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All Posts by Alex Dobie

Galaxy Note 8 will cost a gazillion pounds in the UK

86 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 23 Aug 2017 4:40 am
Galaxy Note 8
Buying a Note 8 outright? Be prepared to part with a crap-ton of cash. Today is Samsung Galaxy Note 8 day, so of course at least one retailer has jumped the gun and prematurely published its product page. British mobile giant Carphone Warehouse has let slip a full spec sheet for the device (largely confirming what we've known for some time through other leaks), along with the first UK pricing...

Watch our Android 8.0 Oreo video review!

6 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 22 Aug 2017 5:00 pm
There are big updates, and there are not-so-big updates. Over the years, some Android versions have brought massive technical and visual changes, while others have tightened up the screws and added polish without shaking things up too much. The new release of for 2017 and beyond — Android 8.0 Oreo — fits somewhere in between those two extremes. Android is pretty stable at this...

Android 8.0 Oreo review: Vive la évolution

50 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 21 Aug 2017 2:50 pm
Oreo
The latest version of Android packs in many small but important additions, all of which make the OS more polished and mature than ever. Some Android releases represent massive sea changes for Google's OS, overhauling technical underpinnings or introducing new design elements. Others are content to tighten up the screws and add polish to an already well-established platform. The new release of...

Samsung Galaxy Note 8: Specs, images, release date and more

166 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 21 Aug 2017 7:30 am
Galaxy Note 7
Everything we know so far about the successor to Samsung's ill-fated Note 7. Oh boy. It's time for a new Samsung Galaxy Note. As you may remember, things didn't go too well for the last entry in the Note series. And although the Galaxy S8 has enjoyed strong sales and critical praise in the meantime, Samsung will remain under intense scrutiny as it looks to relaunch the tarnished Note brand....

From the Editor's Desk: Fun with HDR+

16 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 20 Aug 2017 12:00 pm
Port of Pixel camera app to other phones shows Google is still almost unmatched in computational photography. One of the major trends in smartphones in the past year has been the rise of computational photography — using the vast computing power of modern phones to get better pictures from the tiny lenses and sensors in our devices. However wrong Vic Gundotra was in his recent tirade against...

Android at IFA 2017: What's coming from LG, Samsung, Sony, and more!

7 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 17 Aug 2017 8:00 am
Based in Berlin, Germany, IFA is one of the biggest tech trade shows around, and it's also one of the oldest, with a 93-year history behind it. The first IFA was held way back in 1924. Six years later, the show was opened by the one and only Albert Einstein. These days, IFA is a platform for just about everything with a chip or a radio antenna — connected gadgets, TVs, computers,...

ASUS ZenFone 4 series hands-on

13 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 17 Aug 2017 4:30 am
ZenFone 4
Photography is front and center for the ZenFone 4 launch, as ASUS unveils four new dual-camera phones. ASUS has just taken the wraps off its new flagship phones at a global launch event in Taipei, revealing a four completely new models with solid specs and some neat photographic tricks. The ZenFone 4 line actually comes in six different flavors — there's a ZenFone 4, 4 Pro, 4 Selfie, 4 Selfie...

ASUS unveils flagship ZenFone 4 series at global launch event

14 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 17 Aug 2017 4:30 am
ASUS ZenFone 4 Pro
ZenFone 4 Pro leads the pack with dual cameras and Snapdragon 835. ASUS has taken the wraps off its latest line of flagship smartphones in the ZenFone 4 line. And as in previous years, the Taiwanese company is fielding a wide range of handsets targeting different kinds of consumers.

LG V30 software revealed ahead of launch

77 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 13 Aug 2017 11:34 pm
LG V30 UI
LG announces UI for unannounced smartphone As it often does ahead of a big new smartphone announcement, LG has started the process of pre-announcing its next big thing. Today, a news release from the company takes the wraps off the LG V30's's software suite, giving us our first look at the UI we'll be using on the upcoming flagship. The new LG UX 6.0+ tunes up the visuals, with a rounded, Galaxy...

Google Pixel 2: Is the smaller second-gen Pixel an afterthought?

66 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 3 Aug 2017 10:00 am
Pixel camera
Google might have missed an opportunity to make a truly great, smaller flagship this year. One of the best things about the current Google Pixel phones is the ability to pick whichever size suits you without compromising on specs or feature set. Aside from necessary changes like a smaller battery — there's less room inside a smaller phone — the experience on the smaller 2016 Pixel perfectly...

Best HTC Phones

Posted by Alex Dobie on 2 Aug 2017 1:09 pm
HTC
HTC may be an underdog in the smartphone world, but it's still making some of the best handsets on the market. There are a lot of smartphones out there, and Taiwanese manufacturer HTC makes some of the best — even if it doesn't sell anywhere near as many as the market leaders. Such is life. New phones are always coming and going, and we get that it can be a little difficult to keep up with...

New OnePlus 5 color teased in China

4 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 2 Aug 2017 5:53 am
OnePlus 5 colors
Gold OnePlus 5 could be inbound in the company's home market. The OnePlus 5's decidedly muted palette may be about to gain a new, colorful addition. The company has teased a new OnePlus 5 color option on Chinese social platform Weibo, showing the existing black and grey variants alongside the outline of a new, unknown hue. A caption invites fans to guess "who is coming."

Vic Gundotra is wrong about Android photography

116 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 1 Aug 2017 8:04 am
Vic Gundotra
The iPhone has no monopoly on computational photography, and Android cameras are not inherently weaker. The latest arguments to the contrary, from the man who once led Google's mobile efforts, are weird and wrong. Former Google SVP and current AliveCor CEO Vic Gundotra has thoughts on smartphone cameras. The man who was once in charge of Android, and everything else mobile at Google, gifted...

OnePlus 5 4.5.7 update adds new font, 4K video stabilization and more

13 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 1 Aug 2017 8:45 am
OnePlus 5 camera
Wi-Fi and battery standby fixes also incoming in latest OxygenOS OTA. Following on from the recent emergency calling hotfix, OnePlus has today released a meaty OTA for the OnePlus 5 that squishes some bugs, enhances security, and adds a couple of neat new features.

From the Editor's Desk: The Essentials

35 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 30 Jul 2017 10:00 am
Essential phone
Andy Rubin's new firm needs to act fast, and deliver a great product, if it's to avoid being squeezed by the competition. I haven't written (or, if I'm honest, really thought a whole lot) about the Essential Phone since its announcement. Indeed, most of the hype around the device stems from the fact that it's the brainchild of Android founder (and namesake) Andy Rubin. It's obvious, but let's...

Huawei CEO drops first hints on Mate 10

21 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 28 Jul 2017 2:23 am
Richard Yu
Richard Yu promises high screen-to-body ratio and strong cameras for Mate 10, says Huawei will be 'giving up' on low-end phones. In an interview with Bloomberg Technology covering the company's growth over the past year, Huawei's Consumer Business Group CEO, Richard Yu, dropped some early hints on what we can expect from its next flagship phone. "We will have an even more powerful product...

Essential offers a sneak peek at its camera capabilities

32 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 28 Jul 2017 1:12 am
Essential Phone's dual camera setup explained in company blog post. Between all their various space, cost and computation constraints, smartphone cameras are hard. Producing great photos from a tiny lens and sensor in a pocket-sized device is a serious challenge, even at the high end. Essential, makers of the Essential Phone is one of the many manufacturers adopting a dual rear camera system...

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fires, recall, cancellation, and rebirth: Everything you need to know

700 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 27 Jul 2017 7:00 am
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Here's all the information you need about the Galaxy Note 7 fires and recall — the events that led to the phone being discontinued — and eventually reborn as the Galaxy Note Fan Edition. After almost a year of twists and turns since September 2016, the Galaxy Note 7 story has (effectively) come to an end. As is well known by now, Samsung faced battery quality issues in the handset, leading to...

Huawei Mate 9 gets hefty price cut in the U.S.

16 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 26 Jul 2017 11:24 pm
Huawei Mate 9
$459.99 now gets you a 6-inch handset with dual cameras, Nougat and a 4,000mAh battery. The Huawei Mate 9 is one of our favorite big-screened Android phones of the year — and arguably one of the best, if battery life is your main concern. Now the Mate 9 is available at its lowest price to date — $459.99 from Amazon in the U.S., down from its already discounted price of $499.99 just a few days...

Google Instant Search is dead

22 Comments
Posted by Alex Dobie on 26 Jul 2017 11:54 pm
Google logo
Google wants search to be consistent across all devices, and that means killing off Instant Search after seven years. First launched just way back in 2010, Google Instant Search was supposed to be the future of search, saving countless precious seconds each day by loading results dynamically as you typed, freeing users from the chains of the enter key. The feature was big news at the time —...

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