It’s been more than a year since we saw the introduction of the original LG G Flex. When LG announced the second generation this January we had already assumed that LG had decided to ditch the entire concept…

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The Sony Xperia Z3 running Android 5.0 Lollipop has been certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. The handset obviously already had been certified over there while running previous versions of the software – so this means we could see Lollipop rolling out to Xperia Z3 units worldwide soon.

You can see the certification notes in the screenshot below, which also reveals that the Xperia Z3 with Lollipop got the all clear just a couple of days ago.

A release of Android 5.0 for the Z3 in a short while would make sense especially as the Japanese company itself promised this would happen in February. We're now past the half point of this month, and Sony's competitors have been faster with getting Lollipop to their flagship devices, so the company really needs to act sooner, rather than later.

The good news is that, slow as it may be, Sony's Lollipop rollout is set to include the entire Z line of tablets and smartphones. So if you own one of those, be convinced that an update is in the works – it may just take a while for it to actually be released, as it turns out.

Source (in Japanese) |…

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Huawei first made the Ascend G7 official back in September alongside the Mate7. Yet only today has the Chinese company informed us about its intention of selling the G7 in the UK market.

The midrange handset will become available in Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK sometime in March – a more detailed timeline hasn't been provided yet. What's good though is that the Ascend G7 will cost only around £149.99.

That's a pretty reasonable price considering the specs of the device, as well as the fact that the initially announced level was €299. £149.99 right now translates into just €204, so that's quite a difference.

The Ascend G7 is 7.6mm thin, it has a metal back, and it runs Android 4.4 with Huawei's Emotion UI 3.0 on top. It comes with a 5.5-inch 720p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, and a 5 MP front-facing unit.

At its core lies the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC, with a 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU, aided by 2GB of RAM. The phone has 16GB of built-in storage, which is expandable via microSD. It's got Cat.4 LTE support (with 150Mbps theoretical peak download speeds), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a 3,000 mAh battery.

In the UK, it will be available in all three color versions: Horizon Gold, Moonlight Silver, and Space…

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After the models sold by Verizon and Sprint both started getting the Lollipop update earlier this month, it's now time for T-Mobile's iteration of Samsung's Galaxy S5 to receive the same treatment.

In a bit of good news for owners of the S5 who bought theirs from T-Mobile, the carrier has started rolling out the update to Android 5.0 for this device today.

The update is available over-the-air, and as you can see the download necessary to perform it is over 900MB, so it might take a while to finish. As always in these cases, your phone will notify you once the new software is ready to be downloaded and installed.

If that hasn't happened yet, you can always force it to manually check using the Settings menu, though whether this will actually successfully bring you the update isn't clear. Alternatively, you can use Samsung's Kies desktop software to get your Galaxy S5 its first taste of Lollipop. After applying the update, you should be on Android 5.0, build number G900TUVU1DOB1.

Source 1 • Source…

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When we talk about Qualcomm and the future of mobile processors all roadmaps and leaks seem to naturally revolve around the high-end 800 series chipsets. The 810 is just now making its way on to actual production devices and the new 14nm manufacturing technology is really exciting to say the least.

However, while beastly hardware moves the industry forward it is the mid and low range that truly fuels it and powers the majority of devices out there. Qualcomm knows this better than most and is working hard to keep up with market demands and offer feature rich, affordable silicon at budget-friendly prices.

This is precisely the goal with the latest Snapdragon 415, 425, 618 and 620. These chips are all about the added value and bringing advanced technology to mid-range devices. Qualcomm is stressing that the new models will bring high-end features to the every level of their product stack.

First up are the Snapdragon 415 and 425. Both of them replace the traditional quad-core design of the 400 series with a more capable eight-core Cortex A53 setup. Both are also 64-bit and support the ARMv8 instruction set and are based on current 28nm manufacturing technology.

This in itself is a formidable step up in performance, but the chip giant has packed in a few more additional goodies. The two new 400-series members now have Quick-charge 2.0, as well as dual image signal processors (ISPs), which are supposed to allow much better cameras in mid-ranged devices.

The graphics ship has also been bumped up to the Adreno 405, which is not that more powerful than the Adreno 306 in the Snapdragon 410, but does offer hardware decoding for 1080p H.264 video and an external display resolution support of up to 1080p. The sole difference between the 415 and 425 models seems to be the LTE modem. On the lower end we have a X5 LTE modem, offering Cat. 4 speeds of up to 150Mbps, while the alternative chip comes with a X8 modem and twice the speed at 300Mbps.

The two new 600-series models seem to bring even more innovation to the family line. The Snapdragon 610 and 615 chips are not seeing a lot of manufacturer attention, with crowds either going for the 410 on the low end, which is not that different from the 610, or the 800 for more premium models. Qualcomm has surely realized this and is probably aiming to rekindle the series mid-range popularity with the new 618 and 620 models.

The big change here is that both new units use the brand new Cortex A72 cores, that are said to be twice as powerful than the A57. Naturally there are both 64-bit and are also built using a big.LITTLE configuration for optimal power-to-performance balance. The two chips also come with what is described as a "next-generation Qualcomm Adreno GPU". Qualcomm has not disclosed any information on this matter yet, but we will be sure to update you once the smoke clears.

The 618 and 620 models are both equipped with X8 LTE modems, capable of 300Mbps downloads and are built using a 28nm manufacturing process. Among the more interesting new features they bring to the family is 4K playback and capture support, along with 4K H.265 hardware decoding, previously limited to the high-end 800 series. The main difference between the two chips is that the 618 comes with a hexa-core setup (two A72 and four A53), whereas the 620 is octa-core(four A72 and four A53). Judging by ARM's promises, that latest chip might end up being the fastest the company has announced so far. Until the Cortex-A72-based Snapdragon 8xx arrives that is.

Source |…

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The rumor mill followed Samsung's choice of chipset for the Galaxy S6 duo in great detail. Leaked benchmarks show that going with its in-house Exynos 7420 chipset was a solid decision. The chipset is built on the company's 14nm process and includes four Cortex-A53 and four Cortex-A57 cores.

The Galaxy S6 scored impressive results in AnTuTu, now the Galaxy S6 Edge has visited Geekbench. Both flagships use the Exynos 7420 and if these scores are correct, they will run laps around Snapdragon 810-based devices.

Qualcomm's intermediate top dog has the same processor setup, 4x A53 plus 4x A57, but is made on a 20nm process. It's really there to tide things over until Qualcomm's in-house CPU designs (dubbed Taipan) are ready.

Here's how the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge would stack up against some old and current competition. The LG G Flex 2 score is from when we first met the device at CES, so that was on pre-release software.

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GeekBench 3
Higher is better

Galaxy S6 Edge (Lollipop)
5375

LG G Flex 2 (Lollipop)
3929

HTC Nexus 9 (Lollipop)
3470

Galaxy Note 4 (Lollipop)
3394

Meizu MX4 Pro
3386

Motorola Nexus 6
3285

Samsung Galaxy S5
3011

HTC One (M8) (Lollipop)
2923

Sony Xperia Z3
2860

LG G3 (Lollipop)
2370

Of course, until we're holding a Galaxy S6 Edge in our hands we can't verify that the score is real. That day is fast approaching, the Galaxy S6 duo will be unveiled in early March.

Source |…

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The HTC Butterfly 2 is only six months old and yet we're starting to hear of its planned replacement. The Butterfly 3 is said to pack a 5.2-inch WQHD screen, as reported on the @upleaks Тwitter feed.

A quick search on Wikipedia will tell you that WQHD is another designation of good old QHD, stressing its widescreen nature. Either one denotes a 1440×2560 pixel resolution, which on a 5.2-inch diagonal results in the density of 564ppi.

Few currently available smartphones can boast such a number, notably the Motorola Moto Maxx, Meizu MX4 Pro and Korean-only Samsung Galaxy S5 LTE-A. It's a competitive world out there, though, and if the Butterfly 3 hits the shelves in August as its predecessor, it will inevitably have to face stronger opposition.

The current HTC Butterfly 2 is a flagship in its specs, only second to the One (M8) because of its plastic body. Still, some may argue that it's a better overall package, featuring a conventional 13MP camera as opposed to an UltraPixel unit and IP57 certification, which the One (M8)…

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Android Lollipop has definitely been stirring up enthusiasm all over the mobile world. Major manufacturers are still knee deep in the update frenzy and eager users can't wait to get their hands on the new sugary goodness. While a lot of us are still waiting on support to roll out Google is definitely not easing its foot off the gas pedal.

A few days ago we reported that Android 5.1 is now official and is already shipping with Android One devices, but a new Geekbench score now points towards the existence of a yet unknown 5.2 build. The page in question seems to show the Nexus 5 running the ROM so there might just be some truth to the matter.

Of course it is natural that Nexus devices are first in line for every iteration of Google's mobile OS, but the jump from 5.1 to 5.2 in such a short time frame is a little bit odd, especially seeing how AOSP branches currently only reach version 5.0.2. We certainly wouldn't rule it out though with one possible explanation being a major bug fix or perhaps even a big new feature. There is, however also the possibility of a custom ROM intentionally reporting a false Android version.

If the whole thing does turn out to be true, then Google might have a big surprise in store coming really soon. We will be sure to keep a close eye on the matter and keep you updated.

Source |…

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Asus is expanding its Fonepad line of Android devices with a new tablet dubbed Fonepad 7 FE375CL. It comes with LTE support and runs Android 5.0 Lollipop out-of-the-box.

The device is powered by Intel Atom Z3530 chipset with 1.3 GHz quad-core CPU and PowerVR Series 6 – G6430 GPU, and sports a 7-inch 1280 x 800 pixel IPS display with 10 finger multi-touch support and anti-fingerprint coating.

It comes with 2GB of RAM and 8/16 GB of internal memory, which is expandable via a microSD card, and packs in a 3,950mAh battery. In terms of camera, the tablet features a 5MP main unit and 2MP front shooter. Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, and Micro-USB.

Available in Black and White, the Fonepad 7 (FE375CL) will be released in Taiwan first with a price tag of $250. There's no word yet on global pricing or availability.

Source |…

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Case maker OBLIQ sent us its latest case designs from the Slim Meta series and has confirmed the thickness of the Samsung Galaxy S6 will be 6.9mm. With the cases on, the phone will measure 9.5mm thick, which isn't all that bad.

The case design features cutouts for the camera, LED flash and heart rate monitor as well as cutouts for the antennas on top and bottom. The back is done in number of colors including gold, red and dark grey.

Naturally, there are a lot more cases that have leaked in the past further showing the phone. The Galaxy S6 with its metal frame will measure 143.3 x 70.8 x 6.9mm and will be IP67-certified. Furthermore, Samsung is expected to make TouchWiz a lot more lighter with less features.

Internally, Samsung is set to use its new Exynos 7 Octa chipset and equip the Galaxy S6 with a 2,600mAh battery. The phone would also feature a 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED touchscreen and 3GB of RAM – both things that have been rumored before. The rear camera will apparently be a 16 MP unit with OIS, and not the 20 MP one that's made the rounds up until now.

The big unveil of the company's upcoming flagship is scheduled for March…

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