After being a subject of various leaks from the past few weeks, Realme finally took wraps off of its newest smartphones. The Realme 2 Pro is an enhanced beast altogether and has a slew of some really cool features which will appeal to the young millennial audience it is targeted at. 

Along with the Realme 2 Pro, the company also announced an affordable phone in the form of Realme C1 which is being offered at an introductory price of ₹6,999. One of the striking features about the C1 is that it features a notch design on the front.

Realme 2 Pro Specifications

The Realme 2 Pro features a 6.3-inch full HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) LCD panel which is topped with 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3 for added protection against accidental drops. The LCD panel has a dewdrop styled notch on top which gives the screen a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and covers 90.8% of the area.

The dewdrop notch on the front houses a camera, light & distance sensor along with the earpiece.

The smartphone has a glossy back which is the result of a 15-layer lamination process that the phone has gone under. Also present is a fingerprint sensor on the rear panel along with support for face unlock. Realme 2 Pro is thickest at 8.5mm and weighs around 174g.

Under the hood, the Realme 2 Pro is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset. The SD 660 is also supported by Qualcomm’s Artificial Intelligence Engine (AIE) which lends some special capabilities to an already powerful SoC. The octa-core Kryo 260 CPU is clocked at 1.95GHz and is backed by Adreno 512 as the graphics renderer. 

On the RAM and storage front, the Realme 2 Pro comes in three variants. The basic model features 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage which is expandable up to 256GB via microSD card. The next variant gets a bump in the RAM and has 6GB of RAM paired with 64GB storage. The maxed out Realme 2 Pro has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage.

The Realme 2 pro runs on Android 8.1 Oreo-based ColorOS 5.2.

Realme 2 Pro sports a dual camera setup which consists of a primary 16MP rear and a secondary 2MP camera. The primary rear camera is equipped with the Sony IMX398 sensor and has a wide f/1.7 aperture. 

Qualcomm’s AIE helps the camera in identifying 16 different scenes and offers the user a set of preset setting for capturing pictures. The wide aperture on the Realme 2 Pro should, on paper, translate into a good low-light performance but we’ll reserve our verdict till we test the phone ourselves.

Remember the dewdrop notch on the front? That tiny housing accommodates a 16MP snapper for selfies and borrows some features from the AI engine such as the ability to recognize 296 different spots in a frame.

Realme 2 Pro draws power from a 3,500mAh battery which should easily last a day on moderate usage. The company promises 16.5 hours of standby time, though the phone does not support fast charging.

Realme C1 specifications

The C1 is the second smartphone to be announced by Realme today. It is an entry-level smartphone which features a 6.2-inch HD+ (1520 x 720 pixels) display and is covered by a layer of Gorilla Glass. It has a notch design on the front which is a rarity in this budget segment.

The Realme C1 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chipset with an octa-core CPU clocked at 1.8GHz. This is backed by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage which is expandable by up to 256GB.

Realme C1 runs on ColorOS5.1 which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo.

Even after being so affordable, the C1 also sports twin cameras on the back. There’s a primary 13MP snapper accompanied by a 2MP sensor. The rear cameras support PDAF, portrait mode, AI beautification. The front is home to a 5MP selfie camera which has a f/2.2 aperture and supports face unlock.

The C1 has a large 4,230mAh battery which according to the company will last up to 18 hours on music playback, 15 hours on video viewing, 10+ hours on gaming and 18 hours on internet browsing on a single charge. 

Realme 2 Pro and Realme C1 Price and availability

Realme 2 Pro comes in three color to choose from- Blue Ocean, Black Sea and Ice Lake. The prices start from ₹13,990 for the 4GB RAM variant followed by ₹15,990 for 6GB RAM and ₹17,990 for the maxed out 8GB RAM variant.

On the other hand, the Realme C1 is priced at ₹6,999.

Both the smartphones goes on sale on Flipkart from October 11 with data offers from Reliance Jio.

• Also Read: Xiaomi scales up: Swanky new office, flagship store, smart home products, and a Guinness World Record

To be entirely frank, there's something about cashback that we don't really get. 'Pay us for a product or service', the retailer says, 'and we'll give you some money back'. OK then.

But we certainly can't ignore them, and especially when they're as gob-smacking as these SIM only deals with enormous cashback from online phone retailer Mobiles.co.uk. It's currently offering up to £162 on selected SIMO plans on Vodafone, and we'll tell you all about them.

Claim up to £162 cashback with these SIM only deals

The standout figure is on Mobiles' best 20GB SIM plan. It costs an already reasonable £20 per month, but you can claim back £144 cashback. That makes the effective monthly cost over the 12-month contract only £8 per month.

And if 20GB somehow isn't enough data for your streaming, surfing and downloading needs, then crank things up to 40GB. The £162 cashback you can claim means that the £25 monthly payments are effectively reduced to £11.50 per month. You can check out the SIM only price comparison at the bottom of this page, but trust us when we say that 40GB data for £11.50 per month is basically unheard of!

• Vodafone SIM only | 20GB | £8 (after cashback)
• Vodafone SIM only | 40GB | £11.50 (after cashback)

The above tariffs work on so-called 'cashback by redemption'. That means that you have to send an email five times over the course of your contract to tell them to send you one-fifth of your total cashback. A bit of a hassle, but totally worth the slight inconvenience considering the savings.

But if you can't be bothered or know that you'll forget to claim, then there's another option. It's less impressive - but only just. Mobiles.co.uk has also increased the love for its automatic cashback, which means there's no steps to follow after purchase. Just a nice, fat windfall to look forward to.

So that 20GB SIM for £20 SIM gets a £110 cashback boost. Work out the effective monthly payments, and they're down to only £10.83 per month.

Or, if that mega 40GB Vodafone data SIM only deal has caught your attention, then the automatic cashback available comes in at £130 cashback, meaning an average of £14.17 per month payments if you work it out over the course of the year.

• Vodafone SIM only | 20GB | £10.83 (after cashback)
• Vodafone SIM only | 40GB | £14.17 (after cashback)

Today's other best SIM only deals in the UK

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has a big 6.4-inch screen, massive 1TB-capable storage, and a handy Bluetooth-enabled S Pen – and now it comes in new colors.

Silver, or 'Cloud Silver' according to Samsung, is the latest color we got hands-on time with at TechRadar, and it really stands out with a clean metal finish. It's not as reflective as the mirror-like Midnight Black version, but it has a shiny sports car vibe to it. And surprise, it comes out first in the US, a country that often gets new colors last. Samsung is rectifying that with the Note 9, though it should come to the UK and other countries over time.

As you can see from our photo gallery (below) the front of the Note 9 remains black, with thin bezel at the top and bottom. You can still see the silver peeking around the sides, hinting at the shiny frame.

The Silver Note 9 has a matching silver Bluetooth S Pen that writers in gray silver 'ink,' as demonstrated by the expertly written 'TechRadar' doodle you see before you.

Midnight Black is also coming to the US, after having launched in the UK and other countries on August 24, the original Note 9 release date. It's a late, but welcome arrival for anyone who wants an all-black version of the best Samsung phone.

The new colors join Lavender Purple and Ocean Blue, standout hues available in the US and UK since the beginning. The only one that hasn't come to the West is Metallic Copper. Curiously, there's not a gold or rose gold Note 9 – yet.

It used to be that Samsung launched muted colors first, and introduced stunning, more vibrant colors mid-cycle – much to every early adopters' distaste. Again, with the Note 9, the strategy has been different.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is among our best phones and the best gaming phones you can buy today. You'll surely start to see both Note 9 deals and new colors, as the device continues to age over time.

• Top of our best smartwatch list: Samsung Galaxy Watch review

When and where can you get the Silver Note 9?

There are some staggered release dates and retail channels to review here:

The Cloud Silver Note 9 color launches in the US first, and you'll find it at Best Buy and the official Samsung.com store on Friday, October 5 – curiously one day after the LG V40 launch event and five days before the Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL launch event.

The Midnight Black Note 9 color makes its US debut on October 12 – two days after the Razer Phone 2 launch event, four days after the Huawei Mate 20 Pro launch event, and five days after the rumored OnePlus 6T launch event. See the pattern? October is going to be packed with new phones. This helps Samsung stay relevant. 

Note about the Note 9 in black: it'll only come in the 128GB storage size at first. The 512GB model in black will launch on October 26. That date? Oh, that's the iPhone XR release date. On both occasions, the black Note 9 version will be sold through major American carriers, enterprise distributors, and Samsung's site.

• What's next? Samsung Galaxy S10 and Samsung Galaxy X

The OnePlus 6T is likely to launch next month and while we've seen lots of leaks so far - including some potential renders of what the phone will look like - we've only just heard the first word on the battery size.

A leak from Weibo (that's a Chinese social networking site) includes a photo of the battery pack that the source claims will be in the upcoming phone from OnePlus.

If it's real, it means the OnePlus 6T will have a 3,700mAh cell inside, while the last OnePlus phone had a 3,300mAh battery pack. 

The leaked image does say the battery may go as low as 3,610mAh, but that's still a substantial difference to the 3,300mAh of the OnePlus 6.

Bigger is better?

Whether this larger battery will translate to longer battery life is unclear, but considering the new phone is rumored to sport the same chipset as the OnePlus 6 we expect it to last for longer if this leak is correct.

The leak also speaks of the Dash Charge technology, which is set to make a return on the OnePlus 6T. That's a surprise as some had expected the company to embrace Oppo's newer 50W charging tech.

Little is known for certain about the OnePlus 6T, but we're expecting to officially hear about it on October 17 according to a leak, and we may hear more specs rumors ahead of that.

• OnePlus 6T could be announced on October 17

Via GSMArena

While LG isn’t announcing the LG V40 ThinQ until October 4, it has just revealed a lot of details about the phone in a teaser video, including more or less confirming that it has five cameras.

The teaser was posted on LG’s South Korean website and shows the phone from a number of angles, highlighting three cameras on the back with a fingerprint scanner below.

We don’t get a good look at the front of the phone, but the video is very focused on the number five, so it’s a safe bet that there are also two lenses on the front, as has been rumored.

Silky soft with a 6.4-inch screen

The video also mentions that the back of the phone has a soft, silky finish, yet as the text accompanying it explains it’s still made of glass, with a metal frame.

The text also reveals that the LG V40 ThinQ has a 6.4-inch screen, and comes in New Platinum Gray, Carmine Red (which is what we see in the video) and Moroccan Blue colors.

That’s a lot to reveal ahead of launch, but some things, such as the actual specs of the phone, are yet to be revealed. Let’s see if LG can resist spilling the beans until October 4.

• Check out an earlier LG V40 ThinQ teaser video

Via Pocket Now

Even though the OnePlus 6T is likely to launch soon there haven’t been many leaks showing the design of the phone yet, but that all changes now, as leaked renders have just given us a look at the possible design of the handset from all angles.

Shared by MySmartPrice with the help of leaker @OnLeaks, the renders largely match what we’ve seen before, with a teardrop notch on the front, a tiny sliver of bezel at the bottom and an otherwise all-screen design. So a lot like the OnePlus 6, but with an even smaller notch and a likely smaller bezel.

The back is also similar, with a dual-lens camera and a OnePlus logo below it, the main difference being the lack of a fingerprint scanner, which we know is built into the screen on the OnePlus 6T.

The button layout is much the same as the previous handset too, but the dimensions are slightly different, with the OnePlus 6T apparently coming in at 157.5 x 75.7 x 8.2mm, rising to 8.6mm where the camera sticks out.

The OnePlus 6 on the other hand is 155.7 x 75.4 x 7.8mm, so the OnePlus 6T is seemingly slightly larger and thicker.

The thicker build could hint at a larger battery, while the longer length and width is probably to house a slightly larger screen, rumored to be 6.4 inches.

Not yet confirmed

It is however worth taking these renders with a pinch of salt. While they largely line up with what we’ve seen before they don’t match every leak – for example one recent one showed a triple-lens camera, though we’re not convinced we’ll get that.

These also don’t appear to be official renders. @OnLeaks claims they’re based on a factory CAD (computer-aided design), but even if that came from an official source they may not show the final design.

Still, with the OnePlus 6T possibly launching on October 17 we’d expect to be getting fairly accurate leaks, so this could be the shape of the phone to come.

• The OnePlus 6T's camera might already have been rated by DxOMark