Nokia Lumia 638 quietly goes up for pre-order China

Nokia Lumia 638 quietly went up for pre-order in China with Windows Phone 8.1 on board. The dual-SIM, LTE-capable smartphone is priced at 1,199 Yuan (about $192).

Like its Nokia Lumia 630 and Lumia 635 siblings, the newcomer features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC with 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU, 4.5” display, and 5 MP main camera. However, the Nokia Lumia 638 packs 1 GB of RAM – twice as much as the rest of the budget-friendly lineup.

There is no word on availability of the Nokia Lumia 638 outside of China.

Via

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Acer unveils five smartphones, a tablet and a smartband

Acer has gone rampant and unveiled a slew of new device before their expected Computex 2014 debut (starting June 3). Those devices include the Acer Liquid X1, E700, E600, Liquid Jade and Liquid Z200 smartphones, the Liquid Leap smartband and the Iconia 8 tablet. All devices are expected to launch in Q3 of this year.

Now the best-equipped smartphone of the bunch is the Acer Liquid X1. It's an octa-core LTE smartphone with a 5.7-incher at the front and Android KitKat on board. The display is uses the Zero Air Gap technology for lower light reflection, higher contrast and brighter images and has an IPS panel of 720p resolution. The smartphone has a 1.7 GHz processor and 2 GB of RAM are embedded into a MediaTek MT6592 SoC. The camera is a 13 MP unit with the impressively-wide f/1.8 aperture, 0.3s autofocus and 1080p video capabilities.

The Liquid X1 has 16 gigs of storage expandable through a microSD card (up to 32 additional gigs) and there's a 2,700 mAh battery on board.

Acer Liquid X1

The Acer Liquid 700 and 600 both have Android KitKat on tap along with microSD card slots for cheap expansion of the storage. The Liquid E700 is the more powerful of the duo. It has a MediaTek MT6582 chipset with a quad-core 1.2 GHz processor, Mali-400 GPU and 2 GB of RAM. It also supports three SIM cards and is powered by a potent 3,500 mAh battery.

The screen of the Liquid E700 is a Zero Air Gap 5" IPS unit of 720p resolution. There's an 8 MP camera with an LED flash on the back as well.

The Acer Liquid E600 has the same size display but of the much lower 480 x 854 pixel resolution. It's powered by a Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core 1.2 GHz processor, the Adreno 305 GPU and 1 GB of RAM. The battery capacity is lower at 2,500 mAh but there's LTE connectivity, which the E700 doesn't offer.

Acer Liquid E700 • Acer Liquid E600

We move on to the Acer Liquid Jade smartphone and Liquid Leap smartband, which Acer showed at an event in April but didn't elaborate too much on what they offer. Well now we know the Liquid Jade has a 720p IPS display of 5" diagonal of the same Zero Air Gap variety. There's a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor with 1 GB of RAM embedded on the MediaTek MT6582 SoC.

The camera is the same 13 MP wide-aperture, fast-focusing unit of the Liquid X1. Finally the battery is a 2,100 mAh unit.

As for the Liquid Leap - it's Acer's first wearable device. It has a 1" touchscreen display and can do fitness tracking, call and SMS notifications. It will be offered in Moonstone White, Mineral Black, Aquamarine, Fragrant Pink, and Vivid Orange colors and is IPX7 certified for water protection up to a meter for as long as 30 minutes.

Acer Liquid Jade and Liquid Leap

The Acer Liquid Z200 is the simplest of the bunch. It has a 4" WVGA screen (480 x 800), 1 GHz dual-core processor inside a MediaTek MT6572M chip. There are 512 MB of RAM, 2 MP fixed-focus camera and a 1,300 mAh battery.

Acer Liquid Z200

The Acer Iconia 8 tab has an 8" Zero Air Gap display of 1080p resolution, stereo speakers and an Intel Atom Z3745 inside. It runs on Android KitKat with very slight customizations.

Acer Iconia 8

Source | Via 1 | Via 2

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Apple WWDC slides leak with iPhone 6 on them

Apple's WWDC hits the stage this Monday and we already know Apple is planning to unveil iOS 8 and the latest OS X 10.10 but many are also contemplating if there will be an iPhone 6 announcement taking place.

While the leaks have been non stop there hasn't been anything pointing to a device release at the Apple conference until now. A video has been captured which appears to show the stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco and some slides being run through the screen behind it.

Those slides show the front of an iPhone 6, then the back and finally the sides. It appears a silver-white device with rounded edges just like on the recent iPads.

Could this be the real deal? Could Apple be planning the first hardware unveil at the WWDC conference since the iPhone 4?

The device in the leaked slides looks in line with recent leaks of dummies. But should the Apple iPhone 6 arrive at the WWDC it will contradict rumors of a September release.

Sadly we can't tell yet but there's not much time until the WWDC kicks off in Monday and we will all find out then. Apple is expected to unleash an iPhone this year with a bigger screen. Currently good money is on a 4.7" panel but there's also rumors speculating another bigger model of 5.5" with a later release in the fall.

Source (in French)

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Apple decorates the WWDC venue with '8' sign banners

It looks like Apple will announce its next iteration of iOS and OS X at its upcoming World Wide Developers Conference, which will kick off on June 2 in San Francisco.

The Cupertino giant has started to decorate its Moscone Center, the venue for the WWDC 2014. The banners show the '8' sign, which is more or less a confirmation that the company will be announcing the newest version of its iOS.

We recently came across the alleged images of iOS 8, which looked a lot similar to the current version, featuring square icons with rounded edges. However, we will wait till Monday, to know what Jony Ive and his design team have done with the latest iteration of iOS.

The event will also see the unveiling of the latest version of the OS X - the Mac operating system.

We will be bringing you all the latest news from the developer's conference as they happen, so stay tuned. The keynote speech starts at 6PM London time on June 2.

Source

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Micromax's upcoming WP 8.1 phone detailed

At this year's BUILD conference in San Francisco Microsoft announced Micromax as its new hardware partner for the Windows Phone ecosystem. Today, we get to hear some new rumors about the first upcoming WP smartphone from the Indian manufacturer.

Micromax's first Windows Phone is rumored to sport a 5-inch FullHD display along with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset with 2GB of RAM.

The leak suggests that the device will feature a 13 megapixel rear snapper and a 5 megapixel front facing shooter. Lastly, there is 16GB of internal storage, expandable via a microSD.

If the rumors are to be trusted, the smartphone will run on WP 8.1 and will go on sale in July with a price tag of INR 23,000 to INR 25,000 (about $390 to $425).

Via

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Counterclockwise: iPhone 4, Asus Padfone, Nokia Oro

After a short break our Counterclockwise series is making a return. This is our weekly article that looks back in time at what happened over the same seven days in the last few years. So sit tight for your weekly dose of nostalgia.

Historically, the last week of May hasn't seen much action in terms of new smartphone announcements. The market rollouts of flagships announced at our around the MWC have historically dominated, along with rumors about the next big announcements - the new iPhone and, more recently, the new Samsung Galaxy Note.

Samsung Galaxy S III released

Some of the more interesting stories revolve around the milestones achieved by the Samsung flagships over the year. Two years ago the Galaxy S III was just taking the world by storm, getting a wide by the standards back then 28-country initial release and becoming Vodafone's most pre-ordered droid ever. And that was despite the production issues that plagued the Pebble Blue version.

Samsung ships 10 million Galaxy S4 units, adds new colors

Fast forward another year and you can see the Samsung Galaxy S4 scoring its 10 millionth sale. That was the fastest a Samsung phone has ever reached the milestone, but the record lasted less than a year with the Galaxy S5 beating it earlier this month.

Nokia Oro announced: Symbian Anna inside and gold outside

Going back three years, lets us meet a rather extraordinary smartphone - the Nokia Oro. Limited gold-plated editions of smartphones are rather popular these days, but this was a phone that was meant to make a gold phone available to anyone. Anyone with €800 to burn that is.

Nokia Oro

Asus unveils Padfone droid with tablet dock, MeMO 3D tablet

That same week we also saw the debut of another unorthodox device - the Asus Padfone. The smartphone/tablet hybrid hasn't really taken the market by storm but has gained some loyal following, causing Asus to release several new members of the family since.

iPhone 4G put under microscope, 640x960px resolution confirmed?

In 2010 the iPhone 4 (yet unofficial at that point), had leaked big time with several units escaping the confines of Apple's labs and ending up in the wrong leakster's hands. A microscope inspection had just revealed one of the smartphone's coolest features - its 640x960 pixel screen, which would end up called Retina.

iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch and Nexus One vs iPhone 4

It's rather impressive when you think about it - just four years ago that resolution was considered mind-blowingly sharp and as good as we'll ever need. Now we have smartphones with four times as many pixels and if LG's recent statements are anything to go by, this is far from the end of this pixel race.

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Sony Xperia M2 review: Dial M for midrange

GSMArena team, 30 May 2014.

Introduction

We are about to explore the Xperia M2, a smartphone with an agenda of its own. Task number 1 is to upgrade the popular Xperia M. Check. The M2 brings a bigger screen (and ups the resolution), the chipset is better and the camera resolution is higher. The M2 also adds LTE and a higher battery capacity. Task number 2 is to give Sony an extra bit of quality against the likes of Moto G. We'll see about that.

Sony are busy adding number tags to model names, which doesn't speak highly of their copywriting skills, but the upgrades have so far been - at the very least - solid. We've seen the new season's flagships, phone and tablet, and the budget-friendly Xperia E1. The same applies to the Xperia M2 just as well.

Sony Xperia M2 official pictures

Sony fans have grown accustomed to getting high build quality and great looks regardless of the price range. The Xperia M2 readily delivers - but pays due attention to the innards as well. It adds a couple of extra CPU cores to what the original Xperia M has. The Snapdragon 400 chipset represents a good balance between price and performance. A 4.8" qHD screen, 8MP stills and 1080p videos, and rich connectivity options are also on the spec sheet.

Key features

• 4.8" qHD TFT, 229 pixels per inch, Gorilla Glass 3, ambient light sensor


• LTE connectivity


• The Xperia M2 Dual has Dual SIM with Dual Call support (but without the LTE connectivity)


• Android 4.3 Jelly Bean (planned upgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat)


• Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 processor, Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM


• 8MP camera, single LED flash, 1080p video recording, dedicated hardware shutter key


• VGA front-facing camera with video recording


• 8GB of built-in storage, expandable via the microSD card slot


• Active noise cancellation with a secondary microphone


• 2,300 mAh battery; STAMINA Power Saving Mode

Main disadvantages

• Resolution is relatively low for this screen size


• No Android KitKat on launch


• Non user-replaceable battery

The Sony Xpria M2 sounds quite convincing on paper. A modern midranger, almost by the book. The OmniBalance design Sony introduced with the Xperia Z back in 2013 rules out a removable battery, but we guess that's the price to pay for looks and feel above the pay grade.

Sony Xperia M2 live pictures

The lack of KitKat will likely be sorted soon enough - the Xperia M2 update is already in development and should be out in the summer. That leaves us with the issue of screen resolution. Now qHD certainly sounds on the low side when spread across a 4.8" diagonal but the truth is, it's probably enough for many. We are sure a lot of you will go for size over pixel density - especially at the right price.

We'll get to that but first things first. Take the jump to our hardware checkup.

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Motorola will close its Texas plant by end of 2014

One of the main selling points of the Moto X when it debuted was that the phone was completely made in America. Motorola, in anticipation of the upcoming phone, created a plant in Texas for the purpose of manufacturing its flagship smartphone.

Well operations in the plant have dropped dramatically; at one point the facility was humming with 4,000 employees, and it now only houses 700 worker bees.

Motorola’s philosophy behind assembling the phone on US soil was that the company would save money on shipping costs and send out their devices to consumers faster. It worked, in theory for a while. They were managing to produce 100K Moto Xs every week, which in turn, helped them to price the device more aggressively. However, it seems like it wasn’t enough to keep the manufacturing within the US.

Another factor could be Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola. Lenovo is a Chinese-based company, after all, so it may not be a coincidence that the Texas plant will be shut down at the end of this year.

Source | Via

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Samsung Galaxy S5 mini specs and photos emerge

Thanks to some anonymous tipster a few images are now available online that show what appears to be a Samsung Galaxy S5 mini. The smartphone looks very similar to a Samsung Galaxy S5, using the same dotted back panel, a heart-rate monitor under the camera lens and even the water-repelling rubber padding underneath the back panel. There even looks to be a fingerprint scanner under the home button.

Looking at the back panel it appears to cover more of edge of the phone compared to the Galaxy S5 and the battery is smaller, which adds some credence to the info that it's a mini version.

While the images can be an elaborate hoax it seems perfectly believable for Samsung to release a mini that so closely resembles the bigger version. And now that the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom has been official since last month and the Galaxy S5 Active is official since today we're pretty sure this one is coming shortly.

Samsung Galaxy S5 mini (click to expand)

We've heard about it having a of 720p resolution along with an 8 MP camera, IP67 certification and a heart-rate monitor. We've even seen official support pages.

The device in the images doesn't appear to have a flap cover on top of its microUSB port, which puts a question mark on the water resistance claims.

According to the source, the Galaxy S5 mini will not have a Snapdragon 400 but rather a new, yet unannounced, Exynos 3 Quad (Exynos 3470) chip with a quad-core 1.4 GHz processor with Mali-400 MP4 GPU and 1.5 GB of RAM.

Source

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Alleged iPhone 6 caught running iOS 7, is probably fake

Images have leaked over in China showing a device running on iOS 7 that is said to be an Apple iPhone 6. As there's no video material of the device there's no way of telling if it's a real device and not a dummy but the icons on the screen appear to have been reordered at least.

There are a couple of things about the device that strike us as odd, though. For starters it appears to be entirely made out of plastic, which isn't what Apple usually does for its flagship iPhone (not until the 3GS, anyway). So this might be another c version - as in the iPhone 5c.

Second there's a silver frame around the phone's front that looks similar to what Samsung used in devices like the Galaxy S II and seems unlikely to be featured in an Apple flagship.

At least the flash on the back looks in line with Apple's current two-toned flash on the iPhone 5s. A casing that leaked today shows a single LED flash placeholder, just like dummies we've seen before on a few occasions, including a video.

Finally there's no Apple logo on the back of the device. It could be a sign of a prototype unit, of course, but the smart thing to do is consider this one fake until proven otherwise.

Source | Via

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Oppo N1 Mini is now official, full details come June 10

Shortly after teasing it, Oppo made the N1 Mini official. The company shared some of the phone's details, but not all, as it will hold an event on June 10 to do just that.

What Oppo shared regarding the N1 Mini is little, but gives a general idea of the phone's upper mid-range spirit. The Oppo N1 Mini features the same swivel camera as its bigger brother. It's a 13MP Sony 6-element lens camera with a 1/3.2" sensor size. The camera features the Super Zoom mode (introduced with the Oppo Find 7), but in the N1 Mini it works at 24MP, not 50MP.

At the front of the Oppo N1 Mini, there's a 5" display with a yet unannounced resolution. We guess it's 1080p, but we'll wait for Oppo to confirm that. The phone weighs 150 grams, which is somewhat heavy for a 5" smartphone, but more acceptable when you take into consideration the rotating camera mechanism.

The Oppo N1 Mini runs Android KitKat with color OS 1.4 on top. The phone supports China Mobile's TD-LTE and alongside its official announcement event on June 11, Oppo will also make the phone available for purchasing.

The phone is rumored to launch with one of two octa-core chipsets - either the MediaTek MT6592 or the Exynos 5422 Octa SoC. We'll know more on June 10, so stay tuned.

Source | Via

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