Ofcom has launched a formal consultation into proposals that would see mobile operators become more transparent about the airtime and handset component of their contracts and be required to notify customers when their minimum term has expired.

The regulator estimates that 1.5 million consumers are still paying for handsets they have already paid for over the minimum term of their contract, yet operators are under no obligation to inform them that they could save money by switching tariff.

Meanwhile, most contracts factor the cost of a handset and airtime into a single monthly fee. This means customers have no idea how much they are paying for their voice, text and data allowances and how much their device is costing them.

Ofcom contracts

Ofcom said it had been speaking to operators about introducing a solution to the problem that would not have required formal intervention but was unsatisfied by the lack of firm commitments from the industry.

Its proposals would require operators to break down the cost of the airtime and handset separately and for them to issue alerts at the end of the contract, and move them onto a comparable SIM-Only tariff or subtract the cost of the device from the bill.

“Mobile customers should get the best possible deal. We’re concerned that people are not told, or cannot tell, exactly what they are paying for,” said Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom Consumer Group Director.

“So we are extending our work on behalf of mobile customers to ensure that handset charges are clear and fair – not just when they enter a contract, but also when their minimum period is up.”

To appeal to consumers concerned about paying too much for their mobile contract, a number of operators offer ‘flexi’ tariffs that separate the cost of the handset from the airtime. Once the handset portion has been paid off, customers only pay for the airtime component. However research published by uSwitch suggested that these tariffs were still more expensive than a comparable SIM only deal.

“Ofcom’s calls for greater transparency from mobile providers are welcome,” said Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at uSwitch. “As the watchdog points out, millions of customers are currently paying more than they need to for their phone contracts, as they’ve already paid off the cost of the handset but are still forking out the same amount each month.

“There are a variety of different deals available to consumers in the market, so making things more transparent across all tariff types is vital, to make it easier to compare handset costs and what really is the best way to get a phone and airtime package.

 “There’s also a concern that some providers will use this push for greater transparency, in splitting out the cost of the handset and airtime, to advocate the new breed of ‘flexi’ tariffs. While these do separate out the cost of the handset and airtime, the benefits can come at a significant premium to customers who can pay as much as £19 million a month on airtime alone over the course of the deal.

“In reality, often the cheapest way to own the latest smartphones is to buy one outright, and pair it with one of the really competitive SIM-only deals currently available.”

•  Here are the best mobile phone deals for September 2018   

Bixby is more than you may think, once you understand what its real purpose is.

Let's play a game. Do you have a portable MP3 player? Or a point-and-shoot digital camera? Okay, let's try something harder; what about a portable CD or cassette player? A PDA? A MiniDisc player, even? The chances are, you're more likely to have replied in the negative to those final few examples; they're all gadgets that, in the past few decades, have all but died out. The reason? The arrival of the smartphone, and the wonder of technological convergence.

Prior to the smartphone revolution, it was common to own several devices for performing different tasks; an MP3 player would house all of your music, and before that, you might own a MiniDisc or portable CD player. A pocket-sized point-and-shoot camera was the norm not so long ago, as was a near-essential handheld games console, like the Nintendo DS. Meanwhile, your phonebook and appointments may well have been captured and stored on a fancy Personal Data Assistant, like a Palm-powered Sony CLIÉ.

Once the smartphone explosion began in earnest with the release of the iPhone and the launch of Android, suddenly all of these devices were rendered obsolete; perhaps not overnight, but certainly in a surprisingly fast fashion. Nowadays, the MP3 player market has shrunk to practically nothing, portable games machines are selling in numbers much lower than they were a decade ago and the sheer notion of carrying around a PDA seems hopelessly outdated. However, it's easy to forget that not so long ago, these devices were being sold to us as the future.

Big-screen revolution

The smartphone's dominance of the consumer tech industry is the perfect example of convergence done right; it's a device that can play music, take photos, host games, track your fitness levels and – oh yes – make phone calls. It's a truly essential piece of tech, but can its appeal really last forever? Surely, just like the myriad gadgets it has supplanted, the smartphone will itself eventually be superseded itself by something more initiative, useful and enriching?

”It will have to be a marriage of technologies and features, including but not limited to virtual and augmented reality on interactive screens powered by the cloud.”

"It will have to be a marriage of technologies and features, including but not limited to virtual and augmented reality on interactive screens powered by the cloud," replies Tech, Media & Telco Analyst Paolo Pescatore when asked what could possibly replace the smartphone as the must-have gadget in our lives. "Any wall or display could be virtually authenticated through facial recognition. Then it is all about voice providing commands to make a call, watch a video, play music, control heating at home, switching the car on, and so forth."

Of course, such tech exists already, albeit in a slightly simpler form. Devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home can understand spoken commands, allowing you to do things like turn off the lights in your house, order food, browse the web for the answer to a question and even play your favorite piece of music, all without you having to interact or touch a device. But this isn't something you can carry around with you – at least not yet. 

It's little wonder that the smartwatch has failed to replace the smartphone, as was predicted by many not so long ago.

Wearable tech has perhaps the best chance of relaxing the smartphone's grip on our daily lives, but the smartwatch sector hasn't been anywhere near as successful as was expected when it was first teased; most smartwatches are still reliant on our phones, making them a supplementary device rather than a standalone one.

Those watches which do come with cellular connectivity and all the bells and whistles of a phone are rendered difficult to use because of the tiny screen – it's hardly ideal for touch interaction and certainly not something you'd want to browse the web or watch a movie on. It's little wonder then that the smartwatch has failed to replace the smartphone, as was predicted by many not so long ago.

Augmented reality solutions could prove to be the next big step, but in this sector of the market things haven't exactly gone according to plan. Google's Glass project looked set to change things forever, offering you the ability to interact with the digital world without taking your eyes off the real world. The project never made it into full production, although units were available to buy if you had a few thousand lying around.

Glass was visionary and felt like a taste of the future, but it also threw up all kinds of dystopian problems, ranging from people being distracted by pop-up messages while crossing the road to the fact that with an always-on HUD, there was the very real danger that advertisers could bombard you with location-sensitive promotions 24 hours a day.

What's coming next?

There's a good chance that the technology that does eventually replace the smartphone is so fantastical that we can't really comprehend or understand it right now; just as if you took someone from the 1970s and tried to explain the concept of a pocket-sized gadget that could do everything from play movies to take professional-quality photos – they'd assume you were utterly crazy.

Perhaps the next big leap isn't a device which you hold in your hand, but something that interfaces directly with your brain itself – science fiction for sure, but when you look at the rapid progress made in the world of technology in the past half-century, it seems churlish to write anything off.

However, for Pescatore, change isn't something he sees as being on the cards, at least not in the short term. "The smartphone is an indispensable part of people’s lives," he says. "I don’t foresee this changing any time soon. People want to have something tangible in their hands. We spend more time looking at our smartphones than any other device. People want to watch video, play games and listen to music on the fly. There’s no better device to do that than a smartphone."

”The smartphone is an indispensable part of people’s lives. I don’t foresee this changing any time soon.”

Indeed, Pescatore believes that the smartphone is a totally unique device in that it has become absolutely essential to the average person; it's not a one-use gadget, but something that covers a multitude of functions, more so than any other piece of technology before it.

"It is the swiss army knife of the tech world," he continues. "Whereas other tech has fallen by the wayside, we’ve seen a slew of novel features integrated into a smartphone. It's incredible to think premium high-end smartphones are now commanding a price of more than $1,000/£1,000, and the price is heading in one direction. This is something that the handset providers will want to maintain."

TechRadar's Next Up series is brought to you in association with Honor

Qualcomm has accused Apple of sharing confidential information with competitors in a bid to secure cheaper components for the iPhone.

The two companies are engaged in a wide-ranging legal battle in which Qualcomm has claimed Apple has violated its patents, while Apple says Qualcomm is abusing its dominant position in the market and charging extortionate fees.

As part of its agreement with Qualcomm, Apple was granted access to the former’s source code and software to modify it for use with the iPhone on the condition this was kept confidential. However, Qualcomm believes Apple shared the log files from the software with Intel engineers.

Apple v Qualcomm

It says that this would help Intel improve its own technology and allow Apple to source cheaper components, costing Qualcomm potentially billions of dollars.

Qualcomm wants its latest allegation to be added to a lawsuit filed in 2017 which alleged Apple violated the terms of their supplier agreement by resisting efforts to audit compliance, according to Reuters.

Apple has counter-claimed that Qualcomm has not disclosed which information was allegedly shared and also that it gave the company a chance to verify compliance.

Qualcomm’s modem technology has been used in several iterations of the iPhone, but since the iPhone 7, Apple has diversified its supplier base, using Intel chips in some handsets.

However, Qualcomm believes its modems have been completely eliminated from the most recent iPhones, a belief that is supported by independent teardowns.

The iPhone XS, XS Max and XR were detailed earlier this month with the former two models now available in the UK.

•   Here are the best iPhone deals for September 2018

We know the OnePlus 6T is coming soon, given that even OnePlus itself has been teasing the phone, but now we may know the exact date of the announcement: October 17.

That dates comes from an image posted on Chinese microblogging site Weibo by someone with the username 'Little white MTX'. The image (which you can see below) appears to show an invitation to the OnePlus 6T launch event in India.

The invitation also includes the words ‘unlock the speed’ written on the phone's screen, seemingly hinting at both the power of the OnePlus 6T and the in-screen fingerprint scanner which it’s already confirmed to have.

Something's not right

The same source also posted a couple of images seemingly showing the OnePlus 6T itself and giving us a closer view than we’ve had before, with highlights including a triple-lens camera on the back, a teardrop notch on the front and minimal bezel.

However these same images also raise red flags, as an earlier leak strongly suggested the phone would only have a dual-lens camera.

So we’d take everything in this new leak with a pinch of salt. That said, we’re sure the OnePlus 6T will be announced soon, and if this invite is the real deal then more people should start receiving it before long.

• The OnePlus 6T won't have a headphone port

Via GSMArena

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro launch date is today, October 16, and we'll be reporting live from the London event from 2pm BST.

While nothing is officially confirmed yet, there has been a huge amount of Huawei Mate 20 Pro leaks which suggest the specs will include a triple camera offering on its rear and an in-display fingerprint scanner on the front.

It means the Huawei Mate 20 Pro may be the firm's most premium mainstream smartphone ever, and that in itself is exciting.

Update: The Huawei Mate 20 Pro launch is October 16 - that's today - and we'll have all the latest on the new handset right here.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is set to show up alongside the Huawei Mate 20, which is rumored to be a slightly less premium version of the handset - similar in a way to the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro, with the latter boasting the more impressive spec list.

Here's everything we know so far - and it's a lot.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? Huawei's next premium phablet
• When is it out? Announced October 16 2018, probably out soon after
• What will it cost? Probably over £799 (about $1,110, AU$1,450)

Huawei Mate 20 Pro release date

• Huawei Mate 20 Pro launch date: October 16
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro release date: Late October/early November likely

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro launch date is October 16, which - if you haven't been paying attention - is today!

What we don't know yet though is the Huawei Mate 20 Pro release date. We'd expect Huawei to get the Mate 20 Pro into hands in the following weeks.

It won't want to wait too long to get the Mate 20 Pro out to consumers either, with the Google Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, LG V40, Razer Phone 2 and OnePlus 6T all arriving around the same time.

In the past Huawei has started selling its new Mate range in November - including the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro - which may mean you have a little longer to wait before you're able to pick one up.

If you're in the US we wouldn't count on being able to buy the Mate 20 Pro, as Huawei's recent handsets haven't hit the States.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro price

According to one source the Huawei Mate 20 Pro could cost roughly $1,050-$1,110 / £810-£850 / AU$1,500-AU$1,570, which would be a lot, but that's based on a conversion from Swiss Francs, so probably isn't totally accurate.

Another source has suggested it will cost at least (and we should emphasize the 'at least' bit) 850 euros (roughly $980 / £750 / AU$1,380), so perhaps a little less, but not much. In other words, this is sure to be an expensive phone.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro display and design

One of the most exciting Huawei Mate 20 Pro leaks is the one suggesting the handset will feature an in-display fingerprint scanner.

From an early rumor suggesting the standard Mate 20 with have an in-display fingerprint scanner, to leaked firmware details  published by XDA Developers and more recent renders showing no sign of an off-screen scanner - it's almost nailed on to be offered on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

Indeed, we've even now seen an image seemingly showing the scanner component itself.

Industry sources claim the phone will use a Qualcomm ultrasonic scanner, which can work when greasy or wet. It's a believable claim too, given that the super-premium Huawei Mate RS Porsche Design has an in-screen scanner.

The claim of an in-screen scanner has also been spotted in images of the front panel, showing off a curvy design and a large notch which apparently houses a 3D-sensing camera for facial recognition.

We've since seen another set of images reportedly showing the front of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and they match up with the ones above, as well as giving us a look at the settings screen, which suggests the phone will have 128GB of storage.

Of course, there may be other sizes available as well. The images (which you can see below), also show that the phone has NFC - though we'd be surprised if it didn't.

We've also heard that the Huawei Mate 20 Pro might have a 6.9-inch OLED screen, as the company is apparently in the process of sampling screens of that size from Samsung Display, for use in a smartphone. That could make the Huawei Mate 20 Pro the biggest mainstream phone yet.

We've seen the 6.9-inch screen rumor surface for a second time after code relating to the Huawei Mate 20 Pro was found on firm's own website, which also revealed the Mate 20 Pro would come with a QHD+ resolution.

We've also seen some more leaked images claiming to show what appears to be the front panel of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

The panel seems to feature Samsung Galaxy Note 9-style curved edges and a more distinct iPhone XS-inspired notch that will reportedly house a 3D facial scanner, matching the leaked images above.  

We're expecting the Huawei Mate 20 Pro to have a glass back - which should allow for wireless charging - but apart from that we don't know much about the size, materials or colors Huawei will choose.

One odd feature that's turned up in an image is an unidentified detail on the bottom bezel of the phone. You can see this below. It doesn't appear to be a button or logo, but could it be a front-facing speaker? We're not sure right now.

Of course, we'd take the image itself with a pinch of salt, especially given the stretched out look of the phone in it, but it comes from a fairly reliable source and could just be an issue of perspective.

More recently we've seen the leaked pictures below, claiming to be the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. You can see the rear camera setup and the wider notch on top.

Here the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is enclosed in a case, but the leaks seem genuine enough, and it seems to match an even more recent image leak which shows the front and rear of the handset in three colors.

Those colors include the Twilight shade that we first saw on the P20 range, which shifts from blue to purple. It's a color that has popped up again in another leak, so it's likely making a return.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro specs and performance

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro will pack the new Kirin 980 chipset. Huawei has confirmed this in a press release, announcing the Kirin 980 will be the world's first 7nm silicon and boast an octa-core setup.

Huawei claims that the Kirin 980 chip will deliver 20% better performance and 40% better battery efficiency over its predecessor (in the P20, P20 Pro, Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro).

That chipset could be very powerful if an early benchmark is to be believed. The multi-core score of 10,318 is higher than any Android handset, though lower than the iPhone XS.

The benchmark also points to 6GB of RAM, though a TENAA (a certification body) listing for the phone suggests it could come in both 6GB and 8GB versions, with up to 512GB of storage.

It's also expected the Huawei Mate 20 Pro will launch with Android Pie - the latest version of Google's operating system - after it was certified by the Eurasian Economic Commission, with the listing mentioning Android 9 Pie.

But even without that evidence we'd expect them to run it as it's out now and a flagship is unlikely to use old software. That said, the phones will probably have Emotion UI 9.0 on top - an overlay which is designed specifically by Huawei for its devices.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro battery

One of the main focuses for the Mate series is long battery life, and we fully expect the Huawei Mate 20 Pro to follow this trend.

According to the firmware files found by FunkyHuawei, the Mate 20 will come with a 4,200mAh battery, and we'd expect the same (if not bigger) inside the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. 

Last year's Mate 10 Pro had the same size battery as the Mate 10 (at 4,000mAh) and while rumors of a slight increase in capacity this time around make sense, we wouldn't be surprised to see Huawei attempt to squeeze extra mAh into the Mate 20 Pro.

A teaser sent directly to TechRadar suggests the Huawei Mate 20 Pro could pack a huge battery compared to previous generations of handsets.

There's no clear sign of how big the battery will be, but as you can see in the diagram above the company is making it clear it'll be larger than 4,000mAh.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro camera

Multiple Huawei Mate 20 Pro leaks point towards a triple camera setup on the rear of the handset, with the three lenses located in a raised square protrusion along with a flash.

We also have an idea of some of the new camera features, as an APK teardown has revealed that there might be an underwater shooting mode.

Plus there could be an AI Zoom (which automatically adjusts the zoom so that the subject stays focused), an AI Cinema mode, which adds filters to videos as you're recording, and a Video Bokeh mode, which lets you blur the background in videos.

These have all been found in official Huawei software, so they're being worked on, but it's not final software, so they may not all be supported ultimately.

It also looks like the Huawei Mate 20 Pro's camera could be the best ever put on a smartphone, at least according to one source, as a leak suggests that the phone has a DxOMark score of 116.

DxOMark is a respected camera test site and the previous highest score for a smartphone was the Huawei P20 Pro with 109.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro other features

One extra feature the Huawei Mate 20 Pro might have is the ability to identify you based on your voice, giving you one more way to unlock the phone (along with a possibly in-screen fingerprint scanner and likely facial recognition).

While not a feature as such, we've also seen plenty of evidence that Huawei could launch 'Freebuds 2 Pro' wireless earbuds alongside the Mate 20 range, and the company may even pack the buds with them.

Leaked images (which you can see below) have shown the AirPods-inspired buds, and we've also learned that they might offer three hours of battery life, as well as having a case that can keep them juiced up for 20 hours.

If you need to recharge the case this can apparently be done either on a wireless charging mat or via USB-C. Interestingly though you can supposedly also put the case on the back of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and use your phone as a charging mat.

There are lots of ways to judge the quality of a smartphone camera, but one of the most useful is the score given to it by DxOMark – a site which takes a more in-depth look at smartphone cameras than just about any other. And going by its DxOMark score the Huawei Mate 20 Pro may have the best camera of any phone yet.

We say 'may' because the Mate 20 Pro hasn’t been announced yet, and nor has its DxOMark score. But someone on Weibo (a Chinese microblogging site) has posted an image, seemingly showing the scores for a number of new and upcoming handsets, and the Huawei Mate 20 Pro takes the top spot with a score of 116.

That's a full seven points higher than the previous top score of 109, achieved by the Huawei P20 Pro, but since the Mate 20 Pro is likely to have an upgraded version of that phone’s camera it’s believable.

Other highlights in the leak include the Google Pixel 3, which apparently scores 107, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, both of which supposedly sit on 104, the iPhone XR with a listed score of 100, and the OnePlus 6T with 99.

Don't read too much into it

We would of course take all of this with a pinch of salt, as the image could easily have been altered and the source (who goes by the name Communication Old Willow) isn’t someone we’re familiar with, though they certainly have a large following on Weibo.

It is also worth noting that even if these scores are accurate they don’t tell the full story, as DxOMark gives separate scores for photography and video, as well as a combined score.

The combined score is what we’re looking at here, so even if the Mate 20 Pro has the highest combined score it might be lower than some rivals for either photography or video, with the other score pulling its ranking up.

A score is also ultimately just a number. For a real idea of how good a phone’s camera is you need to read the full analysis, or better yet use multiple sources or even try it out for yourself. Still, as brand new and in some cases unannounced flagships there’s little doubt that all of these phones will have very good cameras.

• The Samsung Galaxy S10 could take the top spot early next year

Via SmartPrix

The Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has announced the Mi A2 and Mi A2 Lite at for the UAE at a press event held in Dubai today.Both these handsets are based on Android One.

Xiaomi Mi A2 Specifications

The Xiaomi Mi A2 will run on Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box and will be a part of Google’s Android One program. The device features a 5.99-inch full HD+ 2.5D curved glass display with a resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 18:9.

In terms of performance, the Mi A2 is powered by the octa core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC coupled with Adreno 512 GPU. In terms of memory, the device will be available in the UAE with two variants – 4GB RAM + 64GB internal storage, and 6GB RAM + 128GB internal storage.

Coming to the camera department, the Xiaomi Mi A2 will feature a dual camera setup at the back consisting of a 12MP primary camera with Sony IMX486 sensor, 1.25μm pixel size, f/1.75 aperture and a secondary 20MP camera with Sony IMX376 sensor, f/1.75 aperture and 1.0um pixel size. On the front, the device is reported to feature a 20MP selfie camera with Sony IMX376 sensor, 1.0um pixel size and a soft LED flash.

The Mi A2 is powered by a 3,010mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support. Connectivity options on the device will include Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 5 LE, 3.5mm audio jack, GPS and a USB Type – C port.

Pricing for the Xiaomi Mi A2 is set at AED 919 for the 4GB/64GB model while the higher-end 6GB/128GB model will retail for AED 1,079. Both these variants will be available in Black, Blue and Gold colours.

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite Specifications

The Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is the Android One variant of the recently announced Redmi 6 Pro. It looks similar to the Mi A2 at the back but at the front it has a notch, giving it a different look. The device also run on Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box but will have a smaller 5.84-inch full HD+ 2.5D curved glass display with a resolution of 2280 x 1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19:9.

In terms of performance, the device is powered by the octa core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC coupled with Adreno 506 GPU. In terms of memory, the device is expected to be announced in two variants – 3GB RAM + 32GB storage and 4GB RAM + 64GB storage.

Coming to the camera department, the device features a dual camera setup at the back consisting of a 12MP primary camera with Sony IMX486 sensor, 1.25um pixel size, phase detection autofocus, f/2.2 aperture and a secondary 5MP camera with Samsung S5K5E8 sensor, f/2.2 aperture and 1.12um pixel size. On the front, the device is expected to sport a 5MP selfie camera.

The Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite will be powered by a 4,000mAh battery for a 2 day usage and connectivity options on the device will include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, 3.5mm audio jack and GPS.

Pricing for the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is set at AED 619 for the 3GB/32GB model while the 4GB/64GB model will retail for AED 749. 

Xiaomi today held the regional unveiling of their new sub-brand — POCO — with its first smartphone, the POCO F1. It is the new budget-focused flagship phone that’s made it to India before any other part of the world and is now coming to the UAE. It packs flagship features, promising camera, top of the line chipset and the most important, an insanely low price tag. 

It’s the cheapest Snapdragon 845 smartphone that starts selling at mere AED 1,249 (approx $300).  In the UAE, the POCO F1 family has two variants— 6GB RAM/64GB storage and 6GB RAM/128GB storage and will be available in Graphite Black, Steel Blue, and Rosso Red colours. 

Gets ample of processing power

The POCO F1 features the top-end Snapdragon 845 chipset with 6GB of RAM. On top, it gets LiquidCool Technology cooling system for thermal management. The company claims that it delivers sustained peak performance for extended periods. It is also claimed that the system is 300% more effective than conventional, non-liquid cooling solutions as it allows heat from the CPU to dissipate in a go. To make it even speedier, the phone uses an LPDDR4x DRAM and UFS 2.1 storage.

Bigger battery than most competitors

We have seen phones like the OnePlus 6 or Oppo Find X killing it with the performance, but it’s uncommon to find a big battery on them. POCO F1 get a 4000mAh cell, which is said to sustain 8-hours of continuous gaming. Moreover, with the Qualcomm QC 3.0 support, it shouldn’t take unusual charging time.

Borrows flagship camera setup from the Mi 8

It’s not revolutionary, but the rear camera setup on the POCO F1 looks quite promising on paper. To have an idea, it’s the same module that was seen on the Mi 8 earlier this year. It gets a 12MP Sony IMX363 primary sensor with 1.4-micron pixel size and a 5MP secondary sensor. It gets dual-pixel autofocus technology that was first seen on the Samsung Galaxy S7, and it enhances focus speed and accuracy.

Up front, there’s a 20MP sensor featuring Super Pixel tech that is said to combine information from four pixels into one large 1.8-micron pixel for clearer images with minimum noise.

Both the cameras get AI features for photos. Xiaomi says the AI intelligently identifies and optimizes the images in real-time by judging the scene. It is pre-fed with 206 scenes across 25 categories.

What else?

POCO F1 also includes a tweaked MIUI launcher called the POCO launcher, which will be available on the Google Play store eventually. The launcher is a slightly improved version of MIUI, which feels faster and smoother. For a change, the POCO F1 comes with an app drawer that can automatically categorise apps. Moreover, MIUI for POCO also priorities security and regular updates from Google. 

The launcher is currently based on Android Oreo 8.1, but the company has promised to release the Android P by Q4 2018. 

POCO F1 Price and availability

The POCO F1 will retail at AED 1,249 for the 6GB+64GB and AED 1,349 for the 6GB+128GB configuration. It will go on sale at Mi stores and mi-mena.com as well as official partners like Etisalat, Noon and Carrefour.

If you've ventured into one of the many JB Hi-FI stores around Australia over the last few days, you may have noticed huge banners detailing numerous SIM-only plans available on the retailer's new mobile service, JB Hi-Fi Mobile. 

The service, which offers exclusive data-heavy BYO mobile plans on the Telstra Network, aims to give JB Hi-Fi customers bang for their buck, with certain plans offering gift cards and potentially huge discounts if you also purchase a new handset from the big-box retailer.

JB's entry-level plan offers new customers 25GB of monthly data and unlimited talk and text within Australian for $45 per month on a 12-month plan, along with a bonus $200 gift card thrown in for good measure. 

For $65 per month, customers can nab 40GB of monthly data and unlimited calls and SMS, with the option to get either a $300 discount on a new phone valued under $999, or $500 off the outright price of any new phone priced over $999. 

Each of the plans also includes free access to Apple Music and the Telstra Air Wi-Fi hotspot network. Currently, JB's exclusive plans aren't available online, so you'll have to venture in store and speak to a JB Hi-Fi staff member in order to sign up. 

• Best phones in Australia 2018: top 10 smartphones tested and ranked

With the latest iPhone XS release, the iPhone finally, officially supports dual SIM capabilities. There are plenty of reasons why many people are excited about this feature landing on the iPhone as this allows you to have the flexibility of using one phone for your work number as well as your personal number, or use different carriers for voice calls and data.

Depending on which part of the world you live in, the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Plus (and soon the iPhone XR) either have a tray that can take dual SIM cards or work have a tray that takes one nano SIM card like previous iPhones and have one built-in eSIM. An eSIM is an electronic version of the SIM card and pretty much the future of using all phones. With the iPhone XS, Apple is sending a message to carriers that it’s time to start implementing eSIM technology.

Although Apple hasn’t enabled eSIM on the iPhone XS just yet, it is expected to do so in a future iOS update. But the Chinese variant of the iPhone XS has a tray for two physical SIM cards and we managed to get our hands on one to see how dual SIM technology works on the iPhone. 

We like how Apple has used a double-sided SIM tray to house both the SIM cards. Apple has done this by adding a little piece on bendable plastic that pushes down and keeps the secondary SIM card from falling off when it’s facing down. It’s a nice little tweak to keep the SIM card locked in its place and we wonder why Apple hasn’t done this for the primary SIM card as well.

Almost all Android phone we’ve recently looked at have a tray with two slots next to each other with the second slot used either for a SIM card or an SD card. Using a double sided tray could help all Android manufacturers build support for dual SIMs AND a microSD card and not have consumers decide between one or the other. 

Coming to the functionality of dual SIM cards on the iPhone, it’s very much like what we’ve seen on Android phones over the last few years. You can independently choose which SIM you want to use for phone calls, messaging and data, and, can rename each of the SIM cards to help you easily distinguish between the two.

When you’re calling someone, you can select which SIM you want to use for outgoing calls. A small button appears on top the dialter that lets you switch between the SIM cards on the phone.. When you receive an incoming call, iOS 12 lets you know which SIM the call is coming through and the Call History screen also shows which SIM was used for each call.

The functionality of the iPhone using either two physical SIM cards or using an eSIM as well as a regular SIM card is expected to be the same so whenever Apple enables eSIM functionality on the iPhone XS and XR, expect it to work much like what we’ve described above.

However, there is one particular area where the iPhone will need to catch up with Android phones and we’re not quite sure if Apple will allow this in future iOS updates. It’s called App twinning or App cloning which basically allows you to have two instances of an app working independently of each other. 

To give you an example, with two numbers on your phone, you might also want two different WhatsApp accounts. Most Android phones with dual SIM cards will allow you to create a clone of WhatsApp and use it with your secondary number. 

However, this is not possible on the iPhone just yet. Either Apple will need to build support for app cloning in iOS or app developers such as WhatsApp will need to extensively rewrite their apps to support working with multiple numbers. 

At the moment, either of those options options look a bit unlikely but then again, so was the thought of having a dual SIM iPhone a couple of years back.