This discounted Oral-B toothbrush can connect to your phone to help you brush better

It’s time to get some pearly whites.

As part of its Gold Box deals of the day, Amazon has the Oral-B Genius Pro 8000 rechargeable toothbrush on sale for just $94.99, which is the lowest it’s ever sold for. Lately, it sells for around $150, but in the past, it’s sold for over $200, and at Black Friday it only dropped to $115. So, what does a nearly $100 toothbrush do for you that the $5 grocery store one won’t?

Well, it connects to your smartphone to enable Position Detection. This uses facial recognition to help you know where you’ve brushed and where you haven’t, ensuring you never miss an area of your mouth. It also has a customizable SmartRing which provides real-time visual coaching on brush time and more, along with pressure sensor technology to help you avoid going a bit too hard on your gums. There are 6 different cleaning modes, including Daily Clean, Gum Care, Sensitive, Whitening, Tongue Cleaning and Pro-Clean Mode.

It comes with a Smart Travel Case that allows you to not only keep your toothbrush charged, but also your phone. If you’d like to take better care of your teeth, this is one of the best ways to do it without going broke. Be sure to also pick up some extra brush heads.

Google Chrome now makes it dead simple to add emojis in Chrome OS [Update]

The shortcut’s also available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Updated June 4, 2018: First spotted by François Beaufort on Google+, this emoji shortcut is now available in the regular version of Google Chrome (non-Canary) within the Developer Channel. To enable it, enter the same “chrome://flags/#enable-emoji-context-menu” command.

If you own a Chromebook, chances are you’ve been infuriated at one point or another when trying to add an emoji to Twitter, Hangouts, an email, etc. You can technically do so by opening up the on-screen keyboard, but the process is cumbersome and not a great solution by any stretch of the imagination.

However, in the latest version of Chrome Canary, you’ll find a new shortcut that allows you to add emojis to your conversations with just a couple clicks.

Spotted by 9to5Google, this new feature is referred to as the Emoji Context Menu and is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux in addition to Chrome OS.

Assuming you’ve already got Chrome Canary, you’ll need to turn on the feature by going to chrome://flags, search for “emoji”, and then enable chrome://flags/#enable-emoji-context-menu.

Once this is done, you can add emojis by right-clicking inside a text-entry field and selecting the new “Emojis” option.

It’ll probably be a few weeks before this feature makes its way to the stable version of Chrome, but even so, it’s plenty exciting to know that something like this is in the works.

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Ming-Chi Kuo Returns With 2018 iPhone Details: Lower Pricing, September Launch for All Models

Well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has returned today with his first Apple-related research note for his new firm TF International Securities. According to Kuo, Apple’s pricing strategy will be “more aggressive” for the three iPhones rumored for September 2018, an effort to boost shipments of the models this year.

Renders of the 2018 iPhones
One of the main reasons Kuo says is behind the aggressive pricing strategy is Apple’s “concern over the negative impact of a higher price” for its 2018 iPhones. Last year, the company received some blowback on the top-tier pricing of its iPhone X, which began at $999 in the United States for 64GB.

Now, Kuo states that the 6.5-inch OLED “iPhone X Plus” will be $900-$1,000, the second generation OLED iPhone X will be $800-$900, and the new 6.1-inch LCD iPhone will be $600-$700. Kuo reiterates that all 2018 iPhones will have a full-screen design and Face ID. The analyst also outlined more reasons behind Apple’s new pricing strategy:

We forecast that Apple will adopt a more aggressive price policy for the following reasons: (1) concern over the negative impact of a higher price in a mature smartphone market on selling momentum, (2) improved cost structure, which is mainly attributed to assembly yield improvements of end product & 3D sensing and cost reduction of components, and (3) increasing users of Face ID benefiting the promotion of the Apple service and ecosystem.

Secondly, Kuo believes that Apple will announce all three new iPhone models at an event in September. Furthermore, all three iPhones will launch in September, including the LCD model which some reports have previously pegged for a November debut.

This is Kuo’s first research note since departing KGI Securities in April. At the time, it was believed he would lessen his focus on Apple to look at other emerging industries, but it seems we can still expect reports on Apple and its supply chain from Kuo.

Related Roundup: 2018 iPhonesTag: Ming-Chi Kuo
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WWDC 2018 Spoiler-Free Video Stream

Apple’s WWDC keynote will be kicking off at 10:00 am Pacific Time today, and as is tradition, some MacRumors readers who can’t follow the event live are interested in avoiding all of the announcements and waiting until Apple posts the recorded video of the event so as to experience it without already knowing the outcome.

For those individuals, we’ve posted this news story, which will be updated with a direct link to the presentation once it becomes available from Apple. No other news stories or announcements will be displayed alongside this story.

Apple has become quicker about making event videos available for replay over the past several years, and videos are now frequently available within an hour of an event’s conclusion.

Users waiting for the video to be posted are welcome to gather in the thread associated with this news story, and we ask that those who follow the events refrain from making any posts about Apple’s announcements in this thread.

Related Roundup: WWDC 2018
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New Report Claims Facebook Gave Apple, Samsung, and Other Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

Facebook forged an agreement with at least 60 device makers including Apple and Samsung to provide access to large swathes of user data without explicit consent, in a move that may have violated a 2011 Federal Trade Commission consent decree.

According to a lengthy report in The New York Times, the social network made the deals so that device makers could use APIs to include Facebook messaging functions, “Like” buttons, address books, and other features without requiring users to install a separate app. The deals were reportedly made over the last decade, starting before Facebook apps were widely available on smartphones.

Most of the partnerships remain in effect, though Facebook began winding them down in April. However, in a recent test conducted by NYT on a 2013 Blackberry device, using a reporter’s Facebook account, an app called “The Hub” was still able to harvest details on 558 of his friends, including their political and religious views. Not only that, the app was also able to access “identifying information” on 294,258 friends of his friends.

Facebook has hit back against the claims in the report. In a blog post titled “Why We Disagree with The New York Times”, the company said it created the APIs for device makers so that they could provide Facebook features on operating systems before apps or app stores where available.

Given that these APIs enabled other companies to recreate the Facebook experience, we controlled them tightly from the get-go. These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences. Partners could not integrate the user’s Facebook features with their devices without the user’s permission. And our partnership and engineering teams approved the Facebook experiences these companies built. Contrary to claims by the New York Times, friends’ information, like photos, was only accessible on devices when people made a decision to share their information with those friends. We are not aware of any abuse by these companies.

Facebook came under major scrutiny in March following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the data of 50 million users was misused in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has since testified in front of congress in an attempt to answer questions about Facebook’s handling of user data.

The social networking giant is already facing an ongoing investigation by the FTC, which is looking into whether Facebook violated an agreement reached with the agency in 2011. The FTC investigation was launched when it found that Facebook had told users that third-party apps on the social media site wouldn’t be allowed to access their data, when in fact they were able to obtain almost all personal information about a user.

Tags: Facebook, privacy
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New Apple Park Drone Videos Spot Workers Cleaning Window Shades, Increased Landscaping, and More

Drone videographers Duncan Sinfield and Matthew Roberts each uploaded new videos to their YouTube channels over the past day, covering the latest views of Apple Park from the sky. The videos come a few hours ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which is happening about 8 miles to the east of Apple Park at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose.

Image via Matthew Roberts/Maverick Imagery
In Cupertino, the company’s ringed campus “continues to evolve,” according to Sinfield. For June 2018, this means that around 9,000 trees have now been permanently planted around the campus, employees are continuing to relocate onto the site “every week,” and cleaning crews are working twenty-four hours a day to maintain the central spaceship building and the structures surrounding it, “including washing the window shades at least once per week.”

At around the two minute mark in his video, Sinfield spots a few Apple Park workers doing just that.

Roberts also catches a few workers cleaning the window shades in the central courtyard of the spaceship building, pointing out that he has seen “notable changes” in the “amount of detail paid to keeping the spaceship clean” and in the expansion of greenery around the campus. Otherwise, Roberts catches nice glimpses into Apple Park’s main atrium, the employees’ outdoor activity area with basketball courts, and the stairs that lead down into the underground portion of the Steve Jobs Theater.

Drone video updates from videographers like Sinfield and Roberts have become slightly less frequent as Apple Park finally ends construction after beginning just over four years ago in December 2013. Additionally, in April 2018 Sinfield said that it has become increasingly difficult to fly his drones over the campus due to increased security, believing it’s “only a matter of time until the campus becomes shut-off to drones completely.”

In the summer of 2017, multiple reports emerged about Apple Park security’s first efforts at stopping drone pilots from accessing the airspace above the campus. Despite those attempts, drone update videos kept being uploaded to YouTube by multiple videographers, mainly including Sinfield and Roberts. Apple’s renewed anti-drone efforts in the spring of 2018 appear to have been a bit more strict, however, and followed a leaked memo from the company that warned employees against leaking details about future devices to the media.

Tag: Apple Park
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Cheap plastic perfection: An ode to the MacBook that started it all

The original polycarbonate white Macbook in a coffee shop circa 2008. Waring Abbott/Getty Images

If you went to any Starbucks between 2006 and 2011, chances are you’d see some a sticker-covered MacBook propped open beside a textbook, while a disheveled student typed away on a term paper. Teen indie pop leaked out of their white earbuds, while a grande soy latte with an extra shot was close at hand.

Who is today’s Mac user? Well, the MacBook Pro is still a favorite among creative professionals, and the MacBook Air is the go-to company-issued MacOS laptop, so those are the people we see behind those matte-aluminum displays. Professionals, YouTube stars, anyone with over $2,000 to spare on a premium laptop. That wasn’t always the case, Apple products have always been expensive, but there’s less room on the entry-level side of Apple’s current lineup for that disheveled college student.

It could just be nostalgia talking, but a quick look at the current lineup of MacBooks doesn’t inspire the same kind of fondness that the older, white MacBook era did. There’s a reason for that.

The original white MacBook (2006) was the first to feature the iconic Apple logo that would light up while the device was booting up. Nate Barrett/Digital Trends

An inspired design

Back in 2006, the icons of the glowing Apple logo, bright white cables, and friendly, rounded corners were more than just design features. They were a statement. The MacBook established a clear delineation in Apple’s laptop lineup — a focus point for bringing new, young buyers into the Apple ecosystem.

When you walked into an Apple Store back then, you knew exactly what your options were. The spendy, silver MacBook Pro or the entry-level MacBook. Unless you were professional photo or video editor, it was probably the MacBook.

Riley Young/Digital Trends and Nate Barrett/Digital Trends

And it was white — yes, white! That might not seem important, but in a time when laptops were uniformly gray or beige, the glossy white MacBook was playful and youthful in contrast. Again, this was a laptop meant to match the iPod and those trendy white headphones in all the commercials. It needed to be designed less for the office and more for the café or student union building.

“[The MacBook] was one of the first notebooks that didn’t have a latch,” Twelve South co-founder and creative director Andrew Green points out. “Back then everything had some dumb latch, but the MacBook was one of the first laptops that closed firmly without one.”

The white MacBook was a blank canvas, inviting us to make it our own.

A magnetic latch wasn’t a world-changing innovation, but it was the kind of thoughtful design that informed that period in Apple’s history. Back then, accessories for laptops were few and far between, and almost none of them were designed with Macs or MacBooks in mind. Twelve South was one of a few companies founded to fill that gap.

“People bought a $200 iPod as their first Apple product, and it had all these amazing accessories, and then they went and bought a MacBook and there weren’t any accessories for it, or they were just PC accessories painted white,” Green recalls.

It’s important to point out, this cottage industry was sprung up not to produce products that simply protected the MacBook — like a case for your iPhone. These were products that were designed to speak the same aesthetic language as the MacBook. That was unprecedented. Laptop accessories at existed for years, but no one cared much what they looked like, just so long as they did the job.

The release of the white Macbook, with it’s focus on design and aesthetics, jumpstarted an accessory movement that emphasized style as much as functionality. TwelveSouth

The MacBook’s elegant design made users want to buy accessories to personalize it, but not just any accessories. The white MacBook was a blank canvas for its users, and it was rare to see one in the wild that wasn’t adorned with stickers, wrist pads, or other aftermarket accessories.

“We started Twelve South with the notion that the Mac platform should have accessories worthy and exclusive to the Mac,” Green said. “Macs are used for creative output, so we felt very strongly that the tools to help users do that should be as elegant as their machines.”

Apple launched the “Get a Mac” campaign to coincide with its shift in marketing strategy (toward young adults and college students) following the released of it’s white Macbook.

Somehow, the MacBook became the must-have tool for wannabe creatives and students — the “crazy ones” who were set out to think differently and change the world. Apple called it a “superfast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box” laptop.

That kind of marketing caught on with a specific generation of new laptop buyers. As a laptop that started at $1,100, it wasn’t just a cheaper version of the MacBook Pro. The size of the device and the durability of the plastic chassis made it ideal for packing from class to class, and surviving dorm life.

It was built for a different set of demands than more premium machines and, most importantly, it was designed with entry-level or budget-conscious users in mind.

A new breed of Apple laptop

The MacBook didn’t appear out of thin air. Its predecessor, the iBook, first introduced the all-white look to Apple laptops. But there were some significant differences in the MacBook that established its own identity.

Riley Young/Digital Trends and Nate Barrett/Digital Trends

The MacBook ditched the removable keyboard the iBook featured, making it not just slimmer, but simpler. Corners became more rounded, the hinge design changed, the frontal latch was replaced by a magnetic closing mechanism. It was a refinement on the overall design, one that mirrored the iPod and made them an almost inseparable pair.

Even now looking at the white MacBook’s design, feeling how well it’s held up over the years, it’s easy to see why it was such an iconic device. The white MacBook might not have been everyone’s first laptop, but it’s often one of the most memorable. Like a spiral notebook from college, covered in stickers and doodles in ball-point-pen, the white MacBook was a device that invited users to customize it — and not just on the outside.

The white MacBook was built to be user serviceable and Apple even provided do-it-yourself guides offering step-by-step instructions.

It wasn’t just a coat of paint that made the MacBook stand apart from its predecessors. An entirely new internal design philosophy was on display, too. The iBook, for instance, was a pain to open. Just to replace the hard drive, you needed to almost completely disassemble the chassis. So, if you picked up the cheapest iBook to get you through your first semester away from home, you’d need some serious technical skills once you scratched together enough work study cash to upgrade it. It wasn’t exactly an inviting hardware experience.

The white MacBook, on the other hand, designed with students and budget-minded customers in mind, was built from the ground up to be user serviceable. Apple even provided a set of do-it-yourself guides offering step-by-step instructions on how you could open it up to replace or upgrade components on your own. It held your hand and gave you the confidence to tinker with it.

In that way, it was an investment in Apple’s ecosystem. A student might buy the laptop they could afford, with an eye toward upgrading it over time, rather than buying a new system in the next year or two. That support for expansion over time meant the white MacBook had a much longer shelf-life than an average laptop. Pairing robust Apple-exclusive build quality with the ability to upgrade the hardware as you went led some of these MacBooks to live surprisingly long lives.

Over time, though, expandability vanished from Apple’s laptops — that’s part of the reason it’s so hard to find a laptop today that has so much as a user-replaceable battery. Apple came to believe its customers would still buy a new MacBook every couple years, even if they couldn’t upgrade it on their own. That change in philosophy is exemplified by the product that choked the life out of the white MacBook. The MacBook Air.

The legacy and the return of the MacBook

Today, Apple’s lineup feels like it’s missing something. The MacBook Air has started to show its age, having been neglected for years now. The price point is no longer competitive for the hardware and performance it offers, and even the novelty of its ultra-light design has worn thin.

The white MacBook proved that high-quality budget machines can take on a life of their own and become cultural icons.

You might point to the 12-inch MacBook, which comes available in a dazzling array of colors, is a gorgeous, well-built machine, was perhaps meant to replace the MacBook Air. There’s a problem, though. It starts at $1,300 — no less than the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The two devices step on each other’s toes, trying to fill the same niche in two different ways. It’s a mess.

Our hopes are high headed into WWDC of this year. Rumors have been percolating about some kind of a new MacBook or MacBook Air, creating a clear price and performance progression like Apple used to offer. It would make sense of things. It would bring order to Apple’s current lineup. And it could usher in a new era for Mac users — just like the original white MacBook did. But the most recent rumors says Apple’s plans have been delayed.

It’s a shame, because laptops like the inexpensive, durable white MacBook prove that high-quality budget machines can take on a life of their own and become cultural icons. As a testament to that enduring legacy, it turns out one of our photographers, Bill Roberson, still owns a fully operational white MacBook.

The white Macbook (2006) on top of a Macbook Pro (late-2013) and below a Macbook Air (2017). Nate Barrett/Digital Trends

“Oh yeah, I’ve got one, when do you need it?” he asked, when we were trying to locate still functioning MacBooks for this piece. “It still works just fine, upgraded it enough that my son can use it to play games.”

Over the years he’s upgraded the hardware and built it into a surprisingly robust machine. He’s since handed off to his son — who uses it to play Minecraft. “Heirloom-quality” isn’t the kind of longevity most manufacturers have in mind when designing laptops, at least not anymore, and that’s a shame.

Here’s to hoping Apple restores some of what made its entry-level MacBooks in the past so fondly remembered.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best MacBook
• Save hundreds with the best MacBook deals for June 2018
• Best Buy knocks up to $265 off the MacBook Pro in one-day sale
• Tim Cook says people don’t want iOS and MacOS to merge. What do you say?
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Moto G6 and G6 Play launch in India: Here’s everything you need to know

The Moto G6 faces stiff competition in the budget segment.

Motorola unveiled the Moto G6 series back in April, and the Moto G6 and the G6 Play have made their debut in India. There’s no mention of whether the Moto G6 Plus will make its way to the country, but it’s unlikely as the Moto X4 offers similar specs.

For now, it looks like the standard Moto G6 and the G6 Play will carry the Moto G brand this year. That’s a huge ask considering just how competitive the budget segment has become in recent months, thanks to devices like the Redmi Note 5 Pro and more recently the ZenFone Max Pro M1, both of which feature the Snapdragon 636 chipset.

By contrast, the Moto G6 is powered by a Snapdragon 450, so it doesn’t look like the device will be able to compete when it comes to sheer numbers. So let’s see what else is on offer with the latest iteration of the Moto G series.

Moto G6 and G6 Play: Specs

Operating System	Android 8.0 Oreo	Android 8.0 Oreo
Display	5.7-inch IPS LCD 1440×720	5.7-inch IPS LCD 2160×1080
Processor	Snapdragon 427 1.4GHz octa-coreAdreno 308 GPU	Snapdragon 450 1.8GHz octa-coreAdreno 506 GPU
RAM	3GB	3GB/4GB
Storage	32GB	32GB/64GB
Expandable	microSD card up to 128GB	microSD card up to 128GB
Rear Camera – Main	13MP, ƒ/2.0	12MP, ƒ/1.8
Rear Camera – Secondary	N/A	5MP RGB (for depth)
Video	1080p @ 30 fps	1080p @ 60fps
Front Camera	8MP front-facing flash	8MP front-facing flash
Connectivity	802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz Bluetooth 4.2	802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz Bluetooth 4.2
Battery	4000mAhNon-removable	3000mAhNon-removable
Charging	Micro-USB10W rapid charger	USB-C15W TurboPower charger
Water resistance	Water-repellant nano-coating	Water-repellant nano-coating
Security	Fingerprint sensor (rear)	Fingerprint sensor (front) Face unlock
Dimensions	154.4 x 72.2 x 9 mm	153.8 x 72.3 x 8.3 mm
Weight	175g	167 g

Both phones have 18:9 displays and glass backs

With the Moto G6 series, Motorola lavished the same amount of attention it reserves to its mid-range phones. The Moto G6 and G6 Play feature glass-backed designs that look nearly identical to what we’ve seen last year on the Moto X4.

The glass design certainly makes both devices feel upmarket. Another change for 2018 is the switch to the 18:9 form factor. The Moto G6 Play has a 5.7-inch HD+ (1440×720) display whereas the Moto G6 has a 5.7-inch Full HD+ (2160×1080) panel.

The Moto G6 comes with dual rear cameras

The main differentiator with the Moto G6 is the dual rear cameras at the back, with the secondary sensor enabling portrait mode. The primary camera doesn’t have the Dual Pixels feature from last year, and overall image quality is about the same as that of the Moto G5 Plus.

Moto G6 review: Finding success in compromise

There’s a huge 4000mAh battery on the Moto G6 Play

The Moto G6 has a 3000mAh battery, but the Moto G6 Play comes with a 4000mAh battery that’s easily good for two days’ worth of use from a full charge.

The larger battery combined with the HD+ panel makes the G6 Play one of the best devices in the budget segment when it comes to battery life.

The Moto G6 costs about the same as the Redmi Note 5 Pro

The 3GB/32GB variant of the Moto G6 costs ₹13,999 ($215) in India, whereas the 4GB/64GB version retails for ₹15,999 ($245).

The Moto G6 Play is available in a single 3GB/32GB edition, and is available for ₹11,999 ($185). The Moto G6 is exclusive to Amazon, while the G6 Play will be sold exclusively via Flipkart.

The Moto G5 is going up against the likes of the Redmi Note 5 Pro, and Motorola’s recent stance with updates combined with the underwhelming hardware makes the Moto G6 a tough recommendation.

I’ll take a look at how the camera on the Moto G6 compares to the Redmi Note 5 Pro early next week, but for now, you’re better off buying a phone with beefier hardware.

See at Amazon

Honor 10 review: Iridescent, incredible, imperfect

The Honor 10 delivers incredible value for under $500.

Flagships from the likes of Samsung and LG are inching closer to the $1,000 figure, and in recent years we’ve seen the rise of the “affordable flagships,” devices that offer similar specs with a few feature omissions at around the $500 mark.

Honor has fared very well in this arena in the past with the likes of the Honor 9 and the View 10, and its latest device is one of the most compelling options available in this category.

With the Honor 10, the company is focusing on two pillars — design and AI — to differentiate the device from the multitude of other phones available in this category.

The Honor 10 shares a lot of elements with the Huawei P20 Pro, including the Kirin 970 chipset. The main difference is that the Honor 10 costs £399, or roughly half that of the £799 P20 Pro. Sure, it’s missing a few features, but you’re getting a comparable experience at half the price, and that’s amazing.

About this review

I (Harish Jonnalagadda) am writing this review after using the Phantom Blue Honor 10 for two weeks in Hyderabad, India. The phone was connected to Jio’s 4G network, and was on build number 8.1.0.100 for the entirety of the review period. The unit was provided to Android Central by Honor India.

Design and display

Last year’s Honor 9 featured a reflective pattern at the back that was made up of 15 layers of glass, and the Honor 10 outmatches that with its Aurora Glass design. The phone comes with a “nano-scale optical coating” with the Phantom Blue and Phantom Green color options that consists of 15 layers of shimmering color, and the result is breathtaking.

The design alternates between various hues of blue and purple depending on how light strikes the back panel, and the iridescent pattern makes the Honor 10 stand out. If you’re not a fan of the shimmering effect, the Honor 10 is also available in black and grey color options.

The Honor 10 is perfectly proportioned, with curving sides that extend out to meet the mid-frame. It fits comfortably in-hand, and the rounded edges and curved back make it more ergonomic. The downside of a glass back — particularly one this glossy — is that it is prone to smudges, and the device is also very slippery.

You’ll find a 3.5mm jack, USB-C port, and a single speaker at the bottom, power and volume buttons on the right, and an IR blaster up top. Honor has switched to on-screen keys, but you do get an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on the bottom bezel.

The sensor is housed underneath the glass, and while it’s not quite as fast as some of the other, more traditional ones I’ve used this year, it does a great job authenticating your fingerprints when they’re wet. The phone itself isn’t rated for water resistance, however — more on that later.

You won’t find many phones that look better than the Honor 10.

The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor itself doesn’t pose any problems, but its placement is less than ideal. It’s unclear if, as with the P20 series, Huawei required such a large chin below the display to accommodate electronics underneath, adding a front fingerprint sensor in the process, or if the fingerprint sensor was the cause of the chin. Either way, its presence nullifies the effect of the notch — which is designed to maximize screen space.

Therefore, the notch doesn’t add any value to the device, and it’s easy to see that Honor included it just because everyone else is doing the same. It’s the one aspect of the Honor 10 that I don’t find myself onboard with, but it looks like Android manufacturers will continue to offer the notch for a few generations. Like the P20 Pro, there is an option to disable it in the software settings, which merely blacks the display parallel to the cutoff.

As for the display itself, the 5.84-inch IPS LCD Full HD+ (2280×1080) panel is one of the best in this category. Colors are punchy, contrast levels are great, and it gets sufficiently bright that it wasn’t an issue reading the contents of the screen under direct sunlight.

Honor offers a wealth of customization options for the display: you can tweak the color mode (it’s set to Vivid by default), and adjust the color temperature to warmer or cooler colors. Like most devices, the Honor 10 comes with a blue light filter, and you can set the intensity and schedule it to kick in from sunset to sunrise.

You can also change the display scaling and font size options, and lower the screen resolution to HD+ (1520×720) to conserve battery life.

Hardware

Screen	5.84-inch IPS LCD
SoC	HiSilicon Kirin 970
RAM	4GB/6GB
Storage	128GB
Camera 1	16MP, ƒ/1.8
Camera 2	24MP Monochrome
Battery	3400mAh
Connectivity	Wi-Fi ac, BT5.0
Security	Fingerprint, face unlock
Dimensions	149.6 x 71.2 x 7.7mm
Weight	153 grams
Colors	Phantom Blue, Phantom Green, Midnight Black, Glacier Grey
Price	£399, ₹32,999

The Honor 10 is the fourth device to feature HiSilicon’s latest 10nm chipset, the Kirin 970. Unveiled last October, the Kirin 970 offers performance on par with Qualcomm’s flagship SoCs, and there’s also a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that enables AI capabilities on phones like the Honor 10.

The chipset itself continues to be one of the fastest around, and I haven’t noticed any slowdowns in the two weeks I used the Honor 10. The phone comes with 4GB of RAM (6GB in India) and 128GB of storage as standard, and it’s easy to see that Honor is dominating the value game.

The Honor 10 inherits the same AI-assisted camera feature as its more expensive siblings, but it’s missing the Night Mode that we saw on the P20 Pro.

Like the rest of the devices in this category, the Honor 10 offers a face unlock feature. There isn’t a dedicated sensor to authenticate your irises — like the Galaxy S9 — but Honor is relying on software algorithms to identify your facial patterns.

The Honor 10 is the most affordable phone yet to feature the Kirin 970.

There’s no microSD slot, but you do get a dual SIM card tray with both SIMs able to connect to 4G networks. And yes, there’s dual VoLTE. The single speaker at the bottom was one of the louder units I’ve seen in recent months, and while it isn’t as loud as a stereo setup, it doesn’t distort at high volumes. Thankfully, the Honor 10 retains the 3.5mm jack, and EMUI offers an equalizer that lets you tweak the sound profile.

When it comes to battery life, the 3400mAh battery was able to deliver a day’s worth of usage consistently. There were times when the battery level fell to 10% before 10 p.m., but that was on days when I used 4G connectivity exclusively and used navigation for several hours.

In general use, I averaged anywhere between four and five hours of screen-on-time over the course of the day.

Wi-Fi performance was adequate, and the Honor 10 consistently managed speeds in the vicinity of 150Mbps. That was roughly half that of the speeds I routinely saw on the OnePlus 6, with both devices next to each other.

EMUI has a Wi-Fi+ feature that automatically switches to mobile data if it detects that the Wi-Fi signal is too low or if a network is no longer connected to the internet. It also automatically turns Wi-Fi on and connects to a saved network as soon as it’s in range.

Call quality was great as well, and I had zero issues hearing the person on the other side of the line — even where there was a lot of ambient noise around.

For a device that is feature-rich in most areas, a glaring omission is the lack of water resistance. The Honor 10 isn’t rated for any form of water ingress or dust protection, so you’re better off not taking the device anywhere near a pool.

Software

The Honor 10 comes with the latest iteration of EMUI, which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Huawei undertook several design changes to make EMUI much more palatable to a Western audience, and while there are some lingering issues, EMUI 8.1 is usable for the most part.

There’s even an app drawer now, although it isn’t enabled by default — you’ll have to go into the settings and toggle it. A better alternative is to just use a third-party launcher, as that alleviates most of the issues still present in EMUI. I immediately installed Nova Launcher after setting up the phone — as well as a custom icon pack — and it has been an enjoyable experience.

Talking about setting up the phone, Honor has a convoluted method to restore data from another device. It’s called Phone Clone, and you have to install it on your previous device to restore all your apps, settings, messages, and other data to the Honor 10.

There’s a good reason you shouldn’t install the utility, as Google’s default restore apps feature does a similar function, but on the Honor 10, it kicks in after setup is complete. Once you head to the home screen for the first time, you’ll see a popup that says Google is restoring your apps and settings from a previous device.

So save yourself the hassle, select “Start from scratch” during initial configuration, and let Google do its thing once you boot into the home screen.

EMUI offers a ton of features, but there’s plenty of bloatware too.

As for EMUI itself, there’s plenty to like in the latest version. The notification pane has a two-stage action and supports actionable notifications as well as in-line replies. The multitasking menu is near-identical to pure Android, and you can easily set up multi-window mode from the same menu.

There’s no shortage of customization options, and it’ll take the better part of an afternoon to get EMUI set up the way you want. There is also a lot of crud that comes pre-installed in EMUI, but thankfully you’ll be able to uninstall or disable it.

Honor devices have always been well-regarded by the modding community as they were easy to unlock, but that is changing soon. Honor/Huawei has announced that it will no longer provide bootloader unlock codes for new devices, and that existing phones in the market will be cut out after 60 days.

Granted, the move won’t affect a majority of customers looking to pick up the Honor 10, but for those that were eyeing the device as a potential candidate for LineageOS or other custom ROMs, that is no longer an option. That’s a shame, because the Honor 10 has some of the best hardware available in this category.

Another reason why there’s no dearth of custom ROMs for Honor devices is that the brand isn’t exactly known for its timely updates. EMUI 8.1 is based on Android 8.1 Oreo, but it remains to be seen if the brand can deliver the Android P update on time once it becomes available later this year.

Camera

Like most devices available today, the Honor 10 comes with dual rear cameras. Unlike the P20 Pro, the lenses aren’t tuned by Leica, but you still get a lot of features that are common between the two devices.

The primary 16MP f/1.8 sensor is a noticeable improvement over the Honor 9, and the secondary 24MP module is a monochrome sensor. The camera uses both sensors when you’re taking a photo, and uses the information from the monochrome sensor to add more detail to the resultant image.

The AI-assisted feature is great at detecting the ideal shooting mode.

There’s a pro mode that lets you adjust the exposure, white balance, shutter speed, and set manual focus. You can also select various lighting effects — and adjust the intensity of the beautify filter — in portrait mode. There are five effects to choose from: soft lighting, butterfly lighting, split lighting, stage lighting, and classic lighting. The feature works with both the rear and front cameras, and you can change the lighting mode after taking a photo as well.

Then there’s the AI mode, which automatically selects the shooting mode by analyzing a subject. You can toggle the AI mode through a dedicated button in the camera interface. If you’re taking a photo outdoors and there’s a lot of trees around, it switches to the Greenery mode to make the greens come alive. It can select 22 scenes in total, and it only needs a few seconds to detect the ideal scene for a particular subject.

Honor 10 AI mode (greenery) on the left, standard image on the right.

You also get a “moving pictures” option, which is similar to motion photos on the Pixel 2. The camera essentially records a short video for a few seconds before you press the shutter, and you’ll be able to view the results in the gallery.

Overall, the camera offers plenty of features, and it takes great photos in daylight conditions. There’s no Optical Image Stabilization, however, and you start to notice a lot of grain in low-light images. The Honor 10 takes decent images in artificial or low-light scenarios, but OIS would have made a noticeable difference.

As for video, you do get the ability to shoot 4K video, but the lack of OIS is a drawback here as well.

Should you buy it? Of course

Honor has rolled out a series of great phones in the past, and the Honor 10 is its strongest showing yet. The phone nails the basics, and there really isn’t a device that offers quite as much value at this price point. The phone may not have the same camera capabilities as the P20 Pro, and while OIS would have made it an all-rounder, it still offers one of the better shooters in this segment.

Like the Huawei P20 Pro, the Honor 10 won’t be releasing in North American markets, but the phone is now up for sale in the UK and India. The UK version comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage and will set you back £399 ($530), and the Indian variant features 6GB of RAM as standard along with 128GB of storage, and retails for ₹32,999 ($490).

The Good

• Exquisite design
• Insane value for money
• Powerful hardware

The Bad

• Notch
• Not rated for water resistance
• No OIS

4
out of 5

The Honor 10 combines a breathtaking design with top-notch internals, delivering incredible value in this category.

See at Flipkart (India)

See at Amazon (UK)

How to completely disable Bixby

Get rid of the Galaxy S9’s most disappointing feature.

Ever since Samsung announced the Galaxy S8 with its onboard assistant, Bixby, people have been asking for ways to disable it and forget the button ever existed in the first place. With the Galaxy S9, that chorus is even louder.

While the hardware’s not going anywhere, we can definitely do something about the software. Here’s how to get rid of Bixby Voice and, if you’re using Samsung’s launcher, Bixby Home.

Why do you want to disable Bixby?

One of the biggest frustrations with the Bixby button is its placement; the button is right under the volume keys and nearly directly opposite the power buttons. On larger phones like the Galaxy S9+ and Note 8, this often leads to accidental presses and unintended Bixby launches, especially when double-pressing the power button to launch the camera.

The Bixby button is also not mappable to another action; Samsung wants you to use it for Bixby, or not at all. This isn’t ideal, so many people will inevitably choose to just forget it exists and move on.

How to disable Bixby Voice

Bixby is divided into two distinct categories: Bixby Voice and Bixby Home. Voice is the feature that lets you get stuff done by holding down the Bixby button for a moment, walkie-talkie-style. It’s useful but can get frustrating when it doesn’t work, so you’re going to want to turn it off before you disable Bixby Home (which is accessed by short-pressing the Bixby button).

While on the Samsung home screen, swipe right until you get to Bixby Home.

• Alternatively, press the Bixby button on the left side of the phone, right under the volume rocker.

On the top menu bar, tap the three vertical dots.
Tap Settings.
Uncheck Bixby Voice.

That’s it! Now Bixby Voice won’t bug you when you accidentally hold down your finger on the Bixby button. Next, we have to prevent the Bixby button from accessing Bixby Home.

How to disable the Bixby button

Now that Bixby Voice has been disabled, we have to disable Bixby Home from popping up whenever we accidentally press the side button.

Press the Bixby button on the left side of the phone, right under the volume rocker.
In the top menu bar, tap the Settings button (looks like three cogs).
Uncheck Bixby Key.

That’s it! Now when you press the Bixby button once, it won’t open the Bixby Home

How to disable Bixby Home from the home screen

Now, the final step to disabling Bixby entirely is to disable Bixby Home access from the home screen which, by default, puts it on the left-most panel.

From the home screen, hold down on empty space until the menu appears.
Swipe to the right to reach the left home panel.
Disable Bixby Home.

That’s it! Now neither the Bixby button nor the Bixby Home screen will work and you can move on with your life, Bixby-free.

Should you want to access Bixby again, though, you’ll need to follow these steps in reverse, first enabling Bixby Home from the launcher and then the Bixby button from inside the menu.

Questions? Comments?

Got any questions about this process, or just want to share your sheer joy at being able to disable Bixby? Let us know in the comments below!

Update June 4, 2018: This article has been verified for accuracy and still shows the best ways to disable Bixby on your Galaxy S8, Note 8, and S9.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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