Monday 5 December 2011

Asus Padfone with quad-core Tegra 3 coming in early 2012

By on 22:04

It seems that the elusive Asus Padfone is about to finally materialize. The smartphone that can convert to a tablet is now said to come in early 2012 and it will get a nice specs boost to make it up to us for the delay.
According to the latest rumor, the Asus Padfone will be running on a Tegra 3 chipset, featuring no less than four Cortex-A9 cores (okay, five if you count that helper core, but that doesn't really count here). That would make the Padfone one of the first smartphones to pack so much punch under its hood and will certainly make it one of the more desirable devices at the start of next year.
If the NetbookNews.com sources got everything right, the Tegra 3-powered Asus Padfone should be unveiled at MWC 2012, which is just under three months away now.
Asus managed to outplay many of the other manufacturers with its Transformer tablet at the start of 2011, and theTransformer Prime is looking to be the Android tablet to have this holiday season. Will they manage to achieve something like that with smartphones with the Padfone?

Samsung SCH-W999 is a 2xCore, 2xSIM, 2xScreen droid

By on 22:01

In collaboration with China Telecom, Samsung has unveiled the SCH-W999 Android smartphone. It's a clamshell phone with two 3.5-inchers of WVGA resolution - one on the inside and one on the outside. Both screens are of the SuperAMOLED variety too, which is a treat even now with the Plus out on a couple of devices.
   
Samsung SCH-W999 promo shots
The SCH-W999 comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a dual-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM8660 processor, 5MP camera, dual-mode GSM/CDMA EV-DO 3G, Bluetooth 3.0 and dual-SIM support.
The SCH-W999 will arrive at China Telecom next year (no specific dates are available) and is expected to have a price as high as $1570 so it isn't what you'd call a bargain. Worldwide availability is unclear as of now but we can't really see too many people line up for the peculiar droid, but hey - we could be wrong.

Samsung demos a transparent flexible AMOLED on video

By on 21:51

We didn't need much convincing to believe that flexible and transparent screens have a great future. Smartphones and tablets these days are about the touch experience and any updates done to the screen itself have a great potential to improve the general user experience greatly.
Still, Samsung felt that it's a good time to release another visionary video demonstrating where the achievements of its R&D department can get us.
It's quite impressive right? Of course, it would be naive to expect anything like it from the first batch of flexible AMOLEDs, which should be out as early as next year. We are not sure when the transparent part of the deal described above will also come to the shelves, but we guess it will take another year at the very least.
Nonetheless, it's good to know that smartphone technology still has room for improvement and we might have something else besides pixel count and contrast to quarrel over in the works.

HTC Flyer is getting Android 3.2 Honeycomb, finally

By on 21:41

Flyer is HTC's first tab announced back in February and released in May with Android 2.2 Froyo. Later, it became clear the Flyer will be getting Honeycomb treatment later this year.
Well, the long wait is over. The Android 3.2 Honeycomb firmware has started rolling out. It is available as an OTA update and weighs in at 210MB, so downloading it over a Wi-Fi connection is probably a good idea.
Currently, the update is available in France for the 32GB Wi-Fi+3G version, but users from the Netherlands are reporting they are getting it too. We guess the process won’t be simultaneous but the update should be heading to every Flyer out there in the next couple of days (or weeks).
Got an updated Flyer, hit us up with what's new after the update in the comments below.

Sunday 4 December 2011

HTC Titan review: Huge is the new big

By on 18:54

One big scary smartphone, the HTC Titan. Visible from space. Oh well, a little exaggeration won't hurt. But as far as we can tell, they certainly wanted it big enough to see from Finland.
Microsoft have a thing going on up north that they want to explore. But old-time partners HTC won't take the cold shoulder. They are honoring their part of the agreement and making a big statement.
The size of the Titan aside, the message HTC are sending is loud and clear. Nokia will be instrumental in shaping the future, essential to fulfilling the vision of a third ecosystem. But here we are, delivering here and now.

HTC Titan
The Titan is among the first WP7 Mango phones to make it to the market. It’s the biggest too – and likely to stay this way for quite a while. And although it feels good to think HTC were keen to show to newly-fledged allies Nokia what’s what, the size of the phone is more than just muscle flexing.
Many upgraders will be looking at the Titan and the bigger screen is the right thing to show them. Otherwise the doubters would’ve been right to ask: why Titan and not a Mango-running HD7. But the display is not the only upgrade over last year’s Windows Phone flagship.

BlackBerry Curve 9360 review: Up and about

By on 18:52

This QWERTY messenger is compact and to the point, with clean and grown up design. The Curve 9360 is sure it can deliver, its confidence unshaken by unknowns and uncertainties. RIM must've enjoyed the safety and comfort of doing what they're best at.
BlackBerry Curve 9360 BlackBerry Curve 9360 BlackBerry Curve 9360 BlackBerry Curve 9360
BlackBerry Curve 9360 official pictures
The new Bold flagship and the next Torch generation did the Curve 9360 a favor by taking the pressure of high expectations off it. All it needs to do is focus on the important stuff: giving business users and heavy texters the quality service they deserve. And by the way, it should be the best Curve experience they ever had.
The higher-res screen, robust processor and the new BlackBerry OS 7.0 with NFC support propel the 9360 into an entirely different dimension. Well out of reach for the Curve as we knew it - stuck at QVGA screens and 2 or 3 MP cameras. In fact, it's an option that Bold 9700 and 9780 users would do well to consider. Blasphemy - upgrading from a Bold to a Curve! Well, no more. Just take a closer look at the specs.

Nokia Lumia 800 review: New beginnings

By on 18:35

It will take crowds erupting in delight to silence the ring of the "burning platform" speech in the Nokia Lumia 800's ears. The speaker being Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and the burning platform Symbian.
As Nokia are starting over, the Lumia 800 would do well not to look back. It's certainly beyond the ifs and buts. A shadow still lingers though. And there are people out there - loyal Nokia users too - who would've jumped in the fire with MeeGo rather than the freezing waters of Windows Phone.
   
Nokia Lumia 800 official photos
But it was for others to decide. The N9 was ordered to share its impressive unibody design with the Lumia 800. Good decision by Nokia - not saying fair - to give its WP7 pioneer a strong start. There are some Windows Phone mandated changes like the touch-sensitive Back, Menu and Search keys and a hardware shutter key.
The screen lost 0.2" and 54 pixels in height to make room for the capacitive controls. The oddly positioned secondary camera is gone as well. Still, the image quality of the screen seems unchanged - and we quite liked that AMOLED unit.
What else has changed? Well, there's a new chipset, among other things. To make this short, here're the pros and cons of the Nokia Lumia 800.

Motorola DROID RAZR MAX to come with a bigger battery?

By on 02:10
 So, what is the Motorola DROID RAZR MAX? The first confirmation about this mysterious device comes from a user who was told by a Verizon Store employee that a new Motorola DROID RAZR MAX is coming soon. It is supposed to be thicker, with a beefier battery and hence, longer battery life.
Then the name Motorola DROID RAZR MAX has come up again in some EXIF data.

That’s twice we hear the RAZR MAX moniker, so we guess there is a chance it might turn out a real device. Or the RAZR MAX might be a codename for one of the recently leaked (the XT928 has already gone official) China-bound RAZR versions. We guess we’ll know in a couple of weeks.