Oppo 3000 released in China, it’s a 4G-capable midranger

Oppo has unveiled a new smartphone in China today. It's called Oppo 3000 and it's already up for grabs in the mainland, in an interesting twist.

Unlike other Oppo handsets, this one can't claim the title of "world's thinnest smartphone", nor does it come with an innovative swiveling camera. The Oppo 3000 is just a midrange device, aiming to deliver a polished experience to those who aren't looking for top of the line specs.

Oppo 3000

Speaking of those, the Oppo 3000 comes with a 4.7-inch 720p touchscreen, a 5 MP wide-angle front camera, and an 8 MP Sony IMX179 rear camera sensor, which boasts f/2.0 aperture and has a five-element lens. All of these things should add up to decent image quality produced by this phone.

Running the show here is Qualcomm's 64-bit Snapdragon 410 SoC, with a 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU in tow and Adreno 306 GPU. The Oppo 3000 has 1GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage, a microSD card slot, dual-SIM functionality (dual-standby), 4G LTE support, NFC, and a 2,000 mAh battery.

It runs Android 4.4 KitKat underneath Oppo's own Color OS 2.01. The device is being sold in China for CNY 1,599, which is about $256 or €226. That's quite a bit more than what's being asked for similarly specced handsets such as the new Xiaomi Redmi 2, so it's unclear how successful the Oppo 3000 will turn out to be, sales-wise. Another unknown is whether it will ever be offered for purchase elsewhere.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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Verizon’s Nokia Lumia Icon is getting the Denim update

As promised by Verizon and Microsoft in December, the Lumia Denim update is now finally on its way to the Lumia Icon smartphone. Last year we heard that the rollout would occur in "early 2015", and February probably qualifies for that definition.

The Icon follows in the footsteps of Verizon's Lumia 822 and Lumia 928, both of which have been running the latest software since 2014.

Lumia Denim is the latest release based on Windows Phone 8.1, and it was announced in September of last year. A wider rollout for Denim commenced in January.

The update brings with it the new Lumia Camera app, "Hey Cortana" voice activation, live folders on the Start screen, an "Apps Corner" for specific apps or games, SMS merge and forwarding, customizable snooze times in the Alarm app, consumer VPN support, faster browsing in IE, and a live tile for the Windows Phone store.

If your Lumia Icon hasn't yet notified you that there's an update available, you can always manually check by going to Settings > Phone update. To be able to download it, you'll need to have at least 1GB of free storage space on your device.

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Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge details ‘confirmed’ again

For a few weeks we've been seeing an incredibly high number of leaks and rumors talking about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S6. So far it's pretty likely that we'll get an S6 Edge version too, and this has been rumored to have a three-sided screen, not two-sided like the Galaxy Note Edge (which is pictured below).

Today a new report comes to confirm this detail, along with other things that have been leaked recently. For example, both the S6 and the S6 Edge are said to sport "all-metal bodies". So the much rumored glass backs may be out.

The phones will come with 5.1-inch displays, keeping the size of their predecessor. They will be powered by "Samsung's most advanced processor chips", or so say "people with direct knowledge of the matter". This isn't surprising, given how many times we've heard that Samsung won't use Qualcomm chips for the S6, instead opting for its own Exynos 7 octa solution.

According to some analysts, the Galaxy Note Edge was received by the market better than they've anticipated, which means the S6 Edge might be a rather successful endeavor too. And its screen, which covers the front but also the left and right sides of the device, will surely make it stand out in public. Samsung plans to eventually produce a fully foldable smartphone, but until that's possible these curved displays will have to do.

Both the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge will be unveiled by Samsung on March 1 at a special event in Barcelona.

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Gionee Elife S7 future flagship leaks showing very thin body

Competing for the title of "World's thinnest smartphone" seems to be an ongoing venture for many Chinese manufacturers. And while major mobile players mostly steer clear from this particular contest Asian manufacturers have been battling long and hard to top each-other's razor-thin creations.

Gionee started it all with the Elife S5.1, measuring only 5.15 mm and now intends to get back in the game. That particular handset was quickly surpassed by the Oppo R5 with a 4.85 mm body, followed by the 4.8 mm Vivo X5 Max and most recently the Ivvi K1 Mini, measuring only 4.7 mm. Gionee's next big flagship device made it through the cracks today ant it seems that the new device, dubbed Elife S7 is once again reaching for the gold in the slim profile race.

A few leaked pictures from China seem to show a Gionee Elife S7 unit and it looks incredibly thin. Reports say it measures in at 4.6 mm. This is kind of an odd deviation from the company's current rather clever scheme of naming their devices after their z-measure, namely the Elife S5.5, which spouts a 5.5mm and the aforementioned Elife S5.1 as well. Logic would dictate that a S7 model number would indicate a pretty fat handset or at least one with a 7-inch display, but neither seems to be true about the smartphone judging by the images.

Gionee has already sent out invitations for its MWC 2015 event and the Elife S7 will indeed be unveiled at the Barcelona venue on March 2. Whether or not it will break the current size record is still unclear so the above leak and device should be taken with a grain of salt.

Source (in Chinese) |…

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New Galaxy S6 render based on precise schematics surfaces

A lot is already known about Samsung's next flagship device and its edged variant. Rumors have been all over the place, but no actual photos of a S6 units are available as of yet.

We even have a pretty good idea on the handset's shape and dimensions. This is mostly based on leaked images of various cases for the future smartphone, but fairly recently we also saw some alleged schematics of the Galaxy S6 that seemed pretty accurate and credible enough.

Based on those very sketches somebody has taken up the task to fire up some CAD software and produce a few gorgeous and very detailed renders of the device. At this point these images are as close as we can get to actually seeing Samsung's next flagship and judging from what we already know the renders should be close to, if not absolutely accurate.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 should be equally impressive in terms of hardware. Rumors point toward an Exynos 7420 octa-core power house of a CPU along with an equally impressive Mali-T760 GPU and 3GB of RAM. The Galaxy S6 should spout a 5.1-inch QHD display and a rather impressive camera setup – 20MP OIS main shooter and 5MP front-facing.

But again most of the above is still based purely on rumors so until Samsung's MWC event on March 1 nothing is really certain about the device and its edged…

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Samsung Galaxy S6 and S Edge to have a 20MP OIS camera

A lot has been written about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S Edge flagships, with plenty of emphasis on the camera. The prevalent rumor is that it will be a 20MP shooter, but now more info has surfaced, coming from an insider who allegedly has a Galaxy S6 prototype in hand.

The rear camera will pack a 20MP sensor manufactured by Samsung with optical image stabilization. The selfie camera will be a 5MP shooter, also with a Samsung-made sensor (the sensor from the Galaxy A series in particular).

It's not clear if this Samsung sensor will make it to both S6 devices. Depending on production yield it could be limited to just the Galaxy S Edge or, worst case scenario, dropped altogether.

In terms of software, Samsung is said to use the new Android 5.0 camera APIs to provide a Pro mode. This mode will shoot RAW photos and offer manual controls including focus and shutter speed…

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LG G Flex 2 coming to Singapore next month

The LG G Flex 2, which was unveiled at this year’s CES, and launched in South Korea late last month, is heading to its first international market – Singapore.

Priced at SGD998 ($800), the device will be up for pre-order on February 27, and will go on sale starting March 14. There is no word yet on when it will hit the US or the UK market.

Specifications-wise, the device is powered by Qualcomm's infamous Snapdragon 810 chipset, and sports a 5.5-inch 1080p display. It comes in 2GB/32GB and 3GB/64GB variants, packs in a 3,000 mAh battery, and runs Android Lollipop (v5.0.1). In terms of camera, the G Flex 2 features a 2.1 MP front-facing unit, and 13 MP rear shooter.

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Kyocera Torque lands in Europe with a rugged droid smartphone

Kyocera has decided to step out of its usual North American market and test the European waters. The company is launching the Torque smartphone in Germany and France for business users in the coming weeks.

Not to be confused with the first-generation Kyocera Torque, which the company launched for Sprint a couple of years ago, the latest Torque for the European market bears striking resemblance to the Brigadier. As such, the phone is equipped with a 4.5" 720p display, but sans sapphire crystal display, sadly.

Powering the Kyocera Torque is a Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core 1.4GHz Cortex-A7 CPU and 1GB of RAM. At the back, there's an 8MP snapper with LED. Similar to other Kyocera phones, the Torque is also IPX5 and IPX8 waterproof as well as dust- and shockproof. It can also survive temperatures from -21 to 50 degrees Celsius for 3 hours.

The company will showcase the phone at the MWC 2015 and hopefully we'll have more information regarding pricing and availability…

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Asus Zenfone C launched in India, priced at $96

Asus has launched an entry-level smartphone in India. Dubbed the Zenfone C-ZC451CG, the device is priced at INR 5,999 ($96), and is now available online via e-commerce website Flipkart.

The smartphone is powered by Intel's Atom CloverTrail Z2520 chipset with dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, and sports a 4.5-inch FWVGA TN Panel display with a 480×854 pixel resolution. It comes with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage (expandable up to 64GB via a microSD card), and runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box with the Taiwan-based company's Zen UI on top.

As for the Camera, the Zenfone C sports a 0.3MP front snapper and a 5MP main shooter with PixelMaster technology, which the company claims can capture up to 400% brighter photos in low-light conditions, even without flash. The device also packs in a 2100mAh removable battery.

Connectivity options include WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, 3G, WiFi Direct, GPS, A-GPS, and GLONASS. The Zenfone C will also be available at Asus Exclusive Stores starting February 18.

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Samsung Galaxy E7 heads to China for $330

The Samsung Galaxy E7 is the mid-range sibling of the Galaxy A7 and so far has been available in India only. Now the availability is expanding to China where it's joining the smaller Galaxy E5.

The Galaxy E7 phablet will cost CNY 2,100 ($335/€300) though the exact launch date wasn’t revealed. That's a bit cheaper than the price in India of INR 22,800 ($365/€325).

It's also not entirely clear which of the country's carriers will offer the phablet, though it supports both China Mobile and China Unicom for its optional dual-SIM and LTE (150Mbps).

The Samsung Galaxy E7 boasts a 5.5" Super AMOLED screen with 720p resolution (267ppi), runs Android 4.4 KitKat on a Snapdragon 410 chipset (4x Cortex-A53 CPU) with 2GB of RAM and has a 13MP/1080p main camera as well a 5MP selfie camera.

Souce (in Chinese) |…

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