Xiaomi launched the Poco F1 in India back in the month of August last year. The smartphone with a budget price and flagship specifications witnessed rave reviews globally. But soon after the launch, the controversy arose that the device lacked the support for Widevine L1 certificate; which is necessary to stream HD digital content on services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. According to a senior Xiaomi India executive, the Poco F1 has been granted Widevine L1 certification. The executive also states that an OTA update with the L1 certification is being rolled out for beta users. Besides, the upcoming general public MIUI update for the device will incorporate this certificate. Therefore, the users will soon be able to stream HD content on their devices after updating the latest update.
Poco F1: Widevine L1 Support
The Widevine L1 certification is granted by Widevine Technologies, which is owned by Google. It is an encryption system to distribute video content from streaming services to consumer devices. When it was discovered that the Poco F1 lacked the Widevine L1 certification; it became identified that the device was incapable of streaming video content higher than 540p resolution. Similarly, OnePlus’s yesteryear flagship, the OnePlus 5T was also plagued by the same problem which was sorrowfully never eradicated.
The Poco F1 has started receiving the update supporting the Widevine L1 certificate in the latest MIUI 10 9.2.25 Beta. It was earlier speculated that the devices lacking certain hardware components cannot be Widevine L1 certified. However, Xiaomi has demonstrated that the aforementioned problem can indeed be fixed via software modifications. In addition to the L1 certification, streaming services also need to whitelist devices to allow them to stream HD content. Streaming services including Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar have already updated their respective applications to allow Poco F1 to be able to stream HD content. However, Netflix is yet to roll an update that allows updated Poco F1 units to stream HD content on its platform.
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The update on the Xiaomi Poco F1 should arrive as a sigh of relief to existing users of the device. Unfortunately, the company has not provided any information on the stable release of the update; but it is expected to roll out as soon as the current software is out of Beta and has the bugs ironed out.
The Android Messages application is preinstalled on nearly all Android smartphones, so integration with such an application would be fairly easier. Smart texting has been around for a while now. Links inserted in text messages automatically show web previews whenever an internet connection is available. Google posted that this feature can be used with any device that uses Android (even Go editions), 
The Google Assistant integration is also seen in other Google apps like Maps, where drivers can get hands-free instructions regarding which directions to follow, making calls and read out texts. Similarly, the Android Messages app will rely on AI to provide suggestions that can make texting easier. It displays the information as a ‘suggestion chip’, and the user can click on it and just add that piece of info to the message. 
Google has also brought Voice Typing on KaiOS, which can help translate speech to text conveniently. As mentioned before, the multilingual support will help the Assistant to improve support for multiple dialects and accents. Apart from Indic languages, Google Assistant also adds support for bilingual talkback, with language support choices from Korean, Hindi, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Dutch.
The handset has a dual camera setup on the back, which comprises of a 16MP (f/1.7) sensor and a 5MP (f/2.2) sensor. The 16MP (f/2.0) front camera is housed in the notch and is positioned below the earpiece. The Galaxy A30 has a 4,000 mAh battery, which can be charged via the USB Type-C connector located at the bottom of the handset, right next to the loudspeaker grille and audio jack. The smartphone is also IP68 certified which makes it dust and water resistant. Furthermore, the device sports a rear mounted fingerprint scanner and is available in 3 colour options, Black, White and Blue.
The handset has a triple camera setup on the back, which consists of a 25MP (f/1.7) sensor, an 8MP (f/2.2) ultrawide sensor and a third 5MP (f/2.2) depth sensor. The 25MP (f/2.0) front camera is housed in the notch and is set below the earpiece. The Galaxy A50 is powered by a large 4,000 mAh battery, which can be charged via the USB Type-C connector located at the bottom of the handset, right next to the loudspeaker grille and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Noteworthy, the device features an in-display fingerprint scanner, unlike the Galaxy A30. It is available in four colour options which include Black, White, Blue and Coral.
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The Xperia 10 runs on the 14nm 
The Sony Xperia 10 has a dual camera setup, with one 13 MP (f/2.0) wide-angle sensor and a second 5 MP (f/2.4) sensor, whereas the Xperia 10 Plus has a combination of a 12 MP (f/1.75) primary sensor and a secondary 8 MP (f/2.4) sensor. Both the devices have the identical 8 MP (f/2.0) front camera equipped with an LED flash. Camera features include hybrid autofocus, bokeh effect, HDR, 5X digital zoom and 4K video recording.
The G8 ThinQ stands out owing to its glass-sandwich design built around a metal frame. Glass panels adorn both the front and the back of the device, which are protected by Gorilla Glass on both the sides. Interestingly, the rear of the device has Gorilla Glass 6, while the display is covered by Gorilla Glass 5. The bezels are thin, but not thin enough, giving the G8 an 83.5 percent screen-to-body ratio. 
The G8 ThinQ runs on a 7nm Snapdragon 855 chipset, which comprises of an octa-core processor (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 485, 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 485 and 4×8 GHz Kryo 485) and the Adreno 640 GPU. In terms of memory, the smartphone packs 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB internal storage, which can be further expanded using the microSD slot with support for up to 2TB microSD cards. It will run Android 9 Pie out-of-the-box.
The triple camera module on the back panel of the LG G8 ThinQ is almost identical to the 
The device has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, which lies next to the USB Type C port and a ‘grille’ at the bottom of the device. One of the highlighting aspects of the LG G8 ThinQ is the resonating panel that can produce sound. Known as the CSO (Crystal Sound OLED), LG claims that the panel act as stereo speakers and adds an acoustic touch to the sound quality. Moreover, the CSO also acts as an earpiece for receiving phone calls, so users can literally listen to any part of the screen while conversing. The beforementioned ‘grille’ may be a part of the resonating chamber beneath the screen which is used to redirect audio. 32-bit Hi-Fi Quad DAC is integrated with in addition to DTS:X 3D Surround Sound for headphones. The device packs a 3,500 mAh battery which supports Quick Charge 3.0. It is also IP68 dust and water resistant and meets 14 MIL-STD 810G standards, which means that it can survive drops of over 8 feet without taking any damage.
The LG G8 ThinQ has support for Portrait Video Recording in the front camera. It is really intriguing to see how the device will record videos with the bokeh effect. Also, as mentioned previously, the handset has a front facing 3D ToF sensor. Positioning it at the front ensures more functionality from the sensor. Also called the ‘Z Camera’, it claims to be more precise than a dot projector and faster than Apple’s current ‘Face ID’ technology. Also, the ToF sensor can capture an accurate image of a user’s palm – complete with wrinkles and the blood flowing through the veins. Since every person has unique wrinkles and veins, placing the hand in front of the sensor will instantly unlock the smartphone. It can also be used for hand gestures to control various apps in the device. It is still unclear how practical can this be, but sure, it’s an example of ‘useful innovation’ by LG.
The V50 ThinQ is a dual glass smartphone with a glass-sandwich design, which gives the smartphone an elegant look. The device sports a 6.4 inch OLED screen with a resolution of 3120 x 1440 px and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The display panel has a pixel density of 537 ppi, and supports HDR 10. It has a similar notch to the 
The LG V50 ThinQ runs on the 7nm Snapdragon 855 chipset, which consists of an octa-core processor (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 485, 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 485 and 4×8 GHz Kryo 485) and the Adreno 640 GPU. The device also features Qualcomm’s 5G modem. In addition, the V50 has an advanced cooling system to keep the temperature of the device under check. It runs on Android 9 Pie out of the box, with a layer of LG UX on top. The device has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded via the microSD slot. 
The V50 ThinQ features a triple rear camera setup, which comprises of a 12MP (f/1.5) camera sensor, a 12MP (f/2.4) telephoto sensor and a 16MP ultra-wide-angle snapper. The camera also supports Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) for taking high quality blur free images. In addition, the smartphone sports a dual front camera module which is housed in the notch along with the earpiece. The selfie camera setup consists of an 8MP (f/1.9) standard sensor and a 5MP (f/2.2) wide-angle camera.
