A word has arrived that HTC One with 16GB of built-in memory will make it to its home market this week. All three major wireless service providers in Taiwan will offer the smartphone with the new, lower storage capacity.
The largest carrier in Taiwan, Chunghwa Telecom will begin selling the handset on May 1st. The remaining two carriers, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone Telecommunications have confirmed sales of the device this week, but without mentioning specific dates.
The 16GB HTC One will be priced at NT$19,900($675) in Taiwan, compared to NT$21,900($744) and NT$24,900($846) respectively for the 32 and 64GB versions of the handset.
Heins expects to sell "tens of millions" of Q10 handsets
BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins is not tempering his estimations when it comes to the keyboard-toting Q10 handset, telling Bloomberg he expects the new phone to sell "tens of millions" of units.
If true, this would see the Q10 outselling the touchscreen-only BlackBerry Z10 multiple times over. In the 3 months since its launch the Z10 has sold over 1 million units, but with its classic keyboard design, the Q10 is expected to fare better with BlackBerry faithful.
"This is going into the installed base of more than 70 million BlackBerry users so we have quite some expectations," Heins said.
Don't call it a comeback
For better or worse, BlackBerry has made headlines time and again in the opening months of 2013. It launched the new BlackBerry 10 OS alongside the Z10 handset in January, and announced musician Alicia Keys as the company's Chief Creative Director; despite the artist's continued preference for the Apple iPhone.
The Z10 handset went on sale shortly after, first in the UK, where earlier reports suggested that the phone was selling out in many phone stores.
Following its release in the US, reports came in that the handset was being returned to stores by customers in high volumes. Some publications even ran articles suggesting that return rates exceeded sales in the weeks after launch, though Heins strongly denies this was ever the case, saying that BlackBerry's own data shows that returns are "better than with previous BlackBerry launches".
Perhaps most importantly, the company posted a profit for the final quarter of 2012 of US$98-million. This surprised a lot of financial spectators who still remember the US$125-million loss reported by BlackBerry for the same period 12-months prior.
Though this figure points to good things for the smartphone maker, it is important to remember that this profit is for a period before the Z10 launch. Heins is credited with making tough decisions within the company, including a 5,000 person reduction in the size of the workforce in an attempt to promote greater efficiency across the organisation.
Are front-facing speakers to be HTC's new calling card?
Beyond its sleek aluminium chassis and its UltraPixel camera tech, perhaps the most lauded feature on the HTC One handset was its front-facing dual speakers.
Now, it seems, the Taiwanese company is hell bent on spreading this obvious-yet-innovative design feature to more smartphones, following the leak of a handset dubbed the HTC 608t on Monday.
The leaked handset, which looks more like the HTC One SV than the newer HTC One flagship device, showcases a rounded plastic, rather than metallic casing.
However, front and centre are those Beats Audio-powered front-facing speakers, suggesting the company is definitely going with this calling card on future handsets.
Jelly Bean and quad-core too?
The HTC 608t is also said to offer a 4.5-inch LCD display with a resolution of 960 x 540, while Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 is on board, according to the leak from Chinese site TENAA (translated).
The leak also tips a quad-core processor, 8-megapixel camera, a 1.6-megapixel rear camera and 1GB RAM.
The leaked snap features a China Mobile logo suggests a launch in that region initially, so we'll have to wait for official release details before making assertions about potential launches in the west.
Just last month the HTC 606w showed up in China, which brings the UltraPixel camera tech to a budget handset for the first time.
Is this the Galaxy Note 3 next to the Galaxy S4? (credit: news.mydrivers.com)
The size of Samsung's rumored Galaxy Note 3 has been a subject of much debate, and those keeping score can add a new column to their charts: 5.99 inches.
Previously the two most popular guesses for the Galaxy Note 3's screen size were 5.9 inches and 6.3 inches, but the latest hint of exactly 5.99 inches falls somewhere in between (though obviously much closer to 5.9 inches).
An article on the Chinese-language site news.mydrivers.com hinted at the screen size and shed light on some possible Note 3 specs: a full HD display, an eight-core Exynos Octa with a 2GHz A15 processor and a 1.7GHz A7 processor, 3GB of memory, and Android 4.2.2.
The article, published Sunday, even has a photo for accompaniment, though as SamMobile pointed out, the bezel on the device shown next to the Galaxy S4 looks a bit big and the model number in the image, i9500, doesn't match up with the model numbers of other Note devices (N7000 Galaxy Note, N7100 Galaxy Note 2, etc.).
Lost in translation?
The original report is in Chinese, and admittedly Google is having a bear of a time translating for us.
As a result, it seems something may have been lost in translation, as according to what we're seeing the original report appears to suggest that the Galaxy Note 3 will actually sport a 5.9-inch screen (which falls in line with previous Note 3 rumors) and not a 5.99-inch display like SamMobile reported yesterday.
On the other hand, for the moment we're more inclined to believe the unofficial Samsung blog than Google's often spotty translation service.
Still, we've asked SamMobile to explain this discrepancy, but so far we haven't heard back. Who knows? Maybe someone in this equation is just doing some rounding.
Previous rumors have pegged the Note 3 with everything from a square metal body to an unbreakable flexible display, so until Samsung says something officially everything said of the next Note should be considered speculative at best.
The Xperia SP could be a great option for those on a budget
The mid-range Sony Xperia SP has arrived on the Orange and T-Mobile networks in the UK with a pretty attractive pay-as-you-go price point.
The somewhat scaled back version of flagship Sony Xperia Z is available for just £249.99 from the networks, both of whom have stock of the device.
The affordable handset was unveiled last month with a 4.6-inch, 720p display, a 1.7GHz dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera and 4G LTE radio. Not exactly a lightweight by any means.
As XperiaBlog points out, T-Mobile's deal is slightly better as it does not require the minimum £10 a month credit top up.
So why should be excited about the Sony Xperia SP? Well considering it's available for around half the price of the flagship Xperia Z, it's a pretty fab option for those unable to afford the top of the range device.
In a recent hands-on review, TechRadar's Gareth Beavis summed up his early verdict by saying: "With this spec list wouldn't look too out of place on a new flagship phone from another firm right now – and with a lower price, that's an ace notion."
The BlackBerry Z10 arrived in a whirlwind of frenzied marketing at the beginning of the year, but that new phone smell is starting to wear off so here's the second new instalment from the company formerly known as RIM - the BlackBerry Q10.
While the Z10 saw BlackBerry tread new water in the mobile market with its first fully touchscreen device, the Q10 sees a return to more familiar territory with the handset sporting the firm's famous QWERTY keyboard.
BlackBerry is keen to keep up the premium appeal of its first BlackBerry 10 handsets, with the Q10 sporting an equally lofty price and you can expect it to set you back around £560 (around $850/AU$830) SIM-free.
Over in the US the BlackBerry Q10 will require you to part with $249 up front for a two year contract - which makes it more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and iPhone 5 - while in the UK it can be had for free on two year contracts starting at £36 per month.
The BlackBerry Q10 arrives as the natural successor to the Bold 9900 and Bold 9790 at the top end of the keyboard toting tree, which has been pretty much ignored by every other manufacturer as touchscreen smartphones are today's big business.
There's still a market for handsets sporting a set of physical keys though, with a number of people still preferring the dexterity and accuracy this option provides over their touchscreen rivals.
In terms of design BlackBerry hasn't taken any great strides forward and to the untrained eye the Q10 could be mistaken for the 9900.
What you will note however is the once curved keyboard has now been straightened out and the metallic frets separating the rows of characters are now slightly raised for improved tactile feedback - in other words you should be able to feel where your thumbs are on the board more easily.
We'll cover the keyboard in more detail in our Keyboard section, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Despite packing a full on QWERTY keyboard the BlackBerry Q10 is only a shade wider than the Z10, and noticeably shorter measuring up at 119.6 x 66.8 x 10.35mm.
The textured rubberised rear of the Z10 is out and in comes a glass weave finish on the back of the Q10 which provides a decent amount of drip and a relatively solid, if not plastic feel.
Glass weave is a surprisingly tough covering and a tricky one to get scratched - although it's not impossible.
A single silver fret - reminiscent of the ones separating the keys on the front of the Q10 - runs horizontally across the back of the handset, elevating the 8MP camera lens (and single LED flash) from the surface you place it on, in a bid to avoid scratches.
The casing below this fret can be removed by simply sliding it down, to give you access to the 2,100mAh battery, microSIM, microSD port capable of handling cards up to 32GB in size - which compliments the 16GB of internal storage (of which 10.5GB is actually available to you).
You'll need to pop the battery out of the Q10 to gain access to the microSIM port, but thankfully the location of the microSD slot means you can swap out cards without have to remove the phone's power source.
The catch keeping the rear plate in place seemed sturdy enough fresh out the box, but we fear it could wear down pretty quickly and we've heard from other BlackBerry Q10 reviewers that their back plates are already feeling a bit loose.
Every now and then when we slide the Q10 out of our jeans the rear plate would come loose and while we maybe need to stay away from the skinny leg garments, it's a bit annoying.
Thankfully the headphone jack has been moved from its rather inconveniently positioned spot on the side of previous BlackBerry devices to the top of the Q10, allowing you to slide the handset into your pocket without fear of snagging the cord.
It joins a centralised metal power/lock key which looks identical to the one found on the Z10 and 9900 and is pretty easy to hit and responsive when you do so.
On the right you get the same trio of buttons as you find on the flagship Z10, with volume switches sandwiching a third key which activates voice control when held down.
All are within easy prodding distance, but the metal keys sport an angular finish and the edges can be quite sharp if you catch them at the wrong angle.
BlackBerry has continued with its dual port offering on the left of its BlackBerry 10 devices with both microUSB and microHDMI slots situated together allowing for an easy link up to a computer, TV or even a projector.
In terms of design and hardware the BlackBerry Q10 delivers the tried and tested method of the keyboard toting smartphone and although it may not plough any particularly new furrows it will offer a welcome familiarity for anyone looking to upgrade from a BB OS 7 handset.
