just around the corner and with it comes new smartphones to choose from. If you’re the type who prefers to see and feel the keys on your phone, however, choice is pretty limited. Fortunately, TCL and BlackBerry are likely to drop another one before this month is over.

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While there has been an obsession over screen cutouts, most smartphone wars are still waged in terms of camera features. But no matter how good your smartphone camera may be, you might think that it isn’t just because it isn’t being displayed correctly on the smartphone screen. That is why DisplayMate continues to emphasize that the display is the crown jewel of smartphones. And, not that surprising, it’s giving the crown of smartphone displays to the latest flagship to come our way: the Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

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The White House has officially banned the government use of hardware made by Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei, including smartphones, routers, and similar devices. The move follows years of debate over the two companies and the potential national security risk their hardware may present. The ban is part of a $716 billion defense policy bill newly signed by President Trump.

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