A couple of weeks or so ago, T-Mobile started selling the gold variation of the Samsung Galaxy Note5. And today its two biggest competitors have finally followed suit.

Both AT&T and Verizon are now offering the gold Galaxy Note5. While AT&T only has it with 64GB of storage, Verizon only sells it with 32GB. So keep that in mind when you compare prices.

The gold Galaxy Note5 can be had from AT&T for $349.99 with a new two-year contract, or $28 per month for 30 months using the carrier’s installment plan. The full price for the device is $839.99. At Verizon, you either pay $29 per month for two years, or shell out the full retail value of $696.

As you’d expect, the gold Note5 is identical to its differently colored siblings. It still comes with that 5.7-inch QHD AMOLED touchscreen, a 16MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie shooter, 4GB of RAM, Samsung’s Exynos 7420 chipset, and a 3,000 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.1.1…

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Last week the folks over at iFixit did one of their famous teardowns for the Apple Pencil stylus, and the result was not good if you’ve been thinking of how repairable that is. It got only a 1/10 repairability score, where 10 means easiest to repair.

Now iFixit has put the other accessory Apple custom designed for the iPad Pro through the teardown treatment. We’re talking about the Smart Keyboard, and this one is record-breaking.

But maybe not in a manner you’d expect it to. The Smart Keyboard incredibly managed to achieve a 0/10 repairability score, which means it’s pretty much impossible to fix once it’s broken. If you open it up, you’ll damage it, there’s simply no way around that. No internal components can be replaced without destroying the keyboard. To make the Smart Keyboard water and stain resistant, Apple’s “encapsulated the entire accessory inside some high tech fabric”. And this needs to be cut in order to take the keyboard apart.

On the flip side, the accessory is said to be quite durable. So it’s pretty clear that Apple is simply going to replace your Smart Keyboard if anything goes wrong with it, yet that is unlikely to happen too often.

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As you may remember, a while back Nvidia started designing and selling its own devices, after having been left practically without customers for its mobile chipsets. Hence, the company’s Shield Tablet (since renamed and relaunched as Shield Tablet K1) served as a kind of showcase for the Tegra K1 chipset.

However, Nvidia has already announced the newer Tegra X1 SoC early this year, and a new tablet bearing this particular chip was at one point tipped to arrive in March. That obviously didn’t happen. Moreover, seven additional months have passed and this successor to the Shield Tablet is nowhere to be seen.

That said, it might actually become official soon. That’s because a prototype has been put through the paces of GFXBench, which means a list of most of its specs is now available.

It will be called Nvidia Shield Tablet X1, which makes sense given the chipset employed. And yes, the Tegra X1 SoC has been confirmed by the benchmark. GFXBench for some reason only counted the four Cortex-A57 cores in the CPU, but this should be an octa-core part with four additional Cortex-A53 cores.

The custom-developed GPU is apparently going to be twice as good compared to the one seen in the Tegra K1, and it will be capable of 1 teraflop of floating point performance. The Shield Tablet X1 seems to keep its predecessor’s 8-inch 1,920×1,200 touchscreen, yet it comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It will have Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS too and will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

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A new software update is on its way to the OnePlus X starting today. It’s not Marshmallow, in case you were wondering. Your OnePlus X will still run Android 5.1.1 Lollipop even after applying this update.

But what Oxygen OS 2.1.3 does bring with it are several enhancements to the microSD card support on the device. You’ll find UX improvements, along with exFAT SD card support, and the ability to move apps to and from the card. Thankfully, one nasty bug that made the handset reboot when you removed the SD card has been fixed.

According to OnePlus, some unnamed security patches are in too, as well as “general bug fixes and optimizations”. The over-the-air rollout starts today, but the new bits will first only arrive on around 10% of devices out there, to ensure that everything about the update procedure is working fine. A wider release will then follow in a few…

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Ever since its first appearance in trademark documents way back in March, the Samsung Galaxy A9 has seen its fair share of rumors. Those include a few leaked specs sheets, the last one from only a few days ago, so it is safe to say we already have a pretty good idea of what the metal handset will offer.

Still, a little official confirmation is always welcome and it comes in the form of a new listing for the device on the company’s Iran website. The cited hardware coincides with what we already know, so it’s almost official. The Galaxy A9 is equipped with the new Snapdragon 620 SoC with four next-get Cortex-A72 cores, four Cortex-A53 ones and a fresh new Adreno 510 GPU. The impressive new mid-range chip is backed by 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage with a microSD card slot for up to 128GB more.

All this horsepower will be pushing pixels on a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080p, which adds up to 401 ppi. The camera setup includes a 16MP main shooter with HDR and autofocus and a 5MP selfie one. Connectivity is pretty standard with GPS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 LE and the A9 should boot Android 5.1.1 out of the box. The only piece of the puzzle still missing seems to be the battery capacity.

The Samsung page also lists a December 1 launch date for the Galaxy A9 and we have every reason to believe the information. It is also worth noting that the enclosed photos are of the Galaxy A8 and merely a placeholder.

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The eagerly-anticipated Huawei Mate 8 is mere hours away from its November 26 unveiling, but the OEM has apparently found time and resources to keep the wheels turning on other projects as well. A newly unearthed GFXBench result offers a glimpse of one such handset. Codenamed Huawei ABC-UL00, it is believed to be a new addition to the Honor line, presumably the Honor 5X Plus.

The revealed specs paint a decidedly mid-range picture. The phone is equipped with a 5.2 inch FullHD display and utilizes the OEM’s custom Kirin 935 chip. We have already seen it powering the Honor 7 and Mate S and it is one of the better HiSilicon offers, although somewhat lacking in the GPU department. Memory is set at 3GB and the reported storage looks to be from a 64GB model, though other varieties might also be available.

The camera setup features a 13MP shooter on the back and a 8MP selfie one. Other than that, GFXBench assures us that the Honor 5X Plus has all the standard connectivity options one would expect, life Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, also GPS and NFC.

From the looks of things, the Honor 5X Plus might be Huawei’s answer to the recently announced Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. However, with a fingerprint reader and a tantalizing price tag starting at RMB 899 ($140), it might prove a hard opponent to…

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Microsoft just pulled the wraps off the Nokia 230 and its 230 Dual SIM counterpart. This newest featurephone relies on a trifecta of aluminum build (sort of), front-facing flash and an affordable price.

The Nokia 230 features a 2.8-inch display with 240 x 320 pixel resolution (QVGA). It has a total of 16GB of RAM, reminiscent of simpler times, but that’s enough for the Series 30+ to run Opera Mini, Bing Search, and MSN weather. There’s no internal storage to speak of, in the sense of keeping MP3s internally – microSD cards up to 32GB are the way to go.

Nokia 230 press images

A 2MP rear camera is on board, capable of shooting 1,600 x 1,200 pixel images and videos at 240p/15fps. It has a flash too, but most importantly so does the front-facing 2MP shooter, which can also capture higher-res VGA videos (640 x 480 pixels).

There’s a very basic set of wireless connectivity options with only dual-band 900MHz/1800MHz GSM support and Bluetooth 3.0. There’s an FM radio receiver, too. A microUSB port takes care of charging, and there’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The phone measures 124.6 x 53.4 x 10.9mm and weighs 91.8g grams. It’s mostly made of polycarbonate, but has a sand-blasted aluminum back cover for a touch of premium on a $55 device. Behind it is a 1,200mAh battery, which Microsoft promises is good for up to 27 days of standby on the single-SIM version and 22 days for the dual-SIM. Availability starts in December.

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Fossil (in collaboration with Intel) has unveiled a stylish Android Wear watch, the Fossil Q Founder. Yep, the one they’ve been teasing since August.

It has a steel chassis and a round display (with a Moto-like “flat tire” display) and comes with a selection of steel and leather bands. Fossil has prepared several companion apps that will help you load a new Fossil dial – one you download or one you make yourself.

The Fossil Q Founder smartwatch can track your activity – walking, running, jumping – and the Q Curiosity feature will alert you to interesting details on your surroundings.

“Technology is a major disruptor in many industries right now – even fashion. But to successfully merge the two, you need to have the fashion design expertise and focus on it first,” said Jill Elliott-Sones, chief creative officer at Fossil.

The smartwatch is powered by Android Wear and supports Android (4.4+) and iOS devices (iPhone 5 and later, iOS 8.2+). The retail package comes with a wireless charging dock. There’s no word on screen type or resolution, no mention of water resistance either.

The Fossil Q Founder will go on sale today in select Fossil stores, starting at $275. It seems that the initial units will come with a stainless steel band, the leather band option is marked “coming soon.”

By the way, if this one is too gadget-y for you, the Q Grant smartwatch has a classic look (with physical dial and arms) but more limited functionality.

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The LG Ray X190 goes after the crowd shopping for a large screen on a budget. The smartphone is similar to the LG G4 Stylus and has a 5.5″ IPS display, plus an impressive camera setup for its price range. It brings an 8MP camera for selfies, plus a 13MP/1080p one for general photography.

The design of the new phone is fairly similar to the G4, with a brushed aluminum look on the back (not actual aluminum though) and hardware keys below the camera. It measures 9.3mm thick and packs a fairly large 3,000mAh battery.

The LG Ray does have its limitations though. Starting with the screen, it only has 720p resolution (267ppi). Then there’s no LTE (just 3G), dual-SIM is optional. Also, the battery officially promises a mere 10 hours of talk time (really?).

LG Ray X190

The phone runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with features borrowed from the flagship G-series, including Knock Code and Gesture Shot. The MediaTek MT6592M chipset packs an octa-core processor, but an outdated Mali-400 GPU and only 1GB of RAM.

In Russia the LG Ray X190 will cost RUB 15,000 ($232/€215). Tech there usually gets a hefty markup, so expect a more affordable price tag…

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Microsoft keeps slashing the price of the original Band in the UK, the latest drop brings it to £50. You also get an extra charging cable that’s normally worth £17.

The Microsoft Band features a 1.4″ TFT, a continuous heart rate monitor, GPS and UV monitor, plus enough sensors to track your golf swing, running, biking and so on. It works with Windows Phone, but is not platform-snobbish and supports Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

Again, this is the old band, the Microsoft Band 2 is £200. You get a better screen (a comfy curved AMOLED) with a more durable glass, an extra sensor (a galvanic skin response). It can also estimate VO2 Max.

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