iPhone X Launches at Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA on November 10

Virgin Mobile USA today announced that it will begin taking iPhone X pre-orders on its website on Friday, November 3. The carrier originally said it would launch pre-orders today, in line with Apple and major carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, but evidently the date has been pushed back by one week.

Boost Mobile likewise announced that the iPhone X will be available to order on its website on Friday, November 10 in the United States.

Virgin Mobile USA’s so-called “Inner Circle” plan offers unlimited talk, text, and data with a few caveats: video quality is limited to up to 480p resolution, music streams at up to 500 kbps, and games stream at up to 2 Mbps. The carrier promises 4G LTE speeds for “practically everything else.”

Customers who use more than 23GB of data in a billing cycle will be de-prioritized during times and places where the network is constrained.

Mobile Hotspot is available for an additional $10 per month, providing up to eight tethered devices with a dedicated allotment of 10GB of high-speed data to share each month. Unlimited calls to Mexico and Canada, and unlimited worldwide text messaging, can also be added for $5 per month.

Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile are both subsidiaries of Sprint and share the parent company’s network in the United States.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTags: Boost Mobile, Virgin MobileBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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A second opinion on the Mi MIX 2, Xiaomi’s shot at the flagship segment in India

Last year, the Mi MIX by Xiaomi was launched as a sort of concept phone pushing the boundaries of smartphone design and innovation. While it managed to capture the attention of everyone across the world, it’s availability was limited.

The Mi MIX was one of the first smartphones to go beyond the 16:9 aspect ratio ditching the bezels along the way, and was crafted from ceramic. The beautiful design with the edge-to-edge display made it a head-turner, and different from anything we had seen before.Editor’s Pick

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 review

All screen, all the time – that was the philosophy behind the Xiaomi Mi Mix, one of last year’s hottest smartphones. Coming before offerings from Samsung and LG, it was Xiaomi that made such a …

The Mi MIX 2 goes a step forward while making some practical pullbacks but now finds itself in a crowded market of smartphones with tall displays – a trend that the company pioneered in a way. It’s more mainstream now, packs in the most number of radio bands ever (so it works anywhere in the world), and is more widely available.

Launched in India recently, it competes with other mid-range flagship smartphones like the OnePlus 5, Honor 8 Pro, and Nokia 8. Does it manage to be a great, well-rounded option on this table? Here’s what I think of the Mi MIX 2.

Design

The Mi MIX 2 is one of the most beautiful devices I’ve seen in recent times. The ceramic back looks stunning and it is crafted with symmetrical elegance. It’s a phone that stands out in a crowd and catches everyone’s eyes in the room. The Mi MIX 2 is special, really.

Unlike the super-sized display on the original Mi MIX, the Mi MIX 2 opts for a more manageable 5.99-inch IPS LCD and the bezel-less design means that the Mi MIX 2 offers that large screen experience on a phone that’s almost the same size as a OnePlus 5 with a 5.5-inch screen. It feels great in the hand and is quite comfortable to grip, especially because of the rounded edges.

Yet, because of the ceramic back, it is quite slippery. Xiaomi does bundle a slick protective cover in the box, but putting it on hides the beauty of the gorgeous device – something I’ll rather not do, and be careful with the device instead. It is also a smudge magnet and picks up a bunch in short time. Each time I pick up the Mi MIX 2, I have to rub it along my shirt’s sleeve to wipe off the smudges.

The original Mi MIX had a distinct blocky look that looked more enticing but the company has now traded that for familiarity. The device feels solid in hand and the ceramic at the back feels much better than glass or metal.

The rear of the phone has a branding phrase – MIX Designed By Xiaomi – which is grammatically awkward. It could’ve just been ‘Designed By Xiaomi’ or have a hyphen or period or something after ‘MIX’. It’s not a showstopper, but my Grammar Nazi instincts get riled up each time I look at it.

Display

Over 80% off the front of the Mi MIX 2 is taken up by that IPS display – and it stretches up to the very top of the phone. There’s no notch like the iPhone X or the divot like the Essential. Thankfully.

On the Mi MIX last year, Xiaomi placed a piezoelectric acoustic speaker under the screen. While it was an innovative solution in theory, it offered poor sound experience and a lack of privacy with others around you able to hear what’s being said at the other end.

This time around there is a small slit at the top that houses an actual speaker, and hence the display stretches to ‘almost the top’ but not till the top edge. It’s a minute difference, though, and no one would mind it.

The Mi MIX 2 sports a beautiful 5.99-inch Full HD+ display with a resolution of 2160 x 1080. It’s not OLED and the lack of Quad HD resolution on a large display slightly garbles Xiaomi’s flagship pitch. Yet the display offers a wonderful viewing experience despite the lack of color saturation.

While the phone fits nicely in the hand, the size of the display means that getting up and down across the screen real estate requires some hand gymnastics.

Performance

The Mi MIX 2 packs in top-of-the-line specifications like any other flagship smartphone in the market. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, the Indian variant packs in 6 GB of RAM. Like the OnePlus 5, the Mi MIX 2 doesn’t include a microSD card slot for storage expansion, but 128 GB of internal storage should be good enough for most people.

The powerful internals underneath that beautiful chassis make the device shine. It can take on anything that you throw at it with aplomb ease and doesn’t break a sweat even when you push it during gaming or aggressive multitasking.

The battery life on the Mi MIX 2 is pretty good, aided by the efficient 10nm-fabricated Snapdragon 835 chipset and a reasonable screen resolution. The 3,400mAh battery would last a day-and-a-half on typical usage and the support for Quick Charge 3.0 rounds off a great specifications sheet.

Camera

The camera is the weakest link in the Mi MIX 2 juggernaut. Both front and rear have cameras with great optics, yet are missteps in one way or the other.

Up front, is the biggest compromise Xiaomi had to make for that striking finesse at the top. The front-facing camera is located at the bottom corner of the phone. It is absolutely the most awkward position for a camera. The odd angle is annoying while clicking selfies, and while shooting videos or in during video calls, you’d look disoriented to the viewer because instead of looking at the screen (which one does for the intuitiveness, helped by the placement of the camera) you’re looking at the bottom of the phone.

The default camera app prompts you to turn the phone upside down to click selfies in a conventional way, but that’s not an option in apps like Facebook and Snapchat. Essentially, it is very hard to recommend the Mi MIX 2 to anyone who clicks a lot of selfies or broadcasts everyday shenanigans on Facebook or Snapchat or WhatsApp, despite being a great device otherwise.

Things aren’t bad on the rear, but the Mi MIX 2 chooses to not jump in the dual-camera bandwagon. The company did debut the Mi 6 earlier this year with the dual camera setup at the back and even the affordable Mi A1 launched last month, but looks like the design considerations trumped the feature on this one.

The 12 MP shooter sports 4-axis optical stabilization and the manages to click pretty good pictures in the day – some of them very impressive in both color reproduction and the amount of details. But in low light, it’s a struggle to capture a few good ones.

Overall, it’s a good camera, but a tad underwhelming when compared to other smartphones at the price point. Even with a single camera, the Pixel 2 manages to offer something special, but the Mi MIX 2 doesn’t try too hard in that department.

Software

The Mi MIX 2 runs MIUI 9, Xiaomi’s proprietary UI layer over Android 7.0 Nougat. MIUI is an integral part of the Xiaomi experience and has garnered quite a lot of fans – except for the ones who prefer stock Android experience. It packs in quite a few nifty additions and handy features to improve overall user experience.

In his review, my colleague Joshua Vergara mentioned that the software on this phone is just short of ready for primetime outside China. The lack of polish here and there irked him. However, that isn’t true in India – a market where Xiaomi has had a strong focus for a while. Since MIUI 7, we’ve seen several useful features like better SMS experience introduced specifically for the Indian audience.

Final thoughts

Xiaomi has established itself as a force in the budget smartphone market in India, and as the number two smartphone vendor in the country, it is inching closer to the market leader Samsung with every launch.

So, is the Mi MIX 2 the right phone for the company to go up the value chain to take a shot at the mid-range flagship smartphone market? Absolutely. Does it deliver a perfect product to win the segment? Well, not really.

At ₹35,999 ($550), the Mi MIX 2 is of course a brilliant device. It looks stunning and can match any flagship device in performance. Yet, it is not a well-rounded smartphone because of the average camera experience and the novelty of bezel-less smartphones fading away in the market now since the Mi MIX first introduced the concept. It actually boils down to what you’re looking for in your smartphone.

Surf’s Up: Kelly Slater will open public artificial wave pool in Florida

Why it matters to you

After building and riding his own man-made wave pool for years, pro surfer Kelly Slater plans on opening the first public pool in Florida

Big-wave surfer Kelly Slater shocked the sports world a little more than a year ago with the creation of the largest man-made wave pool in history — and now he intends on opening the first public facility. Sure, artificial wave pools have been in development since the 70s; the Kelly Slater Wave Company has since revolutionized the industry. Soon, you’ll be able to hit the (manmade) waves in Palm Beach, Florida.

The pro surfer’s personal pool boasts a seven-foot high right-hand barreling wave formed by a hydrofoil mechanism initiated by cables that run taut across the surface. Unlike most artificial waves, this meticulously designed pool effectively emulates the ocean, providing a steep enough face for riders to practice maneuvers along the lip. A test version of Slater’s artificial surfing paradise was revealed in March and resides on a narrow lake in the San Joaquin Valley of Central California. The project served not only as Slater’s personal training ground but as a prototype for the professional surfing world. A year’s worth of machinery modifications and testing resulted in a welcome public surprise.

Kelly Slater’s wave pool produces consistently perfect waves

The Kelly Slater Wave Company filed a zoning application with Palm Beach County in the surfer’s home state of Florida earlier in 2017. Slater and the company want to implement a wave park into the blueprint of Palm Beach Park of Commerce’s developing industrial zone. Additionally, the team dubbed the project “Surf Ranch Florida” and hopes to bring professional surfing opportunities to the state while maintaining the equally safe and consistent environment offered by artificial surf. World-class recreation is not the only goal, however: Establishment of a large-scale wave pool could result in Florida’s first Championship Tour event.

The team moved one step closer to their goals this week, as Palm Beach County commissioners unanimously approved zoning for the wave park on Thursday. Slater noted following the commission meeting that construction is slated to begin in 2018, with 2019 set as the target completion date. In an Instagram post announcing the approval, Slater wrote, “I’m beyond proud and stoked to see the first of our developments at [Kelly Slater Wave Company] going to my home state of #Florida. Thank you to Mayor Burdick and the city commissioners for your approval and support of the project.” Maybe it’s time you picked up a new wetsuit?

Update: Kelly Slater has approval from Palm Beach for his public wave pool. 

Editor’s Recommendations

• The Highline Airlift vest sets a new safety standard for big wave surfers
• Standing wave pool CitySurf Seattle will make a big splash next summer
• Heavy water doesn’t bother hydrofoil surfboard innovator Kai Lenny
• Little Ripper shark-spotting drones will launch in September
• This airlift vest will make your big-wave surfing safer

The Microsoft Classic Intellimouse could be your next office mouse

Why it matters to you

Microsoft’s reinvented classic design is likely to be a popular office choice, though it may struggle to appeal to gamers.

Ladies and gentlemen, one of the great ones is back. The original Microsoft Intellimouse was released way back in 1996 and was one of the first mice to feature additions like a scroll wheel. Subsequent versions helped popularize features like optical sensors and side buttons.

Drawing inspiration from its predecessors, the Microsoft Classic Intellimouse is a new generation of ergonomic mouse that has a refined, understated look and reasonable specifications. It’s evolved from the previous versions and features modern additions like a little bit of lighting and upgraded sensitivity.

The Microsoft Classic Intellimouse features a grey shell with some black accenting and has a large main body panel that tapers into two separate buttons for left and right clicks. It has five buttons in total, three of which are customizable — though that feature is said to not be available to those running Windows 10 S. Its ergonomic shell should cater more to palm and finger grippers than claw-style grips.

The sensor is an optical one, though it’s been bumped up to 3,200 dots per inch (DPI). That’s not adjustable, however, so don’t expect to drop into “sniper mode” in your next game with this rodent at your fingertips. (Have you considered a real gaming mouse?) It does support a polling rate of 1,000Hz though, so this should be quite a responsive mouse. It also features Microsoft’s BlueTrack technology, meaning it can work flawlessly on glass mousemats and surfaces.

The overall design of the mouse is quite understated, with no dash of color or flair beyond the smooth layout of the black and grey paint job. Microsoft has included a little lighting at the rear, however. Called a “tail light,” it’s not customizable and is merely a little white accent for the overall design.

This is a wired mouse, so there are no batteries or docks to worry about; it connects to your system over a USB 2.0 cable.

The Microsoft Intellimouse Classic is now available on the Microsoft store with a list price of $40 plus shipping. If you’re an active student or member of staff at a university or faculty though, you can secure a small discount to get one of these new Intellimouse mice for $36 instead.

Editor’s Recommendations

• A tale of two hero devices: Google Pixelbook versus Microsoft Surface Pro
• Make sure your accessories are charged with the updated Microsoft Surface app
• Razer Basilisk review
• Looking to buy Microsoft’s awesome new Surface Pro? Here’s all you need to know
• Microsoft ignites show floor with Office 2019 announcement

Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes Apple apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest iOS app deals available from the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

Find My Car

Have you often forgotten where you left your car? Find My Car can help. Save your parking space with GPS and other notes, and even share your position with friends.

Available on:

iOS

Sooshi

Sooshi is all about one of the most delicious foods. Whether you are new to the whole topic or you are already a fan, you will find tons of information about what sushi is, how to prepare it, and where to find the best sushi places.

Available on:

iOS

Pin Points

Do you want to know the distance to the South Pole? Do you want to plan your next trip and see how much distance lies between two points of interest? This app can help.

Available on:

iOS

Safety Photo+Video

Safety Photo+Video lets you keep your most private images and videos private. This app lets you passcode protect your most sensitive media so that prying eyes never see anything you don’t want them to see.

Available on:

iOS

Boba

A browser and mobile safari extension that lets you speed read your favorite web content, such as NYTimes, HuffPo, ESPN, blogs, or any other web site.

Available on:

iOS

TimeMan

TimeMan is a powerful tool for personal time management. It’s designed to be as easy and familiar as a paper organizer but to fully utilize iPhone and iPad capabilities.

Available on:

iOS

Editor’s Recommendations

• Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
• Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
• Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
• Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
• Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Valve adds the capacity to buy gift cards for friends on Steam

Why it matters to you

With the holidays approaching, these gift cards will ensure that everyone gets exactly the games they want during the festive season.

Valve has added Steam Gift Cards to its enormously popular digital storefront. It’s now possible to send Steam currency to another user as a gift, giving them the option to buy whatever content they like.

In the United States, these gift cards are available in $5, $10, $25, $50, and $100 increments. If you purchase funds for someone in another region, they’ll be automatically converted into the appropriate local currency, according to a report from Eurogamer.

There are a couple of small caveats. You can only send a gift card to someone that you’ve been friends with for at least three days, to prevent any improper usage. The purchase page on the Steam strorefront also states that it’s not possible to use existing wallet funds to pay for the vouchers.

Even though digital game downloads are commonplace at this point, certain storefronts still have some rather archaic limitations when it comes to gifting content. For instance, despite how many users purchase new releases via the Xbox Store, it’s only this month that Insider program members have started testing out the capacity to gift software to a friend – and there’s no word on when the ability to send them a discrete sum of money might arrive, if there are even plans to enable that.

In many ways, Steam is ahead of the curve because it has been around for so long. That being said, Valve has continued to make changes over the course of its lifespan, because it’s far from a perfect service in its current form.

In May 2017, the company decreed that it would no longer be possible for users to send gifts to another user’s inventory, or to their email address. While this might seem like the opposite of a user-friendly gesture, Valve has a responsibility to ensure that resellers aren’t setting up something of a black market with Steam serving as the foundation – and in this case, that meant a little less flexibility when it comes to gifting.

Thankfully, this addition to the way that users can send gifts to one another makes things more accommodating, rather than less so. It’s always nice to receive a gift that someone has picked out for you, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to decide for yourself.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Insider program members can now gift games from their Xbox One
• Valve has a brand-new game in the works, but it’s not ‘Half-Life 3’
• Refunds being issued for those who purchased Destiny Silver on Steam
• Send and receive money through Skype by linking your PayPal account
• Not enjoying a VR experience? Oculus now offers refunds for software

What do you think about Google’s response to Pixel 2 XL backlash?

A new Saturated mode and software changes to remedy screen burn-in are on the way, but is it enough?

On October 26, Google finally issued an official statement regarding the various display issues that people have been experiencing with the Pixel 2 XL. You can check out the full breakdown of the response here, but in short, Google will be doing two main things – 1) Adding a new Saturated mode to make the Pixel 2/2XL screens considerably more vibrant and saturated, and 2) Dimming the navigation bar and working with developers to turn the background white in certain apps to reduce chances of burn-in.

In addition to these software changes, Google also announced that it’ll be extending the basic manufacturer warranty on all Pixel 2 and 2 XLs to two years in an effort of goodwill.

Here’s what some of you had to say regarding this response.

Garemlin
10-26-2017 06:35 PM

“

Curious to see how the “saturated” mode will look like. And really cool on the 2 year warranty. Most people don’t keep their phones longer than 2 years so everyone should have piece of mind.

Reply

gmermel
10-26-2017 06:46 PM

“

More from Google reported in the announcement : software updates will include fade out of nav buttons and notification bar color matching to app in use. They say their tests do NOT indicate burn in (screen aging) being any worse than “other premium OLED screens”, but making changes to address concerns.

I think the software updates are great ideas in the first place.

My concerns have…

Reply

Chex313
10-26-2017 07:01 PM

“

Glad I opted out of an extended warranty…2 years is great, and I am loving my XL, no signs of any screen problems for a week now. I’m still looking for my microscope so I can identify Alex’s burnin.:p

I’m on 8.1 now…So the nav bar dimms right down.:cool:

Reply

JHBThree
10-26-2017 10:09 PM

“

Bendgate wasn’t a thing unless you were dumb enough to put your 6 inch phone in your back pocket and try and sit down on said phone. Antennagate their reaction was pretty much the same as google’s; deny there’s a problem, provide a placebo in the form of a case so people forget about the problem.

Reply

Most people on our forums seem quite pleased with the changes being made, but what about you? Are you happy with Google’s handling of the Pixel 2 XL’s display situation?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

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Alcatel Idol 5 review: One of Cricket’s best

$200 didn’t use to buy much when it came to phones, but these days, it gets you a phone with a metal design, great display, front-facing speakers and a lot more.

The quick take

Affordable Android phones have gotten insanely good over the past couple of years, and the Alcatel Idol 5 is a prime example of this. For just $200, you’re getting a phone with a metal build, great display, front-facing stereo speakers, NFC, and (mostly) smooth performance. The camera can be slow and image results are often mediocre, but if you’re already on Cricket and want a good experience without going broke, the Idol 5 won’t disappoint.

The Good

• Metal build
• Programmable Now Key
• Front-facing speakers
• Display is way better than it should be
• NFC for Android Pay

The Bad

• Slow camera
• Lots of preinstalled bloatware
• Exclusive to Cricket Wireless

See at Cricket

The internals

Alcatel Idol 5 Tech Specs

Lots of phone for not much dough

Alcatel Idol 5 Things you’ll love

As soon as I took the Idol 5 out of the box for the first time, I had to double-check its price to make sure I’d read it right. Metal is not a new material for phone design and we’ve already seen it done a hundred different ways, but it’s a very welcome surprise on the Idol 5. Its actual appearance really hasn’t changed all that much since the Idol 3 that came out back in 2015, but the use of metal here is cool, comfortable, and a lot less fragile than the glass back on the Idol 4.

This is a far better display than what you’d expect on a $200 phone.

Once you stop gazing upon the Idol 5’s back, you’ll be met with a 5.2-inch 1920×1080 display that looks far better than you’d expect for a phone that costs two Benjamins. Text on the display is perfectly sharp, colors look great, and Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 feels as nice as ever. Color temperatures do get slightly warm when looking at drastic viewing angles from the top or bottom, but this isn’t something you’ll ever notice with regular use.

Flanking the Idol 5’s display at the top and bottom are dual front-facing speakers, and when you combine this with the phone’s display, you get a phenomenal package for consuming media. Also, if you happen to find yourself on the subway or in class, you can use the Idol 5’s 3.5mm headphone jack to keep your games or movies to yourself.

No matter what you’re doing on the Idol 5, you’ll be met with a user experience that’s proven to be better than I was initially anticipating. The MediaTek processor and 2GB of RAM are certainly less than desirable on paper, but here on the Idol 5, they work quite well together. Navigating through the user interface is very smooth, apps open quickly, and the performance within them is great, too.

Having an extra reprogramable hardware key is great.

Alcatel also shows considerable restraint throughout the phone, offering users with a mostly vanilla build of stock Android 7.0 Nougat. Most of the design elements remain unchanged, and there are also some welcome additions such as the ability to use the phone upside down and program the “Now Key” below the volume rocker to perform an array of different actions and open whatever application you’d like. It sometimes takes the Now Key a couple of seconds to complete whatever action you’ve assigned to it, but it’s still quite useful nonetheless.

The battery is another part of the Idol 5 that ended up impressing me. After a day with lots of social media, downloading a few apps, streaming some music, and a couple hours of playing games, I still managed to end the day at 11:05 PM with 16 hours of total use and a little over three hours of screen-on time. With more regular usage, I’d expect you could easily get between three and a half to four hours of screen-on time.

Lastly, I was very surprised to learn that the Idol 5 comes equipped with NFC, and consequently, supports Android Pay. This is a feature that’s usually reserved for much more expensive phones and is something you won’t find on the Moto G5 Plus or G5S Plus that cost $30 and $80 more respectively.

Hard to complain about anything

Alcatel Idol 5 Things you’ll hate

There’s admittedly not a lot I don’t like about the Idol 5, but if I were to pick out its weakest point, it’d be the phone’s rear camera. The 12MP shooter can produce some good-looking photos in broad daylight, but it struggles quite a bit when you turn the lights down even just a little.

An alright performer that doesn’t do anything special.

Images taken in low-light areas have the grain and detail softness that you’d come to expect for a phone of this price, but what struck me the most was just how slow the camera gets when trying to take a photo even when you’re indoors during the daytime.

It’ll sometimes take an upwards of three seconds just to capture a photo in a darker setting, and while that may not sound like a lot on paper, it’s incredibly jarring the first time that you run across it. You can turn this off by disabling the “low-light enhancement” feature that’s turned on by default, and I’d advise doing so ASAP as it seems to be more harm than good.

Another pain point with the Idol 5 is that it comes preloaded with a good chunk of bloatware. There are a couple apps that some people might find useful, such as Facebook, WPS Office, and Amazon Shopping, but most of them are games that you’ll likely never touch. Thankfully, if you don’t have any intention of using these apps, most of them can either be deleted or disabled.

The only other complaint I have with the Idol 5 has to do specifically with the unit I received. When pressing the volume-down portion of the volume rocker, the button gets stuck in the body of the phone and causes the volume to go all the way down each time it’s pressed – forcing me to press the volume-up button in order to get it unstuck. This is more than likely just a freak thing with my device, and while I don’t envision you’ll have the same issue if you buy the phone, it’s still something worth pointing out.

Another great budget option

Alcatel Idol 5 Should you buy it?

Alcatel’s Idol 5 has a lot of good things going for it, and it comes in at a price point that’s accessible to a wide array of different people – as long as you’re on Cricket. The phone is an exclusive to the AT&T-powered MVNO, and if you’re already on the network, it’s a great buy. The addition of front-facing speakers and NFC are two items that are rarely seen in this price range, and while I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re worth leaving your current carrier over, we are really glad to see them present on the Idol 5.

The Idol 5 is a strong purchase for Cricket subscribers.

However, if you desperately want those two features and you only have $200 to spend, it might be worth checking out the Idol 5S. The 5S regularly cost $280 or $199 as an Amazon Prime Exclusive, and along with NFC and front-facing speakers, there’s also a Snapdragon 625 for the processor, smaller battery, and glass back.

The choice between these two will ultimately come down to your personal preference and whether or not you’re a current Cricket customer, but if the Idol 5 checks all of your boxes, you really can’t go wrong with it.

See at Cricket

OPPO F5 ditches the bezels, picks up a 20MP front camera with AI

OPPO F5 with 6-inch FHD+ display and 20MP front camera is now official in the Philippines.

OPPO has launched its latest selfie-focused smartphone, the OPPO F5. The phone is the successor to the OPPO F3, and is the first from the manufacturer with an 18:9 screen. The F5 features a 6-inch panel with a resolution of 2160 x 1080, which is becoming the standard for 18:9 displays. The fingerprint sensor has been moved to the back, and the phone also offers a face unlock feature.

As is the case with all OPPO phones, the cameras take center stage. There’s a 16MP f/1.8 camera at the back and a 20MP sensor up front with an f/2.0 lens, and OPPO is introducing an AI-controlled beautify mode that automatically tweaks your photos to give you the best possible selfies:

With more than 200 positioning spots, the F5 accentuates your facial landmarks and contours to enhance the symmetry between features like your eyes, nose, cheekbones and jawline to create the perfectly refined and natural selfie. Its beauty-iris tool ensures that your eyes will shine brighter in any photo.

The F5 also offers a Portrait Mode for selfies, which blurs out the background to put the subject in focus. Other specs include a Helio P23 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 32GB storage, dual SIM card slots, and a 3200mAh battery. There’s also a variant with 6GB of RAM and 64GB storage.

The OPPO F5 will go up for sale in the Philippines starting October 27 for 15,990 PHP ($310), and the phone will be heading to other SE Asian markets — including India, Malaysia, and Indonesia — shortly.

This is your last chance to pick up an Amazon Prime membership in India for ₹499

If you haven’t signed up for Amazon Prime yet in India, you should do so right now.

Amazon launched its Prime membership program in India last July, offering a one-year subscription for just ₹499. That’s half off from the regular price of ₹999, and if you haven’t subscribed yet, you should do so right now as Amazon’s introductory offer is ending on October 30. From Monday onward, you’ll have to shell out ₹999 to pick up a Prime membership.

Picking up a Prime membership for just ₹499 is a stellar offer as you get free two-day delivery on millions of products (over 11 million, according to Amazon), as well as unlimited access to Prime Video. Amazon has been aggressively expanding its portfolio over the course of the year, signing deals with studios and making a lot of international and regional TV shows and movies available on the service.

Prime members also get early access to deals, and Amazon is set to roll out Prime Music in the country shortly. So what else are you waiting for? Hit up Amazon from the link below and subscribe to Prime for just ₹499.

See at Amazon