Hands on: Huawei Ascend G330 review

The Huawei Ascend G330 is a fairly uninspiring phone, but is designed to appeal to those that want to spend only a little on a smartphone. These people may want something more than a £70 effort from the bargain bin, but won't break the bank.

Which makes the G330 a little bit of an oddity, especially when compared to the barnstorming Ascend G300 predecessor, which rightly holds its place in our top mobile phones list.

When it was first announced the G330 was touted at being around 60% more than the G300 – although the specs have been given a boost to compensate - but the Chinese firm now expects it to land at around £100 SIM-free.

This means we're looking at a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 5MP camera and Ice Cream Sandwich on board as standard.

It's also rocking a nice 512MB of RAM to help out that meatier CPU, and also packs 4GB of internal storageand a 1,500mAh battery.

But enough of the internals – what's the phone actually like in the hand? The same 'uninspiring' term pops up again here, as it's got some fairly cheap (if acceptable) chassis effects.

The plastic shell feels OK in the hand, the top-placed power and lock button is easy enough to hit (although could do with a little more travel) and the three soft keys to control the Android 4.0 OS are pleasant enough to hit.

There's also a slight attempt at an overlay here, although it's not the fancy-pants Emotion UI that we're going to be getting on the more impressive Huawei handsets.

The Ascend G330 allows you to control some of the connectivity elements from the pull-down notification bar, which we're a big fan of as it's much easier to pop on Bluetooth or turn off mobile data this way.

Early Verdict

We're not sure how we would recommend this phone. It reminds us of the ZTE Grand X, which is a misplaced handset if ever we saw one.

It's going to be fighting with the likes of the HTC Desire C, and that's not a fight you'd want to enter into with the might of the name and Sense UI on board.

Some people might like the fact most of the Ascend G330 is stock Android, as the Holo Theme is actually pretty cool. But for us, there's nothing to really write home about here – although we will be testing the gaming prowess Huawei is so proud of, thanks to the Adreno 200 GPU on offer.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/huawei-ascend-g330-1114783/review

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BlackBerry 10 L Series phone leaked again, still weeks away from launch

Research in Motion's touchscreen BlackBerry 10 handset, the L Series, has been leaked again, this time showing it compared to a BlackBerry Bold 9700. RIM will officially announce BlackBerry 10 and its hardware on January 30 next year.

The L Series BlackBerry 10 phone has been leaked again, this time appearing in CrackBerry.com’s forums, where a handful of pictures showed the phone up close, as well as being compared to a BlackBerry Bold 9700.

Research in Motion’s L Series handset is one of two phones on which it will launch the BlackBerry 10 operating system next year, where it will be joined by the more traditional QWERTY keyboard-equipped N Series.

In the snaps, the L Series — marked as an evaluation unit — looks the same as it did back in September, when both it and the N Series phone last appeared. The long, black chassis remains, while the front has the slight look of Sony’s Xperia range to it, thanks to the edgeless screen. Sitting next to the Bold, it also looks quite long.

The source of the leak hasn’t provided any more information on the specification, but if previous rumors are correct, that’s a 4.2-inch screen with a 1280 x 768 pixel resolution, and a dual-core processor should be hiding inside.

RIM has already announced when the L Series will be made official, as it will be holding an ambitious, global launch event for BlackBerry 10 on January 30 next year, where both phones and the new software will finally make their public debut.

There were concerns RIM would miss the first quarter release date, which it has continually stood by, but according to the company’s COO Kristian Tear, BB10 handsets will on sale within 30 days of that event. This means it’ll make its self-imposed deadline, but only by a whisker.

Despite the fact the OS is still a bit of a mystery, and there are several months to go until we get to try it out, the company’s stock has been performing well; perhaps assisted by BlackBerry 10 gaining government security clearance and RIM drip-feeding us details on new, interesting features such as BBM Voice.

Will the L Series be enough to tempt iOS, Android and even Windows Phone fans away and into RIM’s waiting arms? We’ll find out next year.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/blackberry-10-l-series-phone-leaked-again/

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Budget Huawei Ascend G330 arrives in time for Christmas

Is this all you want for Christmas?

The Chinese firm is mounting an assault on the budget end of the market with the Ascend G330 landing in the UK at the start of December.

The Ascend G330 builds of the successful Huawei Ascend G300 which offered impressive specs for a smartphone sporting a £100 price tag.

TalkTalk will be the first, and only, network to offer the Ascend G330 before the year is out, with other carriers promised in the new year.

Reasonable

Contracts will start at a reasonable £10 per month, including a free handset, and Huawei expects retailers to offer the Ascend G330 for around £100 SIM-free.

The Ascend G330 packs a 4-inch 480x800 display, 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, 5MP camera, microSD slot and comes running Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Huawei announced the G330 alongside the larger Ascend G600 at IFA 2012 in Berlin, although there's currently no word on when (or if) its big brother will come to Britain.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/budget-huawei-ascend-g330-arrives-in-time-for-christmas-1114777

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LTE can be enabled on the Nexus 4, works on Canadian networks

Remember when people were disappointed that the Nexus 4 doesn’t have LTE? And then iFixit dug up an LTE chip in the phone? Well, it turns out that the chip can be enabled surprisingly easy.

Several people are reporting that the LTE connectivity works in Canada on Band 4 (1700Mhz / 2100MHz), which the one what all LTE carriers in the country use.

To enable LTE, you need to go into a debug menu (by typing *http://gsmarena.com/http://gsmarena.com/http://gsmarena.com/#*http://gsmarena.com/http://gsmarena.com/http://gsmarena.com/#4636http://gsmarena.com/http://gsmarena.com/http://gsmarena.com/#*http://gsmarena.com/http://gsmarena.com/http://gsmarena.com/#* into the dialer) and change the setting from WCDMA preferred to one of the LTE-enabled options. It seems that this is all you need to do on TELUS, while on Rogers you need to create a custom APN to get the LTE working.

Nexus 4's debugging menu • Speed test on LTE • on HSPA

Here’s a video from TEK.GADG that shows the Google Nexus 4 working on LTE, complete with speed tests on both 4G and 3G.

And here’s another video, this one is for the Rogers network:

AT&T, MetroPCS and Cricket Wireless in the US use Band 4 (as will T-Mobile soon), so the trick should work on their networks too, but we haven’t seen reports of successful attempts there yet. It’s not clear what other LTE bands the Nexus 4 supports, but AT&T’s LG Optimus G, which shares its internals with the Google phone works on 700/1700/2100MHz.

So, will you be buying a Nexus 4 once it gets back in stock?

Source 1 • Source 2 • Source 3 | Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/lte_can_be_enabled_on_the_nexus_4_works_on_canadian_networks-news-5116.php

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HTC Deluxe pics surface: want a 5-inch wonder?

It's big, it's white, it's flipping dynamite: HTC DELUXE (credit: GSM Arena)

The trend towards the larger screen is increasing, as now pictures have appeared of the HTC Deluxe DLX.

This is the same phone we heard about from Twitter last week, and is set to be the global edition of the HTC Butterfly J – or its twin, the HTC Droid DNA.

Well, that's the report from GSM Arena, the site that nabbed the press shots of the upcoming phone.

The same source also states that the phone will be called the HTC Deluxe DLX, but we can't see that really being the form it would appear in for the UK.

Deluxe suite

For a start there's no Deluxe to add a suffix to, in the manner of the HTC Sensation XE; and then there's the fact the letters are just a capitalised contraction of the name itself.

Either naming way, there's a lot to get excited about here. If the HTC Deluxe is similar to the Butterfly, we're talking a 1.5GHz quad core processor, 2GB of RAM, 4G connection and the jewel in the crown: a full 1080p display crammed into that screen.

In terms of a HTC Deluxe release date, we're still very much in the dark… but given we've got these press shots (although they could still be fake despite the fact there are multiple angles on show) the smart money is on a launch at one of the upcoming trade shows, so keep your eyes trained on CES 2013 to see if HTC makes an announcement.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/htc-deluxe-pics-surface-want-a-5-inch-wonder-1114767

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Blue Microphones Mikey Digital review

This microphone connects to your iOS device's 30-pin dock connector. Though it mimics the iPhone 4's aesthetic, its plastic silver trim doesn't immediately scream quality.

On the bottom edge is a headphone socket to take input from devices - including musical instruments - with a line out. On the right side is a mini USB port, through which your iOS device can be kept powered up from an external battery. But the port isn't wired for syncing data with a PC or Mac, so you'll need to detach Mikey to connect a different cable for that.

The mic pivots through more than 180° to face the source of sound. The only physical control is a three-position gain switch.

Auto mode proved extremely sensitive when surrounded by noise. Even a light brush of the iPhone's body triggered a light show from the three red LEDs that indicate the input is being clipped. Setting the gain switch to deal with loud noises fixed this by lowering the input's gain.

Even speech next to a busy road was clear, though it inevitably became much quieter in the process. Make sure you have an app such as GarageBand in case you need to boost it in post-production.

It's designed for iPhone 4 and 4S, fourth-gen iPod touch running iOS 6, and iPad 2 and 3. Blue doesn't mention iPhone 5, but we had no trouble using the mic with Apple's £25 adaptor.

Inevitably, that makes the mic protrude further from the phone, and while that's ungainly, it isn't a bothersome issue in practice.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phone-accessories/blue-microphones-mikey-digital-1114173/review

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Dual-SIM Samsung Galaxy Note II launches in China

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/dualsim_samsung_galaxy_note_ii_launches_in_china-news-5115.php

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