Asus Padfone Infinity and Fonepad announced

Remember the Asus Padfone 2? Forget it, it’s old news – the Asus Padfone Infinity was just announced and it steps up the specs. Asus also switched things around and announced the Fonepad – a 7” tablet with full phone functionality.

Asus Padfone Infinity

The Asus Padfone Infinity has a 5” 1080p screen with 441ppi. That catches up to the competition’s flagships, but more importantly the tablet dock screen has been improved too – it’s a 10.1” screen of 1920x1200 resolution. Both screens have anti-fingerprint coating.

The processing power has been upped accordingly too – the Padfone Infinity uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset with a quad-core Krait 300 CPU clocked at 1.7GHz.

The Padfone Infinity packs a 13MP F/2.0 main camera that does up to 100 shots in burst mode at 8fps and records 1080p@30fps video. There’s also a front-facing camera – 2MP, F/2.0.

The phone itself has a unibody design and is made of aero-space grade aluminum alloy, with brushed finish. The aluminum edge has been anodized twice (perhaps to one-up HTC).

The 2,400mAh battery inside the phone is pretty decent – it’s good for up to 19h of 3G calls, 6.5h of web browsing, 9h of watching video or 410h standby. With the 5,000mAh battery in the tablet dock, however, these numbers are tripled.

The tablet dock also has an 18mm driver in its loudspeaker and Asus has used 3rd generation Sonic Master audio enhancing tech. There’s also the Audio wizard, which offers several preset modes - game mode, movie mode, voice mode and so on.

On the connectivity side, there’s 100Mbps LTE (Cat 3) and NFC (transceiver integrated into the Padfone logo at the back of the device). There’s 64GB of built-in storage and 50GB of cloud storage available.

The Asus Padfone Infinity and its tablet dock will be available in April for €999 / $1325 (again, that’s for both).

Asus Fonepad

Asus emphasized that with the Padfone you only need SIM card, one data plan, one monthly fee. So why not just make a tablet that makes calls? Well, they did – meet the Asus Fonepad.

It’s a 7” tablet with an IPS screen of 1280 x 800 resolution. But it also sports full phone functionality with 3G HSPA+ connectivity.

It’s powered by an Intel Atom Z2420 chipset with a single-core CPU at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX540 GPU. It will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at launch.

There are two versions of the Asus Fonepad. In Europe, the tablet will come with 16GB of built-in storage and a 1.2MP front-facing camera. It will launch in April for €220. For the APAC region, the Fonepad will have only 8GB of built-in storage but it grows a 3MP camera on the back. This one will launch in March for $250. Both have microSD card slots and 5GB of lifetime Asus WebStorage.

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/asus_padfone_infinity_and_fonepad_announced-news-5610.php

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Asus FonePad is basically a 'phablet' but a lot cheaper than the Padfone

You certainly get what you pay for in the design department

Asus has unveiled its latest handset at MWC 2013 - the Asus FonePad, which it describes as 'a phone that's also a tablet'.

The company has obviously seen that, hey, that Samsung Galaxy Note's doing quite well, and decided it wants a piece of the 'phablet' action.

So what we're looking at here is a 7-inch device with a 1280x800 IPS screen, Intel Atom Z2420 processor and a 3MP rear-mounted camera.

There are dual microphones to play with, 720p video, 3G connectivity and a microSD slot.

Bargain

It's not exactly the most beautiful device we've ever seen but the big news here is the FonePad price - the phone-tablet-thing will start from $249 (£165 / AU$241) when it goes on sale in March.

That's a helluvalot cheaper than its bigger sibling, the Asus Padfone Infinity, which was also announced today.

We'll be braving the media scrum shortly to bring you our hands on Asus FonePad review so stay tuned for that.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/asus-fonepad-is-basically-a-phablet-but-a-lot-cheaper-than-the-padfone-1133618

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LG: 'UK 4G network is too immature for our LTE smartphones'

It's time to grow up, Britain.

Here in the UK we're not going to be treated to the likes of the LG Optimus G Pro, Optimus F7 and Optimus F5 because our 4G network is not good enough.

TechRadar spoke to LG's UK Product Manager Shaun Musgrave at MWC 2013, who confirmed the company's latest flagship handsets won't be making the short hop over the channel.

When quizzed as to why this was Musgrave explained the infrastructure currently isn't good enough to justify shipping LTE devices to Blighty.

Musgrave said: "4G is immature in the UK and it won't start to pick up until the second half of this year."

Optimus G2 first to hit UK?

LG wouldn't say when they plan to bring 4G smartphones to the UK, but Musgrave hinted that the firm's next flagship device could well be the first one to land on our shores.

This handset could well be the LG Optimus G2, after the Korean firm teased us during its MWC 2013 press conference saying that a new member of its flagship G-Series would arrive later this year.

In the mean time we need to tell EE, O2, Three and Vodafone to get a move on with their 4G networks because we're missing out on some pretty decent looking phones.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/lg-uk-4g-network-is-too-immature-for-our-lte-smartphones-1133595

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Asus MWC event has started, watch the live stream inside

It's a busy Monday, but we're continuing to follow the events at the MWC as they happen. We're at the Asus event at the moment and it just started.

If you couldn't make it to Spain, you can watch the livestream of the event below. We will, of course, be writing up anything interesting that happens - and we will be going hands-on with whatever mobile devices Asus unveils.

Security at Asus must be really tight as there haven't been any leaks to give us an idea of what to expect. Well, it doesn't matter now the we can find out first hand in just a minute.

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/asus_mwc_event_has_started_watch_the_live_stream_inside-news-5609.php

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Hands on: LG Optimus L5 2 review

The LG Optimus L5 2 is another new addition to the Korean's firm entry-level smartphone range, and sits just above the Optimus L3 2.

Replacing the original Optimus L5 which launched at MWC last year, the Optimus L5 II looks to build on the L-Style brand with updated software and bumped up features.

LG says the Optimus L5 2 will be available on a global scale sometime during the second quarter of this year, with the UK already confirmed to receive the handset.

The Optimus L5 2 is expected to retail for around £120 (around $180/AU$175) which will probably equate to £10 - £15 per month on contract.

A number of improvements have been made on the Optimus L5 2 over its predecessor, with the 4-inch screen now sporting a HVGA 480x800 IPS display (up from WVGA) with a pixel density of 233ppi.

The battery has also been given a boost to 1,700mAh, which LG reckons should last you two full days before requiring another charge.

The L-series of handsets is LG's budget offering and therefore plastic is very much the material of choice on the Optimus L5 2, but the metallic looking rim which runs round the edge of the handset does make it look more premium than it actually is.

The lightweight design is sturdy and at 117.5 x 62.2 x 9.2 mm the Optimus L5 II is easy to hold, while the buttons below the screen and on either side of the handset are well positioned for finger manipulation.

Android Jelly Bean is the operating system of choice on the Optimus L5 2 and LG has applied a basic overlay adding features such as quick settings in the notification bar, but leaving a lot of the Android settings as they are.

Slightly disappointingly the Optimus L5 2 rocks the same processor, RAM and internal storage as the smaller, cheaper Optimus L3 2, with a 1GHz single-core chip, 512MB of RAM and 4G of memory at your disposal.

Although considering the low cost of this handset those specifications aren't particularly poor.

Jelly Bean runs well on the Optimus L5 2 and although it might not be winning any speed races, we didn't experience lag issues.

There's a handy button on the left side of the handset above the volume rocker which you can programme to launch an app of your choosing, plus it can also be set as the shutter button in the camera app.

This quick button will come in useful if you find yourself using one particular app on a regular basis and we can easily see this become a Facebook or Twitter launcher for a lot of people.

The 4-inch display is pretty good with reasonable definition, although we found it could be a little on the dark side - especially when watching videos.

We didn't have any trouble with responsiveness however, with the Optimus L5 2 responding merrily to all our various pokes and prods.

Apps generally loaded up in good time, but more demanding applications such as Google Maps did take a few extra seconds to gather images and nail down our location.

The 5MP camera on the back of the LG Optimus L5 2 is accompanied by a single LED flash to aid you in low light, but there's no front facing camera here.

LG's new "Chesse Shutter" is present on the Optimus L5 II, which lets you snap a picture via a voice command, but the shutter does take a second or two to sort itself out.

Image quality is more than acceptable for a handset at the bottom end of the market, although the VGA video recording option is probably best avoided.

The on screen keyboard is a relatively decent affair, with the larger 4-inch display of the Optimus L5 2 making it easier to type on than the Optimus L3 2.

Early Verdict

The LG Optimus L5 II is another promising, affordable smartphone from the Korean firm which is looking to strengthen its position at the low-end of the market.

It's a stylish and well equipped proposition and we look forward to getting the Optimus L5 2 in for a full, in-depth review.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/lg-optimus-l5-2-1133185/review

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Intel announces dual-core 'Clovertrail+' Atom processors

Intel has announced a new generation of their Atom processors for smartphones and tablets. Known better by the codename Clovertrail+, the new range of SoCs improve considerably over the previous generation Medfield and also Clovertrail processors.

Clovertrail+ SoCs will be available in three SKUs, with similar parts but varying clock speeds. The fastest is the Atom Z2580, then the Z2560 and then the Z2520.

On the CPU side, the new Clovertrail+ adds an extra Saltwell CPU core, which is based on the same 32nm processing, while maintaining Hyper Threading (so now you get four threads). The clock speed on the Z2580 goes up to 2.0GHz, whereas on the Z2560 and Z2520 it's 1.6GHz and 1.2GHz respectively. With the extra core, Intel promises 2x CPU performance improvement over Medfield chips.

The biggest improvement, however, comes on the GPU side. Intel has discarded the previous PowerVR SGX540 in favor of the significantly more powerful SGX544MP2. To put it into context, this GPU is actually slightly more powerful than the one in Apple's A5X, which was found inside the third generation iPad with Retina display.

Once again, the clock speeds differ across the SKUs, with the Z2580, Z2560 and the Z2520 getting 533MHz, 400MHz and 300MHz respectively. Intel claims the GPU in Clovertrail+ is thrice as fast than the previous PowerVR SHX540. The faster GPU also means the supported resolution now goes from 1,024 x 768 to 1,920 x 1,200.

The memory interface in Clovertrail+ is still 2 x 32-bit LPDDR2 but at a faster 1,066MHz instead of 800MHz.

The baseband has been updated from XMM 6260 to XMM 6360 and now supports 3GPP release 9 with 42Mbps DC-HSPA+ (Category 24) and HSUPA category 7 (11.5 Mbps). However, there is still no LTE support.

Lastly, there is a new reference design for OEMs to sell. It uses the Z2580 chip with 2GB of RAM, XMM 6360 baseband, 16 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel front camera. It runs stock Android 4.2, which may be modified by the OEM, as is often the case.

The first phone to be announced running Clovertrail+ is the Lenovo K900. You can check out our hands-on with the device, along with some benchmark tests over here.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/intel_announces_dualcore_clovertrail_atom_processors-news-5608.php

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Hands on: Nokia Lumia 720 review

As well as the budget Nokia 520, Nokia also announced the Lumia 720 at MWC 2013.

The new handsets join Nokia's increasingly broad Lumia range, slotting in around the Lumia 620, 820 and 920 for Windows Phone 8.

The 4.3-inch 720 retains the familiar unibody casing and it's available in five different colours - we've opted to photograph the rather striking mustard yellow. Do you like it? We actually do.

If you've used a Lumia before, the new model will seem unremarkable, but it is a lot lighter than the high-end Lumias at just 128g.

The phone will make its debut in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore soon - the Nokia Lumia 720 UK release date is likely to be in the Spring. It seems the US release date will be further out.

Performance of the handset is snappy - there's a 1Ghz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor inside - but the screen doesn't innvovate - it's 800 x 480 just like the 820's 4.3-inch display. It 217ppi though, and it has a high enough resolution to make some third-party live tiles look a little substandard.

However, all the standard OS and Nokia Here add-on apps look the part, and you won't be disappointed with how things look.

The camera is, again, a selling point for Nokia; Carl Zeiss optics are used as usual, although it's only a 6.7MP snapper. Pictures did look vibrant though, but some images were a bit blurry under the MWC show lights.

Video is 720p at 30fps, while the front camera has a resolution of 1280 x 960.

We've always liked how the Lumias look and feel in the hand, but some of the handsets have been a little too big for our liking. 4.3-inches is a good size

On the top of the handset there's a 3.5mm headphone jack and you can see the camera lens and flash here too.

On the side are the standard three Lumia buttons - volume, screen on/off and the camera control. This picture makes the handset look a lot thicker than it actually is - it's 9mm.

Towards the bottom of the back is a speaker as well as three tiny holes for a Wireless Charging cover, which fits on the back of the device..

Early verdict

The Lumia 720 doesn't have the high end features we've come to expect from the more expensive Lumia's but it does have a decent spec sheet for something that's bound to be available on next-to-nothing contracts. Nokia wants to spread the Lumia's appeal - and that of Windows Phone 8 - and sees this and the low end 520 as crucial to its hopes.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/nokia-lumia-720-1133191/review

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