Phone Scoop

The Asus ROG Phone II is a beast of phone, and that's absolutely by design. Asus took its gaming-optimized ROG Phone and turbocharged everything, from the 6.6-inch 120 Hz AMOLED display to the huge 6,000 mAh battery. It has top specs and numerous optimizations…

The new Asus ROG Phone II builds on the basic design of the original but improves on it in almost every way, offering a larger screen, larger battery, improved software, and faster refresh and response times in every area. Designed for gaming, it includes an…

Samsung's latest memory chip part for phones offers 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Samsung's previous 12GB RAM offering was LPDDR4x; LPDDR5 is about 30% faster.

Google Maps now includes real-time data on how many bikes (and empty spots) are at each bike-sharing dock station in 24 major cities. Available in both iOS and Android version of the Maps app, the information covers Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest,…

Boost has started selling the Samsung Galaxy A10e, Samsung's entry-level phone in its newly expanded A-series. The $140 phone is currently offered for just $100 by Boost, in a two-day introductory sale. The A10e has an all-screen design with small notch in its…

LG's flagship phone — the LG G8 ThinQ — now supports magnetic-stripe payment terminals with the LG Pay app, similar to a key feature of many recent Samsung phones. The feature can emit a magnetic signal when held near magnetic-stripe readers, which…

Comcast's mobile service — Xfinity Mobile — will now let customers bring their own phone instead of requiring a new phone purchase. Recent high-end Samsungs are supported now, with additional Android device support coming later this year.

Nokia today launched the Nokia 2.2, an entry-level Android phone with a premium-looking design including a 5.71-inch HD display with a small notch. The 2.2 has Android One 9.0 (Pie), a dedicated Google Assistant button, and a solid polycarbonate body with a…

In the coming weeks Asus will announce the ROG Phone II, a new high-end gaming phone. Asus has revealed one detail is advance: it will use the just-announced, top-end Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset from Qualcomm.

Qualcomm today announced the Snapdragon 855 Plus, a higher-performance version of the company's flagship Snapdragon 855 chipset for phones. With a more powerful CPU and GPU, it's designed for high-end gaming phones coming out later this year. The 855 Plus is…

Sprint is launching its 5G network in Chicago this week. Utilizing the company's 2.6 GHz (band 41) spectrum, the network offers better coverage and building penetration than the mmWave 5G networks launched by other companies in Chicago to date. The coverage…

Qualcomm and T-Mobile have successfully completed the first data call using Qualcomm's X55 modem, the first 5G chip for phones to support all 5G networks to be launched in the US in 2019, including T-Mobile's band 71 (600 MHz). All 5G phones currently on the…

Verizon today started selling the Alcatel Go Flip V, a close cousin of the similar-looking feature phone Alcatel offers on other US carriers as the Go Flip, MyFlip, QuickFlip, and Cingular Flip 2. Unlike those other models — which run KaiOS — the Go Flip V…

At today's FCC meeting, the Commission voted to approve two actions that will open up four radio frequency bands to new 5G service. Three of the bands are ultra-high mmWave frequencies near 40 GHz, while the fourth is mid-band, near 2.5 GHz. For the three…

T-Mobile's 3rd generation of own-brand REVVL phones have larger, notched screens, fast charging, and modest spec upgrades all around. Dubbed the REVVLRY and REVVLRY+, these mid-range phones ship July 19th. The larger REVVLRY+ has a 6.24-inch, full-HD screen…

AT&T will enable free automatic fraud blocking and suspected spam-call alerts to all mobile lines by default over the coming months. It will be applied to all new lines going forward, and to existing lines "over the coming months". The features have been…

Qualcomm today announced a new Snapdragon chip to power the most affordable Android phones. The Snapdragon 215 replaces the 210, and offers greater performance in a number of key areas. As the most affordable Snapdragon chips, the 200 series sets the bar for…

The latest beta version of iOS 13 includes a new feature in FaceTime called Attention Correction, which subtly alters the image of your face in real time to make it look like you're looking into the camera even when you're looking down at the screen to see the…

Samsung just launched Bixby Marketplace, which lets users add third-party "capsules" to their Bixby Assistant. The Marketplace includes a variety of convenience-enhancing capsules such as Google Maps, Spotify, iHeartRadio, NPR, and Yelp, across categories such…

Mozilla has released a preview version of a completely revamped Firefox browser app for Android. Firefox Preview uses Mozilla's own GeckoView web rendering engine instead of Google's Blink. This enables Tracking Protection by default, which keeps advertisers…