HTC Desire 620 in the works, Taiwan's NCC reveals

The NCC is Taiwan's equivalent of the USA's FCC, and its documents have revealed a new smartphone that is currently in the works: the HTC Desire 620.

Not one, but two versions of this yet unheard of upcoming handset have been certified by the NCC. The Desire 620h will top out at 3G (HSPA) networks, while the Desire 620u will support 4G LTE.

Both models will have dual-SIM functionality built-in, and that unfortunately is everything we know about the Desire 620 right now.

Given its name, however, we can speculate that it shall act as a successor to the Desire 610 (pictured above), which was unveiled in early 2014. It could also serve the same role for the Desire 616, but that has only arrived on the market in June, and it would be a bit early for a refresh.

It's unclear if we'll see the new Desire 620 across the world, or if its release will be limited to a few Asian markets, like many other Desire-branded devices before it. Hopefully we'll find out more about it soon.

Source (in Chinese) | Via

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Xiaomi could be working on a low-end 9.2-inch tablet

Now that it's become the world's No.3 smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi may be looking to expand its tablet lineup, which so far consists only of the .

The Chinese company's next tablet might be a decidedly low-end affair, however. A new benchmark result has surfaced, and with it a spec list for a yet unreleased Xiaomi device with a 9.2-inch touchscreen.

The new tablet will have a low-res panel, with 1,280x720 resolution. This isn't standard for Android tablets (which usually go for 1,280x800 and a slightly squarer aspect ratio), then again the MiPad didn't come with a standard resolution and aspect ratio for the Android world either.

Powering up the leaked tablet is a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC with a 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU, an Adreno 306 GPU, and 1GB of RAM. Built-in internal storage space is 8GB, of which around 5.8GB will be user accessible.

The benchmark oddly doesn't feature any information about this device's cameras, but it does say it will sport a SIM card slot, so it will have mobile data connectivity integrated. It's also got Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi.

If this is a real product that's currently in development by Xiaomi, we'll surely find out more about it pretty soon through subsequent leaks.

Source | Via

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Kantar: Android grows as iOS and Windows Phone decline in Q3

According to the latest Kantar WorldPanel report on mobile operating system market share, Android continues to take the lead marking a slight growth. Its main rivals, iOS and Windows Phone, declined slightly in their respective market share numbers.

In both Europe (EU5) and the US, Android leads its competitors with a market share of 73.9% and 61.8%, respectively. In Europe, Apple takes 15.4% of the market, while Microsoft with Windows Phone manages 9.2%. Interestingly, iOS marks a decline in the US of 3.3 percent points to 32.6% compared to Q2. Windows Phone's presence is also shrinking and is now 4.3% from 4.6%

As far as manufacturers go, LG and Motorola have been doing great in the US and Kantar sees them in a better position to fight with Samsung and Apple than ever. LG is counting on the G3, while Motorola is betting on the Moto X.

In China, Samsung is also feeling pressure from uprising manufacturers such as Xiaomi. It now boasts 30.3% market share whereas Samsung's market share fell to 18.4%. Interestingly, 16% of all smartphones sold in China were with a screen size of 5.5" or larger.

Source | Via

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Samsung Gear S launches on T-Mobile US on November 9

Samsung Gear S is the first smartwatch that is capable of existing even without a smartphone companion. Gear S features a nano-SIM slot and supports voice telephony and data connections, so you don't need to communicate with any other kind of device (you still can if you want to though).

Samsung designed the Gear S not to be a full time replacement for your smartphone, but to be perfectly capable to do so when you need the most - like while you are traveling or when you are out partying. The manufacturer announced it was partnering with major carriers for creating suitable plans for Gear S and now T-Mobile US seems to be the first to announce such tariffs.

T-Mobile US detailed the pricing and availability of the Samsung Gear S - you will be able to buy the smartwatch for $0 upfront and 24 equal payments of $14.58 (or a total of $349.95). The release date is November 9, where you will be able to order the Samsung Gear S online or get it from some of the selected T-Mobile retail stores.

Naturally, you'll have to sing a 2-year contract with the Gear S. The monthly plan will cost you just $5/month and gives you unlimited talk, text and data (500MB of maximum speed). The tariff also includes unlimited music streaming and unlimited data and text via Simple Global.

You can check the full specs of the Gear S as well as our hands-on from the IFA expo.

We guess now that T-Mobile has announced its Samsung Gear S pricing, other carriers will follow suit shortly.

Source

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IDC: Xiaomi third largest manufacturer in Q3

IDC has shared its report for the global smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2014. The numbers tell a familiar story with one big change - Xiaomi. Last year's Q3 saw Xiaomi somewhere in the Others tab under Huawei, Lenovo and LG but this year the Chinese maker sits proudly at third spot, all without leaving Asia.

Showing a 211.3% growth over last year's Q3 Xiaomi has shipped 17.3 million smartphones compared to the 5.6 million for the same period of last year.

Samsung remains at the first spot with a close to double lead over Apple but has actually seen a decline year over year. Samsung grabbed the first spot with 78.1 million smartphones shipped while Apple managed 39.3 million. However while Apple shipped 5.5 million iPhones more than last year during the same period, Samsung shipped 6.9 million less.

Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q3 2014 (Units in Millions)

Vendor	3Q14 Unit Shipments	3Q14 Market Share	3Q13 Unit Shipments	3Q13 Market Share	Year-over-year Change
Samsung	78.1	23.8%	85.0	32.5%	-8.2%
Apple	39.3	12.0%	33.8	12.9%	16.1%
Xiaomi	17.3	5.3%	5.6	2.1%	211.3%
Lenovo	16.9	5.2%	12.3	4.7%	38.0%
LG	12.0	4.6%	7.0	3.8%	71.4%
Others	159.2	48.6%	113.0	43.2%	40.8%
Total	327.6	100.0%	261.7	100.0%	25.2%

Lenovo also outdid its last year self with 4.6 million units shipped more. LG shipped 4.8 million units more and overall this year's Q3 saw 65.9 million smartphones more, shipped than last year.

Earlier today we learned that despite its huge lead, the drop in sales really impacted Samsung's profits.

Source | Via

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Lenovo completes Motorola acquisition from Google

Today, Lenovo announced that its acquisition of Motorola from Google is complete. The deal cost the Chinese company $2.91 million and was announced in late January. Motorola remains headquartered in Chicago and it's brand is intact, but it's now a "Lenovo company".

Lenovo will operate Motorola as a wholly-owned subsidiary. It owns the brand and the company's portfolio, including current products like the Moto X (2014), Moto G (2014) and the Moto 360.

"Today we achieved a historic milestone for Lenovo and for Motorola – and together we are ready to compete, grow and win in the global smartphone market. By building a strong number three and a credible challenger to the top two in smartphones, we will give the market something it has needed: choice, competition and a new spark of innovation," said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO, Lenovo.

Motorola has nearly 3,500 employees around the world, 2,800 of them are based in the US. As for the company's patents, Google will maintain ownership of the majority of them with Motorola having a license to use them. Motorola does retain 2,000 patents, however.

Source | Via

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Samsung sees lowest profits since Q3 2011

Samsung is one of the phone manufacturers that make a significant profit (the other being Apple), but this last quarter the South Korean giant experienced a downturn. The consolidated revenue came out to $44.7 billion, down from $56 billion in Q3 last year. The company marked its lowest profits since Q3 2011.

The mobile division, which has been the most profitable part of Samsung in recent years, saw the biggest drop of 15% in sales. However, the bigger problem is that operating profit slid to $1,653 million, down from $4,179 million in Q2 this year and $6,350 million a year ago.

Samsung points to a shift in the product mix – it was mostly cheap and mid-range handsets that sold in this quarter, which lead to a big drop in the Average Selling Price (ASP). The Galaxy S5 sales dropped off and the Galaxy Note 4 only came out too late in the quarter.

Tablet sales improved with the launch of the Super AMOLED-packing Galaxy Tab S tablets, but sales in that segment was not nearly enough to compensate for the disappointing phone sales. Samsung expects sales of bot phones and tablets to pick up in the holiday quarter but increased competition will drive prices down.

Samsung's TV business saw its profits hit almost zero due to lower ASP and higher prices of the display panels. UHD TVs and especially Curved TV shipments increased, but again not enough. Speaking of display panels, Samsung's OLED shipments were weak and strong LCD demand did not help, profits of this division also nearly zero.

It's only Samsung's semiconductor business that posted increased sales and profits (both on a yearly and a quarterly basis). There was strong demand for DRAM and NAND storage for both mobile devices and PCs with increasing shipments of 20nm DRAM chips and 10nm/3-bit NAND. All this made the semiconductor business the most profitable division of Samsung.

Source (PDF) | Via

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Moto 360 in gold surfaces on Amazon, quickly pulled

A Champagne gold color option of the Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch was briefly available on a pre-order on Amazon but it seems the product pages were pulled.

The smartwatch was up with two strap sizes - 18mm (shown below) and a 23mm one, both matching the color and both metal. Motorola started shipping Moto 360s to owners in two color options - silver and black - and with only leather watchstraps, leaving the metal ones for the fall.

Moto 360 in gold, 18mm strap

It seems we're getting closer to the metal bands, which Motorola will soon offer with its smartwatch or as an accessory at $80 a piece.

Moto 360 in gold, 23mm strap

For those interested in the price, before Amazon pulled the product links, both the more feminine golden Moto 360 with 18mm strap and the golden Moto 360 with 23mm strap had a price tag of $299 with shipment expected in the 1 to 2 months range.

Finally a silver Moto 360 with brown leather has surfaced but, again, was quickly pulled.

Source 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Via

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HTC Desire 820us with 64-bit CPU goes through TENAA

HTC is having a field day at the Chinese TENAA and following the certification of its Desire 816h, now the Desire 820us is the latest to visit the government agency.

The HTC Desire 820us packs the latest MediaTek MT6752 chipset with an 8-core 64-bit CPU running at 1.7GHz and 2GB of RAM. The phone carries a similar design language to the HTC One (M8), but is much thinner at 157.7 x 74.4 x 7.74mm.

The phone is built around a 5.5" 720p IPS display and runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat. At the back, there's a 13MP camera with a distinctive and large glass covering the lens. Selfies are taken care by an 8MP shooter, which is likely to have a wide-angle lens akin to previous HTC models.

There's an microSD card slot for expansion and the 16GB internal memory of the phone. TENNA lists the available colors as black, white, gray, blue, orange, green, pink. Sadly, it hasn't confirmed the battery capacity yet.

We suspect the HTC Desire 820us to go on sale in China in the coming month or so. An international release could be on the cards, but there's no indication yet if this will happen.

Source | Via

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HTC Desire D816h with 5" display visits TENAA

Unannounced HTC Desire D816h made a visit to TENAA. The 5” smartphone appears to be a more compact version of the 5.5” HTC Desire 816 we already know.

HTC Desire D816h features MediaTek MT6592 chipset with 1.7GHz octa-core CPU and a gig of RAM. The rest of its specs include 8GB of expandable memory, 8MP main camera, 5MP front-facing unit, and Android 4.4.2. There’s no LTE on board.

Measures of HTC Desire D816h are 156.6×78.7×8 mm. Its weight tips the scale at 162 grams.

We don’t when will HTC Desire D816h debut just yet. We’ll keep you posted when we find out.

Source (in Chinese) | Via

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Google Nexus 6 already sold out in the United States

It appears that sales of Google Nexus 6 are off to a robust start. The Motorola-made Android 5.0 Lollipop phablet sold out in the United States several hours after it became available for pre-order.

All memory and color configurations of the device are listed as out of inventory. There is no timeline on when will the device be available again. Google only prompts the shoppers to check back soon.

Nexus 6 will be available from all major wireless carriers in the United States in the near future. Each service provider will announce pricing and availability separately.

Earlier today, a word got out that the European pre-orders of the Nexus 6 have been delayed. The device will be available for pre-order on November 18 instead of November 3 in the UK and Netherlands.

Source

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Motorola Nexus 6 has been delayed in Europe

The Nexus 6 was announced a couple of weeks ago, alongside the Nexus 9 and Nexus Player. The first Nexus phablet is due to become available for pre-order in the US today, but so far there's been no word on when we should expect it in Europe.

According to a report from the Netherlands, the Nexus 6 was initially supposed to go up for pre-order over there starting on November 3. However, that has now been postponed, with the new prospective date for the start of pre-orders being November 18.

That's quite a delay, and we're only talking about getting the chance to pre-order a Nexus 6. We still have no indication as to when the device will start shipping - and that could be some weeks after the pre-orders start.

It's unclear whether this information applies to the whole European continent. However, an online retailer from the UK has confirmed that it has received word from Motorola saying that pre-orders won't start before November 18. With two countries already affected by the delay, we assume the situation is the same in the other big EU markets.

So if you're in Europe, even if you do pre-order one, it's entirely possible that you'll only receive your Nexus 6 in December. That's perhaps later than many had hoped. Over in the Eurozone, the phone should start at €569, according to past leaks.

Source 1 (in Dutch) • Source 2

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Samsung Galaxy A series lands in November to fight Xiaomi

Samsung's incredibly oft-leaked Galaxy A series is going to get official pretty soon, it seems. A new report from the company's home country of South Korea claims that the Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5, and Galaxy A7 smartphones will go on sale at some point in November.

The three handsets have so far been rumored to emulate the design of the Galaxy Alpha (pictured below), which uses a metal frame. On the other hand, the A series consists of low-end and mid-range offerings, so they will be more affordable.

Interestingly, Samsung is said to challenge Xiaomi with these models, releasing them on the Chinese market. By one account, Xiaomi has already become the world's third biggest smartphone maker, following Samsung and Apple, and that's mostly thanks to its sales in China.

Obviously Samsung can't just sit idly by and watch as its numbers in China start collapsing, so apparently the A series was created to compete head-on with Xiaomi's products, which are known for pairing decent specs with incredibly low prices.

While the A3, A5, and A7 may have the decent specs, we're not sure they will be cheap enough to make a name for themselves in the notoriously competitive Chinese market. Samsung reportedly thinks that these three devices are equal in terms of specs to Chinese smartphones which cost around $475, but that's quite exaggerated.

Source 1 • Source 2 | Via

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OnePlus One pre-orders will return on November 17

A couple of days ago OnePlus took pre-orders for the One smartphone for the first time ever. Things went anything but smooth, though. The company extended the pre-order time frame from one hour to three, but apparently that still didn't allow everyone who wanted to pre-order the phone to do that.

So there's going to be a new round of pre-orders next month, on November 17 to be exact. They will start at 3 pm GMT, though it's unclear how many hours you'll have to get your pre-order through.

OnePlus' first attempt at doing the pre-order thing resulted in "tens of thousands" of handsets now being on the way to people. However, there were many problems too, since OnePlus' servers "had difficulty with the surge of traffic".

Obviously, the company is promising to take steps to make sure that something like this won't happen during the next round of pre-orders. In fact, OnePlus says that by waiting a few weeks, it will have more time to prepare the necessary phone stock as well as implement the infrastructure changes needed so that everything goes smoothly.

Source

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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Developer Edition for Verizon now out

The Developer Edition of Verizon's Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is now available to purchase. You can only get it online, and just if you buy straight from Samsung's Web store.

It will cost you though. This Note 4 model is priced at $699.99 outright, and there's no way to grab one with a two-year contract or on an installment plan.

The Developer Edition SKU is identical to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 that you can buy from Verizon, with one crucial difference - it has an unlockable bootloader. That's probably only going to be of interest for developers, hence why it's called the Developer Edition.

The Galaxy Note 4 Developer Edition for Verizon first got listed by Samsung's website last week, and now you can already buy it if you want to.

Source | Via

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Motorola Nexus 6 hands-on: First look

GSMArena team, 29 October 2014.

Introduction

Motorola may have already divorced Google, but the relationship still bears fruit and most recently we've seen the Nexus 6. The first Nexus phablet and the first Nexus by Motorola closely follows the Moto X (2014) design language and brings many of the same software features, though now they are a native part of the OS.

Motorola Nexus 6 official images

The Nexus line is meant to lead the way to better smartphone design, but in this generation it plays a bit of a follower by jumping on the already speeding phablet bandwagon. Even so it's the introduction of Android 5.0 Lollipop and for the first time the vanilla OS has a few extra features against its skinned contemporaries.

Motorola Nexus 6 at a glance:

• Dimensions: 159.3 x 83 x 10.1mm, 184g


• Display: 5.96" AMOLED touchscreen, 1,440 x 2,560 resolution (493ppi); Gorilla Glass 3


• Chipset: Snapdragon 805 chipset: quad-core Krait 450 @ 2.7GHz; Adreno 420 GPU; 3GB RAM


• OS: Android 5.0 Lollipop


• Camera: 13MP main camera with ring dual-LED flash; Optical Image stabilization


• Video camera: 2160p@30fps video


• Front camera: 2MP


• Storage: 32GB/64GB built-in


• Connectivity: LTE Cat. 6 (300Mbps), Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, A-GPS + GLONASS; microUSB 2.0 with SlimPort functionality


• Battery: 3,220mAh, Motorola Turbo Charger


• Misc: Front-facing stereo speakers, Qi wireless charging

The Motorola Nexus 6 is strictly a phablet - we know the definition has shifted over the years, but in the end a phablet is a device that's pocketable but best used with two hands.

And standing at a whopping 159.3mm tall and 83mm wide, the Nexus 6 is a challenge to use with one hand. Most of that size is due to the screen, bezels are minimal and the 5.96" screen is left to dominate the front. It's a tack-sharp AMOLED of QHD resolution (493ppi).

A Snapdragon 805 chipset is the best showground for Android 5.0 Lollipop and for future versions to come. After all, part of the Nexus charm is that you stay up to date with Android's latest design and features. And there are plenty of features to be had, borrowed from Motorola's own-branded family. The always-on voice commands, the Ambient display and Turbo Charging.

Motorola Nexus 6 • next to the Moto X (2014) • next to the Galaxy Note 4

The Nexus 6 also has 13MP/2160p camera with ring flash but with added OIS to the envy of the Moto X (2014), which was the basis of the phablet's design. It also has front-facing stereo speakers, which were inexplicably left out of Motorola's flagship.

We're starting to get the feeling that Motorola and Google didn't make the Nexus more expensive, they just doubled the feature set (and with it the price).

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iOS 8.x now on half of iDevices, adoption still slow

Early this month Fiksu reported that iOS 8 adoption is slower than the gains demonstrated by iOS 6 and 7 in their first weeks after launch. Apple launched iOS 8.1 (which adds Apple Pay and Continuity) and the good news is that version 8.x is now on over half of the devices.

The bad news is that Apple's developer page points to 52% adoption of the latest iOS branch, that's 13% or so more than three weeks ago. That's starting from just under 40% adoption after the first three weeks of availability, then at the iPad event Tim Cook announced the number had grown to 48%.

However, that was two weeks ago meaning iOS 8.x adoption grew only 2% a week since then. Over the next month it will become clear if people were just waiting for the 8.1 goodies or prefer not to update at all.

The botched 8.0.1 update certainly put some people off (it interfered with the fingerprint sensor and even mobile connectivity). That has since been fixed but the jump to iOS 8 still requires plenty of free storage – as much as 5GB, which is painful for those on 16GB devices. Apple's 2014 devices still start at 16GB, which is sure to be an issue when iOS 9 comes around.

Source | Via (in Russian)

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24k gold Samsung Galaxy Note 4 hits Vietnam, costs $2000

A 24k gold Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is now available for purchase in Vietnam. Every piece of metal (including the grills) is coated in gold by local aficionados of the noble metal.

The process takes 4-5 hours of continuous work per unit and, according to a rough translation, costs about $1100 (VND 24 million) to make. The price doesn't include the cost of the Galaxy Note 4 itself, though, you'll have to spend an extra $900 (VND 19 million) for the phablet.

While we would have liked to see the Vietnamese company bathe the white version of the Galaxy Note 4 in gold, the black one looks nice as well. You can see the process in video below.

The phone is distributed by Golden Mobile in Vietnam, showing the thirst for gold-plated phones is a global affair.

Source | Via

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A global version of Motorola Droid Turbo to be unveiled in Brazil

The new Motorola Droid Turbo garnered great interest but as a Verizon-exclusive it felt out of reach. Now Motorola is sending out invites for a November 5 event to announce a global rollout. The invite doesn't call out the device by name but the corner of the back shows Droid Turbo's characteristic Ballistic Nylon back.

Rumors are for a name change to Moto Maxx, resurrecting the Maxx brand, which is associated with some of the most long-lasting batteries in the smartphone history.

It's a fitting name too, the Droid Turbo packs a 3,900mAh battery, which can soak up 8 hours' worth of battery life in just 15 minutes thanks to the Turbo Charger. Other specs include one of the sharpest displays yet, a 5.2" QHD LCD, a Snapdragon 805 chipset and a 21MP/2160p camera. Check out our hands-on for more details.

Motorola has already filed for a "Moto Maxx" trademark in the US and is planning a Brazil announcement, so the phone should see a proper global rollout, including alternative US carriers.

Source (in Portuguese)

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Oppo R5 officially becomes the world's thinnest smartphone

After the Oppo N3 cameraphone, the company unveiled its first 64-bit smartphone, which is coincidentally also its thinnest yet. The Oppo R5 measures just 4.85mm thick, the "slimmest phone in the world," Oppo claims. The company has shaved quite a bit of thickness compared to the 6.3mm Oppo R3.

The frame of the phone is made of 3D-welded aluminum alloy. The frame has been hand-polished and measures just 4mm thick. The other measurements are 148.9 x 74.5mm (that's rather tall for a 5.2" device) and the weight is 155g.

Anyway, the Oppo R5 has a 5.2" AMOLED screen of 1080p resolution (423ppi). The company is promising the best brightness, lowest reflectivity and highly accurate colors.

The R5 will launch with Android 4.4-based Color OS 2.0. It's powered by Snapdragon 615, Qualcomm's mid-range octa-core chipset. It features an octa-core Cortex-A53 processor at 1.5GHz, which is paired with an Adreno 405 GPU and 2GB RAM.

Oppo has created a special cooling element made from liquid-metal and phase-change materials to take heat away from the chipset.

Oppo R5 lifestyle photos

The back camera features the 13MP Sony IMX214 sensor and an f/2.0 aperture, while the front camera is a 5MP shooter. As you can see though, the back camera sticks out quite a bit. Anyway, it can record 2160p video at 30fps and 1080p@60fps, plus a 120fps slow-motion mode (at 720p).

Despite being so thin, the Oppo R5 packs a 2,000mAh Li-Polymer battery, which will be quick to top up thanks to the VOOC mini rapid charge tech support. Connectivity starts off at 2G GPRS and goes up to TDD/FDD LTE. There's also Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0.

There's one thing missing - a 3.5mm audio jack. We suppose it's because the R5 is so thin, but you either have to use the wireless O-Music accessory for streaming or a microUSB to audio jack adapter (one is included in the retail package).

The Oppo R5 will go on sale for $499 though we don't have an exact launch date yet.

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