Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus preview: First look

Introduction

It's not the end of the road just yet for the Galaxy S III but it would do well to prepare to pass the torch on. Yet, while the current flagship is coming to terms with mortality, Samsung obviously believes there's still fight left in the old Galaxy S II. The company just unveiled a revamped version of its ex-Number One to take advantage of the software goodies introduced by the Galaxy S III.

Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus official images

The Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus has borrowed the finish of the Galaxy S III and is powered by a new chipset with a Broadcomm GPU. It's not a sea change by any means, but no wonders are expected of the Plus version really. All it tries to do is freshen up a proven formula and help Samsung tighten its grip on the midrange.

Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus at a glance

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
• Dimensions: 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm, 121 g
• Display: 4.3" 16M-color WVGA (480 x 800 pixels) Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen, Gorilla Glass,
• CPU: Dual-core ARM Cortex A9 1.2 GHz processor
• GPU: Broadcomm VideoCore IV
• RAM: 1GB
• OS: Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)
• Memory: 8GB storage, microSD card slot
• Camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection, touch focus and image stabilization; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps, LED flash, front facing camera, video-calls
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0+HS, MHL-enabled standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, USB-on-the-go, NFC (I9105P)
• Misc: TouchWiz 5.0 Nature UX, DivX/XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor

With FullHD screens popping left and right, and quad-core Cortex-A15's, a WVGA Super AMOLED Plus and the dual-core CPU are hardly a geek's wet dream. However, having run a leaked JB test ROM on the original Galaxy S II for a while now, we can confirm that it's a setup that works fine under Jelly Bean, delivering a pretty solid smartphone experience. Probably not one you will crave, but certainly one you wouldn't mind spending your money on.

What will be a bit harder for the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus is convince us that it's worth picking over the original. Perhaps the Koreans simply plan on finally retiring their 2011 flagship and replacing it with the new model, which is obviously in line with their new design language.

The Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II at ours

Or perhaps the new chipset and finish have helped Samsung lower the production cost and price the Galaxy S II Plus more competitively than the original version.

Anyway, while the price tag is of utmost importance to users, these are just speculations at this point. So, let's try and focus on how well the changes work, and what kind of performance the Galaxy S II Plus can provide.

Goodbye, CES 2013, here is what we'll remember you for

The CES 2013 is over. It wasn't quite as exciting at last year, but it wasn't a complete waste of time either.

There were a few persistent features, which will define the mobile industry this year and suggest what to expect from the upcoming MWC, IFA, etc. The 5-inch 1080p screens are the new thing for the flagships.

We've never been such fans for the double-digit megapixels, but 13MP cameras will probably become the norm in 2013, too.

LTE is continuing its expansion, making its way to more phones than ever before, while design starts to play an increasingly important role in the smartphone game.

Sony's event was probably the highlight of the show bringing the first two members of the Xperia 2013 lineup - the flagships Xperia Z and Xperia ZL. We managed to spend some quality time with those beasts and you can find all about them right here.

Huawei was the dark horse bringing us the sweet sounding Ascend D2 and Ascend Mate droids. While the first one combines the top-notch tech Huawei is manufacturing right now, the Mate tries to stretch the definition of phablet with its 6.1" screen. The Windows Phone 8-running Ascend W1 mid-ranger also debuted at this year's CES.

Somewhat disappointingly, Samsung didnt introduce new phones in Las Vegas (it did unveil the new Galaxy S II Plus yesterday, but it didn't actually bring it to the CES floor). At least, we finally got to see the face of the Windows Phone 8-running ATIV Odyssey for Verizon. We also learned the Galaxy S III mini is getting some new colors and that the company is working on a flexible OLED screen for mobile gadgets.

Alcatel pretty much overwhelmed us with new gadgets. It announced six Android smartphones - Scribe X, Scribe HD-LTE, One Touch Idol Ultra, X'Pop, S'Pop and T'Pop. And that wasn't even all - five droid tablets were announced too - Evo 7 HD, Evo 7, One Touch Tab 7, One Touch Tab 7 HD and One Touch Tab 8 HD.

Next, Pantech brought the affordable Discover smartphone to AT&T.

ZTE announced the Grand S with the claim it's the slimmest smartphone with a 5" 1080p display.

Lenovo showcased the K900 - a 5.5-inch 1080p droid with a brand new dual-core Atom processor and a few affordable dual-SIM droids, too - the IdeaPhone S890, S720, A800 and A690.

Then there was Vizio with its 5-inch 1080p and 4.7-inch 720p droids plus the first Tegra 4-based tablet.

Bear with us, we are almost done! Speaking of slates, Acer showcased the ultra cheap Iconia B1-A71 7-inch tablet running on Jelly Bean; Archos introduced the Titanium 70, 80, 97 and 101 quartet, while Panasonic wow-ed us with a 20-inch 4K Windows 8 slate and some rugged Android slates. Even Polaroid is getting ready to launch two Android 4.1-based tablets - the 10" M10 and 7" M7. How about that?!

Finally, we got to see the next generation of mobile chipsets, which will power some of the most exciting smartphones coming in 2013. Qualcomm introduced the latest Snapdragon 800 (quad-core 2.3GHz Krait, Adreno 330) and 600 (dual-core 1.9GHz Krait, Adreno 320) SoCs.

Samsung then stole the spotlight with its eight-core Exynos 5 Octa chipset, featuring four ARM Cortex-A15 cores and four ARM Cortex-A7 ones.

STE also announced its latest chipset - the NovaThor L8580 - with a quad-core Cortex-A9 CPU. As you've probably guessed, the last one will find place in mid-range devices.

Well, CES 2013 might be over, but MWC 2013 is just around the corner. Here is hoping, it will bring even more interesting announcements and cool gadgets for us to play with.

Nokia launches Lumia 920 and 820 in India, 620 coming in February

Nokia is launching its Lumia 920 flagship in India today alongside the Lumia 820. The phones will be available in brick and mortar stores as well as through Nokia's online store with free shipping starting tomorrow and will cost $697 and $504 (RS 38,199 and RS 27,599)respectively.

The budget Windows Phone 8 offering Lumia 620 will be available in India from February but the price and exact date aren't available just yet.

The Lumia 920 isn't exactly on the cheap side - you could get a Galaxy S III for less and a Galaxy Note II for about the same. The Lumia flagman is, however, cheaper than a brand new iPhone 5.

HTC's Windows Phone 8X and 8S, which are the other available WP8 smartphones in India are also priced lower, but that's to be expected given their more modest specs sheets.

To refresh your memory the Lumia 920 has a 4.5" ClearBlack IPS display on tap with the PureMotion HD+ technology, which ensures higher framerates for lower motion blur. There's an 8.7 MP snapper on the back with PureView technology for enhanced low-light performance and Carl Zeiss optics. The device is powered by a dual-core Snapdragon S4 with two 1.5 GHz Krait cores.

The Lumia 820 uses a lower-grade dual-core Krait chip, 8 MP camera with 1080p video recording and a 4.3" ClearBlack AMOLED display of WVGA (480 x 800) resolution.

Finally the Lumia 620 has a 3.8" WVGA screen (again ClearBlack technology), 5 MP camera and a dual-core 1 GHz Krait processor.

All three smartphones are running on the Windows Phone 8 platform.

Thanks, Aswin Bhojarajan for sending this in!

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Phil Schiller dismisses rumors of Apple making a cheap iPhone

We have been hearing rumors of Apple working on a cheaper iPhone, something that is backed by both The Wall Street Journal as well as Bloomberg. But it seems that may not be the case after all.

In an interview with China's Shanghai Evening News, Senior Vice President Worldwide Marketing at Apple - Phil Schiller - said that Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones [in China], this will never be the future of Apples products".

While this comes across as a clear dismissal of the rumors, it won't be the first time when Apple said that they were not going to do something and then basically do that thing later on. Then again, with Apple's strategy of selling previous generation iPhones at a lower cost, one does have to wonder where this 'cheap iPhone' would fit and if it is even necessary.

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STE unveils NovaThor L8580 chipset with quad-core A9 CPU

If you're the benchmark-obsessed geek than CES 2013 might be turning out quite exciting for you.

After Samsung unveiled its latest and greatest Exynos 5 Octa chipset, NVIDIA announced Tegra 4 and Qualcomm lifted the curtain of its newest Krait-powered Snapdragon 600 and 800 series SoCs, it's now ST-Ericsson's turn to stand in the spotlight. The company just announced its latest NovaThor chipset - the L8580.

It comes with a low-power eQuad processor with four Cortext-A9 cores, clocked at up to 2.5 GHz, the PowerVR SGS544 GPU and the ability to go low-power and run at 0.6V.

The NovaThor L8580 can deal with 1080p video and support display resolutions of up to 1920 x 1200 pixels. 20MP primary cameras and 5 MP secondary ones are allowed too and there's built-in LTE HSPA+, TD-SCDMA and EDGE radios. 3D reproduction and capture is also on board if that's your thing.

The ST-Ericsson L8580 chipset should allow the creation of affordable mid-range devices with excellent processing power and good battery life. The top shelf smartphones and tablets will move on to Cortex-A15 architecture this year, but there's plenty of ground below them for the NovaThor L8580 to cover.

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Both Sony Xperia Z and Xperia ZL will be available in Canada

It seems that the early info that the Sony Xperia Z and Xperia ZL aren't going be sharing markets was wrong - Sony Mobile's Twitter account posted a message saying that both models will be available in Canada.

Both Android phones were announced at CES and they share a lot of their specs, including screen and chipset. The Xperia Z is thin (7.9mm) and waterproof, but has a larger footprint (139 x 71mm), while the Xperia ZL is not water-proof and is thicker (9.8mm), but it's smaller (131.6 x 69.3).

There are some other differences, you can check our hands-on for the full details.

Anyway, it's a good thing that Sony is letting users choose which model they want. Worldwide launch plans are still not officially announced, so it's not clear if other regions like mainland Europe, the UK and Australia (all of which are slated to get the Xperia Z) will have such a choice.

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Samsung announces Exynos 5 Octa, an A15 and A7 hybrid SoC

Samsung isn't done with CES 2013. We just got the company's latest and without a doubt most exiting announcement yet - the Exynos 5 Octa chipset.

It brings 8 processor cores, which distribute the work load among each other. Four Cortex-A15 cores ensure incredible performance while the other four are low-power Cortex-A7s that kick in for the less demanding tasks and save battery power.

The chipset is based on ARM's big.LITTLE tech, which ensures that you will always get enough performance without having to deal with terrible battery life.

Samsung promises up to 70% lower power consumption compared to the Exynos 5 Dual, which is powering the Google Nexus 10 tablet and the latest Chromebook by Samsung.

The Exynos 5 Octa could posses as much as twice the 3D rendering prowess of the Exynos 4 Quad, which is found in the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III.

There's no official word yet on which devices are going to use the new Exynos 5 Octa or when but we suppose the next Galaxy S and Note devices are a safe guess.

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Jelly Bean-running Samsung Galaxy S II Plus announced

The Galaxy S II was a big seller for Samsung and it lives on in 2013 with a brand new variant - the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus. Just like the Galaxy S Plus last year, the S II Plus launches with a revamped design, updated OS and new chipset.

The Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Nature UX and is powered by a chipset with a dual-core Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, a Broadcomm GPU and 1GB of RAM. It packs the same 4.3" WVGA Super AMOLED Plus screen as the original Galaxy S II.

Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus official images

Other things are the same as well - 8MP main camera with 1080p video recording (but with promised zero shutter lag), 2MP secondary camera, 3G with 21Mbps HSPA+, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0+HS. Built-in storage has been cut down to 8GB, but the microSD card slot remains.

There's optional NFC too - the I9105 S II Plus without it is 8.5mm thick while the NFC-enabled I9105P is a hair thicker at 8.9mm. The other dimensions are 125.3 x 66.1 regardless of model, that's the same as the original. At 121g it's a bit heavier though (the classic Galaxy S II is 116g). The battery is the same at 1650mAh capacity.

What has changed is the exterior - it now uses the same hyperglazed plastic as the Samsung Galaxy S III and is available in Chic White and Dark Blue.

We have hands-on photos of the Blue version. Check out our gallery if you want to see more.

Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus live photos

While the Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II will pack the latest Nature UX features like Smart Stay and Page Buddy, the original I9100 Galaxy S II will be getting Jelly Bean soon with most of the same features. Then there's the I9100G Galaxy S II model, which uses a TI OMAP chipset instead.

There's no launch date or pricing info on the Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II Plus yet.

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Samsung Galaxy S III mini officially gets four new colors

A few days ago there was info that the Samsung Galaxy S III mini will be getting new colors and today it's official. The new colors are Garnet Red, Onyx Black, Titan Gray, and Amber Brown (which the earlier info missed). That's in addition to the original Ceramic White and Pebble Blue.

With these new colors, the Galaxy S III mini has the same color options as the full size S III (well, except for the La Fleur special edition).

The new colors are available only on the French Samsung site for now, they are not available in the UK, Spanish or German sites, for example. The Taiwanese site (the original info came from Taiwan) has a picture of the Garnet Red version, but there's no trace of the others.

We suspect it will take a bit until Samsung updates all its sites and then a while longer before the new color versions of the Samsung Galaxy S III mini become available in stores.

Source (in French) | Via

Sony Xperia Z might arrive in Europe on February 18

Sony Xperia Z is the highlight of this year's CES, but it was only expected to hit the shelves in March. Various online retailers already listed the phone for the beginning of March and on about 530 (650) price.

According to an authorized Sony retailer for Poland we might not have to wait all that long. The website of the store lists the smartphone with a February 18 release. The price however stands at a rather steep 680.

This is not an official Sony store, but is an officially authorized retailer, so there is some credibility to the announced date. Of course there is a note that the date is subject to change, but here's hoping this is just a standard disclaimer.

A hat tip for Tom, who sent this in!

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Lenovo brings four dual-SIM IdeaPhone droids to CES

The K900 phablet might be hogging the spotlight, but Lenovo has four more Android handsets to show at CES. Details are a bit scarce, but they are all dual-SIM devices and range from an entry-level Gingerbread droid to a 5" Jelly Bean upper mid-ranger.

That upper mid-ranger would be the Lenovo IdeaPhone S890 - it has a 5" qHD (540 x 960) screen with 220ppi pixel density and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It packs an 8MP camera with flash inside a 9.3mm thick body that weighs 176g.

The IdeaPhone S720 has a smaller 4.5" IPS LCD screen of qHD resolution (245ppi). The phone runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, powered by a dual-core MTK processor. There's an 8MP camera on the back and a 1MP snapper at the front. The S720 has a 2000mAh battery and is 9.9mm thick.

Lenovo IdeaPhone S890 IdeaPhone S720

The final two phones are from the entry-level A series - the A800 and A690. The Lenovo IdeaPhone A800 has a 4.5" FWVGA screen (480 x 854, 218ppi) and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. It runs Android 4.0 ICS and has a 2000mAh battery.

The IdeaPhone A690 sticks to Android 2.3 Gingerbread and a single-core 1GHz processor. Its screen is a 4" WVGA unit.

Lenovo IdeaPhone A800 IdeaPhone A690

The five Lenovo IdeaPhone handsets are launching this month in China and will be expanding to other regions soon. Lenovo is mum on when that will be and there's no pricing info yet.

Source 1 Source 2 (in Spanish)

Lenovo K900: 5.5" 1080p screen, 13MP camera and dual-core Atom

Lenovo brought the successor to the K800 to CES - the Lenovo K900 is an Intel-powered, Android-running phablet with a 5.5" 1080p screen. The device is also one of the thinnest in its class with a 6.9mm thick stainless steel and polycarbonate unibody.

Lenovo K900

The K900 packs a Gorilla Glass 2 protected 5.5" IPS LCD screen with 400ppi pixel density, matching the ZTE Grand S. The phablet weighs 162g and Lenovo put a lot of work into making sure nothing sticks out beyond the 6.9mm thickness.

Not even the 13MP camera that uses a Sony BSI sensor and an impressively bright F/1.8 lens. The front-facing camera has an 88-degree viewing angle for better self-shots and video calling.

The Lenovo K900 runs Android and is powered by a dual-core Intel Atom Z2580 processor (Clover Trail+). There's no official info on the Android version or the CPU specs, but various sources mention 1.8GHz or 1.5GHz clock speed.

The K900 will launch in China this April and will expand to "select regional markets" shortly after. The pricing will be announced later.

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The Sony Xperia Z hits the UK in March, sells for £528

Shortly after Sony Xperia Z's official unveiling at CES, UK retailer Phones4U has announced that it'll start offering the 5" phablet starting this March. Retailer Clove has also announced it'll be offering the device.

Traditionally, the Z will also be available through the country's major carriers and Vodafone has went ahead and announced planned availability too. However, unlike Phones 4U, Vodafone hasn't specified the timeframe of the smartphone's arrival.

Sony hasn't announced the official pricing of the Z just yet, although Thai sources have indicated that the phone will be retailing there at around $655, meaning we might see the SIM-free device sell around the 450-500 mark in the UK.

Update: Clove has posted a 528 price tag for the unlocked, SIM-free version of the Xperia Z, which is a bit pricier than we initially expected.

The Sony Xperia Z runs on the latest Snapdragon S4 Pro 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.

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Huawei quietly showcases WP8-running Ascend W1 at CES

Yesterday Huawei held a press event at CES and announced the Android flagship Ascend D2 and the phablet Ascend Mate. The earlier rumors suggested a WP8-running Ascend W1 joining them on stage, but for some reason that didnt happen.

As it turns out though, the Ascend W1 was at the press conference after all, even if it still hasn't been properly introduced.

Huawei Ascend W1

The Ascend W1 is a mid-range device based on the Qualcomm's MSM8230 Snapdragon S4 chipset with a 1.2GHz dual-core Krait processor, Adreno 305 graphics and 512MB of RAM.

The W1 packs a 4-inch WVGA TFT display, a 5MP snapper with 720p video recording, a 0.3MP front-facing camera, 4 gigs of internal storage expandable via a microSD slot. The connectivity department offers HSPA+, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC.

Its battery is not as impressive as the D2 or Mate, though, having a capacity of just 1950 mAh. Given the size difference it's still a decent achievement, though.

Huawei Ascend W1

There is no info on the pricing and the availability of the Huawei Ascend W1, but we guess China will be the first country to get it in a month or two.

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Microsoft sold 5 times more phones this Christmas season

With Microsoft being a major Qualcomm partner, last night Steve Ballmer dropped by Qualcomm's press conference and shared on stage that Windows Phones are enjoying increasing popularity.

Of course, he didn't mention any specific numbers, but what he did say is in November 2012 they've sold 4 time more smartphones than the same time last year.

And even better, around this holiday season, that number rose to 5 times the last year's Christmas sales.

Now we wouldn't count on this to be any serious number given that analysts have found Microsoft's market share to actually shrink in the US this November compared to August. And Windows Phone is still at the bottom of the mobile OS ladder besting only the dying Symbian breed.

Anyway, we guess even analysts don't know the exact number so these are just estimates. In fact, nobody will know anything certain before Microsoft themselves announce a proper number for smartphone activations - something, which is hardly going to happen anytime soon.

While we were watching Qualcomm's press conference, we couldn't help but snap a few more screenshots with Steve Ballmer being such an expressive stage speaker as usual. We hope you appreciate the humor in the situation, we are by no means trying to belittle Microsoft's efforts and their otherwise top-notch mobile operating system.

Steve Ballmer presenting Windows Phone at Qualcomm's press event

Interested to hear the man speak himself, checkout the video in the source link below. You might want to fast forward to 19:00m to get to the part about smartphones. It's only 2-3 minutes long.

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HTC Q4 results show poor revenues, plummeting profits

HTC released its unaudited Q4 results, which met the company's dim prediction but missed on what analysts expected.

Operating income was NT$600 million (around $21 million) while net income before taxes was NT$1 billion (around $35 million).

Analysts had predicted revenue of NT$60.5 billion while HTC's prediction of NT$60 billion (around $2 billion) turned out the right one.

HTC wasn't able to capitalize on devices like the One X+ and DROID DNA, which affected negatively the results this past quarter. The increased competition from Samsung and Apple's top smartphones also reduced the market share and in turn revenue away from HTC.

According to Bloomberg HTCs share of the global smartphone market dropped to 4.6 percent in the third quarter from 10.3 percent a year earlier.

Things are expected to take a turn for the better in Q1, when the increased availability of the HTC Butterfly and production rates of the DROID DNA will help boost HTC's net income to NT$2.16 billion (around $74 million) and revenue to NT$61.8 billion (around $2.13 billion).

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Samsung Galaxy S III mini to get Red, Black and Grey color options

The Samsung Galaxy S III mini tries to follow in the footsteps of its big brother and now its in the "getting new color versions" phase that the S III went through a while back.

The Galaxy S III mini launched with the standard White and Blue color options but a brochure shows that three new color options will be added next month in Taiwan.

The new colors are Red, Black and Grey, almost matching the color choices for the big Galaxy S III (which also has a Brown version and a special La Fleur paint job).

The Galaxy S III mini is priced at 9,900 Taiwanese dollars ($340) and will become available in Taiwan starting in February. There's a promotion too - people who buy an S III mini before the end of March will get a matching leather Flip Cover.

There's no info on when the new colors for the S III mini will become available outside of Taiwan, but it probably won't be long.

Thanks to Lex for the tip!

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We are in Las Vegas, as CES 2013 gets ready to kick-off

The first big electronics show of the year is about to kick off and as usual many of the big names in the mobile business will be holding a press conference a day early. Our team is on site and we're ready to bring you detailed coverage of all the action.

As usual the place is Las Vegas, Nevada and there is a lot to come in the next few days - from smartphones to tablets, laptops to cameras, etc.

So let's take a look at some of highlights of the show.

LG and Samsung both released trailers of their CES plans but without revealing anything concrete. We might see the Optimus G2 with its 1080p screen, although chances are slim.

Huawei is going all in with the Windows Phone 8-powered Ascend W1 budget smartphone, the Ascend D2 with a 5" 1080p screen, quad-core 1.5 GHz K3V3 CPU and Android Jelly Bean and finally the 6.1" Ascend Mate with a Full HD screen and quad-core K3V3 CPU, clocked at 1.8 GHz.

Then comes Sony with the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL. Both are touted to bring IP57 certification and we already saw the Xperia Z at the CES floor. It sports a 5" 1080 x 1920 display, 13 MP snapper, Android Jelly Bean and a quad-core 1.5 GHz Krait processor with 2 GB worth of RAM.

Then comes another 5" 1080p smartphone - the ZTE Grand S.

It's safe to say that this year's CES will be mostly about 5" (and above) displays of 1080p resolution. Stay tuned!

The upcoming BlackBerry Z10 gets its internals 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.

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Samsung Galaxy S II JB update detailed, coming very soon

Samsung has kept its promise from last year and has now revealed details regarding the Galaxy S II Jelly Bean update.

In addition to the enhanced performance that Project Butter in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will provide, the update will also bring features from the Galaxy S III such as Smart Stay, Pop-up Play and Pause while recording video.

Some new applications will also come preinstalled such as Google+, Talk, Play Book and Play Movie (for the markets that support them). Easy mode for new users and Block mode for ignoring phone calls are also included.

The Galaxy S II Jelly Bean update will reduce the phone's internal memory from 12GB to 11GB, using the missing space for system partition. Once released into the wild, the update will be carried out through Samsung's KIES only, as it'll re-partition the memory system and will take around one hour or even more in some cases.

With such details available we can only expect the update to get its release in the coming week or so. Naturally, we'll let you know once it starts seeding.

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