If Chinese electronics company TCL may be better known in the US for its TVs than its smartphones, that’s because the company doesn’t use its own name on phones sold in the US. But if you buy a recent BlackBerry smartphone anywhere other than India, you’re probably using a device manufactured by TCL. The company also sells phones under the Alcatel brand.
The BlackBerry phones tend to stand out by virtue of being, well, BlackBerry phones. Some have keyboards. All have BlackBerry-specific software.
But TCL seems to be looking for other ways to make its upcoming phones competitive. At a time when most major phone makers are developing some sort of foldable phone, it looks like TCL is considering as many as five different concepts designs.
- TCL is working on a foldable phone that bends into a smartwatch [CNET]
According to patent filing and images obtained by CNET, TCL is developing two types of smartphone/tablet hybirds (one that folds inward and one that folds out), two flip-phone style models (in and out, both of which seem similar to the upcoming Moto Razr folding phone), and one that may fold around your wrist to become a smartwatch. - More Motorola 5G Moto Mod details revealed [The Verge]
Motorola 5G Moto Mod hits the FCC, basically has the guts of a standalone phone including a Snapdragon 855 processor, Snapdragon X50 modem, and 2,000 mAh battery. It also effectively makes a Moto Z3 phone twice as thick. - Intel accidentally posts 9th gen H-series specs online [Guru3D]
Intel 9th-gen H-series chips show up in an document ahead of official announcement, expected to include processor ranging from the 4.1 GHz Core i5-9300H to the 5 GHz Core i-9990KF. - Average Whiskey Lake-U laptop is just 8 percent faster than Kaby Lake-R [NotebookCheck]
Intel’s Whiskey Lake and Kaby Lake Refresh processors are both 14nm chips aimed at laptops and marketed under the 8th-gen Intel Core brand. So it probably won’t surprise you to learn that the newer Whiskey Lake chips aren’t much faster. - Rakuten 15% off sitewide sale (coupon: SAVE15)
Rakuten is running another of its occasional sitewide sales. This time the coupon code SAVE15 can save you 15 percent off the price of any item, with savings maxing out at $60.
Intel “accidentally” leaks 9th-gen mobile chips in response to “8% faster” for the 4th ~~generation~~ sales release in a row.
Design #5 would be the most useful to people.
They can have a smartwatch, and when required it folds out to be a smartphone. The only issue with this one is that it seems we lack the technology to implement it properly. You’ll have an oversized and uncomfortable watch that doesn’t fit very well and will get annoying for most people. And as a smartphone it will be rather small and full of compromises. Everyone will stop using it as a watch after the first week, and will get angry at the phone portion after a month: they rather prefer separate watch-and-phone combination.
For today’s technology, Design #2 is most useful.
Having a regular (rectangle) phone with a screen on the front and back, and a curved side. Not too bad or full of compromises. Then you fold it out, and have a larger (square) screen for some tablet media consumption like watching a movie or playing a game.
Design #1 and Design #3 aren’t very useful, however, they do protect the screen better than the other designs.
Design #4 is the least useful and protective of the entire batch. It makes compromises without any advantages besides slick marketing “hey it folds, check me out!”.