Having internet at the hotel you’re staying in is somewhat of an expected feature, however, as most of you will surely agree, having an actually working connection is a rarity, let alone one that is free and has adequate bandwidth to do a bit more than check your mail. Hitting all of the above might be considered a godsend by a lot of people working on the go, now more than ever with remote working environments and teleconferencing.

Enter the Jannah Burj Al Sarab in Abu Dhabi, which boasts a downstream connection of 1.2 Gbps. This crowns the service as the fastest found within a hotel (and faster than what’s available in most homes for that matter).

According to the hotel management, the improved speeds come as a result of a recent network upgrade, prior to which the establishment could only boast around 240 Mbps – still a ridiculously good result when compared to your average hotel Internet…

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Sony Mobile has detailed its plans for the launch of the Xperia Z5 and its small form factor sibling Z5 Compact in the US. The smartphones are arriving stateside on February 7, and will be available through major online retailers.

Amazon, Best Buy and B&H will be offering Sony’s flagships, with prices announced at a cent short of $600 for the Xperia Z5, and $100 less for the Z5 Compact. We’re talking unlocked devices, which can work on any GSM-based network, and in the US that means AT&T or T-Mobile.

We’re only left wondering if the pink Xperia Z5 will be sold in the US – with such launch timing it could make for an automatic Valentine Day’s gift purchase.

Meanwhile the Xperia Z5 Premium has been available in the US for a couple of months now, in Canada, too. This one is priced in the $750 to $800 ballpark but that gets you the first (and so far the only) 4K display in the…

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“What are the two things you can’t live without?” A teaser so vague OnePlus had to actually clarify that it’s a teaser for “something we’ve been cooking up.” It doesn’t help that the picture used in the teaser is of the OnePlus One, the company’s original product.

Given that it’s not either of OP’s current devices – the 2 or the X – it could be some good news for owners of the original.

It was updated to Cyanogen OS 12.1 recently (that’s Android 5.1) and got 6.0 Marshmallow only as an unofficial CyanogenMod 13 port. Is this it? An update? The OnePlus 2 has been confirmed for a Marshmallow update, so maybe. There’s OnePlus’ own Oxygen OS.

Until OnePlus provides a less vague teaser, enjoy the guesses of Twitter followers (hit the source…

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Microsoft’s Lumia 950 flagship duo has been around for a couple of months, but it’s got several promotions and price cuts under its belt already. The Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL are the first to introduce the Windows 10 Mobile in its full glory and Microsoft has shown determination to improve the support for both with regular software updates and bug fixes.

The Lumia 950 XL witnessed some good sales during the holiday season and it even went out of stock in certain markets such as USA and Canada. It had some time-exclusive price cuts and promotional freebies in the package, including the Microsoft Display Dock.

Meanwhile Microsoft has official cut the price of the Lumia 950 in the UK from £499.99 down to £449.99. You can find it even cheaper in Amazon and Carphone Warehouse.

The Microsoft Lumia 950 now costs £399.99 if you opt for the contract-free model on both Amazon UK and Carphone Warehouse. Both black and white flavors are available for purchase.

The Lumia 950 XL is also seems to be cheaper on Amazon UK – it costs £449.99, Carphone Warehouse has it at £469.99, while Microsoft sells it for £529.99.

Note that Microsoft is giving a Microsoft Display Dock with each Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, which may account for the price difference.

Amazon | Carphone Warehouse | Microsoft |…

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With the demise of BlackBerry OS, Tizen is the official fourth horse in the two-horse smartphone OS race. Its flagship product, the Samsung Z3, has already launched in several markets and will soon travel west to more than 10 European markets.

There’s no info on which countries exactly will get it. In addition to the Old Continent, two other markets will get the Z3 – Russia and Indonesia.

The phone costs INR 8,400 in India, the equivalent of €115, RUB 9,500 and IDR 1,736,000. The specs of the Samsung Z3 include a Super AMOLED screen (5″ 720p), quad-core processor and an 8MP/720p camera.

Source |…

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Xiaomi’s global expansion continues with UAE now checked, and Saudi Araiba to follow within the month. Dubai-based Task FZCO and local carrier Etisalat with operations in 15 countries have partnered to bring the Chinese smartphone brand to the UAE market.

A number of Xiaomi handsets will be available, starting with the Redmi 2 Pro, priced at AED 449 ($122), and the Redmi Note 2 selling for AED 719 ($196). Higher up the company’s lineup, you’d be able to get the 5-inch midranger Mi 4i for AED 899 ($245), or go all-out and purchase the 5.7-inch Mi Note for AED 1699 ($463).

Xiaomi Mi Note

Task FZCO, which has distribution rights for Xiaomi’s devices covering the Middle East, has shared plans for expansion to Saudi Arabia, as well. That should take place towards the end of the month, while other countries in the region will need to wait a couple of extra…

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It seems Samsung’s foundries will have no shortage of orders in the months to come. The company’s 14nm FinFET production process, originally developed for its in-house built Exynos chips, has naturally drawn the attention of other chip makers as well. By all accounts, Qualcomm’s next powerhouse SoC – the Snapdragon 820, will also be produced by Samsung, using the same 14nm FinFET process intended for its new Exynos 8 Octa chips.

The process in question is actually a second generation FinFET, which delivers up to 15% higher speeds and roughly the same improvement in terms of power consumption over its predecessor. It is dubbed LPP(Low-Power Plus) and is an all-round improvement over last-years 14nm LPE process, despite the absence of a subsequent die shrink. This is achieved through the use of fully-depleted FinFET transistors, as well as numerous other improvements to transistor structure and process optimization.

This definitely levels out the playing field between Samsung and Qualcomm in their next-gen flagship chipsets, at least to some degree and is definitely beneficial to users in the grand scheme of things, enabling new more powerful and less power hungry devices.

However, it still leaves plenty of room for competition in other aspects, most-notably – processor cores architecture. After sticking with standard ARM cores for a while, Samsung has turned to a custom-core solution with the Exynos 8890. Qualcomm has also returned to a custom-core solution with the Snapdragon 820.

Source |…

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The Motorola Moto G (2nd gen), that’s the 2014 model, got an alluring price cut – it is now just $99. The deal was available on the official Motorola site, but unfortunately it’s out of stock now.

Good news, Best Buy still has units, That’s $99 with free shipping for the 8GB Moto G (2nd gen), available in Black only. It’s compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile and other GSM carriers in the US (so no Verizon or Sprint).

The 3rd gen model is $180, it brings a 64-bit chipset and a 1080p video camera. However the 2nd gen model has stereo speakers and will be upgraded to Android 6.0 Marshmallow too. The savings are pretty significant…

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Antutu has released its yearly chart for most powerful smartphones, this year including the iPhone 6s/6s Plus. The new benchmark version 6.0 now comes with iOS support for cross-platform performance comparison, and Apple’s latest pair immediately steals the show.

Scoring north of 132K points, the iPhone 6s(Plus), as Antutu puts it (similar results from either device are implied), is the most powerful smartphone of 2015. It might have something to do with the inclusion of more thorough graphics testing in the new benchmark version, and Apple’s A9 chip has the currently undisputed GPU king inside.

Closest to the iPhone 6s, but not really close per se, is the Huawei Mate 8, at almost 93K points. The Kirin 950 chip inside paired with a 1080p display makes for a strong performer. The conservative choice of resolution (FullHD, too) on the Meizu PRO 5 helps it pull ahead of Samsung’s own flagships, where the Exynos 7420 has to deal with 78% more pixels.

The older-gen iPhone pair comes in sixth, inching ahead of the OnePlus 2, which is the highest-ranked Snapdragon 810 device. It’s all Qualcomm’s troubled high-end chip from then on, with the LeTV 1Pro, Xiaomi Note Pro and the Nexus 6P rounding up the chart.

Source |…

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Motorola has dropped the prices of its midrange offerings in India. Both the Moto G series and the Moto X Play have received a healthy INR 2,000 ($30) off on their price tags.

The bread and butter Moto G now starts at INR 9,999 ($149) for the 8GB model and INR 10,999 ($163) for the 16GB model.

The Moto G Turbo Edition is priced at INR 12,499 ($186).

The Moto X Play is priced at INR 16,499 ($245) for the 16GB model and INR 17,999 ($268) for the 32GB model.

All devices are available exclusively on…

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