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Garmin reveals high-end smartwatches for explorers with deep pockets
Garmin has just announced a pair of new smartwatches intended for explorers and extreme fitness enthusiasts. However, these are high-end gadgets with high-end specs and, accordingly, high-end price tags. The Epix Pro series features an AMOLED display and the Fenix 7 Pro series includes solar charging and weather mapping upgrades.
Garmin unveils its first dedicated running watches with AMOLED displays
Garmin announced two new GPS running smartwatches with AMOLED displays today: the Forerunner 965 and 265 series. The new watches provide “advanced training metrics” for runners and health stats like heart-rate variability (HRV), overall sleep quality and training load.
TCL expands its affordable 30-series smartphone lineup with five more models
TCL's affordable 30-series smartphone family has just grown considerably with no less than five new models, making for a total of seven.
Xiaomi's $32 Mi Band 5 has a bigger screen, better tracking and simpler charging
Xiaomi's latest Mi Band packs in even more features for a low price.
Samsung's 4K OLED Chromebook arrives on April 6th for $999
When Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook arrived at CES 2020 with a beautiful body and 13.3-inch 4K OLED display, we were smitten. Now, it's finally set to arrive at Best Buy in the US on April 6th starting at $999 (in Fiesta Red or Mercury Gray), according to a Best Buy listing and The Verge. (Update: Samsung confirms it will be available at Best Buy and on Samsung.com.)
Google's Pixel 4 could have an extra-fast OLED screen
Google may lean on considerably more than touch-free gestures to reel in would-be Pixel 4 buyers. Sources for 9to5Google claim that both the base Pixel 4 and the larger Pixel 4 XL will include fast 90Hz OLED displays marketed under a "Smooth Display" name. Much like the OnePlus 7 Pro and a few other devices, you'd get a silkier, more responsive screen that could be ideal for playing games and watching high frame rate videos.
Gigabyte's Aero 15 OLED laptop is made for video editors (updated)
In 2019, OLED laptops are nothing new. ASUS even took this feature to the next level on its dual-screen ZenBook Pro Duo. At Computex, Gigabyte is the latest company to join the trend, with a refreshed Aero 15 featuring a Samsung 4K AMOLED panel, wrapped in a 3mm-thin bezel. Inside, you get up to a Core i9-9980HK octa-core CPU, up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU, DDR4 2,666MHz RAM and a speedy SSD. It's quite the beast. But what Gigabyte has been focusing on is the fact that every Aero 15 OLED has its screen tuned by X-Rite Pantone before leaving the factory, and with its 100-percent DCI-P3 gamut plus DisplayHDR 400 certification, this laptop is clearly designed with video makers in mind. Likewise, this is one of the very few laptops that feature a UHS-II SD card slot. This means you no longer have to whip out a dedicated card reader to reach full speeds -- up to about 300MB/s or at least three times faster than UHS-I cards. For on-the-go video editors and creatives, it's a very tempting feature.
Xiaomi's Black Shark 2 gaming phone packs a pressure-sensitive display
Xiaomi released its third gaming phone today, the Black Shark 2, and this time around, it's using a pressure-sensitive display to cram in even more controls. That way, not only does the phone have an in-display fingerprint sensor by Samsung, it lets you map left and right controls to the screen. So you'll be able to control your games more easily through the screen, rather than by adding on physical buttons.
HP's Spectre x360 breaks new ground with a 15-inch AMOLED display
HP has announced that its latest Spectre x360 will be the first 15-inch laptop with an AMOLED display. It's actually been hard to find OLED of any kind on a PC, other than on a handful of models like HP's 13-inch Spectre x360 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga. AMOLED has been even rarer, appearing only on a couple of laptops including the Alienware OLED 13 and Samsung's own 12-inch Galaxy TabPro S. This lack of organic displays has been a shame, because the few models we've tested have impressed us a lot, offering much improved image quality.
Samsung is working on a foldable laptop display
Samsung has spent years talking up its upcoming foldable smartphone which, depending on who you ask, is dubbed either the Galaxy F or Galaxy X. But why stop there? Why not bring the bendy magic to other gadgets-with-a-screen? Well, it's doing exactly that, according to a Samsung exec. And next in line to get a foldable makeover is the company's laptops.
Samsung's mid-range Galaxy A7 has a triple camera setup
Triple-camera smartphones are officially the new normal. Samsung has unveiled the mid-range Galaxy A7 with three cameras at the rear: an 8-megapixel shooter with an ultra-wide 120 degree lens, a 24-megapixel main camera, and a "depth" lens to give you out-of-focus bokeh effects. The cameras use Samsung's Intelligent Scene Optimizer, which figures out what you're shooting and adjusts the contrast, brightness and color to optimize image quality.
Huawei's Watch 2 costs $550 more with a Porsche Design logo
Android Wear still pretty clunky despite the version 2.0 release, and most of the smartwatches using it are somewhere on a scale between homely and fugly. Huawei's Watch 2 is a decent looking exception, though, and it's hoping to boost profits from brand-conscious, deep-pocketed consumers with a Porsche Design version. Launched earlier this year, it now has a price: €795 ($920, or £710). That's around $550 more than the Watch 2 Classic, a similar model with a metal bezel on a plastic body.
Early Galaxy S8 owners complain of red-tinted screens
Samsung started shipping the Galaxy S8 to customers in South Korea who pre-ordered the flagship phone almost a full week ago. They were probably thinking of how lucky they were to get the phone early until some of them noticed something off about their screen. According to multiple reports posted on Korean forums like PPOMPPU and social networks like Instagram, some S8 units' displays have a very noticeable reddish tint. It's unclear how widespread the issue is, but it seems to be serious enough for "Galaxy S8 Red Screen" to be a trending search term on Korean search engine Naver.
Xiaomi's curved Note 2 has a striking yet familiar look
It was only last month when Xiaomi launched the Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus, but the Chinese company is already back with yet another flagship model. What we have here is the Mi Note 2 which, as you can tell by the name, is all about its large 5.7-inch 1080p display and generous 4,070 mAh battery. If it weren't for the missing stylus, you'd easily confuse the Mi Note 2 with the Samsung S7 Edge or Note 7: It comes in a familiarly gorgeous body design with curved glass on both sides, and yes, much like Samsung's offerings, the Mi Note 2 features a flexible OLED screen that lightly wraps around the edges, though it's just for looks for now. Not bad for a phone that starts from 2,799 yuan or about $413.
Flexible phone concept bends to control apps
This phone has a bendable screen, and it isn't just for show: it's equipped with a bending sensor and can actually be used as a form of input, like a stylus or your fingers on touchscreen displays. Our colleagues at Engadget Chinese got a chance to check the concept out at Touch Taiwan 2015, where it was being showcased by local manufacturer AUO. The company claims the device and its 5-inch, 1,280 x 720 AMOLED screen is unbreakable -- true or not, it does look a lot more pliable than, say, the LG G Flex 2, as you can see in the GIF after the break.
Samsung's Galaxy S6 will have a wrap-around display, says Bloomberg
Samsung thinks the unusual curved screen adorning its Galaxy Note Edge is the way to combat its sliding smartphone fortunes, according to a report from Bloomberg. It said the Korean company will release a 5.1-inch Galaxy S6 that will curve down both sides of the screen, rather than just the right like the Edge. However, it's also hedging its bets by releasing a second 5.1-inch Galaxy S6 model with a regular screen. There are no other details about the devices, but both will reportedly be unveiled at Samsung's Mobile World Congress event on March 1st in Barcelona.
Samsung's next Android tablet looks like a supersized Galaxy S5
Samsung has already launched a cavalcade of new Android tablets this year, but it looks like the company isn't quite done yet. SamMobile claims to have the first photos of the Galaxy Tab S 10.5, a recently rumored Android design that would mark Samsung's return to slates with OLED displays. As the name suggests, it would have a 10.5-inch, 2,560 x 1,600 AMOLED panel that promises higher contrast and bolder colors than an LCD; there's reportedly an 8.4-inch equivalent in the works, too.
Samsung beaten to the punch on next-gen mobile screens
While Samsung said in January that it's hard at work on a QHD (that's 2,560 x 1,440) AMOLED panel, it won't be the first to show one off. That honor goes to AU Optronics, a Taiwanese display company that makes screens for numerous device manufacturers, Samsung included. The 5.7-inch display squeezes in 513 pixels-per-inch, the most of any organic panel yet. Of course, there are already quite a number of QHD LCDs on the market, like the one found in Vivo's Xplay 3 and a 543ppi model from LG. AU said it also has a 6-inch QHD AMOLED coming, and Samsung will no doubt announce something similar soon -- possibly for the next Galaxy Note model. Either way, prepare more smartphones with pixels so densely packed that you can't distinguish them with the naked eye.
Moto X review
One year ago, Motorola, fat and fed by its Google acquisition, inched quietly into a silicon-spun cocoon to gestate. The subsequent passage of time allowed it to transmogrify and re-emerge a thing of red, yellow, blue and sometimes green beauty; a Google thing made by a Google company. The Moto X, its newborn monarch, arrives in an array of different colors, made possible by the NikeID-like Moto Maker site. It also comes with a homespun narrative: it's assembled here in the USA. Time to empty your wallets, patriots. This is America's smartphone and it costs $199 on a two-year contract. If I'm right in reading between the lines of Google's marketing speak, the Moto X was made in the image of the everyman. It's the product of a democratic process -- you can take that future design poll on Facebook as proof of this point. The 4.7-inch screen size, the curvature of its back, the composite materials, its weight and front-face look were focus-tested for maximum inoffensiveness. The Moto X exudes no tech halo like the Galaxy S 4 or the HTC One because it is the sum of averages. Here's how I see it: You know those people who own iPhones, but don't know which model number they own and also refer to all Android phones as Droids? This phone is for them. %Gallery-195299%
NHK has a theoretical fix for OLED's theoretical longevity problem
Japan's National Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, reckons OLED displays don't last long enough. And they have a point, because OLED pixels that are exposed to the air can lose half of their brightness in just 100 days. Commercial products are of course protected from the elements, but they're not perfect. This is where iOLED comes in. NHK inverts the anode and cathode layers in traditional OLED configurations, hence the added "i", and then adds an additional protective coating above the cathode. The result is a display that retains its brightness even when not fully sealed from the environment. Hopefully, this sort of solution will make its way into OLED TVs by the time OLED TVs are actually affordable, but in the meantime we're expecting to hear more about NHK's technology (and maybe see it in action) at Display Week later this month.