Huawei’s next Honor smartphone seemingly leaks in pictures

Huawei's Honor line of affordable yet not underpowered smartphones is enjoying more and more success. With this lineup, the Chinese company has emulated Xiaomi's sales model somewhat, opting to mostly get rid of intermediaries and sell directly to consumers.

Soon, Huawei is apparently due to launch the Honor brand in Russia. And on that occasion, it's also going to unveil a new handset. Pictures showing it from a lot of angles have made it to Russian media today.

Leaked upcoming Huawei Honor smartphone

Along with the images come a few specs. The new Honor device should reportedly sport a 5-inch touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie snapper, 4G LTE, dual-SIM support, and long battery life (though the exact capacity is unknown for now).

The chipset employed will be 64-bit and come with an octa-core CPU, but no other details have surfaced yet. Given past events though we assume this to be made by HiSilicon, Huawei's mobile chipset developing arm.

More images showing leaked upcoming Honor device

Judging by the shapes of the three Android navigation buttons, this Honor phone should run the fifth iteration of Google's mobile OS, also known as Lollipop. Obviously though, Huawei is expected to plaster its own Emotion UI on top of that, as always.

In Russia, the yet-unnamed smartphone will apparently retail for RUB 13,000 to RUB 15,000, which means $226 to $261 at the current exchange rates.

Source (in…

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BlackBerry ends Q4 on a $28 million profit

BlackBerry's financial results for Q4 are out showing the company managed to end it on a profit. For the three-month period ending on February 28, BlackBerry reports a net profit of $28 million, while a year earlier the company's situation wasn't rosy with a $148 million loss.

While many analysts predicted a revenue of around $790 million, BlackBerry reported it to be slightly lower at $660 million. The company's software division plays a major role in the revenue bump, as it generated $67 million compared to Q4 2013.

This is good indication that BlackBerry's efforts to shift its revenue model from hardware-driven to software-driven could end positively for the company. Finally, BlackBerry is finally boasting a positive cash flow of $76 million, as the days of its financial turmoils hopefully far…

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Huawei details Kirin 930 chipset, says it uses enahnced A53E cores

Huawei made significant progress with its in-house chipsets and after the flop that the Kirin 910 turned out to be in the Ascend P7, the following iterations were markedly better. Both the Kirin 920 inside the Honor 6 and the Kirin 925 that powered the Ascend Mate7 proved to be strong performers.

Now with the Huawei P8 just around the corner, the Chinese company disclosed more detailed info on the Kirin 930 that is set to be the brains of the flagship smartphone, as well as the already announced MediaPad X2 7-inch tablet.

Contrary to previous reports, the processor inside the SoC apparently features a reworked version of the Cortex-A53 cores, dubbed Cortex-A53E, which is clocked all the way up to 2.0GHz. Four of these are used as performance cores in the big.LITTLE setup, while four of the vanilla 1.2GHz A53's take on more casual tasks.

Huawei refrained from using the more powerful Cortex-A57 cores, because they provide a modest 56% performance increase versus a massive 256% increase in power consumption over the Cortex-A53, the company claims. Knowing how Huawei CEO feels on battery life, there's no surprise in the reasoning behind the choices made.

We're yet to get our hands on a working device utilizing the new SoC at the office, so we'll reserve judgement until that…

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New flagship of HTC Desire line gets its specs leaked

It seems HTC has been hard at work on new devices lately. Just a few hours ago, word came out, that the Taiwanese manufacturer is planning to hit the Chinese market with an array of new devices and now another leak has surfaced, providing information about a new budget device in the works.

The information is courtesy of Upleaks, but like always, should be taken with a grain of salt. The new smartphone, dubbed HTC A50AML, although this is sure to be replaced by a catchier moniker at some point, will be a budget offer.

Yet, the leaked specs show that it will boast a 4MP UltraPixel front camera, just like the One M9. If HTC has opted to include their UltraPixel sensors in budget devices, they could really give competitors a run for their money.

The HTC A50AML, codenamed project CM650 will be courtesy of Longcheer Technology, and OEM for HTC and will actually come in two versions – a basic and a premium one. As far as we can currently tell, the main difference between the two will be the front camera, namely that the basic model will come with a 13MP sensor, without UltraPIxel technology.

The leaked specs also reveal that the alleged handset will be powered by an MediaTek MT6752 chipset with octa-core CPU clocked at 1.6 GHz, so there is definitely some movement in chipset selection within HTC. Similarly, the HTC T1H tablet we mentioned earlier will pack an Allwinner chip, so perhaps HTC is moving away from Qualcomm Snaprdagon chips and shifting to other solutions in its low and mid-range devices. We wouldn’t be surprised if this tendency extends to flagship models in the future, as well, especially, after the most recent round of overheating allegations around the HTC One M9.

Other specs on the A50AML include a 13MP rear camera, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. Naturally, the handset would come with Android 5.0 Lollipop out-of-the-box, with HTC's own Sense UI on top. There is no information about pricing or availability at this point.

Source |…

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HTC T1H tablet leaked specs point to an AllWinner SoC

According to rumors, HTC is preparing to hit hard on the Chinese market. We have already heard news of the One M9, M9 Plus, as well as the E9 and perhaps even an E9 Plus, which should be hitting store is the growing Asia market pretty soon.

But HTC might have yet another device up its sleeve – an 8.9-inch tabled, dubbed the T1H. It will probably be joining the ranks of the aforementioned phones in an official unveiling in Beijing this April, but the date and venue are still unconfirmed.

A pretty detailed specs sheet for the T1H has slipped through the cracks, as well as an alleged live photo of the unit which looks strikingly similar to the One M9, only a lot bigger. According to the rumor, the upcoming tablet will measure 228.35mm x 153.67mm x 7.88 mm with a 8.9-inch QXGA 2048 × 1530 pixel display.

Interestingly enough, HTC have opted for an Allwinner SoC, instead of a more traditional Qualcomm or Mediatek solution. The chip in question is the octa-core Allwinner H8, which is built using a new 28mm production process and features the PowerVR SGX544 as its GPU. Other specs include 2GB of RAM and a choice between either 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage.

Camera setup, consist of 8MP shooter on the back and a 1.6MP front-facing one. The device is going to be powered by a spacious 6,700 mAh battery and should run Android 5.0 Lollipop out-of-the-box with the HTC Sense UI on top.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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Oppo N1 gets official Cyanogen CM11S ROM

Oppo N1 was launched in 2013 with an innovative rotating camera lens, top-notch hardware and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS skinned with Oppo's Color launcher.

The N1 was also the first phone to receive an official Cyanogen treatment as a collaboration with Cyanogen and Oppo. You are able to choose between the CM10.2 ROM based on the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or the default Color OS by Oppo. You can switch any time you want.

Today, almost year and a half later Cyanogen continues to support the Oppo N1 and launched an official CM11S (KitKat-based) ROM. The highlights of the new ROM are the support for the O-Touch panel and O-Click remote, plus some default Oppo apps, which makes the CM-skinned Android look closet to the Oppo's Color OS.

If you have a Cyanogen-running Oppo N1 or want to switch to Cyanogen Mod now, you can follow the source link below and get the update file. Here is hoping Cyanogen sweetens the Oppo N1 with a Lollipop-treatment later this year with a CM12…

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Asus Zenfone 2 arrives in India on April 13

Asus caused quite the stir back in January, when it announced the Zenfone 2, which would pack a high-end Intel Atom chipset alongside 4GB of RAM, and cost $200 in the meantime. As it later turned out, that wasn't quite the case and the price was for a lower-specced model, while the top dog gravitates around the $280 mark.

Either way, the highly-anticipated Asus smartphone is on its way to India, with a reported launch event scheduled for April 13. Asus is delivering on its promise for a Q2 launch, and they proved to be pretty quick about it. Not only that, but the company has chosen to offer only the top-of-the-range model, at least in the beginning.

The Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML comes with a 5.5-inch FullHD screen, as opposed to lesser models which either pack a 5-incher or 720p resolution, or both. The ZE551ML moniker is still not entirely indicative of the configuration though, as multiple RAM and storage options are available.

The highest specs include an Intel Atom Z3580 chipset with a 2.3GHz quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, but according to the report only the 16GB/32GB options will be available in India. In any case a microSD slot provides potential expansion to those who need it. Other than that, the smartphone comes with LTE connectivity, 13MP/5MP camera combo, 3,000mAh battery and Lollipop out of the box, for a comprehensive package on a…

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Press photos of the HTC One E9+ leak

HTC is finding it extremely hard to keep its One E9 and One E9+ under wraps. ISeveral rumors and leaks have given us almost all the information about these handsets.

Now the purported press images of the One E9+ have surfaced online. They reconfirm the design of the smartphone and reveal that it will come in Gunmetal Gray, Space gray with Gold accent and White with Rose Gold accents.

Bearing close similarity with the One M9+, the new One E9+ features a 5.5-inch Quad HD display, MediaTek MT6795 chipset with octa-core CPU, 3 GB RAM and 20MP rear camera with LED flash.

We expect the One E9+ to be officially launched next…

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Oxygen OS delayed for the OnePlus One users

All those OnePlus One users who woke up to incessantly check if they’ve got the Lollipop update will have to wait few more days. OnePlus promised last week to release the CyanogenMod 12S update and the new Oxygen OS for the OnePlus One users by March 30.

Apparently, that’s not going to happen now. The company’s representative David posted on Reddit that instead of update, the company will be giving away free phones to select lucky ones.

With CyanogenMod 12S update delayed, it is quite evident that the version yet to achieve a stable status.

Even OnePlus’ homegrown Oxygen OS will have to go through more testing before it goes online for public download. The OnePlus One users will have to download the Oxygen OS and then install it on their devices. It will not be an OTA update like the CyanogenMod…

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