Samsung GT-I9405 Device Spotted in India

Samsung Electronics has some more yet unannounced smartphones up its sleeve, and a new one has made an appearance online, in the form of Samsung GT-I9405.

The new device was spotted on the website of Zauba, which tracks imports and exports in India, though no specific info on what it might be has been provided as of now. According to Samsung Updates, however, the new mobile phone might be something between the Galaxy S3 LTE (GT-I9305) and the Snapdragon flavor of the Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505).

Moreover, the phone is said to sport a 5.5-inch touchscreen display, which will bring it closer to the Galaxy Note 3 than to the aforementioned two phones. For the time being, Samsung’s R&D Center in India is the only one to have received the phone in the country, so we’re imaging that it is still in the testing phase. More info on it might emerge soon, so keep an eye on this space for updates.

Samsung GT-I9405 emerges online with 5.5-inch screen
Image credits to Samsung

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Motorola DROID Ultra Employee Edition Re-Surfaces in Press Photo

Mobile phone carrier Verizon was rumored a few months ago to plan the launch of a limited edition version of the Motorola DROID Ultra smartphone, exclusive to its employees, and a press photo with the device is now available online.

The image is available courtesy of @evleaks, showing the Motorola DROID Ultra with a vertical red stripe on the center, and with red capacitive buttons as well. According to the aforementioned leak, the handset is called Verizon’s Motorola Droid Ultra Employee Edition (one can read the Limited Edition tag on its back plate), but an official confirmation on this has yet to emerge.

What remains to be seen is when exactly Verizon will release the new flavor of the mobile phone, and whether it will become available for purchase for all of the operator's customers as well. Stay tuned for more on the matter.

Verizon’s Motorola Droid Ultra Employee Edition
Image credits evleaks

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Nokia Normandy Engineering Prototype Allegedly Leaks Online

Nokia Normandy, the long rumored Android-based smartphone from Nokia, is nowhere to be seen officially as of now, but leaked photos with the device continue to make it online, the latest of them coming from China.

The image was brought online by Twitter user ‏@seamissu, and is said to be showing an engineering prototype of the upcoming device, though we’ll take it with a grain of salt for the time being. The phone in this photo resembles the one that emerged in previous leaks (including its Asha-like back button), and we might consider it as being the same Nokia Normandy that enthusiasts are waiting for, although it could be any device, as MyNokiaBlog notes.

According to the latest reports on the matter, Nokia might be set to make the Normandy official as soon as the next month, during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, so stay tuned to learn the news.

Allegedly leaked Nokia Normandy engineering prototype
seamissu on Twitter

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Nokia Normandy, Lumia 630 and New 5.2’’ Flagship to Debut at MWC 2014

Nokia is reportedly gearing up for a big splash at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where we might see the first Android-based phone from the company made official.

The Finnish handset vendor has been rumored for a while now to be working on a device running under Google’s mobile platform, one known at the moment under the codename of Nokia Normandy, yet no official confirmation on the matter has been provided as of now. However, the smartphone did leak online before, and was even spotted in the AnTuTu Benchmark, which supposedly slightly confirmed its existence. It was also said to have been sent to India for testing a while ago. On top of that, a recent report from NokiaPowerUser claims that a second batch of Nokia Normandy devices has landed in India, as per the Zauba website.

The phone features model number RM-980, and was seen in the records of the import / export tracking website, yet Nokia is still mum on the matter. Even so, it appears that we might learn all about the new smartphone as soon as the next month, during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. At the same time, rumor has it that Nokia is getting ready for the launch of a handful of new devices at the aforementioned MWC show, including a new flagship handset and a mid-range phone, along with a certain Lumia 2020 tablet PC (Nokia RX-115). The flagship smartphone reportedly features model number RM-964, while packing a 5.2-inch touchscreen display capable of delivering a full HD resolution, as well as a 20-megapixel camera on the back.

The mobile phone is also said to be powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor, and to feature an Aluminum body design, similar to that of Lumia 925. As for the Lumia 630 (and the Lumia 635 variant, for that matter), it will arrive with model number RM-977 / RM-978 / RM-976 with a 4.5-inch touchscreen display and with dual-SIM capabilities inside. We’ll take the info above with a grain of salt for the time being, since no official confirmation on any of the said handsets has been provided, but we’ll also keep an eye out for more details on them, so stay tuned.

Alleged Nokia Normandy in AnTuTu
NokiaPowerUser

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Seagate Teases Android Tablet with 500GB HDD

We have seen a lot of interesting tablets on the grounds at CES 2014, but the next one certainly stands out a little more than the average product.

It appears that storage manufacturer Seagate is planning to jump onboard the slate bandwagon and has showed a reference design that crams under a relatively thin figure, a 500GB hard drive. The reference model is built using the company's new 5 mm / 0.19 inches hard drive and apparently, Seagate will have a new SSHD solution out too. The only problem is that the drive appears to take up most of the space under the hood, meaning there’s no place left for a decent battery.

According to Tweaktown, the tablet runs on Android’s latest OS (which means Android 4.4. KitKat) and is surprisingly light considering what’s on the inside.

Seagate shows a tablet of its own
TweakTown

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ZTE Brings Its ECO-MOBIUS Modular Phone to CES 2014

Chinese mobile phone maker ZTE has had some appealing devices to showcase at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, including the ECO-MOBIUS modular handset.

The device, however, is nothing more than a concept for the time being, albeit a great-looking one, that’s for sure. What this smartphone is all about is quite simple. It packs various modules for different hardware components, allowing users to easily change them in the event that they want to upgrade the device. The parts slide together on rails, offering fast access to components such as memory, GPU, CPU, RAM, and main camera. On top of that, the handset sports a nice-looking, optional wooden rear, as the photos published by cnbeta unveil.

Other handset vendors out there, including Oppo and Motorola, have also been rumored to plan the launch of modular smartphones, though none of them has provided official details on the matter as of now.

ZTE ECO-MOBIUS
Images credits to cnbeta

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Meizu MX3S to Feature Snapdragon 800 CPU, Meizu MX3 Spotted with Ubuntu

Chinese mobile phone maker Meizu is reportedly getting ready for the launch of a new smartphone in its popular MX series, though this one might be nothing more than a version of the already available MX3.

Supposedly called Meizu MX3S, the smartphone is said to pack a Snapdragon 800 processor inside, moving away from the Exynos 5 Octa CPU inside the Meizu MX3. Furthermore, the handset should land on the market with a 5.1-inch Sharp touchscreen display capable of delivering an 1800 x 1080 pixels resolution at a 415ppi pixel density. The best part of the deal is the fact that the new handset will also offer support for 4G LTE networks out there, something that its predecessor did not do. Meizu MX3S is also said to feature 2GB of RAM inside, as well as the Flyme 3.0 platform, which is based on the Android operating system. According to a recent report from GSMInsider, we might see the new handset put on shelves before the end of this quarter, though an official confirmation on the matter has yet to be provided.

All in all, the upcoming MX3S will feature upgraded hardware specs when compared to the Meizu MX3, which should allow the handset vendor to price it in line with other flagship devices out there. Until some more info on the matter emerges, you might want to have a look at the leaked images with the original Meizu MX3 attached to this article (available courtesy of GizChina), which show it running under Ubuntu.

We have already learned rumors on the handset vendor’s possible plans to launch devices running under this platform in the not too distant future, and the aforementioned photos appear to confirm this. However, it still remains to be seen whether the vendor will indeed make the move, since it hasn’t announced specifics on the matter, so stay tuned for updates on this.

Meizu MX3 with Ubuntu
Images credits to GizChina

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Xiaomi Kicks Off 2014 with 200,000 Hongmi Units Sold in Just 4 Minutes

Chinese mobile phone maker Xiaomi is determined to double sales of its handsets this year, and it seems that it has already made the first step towards achieving the goal.

The company has kicked off sales of its smartphones earlier this week, and it has managed to sell no less than 200,000 Hongmi smartphones in 4 minutes (3 minutes and 57 seconds, to be more precise). The info comes from miui, but it has been confirmed by the handset vendor, which retweeted the story via its official account.

Hongmi has already proved a highly appealing device to many users out there, with similar record sales registered before, and it seems that it continues to remain popular. The fact that it has recently seen a price cut in China also helped, that’s for sure.

Xiaomi sells 200,000 Hongmi units in less than 4 minutes
Xiaomi

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Meizu MX3 Ubuntu Touch Phone Is "Ubuntu Certified"

The rumour that the Meizu hardware maker will be releasing an Ubuntu Phone has been confirmed, but it's even more interesting to see that it comes with an official certification logo.

Canonical has yet to announce the hardware partner that Mark Shuttleworth hinted at a few weeks ago, but the new Meizu MX3 powered by Ubuntu Touch, which has been show at CES 2014, does come with an Ubuntu Certified logo. This doesn't mean that Canonical has formed an official partnership with the phone maker, but it's good to see that things have started to move on the hardware front.

Moreover, Canonical also just released the most stable version of Ubuntu Touch and the developers will implement a great deal more features by the time Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will be released in April.

Meizu MX3 with Ubuntu Touch
Image credits to GizChina

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Nokia Normandy Android UI Screenshots Leak in Press Render

Judging by the flow of leaks surrounding the alleged Nokia Normandy powered by Android platform, the smartphone is a certainty and we should expect the Finnish company to make an announcement any time now.

Although we still have to wait at least until Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014, which is set to kick off next month in Barcelona, Spain, lots of information regarding the smartphone continues to leak online. The first live screenshots showing the “forked” Android UI that Nokia Normandy is supposed to run popped up online last week and now new images of the said user interface have been leaked. A set of three pictures showing Nokia Normandy’s Android UI have just been published by @evleaks. One of them has the popular Skype application running, which somewhat confirms that Nokia has already approached some major developers in order to bring their application on its upcoming application store.

For those unfamiliar with the subject, Nokia Normandy is not supposed to offer access to Google Play Store by default, which is not quite alright for most Android users. This is why the Finnish company plans to launch its own applications store, but in order to have at least a small chunk of the most important Android applications compatible with the Normandy, Nokia has to approach developers quite early. Even though Nokia Normandy is said to run the Android operating system, not all applications in the Google Play will be fully compatible with the smartphone.

The good news is that a major developer that wished to remain anonymous has confirmed that his application was 80% compatible with Nokia Normandy’s “forked” version of Android. Obviously, some may be fully supported, but overall, developers won’t have to work too hard on bringing their Android apps to Nokia’s app store. Aside from its unique Android UI, the Normandy will also come packed with HERE apps and services and Bing search engine by default. There won’t be any Google service included by default, but users will be able to set up their Gmail accounts nevertheless.

Nokia Normandy Android UI (screenshots)
Image credits to evleaks

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