Earlier today we saw the LG G4 getting put through the paces of GFXBench, and thus having its most important specs revealed. And now it's apparently the turn of Sony's upcoming Xperia Z4.

This device was spotted in the same benchmark's database, which is clearly a sign that someone at Sony is already busy testing it.

And like all such benchmark results, this one too gives us a pretty complete list of specs for the device. The Xperia Z4 will sport Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 chipset, unlike the aforementioned LG G4 which will apparently employ a Snapdragon 808.

Sony's Z4 should also have a 5.1-inch 1080p touchscreen, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, a 20 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 5 MP front snapper, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, and Wi-Fi. It currently runs Android 5.0.2 Lollipop.

All of this information comes from the GFXBench data for the Sony E6553, which we assume to be the Xperia Z4 because it would make sense given Sony's naming convention. The letter in the model number changes each year, so for 2014 it was D, and Sony's first flagship of last year (the Z2) had the model number D65xx, while the Z3 was D66xx. Since the Z4 will be the first (and possibly only) top of the line handset from the company this year, an E65xx designation seems extremely likely.

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Today Asus has finally made the Zenfone 2 official for Europe. After already having sold 10 million Zenfones, mostly in Asia (but also Brazil), and reaching sales levels of 1.5 million units per month, Asus thinks Europeans will be interested in the Zenfone 2 range as well.

Three Zenfone 2 models will be up for grabs in France starting tomorrow. While we can assume more European countries will follow soon, Asus hasn't said anything specific.

The 'flaghsip' version of the Zenfone 2, the one with the model number ZE551ML (pictured above), will be available for €299 for a limited time, after which the price will become €349.

This is the model that sports 4GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, and an Intel Atom Z3580 SoC, with a 2.3 GHz quad-core CPU, along with a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, microSD card slot, 4G LTE support, a 13 MP rear camera with dual-LED flash, a 5 MP selfie shooter, and a 3,000 mAh battery. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with Asus ZenUI on top.

Next up, there's the Zenfone 2 ZE550ML. This has the same screen size, but the resolution is just 720p, and the chipset is different too – in this case an Intel Atom Z3560 with a 1.8 GHz quad-core CPU. This model comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage, and will cost €249.

Finally, the lowest-end of the bunch is the Zenfone 2 ZE500CL, which is going to battle it out with the Moto Gs of the world. It's also the cheapest Zenfone 2, as you'd expect, at €179.

For that amount of cash you get a smaller 5-inch 720p display, an 8 MP rear camera, a 2 MP front-facing unit, an Intel Atom Z2560 SoC with 1.6 GHz dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage, and a 2,500 mAh battery. Like its siblings, it too runs Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box.

While it does have LTE support, the ZE500CL tops out at Cat.3, which means theoretical peak download speeds of up to 100Mbps, whereas the 5.5-inch versions both enjoy Cat.4 LTE, going up to 150Mbps.

Asus also announced three accessories for Europe. A 10,050 mAh power bank called ZenPower will retail for €39.99, a simple flip cover will go for €29.99, while a 'deluxe' flip cover will cost €39.99.

If you aren't too sure about a Zenfone, Asus will apparently give you a two-month trial period, during which you can get your money back if you aren't satisfied. We assume there are some conditions for this offer, though they haven't been made public…

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The last two generations of HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S were separated by the looks versus practicality debate. Samsung's revamped design erodes this difference, while HTC stepped up its camera game…

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Xiaomi is rumored to announce a new smartphone in the upcoming days, probably on March 31 and it could go on sale as early as April 8. The handset will cost CNY 499 or just €75.

The specs of the device also leaked – it will pack with a 4.7" 720p display and will run on Leadcore LC1860 chip with a quad-core 1.6GHz Cortex-A7 processor, Mali-T628MP2 GPU and 1GB of RAM. The rest of the rumored specs include an 8MP rear and a 2MP front snappers, 8 gigs of expandable storage. Android 4.4 KitKat with MIUI will be in charge of operations.

The Leadcore LC1860 chip comes with a built-in LTE modem, but we are not sure the entry-level Xiaomi phone will be LTE-enabled.

Xiaomi is expected to unveil a new device(or devices) tomorrow, March 31 and we'll see if this one makes the cut.

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Galaxy S launches seem to carry a curse for SK Telecom. Last year the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) imposed a ban on SK preventing sales for 45 days right around the time the Galaxy S5 was supposed to launch. Now that the Galaxy S6 launch date is nearing, KCC is imposing another ban.

Pointing to illegal subsidies (as much as $450 for iPhone 6 subscribers), the KCC will ban the carrier from selling any phones and signing on new subscribers for 7 days. The telecom will also have to pay a fine of KRW 23.5 billion ($21.2 million).

Both SK Telecom and Samsung are concerned how this ban will affect their businesses. It seems like the KCC hasn’t settled on an exact day to enforce the ban. Samsung Galaxy S6 units are supposed to ship on April 10, so the ban may delay SK's launch.

The other two major carriers, KT and LG U+, are unaffected by the ban and will be offering special…

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The LG G4 has appeared in the GFX Benchmark database, revealing the key specs. They are pretty close to what has been rumored so far, though the chipset is a surprise. The chipset reported features a hexa-core processor with Cortex-A57 cores plus an Adreno 418 GPU.

That's certainly not the Snapdragon 810 found in the LG G Flex2. Instead it's the the Snapdragon 808 announced in April last year alongside the 810. The phone will come with Android 5.1 Lollipop, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (23GB user available).

The LG G4 will have a 5.5" QHD screen, same as the current model, but will upgrade the camera to 16MP with 2160p video. The selfie camera has been bumped up to 8MP with nearly 2160p video (the numbers reported by the benchmark don't seem to match a standard resolution).

Looking at the benchmark scores, the new GPU beats last year's Adreno 330 in the LG G3. Qualcomm said it should be 30% faster than the 330, but didn’t compare it to the 420. Again, going by the benchmark scores, the Adreno 418 seems to be in the middle between those two GPUs.

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GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better

LG G Flex2
22

LG G4 (rumored)
14.9

LG G3
11

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better

LG G Flex2 (1080p screen)
22

LG G4 (rumored, 2160p screen))
9.4

LG G3 (2160p screen)
7.7

So it remains to be seen if two A57s and four A53s can beat for Krait 400 cores. At least they'll produce less heat than the Snapdragon 810 chipset.

The LG G4 is rumored to arrive in April and we've already had a good look at its new, slightly curved design. There was some talk it will be demoted from its flagship position and going by the chipset this seems true, at least compared to the LG G Flex2.

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Sony was neither quick, nor especially thorough with bringing the Android 5.0 update to its smartphone lineup. The rollout started only two weeks ago with a soak test in the Nordic and Baltic countries on the Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact. It was later followed by the Z3 Tablet Compact and the Z2 generation, both smartphone and tablet.

Newsflash from today, Sony is expanding the availability of the update "to further markets worldwide", although that's as specific as it gets and no road map has been released with countries and dates. Additionally, the Zperia Z2 and Z2 Tablet will receive the coveted update, starting next week.

What was only a rumor last week, that the Xperia T2 Ultra will receive Lollipop, is being confirmed, so as it turns out Sony's policy to only update the flagship Z-series isn't all that strict.

Even more surprisingly, the Xperia C3, a midrange phablet announced last summer, is also on the list for a planned upgrade, proving that the Japanese company may turn out to be more open-minded after all and actually listen to its customer base….

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LG has been working on the LG G4 as the successor of the G3 launched last year. The South Korean company is reportedly also developing a LG G4 Note to compete directly with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

Few images of a mysterious LG device surfaced online last week and was attributed as the G4. But now a new image of the LG device with a stylus appeared and it appears to be picturing the same device.

There’s no way to estimate which device it was – G4, G4 Note or LG G4 Stylus. Last year, the company introduced the G3, G3 Stylus, and G3 Beat variants so it might repeat that feat this year.

There's no official info pointing in any direction at this point so take it all with a grain of…

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Fingerprint sensors are all the rage these days, and after Apple brought the feature back to prominence with the iPhone 5S, major manufacturers have been quick to jump on that bandwagon. Next in line is Asus, apparently, as evidenced by the words of no other than the company's CEO.

At a press conference last week in Beijing for the launch of the current Zenfone 2 in China, Jerry Shen, commander in chief of the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, was quoted as saying that the future Zenfone 3 will come equipped with a fingerprint reader of its own. Realizing that it's likely a whole year before that one comes to market, the company exec hinted that we may actually see the feature later this year in a facelift to the Zenfone 2.

Now there are those who may frown upon the possibility of making payments with their smartphone, secure as it might be. However, other daily tasks can undoubtedly benefit from the tech, like safer and quicker unlocking, securing folders or even logging in websites.

We're only left to hope that Asus has learned from Samsung's experience and brings a working implementation of the otherwise nifty feature. The Korean company's first-gen sensor in the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 was much too picky but that was finally addressed in the Galaxy S6, bringing it up to par with the Apple solution.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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Samsung didn’t waterproof the new Galaxy S6 and S6 edge like it did with their predecessor. So, what happens if you drop your Galaxy S6 edge in water? TechSmartt decided to find out and dunked the an S6 edge into a bowl of water with the stopwatch running.

The phone lasted over 20 minutes before powering off. That's a lot more than can be expected from a phone with no official water resistance rating, but it was not without taking some damage.

After some drying and charging the Galaxy S6 edge came back to life, though there was still water in the device (visible in the front-facing camera. The phone also tended to reboot or even not boot at all after the experiment.

So, definitely don’t go put your Galaxy S6/S6 edge in water on purpose, though it looks like it has a good chance of surviving an accidental drop if you pull it out quickly and dry it properly. Note that depths plays a part, an IPX7 rating for example specifies up to 1m of water.

Source |…

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