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Samsung working on super-efficient 6GB LPDDR4 RAM chips for next-gen smartphones, tablets and PCs

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In a blog post this morning, Samsung has announced that it is mass producing the world’s first 12gigabit (not to be confused with gigabyte/GB) LPDDR4 mobile RAM. It’s based on the company’s impressive 20-nanometer process tech and will enable the company to make higher capacity, faster, more powerful chips that fit into the same space as the current crop of flagship RAM modules…

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Report: Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ due to be announced on August 12, released August 21

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By now we’ve heard multiple rumors and reports on Samsung’s next generation phablet. In today’s latest report from SamMobile, the publication claims that it knows when the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ will be unveiled and released to the public. Citing its “insiders”, the report states that the Galaxy Note 5 will be announced on August 12th and be available to buy shortly afterwards on August 21th.


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HTC One M9 announced in 4 colors, 20MP sapphire camera, more – available this month

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One of the worst-kept tech secrets in recent memory, the HTC One M9 was finally announced today on stage by CEO Peter Chou at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. None of the specs were much of a surprise though the 20 megapixel sapphire camera and new configurable DotView cover will make some headlines. Under the hood is Qualcom’s new flagship 810 processor which HTC calls the fastest mobile processor in the world.

As for the appearance, I’m not sure I’m a fan of the Dual-Tone finish tweeted below but that beats the Pink version of the M9 IMHO.

[tweet https://twitter.com/htc/status/572052425693138944]

Me? I’ll skip the Sense 7 and will take a GPE if/when it comes out thank you very much.

Huge gallery and hands-on video below. We’ll have more HTC updates as they happen.
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Nexus 9 image (up)leaks, now all we need is a launch event and a price tag

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Just this weekend the Nexus 9 walted its way through the FCC and now the HTC-built Nexus tablet is making the leaked image rounds.  Interestingly, the back material looks similar to that of the rubber on the Samsung-built Nexus 10 which is now 2 years old.

Together with the Nexus 6/X, which is also making the rumor rounds including our own exclusives and some new Benchmarks, we’re expecting a launch event in the next week or so. Stay tuned.
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Press shots leak of Sony Xperia Z3 Compact in black, white, green and red/orange

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We’ve previously seen AutoCAD models, but Ausdroid has obtained what it says are two press shots of the Sony Xperia Z3 due to be launched at IFA in Berlin on Thursday. It has also listed specs which tally with those we posted this weekend: a 4.7-inch display 720×1280 display, a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 and 3GB of RAM.

The photos show four colors: black, white, a kind of mint green and a fourth color that looks more like orange in one shot and red in another (below) … 
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Samsung posts second ‘Ready to note’ teaser video ahead of next week’s launch of Galaxy Note 4

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Samsung Mobile has posted to its YouTube channel a second teaser video for the Galaxy Note 4, due to be launched on 3rd September at IFA in Berlin, with satellite events in New York and Beijing. Both videos highlight the S Pen that sets it apart from other tablets.

The first video focused on the concept of saving handwriting from being a lost art, while this new one showcases some of the other uses of the pen, from annotating maps through playing games, editing photos to typing on a keyboard.

If an early posting on an Indonesian retail site is genuine, the Note 4 will have a 5.7-inch 1440×2560 Super AMOLED display, a quad-core Snapdragon 805 (with a second version substituting an Exynos 5433) and 4GB of RAM. A separate report says that it will have a 16MP camera with a capacitive touch shutter button.

We’ll find out for sure in nine days on 3rd September.

Xiaomi announces $13 Mi Band wearable with phone unlock feature, and first LTE phone

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Rapidly-growing Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi announced its first wearable today, the Mi Band. While it’s a fitness band rather than a smartwatch, it does have one smartwatch-style feature: it can be used instead of a passcode to unlock Mi phones.

The waterproof Mi Band measures activity levels and sleep patterns, has a smart sleep-cycle alarm and claims to have a 30-day battery-life. Amazingly, it will be going on sale in China and Singapore for the equivalent of just $13 … 
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iPhone 6 clone ‘Gionee’ touted as world’s thinnest smartphone at 5mm

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A new phone called the Gionee Slim S 5.5 measures in at a mere 5mm thin and is being touted by the company as the world’s thinnest smartphone. Looking eerily similar to another rumored phone, it comes in ‘gold and white’ as well as ‘black and grey’ while also featuring a metal and glass chassis. Although it might be a cheap knockoff, its got impressive specs to back it up. The device boasts an unknown octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 2,300mAh battery. The phone retails for RS22,999, which comes to about $385.

OnePlus One hands-on and first impressions (Video)

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The OnePlus One is one of the most talked about devices in 2014. This budget flagship smartphone is here to take out the competition with high-end specifications that are comparable with any other top of the line device. OnePlus unveiled the device earlier this year and since then it has grabbed the attention of many consumers.

The first wave of devices are finally shipping and today we’re taking a look at the 64GB Sandstone Black model to find out what all of the hype is about. Check out our hands-on and overview video below for more information and a closer look at the OnePlus One…


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Oppo’s Find 7a UHD capabilities shown off in cinematic camera demo

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Oppo’s latest flagship smartphones are packing some serious specifications. Internally, the Find 7/Find 7a are not much different than Samsung’s Galaxy S5 or the HTC One (M8), but Oppo has made an effort to beat the pricing of both devices. YouTube creator Danny Winget has put together a camera test demonstrating the exceptional UHD video recording capabilities of the Find 7/Find 7a’s camera. The results look incredible and it’s actually hard to believe that this footage came straight from a smartphone.


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Chinese phone cloner Goophone copies Samsung S5, some specs & all, in under 48 hours

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Goophone, the Chinese company famous for making cheap-and-cheerful rip-offs of high-end handsets, has taken just two days to create its copy of the Samsung Galaxy S5. Unlike its iPhone copy, based on a low-spec Android handset, the company has even got close to the real specs with its Goophone S5 (yep, it really is that shameless).

The knock-off handset matches the real thing with a 1920×1080 display, 2GB RAM and 2800mAh battery, gets close with cameras (13MP/5MP against 16MP/2.1MP) and includes dual SIM slots into the bargain. Don’t expect the same performance from the 2GHz octa-core MediaTek chip, however, and the quality of the screen is unlikely to stand close scrutiny.

At $300 contract-free, it comes in at around half the expected price of the real thing.

Via Engadget

Samsung S5 “Prime” & “Standard” models on the way, Sprint getting lower-spec’d one?

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Samsung looks set to launch at least two different versions of the Galaxy S5, its replacement for the current range-topping S4, code-named Prime and Standard – and it appears possible that Sprint will be getting the lower-spec version.

The two versions first showed up in benchmarks by AnTuTu, showing a Prime model labelled US Cellular and a lower-spec Standard model labelled Europe … 
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Flurry of new Samsung tablets expected to launch tonight as specs leak

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Samsung has put up banners at CES for a new Galaxy Note PRO and Tab PRO, which it is expected to unveil tonight (photo courtesy of Engadget) – and thanks to leaked specs from the generally dependable @evleaks, we think we have a good idea what to expect.

The leak suggests that four new models will be launched, with 3G and LTE variants, in 8.4-, 10.1- and 12.2-inch sizes.

[tweet https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/420094062390431744]

The 12.2-inch NotePRO and TabPRO devices appear to be identical bar the S-Pen of the former. Specs are said to be a quad-core Snapdragon 800 2.3GHz processor for the LTE version, and Samsung’s own quad-core Exynos 5 Octa chip running at 1.9GHz in the Wifi/3G variant. Other specs are said to be identical for both versions … 
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Is this next year’s HTC flagship handset? Claimed M8 photos leak

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The photographic qualities leave a lot to be desired, but if the Chinese forum Baidu is to be believed, this is the casing for HTC’s successor to the HTC One, codenamed the M8 (the HTC One was codenamed M7).

The hole above the camera is believed to be for a fingerprint sensor, already found in the HTC One Max. The rumor mill says the specs will be a Snapdragon 800 CPU with 3GB of RAM. Generally-reliable source @evleaks says it will be the first handset to run Sense 6.0 … 
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Regulatory filing suggests Samsung S4 Active Mini on the way

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The images are rather blurry and lacking in detail, but a regulatory filing spotted by Chinese site Tenaa of a handset described by Samsung as the GT-I8580 looks rather like a smaller version of the S4 Active, reports Engadget.

Visually, it looks like the chunky Galaxy S4 Active, what with its return to physical buttons and a fairly robust (and cheaper looking) case. Aside from that there’s little to go on, although that model number has previously been associated with a benchmarked phone featuring a 4.65-inch display with a low-end 480 x 800 resolution … 
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AT&T to sell Samsung Galaxy S III Mini for 99 cents starting Sept. 27

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AT&T announced today that it will begin selling the Samsung Galaxy S III mini, which was first released in November of last year, as a smaller entry level version of Samsung’s flagship at the time, the Galaxy S III. It might be a last generation device– Samsung unveiled the S4 mini at its event back in June— but that’s why AT&T will sell it for 99 cents on contract when it becomes available on September 27.

As a reminder, the S III mini includes a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box, and packs in a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 5 megapixel main camera. You’ll also of course get Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on top of with S Beam, S Voice, Group Play, and other Samsung goodies.

AT&T will kick off preorders for the Galaxy S III mini starting tomorrow.
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Upcoming Kindle interface shown in new Fire leaks

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From the latest @evleak we can see the rumored new Kindle Fire third generation above. It would appear that Amazon is unfortunately keeping their big bezels and also their heavy proprietary overlay. From the image you can see updated UI improvements that will likely also hit the current lineup. We’re sadly not expecting to see a Google Play Store App like the recently announced Nook OS updates with hundreds of thousands of apps including Google’s Maps, Plus, YouTube, Gmail and more.

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BGR caught the purported angular backside of this generation of Kindle earlier this week and together we can usually conclude that leak frequency increase means launch soon. As for specs, BGR’s source says:

Amazon’s new 7-inch Kindle Fire HD will feature a high-resolution 1,920 x 1,200-pixel display, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset clocked at more than 2GHz, 2GB of RAM, Wi-Fi, optional cellular data, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage.

The updated 8.9-inch model is said to feature nearly identical specs beneath its 2,560 x 1,600-pixel high-definition display, and it also includes an 8-megapixel rear camera.

We’re told both models are lighter and more comfortable to use than the current-generation tablets they will replace.

If you are in Amazon’s ecosystem, this could be exciting news. However we’d take the new smaller-bezel Nexus 7 with an Amazon app sight unseen.


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Samsung unveils the Galaxy Note 3 and 10.1 2014 edition with updated specs across the board

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Samsung’s JK Shin today announced the Galaxy Note 3 at IFA today with improved LTE radios, better enterprise capabilities and improved specs. The Note 3 has a 5.7″ 1080p screen (up from 5.5″), 3GB of RAM (up from 2), 13 megapixel camera, 32/64GB storage, 3200mAh battery and a leather-like rear cover. It is also thinner and lighter even with the bigger display.

Samsung also updated the Note 10.1 2014 edition with better speakers, leather cover and display.

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September 25th is the launch date and the products will roll out globally in October. Press releases and videos follow:
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Why wait until Google’s announcement? Best Buy has the new 1080P Nexus 7 on Tuesday

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+Fabio Santos is ahead of the game when it comes to weekly circulars. According to the G+ user, Best Buy’s weekly circular features this week’s big hardware announcement from Google, the new Nexus 7 tablet. The specs (1920×1200 display) and price seem right in line with what we’re hearing, but available Tuesday before Google has a chance to announce it on Wednesday? That seems a bit premature. As pointed out by  Android Central, this could be next week’s circular, putting the Best Buy release date at  June 30th.

What we know about the Motorola X Fon (ghost): 25+ color options, all US carriers, early July ship, more

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Update: We’ve been asked to remove the picture.

We’ve been sitting on some good Motorola X Fon information for awhile but weren’t able to confirm it until the most recent leaks which seem to corroborate what we have.  It turns out that the leaked images by Tinhte and @Evleaks appear to be legitimate Motorola X prototypes according to our source.  The phone above is a drawing the X FON which now appears to be the same phone pictured below:

The information we’ve heard from our source who has seen it a LTE version was that it will be released on all 4 US carriers and come in over 25 different color options.  The bottom bezel is remarkably small as you can see from the drawing above and the Tinhte.vn images. Like the other ones pictured, this one was 32GB storage, 2GB of RAM, and no SDCard.  Like the others, it was still running Android 4.2 recently and was codenamed ‘ghost’.

Both volume and power buttons are on the right side. Headphones jack is on top center, charging port was on bottom center.

The display was estimated to be 4.7 inches but with the very slim bezel on the bottom it felt very small. Perhaps as small as a 4.3-inch phone.

What we’re thinking at this point is that this phone looks like the successor to the Droid RAZR or RAZR M – small bezels, 4.3-4.7-ish display, extremely long battery life. But what about all of those colors and protection we’ve heard so much about?

Here’s what we’re thinking: Motorola is going to offer protective plates/skins in 25 colors from the point of ordering. 80-90% of people buy protection for the phones so perhaps Motorola is owning this aspect of the device from the order and can provide almost an almost indestructible, perhaps water-resistant customization.

Well, that’s our current thinking. We’ll likely hear what’s on offer at Google I/O in a few weeks.

HTC launching low-cost One variant by the end of June

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If you love the HTC One but are not so keen on its price-tag, HTC may have the solution in the form of a lower-cost variant currently code-named the M4 (the HTC One was code-named M7).

Phone Arena says the handset is almost identical in appearance to the HTC One, but smaller, using cheaper materials and with a lower-spec – a similar approach to that taken by Samsung with its S III mini version of its then flagship S III. Or perhaps in the previous generation – where the HTC One S was the mini version of the One X.

M4 reportedly steps down the processing power, to just a dual core CPU, and storage is just 16GB, but RAM is still a healthy 2GB, and the camera also contains HTC’s lauded (but somewhat controversial) UltraPixel technology. With less powerful components come less stringent power needs, and in this case, HTC has allegedly opted for a 1700mAh, non-removable battery.

The handset is said to have a 4.3-inch 720p display, LTE and is expected to run Jelly Bean 4.2, a step up from the One’s 4.1.