ZOPO TOUCH with 2.5D curved glass launched at MWC 2015

The Chinese handset maker ZOPO Mobile launched the new TOUCH/ZP530 smartphone at the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. The new TOUCH features a 2.5D curved glass display similar to the one found in Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and BlackBerry Slider.

Measuring mere 8.8 mm thick, ZOPO TOUCH has 9-membrane layers crammed in its back cover. Its display hugs a metal frame with a fancy micron sand blast and oxidation technology that makes the glossy durable. The device booth Android 4.4 KitKat.

ZOPO TOUCH features a 5" 2.5D curved HD display with ON-CELL full-fitted technology, which can reach up to 95% NTSC value. Powered by 64-bit MediaTek MT6732 SoC with 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, TOUCH/ZP530 packs 1 GB RAM, 8 GB built-in storage, and full connectivity suite.

TOUCH features 8 MP rear camera with LED flash and wide-angle 5 MP front-facing camera for selfies. Apart from that, the handset is loaded with several sensors – gravity sensor, accelerometer, range sensor, L-sensor and geomagnetic sensor. ZOPO has packed a 2100 mAh battery and has Dual-SIM (micro) support. The price and availability of the device will be announced…

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YotaPhone 2 to launch in the US via Indiegogo, priced at $600

Earlier this year we've heard that the YotaPhone 2 will be headed to the US via T-Mobile, but that seems not to be the case after all. The company behind the unique dual-screen smartphone has revealed that it will use crowdfunding site Indiegogo to launch the YotaPhone 2 in the US.

The device will be priced at around $600, and the campaign will be live sometime this spring. The phone will support both AT&T and T-Mobile's networks, including LTE. If the Indiegogo launch is successful, Yota will bring the device to well known retailers such as Best Buy too.

Yota is working on an update to Android 5.0 Lollipop for the YotaPhone 2, and this might come preinstalled for handsets offered in the US (or it may arrive shortly after the launch). The update will include an enhanced API for third party apps to be able to take advantage of the secondary e-Ink display.

There will also be a white YotaPhone 2 released by late summer, which will have a black face but white back and sides. A cheaper version of the handset, called YotaPhone 2c, is in the works too. This will have the same large e-Ink secondary display on its back like the original YotaPhone 2, but will come with lower-end specs, including in the primary screen department.

The YotaPhone 3 is expected to debut at CES next year, and it will obviously be the successor to the YotaPhone 2.

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Huawei Honor 6 Plus will be sold by Three UK soon

Huawei has been selling its Honor-branded smartphones in the UK for a while now, but so far only through third-party retailers and only in SIM-free and unlocked fashion. That's about to change, though.

Three is going to become the exclusive operator partner for the Huawei Honor 6 Plus in the UK. The phone will become available to buy with Three's contracts, and select Three stores across the UK will showcase its design and features.

Thus, Three customers will be able to "experience" the Honor 6 Plus before they buy one. If you aren't convinced by Three's plans, you'll also be able to pick up an Honor 6 Plus sans contract for just £250. A clear timeline for the launch hasn't been revealed yet, but it's safe to say that it should happen pretty soon.

The Honor 6 Plus sports a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, dual 8 MP rear cameras with LED flash, an 8 MP front-facing snapper, 3GB of RAM, and a 3,600 mAh battery. It's powered by Huawei's own HiSilicon Kirin 925 SoC, pairing a quad-core Cortex-A15 and a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU on a big.LITTLE platform, and boasting support for LTE Cat.6 networks (with theoretical peek download speeds of up to…

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Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is up for pre-order in Germany for €279

Sony took the wraps off the Xperia M4 Aqua yesterday morning in Barcelona at MWC, and today the new phone is already up for pre-order, at least in Germany.

Right now Amazon is the only retailer doing the honors, and it's asking for €279 for the new device. That's €20 less than what Sony told us was the recommended retail price for the Aqua. You can get it in either black or white.

Unfortunately no details about when it should start shipping are known just yet, but it may become available next month.

The Xperia M4 Aqua comes with a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 5 MP selfie shooter, 2GB of RAM, and a 2,400 mAh battery. It's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615 SoC, which boasts an octa-core CPU with four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5 GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1 GHz.

It's IP68 certified for water and dust resistance, and it has support for Cat.4 LTE networks (with theoretical peek download speeds of 150Mbps). The M4 Aqua runs Android 5.0…

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Galaxy Note 5 Edge will probably have a dual edge display too

Samsung is considering using a dual-edge display on the next Samsung Galaxy Note phablet.

The Galaxy S6 edge received overwhelmingly positive reception both from critics and users. The new Galaxy S6 edge doesn't use the same bending as the Galaxy Note Edge, nor does it offer the same widget functionality along the edge. Yet it managed to win the hearts of the media at the MWC 2015.

The VP of Samsung Products Strategy Team confirmed in a Q&A session that Samsung is considering using the same display solution for the next Galaxy Note device. It is unclear whether Samsung is planning to release just one Note with curved display or two separate models as the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge.

The next Galaxy Note should go official in September, so there is plenty of time for Samsung to decide on the…

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HTC One M9 goes on pre-order in Germany with HTC Advantage

Just a couple of days after going official, the HTC One M9 is now available for pre-order by the official HTC store in Germany.

Currently, you can pre-order the Gold-on-Gold version now, while the Gunmetal Gray and the Gold-on-Silver color options will be available starting on March 31.

The HTC One M9 retail for €750 and come with the HTC Advantage initiative, which was previously available just in the US. In Germany the program gives you free overnight shipping for each order made before 14:00h, help for transferring your data from your old smartphone via a premium hotline and a free pickup and delivery return in case of repairs. Unlike the US, HTC doesn't offer free display repair in Europe.

The One M9 is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 platform – an octa-core 64-bit processor with four Cortex-A57 cores at 2.0GHz and four Cortex-A53 working at 1.5GHz. The new Adreno 430 is responsible for the graphics, while the 3GB RAM will help with the multi-tasking. The phone packs a 5" 1080p display – the same unit from One (M8) – Super LCD3 – with minor improvements on the technology and color rendering. The highlight of the front are the traditional BoomSound stereo speakers, now improved further by Dolby Sound technology.

The phone is also available in MediaMarkt, Saturn and other retailers across Germany, however the Gold on Gold version currently seems to be available only via HTC's own webstore (which surprisingly seems to be run by online retailer Expansys).

In the UK, pre-orders of the phone start on March 9 with EE, Carphone Warehouse, O2 and Three offering the…

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BlackBerry teased a curved screen slider at MWC 2015

BlackBerry's MWC press conference ended merely minutes ago and for the most part, it was quite boring. However, Blackberry made a few interesting announcement near the end of the lengthy talk, including one major curveball, that no one had really expected.

The manufacturer announced the new BlackBerry Leap as well as new colors for the Blackberry Classic, but what really took the audience by storm is the curved, slider phone that made a brief appearance on stage.

The device came out of the blue and was meant as a huge tease to users and fans. We only managed to catch a few quick glimpses, but it did seem that the phone had a real double-edged screen, much like the one on the new Galaxy S6 edge. Sadly this is only based on a few photos, taken from a distance, so it could be simply a visual effect of the overlaying glass, we can't really be sure.

#twitter-widget-0 {width: 590px !important;}

What a Surprise! Ron just pulled out a dual-curved, all-touch display with a Keyboard – yes a slider device! #MWC15 http://ift.tt/1DCDTAo BlackBerry (@BlackBerry) March 3, 2015

The smartphone, which Ron was referring to simply as "the slider", comes, as the name suggests, in an interesting, kind of retro form-factor. A physical keyboard does, however, have a lot of appeal and might just turn out to be a major selling point for the device once in become available. There is still no info on availability though. So stay tuned for an…

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BlackBerry Classic coming in blue, bronze, and white

The BlackBerry Classic is the epitome of the company's smartphone concept. The hardware keyboard, together with a no-nonsense design and security features is what keeps the company going.

BlackBerry has chosen to spice things up for its basic model adding a few more colors to the mix. Announced today at MWC, alongside the all-new BlackBerry Leap, the Classic will now be available in blue, bronze, and white, to complement the regular black.

The Classic comes with a 3.5-inch square display with a 720 x 720 resolution, Snapdragon S4 chipset, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage which is expandable. It comes with an 8MPfront camera, 2,515mAh battery and LTE connectivity.

It's key selling points are not in the hardware, though. The Classic offers superior build, productivity features, and security, delivered by the company's OS…

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BlackBerry Leap is official with a 5-inch HD display

The BlackBerry Leap is now official, announced at the company's MWC 2015 press conference. Nevertheless, the latest member of the BlackBerry smartphone family is an budget-minded mid-range offering and sports a 5" HD display resulting in a pixel density of 294ppi.

Under the hood of the BlackBerry Leap, there's a rather outdated Snapdragon S4 Plus chip with a 1.5GHz dual-core Krait CPU and 2GB of RAM. Internal storage is 16GB with a microSD card slot that can take additional 128GB.

The phone measures 144 x 72.8 x 9.5mm and weighs 170 grams. The battery under the textured soft back cover is 2,800 and isn't removable. BlackBerry says the leap can last up to 25 hours of heavy use.

Speaking of the back, there's an 8MP auto-focus camera with LED flash. It can record 1080p videos at 30fps and has a 5x digital zoom. The Leap runs BLackBerry 10.3.1 out of the box. Check out the company's promo video of the phone below.

The phone will launch in April with a contract free price of…

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Android in February: Lollipop doubles its share in a month

Google released the Android distribution report for the month of February. The latest Android 5.0 Lollipop has more than doubled its distribution share in a month – it now runs on 3.3% of all Android hardware (up from 1.6% last month).

The growth of Android 5.0 Lollipop should hardly catch anyone by surprise. A number of high-volume Android devices received an update to the new build over the past month. New hardware with the OS has also hit the market.

Android 4.4 KitKat also grew its distribution share to 40.9%. A month ago, 39.7% of all devices ran KitKat.

Unsurprisingly, Android Jelly Bean and its various iterations lost a bit of ground in February. Combined, the three major Jelly Bean releases boot on 42.6% of all devices – down from 44.5% a month ago.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Android 2.3 Gingerbread have declined by half a percentage point each to 5.9% and 6.9% respectively. Android 2.2 Froyo hasn’t moved from its 0.4% distribution share.

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