Samsung has been cutting back on its reliance on Qualcomm and is using its own Exynos chips for the Galaxy S6 flagships. New rumors claims the company is looking to partner with MediaTek to further pull away.

The information is scarce, but it allegedly comes from the Deputy General Manager of MediaTek. The company's chipsets are used in several Sony and HTC but no Samsungs yet.

There have been some rumors about Tizen phones with MT chipsets. The current Samsung Z1 is powered by a Spreadtrum chip. Spreadtrum is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company like MediaTek though not as well-known.

A different possibility is that Samsung is looking for something to power its mid-range smart TVs and Blu-ray players, some of which use MStar chipsets. MStar is a fabless company from Taiwan.

The MediaTek Helio chipset supports 120Hz displays and 4K video decoding, which would be of obvious benefit to TVs and MediaTek has experience in powering such devices.

The Helio X10 chipset is based on eight Cortex-A53 cores, but MediaTek is working on a Cortex-A72 based chipset as well. Performance of the X10 is said to be comparable to the Snapdragon 810, so it will be well-suited for phones and tablets too.

Again, none of this has been confirmed by either company. Still, with Intel partnering with Rockchip we're willing to give this rumor the benefit of the doubt.

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Some of you surely remember another visually appealing Oppo smartphone – the R1C, which was announced in January.

The stunning sapphire-glass-back Oppo R1C will soon be available worldwide, under the name Oppo R1x. The handset is crafted up to the high standards of the rest of the manufacturer's lineup and employs the same high-strength CNC frame like the R5. It is also quite thin, at only 6.85mm and weighs only 130 grams.

The R1x's most distinctive feature is the eye-catching sapphire-faceted back panel. The almost chameleon-style color effects on the phone are achieved through UV embossing of the layer, right underneath the glass, thus creating areas with different light-reflective capabilities.

Oppo has definitely been working hard on its designs lately. Both the Oppo R5 and the N3 are gorgeously crafted, very thin phones that give off a definite premium feeling (and, of course, are also priced accordingly).

Specs-wise, nothing will be changed in the international version of the Oppo R1 and it will be pretty identical to its, Chinese counterpart, except, of course, supporting GSM networks. The phone features a 5-inch "Pixel Eye" HD screen and is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 SoC, with four A63 CPU cores, clocked at 1.7GHz and another four at 1.0 GHz.

This quite-capable mid-range chip is backed up by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard memory, along with a microSD slot for up to 128GB more. The main camera on the phone is a 13MP shooter and has an LED flash, while on the front there is a 5MP model.

The R1x should hit international markets mid- to late April this year and will be available in two colors – sapphire blue and ice white. There is no official word on pricing yet, but we expect something around, or perhaps just a little bit over $400, which is what the phone goes for on its local…

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Just hours ago we reported that Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N900T), which is the T-Mobile version is now getting an Android 5.0 OTA. Now, it appears, the much anticipated Lollipop update has reached India and is already seeding.

Bear in mind that both devices in question are the Exynos (SM-N900) variant of the handset, which seems to currently have a higher update priority under Samsung's new market strategy. If you are currently waiting on the OTA in India, also bear in mind that the roll-out is surely going to take some time on the vast market, so be sure to check for the update regularly.

The package itself carries the build number N900XXUEBOB2 and is available in two regions – INU and INS. It can also be flashed through Samsung KIES and is available for download from the following links, curtesy of samsung-updates.com:
INU | INS (1.22 GB)

As far as the more widely-spread N9005 Snapdragon version of the device, it is also getting Lollipop, but as of today the only available non-carrier build is from Poland. In four are interested in picking that one up and flashing it, check out our previous article.

Thanks to everybody who sent this…

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We revealed VAIO Corporation of Japan is preparing to launch a VAIO branded smartphone on March 12. Sony has no involvement since the VAIO brand was sold off to Japan Industrial Partners and relaunched independently.

With imminent launch next week, the retail packaging of the VAIO smartphone surfaced online. We see a simplistic black colored box with VAIO branding on the front. Unfortunately, there are no real images of the VAIO smartphone as yet.

The rumored specs of the VAIO smartphone include a 5-inch 720p display, a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 MSM8916 coupled with 2 GB RAM and 16 GB built-in storage. It will have a 13MP rear camera, a 5MP front camera, and run Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box.

As of now, there is no information regarding the price of the smartphone or its availability in other…

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Samsung Galaxy Note 3 for T-Mobile began receiving Android 5.0 Lollipop. Samsung official support FAQs page revealed the news about the major OS update.

Android 5.0 brings a host of new features to the Korean giant’s 2013 flagship phablet. They include brand new ART runtime and Material Design makeover for Samsung’s TouchWiz UX. Improved Wi-Fi calling is also included.

If you are a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 user on T-Mobile, check for the update in your device’s settings. Be aware that firmware updates usually roll out in stages.

Source |…

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The HTC One M9, which went official just a few days ago, might carry a US price tag of around $599. The information comes from a new promotion, dubbed HTC One (M9) Sweepstakes, which allows US residents (age 18 older) a chance to win the new smartphone.

The handset is currently available for pre-order in the official HTC store in Germany, where it will retail for €750. In the UK, pre-orders of the device begin on March 9 with EE, Carphone Warehouse, O2, and Three. Earlier, Best Buy US had also listed the One M9 for a short period of time, revealing a price tag of $649.

As for the sweepstakes mentioned above, you can enter by visiting the company's website where a registration form awaits. The promotion ends on March 24, 2015 at 11:59 pm PT.

Source |…

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According to a new report, the freshly announced Huawei Watch will carry a massive price tag. The Android Wear device will allegedly cost $1,000 when available.

Considering that there is no official word from Huawei on the subject, we strongly suggest that you take this rumor with more than the usual amount of salt. While there’s no denying that Huawei Watch looks premium, we will be beyond surprised if this is indeed the Chinese manufacturer’s official pricing.

Huawei Watch will be available in a variety of different finishes, so one of them could possibly hit $1,000. The gold version appears to be a likely candidate.

Source…

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Just yesterday we heard that Huawei plans to sell the Honor 6 Plus in the UK in the near future. It's even got a partnership with an operator over there, ensuring the European launch will go as smooth as possible.

Now it's surfaced that the Chinese company is also getting ready to launch the Honor 6 Plus in India. The release will happen before the end of March, but a more exact time frame hasn't been given sadly.

And the same can be said for pricing information, which is especially important in emerging markets such as India. Given its past behavior, though, Huawei is expected to make the Honor 6 Plus quite affordable.

Huawei is already selling the Honor 6 and Honor 3C in India, having introduced them last year. Huawei welcomes the launch of 4G in India, and it's planning on releasing many cheap 4G-capable smartphones in the subcontinent.

The company hopes its wares will stand out through their quality, and it thinks the Honor 6 Plus will "take the market by storm", in the words of Dragon Yin, President of Honor International Business. The phone will be exclusively offered by Flipkart, India's biggest online…

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If Apple will keep doing what it's been doing for a few years, in 2015 we're bound to see the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus launch. And now it looks like the first rumors about the duo are starting to surface.

According to an unnamed "person familiar with Apple's future product plans, who has provided reliable information in the past", the iPhone 6s will boast 2GB of RAM.

That's double the amount found in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and it would mark the first bump in RAM capacity for Apple smartphones since the iPhone 5, which launched in 2012.

Before the iPhone 5, the iPad 3 got 1GB of RAM first, and nowadays the iPad Air 2 already ships with 2GB, so if history repeats itself the increased amount of memory should make it to the next-gen iPhones.

2GB of RAM would obviously enable smoother multitasking, but it might apparently take a toll on battery life in the process. Regardless, this feels like a common sense move so it's probably going to happen.

Less certain seems Apple's rumored decision to ship the iPhone 6s (and 6s Plus) with the Apple SIM that debuted alongside the aforementioned iPad Air 2 last year. On the tablet, this lets you quickly sign up for a data plan at any participating carrier straight from the Settings. It requires no contract signing and lets you switch carriers at any time.

And those two things are exactly what would make shipping Apple SIMs inside iPhones quite unlikely. Carriers love contracts, and they aren't going to give them up – not even for Apple. What might happen is some sort of a compromise, perhaps with handsets bought from Apple itself coming with Apple SIMs, while those purchased at carriers would be locked to one network as before.

The new iPhones could be outed in September, and released a few days (or weeks) after the official…

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Following in the footsteps of the higher-end Honor 6 Plus, Huawei's Honor 4X is on its way to the UK too. In this case we haven't heard about an operator partner yet, but the Honor 4X should be up for grabs in the UK sometime in the second quarter of the year – so between April and June.

A more specific release time frame isn't available at this point, but we do have pricing information. In SIM-free and unlocked form, the Honor 4X will be offered for just £149.99.

The phone will be identical to the model of the same name that's already selling in China, save for one important difference. In the UK, the Honor 4X will be powered by Huawei's own 64-bit HiSilicon Kirin 620 SoC, coming with a 1.2 GHz octa-core CPU and Mali 450 MP4 GPU. This replaces the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 part found in the Honor 4X in China.

It's unclear what prompted the swap, but in terms of performance there shouldn't be a penalty. Both CPUs have Cortex-A53 cores, the clock speed is the same, Huawei's SoC just comes with eight cores compared to four for the Snapdragon.

Otherwise, you'll still find the same 5.5-inch 720p touchscreen inside the Honor 4X, along with the 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, 5 MP front snapper, 2GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage (expandable via microSD), dual-SIM dual-standby functionality, 4G LTE support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and the 3,000 mAh battery.

The Honor 4X will run Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box (with Emotion UI 3.0 on top), but Huawei is promising a Lollipop update for the handset this…

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