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  Introduction The S21 Ultra is Samsung's second shot at an S- series Ultra flagship, and here's something interesting we figured out about the company. More often than not, it seems to have a stronger second act than its first. Think back to the first Galaxy S. It was an okay phone. The S2, though? Great phone, huge hit. The first Galaxy Fold? It had its issues. The Fold2? Much better, much easier to recommend (if you have the money). We're not saying we've spotted a trend or theme that's been elusive to everyone else, but we would be remiss not to mention the above because it so neatly ties into the S21 Ultra and its relationship to the S20 Ultra. Call the first paragraph foreshadowing, if you will, but we can just hit you with the spoiler itself - the S21 Ultra is a much better product than its predecessor was. It's more polished, more refined, and it doesn't suck at any of the smartphone fundamentals - quite the contrary, in fact. So maybe it's not f...

  Floods, hurricanes, fires, the pandemic... Even if it looks like it's Ragnarök out there, it's not yet. But something with northern vibes is coming, and that's the OnePlus Nord 2. The sequel has one crystal-clear goal - to be the next flagship killer as part of the company's 'Never Settle' innovations. Let's meet the OnePlus Nord 2 5G. OnePlus already has a proper flagship lineup with the number series, and they are all alright. But Series 9 also have flagship prices. This is where the Nords and Nord 2 specifically come - to offer flagship features at a mid-range price and reclaim the lost 'flagship killer' title. The OnePlus Nord 2 5G brings a few improvements over the first Nord - faster hardware thanks to the new Dimensity 1200 chipset, a better main camera with a new Sony IMX766 sensor, dual speakers, and a larger 4,500mAh battery with faster 65W Warp Charge support. The OnePlus Nord 2 5G is offered in new cool finishes - you can choose between...

Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro get stable MIUI 12 update in China Xiaomi  unveiled MIUI 12 in late April  and then got to work on checking devices off its update to-do list. The latest to get the update are  Mi 10 5G  and  Mi 10 Pro 5G  units in China. What about the rest of the world? There are  47 phones  scheduled to get MIUI 12, but only the 2019 Mi and Redmi flagships are getting it by the end of this month (e.g. the Mi 9T/Redmi K20  already got it ). The timing of the global release for phones in the Mi 10 series is still to be announced, but it’s probably not happening this month.   MIUI 12 update notification • After the update Mi 10 and 10 Pro owners in China are receiving a fairly small update, just 820 MB, which pushes their phones to MIUI v12.0.1.0. It brings tons of new animations (including Super Wallpapers), improved dark mode, new navigation gestures, privacy controls, the AI Calling feature (call transcription for...

Samsung working on a Galaxy S20 Lite incoming with OneUI 2.5 At the beginning of this year, Samsung released the Galaxy S10 Lite - a slightly cheaper member of the Galaxy S10-series, which brought an interesting feature set - large flat screen and huge battery. Well, according to new information obtained by  SamMobile , the S10 Lite is getting a successor. A photo of the Galaxy S10 Lite As of now, there's not much to know about the handset except for some vague specs and model numbers. We can expect the phone to have at least 128GB of internal storage as a standard, it will run Samsung's One UI 2.5 out of the box and following the footsteps of its predecessor, it's likely that the handset will be powered by the Snapdragon 865 chipset. Not all markets will get a 5G-enabled variant. Reportedly, the global S20 Lite with model number  SM-G780  will come with and without 5G, depending on the market while a device with model number  SM-G781  intend...

Amazfit Stratos 3 smartwatch with dual OS launching in India later this month After bringing the  Bip S  and T-Rex smartwatches to India, Amazfit is set to launch one more smartwatch in the country this month - the Stratos 3. Amazfit hasn't revealed the launch date of the Stratos 3 yet, but we know it will be after June 20. It will be sold through Flipkart as well as Amazfit's official Indian site. Amazfit hasn't announced the price of the Stratos 3 but it's listed on  Flipkart  for INR17,999 ($240/€210). We reached out to Amazfit for confirmation and were told the price is incorrect and that the smartwatch will be priced lower. The Stratos 3 comes with four physical buttons and sports a 1.34" circular MIP TFT transflective color touch display of 320x320-pixel resolution, which is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. Its body material comprises 316L stainless steel and zirconia ceramic bezel, while the strap is made of silicone. The Stratos 3 features a dual...

Light, the designer of the Nokia 9 PureView camera, leaves the smartphone market The Nokia 9.3 PureView will not use a kooky camera setup from Light. In fact, no other phone will either as the company behind the penta-camera of the previous PureView model is pulling out of the phone business. It looks like Light is refocusing on the car industry where the superior depth perception of its cameras is a boon for self-driving vehicles. As for HMD Global, it will have to look for a new partner to develop a camera worthy of the PureView name. Rumors from January say that it’s already doing that, likely having been informed of Light’s plans earlier. In early 2019 Xiaomi also partnered with Light to develop smartphone cameras, but that never bore fruit. Sony was also a partner, but it was just looking for a venue to sell its sensors rather rather than trying to build a PureView-like phone. Speaking of the PureView, the new model has been dela...

ZTE Blade A3 Pr ZTE Blade A3 Prime launches on Yahoo Mobile and Visible for $99 with removable battery ime laes on Yahoo Mobile and Visible for $99 with removable battery The latest budget phone from ZTE is the Blade A3 Prime. It’s an entry-level smartphone with a $99 price that will be arriving to both of Verizon’s MVNO networks: Yahoo Mobile and Visible. The phone is free on Visible through the network’s SWAP program. The Blade A3 Prime is equipped with a 5.45-inch 720p screen with 18:9 aspect ratio and powered by the MediaTek Helio A22. There’s 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage with support for a microSD card. And here’s something you don’t see anymore: the phone has a removable 2,660 mAh battery.     There’s support for both face unlock and fingerprint authentication thanks to the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. There’s also an 8MP camera on the back and dual LED flash. We’re also glad to see the USB-C charging port has finally trickled down to the e...

CES Previews What To Expect From 5G In 2020 As expected, this year’s CES extravaganza featured a lot of noise around 5G, but the actual 5G news from the show was a bit different than many might have predicted. There was little to no discussion of new 5G phones, but a lot of announcements around 5G-enabled PCs. Similarly, we didn’t see (or hear) much about autonomous cars being driven via 5G, or robotic surgery being performed over 5G or any other of the more “out there” applications promised for 5G—in part because people are increasingly aware that those things are a very long way off (or might never really come to pass). At the same time, there was some discussion at Qualcomm’s CES press conference of momentum towards a 5G-based version of the vehicle to vehicle communication (V2V or sometimes called CV2X—short for the cellular-based vehicle to everything connectivity) leveraging the 5.9 GHz frequency band. Ironically, this happened around the same time I experienced a dem...

Apple will reportedly release an iPhone without any ports in 2021 Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has a new research note predicting Apple’s next two years of iPhones, and there’s a wild new detail: Apple’s 2021 flagship iPhone will reportedly kill off the Lightning port, but USB-C fans (like myself) shouldn’t get too excited. According to Kuo’s note, Apple won’t replace the proprietary port with USB-C; rather, it will rely on an entirely wireless experience for charging and syncing, via  9to5Mac . The change would be a big one for Apple, which has relied on the Lightning port for all of its phones since it was first introduced on the iPhone 5 in 2013. And while modern-day iPhones are certainly less reliant on physically syncing data, going to a fully wireless model would have huge ramifications across the tech industry, with everything from charging cable companies to headphone manufacturers being impacted. We’re still a long way out from 2021 — Apple’s 2020 iPhones ar...

Smart mirrors just make you hate yourself This is not how I see myself. Standing at  CES 2020 , the largest consumer tech show in the world, in front of LG's smart "mirror" prototype, I'm trying to suck in my gut to look a little less flabby than I really am. But the cameras -- minor errors aside -- don't lie, and the virtual me projected on the screen doesn't have the body I want it to have. A flurry of thoughts: I don't want a smart mirror that makes me feel like garbage; but then again, if my doughy avatar confronted me each morning, maybe I'd eat more salads. Or maybe the problem isn't my body at all, but rather my own insecurity. After all, LG's ThinQ Fit mirror is just trying to help me find more flattering clothes. OK, let's think about this practically. LG's smart mirror isn't really  shaming  me in any way -- although small errors in the measurements give me a slightly but noticeably paunchier build my first tim...

The new August Smart Lock is worth the wait August retrofit smart locks are popular and for good reason. We gave multiple generations of August locks our Editors' Choice Award for their easy installation, great app and smart home integration. One of the few downsides to the retrofit lock was its size. The large, circular lock needs to mount on the inside of your door frame, where you'll see it all day. August is now addressing that problem with its fourth-gen Smart Lock, which is 45% smaller than its predecessors. It's called the August Wi-Fi Smart Lock.   It feels smaller in my hand (a good thing, since I'm constantly lamenting the rise of mega-screen phones) but it's just as sturdy as its predecessors. The team, which includes renowned designer Yves Béhar, stayed true to the original design while making small updates such as the pattern around the edge. That's now a noticeably grippier ridge design. Along that ridge is a cleverly placed August logo t...

Xiaomi security camera shows users the footage of strangers; Google disables its Nest integration A newly purchased Xiaomi Mijia 1080p smart IP security camera in The Netherlands showed its owner footage from random strangers, making for a rather creepy experience and potential privacy-violating one. After Reddit user, Dio-V posted about this incident and started gathering considerable attention, reports on the matter state that Google has since reached out to him, and as a precautionary measure, has disabled Xiaomi’s integration with the Google Nest ecosystem of smart home devices. Xiaomi has now released a statement acknowledging the matter and stated that the issue has been resolved. It is not clear as to what may have caused this incident, and by the sound of it, the glitch appeared due to an error from Xiaomi’s end. Google opened its third-party devices access programme to vendors of smart home products such as security cameras in October 2019, following which 20-odd sec...

Xiaomi Mi 10 specifications leak online, 90Hz display and 64MP quad camera setup tipped Xiaomi Mi 10 series has already been confirmed to be powered by the Snapdragon 865 chipset. Now, a new leak via Weibo has spilt the beans and revealed key Xiaomi Mi 10 specifications that include a 90Hz OLED display, 64MP quad-camera setup and 30x zoom support. Mi 10 Pro specifications are still a mystery, but we do know that it will most likely be equipped with a 108-megapixel rear camera. Qualcomm has also confirmed that the Mi 10 series would feature 5G support. Xiaomi is expected to announce the Mi 10 series before MWC in February 2020, though an exact launch date is still unknown. Xiaomi Mi 10 specifications:- Xiaomi Mi 10 specifications have shown up on a Weibo post, whereas the Mi 10 Pro is still under wraps. Since these aren’t confirmed, we recommend that you take it with a pinch of salt. As per the leak, the Mi 10 would feature a 6.5-inch OLED panel with 90Hz refresh rate. The p...

Sony to Host CES 2020 Event on January 6: What to Expect Sony has revealed that it will be at CES 2020 this year, and will host an event on January 6 in Las Vegas. The event will begin at 5 pm PST (6.30 am IST, January 7), and will be live-streamed for the world to see. Teasing at what to expect from the event, the company says that it will be ‘unveiling a unique vision of the future, bringing creativity and technology together like never before.' The company is largely reported to be working on an Xperia 3 flagship; however, the company usually launches its phones at MWC, and not at CES. The tech giant's CES 2020 event will be live-streamed on the company website, starting 6.30 am IST on January 6 i.e. Tuesday. The dedicated page for CES teases that the ‘future is coming'. The page notes, “At CES 2020 Sony is unveiling a unique vision of the future, bringing creativity and technology together like never before, to unleash new sensations and emotions.” Sony could ...

Google News Removing Digital Magazines Realising that people are not even reading magazines like Rolling Stone or Conde Nast Traveller and newspapers online, Google has decided to discontinue 'print replica' PDFs of magazines on its Google News app. The tech giant is sending emails to Google News users about full refunds that are being processed and there will be no new issues coming, reports Android Police. The print replica magazines in Google News are the PDF versions of print editions that you could view on smartphones or desktop. Readers could still visit a magazine's website if they wish to read the e-version of the magazine, the report said on Friday. "This notification is to inform you that we're discontinuing print-replica magazines in Google News. "Publishers can continue selling content on Google News in the form of paywalled RSS-based publications - it is only the support for the sale of discrete digital files that are changing,...