Motorola Moto G4 Play finally gets Nougat update

Motorola Moto G4 Play finally gets Nougat update

Motorola launched a trio of G4-branded phones last year, including the , , and G4 Play. While the first two got Nougat last year, the wasn't lucky enough. , the company said the update will arrive in June, but it's only now starting its rollout. The update brings along Android Nougat version 7.1.1 and also bumps the Android security level to November. There's no information on the reason behind such a huge delay, but it's good to see the update arriving nonetheless.

Counterclockwise: phone screens go wider than 16:9

Counterclockwise: phone screens go wider than 16:9

In 2016 there was exactly one phone whose screen had an aspect ratio wider than 16:9 the . In 2017 that number shot up to 40 phones! Thats about 10% of the just over 400 phones we added to our database last year. And they were popular too, the Top 100 phones (sorted by user interest) included 16 widescreen handsets. Most of those have 18:9 screens, though a couple of companies went even wider. Samsung launched four models at 18.5:9 and announced two more (the duo), though they are yet to launch so we didn't count them. Anyway, it's not Samsung but Apple that currently has the widest screen iPhone X's 19.5:9. Well, sort of, it depends on how you count the notch. We're inching closer to the 21:9 benchmark set by the eight years ago. This whole thing wasnt necessarily a smooth transition. Android apps are quite flexible but iOS had to relive the letterboxing era the represents Apples second ever change in aspect ratio. That notch sure complicated things too. Then theres video, most of which is 16:9. YouTube for example allowed users to crop the video with a gesture so that it fills the whole screen. Losing a bit from the top and the bottom isnt perfect, but its a workable solution. Plus, some TV shows already use wider than 16:9 ratios (weve noticed it mostly in Netflix shows). Manufacturers will have to do something about photos, however. They mostly come from 4:3 camera sensors and theres just no reasonable way to crop that. Especially not when most cameras out there have a resolution of 12MP or so. Perhaps its time to revisit the idea of 16:9 sensors, which was briefly popular a few years ago. The widening of screens also coincided with the shrinking of bezels phones would have become too tall otherwise. That had the side effect of forcing the fingerprint on the back of the phone or off the phone entirely. Whether more makers switch to 3D facial scans in lieu of fingerprinting remains to be seen. Its also not clear how these wider screens will play with stereo speakers. Googles offers proper front-facing speakers, but is taller than the that it is based on. Thats not the end of it either. Since Samsung had to remove its beloved hardware Home key (it held out longer than most companies), it had to make the bottom part of the screen pressure sensitive so that you can wake the phone as you are used to. At first, going wider than 16:9 seemed like it would offer a bit more room when scrolling through a web page or a list of emails. But as you can see this move had a wide-reaching impact even on unrelated components. How many widescreen phones do you think well see this year?

Motorola offering $100 off Moto Z2 Play; Other Moto handsets receive price cuts as well

Motorola offering $100 off Moto Z2 Play; Other Moto handsets receive price cuts as well

Motorola is currently offering discounts on several of its phones, including the , , and in the US. Starting with the former, the device the 64GB variant has received a $100 price cut. Moving on, the Moto X4 discount stands at $50, while that for the Moto G5 Plus stands at $20 for the 32GB variant and $40 for the 64GB one. The Android One Moto X4 has also received a price cut. The device is currently going for $324, down from its usual price of $399. So that's a discount of around $75. All these are limited time deals, with those on Z2 Play and X4 ending January 20, while those on G5 Plus and Android One Moto X4 ending January 13 and 15, respectively. |

Rumor reveals Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ memory configurations

Rumor reveals Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ memory configurations

The / have already been the subject of several , and unsurprisingly, new ones are continuing to pop up. The latest one out of China is suggesting the devices' RAM and storage variants. The rumor says the Galaxy S9 will be available in 4GB RAM and 64GB/128GB storage options. As for the Galaxy S9+, it'll come in 6GB RAM and 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB variants. Here's the translated version: As you can see, there's also a reference to 512. From what we could understand and corroborated by other reports as well there may even be a 512GB storage model, although that'll be offered only in select markets. |

The 2017 phone trends as we saw them

The 2017 phone trends as we saw them

Whats in vogue, whats fallen out of fashion? Its that time of year when we look back at phone trends over the last 12 months and space permitting we may even make a few predictions for next year. So, using our extensive phone database and test results, let's power up our machine learning algorithms and feed it the 50 most popular phones based on your browsing and search patterns here at GSMArena. These 50 phones will represent our definition of 'the market' and as we're not splitting them down by flagship, mid range or entry level we can average them out to give you the hard facts to those trends you probably already know about. This year our phones got thinner, in 2017 the average thickness of our phones reduced by 0.22mm to 7.73mm. Of course, the most visual trend for 2017 was the stigmatization of the bezel. The space freed up by the 'chin' and the 'forehead' allows for a taller display and hence the move to displays with taller aspect ratios including 18:9 and 19.5:9. As a result, the average height increased by 3.65mm to 151.36mm with a slight increase in width up .88mm to 73.88mm. In 2017 the average display was 5.57 up from 5.28 in 2016 with a jump in pixel density to 394.90 ppi. This is the point were you may be thinking 'what these are such small numbers'. The great thing about averages is that if just one phone had a big display it would hardly register one phone doesn't make a trend. So whilst our phones are getting thinner and taller surely they weigh roughly the same? No, in 2017 our phones got heavier with an average weight of 161g, an increase of 12g from last year. There could be a number of factors at play here but we also saw a 14% reduction in the use of plastic in our phone cases to be replaced with aluminium, metal or ceramic. Whilst we're on the subject of phone construction, the number of phones that gained the more useful IP68 Ingress protection rating increased by 10%. We've spent many column inches discussing this but the major casualty of the banishment of bezels is the front mounted finger print sensor. This year, they're in the minority with 42% of phones having a front mounted fingerprint sensor. Next year we've been promised through the glass finger print sensors, with Vivo being named as the first manufacture to deliver this. If the technology is ready for prime time and performs reliably and quickly this could be a game changer which sees this trend start to reverse. Another area of intense debate is the removal of the humble 3.5mm audio jack and its decline is continuing with a 12% increase in the number of phones now without a headphone jack. On a more positive note, we saw a 4% increase in the number of phones now with Stereo speakers for those of you who want better sound quality from your phone. Thinner phones = smaller capacity batteries, right? Wrong actually average battery capacity increased slightly to 3292mAh. Good news, well not quite battery endurance dropped quite significantly from 60.5 hrs to 54.3 hrs. This result was a surprise to us and one trend we don't want to see continuing. The good news is that its even easier and faster to charge our phones with wireless charging now in 16% of phones and 58% of phones supporting Fast charging. Like us you probably noticed that the megapixel war ended a couple of years back with the focus being on the quality, so it came as no surprise to see the number of megapixels in the primary camera stay about the same. We're living in the age of the selfie though so as again it didn't come as a surprise to see the number of megapixels increase substantially in our front facing cameras. The number of phones with Dual Lens primary cameras saw a significant increase this year with 34% of phones now using them even though they may have different implementations. We saw less dramatic increases, but increases non the less in the number of phones packing Optical Image Stabilization and 4K video recording. This shouldn't be an area that carries any surprises but it's interesting to see the raw figures and still the significant step changes our phones are taking. In both our CPU and GPU tests we saw excellent gains along with a massive increase in LTE performance. More storage and RAM are always good to have and we saw a good jump in both. The flagship phones seemingly made all the waves by their prices setting new highs but behind the scenes everybody followed, albeit less slowly. The result, the average price rose to 408Euro, up from 314Euro. So another year is over and we're already looking forward to next years releases and the subsequent rumors that proceed them. Whilst the majority of the trends we already knew it was good to see them backed up by tangible numbers. As consumers we've never had it better, ok we have to pay for it sometimes but it's good to see our phones getting bigger and better displays, more storage and that just keep getting faster. It would be good to see some of these trends reversed, I'm looking at you battery endurance, and that no new ones are introduced looking at you here Apple, I don't think it will be long though before Apple remove the volume up and down buttons!

Xiaomi Mi A1 finally getting Android 8.0 Oreo

Xiaomi Mi A1 finally getting Android 8.0 Oreo

Today, we're getting numerous reports from users in India that the final Android Oreo update is already actively rolling out to their devices. This comes after which announced the pending start of the update seeding yesterday. The update weighs in more than 1GB so it's quite a large download. It also brings the December security updates. We are also yet to hear whether the final build brings the fast charging support, which . Users who update should expect to see the standard new Oreo features such a lighter UI color, the notification dots, Auto Fill in apps, Night Light mode, Picture-in-Picture mode, and others. Let us know if you spot any notable new features or bugs in the comments section below.

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus in for review

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus in for review

The phones, announced at the beginning of December, are among the first in the company portfolio to have 18:9 ratio screens (along with the flagship Mi Mix 2). Xiaomi fans commented after the launch that they will hold back purchases until the Redmi Note 5 arrives, but surprisingly it is already in for review with a different name . When preparing for the successor of the Redmi Note 4, Xiaomi went with the saying If it aint broken, dont fix it motto. The Redmi 5 Plus has similar looking specs a power-efficient Snapdragon 625 chipset inside, the same as the . The overall design is also very similar with one main difference a tall screen with 18:9 ratio with more room for browsing and videos. When shooting pictures in 18:9 mode, one-third of the height is cropped. Any camera-loving smartphone user would stick to the standard 4:3 ratio over the trendy one since the quality stays the same, but you get a bigger picture with more pixels. Another feature that might be annoying for some is the micro-USB port and the measly 10W charger included in the box. It's high time all phone makers move to a single port standard and if USB-C is universally better, while hold off the transition for yet another year. While pinch-to-fullscreen feature in the YouTube app might not be available on the Redmi 5 Plus, we have to point out the picture-in-picture mode works perfectly fine, provided you are playing the clip with the native browser. Videos are running on a different player, not the default one. That way you get swipe controls for brightness and volume and a convenient button for the picture to pop out for the PIP mode. The MIUI 9 Settings can hide the trio of soft buttons. This is when the full power of 18:9 screen is unleashed, and you have more screen for reading. The keys are easily reachable with a single swipe up from the lowest part of the display. The Redmi 5 Plus costs between $150 and $195 in China and will sport a similar price tag around the world. Being so affordable and sticking to the basic specs, the phone is poised to become a hit. But will it live up to the expectations we have for a successor to the globally available Redmi Note 4? Stay around to find out in our full review.