Mobile Technology

Phone makers continue to cram better lenses and more cameras into their phones, and now app developers are catching up: a new app called DoubleTake from Filmic lets you record from multiple cameras at once on the latest iPhone handsets.

New Atlas tries out the Zanco tiny t2 – the world's smallest working 3G phone – which is designed as a portable secondary device to your expensive smartphone. And yes, it’s exactly as practical as we expected, with a price tag a little too high.

Timekettle's WT2 Plus translation earbuds aim to give you a Babel fish type experience, quietly translating what you're saying into your partner's ear and vice versa. We've been playing with them to see how they stack up against hand-held devices.

Doogee is one of several companies making super-durable Android phones, and it distinguishes itself from the pack by making modular machines with attachments that extend their capabilities. The latest and greatest is the Doogee S95 Pro.

Samsung's first phone launches of 2020 are cut-down versions of its best-known 2019 flagships: say hello to the Galaxy S10 Lite and the Note 10 Lite. In Samsung's own words, they bring "premium features" at an "accessible price point."

It's clear that 2019 was a big year for smartphones, and it doesn't look like the pace is going to slow down much in 2020 either. Somewhere among the phones coming down the pipe in 2020, we hope these improvements are included.

A new type of ultrasound technology promises to make a touch-sensitive surface out of just about any common material – metal, glass, wood, plastic – which could open up a number of new ways to interact with our gadgets.

Bosch will hit CES 2020 with a new type of Light Drive smart glass technology that can give you a personal heads-up display while being virtually indistinguishable from a regular pair of glasses, and adding very little weight.

As we draw to the end of not just the year but also the decade, looking back over the development of mobile tech is a fascinating exercise – our smartphones have acted as barometers of change in technology, people, and our world.

Another 12 months in mobile technology have flown by – and these are our picks for the best phones of 2019, the handsets that showcase the best of what a modern-day smartphone can be in terms of both hardware and software.

How do 2019's flagship phones all stack up against each other? New Atlas compares the specs and features of the Samsung Galaxy S10, S10e, S10+ and S10 5G, the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, and Google’s Pixel 4 and 4 XL.

Qualcomm has unveiled its brand new flagship mobile chipset for 2020, the Snapdragon 865 – key upgrades cover 5G, camera performance, and display technologies like HDR and Dolby Vision.