Sony C6603 'Yuga' camera sample leaks, hints at a 13MP sensor

The Sony Yuga had its display and quad-core Krait internals leaked in the not so distant past, and now its camera draws our attention thanks to a leaked Picasa sample photo.

The EXIF data of the photo hints that Sony will be using a 13MP Exmor RS CMOS sensor with f/2.4 aperture. Also, the Android firmware is 10.1.A.0.270, which is said to represent Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean.

Other than that, the photo doesn't tell us much about Sony's future flagship Android device. The Yuga and Odin are expected to be Sony's flagship models for 2013 and might be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February 2013.

Source | Via

LG Nexus 4 (E960) might have a 16GB version after all

A new rumor about the LG Nexus 4 claims the phone would in fact have a much more reasonable 16GB version.

Having only 8GB of storage on a modern-day smartphone with an HD screen doesn't make much sense from a consumer point of view. That's the reason why reports of the next Nexus phone relying on the meager storage without any option to expand it set the Android community ablaze.

A reasonably reliable source of industry leaks has shared on Twitter today some specs of the LG Nexus 4. And even though we knew most of those from the extensive previous leaks, the mentioning of a 16GB version came as a nice surprise.

Let's hope it's not a typo. Google's Nexus event is set for October 29, awkwardly coinciding with Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 launch event. The fact that the two events are held on either US coasts doesn't help us journalists a lot too. Still, the final third of October is shaping up to be really exciting for the industry.

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Press pics of Huawei W1 with Windows Phone surface

The Huawei W1 hasn't been exactly the best kept secret in the industry. We've seen some W1 live pics leaking, not long after we heard about the smartphone for the first time.

The Huawei W1 may be a looker but it's not a high-end device. It has a 4-inch WVGA screen, a 1.2GHz dual-core chipset with 512MB RAM, 5MP camera, and merely 4GB of on-board memory. The good thing about the storage however, is that Windows Phone 8 now allows expansion via a microSD card slot. A 2000mAh will power the handset, so there should be plenty of power to keep it going.

The Huawei W1 should launch soon after the launch of Windows Phone 8 OS on October 29. It should cost around $300, but so far rumors say it will only be available in China.

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Sony Xperia miro review: You too

Introduction

In a world full of phones you wish you could afford, the Sony Xperia miro is one you don't have to wish too hard for. In honesty, Sony didn't work themselves too hard, but when you're putting together a portfolio from scratch, you want it built on solid foundations.

The Xperia miro is another simple package joining the ranks, filling in the blank space between the Xperia tipo and the Xperia go. The miro is a notch above the tipo, and costs an extra few bucks - Sony went about it strictly by the book without taking unnecessary risks.

Sony Xperia miro official pictures

The looks of the Xperia go - minus the rugged treatment - with the Xperia tipo's internals. It's a fairly straightforward mixture that will also fill the price gap between the starter package and the rugged smartphone. Lots of choice for different budgets is the secret to a large and loyal user base.

Let's have a look now at all the features and the possible deal-breakers.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual-band UMTS support
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 3.5" 16M-color LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen of HVGA resolution (320 x 480 pixels) at around 165 ppi
• Android OS v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• 800 MHz Cortex-A5 CPU, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7225A chipset
• 512 MB of RAM
• 4GB of inbuilt storage (2.2GB user available)
• microSD slot (32GB supported)
• 5 MP autofocus camera, single LED flashlight, geotagging, smile detection, touch focus
• VGA video @ 30fps
• Secondary VGA front-facing camera
• Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery

Main disadvantages

• Middling screen quality
• Non-hot-swappable microSD slot
• No hardware shutter key
• No DivX/XviD support
• Occasional lags in the user interface
• Mediocre audio output

The major improvements over the Xperia tipo are the bigger LED-backlit screen, the higher-res camera and the secondary cam for video calls. The screen is the same size and resolution as the Xperia go's but isn't the Bravia-backed Reality display we've seen on a number of Sony and Sony Ericsson handsets.

Sony Xperia miro live pictures

That and the single-core CPU, as well as the non-rugged build, has helped the Xperia miro lower the price considerably. Overall though, it's clearly a bet on the safe side - the Xperia miro is perfectly on par with its main competitors. So let's give this fella a chance and see what it's really made of.

Google has its first $14B quarter but net income decreases

Google's Q3 results came out earlier than planned and since they didnt meet Wall Street's expectations, the company's shares dipped and trading of the stock had to be suspended temporarily. Google's shares ended the day 8% down.

While not what analysts expected, Google's third quarter wasnt that bad. The search giant had its first $14 billion revenue quarter (a 45% increase year over year), helped by revenue from Motorola.

Net income was $2.18 billion, down from the $2.73 billion of last year's third quarter. Google's ads saw a 33% increase in paid clicks, but the price of those clicks was 15% lower than in Q3 2011. The reason behind the drop is the increasing share of mobile ads, which are cheaper.

Anyway, Motorola had a rough quarter. Its revenue was $2.58 billion, but it posted an operating loss of $527 million ($505 million of which was lost by the mobile phone department).

You can get more details on Google's financial performance from their full press release.

Source

Nokia outs Q3 2012 results, reports reduced operating loss

Nokia's financial results for Q3 2012 are out and things are still looking grim for the Finns, which have reported an operating loss of $754 million.

If you recall, for each of the last three quarters Nokia had to report north of a $1 billion loss. That's why the company had to undertake some unpleasant job cuts and we guess the results are starting to show up.

There's more bad news for Nokia, too, as the company only managed to push 76.6 million featurephones, from which the Asha lineup accounted for 6.5 million units. The really bad news is that Lumia sales have dropped to 2.9 million (from a total of 6.3 million smartphones shipped) compared to last quarter's 4 million. The Windows Phone 8 launch just couldn't come soon enough for the Finns, which are now facing a do or die situation.

The report also shows that Nokia Siemens Networks managed to make a profit of $238.5 million, managing to helping the company in these hard times of transition to Windows Phone. Speaking of that, Microsoft also chimed in with their $250 million cheque for the quarter.

Lastly, Nokia reports cash reserves of $4.66 billion, which doesn't compare particularly favorably to the $6.64 billion the company had in its pockets at the same point of last year. In the report, the company issued a warning towards investors that the upcoming Q4 quarter will still be bumpy. The reason, as Stephen Elop puts it is "product transitions and our ramp up plan for our new devices."

Source | Via

Nokia Lumia 920 to be exclusive to AT&T for only 6 months

Training videos meant for AT&T staff show us that the exclusivity rights to the Nokia's latest and greats - the Lumia 920 - will only go on for 6 months.

Exclusivity to certain hot smartphones can be a big thing for carriers, potentially driving sales through the roof. However, you won't see any of this year's flagships messing with carrier exclusivity, simply because no carrier can afford that.

Well, obviously Nokia wasn't expecting hot sales on the US market even for its Lumia 920, since they succumbed to another exclusive deal with US carrier AT&T.

Of course, we're merely guessing here. It might as well be that Nokia just didn't want to bother with making a CDMA version to fit Sprint's or Verizon's networks (though it already has a TD-SCDMA version for China).

Whatever the reason, Nokia has again bet on the same single US carrier to carry them on their second serious attempt at conquering the US market. If you remember, the Lumia 900 was an AT&T exclusive too. Unfortunately, reports show it didn't do too good, despite the major advertising campaign.

And back to today's news, this time around Nokia went for only a 6-month exclusivity period. This sounds like a nice step forward, but when we think about it... In 6 month's time, the Lumia 920 won't be anywhere as hot as today. These phones go out of fashion really quickly, with the product cycle being around a year now. So even if Nokia comes up with a CDMA version in six months, this would still leave the other carriers only with scrapes. So we doubt any of those would pick up the phone at all.

Essentially, in this case even a 6-month exclusivity deal means Americans are not much likely to enjoy the 920 on another carrier.

Source | Via

Samsung Galaxy S III drops to $99 in the US on a 2-year contract

If you're in the US and want to update to a Samsung Galaxy S III, now might be a very good time to do it. Amazon Wireless is offering the Samsung flagship for $100 if you sign a contract with Verizon or Sprint and for $120 if you want to go with AT&T.

We checked the carriers' own web sites but the they still offer it on their usual prices ($200). Then we headed off to various etailers, but we only got the old prices there too.

The only other one with a reduced price that we managed to find is Staples - it's asking $150 for the Galaxy S III if you sign with Verizon. There's this offer too, but honestly, we can't tell which carrier that one is from.

Anyway, if you manage to figure out which carrier the second offer is from or find the S III on the cheap elsewhere, drop us a line in the comments.

Via

Asus Padfone 2 to get JB next month, keyboard dock later

The Asus event, which brought us the new Padfone 2 smartphone/tablet was over all too quickly and some details almost slipped through. Among them were the Jelly Bean update schedule and the keyboard dock, which wasnt presented.

According to an Asus representative, the company plans to have the Android 4.1 update ready by November. This means that even if you are among the very first to buy it, you will only have to wait a couple of weeks to get it.

As for the keyboard dock, that's still in development too. Asus says it's trying to create the best keyboard dock possible, but didnt commit to a time frame. Of course, there's a possibility that Asus might ax the dock, but chances of that happening are slim.

Anyway, you can check out our hands-on impressions of the Asus Padfone 2 from Tuesday's event, complete with a close look at the hardware, some benchmarks of the Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset and even a sample from the 13MP camera.

Samsung Galaxy Y receives a minor software update

The compact but highly popular member of the Samsung Android lineup, Galaxy Y has received a minor software update. Available over-the-air, the update doesn't bring many substantial changes to the device, but rather improves the system stability.

Additionally, according to our tipster, who has received the update, the screen responsiveness is also improved. The update changes the baseband version to S536ODDLF1 and the firmware version to S536ODDLF1.

So, Galaxy Y users, go to the Settings menu and check for a Software update. Unfortunately, there's no official word from Samsung on which regions should expect the update and when.

Thanks for the tip, Akash!

HTC J butterfly announced in Japan with 5-inch, 1080p display

We have been hearing rumors of an HTC phone with a large 1080p display for a while now and it has finally come true. HTC has unveiled the HTC J butterfly in Japan and it is the first production smartphone to have a 1080p display.

The display in question is a 5.0-inch, Super LCD3 with a resolution of 1920 x 1080, which gives it a pixel density of the astonishing 440 ppi. The display is quite big but at 143 x 71 x 9.1 mm, the J butterfly is only slightly bigger than the One X (134.4 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm) and at 140g weighs just 10g more.

Inside, the HTC J butterfly runs on a quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.5GHz with 2GB of RAM. It has 16GB internal memory along with a microSD card slot.

On the back is an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording and on the front is a 2 megapixel camera. The phone supports LTE and NFC and is dust and waterproof (IPX5). Strangely, for a phone with such specs, the battery is only 2,020mAh. Lastly, the J butterfly will ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box.

The HTC J butterfly is set to release in Japan on AU/KDDI in December. The phone will be sold in three colors: red, black and white. Unfortunately, this particular model will be exclusive to Japan but we are sure to see that glorious display on HTC's future models soon.

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HTC One S Special Edition pops up in Taiwan dressed in white

An HTC One S Special Edition has appeared on the company's Taiwanese website. Dressed in an eye-catching white color scheme with red accents, the smartphone packs a cool 64GB of built-in memory. The rest of its specifications are no different than what the regular One S has to offer.

When we reviewed the elegant HTC One S, one of our biggest grievances with the handset was the fairly limited, non-expandable memory it offered. It looks like the Taiwanese manufacturer has addressed the issue in a seriously appropriate fashion with the special edition of the 7.8mm thin smartphone.

Currently, there is no information on retail availability of the HTC One S Special Edition outside of its home market. We surely hope this will change in the future.

Source | Via

Asus Padfone 2 hands-on: A different transformer

Asus just announced their new Padfone in Milan and we were on the scene to cover it live. The Asus Padfone 2 is an Android phone with the rather unique ability to become the heart of a tablet, just like the original Padfone.

The specs have been upped and the new Padfone can go toe to toe with the best upcoming droid flagships. It has a 4.7" 720p Super IPS+ LCD screen, 13MP camera and a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 - you know, the one with the quad-core Krait processor and Adreno 320 GPU.

If you're thinking that this would make it one of the most powerful tablets around too, you'd be right. Just how does the Asus Padfone 2 turn into a tablet? With the tablet accessory, of course, called Padfone Station.

The tablet adds the two key ingredients that separate the Padfone from tablets - a big screen and a big battery. You get a 10.1" WXGA IPS screen and a 5,000mAh battery (in addition to the 2,140mAh battery in the phone itself). That's a bit less than the original, which had a 6,600mAh battery in the tablet.

Still, there's an upside - the phone + tablet combo weighs only 649g (the Padfone 2 is responsible for 135g of the total weight).

The Padfone Station doesn't contribute much else, but the Padfone 2 has enough features for the both of them, including Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (JB coming soon), LTE, NFC and 720p video capture at 60fps.

Jump over to the next page for our hands-on impressions of the Padfone 2. On the page after that are some benchmarks and camera samples too.

Pricing and availability of the ASUS Padfone 2 detailed

Now that the ASUS Padfone 2 is finally official, it's time to get a detailed idea of the device's pricing and availability. As we already told you, the smartphone is initially going to be available in 32GB and 64GB variations, with a 16GB coming out later (we assume by Christmas).

ASUS will launch the Padfone 2 and its tablet station first in Europe (Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sweden) and Asia (Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and U.A.E). The smartphone/tablet should be available there in the beginning of December.

The US hasn't been mentioned in the official press release, but we got a word from an ASUS manager at the event, saying the Padfone 2 will debut in the US by the end of the year as well.

As for pricing, the 32GB Padfone 2 (including a the 10.1" tablet station) will retail in Europe for 799, while the 64GB model will be 899. We guess once the 16GB version comes arounds, it'll cost around the 699 mark.

In Asia, the Padfone 2 tablet station will be sold separately for NT$8,990 ($310). There, the unsubsidized Padfone 2 smartphone will retail for NT$17,990 ($620) and NT$21,901 ($750) for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively. However, should customers purchase the Padfone 2 together with the tablet station, the latter will be sold at NT$6,000 (around $210).

Information on subsizided US versions isn't yet available, and we are yet to see which US carriers will pick the device up. We are also yet to see how the Padfone 2 will compete with the upcoming LG Optimus G in Europe too.

The Padfone 2 is powered by a beefy 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064) chipset with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM. This awe-inspiring chip helps the Padfone 2 run Ice Cream Sandwich with absolute ease. Naturally, an update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is planned, too.

For more information and first impressions, check out our full ASUS Padfone 2 hands-on.

Source

ASUS Padfone 2 event is over, watch the replay if you missed it

Just as planned, ASUS is holding its special event in Milan Italy, where the company is lifting the curtains off its second-generation Padfone device.

The ASUS Padfone was already announced earlier today in Tawian, but the official international launch event may still be worth it.

The event is broadcasted live and we've handily embedded it here for your viewing pleasure.

Update: ASUS has wrapped the event, but in case you've missed it, the whole show is available in the video below. The announcement begins around the 16:00 minute mark.

Also make sure to check out our extensive ASUS Padfone 2 hands-on live at the event.

LG announces Jelly Bean update schedule for Korea

LG is not exactly known for releasing timely Android updates for its smartphones, but as it seems, its Korea-only phones will get Jelly Bean treatment on time.

The first handset go get Android 4.1 is the Optimus LTE II in November. Next is Optimus G in December, followed by Optimus Vu and Vu II in the first quarter of 2013.

The updates will bring the new LG UI we saw for the first time in the ICS-running Optimus G to all of the mentioned phones along with some LG exclusive apps.

There is no word on the fate of the non-Korean devices though. And just don't get us started with the yet-to-come-or-not-to-come long overdue Ice Cream Sandwich updates.

Source | Via

Sony C660X 'Yuga' 1080p display leaks in a benchmark score

Shortly after we caught a glimpse of the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset tucked in Sony's upcoming C660X 'Yuga' Android powerhouse in Antutu benchmark results, the handset's screen resolution emerged as well. NenaMark2 scores revealed that a 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) display will sit on top of the powerful internals.

The benchmark score, which has subsequently been removed from the NenaMark2 database, points at a resolution of 1794 x 1080 pixels. The remaining 126 pixels are likely used for the Android on-screen buttons.

There is no information on the physical size of the full HD display. Given the massive amount of pixels involved though, it is highly unlikely that the unit will be sized below 5". A recent announcement from Japan Display Inc. regarding the start of mass production of 5" TFT-LCD IPS display modules with 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution and pixel density of 443ppi points in this direction. Sony Mobile Display is involved in the aforementioned company together with Toshiba Mobile Display and Hitachi Displays.

Source | Via

LG Nexus 4 moniker all but confirmed via EXIF info

Everyone and their grandmother is probably familiar with the LG-made next-gen Nexus device by now with all the information like pictures, camera samples, more pictures and even preliminary reviews popping up for days on end.

One of the last details we're in the dark on is the retail name of the LG E960. We came up with Optimus Nexus on our own, and we even had an alleged insider tip about Nexus HD, all the while the internet rumor mill has been referring to it merely as the LG Nexus phone.

Today however, we stumbled upon some LG Nexus camera samples on Picasa, where the EXIF data calls the devices LG Nexus 4.

This embedded image information is very easy to fake or tweak, mind you, so we may see more developments on the subject of the next Nexus' name.

Just to clear the air the Nexus 4 packs a Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with four ferocious Krait cores inside, an 8 MP snapper, 2 GB worth of RAM and a 4.7 True-HD IPS display of 768 x 1280 pixels resolution and most importantly, has Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean on tap.

An unverified October 29 date has been pinpointed as the day Google will step forth and unleash the Nexus 4 to the world.

Source | Via

ASUS PadFone 2 emerges in press shots and video footage

With its official announcement scheduled for October 16, the ASUS Padfone 2 leaked out in a number of press shots, thus leaving nothing about its design to our imagination. The upcoming Android device with dual personality also emerged in video footage, where it was shown off by no other but the CEO of ASUS - Mr. Jerry Shen.

LG Nexus 4 gets a full blown review

After teasing us with a few images every other day, Belarusian website Onliner.by has now uploaded a full review of what has come to be known as the LG Nexus 4.

We can see from the images just how similar the Nexus 4 is to the Galaxy Nexus. The all-black, featureless face has become a signature of the Nexus line of phones since the Nexus S. The Nexus 4 looks practically identical to the Galaxy Nexus from the front, save for a chrome ring around the bezel. It even has the notification LED in the same place as the Galaxy Nexus.

On the back, LG has dumped Samsung's matte grey back with the typical bump near the bottom for a flat glossy back with a peculiar dotted pattern. The back of this phone still says 'with Google", but then it also says 'NOT FOR SALE', so it could change by the time the phone goes for sale.

As mentioned before, the display uses an LCD panel, but the review mistakenly states the resolution as 1280 x 720, when the actual screenshots are in 1280 x 768 resolution. This particular device was running Android 4.1.2 but it is expected the final version to run on Android 4.2.

There are some images taken by the 8 megapixel camera on the back but the quality of these images is very mediocre. The details are all smudged and the colors and white balance in particular seem off. These images don't seem particularly better than those from Galaxy Nexus. If anything, they seem worse.

Another area where the Nexus 4 disappoints is in the synthetic benchmarks department. The AnTuTu and Quadrant scores are way low for something with a quad-core Snapdragon S4 and 2GB of RAM under the hood and even slower than the scores of the international One X with the Tegra 3 processor.

All of this can be put down to this being a prototype device and things could improve considerably in the final version. That could also explain why this particular unit had just 8GB of internal memory. With the launch of the next Nexus being said to be on October 29, we don't have to wait long to find out what the real deal would be like.

To read the full review of this prototype, click on the source link below.

Source

Sony C660X 'Yuga' leaks, might pack a quad-core Krait CPU

About a week ago a Sony C650X Odin leaked through its User-Agent profile with speculations that it will be the next Xperia flagship. Not much info was available on it, but a new Sony smartphone has leaked now, and this one has a higher model number.

The Sony C6603 Yuga (the final digit of the model number indicates region, so well call it C660X) made an appearance in AnTuTus database. The benchmark lists the OS as Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and the CPU clock speed as 1.5GHz (but no GPU info).

The total score the Yuga managed is 11,321. For comparison, an Xperia T (Snapdragon S4 Plus, dual-core Krait @ 1.5GHz, Adreno 225) does 8,270 and an LG Optimus G (Snapdragon S4 Pro, quad-core Krait @ 1.5GHz, Adreno 320) scored 13,643.

The Sony C660X Yuga is certainly closer to the S4 Pro chipset than the S4 Plus, particularly in the CPU and RAM scores. The GPU scores of the Yuga and the Optimus G are virtually identical, though the Xperia T scores the same too, despite its older GPU.

Still, it seems very likely that the C660X is packing a Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset (the APQ8064 is the one used most commonly). Heres hoping we get scores from other benchmarks, NenaMark for example lists the GPU model - if its Adreno 320, then the chipset will certainly be of the S4 pro variety.

Source (in Japanese) | Via