Xperia Z leaks again, shows off its slick design

The Sony Xperia Z, which was known as the Yuga until a few days ago, has leaked once again, this time in a series of images extracted from what is likely a promo video.

The new images tell us that the smartphone will feature a water resistant chassis on a "skeleton frame structure", and a 13MP Exmor RS camera accompanied by HDR photo and video capability.

The images also confirm what we already know about the device, including the 5 inch FullHD Reality display, and quad-core APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 chipset. The Z is set to ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of box.

Our earlier leak hinted at an MSRP of roughly $655 when the Z hits retail, although we expect to have full details on the Xperia Z and all other Sony devices from CES 2013 in just a few short days, so be sure to check back with us.

Source | Via

LG Optimus L9 review: Living large

Introduction

The Optimus L9 is the latest addition to the L-series and rightfully takes charge of a lineup that's known for attractive styling and wallet-friendly prices. It obviously made no sense to LG to start from scratch and the L9 is happily reusing bits and parts from nearly all of its fairly recent smartphone siblings. As far as we can tell, it does so rather well and the resulting mix looks like a great balance between price and features.

LG Optimus L9 official pictures

The LG Optimus L9 has the screen size of the current LG flagship and the qHD resolution is quite reasonable. It's powered by the same chipset as the latest Prada phone while the design is strongly reminiscent of the LG Optimus 4X HD and the Optimus G.

Let's see what else might pop out of the bag.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• Dual-band 3G with HSPA
• 4.7" 16M-color qHD IPS LCD (540 x 960 pixels) capacitive touchscreen
• Android OS v4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, LG Optimus UI 3.0
• TI OMAP 4430 chipset, dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, 1 GB RAM, PowerVR SGX540 GPU,
• 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• VGA front-facing camera
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• 4GB of built-in storage expandable via a microSD slot
• microUSB port
• Bluetooth v3.0
• NFC
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Voice dialing
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

Main disadvantages

• No Jelly Bean at launch
• Mediocre sunlight legibility
• Poor still camera and video recording quality
• Non-hot-swappable memory card slot

What we have here clearly isn't the best dual-core chipset on the market, but there's more than enough to keep Ice Cream Sandwich at cruising speed. Well yes, we would've loved to have Jelly Bean but even the flagship is still waiting. In terms of hardware though, the Optimus L9 has a number of advantages over some of its direct competitors.

LG Optimus L9 live pictures

Overall, the L9 is a package that has just about everything people look for in a modern smartphone and the right price tag should help users forgive the omissions. Quad-core CPUs and HD screens are well above the L9's price range and not everyone needs 8, 12 or 13 megapixel stills. It makes perfect sense for LG to try and fill a blank spot right below its premium line.

We now have an entire review to try and find out how well it actually did. Follow us on the next page, where we start as usual with unboxing and the traditional hardware tour.

The upcoming BlackBerry Z10 gets its internal revealed

RIM's upcoming BlackBerry Z10 flagship smartphone has leaked yet again. This time, though, it's not just posing for the camera, but also having its internals exposed, revealing some interesting details.

For starters, BusinessInsiders has acquired two photos of the BlackBerry Z10 being compared to the iPhone 4S. According to their source, the build quality is really solid with the back cover sporting a nice rubbery grip.

Additionally, the 4.3" screen looks really good. The person familiar with the matter also shares that the newly redesigned AppWorld looks a lot like Google's Play Store.

The leaks continue with smartphone parts company ETrade Supply, who also got hold of some components of the BlackBerry Z10 and in their usual fashion decided to showcase them.

Their investigation reveals a microSD card slot and an HDMI port. Rather peculiarly, the SIM card slot's position varies on the different prototypes, suggesting they are from different stages of the smartphone's design cycle. The smartphone will reportedly be about 10mm thick, which isn't too bad, but far from record-breaking either.

RIM will announce the BlackBerry Z10 alongside its redesigned BB10 OS on January 30 at a special event, so stay tuned.

Source (1) | Source (2) | Via (1) | Via (2)

Samsung Galaxy S IV to launch in May, says Samsung Lebanon

Samsung's Galaxy S line of flagships traditionally launches in Q2 - the original launched in June, the sequel in April and the Galaxy S III in May. What about the S IV? A post on Samsung Lebanon's Facebook account points to May for the Samsung Galaxy S IV launch date.

While we know better than to take anything coming from a Facebook page for granted, we wouldnt be the least bit surprised if the Galaxy S IV has a May launch (it's when the S III launched after all).

Earlier, Reuters reported that the S IV will be launching in April, which doesnt seems slightly less likely, given the enormous popularity the Galaxy S III and Note II are still enjoying.

That's for the launch date, when the new phone might be announced is a completely different matter. The first two of the line were announced a few months before launch, while the Galaxy S III was announced and launched in May. We expect the forth Galaxy S flagship to follow the footsteps of its predecessor, though, and only go official a couple of weeks before it hits the shelves.

Now if everyone could please stop with the CES/MWC announcement rumors - it's simply not happening. What we might see at CES though, is tech that will go into the Galaxy S IV like the rumored 5" 1080p Super AMOLED or a Cortex-A15 based chipset, which are also going around the rumor mill.

Note: Samsung Galaxy S IV concept render by Rozetked.

Thanks to Moussa for sending this in!

Source

comScore: Samsung and Android continue to dominate US

The most recent comScore figures confirm a trend we've become used to in 2012: Samsung and Google on top, with Apple steadily gaining ground.

In what is steadily turning into a two horse race, Android and iOS now combine to hold a whopping 88.7% of the smartphone market. RIM's BlackBerry OS continues to nosedive, down one point over the previous trimester to 7.3%, while Microsoft's Windows Phone OS has dropped to 3%.

In terms of total mobile devices (which includes feature phones as well as smartphones), Apple has passed LG and to become the second largest mobile OEM in the US. Its 1.4 percent point growth from August to September of 2012 was also the highest of any of the other top brands.

Keep in mind that both these charts reflect figures taken prior to the holiday season, so it'll be interesting to see how these numbers change when the next comScore figures roll around in February.

Finally, in terms of mobile content usage, almost everything you can do with your mobile phone has seen an increase in activity. Just under 76% use their phone for text messaging, while downloading apps and social networking have seen the largest increases over the past trimester, coming in at 54.2% and 39.2%, respectively.

Source | Via

Samsung releases fix for Galaxy S III kernel exploit in the UK

Samsung didnt let the holidays get in the way of patching security holes - it is already rolling out an fix for the kernel vulnerability for Exynos devices, at least for the highly popular Galaxy S III phone.

The updated software is I9300XXELLA and is available only in the UK for now. We suspect the updates for other regions are just around the corner, but Galaxy S III owners in the UK should update as soon as possible - the update is available both as OTA and via Kies.

The update also comes with a new bootloader - the first bootloader update for the Galaxy S III since its launch. SamMobile speculates that this bootloader fixes the sudden death issue, though there's no official confirmation from Samsung about that.

Source | Via

Samsung acknowledges Galaxy S III sudden death, fix is on the way

Throughout the last two months we've received numerous reports of Galaxy S III smartphones dying unexpectedly, usually overnight. Luckily those users who have experienced this trouble got their Galaxy S III quickly repaired (with replaced motherboards) or replaced altogether by Samsung.

Samsung has now officially acknowledged the issue, confirming to the guys over at Tweekers that a fix is in the works and will be arriving soon.

As it turns out the "sudden death" issue is affecting very small number of Galaxy S III phones with 16GB storage and appears about half a year after the initial activation. The device usually dies overnight while charging or when on long stand-by, or after a reboot.

There is no official information on when exactly Samsung will be ready with the fix, but we guess it will be shortly after the rollout of the 4.1.2 update completes.

Source (in Dutch) | Via

Sony Xperia Z pricing and new official photo emerge

Following yesterday's leaked official photo of the Xperia Z (formerly residing under the Yuga moniker), we now have the purported price tag that the device will carry.

According to Thai blog SonyXP, the SIM-free version of the Xperia Z will be selling in Thailand for as much as 19,900 Thai Baht off-contract. This converts roughly to an price of $655. The price will definitely vary from market to market, but this information certainly sets the tone for the Xperia Z' pricing.

Naturally, the information isn't anything close to official just yet, but we believe there's some authenticity to it, considering we haven't seen this particular Xperia Z photo before.

The Sony Xperia Z will enter the arena with other phones with 5 1080p screens this year but it also puts Sony into the quad-core race with its Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset. The Z will come out with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at launch.

The phone is rumored to become available some time in March. However, expect more official information on the Z once CES 2013 kicks off.

Source | Via

Nokia outs performance update for the 808 PureView via PC Suite

It's been a while since Nokia last updated its 41MP 808 PureView, but today the Finns are making the cameraphone owners happy with a new firmware release.

Pushing the phone's software to version 113.010.1508, the update is 420MB in size and is available through PC Suite.

Despite its size, the update is described to only bring "improved performance and features". Some people might be disappointed, but the update still counts, as it would reportedly make the phone handle better in day to day use.

To check if your 808 PureView has the update waiting for it, hook it up to your PC, start PC Suite and check for updates.

Source | Via

Huawei W1, Ascend D2 and Ascend Mate official photos leak

The first day of 2013 surely brought us a plethora of leaked images of upcoming phones. After we saw Sony's Xperia Z and ZL, now it's Huawei's turn.

We encountered the Ascend Mate phablet numerous times before - on leaked info, photos, even a Huawei Chairman showed the thing at a Huawei retail store in China.

Today, just a few days before the official announcement at CES, a new press shot made its way on the internet.

But the leaked images doesnt stop with the Ascend Mate. The quietly announced Ascend D2 also got a higher resolution photo, where we can spot Huawei's Emotion UI in greater detail than before. Just like Mate, D2 will also get its official debut at CES.

Huawei Ascend D2

Finally, Huawei's Windows Phone 8 gadget, the W1, got to show its four different colors. The W1 will be the third smartphone that Huawei will unveil at CES.

Source

Samsung says it will ship 510 million phones in 2013

Boosted by what has undoubtedly been a spectacular sales year, Samsung is predicting an even stronger 2013. The Korean giant expects to ship a total of 510 million handsets this year.

Of that total, some 390 million are expected to be smartphones, while the remainder will be of the feature phone variety. The smartphones will mostly belong to the Android-powered Galaxy series, but should also include a larger number of Windows Phone 8 devices.

The lion's share of devices will be produced in Samsung's Vietnamese factory, where some 240 million devices are expected to be manufactured. An additional 170 million units are expected to come out of China, followed by 40 million and 20 million in Korea and India, respectively.

One of the devices that can potentially help achieve the bold 2013 predictions is the upcoming GT-i9600, which recently leaked on the Nenamark 2 site. If the results are to be believed, the upcoming device will feature a 1.4 GHz processor of an unspecified number of cores, HD display, and Mali-400 MP graphics, all on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2.

The score of 58.5 fps is close to the 60fps screen limit so it doesn't really say much in regards to the performance of the device. Almost all recent top and even some mid-range devices tend to max out the NenaMark 2 benchmark, which is capped at 60 fps.

We'll let you know when we get more information on the I9600 - if the leak turns out to be legitimate, of course.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Via 1 | Via 2

Apple to replace Samsung with TSMC for the A6X chips

We got new reports of Apple working towards breaking the ties with Samsung. The company is reportedly moving the production of quad-core A6X chips out of Samsung's factories. It's no secret the Korean company has been doing lots of manufacturing work for Apple, but the fierce patent war the two companies are having over the past two years is obviously having its consequences.

The company to take over the production of the quad-core A6X chips is TSMC - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. It's the world's largest independent semiconductor manufacturer.

TSMC will begin trial production during Q1 of this year, probably to try and convince Apple that it can deliver the required amount of chips. A few months ago there were rumors Apple will be switching to TSMC's 20nm manufacturing process, so we can expect the new chips or the ones to follow to be manufactured using the 20nm process.

Source

Samsung Galaxy Note II sales in Korea top 1 million units

Samsung has achieved yet another sales milestone for its Galaxy Note II phablet. After reaching 5 million units sold only two months after its launch, Samsung has also reportedly shifted 1 million devices in Korea alone.

Happy New Year 2013 and thank you for all the support

The New Year is just around the corner and, as we say goodbye to year 2012, we cannot help but have a look back at all the work we've done.

Thanks to you, our readers, it's been a successful year for us at GSMArena.com. This year you pushed our website up in the list of the Top 400 websites globally (currently at the 389th spot), according to the independent internet statistics Alexa.com. We cannot thank you enough for that.

Overall, this year we churned out more than 1650 news articles, more than 2230 blog posts and a total of 167 reviews.

Our blog has been on the rise, coming up in leaps and bounds in the past 12 months. Our coverage there included regular tech news in all sorts of fields but, most importantly, we've been spicing it up with exclusive features and articles, which you seem to like a lot (such as our regular phone unboxings and battery tests).

We kept expanding our presence on Facebook, already closing in on 300,000 likes (a nearly three-fold increase this year alone).

Our phone reviewing routine saw some changes too. We made the Sunlight legibility test a part of our review routine. We also started doing even more reviews of US-only phones in an effort to be even more helpful to our US friends. Most recently we started our series of articles dedicated to helping you set up your newly purchased smartphone. Android went first, but iOS fans should expect to get the same treatment in the first days of the New Year.

The new year will hopefully be off to a good start too with two of the major industry events just around the corner. In 2013 we will have our second live coverage from the Consumer Electronics Show in the US (starting January 8) and a couple of months later, we'll traditionally report live from the Mobile World Congress (starting February 25).

Once again, thank you so much for your incredible support in 2012, we have some great plans for 2013 and we hope you will stick around to see what we will be up to.

Happy New Year to you and your loved ones, we wish you peace, prosperity and happiness. Cheers!

Image source

More images of BlackBerry N-Series make the rounds

After giving us a glimpse from a couple of blurry shots roughly a week ago, the upcoming BlackBerry N-Series smartphone has made another appearance. This time around, we get to see the hardware QWERTY smartphone in better quality images.

There are no further details available on the BlackBerry 10 smartphone. Previous reports have indicated that the device will target the BlackBerry purists under the X10 moniker when launched.

The BlackBerry N-Series will break cover on January 30, 2013 in New York City. We will be there live, so we'll tell you all about the device.

Source | Via

Jolla's Sailfish OS gets extensively demoed on video

After giving us a short glimpse of its UI in the official announcement's promo video, Jolla's Meego-based Sailfish OS got an extensive video demo, which offers a deeper look at its features. The still developing OS got shown off on Nokia N950 developer handset - a logical occurrence given the fact that most of the people behind the Sailfish project are ex-Nokia employees.

Making your way around the OS is based on intuitive hand gestures, whose clever implementation allows you one-handed use of the Sailfish device regardless of its screen size. The OS in general is easy to customize - starting from the shortcuts on the lockscreen, all the way to the OS's ambiance concept which changes the color of the UI elements once you change your wallpaper.

As we already know, Sailfish OS supports true multitasking, where minimized apps can appear as cards on the homescreen. Each card can be customized by developers to display real-time app info and controls.

Here goes the OS in action.

Despite being still in development, Jolla's Sailfish OS certainly shows a lot of promise. However, we already know too well that a mobile OS is as good as the amount and quality of apps on offer for it. The Sailfish SDK is currently being finalized, yet it has its source code available, and is still open to developer feedback. The OS itself supports both ARM and x86 devices, so we certainly hope that we hear more good news from Jolla when Sailfish OS gets finalized during Q1, 2013.

Source

More photos of the 6.1" Huawei Ascend Mate make the rounds

After being shown off by the company's chairman last week, the 6.1" 1080p display toting Huawei Ascend Mate has emerged in more photos. This time around, we get to have a better look at the device's physical appearance.

The rumored specs of the Huawei Ascend Mate include a 1.8GHz quad-core CPU (probably Huawei's own design), 2GB of RAM, 13MP camera, and a 4000mAh battery. The thickness of the giant is rumored to be 9.9mm.

In addition to the leaked images, an upcoming ad for the device has appeared as well. It compares the yet-to-be-announced Huawei offering to the Samsung Galaxy Note II's 5.5" screen. See it below.

The Huawei Ascend Mate will break cover during CES 2013 in Las Vegas. We will be live from Huawei's press conference, so be sure to stick around to find out all about the device.

Source | Via

Android for beginners: Setting up your new smartphone

Introduction

So you got an Android smartphone for Christmas? Congrats! Now, go ahead and do the robot dance. We'll pretend we're not watching. One thing you can be certain of, no one's gonna laugh at you. A new droid is worth celebrating - but if it's your first, you may as well want to make some noise.

Oh, and do take your time. You will soon give your new phone all the attention it deserves. After all, the more you take care of it, the better it'll serve you. Yes, it may seem scary at first, but it's not rocket science, we promise. Droids will do with occasional dusting and polishing, and regular oil changes.

A smartphone is a very powerful tool if used properly and getting the best out of it could seem like a daunting task at first. Hopefully, this article will help you find your way through the hundreds of settings and thousands of apps.

Android is an open source mobile operating system by Google. It's exactly the search giant who's doing all the development and there are some core Google apps for Android that should be taken care of before proceeding. Apps such as Search, Maps and Gmail are likely to have updated versions waiting for you on the Play Store.

Hopefully, the smartphone you just got the wraps off of is running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, or even Android 4.1/4.2 Jelly Bean, if you've been good all year. Oh, but even if that's not the case, you need not worry. Most of the apps we're about to cover are available for earlier Android builds too.

So without further ado, let's dive right in and show you what your new Android smartphone is capable of.