HTC Desire 316 appears on company's Chinese website

HTC’s latest mid-range offering, the Desire 316, has popped up on HTCs Chinese website.

The Taiwanese manufacturer’s Desire series has been doing well in Asian markets, so don’t be surprised if the Desire 316 is available only in the region.

The phone packs a 5” 540 x 960 display, 5MP primary camera with a VGA selfie unit, a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, 512MB RAM (shameful) 4GB internal storage with a microSD card slot, and a 1950 mAh battery. On the software side, the handset is packing Android 4.3.

This particular model is a CDMA unit, and seeing the specs that it’s rocking, don’t expect it to break the bank. If the Desire 316 is cheap enough, it should probably do just fine in China.

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Alleged specs and launch details of Samsung Ativ SE emerge

Purported specs and launch details for the upcoming Samsung Ativ SE made the rounds on the web. The Verizon-bound smartphone is rumored to launch at some point next month.

The Samsung Ativ SE is tipped to feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 5” 1080p display, and 13MP camera. The last two are already well-known from the Samsung Galaxy S4. Additional specs include 16GB of built-in memory and a microSD card slot.

Curiously, the Samsung Ativ SE is said to be released with Windows Phone 8 out of the box. Windows Phone 8.1 will make its way to the handset at a later time.

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Moto G propels its manufacturer to 6% market share in Great Britain

The budget-friendly, characterful Moto G has taken the manufacturer back to relevance in Great Britain. Thanks to the £135 handset, Motorola has reached 6% of all UK smartphone sales according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel.

Motorola reached the attention-grabbing market share in a brisk fashion - the Moto G was launched in November last year. Prior to it, the manufacturer had “virtually no existing customers to sell to in Britain”.

Unsurprisingly, the Moto G has proven popular among younger users from lower income groups. Almost all the device’s owners are between 16 and 24 years of age.

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Alleged live photos of iPhone 6 make the rounds on the web

Hot on the heels of the leaked schematics from earlier today, alleged live photos of Apple iPhone 6 made the rounds on the web. The images are reportedly captured in a Foxconn facility.

The photos reveal a sleek-looking handset with a metal construction. The protruding camera of the device is the element which raises most questions. The latest rumors point that the handset’s snapper will be an 8MP f/1.8 unit.

Apple iPhone 6 will debut this fall. Two models with different display sizes are all but certain to arrive.

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Original HTC Butterfly to get Android 4.4 KitKat shortly

HTC has confirmed on its official Facebook page that Android 4.4 KitKat update for the original HTC Butterfly is in the works and will be released soon.

This is the only information HTC has given as an answer to a Facebook question. We know more though thanks to a previously leaked roadmap.

Earlier today we got a nice table spilling the beans on HTC update plans for lots of smartphones. There HTC Butterfly is listed for Android 4.4 + Sense 5.5 firmware update. This means the Butterfly, unlike Butterfly S, won't be getting the latest Sense UI 6.0. If you want to know more about the latest HTC launcher, you should check our HTC One (M8) review.

Thank you, Ronan, for the tip!

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HTC One (M8) mini is in the works, to go on sale in May

According to an inside source from a UK retailer, HTC is working on a mini version of the recently launched second generation HTC One (M8). The same source brought us correct info before, which lends credibility to this news.

The HTC One (M8) mini will keep the new 90% aluminum unibody design.

The HTC One (M8) mini is rumored to come with a 4.5" display of unknown resolution, but we think HTC will probably stick to 720p for the mini fella. There is nothing mentioned on the chipset, but apparently the HTC One (M8) mini will come with a single UltraPixel camera on its back. The UltraPixel duo will be a reserved key feature to the M8 flagship only.

Finally, HTC One (M8) mini is tipped to launch this May. This means we should get an official announcement should happen in the upcoming weeks.

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Huawei aims even higher after posting record yearly revenue

Reuters reports that Chinese manufacturer Huawei has ambitions of doubling up its record 2013 revenue by 2018. This is despite slowing growth in its bread-and-butter mobile telephony business, and very low penetration in the US market, where it has been flagged as a potential espionage threat by government officials.

Huawei is coming off a hugely successful 2013 campaign, where it was able to become the third largest smartphone manufacturer thanks to competitive low-cost smartphones in emerging markets, and high-end offerings like the Ascend P6 for more established economies.

This resulted in a whopping 34% increase in profit growth in 2013, and elevated the company as the third largest global smartphone manufacturer behind Samsung and Apple.

This year, Huawei plans on growth not only from its consumer smartphone and enterprise divisions, but also thanks to its carrier network business as more Chinese carriers plan on laying out 4G networks.

Huawei's ambitious announcement comes in spite of increasing espionage allegations from US lawmakers due to the company's affiliations with China's People's Liberation Army. Late last year, Huawei CEO and former PLA major Ren Zhengfei announced that the company plans on withdrawing from the US market due to the aforementioned accusations.

It's undoubtedly a lofty goal, especially if the company plans on turning its back on the second largest global smartphone market.

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Sketches show iPhone 6 design, rendering surface too

Leaked schematics of the rumored next iPhone 6 suggest two screen sizes and give out some specific dimensions for both models. The schematics come from Japanese Apple-centric Mac Otakara publication. The smaller model sports a 4.7" display and has the 137 x 66 x 7 mm dimensions (the iPhone 5s is at 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm while the 5" Nexus 5 is just 137.9 mm in height). The larger, 5.7" model is said to sport 157 x 77 x 6.7 mm, which is taller than a 5.7" Samsung Galaxy Note 3 but a bit narrower and a lot thinner.

Alleged iPhone 6 schematics

Then come two sketches of the upcoming two models but their credibility is yet to be confirmed. The sketches apparently show a 4.7" and 5.5" iPhones with rounder edges, slim waistline and single-piece volume buttons.

According to the source of the sketches the devices sport 7.1 mm thickness. On the bottom, the 3.5 mm headphone jack is located on the far left instead of the right.

Alleged iPhone 6 render

Based on those sketches Martin Hajek created a couple of 3D renders. While those aren't real and could turn to be based on completely false info, they still look pretty cool.

iPhone 6 render based on rumors

Recently, we saw a schematic of an unrealistically wide iPhone device but it isn't connected to the ones above.

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LG G Pad and Vu 3 getting Android 4.4 KitKat in Korea

LG has started rolling out Android 4.4 KitKat firmware for various devices available only in South Korea. The first one to get it is the South Korean model of the LG G Pad 8.3 slate. The update is available both via OTA service and LG's Mobile Support Tool.

LG Vu 3 has been brought onto the KitKat bandwagon too. Its KitKat firmware is available for all three carrier-bound versions in South Korean, but you must get it via the local LG support website.

LG is working on KitKat updates for four more South Korean models - the Optimus LTE2, Optimus Vu 2, Optimus GK and LG GX. The KitKat upgrades should be ready later this year.

LG has already launched KitKat updates for the LG G2 and G Flex worldwide. LG Optimus G Pro is also getting Android 4.4, but it is available only in South Korea for now. It seems LG is putting quite the efforts to bring its devices on the latest Android version. Hopefully more internationally available smartphones will get the same treatment.

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Nokia Lumia 930 might come at Microsoft BUILD after all

With leaks revealing the Lumia 630 and Lumia 930 the assumption was that both phones are getting ready to launch at the Microsoft BUILD conference, which starts tomorrow. But we've been seeing a lot of the Lumia 630 and virtually nothing from the 930.

A trusted tipster of NokiaPowerUser claims that the new high-end phone will indeed miss the BUILD conference. Other sources still claim that both phones will launch in April, but that doesn’t necessarily mean at Microsoft's event (instead on April 19).

Windows Phone 8.1 is a certain participant of BUILD, even if the phones don't show up. Many details about it are still unofficial but the new OS version will be available for WP8 devices some time in early May, if rumors are to be believed.

You can see it in action in several leaked videos, running on the Lumia 630.

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HTC One 2013 family to get Sense 6.0 in June/July

HTC has a shiny new Sense UI version for its new flagship, but the 2013 flagships will get it too. A leaked table shows HTC plans to update (or not) its phones.

According to the table, the phones that will get Sense 6.0 are the 2013 HTC One family - One, One Dual Sim, One Max and One mini – along with the HTC Butterfly S.

This will happen in the June-July time frame. Note that they already have Android 4.4 KitKat with Sense 5.5, this update will just update HTC's custom software.

The 2012 phones will not be getting KitKat or even Sense 5.5 according to the table. The KitKat/Sense 5.5 update for the Snapdragon-powered One XL is being evaluated. Even if that goes forward, the XL won't get Sense 6.0 though.

HTC's Desire 601 and Desire 700 should be getting KitKat/Sense 5.5 in April.

Note that this leak hasn’t been confirmed by HTC so the timetable may have changed or be completely inaccurate.

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Demand for HTC One (M8) in Taiwan overwhelms supply

The HTC One (M8) debuted in Asia last week starting with HTC's home country of Taiwan. The reception seems positive as distributor PDAKing reports that demand is greater than the available supply at the moment.

Note that this version of the One (M8) is slightly different from the US and Euro versions – it has a Snapdragon 801 where the CPU is clocked at 2.5GHz instead of 2.3GHz. It carries a price tag of NTD 21,900 ($720 / €525).

Sophia Tsai, general manager of PDAKing who made the announcement, didn’t give a concrete sales count, but apparently orders have been doubling each day since the phone became available on March 25.

That sounds encouraging, but we'd like to see some hard numbers of phones ordered and phones manufactured before declaring the HTC One (M8) a bestseller. Still, HTC's stock has been on the rise this last month, so thing might finally be picking up for the troubled company.

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100k Xiaomi Redmi Notes sold in 34 minutes

Xiaomi is known for their dirt-cheap Android devices that don't skimp out on high-end hardware or quality, so it's no surprise that every time a new device of theirs is released, consumers gobble it up and help the company to set some pretty impressive sales records.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note is no different, and the Chinese manufacturer managed to sell 100,000 units of the device in only 34 minutes. This still doesn't match the unbelievable 4-minute, 100k sale of their Hongmi in November 2013, but it is still a feat nonetheless.

The Redmi costs $161 (999 Yuan) and boasts a 5.5” 720 x 1280 display, a 1.7GHz octa-core chipset, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, a 13MP camera, 3200mAh battery, and Android 4.2.2. For $161, you are getting a beast of a phablet.

Xiaomi released a less-impressively spec'd version of the the phone for $129 (799 Yuan), which still has an octa-core chip, just clocked at 1.4GHz, and only 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. Everything else is the same. However, the extra RAM alone is worth the additional $32, so it is hard to imagine who would purchase the lower cost version if the $161 Redmi is available.

Would you be interested in rocking the Chinese phablet? Or have you tried Xiaomi's offerings in the past and were unimpressed? Let us know in the comments!

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2014 W12 news in review: the HTC One (M8), our new Battery charts

The final week of March has been undoubtedly a busy one, with the highly anticipated launch of HTCs new One flagship being the biggest headline. Also introduced for the first time are our Battery life tables.

Let's take a look at all of the mobile news you may have missed in this twelfth week of 2014.

The new HTC One (M8) was launched after numerous leaks and speculations over what the Taiwanese company will introduce as a successor to its previous One flagship. HTC CEO Peter Chou quickly followed up its launch with by stating the goal of controlling 8-10% of the smartphone market. Meanwhile, the unparalleled performance demonstrated by initial One benchmarks was short-lived after being quickly overtaken by Sony's Xperia Z2 flagship.

Speaking of Sony, the Japanese giant also made some waves of its own with the release of several much anticipated Android updates - the official 4.4.2 KitKat build to its former Xperia Z1 flagship, as well as an Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update for its Sony Xperia M midranger.

The other highly anticipated flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S5 has also had its share of news, not all of it good. Rumors of production issues with the device's ISOCELL camera could potentially result in lower availability at launch. That hasn't slowed things down in India, however, as that market is one of the first to receive the S5 alongside its new Gear series smartwatches.

Meanwhile, the Apple vs. Samsung saga continued full force, as the Korean tech company lost yet another patent trial against its rival in Japan. The Cupertino company had more than one reason to celebrate as it sold its 500 millionth iPhone this week - a huge milestone for the smartphone pioneer.

Last, after long development we proudly introduced our GSMArena Labs Battery life table. We heard your cries for a quick way to test specific battery usage patterns across devices, and you can now create custom usage scenarios by clicking on the Endurance rating directly from within a devices' specs page.

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Alleged image of rugged Motorola Moto G Forte leaks out on Twitter

Alleged image of a rugged Moto G version made the rounds on Twitter, courtesy of @evleaks. Dubbed Moto G Forte, the smartphone is reportedly bound for markets in Latin America.

The image reveals a slightly bulked up Moto G derivative. There is no word on exactly how rugged the upcoming handset will be. We won’t be surprised if it features some degree of water resistance, as the side buttons shown in the leaked photo look sealed.

Specifications and details on the release of the Moto G Forte are yet to be revealed. We doubt it will be a long wait before the device goes official.

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Nokia Lumia 630 and WP8.1 demoed on video

The Nokia Lumia 630 leaks continue, this time with video. The video is quite interesting because it gives us yet another look at the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update that will bear the name Cherry Pink Blossom for Nokia phones.

The first video offers a short tour of the Lumia 630 hardware (including of the flash-less back), but focuses mostly on the software. The new Action Center is one of the major new features and has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth toggles, a camera shortcut and a brightness toggle.

The second video demos how wallpapers work on WP8.1. We’ve known for a while that they are coming - the tiles become (fittingly) windows with the wallpaper showing through them.

It’s interesting to see it in action though as there’s a parallax effect when scrolling.

Microsoft BUILD starts on April 2 (that’s next Wednesday) when Windows Phone 8.1 will be officially unveiled, most likely along with the Lumia 630 and Lumia 930. The Nokia Lumia 630 will be the first dual-SIM WP phone.

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LG G2 mini shows up in Euro stores, costs €350

We were somewhat disappointed by the LG G2 mini specs - a lower mid-range phone flaunting a flagship name - but the (relatively) compact gadget has gone on store shelves in Europe at a rather steep price.

Several German retailers - Amazon Germany, MediaMarkt and Saturn - have priced the G2 mini at €350. Amazon Spain has it at the same price. The phone should be available in a couple of days on March 31, just in time for an April launch.

Note that there are three versions of the LG G2 mini, this one is the Snapdragon-powered LTE version. “Snapdragon” shouldn’t excite users here as it’s only a quad Cortex-A7 CPU with Adreno 305 GPU.

Considering a Moto G has a better screen (4.7” again, but 720p over qHD), the same chipset and the 16GB version costs €200 (it lacks LTE though), LG will have a tough sell on its hands.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that these first retailers have upped the price significantly for the pre-order. We’ll see if it falls in a few days.

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Counterclockwise: Galaxy S and Xperia X10 arrive, N8 hits 12MP

Welcome to this week's edition of Counterclockwise – our weekly article that looks back in time at what happened in the last few years. This time it's all about flagships – their killer features, their software and especially their cameras. We even look back at premium phones of another character, ones encrusted with rare, expensive materials.

Flagship family trees

On a day in late March 2010 Samsung unveiled the Samsung Galaxy S – the first member of one of the most successful smartphone lines in history. The very next day Sony Ericsson unveiled the progenitor of its Android smartphone dreams, the Xperia X10.

At the same time the first Bada OS phone, the Samsung Wave, got priced in Germany showing potential for a Google-free future for Samsung. Symbian, which was still going strong then, was hinting at one of the best camera phones in history that week too, but we'll get back to that in a moment.

The original Galaxy S caused a lot of excitement with an "ultra-thin body" (9.9mm), 1GHz single-core processor, 5MP / 720p camera and heavily customized Android 2.1 Eclair. The phone had a Super AMOLED screen – something that has become a trademark of the Galaxy flagships (S phones and Note phablets), but it wasn’t the first.

Oh no, that honor goes to the Samsung Wave – we remember back in the day when we compared it to an iPhone screen and marveled at its impossibly dark black and spectacular viewing angles. The Wave was very similar to the Galaxy S, but had a cool metal body compared to its Android counterpart and was far more compact. Plastic has unfortunately become the calling card for Galaxy S phones, just like Super AMOLED screens.

For one reason or another Bada failed and its successor, Tizen, isn't doing too hot either but at least it got to power a few smartwatches.

The first Sony Ericsson with Android was the Xperia X10, which got the jump on the Galaxy S – the X10 launched in stores just as Samsung was unveiling the Galaxy S.

The Xperia X10 is the grand-granddaddy of the Xperia Z2 but it also marked the beginning of a bad time for the company. The phone launched with Android 1.6 Donut, already behind the curve and it wasn’t until March 2011 that Sony announced it will update the phone to Android 2.3 Gingerbread in Q2 or Q3 that year.

While not official, a working Android 2.3.3 ROM for the Galaxy S had leaked. The update took a while and Android 2.3.5 officially started to roll out in mid-November. Still, Sony Ericsson was often behind on updates during that period and it was behind on chipsets too.

Sony is much different today and not just because it dropped the "Ericsson" name. It's latest flagships run the latest Android and use the latest chipsets. Its "two flagships per year" strategy helps it stay ahead of the curve.

The race to store shelves

Sony got the jump on Samsung back in the day and last year HTC tried to do the same – the HTC One was supposed to hit stores before its Galaxy S4 rival, it even scored in the US.

The Galaxy S4 was just going on pre-order at the time when the HTC One was on sale, or was supposed to be anyway. Due to production difficulties, the One launch was restricted to the UK, Germany and Taiwan. Not good news when researchers were predicting the Galaxy S4 will help Samsung double its lead in market share.

This year HTC tried to beat Samsung to stores once again, but this time it succeeded – even though the Galaxy flagship was announced earlier (late February at the MWC), the HTC One (M8) was announced and launched a few days ago on March 25.

With that done, HTC has relatively modest hopes – to capture 8-10% of the market.

Camera, lights, action!

Back in late March 2009, while the iPhone and Android were still young, one of the most popular phones in our database was the Sony Ericsson Idou – a camera phone with a 12MP camera and xenon flash, powered by Symbian.

We were gawking at live photos of the phone and the first camera samples from it. 12MP in 2009 was a big deal, the Galaxy S that launched in 2010 had a 5MP camera, and that was considered pretty good for the time.

Nokia has become known for ridiculously high resolution cameras lately, but the Satio (then called Idou) was a full year ahead of the Nokia N8. The N8 was the first 12MP shooter from the Finns, which just leaked that week in March 2009.

The Satio got delayed and launched in October 2009, but the N8 hit stores in October 2010, a full year later. The Samsung Pixon12 – another 12MP shooter – beat both phones to the market in August 2009.

Anyway, all this was just the middle act of the cameraphone wars between Nokia and Sony. Nokia took the resolution crown with the 808 PureView and held it with the Lumia 1020, but Sony's Xperia Z1, Z1 Compact and Z2 have bigger sensors than Nokia's latest cameras (the Lumia 1520 and Icon).

Samsung is still deep in it too with its own camera sensor design, the ISOCELL in the Galaxy S5.

Luxury phones through the ages

Early mobile phones didn’t do much beyond calling and luxury phones had a special status – they were just better than plain phones. As things started moving to more and more capable smartphones, luxury devices took a long time to catch up.

In late March 2008, Gresso unveiled the Sol and Luna Steel. Both featured 200+ year old African Blackwood, aircraft stainless steel, sapphire glass steel and a price tag to make your head spin.

A year later luxury watch maker Ulysse Nardin unveiled the Chairman, a rather unique phone. It featured a hybrid power system that had a mechanical rotor (similar to that in watches) to recharge the battery. Also, it had a fingerprint scanner, something that has become popular recently.

In March 2011 things have slowly started to shift towards Android in the ultra-premium segment. Another luxury phone maker, Mobiado, had partnered with luxury car maker Aston Martin and showed an amazing concept of a transparent smartphone.

The Mobiado concept was mean to integrate with your Aston, including snapping photos to post on Twitter and Facebook (how else will you announce to the world you're better than everyone else?).

Going back to Gresso, in March 2012 the company unveiled another metal phone but this time using the more standard (for the class) titanium. The Gresso Regal Black was machined out of a single piece of the tough, light and expensive metal and only 333 would ever be made. Unfortunately, it was a regression in terms of functionality because it was powered by Nokia's Series 40 software.

OS hacking

In the Counterclockwise article from a couple of weeks ago we paid tribute to the HTC HD2, the phone that has run the most different OSes.

The Nokia N9 is another hacking darling – the first (and only) MeeGo phone has been graced by Ubuntu Touch and more recently Sailfish OS that powers the Jolla phone. Most promising (or perhaps most anticipated) were Android ports like Project Mayhem and NITDroid.

They tried to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, while later projects moved up to Jelly Bean 4.1.1 and even 4.3. While Android gave the HTC HD2 a new lease on life for those that still use the famous smartphone, the Nokia N9 efforts haven't been met with quite such enthusiasm.

Nokia's MeeGo, just like Samsung's Bada, went out of favor and were later merged to form Tizen, which is yet to produce a smartphone.

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