Samsung’s second-generation foldable phone has been available to buy for a while now and as we said in our Galaxy Z Fold 2 review, it’s pretty great! The Galaxy Z Fold 2 brings several improvements including a new hinge that can be stopped at any angle, a wider front screen, a pinhole camera instead of that awful notch, and far more. There are also optimizations thanks to close partnerships with Google, where Duo and YouTube display controls on half the screen and video on the other half, and Microsoft, where you can work on a Powerpoint and Excel sheet side-by-side from within the Office app.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 has a $1,999 MSRP in the US. Although fairly expensive, it’s only priced at $20 more than the price of the original Galaxy Z Fold, despite the vast range of improvements it brings. For what we at XDA think was the best overall smartphone of 2020, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is worth the price of admission. We have collected all relevant information on the best Galaxy Z Fold 2 deals below!
Best Unlocked Galaxy Z Fold 2 Deals in the US
In the US, you can pick up your Z Fold 2 with a unique hinge from the Samsung Store, or save a little money at Best Buy.
Samsung
Samsung is doing things differently with the Galaxy Z Fold 2, allowing you to customize it and truly make it your own. You have a choice of hinge colors so you can get creative with the style of your phone. If you place a pre-order, you can get up to $1,000 credit when you trade-in the Galaxy Fold or Galaxy Z Flip, or up to $650 with other devices.
Forget the rest of the deals – if you want to save a bundle on your unlocked Galaxy Z Fold 2 and have a recent phone, Samsung's trade-in offer is the best. You can get up to $650 credit and if you have the original Z Flip or Galaxy Fold, you can save $1,000 on your new Galaxy Z Fold 2!
Depending on what you’re looking for, you can get some Galaxy Z Fold 2 deals at Best Buy. For an unlocked phone, you’ll save $250 if you activate today, but you need to cough up the remaining amount upfront. If you need a payment plan, you can sign up for a Verizon carrier phone for a 24-month payment plan, or AT&T for a 30-month payment plan.
If you want to save on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and don't have a trade-in, Best Buy will give you a discount for activating at time of sale. Best Buy is offering the Galaxy Z Fold 2 either unlocked or with Verizon and AT&T, in both Mystic Black and Mystic Bronze.
The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is available again on Amazon! You can buy the phone now and have it at your door in two days with Prime shipping. Currently, you can also save $200 on either color of the foldable, bringing the total down to $1,800. Still expensive, but that’s a decent chunk off the asking price!
Buy the Galaxy Z Fold 2 at Amazon, for a hassle-free time! You can also save $200 flat on your purchase, if you don't have a good trade-in value on your phone, the convenience may be worth it.
Of course, some major carriers are also selling the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Here are the best deals for each of them:
Verizon
Get your Galaxy Z Fold 2 on Verizon! On Verizon’s standard device payment program, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 will cost you $66.66 a month for 30 months, which makes it a lot easier to afford than $2k upfront.
Buy one Galaxy Z Fold 2, get another for free (one must be a new line)
Get up to $750 in trade-in value with a new line, or $440 trade-in value with an upgrade.
Get the full power of Verizon's 5G mmWave network with the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Verizon has a range of promotions available, including big discounts and free goodies.
Have a phone to trade-in? You can save up to $700 on the Galaxy Z Fold 2, as long as you are going for an Unlimited plan! The Galaxy Buds Live deal is dead for now, but it may come back when the new Buds come out!
Whether you’re deciding to enter the foldable phone market with the Galaxy Z Fold 2 or a returning foldable veteran, it’s always great to save on such a high-end purchase. More money saved on the phone means more funds available for cases and skins for the Galaxy Z Fold 2, after all!
Google has been working on a new Phone Hub feature for Chrome OS over the last few months. The feature was first spotted back in September last year as a new feature flag on the Chromium Gerrit. The flag had revealed that the Phone Hub would provide deeper integration between Chrome OS and Android devices, allowing users to access notifications and controls their phones right from their Chromebooks. Earlier this month, the feature went live for some users running Chrome OS 90 on the Canary channel, and we learned more about its capabilities.
So far, we’ve learned that the Phone Hub feature will let users enable their phone’s hotspot, enable DND mode, locate their misplaced phone, sync Chrome tabs, sync notifications, and reply to them right from their Chromebook. Now, a recent report from 9to5Google suggests that it may also let you mirror your phone’s screen. The report points at a new flag — #eche-swa — that is currently in development. It claims that this flag enables a System Web App (SWA) version of “Eche,” which presumably means “throw” or “cast” when translated from Spanish to English. This suggests that the SWA will let users cast their phone’s screen on Chrome OS devices.
The report further talks about a snippet that highlights what the #eche-swa flag is supposed to do. It states: “Implements the core logic of the EcheApp which is a SWA to transmitting video and bidirectional data over WebRTC.” This suggests that Eche “is an app related to a video feed being broadcast over WebRTC — the same tech used by numerous realtime video apps including Google Duo — along with some other “data” to be sent back and forth between two devices.”
The new feature will essentially let users cast their phone’s screen to their Chromebook upon clicking a Phone Hub notification, much like the functionality offered by Microsoft’s Your Phone app for Windows 10. It’s worth noting that the feature will most likely be limited to Google’s Pixel devices at launch, as the Javascript for the Eche app is included in a Google source code folder that appears to be specific to Pixel phones.
It’s worth noting that Phone Hub’s screen mirroring feature is currently in its early stages of development, and we don’t have any information regarding a launch schedule. 9to5Google speculates that if it is a Pixel-exclusive feature, it’s possible that Google may launch it as part of its quarterly Pixel feature Drops. We’ll update this post as soon as we learn more about the feature.
Realme entered the smartphone scene a few years ago, but in the past few years, it has recorded some exceptional growth across the globe. While a good majority of its smartphones target the budget and mid-ranges, Realme also frequently dabbles in making affordable flagships and upper mid-range smartphones. The Realme X7 Pro launched in China last year, but now the company has brought the phone to the Indian market, giving us a chance to try out this affordable flagship powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ SoC.
About this review: Realme India loaned us the Realme X7 Pro for review. This article is after five days of usage. Realme did not have any inputs in this article.
Realme X7 Pro: Design
Glass slab smartphones are a dime a dozen in the market, and we’re at a point where it becomes difficult for a phone to stand out from the crowd. There are a few CMF (Colors, Materials, and Finish) combinations an OEM can try, but in the end, there are only so many options. True to its company branding, the Realme X7 Pro dares to leap with a bold branding printed underneath the glass back. The words “DARE TO LEAP” practically scream across the length of the phone in marketing materials, followed by a comparatively-subdued-yet-prominent “realme” on the other edge. But when I picked up the phone in my hand, the visible effect felt much more mellow than I had honestly expected.
The Fantasy color variant of the Realme X7 Pro has a smooth matte glass back that reflects light back in different hues depending on the angle it hits the back. As a result, you get different shades of yellow, orange, pink, sea green, and light blue, shimmering through as you twist and turn the phone around. The branding areas are negative zones that do not have the same color effect, so it is much easier to forget that those big letters do exist on the back. I was really opinionated when I saw the branding on marketing materials, but with the actual phone now in front of me, I do agree that it does not stand out as strongly as I presumed it would. I still wish the phone was devoid of it and Realme had just stuck to playing around with the colors. But others around me liked the overall effect, so Realme’s leap of faith might just pay off.
Holding and handling the Realme X7 Pro is a comfortable experience, especially for someone who grew used to holding the OnePlus 8 Pro. It’s a smaller and fairly lighter phone with a flat display, all three of which were welcome changes. The Realme X7 Pro has a polycarbonate mid-frame that has a finish similar to the OnePlus Nord — if you aren’t closely paying attention, you will mistake it for metal.
The Realme X7 Pro’s midframe otherwise holds no surprises, by which I sadly mean it also does not hold any slot of expandable memory slot or 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone does come with a Type-C to 3.5mm adapter in the box, which slightly softens the blow of losing the jack. There’s also a clear case with reinforced corners, a 65W SuperDart fast charger, a Type C to Type C cable, and a SIM ejection tool in the box. The phone comes with a pre-applied screen protector too, which you can easily remove.
The 120Hz refresh rate display lends to a fluid and smooth experience
The front of the phone has a 6.55″ FHD+ Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. It’s a big and bright display with 1200 nits of peak brightness, and so far, I haven’t had any complaints with the hardware (some complaints with the software are mentioned in the later parts of this first impression). The hole punch on the left is unobtrusive, and the flat display on the phone reinforces my dislike of curved displays on smartphones. While the refresh rate is not variable and can switch between 120Hz and 60Hz modes only, the overall experience is as fluid and smooth as one can hope with this refresh rate.
My only real complaints with the design and build are with the vibration motor and the physical buttons. The vibration motor is not that great on this phone, and the power button also has some mushiness to it. I am spoiled by my experience with the OnePlus 8 Pro and the iPhone 12 which I have been using regularly for a while now. Granted, both of these phones are far more expensive than the Realme X7 Pro, but poor haptic feedback and mushy buttons are some of the common areas of compromise in affordable phones.
Overall, I am quite content with the Realme X7 Pro. Yes, there is room for improvement. For instance, a metallic midframe would have been an ideal upgrade from polycarbonate. But the polycarbonate used here is pretty good, and there is no inherent cheap or flimsy feeling arising from it. The compromise makes a bit more sense when you consider that the device does pack in a pretty good 120Hz FHD+ Super AMOLED display, so the polycarbonate mid-frame is easier to digest.
Realme X7 Pro: Hardware
Powering the Realme X7 Pro is a MediaTek Dimensity 1000 Plus SoC, making it the first device with this SoC to be launched in India. The Dimensity 1000 Plus is a slight upgrade from the Dimensity 1000, and it’s likely that MediaTek has just phased out the Dimensity 1000 regular variant. Either way, you get 4x ARM Cortex-A77 big cores clocked at 2.6GHz and 4x ARM Cortex-A55 little cores clocked at 2GHz, fabbed on TSMC’s 7nm process. As for the GPU, the SoC employs the ARM Mali-G77 MC9, which is a 9-core variant of the same GPU employed in the Exynos 990. You also get 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 of internal storage.
I have only had the device for a brief period, and my usage during these days has been limited to my usual productivity and entertainment apps. That being said, the real-world performance of the Realme X7 Pro has been very good, with no real lags or stutters observed. Ignoring benchmark numbers for a bit, using the Realme X7 Pro was an experience similar to the OnePlus 8 Pro across everyday apps, with the only difference being the quicker and snappier animations on OxygenOS giving off a “speedier” impression. If you are an average consumer with little interest in benchmarks, then the Realme X7 Pro will serve you pretty well.
On benchmarks, the Realme X7 Pro clocks under the Snapdragon 865 for CPU performance as well as GPU performance. But that’s not entirely a bad thing, because devices with the Dimensity 1000 Plus target price segments where we usually see SoCs like the Snapdragon 765G. Against the Snapdragon 765G, the Dimensity 1000 Plus is ahead by a fair margin, and it becomes a viable choice for customers who are interested in performance but cannot get their hands on a Snapdragon flagship.
Gaming on the Realme X7 Pro continues its good run. Games do run well at medium settings, but higher settings start pushing the phone to its limits. Realme touts an “eSport Grade Vapor Cooling System” with a five-level heat dissipation system, and with my brief experience crushing through enemy hordes in Genshin Impact, the phone did not appear to throttle. The surface area next to the camera module does begin to warm up after a few long minutes, but I haven’t found a phone that does not also do so in Genshin Impact. The cooling system is actually working if it dissipates heat and prevents throttling, and to that end, the Realme X7 Pro succeeds as the phone does not get uncomfortably hot in the process, nor does it display any signs of apparent throttling.
The camera on the Realme X7 Pro does not particularly stand out from previous Realme phones. It’s a tried and true formula for the company by now, with the 64MP Sony IMX686 taking center-stage on this device. The IMX686 is practically the same sensor as the IMX682, with the difference being 4K 60fps on the former versus 4K 30fps on the latter. I’ve had very limited opportunities to try out the camera, and the results aren’t very out of the ordinary for the IMX686 that I have experienced so far. I do feel more strongly about the 2MP monochrome and the 2MP macro cameras, and in my opinion, both of these could have been entirely omitted for a more value-oriented package as they bring very little in terms of versatility anyway.
Realme X7 Pro: Battery and Charging
The Realme X7 Pro comes with a 4500 mAh battery, which is a good size battery for a phone with an FHD+ display. However, the bigger selling point of the device is its 65W SuperDart Charging. And this is one aspect of the device that simply blows me away, even after having experienced the same briefly with the Realme 7 Pro. Reaching over 50% charge from 0% takes between 15-20 minutes, while a good 0-95% is managed in just about 35 minutes. Realme promises a full 100% charge within 35 minutes, while my testing led to a 40-minute figure — either number is mind-blowing on its own.
65W fast charging is mind-blowing, and you need to experience it to truly appreciate how quick it is
You need to experience the 65W charging to truly appreciate how quick it is, and Realme’s efforts to bring the technology down to more price points are appreciated. Note that these speeds are achieved only through the proprietary charger included in the box, and an ideal future would have these speeds achievable safely through universal standards.
Realme UI based on Android 10
The Realme X7 Pro runs on Realme UI based on Android 10. The base Android version is perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this otherwise good device. Phones in the mid-range in 2021 launching with Android 10 out-of-the-box leave a bit to desire, and unless the company is promising to provide three version upgrades, the presence of Android 10 affects your ability to receive Android 13 on this device in the future. Considering the price of the device and the fact that Android 11 has been around for a while, I expected better.
Realme UI is otherwise a pretty good experience. If you are someone who is comfortable with heavier UX skins like MIUI, then Realme UI will feel right at home. There are a bunch of customizations all across, and I personally do not mind switching over to other UX skins. Realme UX does get a little gaudy with animations at times, like the fast charging animation that is cool but gets old pretty fast, but I generally enjoyed my time with the UX. Well, except for two main issues.
For one, there is a bit of a spam and bloatware situation on the Realme X7 Pro. Apps like HeyFun are preloaded, and along with the default Browser app, you are spammed with a bunch of notifications throughout the day, even if you have not opened the apps even once! Some of these also push content that is borderline NSFW (not safe for work) and certainly not something you want to accidentally click if you are not alone. Granted, I’ve witnessed more aggressive push notifications/ads and monetization behavior on other smartphones sold in India, but that does not make it okay for Realme to do it too.
My second complaint with Realme UI is a bit more nuanced. If you have ever signed into a Google Account on a near-stock device like a Google Pixel or an Android One device, and then went on to set Digital Wellbeing and its Wind Down tool settings to enable Night Light automatically between sunset and sunrise on those devices, those settings end up getting synced to your Google Account. What Realme UI does wrong is, when it restores all of your Google settings related to the account, it does not reset these Night Light and Wind Down settings. Realme UI also has its own implementation of Night Light, so settings related to the AOSP implementation are no longer accessible within the UX. The end result of all of this? Night Light (from AOSP) ended up getting enabled automatically on my unit between sunset and sunrise, with no way to really turn it off. If you toggle Realme’s night light implementation on top of this, you get a display that is tinted heavily orange (and not just yellow anymore).
A comparison of the Realme X7 Pro with the night light bug and the OnePlus 8 Pro. Note that the night light bug can be fixed with simple ADB commands.
This is not a hardware defect, mind you. I faced the same issue on the Realme 7 Pro as well, and at the time, I figured I ended up with a defective unit. When the issue repeated itself on the Realme X7 Pro, we figured out that the issue is related to the conflict between values saved and restored from a Google backup. XDA’s Adam Conway faced the issue on a Xiaomi device on MIUI, so the issue broadly centers around how OEMs handle these values upon user migration — Samsung and OnePlus have done a better job at this, apparently.
If you get stuck with a Night Light filter that does not turn off, try out these ADB commands:
adb shell settings put secure night_display_auto_mode 0
adb shell settings put secure night_display_activated 0
This should fix the issue. On Realme phones, you may need to toggle the “Disable Permission Monitoring” setting within Developer Options to allow the above commands to be executed. We’ve informed Realme about the bug and provided relevant logging information to help them fix it in future software releases.
Realme also has another problem to fix: device kernel sources. The company has made a fair few promises on this end, but the delivery on them leaves a lot to be desired. Published kernel sources are often corresponding to older Realme UI releases, not to mention that it leaves out drivers for components on the newer releases. The company also prefers dumping the source in a huge chunk instead of providing proper commits with authorship, making it very difficult to track changes. On a related tangent, there is also some delay in releasing device-specific bootloader unlock applications too. If you care about aftermarket development, then the combination of Realme and MediaTek makes for a difficult recommendation.
Conclusion: The Realme X7 Pro is a good phone with a few quirks
My brief time with the Realme X7 Pro brings me to an interesting conclusion: MediaTek flagships are not as bad as they used to be. I say this as a long-time Snapdragon flagship phone user, and as someone who has also used SoCs like the MediaTek Helio X10 “flagship” SoCs which were pretty bad at the time. The Realme X7 Pro with the MediaTek Dimensity 1000 Plus is a surprisingly good offering, one that I did not expect to fare as well as it did. Putting benchmark obsession aside, my week with the phone went by very uneventfully (other than the night light bug), and I did not really encounter a situation where I missed the performance of my OnePlus 8 Pro.
The only situation I could realistically figure the Realme X7 Pro would trail behind was in gaming — but with Genshin Impact, I used to run the game on medium settings anyway on the OnePlus 8 Pro (to save some juice and keep playing for longer with minimal heat), so I was not hurdled by the Dimensity 1000 Plus here either. The 65W SuperDart charging is also mind-blowing, to say the least, and it just changes the way you use the phone — I found myself going in for shorter quick top-ups more frequently instead of longer charging cycles. I do confess that I have not used the cameras extensively so I may not have encountered some of its quirks, and the display is obviously different when you observe it next to the OnePlus 8 Pro. But when used as a daily driver, the Realme X7 Pro got the job done for me without making me miss my usual Snapdragon 865 flagship.
This brings us down to the question, should you buy the Realme X7 Pro? If you are an average user who does not intend to partake in development activities, nor are you obsessed with the spec sheet or benchmark numbers, and are fine with Android 10 out of the box, the Realme X7 Pro does make for a good option. I can see my parents or even my younger brother using the phone without any issues, and that is testimony to non-premium flagship phones getting better to the point that they serve the average user pretty well.
The Realme X7 Pro is definitely not an overpriced phone
But for the price of ₹29,999 (~$411), the Realme X7 Pro evoked reactions of being overpriced at launch. To these I say, the experience on the phone comes close to the price tag, and I personally would not categorize the phone as “overpriced”. It may not be as strong of a value proposition that you have grown accustomed to from Realme in the past, but that does not by itself make it a poor value holder. Realme also probably made a mistake by not launching a lower-priced variant with less RAM and storage as that would have shifted the post-launch conversation to an extent. The company also has a habit of mixing and matching specifications across different prices, so features like 65W fast charging no longer elicit the same “wow” response on this particular device as you can pick it up on far cheaper devices like the Realme 7 Pro. And then there is the fact that it runs Android 10 out of the box, too.
The Realme X7 Pro offers the Dimensity 1000 Plus SoC at a great price point, making it a good purchase for a mid-range smartphone in 2021. The phone has a well-rounded package to offer, including a 120Hz Super AMOLED display, 64MP Sony IMX686, and 65W SuperDart Charging.
The Realme X7 Pro enters the Indian market at a price point where we usually see the OnePlus Nord hanging around. Against the Nord, the Realme X7 Pro comes out on top, with a lot of +1’s that make it a good product. But jump up a few thousand rupees, and you find yourself standing against the Xiaomi Mi 10T with its Snapdragon 865 and a much more practical and versatile camera setup. With my brief time with the Realme X7 Pro, I think the company has delivered another good product that will serve most users well.
Nubia’s Red Magic, a brand best known for gaming smartphones, is seemingly gearing up to release a smartwatch. The wearable, seemingly called Red Magic Watch, is expected to feature everything you’d want from a smartwatch, including a heart rate sensor.
Spotted in an FCC filing (via Android Authority), the wearable is expected to feature a more traditional circular design with two crowns on the right side. In the pictures uncovered in the filing, it looks like any old watch you might find in a dresser drawer.
The two crowns on the right side will serve an important purpose, however. The filing reveals one of them will be used to turn the display on and off, while the other is a shortcut button; the button will seemingly allow users to easily perform a specified action.
The Red Magic Watch will feature a 1.39-inch display and what looks like a hefty bezel. The wearable will also sport 5ATM water resistance and support for 13mm wide watch straps, which can be fastened and secured using pins. The device will also come equipped with a 420mAh battery, GPS, GLONASS, QZSS positions technology, and Bluetooth 5.0 LE.
As we mentioned, the Red Magic Watch will allegedly feature a heart rate sensor. However, details in the FCC filing suggest users will only be able to take an accurate reading when their wrist is completely still. The wearable also reportedly features a blood oxygen saturation sensor.
The Red Magic Watch is said to support devices running Android 4.4 and above via the Red Magic Sports app. Other specs include a geomagnetic sensor, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, and accelerometer. Android Police also points out the wearable will include a GigaDevice chip.
It’s unclear when the Red Magic Watch will launch publicly, and how much it’ll cost, but if it’s breaking cover at the FCC, its launch is probably right around the corner.
So, you picked up the Samsung Galaxy S21, Samsung’s newest flagship device. That’s great! Now, it’s time to make sure your expensive new purchase remains in pristine condition. Whether or not you need a case is up to your phone habits, but you can prevent scratches and blemishes by picking up one of the Galaxy S21 screen protectors below. You never know when a stray key may touch your screen! We rounded up some of the best Galaxy S21 screen protectors so that you can make sure your smartphone stays in mint condition.
Make sure you get the right screen protector for your phone! The Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra are all slightly different sizes, so each set of screen protectors will only work with one model of the Galaxy S21. The recommendations below are for the standard Galaxy S21 screen protectors – we have other guides for Galaxy S21 Plus screen protectors and Galaxy S21 Ultra screen protectors if you’re buying those phones.
Sometimes the classic tempered glass screen protector is all you need. QHOHQ's three-pack of screen protectors are meant to go on bubble-free and are water-resistant while offering no troubles with the Galaxy S21's touch screen.
Want to make sure your data is protected in a public setting? A privacy screen protector is a smart idea. This screen protector will not only protect your screen from scratches and dings, but it will also make it difficult for others to read what's on your screen!
If you're not a fan of tempered glass, a film screen will also work great! Film screens offer less protection overall, but also generally look and feel better than tempered glass.
If you're looking for premium protection, you can't go wrong with ZAGG's GlassFusion VisionGuard+. This screen protector blocks blue light without discoloration and is advertised to be unbreakable. It's a bit more expensive, but isn't your phone worth it?
Another film protector option, Spigen's NeoFlex Protector will give your Galaxy S21 screen nearly-invisible protection against light scratches and damage.
You have our favorite recommendations, but you may be wondering what the best of the best is. I personally like film screen protectors over tempered glass, as the feel is better, and I don’t need too much protection for my screen. I’ve used ESR in the past, so I know the ESR Liquid Skin screen protector is going to be good. The camera protection is just a bonus! Also, anything that prevents blue-light from shining through at night is a good thing, so the GlassFusion VisionGuard+ with D3O is worth the look. Granted, you can also block blue light with software or phone settings, but a screen protector like this can be the least hassle to mess with.
When it comes to Galaxy S21 screen protectors, though, what you’ll want will depend mostly on how much abuse your phone will go through! So make sure to pick the best product for the job and stay tuned as we’ll be updating this post regularly with more options as they become available!
Samsung SmartThings has launched a new initiative called SmartThings Labs that will allow users to test some features out early. Users who participate in the program can then provide feedback directly to Samsung, potentially shaping how these features are developed and launched.
The new program will lets participants test experimental functions in the SmartThings app. Engadgetreports there are currently eight experiments to check out, including a universal remote, a gentle wake-up feature, and something called “turn it off when I leave;” the latter feature will automatically turn off lights and other devices when no motion is detected in your home.
“We are committed to enhancing our user experience and SmartThings Labs allows users to be actively engaged in our testing process, providing valuable feedback for our engineers,” Samsung Electronics corporate vice president Jaeyeon Jung said. “The goal is to allow SmartThings users to enjoy useful and practical features, which may join the commercial SmartThings app one day.”
These are just a few of the features coming to SmartThings Labs. The company said it has plans to introduce more experimental functions in the coming months, including a feature that will turn old Galaxy devices into cameras and monitors, according to Engadget. Samsung previously announced the latter feature as part of its Galaxy Upcycling strategy.
SmartThings Labs sounds like a cool way to get involved with determining what features come to the SmartThings app. At the very least, it’s great to see Samsung soliciting feedback from users. What we don’t see, however, is a way for users to suggest new features entirely, similar to the way OnePlus gets the community involved.
As of now, only SmartThings users on Android in the U.S. and South Korea will have access to SmartThings Labs. To participate, tap the menu on SmartThings app, select SmartApps, and SmartThings Labs.
Visible is kicking off 2021 with some big news: the prepaid carrier, which is owned by Verizon, is launching 5G (powered by Verizon) and eSIM support, among an extensive list of other new features.
The launch of 5G means OnePlus 8 owners can take full advantage of the device; the same goes for the new ZTE Blade X1, which is available for just $384. Here’s everything that’s new to Visible:
5G: Visible is now offering 5G, powered by Verizon, with speeds up to 200 Mbps, without adding a single cent to the monthly cost.
Call to Multiple Countries: Visible members can now call friends and family in Canada, Mexico, US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico from the United States for no extra charge. Visible is automatically rolling out this feature to customers or members can activate themselves in their Visible account by toggling the feature on.
eSIM: New Visiblemembers can activate their device from home in as little as 15 minutes by using eSIM. No more losing, breaking your SIM card, needing to go into a store or waiting for the mail to arrive to get your SIM. eSIM is digitally built into a device. Compatible eSIM iOS devices are below; stayed tuned for updates on Android compatibility in the future:
iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd gen), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Party Pay: Visible’s Party Pay is a way for members to lower their service costs to $25 per line per month (full breakdown below). Previously, parties were capped at four people. But starting today, Visible is removing the cap and allowing for an unlimited number of people to join any Party!
2 people in a party = $35 / line per month
3 people in a party = $30 / line per month
4 (or more) in a party = $25 / line per month.
Referral Program: Tell your friends, family members or even strangers about Visible, and if they sign up, your next month’s service is only $5! All they have to do is activate and enter your referral code at checkout, and voila! Your next month will automatically be $5 flat!
Community: If you need help finding a party, leverage the new Community! Many of Visible’s members have found each other and joined a Party via our social channels. Now you can just hop over to Visible’s new community platform and chat with members, meet up and join a Party, or ask each other questions and advice.
Visible said that eSIM support is compatible with iOS devices from the start, but will come to Android in the future.
If you’re a Visible subscriber, there’s a lot to get excited about, especially the launch of 5G.
