Sowmyanarayan Sampath on the 5G race with China and the challenges of standing up to the Trump administration.
When it debuts in China later this week on April 24th, the OnePlus 13T will feature a 6,260mAh battery, as spotted by Notebookcheck. That’s a lot of capacity for a compact phone with a 6.32-inch screen. For comparison, the 6.3-inch Google Pixel 9A has a 5,100mAh battery, while the 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Pro has an even smaller 3,582mAh battery.
In a 1,000 person survey of 20–29 year olds by a major Japanese bank, nearly 20 percent admitted: they once spent so much money on in-game purchases that they couldn’t cover living expenses.
We — and regulators — have long known these games can potentially be addictive, even if you’re aware of the risk. There are dozens of billion-dollar games as a result; now, an entire generation may have “gambled my rent away on cute digital characters” as a shared cultural touchstone.
Apologies to the three people out there nostalgic for Acer phones — the new Super ZX and Super ZX Pro handsets announced in India today are made under license by Indkal Technologies, meaning Acer itself has almost nothing to do with them. The same is true for last month’s two budget Acerpure models.
The last true Acer phone was 2016’s Android 6-powered Liquid Z6 Plus, which boasted a 13-megapixel camera and 32GB of storage.
That’s the new minimum storage for Android 15 devices to license Google Mobile Services, a requirement if you want to support the Play Store, according to Android Authority. In practice you’d have to work pretty hard to find any Android device with that little storage anyway, but it’s still good to see Android’s lowest storage bar raised a bit higher.
[androidauthority.com]
The OnePlus 13T will launch in China on April 24th, though we don’t know if or when it’ll launch elsewhere. The design is a little new for OnePlus, and we already know it will ditch the fan-favorite alert slider for a new shortcut button. It’s small, too, though only by modern standards — its 6.32-inch screen is still bigger than the iPhone 16’s.
That’s what the company told Ars Technica when asked about the current pause to the much-delayed update, which brings Android 15 to the Galaxy S24 series and other devices from 2024 and earlier. It was halted following reports of a bug that stopped people unlocking their phones. There’s no word on when the company will resume the rollout.
“The One UI 7 rollout schedule is being updated to ensure the best possible experience. The new timing and availability will be shared shortly.”
[arstechnica.com]
Motorola’s new teaser on X makes it pretty plain: its new folding-screen flip phones are coming two weeks from today.
The Razr 60 Ultra should come in some pretty sleek finishes, according to last week’s leaked images from Evan Blass. He previously revealed a wooden Razr, and YTechB claims to have leaked specs for both the Razr 60 Ultra and vanilla Razr 60 phone.
In addition to a camera grip with an extra battery and camera controls, Vivo is following companies like Xiaomi and Realme with an external zoom lens for its upcoming X200 Ultra that launches in China on April 21st.
The lens was announced on Weibo by Vivo’s Han Boxiao and will be part of the phone’s Photography Kit. It’s designed to work with the X200 Ultra’s periscope camera, boosting its optical zoom range from 3.7x to 8.7x.
The Dimensity 9400 Plus doesn’t change a whole lot from the 9400 that launched last October, but the faster prime CPU core and a few AI upgrades should prove a draw to manufacturers. The 9300 Plus ended up powering Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10 line, so MediaTek will be hoping Samsung puts in a repeat order.
Google’s new affordable phone has survived mysterious component issues and Trump’s tariffs to arrive in US stores today at its promised price of $499. Despite the tariff pause, that’s no longer a given.
Samsung’s Android 15 update is landing on phones in the US today, a mere seven months after Google released the OS update to developers, though it’s been available on the S25 phones since they launched in February.
Only Galaxy S24 models, along with the Fold 6 and Flip 6 foldables, are due to get the update today, though it will roll out to more Galaxy phones and tablets in the future.
For three years in a row Xiaomi has paired its Ultra phones with a Photography Kit, and now Vivo is following suit. The kit, which will be compatible with the upcoming X200 Ultra, was announced on Weibo by product manager Han Boxiao. Like Xiaomi’s it has a USB-C connection, built-in battery, and dedicated camera controls.
The X200 Ultra launches in China on April 21st, and will aim to outdo Xiaomi’s 15 Ultra on photography.
OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has already announced the company’s plans to add a new shortcut button to its phones, but now he has confirmed on Weibo that it’s coming to the 13T, as reported earlier by Android Authority. Though the key will still allow users to switch between silent, vibrate, and ringing modes, Lau says it will also be able to perform new custom functions that he’ll reveal in the future.
Nothing is ready to reveal the second phone under its budget-friendly CMF brand, with the CMF Phone 2 Pro due for a reveal on April 28th, alongside three new pairs of earbuds.
CMF’s first phone was a $199 modular model, but the name suggests the 2 Pro might be a little more advanced. Teasers so far suggest a third camera lens and a newly textured finish to the phone’s rear.
The ability to text an AT&T subscriber from an email address is going away on June 17th, the company has announced.
If you’ve never done that and want to try before it goes away, just enter your favorite AT&T customer’s area code and phone number, sans punctuation, followed by “@txt.att.net” or “@mms.att.net.”
The SyncUp tracker and app showed a parent the locations of children from “around the country,” 404 Media reports.
T-Mobile gave a statement to the publication saying that it fixed a “a temporary system issue with our SyncUP products that resulted from a planned technology update.”
Nokia’s iconic 3310 was first resurrected as a modern(ish) handset, and will now be immortalized by the UK’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Well, that may not be entirely true, but the Royal Albert Hall’s April Fools’ Day prank imagines a better world than this: one where classic ringtones get the full orchestral treatment, Snake II players are projected, and an organist creates a bit-crushed composition on a T9 keyboard.
Amazon has agreed to license Nokia technologies for its video streaming services and devices, resolving a lawsuit initiated back in 2023 by the former mobile phone giant. Apple, Oppo, Reddit, HTC, RIM, Withings, Viewsonic... you name it, have all gone through this in one way or another.
[globenewswire.com]
There’s now an Xbox-branded Backbone One inspired by the Halo-themed original Xbox Controller S (like the one that Hyperkin recently modernized). It is no different than the standard Backbone — or even the PlayStation 5 version — but it’s got Xbox-specific buttons that are great for those who primarily play GamePass. This translucent green color is also undoubtedly nicer than Death Stranding’s amniotic-y yellow one.
You can get one today for $109.99 at Backbone’s website or via Best Buy Drops online.
