The Galaxy S5 launched with Samsung's own camera sensor, however it seems that its successors have reverted back to Sony. The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge pack a Sony IMX240 sensor, the 16MP unit we've seen on the Galaxy Note 4.

Samsung has improved the camera module since the phablet though, widening the aperture from f/2.2 to f/1.9. This should further help low-light photography, which already enjoys the benefits of optical image stabilization.

Galaxy S6 reporting a Sony IMX240 sensor

In the previous generation the Galaxy S4 used a 13MP Sony IMX135 sensor.

The selfie camera on the Galaxy S6 reports a SLS_S5K4E6, which indicates a Samsung sensor. It's a different sensor though, a 5MP one instead of the 3.7MP sensor in the Galaxy Note 4. It's most likely the same selfie camera that goes into the Galaxy A…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1F16j9l
via IFTTT

Today at the MWC 2015, Gionee unveiled the Elife S7, a phone with a complicated design that focuses on being thin and running cool, and boasts long battery life. It's not the thinnest yet, but at 5.5mm, it's impressive enough. It's among the thinnest dual-SIM phones.

The body has grooved sides, something Gionee calls a U-shaped skeleton. The frame is made of aviation-grade alloy and features a stainless steel sheet with nano-molding plastic.

The company studied which apps use the most power and found that people spend 100 minutes on average on IM clients, which end up using over a third of the total power draw. The 2,750mAh battery of the Gionee Elife S7 is aided by a number power-saving features.

The 5.2" AMOLED display with 1080p resolution uses ACL tech, which promises to reduce power usage by 25%. There's also a Dark theme, which further drops power draw by 30% compared to the default theme. A new Sensor Hub (courtesy of Freescale) has been integrated into the chipset to collect sensor data, so that the CPU has to wake up 20% less often and do that itself.

All told, Gionee estimates it has improved battery life by 32% and the phone should go for two days. There's Extreme mode for emergencies, which restricts phone features and gives you 33 hours of standby on just 10% charge.

The Elife S7 will launch with Android 5.0 Lollipop running on a MediaTek MT6752 chipset. It's made up of a 64-bit processor with eight 1.7GHz Cortex-A53 cores and Mali-T760 GPU. There's 2GB of RAM and 16GB built-in storage. A number of cooling areas and heat radiation materials keep the phone running cooler than the competition, says Gionee.

Another point of pride is the camera – by using the thinnest 13MP module, the camera is flush whit the back. "Tim Cook followers" were explicitly called out for protruding cameras. Gionee has tuned the camera to focus in 300ms and capture the shot in 500ms. The phone also an 8MP selfie camera.

The Gionee Elife S7 boasts a larger speaker than its competition, which is powered by NXP for a 50% boost in volume. There's also DTS audio enhancement.

There is SIM tray that fits two SIM cards. The phone supports GSM 2G, 3G (international and Chinese) and two 4G LTE flavors.

The Gionee Elife S7 will launch in Macau on March 18th and India on April 3 for €400. Color options include Los Angeles Black, North Pole White and Maldives…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1vSSD0p
via IFTTT

With the development of Apple Pay and yesterday's announcement of Samsung Pay, it seems the industry is really pushing towards mobile payment systems. After all is does make a lot of sense to be able to pay with the device you are most likely to have on you – your phone, instead of a rather outdated plastic card. Google is definitely not one to shy away from progress and is also considering a mobile payment solution and a big one indeed.

The news comes from an interview with Sundar Pichai, Google's SVP of Product today, at MWC. He disclosed the company's intention to bring new, secure payment options to the Android OS. Needless to say this is a huge step forward, as a potential payment system, integrated straight into AOSP could and probably will spread like wild fire.

What Goggle intends to do is go down a slightly different road that Apple and after yesterday's Galaxy S6 announcement, Samsung as well. Rather than developing a dedicated cardless payment service, the tech giant will develop what is essentially the base software for such a system and offer it as another API inside Android. This could empower countless third-party developers to implement their own payment systems, using Google's basis and guidelines.

Right off the bat, there are a lot of security concerns with this plan and Sundar did manage to mitigate some of them in the interview. Open-source and Android API spell trouble in a lot of people's minds, but what Google intends to do is employ modern techniques, such as one-time security tokens to authorize payments. What this means is that if a transaction gets compromised by a third person, the offender will only get access to a one-time token that can't be used to carry out a further payments. This is a pretty standard approach, but does not answer all of the security concerns, mainly what happens if you lose your phone, or even worse, what could a potentially malicious piece of software do with your bank information without your knowledge.

The fact of the matter is that the first concern is pretty much valid with today's payment cards as well so you can rest assured that existing security measure for your card will be carried over and perhaps even improved, if your phone were to ever replace your debit card.

The second problem is a little bit trickier and there are a lot of issues that Google needs to address in order to secure the system properly from all sorts of attacks. Perhaps even more importantly, the tech giant needs to make Android Pay convincing enough for users to entrust their bank date with it.

Sundar explained that that sensitive info will be stored locally only, but implementing support for additional protection, such as a fingerprint sensors is also on the roadmap for the payment API.

This new Android endeavor will not affect Google Wallet, which has been around for quite some time and is enjoying formidable popularity and is also the main payment gate for most of Google's paid services, including the Play Store. That system is absolutely different in what it does and might even be complimented by the new Android Pay API.

No information on availability was disclosed during the interview, but Android users and developers can look forward to the new functionality and we are sure to find out more at Google I/O in…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/17KhJn0
via IFTTT

Silent Circle, the maker of the privacy-oriented Blackphone, has unveiled a successor. Logically named the Blackphone 2, the phone promises even tighter security and updated specs to better fit 2015 market. Additionally, there's also a new tablet from the company – the Blackphone+.

The Blackphone 2 sports an updated 64-bit octa-core processor in an yet unknown chipset and a much larger 5.5" 1080p display covered in Gorilla Glass 3. That's quite a hefty update compared to the old phone's 4.7" HD screen.

Additionally, the Blackphone 2 sports a 3,060mAh battery, which features quick charging. Sadly, it's not user replaceable. Additional features include microSD card slot, LTE and 3GB of RAM.

The phone runs PrivatOS 1.1, which features enhanced Spaces UI for separating different parts of the Android experience from one another. It allows you to assigns different logins for different areas of the device. For example, you can assign a login for all your communication apps and then have a separate one for your document apps.

Silent Circle has priced the phone at $649 – the same as the first generation Blackphone. As for the tablet, it's a 7" device, which uses a Qualcomm chip, but the company hasn't shared much info just yet.

Co-founder and Silent Circle chairman Mike Janke had this to add, "Never before have private citizens been under barrage from world governments — hacking, vacuuming, and chipping away at our privacy." Silent Circle boasts $750 million in orders for its the first Blackphone and anticipates the second generation to be an even bigger success.

"We're replacing BlackBerry, we don't care that BlackBerry's CEO is throwing nasty things about us onto Twitter. We're going to dominate them," said Mike Janke at today's…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1E9nuIY
via IFTTT

Intel unveiled a number of new Atom chipsets that will power mobile devices spanning the sub-$75 market all the way to the $350+ segment. The most affordable devices will be based on the Intel Atom x3, which features an integrated modem with either 3G or 4G LTE connectivity. The more advanced x5 and x7 chips will bring 450Mbps LTE, new generation Intel GPUs and a cache of advanced Intel tech.

Intel Atom x3

The Atom x3 chips will have 64-bit processor (as all mobile Atoms) and will support both Android and Windows. They support dual-SIM devices with 3G or LTE connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS and GLONASS, the whole nine yards.

The x3 name covers three chips of a common C3000 series. At the lowest rung of the ladder is the C3130, which has a dual-core 1GHz processor and a dual-core Mali-400 GPU. The processor promises around 50% performance boost over a Cortex-A7 with four cores and at a higher frequency to boot. The chipset also comes with 21Mbps HSPA+ modem on board.

Then the C3230RK (1.2GHz) and C3440 (1.4GHz) have quad-core processors and are coupled with Mali-450MP4 and a more recent Mali-T720MP2, respectively. The C3230RK offers an additional boost over the Cortex-A7s, nearly 80% (you'd think it will be faster with twice as cores as its little bro).

The top chip of the x3, the C3440, doubles the 3G speed with 42Mbps HSPA and brings LTE Cat. 6 (both international and Chinese flavors). For phones there's dual-SIM connectivity and Voice over LTE (VoLTE). Locally it supports 650Mbps Wi-Fi networks (802.11ac).

In terms of performance, Intel estimates it will offer a 33% advantage over quad-core Cortex-A53s. Note that this comparison is with existing devices in the price ranges that Intel targets.

Intel Atom x5 and x7

The new Intel Atom x5 (Z8300 and Z8500) and x7 (Z8700) chipsets are exclusively quad-cores based on Cherry Trail, built on Intel's 14nm process. They move to Intel's own Gen 8 graphics, instead of old ARM designs and come with an Intel LTE modem capable of up to 450Mbps downlink.

The mainstream x5 and performance x7 chips will power Android and Windows devices, which will start at a pretty low price – $120. Intel sees these into devices ranging from 7" tablets to 10.1" laptop/tablet hybrids. The first devices are expected in the first half of this year.

Compared to the current top dog, the Atom Z3795 (which uses an Intel Gen 7 GPU), the Atom x7 will double the scores in the GFX T-Rex benchmark and do 50% better on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, according to Intel's number.

There will be a Wi-Fi only version of the Atom x5 aimed at the $150-$250 value segment, while the LTE-enabled chips will have dual-SIM and 450Mbps LTE, VoLTE and should come out in the second half of 2015.

Thanks to Intel's in-house tech, these chipsets will support WiDi (wireless TV out tech), RealSense (selective focus and other effects), RealSense 3D (depth sensing with two cameras) and…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1AP47Cr
via IFTTT

Microsoft unveiled a couple of mid-rangers, but no flagships. The high-enders will come later, for now we get the Microsoft Lumia 640 XL phablet with Zeiss camera and the Lumia 640, both on their way to a Windows 10 update and both with a full range…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1vRUlPI
via IFTTT

Jolla is ready to start licensing the Sailfish OS 2.0 to device manufacturers. The company says its mobile operating system is perfect for those who want to differentiate themselves from the Android and Windows Phone pack.

Another major announcement from the Finns is their cooperation with Intel to make Sailfish OS 2.0 come out with support for the latest Atom x3 processor. Jolla says the latest version of the Sailfish OS will be ready some time in the second half of the year.

In it, users will find enhanced user interface, although we don't know if it will go through a major redesign or changes will be small and incremental. In addition, expect improved Android application capabilities, new privacy and personalization features, new notifications and events view as well as integration for mobile commerce.

Jolla has sent an industry invitation to OEMs, ODMs, leading Internet and eCommernce players to join the Sailfish OS alliance. Whether it will succeed to attract other manufacturers to use its mobile OS in actual product, though is a completely another matter.

The first product to launch with Sailfish OS 2.0 is the Jolla Tablet, which was successfully crowdfunded and should go out to customers hands soon.

Which manufacturers do you hope will give Sailfish OS 2.0 a…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1BwHT8S
via IFTTT

Alcatel has definitely brought a lot of new devices to this year's MWC. Yesterday we reported on two new devices, bearing the name OneTouch IDOL 3 and it appear we only skimmed the surface. And if thought those two differently sized namesake phones were very confusing wait until you see the next badge.

A total of three tablets and two phones will all share the model – PIXI 3. And the difference across the lineup isn't only in the screen size. First up there are the two new smartphones. Both are named PIXI 3 (5.5), which signifies their screen size. The most obvious difference is that one of them supports 4G LTE, while the other one doesen't. But the differences don't stop there. The lower-end model comes with a 540 x 960 pixel panel, while its bigger brother boats an HD resolution of 720p. Chipsets are also quite different – a MediaTek MT6580 in the low-end and a QCT 8909 in the other device. Both phones will have 1GB of RAM and will run Android L out of the box, but the differences are abundant. Below is a full list of the specs of each one.
Pixie 3 (5.5) 3G

2G NETWORK
GSM 850/900/1800/1900

3G NETWORK
UMTS 900/2100 UMTS 850/900/1900/2100

DISPLAY
IPS, 5.5" qHD (540×960); HD compatible

INTERNAL MEMORY
8GB ROM+1GB RAM; 4GB eMMC +512MB LPDDR3 compatible

EXTERNAL MEMORY
Card slot support up to 32GB

WLAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Wifi Hotspot, Wifi Display

BLUE TOOTH
V4.0 with A2DP, EDR

USB
Micro USB, 2.0 high speed

PRIMARY CAMERA
8MP AF(5M AF compatible);

SECONDARY CAMERA
2MP (5MP compatible)

OS
Android L

CHIPSET
MT6580

SENSOR
G-sensor (Accelerometer) (proximity, light , e-compass , Gyro compatible)

GPS
Yes, with A-GPS.

BATTERY
2910 mAh battery

Pixie 3 (5.5) 4G

2G NETWORK
GSM 850/900/1800/1900

3G NETWORK
UMTS 2/4/5 (TMO) / UMTS 1/2/5 (ATT) / UMTS 1/2/5/8 (Global)

4G NETWORK
B2/4/12 (TMO) / B2/4/5/7/12/17 (MFBI B17 to B12) (ATT)
B1/3/7/8/20 (EMEA) / B1/3/8/20 /40 (APAC) / B1/2/4/7/28 (LATAM)

DISPLAY
TFT, 5.5" HD (720X1280)

INTERNAL MEMORY
8GB+1GB; (4GB +1GB compatible)

EXTERNAL MEMORY
Card slot support up to 32GB (North America ) & 128GB (global)

WLAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display

BLUE TOOTH
V4.0

USB
Micro USB, 2.0 high speed

PRIMARY CAMERA
5 and 8 MP AF camera,

SECONDARY CAMERA
2 and 5 MP camera

OS
Android L

CHIPSET
QCT 8909

SENSOR
G-sensor, P/L sensor, E compass, Hall sensor

GPS
Yes

BATTERY
2800 mAh battery

The situation is actually even more confusing with the tablets. All three of them bear the name PIXI3(7) with either Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G LTE appended at the end. This definitely clears up the question of connectivity, but hardware-wise the three models have little in common, besides the 7-inch 1024×600-inch screen.

Chipsets are different, RAM as well. Even the preinstalled Android version, with only the top of the line model offering Android Lollipop. Once again here are the specs on the three devices so you can judge for…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1GG4JuE
via IFTTT

Among the more prominent announcements that took place at MWC, you may have missed the little Orange Klif. The smartphone is a collaboration between Alcatel, Orange and Firefox and is sits in the low ranks of the entry-level.

The Alcatel Orange Klif comes with a tiny by today's standards capacitive 3.5-inch screen of 320×480 pixel resolution. An unnamed Mediatek chipset powers the phone, with its dual-core processor clocked at 1.0GHz. The 256MB of RAM come from a time long forgotten, as do the 512MB of storage. A microSD slot is provided, though.

Budget constraints have nevertheless allowed a 2MP camera with an LED flash. Battery capacity is 1300mAh and the whole thing is packed in a 112.2 x 62 x 11.9mm body. An FM radio receiver is on board as well as GPS functionality.

The smartphone is 3G-enabled for downlink speeds up to 21Mbps, and offers dual SIM slots. Judging by the companies involved, you'd already have guessed that it boots Firefox OS, in its 2.0…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1GG0L5n
via IFTTT

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset was just made official at MWC 2015. The chipset will be built on a FinFET manufacturing process, but Qualcomm didn't specify if this means TSMC's 16nm or Samsung's 14nm tech will be used.

The star of the Snapdragon 820 chip, which debuts Qualcomm's Zenoth platform. It promises to be a cognitive computing platform, which means that it can anticipate users needs and actions in advance.

Inside the chip Qualcomm's custom ARMv8 CPU core also makes a first appearance. Dubbed Kryo, it sports 64-bit architecture, but at this point there aren't any more details regarding it.

Qualcomm says it will start sampling the Snapdragon 820 in the second half of 2015. This leaves us to anticipate the first devices rocking the chip early 2016. Expect more information about the Snapdragon 820 as it becomes…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1vRJGVd
via IFTTT