05/28/13 | AndroRat

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Snapdragon 800 to power the Samsung Galaxy Note III

The latest report coming from Samsung's homeland suggests the next Samsung Galaxy Note III will be powered by Qualcomm's top-notch Snapdragon 800 platform instead of the octa-core Exynos.

If this is true, Samsung either still has some troubles manufacturing its homebrew chipset or it just considers the Snapdragon 800 more powerful and probably cheaper. Unlike the Exynos chipset, the Snapdragon 800 platform has an embedded LTE radio, while Samsung needs a third-party hardware to enable LTE support on Exynos.

The Snapdragon 800 chipset has a quad-core Krait 400 processor that can be clocked up to 2.3GHz. Adreno 330 GPU is in charge of the graphics and it supports up to 4K video playback and recording. Snapdragon 800 also comes with a new generation LTE chip that supports category 4 (Up to 300Mbps downlink, up to 75Mbps uplink) and 7.1-channel sound.

Additionally, Samsung Galaxy Note III is rumored to pack at least 6" Super AMOLED display, 2+ GB of RAM, a 13+ MP camera and naturally, an S-Pen.

We expect Samsung to announce the Galaxy Note III at an UNPACKED event at IFA in Berlin this September and launch it soon after.

Specs of Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 and Galaxy Ace 3 leak

The specifications of the rumored Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, codenamed Santos 10, have leaked along with the specifications of the next generation Galaxy Ace smartphone, according to a report from Hi-Tech Mail.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is said to sport a 10.1-inch TFT-LCD display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and will be powered by a 1.6 GHz dual-core processor along with 1 GB of RAM. The slate will also feature a 3 megapixel rear camera, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, 16 or 32 GB inbuilt memory and a 6,800mAh battery.

The Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 measures 243.1 x 176.1 x 7.95 mm and weighs 510g. The slate will be available in June and, contrary to previous leaks, is expected to run on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean rather than 4.1.

The report also reveals the specifications of the Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 and according to it, the device will sport a 4-inch TFT-LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. The Ace 3 will be powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor along with 1 GB of RAM and will feature a 5 megapixel rear camera, 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera, 4 GB inbuilt memory and a 1,500 mAh battery.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 measures 121.2 x 62.7 x 9.8 mm and runs on an as of yet unknown version of Jelly Bean. The device is expected to be priced at 9,900 rubles (about $316).

Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 and Mega 6.3 officially priced in India

Samsung brought a new dimension to the phablets line up with its Mega 6.3 and 5.8 Android phablets. The pricing of the phablets that borrow some of the features from the Galaxy S4 flagship smartphone was not revealed during its announcement, but the pricing details of the phablets are no longer a mystery.

Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 and Mega 6.3 was officially unveiled in India today and the phablets have been priced at about $445 (INR 24,900) and about $563 (INR 31,490) respectively. The dual-SIM Galaxy Mega 5.8 will up for grabs, starting from June 3, but there is no word on the availability of the Mega 6.3.

Furthermore, Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 is up for pre-order from the Clove website in UK and the SIM-free version is priced at £460 (about $695) and will be available in both white and black color options.

Samsung regains top smartphone sales spot from Apple in Q1 2013

Research firm Strategy Analytics posted a report today stating that Samsung has regained the first position as the world's largest smartphone seller. The company managed to outsell Apple in terms of smartphones in the January-March period of this year.

According to the numbers provided by Strategy Analytics, Samsung sold smartphones worth $23.62 billion, a $952 million jump from the previous quarter. In contrast, Apple wasn't doing too bad either, but not as good as the Koreans and sold $22.95 billion worth of phones - a whopping $7.71 billion less than just one quarter ago.

Nokia takes the third spot with sales of $3.64 billion, followed closely by LG Electornics and its $2.95 billion in revenue from mobile phones.

IDC reports that Nokia was outpaced by Samsung even on its home turf in Finland, taking just 33% of the smartphone market, compared to Samsung's 36%, the IDC reports; Apple takes the third spot with 14%.

As far as operating income ratio is concerned, Apple tops this one in Q1 2013 with 31%. Samsung is next with 21.8% and LG is third with 4.1%.

Samsung is expected to keep its place at the top as the Samsung Galaxy S4 is already showing signs of strong market presence. The company's top dog of a smartphone managed to sell in 10 million unitsin the first month of its market availability. Whereas Apple is still anxiously waited to unveil what its next move on the smartphone chessboard is going to be.

Rumor: the screen of next iPhone will have twice as many pixels

"The next iPhone" rumors are a popular pastime activity on the Internet and they vary wildly in terms of plausibility. This latest batch comes from China's Wei Feng social network and claims Apple is going to double the pixel count for the next iPhone and that the side bezels will be thinner, similar to the iPad mini.

The current iPhone 5 has about 730 thousand pixels and 326ppi pixel density. If the rumor is true, the next iPhone will have a screen with around 1.5 million pixels and 460ppi pixel density (that's assuming the screen size doesn’t change). If Apple decides to match current 5" 1080p droids at 440ppi, the screen size can be increased up to 4.2".

Of course, such a move will be difficult – going from the 3GS to the 4, Apple doubled the pixel count both horizontally and vertically, effectively quadrupling the pixel count. Apps that didn’t support the new resolution were easily upscaled.

From the 4 and 4S to the 5, Apple added an extra 176 pixel rows and apps that don't support the new resolution are just letterboxed with black bars (some still have them).

But to double the pixel count for the next iPhone, Apple will need to multiply the horizontal and the vertical pixel count by a square root of 2 (so the resulting resolution is something like 905 x 1606). Scaling apps to fit will be more difficult this time (or there will be black bars on the sides too), so it's unlikely Apple will go for this solution.

The rumored brand new look for iOS 7 might help somehow, but we'll have to wait and see.

The rumor also states that the next iPhone goes into production next month and will launch in September, meaning we might soon start seeing leaks.

LG planning new tablet for Q3 2013, not working on a Nexus 5

It's been awhile since LG produced a product in the tablet space and too few remember the 3D capturingOptimus Pad V900 and its uninspiring successor the Optimus Pad LTE.

In an interview with Dutch All About Phones Vice President LG Mobile for Europe Kim Won has revealed that LG is indeed working on tablet hardware for this year, which, if we hypothesize, should probably make an appearance at the IFA congress in Berlin this September.

Kim Won had other interesting things to say as well. He admitted LG isn't working on a Nexus 5 smartphone as of now but doesn't dismiss working again with Google in the future. He added that releasing a flagship device, rebranded with AOSP Android (like Samsung and Google did) isn't on the table as LG will not have advantage with a device, stripped of its custom UI.

He also said that LG isn't happy with the duopoly of Android and iOS and said that LG might be looking for another sustainable OS for future business but made clear he was not referring to Windows Phone - so perhaps Tizen or Firefox OS then?

Finally, Kim Won said that LG might work on its own chip design for smartphones in the future.

Samsung trying OIS for the Galaxy Note III camera

According to a report by the Korean ETNews, Samsung is testing a camera with optical image stabilization (OIS) in the upcoming Galaxy Note. III

But that won't be the only feature that the 13MP camera of the Note III will be capable of. According to the source, users will be able to edit photos on the fly with the included S Pen. Another feature that Samsung was reportedly discussing was a 3x optical zoom, but this had made the device thicker than needed, so the idea was rejected.

The newspaper has even quoted a Samsung employee, who states that the company is experimenting with various technologies. Here's the full quote.

We are pondering various technologies at this stage – for example, OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and shutter functions. But, nothing has yet to be confirmed, so we cannot conclusively say that those functions will be added to the Galaxy Note 3.

Granted, Nokia and HTC have both adopted OIS solutions in selected smartphones, so it won't be at all surprising to see Samsung offer the benefits of the technology in its own upcoming devices. We just feel pessimistic that they would introduce such a cameraphone-centric feature on no other than the Galaxy Note III.

Other than that, rumors have it that the Galaxy Note III will pack a 5.99-inch 1080p Super AMOLED screen with the same pixel structure as the Galaxy S4's display, a higher clocked Exynos 5 Octa chipset and 3GB of RAM. We'll find out more at the IFA 2013 in early September, the event where the last year's Note II was announced.

LG officially announces Nexus 4 White, coming on May 29

No more speculations, the white LG Nexus 4 is now official. By the looks of it nothing but color has changed, the phone still packs a pure Android experience (version 4.2 at the moment), a Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset and a 4.7" True HD IPS Plus display with WXGA resolution (768 x 1280) and 318ppi pixel density.

The Nexus 4 White will launch in Hong Kong first on May 29 and expand from there to select markets in Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East over the next few weeks.

LG didn’t mention any pricing, so we assume the price will be the same as the one for the black color version.

Mozilla and Foxconn are holding an event on June 4

Mozilla has apparently managed to strike a deal with Foxconn, as both companies will be holding a press event on June 4 in Taipei.

Not much else is known besides this, other than Foxconn hinting that one or more "latest" smartphones, running Firefox OS would be on display. This sounds exciting as Mozilla hasn't really managed to hit on gold with the GeeksPhone Keon and Peak, which seem to be the best offeringsq, running the infant OS thus far.

However, with Sony admitting they are working on a Firefox-powered device that should launch in 2014 (if everything goes according to plan) the smartphone jungle might be in for a surprise.

Foxconn joins a growing number of partners that are considering Firefox OS to become a worthy rival of current mobile OS titans in the likes of Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. Those include ZTE, Huawei, Alcatel and Sony from the manufacturer side, and T-Mobile and Telefonica being the more prominent carriers.

We'll just wait and see the announcements from the joint Foxconn and Mozilla event are eventually going to be.

Samsung Galaxy S4 CDMA

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 CDMA 800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
4G Network LTE 700 MHz Class 13 1700 / 2100
SIM Micro-SIM
BODY Dimensions 136.7 x 69.6 x 7.9 mm (5.38 x 2.74 x 0.31 in)
Weight 130.1 g (4.59 oz)
Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches (~441 ppi pixel density)
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3
microSD up to 64 GB
Internal 16 GB storage, 2 GB RAM
Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, EDR, LE
NFC
Infrared port Yes
Primary camera 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Features Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, HDR
Video Yes, 1080p@30fps, dual-video rec.
Secondary camera 2 MP,1080p@30fps, dual video call
Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
Chipset Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600
CPU Quad-core 1.9 GHz Krait 300
GPU Adreno 320
Sensors Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, temperature, humidity, gesture
Colors White Frost, Black Mist
Wireless charging (market dependent)
S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
Air gestures
Dropbox (50 GB storage)
Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
TV-out (via MHL 2 A/V link)
Li-Ion 2600 mAh battery

HTC Desire 600 dual sim

2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100
SIM Dual SIM (Micro-SIM, dual stand-by)
BODY Dimensions 134.8 x 67 x 9.3 mm (5.31 x 2.64 x 0.37 in)
Weight 130 g (4.59 oz)
Super LCD2 capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 540 x 960 pixels, 4.5 inches (~245 ppi pixel density)
Beats Audio sound enhancement
NO MEMORY Card slot
Internal 8 GB, 1 GB RAM
Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP
NFC
Infrared port
Primary camera 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Features 1/3.2'' sensor size, 1.4µm pixel size, geo-tagging, face and smile detection
Video Yes, 720p@30fps
Secondary camera 1.6 MP
Android OS, v4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)
Chipset Qualcomm MSM8625Q Snapdragon 200
CPU Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A5
GPU Adreno 203
Colors Black, White
Dropbox (25 GB storage)
Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
Li-Ion 1860 mAh battery

Huawei Ascend P6

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100
4G Network LTE
SIM Dual SIM (Micro-SIM, dual stand-by)
Announced Not officially announced yet
Status Rumored. Exp. release 2013, Q3
BODY Dimensions 6.2 mm thickness
Capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 720 x 1280 pixels, 4.7 inches (~312 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch
Emotion UI 1.6
Dolby Mobile Plus sound enhancement
microSD, up to 64 GB
Internal 32 GB, 2 GB RAM
Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, LE, EDR
NFC
Primary camera 13 MP, 4032 x 3224 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Secondary camera Yes
Android v4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)
Chipset Huawei K3V2
CPU Quad-core 1.5 GHz
Colors Black, White, Pink
Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
Non-removable battery

Panasonic P51

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100
SIM Dual SIM (Micro-SIM)
BODY Dimensions 144 x 75 x 8.5 mm (5.67 x 2.95 x 0.33 in)
Weight 135 g (4.76 oz)
IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 720 x 1280 pixels, 5.0 inches (~294 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch
MEMORY Card slot microSD, up to 32 GB
Internal 4 GB, 1 GB RAM
Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, EDR
Primary camera 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Secondary camera Yes, 1.3 MP, 720p
Android v4.2 (Jelly Bean)
CPU Quad-core 1.2 GHz
Colors Black, White
Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
Li-Ion 2500 mAh battery

ZTE Grand S launch reportedly delayed in the US

ZTE announced its flagship smartphone, the Grand S, at the CES 2013 back in January and the device was expected to make its way to the US market soon. Unfortunately, the ZTE Grand S will not be released there anytime soon, according to a report from CNET.

In an interview, ZTE's Lixin Cheng, who is the head of the North American division of ZTE, shared that the specific requirements of the carriers in US is the cause for the delay and the launch of the smartphone in US has been pushed back to 2014.

However, ZTE will be bringing its Grand Memo phablet, which was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress, to the US, later this year.

Samsung to hold a Galaxy and Ativ "premiere" event on June 20

Samsung has sent out teaser images for a new event, but rather than an Unpacked event like we see for the Galaxy flagships, this is a joint Galaxy and Ativ event. It's called Samsung Premier 2013 and will be held on June 20 in London.

The teaser images shows three close-ups of, well, something. The Galaxy brand is Samsung's Android lineup, so we can expect either a phone or a tablet, but Ativ concerns only Windows 8 devices – Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 tablets and laptops.

The image in the upper right corner certainly looks like the back of a laptop, while the one in the lower left looks like a tablet hybrid with a slide out keyboard (maybe something like the Sony Vaio Duo 11).

Of course, the image in the upper right can be the back of a phone with a glossy hyperglazed plastic and an underlying honeycomb pattern. It's really anyone's guess.

Then there's the image in the lower right, which is the most curious of the three – it has the shape of a camera lens ring and the only camera between the Galaxy and Ativ lines is the Samsung Galaxy Camera, which doesn’t have such a ring.

Would that be the rumored Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, which is an S4 mini with a 10x optical zoom lens according to early unofficial reports of the device? A leaked roadmap put the S4 Zoom launch in early to mid-June, which is close enough to June 20 to make it a strong possibility.

There's also the Galaxy Camera GN120, which got a Bluetooth certification a while back and the Galaxy NX trademark.

So, at first blush it seems that Samsung is readying a new Galaxy device, possibly the S4 Zoom or the S4 Mini, a new Windows 8 tablet with a keyboard of sorts and finally, another tablet or a phone.

By the way, Samsung will most likely be live-streaming the event, which starts at 19:00 BST on June 20, on YouTube.

HTC Desire 600 goes up for pre-order in Russia, priced at $509

HTC recently announced its dual-SIM Desire 600, a smartphone that is said to bring many of the premium features from the company's flagship smartphone, the HTC One. HTC did not reveal the pricing of the smartphone during its announcement, but now, the device is up for pre-order from the official HTC online store in Russia.

The Snapdragon 200 powered smartphone is priced at 15,990 ruble (about $509) from the HTC online store and the device is also available for pre-order from the Messenger for a price tag of 16,990 ruble (about $541).

To recap some of the specifications of the HTC Desire 600, it comes with a 4.5-inch Super LCD2 display with a qHD resolution, 1.2 GHz processor along with 1 GB of RAM, Adreno 203 GPU, 8 GB inbuilt memory, 8 megapixel rear camera, 1.6 megapixel front camera, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a 1,860mAh battery.

Huawei to update Ascend D1, P1 and Honor 2 to Android 4.2

Huawei has announced that it will be rolling out Android 4.2 update to its current range of smartphone. The devices that were mentioned specifically include the Ascend D1, Ascend P1 and the Honor 2. These phones will also be receiving Huawei's Emotion UI 1.6 with the OS update.

Along with these devices, Huawei has also promised the Android 4.2 update to some of its other smartphones but haven't exactly clarified which ones those would be.

White LG Nexus 4 appears live again, inches closer to release?

The white flavor of the Google Nexus 4 has leaked numerous times. Recently, we also got a video and the official photo of the smartphone. Now, one of our readers has sent us some live images of the white LG Nexus 4 smartphone and the tipster claims to have bought the device in India.

However, the device might not be a retail device and the images could well be of a developer's or an operator acceptance unit. Furthermore, the tip also claims that the device is running on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean), but we are yet to see its about screen.

Unfortunately, there is still no official word from Google or LG on the official release of the white Nexus 4 model.