LG sells 1 million Optimus G units and counting

LG just announced it has sold worldwide more than a million units of its flagship smartphone - the Optimus G. A similar recent announcement put their L-series sales in the range of 10 million.

The LG Optimus G sale numbers come in a stark contrast with Apple and Samsung flagship sales, but then again, there's a reason these guys are high on the list of the top mobile phone manufacturers.

Other reports claim that LG has sold a total of 55 million handsets in 2012 but plans on boosting their sales up to 75 million in 2013.

LG has had some troubles in the past few years, but their last Q3 results have shown the company is back on its feet, ready to fight back the big dogs.

A leak from earlier today, showing the LG Optimus G Pro, may suggest they already have the right weapon in their armory.

Source | Via | Image credit

Sony is selling its New York HQ, then re-renting it

Sony announced it's selling its headquarters building, located on 550 Madison Avenue, New York. The sale price is $1.1 billion.

What's interesting is that under the conditions of the deal, which should go through some time in March, Sony's various businesses will stay in the building for another three years.

After repaying the debt related to the building and various other fees, Sony expects to net $685 million, which will be recorder as operating income. Nifty, we would say. It would come just in time for the end of the fiscal year (March 31) to boost the balance sheet Sony will have to present its investors. This would allow the company to finish up the year on the black instead of the projected $200+ million loss.

There's no word on the planned expenses for renting the building in the three years to follow.

Since a new management team took over Sony last year, the challenge for the company has been to strengthen up, to reduce expenses and get rid of losing businesses.

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Samsung set to unveil Galaxy Xcover successor at MWC 2013

Samsung could showcase the successor to its rugged S5690 Galaxy Xcover smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.

Going by the code name Skomer the S7110 Galaxy Xcover 2 is rumored to pack a bigger 4" screen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixels) resolution, whereas the old one was rocking a 3.65" HVGA (320 x 480) unit. The camera has been bumped from 3.2 MP to 5 MP and there's also a 0.3 MP front-facer now. Internal storage is 4 GB but you can expand it via MicroSD card slot.

The battery should have a 1700 mAh capacity, which is slightly more than the 1500 mAh of its predecessor. The Galaxy Xcover 2 will ship with Android Jelly Bean (either 4.1 or 4.2) covered by Samsung's latest TouchWiz with Nature UX.

The usual array of connectivity options are there too - HSPA+ up to 21.1 Mbps, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, etc. No word on LTE still.

Finally the device will come in two color schemes - Titan Gray and Black/Red.

Keep in mind that these specs are subject to change before the device comes out of rumorland and goes official.

We'll be there to cover the Mobile World Congress as it unfolds so stay tuned.

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LG Optimus G Pro with a 5" 1080p screen leaks

The LG Optimus G is one of the most powerful phones on the market right now and it got the honor of being the basis of the latest Google Nexus phone. Yet, LG may already be working on an improved version, the LG Optimus G Pro.

Blog of Mobile came upon some info that points to the Optimus G Pro joining the 5 1080p fight. The quad Krait CPU will be clocked at 1.7GHz (up from 1.5GHz) and the battery capacity has been bumped up to 3000mAh. It might also pack an IR port, similar to the Sony Xperia ZL.

The rest is pretty much the same 13MP camera, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, LTE connectivity, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, NFC, wallet and a couple of digital TV standards (presumably, those wont make it to the worldwide version).

The LG Optimus G Pro will measure 139 x 70 x 10mm and weigh 160g according to rumors.

A couple of things lend some credence to the G Pro rumors - the image above was sent to Engadget by an anonymous tipster and Piet Zweegers, who sent this in to us, found out LGOptimusGPro.nl is registered by LG Electronix Benelux (there's nothing at that domain at the moment).

This isn't the first time we're hearing of such a device - it sounds very close to the rumored specs of the LG Optimus G2.

If it pans out, it will be interesting because the G Pro will depart from the 16:10 aspect ratio of the Optimus G (unless the Pro has a 1200 x 1920 screen, which was mislabeled as 1080p by the rumors) and it will undoubtedly spark rumors of a Nexus 5.

Thanks to Piet Zweegers for sending this in!

Source 1 (in Japanese) | Source 2

Nokia Lumia 620 goes on sale, Russia gets it first

Nokia Lumia 620 is now available in Russia. It costs about 300 (11990 RUB) and, is the most affordable Windows Phone 8-powered smartphone by the Finnish company yet.

It is available on the official Nokia Store for Russia in all of its color versions (white, black, yellow, green and magenta colors).

We already had a close encounter with the Nokia Lumia 620 in green and you can find everything we learned from it right here.

Since the device is already on sale in Russia, we can probably expect it to hit Europe and Asian markets in the following weeks.

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HTC DROID DNA falls to $99 for new Verizon customers

The price of the HTC DROID DNA keeps falling the 5 1080p Android flagship started off at $200 (with contract), then fell to $150, then to $120 and now its at $100. The deal comes courtesy of Amazon Wireless and is for new customers only.

Existing customers Verizon still have to shell out $150. The $120 deal from LetsTalk.com is still available and existing customers can use it too. Better still, the TALK4TEN coupon code knocks $12 off the price, bringing it to within a few bucks off the Amazon price.

Verizons site still sells the HTC DROID DNA at $200, so youd be better off getting it somewhere else.

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Galaxy Note II Amber Brown and Ruby Wine versions confirmed

The extremely popular Samsung Galaxy Note II is getting two additional paint jobs - Amber Brown and Ruby Wine. This is surely not surprising for the Note II fans, the info about the new colors leaked on the New Year's Day. Still, now the two new paintjobs are finally official, which means they will probably be heading to a store near you in the coming weeks.

This brings the total number of available Galaxy Note II color versions to four, the two new ones joining the initially launched Ceramic White and Titanium Gray.

The two new Samsung Galaxy Note II editions will be available in Korea immediately with a more global rollout expected to start soon. Unfortunately there is no official info on which countries will get them next and when exactly, but we guess they should hit the markets worldwide in time for Valentine's Day.

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HTC M7 smartphone leaks through a rendered image

We have already seen the rumored specifications for the HTC M7, the company's upcoming flagship device and supposedly a replacement for the One X. Now we have a rendered image to go with it.

The rendered image looks strikingly similar to the BlackBerry L-series device that we have seen in the past, which itself sort of looks like the iPhone 5. The display is flanked by two colored plastic portions on the top and the bottom. Both areas have a rather pronounced grille area, with the top also housing the front facing camera and the various sensors. Unfortunately, this is the only picture we have for now.

The specs, as we had learned before, include a 4.7-inch, 1920 x 1080 resolution display with an incredible 468 ppi pixel density, 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage space, 13 megapixel, f/2.0 rear camera and 2 megapixel front facing camera with 1080p video recording.

It is being rumored that the M7 will likely be announced at Mobile World Congress this year.

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Sony Xperia ZL poses for the camera in its cool red paintjob

Announced at the CES 2013, the Xperia ZL was said to be available in black, white and red, but the latter was nowhere to be seen at the Sony booth. Thanks to XperiaBlog, though, we can now take a look at the passionate-looking ZL.

The Sony Xperia ZL runs on the latest Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with a quad-core 1.5GHz Krait processor, Adreno 320 graphics and 2GB of RAM. The smartphone is built around a 5" LED-backlit 1080p display with Mobile Bravia 2 Engine and has a 13MP Exmor RS camera sensor capable of 1080p video recording with HDR option at its disposal.

Here are more photos of the red Xperia ZL from different angles.

Just like the Xperia Z, the ZL runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and will launch this March. The pricing is yet to be revealed. The Xperia Z and ZL will be available in different markets, but Sony refused to reveal more details on that.

So far, we know that the Xperia Z will be coming to the UK shores some time in March and possibly earlier in the rest of Europe in February, so the ZL shouldn't be too far behind. But until the ZL becomes available, we urge you to check out our hands-on of the device from CES 2013.

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Apple ships 52 million iPhones in Q4 2012

Last week we heard plenty of rumors about Apple having cut orders for the new iPhone 5 due to lower than expected demand. While it has gone as far as to affect Apple's stock prices, it may not have been entirely true. According to one analyst Apple were able to ship some 52 million iPhone units in Q4.

While main product lines like the iPhone and iPad are expected to remain strong, specific devices within those lines may fall short of expected sales.

35 million of the iPhones sold were of the iPhone 5 variety, while the iPhone 4S and 4 followed with 9.5 million and 7.3 million, respectively.

The 52 million iPhone devices shipped is a 93% increase over Q3 - expected after the launch of the iPhone 5 and the high seasonal demand - and a 41% increase over Q4 2011.

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More details on Samsung Galaxy Pocket Plus emerge

We first learned about the existence of Galaxy Pocket Plus back in December. We knew it will be a refreshed version of the original Pocket and will run on Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

Today we can shed some light on the specs too. According to the leaked info the Pocket Plus will get a hardware update too - the processor will be upgraded to 850 MHz and presumably a new architecture (from 832 MHz), the RAM jumps to 512 MB (from 384 MB) and the internal storage goes from 3 GB to 4 GB.

The rest of the specs are pretty much the same - a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen, a 2MP snapper, quad-band GSM/dual-band 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, FM radio and a microSD card slot.

The new Galaxy Pocket Plus will sell under the GT-S5301 model number and GT-S5301L for Latin America. It is expected to launch in the first half of this year, but there is still no official announcement or pricing details.

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Oppo Find 5 goes on pre-order in China, to arrive on January 29

The Oppo Find 5 is one of the phones thatre leading the 5 1080p craze and Oppo is already taking pre-orders for it in its home country, China. Priced at 2,998 Chinese yuan ($480), the Find 5 can challenges flagships from HTC (the DROID DNA / Butterfly) and Sony (the Xperia Z).

Anyway, Chinese pre-orders will be fulfilled on January 29. Thats for the 16GB. There will be a 32GB version too, though pricing for this one hasnt been announced in China yet.

Elsewhere, the 16GB version will be $500 and the 32GB version will be $570. You can check the list of countries that will be getting it here.

So, any takers? For comparison, an HTC DROID DNA for Verizon will set you back $600 without a contract (it has 16GB storage and only an 8MP camera), but it has HTCs brand name behind it. It is pricier outside the US ($890 in Australia) though. There's the Sony Xperia Z too, but that one is muuch more expensive than the Find 5 as well.

Source (in Chinese) | Via

Huawei G520 is a 4.5" quad-core phone on a budget, China only

The high-end Ascend Mate and Ascend D2 were Huawei's stars at the CES 2013 show, but the Chinese company is not done with the announcements just yet. Today Huawei announced its latest budget offering in the face of the quad-core G520.

Destined for China Mobile, the G520 runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on a 1.2GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6589 chip with 512MB of RAM. The smartphone features a 4.5" display of yet unknown resolution (we reckon it's WVGA).

At the back, there's a 5MP camera with LED flash while a VGA camera sits at the front. Huawei hasn't disclosed whether the smartphone packs a microSD card and what is its battery capacity.

However, for the asking price of $225 (1,399 yuan) this already sounds like a great offering. Don't hold your breath on the phone making its way outside of China, though.

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Android 4.1.2 update for Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 goes live

The original Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 is now in the process of receiving the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update, with users in Poland reporting successfully downloading the update via Samsung's KIES software.

Besides the usual array of optimizations which come with the new Android version, the Jelly Bean update for the Note brings with it the Premium Suite package of applications introduced with the Galaxy Note 2. Included are a number of S-Pen optimized applications and features, such as Multi View, which brings true simultaneous multitasking to the phablet.

If you're in Poland, you may have luck finding an OTA update via your devices' settings menu before looking through KIES.

No word yet on availability in other areas, but seeing as how it's already being pushed out to users, we should see other regions get the update pretty soon.

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Samsung Galaxy S series shipments surpass 100 million

It's no secret that Samsung's Galaxy S series of smartphones has been a game changer, for the company as well as for Android smartphones in general. Now the series has reached a new landmark, with the total worldwide shipments exceeding 100 million units since the first Galaxy S device shipped two and a half years ago.

The Galaxy S III has been the biggest and fastest contributor so far, with 40 million shipments coming in the first seven months after launch and currently shipping close to 190,000 units every day. The venerable Galaxy S II, which has been around for almost two years now, has managed to ship 40 million units in 20 months.

With people now eagerly looking forward to the next flagship in the series, we don't see the popularity of the Galaxy S brand waning any time soon.

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Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa will still have PowerVR 5 graphics

While Samsung left most of us a tad let down at this years CES with no new device announcements, it did manage to get us excited about the future regarding its upcoming Exynos 5 Octa SoC.

As the name implies, the Exynos 5 Octa will feature eight cores of processing power; four Cortex A7's, and four Cortex A15's.

While the Exynos 5 Dual variant features a new-gen Mali-T604 GPU, it seems this was not good enough for Samsung's octa-core model, which will instead feature a PowerVR SGX 544MP3.

If the name sounds familiar, thats because similar graphics processors are found in the Apple's A5/A6 processors - the PowerVR 543. The 544 is set to feature many of the same options that are found in the 543 plus DirectX 10 texturing and 2x faster triangle setup.

It won't, however, match the performance of the PowerVR 554MP4 found on Apple's A6X chipset, so the performance delivered by Exynos 5 Octa's GPU will likely be somewhere between the third and fourth-gen iPads' GPUs.

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New report backs info that Canada will get Xperia ZL

Yesterday we brought you a report that the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL will be joining forces to tackle the competition in Canada.

Today, courtesy of Sony Xperia CA, comes a confirmation that the Xperia ZL will be Canada-bound, which is great news for those who fancy it over the more slender Xperia Z.

Great news and you're hearing it here first - The #XperiaZL will be coming to Canada. #SonyCES

Sony Xperia CA (@SonyXperiaCA) January 8, 2013

The Xperia Z and Xperia ZL share a lot of similarities, like the 5" 1080p Mobile BRAVIA 2 display but while the Xperia Z is thinner (7.9 mm vs 9.8 mm) and offers extra water and dust protection the Xperia ZL is shorter whilst retaining the same screen diagonal.

We expect to hear more about the availability of both smartphones in other countries too, so stay tuned.

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Full-res Sony Xperia Z camera samples surface from CES

Lucky fellow journalists got the chance to smuggle out an Xperia Z outside the CES grounds for a short photo shoot and they've published the results.

Sony made a real splash with their Xperia Z and ZL announcement at CES this year. Besides the 5-inch 1080p screen, the Xperia Z features a 13MP camera with an Exmor RS sensor, which is supposedly improved over last year's Exmor R lineup. There is also a built-in real-time HDR mode for shooting video, which sounds intriguing, to say the least.

According to the guys over at BestBoys.de, who got to shoot with the Xperia Z, the auto focus is incredibly responsive both in continuous and in touch mode.

From what we see, image sharpness is not ideal at 100% magnification but other than that, we definitely see improvement over last year's Xperia T. The noise levels are lower and the exposure metering seems correct.

Sony Xperia Z camera samples

We even got a video with the new HDR video mode. The effect is visible when shooting backlit or dark subjects. The "HDR" algorithm opens up the shadows to create a more evenly illuminated scene without blowing up the highlights.

Video quality (sharpness, especially) is really good though the continuous auto focus is on the slow side (which can be an advantage in certain situations). So we are definitely witnessing an improvement over the Xperia T. Reportedly, however, the camcorder strangely lacks the option for video stabilization, unlike the Xperia T.

Here's the camera sample and don't forget to open the video fullscreen and turn on the 1080p mode. Oh, and don't mind the Asian dude that's doing standing pushups.

Check out even more camera samples at the source link below.

Thanks for the tip, kurtdean! Source

Nokia Lumia 505 launched in Mexico, gets a hands-on

Nokia has been making some carrier specific versions of their Lumia smartphones in the past few months. We have already seen the Lumia 810 for T-Mobile and the Lumia 822 for Verizon, both of which are variants of the international Lumia 820.

Nokia has now launched the Lumia 505 in Mexico, exclusively for the carrier Telcel. The device has a slightly modified design that appears to be similar to the older Lumia 800 but on the inside is seemingly based on the current Lumia 510, although the display is a 3.7-inch AMOLED compared to the 4.0-inch LCD on the 510. The 505 also runs on Windows Phone 7.8.

In the video below (don't bother adjusting volume, there is no sound), you get a good look at the 'new' phone, along with all the accessories that come within the package. The Lumia 505 is priced at 3,499 Mexican pesos, which is approximately $277.

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