Sony already announced no less than five new smartphones this year: Xperia XZ Premium, XperiaXZs, Xperia XA1, Xperia XA1 Ultra, and Xperia L1. But the company seemingly has at least three more handsets to introduce before the end of 2017, and one of them is expected to be a new Xperia Compact.

According to Georgian website Review.ge, Sony plans to announce the following phones at IFA 2017 (September 1 - September 7): Xperia XZ1, XperiaXZ1 Compact, and Xperia X1. 

It's said that both the Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact will be high-end devices, featuring Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processors and 4 GB of RAM - just like the already announced Xperia XZ Premium. However, the two new handsets should differ in size: the Xperia XZ1 reportedly offers a 5.2-inch 1080p display and a 3000 mAh battery, while the Xperia XZ1 Compact comes with a 4.6-inch 720p screen and a 2800 mAh battery. If these details are accurate, the XZ1 Compact will become Sony's most powerful 4.6-inch smartphone ever. 

To be fair, it kind of makes sense for a new Sony-made compact handset to be revealed at IFA 2017 in September, as this would arrive one year after the Xperia X Compact (pictured in this article). Also of note is that two other previous compact phones - Xperia Z5Compact and Xperia Z3 Compact - were also announced during IFA events. 

Samsung has just unveiled its new Galaxy J series in Europe. Three new mid-range Android smartphones that we already know about will be making their debut on the market in the coming months: Galaxy J3, Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7 (2017). Although Samsung announced pricing would vary by country, we already know the Galaxy J5 (2017) will be up for purchase for €279. As far as availability goes, the first to hit the shelves is the Galaxy J5 (2017), which is supposed to go on sale later this month (possibly on June 22). The next to arrive on the market is the Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017), which is expected to make its debut in July. Last but not least, the Galaxy J3 (2017) will be launched in Europe sometime in August. Samsung Galaxy J5 (2017) Samsung Galaxy J5 (2017) All three smartphones feature a metal body and ship with Android 7.0 Nougat operating system on board. They have decent specs, but the main differentiator should be the stylish design. The cheapest of the three, the Galaxy J3 (2017) sports a 5-inch display with HD (720p) resolution, along with a 13-megapixel camera on the back. The smartphone is powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos 7570 processor, coupled with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal memory. Dual-SIM support will be included as well, along with a secondary 5-megapixel selfie camera and a decent 2,400 mAh battery. Samsung Galaxy J5 (2017) has a slightly larger 5.2-inch Super AMOLED display with HD (720p) resolution. At the core of the mid-range handset sits a 1.6GHz octa-core Exynos 7870 processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. Also, the phone features 13-megapixel cameras on the front and back. The Galaxy J5 (2017) drains energy from a 3,000 mAh battery. Finally, the Galaxy J7 (2017) is the most expensive of the three, as the phone comes with a 5.5-inch full HD (1080p) display and LTE Cat6 support. The phone is equipped with a similar 1.6GHz octa-core Exynos 7870 processor, 3GB RAM, and 16GB storage. Just like its smaller brother, Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) includes 13-megapixel cameras on the back and front. However, unlike the other two Galaxy J series phones, this one embeds a much bigger 3,000 mAh battery inside.

According to a report published in today's Wall Street Journal, Bixby has not been a good student when it comes to learning the English language. Apparently, Samsung's AI personal assistant is failing grammar and is also having problems with syntax. This means that Bixby is having difficulties creating sentences in English. The problem, as far as Samsung is concerned, is that competing assistants like Google Assistant and Siri have no problem turning out a snappy sentence in English when called on to do so.

The Journal's report says that it won't be before late June at the earliest before Bixby is launched in the U.S., a month later than the May launch that Sammy was originally aiming for. The delay in launching Bixby could affect sales of the recently released Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8+ in the U.S., even though market research firm Ovum says that only 9% of smartphone users access their personal assistant on a regular basis. And only 50% of consumers have an interest in digital assistants like Bixby, Siri, Cortana and Google Assistant.

Still, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is on its way to topping the sales generated last year by the Samsung Galaxy S7. The latter became the highest grossing smartphone in Samsung's history. The company obviously does not want a problem with Bixby to prevent a new sales record from being set.

Ovum says that there are 3.5 billion active devices that have a native AI assistant on board. By 2021, the company expects that figure to reach 7.5 billion active devices. That would be more than the entire world population for that year, based on computations by the U.S. Census Bureau. Google Assistant is projected to have a leading 23% market share of the market for AI assistants by 2021, followed by Bixby's 15%. Siri will be third with 13%, followed by Alexa's 4%. But this is all a pipe dream for Bixby unless Samsung straightens out the current problem the personal AI assistant is having with the English language.

A hot new report from The Bellsuggests that Cupertino and Samsung have recently signed a deal for the shipment of more than 180 million OLED panels, which will be used for the creation of Apple's 2018 flagship, tentatively called the iPhone 9. This is more than twice the amount which Sammie's display division has allegedly agreed to produce for 2017, in which Tim Cook & Co. are said to unveil at least one OLED-powered iPhone model.

The Xperia XZ Premium is the Sony's first smartphone equipped with a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, the same CPU that's inside Samsung's flagships, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.

However, unlike Samsung's smartphone, the Xperia XZ Premium is not yet available for purchase, though, it can be pre-ordered in many countries across the globe. As we reported a few days ago, Sony Xperia XZ Premium is likely to make its debut on the market at the end of May or early June.

If you've been wondering how powerful the Xperia XZ Premium really is in comparison with other Snapdragon 835-powered smartphones, you're in luck since Sony's flagship has just popped up at Geekbench.

Apparently, someone tested the Xperia XZ Premium in Geekbench, and the results seem promising enough. We don't know whether or not it was a retail unit that got tested or a sample device.

Although it did not manage to surpass the results achieved by the Galaxy S8 and S8+, Sony's flagship is quite powerful. The smartphone scored 1943 points in single core and 5824 points in the multi core tests.

In comparison, Samsung Galaxy S8 scored 2008 points in single core and 6575 points in multi core tests, while the Galaxy S8+ achieved 2006 points and 6708 points, respectively. 

At first glance, the difference is almost negligible when it comes to single core tests, but the multi core tests show the Xperia XZ Premium is a bit behind Samsung's flagships. Still, we don't want to jump to conclusions just yet, at least not before we test a retail unit.

Apple is reportedly planning to discontinue the iPad mini, its 7.9-inch tablet that's been available since 2012. Of course, the tablet is now at its fourth iteration - iPad mini 4 - but this hasn't been properly updated since its original launch in 2015.

According to BGR, a "source close to Apple" mentioned that the iPad mini is being phased out because there's "fierce cannibalism" of Apple's own products, and sales numbers seemingly provide a "very clear" indication of the tablet's recent lack of popularity.

Size-wise, the iPad mini stands between the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus and the 9.7-inch iPad (including the Pro version). Unlike in 2012, 2013, or a large part of 2014, when there were no 5.5-inch iPhones on the market, the iPad mini is now in a rather awkward position, and it looks like consumers are simply less interested in mini tablets (especially when they're not exactly cheap).

Earlier this year, Apple changed its iPad mini 4 offering, so it's currently selling only a 128 GB version of the slate, and you can choose to get it in Wi-Fi-only ($399), or Wi-Fi + LTE ($529) flavors.

For now, there's no word on exactly when Apple will stop selling the iPad mini 4. Also, it's not clear if the company already stopped producing the device or not. But maybe we'll get an official statement on this sometime soon.

Microsoft has relented after massive outrage. The company has set up a special web site where you can opt-in to preserving your current free 30GB storage. The company recently announced it was withdrawing plans to offer unlimited storage for Office 365 customers, and worse, was reducing all free accounts to 5GB. Previously, Microsoft offered 15GB of free storage, and customers that enabled OneDrive’s mobile phone photo sync feature received another 15GB, for a total of 30GB of free storage. Microsoft claimed the changes were sparked by PC users backing up extremely large files. OneDrive client sync allowed for large files, even DVR recordings, to be automatically stored on OneDrive. But the reduction of free plans was considered brash by many – as those plans did not cost Microsoft nearly as much, and many competitors like Box have routinely offered free 50GB plans. At 30GB, OneDrive was one of the largest free storage solution of all the major OS/cloud platform vendors. Also Office 365 customers who had backed up terrabytes already, are being forced to reduce to 300GB of storage, or being forced to pay for storage.

The highly-anticipated iPhone 8, edge-to-edge OLED screen and all, is apparently going to throw Apple fans in an upgrade "super cycle," or so think the analysts, whose predictions made investors take notice, and push Apple's stock past the $800 billion market cap mark yesterday after the quarterly resultswere announced. To put things into perspective, that's the first time in the history of the US stock market that a company has reached this exorbitant market capitalization. 

An affordable duo of Huawei-branded Android tablets was silently introduced in Europe last week, the MediaPad T3 slates. They are now available for purchase for prices starting at €129, a good deal for those looking for their first Android tablet.

However, the MediaPad T3 tablets won't be the only ones to make their debut on the market this year, as Huawei is readying yet another Android slate.

Not quite the sequel to the MediaPad M3, a Lite version of the tablet recently made a stop at Wi-Fi Alliance where it was granted certification by the regulatory commission.

Huawei MediaPad M3 Lite is a mid-range tablet that runs Android 7.0 Nougat operating system. It sports a large 10-inch display and packs 3GB RAM, along with 32GB expandable storage.

The Chinese company is expected to launch two variations of the tablet, which will sell for different prices. The Wi-Fi only model will cost only €329 outright, whereas the LTE-enabled variant will be available for purchase for €379.

Now, the only thing that remains to be determined is when exactly Huawei will unleash the Lite version of the MediaPad M3 on the market.