Huawei’s CEO talks about the future of foldable smartphones

The Chinese technology giant Huawei has launched its first foldable smartphone at MWC 2019 and now remains a pending question. Was it an “isolated episode” or will the smartphone market and the manufacturer go hand in hand towards this type of device? The answer comes from CEO Richard Yu during an interview released shortly after the P30 and P30 Pro launch event.

According to the manager, within the next two years, half of Huawei- branded smartphones could be made up of folding models. Richard Yu has praised the Mate X, claiming to use it almost always at work precisely because of its nature devoted to multitasking.

Furthermore, the CEO points out that as this technology matures, we will automatically find ourselves dealing with more affordable prices. In short, the Chinese company is very concerned about the issue and it seems that its future will be increasingly focused on foldable devices, which should reach the selling price of the current flagship stores within a couple of years.

Therefore, the Mate X was not an isolated case; obviously things could change based on various factors – first and foremost the response of the public – but it is clear that Huawei has no intention of renouncing to exploit this technology.

Posted By Anymobilesmartphone

Oppo: Innovative smartphone brand launches in the UK

Oppo: Innovative smartphone brand launches in the UK

Chinese brand introduces eye-catching new mobile phone From Wednesday 13 February, new cutting-edge mobiles from Oppo will be available in the UK. Oppo is a Chinese company that’s releasing three new smartphones in the UK: the RX17 Neo (£319), RX17 Pro (£549) and the Find X (£799). These phones are currently available for pre-order, and will be available to buy in shops and online from Carphone Warehouse and Currys PC World from Wednesday 13 February. Oppo isn’t the most familiar brand to Europeans, but as the fifth biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world it seems to know its way around the market. And from pop-up cameras to the fastest charging available on a smartphone, it has tricks up its sleeve to grab your attention.

Oppo’s new mobile phone designs Oppo is keen to state its design credentials, even announcing that it will open a new design centre in London, partnered with the Royal College of Art. Oppo’s new mobile phones do indeed offer some particularly eye-catching designs. The Oppo Find X and edge-to-edge displays The Oppo Find X has a 93.8% screen-to-body ratio, meaning it virtually has an edge-to-edge display. The minimal bezels mean that, at first glance, there’s not even a selfie camera at the top of the screen. When you open the camera app, though, a unit slides up to reveal both a selfie camera and a rear camera. If the device is dropped, this unit is designed to retract immediately to avoid damage. The RX17 Pro has an eye-catching purple and blue two-tone back with a matte finish (which fortunately doesn’t pick up fingerprint marks as easily as a glossy surface).

SuperVOOC fast charging But besides the good looks, the new handsets have impressive new tech to offer as well. The firm is particularly proud of its ‘SuperVOOC’ flash-charging technology, first introduced in 2014. Oppo claims it takes 10 minutes to charge 40% of the battery, or 40 minutes for the battery to fully charge. This would make it the fastest charging technology available on a smartphone. We’ll be putting these claims to the test in our lab. Smart security on mid-range Oppo phones For smart unlocking technology, the RX17 range features the in-screen fingerprint scanner we’ve previously only seen on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the OnePlus 6T. It’s particularly impressive to see this feature available on a £319 device. The Find X, meanwhile, uses 15,000-facial-dot recognition for its secure 3D Face Recognition unlock.

Oppo’s UK smartphone range While Oppo has a vast range of phones available in China, only three models made the cut for the UK. Here are the full specifications of the range launched by Oppo:
post by Brian Robinson Anymobilesmartphone.co.uk

Your phone really IS listening to EVERYTHING you say

your phone really IS listening to EVERYTHING you say

your smartphone is spying on you and using your private conversations to target ads, security expert warns
Smartphones are always listening to detect voice commands, like 'Ok, Google'
Keywords and phrases are recorded and processed on the device
Expert warns that third-party apps like Facebook, Instagram can access this data
These social networks target adverts based on your private conversations

For years smartphone users have complained of the creepy feeling their gadget is recording their every word, even when it is sat in their pocket.

Many share a similar story: They were chatting about a niche product or holiday destination with friends, and soon afterwards an advertisement on the same theme appears in their social media apps.

According to one researcher, these oddly pertinent ads aren't merely a coincidence and your phone regularly listens to what you say.

It's not known exactly what triggers the technology, but the researcher claims the technique is completely legal and is even covered in the terms of your mobile apps' user agreements.

Most modern smartphones are loaded with AI assistants, which are triggered by spoken commands, like 'Hey Siri' or 'OK, Google'.

These smartphone models are constantly listening out for the designated wake word or phrase, with everything else discarded.

However, one researcher claims that keywords and phrases picked-up by the gadget can be accessed by third-party apps, like Instagram and Twitter, when the right permissions are enabled.

This means when you chat about needing new jeans, or plans for a holiday in Senegal, apps can plaster your timeline with adverts for clothes and deals on flights.

Dr Peter Henway, a senior security consultant for cybersecurity firm Asterisk, told Vice: 'From time to time, snippets of audio do go back to [apps like Facebook's] servers but there's no official understanding what the triggers for that are.

'Whether it's timing or location-based or usage of certain functions, [apps] are certainly pulling those microphone permissions and using those periodically.

All the internals of the applications send this data in encrypted form, so it's very difficult to define the exact trigger.'

He said companies like Facebook and Instagram could have a range of thousands of triggers to kickstart the process of mining your conversations for advertising opportunities.

For example, a casual chat about cat food or a certain snack may be enough to activate the technology.

'Seeing as Google are open about it, I would personally assume the other companies are doing the same,' Dr Henway said.

'Really, there's no reason they wouldn't be. It makes good sense from a marketing standpoint and their end-user agreements and the law both allow it, so I would assume they're doing it, but there's no way to be sure.'

Companies are turning to increasingly sophisticated technology to mine your activity on websites and apps to create personalised adverts.

Electronic markers, known as cookies, are used by websites to gather information on users' online activity, which is then passed to advertisers to tailor digital advertisement to individuals' tastes and interests.

This is why you can search John Lewis for a mattress only to spot relevant bedding adverts cropping-up in your Facebook feed for the next week.

The practice is not illegal, though under the 1998 Data Protection Act, a person has to actively consent to their data being collected and used for advertisements.

Facebook categorically denies it uses smartphone microphones to gather information for the purposes of targeted advertising.

The company has previously said that the eerie feeling that your phone is listening to you is merely an example of heightened perception, or the phenomenon whereby people are more likely to notice things they've recently talked about.

A number of other companies, including WhatsApp, also deny bugging private conversations, describing any anecdotal evidence as pure coincidence.

But experts do agree that technology with the power to randomly sweep millions of conversations for repeated phrases or identifiable names could exist today.

Companies have developed a wealth of algorithms that can look for patterns and pick-out potentially useful things about behaviour and interests.

Whether these techniques are being used by the companies with access to your phone, however, remains unproven.

Our activity on websites and apps and demographic information is gathered using increasingly sophisticated technology to bring us personalised adverts.

People's electronic markers - known as 'cookies' - from websites they visit are gathered and passed to advertisers so they can target us with products relevant to our tastes and interests.

This is why you can search John Lewis for a mattress only to spot relevant bedding adverts cropping up in your Facebook feed.

The practice is not illegal, though under the 1998 Data Protection Act a person has to actively consent to their data being collected and the purpose for which it's used.

A number of people report seeing adverts for niche products or holiday destinations on their phone shortly after discussing them with a friend.

This has led some to conclude that their phone is listening to them and targeting ads based on their conversations.

But that hasn't stopped internet users from sharing their creepy 'strange coincidence' stories online.

One Facebook user was so convinced his conversations were being monitored that he switched off the microphone on his smartphone.

He told the Daily Mail in December that he hasn't spotted any more 'strange coincidences' since the microphone was disabled.

Tom Crewe, 28, a marketing manager from Bournemouth, was immediately suspicious when he noticed an advert on Facebook for beard transplant surgery.

Only hours earlier he'd joked with a colleague about them both getting one, as they remained smooth-faced, despite their age.

'I had my phone's Facebook app switched on at the time. Within a few hours, an ad came through for hair and beard transplants,' he says.

'I just thought: "Why have I been targeted?" I'd never Googled "hair or beard transplants" or sent an email to anyone about it or talked about it on Facebook.'

The fact the ad for beard transplants was so unusual and specific made him suspect his phone had been eavesdropping.

He became convinced when later that month he received an advert to his phone -again weirdly and quite specifically - for Peperami sausages.

'Again, it was a casual conversation in the office. I'd just eaten a Peperami, and it was a few hours before lunch, and a colleague joked how he didn't think this was a particularly good thing to have for breakfast.

'I'd never Googled the product or mentioned it on Facebook or anywhere online. It's just something I buy during my twice-a-week shop at Tesco.

'Then I get an advert for it. This happened within two weeks of the beard incident.'

So the next time you use these divices be warned they are listining to every word you say and do. And where you are too

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The Future Of Flexible Displays Will Reinvent Smartphones

One of the things I learned early in my career is that if you want to get a glimpse of the future, you need to go to technology trade shows focused on components and deeply entrenched in the world of engineering. Here, you see the technology that will likely show up in consumer gadgets two to three years down the line.

 OpinionsOne such show is the Society for Information Displays (SID) conference, which took place last month in Los Angeles. Dedicated to the world of display technology, SID showcases all types of screens, including next-generation OLEDs for TVs and laptops, as well as the star of this year's show: flexible and even rollable displays.

Visionox kicked off the event with a keynote that highlighted its foldable display in a video, but I did not see an actual model in its booth. On the other hand, BOE, one of the largest makers of displays in China, showed off two types of mobile devices with working flexible display. A smartphone with a display surface of close to 9 inches folded completely in the center, and even in that folded position, the image and videos worked flawlessly.

The second phone it showed had an actual bendable screen. The 5.5-inch screen folded in half to make a smaller device that's easier to carry.

I saw a few other flexible screens I can't yet discuss, but it is clear this is the next big thing in smartphones.

If you look closely at the BOE flexible display in the photo up top, you can see why foldable displays matter. Our smartphones today pretty much top out at 6-inch screens, but BOE's flexible display adds about 3 more inches in viewing space, making it more like a tablet that fits in your pocket. The flexible or foldable display in the other photo provides even more portability.

While these screens are early demos, I'm told they are not far off. In fact, we could see one in a smartphone from a major manufacturer in early 2020. My best guess is that given the challenges in actually making these flexible screens in high volumes, they might not have a dramatic impact on smartphone designs until 2021-2022.

E Ink foldable displayIn the short term, the smartphone industry is well on its way to giving us an interim approach. By early 2019, look for more smartphones with dual screens that, when opened, double the size of the viewing space. In this case you will be viewing two screens and thus have two displays for content. A seam in the middle separates them, in contrast to the smartphones with flexible displays in which the content is delivered on a single display.

Another new concept in displays at SID was shown by E Ink, which is best known for supplying the electronic digital paper used on Amazon Kindles. In the picture on the right, you can see a prototype of a rollable display using its digital paper display.

It's only in black and white but is an interesting twist on electronic digital paper. I also saw color E Ink screens that are destined to be used in all types of advertising displays in stores and any place where signage needs to be changed or updated on a continual basis.

While I do think that AR and mixed reality glasses tied to a smartphone will have a more revolutionary impact on mobile computing eventually, the introduction of flexible and foldable displays is important to advancing the designs of smartphones in general. I personally like the idea of having a smartphone that when opened up could become a tablet.

smartphone Jokes

$100 Smartphone Jokes

$100 

Two couples were playing cards. John accidentally dropped some cards on the floor. When he bent down under the table to pick them up, he noticed that Bill's wife was not wearing any underwear! Shocked by this, John hit his head on the table and emerged red-faced.
Later, John went to the kitchen to get some refreshments. Bill's wife followed him and asked, "Did you see anything that you liked under there?" John admitted that, well, yes he did. She said "You can have it, but it will cost you $100."
After a minute or two, John indicates that he is interested. She tells him that since Bill works Friday afternoons and John doesn't, John should come to her house around 2:00pm on Friday.
Friday came and John went to her house at 2:00 pm. After paying her $100 they went to the bedroom, had sex, and then John left. Bill came home about 6:00pm.
He asked his wife, "Did John come by this afternoon?"
Reluctantly, she replied, "Yes, he did stop by for a few minutes."
Next Bill asked, "Did John give you $100?"
His wife thinks 'Oh hell, he knows!' Finally she says, "Yes, he did give me $100."
"Good," Bill says. "John came by the office this morning and borrowed $100 from me. He said that he would stop by our house on his way home and pay me back.

= = = = = = = = = = =

A teenage girl walked into a bank with several glass jars filled with quarters. After running them through the automated counting machine, the teller announced, "That came out to $793.75. Tell me, young lady, how long have you been hoarding all those quarters?"
"All year," replied the girl, "but my sister whored half of them."

= = = = = = = = = = =

Half Century Age Difference
A knockout young lady decided she wanted to get rich quick. So she proceeded to find herself a rich 73 year old man planning to screw him to death on their wedding night.
The courtship and wedding went off without any problem, in spite of the half-century age difference. On the first night of her honeymoon, she got undressed, and waited for him to come out of the bathroom to come to bed.
When he emerged, however, he had nothing on except a rubber to cover his 12 inch erection, and he was carrying a pair of earplugs and a pair of noseplugs. Fearing her plan had gone amiss, she asked, "What are those for?"
The old man replied, "There are just two things I can't stand: the sound of a woman screaming,... and the smell of burning rubber!"

= = = = = = = = = = =

If God had wanted you to go around nude, He would have given you bigger hands!

= = = = = = = = = = =

A woman was driving down the road one day only to find herself behind a horse trailer being pulled by a pick-up truck. As they were driving along, the back door of the horse trailer came loose and swung open, exposing the rear end of the horse inside. Eventually, gastric and bowel processes completed, the horse's tail lifted and -- voila -- the woman's windshield was covered in horse stuff.
Now the woman's first instinct was, of course, to turn on the windshield wipers. Unfortunately, this only made the situation worse and as the woman tried to gain control of the car and keep it on the road, she heard a siren. Craning her neck out the window to steer the car onto the shoulder, she noticed that the siren was sounding from directly behind her and followed her onto the shoulder.
Sitting in her car, trying to regain her composure, a state trooper came alongside and asked the woman for her license and registration. Now, it was readily apparent from even a cursory glance, what had happened to the windshield of the woman's car and she was shocked that the trooper appeared so callous and had not even enquired as to her safety. "What do you want my license and registration for?" asked the woman.
"You were driving erratically," replied the state trooper.
Now, almost apoplectic, the woman began fumbling through her purse. As she presented the requested documents to the state trooper she asked, sarcastically, "I suppose you want to sell me a ticket to the state trooper's ball, also."
The state trooper fixed her with a long, hard gaze, drew himself up to his full height and replied, "Ma'am. State Troopers don't have balls!"
After a momentary pause, the trooper's face turned several shades of red. He handed back her license and registration, strode back to his car and drove off.

= = = = = = = = = = =

Posted by www.anymobilesmartphone.co.uk

HTC reveals plans to invest in emerging technologies going forward

After a long period of struggle in the smartphone market, HTC has now stated that it will begin investing in emerging technologies going forward in a bid to guarantee the company’s long-term sustainability. Specifically, HTC’s Chairwomen Cher Wang has stated that the company will continue to invest heavily into its growing VR business, in addition to a number of other segments that could prove beneficial to its smartphone business.

Currently, the brand is understood to be adopting a much more cautious approach when it comes to its mobile unit in a bid to reduce losses to a minimum. This tactic should then allow HTC to fully take advantage of its recent $1.1 billion cash injection from Google that saw the internet giant acquire hundreds of HTC’s hardware and software engineers in the hope of improving future Pixel smartphones. According to Wang, this money will be invested into 5G technologies that are expected to become a central part of the company’s future alongside artificial intelligence and Internet of Things developments. Also, these diversifications will be combined with research into the blockchain technologies market, something the company believes could be highly beneficial to its business plan in the future.

Regardless of its recent financial results, HTC certainly appears optimistic about its long-term future. Nevertheless, considering these investments all belong to relatively new market segments, high levels of revenues are highly unlikely, meaning it will remain to be seen how the company performs in the short term. After all, this will likely depend largely on the company’s smartphone unit which has been losing money for over three years. On a more positive note, though, HTC recently started shipping the Vive Pro VR headset which it expects to positively impact the company’s revenues starting this month.

posted by Anymobilesmartphone

Apple and Samsung might feature triple-camera setup in upcoming phone

Samsung and Apple devices to likely adopt the triple-camera setup in the future. Now, we have another rumor on the table claiming the same. According to The Korea Herald, the upcoming expected iPhone X Plus, and Samsung’s next flagship Galaxy S10 would be featuring three camera lenses on the rear.

Kim Dong-Won, an analyst from KB Securities predicted about Galaxy S10 that “Samsung, which has a lower-than-expected demand for its latest Galaxy S9 lineup, will consider to equip its next premium phone with the triple cameras and a 3-D sensor to reinvigorate its smartphone business.”

For the iPhone X’s prediction, the report doesn’t give us much except for the statement, “One of Apple’s next premium smartphones, reportedly named as the iPhone X Plus, is also anticipated to come fitted with three camera lenses on the rear.”

While we already have Huawei’s P20 Pro, the first triple-camera phone that came out in March, reports suggest that for both aforementioned flagships people would have to wait for the next year. As Samsung Galaxy S10 could roll out in the spring and the next iPhone in the fall of 2019.

However, with the third lens iPhone would finally be able to get the 3x optical zoom and not to mention that it could also enable the advanced 3D sensing for the AR (Augmented Reality) in Apple device.

The camera setup in question undoubtedly gives the stunning results and P20 Pro is very much a proof of that. It would be very interesting to see that how much improvements would the giants of Korea and Cupertino would bring into their devices competing with Huawei and especially with each other.

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The Galaxy S9 RIVAL - Everything you need to know about Samsung's foldable Galaxy X

Samsung looks set to reveal its rumoured Galaxy X foldable smartphone soon to help start a whole new trend in the world of folding phones.

Samsung won’t be the only one to jump on the foldable phone trend as Google, Apple and more are also rumoured to be working on their own foldable phones for 2019.

The Samsung Galaxy X should be a three screen device that works as a normal phone but then folds out to operate like a tablet with a big clear screen.

Samsung has been working on flexible, folding and bendable screens for a good seven years now so seeing the Galaxy X appear soon won’t be a huge surprise.

The screen manufacturing company has shown off bendable displays, concept foldable phone videos and allegedly a prototype model already. So what can we expect?

Samsung Galaxy X foldable phone release date and price

The latest rumours suggest that Samsung is gearing up to launch its Galaxy X foldable phone as early as February 2019.

This launch is expected to happen at the Mobile World Congress 2019 trade event where the company usually launches its Galaxy flagship handset for the year.

This fits with other rumours that the flagship Galaxy S10 will be released earlier, at CES 2019 in January, to make way for the new Galaxy X which will get the limelight.

Pricing is very difficult to guess as nothing specific has leaked. However rumours suggest this first model will be made in limited numbers so don’t expect them to be cheap – think iPhone X £999 price or higher.

Samsung Galaxy X foldable phone display

Samsung appears to be working on a device that sports three 3.5-inch OLED displays. This would suggest one sits on the front when folded and the other two fold out into one large display of around 7-inches.

What isn’t clear at this stage is if the large display will have a line where the hinge folds out to join the two screens. If they were two bezel-free screens this might look near seamless.

Samsung has previously showed off roll-out screens – but these were just prototypes with no touchscreen components involved.

Samsung Galaxy X foldable phone specs and features

Since Samsung has allegedly chosen MWC 2019 to launch this phone it’ll want to be a flagship spec toting handset.

A lot of costs will go into this totally new type of device so expect high-end specs but perhaps not as new as you’d expect.

A current Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor backed by up to 8GB of RAM seems likely meaning it’ll be plenty fast enough to run multiple screens while remaining battery efficient.

The camera may suffer as a way to keep costs down meaning a single rather than a dual rear snapper – likely the 12MP camera from the current Galaxy S9.

For all those screens there will need to be a large battery so expect at least a 3,500mAh unit with fast charging, of course.

Whatever the end result, this will be an exciting new category of mobile devices and the potential future of smartphones and tablets.

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Alcatel Pixi 4 (5) review: How good can a £59 smartphone be?

Its been over a year since I reviewed the Alcatel Pixi 4 (5), and since its competitors have dropped in price, while the Pixi is now becoming increasingly hard to source. SO, how does it stack up against its rivals, and is the £59 smartphone worth considering? Here's my original review below, with updated pricing details.
The Alcatel Pixi 4 5045X is a 5in quad-core smartphone that comes with 4G connectivity, Android 6 Marshmallow and a microSD card expansion slot. That much isn’t unusual; it’s the price that sets the eyebrows rising, because this is usable smartphone that can be bought for a mere £59. That’s £100 cheaper than our favourite “budget” smartphone, the Moto G4.
The Pixi 4 comes in different sizes and specifications, but Alcatel hasn’t made it easy to distinguish between the different models. There’s the Alcatel Pixi 4 (4), the Pixi (5) and the Pixi (6), all of which have different screen sizes and internals. To make it even more confusing there are also 4G and 3G models of the Pixi 4 (5). Here, I’m reviewing the Alcatel Pixi 4 (5) 5045X 4G-enabled model.

Alcatel Pixi 4 (5) review: Price and competition

You can find the Pixi 4 (5) 4G for around £55 at Argos, from EE for around £60 and for around £49 through GiffGaff.
Its main competitor is the excellent Vodafone Smart Prime 7, a now £50 smartphone, though, it is locked to Vodafone's network.
READ NEXT: Vodafone Smart Prime 7 review - a real bargain
Alcatel Pixi 4 (5) review: Build quality
The Pixi (5) has a 5in display, which to me, is about the right size for media browsing, videos and one-handed operation. However it is a tad heavy, weighing 148g, and a touch thick at 9.5mm from front to back, so it isn’t the most comfortable thing to hold.
The front bezels are acceptably thin, with three touch capacitive buttons found below the screen. You’ll find a microUSB charging and data port at the bottom, volume rocker and power button on the right, plus a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top of the phone.

The rear cover of the phone is made entirely out of plastic, and can be popped off where you’ll find a removable 2,000mAh lithium-ion battery, micro-SIM and microSD storage slots.
I should also mention that the phone’s sound quality is acceptable, with its single front-facing speaker delivering acceptable levels of volume.
Alcatel Pixi 4 (5) review: Display
With a 5in display, I’d expect the phone to have a 720p (720 x 1,280) screen, but unfortunately with the Pixi 4 you’re left with a rather disappointing 480 x 854 resolution, resulting in a low pixel density of 196ppi.
In comparison, the Vodafone Smart Prime 7 has a 5in 720p screen with a pixel density of 293ppi. This means you won’t be watching those YouTube videos in HD, and you’ll be able to see pixelated text when reading the news (or this review).
With a 356cd/m2 brightness, the Pixi 4 (5) is bright enough to be used outdoors, but it isn’t bright enough to read in blazing sunlight. If you’re looking to watch movies on the device, you’ll find its screen size acceptable, but the low resolution and 70.6% sRGB coverage, mean images look grainy and and a touch dull.
At maximum brightness, it has an underwhelming 0.40cd/m2 black level, too, and the 868:1 contrast ratio isn’t wonderful. Given the price, I’d expect something a little below par, but it’s quite a bit worse than the Vodafone Smart Prime 7. Also worth noting is that colours do shift when you view the screen from different angles.

Alcatel Pixi 4 (5) review: Software
The good news is that the phone comes with Android 6 Marshmallow on board. While this isn’t the very latest version of Google’s mobile OS, it’s still pretty good. Android 6 is easy to use and has a slick interface that’s responsive even on the Pixi 4’s lowly hardware.
Better still, you’re not hit with a lot of bloatware from Alcatel or an over-weaning Android skin. However, it does come pre-installed with Alcatel’s OneTouch Launcher, but this can easily be changed. Other than a handful of forced-system apps, the Pixi 4 (5) provides a pure Android experience, which is always refreshing to see. As with any stock Android device, however, you the entire suite of Google apps, including Maps, Gmail, YouTube and Google Drive (among others) is pre-installed.
Alcatel Pixi 4 (5) review: Performance

The Pixi 4 is a budget phones, and it didn’t surprise me to see it perform like one. Housing a quad-core, 1GHz MTK6735M Mediatek processor and a mere 1GB of RAM, it only managed a score of 416 in our Geekbench 4 single-core tests and 1,173 in the multi-core
Putting this into perspective, the Samsung Galaxy J5 managed 555 and 1948 respectively, while the mid-range OnePlus 3T manages an impressive 1,903 and 4,274 in these tests. This means if you plan on opening many apps and running Chrome with multiple tabs, you’ll find yourself frustrated.
Gaming results were rather poor, too, with GFXBench recording a score of 5.4fps at native resolution. Again, however, that’s nothing out of the ordinary at this price; in comparison, the Vodafone Smart Prime 7 achieved 4fps in this test, primarily due to the higher resolution screen placing more strain on its weak graphics chip.
Finally, to battery life, which is the Pixi 4’s weakest suite. Unlike the Vodafone Smart Prime 7, which was reasonably impressive, the Pixi 4 (5) managed only 8h 17m. If you’re a heavy smartphone owner, you may want to look elsewhere.
Alcatel Pixi 4 (5) review: Camera

I was also less than impressed with rear-facing 5-megapixel and front-facing 2-megapixel cameras. With or without flash the Pixi 4 struggled taking acceptable photos, with noise spoiling every shot.
When testing its colour accuracy, I found the Pixi 4 (5) had slightly washed out colours, while it was also unable to cope with background shadows, unless your object is well lit.
To add more concerns about its camera, I was unable to touch-to-focus, meaning it had a continuous auto focus that can be a problematic when trying to record fast moving objects.
Despite its shortcomings, the Pixi 4 (5) isn’t awful and for £59 it’s ludicrously cheap for a 5in 4G-enabled smartphone. Performance is respectable for basic tasks, and screen is fine, too.
If you’re looking to watch a lot of content on your smartphone and enjoy taking photographs, however, I’d suggest investing in the Vodafone Smart Prime 7, instead. That phone offers all these features, has nicer build quality and significantly better battery life and a nicer camera. It used to cost £10-15 more, but since has dropped to around the same price as the Alcatel, making it a significantly better buy.
Enabling HDR mode improved things a little, but no matter what the conditions, the Pixi 4’s photos looked grainy and murky, and to make matters worse, you can’t touch-to-focus, meaning you have to rely on the camera software to pick the right spot to focus on. This, I found, was hit and miss.


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Samsung’s future smartphones may have displays on the back

Samsung’s future smartphones.

One way to increase the screen size on future flagship phones may be to place a display on the rear panel. The secondary screen would offer users access to notifications no matter how the device is positioned on a flat surface, as well as a touchpad-like area that may be used to control the action on the main screen.

Samsung is considering such smartphone designs, according to a newly discovered patent that offers such smartphone design suggestions.

We’ve already seen similar design concepts in patents belonging to Apple, which is also toying with iPhone design that would feature a wraparound display. Just like Apple’s concepts, there’s no telling whether future Samsung Galaxy S or Note models will ever take advantage of wraparound display tech.

The idea does make some sense. As it stands now, the only way to increase the screen of a Galaxy S or Note without expanding the overall footprint of the phone would be to cut the top and bottom bezels. Extending the display area to the back could help out with smartphone interaction. Rather than having to control the screen with a thumb of the hand you’re holding the phone with, you could do it via a rear-facing touch area. Would it be more convenient? It depends on the kind of content you’re trying to interact with.

Samsung offers other use case scenarios in its illustrations. For example, the rear-facing display would show notifications, and let users quickly answer or reject an incoming call in those instances when a phone is placed face down on a table or desk. But then again, picking up the phone to answer isn’t exactly a chore.

Perhaps the best way to further increase a phone’s screen without increasing the size is to develop screen technology that would let a screen bend like a wallet. That way, you’d be able to switch between smartphone and tablet modes depending on what feels more comfortable. Samsung, of course, has patents for such devices as well.

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