ST-Ericsson unveiled their latest 2.5GHz NovaThor L8580 CPU earlier in this year, but the company is now readying to showcase an even faster version of the chip at MWC 2013.
The four Cortex A9 cores residing in the NovaThor L8580 (or eQuad, as it's also dubbed) that's going to be on display at MWC are going to be clocked at 3GHz. In order to not drain the battery in a heartbeat, ST-Ericsson have build the chipset using the 28nm FD-SOI manufacturing technology.
The company has also utilized ModAp, which optimizes the execution of apps and as a result runs them up to 35% faster. The chip comes with support for dual cameras (of up to 20MP), HD Voice and LTE. The GPU is going to be of the PowerVR SGX544 variety clocked at 600MHz.
Naturally, the 3GHz NovaThor L8580 CPU in question is just a prototype at the moment, but hopefully, we'll get to play with it in Barcelona and put it through some benchmarking.
With the notion of not only 4G on the cards, but also talk of 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum being bandied about, it can get confusing very quickly – even the networks themselves have had trouble picking through the bids to see how their rivals have done.
But in a nutshell, the main technology you should care about within the 4G allocation is the frequencies on offer: 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2.6GHz are the three main areas and all have different characteristics in delivering data to your mobile, tablet or dongle.
800MHz was the most sought-after during the auction, simply because it travels so far and so well. This means that networks can deploy long range 4G networks that can carry everything from HD voice to high speed data, and can really help solve the issue of getting broadband to those who currently are devoid of the technology.
1800MHz is the frequency that EE has been using to provide the UK's first 4G network, and it's designed to offer a balance between coverage and speed, something that is hugely important when you're trying to get people to take up a new (and costly) service.
And finally: 2.6GHz (or 2600MHz if you're being specific) is the signal that's best for inner cities – think of it as a firework with a turbo-charged boost that fizzles out over long distances. This means it's great for short ranges with loads of people connecting at once rather than a few houses across the moors, which is why it's perplexing as to why some networks have eschewed it.
So who has won out of the auction? Let's run down what going to be happening network by network:
Vodafone
Dubbed the 'winners' of the auction by some, ol' Big Red has got the most spectrum from the auction – and across all frequencies too, so it can deploy 4G in rural areas and in big cities.
It's got twice the amount of spectrum in the 800MHz band and shedloads at 2.6GHz, which means not only can it be one of the best to serve the outlying areas, but it will also have the power to go big in the cities too – plus it's also nabbed some frequency to improve its service efficiency too, resulting in cost savings.
The network wants to 'do an EE' and liberalise some of its own spectrum for 4G as well at the 1800MHz range, so despite paying close to a quarter of a billion pounds, the 4G future looks strong in this one.
What the network said:
"We've secured the low frequency mobile phone spectrum that will support the launch of our ultra-fast 4G service later this year. It will enable us to deliver services where people really want it, especially indoors. This is great news for our customers. The next generation of mobile internet services will bring real benefits to both consumers and businesses."
Three
Much was made of Three's impending lack of 800MHz spectrum – it was widely expected that the network was going to have to stick with 2.6GHz and miss out on being a larger provider.
As the winning "fourth national wholesaler", Three won the spectrum set aside to ensure it wasn't all nabbed by EE, Vodafone and O2. Word is that EE was going to be sucking up the 800MHz allocation, this leaving Three high and dry, but as it turns out, the numerical network prevailed.
It has half the rural capacity of Vodafone, and doesn't have anything at the 2.6GHz level, but don't forget Three bought spectrum from EE as part of the deal to let the Orange and T-Mobile merger launch 4G early, so come October this year we'll be seeing 4G on 800MHz, 1800MHz and also high speed 3G at the 2100MHz level to make sure that its coverage is high.
Given it only paid £225m for the privilege (and an undisclosed amount from EE) Three looks to have done well for the deal, and you'll be able to connect your mobile in a variety of ways and cheaply too; Three isn't hiking its prices when 4G launches, which is ace.
What the network said:
"We have more than doubled our spectrum holdings in the past 12-months thanks to spectrum acquired at auction and outside the auction process. Doubling our capacity allows us to continue our growth with significant headroom to increase our current base of over 8m customers.
"Consumer appetite for enjoying the internet via mobile devices continues to grow, playing to our strengths. With a significantly increased spectrum holding we will continue to be the competitive force in the UK mobile market,"
EE
Another big hitter in the auction, EE was surprisingly active for a brand that's already throwing 4G onto the market in a big way. What's MORE surprising is the fact it didn't go for the rural-powering 800MHz band as strongly as its rivals - it only has half the spectrum of Vodafone.
Sources tell us that this will allow it to offer a more wide coverage plan, and will allow things like being able to offer voice over LTE, which means rural areas can do useful things like, you know, talk to other people far away. However, this does raise concerns long term when the networks are required to carry more and more data and it won't have the bandwidth to keep up.
It's worth noting here that this doesn't mean the network won't be able to sort that out though, as Ofcom will allow trading of spectrum to happen now the auction is nearly done and dusted.
So in essence it seems EE is a good bet for the medium term, not least because it's already got a strong network infrastructure in place for actually deploying said spectrum, and in the cities it will supercharge its powers with a veritable glut of 2.6GHz frequency - in fact, it's nabbed the most out of any network in the race so will have a strong play going forward.
What the network said
"EE is extremely pleased with the outcome of the spectrum auction. Coupled with our existing 1800MHz 4G network, it consolidates our position as the most advanced, largest and most capable 4G operator in the UK.
"The acquisition of low and high frequency spectrum allows us to boost our superfast data services and coverage - indoors and outdoors, in cities and the countryside.
"This result means that we are perfectly placed to meet future data capacity demands - further enhancing the superfast 4G services we already offer the UK's consumers and businesses."
O2
The effervescent network has sprung something of a surprise by only winning a portion of the 800MHz spectrum, and completely eschewing the 2.6GHz area. Word is that it's simply not cost-effective to be bidding for the higher frequency when it can fill that gap with Wi-Fi hotspots in the cities, which seems like a bold move when it's already spent £550m on nabbing the lower-end spectrum.
As part of that deal, O2 has got a coverage obligation, which means it will have to make sure that it reaches the widest amount of the country (including indoor coverage). This could have a knock on positive effect for Vodafone too, as the two networks share sites to help lower the cost of extending out their coverage across the UK.
Of course, O2 will be looking to leverage its existing spectrum to make sure it can offer the widest range of 4G possible, but given its already been liberalising its own 2G to help bring more 3G coverage to its customers, that space is getting pretty tight.
What the network said
"Today, Telefónica has made a significant investment in next-generation 4G technology for the UK. While 4G will indeed allow for faster data speeds and a more seamless mobile experience, it is our intention to go beyond what has already been offered in the market and give our customers a unique and exclusive range of digital experiences, marking a new generation for the mobile industry.
So what should I do if I want 4G?
Well, if price matter most to you, Three currently has the strongest proposition by promising not to hike up its prices when it deploys 4G – but then again, only it and EE have anything that resembles a 4G price.
It looks like Vodafone has gone the hardest in terms of creating a new 4G network – it will have a strong presence in all areas, as well as being able to streamline its cost base through using 4G at the back end too.
EE has solidified its presence in the 4G area thanks to nabbing spectrum in all the key areas, but questions will be raised long term over whether it will have enough spectrum to serve the country-dwellers if more start getting their data on.
O2 could struggle to supply data to the same levels of the competition in cities if it can't create a truly ubiquitous network that can mitigate the lack of 4G – it will be interesting to see how this network chooses to bring 4G in other ways, as it could end up behind the competition in years to come otherwise.
But the good news is that the end is near – sure, we still have to wait for all the spectrum location to be allocated (which has an effect on efficiency and coverage) but now consumers can look forward to the second half of 2013 when we can really see competitive services being launched that will supercharge your mobile phone, tablet and computer speeds.
The Liquid E1 - does the E stand for Europe or what?
Kicking off its 2013 line-up, Acer has taken the wraps off the Acer Liquid Z2 - a cheap and cheerful entry-level Jelly Bean handset.
The Z2 has more diminutive proportions (and pricing) than its recently unveiled co-star, the Liquid E1, with a 3.5-inch HGVA screen and a choice of either a 3MP or 5MP rear-facing camera. Oh, and a slightly beefed-down 512MB of RAM.
The Liquid E1, meanwhile, comes loaded with a dual-core 1GHz processor with 1GB of RAM and a 4.5 inch qHD display. It's also got a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash, and a VGA quality front-facing camera.
Packing heat
Both entry-level devices come rocking Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, as well as 4GB of internal storage and microSD slot for memory boosting.
Acer nailed both handsets down for a European launch, promising that it will hit France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ukraine, followed by Russia, UK and Italy, although there's no official word on exactly when.
The Liquid Z2 will come in at a wallet-friendly price somewhere between €99 and €129 (around £87 / US$132 to £113 / US$172).
The Liquid E1, on the other hand, is likely to be priced between €199 (£174 or US$266) and €299 (£260 or US$400) when it arrives.
All eyes on Barcelona next week when we'll get to see it in the flesh (well, plastic).
Remember Samsung's cheap featurephone Star lineup? It seems the series is getting a reboot and this time it'll be getting a proper OS.
As the latest rumor has it Samsung is developing a low-end smartphone called Galaxy Star with similar specs to the Galaxy Y but running on Android Jelly Bean.
The alleged specs sheet includes a 3.0-inch QVGA display, a 2megapixel snapper, 4GB internal storage, a microSD card slot and the usual connectivity options - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.
Samsung Galaxy Star model number should be GT-S5282 and the smartphone is rumored to hit the shelves in mid-April (week 15). The announcement will probably take place at the upcoming MWC in Barcelona.
According to the latest report from the Strategy Analytics, Apple iPhone 5 was the best-selling smartphone in the world for the the fourth quarter of 2012.
Surprisingly, the second spot was taken by Apple's iPhone 4S, leaving the Samsung's current flagship device in the third place. According to the report, Apple managed to ship 27.4 million iPhone 5 units during the holiday three month period, while iPhone 4S accounted for another 17.4 million sales.
Samsung Galaxy S III global sales was estimated to be about 15.4 million in Q4, which is a decline compared to Q3. The top three smartphones account for a whooping 27.7% of the entire smartphone market.
Samsung is rumored to launch its next generation flagship device on March 14 and it will certainly be aiming to reclaim the top spot, after the Galaxy S III held it in Q3.
LG is all about the mysterious video-based hints as MWC 2013 looms ever closer, but two of its upcoming Android devices seem to have been unofficially revealed on Twitter.
LG recently unveiled the Optimus L Series II trio and Optimus G Pro ahead of the Barcelona conference, but the EVleaks Twitter account has now posted an image of what it's claiming to be the LG Optimus F7 and LG Optimus F5.
While both units have some slight differences between them, they certainly follow the style we'd expect from the Korean manufacturer.
Pick 'n' Mix
Right now there's nothing in the way of specs – all we've got to go on is this picture – but, if legit, it looks a dead cert that these are Android devices.
We're fairly convinced by these pictures because the twitter account in question, EV Leaks, has shot to notoriety over the past months, with its phone leaks being more hit than miss.
It also seems they're kicking off LG's new F series, as hinted in the recent teaser that highlighted four images and the rather intimidating taglines of "The StyLe", "The Freedom", "The Greatness", and "The View".
The date seen on the phones in the image is May 1, so make of that what you will. LG will be holding its press event in Barcelona on February 25 so we expect to see something more official then. We'll be there, so stay tuned.
We stumbled upon two leaked images of two upcoming smartphones that belong to LG's new F-series. The Optimus F7 and Optimus F5 are a mystery as far as specs go but the F7 design looks like a mix between the Optimus 4X HD and the Optimus G.
LG gave us a little little teaser treatment yesterday flaunting the upcoming L, F, V and G series ahead of their imminent Mobile World Congress 2013 unveil.
LG optimus F7 • LG Optimus F5
What we know so far is that LG's upcoming F-series will be all about freedom - whatever that means. We guess there isn't all that much time to wait - just remember to check back with us on Monday for the latest scoop of LG's newest devices.
The Ascend P2 from Huawei has leaked onceagain. This time around, GizChina has captured the rear of the device where you'll see a '13.0 FHD' label under the camera sensor, alongside a dual-LED flash, which confirms that Huawei's upcoming flagship will indeed be joining the 13MP club.
Besides revealing a new white color scheme, the images show a 3.5mm audio jack up top, as well as a power button and volume rocker on the right, and the usual capacitive Android keys below the display.
As before, the P2 is said to sport a 4.7-inch 1080p display, which has become the norm for flagships in this day and age, alongside a quad-core 1.8GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a beefy 3000 mAh battery, and Jelly Bean OS. They've also specified both 8 or 16GB variants, but no word yet on whether that's expandable via microSD.
Huawei is expected to announce the Ascend P2 at MWC in Barcelona on Sunday, so be sure to check back with us then for all your Huawei news, live photos and first-hand impressions.
In the battle between Samsung and Apple the iPhone 5 has beaten Samsung's flagship phone in sales during the last months of 2012.
The iPhone 5 became the best selling smartphone in the world with the Samsung Galaxy S3 being pushed into third placed behind the iPhone 4S, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics.
The figures show that Apple's latest phone sold 27.4 million units during the last three months of 2012 - that's more than the entire population of Australia.
During the same period the S3 sold 15.4 million units and the iPhone 5's older brother, the 4S, managed to sell 17.4 million devices.
The combined sales of the two Apple phones make up one in five of all smartphones shipped during the quarter, giving them a 20 per cent share of the entire market. Although these figures don't take into account the sales of other Samsung phones.
Not over yet
Total sales of smartphones around the world reached 217 million, making a leap from 172 million in the preceding months.
Samsung shouldn't be too worried though as the S3 is still selling well despite the fact that it has been around for over nine months.
The fall from the top rung doesn't come as a huge surprise considering Apple's latest phone went on sale just before the period in question, and legions of iPhone fans skipped the samey iPhone 4S in favour of waiting for a bigger upgrade.
While Apple can enjoy being on top of the smartphone world for the time being the sales pendulum is likely to swing back in the favour of Samsung when the rumoured Samsung Galaxy S4 is released, possibly as early as next month.
When there's something bad in your neighbourhood...
Hot on the heels of LG's teaser for MWC 2013, Taiwanese firm Asus has released a fairly bonkers video to get you in the mood for the Barcelona event.
In the video we see an alien invasion sweep over the Catalonian city, with the shiny metallic spaceship landing on the famous Sagrada Familia church.
A crazed onlooker (read: bad actor) in the video declares, "Wait! Is that a metallic object flying across the sky? It's landing... it's docked into the church!", as the message "ultimate craftsmanship, today" resonates on screen.
Embrace the metallic miracle
It all seems a bit much and Asus leaves us pondering a request at the end of the bizarre teaser: "Join Asus to embrace the metallic miracle."
What does this all mean? Well hopefully it's not the end of the world and merely the fact Asus has a lovely, fully metallic tablet or smartphone ready to delight us.
Now we're not afraid of an Independence Day style attack here at TechRadar, so we're taking it upon ourselves to indeed join Asus in Barcelona and find out what the hell it's talking about.
Expect to hear us muttering "everyone's trying to get out of Barcelona, and we're the only schmucks trying to get in" sometime next week (and if this is lost on you, then you need to go and watch Independence Day stat).
The app has been optimised for screens up to 7 inches
It's a little over a month after the iOS version, but the BBC's dedicated Sports app has today made it onto Google Play.
The free mobile app has been designed to play nicely with screen sizes all the way up to 7-inch tablets, meaning you 10-inch owners may not get the best experience.
It'll work with all versions of Android from 2.2 (Froyo) onwards. If you're still languishing on Eclair then it may be time to consider upgrading.
Old sport
Like the iOS app before it, the Android app brings sporting news, live scores, commentary and analysis as well as live and on-demand video because, let's face it, seeing sport happen is much more exciting than just reading about it.
The video and audio features may require you to download the BBC's Media Player app too, depending on your handset.
Keith Mitchell, BBC Sport's mobile technical lead, let slip that a couple of additional features are coming soon to the app: "These include customisable quick links for the main navigation, team customisation and home screen widgets."
So if you thought it was all over… you were wrong.
Out now on Google Play, the BBC Sport Android app will also be heading to Amazon's app marketplace in the near future.
Acer made a quick pre-MWC announcement of a new entry level Android phone, the Acer Liquid Z2. Also, the company is expanding the availability of the more powerful Liquid E1 that it announced a month ago.
The Acer Liquid Z2 is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor with 512MB RAM and runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The display is a 3.5" HVGA unit and there's a special Quick Mode, which simplifies the interface with big icons, which would help featurephone converts find their way around the smartphone OS faster.
Acer Liquid Z2
The Acer Liquid Z2 will retail for around €100-€130 ($134-$175). For that price you get 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS and FM Radio. There’s SRS Sound enhancement on board and a 3MP or 5MP camera (guess we’ll have to wait and see).
The phone will come in two versions – single and dual-SIM. It measures 110 x 62.5 x 12.25 mm, weighs 110g and has a 1,300mAh battery.
The Acer Liquid Z2 and the Liquid E1 will first be available France, Belgium, Netherlands and Ukraine, with Russia, UK and Italy to follow. The E1 will cost €199-€229 ($270-$310).
By the way, Asda in the UK already has the Z2 on pre-order for £90 (€100) and expects to ship out orders on February 28.
In the run up to MWC 2013 next week in Barcelona LG has released a teasing video to whet your appetite.
It looks like LG may well be going big on NFC this year with the video declaring that "you can tag what you want" and ordering you to "tag and stand apart from others".
That's not all though, with the video also hinting at potentially four new handsets set to be unveiled at the event, possibly in the Optimus L, Optimus G, Optimus V and Optimus F ranges.
F me
LG already has handsets which fall under the first three letters with the L-Style series of handsets launched at MWC last year alongside the Optimus Vu, while the Optimus G launched during the second half of last year and has been recently usurped by the Optimus G Pro.
This teaser video is brought to you by the letters V, G...
The F category is something we haven't come accross before and could mean LG is about to unleash a completely new range at the show, with the video referring to it simply as "The Freedom".
Throughout the video we get glimpses of handsets, although never in their entirety with LG teasing us with corners, logos and rounded edges.
The video finishes up with "see the difference right here in Barcelona" and TechRadar will be in attendance at the show to bring you all the latest from the LG camp.
The always-riveting 4G spectrum allocation has been completed in the UK, and it seems most firms got something they wanted.
The auction, which has been running from the tail end of last year but has been under negotiation for years, sees the combined total for the HM Government tip 'only' £2.3bn, rather than the £3.5bn George Osborne was looking for.
Vodafone put up the most cash after an exhausting 50 rounds of bidding, spending £790m to gain 85MHz of both the long-range 800MHz frequency and the more city-friendly 2.6GHz spectrum.
Vodafone UK chief executive Guy Laurence confirmed the network had gone after such a range of spectrum to allow it to penetrate more areas: "[The 4G auction results] will enable us to deliver services where people really want it, especially indoors… the next generation of mobile internet services will bring real benefits to both consumers and businesses."
Bring on BT
BT was the winner out of the three new candidates, through its Niche Spectrum Ventures, but this will very likely be for pumping out broadband to the harder-to-reach places in Britain, as the network told TechRadar last year.
Intriguingly BT only got spectrum in the 2.6GHz band, which is touted as being less able to spread widely, but that certainly doesn't rule out being able to supply rural broadband, so it will be interesting to see how the company brings 4G to its market.
O2 was the big surprise in the auction results, as while it got a good chunk of the sought-after 800MHz range, it only got 20MHz. We've polled the network to see how this fits into its plans given major rival Vodafone has got plenty more MHz, but at least the bubbly provider only paid £550m for the privilege.
Three was widely believed to be missing out on the 800MHz band, especially as it already has bought some spectrum from EE last year as part of the deal to allow the Orange- and T-Mobile-merged brand to deploy 4G in the UK early but it picked up 10MHz in the longer range space, but still paid £225m.
EE opens its pockets again
And of course EE was in there too, chucking £588m into the pot to gain even more spectrum at both the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands – perhaps that will see the supplier lowering prices to compete with Three's pledge to not increase any prices when it brings 4G live in the summer.
The auction isn't over yet though; we still have a round of bidding for each winner to decide where in the spectrum their allocation will sit, as this can have effects on cost-efficiency and coverage.
And spare a thought for the likes of MLL Telecom Ltd and HKT (UK) Company Ltd – both lost out in the auction and won't get to see that £100,000 non-refundable deposit again.
The networks will also have to pay up for their auction wins by 22 February – if a man in a Vodafone suit pops round asking to borrow a tenner, at least you'll know why.
Tapping is so last year, gesture input is the new cool
The popular SwiftKey application which offers up a clever and highly accurate typing solution has added another string to its bow in the form of SwiftKey Flow.
Now in its fourth iteration SwiftKey users can now take advantage of the swiping feature we've seen on other Android keyboards, allowing for a fluid input style which requires the use of a single thumb - perfect for one handed manipulation.
It's not your standard swiping action however, as SwiftKey has taken it one step further with its "Flow Through Space" feature, allowing you to input a continuous string of words by swiping your finger over the space bar between each one.
Hit and miss
For anyone who hasn't experienced gesture typing yet SwiftKey Flow may feel rather alien and tricky to master as it's a very different way of bashing out your missives.
It does require you to spend some time with the system, to learn how it works and allowing it to fine tune its prediction engine to suit your style of writing and vocabulary.
Don't worry if all this gesturing business isn't your cup of tea as SwiftKey 4 still offers up its normal keyboard and next word prediction technology in the standard format, which has made it a firm favourite here at TechRadar.
The prediction engine, word correction facility and language options have also been given a boost in a bid to offer a more accurate and quicker input method.
Best-selling
Believe it or not, but SwiftKey was the best-selling paid-for app in Google Play in 2012 - now that's quite an achievement considering a keyboard managed to beat off the likes of the ever popular Angry Birds and co.
If you fancy taking the plunge then SwiftKey 4 is available over on Google Play, although it will set you back £1.49 on Android smartphones and £2.99 for those plumping for the Android tablet option - with both prices set to rise after a promotional period.
