A smartphone is a mobile phone built on a mobile operating system, with more advanced computing capability connectivity than a feature phone. The first smartphones combined the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA) with a mobile phone. Later models added the functionality of portable media players, low-end compact digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and GPS navigation units to form one multi-use device.
All stories in Smartphone
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Huawei Mate 20 Pro: A long-term review of 2018's most ambitious phone
When I first laid my hands on Huawei's Mate 20 Pro in October, I thought it was the most ambitious phone I'd seen in years. ...
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4 unconventional phones we reviewed in the past 3 months, ranked
We review a lot of phones at TNW. Here are four of the strangest devices we've covered over the past few months. You're welcome. ...
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Everything to expect from MWC 2019, the world's biggest smartphone show
Mobile World Congress is right around the corner, set to start on February 24. It's the world's biggest show on smartphones ...
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Motorola’s new Moto G7 blurs the line between budget and flagship
I’m less compelled to recommend flagship phones every year. Smartphone performance has largely crossed a point of diminishing ...
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Smartphones and voice-assisted devices create opportunities for modern customer experiences
Anyone who uses a smartphone can attest to the incredible power of real-time, in-the-moment discovery that leads to decisions ...
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Apple will reduce international prices for future iPhones
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company will tweak its pricing strategy for its flagship phones from here on out, to make them ...
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Review: The Vivo Nex 2’s bet on dual displays somehow paid off
Vivo put two screens, three cameras, and 10GB RAM into its Nex Dual Display Edition. Strangely enough, it's a good phone ...
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Meizu's 'holeless' device isn't the future of phones – it's the future of phone advertising
The Meizu Zero made headlines for being the first "holeless" phone. It might not shift many units, but it's a sign of how ...
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The Meizu Zero is the phone without buttons or ports we all expected Apple to make
It's the iPhone we all thought Apple would make someday: a device with no buttons, no ports, no headphone jack, not even ...
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Phone makers are going all-in on foldables, but I'm skeptical
The age of foldable phones is nearly upon us, what with brands big and small experimenting with this new paradigm of device ...
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I'm kicking myself for not buying an iPhone SE last weekend
Apple recently made its excellent iPhone SE available for a song - but it's already sold out. If, like me, you didn't get ...
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Apple launches battery cases for the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR at $129
Apple is now selling battery cases to help you avoid running out of juice with your iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, at $129 a ...
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Leak: The Pixel 3 'Lite' brings back the headphone jack and keeps the camera
We've been hearing rumblings of a midrange Pixel 3 'Lite' for a few months now, but a new leak by Andro News seems to all ...
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Report: LG's next flagship phone can add a second screen with a fancy case
I gotta hand it to LG. The company doesn't always hit its mark, but it's always doing new things with its phones that no ...
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Hands-on: The Doogee S90 modular phone is weird as hell
The Doogee S90 is arguably the strangest phone of 2019.
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The 2019 iPhone might not be so ugly after all
We've only just started 2019 but the rumor mill for this year's iPhone is already churning at a comfortable pace. It was ...
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South Korean women protest against growing epidemic of spycam porn
South Korean women took to the streets of Seoul and protested against the issue of spycam porn. The hidden filming devices ...
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All 4 cameras on the Samsung Galaxy A9 are disappointing
The Samsung Galaxy A9 comes with four cameras and a promise to change the way you shoot pictures on your phone. Too bad they're ...
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Review: The Honor 10 Lite is a budget phone that feels much more expensive
The Honor 10 Lite is a perfect example of sub-£200 excellence
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Oppo to unveil phone camera with 10x optical zoom on January 16
Oppo is about to set a new standard by unveiling a phone camera with 10x optical lossless zoom. the company is sending invites ...
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Samsung is prepping M-series budget phones to battle its Chinese rivals in India
After playing second fiddle to Chinese rival Xiaomi in India's burgeoning smartphone market in 2018, Samsung is set to fight ...
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Samsung will officially reveal the Galaxy S10 on February 20
It's official: Samsung will show off its newest flagship on February 20 at an event in San Francisco. The invite doesn't ...
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Just because you can earn cryptocurrency for squatting doesn’t mean you should
It's barely the middle of January and we've got our first "why did they invent that" cryptocurrency token project of the ...
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Our obsession with taking photos is changing how we remember the past
Last year I visited the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia – one of the best art museums in the world. I was expecting ...
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Xiaomi reignites the megapixel wars with its 48MP Redmi Note 7
It feels like we're back in 2012 with phone makers battling each other over megapixel counts. Weeks after Honor announced ...
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Here’s why telephones and calculators use different numeric keypads
Picture the keypad of a telephone and calculator side by side. Can you see the subtle difference between the two without ...
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Nokia’s 5-camera phone leaked in all its glory
In September 2018, a leaked photo suggested that Nokia planned to launch a phone with five rear cameras, called the Nokia ...
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Xiaomi turns its Redmi budget phone label into a sub-brand
Chinese hardware giant Xiaomi just announced that it is officially turning its Redmi label - which it's used for its budget ...
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Samsung's Galaxy S10 leaks with new Infinity-O display cutout
A new year, another phone leak. It's no secret that Samsung is launching the Galaxy S10 this year, likely sometime in late ...
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Xiaomi rumored to be working on a triple-fold phone
Last year, Samsung gave us a glimpse of its highly anticipated Galaxy F foldable phone. Now, a new leak suggests that Xiaomi ...
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How to take better portrait mode photos on any phone
Ah, portrait mode. Ever since Huawei pioneered the depth-sensing tech and Apple ran with it, it seems every other Instagram ...
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Huawei P30 shows up in renders... and brings back the headphone jack?
After Huawei's P20 and Mate 20 lines were met with near-universal praise last year, Huawei is getting ready to return with ...
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OPPO's new R17 phone has a teensy-tiny, itsy-bitsy little notch
OPPO's R17 is a mid-range Android phone. Its main differentiation points are an interesting color scheme and a interesting ...
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Pixel 3 Lite XL renders show a headphone jack and no notch
Google's Pixel 3 Lite XL made its way to the internet thanks to 91 mobiles and OnLeaks renders. The phone shows no notch ...
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What to expect from smartphone cameras in 2019
Phone cameras are only getting better every year, and we're hoping for some meaningful upgrades in 2019. Here's a look at ...
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We should teach human rights law to software engineers
Technology dominates a large amount of our lives and software engineers should be taught about human rights laws to avoid ...
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This study shows why people fall for fake online profiles
The first step in online propaganda and misinformation campaigns is a fake social media profile. According to this study, ...
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Why your phone's notifications are the way they are
The notification bell that was once used to keep us in the loop is now mostly used to bring us back into the loop instead. ...
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Day 12 of TNW’s Advent Deals: a Samsung Galaxy, a Dyson fan, and a laptop
This holiday period, Plugged is running a very special advent calendar. Over the course of 12 days, we’ll be sharing a ...
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These are the 10 coolest Kickstarter campaigns of 2018
Kickstarter is always a mixed bag. On the one hand, there are some of the most innovative products on Earth, all in one place. ...
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The best phones of 2018 for every kind of buyer
It's the end of the year, so you know what that means: awards lists. In our case, it's time to crown the best phones of 2018, ...
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Dev kits for Purism’s ultra-private Librem 5 smartphone are now shipping
And the final product will ship early next year.
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3 game-changing phone trends we can expect in 2019
2018 is winding down, and we’ve witnessed a number of significant events this year as far as mobile tech is concerned: these include the US government signing an order laying out its 5G strategy, major telcos rolling out 5G, companies like Vivo and Huawei launching mobile phones ...
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The inside story behind the All-View Display on the Honor View20
Here's how Honor's magic All-View Display works
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The OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition has 10GB RAM, warp charging, and a $699 price tag
Company has tied up with car company McLaren to bring its first phone with 10 GB RAM: the OnePlus 6T Mclaren edition at $699. ...
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Samsung's Galaxy S10 will reportedly launch on February 20 and cost up to $1,765
Gizmodo UK reports that Samsung's upcoming flagship phone, the Galaxy S10, will arrive on February 20, ahead of next year's ...
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Moment's OnePlus 6 cases turn it into a mini DSLR
I've begrudgingly come to accept that smartphones are now as good as DSLRs and mirrorless camera for many kinds of everyday ...
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Vivo’s Nex 2 gets dual displays and 3 cameras for easier selfies
Vivo unveiled the innovative Nex 2 today. With this model, Vivo wants to make it easier to take selfies by putting a second ...
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Asus' Zenfone Max Pro M2 phone takes on Xiaomi with a massive battery and a $180 price tag
Asus launched its mid-range Zenfone Max Pro M2 phone in India today, and priced it competitively at Rs. 12,999 ($181). The ...
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Samsung could be developing its own blockchain phone
There might be another name joining HTC and Sirin Labs as makers of blockchain smartphones, and it's one of the world's largest ...
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Honor's new View20 gets a 48MP rear camera and an under-screen selfie camera
Honor reckons this phone can replace your DSLR
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Here’s what your phone can learn from the sound of your voice
It can determine everything from who you are and where you come from, your current location, your gender and age, and what ...
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Yes, GPS apps make you worse at navigating – but that’s OK
Many of us have had the experience of arriving in an unfamiliar city and needing to get to a specific destination – whether ...
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Here's how to find your old embarrassing tweets
Twitter doesn’t allow you to simply scroll to the bottom of your personal feed — it only shows your last 3,200 tweets. ...
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October in Africa: Egypt stifles tech innovation, Google gets busy
The Egyptian government has had a busy time of late, shutting down taxi app mergers, taxing e-commerce platforms, and enforcing ...
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Is Tim Cook the champion of privacy?
Today’s ceaseless data scandals have everyone talking about privacy, especially insofar as our favorite digital devices ...
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Here’s how face recognition tech can be GDPR compliant
Ah, face recognition, that nifty little feature that's already making the still new fingerprint scanners (kind of) obsolete. ...
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Miss the iPod? Get yourself one of these groovy music players
The iPod as we know if doesn't really exist anymore, which is a massive shame. Luckily though, there are plenty of great ...
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The iPod is the greatest gadget ever – fight me
The original iPod was released on October 23, 2001. 17 years later, we still believe that it's the greatest gadget of all ...
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Palm's new companion phone is the comeback we didn't ask for
The Palm brand is back, and this time, it's on a 'companion phone' that you might use on weekends. Sadly, it's not the return ...
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Samsung’s flexible displays could bring us foldable phones
We rarely see a truly remarkable new technology more than once a decade. After years of undelivered promises, such a technology ...
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Will the algorithmic timeline be the death of social media?
A built-in stopping point provided a sense of control over our social timelines and newsfeeds. Do you miss the days of chronological ...
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Without coaching our privacy, does Google even have a business?
Google is on a seemingly-ceaseless crusade to turn every one of its users into an open book that it can exploit for valuable ...
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Full moon patents: Alphabet isn’t giving up on Google Glass
Ugh, the Gregorian calendar is so boring. That’s why we’re disrupting monthly series with a lunar cycle-based series ...
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Animation reveals what could be Google's new 'Pixel Stand'
A new accessory for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL could give Alexa devices a run for their money. The Pixel Stand, as its reportedly ...
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‘Free tech’ economy creates harmful monopolies and alters our self-expression
Many of the world’s biggest companies would be giving away their services for free in today’s digital economy and costs ...
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Everything Apple announced at its 2018 iPhone event
It's that time of year again. Apple CEO today Tim Cook took to the stage to announce all of the latest and greatest in Apple ...
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Razer's second gaming phone will struggle to find anything more than a niche
Gaming phones are a strange experiment in the mobile market. I can see them being either wildly successful or abject failures ...
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All Android phones should run stock OS (including you Samsung!)
Countless consumers around the globe cherish the customization options available to them when it comes to their smartphones, ...
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I tested this kid-friendly phone to see if it could protect me from pervs
Being a kid in today's world is tough. When I had a rough time at school, it generally stayed there. Yeah, there were chatrooms, ...
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Instagram influencers almost duped me into using ineffective fertility apps
Instagram influencers are promoting fertility apps as a way to prevent pregnancy with no added hormones. But the irresponsible ...
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France passes a new law banning smartphones in schools
France has banned the usage of mobile phones and tablets in schools across the country from next month to prevent screen ...
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Report: Facebook ad clicks tumble, but the internet keeps on growing
The new 2018 Q3 Global Digital Statshot report from Hootsuite and We Are Social shows that there was plenty of change in ...
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When life gives you lemons, make a video of it rolling down a hill and get 4M views on Twitter
When life handed Mike Saskasegawa a lemon, he did what anyone would do: made a video of it rolling down a hill. For context, ...
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Teenagers have built a summary app that could help students ace exams
Summize could be the summary tool every high-school student has ever dreamed about.
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How the OnePlus' marketing strategy made it the most desirable phone in the world
It’s the smartphone that’s managed to dominate the market in a very short amount of time, Here are the elements of OnePlus' ...
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SMS vs. Push notification vs. Email: When should your app use what?
A main concern for many companies is evaluating the best communication technique to increase customer engagement. How do ...
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Sending a single link can cause anyone's smartphone to crash
There's a link doing the rounds on social media today that can crash almost any smartphone, just by opening it in your browser. The ...
