Update (6/26):
Yep, Axon is indeed connected to ZTE. While it already seemed obvious this phone was related to ZTE, we havenow turned up a trademark for the Axon which belongs to the Chinese manufacturer. It’s still unclear if this is a whole new sub-brand or merely a new naming convention that is aimed at the US market. We’ll know soon enough, as the Axon is slated to launch on July 14th.
T-Mobile has reduced the price of the Note 8 on its website by $130, bringing the total price down to $820 from $950 (you’ll still see the Note 8 widely available at the $950 price point too, it’s not just a loose MSRP). This applies both to the outright price and the instalment price for the phone — which comes in at $30 per month for 24 months — and it’s available Orchid Gray or Midnight Black color variants.
Philo is an excellent live streaming service if you’re not particularly a sports fan, and you now have the chance to get your first month for just $1. From now until April 25, Best Buy is offering this promotion for new subscribers when you buy a qualifying device, representing a 95% discount on the usual $20 monthly fee.
The qualifying devices range from Hisense and Westinghouse smart TVs to streaming sticks, and more.
Last year, Huawei released the MediaPad X1, a 7-inch tablet with LTE capabilities, and HD screen, and a solid build. This year, the company is looking to push things even further with a follow-up that boasts some very impressive hardware. Just announced in Barcelona at MWC 2015 is the MediaPad X2.
The 7-inch device features a laminated, 1200X1920 HD IPS display with promised viewing angles of 178 degrees. A 64-Bit, 2.0GHz Kirin 930 Octa-Core CPU is on board, which supports LTE Cat.
Motorola’s newly-announced budget handset, the Moto E (2015), is now available on both Sprint Prepaid and Boost Mobile for only $99. This is the 4G LTE-capable device we’re talking about here, so it will work on both Sprint and Boost’s 4G networks. If either of those carriers aren’t your style, the new device will also be available on Virgin Mobile beginning Monday, March 9th for the same price.
The second generation Moto E is quite a nice step up from last year’s model.
Do you remember the Android gaming box called Gamepop that was set to take over your living room gaming experience? It was big news early last year, but it sort of fell off the radar. But you’d be wrong to consider Gamepop a dead concept, as their current round of funding just got a big bump by Samsung.
With Samsung’s contribution, Gamepop’s manufacturer, BlueStacks, adds $13 million to their total raised in their current campaign to deliver Gamepop as a white-label solution for TV makers and cable providers.
OnePlus just launched a new mid-ranger in the OnePlus Nord CE (the “CE” stands for “Core Edition”). Meanwhile, the Google Pixel 4a from last year is still a viable competitor. But who would win in a OnePlus Nord CE vs Google Pixel 4a bout with the Speed Test G suite? Well, that’s exactly what we set out to determine.
Our own Gary Sims pit the two phones together to see which one offers the best raw processing power.
While older phones like the Galaxy S5 managed to combine a removable battery cover with an IP67 water-resistant rating, LG clearly felt the risk was not worth it with the LG V34. The V34 is a smaller, water-resistant version of the LG V20. But it does not follow in its larger counterpart’s footsteps – nor those laid down by the likes of the Galaxy S5 – by offering a removable battery.
HTC has announced that the Desire 516, one of HTC’s budget handsets, is coming to Europe. Previously only available in China and India, the device is a dual SIM, 5 inch device powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor.The screen resolution of the Desire 516 is quite low at just 540 x 960, which means it has a pixel density of just 220 ppi. The Desire 516 only comes with 4GB of internal flash, however it does have a micro SD card slot, which allows you to add an additional 32GB of storage.
Pokémon Go fans can now download the latest version of the augmented reality game from the Google Play Store. It adds a few small but interesting features and improvements to the monster catching and battling title, including some new indicators for hatching eggs.
How to hatch eggs in Pokemon Go
Apps
The new version number for the Android port is 0.43.3. The biggest new feature is that eggs in the game appear in different colors, depending on the distance required to hatch them.