This year's MWC saw a lot of Android action, but Microsoft also had a couple of new devices to show, more specifically, the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL. Both handsets run Windows Phone 8.1 and should be among the first in line for a Windows 10 update, once it hits.

The Lumia 640 XL is clearly the superior model of the bunch, boasting a larger screen and better cameras, but, other than that, the two devices share the same Qualcomm MSM8226 Snapdragon 400 SoC and 1GB for RAM, so they should be pretty identical in terms of performance. According to new info, however , Microsoft might have opted to change this in China, by beefing up the specs on the 640 XL.

A recent TENAA certification seems to show a Lumia device, quite similar to the 640 XL, but equipped with a quad-core processor, clocked at 2.2 GHz and 2GB of RAM. Other than that, the smartphone seems to be identical to the 640 XL model we are familiar with. It has the same 5.7-inch 720p display, the same camera setup – 13MP main shooter and 5MP front-facing, as well as 8GB of onboard storage.

CPU frequency2.2GHz

RAM memory capacity2GB

Operating systemWindows Phone

Operating system version numberWindows Phone 8.1

Camera functionSupport, 1300,500 million pixels, more than 8 million pixels

Phone memory8GB

Local connectionsBluetooth, USB

CPU cores4

This is a huge deal for the new Lumia, as this alleged specs sheet puts it square into a very select group of premium Windows Phone devices, alongside the Lumia 930, Lumia 1520 and Lumia Icon. Its 5.7-inch screen is also the ideal size to fill up the portfolio, by introducing a "middle ground" between the 5-inch and 6-inch aforementioned models.

It is still unclear, whether this new Lumia device will, in fact bear the exact 640 XL branding and, more importantly, whether it will ever be released outside of China. And if so, when. The Lumia 640 and 640 XL are set to hit consumer markets in April and preorders are already up in a few counties, including Germany, France and the UK. Pricing seems to differ from region to region, but our best estimates put pricing at about €160 for the Lumia 640 and €220 for the 640 XL. We can only presume, that if the beefed-up XL model will come with a noticeable price increase, but no official statement is available yet.

Are you excited about a new, powerful Lumia device and would you like to see it on your local market?

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Another budget-minded entry in the company's lineup, the Xolo Q1001, has just been announced. It comes with dual SIM slots and 3G connectivity, and is priced to sell. Stores in India will offer it at INR 6,199, or just shy of $100.

Obviously, you shouldn't expect miracles at this price point, and the smartphone comes with rather basic equipment. For starters, the 5-inch screen is of 480 x 854 pixel resolution, which stretches pretty thin on that diagonal. It is an IPS panel at least, so it should provide decent viewing angles.

You get a Mediatek MT6582 chipset with a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor clocked at 1.3GHz, coupled with just 512MB of RAM, a low and limiting amount in the Android realm. Speaking of, the OS version out of the box is KitKat 4.4. The built-in storage is 4GB, but is thankfully expandable up to 32GB.

The 5MP rear camera is aided by an LED flash, while the VGA front shooter is mostly adequate for video calls. A 2,000mAh battery has been fitted in the the boxy rectangular body, which measures 143 x 73.2 x 9.5 mm. Weight remains unquoted though, as with previous Xolo devices.

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A couple of months ago, there were rumors that Meizu will partner with Nokia on a new smartphone codenamed the MX4 Supreme. Although those rumors were quickly put to rest by Meizu's Vice President of Science and Technology Li Nan, they have resurfaced, and this time in the form of a poster (shown below) which was published on a Weibo account called Ubuntu Team.

While it's difficult to understand what it all means, especially the mention of the Nokia Lumia 1030, it's quite clear that the Supreme will be powered by Nokia, which will be responsible for the hardware and software of the smartphone.

It's worth mentioning that because of the Microsoft deal, the Finnish company cannot manufacturer or sell devices carrying the Nokia branding until 2016.

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Hot on the heels of today’s leaked press render, another batch of alleged Sony Xperia Z4 images made the rounds online. The renders are from the same source as the previous leak and give us a closer look at the upcoming flagship smartphone.

The leaked Xperia Z4 renders leave noting to the imagination. The upcoming successor of Sony Xperia Z3 will follow the familiar OmniBalance design language. Sony Xperia Z4 features design cues from its both its predecessor and Sony Xperia Z2.

A port next to the microUSB on the bottom of the smartphone is the biggest mystery in the unannounced Xperia Z4. With the 3.5mm audio jack sitting on top of the device, we are yet to find out what purpose will the element follow.

The renders of the device’s back lack markings, so they might be unfinished. According to the source, the final images might carry some changes.

Purported specs of Sony Xperia Z4 include Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC, 5.2″ QHD display, 20.7MP camera, and Android Lollipop. The device is expected to debut at some point this summer.

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Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 chipset may have been found to run cooler than the 801 in some parts, but it looks like it may be leading to some overheating issues after all. Specifically, we're talking about the HTC One M9, which employs the Snapdragon 810 SoC.

A Dutch website has tested how hot the handset gets while running the GFXBench benchmark, and then compared what it found to a few other high-end devices: the iPhone 6 Plus, HTC One (M8), LG G3, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

As you can see from the image above, which shows the infrared temperature readings for each handset, the One M9 is by far the hottest of the bunch. It was found to overheat all the way up to 55 degrees Celsius, at which point holding it becomes troublesome. The picture seems to show the maximum temperature recorded for each device, which means the Galaxy Note 4 was the coolest of these five units.

Interestingly though, it looks like the One M9 only reaches such an absurd temperature while running GFXBench. In 3D games such as Asphalt 8 or Assassin's Creed: Pirates HTC's latest flagship stayed around 42 degrees Celsius, which is significantly cooler than in the aforementioned benchmark. That said, it was still the hottest of the bunch even in games, as the other handsets all remained below 38 degrees in this use case.

An important thing to note is that the One M9 that was part of this test was running non-final software. That means HTC might mitigate these issues somewhat either in the shipping build for the One M9, or in subsequent updates.

Then again it seems more and more that there was at least a bit of truth to all of those rumors that said the Snapdragon 810 has overheating problems.

Thanks for the tip, Paul G!

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A couple of months ago some pictures got leaked that were said to depict the upcoming Huawei Mate 7 Compact, but it turned out they were actually showing a different Chinese smartphone. So we've been left without any leaked images of the Mate 7 Compact – up until today, that is.

A couple of new shots have surfaced in China, once again reportedly being of the smaller version of Huawei's Mate 7. This time though, we're told the handset will be launched as the Mate 7 Mini.

Huawei Mate 7 Mini

In the first picture, you can see it as the device on the left. The second image allegedly demonstrates a rather unique feature of the phone – a touch-sensitive area on the back, which features a built-in 'invisible' fingerprint sensor. It's invisible in that there isn't a marked space for it, instead you just place your finger roughly under the camera's LED flash and that's it.

The only leaked spec that accompanies these shots is the screen size, which will be 4.7". Everything else is still a mystery, however. Given the name, it might simply be a smaller version of the Mate 7 phablet, in which case it could come with mostly the same specs – if Huawei decides to emulate Sony's "Compact" devices in this regard. On the other hand the Chinese company might go the way of Samsung and HTC with their 'Mini' variants of flagship offerings, which are toned down both in size as well as in specs.

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Towards the beginning of this month we told you that Huawei's Honor 6 Plus smartphone would be headed to India. Not only that, but that the launch would happen before the end of March.

So now that we've passed the middle of the month, you may be wondering just when to expect the Honor 6 Plus to become available in the subcontinent.

The answer has thankfully been revealed today by the Chinese company. The Honor 6 Plus will be up for grabs on March 24, which is next Tuesday. It will be exclusively offered by Flipkart, the country's biggest online retailer.

Unfortunately though, Huawei left out the remaining all-important detail about this launch, namely the handset's pricing. In China it retails for CNY 1,999, which is about INR 20,000, so perhaps it will be priced around that level in India too. We'll have to wait and see.

The Honor 6 Plus boasts a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, dual 8 MP cameras on the back, an 8 MP front snapper too, and a 3,600 mAh battery. At the helm is a HiSilicon Kirin 925 chipset, which comes with an octa-core CPU that has four Cortex-A15 cores and four Cortex-A7 ones. The phone has 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and microSD card support. It runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat underneath Huawei's Emotion UI…

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AT&T has just announced that it will start selling the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini on March 20, which is this Friday. On that day, the smartphone will be up for grabs both online as well as in the company's brick and mortar stores.

The carrier is incredibly late with this release, given that the Galaxy S5 Mini first went on sale elsewhere in July of last year. In fact, we could be seeing Samsung announce a Galaxy S6 Mini soon, and AT&T is just getting round to launching the older model.

Anyway, if the thought of purchasing an S5 Mini from this particular carrier excites you, then you should know that you'll need to pay $99.99 if you sign a new two-year contract. If you're not into long-term commitments the sum you have to shell out is $428.99. The other alternative is to use AT&T's Next installment plans.

If you do that, you pay nothing for the device upfront, then followed by either 20 monthly installments of $21.48, or 24 payments of $17.88, or 30 equal installments of $14.30. AT&T seems to only be offering the black version of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini.

The phone comes with a 4.5-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 2.1 MP front unit for selfies, and a 2,100 mAh battery. It's powered by an Exynos 3 Quad 3470 chipset, with a 1.4 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU, aided by 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable internal storage space. It runs Android 4.4…

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Sony left Korean and Taiwanese rivals battle it out at MWC in the beginning of March and didn't unveil its future flagship alongside the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the HTC One M9. Meanwhile the company has been working on perfecting the Xperia Z4's design, and we're now being treated to an allegedly leaked picture.

Obviously revolutions are out of the question, and the Xperia Z4 is a subtle fusion of designs already witnessed before in the company's top tier. It's OmniBalance once more, with the round aluminum power button midway on the right side, joined by a volume rocker.

You'd quickly notice though, that in a welcome move, the flap covering the card slots in all previous Xperia Z-models is gone. Now, apparently the slots have been relocated, but whether that means Sony has come up with an ingenious way to offer IP certification without the cover remains to be seen.

The designers have also looked back at the Xperia Z2 for the speakers placement, and now they're back behind thin slits at the front panel's edges. The design is very much in line with a previously leaked live image of a front glass panel, bound for the Xperia Z4, so the picture we're looking at might be right on the money.

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Xiaomi may have been alleged for imitating the iPhone design language, but the company has been fearlessly growing. Lin Bin, president and co-founder of Xiaomi, teased that a new special edition Mi Note will be announced on March 17.

Sharing an image over Weibo, Bin compared the new Mi Note with the iPhone 6 Plus. Praising the Note’s construction made with two sheets of glass in the front and at the back. To know more, take a look at our review of Xiaomi Mi Note.

Bin’s message doesn’t say much except the new Mi Note special edition which should debut tomorrow. We shall wait for Xiaomi to share more details to know what exactly is special about…

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