The Indian online retailer Flipkart created a product listing for the hotly anticipated Asus Zenfone 2 smartphone. A countdown timer on the page reveals that the Android handset will hit the shelves in less than four days, on April 23.

Overly anxious potential buyers can also sign up with their email address to receive a notification when the device becomes available. An extensive promo video on the other hand, showcases the biggest highlights of the Asus Zenfone 2.

Packing an Intel Atom chipset, 5.5″ 1080p IPS display, up to 4GB of RAM, 13MP PixelMaster camera, and Android Lollipop, Asus Zenfone 2 is a solid value for money. You can find out all about the device in our detailed review….

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Xiaomi sent out invites last week for the launch of a new global Mi phone in India on April 23. Over the weekend, the Chinese startup shared several cryptic teaser images via its social network profiles. Quite cheekily, the teasers carried text mocking the Apple with "i" bearing words.

The first teaser carries two images of Monalisa painting where one is pixellated while the other looks crisp. A text below the renders rhetorically asks if they look the same.

The second teaser image suggests that the upcoming Xiaomi creation will pack large battery in a compact body. The final teaser hints that the handset will have premium build quality.

In short, the new global Mi phone will sport a display with great pixel density, big battery and premium quality. So far, it is being speculated that Xiaomi will announce Redmi Note 2 with 1080p display. Thankfully, we won't have to wait long to find out what the company has in…

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The upcoming ZTE Nubia Z9 made yet another unscheduled appearance. This time around, screen grabs from an unreleased TV ad allow us to catch a new glimpse of the soon to be revealed smartphone.

In line with past leaks, the latest ZTE Nubia Z9 cameo confirms that the device will sport a ‘bezelless' display. The latter utilizes a slightly curved glass, which produces a 2.5D effect. Oppo’s unannounced R7 is also expected to offer such a solution.

ZTE will unveil the Nubia Z9 in less than a month, on May 6. Rumored specs of the smartphone include QHD touchscreen, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chipset, and no less than 3GB of RAM (possibly even 4GB).

Source (in Chinese) |…

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Counterclockwise may as well be called "nostalgia trip." We start off with very recent history – Samsung's bold predictions of the Galaxy S5's sales numbers. Then we venture further back in time to watch phones try – and succeed – to predict the future, only to meet an untimely end.

Galaxy S5 dreams big

History has a unique way of embarrassing us – a lesson Samsung learned the hard way. Back in April last year it proclaimed the Galaxy S5 will outsell the massively successful Galaxy S4. It also said that a Tizen smartphone will be out in Q2 2014, but let's not dwell on that.

Early numbers were on Samsung's side too, the S5 broke S4's first day sales record. Having launched in 125 countries put it in a great position to expand quickly and indeed it outsold its predecessor by 30% on Day 1. Not long after it lost momentum.

Lesson learned, Samsung redesigned the S5 successor from the ground up and the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge are enjoying unexpected success – unexpected as Samsung's estimates proved too conservative and the company is now scrambling to meet the high demand. Interestingly, the pricier (and arguably more attractive) Galaxy S6 edge is selling on par with its flat-screened sibling.

Those things aren't cheap though, the Galaxy S5 cost $256 to manufacture, up from $244 for the Galaxy S4, however the Galaxy S6 edge cost Samsung more than ever to build – $290 for the 64GB version.

Nokia 5800 brings touch to Symbian

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was one Nokia's first touchscreen Symbian phones and sadly one of its last best-sellers. It launched in November 2008 and offered a lot of bang for the buck, partly because of its well-stuffed retail box.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Black official photo

In April 2009 a silver version cropped up – well, it had a silver rim, the phone was still black. With a 3.2" touchscreen, Wi-Fi, GPS and powerful stereo speakers the 5800 was a lot of phone for $370/€280 back in 2009.

The screen was an old-school resistive touchscreen, which meant no multitouch. It did come with a stylus about three years before the first Galaxy Note, that was more out of necessity than invention though. Still, a clever programmer figured out how to fake multitouch for a Guitar Hero type game. Entertaining as it was, it couldn’t rescue Symbian, which only had bolted-on touch functionality and was up against iOS and Android, which were designed for touch from the ground up.

Motorola Atrix sees the future

Symbian wasn't ready for the touchscreen future, but sometimes being ready for the future is a bad thing. In April 2011 Orange UK announced that it will launch the Motorola Atrix in May and offer its various docks at reduced cost.

Those docks were something to behold. The Atrix ran Android on a then powerful Tegra 2 (dual-core 1GHz processor) and it could turn into a laptop or a multimedia station with the right dock, complete with full-size keyboard, USB and HDMI ports.

That same year Asus launched the Transformer – an Android tablet (coincidentally with just about the same chipset) that attaches to a keyboard dock to turn into a laptop.

The Transformer has multiple successors, including a phone that docks into a tablet that docks into a keyboard, but neither it nor the Atrix conquered the market.

Since then transformable laptops (really tablet + keyboard dock) are being pushed by both Intel and Microsoft – one pushes its new low-power chipset, the other its touchscreen UI. Canonical shortly had plans to revisit the Motorola Atrix formula, but based on Ubuntu Linux. Those plans were cancelled.

Phone chipset these days rival laptop processors from the time the Atrix came out and we've seen several functional multitasking add-ons to Android. Also, the new USB Type C combines a display, data and power cables into one very convenient package, making the custom connectors of the Atrix and Transformer obsolete.

So, maybe soon we'll get to power our laptops and desktops with our phones. Still, predicting the future did these precursor devices little good.

Opera Mini smartens up

Opera Mini was the browser to have on a feature phone – advanced compared to the native browser (if there even was one), worked fast and was light on your expensive data plan doing it. It's big bro was more popular on Symbian and Windows Mobile, but…

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There's no dethroning the Samsung Galaxy S6 from our weekly trending chart, and if anything it's even gaining popularity. It's special Galaxy S6 edge sibling is now the runner-up after briefly falling off the top 3 last week. The Galaxy Grand Prime has never been embarrassed to mingle with the big bros and is now in third.

The Top 10 trending phones chart is a recap list of the devices that gathered the most hits throughout the week. In other words, the chart represents the interests of the majority of you, our visitors, and is an indication of what currently interests you.

The Lenovo A7000 affordable phablet joins the competition in forth. Meanwhile the Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML has climbed to number five, its ascent fueled by the recent review.

We find the Apple iPhone 6 in sixth spot, three down from last week's edition, while the Samsung Galaxy A5 has lost 2 spots and is now in seventh.

The super-slim 5.5mm Gionee Elife S7 came out of nowhere and claimed the 8th spot, likely driven by its recent market launch. Two more Samsung flagships, the just-replaced Galaxy S5 and the still ruling Galaxy Note 4 phablet complete this week's Top 10.

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Samsung Galaxy S6
RANK: 1WAS: 1

specs review

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
RANK: 2WAS: 4

specs review

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
RANK: 3WAS: 2

specs review

Lenovo A7000
RANK: 4NEW IN

specs review

Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML
RANK: 5WAS: 6

specs review

Apple iPhone 6
RANK: 6WAS: 3

specs review

Samsung Galaxy A5
RANK: 7WAS: 5

specs review

Gionee Elife S7
RANK: 8NEW IN

specs review

Samsung Galaxy S5
RANK: 9WAS: 8

specs…

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Another busy week has passed and the mobile realm is ever so active with plenty of interesting news to go around. Once again, we will briefly recap what you, our loyal readers, found most-interesting during the past few days.

We kick the list off with a name which seldom captures the spotlight for long enough to make it to this article – Huawei. On Wednesday, however, the Chinese manufacturer had everybody's undivided attention for the eagerly-anticipated launch of the company's new flagship.

The Huawei P8 made its official debut, equipped with a 5.2-inch FullHD display and the brand new Kirin 935 chipset, just as expected. It, however, was joined on stage at the venue by a much more-surprising new device – the Huawei P8max. It is powered by mostly the same silicon as its sibling, but is significantly bigger. In fact, with a 6.8-inch 1080p display, it is kind of stretching the limits of phablet dimensions.

LG is also gearing up for a huge upcoming premiere. On April 28, the company has promised to unveil its latest flagship device – the LG G4. It has also been the object of rumors for quite some time now, but with the official premiere closing in, a lot more information is now known about the impressive handset. It will allegedly feature a next generation 5.5″ QHD IPS Quantum display and, most likely, a Snapdragon 810 SoC and 3GB of RAM. But its different styling is perhaps the most discussed aspect of the new device. The LG G4 will come with a slick leather back, which is definitely some out-of-the-box thinking on LG's side.

In other news, the tech world is still eagerly awaiting the Sony Xperia Z4 flagship. The news is still overflowing with various leaked photos, cases and an ungodly amount of rumors and speculations. Alas, fans might still have some waiting on the Z4 ahead of them, as there have been rumors of an Xperia Z3 Neo next in line for a release on April 20.

If you think, you might have missed anything important form the week, here is a short list of the most interesting stories.

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Huawei P8 has a 6.4mm all-metal unibody, 5.2-inch screen
The build process takes over 12 hours to machine the all-metal unibody with impressively thin bezels.

Sony Xperia Z4 (or Z3 Neo) could be unveiled on April 20
Sony's next flagship device may be closer to an official announcement than previously thought.

Lollipop now out for Xperia Z1, Z1 Compact, Z3 Dual, Z Ultra
As it promised last week, Sony has now started the rollout of the update for these devices.

Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 edge get 24K gold treatment
24K gold-plating with a nano-coating to prevent corrosion for the Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S6 edge will cost $400.

Microsoft Lumia 540 Dual SIM with 5″ 720p display unveiled
This Lumia Denim running phone has a 8MP rear camera with LED flash and is upgradable to Windows 10.

LG G4 teaser boasts about the device’s Quantum QHD display
The leather-clad successor of LG G3 will make its global debut later this month, on April 28.

Huawei P8max has a massive 6.8-inch screen, super thin bezels
The sizeable phablet comes with an all-metal unibody and an optically-stabilized 13MP camera.

Sony Xperia Z4 may have a metal unibody, fingerprint sensor
The iconic OmniBalance power button may be reshaped to house a fingerprint reader.

Sharp announces 5.5″ 4K LCD with crazy 806ppi density
The panel won't enter mass production until 2016, devices using it will take even longer to…

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Just over a month after brokerage firm Morgan Stanley said that the BlackBerry Passport and Classic aren't selling well, the Canadian company has started selling the unlocked version of the devices at discounted prices on its online store (hit the Source link below).

The Passport, which usually sells for $599, is available for $549, while the $449 Classic can now be bought for $399. In addition, the BlackBerry Q5 and Z30 are also available at reduced rates – $149 and $229, respectively.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry is rumored to be working on a new smartphone, dubbed Oslo. We are yet to find out more about it, though.
Source |…

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CyanogenMod is perhaps the most popular custom Android build out there today and consequently, it has been getting a constant flow of attention from developers, tinkerers and android-enthusiast all around.

The latest 12.1 version of the OS has finally made it out of the source code realm and on to actual device builds. So if your handset currently supports CyanogenMod 12, it is most likely updatable to 12.1, which is, in fact, based on the AOSP version of Android 5.1. This brings the popular custom ROM up to date, seeing how Android 5.1 is currently being seeded to Nexus devices, as well.

Even better yet, Cyanogen developers promise that the new version is directly installable over an existing CM 12.0 install, so no data loss should occur. There is a catch, though – all third party add-on zips must be manually updated to run properly. So the challenge is actually finding the proper, Android 5.1 compatible versions that don’t crash on the new OS.

On another CyanogenMod-related note, some of you might remember a recent scoop about a partnership between Microsoft and CM, boiling down to the integration of MS apps and services straight into the custom ROM. The whole story was quickly debunked, but Cyanogen took the liberty of reiterating this along with the new builds announcement. In the team's own words:

We are not bundling or pre-installing Microsoft (or any Cyanogen OS exclusive partner apps) into CyanogenMod.

So, with that fiasco officially out of the way, we can happily enjoy CM 12.1. But, if you do hop on the new version, let us just remind you, that it is a nightly build and as such, bugs of all caliber are expected. So, if you rely heavily on your CyanogenMod-powered device, you should probably wait for a more stable milestone build to pop up in the near future.

Also, the official download page for the custom ROM is currently down, so you might have to check back a bit later for the package.

Source |…

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A brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab 5 has been spotted on TENAA, as well as in a Bluetooth certification. This means that the next iteration of the tablet family is well on its way, which, frankly, surprised us a little.

Earlier this month, the current generation Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, received a 64-bit processor upgrade and so did the Galaxy Tab 4 8.0, a few months earlier, so we naturally assumed Samsung was futureproofing its tech and thus postponing a fifth series.

A set of recently uncovered TENAA certification pages definitely says otherwise. According to the enclosed specifications, the pair of devices will come equipped with an 8.0-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. Both will also feature quad-core CPUs, clocked at 1.2 GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage.

In terms of dimensions, the Tab 5 will be thinner than the previous Galaxy Tab 4, but perhaps, a little shorter and wider. The certification pages for both models seem to show little difference between then, so at this point, we can't really be sure what their main distinction will be. The SM-P355C is listed as being a little heavier and only with white color as an option, although its picture clearly shows a different pallet.

The camera setup on the P variant is also described in more detail. The tablet should come with a 5MP main shooter and a 2MP front one. Judging from the photos, the SM-T355C will also come with two cameras, most probably the same. Undoubtedly, both models will run Android Lollipop out of the box and if rumors are to be belied, will also come with a stylus, better known as S Pen, just like Samsung's Note series. It will, allegedly, reside in a slot neat the upper right corner of the Galaxy Tab 5.

There is no official information on the new Tab series yet and we will surely know more about the upcoming tablets once Samsung discloses its future plans for the Galaxy Tab lineup.

Source 1 (in Chinese) | Source 2 (in Chinese) |…

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At the Hong Kong Electronics fair, MediaTek just announced two new 64-bit quad-core MediaTek chipsets – MT8163 and MT8735 – both designed for the tablets.

The new MediaTek MT8163 chip comprises of 64-bit Cortex-A53 CPU, powerful enough to drive a 1080p display. This chip supports Android 5.1 Lollipop by default and also ropes along dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooh 4.0, FM radio, and GPS.

Even the MT8735 offers 64-bit support with Cortex-A53 architecture and promises competitive performance. Packing support for 6-mode 4G LTE network, this SoC can also supports dual-band Wi-Fi network, Bluetooth 4.0, FM radio, and GPS/GLONASS/Beidou.

Tablets based on either of the chipset to start hitting the China and other Asian markets in the coming months. These tablets will mostly belong in the entry-level to mid-range segment.

Source |…

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