TL;DR The Xiaomi Mi 11 has received a teardown by repair website iFixit. It’s received the same score as the base Galaxy S21 and a higher score than the S21 Ultra. Smartphones have come a long way since the early days of Android and Symbian, but one aspect that hasn’t improved in that time is the ease of repairing them. Now, DIY repair website iFixit has conducted a teardown of the Xiaomi Mi 11, and it seems like the new Xiaomi phone doesn’t drastically change things.

Honor Honor 8XTable of contents Honor has released a number of smartphones in 2018 — perhaps too many depending on who you ask — but they all aim to offer exceptional value and build quality that punches well above their price tag. The Honor 8X fits into the portfolio as a supersized phablet model priced at €249. Somewhat confusingly, the Honor 8X doesn’t share too much in common with 2016’s Honor 8.

Update, December 11, 2019 (10:51 AM ET): The offer below related to getting a free Google Home Mini from Spotify is active again. The instructions below still apply, so simply follow the ones pertaining to your situation and you’ll be all set. Notably, those of you with student accounts are now eligible for the promotion. Any mention below of students not being eligible should be ignored. Unfortunately, those of you who signed up for Spotify through a third party — such as Apple, for example — are still not eligible for the free Google Home Mini.

Thank. God. Google Photos has finally added a capability that has long been a staple of photo organizing apps and programs. In a Google+ post today, Google Photos announced that they are adding album slideshows to the picture-storing platform’s list of robust features. Finally you can simply navigate to an album and select Slideshow from the dropdown menu to have your favorite images automatically paraded before you. This beats the pants off the old method, which saw you clicking painstakingly through each picture.

TL;DR A Russian YouTuber has released another video showing the Google Pixel 3 XL. The YouTuber claims the Pixel 3 XL has an improved display and a vibration system on par with the iPhone. The camera was also praised. After a ton of leaks, it seems like we have already found out pretty much everything there is to know about the Google Pixel 3 XL. However, that hasn’t stopped Rezetked, the Russian YouTube channel behind some of the original leaks, from sharing another video.

Last week’s poll summary: Last week, we asked you which email client you use. Out of over 5,000 total votes, 52 percent of voters said they use the standard Gmail app. 13 percent of voters use Microsoft Outlook, 9 percent of voters said they still use Inbox by Gmail (RIP), while Blue Mail and stock email apps each received 5 percent of the votes. Augmented reality may not completely change the way we use our smartphones, but there are some novelty use cases for it.

Mystery Motorola Android smartphone Ahead of the launch of the Google Daydream View virtual reality headset in November, the company has already released its Daydream Keyboard app. It is now available to download from the Google Play Store, but it cannot be used yet until both the headset and the first Daydream-supported phones are generally available. The app description is brief and very general, stating only that the app is “an on-screen virtual reality keyboard for text entry in Daydream applications.

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 810 Mobile Development Platform smartphone and tablet are now available for purchase, each equipped with some of the best mobile technology currently available. Priced at $799 and $999 respectively, these developer oriented devices aren’t cheap. Fortunately, staring in quiet awe is free of charge. The Snapdragon 810 developer smartphone is a 6.2-inch behemoth, packing a 2560×1600 (490ppi) display. It also comes with 4GB of LP-DDR4 RAM, a 3020mAh battery, 13MP OIS and dual flash rear camera, 4MP front facing camera capable of 1080p 120fps recording, QuickCharge 2.

Realme Buds Q2The Realme Buds Q2 take another step towards democratizing high-end audio features. These true wireless earphones bring active noise cancellation, long battery life, and a decent sound to a budget price point. Unfortunately, significant concessions have been made to build quality to hit that price. There’s no dearth of affordable true wireless earphones on the market. Xiaomi, Realme, and Oppo are just some of the players competing for a slice of the pie, and that’s great for customers.

Samsung surprisingly announced a new flagship SoC and 5G modem at its ongoing Tech Day 2019 event in San Jose. The Exynos 990 closely follows Samsung’s Exynos 980 which was unveiled back in September. While the Exynos 980 is a 5G-integrated chipset, the new Exynos 990 is a standalone application processor without a modem. That’s probably because Samsung also revealed a brand new 5G Exynos Modem 5123 which could be bundled with the new processor.