Articles about Smartphone

The Samsung Galaxy S8 looks to be a hit with consumers, but which of the two flagships will be the most popular? According to a report from Yuanta Securities, it will be the Galaxy S8+ that will woo buyers the most.

Yuanta Securities expects Samsung to ship 50.4 million Galaxy S8 units in a year, with the Galaxy S8+ accounting for 27.1 million of those. That's 53.8 percent of overall sales, a trend which matches what the company observed with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S6 series.

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It's a little over three weeks since Samsung first unveiled the Galaxy S8 and S8+, and now launch day is upon us. Today sees the flagship smartphones hitting US, Canada, Puerto Rico and Korea, and over the coming weeks it will spread to other markets.

In terms of hardware and software, there's quite a lot to get excited about -- the screen for starters, as well as Bixby -- but aesthetes also have some rather pleasing news. For buyers in the US, the rear of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ will be devoid of branding from Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint.

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New flagships have to be truly special to stand out from the crowd when you have high-end smartphones like the Apple iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S8 at the top of the pack. Xiaomi knows this, which is why the new Mi 6 features cutting edge hardware, a great price, and a pretty cool camera setup on the back.

The Mi 6 features two 12MP cameras on the back, one with a wide-angle lens for casual snaps and the other with a telephoto lens for when you need to zoom in. Xiaomi says that the second camera lets you enjoy 2x zoom without a loss in quality.

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Microsoft is making it easier than ever to sign into a Microsoft account, adding a new authentication option in the Microsoft Authenticator app that lets you approve the sign in attempt using just your Android smartphone or iPhone.

Here's how it works. When you enter your Microsoft account handle you will get a prompt from Microsoft Authenticator to approve or deny the attempt. To take advantage of this option, you need to add your Microsoft account to the app or, if you already did so, turn on the "Enable phone sign-in" option.

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Your two-year contract is almost up and you can’t wait to switch to another carrier, that has cheaper plans and better options. Your mobile data is never enough, and on top of everything you pay absurd roaming fees every time you travel.

Or maybe you want to get your hands on a new flagship, like the Samsung Galaxy S8, for example, but you can’t afford a SIM-free version, so getting it with a two-year contract remains the best option. Unfortunately, everybody knows that such phones come locked... Worry not, it's perfectly possible to unlock your phone and the process is actually very straightforward.

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Judging by how popular our You can remap the Bixby button on Samsung Galaxy S8 story is, many folks want to open a different app using the extra hardware key on the new flagship smartphone. But, as it turns out, that might no longer be possible.

For a while, it looked like Samsung would leave that door open for interested customers, but now it's changing the software to make sure that the button only does what the firm wants it to do -- open Bixby and nothing else.

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There are not many well-known online services that don't offer two-factor authentication (2FA) nowadays, but Twitter is very late to the party. Well, that might not be strictly true. Twitter recently added support for third-party authenticator apps, but failed to make any sort of song and dance about it.

The change means that it's now possible to make use of the likes of Google Authenticator and Authy with Twitter -- but you'd be forgiven for not having found the option by accident already.

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Windows 10 Creators Update is already live for those who have a desktop, laptop or tablet, but for Mobile users the wait is not yet over. However, the roll out is expected to kick off soon, with Microsoft announcing that it will release Windows 10 Mobile Creators Update on April 25. Question is, which devices will it support?

Windows 10 Mobile works on quite a few smartphones, but the launch of Windows 10 Mobile Creators Update will see this list reduced to just 13 smartphones. The devices that didn't make the cut are mostly older handsets, which launched in the Windows Phone 8.1 era.

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The Android landscape is changing, albeit at a really, really slow pace. That explains why, in early-April, Google reports that Nougat is found on 4.9 percent of Android devices, while the older Marshmallow powers nearly a third -- 31.2 percent -- of the smartphones and tablets that run the most-popular mobile operating system.

Things couldn't be more different if we look at the iOS space, where iOS 10 currently holds a 79 percent share. Meanwhile, its predecessor, iOS 9, can be found on just 16 percent of the iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices in use. Google released Nougat in mid-August, last year, while Apple introduced iOS 10 the following month, in September.

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The LG G6 is one of the most intriguing smartphones unveiled this year, and starting today it is finally rolling out across the globe. The device was unveiled at MWC 2017, with its novel 5.7-inch display being the standout feature.

The flagship was actually released in South Korea in mid-March, but LG waited until this month to bring it to international markets. In the coming period it will be available at almost 200 carriers worldwide and in major markets in North America, Europe, Asia, and Central and South America.

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After the launch of the data-saving YouTube Go beta by Google, Twitter has announced the launch of Twitter Lite. In a similar vein to YouTube Go, Twitter Lite is an acknowledgement that a huge number of people around the world are getting online using a 3G -- or even a 2G -- connection.

Twitter Lite is not an app, but a lighter version of the mobile version of the Twitter website. With no app to download, it can be used on any smartphone or tablet and an additional Data Saver mode further reduces bandwidth requirements and helps to speed up the overall experience.

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A multiport USB charger is great when you need to charge a couple of smartphones and tablets at the same time. It supports a wide range of devices, cuts down on the number of sockets that you use and is usually small enough so you can take it with you on a trip. Over the years, I've become a bit of a fan.

There are many options to choose from and Tronsmart's W2TF is certainly among the most interesting as it strikes a nice balance between functionality and portability.

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Samsung has given Galaxy S8 owners a lot to be excited about, including Samsung DeX to transform it into a dockable computer. There's also the assistant, Bixby, but the biggest talking point is probably that display.

The Infinity Display not only occupies a massive proportion of the front of the smartphone, it is also the best display of any smartphone ever. At least that's what the guys over at DisplayMate think; after testing in the labs, they awarded it the highest grade they’ve ever handed out.

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It has been a while since Google announced its plans for YouTube Go, a streamlined version of its mobile app with a focus on sharing and minimizing data usage. Now the company has released the first beta on Google Play.

Designed for use in countries with less-than-reliable internet connection, such as India, YouTube Go also allows for the downloading of videos for offline viewing without buffering. The app includes a number of options to help you "maximize your fun without burning up your data," including the ability to preview videos and see the amount of data required to download different quality versions of the same file.

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If you are looking for the perfect weather app, let me save you the trouble of reading all those roundups out there: there isn't one. They are all flawed. And it's not necessarily because of their design, functionality or support, but rather what they can -- and do -- often get wrong: the forecast.

The forecast is based on information from a weather station that is usually miles and miles away. And while I have no doubt that you can get accurate predictions for that respective area, it's been my experience that things can be totally different in your area. So, how do you fix that? Enter the personal weather station.

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