The Nokia Lumia 1520 appeared today in yet another leaked photo, this time in a bright hot-rod red.
Well-known Twitter leakster @evleaks came through again on this one after publishing a leaked press shot of the yellow Lumia 1520 in early September.
Like that photo, today's leak came with a brief but factoid-focused caption: "Nokia Lumia 1520, in red, 2013," evleaks tweeted.
The suggestion for a 2013 Lumia 1520 release date matches what the source previously claimed, as well as our expectations of an Oct. 22 Lumia 1520 launch.
Red, red phone (credit: @evleaks)
Here's the deal
Previous reports hinted at a Sept. 26 reveal for the Lumia 1520, but the device was reportedly delayed until Oct. 22.
The Lumia 1520 is thought to be the largest Windows Phone handset yet, with a display that could come in at a full six inches.
The Windows Phone phablet has been spotted in previous image leaks, some of which compared it to other, smaller devices to show off the Lumia 1520's considerable bulk.
There's not been much word in terms of the phone's other specs, though it's not expected to carry a 41-megapixel camera like the Lumia 1020.
Instead it could have a still-powerful 20-megapixel camera. A quad-core Qualcomm processor is also rumored.
Expect to learn more about the Lumia 1520 this month - that is barring any further delays, of course.
The largest Canadian wireless carrier Rogers will not offer the BlackBerry Z30, thus bringing another setback to the troubled manufacturer in its home market. The carrier explains the decision with limited shelf space which allows for only “the biggest winners.”
Canadian customers who wish to pick up a subsidized BlackBerry Z30 will have to opt for Bell or Telus – both carriers will offer the 5” smartphone. Rogers customers will be left with BlackBerry Z10 and Q10, or the expensive option of picking up an unlocked Z30.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 packs a speedy 2.3GHz quad-core processor, but the company is now defending its mega-sized phablet’s CPU that has picked up the moniker “phabricated.”
Samsung stands accused of boosting the CPU performance of its newly launched smartphone as soon as popular benchmark testing apps are detected.
That’s not the case at all, according to Samsung.
"The Galaxy Note 3 maximises its CPU/GPU frequencies when running features that demand substantial performance," the company told CNET UK.
"This was not an attempt to exaggerate particular benchmarking results. We remain committed to providing our customers with the best possible user experience."
The non-denial denial
Samsung’s response doesn’t exactly explain why tests have shown the Galaxy Note 3 to be running on all four cores whenever it detects a well-known benchmarking app like Geekbench.
Benchmarking scores were inflated by up to 20%, and in one case 50%, making the Note 3 quad-core processor seem exceptionally faster than the identical LG G2 Snapdragon 800.
When Ars Technica rigged together a renamed Geekbench tool, the Galaxy Note 3 proved to show a more “natural” score.
Not the first, the last, my everything
This isn’t the first time Samsung has had to defend itself against boosting the benchmark scores of its devices.
The company denied it was rigging the Galaxy S4 results after it reportedly cooked the scores for its Exynos processor.
The funny thing is, the Note 3, as with the Galaxy S4, is plenty powerful and feature-packed enough to stand against its rivals.
We asked Samsung for further clarification on this and will update the story when we hear back.
There's been a few whispers lately that Samsung's long-in-development flexible screen technology is ready for action and may arrive soon in the form of a Galaxy Note 3 variant.
Well, you can turn that anticipation up a notch now that a mystery device called the SM-G910 has apparently made an appearance in benchmarking tests.
The as-yet-unannounced device not only bares a similarity to the Note 3's model number (SM-N900), but also lists a couple of the same specs, the Snapdragon 800 processor and Adreno 330 graphics chip.
Previous speculation has suggested that the flexible version of the Note 3 would pack a slightly smaller 5.5-inch display and arrive within the month of October.
Many observers unsuccessfully predicted the tech would find its way into the flagship Samsung Galaxy S4 or the recently-announced Galaxy Note 3.
Earlier this week it was rumoured that an LG Z1 handset would attempt to beat Samsung to market with a flexible smartphone. Has the time finally come for flexible displays to shape the future of smartphones?
Apple iPhone 5s went on sale in the US on all the four major carriers on September 20. In just 10 days, the newest iPhone has outsold Samsung's Galaxy S4 and became the top selling smartphone in the US for the month of September.
According to a report from Canaccord Genuity, a research firm, the Apple iPhone 5s is currently seeing "very strong" sales and the iPhone 5c is off to a good start too.
From the initial sales, the firm also estimates the Cupertino giants will sell more than 52 million units across the globe by the end of the year.
While the iPhone 5s and Galaxy S4 are selling hot, BlackBerry's Z10 and Q10 handsets had "very soft" sales in the US. The sales of the HTC's flagship smartphone, the HTC One have also decreased in the month of September.
After all these years of research and development, the flexible display smartphone might soon become reality. Samsung is already rumored to bring its first smartphone with flexible display this month and we even heard from the companies executives, regarding their plans to introduce a curved display smartphone.
Thanks to a new report, we also get to learn some of the specs of the upcoming smartphone. The alleged device is said to sport a 4.7-inch display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels.
Samsung's flexible screen smartphone, which will be the first-of-its kind, is also rumored to be powered by a quad-core processor along with 2 GB of RAM. Furthermore, the smartphone will come out with an 8 megapixel rear camera with dual-LED flash.
The operating system running on the device will be Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and there is no word on the capacity of the battery providing the juice for the smartphone.
Unfortunately, there is no official confirmation at the moment for any of this for now and not even more substantial proof than the word of an unnamed source so, take it all with a pinch of salt.
Nokia's upcoming phablet, the Lumia 1520 has already shown up in liveimages and we even saw the press render of the upcoming device. Now, another press image of Nokia's first phablet has surfaced, showing the 6-inch smartphone in its red outfit.
Nokia Lumia 1520, which was formerly known as Bandit will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and the phablet is rumored to feature 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB of built-in memory and a microSD card slot.
The newest addition to the phablet club will come out with a 20 megapixel PureView camera with Carl Zeiss lens. Lumia 1520 will be unveiled at Nokia's upcoming event on October 22, where the company is also expected to introduce five other new devices. Do remember to check back with us when the time comes as we will be bringing you all the latest news from the event live.
Samsung has just launched the dual-SIM version of the Galaxy Note 3 phablet. Most of the recent Galaxies received a dual-SIM treatment shortly after release and the Galaxy Note 3 is no exception.
The first country to get the dual-SIM Galaxy Note 3 is China, though the gadget is carrier unlocked and can be exported and used on other countries around the world. You should check, of course, the supported network bands and be careful where you activate the device.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Dual-SIM
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Dual-SIM is also based on the Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 chipset, just like the international N9005 model, which means it is probably LTE-capable as well.
The dual-SIM Galaxy Note 3 costs €735 in Asia, which sounds about right since its international single-SIM models is priced at €700. There is no info on official pricing and availability, nor there is even a press note announcing the dual-SIM version. We expect the device to expand its market reach in the next few months though.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has landed - and we loved it, as you'll see through our in-depth review. It's light, slim and powerful, and has the best screen we've seen on a smartphone.
But we know what you're like. You're already thinking about the Galaxy S5.
Luckily we're constantly trawling the web for all the latest on Samsung's next flagship phone, and we've pulled together everything we've found to give an overview of what you might be able to expect from the Galaxy S5.
In terms of the name we'd be surprised if Samsung was to deviate from the highly lucrative Galaxy S prefix which has seen the Korean firm squeeze every last drop of money out of the brand with numerous handset spin offs of its top products. Expect it to arrive as the Samsung Galaxy S5.
Samsung Galaxy S5 release date and price
All the big smartphone manufacturers are relatively entrenched in annual product cycles now, which means we can usually predict when they will launch their headlining products.
As far as the Samsung Galaxy S5 goes it's likely that we'll see the Korean firm take to the stage sometime in March 2014 with its fifth generation flagship smartphone. If the Galaxy S4 launch event is anything to go by expect it to be big, brash and rather confusing.
We're yet to see any rumours point towards a potential Galaxy S5 release date yet, but perhaps that's because it really is just that obvious.
In terms of price there's no point hoping that Samsung might offer the Galaxy S5 at a more competitive rate than its predecessors. It will be crammed full of new tech and thus will carry a price tag which will see it sit right at the top of pricing tree.
Time to start saving? You betcha.
Samsung Galaxy S5 to finally go all metal?
A lot of the early rumours appear to be focussing on the chassis of the Samsung Galaxy S5, with various sources claiming the S5 will be the handset where the Korean firm finally breaks is polycarbonate relationship in favour of a full metal jacket.
Smartphones such as the iPhone 5S and HTC One have shown up the Galaxy S4 this year, offering a far superior look and feel and it's an area Samsung needs to work on with the Galaxy S5.
An "inside source" apparently confirmed to Android Geeks that the Galaxy S5 will arrive with a fully aluminium chassis and a new look dubbed "Design 3.0".
The aluminium frame rumour was given another hat tip by Korean site ETNews which reported that the Galaxy S5 would have an all-metal chassis.
It's worth remembering that similar rumours surrounded the Galaxy S4 which still launched with a polycarbonate body, so we're not getting too excited just yet.
Samsung Galaxy S5 power
There was a lot of buzz around the 64-bit A7 processor which Apple stuffed inside the iPhone 5S and it's been blowing up benchmark tests left right and centre, and it looks like Samsung wants a bit of the action.
Considering the Galaxy Note 3 has launched with a mighty 2.3GHz quad-core processor and 3GB of RAM we'd expect the Galaxy S5 to at least match it, if not beat it.
Samsung Galaxy S5 operating system
All previous headlining Galaxy S handsets have sported the Android operating system and we don't expect that to change with the Galaxy S5.
Google's latest version of its mobile platform, Android 4.4 KitKat, is expected to launch in October 2014, so it's highly likely this will be the version of choice for the Galaxy S5 come March.
Now this sounds pretty unlikely so we're taking this with a large pinch of salt, but it's certainly worth keeping an eye on.
Samsung Galaxy S5 design
As we've briefly mentioned already there's talk of a whole new design language for the Galaxy S5 which will hopefully see Samsung break away from the similar styling of the Galaxy S3 and S4.
Obviously a metal chassis would help in changing the design, but we want to know what the Galaxy S5 will actually look like.
A patent application unearthed by Patent Bolt might shed some light on this, with a couple of images cropping up showing a squarer Galaxy S5 design.
If the patents are real then Samsung may be about to finally ditch the physical home button which currently adorns all its handsets.
Credit: Patent Bolt
Samsung Galaxy 5S camera
The Galaxy S4 rocked up with a pretty decent 13MP camera on its rear, but rumours surrounding Galaxy S5 suggest it will take things a little further with a 16MP snapper.
That's still not as impressive as the 20MP Sony Xperia Z1 or 41MP Nokia Lumia 1020 - but do we really need cameras that powerful on our phones? You tell us!
The same report from the Electronic Times News also mentioned that the Galaxy S5 would sport the same optical image stabilisation (OIS) tech as the LG G2.
The new sensor isolates individual pixels which minimises electrical crosstalk between them, which in turn leads to higher colour fidelity, for sharper, richer images.
Samsung Galaxy S5 finger print scanner
Anyone hoping that Samsung will follow in the footsteps of Apple and bring a fingerprint scanner to the Galaxy S5 could well be disappointed if certain rumours are to be believed.
That's after a Samsung official apparently told the Korean Times that the company is "not yet developing the technology" for its handsets. Boo.
Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Ace 3 release date for the UK, with the phone available from 5 October.
The Android Jellybean 4.2 phone falls in the lower mid-range market and can boast 4G connectivity - which is a boon in these superfast days.
You can count on Samsung's Android sheen plus features from the larger Galaxy S flagship phones - which includes features like the S Translator, S Travel, S Voice, Easy Mode and Smart Stay.
Shenanigans
Given that this is likely to be an attractive proposition for the younger market, the camera is an, ahem, focus, and the Ace 3 brings a 5MP snapper for capturing all those high jinx and/or shenanigans.
Screenwise, the Ace 3 packs a 4 inch display but you might want to consider if the 8GB of storage is enough for your needs (especially given that not all of that will be available to you) as you'll probably be looking at investing in an SD card to boost your capacity.
The Galaxy Ace will be landing first at EE stores and then dealing itself into the likes of Tesco and Carphone Warehouse.
Want something a little bigger (and costlier) without losing the number 3? How about checking out the Samsung Galaxy Note 3
HTC has had a rocky couple of years and news that it's finally made its first loss hasn't come as a particular surprise.
The Taiwanese firm's profits have been slim for the past few quarters, and during the third quarter of 2013 HTC announced it had made a net loss of $101 million (around £63 million, AU$107 million).
What has been surprising though is the sales of the HTC One which are rumoured to have missed the targets the company placed on the handset, even though it received stand out reviews including a coveted 5 stars from TechRadar.
What's next?
As well as the One, it also launched the HTC One Mini early this year and with reports suggesting a supersized HTC One Max is on its way the firm is building a strong portfolio of devices.
It seems that HTC has decided to move away from the Windows Phone game as well, after the muted response to the 8X and 8S last year - although Microsoft is said to be pushing the Taiwanese outfit to manufacturer more.
Pressure is being piled on by rivals too, with Samsung predicting record profits and Apple's new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C reportedly selling like hotcakes - HTC will have to be at its best.
Check out the five star smartphone in our in depth HTC One review
Despite having partnered with Asus for both this and last years Nexus 7, it looks like Google might ditch Asus for next years 7-inch slate.
This latest rumour comes courtesy of Digitimes, which claims that Asus is trying to expand its share in the tablet market to make up for potentially losing the Nexus 7 contract.
There's no denying that Asus is putting a lot of effort into its tablet business above and beyond the Nexus 7, with numerous devices released or on their way this year, such as the Asus Transformer Pad, MeMO Pad HD 7 and the PadFone Infinity.
Still, Digitimes doesn't reveal what rumours it's referring to, so it's worth taking this with a pinch of salt for now.
Life's good for LG
Back in July analyst Ming-Chi-Kuo claimed that next year's Nexus 7 might be handed over to LG so that Google could leverage the company's display technology, so it could be this which Digitimes is referencing.
If it does find itself in the hands of LG, the 2014 model of the Nexus 7 could look quite different to the two we've had so far.
Don't feel too bad for Asus though, as we've previously heard that the Taiwanese firm may take the reigns of the Nexus 10 from Samsung.
We were rather fond of this year's Asus led Nexus 7. Read all about it in our full review.
The HTC One Max has leaked over in China sporting a removable back panel and a microSD card underneath. We've already seen a similar HTC One device, which also had a second SIM card but this HTC One Max appears to be single SIM.
We also get a new glance of the One Max next to a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 but the information says the HTC phablet has a 5.7" screen and not the rumored 5.9-incher along with 16 GB storage (and not 32 GB).
HTC One Max leaked photos
The HTC One Max may appear on October 17 officially and thus far is quoted as having the same 4 MP camera as the HTC One, Snapdragon 800 chip along with a fingerprint scanner on its back.
Google has released the latest Android figures and it's good news for Jelly Bean as it's now on almost half of all handsets running the search giant's software.
We say almost because the actual figure is 48.6%, but you get the picture - although the first incarnation of Jelly Bean (aka Android 4.1) is currently the most used with 36.5% of the Android market to call its own.
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich saw its share drop to 20.6%, while the now ageing Android Gingerbread (that's version 2.3 folks) still accounts for 28.5% - hopefully Google can continue to accelerate the updates and perhaps one day we'll all be enjoying the same flavour.
More blips!
All this talk of food is making us hungry, so while we step away from our desk to eat check out some more of our awesome blips.
It's been nearly three years since Windows Phone released and although it has improved since then the progress hasn't been scintillating. With market share still lagging far behind Android and iOS, Microsoft is now having to take desperate measures to ensure success in a market which they once dominated.
One such measure has been to ask HTC to install Windows Phone on their existing Android device. That is, the phone will ship with both operating systems and users could then switch between them, as we have seen on some tablets already. To sweeten the deal for HTC, Microsoft even offered to waive off the fee that it usually charges for licensing the Windows Phone OS.
Having Windows Phone running on Android phones means people would get to try Windows Phone without actually buying a Windows Phone. A lot of people would be interested in trying out the OS but don't want to commit to it, especially considering all that other platforms have to offer. Considering Android's popularity, people can buy an Android phone and at the same time get to try Windows Phone, which Microsoft believes would help increase the operating system's marketshare.
Having said that, with HTC currently floundering with even its Android handsets and having reported their first quarterly loss, I'm not sure if this strategy is going to help MIcrosoft out a lot.
