Galaxy S5 LTE-A for Europe to allegedly have a full HD display

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S5 LTE-A for Europe, or SM-G901, has gone through the usual 'benchmarking before the launch' process. According to the leaked GFXBench results, the S5 LTE-A for Europe won't have the QHD display and you'll have to settle for a full HD display instead.

The specifications page mentions the display being 5.2-inch, 1920x1080, slightly larger than the display on the standard Galaxy S5. The other specifications seem identical to the Korean model, however, including Snapdragon 805 SoC, with 2.5GHz quad-core CPU and Adreno 420 GPU, except here it will be powering a much lower resolution display. The RAM, however, is 2GB instead of 3GB and the benchmarked model had 16GB storage space.

No word on when this phone will be available for purchase.

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Sony Xperia C3 selfie phone priced at $323 in China

Remember Sony's much-touted selfie phone? It got official as the Xperia C3 at the beginning of July, and it's set to become available in August. The first market to get it is China, and incidentally it's already been priced over there.

The Xperia C3 has been listed by JD, one of the biggest online retailers in China. The smartphone costs CNY 1,999, which at the current exchange rates would translate into approximately $323 or €241.

That's certainly decent pricing, but keep in mind that Sony may ask more for the Xperia C3 elsewhere. After all, the Chinese market is extremely competitive and cheap devices are very well specced there, which is why even big brands such as Sony are forced to keep the prices as low as possible.

The Xperia C3 will be offered in black, white, and 'mint', as you can see in the image above. It comes with a 5.5-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, and a 5 MP front snapper. The latter is a first for Sony but hardly a new thing for China, where high-res front-facing cameras have been trending for a while now. What is notable though is that there's a LED flash on the front of the phone too.

Powering the Sony Xperia C3 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with a 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU, complemented by 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable internal storage. A 2500 mAh battery keeps things running, and the software at the helm is Android 4.4 KitKat.

Source (in Chinese) | Via 1 (in Chinese) • Via 2

Samsung Galaxy Alpha specs leak ahead of August 13 outing

Another day, another rumor about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Alpha. The Korean company's first ever Android smartphone to come with a metallic design is now said to be launching on August 13.

Yesterday's leak claimed that the Alpha would get official on August 4, which is next week. But apparently the announcement has been pushed back to August 13. We've heard about this particular date once before, incidentally. So at this time it's 2-1, rumor-wise, for August 13. We'll see how this match ends.

Alongside the new date, today we even have the Galaxy Alpha's specs to speak of. It was already said to sport a Samsung-made Exynos chipset, but now we know which one. It turns out it's the Exynos 5433, which beat Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 805 in a benchmark just last month. So the Alpha is shaping up to be a beast of a device.

Moving on, it should reportedly have a 12 MP rear camera, as well as a 2 MP front snapper. The screen's resolution is confirmed for the umpteenth time to be 720p. Like previously mentioned, the Galaxy Alpha will come with a nano SIM slot and no microSD expansion (though it will have 32GB of storage built-in for what it's worth).

Interestingly, the source of this information says the final design of the phone hasn't been "fully leaked" yet, though what specifically is meant by this is unclear.

Samsung is probably going to position the Galaxy Alpha as a premium device, which being smaller than the Galaxy S5 can be pitted directly against the upcoming iPhone 6.

Source (in German) | Via

Kyocera Brigadier rocks a sapphire screen before the iPhone 6

Outside of luxury device manufacturers such as Vertu, phone makers haven't so far used sapphire glass to protect those sensitive touchscreens. That said, Apple has long been rumored to debut the new material in its upcoming iPhone 6, though the most recent mumblings have questioned whether that would actually happen.

Regardless, Apple has been beaten to the market by Kyocera. That company's new Brigadier smartphone got launched by Verizon today alongside the LG G Vista we already reported on. And the Kyocera Brigadier is the first handset priced for mere mortals that sports a sapphire display.

Kyocera has even created and registered a new trademark just for this achievement - hence, it's calling it Sapphire Shield.

As most of Kyocera's smartphones launched recently have been, the Brigadier is rugged too. In terms of raw specs, it's nothing to write home about as you'd expect, but it's a decent mid-ranger nonetheless.

It has a 4.5-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, and a 2 MP front-facing camera. It's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with a 1.4 GHz quad-core CPU, aided by 2GB of RAM.

The Brigadier has 16GB of built-in storage, and it supports microSD cards. It comes with LTE data connectivity, and a non-removable 3100 mAh battery. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat.

The phone is IP68 certified, and it also adheres to the Military Standard 810G in terms of ruggedness. It's protected from dust, shock, vibration, temperature extremes, rain, low pressure, solar radiation, salt fog, humidity, and it can withstand being immersed in water too.

Verizon will hand you a Kyocera Brigadier if you agree to part with $99.99 of your hard earned cash and sign a two-year contract. The price sans contract is $399.99, and through Verizon Edge you can get it for nothing upfront, followed by 20 monthly payments of $19.99.

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Verizon makes the LG G Vista official, it's available now

The LG G Vista has been announced by Verizon today. Not only that, but the phone can already be purchased from the carrier's website. It would be cool if all new handset introductions came on the day of their availability.

The G Vista has been leaked a lot lately, and according to some recent information it's bound to be launched by AT&T at some point too.

This is a mid-range phablet that sports design traits which make it very similar in looks to the top of the line G3. Don't be fooled by that, however, as the G Vista's specs are a far cry from those of the G3.

The LG G Vista comes with a 5.7-inch touchscreen, though its resolution is quite the mystery. In the press release about it, Verizon says it's qHD (which means 540x960), but on the product page on the carrier's website the "q" magically goes away and only HD is mentioned (which should mean 720p).

Anyway, moving on we have an 8 MP camera on the back, with LED flash and something that looks like the laser focus system used in the G3 - yet this isn't mentioned anywhere in the G Vista's specs.

The front snapper is a 1.3 MP unit that won't impress anyone, while an unnamed 1.2 GHz quad-core processor runs things. 8GB of storage is built-in, and we assume that it's expandable via microSD cards.

Keeping things all powered up is a 3200 mAh battery, and the new phablet obviously comes with all the connectivity options you expect, including support for LTE networks. The handset runs Android 4.4 KitKat.

It's been priced at $99.99 with a two-year contract, or $399.99 outright. There's also the possibility to get it with Verizon's Edge installment plan, in which case you'll have to make 20 monthly payments of $19.99 for the device.

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The Nokia X2 may not get cancelled after all

Microsoft is terminating Nokia's Android program and company's CEO Satya Nadella said that select future Nokia X-series designs will be transformed into Windows Phone devices. However, there's no specific answer in which direction Nokia X2 is set to sail, which was already announced, but not launched in the market at the time of announcement of this change of strategy.

However, we received indication that the Nokia X2 may not be cancelled after all. An authorized Nokia reseller in Pakistan, called Advance Telecom, is heavily promoting the phone on its Facebook page.

Now, while there's no official word from Microsoft regarding the particular future of the Nokia X2, this is a pretty solid indication that the phone was too far in its production cycle when Satya Nadella broke the news about changing the course of business.

On the flip side, the Nokia warranty and service provider could just be a bit behind the curve. We wouldn't count on this, as firing 18,000 employees is hard to easily get unnoticed. We have our fingers crossed.

Thanks for the tip, tayyab!

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Samsung plans two new flagship phones in the next six months

Following the somewhat underwhelming Samsung second quarter performance, Kim Hyun-Joon, the company's senior vice president of its mobile communications business, tried to ease things with the investors. He said the company is preparing to launch two new smartphones - one with new materials and another with a large screen.

Now, it wouldn't take long to figure which these devices are, considering that Mr. Kim specified they're coming in the next six months.

This is yet another confirmation, that Samsung is preparing to launch an Android smartphone wrapped in premium materials, and more specifically, metal. In fact, it is rumored to do so with the rumored Galaxy Alpha in just a week or so.

As far as the large screen smartphone is concerned, the Galaxy Note 4 with its 5.7" display, is all but confirmed for an IFA launch in the end of August.

Source

Huawei Ascend Mate 3 specs confirmed via AnTuTu

Sony posts positive quarter, strong PS4, weak PC sales

Sony has released its financial results for the three months ending June 30, or the first fiscal quarter for the company. In this time Sony has made $265 of net income on around $17.9 billion of total revenue - a 5.8% increase compared to last year's Q1.

The majority of the positive numbers has come from Sony's Games and Network Services department, which includes positive sales of the PlayStation 4. Good box office performances for the movies The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and 22 Jump Street also stand behind the positive numbers. Last but not least a favorable impact on stock exchanges thanks to a strong-performing Yen.

Sony has reported some losses though, which it attributes primarily on the company's exit of the PC business. It has resulted in a significant drop in unit sales, a 33.8% one year over year.

Sony's smartphone sales took a dive as well but the company posted a revenue increase thanks to the favorable foreign exchange rate for the Yen. In the end Sony has earned $3.1 billion from smartphone sales but recorded a $27 million operating loss in Q1.

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Samsung in Q2: lowest quarterly profit in two years

Samsung unveiled its Q2 earning report and the numbers match the guidance published earlier. The consolidated revenue of Samsung Electronics was $50.9 billion and net profit is down almost 20% since last year, $6.1 billion.

That's a significant decrease from the $7 billion in operating profit Samsung earned in the second quarter of last year. Currency exchange rates are said to have resulted in $485 million in missed revenue.

Most of the revenue comes from Samsung's lucrative phone business, which raked in $27.7 billion in revenue and made an operating profit of $4.3 billion on that. Samsung is pointing the finger to seasonally weak demand and built-up inventory in European markets, which lead the company to increase its marketing budget.

Demand for smartphones remained level with Q1, while tablets declined slightly. Samsung isn't saying it but it seems that the Galaxy S5 failed to light up the market like the Galaxy S4 did last year.

The company states that the second half of the year will be a challenge too but will focus on launching premium devices, expanding the availability of AMOLED-packing Galaxy Tab S tablets and the mass-market Tab 4, plus diversifying its wearables portfolio.

"Despite this plan, prospects for improving profit margins are still uncertain, due to the increasing market competition," warns Samsung.

Samsung is a component supplier for other smartphone makers and the weaker smartphone and tablet demand are having an impact. System LSI (the division that makes chipsets) revenue dropped because of it. Shipment of OLED displays increased with better high-end smartphone shipments (but those mostly come from Samsung's own phones).

Samsung Memory recorded a 4% increase in revenue quarter on quarter but also a 5% lower margins. Samsung reports steady demand for DRAM chips and maintained profitability from SSDs.

The World Cup was a boon for Samsung's TV business with increased demand for large, UHD TVs. Samsung saw a record demand for its TVs in the US. The LCD panel business posted improved earnings, which are expected to get even better in H2 of this year with predicted growth in TV sales.

The Consumer Electronics Division, which makes TVs but also appliances, printers and medical equipment, saw a 15% increase in revenue and a whopping 300% increase in profit quarter-on-quarter.

Source

KDDI launches the new HTC J Butterfly in Japan

Japanese carrier KDDI has announced a new version of the HTC J Butterfly. This one is based on the HTC One M8 sold elsewhere in the world but with a few changes.

First of all, the phone is waterproof, as practically all phones in Japan tend to be. In order to get the phone to be waterproof the dual front BoomSound speakers had to be sacrificed. To make up for that, though, the J Butterfly comes with high quality a JBL in-ear headset.

On the back, the 4 Ultrapixel Duo Camera from the M8 has been replaced with a 13 megapixel sensor similar to the one on the One mini 2 and One E8 but it still has the secondary depth sensor from the M8. So basically what the M8 camera should have been.

Other than that, this is more or less the same phone as the One M8. It has the same 5-inch, 1080p display, Snapdragon 801 SoC, 2GB RAM, 32GB internal memory with microSD card slot, 5 megapixel front facing camera, 4G LTE and Android 4.4. It also supports the HTC Dot View Case.

The new HTC J Butterfly will be available in Japan on KDDI in late August.

Source

InFocus launches the high-end M810 Android handset in Taiwan

Huawei sends invites for IFA event, teases new Honor phone

Huawei has sent us an invite to its event that will take place on September 4 in Berlin, on the eve of the IFA trade show.

As you can see below, it's not the most descriptive of invites. We should apparently witness an "exciting announcement", but neither the text, nor the image give us any indication of what will be presented there.

That said, a rumor from a couple of days ago claimed that the company would out the Ascend Mate 3 in September, and IFA could be the perfect venue for such an unveiling. Anyway, if this is what will be announced, expect the Ascend Mate 3 to star in many more leaks over the coming weeks.

In China, Huawei is set to release yet another Honor-branded smartphone. The latest we've seen so far in the series is the Honor 6, which got official in June.

Now though Huawei wants you to guess how much the upcoming Honor will cost (in yuan, of course). The price is a three digit number, and the last two are given to you: they're both nines. What the first digit will be is hence what you're left to figure out. If Huawei wants this new Honor device to stand a chance against Xiaomi, then that first digit should be as low as possible.

The mystery handset could be the one sporting the model number Hol-T00, which incidentally got certified for sale on the Chinese market last week.

This phone comes with a 5-inch touchscreen with 720p resolution, a MediaTek MT6582 chipset with a 1.3 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU, and 1GB of RAM. Interestingly, the rear camera is a 2 MP unit, so clearly this is shaping up to be the lowest-end Honor device yet.

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Panasonic Eluga U becomes official in India

Samsung Galaxy Alpha to be unveiled on August 4

The incredibly often leaked Samsung Galaxy Alpha (seen on the right in the image below) could become official a lot sooner than you may have expected, if a new rumor is to be believed.

The device, which will introduce the world to the concept of Samsung using metal in an Android smartphone, is said to be announced on August 4 - that's the coming Monday, by the way. It's also earlier than the August 13 date a past rumor mentioned.

This may of course have something to do with the fact that the Galaxy Note 4 will get unveiled at the beginning of September. Making the Alpha official around one month before that allows it to have the spotlight all to itself for a few weeks, after which the new Note will become the talk of the town.

With its rumored 4.7 or 4.8-inch touchscreen, the Galaxy Alpha may have been designed by Samsung to be a direct competitor to the iPhone 6, which should get a similarly sized display. The metallic construction will certainly make the Galaxy Alpha appealing as well.

The handset will apparently sport a fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor just like the Galaxy S5 line, and 32GB of non-expandable storage space. Like all recent iPhones, it will get a nano SIM slot. A Samsung-made Exynos chipset with LTE support should be at the helm.

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T-Mobile launches the Samsung Galaxy Avant for $216

Today, T-Mobile has started selling the new (and previously unheard of) Samsung Galaxy Avant.

This, as you may have gathered, is a mid-range Android-powered smartphone, that comes with a decent price and is already available to buy.

The Galaxy Avant features a 4.5-inch 540x960 touchscreen, a 5 MP rear camera with LED flash, as well as a front-facing snapper for selfies.

It's powered by an unnamed 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, aided by 1.5GB of RAM. It has 16GB of built-in storage, which is expandable via microSD cards.

The Avant supports LTE and Wi-Fi calling, and it has GPS functionality. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat.

If you're interested in picking one up, T-Mobile will let you have it for $0 upfront, followed by 24 monthly payments of $9. Alternatively, you can simply buy it outright for $216 if that's your thing.

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HTC press event on August 19, expect One M8 with WP

Gionee GN9005 photos leak, to claim slimmest smartphone title

Gionee's upcoming GN9005 smartphone stars in a couple of newly released photos coming in hot from China. The phone measures just 5mm thick and is on track to be the world's new slimmest smartphone.

The Gionee GN9005 will come with a 4.8" 720p AMOLED screen, resulting in a pixel density of 306 ppi. The phone is already certified by China's TENAA authority, meaning it likely won't be long until it becomes available in that market.

The rest of the phone's specs include a quad-core 1.2GHz processor (presumably Cortex-A7) with 1GB RAM. Despite its thin waistline, the phone is rumored to pack a respectable 2050mAh battery.

At the back there's an 8MP camera with LED flash and 720p video recording. At the front, we can expect a 5MP snapper. The Gionee GN9005 will run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of box.

Neither pricing nor availability are currently known, but Gionee certainly knows how to make thin devices with eye catching design. To get a taste for what Gionee can offer, check out our review of the ultra-thin Gionee Elife 5.5.

Source | Via

Meizu MX4 front panel leaks with thinnest bezels ever

Not many people outside of Asia have heard of Meizu, but if you've been keeping up on your GSMArena newstream you'd know a thing or two about the company's products.

The latest flagship to come out of Meizu is rumored to be the MX4 - successor to the Exynos 5 Octa-powered 1080p Meizu MX3. The MX4 hasn't made the rounds too much but this latest leak from ePrice on China's Weibo network breathes new life into the handset.

It consists of a couple of images that reportedly show the Meizu MX4's front panel and its impressive 1.1mm bezels, which ePrice claims are the thinnest of any smartphone.

Meizu MX4 front panel

The leak looks credible for a couple of reasons. First of all the design seems to fit the bill when comparing the device to last year's model. Second it's not unusual for a Meizu phone to have thin bezels - the Meizu MX3 flaunted LG G2-esque thin bezels.

Meizu MX4 front panel

One of the images compares the leaked front panel with two that appear to belong to certain Sony Xperia devices, although they aren't acclaimed for their impressive ergonomics.

According to the leak the Meizu MX4 may become available in early August with 3 GB of RAM, Snapdragon 805 chipset and a 16 MP and 5 MP camera duo.

Source | Via

Firefox OS review: Burning bright

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact specs promise a mini flagship

If an increasing number of leaks is any indication, the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is growing closer to reality. Four new images plus a spec overview promise that the Sony's Compact line will remain the mini king in the new generation, too.

The Xperia Z3 Compact is said to have a 4.6" 1080p screen and just look at those bezels. It seems that with the Z3 generation Sony will finally shed the thick bezels and make its flagships more compact. Also of interest on the front are the stereo speakers.

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact spy photos

On the inside the upcoming mini king is as impressive as the Xperia Z1 Compact was when it came out (it still is, in fact). The new model will upgrade the processing facilities to a Snapdragon 801 chipset and 3GB RAM.

The quality of back photo is too poor to read the label but the camera is reportedly a 20.7MP shooter as per tradition. Keep in mind that the device in the photo has a transparent case, the sides are still metal (with the charging pogo pins) and the front and back panels are made of glass.

The Sony Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact are expected to be announced by September, perhaps at IFA.

Source (in Chinese) | Via

Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 bringing Cortana to new markets

Microsoft will soon be rolling out the next release of Windows Phone, the succinctly titled Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1, and it bring with several new features.

One of the major changes is not a new feature but an update to the existing one. Cortana, which was introduced in 8.1 and is Microsoft's voice assistant, will now be available in markets outside the US, namely China and the UK in beta form, along with Canada, India, and Australia in alpha form.

For China, Microsoft has made several modifications to Cortana. Nicknamed 'Xiao Na', Cortana will have an alternative form with different visual appearance, animations, and sounds. It will support Mandarin in voice, text, and speech. There will also be additional information tuned for the Chinese audience, such as air quality info in weather cards, information about driving restrictions, and the ability to track local TV shows and celebrities. Cortana can also look up English words in Bing Dictionary.

In the UK, Cortana will have a different voice than in the UK as we reported before, with British pronunciation and spelling. Bing will provide local information on sports teams, the London Stock Exchange, commuter conditions, etc.

In the US, Cortana will be updated to support more natural language scenarios, snooze times for notifications, and several improvements to her personality for improved conversations.

Other than Cortana, Update 1 will have other features as well, such as folder support on the Start screen, performance improvements to the Xbox Music app, live tile for the Store app to show app suggestions, ability to mark multiple text messages for deletion or forwarding, Apps Corner to select a handful of apps and limit the device to only those apps or to make the device boot straight into a particular app, which can be useful for businesses.

Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 will be rolling out next week to those on the developer preview. For those on stable 8.1 update, it will be available in the coming months.

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Samsung loses ground in Q2 compared to a year ago

IDC has released its preliminary numbers for smartphone shipments and market share for the second quarter of this year and they tell a familiar story near the top - Samsung leads and Apple is in second.

Looking at the breakdown reveals a more subtle story here. Samsung is still the leader in smartphone shipments but for the first time in a while the company has recorded a decline. Samsung has shipped 74.3 million units and commands a 25.2% market share. Compared year over year that's 3 million units less and a drop of 7.1 percentage points in market share.

Apple is on the opposite side, shipments-wise, with a total of 35.1 million units - almost 4 million more than in Q2 of last year - but has seen its market share fall from 13.0% of last year to 11.9% this year.

IDC attributes the dip in numbers for Samsung and Apple to a strong surge from Chinese manufacturers Huawei and Lenovo. Huawei has shipped almost twice as many smartphones at 20.3 and seen its market share for the quarter rise to almost 7%. Lenovo has shipped 15.8 million units - up from the 11.4 million of a year ago.

LG has also ended the quarter on a high note with 14.5 million units - up 2.4 million over last year.

iCharts

As for the quarter in general the numbers are positive. Smartphone shipments have risen 23.1% - 295.3 million total shipped smartphones compared to the 240 million of Q2 2013.

As these are preliminary numbers they can succumb to change once some of the companies release their detailed reports.

Source | Via

You can now pre-order a gold Apple iPhone 6 from Brikk

Xiaomi breaks new sales records in China and India

Today the recently unveiled Xiaomi Mi 4 went on sale in China for the first time. Given its specs and low price tag, you'd expect it to do well. Maybe not this well, though.

Xiaomi is proudly announcing that it sold out its entire first batch of Mi 4 smartphones in exactly 37 seconds. That's obviously incredible performance, but the Chinese company has strangely left out the most important detail: how many units were part of this particular batch.

If that number is, say, below 10,000, then the aforementioned sales achievement is certainly less impressive.

The situation is similar in India, where today the second flash sale for the Xiaomi Mi 3 was held. This is the Mi 4's predecessor, but it's still a decent performer with nice specs, so understandably it sold like hot cakes too - since its successor is going to be China-only for a while.

The Mi 3 went out of stock at Flipkart, Xiaomi's exclusive retail partner in India, in a whopping five seconds. This is a much shorter time than the 39 minutes the company took to sell its previous batch last week. So the Mi 3 may be more and more sought-after in the subcontinent.

On the other hand, Xiaomi is staying mum on how big the batch was in this case too. And some rumors recently claimed that it only had around 10,000 units on sale last week, so maybe it was the same this time around.

Source 1 (in Chinese) • Source 2 • Source 3

Nokia Superman selfie phone has specs leaked, Tesla rumored

LG G3 will be available in two new colors in August

When LG announced the G3 in May, one of the official pictures of the device (which you can see below) showed it coming in no less than five different color variants. However, so far only the 'classic' white, black, and gold versions have actually been sold.

That's thankfully set to change at some point during next month. LG itself has confirmed that the Burgundy Red and Moon Violet hues are going to be out in August.

Unfortunately though, more detailed information isn't available just yet. The Korean company says the rollout of the new colors will take several weeks, and release dates will be decided locally "in conjunction with carriers". Apparently we should expect announcements to be made for each market that will get the new options.

This probably means that you shouldn't expect to see the two new hues being offered everywhere the other colors are already available. This is nothing new, of course, as more niche paint jobs such as these usually enjoy limited releases compared to the best selling ones.

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Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini will hit stores in UK on August 7

Samsung launched its Galaxy S5 Mini smartphone in Russia earlier this month. The mini variant of the company’s flagship smartphone is already up for grabs in Germany and the device will soon be available in the United Kingdom, too.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini will hit the stores in the UK on August 7. The S5 Mini will also be available from Samsung’s online store as well as from retailers like Phones 4u. Samsung’s latest Mini device comes in gold, blue, black and white color options.

Samsung has announced an expected retail price of £389.95 for its Galaxy S5 Mini smartphone, which is quite expensive considering the fact that the device is retailing for about €380 in Germany.

To refresh your memory, the S5 Mini sports a 4.5-inch HD display and is powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core processor along with 1.5GB of RAM. It features an 8 megapixel rear shooter with LED flash, 2.1 megapixel front facing camera and 16GB of internal memory. The IP67 rated smartphone runs on Android 4.4 KitKat and packs a 2,100mAh battery.

Source | Via

Nokia Lumia 1320 finally gets the WP8.1 based Cyan update

The latest version of Windows Phone is a major update that brings a big difference to the user experience. And, when you couple that with Nokia’s home baked goodies, the software you get can immensely improve your relationship with your phone.

The good news is that the WP8.1 based Cyan update is now rolling out to the Nokia Lumia 1320 smartphones in many countries around the world.

Here’s a breakdown of all the new features brought by the Windows Phone 8.1 and to top it, the Nokia Cyan brings Creative Studio app, Bluetooth 4.0 LE support and ingrained display controls.

The new update will appear as a notification on your Lumia 1320 and in case you missed it, you can also check for the update manually by visiting Settings > Phone Update.

Source | Via

German ministry to buy 20,000 BlackBerrys to foil the NSA

BlackBerry is about to get some business and it has the NSA to thank for that, well sort of. Germany is quite unhappy with recent NSA revelations and decided not to renew its Verizon contract. Now the German Federal Ministry of the Interior is looking into buying 20,000 BlackBerrys for security reasons.

The Ministry already has 3,000 BlackBerry OS 10 phones enhanced by a German security firm Secusmart. Apparently, BlackBerrys are the only smartphones that comply with standards needed by the anti-eavesdropping technology by Secusmart. That's no wonder as BlackBerry has just announced plans to acquire Secusmart.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel showing off her BlackBerry (photo source)

Part of that package is a Secusmart microSD card that keeps confidential info safe and runs at €2,000 a pop. And that's for a measly 4GB of storage (wink!).

Keep in mind that this isn't a regular card though, it also has a dedicated crypto-controller and a PKI authentication co-processor. Aside from keeping your data safe, the microSD card also implements 128-bit AES encryption to secure voice calls and SMS.

Secusmart has rolled out their SecuSUITE software on BlackBerry Z30 and BlackBerry Q10. US president Barack Obama also uses a BlackBerry.

Source 1 | Source 2

Nokia XL 4G launches in China, the last Finn Android hoorah

Microsoft has launched a 4G version of the Nokia XL in China. The phone features support for the country's D-LTE and TD-SCDMA 4G networks and has received a corresponding bump in the specs sheet.

More specifically, the phone now features 1GB of RAM instead of 768MB for the 3G version. It also packs an updated Qualcomm MSM8926 Snapdragon 400 chipset with a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU.

The 5" display still rocks a 800 x 480 pixel resolution, and the battery remains 2000mAh. At the back, there's a 5MP snapper capable of 720p. The new XL 4G is also considerably lighter. The 3G model weighs 190 grams, while the new one tips the scales at 158 grams.

This might as well be the last Android phone to carry the Nokia branding, as Microsoft CEO Satia Nadella announced the company is cutting the cord of the X line-up of smartphones alongside massive lay-offs. There's no information if the phone will ever be released outside China.

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Allwinner A33 is a $4 chipset with quad-core Cortex-A7 processor

Chipset maker Allwinner recently announced that it will be entering the 64-bit market but it hasn’t lost its focus on highly affordable white-box tablets where the company's strength lies. The new Allwinner A33 is touted as the world's first $4 chipset with quad-core processor and it has entered mass production.

Costing less than certain cups of coffee it targets 7" to 8" tablets in the $30-$60 range, so we can't expect the A33 to be a speed demon.

Still, the Allwinner A33 has quad-core Cortex-A7 processor and a dual-core Mali-400 MP2 GPU. It supports displays up to 1,280 x 800 and can play back 1080p @ 60fps video. It also integrates SmartColor, which keeps skin tones in photos and video from getting oversaturated, and "ultra-low power consumption."

Allwinner claims their design is more power efficient than competitor Cortex-A7 quad-cores and on a 4,000mAh battery can last 300 hours in standby more or 6 and a half hours of 1080p video playback, 6 hours of 3D gaming (Fishing Joy) and 8 hours of music playback.

Allwinner 33 power consumption figures

Here's an video walkthrough of Allwinner's facilities and those of its partners. It also features an overview of several tablets based on the Allwinner A33 chip from different manufacturers.

The A33 is pin-compatible with the A23 (based on a dual-core Cortex-A7), so tablet manufacturers can easily upgrade to the new design. Allwinner is also providing support for the factories making tablets based on its chips.

Source | Via

Huawei announces H1 2014 performance results

Huawei has announced the business performance of its Consumer Business Group (BG) for the first half of 2014.

According to the company, it sold 64.21 million devices in that period, out of which smartphones accounted for 34.27 million units, showing a growth of 62% over last year.

Huawei has seen a large growth in overseas markets. In Q2 2014 alone, Huawei shipped a total of 20.56 million smartphones to markets like Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, an increase of 85% over last year. Huawei saw an impressive shipment growth results of 550% in the Middle East and Africa, 275% in Latin America, 180% in Asia-Pacific and 120% in Europe, holding a majority smartphone market share in selected markets in Asia and Latin America.

Huawei believes it is due to the success of the launch of several flagship premium smartphones such as the Huawei Mate 2 4G and Ascend P7 which are gaining popularity amongst consumers worldwide.

Android 4.4.3 is now seeding to HTC One (M8) devices in Europe

Android 4.4.3 KitKat is now seeding to unlocked HTC One (M8) smartphones across Europe. The firmware update brings the device’s software version to 2.22.401.4 and comes in at the substantial 613MB in size.

Android 4.4.3 brings a host of improvements to HTC One (M8). They include mobile network, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth performance optimization. Most importantly, the new OS version delivers to the metal-clad smartphone all security upgrades from Android 4.4.4.

HTC Sense has been tweaked as well. Boomsound, Extreme Power Saving Mode, Motion Launch, and the Quick Setting menu have all been optimized.

The upgrade also includes updates for the native HTC apps. They include the camera, the image gallery, the settings menu, as well as HTC Sync Manager.

If you are an unlocked HTC One (M8) owner in Europe, you may head over to your device’s settings menu to check if the update is available.

Via

Samsung Z confirmed to be delayed indefinitely

The Samsung Z finally got unveiled as the first ever Tizen-running smartphone at the beginning of June, after many months of rumors and speculation. The new phone was supposed to make its debut in Russia earlier this month, at a developer event, but it actually went missing in action on that occasion.

Samsung hasn't officially commented on the situation until today, believe it or not. The company abruptly canceled the aforementioned developer event in Moscow, so we all assumed the Z was delayed. And now that's been confirmed by Samsung itself.

The Korean behemoth says it's postponing the launch of its first Tizen handset in order to "further enhance the Tizen ecosystem". This may be referring to a shortage of apps for the new platform.

Unfortunately, the company decided not to be any more specific than that. It has, however, said countless times that it doesn't plan on abandoning Tizen, and that it shall continue to work on smartphones running its home-grown operating system. Though with delay after delay, one wonders if there will ever be a commercially available Tizen phone.

On the other hand, given past events Samsung does seem to think that Tizen is a good fit for a smartwatch or two, so maybe the OS will remain constrained to wearables or other niche devices.

Source

Samsung Galaxy Star 2 Plus gets official in India

A few weeks ago a new Samsung smartphone went on sale in India without even a press release mentioning it. That's the Galaxy Ace NXT, and despite Indian retailers having it in stock for a while, only now has it been listed by Samsung on its official online store for the subcontinent.

And it's been joined by yet another new device, the SM-G350E. This one is being called Samsung Galaxy Star 2 Plus, and it does come with a noticeable spec bump compared to the Star 2 sans Plus branding.

The Star 2 Plus isn't actually available for purchase yet, but the listing has given us the official images you can see above as well as its full spec list.

The phone comes with a 4.3-inch 480x800 touchscreen, a 3 MP rear camera with LED flash, and no sign of a front-facing snapper unfortunately.

Running the show is an unnamed 1.2 GHz processor (which is probably single-core, by the way). This is helped by just 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of built-in storage space that's expandable via microSD cards.

The Galaxy Star 2 Plus has a 1800 mAh battery and it runs Android 4.4 KitKat. Its dimensions are 129.7 x 65.9 x 9.4 mm.

The handset is being priced by Samsung at INR 7,335, which currently amounts to approximately $121 or €90. It should be out soon.

Compared to the Galaxy Star 2, the Plus model comes with a bigger and higher-res screen, a processor that's clocked 20% higher, a higher-res camera, and a bigger battery.

Source 1 • Source 2 | Via

5.5" iPhone 6 out in December, 4.7" model won't get sapphire

Recently, almost every new day has brought with it at least one rumor related to Apple's upcoming iPhone 6. Today is no different, in fact we have two separate (but connected) things to talk about.

First off, a market research company claims there's no way that the 4.7" iPhone 6 will sport the oft-leaked sapphire display panel. The smaller of the two iPhone 6 models should become official in September.

But if that's the case, then suppliers of components related to the sapphire screen should have started shipping their products by the end of June. Needless to say, that hasn't actually happened. So it looks like the smaller iPhone 6 will have to make do with using sapphire only for its camera lens and Touch ID sensor.

What about the bigger, 5.5-inch iPhone 6 then? Well, if it's to be unveiled alongside the 4.7" model, then it too shall not come with the famed material on its display. However, recently there have been a lot of mumblings about this phablet iPhone seeing the light of day later than its sibling.

And now another source from China says the 5.5" iPhone 6 will only reach stores in December. Apparently mass production for the 4.7" iPhone 6 has started in June, but it's only expected to do the same for the bigger phone in September.

Interestingly, the iWatch is said to get official at the same time as the phablet. And speaking of the iWatch, it's reportedly too early now to determine whether it will use a sapphire screen. On the other hand, if the watch will have a curved display, the production process for putting sapphire glass on that may prove extremely difficult.

Obviously all of the above should be taken as a rumor and nothing more, so don't be surprised if none of this actually pans out.

Source 1 • Source 2 (in Chinese) | Via 1 • Via 2

Samsung Galaxy Alpha confirmed to sport a 720p display

If you ever thought that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Alpha will be a high-end smartphone, then you might want to reconsider that.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha will indeed feature a premium metallic design, but it doesn’t look like the smartphone will come out with high-end hardware. According to a Samsung developer console, the Galaxy Alpha will sport a 720p display, which is similar to what the company’s third-generation Galaxy S smartphone that was launched two years ago had.

Apart from confirming the screen resolution, the document also confirms the naming scheme of the device. The smartphone will be officially named Galaxy Alpha and not as Galaxy S5 Alpha as suggested by a few reports.

For now, we know that the Galaxy Alpha will feature a 4.8-inch display, 32GB non-expandable memory, fingerprint scanner and a nano SIM slot.

Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy Alpha in August, a couple of weeks before it unveils its next generation Galaxy Note phablet.

Source

Original Nokia X trio getting a software update

The original Nokia X trio is getting a software update – no, not Nokia X Platform 2.0, that they'll never get. But a few features from v2.0 have been ported over so users who bought the Nokia X, Nokia X+ or Nokia XL can enjoy the new app switcher.

To access it, you swipe down and hit the button in the notification area (sounds convenient, doesn’t it?). Apps can also be closed from the switcher by hitting the X key.

The new app switcher

More Microsoft services are being loaded onto the Nokia X phones – Outlook, OneDrive and OneNote are all integrated into the platform after the update. You'll be able to add multiple Outlook accounts and get push notifications and contact/calendar syncing. Also, up to 500 OneNotes will be synced with the phone.

If you haven’t installed the Nokia Store update already, don't worry, it's part of the new software package. It integrates third-party app stores so you can install all apps from one place. It also comes with a new Spotlight widget to promote app discovery.

Some of these features you may have gotten from the 1.1.2.2 update from a couple of months ago.

Go to Settings > About phone > System updates > Check now to see if the Nokia X Platform update is available in your region. If you run into difficulties you can follow this detailed guide.

In case you haven't heard, the Nokia X Platform is practically dead and all planned X phones will be switched to Windows Phone instead. As for the original three, chances are slim they'll ever get an OS switch.

Source

Huawei Ascend Mate 3 (aka D3) to be announced in September

An unannounced Huawei smartphone recently showed up in a bunch of hands on images. The smartphone that resembles the HTC One Max was said to be the Ascend D3. As it turns out, the upcoming smartphone will be named Ascend Mate 3 and not D3, according to a Chinese website. The publication also claims that the company is planning to merge the Mate series and the D-series.

The Ascend Mate 3 is rumored to sport a 6-inch display with a resolution of 1,080 x 1,920 pixels. The leaked images suggest that the smartphone will come out with very thin bezels. Under the hood, the Mate 3 is said to be powered by an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 920 processor along with 2GB of RAM.

Furthermore, Huawei’s latest smartphone will house a 13 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front facing shooter to help you click high quality selfies. The device will support LTE connectivity, but it has to be seen if it offers carrier aggregation.

Huawei is expected to unleash its upcoming device in September. However, there is no official confirmation at the moment, so don’t hold your breath.

Source | Via

Handset shipments from Taiwan to rise to 21.95 million in Q3

DigiTimes has conducted a research on the performance of Taiwan phone manufacturers in Q3 2014. According to the data, Origina Design Manufacturers (ODM) and own-brand makers will have a blast in the June-September period.

The top five Tawain-based smartphone makers are Chi Mei Communication Systems, HTC, Compal Electronics, Arima Communications and Asus. They're expected to ship a total of 21.95 million handsets in Q3, which is a quarter-on-quarter increase of 4.2% and 32.1% on an annual basis. 85% (18.65 million) of those devices will be smartphones.

The results from the research also indicate a growing number of orders from Sony Mobile and feature phone orders from Microsoft Mobile to Taiwanese ODMs. This will benefit their business even further for a very rosy fourth quarter.

The last quarter of the year is expected to see Taiwanese handsets shipments rise by 39.3% year-over-year to 23.3 million units.

Source | Via

iPhone 6 orders could lead to 10% price hike by other OEMs

Recent reports had suggested that Apple has ordered a record 70 million to 80 million units of its upcoming iPhone 6 smartphone. Now, the Chinese media predicts that the unprecedented iPhone 6 order could lead to 5% to 10% price hike on competitive models by other OEMs.

The reason for the hike is the fact that the contract manufacturers have limited resources and if they are to have more assembly lines working on the iPhone 6, then the production of other devices would drop for obvious reasons. And, when the demand remains the same and the supply drops down, the prices are bound to rise.

Foxconn is one of the largest iPhone manufacturer and the company also supplies units for Nokia, Sony, Motorola, Microsoft and BlackBerry among others. So, Apple’s orders would reduce the supply of models from other OEMs.

Apple iPhone 6 is expected to go on sale in September and in the same quarter we expect Sony Xperia Z3, Samsung Galaxy Alpha and BlackBerry Passport to hit the market. So, it will be very interesting to see if the rumor turns out to be true and has any affect on the pricing of these upcoming devices.

Source(Chinese) | Via

Nokia Lumia 930 review: Iconic once again

Burnt Galaxy S4 owner gets offered a new One M8 by HTC

About a month back, a reddit user 'TweektheGeek' was woken up by the smell of his Galaxy S4 (not related to this recent incident), which overheated and started melting while the phone was charging overnight. In this case, the person was using original Samsung parts, including the battery and the charger.

After contacting Samsung about it, the reddit user was promised a replacement phone and a box to send the damaged phone to the company. However, the user only received a box and never received his new phone despite several attempts to contact the company, which later started ignoring him.

As he was telling his story on reddit, an HTC Product Manager replied to his post and offered him a brand new HTC One M8 as a replacement for his old Galaxy S4 for no extra charge. The only thing he asked for in return is that if Samsung were to ship him his replacement phone some time in the future, the user should donate the replacement phone to charity or auction it off and donate the funds to a charitable organization.

This is an excellent gesture from HTC and it's not an uncommon thing for the company, which has in the past offered a free device as a gesture of goodwill to other people under various circumstances.

It's unlikely that Samsung will stay quiet after all this but unfortunately for them, they have already lost a customer, and probably a few others who may have read this story.

Source • Via

Lenovo K920 Vibe Z2 Pro gets certified in China

On August 5, Lenovo will officially announce the Vibe Z2 Pro (model number K920), its latest top of the line Android smartphone.

This device has been leaked quite a few times already, and more than once even by the Chinese company itself (or its execs). We've seen it getting showcased at a mobile expo, and a couple of days ago Lenovo's Chief Marketing Officer made its specs official alongside a selfie showing the phone.

And now the Vibe Z2 Pro has been certified for sale in China by TENAA, the relevant authority for this process. As usual in these cases, a few pictures resulted, though as with all images originating at TENAA - they aren't high quality by any stretch of the imagination.

Lenovo K920 Vibe Z2 Pro at TENAA

Still, they do manage to confirm the handset's design for the umpteenth time, so feast your eyes upon them if you're interested in that.

The K920 will come with a 6-inch QHD (2560x1440) touchscreen, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset with a 2.5 GHz quad-core CPU, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of built-in storage.

It will have a 16 MP rear camera with dual-LED flash and optical image stabilization, as well as a 5 MP front snapper. Dual-SIM support is in tow as is LTE, and the whole thing should be powered by a huge 4000 mAh battery. Running the show will be Android 4.4 KitKat with Lenovo's Vibe UI on top.

According to Chinese publications, the Vibe Z2 Pro will be sold in the country for CNY 2,500, which means around $403 or €300 - a pretty good price considering the specs here.

Source (in Chinese) | Via