Images of the yet to be announced LG G4 wearing a protective case made the rounds online, courtesy of the manufacturer of mobile accessories Verus. The successor of LG G3 will make its official debut next month, on April 28.

The case maker’s images appear to fall in line with the recently leaked early press renders of LG G4. They showcase a slightly curved display, coupled with controls layout similar to the one found in LG G3. The actual cases are set to become available on April 30 – two days after the launch of LG G4.

Rumored specifications of LG G4 include Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 with hexa-core CPU, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and 5.5″ QHD display. There will be a 16MP main camera and 8MP front-facing snapper on board.

Source…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1NGE0Cf
via IFTTT

Huawei released its audited annual report for 2014. The Chinese tech giant posted record revenue of $46.5 billion and net profit of $4.5 billion – up 20.6% and 32.7% respectively from the previous year.

The company’s Consumer Business Group which designs and manufactures smartphones and tablets saw its annual revenue grow by almost a third (32.6%) from 2013 to $12 billion. Healthy demand for the company’s smartphones and tablets drove the revenue bump.

The manufacturer invested $6.6 billion for research and development in 2014. That is 14.2% of Huawei’s revenue and 29.4% more than in 2013. Overall, the company has spent a whopping $30.7 billion on R&D over the past decade.

Huawei will likely continue growing throughout 2015. The company will launch its next flagship smartphone, the Huawei P8 on April 15.

Source…

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

Xiaomi gave the Mi4 smartphone a price reduction in China. From April 8 onwards, the popular high-end smartphone will cost 1,799 Yuan (about $290), down from 1,999 Yuan (about $322).

A slightly lower end variant of the Xiaomi Mi4 with 2GB of RAM will cost 1,699 Yuan (about $274) in China. Previously, it was priced at 1,799 Yuan.

Considering its new price tag, the Xiaomi Mi4 surely offers a lot of smartphone for the money. The smartphone features Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset, 5″ 1080p display, 13MP main camera, and 8MP front-facing unit.

The new Xiaomi Mi4 pricing falls in line with the company's plans to boost its sales. The company plans to sell 100 million smartphones this year.

Via…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1C3Wsfe
via IFTTT

Asus announced the European expansion of its Zenfone 2 lineup on March 30 at a special press event held in Paris. The spotlight was shared between the Zenfone 2 lineup, the Transformer Book Chi hybrids…

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

A couple of months ago we first heard a rumor talking about a purported Snapdragon 815 chipset from Qualcomm. This was supposed to carry ARM's big.LITTLE architecture, with an octa-core CPU, Adreno 450 GPU, LPDDR4 memory support, and a MDM9x55 built-in modem with Cat.10 LTE capabilities. The Snapdragon 815 was apparently going to be made using a 20nm process.

There's only one problem with all of the above, it turns out. It's all fiction. At least this is what Qualcomm itself says, through the voice of Jon Carvill, the company's Senior Director of Public Relations.

He spoke to Fudzilla and clearly stated that Qualcomm has no plans for a Snapdragon 815 SoC. In fact, the company's next top of the line mobile offering will be the Snapdragon 820, the successor to the Snapdragon 810.

The Snapdragon 820 is expected to sample in the latter part of this year, while devices powered by it should be out either at the end of 2015 or at the beginning of 2016 – that is, if there won't be any delays. In the mobile chipset industry delays are nothing out of the ordinary, though, keep that in mind.

The Snapdragon 820 will be built using a FinFET process, and it will be the first 64-bit SoC to come with a Qualcomm custom core, named Kyro. This will be based on ARMv8, but will be designed by Qualcomm. For comparison, note that the current king of Qualcomm chipsets, the Snapdragon 810, uses ARM-designed cores in a big.LITTLE…

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

Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge are now available to pre-order from T-Mobile USA in gold, with 64GB of built-in storage space.

T-Mobile started taking pre-orders for Samsung's latest top of the line smartphones on March 27, but up until today the magenta carrier only offered up the black and white color versions for them.

The gold-colored handsets have been marked as "coming soon" during this period, but now they're finally up for grabs as well.

If you pre-order a gold Galaxy S6 or S6 edge from Samsung today, you can expect delivery before April 10, which is the official release date for both models in the US. This is the same for all colors of the devices, with T-Mobile trying to send every pre-ordered unit out as soon as possible, maybe even before the launch day.

For now the gold S6 and S6 edge are only offered with 64GB of storage, though we assume the entry-level 32GB iterations will soon be up for pre-order too, along with those coming with 128GB.

As for pricing, for a 64GB Galaxy S6 you need to put down $99.99, then followed by 24 monthly payments of $27.50. For the S6 edge you put down $99.99, followed by 24 monthly installments of $31.66.

Source 1 • Source 2 | Via 1 • Via…

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

Samsung's websites for Finland and Denmark are giving us some interesting information about which devices the company plans to bring Android Lollipop to next.

As you may know, the Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note Edge, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S5, Galaxy S5 Active, and Galaxy S4 have already received the tasty treat, at least in certain regions. But what's next for Samsung?

Well, it turns out the Korean company also plans to bring Lollipop to the Galaxy Note II, Galaxy Alpha, and Galaxy S5 Mini.

We've already heard about Lollipop making it to the Galaxy S5 Mini, as well as the Galaxy Note II – but another official confirmation is good to have. This also marks the first time Samsung has said anything conclusive about the Galaxy Alpha with regard to the Lollipop update, so it's good news for owners of that model too.

Rollouts for the S5 Mini, Alpha, and Note II are apparently scheduled to happen "later in 2015", and unfortunately no more specific details are available right now. Previously, Samsung's French arm said Q2 was the time frame for the Galaxy S5 Mini's Lollipop update, so maybe that's true for all three handsets. If so, you're looking at a maximum of three months of waiting, from this point on, for the new software.

As for the Galaxy Note II, it's nice to see Samsung still care about a device that's two and a half years old.

Thanks for sending this in, Aamer Siddiqui and Peter!

Source 1 (in Finnish) • Source 2 (in Danish) |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1NA8iV7
via IFTTT

Nokia is rumored to be in cahoots with Meizu to get back into mobile phones. According to the deal with Microsoft there can't be any new Nokia-branded phones until 2016, but the new device is known as the Meizu MX Supreme.

Will that kind of loophole even work? We don't know and there's not much info about the phone itself other than the division of labor – Meizu will be making the device while Nokia designs the hardware and software. A photo leaked previously that focuses on the Home button – which may or may not house a fingerprint sensor.

A new photo gives us a better look at the device, which looks fairly similar to the MX4 Pro. That phone has a 20.7MP camera with a large sensor and 2160p video capture, which will be well-suited for Nokia's camera know-how.

If any of this is true, of course. At this point it's not even clear if this is set to be an Android or a Windows Phone device.

Thank you for the link, Claudiu!

Source |…

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

China-based Xiaomi announced a new Mi Note Pink edition in an exclusive packing for the ladies with penchant for pink gadgets. As part of the exclusive packaging, Xiaomi includes a 5,000 mAh power bank.

That's the second special edition for the smartphone this month – earlier Xiaomi introduced the Mi Note Bamboo edition with rear panel made from natural bamboo.

The limited edition Mi Note Pink has the same hardware as the regular version. It features 5.7-inch 1080p curved Gorilla Glass 3 display, powered by quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 mobile chipset, 3GB RAM, 16GB storage, 13MP OIS camera at the back, 4MP camera in the front, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac and packs a non-removable 3,000 mAh battery.

The 13MP rear camera can record 4K quality video while the front facing camera can support 1080p video calls. Xiaomi has also included the fast charging feature which boosts the battery to 60 percent in 30 minutes.

However, the Mi Note does miss out on expandable storage, NFC, FM Radio and ships with Android 4.4 KitKat based MIUI. As of now, Xiaomi hasn’t clarified the availability of the Mi Note Pink edition.

Do check our Mi Note review to learn more about this large screen phone.

Source…

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

The popularity of the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge took even Samsung by surprise as the company is reportedly scrambling to build enough units. Pre-orders in Switzerland are said to be quadruple what the Galaxy S5 drew in.

Now Korean media is reporting that the US market is seeing higher demand too – allegedly US carriers have seen double the pre-orders they did when launching the S5. The Galaxy S6 and S6 edge hit US carriers last Friday and are expected to ship on April 11.

These numbers haven’t been officially confirmed by Samsung or by the carriers, however analysts are predicting a total of 55 million sales globally this year.

SK Telecom and KT will be pulling the launch two days forward as SK is in hot water with the KCC due to illegal subsidies to draw in consumers. Rival carrier KT was looking forward to some special Galaxy S6 promotion to draw in some of KT's customer base.

Source (in Korean) |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1Fdw07C
via IFTTT