Yesterday the LG G4 finally became official. After a sea of rumors and speculation, the phone was finally announced and today the handset is already up for preorder in the UK. Offers are currently available from various sources, including unlocked-mobiles.com, Clove, Amazon and Expansys.

Currently, unlocked-mobiles.com lists 3 color options – two standard – Metallic Gray and Gold for £499.87 and a black leather option for £529.87. The markup for the signature genuine stitched leather back is a mere GBP £30, which definitely sounds like a good deal. We can only hope, that LG intends to mass-produce the leather variants, so they don't become scarce and hard-to-obtain.

Clove has also listed a quite reasonable price of £500 for the standard black and gold colors and an even smaller £25 markup for the leather option, so, we assume the prices will be in this range. As far as Amazon and Expansys go, both stores do have listings, but with a price tag of £599.99, which is definitely a stretch and hardly representative of the actual price upon launch.

And while we are on the topic of price, the G4 does seem to be cheaper than the current Galaxy S6, although, not by a lot and opting for the leather option evens out the difference. The G4 is, however, significantly cheaper than the S6 edge, which might just give it the necessary market chances. As far as availability goes, unlocked-mobiles.com says May 25, while Amazon and Clove say May 28.

If you are considering the LG G4 as your next smartphone, it does looks to be quite reasonably priced, but bear in mind that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset powering the handset doesn't seem to be doing all that well in benchmarks. But if you can live with the lowered performance, the device does look quite impressive. You can read our initial impressions from the G4 in our hands-on form the announcement event and stay tuned for a full-fledged review once the phone lands in our office.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 | Source…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1P5F0OV
via IFTTT

T-Mobile has announced a new LG G4 preview program for the US based users to try out the flagship smartphone and share their experiences. The purpose of this program is to let users have a hands-on experience with the G4 before it is available for purchase in the US.

Along with that, T-Mobile noted to bring the phablet LG G Stylo LTE and LG Leon LTE smartphones later this year. The LG G Stylo LTE was previously rumored as a stylus-enabled G4 version but later introduced as a mid-range phablet with a stylus.

G Stylo LTE features a 5.7″ HD IPS display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC with quad-core 1.2GHz CPU, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB expandable storage, 8MP rear snapper with LED flash, 5MP front camera. It runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop, and has a 3,000 mAh battery along with 4G LTE support. Highlight of this phablet is the capacitive stylus that works in harmony with LG UX.

Meanwhile the LG Leon LTE offers 4.5″ FWVGA display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC with quad-core 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 8GB expandable, 5MP rear camera, VGA front camera, Android 5.0.1 Lollipop, and a 1,900 mAh battery.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1DAtC71
via IFTTT

LG unveiled its highly anticipated next generation flagship smartphone the G4 with much fanfare in London and New York simultaneously. The new LG G4 promises significant improvement in three key areas – design, display, and camera.

The South Korean manufacturer is tight-lipped about the international price for now and has only confirmed that the smartphone will launch in its home market today. Amidst this excitement, LG shared its ambitious plan of selling about 12 million G4 units across the globe. For that LG will compete closely with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge along with Apple iPhone 6 as well as iPhone 6 Plus models.

Samsung has already announced to triple its output for the new Galaxy flagship devices.

The genuine leather back with vegetable tanning as well as the new 1/2.6" camera sensor and F/1.8 aperture might just give the G4 a chance to meet its goals.

While LG makes arrangements to release G4 in the rest of the world, do check our LG G4 hands-on to get a brief idea about our initial thoughts of this flagship phone.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1JzXBUW
via IFTTT

Cyanogen and OnePlus, which have had a rough relationship with each other over the past few months, have finally decided to part ways.

According to Cyanogen’s chief technology officer Steve Kondik, both companies have different goals for software, and hence the breakup. “Two new companies are trying to do crazy stuff, a lot of people collide.” he said.

Commenting on the company's partnership with OnePlus, Cyanogen CEO Kirt McMaster said, “Without Cyanogen, OnePlus would have sold like one device in international markets. Essentially they built their brand on the back of Cyanogen.”

However, the US-based company, which offers an alternate version of Android free of many restrictions that Google has subtly incorporated, will continue supporting OnePlus phones that run its OS.

As for the future roadmap, Cyanogen is now looking to partner with those Chinese companies that have global ambitions. “It’s a great way for them to build some identity outside of China using a brand that’s already reasonably well known,” McMaster…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1DAfHhr
via IFTTT

While Apple became the world's top smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter of 2014, looks like Samsung has recaptured the crown in Q1, 2015.

According to a report from market research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung captured 24% market share in the first quarter of the year, overtaking Apple, which claimed nearly 18%. It's worth mentioning that Samsung had captured 31% market in the year-ago quarter.

In terms of shipment numbers, the South Korean company shipped 83.2 million smartphones worldwide, while the Cupertino-based company shipped 61.2 million units.

"Samsung continued to face challenges in Asia and elsewhere, but its global performance has stabilized sufficiently well this quarter to overtake Apple and recapture first position as the world's largest smartphone vendor by volume," said Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1OCAuNb
via IFTTT

Xiaomi has maintained its top position in the Chinese smartphone market in the first quarter. According to a tweet (which cites a report from research firm IHS Technology) sent out by the company's India head, the company sold 14.2 million of the 99 million devices sold in the country in Q1.
Xiaomi sold 14.2M smartphones out of 99M sold in Q1'15 in China, as per IHS. We are #1 🙂 @xiaomi @MiIndiaOfficial http://ift.tt/1bcM7rt Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) April 28, 2015

This translates into 14% market share for the five year old company. Huawei and Apple followed with 11% share each, while Samsung and Vivo rounded up the top five with 10 and 9% market share, respectively.

In addition to China, Xiaomi is now heavily focusing on India, where it recently announced its first made for India smartphone, the Mi…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1zc5zQH
via IFTTT

Asus CEO Jerry Shen has said that the company will use Snapdragon 615 SoC in future ZenFones. He made the comment during an interview (see video below) with technology website Yugatech.

He also said that Asus' smartphones will follow a naming convention similar to that of Apple's, which means that the company's next flagship will be called ZenFone 3.

Finally, he also revealed that the company will release a flagship every year, with incremental upgrades in…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1JzEeLX
via IFTTT

The first batch of the Lenovo A6000 Plus smartphone, which was launched in India a couple of weeks ago and went on sale on Flipkart yesterday, was depleted in just 15 minutes.

"Lenovo in association with Flipkart sold out 1 lakh [100,000] units of the recently launched A6000 Plus in 15 minutes", the Chinese company said in a statement.

For those who aren't in the know, the handset is essentially an improved version of the already existing A6000, and carries a price tag of INR 7,499…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1EBzdPH
via IFTTT

Just a few weeks after AT&T started rolling out the Android Lollipop update for the Samsung Galaxy S4, Verizon has also announced the update for the device.

The Verizon Galaxy S4 update brings Android 5.0.1 with software version LRX22C.I545VRUGOC1. The update is gradually rolling out so it may take a few days before it reaches everyone. If you're feeling impatient, you can always manually check for it by heading to Settings -> About Device -> Software Update -> Check for Updates on your device.

Meanwhile, there have been reports that the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition (GPE) will get Android 5.1 in the near future.
Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1bRZONQ
via IFTTT

HTC released its earnings report for Q1 2015. The Taiwanese manufacturer posted a quarterly net profit of $11.8 million from $1.36 billion of revenue.

The company’s revenue grew by a quarter from the same period last year. HTC attributed the revenue bump to “tailored portfolios for individual markets and targeted marketing efforts.”

HTC deemed the launch of the One M9 and One M9+ during the quarter as successful. The partnerships with Under Armour and Valve in fitness products and virtual reality respectively were also noted.

Gross margins for the past quarter were 19.7%. That’s less than the 21% for the same period a year ago.

Going forward, HTC expects revenue in the range of $1.5 billion to $1.67 billion. Gross profit margin is expected to range between 23% and 23.5%.

Overall, the next quarter will be really important for HTC. Q2 will be the first period of full availability for HTC One M9.

Source…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1EPfez3
via IFTTT